certain distrust which the opinions wherewith it is prepossessed give it of all that 's contrary thereunto that Self-love accustom it self by little and little to suffer the reproach of being deceived and that it forget in some sort that it had taken another part All this has need of time and 't is ridiculous to pretend that because some suspicions relate to us that we ought out of hand to rid our selves of them and that mens minds ought to act in our consideration in an extraordinary manner 21. Perhaps there may be more evil in this niceness which makes us suffer with so much impatience the unjust suspicions men conceive of us than there are in these suspicions whereof we complain We judge of others according to our understanding those who have but little judge sometmes ill enough their hearts for all that not consenting much thereunto Oftentimes they have Charity for those they condemn unjustly and would be very willing â—o serve them Whereas this impatience which we experience in the evil judgments men make of us is a fault which certainly comes from the depravity of the heart and from the pride whereof it is full What do we know but God will permit sometime that men judge of us little favourably and that they suspect us wrongfully to make us more sensible of this wound and to give us means to heal it What do we know also but that he hath annexed our Salvation to the use of this means Thus in complaining of it we complain in reality of a favourable remedy God offers us We oppose the designs of his mercy towards us we contemn his favours and we refuse to enter into the way of salvation The Seventh Treatise That we ought not to be scandalized at good Mens faults â—eatus qui non fuerit scandalizatus me WHen Jesus Christ said Blessed is he who shall not be scandalized in me he gave us to understand by this expression that 't is a happiness very rare to be free from this scandal and by consequence that 't is a misery very frequent to fall into it Now if it be true that the number of these happy men be small and the number of these miserable Creatures great we have all a great interest to instruct our selves what it is to be scandalized in Jesus Christ and of the extent of this Word seeing that we would all be of that small number of these blessed and not of the great number of the miserable 2. Jesus Christ is properly a subject of scandal to those who know him not and he is unknown to men only because he is hidden from them We stumble not against a stone but only because we see it not We hurt not our selves against Jesus Christ but because we know not what he is Thus to be scandalized at Jesus Christ is not to know him and to contemn him through blindness and ignorance That which hides Jesus Christ from us is therefore that which makes Jesus Christ an occasion of scandal to us Now there are many things that hid him from men His Meanness his Poverty his Sufferings and all the marks of his Infirmity have hid him from the Jews They could not believe that this Messias whom they imagined to themselves ought to be environed round about with Pomp and Glory could be that miserable man they saw amongst them and who was not distinguished from other men by any exterior Luster They could not imagine that man whom they had crucified was the Author himself of Life and therefore St. Paul calls the Cross The Jews Scandal Judae is Scandalum 4. But they are not only the Jews who are scandalized at the weakness of Jesus Christ This scandal comprehends generally all those who love the World All those faith St. Austin who love what Jesus Christ disdained and who hate what he loved despise Jesus Christ For is it not to disdain his Wisdom to judge of things quite otherwise than he doth and to chuse quite contrary to him to think that a Good which he believed an Evil and an Evil what he thought a Good Now to disdain the wisdom of Jesus Christ is to disdain Jesus Christ and to be scandalized at him 5. O how great is this scandal and how common For how few are there who are exempt How few who esteem not men less when clad with the Liveries of Jesus Christ that is to say with his poverty and who inwardly honor them not more because they were those of his enemies which are the pomps of the world which St. Austin with reason calls the Devils raggs paunos Diaboli What are Princes Courts or rather what is the World but a place where it is a shameful thing to imitate Jesus Christ 6. But yet we may not fall into this scandal which is only proper to those who are possessed with wordly Love We may nevertheless say that there are few amongst the just themselves who participate perfectly of this happiness of not being scandalized at Jesus Christ not only because they have not always some inclination for things which Jesus Christ hath disdain'd but also because they are scandalized at him many other ways which are necessary to be consider'd 7. Not to be scandalized at Jesus Christ we ought to know him and to know him we ought to understand him entirely Now Jesus Christ entirely is not only the Head but also the Members He lives in them he is hidden in them Thus we take another for him when we despise him in his members wherein he is hid 8. It is much easier to contemn Jesus Christ in his Members then in himself because there he is more hidden He was not private in the world but by meanness of nature but he is often private in the faithful by many faults which Jesus hath not had and also by many faults which rob us sometimes of the splendor and the odour of their virtue and make us suspect that they had nothing in them but human And as this scandal is very dangerous we must embrace all ways imaginable to shun it 9. One of the principal ways is to comprehend well with what conditions Jesus Christ is hid in the faithful We must know for that that this Divine Kingdom which he came to establish in this world is an interior Kingdom Regnum Dei intra vos est He is hid in the bottom of the Soul where God resides with the Riches of his Grace without shewing often any splendor outwardly A Soul by the possession of this Kingdom becomes the object of Gods pleasure she becomes his Throne and Temple The Angels who know him discover therein all these grandeurs But men discover them only by certain obscure lights which make them appear in their actions and in the conduct of their lives all the rest is darkened by the infirmity of the flesh 10. This obscurity wherewith God covers in the World the Treasures of Grace which he puts into Souls produceth great Good and
who labour for nothing more than to deceive themselves and to entertain themselves in delusion Where is then this love of Truth wherewith we flatter our selves and what hatred for falsity may be found in men who according to Scripture seek nothing else 23. Nevertheless we may say that these Maxims have place in things Indifferent in which men taking no Interests at all do not in effect love to be deceived and prefer truth before falsity The which shews some natural love for Truth But it is seldom seen that this natural Inclination is free to act and that the mind is not prepossessed with some Passion which makes it incline more to one side than to another There needs scarcely any thing to make Self-love to deliberate It makes private and secret Interests even things wherein it seems to have none at all The least advance the least engagements the least inclination to please or to displease suffice to take away the ballance and to incline the minds to seek out reasons only on one side How many are there for example who have no reason to continue in an opinion but because there would be some trouble to examin the Contrary reasons They fly the pains of instructing themselves because it is laborious They will judge and decide because they will appear Learned and to satisfie at once these two inclinations they suppose without other examination that what they have formerly learn'd is true Taedio novae Curae semel placita pro aeternis servant 24. The chief and principal use we make of this love of truth is to persuade us that what we love is true For if we would do our selves Justice we should acknowledge that we love not things because they are true but that we believe them true because we love them Our minds are fixed to objects Independant of their truth and by the sole relation of these Inclinations But because they cannot enjoy them if they look upon them as false they endeavor in some sort to add thereto the Idea of truth that they may be fixed thereunto more firmly Quicunque aliud amant Aug. Con. l. 10.13 hoc quod amant volunt esse veritalem 25. We love truth in general as the common and general good For as we can love nothing which we do not think good likewise we can love nothing which we believe not to be true But self-Self-love knows very well how to conjoin these general Inclinations with particular Passions And as it makes us believe that what we love is good it makes us likewise believe that what we love is true that is to say we cannot love what is false under its proper and natural form and loving in effect many false and deceitful objects it finds means to represent them under the image of truth 26. This aversion so uniform and constant which is found amongst men for the truth which discovers them to themselves and this inclination so general of shunning the sight of their faults as their greatest misfortune gives way to believe that this common Maxim which calls them back to themselves and makes them to know themselves Nosce teipsum proceeds not from a common light persuading them that this knowledge is for their good and which makes them desire it but that it may well have its source in the knowledge of every mans heart who feeling himself incommodated with the vanity and the Injustice which he observes in others persuades him to seek and desire for them this knowledge which he neither seeks nor desires for himself 27. This thought is so much more likely as nothing shocks us more in the faults we observe in others then the blindness wherein we see they are in regard of themselves What is there more troublesome than a vain man who is taken up with nothing but himself and who would have men only to apply themselves to him who admires himself continually and who imagines that others do the same or that they are to blame if they do not And who is he who hath not a great inclination to tell persons of this opinion that they would do well to labor to know themselves to draw themselves out of those delusions wherein they are Nosoe teipsum 28. The World is full of people who observe other mens faults with an admirable Judgment who pardon them nothing and who being subject to the same or to greater faults themselves do not make the least reflection thereon The vainest persons most frequently laugh at other mens vanity Those who are Cheated most laugh at those whom they believe deceived The most unjust reproach others of their Injustice The sharpest men give sweet lessons The most prejudiced persons speak earnestly against prejudice The most opiniated are the first in accusing others of obstinacy It is very hard not to have a desire to advise these sort of people that they speak to themselves in speaking against others and not to tell them at least in their heart Nosce teipsum 29. When we see these ambitious men who heap enterprizes upon enterprizes who form designs to which many lives would not satisfie who trouble by their caprichios both their own and other mens quiet who never dream of death which threatens them every moment who imagine that others live only for them who devour with an insatiable Covetousness other mens Goods Who is it that does not find himself inclined to recal them to the knowledge of their mortal Conditions and to make them mindful that they are but men We feel the same motions in an infinite other rencounters as when we see people who for want of knowing themselves vndertake things infinitely above them and in which they cannot prosper who will do all because they judge and think themselves capable of all and who spoil all by their want of parts who glory in taking Counsels of no body who complain to others of their bad success that they have had by their imprudence In fine as the ignorance of ones self is found almost in all vices and is most what shocks us therein we should every moment endeavor to draw people out of their delusion in teaching them to know themselves if this motive were not witheld by others more powerful 30. We have right methinks to conclude from what I said but now that this Precept Know thou thy self in the mouth of those who have acted only by self-love was rather the effect of impatience and vexation stirred up by the faults that they see in others then by a clear sight of the necessity of this knowledge for every man in particular and for his proper good We would have others to know themselves to the end they might act in a less shocking manner in regard of us And yet we will not know our selves because we will not see in our selves what thwarts us therein nor think our selves obliged to labor to correct some faults in which we are very glad to continue We find means to foster our selves
