Difficulties that can be started about the Circumstances of our Mysteries like as to vindicate the Orders of Nature and Grace in themselves we need but know That God being infinitely wiâ—e frames no Design but upon the admirable Proportion of Wisdom and Fecundity discover'd in the ways capable to bring it to pass as I have explain'd in the First Discourse L. Most Men judging of God by measure of themselves imagines that he first forms a Design and afterwards consults his Wisdom about Ways to execute it For our Volitions generally prevent our Reason and our Designs are hardly ever perfectly Rational But God's Ways are not like those of Men who acts in the following manner if I have well consulted the Idea of a Being infinitely perfect God by the infinite Light of his Wisdom knows all possible Works and at once all the respective Ways of producing them He sees all the Proportions between Means and their End He compares all things by one Eternal Immutable and Necessary View and by the Comparison he makes of the Proportions of Wisdom and Fecundity which he discovers between the Designs and Ways of executing them he freely forms a Design But the Design being form'd he necessarily chooses the general Ways most worthy of his Wisdom Greatness and Goodness For since he forms no Design but through the Knowledge of the Means of executing it the Choice of the Design includes the Choice of Means LI. When I say That God forms his Design freely I would not be thought to mean that he may make choice of another less worthy and reject that which is more worthy of his Wisdom For supposing that God wills the Production of an external Work worthy of him he is not indifferent in the Choice but must produce the perfectest possible with reference to the Simplicity of the Ways he acts by This God owes to himself from following the Rules of his Wisdom and he must always act in the wisest and perfectest manner But I say that God forms his Design freely because he does not invincibly and necessarily love any thing besides his own Substance Neither the Incarnation of the Word nor for a much stronger Reason the Creation of the World are necessary Emanations of his Nature God is fully Self-sufficient For the Being infinitely perfect may be conceiv'd alone and without necessary Relation to any of his Creatures LII As God necessarily loves himself he necessarily follows the Rules of his Wisdom But whereas his Creatures constitute no part of his Being he is so full and sufficient in himself that nothing obliges him to produce them and he is absolutely indifferent or free on their Account And therefore it is that he has made the World in Time For that Circumstance sufficiently shews that the Creatures are not necessary Emanations of the Divinity but essentially depending on the Free Will of the Creator LIII Lo however an Objection that offers it self immediately to the Mind If it were true that God necessarily follow'd the Rules of his Wisdom the World would not have been created in Time For either the World is worthy or unworthy of God If it were better that the World should not be produc'd from Nothing it ought to be Eternal if on the contrary that it should remain in Nothingness it ought not to be created Therefore God is not oblig'd to stick to Rules which his Wisdom prescribes since the World was created in Time But this Objection is easily answer'd 'T is better for the World to be than not to be but it had better not be at all than be Eternal The Creature ought to carry the Essential Character of Dependency If Spirits were Eternal they might have some reason to consider themselves as Gods or necessary Beings or at least as capable of contributing to the Greatness or Felicity of God whilst imagining he could not forego producing them They might in a manner compare themselves with the Persons in the Deity while believing themselves produc'd like them by a necessary Emanation Thus God ought by the Rules of his Wisdom to leave Creatures the Mark of their Dependence and yet give them Assurance that he made them not to annihilate them and that being constant in his Purposes by reason of his unlimited Wisdom they shall eternally subsist LIV. This Difficulty may still be driven farther in this manner God necessarily follows the Rules of his Wisdom and necessarily does what is best But it was at least better for the World to be created in Time than not to be at all And certainly it was fit by the Rules of the Wisdom of God that the World should be produc'd in the Circumstances in which he produc'd it Therefore the Creation of the World in Time is absolutely necessary God was not at Liberty on its account nor capable of hindring its temporary Production For the Resolution of this Difficulty it must be observ'd That though God follows the Rules prescrib'd by his Wisdom yet he does not necessarily what is best because being Master of his Action he may choose to do any thing To act and not to follow the Rules of his Wisdom is a Fault Therefore on supposition that God acts he necessarily acts in the wisest manner conceivable But his Liberty in the Production of the World is a Sign of his Abundance Fulness and Self-sufficiency 'T is better for the World to be than not to be the Incarnation of Jesus Christ renders the Work of God worthy of its Author I acknowledge But whereas God is essentially happy and perfect and as nothing is good on his Consideration but himself or the Cause of his Perfection and his Happiness he loves nothing invincibly besides his own Substance and whatever is exteriour to him ought to be produc'd by an Action really eternal and immutable but that derives its Necessity from Supposition of the Divine Decrees LV. I offer another Principle which I have already mention'd which may afford some Light to the Difficulties that may arise about the Incarnation of Jesus Christ and the Creation of the World Reason and Authority of Holy Writ teach us that the First and Principal of the Designs of God is the Constitution of his Church in Jesus Christ. The present World is not created to remain as it is The Falshood and Errour the Injustice and Disorder that are seen in it give us sufficiently to understand it ought to have an end The future World which Truth and Justice shall inhabit is the Earth which God has settled on inviolable Foundations and which being the Object of Divine Love shall eternally subsist God has not created this Visible World with other Design than to raise by degrees that invisible City whereof St. John speaks so many Wonders and as Jesus Christ shall be the principal Beauty of it he was always had in View by God in the Production of his Work He has made all for Man and with reference to him as the Scripture teaches But he for
as long as we see and feel it 'T is certain that if the Mind could easily keep up to clear and distinct Ideas without being as it were supported by some Sensation and without having its Attention perpetually disturb'd by the Restlesness of the Will we should find no great difficulties in infinite Natural Questions but in a short time should get rid of our Ignorance and Errours about them which we now look upon as inexplicable For instance 't is an indisputable Truth to every Man that makes use of his Reason that Creation and Annihilation exceed the ordinary force of Nature Should we now stick to the consideration of that pure Notion of the Mind and Reason we should not so readily admit the Creation and Annihilation of such innumerable multitudes of New Beings as of Substantial Forms Real Qualities and Faculties and the like We should look for the reason of Natural Effects in the distinct Ideas of Extension Figure and Motion and this is not so difficult as is imagin'd For all Nature hangs in a continued chain and the parts of it mutually prove each other The Effects of Fire as those of Cannons and Mines are very wonderful and their Cause as secret and conceal'd Nevertheless if Men instead of adhering to the Impressions of their Senses and false and delusive Experiments should insist on that sole Notion of Pure Intellect That 't is impossible for a Body gently mov'd to produce a Violent Motion in another since it cannot communicate more moving Force than it has it self it would be easie from that single Notion to conclude there is some subtile and invisible Matter that it is violently agitated and universally diffus'd among all Bodies and several things of like kind which might serve to explain the Nature of Fire and to discover other yet more intricate and hidden Truths For seeing so great Motions produc'd in a Cannon or a Mine and all the visible surrounding Bodies in too little Commotion to effect them we are infallibly assur'd there are other invisible and insensible Bodies which have at least so much Motion as the Cannon Bullet but being extremely fine and subtile may when alone pass freely and without bursting any thing through the Pores of the Cannon before it is fir'd that is as may be seen explain'd at large in Mr. des Cartes before they have surrounded the hard and gross parts of the Saltpeter which the Powder is compos'd of But when the Fire is kindled that is when these most subtile and agitated particles have encompassed the gross and solid parts of the Saltpeter and so have communicated their most forcible and violent Motion to them all must necessarily burst because the the Pores of the Cannon which gave a free passage on all sides to the subtile parts we speak of when alone are not large enough to receive the gross parts of the Saltpeter and others that make the Powder when agitated by the subtile particles that environ them For as the Water of a River shakes not the Bridge it runs under because of the minuteness of its parts So this most fine and subtile Matter continually passes through the pores of all Bodies without causing any sensible alteration But as again that River is able to overturn a Bridge when bearing down its Stream huge massy pieces of Ice or other more solid Bodies it dashes them against it with the same Force that it self is mov'd by so the subtile Matter is capable of those astonishing Effects observable in Cannons and Mines when having communicated to the parts of the Powder swimming in the midst of it an infinitely more violent and rapid Motion than that of Rivers and Torrents these same parts of the Gunpowder cannot freely pass through the Pores of the including Bodies because of their too great bulk and therefore open themselves a way by violently breaking what withstands them But 't is not very easie to imagine these so subtile and refin'd Bodies and they are look'd upon as Chimeras because they cannot be seen Contemplatio fere desinit cum aspectu says My Lord Bacon And indeed the greatest part of Philosophers had rather invent some New Entity than be silent about things they do not understand If it be objected to their false and inconceivable Suppositions that Fire must necessarily be compos'd of parts rapidly mov'd because of those violent Motions it produces whilst nothing can communicate what it has not which surely is a most clear and solid Objection they will be sure to confound all by some childish and imaginary Distinction such as Causes univocal and equivocal that they may seem to say something when indeed they say nothing at all For in fine 't is a receiv'd Maxim with all considering Men That there can be no equivocal Cause in Nature and Ignorance has only invented them Those then who are desirous of knowing Nature should take care to fix more to clear and distinct Notions They should a little check and resist that Levity and Inconstancy of their Will if they would penetrate to the bottom of things for their Minds will ever be feeble superficial and desultory whilst their Wills remain roving fickle and inconstant It must be confess'd that 't is a painful and tiresome thing and full of constraint to become attentive and go to the bottom of the things we have a mind to know But nothing can be had without pains Mean time 't is a reproach to Men of Sense and Philosophers who are oblig'd by all manner of reasons to the Search and Defence of Truth to talk they know not what and to be satisfied with what they do not understand CHAP. III. I. Curiosity is natural and necessary II. Three Rules to moderate it III. An Explication of the first of these Rules AS long as Men shall have an Inclination for a Good that exceeds their Strength and they shall not enjoy it they will ever have a secret Inclination for whatever carries the Character of New and Extraordinary They will constantly be persuing after things which they have not yet consider'd with hopes of finding what they seek for and whereas their Minds can never be fully satisfied without the Intuition of him for whom they are created so they will always be restless and tossing about till He appears to them in His Glory This Disposition of Minds is doubtless very consonant to their Condition it being infinitely better restlesly to search after Truth and Happiness which they do not possess than to fix on a false and ill-grounded security by taking up with Falshood and Seeming Goods the ordinary Desserts they feed on Men ought not to be insensible to Truth and Hapiness and what is New and Extraordinary ought to quicken them For there is a Curiosity which we may permit them or rather which we ought to recommend to them So then common and ordinary things containing not the true Good and the Ancient Opinions of Philosophers being most uncertain it is reasonable we should
not fail of probable Reasons to confound the Soul with the Body Experience they 'll say teaches us That the Body is capable of Feeling Thinking and Reasoning 'T is the Body which is sensible of Pleasure and Pain 'T is the Brain which thinks and reasons The weight of the Body makes heavy the Mind Madness is a true distemper and those who have most Wisdom lose it when that part of the Brain where it resides is diseas'd The Essences of Beings are unknown to us and therefore Reason cannot discover of what they are susceptible So that reason refers us to Experience and Experience confounds the Soul with the Body and teaches us that this is capable of thinking Such would be their Reasons And in Truth those who assure us That the Essences of Being are unknown and make it Criminal for Philosophers to demonstrate Extension no Modification of Being but the very Essence of Matter would do well to consider the mischievous Consequences deducible from their Principles and not go to overthrow the only Demonstration we have for the Distinction between the Soul and Body For in fine the Distinction of these two Parts of our Selves prov'd by clear Ideas is the most Fruitful and necessary of all Truths in point of Philosophy and perhaps of Divinity and Christian Morality But this Distinction is likewise exactly demonstrated in many Places of the Search after Truth And I undertake to Monsieur de la Ville notwithstanding his Answer fraught with Ambiguities Figures and Contradictions or rather I undertake to the Libertines for as for him I believe him so setled in his Faith as not to want such sort of Proofs I undertake I say to the Libertines That they will never find any Sophism in my Demonstration That 't is impossible to conceive it clearly and distinctly without embracing it and that all the Proofs they offer to confound the Soul with the Body are drawn from Senses that they are obscure and confus'd and can never perswade such as Judge of things by clear and distinct Ideas From this Principal That the Essence of Body consists not in Extension and that the Essences of things are unknown I could still draw many other Consequences opposite to Faith But that is not necessary and I would rather if it were possible reconcile all false as well as true Philosophies with Religion However impious and Heretical would be the Consequences I could deduce from the Opinions of Philosophers I should think I wanted the Charity which I owe them if I endeavoured to make their Faith suspected So far am I from imitating the Conduct of Monsieur de la Ville who leaving a Principle demonstrated in all its Strength and receiv'd by all Ages lays out himself in drawing Heretical Consequences from it tho' of no use but to strengthen the Calvinists and encrease their Number and to disturb the Faith of the Orthodox I would on the contrary that no one should think on these Consequences or disown them as false and wrong-inferr'd from the Principal All Truths hang in a Chain together and no false Principle can be held but those who are any thing vers'd in the Art of Reasoning may infer from it abundance of Consequences repugnant to Religion So that if it were permitted to blacken the Faith of others upon Consequences drawn from Principles believ'd by them since there is no Man but Errs in something we might treat all the World as Heretical Wherefore the allowing Men to Dogmatize and to make others Faith suspected who are not of their Opinion would be opening a Gap to infinite Quarrels Schisms Disturbances and even Civil Wars and all Mankind is concern'd to look upon the Abettors of such a Conduct as Slanderers and Disturbers of the publick Peace For in short the different Parties in Religion which are almost always form'd from such like Consequences produce strange Events in a State which all Histories abound with But the Liberty to Philosophize or to reason upon Common Notions is not to be denied Men it being a Right which is as natural to them as to breath Divines ought to distinguish Theology from Philosophy Articles of our Faith from Opinions of Men. Truths which GOD imparts to all Christians by a visible Authority from those which he bestows on some particular Persons in Recompence of their Attention and Industry They should not confound things that depend on so different Principles No Question Humane Sciences ought to be made subservient to Religion but with a Spirit of Peace and Charity without condemning one another so long as we agree about Truths which the Church has determin'd For this is the way for Truth to shine out and all Sciences to be brought to greater and greater Perfection by the Addition of New Discoveries to the Ancient But the Imaginations of most Men cannot be reconcil'd to New Discoveries but even Novelty in Opinions never so advantageous to Religion frights them whilst they easily inure themselves to the falsest and obscurest Principles provided some Ancient has advanc'd them But when once these Principles are grown familiar they find them evident though never so obscure They believe them most useful though extremely dangerous And they are so well us'd to say and hear what they do not conceive and to slurr a real Difficulty by an imaginary Distinction that they are ever well satisfy'd with their false Idea's and can't endure to be talkt to in a clear and distinct Language like Men coming out of a dark Room they are fearful of the Light which strikes too violently on their Eyes and they imagine we go to blind them when we try to dissipate the involving Darkness Thus though I have shown by many Consequences that 't is dangerous for Example to maintain that Beasts have a Soul more noble than the Body yet since this Opinion is ancient and most Men are accustom'd to Believe it whilst the contrary bears the Character of Novelty Those who judge of the Harshness of Opinions rather by the Fear they produce in the Imagination than by the Evidence and Light they shed in the Mind will be sure to vote the Cartesians Opinion dangerous and will condemn these Philosophers as rash and presumptuous rather than those who make Beasts capable of Reasoning Let a Man but say in Company with an Air of Gravity or rather with a Look into which the Imagination scar'd with something extraordinary forms the Face Really the Cartesians are strange People They maintain That Beasts have no Soul I am afraid in a little time they will say as much of Man And this will be enough to perswade a great many that this is a dangerous Opinion No Reasons can prevent the Effect of this Discourse upon weak Imaginations and unless there happen to be some brisk Wit that with the gayety of Carriage shall re-embolden the Company from the Fear they had conceiv'd the Cartesians might tire themselves to Death before they could by their Reasonings obliterate
