our own making For it is certain That Custom and Education to which we owe most of the Mischiefs we suffer and usually charge upon Nature have procur'd us very many Wants which She intended us not And which therefore accordingly vary in different Countries and Ages of the World And these Wants are very many more especially in the Civiliz'd Nations as we call them than the Wants of Nature viz. Queis humana sibi doleat Natura negatis They are wise who indeavour to contract their Desires to the last But whoever says the Denial of what Nature requires ought not to be esteem'd an Unhappiness talks like a Disciple of Chrâ—… and not of Jesus Christ Wâ—â—â—â—â—â—llowers are so often exhorted to do good to all Men Which at least a chief part of it consists in removing the Pains and Miseries they suffer from their Natural Wants and Necessities And This great part of Charity must be perform'd according to that Rule of the Apostle Heb. xiii 16. To do good and to communicate forget not for with such Sacrifice God is well pleased And altho' when the want of those things which Nature requires comes in competition with any good of Eternal Concernment they may well be thought light and be slighted in that Comparison yet in themselves they cannot nor ought to be so And our Master himself thought thus When for the Joy that was set before him he indured the Cross c. But tho' it be a great part of Wisdom to contract our Desire only to what Nature requires Yet as we must not seek the Satisfaction of our Natural Appetites when it cannot be obtain'd without prejudice to some Duty which ought at that time to be preferr'd So the gratification of Appetites which are not properly Natural but which we have receiv'd from Custom and Education is not always Sinful For besides that Custom which it may be was none of our fault is oftentimes as strong as Nature in us Those acquired Appetites are also many times no ways prejudicial to what we owe either to God or our Neighbour And where they are not so their Gratification cannot be Sinful Our Saviour who said This do and thou shalt Live assures us That he who heartily loves God and his Neighbour as himself can make no mistake in his Duty dangerous to his Salvation And those Mistakes which are so only to our happy living whilst here are sufficiently punish'd in the disappointment they carry along with them It is not therefore hard for a Man if he be sincere to know when his Desires are rightly regulated And he will need no Casuist besides himself to tell him what and how far he may lawfully Love or Desire and what or how far he may not do so Loves he any thing in the World to the prejudice of his Love of God or his Neighbour it is Sinful Does he not do so there is no Sin To oppose this would be to contradict those words of our Saviour And indeed these two great Duties of the Love of God and our Neighbour imply or include each other If says the Apostle 1 John iv 20. a man say I love God and hateth his Brother he is a Liar And v. 12. If we love one another God dwelleth in us and the Love of God is perfected in us Again v. 7. Let us love one another every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God v. 8. He that loves not knoweth not God Chap. iii. 17. But who so has this Worlds Goods and seeth his Brother have need and shutteth up his Bowels of Compassion from him how dwelleth the Love of God in him God is an invisible Being And it is by his Works that we are led both to know and to love him They lead us to their invisible Author And if we lov'd not the Creatures it is not conceiveable how we should love God at least how they shuld have lov'd him who not having the Law yet did by Nature the things contain'd in the Law And this however opposite to what some tell us seems nevertheless the sense of the above-named Apostle who says 1 John iv 20. He that loveth not his Brother whom he has seen how can he love God whom he has not seen And I would demand of any one if they could suppose themselves or any other never to have loved any Creature what they could imagine they should love I suppose it must be reply'd by such a one That as he was not the Author of his own Being and saw clearly that he could not be produced by nothing He was thereby led to the Acknowledgment of a Superiour Being to whom he was indebted for his own and therefore stood obliged to love him But Being or Existence barely consider'd is so far from being a Good that in the state of the Damn'd few are so Paradoxical as not to believe it an intolerable Misery And many even in this World are so unhappy that they would much rather part with their Existence than be eternally continued in the State they are in The Author of our Being therefore merits not our Love unless he has given to us such a Being as we can Love Now if none of the Objects that every way surround us were pleasing to us How could our Beings that have a continual Communication with and necessary Dependance upon these be so But if the Objects that surround us do please us that is if we