that our Soul is indifferent to tend or not tend towards that which it judges advantagious and profitable these Indifferences of Free-will are the Dreams and Fancies of those who have not sufficiently study'd Nature or are not willing to have the Knowledge of themselves But God has thought fit to mingle Knowledge and Sense together that the former might regulate and guide the latter and the latter might fix the former Had Man no other Faculty but Reason we should Err in our Thoughts and spend our selves in vain Speculations applying our selves to know every thing else but what would be of greatest Concernment to us Sense is therefore design'd to fix this Intellect and confine it principally to those Objects which concern it Were there nothing else but Sense in Man he might indeed then have such propensities and desires as this Sense should produce but would fail of Light and Direction for finding out those Things to which these Desires do naturally tend and the Love of pleasure being blind and misguided would throw him down into a thousand Precipices wherefore Reason is design'd to regulate Sense Reason is the Soul's Councellor Sense iâ— as it were the Force and Weight that determines it And these Forces are greater or lesser proportionably to the Differenceâ— of Sense In the Comparison we make of them the Soul considers not only what excites in it present but also what is capable of creating to it future Pleasure It compares Pleasure with Pain the present Good with Absent the Good it hopes for with the Dangers to be endur'd and determines it self according to the Instruction it receives in these various Enquiries its Liberty being as I may so speak no more than the Extent of its Knowledge and the Power it hath of not choosing after having made a deep Scrutiny and throughly examin'd The Case being thus 't is easy to judge that 't is either present Advantage which consists in an actual Sense of Pleasure or future which consists in whatsoever can hereafter caress us with Delight and render us Happy or preserve our Happiness by preserving us our selves that makes all the Strength of our Soul for determining it self in its Designs and Conduct This Strength is very small when included within the Circle of worldly Objects The Power we have as Men for avoiding Covetousness will consist in the Fear of injuring our Honour by the sordidness of Interest the Power we have to hinder us from being Prodigal will consist in the Fear of ruining our Affairs when we aspire at gaining a famous Reputation by our Liberalities The Fear of Diseases will make us resist the Temptations of Pleasure Self-love will render us moderate and circumspect and even thro' Pride we shall appear humble and modest But this is only to pass from one Vice to another if we would give our Soul strength enough to rise above one Infirmity without relapsing into another we must excite and stir it up by Motives not taken from the World The prospect of Time may cause it to pass from Disorder to Disorder but the bare view of Eternity includes such Motives as are proper to elevate it far above the Region of all its Infirmities None but this Object touches and sanctifies because this alone mounts us high enough for totally renouncing the World We have seen some Preachers of a sublime and lofty Eloquence work no Effect because they did not well understand how to interest and engage the Immortal Nature and on the contrary we have seen a very mean Talent touch and affect all the World by inartificial Discourses because they shot the right Mark and â—aid hold of Men by the Motives of Eternity Motives which repeated a thousand ways and sometimes very grosly and unpolitely have won the most enlighten'd and purify'd Souls because they take them by what is greatest and most weighty in them and most considerable in all external Objects The Motives of Time have but a limited but the Motives of Eternity have as it were an infinite Strength which is suspended meerly by our Corruption Hence it follows that as Self-love is the general Source of those Motives which determine our Heart so 't is Self-love as it looks towards Eternity that makes all the strength we have to raise ourselves above the Confines of the World There is no better way to justify this last Truth than by seeing what the sense of our Immortality is capable of working in us what Influence it has upon our Motions and Actions and of what use it is in our Heart This we proceed to examine at large CHAP. VI. Where we explain what the Sense of our Immortality is capable of working upon our Heart WE certainly see that whatsoever comforts raises and satisfies us takes its Birth from this Original 't is only in the Idea and Sense of our Immortality that we find true and solid Consolations against the Fears of Death as 't is easy to shew by considering this Object every way The Idea of Death includes Six others an Idea of Desertion or Leaving an Idea of Necessity an Idea of Solitude an Idea of Destruction an Idea of Judgment and an Idea of Misery The Idea of Desertion or Leaving imports that we leave All and all leaves us This Idea mortifies and afflicts Self-love because it represents to it the rupture and disappointment of its Applications and Desires It beholds its loss of the Time present and a Curtain is drawn upon the Future and indeed I confess Man has very good reason to be afraid till the Curtain is as it were drawn back by Repentance and he can assure himself of the Remission of his Sins without which he is uncapable of any Comfort either in Life or Death but when he hath made his Peace with his God which he may know by the State of his Heart and the Sentiment of his Conscience he certainly ought to have quite different Ideas of Death what he regrets and bemoans is of very small Moment if he compare it not only with the glorious Eternity promis'd him in the Gospel but also with his own natural Excellency He ought to make it a Matter of the greatest Wonder that a Mind which by the inviolable Inclinations of its Nature flies up to Infinity should so long buisy it self with the Trifles of this Life and one may say without adding an Hyperbole to this Mind that if it has lost any thing 't is Life and not Death that ought to bear the Blame Life has involv'd it in the Loss of many precious things its Sanctity the sense of God's Love c. and to retrieve its Damage has given it nothing but Shows and Appearances but Death will advantagiously indemnify and repair its Loss provided it depart in the Lord. Death deprives us of our Five Senses whereupon Self-love makes this Resentment That if it be a great Affliction for a Man to lose his Seeing or Hearing 't is a much greater to lose all his Senses
at once but Self-love is mistaken for we are so far from losing all our five Senses that 't is certain we do not really lose one of them we don't become uncapable of Seeing Hearing and Speaking 'T is not the Nature of Things but the free Institution of God that hath affix'd these Perceptions of our Soul to the Organs of our Body to which they had naturally no more Relation than to the Matter which is hidden in the Center of the Earth howsoever Men may be prejudic'd in this Matter Would we say such a Man has lost his Sight the natural Disposition of whose Faculties God should have so chang'd as to have order'd that his Eyes should have no more Priviledge than the rest and that all the parts of his Body should be capable of Seeing This is the Idea of a Man that loses one way of perceiving and sees this infinite Abyss of Sensibility which is naturally in him adequately fill'd These Losses which prejudic'd Nature imagines it is at by Death become so much the more sensible as they are unavoidable and impos'd by a fatal Necessity which cannot be resisted Men have always look'd upon â—his Necessity as a dreadful Misery the irâ—egular Inclination they have to love forbidâ—en Things with so much the greater arâ—our which caused One to say Define vitiae â—rritare vetando augments and encreases â—heir Love of Life by the Impossibility they â—nd themselves under of extending its Liâ—â—its and makes 'em look upon Death with â—o much the more horour as they are uncaâ—able of avoiding it But had the Wisdom â—f God impos'd upon Men the necessity of â—iving as it has the necessity of Dying we â—ay be almost assur'd that in time they would â—e as much afflicted and