cloth'd with our Vileness and Infirmities But the Bishop hath more relation to God as Wisdom and Reason incarnate and compass'd about with our Infirmities than as absolute and independent Power to Jesus Christ upon Earth conversing familiarly with Men than to Jesus Christ glorified and made supreme Lord of all the Nations of the World Ye know saith our Saviour to his Apostles Mat. 20.25 that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise Dominion over them and they that are great exercise Authority upon them But it shall not be so among you The Son of Man came not to be ministred unto but to minister and to give his life a Ransom for many Not that Princes have a Right to use their Authority without Reason God himself hath not this miserable Right he is essentially Just and the universal Reason is his inviolable Law But the abuse of the Ecclesiastical Authority is more criminal in the sight of God than the abuse of Royal Authority not only because there is an infinite difference between spiritual and temporal Goods but also because the Ecclesiastical Power that acts imperiously and arbitrarily acts directly contrary to the Character which it bears of Jesus Christ who is always Reason and Reason humbled and proportion'd to the capacity of Men for their Instruction and Salvation V. The end of the institution of these two Powers is very different The Civil Power is ordain'd for the maintenance of Civil Societies The Ecclesiastical Power for the establishment and preservation of the heavenly Society which is begun upon Earth and shall never end The Duty of the Prince regards only the peace of the State the Duty of the Bishop the peace of Christ's Church The Prince should preserve and augment those Conveniences that are necessary for the temporal Life The Bishop by his Preaching and Example should instruct and enlighten the People and as the Minister of Christ diffuse inward Grace by the Sacraments in the Members of the Church and thereby communicate the life of the Spirit to those that are committed to his charge In a word the Power of the Prince is ordain'd for the temporal Good of his Subjects that of the Bishop for the spiritual Good of his Children VI. This being laid down as the first Principle the second which follows from it is That since God is the absolute Lord of all Things his Orders give a Right to all necessary and reasonable means for the execution of them A Servant who receives Orders from his Master to carry a message of importance with all speed to his Friend hath no right to take his Neighbour's Horse for the execution of his Master's commands because his Master himself hath not that right But God being the absolute Lord of all Things when he saith to St. Peter Feed my Sheep or when he commands the King to preserve his Subjects in Peace he gives to these two sovereign Powers as far as Order permits an absolute right to all Things necessary for the execution of his Will So that the natural essential and primitive Rights of the temporal Sovereignty are as far as Order permits all necessary means for the preservation of the State and the natural rights of the Ecclesiastical Power are all lawful means necessary for the edification of the Church of Christ VII But the Church and the State being compos'd of the same Persons who at the same time are both Christians and Members of a Body Politick Children of the Church and Subjects of the Prince it is impossible for these two Powers which ought to have a mutual regard to each other and should be absolute and independent in the Administration of their several Functions to exercise their Jurisdiction and execute the Orders of their common Master if they do not perfectly agree together and even in some Cases depart with something of their Rights to one another For this Reason it is that the Prince by the concession of the Church hath now a right of Presentation to many Benefices and the Church by the concession of the Prince enjoys temporal Possessions These are not natural rights because they are not necessary or natural consequences of the Commission which these different Powers have receiv'd from God They are only rights of concession depending on a mutual Agreement whose end ought to be no other than that which God propos'd to himself in the institution of these two Powers VIII The building of the Church of Christ the eternal Temple being the great or indeed the only design of God for all the Societies and Kingdoms of this World shall be dissolv'd when the Work of him who alone is immutable in his designs shall be compleated it is evident that the State hath a reference and should be subservient to the good of the Church rather than the Church to the glory or even the preservation of the State and that one of the principal Duties of a Christian Prince is to furnish Christ with Materials fit to be sanctified by his Grace under the care of the Bishop and to build up the spiritual Edefice of the Church For this end chiefly it is that the Prince should prefer the State in Peace give Orders that his Subjects be instructed in solid Learning such as gives perfection to the Mind and regulates the Heart and take care that the Laws ordain'd for the punishment of Vice and Injustice be strictly observ'd For a People well instructed and obedient to reasonable Laws is better fitted to receive effectually the influence of Grace than a rude vicious and ignorant People For this Reason the Prince ought to employ his Authority in causing the Decrees of Councils to be observ'd and keeping the People in the Obedience which they owe to their Mother the Church of Christ For in fine there is so close an Union between the Church and the State that he who troubles the State troubles the Church which consists of the same Members and he that makes a Schism in the Church is really a disturber of the publick Peace and Tranquility IX But whether a Prince doth or doth not propose to himself this great design of gaining immortal Glory by labouring for Eternity and carrying on a Work which alone shall last for ever it is not for private Men to censure his Conduct And provided that he requires nothing but what flows from the natural Rights given him by the Commission which he hath receiv'd from God he ought to be obey'd in all things even by those that hold the greatest Dignities in the Church X. It doth not belong to me to deduce from the certain Principles which I have here laid down such consequences as contain the particular Duties of those that have a right to command and besides there is more difficulty in it than may be imagin'd There are a great many circumstances to be consider'd which vary or determine these Duties Princes should examine their own Obligations in the sight of God by the light of the
