man ought to resist all his life by endeavouring to know himself and by embracing all means which may help him therein and which we are going to shew in this second Part. Of the Knowledge of Ones self Second Part. Containing Means to Acquire it WE have endeavoured in the first Part of this Treatise only to make the knowledge of ones self desired We suppose in this here that desire quite formed and joined to a sincere resolution of labouring to acquire this knowledge There is nothing more to be done but to put those who are so well disposed into the way that leads to it and to open to them the most proper means to attain thereunto And we may first tell them that this desire is one of the Principallest of them and that it would suffice to produce this effect if it were full and entire For there is this difference betwixt this knowledge and that of objects which are out of us we may be ignorant of other things how desirous soever we may be to know them but we continue not in the ignorance of our selves but only because we do not desire absolutely to forsake it and we nourish in the bottom of our hearts a secret disowning of truth It is this which in us opposes the light of God and hinders it from penetrating our understandings Without that it would make us see clearly into all the foulds of our hearts it would advertise us of all our dangers and we should have need of no other thing to make us know our selvés perfectly but to expose our selves to these Divine beans 2. We have shewn in the first Part that this miserable Inclination was become natural to man since sin and we must add here that grace never destroys it absolutely and that whatsoever desire it inspires us with not to blind our selves there rests always as we may say in the bottom of the old man an inclination towards this voluntary blindness which is observed by these words of Jesus Christ That every man who does ill Omnis qui male agit odit lucem non venit ad lucem ut non manifestentur opera ejus hates the light and comes not to the light that his works may not be known For as there is no man who doth not incline to evil consequently there is none who hath not some aversion for the light which discovers it to him But also as that inclination to evil which sin hath imprinted in out Souls doth not hinder God from Imprinting therein by his grace a contrary Inclination which inclines us to Good and to Justice This natural disowning which we have of Truth hinders not God from breathing into us a contrary Inclination which makes us love and search Truth We are only obliged to acknowledge that our heart is divided That we love not absolutely truth that there are two opposite weights and inclinations in us so that if we have reason to give thanks to God because he hath given us some love for Truth we have also reason to humble our selves in beholding our selves according to this other inclination as Enemies to this same Truth 3. There is nothing that makes us better to comprehend the greatness of mans disorder then the sight of this miserable Propensity we feel in our selves For God being the Truth the Light the Justice to hate the Light the Truth the Justice is to hate God himself Nevertheless man hates them He would gladly that this Truth were not that this light were extinguished and that this Justice were abolisht that is to say he would that there were no God He wisheth that there were an annihilation of it and not being able to destroy it in his proper being he destroys it as much as he can for himself by shutting his eyes against the sight of Truth Behold that condition in which we are not only born but wherein yet we are partly engaged and from whence we ought to endeavour to free our selves by lessening as much as we shall be able this natural aversness we have for Truth and by labouring to encrease in us what God hath given us of love for it It is good to exercise our selves more about this work to convince our selves of the weakness of this love We may easily do it in considering how much a perfect and sincere love of which the heart is possessed as is that of an Usurer for his money is different from the love we have or that we flatter our selves to have for the Truth 4. An Usurer inclines continually towards gain the means that are given him thereof enter always without resistance they are alway received with a sincere Joy and without opposition There needs no studied management nor moderation to make them agreeable Every man is welcome to propose them Friends Enemies Acquaintances Strangers Inferiors Equals Superiors and he is far from conceiving any bitterness against those who make him any Overture to encrease his Wealth it would be a certain means to sweeten him if he were angry at them He does not amuse himself in finding out reasons to reject these advices nor ever takes occasion to examin the defects of those who give them He is not scrupulous in manners in the behaviour in the intentions He only seeks to assure himself of the truth of what hath been told him and examining it sincerely he fears nothing but being deceived therein Behold in what manner we ought to love Truth and the Model the Wise Man proposeth to us in ordering us to seek it as Money and we may see there that we love it so little and seek it so imperfectly that the contrary to what we have said of this Usurer may be said of us For our hearts are hardly ever open on that side Truth presents it self It finds there always resistance and never enters but by violence and force and if sometimes it be in appearance gratefully received it is always with some inward remorse of some superficial joy with which we distinguish it No man is proper to make us know it and self-love is almost never wanting to furnish us with Reproaches against those who undertake it Rhetorick hath neither Cunning nor delicateness enough to insinuate it without hurting us We allways find excess in the things defects in the Grace in the manner and in the time and in stead of applying our mind sincerely to the examination of what is proposed to us we apply it only in an unprofitable search of their defects who have given these Counsels This is the protraiture of the Spirit and the Conduct of the most part of men The lineaments are more observed in some then in others but there are very few in whom some foot-steps of them do not appear 5. At least let us not flatter our selves with a Virtue which we have not and let us beware of saying as many do That we desire nothing so much as to know our selves and that they can do us no greater
Ambition suggests to him and apprehends likewise the loosing by that violence of others the essential Goods he possesseth 'T is that which obliges at first to submit ones self to the care of his own Preservation and there is no other way found for that but to unite ones self with others to beat back by force those who undertake to deprive us both of our lives and fortunes And to strengthen this Union laws are made and punishments ordered for those who violate them Thus by the means of tortures and gibbets set up in publick the thoughts and tyrannical designs of every particular mans Self-love are withheld 6. Fear of death is then the first tye of Civil society and the first check of Self-love 'T is that which forceth Men what aversion soever they may have to obey the Laws and which makes them in such a manner forget these vast thoughts of Domination that they hardly are raised any more in the thoughts of the most part of them so impossible they see it is for them to prosper therein Thus seeing themselves excluded from the open violence they are constrained to seek other ways and to substitute craft for force and they find therein no other means than to endeavour to content the Self-love of those whom they have need of instead of tyrannizing over them Some endeavour to make it fit for their Interests others employ flattery to gain it Gifts are bestowed to obtain it This is the source and foundation of all Commerce practised amongst men and which is varied a thousand ways For they do not truck merchandises for merchandises or for mony but they mutually traffick I mean they make a trade also of labours and toyls of services done of diligence and assiduity of civility and Men exchange all that either for things of the same nature or for real goods as when by vain complacencies we obtain Effective commodities 'T is thus that by the means and help of this Commerce all necessaries for this life are in some fort supplied without intermixing Charity with it So that in Estates where Charity hath no admittance because true Religion is banished from thence men do not cease to live with as much peace safety and commodiousness as if they were in a Republick of Saints 7. 