judging of things with an unwarrantable rashness For we often judge that the Objects whereof we have Idea's exist and likewise that they altogether resemble their Idea's when yet it often falls out that the Objects are neither like their Idea's nor do they exist at all The Existence of a thing does no ways follow from our having an Idea of it much less does it follow that the thing is perfectly like the Idea which we have thereof It cannot be concluded from GOD's giving us such a sensible Idea of Magnitude upon the presentation of a six Foot-rule to our Eyes that this Rule has the same Extension as it is represented to us by that Idea For first All Men have not the same sensible Idea of this same measure since all Men have not their Eyes disposed in the same manner Again The same Person has not the same sensible Idea of a six Foot-rule when he beholds it with his left Eye as when he views it with his right as has been already said Finally It often happens that the self-same Person entertains quite different Idea's of the same Objects at different times according as they are suppos'd nearer or farther off as shall be explain'd in its proper place It is then nothing but prejudice grounded upon no good reason to think we see Bodies according to their real Magnitude for our Eyes being not given us for any other purpose than the security of our Body they discharge their Duty admirable well in giving us such Idea's of Objects as are proportion'd to its magnitude But the better to conceive what ought to be our judgments concerning the Extension of Bodies from the Report of our Eyes let us imagine GOD to have created in Epitomie out of a portion of matter of the bigness of a small Globe an Heaven and Earth and Men upon this Earth with all other things the same proportion being observ'd as in this Grand World These little Men would see each other and the parts of their Bodies as likewise the little Animals which were capable of incommoding them Otherwise their Eyes would be useless to their preservation It is manifest then from this Supposition these little Men would have Idea's of the magnitude of Bodies quite different from ours since they would look upon their little World which would be but a Ball in our account as stretch'd out into infinite spaces just as we do in respect of the World in which we are Or if this is not so easie to be conceiv'd let us suppose GOD had created an Earth infinitely vaster than this which we inhabit so that this new Earth should be to ours what ours would be to that we have spoken of in the fore-going Supposition Let us moreover conceive GOD Almighty to have observ'd in all the parts which went to the Composition of this New World the very same proportion he has done in those which make up Ours It is plain that the Inhabitants of this latter World would be Taller than the space betwixt our Earth and the most distant Stars we can discover And this being so it is manifest that if they had the same Idea's of Extension of Bodies as our selves they would be able to discern some of the parts of their own Bodies and and would see others of a prodigious unweildiness so that 't is ridiculous to think they would see things in the same Bigness as they are seen by us It is apparent in these two Suppositions we have made that the Men whether of the Great or Little World would have Idea's of the Magnitude of Bodies very different from ours supposing their Eyes to furnish them with Idea's of the Objects round about them proportion'd to the Magnitude of their own Bodies Now if these Men should confidently affirm upon the Testimony of their Eyes that Bodies were of the very same bigness whereof they saw them it is not to be doubted but they would be deceiv'd and I suppose no Man will make a question of it And yet it is certain that these Men would have as Good Reason to justifie their Opinion as we have to defend our Own Let us acknowledge then from their Example That we are very uncertain of the Magnitude of Bodies which we see and that all which can be known by us concerning them from the Testimony of Sight is only the mutual Relation there is between Them and Us. In a word that our Eyes were never given us whereby to judge of the Truth of things but only to give us notice of such as might either molest or profit us in something or other But 't is not thought sufficient for Men to credit their Eyes only in order to judge of Visible Objects They think they are to be trusted farther even to judge of those which are Invisible Because there are some things which they cannot see they conclude they do not exist attributing to their Sight a Penetration in a manner Infinite This is an Impediment which prevents their discovering the real Causes of abundance of Natural Effects For that they ascribe them to Imaginary Faculties and Qualities is often meerly for want of discerning the True which consist in the different Configurations of these Bodies They see not for Instance the little parts of Air or Flame much less those of Light or of a matter still more fine and subtil And upon this score they are ready to believe they are not in being at least conclude them void of force and action They betake themselves to Occult Qualities or Imaginary Faculties to explain all the Effects whereof those Imperceptible parts are The True and Natural Cause They had rather have recourse to the horror of a Vacuum to Explain the Elevation of water in the Pump than impute it to the Gravitation of the Air. They chuse to ascribe the Flux and Reflux of the Sea to the Qualities of the Moon rather than to the pressure of the Atmosphere that is to the Air which surrounds the Earth and the Elevation of Vapours to the Attractive Faculties of the Sun than to the simple Motion of Impulse caused by the parts of the Subtil Matter which it continually diffuses abroad They look upon those as Men of trifling and impertinent Thought who have recourse only to the Flesh and Blood in accounting for all the Motions of Animals Likewise for the habits and the Corporeal Memory of Men And this partly proceeds from the Conception they have of the littleness of the Brain and its incapacity thereupon to preserve the Traces of an almost infinite number of things lodg'd in it They had rather admit though they can't conceive how a Soul in Beasts which is neither Body nor Spirit Qualities and Intentional Species for the Habits and Memory of Men or such like things notwithstanding they have no particular Notion of them in their Mind I should be too tedious should I stand to reckon up all the Errors we fall into through this Prejudice There are
Sensations are not of her own producing in her she is induc'd to judge they are without her and in the Cause that represents them to her And she has so often made these kinds of Judgments at the time of her perceiving Objects that 't is hardly in her power at last to prevent them In order to explain more throughly what I have been saying it would be necessary to shew the unusefulness of those infinite numbers of little Beings which we call Species and Idea's which are as it were Nothing and yet represent all things which we Create and Annihilate at our pleasure and which our Ignorance has caus'd our Imagination to invent that we might account for those things which we do not understand We should shew too the solidity of those Mens Opinion who believe GOD to be the True Father of Light who alone enlightens all Men without whom the most simple and easie Truths would not be intelligible nor the Sun as bright and glorious as he is be visible who acknowledge no other Nature than the Will of the Creator and who upon these Considerations have discover'd that Idea's which represent the Creatures to us are nothing but the Perfections of GOD himself which are correspondent to the same Creatures and which represent them Lastly It would be necessary to treat of the Nature of what we call Idea's and afterwards we might with greater ease discourse more distinctly of the things I have been speaking of But this would lead us too far and these things shall be reserv'd for the Third Book only because our method will require them there At present let it suffice that I bring a most sensible and uncontroverted Instance wherein we find many Judgments confounded with one and the same Sensation I suppose there is no Man in the World who looking on the Moon does not see her about a mile's distance from him and finds her greater at her Rising and Setting than in the Meridian or when a good way Elevated above the Horizon And perhaps too he fancies he only sees her larger without thinking there is any Judgment in his Sensation However it is undoubtedly certain that if he had no kind of Judgment included in his Sensation he would not see her at that distance she appears to him and besides would see her lesser at her Rising than when in her Exaltation above the Horizon since we only see her greater at her Rising because we judge her more remote by a Natural Judgment which I have spoke to in the sixth Chapter But besides our Natural Judgments which may be regarded as Compound Sensations there occurs in almost all our Sensations a Free or Voluntary Judgment For Men do not only judge by a Natural Judgment that Pain for instance is in the Hand they judge it is by a Free and Voluntary Judgment also They not only Feel it there but Believe it there too and they are so strongly habituated to form such sort of Judgments that they find great difficulty to forbear them when they would And yet these Judgments are most false in themselves though very advantageous to the Welfare and Preservation of Life For our Senses do not instruct us but with reference to the Body And all our Free Judgments which are conformable and adapted to the Judgment of the Senses are very remote from Truth But not to leave these things without shewing how to discover the Reasons of them we must take notice that there are two sorts of Beings Beings which our Soul immediately sees and others which she knows only by the Mediation of the former When for instance I perceive the Sun arising I first perceive that which I immediately see and because my Perception of the former is only occasion'd by something without me which produces certain Motions in my Eyes and in my Brain I judge the former Sun which is in my Soul to be without me and to Exist It may notwithstanding happen that we may see the first Sun which is intimately united to our Soul though the other were not above the Horizon or though it did not Exist at all And thus we may see the first Sun greater when the other rises than when elevated high above the Horizon and though it be true that the first Sun which we see immediately be greater at the other's Rising it doth not follow that the other is so too For 't is not properly that which Rises which we see since that is many Millions of Leagues remote but 't is the former which is truly greater and such exactly as we see it because all the things we immediately see are always such as we see them And we should not be Deceiv'd did we not judge that what we immediately see is to be found in External Objects which are the cause or occasion of what we see In like manner when we see Light by beholding the First Sun which is immediately united to our Mind we are not mistaken in believing that we see it 'T is even impossible to doubt of it But herein consists our Error that without any Reason and indeed against all Reason we will have this Light which we see immediately to exist in the Sun which is without us and thus it is with the other Objects of our Senses Upon a due Attention to what has been said from the Beginning and in the Process of this Work it will be easie to see that amongst all the things which occur in every Sensation Error is only to be found in the Judgments we make that our Sensations exist in the Objects First 'T is an Error not to know that the Action of Objects consists in the Motion of some of their Parts and that That motion is communicated to the Organs of our Senses which are the two first things observable in every Sensation For there is a great deal of difference between not knowing a Thing and being in an Error in respect of that thing Secondly We are right as to the third thing which is properly Sensation When we Feel Heat when we see Light Colours or other Objects it is certainly true that we see them though we are Mad or Phrentick for there is nothing more infallibly true than that your Visionary People see what they think they see and their Error consists only in the Judgments which they make that what they see has a real Existence without them because they see it without them This is the Judgment that implies a Consent of our Liberty and which consequently is liable to Error And it is our Duty ever to refrain from making it according to the Rule which was given in the beginning of this Book That we should never judge of any thing whatever when we could avoid it and were not oblig'd to 't by the certainty and evidence thereof as it happens in this place For though we feel our selves extreamly dispos'd by a confirm'd and inveterate Habit to judge our Sensations are in the Objects as
has pretended not to be ignorant of that adventitious Whiteness in the Hairs of Old Men and has given several Reasons for it in several places of his Books But being the Genius of Nature he has not stopt there but penetrated much farther He has moreover discover'd that the Cause which turn'd Old Men's Hairs white was the self-same with that which made some Men and some Horses have one Eye Blue and the other of another Colour These are his Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is very surprizing but there is nothing un-intelligible to this Great Man who gives Reasons for such a vast number of things in almost all parts of his Physics as the most enlightned Men of this Age believe impenetrable which must needs give good grounds for an Author 's saying He was given us by GOD that we might be ignorant of nothing possible to be known Aristotelis est SVMMAVERITAS quoniam ejus Intellectus fuit finis humani intellectûs Quare bene dicitur de illo quod ipse fuit creatus datus nobis divinâ Providentiâ ut non ignoremus possibilia sciri Averroês ought too to have said That Aristotle was given us by Divine Providence for the understanding what was impossible to be understood For certainly that Philosopher teaches us not only the things that may be known but since we must believe him on his word his Doctrine being the Soveraign Truth SVMMAVERITAS he teaches us likewise those things which 't is impossible to know Undoubtedly a Man must have a strong Faith thus to believe Aristotle when he only gives us Logical Reasons and explains the Effects of Nature by the confus'd Notions of the Senses especially when he positively determines upon Questions which we cannot see possible for Men ever to resolve Yet Aristotle takes particular care of admonishing us to believe him on his word it being an uncontroverted Axiom with this Author That a Disciple is to believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 True sometimes Disciples are oblig'd to believe their Masters But their Faith should reach no farther than to Experiments and matters of Fact For would they become true Philosophers they ought to examine their Master's Reasons and never receive them till they had discover'd their Evidence by their own But to become a Peripatetic Philosopher there is no more requisite than to believe and to remember The same Disposition of Mind going to the reading that Philosophy as to the reading of an History For should a Man take the freedom of using his Mind and his Reason he must not expect to grow any considerable Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Reason why Aristotle and a great many other Philosophers have pretended to know what can never be known is their not well distinguishing the difference betwixt knowing and knowing betwixt having a Certain and Evident Knowledge and only a Probable and Obscure And the Reason of their not having observ'd that Distinction is their being taken up always with subjects of a greater Reach and Comprehension than their own Mind so that they have usually seen only some parts thereof without being able to take them all in together which suffices to the Discovery of many Probabilities but not for the evident Discovery of Truth Besides which Vanity being the Motive to their seeking Science and Probabilities making more for their Esteem among Men than Truth it self as being more proportion'd to the ordinary stature and ability of the Mind they neglected to search for the necessary means of augmenting its Capacity and giving it a greater Growth and Comprehension for which reason they have not been able to go to the bottom of Truths that lay any thing deep and conceal'd The Geometricians only have well discover'd the narrow Capacity of the Mind at least have taken such a Method in their Studies as shews they have a perfect Knowledge of it especially those who use Algebra and Analytics which Vieta and Des-Cartes have re-establish'd and perfected in this Age. Which is herein apparent that these Men never attempted the Resolution of Difficulties very Compound till after having most clearly known the more Simple which they depend on they never fix'd to the consideration of Crooked Lines as of Conick Sections till they we perfect Masters of common Geometry But what is peculiar to the Analysts is that seeing their Mind incapable of Attention to many Figures at once and unable to imagine Solids of more than three Dimensions though there were frequent necessity of conceiving such as had more they made use of common Letters that are very familiar to us to express and abridge their Idea's And thus the Mind being not confounded or taken up with the Representation it would be oblig'd to make of a great many Figures and an infinite number of Lines can survey at a single view what otherwise was impossible to be seen Forasmuch as the Mind can launch out farther and penetrate into a great many more things when its Capacity is manag'd to the best advantage So that all the Skill and Artifice there is in making the Mind deeper-sighted and more comprehensive consists as shall be explain'd in another place in a dexterous management of its Strength and Capacity and in not laying it out impertinently on things not necessary to the discovery of the Truth it is in search of Which is a thing well worthy to be observ'd For this one thing makes it evident that the ordinary Logicks are more proper to straiten the Capacity of the Mind than enlarge it it being visible that by imploying the Rules they give in the finding out any Truth the Capacity of the Mind must be taken up with them and so it must have the less Liberty for attending to and comprehending the whole extent of the subject it examines 'T is manifest enough then from what hath been said that most Men have made but little Reflection on the Nature of the Mind when they would imploy it in The Search of Truth that they have not been throughly convinc'd of its little Extent and the necessity there is of Husbanding it well and increasing it and that this is one of the most considerable Causes of their Errors and of their so ill success in their Studies This is not said with Presumption that there were ever any who knew not their Mind was limited and straitned in its Capacity and Comprehension This doubtless has been known and is still confess'd by all the World But the generality know it only confusedly and confess it no farther than Teeth-outwards For the conduct they take in their Studies gives the Lye to their Confession since they act as if they truly believ'd their Mind was Infinite and are desirous of diving into things which depend on a great many Causes whereof they commonly know not any one There is still another Failing very customary with Studious Men and that is their applying to too many Sciences at once so that if they study
