our Love For to restore a Balance to an even poize or to change its propension we need not augment the lesser Weight but only retract from the over-loaden Scale Thus there are Graces of Sensation of several sorts and every sort is capable of infinite degrees For there are Pleasures Aversions and Dislikes greater and lesser ad infinitum What I have hitherto said of Delectation may be easily apply'd to other Species of the Grace of Sensation I only made choice of Pleasure or Delectation as a particular Example to explain my self clearly and without Ambiguity If there be any other Principle of our Determinations to Good besides the Grace of Sensation and that of Light I confess I am utterly ignorant of it and therefore I have resolv'd to explain the Effects of Grace necessary to the Conversion of Heart but by these two Principles for fear of incurring the blame of discoursing in general Terms that of themselves excite only confus'd Ideas which thing I avoid with all possible Care But though I have explain'd my self in Terms understood by all Mankind since there is no body but knows that the Knowledge and Sense of Good are Principles of our Determinations yet I presume not to impugn those who sticking not to these clear Ideas say in general that God operates the Conversion of our Souls by a particular Action different it may be from all I have here and elsewhere said that God works in us Experiencing in my self no other Motion than towards Good in general and that determin'd by Knowledge or Sensation I ought to suppose nothing more if by this alone I can account for all that the Scripture and Councils have determin'd about the present Subject In a word I am well assur'd that Light and Sensation are the Principles of our Determinations but I declare that I cannot tell but there may be some other whereof I have no Knowledge XXXV Besides Grace of it self efficacious and that the Effect whereof entirely depends on the good Dispositions of the Mind besides the Grace of Sensation and the Grace of Light the Righteous have moreover an Habitual Grace which makes them agreeable to God and capacitates them to work Actions meritorious of Salvation This Grace is Charity the Love of God or the Love of Order a Love which is not properly Charity unless it be stronger and greater than every other Love As it is commonly Pleasure which produces the Love of the Object that 's the true or apparent Cause of it so 't is the Delectation of Grace which produces the Love of God 'T is the Enjoyment of Sensible Pleasures which heightens Concupiscence and 't is the Grace of Sensation which encreases Charity Concupiscence diminishes by the deprivation of Sensible Pleasures and then Charity is easily preserv'd and nourish'd And whilst Charity faints by the privation of the actual Grace of Jesus Christ Concupiscence speedily thrives and grows upon it For these two Loves Charity and Cupidity constantly war with one another and gather Strength from the Weakness of their Enemy XXXVI Whatever participates of Charity is well-pleasing to God but Charity is not always active in the Just themselves In order to its working 't is necessary at least it be Illuminate For Knowledge is needful to determine the Motion of Love Thus the Grace necessary to every Good Work relating to Salvation is that of Sensation in those who begin their Conversion is that of Light at least or some Motion of Faith or Hope in those who are animated with Charity For though the Righteous may do Good Works without the Grace of Delectation they have always need of some actual Assistance to determine the Motion of their Charity But although Charity without Delectation is sufficient to conquer many Temptations yet the Grace of Sensation is necessary on many Occasions For Men cannot without the continual Help of the Second Adam resist the continual Action of the First They cannot persevere in Righteousness unless frequently assisted with the particular Grace of Jesus Christ which produces augments and maintains Charity against the continual Efforts of Concupiscence XXXVII The Effects of Pleasure and of all the Sensations of the Soul have a thousand several Dependencies on the actual Dispositions of the Mind The very same Weight has not always the same Effects It depends in its Action on the Structure of the Machine by which it is applied to the contrary Weight If a Balance be unequally suspended the force of the Weights being unequally applied the lighter may overweigh the heavier So it fares with the Weight of Pleasures They act one on another and determine the Motion of the Soul according as they are diversly applied Pleasure ought to have a greater Influence on the Person who has already a Love for the Object which causes it than on another who has an Aversion or that loves opposite Goods Pleasure forcibly determines a Person who clearly knows or vividly imagines the Advantages of Good which seems to cause it and acts feebly on the Mind of him who knows this Good but confusedly and is distrustful of it Lastly It acts with its whole Force on him who blindly follows all that gratifies Concupiscence and perhaps will have no Effect on him who has acquir'd some Habit of suspending the Judgment of his Love Now since the different degrees of Light Charity Concupiscence and the different degrees of Liberty are perpetually combining infinite ways with the different degrees of actual Pleasures which Pleasures are operative but according to their relation to the Dispositions of the Mind and Heart 't is manifest that no finite Mind can with any certainty pronounce of the Effect a particular Grace ought to produce in us For besides that there 's an infinite Combination in the things concurring to the Efficacy of Grace or the Production of its Effect this Combination is not like that of moving Springs and Forces which have always infallible and necessary Effects Therefore 't is impossible for any finite Mind to discover what passes in the Heart of Man XXXVIII But whereas God has an infinite Wisdom 't is visible that he clearly knows all the Effects that can result from the Mixture and Combination of all these things and that penetrating the Heart of Man he infallibly discovers even the Effects which depend on an Act or rather on a free Consent of our Wills Nevertheless I confess I cannot conceive how God can discover the Consequences of Actions which derive not their Infallibility from his absolute Decrees But I have no Mind to insist on Metaphysicks at the Expence of Morality and to affirm as undeniable Truths Opinions that are contrary to my own inward Consciousness of my self or in fine to speak to the Ears a certain Language which affords no clear Idea to the Mind I know well that such Objections may be made as would be too hard for me to answer satisfactorily and clearly But it may be these Objections are naturally
have nothing to say to his Tenth Chapter but that what he comments on seems too clear to stand in need of his Reflexions and that I think it cannot reasonably be doubted there is a City in Italy call'd Rome though it cannot be mathematically demonstrated In the eleventh Chapter the Author does not observe that I have referred to some Books of St. Austin and the Meditations of Mr. des Cartes to prove a thing which yet is sufficiently receiv'd and which he pretends I had no right to suppose He ought to know my Design was not to establish a System and to remember that all I vigorously demand is to enter into some diffidence of our Senses as I have caution'd in the last Chapter concerning the Errours of the Senses In answer to the Consequences he infers in his Twelfth Chapter against an Example alleadg'd by me and which he will have to pass for an Head of my Method we need but say that Men ought to reason only upon their clear and distinct Ideas whithout being sollicitous about what they cannot reach and that 't is not necessary to know whether there are actually Bodies without us to conclude many Physical Truths I have no more to say to his Thirteenth Chapter but that I wish a Man would attentively read what I have said concerning the manner of our knowing the Soul in the Seventh Chapter of the Second Part of the Third Book and the Chapter following where I speak of the Essence of Matter Last of all to do justice to the Reasonings of the last Chapter it suffices to know distinctly my manner of explaining how we see external Objects This is all I thought necessary to answer to the Animadverter as being persuaded that those who thoroughly conceive my Notion will have no need of an Illustration upon the pretended Difficulties he urges to me and others who have not read nor comprehended the things I treat of in the Book he opposes would not understand the largest Answers I could give them 'T is sufficiently manifest from the three first Chapters of the Animadversions which I have refuted more at large what we are to think of the other which I have answerd in a word or two Those who have Time and Inclination may examine them more exactly but for my own part I should think I wasted both my own time and that of others if I should stay to collect all the Paralogisms which are scatter'd through his Book to acquaint those persons with them who doubtless have little or no desire to know them The Reason and Judgment of worthy Men cannot suffer those long-winded Discourses which tend to no good but onely shew the Spleen and ill Humour of their Authors and 't is a ridiculous thing to imagine that others interess themselves in our Quarrels and to call them to be Witnesses of the weakness and vain efforts of our Adversary He that attacks me has no reason to find fault with my manner of Defence for if I answer not all his Animadversions in an ample way 't is not because I despise him He may conclude that I should not have warded off the Blows he design'd me if I did not think him able to hurt me and I think I have more reason to complain of the negligence of his Animadverting than he has to be angry at my manner of answering him Had our Author zealously buckled to engage me I am persuaded he had found me Exercise for I judge not of the Strength of his Parts by a venturous Sally of his Pen which he seems only to make by way of Pastime Thus the negligence he manifests is to my advantage and for my part I complain not of his remisness as being unworthy his Application and his Anger All that I am sorry for is that he speaks not seriously of serious things that he sports with Truth and wants some of that Respect which is due to the Publick when he trys to over-wit it several different ways as this Answer in part has manifested If I have been oblig'd to speak of him as I have done on some occasions he must thank no body but himself for I have suppress'd for fear of displeasing him many Expressions and Thoughts which his manner of acting breeds naturally in the Mind I have so great an Aversion to all useless Conâ—ests and that are prejudicial to Charity that I will never answer those who oppose me without understanding me or whose Discourses give me some reason to believe they have some other motive than the Love of Truth As for others I shall endeavour to satisfie them I see plainly that if I were oblig'd to answer all that have the good Will of assaulting me I should scarce ever enjoy the repose I desire But as there is no Law in France which hinders them from speaking so there is none which forbids me to be silent It may be whilst I am silent my Insulters may find themselves ill treated by some invisible hand for I cannot help it if the Love of Truth provokes some Wits who might do it with better Grace to defend a Work in which they had no part But I wish this promise I make and freely without any constraint may be remembred and that those Writings may not be imputed to me which I might make but which I declare I never will Mean-time I think that those that have nothing solid to oppose to me had much better say nothing than fatigue the World with Writings which break Charity and are useless to the discovery of Truth ANSWER a 'T IS because this is more certain than any thing else and that there is nothing certain if this be not For if Two times Two are necessarily equal to Four if a Whole be necessarily bigger than its Part there are necessary Truths I know not for what reason the Animadverter would have me think of proving what cannot be prov'd unless by something more obscure and difficult This is not to Philosophize after the manner of the ancient Academy b This is curious and far fetch'd All the first Philosophers except Parmenides have denied there were necessary and contingent Truths What wonder is it 'T is a fine thing this Erudition certainly Meditation can never teach us what we learn from the reading the Ancients though we understand them but by halves But 't is visible that our Author understands the old Philosophers no better than the new c I say indeed that ought to make a Question apart but he will let it have no part d The demand is pleasant but the Author would not have made it if he had but read the Third Book of the Search after Truth since I have there clearly given my Thoughts upon these things But it seems our Author takes Truths for certain little Beings which are born and die every Moment e There are two sorts of immutable Truths Some are immutable of themselves or by their Nature as that twice Two are Four and others
Conditions might be fully treated of in general yet they are too well known by those that are conversant with the World and of all the thinking part of Mankind to increase with them the Bulk of this Book especially seeing that our Eyes may afford us a very pleasant and solid Instruction of all such matters But if any chuse to read them in Greek rather than to learn them by his own reflection on what he sees I refer him to the second Book of the Rhetoricks of Aristotle which I take to be the Master-Piece of that Philosopher because he says there few things in which he can be mistaken and that he seldom ventures to prove what he asserts It is therefore evident that the sensible Union of the Mind of Men with whatever has any Relation to the preservation of their Life or of the Society of which they are Members differs in different Persons reaching farther in those that have more Knowledge that are in a higher Station and are indued with a larger Fancy whereas that Union is stricter and stronger in those that are more sensible that have a livelyer Imagination and have more blindly given up themselves to the violence of their Passions Such Considerations upon the almost infinite Bands that fasten Men to sensible Objects are of an extraordinary Use and the best way to become a great proficient in this sort of Learning is the study and observation of our selves since from the Inclinations and Passions of which we are conscious in our selves we can be fully assur'd of all the inclinations of other Men and can make a good guess at a great part of the Passions they are subject to to which adding the Information we can get of their particular Exgagements and of the different Judgments that follow from every different Passion of which we shall speak hereafter it may perhaps not prove so hard a Task to guess most part of their Actions as it is for an Astronomer to foretell an Eclipse For though Men be free yet it seldom happens that they make use of their Liberty in opposition to their natural Inclinations and violent Passions Before the Close of this Chapter I must observe that it is one of the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body that all the Inclinations of the Soul even those she has for Goods that have no relation to the Body should be attended with Commotions of the Animal Spirits that render those Inclinations sensible because Man being not a pure Spirit it is impossible he should have any Inclination altogether pure and without mixture of any Passion whatsoever So that the love of Truth Justice Vertue of God himself is always attended by some Motion of the Animal Spirits that render that love sensible though we be not aware of their sensibility being then taken up with livelyer Sensations Just as the Knowledge of Spiritual things is always accompanied with traces on the Brain which indeed make that Knowledge more lively but commonly more confused 'T is true we are frequently inapprehensive of the Imagining Faculty's mixing in any manner with the Conception of an abstracted Truth The Reason of it is that those Truths are not represented by Images or traces of Nature's Institution and that all the traces that raise such Ideas have no Relation with them but such as proceeds from Chance or the Free-will of Men. For Instance Arithmeticians and Algebraists who apply themselves to very abstracted Objects make however a very great use of their Imagination in order to fix the view of their Mind upon these Spiritual Ideas The Cyphers the Letters of the Alphabet and the other Figures which they see or imagine are always join'd to those Ideas though the traces that are wrought by these Characters have no proper Relation to those abstracted Objects and so can neither change nor obscure them Whence follows that by a proper Use and Application of these Cyphers and Letters they come to discover such remote and difficult Truths as could not be found out otherwise Since therefore the Ideas of such things as are only perceivable by the pure Understanding can be connected with the traces of the Brain and that the sight of Objects that are beloved hated or fear'd by a Natural Inclination can be attended with the Motion of the Animal Spirits it plainly appears that the thoughts of Eternity the fear of Hell the hope of an Eternal Happiness though they be Objects never so insensible can however raise in us very violent Passions And therefore we can say that we are united in a sensible manner not only to such things as relate to the preservation of our Life but also to Spiritual things with which the Mind is immediately and by it self united And even it often happens that Faith Charity and self-Self-Love make that Union with Spiritual things stronger than that by which we are join'd to all sensible Objects The Soul of the true Martyrs is more united to God than to their Body and those that suffer Death for asserting a false Religion which they believe to be true give us sufficiently to know that the fear of Hell has more power upon them than the fear of Death There is for the most part so much heat and obstinacy on both sides in the Wars of Religion and the defence of Superstitions that it cannot be doubted but some Passion has a hand in it and even a Passion far stronger and stedfaster than others because it is kept up by an Appearance of Reason both in such as are deceived and in those that follow the Truth We are then united by our Passions to whatever seems to be the Good or the Evil of the Mind as well as to that which we take for the Good or Evil of the Body Whatever can be known to have any relation to us can affect us and of all the things we know there is not one but it has some reference or other to us We are somewhat concern'd even for the most abstracted Truths when we know them because there is at least that Relation of Knowledge betwixt them and our Mind and that in some manner we look on them as our Property by virtue of that Knowledge We feel our selves as wounded when they are impugned and if we be wounded then surely we are affected and disturb'd So that the Passions have such a vast and comprehensive Dominion that it is impossible to conceive any thing in reference to which it may be said that Men are exempt from their Empire But let 's now see what is their Nature and endeavour to discover whatever they comprehend CHAP. III. A particular Explanation of all the Changes happening either to the Body or Soul in every Passion SEven things may be distinguished in each of our Passions save Admiration only which is indeed but an Imperfect Passion The first is the Judgment the Mind makes of an Object or rather the confused or distinct View of the Relation that Object has to
Abilities 't is more to the purpose to say nothing than to say such things as are unnecessary to be known and which it may be would be easier agreed to some time hereafter than at present Only this I would have well understood That the simplest ways to our Sanctification are Self-denial and Repentance or at least that it be well consider'd that since JESUS CHRIST distinctly knows the Laws of the Order of Grace we run continual dangers in not following the ways he has mark'd us out not only by his Words but all the Actions of his Life Yet since we meet with such particular Occurrences in the course of Life as make us dubious which way to determine because of the contrary Reasons that may be brought for and against certain Opinions it will perhaps be time well spent to show here by some particular Example that much use may be made of the fore-going Principle viz. That God Acts always by the simplest ways Let us suppose for instance that I desir'd to be resolv'd whether I ought every day to set apart some Constant Times for Retiring into my self for setting my own Weakness and Miseries before me and for considering my Obligations in the presence of God and praying for his Assistance in Conquering my Passions or on the other hand whether I ought to wait for the Spirit of God which blows where and when it pleases to call me from my self and my Ordinary Employments to apply me unto Him For probable Reasons may be given both for and against each of these Opinions and Men frequently take up with probability on such Occasions which is the Reason that Religious Persons follow sometimes a quite different Conduct and not always that which is the safest I consider then That if I stay for the particular Motions of the Spirit of God I shall never pray unless I receive particular Illuminations or preventing Delights for that intent Now these Illuminations or Delectations being produc'd of God by Wills more particular than are those General Wills which constitute the Order of Nature are sorts of Miracles Therefore to rely upon God's Graces which are not always necessary is to suppose that He induces me to pray by means that are not the most simple and in some measure to tempt God But if I use my self to a Custom of appearing or endeavouring to appear in the presence of God at particular Hours the sound of the Clock will suffice to remind me of my Duty and there is no need that God should by a particular will inspire me with the Thoughts of Prayer The General Laws of Union of my Body and Soul will make me think of my Duty when the time I have appointed for it by some sensible Notice makes it self remarkable But as Self-Examination and Prayer are necessary and as we cannot pray without having at least the Thoughts of it and as we cannot have the Thoughts of it unless God gives them it is some advance to Salvation to have these Thoughts without obliging God to give them us by particular Wills or kinds of Miracles It is possibly the want of this first Thought of praying and considering their Obligation before God which is the Origine of the Blindness and Delusion of many Men and consequently of their Eternal Damnation For God Acting always by the simplest means ought not by particular Wills to give them those Thoughts which they might have obtain'd by vertue of his general Wills if they had once accustom'd themselves to pray regularly at particular Hours Therefore as God Wills the Saving all Men by the simplest ways it is evident we ought as much as possible to make the Order of Nature subservient to that of Grace and to reconcile as I may say God's Wills together by regulating a time which may supply us at least with the Thoughts of Prayer For these Reasons probably God Commanded heretofore the Jews to write His Commandments upon the Doors of their Houses and constantly to carry some sensible Marks that might put them in Mind of them which remitted God his particular Will if I may so speak of inspiring them with these Thoughts For Miracles of Grace were extremely rare among the Jews the time being not yet fullfill'd when God was to engrave his Law and infuse his Spirit and his Charity in the heart of Men. I acknowledge that all things we can do by meer Natural strength are insufficient to fit us meritoriously for Grace without which all the exteriour show of Religion can but feed and cherish our Pride and self-Self-Love The Pharisees were Vain-Glorious upon their carrying the sensible signs and memoratives of the Law of God as our Saviour reproves them and Christians often make use of Crosses and Images out of Curiosity of Hypocrisie or some other Motive of self-Self-Love Yet since these things may put us in Mind of God they may be to good purpose imploy'd because we ought to make Nature as far as possible instrumental to Grace that God may serve us by the simplest ways For though we cannot naturally fit and dispose our selves for Grace yet we may often contribute to make it effectual in as much as we can curb the eagerness of a Passion by removing from the Objects that cause it or by urging contrary Reasons to those of its Suggestion Those who Watch more carefully than others over the purity of their Imagination or give not so much way to be corrupted by the continual enjoyment of sensible Pleasures and Wordly Commerce make Grace efficacious by taking away that impediment and resistance which it finds in others In which sense a Disease a shower of Rain or any other accident that keeps us at home may render Grace Efficacious For such a degree of Grace as would have been too weak and ineffectual for our resisting the sensible impression of a present and agreeable Object is strong enough to make us reject and detest the impure Thought or Imagination of the same Object This is all we need to say to make it manifest That the Counsels of the Gospel are necessary in Order to God's Saving us by the simplest means For 't is advantageous to follow them not only because when we follow them by the Motion of God's Spirit they determine it by vertue of immutable Order or of the General Laws of the Order of Grace to increase in us our Love of Him but also because the practising these Counsels may frequently render Grace Efficacious though Self-Love be the Motive as it may be on many Occasions FINIS THE DEFENCE OF THE AUTHOR OF THE TREATISE Concerning the Search after Truth Against the Accusation of Monsieur de la VILLE In which is shewn That if Particular Persons be allow'd to call in Question the FAITH of others upon Consequences well or ill drawn from their Principles no Man could be secure from the Imputation of Heresie SOME time ago came forth a Treatise whose very Title scar'd a great many and raised much
