things yet whose Love is not lively being suffer'd by them to languish for want of Nourishment and weaken'd extreamly by that Concupiscence which incessantly wars against it so that the Ideas which according to the Laws of Nature present themselves to their Minds in Temptation dissipate and vanish in a moment they are of no substance nor consistence But the Ideas which according to the Laws of Nature are excited in the motions of the Passions are sensible Thus Erastus lest the Righteous should fall God must either give them a greater Light than that which should ensue from their love according to the Laws of Nature or awaken and fortifie their love by a preingaging delectation But because he does it if he pleases and as much as he pleases this not being in course of Nature a thing to which he is oblig'd the Light of the Righteous and the Disposition of their Hearts as sufficient as it is does not always give them the victory in the time of Temptation Erast 'T is a very sad thing that even the Righteous Theod. It is true Erastus but the Righteous can pray God has obliged himself by his Promises which he keeps as inviolably as the Laws of Nature to give them continually actual and efficacious help if they have need of it The Righteous are Members of Christ they are animated with the Spirit of Christ 't is as we may say Christ that prays in them and God can refuse nothing to his Son For the Righteous obtain nothing that they ask unless they ask it in the Name of Christ and in order to preserve the Spirit of Christ within them Erast But Theodorus when a Righteous Man through negligence lets his love decay when he lets the Light and Life of the Spirit dye in him God knows his wants God loves him for every Righteous Man is loved of God why then does he stay till he pray to him Why does he not grant before he demands Why does he not protect and defend him Theod. God does not always stay till the Righteous pray to him but often gives them help which they ask not of him and if he does command them to ask it of him it is because he will be lov'd and ador'd for it God knows our wants better than we do our selves and if he commands us to pray to him 't is to oblige us to think on him and to look upon him as the only Being that is able to fill us with good things 't is to excite and awaken our love towards him and not to learn of us either our wants or the motives he has to relieve us He is resolv'd to be gracious to us upon his Sons account and if it is his will that we pray to him for it in his Sons Name 't is that we may love him and his Son 'T is love that prays 't is respect 't is the disposition of the Mind and Heart For we cannot pray to God without actually believing a great many things concerning him and us without actually hoping in him and actually loving him But acts stir up and even beget habits therefore 't is principally to awaken in us our Faith our Hope and our Love that God commands us to pray to him But when our Faith is lively our Hope firm and our Love ardent it is not possible according to the very Laws of Nature we should want a lively and efficacious Light For as you say 't is impossible that what we love should be snatch'd away from us without exciting in us a desire to preserve it and this desire is naturally follow'd with a prospect of the means to preserve it Besides the Joy we find in the possession of what we ardently love is of great force For the Righteous possess God by the fore-taste of their hope and this fore-taste accompanied with light is able to make them overcome the strongest Temptations because it makes them embrace with Joy the means that the Light offers them Thus Prayer is the nourishment of the Soul and by it it receives new strength by it it thinks on God and comes into his presence unites its self to him that is its whole strength and even it receives of God through Christ the delectation of Grace to counterballance those preingaging Pleasures which it receives also of God for 't is God alone that acts in it but which are involuntary and rebellious by reason of Adam's disobedience And you ought to observe Erastus that the Righteous have always in them the strength to pray seeing it is Love that prays and consequently strength to obtain an increase of their Love seeing that God has obliged himself by his Promises to grant them their Prayers Nay they can easily make use of this strength they have to pray at all times in which they have liberty of Spirit and need of Prayer especially if they live in a retirement and deny themselves sensual Pleasures For as the Righteous love God it is easie for them when they have liberty of Mind and perceive that any thing sets them at a distance from God to make some attempt to return to him again And this effort is an efficacious Prayer which is rewarded according to the greatness of the effort They may fly to Christ think on his Counsels and Examples and if they cannot easily imitate his Life they may at least desire to do it they may strengthen their hope and raise their love by praying with Faith and Humility in the prospect of the Merits of Christ Arist They may do what you say if they think upon it But if they do not think upon it certainly they cannot do it for none can do what you say with out thinking on it Theod. They alwayes think upon it Aristarchus when it is necessary because being righteous they love God For those that love God have him still present when there is danger of losing him because we cannot have that which we love snatch'd away from us and not desire to preserve it I suppose in the mean time that they preserve the Liberty of their Minds by putting away Sensual Pleasures for sometimes the Imagination is so taken up and troubled by the Action of Bodies that are about us and by the Motion of the Spirits which the Passions raise in us that we may lose God easily enough and without making all the Reflections which I believe necessary to preserve and fortifie Love Erast Thus Theodorus we should always return to the Counsels of Christ There is nothing more necessary for the Righteous as well as for Sinners than to remove from the Noisie World and Violent Pleasures and I believe that those who set no Bounds to their Pleasures nor to their Passions can hardly continue in this Presence of God which bears up and fortifies their Love I fancy that the Hurry Music Pomp Magnificence and other Allurements that are at Publick Places would very much perplex my Mind if I should resort thither for they say
is convincing and taste alone hath made all mankind agree in that If the mind saw in bodies but what is in them without having a sentiment of what is not in them their use would be very painful and inconvenient to us for who would take the pains to examine with care the nature of all things that are about us to cleave to or leave them What should tell us when we ought to sit down to dinner and when rise from it What should place us at a reasonable distance from the fire And should we not often doubt whether we burnt or warm'd our selves In short would it not happen sometimes that we should be the cause of our own death by Inadvertency by Grief or even out of desire of making near discoveries in Anatomies Therefore it is most reasonable that God incline us to seek the good of the body and shun its contrary by the foregoing sensations of Pleasure and Pain For after all if men were oblig'd to examine the Configuration of a Fruit those of all the parts of their bodies and the different relations which result from the one to the other to be able to judge if in the present heat of their blood and a thousand other dispositions of their body this Fruit were good to nourish them 't is obvious that such things as are altogether unworthy of the application of their minds would wholly fill its capacity and that also unprofitably enough since they would not be able to preserve themselves any considerable time by that only way Arist I must confess this conduct is very wise and most worthy its Author But yet we feel some pleasure in the use of sensible things why then must we not love them Theod. Because they are not lovely you are a rational creature and your reason doth not represent to you bodies as your good If sensible objects did contain in themselves what you feel when you use them if they were the true cause of your Pleasure and Grief you might love and fear them but your reason doth not tell you so as I yesterday prov'd it to you You may use them but not love them you may eat of a fruit but not settle your Love upon it Likewise you ought to avoid Fire or a Sword but ought not to fear them * See the 8th Chapter of the 6th Book of the Inquiry after Truth We must love and fear what is able to cause pleasure and pain that 's a common notion which I do not contradict But we must take heed not to confound the true efficient cause with the occasional I say it once more we must love and fear the efficient