be Curious for New Discoveries and always unquiet in the Enjoyment of ordinary Goods Should a Geometrician go to give us New Propositions contrary to Euclide's and pretend to prove that Science full of Errours as Hobbs has essay'd in a Book he wrote against the Pride of the Giometricians I confess we should be to blame to be pleas'd with such sorts of Novelties since Truth being found we ought to be constant in embracing it our Curiosity being given us only to excite us to the Discovery And therefore 't is no common fault with Geometricians to have a Curiosity for new Opinions in their Science They would quickly be disgusted with a Book whose Propositions contradicted those of Euclid for that being infallibly assur'd of the truth of his Propositions by incontestable Demonstrations their Curiosity must cease on that respect An infallible sign that our Inclination for Novelty proceeds only from our want of Evidence as to the Truth of things we desire naturally to know and our not possessing the Infinite Goods which we naturally long to enjoy 'T is then just and equitable that men should be excited by Novelty and fond of persuing it But however there are Exceptions to be made and some Rules to be observ'd which may easily be deduc'd from our Assertion viz. That the Inclination for Novelty is only given us to discover Truth and our real Goods These Rules are three in number the first of which is That Men must not love Novelty in matters of Faith which are not under the Jurisdiction of Reason The second That Novelty is no reason to induce us to believe things to be true or good that is we must not judge any Opinion true because t is Novel nor any Good capable of contenting us because 't is new and extraordinary and we have never yet enjoy'd it The third That when we are moreover assur'd that some Truths lie so deep that 't is Morally impossible to discover them and that some Goods are so little and slender that they can never satisfie us the Novelty ought not to raise our Curiosity nor must we give way to be seduc'd by false Hopes But we will explain these Rules more at large and shew that the want of observing them engages us in a vast number of Errours We commonly meet with Men of two quite opposite humours some that will always blindly and implicitly believe others that will ever plainly and evidently perceive The former having scarce ever made use of their Reason indifferently believe whatever they hear the latter resolving always to exercise their Mind even in matters that are infinitely above it equally despise all sorts of Authorities Those are commonly of a stupid or weak capacity as Children and Women these are Haughty and Libertine Wits as Hereticks and Philosophers We very rarely meet with Men exactly poiz'd in the midst of these two Extremes who seek not for Evidence in matters of Faith by a vain and fruitless Agitation of Mind or that sometimes believe not without Evidence false Opinions about Natural things by an indiscreet Deference and servile Submission of Spirit If they be Men of Religion and defer greatly to the Authority of the Church their Faith extends sometimes if I may be allow'd to say so to Opinions purely Philosophical and they pay them the same respect as the Truths of the Gospel whilst their illegitimate Zeal too readily prompts them to censure and condemn all of a different Sentiment and Persuasion Hence they entertain injurious suspicions against Persons that make New Discoveries and 't is sufficient to pass for a Libertine with them to deny Substantial Forms that the Creatures feel Pleasure and Pain and other Philosophical Opinions which they believe true without any evident Reason only because they imagine some necessary Dependencies between these Opinions and matters of Faith But if Men are more bold and daring the Spirit of Pride carries them to despise the Authority of the Church and they are hardly brought to submit to it They delight in harsh and presumptuous Opinions and love to be thought Bold Wits and upon that prospect talk of Divine things irreverently and with a sort of domineering Arrogance dâ—spising as too credulous such as speak modestly of some receiv'd Opinions Lastly they are extremely dispos'd to doubt of every thing and are quite opposite to those who too easily submit to the Authority of Men. 'T is manifest that these two Extremes have nothing laudable and that those that require not Evidence in Natural Questions are no less culpable than others who demand it in the Mysteries of Faith But yet the former who hazard the being mistaken in Philosophical Questions by too easie a Belief are doubtless more excusable than the latter who run in danger of Heresie by a presumptuous doubting For 't is less perillous to fall into infinite Errours of Philosophy for want of examining them than into one Heresie for want of an humble Submission to the Authority of the Church The Mind reposes it self upon finding Evidence but 't is toss'd and disturb'd when it finds none because Evidence is the Character of Truth And therefore the Errour of Libertines and Hereticks proceeds from their Doubting that Truth is to be met with in the Decisions of the Church because they see it not with Evidence and hoping at the same time that the Points of Faith may be evidently known Now their passion for Novelty is corrupt and disorder'd because having already the Truth in the Faith of the Church they ought no longer to seek for it besides that the Truths we are taught by Faith being infinitely above our Reason they could not be discover'd supposing according to their false Notion that the Church was guilty of Errour But as many Err by refusing to submit to the Authority of the Church so there are no fewer that deceive themselves by submitting to the Authority of Men. The Authority of the Church must always be yielded to because it can never err but we must never blindfoldly resign to the Authority of Men because they are always liable to mistake The Doctrines of the Church infinitely transcend the powers of Reason but the Doctrines of Men are subject to it So that if it be an intolerable Vanity and Presumption to follow the Guidance of our Mind in seeking for Truth in matters of Faith without Respect to the Authority of the Church it is likewise a sordid Levity and a despicable Meanness of Spirit blindly to believe upon the Authority of Men in Subjects depending on Reason Notwithstanding which it may be said that most of those who bear the Name of Learned in the World have purchas'd their Reputation merely by getting by rote the Opinions of Aristotle Plato Epicurus and some other Philosophers and by blindfoldly embracing and wilfully maintaining their Opinions An Acquaintance with the Sentiments of some Philosophers is enough to entitle to Degrees and exteriour Badges of Learning in the Universities And provided
more like a Divine than Philosopher For example among other things he concludes That u if the Will had not this Liberty but must have embrac'd every thing that came cloath'd with an appearance of Truth it would have almost ever been deceived whence probably it might be concluded that the Author of its Being was the Author of its Errours and Seducements And afterwards We have therefore a Liberty given us by God that we might avoid falling into Errour 'T is visible this reasoning is founded on the Author 's supposing God will not deceive us x But may it not be doubted whether God has not made us for the enjoyment of probability only and resolv'd to reserve the knowledge of Truth as his own peculiar or whether he designs not this as a pure accession to our Happiness y in Heaven wherefore we ought not to conclude that he would be a Deceiver if he should not afford us the means of discovering it z I leave it Sir to you to think what the Pyrronists would say if they should hear this arguing Many such there are in the process of this piece especially in the last part whereof most Chapters contain Arguments which include theological Questions a b Whether then he considers all these Suppositions as Articles of Faith or regards them as Truths demonstrable by Philosophy he ought still to distinguish them from the Fundamentals of his Work If he considers them as Articles of Faith he is very well pâ—rsuaded they are obscure If he looks on them as conclusions of Humane Science his Method ought to precede them and not imploy them as Principles to depend upon If I thought the World would be concern'd to know exactly that the Animadverter has not understood what he has pretended to encounter I would thus continue him on to the end of his Book and would make it undeniably appear that he has hardly ever taken my Sense and that he had no Idea of my Design but I believe that reasonable Men will be very indifferent in this particular and therefore not to weary them to no purpose and yet to discharge that Debt which some persons think I owe to Truth I will answer in few words all the Chapters of the Animadversions and I desire such as shall have leasure and curiosity enough to examine whether my Answers are just by confronting the Animadversions with the Search In the fourth Article or Chapter the Animadverter opposes my Opinions at large without knowing them He does not consider there are two sorts of Traces one which the Mind forms to represent things by as the Trace which accompanies the Idea of a Square the other which accompanies abstract Ideas but represents them not such are the Traces which the Sound of Words and the Sight of Characters produce in the Brain which naturally have no power to represent or raise Ideas This one Distinction overthrows the grand Reasonings of our Author In this fifth Chapter he puts upon me many Opinions which I never had 'T is not true That I acknowledge all our Ideas to be but Modes of our Soul 's existing On the contrary I have in the third Book which he reflects on given a Chapter on purpose to shew that Opinion indefensible When a Man will play the Critick 't is fit methinks he should read the Book he takes to task Nor is it true that I own that the Ideas we receive by the Senses represent only the Effects produc'd in us hy external Objects I have said the contrary in several places in the fifteenth Chapter of the first Book and elsewhere Why does he not cite or rather why does he not examine what he Criticises on For what remains I cannot distinctly conceive all the Argumentations he here makes I know not the Reason of them those who attentively read them may think of them what they please But I scruple not to affirm that he is so far from impugning my Opinion about the manner of the Minds perceiving external Objects that on the contrary what he says in this Article shews he knows nothing of it In his sixth Chapter he imposes on me what he calls my sixth Supposition or rather he has no knowledge of my Opinion upon that Subject To me he seems not so much as to have read what I have written on it he affirms in several places that I bottom upon Mr. des Cartes 's resolution upon that Question when yet my Opinion is intirely different from his But 't is evident to all that understand Mr. des Cartes and have read what I have said upon that Question that the Author neither understands mine nor Mr. des Cartes's Opinions Mean-while he argues vehemently without knowing what he opposes and even sometimes without discovering what he aims at The Author is very much in the wrong in his seventh Chapter to require me to prove the Existence of Extension when I mean only to assault the Errours of the Senses in point of sensible Qualities and I should have repented if I had follow'd that Method I prove what is serviceable to me in the sequel and I establish nothing upon the Supposition he attributes to me Moreover I cannot tell how it came into his Head after seven years to complain of an Answer of Monsieur Rohault he should have replied to it whilst he was alive but he wanted courage for every one knows with what accuracy and force that learned Man repell'd the Blows that were offer'd him and with two or three words pronounc'd without all manner of Heat and Passion humbled the Imagination of such as being full of themselves thought to cover him with confusion In answer to the eighth Chapter I desire the Author to take notice first that there is difference between an Evil and the Representation of it and therefore the Will may fly the former and yet aquiesce in the latter Secondly that though the Will be nothing but the natural Motion of the Soul towards Good in general yet the Rest or Acquiescence of the Soul in evident Truths proceeds from the Will because Rest is produ'd by Motion God will still imprint on us this natural Motion of Love when we shall intirely repose our selves upon him For the Motion of Love doth not cease by the possession of Good and by the view of Truth as Motion of Bodies is interrupted by Rest. We might say farther that even Bodies rest not as capable of Figures but with respect to Motion The rest need no Answer if the Reader will carefully consider those places in the Search which he attacks for 't is needless to answer Objections which vanish upon a distinct Understanding of what I have written though they appear considerable in themselves In the ninth Chapter the Author opposes my own Objections and neglects the Answers I have given them and not knowing there are several sorts of Liberty he fancies with a great deal of Joy that I have fallen into a Contradiction I
have nothing to say to his Tenth Chapter but that what he comments on seems too clear to stand in need of his Reflexions and that I think it cannot reasonably be doubted there is a City in Italy call'd Rome though it cannot be mathematically demonstrated In the eleventh Chapter the Author does not observe that I have referred to some Books of St. Austin and the Meditations of Mr. des Cartes to prove a thing which yet is sufficiently receiv'd and which he pretends I had no right to suppose He ought to know my Design was not to establish a System and to remember that all I vigorously demand is to enter into some diffidence of our Senses as I have caution'd in the last Chapter concerning the Errours of the Senses In answer to the Consequences he infers in his Twelfth Chapter against an Example alleadg'd by me and which he will have to pass for an Head of my Method we need but say that Men ought to reason only upon their clear and distinct Ideas whithout being sollicitous about what they cannot reach and that 't is not necessary to know whether there are actually Bodies without us to conclude many Physical Truths I have no more to say to his Thirteenth Chapter but that I wish a Man would attentively read what I have said concerning the manner of our knowing the Soul in the Seventh Chapter of the Second Part of the Third Book and the Chapter following where I speak of the Essence of Matter Last of all to do justice to the Reasonings of the last Chapter it suffices to know distinctly my manner of explaining how we see external Objects This is all I thought necessary to answer to the Animadverter as being persuaded that those who thoroughly conceive my Notion will have no need of an Illustration upon the pretended Difficulties he urges to me and others who have not read nor comprehended the things I treat of in the Book he opposes would not understand the largest Answers I could give them 'T is sufficiently manifest from the three first Chapters of the Animadversions which I have refuted more at large what we are to think of the other which I have answerd in a word or two Those who have Time and Inclination may examine them more exactly but for my own part I should think I wasted both my own time and that of others if I should stay to collect all the Paralogisms which are scatter'd through his Book to acquaint those persons with them who doubtless have little or no desire to know them The Reason and Judgment of worthy Men cannot suffer those long-winded Discourses which tend to no good but onely shew the Spleen and ill Humour of their Authors and 't is a ridiculous thing to imagine that others interess themselves in our Quarrels and to call them to be Witnesses of the weakness and vain efforts of our Adversary He that attacks me has no reason to find fault with my manner of Defence for if I answer not all his Animadversions in an ample way 't is not because I despise him He may conclude that I should not have warded off the Blows he design'd me if I did not think him able to hurt me and I think I have more reason to complain of the negligence of his Animadverting than he has to be angry at my manner of answering him Had our Author zealously buckled to engage me I am persuaded he had found me Exercise for I judge not of the Strength of his Parts by a venturous Sally of his Pen which he seems only to make by way of Pastime Thus the negligence he manifests is to my advantage and for my part I complain not of his remisness as being unworthy his Application and his Anger All that I am sorry for is that he speaks not seriously of serious things that he sports with Truth and wants some of that Respect which is due to the Publick when he trys to over-wit it several different ways as this Answer in part has manifested If I have been oblig'd to speak of him as I have done on some occasions he must thank no body but himself for I have suppress'd for fear of displeasing him many Expressions and Thoughts which his manner of acting breeds naturally in the Mind I have so great an Aversion to all useless Conâ—ests and that are prejudicial to Charity that I will never answer those who oppose me without understanding me or whose Discourses give me some reason to believe they have some other motive than the Love of Truth As for others I shall endeavour to satisfie them I see plainly that if I were oblig'd to answer all that have the good Will of assaulting me I should scarce ever enjoy the repose I desire But as there is no Law in France which hinders them from speaking so there is none which forbids me to be silent It may be whilst I am silent my Insulters may find themselves ill treated by some invisible hand for I cannot help it if the Love of Truth provokes some Wits who might do it with better Grace to defend a Work in which they had no part But I wish this promise I make and freely without any constraint may be remembred and that those Writings may not be imputed to me which I might make but which I declare I never will Mean-time I think that those that have nothing solid to oppose to me had much better say nothing than fatigue the World with Writings which break Charity and are useless to the discovery of Truth ANSWER a 'T IS because this is more certain than any thing else and that there is nothing certain if this be not For if Two times Two are necessarily equal to Four if a Whole be necessarily bigger than its Part there are necessary Truths I know not for what reason the Animadverter would have me think of proving what cannot be prov'd unless by something more obscure and difficult This is not to Philosophize after the manner of the ancient Academy b This is curious and far fetch'd All the first Philosophers except Parmenides have denied there were necessary and contingent Truths What wonder is it 'T is a fine thing this Erudition certainly Meditation can never teach us what we learn from the reading the Ancients though we understand them but by halves But 't is visible that our Author understands the old Philosophers no better than the new c I say indeed that ought to make a Question apart but he will let it have no part d The demand is pleasant but the Author would not have made it if he had but read the Third Book of the Search after Truth since I have there clearly given my Thoughts upon these things But it seems our Author takes Truths for certain little Beings which are born and die every Moment e There are two sorts of immutable Truths Some are immutable of themselves or by their Nature as that twice Two are Four and others
