we always attend to the End and Scope which is to be arriv'd at For in every step of this Intellectual Progress we ought to have our eye perpetually fix'd upon the State of the Question To all which he adds one Caution more that we should beware lest we should sit down Contented with a false Light or Appearance and so be deceived And that therefore our Collations in order to the finding out the Truth we look after be so often repeated till we can no longer with hold our assent without being Secretly Chid and reprehended by a Certain Master Answering from within to our Questions that is to our Labour Application of Mind and desire of Heart By which Master within this admirable Theorist can mean nothing else but the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ideal World that Universal Oracle of Mankind and of all the Intelligent Creation This is a short view of those Laws which the Excellent M. Malebranche has given concerning the Method of Thinking And I believe if an Angel had been ingaged in the undertaking he could not have given Better They are all Natural Clear Distinct Easie and depending Few enough not to burthen or Distract the Mind and yet Many enough to inform it And therefore I shall not be guilty of so much Presumption and Impertinence as to prescribe any other thinking it sufficient to consider and Practice these And so much for the first way of Consulting the Ideal World which is by Thinking XXIII The second way is by Purity of Heart and Life This I confess has a more immediate and special influence upon the Knowledge of Spiritual and Moral Truths according to that of our Saviour If any Man will do his will he shall know of the Doctrine c. and that of his Prime Apostle The Animal Man perceiveth not the things of God c. But its Efficacy is not confined here but has a larger Sphere of activity and serves to the discovery even of all Ideal or Necessary Truth For as viciousness not only proceeds from Ignorance but also causes it by besotting and clouding the understanding so Purity of Heart and Life not only proceeds from Light and Knowledge but also produces it and helps the Soul to see more Clearly and Distinctly Hence the Pythagoric and Platonic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Method of Purification and Purgation so much talk'd of by Perphyry Iamblichus Plotinus and particularly by Hierocles in his Introduction to his Noble Comment where he has these Words As a Blear Eye cannot behold a very bright object till it be Purged so a Soul not yet Clarify'd and refined by Vertue is not qualify'd to gaze upon the Beauty of Truth And the same Method is no less recommended in Scripture Wisdom will not enter into a Polluted Spirit says the Wise Man And says the Angel to Daniel many shall be Purify'd and made white and none of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand And says the Psalmist I am wiser than the Aged because I keep thy Commandments And to this purpose also is that of our Lord to be understood He that follows me that is that lives after my Example Walketh not in Darkness The Purity of his Heart will be a Light to his understanding XXIV But to represent his more distinctly there are two ways whereby Purity of Heart serves to the acquirement of Knowledge By Natural Efficacy and by the Divine grace and Benediction And first it does it by Natural Efficacy either by Clarifying the Medium or by assisting the faculty The former I conceive and represent after this Manner I suppose in the first place that the Soul sees through a Medium Secondly that this Medium is our Terrestrical Vehicle Thirdly that the Grosness of this Medium hinders the Vision of the Soul All which I ground upon those words of the Apostle Now we see through a Glass darkly XXV This Supposed it follows that whatsoever Clarifys this Medium does also help the Vision of the Soul And this Purity does especially that more Eminent part of it which consists in Chastity and Temperance For first it Composes the Passions especially that of Lust by that the Animal Spirits and by that the Blood For the Motion of the Passions Ferments the Spirits and the Fermentation of the Spirits agitates the Blood and by agitation raises all the feculent and drossy parts of it and makes it like a troubled Fountain thick and muddy And this I take to be one true reason why Men in any Passion can't reason so clearly as when they are in more quiet and silence of Spirit But now by Purity of Heart all this disturbance is allay'd and composed the Passions are becalm'd the Spirits fix'd the Fountain of the Blood clears up and so all the inner part of that Glass the Apostle speaks of becomes more bright and pellucid more apt to transmit the Rays of the Ideal Light and consequently we see more clearly through it Tho it be still but Darkly in comparison of what we shall do hereafter XXVI But this is not all This Purity does also Clarifie the outward part of the Glass too First by Consequence because the finer the Spirits and Blood are the finer will be the Threds of the outward Veil also Then more directly because Temperance does refine and Subtilize the Texture of the Body diminishes from its Bulk and Grossness and unloads the Soul of a good part of that Burthen which not only presses down her Aspirations but also hinders her Sight And besides it refines the the inner part too by bringing in fresh supplies of fine Spirits This was that Temperance which made the Faces of Daniel Hananiah Mishael and Azariah look Clear and Fair and which made them Wise too gave a quick and delicate air to their Countenances and let in the Light of the Ideal World upon their Souls This was that Philosophical Temperance of the Pythagoreans which to use the Words of Dr. More Commenting upon that place is the Mother of that Wisdom which makes the Face to shine and nourishes the Luciform Vehicle of the Soul XXVII And as this Purity does Clarify the Medium so does it also Assist the Faculty And this it does by the same general way whereby it clarifies the Medium that is by composing the Passions For the Passions not only trouble and thicken the Medium as was noted and explain'd before but alâ—o divide and disperse the Faculty For the more things a man desires the more things he will be engaged to think upon and the more things he thinks upon at once the more Languid and Confuse will his Conception be But now this Purity by composing the Passions contracts the Desires and by contracting the Desires it contracts also by consequence the Thoughts and by this the Man is reduced to a greater Vnity Simplicity and Recollection of Mind and having but few thoughts to divide him he is
Simple Truths who is immutably what he is and all the Divine Ideas which as I have elsewhere abundantly explain'd it are the very Essence of God as variously imitable or participable thus or thus Such also among Complex Truths are all Propositions of Eternal Truth whether Absolute or Hypothetical with all their regular Inferences and Conclusions which as I have also elsewhere shewn are nothing else but the Divine Ideas themselves as they respect each other according to their several immutable Habitudes and Combinations XXIII By Contingent Truth I understand that which may or may not be True that whose Truth depends not upon the Essence of God That Ground and Pillar of all Necessary Truth but only upon his Meer Will and free Pleasure either decreeing or permitting Such among Simple Truths are all Created Beings the whole Ectypal World and all things in it which tho made according to the Eternal and Immutable Patterns of the Divine Ideas or Archetypal World yet in themselves are Temporary and Mutable Such also among Complex Truths are all those Propositions the Terms of which have no Essential or Immutable Connexion with each other but are so and so combined and related meerly by the Decree or Permission of him who is the Author of whatever is besides himself XXIV Under the First order of Truths are comprehended all those things which are the Matter of those Arts and Sciences which are built upon Stable and immoveable Foundations which depend not upon the System of the Present World but were antecedent to it and might have been study'd before 't was made and according to which the World it self was made such as Theology Metaphysics Morality Geometry c. together with all those unchangeable Rules and Measures of Reason and Consequence which are to be used about them all which is the Subject of that Art or Science we call Logic. Under the second order are comprehended all Matters of Fact all Temporary Events all Natural or Artificial Effects c. Which are the Matter of all Arbitrary and Mutable Sciences as History Chronology Knowledge of Tongues c. Which began with this Mundan System and stand or fall with it XXV Now as that good which is Primely and properly Perfective of the Will is Necessary good so following the same Proportion I shall not doubt to assert that that Truth which is Primely and Properly Perfective of the Understanding is also Necessary Truth And as Contingent good is no otherwise Perfective of the Will than in the Force and Vertue of the Necessary good as was above Explain'd so likewise Contingent Truth is no otherwise Perfective of the understanding than in the Force and Vertue of Necessary Truth that is of the Divine Ideas wherein 't is contain'd As for Example when I Speculate some Particular Artificial Triangle which is a Contingent Simple Truth it is no otherwise Perfective of my Understanding than as it is beheld in its Necessary and Immutable Nature or which is all one in the Divine Idea And thus again when I form a Proposition concerning this Triangle by ascribing to it some Property or other which is a Contingent Complex Truth this again is no otherwise Perfective of my Understanding than as it belongs to and is beheld in the Nature of a Triangle in Common which is Necessary and Immutable being no other than an Idea or a Determinate Mode of the Divine Omniformity So that at length the Perfection of the understanding is resolv'd into the Knowledge of Necessary Truth which is its only Objective Perfection that which is Contingent being no way perfective of it but only in vertue of the other XXVI I am Madam very sensible how strange and Paradoxical this way of Philosophizing will seem to those who are either unaddicted to Meditation in general or not conversant in Theories of this kind and therefore for their sakes rather than for any inevidence of the Argument I will give some Proof and Confirmation of it which I will so order that it shall be an Explanation at the same time I will therefore first shew that 't is so and secondly how and why 't is so That it is so I prove thus First I suppose that God was once when there was nothing besides God Again I suppose that as the Being