Man to the holy Trinity are but shadows and imperfect Draughts which can never come up to the Original of all Beings who by an incomprehensible property of Infinity communicates himself without Division and forms a Society of three different Persons in the unity of the same Substance But tho' the Image of God which we bear be very imperfect in respect of our Original yet there is nothing more great and noble for a mere created Being than this faint resemblance We labour for our Perfection only as we maintain and keep it up we secure our Happiness no further than we fashion our selves according to our Model All our true Judgments and regular Motions all the Duties which we pay to the Wisdom Power and Love of God are so as many Steps by which we advance toward the Fountain of all Good and an habitual Disposition to frame these Judgments and excite these Motions is the real Perfection of Man who essentially depends on the supreme Good and was made for no other End but to find his Perfection and Happiness in doing his Duty V. Now as the three Persons in the Trinity are but one God one and the same Substance so all those Duties which seem to relate particularly to any one of the Persons give equal Honour to the other two Every Regular Motion honours the Power of the Father as its Good the Wisdom of the Son as its Law and the mutual Love of the Father and the Son as its Principal and Original On the contrary every Sin or every Love of the Creatures dishonours the true Power opposes the universal Reason and resists the holy Spirit So that we cannot absolutely separate the Duties which we owe to the Power of God from those which we owe to his Wisdom and to the Substantial and Divine Love and therefore I have been forc'd in the three foregoing Chapters to repeat the same things after different manners VI. Tho' all the Duties which Spiritual Beings owe to God who is a pure Spirit and will be worship'd in Spirit and in Truth consist only in true Judgments and Motions of Love conformable to those Judgments yet Men being compos'd of a Soul and a Body living in Societies with one another educated in the same outward Religious Worship and thereby tied to certain Ceremonies they are oblig'd to an infinite number of particular Duties which have all of them a necessary Relation to those which I have already set down in general All these external Duties are arbitrary and indifferent at least in their first Foundation and Original but the spiritual Duties are in themselves absolutely necessary We may dispense with outward Duties but we can never dispense with the others they depend on an inviolable Law the immutable and necessary Order Outward Duties of themselves do not sanctify those that render them to God they receive their Worth and Value only from the spiritual Duties which accompany them but all the Motions of the Soul which are govern'd by true Judgments do immediately and of themselves honour the Divine Perfections VII Thus for instance it is a Duty indifferent in it self for a Man to pull off his Hat when he comes into a Church But to enter into the presence of God with respect and with some inward Motion of Religion is not an arbitrary but an essential Duty He that for some particular Reason cannot be uncover'd at Mass may be cover'd at the Celebration of it Women are excus'd from this Duty and provided it be known that it is not done out of contempt but upon necessity commonly their needs no dispensation for it None but those that have wrong Notions of things cenforious and weak People will find fault with it but no one that is present at that Sacrifice can be excus'd from offering up to God the Sacrifice of his Mind and Heart Praises and Motions which honour God He that prostrates himself before the Altar is so far from meriting and honouring God by that outward Duty that he commits a heinous Crime if he designs by that Action only to gain the Esteem of the World But he who tho' he be unmov'd outwardly is nevertheless inwardly agitated with Motions agreeable to the Knowledge which Faith and Reason give him of the Divine Attributes honours God draws near and unites himself to him He conforms himself to the immutable Law by Regular Motions which leave behind them a Habit or Disposition of Charity and thereby truly purifies and sanctifies himself But there are many People whose Religion is not spiritual they go no farther than the outside which makes an Impression on them and often determines them to do that by imitation which they had no design to do of themselves VIII Certainly it is a disrespect to the universal Reason to separate our selves from it by the use of Wine or to run away from our selves where Reason inhabits and where it gives its Oracles and suffer our selves to be carried by our Passions into a World where the Imagination reigns In a word to depart voluntarily and without any necessity from the presence of our Good and of our Reason is a Motion which dishonours the Divine Majesty it is Irreligious and Impious But the generality of People do not judge of things after this manner they judge of a Man's inward Sentiments by his outward Actions and Behaviour they imagine it a great Crime to do some Actions in a holy Place tho' perhaps they are not indecent in themselves and yet never consider that nothing is more indecent than to neglect the essential Duties of a rational Creature in any place whatsoever A Man that is Religious even to Superstition passes for a Saint with them but the Christian Philosopher is counted no better than a Heathen if he will not abandon Reason to agree with their Notions and religiously observe their Customs IX Indeed the Philosopher doth ill if he neglects the external Duties Mat. 18.6 and thereby offends the Weak and Simple It were better for him that a Mill-stone were hang'd about his Neck and that he were Drown'd in the depth of the Sea Every Man ought to testify his Faith by visible Actions and thereby incline other Men who are always affected with the outward Behahaviour to such Motions as give honour to God In every thing that relates to God we should with all Humility assume the air and posture of Adoration Any other is at least Foolish and Ridiculous But it is Impious to use such outward Actions as are superstitious and lead Men's Minds to Judgments and Motions which dishonour the divine Attributes They are excusable perhaps in such as have but a confus'd Idea of God But he that is better instructed in Religion and hath a more particular knowledge of the divine Perfections ought not to do any thing out of any humane Consideration that contradicts his own Light X. The greatest part of Christians have a Jewish Spirit Joh. 17.3 their Religion is not