these Objects which may be able to displease us in fixing our selves only to those which are pleasing to us in deceiving our selves willingly and in avoiding being deceived our vanity remains half satisfied and procures this fond Pleasure in which vain men place their false felicity 14. It is yet more easy that the great ones and generally all those whom it is our intent to please do entertain themselves in this Illusion because instead of making for our selves only one Portraiture of other men we may in some sort make two the one interiour which is true the other exteriour wherein we paint nothing but what we judge may please them and great care is taken afterwards to set before their eyes only this false Picture and to endeavour to make them take that for the true one Without doubt they would easily hinder themselves from being deceived therein and might convince themselves if they would that there is nothing so false and so vain as all these Testimonies of Esteem and Aflection which men shew them They know often what they think thimselves of those to whom they return the like and they have no reason to judge others more sincere then themselves But they are easily held back in this point and do not dive so deep into these things They content themselves therefore with this deceitful Surface they leave there these interiour portraitures which they fear to discover and they make a stop only at these flattering Pictures which are made purposely to draw from them what we pretend thereby 15. We make use of the same preparation to hinder that the faults and miseries of others and the Judgment which we see made of them and which we our selves make of them do not call us to our selves nor discover to us our own juglings Wit assisted by self-love doth cut off all the reflections it can make or applies it self so little thereunto that they make scarcely any Impression at all We hear every hour people who deceive themselves spoken of with scorn We see that they are the common objects of mens disdain because there is nothing more ridiculous then a man deceived and deceived by his own vanity Nevertheless we do not think that we are those ridiculous and deceived men let men say of us in our absence what is faid of others before us let us give therein as much Subject as they and let there be no appearance that they have more respect for us then for all the rest How frequent and how certain soever these objects may be they have not more force to oblige the mind to enter into it self and there to see the same faults and the same miseries then it sees in others Think we more on death for hearing or for seeing the death of those with whom we have lived We fly his Spectacle if we can if we cannot fly it yet we endeavour to fly the reflections it ought to produce If we cannot stifle them absolutely we turn away from them with what expedition possible What I have said of Death may be said of all the other Miseries and of all Human Frailties which may be able to represent ours to us These Images strike us at every moment but we endeavour as often to resist and not to be daunted We deceive our selves if we can and if we cannot do it absolutely at least we strive to turn our thoughts another way 16. What should we say of a man who seeing his Picture every day in a Looking glass and seeing it therein continually should not know it and would never say Behold I am here should we not accuse him of stupidity little different from folly This nevertheless is what all men do and it is likewise the only secret they have found to make themselves happy They see every moment the Image of their own selves I mean of their own proper faults in those of others and yet they will not acknowledge them To be full of Miseries and not to see them to be ignorant of our faults when no body else is to be the Subject of most peoples laughter and not willing to know any thing of it to feed our selves with vain Imaginations being unwilling to know that they are vain is a condition which doth not seem very desirable and yet it is this which is the delight of worldly men and chiefly of the great ones 17. 'T is by these means we are interrupted from seeing the Truth when we should use some care and application to find it But there are some rencounters wherein Truth shews it self to us and in which we should be forced to see it if we did not use Cunning to avoid it For some times we find men Charitable enough to try to free us from the delusions wherein we live in respect of our selves self-love therefore endeavours to banish this inconvenience wants not yet the way to prosper therein For it expresses so much Melancholy and evil humour to those who would do us this good Office it finds so many pretences not to believe what is discovered to us of our faults it is so ingenious to find out some greater in those who observe ours and to make the judgments which are made to our disadvantage pass for wicked that there is hardly any body will hazard to tell them us The general Principle that self-self-love inspires us with is That we condemn nothing in us by a motive of Equity and Justice So when any one shews that he does not approve of us in every thing we attribute to him the Idea of prevention of jealousie or some other less favourable And as no body loves to be looked so upon there is formed amongst men a kind of Conspiration to dissemble the opinions which they have one of another and there is no agreement which is better preserved then that because it is grounded upon the sentiment of self-love from which few or none are exempt 18. We must not think that men do not take care to hide the Truth only in respect of those whom they fear or from whom they hope something They do the same almost in respect of all the World Men apply themselves more to deceive great men but they do not apply themselves to undeceive those of meaner quality This is all the difference that 's made between the one and the other They love not to be hated by any body so they do not love to tell truth to any one They know on the contrary that to make it be received there should be many niceties moderations and many studied inventions Now men will not take this pains for people they do not value So we do not tell the Truth to Persons of Quality because it is not our interest to do it Nor to those of meaner degree because we have not Interest enough to tell it them 19. This reserve that men keep amongst themselves in avoiding the Communicating the thoughts they have to the disadvantage of one another is not
nevertheless without Limits And there is reason sometimes which persuades them to dispence therewith There needs also often but a little provocation to noise abroad on a suddain what we had kept secret for a long time And moreover we have not been reserved in this manner but in speaking to the persons themselves whose faults were known to us But that which we dissembled in their presence we speak ordinarily more freely in their absence as we have had then more trouble to refrain It is true we govern our selves a little more reservedly in respect of those who can hurt us and we use more precaution to discover what men think of them But as it is an unsufferable Constraint to hide always these our sentiments the desire which we have to free our selves from them makes us easily put on Confidence enough to trust those to whom we speak and that there wants little or no reasons to incline us to declare our selves with freedom Now although these wicked Prodigalities which happen so often in the discourses men make are in themselves a very great evil seeing that whereas Charity doth oblige to tell Persons themselves of their faults to give them thereby means to Correct them and to hide them from others to favour them we do ordinarily quite contrary and speak of these faults to all the world except to those to whom it should be necessary to speak of them There might happen nevertheless from thence some good if we had a care to profit thereby Because these particular discourses spreading themselves by little and little and forming a publick Clamour there returns often thereby something to the ears of them it concerns because there are many found who having not Charity or Force enough to tell themselves what they think are glad to be discharged thereof by attributing it to others It would be then a means for those to whom it is discovered to draw them out of that Delusion wherein they live But we have such deceitful hearts and so full of aversion from any thing of Truth that we abuse very often this means and render it useless to our selves For instead of judging of these discourses and these opinions by which we are detracted as we ought they are spread abroad amongst an infinite number of persons and so we have not right to complain thereof to any particular body the inclination we have to deceive ourselves causeth us to turn all our malice against him who is charged therewith We persuade our selves that he is single in his opinion that he hath not entred thereupon but through hate or interest and that there is no man of sense and reason who does not condemn it We attribute to him likewise some Imprudence or some excess for pretending more right to reject those advices and by the means of this voluntary delusions we stifle the impression which these discourses might imprint in us we conserve our selves in the esteem we have of our selves and we avoid in some sort seeing what the world disapproved because it is an object or spectacle which vanity is not able to suffer 20. I have said that we shunt it in some sort because we do not shun it absolutely Truth always makes it self a little light through all those Clouds wherewith men strive to obscure it there pass always some rayes which incommode Pride and which trouble this false quiet which it endeavors to procure it self These opinions which are grounded only upon a voluntary error are never firm and sure They are always mixed with Mistrust and consequently with melancholy trouble and molestation So instead of this pure Joy and this full and entire satisfaction which self-love aimeth at all it can do with all its wiles is to suspend for some time the sentiments of sadness which are nourished at the bottom of the heart and which are always ready to seize thereon 21. These are the natural sentiments of Self-love and the addresses it makes use of to conceal our faults and to hinder people from telling us of them And it is remarkable that as it is in it self a very great fault not to see the truth so self-Self-love does not allow it no more than others self-Self-love does not use less artifice to disguise it to others then to our selves And therefore we see few or none who do not esteem it an honour to love truth and who do grant sincerely that they are not at quiet until it be discovered to them We are offended with this reproach as much as with any other and in a word we would have the glory to love Truth and the satisfaction never to hear it But as these two Passions in some sort do not hold together we endeavor to accord them in giving something to the one and to the other It is true that as it is Self-love which causeth this difference so it makes it very unequal For it brings it about that we are never told of those essential faults to which we are inclined by a quick and active Passion that we dissemble to those which get us ill will from men and which would give occasion to despise our selves and to believe that 't is with reason that others do slight us All the liberty therefore that we give to others upon this subject is to mind us of some small faults which do not disfigure the Image we have of our selves and which suffers the whole beauty thereof to remain Velut si egregio Impressos reprehendas Corpore naevos So we suffer men to declare their opinions of a Discourse or of a Writing which we have made to find fault therein with some expressions not very Just some bad Cadence some place neglected conditionally nevertheless that they esteem the design of it the Judgment the Oeconomy and the other more essential parts We pardon likewise those who advertise us of some want of respect of management and other trifles of this nature provided they do not touch upon our principal Passions and that all they observe in us may subsist with the esteem and approbation of the generality 'T is on these Conditions and at this rate we resolve with our selves sometimes to purchase glory love truth and give it some entrance yet it must be Self-love which opens it to it and that it be accompanied with testimonies of esteem and affection not to be slighted 22. In the second Part we shall speak more particularly of the ways men use to hinder that truth trouble them not in the esteem and love of themselves But what we have already said may suffice to shew that we extend too much those common Maxims that men naturally love truth that they have a natural aversion for what is false and that there being an Infinite of persons who would deceive others there are none at all who would be deceived seeing that it appears on the contrary that the world is almost composed of nothing but wilful blind people who hate and fly the light and