troubled at the â—houghts of their Immortality as now they â—re at those of their Mortality Now the neâ—essity of Dying makes them attend more to â—â—e Pleasures than the Crosses of Life but â—â—en the necessity of Living would cause â—â—em to apply more regard and attention to â—â—e Evils than to the Agreements and Pleaâ—â—res of Life Our Soul assuredly owes a great part of its Repugnancy and Unwillingness to leave the Body to Custome and Prejudices to see this we need only reflect upon our past Life remark and muster up together all its Pleasures and seriously ask our selves whether all that countervails our past Grief and Trouble On one side what if it pleas'd the Author of Nature to endow a Soul which is form'd to animate a Body with a most distinct Knowledge of the Dignity and Perfections of its Nature the Grandeur of its End and the Nobility of its Extraction and on the other it were inform'd distinctly of all the Infirmities of all the base and painful Dependances which it goes to espouse by espousing this Body pray would not the very first Moment of its Life certainly seem the beginning of Death So for this reason 't was necessary that the confus'd Sensations of Nature which alligate and fasten us to Life should precede the distinct Ideas which are proper enough in themselves to free and loosen us from it and that the former should be naturally of greater Force and Activity than the latter For tho' God would not have us be excessively fond of Life yet the Author of Nature was oblig'd to interess and engage us in the Preservation of Corporeal Nature without which there would be no Society Death has two very different and also very opposite Aspects as we consider it with reference to the Soul For Life and Death may both be said to make the Debasement and Glory of Man Life makes the Glory of the Body and the Debasement of the Soul 't is by Life that the Body is extended to the just and natural Proportion of its Parts Life gives it Health Strength Agility Beauty and makes in a word all its Perfections But Life causes the Debasement of our Soul it confines it to such Objects as are no ways related to its natural Excellency it makes this Mind buisy it self in trivial Affairs and place its whole Concern in the management of a Family a Field a Vineyard and the most abject and sordid necessities of the Body as if this immortal Mind was made for no higher and nobler Imployment but to prolong for some Moments the Duration of this frail Machine to which it is united If Life makes the Glory of the Body and the Debasement of the Soul Death may be said to make the Glory of the Soul and the Debasement of the Body The Body falls but the Soul rises up and soars as it were to its native Heaven The Body consumes and in process of time relapses into Dust but the Mind extends and enlarges it self like a Divine Sphere which becomes greater and greater proportionably to the nearness of its Approach to God The Body is depriv'd of its former Motion the Soul acquires such Knowledge as it had not before The Body mingles it self with the Earth the Soul is re-united to God The Debasement which ensues upon Death lights upon an insensible lump of Matter A Carcass gnaw'd by devouring Worms endures no Pain it smells not those noisom Odours it exhales is not terrify'd with the surrounding Darkness nor is out of Conceit with it self even when 't is nothing else but an horrid Miscellany of Blood and Dirt of Bones and Putrefaction 'T is an Illusion and Cheat of prejudic'd Nature that makes us affix our proper Ideas and Perceptions to such Objects as do only occasion them Matter when depriv'd of Life and Sense is plac'd in its natural State this is no Imbasement or Degradation to it all the seeming Dishonour and Turpitude is meerly in our Fancy But the case is not the same in respect of that Imbasement and Degradation to which Life exposes us This is not the natural State of such a Soul as ours and doubtless the Author of Nature had never abandon'd it to such a Condition but upon the account of Sin Man indeed would have liv'd but his Life would have been more Noble and Excellent 'T is a great mistake to pretend that Man's Death commences the Punishment of his Corruption Life has already punish'd criminal Man by those sad Dependances which alligate and confine the Thoughts Cares Desires and Affections of so great and noble a Soul to the support and preservation of this sordid Mass of Clay which we term our Body Yet such is the Imbecillity and Weakness of Man that he would needs fancy himself Debased where really he is not and is not willing to perceive himself Debas'd where really he is so An imaginary Debasement frightens and terrifies him and yet he cannot see a proper and real Debasement But what if the Body be truly Degraded so the Gain of the Soul does infinitely preponderate the Losses of the Body Are we so weak as to think that our Happinessness is so confin'd and fix'd to certain Affairs Possessions Offices Housholds and a
consider'd the first of our Faculties and seen that the original Source of our Corruption is not in the Mind we must in the next place consider the Heart which is the Soul as it loves or the Seat of the Affections CHAP. V. Where we continue to search for the Sources of our Corruption by considering the Motions and Inclinations of the Heart AS there are first Principles or Notions in our Mind which are of an infallible Truth and Certainty and the Foundation of natural Light which is so far from deceiving that it puts us in a Way to return from our Errours so in our Heart there are certain primary and radical Affections which are necessarily Lawful Sentiments without which the Nature of Man cannot subsist and which are not only exempt from all Corruption in themselves but also serve when rightly directed to reclaim us from our Vices Such is the natural Love of Esteem and of Our-selves the Care of our Preservation the Desire of Happiness These Passions are good in themselves â—eeing they naturally relate to the Good of Man There are Two sorts of 'em the One are term'd by the School-men Prosequutivae because they incline us to Good the Other Adversativae because they remove and avert us from Evil. But yet as they tend to our Advantage by the Design and Intention of Nature thro' an Effect of our Corruption they are perverted to be instruments of our Damage and Prejudice which happens when false Goods excite in our Heart reall Affections When we are but coldly bent towards that which deserves the whole Application and Study of our Souls and on the contrary we desire with all the Ardour imaginable such Goods as deserve but a moderate and indifferent Affection For then we reverse the Order of Nature change the End into the Means and the Means into the End are rash and precipitate in our Actions err in our Conduct and a meer shadow of Good makes us lose the original Source of it and running after Appearances we miss the Truth Hence proceed all our Vices and Disorders in enquiring after which we must spend some time since 't is they that make the Corruption of the Heart Now as we search for the Source of our Irregularities we must not insist upon any particular One unless it has an Influence upon all the others 'T is evident that the Root of our Natural Evil consists not in a peculiar Disposition of the Temperament seeing that those who are of quite contrary Temperaments are corrupted for all that Nor is Interest the Principle of our Evil since that has commonly something in it incompatible with Pride neither is Pride seeing that is in some sort repugnant to Interest Yet 't is certain that there is something wherein the Vices are opposite and something wherein they agree They are in some respect opposite seeing that one serves as a kind of Remedy for the other and they agree in some respect since the Soul after it has fall'n into one has a further Inclination after another which seem'd of a quite contrary Nature This Truth will appear more plainly if we as it were Anatomize and Dissect the Heart by entering upon the Consideration of all its particular Passions Robbery springs from Injustice Injustice from Interest Interest from an Excess of Self-love Obstinacy is nothing but a strict Adherence which Self-love make us have to our own Fancies and Opinions Pride is a meer Drunkenness and Intoxication of Self-love which represents us to our own