of God did go before all other being in Order of time so in Order of Nature it was antecedent even to the Will of Creating putting or permitting any thing Again I suppose that there was therefore then no other Truth but necessary Truth that is the Divine Ideas with their several Habitudes and Complications I suppose again that therefore God must be consider'd as knowing then only these necessary Truths And yet I suppose again that God was as perfect then as he is now and consequently that the Divine Vnderstanding was as perfect then as now the Nature of God requiring not only that he should be Absolutely Perfect but that he should be so in himself Whence I infer that therefore the whole Perfection of the Divine Understanding is to be resolv'd into the sole knowledge of Necessary Truths and that the knowledge of Contingent Truth gives no Perfection to it any otherwise than as 't is beheld in that which is necessary as was said before XXVII From this Process of Reasoning I presume 't is sufficiently evident that the Objective Perfection of the Divine Vnderstanding is only Necessary Truth which I take in the first place to be a strong ground of presumption that the Perfection of Human Vnderstanding does also consist in the same But to make it further plain that it does so I suppose again that nothing were to exist but only God and one Intelligent Being and that this Intelligent Being had the full and perfect fruition of God Upon this supposition I enquire whether this Intelligent Being would be perfectly Happy or no Without all question he would as enjoying an All-sufficient Good Well if so then he must be perfectly happy in his Vnderstanding And yet 't is most certain that he could then have the knowledge of very little more than Necessary Truth for all that he could possibly know besides would be only that he himself did exist and that he knew these Necessary Truths and that he was happy in the knowledge of them and the like And lest the knowledge of such Contingencies should be thought any Accumulation to his Happiness we will carry our Hypothesis a little further by supposing that this Intelligent Being were not to attend to any of his own Perfections or to any of those few Contingent Truths resulting from them but were only to Contemplate God and the Divine Ideas and then I demand whether his understanding would be sufficiently perfected or no 'T is necessary to answer in the Affirmative whence 't is also as necessary to conclude that the only Objective Perfection of our understanding is Necessary Truth XXVIII This I think sufficient to prove that 't is
Plato when he makes the Happiness or Perfection of Man for 't is all one to consist in the Contemplation of Ideas XXXV But notwithstanding the unquestionable Certainty of the Premises this is not that Measure which the generality of the World has thought fit to proceed by Learning is generally placed in the Knowledge of Contingent not of Necessary Truth For your Ladyship very well Knows that the World does not esteem him a Learned Man whose Learning has Clear'd his understanding who is arrived to clearness and Distinctness of Conception and is a thorough Master of Notion and Discourse No 't will cost great Pains great Labour of Mind and anxiety of Thinking to arrive to this Pitch Nor will all the Pains in the World do unless a Man be Naturally made for it unless he be of a Notional Complexion and has had his Head cast in a Metaphysical Mould Whereupon this Attainment is like to be the Lot of a very Few This therefore must not be Learning but something else must that lies more within Common reach tho of no real Moment to the Perfection of the understanding Such as I have shewn are Contingent Truths and yet Learning is generally placed in the Knowledge of these XXXVI For first 't is reckon'd a notable point of Learning to understand variety of Languages This alone gives a Man a Title to Learning without one Grain of Sense and on the other side let a Man be an Angel for Notion and Discourse yet unless he can express the same thoughts in variety of words he may go for a Rational but will by no means be esteem'd a Learned Man And this brings to my mind a Passage which I met with not long since in London where being in Company with an Ingenious French Man I ask't him of what repute M. Malebranche was with the Learned in France He told me that he was look'd upon as a great Master of Notion and Speculation but as a Man of no great Learning I ask'd him why Because said he he understands but few Languages How much that excellent Authors Talent may lie that way I am not concern'd But whatever it be the most Learned of them all must give me leave to say that I would rather be Master of a Quarter of his Sense than of all the Languages that may be form'd out of the Alphabet But is it not a strange thing that so much Stress should be laid upon such a Triflle For what am I the better for being able to tell what 't is a Clock in several Languages What does this signifie to the Perfection of my understanding Words are purely in order to Thought and Sense and therefore are of no further value than as they serve as helps either to Learn or to Communicate the other To affect them therefore for themselves is to turn the Means into the End than which nothing is more absurd And yet this vain peice of Pedantry has prevail'd all the World over and with some to that degree that they have confounded Ideas with Words and have made all Science to terminate in the latter Thus the Philosophers of the Nominal way and particularly Mr. Hobbs who makes Reason to be nothing else but Sequela Nominum a well order'd Train of Words Never certainly was there a grosser peice of Idolatry nor a plainer Argument of the great degeneracy of Mankind And tho all the Multipliers of Tongues are not Comprehended under this latter charge yet it may concern them to consider how great a Folly it must needs be to place Learning in that which is one of the greatest Curses upon Earth and which shall utterly Cease in Heaven XXXVII Again it passes for an extraordinary part of Learning to understand History that is in other words to know what a company of silly Creatures call'd Men have been doing for almost this 6000 years Now what is my understanding the Perfecter for knowing this I deny not but that there are some matters of Fact as the more remarkable Turns of Ecclesiastical History together with the greater revolutions of the Civil World that may be of Moment to be known not that the knowledge of them as such is Learning or Perfective of the understanding but because by discovering to us the Conduct of Divine Providence they supply us with occasions of adoring and glorifying the wisdom and goodness of God I am not therefore against the knowing these things but only I would not have men think themselves the Wiser or more Learned for such Knowledge For 't is one thing to say that a thing deserves to be known and another to say that 't is Learning or Wisdom to know it For a thing may deserve to be known not as perfecting the understanding but meerly as touching upon our Interest I grant therefore that it may be of Consequence to know some Historical passages if we are any way concerned in them and so it may to know the Clock has struck One if I have appointed an Assignation at that time but sure the bare naked Theory of the Clock's having struck one can add but little to the stock of my Intellectual Perfection The most trivial matter of Fact in the World is worth knowing if I have any concern depending upon it and the greatest without that is utterly insignificant So that 't is not from the perfecting of our Vnderstanding but from the Relation they have to our Interest that these things deserve to be known XXXVIII This is sufficiently plain from the Measure we have premised by which no Truth is perfective of the understanding but only Necessary Truth But to address my self more Convincingly to the great Magnifiers of History I shall only desire their answer to this one Question Suppose such and such Matters of Fact on the knowledge of which they Found their title to Learning and perhaps glory more in the knowing them than the Actors themselves did in the doing them Suppose I say such matters of Fact had never been done suppose Fabius had never Weather'd out Hannibal by Delays nor Cyrus took Babylon by draining the River into the Ditches what loss or diminution would this have been to the Perfection of their Understandings They cannot say it would have been any And why then should the knowing them now they are done be reckon'd as an Intellectual Improvement And yet we find that 't is so and that Men study these things not only for their use for that I allow but for their meer Theory placing Learning in such History which has nothing to commend it but only that it tells you such and such things were done Of this impertinent sort is the greatest part of the Roman and Grecian History which had not the World Voted it for Learning would no more concern a Man to know than that a Bird has dropt a feather upon the Pyrenoean Mountains XXXIX Again it goes for a Notable piece of Learning to understand Chronology to be able to adjust the
therefore to Read only in Order to Thinking And yet this Method is generally so much inverted that the Main Stress is laid upon Reading Nothing but Read Read as long as Eyes and Spectacles will hold not regarding whether the Head be Clear so that it be full XXXV As to the particular Order in Thinking proposed by M. Malebranche I refer your Ladyship to the same Excellent Author to shew you how much it is transgress'd Which he does at large and to Wonderful Satisfaction shewing first that the School-Philosophers do not observe that General Law concerning the matter of study which is the Cause of a great many Errors in their Physiology Then shewing that the second part of the General Law is not observed by the Common Philosophers and what extraordinary advances Cartesius made in Learning by the exact observation of it Then he proceeds to explain the Principles of Aristotle's Philosophy where he shews that he never observed the second Branch of the General Law and reflects upon those Errors of his Philosophy occasioned by his not doing so But for a fuller account in these things I refer you to the Author himself XXXVI Then again whereas Purity of Heart and Life is another Method of arriving to the Light and Knowledge of Ideal Truth your Ladyship cannot but know and 't is a sad as well as a true observation that this is not only neglected among that part of Mankind that sit down contentedly in Ignorance and aspire to no greater stock of Knowledge than what they brought with them into the world but also among the generality of those few that addict themselves to the Cultivation and Improvement of their minds