unequally supplied there 's all Reason to believe the Diversity of their Graces must proceed from him who is the Chief of Angels as well as Men and who under that Character has merited by his Sacrifice all the Graces which God has given his Creatures but has variously applied them by his different Desires It being undeniable that Jesus Christ long before his Birth or Meriting might be the Meritorious Cause of the Graces given to the Angels and Saints of the Old Testament it ought methinks be granted that by his Prayers he might be the Occasional Cause of the same Graces long before they were demanded For indeed there is no necessary Relation between Occasional Causes and the Time of Production of their Effects and though commonly these sort of Causes are follow'd by their Effects at the Time of their Action yet their Action being not of it self efficacious since its Efficacy depends on the Will of the universal Cause there 's no necessity of their actual Existence for the producing their Effect For Instance Suppose Jesus Christ at this present time should desire of his Father that such a Person might receive such a Supply of Grace at certain Moments of his Life that Prayer of Jesus Christ would infallibly determine the Efficacy of the General Will God has of saving all Men in his Son This Person will receive these Assistances though the Prayer of Jesus Christ be pass'd and his Soul actually think on another thing and never think again on that which he requir'd for him But the past Prayer of Jesus Christ is no more present to his Father than a future For all that must happen in all Times is equally present to God Thus God loving his Son and knowing he shall have such Desires with respect to his Ancestors and those of his own Nation and likewise to the Angels which must enter into the Spiritual Edifice of his Church and constitute the Body whereof he is the Head ought to accomplish the Desires of his Son before they were made that the Elect which preceded his Nativity and which he purchas'd by the Merit of his Sacrifice might as peculiarly belong to him as others and that he might be their Head as really as he is ours I acknowledge it is fit that Meritorious and Occasional Causes should rather precede their Effects than follow them and that Order would have Causes and their Effects exist together For 't is plain that all Merit ought to be instantly recompenc'd and every Occasional Cause actually to produce its Effect provided nothing hinders bâ—t it may or ought be done But Grace being absolutely necessary to Angels and Patriarchs could not be deferr'd But as for the Glory and Reward of the Saints of the Old Testament since that might be deferr'd 't was fit that God should suspend its Accomplishment till Jesus Christ should ascend into Heaven be constituted High Priest over the House of God and begin to exercise the Sovereign Power of Occasional Cause of all Graces merited by his Labours upon Earth Therefore we are to believe that the Patriarchs entred not Heaven till after Jesus Christ their Head Mediator and Fore-runner But though it should be granted that God had not appointed an Occasional Cause for all the Graces afforded the Angels and Patriarchs I see not how it can be thence concluded that Jesus Christ does not at present endue the Church with the Spirit which gives it Increase and Life that he does not pray for it or that his Prayers or Desires are not effectually heard in a word that he is not the Occasional Cause which applies to Men the Graces he has merited I grant if you 'll have it so that God before Jesus Christ gave Grace by particular Wills the Necessity of Order requiring it Whilst by Order the Occasional Cause could not be so soon establish'd and the Elect were very few in Number But now when the Rain of Grace falls not as heretofore on a small Number of Men but is shower'd on all the Earth and Jesus Christ may or ought be constituted the Occasional Cause of the Goods which he has merited for his Church what reason is there to believe God works so many Miracles as he gives us good Thoughts For in short all that is done by particular Wills is certainly a Miracle as not being a Result of the General Laws he has ordain'd whose Efficacy are determin'd by Occasional Causes But how can we imagine that in order to save Men he works so many Miracles useless to their Salvation I would say affords them all these Graces which they resist because not proportion'd to the actual Force of their Concupiscence St. John teaches us That Christians receive from the Fulness of Jesus Christ Graces in abundance For says he the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. For indeed the Graces which preceded him were not comparable to those he distributed after his Triumph If they were Miraculous we are to suppose they were extremely rare Even the Grace of the Apostles before the Holy Spirit was given them could not come in comparison with those they receiv'd when the High Priest of future Goods having entred by his Blood into the Holy of Holies had obtain'd by the Force of his Prayers and sent through the Dignity of his Person the Holy Spirit to animate and sanctifie his Church The unaccountable Blindness of the Jews their gross and carnal Notions their frequent Relapses into Idolatry after so many Miracles sufficiently manifest their disregard for true Goods and the dispiritedness of the Apostles before they had received the Holy Ghost is a sensible Proof of their Weakness So that Grace in those Days was extremely rare because our Nature in Jesus Christ was not yet establish'd the Occasional Cause of Graces Jesus Christ was not yet fully consecrated Priest after the Order of Melchisedech nor had his Father given him that Immortal and Glorious Life which is the particular Character of his Priesthood For 't was necessary that Jesus Christ should enter the Heavens and receive the Glory and Power of Occasional Cause of true Goods before he sent the Holy Spirit according to the Words of St. John The Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified And according to others of Jesus Christ himself It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I go I will send him unto you Now it cannot be imagin'd that Jesus Christ consider'd as God is the Head of the Church as Man he has obtain'd that Quality The Head and Members of a Body must be of the same nature Jesus Christ as Man intercedes for Men as Man he receiv'd from God a Sovereign Power over his Church For as he is God he intercedes not as God he has not receiv'd a Name which is above every Name but he is equal to the Father
the Sensations we have of Colours And indeed it cannot be doubted but there is much diversity in the Organs of Sight of different Persons as well as in those of Hearing and Tasting For what reason is there to suppose an exact conformity and resemblance in the disposition of the Optick Nerve of all Men since there is such an infinite variety in all the things of Nature but especially in those that are Material There is then great probability that all Men do not see the same Colours in the same Objects Nevertheless I am of Opinion that it never happens at least very rarely that any Persons see Black and White of a different Colour from what our selves see them though they do not see them equally Black or White But as to middle Colours such as Red Yellow Blue and especially those that are compounded of these three I am persuaded there are very few Men that have exactly the same Sensations For there are Men sometimes to be met with who see some sort of Bodies of a yellow Colour for instance when they view them with one Eye and of a Green or Blue when they behold them with the other And yet supposing these Men to be born with one Eye only or with two Eyes so dispos'd as to see that of a Red or Yellow Colour which others call Green or Blue they would believe they saw Objects of the same Colours as others do because they would always have heard the Name Green given to that which they see Yellow and Blue to that which to them seems Red. It might as a farther proof be alledg'd that all Men see not the same Objects of the same Colour because according to the Observations of some Men the same Colours are not equally pleasing to all sorts of People since on supposition these Sensations were the same they would be equally agreeable to all Mankind But because very strong Objections might be urg'd against this Argument founded on the Answer I gave to the former Objection I thought it not solid enough to be propos'd Indeed is is very rarely found that a Man is much more pleas'd with one Colour than another as he takes greater pleasure in one Taste than another The reason of it is That the Sensations of Colours are not given us to judge whether the Bodies about us are fit to nourish us or not This is the part of Pleasure and Pain to shew which are the Natural Characters of Good and Evil. Objects in point of Colours are neither good nor bad to eat If Objects on account of their Colour should either seem agreeable or disagreeable the Sight of them would constantly be succeeded with the course of the Animal Spirits which excite and accompany the Passions since the Soul cannot be affected without some Commotion We should often hate good Things and be fond of the bad so that our Life could not be long preserv'd In short the Sensations of Colour are given us meerly to distinguish Bodies from one another and this is effected well enough whether a Man sees Grass green or red provided the Person who sees it green or red sees it always in the same manner But so much for our Sensations Let us now say something of our Natural Judgments and our Voluntary Judgments that attend them The fourth thing to be consider'd which we confound with the three others whereof we have been speaking CHAP. XIV I. Of the False Judgments that accompany our Sensations and which we confound with them II. The Reasons of these False Judgements III. That Error is not in our Sensations but only in these Judgments WE instantly fore-see that there are very few Persons who will not be offended at this general Proposition we lay down namely That we have not any Sensation of External things but contains one or more Judgments We know well enough too that the generality of Men are of opinion that there is not any Judgment True or False in our Sensations Insomuch that these Persons surpriz'd with the Novelty of this Proposition will undoubtedly say with themselves How is this possible I do not judge the Wall to be white I see well enough it is so I do not judge that Pain is in my Hand I feel it most infalliby there And who can doubt of things so certain unless he has a different Sensation of Objects from what I have my self In fine their Inclinations for the Prejudices of Childhood will carry them much farther And if they proceed not to Contumely and to the Contempt of those whom they believe of a contrary Sentiment to themselves they will doubtless deserve to be reckon'd amongst the moderate sort of People But 't is not our business to stand prophesying any longer what ill Reception and Success our Thoughts shall meet with 't is much more expedient to draw them out with such convincing Arguments and to set them in so clear a Light as to leave it impossible for a Man to engage them with his Eyes open or to consider them attentively without submitting to them We are to prove that we have no Sensation of External things which does not include some false Judgment or other And the Proof is as follows To me it seems past Controversie that our Souls take not up such vast spaces as are those we see betwixt us and the fix'd Stars though it should be allow'd that they are extended Thus it is unreasonable to believe our Souls are in the Heavens when they see the Stars there Nor is it more credible that they depart out of their Bodies a mile suppose when they see the Houses at that distance The Soul then must necessarily see Stars and Houses where they are not since she goes not out of the Body wherein she is and nevertheless sees them out of it Now whereas the Stars which are immediately united to the Soul and which are the only Stars the Soul can see are not in the Heavens it follows that all Men who see the Stars in the Heavens and thereupon voluntarily judge that they are there make two false Judgments the one Natural and the other Free and Voluntary The one is a Judgment of the Senses or a Compound Sensation which ought not to be a measure for us to judge by The other is a Free Judgment of the Will which a Man may avoid making and consequently must not make if he would avoid falling into Error But let us see upon what grounds a Man believes those same Stars he immediately sees to be out of the Soul and in the Heavens The reason is this That it is not in the power of the Soul to see them when she pleases For she can perceive them only at such times as those Motions are excited in her Brain to which the Idea's of these Objects are affix'd by Nature Now because the Soul has no Perception of the Motions of her Organs but only of her own Sensations and is confident these same
enough from hence that their Argumentations upon Natural things are founded merely on Logical Notions such as Act Power and an infinite number of Imaginary Entities which they take no care to distinguish from such as are Real These Gentlemen therefore finding it wonderful easie to see after their manner what they have a Mind to see imagine they have better Eyes than other Men and that they perceive distinctly Extension supposes something else and that 't is only a Property of Matter which Matter may be divested of as of the rest Yet if you make a Demand of them that they would please to explain that thing which they pretend to perceive in Matter besides Extension they offer to do it several ways every of which makes it apparent that they have no other Idea of it than that of Being or of Substance in general This is extreamly evident if we take notice That this their Idea includes no particular Attributes which agree to Matter For whilst we take Extension from Matter we rob it of all the Attributes and Properties which we distinctly conceive do belong to it and though we leave that imaginary thing which they suppose the Essence of it it being manifest that neither Earth nor Heaven nor any thing we see in Nature could be made of it Whereas on the contrary if we take away what they fancy the Essence of Matter provided we leave Extension and we leave all the Attributes and Properties we distinctly conceive included in the Idea of Matter For it is certain that out of Extension all alone might be fram'd an Heaven an Earth and all the Visible World and infinite others So this Something which they suppose over and above Extension having no Attributes distinctly to be conceiv'd belonging to it and clearly included in the Idea we have of it can have nothing real in it if we will credit our Reason nor can be of any use in explaining Natural Effects And that which is said of its being the Subject and Principle of Extension is said gratis and without any distinct Conception in them that say it that is they have no other than a General and Logical Idea of it as of Subject and Principle In so much that we may further imagine a new Subject and a new Principle of this Subject of Extension and so in infinitum the Mind having the Power of representing the General Idea's of Subject and Principle as long as it pleases 'T is true there is a great probability that Men had not so puzzl'd and obscur'd the Idea that they have of Matter had they not some Reasons for it and that there are many who maintain contrary Conclusions to these of ours upon Theological Principles Doubtless Extension is not the Essence of Matter if that be contrary to our Faith And we willingly acknowledge it We are thank GOD very well perswaded of the Feebleness and Limitedness of an Humane Mind We know it is of too little Extent to measure an Infinite Power that GOD can do infinitely more than we can conceive that he communicates only those Idea's which represent to us the things that arrive by the order of Nature and hides the rest from us Wherefore we are always ready to submit our Reason unto Faith but there is need of better proofs than are generally urg'd to ruin the Reasons we have establish'd Because the manner of explaining the Mysteries of Faith are not of Faith and we believe these Mysteries without conceiving how the manner of them can be distinctly explaind We believe for instance the Mystery of the TRINITY though the Humane Mind is unable to conceive it and yet we cease not to believe that the things that differ not in any third differ not in themselves though this Proposition seems to overthrow it For we are convinc'd that Reason is not to be made use of except in Subjects proportion'd to its Capacity and that we ought not to look steadfastly on our Mysteries for fear of being dazel'd by them according that Admonition of the Holy Spirit Qui scrutator est Majestatis opprimetur à gloriâ However if we thought it convenient for the satisfaction of some Men's Minds to explain how our Notion upon this matter may be reconcil'd with what we are taught by Faith concerning Transubstantiation we probably could do it in a way very distinct and perspicuous and could no ways offend against the Decisions of the Church But we think this Explication may be dispens'd with especially in this Work For it ought to be observ'd That the Holy Fathers have almost always look'd upon it as an incomprehensible Mystery and that they never play'd the Philosophers to explain it but contented themselves for the most part with unexact Comparisons fitter to make known the Doctrine than to give a Satisfactory Explication to the Mind Therefore Tradition is for such as Philosophize not on this Mystery and who sumit their Reason to the Rule of Faith without distracting their Brain to no purpose about most abstruse and difficult Questions We should be to blame should we require the Philosophers to give us clear and easie Explications of the manner of our LORD's Body being in the Eucharist for this would be to demand of them novelties in Divinity And in case the Philosophers should make an impudent Answer to the Demand they must be necessarily obnoxious either to the having their Philosophy or Divinity condemn'd For if their Explications were obscure they would give reason to despise the Principles of their Philosophy if their Answer were easie and apparent we should have reason to be apprehensive of Novelty in their Divinity Since then Novelty in point of Divinity bears the Impress and Character of Error and the World has a right and priviledge of despising Opinions merely on the Account of their being Novel and having no foundation in Tradition we ought not to undertake to give easie and intelligible Explications of those things which the Fathers and Councels have not perfectly explain'd and 't is sufficient to hold the Doctrine of Transubstantiation without offering to make out the manner of it For otherwise we might sow the seeds for fresh Disputes and Quarrels whereof there are too many already and the Enemies of the Truth would not fail to use them to malicious purpose and for the oppressing of their Adversaries Disputes in point of Theological Explications seem to be the most useless and most dangerous of any and they are with greater reason to be fear'd for that even Religious Persons often fancy they have a right of breaking their Charity with such as break with their Opinions We have but too common Experience of this Practice and the cause of it lies not very deep Wherefore 't is always the best and surest way not to be eager to speak of things whereof we have no Evidence and which others are not dispos'd to conceive Nor ought obscure and uncertain Explications of Mysteries of Faith which we are under no