'T is not that this tyrannical Inclination which makes us have a desire to rule and govern by force over others is not always lively in the hearts of Men. But as they see themselves unable to prosper therein they are forced to dissemble it untill they are strengthened by gaining others by sweet ways to have afterwards the means to bring others to their bent by force Every one therefote is mindfull at first to occupy the first Rank of the Society he is of and when he sees himself excluded he thinks of those which follow In a word he extolls himself the most he can and he humbles himself only by constraint In every state and in every condition he endeavors always to acquire to himself some Preheminence Authority Intendency Consideration Jurisdiction and to dilate his power as much as he can Princes wage war with their Neighbors that they may enlarge the limits of their Estates The Officers of several Companies in one and the same Country undertake and intrude upon one another They strive to supplant them and to humble each other in all their Employs and in all their Offices And if the wars which are made there are not so bloody as those which Princes make 'T is not because the passions are not as quick and sharp but 't is for the most part because they dread the punishment which the Laws threaten to those who have recourse to violent ways 8. I see nothing more proper to represent this Spiritual world formed by Concupiscence then the Idea which some Philosophers give us of the material World made by Nature that is to say of that Assembly of Bodies which compose the Universe Because we see there that every part of Matter tends naturally to move and to dilate it self and to issue out of its place but being pressed by other Bodies it is confin'd too kind of prison from whence it escapes so soon as it finds that it has more power and force than the matter wherewith it is environed Behold already the Picture of Constraint whereto the Self-love of each particular is reduced by that of others which does not permit it to set it self out at large so much as it would We are going to see all the motions in the sequel of this Comparison For these little confi'nd Bodies coming to muster up their forces and their motions do form great heaps of matter which Philosophers call Whirlwinds which are as States and Kingdoms And these Whirlwinds are themselves pressed and imprisoned by other Whirlwinds as it were by neighbouring Kingdoms They likewise will that in each Whirlwind there are formed other small ones which following the general motions of the great Bodies which draw them have nevertheless a particular motion which doth force yet other small Bodies to turn round about them which represents the Grandees of State who follow them in such a manner that they have their particular Interests and are as the Center of a quantity of People who fix themselves to their Fortune Lastly as these little Bodies drawn by the Whirlwinds do yet turn as much as they can upon their own Center so likewise the little ones which follow the fortune of the Grandees and that of the State do not forbear with all their endeavours and all their services which they render them to look upon themselves and to have always their own proper Interest in prospect 9. That which self-love covets particularly in Soveraignty is that we be regarded and looked upon by others as great and powerful and that we stir up in their hearts motions of respect and submission conform to these Ideas But however it may be the Impressions which are most agreeable to it are not yet the only ones wherewith self-self-love doth nourish it self It generally loves all those things which are favourable to it as admiration respect constancy and chiefly love There are many who scarcely do what they ought to make them beloved but there are none who do not desire to be loved and who do not behold with great pleasure this Propensity in others turned towards them which is that which is called love What if it appear that we labour not much to obtain this love 'T is because we had rather give sentiments of fear and submission under Greatness or because desiring too passionately to please certain persons we trouble our selves very little to please others 10. Yet this does not hinder but that even when we are canryed away by more strong Passions we behave our selves after a fashion very improper to make us be beloved yet would be beloved and do not perceive our selves incommoded when we see in the minds of others motions of hatred and aversion There are
or through an opinion of Religion would make a thousand reflections upon the disproportion of some thoughts wherein he might busie himself from the Holiness of his Office and his Profession Insomuch that when men take delight in his Book either because there would be something that 's good therein or because there would be some body who might will dealt withall which is always agreeable they esteem the person of the Author less and find themselves disposed to choose him either for Friend or Counsellor 22. It is needless to prove that Charity is yet more removed from affectation than meer Civility For loving others but not it self it hath nothing to do but to follow its natural motions to act with a perfect Civility It does it so much better by how much it does it more sincerely and that there is nothing of counterfeit in it Whereas this civility of Self-love is for the most part not so uniform If civility repress it in one part Self-love shews it self sometimes in another and so leaves some little disgust of it self to those who observe it narrowly But as that happens but against its intention it is asham'd being aware of it or rather perceiving that others did observe it Thus it is always true to say that when Self-love follows reason exactly in the search of esteem and affection of Men it imitates perfectly Charity so that in consulting it upon exterior actions it makes us the same answer that Charity does and engages us in the same ways 23. If for example one ask Charity in what disposition we ought to be concerning the subject of our Faults she will tell us that we ought extreamly to contemn our selves as to our own understanding in regard of those we think we have not and that the perswasion wherein we ought to be in general of our blindness in this Point ought to dispose us more to believe others in this than our selves But in respect of faults which we shall be convinced of there would be nothing more unjust than to counterfeit and destroy in some sort the Light of God it self by pretending to justifie what it condemns and thus the least we can do to escape this pride so criminal is to acknowledge them sincerely and to humble our selves before God and Man 24. Let us now propose the same question to Self-love and we shall see if it speak not the same language at the bottom of the Heart it gives yet the same counsel Tho it be hard it will say to acknowledge our faults and desire to deface them and blot them out of the memory of Man as well as out of our own it is evident nevertheless that that is impossible The more we shall strive to disguise them from others the more ingenuous they will be to discover them and wicked to make them taken notice of This same desire of Concealing them will pass in their minds for the greatest of faults and we shall do nothing in striving either to dissemble them or to maintain them but draw hatred and disdain upon our selves We must therefore necessarily steer another course If we cannot have the glory of being without faults we must have that of knowing them and not being cheats to our selves Bellum est sua vitia nosse Let us take away then from others the pleasure of taking notice of them in observing them our selves first and thereby disarming their wickedness 'T is upon the like considerations that