Nay these in proportion to their Number seem more guilty of this neglect than the other and nothing so common as to see men of Curious and Inquisitive tempers and of famed Learning who yet are very Corrupt in the Moral state of their minds and live very ill lives Whence some have taken occasion to represent Learning as an Enemy to Religion and have cry'd up Ignorance as the Mother of Devotion And tho the Conclusion of these men be notoriously weak and absurd yet it must be confest that the Ground upon which they build it is too true Men famed for Learning are oftentimes as infamous for Living and many that study hard to furnish their Heads are yet very negligent in purifying their Hearts not considering that there is a Moral as well as a Natural Communication between one and the other and that they are concern'd to be pure in Heart and Life not only upon the Common Account in order to a happy state hereafter but also in pursuance of their own particular way and end here XXXVII Then again Lastly whereas another Method of Wisdom is Prayer I do not find that the generality of Students do at all apply themselves to this Method Pray indeed 't is to be hoped they do for other things which they think lye more out of their reach but as for Learning and Knowledge they think they can compass this well enough by their own proper Industry and the help of good Books without being beholden to the assistance of Heaven And this tho they do place Learning in the knowledge of Necessary Truth Which procedure of theirs I cannot resolve into any other principle I mean as to those that act by any but the meer want of knowing or considering that this Necessary Truth is really the same with God himself For did they attentively consider that God is Truth and that so much as they possess of Truth so much they have of God 't is not to be imagined they should be so indifferent in using Prayer or any of the other preceding Methods of Consulting God for his own Light The End of the Second Reflection The Third Reflection Wherein the General Conduct of Human Life is tax'd with a too importunate and over-earnest Pursuit after Knowledge in General I. HAving pass'd over the two first Stages of the Intellectual Conduct of Human Life that of the End and that of the Means and reflected upon the Irregularities of each by shewing how both are generally mistaken and misplaced I am now arrived to the Third and Last which consists not in the choice of the Object or of the Method to it that belonging to the two former but in the Degree of Affection wherewith they are prosecuted Which part of our Intellectual Conduct as it is equally Capable of being faulty so I shall here make it my business to shew that it is actually as faulty and irregular if not more than either of the two former And the fault that I tax it with is A too importunate and over-earnest Pursuit after Knowledge in General II. The Charge of this Reflection is of a larger compass and extent than either of the two Preceding those being directed against such as either misplace the Object or else mistake the Method of Learning and Knowledge but this takes in both together and others also not concerned in either of the former For not only those that err in the placing of Learning or in the method to it but also those who are Right in both come under the Censure of the Present Reflection they all agree in this in being too importunate and vehement in the Pursuit of Knowledge III. Now in the making out the Truth of this Charge We must here also according to the Method observ'd in the two former Reflections first lay down a common measure of Proceeding by stating the due Bounds of our Present Affection to and search after Knowledge Or how far it becomes man to imploy himself in the Prosecution of Learning and Knowledge the due stating of which Question will be a certain direction to us in the Determination of this whether our general Inquest after Knowledge be Immoderate or no. Now for the Determination of the first it will be necessary to draw up the true State or Hypothesis of man according to the Posture wherein he now stands Which I shall do distinctly in these following Considerations IV. First I consider that the utmost Pitch of Knowledge man by his utmost endeavours can arrive to in this world is very inconsiderable God indeed has given us Reason enough to distinguish us from the Brute part of the Creation and we may improve it so far as to distinguish our selves from One another and so one man may deserve to be call'd Learned and Knowing in comparison of another that is either Naturally more ignorant or more unimproved but absolutely speaking the most that any or all of us either know or can know here is of little or no Consideration What we know of God is but little for as the Apostle says we see through a Glass darkly what we know of our selves perhaps is Less and what we know of the world about us is not much We have seen but a few of Gods works as the wise man observes and we understand yet
fewer There are almost an infinite number of things which we never so much as thought of and of most things we conceive very darkly and uncertainly and there is not one thing from the greatest to the least which we do or can understand thoroughly Those that apply their whole study to any one thing can never come to the End of that one thing for not only every Science but every particular of it has its unmeasurable depths and recesses and 't is confess'd by a great inquirer into the Nature of Antimony as 't is related by the Honourable Mr. Boyle that 't is impossible for one man to understand throughly that one single Mineral only And if a man I cannot understand All of so little how little must he understand of All Suppose further that all the Knowledge of the Learned were put together 't would weigh but Light for what one Art or Science is there that is brought to any tolerable Perfection And if the Common Stock be so little how small a Pittance is it that must fall to every particular Man's share And where is that Man who after all his Poring and Studying is able to answer all the Questions I will not say which God put to Iob but which may be askt him by the next Idiot he meets V. 'T were an endless undertaking to represent at large the little that we know or are capable of knowing Nor do I design to turn a second Agrippa and entertain your Ladyship with a long Harangue about the Vanity of Humane Sciences only give me leave to touch upon two notorious instances of our Ignorance and in that very Science which is pretended to be at the very Vertical Point of Improvement 'T is Concerning the the Maximum and the Minimum Naturale the Greatest and the Least thing in Nature As to the first the Question is whether the Extension of the Universe be Finite or Infinite If you say 't is Positively Infinite besides the difficulty of conceiving how any thing can be so extended 't will follow that God himself cannot add the least further Dimension to it If you say 't is Finite suppose your self in the utmost extremities of it and try whether it be possible for you to dis-imagin further Extension Then as to the Second the Question is whether every even the Least assignable Part of matter be infinitely Divisible or no If you say yes then 't will unavoidably follow that the least Atom will have as many Parts as the whole World If you say no then you must say that Matter may be Divided so long till at last you come to a Part that does not contain more other Parts if so then I enquire has this uncontaining Part Figure or has it not If not then 't is infinite Figure being only the Termination of Quantity But if it has then it has more other Parts above below and of each side and consequently may again be divided contrary to what you suppos'd So that you see here are Desperate Difficulties on both sides say what you will you are equally baffled and yet 't is most certain that one only can be true they being two opposite parts of a Contradiction but which is so is beyond the Capacity of Humane understanding to determine VI. The like Difficulties we meet with when we inquire concerning Time whether it be Infinitely divisible or only into Moments And so again in the Business of Motion whether there be any such thing as the Extream Degree of Swiftness and Slowness or no Neither of which can be defined without manifest Absurdity But 't is superfluous as well as endless to display the particulars of our Ignorance tho indeed when all Accompts are cast up that will be found to be our best Knowledge This only in General our Life is so short our Progress in Learning so slow and Learning in it self so long and tedious and what we do or can know so very little that the Patrons of Scepticism had much more reason to conclude from the Disability of our Facculties and the slightness of our Attainments than from the uncertainty and Instability of Truth that there is no Knowledge VII Secondly I consider that as we can here know but Little so even that very little which we do serves more to our Trouble and Disquiet than to our Pleasure and Satisfaction And here comes in that experimental Reflection of the Wise Man In much Wisdom is much Grief and he that increases Knowledge increases Sorrow This Proposition is not true Absolutely consider'd Knowledge being the Perfection of Human Nature the Image of God and the Principal Ingredient of our Future Happiness but only with relation to the present State and Posture of Man And in this respect it is abundantly true First because the more we know the more we shall discover of our Ignorance that being the chiefest thing we learn by our study which we shall find to be of an infinitely larger Sphere than our Knowledge and consequently shall be more troubled for what we do not know than pleas'd with what we do Secondly because the Prospect of what yet further remains to be known will inflame our Thirst after it For Wisdom says of her self They that Eat of me shall yet be Hungry and they that Drink of me shall yet be Thirsty Which tho it be a great Commendation of Wisdom and an Argument of her Inexhaustible excellence yet 't is withal a great instrument of Punishment to those who can attain to so little of it as cannot satisfie that thirst which it has inflamed Thirdly because the more a Man improves his thinking faculty the more apt he will be to be disgusted and offended with the follies of Society as the most delicate Touch is the soonest put to pain There being a thousand impertinencies that will strike very disagreeably upon a discerning mind which won't so much as affect a grosser understanding VIII But the Principal Ground of this Assertion and which did not the quickness of your Ladyship's Apprenhension oblige me to Brevity I could be Voluminous upon is this 'T is most certain that Man is now placed in the Midst of Vanities and unsatisfying Objects and and that his True good is not within his reach and consequently whatever Pleasure he takes in those things that are is purely owing to his Ignorance of their Vanity Well if so then Vae Sapienti woe be to the Wise Man This is not a Place to be Wise in There is nothing here Solid enough to endure the Test of Wisdom The Wise Man cannot find a Paradice here tho the Fool can The more he knows the more he discovers the Vanity of all pretended Enjoyments and the more he does this the more he streightens and retrenches his Delights and the more he does this the more he retires and withdraws himself from all Worldly Diversions and this sets him the more a Thinking and Musing and this again presents to his