them this miserable Life a Life which we ought not much to value but only as it is a Time which relates to Eternity and may deserve it by the Grace which Christ the High-Priest of the true Goods distributes to Men and thereby sollicits them to enter into a communion of the same happiness with him XVI As to the Duties of Respect or external and relative Submission they are due to Power and therefore we cannot proportion them according to the merits of Persons nor regulate them by our own Light with respect to the interests of our eternal Society in Christ We must follow the Customs and Laws of the State in which God hath plac'd us It is a Duty of Justice to pay Respect and Tribute to those to whom God hath given Authority over us It is all one whether they be good or bad nay whether they be Christians or not Whether they make a good or a bad use of our Contributions And the reason of this is because it is God whom we Honour in their Persons for all Honour is relative and must be ultimately refer'd to him alone who really possesses Power So that it is an injury and a wrong to our Prince to deny him the Respects which are due to him and it is a formal disobedience against the King of Kings to refuse to submit our selves and give sensible marks of our Submission to those whom he hath appointed his Lieutenants and Vicegerents upon Earth The primitive Christians paid to the Roman Emperors even those who cruelly persecuted Christ himself in his Members all the Respect Submission and relative Honor that was due to their participated Power Well knowing that Honour is properly due to God alone and must be refer'd solely to him 1 Tim. 1.17 according to S. Paul's Words Unto the King eternal immortal invisible the only wise God be Honour and Glory They knew that the Duties of Respect ought not to be proportion'd to the interest of the Church or rather that they ought to be refer'd thither because that is the great or indeed the only design of God but that this is never better done than when Christians pay those Duties with all possible exactness For indeed this is the right way to oblige sovereign Princes who are always jealous of their Glory and Authority to favour Christian Societies more than any other in their Dominions But I must discourse more at large of our Duties as they relate to the different kinds of Society which we form with other Men. CHAP. IX Of the Duties due to Sovereigns Two Sovereign Powers The difference between them Their natural Rights Rights of Concession Of the Obedience of Subjects I. ALL the Duties which we owe to participated Powers may be reduc'd to Two general Heads Duties of Respect and Duties of Odedience The Duties of Respect depend on the Laws and Customs observ'd in every State and consist in certain outward and sensible marks of the Submission which the Mind pays to God in the Person of it's Superiors Those Duties vary according to the different Circumstances of Times and Places Sometimes Subjects prostrate themselves before their Prince sometimes they put one Knee to the Ground or both At other times they only make a profound reverence and stand uncover'd and sometimes also they remain cover'd in his Presence without losing the Respect which is due to him These are arbitrary Ceremonies and are govern'd by Use and Custom II. But that which is essential to Morality is that the Soul it self should be touch'd with Respect in the Presence of the Prince who is the Image of the true Power and that in such a proportion as the Prince actually exercises the Authority he hath receiv'd or cloaths himself as I may say with the Power and Majesty of God For we owe more respect to the King when he is in the Seat of Justice than in a Thousand other Circumstances and to the Bishop in the actual administration of his Episcopal Functions than at any other time And indeed we are naturally enclin'd to measure the respect due to Grandeur and Power by the sensible operation they have on us Certainly when we are in the Presence of the Almighty our Mind ought to prostrate it self Now tho' we are always in the sight of God yet we come into his Presence in a more particular manner when we approach Superiour who is his Image Therefore it is not sufficient to put on an outward air of Respect and Veneration but the Mind must also humble it self and respect the Greatness and Power of God in the Majesty of the Prince III. There is no great difficulty in paying the Duties of Respect to the higher Powers nay the Brain is fram'd in such a manner that the Imagination willingly bows before the splendour that environs them wherefore I think it needless to say any more of these Duties But an exact Obedience to the commands of our Superiors is a continual Sacrifice much more difficult and burdensome than the Slaughter of Beasts and therefore Self-love is an irreconcileable Enemy to it There are few People that discharge this Duty like Christians or in expectation that he whom they Honour in the Person of the Prince should be their only Reward Every one in a manner dispenses with himself as much as he can from paying an Obedience that doth not suit with his own conveniences and some preposterously obey unjust Commands because they do not know the exact order and measure of their Duties For opposite Powers having each their separate Rights their different interests are many times so intermingled that it is very difficult to know which of them ought to be obey'd and in these cases every Man follows his own particular humour or advantage for want of certain Rules to govern his Actions by I shall therefore here lay down one or two Principles which may give us some Light toward the clearer discovery of these Duties IV. There are but two sovereign Powers in the World the Civil and the Ecclesiastical The Prince in monarchical States and the Bishop The Prince who is the Image of God Almighty and his Minister upon Earth and the Bishop who is the Image of Christ and his Vicar in the Church The Prince derives his Authority over other Men from God alone so doth the Bishop and neither of them ought to use it any otherwise than God doth himself with respect to the immutable Order the universal Reason the inviolable Law of all intelligent Beings even of God himself The Prince notwithstanding hath a more absolute Power than the Bishop He hath Authority to make Laws and is not subject to them himself he may act without controul and is not oblig'd to give an account of his Conduct to any Man for he seems to have more Relation to God as Power than as Reason to God cloth'd with Majesty and Glory than to God made Man and like us to Christ glorified than to Christ upon Earth and