as little as possibly it can 'T is upon this account it is easily perswaded that the Essences of things are in Indivisibili and that they are like Numbers as we have said before for that then it requires only one Idea to represent all the Bodies that go under the name of the same Species If you put for example a Glass of Water into an Hogshead of Wine the Philosophers will tell you the Essence of Wine still remains the same and the Water is converted into Wine That as no number can intervene between three and four since a true Unity is indivisible so 't is necessary the Water should be converted into the Essence or Nature of the Wine or that the Wine should lose its own That as all Numbers of Four are perfectly alike so the Essence of Water is exactly the same in all Waters That as the Number Three Essentially differs from the Number Two and cannot have the same Properties so two Bodies differing in Specie differ Essentially and in such wise as they can never have the same Properties which flow from the Essence and such like things as these Whereas if Men consider'd the true Idea's of things any thing attentively they would not be long a discovering that all Bodies being extended their Nature or Essence has nothing in 't like Numbers and that 't is impossible for it to consist in Indivisibili But Men not only suppose Identity Similitude or Proportion in the Nature the Number and essential Differences of Substances but in every thing that comes under their Perception Most Men conclude that all the fix'd Stars are fastned as so many Nails in the mighty Vault of Heaven in an equal distance and convexity from the Earth The Astronomers have for a long time given out that the Planets rowl in exact Circles whereof they have invented a plentiful number as Concentric Excentric Epicycles Deferent and Equant to explain the Phenomena that contradict their Prejudice 'T is true in the last Ages the more Ingenious have corrected the Errors of the Ancients and believe that the Planets describe Ellipses by their Motion But if they would have us believe that these Ellipses are regular as we are easily inclin'd to do because the Mind supposes Regularity where it perceives no Irregularity they fall into an Error so much harder to be corrected as the Observations that can be made upon the Course of the Planets want Exactness and Justness to shew the Irregularity of their Motions which Error nothing but Physicks can remedy as being infinitely less observable than that which occurs in the Systeme of exact Circles But there is one thing of more particular occurrence relating to the Distance and Motion of the Planets which is that the Astronomers not being able to discover an Arithmetical or Geometrical Proportion that being manifestly repugnant to their Observations some of them have imagin'd they observ'd a kind of Proportion which they term Harmonical in their Distances and Motions Hence it was that an Astronomer of this Age in his New Almagistus begins a Section intitul'd De Systemate Mundi Harmonico with these words There is no Man that 's never so little vers'd in Astronomy but must acknowledge a kind of Harmony in the motion and intervals of the Planets if he attentively considers the Order of the Heavens Not that he was of that Opinion for the Observations that have been made gave him sufficiently to understand the extravagance of that imaginary Harmony which has yet been the Admiration of many Authors Ancient and Modern whose Opinions are related and refuted by Father Riccioli It is attributed likewise to Pythagoras and his Followers to have believ'd That the Heavens by their Regular Motions made a wonderful Melody which Men could not hear by reason of their being us'd to it As those says he that dwell near the Cataracts of the Waters of Nile hear not the noise of them But I only bring this particular Opinion of the Harmonical Proportion between the Distances and Motions of the Planets to shew that the Mind is fond of Proportions and that it often imagines them where they are not The Mind also supposes Uniformity in the Duration of things and imagines they are not liable to Change and Instability when it is not as it were forc'd by the Testimonies and report of Sence to judge otherwise All Material things being extended are capable of Division and consequently of Corruption And every one that makes never so little reflection on the Nature of Bodies must sensibly perceive their Corruptibility And yet there have been a multitude of Philosophers who believ'd the Heavens though Material were Incorruptible The Heavens are too remote from our Eyes to discover the Changes which happen in them and there seldom any great enough fall out to be seen upon Earth which has been sufficient warrant to a great many Persons to believe they were really incorruptible What has been a farther confirmation of their Opinion is their attributing to the Contrariety of Qualities the Corruption incident to Sublunary Bodies For having never been in the Heavens to see how things were carried on there they have had no Experience of that contrariety of Qualities being to be found therein which has induc'd them to believe there were actually no such thing And hence have concluded the Heavens were exempt from Corruption upon this Reason That what according to their Notion corrupts Sublunary Bodies is not to be found in the higher Regions of the World 'T is plain that this Arguing has nothing of solidity for we see no Reason why there may not be found some other Cause of Corruption besides that contrariety of Qualities which they imagine nor upon what grounds they can affirm There is neither Heat nor Cold neither Drought nor Moisture in the Heavens that the Sun is not hot nor Saturn cold There is some probability of Reason to say That very hard Stones and Glass and other Bodies of like Nature are not corrupted since we see they subsist a long time in the same Capacity and we are near enough to observe the Changes that should happen to them But while we are at such a Distance from the Heavens as we are it 's absolutely against all Reason to conclude they don't corrupt because we perceive no contrary Qualities in them nor can see them corrupting and yet they don 't only say they don't corrupt but that they are unchangeable and incorruptible And a little more the Peripateticks would maintain That Celestial Bodies were so many Divinities as their Master Aristotle did believe them The Beauty of the Universe consists not in the Incorruptibility of its parts but in the Variety that is found in them and this great Work of the World would have something wanting to its Admirable Perfection without that Vicissitude of things that is observ'd in it A Matter infinitely extended without Motion and consequently rude and without Form and without Corruption might perhaps manifest
have two contrary Motions viz. the circular and the ascending which is impossible If the Heavens be some other Body which moves not circularly by its own Nature they will have some other natural Motion which cannot likewise be for if that Motion be ascending they will be Fire or Air and if descending Water or Earth Therefore c. I shall not insist upon shewing the particular Absurdities of those Reasonings but only observe in general that all that which this Philosopher here says has no signification and that there is neither Truth nor Inference well drawn His third Reason is as follows The first and most perfect of all simple Motions must be that of a simple Body and of the first and most perfect among simple Bodies But the circular Motion is the first and most perfect amongst simple Motions because every circular Line is perfect and that no right Line is so For if it be finite something may be added to it if infinite it is not yet perfect since it has no end and that things are not perfect but when they are finished and therefore the circular Motion is the first and most perfect of all and a Body moving circularly is simple and the first and most Divine amongst simple Bodies Here you have his fourth Reason Every Motion is either natural or not but every Motion which is not natural to some Bodies is natural to some others For we see that the ascending and descending Motions which are not natural to some Bodies are so to others for Fire naturally descends not but Earth does Now the Circular Motion is not natural to any of the Four Elements there must then be a simple Body to which that Motion is natural and therefore the Heavens which move Circularly are a simple Body distinguished from the Four Elements Lastly The Circular Motion is either natural or violent to some Body or other If it be natural 't is evident that Body must be one of the most simple and perfect But if it be against Nature 't is strange how that Motion endures for ever since we see that all Motions against Nature are of a short continuance And therefore we must believe after all those Reasons that there is some Body separated from all those that environ us whose Nature is the more perfect as it lies at a greater distance Thus argues Aristotle but I defie the best and most intelligent of his Interpreters to fix distinct Ideas to his Words and to shew that this Philosopher begins with the most simple Things before he speaks of the more composed which is however altogether necessary to exact Reasonings as I have already proved If I were not afraid of being tedious I would be at the pains to translate some Chapters of Aristotle But besides that none who can understand him care to read him in English or in any other vulgar Tongue I have sufficiently shewn by what I have related from him that his Way of Philosophizing is wholly unserviceable to the Discovery of Truth For he says himself in the Fifth Chapter of this Book That those that mistake at first in any thing mistake ten thousand times more if they proceed So that it being apparent that he knows not what he says in the two first Chapters of his Book we may reasonably believe that it is not safe to yield to his Authority without examining his Reasons But that we may be the more persuaded of it I proceed to shew that there is no Chapter in this First Book but has some Impertinency In the Third Chapter he says That the Heavens are incorruptible and uncapable of Alteration of which he alledges several Childish Proofs as that they are the Habitation of the Immortal Gods and that no Change was ever observed in them This last Proof would be good enough could he say that ever any Body was come back from thence or that he had approached Celestial Bodies sufficiently near to observe their Alterations And yet I doubt whether at this time any one should yield to his Authority since Telescopes assure us of the contrary In the Fourth Chapter he pretends to prove That the Circular Motion has no Opposite though it be plain that the Motion from East to West is contrary to that which is made from West to East In the Fifth Chapter he very weakly proves That Bodies are not Infinite drawing his Arguments from the Motion of simple Bodies For what hinders but there may be above his Primum mobile some unmovable Extension In the Sixth he loses time in shewing That the Elements are not Infinite For who can doubt of it when he supposes with him that they are included within the surrounding Heavens But he ridicules himself by drawing his Proofs from their Gravity and Lightness If Elements says he were Infinite there would be an Infinite Heaviness and Lightness which cannot be Ergo c. Those that desire to see his Arguments at length may read them in his Books for I reckon it a loss of Time to relate them He goes on in the Seventh Chapter to prove That Bodies are not Infinite and his first Argument supposes it necessary for every Body to be in Motion which he neither does nor can demonstrate In the Eighth he asserts That there are not many Worlds of the same Nature by this ridiculous Reason That if there were another Earth besides this we inhabit the Earth being ponderous of its own nature it would fall upon ours which is the Centre of all ponderous Bodies Whence has he learned this but from his Senses In the Ninth he proves That it is not so much as possible that there should be several Worlds because if there was any Body above the Heavens it would be simple or composed in a natural or violent State which cannot be for Reasons which he draws from the Three sorts of Motions already spoken of In the Tenth he asserts That the World is Eternal because it cannot have had a Beginning and yet last for ever because we see that whatever is made is corrupted in Time He has learned this likewise from his Senses But who has taught him that the World will always endure He spends the Eleventh Chapter in explaining what Incorruptible signifies as though Equivocation was here very dangerous or that he was to make a great Use of his Explanation However that Word Incorruptible is so clear of it self that Aristotle needed not have troubled himself with explaining in what Sense it must be taken or in what Sense he takes it It had been more convenient to define an infinite Number of Terms very usual with him which raise nothing but sensible Ideas for so perhaps we should have learned something by the reading of his Works In the Last Chapter of this First Book of the Heavens he endeavours to shew That the World is incorruptible because 't is impossible it should have had a Beginning and yet last eternally All Things says he subsist either for a