As to be a good Mathematician 't is not sufficient to learn by Heart all the Demonstrations of Euclid Pappus Archimedes Apollonius and others that have written of Geometry so to be a Learned Philosopher 't is not enough to have read Plato Aristotle Des Cartes and perfectly to know their Sentiments upon Philosophical Questions For the Knowledge of all the Opinions and Judgments of other Men either Philosophers or Geometricians is rather a History than a Science the true Science that perfects as far as possible the Mind consisting in a certain Ability of solidly judging of all things proportion'd to its Reach But not to lose time nor prepossess the Reader with precipitate Judgments let us begin to treat of such an important Matter First of all we ought to remember the Rule that has been established and proved at the beginning of the First Book because 't is the Foundation and Principle of whatever we shall say hereafter And therefore I repeat it We must never give a full Consent but to those Propositions that appear so evidently true that they cannot be denied it without feeling an inward Pain and the secret Reproaches of our Reason that is to say without clearly knowing we should make a wrong Use of our Liberty by with-holding our Consent For as many times as we yield to Probabilities we certainly venture to be mistaken and 't is but by good Chance or a lucky Hit if we be not really deceived So that the confused Sight of a great number of Probabilities upon different Subjects makes not our Reason more perfect nothing but the clear View of the Truth being able to afford it any real Perfection and Satisfaction Thence 't is easie to conclude That since according to our first Rule nothing but Evidence can assure us that we are not deceived we ought to take a special care to preserve that Evidence in all our Perceptions that we may pass a sound Judgment upon all the Things to which our Reason can attain and discover as many Truths as we are capable of The Things that can produce and preserve that Evidence are of two sorts some are within us and in some manner depending on us others are out of our Jurisdiction For as to see distinctly visible Objects 't is required to have a good Sight and to fix it steadfastly upon them which two Things are in us or in some manner depending on us So 't is requisite to have a sound Understanding and a strong Application in order to pierce into the bottom of intelligible Truths which two Things are in us or in some sort in our power But as the Eyes stand in need of Light to see which Light depends upon foreign Causes so the Mind needs Ideas to conceive which as it has been proved elsewhere have no Dependency upon us but are furnished to us by a foreign Cause So that should the Ideas of Things supersede being present to our Minds as often as we desire to see them should he that enlightens the World conceal them from us it would not be more possible for us to redress it or to know any thing than it is to see visible Objects when the Light is gone But we have no reason to fear it For the Presence of Ideas being natural to our Minds and depending on the general Will of God which is constant and immutable they can never disappear nor fail us in the Discovery of such Things as are attainable by Natural Reason For the Sun that enlightens the Minds is not like that which illuminates Bodies it is never eclipsed nor goes ever down but penetrates every thing without dividing its Light The Ideas of all Things being then continually present to us even when we do not attentively consider them all that we need doe to make all our Perceptions evident is only to look for such Means as can increase the Attention and Extent of the Mind as nothing else is required on our side to distinguish visible and present Objects but to have good Eyes and to fix them thereupon However because the Objects we consider have more Relations than we can discover at once by a simple Essay of Thought we still need some Rules skilfully to unfold the Difficulties by which Succours the Mind being grown more attentive and extended may with a full Evidence discover all the Relations of the Thing examined We shall divide this Sixth Book into Two Parts We shall treat in the First of those Supplies that may afford the Mind more Attention and Extent and in the Second we shall prescribe those Rules that it must follow in the Inquiry after Truth to pass sound and undeceivable Judgments CHAP. II. That Attention is necessary to preserve Evidence in our Knowledge That the Modifications of the Soul make her attentive but share and take up too much her Capacity of Perceiving WE have shewn at the Beginning of this Work that the Understanding does nothing but perceive and that as to its Concern there is no difference betwixt bare Perceptions Judgments and Reasonings unless it be that the second and third are Perceptions more composed than the first because they not only represent many Things but also the Relations they have together For naked Perceptions represent only Things to the Mind whereas Judgments represent the Relations that are betwixt Things and Reasonings the Relations that are betwixt the Relations of Things provided they be simple Reasonings for if they were Complex they would represent Relations of Relations or compound Relations which are between the Relation of Things and so ad infinitum For proportionably as Relations multiply so the Reasonings that represent them to the Mind become more composed However Judgments and simple Reasonings as well as those that are composed are but as to the Understanding bare Perceptions since it does no more than simply perceive as has been already observed Whence it appears that the Understanding never falls into Errour since there is none in Perceptions and that Errour it self is not of an intelligible nature For as we have already said many times it consists in a too hasty Consent of the Will which suffers it self to be dazzled by some false Glimpse and instead of keeping its Liberty as long as possible negligently relies upon the Appearance of Truth Notwithstanding as it commonly happens that the Understanding has but confused and imperfect Perceptions of Things so 't is really a Cause of our Errours though only occasional For as the Corporeal Sight leads us into Mistake when it represents outward Objects confusedly and imperfectly confusedly when they are at too great a distance or for want of Light and imperfectly when it only shews such Faces of them as look towards us So the Understanding often having but a confused and imperfect Conception of Things because they are not sufficiently present to it and that it discovers not all their Parts causes the Will that too easily yields to those obscure and imperfect Conceptions to fall into
engages us to apply our selves to Subjects that are very disgusting First because that Passion is very dangerous to the Conscience Secondly because it insensibly draws us into ill Studies that have more Lustre than Use or Truth in them and Lastly because it is very difficult to moderate it and that we often become its Fool and Property and instead of enlightning the Mind we only strengthen the Concupiscence of Pride which both corrupts our Moral Powers and darkens our Understanding with an undissolvable Obscurity For it must be consider'd how That Passion insensibly increases settles and fortifies it self in the Heart of Man and when it is too violent instead of helping the Mind in the Search of Truth it strangely blinds it and even persuades it that Things are just as it desires they should be Sure it is there would not be so many false Inventions nor imaginary Discoveries were not Men's Heads giddy'd by the ardent Desire of appearing Inventors For the firm and obstinate Persuasion wherein several Persons have been to have found for Instance the Perpetual Motion the Quadrature of the Circle the Duplication of the Cube by ordinary Geometry in all likelihood proceeded from an extraordinary Desire of seeming to have perform'd what others have vainly attempted And therefore 't is fitter to excite in us such Passions as are so much more useful to our searching out of Truth as they are more strong and wherein the Excess is not to be fear'd Such are the Desires of making a good Use of our Mind of freeing our selves from Prejudices and Errours of getting a sufficient Light to behave our selves in our Condition and such others as neither engage us into fruitless Studies nor carry us on to rash and inconsiderate Judgments When we have begun to taste the pleasure of making use of our Mind to be sensible of the Profit that arises from it have freed our selves of violent Passions and have disrelish'd sensible Pleasures which always prove the Masters of or rather the Tyrants over Reason in those that indiscreetly give up themselves to them we need not other Passions but such as we have spoken of to become attentive upon the Subjects on which we desire to meditate But most Men are not in that Condition they have neither Taste nor Understanding nor Curiosity for any thing but what affects the Senses their Imagination is corrupted by an almost infinite Number of deep Traces which raise none but false Ideas and as they depend upon all the Objects that resort to the Senses and Imagination so they always judge by the Impression they receive from them that is with reference to themselves Pride Debauchery the various Engagements the restless Desires of Advancement which are so common amongst the Men of the World darken the Sight of Truth and stifle in them the Sense of Piety because they separate them from God who alone is able to enlighten as he alone is able to govern us For we cannot increase our Union with sensible Things without diminishing that which we have with intellectual Truth since we cannot be at the same time strictly united with Things so different and opposite Those whose Imagination is pure and chaste that is whose Brain is not fill'd up with deep Traces that fasten them to visible Things may easily unite themselves to God listen attentively to the Truth that speaks to them and even forbear the Use of the most just and rational Passions But as to those that live amongst the Great who depend upon too many things and whose Imagination is soil'd by the false and obscure Ideas of sensible Objects they cannot apply themselves to the Truth unless they be born up by some Passion strong enough to countervail the Weight of the Body that carries them down and to imprint Traces on their Brain that may make a Revulsion upon the Animal Spirits However as every Passion can only by it self perplex our Ideas they ought to use that Help but so far as Necessity requires and all Men ought to study themselves that they may proportionate their Passions to their Weakness It is no hard matter to find a Method of raising in us such Passions as we desire since the Knowledge we have given in the foregoing Books of the Union betwixt Soul and Body has sufficiently open'd the way to it In a word no more is requir'd than to think attentively upon those Objects that by the Institution of Nature are able to raise the Passions Thus we may almost at any time excite in our Hearts whatever Passion we have occasion for but because we can easier excite them at any time than suppress them or remedy the Disorders they cause in the Imagination we must be very sober and cautious in employing them Above all we must take care not to judge of Things by Passion but only by the clear Sight of the Truth which is almost impossible when the Passions are somewhat lively they ought only to raise our Attention but they never fail of stirring up their proper Ideas and violently driving the Will to judge of Things by those Ideas that affect it rather than by the pure and abstracted Ideas of Truth that make no Impression upon it So that we often make Judgments which last no longer than the Passion because they are not produced by the clear Sight of the immutable Truth but by the Circulation of the Blood True it is that Men are wonderfully obstinate in some Errours which they maintain as long as they live but then those Errours have other Causes than the Passions or at least depend on such as are permanent and lasting proceeding from the Constitution of the Body from Interest or from some other durable Cause For Instance Interest being a Motive of a continual standing produces a Passion that never dies and the Judgments that arise from it are very long liv'd But all the other Sentiments of Men which depend upon particular Passions are as inconstant as the Fermentation of their Humours They say one while this another while that and yet what they say is commonly conformable to what they think And as they run from one counterfeit Good to another by the Motion of their Passion and are disgusted at it when that Motion ceases so they run from one false System into another and ardently assert a false Opinion when Passion makes it probable which the Passion ebbing they afterwards forsake By their Passions they taste of every Good without finding any really so and by the same Passions see all Truths without discovering any thing absolutely true though in the time of their Passion what they taste seems to them the Sovereign God and what they see an undeniable Truth The Senses are the second Spring whence we can draw Succours to make the Mind attentive Sensations are the very Modifications of the Soul and differ from the pure Ideas of the Mind the former raising a much stronger Attention than the latter So that 't is plain that
as it is more united to Universal Reason and less sensible to the impression of the Senses and Passions In a word as it is more reasonable But 't is requisite that I explain as clearly as possibly I can the sense I have about Natural or Divine Order and Law For the difficulty that is found to embrace my Opinion proceeds it may be from the want of a distinct conception of my meaning 'T is certain that God comprehends in himself after an intelligible manner the Perfections of all the Beings he has created or can create and that by these intelligible Perfections he knows the Essence of all things as by his own Wills he knows their Existence Which perfections are likewise the immediate Object of the Mind of Man for the Reasons I have given Therefore the intelligible Ideas or the Perfections which are in God which represent to us what is external to him are absolutely necessary and immutable But Truths are nothing but relations of Equality or Inequality that are found between these Intelligible Beings since it is only true that 2 times 2 are 4 or that 2 times 2 are not 5 because there is a Relation of Equality between 2 times 2 and 4 and of Inequality between 2 times 2 and 5. Therefore Truths are as immutable and necessary as Ideas It has ever been a truth that 2 times 2 are 4 and 't is impossible it should ever be false which is visible without any Necessity that God as supream Legislator should have establish'd these Truths so as is said by M. des Cartes in his Answer to the six Objections We easily comprehend then what is Truth but Men find some difficulty to conceive what is this immutable and necessary Order what is this Natural and Divine Law which God necessarily wills and which the Righteous likewise will For a Man's Righteousness consists in his Loving Order and in his conforming his Will in all things to it as that which makes a Sinner in his disliking Order in some things and willing that it should conform to his Desires Yet methinks these things are not so mysterious as is imagin'd and I am perswaded all the difficulty that is found in them proceeds from the trouble the mind is at to aspire to abstract and Metaphysical Thoughts Here then is in part what are my Thoughts of Order 'T is evident that the perfections which are in God representative of created or possible Beings are not all Equal That those for Example which represent Bodies are less noble than others that represent Spirits and that even in those which represent only Bodies or Spirits there are degrees of perfection greater and lesser ad infinitum This is clearly and easily conceiv'd though it be hard to reconcile the simplicity of the Divine Essence with that variety of Intelligible Ideas included in his Wisdom For 't is evident that if all the Ideas of God were equal he could see no difference between his Works since he cannot see his Creatures save in that which is in himself representing them And if the Idea of a Watch which shows the Hour with all the different Motions of the Planets were no perfecter than that of another which only points to the hour or than that of a Circle and a Square a Watch would be no perfecter than a Circle For we can judge of the Perfection of Works only by the Perfection of the Ideas we have of them and if there was no more understanding or sign of Wisdom in a Watch than a Circle it would be as easie to conceive the most complicated Machines as a Square or a Circle If then it be true that God is the Vniversal Being who includes in Himself all Beings in an intelligible manner and that all these intelligible Beings which have in God a necessary Existence are not equally perfect 't is evident there will be between them an Immutable and Necessary Order and that as there are Eternal and necessary Truths because there are Relations of Magnitude between intelligible Beings there must likewise be an immutable and necessary Order by reason of the Relations of Perfection that are between these Beings 'T is therefore an Immutable Order that Spirits should be nobler than Bodies as it is a necessary Truth that 2 times 2 should be 4 or that 2 times 2 should not be 5. But hitherto immutable Order seems rather a Speculative Truth than a necessary Law For if Order be consider'd but as we have just now done we see for Example that it is True that Minds are more noble than Bodies but we do not see that this Truth is at the same time an Order which has the force of a Law and that there is an Obligation of preferring Minds before Bodies It must then be consider'd that God loves himself by a necessary Love and therefore has a greater degree of love for that which in him represents or includes a greater degree of perfection than for that which includes a less So that if we will suppose an Intelligible Mind to be a thousand times perfecter than an Intelligible Body the love wherewith God loves Himself must necessarily be a thousand times greater for the former than for the latter For the Love of God is necessarily proportion'd to the Order which is between the intelligible Beings that he includes Insomuch that the Order which is purely Speculative has the force of a Law in respect of God himself supposing as is certain that God loves himself Necessarily And God cannot love Intelligible Bodies more than Intelligible Minds though he may love created Bodies better than created Minds as I shall show by and by Now that immutable Order which has the force of a Law in regard of God himself has visibly the force of a Law in reference to us For this Order we know and our natural love comports with it when we retire into our selves and our Senses and Passions leave us to our Liberty In a word when our Self-love does not corrupt our Natural Being we are made for God and that 't is impossible for us to be quite separate from him we discern in him this Order and we are naturally invited to love it For 't is His Light which enlightens us and his Love which animates us though our Senses and Passions obscure this Light and determine against Order the Impression we receive to love according to it But in spite of Concupiscence which conceals this Order and hinders us from following it it is still an essential and indispensable Law to us and not only to us but to all created Intilligences and even to the Damn'd For I do not believe they are so utterly estrang'd from God as not to have a faint Idea of Order as not to find still some beauty in it and even to be ready to conform to it in some particular Instances which are not prejudicial to Self-Love Corruption of Heart consists in Opposition to Order Therefore Malice or Corruption of