Imagination greater and perfecter than really we are Revenge is but a desire to defend our selves against those that hate us or to reap a kind of Self-satisfaction by punishing those who have offended us In a word Take a through Survey and Consideration of all the Vices and Passions of Man and you 'll find they terminate in self-Self-love 'T is this that gives 'em Birth forasmuch as all the Motives of Vice have this Foundation That we seek for every thing which flatters and relates to this Me which is the first Object of our Knowledge and Affections Upon this depends either their Life or Death for when two Passions violently Combat Fear for instance and Revenge the Soul retires into its own Tent and makes use of no other Counsel but that of Self-love to know which side it ought to take and according as Self-love judges or not judges Revenge to be necessary it pronounces in Favour either of Resentment or Moderation So that as Self-love first produc'd these two Passions so likewise it foments and causes the One to live and continue to the Prejudice of the Other Now what else can we say of that Passion to which all our irregular Inclinations tend in which all the Vices terminate by whose means they both Live and Die which stops and suspends their Career but that this general Disorder is undoubtedly the original Fountain of all the others and what we call'd the primitive Root of our Evil and Corruption And which may serve to confirm us in this Opinion at the same time we perceive all the Vices flattering and caressing Self-love we find all the Vertues unanimously opposing it Humility debases and pulls it down Temperance mortifies it Liberality as it were robs it Moderation discontents it Fortitude exposes it Magnanimity Piety and Zeal sacrifice it And indeed Self-love is so essential an Ingredient of the Definitions of the Vices and Vertues that without it we can't have a â—ight Conception either of the one or the other In general Vice is a Preference of One-self before other Men and Vertue seems to be a Preference of others before One-self I say it seems to be so Because in Effect 't is certain that Vertue is only a more noble and rational Mode of Loving One-self Now here there is a seeming Contradiction in our System For on One hand Self-love appears to be the Principle of our Irregularities and Disorders on the Other 't is certain that the Love of Our-selves is a Qualification for the Discharge of our Duties Corruption draws its whole Force from Self-love and GOD on the other side derives from it all the Motives He makes use of to incline us to the Study of our Sanctification For to what purpose would he have made Promises and Threatnings were it not with a Design to interest Self-love This Difficulty presently vanishes after we suppose the same thing touching Self-love which we have already said of the Affections of the Heart in general Namely That they have something of innocent and lawful which belongs to Nature and something of vicious and irregular which is attributed to their Corruption 'T is an Advantage of the French Tongue that it can distinguish betwixt L'amour propre and L'amour de nons mêmes the former signifies Self-love as 't is vicious and corrupted the latter denotes this Love as 't is lawful and natural Now our present Enquiry being after the Sources of Man's Corruption our Design here engages us
demonstrate beyond all Dispute what our Enquiries have taught us in this Matter I demand for instance Whether the Blessed Above who undoubtedly love themselves neither too much nor too little seeing that they are in a State of Perfection can love God with an infinite Affection and yet not perceive the Joy arising from the Possession of him I would know in the next place Whether we can feel Joy and Delight without loving One-self proportionably to this Perception Why then should we trouble our selves with such vain and contradictory Queries As whether the Saints love God better than themselves I had as live they 'd ask me Whether they love Themselves better than Themselves For these two Expressions have in reallity the same signification and not to love God is in some measure to hate One-self To let you see that this is but meer Punning and Quibling in words we must divide the Love of God into two Sorts a Love of Interest and a Love of pure Friendship as Divines call it I understand this latter to have no Intercourse at all with Self-love according to the common Notion of it but I would know which of these two Kinds of Love you mean when you ask me Whether the Love we ought to have of God be not greater than that of our selves If you understand by the Love of God Love of pure Friendship whose only Object is Known-Perfection I answer that this Love cannot be compar'd with the Love of our selves which is of quite another Nature since as I have already said we love not our selves by Reason but Sense and Corporeal or Spiritual Pleasure naturally engages us to love our selves even before we are capable of making Reflection But if by the Love we ought to have for God you mean Love of Interest which is ty'd to him as our Supream Good you don't apprehend that you oppose the same thing to it self seeing that to love One-self and the Soveraign Good is all one and does not make two distinct species of Love but are one and the same consider'd under different Respects namely in reference to its Principles and its Objects It therefore appears That the Irregularity consists not in this that we love our selves too much seeing we are allow'd to love our selves as much as we please with Relation to the Supream Good But herein lies the Evil that we take a wrong Method in exerting this Love that is we love our selves with relation to false Objects Self love simply taken is innocent and harmless It becomes corrupted when 't is diverted towards the Creatures and Holy when converted and steer'd towards God Pursuant to the fore-going Doctrine we may distinguish Three Hearts in Man the Heart of the Man the Heart of the Sinner and the Heart of the Faithful The Heart of the Man is the Soul as it naturally loves it self the Heart of the Sinner is the Soul as it loves the World and the Heart of the Faithful is the Soul as it loves God The Natural Heart is essentially included in the other Two and the natural Love of our selves which is the Principle of all our Affections the Mobile that actuates either Grace or Corruption and receives either the Love of God or the World The Heart of Man loves The Heart of the Worldling loves Vanity The Heart of the Faithful loves the infinite and eternal Good The first is the Heart of Man the second the Heart of the mortal Man the third is the Heart of the immortal Man CHAP. VII Where we shew that Self-love kindles all our Affections and is the general Principle of our Motions I Said before that Self-love is the Principle of all our natural Affections For all our Desires Fears and Hopes are the devoted Servants and Off-spring of Self-love I confess the Affection we have for other Men sometimes causes us to Desire Fear and Hope But what is the Principle of this Affection but the Love of our selves Do but throughly consider and weigh all the Sources of our Friendship and you 'll find they are reduc'd to Interest Gratitude Relation Sympathy and a delicate Agreement of that Vertue with Self-love which makes us think that we love it for its own sake whereas indeed we love it meerly for the sake of our selves and it wholly terminates in Self-love 'T is from hence that Relation borrows all its Rapture and Strength for kindling our Affections We love our Children because they are our Children Were they another Man's Children they would be indifferent to us Therefore we don 't properly love them but the Relation which links us to ' em 'T is true Children don't love their Parents with the same Degree of Affection as Parents do their Children tho' these two Affections seem to be founded upon the same reason of Relation but this Difference proceeds from another Cause Children see themselves Die in the Person of their Parents and Parents on the contrary see themselves Revive in the Person of their Children Now nature inspires us with the Love of Life and Hatred of Death Also Parents behold in their Children as it were other selves but other selves subject and dependant upon 'em They think it an Happiness to have brought 'em into