judging of things with an unwarrantable rashness For we often judge that the Objects whereof we have Idea's exist and likewise that they altogether resemble their Idea's when yet it often falls out that the Objects are neither like their Idea's nor do they exist at all The Existence of a thing does no ways follow from our having an Idea of it much less does it follow that the thing is perfectly like the Idea which we have thereof It cannot be concluded from GOD's giving us such a sensible Idea of Magnitude upon the presentation of a six Foot-rule to our Eyes that this Rule has the same Extension as it is represented to us by that Idea For first All Men have not the same sensible Idea of this same measure since all Men have not their Eyes disposed in the same manner Again The same Person has not the same sensible Idea of a six Foot-rule when he beholds it with his left Eye as when he views it with his right as has been already said Finally It often happens that the self-same Person entertains quite different Idea's of the same Objects at different times according as they are suppos'd nearer or farther off as shall be explain'd in its proper place It is then nothing but prejudice grounded upon no good reason to think we see Bodies according to their real Magnitude for our Eyes being not given us for any other purpose than the security of our Body they discharge their Duty admirable well in giving us such Idea's of Objects as are proportion'd to its magnitude But the better to conceive what ought to be our judgments concerning the Extension of Bodies from the Report of our Eyes let us imagine GOD to have created in Epitomie out of a portion of matter of the bigness of a small Globe an Heaven and Earth and Men upon this Earth with all other things the same proportion being observ'd as in this Grand World These little Men would see each other and the parts of their Bodies as likewise the little Animals which were capable of incommoding them Otherwise their Eyes would be useless to their preservation It is manifest then from this Supposition these little Men would have Idea's of the magnitude of Bodies quite different from ours since they would look upon their little World which would be but a Ball in our account as stretch'd out into infinite spaces just as we do in respect of the World in which we are Or if this is not so easie to be conceiv'd let us suppose GOD had created an Earth infinitely vaster than this which we inhabit so that this new Earth should be to ours what ours would be to that we have spoken of in the fore-going Supposition Let us moreover conceive GOD Almighty to have observ'd in all the parts which went to the Composition of this New World the very same proportion he has done in those which make up Ours It is plain that the Inhabitants of this latter World would be Taller than the space betwixt our Earth and the most distant Stars we can discover And this being so it is manifest that if they had the same Idea's of Extension of Bodies as our selves they would be able to discern some of the parts of their own Bodies and and would see others of a prodigious unweildiness so that 't is ridiculous to think they would see things in the same Bigness as they are seen by us It is apparent in these two Suppositions we have made that the Men whether of the Great or Little World would have Idea's of the Magnitude of Bodies very different from ours supposing their Eyes to furnish them with Idea's of the Objects round about them proportion'd to the Magnitude of their own Bodies Now if these Men should confidently affirm upon the Testimony of their Eyes that Bodies were of the very same bigness whereof they saw them it is not to be doubted but they would be deceiv'd and I suppose no Man will make a question of it And yet it is certain that these Men would have as Good Reason to justifie their Opinion as we have to defend our Own Let us acknowledge then from their Example That we are very uncertain of the Magnitude of Bodies which we see and that all which can be known by us concerning them from the Testimony of Sight is only the mutual Relation there is between Them and Us. In a word that our Eyes were never given us whereby to judge of the Truth of things but only to give us notice of such as might either molest or profit us in something or other But 't is not thought sufficient for Men to credit their Eyes only in order to judge of Visible Objects They think they are to be trusted farther even to judge of those which are Invisible Because there are some things which they cannot see they conclude they do not exist attributing to their Sight a Penetration in a manner Infinite This is an Impediment which prevents their discovering the real Causes of abundance of Natural Effects For that they ascribe them to Imaginary Faculties and Qualities is often meerly for want of discerning the True which consist in the different Configurations of these Bodies They see not for Instance the little parts of Air or Flame much less those of Light or of a matter still more fine and subtil And upon this score they are ready to believe they are not in being at least conclude them void of force and action They betake themselves to Occult Qualities or Imaginary Faculties to explain all the Effects whereof those Imperceptible parts are The True and Natural Cause They had rather have recourse to the horror of a Vacuum to Explain the Elevation of water in the Pump than impute it to the Gravitation of the Air. They chuse to ascribe the Flux and Reflux of the Sea to the Qualities of the Moon rather than to the pressure of the Atmosphere that is to the Air which surrounds the Earth and the Elevation of Vapours to the Attractive Faculties of the Sun than to the simple Motion of Impulse caused by the parts of the Subtil Matter which it continually diffuses abroad They look upon those as Men of trifling and impertinent Thought who have recourse only to the Flesh and Blood in accounting for all the Motions of Animals Likewise for the habits and the Corporeal Memory of Men And this partly proceeds from the Conception they have of the littleness of the Brain and its incapacity thereupon to preserve the Traces of an almost infinite number of things lodg'd in it They had rather admit though they can't conceive how a Soul in Beasts which is neither Body nor Spirit Qualities and Intentional Species for the Habits and Memory of Men or such like things notwithstanding they have no particular Notion of them in their Mind I should be too tedious should I stand to reckon up all the Errors we fall into through this Prejudice There are
is perpendicularly over our Heads and 't is upon that account her Diameter grows greater in her Ascent above the Horizon because then she 's approaching nearest us The reason then that we see her Greater when she rises is not the Refraction of her Rays meeting with the Vapours which proceed from the Earth since the Image which is at that time form'd from those Rays is lesser but 't is the Natural Judgment we make of her Remoteness occasion'd by her appearing beyond those Lands which we see at a vast Distance from us as has been before explain'd and I am amaz'd to find Philosophers asserting that the reason of this Appearance and Delusion of our Sences is harder to be discover'd than the greatest Aequations of Algebra This Medium whereby we judge of the Remoteness of any Object by knowing the Distance of the things betwixt us and it is often of considerable use when the other means I have spoke of are wholly insignificant for by this last Medium we can judge that certain objects are many Leagues distant which we cannot do by any of the other And yet if we strictly survey it it will be found in several things deficient For first we can only make use of it about things upon the Earth since it can be but very rarely and then very unprofitably imploy'd upon those in the Air or in the Heavens Secondly it cannot be made use of on the Earth but about things a few Leagues distant In the third place we ought to be certain that there are neither Mountains nor Valleys nor any thing of the like nature betwixt us and the Object that hinders us from applying the afore-said Medium Lastly I am perswaded there is no body but has made sufficient Tryals upon the Subject to be convinc'd that it is a thing extreamly difficult to judge with any certainty of the Remoteness of Objects by a sensible View of the things lying betwixt us and them and we perhaps have dwelt two long upon it These then are all the Means we have to judge of the Distance of Objects in which since we have found considerable Imperfections we cannot but conclude that the Judgments that are grounded upon them must needs be very Precarious and Uncertain Hence it is easy to manifest the truth of the Propositions I have advanc'd The Object C was suppos'd considerably remote from A Therefore in many Instances it may be advanc'd on towards D or may have approach'd towards B and no one can discover it because there is no infallible Means whereby to judge of its Distance Nay it may recede towards D when it is thought to approach towards B because the Image of the Object is sometimes augmented and inlarged upon the Retina whether it be because the Air betwixt the Object and the Eye occasions a greater Refraction at one time than at another whether it proceeds from some little Tremlings which happen in the Optick Nerve or lastly that the Impression which is caus'd by an unexact Union of the Rays upon the Retina is diffus'd and communicated to the parts which ought to receive no Agitation from it which may proceed from any different causes Thus the Image of the same Objects being larger on these occasions gives the Soul reason to believe the Object approaches nearer The like may be said of the other Propositions Before I conclude this Chapter I would have it observ'd That it is of great concern to us in order to the Preservation of our Life to have a nicer Knowledge of the Motion or Rest of Bodies in Proportion to their Nighness to us and that it is a thing useless and insignificant to know exactly the truth of these things when happening in places very remote For this evidently shews that what I have generally advanc'd concerning all the Sences how they never Discover things to us as they are absolutely and in their own Nature but only in Relation to the Preservation of our Body is found exactly True in this particular since we know the Motion or Rests of Objects proportionably better as they approach nearer to us and are incapable of judging of them by the Sences when they are so remote as to seem to have no Relation at all or very little to our Body as for instance when they are five or six hundred Paces distant if they be of a Moderate Bigness or even Nearer than this when they are Lesser or somewhat farther off when they are proportionably Greater CHAP. X. Of our Errors about sensible Qualities I. The Distinction of the Soul and Body II. An Explication of the Organs of the Senses III. To what part of the Body the Soul is immediately united IV. An Instance to explain the Effect which Objects have upon our Bodies V. What it is they produce in the Soul and the Reasons why the Soul perceives not the Motions of the Fibres of the Body VI. Four things which are generally confounded in every Sensation WE have seen in the fore-going Chapters that the Judgments we form upon the Testimony of our Eyes concerning Extension Figure and Motion are never exactly true And yet it must not be allow'd that they are altogether false they contain so much Truth at least as this amounts to that there are Extension Figures and Motions whatever they be which are extrinsical or without our selves I confess we often see things that have no Existence nor ever had and it ought not to be concluded that a thing is Actually without us from our Seeing it without us There is no necessary Connexion between the Presence of an Idea to the Mind of a Man and the Existence of the Thing represented by the Idea Which is manifest enough from the Consideration of what happens to Men in a Dream or a Delirium And yet we may safely affirm that ordinarily Extension Figures and Motions are without us when we see them so These things are not in the Imagination only but are Real And we are not deceiv'd in believing them to have a Real Existence and wholly independent on our Mind tho' it be a very hard thing to prove it It is certain then that the Judgments we form concerning the Extension the Figures and Motions of Bodies contain some Truth But 't is another case in point of those Judgments we make concerning Light Colours Tasts Smells and all other Sensible Qualities For Truth has nothing to do with them as shall be made manifest in the remainder of this First Book We make not here any Distinction between Light and Colours because we suppose them to have no great Difference and that they cannot be separately Explain'd We shall likewise be oblig'd to speak of other Sensible Qualities in general at the same time we shall treat of these Two in particular because they may be accounted for upon the same Principles The things which follow demand the greatest Attention imaginable as being of the highest Importance and very different as to their
Colours very well and can distinguish them from all things else that are not Colour It is evident too that he perceives nothing of Motion either in the colour'd Objects or in the Fund of his Eyes therefore Colour is not Motion In like manner a Peasant is very sensible of Heat and he has knowledge clear enough to distinguish it from all thing else which are not Heat Yet he never so much as thinks of the Fibres of his Hand 's being mov'd Heat then which he feels is not Motion since the Idea's of Heat and Motion are different and one may be had without the other For we have no other Reason to affirm a Square is not a Circle but because the Idea of a Square is different from that of a Circle and we can think of one without thinking of the other There needs but a little Attention to discover that it is not necessary the cause which occasions a Sensation of such or such a Thing in us should contain that thing in it self For as there is no necessity there should be Light in my Hand when I see a flash upon giving my Eye a blow so there is no need that Heat should be in the Fire to make me sensible of it upon the approach of my Hand towards it nor indeed that any other sensible Qualities should be in the Objects that produce them 'T is enough that they cause a Vibration in the Fibres of my Flesh to the end my Soul which is united to it may be modify'd by some Sensation There is no Analogy I confess between Motions and Sensations Nor is there any betwixt Body and Spirit But since Nature or the Will of the Creator associates these two Substances though essentially different we need not wonder if their Modifications are Reciprocal It is necessary it should be so that both of them might constitute but one entire Being It should be well observ'd that our Senses being given us only for the Preservation of our Body it is most conveniently order'd that they should induce us to judge of sensible Qualities just as we do It is abundantly more for our advantage to receive the Sensation of Pain and Heat as being in our own Body than to judge they were only in the Objects that occasion'd them Because Pain and Heat being capable of injuring the Members of the Body it is most requisite we should be warn'd of them whenever they attacqu'd us to prevent our Body's being endammag'd by them But in point of Colours 't is another case for the generality they are unable to hurt the Fund of the Eye where they are collected and it is an useless thing to us to know they are painted on it These Colours are only necessary to us as far as they are conducible to a more distinct Discovery of Objects and upon that account our Senses induce us to attribute them to Objects only Thus the Judgments which the Impression of our Senses incline us to make are most exact if consider'd only in Relation to the Preservation of our Body But yet they are altogether Phantastical and very remote from the Truth as we have already seen in part and shall be more abundantly manifest in that which follows CHAP. XIII I. Of the Nature of Sensations II. That a Man knows them better than he thinks he does III. An Objection and Answer IV. Why a Man imagines he has no knowledge of his own Sensations V. That 't is an Error to think all Men have the same Sensations of the same Objects VI. An Objection and Answer THE third thing which is found in each of our Sensations or that which we Feel for instance when we are near the Fire is a Modification of our Soul in Relation or Correspondence to that which occurs in the Body to which she is united This Modification is grateful or agreeable when that which occurs in the Body is proper to promote the Circulation of the Blood and other Vital Functions And this is nam'd in an Equivocal Term Heat But this Modification is painful and quite different from the other when that which occurs in the Body is capable of incommoding or burning it that is to say when the Motions which are in the Body are capable of breaking some of it Fibres and this generally goes by the Name of Pain or Combustion and so 't is with the other Sensations But now let us see what are the Thoughts Men usually have upon this Subject The first Error is this that a Man unreasonably imagines he has no Knowledge of his Sensations We daily find a great number of such Men as are much concern'd and very sollicitous to know what Pain and Pleasure and the other Sensations are Neither will they grant that they are only in the Soul and the Modifications of it I confess these are a strange sort of Men who would needs be taught what they cannot be ignorant of For 't is impossible a Man should be absolutely ignorant what Pain is when he is under the sense of it A Man for example that burns his Hand does very well distinguish the Pain he feels from Light Colour Sounds Tasts Smells Pleasure and from every other Pain besides that he feels He distinguishes it very well from Admiration Desire and Love He distinguishes it from a Square a Circle and a Motion in a word he finds 't is very different from every thing which is not the Pain he feels Now if he has no Knowledge of Pain I would fain be satisfy'd how he can tell with any certainty of evidence that what he feels is none of all these things We know then in some measure what we are immediately sensible of as when we see Colours or have any other Sensation And if it were not for this Knowledge it is certain we could know nothing of any sensible Object For 't is manifest for example that we would be unable to distinguish Wine from Water did we not know that the Sensations we have of the one were different from those we have of the other and so 't is with all other things which we know by our Senses 'T is true should a Man be importunate in desiring me to explain what is Pain Pleasure Colour or the like I should not be able to define it in words as it ought to be But it does not follow from thence that if I see a Colour or burn my self I have no manner of Knowledge of that whereof I have an Actual Sensation Now the reason why our Sensations cannot be explain'd by words as well as all other things is because it depends on the Arbitrary Will of Men to joyn the Idea's of things to what Names they please They may call the Heavens Ouranos Shamájim as the Greeks and Hebrews But the same Men have not an equal Liberty of affixing their Sensations to words nor indeed to any thing else They see no Colours unless they open their Eyes discourse to them what you