Principle In a word Jesus Christ needing Minds of particular Dispositions for the causing particular Effects may in general apply to them and by that Application infuse into them sanctifying Grace As the Mind of a Projector thinks in general of square Stones when these Stones are actually necessary to his Building XVIII But the Soul of Jesus being not a general Cause we have reason to think it has often particular Desires in regard to particular Persons When we intend to speak of God we must not consult our selves and make him act like us but consider the Idea of a Being infinitely perfect and make God act according to that Idea But in speaking of the Action of the Soul of Jesus we may look into our selves and make him act like particular Causes For Example We have reason to believe that the Conversion of St. Paul was owing to the Efficacy of a particular Desire of Jesus Christ. And we are to look upon the Desires of the Soul of Jesus which have a general respect to Minds of a certain Character as particular Desires though they comprehend many Persons because these Desires change daily like those of particular Causes But the general Laws by which God acts are always the same because the Wills of God ought to be firm and constant by reason that his Wisdom is infinite XIX The diverse Desires of the Soul of Jesus distributing Grace we clearly conceive why it is not equally dispers'd to all Men and why bestow'd on some more abundantly at one time than another For his Soul not thinking on all Men at once cannot at the same time have all the Desires whereof it is capable So that he acts not on his Members in a particular manner except by successive Influences as the Soul moves not at once all the Muscles of our Body For the Animal Spirits are unequally and successively distributed into our Members according to the various Impressions of Objects the diverse Motions of our Passions and the several Desires we freely excite within us XX. True it is that all the Righteous constantly receive the Influence of their Head which gives them Life and that when they act by the Spirit of Jesus Christ they merit and receive new Graces though it be not necessary that the Soul of Jesus should have any particular Desires as the occasional Causes of them For Order which requires that every Desert should be rewarded is not an arbitrary but a necessary Law and independent from any occasional Cause But though he who performs a meritorious Action may be rewarded for it whilst the Soul of Jesus has no actual Desires relating to him yet 't is certain that he merited not this Grace but by the Dignity and Sanctity of the Spirit which Christ has communicated to him For Men are not well-pleasing to God nor able to do good but in as much as they are united to his Son by Charity XXI It must be farther acknowledg'd that those who observe the Counsels of Jesus Christ out of an Esteem they have for them and through the Fear of future Punishment sollicite as I may say by their Obedience the Charity of Christ to think on them though they act from a Principle of self-Self-love But their Actions are not the Occasional Causes either of Grace since it does not infallibly follow them or even of the Motions of the Soul of Jesus in their Favour since these Motions never fail to communicate it Thus only the Desires of Jesus Christ as Occasional Causes have infallibly their Effect because God having constituted him Head of the Church ought by him only to communicate his sanctifying Grace to his Elect. XXII Now we may consider in the Soul of Jesus Christ Desires of two sorts viz. Actual Transitory and Particular that have but a short-liv'd Efficacy and Stable and Permanent which consist in a setled and constant Disposition of the Soul of Jesus Christ with relation to certain Effects which tend to the Execution of his Design in general If our Soul by its various Motions communicated to our Body all that was necessary to its Formation and Growth we might distinguish in her two kinds of Desire For it would be by the actual and transitory Desires that she would drive into the Muscles of the Body the Spirits which gave it a certain Disposition with reference to present Objects or to the actual Thoughts of the Mind But it would be by stable and permanent Desires that she would give to the Heart and Lungs the natural Motions by which Respiration and the Circulation of the Blood were perform'd By these Desires she would digest the Aliments and distribute them to all the Parts that needed them in as much as that sort of Action is at all times necessary to the Preservation of the Body XXIII By the actual transitory and particular Desires of the Soul of Jesus Grace is deriv'd to unprepar'd Persons in a manner somewhat singular and extraordinary But 't is by his permanent Desires that it is given regularly to those who receive the Sacraments with the necessary Dispositions For the Grace we receive by the Sacraments is not given us precisely because of the Merit of our Action though we receive them in Grace but because of the Merits of Jesus Christ which are freely applied to us in consequence of his permanent Desires We receive in the Sacraments much more Grace than our Preparation deserves and it suffices to our receiving some Influence from them that we do not oppose and resist it But 't is abusing what is most Sacred in Religion to receive them unworthily XXIV Amongst the actual and transitory Desires of the Soul of Jesus there are certainly some more durable and frequent than others and the Knowledge of these Desires is of greatest Consequence in Point of Morality Doubtless he thinks oftner on those who observe his Counsels than on other Men. His Motions of Charity for Believers are more frequent and lasting than those for Libertines and Atheists And as all Believers are not equally prepar'd to enter into the Church of the Predestinate the Desires of the Soul of Jesus are not equally lively frequent and durable on the account of them all Man more earnestly desires the Fruits that are fittest for the Nourishment of his Body he 〈◊〉 oftner on Bread and Wine than on Meats of difficult Digestion So Jesus Christ designing the Formation of his Church ought to be more taken up with those who can most easily enter than on others which are extremely remote The Scripture likewise teaches us that the Humble the Poor the Penitent receive greater Graces than other Men because the Despisers of Honours Riches and Pleasures are the fittest for the Kingdom of Heaven Those for Example who have learn'd of Jesus Christ to be meek and humble in Heart shall find Rest to their Souls The Yoke of Christ which is insupportable to the Proud will become easie and light by the Assistances of Grace For God
produce in us contrary Pleasures and Aversions to those of Concupiscence Pleasures for the True and Aversions or Dislikes for sensible Goods Thus the Grace whereof Jesus Christ is the Occasional Cause and which he incessantly sheds on us as Head of the Church is not a Grace of Light though he has merited that Grace likewise for us and sometimes may communicate it as I shall say by and by But 't is a Grace of Sensation 't is the preventing Delectation which begets and nurses Charity in our Hearts For Pleasure naturally produces and cherishes the Love of those Objects which cause or seem to cause it 'T is likewise the Disgust which sometimes sensible Objects give us which create an Aversion to them and capacitate us to guide the Motions of our Love by Light or Knowledge XXXII We must oppose the Grace of Sensation to Concupiscence Pleasure to Pleasure Dislike to Dislike that the Influence of Jesus Christ may be directly opposite to the Influence of the First Man The Remedy must be contrary to the Disease that it may cure it For illuminating Grace cannot heat an Heart that is wounded by Pleasure this Pleasure must cease or another succeed it Pleasure is the Weight of the Soul and naturally bears it along with it and sensible Pleasures weigh it down to Earth In order to her determining her self these Pleasures must vanish or delectable Grace must raise her up towards Heaven and instate her well-nigh in Equilibrio Thus it is the New Man may war against the Old the Influence of our Head may resist that of our Progenitor and Jesus Christ may conquer in us all our Domestick Enemies The First Man being free from Concupiscence before his Sin needed not to be invited to the Love of the True Good by preventing Delectation He knew clearly that God was his Good and there was no Necessity he should have the Sense of it 'T was not fit he should be allur'd by Pleasure to the Love of him since nothing withstood this Love and he knew him perfectly deserving it But after the Sin the Grace of Delectation was necessary to counterpoize the continual Struggle of Concupiscence Therefore Light is the Grace of the Creator Delectation is that of the Restorer Light is communicated by Jesus Christ as Eternal Wisdom Delectation is given by him as Wisdom Incarnate Light in its Original was mere Nature Delectation has ever been Pure Grace Light after the Sin was granted us only for the Merits of Jesus Christ. Delectation is granted both for the Merits and by the Efficacy of the same Jesus Lastly Light is shed into our Souls according to our own several Volitions and various Applications as I shall explain by and by But the Delectation of Grace is infus'd into our Hearts according to the diverse Desires of the Soul of Jesus Christ. XXXIII 'T is true Pleasure produces Light because the Soul is more attentive to Objects that give her Pleasure Since most Men despise or neglect the Truths of Religion because abstract or unaffecting it may be said that the Delectation of Grace instructs them For that rendring these Truths more sensible they more easily learn them by the Attention they afford And for this Reason St. John says That the Unction we receive from Jesus Christ teaches all things and that those who have receiv'd it have need of no Instructor XXXIV Yet it must be observ'd That this Unction does not produce Light immediately and by its self it only excites our Attention which is the Natural or Occasional Cause of our Knowledge So we see that Men of the greatest Charity are not always the most Understanding All Men being not equally capable of Attention all the Receivers of the same Unction are not equally instructed by it Therefore though Light may be shed on the Soul by a supernatural Infusion and Charity often produces it yet we are always to look upon this kind of Grace but as a Natural Effect For ordinarily Charity produces not Light in the Mind save in proportion to the Inducement it gives the Soul to desire the Knowledge of what she loves For in fine the diverse Desires of the Soul are the Natural or Occasional Causes of the Discoveries we make on any Subject whatsoever But these things we must explain more at large in the Second Part of this Discourse PART II. Of the Grace of the CREATOR XXXV I Know but two Principles that directly and of themselves determine the Motion of our Love Light and Pleasure Light to discover our several Goods and Pleasure to make us tast them But there is a great difference betwixt Light and Pleasure the former leaves us absolutely to our selves and makes no Intrenchment on our Liberty It does not efficaciously carry us to Love nor produce in us Natural or Necessary Love but only induces us to carry our selves to the loving with a Love of choice the Objects it discovers or which is the same thing only causes us to determine to particular Goods the general Impression of Love God constantly gives us for the General But Pleasure effectually determines our Will and as it were conveys us to the Object which causes or seems to cause it It produces in us a Natural and Necessary Love weakens our Liberty divides our Reason and leaves us not perfectly to our own Conduct An indifferent Attention to the Sense we have of our internal Motions will convince us of these Differences Thus Man before the Sin being perfectly free and having no Concupiscence to hinder him from prosecuting his Light in the Motions of his Love and knowing clearly that God was infinitely amiable ought not to be determin'd by preventing Delight as I have already said or by any other Graces of Sensation which might have lessen'd his Merit and induc'd him to love by Instinct the Good which should only be lov'd by Reason But after he had sinned he besides the Grace of Light had need of that of Sensation to resist the Motions of Concupiscence For Man having an invincible Desire for Happiness cannot possibly sacrifice his Pleasure to his Light his Pleasure which makes him actually Happy and subsists in him in spight of his Resistance to his Light which subsists but by a painful Application of Thought and dies at the presence of the least actual Pleasure and lastly which promises no solid Happiness till after Death which to the Imagination seems a perfect Annihilation Light therefore is due to Man to conduct him in the quest of Happiness and belongs to Natural Order and supposes neither Corruption nor Reparation in Nature But Pleasure which relates to the true Good is pure Grace For naturally the true Good ought not to be belov'd otherwise than by Reason Therefore the Occasional Causes of the Graces of Sensation ought to be found in Jesus Christ because he is the Author of this Grace But the Occasional Causes of Light ought to be ordinarily found in the Order of Nature because Light is
the Helps reach'd to them by Jesus Christ but also by natural Forces or ordinary Graces For in brief Nature may be made subservient to Grace in a thousand Instances PART II. Of GRACE XVIII THE Inequality which is found in the Liberty of different Persons being clearly known it will be no hard Matter methinks to discover how Grace works in us if we but affix to the Word Grace distinct and particular Ideas and remember the Difference between the Grace of the Creator and Renovator I said in the preceding Discourse that there is this difference between Light and Pleasure That the former leaves us entirely to our selves whilst the latter incroaches upon our Liberty For Light is something extraneous to us it does not affect and modifie our Soul it does not drive us to the Objects it discovers but only disposes us to move our selves and to consent freely and by Reason to the Impression God gives us towards Good The Knowledge of our Duty the clear Idea of Order separate from all Sensation the Contemplation of naked abstract wholly pure and intelligible Good that is Good without Tast or Fore-tast leaves the Soul to her entire Liberty But Pleasure is an Inmate to the Soul it touches and modifies her And so it diminishes our Liberty makes us love Good rather by a Love of Instinct and Passion than of Choice and Reason And it transports us as I may say to sensible Objects Not that Pleasure is the same thing as Love or the Motion of the Soul towards Good but that it causes this Love or determines this Motion towards the Object that makes us happy But because no Truths are demonstrable save those whereof we have clear Ideas which we have not of our own inward Motions 't is not possible for me to demonstrate what I advance as we demonstrate the Conclusions depending on common Notions Every one therefore must consult his own inward feeling of what passes in his Soul if he would be convinc'd of the difference between Light and Pleasure and must carefully observe that commonly Light is attended with Pleasure which yet he must separate to judge soundly of it But of this I have said enough XIX If then it be true that Pleasure naturally produces Love and is like a Weight which gives the Soul a Propensity to the Good that causes or seems to cause it 't is visible that the Grace of Jesus Christ or the Grace of Sensation is of it self efficacious For though preventing Delectation when but weak works not an entire Conversion in the Heart of those whose Passions are too lively yet it never fails of its Effect in as much as it always inclines them towards God It is in some measure always efficacious but it has not always all possible Effect because of the Resistance of Concupiscence XX. Put for Example in one Scale of a Balance ten pound weight and in the other only six this latter weight shall truly gravitate for adding but so much more weight to this or taking it from the opposite Scale or lastly hanging the Balance nearer the over-weighted and the six pounds shall carry it But though this weight gravitates 't is visible its effect depends still on the resisting weight and the manner of its resisting Thus the Grace of Sensation is always of it self efficacious it constantly weakens the Effort of Concupiscence since Pleasure naturally creates Love for the Cause which produces or seems to produce it But though this Grace be always Self-efficacious yet it depends or rather its Effect depends on the actual Dispositions of the Receiver The weight of Concupiscence resists it and sensible Pleasures which draw us to the Creatures that seem to produce it in us hinder the Pleasures of Grace from uniting us strictly to him who alone can act in us and make us happy XXI But the case is otherwise with the Grace of Light or the Grace of the Creator It is not of it self efficacious It does not move or convey the Soul but leaves her perfectly to her self But though it be not efficacious of it self it nevertheless is persued by many Effects when 't is great and animated by some delectable Grace which gives it Force and Vigour or when it meets with no contrary Pleasure that greatly resists it Such is the difference between the Grace of the Creator and that of the Restorer between Light and Pleasure between the Grace which supposes not Concupiscence and the Grace which is given us to counterpoize the Pleasures of it The one is sufficient to a Man perfectly Free and Fortified with Charity the other is efficacious to a Man Infirm to whom Pleasure is necessary to draw him to the Love of the True Good XXII But the Force and Efficacy of Grace ought always to be compar'd with the Action of Concupiscence with the Light of Reason and especially with the degree of Liberty the Person is endued with And we must not imagine that God bestows it by particular Wills with design to produce certain Effects by it and nothing more For when 't is said that Grace always works in the Heart the Effect for which 't is given we err if we suppose God acts like Men with particular Considerations God diffuses his Grace with a General Design of sanctifying all that receive it or according as the Occasional Cause determines him to refuse it Mean while he knows very well that it will not have so much Effect in some as in others not only because of the Inequality of Force on the part of Grace but also of the Inequality of Resistance on the part of Concupiscence XXIII Since Concupiscence has not utterly destroy'd the Liberty of Man the Grace of Jesus Christ as efficacious as it is is not absolutely irresistible A sensible Pleasure is superable when weak and a Man may suspend the Judgment of his Love when he is not hurried by a too violent Passion And when he stoops to the Lure of an adulterate Pleasure he is culpable through the Abuse of his Liberty So likewise the Delectation of Grace is not ordinarily invincible A Man may decline following the good Motions it inspires which remove us from the false Objects of our Love This Grace fills not the Soul in such a manner as to hurry her to the True Good without Choâ—ce Judgment and Free Consent Thus when we resign up our selves to its Motion and advance farther as I may say than it irresistibly carries us when we sacrifice the Pleasures of Concupiscence which weaken its Efficacy or lastly when we act by Reason or love the true Good as we ought we merit through the good use we make of our Liberty XXIV 'T is true that Delectable Grace consider'd in it self and separate from the Pleasures of Concupiscence which are contrary to it is always invincible Because this holy Pleasure being conformable to the Light of Reason nothing can withstand its Effect in a Man perfectly free When the Mind sees clearly by
the Light of Reason that God is its Good and has a lively Sense of him by the Tast of Pleasure 't is not possible to avoid loving him For the Mind desires Happiness and then nothing hinders it from following the agreeable Motions of its Love It feels no Remorses which oppose its present Felicity nor is it withheld by Pleasures contrary to that which it enjoys The Delight of Grace is then invincible nor is the Love it produces meritorious unless it be greater than its Cause I say that the Love which is merely a Natural or Necessary Effect of the Delectation of Grace has nothing meritorious though it be good in it self For whilst we move no farther than we are driven or rather when we advance no longer than we are paid in hand we have no Claim to any Recompence When we love God but so far as we are attracted or because we are attracted we love him not by Reason but by Instinct we love him not on Earth as he requires and deserves from us But we merit only when we love God by Choice by Reason by the Knowledge we have of his being amiable We merit in proceeding on as I may say towards Good when Pleasure has determin'd the Motion of Love XXV This sole Reason demonstrates either that the first Man was not invited to the Love of God by the blind Instinct of Pleasure or at least that this Pleasure was not so lively as what he felt in reflecting on his own Natural Perfections or in the actual use of sensible Goods For 't is evident such a Pleasure would have made him impeccable it would have put him in a State like that of the Blessed which merit no longer Not because they are out of a Wayfaring State for Merit always follows from meritorious Actions and God being Just must necessarily reward them But they merit not because the Pleasure they find in God is equal to their Love that they are throughly imbued with it and that being freed from all sort of Pain and all Motions of Concupiscence they have nothing left to sacrifice to God XXVI For that which makes us impeccable is not precisely that which incapacitates us to merit Jesus Christ was impeccable and yet he merited his Glory and that of the Church whereof he is the Head Being perfectly free he lov'd his Father not by the Instinct of Pleasure but by Choice and Reason He lov'd him because he intuitively saw how amiable he was For the most perfect Liberty is that of a Mind which has all possible Light and is not determin'd by any Pleasure because all Pleasure preventing or other naturally produces some Love and unless we resist it it efficaciously determines towards the agreeable Object the Natural Motion of the Soul But Light though conceiv'd never so great leaves the Mind perfectly free supposing this Light be consider'd alone and separate from Pleasure XXVII As Jesus Christ is nothing but the Word or Reason Incarnate certainly he ought not to love Good with a blind Love with the Love of Instinct with the Love of Sensation but by Reason He ought not to love an infinitely amiable Good and which he knew perfectly worthy of his Love as we love Goods that are not amiable and which we cannot know as worthy of Love He ought not to love his Father by a Love in any respect like that wherewith we love the vilest Creatures wherewith we love Bodies His Love to be pure at least to be perfectly meritorious ought to be no wise produc'd by preventing Pleasures For Pleasure may and must be the Recompence of a Legitimate Love as in effect it is in the Saints and Jesus Christ himself But it cannot be the Principle of Merit nor ought it to precede Reason unless debilitated But Reason in Jesus Christ was no ways weakned Supreme Reason supported the Created Jesus Christ who was free from the Motions of Concupiscence had no need of preventing Delight to counterbalance sensible Pleasures which surprize us Nay it may be he refus'd to tast the Pleasure of Joy which was a natural Result of the Knowledge he had of his Vertue and Perfections that being deprived of all sorts of Pleasures his Sacrifice might be more holy more pure and more disinteress'd Lastly Beside the Privation of all Pleasures preventing and others 't is likely he inwardly suffer'd unspeakable Droughts not better expressible by Souls fill'd with Charity than by the Dereliction of God according to these Words of our Saviour on the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me But if we will absolutely have it that Jesus Christ was carried by preventing Pleasures to the Love of his Father 't is necessary to say according to the Principles I have laid down either that his Love was more intense than his Pleasure since Natural Love produc'd by the Instinct of Pleasure is no ways meritorious or at least we must say he merited by sensible Pains by the continual Sacrifice which he freely and voluntarily offer'd to his Father For 't was necessary he should suffer to enter in Possession of his Glory as we are taught by Scripture XXVIII Though the Delectation of Grace without relation to any contrary Pleasure infallibly gains the Consent of the Will yet it is not so with the Pleasures of Concupiscence These Pleasures consider'd in themselves without respect to other actual Pleasures are not always insurmountable The Light of Reason condemns them the Remorse of Conscience makes us abhor them and we may commonly suspend our Consent Therefore the Grace of Jesus Christ is stronger than Concupiscence and we may call it Victorious since the former always masters the Heart when equal to the latter For when the Balance of our Heart is perfectly in Equilibrio by the even Weights of contrary Pleasures that which is most solid and reasonable has the Advantage because Light adds some Grains to its efficacy and the Remorses of Conscience withstand the Influence of a counterfeit Pleasure XXIX We must conclude from what we have said that we always merit when we love the true Good by Reason and that we merit not at all when we love it by Instinct We merit always when we love the true Good by Reason because Order will have the true Good lov'd in that manner and that mere Light does not convey us or invincibly determine us to the Good discover'd by it We merit not when we love the true Good by Instinct or as much as we are invincibly mov'd and determin'd by Pleasure Because Order requires that the true Good or the Good of the Mind should be lov'd by Reason by a free Love a Love of Choice and Judgment whilst the Love which is produc'd by Pleasure is a Blind Natural and Necessary Love I own that when we advance farther than Pleasure forces us we merit But that 's because we therein act by Reason and in the way that Order would have us For Love so much as it
