addresses them to the Son she considers him as equal to the Father and consequently calls upon him not simply as he is Man but as he is God and Man This appears from the ordinary conclusions of our Prayers Through Christ our Lord or through Jesus Christ our Lord or who livest and reignest one God c. For since God alone is the true cause who by his own power can do all that we desire it is necessary that the greatest part of our Prayers and all our Worship should be refer'd to him But as he never acts but when the occasional causes which he hath appointed determine the efficacy of his Laws it is fit that the manner of our calling upon him should be conformable to this Notion of him III. If Jesus Christ as Man did not intercede for Sinners it would be in vain for them to call upon him For since Grace is not given to Merit the immutable Order of Justice doth not oblige God to grant it to Sinners who Pray for it It must therefore be the occasional cause which obliges him to do it in consequence of the Power given to this cause by the establishment of the general Laws of the Order of Grace Because as I said before God never acts but when the immutable Order requires it or when the occasional or particular Causes oblige him to it But tho' Christ alone as Man be the particular cause of the good Things which we receive yet if the Prayers of the Church were always Address'd directly to him this might give Men some occasion of Error and induce them it may be to Love him as he is Man with that kind of Love which is due only to the true Power and to Worship him even without regard to the divine Person in which his humane Nature subsists Now Adoration and Love of Union which are Honours belonging to Power are due to the Almighty alone For Christ himself challenges our Adoration and this kind of Love only as he is at the same time both God and Man IV. Therefore the Church hath very great reason to Address her Prayers to God the only true Cause but through Christ who is the occasional and distributive Cause of the good Things which we Pray for For tho' Sinners never receive Grace but when Christ Prays for them by his Desires either Actual or Habitual Transient or Permanent yet we must always remember that it is God alone who gives it as the true Cause that so our Love and Devotion may be ultimately refer'd to him alone Nevertheless when we apply our selves to the true and general Cause it is the same thing as if we did it to the particular and distributive Cause Because Christ as Man being the Saviour of Sinners Order requires that he should be acquainted with their Prayers and he is so far from being Jealous of the Honour which we give to God that he himself as Man always acknowledges his Impotence and Subordination and will never hear those who like the Eutychians look upon his humane Nature as transform'd into the Divine and so take from him the qualities of Advocate Mediator Head of the Church and High Priest of the true Goods Thus we see on one side that to make our Prayers effectual it is not absolutely necessary that we should know the Truths which I have here explain'd so precisely and distinctly and on the other that the Churches proceeding agrees perfectly with the fundamental Vertue of Religion and Morality namely that God alone is the final Cause of all Things and that we cannot have access to him but by Jesus Christ our Lord. This I think will easily be granted V. But the case of the Blessed Virgin Angels and Saints hath somewhat more difficulty in it Nevertheless the sense of the Church is that they know our Necessities when we call upon them and that being in favour with God and united to Christ their Head they may by their Prayers and Desires sollicite him to deliver us from our Miseries Nay it seems to be beyond Dispute from the example of S. Paul and all the Saints who constantly recommended themselves to one another's Prayers For if the Saints on Earth as yet full of Imperfection can by their Prayers be beneficial to their Friends I see no sufficient reason to deny the Saints in Heaven this Power Only we must observe That they are not occasional causes of inward Grace For this Power was given to Christ alone as the Architect of the eternal Temple the Head of the Church the necessary Mediator in a Word as the particular or distributive cause of the true Goods VI. So then we may Pray to the Blessed Virgin to Angels and Saints that they would move the love of Christ on our behalf And probably there are some certain times of Favour for each particular Saint such as are the Days on which the Church celebrates their Festivals It is possible also that as natural or occasional Causes they may have a Power of producing those effects which we call Miraculous because we do not know the Causes of them such as the curing of Diseases plentiful Harvests and other extraordinary changes in the position of Bodies which are Substances inferiour to Spirits and over which it should seem that Order requires or at least permits them to have some Power as a reward of their Vertue or rather as an inducement to other Men to admire and imitate it But tho' this be not altogether certain as to Saints yet I think it cannot be doubted as to Angels This Truth is of so great Importance on several Accounts that I think it necessary to give a brief explication of it from the manner of God's proceeding in the execution of his Designs VII God could not act but for his own Glory and not finding any Glory worthy of himself but in Jesus Christ he certainly made all Things with respect to his Son This is so evident a Truth that we cannot possibly doubt of it if we do but reflect a little on it For what â—elation is there between the Action of God and the product of that Action if we separate it from Christ by whom it is Sanctified What proportion is there between an unhallow'd World which hath nothing of Divinity in it and the Action of God which is wholly Divine in a Word between Finite and Infinite Is it possible to conceive that God who cannot act but by his own Will or the Love which he bears to himself should act so as to produce nothing worthy of himself to create a World which bears no proportion to him or which is not worth the Action whereby it is produc'd VIII It is probable then that the Angels immediately after their Creation being astonish'd to find themselves without a Head without Christ and not being able to justify God's design in Creating them the Wicked ones imagin'd some Worth in themselves with relation to God and so Pride ruin'd them Or supposing
zealous Friends who Sacrifice their Kindred their Life and their eternal Salvation to the Passions of their Friends VI. We must not then confound Vertue with Duties by reason of a similitude of Names it is this that deceives Men. There are some who imagine they follow Vertue when they follow only a natural Inclination they have to perform some certain Duties and because they are not guided by Reason they are in truth Vicious in excess when they fancy themselves to be Heros in Vertue But the greatest part of Mankind being deceiv'd by this confusion of Terms and the splendour of Names rely upon and value themselves without Reason and often judge ill of the most Vertuous Persons because it is impossible that good Men should follow the Rules of Order any long time without failing according to outward appearance in some essential Duty For in short to be Prudent Good-natur'd and Charitable in the Eyes of the World a Man must sometimes commend Vice or at least hold his Tongue when he hears it commended To be esteem'd Liberal he must be Prodigal If he be not Rash he shall hardly be accounted Valiant and if he be not Superstitious or Credulous let his Piety be never so great he may perhaps pass for a Libertine in the Opinion of others VII It is certain that Universal Reason is always the same Order is immutable and yet Morality changes according to Places and Times It is a Vertue among the Germans to drink hard and a Man can have no conversation with them if he be not drunk It is not Reason but Wine that unites their Societies settles their Agreements and makes their Bargains 'T is reckon'd Bravery in a Gentleman to shed the Blood of him that gives him the Lie Duelling was for a long time a lawful Action amongst the French and as if Reason was not worthy to determine their Differences they decided them by Force They prefer'd the Law of Brutes or Chance before the Law of God himself Nor must we imagine that this Custom was in use only amongst the Men of the Sword it was in a manner general and if the Clergy did not fight themselves out of respect to their Character they had their Champions who represented them and maintain'd their Quarrel by shedding the Blood of their Adversaries Nay they imagin'd that God approv'd this manner of proceeding and whether their Differences were decided by the Sword or by Lot they did not doubt but that God sat as Judge in the Cause and gave it in favour of him that had Right on his side And indeed if we suppose God to act by particular wills where is the Impiety of believing either that he favours Injustice or that his Providence doth not extend to all things VIII But without going to seek for damnable Customs in the past Ages let any one by the Light of Reason judge of those that are at present kept up among us or let him only observe the Conduct of those very Persons who are appointed for Guides to others Without doubt we shall often find that every one of them hath his particular Morality his own private Religion and his favourite Vertue that one talks of nothing but Penance and Mortification another esteems only the Duties of Charity and a third cries up nothing but Meditation and Prayer From whence can this diversity proceed if the Reason of Man be always the same From hence no doubt that they leave off consulting Reason and suffer themselves to be guided by Imagination its Enemy in stead of observing the immutable Order as their inviolable and natural Law they frame to themselves Ideas of Vertue conformable at least in some things to their own Inclinations For there are some Vertues or rather Duties which have a relation to our Tempers or Humours there are shining and glittering Vertues proper for fierce and lofty Souls low and humble Vertues which are fit for timorous and fearful Minds and soft and effeminate Vertues if I may so call them which suit very well with Laziness and Inactivity IX It is true they agree that Order is the inviolable Law of Spiritual Beings and that nothing is regular if it be not conformable to it But they maintain a little too stifly that they are not capable of consulting this Law and tho' it be graven upon the Heart of Man so that he need only retire into himself to be instructed in it they think like the gross and carnal Jews that it is as hard to discover it as to climb up into Heaven or go down into Hell as the Scripture speaks X. I must confess that the immutable Order is not easie to be found it dwells within us but we are always roving abroad Our Senses unite our Soul to all the parts of our Body our Imagination and Passions extend it to all the Objects which surround us and often carry it into a World that hath no more reality than imaginary Spaces this is undeniably so But then we should endeavour to silence our Senses Imagination and Passions and not fancy that we can be reasonable without consulting Reason But this Order by which we ought to be govern'd is a Form too abstracted to serve as a Model for grosser Spirits I grant it Let us then give it a Body let us make it sensible let us cloath it in several Dresses to render it agreeable to carnal Men let us if I may so speak incarnate it yet so as it may be always known again Let us accustom Men to distinguish true Vertue from Vice from seeming Vertues and from simple Duties which a Man may often perform without Vertue and not set before them Phantoms or Idols which attract their Admiration and Respect by the sensible Splendour and Pomp that surrounds them For in short if we are not guided by Reason if we are not animated by the Love of Order how exact soever we may be in the performance of our Duties we can never be solidly Vertuous XI But say they Reason is corrupted it is liable to Error it must submit to Faith Philosophy is but a Servant we ought to distrust the Light which that affords All equivocal Terms Man is not his own Light Religion is the true Philosophy It is not I confess the Philosophy of the Heathens nor that of those great Talkers who speak to others before Truth has spoke to them Reason is immutable incorruptible infallible and ought always to govern God himself follows it In a word we ought never to shut our Eyes against the Light but we should accustom our selves to distingush it from Darkness or false Glares from confus'd Sensations from sensible Idea's which appear bright and shining Lights to those who are not accustom'd to distinguish Truth from Probability Evidence from Instinct and Reason from its Enemy Imagination Certainly Understanding is preferable to Faith for Faith will have an end but Understanding will remain for ever Faith is indeed a very great good but it