do love them As it is then evident they must be the first Objects of our Love so from their Gratefulness or Pleasingness to us it is also evident that we have both the Idea of Love and are led to the Discovery of the Author of that Being that produces what is lovely And like as our own Existence and that of other Beings has assur'd us of the Existence of some Cause more Powerful than these Effects so also the Loveliness of his Works as well assures us that that Cause or Author is yet more Lovely than they and consequently the Object the most worthy of our Love But if none of those Beings which surround us did move our Love we should then both be ignorant of the Nature of the Author of all things and of Love it self For what should then exert it that it should not lie for ever Dormant And which way could we in the state we are in receive the Idea of Love or Lovely For God as Powerful which is all we should know of him consider'd barely as a Creator is no more an Object of Love than of Hate or Fear and is truly an Object only of Admiration It seems therefore plain that if any could be without the Love of the Creatures they would be without the Love of God also For as by the Existence of the Creatures we come to know there is a Creator so by their Loveliness it is that we come to know That of their Author and to Love him But it will be said here That we
have Pleasing Sensations 't is true as soon as Perception But that we have them not from the Beings which surround us but from God I ask can we know this before we know that there is a God Or will they say that we know there is a God as soon as ever we have Perception Let it be true that the Creatures have receiv'd no efficiency from God to excite pleasing Sensations in us and are but the occasional Causes of those we feel Yet does a Child in the Cradle know this Or is this apparent so soon as it is that the Fire pleases us when we are Cold or Meat when we are Hungry No nor is it at any time a self evident Truth We must know many other Truths before we come to know this which is a Proposition containing many complex Ideas in it and which we are not capable of framing till we have been long acquainted with pleasing Sensations In the mean while it is certain that till we can make this Discovery we shall necessarily Love that which appears to us to be the Cause of our Pleasure as much as if it really were so It being unavoidably by us the same thing to us And we are necessitated by God himself to that which Mr. N. says is truly Idolatry For our Passions are not moved by the reality but appearance of things To the prevention of which this Notion were it true and receiv'd amongst Men as such could be of no use at all neither could it teach them not to ascend to the Love of God by the Love of Creatures Since it can be of use to none till they are convinc'd of it and none are capable of being convinc'd of it till sensible Objects by appearing the Causes of their Pleasing Sensations have gotten Possession of their Love and have as soon assur'd them that God is the Object the most worthy of their Love as they have assured them of his Existence It is true when first in our infancy we feel pleasing Sensations we are no more capable of being taught by them that there is a Superiour Invisible Being that made these things to affect us thus who therefore ought supreamly to be lov'd than that this Invisible Being at the Presence of these Objects exhibits to us a part of his own Essence by which these Pleasing Sensations are excited on occasion of those Objects without us and that therefore he is only and solely to be loved But tho' we are uncapable of these both alike when first we cry for the Fire or the Sucking-Bottle Yet it is certain that by the former way we are not only safe all the time of our Ignorance from the Sin of Idolatry and the fatal pre-ingagement of a sinful affection but that our love to God upon that ground is of easier deduction and earlier apprehended than by the latter So soon as we do begin to leave off judging by appearances and are Capable of being convinc'd that the Diameter of the Sun exceeds that of a Bushel We are capable also of understanding that there is a Superiour Invisible Being the Author of those things which afford us pleasing Sensations who therefore is supreamly to be loved But if we are not capable of scaping Idolatry unless we love God alone because he immediately exhibits to us a part of his Essence by which all pleasing Sensations are caus'd in us I fear all Mankind before this present Age lived and died Idolaters and the greatest part for the future will do so Since I guess not One of a Thousand will be found capable of apprehending and being convinced of this new Hypothesis of seeing all things in God And as I think this cannot be denied so is it also more suitable to the Wisdom and Goodness of God that it should be true For one must say that the Happiness and Welfare of Mankind were ill taken care for if it depended upon a Knowledge which not only few