discover it self sensibly as Concupiscence doth we cannot be assur'd of the state we are in Therefore we ought always to distrust our selves without desponding and to Labour even till Death to destroy Self-love and Concupiscence which continually renews it self and to fortify the love of Order which is weakned or destroy'd when we cease to keep a watch over our selves XVIII For the right understanding of what follows we must observe that the acts of Love are of two sorts natural or purely voluntary Acts and free Acts. All Pleasure infallibly produces in the Soul the natural motion of Love or makes us love the Object which causes or seems to cause that Pleasure with a natural necessary or purely voluntary Love But every Pleasure doth not produce a free Love for free Love is not always conformable to the natural Love This Love doth not depend upon Pleasure alone but upon Reason upon Liberty upon the Power which the Soul hath to resist any Motion that presses it It is the consent of the Will which makes the essential difference of this species of Love Now these two different acts of Love produce two different Habits The natural Love begets in the Soul a disposition toward natural Love And the love of Choice leaves in it a Habit of that Love For when a Man hath consented several times to the love of any Good he hath an inclination or facility to consent to it again XIX We must know then that every disposition of Love whether natural or free corrupts the Soul and renders it odious to God if the object of it be a Creature but if it be applied to the Creator it makes the Soul righteous and acceptable to God Provided nevertheless that the disposition of natural Love be alone in the Heart for if there be two Habits of Love of different kinds in the Heart God doth not regard the natural Love but only that which is free XX. For Example an Infant at his first coming into the World is a Sinner and deserves the wrath of God because God loves Order and the Heart of that Infant is irregular or turn'd toward the Body by an habitual disposition of a natural necessary or merely voluntary Love †See l. 2. c. 1. of the Search after Truth and the Notes upon that Chap. which he derives from his Parents without any consent on his part Adam at the first instant of his Creation was Just because his Heart was dispos'd to love God tho' he had not as yet acquir'd a habit of consenting to that Love So that a natural disposition or habit when it is alone corrupts or justifies the Soul For when there is but one habitual Love in the Heart if that love be Good there is nothing in it but what is amiable in the Eyes of him who loves Order and the contrary if that Love be evil But when there are two habits of Love of different kinds God hath no regard but to that which is free It is probable that the Just have a much greater facility and natural disposition to love the Goods of the Body than the true and real ones The Pleasures of Sense being almost continually before them and the preventing delight of Grace much more rare they are more strongly disposs'd by this sort of Habit which is a natural consequence of Pleasure to love sensible Objects than the true Good This is evident by what happens to them in Sleep or when they are not upon their Guard but act without Reflection For then they most commonly follow the motions of Concupiscence But these irregularities do not corrupt them because the Habit of Vertue is not chang'd for those acts which are not free cannot change free Habits but only the Habits of the same kind From what hath been said it is plain that the love of Order which justifies us in the sight of God must be an habitual free and ruling Love of the immutable Order And therefore where I speak of the love of Order in the sequel of this Discourse I generally understand by it this kind of habitual Love and not an actual not an habitual natural Love not a love which is not predominant nor any other motion or disposition of the Soul CHAP. IV. Two fundamental Truths belonging to this Treatise I. Acts produce Habits and Habits Acts. II. The Soul doth not always produce the Acts of its ruling Habit. The Sinner may avoid committing any particular Sin and the just Man may lose his Charity because there is no Sinner without some love for Order and no just Man without Self-love We cannot be justified in the sight of God by the strength of Free-will The means in general of acquiring and preserving Charity The methodus'd in the explication of these means I. THat I may give a clear explication of the means of acquiring or preserving the ruling Love of the immutable Order I shall lay down two fundamental Truths belonging to the first Part of this Treatise First that Vertues are generally acquir'd and fortified by Acts. Secondly that when we act we do not always produce the acts of the ruling Vertue What I say of Vertue must be also understood of all Habits good or bad and even of the Passions which are natural to us II. Every one is sufficiently convinc'd by his own Experience that those Habits which have a relation to the Body are form'd and preserv'd by Acts. Thus it is universally agreed that by the acts of Dancing Playing on an Instrument or speaking a Language those