cause of pleasure and of pain and we may seek or avoid their occasional causes provided we do not do it against the positive orders of that efficient cause and do not force it in consequence of its natural Laws to work in us what is against its precepts And we must not imitate the voluptuous who make God an instument of their sensuality and oblige him in consequence of his first will to reward them with a sentiment of pleasure in the very moment when they offend him for that 's the greatest Injustice can be committed Believe me Aristarchus the good of the body cannot be belov'd but by Instinct but the good of the mind can and ought to be belov'd by reason The good of the body can be belov'd but by Instinct and with a blind Love because the mind cannot even perceive so clearly that the good of the body is a real good for the mind cannot see what is not It cannot clearly perceive that Bodies are above the Spirit that they can act in it punish or reward it and render it more happy and more perfect but the good of the mind ought to be lov'd by reason God will be lov'd with a Love of choice with a reasonable Love a meritorious Love a Love worthy of him and worthy of us we see clearly that God is our good that he is above us that he can act in us that he can reward us and render us not only more happy but also more perfect than we are is it not this sufficient to make a Spirit love God And thus we see that God was not to make man love him by the instinct of Pleasure when he created him he was not to make use of this kind of art nor implore any force against the Liberty of a reasonable creature to lessen the merit of his Love For the first man ought to have adhered to God and could do it without the help of a preingaging pleasure though now Pleasure is commonly necessary to remedy the blindness which sin has brought upon us and to withstand the continual attacks of Concupiscence against our Reason I 'le say it again Aristarchus that you may remember it It was necessary that the antecedent pleasure and not the light of reason should incline us to the good of the body since reason cannot even represent to its self the bodies that are about us as a good But there was no need that God should make use of preingaging pleasure as of a kind of art to cause himself to be beloved by the first man since it was sufficient that he should enlighten his reason he being the sole and only good of Spirits Arist I grant all these things are very well imagin'd but there is still in your System a difficulty that puzzles me For methinks you confound Concupiscence with the institution of Nature and making God the Author of the pleasure we feel in the use of sensible things you also make him Author of Concupiscence since it is nothing else but that pleasure considered as striving against our reason Theod. This institution of Nature is thus Aristarchus God hath made the Soul and the Body of man and 't was his pleasure for the preservation of his work that as often as there should be in the body some certain motions there should result in the Soul some certain sentiments provided those motions did communicate themselves as far as a certain part of the Brain which I shall not specifie but because the will of God is efficacious there never hapned any motions in that part of the Brain but there followed some sensations and because the will of God is unchangeable this was not changed by the sin of the first man Yet as before man had sinned and whilst all things were in perfect good order it was not just that the body should hinder the Spirit from thinking on what is desired It follows that man had necessarily such a power over his body that he did as it were separate the principal part of his brain from the rest of his body and did hinder its usual communication with the sensitive Nerves as often as he desired to apply himself to truth or to some other thing than the good of the body And by those means it was in Adam's power first to make use
truth he could not bear a little while before Arist I give you thanks for this advice Theodorus and will certainly make good use of it the Impatience which is excited within me by the hopes of being serviceable to my friend obliges me to break off our Conversation I must satisfie my self Theod. I commend your zeal and the sincerity of your friendship be of good heart Aristarchus I wish you may return satisfy'd and you Erastus be careful to have in your mind the things that we have said and to discourse about them with Aristarchus as soon as he comes back DIALOGUE III. Of the Order of Nature in the Creation of Man Theod. WEll Aristarchus you have converted your man Erastus told me just now all that past between you and him I even know that he desires to be your Disciple and to have an account of our following conferences Be pleas'd then for his sake to apply your self so that you may demonstrate all things to him with some exactness Arist You take the right way to ingage me for I am extreamly sensible to friendship and methinks my desire to know truth is doubled by the design I have to impart it to my friend Let us go on then I beseech you I am perswaded that there is a God that is to say a Being infinitely perfect whose wisdom and power have no bounds and whose providence extends it self not only to us but even to the atoms of matter I remember your proofs and am convinc'd of them Theod. I can demonstrate nothing of true Religion nor of true Morality till I know what God designs in the creation and preservation of our being Arist You must seek some other principle Theodorus My friend is a Cartesian his Philosophy doth not admit final causes and tho he is now convinc'd that there is a God he will not fail to tell me that we ought not to presume so much of our selves as to believe that God hath been pleas'd to make us privy to his counsels Theod. Your friend will never say this to you if he be a good Cartesian The knowledge of final Causes is of little or no use in Natural Philosophy as Descartes pretends But it is absolutely necessry in Religion Can you obey God if you do not know his will and can you hope to please him and that he will make you happy except you be obedient to him â—… may be you imagine that we can know nothing of Gods design on men by Reason but you are mistaken Do not think too much on your friend Pray think on what I am going to tell you You are perswaded that God is wise and ascribe to him all the perfections whereof you have some Idea God therefore loves most what is most lovely and so must love himself more than all things and be to himself the end of all his actions And by consequence the end of the Creation and preservation of our being It follows then that the faculty by which we know that is to say our Mind and that whereby we love which is our will 〈◊〉 made and preâ—…ved to know and to love God supposing as you do not doubt it they have been made to know and to love Do you find any darkness in what I have told you Pray think on it 't is the ground of all we shall â—ay hereafter Arist All this seems to me as evident as the most certain principles of Natural Philosophy Theod. It hath even more certainty the communication of motion is certain as experience teaches us nevertheless this communication might not be and it will in all likelihood cease after the resurrection that our bodies may be incorruptible but it shall never cease to be the will of God that we know and love him Since then this seems to be plain to you how can it happen that there be men that neither know nor love God since God preserves them but to know and love him Do you think it possible to resist God and that God hath any love for Spirits who have no knowledge of him nor any love for him Do you think God preserves them and do you not know that if God should cease to love them they should be no more Arist I begin to doubt of your principle for you draw some very sad consequences from it Theod. 