of a tender and delicate Body than in those of a more strong and robust Complection Thus Men who abound with Strength and Vigour are not at all hurt with the sight of a Massacre nor so much inclin'd to Compassion because the sight of it is an offence to their Body as because it shocks their Reason These Persons have no Pity for a Condemned Criminal as being both Inflexible and Inexorable Whereas Women and Children suffer much Pain by the Hurt and Wounds they see receiv'd by others They are machinally dispos'd to be very Pitiful and Compassionate to the Miserable And they are unable to see a Beast beaten or hear it cry without some disturbance of mind As for Infants which are still in their Mother's Womb the delicacy of the Fibres of their Flesh infinitely exceeding that of Women and Children the Course of their Spirits must necessarily produce more considerable Changes in them as will be seen in the Sequel of the Discourse We will still suffer what we have said to go for a simple Supposition if Men will have it so But they ought to endeavour well to comprehend it if they would distinctly conceive the things I presume to explain in this Chapter For these two Suppositions I have just made are the Principles of an infinite number of things which are generally believ'd very difficult and abstruse And which indeed seem impossible to be explain'd and clear'd up without them I will here give some instances of what I have said It was about seven or eight Years ago that there was seen in the Incurable a young Man who was born anâ—Idiot and whose Body was broken in the same places that Malefactors are broken on the Wheel He lived near twenty Years in the same condition many Persons went to see him and the late Queen-mother going to visit the Hospital had the Curiosity to see him and also to touch his Legs and Arms in the places were they were broken According to the Principles I have been establishing the cause of this Calamitous Accident was That his Mother hearing a Criminal was to be broken went to see the Execution All the blows which were given to the Condemned struck violently the Imagination of the Mother and by a kind of Repercussive blow the tender and delicate Brain of her Infant The Fibres of this Mother's Brain receiv'd a prodigious Concussion and were possibly broke in some places by the violent course of the Spirits produc'd at the Sight of so frightful a Spectacle But they had Consistency enough to prevent their total Dissolution The Fibres on the contrary of the Infant 's Brain not being able to resist the furious torrent of these Spirits were broke and shattered all to pieces And the havock was violent enough to make him lose his Intellect for ever This is the Reason why he come into the World deprived of Sense Now for the other why he was broken in the same parts of his Body as the Criminal whom his Mother had seen put to Death At the Sight of this Execution so capable of dismaying a timorous Woman the violent course of the Animal Spirits of the Mother made a forcible descent from her Brain towards all the Members of her Body which were Analogous to those of the Criminal and the same thing happened to the Infant But because the Bones of the Mother were capable of withstanding the violent Impression of these Spirits they receiv'd no dammage by them it may be too she felt not the least Pain nor the least Trembling in her Arms or Legs upon the Breaking of the Criminal But the rapid course of the Spirits was capable of bursting the soft and tender parts of the Infant 's Bones For the Bones are the last parts of the Body that are form'd and they have very little Consistence whilst Children are yet in their Mother 's Womb. And it ought to be observ'd that if this Mother had determin'd the Motion of these Spirits towards some other part of her Body by some powerful Titillation her Infant would have escaped the Fracture of his Bones But the part which was correspondent to that towards which the Mother had determined these Spirits would have been severely injured according to what I have already said The Reasons of this Accident are general enough to explain how it comes to pass that Women who whilst big with Child see Persons particularly mark'd in certain places of their Face imprint on their Infants the very same Marks and in the self-same places of the Body And 't is not without good Reason that they are caution'd to rub some latent part of the Body when they perceive any thing which surprises them or are agitated with some violent Passion For by this means the Marks will be delineated rather upon the hidden parts than the Faces of their Infants We should have frequent Instances of like Nature with this I have here related if Infants could live after they had receiv'd so great Wounds or Disruptions but generally they prove Abortions For it may be said that rarely any Child dies in the Womb if the Mother be not distemper'd that has any other cause of its ill fortune than some fright or impotent Desire or other violent Passion of the Mother This following is another Instance very unusual and particular It is no longer than a Year ago that a Woman having with too great an Application of Thought contemplated the Picture of St. Pius at the Celebration of his Feast of Canonization was deliver'd of a Child perfectly featur'd like the Representation of the Saint He had the Countenance of an Old Man as near as was possible for an Infant that was beardless His Arms were folded across upon his Breast His Eyes bent up towards Heaven and had very little Forehead because the Picture of the Saint being postur'd as looking up to Heaven and elevated towards the Roof of the Church had scarce any Fore-head to be seen He had a kind of Mitre reclining backwards on his Shoulders with many round prints in the places where the Mitres are imboss'd with Precious Stones In short this Infant was the very Picture of the Picture upon which the Mother had form'd it by the force of her Imagination This is a thing that all Paris might have seen as well as I since it was a considerable time preserv'd in Spirit of Wine This instance has This remarkable in it That it was not the Sight of a Man alive and acted with some violent Passion that mov'd the Spirits and Blood of the Mother to the Production of so strange an Effect but only the sight of a Picture which yet made a very sensible Impression and was accompanied with a mighty Commotion of Spirits whether by the Fervency and Application of the Mother or whether by the Agitation the noise of the Feast caus'd in her This Mother then beholding the Picture with great Application of Mind and Commotion of Spirits the Infant
necessary for them to know we allow them to omit them and likewise to despise them but 't is not fair to judge of them out of a fanciful dislike and ill-grounded suspicions For they ought to consider that the Serious Air and Gravity wherewith they speak the Authority they have obtain'd over the Minds of others and that customary way of confirming their Discourse with a Text of Scripture must unavoidably engage in Error their respectful Auditors who being incapable of Examining things to the bottom are caught with Modes and external Appearances When Error comes cloath'd in the Dress of Truth it frequently has more respect than Truth it self And this illegitimate Respect has very dangerous Consequences Pessima res est Errorum Apotheosis pro peste intellectûs habenda est si vanis accedat veneratio Thus when some Men out of a false Zeal or a Fondness for their own Thoughts bring the Holy Scripture to countenance or support false Principles of Physicks or other of like Nature they are often attended to as Oracles by the admiring Crowd who credit them upon their word because of the Reverence they ascribe to Divine Authority When at the same time some Men of a worse Complection have taken occasion hereby to contemn Religion So that by strangely perverting its Nature Holy Scripture has been the Cause of some Men's Errors and Truth has been the Motive and Original to other's Impiety We should then be cautious says the fore-cited Author of searching after Dead things among the Living and of presuming by our own Sagacity of Mind to discover in the Holy Scriptures what the Holy Spirit has not thought fit to declare in it Ex Divinorum Humanorum malesanâ admixtionâ— continues he non solum educitur Philosophia phantastica sed etiam Religio haeretica Itaque salutare admodum est si mente sobriâ fidei tantum dentur quae fidei sunt All Men who have any Authority over others ought never to determine till they have so much the more seriously consider'd as their Determinations are more obstinately adher'd to and Divines should be more especially regardful lest they give scandal and contempt to Religion through a false Zeal by an ambitious desire of their own Fame and of giving Vogue to their Opinions But it being not my Business to prescribe to them their Duty let them hearken to St. Thomas Aquinas their Master who being consulted by his General for his Opinion touching some Points answers him in these words of St. Austin Multùm autem nocet talia quae ad pietatis doctrinam non spectant vel asserere vel negare quasi pertinentia ad Sacram doctrinam Dicit enim Augustinus in 5. Confess Cùm audio Christianum aliquem fratrem ista quae Philosophi de coelo aut stellis de Solis Lunae motibus dixerâ—nt nescientem aliud pro alio sentienâ—em patienter intueor opinantem hominem nec illi obesse video cum de te Domine Creator omnium nostrûm non credat indigna si fortè situs habitus creaturae corporalis ignoret Obest autem si haec ad ipsam dâ—ctrinam pietatis pertinere arbitretur pertinacius affirmare audeat quod ignorat Quod autem obsit manifestat Augustinus in 1. super Genes Ad literam Turpe est inquit nimis perniciosum ac maximê cavendum ut Christianum de his rebus quasi secundum Christianas literas loquentem ita delirare quilibet infidelis audiat ut quemadmodum dicitur toto coelo errare conspiciens risum tenere vix possit Et non tamen molestum est quod errans homo videatur sed quod Authores nostri ab eis qui foris sunt talia sensisse creduntur cum magno eorum exitio de quorum salute satagimus tanquam indocti reprehenduntur atque respuuntur Vnde mihi videtur tutius esse ut hâ—â—c quae Philosophi communes senserunt nostrae fidei non repugnant neque esse sic asserenda ut dogmata fidei licet aliquandò sub nomine Philosophorum introducantur neque sic â—sse neganda tanquam fidei contraria ne sapientibus hujus mundi contemnendi doctrinam fidei occasio praebeatur 'T is a dangerous thing positively to determine concerning matters that are not of Faith as if they were St. Austin is our Author for it in the fifth Book of his Confessions When I see says he a Christian who is un-instructed in the Opinions of Philosophers about the Heavens the Stars and the Motion of the Sun and Moon and who mistakes one thing for another I I leave him to his Opinions and Uncertainties Nor do I see what injury it can do him provided he has right Notions of Thee our LORD and CREATOR to be ignorant of the Site and Position of Bodies and the different Regulations of Material Beings But he does himself wrong in that he fancies these things concern Religion and takes upon him obstinately to affirm what he does not understand The same Holy Man explains his Thoughts more clearly yet in his first Book of the literal Exposition of Genesis in these Words A Christian should be extreamly cautious of speaking of these things as if they were the Doctrine of the Sacred Writings since an Heathen who should hear him utter his Absurdities that had no appearance of Truth would Ridicule him for it Thus the Christian would be put in confusion and the Heathen but ill-edify'd Yet that which on these occasions is matter of greatest trouble is not that a Man is found in an Error but that the Heathens whom we labour to convert falsely and to their unavoidable destruction imagining that our Authors abound with these ridiculous Notions condemn them and spurn them as Ignorant and Unlearned which makes me think it much the safer way not to affirm as the Maxims of Faith the common receiv'd Opinions of Philosophers though not inconsistent with them though the Authority of Philosophers may sometimes be us'd to make way for their reception nor to reject their Opinions as contrary to Faith lest occasion be given to the Wise Men of the World to contemn the Sacred Truths of the Christian Religion The generality of Men are so careless or unreasonable as to make no distinction between the Word of GOD and that of Men when joyn'd together So that they fall into Error by approving them both alike or into Irreligion by the contempt of both indifferently 'T is easie to see what is the Cause of these last Errors and how they depend upon the Connection of Idea's explain'd in the XI Chapter and I need not stand more largely to explain them It seems seasonable to say something here of the Chymists and of all those in general that imploy their time in making Experiments These are the Men that are in Search after Truth Their Opinions are usually embrac'd without Scruple and Examination And thus their Errors are so much the more dangerous as
Volumes we see daily compos'd on Medicine Physics and Morality and especially on the particular Questions of those Sciences which are much more complex than the general We should judge too these Books to have so much less worth in them as they are better entertain'd by the common sort of Men I mean those who are little capable of Application and know not how to set their Mind to work because when an Opinion is cry'd up and applauded by the People in a matter difficult to be made out 't is an infallible sign of its being false and founded only on the delusive Notions of Sense or some false Lights of the Imagination Nevertheless 't is not impossible for one Man to discover a great number of Truths that were conceal'd from Ages past supposing this Person to have no lack of Parts and who being in Retirement as remote as possible from every thing that might distract his Thoughts applies himself seriously to the seeking Truth Which makes those appear none of the most reasonable Men who despise Mr. Des-Cartes's Philosophy without knowing it for this only Reason that it seems next to impossible for a single Man to have found out Truth in things so deep and conceal'd as those of Nature But did they know the way of Life that Philosopher chose the means he imploy'd in his Studies to prevent the Capacity his Mind 's being shar'd by other Objects than those he meant to discover the Truth of The distinctness of his Idea's on which he establish'd his Philosophy And generally all the advantages he had above the Ancients by the New Discoveries they would certainly receive a more strong and reasonable Prejudice on his behalf than that of Antiquity which gives Plato Aristotle and diverse others their Authority And yet I would not advise them to ground only on this Prejudice and to believe Mr. Des-Cartes a Great Man and his Philosophy good because of those advantagious things that may be said for it Monsieur Des-Cartes was a Man like us subject to Error and Illusion no less than others Not any one of his Works without even excepting his Geometry but bears the Character and Earnest of the weakness of an Humane Mind Wherefore we ought not to take his word for what he teaches but read him according to his own Advice with Precaution by examining whether he is not deceiv'd and believing nothing that he says without being oblig'd to it by its own Evidence and the secret Reproofs of our Reason For in a word the Mind knows nothing truly but what it evidently perceives We have shewn in the preceding Chapters that our Mind is not infinite that it is on the contrary of but a very indifferent Capacity and has that Capacity usually fill'd with the Sensations of the Soul And lastly that the Mind receiving its direction from the Will cannot steadily fix its view upon any Object without being suddenly thrown off by the Will 's Fluctuation and Inconstancy 'T is most certain that these things are the most general Causes of our Errors and I might stay here to make them more evident in particular But what has been already said will be enough with such as are capable of Attention to give them to understand the weakness of the Humane Mind I shall treat more at large in the Fourth and Fifth Book of the Errors that are owing to our Natural Inclinations and our Passions of which we have now said something in this Chapter The SECOND PART Concerning The Pure UNDERSTANDING Of the NATURE of IDEA'S CHAP. I. I. What is meant by Idea's That they really exist and are necessary to our Perceiving all material Objects II. A Particularization of all the ways possible for us to perceive External Objects I Suppose that every one will grant that