is included in the Idea of a necessary Being as the Equality of Diameters is included in the Idea of a Circle And I except the Existence of our Soul because we are inwardly conscious that we Think Will and Feel and have no clear Idea of our Soul as I have sufficiently explained in the seventh Chapter of the second Part of the third Book and elsewhere These are some of the Reasons which we have to add to those already given to prove that all our Light is deriv'd to us from God and that the immediate and direct Object of our clear and evident notices is an immutable and necessary Nature Some Objections are usually made against this Opinion which I shall now endeavour to solve Against what has been said that none but God enlightens us and that we see all things in him OBJECTION I. OUR Soul thinks because it is her Nature God in creating her gave her the faculty of thinking and she needs nothing more But if any thing else is wanting let us stick to what Experience teaches us of our senses which is that they are the manifest causes of our Ideas 'T is an ill way of Philosophizing to argue against Experience ANSWER I cannot but admire that the Cartesian Gentlemen who with so much reason reject and scorn the general Terms of Nature and faculty should so willingly employ them on this occasion They cry out against a Man that shall say the Fire burns by its nature and converts certain Bodies into Glass by a natural Faculty And yet some of them fear not to say that the Humane Mind produces the Ideas of all things in it self by its nature and because it has a thinking faculty But be it spoken without offence these words are no more significative in their Mouths than in the Peripateticks I know very well that the Soul is capable of thinking But I know likewise that extension is capable of Figures The Soul is capable of Will as matter is of Motion But as it is false that matter though capable of figure and motion has in it self a force faculty or nature by which it can move it self and give it self now a round figure and anon a square one so though the Soul be naturally and essentially capable of Knowledge and Will it is false that she has Faculties whereby she can produce in her Ideas or motion towards good There is a great difference between being Moveable and self moving Matter is by its nature moveable and capable of Figures nor can it subsist without a figure But it neither moves it self nor shapes it self nor has it any faculty to do it The Mind is of its nature capable of motion and Ideas I acknowledge But it neither moves nor enlightens its self But 't is God that does all in Minds as well as in Bodies Can we say that God effects the changes that happen in matter and that he causes not those which occur in the Mind Is this to give to God the things that are his to leave these latter sort of Beings to their own management Is he not equally Lord of all things Is he not the Creator Preserver and true mover of Minds as well as Bodies Certainly he makes all both Substances Accidents Beings and Modes of Being For in short he knows all But he knows nothing but what he does We therefore streighten him in his Knowledge if we limit him in his Action But if it must be said that Creatures have such faculties as are commonly conceived and that natural Bodies have a Nature which is the Principle of their Motion and Rest as says Aristotle and his Followers This indeed overthrows all my Ideas but yet I will rather agree to it than say the Mind enlightens it self Men may say that the Soul has the force of moving diversly the Limbs of her Body and of communicating to them Sense and Life They may say if they please that it is she that gives heat to the Blood motion to the Spirits and to the rest of her Body its Bulk Situation and Figure Only let them not say that the Mind gives Light and Motion to it self If God works not all let us allow him at least to do what is Noblest and Perfectest in the World And if Creatures do any thing let them move Bodies and range and posture them as they think fit But let them never act upon Minds We will say if that will serve that Bodies move each other after they have been mov'd themselves or rather will sit down ignorant of the different Dispositions of matter as not concerning us But let not our Minds be ignorant whence proceeds the Light that enlightens them Let them know from what hand they receive all that can make them more happy or more perfect let them acknowledge their dependence in its whole extent and know that whatever they actually have God gives them every moment for as says a great Father upon another Subject 'T is a very criminal Pride to use the gifts of God as our own innate Perfections Above all let us take heed of imagining that the Senses instruct Reason that the Body enlightens the Mind that the Soul receive of the Body what it wants it self We had better believe our selves independent than to believe we truly depend on Bodies 'T is much better to be our own Masters than to seek for Masters among inferior Creatures But we had much better submit our selves to Eternal Truth which assures us in the Gospel that none else is our Instructor than to believe the Testimony of our Senses or of some Men who presume to talk to us as our Teachers Experience whatever may be said does not countenance prejudices For our Senses no less than our Teachers after the Flesh are only occasional causes of the Instruction which Eternal Wisdom infuses into our most inward Reason But because this Wisdom enlightens us by an insensible Operation we imagine it is our Eyes or the words of those that verberate the Air against our Ears who produce this Light or pronounce that intelligible Voice which instructs us And for this Reason as I have said in another place our LORD thought it not enough to instruct us in an intellible manner by his Divinity unless he condescended also to inform us in a sensible way by his Humanity thereby teaching us that he is every way our Master And because we cannot easily retire into our selves to consult him in Quality of eternal Truth immutable Order intelligible Light he has rendred Truth sensible by his Words Order Amiable by his Example Light Visible by a Body which breaks the force of its Lustre and after all we are still so ungrateful unjust stupid and insensible as to respect as our Masters and that against his express prohibition not only other Men but it may be the most insensible and vilest Bodies OBJECTION II. Since the Soul is more perfect than Bodies how comes it that she cannot include
and the Accidental Form Accidents Others say that the Forms produce both other Forms and Accidents Others still that bare Accidents are not only capable of producing Accidents but even Forms But it must not be imagin'd that those for instance who say that Accidents can produce Forms by vertue of the Form they are join'd to understand it the same way For one part of them will have Accidents to be the very Force or Virtue of the Substantial Form Another that they imbibe into them the Influence of the Form and only act so by vertue of it A Third lastly will have them to be but Instrumental Causes But neither are these latter sort altogether agreed about what is meant by Instrumental Cause and the vertue they receive from the Principal Nor can the Philosophers compromise about the Action whereby second Causes produce their Effects For some of them pretend that Causality ought not to be produc'd since it is this which produces Others will that they truly act by their own Action But they are involv'd in so many Labyrinths in explaining precisely wherein this Action consists and there are so many different Opinions about it that I cannot find in my Heart to recite them Such is the strange variety of Opinions though I have not produc'd those of the Ancient Philosophers or that were born in very remote Countries But we have sufficient Reason to conclude that they are no more agreed upon the subject of second Causes than those before alledg'd Avicenna for instance is of Opinion that Corporeal Substances cannot produce any thing but Accidents This according to Ruvio is his Hypothesis He supposes that God produces immediately a most perfect Spiritual Substance That this produces another less perfect and this a third and so on to the last which produces all Corporeal Substances and Corporeal Substances Accidents But Avicembrom not able to comprehend how Corporeal Substances which cannot penetrate each other should cause alterations in them supposes that there are Spirits which are capable of acting on Bodies because they alone can penetrate them For these Gentlemen not admitting the Vacuum nor the Atoms of Democritus nor having sufficient knowledge of the subtil matter of M. des Cartes could not with the Gassendists and Cartesians think of Bodies which were little enough to insinuate into the pores of those that are hardest and most solid Methinks this diversity of Opinions justifies this thought of ours that Men often talk of things which they understand not and that the Power of Creatures being a Fiction of Mind of which we have naturally no Idea every Man makes it and imagines it what he pleases 'T is true this Power has been acknowledg'd for a Real and True by most Men in all Ages but it has never yet been prov'd I say not demonstratively but in any wise so as to make an impression upon an Attentive thinking Man For the confus'd Proofs which are built only upon the fallacious Testimony of the Senses and Passions are to be rejected by those who know how to exercise their Reason Aristotle speaking of what they call Nature says it is Ridiculous to go about to prove that Natural Bodies have an inward Principle of Motion and Rest because says he it is a thing that 's Self-Evident He likewise does not doubt but a Bowl which strikes another has the force of putting it in Motion This is witnessed by his Eyes and that 's enough for him who seldom follows any other Testimony than of the Senses very rarely that of his Reason and is very indifferent whether it be intelligible or not Those who impugn the Opinion of some Divines who have written against Second Causes say like Aristotle that the Senses convince us of their Efficacy And this is their first and principal Proof 'T is evident say they that the Fire burns that the Sun shines that Water cools and he must be out of his Senses who can doubt of it The Authors of the other Opinion says the great Averroes are out of their Wits We must say almost all the Peripateticks use sensible Proofs for their Conviction who deny this Efficacy and so oblige them to confess we are capable of acting on them and wounding them 'T is a judgment which Aristotle has already pronounc'd against them and it ought to be put in Execution But this pretended Demonstration cannot but create Pity For it gives us to know the Weakness of an Humane Mind And that the Philosophers themselves are infinitely more sensible than Reasonable It evinces that those who glory in being the Inquirers of Truth know not even whom they are to consult to hear any News of it Whether Soveraign Reason which never deceives but always speaks things as they are in themselves or the Body which speaks only out of Interest and with reference to the preservation and convenience of Life For in fine what prejudices will not be justified if we set up our Senses for Judges to which most of them owe their Birth As I have shown in The Search after Truth When I see a Bowl shock another my Eyes tell me or seem to tell me that it is the True Cause of the motion it impresses for the true cause that moves Bodies is not visible to my Eyes But if I interrogate my Reason I evidently see that Bodies having no Power to move themselves and their moving force being nothing but the Will of God which preserves them successively in different places they cannot communicate a Power which they have not nor could communicate if they had it For 't is plain that there must be Wisdom and that Infinite to regulate the communication of motions with that exactness Proportion and Uniformity which we see A Body cannot know that infinite multitude of impuls'd Bodies round about it and though we should suppose it to have knowledge yet it would not have enough so proportionably to regulate and distribute at the instant of protrusion the moving force it self is carried with When I open my Eyes the Sun appears to me splendidly glorious in Light And it seems not only to be visible it self but to make all the World so too Methinks 't is he that arrays the Earth with flowers and enriches it with Fruits That gives Life to Animals and striking by His Heat into the very Womb of the Earth impregnates Her with Stones Marbles and Metalls But in consulting my Reason I see nothing of all this And if I faithfully consult it I plainly discover the seducement of my Senses and find that God Works all in all For knowing that all the changes which accrue to Bodies have no other principle than the different Communications of Motions which occur in visible and invisible Bodies I see that God does all since 't is his Will that causes and his Wisdom that regulates all these Communications I suppose that Local Motion is the principle of Generations Corruptions Alterations and Universally of all the changes
the Character that had been given of their Persons And yet 't is but placing the definition instead of the thing defin'd to shew the extravagance of this Discourse For if a Man should say seriously the Cartesians are strange sort of Men they affirm That Beasts have neither Thought nor Sense I fear in a short time they will say as much of us Certainly we should conclude this Man's apprehensions but ill-grounded But the generality of Men are unable to extricate the least Ambiguity especially when their Imagination is frighted with the Notion of Novelty which some represent to them as dangerous Besides that the Air and exteriour Manners easily persuade but Truth is not discover'd without some application of Thought whereof the greatest part of Mankind is incapable Certainly Men that have most Light and Understanding whose Opinions are implicitely embrac'd by the Vulgar ought not to be so easie to condemn their Brethren at least before they have examin'd their Sentiments with a serious Attention nor ought they to possess their respectful Hearers with disadvantageous Notions of their Neighbour this being contrary to the Rules of Charity and Justice But the Cartesians you 'll say admit Principles which have mischievous Consequences and I grant it since you 'll have it so But they disown these Consequences They it may be are so gross and stupid as not to see these Consequences are included in their Principles They think they can separate one from the other and do not suppose other Philosophers are to be believ'd upon their bare Word They break not their Charity with those who hold Principles which they think big with impious Consequences and as contrary to Religion as sound Sense For it may be concluded from the dangerous Consequences I have drawn from those very Principles which flush the Peripateticks even to the triumphing over their Adversaries How many and how much worse than these I might infer if I should give my self liberty to choose out of the Body of their Philosophy that which was most exceptionable But whatever the advantage is in Theological Disputes as well as in Field-Battles to be the Aggressors I had rather defend my self weakly than conquer and triumph by assaulting For in short I do not conceive how Men delight in making Hereticks and prophane Persons of those who submit to allâ—the decisions of the Church upon Consequences which they disavow The Victory methinks is very fatal which spills but the Blood of our own Country-Men Nevertheless I do not believe I have advanc'd in the Search after Truth any Principle of Philosophy productive of dangerous Consequences on the contrary I have left M. des Cartes in some places and Aristotle almost in all because I could not reconcile the Former with Truth nor the Latter with Truth or Religion this I leave to Men of more Wit and Invention than my self I said that the Essence of Matter consisted in Extension because I thought I had evidently demonstrated it and thereby given clear and uncontroverted proofs of the Immortality of the Soul and her distinction from the Body A Truth which is essential to Religion and which the Philosophers are oblig'd by the last Lateran Council to prove But I never thought this Principle so fecund with Truths advantageous to Religion was contrary to the Council of Trent Monsieur de la Ville ought not to affirm it for that will do but mischief This is the Conduct of the Protestants in Holland Vitichius Poiret and several others I say not this to make his Faith suspected but I am under strong apprehensions least his Conduct may give them occasion to affirm That we own in France a Man cannot be a Catholick without believing that the parts of a Body may be without any Actual Extension since a Book Dedicated to the Bishops publish'd with all the Ceremonies with Approbation and Privilege treats the Cartesians as Hereticks on that particular I fear least by his probabilities he may shake the Faith of several Persons who know not precisely what is necessary to make an Article of Faith But I am still more apprehensive least the Libertines should strengthen themselves in their Opinions That the Soul is Corporeal and consequently Mortal That a thinking Substance is the same with an extended One because Extension with them and Monsieur de la Ville being but the Mode of a Being whose Essence is unknown to us we have no Argument from Reason that this Being is not capable of Thinking and we have many Arguments from Sense which though never so false are yet convincing and even Demonstrative with those who will not be at the pains of Reasoning And upon these grounds I think I am oblig'd to affirm with all the confidence afforded me by the view of the Truth I have Demonstrated That Extension is not a Mode of Being but a Being a Thing a Substance in a Word Matter or Body and that many Answers are to be seen in the Search after Truth to those proofs of Sense by which the Libertines confound the two Substances that Man 's compos'd of I maintain farther That Monsieur de la Ville has not shown that Opinion of the Essence of Matter to be contray to Transubstantiation that he has propos'd only those Answers which are easie to be resolv'd That we may more easily triumph over his Adversaries That he has not impugned mine and probably not so much as known them and that in the Humour I see him I think not my self obliged to acquaint him with them Lastly That he has added to the Council of Trent more Articles of Faith or Explications than any private Person has Right to give after express Prohibitions contain'd in the Bull which confirms the said Council As to what regards my own Particular I desire the Reader not to believe Monsieur de la Ville upon his Word but to examine with Caution and Distrust even those Matters of Fact which he vouches with the greatest Confidence He boasts himself upon his Sincerity and Ingenuousness and I am far from disputing him those Qualities which are indispensable to every honest Man but I cannot help saying in the Defence of Truth and my own Justification that he has often forgotten himself in his Book of which here follows a sufficient Proof In the Frontispiece of his Work he has inserted an Advertisement which has a Look of Integrity for 't is compos'd only to make a kind of Reparation These are his Words He says He met with a Copy of the Search after Truth of the Strasbourgh-Edition in the Year 1677. which obliges him to signifie to his dear Reader that I have in the Impression retracted and Errour which I had advanc'd in the First But it is so true that I am either little skill'd in Divinity or very daring that I could not recant that Errour without advancing Two others His whole Advertisement is only to make me a charitable Reparation However it is false
manner capable of breaking them All this is perform'd as in an Instant when the Flint strikes the Steel in a Place void of Air and the Spark then is hardly visible But when the Steel is stricken in full Air the part broken off from it as it whirls meets and vibrates a good deal of Air whose Parts probably branchy meet with it and break many more of the Vortices than the Iron alone So that the subtile Matter of these Vortices coming to surround the Iron and the Air affords them plenty enough of different Motions strongly to repel the other Vortices Thus the Sparks must be much more glittering in the Air than in a Vacuum they must remain much longer and have sufficient force to fire Gun-powder which cannot want subtile Matter to set it on fire whatever Quantity of Powder there is since it is not only the first Element but much more the second which produces its extraordinary Motion If one make Reflexion on what happens to Fire when 't is clear that is when a great deal of Air is driven against it we shall not doubt but that the Parts of the Air are very proper to determine the subtile Matter to communicate a part of its Motion to the Fire since 't is only from this Matter that the Fire can derive its Motion no Body being capable of moving it self but by the Action of those which environ it or which strike against it The END A TREATISE CONCERNING Nature and Grace BY Father MALEBRANCHE Of the ORATORY Done into English out of French ADVERTISEMENT I Intreat those into whose Hands this Tract shall come to believe I principally undertook it to satisfie the Difficulties of some Philosophers who methoughts had not all that due Sense Religion teaches us to have of the Goodness of GOD nor were sufficiently acquainted with the Obligations we are under to JESUS CHRIST I desire it may be look'd on only as an Essay and not judg'd of before it be attentively examin'd and that the Reader would not let himself be surpriz'd by the Motions of Fear and Mistrust which naturally arise in us from any thing that bears the Character of Novelty Having written for Philosophers who stand upon a great Accuracy and rigorous Exactness I have been oblig'd to avoid the General Terms in Ordinary Vse since I could not content them without using such Terms as raise distinct and particular Ideas in the Mind as far as the Subject will permit I question not but equitable Persons will conclude I had no other Design than to prove in all possible manners the Truths we are taught by Faith and that I am not so Inconsiderate as to call in question what the Church entertains as certain and Religion obliges us to believe But it has ever been allow'd Men to give New Proofs of Ancient Truths to endear GOD to the Affections of Men and to shew that there is nothing harsh or unjust in the Conduct He takes for the Establishment of His Church This Piece is divided into Three Discourses In the First I represent GOD as working for his Creatures all the Good His Wisdom will permit In the Second I explain how the SON of GOD as Incarnate Wisdom and Head of the Church sheds on His Members the Graces He could not bestow as Eternal Wisdom and they could not receive from His Father And I likewise endeavour to make Men sensible of the Obligations and Relations they are under to JESUS CHRIST Lastly in the Third Discourse I shew what is Liberty and how Grace works in us with a Salvo to it Since there are Persons of so little Equity as to draw dangerous Consequences from Principles most Advantageous to Religion I desire I may not be condemn'd upon their bare Word but that before I am judg'd I may have the Justice done me of being understood Surely there ought to be no Necessity of my making this Petition CONCERNING Nature and Grace DISCOURSE I. Of the Necessity of the General Laws of NATURE and of GRACE PART I. Of the Necessity of the General Laws of Nature I. SINCE GOD can act only for his own Glory and can find this no where but in Himself He could have no other Design in the Creation of the World than the Establishment of His Church II. JESUS CHRIST who is the Head of it is the Beginning of the Ways of the LORD is the First Born of the Creatures and though sent among Men in the Fulness of Time was their Exemplar in the Eternal Designs of his Father After his Image all Men were created as well those that preceded as we that succeed His Temporal Birth In a word 't is He in whom the Universe subsists there being none besides that could make the Work of GOD perfectly worthy of its Author III. Some Proportion there ought to be between the World and the Action that produc'd it But the Action that educ'd it out of Nothing is that of GOD of an infinite Worth whilst the World though never so perfect is not infinitely Amiable nor can render to its Author an Honour worthy of Him Thus separate JESUS CHRIST from the rest of the Creatures and see if He who acts but for his own Glory and whose Wisdom has no Bounds can purpose the Production of any External Work But joining JESUS CHRIST to His Church and the Church to the rest of the World it is taken from you raise to the Glory of GOD a Temple so majestick magnificent and holy that you 'll wonder perhaps he laid the Foundations of it so late IV. Yet if you observe that the Glory which redounds to GOD from His Work is not essential to Him if you are persuaded that the World cannot be a necessary Emanation of Deity you will evidently see that it must not have been Eternal though it ought to have no End Eternity is the Character of Independency The World therefore must have a Beginning Annihilation of Substances is a Sign of Inconstancy in Him that produc'd them therefore they will have no End V. If it be true then that the World must have begun and that the Incarnation of JESUS CHRIST could not have been so ancient as the Eternal Generation of his Divine Person An Eternity must necessarily have preceded Time Think not therefore that GOD delay'd the Production of His Work He has a greater Love for the Glory He receives from it in JESUS CHRIST In one Sense it may be most truly affirm'd that He made it as soon as possible For though to us he might have created it Ten thousand Years before the Beginning of Ages yet Ten thousand Years having no proportion to Eternity He could neither do it sooner nor later since an Eternity must have gone before VI. 'T is manifest that Soon and Late are Properties of Time and though we suppose that GOD had created the World as many Millions of Years as there are Grain of Sand on the Sea-shore before He did it might still