the World they consider 'em with Delight because they consider 'em as their own Workmanship They are exceedingly pleas'd at having sacred and inviolable Rights over ' em This is their Magistracy Royalty and Empire But the same Pride which causes the Parents to love Superiority makes the Children hate Dependance Nothing lays so heavy a weight upon us as a Benefit when 't is too great because it depresses us to too great Submission We look upon it as a delicate but very strong Chain which links our Heart and constrains our Liberty This is the Mystery of that common Maxim Blood never rises But as there is a Relation of Blood Profession Religion Country c. the Affections are infinitely diversify'd according to these various Respects But woe be to Relation if it be combated by Interest For Interest will infallibly get the better That tends to us directly Relation only by Reflection Hence Interest is always more strong and prevalent than Relation but in this as in every thing else particular Circumstances very much alter the general Proposition What we commonly experience That no Hatred is more violent than that which happens between those who were formerly very great Friends is to be imputed to almost the same reason 'T is because these Persons found either Profit or Pleasure in loving one another This interested their Self-love but when they come to change their Sentiment the Motives of Love joyn themselves with the Motives of Hatred they revolt and rise up in Arms both by reason of the Idea of the Wrong that 's done 'em and of the Pleasures of that Friendship which they renounce and they suffer not only by the Hatred which is kindled but also by the Affection which is extinguish'd which
common to all His Revelations which he addresses to Men upon Earth this is to manifest Himself unto them cloathed with some of His Benefits that He may win their Heart by an Acknowledgment and Gratitude He was serv'd in the Old World under the Name of God who is and who is the Rewarder of them that call upon Him He was afterwards known under the Name of the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob. After that He gave His Law by declaring Himself the Lord who had brought this People out of the land of Egypt Afterwards a Prophet declares that the Time is come in the which Men will no longer say the Eternal is He who brought His People out of the Land of Egypt but the Eternal is He that hath brought up His People out of the Country of Babylon Lastly so soon as the time for Man's Redemption is accomplish'd God is no longer call'd by any other Name than the God of Mercy and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. They therefore are very much mistaken who fancy 't is an Offence against God to love Him any otherwise than for the Love of Himself and His intrinsick Perfections and that there is no interested Motion in our Heart but what is Criminal In order to refute these Speculations we need but make reflection upon the Conduct of God who not only consents that we should love Him by the Motives of the Good which we find in the Possession of Him but also wills and proportions His Revelations to this Design and it may likewise be said that we glorify the Supream Good when we desire it ardently and feel no Repose or Joy but in Communion with it This grand Precept may be proposed to the Mortal Man to confound and baffle him by shewing him the Impossibility he lies under of fulfilling the Divine Law but 't is the Immortal Man alone that is capable of fulfilling this Duty 'T is not the dying Man that perceives himself under great Obligations to God but the Man that subsists to Eternity And 't is not in a heap of perishing Favours but in the Assemblage of incorruptible Goods that we find the Motives of such a Love and Gratitude as are worthy of God So also the Man of Nature consider'd as a Man that hath short and transitory Relations to other Men neither can nor ought to love others so much as himself Were we obliged to love an indifferent and unknown Person with the same degree of Affection that Children love their Parents certainly the whole World would be a Scene of Disorder and Confusion We ought to love our Children more than Persons that are indifferent to us now as it is the Love of our selves that makes this Inequality and this Variety of our Affections it follows that there is an Original Law of Nature which dictates that we should love our selves more than other Men. But the immortal Man hath other Views and Obligations all the divers kinds of Proximity and Relation which respect this Life disappear and vanish at the prospect of the Relations of that Eternal Society which we are to enjoy A Temporal Neighbour whom Nature points out to us is not so considerable as the Eternal Neighbour which Faith discovers in him But some persons love themselves to such an exorbitant Degree that 't is in no wise convenient they should be affected with the same Love if others as of themselves For pray tell me of One should say to a Man I wish you were Ungrateful Blind Passionate Revengeful Proud Voluptuous Covetous that you might take more Pleasure and Enjoyment in the World would he not have Reason to think that either we dote or have a Mind to make him a very course Compliment and yet this would be to love our Neighbour as we love our selves If we would love our Neighbour as our selves we ought to love him with Relation to Eternity None but the immortal Man is in a Capacity of observing this Precept strictly and well Perhaps the Question may be ask'd whether when the Law enjoyns us to love our Neighbour as our selves it means that we should love by the Motives of that Love we bear to God or of that which we have for our selves I answer by distinguishing still betwixt Rational and Sensual Love when we love our Neighbour with a rational Love 't is certain that the Motives of this Love ought to proceed from the Love we have for God When we love our Neighbour with a Love of Sense or sensual Love the Motives of Love should proceed purely from the Affection we have for our selves Thus it may be reply'd that we ought to love him by both these Motives and the Law of the Decalogue seems to confirm us in this Opinion for it puts the Precept which refers to our Neighbour immediately after that which refers to God to teach us that the One depends upon the Other and that we are obliged to love our Neighbour with the same kind of Affection that we bear to God And on the other side it calls him whom it recommends to our Love by the Name of Neighbour to intimate to us that we are concern'd to love him because he is a Person that belongs to us Reason tells us That God being the supream and infinite Beauty is Amiable for his own Sake and that all things become so for the Love of him It therefore requires us to love Objects according as they stand related to God The Experience we have of our own Being accompany'd with Joy and Delight obliging us to love our selves in the first place Nature teaches us to love Persons according to the degree of Proximity and Relation which they have to Us. These two Laws are not opposite to each other the One as I may say is the Law of Reason the Other is the Law of Sense the one is the Instinct of the mortal and perishing Nature the other of the immortal and incorruptible Nature the one relates to the short and transient Society which we ought to have one among another the other to the Eternal Commerce and Friendship we ought to have in God CHAP. IV. Where we shew the Extent of the Natural Law by considering it in the Gospel and with Relation to the Immortal Man IF the Law of Moses were the Law of Nature accomodated to the Condition of the mortal Man and to the State of the Israelites in particular the Gospel is the Law of Nature accommodated to the State and Relations of the immortal Man This sufficiently appears from the different Genius and Conduct of the two Oeconomies Under the Oeconomy of the Law God seems to make no farther Manifestation of Himself than to break thro' Walls open the Abysses of the Earth inflame Mountains send down Fire from Heaven menace the Body with his Judgments or to execute the Arrests of his Justice upon the perishing Nature but under the new Dispensation of Grace we see Persons animated with the Spirit of