by any Image it follows the Soul cannot imagine them which is a thing worthy to be remember'd Lastly By Sense the Soul perceives only Sensible gross and ruder Objects when being present they cause an Impression on the external Organs of her Body Thus it is the Soul sees things plain and rugged present to her Eyes thus she knows the Hardness of the Iron the point of a Sword and the like and this kind of Perceptions one may call Sentiments or Sensations The Soul then has no more than these three ways of Perceiving which will easily be granted if we consider that the things we perceive are either Spiritual or Material If they be Spiritual they are perceptable only by the Pure Vnderstanding If they be Material they are either Present or Absent If they be Absent the ordinary way of the Soul 's representing them is by the Imagination But if they be Present the Soul can perceive them by the Impressions they make upon her Senses And thus Our Souls are not capable of more than a three-fold Perception by Pure Intellect by Imagination and by Sense These three Faculties therefore may be lookt upon as so many certain Heads to which we may reduce the Errors of Men and the Causes of their Errors and so avoid the confusion into which the multitude of them would infallibly cast us should we talk of them without Order or Method But moreover our Inclinations and our Passions act very strongly upon us They dazzle our Mind with their false Lights and overcast and fill it with Clouds and Darkness Thus Our Inclinations and our Passions engage us in an infinite number of Errors when we suffer our selves to be guided by that false Light and abusive Glare which they produce within us We must then together with the three Faculties of the Mind consider them as the Sources of our Deviations and Delinquencies and add to the Errors of Sense Imagination and Pure Intellect those which may be charg'd upon the Passions and Natural Inclinations And so all the Errors of Men and the Causes of them may be reduc'd to five Heads and we shall treat of them according to that Order First We shall speak of the Errors of the Senses Secondly Of the Errors of Imagination Thirdly Of the Errors of the Pure Intellect Fourthly Of the Errors of our Inclinations and Fifthly Of the Errors of the Passions And thus having made an Essay to rid the Soul of the Errors which she's subject to we shall Lastly lay down a General Method to Conduct her in the Search of Truth We will begin with an Explication of the Errors of our Senses or rather of the Errors into which we fall for want of making the due use we should do of our Senses And here we shall not so much descend to our Particular Errors which are almost infinite as fix upon the general Causes of these Errors and such things as seem most necessary to inform us of the Nature of the Humane Mind CHAP. V. Of the SENSES I. Two ways of explaining how they were corrupted by Sin II. That 't is our Liberty and not our Senses which is the true Cause of our Errors III. A Rule for avoiding Error in the use of our Senses UPON an attentive Consideration of the Senses and Passions of Man we find them so well proportion'd to the End for which they were given us that we can by no means agree with those who say they are to all intents and purposes debauch'd and spoil'd by Original Sin But that it may appear it is not without Reason we are of a different Opinion it is necessary to Explain in what manner we may conceive the Order and Regularity which was to be seen in the Faculties and Passions of our First Parent in his State of Righteousness and the Changes and Disorders that were consequent to his Fall Now there are Two ways of Conceiving these things of which this is the First That it seems to be a common Notion That it is necessary to the right ordering of Affairs that the Soul should perceive lesser or greater Pleasures according to the proportion of the Littleness or Greatness of the Goods which she enjoys Pleasure is an Instinct of Nature or to speak clearer 't is an Impression of God himself who inclines us towards some Good which Impression should be so much stronger by how much that Good is greater According to which Principle it seems not to be contested that our first Parent before his Sin coming fresh out of the Hands of his Maker found greater Pleasures in the most solid Goods than in those that were not so Wherefore since he was created in order to Love God who created him and that God was his true Good it may be said God gave him a Taste and Relish of himself That he inclin'd him to the Love of the Divine Perfection by a Sense of Pleasure and that he possess'd him with those Internal Satisfactions in his Duty that counter-balanc'd the greatest Pleasures of the Senses whereof since the State of Sin Man is altogether insensible without a Supernatural Assistance and particular gift of Grace Notwithstanding since he had a Body which God design'd he should take care of and look upon as a Part of himself he gave him to Perceive by the Mediation of his Senses Pleasures like those we our selves are sensible of in the use of things which are proper for and adapted to the Preservation of our Life and Being We presume not here to determine whether the First Man before his Fall had a Power to hinder agreeable or disagreeable Sensations in the instant that the principal part of his Brain was agitated by the Actual Impression of Sensible Objects Possibly he had that Soveraignty over himself because of his Subjection to the Will of God though the contrary Opinion seems more probable For though Adam might stop the Commotions of the Blood and Spirits and the Vibrations of the Fibres of his Brain which Objects excited in it because being in a Regular State his Body must needs submit to his Mind yet it is not probable he was able to prevent the Sensations of Objects at the time he had not stopt the Motions they produc'd in that part of his Body to which his Soul was immediately united For the Union of the Soul and Body consisting principally in the mutual Relation there is betwixt Sensations and the Motions of the Organs this Union would rather seem Arbitrary than Natural if Adam had been capable of hindring Sensation when the Principal Part of his Body receiv'd an Impression from those round about it However I declare for neither of the two Opinions The First Man therefore felt Pleasure in that which was Perfective of his Body as he felt it in that which was Perfective of his Soul And because he was constituted in a Perfect State he found that of the Soul far greater than that of the Body Thus it was infinitely
they are communicated to others with greater Facility The Study of Nature is undoubtedly more Noble than of Books Visible and Sensible Experiments afford us much more certain Proofs of things than the Reasonings of Men and no Objection can be made to those Men whose Circumstances of Life have engag'd them in the Study of Natural Philosophy for endeavouring to excel in it by making continual Experiments provided their greatest Application be made to the more necessary Sciences We find no fault with Experimental Philosophy nor the Improvers of it but only with their Defects The first of which is that usually 't is not the Light of Reason which conducts them in the Method of their Experiments but only Chance Which is the reason that they grow little more Learned or Skilful after having wasted much of their Time and Fortune therein The second is their insisting rather upon Curious and Extraordinary Experiments than on those that are more Common when 't is plain that the Commoner being the more simple they ought first to be dwelt upon before a Man applies himself to the more Compounded and to those which depend upon a multitude of Causes The third is their earnest and diligent Search after Profitable Experiments and their neglect of those which only serve to illuminate the Mind The fourth that they are too un-exact in their Observations of all the particular Circumstances of Time Place the Quality of the Drugs made use of though the least of these Circumstances is capable of frustrating the desir'd Effect For 't is observable that the Terms the Virtuoâ—i use are Equivocal The Word Wine for instance signifies so many different things as there are different Soils various Seasons and several ways of making and preserving it So that it may be said in general there are no where two Vessels of it altogether alike And when a Chymist says To make such an Experiment take wine we have but a very confus'd Idea of his meaning For which Reason they should use a most exact Circumspection in Experiments and not descend to the Compound sort till they are very well acquainted with the more Simple and Ordinary The fifth is That they make too many Deductions from a single Experiment when on the contrary to the Establishing any one good Conclusion there should go generally many Experiments Though a single Experiment may be assistant to the inferring many Conclusions Lastly The most part of Naturalists and Chymists consider only the particular Effects of Nature They never ascend up to the first Notions of the Things Bodies are compos'd of When yet it is most certain we can have no clear and distinct knowledge of any particular Phaenomena unless we are first masters of the most general Principles and run them up as high as Metaphysicks To conclude they commonly want Courage and Constancy and are tir'd and discourag'd with the Toil and Expence There are many other Faults these Gentlemen are subject to but I design not to reckon them all up The Causes of these Faults which I have remark'd are the want of Application the Properties of the Imagination explain'd in the Tenth and Eleventh Chapters and Men's judging of the Difference of Bodies and the Changes they undergo only from the Sensations they have of them according to the Explication given in the First Book The THIRD PART Concerning The CONTAGIOUS COMMUNICATION Of Strong IMAGINATIONS CHAP I. I. Of the Disposition we have to imitate others in all things which is the Original of the Communication of those Errors that depend on the Power of Imagination II. Two things that more especially increase this Disposition III. What that strong Imagination is IV. That there are several kinds of it Of Fools and of those that have a Srong Imagination in the Sense 't is here taken V. Two considerable Imperfections of Men of a Strong Imagination VI. Of the Power they have to perswade and impose on others HAVING already explain'd the Nature of the Imagination the Failings it is subject to and shewn how our own Imagination engages us in Error all that remains in this Second Book is to speak to the Contagious Communication of Strong Imaginations I mean that Sway and Power some Minds have of drawing others into their Errors Strong Imaginations are wondrously contagious They domineer over the weaker fashion them by degrees after their own Image and imprint the same Characters upon them And therefore since Men of Conceit and of a Vigorous and Strong Imagination are the least reasonable of any there are very few Causes of the Errors of Men more â—niversal than this dangerous Communication of the Imagination In order to conceive what this Contagion is and how it 's transmitted from one to another we must know that Men are under a mutual necessity of one another's Assistance and are so fram'd as out of many Bodies to compound one whereof all the Parts have a muâ—ual Correspondence For the preserving and cherishing of which Union GOD commanded them to have Charity for each other But whereas self-Self-love might by little and little extinguish Charity and break the Bond of Civil Society GOD thought fit for the Preservation of it to unite Men more firmly still by Natural Ties which might subsist in case Charity should fail and also defend it against the attacks of self-Self-love These Natural Ties which we have in common with Beasts consist in a certain Disposition of Brain which makes all Men prone to imitate the Actions of those they converse with to frame the same Judgments with them and to be acted with like Passions they see them possess'd with Which Disposition is a much straiter Obligation to bind them to each other than Charity founded upon Reason this Charity being rarely to be met with Now when a Man wants this Disposition of Brain whereby he may be affected with our Sentiments and Passions he is Naturally incapable of uniting and making up one Body with us He may be compar'd to those Irregular Stones that cannot be plac'd in a Building because they cannot be joyn'd with the others Oderunt hilarem tristes tristemque jocosi Sedatum celeres agilem gnavúmque remissi 'T is a more considerable Vertue than is imagin'd to keep fair with those who are untouch'd with our Passions and whose Notions are contrary to our own And we shall have Reason to think so if we consider that 't is a kind of Insulting when we see a Man that has just cause of Sorrow or Joy not to take part with him in his Sentiments When a Man is in Sorrow one should not come before him with a Gay and Airy look which bespeaks Joy and violently imprints the Motions thereof in his Imagination This being to disturb him from the state that is most convenient and pleasant to him for sorrow is the pleasantest of all the Passions to a Man under any Affliction There is then a certain Disposition of Brain in all Men whatever which naturally inclines
aut simulachra conflant nihil divinitati nocetur ita quicquid fit in sapientem protervê petulanter superbè frustrà tentatur Cap. 4. Inter fragorem templorum super Deos suos cadentium uni homini pax fuit Cap. 5. Non est ut dicas ita ut soles hunc sapientem nostrum nusquam inveniri Non fingimus istud humani ingenii vanum decus nec ingentem imaginem rei falsae concipimus sed quaelem confirmamus exhibuimus exhibebimus Ceterùm hic ipse M. Cato vereor ne suprà nostrum exemplar sit Cap. 7. Videor mihi intueri animum tuum incensum effervescentem paras acclamare Haec sunt quae auctoritatem praeceptis vestris detrahant Magna promittitis quae ne optari quidem nedum credi possunt And lower Ita sublato altè supercilio in eadem quae caeteri descenditis mutatis rerum nominibus tale itaque aliquid in hoc esse suspicor quod prima specie pulchrum atque magnificum est nec injuriam nec contumeliam accepturum esse sapientem And lower Ego vero sapientem non imaginario honore verborum exornare constitui sed eo loco ponere quo nulla perveniat injuria Battering Rams and other Engines of Wars will shake the Walls and Towers of the strongest Garrisons and in time level them with the Earth But what Machines are found sufficient to shake the impregnable Mind of his Wise-man Compare not with him the Wall of Babylon forc'd by Alexander nor those of Carthage and Numantia that one General overturn'd Nor lastly the Capitol and the Citadel which carry the marks of the prevailing Enemy Arrows shot against the Sun are spent in vain Sacriledges committed in the overthrow of Temples and the Shrines of the Gods melted down touch not the Divinity yet the Gods may be overwhelm'd in the ruines of their own Temples But his Wise-man shall never be oppress'd or rather he may be oppress'd but 't is impossible he should be hurt But think not says Seneca that the Wise-man I am picturing is no where to be found 'T is no vain Fiction of ours ridiculously to exalt the Mind of Man 'T is not a Stalking Idea without Realty and Truth no the Original Cato transcends perhaps the Picture that I make of him But methinks continues he I perceive your Mind begins to kindle and grow hot and you are ready to cry out That 't is the way to make our selves contemptible to promise things above the reach of Faith or Hope and that the Stoicks only change the Names of things to speak the same Truths in a more lofty and supercilious strain But see how you are mistaken For 't is not our Design to dignifie the Wise-man with the imaginary Honour of great and pompous Words but to set him in a place inaccessible to Injuries and Affronts See here now Seneca's weak Reason is hurried away with an impetuous Imagination But is it possible for Men under a continual sense of their Miseries and Infirmities to fall into such presumptuous and arrogant Notions Can a reasonable Man be perswaded that Pain cannot touch or hurt him Or could this All-wise this Self-sufficient Cato suffer without Disquiet at least some Molestation I don't say the heinous Insults and Abuses of an enraged Rabble Dragging Stripping Beating him but the Stinging of a silly Fly What can be imagin'd more weak against so strong and convincing Proofs of our own Experience as this pretty Arguing of Seneca which yet is one of his best Arguments Validius debet esse quod laedit eo quod laeditur non est autem fortior nequitia virtute non potest ergo laedi Sapiens Injuria in bonos non tentatur nisi à malis bonis inter se pax est Quod si laedi nisi infirmior non potest malus autem bono infirmior est nec injuria bonis nisi à dispari verenda est injuria in Sapientem virum non cadit Cap. 7. That which hurts says he must be stronger than that which is hurt But Vice is not stronger than Vertue therefore the Wise-man cannot be hurt To this we need only answer Either that all Men are Sinners and consequently worthy of the Misery they suffer as Religion assures us or that if Vice be not stronger than Vertue yet the Vicious may sometimes be more prevalent than the Vertuous as Experience manifests Epicurus was in the right in saying that Injuries were supportable by a Wise-man but Seneca certainly in the wrong to affirm The Wise-man could not be injur'd The Vertue of the Stoicks could never render them impregnable since 't is not inconsistent with true Vertue for a Man to be Miserable and pitiable at the time of his suffering some Evil St. Paul and the Primitive Christians had doubtless more Vertue than Cato and all the Stoicks and yet they confess'd they were Miserable through the Pains they endur'd though they were Happy through the Prospect of an Eternal Retribution Si tantum in hâc vitâ sperantes sumus miserabiliores sumus omnibus hominibus says St. Paul As 't is GOD alone who through his Grace can give us a real and a solid Vertue so 't is from Him only we can receive the Fruition of a solid and real Happiness which yet he neither promises nor gives us in this Life but in the other it must be expected from his Justice as the Recompense of the Miseries we have undergone for the Love of him in this We are not as yet in possession of that Peace and Repose which nothing can disturb even the Grace of our LORD makes us not so Invincible but it commonly leaves us to the Sense and Feeling of our own Imbecility both to certifie us there is nothing in the World but is capable of hurting us and to teach us to suffer with a modest Patience and an humble Resignation all the Injuries we receive and not with a fastuous and haughty Patience like the Constancy of Proud Presumptuous Cato When Cato was struck on the Face he was not troubl'd at it nor would he revenge or pardon the Affront but Dogmatically deny'd that he had receiv'd any He would be thought infinitely above those that struck him So that his Patience was Pride and Arrogance and affronting and abusing those that injur'd him This Patience of his being a manifest sign that he look'd upon his Enemies as Beasts with whom 't was below him to be angry And this Contempt of his Enemies and great Esteem of himself is what Seneca calls the greatness of Courage Majori animo says he speaking of an Abuse Cato had receiv'd non agnovit quam ignovisset How extravagant it is to confound Magnanimity with Pride and separating Patience from Humility to joyn it with an unsufferable Arrogance And yet how feelingly does such Extravagance flatter the Vanity of Man who is never willing to stoop and abase himself And how dangerous is it for Christians especially to
in difficult Questions that the Mind must survey at one sight a multiplicity of Relations that are between two things or more it is plain that if it has not consider'd these things very attentively or if it has but a confus'd Knowledge of them it can never have a distinct Perception of their Relation and consequently cannot make any solid Judgment of them One of the main Causes of our Mind 's wanting Application for Abstract Truths is our seeing them as at a Distance whilst other things are continually offering themselves to the Mind that are nearer at hand The great Attention of the Mind brings home as I may say the remote Idea's of the Objects we consider But it often falls out that when a Man is very intent on Metaphysical Speculation he is easily thrown off from them by some accidental Sensations breaking in upon the Soul which sit closer to it than those Idea's For there needs no more than a little Pleasure or Pain to do it The Reason whereof is that Pleasure and Pain and all Sensations in general are within the very Soul They modifie her and touch her more to the quick than the simple Idea's of Objects of Pure Intellection which though present to the Mind neither touch nor modifie it at all And thus the Mind on one hand being of a straitned and narrow reach and on the other unable to prevent feeling Pain and all its other Sensations has its Capacity fill'd up with them and so cannot at one and the same time be sensible of any thing and think freely of other Objects that are not sensible The Humming of a Fly or of any other little Animal supposing it communicated to the principal part of the Brain and perceiv'd by the Soul is capable do what we can of interrupting our Consideration of very Abstract and Sublime Truths because no Abstract Idea's modifie the Soul whereas all Sensations do From hence arises that Stupidity and Drousiness of the Mind in regard of the most Fundamental Truths of Christian Morality which Men know only in a Speculative and Fruitless manner without the Grace of JESVS CHRIST All the World knows there is a GOD and that this GOD is to be serv'd and worshipp'd But who is it that serves and worships him without the Divine Grace which alone gives us a relish of Delight and Pleasure in these Duties There are but very few that do not perceive the Emptiness and Inconstancy of Earthly Goods and that are not convinc'd with an Abstract though most certain and evident Conviction that they are indeserving of our Cares and Application But where are those who despise these Goods in their Practice and deny their Pains and Application to acquire them 'T is only they that perceive some Bitterness and Distaste in the Injoyment of them or that Grace has made sensible to Spiritual Goods by an inward Delectation affix'd to them by GOD 't is these only who vanquish the Impressions of Sense and the Strugglings of Concupiscence A View of the Mind alone can never make us resist them as we should do but besides that View there must be a certain Sensation of the Heart That Intellectual Light all alone is if you please the Sufficient Grace which makes only for our Condemnation which acquaints us with our own Weakness and of our Duty of flying by Prayer to Him who is our Strength But the Sensation of the Heart is a Lively and Operative Grace 'T is this which touches us inward which fills us and perswades the Heart and without it there is no body that considers with the Heart Nemo est qui recogitet corde All the most certain Truths of Morality lye conceal'd in the folds and doubles and secret corners of the Mind and as long as they continue there are barren and inactive since the Soul has no relish of them But the Pleasures of the Senses dwell nearer to the Soul and since she cannot be insensible to or out of love with her Pleasure 't is impossible to disengage her self from the Earth and to get rid of the Charms and Delusions of her Senses by her own Strength and Abilities I deny not however but the Righteous whose Heart has been already vigorously turn'd towards GOD by a preventing Delectation may without that particular Grace perform some Meritorious Actions and resist the Motions of Concupiscence There are those who are couragious and constant in the Law of GOD by the strength of their Faith by the care they have to deprive themselves of Sensible Goods and by the contempt and dislike of every thing that can give them any temptation There are such as act for the most part without the taste of Indeliberate or Preventing Pleasure That sole Joy they find in acting according to the Will of GOD is the only Pleasure they taste and that Pleasure suffices to make them persevere in their state and to confirm the Disposition of their Heart Those who are Novice Converts have generally need of an Indeliberate or Preventing Pleasure to disintangle them from Sensible Goods to which they are fastened by other Preventing and Indeliberate Pleasures Sorrow and Remorse of their Consciences are not sufficient for this purpose and as yet they taste no Joy But the Just can live by Faith and that in Indigence and 't is likewise in this Estate they merit most Forasmuch as Men being Reasonable Creatures GOD will be lov'd by them with a Love of Choice and not with a Love of Instinct or an Indeliberate Love like that wherewith we love Sensible things without knowing they be Good otherwise than from the Pleasure we receive in them Notwithstanding most Men having but little Faith and yet constant opportunities of tasting Pleasures cannot long preserve their Elective Love for GOD against their Natural Love for sensible Goods unless the Delectation of Grace support them against the Efforts of Pleasure For the Delectation of Grace produces preserves and augments Charity as Sensible Pleasures Cupidity It is apparent enough from what has been said that Men being never free from some Passion or some pleasant or troublesome Sensations have their Capacity and Extent of Mind much taken up and when they would imploy the remainder of its Capacity in examining any Truth they are frequently diverted by some new Sensations through the dislike they take to that Exercise and the Inconstancy of the Will which tosses and bandies the Mind from Object to Object without letting it stand still So that unless we have habituated our selves from our Youth to the conquering all these Oppositions as I have explain'd in the Second Part we find our selves at last incapable of piercing into any thing that 's somewhat difficult and demands something of Application Hence we are to conclude That all Sciences and especially such as include Questions very hard to be clear'd up and explain'd abound with an infinite number of Errors And that we ought to have in suspicion those bulky
constantly impresses on our Will is The Love of our selves and Our own Preservation We have already said That GOD loves all his Works and that it is only his Love which preserves them in their Being and that 't is his Will that all Created Spirits should have the same Inclination with his own 'T is his Will therefore that they all have a natural Inclination for their own Preservation and that they love themselves So that Self-love is reasonable because Man is really amiable in as much as GOD loves us and would have us love our selves but it is not reasonable to love our selves better than GOD since GOD is infinitely more lovely than we are It is injust for us to place our ultimate End in our selves and to centre our Love there without reference to GOD since having no real Goodness or Subsistence of our selves but only by the participation of the Goodness and Being of GOD we are no farther amiable than we stand related to him Nevertheless the Inclination we should have for GOD is lost by the Fall and our Will now has only an infinite Capacity for all Goods or Good in general and a strong Inclination to possess them which can never be destroy'd But the Inclination which we ought to have for our own Preservation or our Self-love is so mightily increas'd that 't is at last become the absolute Master of our Will It has even chang'd and converted the Love of GOD or the Inclination we have for Good in general and that due to other Men into its own nature For it may be said that the Love of our selves at present ingrosses all because we love all things but with relation to our selves whereas we should love GOD only first and all things after as related to him When Faith and Reason certifie us that GOD is the sovereign Good and that he alone can fill us with Pleasures we easily conceive it our Duty to love him and readily afford him our Affections but unassisted by Grace Self-love always is the first Mover All pure and defecate Charity is above the strength of our corrupt Nature and so far are we from loving GOD for himself that Humane Reason cannot comprehend how 't is possible to love him without Reference to our selves and making our ultimate End our own Satisfaction self-Self-love therefore is the only Master of our Will ever since the Disorders of Sin and the Love of GOD and our Neighbour are only Consequences of it since we love nothing at present but with the hopes of some Advantage or because we actually receive some Pleasure therein This Self-love branches into two sorts viz. Into the Love of Greatness and the Love of Pleasure or into the Love of ones Being and the Perfection of it and into the Love of Well-being or Felicity By the Love of Greatness we affect Power Elevation Independency and a Self-subsisting Being We are after a sort ambitious of having a Necessary Being and in one sense desire to be as Gods for GOD only has properly Being and Necessary Existence for that every Depending Nature exists only by the Will of its Upholder Wherefore Men in desiring the Necessity of their Being desire Power and Independency which may set them beyond the reach of the Power of others But by the Love of Pleasure they desire not barely Being but Well-being Pleasure being the best and most advantageous Mode of the Soul's Existence For it must be noted That Greatness Excellency and Independency of the Creature are not Modes of Existence that render it more happy of themselves for it often happens that a Man grows miserable in proportion to his growing great But as to Pleasure 't is a Mode of Existence which we cannot Actually receive without being Actually more happy Greatness and Independency are commonly External Modes consisting in the relation we have to things about us But Pleasures are in the very Soul are real Modes which modifie her and are naturally adapted to content her And therefore we look upon Excellency Greatness and Independency as things proper for the Preservation of our Being and useful sometimes by the order of Nature to the continuance of our Well-being But Pleasure is always a Mode of the Mind's Existence which of it self renders it Happy and Content So that Pleasure is Well-being and the Love of Pleasure the Love of Well-being Now this Love of Well-being is sometimes more powerful and strong than the Love of Being and Self-love makes us desire Non-existence because we want Well-being This Desire is incident to the Damn'd for whom it were better according to the Saying of our SAVIOUR not to be at all than to be so ill as they are because these Wretches being the declar'd Enemies of him who contains in himself all Goodness and who is the sole Cause of all the Pleasures and Pains we are capable of 't is impossible they should enjoy any Satisfaction They are and will be eternally miserable because their Will shall ever be in the same Disposition and Corruption Self-love therefore includes two Loves that of Greatness Power and Independence and generally of all things thought proper for the preservation of our Being and that of Pleasure and of all things necessary to our Well-being that is to our being Happy and Content These two Loves may be divided several ways whether because we are compounded of two different parts of a Soul and Body by which they may be divided or because they may be distinguish'd or specify'd by the different Objects that are serviceable to our Preservation But I shall insist no longer upon this because designing not a Treatise of Morality there is no need of making an exact Disquisition and Division of all the things relating to us as our Goods Only this Division was necessary to reduce into some order the Causes of our Errours First I shall speak to the Errours that are caus'd by the Inclination we have for Greatness and whatever sets our Being free from Dependence upon others In the next place I shall treat of those which proceed from our Inclination to Pleasure and whatever meliorates our Being as much as possible and contents us most CHAP. VI. I. Of the Inclination we have for whatever elevates us above others II. Of the false Judgments of some Religious Persons III. Of the false Judgments of the Superstitious and Hypocrites IV. Of Voetius Mr. Des Cartes's Enemy WHatever tends to exalt us above others by making us more perfect as Science and Vertue or gives us Authority over them by rendring us more powerful as Honours and Riches seems to put us in a sort of Independence All those that are below us reverence and fear us are always prepar'd to execute what we please for our Preservation and are afraid of offending us or resisting our Desires which makes Men constantly endeavour to be Masters of these Advantages which elevate them above others for they don't consider that their Being and