and Body are chang'd no otherwise than that the Union of the former is grown into a Dependence for the Reasons I have given elsewhere For at present we depend on that Body to which before Sin we were only united XLV Now the Laws of Nature are always most Simple and General For God acts not by particular Wills unless Order requires a Miracle Which Truth I have sufficiently prov'd in the First Discourse Thus when a Stone falls on the Head of a good Man and rids him of his Life it falls in consequence of the Laws of Motions and not because that Man is Just and God designs to recompense him When a like Accident destroys a Sinner 't is not because God will actually punish him For God on the contrary would have all Men sav'd But he is not to change the Simplicity of his Laws to suspend the Punishment of a Criminal So likewise when Light breaks into our Understanding 't is because our Desires are the Natural or Occasional Causes of it 't is because we hear some understanding Person and because our Brain is dispos'd to receive the Impressions of the Speaker And not that God has a particular Will on our behalf but that he follows the General Laws of Nature to which he has oblig'd himself I can see nothing Mysterious in the Distribution of these kinds of Graces and I stand not to draw Consequences deducible from these Truths XLVI 'T is to be observ'd that Jesus Christ who is the sole Meritorious Cause of the Goods we receive from God by the Order of Nature is sometimes the Occasional Cause of the Grace of Light as well as of that of Sensation yet I am of Opinion that this but rarely happens because indeed it is not necessary it should Jesus Christ as much as possible makes the Order of Nature subservient to that of Grace For besides that Reason evinces that Order will have it so because that Method is most simple it is sufficiently manifest by the Conduct he takes on Earth and the Order he has establish'd and still preserves in his Church Jesus Christ made use of Speech for the Instruction of the World and likewise sent his Disciples two by two to prepare the People to receive him He has settled Apostles Prophets Evangelists Doctors Bishops and Priests to labour in the Edification of the Church Is not this to make Nature Handmaid to Grace and to propagate the Light of Faith in Mens Minds by ways most Simple and Natural And indeed Jesus Christ on Earth was not to instruct Men by particular Wills since he might instruct them as Interiour Truth and Eternal Wisdom by the most simple and exuberant Laws of Nature XLVII That which lies most hidden and unreveal'd in the Order God has follow'd for the Establishment of his Church is doubtless the Time Place and other Circumstances of the Incarnation of his Son and the Preaching of the Gospel For why should Jesus Christ for whom the World was created become Man Four thousand Years after its Creation Why must he be born among the Jews he that was to reject that wretched Nation Why must he choose to be the Son of David when the Family of David was obscur'd and not rather to be born from Emperours who have commanded the whole World since he came to Convert and Enlighten all the Earth Why to elect his Apostles and Disciples out of the Ignorant and Illeterate to preach to the Inhabitants of Bethsaida and Corazin who remain in Incredulity and to leave Tyre and Sidon who would have been converted by the like Grace afforded them to hinder St. Paul from preaching the Word of God in Asia and to appoint him to pass into Macedonia A thousand other Circumstances which have accompanied the Preaching of the Gospel are no doubt such Mysteries as admit not clear and evident Reasons nor is it my Design to give them My Purpose is only to establish some Principles that may afford some Light to these and the like Difficulties or at least give us to understand that nothing can be thence concluded against what I have said of the Order of Nature and Grace XLVIII 'T is certain that Natural Effects are complicated and mix'd a thousand ways with the Effects of Grace and that the Order of Nature strengthens or weakens the Efficacy or Effects of the Orders of Grace according as these two Orders variously combine together Death which by the General Laws of Nature at a particular Juncture befals a good or ill Prince or Bishop occasions a great deal of Good or Evil in the Church because such kind of Accidents cause a great Diversity in the Sequel of Effects which depend on the Order of Grace But God would have all Men sav'd by the simplest ways Therefore we may and ought to say in general That He has chosen the Time the Place and Manners which in the process of Time and by the General Laws of Nature and Grace must all things consider'd introduce a greater Number of the Predestinate into the Church God does all things for his Glory Therefore among all the possible Combination of Nature and Grace he has from the infinite Extent of his Knowledge made choice of that which could form the perfectest Church and most suitable to his Majesty and Wisdom XLIX This one would think were sufficient to answer all the Difficulties that can arise about the Circumstances of our Mysteries For if it be said that Jesus Christ ought to be born to a Roman Emperour and to perform his Miracles in the Metropolis of the World that the Gospel might spread it self with greater Ease into the remotest Countries It may be boldly answer'd That though this seems so to Men yet that Combination of Nature and Grace had not been so worthy of the Wisdom of God as that which he has chosen I confess Religion had been propagated with greater ease but its Establishment had not been so Divine and Extraordinary nor consequently an invincible Proof of its Reality and Truth So â—hat according to that Combination Religion would at this Day have been destroy'd at least less disseminated abroad in the World Besides when we say that God acts by the simplest ways we ever suppose an Equality in the rest and especially in the Glory that ought to redound to God from his Work But the Church had not been so perfect nor so worthy of the Greatness and Holiness of God if it had been form'd with so much ease For the Beauty of the Heavenly Jerusalem consisting in the Variety of Rewards accruing upon the several Combats of Christians 't was requisite the Martyrs should lay down their Lives as well as Jesus Christ to enter into the Possession of their present Glory In a word this Principle That of all the infinite Combinations of Nature and Grace God has chosen that which ought to produce an Effect most worthy of his Greatness and Wisdom suffices for a General Answer to all the
whom according to St. Paul God has made all things is the Man Jesus Christ. 'T is to teach Men that they are created and that they subsist in Jesus Christ 't is to unite them straitly to him 't is to induce them to make themselves like him that God has figur'd Jesus Christ and his Church in the principal of his Creatures For 't is necessary that Jesus Christ should be found in the whole Work of God that it might be the worthy Object of his Love and of the Action that produc'd it LVI If we consider the manner of the First Man's Creation as related by Holy Scripture how his Wife was form'd out of his Flesh and Bone his Love to her and the Circumstances of their Sin we shall doubtless judge that God thought on the Second Adam in the Formation of the First that he consider'd the Father of the future World in creating the Father of the present and that he design'd the First Man and Woman for express Types of Jesus Christ and his Church St. Paul permits us not to doubt of this Truth when he assures us we are form'd of the Flesh and Bone of Jesus Christ that we are his Members and that the Marriage of Adam and Eve is the Figure of Jesus Christ and his Church LVII God might perhaps form Men and Animals by ways as simple as common Generation But since this way typified Jesus Christ and his Church since it wore the Impress of the principal of God's Designs and represented as I may say the well-belov'd Son to his Father that Son in whom alone the whole Work of the Creation subsists God ought to prefer it before all other thereby likewise to teach us that as intelligible Beauties consist in their Relation to Eternal Wisdom so sensible Beauties must though in a manner little known to us relate to Incarnate Truth LVIII Doubtless there are many Analogies and Agreements betwixt the most principal of the Creatures and Jesus Christ who is their Pattern and their End For all is full of Jesus Christ every thing represents and typifies him as much as the Simplicity of the Laws of Nature will permit But I shall not venture to enter on the Particulars of this Subject For besides that I am fearful of mistaking and have not a competent Knowledge either of Nature or Grace of the present World or the future to discover their Relations I know that the Imagination of Men is so sarcastical and nice that we cannot by Reason lead them to God much less to Jesus Christ without tiring their Patience or provoking their Railery Most Christians are accustom'd to a Philosophy that had rather have recourse to Fictions as extravagant as those of the Poets than to God and some of them are so little acquainted with Jesus Christ that a Man would perhaps be reckon'd a Visionist if he said the same things with St. Paul without using his Words For 't is rather that great Name which persuades them than the View of Truth The Authority of Scripture keeps them from blaspheming what they do not understand but whereas they are but little conversant with it it cannot much enlighten them LIX 'T is certain that the Jewish People was the Figure of the Church and that the most Holy and Remarkable Persons among the Kings Prophets and Patriarchs of that Nation were the Types of the Messiah our Saviour Jesus Christ which is a Truth not deniable without undermining the Foundations of the Christian Religion and making the most Learned of the Apostles pass for the most Ignorant of Men. Jesus Christ being not yet come ought at least to be typified For he ought to be expected he ought to be desired and by his Types he ought to strew some sort of Beauty over the Universe to make it acceptable to his Father Thus it was necessary he should in some manner be as ancient as the World and that he should die presently after the Sin in the Person of Abel The Lamb that was slain from the Foundation of the World The Beginning and End Alpha and Omega Yesterday and to Day He is was and is to come These are the Qualifications St. John attributes to the Saviour of Men. LX. But supposing that Jesus Christ ought to be typified 't was necessary it should be done by his Ancestors especially and that their History dictated by the Holy Spirit should be handed down to future Ages to the end we might still compare Jesus Christ with his Figures and acknowledge him for the true Messiah Of all Nations God loving that most which had nearest Relation to his Son ought to make the Jews the Fathers of Jesus Christ according to the Flesh since they had been the most lively and express Figures of his Son LXI But if driving this Difficulty up higher the Reason be demanded of the Choice God made of the Jews to be the principal Figures of Jesus Christ I think I may and ought affirm that God acting always by the simplest ways and discovering in the infinite Treasures of his Wisdom all the Combinations of Nature with Grace chose that which was to make the Church the most ample most perfect and most worthy of his own Greatness and Holiness as I have said before Secondly I think I ought to answer that God foreseeing that what was to happen to the Jewish People by a necessary Consequence of Natural Laws would have more Analogy to his Design of typifying Jesus Christ and his Church than all that could befall other Nations thought fit to choose that People rather than any other For in brief Predestination to the Law is not like Predestination to Grace and though there be nothing in Nature that can oblige God to shed his Grace equally on a whole People yet methinks Nature may merit the Law in the Sense I here understand it LXII 'T is true that all that befell the Jews who represented Jesus Christ was not a necessary Consequence of the Order of Nature There was need of Miracles to make the Jews lively and express Figures of the Church But Nature at least furnish'd Ground-work and Materials and possibly the principal Strokes in most Instances and Miracles finish'd the rest Whereas no other Nation would have been so proper for so just and accomplish'd a Design LXIII If I mistake not we are oblig'd to think that God having a Wisdom prescious of all the Events and Consequences of all possible Orders and all their Combinations never works Miracles when Nature is sufficient and that therefore he must choose that Combination of Natural Effects which as it were remitting him the Expence of Miracles nevertheless most faithfully executes his Designs For Example 'T is necessary that all Sin should be punish'd But that 's not always done in this World Yet supposing it was requisite for the Glory of Jesus Christ and the Establishment of Religion that the Jews should be punish'd in the Face of the whole World for the Crime
their Effect The Prayers and diverse Desires of Jesus Christ with reference to the Formation of his Body have likewise most constantly and speedily their Accomplishment God denies his Son nothing as we learn from Jesus Christ himself Occasional Causes produce not their Effect by their own Efficacy but by the Efficacy of the General Cause 'T is likewise by the Efficacy of the Power of God that the Soul of Jesus Christ operates in us and not by the Efficacy of Man's Will 'T is for this Reason that St. Paul represents Jesus Christ as praying to his Father without Intermission For he is oblâ—gâ—d to Pray in order to Obtain Occasional Causes have been establish'd by God for the determining the Efficacy of his General Wills and Jesus Christ according to the Scripture has been appointed by God after his Resurrection to govern the Church which he had purchas'd by his Blood For Jesus Christ became the Meritorious Cause of all Graces by his Sacrifice But after his Resurrection he entred 〈◊〉 the Holy of Holies as High Priest of future Goods to appear in the Presence of God and to endue us with the Graces which he has merited for us Therefore he himself applies and distributes his Gifts as Occasional Cause he disposes of all things in the House of God as a well-beloved Son in the House of his Father I think I have demonstrated in the Search after Truth that there is none but God who is the true Cause and who acts by his own Efficacy and that he communicates his Power to Creatures only in establishing them Occasional Causes for the producing some Effects I have proved for Example That Men have no Power to produce any Motion in their Bodies but because God has establish'd their Wills the Occasional Causes of these Motions That Fire has no power to make me feel Pain but because God has establish'd the Collision of Bodies the Occasional Cause of the Communication of Motions and the violent Vibration of the Fibres of my Flesh the Occasional Cause of my Pain I may here suppose a Truth which I have proved at large in the Third Chapter of the Second Part of the Sixth Book and in the Illustration upon the same Chapter and which those for whom it was principally written don't contest Now Faith assures us that all Power is given to Jesus Christ to form his Church All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth Which cannot be understood of Jesus Christ as to his Divinity for as God he has never received any thing And therefore it is certain that Jesus Christ as to his Humanity is the Occasional Cause of Grace supposing I have well proved that God only can act on Minds and that Second Causes have no Efficacy of their own Which those ought first to examine who would understand my Sentiments and give a Judgment of them XII I say farther that no one is sanctified but through the Efficacy of the Power which God has communicated to Jesus Christ in constituting him the Occasional Cause of Grace For if any Sinner were converted by a Grace whereof Jesus Christ was not the Occasional but only the Meritorious Cause that Sinner not receiving his New Life through the Efficacy of Jesus Christ would not be a Member of the Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head in that manner explain'd by St. Paul by these Words of the Epistle to the Ephesians That we may grow up into him in all things who is the Head even Christ from whom the whole Body fitly join'd together and compacted by that which every Joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every Part maketh increase of the Body unto the edifying it self in Love Which Words not only say Jesus Christ is the Meritorious Cause of all Graces but likewise distinctly signifie that Christians are the Members of the Body whereof Jesus Christ is the Head that 't is in him we increase and live with an entire new Life that 't is by his inward Operation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that his Church is form'd and that thus he has been constituted by God the sole Occasional Cause who by his several Desires and Applications distributes the Graces which God as the True Cause showers down on Men. 'T is on this Account St. Paul says Christians are united to Jesus Christ as their Root Rooted and built up in him 'T is for the same Reason that Jesus Christ compares himself to a Vine and his Disciples to the Branches that derive their Life from him I am the Vine ye are the Branches On the same Grounds St. Paul affirms that Jesus Christ lives in us and that we live in him that we are rais'd up in our Head that our Life is hidden with Jesus Christ in God in a word that we have already Life Eternal in Jesus Christ. All these and many other Expressions of like nature clearly manifest that Jesus Christ is not only the Meritorious but also the Occasional Physical or Natural Cause of Grace and that as the Soul informs animates and consummates the Body so Jesus Christ diffuses through his Members as Occasional Cause the Graces he has merited to his Church by his Sacrifice For my part I cannot see how these Reasons can be call'd in question or upon what Grounds a most edifying Truth and as ancient as the Religion of Jesus Christ can be treated as a dangerous Novelty I grant my Expressions are novel but that 's because they seem to me the fittest of all others distinctly to explain a Truth which can be but confusedly demonstrated by Terms very loose and general These words Occasional Causes and Natural Laws seem necessary to give the Philosophers for whom I wrote this Treatise of Nature and Grace a distinct Understanding of what most Men are content to know confusedly New Expressions being no farther dangerous than involving Ambiguity or breeding in the Mind some Notion contrary to Religion I do not believe that Equitable Persons and conversant in the Theology of St. Paul will blame me for explaining my self in a particular manner when it only tends to make us Adore the Wisdom of God and strictly to unite us with Jesus Christ. First OBJECTION XIII 'T is Objected against what I have establish'd That neither Angels nor Saints of the Old Testament receiv'd Grace pursuant to the Desires of the Soul of Jesus since that Holy Soul was not then in Being and therefore though Jesus Christ be the meritorious Cause of all Graces he is not the Occasional Cause which distributes them to Men. As to Angels I Answer That 't is very probable Grace was given them but once So that if we consider things on that side I grant there is nothing can oblige the Wisdom of God to constitute an Occasional Cause for the Sanctification of Angels But if we consider these blessed Spirits as Members of the Body whereof Jesus Christ is the Head or suppose them
