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A49394
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An enquiry after happiness. Vol. 1 by the author of The practical Christianity.
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Lucas, Richard, 1648-1715.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing L3402; ESTC R3025
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133,570
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376
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is this God who made us made us on purpose to be Happy for what other design could Infinite Love propose to it self in our Creation and proposing to himself this End he endow'd us with Faculties and Capacities that might fit us for the Contemplation and Enjoyment of himself and of his Works The World provided by him for our Entertainment he filled with all things that could Minister either to our Necessities or Delights here God has planted us not as Inhabitants but Sojourners for this is but our state of Probation Angels had their times of Trial so have Men here he wou'd have us aspire after as near as we can that life Angels lead in Heaven for we are one Day to be equal to 'em here he wou'd have us learn and practise those Vertues which fit us for the Society Enjoyment of that Kingdom wherein dwells Righteousness for that is the blessed End and Consummation of all our Endeavours Desires and Hopes but when we make Heaven the Abode the Seat of Perfect Happiness we do not thereby suppose that it is banish't from the Earth but rather on the contrary if that state be the Consummation of all things 't is Necessarily to be concluded that every step we advance nearer to it we mount and ascend higher into brighter calmer and purer Regions Heaven is like a Glorious Building whose access is full of Delight and Beauty for as that Youth which precedes our Manhood has its Sweetness its Beauty its natural Perfection and Pleasure so has this mortal-state which precedes our Angelical its proper Degree of Perfection and Blessedness and this is no small one neither for as we are created but a little lower than the Angels in respect to the Dignity of our Nature so surely our Happiness begins nearly to approach and resemble theirs When our Mind fill'd with Divine Truths Charity and Hope becomes Free Generous Resolv'd Constant Chearful Meek Gentle Devout Heavenly when it has so accustom'd it self to Vertue and familiarly acquainted it self with Heaven that the Sins and Pleasures of the sensual Part of the World look like the Manners and Entertainments not only of a Foreign but Barbarous and Impoverish't Countrey and when lastly by its frequent Retirements from the Body and daily Commerce with Rational and Spiritual Pleasures it not only asserts its Soveraignty over it but begins to live so independent of it that at the last when it shall in Death mount up upon the Wings of pure Flame to Heaven it shall not suffer as if the Body needed to be torn from it but shall let it fall as Elijah did his Mantle Those Complaints therefore which we make against our present state and those Reproaches with which we outrage and vilifie our Nature are false and unjust for we are by God created and design'd for Happiness and this Happiness God hath been pleas'd to put in our own power to place within our reach There is no Fate but what God has made us our selves Arbiters of we lye under no Necessity no Fatality but what our own Vices betray us to Nor do we stand in need of the Indulgences of Fortune the Tranquillity and Pleasure of a Vertuous Man is an Image of God's own it springs from within not from without 't is true there are Difficulties which obstruct our Progress to Happiness but they are such as all Wise and Good Men have conquer'd 't is true Nature labours under its Infirmities that is sensual Propensions and Inclinations but it is strengthen'd and supported by Reason by Revelation by Grace we may fall 't is true a Sacrifice to God's Wrath but it must be after we have liv'd long in Contempt of his Mercy and obstinate Defyance of his Grace Methinks these Considerations should raise and exalt the Mind of Man they should inspire us with Desires and Hopes worthy of Rational and Immortal Souls like the Israelites when they march't out of Egypt we should dream of nothing but Triumph Glory and Happiness CHAP. III. Of the Causes of Man's Misery The Deviation of our Lives from Right Reason the true and Vniversal Cause of Man's Misery This Deviation discovers it self First In our proposing to our selves some false and irrational End of Life Secondly In our Insincerity in pursuing our true and Rational End The Reasons of both these are 1. The Frame and Contexture of our Nature 2. Vicious Education 3. A vicious Conversation and Course of Life from whence proceed Inconsideration Insincerity False Notions Vngovernable Passions Remissness and Inconstancy A Representation of the whole Matter From all inferr'd First What Happiness in general is Secondly Two general Rules for the Attaining of it WEre the Happy like * Quem adhuc nos quidem vidimus Neminem sed Phylosophorum sententiis qualis futurus sit si modo aliquando fuerit exponitur Tusc Quest l. 2. Tully's Wise man a mere Idea something no where to be found but in the Characters and Descriptions which Philosophers give us of him this were an unconquerable Discouragement no Briskness of Wit no Charms of Fancy no force of Eloquence no height of Spirits or heat of Confidence were sufficient to remove it and to engage Men in such a Desperate and unaccountable Enterprize as this Supposition would render the pursuit of Happiness for how fond and groundless a Presumption were it to pursue that which all Mankind had ever as Unsuccessfully as Earnestly and Indefatigably attempted I have therefore endeavoured with all my might in the former Chapter to free men's Minds from any Suspition or Fears of this Kind answering all Objections that might seem to represent Misery fatal or Happiness unattainable and by undeniable proofs Confirming the Opposite Truth But if this be true that Happiness is attainable and if it be as true as certainly 't is that there needs no Eloquence to enkindle in any Man the Desires of Happiness or to incite and spur him on to Endeavour its Attainment all Mankind being carried on towards it by Natural and therefore Constant and Passionate Inclinations will it not be Natural to demand Whence is it that so few are Happy Whence is it that Misery and Trouble Affliction and Sorrow fill almost every place and every Bosome Not only no Kingdom or City but no Town no Village no Family I might almost add no one particular Person being exempt and free no place or person is priviledg'd against Grief and Trouble it invades the Tribunal of Judges the Thrones of Princes and what is almost as sacred as either the Retirements and Closets of the Devout and Learned nay scarcely is the Church and the Altar a secure Sanctuary against it This will not be difficult to Comprehend if we do thorowly weigh and soberly consider the true Causes of Man's Misery but the particular and distinct Discussion of each of these will fall in in its proper place in the following Treatises and therefore I shall Discourse of 'em here only generally and briefly as