Iron than to make it go when 't is perfectly made so a Soul should rather be admitted in the Egg for the Formation of the Chicken than for making the Chicken live when entirely form'd But Men don't see with their eyes the admirable Conduct that goes to the forming of a Chicken as they still sensibly observe its method of looking out what 's necessary to its own Preservation And therefore they are not dispos'd to believe there are Souls in Eggs from any sensible Impression of those Motions which are requisite to transform them into Chickens but they ascribe Souls to Animals by reason of the sensible Impression they receive from the external Actions these Animals perform for their vital Preservation though the Reason I have here alledg'd is stronger for the Souls of Eggs than of Chickens This second Reason namely that Matter is incapable of Sensation and Desire is without doubt a Demonstration against those who ascribe Sense to Animals whilst they confess their Souls corporeal But Men will rather eternally-confound and perplex these Reasons than acknowledge a thing repugnant to barely probable but most sensible and pathetick Arguments and there is no way fully to convince them but by opposing other Sensible Proofs to theirs and giving an ocular Demonstration that all the Parts of Animals are mere Mechanism and that they may move without a Soul by the bare Impression of Objects and their own particular Frame and Constitution as Monsieur Des Cartes has begun to do in his Treatise concerning Man For all the most certain and evident Reasons of the pure Intellect will never obviate the obscure Proofs they have from the Senses and it were to expose our selves to the Laughter of superficial and inattentive Persons to pretend to prove by Reasons somewhat higher than ordinary that Animals have no Sense We must therefore well remember that the strong Inclination we have for Divertisements Pleasures and in general for whatever affects us exposes us to a multitude of Errours because our Capacity of Mind being limited this Inclination constantly disturbs our Attention to the clear and distinct Ideas of the Pure Understanding proper for the Discovery of Truth to apply it to the false obscure and deceitful Ideas of the Senses which influence the Will more by the Hope of Good and Pleasure than they inform the Mind by their Light and Evidence CHAP. XII Of the Effects which the Thoughts of future Happiness and Misery are capable of producing in the Mind IF it often happens that little Pleasures and light Pains which we actually feel or even which we expect to feel strangely confound our Imagination and disable us from judging on things by their true Ideas we cannot imagine but the Expectation of Eternity must needs work upon our Mind But 't is requisite to consider what it is capable of producing in 't We must in the first place observe That the Hope of an Eternity of Pleasures does not work so strongly on our Minds as the Fear of an Eternity of Torments The Reason is Men love not Pleasure so much as they hate Pain Again by a Self-conscious Sensation which they have of their Corruptions they know they are worthy of Hell and they see nothing in themselves deserving of so great Rewards as is the participating the Felicity of God himself They are sensible as often as they will and even sometimes against their Will that far from meriting Rewards they deserve the greatest Punishments for their Conscience never quits them But they are not so constantly convinc'd that GOD will manifest his Mercy upon Sinners after having satisfy'd his Justice upon his SON So that even the Righteous have more lively Apprehensions of an Eternity of Torments than Hopes of an Eternity of Pleasures Therefore the prospect of Punishment works more upon them than the prospect of Reward Here follows what it is capable of producing not all alone but as a principal Cause It begets infinite Scruples in the Mind and strengthens them in such a manner that 't is almost impossible to get rid of them It stretches Faith as I may so speak as far as Prejudices and makes Men pay that Worship which is due to GOD alone to imaginary Powers It obstinately fixes their Mind on vain or dangerous Superstitions and causes them fervently and zealously to embrace Humane Traditions and Practices needless to Salvation Jew and Pharisaick-like Devotions which servile Dread has invented Finally it flings some Men into the darkness of Despair so that confusedly beholding Death as Nothing they brutally wish to perish that they may be freed of those dreadful Anxieties and Disquiets that torment and frighten them The Scrupulous and Superstitious have commonly more of Charity than self-Self-love but only Self-love possesses the Desperate for rightly to conceive it a Man must extremely love himself who rather chuses no Being than an ill one Women Young People and those of a weak and timorous Mind are most obnoxious to Scruples and Superstitions and Men more liable to Despair 'T is easie to conceive the Reasons of all this For the Idea of Eternity being manifestly the greatest most terrible and dreadful of all those that astonish the Mind and strike the Imagination must needs be attended with a large Retinue of additional Ideas all which contribute to a wonderful effect upon the Mind by reason of the Analogy they have to that great and terrible Idea of Eternity Whatever has any relation to Infinite cannot be a little thing or if it be little in it self by that relation it grows so vast and immense as not to be compar'd with any thing Finite Therefore whatever has or is fancied to have any relation to that unavoidable Dilemma concluding for an Eternity either of Torments or Delights necessarily dismays the Mind that 's capable of any Reflexion or Thought Women Young People and feeble Minds having as I have formerly said the Fibres of their Brain soft and pliable receive very deep Traces or Impressions from that two-edg'd Consideration and when through the plenty of their Spirits they are more dispos'd to Sensation than just Reflexion on things they admit through the Vivacity of their Imagination a great number of spurious Impressions and false accessary Ideas which have no natural Relation to the principal Nevertheless that Relation though imaginary nourishes and confirms those spurious Traces and false accessary Ideas which it has produc'd When Men are engag'd in a troublesome Law-suit which they don't understand and it takes up all their Thoughts they commonly fall into needless Fears and Apprehensions that there are certain things prejudicial to their Cause which the Judges never think of and which a Lawyer would not fear The Success of the Affair is of so great Concernment to them that the Concussion it produces in their Brain spreads and propagates it self to distant Traces that have naturally no relation to it 'T is just so with the Scrupulous they causlesly fancy to themselves Subjects of
Fears and Disquiet and instead of examining the Will of GOD in Holy Writ and referring to Men of untainted Imagination they constantly intend an Imaginary Law which the disorderly motions of Fear have engraven in their Brain And though they be inwardly convinc'd of their Infirmity and that GOD requires not certain Duties they prescribe themselves as being inconsistent with his Service yet they cannot forbear preferring their Imagination to their Understanding and submitting rather to some confus'd and terrifying Sensations that throw them into Errour than to the Evidence of Reason which brings them back to a good Assurance and reduces them into the right way of Salvation There is commonly a good stock of Vertue and Charity in Persons tormented with Scruples but not so much in People devoted to certain Superstitions and whose principal Employment is some Jewish and Pharisaick Practices GOD requires to be worship'd in Spirit and in Truth He is not satisfy'd with our making Faces and paying external Ceremonies with our bending the Knee before him and praising him with a Lip-offering when our Heart is far from him If Men are content with these exteriour Marks of Respect 't is because they cannot fathom the depth of the Heart for even they would be worship'd in Spirit and in Truth GOD demands our Mind and our Heart which as he has created so he preserves only for himself But many there are who to their own misfortune deny him those things which he has all manner of Right and Claim to They harbour Idols in their Hearts which they adore with a spiritual and true Worship and to which they sacrifice themselves and all they have But because the true GOD threatens in the Recesses of their Conscience to punish their excessive Ingratitude with an Eternity of Torments and yet they cannot think of quitting their belov'd Idolatry they therefore bethink themselves of an external Performance of some good Works They betake themselves to Fasting to Almsgiving and Saying of Prayers as they see others do and continue some time in such like Exercises but whereas they are painful to those that have not Charity they commonly forsake them to substitute some little Practicks and easie Devotions in their room which striking in with self-Self-love necessarily but insensibly subvert the whole System of Morals which our LORD has left us They are faithful fervent and zealous Defenders of those Humane Traditions which Un-enlightned Persons make them believe most useful and the frightful Idea of Eternity daily represents as absolutely necessary to their Salvation It fares not so with the Righteous They hear no less than the Wicked the Menaces of their GOD but the confus'd Noise of their Passions does not deafen them to his Counsels The false Glarings of Humane Traditions do not dazle them so far as to make them insensible to the Light of Truth They place their Confidence in the Promises of CHRIST and follow his Precepts as knowing that the Promises of Men are as vain as their Counsels However it may be said that the Dread which the Idea of Eternity breeds in their Minds sometimes effects so great a Commotion in their Imagination that they dare not absolutely condemn these Humane Traditions and that sometimes they approve them by their Example because they have A shew of Wisdom in Will-worship and Humility like those Pharisaick Traditions mention'd by St. Paul But that which more especially deserves to be consider'd in this place and which does not so much relate to Moral as Intellectual Disorder is that the fore-mention'd Fear stretches the Faith as well as Zeal of those it infects to things false or unworthy the Holiness of our Religion There are many who believe and that with a stiff and obstinate Faith That the Earth rests immovably in the Centre of the World That Brutes are sensible of Real Pain That Sensible Qualities are strew'd and diffus'd over Objects That there are Forms or Real Accidents distinguish'd from Matter and a world of the like false or uncertain Opinions because they conceit it would be repugnant to their Faith to deny them They are frighted with the Expressions of the Holy Scripture which speaks to our Capacity and consequently makes use of the receiv'd manners of Speech without design of making us Philosophers They believe not only what the Spirit of GOD means to teach them but likewise all the Opinions of the Jews They can't see for example that Joshua speaks before his Souldiers as even Copernicus Galilaeus and Des Cartes would speak to the Vulgar part of Men and that though he had been of the Opinion of these Philosophers he would not have commanded the Earth to stand still since he could not have manifested to his Army in words which they did not understand the Miracle GOD shew'd for his People Don't those who believe the Sun immoveable say to their Servants to their Friends or to those who are of their Opinion that The Sun Rises and Sets Do they affect to speak differently from others whenever their chief Design is not to Philosophize Was Joshua so admirably vers'd in Astronomy Or if he was did his Souldiers understand it But were he and his Souldiers Astronomers could we think they would be playing the Philosophers when their Thoughts were intent on Fighting Joshua therefore must have spoke as he did though both he and his Souldiers were of the same Opinion that the best Astronomers hold now-a-days And yet the Words of that great General Sun stand thou still upon Gibeon and what is said afterwards that the Sun stood still according to his Command persuade a great many that the Opinion of the Earth's Motion is not only dangerous but also absolutely Heretical and unwarrantable They have heard that some Devout Men whom we are to treat with much Deference and Respect have censur'd and condemn'd it and have some confus'd Notion of what happen'd to a Famous Astronomer of our own Age upon that occasion All which seems sufficient to make them obstinately believe that Faith is concern'd in that Opinion A certain confus'd Sensation rais'd and encourag'd by a Motion of Fear which yet they are scarce aware of throws them into Suspicions of those who follow Reason in things of Reason's Jurisdiction Hence they regard them as Hereticks they hear them but with Impatience and Regret of Mind and these their secret Apprehensions breed in them as great a Reverence and Submission to these Opinions and several others purely Philosophical as to Truths that are Objects of Faith CHAP. XIII I. Of the Third Natural Inclination viz. The Friendship we have for other Men. II. It makes us approve the Thoughts of our Friends and deceive them by undue Praises OF all our Inclinations taken in the general and in the Sense explain'd in the first Chapter there remains now to be spoken to only that which we have for those we live with and for all the Objects round about us of which I shall say but little
to the Rules of Society For an indiscreet Out-cry made upon no occasion or out of an idle Fear produces in the Assistants Indignation or Laughter instead of Pity because to cry without cause is to abuse things establish'd by Nature for our Preservation That indiscreet Cry naturally produces Aversion and the desire of Revenging the Affront that was offer'd Nature that is The settled Order of things if he that made it without cause did it wilfully But it ought only to produce the Passion of Derision mingled with some Compassion without Aversion and desire of Revenge if it were a Fright that is a false Appearance of a pressing Exigency which caus'd the Clamour For Scoff or Ridicule is necessary to re-assure and correct the Man as Fearful and Compassion to succour him as Weak 'T is impossible to conceive any thing better order'd I pretend not to explain by an Example what are the Springs and Movements or secret Combinations in Men's Brain as in that of all other Animals whereby the Author of Nature maintains the Concordance and Union necessary to their Conservation I only make some Reflexion upon these Contrivances to put Men upon considering them and diligently searching and discovering not how these Engines play or how their Movement is communicated through the Air the Light and all the little Bodies that surround us for that 's near incomprehensible and not necessary but what Effects they have By several different Observations we find there are Ties which unite us together but we cannot accurately discern how it is perform'd We easily see that a Watch points out the Hour but it requires time to find out the Reasons of it And there are so many different Movements in the Brain of the least of Animals as far surpass the most compound Clock-work in the World As the perfect Knowledge of our Machinal Constructure is not possible so it is not absolutely necessary but the Effects its Springs and Movements are capable of producing are indispensibly necessary to be known for the well-managing our selves There is no necessity of knowing how a Watch is made to make use of it but to use it in measuring out our Time 't is at least necessary to know that it shews the Hours Yet there are Men so little capable of Reflexion that we might almost compare them with Machines purely inanimate They feel not in themselves the Elaterium which slackens upon the sense of Objects They are frequently toss'd and agitated without perceiving their own Motion are Slaves and yet insensible of their Bonds Finally they are conducted a thousand different ways without perceiving the hand of their Conductor They fancy themselves the sole Authors of the Motions which they perform and not distinguishing what passes within them pursuant to a free Act of their Will from what the Impression of surrounding Bodies produces they think they are their own Guides even when they are guided by another But this is not a place proper for the Explication of these things Those Alliances which Nature's Author has founded between our Natural Inclinations in order to unite us to one another seem yet more worthy our Application and Enquiries than those between Bodies or between Minds with reference to Bodies For all things are so admirably dispos'd that those very Inclinations which seem most repugnant to Society are the most useful to it when they are somewhat moderated The Desire for Instance which all Men have of Greatness directly tends to the Subversion of all Societies Nevertheless this Desire is so temper'd by the Order of Nature that it conduces more to Publick Welfare than many other weak and languid Inclinations For it breeds Emulations it provokes Men to Vertue it bears up their Courage in the Services pay'd to their Country and so many Conquests would not be obtain'd did not the Soldiers and especially the Officers aspire to Glory and great Commands So that all the Particulars that constitute Armies labouring only for their private Interests fail not to procure Happiness to their Countries Which evidences how highly advantageous it is to the Publick Good that all Men should have a secret Ambition for Greatness and Promotion provided it be moderated But if all the Particulars should seem what they really are should they frankly confess to others they design'd to be the principal Parts of the Body they compose and never to be the meanest this would not be the means to unite them together All the Members of a Body cannot be the Head and Heart there must be Feet and Hands Little as well as Great Members to Obey as well as to Command And if every Member of a Society should openly say he would Command and never Obey as in effect every one naturally wishes 't is visible that all Politick Bodies would fall to Ruine and Confusion and Injustice would reign on Earth It was necessary therefore that those who have the most Sense and are the fittest to command as the topmost and noblest Parts of a Community should be naturally Civil that is should be dispos'd by a secret Inclination to express to others by their Behaviour and by the Civility and Courtesie of Expression how unworthy they think themselves of any Consideration and that they are the meanest of all but that those they address to are worthy of all sorts of Honours and that they pay them the greatest Esteem and Veneration Lastly to supply the Defect of Charity and Love of Order it was needful for those that command others to have the Art of deceiving them by an imaginary Abasement consisting in external Civilities and good Words that they might enjoy an unenvy'd Preheminence which is necessary in all Bodies For by that means each Particular possesses after a sort the Grandeur he desires The great possess it really and the Little and Weak only in Imagination being in a measure persuaded by the Compliments of others that they are not consider'd as they are that is the Lowest and Meanest of the People By the way it is easie to conclude from what we have said that 't is a great Offence to Civility to speak often of one's self especially to one 's own Advantage though we had all possible Accomplishments it being not allow'd to speak to Persons we converse with as if we look'd down upon them unless in some Circumstances and when certain external Characters give us a sensible Preheminence For Contempt is the greatest of Injuries 't is that which is most capable of dissolving Society and we can never hope that a Man whom we have given to understand we think beneath us will associate with us because no Man can endure to be thought the meanest Member of the Body he is of The Inclination therefore Men have to Complimenting is the fittest to counterbalance that other for Esteem and Elevation and to soften that internal Pain those feel who are the lowest Parts of the Body-Politick Nor can we doubt but the Mixture of these two Inclinations
of our Heart This is the utmost possible Blindness 't is according to St. Paul the temporal Punishment of Impiety and Idolatry that is to say the Desert of the most enormous Crimes And herein indeed the greatness of this terrible Punishment consists that instead of allaying the Anger of God as do all the others in this World it continually exasperates and encreases it till that dreadful Day comes wherein his just Wrath shall break out to the Confusion of Sinners Their Arguings however seem likely enough as being agreeable to common Sense countenanc'd by the Passions and such I am sure as all the Philosophy of Zeno could never overthrow We must love Good say they Pleasure is the Sign which Nature has affix'd to it to make it known and that Sign can never be fallacious since God has instituted it to distinguish Good from Evil. We must avoid Evil say they again Pain is the Character which Nature has annex'd to it and a Token in which we cannot be mistaken since it was instituted by God for the distinguishing it from Good We feel Pleasure in complying with our Passions Trouble and Pain in opposing them and therefore the Author of Nature will have us to give up our selves to our Passions and never to resist them since the Pleasure and Pain wherewith he affects us in those Cases are the infallible Criterion of his Will And consequently it is to follow God to comply with the Desire of our Hearts and 't is to obey his Voice to yield to the Instinct of Nature which moves us to the satisfying our Senses and our Passions This is their way of Reasoning whereby they confirm themselves in their infamous Opinions And thus they think to shun the secret Reproofs of their Reason and in Punishment of their Crime God suffers them to be dazzled by those false Glimpses delusive Glarings which blind them instead of inlightning them and strike them with such an insensible Blindness as they do not so much as wish to be cured of it God delivers them to a reprobate Sense he gives them up to the Desires of their corrupt Heart to shameful Passions to Actions unworthy of Men as the Holy Scripture speaks that having fatned themselves by their Debauches they may to all Eternity be the fit Sacrifice of his Vengeance But let us solve this Difficulty which they offer The Sect of Zeno not knowing how to untie the Knot has cut it by denying that Pleasure is a Good and Pain an Evil But that 's too venturous a Stroke and a Subterfuge unbecoming Philosophers and very unlikely I am sure to convert those who are convinc'd by Experience That a great Pain is a great Evil. Since therefore Zeno and all his Heathen Philosophy cannot solve the Difficulty of the Epicures we must have recourse to a more solid and inlightned Philosophy 'T is true that Pleasure is Good and Pain Evil and that Pleasure and Pain have been join'd by the Author of Nature to the Use of certain Things by which we judge whether they are Good or Evil which make us persue the Good and fly from the Evil and almost ever follow the Motions of the Passions All this is true but relates only to the Body which to preserve and keep long a Life much like to that of Beasts we must suffer our selves to be ruled by our Passions and Desires The Senses and Passions are only given us for the good of the Body sensible Pleasure is the indelible Character which Nature has affix'd to the Use of certain Things that without putting our Reason to the trouble of examining them we might presently imploy them for the preservation of the Body but not with intent that we should love them For we ought only to love those Things which Reason undoubtedly manifests to be our Good We are Reasonable Beings and God who is our Sovereign Good requires not of us a blind an instinctive a compell'd Love as I may say but a Love of Choice an enlightned Love a Love that submits to him our whole Intellectual and Moral Powers He inclines us to the Love of him in shewing us by the Light that attends the Delectation of his Grace that he is our Chief Good but he moves us towards the Good of the Body only by Instinct and a confused Sensation of Pleasure because the Good of the Body is undeserving of either the Attention of our Mind or the Exercise of our Reason Moreover our Body is not our selves 't is something that belongs to us and absolutely speaking we cannot subsist without it The Good of the Body therefore is not properly our Good for Bodies can be but the Good of Bodies We may make use of them for the Body but we must not be taken up with them Our Soul has also her own Good viz. the only Good that is superiour to her the only one that preserves her that alone produces in her Sensations of Pleasure and Pain For indeed none of the Objects of the Senses can of themselves give us any Sensation of them it is only God who assures us of their Presence by the Sensation he gives us of them which is a Truth that was never understood by the Heathen Philosophers We may and must love that which is able to make us sensible of Pleasure I grant it But by that very Reason we ought only to love God because he only can act upon our Soul and the utmost that sensible Objects can do is to move the Organs of our Senses But what matters it you 'll say from whence those grateful Sensations come I will taste ' em O thou ungrateful Wretch know the Hand that showres down Good upon thee You require of a just God unjust Rewards You desire he should recompence you for the Crimes you commit against him and even at the very time of committing them you make use of his immutable Will which is the Order and Law of Nature to wrest from him undeserved Favours for with a guilty Managery you produce in your Body such Motions as oblige him to make you relish all sorts of Pleasures But Death shall dissolve that Body and God whom you have made subservient to your unjust Desires will make you subservient to his just Anger and mock at you in his turn 'T is very hard I confess that the Enjoyment of Corporeal Good should be attended with Pleasure and that the Possession of the Good of the Soul should often be conjoin'd with Pain and Anguish We may indeed believe it to be a great Disorder by this Reason that Pleasure being the Character of Good and Pain of Evil we ought to possess a Satisfaction infinitely greater in loving God than in making use of sensible Things since He is the true or rather the only Good of the Mind So doubtless will it be one Day and so was it most probably before Sin entred into the World At least 't is very certain that before the Fall Man suffered