when he Believes Repents and leads a good Life with which he may and without which he shall not be Pardon'd and Saved notwithstanding that Christ has Dy'd for him The design of whose Death was not to make a good Life unnecessary but only to render it Efficacious and Available not to procure a Priviledge of being saved without it as some fancy but that we might be Saved with it If this Qualification be wanting we shall be so far from being any thing advantaged from the Redemption purchas'd by our Mediator that we shall be Accountable for it to the great aggravation both of our Guilt and Misery It therefore highly concerns Man to improve with all diligence this short and only opportunity of Making his Great Fortune to adorn his mind with all Moral and Religious Perfections and his Life with all good actions since with this he may be Happy in all his capacities and without it he shall not only fall into a state of unutterable Misery but be also accountable for the Possibility he had of escaping it for neglecting so great Salvation so great an Opportunity of being saved XIV These things being Premised concerning the present Hypothesis or state of Man First that he can there know but very little Secondly that even that little Knowledge which he can attain to serves more to his Trouble than Satisfaction and so is not only Vanity but also Vexation of Spirit Thirdly that supposing it as Pleasant as may be yet such is the shortness and incumbrance of his Life that the enjoyment of it is not answerable to the Labour of acquiring it Fourthly that there is no Necessity of such a deal of Learning and Knowledge either as to this World or to the next and that e're long he shall have his fill of Knowledge in the Beatifick Vision of the Ideal World one glance whereof shall instruct him more than an Eternal poring upon all the Books in this and undistinguish the greatest Doctor from the most ignorant Peasant Fifthly that there is an Absolute Necessity of his being Good and Vertuous this being the condition not only of his Happiness in general but also of the accomplishment of his Vnderstanding in particular And that Now is the only opportunity for it Sixthly and lastly that the Attainment of Happiness and Intellectual Perfection upon this Condition was the Purchase of his Saviours Death who has also Merited Grace for his assistance in the Performance of it Which if he neglect he shall not only miss of Happiness but be also answerable for so Great and so Dear an opportunity of gaining it From these Premises 't will I think follow with no less than Mathematical Evidence XV. First that Learning and Knowledge is not the thing for which God design'd Man in this Station nor consequently the End or Reason of his bestowing upon him those intellectual and Rational Powers which he has For had this been the End and Design of God he would have made it more Possible for him and withal more his Interest and Concern to attain it Secondly 't will follow that the End for which God intended Man here and the Reason why he made him a Rational Creature was that he might Live vertuously and well so serve him here that he might be rewarded with Happiness and perfect Knowledge hereafter Having furnish'd him with Intellectual abilities sufficient for this tho not for the other Thirdly and lastly 't will follow that the Principal care and concern of Man both because of his own interest and out of compliance with the Designs of God ought to be to Live a good and regular Life to accomplish the Moral part of his Nature to subdue his Passions to rectifie his Love to study Purity of Heart and Life in one word to perfect Holiness in the fear of God and which is what we have been hitherto inquiring after that he ought to busy himself in the Study of Learning and Knowledge no further than as 't is conducive to the Interest of Religion and Vertue XVI This therefore is the Measure to be observ'd in our prosecution of Learning and Knowledge We are to Study only that we may be good and consequently ought to prosecute such Knowledge only as has an aptness to make us so that which the Apostle calls the Truth which is after Godliness For that 's the only business we have to do in this World Whatever Knowledge we prosecute besides this or further than 't is conducive to this end tho it be absolutely consider'd never so excellent and Perfective of our Rational part yet with respect to the present Posture and Station of Man 't is a Culpable Curiosity and an unaccountable Vanity and only a more Solemn and laborious way of being Idle and Impertinent XVII And this will be found if well examin'd to be nothing different from the censure of the Wise Preacher And I gave my heart to to know Wisdom says he and I perceiv'd that this also is vanity and vexation of Sptrit Not that he now first applied himself to the study of Wisdom No he had been inspired with that before and and by the help of it had discover'd the vanity of all other things But that Wisdom which saw through all other things did not as yet perceive the Vanity of it self He therefore now gave his Heart to Know Wisdom that is to reflect upon it and Consider whether this might be excepted from his general censure and struck out of the Scroll of vanities And upon deep reflection he found that it could not and that even this also was as much a vanity as any of the rest Now this Proposition of Solomon's cannot be understood Absolutely Knowledge being an undoubted Perfection of Human Nature but only with respect to the present posture of Man in this World Neither can it be understood of all kind of Knowledge even in this Life some kind of Knowledge being necessary to qualifie him for Happiness in the next It must therefore Necessarily be understood of all that Knowledge which contributes not to that great End So that from these two Necessary Limitations the sense of Solomon's Proposition if it have any must be this that to Man in this present juncture all Knowledge that does not Contribute to the interest of his After-state is downright Vanity and Vexation of Spirit XVIII For to what purpose should we Study so much considering that after all we are able to Know so little considering that even that little is enough to trouble and disquiet us considering that our Life is as much too short for the enjoying what Knowledge we have as for compassing what we would have and withal considering that there lies no manner of Obligation or Necessity upon us to do thus But which is what I would most of all inculcate to what purpose imaginable should we be so busy and vehement in the pursuit of Learning of any Learning but what is of use to the Moral Conduct of
would generally place Learning and Knowledge in such things as signifie little or nothing to the Perfection of the understanding XIV But from grounds of Probability that they should do so let us proceed to prove directly that they do so Now in this Charge there is something supposed and something asserted The supposition is that there are some things the knowledge of which is little or nothing Perfective of the understanding The Assertion is that Learning is generally placed in the knowledge of such things The Proof of the Supposition will ingage my Pen upon the discussion of a very Gurious and weighty Question wherein the Perfection of the understanding does consist or what it is that is Perfective of the Understanding Which when we have duly fix'd and stated we shall then have a certain Measure to go by in the Proof of the Assertion XV. To the Question then I answer that the Perfection of the Understanding as that of the will is either Formal or Objective The Formal Perfection of the understanding as that of the will is no other than its Exercise or Operation which is Thinking and Perception as that of the other is Willing and Chusing According to the vulgar Maxim that the Perfection of every thing is its Operation which must be understood only of the Formal Perfection The Objective Perfection of the understanding is Truth as that of the will is Good The Result of these two Perfections joyn'd together is what in the understanding we call Knowledge and what in the will we call Vertue XVI Our concern is not at present with the Formal but with the Objective Perfection of the understanding This we have said in general to be Truth as that of the will is Good And thus far there is neither Difficulty nor Controversie All therefore that further remains to be here considerd is what Truth that is which is the Objective Perfection of the understanding or what Truth that is in the Knowledge of which the Perfection of the understanding does consist XVII Now since there is so great a Proportion and Correspondence between the understanding and the will and the Perfection of each the first entrance we shall make upon the Resolution of this Question shall be to consider what good that is which is the Objective Perfection of the will or what good that is in the desiring and embracing of which the Perfection of the will does consist Which being determin'd will afford at least a Fair Ground and Occasion tho not an infallible Measure for the determination of the other XVIII Here then 't will be necessary to premise a Consideration of the Kinds of good The most general distribution of which I conceive to be into these two Necessary and Contingent good By necessary good I understand that which cannot but be good that which is always and immutably good And this comprizes under it the good of the End which is desireable for it self commonly called Pleasant good And the good of the Means which has an immutable connexion with it and is desirable for the other commonly call'd Profitable Good By Contingent good I understand that which may or may not be good and is good whenever it is so only upon a Positive account because enjoyn'd by the Will of a Competent Authority This can never be the good of the End or a self-desirable Good nor can it be such a good of the Means as has a Natural and immutable connexion with it but is always an Arbitrary and Mutable Means XIX This