we perceive not the Objects that are without us immediately and of themselves We see the Sun the Stars and infinite other Objects without us and it is not probable that the Soul goes out of the Body and fetches a walk as I may say about the Heavens to contemplate all the Objects therein It sees them not therefore by themselves and the immediate Object of the Mind when it beholds the Sun for example is not the Sun but something intimately united to the Soul and the same thing which I call an Idea So that by the Term Idea I mean nothing but that Object which is immediate or next to the Soul in its Perception of any thing It ought to be well observ'd That in order to the Mind 's perceiving any Object it is absolutely necessary the Idea of that Object be actually present to it which is so certain as not possible to be doubted of But it is not necessary there should be any thing without like to that Idea For it often happens that we perceive things which don 't exist and which never were in Nature And so a Man has frequently in his Mind real Idea's of things that never were When a Man for Instance imagines a golden Mountain it is indispensibly necessary the Idea of that Mountain should be really present to his Mind When a Frantick or a Man in a Fever or Asleep sees some terrible Animal before his Eyes it is certain that the Idea of that Animal really exists And yet that Mountain of Gold and this Animal never were in Being Notwithstanding Men being as it were naturally inclin'd to believe that none but Corporeal Objects exist judge of the Reallity and Existence of things quite otherwise than they ought For when they perceive an Object by way of Sense they would have it most infallibly to exist tho' it often happens that there is nothing of it without they will have moreover this Object to be just the same as they perceive it which yet never happens But as for the Idea which necessarily exists and cannot be otherwise than we see it they commonly judge without Reflection that it is nothing at all as if Idea's had not a vast number of Properties as that the Idea of a square for instance were not very different from that of any Number and did not represent quite different things Which is not consistent with Nothing since Nothing has no Property 'T is therefore undoubtedly certain that Idea's have a most real Existence But let us enquire into their Nature and their Essence and see what there is in our Soul capable of making to her the Representations of all things Whatever things the Soul perceives are only of two sorts and are either within or without the Soul Those that are within the Soul are her own proper Thoughts that is all her different Modifications For by the words Thought Manner of Thinking or Modification of the Soul I mean all those things in general which cannot be in the Soul without her perceiving them such are her own Sensations her Imaginations her Pure Intellections or simply her Conceptions as also her Passions and Natural Inclinations Now our Soul has
no need of Idea's to perceive all these things because they are within the Soul or rather because they are the very Soul it self in such or such a manner just as the real Rotundity of any Body and its Motion are nothing but the Body figured and translated after such or such a sort But as to the things without the Soul we can have no perception of them but by the means of Idea's upon supposition that these things cannot be intimately united to it and they are of two sorts Spiritual and Material As to the Spiritual there is some probability they may be discover'd to the Soul without Idea's immediately by themselves For though Experience certifies us that we cannot by an immediate Communication declare our Thoughts to one another but only by words and other sensible Signs whereunto we have annex'd our Idea's yet we may say that GOD has ordain'd this kind of Oeconomy only for the time of this Life to prevent the Disorders that might at present happen if Men should understand one another as they pleas'd But when Justice and Order shall reign and we shall be delivered from the Captivity of our Body we shall possibly communicate our Thoughts by the intimate union of our selves as 't is probable the Angels may do in Heaven So that there seems to be no absolute necessity of Idea's for the representing things of a Spiritual Nature since 't is possible for them to be seen by themselves though in a very dark and imperfect manner I enquire not here how two Spirits can be united to one another or whether by that means they can open inwards and make a mutual Discovery of their Thoughts I believe however there is no Substance purely Intelligible except that of GOD and that nothing can be evidently discovered but in his Light and that the Vnion of Spirits cannot make them visible For though we be most intimately united with our selves we both are and shall be unintelligible to our selves until we see our selves in GOD and he shall present to us in our selves the perfectly intelligible Idea which he has of our Being included in his own And thus though I seem to grant that Angels may manifest to each other both what they are and what they think I must advertise that I do it only because I have no mind to dispute it provided it shall be granted me what can't be controverted namely That we cannot discern material things by themselves and without Idea's I will explain in the Seventh Chapter what my Notion is of the way whereby we know Spirits and I will make it appear that we cannot at present entirely know them by themselves though they may possibly be united to us But I discourse in this place chiefly of material Things which certainly are incapable of such a manner of Union with our Soul as is necessary to make them perceiv'd for that they being extended and the Soul not there is no proportion betwixt them And besides our Souls never depart from our Bodies to measure the Greatness of the Heavens and consequently cannot see the Bodies that are without otherwise than by the Idea's that represent them And this is what all the World must agree to We affirm then that it is absolutely necessary that the Idea's we have of Bodies and of all other Objects we perceive not immediately by themselves proceed from these same Bodies or these Objects or else that our Soul has the power of producing these Idea's or that GOD produc'd them together with her in the Creation or that he produces them as often as we think of any Object or that the Soul has in her self all the Perfections which she discovers in these Bodies or lastly is united with an All-perfect Being who comprehends universally in himself all the Perfections of Created Beings There is no perceiving of Objects but by one of these ways Let us examine without Prepossession which seems the probable'st of all and not be disheartned at the difficulty of the Question It may be we shall give a Resolution clear enough though we pretend not to give incontested Demonstrations for all sorts of Persons but only most convincing Proofs to such as with thoughtful Attention shall consider them For it probably would look like Rashness and Presumption to talk in a more positive manner CHAP. II. That Material Objects emit not Species which resemble them THE most common Opinion is that of the Peripatetics who pretend That External Objects send forth Species which are like them and that these Species are convey'd by the External Senses as far as the Commune Sensorium They call these the Species Impressae because imprinted by Objects on the outward Senses These Impress'd Species being Material and Sensible are made Intelligible by the Intellectus Agens and are fit to be receiv'd in the Intellectus Patiens These Species thus Spiritualiz'd are term'd Expressae as being express'd from the impress'd And by these it is that the Patient Intellect knows all Material things I shall not stand to finish the Explication of these Notable things and of the diverse ways Philosophers have of conceiving them For though they be not agreed about the number of the Faculties which they attribute to the Internal Sense and Understanding and there are also many that are very dubious whether they have any need of the Agent Intellect for the knowing Sensible Objects yet they almost universally agree in the Emission of the Species or Images resembling the Objects they proceed from And 't is only on this Foundation they multiply their Faculties and defend their Active Intellect So that this Foundation having no solidity as will be seen by and by there is no necessity of standing to overthrow all the Superstructures they have built upon it I maintain then it is not probable that Objects should send out Species or Images in their own likeness and these are my Reasons for it The first is taken from the Impenetrability of Bodies All Objects as the Sun the Stars as well as those that are near our Eyes cannot emit Species of a different Nature from themselves and for this Reason 't is usually said by the Philosophers that these Species are gross and material to distinguish them from the express'd Species which are spiritualiz'd These Impress'd Species of Objects are therefore little Bodies They cannot then penetrate each other nor all the spaces betwixt Heaven and Earth which must needs be fill'd with them From whence 't is easie to conclude that they must needs bruise and batter one another some coming one way and thwarting others coming another and so 't is impossible they should render Objects visible Again it is possible for one standing on one Point to see a great number of Objects which are in the Heaven and on the Earth There is then a necessity that the Species of all these Bodies be reduc'd into a Point But they are Impenetrable since they are extended Ergo c. But
pursuant to his first Will to give us the Sensation of Pleasure when we don't deserve it either because the Action we do is unprofitable or criminal or that being full of Sin we have no Right to demand a Recompence The Enjoyment of Sensible Pleasures was justly due to Man in his Regular Actions whilst he remain'd Innocent But â—ince the Fall there are no Sensible Pleasures entirely innocent or incapable of harming us when we taste them For it is commonly sufficient only to taste them to become their Slave Thirdly GOD being Just cannot chuse but punish one day the Violence that was done him by obliging him to reward with Pleasure criminal Actions committed against him When our Soul shall be dis-united from our Body GOD will be dispens'd from the Obligation he has impos'd upon himself of giving Sensations answerable to the Motions of the Animal Spirits but he will still be oblig'd to satisfie his Justice and so that will be the season of his Wrath and Vengeance Then though he change not the Order of Nature but remain ever fix'd and immutable in his first Will he will punish the unmerited Pleasures of the Voluptuous with Pains that will never have an end Fourthly Because the Certainty we have in this Life of the future Execution of that Justice exagiâ—ates the Mind with dreadful Anxieties and throws it into a sort of Despair which renders the Voluptuous miserable even amidst the greatest Pleasures Fifthly Because of those disquieting Remorses which almost ever attend the most Innocent Pleasures by reason we are inwardly convinc'd we don 't deserve them which Remorses rob us of a certain internal Joy that is found even in the Severities of Repentance And therefore though Pleasure be a Good yet it must be acknowledg'd that the Enjoyment of it is not always to our Advantage for the foregoing Reasons And for others of like nature most requisite to be known and easily deducible from them it must be granted that it is most commonly highly advantageous to suffer Pain though really an Evil. Nevertheless every Pleasure is a Good and actually makes happy the Enjoyer at the time of Enjoyment and so long as he enjoys it and every Pain is an Evil and makes the Sufferer actually unhappy at the instant of suffering and so much as he suffers it The Righteous and Holy may be said to be the most miserable of all Men in this Life and most worthy of Compassion Si in vita tantum in Christo speramus miserabiliores sumus omnibus hominibus says St. Paul For those that weep and suffer Persecution for Righteousness sake are not blessed for suffering Persecution for the sake of Righteousness but because the Kingdom of Heaven is Theirs and a great Reward is laid up for them in Heaven that is because they shall be happy Such as are persecuted for Righteousness are thereby Righteous Vertuous and Perfect as being in the Divine Order and because Perfection consists in the observing it But they are not happy because they suffer There shall be a time when they shall suffer no more and then they shall be happy as well as righteous and perfect However I deny not but the Righteous even in this Life may be in some measure happy by the Strength of their Hope and Faith which bring those future Goods as it were present to their Minds For it is certain that the vigorous and lively Hope of any Good brings it closer to the Mind and anticipates the Enjoyment and thus makes a Man happy in part since 't is the Taste and the Possession of Good 't is Pleasure that makes us happy Therefore we should not tell Men that Sensible Pleasures are not good and that they render the Possessors never the Happier since this is false and at the time of Temptation they find it so to their Misfortune They ought to be told That these Pleasures are in their own nature good and after a sort capable to make them happy yet for all that to be avoided for such like Reasons as the foremention'd but that they have not strength enough to withstand them of themselves because they desire to be happy by an invincible Inclination which these transitory Pleasures to be avoided by them in some measure satisfie and therefore are under a fatal necessity of being lost unless rescued and assisted These things are to be inculcated to them to give them a distinct Knowledge of their own Imbecillities and their need of a Redeemer We ought to speak to Men as our Lord and not as the Stoicks do who understand neither the Nature nor Distemper of an humane Mind We must continually tell them they are to hate and despise themselves and not look for a Settlement and Happiness here below that they must continually bear their Cross or the Instrument of their Suffering and lose their Life at present to save it everlastingly Lastly we must shew them their Obligation to act quite contrary to their Desires to make them sensible of their Impotence to Good For their Will is invincibly bent on Happiness which 't is impossible actually to obtain without doing what they have a Mind to Perhaps being sensible of their present Evils and knowing their future they will humble themselves on Earth possibly they will cry to Heaven will seek out a Mediator stand in fear of sensible Objects and conceive a salutary Abhorrence for whatever flatters Concupiscence and their Senses Probably they may enter into that Spirit of Prayer and Repentance so necessary to the obtaining Grace without which no Strength no Health no Salvation can be expected We are inwardly convinc'd that Pleasure is good which inward Conviction is not false for Pleasure is really so We are naturally convinc'd that Pleasure is the Character of Good and that natural Conviction is certainly true for whatever causes Pleasure is unquestionably very good and amiable But we are not assur'd that sensible Objects or even our Soul it self are capable of producing Pleasure in us For there is no reason why we should believe it but a thousand why we should not Thus sensible Objects are neither good nor amiable they are to be employ'd as serviceable to the Preservation of Life but we must not love them as being incapable of acting upon us The Soul ought only to love what is good to her and able to make her happier and more perfect and therefore nothing but what 's above her can be the Object of her Love since 't is evident her Perfection can derive from nothing that is not so But because we judge that a Thing is the Cause of some Effect when it constantly attends it we imagine that sensible Objects act on us because at their approach we have fresh Sensations and because we see not him who causes them really in us In tasting a Fruit we have a Sensation of Sweetness and we attribute that Sweetness to the Fruit which we judge both to cause it and contain it We