Civility forms its conduct and 't is that which carries it to make an open profession of acknowledging sincerely all its Faults and not to take it ill that others observe them and by this means it gains the reputation of an amiable equity which makes it judge of it self clearly and without passion which knows how to justifie it self and with which one may be at quiet without being obliged outwardly to testifie that one approves what indeed one approves not 25. It is easie to be discerned by what has been said that Charity and Self-love should be very conform as to the receiving reprehensions and advertisements and that some very different consideration and motives ought to unite them in the same outward conduct We know well enough that to which Charity sways us For looking upon these Advertisements as a very great good and a favourable means to deliver us from our Faults Charity receives them not only with joy but with greediness and avidity The bitterness it self which accompanies them is agreeable to it as procuring us the satisfaction of huminity and weakening Self-love which Charity esteems as its worst enemy Thus 't is so far from shewing any disgust or sharpness of speech to those who procure us this good that it forgets nothing that may testifie its gratefulness to comfort them in the fear they have of hurting us to incline them to do us sometimes the same favour and to free them from all doubts which may make them reserved and keep them in torment and constraint 26. In truth Self-love is always inwarly very far removed from this disposition It loves not that others take notice of our Faults and much less that they admonish us of them But yet it acts outwardly as Charity does For learning by these admonitions which are given us the bad impression Men have of us reason makes Self-love conclude presently that it must be lessen'd or at least not augmented and consulting afterwards other mens minds to learn how we ought to guide ours Self-love easily acknowledgeth that nothing is a greater stumbling-block than the haughtiness of those who are not able to endure to be admonish'd of any of their Faults who rebell against Truth and who could wish that all the World were blind in respect of them or would suppress their thoughts so soon as they are not for their advantage and on the contrary nothing is more agreeable to People than to be freed from this resistance and to see that they put a stop to their judgments and to their light and thus in some sort they submit themselves to their empire Self-love therefore without hesitating takes this last part and thereby makes us insinuate our selves so agreeably into the hearts of those who reprove us that they love those who humble themselves in that manner much better what faults soever they have than those who having none have not opportunity to give them this satisfaction Because we must observe that our faults are not of themselves contrary to the self-Self-love of others and likewise that the bravest qualities of themselves are not pleasing to it 'T is the relation these faults and these brave qualities have with them So that if these faults make us more humble in respect of them or if these brave qualities render us more haughty they will love us with these faults and hate us with all those brave qualities 27. It is manifest that this conduct aims directly at least at Self-love which is to obtain the esteem of the friendship
Idea thereof which represents them to us as hatefull and odious without troubling the mind why And this Idea sufficeth to stir up in the heart a motion of horror aversion and separation Now the confused Idea's and these motions which follow them come so near to the true considerations of Charity which make it hate the evil actions which they include that there is hardly any but God who can discern the difference betwixt them 46. The third is that even when we have Charity in the heart and that it carries us to objects which are proper for it nevertheless because cupidity marcheth many times the same ways and tends to the same objects tho by different motives it makes a Hotch-potch in the Mind and in the heart of these two considerations and motions without our knowing certainly which it is that carries it and which is the true principle of our Actions We seek God and the World at once the heart is very glad to please the one and the other and knows not whether 't is God he relates to the World or the World to God This difference cannot be discovered but by penetrating a certain Groundplot which is in the heart and which is not evidently known but by God alone 47. Behold what is the ordinary condition of Men in this life even when they love God self-Self-love acts more grosly in some than others but it lives and acts in all to such a degree and it is seldom that they are able to assure themselves of any one action in particular that it is exempt from all self-inquiring But tho this state and condition may be for them a great cause of grief and fear they may be able nevertheless to find therein some Consolation if they dive into the reasons for which God permits them to remain there and raises not them to a higher degree of Vertue 48. It is visible in the first place that the design which God hath to conceal the Kingdom of Heaven which he came to establish upon Earth requires that men of Honesty and uprightness be intermixt outwardly with wicked men and that they be not distinguished from them by clear and visible marks For if the faithfull whom he animates by his Spirit and in whom he resides as in his Temple were a certain kind of men separated from others and as a Nation apart which the World might distinguish by actions which could not be met with in others they would all be publick continual and subsisting miracles which would destroy the state of Faith by which God will save the World The wicked who would see themselves in an impossibility of imitating them would thereby clearly know that Nature cannot attain to the state of vertuous Men. Therefore there must be some actions purely Human which do so much resemble supernatural and divine Actions that the distinction cannot be perceived And as these well-meaning men do not commit any crimes and thus cannot be thereby intermixed together with the wicked It must necessarily follow that the wicked can imitate their vertuous Actions and do some which may be so like outwardly that they cannot be discovered from the others 49. But it is not only an effect of Gods Justice to withdraw from the sight of wicked men the treasures of Grace which he gives to the Just This is one of his Mercies also towards the Just themselves It is good for them not to know themselves nor to see their own proper Justice The sight would be capable to overwhelm them Man is so weak and feeble even in his force that he is not able to undergo the weight of it And by a strange disorder which hath its source in the corruption of the Heart altho its happiness consists in the possession of Vertue and its misfortune in being full of faults it is therefore more dangerous for him to know his vertues than his faults The knowledge of humility renders him proud and that of his pride humble He is strong and powerfull when he knows himself weak and weak when he thinks he is strong Thus this obscurity which impedes and hinders him from distinguishing clearly whether he acts by Charity or by Self-love is so far from hurting that 't is comfortable to him This obscurity does not take away Vertues from him but hinders him from loosing them by keeping him always in humility and fear and making him mistrust all his Works and to rely only on Gods Mercy 50. This is the great profit of this outward resemblance of the actions of Self-love with those of Charity But we may yet take notice of some others which are very material It happens oftentimes that Charity is weak in certain Souls and in this condition of weakness Charity would be easily extirpated by these violent tentations if God did not permit that these tentations were not enervated and as it were counterpoised by certain human motives which stop the violence of it and give means to the Soul to follow the instinct of Grace The fear of mens judgments is one of these motives and there is hardly any of them which make more