to examine wherein the Disorder of Self-love consists This Query is no less considerable for its being singular And I dare say that few Questions in Morality and Religion are more important as I hope will appear by the following Discussion CHAP. VI. Where we Examine the Faults of Self-love SElf-love can sin but only Two ways either in Excess or Direction its Irregularity must consist either in this That we love our selves too much or that we take not a right Method in shewing this Love to our selves or in both these Faults together Self-love does not sin in Excess as appears from this That we are permitted to love our selves as much as we please so it be with good and reall Love Indeed to love One-self is to desire One's Good to fear One's Hurt and to search for One's Happiness Now I confess that many times our Desire and Fear are too great or we are too eagerly addicted to our Pleasure or that which we look upon as our Happiness But you may observe that the Excess proceeds from the Fault that refers to the Object of your Passions and not from the too great Measure of the Love of our selves which appears from hence That you both can and ought to have an unlimited Desire of the Supream Good and a boundless Fear of Extream Misery And 't would be a Vice for us to desire an infinite Good but with a finite and limited Appetite Truly were Man oblig'd to love himself but to a certain Measure the Vacuity of his Heart ought not to be infinite and were not the Vacuity of the Heart infinite it would follow that he was not made for the Possession and Enjoyment of God but only for the Fruition of finite and limited Objects Yet we are taught the contrary both by Experience and Religion Nothing is more lawful and reasonable than this insatiable Desire which even after the Possession of worldly Advantages makes us still reach after the Supream Good which no Man ever found in the Objects of this Life Brutus who made a particular Profession of Wisdom believ'd he should not be mistaken if he search'd for it in Vertue but as he loved Vertue for its own sake whereas indeed it has nothing amiable and laudable but in Relation to GOD guilty of a Genteel and Spiritual Idolatry was no less mistaken then those who sought for Happiness in Temporal things and at his Death was oblig'd to acknowledge his Errour when he Cry'd out O Vertue I own that thou art nothing but a miserable Phantom c. Wherefore this insatiable Desire of Man's Heart is not Evil in it self 'T was necessary Men should be endu'd with this Inclination to qualify and dispose 'em for seeking after GOD. Now what in a Figurative and Metaphorical Idea we term an Heart that has an infinite Capacity a Vacuity which cannot be fill'd by the Creatures signifies in the proper and literal Notion a Soul that naturally desires an Infinite Good that desires it without Limits and cannot be satisfy'd till it has obtain'd it If then it be necessary that the Vacuity of our Heart should not be fill'd with created Goods 't is necessary that our Desires should also be infinite which is as much as to say that we ought to love our selves without Measure For to love One-self is to love One's Happiness And as we may be truly said not properly to love the Creature when we love it infinitely because then we place the Creature upon the Throne of the Creatour which is an Idolatry of the Mind and most dangerous of all so also may we be said not to love God as our Supream Good when we love him but finitely and conceive but moderate Desires after him for then we debase God to the Condition of the Creatures thro' an Impiety of the Heart no less Criminal than Idolatry Whether we look upon God as our Soveraign Good or represent him as a Being infinitely Perfect t is certain that our Application and Adherence to him ought to be unlimited and to this End the Creatour â—lac'd a kind of Infinity in Man's Knowledge and Affections to capacitate him in some measure for the Enjoyment of this Infinite Good I know very well that our Nature being finite is not capable exactly speaking of forming Desires intensively infinite But tho' these Desires be not infinite in this Sense yet they are so in another for 't is certain that our Soul desires according to the whole Extent of its Powers that if the Number of Spirits necessary to the Organ could be multiply'd in Infinitum the Vehemence of its Desires would encrease proportionably and that tho' the Act it self have not an Infinity yet the Disposition of the Heart has which is naturally insatiable I own if we lov'd our selves by Reason we might conceive that Self-love would be in a limited Measure in the Heart for we don't find in our Mind an Infinity of Reasons for loving our selves But the Author of Nature whose Wisdom judg'd it not requisite that Men should be Philosophers in order to take care of their Preservation thought fit that we should love our selves by Sense which is so true that 't is not even conceivable how we can feel Delight and Joy without loving this Self which is the subject of it so that as there is an unlimited Variety and an Infinity of Degrees in the Joy we are capable of tasting so in like manner there is not any measure or bounds in the Desire of that Happiness in the which this Joy essentialâ—â—â—â—ters nor consequently in the Love of our selves which is the Principle of this Desire I also grant That had Man been made to be a Rival of the Deity he would not be oblig'd to love himself without Measure because then Self-love would stand in Competition and interfere with the Love of God But Man naturally loves himself with so great Vehemency meerly that he may be capable of loving God The unmeasurable Measure of Self-love and these kind of infinite Desires are the only Links that tye and unite him to God since as I have already said finite and moderate Desires are capable of binding Man's Heart to none but the Creatures and we don 't properly love God but only a Chimaera which we form to our selves instead of God when our Love of him exceeds not a Mediocrity And indeed 't is a great Errour to oppose self-Self-love to Divine when 't is well regulated For pray what else is it duly to love our selves but to love God and to love God but duly to love our selves The Love of God is the right sense of the Love of our selves and that gives it Life and Perfection When Self love is diverted and carried to other Objects it no longer deserves the Name of Love 't is of more dangerous Consequence than the most cruel and savage Hatred but when 't is converted towards God it falls in and mingles with Divine Love And certainly Nothing is so easy as to
a Veneration and Esteem for a Person whom you are assur'd you shall never be the better for meerly by considering in him the bare Power of doing you a good Turn is it at all to be wonder'd at that this same Principle causes you to love One who by his Vertue is dispos'd to be Beneficent to you tho' you very well know that he cannot actually exert this Inclination Say we then that the Heart has its Abstractions as well as the Mind and as this knows how to define Good in general tho' â—t can draw more to the Life in our Imagination any particular Good So the Heart loves these general Conformities and Agreements of Objects to it self tho' particular ones do infinitely more affect and touch it and it cannot but think well of a Vertuous Man by reason of these delicate Relations Vertue has to Self-love This is beyond all doubt because your Love of the Vertues increases proportionably to their Relation and Agreement to you We have naturally a better Opinion of Clemency than Severity of Liberality than Oeconomy and Thriftyness tho' they all equally partake of the Nature of Vertue which can be for no other reason but because our Affection is not altogether Dis-interested and we love in it the secret Relations it has to our selves But the Vicious and Exorbitant are not to be exempted from the Number of those who are thus enamour'd with the Beauty of Vertue On the contrary 't is certain that â—pâ—n the very Account of their being Vicious they are oblig'd to have a greater Affection and Opinion of Vertue Humility levels and smooths the Way for Pride and therefore 't is lov'd by an haughty Spirit Liberality is diffusive and free in Giving and therefore can't displease an Interested Person Temperance does not rob you of your Pleasures and therefore must needs be agreeable to a Voluptuary who would not willingly have either Rival or Combatant