'T is very strange Aristarchus you should doubt of things of which you have an evidence Will you always forget that light ought to be preferred to darkness and that clear truths are not to be forsaken because we find some difficulty in clearing some dark objections Learn to distinguish truth from what seems to be so and observe that what I objected to you just now is true in one sense and false in another For there is no man but knows and loves God in one sense as you will see it hereafter Therefore stick firmly to this truth that God hath made and preserves spirits but to know and love him And this truth being granted since it is evident endeavour to discover how it may be conceiv'd that all spirits know and love God for that is of the greatest consequence I will put some questions to Erastus that I may insensibly lead you to that truth Do you think Erastus that Spirits can see Bodies Or rather do you think that this material and sensible world can be the immediate object of the mind Do you think that bodies can act in the mind make themselves visible to the mind or enlighten it Erast I do not think it Theod. What then do you see immediately when you see the material and visible world Erast I see If I may say so the Intelligible World Theod. How when you look upon the Stars do you not see the Stars Erast When I look upon the Stars I see the Stars when I look upon the Stars of the material world I see the Stars of the intelligible world and judge that those material Stars are like those of the intelligible world I see For the Sun that I see is sometimes bigger and sometimes less and is never bigger than an intelligible Circle of two or three foot diameter but the material Sun is always the same and according to the sentiment of some Astronomers about thirty thousand times bigger than the Earth 't is not then this Sun I see when I am looking upon it Theod. But Erastus where is this intelligible world which you see Do you think to include it within your self Do you think your soul comprehends in an intelligible manner all the beings that God can make and you can see Can your Soul whose bounds are too narrow whose perfections are finite and who certainly doth not include all things see all things by reflecting on herself Erast I do not think it but I dare not tell you my opinion I imagine that there is none but God that includes the intelligible world and that we see in God whatever we see Theod. But why are you afraid to
know his will that causes it is the principle of the mutability corruption and generation of all different bodies Thus God sees in himself the corruption of all things though he is incorruptible for whilst he sees in his wisdom the incorruptible Ideas he sees in his will all corruptible things since nothing happens but is done by him Now I will tell you how we see all those things in God All ideas and immutable truths we see in him As for transitory truths we do not know them in the will of God as God himself doth for his will is unknown to us But we know them by the sentiment God causes in us at their presence Thus when I see the Sun I see the Idea of a circle in God and have in my self the sentiment of light which denotes to me that this Idea represents something that is created and actually extent But I have this sentiment from none but God who certainly can cause it in me since he is Almighty and sees in the Idea he hath of my Soul that I am capable of sentiment Thus in all our sensible knowledge of corruptible things there is pure Idea and sentiment the Idea is in God the Sentiment in us but God alone is the true Cause of both The Idea represents the Essence of the thing and the sentiment only makes us believe that it exists since it disposes us to believe that the thing causes it in us because it is then present to our mind and not the will of God which alone causes that sentiment in us Arist I own that God can enlighten us and show us in himself all the Ideas we have of things But why should you have your recourse to this last refuge At least explode the sentiments of Philosophers upon that subject that I may the better convince my friend for without doubt I shall find him prepossessed with some opinion or other differing from yours Theod. It hath been done already by the Author of the Inquiry after Truth * Lib. 3. But if your friend finds fault with me for having a recourse to God and the first cause to explain some certain things you may tell him that there are two kinds of natural effects The Particular and the General it is ridiculous to have recourse to the general cause to explain particular effects but 't is as much amiss to seek some particular cause to explain the general For example if I am asked why Linnen becomes dry when 't is exposed to fire I will not answer like a Philosopher if I say that God will have it so for 't is sufficiently known that whatever happens is by his will 'T is not the general cause is demanded but the particular cause of a particular effect I ought then to say that the small particles of the fire or the agitated wood striking against the linnen impart their motion to the particles of water that are in it and loosen them from the linnen and I shall have given the particular cause of the particular effect But if one ask'd me why the particles of the wood agitate those of the water or why bodies communicate their motion to those they meet I should not be a Philosopher did I seek some particular cause of that general effect I ought to have recourse to the general cause that is to the Will of God and not to some particular faculties or qualities Now 't is acknowledged that the effect is general and that consequently we must have recourse to the general cause when thesame effect hath no necessary connexion with what seems to be its cause as it happens in the communication of motion for the mind sees no necessity why a body that presses upon another should push it forwards rather then recoil it self If then your friend pretends to explain to you the nature and original of Ideas by the scientific terms of innate or visible species of external or internal senses of the common apprehensions of the active or passible intellect you may let him know that when a body changes its situation or figure there is no necessity that there be a new thought in a spirit And that therefore we must go to the general cause which alone can reconcile things that have no necessary relation with one another I will lose no time in solving all the difficulties you or your friend may find concerning what I have told you now You will perhaps find them solv'd in the third book of the Inquiry after Truth Let us come to the will of man I will explain it to you God only making and preserving us for himself incessantly moves us towards him that is to say towards good in general or towards what we conceive to include all good He even moves us towards particular good without removing us from himself because he includes that good in the infinity of his being For as spirits see none but him in the sense that I have explained he may incline us towards whatever we see though he hath made us for himself alone But we ought to observe that he inclines us invincibly and necessarily towards good in general because as the love of good in general can never be bad it was not to be free But as the love of particular good though good in it self may be bad it was to be in our power to consent to or withstand its motion Arist But how can the love of particular good be bad Theodorus We only love what we see we see nothing but God therefore we love nothing but God when it seems we love the Creatures how then can our love be bad Theod. We love nothing but God Aristarchus for God preserves us only to love him But our love is bad when it is not regulated Or rather our love is always good absolutely and in it self but it is not relatively good Our love is always good in it self for we can never love what seems bad to us We can love but what we believe to be good and lovely since 't is God that makes us love and that we love none but him because we love nothing but what we see in him But our love is bad relatively because we love too much those things that are least lovely in short because instead of loving God in himself we love him with relation to his Works for loving only what we see we love God but only as he represents a vile creature and not according to what he is in himself God allows us to love what is in him that represents a creature for that is good but he will not have us to fix there the motion of our love He would have us to love whatever he includes He would be belov'd according to the Idea of Being in general of Being infinitely perfect and soveraignly lovely which Idea hath no relation but to himself and represents nothing that is out of him Nothing but the Idea of the infinite good ought to stop the motion of