impression upon the Mind Fear alone is not sufficient for Charity to surmount temptations in a Christian way seeing that this fear springs only from vanity but it suspends their force and if it be found that the Soul hath some spark of true Charity it puts her in a condition of following it and therefore we see that the Holy Legislators of Religious Orders have not been negligent in these human means and that they have fixed to certain faults penances which were dreadfull before men to the end that the fear of this Human confusion may render the Religious more diligent in avoiding them 'T is not that they would pretend to make them do them by this sole motive but their intention hath been that they should make use thereof to fortifie themselves against negligence and that this Human fear might serve as arms to Charity the better by this means to resist the inclination of Nature 51. It is not then unprofitable for Men in the state of weakness wherein they are to be far removed from vices not only by Charity but also by this kind of Self-love which is called Civility to the end that in the feebleness of charity Civility may be able to uphold the Mind and hinder it from falling into dangerous excesses And 't is this which makes us see often strange Revolutions in those who being little sensible of mens judgments and not thinking of pleasing or displeasing them are sometimes touched with some small motions of Piety Because when it happens that they want these motions not having then curb enough to stop them they let themselves be hurried away to all sorts of Extravagancies Thus when one relies upon Men it is good to consider if besides Conscience which keeps them from evil they have yet a certain Civility which makes them apprehend doing things which may be condemned by wise and
and little and that there be another to take its place by divers progresses 'T is thus that Human passions are changed and God who wills that the Operations of his Grace be not sensibly distinguished from those of Nature follows commonly the same method He begins to shake the Heart through fear before he touch it with his Love and he often touches it a long time by beginnings of Love before he makes himself master of it by a ruling Love which turns the heart towards him as towards its last end and which frees and delivers it from the bondage of the love of Creatures Thus as the Conversion of dying sinners cannot pass through these degrees it must be miraculous to be true The Church despairs not of this Miracle which is the reason why she grants the Sacraments to dying People But she fears mightily that these Sentiments which appear in sinners in this state are only those light beginnings either of the Fear or of the Love of God which are not sufficient for a true and hearty Conversion And 't is this which obliges sinners not only to labour but also to make hast to labour seriously for their Salvation that their love may have time to increase and to arrive unto a condition that one may be able to say they are truly Converted To act otherways is to tempt God nay and to tempt him after a most dangerous manner in willing him to do a Miracle in the Order of his Grace to save us And in this fashion all those who expect to be Converted to God at their death besides their other sins do yet commit that of tempting God which often causes the very utmost of it 24. Spiritual Riches are all gratis as from God and yet it is written That the hands of those who labour strongly heap up Riches Manus fortium divities parat And the Scripture attributes on the contrary Spiritual poverty to the want of this Labour Egestatem operata est manus remissa that is to say that negligence and sloth cause the poverty and the misery of Souls so great a care hath God to hide the works of his Grace under the resemblance of those of Nature 25. Prayer is doubtless that of all Christian actions wherein the need of Grace appears most Therefore the Spirit of God is called by a particular Title the Spirit of Prayers Spiritus Precum And it is said of him that he prays by unspeakable sighs It would seem then that this so Divine exercise should need neither preparation nor rules and that it had nothing to do but to expect the Inspiration of Grace And yet the Wise man advises us expresly that we must prepare the Soul before Prayer for fear of being like those who tempt God Ante Orationem praepara Animam tuam noli esse quasi homo qui tentat Deum Shewing thus that all those who pray being unprepared fall into the sin of tempting God and that one of the principal causes of the Lukewarmness in our Prayers is the little care we have to prepare our selves thereunto by the means prescribed to us by Scripture which consists in withdrawing our hearts and minds from wandring and vain amusements that we may find them again when they must be presented to God in Prayer being impossible that the heart doth not run after its Treasure and busie it self with the objects it possesseth 26. 'T is thus that truth unites what appears contrary to those who know it but imperfectly All depends on God therefore we must labour say certain Hereticks we must not labour Therefore Virtue depends not on Grace say the Pelagians But the Catholick Doctrine consists in uniting these Truths and casting away the false conclusions We must labour saith this Doctrine and yet all depends on God Labour is an effect of Grace and the ordinary means to obtain Grace to think that labour and virtues are not the Gifts of God is a Pelagian presumption To slight the means God makes use of generally to communicate his Grace to Men is to tempt God in subverting the order of his Wisdom Thus Piety consists in practising these means and acknowledging that 't is God who makes us practise them 27. I know well that human Understanding which is dazled by the splendidness of Divine Truths and which is puzled with its vain reasonings may yet find difficulty in this alliance of Labour and Grace and in supposing with St. Austin and St. Thomas that what power one may have to do acts of Piety by other Graces they are never done effectually unless God determine the will by efficacious Grace He is easily inclined to conclude that we need only continue in repose untill we perceive these efficacious motions which make us practise them that when we shall perceive them we shall not fail to labour being that Grace will apply us thereto by a Virtue all powerful and not having them it is certain that we shall practice them only in an unprofitable manner 'T is an objection which comes easily into the minds of those who follow their own reasoning in these matters which regard the Conduct of God upon Souls The Fathers who were not ignorant thereof have answered thereto in divers solid ways by shewing after what manner it may be truly said that it is always in mans Power to satisfie the duties of Christian Piety and that 't is their fault if they do not accomplish them 28. But as it is not convenient to answer thereunto in a Theological way it is enough to shew that it hath nothing of Solidity even according to human reason and that the necessity we have of efficacious Grace to Practice Christian Virtues may well serve to humble men and to keep them in a state of fear and trembling but that it can never justly carry them neither to Idleness to Trouble nor dispair because we have always by nature it self a means which sufficeth to keep our minds in quiet and to banish away trouble and inquietude The reason is that altho to labour according to God to resist our faults like Christians to Pray and to practice good Works by the spirit of true Charity we have need of efficacious and supernatural Grace It is nevertheless certain that each of these actions in particular may be done sometimes without Grace by a motive of Self-love and human Respect and by a fear purely servile Now though there be an infinite difference betwixt Self-love and the love of God nevertheless the motives and the actions which spring from these two principles so different are sometimes so like and we have so little light to penetrate to the bottom of our hearts that we do not distinguish with certainty by what Principle we act and whether through Covetousness or through Charity We may well say with St. Paul That we do not think our selves guilty of any thing but we ought to joyn with him that for all that we are not Justified and that we cannot