Sin found Fruits pleasant to the sight and grateful to the Taste if we rightly consider the words of the Holy Scripture nor shall we come to think that the Oeconomy of the Senses and Passions which is so wonderfully contrived and adapted to the preservation of the Body is a Corruption of Nature instead of its Original Institution Doubtless Nature is at this present corrupted the Body acts too violently upon the Mind and whereas it ought only to make an humble Representation of its wants to the Soul it domineers over her takes her off from God to whom she ought to be inseparably united and continually applies her to the search of such sensible things as tend to its preservation She is grown as it were material and terestrial ever since her Fall the Essential Relation and Union that she had with God being broken that is to say God being withdrawn from her as much as he could be without her destruction and annihilation A thousand disorders have attended the absence or departure of him that preserv'd her in Order and without making a longer Enumeration of our Miseries I freely confess that Man since his Fall is corrupted in all his parts That Fall however has not quite destroyed the Work of God for we can still discover in Man what God at first put in him and his immutable Will that constitutes the Nature of every thing was not changed by the Inconstancy and Fickleness of the Will of Adam Whatever God has once will'd he still wills and because his Will is efficatious brings it to pass The Sin of Man was indeed the Occasion of that Divine Will that makes the Dispensation of Grace but Grace is not contrary to Nature neither do they destroy each other since God is not opposed to himself that he never repents and that his Wisdom being without Limits his Works will be without End And therefore the Will of God that constitutes the Dispensation of Grace is superadded to that which makes the Oeconomy of Nature in order to repair and not to change it There are then in God but these two general Wills and the Laws by which he governs the World depend on one or other of them It will plainly appear by what follows that the Passions are very well order'd if considered only in reference to the Preservation of the Body though they deceive us in some very rare and particular Occasions which the universal Cause did not think fit to remedy Thence I conclude That the Passions belong to the Order of Nature since they cannot be ranked under the Order of Grace 'T is true that seeing the Sin of the first man has deprived us of the Help of an always-present God and always ready to defend us It may be said That Sin is the Cause of our excessive adhesion to sensible things because Sin has estranged us from God by whom alone we can be rid of our Slavery But without insisting longer upon the Enquiry after the first Cause of the Passions let us examine their Extent their particular Nature their End their Use their Defects and whatever they comprehend CHAP. II. Of the Vnion of the Mind with sensible things or of the Force and Extent of the Passions in general IF all those who read this Work would be at the pains to reflect upon what they feel within themselves it would not be necessary to insist upon our Dependency upon all sensible Objects I can say upon this Head but what every one knows as well as I do if he will but think on it and was therefore very much inclined to pass it over But Experience having taught me That Men often forget themselves so far as not to think or be aware of what they feel nor to enquire into the Reason of what passes in their own Mind I thought it fit to propose some Considerations that may help them to reflect upon it And even I hope That those who know such things will not think their Reading ill bestowed for though we do not care to hear simply rehearsed what we very well know yet we use to be affected with Pleasure at the hearing of what we know and feel together The most honourable Sect of Philosophers of whose Opinions many Pretenders boast still now a-days will persuade us That it is in our power to be happy The Stoicks continually say We ought only to depend upon our selves we ought not to be vexed for the Loss of Dignities Estates Friends Relations we ought to be always calm and without the least Disturbance whatever happens Banishment Injuries Affronts Diseases and even Death are no Evils and ought not to be feared and a thousand Paradoxes of that Nature which we are apt enough to believe both because of our Pride that makes us affect Independency as that because Reason teaches us that most part of the Evils which really afflict us would not be able to disturb us if all things remained in good Order But God has given us a Body and by that Body united us to all sensible things Sin has subjected us to our Body and by our Body made us dependent upon all sensible things It is the Order of Nature it is the Will of the Creatour that all the Beings that he has made should hang together And therefore being united to all things and the Sin of the first Man having made us dependent on all Beings to which God had only united us there is now none but he is at once united and subjected to his Body and by his Body to his Relations Friends City Prince Country Cloaths House Estate Horse Dog to all the Earth to the Sun the Stars and the Heavens It 's then ridiculous to tell Men that it is in their power to be happy wise and free It is to jeer them seriously to advise them they ought not to be afflicted for the Loss of their Friends or Estates For as it were absurd to exhort Men not to feel Pain when they are beaten or not to be sensible of Pleasure when they eat with an Appetite so the Stoicks are either unreasonable or not in good earnest when they cry That we ought not to be sorry for the Death of our Father the Loss of our Goods our Banishment Imprisonment and the like nor to be glad of the happy Success of our Affairs since we are united to our Country Goods Friends c. by a Natural Union which at present has no dependence on our Will I grant that Reason teaches us we are to undergo Banishment without Sorrow but the same Reason likewise teaches us we ought to endure the cutting off our Arm without Pain because the Soul is superiour to the Body and that according to the light of Reason her happiness or misery ought not to depend upon it but 't is ridiculous to argue against Experience which in this occasion will convince us that things are not so as our Reason intimates they ought to be The Philosophy of
Solidity they will float at unequal Distances from the Centre of the Vortex in which they swim But if two Planets have very near the same Force to continue that Direct Motion or if a Planet carries in its small Vortex one or several other smaller Planets which it shall have conquer'd according to our Way of conceiving the Formation of Things Then the smallest Planets will turn about the greatest whilst the greatest shall turn upon its own Centre and all these Planets shall be carried by the Motion of the great Vortex at a Distance very near equal from its Centre We are obliged by the Light of Reason to dispose in that Order the Parts that compose the whole Universe which we imagine to have been formed by the most simple Ways For all that had been said is only grounded on the Idea of Extension the Parts of which are supposed to move in the most simple Motion which is that in a Right Line And when we examine by the Effects whether we are mistaken in the Explication of Things by their Causes we are surprized to see the Phenomaena of Celestial Bodies so perfectly agreeing with our Ratiocinations For we perceive all the Planets that are in the middle of a small Vortex turning upon their own Centre as the Sun does and swimming in the Vortex of the Sun and about the Sun the smallest and least solid nearest to it and the most solid at a greater distance We likewise observe that there are some as the Comets which cannot remain in the Vortex of the Sun And lastly that there are several Planets which have other smaller turning about them as the Moon does about the Faith Jupiter has four of them Mars has three and perhaps Saturn has so many and so small that they resemble a continued Circle of which the thickness cannot be perceived because of their too vast distance Those Planets being the biggest we can observe it may be imagin'd that they have been produced from Vortexes which had a sufficient strength to conqueâ— others before they were involved in the Vortex we live in All these Planets turn upon their own Centre the Earth within 24. hours Mars within 25. or thereabouts Jupiter within about 10 c. They all turn about the Sun Mercury the nearest in about 4. Months Saturn the remotest in about 30. Years and those that are betwixt them in more or less time which however keep not an exact proportion with their distance For the matter in which they swim makes a swifter Circumvolution when 't is nearer to the Sun because the Line of its Motion is then shorter When Mars is opposite to the Sun he is then near enough to the Earth but is at a vast distance from it when he is in Conjunction with him The like may be said of the other superiour Planets as Saturn and Jupiter for the inferiour as Venus and Mercury are to speak properly never opposite to the Sun The Lines which all the Planets seem to describe about the Earth are no Circles but are very like Ellipses which Ellipses seem very much to differ because of the different Situation of the Planets in reference to us In short whatever may be observed with any certainty in the Heavens touching the Motion of the Planets perfectly agrees with what has been said of their Formation by the most simple ways As to the fixed Stars Experience teaches us that some diminish and entirely vanish away whilst others that are wholly new appear the lustre and bulk of which sensibly increase They increase or diminish proportionably as the Vortexes in whose Centre they lye admit more or less of the first Element We cease to see them when they are overspread with Spots and Crusts and begin to discover them when those Spots which obstruct their lustre are entirely dissipated All these Stars keep very near the same distance from each other since they are Centres of Vortexes which are not conquer'd and remain Stars as long as they can resist the Invasion of others They are all bright like as many little Suns because they are all as he is the Centers of unconquer'd Vortexes They are all at an unequal distance from the Earth though they appear as if they were fastned to a Vault for if the Parallaxe of the nearest with the remotest has not yet been observable by the different situation of the Earth from 6 to 6 Months it is because that difference is too inconsiderable in reference to our distance from the Stars to make that Parallaxe sensible Perhaps by means of the Telescopes it will one day or other become somewhat observable In short whatever the Senses and Experience may observe in the Stars differs not from what we have discover'd by the Mind whilst we examin'd the most simple and natural Relations that are betwixt the Parts and the Motions of Extension To search after the Nature of Terrestrial Bodies we must conceive that the first Element being made up of an infinite number of different Figures the Bodies that result from their Mixture must be very different So that there will be some whose Parts shall be branched others long others very near round but all irregular several ways When their Parts are branched and gross they are hard but flexible and not elastick as Gold If their Parts be not so gross they are soft and fluid as Gums Fat 's Oyles but if their branched Parts be extremely fine they are like the Air. If the long Parts of Bodies are gross and inflexible they are pungent incorruptible and dissolvible as Salts if those long Parts be flexible they are insipid like Water if the gross Parts be of very irregular and different Figures they are like Earth and Stones In short thence must needs arise Bodies of several different Natures and two will hardly be found exactly alike by reason of the infinite number of Figures incident to the first Element which can never be complicated after the same manner in two different Bodies What Figure soever those Bodies may have if their Pores be large enough to give way to the second Element's passing all manner of ways they will be transparent like Air Water Glass c. If the first Element entirely surrounds some of their Parts and affords them a sufficient force and commotion to repel the second Element on all sides they will appear Luminous like flame if they drive back all the second Element that falls upon them they will be very white if they receive it without repelling it they will be very black and lastly if they repel it by several Concussions and Vibrations they will appear of different colours As to their Situation the heaviest or those that have least force to continue their direct Motion will be the nearest to the Centre as are Metals Earth Water and Air will be more remote and all Bodies will keep the same Situation in which we observe them because they will recede from the Centre of the Earth as far
deduce them from their natural Principles that they may know evidently by Reason what Faith has already taught them with an absolute Certainty Thus they will convince themselves that the Gospel is the most solid Book in the World that Christ perfectly knew the Disorders and Distempers of Nature that he has rectified and cured them in a manner the most useful to us and most worthy of himself that can be conceived But that the Light of Philosophers is nothing but a dark Night and their most splendid Vertues an intolerable Pride In short that Aristotle Seneca and all the rest are but Men to say nothing worse CHAP. VII Of the Vse of the First Rule concerning particular Questions WE have sufficiently insisted upon the general Rule of Method more especially regarding the Subject of our Studies and shewn that Des Cartes has exactly followed it in his System of the World whereas Aristotle and his Disciples have not observed it We proceed now to the particular Rules that are necessary to resolve all sorts of Questions The Questions that may be formed upon all sorts of Subjects are of so many Kinds as that it is not easie to enumerate them However I shall set down the principal Sometimes we search after the unknown Causes of some Effects that are known and sometimes after unknown Effects by known Causes Fire burns and dissipates Wood we enquire after the Cause of it Fire consists in a violent Motion of the fiery Particles we desire to know what Effects that Motion is able to produce whether it may harden Clay melt Iron c. Sometimes we seek the Nature of a thing by its Properties and sometimes its Properties by its Nature that is known to us We know or suppose that Light is transmitted in a moment and however that it is reflected and collected by a concave Mirrour so as to consume and melt the most solid Bodies and we design to make use of those Properties to discover its Nature On the contrary we know that all the space that reaches from the Earth to the Heavens is full of little Spherical and most movable Bodies which continually endeavour their removal from the Sun We desire to discover whether the endeavour of those small Bodies may be transmitted in an instant whether being reflected by a concave Glass they must unite themselves and dissipate or melt the solidest Bodies Sometimes we enquire after all the Parts of the Whole and sometimes after the Whole by its Parts We search after all the unknown Parts of a Whole that is known when we seek all the Aliquot Parts of a Number all the Roots of an Equation all the Right Angles of a Figure c. And we enquire after an unknown Whole all the Parts of which are known when we seek the Summ of several Numbers the Area of many Figures the Dimensions of different Vessels Or we seek a Whole one Part of which is known and whose other Parts though unknown include some known Relation with that which is unknown as when we seek what is that Number one Part of which as 15 being known makes with the other part the half or the third of an unknown Number or when we seek an unknown Number equal to 15 and to the double of the Root of that unknown Number Lastly We often enquire whether some things are equal or like to others and how much they are unequal or different As when we desire to know whether Saturn is greater than Jupiter and how much the former surpasses the latter Whether the Air of Rome is hotter than that of London and how many degrees What is general in all Questions is that they are formed for the Knowledge of some Truths and because all Truths are Relations it may generally be said that in all Questions we search but after the Knowledge of some Relations either betwixt things or betwixt Ideas or betwixt things and their Ideas There are Relations of several sorts as betwixt the Nature of things betwixt their Magnitudes their Parts their Attributes their Qualities Effects Causes c. but they may all be reduced to two viz. to Relations of Magnitude and of Quality comprehending under the former all those in which things are consider'd as suceptible of more and less and all the others under the latter So that it may be said that all Questions tend to discover some Relation either of Magnitude or of Quality The first and chief Rule is That we must very distinctly know the state of the Question to be resolv'd and have such distinct Ideas of its Terms that we may compare them together and discover their unknown Relations We must then first very clearly perceive the unknown Relation enquired after for 't is plain that if we have no certain Mark to distinguish it when 't is sought for or when 't is found our labour will be fruitless Secondly We must as far as possible make the Ideas which answer to the Terms of the Question distinct by taking off their Equivocation and make them clear by considering them with all the possible Attention for if those Ideas are so confused and obscure as that we cannot make the necessary Comparisons to discover the Relations we look for we are not yet in a state of resolving the Question Thirdly We must consider with all possible Attention the Conditions expressed in the Question if any there be since without that we can but confusedly understand the state of that Question besides that the Conditions commonly trace out the way to resolve it So that when the state of a Question and its Conditions are rightly understood we not only know what we enquire after but also sometimes by what means it may be discovered I grant that Conditions are not express'd in all Questions but then those Questions are undeterminate and may resolved several ways as when 't is required to find out a Square Number a Triangle c. without specifying any other particulars Or it may be that the Querist knows not how to resolve or that he conceals them in order to puzzle the Resolver as when 't is required to find out Two mean Proportionals betwixt Two Lines without adding by the Intersection of the Circle and Parabola or of the Circle and Ellipsis c. And therefore 't is altogether necessary that the distinguishing Character of what is searched after be very distinct and not equivocal or that it be only proper to the thing enquired otherwise we could not be certain whether the Question proposed is resolved We must likewise carefully separate from the Question all the Conditons that make it intricate and without which it subsists entire because they fruitlessly divide the capacity of the Mind Besides that we have not a distinct perception of the state of the Question as long as the Conditions that attend it are useless Suppose for instance a Question were proposed in these Words to cause that a Man besprinkled with some Liquors and crowned with a