man ought to resist all his life by endeavouring to know himself and by embracing all means which may help him therein and which we are going to shew in this second Part. Of the Knowledge of Ones self Second Part. Containing Means to Acquire it WE have endeavoured in the first Part of this Treatise only to make the knowledge of ones self desired We suppose in this here that desire quite formed and joined to a sincere resolution of labouring to acquire this knowledge There is nothing more to be done but to put those who are so well disposed into the way that leads to it and to open to them the most proper means to attain thereunto And we may first tell them that this desire is one of the Principallest of them and that it would suffice to produce this effect if it were full and entire For there is this difference betwixt this knowledge and that of objects which are out of us we may be ignorant of other things how desirous soever we may be to know them but we continue not in the ignorance of our selves but only because we do not desire absolutely to forsake it and we nourish in the bottom of our hearts a secret disowning of truth It is this which in us opposes the light of God and hinders it from penetrating our understandings Without that it would make us see clearly into all the foulds of our hearts it would advertise us of all our dangers and we should have need of no other thing to make us know our selvés perfectly but to expose our selves to these Divine beans 2. We have shewn in the first Part that this miserable Inclination was become natural to man since sin and we must add here that grace never destroys it absolutely and that whatsoever desire it inspires us with not to blind our selves there rests always as we may say in the bottom of the old man an inclination towards this voluntary blindness which is observed by these words of Jesus Christ That every man who does ill Omnis qui male agit odit lucem non venit ad lucem ut non manifestentur opera ejus hates the light and comes not to the light that his works may not be known For as there is no man who doth not incline to evil consequently there is none who hath not some aversion for the light which discovers it to him But also as that inclination to evil which sin hath imprinted in out Souls doth not hinder God from Imprinting therein by his grace a contrary Inclination which inclines us to Good and to Justice This natural disowning which we have of Truth hinders not God from breathing into us a contrary Inclination which makes us love and search Truth We are only obliged to acknowledge that our heart is divided That we love not absolutely truth that there are two opposite weights and inclinations in us so that if we have reason to give thanks to God because he hath given us some love for Truth we have also reason to humble our selves in beholding our selves according to this other inclination as Enemies to this same Truth 3. There is nothing that makes us better to comprehend the greatness of mans disorder then the sight of this miserable Propensity we feel in our selves For God being the Truth the Light the Justice to hate the Light the Truth the Justice is to hate God himself Nevertheless man hates them He would gladly that this Truth were not that this light were extinguished and that this Justice were abolisht that is to say he would that there were no God He wisheth that there were an annihilation of it and not being able to destroy it in his proper being he destroys it as much as he can for himself by shutting his eyes against the sight of Truth Behold that condition in which we are not only born but wherein yet we are partly engaged and from whence we ought to endeavour to free our selves by lessening as much as we shall be able this natural aversness we have for Truth and by labouring to encrease in us what God hath given us of love for it It is good to exercise our selves more about this work to convince our selves of the weakness of this love We may easily do it in considering how much a perfect and sincere love of which the heart is possessed as is that of an Usurer for his money is different from the love we have or that we flatter our selves to have for the Truth 4. An Usurer inclines continually towards gain the means that are given him thereof enter always without resistance they are alway received with a sincere Joy and without opposition There needs no studied management nor moderation to make them agreeable Every man is welcome to propose them Friends Enemies Acquaintances Strangers Inferiors Equals Superiors and he is far from conceiving any bitterness against those who make him any Overture to encrease his Wealth it would be a certain means to sweeten him if he were angry at them He does not amuse himself in finding out reasons to reject these advices nor ever takes occasion to examin the defects of those who give them He is not scrupulous in manners in the behaviour in the intentions He only seeks to assure himself of the truth of what hath been told him and examining it sincerely he fears nothing but being deceived therein Behold in what manner we ought to love Truth and the Model the Wise Man proposeth to us in ordering us to seek it as Money and we may see there that we love it so little and seek it so imperfectly that the contrary to what we have said of this Usurer may be said of us For our hearts are hardly ever open on that side Truth presents it self It finds there always resistance and never enters but by violence and force and if sometimes it be in appearance gratefully received it is always with some inward remorse of some superficial joy with which we distinguish it No man is proper to make us know it and self-love is almost never wanting to furnish us with Reproaches against those who undertake it Rhetorick hath neither Cunning nor delicateness enough to insinuate it without hurting us We allways find excess in the things defects in the Grace in the manner and in the time and in stead of applying our mind sincerely to the examination of what is proposed to us we apply it only in an unprofitable search of their defects who have given these Counsels This is the protraiture of the Spirit and the Conduct of the most part of men The lineaments are more observed in some then in others but there are very few in whom some foot-steps of them do not appear 5. At least let us not flatter our selves with a Virtue which we have not and let us beware of saying as many do That we desire nothing so much as to know our selves and that they can do us no greater
of our selves which is very humble We can make no progress in the study of our selves but in correcting this fault and taking a quite contrary way which is to force the Mind to consider its faults and imperfections with a serious application to annex one to another according as they are discovered to endeavour to search to the bottom of it to examin the cause of the passions not to think they can be easily destroyed being sometime without action and to make use of this Image to humble our selves before God and Man In a word we must act in this Study almost as if we had undertaken to labour all our life time to draw our Portractures that is to say we must add every day some strokes with the Pencil but not put out what is already drawn therein so we shall observe sometimes one passion sometimes another To day we shall discover one delusion of self-Self-love tomorrow another And by that means we shall form by little and little a Portraiture so like that we shall see every moment even what we are so that we shall have reason to say continually to our selves behold what I am See here what I have loved so much and could wish that the whole World might be the object of its esteem and affection 20. We must not forget amongst the multitude of our faults those which being only outward and involuntary render us not properly guilty before God For those are they which oftentimes humble us the most in our own thoughts because we are so vain that we ordinarily judge of our selves rather according to the report of men than truth Moreover these Faults rendring us uncapable of certain actions and employments ought to have place in the deliberations which we make of entring or not entring into diverse engagements which might be proposed to us Lastly as they make commonly many Impressions upon the minds of others we are obliged to be very circumspect therein because we ought partly to regulate our behaviour concerning this Impression which opens to us or shuts the entrance to their Hearts and disposes them to stumble or not to stumble at our Actions 21. Faults and Vertues ought equally to be the object of this Examen because we must endeavour to know the extent and the greatness of these Faults and the limits and imperfections of these Vertues The one and the other is necessary to form a true Idea of our selves and we are equally deceived in the one and in the other by the inclination Self-love gives us to hide or lessen what we have that 's naught and to expose to view or to encrease what we have that 's good 22. We ought not to judge simply of the greatness and the extent of these faults in relation to the consequences and the effects they have had but in relation to the consequences and the effects they may have if God hinder them not because there is no passion but may be the cause of our utter ruin Inconstancy a little motion of choler a word of vanity an inordinate desire a want of circumspection may oftentimes be followed with consequences which may change the whole state of our life We shall know it clearly in the next world and God will let us see there that he hath made us escape a world of dangers into which the weight of our Concupiscence would have drawn us headlong if he had not stopped the course of it And we may likewise know some part thereof in this life if we reflect upon what might happen to us from all the faults which we have committed and on the excesses whereunto our passions might have carried us if they had been violently excited by the objects and favoured by occasions and not hindred by the obstacles which God placed there to keep them within certain boundaries which make us acknowledge that 't is not through our moderation and wisdom that we have escap'd these great inconveniences but meerly by Gods mercy 23. We must take away in the Examen of Vertues which we believe we have what there is purely natural and wherein Grace hath no share at all For God who ought to be the rule of all our judgments makes no account of what comes from Nature The effects of custome and habit which is nothing but another Nature must be taken away There must be an absolute depriving our selves from the desire we have to please Men and from other secret considerations from interests and passions because all that is very bad We must separate from it what we have destroyed by our ingratitude and our sins because that not subsisting in the eyes of God ought not to subsist in ours We must consider how many of these Vertues such as they are have little extent force and solidity with how small zeal we carry our selves therein and after all these separations we must ask our selves what we have yet remaining 24. Not only good Qualities and Virtues are nothing in the sight of God being destroyed by Crimes but without having committed any they become often useless and even render us culpable by the little use we make of them Because the gifts of God include always some new obligation He expects more from those to whom he hath given most We owe him for the interest of his Favours and Graces and if we fail to give it him he would rather we had not received them If he hath given us a favourable natural Condition if he hath preserved us from temptations which carry away most part of others if we have had little to contest within our selves if he hath given us some good qualities of mind some propensity and inclination to vertue Lastly if he hath bestowed on us vertue it self we ought to look upon all that as Talents from God yet only conditionall to encrease them so that if we know we have not performed it there is nothing ought to give us more confusion and fear 25. We ought above all to consider the ill use we have made of all the Truths God hath been pleased to discover to us be it in the elevating us thereby inwardly or outwardly be it in prophaning them by indiscreet entertainments or that we make use of them not to contemn or despise our selves but others For that is the use or rather the most common abuse that men make thereof 'T is impossible that those who know the Truths of the Gospel should not see at the same time how little they are observed by a great many who at other times make profession of Piety We may see that they want light in many points and that they commit divers considerable faults And malice placing it self on that side takes delight in busying it self about these defects It exaggerates them it stuffs it self with them and thereby disswades the Mind from whatever might be able to edifie it in those in whom we observe them Every thing wounds and shocks these so clear-sighted but little charitable Men If
that on the contrary we know it not and that we have also on the outward appearance of the mind a quite different thought But Self-love which resides in the bottom of the Soul knows how to prosper there without our making any express reflections See here the Artifice self-love makes use of We have two sorts of faults the first which are the object of our Affection and which we will not acknowledge for faults for fear of being obliged to disanul them the others that we really condemn are those which we have no inclination to and from which we would very willingly be delivered self-Self-love makes us therefore first choose a Ghostly Father who ought to Judge of us almost as we would desire Afterwards it makes as it were a kind of Covenant and Bargain with him self-Self-love tells him the faults it loves not it is content that he find fault with them as it would it self But the Object of its principal Passions it scarcely puts under the Censure of the Confessor and only chooses him thinking that he will not concern himself with them Therefore first we justifie our Passions to our selves and at last we seek a Ghostly Father to justifie them In a word we would have one who might not outgo us in direction and who would conform in every thing that is we would he should approve and condemn what we our selves approve and condemn 39. 