I don't know that Theodorus for being merciful he can pardon when he pleaseth Theod. But can he be willing to do it Arist What a Question that is Men themselves can do that Theod. Men can forgive when they are offended they ought not to revenge themselves nor have they power to do it As they love themselves to excess they would be sure to exceed being Sinners they would condemn themselves and whatsoever offends them being ordained by God they would be guilty of Rebellion For the only thing wherein God hath no hand to wit the inward malice of their Enemies doth them no harm they have no right to oblige others to love them neither can they take any revenge for want of that love that doth not belong to them But if Men had received the sovereign wisdom and power to judge and punish if their essential Will was the Order if they could not act against that Order might they not punish such Crimes as would be committed against God or pardon Sin and Disorder and yet not offend the Law and Order But supposing they could do you think they might also secure to Sinners the means of attaining Felicity They would certainly make an ill use of their power and by overthrowing the order of Justice prove themselves Sinners and thereby be altogether destitute of either love to God or zeal for his glory Do you think God can reverse the essential order of things or fight against himself Do you imagin it is possible he should not love himself or forbear his own satisfaction by neglecting his Justice and that mercy which you conceive to be a virtue in us to be a perfection in God No Aristarchus God is not merciful in the same manner as we are that Clemency would be contrary to his Justice That Sinners be happy implies contradiction if not on the part of Sinners at least on that of him that is omnipotent and cannot act against the essential order of things on the part I say of him that is essentially just God must punish Sin and if he hath a mind to spare those that commit it for the end that he proposed to himself in the construction of his work it is necessary that a Sacrifice more worthy of his greatness and justice than they are should receive the blow that was to make them eternally miserable Thus God may be merciful Things being thus you easily see what need we stand in of Christ's satisfaction That the Mediator of the Arians and Socinians is a Mediator who can never atone for them nor reconcile them to God And that none but those who believe that Jesus Christ is really God because none but a God can justifie and save us in a word that none but those who call upon Christ by that name which the Scripture gives him that expresses so well his qualities Jehovah Justitia nostra God our Righteousness can have a full assurance in his Sacrifice Observe Aristarchus that God doth whatever he ought to do Arist But God lieth under no obligation to any one Theod. I own it But God doth whatever he is obliged to for his own sake Men offend and oppose him and overturn the order of things ought not he then to revenge himself satisfy his Justice and punish those that offend him For I grant that as for our sakes God is obliged to do no more than he pleaseth But he is obliged to do something for himself and that being granted it is just to believe that he will not omit to do it for he loveth himself and is willing to do whatever he ought to do for himself I own that there is no Law that constrains him but that he is to himself his own Law However he is to himself inviolably a Law and must of necessity love himself tho' nothing forces him to love himself but himself Arist But Theodorus will you dive into God's Councels and give Bounds to his Wisdom and Power Do you think that God could not satisfie his Justice otherwise than by the death of his Son If it be so Theod. I understand you Aristarchus God's Justice could have been satisfied by a thousand other means The least Suffering the least Action of God-Man could fully satisfy God's Justice for all our Crimes for the merit of it is infinite by the dignity of the Person But God could not be fully satisfied by any other Satisfaction than that of a Divine Person Nothing is worthy of God but God himself All manner of offence against God is infinitely criminal and there is nothing Infinite but God He cannot therefore be satisfied without having a hand in it such is the Immensity of his greatness Tho' God had sacrificed all the Creation to his wrath and annihilated all his Works that Sacrifice would still have been unworthy of him But God had not made the world to annihilate it he had made it for him that hath restored it for his Son was predestinated before all Ages to be the Chief of it He is the First-born of all Creatures the Beginning of the Lord's Ways the Beginning End and Perfection of all the Works of God for whatever God hath made is only perfectly worthy of God through Christ I don't know Aristarchus whether your thoughts follow mine perhaps I run too fast But pray what is it you would say to me Arist I 'le tell you God being infinitely wise and powerful why could he not form a Creature sufficiently noble and raised above Sinners to atone for them Theod. How Aristarchus Shall a Creature undertake to reconcile Sinners Plead for them Shew any love for them That is for the damned For if we are not ranked with the damned it is because we are made free in Christ But supposing with you that a Creature could do all this satisfie for us and free us by his satisfaction it follows that we are indebted to that Creature and his Slaves that our obligations to him ought to divide our love between God and him and that our Restoration being perhaps a greater good to us than our Creation we ought to love him better than God himself if we ought to love most the things that do us most good Yet God requires that we should love him in all things and that all the motion of love which he causes in us tend towards him and he will not only be esteemed by us as the first Cause and Being but also beloved in all things as the only true cause of whatever the Creatures seem to produce in us This is the order of things Now it would be reversed and even its overturning justified should your Notion of God's design to give us another Restorer than himself subsist For that design would in some manner justify a Love not solely tending towards God since that design proposes to us another than God for an Object of our Love when it proposes to us a Creature endowed with an excellency sufficient to oblige us really and by himself
how he is the beginning and end of all things Those holy persons that read the Scripture with an intention to find Christ never fail to find him there for he is in every place of it But they have not the spirit of this world but that of God whereby they know the greatness of the Gift that God hath imparted to them The outward and sensible Man is not capable of the things which the Divine Spirit teacheth us for the eye hath not seen the ear hath not heard nor the heart of man ever understood what God hath prepared for those that love him I do not only speak of those false learned who deny the corruption of Nature the necessity of Grace and the Divinity of Christ yet assume the quality of Christians I also speak of those who live in the bosom of the Church but have little love for Religion It is impossible they should be very well learned in the knowledge of Christ seeing they do not love him and do not study the Scriptures professing the Christian Religion perhaps only because it is that of their Parents Arist You have told us a great many things both to day and yesterday since I have seen my Friend I imagin that he wants me as I do to know what he will think of these things I must leave you to go to him Theod. Do Aristarchus make him sensible of the general corruption of Nature and the enmity that is between God and man and endeavor to demonstrate plainly to him the necessity of Christ's satisfaction If you find that he receives your Sentiments as he ought and is willing to be instructed immediately fall on the praises of our Redeemer and stir him up to the love of his Saviour by the consideration of the chief obligations he hath to him Tell him That Christ is the Way the Truth and the Life That he is our intelligible light that enlightens us in the deepest recess of our Reason and our sensible light that instructs us by Miracles by Parables and Faith That he alone is the food of the Soul That his light is the sole producer of Charity and that none but him can give us the holy Spirit whereby we become the children of God Tell him that he hath been predestinated before all time to be our King and Chief our Pastor and Law-giver That God receives our Prayers through him only That we are made clean only by his blood and enter into the Holy of Holies only through his Sacrifice In short That Christ is all things to us that in him we are new creatures and new men that have not been condemned in Adam that without Christ we are nothing have right to nothing but are sold to Sin Slaves to the Devils and the eternal objects of God's wrath Use all your endeavors to make him think on Christ to unite him to and make him esteem and love Christ and conclude with these words of St Paul at the end of one of his Epistles If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha 1 Cor. 16.22 DIALOGUE VI. The Truth of the Christian Religion proved by other Reasons Arist AH Theodorus how unsatisfy'd am I in my Friend Theod. Yes Aristarchus I can easily see it the Air of your Countenance does not rejoice those that examin it 't is not an Air of Triumph or of Victory that might please those who take part of it But how cou'd he resist you Arist As I was well persuaded of the truth of the Christian Religion by the proofs of original Sin and the necessity of a Mediator so I imagined I cou'd convince him by proposing the same proofs but I know not to what I should attribute the ill success of my words when I spoke to him instead