intelligent Being to another 3. God by his Power is the cause of our clear Perceptions or Cognitions in consequence of our own Desires or Attention But the intellectual and common Substance of Truth alone is the Form the Idea and the immediate Object of them The Soul separated from Reason cannot attain to the knowledge of any Truth It may by the action of God upon it be sensible of its own Pain Pleasure Perception and all the other particular Modifications of which its substance is capable but it cannot engross to it self the knowledge of Truths which are common to all spiritual Beings For Man who depends on the Power of God to be happy and powerful must also be united to the Wisdom of God to become Rational Wise Just and compleatly Perfect 4. We do not derive from the Objects the Ideas which we have of them 5. Men whom we call our Masters are only Monitors 6. When we retire into our selves it is not we that answer our selves but the inward Master which dwells in us which presides immediately over all spiritual Beings and gives them all the same answers XI Mat. 23.8 See S Augustincts Treathe De Mâ—gistro All those may be reduc'd to that general proposition of our Saviours that we have but one Master even Christ himself who illuminates us by the evidence of his Light when we retire into our selves and solidly instructs us by Faith when we consult the visible and infallible authority of the Church in whose custody the sacred Treasure of his written and unwritten Word is deposited XII From this great Principle the following Duties are deriv'd 1. Not to value our selves on our Knowledge but to return our humble Thanks for it to him who is the Fountain and Author of it 2. To retire into our Selves as much as we can and to hearken more readily to Reason than to Men. 3. To yield only to the Evidence of Reason and the infallible Authority of the Church 4. Whenever Men speak to be sure to compare that which they say to our Ears with that which Reason answers to our Mind never to believe them but in what concerns Matters of Fact and that too with a kind of saving and reservation 5. Never to speak to them at least not with an air of Confidence before Reason hath spoke to us by its Evidence 6. To speak to them always as Monitors not as Masters to question them often and in different manners and to lead them insensibly to our common Master the universal Reason by obliging them to retire into themselves There is no way to instruct them but this 7. Never to dispute for disputing's sake nor even to propose Truth to others when the Company they are in Passion or any other Reason give us sufficiently to understand that they will not retire into themselves to hear the decision of the impartial Judge 8. Never to consult Reason but about such Matters as are suitable to the dignity of it and useful to our selves either to conduct us to Good or unite us to Truth to regulate our Heart or procure us Strength or liberty of Mind 9. To lay up carefully in our Memory as far as it is possible to be done none but certain Principles and such as abound in Consequences none but necessary Truths or the precious answer of the inward Truth 10. For the most part to neglect Matters of Fact especially those that have no certain Rules to be judg'd by such as are the Actions of Men. They give no light to the Mind and often corrupt the Heart 11. Our inviolable Law is Order not Custom which is many times opposite to Order and Reason To follow Example without confronting it with Order is to act like Brutes and by Mechanism only Nay it is better tho' that be bad enough to make our own Pleasure our Law than foolishly to obey pernicious and wicked Customs Our Life and Actions should do honour to our Reason and be answerable to the illustrious Characters we bear 12. We should set no value on Subtilty Beauty or even Strength of Imagination nor esteem any of those Studies which cultivate that part of us which makes us so valuable and acceptable in the Eye of the World An over-nice or over-stock'd Imagination doth not willingly submit to Reason It is always the Body which speaks by the Imagination and whenever the Body speaks it is an unhappy necessity that Reason must be silent or not regarded 13. To confirm us in this dis-esteem we should frequently and with a particular Application examine by the inward Light that which appears bright and sparkling to the Imagination that so we may dissipate that false and bewitching Lustre with which it hides its Follies We should very seldom regard Mens outward Behaviour which passes for current Payment in the World 14. We should carefully stop up the Passages by which the Soul gets away from the presence of God and wanders among the Creatures A Mind continually distracted by the action of sensible Objects cannot pay that respect and attendance which it owes to Reason It is a Contempt to Reason to give our Senses their full liberty 15. We should ardently love Truth Wisdom or the universal Reason We should esteem all the Gold of Peru but as a Grain of Sand in comparison of it Wis 7.9 All Gold in respect of Wisdom is as a little Sand saith the wise Man We should continually pray to it by our Attention My delights were with thâ— Sons of Men Prov. 8.31 We should place our whole Delight in consulting it in hearing its Answers and obeying its Commands as that delights to converse with us and to be always among us CHAP. IV. Of the Duties which we owe to the divine Love Our Will is nothing but a continual impression of the Love which God bears to himself the only true Good We cannot love Evil But we may take that to be Evil which is neither Good nor Evil. So we cannot hate Good But the true Good is really the Evil of wicked Men or the true cause of their Miseries That God may be Good in respect of us our Love must be like his or always subject to the divine Law Motions or Duties I. WE depend on the power of God and do nothing but by his Efficacy We are united to his Wisdom and know nothing but by his Light But this is not all we are also animated and inspir'd by his Love in such a manner that we are not capable of loving any Good but by the continual impression of the Love which he bears to himself This is what I must now explain in order to give a general view of our Duties toward God II. It is certain that God cannot act but for himself He hath no other Motive but his Love of himself He cannot Will but by his own Will and his Will is not like ours an impression proceeding from and tending toward something else As he is his own