in truth certain modifications of our own proper Being but unknown to us cause us to will in such a manner that this Volition seems to depend wholly on our selves for we will so freely and readily that we think nothing obliges us to do it It is true indeed that nothing obliges us to will but our selves but then that which we call Our Selves is not our Being purely natural or perfectly free in respect of Good and Evil but our Being dispos'd toward one of them by certain Modifications which either corrupt or perfect it and render us in the sight of God either Just or Sinners and these Dispositions we should encrease or destroy by Acts which are the natural Causes of Habits IV. But to do this we must farther suppose that other important Truth that the Soul doth not always produce the Acts of its predominant Habit. For it is evident that if a Man whose ruling Disposition is Avarice should never act but by some Motion of Avarice he would be so far from ever becoming Liberal that his Vice would continually augment according to that Principle which we have before laid down that Acts produce and fortifie Habits Nay we must allow that it is in the power of a vitious Man to perform some Acts of Vertue in order to free himself from his vitious Habits and to become a good Man but this Proposition requires a little further Explication V. I say then in respect of particular Habits First That a covetous Man for Example may act by a motive of Ambition this is neither difficult to believe nor prove Secondly That a covetous Man may do an Action contrary to Avarice by which he is govern'd for a covetous Man may be also Ambitious This being suppos'd I say that if his Passion for Riches be not mov'd and his Ambition be or if his Avarice be less excited than his Ambition in a reciprocal Proportion of the force of these two Passions it is certain that the covetous Man will do an act of Liberality if at that instant he determines himself to act which is certainly in his own power to do For a Man can will nothing but Good and at that instant the covetous Man will think it better to do that act of Liberality than not do it he will Sacrifice his love of Mony to that of Glory Thus it is evident that the Sinner may for Reasons of Self-love avoid following any certain determinate Motion of his Passions if he can but excite some contrary Passions and till then suspend the consent of his Will But still this is not sufficient to prove that he who Sins may help Sinning that the Sinner may rid himself of his vitious Habits and the just Man lose his Charity VI. Indeed the Case of particular Habits as Avarice or Liberality is not the same with that of the Love of Order or Self-love and tho' perhaps it may be granted that a covetous Man may do an act of Liberality yet without doubt it will not be so readily agreed that a Heathen can do an action conformable to Order or for Love of Order For my part I shall not dispute it but only endeavour to explain my own Sentiments clearly Let every one follow that which the Evidence of Reason and the Authority of Faith oblige him to believe and leave me when I go out of the Way which should lead me in the Search of Truth VII If Sinners or Heathens had no Love at all for Order they would be altogether incorrigible and if the Righteous had no Self-love they could not possibly Sin for according to my first Principle Habits are form'd and preserv'd by Acts. The Sinner being suppos'd to have no Love but for himself cannot act but by Self-love and therefore all his Actions must encrease the Corruption of his Heart On the other side if the righteous Man be suppos'd to have no Love but for Order he cannot act but by the Love of Order and then all his Actions must still encrease his Vertue So that upon this Supposition that a Sinner or a Heathen hath no Love but Self-love and a just Man no Love but the Love of Order the Sinner must be incorrigible and the just Man impeccable But I think I have sufficiently prov'd in the foregoing Chapter that the greatest Sinners have always some disposition to love Order and I think it cannot be doubted but that the best Men always retain some Relicks of Self-love VIII It is true indeed that a Heathen can never acquire Charity nor do any Action that may merit those Assistances that are necessary for obtaining the ruling Love of the immutable Order but he may do Actions conformable to Order he may perform good and meritorious Actions Chap. I. For a Heathen has always some Idea of Order this Idea is indeleble He hath always some Love for Order Chap. III. this Love is natural and immortal Now all Love is active when once it is excited And therefore if his Self-love do not oppose the Action of his Love of Order his Love of Order will act and produce its proper Acts Nay tho' his Self-love should oppose his Love of Order yet if his Love of Order be more excited than his Self-love in a reciprocal Proportion of the greatness of these two habitual Loves and their actual Motion his Love for Order would surmount his Self-love if at that instant he determin'd himself to act IX For instance an innocent Man is led to Execution This is contrary to Order A Heathen knows it and can by a word speaking prevent the breach of Order I suppose that his Self-love is not at all concern'd in the Life or Death of the Man Certainly he will prevent or at least will have Strength and Reason enough to speak and prevent this Offence against Order For my part I do not doubt upon the Supposition which I have made but that he would prevent it For all Men naturally love Order and are so united to it that one cannot violate Order without offending them in some measure The same things being suppos'd tho' this Man we speak of were covetous yet if his Passion for Mony were laid a sleep for a little while or tho' it were excited yet if only a Penny were desir'd of him to save the Life of that innocent Man certainly he would or at least might do an action contrary to his Self-love for in truth that opposition is but inconsiderable but it would be a very great Offence against Order which he is naturally dispos'd to Love if he should not offer that small Sacrifice to it X. Now those actions are good because they are conformable to Order and they are meritorious because they are accompanied with a Sacrifice of Self-love to the Love of Order But they are not meritorious in respect of the true Goods nor of any thing that leads to the Possession of them because those Sacrifices they offer are but inconsiderable and besides
naturally Habits are got and maintain'd by Acts But we cannot frame a resolution of Sacrificing our predominant Passion without a lively Faith and a firm Hope especially when this Passion appears with all its Charms and Allurements And therefore since it is Light and Understanding which illuminates Faith strengthens Hope and discovers to the Mind the ridiculousness and deformity of the Passions we should continually meditate on the true Goods and seek and carefully lay up in our Memory the Motives which may induce us to love them and to despise transient Enjoyments and that with so much the greater diligence because the Light is subject to our Wills and if we live in Darkness it is most commonly our own fault I think I have sufficiently prov'd these Truths II. But when our Faith is not lively nor our Hope strong enough to make us resolve to Sacrifice a Passion which hath got such a Dominion over our Heart that it corrupts our Mind every Moment and draws it to its Party the only thing we ought to do and perhaps the only thing we can do in this Case is to seek for that in the fear of Hell and the just Indignation of an avenging God which we cannot find in the hope of an eternal Happiness and in the Motion which that Fear excites in us to pray to the Saviour of Sinners that he would encrease our Faith and Confidence in him not ceasing in the mean time to meditate on the Truths of Religion and Morality and on the Vanity of transitory Enjoyments for without this we cannot be sensible of our Miseries nor call upon our Deliverer Now when we find in our selves stâ—â—ngth enough to form an actual resolution of Sacrificing our Passions to the Love of Order then tho' according to the Principles which I have laid down in the foregoing Chapters we may through the assistance of Grace by repeating the like Acts absolutely acquire Charity or the habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order yet it is better without delay to come to the Sacraments and in that actual Motion which the Holy Ghost inspires in us to wash away our Sins by Penance This is undoubtedly the most compendious and certain way to change the Act into a Habit the Act I say which is transient and doth not work Conversion into a Habit which remains and which justifies For God doth not Judge us according to that which is actual and transitory but according to habitual and permanent Dispositions and by the Sacraments of the New Testament we receive justifying Charity which gives us a Right to the true Goods and the assistances necessary for the obtaining of them These Truths I shall here explain either by certain Principles or by Evidence or by Faith III. I think I have shewn in several places and by several ways That God always executes his Designs by general Laws the Efficacy of which is determin'd by the action of occasional Causes I have prov'd this Truth by the Effects of those second Causes which are known to us and I think I have demonstrated it from the Idea of God himself because his Action ought to bear the Character of his Attributes And therefore I refer the Reader for this Matter to my other Writings But if Reason could not lead us to this Truth yet the Holy Scripture would not suffer us to doubt of it in relation to the Subject which I now treat of For the Scripture teaches us that Jesus Christ as Man is not only the meritorious but also the distributive or occasional Cause of all Graces that by his Sacrifice of himself he hath gain'd a Right over all the Nations of the World to make use of them as Materials in building the Spiritual Temple of the Church of which the stately Temple of Solomon was but a Shadow and a Figure and that now and ever since the day of his Ascension he makes use of that Right and raises that eternal Temple to the glory of his Father by the Power which he receiv'd from him in the day of his Victories when he was made High Priest of the true Goods after the irrevocable Order of Melchisedech Eph. 4.15 16. Christ is the Head of the Church he continually infuses into the Members of which it is compos'd 1 Joh. 2.1 1 Tâ—m 2.5 Eph. 5.23 Heb. 7.25 Joh. 11.42 Mat. 28.18 Joh. 13.5 the Spirit which gives it Life and Holiness He is the Advocate the Mediator the Saviour of Sinners He is in the Holy of Holies always Living to make intercession for us and all his Prayers and Desires are heard In a word he himself tells us That all Power was given to him in Heaven and in Earth Now he did not receive this Power as God equal to the Father but as Man like unto us and God communicates his Power to the Creatures no farther than as he executes their Wills and by them his own Designs for God alone is the true Cause of every thing that is done both in Nature and Grace Thus it is certain from the Scripture that Jesus Christ as Man is the occasional cavse which determines the efficacy of that general Law whereby God would Save all Men in and by his Son IV. It is necessary that we should be well convinc'd of this Truth which is essential to Religion by reading the New Testament and particularly the Epistle to the Hebrews And having as I think sufficiently prov'd it in my Treatise of Nature and Grace and in my Christian Meditations I shall not insist any longer upon it I write for Philosophers but they are Christian Philosophers such as receive the Scripture and the infallible Tradition of the Universal Church and I endeavour to explain the Truths of Faith by clear and unequivocal Terms This makes me say that Jesus Christ as Man and High Priest of the true Goods is the occasional cause of Grace I might have call'd him the natural instrumental second distributive Cause or have made use of some other more common Term But the commonest Terms are not always the clearest Tho' People fancy they understand them perfectly yet commonly they scarce know what they say when they use them and if they would take the pains to examine these which I have mention'd they would find that the Term of natural Cause raises a false Idea that that of instrumental is obscure that of second so general that it gives no distinct Idea to the Mind and that of distributive at least equivocal and confus'd Whereas this which I have made use of the occasional cause of Grace hath I think none of these defects at least as to those Persons for whom alone I writ the Treatise of Nature and Grace tho' many others have taken upon them to judge of it who scarce understand the Principles which I have there laid down For this Term denotes precisely that God who doth every thing as the true cause which I think I have prov'd in several places imparts his
Motive which regulates the Heart but the love of Order Every Motive is grounded on Self-love on that invincible desire of being happy which God continually inspires into us in a Word on our own Will for we cannot Love but by our Will And a Man that burn'd with a desire of enjoying the presence of God to contemplate his Perfections and have a share in the felicity of the Saints would still deserve the punishment of Hell if he had a disorder'd Heart and refus'd to sacrifice his predominant Passion to Order As on the contrary one that was indifferent as to eternal Happiness if that were possible but in all other things was full of Charity or the love of Order in which Charity is comprehended or of the love of God above all other things he I say would be a just Man and solidly Vertuous for as I have already prov'd at large true Vertue or a conformity to the Will of God consists wholly in an habitual and ruling Love of the eternal and divine Law the immutable Order XV. A Man ought to love God not only more than this present Life but also more than his own Being Order requires it But he cannot be excited to this love any other way than by the natural and invincible love which he hath for Happiness He cannot love but by the love of Good or his own Will Now he cannot find his Happiness in himself He can find it only in God because there is nothing but God alone capable of acting on him and making him happy Again it is better not to be than to be Miserable It is better then not to be than to be out of favour with God Therefore we ought to love God more than our selves and pay him an exact Obedience There is a difference between the Motives and the End We are excited by the Motives to act for the End It is the greatest Crime imaginable to place our End in our selves We should do every thing for God All our Actions should be refer'd to him from whom alone we have the power to do them Otherwise we violate Order we offend God and are guilty of Injustice This is undeniable But we should seek for the motives which may make us love Order in that invincible Love which God hath given us for Happiness For since God is Just we cannot be happy if we are not obedient to Order It matters not whether those Motives be of Fear or of Hope if they do but animate and support us The most lively the most strong solid and durable are the best XVI There are some People that make a Thousand extravagant Suppositions who for want of a true Idea of God suppose for instance that he hath design'd to make them eternally Miserable And in this Supposition they think themselves oblig'd to love this Chimera of their own Imagination above all Things This perplexes them extremely For indeed how is it possible to love God when they deprive themselves of all the rational Motives of loving him or rather when instead of him they represent to themselves a terrible Idol with nothing in it capable of being Lov'd God would have us Love him such as he is and not such as it is impossible for him to be We must love an infinitely perfect Being and not a dreadful Phantom an unjust God a God powerful indeed absolute and supreme such as Men wish to be but without Wisdom or Goodness Qualities which they do not much esteem For the ground of these extravagant Fancies which frighten those that form them is that they judge of God by the inward sense which they have of themselves and without