of persuading him I provoked him and he rejected all that I proposed to him with a kind of scorn he would not so much as agree with me in common Notions but continually said that my Reasons were the Reasons of Philosophy Such Answers grieved me I strove to convince him and continued to repeat the same things hoping that at last he would reflect but all my Efforts were entirely lost 'T is something strange Theodorus that a Man can't convince others of the same thing that he himself is fully convinced of for it appears to me that all Men ought to see the same things Theod. If all Men were equally attentive to inward truth they would all equally see the same things but your Friend is not like you he is taken up with a multitude of things and his pride has now for many years kept him unconversant even with himself so that abstracted proofs and reasonings built upon Notions which have no dependance of the senses persuade him not because these proofs don't touch him and because he has many confused reasons which hinder his application to them When a Man has discovered a Geometrical Demonstration he can convince all Men of it to whom he clearly proposes it because that these things are sensible that they freely apply themselves to them that there 's no reason why they should not believe them that they are not prepossess'd by the authority of Men that deny them and that when they see these kinds of truth they see them after a sensible manner But 't is not the same with certain truths which are contrary to our inclinations there we think not seriously and we have many reasons not to believe them It 's necessary Aristarchus that I demonstrate to you the truth of the Christian Religion by more sensible proofs than those of our preceding Conferences it may be your Friend will more willingly hearken to them Do you take his place and object whatever you can imagin against what I shall offer I only suppose that God hath made our Souls to know and love him 'T is what your Friend assents to You have heard Aristarchus of one Moses the famous Legislator of the Jews to whom God gave the Ten Commandments upon Mount Sinai Do you believe what the Scripture says of him Arist But what if he was a Cheat an Impostor Theod. Very well Aristarchus you suppose your self under your Friend's character but you know that he must have an excessive bold spirit I would say the most ignorant and most transported of bold spirits who dares say that Moses was a Cheat you do much honour to your Friend Arist I know what I say Theod. Well then if you know him so well speak for him I will engage him in your person You have reason Aristarchus and ought not to oppose a Sentiment that is universally received by all reasonable persons unless you have good proofs that they are deceived Arist There is much prejudice Theod. Right but this common Reason does not justifie you nor will it justifie the most extravagant doubts that may be raised but I may tell you that there was never any Man that could be more unreasonably accused of Imposture
Mahomet are unworthy of Mankind for even the Heathen Philosophers themselves went thus far Christ would have us despise these Goods altho' the Law promises them and he declares those to be happy who are deprived of them and who are miserable and cursed according to the Law Thus I am satisfy'd that the promises of the Law were only figures for those amongst the Jews who had Charity could not desire the accomplishment of these promises as their true good but perhaps the Law in it self was good Theod. You perceive not that there must be a relation betwixt the good which the Law promises and the Law itself and that if the Law justifies really and by itself the recompences of the Law must be good in themselves and make a truly just Man happy But Men can't be just themselves and only desire these Rewards The just then could not trust in the Sacrifices and Ceremonies of the Law they were to expect the Messiah that could promise them such a happiness as they might lawfully wish it There were two sorts of Jews under the Law Jews after the Spirit and Jews after the Letter Those who had the Spirit of the Law were Christians for Christ is the end of the Law and those were circumcised with the circumcision of the heart and had put off the old man explaining the whole Law its Ceremonies and Promises by their relation to the Messiah and that eternal happiness which they expected from him They were not scandaliz'd when Isaiah spoke on the behalf of God to the Jews according to the flesh Isa 1.10,11 Hear the word of the Lord ye Princes of Sodom hearken to the Law of our God ye People of Gomorrah What have I to do with this multitude of Sacrifices chat ye offer to me saith the Lord All this is an abomination to me I love not the sacrifice of your Rams nor the fat of your Flocks nor the blood of Beeves Lambs and He-Goats They sung with joy in the same Spirit with Christians Psal 50. For thou desirest not Sacrifice else would I give it thou delightest not in burnt-offerings Lord do good in thy good pleasure unto Sion build thou the walls of Jerusalem then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness with burnt-offerings and whole burnt-offerings then shall they offer bullocks upon thine Altar In fine they sighed incessantly towards Heaven to draw down the true Messiah who was to deliver them from their sins But the Jews according to the flesh gloried in the shameful signature of the circumcision of their bodies they were uncircumcised in heart they had a vail which hid the end of the Law from them They placed their confidence in their Sacrifices and Ceremonies in the Ark and in the Temple of the Lord in Moses Abraham and their other Patriarchs They were full of Zeal and Fury against the true Israelites and continually persecuted the Prophets which had the Spirit of the Law and which reproved their Vices The Jews after the Spirit were true Christians they were always ready to acknowledg and receive Jesus Christ whenever he should come for the Moral of the New Testament is wholly conformable to the disposition of their heart since they acknowledg that the goods of the senses were unworthy of their love And as they explain'd not holy Scripture according to the Letter but according to the mystical Sense and with relation to the Messiah whom they expected so the proofs which the Apostles took out of the Old Testament to justifie the quality of Christ were entirely conformable to their Spirit Thus Christ and his Apostles were heard by those amongst the Jews who were moved by Charity but the carnal Jews who had their heart vail'd could not nay even would not comprehend the proofs which the Apostles gave of the Truth they preacht Arist But must it not be confessed that the proofs which the Apostles drew from the Old Testament to confirm the New were very weak Theod. They were no proofs or at best extravagant ones to the carnal Jews and those who know not distinctly that the Old Testament is only for the use of the New that Abraham Joseph Joshua David Solomon are only in the Scripture because of CHRIST and that whatever hapned to the Jews were but figures of things to come Yes Aristarchus if the literal Sense of the Scripture is the chief end then St Paul and the Apostles prove nothing nay they are mad Men and fanatical But he must be the most stupid and rash of all Men who can imagin that St Paul had not common Sense that he would render himself so very ridiculous to wrest passages of Scripture to convince the Jews how unprofitable their Sacrifices and Ceremonies were For after all if we can't believe that the Letter of the Law rather administers death than life after what I have already said I see not but that we must believe at least that there were some Men amongst the Jews who search'd into the Law for another Sense besides the literal since St Paul does not make use of the literal Sense to convince them of the Messiah's coming Do not you know that even the Jewish Commentators who are the declared Enemies of CHRIST refer most of the passages to the Messiah which the Apostles do to CHRIST altho' these passages might often be understood of David Solomon or others for as the truth is we must consider these persons as figures of CHRIST The Letter of the Scripture does by Divine Providence contain so many things which appear unworthy of God and even contrary to Reason that those who are not entirely stupid find themselves obliged to abandon it I have proved this to you by the Rewards which Moses proposed to the Jews which as you your self have freely granted are not only unworthy of such who love God above all things but in general of all other Beings which are more noble than Bodies Thus we can't reasonably doubt but that the Jews who from the times of the Apostles expected the Messiah and who believed him near at hand were very much disposed to receive him in that capacity which the Apostles had described to them provided the love of sensible things hindred them not from following him God always disposes things after such a manner that those who love him do always find him he leaves such footsteps after him that those who feel the inward motions of Charity do highly acknowledg him And if false Prophets back their Lyes with Miracles 't is because God tempts Men to discern those who love him for those who love him are not deceived CHRIST is so concealed in the Scriptures that those who love him not do not find him there He is not only come to enlighten the blind but also to blind the wise He is come to reprove the glory of the world for this is an abomination before God In fine he is come to preach the Gospel to the poor the simple and ignorant