are ever likely to have but which comes too late to any for much Use to be made of it For when sensible Ideas have taken Possession of us for Twelve or Twenty Years they must be very ignorant of the constitution of Humane Nature that can think it possible they should presently or probably they should ever be dispossess'd by a Notion altho' a true one And for this Mr. N. is not so kind as to furnish us with any remedy But he whom he is suppos'd to have receiv'd this Hypothesis from indeavours to solve the Goodness and Wisdom of God in this Matter and to help us out of this Difficulty by making this Principle of our being obliged to have no Love for the Creatures to be the very Ground upon which Christianity stands Which he thus in short accounts for We must not Desire or Love the Creatures they being uncapable to be our Good We yet do Love and desire them tho' Reason assures us of This. And our Doing thus is the Original Sin which we bring into the World with us Which makes us Children of Wrath and liable to Damnation Unable to please God but by a Mediator both God and Man who only could atone the Justice of God by the Excellency of his Sacrifice Intercede to God by the Dignity of his Priesthood and send us the Holy Ghost by the quality of his Person But as this Ground of Christianity has a weak Foundation viz. The Creature 's being only occasional Causes of our Pleasing Sensations which is neither proved nor would support the Superstructure that is rais'd upon it if it could be proved So it is to be hoped that if we reject what so few have receiv'd or so much as thought of we may yet be good Christians And those seem more than a little to indanger Christianity if not Deism also who lay the great stress of their proof upon the Hypothesis of seeing all things in God For in that the whole Argument for both by which Atheists or Sceptics are propos'd to be brought over to Deism or Christianity terminates in the Conversations Chrestiennes of Mr. Malebranche lately Translated into English for the introducing amongst us that Unintelligible way of Practical Religion above spoken of And I doubt not but if it were generally receiv'd and Preach'd by our Divines that this Opinion of Seeing all things in God was the Basis upon which Christianity was built Scepticism would be so far from finding thereby a Cure that it would spread it self much farther amongst us than it has yet done And that many who find Christianity a very Reasonable Religion in the Scriptures would think it a very unaccountable one in a System that laying down That for its foundation adds also further That the Desire we have to the Creature is the Punishment of Sin not the Institution of Nature For this Concupiscence is transmitted to us from our first Parent Qui voyoit clairement Dieu en toutes choses Il sçavoit avec evidence que les Corps ne
proved that there is but one thing a Good to us this last Assertion serves for nothing unless to make it more evident that he has all along said nothing to the Purpose For his Affirmation that we cannot Love either God or the Creature but upon such a Principle as must utterly exclude the Love of the other Was of as much Authority to us as his Assertion that there can be but one thing a Good to us And there is no more proof offer'd by him for the one than the other This I believe his own Observation and Experience has often offer'd to him for the confutation of what he affirms viz. That it is not true that all Men in the World either Love God and God only Or the Creature only and God not at all Which ought to be according to his Principles But the Admonition of St. John he says is somewhat more express to his Purpose than that of our Saviour was 1 Joh. 11.15 Love not the World nor the things of the World If any Man love the World the Love of the Father is not in him Here again Mr. N. acknowledges that according to the common Interpretation this is meant of the immoderate love of the World But he says they interpreted it so for want of Principles on which to raise a higher sense 'T is plain the words import more viz. That we are not to love the World at all That all Love of it is immoderate And by his former measures before laid down it appears how and why it is so But I believe St. John will be found to explain himself much better than Mr. N. explains him St. John says Love not the World nor the things of the World If any Man love the World the Love of the Father is not in him Now the Question is whether Mr. N. be in the right in understanding as he does by Love every the least degree of Love Or whether other Interpreters are so in thinking that by Love immoderate Love is meant And I think there needs nothing more to satisfie us that the last are in the Right than Mr. N 's own concession viz. That without his Hypothesis this Scripture could not be understood otherwise than those Interpreters understand it So that unless St. John writ not to be understood by those he wrote to or that the Christians to whom he wrote had Mr. N 's Hypothesis