Could one think that the Affection which Worldlings testify themselves to have for Vertuous Persons should spring from so â—thy a Source and shall I make bold to advance this Paradox That our own Vices are often the Causes of our loving other Men's Vertues Nay more than that I dare say That Self-love bears no small Part in the most pure Sentiments which Religion and Morality give us of God Divine Love is commonly distinguish'd into three Species A Love of Interest a Love of Gratitude and a Love of pure Friendship Love of Interest according to the Vulgar Acceptation falls in with Self-love Love of Gratitude as we before observ'd is deriv'd from the same Source with that of Interest Love of pure Friendship seems to rise independently from all Interest and Self-love yet if you look narrowly into the Matter you 'll find that it has in the Bottom the very same Principle For first 't is observable that Love of pure Friendship rises not all at once in the Heart of a Man whom we instruct in points of Religion The first â—tep to Sanctification is a Detachment and â—nhampering from the World the Second is to love God with a Love of Interest by giving up our selves wholly to Him because we consider him as the Soveraign Good the Third is to have a due Acknowledgment and Gratitude for his Benefits the Last is â—o love his intrinsick Perfections 'T is certain that the first of these Sentiments disposes and makes way for the Second the Second for the Third and the Third for Fourth We can't throughly consider what a great Unhappiness and Misery it is to abandon and forsake God without desiring his Communion by Motives taken from our Interest We can't love God as the Principle of our Joy and Felicity without a grateful Acknowledgment of Benefits receiv'd at his Hands 'T is natural and even necessary that he who loves God as the Supream Good and as his great and eternal Benefactour should attend with Complacency and Delight to the Consideration of his adorable Perfections that this Meditation should excite in him Joy and Satisfaction and so bring him to love God in the View of his Excellencies and Vertues Now all the previous Dispositions to this last Affection which is the Noblest of all being taken from Self-love it follows that neither the pure Friendship which is conversant about God does â—se independently from it Also Experience teaches us that among the Vertues of God we particularly love those which have the nearest Agreement and Affinity to us We love his Clemency more than his Justice his Goodness than his Jealousy his Beneficence than his â—mensity c. Of which there can â—o other reason be given but that even this pure Friendship which seems to have for â—ts proper Object the Divine Perfections derives its principal Force from the Relation of these Perfections to Our Selâ—es Were there any entirely pure Friendship towards God in our Heart wholly â—empt from the Commerce of Self-love it would necessarily spring from Known Perfection and Excellency and not from our own Affections As Self-love would not produce so neither could it destroy this Friendship Yet the Devils know the Perfections of God without loving Him and Men before their Conversion know the Vertues of God tho' it can't be said that they have for him in that reprobate State the Affection which we term pure Friendship and consequently there must be some other Motives of this Love besides Known Perfection if Light be not sufficient to kindle it it must rise from the Flame of some Affection of our Heart since Affections and Knowledge are the whole Contents of our Soul Perhaps you 'll say that in order to capacitate a Soul for conceiving this Love of pure Friendship 't is not requisite that Self-love should directly produce it but only that it may not oppose and hinder it But I say if Pure Friendship arises from Known Perfection and nothing else be required to produce it the Opposition of Self-love is insignificant and as the Love of our selves can't derobe God of these Perfections nor hinder our Soul from knowing 'em so neither can it obstruct the Birth of this pure Affection Whilst we consider God as a Judge as a terrible Executioner of Vengeance and as standing ready with a Thunderbolt in his Hand we may indeed admire his infinite and adorable Excellencies but can't conceive an Affection for Him And 't is very certain that could we but any ways Evade even this Admiration of God we should be very cautious in applauding him with it for in this State we regard him as our Enemy render to him no more but what we needs must And whence can this Necessity of admiring God proceed unless it spontaneously arise from Known Perfection If then we conceive pure Friendship to have precisely the same Source with Admiration that is to say if we conceive it to have no other Origine but Known Perfection we may safely conclude that pure Friendship will arise in our Soul beyond all Possibility of any
in exerting this Love All Men most certainly agree in the general Idea Desire and Sentiment of Happiness The Diversity of Philosophers Opinions touching the Nature of Happiness is not really so Great as at first it seems to be All their Sentiments are reduc'd to Epicurus's who plac'd the Essence of Beatitude in Pleasure which will appear very reasonable provided you separate pure noble durable â—ertain Pleasure from sensual which has quite opposite Characters and you distinguiâ—h betwixt Happiness and its Foundations â—hich Men have been pleas'd to confound tâ—gether that they might cavil and contraâ—ict one another meerly thro' a mistake in the Notion of Happiness For Boetius defines Happiness The Absence of all Evils â—nd the Possession of all Goods You must observe that his Design was to define a perfect and compleat not a defective and imperfect Happiness and yet this is to define Happiness by its Foundations The Absence of Evils iâ— necessary indeed to keep us from being miserable but does not render us happy The Possession of Goods is the Foundation of our Happiness but not Happiness it self for what would it signify to have 'em in our Power if we have not the Perception and Fruition of ' em That Fool of Athâ—ns who thought that all the Ships which arriv'd to 〈◊〉 belong'd to him tasted the Happiness 〈◊〉 Riches without possessing 'em and it may 〈◊〉 the reall Owners of these Vesselâ— possâ—sâ—d 'em without any Fruition or Pleasure â—eing intoxicated with their insatiable Aâ—rice or afflicted with Disquietudes which infallibly attend the Possession of Temporal Goods Wherefore 't is not the Possession generally speaking but the Sentiment and Fruition of the Goods we are possess'd of that constitutes our Happiness So when Aristotle places Happiness in the Knowledge and Love of the Supream Good its plain that his Intention was to define Happiness by its Foundations otherwise he would be under a gross Mistake for if you separate Pleasure from this Knowledge and Love you 'd find that something more would be requir'd to make you happy And on the other Hand if you suppose a lively and durable Pain to be conjoyn'd with this Knowledge and Love you 'd see that we should certainly be Miserable The Stoicks who thought Happiness consisted in Wisdom were not so senseless as to imagine that the Satisfaction wherewith this Wisdom inspir'd 'em was to be separated from the Idea of Happiness Their Joy proceeded from the Drunkenness and Infatuation of their Soul which applauded it self at a Fictitious Constancy Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere Causas Atque Metus omnes inexorabile Fatum Subjecit Pedibus strepitumque Acherontis avari All Men in general are necessarily agreed in this Principle and I wonder the Schools should set 'em at Variance about it The Covetous Man feeds himself meerly with Hopes of enjoying his Riches and of tasting the Pleasure of possessing 'em Indeed he never truly enjoys his Wealth but 't is his Delight to hoard it up and that 's his whole Fruition The Ambitious Man's aim in seeking after Dignities is to be rais'd in the World above the Level of his Brethren And the Revengeful would never make any Retaliation did he not hope to find Satisfaction in Vengeance This true Maxim is not opposite to the Religion and Morality of Jesus Christ for he says that he did not come to destroy but to perfect Nature He does not oblige us to renounce the Love of Pleasure but proposes to us