being briefly premised I shall venture to assert that that good which is the Objective Perfection of the Will is Necessary Good Either that which is Self-desirable as God the Universal or any other particular pleasant good Or else that which has an immutable Connexion with it as Moral good As for Contingent good that is no otherwise perfective of the Will than in the force and vertue of the necessary good For Obedience to a positive Law is no otherwise a Vertue than as 't is included in some general natural Law whereof 't is a contingent instance Which is also the ground commonly assign'd by Casuists why Human Laws oblige in Conscience According to that of Aquinas Lex Humana Obligat in Conscientia quatenus participat legem aeternam Naturalem An Human Law obliges in Conscience as much as it partakes of the Eternal and Natural Law That is as far as it is founded or relies upon the immutable will of God and the Dictate of Natural Reason XX. This is too plain to need much Proof though not so plain but that it may be demonstrated If then a Reason be demanded why the objective Perfection of the Will is only necessary not contingent good 't will be sufficient to say that that only is Perfective of the Will which naturally and of it self makes it Happy and wherein she can acquiesce with satisfaction and delight But this is only necessary good that which is essentially intrinsically and immutably good either as the End or as having a Natural Connexion with it either of which involves Happiness As for contingent good that is supposed to be of it self indifferent as to Happiness and tho by positive Ordination it may be made a condition of it yet still it contributes to it only as an Arbitrary Means which has no inward goodness in it self and whose whole Moral Excellency is deriv'd from some general Law of Reason whereof 't is an instance by accident and in vertue whereof it obliges Thus Moses's striking the Rock had nothing morally good or perfective of the Will in it but only as 't was an Instance of that General Law of obeying the Divine Will in all things Nor did the Vertue of Moses consist properly and strictly speaking in striking the Rock but in Obeying God by striking the Rock XXI By this it appears what good that is in the desiring and embracing of which the Moral Perfection of the Will does properly and ultimately consist That it is Necessary not Contingent good Whence we may take instruction how to state the Perfection of the understanding which we shall do by following the same Common Measure First then be it here also premised that as in relation to the Will all good is either Necessary or Contingent so in relation to the Understanding all Truth is either Necessary or Contingent For besides the immediateness of the Opposition which is Contradictory I further consider that that must be the Adaequate division of Truth which is of Being Truth being a property of Being and such a one as tho formally and Abstractly different for the subject must never be included in the Precise Reason of the Property is yet Materially and Concretely the same with it But now Necessary and Contingent is the Adequate Division of Being therefore also of Truth XXII By Necessary Truth I understand that which cannot but be True that which is always and immutably True Such is God among
so I shall now briefly explain the Mode of it by shewing how and why 't is so and I account for it after this manner Necessary Truth is the same with the Divine Ideas and accordingly Plato I remember calls Science a Participation of Ideas and the Divine Ideas are the very Essence of God as 't is variously imitable according to its Omniformity Necessary Truth therefore is no other than the Essence of God the very Substance of the Divinity More particularly it is the same with the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the second Person in the Holy Triad who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo speaks the Archetypal Seal and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Intellectual World and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Archetypal Paradigme and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Idea of Ideas Whom also the Scripture represents as the Wisdom of his Father and as the Light of the World and who inlightens every Man that comes into it not only Efficiently as 't is vulgarly understood but also Formally he himself being the Truth and the Light in which we see all things XXIX These things Madam I only hint to you referring you for further satisfaction to your deservedly admired Monsieur Malebranche in his de la Recherche de la Verité and to a Treatise of mine call'd Reason and Religion where I have purposely treated of the Divine Ideas and of our seeing all things in them In which however whatever is deficient shall be supplied in another Latin Treatise of a larger compass now under my hands and which I shall communicate to the World e're long if God please to continue my Life and Health under the Title of Theoria Mundi Idealis sive Metaphysica Platonica XXX However lest I should be thought to proceed upon a precarious ground I will here give you one short and evident Demonstration that Necessary Truth is the very Essence of God and then advance That God is the cause of whatever is besides himself or that whatever is is either God or the effect of God is a clear and acknowledg'd principle Upon which I thus argue Necessary Truth is either God or the Effect of God But it is not the Effect of God therefore it is no other than God himself XXXI That it is not the Effect of God is evident from the many Absurdities that would follow upon that Supposition For first God would be then a Necessary Agent for if Necessary Truth be an Effect 't is a Necessary Effect and a Necessary Effect must have a Necessary Cause Again God would not only be a Necessary Agent but also which is worse an Vnintelligent Agent The consequence is unavoidable for if Truth be the Effect of God then antecedently to the effecting of it there was no Truth and consequently no Knowledge Again if Necessary Truth be the Effect of God then the Perfection of the Divine Understanding must be supposed to depend upon something that is not God nay upon something Created by God 'T will follow again that God has made something which he cannot destroy And lastly to add no more if Necessary Truth be the Effect of God then there will be something Necessary Immutable and Eternal c. besides God The Consequences are all plain and so are the Absurdities The last of which appeared so great to the Excellent Monsieur Poiret a stiff Opposer of your beloved Malebranche and of the Ideal Philosophy that he urges this as one Argument against the very being of Necessary Truth because then there would be something Necessary besides God not considering that this Necessary Truth is really one and the same with God himself And this alone puts by the force of his Argument against the being of Necessary Truth which however is sufficiently conclusive to the purpose we now aim at that Necessary Truth is not the Effect of God For if it were then his Absurdity would come in and there would be something Necessary besides God Since then Necessary Truth is not the Effect of God it remains by Vertue of the premised Disjunction that it must be no other than the very Substance and Essence of the Deity XXXII I further consider that the Essence of God is intimately and immediately united to the mind of Man this is plain from Scripture which tells us that in God is our Life our Motion and our Being And from Philosophy which assures us that what pervades all things must needs be immediately united with every thing And for this you have the Authority of your excellent Malebranche who therefore calls God the Place of Spirits as Space is the Place of Bodies XXXIII Now upon these two Suppositions that Necessary Truth is the same with God himself and that the Essence of God is immediately united to the Mind of Man 't is easie to Conceive how and why Necessary Truth should be the Objective Perfection of our Understanding since to make an Object Perfective of the Faculty nothing else is requisite than that it be its proper Good and that it be intimately Present to it And this will also sufficiently give us to understand that Contingent Truth cannot be the Objective Perfection of the Mind first because that is a Created Being whereas God alone is our proper Good And secondly because 't is without us and cannot be immediately united to our minds without which condition were it never so Perfective otherwise it could contribute nothing to the Perfection of our Understandings XXXIV And thus have I given a full Resolution to that Curious and Important Question which the Proof of my Supposition ingaged me upon and which is to be the Measure of what follows in this Reflection It is plain from hence that there are some things the Knowledge whereof is little or nothing perfective of the understanding For as I have shewn 't is not Contingent but Necessary Truth wherein the Perfection of the Understanding does consist Whence it follows that True Learning ought to be placed in the Knowledge of Necessary Truth in the Comprehension of those Arts and Sciences whose Foundations are not Arbitrary but Stable and Immutable and in understanding the Eternal and Unchangeable Laws and Measures of Reason and Consequence He therefore is the truly Learned and Knowing Man who has furnish'd his Mind with bright and clear Ideas lodg'd them orderly and regularly in his Head and settled the Relations and Consequences of one to another He that is able to think clearly and distinctly for so much a Man knows as he distinctly understands and no more to judge truly and solidly and to reason dependently and consequentially In short he that sees most of the Divine Ideas is most familiarly conversant in the Intelligible World and has the largest and the clearest view of the Field of Truth This I hold to be Learning and Intellectual Perfection and besides what Arguments I have alledged in behalf of this Hypothesis it is further Confirmed by the Authority of