Spiritual and consequently not Rational This is Life eternal to know the true God and Jesus Christ his only Son To have Sentiments worthy of the divine Attributes and Motions agreable to those Sentiments To know Jesus Christ who alone gives us access to the Father and diffuses Charity in our Hearts To be fully convinc'd that he alone is the High-Priest of the true Goods or the occasional cause of Grace that so we may draw near to him with Confidence and by his assistance excite in our selves such Motions as are suitable to the knowledge he hath given us of the true Worship which honours the divine Majesty But instead of this every one frames to himself a Theology a Religion or at least a Devotion apart of which Self-love is the Motive Prejudice and Possession the Foundation and Beginning and sensual Goods the End The Worship of God consists many times only in outward Sacrifices in verbal Prayers in Ceremonies which were at first ordain'd to raise the Mind to God but now serve only by their splendor and magnificence to refresh the Imagination in most People when they are tir'd and out of relish with the performance of their Duties to God Custom human Considerations or Hypocrisy carry their Bodies into the Church But their Minds and Hearts never come there And while the Priest offers up Jesus Christ to God in their Presence or rather while Christ offers up himself to his Father for their Sins on our Altars they on their part Sacrifice to Ambition Avarice or Pleasure spiritual Sacrifices in all the places whither their Imagination carries them CHAP. VI. Of the Duties of Society in general Two sorts of Society Every thing should be refer'd to the eternal Society Different kinds of Love and Honour The general heads of our Duties toward Men. They must be External and Relative The danger of paying inward Duties to Men. The Conversation of the World very dangerous I. HAVING explain'd in general the Duties which we owe to God we must now examine those which we owe to other Men as God hath made us to live in Society with them under the same Law the universal Reason and in a dependance on the same Power that of the King of Kings and supreme Lord of all things II. We are capable of forming Two sorts of Society with other Men A Society for some Years and an eternal Society A Society of Commerce and a Society of Religion A Society maintain'd by the Passions and subsisting in a communion of particular and perishing Goods whose end is the preservation and welfare of the Body and a Society govern'd by Reason supported by Faith and subsisting in the communion of the true Goods whose end is a happy Life to all eternity III. The great or indeed the only design of God is the holy City the heavenly Jerusalem where Truth and Justice inhabit All other Societies shall Perish tho' God be immutable in his Designs But this spiritual Society shall continue for ever The Kingdom of Christ shall have no end His Temple shall be eternal His Priest-hood shall never the chang'd Psal 110.3 The Lord hath Sworn and will not Repent Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck The House of God is built on an unshaken Foundation on that belov'd Son in whom God is well-pleas'd and by whom all things shall subsist to the Glory of him who gives them their Being IV. When we procure any settlement here below for our selves or our Friends we build on the Sand we place our Friends in a tottering House it will sink under us at the Hour of Death to be sure But when we enter our selves as Workmen in the building of the Temple of the true Solomon and cause others to come in we then labour for Eternity This Work shall last to all Ages This then is the good which we ought to procure for our selves and other Men This is the chief end of all our Duties toward them This is that holy Society which we must begin here below by the love which we owe to one another For since the design of God in these temporary and perishing Societies is only to furnish Christ the Architect of the eternal Temple with fit Materials for the building of his Church we cannot fail of performing essential Duties when we engage in the designs of him who would have all Men to be sav'd and employ all our Faculties in hastning his great Work and in procuring to Men those good things for which they were created V. So when our Saviour bids us Love one another we must not imagine that he absolutely commands us any other thing than to procure one another the true and spiritual Goods What kind of Blessings were those which he showr'd on his Apostles and Disciples Did he give them the fading and perishing Goods such as the pretended Friends of this World give to those that gratify their Passions Did he constantly deliver them out of the Hands of their Persecutors No certainly-Therefore the principal Duties of our Charity do not consist in such things as these We must assist our Neighbour and preserve his Life as we are oblig'd to preserve our own but we must prefer the Salvation of our Neighbour before his and our own Life VI. To Love therefore is an equivocal Term. It signifies Three very different things which we must carefully distinguish To unite our selves by our Will to an Object as our Good or the cause of our Happiness To conform our selves to any thing as our pattern or the rule of our Perfection And to wish well to any Person or to desire that he may be happy and perfect The love of Union is due only to the power of God The love of Conformity is due only to the law of God the immutable Order No Creature is capable of acting on us No Person can be our living Law or our perfect Model Christ himself tho' he was without Sin tho' he was Reason incarnate did some things which we must not do because the circumstances not being the same the intellectual Reason the inviolable Law the indispensable Model of all intelligent Beings forbids us to do them VII So then we must not love our Neighbour with a love of Union nor with a love of Conformity But we may and ought to Love him with a love of Benevolence We must Love him in that sense of the Word which signifies to desire his Happiness and Perfection and as our practical desires are the occasional causes of certain effects which conduce to that end we must use all our endeavours to procure him solid Vertue that he may merit the true Goods which are the reward of it This is the obligation that truly and absolutely lies upon us from that Commandment which our Saviour hath given us in the Gospel to Love one another as ourselves and as he hath loved us VIII To Honour is also an equivocal Word It denotes a submission of the