it is past doubt that the other Interpreters he mentions are to be thought in the Right But because it is believed by him that St. John who so much presses Love to others had himself so little Love to Mankind as to leave the strongest inforcement of their greatest Duty in obscurity We will see whether or no there is any appearance that he did so And whether Mr. N-'s Hypothesis serve to illustrate this Scripture For that this Hypothesis could not be learnt from it is apparently confess'd Because the Hypothesis must be known as he himself owns before the Scripture Proof of it can be understood And therefore our former Argument against this Hypothesis from the Goodness and Wisdom of God that would not permit a Doctrine of the consequence this is pretended to be to be so obscure as it is stands still good for all this fresh pretence to Scripture Proof But St. John 1 Joh. 11.15 says Love not the World nor the things which are in the World If any Man love the World the Love of the Father is not in him Now that this is meant of the sinful Pleasures of the World or the immoderate and consequently sinful Love of Pleasures in themselves not sinful what words can make Plainer than the immediately following ones wherein the Reasons are given why we should not Love the World nor the things of the World viz. v. 16. Because all that is in the World as the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life is not of the Father but is of the World That is proceeds not from God but from the Passions Vanities and Follies of corrupt and sinful Men And we should not set our Hearts upon the World That is even the allowable Pleasures of it Because v. 17. The World passes away And therefore by no means ought to be consider'd as the ultimate Good of a Being of a more induring Nature But is indeed so far remov'd from it as the little Duration of the one holds of proportion to the endless Duration of the other This is what St. John says And it seems too plain to need any other Explanation than what he himself has given But as if every Text in Scripture were a distinct Aphorism it is frequently enough quoted by some without any regard to what goes before or to what comes after with how much sincerity cannot be said But certainly to the manifest bringing into Contempt those Oracles of Truth But for whatever Cause Mr. N. omitted these Reasons of St. John for our not loving the World and the things of it And substitured one of his own in the Place viz. That the Creatures are not the Efficient but Occasional Cause of our Pleasing Sensations He does say That without the knowledge of this his Hypothesis we cannot know that every degree of Love of the Creature is sinful and consequently that St. John's Reasons for inforcing the Duty he urges were defective But St. John tells us not that every degree of Love of the Creature is sinful On the contrary he says If we love not our Brother whom we have seen how can we love God whom we have not seen Therefore there is no more need of Mr. N's Opinion to inforce what St. John teaches than there is use of what St. John teaches to confirm Mr. N 's Opinion For that St. John meant not by Love every degree of Love is evident Both because he would contradict himself if he did and also from the Reasons he gives why we should not love the World and the things of the World viz. Because all that is in the World is not of the Father and passes away quickly For he would either have given us the true Reason of This or stopping where Mr. N. did in his Citation of him not have misled us by giving us Reasons which not only reach not the matter But which also serve to Determine us to another sense For as short-liv'd Flowers tho' they ought not to imploy the continual care of our whole lives may yet reasonably enough be found in our Gardens and delight us in their Seasons So the fading Good Things of this Life tho' for that reason they are not to be fixed on as the Ultimate Good of Eternal Beings yet there is no reason why we may not rejoice in them as the good Gifts of God and find all that Delight which he has joined with the lawful use of them But St. John says Love not Therefore Mr. N. says we must not Love them at all Our Saviour also in St.
Intellectual Beings whom he has made free Agents as well as Man That as he cannot make a Being Independent on himself for its Happiness So the most inlightned Reason is only safe and secure whilst it feels its weakness and dependency Which if we be thoroughy as we ought sensible of we shall necessarily love God with all our Hearts with all our Souls c. Mr. N. says these words signifie That we must love nothing but God alone And to confirm that his sense of them he brings yet two other places of Scripture The first is james iv 4. Ye Adulterers and Adulteresses know ye not that the Friendship of the World is Enmity with God Whosoever therefore will be a Friend of the World is the Enemy of God He tells us here That in St. James's account Our Heart is so much God's Property and Peculiar and ought so