upon his score 18. The Cardinal of Arles was Author of an enterprize which caused great troubles which was the deposing of Eugenius IV. This action was not followed in the Church It is no where observed that he repented the act and yet he hath done miracles after his death God having not laid to his charge what he did through zeal of Justice though in some circumstances which rendred his action imprudent St. Peter of Luxemburg St. Vincent Ferrier St. Catheriue of Siena were in divers and different times of Schisme and by consequence some of them for the Anti-Pope yet nevertheless this blemish hath not hindred their Sanctity 19. They who write the Lives of Saints think that 't is their Duty to set forth all their virtues and to hide all their faults But I do not know if they should not do as well to take notice of all their faults as of their virtues to hinder thereby that men be not scandalized at such as appear in some pious men which we know Whosoevor for example shall make reflections on the manner how Three Saints to wit St. Epiphanius St. Jerome and St. Cyril of Alexandria acted upon account of St. John Chrysostome will wonder no more that virtuous men be sometimes prevented and fall sometimes into excess and they will conceive that there is very great limitation in this passage Charitas operit multitudinem peceatorum 20. We see often in Saints some faults which God sees no more there whereas we see not in our selves those which are truly there If they commit faults through ignorance the heat of their charity purifies them even without their acknowledging them and thus they subsist no more If they commit some thro weakness or thro some passion they humble themselves and they rise again more strong than they were before their fall and by this means again they subsist no more But the faults of Souls grown cold altho more inconsiderable in appearance subsist always in the eyes of God because they want this fire of Charity to consume them and because they are not restor'd again absolutely 27. We must distinguish faults of passion from faults of darkness and faults of light the faults of understanding from faults of the heart Nor is there properly any but God who can judge of faults which spring from ignorance wherein Cupidity appears not to have any share at all Nor is it permitted for men to determine of the degree 22. All Saints have in their hearts a sincere disposition to love and follow every known Truth But they know not equally all Truths nether are they equally appropriated to all those they know God enlightens and touches them differently according to the several designs he hath upon them and by giving them an ardent Love for certain Truths by which he will sanctify them he suffers sometimes that in respect of others they remain in some kind of obscurity or in a want of judgment which comes not from the corruption of their hearts but from this that God applys them to other things 'T is this that makes these who love these Truths to be oftentimes troubled to see them so little concerned for them because they consider not that they themselves are in this deprivation of Light and Judgment in regard of many others and that the heart of man being limited and narrow in the condition it is in as to this life God doth not exact that it should love Truth Truth in all its extent but only that it be the love of Truth and not Cupidity which should be the principal of its actions 23. When God leaves the Saints thus in Ignorance as to many Truths or diverts and stops the occasions which might engage them to commit some faults thro ignorance or hides by the purity of their hearts and by the ardency of their Charity those which they commit it happens nevertheless from hence that we may easily make ill use of their examples whether it be in imagining that we ought to follow blindly all they have done or in behaving our selves so as to condemn these Saints because of these wants of Light But both the one and the other of these scandals must be remedied by the consideration of this various dispensation which God makes of the knowledge of this Truth For we see by this on the one side that there may remain darkness in the Saints in respect of certain points in which by consequence they ought not to be taken for guides and we have reason to conclude on the other that it follows not that those in whom we perceive the wants of Light in respect of certain Truths cannot be Saints by the application they have to others 24. We may add to this that perchance those who hurt in appearance certain Truths thro ignorance and lack of Light have before God more love and zeal for them than these who shew a great heat for those same Truths For God hath particularly regard to the bottom of the heart and when he sees there a sincere love for Truth and Justice a disposition to follow them at the cost of all things he hath less regard to the darkness which hinders this Love to spread it over certain particular points Whereas it happens sometimes that this Zeal so apparent for certain Truths is nothing but the effect of Self-love and a tye to its proper sense We maintain Truth as we should maintain what is false if we had the same engagements to do it and oftentimes God fees nothing that 's sincere at the bottom of the heart which leads directly to Truth 25. Those who by a more exact study of antiquity should have acquired knowledge and some light which very Holy persons should not have had should yet have occasion to humble themselves by this thought that those Truths tho great and important are not ordinarily those the practice whereof is most frequent and which are the principal of the common actions which compose our lives Thus as the occasion of practising them are not very ordinary they become often barren in these who know them and we may easily believe that men love them without any real or effective love for them It is altogether contrary with common Truths as with those which teach to converse with our neighbour in an edifying manner to have God present in all our actions and to do nothing but by his Motive and his Spirit to mortify all the inordinate excesses of Self-love to lop off all things useless to this life to correct the senses in all that we can to moderate our passions to govern all the motions of Mind and Body not to complain of little evils to receive favourably those who mind us of some defect not to be tyed to our own Sense and Light to be reserved in our judgments Those Truths which prescribe these actions are not less Truths than the others whereof we have spoken but they have this advantage that the practice is ordinary and that
trouble Therefore whatever may be said of this Portraiture which we must attempt to make of our selves if it happen nevertheless that we were so frighted at these Objects that the Soul might thereby be overwhelmed it would be better a great deal to turn it another way and to busie it only about Gods Mercies 57. Care yet ought to be had in the whole Examination of our actions and interior motions to do our selves the same justice that we think we are obliged to do to others that is to say not to condemn our selves without Evidence It is true that we are ignorant whether our better Actions are good and agreeable to God but yet we know much less whether they are disagreeable There are intermixt therewith many human and corrputed Considerations but we cannot tell whether they be voluntary and what part thereof we have whether they are not pure motives of Concupiscence which God doth not impute to us or temptations of the Enemy which render us yet less guilty We acknowledge in us a great stock of Corruption but this stock whatever it be doth not render us guilty when there is another stock of the Love of God and Justice which possesseth our hearts We have committed and we commit hourly an Infinity of faults but God pardons also hourly this infinity of faults when we return to him with a true and sincere humility And thus we cannot tell whether these faults do subsist before his eyes What therefore must be done in this Ignorance We must humble our selves under the Hand of God but not condemn our selves because