no Pain in discharging his Duty But God is withdrawn from us since the Fall of Adam he is no more our Good by Nature but only by Grace we feel now no Delight and Satisfaction in the Love of him and he rather thrusts us from than draws us to him If we follow him he gives us a Rebuff if we run after him he strikes us and if we be obstinate in our Persuit he continues to handle us more severely by inflicting very lively and sensible Pains upon us And when being weary of walking through the rough and stony Ways of Vertue without being supported by the Repast of Good or strengthned by any Nourishment we come to feed upon sensible Things he fastens us to them by the relish of Pleasure as though he would reward us for turning back from him to run after counterfeit Goods In short since Men have sinn'd it seems God is not pleas'd that they should love him think upon him or esteem him their only and sovereign Good It is only by the delectable Grace of Christ our Mediator that we sensibly perceive that God is our proper Good For Pleasure being the sensible Mark of Good we then perceive God to be our Good when the Grace of our Redeemer makes us love him with Pleasure Thus the Soul not knowing her own Good either by a clear View or by Sensation without the Grace of Jesus Christ she takes the Good of the Body for her own she loves it and closes to it with a stricter Adhesion by her Will than ever she did by the first Institution of Nature For Corporeal Good being now the only one left that is sensible must needs operate upon Man with more Violence strike his Bâ—ain livelier and consequently be felt and imagined by the Soul in a more sensible manner And the Animal Spirits receiving a more vehement Agitation the Will by consequence must love it with a greater Ardency and Pleasure The Soul might before Sin blot out of her Brain the too lively Image of Corporeal Good and dissipate the sensible Pleasure this Image was attended with The Body being subject to the Mind the Soul might on a sudden stop the quavering Concussion of the Fibres of the Brain and the Commotion of the Spirits by the meer Consideration of her Duty But she lost that Power by Sin Those Traces of the Imagination and those Motions of the Spirits depend no more upon her whence it necessarily follows that the Pleasure which by the Institution of Nature is conjoin'd to those Motions and Traces must usurp the whole Possession of the Heart Man cannot long resist that Pleasure by his own Strength 't is Grace that must obtain a perfect Victory Reason alone can never doe it None but God as the Author of Grace can overcome himself as the Author of Nature or rather exorate himself as the Revenger of Adam's Rebellion The Stoicks who had but a confused Knowledge of the Disorders of Original Sin could not answer the Epicures Their Felicity was but Ideal since there is no Happiness without Pleasure and no Pleasure to be sensibly perceiv'd by them in Vertuous Actions They might feel indeed some Joy in following the Rules of their phantastick Vertue because Joy is a natural Consequence of the Consciousness our Soul has of being in the most convenient State That Spiritual Joy might bear up their Spirits for a while but was not strong enough to withstand Pain and overcome Pleasure Secret Pride and not Joy made them keep their Countenance for when no body was present all their Wisdom and Strength vanished just as Kings of the Stage lose all their Grandeur in a Moment It is not so with those Christians that exactly follow the Rules of the Gospel Their Joy is solid because they certainly know that they are in the most convenient State Their Joy is great because the Good they possess through Faith and Hope is Infinite for the Hope of a great Good is always attended with a great Joy and that Joy is so much livelier as the Hope is stronger because a strong Hope representing the Good as present necessarily produces Joy as also that sensible Pleasure which ever attends the Presence of Good Their Joy is not restless and uneasie because grounded on the Promises of God confirm'd by the Blood of his Son and cherished by that inward Peace and unutterable Sweetness of Charity which the Holy Ghost sheds into their Hearts Nothing can separate them from their true Good which they relish and take Complacency in by the Delectation of Grace The Pleasures of Corporeal Good are not so great as those they feel in the Love of God They love Contempt and Pain They feed upon Disgraces and the Pleasure they find in their Sufferings or rather the Pleasure they find in God for whom they despise all the rest to unite themselves to him is so ravishing and transporting as to make them speak a new Language and even boast as the Apostles did of their Miseries and Abuses when they departed from the presence of the Council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the Name of JESUS Such is the Disposition of Mind in true Christians when they are most basely affronted for the Defence of Truth CHRIST being come to restore the Order which Sin had overthrown and that Order requiring that the greatest Goods be accompanied with the most solid Pleasures it is plain that things ought to be in the manner we have said But we may farther confirm and strengthen Reason by Experience for 't is known that as soon as any Person has formed but the bare Resolution to despise all for God he is commonly affected with a Pleasure or internal Joy that makes him as sensibly and lively perceive that God is his Good as he knew it evidently before The true Christians assure us every Day that the Joy they feel in an unmixt loving and serving God is inexpressible and 't is but reasonable to believe the Relation they make of what happens within them On the contrary the Impious are perpetually vexed with horrible Disquietudes and those that are shar'd betwixt God and the World partake of the Joys of the Just and of the Vexations of the Impious They complain of their Miseries and 't is reasonable to believe that their Complaints are not groundless God strikes Men to the Quick and through the very Heart when they love any thing besides him and 't is this Stroke that causes a real Misery He pours an exceeding Joy into their Minds when all their Adherencies are to him only and that Joy is the Spring of true Felicity The Abundance of Riches and Elevation to Honours being without us cannot cure us of the Wound God makes and Poverty and Contempt that are likewise without us cannot hurt us under the Almighty's Protection By what we have said 't is plain That the Objects of the Passions are not our Good that we must not follow their
affords us the Enjoyment of him as far as we are capable of it in this Life whereas the Blindness of the Mind and the Depravation of the Heart make our Imperfection and are the Results of the Union of our Soul and Body as I have proved in several Places shewing that we never know the Truth nor love the real Good when we follow the Impressions of our Senses Imaginations and Passions All this is evident and yet Men who all passionately desire the Perfection of their Being care but little to increase the Union which they have with God nay they are continually at work to strengthen and enlarge that which they have with sensible things The Cause of that surprizing Disorder cannot be too much explain'd The Possession of Good must naturally produce two Effects in the Possessour at once must render him more perfect and more happy however it does not always fall out so 'T is impossible indeed that the Mind should actually enjoy a Good without being actually more perfect but it may happen that it actually enjoys it without being actually happier Those that know Truth best and love most the most lovely Goods are always actually more perfect than those that live in blind Ignorance and disorderly Practice but they are not always actually happier It is even so with Evil it ought at once to make both imperfect and unhappy but though it always makes Men more imperfect yet it does not always make them more unhappy or at least makes them not unhappy proportionably to its making them imperfect Vertue is often bitter and distastful whereas Vice is sweet and pleasant so that it is especially by Faith and Hope that pious Men are truly happy whilst the wicked have the actual Enjoyments of Pleasures and Delights It ought not to be so indeed but however it is so Sin has brought forth that Disorder as I said in the foregoing Chapter and that Disorder is the principal Cause not only of the Corruption of our Morals but also of the Ignorance and Darkness of our Mind By that Disorder it is that our Imagination persuades it self that Bodies may be the Good of the Mind For Pleasure as I have often said is the sensible Character or Mark of Good But now of all the Pleasures we enjoy upon Earth the most sensible are those which we imagine to receive by the Body We judge though too inconsiderately without doubt that Bodies can be and are effectually our Good And 't is so hard to oppose the Instinct of Nature and to withstand the Arguments of the Senses that the design of it does not so much as come into our Mind We think not on the Disorders introduc'd by Sin We consider not that Bodies can act upon the Mind but as occasional Causes that the Mind cannot immediately or by it self enjoy any Corporeal thing and that all the ways it has of uniting to an Object are by its Knowledge and Love that God only is superiour to it can reward or punish it by Sensations of Pleasure or Pain that can enlighten and move it in a word act upon it Those Truths though most evident to attentive Minds are not however so powerful to convince us as is the deceiving Experience of a sensible Impression When we consider something as part of our selves or look on our selves as a part of that thing we judge it our Good to be united to it we love it and this love is so much the greater as the thing whereunto we think our selves united seems to be a more considerable part of the whole we make up together with it Now there are two sorts of Proofs which persuade us that a thing is part of our self viz. the Instinct of Sensation and the Evidence of Reason By the Instinct of Sensation I am persuaded that my Soul is united to my Body or that my Body makes part of my Being but I have no full Evidence of it since I know it not by the light of Reason but by the Pain or Pleasure I feel at the presence and impression of Objects My Hand is prick'd I suffer Pain thence I conclude that my Hand makes part of my self my Cloaths are rent and I endure nothing therefore I say my Cloaths are not my self my Hair is cut without Pain but cannot be pluck'd up without smart that puzzles the Philosopher and he knows not what to determine In the mean while this perplexity shows that even the wisest rather judge by the instinct of Sensation than by the light of Reason that such or such things belong or belong not to themselves For should they determine them by Evidence and the light of Reason they would quickly know that the Mind and the Body are two sorts of Beings altogether opposite that the Mind cannot be united to the Body by it self and that the Soul is wounded when the Body is struck only because of her Union with God 'T is then only by the Instinct of the Sensation that we look on our Body and all the sensible things to which we are united as part of our selves that is as belonging to that which thinks and feels in us For what is not cannot be known by evident Reason since Evidence discovers Truth alone But on the contrary 't is by the light of Reason that we know the Relation we have with Intellectual things We discover by a clear View of the Mind that we are united to God in a more strict and essential manner than to our Body that without him we are nothing and neither can doe nor know neither will nor be sensible of any thing that he is our All or if we may so speak that we make up a whole with him of which we are but an infinitely small part The light of Reason discovers us a thousand Motives to love God only and to dispise Bodies as unworthy of our Love But we are not naturally sensible of our Union to God nor persuaded that he is our All by the Instinct of sense 't is only the Grace of our Lord which produces in some Men that spiritual sense to help them to overcome the contrary Sensations by which they are united to their Body For God as the Author of Nature inclines Minds to the love of him by a Knowledge of Illumination and not of Instinct and in all probability 't is but since the Fall that God as the Author of Grace has superadded Instinct to Illumination because our light is at present so mightily impair'd as to be incapable of bringing us to God being besides continually weakn'd by contrary pleasure or instinct and rendred ineffectual We therefore discover by the light of the Mind that we are united to God and to the intellectual World which he contains and are convinced by Sensation that we are united to our Body and by it to the material and sensible World God has Created But as our Sensations are more lively moving frequent and lasting than our Illuminations so 't
great and solid Truth which they have rendred familiar and which bears 'em up and strengthens them in all Occasions CHAP. IX Of Love and Aversion and their principal Species LOve and Hatred are the Passions that immediately succeed Admiration for we dwell not long upon the Consideration of an Object without discovering the Relations it hath to us or to something we love The Object we love and to which consequently we are united by that Passion being for the most part present as well as that which we actually admire our Mind quickly and without any considerable Reflection makes the necessary Comparisons to find out the Relations they have to each other and to us or else is naturally aware of them by a preventing Sense of Pleasure and Pain Then it is that the Motion of Love we have for our selves and for the beloved Object extends to that which is admired if the Relation it has immediately to us or to something united to us appear advantageous either by Knowledge or Sensation Now that new Motion of the Soul or rather that Motion of the Soul newly determin'd join'd to that of the Animal Spirits and followed with the Sensation that attends the new Disposition that the same new Motion of the Spirits produces in the Brain is the Passion we call here Love But when we feel by any Pain or discover by a clear and evident Knowledge that the Union or Relation of the admired Object would prove disserviceable to us or to something united to us then the Motion of the Love we have for our selves or for the Thing united to us terminates in us or cleaves to the united Object without following the View of the Mind or being carried to the admired Thing But as the Motion towards Good in general which the Author of Nature continually imprints on the Soul carries her to whatever is known and felt because what is either intelligible or sensible is Good in it self so it may be said that the Resistance of the Soul against that natural Motion which attracts it is a kind of voluntary Motion which terminates in Nothingness Now that voluntary Motion of the Soul being join'd to that of the Spirits and Blood and followed by the Sensation that attends the new Disposition which that Motion of the Spirits produces in the Brain is the Passion we call here Aversion or Hatred That Passion is altogether contrary to Love and yet 't is never without Love It is altogether contrary to it because Aversion separates and Love unites the former has most commonly Nothingness for its Object and the latter has always a Being The former resists the natural Motion and makes it of no effect whereas the latter yields to it and makes it victorious However Aversion is never separated from Love because Evil the Object of the former is the Privation of Good so that to fly from Evil is to fly from the Privation of Good that is to say to tend to Good And therefore the Aversion of the Privation of Good is the Love of Good But if Evil be taken for Pain the Aversion of Pain is not the Aversion of the Privation of Pleasure because Pain is as real a Sensation as Pleasure and therefore is not the Privation of it But the Aversion of Pain being the Aversion of some internal Misery we should not be affected with that Passion should we not love our selves Lastly If Evil be taken for what causes Pain in us or for whatever deprives us of Good then Aversion depends on Self-love or on the Love of something to which we desire to be united So that Love and Aversion are two Mother-Passions opposite to each other but Love is the First the Chief and the most Universal As at that great Distance and Estrangement we are from God since the Fall we look upon our Being as the Chief Part of the Things to which we are united so it may be said in some sense that our Motion of Love for any thing whatsoever is an Effect of Self-love We love Honours because they raise us our Riches because they maintain and preserve us our Relations Prince and Country because we are concern'd in their Preservation Our Motion of Self-love reaches to all the Things that relate to us and to which we are united because 't is that Motion which unites us to them and spreads our Being if I may so speak on those that surround us proportionably as we discover by Reason or by Sensation that it is our Interest to be united to them And therefore we ought not to think that since the Fall Self-Love is only the Cause and Rule of all other Affections but that most part of other Affections are Species of Self-love For when we say that a Man loves any new Object we must not suppose that a new Motion of Love is produc'd in him but rather that knowing that Object to have some Relation or Union with him he loves himself in that Object and that with a Motion of Love coeval to himself For indeed without Grace there is nothing but Self-love in the Heart of Man The Love of Truth of Justice of God himself and every other Love that is in us by the first Institution of Nature have ever since the Fall been a Sacrifice to Self-love There is no doubt however but the most wicked and barbarous Men Idolaters and Atheists themselves are united to God by a natural Love of which consequently Self-love is not the Cause for they are united to him by their Love to Truth Justice and Vertue they praise and esteem good Men and do not love them because they are Men but because they see in them such Qualities as they cannot forbear to love because they cannot forbear to admire and judge them amiable And therefore we love something besides our selves but Self-love over-rules all the rest and Men forsake Truth and Justice for the smallest Concerns For when by their natural Force they venture their Goods and Lives to defend oppress'd Innocence or on any other Occasion their greatest Spur is mere Vanity and the hopes of getting a Name by the seeming Possession of a Vertue which is reverenc'd by all the World They love Truth and Justice when on their side but never against themselves because without Grace they cannot obtain the least Victory over Self-love There are many other sorts of natural Love We naturally love our Prince Country Relations those that have any Conformity of Humour Designs and Employments with us But all those sorts of Love are very weak as well as the Love of Truth and Justice and Self-love being the most violent of all conquers them so easily as to find no other Resistance but what it creates against it self Bodies that strike against others lose their Motion proportionably as they communicate it to the stricken and after having moved many other Bodies may at last entirely lose their own Motion It is not so with Self-love It determines every
other Love by its Impressions upon it and its own Motion diminishes not on the contrary it gets new Strength by its new Victories For as that Motion never goes out of the Heart so it cannot be lost though it be continually communicated Self-love is therefore the Ruling and Universal Love since it is to be found and bears the sway every where so that all the Passions having no proper Motion of their own it may be said that Self-love is the most extensive and powerful of all Passions or the Ruling and Universal Passion And as all Vertues are but Species of that first Vertue we call Charity according to St. Austin so all Vices and Passions are but as so many Effects and Sorts of self-Self-love or of that general Vice we call Concupiscence We often distinguish in Morals the Vertues or Species of Charity by the Difference of Objects but that sometimes confounds the true Idea we ought to have of Vertue which rather depends on its own Motive than any thing else And therefore we shall not follow that Method in treating of the Passions nor distinguish them by the Objects because one and the same Object may excite them all and that ten thousand Objects may raise but one For though Objects differ from each other yet they differ not always in relation to us nor do they stir up in us different Passions The promis'd Staff of a Mareschal of France differs from a Bishop's Crosier or Pastoral Staff promis'd yet those two Marks of Honour excite almost the same Passion in the Ambitious since they raise in the Mind of both the same Idea of Good But the same Mareschal's Staff when promised granted enjoyed taken away stirs up Passions altogether different because it raises in the Mind different Ideas of Good We must not then multiply the Passions by their different Objects that cause them but only admit as many as there are accessary Ideas that attend the chief Idea of Good or Evil and considerably alter it in relation to us For the general Idea of Good or the Sensation of Pleasure which is good to him that enjoys it agitating the Soul and Animal Spirits produces the general Passion of Love and the accessary Ideas of that Good determine that general Agitation of Love and Course of the Spirits in such a particular manner as puts the Mind and Body in a convenient Disposition in relation to the perceived Good And thus they produce all the particular Passions And therefore the general Idea of Good produces an indeterminate Love which is but an Extension of Self-love The Idea of Good as possess'd produces a Love of Joy The Idea of Good not as possess'd but hop'd for that is as judg'd possible to be possess'd produces a Love of Desire And lastly The Idea of any Good that is neither possess'd nor hop'd for or which is the same the Love of any Good which we cannot hope to enjoy without losing some other or which we cannot preserve when we are possess'd of it produces a Love of Sorrow Those are the Three simple and primitive Passions that have Good for their Object for the Hope that produces Joy is not a Commotion of the Soul but a simple Judgment However we must observe That Men confine not their own being within themselves but extend it to all Things and Persons to whom they believe it their Advantage to unite themselves So that we must conceive that they are possess'd in some manner of a Good when enjoy'd by their Friends though they do not possess it immediately themselves And therefore when I say That the Possession of Good produces Joy I understand it not only of an immediate Possession or Union but also of any other for we naturally feel a Joy upon the Success or good Fortune of those we love Evil as I said can be taken Three ways for the Privation of Good for Pain and for the Thing that causes the Privation of Good or produces Pain In the first sense the Idea of Evil being the same with the Idea of a Good not enjoy'd it is plain that Idea produces Sorrow or Desire or even Joy for Joy is always excited from that we find our selves exempt of the Privation of Good that is to say when we possess Good So that those Passions that refer to Evil taken in that sense are the same as those that relate to Good because at the Bottom they have likewise Good for their Object When Evil signifies Pain which alone is always a real Evil to him that suffers it whilst he suffers it then the Sense of that Evil produces those Passions of Sorrow Desire and Joy that are Species of Aversion and not of Love because their Motion is altogether opposite to that which accompanies the Perception of Good that Motion being but the Resistance of the Soul against the natural Impression The Actual Sense of Pain produces an Aversion of Sorrow The Pain we suffer not but are afraid to suffer produces an Aversion of Desire And lastly the Pain we neither suffer nor are afraid to suffer or what is the same the Pain that shall be attended by a considerable Reward or the Pain from which we are freed produces an Aversion of Joy Those are the Three simple or primitive Passions that have Evil for their Object for the Fear that produces Sorrow is not a Commotion of the Soul but a bare Judgment Lastly If by Evil we understand the Person or the Thing that deprives us of Good or causes us to endure Pain the Idea of Evil produces a Motion of Love and Aversion together or only a Motion of Aversion The former when the Evil is that which deprives us of Good for by the same Motion we tend towards Good and fly from that which hinders its Possession And the latter when 't is the Idea of an Evil which causes Pain in us for 't is by the same Motion of Aversion that we hate Pain and whatever produces it And therefore there are Three simple or primitive Passions that relate to Good and as many that refer to Pain or to that which causes it viz. Joy Desire and Sorrow For we are joyful when Good is present and Evil is past we are sorrowful when Good is gone and Pain is present and we are agitated with Desires when Good and Evil are to come Those Passions that relate to Good are particular Determinations of that Motion God gives us for Good in general and therefore have a real Object but others who have not God for the Cause of their Motion terminate only in Nothingness CHAP. X. Of Passions in particular and in general of the way to explain them and to know the Errours they cause WHen we consider how Passions are formed it visibly appears that their Number is undeterminable or that there are more than we have Terms to express them by For Passions differ not only by the various Complication of the Three first Primitive which would not encrease them to