Mind to the true Power a respect or outward submission to an occasional Cause and a simple esteem of any thing in respect of the excellency of its Nature or the perfection which it doth or may possess IX That kind of Honour which consists in a submission of the Miâ—â— to the true Power is due to God alone 〈…〉 none but God directly and absolutely in the Powers which he hath ordain'd And tho' we are oblig'd exactly to pay to our lawful Superiors those outward honours and submissions which humane Laws and Customs have establish'd yet all the submission of the Soul must be refer'd to God alone It is mean and abject to fear the most excellent of created Beings It is God alone whom we must fear in it Nevertheless we should esteem every thing proporticnably to the excellence of its Nature or the perfection which it possesses or is capable of possessing So that the love of Benevolence respect or relative and outward Submission and simple Esteem are as I take it the Three general Heads to which all the Duties that we owe to Men may be reduc'd X. There is this difference between the Duties which Religion obliges us to pay to God and those which Society requires us to pay to Men that the principal Duties of Religion are inward and spiritual because God searches the Hearts and absolutely speaking hath no need of his Creatures whereas the Duties of Society are almost all external For besides that Men have no other way to know our inward Sentiments of them but by outward and sensible marks they all stand in need of one another either for the preservation of their Life or their particular instruction or innumerable other things which absolutely require a mutual assistance XI Therefore to expect from other Men inward and spiritual Duties which are due to God alone a pure and uncompounded Spirit the searcher of Hearts the only independent and self-sufficient Being is a diabolical Pride this is to affect Dominion over spiritual Substances to attribute to our selves the quality of searcher of Hearts and in a Word to exact that which is no way our due and which is wholly useless to us For what signifies our inward adoration to other Men or what good can theirs do us If they faithfully perform what we desire of them what can we complain of If they respect God himself if they love and fear him in our Person certainly we attribute to our selves power and independence if we are not satisfied with this Servants Col. 3.22 saith S. Paul obey in all things your Masters according to the Flesh not with Eye-service as Men-pleasers but in singleness of Heart fearing God It is God that they must fear v. 23. And whatsoever you do do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto Men to God who hath the power of rewarding and not unto Men whose Wills are of themselves altegether ineffectual v. 24. Knowing as the Apostle goes on that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the Inheritance For ye serve the Lord Christ Ye are bought with a Price 〈…〉 7.23 be not ye the Servants of Men. XII There is so strict an union between the Soul and the Body and such a mutual relation betwixt the Motions of these two Substances that it is very difficult to draw near by the motion of our Body to any Object which is the occasional cause of Pleasure without uniting our selves to it by the motion of our Love as if it were the true cause of that Pleasure So likewise when the Imagination being dazled with the splendour which envirous the Great falls down and prostrates it self before them it is difficult for the Soul not to follow that Motion or at least not to bow and lower it self It should indeed prostrate it self but then it must be before the power of the invisible God which it must honour in the Person of the Prince where that Power visibly resides XIII When the Body feeds on a delicious Fruit the Soul which finds it self in some measure happy by the Pleasure it enjoys should then be affected with Love but that Love should be address'd only to God who alone doth and can act on it But our Senses being grown rebellious by Sin dislurb our Mind they insolently withdraw us from the presence of God and fix all our Thoughts on that impotent matter which we hold in our Hands and crush between our Teeth They make us believe that the Fruit it self contains and communicates that grateful Tast which delights us and because the power of God doth not appear visible to our Eyes we see nothing but the Fruit to which we can attribute the cause of our present Happiness Our Senses were given us only for the preservation of our sensible Being What matter is it then to them from whence the Fruit comes so they have it or from whence the Pleasure proceeds so they enjoy it XIV So likewise when we are in the presence of our Sovereign our Imagination soon dissipates all those abstract Ideas of an invisible Power The divine Law the immutable Order Reason is a Fantom which vanishes and disappears when the Prince Commands or when he speaks with Authority The Majesty of the Prince the sensible splendor of Greatness that Air of respect and awe which every one doth and ought to put on so shake the Brain of an ambitious Man and indeed of most Men whose Passions are then excited that there are but few People who have so much constancy and resolution as to consult the divine Law to think on the power of the invisible God to retire into themselves and to hearken to the Judgments pronounc'd within them by him who presides immediately over all spiritual Beings XV. This strict union of the Soul and Body which Sin hath chang'd into a dependnece is the cause that there is nothing more dangerous than the Conversation and Business of Courts and that a Man ought to have a particular call and strong and extraordinary reasons to make him engage in it The Societies which are generally form'd there are such whose beginning and end is Ambition and Pleasure and being govern'd not by Reason or Faith but by inconsistent and irregular Passions they break every Day and plunge Men in the greatest Miseries Therefore such as have not Courage and Constancy enough to perform their Duties to God in the presence of their Prince in the hurry and perplexity of Business or when they have too many People looking on them in a Word such as suffer themselves to be dazled stunn'd and born down by the Conversation of the World whatever it may be ought to avoid it and to place themselves in a Station where they may without constraint honour and love the true Power conform themselves to the divine Law and render to God the inward and spiritual Duties These are indispensable Duties and certainly we owe nothing to our Neighbour which may hinder us