that would be to attribute to our selves a Knowledge which we have not 58. Lastly The principal Precaution that ought to be had in the study of ones Self is not to apply ones self so absolutely to it but joyn it always with the infinite Mercies of God which surpass so much all our miseries that they are only as a drop of water in the Ocean 'T is therefore in this immense Sea that we must drown them with an entire confidence Considered in themselves they are great but compared to the infinite Greatness of Gods Love for us and the price he hath given to deliver us they are nothing They ought to humble us without casting us down as the Mercy of God to comfort us without elevating us God was willing to give us these two great objects of our misery and his Mercy to keep our Soul in Aequilibrio or even ballance There is always danger in considering the one without the other but the uinon of these two Considerations establish the Soul in the true state wherein she ought to be during this Life which is that of the wholsom fear grounded upon the consideration of our miseries and an humble confidence maintained by Gods Mercy The Second Treatise Of Charity and Self-love 1. Altho there is nothing so opposite to Charity which relates all to God as Self-love which relates all to it self yet there is nothing so resembling the effects of Charity as those of Self-love For it marches so by the same ways that one can hardly point out those better whereunto Charity ought to carry us than in proposing those which Self-love takes which knows its true Interests and inclines by reason to the end it proposes it self 2. This conformity of Effects in Principles so different will not appear strange to those who shall have well considered the nature of Self-love But to know it he must first consider Self-love in it self and in its first bent that he may see afterwards what carrieth him to disguise and hide it from the sight of the World 3. The name of Self-love is not sufficient to make us know its nature being we may love our selves divers ways We must add thereunto other qualities to form to our selves a true Idea of it These qualities are that Man doth not only love himself but he loves himself without limits and without measure loves only himself and refers all to himself He covets all sort of Riches Humors Pleasures and desires none but for or in relation to himself He makes himself the Center of all he would Lord it over all and could wish that all Creatures were only employed to content him to praise him and to admire him This tyrannical disposition being stamped in the bottom of all mens Hearts renders them violent unjust cruel ambitious flatterers envious insolent and quarrellous In a word it includes the seeds of all the crimes and of all the misdemeanors of men from the smallest even to the most detestable ones See here what a monster we harbour in our bosoms This monster lives and reigns in us absolutely except God destroy its empire by putting another love into our hearts It is the Principal of all our actions which have no other then corrupted Nature And so far is it from terrifying us that we love and hate all things which are out of us only as they are conform or contrary to our Inclinations 4. But if we love it in our selves we are far from using it so when we perceive it in others It appears then to us on the contrary under its natural form and we hate it by so much more as we love our selves because Self-love of other men opposes all the desires of ours We would that all others should love us admire us buckle under us and that they should be busied with the care of satisfying us And they have not only no desire thereto but they look upon us as ridiculous in pretending to it and they are ready to do all not only to hinder us from succeeding in our desires but to make us obnoxious to theirs and to require the same things of us Behold then by this means all men at difference one with another And if he who hath said that Men are born in a state and condition of War and that each man is naturally an enemy to all other men had a mind only to represent by these words the disposition of the Hearts of men one towards another without pretence of passing it for legitimate and just he would have said a thing as conform to Truth and Experience as that which is maintained is contrary to Reason and Justice 5. It cannot possibly be imagined how there can be formed Societies Common-wealths and Kingdoms out of this multitude of People full of passions so contrary to Union and who only endeavour the ruin of one another But Self-love which is the cause of this war will easily tell the way how to make them live in peace It loves Domination it loves to enslave all the World to it but it loves yet more life and convenientness and an easie life more than Domination and sees clearly that others are no ways disposed to suffer themselves to be domineered over and are sooner ready to take away from it the Goods it loves best Each man sees himself in an impossibility of succeeding by force in the designs which his
into those wherein it seems it may have the least share and which are design'd to mortifie and to destroy it It can sometimes make religious persons Fast or at least asswage one part of the trouble of their Fast The hair Cloaths and Discipline are sometimes for their use and there is hardly any humiliation which Self-love is not capable to practice and although it find not its accompt in solitude in silence and in secret Austerities there are perchance certain hidden passages and certain subterraneous ways through which it might may be find some entrance In fine self-love is also capable to make us suffer even death with joy and to the end that there may be no certain way to distinguish it from Charity by Martyrdoms the Saints do teach us after St. Paul that there are Martyrs of Vanity as well as of Charity Therefore St. Austin having said That Vanity doth imitate so exactly the works of Charity that there is almost no difference at all betwixt their effects that Charity doth nourish the Poor and that Vanity doth so likewise that Charity Fasteth that Vanity can Fast also that these works do strike us but that we cannot distinguish which come from a good and which from an ill Principle He adds at last that Charity dyes and brings us at the end to Martyrdom and that Vanity dyes also and suffereth Martyrdom Videte qualia opera faciat Superbia quam similia faciat prope paria Charitati Pascit Esurientem Charitas Pascit Superbia Charitas ut Deus laudetur Superbia ut ipsa laudetur Jejunat Charitas jejunat Superbia Opera videmus in operibus non discernimus Moritur Charitas Moritur Superbia 40. But there is this difference betwixt the hard troublesome and humbling actions of Vertue and those which have nothing but what is beautifull without being troublesom that when Self-love perswades Men to humility patience and to suffering 't is by a kind of unusualness or disorder For it is evident for example that the way to attain to our end which we propose is not to shut our selves up in solitude to have no converse with Men or to have nothing spoken of but our sins and faults And thus it is almost impossible that there be any who embrace this kind of life so contrary to the inclinations of Nature and who persevere therein by other motives than those of Salvation But it is not the same with the most part of the actions of Vertue which may be done in the world Self-love obtains its ends better by practising them It cannot omit them without loosing what it aims at And it must be carried away by some unreasonable passion against its true Interests to follow any other road but this 41. Thus one may say truly that absolutely to reform the World that 's to say to banish all the Vices and all the gross disorders therein and to make Mankind happy even in this life there needs only instead of Charity to give every one a harmless Self-love which may be able to discen its true Interests and to incline thereto by the ways which true Reason shall discover to it How corrupt soever this whole Society may be within and in the sight of God there would be nothing without better ordered more civilly more just more peaceable more honest more generous and what would be more admirable 't is that not being