Ideas for we must only reason upon our Ideas and if there be any thing of which we have no clear distinct and particular Idea we shall never know it nor argue from it with any Certainty Whereas perhaps by reasoning upon our Ideas we may follow Nature and perhaps discover that she is not so hidden as is commonly imagin'd As those who have not study'd the Properties of Numbers often imagine that it is not possible to resolve some Problemes which are however simple and easie so those that have not meditated upon the Properties of Extension Figures and Motions are very apt to believe and even to assert that most part of the Physical Questions are inexplicable But we must not be deterr'd by the Opinion of those who have examin'd nothing or nothing at least with due Application For though few Truths concerning Natural Things have been fully demonstrated yet 't is certain that there are some that are general which cannot be doubted of though it be very possible not to think upon them to know nothing of them and to deny them If we meditate orderly and with due Time and all necessary Application we shall discover several of those certain Truths I speak of But for more Conveniency it will be requisite carefully to read des Cartes's Principles of Philosophy without approving of any thing he says till the Strength and Plainness of his Reasons shall suffer us to doubt no longer As Moral Philosophy is the most necessary of all Sciences so it must be study'd with the greatest Application it being very dangerous to follow in this the Opinions of Men. But to the avoiding Errour and keeping to Evidence in our Perceptions we must only meditate upon such Principles as are confess'd by all those whose Hearts are not corrupted by Debauchery and their Minds blinded with Pride For there is no Moral Principle undeniable to Minds of Flesh and Blood who aspire to the Quality of Bold Wits Such People conceive not the most simple Truths or if they do they constantly deny them through a Spirit of Contradiction and to keep up the Reputation of great Wits Some of the most general Principles of Morality are That God having made all things for himself has made our Understanding to know and our Will to love him That being so just and powerful as he is we cannot be happy but by obeying his Commands nor be unhappy in following them That our Nature is corrupted our Mind depending on our Body our Reason on our Senses and our Will on our Passions That we are uncapable of performing what we plainly see to be our Duty and that we have need of a Redeemer There are yet many other Moral Principles as That Retirement and Penitency are necessary to diminish our Union with sensible Objects and to increase that which we have with intelligible Goods true Goods and the Goods of the Mind That we cannot enjoy vehement Pleasures without becoming Slaves to them That nothing must be undertaken by Passion That we must not long for Settlements in this Life c. But because these last Principles depend on the former and on the Knowledge of Man it behoves us not to take them at first for granted If we orderly meditate upon those Principles with as much Care and Application as so great a Subject deserves and admit no Conclusion for true but such as follows from those Principles we shall compose a very certain System of Morals and perfectly agreeable with that of the Gospel though not so large and compleat I grant that in Moral Reasonings it is not so easie to preserve Evidence and Exactness as in some other Sciences and that the Knowledge of Man being absolutely necessary to those that will proceed far many Learners make no considerable Progresses therein They will not consult themselves to be sensible of the Weakness of their Nature They are soon weary of interrogating the Master who inwardly teaches them his Will that is the Immutable and Eternal Laws and the true Principles of Morality They cannot listen with Pleasure to him that speaks not to their Senses who answers not according to their Desires and flatters not their secret Pride They have no Veneration for such Words the Lustre of which dazles not their Imagination which are lowly pronounc'd and never distinctly heard but when the Creatures are silent But they consult with Pleasure and Reverence Aristotle Seneca or some new Philosophers who seduce them by the Obscurity of their Words by the Elegancy of their Expressions or the Probability of their Reasons Since the Fall of our first Parents we esteem nothing but what refers to the Preservation of the Body and the Conveniencies of Life and as we discover that sort of Good by means of the Senses so we endeavour to use them on all Occasions The Eternal Wisdom which is our true Life and the only Light that can illuminate us often shines but upon the Blind and speaks but to the Deaf when it speaks within the Recesses of our Soul because we are for the most part exercis'd abroad And as we are continually putting Questions to the Creatures to learn any News from them of the Good we are in search of it was requisite as I have said elsewhere that this Wisdom should offer it self to our Senses yet without going out of our selves that we might learn by sensible Words and convincing Examples the way to eternal Happiness God perpetually imprints on us a natural Love for him that we may always love him yet by that same Motion of Love we incessantly recede from him running with all the strength he gives us to the sinsible Good which he forbids us to love and therefore as he desires we should love him so he must make himself sensible and offer himself before us to stop by the delectation of his Grace all our restless Agitations and begin our Cure by Sensations or Satisfactions like to the preventing Pleasures that had been the Original of our Disease For these reasons I pretend not that Men may easily discover by the strength of their Mind all the Rules of Morality necessary to Salvation and much less that they should be able to act according to their Light for their Heart is still more corrupted than their Mind I only say that if they admit nothing but evident Principles and argue consequently from them they shall discover the same Truths that are taught us in the Gospel because it is the same Wisdom which speaks immediately and by it self to those that discover the Truth in evident Reasonings and which speaks in the Holy Scriptures to those that understand them in their right sense We must therefore study Morality in the Gospel to spare our selves the trouble of Meditation and to learn with certainty the Laws and Rules of our Life and Manners As to those who are not satisfied with a bare Certainty because it only convinces the Mind without enlightening it they must meditate upon those Laws and
consequently exceeding great But in answer to this I say First That purely Intellectual Joy leaves the Mind to its entire Liberty and takes up but very little of its Thinking Capacity wherein it differs from Sensible Joy which commonly disturbs the Reason and lessens the Liberty I answer Secondly That the Happiness of Adam at the first Instant of his Creation did not consist in a plenary and entire Possession of the Supreme Good it being possible for him to lose it and become miserable But herein his Happiness especially consisted That he suffer'd no Evil and was in the good Favour of Him who must have perfected his Felicity if he had persever'd in his State of Innocency Thus his Joy was not excessive nay it was or ought to have been temper'd with an Alloy of Fear for he ought to have been diffident of himself I answer Lastly That Joy does not always intend the Mind upon the true Cause that produces it As a Sense of Joy arises upon the Contemplation of one 's own Perfections it is natural to believe that Prospect is the Cause of it for when a Thing constantly follows from another 't is naturally look'd upon as one of its Effects Thus a Man considers himself as the Author of his own present Happiness he finds a secret Complacency in his Natural Perfections he loves himself and thinks not of Him who operates in him in an imperceptible manner 'T is true Adam more distinctly knew than the greatest of Philosophers that God alone was able to act in him and produce that Sense of Joy which he felt upon the Consideration of his Happiness and Perfections This he knew clearly by the Light of Reason when he attended to it but not by any Sensation which on the contrary taught him that his Joy was a Consequence of his Perfection seeing he had the constant Sense of it and that without any Application on his part And so this Sensation might lead him to consider his own Perfections and take pleasure in himself if he either forgot or any ways lost sight of Him whose Operations in us are not of a sensible Nature So far would this Joy have been from rendring him impeccable as is pretended that on the contrary it might probably be the Occasion of his Pride and Fall And 't is for this Reason that I say in this Chapter that Adam ought to have taken care not to have suffer'd the Capacity of his Mind to be fill'd with a presumptuous Joy kindled in his Soul upon Reflexion on his own Natural Perfections THE ILLUSTRATION UPON THE Fifth CHAPTER of the First BOOK Where I say That Preventing Delight is the Grace of JESUS CHRIST THough I say in this Chapter that Preventing Delight is the Grace which JESUS CHRIST has particularly merited for us and that I term it elsewhere absolutely The Grace of our LORD yet this is not said as if there were no other Grace besides this or as if there were any but what He has merited but I name it so to distinguish it from the Grace which GOD gave Adam in his Creation which commonly we call the Grace of the Creator For the Grace by which Adam might have persever'd in Innocence was chiefly a Grace of Light or Knowledge as I have explain'd in the foregoing Reflexion because being free of Concupiscence he had no need of Preventing Pleasures to resist it But the Grace which is at present necessary to support us in our Duty and to beget and keep Charity alive in us is Preventing Delectation For as Pleasure produces and cherishes the Love of the Things that cause or seem to cause it so Preventing Pleasures which Bodies occasionally administer produce and maintain in us our Cupidity So that Cupidity being entirely opposite to Charity if God did not beget and sustain in us the Latter by Preventing Delectations 't is plain that it would be enfeebled by the Preventing Pleasures of Concupiscence proportionably as Concupiscence was corroborated by them What I here say supposes that God leaves our Concupiscence to work in us and does not weaken it by an infus'd Abhorrence to sensible Objects which as a Result from Sin must necessarily tempt us I speak of Things according to ordinary procedure But supposing that God lessens Concupiscence instead of increasing Delectable Grace it comes to the same thing for it is plain that a Balance may be put two Ways in aequilibrio when one of the Scales is too heavy burthen'd either by adding Weight to the opposite Scale or retrenching the Excess of the over-weighted Nor do I suppose it is impossible to do any good Action without a Preventing Delectation Upon which Particular I have explain'd my self sufficiently in the Fourth Chapter of the Third Book And it seems too evident to be doubted that a Man having his Heart possess'd with the Love of God may by the Strength of his Love unassisted with Preventing Delight give for instance a Peny to a poor Man or patiently suffer some little Affront I am persuaded likewise that this Delight is not necessary except when the Temptation is strong or the Love for God weak However it may be said to be absolutely necessary to a Righteous Man whose Faith might one would think be resolute and his Hope strong enough to conquer very violent Temptations the Joy or Fore-taste of Eternal Happiness being capable of resisting the sensible Allurements of transitory Goods 'T is true Delectation or Actual Grace is necessary to every good Action if by these Words be meant Charity in which Sense St. Austin commonly took them For 't is evident that whatever is done without some Respect or other had to God is good for nothing But clearing the Terms of Equivocations and taking Delectation in the Sense I have given I cannot see how what I have said can be call'd in question But see wherein the Difficulty consists Pleasure and Love are suppos'd to be one and the same thing because seldom apart and St. Austin does not always distinguish them And on this Supposition they may reasonably say as they do and we may conclude with St. Austin Quod amplius nos delectat secundum id operemur necesse est For certainly we will what we love and so likewise it may be said that we cannot perform any good or meritorious Action without Delectation or Charity But I hope to make it appear in the Explanation I shall make upon the Tract concerning the Passions that there is as much difference between Pleasure and deliberate or indeliberate Love as there is between our Knowledge and our Love or to give a sensible Representation of this Difference between the Figure of a Body and its Motion THE ILLUSTRATION Upon what I have said at the Beginning of the Tenth CHAPTER of the First BOOK And in the Sixth CHAPTER of the Second BOOK CONCERNING METHOD That 't is very difficult to prove the Existence of Bodies What we ought to Esteem of the Proofs which are
principal part of his Brain Order will'd it so and consequently He whose Will always conforms to Order and who can do nothing against It though He be Almighty Thus Man might on certain Occasions suspend the Natural Law of the Communication of Motions seeing he was not tainted with Concupisence nor did he feel in himself any involuntary and rebellious Motions VII But Adam lost that Power by sinning Order would have it so for it is not reasonable that in Favour of a Sinner and a Rebel there should be any other Exceptions to the general Law of the Communication of Motions than what are absolutely necessary to the Preservation of our Life and Civil Society Therefore the Body of Man being continually shaken by the Action of sensible Objects and his Soul agitated by all the Concussions of the principal part of his Brain he is become a dependent on the Body to which he was only united and over which he had a Sovereignty before his Fall VIII Let us see now how the first Man was capable of sinning It is natural to love Pleasure and to tast it and this was not forbidden Adam The Case is the same with Joy one may rejoice at the sight of his Natural Perfections That is not evil in it self Man was made to be happy and 't is Pleasure and Joy which actually beatifie and content Adam therefore tasted Pleasure in the use of sensible Goods and he felt a Joy upon viewing his own Perfections For 't is impossible to consider ones self as happy or perfect and not be possess'd with it He felt no such Pleasure in his Duty for though he knew God was his Good it was not in a sensible way as I have prov'd in several places So the Joy he might find in his Duty was not very sensible which being suppos'd we conclude That whereas the first Man had not an infinite Capacity of Mind his Pleasure or his Joy weakned its clear sight which gave him to know That God was his Good and that he ought only to love him For Pleasure is in the Soul and the Modification of it and therefore fills up our Capacity of Thought proportionably as it affect and works on us this is a thing which we learn by Experience or rather from that inward Sensation we have of our selves We may then conceive That the first Man having insensibly suffer'd the Capacity of his Mind to be possess'd or divided by the lively Sense of a presumptuous Joy or it may be some Love or sensible Pleasure the Presence of God and the Consideration of his Duty were eras'd from his Mind for neglecting couragiously to pursue his Light in the Search of his True Good so this Distraction made him capable of falling For his principal Grace and strength was his Light and the clear Knowledge of his Duty forasmuch as then he had no need of preventing Delights which are now necessary to oppose to Concupisence IX And it must be observ'd that neither the preventing Sense of Pleasure which Adam felt in the use of the Goods of the Body nor the Joy that possess'd him when reflecting on his own Happiness or Perfection was the true Cause of his Fall for he knew very well that none but God could give him that Sense of Pleasure or Joy and so he in Duty should have lov'd him only forasmuch as none merits our Love save the true Cause of our Felicity As nothing perturbated his Knowledge and Light whilst he strove to keep it pure and incorrupt so he might and ought to have expung'd from his Mind those Sensations which divided it and which endanger'd its falling off and losing sight of him who strengthened and enlightned it He ought to have well remembred that if God offer'd himself not to his Sense but only his Vnderstanding as his Good it was to afford him a readier way to merit his Reward by a continual Exercise of his Liberty Supposing then That Adam and Eve have sinn'd and consequently thereupon felt in themselves involuntary and rebellioâ—s Motions I say That their Children must needs be born Sinners and subject as they were to Motions of Concupiscence See my Reasons for it X. I have prov'd at large in the Chapter that occasion'd this Discourse that there is such a Communication between the Brain of the Mother and that of the Child that all the Motions and Traces excited in the former are stirr'd up in the latter Therefore as the Soul of the Infant is united to its Body at the very instant of its Creation it being the Conformation of the Body which obliges God in consequence of his general Will to inform it with a Soul 't is plain that at the very moment of this Soul's Creation it has corrupt Inclinations and turns towards the Body since it has from that same moment â—nclinations answerable to the Motions that are actually in the Brain it is united to XI But because it is a Disorder That the Mind should propend to Bodies and expend its Love upon them the Infant is a Sinner and in Disorder as soon as out of the Hands of his Maker God who is the Lover of Order hates him in this Estate notwithstanding his Sin is not free and eligible But his Mother conceiv'd him in Iniquity because of the Communication establish'd by the Order of Nature betwixt her Brain and the Brain of her Infant XII Now this Communication is very good in its Institution for several Reasons First Because useful and it may be necessary to the Conformation of the Foetus Secondly Because the Infant by this means might have some Intercourse with his Parents it being but reasonable that he should know to whom he was oblig'd for his Body which he animated Lastly He could not but by help of this Communication know external Occurrences and think of them as he should do Having a Body 't was fit he should have Thoughts relating to it and not be hood-wink'd to the Works of God amongst which he liv'd There are likely many other Reasons for this Communication than those I have given but these are sufficient to justifie it and to cover His Conduct from Censure and Reproach every Will of whom is necessarily conformable to ORDER XIII However there is no Reason that the Infant in spight of his Will should receive the Traces of sensible Objects If the Souls of Children were created but one moment before they were united to their Bodies if they were but an instant in a State of Innocence and Order they would have plenary Right and Power from the necessity of Order or of the Eternal Law to suspend that Communication just as the first Man before his Sin stopt when he pleas'd the Motions which arose in him Order requiring That the Body should be obedient to the Mind But whereas the Souls of Children were never well-pleasing to God it was never reasonable that God on their behalf should dispence with the Law of the Communication of Motions and
so it is just that Infants should be born Sinners and in Disorder And the Order of Nature which is just and equitable was not the Cause of their Sin but the Sin of their Progenitors In which sence it is not just and reasonable that a sinful Father should procreate Children perfecter than himself or that they should have a Dominion over their Bodies which their Mother has not over her own XIV 'T is true That after the Sin of Adam which ruin'd and corrupted all things God might by changing something in the Order of Nature have remedied the Disorder which that Sin had caus'd But God changes not his Will in that manner He wills nothing but what is just and what He once wills He ever wills He never corrects himself nor repents of what he does but his Will is constant and immutable His Eternal Decrees depends not on the inconstant Will of Man nor is it just they should be submitted to it XV. But if it may be permitted to dive into the Councels of the Almighty and to speak our Thoughts upon the Motives which might determine him to establish the Order now explain'd and permit the Sin of Adam I can't see how we can conceive a Notion more worthy the Greatness of God and more consonant to Reason and Religion than to believe his principal Design in his External Operations was the Incarnation of his SON That God establish'd the Order of Nature and permitted the Disorder which befel it to help forward his Great Work that He permitted all Men to be subject to Sin that none might glory in himself and suffer'd Concupiscence in the Perfectest and Holiest of Men lest they should take a vain Complacency in their own Persons For upon considering the Perfection of one's Being 't is difficult to despise it unless at the same time we contemplate and love the Supreme Good before whom all our Perfection and Greatness dissolves and falls to nothing I own That Concupiscence may be the occasion of our Merit and that 't is most just the Mind should for a Season follow Order with Pain and Difficulty that it may merit to be eternally subject to it with Ease and Pleasure I grant That upon that Prospect God might have permitted Concupiscence when he foresaw the Sin But Concupiscence not being absolutely necessary to our Meriting if God permitted it it was That Man might be able to do no good without the Aids which JESUS CHRIST has merited for him and that he might not glory in his own strength For 't is visible That a Man cannot encounter and conquer himself unless animated by the Spirit of Christ who as Head of the Faithful inspires them with quite opposite Sentiments to those of Concupiscence deriv'd to them from the Original Man XVI Supposing then That Infants are born with Concupiscence 't is plain they are effectively Sinners since their Heart is set upon Bodies as much as it is capable there is as yet in their Will but one Love and that disorder'd and corrupt and so they have nothing in them that can be the Object of the Love of God because he cannot love Disorder XVII But when they have been regenerated in JESUS CHRIST that is when their Heart has been converted to God either by an actual Motion of Love or by an internal Disposition like that which remains after an Act of Loving God then Concupiscence is no more a Sin in them because it does not solely possess the Heart nor domineer any longer in it Habitual Love which remainâ— in them through the Grace of Baptism in our LORD is more free or more strong than that which is in them through the Contagion of Concupiscence deriv'd from Adam They are like the Just who in their Sleep obey the Motions of Concupiscence yet lose not the Grace of their Baptism because their Consent to these Motions is involuntary XVIII It should not be thought strange That I believe it possible for Children to love God with a Love of Choice at the time of their Baptism For since the Second Adam is contrary to the First why should he not at the time of Regeneration deliver Children from the Servitude of their Body whereunto they are subjected by the First That being enlightned and quickned by a lively and efficacious Grace to the loving of God they may love him with a free and rational Love without being obstructed by the first Adam You say it is not observable that their Body for a moment leaves acting on the Mind But is that such a Wonder that we can't see what is not visible One single Instant is sufficient for the Exercise of that Act of Love And as it may be perform'd in the Soul without imprinting any Footsteps in the Brain 't is no more to be admir'd that the Adult in their Baptism do not always mind it for we have no Memory of things which are not registred in the Traces of the Brain XIX St. Paul teaches us That the Old Man or Concupiscence is crucify'd with JESUS CHRIST and that we are dead and buried with him by Baptism What means this but that then we are deliver'd from the Warring of the Body against the Mind and that Concupiscence is as it were Mortify'd in that moment 'T is true it revives but having been destroy'd and thereby left Children in a State of loving God it can do them no harm by its reviving For when there are two Loves in the Heart a Natural and a Free Order will that the Free be only respected But if Infants in Baptism lov'd God by an Act in no wise free and afterwards lov'd Bodies by many Acts of the same Species God could not perhaps according to Order have more respect to one single Act than to many which were all natural and without Liberty Or rather if their contrary Loveâ— were equal in force he must have respect to that which was last by the same Reason that when there has been successively in an Heart Two Free-Loves contrary to each other God has always respect to the Last since Grace is destroy'd by any one Mortal Sin XX. Nevertheless it cannot be deny'd but God may justifie the Infant without interrupting the Dominion of his Body over his Mind or convert his Will towards him by depositing in his Soul a Disposition like that which remains after an Actual Motion of our Loving God But that way of acting I doubt seems less Natural than the Other for it cannot clearly be conceiv'd what these remaining Dispositions can be 'T is true that ought not to be much admir'd since having no clear Idea of our Soul as I have elsewhere prov'd we need not wonder if we know not all the Modifications it is capable of But the Mind cannot be fully satisfied upon things which it does not clearly conceive and without recourse to an extraordinary Miracle we cannot see what can give the Soul these Dispositions without a preceding Act surely it cannot be