'T is that which is the cause that there being even amongst those who profess Piety so many strange and irregular Conducts there is hardly any one nevertheless who wants a Director if he will have one and this Director is of no use to those that would choose him in this manner but to stifle their remorses and to make them live more quietly in the condition out of which they have no desire to depart Thus we may define a Director in respect of the most part of the World a charitable Censurer of small faults and light defects and an Approver of passions which we will not remove We would not have a Director who would not find fault at all and we would not have one neither who touches upon our beloved passions These two Conditions are both equally essential because as it would be troublesome if he did pretend to contradict us in what we resolve absolutely to do he would serve our Self-love but ill if he did not contradict us in some thing our intention being to make use of his zeal against certain faults to authorise us in those we would not acknowledge for such 40. Therefore t is not sufficient to have a Director nor even to have one learned We must moreover abandon our selves to him without dissimulation and artifice and resolve to conform our selves to the judgment he makes of us and not to incline him to follow ours Lastly we must be ready to learn from him to know our selves better and be glad of his aid and assistance therein without prescribing him limits 'T is the disposition all the World ought to be in but 't is not necessary that it be perfect or rather it is impossible that it should be so Because there is no man upon Earth who hath humility enough and force to support without being discouraged and afraid of the sight of the least sin in its natural greatness and it is true to say of all our known sins in their greatest extent what the Scripture said of God Non videbit me homo vivet Thus to take a proportionable Conduct both of the necessity we all have of Truth and to the weakness which renders us incapable of undergoing it in all its force we must wish ardently to know it We must embrace with docility what is discovered of it to us we must believe that we are mightily spared and labour nevertheless to become more strong to the end we may be less obliged to spare our selves 41. We would doubtless advance hugely in this self-knowledge if we really had this disposition in the heart by treating with the Confessor we have chosen But we must however not grant only to this Confessor the right of discovering to us our faults and the evil consequences of our actions On the contrary It would be just to stretch this right as far as we can possible and to give it also in some sort to all the World seeing there is not any to whom we are not answerable and whom we are not able to hurt and scandalize How circumspect soever a Confessor may be he sees not always our actions he hears not all we say he knows not always the impressions our words and our actions make upon others and it is scarcely except from those who perceive them that they can be learnt One should therefore learn the custom of being less delicate in this point and give all the world an honest liberty Possibly we should receive oftentimes advertisements less censurable But if we will receive only those which shall appear altogether reasonable we shall receive none at all For men will never charge themselves with so severe an exactness and they will much sooner loose the Party by saying nothing at all to us than expose themselves to hurt us if what they should say did not appear to us absolutely just We must on the other side suppose that every one being prepossessed on the one part that he loves not to be admonished of his faults and on the other unwilling to show any aversion upon him is disposed by this means to free himself from rendring us this charitable office and to tell us nothing what he thinks of us nor what he knows others think of us Thus except we remove this obstacle and go as it were before Truth in exciting others to tell it us in testifying to them in an unsuspected manner that we think our selves in some sort obliged that they should do it and thus dispersing the fear they have of rendring themselves odious they will always observe with us this deceitfull reservedness which entertains and keeps us in ignorance of many things which would be very necessary to be known 42. We must not imagin that it is sufficient to receive without being moved the advices which are given us and to thank those who run the hazzard of giving us them For it is well enough known to all the World that as it is a shame to shew that one is offended at them so we endeavour to do our selves honour in being civil upon these occasions But we must persuade People that these civilities are sincere and it is that which cannot be without shunning many things which the World take for marks of a secret discontent and spite which we are afraid to discover 43. We must not pretend for example that they ever take the liberty to advise us of any thing if they see that we have no union and tye but with those who enter absolutely into all our Sentiments and that we testifie to all others nothing but
believe the quite contrary what they say and contemn as much in their hearts those to whom they give them as they do testifie outwardly esteem for them The second is drawn from the nature of some Praises which they choose For they take ordinarily the substance of things truly Praise-worthy which they falsly attribute to those they desire to flatter Thus those to whom whom we give Praises ought not to conclude from thence neither That they have these qualities effectively which are attributed to them nor that there are people who believe it but only these qualities are Praisable in themselves and that it were to be wished that they had them that is to say that they might learn by that not what they are but what they ought to be 'T is a reflexion St. Augustine made upon the Praise Cicero gave to Caesar To forget nothing but Injuries Nihil oblivisci nisi Injurias Dicebat hoc said he tam magnus Laudator aut tam magnus Adulator sed si Laudator talem Caesarem noverat si autem Adulator talem esse debere ostendebat principem Civitatis qualem illum fallaciter praedicabat What Cicero said to Caesar said this Father was either a greas praise or a great Flattery If it was a Praise he ought to believe that Caesar was really such an one If it was a flattery he shewed always thereby that he who Commands an Estate ought to have these qualities which he attributed falsly to Caesar The third thing that Flattery teacheth us is of the same kind as the first 'T is that the Flatterer believes not only what he says but he imagins moreover that he whom he flatters is Fool enough to let himself be deceived by his flatteries and to take them for sincere Praises And as we cannot approve false Praises but by flattering our selves every Flatterer condemns in himself of illusion and vanity that man to whom he addresses his flatteries This is the Judgment of it Lastly as it is by Interest and not by inclination that we are inclined to flattery and that we make use thereof only as a means to obtain of the great ones what we pretend flatterers must judge That those to whom they give these false Praises are mightily in love with themselves to be gained by such gross deceits So that if all that is in the mind of a Flatterer were laid open and explicated it might he reduced to this strange Complement Sir I belive nothing of these Praises I give you I have for you all the just disdain you deserve but knowing that you are vain enough to believe that men have in their heart the Sentiments of Esteem which I shew you and that the excess of love you have for your selfe will be able to dispose you to do me the favours I desire I thought that to obtain them I ought to attempt a way which ought to bring the contrary Behold what the Great may see in the minds of most people who Praise them if they can add to the expression of these Flatterers what they are able to gather from their thoughts But as that would incommode them they had rather penetrate less and stick at the appearances of words And 't is by the knowledge men have of this disposition that they run the hazard to use this wicked means 54. The language of silence is what silence it self makes known in the minds of those who are silent for certain Considerations For Example when we avoid speaking of a certain fault before Great men that signifies we believe them subject to it and that we are afraid lest they should take to themselves what might be said of it In like manner when in their presence we omit to praise certain Persons it is interpreted that we imagin they love them not and that they have a prejudice against them Thus they need but to observe the Discourses that are forborn before them to know what prejudices and what faults are laid to their charge And as nothing is spoken of so much in mens absence as things which we dare not speak in their presence they may also judge by these Discourses which we never make before them what are those which are often discoursed of when we are far removed from them 55. The practice of these means is not only usefull to make us know many defects which we are ignorant of but it is very proper to obtain of God the assistance of his Lights in this study of our selves to which we apply our selves Nevertheless what progress we may make therein we must not pretend ever to arrive at that pitch of knowing our selves perfectly Man hath always in his heart so long as he is in this life some abuses impenetrable to all these diligent searches And it is likewise one part of the Knowledge we may have of our selves to comprehend that we do not know our selves with assurance in what even appears most Essential and most important For we never know certainly what is called the bottom of the Heart or that first propensity of the Soul which makes her either belong to God or the Creature I would say that we know not certainly that we belong to God altho we may know assuredly that we are not so We know not with an entire assurance the Habitation of God in the Soul as in his Temple because 't is an attendant of the first Propensity of the Heart We know not absolutely in the particular actions whether the Love of God is the Principle of them or whether Nature and Custom did not borrow the Form of the Love of God None knows absolutely if his sins be forgiven he knows not the precise degree of his weakness or force he knows not what God imputes or not imputes to us of the continual productions of our Concupiscences Lastly We know not evidently either the nearness or the remoteness of God For often we think we have Grace when the Mind is taken up only with thoughts and quite natural motimotions and often even we take for motives of Nature the Operations of Grace We ought therefore suppose that with all our Study and all our diligent Scrutinies we shall always remain unknown to our selves in this Life But as this necessary Ignorance is in the Order of God we bear it humbly and believe likewise that it is necessary for us to continue therein There is nothing but voluntary Ignorance that we ought to shun because it is contrary to this Order 56. In a word we ought not to desire to know our selves more than God pleaseth And God will not that we know our selves more than is necessary to make us humble and to govern our selves Thus every Application to dive to the bottom of the Heart which is not inclosed within its limits is not agreeable to God nor usefull to us We must not therefore busie our selves in such a manner about our faults lest that under pretence of avoiding Presumption we fall into despair and
trouble Therefore whatever may be said of this Portraiture which we must attempt to make of our selves if it happen nevertheless that we were so frighted at these Objects that the Soul might thereby be overwhelmed it would be better a great deal to turn it another way and to busie it only about Gods Mercies 57. Care yet ought to be had in the whole Examination of our actions and interior motions to do our selves the same justice that we think we are obliged to do to others that is to say not to condemn our selves without Evidence It is true that we are ignorant whether our better Actions are good and agreeable to God but yet we know much less whether they are disagreeable There are intermixt therewith many human and corrputed Considerations but we cannot tell whether they be voluntary and what part thereof we have whether they are not pure motives of Concupiscence which God doth not impute to us or temptations of the Enemy which render us yet less guilty We acknowledge in us a great stock of Corruption but this stock whatever it be doth not render us guilty when there is another stock of the Love of God and Justice which possesseth our hearts We have committed and we commit hourly an Infinity of faults but God pardons also hourly this infinity of faults when we return to him with a true and sincere humility And thus we cannot tell whether these faults do subsist before his eyes What therefore must be done in this Ignorance We must humble our selves under the Hand of God but not condemn our selves because that would be to attribute to our selves a Knowledge which we have not 58. Lastly The principal Precaution that ought to be had in the study of ones Self is not to apply ones self so absolutely to it but joyn it always with the infinite Mercies of God which surpass so much all our miseries that they are only as a drop of water in the Ocean 'T is therefore in this immense Sea that we must drown them with an entire confidence Considered in themselves they are great but compared to the infinite Greatness of Gods Love for us and the price he hath given to deliver us they are nothing They ought to humble us without casting us down as the Mercy of God to comfort us without elevating us God was willing to give us these two great objects of our misery and his Mercy to keep our Soul in Aequilibrio or even ballance There is always danger in considering the one without the other but the uinon of these two Considerations establish the Soul in the true state wherein she ought to be during this Life which is that of the wholsom fear grounded upon the consideration of our miseries and an humble confidence maintained by Gods Mercy The Second Treatise Of Charity and Self-love 1. Altho there is nothing so opposite to Charity which relates all to God as Self-love which relates all to it self yet there is nothing so resembling the effects of Charity as those of Self-love For it marches so by the same ways that one can hardly point out those better whereunto Charity ought to carry us than in proposing those which Self-love takes which knows its true Interests and inclines by reason to the end it proposes it self 2. This conformity of Effects in Principles so different will not appear strange to those who shall have well considered the nature of Self-love But to know it he must first consider self-Self-love in it self and in its first bent that he may see afterwards what carrieth him to disguise and hide it from the sight