considering imagine that God may form such Designs as they find themselves capable of forming But they have no Reason to fear if there were such a God as they Fancy the true God who is jealous of his Honour would forbid us to adore and love him They should endeavour to satisfy themselves that perhaps there is more danger of offending God in giving him so horrible a form than in despising that Phantom of their own We should continually seek for those Motives which may preserve and encrease in us the love of God such as are the Threatnings and Promises which relate to the immutable Order Motives proper for Creatures who invincibly desire to be happy and of which the Scripture also is full and not destroy those reasonable Motives and render the Fountain of all Good odious For the reason why the Devils cannot love God is because they have now through their own fault no motive to Love-him It is decreed and they know it that God will never be good in respect of them For since it is impossible to love any thing but Good or that which is capable of giving Happiness they have no motive to love God but they have to hate him with all their power as the true but most just cause of the Miseries which they suffer They cannot love God and yet they are oblig'd to love him because Order requires it Order I say which is the inviolable Law of all intelligent Beings in what state soever they be Happy or Miserable Therefore since they deserve that which they suffer they are in a state of disorder and will be incorrigible in their Wickedness to all eternity What I have said of this matter is only to shew that nothing can be Evil nor ought to be rejected which may make us love God have recourse to Jesus Christ and live according to Order If I am deceiv'd I desire to be better inform'd for this is a matter of great consequence CHAP. IX The Church in its Prayers Addresses its self to the Father by the Son and why We should Pray to the Blessed Virgin Angels and Saints but not as occasional causes of inward Grace The Angels and even the Devils have power over Bodies as occasional causes By this means the Devils may tempt us and the Angels promote the efficacy of Grace I. JESUS CHRIST consider'd in his humane Nature being alone the true Propitiatory or the occasional cause of Grace as I have shewn in the former Chapter it is evident that we must apply our selves to him alone for the obtaining of it Nevertheless we may call upon God nay we must Worship or call upon none but him as the true cause of our Good We may Pray to the Blessed Virgin to Angels and Saints not as true causes nor as occasional or distributive causes of Grace but as Friends of God or intercessors with Jesus Christ We may also Pray to the Angels as our protectors against the Devil or as occasional causes of certain effects which may dispose us to receive inward Grace profitably But I must explain those Truths more at large for they are of the greatest Importance for regulating our Prayers our Worship and all our Duties II. The Church being guided by the Spirit of Truth generally addresses her Prayers to the Father by the Son and when she
it Thus there is a mutual Correspondence between certain Thoughts of the Soul and certain Modifications of the Body in consequence of those natural Laws which God hath establish'd and which he condantly observes Herein consists the Union of the Soul and Body The Imagination may raise other Ideas of all this But this Correspondence is undeniable and is sufficient for my purpose So that I neither do nor ought to build on uncertain Foundations XIV Secondly I suppose it to be known that the Soul is not join'd immediately to all the parts of the Body but only to one part which answers to all the rest and which I call without knowing what it is the Principal Part so that notwithstanding the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body a Man may have his Arm cut off and yet have no thought arise in his Soul Correspondent to it but it is not possible that the least change should happen in the Principal Part of the Brain without causing also some alteration in the Soul This is verified by Experience for sometimes parts of the Body are cut off without being felt because then the Motion of the Amputation doth not communicate it self to the Principal Part. As on the contrary those that have lost an Arm often feel a real pain in that very Arm which they have not because there is the same Motion in the Principal Part of the Brain as if the Arm was hurt XV. The first Man before his Sin had an absolute power over his Body at least he could when he pleas'd hinder the Motion or Action of Objects from communicating it self to the principal part of the Brain from the Organs of the Senses which might be touch'd by those Objects and this he did probably by a kind of revulsion somewhat like that which we make in our selves when we would fix our Attention on those Thoughts which disappear in the presence of sensible Objects XVI But I suppose in the Third place that we have not now that power and therefore to obtain some Liberty of Mind to think on what we will and love what we ought it is necessary that the principal part should be calm and without agitation or at least that we should still be able to stop and turn it which way we please Our Attention depends on our Will but it depends much more on our Senses and Passions It is a very difficult thing not to look upon that which touches not to love that which pleases that which touches I say and pleases the Heart The Soul is never sooner tir'd than when it fights against Pleasure and makes it self actually Miserable XVII Fourthly I suppose it to be known that the principal part is never touch'd or shaken in an agreeable or disagreeable manner but it excites in the animal Spirits some Motion proper to carry the Body toward the Object which acts upon it or to separate it from it by flight so that those Motions of the Fibres of the Brain which relate to Good or Evil are always follow'd by such a course of the Spirits as disposes the Body rightly with relation to the present Object and at the same time those sensations of the Soul which are correspondent to those agitations of the Brain are follow'd by such motions of the Soul as answer to this course of the Spirits For the impressions or motions of the Brain are in respect of the course of the Spirits what the sensations of the Soul are in respect of the Passions and these Impressions are to the Sensations what the motion of the Spirits is to the motion of the Passions XVIII Fifthly I suppose that Objects never strike the Brain without leaving some marks of their Action nor the animal Spirits without leaving some Tracks of their Course that these Tracks or Wounds are not easily clos'd up or effac'd when the Brain hath been often or forcibly struck and when the Course of the Spirits hath been violent or hath often begun again in the same manner That Memory and corporeal Habits consist in nothing else but those Tracks or Impressions which cause in the Brain and other parts of the Body a particular facility of obeying the Course of the Spirits and that by this means the Brain is hurt and the Imagination polluted when we have had the enjoyment of Pleasures without apprehending the danger of Familiarity with sensible Objects XIX Lastly I suppose that we conceive distinctly that when many of these Tracks have been made at the same time we cannot open any one of them without opening all the rest in some Measure whence it comes to pass that there are always many accessory Ideas which present themselves confusedly to the Mind having a Relation to the principal Ideas to which the Mind particularly applies it self There are also many confus'd Sensations and indirect Motions that accompany the principal Passion which moves the Soul and carries it toward some particular Object There is nothing more certain than this connection of Impressions with one another and with the Senses and Passions Any one that hath but the least Knowledge of the Nature of Man and will make but the least reflection on the inward Sense he hath of what passes within himself may discover more of these Truths in an Hour than I can tell him in a Month provided he doth not confound the Soul with the Body in making the Union betwixt them and carefully distinguishes the Properties of which the thinking Substance is capable from those which belong to the extended Substance And I think it necessary to Advertise the Reader That this kind of Truths is of very great importance not only for the distinct Conception of what I have hitherto said and shall hereafter say but generally for all the Sciences that have any Relation to Man Having handled this Subject at large in the Search of Truth particularly in the Second Book I thought not to have said any thing of it here and if these Suppositions seem obscure to the Reader and do not give him light enough to comprehend clearly what I shall say in the remaining part of this Treatise I must refer him to that Book for I cannot persuade my self to give a long Explication of the same thing over and over CHAP. XI What kind of death we must die to see God to be united to Reason and to deliver our selves from Concupiscence It is the Grace of Faith that gives us this happy death Christians are dead to Sin by Baptism and alive in Christ by his Resurrection Of the Mortification of the Senses and the use we should make of it We should unite our selves to corporeal Objects or separate our selves from them without loving or fearing them But the surest way is to break off all Correspondence with them as far as is possible I. DEath is a compendious way to be deliver'd from Concupiscence and to break off at once that unhappy Union which hinders us from being reunited to our Head
that can never agree with Self-love how dextrous soever it be in accommodating every thing to its own ends For we cannot without the greatest regret see our selves strip'd of our Excellence and Grandeur in the very Seat of our Pride and Vanity Perhaps our Equal may give us a great example of Vertue in putting himself below us We may admire his Humility and perhaps imitate it naturally and out of Pride for many times the proudest Men are the most Civil and Obliging But if he would have us Love him he must give us an honourable and delightful place in his Mind and Heart He must flatter our unjust and proud Concupiscence Then tho' in appearance he be not so obsequious and obedient to our Will he will be better qualified for a Friend and will perfectly fulfil the Duties he ows us if he makes use of the entrance which we give him into our Heart by the place which he gives us in his to mortify our Concupiscence in us and set up in its place the immutable Order of Justice X. It is not so easy a thing as may be imagin'd to persuade others that they are plac'd in our Mind and Heart as they desire to be and to discover the true Sentiments they have of us We must therefore examine what are the least equivocal and most sensible marks of the inward Dispositions of Men's Minds that so we may discover the bottom of their Hearts and satisfy them of the Respect and Friendship we have for them It is certain that bare Words are equivocal and deceitful Signs in the Mouths of most Men. Besides the institution of them being arbitrary and depending on the Will of Men they do not strongly and forcibly persuade these Truths which they express None but weak People or such as have a great Opinion of themselves will be deceiv'd by them or it may be such as have no experience of the World But the Air and Behaviour is a natural Language which is understood without Studying it persuades by a lively Impression and as I may say diffuses conviction in the Mind Besides this Language is not deceitful or if it be it is very rarely because it is a natural and in a manner necessary effect of the actual disposition of the Soul For the Soul discovers its greatest Secrets by the Air which it mechanically puts into the Face and when we are once acquainted with the different Airs we may discover in the Heart of him that speaks the Sentiments and Motions with which he is agitated in relation to us XI Therefore if we would persuade Men that they hold the place which they desire in our Esteem and Friendship we should really Esteem and Love them and indeed it is our Duty so to do We should in their presence excite within our selves such Motions as they may naturally and sensibly understand by the Air which these Motions give to our Face And when our Imagination is cold in relation to them because their Merit doth indeed appear very mean and indifferent we should represent to our selves some Motives that may warm and agitate us Or at least we should endeavour to manage things so that Men may attribute to the coldness of our Constitution that indifference which is so grating and disagreable and the want of a winning and obliging complaisance in our Behaviour toward them But above all things we must take care not to put on a forc'd and affected Air which betrays it self and cannot hold long because it doth not agree with the actual dispositions of our Mind Nothing is more gross and offensive we had better hold our Tongue than praise any Man with such a fawning and perfidious Air as tickles and betrays none but stupid and senseless People Charity and Religion are sufficient to stop the natural Motions of our Machine for they furnish us with reasonable Motives enough to honour and love other Men sincerely and to despise our selves XII But beside Words and the outward Air and Behaviour there are also real Services which are the surest and most convincing marks of Esteem and Affection By these it is that we should make new Friends and try those that we have already But as these Duties are the most difficult and painful of all so we must not presently imagine that he who fails in the performance of them hath no Affection or Friendship for us For we should consider that there are some People who by their natural Constitution are so cold so heavy so reserv'd in short so difficult to be stir'd that they do little or nothing for their Friends But then they do nothing for themselves neither This is a thing that ought to be taken notice of for he that thinks that these kind of Men have no Friendship for any Body must also believe that they do not love themselves But I think I may say That generally speaking there is no Friendship more solid and durable than that of those Persons who seem to want Friendship because they have not that spriteliness of Imagination which some have and that short-liv'd Fire which kindles and blazes out as soon as a Man opens his Heart to them and doth them the honour to lay before them the need he hath of their Assistance The Reason of which is this XIII It is the Fermentation of the Blood and the abundance of Spirits which heat Mens Imagination and give them a Motion which animates and impells them Now those who have strong and lively Passions and a warm Imagination are inconstant beyond expression for it is not Reason that governs them Reason which is always the same but Humours which are soon kindled and as soon go out again Humours whose Fermentation excites contrary Motions every hour Besides 't is most commonly the Body which speaks in them and as the Body speaks only for the Body or for those Things which have a Relation to the Body the least interest determines toward their own particular Profit the Motion which at first was produc'd in them for the Profit of a Friend only because they found some Advantage in it themselves for it is always pleasant and agreable to get new Friends and keep the old ones In short there is no solid and durable Friendship but that which is founded upon Religion fortifyed by Reason animated and supported by the charming Pleasure that proceeds from a mutual Possession of Truth But Religion Reason and Truth are meer Fantoms to an Imagination that is struck and wrought upon by other Objects They have nothing in them that affects the Senses therefore they have nothing solid in them They have no Relation to the Body nor to the Society which is form'd by the Body and for the good of the Body they have nothing therefore that pleases the Imagination which speaks only for the good of the Body for that which animates and rejoyces it which gives and preserves its Being XIV When a Man hath entertain'd the unhappy design of making