animated and stir'd but by Self-love Self-love would not appear at all there and being absolutely void of Charity we should see every where nothing but the form and characters of Charity 42. Perhaps it would not be amiss that those who are charged with the Education of great Persons should have this engraven in their minds to the end that if they should not be able to inspire them with these sentiments of Charity which they would gladly do they should endeavour at least to form their Self-love and teach them how the most part of the ways which they take to content this Self-love are false ill understood and contrary to their true Interests and how it would be facile for them to take some others which would conduct them without trouble to honour and glory and would get them the affection the esteem and the admiration of all the World If they should not prosper by this means to render them usefull to themselves they would at least make them usefull for others and would put them in a way which would always be less remote from the way to Heaven than that which they take seeing that it would be only to change the end and the intention to render themselves as agreeable to God by a truly Christian vertue as they would be to Man by the splendor of this human Civility to which we would form them 43. But it would be of little or no moment that these two Principles so different the one whereof bears the fruits of Life the other of Death should be confounded in the outward Actions at least if it were easie for every one to know distinctly that which makes him do it to the end that he may be able to judge thereby of his actions and condition What is more strange is that many times this mixture and this confusion begins in the heart it self so that we cannot distinguish whether 't is through Charity or Self-love that we act whether 't is God or our selves we seek for whether 't is for Heaven or Hell we labour This obscurity proceeds from divers causes and I will take notice here of the three principall ones 44. The first is that these considerations of the judgments of men and the motions of their hearts in regard of us which are the rule the source and the object of human Civility are not always accompanied with formal and express reflections and that the motions which they produce are yet more imperceptible to us These are often in respect of the mind only as certain looks and certain transitory thoughts by which it is carried as by stealth towards these Judgments which are made of us and in respect of the heart only as certain hidden Propensities which stop it gently on this side so that we do not make any express reflection neither on this propensity nor on the thoughts which produceth it although that may be the thing which gives the motion to our outward Actions and which is the Principle thereof 45. The second is that it may often happen that even when we are not removed in effect but through fear of displeasing men or through a desire to please them We have not absolutely any knowledge nor any distinct thoughts neither of the one nor the other and that because we act often without a distinct knowledge and by a simple custome which is not guided unless by confused thoughts being forced to look upon certain actions as able to bring upon us publick infamy and the hatred of honest men it forms it self in the mind a confused
is able to bestow on us his greatest Graces without making us pass through these exercises but they knew at the same time that the common order of his Providence is not to grant us them but persuant to these exercises and by these exercises themselves and thus he grants in the first place to Souls the Grace to practise them to make them afterwards to arrive to the Vertues whereunto he desires to raise them being the Author as well of the actions which he makes them perform to acquire these Vertues as of Vertues which they acquire by these actions 19. Nor is there any thing more easie to God then to make us know from time to time our faults by the infusion of a Light which will place them at once before our eyes He might likewise correct us for them in giving us contrary Vertues without our being obliged to be troubled continually at the sight of our Miseries But the Saints who know the ways which God makes use of generally to cleanse Souls forget not to recommend to us this diligent examination and care of our Souls as one of the chief Duties of Piety which ought not to end but with our life Brethren saith St. Augustine in expecting the coming of this happy day Hom. 15. wherein we shall be joyned with the Angels of Heaven to Praise God for all Eternity In expecting till we be arrived at this ineffable joy which we hope for let us apply our selves as much as we can to the Practice of good Works let us daily examin our Consciences and carefully look that there be nothing broken and torn in the Spiritual Robes of our Souls that we have not received some spots through Intemperance that we have not burnt them through Choler nor divided them through Envy that we have not tarnished their Lustre through Avarice Let us make hast to Cure these Wounds of our Souls whilest we have yet the Power with the and of Grace 20. The great St. Gregory whom God hath given particularly to his Church to instruct her with Rules of a spiritual life recommends nothing so much in his Morals as this Vigilance and Care of our selves and this diligent examination of good and bad actions We must saith he purifie the Actions even of Virtue Greg. Mor. l. 1. c. 17 18. by an exact discussion for fear of taking bad for good and what is imperfect and defective for very perfect 'T is that which is hinted to us by the Sacrifice which Job Offered for each of his Children For 't is Offering a Sacrifice to God for each of his Children to Offer him prayers for each Act of Virtue for fear that Wisdom should puff him up that Intelligence should make him stray that Prudence should puzle and confound him that Force should make him presumptuous And because Holocaust is a Sacrifice which is absolutely consumed 't is necessary that our Soul be burnt by the fire of Compunction and that she consume in this fire all that she hath of impure in her thoughts But no man is able to do it if he be not careful to examin all his inward motions before be proceed to Actions This Saint saith yet Ibid. c. 19. We must bruise Perfumes that is to say consider apart all that passeth in the Soul and reduce it as it were into dust by this examination We must take off the skin of the Victim and cut it into bits that is to say we must take from our Actions this outward Surface which makes them appear to us virtuous that we may see even to the bottom of them This instruction is often repeated in St. Gregories Works that one may say that 't is the principal Foundation of his spiritual Conduct and far from exempting the Just more advanced in this Practice he on the contrary placeth their advancement in the encreasing this Care and Vigilance and in this attention upon themselves 21. Saint Barnard hath writ four Books to bring Souls to this exercise of examining their Actions and Conduct before God and he makes it the cheif Duty of a Christian life but to shew in a word the Idea he had of true Piety he says That 't is to apply ones self to consider what one is Quid est Pietas Vacare Considerationi and that this Consideration consists in foreseeing ones actions to regulate them before God to correct ones faults and to think what is ones Duty And 't is remarkable that this Saint gives not these instructions to a Novice but to a great Pope whom he ought to imagin in a state of Perfection having been raised to this first dignity of the Church for his eminent Virtues 22. When the Philosophers who supposed that Virtue hath no other Source but Nature prescribed Rules to attain it they prescribed no other then these above They recommended to us like these Saints this examination and this continual care and vigilance over our actions as may be seen in the Verses attributed to Pythagoras and in several places of Seneca Did not St. Augustine St. Gregory and St. Barnard know that Virtue is a pure effect of the mercy of God and not of our endeavours and reflections Doubtless they knew it seeing that they taught it in so many