deliver'd and Plutarch has got more Credit from the History he gives of their Opinions in the 2d Tome of his Works than from any of his Rational and Moral Discourses And were he not accounted Learned for the Former I question whether the Latter tho far more excellent than they are would ever have given him that Title XLII Now Madam what an hard and unreasonable imposition is this that tho I am able to Think and Write never so much like an Angel my self yet I must not be accounted a Man of Learning unless I can tell what every whimsical Writer has said before me And how hard will this fall upon those whose lot is to breathe in the last Ages of the World who must be accountable for all the Whims and Extravagancies of so many Centuries And yet this is made so great a part of Learning that the Learning of most Men lies in Books rather than in Things and among Authors where one writes upon Things there are twenty that writes upon Books Nay some have carried this odd humour on so far that 't is thought Learning to know the very Titles of Books and their several Editions with the time and place when and where they were Printed And I have met with several my self that have valued themselves not a little upon this Mechanical faculty tho they knew no more of what was in them than they do of what is written in the Rolls of Destiny XLIII From this placing of Learning in the Knowledge of Books proceeds that ridiculous Vanity of Multiplying Quotations which is also reckon'd another piece of Learning tho they are used so unseasonably and impertinently that there can be no other end in them but only to shew that the Author has read such a Book And yet 't is no such Convincing Evidence of that neither it being neither New nor Difficult for a Man that 's resolv'd upon it to quote such Authors as he never Read nor Saw And were it not too Odious as well as Obvious a Truth I could name to your Ladiship some of those Author-Mongers who yet pass for Men of shrewd Learning and vast Reading XLIV These and many other such things for 't were endless to reckon up all are by the Majority of the World Voted for Learning and in these we spend our Education our Study and our Time tho they are all of them Contingent Truths that are not Perfective of the Understanding nothing being so but only Necessary Truths or the Divine Ideas the Eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word and Wisdom of the Father and also most of them impertinent and unconcerning ones So that in short the Charge of this Reflection amounts to thus much That Learning is generally placed in the Knowledge of such things which neither the Intellectual Perfection nor any other Interest of Man is concern'd to know The End of the First Reflection The Second Reflection Wherein the General Conduct of Human Life is tax'd for using undue and irregular Methods in Prosecuting what is really Perfective of the Vnderstanding I. IN the preceding Reflection the Intellectual Conduct of Human Life was censured for the general Misplacing of Learning for placing it in such things as are not Perfective of the understanding In the Present Reflection supposing it to be Free from that Fault we shall consider it as Chargeable with another namely with an undue and irregular Method of prosecuting what is really perfective of it The First was an Errour about the End This Second is an Errour about the Means which are the two hinges upon which all Prudence and all Imprudence turns II. That the Truth of this Charge may appear we must here also propose a Measure whereby we may proceed as we did in the Former Reflection And as there we took upon us to determine what that is which is Objectively perfective of the Vnderstanding so we must here consider what is the Right Method of Prosecuting what is so Which being stated will be a Measure to us in this as the other was in the former Reflection III. I design not here a just and Particular Treatise concerning The Method of Study or Inquiry after Truth this Province being already Professedly undertaken and Excellently adorn'd by two as great Masters of Thinking as ever were or are like to be in the World Cartesius and Malebranche of both which your Ladyship is so much a Mistress that a further undertaking of this kind would be as needless to your better information as to the Argument it self after the Management of it under such Excellent hands However something I must say it being impossible to shew that wrong Methods are used in this Grand Inquest but by predefining which is the Right This therefore I shall do but briefly only and in General IV. Since therefore that Truth which is Perfective of the understanding is Necessary Truth and since this Necessary Truth is the same with the Divine Ideas both which being already proved are here supposed following the thred of the same Hypothesis I find it Necessary to affirm that the right and indeed only Method of Enquiry after that Truth which is perfective of the understanding is by Consulting the Ideal World where only it is or the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who says of himself that he is not only the Truth but also the way V. Here I suppose two things first that this Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ideal World is intimately united with and presential to the Mind Secondly that we see and understand all things in him That he is our Light and our Wisdom the Light by which we See and the Light which we See that he is the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inward word and Substantial Conception of our Minds as he is of the Father and that in this Sense he inlightens every Man that comes into the World This I need not prove now because I have done it professedly elsewhere only I shall pass one necessary Remark upon the manner of our being inlighten'd by the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who may be said to inlighten us in a double respect either Fundamentally and Potentially by putting us into a Capacity of Illumination by his intimate Union and Presence with us or else Effectually and Actually when we attend to his Divine Light which is always present to us tho we are not so to it In the Former sense he inlightens every Man in the latter only those who duly consult him and attend to him VI. For I consider that the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an Inlighteness in the same Proportion as he is a Redeemer Now he redeems us either by putting us in a Salvable and Reconcilable State which is a Redemption Vniversal Incondionate and Antecedent or by actually reconciling and Saving us which depends upon and is consequent to certain conditions and is conferr'd only upon those who are qualify'd accordingly And as his Redemption is
double so is his Illumination He inlightens either by putting us in a state or possibility of Illumination by being intimately present with us and surrounding us with his Divine Ideal Light which is a Benefit Common to all or by actually informing our understandings when we apply our selves with due Attention to his all-diffused Light which is ever present to us and to the whole Creation and Shineth even in the Darkness tho the Darkness Comprehend it not VII And I was not a little glad to find the Grounds of this distinction in the writings of that Elevated Heathen Hierocles which I shall give you in the words of my own Translation This bright Heathen Commenting upon that Mystical Prayer of Pythagoras O Father Jupiter either free all from their Manifold evils Or else Discover to all what Daemon they use Moves this Question since they that know God and themselves are free from Mortal Passions why then are not all freed since all are sufficiently assisted with the Opportunities of this knowledge To which he first gives this general Answer Because the greatest part of Men embrace evil of their own accord since they neither see nor hear Neighbouring good Then a little after he is more particular in his Account Since therefore says he that any thing may be shewn to any one 't is necessary that the actions of two Persons concur for how can you shew what you have a mind should be shewn to a Blind Man although you offer it to him a thousand times or how can you shew to one that sees if you offer nothing to his Sight both these must be present some good proposed by him that shews and an Eye capable of seeing in him to whom it is to be shewn so that from a visible object and a Faculty of seeing may result a Manifestation This being so let us suppose that all would be freed from evil if their Maker did shew to all the knowledge of his own Nature and what Daemon they themselves use But we find that all are not deliver'd from evil it follows therefore that he does not make this discovery to all but to those only who of their own accord endeavour to free themselves from evil and voluntarily fix their Eye upon what is shewn by the intention of Contemplation And again a little after thus every Illumination of God by the Concurrence of our vision becomes a Discovery VIII In all which Process this refined Heathen supposes that God is ready on his part to inlighten all Men nay that he does inlighten them all so far as to put them in the way and within the Possibility of Illumination which then becomes Actual and Effectual when they yield due Attention to the Divine Light He does not indeed descend to so much Nicety and Particularity as to ascribe this Illumination to the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ideal World but only to God in general nor does he determine whether God does inlighten us only Efficiently by infusing Acts or Habits of knowledge as is more vulgarly held than understood and indeed is no way intelligible or Formally by being himself the very Formal Light of our Minds and the immediate Object of our Knowledge This I say he does not determine nor do I cite him to this purpose having sufficiently Explain'd and Establisht this Theory elsewhere but only to shew his Concurrence with me in this Distinction of the double Illumination of God IX These Supposals being premised First that that Truth which is Perfective of the understanding is Necessary Truth then Secondly that this Necessary Truth is the same with the Divine Ideas then Thirdly that the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ideal World is intimately united with and Praesential to the Mind then Fourthly that we see and understand all things in him and that 't is he that is our inlightner and that lastly tho he inlightens all Fundamentally and Potentially yet this Illumination is not reduced to Act and made Effectual but by the intervening of some Condition on our parts which is duly to consult and apply our selves to him From these Premises the same Conclusion which we touch't on before necessarily and evidently follows that the Right and only Method of Enquiry after that Truth which is Perfective of the understanding is to consult the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ideal World For this is the Region of Truth and here are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge This is that great and Universal Oracle lodged in every Man's Breast whereof the Antient Vrim and Thummim was an Expressive Type or Emblem This is Reason this is Conscience this is Truth this is that Light Within so Darkly talk'd of by some who have by their aukward untoward and Vnprincipled way of representing it discredited one of the Noblest Theorys in the World But the thing in it self