unite our selves to corporeal Objects and separate our selves from them without loving or fearing them But the surest way is to break off all Correspondence with them as far as is possible p. 99. CHAP. XII Of the Imagination This Term is obscure and confus'd What it is in general Several sorts of Imagination Its effects are dangerous Of that which the World calls Wit That quality is very opposite to the Grace of Christ It is fatal to those who possess it and to those who esteem and admire it in others tho' they have it not themselves p. 109. CHAP. XIII Of the Passions What they are Their dangerous effects We must moderate them The conclusion of the first Part. p. 119. THE CONTENTS OF THE SECOND PART Of Duties CHAP. I. GOod Men often do wicked Actions The Love of Order must be enlightned to make it regular Three Conditions requir'd to make an Action perfectly Vertuous We should study the Duties of Man in general and take some time every day to examine the Order and Circumstances of them in particular Page 1. CHAP. II. Our Duties toward God must be refer'd to his Attributes to his Power Wisdom and Love God alone is the true Cause of all Things The Duties we owe to Power which consist chiefly in clear Judgments and in Motions govern'd by those Judgments p. 4. CHAP. III. Of the Duties we owe to the Wisdom of God It is that alone which enlightens the Mind in consequence of certain natural Laws whose efficacy is determin'd by our Desires as occasional Causes The Judgments and Duties of the Mind in relation to the universal Reason p. 14. CHAP. IV. Of the Duties which we owe to the divine Love Our Will is nothing but a continual impression of the Love which God bears to himself the only true Good We cannot love Evil But we may take that for Evil which is neither Good nor Evil. So we cannot hate Good But the true Good is really the Evil of wicked Men or the true cause of their Misery That God may be Good in respect of us our Love must be like his or always subject to the divine Law Motions or Duties p. 21. CHAP. V. The three Divine Persons imprint each their proper Character on our Souls and our Duties give equal Honour to them all three Tho' our Duties consist only in inward Judgments and Motions yet we must shew them by outward Signs in regard of our Society with other Men. p. 30. CHAP. VI. Of the Duties of Society in general Two sorts of Society Every thing should be refer'd to the eternal Society Different kinds of Love and Honour The general heads of our Duties toward Men. They must be External and Relative The danger of paying inward Duties to Men. The Conversation of the World very dangerous p. 36. CHAP. VII The Duties of Esteem are due to all Mankind to the lowest of Men to the greatest Sinners to our Enemies and Persecutors To Merits as well as to Natures It is difficult to regulate exactly these Duties and those of Benevolence by reason of the difference of personal and relative Merits and their various Combinations A general Rule and the most certain one that can be given in this matter p. 42. CHAP. VIII Of the Duties of Benevolence and Respect We should procure all Men the true Goods and not relative Goods Who it is that fulfills the Duties of Benevolence The unreasonable Complaints of worldly Men. The Duties of Respect should be proportion'd to the greatness of participated Power p. 52. CHAP. IX Of the Duties due to Sovereigns Two Sovereign Powers The difference between them Their natural Rights Rights of Concession Of the Obedience of Subjects p. 61. CHAP. X. Of the Domestick Duties of Husband and Wife The Ground of these Duties Of the Duties of Parents toward their Children with relation to the Eternal and Civil Societies Of their instruction in the Sciencies and Morality Parents should give their Children a good Example They should govern them by Reason They have no right to use them ill Children owe Obedience to their Parents in all Things p. 69. CHAP. XI The original of the difference of Conditions Reason alone ought to govern but Force is now necessary The lawful use of Force is to make Men submit to Reason according to the Primitive Law The Rights of Superiours The Duties of Superiours and Inferiours p. 81. CHAP. XII Of our Duties toward our Equals We should give them the place they desire in our Mind and Heart We should express our inward Dispositions in favour of them by our outward Air and Behaviour and by real Services We should yield them the Superiority and Pre-eminence The hottest and most passionate Friendships are not the most solid and durable We should not make more intimate Friends than we can keep p. 90. CHAP. XIII A Continuatian of the same Subject If we would be belov'd we must make our selves amiable The Qualities which make a Man amiable Rules for Conversation Of different Airs Of Christian Friendships p. 100. CHAP. XIV Of the Duties which every Man owes to himself which consist in general in labouring for his own Perfection and Happiness p. 110. A TREATISE OF Morality PART I. CHAP. I. Vniversal Reason is the Wisdom of God himself All Men have some Communication with God True and False Just and Vnjust is the same in respect of all intelligent Beings and of God himself What Truth and Order is and what we must do to avoid Error and Sin God is essentially Just he loves the Creatures according as they are amiable or as they resemble him We must be Perfect to be Happy Vertue or the Perfection of Man consists in a Submission to the immutable Order and not in following the Order of Nature The Error of some of the Heathen Philosophers in this Matter grounded upon their Ignorance of the simplicity and immutability of the Divine Conduct I. THE Reason of Man is the Word See the first and second Christian Meditation or the Illustration on the Nature of Ideas Search after Truth Tom. 3. or the Wisdom of God himself for every Creature is a particular Being but the Reason of Man is Universal II. If my own particular Mind were my Reason and my Light my Mind would also be the Reason of all intelligent Beings for I am certain that my Reason enlightens all intelligent Beings No one can feel my Pain but my self but every one may see the Truth which I contemplate so that the Pain which I feel is a Modification of my own proper Substance but Truth is a Possession common to all Spiritual Beings III. Thus by the means of Reason I have or may have some Society with God and all other intelligent Beings because they all possess something in common with me to wit Reason IV. This Spiritual Society consists in a participation of the same intellectual Substance of the Word from which all Spiritual Beings may receive their Nourishment In
it self is absolutely incomprehensible XIII In like manner that a Beast is more valuable than a Stone and less valuable than a Man is true because a Beast bears a greater proportion or relation of perfection to a Stone than a Stone doth to a Beast and a Beast hath a less proportion of perfection compar'd to a Man than a Man hath compar'd to a Beast And he that sees these Relations sees such Truths as ought to regulate his esteem and consequently that sort of Love that is determin'd by esteem But he that esteems his Horse more than his Coachman or thinks that a Stone is in it self more valuable than a Flie or than the very least of organiz'd Bodies doth not see that which perhaps he thinks he doth it is not universal Reason but his own particular Reason that makes him judge after that manner It is not the love of Order but self-love which inclines him to love as he doth That which he thinks he sees is neither visible nor intelligible 't is a false and imaginary Relation And he that governs his esteem or love by this or the like Relation must necessarily fall into Error and Irregularity XIV Since Truth and Order are Relations of greatness and perfection real immutable and necessary relations relations comprehended in the substance of the Divine Word he that sees these relations sees that which God sees He that regulates his Love according to these Relations observes a Law which God invincibly Loves So that there is a perfect conformity of Mind and Will between God and him In a word seeing he knows that which God knows and loves that which God loves he is like God as far as he is capable of being so So likewise since God invincibly loves himself he cannot but esteem and love his own Image And as he loves things in proportion to their being amiable he cannot but prefer it before all those Beings which either by their nature or corruption are far from resembling him XV. See the 3. Discourse of the Treatise of Nature and Grace Man is a free Agent and I suppose him to have all necessary assistances In respect of Truth he is capable of searching after it notwithstanding the difficulty he finds in Meditation and in respect of Order he is able to follow it in spite of all the efforts of Concupiscence He can sacrifice his Ease to Truth and his Pleasures to Order On the other side he can prefer his actual and present Happiness before his Duty and fall into error and disorder In a word he can deserve well or ill by doing good or evil Now God is just he loves his Creatures as they are worthy of Love or as they resemble him His Will therefore is that every good action should be rewarded and every evil one punished that he who hath made a good use of his Liberty and by that means hath render'd himself in part perfect and like God should be in part happy as he is and the contrary XVI See the Remarks upon the seeming efficacy of second Causes or the 5 and 6 Christian Meditations It is God alone that acts upon his Creatures at least he hath a power of acting on them and can do what he pleases with them He hath power therefore to make spiritual Beings happy or miserable happy by the enjoyment of Pleasure and miserable by the suffering of Pain He can exalt the just and perfect above other Men he can communicate his Power to them for the accomplishment of their desires and make them occasional causes for himself to act by in a Thousand manners He can pull down the wicked and make them subject to the action of the lowest Beings This Experience sufficiently shews for we all as we are Sinners depend upon the action of sensible objects XVII He therefore that labours for his Perfection and endeavours to make himself like God labours for his Happiness and Advancement If he doth that which in some sort depends upon himself that is to say if he deserves well by making himself perfect God will do that which in no sort depends upon him in making him happy For since God loves all Beings proportionably as they are amiable and the most perfect Beings are the most amiable the most perfect Beings shall be the most powerful the most happy and the most contented He that incessantly consults his Reason and loves Order having a share in the Perfection of God shall have also a share in his Happiness Glory and Greatness XVIII Man is capable of three Things Knowing Loving and sensibly Perceiving of knowing the true Good of loving and enjoying it The knowledge and love of Good are in a great measure in his own power but the enjoyment of it doth not at all depend upon himself Nevertheless seeing God is just he that knows and loves him shall also enjoy him God being just must of necessity give the pleasure of enjoyment and by it Happiness to him that by a painful application seeks the knowledge of the Truth and by a right use of his Liberty and the strength of his Resolution conforms himself to the Law of God the immutable Order notwithstanding all the efforts of Concupiscence enduring Pain despising Pleasure and giving that Honour to his Reason as to believe it upon its Word and to comfort himself with its Promises It is a strange thing Men know very well that the enjoyment of Pleasure and avoiding of Pain do not depend immediately on their Desires They find on the contrary that it is in their own power to have good Thoughts and to love good Things that the light of Truth diffuses it self in them as soon as they desire it and that the loving and following of Order depends on themselves * This Age is so ill-natured or so nice that there are somethings which it is not sufficient for a Man not to say but he must also assure the World and that more than once that he doth not say them And therefore my Readers must pardon me if I seem to distrust their equity I still suppose those necessary assistances which are never wanting to those who have Faith but through their own negligence And yet they seek after nothing but Pleasure and neglect the foundation of their eternal Happiness that knowledge and love which resemble the knowledge and love of God the knowledge of Truth and the love of Order for as I said before he that knows Truth and loves Order knows as God knows and loves as he loves XIX This then is our first and greatest Duty that for which God hath created us the love of which is the Mother of all Vertue the universal the fundamental Vertue the Vertue which makes us just and perfect and which will one Day make us happy We are rational Creatures our Vertue and Perfection is to love Reason or rather to love Order For the knowledge of speculative Truths or relations of Greatness doth not regulate our