Habits may be acquir'd Most People are persuaded that Men get a Habit of Drunkenness by drinking much that the company of Women makes a Man soft and effeminate and that those who converse with Souldiers become generally Stout or Brutish But there are few who seriously consider that the Soul it self by its own Acts gets such Habits as it cannot easily get rid of A Mathematician is apt to imagine that it is in his own power not to love the Mathematicks and to give over the Study of them An ambitious Man foolishly persuades himself that he is not a slave to his Passion And every one believes that tho' he be in a miserable subjection to some vitious Habit he is able whenever he pleases to break the Chains that hold him in Captivity It is upon this Principle that Men still delay their Conversion for seeing there is nothing more requir'd to Conversion than to despise those Enjoyments which they own to be vain and contemptible and to love God who certainly alone deserves to be lov'd every one persuades himself that he hath and always shall have Reason and Strength enough to form and put in Execution a Design so just and reasonable III. Besides as the Will is never forc'd we imagine that whatsoever we will we will just so only because we will We do not consider that the acts of the Will are produc'd in us in consequence of our inward Dispositions which Dispositions being
and Glory Tho' it be never so much enlightned yet if it be not just it must of necessity be contrary to Order and it cannot be just without diminishing or destroying it self Nevertheless when Self-love is both enlightned and just whether it be destroy'd by or confounded with the Love of Order a Man hath then the greatest Perfection that he is capable of For certainly he that always places himself in the rank that belongs to him who desires to be Happy no farther than he deserves to be so and seeks his Happiness in the Justice which he expects from the righteous Judge who lives by Faith and rests contented stedfast and patient in the hope and foretast of the true Goods he I say is really a good Man tho' the love he bears to himself reform'd indeed and corrected by Grace be the natural Foundation of his Love of Order above all Things XIV We must not imagine that the love of Order is like those Vertues or rather particular Dispositions which may be lost or got For Order is not a particular Creature which we may begin or cease to love it is the Word it self the natural Object of all the Motions of Spiritual Beings We may begin or cease to love a Creature because we are not made for them but we cannot entirely renounce Reason nor cease to love Order because Man is made to live by Reason and according to Order So that the love of Order naturally Reigns where-ever Self-love is not contrary to it Nay it often Reigns tho' Self-love or Concupiscence oppose it I say it Reigns not only in good Men where it hath an absolute Dominion but also in the wicked where Self-love bears the Sovereign sway XV. It is certain that a Man sees only as he is enlightned by God he wills only as he is animated and moved by him Now God enlightnes him only by his Word he moves him only by the Love which he bears to himself For God cannot enlighten Man by a false Reason nor imprint on him a Love contrary to his own All Light therefore comes from the Word and all Motion from the Holy Ghost seeing it is God alone that acts and that only by the Wisdom which enlightens him and the Love which he bears to himself So that as long as a Man Thinks and Loves he cannot be totally separated from Reason nor altogether without the love of Order To fall into Error he must make an ill use of Reason but still he must make use of it for he that sees nothing and can judge of nothing cannot fall into Error In like manner to love Evil he must love Good for he cannot love Evil but because he looks upon it as Good Therefore Self-love doth not wholly destroy the Love of Order but only Vitiates and Corrupts it by referring that to its self which hath no relation to it For a Man whether he loves the Objects with a relation to himself or otherwise always loves those that are or seem to be the best because the love of Order or the love of good things proportionable to their Perfection or Goodness is a natural and invincible Love XVI This I say principally That the Wicked may at least know themselves to be such and the Righteous may distrust their Vertue For since Men tho' they are never so wretched and miserable find in themselves some rectitude or some natural love of Order they imagine that they are really Vertuous But to obtain the possession of Vertue it is not sufficient that we love Order with a natural Love but we must also love it with a free enlightned and reasonable Love It is not sufficient to love it when it agrees with our Self-love We must Sacrifice every thing to it our actual Happiness and if it should require it of us our very Being For Vertue consists in a ruling Love of the immutable Order Our Heart is never rightly disposed but when it is ready to conform it self to Order in all things and he that would have Order conformable in some things to his particular Inclinations hath a perverted Mind and a corrupt Heart