intirely to be devoted to him that 't is a kind of Spiritual Adultery to admit any Creature into a Partnership with him in our Love It is certain these are not St. James's words and we have only Mr. N-'s Affirmation that this is his sense But tho' Mr. N-'s affirming without any Proof that all love of the Creature is here condemn'd and said to be a kind of Spiritual Adultery needs no other Answer but a bare Negation And the saying without any Proof that it is only the inordinate love of the Creature that is so call'd and condemn'd would be enough Yet the context further plainly shows that that is the meaning of St. James here by what he calls Friendship of the World To which let me add that Adultery does not wholly exclude all other Love of any other Person but a love that comes in competition or invades that which properly belongs to the Husband For a Woman may love her Brother or her Child without being an Adulteress it being not with that Love that is due to her Husband The last place Mr. N. cites to prove that Love of the Creatures is Sinful is from St. Paul Gal. vi 14. The World is Crucified to me and I unto the World Which last words Mr. N. says at once comprize his present conclusion that the Creature is not to be in any degree the Object of our love with the very same ground and bottom upon which he has built it For the Apostle here first of all supposes the World to be Crucified that is to be a Dead Unactive Silent and Quiescent thing in respect of himself as not being able to operate upon him or affect his Soul with any Sentiment as an Efficient Cause And then in consequence of that declares himself to be also Crucified to the World p. 68. which Mr. N. explains very truly tho' not very conformably to his Opinion by being insensible to all its Charms For according to his Explanation St. Paul knew very well that the World had no Charms But whosoever will read this whole Passage in St. Paul will evidently see that it amounts to this That there were some Men so Preach'd Christ as yet to have regard to the favour and good liking of Men That they might avoid Persecution from some and gain Glory from others But St. Paul in his Preaching of the Gospel had so intirely given up himself to it that he minded nothing but the Preaching of the Gospel Going on in that Work without any regard either to Persecution or Vain-Glory And thus the World was Crucified to him and he to the World They were as Dead things and in this respect had no Operation St. Paul's words are As many as desire to make a fair shew in the Flesh they constrain you to be Circumcis'd Only lest they should suffer Persecution for the Cross of Christ For neither They themselves who are Circumcis'd keep the Law But desire to have you Circumcis'd that they may glory in your Flesh But God forbid that I should Glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ whereby the World is Crucified to me and I unto the World Very often it happens that a piece of a Discourse or as here even a piece of a Verse serves for a Quotation much better than the whole would do This is so evident in this Place that it requires some Charity to think that a Man is in earnest fearching after Truth or believes himself whilst he is a Writing after such a manner But because the Character Mr. N. bears ought to be a Warrant for his Sincerity we must conclude that he does think St. Paul tells the Galatians that some would have them Circumcis'd only that they might avoid Persecution and might Glory in their Flesh But God forbid that he should Glory in any thing but the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the Creatures are only the Occasional not the Efficient Causes of his Pleasing Sensations and he Dead to them This Mr. N. it seems does think was the Sense of what St. Paul said But that it was not I think common Sense will sufficiently satisfie us without consulting Interpreters about it Theseare the Texts brought by Mr. N. to support an Opinion grounded on an Hypothesis perhaps Demonstrably false That has evidently no proof but the poor one from our Ignorance that yet is not at all help'd by this Hypothesis Which is therefore as well as for the Ends of Morality plainly useless Yet all this might well be Pardon'd to any Effort of advancing our Knowledge if it did not pretend to influence our Religion And not only so but to be the very Basis and Foundation of Christianity as it is made to be by the first Ingenious Inventor of it Mr. N. has not indeed advanced that so directly But with more Confidence a great deal making it the ground of Morality he falls as little short of it as is possible And his Discourses upon this Subject being in a more Popular way are more likely to do hurt For certainly to perswade Men that God requires what they find impossible to perform and opposite to their very Constitution and Being in this World is to make Religion and the Teachers of it ridiculous to some And to drive others weaker but better-minded People into Despair By giving them occasion to think that they do not love God as they ought Such Effects I fear may be the Consequences of Mr. N's Doctrine who teaches that we do not love God as we ought whilst we love any Creature at all And particularly in the above-cited Sermon He positively says That the Creatures are no more our Goods than our Gods and that we may as well worship them as love them Pract. Disc p. 62. These Opinions of Mr. N. seem also to indanger the introducing especially amongst those whose Imaginations are stronger than their Reason a Devout way of talking which having no sober and intelligible sense under it will either inevitably by degrees beget an Insensibility to Religion in those themselves who use it as well as others By thus