is because it leads to Understanding and without it we cannot deserve the Understanding of some necessary and essential Truths without which it is impossible to attain either to solid Vertue or everlasting Happiness Nevertheles Faith without Understanding I speak not here of Mysteries of which we can have no clear Idea Faith I say without any Light if that be possible cannot make a Man solidly Vertuous It is the Light which perfects the Mind and regulates the Heart and if Faith did not enlighten a Man and lead him to some Understanding of the Truth and some Knowledge of his Duty without doubt it would not have those Effects which are attributed to it But Faith is a Term as equivocal as that of Reason Philosophy and human Sciences XII I grant then that those who have not Light enough to guide themselves may attain to Vertue as well as those who can retire into themselves to consult Reason and contemplate the Beauty of Order because the Grace of Sense or preventing delectation may supply the want of Light and keep them firm and stedfast in their Duty But that which I maintain is First That supposing all other things equal he that enters farthest into himself and hearkens to the Truth within him in the greatest silence of his Senses Imagination and Passions is the most solidly Vertuous Secondly That such a Love of Order as hath for its Foundation more of Reason than of Faith that is more of Light than of Pleasure is more solid meritorious and valuable than another Love which I suppose equal For indeed the true good the good of the Soul should be lov'd by Reason and not by the instinct of Pleasure But the condition to which Sin hath reduc'd us makes the Grace of Delight necessary to counterpoise the continual endeavours of our Concupiscence Lastly I assert That if a Man should never I say never retire into himself his imaginary Faith would be wholly useless to him For the Word became sensible only to render Truth intelligible Reason was made incarnate for no other end but to guide Men to Reason by their Senses and he that should do and suffer all that Jesus Christ did and suffer'd would be neither reasonable nor a Christian if he did it not in the Spirit of Christ the Spirit of Order and Reason But there is no cause to fear this for it is absolutely impossible that any Man should be so far separated from Reason as never to retire into himself to consult it And tho' there are many People who perhaps know not what it is to retire into themselves yet it is impossible but that they must do it sometimes and must sometimes hear the Voice of Truth notwithstanding the continual Noise of their Senses and Passions It is impossible but that they must have some Idea of Order and some Love for it which without doubt they cannot have but from something which dwells in them and renders them so far just and reasonable for no Man is himself the ground of his Love nor the Spirit that inspires animates and guides it XIII Every Man pretends to Reason and yet every Man renounces it This may seem a Contradiction but there is nothing more true Every Man pretends to Reason because every Man hath this engraven on the very Foundation of his Being that it is an essential Right of human Nature to have a share of Reason But all Men renounce Reason because they cannot unite themselves to it and receive from it Light and Understanding without a sort of Labour which is very discouraging because it hath nothing that pleases the Senses And therefore since they invincibly desire to be happy they quit the Labour of Attention which renders them actually unhappy but yet when they quit it they commonly fancy they do it by Reason The voluptuous Man thinks he ought to prefer the actual Enjoyment of Pleasures before a barren and abstracted View of Truth which costs him nevertheless abundance of Pains The ambitious Man imagines that the object of his Passion is something real and that intellectual Enjoyments are nothing but Phantoms and Illusions for commonly Men judge of the Solidity of good things by the Impression they make on the Imagination and Senses Nay there are some Persons of Piety who prove by Reason That we ought to renounce Reason That we are not to be guided by Light but by Faith alone and that blind Obedience is the principal Vertue of a Christian The Laziness of Inferiours and their proness to Flatter is often satisfied with this fancied Vertue and the Pride of Superiours is always very well pleas'd with it So that perhaps there may be some Persons who will be offended with me for giving so great an Honour to Reason as to set it above all other Powers and think me a Rebel against lawful Authorities because I take the part of Reason and maintain that it belongs to Reason to decide and govern But let the Voluptuous follow their Senses let the Ambitious suffer themselves to be carried away by their Passions let the generality of Mankind live by Opinion or follow wherever their own Imaginations lead them But let us endeavour to still that confus'd Noise which sensible Objects cause in us let us retire into our selves and consult the inward Truth yet let us take great care not to confound its Answers with the malignant Influences of our corrupted Imagination For it is better infinitely better for a Man to obey the Passions of those who have a right to command and guide him than to be wholly his own Master to follow his own Passions and voluntarily to blind himself by assuming such an Air of Confidence in Error as only the discovery of Truth ought to give him I have elsewhere laid down the Rules which we ought to observe for avoiding this Miscarriage but I shall say something of it also in this Discourse for without this we cannot be solidly and rationally Vertuous CHAP. III. The Love of Order doth not differ from Charity Two sorts of Love one of Vnion and the other of Benevolence The former is due only to Power to God alone The latter ought to be proportion'd to personal Merit as our Duties to relative Merit Self-love enlightned is not contrary to the love of Vnion The love of Order is common to all Men. The Species of the love of Order natural and free actual and habitual Only that which is free habitual and ruling renders us just in the sight of God Vertue consists in nothing but a free habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order I. THO' I have not express'd the Principal or Mother Vertue by the authentick name of Charity I would not have any one imagine that I pretend to deliver to Men any other Vertue than that which Christ himself hath establish'd in these Words All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two Commandments Thou shalt love the Lord thy God Mat. 22.37 with all thy
indirectly and which we are almost always concern'd to avoid that we may preserve in our Soul the Power and Liberty of loving the true Good and living according to Order For the different ways by which we avoid these Sensations make one of the principal parts of Morality and most of the Names of Vertue were invented only to express the acquir'd Dispositions of avoiding them CHAP. V. Of the Strength of the Mind Our Desires are the occasional Causes of our Knowledge The Contemplation of abstract Ideas is difficult The Strength of the Mind consists in an acquir'd Habit of enduring the Labour of Attention The way to acquire it is to Silence our Senses Imagination and Passions to Regulate our Studies and to Meditate only on clear Ideas I. WE are assur'd both by Faith and Reason That God alone is the true Cause of all Things But Experience teaches us That he never acts but according to certain Laws which he hath prescrib'd to himself and which he constantly observes For instance it is God alone that moves all Bodies which perhaps would require a great many Words to convince some People of But this being suppos'd as having been prov'd elsewhere it is evident from Experience that God never moves Bodies but when they strike against one another So that this Impulse of Bodies may be said to be the Occasional Cause which infallibly determines the Efficacy of that general Law by which God produces a vast Variety of Motions in his Workmanship II. Again it is God alone that diffuses Light in all spiritual Substances this is a Truth which I have sufficiently explain'd already But for the Occasional Cause which determines him to communicate it to us we must search no where but in our selves God by a general Law which he constantly observes and of which he hath foreseen all the consequences hath annex'd the presence of Ideas to the Attention of our Mind so that when we can command our Attention and make use of it the Light never fails to diffuse it self in us proportionably to our Labour This is so true that ungrateful and stupid Man makes it a ground of his Vanity he imagins himself to be the Cause of his Knowledge because God always answers his Desires so faithfully and constantly For having an inward Sense of his own Attention and no Knowledge of the operation of God he looks upon the endeavour of his desires Page 9. which should convince him of his Impotence as the true cause of those Ideas which accompany that endeavour III. Now God must have plac'd the occasional causes of our Knowledge in our selves for several Reasons the chief of which is that otherwise we should not have been Masters of our Wills For since our Wills must be enlightned before they can be mov'd if it were not in our power to Think it would not be in our power to Will We should not be perfectly free nor consequently in a condition to merit the true Goods for which we are Created IV. The attention of the Mind then is a kind of natural Prayer by which we obtain the illumination of Reason But since Sin enter'd into the World the Mind often finds it self in the midst of barren and dismal Solitudes it cannot Pray the labour of Attention wearies and disheartens it Indeed the Labour is at first very great and the recompense but small and besides we find our selves continually sollicited press'd and agitated by the Imagination and Passions whose inspiration and motions we follow with Pleasure However there is a necessity for it we must call upon Reason if we will be enlightned by it There is no other way to obtain Light and Understanding but by the labour of Attention Faith is a Gift of God which we cannot merit but Understanding is generally given only to merit Faith is purely Grace in all Senses But the understanding of Truth is Grace only in such a Sense that we must merit it by our own Labour or by cooperating with Grace V. Now those who are fitted to undergo this Labour and are always attentive to the Truth that should guide them have such a disposition as without doubt deserves a more magnificent Name than any of those that are given to the most splendid Vertues But tho' this Habit or Vertue be inseparably joyn'd to the love of Order it is so little known among us that I know not whether we have given it the honour of a particular Name I shall therefore take the liberty to call it by an equivocal Name Strength of Mind VI. For the obtaining this true Strength whereby the Mind is enabled to bear the Labour of Attention we must begin to Labour betimes for naturally we cannot acquire any Habits but by Acts we cannot gain Strength but by Exercise But perhaps the great difficulty lies in beginning We remember that we have begun and have been forc'd to leave off This disheartens us we think our selves incapable of Meditation and renounce Reason If this be the case whatever we can say to excuse our Sloth and Negligence we must also renounce Vertue at least in part For without the Labour of Attention we can never comprehend the greatness of Religion the sanctity of Morality the littleness of every thing but God the ridiculousness of our Passions and all our inward Miseries Without this Labour the Soul will be in continual Darkness and Disorder for there is naturally no other way to obtain the Light which should guide us we shall be eternally disquieted and strangly perplex'd for we are afraid of every thing when we walk in the Dark and think our selves environ'd with Precipices Faith indeed doth guide and support us but that is because it always produces some Light by the Attention which it stirs up in us For there is nothing but Light that can give us Courage and Assurance when we have so many Enemies to fear VII What must we do then to set about our Work without being discourag'd Let us see what it is that puts us out of Heart We meditate with Pain and without recompense The Pain on one side disheartens us and on the other the Reward does not sufficiently encourage us We must then make the Pain less and the Reward greater This is plain But there is nothing more difficult Nay it is impossible for the greatest part of Mankind And for this Reason it is that we need a more compendious way to be assur'd of the Truth and that the visible Authority of the Church is necessary for our Conduct For even those of the greatest Genius if they deviate from Faith or abandon the Analogy of Faith wander out of the way which leads to Understanding they break the Chain of Truths which are all link'd together in such a manner that one single Falshood being granted for truth a Man may overthrow all the Sciences if he knows how to argue by a deduction of Consequences VIII To lessen the Pain which we find in Meditation we