the Woman for it expresly figures the Union of Chirst with his Church It is an indissoluble Union for God being immutable in his Designs the Marriage of Christ and his Church shall continue for ever it is a natural Union and the two Sexes by their particular constitution in consequences of the admirable Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body have the most violent of all the Passions for each other because the love of Christ to his Church and that of the Church to her Lord her Saviour and her Husband is the greatest love that can be imagin'd as appears from the Canticles For in short the Man and the Woman are made for one another And if we can conceive that God in creating them had not a design to join them together then we may also conceive that the Incarnation of the Word was not necessary and that the principal or the only design of God which is figur'd by the marriage of the Man and the Woman more particularly than by any other thing is not the establishment of his Church in Jesus Christ who is the Basis and Foundation of it in whom also the whole Universe subsists who brings the whole Work of God out of its prophane State and by his quality of Son renders it worthy of the Majesty of the Father III. This Principle sufficiently shews that the mutual Duties of Christ and his Church are the Model of those of Husbands and Wives and that the Marriage of Christians like that of the first Man and Woman being the figure of the marriage of Christ and the Church ought not to differ in any of its consequences or circumstances from the reality which it represents And therefore St. Paul derives from this very Principle the mutual Duties of the Husband and Wife His Words are these IV. Eph. 5.22 Wives submit your selves unto your own Husbands as unto the Lord. For the Husband is the Head of the Wife even as Christ is the Head of the Church and he is the Saviour of the Body Therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ so let the Wives be to their own Husbands in every thing Husbands love your Wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of Water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish So ought Men to love their Wives as their own Bodies he that loveth his Wife loveth himself For no Man ever yet hated his own Flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord the Church for we are Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones For this cause shall a Man leave his Father and his Mother and shall be join'd unto his Wife and they two shall be one Flesh This is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the Church Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his Wife even as himself and the Wife see that she reverence her Husband V. From these admirable Words of St. Paul we see that the Duty of a Husband is to maintain his Wife and to supply her abundantly with all things necessary for her subsistence to assist and guide her by his Wisdom and Counsels and to comfort her in her Afflictions and Infirmities in a word to love her as himself and after the example of Christ to expose his life for her defense And that the Wife on her part ought to obey her Husband as her Lord to fear and respect him to seek to please none but him and to govern the Family in subordination to his Authority and with a dependence on his Designs provided they are agreeable or at least not contrary to the designs of God VI. Now the design of God in the institution of Marriage is not only to supply the State with Members to compose the Body of it and to defend and maintain its Honour and Reputation but more especially to furnish Christ with Materials for the external Temple with Members of the Church and perpetual Worshippers of the divine Majesty For married Persons are not only the Figures but also the natural Ministers of Christ and the Church God hath join'd them together not only to express his great design but also to act in it It is true since Sin came into the World they beget Children only for the Devil and by an action altogether brutish and if it were not for Christ our Mediatour it would be a hainous Crime to communicate to a Woman that miserable fertility of bringing forth an Enemy of God to damn a Soul for ever to labour for the Glory of Satan and the establishment of the infernal Babylon But Christ came to remedy the disorders of Sin and it is permitted by the Sacrament of Marriage the Figure of his eternal Alliance to give our Children as I may say to the Devil that Christ may have the glory to snatch them out of his Hands and having wash'd them in his own Blood to make them enter into his Building VII Now the principal Duty of Parents is to educate their Children in such a manner that they may not lose their Baptismal Innocence and Purity Married Persons may live in continence as Adam and Eve did before their Sin Christ doth not want Materials for the building of his Temple How many Nations are there still that are ignorant of the Mystery of our Reconciliation But that Parents by their Ambition their Avarice their disorderly course of Life their ill Example nay by barely neglecting to instruct their Children should deprive them of the possession of the true Goods and make them fall again into the slavery of the Devil in which they were Born and from which they had been once deliver'd this is the greatest Crime that Men are capable of committing VIII A Father may educate his Children so as to be the Honour of his Family the delight of their Country and the support of the State he may leave them the peaceable enjoyment of large Possessions and all possible Splendour Yet still he is a cruel and unnatural Father and the more cruel because he charms their Maladies in such a manner that they will not be sensible of them till they are past remedy He is Impious and Wicked and so much the more because with that which he pulls down from the sacred Temple of the living God he builds up the prophane Babylon He is Senseless and stupid and the more because there cannot be a greater degreee of Folly a more gross Stupidity a more brutish and surious Despair than that of a Father who is regardless of the inevitable alternative of Two very different Eternities which shall succeed our latest Moments who builds for himself and his Family on the Brow of a Precipice expos'd to Storms and Tempests and just ready to bury for ever the