necessary for them to know we allow them to omit them and likewise to despise them but 't is not fair to judge of them out of a fanciful dislike and ill-grounded suspicions For they ought to consider that the Serious Air and Gravity wherewith they speak the Authority they have obtain'd over the Minds of others and that customary way of confirming their Discourse with a Text of Scripture must unavoidably engage in Error their respectful Auditors who being incapable of Examining things to the bottom are caught with Modes and external Appearances When Error comes cloath'd in the Dress of Truth it frequently has more respect than Truth it self And this illegitimate Respect has very dangerous Consequences Pessima res est Errorum Apotheosis pro peste intellectûs habenda est si vanis accedat veneratio Thus when some Men out of a false Zeal or a Fondness for their own Thoughts bring the Holy Scripture to countenance or support false Principles of Physicks or other of like Nature they are often attended to as Oracles by the admiring Crowd who credit them upon their word because of the Reverence they ascribe to Divine Authority When at the same time some Men of a worse Complection have taken occasion hereby to contemn Religion So that by strangely perverting its Nature Holy Scripture has been the Cause of some Men's Errors and Truth has been the Motive and Original to other's Impiety We should then be cautious says the fore-cited Author of searching after Dead things among the Living and of presuming by our own Sagacity of Mind to discover in the Holy Scriptures what the Holy Spirit has not thought fit to declare in it Ex Divinorum Humanorum malesanâ admixtionâ— continues he non solum educitur Philosophia phantastica sed etiam Religio haeretica Itaque salutare admodum est si mente sobriâ fidei tantum dentur quae fidei sunt All Men who have any Authority over others ought never to determine till they have so much the more seriously consider'd as their Determinations are more obstinately adher'd to and Divines should be more especially regardful lest they give scandal and contempt to Religion through a false Zeal by an ambitious desire of their own Fame and of giving Vogue to their Opinions But it being not my Business to prescribe to them their Duty let them hearken to St. Thomas Aquinas their Master who being consulted by his General for his Opinion touching some Points answers him in these words of St. Austin Multùm autem nocet talia quae ad pietatis doctrinam non spectant vel asserere vel negare quasi pertinentia ad Sacram doctrinam Dicit enim Augustinus in 5. Confess Cùm audio Christianum aliquem fratrem ista quae Philosophi de coelo aut stellis de Solis Lunae motibus dixerâ—nt nescientem aliud pro alio sentienâ—em patienter intueor opinantem hominem nec illi obesse video cum de te Domine Creator omnium nostrûm non credat indigna si fortè situs habitus creaturae corporalis ignoret Obest autem si haec ad ipsam dâ—ctrinam pietatis pertinere arbitretur pertinacius affirmare audeat quod ignorat Quod autem obsit manifestat Augustinus in 1. super Genes Ad literam Turpe est inquit nimis perniciosum ac maximê cavendum ut Christianum de his rebus quasi secundum Christianas literas loquentem ita delirare quilibet infidelis audiat ut quemadmodum dicitur toto coelo errare conspiciens risum tenere vix possit Et non tamen molestum est quod errans homo videatur sed quod Authores nostri ab eis qui foris sunt talia sensisse creduntur cum magno eorum exitio de quorum salute satagimus tanquam indocti reprehenduntur atque respuuntur Vnde mihi videtur tutius esse ut hâ—â—c quae Philosophi communes senserunt nostrae fidei non repugnant neque esse sic asserenda ut dogmata fidei licet aliquandò sub nomine Philosophorum introducantur neque sic â—sse neganda tanquam fidei contraria ne sapientibus hujus mundi contemnendi doctrinam fidei occasio praebeatur 'T is a dangerous thing positively to determine concerning matters that are not of Faith as if they were St. Austin is our Author for it in the fifth Book of his Confessions When I see says he a Christian who is un-instructed in the Opinions of Philosophers about the Heavens the Stars and the Motion of the Sun and Moon and who mistakes one thing for another I I leave him to his Opinions and Uncertainties Nor do I see what injury it can do him provided he has right Notions of Thee our LORD and CREATOR to be ignorant of the Site and Position of Bodies and the different Regulations of Material Beings But he does himself wrong in that he fancies these things concern Religion and takes upon him obstinately to affirm what he does not understand The same Holy Man explains his Thoughts more clearly yet in his first Book of the literal Exposition of Genesis in these Words A Christian should be extreamly cautious of speaking of these things as if they were the Doctrine of the Sacred Writings since an Heathen who should hear him utter his Absurdities that had no appearance of Truth would Ridicule him for it Thus the Christian would be put in confusion and the Heathen but ill-edify'd Yet that which on these occasions is matter of greatest trouble is not that a Man is found in an Error but that the Heathens whom we labour to convert falsely and to their unavoidable destruction imagining that our Authors abound with these ridiculous Notions condemn them and spurn them as Ignorant and Unlearned which makes me think it much the safer way not to affirm as the Maxims of Faith the common receiv'd Opinions of Philosophers though not inconsistent with them though the Authority of Philosophers may sometimes be us'd to make way for their reception nor to reject their Opinions as contrary to Faith lest occasion be given to the Wise Men of the World to contemn the Sacred Truths of the Christian Religion The generality of Men are so careless or unreasonable as to make no distinction between the Word of GOD and that of Men when joyn'd together So that they fall into Error by approving them both alike or into Irreligion by the contempt of both indifferently 'T is easie to see what is the Cause of these last Errors and how they depend upon the Connection of Idea's explain'd in the XI Chapter and I need not stand more largely to explain them It seems seasonable to say something here of the Chymists and of all those in general that imploy their time in making Experiments These are the Men that are in Search after Truth Their Opinions are usually embrac'd without Scruple and Examination And thus their Errors are so much the more dangerous as
they are communicated to others with greater Facility The Study of Nature is undoubtedly more Noble than of Books Visible and Sensible Experiments afford us much more certain Proofs of things than the Reasonings of Men and no Objection can be made to those Men whose Circumstances of Life have engag'd them in the Study of Natural Philosophy for endeavouring to excel in it by making continual Experiments provided their greatest Application be made to the more necessary Sciences We find no fault with Experimental Philosophy nor the Improvers of it but only with their Defects The first of which is that usually 't is not the Light of Reason which conducts them in the Method of their Experiments but only Chance Which is the reason that they grow little more Learned or Skilful after having wasted much of their Time and Fortune therein The second is their insisting rather upon Curious and Extraordinary Experiments than on those that are more Common when 't is plain that the Commoner being the more simple they ought first to be dwelt upon before a Man applies himself to the more Compounded and to those which depend upon a multitude of Causes The third is their earnest and diligent Search after Profitable Experiments and their neglect of those which only serve to illuminate the Mind The fourth that they are too un-exact in their Observations of all the particular Circumstances of Time Place the Quality of the Drugs made use of though the least of these Circumstances is capable of frustrating the desir'd Effect For 't is observable that the Terms the Virtuoâ—i use are Equivocal The Word Wine for instance signifies so many different things as there are different Soils various Seasons and several ways of making and preserving it So that it may be said in general there are no where two Vessels of it altogether alike And when a Chymist says To make such an Experiment take wine we have but a very confus'd Idea of his meaning For which Reason they should use a most exact Circumspection in Experiments and not descend to the Compound sort till they are very well acquainted with the more Simple and Ordinary The fifth is That they make too many Deductions from a single Experiment when on the contrary to the Establishing any one good Conclusion there should go generally many Experiments Though a single Experiment may be assistant to the inferring many Conclusions Lastly The most part of Naturalists and Chymists consider only the particular Effects of Nature They never ascend up to the first Notions of the Things Bodies are compos'd of When yet it is most certain we can have no clear and distinct knowledge of any particular Phaenomena unless we are first masters of the most general Principles and run them up as high as Metaphysicks To conclude they commonly want Courage and Constancy and are tir'd and discourag'd with the Toil and Expence There are many other Faults these Gentlemen are subject to but I design not to reckon them all up The Causes of these Faults which I have remark'd are the want of Application the Properties of the Imagination explain'd in the Tenth and Eleventh Chapters and Men's judging of the Difference of Bodies and the Changes they undergo only from the Sensations they have of them according to the Explication given in the First Book The THIRD PART Concerning The CONTAGIOUS COMMUNICATION Of Strong IMAGINATIONS CHAP I. I. Of the Disposition we have to imitate others in all things which is the Original of the Communication of those Errors that depend on the Power of Imagination II. Two things that more especially increase this Disposition III. What that strong Imagination is IV. That there are several kinds of it Of Fools and of those that have a Srong Imagination in the Sense 't is here taken V. Two considerable Imperfections of Men of a Strong Imagination VI. Of the Power they have to perswade and impose on others HAVING already explain'd the Nature of the Imagination the Failings it is subject to and shewn how our own Imagination engages us in Error all that remains in this Second Book is to speak to the Contagious Communication of Strong Imaginations I mean that Sway and Power some Minds have of drawing others into their Errors Strong Imaginations are wondrously contagious They domineer over the weaker fashion them by degrees after their own Image and imprint the same Characters upon them And therefore since Men of Conceit and of a Vigorous and Strong Imagination are the least reasonable of any there are very few Causes of the Errors of Men more â—niversal than this dangerous Communication of the Imagination In order to conceive what this Contagion is and how it 's transmitted from one to another we must know that Men are under a mutual necessity of one another's Assistance and are so fram'd as out of many Bodies to compound one whereof all the Parts have a muâ—ual Correspondence For the preserving and cherishing of which Union GOD commanded them to have Charity for each other But whereas Self-love might by little and little extinguish Charity and break the Bond of Civil Society GOD thought fit for the Preservation of it to unite Men more firmly still by Natural Ties which might subsist in case Charity should fail and also defend it against the attacks of Self-love These Natural Ties which we have in common with Beasts consist in a certain Disposition of Brain which makes all Men prone to imitate the Actions of those they converse with to frame the same Judgments with them and to be acted with like Passions they see them possess'd with Which Disposition is a much straiter Obligation to bind them to each other than Charity founded upon Reason this Charity being rarely to be met with Now when a Man wants this Disposition of Brain whereby he may be affected with our Sentiments and Passions he is Naturally incapable of uniting and making up one Body with us He may be compar'd to those Irregular Stones that cannot be plac'd in a Building because they cannot be joyn'd with the others Oderunt hilarem tristes tristemque jocosi Sedatum celeres agilem gnavúmque remissi 'T is a more considerable Vertue than is imagin'd to keep fair with those who are untouch'd with our Passions and whose Notions are contrary to our own And we shall have Reason to think so if we consider that 't is a kind of Insulting when we see a Man that has just cause of Sorrow or Joy not to take part with him in his Sentiments When a Man is in Sorrow one should not come before him with a Gay and Airy look which bespeaks Joy and violently imprints the Motions thereof in his Imagination This being to disturb him from the state that is most convenient and pleasant to him for sorrow is the pleasantest of all the Passions to a Man under any Affliction There is then a certain Disposition of Brain in all Men whatever which naturally inclines
for whatever affects us engages us because that Inclination dissipates the Sight of the Mind and fixes it conâ—inually on the confus'd Ideas of the Senses and the Imagination and inclines us to judge over-hastily of all things by the bare Relation which they have to us Truth never appears but when we see things as they are in themselves which we never do unless we see them in him who contains them in an intelligible manner When we perceive them within our selves we perceive them at a very lame and imperfect rate or rather we perceive our own Sensations and not the things we desire to perceive and which we falsly think we do To see things as they are in themselves requires much Application because at present we cannot unite to GOD without great Pain and Reluctancy But to see them in our selves requires no Application at all on our part since we are sensible of what touches us whether we will or no. We do not naturally find any Preventing Pleasure in our Union with GOD the pure Ideas of things do not touch and quicken us Therefore the Inclination we have for Pleasure is not a Means to apply and unite us to GOD but on the contrary slackens our Engagements to him and perpetually removes us farther from him carrying us continually to consider things by their Sensible Ideas because these false and impure Ideas are those that affect us Love of Pleasure then and the Actual Enjoyment of it which revives and corroborates this Love throw us continually off Truth to plunge us into Errour Those therefore who would draw near to Truth to be illuminated by its Light must begin by the Privation of Pleasure They must carefully shun whatever sensibly affects and agreeably shares the Mind For the Voice of Truth cannot be heard unless in the Silence of the Senses and the Passions An Aversion to the World and Contempt for all Sensible things being equally necessary to the Perfection of the Mind as to the Conversion of the Heart When our Pleasures are great and our Sensations lively we are incapable of the most simple Truths nor do we agree to common Notions unless of a sensible Make and Character When our Pleasures or other Sensations are moderate we may discover some plain and easie Truths But if it were possible to be absolutely delivered from Pleasures and Sensations we should be able easily to discover the most abstract and difficult Truths that are known For proportionably to our Removing from what is not GOD we approach to GOD himself we avoid Errour and discover Truth But ever since the Fall since the disorderly Love of Preventing Pleasure which domineers and triumphs the Mind is grown so weak that it can pierce into nothing and so materializ'd and dependent on its Senses that it cannot lay hold of things abstract and unaffecting With much ado it perceives common Notions and for want of Advertency frequently concludes them false or obscure It cannot distinguish the Truth of things from their Utility the Relation they have to one another from the Relation they have to it self and often takes those to be most true that are most useful agreeable and moving Finally this Inclination infects and muddies all our Perceptions of Objects and consequently all the Judgements that we make of them Here follows some Examples 'T is a common Notion that Vertue is preferable to Vice that 't is better to be Sober and Chast than Intemperate and Voluptuous But the Inclination for Pleasure so strangely confounds that Idea on certain Occasions that we have but a transient glimpse of it nor can draw those Consequences from it that are necessary to the Management of Life The Soul is violently bent upon the Pleasures she hopes for that she supposes them innocent and seeks only for the Means of enjoying them Every body well knows that 't is more eligible to be Just than Rich That Justice exalts a Man more than the Possession of the most magnificent Buildings which often serve more to manifest the Greatness of the Injustices and Crimes of the Possessor than his own Grandeur But the Pleasure that wretched Men receive in the vain Ostentation of their false Grandeur sufficiently fills up the narrow Capacity of their Mind to conceal and obscure so evident a Truth from them They absurdly imagine they are Great Men because they have Great Houses Special Algebra or Analyticks is certainly the finest I mean the most fruitful and most certain of all Sciences Without it the Mind has neither Penetration nor Extent and with it it is capable of knowing almost whatever is possible to be certainly and evidently known As imperfect as this Science has been it has made Famous all that have been skill'd in 't and knew how to employ it having by it discover'd Truths that seem'd incomprehensible to other Men. It is so well proportion'd to an Humane Mind that without dividing its Capacity with things useless to the Question it infallibly conducts it to its Point In a word it is an Universal Science and as it were the Key of all other Yet as valuable as it is in it self it has no Charms nor Lustre to captivate Men for this Reason only that it is not of a Sensible Nature It has been buried in Oblivion for many Ages and there are still very many that know not so much as the Name and scarce one in a thousand to be found that understands any thing of it The most Learned who have reviv'd it in our Days have not yet carried it very far nor handled it with that Order and Perspicuity it deserves Being Men no less than others they have grown at length disgusted with these pure Truths whilst unaccompanied with Sensible Pleasure and the Uneasiness of their Will debauch'd by Sin the Levity of their Mind which depends on the Motion and Circulation of the Blood have with-held them from feeding and growing upon those great those vast and second Truths which are the Immutable and Universal Rules of all transitory and particular Truths possible to be exactly known Metaphysick likewise is an Abstract Science which flatters not the Senses nor does the Soul receive any Pleasure in the Study of it and for the same Reason it is so miserably neglected that 't is usual to find Persons stupid enough confidently to deny Common Notions There are those who stick not to deny that we may or ought to affirm of a thing what is included in the clear and distinct Idea we have of it That Nothing has no Properties That a thing cannot be annihilated without a Miracle That a Body cannot move by any Force of its own That a Body in Motion cannot communicate to occurrent Bodies more Motion than it has it self and other things of the same kind They have never consider'd these Axioms with a View steady and distinct enough to see clearly the Truth of them and they have sometimes try'd Experiments which have abusively convinc'd them that