accustoming them to handle Holy things without Fear Or else will turn to as wild an Enthusiasm as any that has been yet seen and which can End in nothing but Monasteries and Hermitages with all those Sottish and Wicked Superstitions which have accompanied them where-ever they have been in use And this the Author of the Christian Conversations foresaw very well must be the Consequence Or rather conformably to his Religion and Profession might perhaps have it in his View and Design to justifie those things by this his Hypothesis which makes them not only allowable but of necessary use But however that were he concludes his Discourse of our being obliged to have no Love for any Creature with a sincere Acknowledgment that if this be true which he has concluded it is it is then absolutely necessary to renounce the World and betake our selves to Woods and Desarts For it is impossible to live in the daily Commerce and Conversation of the World and love God as we ought to do And accordingly he makes his Young Men introduced to be Converts to Religion upon these Principles bid Adien to the World even to their Dearest Friends and Relations For Pere Malebranche it seems was unacquainted with that Distinction which Mr. N. says ought to be made of Movements of the Soul and Movements of the Body Otherwise he might have assured his Aristarchus that he was in a very great Mistake to believe that the Principles before laid down obliged him to any retreat from the World or Renunciation of the Injoyments of it Since the Movements of the Body Mr. N. tells us may be determin'd by those Objects which inviron it and by those Movements Aristarchus might have Vnited himself to those things which were the Natural or Occasional Causes of his Pleasure See Mr. N's Letters Philosophical and Divine p. 75. But Pere Malebranche designing his Notions to be of some use to the World pursued them whether by just consequence they led him and sought not for any contrivance to make them insignificant to any other Purpose than to shew the Parturiency of their Author He therefore reasonably from his Principles insists upon it that the retreat from the World is best for all and necessary to most who design to lead a Christian Life Those being much to be pitied whom God calls to live in the World for the Conversion of others This in a Papist and one of a Religious Order amongst them cannot seem strange But there can certainly be no greater Disparagement to Christian Religion than to say That it unfits Men for Society That we must not only literally become Fools for Christ's sake but also cease to be Men. Can any Rational Man not bred up in the Bigottry of Popery ever perswade himself that such a Religion can be from God Or is there any appearance throughout the whole New Testament of its being so John indeed who had not the power of Miracles or a Voice from Heaven to Authorize his Mission made himself be taken notice of by the remarkable Austerity of his Life But he neither Preach'd it nor propos'd himself in that an Example to others He was by something extraordinary tho' without Miracles to draw Auditors to him whom he might prepare to receive the Messiah But that living in a Desart and bidding adieu to Society were not necessary to Religion our Saviour's Example as well as his Precepts show He came Eating and Drinking Conversing in the World like other Men And he assures us That he came not to destroy but to fulfil the Law viz. The Moral Law which is the same with the Law of Reason than which Heaven and Earth shall sooner pass away and in which are legibly found those Duties of an active and social Life that have so much recommended and eterniz'd the Memories of many Philosophers and Lawgivers and other great Men of Antiquity Whose Religion Mankind would be apt to think they had reason to wish for again if they were perswaded that Christianity were opposite to and inconsistent with those admired and beneficial Virtues that Support and Profit Society There is nothing more evident than that Mankind is design'd for a Sociable Life To say that Religion unfits us for it is to reproach the Wisdom of God as highly as it is possible And to represent Religion as the most mischievous thing in the World dissolving Societies And there could not be a greater Artifice of the Devil or