rightly understood is true and if any shall yet call it Quakerism or Euthusiasm I shall only make this reply at present that 't is such Quakerism as makes a good part of St. Iohn's Gospel and of St. Austin's Works But to return this I say is that Divine Oracle which we all may and must consult if we would inrich our minds with Truth that Truth which is Perfective of the understanding And this is the true Method of being truly wise And this is no other Method than what is advised us by this Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Substantial Wisdom of God Blessed is the Man that heareth me watching daily at my Gates waiting at the Posts of my Doors And again says the same Substantial Wisdom Who so is Simple let him turn in hither And again I am the Light of the World he that follows me or as the word more properly signifies he that consorts or keeps company with me walketh not in Darkness This therefore is via Intelligentiae the way and Method of true Knowledge to apply our selves to the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to consult the Ideal World X. Thus in general If now it be further demanded how this is to be done I answer that there are three ways of doing it and I can think of no more The First is by Attention The Second is by Purity of Heart and Life And the Third is by Prayer Upon each of which I shall bestow some few Remarks such as may rather give hints than full entertainment to your thoughts because I Know your Ladyship loves to have something left to work out by your self in your own private Meditations Which Consideration has made me all along use less Prolixity than the Quaintness and Weightiness of my Argument would otherwise justify XI The first Method assign'd is Attention or Application of Mind to the Intelligible World the World of Truth This is the same with Thinking or Speculating which if intelligibly accounted for will be found to be nothing else but the Conversion of the Mind
respect to the End of Man in the other World and his Business in this as he that shall spend so much time in the Solution of a Mathematical Question as M. Descrates I remember confesses of himself in one of his Epistles And why then the Prosecution of Learning should be the only thing excepted from the Vanities and Impertinencies of Life I have not head enough to understand XXVI And yet so it is All other Excentrical unconcerning Occupations are cried down meerly for being so as not according with the present Character and State of Man This alone is not contented with the reputation of Innocence but stands for positive merit and excellence for Praise and Commendation To say a Man is a Lover of Knowledge and a diligent inquirer after Truth is almost as great an Encomium as you can give him and the time spent in the Study tho in the search of unedifying Truth is reckon'd almost as laudably bestow'd as that in the Chapel and so inconsistent with its self is Human Judgment 't is Learning only that is allow'd not only to divide but to devour the greatest part of our short Life and is the only thing that with Credit and Public allowance stands in Competition with Religion and the study of Vertue Nay by the most is preferr'd before it who would rather be counted Learned than Pious XXVII But is not this a strenge and unreasonable Competition It must indeed be confess'd that the Perfection of Man is double of the Intellectual as well as of the Moral Part and that Knowledge is a very Divine Excellence But certainly Rectitude of Will is a greater Ornament and Perfection than Brightness of Vnderstanding and to be Good is more Divine than to be Wise and Knowing that being the Principal perhaps only difference between an Angel and a Devil And tho Solomon's Choice be universally applauded yet I think that of Mary is to be preferr'd before it and to use the Expression of the Excellent Monsieur Poiret that 't is better like an Infant without much reasoning to Love much than like the Devil to Reason much without Love XXVIII But suppose Knowledge were a much Diviner excellence than 't is suppose it were more Perfective of and Ornamental to Human Nature than the Habit and Practice of Vertue yet still this Competition would be utterly against Reason For 't is to be consider'd as I have already suggested that the Former we can't have now in any Measure and shall have it hereafter without Measure but the latter we may have now for we may Love much tho we can't know much and cannot have it hereafter Now the Question is whether we ought to be more Solicitious for that Intellectual Perfection which we can't have here and shall have hereafter or for that Moral Perfection which we may have here and cannot hereafter And I think we need not consult an Oracle or conjure up a Spirit to be resolv'd of this Question XXIX And this one Solitary Consideration much more in Conjunction with the other parts of the Human Character I take to be sufficient to justifie the Truth of what measure we have prescribed to our Intellectual Conduct that we ought to prosecute Learning and Knowledge no further than as 't is conducive to the great Ends of Piety and Vertue And consequently that when ever we study to any other Purpose or in any other Degree than this we are unaccountably impertinently I may add Sinfully imploy'd For this is the whole of Man to fear God and keep his Commandments the whole of Man in this Station and consequently this ought to be the only Scope of all his Studys and Endeavours XXX And accordingly 't is observable that the Scripture whenever it makes mention of Wisdom with any mark of Commendation it always means by it either the very Practice of Religion and Vertue or such Knowledge at least that has a near and strong influence upon it thereby implying that that is the only Wisdom which becomes the study of Man Remarkable above the rest to this purpose is the 28th Chapter of Iob where having run through several instances of Natural Knowledge at length says he But where shall Wisdom be found And where is the place of understanding As much as to say that in none of the other things mention'd did consist the Wisdom of Man Then it follows Man knoweth not the Price thereof neither is it found in the Land of the Living The Depth saith it is not in me and the Sea saith it is not in me Not in the Depths of Learning nor in the Recesses of Speculation seeing it is hid from the Eyes of all Living and kept close from the Fowls of the Air from Men of high and Towring Notions and sublime Theories Destruction and Death say we have heard the Fame thereof with our Ears As much as to say that after this Life and then only unless perhaps about the hour of Death Men begin to have a true sense and Lively Savoury Relish of this Wisdom But in the mean time God understandeth the way thereof and he knoweth the place thereof And unto Man he said behold the Fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from Evil that is understanding To Man he said Had it been to another Creature suppose an Angel in a state of Security and Confirmation he would perhaps have recommended for Wisdom the Study of Nature and the Curiosities of Philosophy but having to do with Man a Probationary and unfixt Creature that shall be either Happy or Miserable according as he demeans himself in this short time of Trial the only Wisdom he advises to such a Creature in such a Station is to look well to his Moral Conduct to study Religion and good Life XXXI And now Madam since we are upon Scripture-Authority for indeed so little has this matter been consider'd that I have scarce any other to follow will your Ladyship give me leave in further Confirmation of the Measure propos'd to commend to your Consideration two great Scripture-Examples both of Men Eminently Wise and of a Learned Education The Men I instance in are Moses and St. Paul The latter of which professedly declares that he determin'd to know nothing but Iesus Christ and him Crucify'd that is nothing but what concerns either the Faith or the Practice of Christianity And the former complaining of the gross Ignorance of the People committed to his charge and desiring they would become wiser breaks out into this Passionate Wish O that they were Wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter End XXXII Moses had been bred a Scholar as well as a Courtier and was well instructed in all the Secrets of the Aegyptian Philosophy which was then the best in the World Besides he was himself a wise Man a Man that besides the advantages of Pharaoh's Court had the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
45th Psalm is a plain Spiritual Epithalamium and so is the whole Book of Canticles and the Holy Baptist in whom both Types and Prophesie expire calls him expresly by the Name of Bridegroom Strange Miracle of Humility and Love That ever God should come down to seek a Spouse upon Earth was it not enough O Blessed Jesu that thou wast one with the Father and Holy Spirit in the Eternal Trinity was it not enough that thou hadst made thy self one with our Mortal Flesh by assuming our Nature but that thou must yet heap Mystery upon Mystery and as if thou wert not yet near enough allied to us must also make thy self one with thy Church But such is thy Love to man as not to be contented with one single union with him And so great thy Condescention as if thou need'st a Partner to compleat thy Happiness and as if it were no more good for the second than 't was for the first Adam to be alone These are the two Principal Figures under which the Scripture Pictures out to us the Love of Christ to his Church and his union with it Not that they rise up to the heighth of the Mystery but because they come the nearest of any to it For indeed they fall vastly short and give but a faint shadowy resemblance of what they are intended to represent And therefore as we have hitherto represented the dearness between Christ and his Church by that between the Head and the Members and the Husband and Wife so we may and with better reason invert the Order and propose the Former as an Example and Measure for both the Latter And 't is observable that St. Paul does so For says he Husbands love your Wives even as Christ loved the Church And again No Man ever yet hated his own Flesh but Nourishes and Cherishes it even as the Lord the Church Where you see the Love of Christ to his Church is not as before set out by that of Married Persons and that of a Man to his own Flesh but these are set out and illustrated by the other So great and transcending all Love yea even all Knowledge is this Love of Christ to his Church But 't will appear yet greater if we take a Prospect of it in the Second Light namely in those Real and Actual Proofs whereby Christ himself has exprest this his most excellent and otherwise incredible Love And certainly they are such