There is no Man let him be never so Wicked who doth not sometimes find a beauty in Order that charms him In all probability the Devils themselves have some Love for Order They are ready to obey it when it requires nothing of them contrary to their Self-love And perhaps some of them would willingly offer some slight Sacrifice to it They are not all equally Wicked and therefore they do not all equally oppose Order Judas was a Wretch govern'd by Avarice yet it is reasonable to believe that to deliver his best Friend from Death he would have Sacrificed a little Mony He Sold our Saviour for thirty Pieces of Silver but perhaps he would not have betray'd him for a less Sum. So then to be Vertuous it is not sufficient to love Order but we must love it more than all other things We must have a firm Resolution to follow it every where whatever it cost us We must be ready to Sacrifice to it not a few inconsiderable Pleasures or slight Pains but our Happiness our Reputation and our very Being in hopes of receiving from God a recompence befitting him to give XVII But besides all this I must add that a simple Resolution tho' never so strong of following Order in all things doth not justify us in the fight of God For God who makes a true Judgment of the dispositions of our Minds doth not judge any soul according to its actual and transient Motions but by that which is fix'd and permanent in it Simple acts are transient And a Man that finds himself throughly affected with the Beauty of Order and thereupon takes a holy Resolution of Sacrificing all other things to it ought still to be in fear for himself For it scarce ever happens that one single act produces the strongest Habit and that the actual motion of the Soul destroys an inveterate Disposition of obeying the inclinations of Self-love On the contrary Habits are permanent and tho' a just Man fall seven times a Day let him comfort himself God knows the bottom of his Heart But let him take heed that he be not seduc'd and corrupted by Concupiscence and that his imagination receiving dangerous Impressions every Moment from sensible Objects do not some time or other openly rebel against those severe Laws which are so damping and disagreeable to it For we must observe that the Habit of Charity is much more tender and more difficult both to acquire and preserve than sinful Habits For one single deliberate Act one mortal Sin always destroys it A Man is just in the sight of God when his Heart is really more dispos'd to love good than evil with a free and rational Love whether this disposition be acquir'd by free and rational acts of Love or otherwise But because we know only that which actually passes in our Soul and Charity doth not
of Perfection enlightens the Mind without moving it if it be taken only for the Law of God the Law of all Spiritual Beings and consider'd only so far as it hath the force of a Law for God loves Order himself and irresistibly wills that we should love it or that we should love every Thing in proportion to its being amiable Order I say as it is the natural and necessary Principle and Rule of all the Motions of the Soul touches penetrates and convinces the Mind without enlightning it So that we may discover Order by a clear Idea but we know it also by Sensation for since God loves Order and continually imprints on us a Love and Motion like his own we must necessarily be inform'd by the sure and compendious way of Sensation when we follow or forsake the immutable Order XX. But we must observe that this way of discovering Order by Sensation or Instinct is often render'd uncertain by Sin which hath introduc'd Concupiscence because the secret influences of the Passions are of the same nature with that inward Sensation For when we act contrary to Opinion and Custom we often feel such inward Checks as very much resemble those of Reason and Order Before Sin enter'd into the World the Sense of inward Reproof was a sign that could not be mistaken for then that alone spoke with Authority but since that time the secret inspirations of our Passions are not subject to our Wills So that they are easily confounded with the inspirations of inward Truth when the Mind is not enlightned Hence it is that there are so many People who seriously and in good earnest maintain abominable Errors A false Idea of Religion and Morality which agrees with their Interests and Passions appears Truth it self to them and being convinc'd by a pleasing Sense within them which justifies their excess they drive on their rash and indiscreet Zeal with all the Motion of Self-love XXI There is nothing then more certain and secure than Light we cannot six our Attention too long on clear Ideas and tho' we may suffer our selves to be animated by the inward Sense yet we must never be guided by it We must contemplate Order in it self and permit this Sensation only to keep up our Attention by the Motion which it excites in us otherwise our Meditations will never be rewarded with a clear prospect of Truth we shall be disgusted every moment and being always inconstant doubtful and perplex'd we shall suffer our selves to be blindly led by our Fancy XXII Indeed when our Heart is corrupted we are not in a Condition to contemplate