that can never agree with Self-love how dextrous soever it be in accommodating every thing to its own ends For we cannot without the greatest regret see our selves strip'd of our Excellence and Grandeur in the very Seat of our Pride and Vanity Perhaps our Equal may give us a great example of Vertue in putting himself below us We may admire his Humility and perhaps imitate it naturally and out of Pride for many times the proudest Men are the most Civil and Obliging But if he would have us Love him he must give us an honourable and delightful place in his Mind and Heart He must flatter our unjust and proud Concupiscence Then tho' in appearance he be not so obsequious and obedient to our Will he will be better qualified for a Friend and will perfectly fulfil the Duties he ows us if he makes use of the entrance which we give him into our Heart by the place which he gives us in his to mortify our Concupiscence in us and set up in its place the immutable Order of Justice X. It is not so easy a thing as may be imagin'd to persuade others that they are plac'd in our Mind and Heart as they desire to be and to discover the true Sentiments they have of us We must therefore examine what are the least equivocal and most sensible marks of the inward Dispositions of Men's Minds that so we may discover the bottom of their Hearts and satisfy them of the Respect and Friendship we have for them It is certain that bare Words are equivocal and deceitful Signs in the Mouths of most Men. Besides the institution of them being arbitrary and depending on the Will of Men they do not strongly and forcibly persuade these Truths which they express None but weak People or such as have a great Opinion of themselves will be deceiv'd by them or it may be such as have no experience of the World But the Air and Behaviour is a natural Language which is understood without Studying it persuades by a lively Impression and as I may say diffuses conviction in the Mind Besides this Language is not deceitful or if it be it is very rarely because it is a natural and in a manner necessary effect of the actual disposition of the Soul For the Soul discovers its greatest Secrets by the Air which it mechanically puts into the Face and when we are once acquainted with the different Airs we may discover in the Heart of him that speaks the Sentiments and Motions with which he is agitated in relation to us XI Therefore if we would persuade Men that they hold the place which they desire in our Esteem and Friendship we should really Esteem and Love them and indeed it is our Duty so to do We should in their presence excite within our selves such Motions as they may naturally and sensibly understand by the Air which these Motions give to our Face And when our Imagination is cold in relation to them because their Merit doth indeed appear very mean and indifferent we should represent to our selves some Motives that may warm and agitate us Or at least we should endeavour to manage things so that Men may attribute to the coldness of our Constitution that indifference which is so grating and disagreable and the want of a winning and obliging complaisance in our Behaviour toward them But above all things we must take care not to put on a forc'd and affected Air which betrays it self and cannot hold long because it doth not agree with the actual dispositions of our Mind Nothing is more gross and offensive we had better hold our Tongue than praise any Man with such a fawning and perfidious Air as tickles and betrays none but stupid and senseless People Charity and Religion are sufficient to stop the natural Motions of our Machine for they furnish us with reasonable Motives enough to honour and love other Men sincerely and to despise our selves XII But beside Words and the outward Air and Behaviour there are also real Services which are the surest and most convincing marks of Esteem and Affection By these it is that we should make new Friends and try those that we have already But as these Duties are the most difficult and painful of all so we must not presently imagine that he who fails in the performance of them hath no Affection or Friendship for us For we should consider that there are some People who by their natural Constitution are so cold so heavy so reserv'd in short so difficult to be stir'd that they do little or nothing for their Friends But then they do nothing for themselves neither This is a thing that ought to be taken notice of for he that thinks that these kind of Men have no Friendship for any Body must also believe that they do not love themselves But I think I may say That generally speaking there is no Friendship more solid and durable than that of those Persons who seem to want Friendship because they have not that spriteliness of Imagination which some have and that short-liv'd Fire which kindles and blazes out as soon as a Man opens his Heart to them and doth them the honour to lay before them the need he hath of their Assistance The Reason of which is this XIII It is the Fermentation of the Blood and the abundance of Spirits which heat Mens Imagination and give them a Motion which animates and impells them Now those who have strong and lively Passions and a warm Imagination are inconstant beyond expression for it is not Reason that governs them Reason which is always the same but Humours which are soon kindled and as soon go out again Humours whose Fermentation excites contrary Motions every hour Besides 't is most commonly the Body which speaks in them and as the Body speaks only for the Body or for those Things which have a Relation to the Body the least interest determines toward their own particular Profit the Motion which at first was produc'd in them for the Profit of a Friend only because they found some Advantage in it themselves for it is always pleasant and agreable to get new Friends and keep the old ones In short there is no solid and durable Friendship but that which is founded upon Religion fortifyed by Reason animated and supported by the charming Pleasure that proceeds from a mutual Possession of Truth But Religion Reason and Truth are meer Fantoms to an Imagination that is struck and wrought upon by other Objects They have nothing in them that affects the Senses therefore they have nothing solid in them They have no Relation to the Body nor to the Society which is form'd by the Body and for the good of the Body they have nothing therefore that pleases the Imagination which speaks only for the good of the Body for that which animates and rejoyces it which gives and preserves its Being XIV When a Man hath entertain'd the unhappy design of making