as never were will or can be given by any other Lover For to make the Prospect as short as maybe was it not an amazing instance of Love for the great and ever Blessed God who could neither be advantaged by our Happiness nor damaged by our Misery to come down and assume our Nature in its meanest Circumstances to live a needy and contemptible Life and dye a painful aud execrable Death and all this to reconcile a Rebel to restore an Apostate Indeed the work of Man's Redemption if we deeply consider the whole Method and Contrivance of it is such an Heroic instance of Love and so much exceeding that of his Creation that 't is well Man was Created and Redeem'd by the same good being since otherwise his obligations to his Redeemer being so much greater than those to his Creator he would be very much divided and distracted in his returns of Love and Gratitude But let us reflect a little upon the Life before we further consider the Death of our Redeemer It was one constant Argument one continued Miracle of Love He lived as one purely Devoted to the good of Mankind All his Thoughts all his Words all his Actions were Love His whole business was to Glorify his Father and which was his greatest Glory to express his Love to Man which tho at all times exceeding wonderful yet toward the Evening of his Life it thicken'd and grew stronger like Motion within the Neighbourhood of the Center and as then he Prayed so he Loved yet more earnestly For 't was then that he wept over Condemn'd Ierusalem and bedew'd with Tears the Grave of Lazarus 'T was then that with desire he desired to Eat the Passover with his Disciples instituted a perpetual Monument of Love his Holy Supper and left another of Humility by condescending to wash their Feet 'T was then that he comforted his Disciples with the variety of the Heavenly Mansions with a Declaration that he himself was the way the Truth and the Life with an assurance that their Prayers in his Name should be effectual with a Promise of the Holy Spirit and with a Legacy of his own Peace to compensate for the Tribulation they should meet with in the World 'T was then lastly that he recommended the state of his Apostles together with his own Glorification in one and the same Solemn Prayer to his Father that he would preserve them in Unity and Truth and at length Glorify them with the whole Body of true Believers with himself in Heaven And all this at a time when one would have thought his own concern should have been his only Meditation and Fear his only Passion for now was he within view of his amazing sufferings and the shade was just ready to point at the dreadful hour and yet even now his Love was truly stronger than Death and the Care of his Disciples prevailed over the Horrors of his approaching Agony Which he further shewed by giving up himself to a cruel and shameful Death for the Life and Salvation of the World A Death to say no more of it of such strange Sorrow and Anguish that the very Prospect of it put him into a Sweat of Blood and the induring it made him complain of being deserted of his Father And then that his Redemption might prove effectual after his Resurrection he gives Commission to his Disciples to go and publish it with its conditions throughout the world and orders them all as he does here St. Peter to feed his Sheep And lest the the Benefit of his Death should be again frustrated for want of Power to perform the conditions presently after his Ascension he sent down the Spirit of consolation upon his Apostles and does continually confer Grace upon and make Intercession for his Church So tenderly affected was he toward this his Spouse that even the felicities of Heaven could not make him forget her as he further shew'd by complaining in behalf of his Church when from the midst of his Glory he said Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Which words shew him as much concern'd for the wounds given to his Mystical as for those he felt in his Natural Body And now since the Love of our Lord to his Church is so exceeding great it certainly concerns all Christians especially those whom he has intrusted with the Care of his Church to be alike minded Which leads me in the Second place to consider the command here given and to shew the great Obligation that lies upon all spiritual Pastors
to feed this flock of Christ which is so nearly beloved by him Feed my sheep says our Lord to St. Peter and in him to all the Pastors of the Christian Church who are equally concerned both in the Command and in the Duty And that they are so is already sufficiently concluded from what has been discoursed concerning the great Love of Christ to his Church To make you therefore more sensible of this Duty I need only propose to your Meditation how affectionately our Lord loves his Church and how dear her Interests are to him that out of this his abundant Love he has set apart a distinct Order of men on this very purpose to promote and further her in the way of Salvation that he has intrusted the care of her in their hands and has made them his Vicegerents and Trustees that 't is a Charge worthy their greatest care for which there needs no other Argument than that 't is committed to them by him who knows the worth of Souls that he strictly commands them as they have any Love or Regard for him to feed his Sheep that 't was the very last Command that he gave them when he was just leaving the world and upon the very confines of Glorification and that lastly as this is the greatest Trust that was ever by God reposed in Men so there will be the severest account taken of it at the last day at the Great Visitation of the Bishop of Souls This is enough if duely weighed to shew the Obligation of this command and to conclude this part were it not necessary to add something concerning the manner of discharging it Feed my Sheep is the Command given by Christ to the Pastors of his Church and we have seen the obligation of it But how are they to Feed them I answer First by Prayer for their respective charges both in Public and in Private This is the First thing belonging to the Pastoral Office and accordingly with this St. Paul begins his Admonition to his Son Timothy I exhort therefore that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving Thanks be made for all Men. Secondly by Preaching with Private Instruction and Admonition as occasion shall serve and require And here their first care should be to Preach nothing but what is True Secondly to confine their Discourses to Vseful Truths such as tend to the promotion of good Life that which the Apostle calls the Truth which is after Godliness Thirdly to deliver only Plain Truths For there are many Truths which are highly useful and have a very Practical aspect when they are once understood which are not so easie and obvious to be so These therefore ought as much to be waved as those which are not useful because tho useful simply speaking yet respectively they are not And upon these two latter accounts we should not trouble our Unlearned Auditories either with Thorny Questions and Knotty Controversies which in themselves have no Practical use or with more refined Theories and School Niceties which to them are as useless and unpractical as the other To Feed them with the Former would be to give them Stones instead of Bread And to Feed them with the Latter would be like placing a Man in the Region of pure Ether why he can't breath in it and will starve by reason of the over-fineness of his Diet. Nor is it enough that the Truths we Preach be Vseful and Plain unless in the Fourth place they be deliver'd in a Plain and Intelligible Manner For what signifies it that the things are in themselves Plain if we make them obscure in our expressing them we are all ready enough to laugh at the Poor Frier for going about to Preach the Gospel to Beasts and Trees and are not they alike ridiculous that order Discourses so as not to be understood by those that hear them Don't these also Preach to Beasts and Trees We ought therefore to consult the Capacity of our Hearers and consider to whom as well as what we speak And to this Plainness of Expression we would do well to join some degrees of Warmth and Concernedness And this I rather recommend because there are some that affect a Cold Dead careless and heartless way of Delivery But certainly this has as little Decorum in it as it has of Devotion For since the things we speak are supposed not only to be Truths but Concerning and Important Truths what can be more absurd than to see a Man deliver a Sermon as drily and indifferently as one would Read a Mathematical Lecture 'T is said of Iohn the Baptist that he was a Burning as well as a Shining Light And truly we have need of such in this Cold Frozen Age. Plain Sermons Preach'd with Warmth and Affection do more than the Best Coldly deliver'd You know the Story in Eusebius of the Heathen Philosopher coming into the Council of Nice who was baffled into Christianity by the meer Warmth and Heartiness wherewith the good Old Man address'd him He could have resisted his Arguments but not the Spirit and Zeal wherewith he spake And this is all I shall think proper to remark to you upon the Preaching part The next way whereby the Pastors of the Church are to Feed the Sheep of Christ is by duely Administring to them the Holy Sacrament which is their true Spiritual Food the Manna that must sustain them in this Wilderness This is the most proper way of Feeding them for the Body of Christ is Meat indeed and his Blood is Drink indeed There remains yet one way more of Feeding the Flock of Christ without which the rest will signifie but little and that is by a good Example Among the other Properties of a good Shepherd our Saviour reckons this as one that he goes before his Sheep and leads them by his Steps as well as with his Voice There ought to be a Connexion between Hear and Do but much more between Preach and Do. And he that is not careful of this as he cannot expect to do much good to others so he will certainly Condemn himself To be short for I hope I need not inlarge speaking to Wise Men a good Preacher who is an ill Liver is such a Monster as cannot be Match'd in all Affrica And for his State hereafter I may leave it to be consider'd how great a Condemnation awaits him whom not only the Book of God and of Conscience but even his own Sermons shall Judge at the last Day These are the several ways of discharging this Precept Feed my Sheep to which however I think it necessary to add one thing more and that is that we Feed them our selves and not by Proxy or Deputation For out Lord does not say to St. Peter do thou get some body to Feed my Sheep but do thou Feed them thy self For however St. Peter's Shadow might do Cures upon the Body it must be his Person that must do good upon the Souls of