Experience of the ablest Physicians THE ILLUSTRATION UPON THE Third CHAPTER of the Fifth BOOK That Love is different from Pleasure and Joy THE Mind commonly confounds things that are very different when they happen at the same time and are not contrary to each other As I have shown by many Instances in this Work because herein chiefly consist our Errors in Respect of what passes within us Being we have no clear Idea of â—hat constitutes the Nature or Essence of our Mind nor of any of the Modification it can receive it often falls out that to our confounding different things they need but happen in us at the same time For we easily confound what we know not by a clear and distinct Ideâ— It is not only impossible clearly to conceive wherein consists the difference of our Internal Motions it is even difficult to discover any difference between them For to do this we must turn our Eyes inward and retire into our selves not to consider them with reference to Good and Evil which we do willingly enough But to contemplate our selves with an abstract and barren consideration which costs us great trouble and distraction of Thought We easily conceive that the Roundness of a Body differs from its Motion and though we know by Experience that a Bowl on a plane cannot be press'd without being mov'd and so Motion and Roundness are found together Yet we use not to confound them with one another because we conceive Motion and Figure by clear and distinct Ideas But 't is not so with Pleasure and Love which we almost always confound together Our Mind grows as it were Moveable by Pleasure as a Bowl by it's roundness and because it is never void of an impression towards Good it immediately puts it self in Motion towards the Objects which causes or seems to cause the Pleasure So that the Motion of Love happening in the Soul at the very time of it's feeling this Pleasure is sufficient to make her undistinguish or confound them because she has no clear Idea of her Love and Pleasure as she has of Figure and Motion And for this Reason some are perswaded that Pleasure and Love are not different and that I distinguish too many things in each of our Passions But that it may clearly appear that Pleasure and Love are two very different things I divide Pleasures into two sorts the one sort precedes Reason as are agreeable Sensations and go commonly by the Name of the Pleasures of the Body The other sort neither precede Reason nor the senses and are generally call'd the Pleasures of the Soul Such is the Joy that arise in us in pursuance of a clear knowledge of confus'd sensation we have of some Good that either does or shall accrue to us For Example a Man in tasting a Fruit which he does not know finds pleasure in eating it if it be good for Nourishment Which is a preceding or preventing Pleasure for since he feels it before he knows whether the Fruit be good 't is evident it prevents his Reason An Huntsman when hungry expects to find or actually finds something Eatable which gives him an actual sense of Joy Now this Joy is a Pleasure which follows the knowledge of his present or future good It is perhaps evident by this distinction of Pleasure into that which follows and that which prevents Reason that neither of them but differs from Love For preventing pleasure undoubtedly precedes Love since it precedes all Knowledge which some way or other is always suppos'd by Love On the contrary Joy or the Pleasure which supposes foregoing Knowledge presupposes likewise Love since Joy supposes either a confus'd Sensation or a clear Knowledge of the present or future Possession of what we Love For if we possess'd a thing for which we have no Love we should receive no Joy from it Therefore Pleasure is very different from Love since that which prevents Reason prevent and causes Love and that which follows Reason necessarily supposes Love as an Effect supposes the Cause Moreover if Pleasure and Love were the same thing there could be no Pleasure without Love nor Love without Pleasure otherwise a thing could be without it self Nevertheless a Christian Loves his Enemy and a well-educated Child his Father though never so irrational and unkind The Sight of their Duty the Fear of God the Love of Order and Justice causes them to Love not only without Pleasure but even with a sort of Horrour those Persons that are no ways delightful I own they sometimes have the Sense of Pleasure or Joy upon the Reflection that they perform their Duty or upon the Hopes of being rewarded as they do deserve But besides that this Pleasure is very manifestly different from the Love they bear to their Father and Enemy though perhaps it may be the Motive of it it sometimes is not so much as the Motive of their acting but 't is only an abstract View of Order or a Notion of Fear which preserves their Love In one sense it may be truly said they have a Love for these Persons even whilst they do not think of them For Love remains in us during the Avocations of Thought and in Sleep But I conceive that Pleasure has no longer a Substance in the Soul than she is aware of it Thus Love or Charity remaining in us without Pleasure or Delectation cannot be maintain'd to be the very same thing Since Pleasure and Pain are two contraries if Pleasure were the same with Love Pain would not differ from Hatred But 't is evident that Pain is different from Hatred because it often subsists without it A Man for Instance who is wounded unawares suffers a most real and cutting Pain whilst he is free from Hatred For he knows not even the Cause of his Pain or the Object of his Hatred or rather the Cause of his Pain not deserving his Hatred cannot raise it Thus he Hates not that Cause of his Pain though his Pain moves or disposes him to Hatred 'T is true he deservedly Hates Pain but the Hatred of Pain is not Pain but supposes it Hatred of Pain does not Merit our Hatred as does Pain For the former is on the contrary very agreeable in that we are pleased in Hating it as we are displeased in Suffering it Pain therefore not being Hatred the Pleasure which is contrary to Pain is not Love which is contrary to Hatred and consequently the Pleasure which is precedaneous to Reason is not the same thing as Love I prove likewise that Joy or the Pleasure which pursues Reason is distinguish'd from Love Joy and Sorrow being contraries if Joy were the same thing with Love Sorrow and Hatred would be all one But it is evident that Sorrow differs from Hatred because it sometimes has a separate Subsistence A Man for Example by chance finds himself depriv'd of things that he has need of this is enough to make him sorrowful But it cannot provoke him to Hatred Either
because he knows not what it was that depriv'd him of this necessary thing or because being unworthy of his Hatred it could not excite it 'T is true this Man Hates the Privation of the Good which he Loves But it is manifest that this kind of Hatred is really Love For he Hates the Privation of Good meerly because he Loves Good and since to fly the Privation of Good is to tend towards Good Is is evident that the Motion of his Hatred is not different from that of his Love Therefore his Hatred if he have any being not contrary to his Love and Sorrow being always contrary to Joy it is evident that his Sorrow is not his Hatred and consequently Joy is different from Love Lastly It is evident that Sorrow proceeds from the Presence of something which we hate or rather from the Absence of something which we Love Therefore Sorrow supposes Hatred or rather Love but 't is very different from them both I know St. Austin defines Pain to be an Aversion the Soul conceives from the Bodies being disposed otherwise than she would have it and that he often confounds Delectation with Charity Pleasure with Joy Pain with Sorrow Pleasure and Joy with Love Pain and Sorrow with Aversion or Hatred But there 's great Probability this Holy Father in all this follow'd the common way of speaking of the Vulgar who confound most of those things which occur in them at one and the same time Or it may be did not examine these things in so Nice and Philosophical a manner as he might have done Yet I think I both may and ought to say that to me it seems necessary exactly to distinguish these things if we would explain our selves clearly and without Equivocation upon most of the Questions handled by him For even Men of a quite opposite Opinion use to build upon the Authority of this great Man because of the various Senses and Constructions his Speech will afford which is not always Nice and accurate enough to reconcile Persons who are perhaps more eager to dispute than desirous to agree THE ILLUSTRATION UPON THE Third CHAPTER of the Second PART of the Sixth BOOK Concerning the Efficacy ascribed to Second Causes EVER since the Transgression of our first Parent the Mind rambling constantly abroad forgets both it self and Him who pierces and enlightens it and is so absurdly pliant to the Seducements of its Body and those about it as to imagine its own Happiness and Perfection is to be found in them He that alone is able to act in us is at present hidden from our Eyes His Operations are of an insensible kind and though he produces and preserves all Beings yet the Mind whilst the earnest Enquirer of the Cause of all things cannot easily know him though it meets him every moment Some Philosophers chuse rather to imagine a Nature and particular Faculties as the Causes of those which we term Natural Effects than to render to God all the Honour that is due to his Power And though they have no Proof nor even clear Idea of this pretended Nature and Faculties as I hope to make appear they had rather talk without knowing what they say and reverence a purely imaginary Power than by any Essay of Thought to discover that Invisible Hand which works all in all things 'T is unavoidable for me to believe that one of the most deplorable Consequences of Original Sin is our having no Taste nor Sense for God or our Incapacity of Tasting or Meeting him without a sort of Dread and Abhorrence We ought to see God in all things to be sensible of his Power and Force in all Natural Effects to admire his Wisdom in the wonderful Order of his Creatures In a word to Worship to Fear to Love Him only in all his Works But in our present State there is a Secret Opposition between Man and GOD Man conscious of his being a Sinner hides himself flies the Light and is afraid to meet his Maker and therefore had rather imagine in surrounding Bodies a blind Power or Nature with which he can be familiar than find in them the terrible Power of an Holy and Just GOD who knows and Operates all in all I confess there are very many Persons who from another Principle than that of the Heathen Philosophers follow their Opinion about Nature and Second Causes But I hope to convince them in the Process of this Discourse that they fall into this Sentiment out of a Prejudice which 't is impossible to shake off without those Succours which are furnish'd by the Principles of a Philosophy that has not always been sufficiently known For in all likelihood this is what has kept them from declaring for an Opinion which I think my self oblig'd to espouse I have a great many Reasons which will not let me attribute to Second or Natural Causes a Force Power or Efficacy to produce any thing whatever The chief whereof is That this Opinion is to me utterly inconceivable Though I use all possible Endeavours to comprehend it I cannot find in my self the Idea to represent to me what can be that Force or Power ascrib'd to the Creatures And I need not fear passing a rash Judgment in affirming that those who hold that the Creatures are endued with a Force and Power advance what they do not clearly conceive For in short if the Philosophers clearly conceive that Second Causes have a true Force to act and produce their Like I being a Man as well as they and participating of the same Sovereign Reason might in all probability discover the Idea which represent to them that Force But all the efforts that my Mind can make can discover no other Force Efficacy or Power than in the Will of the Infinitely perfect Being Besides when I think upon the different Opinions of Philosophers upon this subject I can no longer doubt of my assertion For if they saw clearly what this Power of Creatures was or what was in them truly powerful they would agree in their Opinion about it When Men cannot accord though they have no private Interest to hinder them 't is a certain Sign they have no clear Idea of what they say and that they understand not one another especially if they dispute on subjects that are not of a Complex Nature and of difficult discussion like this before us For there would be no difficulty to resolve it if Men had a clear Idea of a created Force or Power Here then follow some of their Opinions that we may see how little agreement there is among them There are Philosophers who maintain that second Causes act by their Matter Figure and Motion and these in one sense are right enough Others by their substantial form Many by Accidents or Qualities some by Matter and Form others by Form and Accidents and others still by certain vertues or faculties distinct from all this There are of them who affirm that the substantial Form produces Forms
'Mongst all which that which instantly appears Greatest and most Magnificent most Uniform and Comprehensive is that whereof all the Parts have most Symmetry with the Person who constitutes the whole Glory and Sanctity of it And the wisest way of executing that Design is the Establishing certain most simple and fruitful Laws to bring it to its Perfection This is what Reason seems to answer to all those who consult it with Attention when following the Principles which Faith teaches us Let us examine the Circumstances of this Great Design and then endeavour to discover the Ways of executing it XXV The Holy Scripture teaches us That 't is Jesus Christ who ought to make all the Beauty the Sanctity the Grandeur and Magnificence of this Work If Holy Writ compare it to a City 't is Jâ—sus Christ who makes all the Lustre it not being the Sun and the Moon but the Glory of God and the Light of the Lamb that shine upon it When representing it as a Living Body whereof all the Parts have a wonderful Proportion 't is Jesus Christ who is the Head of it 'T is from Him the Spirit and Life are communicated into all the Members that compose it Speaking of it as a Temple Jesus Christ is the Chief Corner-stone which is the Foundation of the Building 'T is He who is the High Priest and Sacrifice of it All the Faithful are Priests but as they participate of his Priesthood they are Victims only as parâ—aking of His Holiness it being in Him and through Him alone they continually offer themselves to the Majesty of God In fine 't is only from the Analogy they bear to Him that they contribute to the Beauty of this August and Venerable Temple which has always been and will eternally continue the Object of the good Pleasure of God XXVI Reason likewise evinces these same Truths For what Proportion is there between Creatures how perfect soever we suppose them and the Action that produces them How can any Creatures which are finite be equivalent to the Action of God of infinite Worth Can God receive any thing from a mere Creature that determines him to act But be it so that God made Man with Hopes of being honour'd by him whence comes it that those who dishonour Him make the greatest Number Is not this a sufficient Indication that God is very negligent of His pretended Glory which He receives from His Work if separated from His Well-beloved Son that it was in Jesus Christ that He resolv'd to produce it and that without Him it would not subsist a moment XXVII A Man resolves upon a Work because he has need of it or has a Mind to see what Effect it will have or lastly because by this Essay of his Strength he learns what he is able to produce But God has no need of his Creatures nor is He like Men who receive new Impressions from the Presence of Objects His Ideas are Eternal and Immutable He saw the World before it was form'd as well as he sees it now Lastly Knowing that His Wills are efficacious he perfectly knows without making trial of his Strength all that He 's capable of producing Thus Scripture and Reason assure us that by Reason of Jesus Christ the World subsists and through the Dignity of his Divine Person receives an additional Beauty which renders it well pleasing in the Sight of God XXVIII From which Principle methinks it follows that Jesus Christ is the Model by which we are made that we were fram'd after His Image and Similitude and have nothing comely in us any farther than we are the Draught and Ectypon of Him that He is the End of the Law and the Archetype of the Ceremonies and Sacrifices of the Jews That to determine that Succession of Generations preceding His Birth they must needs have had some certain Agreements with Him whereby they became more pleasing to God than any other That since Jesus Christ was to be the Head and Husband of the Church 't was requisite he should be typified by the Propagation of Mankind from one Person as related by Moses and explain'd by St. Paul In a word from this Principle it follows that the present World ought to be the Figure of the future and that as far as the Simplicity of General Laws will permit all the Inhabitants of it have been or shall â—e the Figures and Resemblances of the Only Son of God quite from Abel in whom he was sacrificed to the last Member that shall constitute His Church XXIX We judge of the Perfection of a Work by its Conformity with the Idea afforded us by Eternal Wisdom For there is nothing Beautiful or Amiable but as related to Essential Necessary and Independent Beauty Now that Intelligible Beauty being made sensible becomes even in this Capacity the Rule of Beauty and Perfection Therefore all Corporeal Creatures ought to receive from it all their Excellency and Lustre All Minds ought to have the same Thoughts and the same Inclinations as the Soul of Jesus if they would be agreeable to those who see nothing Beautiful nothing Amiable save in what is conformable to Wisdom and Truth Since therefore we are oblig'd to believe the Work of GOD to have an absolute Conformity with Eternal Wisdom we have all Reason to believe that the same Work has infinite Correspondencies with Him who is the Head the Principle the Pattern and the End of it But who can explain all these Agreements XXX That which makes the Beauty of a Temple is the Order and Variety of Ornaments that are found in it Thus to render the Living Temple of the Divine Majesty worthy of its Inhabitant and proportionate to the Wisdom and infinite Love of its Author all possible Beauties are to make it up But it is not so with this Temple rais'd to the Glory of God as with Material ones For that which constitutes the Beauty of the Spiritual Edifice of the Church is the infinite Diversity of Graces communicated from Him who is the Head of it to all the constituent Parts 'T is the Order and admirable Proportions settled among them 't is the various Degrees of Glory shining and reflecting on all sides round about it XXXI It follows from this Principle that to the establishing that Variety of Rewards which make up the Beauty of the Heavenly Jerusalem Men ought to be subject upon Earth not only to Purgative Afflictions but also to the Motions of Concupiscence which make them gain so many Victories by administring such a multitude of various Combats XXXII The Blessed in Heaven no doubt will be endow'd with a Sanctity and Variety of Gifts perfectly corresponding to the Diversity of their Good Works Those continual Sacrifices whereby the Old Man is destroy'd and annihilated will enrich the Spiritual Substance of the New Man with Graces and Beauties And if it were necessary that Jesus Christ should suffer all sorts of Afflictions before He enter'd on the Possession of His
always abounds with Wisdom and Goodness Wo to the Wicked who condemn it without understanding it and who would have the immutable Order of Divine Wisdom to stoop and accommodate it self to their Passions and Interests XLVIII The wise and industrious Husbandmen plow dung and sow their Lands with great Labour and Cost They carefully observe the fittest Seasons for the different Agriculture and tax not God with the Success of their Labours They leave their Work to the Order of Nature well knowing it 's in vain to tempt God and to fancy that on our behalf he will change the Order which his Wisdom prescribes XLIX Jesus Christ came to teach us to imitate their Conduct who having for us an immense Charity and desiring to save us as much as the Simplicity of the General Laws of Nature and Grace will permit has forgotten nothing that might bring us into the ways that lead to Heaven That which most withstands the Efficacy of Grace are sensible Pleasures and Sensations of Pride there being nothing which so much corrupts the Mind and hardens the Heart more than these But has not Jesus Christ sacrificed and annihilated in his Person all Grandeurs and Pleasures sensible Was not his Life to us a continual Example of Humility and Repentance How was he born how did he die what was his Conversation in the World every Body knows To what likewise is his Doctrine reducible and whither tend all his Counsels Is it not to Humility and Repentance to a General Self-denial of all that gratifies the Senses of all that corrupts the Purity of the Imagination of all that cherishes and strengthens the Concupiscence of Pride Therefore whatever he has said whatever he has done whatever he has suffer'd was to prepare us by his Doctrine his Example and Merits to receive the Celestial Rain of Grace and to render it efficacious Since he could not or ought not to alter the Laws of Nature tempt God or trouble the Order and Simplicity of his Ways He has done all for Men that could inspire them with the most Extensive Industrious and Ardent Charity L. I fear not after what the Scripture has said of it to affirm that the Charity of Jesus Christ is Immense and Incomprehensible and though all Men receive not the Effects of it it would be presumptuous Rashness to go to set Bounds to it He died for all Men even for those who perish everlastingly Why do not Sinners enter into the Order of Grace Why do they not follow the Counsels of Jesus Christ and prepare themselves for the Reception of the Rain of Heaven They cannot merit it but they may encrease its Efficacy on their Account Cannot they from a Principle of self-Self-love through the Fear of Hell or if you will by General Graces avoid many Occasions of sinning deny themselves Pleasures at least those they have not yet tasted and consequently are not enslaved to Thus they may take away some Leâ—ts and Impediments to the Efficacy of Grace and prepare the Earth of their Heart so as to make it fruitful when God shall pour his Rain upon them by the General Laws he has prescrib'd himself But they would have God to save them without any trouble on their part like those lazy and senseless Labourers who without giving their Fields the ordinary Improvements pretend that God ought to shower-down so impregnating and abundant Rains as may save them their Trouble False and vain Confidence God causes it to rain as well on Fallow as Cultivated Lands But let the Proud and Voluptuous know that the Rain of Grace shall fall much less on them than on other Men whilst yet they put themselves in such a Condition as requires much more to convert them LI. Since God ordinarily diffuses his Graces by General Laws we clearly see the Necessity of the Counsels of Jesus Christ. We see that they ought to be follow'd that God may save us by the simplest ways whilst giving us but little Grace he operates a great deal in us We see clearly that it lies on us to labour and to cultivate our Field before the Heats of Concupiscence have dried and hardned it or at least when the Rain has diluted and softned it that we must diligently observe the moments in which our Passions leave us some Liberty that we may seize the Advantage that is offer'd That we must extirpate as much as possible whatever may suffocate the Seed of the Word and not foolishly imagine we shall repent when we have made our Fortune in the World or are ready to leave it For besides that it depends not on the Husbandmen to make it rain when their Occasions call for it when a Field has lain long fallow the Brambles and Thorns strike their Roots so deep that those who are most us'd to labour have neither strength nor desire to cultivate it LII But if God acted in the Order of Grace by particular Wills and efficaciously caus'd in all Men all their good Motions and Operations with a particular Design I see not how it might be justify'd that he acts by the most simple Laws when I consider all those indirect ways by which Men arrive to the Place where God conducts them For I doubt not but God sometimes gives a Man no more than an hundred good Thoughts in a whole Day Nor can I any more conceive how 't is possible to reconcile his Wisdom and Goodness with all the ineffectual Graces the Malice of Men resists For God being Good and Wise ought he not to proportion his Supplies to our Needs if he afforded them with a particular Design of comforting us LIII God makes the Weeds to grow with the Corn till the time of Harvest he causes it to rain on the Just and Unjust because Grace falling on Men by General Laws is often given to such as make no use of it whereas if others had receiv'd it they would have been converted If Jesus Christ had preach'd to the Syrians and Sydonians as well as to the Inhabitants of Bethsaida and Chorazin they would have repented in Sackcloth and Ashes If the Rain which falls on the Sands had been shower'd upon prepar'd Fields it would have made them fruitful But what is regulated by General Laws is not suited to particular Designs and it suffices to justifie the wise Establishment of these Laws that being extremely simple they carry to its Perfection the Grand Work for which they were enacted But though I do not believe that God has innumerable particular Designs for every of his Elect or that he daily gives them multiplicity of good Thoughts and Motions by particular Wills yet I deny not but they are predestined by a bounteous Will of God had to them for which they ought to pay their Eternal Gratitude and Acknowledgments Which things I explain as follows LIV. God discovers in the infinite Treasures of his Wisdom an Infinity of possible Works and at once the perfectest way of producing each of
as Jesus Christ alone can merit Grace for us so it is he alone that can administer Occasions to the General Laws by which it is distributed to Men. For the Principle or Foundation of these General Laws or that which determines their Efficacy being necessarily either in us or in Jesus Christ since it is certain that it is not in us it must needs be found in him VIII Besides when Man had sinn'd did it behoove God to have any more regard to his Desires Being we are all in a disorder'd State we can no longer be an Occasion of God's shewing us Favour But a Mediatour was needful not only to give us Access towards God but to be the Occasional Cause of the Favours we hope from him IX Whereas God had a Design of making his Son the Head of his Church it was requisite he should constitute him the Occasional or Natural Cause of the Grace which sanctifies it For 't is the Head which communicates Life and Motion to the Limbs and with that Prospect God permitted Sin For if Man had continued in Innocence as his Will had been meritorious of Grace and even of Glory so the inviolable Laws of Order would have requir'd that God should have appointed in Man the Occasional Cause of his Perfection and his Happiness In so much that Jesus Christ would not have been the Head of the Church or at most had been but the Head of those Influences which all the Members might have easily dispens'd with X. If our Soul were in our Body before it was form'd and if by her diverse Volitions all the Parts which compose it were rang'd and postur'd with how many various Sensations and different Motions would she be touch'd upon consideration of all the Effects which were to follow her Volitions Especially if she were extremely desirous of forming the most vigorous and best made Body pobssile XI Now Holy Scripture does not only say that Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church but also that he begets it and fashions it and gives it increase that he suffers merits acts and influences continually in it The Zeal which Jesus Christ has for his Father's Glory and the Love he bears to his Church constantly suggest to him the Desire of making it the most ample the most magnificent and the perfectest that can be Therefore as the Soul of Jesus has not an infinite Capacity and yet would endow his Church with infinite Beauties and Ornaments we have all reason to believe that there is in his holy Soul a continual Chain of Thoughts and Desires with reference to the mystical Body which he constantly forms XII Now they are these continual Desires of the Soul of Jesus that tend to sanctifie his Church and render it worthy of his Father's Majesty which God has establish'd the Occasional Causes of the Efficacy of the general Laws of Grace For we are taught by Faith that God hath given his Son an absolute Power over Men in constituting him Head of his Church which yet cannot be conceiv'd unless the several Volitions of Jesus Christ are follow'd by their Effects For 't is manifest I should have no Power over my Arm if it mov'd when I would not have it and remain'd dead and motionless when I desir'd to move it XIII This Sovereign Power Jesus Christ has merited over Men as also that Quality of Head of the Church by the Sacrifice he offer'd upon Earth on full Possession of which Right he entred after his Resurrection 'T is now that he is High Priest of future Goods and that He by his diverse Desires prays indefatigably for Men to the Father And since his Desires are Occasional Causes his Prayers are always heard His Father denies him nothing as the Scripture assures us and yet his Prayers and Desires are necessary to obtain Because Occasional Physical Natural Causes for these three Terms have here the same Signification have no Power of themselves and all the Creatures even Jesus Christ consider'd as Man are in themselves but Weakness and Impotence XIV Therefore the Soul of Jesus having a Succession of various Thoughts with reference to the diverse Dispositions whereof Souls in general are capable has these Thoughts attended with certain Desires relating to the Sanctification of these Souls Which Desires being Occasional Causes of Grace ought to shed it on those Persons in particular whose Dispositions resemble that which the Soul of Jesus Christ actually thinks on and this Grace ought to be so much stronger and more abundant as his Desires are more strong and lasting XV. When a Person considers any Part of his Body that is not form'd as it ought to be he naturally has certain Desires relating to it and to the Use he would make of it in a sociable Life which Desires are prosecuted with certain insensible Motions of the Animal Spirits and tend to the posturing or proportioning it in a due manner When the Body is quite form'd and the Flesh is grown solid and consistent these Motions cannot change the Contexture of the Parts but only give them certain Dispositions which we call Corporeal Habits But when the Body is not completely form'd and the Flesh is extremely soft and tender these Motions which accompany the Desires of the Soul not only give the Body particular Dispositions but also change its Construction Which is sufficiently manifest in Children unborn For they are not only mov'd with the same Passions as their Mothers but also receive on their Bodies the Marks of these Passions from which their Mothers are always exempt XVI The Mystical Body of Jesus Christ is not yet grown into a Perfect Man nor will be till the Accomplishment of Ages but he continually is forming it For he is the Head which gives all the Members their increase by the Efficacy of his Influence according to the proportion convenient for each to the end it may be form'd and edified by Charity Which are Truths we are taught by St. Paul Now since Jesus Christ has no other Action than the diverse Motions of his Will 't is necessary that his Desires should be follow'd with the Influence of Grace which only can form him in his Members and give them that Beauty and Proportion which ought to be the Eternal Object of Divine Love XVII The diverse Motions of the Soul of Jesus being the Occasional Causes of Grace we need not wonder if it be sometimes given to the greatest Sinners or to Persons that make no use of it For the Soul of Jesus desiring to raise a Temple of a vast Extent and of infinite Beauty may wish that Grace may be given to the greatest Sinners and if in that Moment Jesus Christ thinks actually on the Covetous for Instance the Covetous shall receive Grace Or Jesus Christ wanting for the Construction of his Church Minds of a certain Character commonly not attainable but by those who suffer certain Persecutions whereof the Passions of Men are the natural