I do not know how I came to persuade my self that I should be guilty of want of respect towards the words of the Gospel should I speak any more to him about the Truths of Religion so that I stood before him without saying any thing But if my mind did not express itself by the sound of my voice my heart spoke sufficiently by the air of my face and my Friend might well imagin that I was not come to see him so early merely to bid him good morrow On the other side he being in the main a Man of a civil and mild disposition I cannot doubt but that he repented himself of the Answers he had made me and had pondered on those things which I had told him with a strength and plainness sufficient as I thought to convince him if he had any ways reflected Withal seeing me so early come to see him after the many expressions he had used which ought to have made me decline his Society for a long time being of the temper that I have mentioned he could not help being moved by my zeal and sorry for his want of attention In short whether he was shaken by my former Reasons or touched by some sentiments of Friendship and Gratitude he began after he had been some moments silent with an acknowledgment of his fault and of his sorrow After this he prayed me to repeat once more the proofs that I had offered to him of the Christian Religion assuring me that he had thought on them seriously and that he had found much solidity and light in them how imperfectly soever he remembred them I at first was somewhat unwilling to comply with his desire still remembring the words of Christ but seeing him persist in his demand with heat and eagerness I believed that he was disposed to hear me Accordingly I gave him the satisfaction he desired and he hath received without difficulty the same things that he had rejected with scorn Theod. You see even by this Aristarchus that it was convenient that Christ should cause himself to be expected during many Centuries and hide himself in the Scriptures for those who do not care to find him We easily receive what we desire and find with pleasure what we seek with passion Your Friend could not see two days ago that Truth which you proposed to him because he did not seek it but he hath discovered it because he desired it and hath found it with pleasure if he hath sought it with eagerness If Men do not know God 't is because they do not care to know him and if they do not see the truth of the Christian Religion 't is because the love of sensible things prepossesses them and makes them hate a Religion that destroys it All our Passions justifie themselves and speak incessantly for their conservation and those that hearken to the dictates of their Passions find themselves so strongly moved with compassion towards them that for their sakes they despise the Laws which condemn those Criminals to death For indeed nothing is more despicable than the Christian Religion if we believe our Passions The Gospel hath nothing that appears pleasing it preaches nothing to us but self-denial and Christ doth by the example of his life and death condemn the conduct of those who fix their minds on sensible things Those therefore who esteem nothing besides the objects of their Senses who blindly follow the motions of their Passions voluptuous Men or to use the words of Christ Swine are uncapable of understanding the truth of Religion and enjoying true happiness The Kingdom of God is a Pearl for which they will not sell all what they possess they do not know the value of it Therefore Christ will not have us to propose future happiness to those Wretches nor explain sacred Mysteries to them they being uncapable and unworthy of them We are only to threaten them in the Name of God and make them afraid by the Idea of Eternity or even by the fear of temporal Ills. But when they grow penitent deprive themselves of worldly pleasures and cease to be Swine it is necessary we should explain to them the Mysteries of Religion and the Secrets of the Gospel for being then become Sheep they hear and can discern the voice of the true Pastor of their Souls For this Reason and several others which you will perhaps understand by the Sequel of our Discourses I did not much approve of the design you had to relate all things to your Friend I was asraid for you and had no hopes of him But God who disposes of our hearts hath rewarded your Charity and Zeal and you ought to return your thanks to him for 't We have hitherto discoursed of the Proofs that concern the Truth of Religion and I believe that what I have said is sufficient to persuade reasonable persons that there is no other Religion in the world besides the Christian able to re-establish the Order which Sin hath reversed that none besides God-man could satisfie God's Justice reconcile us and give us an access to him and in a word pay to God a worship worthy of him It is time to shew you that Christian Morality is perfectly conformable to Reason and that in the state to which Sin hath reduced us nothing more useful to re-establish the order of things can be prescribed than the precepts and counsels of Christ concerning Prayer and the privation of sensible things for I suppose no others I entreat you to observe carefully whatever we shall speak of hereafter for you ought rather to instruct your Friend in those things which respect the government of our manners than in such speculative truths as are above the capacity of a carnal and sensible Man I will put some Questions to Erastus for I have not said any thing to him this good while Do you remember Erastus what we have said concerning the End and Order which God proposed to himself when he created Man and are you convinced of it Erast I remember it and am convinced of it I believe that God acts for none but himself that when he makes a Spirit it is that this Spirit may know him and that when he makes a Will it is that this Will may love him This Order seems to me so necessary that I do not believe that God preserves any Spirit but what in some manner knows and loves him I believe that the Union which Spirits have with God by their knowledg and love cannot altogether be dissolved without annihilating them For what kind of being were that Spirit that should know and love nothing But all Spirit that knows and loves knows and loves only by the means of the Union which he hath with God since he is not to himself his light and that the motion which he hath towards good in general and which makes him capable of loving private good doth not proceed from himself nor from any thing below him Theod. That 's true
to make you think of it But pray tell me do you love the Game of Piquet or Omber Erast Very much Theod. Do you love Hunting Erast I have not yet been at it but I imagine that there 's no great pleasure to course a Hare for three of four hours together in the Wind Rain or Sun Arist You know not what you say Erastus there 's no greater pleasure in the World Theod. Take heed Erastus Aristarchus judges not of Hunting as you do he loves it and you love it not But would you love it Does your Reason represent it as if it were worthy of your love Erast No Theodorus neither my Reason nor my Senses for what pleasure can it be to pursue a miserable Beast a whole day together I pity the Passion of Aristarchus Theod. I advise you then never to go to it for if you did you perhaps would come back more passionate than Aristarchus he was once as you are without any desire to hunt before he had tasted the pleasure it may be he had even an aversion for it but by little and little he was so accustomed to it that he could not refrain from it Erast I believe it and will never go for I would not be ruined in Horses and Dogs Theod. But Erastus why play you Why do you lose your time unprofitably Will you ruine your 〈◊〉 by play rather than Hunting Erast I can't help it Theod. Then 't is with you as with Aristarchus you condemn one another and have compassion for one another Arist 'T is true Erastus and I are not over wise thus to follow the Motions of our Passions altho I see well that he runs the Risque of losing at Cards and I of falling off my Horse Theod. What should have been done then to reclaim