would be capable of discovering Truth in all manner of Subjects are oblig'd to study throughly XII The only Rule which I would have carefully observ'd is to meditate only on clear Ideas and undeniable Experiments To meditate on confus'd Sensations and doubtful Experiments is lost labour this is to contemplate nothing but Chimeras and to follow Error The immutable and necessary Order the divine Law is also our Law This ought to be the principal Subject of our Meditations Now there is nothing more abstracted and less Subject to Sense than this Order I grant that we may also be guided by Order made sensible and visible by the actions and precepts of Jesus Christ Yet that is because that sensible Order raises the Mind to the knowledge of the intellectual Order for the Word made Flesh is our Model only to conform us to Reason the indispensable Model of all intelligent Beings the Model by which the first Man was form'd and according to which we are to be reform'd by the foolishness of Faith which leads us by our Senses to our Reason and to the contemplation of our intellectual Model XIII A Man that is thrown down on the Ground supports himself with the Ground but 't is in order to rise again Jesus Christ accommodates himself to our Weakness but 't is to draw us out of it Faith speaks to the Soul only by the Body it is true but it is to the end that a Man should not hearken to the Body that he should retire into himself that he should contemplate the true Ideas of things and silence his Senses Imagination and Passions That he should begin upon Earth to make the same use of his Mind that he shall do in Heaven where Understanding shall succeed Faith where the Body shall be subject to the Soul and Reason shall have the sole Government For the Body of it self speaks to the Soul only for it self this is an essential Truth of which we cannot be too fully convinc'd XIV Truth and Order consist in nothing else but in the relations of Greatness and Perfection which Things have to one another But how shall we discover these Relations evidently when we want clear Ideas How shall we give to every thing the Rank which belongs to it if we measure nothing but with relation to our selves Certainly if we look upon our selves as the Center of the Universe a Notion which the Body is continually putting into us all Order is destroy'd all Truths change their nature a Torch becomes bigger than a Star a Fruit more valuable than the safety of our Country The Earth which Astronomers consider but as a Point in respect of the Universe is the Universe it self And this Universe is yet but a Point in respect of our particular Being At some certain times when the Body speaks to us and the Passions are excited we are ready if it were possible to sacrifice it to our Glory and Pleasures XV. By clear Ideas which I make the principal Object of those who would know and love Order I mean not only those between which the Mind can discover the precise and exact Relations such as are all those which are the Object of Mathematical Knowledge and may be express'd by Numbers or represented by Lines But I understand in general by clear Ideas all such as produce any Light in the Mind of those who contemplate them and from which one may draw certain Consequences So that I reckon amongst clear Ideas not only simple Ideas but also those Truths which contain the Relations that are between Ideas I comprehend also in this Number common Notions and Principles of Morality and in a word all clear Truths which are evident either of themselves or by Demonstration or by an infallible Authority tho' to speak nicely these last are rather certain than clear and evident XVI By undeniable Experiments I mean chiefly those matters of Fact which Faith informs us of and those of which we are convinc'd by the inward Sense we have of what passes within our selves If we will be govern'd by Examples and judge of Things by Opinion we shall be deceiv'd every Moment for there is nothing more equivocal and more confus'd than the Actions of Men and many times nothing more false than that which passes for certain with whole Nations Further it is a very fruitless thing to meditate upon that which passes within our selves if we do it with a Design of discovering the nature of it For we have no clear Ideas of our own Being nor of any of its Modifications and we can never discover the nature of any Beings but by contemplating the clear Ideas by which they are represented to us But we cannot meditate too much upon our inward Sensations and Motions to discover their Connexions and Relations and the natural or occasional causes which excite them for this is a thing of infinite consequence in relation to Morality XVII The knowledge of Man is of all the Sciences the most necessary for our purpose But it is only an experimental Science resulting from the reflection we make on that which passes within us This Reflection doth not discover to us the nature of those two Substances of which we are compos'd but it teaches us the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body and is serviceable to us in establishing those great Principles of Morality by which we ought to govern our Actions XVIII On the contrary the knowledge of God is not at all Experimental We discover the Divine Nature and Attributes when we can contemplate with Attention the vast and immense Idea of an infinitely perfect Being for we must not judge of God but according to the clear Idea we have of him This is a thing not sufficiently taken notice of For most Men judge of God with a relation to themselves they make him like themselves a great many ways they consult themselves instead of consulting only the Idea of an infinitely perfect Being Thus they take away from him those divine Attributes which they cannot easily conceive and attribute to him a Wisdom a Power a Conduct in a word Sentiments resembling at least in some measure those which are most familiar to them And yet the knowledge of our Duties supposes that of the Divine Attributes and our Conduct can never be sure and well grounded if it be not built upon and govern'd by that which God observes in the execution of his Designs XIX The Knowledge of Order which is our indispensable Law is compounded of both these clear Ideas and inward Sensations Every Man knows that it is better to be Good than Rich a Prince or a Conqueror but every Man doth not see it by a clear Idea Children and ignorant People know well enough when they do ill but 't is because the secret Check of Reason reproves them for it and not always because the Light discovers it to them For Order consider'd speculatively and precisely only as it contains the Relations
gain this fix'd and ruling Disposition of governing all the motions of our Heart and all the actions of our Lives by the known Order What we are to do for this end is evident from that which hath been said in the fourth Chapter Habits are form'd by Acts We must therefore frequently make firm and constant resolutions of obeying Order and sacrificing every thing to it For by often repeating these actual Resolutions and pursuing them at least in part we may by degrees gain some kind of habitual Disposition This is easy enough to be conceiv'd but it is by no means easy to be practis'd For which way can we frame this heroick Resolution of sacrificing even our predominant Passion to the divine Law Certainly it is not possible to be done without the assistance of Grace A Man without Grace may kill himself he may desire to return again into Nothing But Nothing is not so terrible as that disconsolate condition of living without that which we love Nothing is a middle state between Happiness and Misery So that we may wish not to be when we are miserable and desperate in our Misery But we cannot wish to be miserable because the desire of Happiness is invincible and irresistible And therefore without a firm Faith and the hope of enjoying a Happiness more solid than that which we part with Self-love tho' never so much enlightned cannot beget in us a bare resolution of sacrificing our predominant Passion This is without Dispute III. Now that this Faith and Hope are the Gifts of God 〈◊〉 be prov'd by several Reasons the chief of which I take to be this That it is naturally impossible for a Man who is continually distracted by Objects which please his Senses and excite his Passions to have so much command over himself as to examine the Truths of Religion with that attention and perseverance which is necessary to be fully convinc'd of them and submit to them unless God by a particular favour make him find some delight in this kind of application Nevertheless since we may make Nature subservient to Grace a great many ways we should out of a Principle of Self-love enlightned endeavour to retire into our selves to confirm our Faith and encrease our Hope But these Truths require a fuller explication IV. Every Man invincibly desires to be Happy but with a solid and durable Happiness No Man would be deceiv'd especially in a matter of so great consequence as eternal Salvation And therefore every Man who hath already gain'd some force and liberty of Mind or indeed every Man who is not so much a Slave to Sin and so much in subjection to actual Pleasure that he cannot make any reflection on the way which leads ' to Life should and may satisfy himself once for all whether his Being is immortal or not whether there be a jealous and inexorable God whether Order is an inviolable Law and whether every Action conformable or contrary to that Law shall be infallibly rewarded or punish'd Self-love enlightned and the desire of being substantially happy is without doubt a sufficient Grace to incline us to make some examination of the Truths of Religion We may deprive our selves for a moment of a slight Pleasure to look after the enjoyment of a solid and durable one For nothing is more reasonable and more agreeable to Self-love enlightned than to be willing to cease from being actually happy for some time that we may be solidly happy to all eternity V. It is not in a Man 's own choice to have the Gospel preach'd to him It doth not depend on his own election to happen into a Conversation or to light of a Book which may convince and convert him by means of the favourable circumstances of Grace and of his present Condition But it is or hath been in his own power to preserve some strength and liberty of Mind and not suffer his Imagination to be corrupted to that degree as to render Grace when it is given him ineffectual and to make him in a manner insensible of the tast of true Good and spiritual Delight through the abundance the sprightliness and force of sensible Pleasures which disturb and captivate him For as I have already said it is by the means of this spiritual Delight that the Truths of Religion make a lively impression on the Mind Without this we read the Scripture like the Jews with a Vail over our Eyes The Preacher speaks to the Ears Miracles and Prodigies astonish the Senses but God doth not speak to the Heart It is Attention that is the natural cause of Light But most commonly as soon as Pleasure ceases the Attention also fails at least that kind of favourable Attention which renders the Light agreeable and lovely and prepares the Soul for a tendency toward Good because Pleasure is the natural Characteristick of Good and the Soul invincibly desires to be always happy VI. Nevertheless as we desire to be solidly happy we may in some measure sacrifice false Pleasures tho' present to solid Pleasures tho' future Nay we may seek the latter rather than the former when the actual hope and the actual appearance of Good are in a reciprocal proportion to each other Experience teaches us these Truths for we often quit a slight Pleasure when we hope to enjoy one more solid But because we invincibly desire to be happy and to be actually happy we cannot long resist the actual and continual allurement of sensible Pleasures how great Strength and Liberty of Mind soever we have acquir'd We cannot be willing to put off our Happiness till after Death which the Imagination looks upon as a true annihilation the Imagination I say which without Grace is always the Mistress of Reason the Governess of the Passions and the inward Principle of all the violent Motions which shake the Soul Thus it is evident that on the one side he that commits Sin and doth not labour to maintain the Strength and Liberty of his Mind deserves Punishment and on the other that neither the most enlightned Law nor the clearest Philosophy can impart to the Soul corrupted and weaken'd by original Sin sufficient soundness and strength to walk in the way which leads to Happiness This St. Paul shews all through his Epistle to the Romans VII It is necessary then that Man who is capable of Reason and Happiness should make use of all the Strength and Liberty of Mind that is left him to inform himself of those things that may encrease his Faith and strengthen his Hope which may put him in the way to Happiness and without which as I have shewn it is not possible for him so much as to form a Resolution of Sacrificing his predominant Passion But what must we Sacrifice our predominant Passion to be happy This is a Contradiction at least it is very harsh and terrible It is so but that is when our Passion appears drest in all its Charms we must therefore strip it
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
When he speaks as he speaks well all the World hearkens to him with Esteem as he speaks agreably they hear him with Pleasure as he advances only certain sensible Truths which are really false ones for that which is true to the Senses is false to the Mind every one applauds him Now is it possible for one who knows or rather by the air and behaviour of his Auditors is strongly and sensibly persuaded that they admire love honour and respect him is it possible I say for such an one to distrust his own Thoughts and believe that he is mistaken Can he avoid uniting himself not only to his own Visions which enchant him but also to that World which applauds him to those Friends which caress him and to those Disciples which adore him Can he be closely united with God who hath so many ties and relations with the Creatures XVII The Wit is a Man of Honour I allow it Yet he may be a Cheat and there are as many of them of that Character as any other He is not Vicious I grant it Tho' there are Debauchees among them and a great many too But certainly the Man of Wit is many ways allied to the World For how can he be Dead to the World when the World is so much Alive to him He is continually agitated by motions of Vanity For every one that he converses with doth nothing but provoke in him the Concupiscence of Pride The Man of Wit I speak still of such a one as lives in a select and chosen World one whose whole design is to gain an advantageous Post in Mens Minds or by the Reputation he hath already gotten is become in reality the Slave of all those who look upon him as their Master He I say is separated from God at a greater distance than any other and there is no likelyhood of his return The delight of Grace may diffuse it self in his Heart ten times a Day it will always find that Heart fill'd with Sensations and Motions that will choke it The Light may illuminate his Mind and dispel its Phantoms the Imagination will easily produce them again There are too many Fetters to break too many Chains to burst before this Captive can be deliver'd But he is in love with his Chains he is not sensible of his Slavery or he glories in it XVIII The Debauchee is not always actually in a Debauch his Blood and Humours cannot hold out to maintain it and when the Fermentation ceases he is asham'd of his Disorders But the Blood is always in a condition to furnish Spirits enough to keep up the Lust of Pride What time then can be favourable for the efficacy of Grace The Cheat feels continual checks of Conscience which trouble and disquiet him but the Wit feels no remorse He will say is it a Crime to have Wit and to merit the esteem of Persons of Worth and Reputation No it is no Crime to have Wit but it is an Error to take the Imagination for the Mind It is not a Crime to merit the esteem of others but it is an illusion to think that a Man merits it I will not say for having abundance of animal