more pure more noble more spiritual more certain and more lasting Pleasures than those which the World promises And he defines Happiness by its Sources This is Life eternal to know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent And he very well knows that Happiness essentially consists in Joy and unspeakable Pleasures For 't is a Feast new Wine a River of Delights Torrents of Peace and Joy c. which Expressions under the Emblem of temporal Pleasures inform us of the eternal Pleasures of Paradise Men's Idea of Happiness assuredly proceeds from a sense of Pleasure The Vicious seeks after the Pleasures of Intemperance Vain-glory Revenge Ambition On the other Hand the Vertuous Man pursues the Pleasures of Vertue namely of Moderation Beneficence Temperance of Conscience and Piety He that should pretend to strip Vertue of the sense of Joy and Pleasure would certainly discourage our Heart and tho' possibly we might esteem yet we should not study and labour after it I confess that all Men don't relish the same Pleasure some are for gross others for delicate others for lively others for durable others for sensual others for mental and others for cordial Pleasure but all without exception are for Pleasure So say we that all Men agree in their general Desire to be Happy They may renounce all their Affections but they 'll never renounce this Inclination which is the primitive Source of all the others 'T is Happiness that Poor and Rich Young and Old Covetous and Liberal Temperate and Voluptuous do all aim at This Happiness is the Pleasure which they conceive and from the infinite Diversity of this Pleasure there arises a prodigious Variety of Passions and Applications The Irregularity consists in this that Men would fain tast and enjoy their Happiness before they have obtain'd it They wait not for the direction of Reason to conduct 'em to the Haven of Beatitude They begin with desiring to possess it as if they had regard to no other Pleasure but what they actually perceive These Disciples of the Senses want not Tutors to instruct 'em in the Art of Voluptuousness who tell 'em Non est mihi crede sapientis dicere vivam Sera nimis Vita est crastina vive hodie Mart. L. 1. Epig. 'T is no great Wonder that the most elevated Genius's of the Heathen World knew no other Good but the present and exhorted Men to enjoy the Delights that offer'd themselves for fear of losing 'em by Delays But 't is very much to be wonder'd that they who have the Knowledge of Eternity should be capable of the same Extravagance The Pleasure that constitutes our Happiness must have other Characters In the first place 't is requisite it should be spiritual Can one that tasts and enjoys Bodily Pleasure be in a State of Happiness if his Soul be at the same time fill'd with the Remorse of Fear and Sadness Secondly It must be durable Momentany Pleasures are more proper for rendering us miserable than happy because not only the Fruition of 'em is transient but they leave a durable Regret behind ' em And certainly Duration is so essential to Happiness that I dare say even the Felicity of Paradise would be inconsiderable were it possible for it to pass away in an Instant and that the Felicity of this lower World would be worth looking after were it but capable of lasting to Eternity For the former tho' it be never so great and transcendent would be swallow'd
the means he makes use of to perfect Society as the Love of Pleasure is design'd to found it As for Religion that has more lofty Views for it undertakes to direct Men to the eternal and infinite Good Hence it follows that the Love of Esteem is Excessive First when it tends to destroy the Body instead of preserving it Secondly when it disturbs the good and order of Society instead of maintaining and supporting it Thirdly when it causes us to violate the Precepts of Vertue instead of putting us upon the Practice of ' em We find a pat Example of the first of these in the Fury of Duels That in my Opinion is a very extravagant point of Honour which would have us love Glory and yet despise Life which is the main Foundation and partly the End of it as we have already seen What will Men's Esteem signify to me when I am not in Being to enjoy it Without Life this Honour is nothing Life is something even without this Honour and God himself thought fit to let us know by his Conduct that the former is more Estimable than the latter for he incites us to the Love of Honour but by one bare Motive of Glory and makes us in love with Life by Pleasure and Glory too But if it be answer'd That 't is not so much the love of Honour and Esteem as fear of Contempt and Shame that makes a Man expose himself to revenge an Affront and that 't is natural to a Man of Honour to be unable to live under the pressure of Infamy this Reply is not satisfactory because as 't is a Weakness not to be able to endure Grief 't is no less One to be unable to suffer an unjust and groundless Contempt In the bottom we find the Love of Esteem as to this Example to be irregular in every Respect For this is to love Esteem too much To love false Esteem and that too more than Life and consequently more than the Preservation of the Body than Society which is depriv'd of one or many Members by the Fury of those infamous Combats And lastly more than Vertue since 't is to love it more than Humanity Justice Charity and Moderation I know when the Case is put to spend one's Blood for the good of Society and the Service of the Prince who is its Representative and has its Rights and Properties deputed into his Hands a Man ought not to make the least resistance or scruple to expose his Life but then 't is Vertue and not Esteem that he prefers before Life He pursues the Design of the Author of Nature conforms himself to his Model and Will since he that made us has plac'd us in a State of Subordination and Dependance All the Irregularity proceeds from this That Men have not a competent Knowlege of Honour and love it Blindfold they have only a confus'd Notion of it which Education Examples and the Judgment of other Men do incessantly change Honour in its ordinary Idea includes three Things 't is a Sentiment of one's Excellency a Love of Duty and a Desire to be Esteem'd A Man of Honour should be sensible of Vertue and Merit and consequently be grated and offended at any outward Contempt or Disrespect He should so far love his Duties as even to expose himself to the greatest Dangers rather than fail of observing 'em and he ought to love the Esteem of rational Persons and make it his endeavour to deserve it This general Idea is just and true but the Application Men make of it is ordinarily False for they attend not sufficiently to their real Merit which is far greater than they imagine in not having an Idea of their Duties which are of much larger Extent than they suppose and being unable to discern false Esteem from true which is the Thing to which they ought to aspire Nevertheless 't is probable that Men even in their Irregularities have a sort of confus'd Sentiment of their natural Dignity which joyning it self with their false Prejudices of Esteem and worldly Glory causes that Impatience or rather Fury at receiving Abuses and Affronts Would one whose Merit reaches no higher than that of a Mortal and Dying Man resent so great Horrour in Debasement And would he be so excessively vex'd at being reduc'd even to that Nothing which surrounds him on every side No certainly there 's an Instinct in Man which continually puts him in Mind of his Condition and renders him sensible of all that opposes the Idea of his Perfections But 't is certain that this Glory to which we aspire includes many different Sentiments which are the constituent Parts of it We may distinguish Four Namely Esteem Consideration Respect and Admiration Esteem is a Tribute we pay to a Man's proper Qualities and Personal Merit Consideration has for its Object not only the Merit of a Person but also his external Accomplishments as Birth Riches Power Credit Reputation and in general all those Advantages which make the Difference of Conditions and Distinction of Persons in Society Respect is nothing else but an high Consideration and Admiration is no more but a great Esteem The finest or at least the most proper Glory consists in Esteem and Admiration But the most sensible and conspicuous Glory consists in Consideration and