Erastus from gaming and Aristarchus from hunting For as things now are there only remains in human apprehension a violent Remedy Erast When Aristarchus perceived himself agitated by the pleasure of the Chace he should have forthwith left it He should resemble me his Imanation should not be filled with these Vestiges which continually renew the object of his Passion 't is the Pleasure that is found in the use of sensible things which is the Cause of Passions and which agitates the animal Spirits but when the animal Spirits are strongly agitated they impress deep Vestiges in the Brain they even break thro' their violent Course all the Fibres which resist them Thus as soon as we taste pleasure we must examine and see if it be advantageous that the Vestiges of the Object which cause this pleasure perfect their form if the Object which causes this pleasure is unworthy of our Application and Love we must deprive our selves of it and also shun the pleasure which enslaves us by the Vestiges it impresses in our Brain 'T is this I believe which we ought to do to hinder our Concupiscence from a continual growth Theod. But Erastus when you actually taste of pleasure can you easily quit the Object that causes it When Aristarchus was in the heat of the Chase the first time he went thither do you think he was in a Condition to reflect upon himself Did not the Sound of the Horn the Noise and running of the Dogs the motion of the Horse and above all this the pleasure that he found in all these different motions take up his mind Did not his Passion carry him as well as his Horse to the Death of the Hare or Stag And do you believe that he could then think of your Remedy Or if he had thought do you believe that he would have been willing to have made use of it Or that he could have resisted the Passion which agitated him The Philosophical Remedies which you have laid down are not proper at such a time Erastus to hinder our Concupiscence that it should not encrease Erast 'T is true Theodorus the most certain of all Remedies is that of privation Pleasure poysons us we must not taste it this the most short and sure Rule b He that commits Sin becomes the Slave of it Joh. 8.34 I find that reason perfectly agrees with the Gospel nevertheless I remember that I have cured my Imagination and resisted my Passion by the use of things which according to what you have said should encrease it Thus About three or four years ago I freely believed every thing that I heard One day there came an Officer hither who said that travelling with an Englishman that could not forbear smoking it hapned that this Englishmans Horse fell down and broke his Masters Leg who being upon the ground and thinking rather on his Pipe than Leg he put his hand into his Pocket and taking out his Pipe whole he cry'd out with Joy Well well my Pipe is not broke This Relation struck me and I imagin'd the smoke of Tobacco was the most agreeable thing in the World so that I perceiv'd my self urg'd with a violent Passion to try it but it happen'd to me as to many others that I had no sooner tasted it but had a horror for it Thus Theodorus your Remedy which is to deprive us of sensible things is not general for the use of Tobacco has cured me of the Passion I had for it and when I had not us'd it I was desirous of it Theod. But Erastus don't you see that we must be depriv'd of all that is capable of sullying the Imagination The Commerce we have with those who speak of Bodies as true Goods is capable of impressing traces in the Brain which carry us to the love of Bodies as well as the very use of Bodies A Drunkard who speaks of Wine as of his God who despises those who know not how to drink and who places amongst his bravest Actions the Victories which he hath got at the Table against the greatest Debauchees of the Province such a Drunkard in his gay humor easily persuades a young Man that 't is a fine quality to drink as much Wine as two Horses can drink Water 'T is for this that in all places where Men speak of drinking much as of a Vertue all the World drinks to excess for even those who don't at first delight in drinking doing as others to avoid being the Subject of their Companions Ralleries they are by degrees so accustom'd to Wine that they can't be without it Thus Erastus as Concupiscence does principally reside in the traces of the Brain which incline the Soul to the love of sensible things it must be depriv'd of all things which produce these traces not only of the actual use of Bodies which is of no use to the preservation of health and life but also of the Conversation of Debauchees who speak with esteem of the objects of their passions 'T is pleasure Erastus which agitates the Spirits and which produces dangerous traces not only that which we enjoy by our Senses but that also which we enjoy by Imagination not only the taste
himself in the Pleasures which St. John disclaim'd as contrary to the ways through which Christ comes to dwell in us Arist I must needs own to you Theodorus that all the Heroes whom I have hitherto set before my self as living Exemplars to walk by are more generous and communicative than St. John the Baptist since they are not afraid of being sociable nor of complying with the World injoying certain Pleasures which they term Civil and Gentleman-like Recreations I don't know whether they allow themselves this freedom as knowing themselves strong enough to overcome them but I think my self obliged in Conscience to let Erastus know that I never fail'd to become a slave to a great many Pleasures when like these Heroic Gentlemen I was not afraid to enjoy them Erast I would not make the Opinion of the Multitude the Rule of my Conduct I know we ought to follow a Rule and be guided by Reason since to act only by a Principle of Imitation has more of the Brute in it than of the Man I thank Theodorus for putting me in mind of this If we set our selves a Pattern to imitate 't is that its Example may excite us resolutely to do what we know Reason directs us to perform For as all Men are apt to err and to sin no Man can be to us an infallible Rule Reason ought to correct the defects of the Exemplar Theod. Reason ought also to make choice of these Exemplars For many times our Imagination dazzled by the deceitful lustre of false Vertues makes us admire a Heroe instead of a Saint and because 't is much more pleasant and easie to live like the first than like the latter that we may justifie our conduct we are very ready to set before our selves such Exemplars as suit with our humours Erast The surest way is to imitate such Exemplars as God prescribes us to follow since God cannot deceive us Our Saviour's Precepts are undoubtedly the best and St. John's Conduct is altogether consonant with them we must then walk after him Methinks Reason obliges me to retire like him to Desarts that I may avoid the Contagion which rages in the World and prepare for the Grace of Christ For after all Reason has convinc'd me that St. John is a good Pattern to imitate the Holy Ghost sets him before us in the Scripture and our Saviour highly commends him for his holiness of Life What do you think Theodorus do you believe I ought to imitate him Theod. I don't know Erastus but if you ought not to follow him I know you ought to follow Christ As St. John prepar'd us for Grace but did not bestow it he was to show us an Example of the greatest austerity 'T was his Duty to take out of the Scale all the Weights in general that make it have a propensity to cleave to the Earth because he could not give us the weight of Grace to make the Scales even As the precursor of the Author of Grace he was to remove by his Preaching and Example all the impediments that kept us from receiving Christ For this Reason it was fit he should with the greatest strictness imaginable forbid us the use of Worldly injoyments this was his Duty But Christ teaches us to make use of these things The weight of his Grace sets us free because it sets the Scales even again With that Grace we may live in the World without becoming slaves to it because it hinders us from loving the World We may injoy the things of this World because by the means of his Grace we enjoy them without Pleasure as enjoying them not or rather because the Pleasure which attends Grace is stronger than that which we find in the use of these things But we must take great care that the liberty which is given us by the Grace of Christ do not give us occasion to live according to the Flesh We may be sav'd without hating the World and if while we live in the World we love it and become slaves to its Pomp Reason teaches us that we ought to forsake it for we cannot overcome it without Christ and if his Grace dwelt in us we should feel within our selves a Power able to overcome the World We may use certain Pleasures on some occasions but never without fear and horrour and if we use them without fear and horrour we ought to avoid them Charity obliges us to live with the rest of Mankind for Grace does not destroy Civil Society But the same Charity obliges us to settle such a Communion with them as may not end with this Life I own that Christ did not come to send Peace on Earth he came not to send Peace but a Sword He came to set a Man at variance against his Father and the Daughter against her Mother and the Daughter in law against the Mother in law Matth. 