Wicked Men to bring Christianity into contempt than this But it is to be hoped that where the Scriptures are allow'd to be read this can never prevail And that those who are not in danger of being led into it by the Superstitions of Priest-Craft will not be impos'd upon in it by vain Philosophy Nor can there be any stronger Evidence that That Notion of the Love of God grounded on his Being the immediate Cause of all our Sensations is false than this viz. That it Destroys all the Duties and Obligations of Social Life This indeed is not Mr. N's deduction from thence But it is that of his Oracle Pere Malebranche and that of Reason And he will scarce be believ'd to be Sincere that shall say he can daily see and injoy the Creatures as Goods without desiring them as such Or that shall deny that if it be our Duty not to desire any Creature it must then necessarily be our Duty as P. M. expresly says it is to have as little communication with them as is possible and to betake our selves to Desarts But whether it were that Mr. N. has no inclination to this way of Living and that it is to That that we owe his Happy Invention of Seeking and injoying the good things of the World without loving them Or that he was afraid by owning his Opinion that we are obliged to renounce the World and live in Woods He should be suspected of favouring Popish Superstition He can scarcely be presum'd not to see that this inevitably follows from the Hypothesis he has embraced But yet how injurious soever this Consequence is to Religion so much is not therefore deny'd to what Per. Malebranche largely insists upon viz. That Retirement is sometimes useful if not necessary to a Christian Life Those who live always in the hurry of the World and the avocations of Worldly Business without giving themselves time and retreat frequently to reflect being no doubt very likely to enter too much into the Spirit of it We insensibly giving up our selves to and uniting our Hearts with what we are constantly ingaged in and with delight apply our selves to But if in opposition to this any one should run into the other extream of retreating wholly from all commerce and conversation with Men And should give themselves the Happiness Pere Malebranche speaks of of attending Eternity in Desarts it is to be fear'd they would not mend the Matter For whatever Vices they might part with by it they must necessarily oppose thereby one great end that they were sent into the World for viz. of doing good By becoming wholly useless to others And such a one would certainly by such a renunciation of all commerce with Men be likelier to grow Wild than improve the great Virtue of Christianity and Ornament of Humane Nature Good Will Charity and the being Useful to others As for Monasteries and Religious Houses as they are call'd all who are acquainted with them know that they are nothing less than what is pretended And serve only to draw in Discontented Devout People with an imaginary Happiness For there is constantly as much Pride Malice and Faction within those Walls as without them And if we may believe what is said and has not wanted farther Evidence very often as much licentiousness In short our Natures are so suited to a mediocrity in all things that we can scarce exceed in any kind with Safety To be always busy in the Affairs of the World or always shut up from them cannot be born Always Company or always Solitude are Dangerous And so are any other Extreams FINIS
what is no way desireable to us Or that we should not desire that in which we rejoice and take Complaisance The Being therefore and well Being of our Neighbour must necessarily be desireable to us and we could not otherwise love him as our selves For it is certain That our own Being and well Being are desirable to us Who is there that does not desire the Continuation of them And therefore that there is no Love without Desire any more than without Benevolence as is apparent in our Love of God so far as the Objects of our Love admits of both But Love simply as is above said is that Disposition or Act of the Mind which we find in our selves towards any thing we are pleas'd with and consists barely in that Disposition or Act And cannot be distinguish'd into different Acts of wishing well or Benevolence And Desiring Which are other different Acts of the Mind exerted according to the different Objects of our Love We desire to injoy in every thing that in them which delights us And we wish well to the Being of every thing that helps to make us happy If their Being can be continued with our Injoyment of them that Injoyment is also necessarily desired by us It being impossible for any Creature not to Desire whatever appears to them to make a part of their Happiness But now whence is it that arises either those Wars and Violences that are in the World amongst Men one with another or those Tumults and Perturbations that too frequently spring up in their own Breasts when all things without them are Serene Peaceable and Quiet From Desire it is true