our natural Judgment so long as it 's not positively corrigible by Light and Evidence For every natural Judgment coming from God may be rightly seconded by our free Judgments when God furnishes us not with means to manifest its falsity And if on such occasions we mistake the Author of our Mind may seem in a manner to be the Author of our Errors and Delinquencies This Reasoning is possibly good though it must be acknowledg'd that it ought not to go for an Evident Demonstration of the Existence of Bodies For indeed God does not irresistibly force us to consent to it if we give our consent it is a free act and we may with-hold it if we please If this arguing I have made be just we are to believe it highly probable that there are Bodies but this bare Argumentation alone ought not to give us a plenary Conviction and Acquiescence otherwise it is we our selves that act and not God in us it being by a free act and consequently liable to Error that we consent and not by an invincible Impression for we believe it freely because we will and not because we see any obliging Evidence Surely nothing but Faith can convince us of the actual Existence of Bodies We can have no exact Demonstration of any other Being's Existence than the necessary and if we warily consider it we shall find it even impossible to know with perfect Evidence whether GOD is or is not the Creatour of a Material and sensible World for no such Evidence is to be met with except in necessary Relations which are not to be found betwixt GOD and such a World as this It was possible for him not to have created it If he has made it it is because he will'd it and freely will'd it The Saints in Heaven see by an evident Light That the FATHER begets the SON and that the HOLY GHOST proceeds from the FATHER and the SON for these are necessary Emanations But the World being no necessary Emanation from GOD those who most clearly see his Being see not evidently his External Productions Nevertheless I am perswaded that the Blessed are certain of the World's Existence but 't is because GOD assures them of it by manifesting his Will to them in a manner by us unknown and we on Earth are certain too but 't is because Faith obliges us to believe That GOD has created this World and that this Faith is conformable to our natural Judgments or our compound Sensations when they are confirm'd by all our Senses corrected by our Memory and rectify'd by our Reason I confess that at first sight the Proof or Principle of our Faith seems to suppose the Existence of Bodies Fides ex auditu It seems to suppose Prophets Apostles Sacred-Writ and Miracles but if we closely examine it we shall find that in supposing but the Appearances of Men Prophets Apostles Holy Scripture Miracles c. what we have learn'd from these supposs'd Appearances stands undeniably certain since as I have prov'd in several places of this Work GOD only can represent to the Mind these pretended Appearances and He is no Deceiver For Faith supposes all this Now in the Appearance of Holy Scripture and by the Seemingness of Miracles we learn That GOD has created an Heaven and an Earth that the Word is made Flesh and other such like Truths which suppose the Existence of a created World Therefore Faith verifies the Existence of Bodies and all these Appearances are actually substantiated by it 'T is needless to insist longer upon answering an Objection which seems too abstracted for the common part of Men and I believe that this will be enough to satisfie those who pretend not to be over-difficult From all which we are to conclude That we both may and ought to correct our Natural Judgments or compound Perceptions which relate to the sensible Qualities we attribute to the Bodies that surround us or to That we animate But as for natural Judgments which relate to the actual Existence of Bodies though absolutely we are not oblig'd to form free ones to accord with them yet we ought not to supersede doing it because these natural Judgments agree perfectly with Faith Finally I have made this Explanation chiefly to the intent we may seriously reflect upon this Truth That nothing but Eternal Wisdom can enlighten us and that all sensible Notices wherein our Body is concern'd are fallacious at least are not attended with that Light which we feel our selves oblig'd to submit to I am sensible that these Notions will not pass with the common sort of Men and that as they are dispos'd by the Superfluity or Poverty of their Animal Spirits they will either ridicule or flinch at the Reasonings I have laid down For the Imagination cannot endure abstract and un-ordinary Truths but either considers them as ghastly Spectres or ridiculous Phantasms But I chuse rather to be the Subject of Droll and Raillery for the strong and bold Imagination and the Object of Indignation and Fear to the weak and timorous than to be wanting in what I owe to Truth and to those generous Defenders of the Mind against the Efforts of the Body who know how to distinguish the Responses of illuminating Wisdom from the confus'd Noise of the perplexing and erroneous Imagination THE ILLUSTRATION UPON THE Fifth CHAPTER of the Second BOOK Of the Memory and Spiritual Habits I Had no mind to speak in this Chapter of the Memory and spiritual Habits for several Reasons the chief of which is That we have no clear Idea of our Soul For how can we clearly explain what are the Dispositions which the Operations of the Soul leave in her which Dispositions are her Habits whilst we have no clear Knowledge of the Nature of our Soul 'T is plain that 't is impossible to know distinctly the Changes whereof a Being is capable when we have no distinct Knowledge of the Nature of that Being For if for Instance we had no clear Idea of Extension in vain should we endeavour to discover its Figures However since I am desir'd to speak of a Matter which I know not in it self see what a compass I fetch that I may only keep to clear Idea's I suppose that there 's none but God who acts upon the Mind and represents to it the Idea's of all things and that if the Mind perceive any Object by a very clear and distinct Idea 't is because God represents that Idea in a most perfect manner I farther suppose that the Will of God being entirely conformable to ORDER and Justice we need but to have a Right to any thing to obtain it The Suppositions being laid down which are easily conceiv'd the Spiritual Memory is readily explain'd For Order requiring that Spirits which have frequently thought of any Object should more easily think again upon it and have a more clear and lively Idea of it that those who have but seldom consider'd it The Will of God which
be enquir'd why GOD who so loves the Glory he receives in the Establishment of His Church had not begun it many Ages before Thus it suffices to say That an Eternity ought to forego the Incarnation of the WORD to manifest why this Great Mystery was accomplish'd neither sooner nor later GOD then must have created the Universe for the Church and the Church for JESUS CHRIST and JESUS CHRIST that He might find in Him a Sacrifice and High-Priest worthy of the Divine Majesty We shall not doubt of this Order of the Designs of GOD if it be observ'd that He can have no other End of his Actions than Himself And if it be conceiv'd that Eternity does not belong to Creatures we shall acknowledge they were produc'd when 't was requisite they should be Which Truths suppos'd let us try to discover something in the Method GOD takes for the Execution of His Grand Design VII Were I not persuaded that all Men are no farther Reasonable than enlightned by Eternal Wisdom it would no doubt be great Temerity to speak of the Designs of GOD and offer to discover any of His Ways in the Production of His Work But whereas it is certain that the word Eternal is the Universal Reason of Minds and that by the Light which he continually sheds in us we may have some Communication with GOD I ought not to be blam'd for consulting that Light which though Consubstantial with GOD Himself fails not to answer those who know how to enquire of it by a serious Attention VIII However I confess that Faith teaches a great many Truths not discoverable by the natural Union of the Mind with Reason Eternal Truth answers not to all we ask since we ask sometimes more than we can receive But this must not serve for a Pretence to justifie our Laziness and Inapplication IX Vulgar Heads are soon wearied with the Natural Prayer the Mind by its Attention ought to make to inward Truth in order to receive Light and Understanding from it and thus fatigu'd by that painful Exercise they talk of it in a contemptuous manner They dishearten one another and cover their Weakness and Ignorance under the delusive Appearances of a counterfeit Humility X. But their Example is not to infuse into us that agreeable Vertue which cherishes Carelessness and Negligence in the Mind and comforts it under its Ignorance of most necessary Truths We must pray constantly to Him who enlightens all Men That he will bestow His Light upon us recompence our Faith with the Gift of Understanding and especially to prevent us from mistaking Probability and confus'd Sensations which precipitate proud Minds into Darkness and Errour for the Evidence which accompanies His Resolves XI When we design to speak of GOD with any exactness we must not consult our selves nor the vulgar part of Men but elevate our Thoughts above all Creatures and with great Reverence and Attention consult the vast and immense Idea of a Being infinitely perfect which representing the true GOD very different from what the Vulgar fancy Him to themselves we are not to treat of Him in popular Language Every Body is allow'd to say with the Scripture that GOD Repented Him that He created Man that He was Angry with his People that he deliver'd Israel from Captivity by the Strength of His Arm. But these or the like Expressions are not permitted Divines when they should speak accurately and justly Therefore 't is not to be wondred if in the Sequel of Discourse my Expression shall be found uncommon It ought rather to be carefully observ'd whether they be clear and perfectly adapted to the Idea which all Men have of an Infinitely Perfect Being XII This Idea of a Being infinitely perfect includes two Attributes absolutely necessary to the Creation of the World an unlimited Wisdom and an irresistible Power The Wisdom of GOD affords infinite Ideas of different Works and all possible Ways for the executing His Designs and His Power renders Him so absolutely Master of all things and so independent of all Assistances whatever that He need but Will to execute what he Wills For we must above all take notice that GOD needs no Instruments to work with that His Wills are necessarily efficacious in a Word that as His Wisdom is His own Understanding His Power is no other than His Will Among these innumerable Ways whereby GOD might have executed His Design let us see which was preferable to all other and let us begin with the Creation of this Visible World from which and in which He forms the Invisible which is the Eternal Object of His Love XIII An excellent Artist ought to proportion his Action to his Work he does not that by Ways compound which may be perform'd by more simple he acts not without End and never makes insignificant Essays Whence we are to conclude that GOD discovering in the infinite Treasures of His Wisdom an Infinity of possible Worlds as necessary Consequences of the Laws of Motion which he could establish was determin'd to the Creation of that which might be produc'd and preserv'd by the simplest Laws or which should be the perfectest that could be considering the simplicity of the Ways necessary to its Production and Preservation XIV GOD might doubtless have made a perfecter World than that we inhabit He might for Instance have caus'd the Rain which fecundates the Earth to have fallen more regularly on Plow'd Lands than in the Sea where it is not necessary But in order to this He must have chang'd the Simplicity of His Ways and have multiplied the Laws of the Communications of Motions by which our World subsists and so there would not have been that Proportion between the Action of GOD and His Work which is necessary to determine an infinitely wise Being to act or at least there would not have been the same Proportion between the Action of GOD and this so perfect World as there is between the Laws of Nature and the World we inhabit For our World imagine it as imperfect as you will is sounded on so Simple and Natural Laws of Motion as make it perfectly worthy of the infinite Wisdom of its Author And indeed I am of Opinion that the Laws of Motion necessary to the Production and Preservation of the Earth and all the Stars in the Heavens are reduc'd to these Two First That mov'd Bodies tend to continue their Motion in a right line Secondly That when two Bodies meet their Motion is distributed to each in proportion to their Magnitude so that after the Collision they ought to move with equal degrees of Celerity These two Laws are the Cause of all those Motions which produce that variety of Forms which we admire in Nature XVI 'T is own'd notwithstanding that the second is â—ever manifestly observable in the Experiments that can be made upon the Subject but that comes from our seeing only what happens in visible Bodies and our not thinking on the invisible that surround
'Mongst all which that which instantly appears Greatest and most Magnificent most Uniform and Comprehensive is that whereof all the Parts have most Symmetry with the Person who constitutes the whole Glory and Sanctity of it And the wisest way of executing that Design is the Establishing certain most simple and fruitful Laws to bring it to its Perfection This is what Reason seems to answer to all those who consult it with Attention when following the Principles which Faith teaches us Let us examine the Circumstances of this Great Design and then endeavour to discover the Ways of executing it XXV The Holy Scripture teaches us That 't is Jesus Christ who ought to make all the Beauty the Sanctity the Grandeur and Magnificence of this Work If Holy Writ compare it to a City 't is Jâ—sus Christ who makes all the Lustre it not being the Sun and the Moon but the Glory of God and the Light of the Lamb that shine upon it When representing it as a Living Body whereof all the Parts have a wonderful Proportion 't is Jesus Christ who is the Head of it 'T is from Him the Spirit and Life are communicated into all the Members that compose it Speaking of it as a Temple Jesus Christ is the Chief Corner-stone which is the Foundation of the Building 'T is He who is the High Priest and Sacrifice of it All the Faithful are Priests but as they participate of his Priesthood they are Victims only as parâ—aking of His Holiness it being in Him and through Him alone they continually offer themselves to the Majesty of God In fine 't is only from the Analogy they bear to Him that they contribute to the Beauty of this August and Venerable Temple which has always been and will eternally continue the Object of the good Pleasure of God XXVI Reason likewise evinces these same Truths For what Proportion is there between Creatures how perfect soever we suppose them and the Action that produces them How can any Creatures which are finite be equivalent to the Action of God of infinite Worth Can God receive any thing from a mere Creature that determines him to act But be it so that God made Man with Hopes of being honour'd by him whence comes it that those who dishonour Him make the greatest Number Is not this a sufficient Indication that God is very negligent of His pretended Glory which He receives from His Work if separated from His Well-beloved Son that it was in Jesus Christ that He resolv'd to produce it and that without Him it would not subsist a moment XXVII A Man resolves upon a Work because he has need of it or has a Mind to see what Effect it will have or lastly because by this Essay of his Strength he learns what he is