Spirits in his Head or a just proportion of the Fibres of his Brain to the Spirits but even for being united to Reason in the purest and closest manner that is possible There is no Merit in the sight of him who alone can judge of and reward Merit but by a conformity to Order and a right use of Liberty A use which cannot be well regulated without the assistance of Grace and of which he who values himself upon it loses the Merit because he doth not render to God alone the Glory which is due to him Do we think that God hath created other Men to employ their Thoughts and bestow their Love on us to turn towards and admire us to run after and rely upon us Certainly God would be worship'd by his Creatures But how by prostrating themselves before his Altars by burning Incense by joining Voices with Instruments and making the Churches resound with harmonious Airs compos'd in his Praise No without doubt God is a Spirit and will be worship'd in Spirit and in Truth He will have the whole Man his Thoughts Motions and Actions But the Man of Wit more than any one attracts the Eyes of other Men and fixes their Motions on himself Instead of putting himself in a posture of Adoration and turning the Minds and Hearts of others towards him who alone ought to be worship'd he exalts himself and assumes an honourable Place in Mens Minds he enters even into the Sanctuary of that Holy Temple the principal Habitation of the living God and by the sensible Pomp and Splendor which surrounds him he prostrates weak Imaginations at his Feet and makes them pay him a true and spiritual Worship a Worship which is due to God alone XIX Now can he who seeks the esteem of Men and robs God of that which he most values in his Creatures can he I say 1 Pet. 5.5 draw down upon himself the favours of Heaven Will God who resists the Proud prevent him with his Blessings The Spirit of God willingly rests on such as are humble such as the World despises These Truths the Scripture assures us of He enlightens those that retire into themselves This Experience shews But he blinds those lively and sparkling Imaginations which are always roving abroad For Truth dwells within us Besides the Grace either of Light or Sense doth not work its effect in the Mind and Heart of those who are united to every thing that is about them This is evident from what hath been here said So then the Man of Wit who seeks after Glory shall find only a vain and transitory one and shall fall for ever with those proud and ambitious Spirits into the disgrace which he deserves XX. But this beautiful ornament of Wit so fatal to those who possess it and value themselves upon it is also very dangerous to those who esteem and admire it in others without possessing it themselves This is a Truth necessary to be known There is nothing more contagious than the Imagination and those in whom it is strong and governing are alway Masters of those that look intently on them Their Air and Behaviour do as I may say diffuse conviction and certainty in all that behold them For they act every thing with so much Passion and Life that if a Man doth not retire into himself to confront that which they say with the answers of inward Truth which is very hard to do in their Presence he is convinc'd without knowing precisely what it is he is convinc'd of because he is struck he is dazled and subdu'd by force XXI Nevertheless we must know that those that have this lively and domineering Imagination are of all Men the most subject to Error their Sentiments are the most dangerous and their Motions the most irregular
none but God in the Creatures Jer. 17.7 5. Blessed is the Man that trusteth in the Lord and cursed is the Man that trusteth in Man and maketh flesh his Arm. IX This probably was the Philosophy of the noble Mordecai which he taught his adopted Daughter Esther For the Jews had a more divine Philosophy than that which the Heathens have left us In a Motion conformable to the Principles of that Philosophy without doubt it was that she makes this Prayer to God and lays before him the true Sentiments of her Heart Deliver us O Lord with thine hand Esther 14.14 c. and help me that am desolate and which have no other helper but thee Thou knowest all things O Lord thou knowest that I hate the Glory of the Unrighteous and abhor the Bed of the Uncircumcised and of all the Heathen Thou knowest my necessity for I abhor the sign of my high Estate which is upon mine Head in the days whereon I shew my self and that I wear it not when I am private by my self And that thine Hand-maid hath not eaten at Haman's Table and that I have not greatly esteem'd the King's Feast nor drunk the Wine of the Drink Offerings Neither had thine Hand-maid any joy since the day that I was brought hither to this present but in thee O Lord God of Abraham This great Queen takes God to witness That she had no joy but in him alone Tho' she were Wife to a Prince that commanded a Hundred and seventeen Provinces and liv'd in the midst of Pleasures yet she despises her Greatness and abhors the Delights of a voluptuous Court She remains unmov'd in the midst of so many Allurements and God alone is the Object of all the Motions of her Soul Thine Hand-maid never had any joy but in thee O Lord God of Abraham What constancy of Mind what greatness of Soul This is it which the Law of God teaches us and this also is demonstrated by that Principle that God alone doth every thing and that the Creatures are only the Occasional Causes of that Splendor which seems to environ them and of those Pleasures which seem to flow from them But the Duties we owe to Power which is in none but God require a more particular Explication X. All our Duties consist properly in nothing but certain Judgments and Motions of the Soul as I said before For God is a Spirit and will be worship'd in Spirit and in Truth All our outward Actions are but Consequences of the Action of our Mind This clear Perception That God alone hath Power obliges us to form the following Judgments 1. That God alone is the Cause of our Being 2. That he alone is the Cause of the duration of our Being or of our Time 3. That he alone is the Cause of our Knowledge 4. That he alone is the Cause of the natural Motions of our Will 5. That he alone is the Cause of our Sensations Pleasure Pain Hunger Thirst c. 6. That he alone is the Cause of all the Motions of our Body 7. That neither Men nor Angels nor Devils nor any other Creature can of themselves do us either good or harm That they may nevertheless as Occasional Causes determine God in consequence of certain general Laws to do us good or harm by means of the Body to which we are united 8. That in like manner we can do neither good nor harm to any one by our own strength but only oblige God by our practical Desires in consequence of the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body to do good or harm to other Men For we indeed have the Will to move our Tongue or Arm but it is God alone who can and doth actually move them XI These Judgments require of us the following Motions 1. To love none but God with a Love of Vnion or Conjunction because he alone is the Cause of our Happiness either small or great transitory or durable I say with a Love of Vnion for we must love our Neighbour not as our Good or the Cause of our Happiness but only as capable of enjoying the same Happiness with us The word Love is equivocal and therefore we must take care of it 2. To have no joy but in God alone for he that rejoyces in any other thing judges that that other thing can make him happy which is a false Judgment and can cause only an irregular Motion 3. Never to unite our selves to the occasional Causes of our Happiness contrary to the Prohibition of the true Cause for that would be to oblige God in consequence of his Laws to promote Iniquity 4. Not to unite our selves to them without a particular necessity for the Sinner ought to avoid Pleasure because actual Pleasure gives actual Happiness and Happiness is a Reward which the Sinner doth not deserve besides the Pleasures which we enjoy by the means of the Body fortify Concupiscence disturb the Mind and corrupt the Heart a thousand ways This is the Ground of the necessity of Penance 5. To fear none but God because he alone can Punish us We must fear God in this life to keep us from offending him The happy day will come which excluding Sin shall also banish Fear 6. To be sorry for nothing but our Sin because nothing but Sin can oblige a just God to make us miserable He that grieves at the loss of a false Good gives Honour to it and considers it as a true Good And he that grieves at a Misfortune which he cannot remedy afflicts himself in vain Self-love enlightned is griev'd only for its own Disorders and Charity for those of others 7. Tho' God alone can make us miserable yet we must not hate him tho' we may fear him Only he that is harden'd in Sin hates God out of Self-love for being sensible that he will not obey God or knowing as the damn'd do that in the condition which he likes and is pleas'd with he hath no means of access or return to God the invincible love of Happiness inspires him continually with an invincible hatred against him who alone can be the cause of Misery 8. We must not hate nor fear the occasional causes of physical Evil or Misery We may separate our selves from them But we must not do that neither against the Will of the true Cause I mean contrary to Order or the Law of God 9. We should will nothing but what God wills because we can do nothing but what God doth If we have not the Power to act it is plain that we should not have the Will to act Order or the divine Law should also be our Law or the Rule of our Desires and Actions because our Desires are efficacious only by the power and action of God I cannot move my Arm by my own Strength And therefore I ought not to move it according to my own Desires The Law of God should govern all the effects of Power not only in God but
intelligent Being to another 3. God by his Power is the cause of our clear Perceptions or Cognitions in consequence of our own Desires or Attention But the intellectual and common Substance of Truth alone is the Form the Idea and the immediate Object of them The Soul separated from Reason cannot attain to the knowledge of any Truth It may by the action of God upon it be sensible of its own Pain Pleasure Perception and all the other particular Modifications of which its substance is capable but it cannot engross to it self the knowledge of Truths which are common to all spiritual Beings For Man who depends on the Power of God to be happy and powerful must also be united to the Wisdom of God to become Rational Wise Just and compleatly Perfect 4. We do not derive from the Objects the Ideas which we have of them 5. Men whom we call our Masters are only Monitors 6. When we retire into our selves it is not we that answer our selves but the inward Master which dwells in us which presides immediately over all spiritual Beings and gives them all the same answers XI Mat. 23.8 See S Augustincts Treathe De Mâ—gistro All those may be reduc'd to that general proposition of our Saviours that we have but one Master even Christ himself who illuminates us by the evidence of his Light when we retire into our selves and solidly instructs us by Faith when we consult the visible and infallible authority of the Church in whose custody the sacred Treasure of his written and unwritten Word is deposited XII From this great Principle the following Duties are deriv'd 1. Not to value our selves on our Knowledge but to return our humble Thanks for it to him who is the Fountain and Author of it 2. To retire into our Selves as much as we can and to hearken more readily to Reason than to Men. 3. To yield only to the Evidence of Reason and the infallible Authority of the Church 4. Whenever Men speak to be sure to compare that which they say to our Ears with that which Reason answers to our Mind never to believe them but in what concerns Matters of Fact and that too with a kind of saving and reservation 5. Never to speak to them at least not with an air of Confidence before Reason hath spoke to us by its Evidence 6. To speak to them always as Monitors not as Masters to question them often and in different manners and to lead them insensibly to our common Master the universal Reason by obliging them to retire into themselves There is no way to instruct them but this 7. Never to dispute for disputing's sake nor even to propose Truth to others when the Company they are in Passion or any other Reason give us sufficiently to understand that they will not retire into themselves to hear the decision of the impartial Judge 8. Never to consult Reason but about such Matters as are suitable to the dignity of it and useful to our selves either to conduct us to Good or unite us to Truth to regulate our Heart or procure us Strength or liberty of Mind 9. To lay up carefully in our Memory as far as it is possible to be done none but certain Principles and such as abound in Consequences none but necessary Truths or the precious answer of the inward Truth 10. For the most part to neglect Matters of Fact especially those that have no certain Rules to be judg'd by such as are the Actions of Men. They give no light to the Mind and often corrupt the Heart 11. Our inviolable Law is Order not Custom which is many times opposite to Order and Reason To follow Example without confronting it with Order is to act like Brutes and by Mechanism only Nay it is better tho' that be bad enough to make our own Pleasure our Law than foolishly to obey pernicious and wicked Customs Our Life and Actions should do honour to our Reason and be answerable to the illustrious Characters we bear 12. We should set no value on Subtilty Beauty or even Strength of Imagination nor esteem any of those Studies which cultivate that part of us which makes us so valuable and acceptable in the Eye of the World An over-nice or over-stock'd Imagination doth not willingly submit to Reason It is always the Body which speaks by the Imagination and whenever the Body speaks it is an unhappy necessity that Reason must be silent or not regarded 13. To confirm us in this dis-esteem we should frequently and with a particular Application examine by the inward Light that which appears bright and sparkling to the Imagination that so we may dissipate that false and bewitching Lustre with which it hides its Follies We should very seldom regard Mens outward Behaviour which passes for current Payment in the World 14. We should carefully stop up the Passages by which the Soul gets away from the presence of God and wanders among the Creatures A Mind continually distracted by the action of sensible Objects cannot pay that respect and attendance which it owes to Reason It is a Contempt to Reason to give our Senses their full liberty 15. We should ardently love Truth Wisdom or the universal Reason We should esteem all the Gold of Peru but as a Grain of Sand in comparison of it Wis 7.9 All Gold in respect of Wisdom is as a little Sand saith the wise Man We should continually pray to it by our Attention My delights were with thâ— Sons of Men Prov. 8.31 We should place our whole Delight in consulting it in hearing its Answers and obeying its Commands as that delights to converse with us and to be always among us CHAP. IV. Of the Duties which we owe to the divine Love Our Will is nothing but a continual impression of the Love which God bears to himself the only true Good We cannot love Evil But we may take that to be Evil which is neither Good nor Evil. So we cannot hate Good But the true Good is really the Evil of wicked Men or the true cause of their Miseries That God may be Good in respect of us our Love must be like his or always subject to the divine Law Motions or Duties I. WE depend on the power of God and do nothing but by his Efficacy We are united to his Wisdom and know nothing but by his Light But this is not all we are also animated and inspir'd by his Love in such a manner that we are not capable of loving any Good but by the continual impression of the Love which he bears to himself This is what I must now explain in order to give a general view of our Duties toward God II. It is certain that God cannot act but for himself He hath no other Motive but his Love of himself He cannot Will but by his own Will and his Will is not like ours an impression proceeding from and tending toward something else As he is his own