10.34,35 If there be five in one house he is come to divide them and to set three against two and two against three Luke 12.52 He came to set Man at variance even with himself If any man hate not his own life and does not bear his Cross and come after Christ he cannot be his Disciple nor worthy to be call'd a Christian But our Saviour came to do these things only that he might reunite us to God reconcile us to our selves and even in this Life begin a fellowship that is to last eternally Do you think Aristarchus you whose Heart is so susceptible of Friendship that 't is possible you should here below have a real love for a person except you love him as a Christian You may indeed love him well enough so far as Civil Society which depends on the relation which Bodies have to one another requires it but you are neither in a condition to know him such as he is nor even to know your self Do you fancy you see your Friend when you behold a certain disposition of matter which is call'd a Face or when you hear the sound of words that move the Air I don't believe you do But if you do not see your Friend what is it you love then when you think you love him Certainly you either must love your self and then your Love is selfish or you love your Friend's Face and then your Love is unworthy your Friend or else you love your Friend's Vertue and upright Principles and in that case your Friendship is just but then 't is a Christian Friendship for thus you love God in your Friend or your Friend as he has a relation to God you love him because he belongs to God lives according to God's Commands and makes his own Will conformable to that of God And yet Sir your Friendship is still imperfect because you don't know what you love As you don't see your Friend's Mind in a clear and distinct manner you cannot really love him for if you saw him inwardly you would perhaps abhor him Arist You make me wish that my Friend
Sinful Father WE have seen in the fore-going Considerations that Man in himself is a meer Nothing that he is made up of Weakness Infirmity and Darkness that he receives Life Sense and Motion continually from God that he owes to him his whole Being and all his Faculties And therefore he is certainly under the highest Obligations of Love and Gratitude to God since he depends so absolutely upon him as he is a Creature But if we consider him as the Son of a Sinful Father and as a Sinner himself we shall find so great a multiplicity of essential and indispensable Duties which he owes to God and at the same time so great a want of Power and so much unworthiness to perform them that so far is he from being able to do his Duty that even his Performances would be rejected if Christ our Mediator had not merited Grace for him by his Death We must not then consider Man only as the Son of a Sinful Father and as he is a Sinner himself but we ought always to look upon him in Jesus Christ in whom alone we are able to please God The Fifth Consideration MAN considered as the Son of a Sinful Father is a Reprobate a Child of Wrath whom his Father will not see and who shall never see his Father for he is a Child whom his Father does not love nor will he be belov'd by such a Child God lov'd Adam before his Fall and desir'd to be lov'd by him He was willing to communicate himself to him and to be in a manner familiarly acquainted with him He call'd to him as he now does to us but with a much clearer and more intelligible Voice I am thy Good make me the only Object of thy Love and Hope At these words his Senses and Passions were silent nor was he disturb'd by that confus'd and flattering noise which arises in us even against our Wills and boldly opposes the dictates of Truth in our Souls God spoke to him and he did not murmur God inlighten'd him and he was freed from Darkness God commanded him and he made no resistance The Pleasure and Joy which he felt in seeing himself favour'd and protected by a God that would never forsake him if he did not first leave him kept him united to his Lord by Bonds that were never like to be broken God did not force Adam to love him by preingaging Pleasures because he would have him merit his Reward more speedily He left him to the determination of his own Free-will that he might have power to chuse for himself and he bestow'd a due measure of Knowledge and Understanding upon him that he might be enabled to make a good choice Thus Man perceiv'd clearly what he was to do to obtain solid and perfect Happiness and nothing could hinder him from performing that as long as he pleased But he was not separated from himself and the consideration of himself fill'd him with a certain Joy and Pleasure which made him in a manner feel that his Natural Perfection was the cause of his present Felicity for Joy seems to proceed naturally and absolutely from a view of our own Perfections because we do not always think on him who operates always in us Besides Adam had a Body and could when he pleas'd relish such Pleasures in the actual enjoyment of Sensible Things as made him feel that Corporeal Things were his Good I did not make choice of this Expression without Reason for he knew that God was his Good but did not feel it because he felt no preingaging Pleasures in the performance of his Duty and on the other side he felt that the Objects of his Senses were his Good but did not know them to be so because that which is not cannot be known When Adam felt that Sensible Objects were his Good or imagin'd that the cause of his Happiness was in himself when he tasted Pleasure in the use of Corporeal Things or rejoyc'd at the sight of his own Perfections his Sensations obscur'd the clear perceptions of his Mind by which he knew that God was his Good For Sensation confounds Knowledge because it modifies the Soul and divides its capacity Thus Adam who perceiv'd all these things clearly ought to have been perpetually upon his guard He should have resisted the allurements of the Pleasures which he felt least he should be distracted by them and betray'd into unavoidable destruction He should have stood firm in the presence of God and depended absolutely on his Light But relying too much upon himself he suffered his Understanding to be darkened by the relish of Sensual Pleasures or by a confus'd Sensation of a presumptuous Joy and being thus insensibly disunited from him who was his true Strength and the source of all his Happiness he was justly punished by the revolt of those Senses to which he had voluntarily submitted By which Punishment it seem'd that God had utterly forsaken him and that he would never any more vouchsafe to accept of his Love and had given him the Material World to be the Object of his Knowledge and Affection The Curse of God that was pronounc'd against Adam is fall'n upon all the Posterity of that rebellious Father God has withdrawn his presence from the World and instead of communicating himself to it does continually thrust it farther from him We suffer Pain when we seek God but we feel all sorts of Pleasures when being weary with following him through such rough and troublesome ways we joyn our selves to his Creatures The World does not clearly perceive that it ought to love God and that he alone ought to be the proper Object of its Affection but it feels in a very lively and alluring manner that it should love something else besides him and consequently it does not love God but flies from him continually and even is unable to turn to him It was shamefully driven out of Paradise in the Person of Adam it has forfeited its Title to God and lost the hope of Heaven and Happiness It is accurst and eternally accurst It is a Crime to wish well to it because it is and for ever shall be at enmity with God And even it cannot wish well to it self without doing it self an injury For by wishing well to it self it endeavours to break the establisht Order of Things it provokes the God of Order and increases the Hatred and Indignation of him to whom Vengeance belongs What can it thus do Shall it yield it self up to Fury and Despair and seek to be annihilated because it cannot enjoy God But annihilation it self is perhaps a Favour which it does not deserve and therefore shall not obtain We may indeed kill but cannot annihilate our selves and if Death were an annihilation it would not be in the power of Man to put an end to his Life What must we do then and what course must we take to regain our lost Happiness We must humble our selves before God we must hate our selves