Respect the reason of it is Because all the World are not capable of discerning a worthy and deserving Man from an unworthy whereas every one can distinguish a great Lord from a private Man 'T is certain that every Man which wears a Head may justly demand this Sentiment of us when we consider his Excellence and natural Dignity We owe Esteem and Admiration to those Perfections which GOD has pleas'd to endow a Man with We owe Consideration and Respect to the Rank and Station he has in the World But this original Glory of Man has been darken'd and almost defac'd by Sin and here we can't without Surprize and Amazement consider the prodigious Depravation and Irregularity of corrupted Man see his Pride as it were springing up from the Ruines of his Glory and his Humility ending where his real Vileness begins 'T is somewhat strange to see Men Complementing and Praising one another whilst they equally deserve an eternal Shame and Reproach But we need not wonder at it God being willing to preserve Society even after the Corruption of Man was not oblig'd to deprive us of this natural Inclination towards publick Esteem which makes as we said before the Perfection of civil Conversation The Example of those Philosophers is not to be minded whom we have seen despise Men's Esteem to such a Degree as even to count themselves Unhappy if they chanc'd to attract it It may be these Heroes in Humility did not really despise Glory but only made an appearance of despising it to the Eyes of Men. Cicero says that none of all those who wrote Books concerning the Contempt of Vain-glory ever forgot to put their Names to 'em this
of our Corruption neither will we set 'em up for true Sources of Esteem For pray What is Vertue taken in this Sence 'T is a Sacrifice of the inferiour Passions to the superiour 't is to offer up One's other Affections as Victims to Pride and the love of Glory Liberality is nothing else as we before observ'd but a Traffick of Self-love which prefers the Glory of giving before what it gives Constancy is but meerly a vain Ostentation of the Strength of One's Soul and a Desire to seem above the reach of Adversity Intrepidness is but an Art of hiding One's Fear or of putting off a natural Infirmity Magnanimity is only a Desire to make an outward Show of great and elevated Thoughts Love of One's Country which made the noblest Character of the Ancient Heroes was but a secret and by-road their Self-love took to arrive to Consideration Glory and Dignities and sometimes 't was only Ambition disguised under noble and venerable Names Cicero's Revenge Augustus's Ambition Lucullus's Interest would not have been very well taken by the Romans had they appear'd in their true and native shape they were oblig'd to cover 'em with this Pretext The Love of their Country There have also been Cases wherein Men having some confus'd Sentiment of their Perfections and seeking for natural Grandeur left no Stone unturn'd to give their Actions and Conduct such an End as was worthy of what they conceiv'd of their Excellency but wanting good Direction they diverted to false Objects Brutus commends Vertue and afterwards repents of it Cato sacrifices to his Country and considers not that under the specious Name of the Country he adores he works for a Company of Robbers and Usurpers and tho' a confus'd Idea of the Publick seem so Glorious a distinct ought to cover him with Shame and Confusion In a word there 's a Falshood in Humane Vertues which is obvious to all the World and hinders us from setting a Value upon 'em without a gross Extravagance Is there any more Sincerity in the Injustice of those other Heroes who became Ennobled by Crimes and Villanies and Renown'd by their injurious Exploits They Sacrifice their Lives and Fortunes as if all were their own Alexander is a lively Instance of this Disorder One would guess from the furious Conduct of this Prince that all Things were made for his Pleasure and Glory and that Mankind was good for nothing else but to serve his Desire He Burns Cities Ravages Provinces Reverses Thrones makes other Powers the Play-game of his own as if the Nation of the Earth were but Dust and Worms in his Sight Is it tolerable that a Man should make such Sacrifices to himself as he would dread to Offer to the greatest of his Gods CHAP. XIX Of the Two last Characters of Pride which are Ambition and the Contempt of the World THE excessive Love of Esteem produces another Irregularity which is Ambition because our too violent Ardour to make our selves Considerable in the World causes us to aspire at all that may render us eminent and great upon the Theatre of Humane Life Whilst we are confounded with the common Rabble others are equally respected by the Publick if we would draw Attention and a peculiar Deference we must depart from their Company Superiority challenges the Preferences of Consideration and Esteem and for this reason we are ambitious of attaining it Every One strives to excel in his Profession be it never so mean and that not because he loves the Excellency of his Art for its own sake but because he would become more Famous and Considerable than others They that expose themselves to War are not in love with the Dangers but the distinguisht Glory But lest the Distinction which proceeds from Merit and great Actions may pâ—ssiblyly hid be subject to Contestation or not expos'd to general View our Heart ambitiously covets another kind of Elevation which is Incontestable and acknowledg'd by all Men namely Grandeur Dignities and Power as we before observ'd The Fancy of Self-love is particularly tickl'd when it sees those whom it fear'd as Rivals in the Field of Vain-glory court and crouch under its Superiority 'T is charm'd and mightily taken with the Power that brings them under it and loves them so much the more as it less fears the Obstacle of their Competition But the same Sentiment of Pride which excites us to love those that are subject to our Empire so much tempts them to abhor the Necessity which puts 'em in a state of Dependance that no less than an heroick and eminent Vertue on our side can force them to hide their Malignity Lastly The same Reason that makes us endeavour to mount our selves to a distinguisht Rank that we may no longerly in the Obscurity and Confusion which hinder us from being Remarkt in the World inspires us with that Inclination we have to despise and contemn our Neighbour We are not contented to stand on Tip-toe to seem Taller than other Men but must also endeavour to Trip up their Heels and throw 'em down that we may seem Greater by their Fall and Debasement The Pleasure we take in Satyr and Comedy is not only to be imputed to our Spite and Malignity but also to our Pride 'T is Nuts to us to see other Men disgrac'd and pull'd down especially those Persons who hereby become uncapable of being our Rivals in the Suit of Vain-glory we take a particular Delight to see these Ridicule'd because this Debasement seems greatest and most incurable of all Men being asham'd to make those the Objects of their Esteem whom before they derided and reproacht How comes it to pass that Men who never Laugh to see a Stone or a Horse fall down can hardly forbear it when they see a Man fall since the One is undoubtedly in it self no more Ridiculous than the Other 'T is because our Heart is not at all concern'd or interested in the Fall of a Beast whereas we are so much interested in the Fall and Debasement of other Men that even the Image of it delights and pleases us Men think their Laughing is always innocent and indeed 't is always criminal and blamable This same Propensity inspires us with the Contempt of our Neighbour which is term'd Insolence Haughtiness or Arrogance according as 't is Conversant about Superiours Inferiours or Equals We are eager to Debase those who were beneath us before thinking we shall rise higher proportionably as they fall lower or to disparage and injure our Equals that they may no longer be at the same Level with us or to slight and undervalue our Superiours because the Lustre of their Grandeur extinguishes ours Herein our Pride visibly betrays it self for if others are an Object of our Contempt why should we ambitiously covet their Esteem Or if their Esteem be so much worth as to deserve the most passionate Desire of our Souls how can we despise ' em Is it not because the Contempt of our Neighbour is