Paul when he had recited a Catalogue of such Sinners as shou'd not enter into the Kingdom of God doth afterwards add 1 Cor. 6. and such were some of you but ye are wash't but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God And Tertullian does appeal to the Power and Efficacy of the Christian Religion visible in the Extirpation of vicious Habits wrought by it as a proof of its Divine Original nor are such Instances as these wanting this Day These as they do now refute all the Idle Excuses of Sinners so will they one Day be urg'd in Judgment against 'em to convince 'em that they owe their Ruine to their sloth and obstinacy not their Impotence thô these Men ought to remember too that Moral Impotence is ever deriv'd from a voluntary Neglect or Contempt of all the means of Happiness and Vertue I think I might now dismiss this Objection having given full satisfaction to all scruples that might disturb or discourage any well-meaning and honest Mind and evidently defeated the pretences of such as wou'd fain shroud and shelter their voluntary Sin Folly under the feign'd Excuses of Impotence Incapacity and insupportable Infirmity or insuperable Temptations for all these are mix't and combin'd in every part of the former Objection and receive one and the same Answer But I foresee I shall be thought in this whole Discourse to have had too little regard to our Original Corruption and Divine Assistance and therefore thô I endeavour'd to guard it in the beginning against all sinister Interpretation I will here add a brief account of both especially as far as it shall appear to me to concern my present Enquiry First The Corruption of Nature Consider'd As to the Natural Corruption of Man if Corruption may be call'd Natural on the account of the Tendency of our sensitive Inclinations some things are very plain some very obscure what is plain is this what the present state of Man is with respect to that Righteousness which the Gospel requires what is obscure is this what the state of Adam before the Fall was without a clear knowledge of which 't is impossible to determine how much our Nature is now degenerated as is supposed from the Primitive Purity and Excellency of its Creation Secondly how Guilt and Corruption could be transmitted or deriv'd from Adam upon his Posterity Thirdâ—y What can be suppos'd properly speaking to be the Demerit Offence or Provocation of Original Corruption what Punishment can be due to it divided and separated from Voluntary Transgressions These and a great many things of the like Nature I purposely pass over as either of no great Importance in themselves or at leastwise of no great Use to my present Enquiry and go on to what is Plain and Necessary and that is What the present state and Condition of Humane Nature is for nothing can be more Evident than that the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit Gal. 5. and the Spirit against the Flesh These two being contrary one to another in their Tendencies and Inclinations This Conflict or Opposition of Spirit and Body discovers it self the more the more pure and perfect the Law is that we are under This tendency of the Body is so apparent and undeniable that it was ever acknowledg'd by all Wise Heathens Hence the * Plotinus Ennead 1. lib. 1. c. 9. Enn. 2. lib. 3. c. 15. Enn. 3. lib. 1. c. 8. Aug. de Civ Dei Platonics frequently impute the Diminution of the Power and Liberty of the Soul of Man to its Conjunction with the Body and Hence it was that some of 'em whom St. Austin refutes by giving an Account of the Nature of the rais'd Body rejected the Christian Doctrine of the Resurrection judging the restitution of the Body rather a diminution of than accession to the Happiness of the Mind The Pythagoreans look't upon the Body as the Prison and the Punishment of the Soul and in short the Philosophy of the Heathens did consist chiefly in this the subduing the Appetites of the Body to the Reason of the Mind and this appears most plainly to be the Drift and Scope of Christian Philosophy From whence it follows that the Disorder of Humane Nature call it Original Corruption or what you please consists in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lust and Concupiscence of the Flesh This is Evident from all the Writings of St. Paul especially Romans the 7th and this is the sense of our Church Art the 9th Nor indeed are we Capable of Imagining any other Corruption in Man for if there be a Conflict betwixt Right Reason and Carnal Appetite if the Tendency of the Body and the Mind be opposite and controdictory 't is Nonsence to suppose both Corrupt and Sinful for then the Contradiction and Conflict wou'd cease From hence it follows plainly that we are born with Capacities of and Inclinations to Vertue as well as Vice thô nothing be more manifest than that the Appetite of the Body exerts it self first grows up to Strength and Maturity soonest and doth more powerfully and forcibly move than the Suggestions and Perswasions of Reason Secondly It is from hence plain that a state of Righteousness consists in the prevalency of the Mind over the Body and a state of Sin in the prevalency of the Body over the Mind And from hence appears the Necessity of * Divine Assistance or Grace Consider'd Divine Grace or Assistance for since the Dominion of Righteousness cannot be Establish't but in the subjection of the Body and the Body doth in Power so much o'rematch the Mind the Appetites of it being both more forward more violent more constant I had almost said more Natural than the Dictates of Reason and this Power receiving daily increase and augmentation by a sensual Education and by a daily and unavoidable Commerce with the World and those Temptations which awaken gratifie and enflame the Appetites of the Body it were morally impossible that the Mind shou'd master and o'recome the Body if it were not aided by Divine Grace and Assistance but then it must be remembred that 't is repugnant to the very Notion of Aid or Assistance that it should make void the Necessity of our own Endeavours as the Light of Revelation doth not extinguish that of Reason but increase it so neither does the strength of God's Grace render our Natural strength useless but improve and help it This added to what I have said before comprises all that is necessary to be known concerning Grace and may be reduc'd to these three or four Heads First That the Grace of God is necessary to enable us to live Vertuously and Happily Secondly That Grace does not extinguish Nature or cancel our Obligation to Industry or a careful use of that Natural Power God has invested us with Thirdly That God is most ready and desirous to further and assist all Men in their