some of these Axioms were false They have seen in certain Junctures that two visible Bodies meeting each others have ceas'd to move at the Instant of their Collision They have observ'd in others that the impuls'd Body had more Motion than the visible impelling and this sensible Observation of some Experiments the Reasons whereof they don't perceive makes them determine about things against certain Principles and which go for common Notions with all Attentive and Considering Men. Ought they not to consider that Motions may be communicated from Visible to Invisible Bodies when Bodies meet in their Motion And from Visible to Invisible on other Occasions When a Body is suspended by a Cord 't is not the Scissars which cut the Cord which gives Motion to that Body but an Invisible Matter When we throw a Fire-coal into an heap of Gun-pouder 't is not the Motion of Coal but an Invisible Matter which separates all the Parts of the Pouder and actuates them with a Motion capable of blowing up an House A thousand unknown Ways there are whereby the Motion of an Invisible Matter is communicated to Gross and Visible Bodies At least it is not evident that it cannot be done as it is evident that the moving Force of Bodies can neither be augmented nor diminish'd by the ordinary Strength of Nature Thus Men seeing that the Wood they throw on the Fire ceases to be what it was and that all the sensible Qualities they observe in it vanish away imagine from thence they have Right to conclude it possible for a thing to return into Nothing whence it came They see the Wood no more and they see but a few Ashes that succeed it and thereupon judge that the greatest part of the Wood is reduc'd to nothing as if it could not be separated into Parts not possible to be seen At least it is not so evident that this is impossible as it is evident that the Power which gives Being to all things is not liable to Change and that by the ordinary Force of Nature Being cannot be reduc'd to Nothing as Nothing cannot begin to be But few Men know what it is to retire into themselves to hear the Voice of Truth speaking to them within by which they ought to judge of all things 't is their Eyes that govern their Determinations They judge by what they feel and not by what they conceive for they feel with Pleasure but conceive with Pain Demand of all the Men in the World whether it may not be affirm'd without Danger of Errour that the Whole is greater than its Part and I am positive not one will be found but will immediately answer pertinently to the Question Ask them afterwards whether we may with the same Security affirm of a thing what we clearly conceive to be included in the Idea representing it and you 'll find that few will grant it without boggling and hesitation more will deny and most of all will not know what to say to 't And yet this Metaphysical Axiom viz. That we affirm of a thing what we clearly conceive to be contain'd in the Idea that represents it is more evident than this Axiom The Whole is bigger than its Part For as much as this last is not an Axiom but only a Conclusion in respect of the former it may be prov'd from the former Axiom That the Whole is bigger than its Part but the former can't be prov'd by any other as being absolutely the First and the Foundation of all clear and evident Knowledge Whence comes it then that no body hesitates at this Conclusion and yet many doubt of the Principle from whence 't is taken but only that the Ideas of Whole and Part are sensible and we see as we may so say with our Eyes that the Whole is bigger than its Part but have no ocular Proof of the Truth of the prime Fundamental Axiom of all the Sciences Whereas there is nothing is this Axiom which naturally fixes and applies the Mind we must be willing to consider it and that too with some Constancy and Resolution to be evidently convinc'd of the Truth of it The Earnestness of the Will must supply the Defect of sensible Inducements But the Thoughts of considering Objects which have no Charms for the Senses never enter Mens Heads or if they do their Endeavour is too languid and ineffectual For to carry on our said Instance they think 't is evident That the Whole is bigger than its Part that a Mountain of Marble is possible and that a Mountain without a Valley is impossible but that there is not equal Evidence for the Existence of a GOD. Nevertheless we may assert that there is equal Evidence in all these Propositions since they are all at an equal distance from the first Principle This is the first Principle We must attribute that to a thing which we clearly conceive to be contain'd in the Idea that represents it We clearly apprehend there is more Magnitude in the Idea we have of the Whole than in that we have of its Part that Possible Existence is contain'd in the Idea of a Marble Mountain Impossible Existence in the Idea of a Mountain without a Valley and Necessary Existence in the Idea we have of GOD that is of a Being Infinitely Perfect Therefore the Whole is greater than its Part therefore a Marble Mountain is possible to exist therefore 't is impossible for a Mountain without a Vale to exist therefore GOD or Being Infinitely Perfect necessarily exists It is visible that these Conclusions are equally remote from the first Principle of all the Sciences and therefore are equally evident in themselves and so 't is as evident that GOD exists as that the Whole is bigger than its Part. But because the Ideas of Infinite of Perfections of Necessary Existence are not sensible as are the Ideas of Whole and Part Men fancy they have no Perception of what they have no Sensation and though these Conclusions are equally evident in themselves yet they are not equally receiv'd There are Men who would fain persuade us that they have no Idea of an Infinitely Perfect Being which makes me wonder how they came to answer positively to the Demand Whether an Infinitely Perfect Being is round or square or the like For they ought to say they did not know if it were true that they had no Idea of it There are another sort who acknowledge it is good Arguing to conclude that GOD is not an Impossible Being from the Perception we have that the Idea of GOD involves no Contradiction or Impossible Existence and they will not allow us to conclude in like manner that GOD necessarily exists from our conceiving Necessary Existence to be included in the Idea we have of him Lastly There are others who pretend that this Proof of the Existence of a GOD is a Fallacy and the Argument is conclusive only on the Supposition of the Truth of GOD's existing as if we did not prove it Our
unequally supplied there 's all Reason to believe the Diversity of their Graces must proceed from him who is the Chief of Angels as well as Men and who under that Character has merited by his Sacrifice all the Graces which God has given his Creatures but has variously applied them by his different Desires It being undeniable that Jesus Christ long before his Birth or Meriting might be the Meritorious Cause of the Graces given to the Angels and Saints of the Old Testament it ought methinks be granted that by his Prayers he might be the Occasional Cause of the same Graces long before they were demanded For indeed there is no necessary Relation between Occasional Causes and the Time of Production of their Effects and though commonly these sort of Causes are follow'd by their Effects at the Time of their Action yet their Action being not of it self efficacious since its Efficacy depends on the Will of the universal Cause there 's no necessity of their actual Existence for the producing their Effect For Instance Suppose Jesus Christ at this present time should desire of his Father that such a Person might receive such a Supply of Grace at certain Moments of his Life that Prayer of Jesus Christ would infallibly determine the Efficacy of the General Will God has of saving all Men in his Son This Person will receive these Assistances though the Prayer of Jesus Christ be pass'd and his Soul actually think on another thing and never think again on that which he requir'd for him But the past Prayer of Jesus Christ is no more present to his Father than a future For all that must happen in all Times is equally present to God Thus God loving his Son and knowing he shall have such Desires with respect to his Ancestors and those of his own Nation and likewise to the Angels which must enter into the Spiritual Edifice of his Church and constitute the Body whereof he is the Head ought to accomplish the Desires of his Son before they were made that the Elect which preceded his Nativity and which he purchas'd by the Merit of his Sacrifice might as peculiarly belong to him as others and that he might be their Head as really as he is ours I acknowledge it is fit that Meritorious and Occasional Causes should rather precede their Effects than follow them and that Order would have Causes and their Effects exist together For 't is plain that all Merit ought to be instantly recompenc'd and every Occasional Cause actually to produce its Effect provided nothing hinders bâ—t it may or ought be done But Grace being absolutely necessary to Angels and Patriarchs could not be deferr'd But as for the Glory and Reward of the Saints of the Old Testament since that might be deferr'd 't was fit that God should suspend its Accomplishment till Jesus Christ should ascend into Heaven be constituted High Priest over the House of God and begin to exercise the Sovereign Power of Occasional Cause of all Graces merited by his Labours upon Earth Therefore we are to believe that the Patriarchs entred not Heaven till after Jesus Christ their Head Mediator and Fore-runner But though it should be granted that God had not appointed an Occasional Cause for all the Graces afforded the Angels and Patriarchs I see not how it can be thence concluded that Jesus Christ does not at present endue the Church with the Spirit which gives it Increase and Life that he does not pray for it or that his Prayers or Desires are not effectually heard in a word that he is not the Occasional Cause which applies to Men the Graces he has merited I grant if you 'll have it so that God before Jesus Christ gave Grace by particular Wills the Necessity of Order requiring it Whilst by Order the Occasional Cause could not be so soon establish'd and the Elect were very few in Number But now when the Rain of Grace falls not as heretofore on a small Number of Men but is shower'd on all the Earth and Jesus Christ may or ought be constituted the Occasional Cause of the Goods which he has merited for his Church what reason is there to believe God works so many Miracles as he gives us good Thoughts For in short all that is done by particular Wills is certainly a Miracle as not being a Result of the General Laws he has ordain'd whose Efficacy are determin'd by Occasional Causes But how can we imagine that in order to save Men he works so many Miracles useless to their Salvation I would say affords them all these Graces which they resist because not proportion'd to the actual Force of their Concupiscence St. John teaches us That Christians receive from the Fulness of Jesus Christ Graces in abundance For says he the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. For indeed the Graces which preceded him were not comparable to those he distributed after his Triumph If they were Miraculous we are to suppose they were extremely rare Even the Grace of the Apostles before the Holy Spirit was given them could not come in comparison with those they receiv'd when the High Priest of future Goods having entred by his Blood into the Holy of Holies had obtain'd by the Force of his Prayers and sent through the Dignity of his Person the Holy Spirit to animate and sanctifie his Church The unaccountable Blindness of the Jews their gross and carnal Notions their frequent Relapses into Idolatry after so many Miracles sufficiently manifest their disregard for true Goods and the dispiritedness of the Apostles before they had received the Holy Ghost is a sensible Proof of their Weakness So that Grace in those Days was extremely rare because our Nature in Jesus Christ was not yet establish'd the Occasional Cause of Graces Jesus Christ was not yet fully consecrated Priest after the Order of Melchisedech nor had his Father given him that Immortal and Glorious Life which is the particular Character of his Priesthood For 't was necessary that Jesus Christ should enter the Heavens and receive the Glory and Power of Occasional Cause of true Goods before he sent the Holy Spirit according to the Words of St. John The Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified And according to others of Jesus Christ himself It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I go I will send him unto you Now it cannot be imagin'd that Jesus Christ consider'd as God is the Head of the Church as Man he has obtain'd that Quality The Head and Members of a Body must be of the same nature Jesus Christ as Man intercedes for Men as Man he receiv'd from God a Sovereign Power over his Church For as he is God he intercedes not as God he has not receiv'd a Name which is above every Name but he is equal to the Father
and absolute Lord of all things by right of Generation These Truths are evident as we are assur'd by Jesus Christ himself who says that his Father has given him power to judge Men because he is the Son of Man So we ought not to think that Scripture Expressions which make Jesus Christ the Author of Grace must be understood of him consider'd in his Divine Person For if so I confess I should not have prov'd him the Occasional Cause since he would be the True Cause of it But whereas it is certain that the Three Persons of the Trinity are equally the True Cause of Grace because all the External Operations of God are common to them all my Proofs are undeniable since Holy Scripture says of the Son and not of the Father or the Holy Spirit that he is the Head of the Church and that in this Capacity he communicates Life to the constituent Members of it Second OBJECTION XIV 'T is God who gives the Soul of Jesus Christ all the Thoughts and Motions relating to the Formation of his Mystical Body So that if on one hand the Wills of Jesus Christ as Occasional or Natural Causes determine the Efficacy of the General Wills of God on the other 't is God himself who determines the several Wills of Jesus Christ. And thus it comes to the same thing For in brief the Volitions of Jesus Christ are always conformable to those of his Father I grant that the particular Volitions of the Soul of Jesus Christ are always conformable to the Wills of his Father not as if there were any particular Wills in the Father which answer to those in the Son and determine them but only that the Volitions of the Son are always conform'd to Order in general which is the necessary Rule of the Will of God and of all those who love him For to love Order is to love God 't is to will what he wills 't is to be Just Wise Regular in our Love The Soul of Jesus desires to form to the Glory of his Father the largest most sumptuous and accomplish'd Temple possible Order demands this since nothing can be made too great for God All the several Thoughts of this Soul perpetually intent on the Execution of its Design proceed likewise from God or the Word to which it is united But its various Desires are certainly the Occasional Cause of these various Thoughts for it thinks on what it wills Now these diverse Desires are sometimes entirely free and probably the Thoughts which excite them do not invincibly determine the Soul of Jesus Christ to apply her self to the Means of executing them For in brief 't is equally advantageous to the Design of Jesus Christ whether it be Peter or John that causes the Effect which the Regularity of his Work requires 'T is true the Soul of Jesus is not indifferent in any thing that relates to his Father's Glory or that Order necessarily demands but is entirely free in all the rest there is nothing extraneous to God which invincibly determines his Love Thus we ought not to wonder if Jesus have particular Wills though there be not the like Wills in God to determine them But let it be granted that the Volitions of Jesus Christ are not free and that his Light invincibly carries him to will and to will always in a determinate manner in the Construction of his Church But it is Eternal Wisdom to which his Soul is united that must determine his Volitions We must not for that Effect suppose Particular Wills in God But all the Wills of Jesus Christ are Particular or have no Occasional Cause to determine their Efficacy as have those of God For the Soul of Jesus Christ having not an infinite Capacity of Thinking his Notices and consequently his Volitions are limited Therefore his Wills must needs be Particular since they change according to his diverse Thoughts and Applications For probably the Soul of Jesus Christ otherwise imploy'd in Contemplating and tasting the infinite Satisfactions of the True Good methinks ought not according to Order desire at once to think on all the Ornaments and Beauties he would bestow upon his Church nor on the different Ways of executing each of his Designs For Jesus Christ desiring to render the Church worthy of the infinite Majesty of his Father would gladly perfect it with infinite Beauties by Ways most conformable to Order He must then constantly change his Desires there being but one infinite Wisdom who can fore-see all and prescribe himself General Laws for the executing his Designs But the future World being to subsist eternally and to be infinitely more perfect than the present it was requisite that God should establish an Occasional Cause Intelligent and Enlightned by Eternal Wisdom to remedy the Defects which should unavoidably happen in the Works that were form'd by General Laws The Collision of Bodies which determines the Efficacy of the General Laws of Nature is an Occasional Cause without Understanding and Liberty and therefore 't is impossible but there must be Imperfections in the World and Monsters produc'd which are not of such account as that the Wisdom of God should descend to remedy them by Particular Wills But Jesus Christ being an Intelligent Occasional Cause illuminate with the Wisdom of the Word and susceptible of Particular Wills according to the particular Exigencies of the Work he forms 't is plain that the future World will be infinitely more perfect than the present that the Church will be without Spot or Wrinkle as we are taught by Scripture and that it will be a Work most worthy of the Complacency of God himself 'T is in this manner that Eternal Wisdom renders as I may say to his Father what he had taken from him For not permitting him to act by Particular Wills he seem'd to disable his Almighty Arm But becoming incarnate he so brings it to pass that God acting in a manner worthy of him by most Simple and General Laws produces a Work wherein the most Illuminate Intelligences cannot observe the least Imperfection PROOFS founded on REASON XV. Having demonstrated by the Authority of Scripture that the diverse Motions of the Soul of Jesus Christ are the Occasional Causes which determine the Efficacy of the General Law of Grace by which God would have all Men sav'd in his Son 't is necessary to shew in general by Reason that we are not to believe God acts in the Order of Grace by Particular Wills For though by Reason separate from Faith it cannot be demonstrated that God has constituted the Wills of Man-God the Occasional Causes of his Gifts yet it may without Faith be shewn that he distributes them not to Men by Particular Wills and that in two manners a priori and a posteriori that is by the Idea we have of God and by the Effects of Grace For there is nothing but serves to prove this Truth First then for the Proof of a priori A wise Being