of the World 3. The name of self-Self-love is not sufficient to make us know its nature being we may love our selves divers ways We must add thereunto other qualities to form to our selves a true Idea of it These qualities are that Man doth not only love himself but he loves himself without limits and without measure loves only himself and refers all to himself He covets all sort of Riches Humors Pleasures and desires none but for or in relation to himself He makes himself the Center of all he would Lord it over all and could wish that all Creatures were only employed to content him to praise him and to admire him This tyrannical disposition being stamped in the bottom of all mens Hearts renders them violent unjust cruel ambitious flatterers envious insolent and quarrellous In a word it includes the seeds of all the crimes and of all the misdemeanors of men from the smallest even to the most detestable ones See here what a monster we harbour in our bosoms This monster lives and reigns in us absolutely except God destroy its empire by putting another love into our hearts It is the Principal of all our actions which have no other then corrupted Nature And so far is it from terrifying us that we love and hate all things which are out of us only as they are conform or contrary to our Inclinations 4. But if we love it in our selves we are far from using it so when we perceive it in others It appears then to us on the contrary under its natural form and we hate it by so much more as we love our selves because self-Self-love of other men opposes all the desires of ours We would that all others should love us admire us buckle under us and that they should be busied with the care of satisfying us And they have not only no desire thereto but they look upon us as ridiculous in pretending to it and they are ready to do all not only to hinder us from succeeding in our desires but to make us obnoxious to theirs and to require the same things of us Behold then by this means all men at difference one with another And if he who hath said that Men are born in a state and condition of War and that each man is naturally an enemy to all other men had a mind only to represent by these words the disposition of the Hearts of men one towards another without pretence of passing it for legitimate and just he would have said a thing as conform to Truth and Experience as that which is maintained is contrary to Reason and Justice 5. It cannot possibly be imagined how there can be formed Societies Common-wealths and Kingdoms out of this multitude of People full of passions so contrary to Union and who only endeavour the ruin of one another But self-Self-love which is the cause of this war will easily tell the way how to make them live in peace It loves Domination it loves to enslave all the World to it but it loves yet more life and convenientness and an easie life more than Domination and sees clearly that others are no ways disposed to suffer themselves to be domineered over and are sooner ready to take away from it the Goods it loves best Each man sees himself in an impossibility of succeeding by force in the designs which his
Ambition suggests to him and apprehends likewise the loosing by that violence of others the essential Goods he possesseth 'T is that which obliges at first to submit ones self to the care of his own Preservation and there is no other way found for that but to unite ones self with others to beat back by force those who undertake to deprive us both of our lives and fortunes And to strengthen this Union laws are made and punishments ordered for those who violate them Thus by the means of tortures and gibbets set up in publick the thoughts and tyrannical designs of every particular mans Self-love are withheld 6. Fear of death is then the first tye of Civil society and the first check of Self-love 'T is that which forceth Men what aversion soever they may have to obey the Laws and which makes them in such a manner forget these vast thoughts of Domination that they hardly are raised any more in the thoughts of the most part of them so impossible they see it is for them to prosper therein Thus seeing themselves excluded from the open violence they are constrained to seek other ways and to substitute craft for force and they find therein no other means than to endeavour to content the Self-love of those whom they have need of instead of tyrannizing over them Some endeavour to make it fit for their Interests others employ flattery to gain it Gifts are bestowed to obtain it This is the source and foundation of all Commerce practised amongst men and which is varied a thousand ways For they do not truck merchandises for merchandises or for mony but they mutually traffick I mean they make a trade also of labours and toyls of services done of diligence and assiduity of civility and Men exchange all that either for things of the same nature or for real goods as when by vain complacencies we obtain Effective commodities 'T is thus that by the means and help of this Commerce all necessaries for this life are in some fort supplied without intermixing Charity with it So that in Estates where Charity hath no admittance because true Religion is banished from thence men do not cease to live with as much peace safety and commodiousness as if they were in a Republick of Saints 7. 'T is not that this tyrannical Inclination which makes us have a desire to rule and govern by force over others is not always lively in the hearts of Men. But as they see themselves unable to prosper therein they are forced to dissemble it untill they are strengthened by gaining others by sweet ways to have afterwards the means to bring others to their bent by force Every one therefote is mindfull at first to occupy the first Rank of the Society he is of and when he sees himself excluded he thinks of those which follow In a word he extolls himself the most he can and he humbles himself only by constraint In every state and in every condition he endeavors always to acquire to himself some Preheminence Authority Intendency Consideration Jurisdiction and to dilate his power as much as he can Princes wage war with their Neighbors that they may enlarge the limits of their Estates The Officers of several Companies in one and the same Country undertake and intrude upon one another They strive to supplant them and to humble each other in all their Employs and in all their Offices And if the wars which are made there are not so bloody as those which Princes make 'T is not because the passions are not as quick and sharp but 't is for the most part because they dread the punishment which the Laws threaten to those who have recourse to violent ways 8. I see nothing more proper to represent this Spiritual world formed by Concupiscence then the Idea which some Philosophers give us of the material World made by Nature that is to say of that Assembly of Bodies which compose the Universe Because we see there that every part of Matter tends naturally to move and to dilate it self and to issue out of its place but being pressed by other Bodies it is confin'd too kind of prison from whence it escapes so soon as it finds that it has more power and force than the matter wherewith it is environed Behold already the Picture of Constraint whereto the Self-love of each particular is reduced by that of others which does not permit it to set it self out at large so much as it would We are going to see all the motions in the sequel of this Comparison For these little confi'nd Bodies coming to muster up their forces and their motions do form great heaps of matter which Philosophers call Whirlwinds which are as States and Kingdoms And these Whirlwinds are themselves pressed and imprisoned by other Whirlwinds as it were by neighbouring Kingdoms They likewise will that in each Whirlwind there are formed other small ones which following the general motions of the great Bodies which draw them have nevertheless a particular motion which doth force yet other small Bodies to turn round about them which represents the Grandees of State who follow them in such a manner that they have their particular Interests and are as the Center of a quantity of People who fix themselves to their Fortune Lastly as these little Bodies drawn by the Whirlwinds do yet turn as much as they can upon their own Center so likewise the little ones which follow the fortune of the Grandees and that of the State do not forbear with all their endeavours and all their services which they render them to look upon themselves and to have always their own proper Interest in prospect 9. That which self-love covets particularly in Soveraignty is that we be regarded and looked upon by others as great and powerful and that we stir up in their hearts motions of respect and submission conform to these Ideas But however it may be the Impressions which are most agreeable to it are not yet the only ones wherewith self-self-love doth nourish it self It generally loves all those things which are favourable to it as admiration respect constancy and chiefly love There are many who scarcely do what they ought to make them beloved but there are none who do not desire to be loved and who do not behold with great pleasure this Propensity in others turned towards them which is that which is called love What if it appear that we labour not much to obtain this love 'T is because we had rather give sentiments of fear and submission under Greatness or because desiring too passionately to please certain persons we trouble our selves very little to please others 10. Yet this does not hinder but that even when we are canryed away by more strong Passions we behave our selves after a fashion very improper to make us be beloved yet would be beloved and do not perceive our selves incommoded when we see in the minds of others motions of hatred and aversion There are
likewise many people in whom this inclination of making themselves be beloved is stronger then that of Domineering and Lording over men and who fear more mens hatred and aversion and the judgments which produceth it then they love to be rich and powerful Lastly whereas there are few great ones and few likewise who are able to aspire to greatness on the contrary there are none who cannot pretend to make himself be beloved 11. If the desire of being loved is not then the strongest Passion which springs from self-love at least it is the most general The considerations of Interest of Ambition of Pleasure stop many times the effects of it but they do it not effectively It is always active at the bottom of the Heart and so soon as it is at liberty it forbears not being active and to make us desire all that is able to procure us the love of Men as it makes us avoid all whatsoever we think may draw upon us their hatred It is true we are sometimes deceived in the distinction which we make of these things which draw love or hatred and that there are some who judge thereof much better and more nicely than others But be it that we are deceived therein or that we be not 't is always the same Passion which acts and which flies or seeks the same Objects There is also a common distinction for all Men even to a certain degree that is to say they know every one even to some point that certain actions excite hatred and others cause love 12. It is not needfull to dive further into the discription of the retreats of Self-love to comprehend how it imitates very much Charity It is sufficient to say that Self-love hindring us through fear of chastisement to violate the Laws doth remove us by this means outwardly from all the Crimes and so renders us like to those who avoid them through Charity That as Charity comforts the necessities of others in the sight of God who will that we acknowledge his Favours in helping our Neighbour Likewise Self-love comforts them in the sight of their proper Interest And that lastly there is hardly any action whereto we are carried by Charity that would please God whereunto Self-love cannot engage us to please Men. 13. But tho Self-love tend by these three motions to counterfeit Charity we must for all that allow that the last comes nearer to it and that it is much more extended than the two others For there are many occasions where neither fear nor interest have any place And we distinguish often easily enough what we do either through Human fear or through absolute Interest from what we do by a motive of Charity But it is not the same of Love and esteem for Men. This inclination is so nice and subtile and at the same time of such a latitude that there is nothing it cannot enter into and it knows so well how to trim it self up with the appearances of Charity that it is almost impossible to know exquisitly what distinguishes it from Charity Because marching in the same steps and producing the same effects it defaces with a marvellous subtilty all the signs and characters of Self-love from whence it springs because it sees very well that it could obtain nothing of what it pretends if they were taken notice of The reason of it is because nothing doth draw upon us so much the thing called Aversion as Self-love and because it cannot shew it self without exciting it We experience this our selves in regard of the Self-love of others We are not able to suffer it so soon as we discover it and it is easie for us to judge by that that they are not more favourable to ours when they discover it 'T is this which inclines those who are sensible of the hatred of men and who love not to expose themselves thereunto to endeavour to withdraw as much as in them lies their Self-love from the sight of others to disguise and counterfeit it never to shew it under its natural shape to imitate the behaviour of those who would be intirely exempt from it that is to say persons animated with the spirit of Charity and who would not act but through Charity 14. This suppression of Self-love is properly that which makes human Civility and shews in what it consisteth And 't is this which hath caused a learned Man of this Age to say that Christian virtue destroys anihilates Self-love and that human Civility hides and suppresses it Thus this Civility which hath been the Idol of the learned Pagans is nothing at the bottom but a Self-love more intelligent and exact than that of the generality of the World which knows how to shun what hurts its designs and which tends to its mark which is the esteem and love of Men by a more straight and reasonable way in shewing how self-Self-love doth imitate the principal actions of Charity 15. 