all these Mischiefs proceed And Desire is the inexhaustible Fountain of Folly Sin and Misery Is it not therefore worthy of our greatest Application and Endeavours to free our selves from so Dangerous Evils Without doubt it is so And this has always been the Care of the Wife Present as well as Future Happiness being concern'd in it Qui Cupit aut metuit juvat illum sic Domus aut res Ut Lippum pictae Tabulae fomenta podagram Auriculas Citharae collecta sorde dolentes But we are to enquire what remedy Religion gives us to this Disease And that we are sure can be no other than Reason prescribes which is to proportion our Desires to the worth of things For where they go beyond that we are certain to be disappointed whether we miss or obtain what we desire But so far as the injoyment of things are in their real worth answerable to our Desires so far we are really Happy And should we always so succeed in a constant train of our Desires we should according to our Capacity be perfectly Happy We cannot conceive any Being to be without Desires but God Nor can we conceive it to be a fault for any Creature to act suitable to its Nature and desire things that can be injoy'd and will contribute to its Happiness This I am sure Holy Writ allows us For the Apostle tells us That God has given us all things richly to injoy And Moses himself whatever Metaphysical Notions Mr. N. puts into him tells the People of Israel Deut. xxvi 11. Thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God has given to thee Thou and the Levite and the Stranger that is amongst you Which was but suitable to the Land of Promise flowing with Milk and Honey proposed to the Desires of that whole People And I think we may say not one of the Six hundred Thousand would have marched through the Wilderness had not Moses allow'd them to desire the good things of Canaan but told them they must desire nothing of the Creature But our Errour and Unhappiness is that we do not regulate our Desires aright They are not under the Government and Direction of our Reason and Judgment but lead these away Captive with them in their endless Chace after whatever strikes our Imaginations with any Pleasing Idea The best Remedy for which that Reason can prescribe is what Religion has injoyn'd us viz. an Ardent Love of God above all things For our Desires placed upon this Object will not only never be disappointed But also the Love of God above all other things will the most effectually secure us from any immoderate Love of any of his Creatures Because the contrariety between such a Love of God and any sinful or inordinate Love of the Creature makes them inconsistent If therefore the Love of God and the Interests of another life were constantly our Ruling and Predominant Passion If in this sense as low as it seems to Mr. N. we did Love God with all our Heart with all our Soul and with all our Strength We should not only be secure of doing our Duty but also make the best provision that we could for our Happiness even here in this World For then the disappointments we might meet with in the Love of any thing else would never indanger the foundations of our Satisfaction which like a House built upon a Rock could not be mov'd by any Storms or Tempests of Fortune And we might say with Dr. H. More What 's Plague or Prison Loss of Friends War Dearth or Death that all things Ends Mere Bugbears for the Childish Mind Pure Panick Terrors of the Blind Which however it may look to some like a Religious Rant is no more than in other instances we may find Experience to have made good the truth of For even in the Love of the things of this World very often one Affection or Desire has so much the Possession of a Man's Heart that all others how natural a tendency soever he has to them do but very weakly and superficially affect him in their Success or Miscarriage And this no Man that is either very Ambitious very Covetous very much in Love or possess'd strongly with any other Passion can deny to be so The Love of God therefore as we are capable of loving him that is chiefly not solely does effectually secure our Happiness and consequently our Duty For he desires nothing of us but that we should be as Happy as he has made us capable of Being And has laid no Traps or Snares to render us Miserable Nor does he require impossible Performances from us Yet it is true nevertheless that the constant Communication that we have with sensible Objects which are apt too far to ingage our Affections makes the Regulation of our Desires to demand our greatest Care and Watchfulness And too much can never be said of the Necessity of this Duty which in general consists in desiring every thing according to its worth And the Objects of our Desires are either Things of Temporal concern only or of Eternal also between which as there cannot be in themselves so therefore there ought not to be in our Estimation any Comparison Of things Temporal which are the Objects of our Desires They are either such as are so from Wants of Nature or Wants of