able to produce But God has no need of his Creatures nor is He like Men who receive new Impressions from the Presence of Objects His Ideas are Eternal and Immutable He saw the World before it was form'd as well as he sees it now Lastly Knowing that His Wills are efficacious he perfectly knows without making trial of his Strength all that He 's capable of producing Thus Scripture and Reason assure us that by Reason of Jesus Christ the World subsists and through the Dignity of his Divine Person receives an additional Beauty which renders it well pleasing in the Sight of God XXVIII From which Principle methinks it follows that Jesus Christ is the Model by which we are made that we were fram'd after His Image and Similitude and have nothing comely in us any farther than we are the Draught and Ectypon of Him that He is the End of the Law and the Archetype of the Ceremonies and Sacrifices of the Jews That to determine that Succession of Generations preceding His Birth they must needs have had some certain Agreements with Him whereby they became more pleasing to God than any other That since Jesus Christ was to be the Head and Husband of the Church 't was requisite he should be typified by the Propagation of Mankind from one Person as related by Moses and explain'd by St. Paul In a word from this Principle it follows that the present World ought to be the Figure of the future and that as far as the Simplicity of General Laws will permit all the Inhabitants of it have been or shall â—e the Figures and Resemblances of the Only Son of God quite from Abel in whom he was sacrificed to the last Member that shall constitute His Church XXIX We judge of the Perfection of a Work by its Conformity with the Idea afforded us by Eternal Wisdom For there is nothing Beautiful or Amiable but as related to Essential Necessary and Independent Beauty Now that Intelligible Beauty being made sensible becomes even in this Capacity the Rule of Beauty and Perfection Therefore all Corporeal Creatures ought to receive from it all their Excellency and Lustre All Minds ought to have the same Thoughts and the same Inclinations as the Soul of Jesus if they would be agreeable to those who see nothing Beautiful nothing Amiable save in what is conformable to Wisdom and Truth Since therefore we are oblig'd to believe the Work of GOD to have an absolute Conformity with Eternal Wisdom we have all Reason to believe that the same Work has infinite Correspondencies with Him who is the Head the Principle the Pattern and the End of it But who can explain all these Agreements XXX That which makes the Beauty of a Temple is the Order and Variety of Ornaments that are found in it Thus to render the Living Temple of the Divine Majesty worthy of its Inhabitant and proportionate to the Wisdom and infinite Love of its Author all possible Beauties are to make it up But it is not so with this Temple rais'd to the Glory of God as with Material ones For that which constitutes the Beauty of the Spiritual Edifice of the Church is the infinite Diversity of Graces communicated from Him who is the Head of it to all the constituent Parts 'T is the Order and admirable Proportions settled among them 't is the various Degrees of Glory shining and reflecting on all sides round about it XXXI It follows from this Principle that to the establishing that Variety of Rewards which make up the Beauty of the Heavenly Jerusalem Men ought to be subject upon Earth not only to Purgative Afflictions but also to the Motions of Concupiscence which make them gain so many Victories by administring such a multitude of various Combats XXXII The Blessed in Heaven no doubt will be endow'd with a Sanctity and Variety of Gifts perfectly corresponding to the Diversity of their Good Works Those continual Sacrifices whereby the Old Man is destroy'd and annihilated will enrich the Spiritual Substance of the New Man with Graces and Beauties And if it were necessary that Jesus Christ should suffer all sorts of Afflictions before He enter'd on the Possession of His
produce in us contrary Pleasures and Aversions to those of Concupiscence Pleasures for the True and Aversions or Dislikes for sensible Goods Thus the Grace whereof Jesus Christ is the Occasional Cause and which he incessantly sheds on us as Head of the Church is not a Grace of Light though he has merited that Grace likewise for us and sometimes may communicate it as I shall say by and by But 't is a Grace of Sensation 't is the preventing Delectation which begets and nurses Charity in our Hearts For Pleasure naturally produces and cherishes the Love of those Objects which cause or seem to cause it 'T is likewise the Disgust which sometimes sensible Objects give us which create an Aversion to them and capacitate us to guide the Motions of our Love by Light or Knowledge XXXII We must oppose the Grace of Sensation to Concupiscence Pleasure to Pleasure Dislike to Dislike that the Influence of Jesus Christ may be directly opposite to the Influence of the First Man The Remedy must be contrary to the Disease that it may cure it For illuminating Grace cannot heat an Heart that is wounded by Pleasure this Pleasure must cease or another succeed it Pleasure is the Weight of the Soul and naturally bears it along with it and sensible Pleasures weigh it down to Earth In order to her determining her self these Pleasures must vanish or delectable Grace must raise her up towards Heaven and instate her well-nigh in Equilibrio Thus it is the New Man may war against the Old the Influence of our Head may resist that of our Progenitor and Jesus Christ may conquer in us all our Domestick Enemies The First Man being free from Concupiscence before his Sin needed not to be invited to the Love of the True Good by preventing Delectation He knew clearly that God was his Good and there was no Necessity he should have the Sense of it 'T was not fit he should be allur'd by Pleasure to the Love of him since nothing withstood this Love and he knew him perfectly deserving it But after the Sin the Grace of Delectation was necessary to counterpoize the continual Struggle of Concupiscence Therefore Light is the Grace of the Creator Delectation is that of the Restorer Light is communicated by Jesus Christ as Eternal Wisdom Delectation is given by him as Wisdom Incarnate Light in its Original was mere Nature Delectation has ever been Pure Grace Light after the Sin was granted us only for the Merits of Jesus Christ. Delectation is granted both for the Merits and by the Efficacy of the same Jesus Lastly Light is shed into our Souls according to our own several Volitions and various Applications as I shall explain by and by But the Delectation of Grace is infus'd into our Hearts according to the diverse Desires of the Soul of Jesus Christ. XXXIII 'T is true Pleasure produces Light because the Soul is more attentive to Objects that give her Pleasure Since most Men despise or neglect the Truths of Religion because abstract or unaffecting it may be said that the Delectation of Grace instructs them For that rendring these Truths more sensible they more easily learn them by the Attention they afford And for this Reason St. John says That the Unction we receive from Jesus Christ teaches all things and that those who have receiv'd it have need of no Instructor XXXIV Yet it must be observ'd That this Unction does not produce Light immediately and by its self it only excites our Attention which is the Natural or Occasional Cause of our Knowledge So we see that Men of the greatest Charity are not always the most Understanding All Men being not equally capable of Attention all the Receivers of the same Unction are not equally instructed by it Therefore though Light may be shed on the Soul by a supernatural Infusion and Charity often produces it yet we are always to look upon this kind of Grace but as a Natural Effect For ordinarily Charity produces not Light in the Mind save in proportion to the Inducement it gives the Soul to desire the Knowledge of what she loves For in fine the diverse Desires of the Soul are the Natural or Occasional Causes of the Discoveries we make on any Subject whatsoever But these things we must explain more at large in the Second Part of this Discourse PART II. Of the Grace of the CREATOR XXXV I Know but two Principles that directly and of themselves determine the Motion of our Love Light and Pleasure Light to discover our several Goods and Pleasure to make us tast them But there is a great difference betwixt Light and Pleasure the former leaves us absolutely to our selves and makes no Intrenchment on our Liberty It does not efficaciously carry us to Love nor produce in us Natural or Necessary Love but only induces us to carry our selves to the loving with a Love of choice the Objects it discovers or which is the same thing only causes us to determine to particular Goods the general Impression of Love God constantly gives us for the General But Pleasure effectually determines our Will and as it were conveys us to the Object which causes or seems to cause it It produces in us a Natural and Necessary Love weakens our Liberty divides our Reason and leaves us not perfectly to our own Conduct An indifferent Attention to the Sense we have of our internal Motions will convince us of these Differences Thus Man before the Sin being perfectly free and having no Concupiscence to hinder him from prosecuting his Light in the Motions of his Love and knowing clearly that God was infinitely amiable ought not to be determin'd by preventing Delight as I have already said or by any other Graces of Sensation which might have lessen'd his Merit and induc'd him to love by Instinct the Good which should only be lov'd by Reason But after he had sinned he besides the Grace of Light had need of that of Sensation to resist the Motions of Concupiscence For Man having an invincible Desire for Happiness cannot possibly sacrifice his Pleasure to his Light his Pleasure which makes him actually Happy and subsists in him in spight of his Resistance to his Light which subsists but by a painful Application of Thought and dies at the presence of the least actual Pleasure and lastly which promises no solid Happiness till after Death which to the Imagination seems a perfect Annihilation Light therefore is due to Man to conduct him in the quest of Happiness and belongs to Natural Order and supposes neither Corruption nor Reparation in Nature But Pleasure which relates to the true Good is pure Grace For naturally the true Good ought not to be belov'd otherwise than by Reason Therefore the Occasional Causes of the Graces of Sensation ought to be found in Jesus Christ because he is the Author of this Grace But the Occasional Causes of Light ought to be ordinarily found in the Order of Nature because Light is
we not only can see from one end of the same Point abundance of most large and even immense Objects There is moreover not any Point in all these great Spaces of the World from whence we cannot discover an almost inexhaustible number of Objects and even Objects as big as the Sun the Moon and Heavens There is not then any Point in the great Circumference of the World wherein the Species of all these things ought not to center which is contradictory to all appearance of Truth The second Reason is taken from the Change these Species undergo It is certain the nearer an Object is the greater the Species ought to be since we see the Object greater Now we cannot see what 't is that can lessen this Species and what become of the Parts that compos'd it when it was greater But that which is still more difficult to conceive according to their Notion is how in beholding an Object with Magnifying-glasses or a Microscope the Species grows on a suddain five or six hundred times bigger than it was before for 't is still harder to be seen from what adventitious Parts it can increase so mightily in an instant The third Reason is that in looking on a perfect Cube all the Species of its faces are unequal and yet we fail not to see all its faces equally square And so in beholding in a Picture Ovals and Parallelograms which can only send forth Species of a similar Figure we see notwithstanding Circles and Squares For this makes it manifestly clear that there is no necessity the Object we behold should produce Species like it self in order to our seeing it Lastly it is not conceivable how it is possible for a Body that is not sensibly exhausted to send constantly Species from out of it self on every side how it can continually fill with them so very capacious Spaces all round about and that with an incomprehensible swiftness For an Object that lay hid in the very instant of its Discovery may be seen many millions of Leagues on all sides And what seems much stranger yet is that the Bodies which have a great deal of Action as the Air and some others have not force enough to extrude from them their representative Images which the grossest and least active Bodies can do as Earth Stones and almost all hard Bodies But I shall not spend more time in producing all the Reasons that oppugn this Opinion because that would be an endless work the least Essay of Thought furnishing out an inexhaustible number of them These we have already urg'd are enough and even more than were necessary after what has been said relating to this Subject in the first Book whâ—n we explain'd the Errors of the Senses But there being such a multitude of Philosophers devoted to this Opinion I thought it necessary to say something of it to put them upon reflecting on their own Thoughts CHAP. III. That the Soul has no Power to produce Idea's The Cause of the Error Men are guilty of upon this Subject THE second Opinion is theirs who believe that our Souls have the Power of producing the Idea's of the things they would contemplate and that they are mov'd to the producing them by the impressions Objects make upon the Body though these impressions are not Images representative of the Objects they are caused by They pretend it is in this that Man is made after the Image of GOD and participates of his Power That as GOD has created all things out of nothing and can annihilate them again and thence create others wholly new so Man has the Power of Creating and Annihilating the Idea's of all things as he pleases But there 's very good reason to suspect all these Opinions that elevate Man so high as being Notions which commonly derive from his vain and haughty Heart and which the Father of Lights never vouchsafed to give him This Participation of the Power of GOD which Men boast of having whereby to represent Objects and to do many other particular Actions is a Participation which seems to draw in something of Independency as 't is ordinarily explain'd But 't is likewise a Chimerical Participation which Men's Ignorance and Vanity have caus'd them to imagine For they are under a greater Dependance on the Goodness and Mercy of GOD than they suppose But this is not the place to give an Explication of these things Let us only try to make it visible that Men have not the Power of forming the Idea's of the things they perceive No Man can doubt but that Idea's are real Beings seeing they have real Properties that they differ one from another and that they represent quite different things Nor can it reasonably be doubted but they are of a Spiritual Nature and very different from the Bodies represented by them All which seems strong enough to raise a doubt whether the Idea's by means whereof we perceive Bodies are not of a nobler extract than the Bodies themselves And in earnest the Intelligible World ought to be perfecter than the Material and Terrestrial as we shall see in the process of our Discourse and then in affirming that Men are impower'd to frame all Idea's as they please we incur the danger of maintaining that Men have power of making Beings more noble and more perfect than the World which GOD has created But this reflection never enters our Heads by reason of our imagining an Idea to be nothing because not obvious to the Senses or if we look upon it as a Being 't is a Being so slender and contemptible that we fancy it annihilated as soon as absent from the Mind But though it should be true that Idea's were only little pitiful despicable Beings they are however Beings and Beings Spiritual And Men having not the Power of Creating have not consequently the Power of Producing them For the Production of Idea's in the manner they explain it is a true Creation and though they endeavour to palliate and soften the Presumption and Harshness of this Opinion in saying that the Production of Idea's supposes something antecedent and Creation supposes nothing yet they bring no Reason to solve the Knot of the difficulty For it ought well to be heeded That there is no greater difficulty in producing Something out of Nothing than in producing it by presupposing another thing out of which it could not be made and which could contribute nothing to its Production There is no greater difficulty for instance in the Creation of an Angel than in the Production of an Angel from a Stone Because a Stone being a Being of a quite opposite kind cannot be any ways serviceable to the Production of an Angel But it may contribute to the Production of Bread of Gold c. because Stone Gold and Bread are only the same Extension of a diverse Configuration and all these are Material things Nay it is even harder to produce an Angel out of a Stone than to produce it out