'T is no hard matter to comprehend in what manner Charity renders us humble For making us love Justice which is God himself it makes us hate injustice which is contrary to him Now 't is an injustice very visible that being as we are full of faults and guilty of so many sins we would be honoured of Men and that we should pretend to deserve their Praises either by Human qualities and so consequently vain and frivolous or bygifts which we have received of God and which do not belong unto us It is not just that a sinner be honoured but it is just that he be humbled and brought low 'T is the eternal Law which ordains it Charity consents to this law Charity loves it and by the love which it bears to it embraces with joy all humiliations and humblings Charity makes us hate all that smells of pride and vanity and as it condemns these motions when they start up in our hearts it hinders them also from appearing without by words and actions which it reduces thus to an exact modesty 16. Yet there is nothing in this but what Self-love imitates perfectly For seeing the Heart of each man turned absolutely towards it self and naturally an enemy to the preferring any other It dares not expose it self to their thought and malignity Whoever praises himself and sets to sale what he thinks he hath thats good pretends thereby to bring others to him and 't is almost the same thing as if he beg'd of them to give him praises and to look upon him with esteem and love Now there is hardly any prayer which appears more uncivil and more incommodious to Self-love which men bear themselves than this It is angry and vexed at it and answers only by scoffing and disdain Thus those who are cunning enough to know these tricks and devices avoid making these kind of demands that is to say they keep themselves generally to a distance from all that seems vanity from all that tends to make them be taken notice of and to shew these
or through an opinion of Religion would make a thousand reflections upon the disproportion of some thoughts wherein he might busie himself from the Holiness of his Office and his Profession Insomuch that when men take delight in his Book either because there would be something that 's good therein or because there would be some body who might will dealt withall which is always agreeable they esteem the person of the Author less and find themselves disposed to choose him either for Friend or Counsellor 22. It is needless to prove that Charity is yet more removed from affectation than meer Civility For loving others but not it self it hath nothing to do but to follow its natural motions to act with a perfect Civility It does it so much better by how much it does it more sincerely and that there is nothing of counterfeit in it Whereas this civility of Self-love is for the most part not so uniform If civility repress it in one part Self-love shews it self sometimes in another and so leaves some little disgust of it self to those who observe it narrowly But as that happens but against its intention it is asham'd being aware of it or rather perceiving that others did observe it Thus it is always true to say that when Self-love follows reason exactly in the search of esteem and affection of Men it imitates perfectly Charity so that in consulting it upon exterior actions it makes us the same answer that Charity does and engages us in the same ways 23. If for example one ask Charity in what disposition we ought to be concerning the subject of our Faults she will tell us that we ought extreamly to contemn our selves as to our own understanding in regard of those we think we have not and that the perswasion wherein we ought to be in general of our blindness in this Point ought to dispose us more to believe others in this than our selves But in respect of faults which we shall be convinced of there would be nothing more unjust than to counterfeit and destroy in some sort the Light of God it self by pretending to justifie what it condemns and thus the least we can do to escape this pride so criminal is to acknowledge them sincerely and to humble our selves before God and Man 24. Let us now propose the same question to Self-love and we shall see if it speak not the same language at the bottom of the Heart it gives yet the same counsel Tho it be hard it will say to acknowledge our faults and desire to deface them and blot them out of the memory of Man as well as out of our own it is evident nevertheless that that is impossible The more we shall strive to disguise them from others the more ingenuous they will be to discover them and wicked to make them taken notice of This same desire of Concealing them will pass in their minds for the greatest of faults and we shall do nothing in striving either to dissemble them or to maintain them but draw hatred and disdain upon our selves We must therefore necessarily steer another course If we cannot have the glory of being without faults we must have that of knowing them and not being cheats to our selves Bellum est sua vitia nosse Let us take away then from others the pleasure of taking notice of them in observing them our selves first and thereby disarming their wickedness 'T is upon the like considerations that Civility forms its conduct and 't is that which carries it to make an open profession of acknowledging sincerely all its Faults and not to take it ill that others observe them and by this means it gains the reputation of an amiable equity which makes it judge of it self clearly and without passion which knows how to justifie it self and with which one may be at quiet without being obliged outwardly to testifie that one approves what indeed one approves not 25. It is easie to be discerned by what has been said that Charity and Self-love should be very conform as to the receiving reprehensions and advertisements and that some very different consideration and motives ought to unite them in the same outward conduct We know well enough that to which Charity sways us For looking upon these Advertisements as a very great good and a favourable means to deliver us from our Faults Charity receives them not only with joy but with greediness and avidity The bitterness it self which accompanies them is agreeable to it as procuring us the satisfaction of huminity and weakening Self-love which Charity esteems as its worst enemy Thus 't is so far from shewing any disgust or sharpness of speech to those who procure us this good that it forgets nothing that may testifie its gratefulness to comfort them in the fear they have of hurting us to incline them to do us sometimes the same favour and to free them from all doubts which may make them reserved and keep them in torment and constraint 26. In truth self-Self-love is always inwarly very far removed from this disposition It loves not that others take notice of our Faults and much less that they admonish us of them But yet it acts outwardly as Charity does For learning by these admonitions which are given us the bad impression Men have of us reason makes Self-love conclude presently that it must be lessen'd or at least not augmented and consulting afterwards other mens minds to learn how we ought to guide ours Self-love easily acknowledgeth that nothing is a greater stumbling-block than the haughtiness of those who are not able to endure to be admonish'd of any of their Faults who rebell against Truth and who could wish that all the World were blind in respect of them or would suppress their thoughts so soon as they are not for their advantage and on the contrary nothing is more agreeable to People than to be freed from this resistance and to see that they put a stop to their judgments and to their light and thus in some sort they submit themselves to their empire self-Self-love therefore without hesitating takes this last part and thereby makes us insinuate our selves so agreeably into the hearts of those who reprove us that they love those who humble themselves in that manner much better what faults soever they have than those who having none have not opportunity to give them this satisfaction Because we must observe that our faults are not of themselves contrary to the Self-love of others and likewise that the bravest qualities of themselves are not pleasing to it 'T is the relation these faults and these brave qualities have with them So that if these faults make us more humble in respect of them or if these brave qualities render us more haughty they will love us with these faults and hate us with all those brave qualities 27. It is manifest that this conduct aims directly at least at Self-love which is to obtain the esteem of the friendship
of men And therefore Human civility never fails to follow it and often even does it more exactly than true Piety when it is not perfect Because as Charity is less active than Self-love it happens often also that Pious people appear more sensible and more delicate than civil wordly Men when advertised of their faults which are observed in their Conduct or in their labours because in these occurrences not having a very lively Charity they lack also this Self-love which is a supplement in regard of outward actions 28. The conduct which Charity observes towards civil Men when we are prepossessed with unjust suspicions and unreasonable Impressions of them is not to reprove them and shew discontent and malice but to justifie them in testifying that they are not astonished that being Men they are suspected of human frailties and in a word not to complain of these suspicions but to labour to cure them because we ought to look upon them as very dangerous for those who have them and that the way to free them from them is not to reprove them when they are not perswaded that they are in the wrong but to shew them gently the falsity of their suspicions to oblige them by this means to condemn them their own selves 29. In truth if we follow on these occasions the first motives of Self-love we shall be very far from this moderation They will be on the contrary only passions full of resentments and bitterness But if we consult Reason with a resolution to follow it to arrive at last at last at what we ought which is to blot out these suspicions which are so injurious and to stablish our reputation in the minds of those who have received them it is necessary that we take the same way Because all that seems passion and trouble of the mind is only capable to increase the bad Impressions men have harboured of us And whereas oftentimes there is only the mind which is prepossessed therewith we by bitterness carry it into the will it self and make it endeavour to maintain the Impressions of the mind Thus Self-love foreseeing this evil effect is reduced how unwilling soever it may be to imitate this sweet and moderate conduct which Charity prescribes 30. Who would ever believe that self-Self-love even when it should have intention to cry down its enemies to render them odious and to make them condemn'd by all the world of baseness and injustice could not do better to prosper therein then to follow the steps of Charity Yet this happens very often For there is nothing for the most part which makes base and uncivil proceedings which are used towards us appear better than to withstand those by a process full of civility and moderation This opposition which shews the difference of these two contrary conducts makes the one and the other more apparent Civility appears more lovely on the one side and baseness more shamefull on the other And in this manner Self-love hath all it pretends which is that we raise our selves and humble those who have offended us 31. I remember upon this Subject that when a certain Book was published in which the Author pretended to have gathered together divers and sundry faults against the Language which he thought he had found in some works of Piety which passed for well written it was examined in a Society by a way of discourse what those who were concerned therein ought to do on this score Each man agreed presently that the remarks of this Author being inconsiderable ought not to be proposed against the same Writings because there was no other end in it but that of acquiring the reputation of Writing well those whom it attacked ought not to have the least thought of forming a contest upon so frivolous an occasion how much to blame soever this Author might be in some of his Remarks But when we came to speak of what they ought to do we were not of the same mind There were some who would maintain that they ought not to affirm that they had seen this Book But the Generality believed that they ought to take other measures and that for full answer they need only correct honestly and faithfully in the other Editions of those Books all that this Author had disallowed therein with any gloss of Justice The reason which they alledge for it besides the general motive of honouring Truth in every thing is that there was no better way whereby the Publick can do this Author and those whom it should have attacked Justice than by using them so moderately I confess that I was of this opinion and that I thought there was none more conform neither to Charity which always tends to humble us nor to Self-love which is glad to place in sight the faults of those who have a desire to abase us I will also praise it very willingly if I have occasion to do it without any pretence whatsoever of obliging any one to believe that it is an act of humility being I acknowledge that it may very easily have another principle 32. 'T is thus that Charity and Civility accord together to make appear outwardly the same Sentiment in what regards our good and bad qualities and it is not hard to judge thereby that they do the same in what regards others We see easily whereto Charity inclines in respect of the good it observes in others As Charity rejoyces at it inwardly it testifies also its joy outwardly all manner of ways possible and far from endeavouring to observe it Charity useth its power to heighten it and make it esteemed Other mens good is its proper good through the love it bears them and it stops there more cheerfully than at is own because it fears not therein complacency and vanity 33. It would seem at first that there could be no reason to hope the like conduct from Self-love For it is so far from having this goodness and kindness for others that on the contrary it is naturally wicked jealous envious full of gall and venom All that puffs up others Incommodes and vexes it and one hardly sees it really favourable to the praises given them except some profit may be drawn from thence and that they make use of it as a step to raise themselves But although one perceive in himself all these motives nevertheless when one considers the effect they would make upon the minds of others if one should shew them publickly one would immediatly conclude to keep them secret We see clearly that that would be the way to make ones self lookt upon as a common and publick Enemy and would thereby become the Object of hatred and the abomination of all the World We should not only be odious to those against whom we would exercise our wickedness but even to those we would spare no body being able to assure himself to receive Justice from people in whom this evil Platform is found and every one fearing with reason to become the