places of their Books but likewise they knew that God did not give it ordinarily to men but by the practice of certain means and exercises to which he applies them by his Grace And thus the principal care of those who have the Charge of Souls is to put them in the way of practicing these means by which they may obtain God's Grace and that it is tempting him to act otherways and to desire that he may grant us them by some other way then that which his Wisdom hath chosen and which he hath given us to understand by the example of all the Saints 23. Wherefore do men believe that the Fathers have testified so much doubt of those who do not think of being converted except at the hour of death Is it because 't is not as easie for God to touch sinners by his Grace at the last moment as at another time or that that of death is excluded from the general Promise which God hath made to Men to receive them into his Grace if they be Converted sincerely Without doubt 't is nothing of that God is alway equally powerfull and the bosom of his Mercy is always equally open to converted Sinners But 't is because the Fathers have thought that these Conversions were not generally speaking sincere and that they were rather an effect of the state wherein they found themselves than an alteration of the heart And the reason of it is that in the common way the Heart doth not change thus all at once the object and the end Outward Actions may be changed easily in an instant but Love which holds the principal place of the Heart scarcely changes in an instant It must ordinarily speaking be discouraged by little
animosities which have long and troublesome consequences It engages an infinity of people in considerable faults and all this multiplication of sins shall be imputed to those who shall have given way thereunto by their indiscretion 21. I have hitherto only considered the obligations to any secret thing which springs from the common interest of civil Society and Fidelity which is a continuation of that transitory friendship which is contracted with all those who out of confidence speak to us And thus I have taken their Will for the rule of Reports which may honestly be made from what shall have been told us But as from hence it would follow that one might tell again all that they should be glad we should tell it may be added that we are often obliged to Secrecy by the general rule of Charity which forbids the reporting many things altho those who have said them should not think themselves obliged to it for we ought not only to have respect to their Will but also to their good and to the good of others It ought to satisfy us that we know that some report may really hurt some one to publish it In a word we must regulate our Reports not by what people desire in their passions but by what they ought to desire therein having a reason to suppose that when their passion shall cease they will be glad that they had managed them so and when this passion shall not cease we ought not to make our selves the ministers to do hurt to others or to our selves 22. Thus a man of worth will never fall into this fault which St. Austin calls A horrible Plague to report to those who are angry against others the words of animosity which these persons might have said against them and he will follow without trouble this maxim of that Holy Doctor That 't is not enough for a man truly Charitable not to excite or augment by his reports the enmities of men but that he ought also to labour with his whole strength to extinguish and stifle them Animo humano parum esse debet Inimicitias hominum nec excitare nec augere male loquendo nisi eas etiam extinguere bene loquendo studuerit 23. A man by following these Rules avoids one part of the faults which he commits in relating indiscreetly what he only knows by some particular Discourses But that is not the only fault which he is obliged to be careful of upon this Subject That of believing lightly the faults which others tell us is of no less importance and it may be said that 't is yet more dangerous because we are less watchful on that side and we suffer our selves so much more easily to fall thereinto by how much it appears that we have no concern for it We think that it belongs to him who relates something to give an Answer and that we may relie upon him for the truth of the deed which he relates In the mean time it is quite otherwise For the Soul of that Man who hearkeneth remains not without action she thinketh judgeth followeth her Passions acts also often times in following her Passions and if she have not had cause to yeild to these reports those Judgments are false those Passions injust and those actions disorderly 24. To comprehend as to this point the injustice and the aversness of most mens minds we need only consider that when they are Cloathed with certain Ornaments which the Order of this World hath assigned to Judges being assembled in a certain place and things are proposed and treated of in certain Forms or Methods they act ordinarily after a discreet wise and equitable manner The discourses of the one Party make no Impressions upon their Souls unless they know what the other side hath to Answer to it They examine scrupulously the Proofs they reject those which are false and uncertain they give leave to weaken the depositions of Witnesses they stop only at those which are not destroyed by reasonable disproofs and they never declare a man guilty of a Crime which is imputed to him unless he be absolutely convicted of it The sole defect of Proofs sufficeth them to absolve the accused and to condemn the Accuser and when they want any of these forms they condemn themselves of Temerity and Injustice But when moved to judge of some one in particular without Power or Authority they act clear another way All Proofs suffice them every Authority serves their turn every Witness is kindly received and upon the bare report of Persons either prejudiced or ill informed or wavering and without judgment they will declare without any scruple people guilty of all that others shall have been willing to lay to their Charge 25. Perhaps men will say that 't is impossible to use in particular judgments all the formalities of solemn judgments But if men observe not the Garb and the Pomp they ought at least to observe therein what is necessary to assure themselves of the truth Now it is no less necessary to form the Judgment and understanding in particular to know what each Party saith then to pass juridical Sentences of it That which a passionate inconsiderate and unconstant Witness reports in a Discourse deserves no more belief then what he deposeth before a Judge and he deserves even less because the Oaths which the Judges draw from them do much more applie people who have any Conscience or Honour to say nothing that 's false A false and uncertain Proof is absolutely false and uncertain Nevertheless those who would make a Conscience of Judging upon the Bench on Proofs and Witnesses of this nature make none at all oftentimes of Condemning people in particular upon very weak Proofs and Witnesses yet less received 26. Doubtless there is nothing more unreasonable then this unequal dealing but it hath a very effective cause in the Corruption of mens hearts If they shew some equity in publick Judgments 't is not because they really love Justice they would love it every where if they loved it truly but on the one part 't is because the Forms to which they are bound hinders them from going aside and that on the other the faults which they commit in publick would not remain absolutely unpunished and would at least be revenged by the outcry they would bring upon them if they were not Chastised by the superior Judges There is nothing of that in the Judgments which we make in secret upon the reports men make us There is neither Form to be observed nor Infamy to be feared Thus as we have an entire liberty to follow the propensity of nature we follow it and this propensity carrys us to receive without examination all that men have related to the disadvantage of our neighbour because we naturally love to jeer at others to scorn them and to see them humbled And on the contrary we fear the suspension the reservedness and the attention which hath always something of tormenting and