they had committed in murthering our Saviour it was fit that Jesus Christ should come into the World about the Reign of Herod supposing that People by the necessary Consequence of the Order of Nature was to be divided about that time that Civil Wars and perpetual Seditions were to weaken them and that lastly the Romans were to ruine and disperse them with the total Destruction of their City and Temple 'T is true there seems to be something extraordinary in the Desolation of the Jews But as it shews greater Wisdom in God to produce so surprizing Effects by the most simple and general Laws of Nature than by particular Wills which are always Miracles I question whether on that Occasion we are to fly unto a Miracle But for my part I dispute it not here since 't is a Fact that we cannot easily nor need we explain our selves upon And I produce this Instance only to make some Application of my Principles and to make them more easily intelligible to others I have I think said enough of Nature and Grace to satisfie all equitable and moderate Persons about an infinite Number of Difficulties which disturb only their Minds who must needs judge of God by themselves For if Men would consult the Idea of an Infinitely Perfect Being of a General Cause of an Infinite Wisdom and if they would consent to the Principles I have establish'd conformable to that Idea I believe they would neither be surpriz'd nor offended at the Conduct of GOD and that they would change their Murmurs and Censures into Wonder and Adoration CONCERNING Nature and Grace DISCOURSE III. Of the Manner of GRACE's acting in us PART I. Concerning Liberty I. THERE is nothing more rude and unform'd than the Substance of Spirits if we separate it from God For what 's a Mind void of Understanding and Reason destitute of Motion and Love Yet it is the Word and Wisdom of God which is the universal Reason of Minds and 't is the Love whereby God loves himself that gives the Soul the Motion she has towards Good If the Mind knows Truth 't is by its Natural and Necessary Union with Truth it self If it is reasonable 't is so through supreme Reason Lastly If it be a Spirit or Intelligence 't is in one sense because its Substance is enlightned penetrated and perfected by the Light of God himself These Truths I have explain'd in another Place So likewise the Substance of the Soul is not capable of loving Good save by its Natural and Necessary Union with the Eternal and Substantial Love of the Supreme Good it advances not towards Good any farther than convey'd by God it is volent only from the Motion it continually receives from him it lives only through Charity and wills merely through the Love of Good which God makes it participate though it abuses it For in fine God making and preserving Minds only for himself inclines them towards him as long as he preserves their Being and communicates the Love of Good to them whilst they are capable of receiving it Now that natural and continual Motion of the Soul towards Good in general towards Good indefinite towards God is what I here call Will Since 't is that Motion which capacitates the Substance of the Soul to love different Goods II. This Natural Motion of the Soul towards Good in general is invincible for 't is not in our Power not to will to be happy We necessarily love what we clearly know and lively feel to be our Good All Minds love God by the Necessity of their Nature and if they love any thing else by a Free Choice of their Will 't is not because they seek not God or the Cause of their Felicity but because they are deceiv'd 'T is because perceiving by a confus'd Sensation that surrounding Bodies make them happy they consider them as good and by an Ordinary and Natural Consequence love them and unite to them III. But the Love of all these particular Goods is not naturally invincible Man consider'd in his Original State might supersede loving those Goods that fill'd not the whole Capacity of his Affection There being but one Good which includes all others he might sacrifice every other Love to the Love of this For God having made Minds only for himself cannot invincibly carry them to the loving any thing besides him or without relation to him Lastly our own inward Consciousness informs us that we can reject a Fruit though we are inclin'd to take it Now that Power of loving or not loving particular Goods the Non-invincibility which is found in the Motion which carries Minds to the loving what does not seem every way inclusive of all Goods That Power or Non-invincibility is what I call Liberty Thus placing the Definition instead of the thing defin'd that Expression our Will is free signifies that the Natural Motion of the Soul towards Good in general is not invincible in point of Good in particular To the Word Free the Idea of Voluâ—tary is commonly annex'd but in the Sequel of this Discourse I shall take the Word in the Sense I have observ'd as being the most Natural and Ordinary IV. The Word Good is equivocal and may signifie either Pleasure which makes formally happy or the true or seeming Cause of Pleasure In this Discourse I shall constantly take the Word Good in the second Sense because indeed Pleasure is imprinted on the Soul that she may love the Cause that makes her happy that she may advance towards it by the Motion of her Love and may strictly unite to it to be perpetually happy When the Soul loves nothing but her own Pleasure she in effect loves nothing distinct from her self For Pleasure is only a Condition or Modification of the Soul which renders her actually happy and content But whilst the Soul cannot be the Cause of her own Pleasure she 's unjust ungrateful and blind if she loves her Pleasure and forgets to pay the Love and Devotion which is due to the true Cause that produces it in her As none but God can act immediately and by himself on the Soul and make her sensible of Pleasure by the actual Efficacy of his all-potent Will so he alone is truly Good However I term the Creatures Good which are the seeming Causes of the Pleasures we feel occasionally from them For I am unwilling to deviate from the customary way of Speaking any farther than is necessary to explain my self clearly All Creatures though Good in themselves or Perfect with reference to the Designs of God are not Good with reference to us They are not our Good nor the true Cause of our Pleasure or Felicity V. The natural Motion which God constantly imprints on the Soul to carry it to love him or to make use of a Term which is the Abridgement of several Ideas and can be no longer equivocal or confus'd after the Definition I have given of it the Will is determin'd towards particular Goods either
it and though never so desirous of Happiness or the Enjoyment of Pleasures no Pleasure is stronger than his Light Not but that Pleasures can blind him perturbate his Reason and fill up his thinking Capacity For the Mind being finite all Pleasure is capable of dividing and distracting it But that Pleasures being subjected to his Will he is too cautious to be intoxicated by them For the sole invincible Pleasure is that of the Blessed or that which the First Man had found in God if God should have prevented and hindred his Fall not only because this Pleasure fills all the Faculties of the Soul without disturbing her Reason or carrying her to the Love of a pretended Good but also because nothing withstands the Enjoyment of this Pleasure neither the Desire of Perfection nor that of Felicity For when we love God we are perfect when we enjoy him we are happy and when we love him with Pleasure we are happy and perfect all at once Thus the perfectest Liberty is that of Minds which can at all times overcome the greatest Pleasures of Minds to which no Motion towards particular Goods is ever irresistible 'T is that of a Man before the Sin before Concupiscence troubled his Mind and corrupted his Heart And the most imperfect Liberty is that of those to whom no Motion towards a particular Good though never so little but is invincible in all sorts of Circumstances X. Now betwixt these two sorts of Liberty there are more and less Perfect to an Infinity of Degrees which is a thing not sufficiently minded 'T is commonly imagin'd that Liberty is equal in all Men and that 't is an Essential Faculty of the Mind the Nature whereof remains constantly the same though its Action varies according to the diversity of Objects For we regardlesly suppose a perfect Equality in all things wherein no sensible Inequality appears Men indulge their Mind and rid it of all tedious Application by giving things an abstract Form consisting in a sort of indivisible Essence But this is an Errour Liberty being no such Faculty as is imagin'd There are not two Persons equally free in respect of the same Objects Children have less Liberty than Men arriv'd to the perfect Exercise of their Reason Nor are there two Men whose Reason is equally clear constant and certain in regard of the same Objects Those whose Passions are unruly and who have been unaccustom'd to resist them are less free than others who have couragiously impugn'd them and who are naturally Men of Temper and there are not two Men equally moderate equally sensible to the same Objects and who have equally fought for the Preservation of their Liberty Some Persons there are so sold to Sin that they less resist or think of resisting it when awake than pious Men in their Sleep since we are taught by the Word of Truth that he who commits Sin becomes a Slave to it XI ' True it is that by the Institution of Nature all Men are equally free For God does not invincibly determine Men to the Love of any particular Good But Concupiscence corrupts the Moral and Intellectual Part and since Man has lost the Power of obliterating the Tracts of sensible Pleasures and stopping the Motions of Concupiscence That Liberty which had been equal in all Men if they had not sinn'd grows unequal according to their different degrees of Light and as variously work'd on by Concupiscence For Concupiscence it self which is equal in all Men in as much as they have lost their Power over their Body is a thousand ways unequal because of the Diversity that is found in the Construction of the Body in the Multiplicity and Motion of the Spirits and those almost infinite Alliances and Relations obtain'd through the Commerce of the World XII To our distincter understanding the Inequality which is found in the Liberty of different Persons we must observe that every Man perfectly reasonable perfectly free and who would be truly happy may and ought upon the Presence of any Object which gives him the sense of Pleasure suspend his Love and carefully examine whether this Object be the true Good or whether the Motion which carries him towards it exactly comport with that which leads him to the true Good Otherwise he would love by Instinct and not by Reason and if he could not suspend the Judgment of his Love before he had examin'd it he would not be perfectly free But if he clearly discovers that this Object which gives him the Sense of Pleasure is truly good to him and if the Evidence in conjunction with the Sensation be such as will not permit him to suspend his Judgment then though perfectly free he is no longer free in respect of that Good but he invincibly loves it because Pleasure agrees with Evidence But being that God alone can act in us as our Good and the Motion which byasses us towards the Creatures is repugnant to that which carries us towards God every Man perfectly reasonable and entirely free may and must forbear to judge that sensible Objects are his Goods He may and ought to suspend the Judgment which regulates or should regulate his Love For he can never evidently see that sensible Goods are true Goods since that can never be evidently seen which is not XIII This Power of suspending the Judgment which is the actual Rule of Love this Power which is the Principle of our Liberty and by which Pleasures are not always invincible is very much weaken'd since the Sin though not quite destroy'd And that we may have actually this Power when we are tempted by an Object 't is necessary besides the Love of Order to have a thoughtful Mind and to be sensible to the Remorse of Conscience for a Child or a Man asleep have not actually this Power But all Men are not equally enlightned the Mind of Sinners is full of Darkness Consciences are not equally tender the Heart of Sinners is hardned The Love of Order actual Graces are unequal in all Men Therefore they are not equally free nor have equal Power of suspending their Judgment Pleasure determines them and moves some rather than others This Man can suspend his Judgment and wave his Consent when a present Object gives him the Tast of a most quickning and sensible Pleasure and another is of so narrow a Mind and corrupt an Heart that the least Pleasure is irresistible and the least Pain insupportable Being not wont to fight against sensible Allurements he becomes so dispos'd as not even to think of resisting them Thus he has not then the Power of deferring his Consent since he even wants the Power of making a Reflection and in regard to that Object he is like a Man asleep or out of his Wits XIV The more weak is Reason the more sensible grows the Soul and more readily and falsly she judges of sensible Good and Evil. If a Leaf pricks or even tickles a Man when asleep he wakes in a start
frighted as if bitten by a Serpent He perceives this little Evil and judges of it as of the greatest Misfortunes so intolerable it appears to him His Reason fainting by the Slumber incapacitates him from suspending his Judgment To him the least Goods as well as Evils are almost always insuperable For 't is the Senses which judge in him and these are hasty Deciders which must be so for several Reasons When Reason is less disabled little Pleasures are not invincible nor little Evils intolerable and Men are not always bound where most Pleasure is to be found For some Pleasures are so little that they are despicable to Reason which is never quite destitute of the Love of Order The presence of little Evils is not very frightful A Man for Example resolves to be let Blood and suffers it he judges not so hastily but suspends and examines and the stronger is Reason the longer is its Suspence against sensible Invitations and Discouragements Now there is nothing more certain than that all Men who partake of the same Reason partake not of it equally that all are not equally sensible at least to the same Objects that they are not all equally well born equally well bred equally aâ—â—isted by the Grace of Jesus Christ and therefore not equally free or capable of suspending the Judgment of their Love in point of the same Objects XV. But we are to take notice that the chief Duty of Minds is to preserve and increase their Liberty since 't is by the good use possible to be made of it they may merit their Felicity if succour'd by the Grace of Jesus Christ at least lessen their Misery if left to themselves That which weakens our Liberty or makes most Pleasures irresistible to us is the Eclipse of our Reason and the Loss of Power we ought to have over our Body Reason therefore must be instructed by continual Meditations we must consider our Duties that we may perform them and our Infirmities that we may have recourse to him who is our Strength And since we have lost the Power of stopping the Impressions made by the Presence of Objects on the Body which thence corrupt the Mind and Heart we ought to avoid these Objects and make use of the Power that is left us We ought to watch constantly over the Purity of our Imagination and labour with all our Powers to efface the adulterate Traces imprinted by false Goods since they kindle Desires in us which divide our Mind and weaken our Liberty By this means the Man whose Liberty is just expiring who cannot conquer the least of Pleasures may obtain such a Strength and such a Freedom as not to yield to the greatest Souls their Succours being suppos'd equal For at least at the time whilst these Pleasures do not importune us to Evil we may lay in to avoid them We may fortifie our selves by some Reason that may through future Pleasures countervail those we don't actually enjoy For as every one has some Love of Order there is no Man but may vanquish a feeble and light Pleasure by a strong and solid Reason by a reasonable Fear of some Evil or by the Hope of some great Good Lastly there is no one but may by the Ordinary Supplies of Grace vanquish some Pleasures and avoid others Which Pleasures formerly invincible or studied being vanquish'd or avoided are a Preparatory to our assaulting others at least before they tempt us For the Satisfaction we find in the Victory provokes us again to Battle and the Joy of a good Conscience and the Grace of Jesus Christ administer Courage And even the Fear of a Defeat is not useless since it makes us fly to him who can do all things and make us discreet in avoiding perillous Occasions Thus we are always Gainers in this sort of Exercise for if we are worsted we become more humble wise and circumspect and sometimes more earnest for the Combat and more capable of Conquering or Resisting XVI As in the study of the Sciences those who submit not to the false Glimpses of Probabilities and who are wont to suspend their Judgment till the Light of Truth breaks into them fall rarely into Errour whereas the vulgar part of Men are daily deceiv'd by their precipitate Judgments So in Moral Discipline those who use to sacrifice their Pleasures to the Love of Orders and who continually mortifie their Senses and Passions especially in things which seem of little moment which every one may do will in things important obtain a great Facility of suspending the Judgment which regulates their Love Pleasure does not surprize them like other Men at least does not drag them along unawares It seems on the contrary that whilst it sensibly affects them it cautions them to take care of themselves and to consult Reason or the Rules of the Gospel Their Conscience is more nice and tender than that of others who in the Scripture Phrase drink Sin like Water They are sensible to the secret Reproaches of Reason and the wholsome Precautions of inward Truth So that the acquir'd Habit of resisting feeble and light Pleasures makes way for the conquering the more violent at least for the suffering some Regret and Shame when a Man is conquer'd which creates forthwith Dislike and Abhorrence Liberty thus insensibly increasing and perfecting it self by Exercise and the Assistance of Grace we may at last put our selves in a Capacity of performing the most difficult Commandments in as much as by the ordinary Graces which are constantly afforded Christians we may overcome common Temptations and for the most part avoid the greatest and by the Assistance of the Grace of Jesus Christ there is none but may be vanquish'd XVII 'T is true that a Sinner so dispos'd as not able so much as to think of resisting a surprizing Pleasure cannot actually accomplish the Commandment that orders him not to enjoy it For the Pleasure is insuperable to him in that Estate And if we but suppose this Person in this State of Impotence through a Natural Necessity his Sin not being free could not make him more culpable I mean more worthy of the Punishment of Pain than if he were inordinate in his Sleep Nay if this Impotency were a necessary Consequence of the free Disorders which had preceded his Conversion it would not be imputed to him by reason of his Charity But since he was both able and oblig'd to use himself to resisting Pleasure and combating for the Preservation and Augmentation of his Liberty this Sin though actually committed by a kind of Necessity renders him guilty and punishable if not by reason of his Sin at least because of his Negligence which is the Principle of it The Commandment of God is not absolutely impossible but the Sinner may and ought for the foregoing Reasons to put himself into a Condition of observing it since Men are oblig'd as well as able to labour constantly to augment and perfect their Liberty not only by
their Effect The Prayers and diverse Desires of Jesus Christ with reference to the Formation of his Body have likewise most constantly and speedily their Accomplishment God denies his Son nothing as we learn from Jesus Christ himself Occasional Causes produce not their Effect by their own Efficacy but by the Efficacy of the General Cause 'T is likewise by the Efficacy of the Power of God that the Soul of Jesus Christ operates in us and not by the Efficacy of Man's Will 'T is for this Reason that St. Paul represents Jesus Christ as praying to his Father without Intermission For he is oblâ—gâ—d to Pray in order to Obtain Occasional Causes have been establish'd by God for the determining the Efficacy of his General Wills and Jesus Christ according to the Scripture has been appointed by God after his Resurrection to govern the Church which he had purchas'd by his Blood For Jesus Christ became the Meritorious Cause of all Graces by his Sacrifice But after his Resurrection he entred 〈◊〉 the Holy of Holies as High Priest of future Goods to appear in the Presence of God and to endue us with the Graces which he has merited for us Therefore he himself applies and distributes his Gifts as Occasional Cause he disposes of all things in the House of God as a well-beloved Son in the House of his Father I think I have demonstrated in the Search after Truth that there is none but God who is the true Cause and who acts by his own Efficacy and that he communicates his Power to Creatures only in establishing them Occasional Causes for the producing some Effects I have proved for Example That Men have no Power to produce any Motion in their Bodies but because God has establish'd their Wills the Occasional Causes of these Motions That Fire has no power to make me feel Pain but because God has establish'd the Collision of Bodies the Occasional Cause of the Communication of Motions and the violent Vibration of the Fibres of my Flesh the Occasional Cause of my Pain I may here suppose a Truth which I have proved at large in the Third Chapter of the Second Part of the Sixth Book and in the Illustration upon the same Chapter and which those for whom it was principally written don't contest Now Faith assures us that all Power is given to Jesus Christ to form his Church All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth Which cannot be understood of Jesus Christ as to his Divinity for as God he has never received any thing And therefore it is certain that Jesus Christ as to his Humanity is the Occasional Cause of Grace supposing I have well proved that God only can act on Minds and that Second Causes have no Efficacy of their own Which those ought first to examine who would understand my Sentiments and give a Judgment of them XII I say farther that no one is sanctified but through the Efficacy of the Power which God has communicated to Jesus Christ in constituting him the Occasional Cause of Grace For if any Sinner were converted by a Grace whereof Jesus Christ was not the Occasional but only the Meritorious Cause that Sinner not receiving his New Life through the Efficacy of Jesus Christ would not be a Member of the Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head in that manner explain'd by St. Paul by these Words of the Epistle to the Ephesians That we may grow up into him in all things who is the Head even Christ from whom the whole Body fitly join'd together and compacted by that which every Joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every Part maketh increase of the Body unto the edifying it self in Love Which Words not only say Jesus Christ is the Meritorious Cause of all Graces but likewise distinctly signifie that Christians are the Members of the Body whereof Jesus Christ is the Head that 't is in him we increase and live with an entire new Life that 't is by his inward Operation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that his Church is form'd and that thus he has been constituted by God the sole Occasional Cause who by his several Desires and Applications distributes the Graces which God as the True Cause showers down on Men. 'T is on this Account St. Paul says Christians are united to Jesus Christ as their Root Rooted and built up in him 'T is for the same Reason that Jesus Christ compares himself to a Vine and his Disciples to the Branches that derive their Life from him I am the Vine ye are the Branches On the same Grounds St. Paul affirms that Jesus Christ lives in us and that we live in him that we are rais'd up in our Head that our Life is hidden with Jesus Christ in God in a word that we have already Life Eternal in Jesus Christ. All these and many other Expressions of like nature clearly manifest that Jesus Christ is not only the Meritorious but also the Occasional Physical or Natural Cause of Grace and that as the Soul informs animates and consummates the Body so Jesus Christ diffuses through his Members as Occasional Cause the Graces he has merited to his Church by his Sacrifice For my part I cannot see how these Reasons can be call'd in question or upon what Grounds a most edifying Truth and as ancient as the Religion of Jesus Christ can be treated as a dangerous Novelty I grant my Expressions are novel but that 's because they seem to me the fittest of all others distinctly to explain a Truth which can be but confusedly demonstrated by Terms very loose and general These words Occasional Causes and Natural Laws seem necessary to give the Philosophers for whom I wrote this Treatise of Nature and Grace a distinct Understanding of what most Men are content to know confusedly New Expressions being no farther dangerous than involving Ambiguity or breeding in the Mind some Notion contrary to Religion I do not believe that Equitable Persons and conversant in the Theology of St. Paul will blame me for explaining my self in a particular manner when it only tends to make us Adore the Wisdom of God and strictly to unite us with Jesus Christ. First OBJECTION XIII 'T is Objected against what I have establish'd That neither Angels nor Saints of the Old Testament receiv'd Grace pursuant to the Desires of the Soul of Jesus since that Holy Soul was not then in Being and therefore though Jesus Christ be the meritorious Cause of all Graces he is not the Occasional Cause which distributes them to Men. As to Angels I Answer That 't is very probable Grace was given them but once So that if we consider things on that side I grant there is nothing can oblige the Wisdom of God to constitute an Occasional Cause for the Sanctification of Angels But if we consider these blessed Spirits as Members of the Body whereof Jesus Christ is the Head or suppose them