are there represented and consequently not in a condition of Christian vigilance necessary to resist temptations and like a Reed bent by all sorts of winds There is great likelihood that no body hath ever thought of preparing themselves against them by Prayer seeing that the Spirit of God would much rather incline to avoid this dangerous sort of Divertisement than to besech his Grace to be preserved from the corruption which there it met withall If then Persons who live in solitude and in retirement from the World do yet find great difficulty in a Christian Life even in Monasteries If they receive tryals of wordly Commerce at the same time when 't is Charity and necessity that engages them therein and that they keep themselves upon their gards as much as they can that they may resist What may be the wounds and downfall of those who leading a life absolutely sensual expose themselves to temptations which the strongest are not able to undergo Ought it not to be said of them comparing them with holy persons what Job said of man comparing him with the Angels Ecce qui serviunt ei non sunt stabiles in Angelis suis reperit pravitatem quanto magis qui habitant domos luteas consumentur a Tinea If these Spirits which serve God as Ministers are not stable and if he find fault in the Angels themselves by how much more reason will Souls enclosed in Bodies as in houses of clay be subject to corruption and sin Or what Esaias said Super humum populi mei Spinae vepres ascenderunt quanto magis super omnem Domum gandii Civitatis exultantis If the ground of my people saith our Lord is covered with Briars and Thorns that is if the Souls which sigh after their Celestial Country are sometimes peirced by the Stings of Sin what disorders will not those run into who live in Pleasures and whose hearts are filled with all the foolish joys of this World Quanto magis super omnem domum gaudii Civitatis exultantis 7. We ought to consider that Plays are tentations taught with gayety which seperates and takes away Gods grace from us and inclines him more to forsake and abandon us to our own proper corruption then those whereinto we fall unawares It is rashness Pride and Impiety to think that we are capable to resist without Grace the tentations we meet with in plays and it is a presumption and a folly to believe that God will always deliver us from danger by his Grace when we expose our selves voluntarily and without necessity 8. We deceive our selves mightily in thinking that Plays make no ill Impressions upon us because we perceive not that they excite in us any ill desires There are many steps before we come to an entire corruption of mind and heart and 't is always much harm to the Soul to destroy the Rampiers which save it from tentations 'T is to wrong her much to accustome her to behold these sorts of Objects without dread and with a kind of Complacency and to possess her that 't is a pleasure to love and to be loved The aversion which she had for them served her as Fortresses which stopt the passage to the Divel and when they are ruined by Plays he enters afterwards easily There is often a long time that we begin to fall before we chance to be aware of it The misfortunes of the Soul are long and tedious they have preparations and Progresses and it happens often that we lye under these temptations only because we have weakned our selves in occasions of small importance 9. Let those then who perceive not that Plays and Romances excite in their minds these Passions which are ordinarily apprehended not think themselves for all that safe and let them Imagine that these Lectures and these Sights have done them no harm The Word of God which is the Seed of life and the word of the Devil which is the Seed of death have this common That they remain often a long time hidden in the heart without producing any sensible effect God oftentimes joyns the Salvation of certain persons to words of Truth which he hath sown in their Soul twenty years before and which he awakens when he pleaseth to make them produce the fruits of life And the devil contents himself likewise sometimes to replenish the memory with these Images without going further or forming yet any sensible temptation But at length after a long time he enlivens them even without our so much as remembring how they are crept in to the end that they may produce the fruits of Death ut fructificent Morti which is the only mark he proposeth in all that he hath done in respect of men We may say then to those who boast that Plays and Romances provoke not in them the least evil thought that they expect a little that the Devil will know when to take his time and will be sure to find a favourable occasion Possibly engaging them to him by other tyes he neglects none to make use of those which are most visible but if he hath need of them to destroy them he will not be wanting to employ them 10. If it should be true that Playes could produce no bad effects upon the minds of certain persons they should not therefore take them for innocent recreations nor believe that they are not guilty in assisting at them A Play is not acted for one single person 'T is a shew which is exposed to all sorts of humors the most part whereof are weak and feeble and to whom consequently it is very dangerous 'T is their fault will you say to be present in this condition It is true but 't is your fault likewise seeing that you make them contribute to the making them look upon Plays as an indifferent thing The more you are orderly in your other actions the more they are bold to imitate you in that Why say they Shall we scruple going to Plays seeing that virtuous people go thereunto You participate then of their Sin and if Plays hurt you not of themselves you are prejudiced by those damages which others receive by your example and thus you are the most blameable of all Worldly persons of whom we take no example are scarcely faulty but by their proper sins But those who will pass for virtuous and who practise indeed some good Works are faulty by their proper sins and by those of others and loose not only the merit of their good works but they poyson them in some sort in making them serve to engage others in sin 11. God asketh of men properly speaking only their love but he demands it absolutely He will have no division of it And as he is their Sovereign Good he Wills that they fix themselves no where else nor that they set their minds upon any creature because no Creature is their end The fulness of Charity which we ow to God saith St. Austine permits not that we
because there is nothing in the world which destroys the Soul more which renders it more incapable of applying it self to God or which fills it more with vain fancies They are strange Prayers which are made coming from these Sights or from these lectures having the head filled with all the fooleries which they saw there Man is not able to procure to himself the Spirit of Prayer nor this Holy zeal which excites him when God pleaseth by meditation Et in meditatione mea exardescit ignis but the least that can be done is to put no obstacle by doing voluntarily what is directly opposite to this Spirit 27. God easily pardons the distractions which spring from the frailty of nature but he does not so with those which are voluntary in their sources such are those which Plays produce therefore there is reason to fear that all the Prayers of them who go to Plays being full of these kind of distractions are more capable to irritate God than to appease him and that they are of the number of those which the Prophet speaks of Et oratio ejus fiat in peccatum Let his Prayer be imputed to sin Now if their Prayers which ought to invite the Spirit of God over all the body of their Works are themselves defiled what ought men to judge of the rest of their actions Si lumen quod in te est tenebrae sunt ipsae tenebrae quantae erunt 28. One of these principal parts of Piety and one of the chief means to conserve it is to love the word of God and to place our Consolation therein 'T is by the sentiment of sweetness which the Prophet had tasted in this spiritual nutriment that he said to God Inventi sunt sermoneâ— tui Comedi eos factum est verbum tuum in gaudium in laetitiam Cordis mei I have found thy words and I have fed my self with them and they have fill'd my heart with joy and delight 'T is this Consolation so Divine which entertains our hopes according to St. Paul and which maintains us in the crosses of this life Now experience may make known to all the world that nothing doth destroy this spiritual Joy that men resent in the reading the word of God more than worldly and sensual joys and principally those of Plays These two joys are absolutely incompatible Those who please themselves with Plays are not so with Truth and those who take pleasure in Truth have nothing of satisfaction in those sorts of pleasures Therefore the same Prophet to whom God hath given this spiritual tast for his Word witnesseth presently after that he could not suffer assemblies of Games and Divertisements and that he put all his Glory and Joy to consider the wonderfulness of Gods handy-work Nonsedi cum concilio ludentium gloriolus sum à facie manus tuae And the Holy King David who had also tasted the sweetness of the Divine Law doth witness likewise the contempt it made him conceive of all vain discourses of worldly men Narraverunt mihi Iniqui fabulationes sed non lex tua 'T is the sentiment which the Holy Ghost inspires into all those to whom he gives a love for his Holy word All those Divertisements which are so agreeable to those who love the world are to them an unsavory meat which they cannot eat because they see nothing therein but emptiness naughtiness vanity and foolishness and find therein a want of the salt of Truth and Wisdom which causeth them to say with Job that they cannot taste it An poterit Comedi Insulsum quod non est sale Conditum Whâ—ther he could eat of this meat which was not seasoned with Salt But on the contrary if the Soul addict it self to these false pleasures she presently looses the pleasure of Spiritual ones and finds only the word of God unsavoury These are those sower Grapes whereof the Prophet speaks which set the Childrens Teeth on edge Omnis homo qui Comedit uvam acerbam obstupescent dentes ejus That is to say according to the explication of St. Gregory That when men feed of the vain joys of the World the spiritual sences become incapable of tasting and understanding Heavenly things Qui praesentis mundi delectatione pascitur Interni ejus sensus ligantur ut jam spiritualia mandere intelligere non valeant Now amongst the Delights which extinguish the love of Gods word It may be said that Plays and Romances are of the first magnitude because there is nothing more opposite to Truth and the Spirit of God as St. Bernard saith being a Spirit of Truth cannot take part with the vanity of this World Sed nec erit ei unquam pars cum mundi vanitate cum veritatis sit spiritus 29. God imputes not to us the coldness which comes from the substraction of his Lights or simply from the heaviness of the body but doubtless he imputes to us those which by our neglect we have contributed unto He wills that we esteem nothing so much as the precious gift he hath made us of his Love and that we be careful to embrace it in giving it nourishment 'T is the Command which he hath given to all Christians in the persons of the Priests of the antient Law to whom he orders to maintain always the fire upon the Altar and to be careful to add every day in the morning wood to it Ignis in Altari semper ardebit quem nutriet sacerdos subjiciens mane ligna per singulos dies This Altar is the heart of Man and every Christian is the Priest who ought to have a care to nourish upon the Altar of his heart the fire of Charity by putting thereto every day some wood that is to say in entertaining it by meditating of Holy things and by exercises of Piety Now if those who go to Plays have yet any sense of Piety they must necessarily grant that they absolutely extinguish and slay Devotion And thus they ought not to question but God will judge them culpable for having made so little account of his Love that instead of nourishing and of endeavouring to augment it they have not feared to extinguish it by their vain and foolish divertisements and that he will impute to them as a great sin this coldness or the loss of their Charity For if the dissipation of worldly Goods and of terrestrial Gold by Play and by Excess be not a small sin what ought men to think of the dissipation of the Goods of Grace and of this inflamed Gold the Scripture speaks of which we ought to buy at the loss of all the Goods and all the pleasures of this life 30. The Fathers blame as a dangerous rashness the conduct of those who being not as yet grounded in the love of God employ themselves with too much eagerness in outward good Works under pretence of Charity because it is difficult that the mind be not much dissipated in these exercises In