miserable Object of his Glory and Pleasures IX A Parent therefore that would preserve to his Children the inestimable right which they have acquir'd by Baptism to the inheritance of Christ must be always watchful in removing out of their sight all Objects that may tempt them He is their guardian Angel and should take up out of their way every Stone that may make them fall It is his Duty to instruct them in the Mysteries of Faith and by Faith to lead them by degrees to the understanding of the fundamental Truths of Religion to fix in them a firm hope of the true Goods and a generous contempt of humane Greatness He should shape their Mind to Perfection and teach them to exercise the faculties of it He should govern them by Reason for there cannot be a more perfect Law than that which God himself inviolably follows But he must begin with Faith For Men especially the younger sort are too sensual too carnal too much abroad to consult the Reason which dwels within them It must shew it self without cloth'd with a Body to strike their Senses They must submit to a visible Authority before they can contemplate the evidence of intellectual Truths Again a Father should never grant his Children any thing that they ask themselves and never deny them any thing that Reason asks for them for Reason should be the common Law the general Rule of all our Wills He should accustom them to obey as well as consult it He should make them give a reason either a good or a plausible one for every thing that they ask and then he may gratify their desires tho' they are not so agreable to Reason if he is satisfied that their intent was to obey Reason He should not chide them too much for fear of discouraging them But this is an indispensable Precept never to act but according to Reason The Soul should will nothing of it self For it is not its own Rule or its own Law It doth not possess Power it is not Independent It ought not to will but with a dependence on the immutable Law because it cannot think act nor enjoy Good but by a dependence on the divine Power This is what young People ought to know But it is perhaps what the old ones do not know It is certainly what all Men do not practise X. We should take care not to burden the Memory of Children with a great number of Actions which are of little use and serve only to confound and agitate a Mind which hath as yet but very little Strength and Capacity and is but too much disturb'd and shaken already by the action of sensible Objects But we should endeavour to make them clearly comprehend the certain Principles of solid Sciences We should use them to contemplate clear Ideas and above all we should teach them to distinguish the Soul from the Body and to know the different properties and modifications of these two Substances of which they are compos'd We should be so far from confirming them in their Error of taking their Senses for Judges of Truth by talking to them of sensible Objects as of the true causes of their Pleasure and Pain that we should be always telling them that their Senses deceive them and should use them in their Presence like false Witnesses that clash with one another to discover their Cheats and Illusions XI Children dye at ten Years old as well as Men at Fifty or Threescore What then will become of a Child at his Death whose Heart is already corrupted who is swell'd with esteem of his Quality and full of the love of sensual Enjoyments What Good will it do him in the other World to understand perfectly the the Geography of this and in Eternity to know the Epochas of Times All our knowledge perishes in Death and the knowledge of these things leads to nothing beyond A Lad knows how to Decline and Conjugate he understands Greek and Latin it may be perfectly well nay perhaps he is already well vers'd in History and acquainted with the Interests of Princes he promises much for this World for which he is not made but what signify all these Vanities with which his Mind and Heart is sill'd Are there solid rewards in Heaven for empty Studies Are there places of Honour destin'd for those that make a correct Theme Will God judge Children by any other Law than the immutable Order than the Precepts of the Gospel which they have neither observ'd nor known Is it the Duty of Fathers to breed up their Children for the State and not for Heaven for their Prince and not for Jesus Christ for a Society of a few Days and not for an eternal Society But let them take notice that those that are best skill'd in these vain Sciences are they that do most mischief to the State and raise the greatest Tempests in it I do not say but they may learn those Sciences But it should be then when their Mind is form'd and when they are capable of making a good use of it and the instructing of them in essential Truths should not be put off to a time when they shall be no more or at least not in a condition to Tast Meditate and Feed upon them XII The labour of Attention being the only way that leads to the understanding of Truth a Father should use all means of accustoming his Children to be Attentive Therefore I think it proper to teach them the most sensible part of the Mathematicks Not that these Sciences tho' preferable to many others are in themselves of any great value but because the Study of them is of such a Nature that a Man makes no progress in them any farther than he is Attentive For in reading a Book of Geometry if the Mind doth not labour by its Attention it gets nothing Now People should be us'd to the labour of the Mind when they are young For then the parts of the Brain are flexible and may be bent any way It is easy then to acquire a habit of being Attentive in which Part I. Chap. V. as I have shewn the whole strength of the Mind consists And therefore those that have accustom'd themselves from their youth to meditate on clear Principles are not only capable of learning all the Sciences but are also able to judge solidly of every thing to govern themselves by abstracted Principles to make ingenious discoveries and to foresee the consequences and events of Enterprises XIII But the Soâ—…nces of Memory confound the Mind they disturb its clear Ideas and furnish it with a Thousand probabilities on all sorts of Subjects which Men take up with because they know not how to distinguish between seeing in part and obscurely and seeing fully and clearly This resting on probabilities makes them wrangle and dispute endlesly For as Truth alone is one indivisible and immutable so that alone can closely and for ever unite Men's Minds Besides the Sciences of Memory do naturally
contemplating this Divine Substance I am able to see some part of what God thinks for God sees all Truths and there are some which I can see I can also discover something of the Will of God for God wills nothing but according to a certain Order and this Order is not altogether unknown to me It is certain that God loves Things according as they are worthy of Love and I can discover that there are some Things more Perfect more Valuable and consequently more worthy of Love than others V. It is true indeed that I cannot by contemplating the Word or consulting Reason be assur'd whether God doth actually produce any thing out of his own Being or no. For none of the Creatures proceed naturally from the Word nor is the World a necessary emanation of the Deity God is fully sufficient for himself and the Idea of a Being infinitely perfect may be conceiv'd to subsist alone The Creatures then suppose in God free and arbitrary Decrees which give them their Being So that the Word as such not containing in it the Existence of the Creatures we cannot by the Contemplation of it be assur'd of the Action of God But supposing that God doth act I am able to know something of the manner in which he acts and may be certain that he doth not act in such or such a manner for that which regulates his manner of Acting the Law which he inviolably observes is the Word the Eternal Wisdom the Universal Reason which makes me Rational and which I can in part contemplate according to my own desires VI. If we suppose Man to be a Rational Creature we cannot certainly deny him the Knowledge of something that God thinks and of the manner in which he acts For by contemplating the substance of the Word which alone makes me and all other intelligent Beings Rational I can clearly discover the Relations or Proportions of Greatness that are between the intellectual Ideas comprehended in it and these Relations are the same eternal Truths which God himself sees For God sees as well as I that twice two is four and that Triangles which have the same Base and are between the same Parallels are equal I can also discover at least confusedly the Relations of Perfection which are between the same Ideas and these Relations are that immutable Order which God consults when he acts and which ought also to regulate the Esteem and Love of all intelligent Beings VII From hence it is evident that there are such things as True and False Right and Wrong and that too in respect of all intelligent Beings that whatsoever is true in respect of Man is true also in respect of Angels and of God himself that what is Injustice or Disorder with relation to Man is so also with relation to God For all Spiritual Beings contemplating the same intellectual Substance necessarily discover in it the same Relations of Greatness or the same speculative Truths They discover also the same practical Truths the same Laws and the same Order when they see the Relations of Perfection that are between those intellectual Beings comprehended in the Substance of the Word which alone is the immediate Object of all our Knowledge VIII I say when they see these Relations of Perfection or Greatness and not when they judge of them for only Truth or the real Relations of Things are visible and we ought to judge of nothing but what we see When we judge before we see or of more things than we see we are deceiv'd in our Judgment or at least we judge ill tho' we may happen by chance not to be deceiv'd For when we judge of things by chance as well as when we judge by Passion or Interest we judge ill because we do not judge by Evidence and Light This is Judging by our selves and not by Reason or according to the Laws of Universal Reason That Reason I say which alone is superiour to Spirits and hath a Right to judge of those Judgments which are pronounc'd by them IX The Mind of Man being finite cannot see all the Relations that the Objects of its Knowledge bear to one another so that it may be deceiv'd when it judges of Relations which it doth not see But if it judg'd of nothing but just what it saw which without doubt it may do certainly tho' it be a finite Spirit tho' it be Ignorant and in its own Nature subject to Error it would never be deceiv'd for then the Judgments fram'd by it would not proceed so much from it self as from the Universal Reason pronouncing the same Judgments in it X. But God is infallible in his own Nature he cannot be subject to Error or Sin for he is his own Light and his own Law Reason is consubstantial with him he understands it perfectly and loves it invincibly Being infinite he discovers all the Relations that are comprehended in the intellectual Substance of the Word and therefore cannot judge of what he doth not see And as he loves himself invincibly so he cannot but esteem and love other things according as they are valuable and according as they are amiable XI It is probable that Angels and Saints tho' in their own Nature subject to Error are never deceiv'd because the least attention of Mind represents to them clearly the Ideas of things and their several Relations they judge of nothing but what they see they follow the Light and do not go before it they obey the Law and do not set themselves above it In them Reason alone judges definitively and without appeal But Man such as I find my self to be is often deceiv'd because the labour of Attention is extremely tiresom to him and tho' his Application be strong and painful he hath commonly but a confus'd fight of Objects Thus being weary and not much enlightned he reposes himself on probability and contents himself for some time with the enjoyment of a false Good but being soon out of relish with it he begins his search anew till being tir'd or seduc'd again he takes some rest till he be in a condition to begin afresh tho' weakly his difficult enquiries XII Since speculative and practical Truths are nothing else but relations of Greatness or Perfection it is evident that Falshood is not any thing real That twice two is four or that twice two is not five is true because there is a Relation of Equality between twice two and four and a relation of Inequality between twice two and five And he that sees these relations sees Truths because the relations are real That twice two is five or that twice two is not four is false because there is no relation of equality between twice two and five nor of inequality between twice two and four And he that sees or rather believes he sees these relations sees Falsities He sees relations that are not He thinks he sees but indeed he doth not see for Truth is intelligible but Falshood in