to persuade them of the falsness of their suspicions then to rebuke them because they make them appear Magis satagendum est quomodo persuadeatur hominibus falsum esse quod suspicantur quam quomodo arguendi sunt qui suspiciones suas vocibus verbisque declarant The principle of this Doctrine is contain'd in this other Maxim of this holy Doctor That although he who disdains the Practices of men disdains also their rash suspicions De Civitate Dei l. 14. c. 19. yet if he be truly an honest man he doth not disdain their Salvation because he hath so much love for Justice that he loves even his Enemies and desires to correct them to the end he may have them for Companions of his happiness Finally as it is clear that those we suspect unjustly are not more undeserving our Charity then those that injure us we might apply to them what St. Austin said of the obligation those who have suffered some Injury have to cure the Soul of what hath caused it This man saith he hath injured you Aug. Serm. 16. de verb. Dom. in Evan Mat. and in injuring you he hath hurt himself mightily and you slight this hurt of your Brothers You see him perish and you care not if he perish your silence in this regard is more Criminal than the Injury which he hath done you Pejor es tacendo quam ille conviciando Injuries therefore done you must be forgotten but forget not your Brothers hurt 16. These are the Rules established by this holy Doctor and he hath himself practiced them on an important occasion For having been suspected by Albina an illustrious Roman Lady to have contributed through Interest to the Oath Pinian made to the People of Hyppo never to go out of their City and to receive Ordination no where else Instead of complaining of a suspicion so ill grounded he thought himself obliged to purge himself thereof by Oath which he did with an edifying humility without reproaching Albina and without other Prospect then to cure her of the Wounds she had received by this suspicion Sananda ista in vobis non accusanda sunt nostra purganda vobis est Fama si est Domino purgata Conscientia 17. This same Saint having rebuked something too severely although without naming the person the error of a Bishop who believed that God was Corporeal and that he might be seen with human eyes and this Bishop being so troubled at it that he refused to see him though he offered to beg his Pardon for the offence suspecting perchance that it was through Artifice that he shewed so much desire to appease him Saint Austin instead of being struck with this suspicion endeavoured only to molifie this Bishop and to free him from this Impression and there 's nothing more humble then the manner of his doing it First he condemned the harshness of his words I have been said he imprudent and lavish in this reproach and have not considered what I owe to my Brother and College in the Episcopacy I am so far from vindicating my self in this Point that I Condemn my self I am so far from excusing it that I accuse my self of it I beg I may be pardoned and that this Offence may be concealed by the remembrance of our ancient Friendship And to destroy the suspicion which this Bishop had of being slighted by him and that it was by deceit that he sought it he desired another Bishop whom he took for a Mediator to free him from these thoughts Assure him said he of my sincerity and let him know with what sentiments of grief I have spoken to you of his discontent how far I am from detracting and contemning him how much I fear God in his Person and how much I look upon him our Head in whose Body we are all Brothers Noverit quam eum non contemnam quantum in illo Deum timeam et cogitem Caput nostrum in ejus Corpore Fratres sumus 18. Behold what St. Austin believed was requisite to be practiced on occasions where there is hopes of Curing other mens suspicions in giving them an account of their Conduct informing them of their true intentions What if men judge with cause that these kind of explications would be unuseful as it happens often enough Charity should then apply us to seek out other means to destroy these preventions not because they are hurtful but because they may hurt those who have them Thus instead of complaints and reproaches which serve only to exasperate mens minds we should try to shew them who are prejudiced against us a quite contrary disposition to that they lay to our Charge If they think we have no esteem nor affection for them we should endeavour to convince them by effective Proofs that we love them and that we esteem them truly If they imagin that we mistrust them we ought to seek dilligently some means to give them marks of Trust If they suspect us for some fault which we are not guilty of we should labour to take away by little and little this Impression from them by avoiding what may either entertain and augment it and by dealing with them in such a manner as is capable to destroy it and by this means we shall be so far from being hurt by these suspicions that they give us means to correct our selves of divers faults and to enrich our selves by the practice of many Vertues 19. There would be often times likewise no need to dissipate these suspicions by an application so express It would be sufficient to dissemble them and to continue acting as accustomed with those who are addicted to them without telling them we perceive them The uniformity of our Conduct and Behaviour would consume them by little and little and their minds would find they were changed even without being aware thereof But our impatiency spoils all we cannot expect the slow remedies We would carry the minds away by force that is to say we would make them act against their nature 20. Although a man have hurt himself by his own fault though he have by the disorderliness of his living made himself sick no man pretends to cure him of his wounds and diseases by reproaching him we must have recourse to the remedies proper for his distemper and not wonder that they act only with time Now we ought not to distinguish in this case the diseases of the Mind from those of the Body How voluntary soever they may be they are not for all that less durable nor less obstinate He knows the nature of mans mind but badly who thinks that when it is once prepossessed that Self-love hath an interest in an opinion that there is formed an inclination in the heart to judge in a certain manner we are able to blot out in short time all these impressions It is necessary to change this sentiment that the mind get new Lights that it be familiar therein that it loose a
upon his score 18. The Cardinal of Arles was Author of an enterprize which caused great troubles which was the deposing of Eugenius IV. This action was not followed in the Church It is no where observed that he repented the act and yet he hath done miracles after his death God having not laid to his charge what he did through zeal of Justice though in some circumstances which rendred his action imprudent St. Peter of Luxemburg St. Vincent Ferrier St. Catheriue of Siena were in divers and different times of Schisme and by consequence some of them for the Anti-Pope yet nevertheless this blemish hath not hindred their Sanctity 19. They who write the Lives of Saints think that 't is their Duty to set forth all their virtues and to hide all their faults But I do not know if they should not do as well to take notice of all their faults as of their virtues to hinder thereby that men be not scandalized at such as appear in some pious men which we know Whosoevor for example shall make reflections on the manner how Three Saints to wit St. Epiphanius St. Jerome and St. Cyril of Alexandria acted upon account of St. John Chrysostome will wonder no more that virtuous men be sometimes prevented and fall sometimes into excess and they will conceive that there is very great limitation in this passage Charitas operit multitudinem peceatorum 20. We see often in Saints some faults which God sees no more there whereas we see not in our selves those which are truly there If they commit faults through ignorance the heat of their charity purifies them even without their acknowledging them and thus they subsist no more If they commit some thro weakness or thro some passion they humble themselves and they rise again more strong than they were before their fall and by this means again they subsist no more But the faults of Souls grown cold altho more inconsiderable in appearance subsist always in the eyes of God because they want this fire of Charity to consume them and because they are not restor'd again absolutely 27. We must distinguish faults of passion from faults of darkness and faults of light the faults of understanding from faults of the heart Nor is there properly any but God who can judge of faults which spring from ignorance wherein Cupidity appears not to have any share at all Nor is it permitted for men to determine of the degree 22. All Saints have in their hearts a sincere disposition to love and follow every known Truth But they know not equally all Truths nether are they equally appropriated to all those they know God enlightens and touches them differently according to the several designs he hath upon them and by giving them an ardent Love for certain Truths by which he will sanctify them he suffers sometimes that in respect of others they remain in some kind of obscurity or in a want of judgment which comes not from the corruption of their hearts but from this that God applys them to other things 'T is this that makes these who love these Truths to be oftentimes troubled to see them so little concerned for them because they consider not that they themselves are in this deprivation of Light and Judgment in regard of many others and that the heart of man being limited and narrow in the condition it is in as to this life God doth not exact that it should love Truth Truth in all its extent but only that it be the love of Truth and not Cupidity which should be the principal of its actions 23. When God leaves the Saints thus in Ignorance as to many Truths or diverts and stops the occasions which might engage them to commit some faults thro ignorance or hides by the purity of their hearts and by the ardency of their Charity those which they commit it happens nevertheless from hence that we may easily make ill use of their examples whether it be in imagining that we ought to follow blindly all they have done or in behaving our selves so as to condemn these Saints because of these wants of Light But both the one and the other of these scandals must be remedied by the consideration of this various dispensation which God makes of the knowledge of this Truth For we see by this on the one side that there may remain darkness in the Saints in respect of certain points in which by consequence they ought not to be taken for guides and we have reason to conclude on the other that it follows not that those in whom we perceive the wants of Light in respect of certain Truths cannot be Saints by the application they have to others 24. We may add to this that perchance those who hurt in appearance certain Truths thro ignorance and lack of Light have before God more love and zeal for them than these who shew a great heat for those same Truths For God hath particularly regard to the bottom of the heart and when he sees there a sincere love for Truth and Justice a disposition to follow them at the cost of all things he hath less regard to the darkness which hinders this Love to spread it over certain particular points Whereas it happens sometimes that this Zeal so apparent for certain Truths is nothing but the effect of Self-love and a tye to its proper sense We maintain Truth as we should maintain what is false if we had the same engagements to do it and oftentimes God fees nothing that 's sincere at the bottom of the heart which leads directly to Truth 25. Those who by a more exact study of antiquity should have acquired knowledge and some light which very Holy persons should not have had should yet have occasion to humble themselves by this thought that those Truths tho great and important are not ordinarily those the practice whereof is most frequent and which are the principal of the common actions which compose our lives Thus as the occasion of practising them are not very ordinary they become often barren in these who know them and we may easily believe that men love them without any real or effective love for them It is altogether contrary with common Truths as with those which teach to converse with our neighbour in an edifying manner to have God present in all our actions and to do nothing but by his Motive and his Spirit to mortify all the inordinate excesses of Self-love to lop off all things useless to this life to correct the senses in all that we can to moderate our passions to govern all the motions of Mind and Body not to complain of little evils to receive favourably those who mind us of some defect not to be tyed to our own Sense and Light to be reserved in our judgments Those Truths which prescribe these actions are not less Truths than the others whereof we have spoken but they have this advantage that the practice is ordinary and that