Order as it is in it self we consider with Pleasure only those imaginary Relations which things have to our selves and neglect those real Relations which they have to one another We may then love the Mathematicks but it is because they bring us Reputation or Profit and because they examine only the Relations of Greatness whereas Order Consists in the Relations of Perfection The Evidence of Truth is always agreeable when it doth not clash with our self-Self-love but naturally we do not love a Light which discovers our hidden Disorders a Light which condemns punishes and covers us with Shame and Confusion Order the Divine Law is a terrible threatning and inexorable Law No Man can think upon it without fear and horror when he will not obey it all this is true But yet tho' the Heart be corrupted self-Self-love enlightned may sometimes stop or diminish the Motion of the Passions We do not love Disorder for Disorder's sake and a Man may desire his Conversion when he hopes to heighten his Pleasures by it After all I suppose the necessary helps for I confess that without the assistance of Grace we cannot labour in our Conversion as we ought nor so much as have one good Thought which may contribute to the Cure of our Distempers CHAP. VI. Of the Liberty of the Mind We should suspend our Assent as much as we can which is the great Rule By the Liberty of the Mind we may avoid Error and Sin as by the Strength of the Mind we free our selves from Ignorance The Liberty of the Mind as well as the Strength of it is a Habit which is confirm'd by use Some instances of its Vsefulness in Physicks Morality and Civil Life I. WE cannot discover Truth without the Labour of Attention because this Labour alone is rewarded with Light Before a Man can support and continue the Labour of Attention he must have gain'd some Strength of Mind and some Authority over the Body to impose Silence on his Senses Imagination and Passions as I have shew'd in the foregoing Chapter But how great Strength of Mind soever he hath acquir'd he cannot Labour incessantly and if he could yet there are some Subjects so obscure that the Mind of Man cannot penetrate into them Therefore to keep him from falling into Error it is not sufficient to have a strong Mind to endure Labour but he must also have another Vertue which I cannot better express than by the Equivocal Name of Liberty of Mind by which a Man witholds his Assent till he be irresistibly forc'd to give it II. When we examine any very compounded Question and our Mind finds it self surrounded on all sides with very great Difficulties Reason permits us to give over our Labour but it indispensably requires us to suspend our assent and to judge of nothing when nothing is evident To make use of our Liberty as much as we can is an essential and indispensable Precept both of Logick and Morality For we ought never to believe till Evidence obliges us to it we ought never to love that which we may without Remorse hinder our selves from loving I speak of Man only as he is Rational or as he governs himself only by Reason For the Faithful as such have other Principles than Light and Evidence The Statesman the Burgher the Religious the Souldier have each of them Principles of their own and it is reasonable that they should follow them tho' they do not clearly and evidently see that they are conformable to Reason But when Faith gives no determination we should believe nothing but what we see Where Custom prescribes no Rules we should follow only Faith and Reason and tho' human Authority doth determine and Custom authorizes any thing yet if we know clearly and evidently that their Determinations are false and erroneous we had better renounce every thing than Reason I say Reason and not our Senses our Imagination or the secret inspirations of our Passions which I desire may be taken notice of I speak also of Authority subject to Error and not of the infallible Authority of the Church which can never be contrary to Reason For Jesus Christ can never contradict himself Truth incarnate can never be contrary to Truth intellectual nor the Head which governs the Church to universal Reason which enlightens all Spiritual Beings III. The Strength of the Mind is to
When he speaks as he speaks well all the World hearkens to him with Esteem as he speaks agreably they hear him with Pleasure as he advances only certain sensible Truths which are really false ones for that which is true to the Senses is false to the Mind every one applauds him Now is it possible for one who knows or rather by the air and behaviour of his Auditors is strongly and sensibly persuaded that they admire love honour and respect him is it possible I say for such an one to distrust his own Thoughts and believe that he is mistaken Can he avoid uniting himself not only to his own Visions which enchant him but also to that World which applauds him to those Friends which caress him and to those Disciples which adore him Can he be closely united with God who hath so many ties and relations with the Creatures XVII The Wit is a Man of Honour I allow it Yet he may be a Cheat and there are as many of them of that Character as any other He is not Vicious I grant it Tho' there are Debauchees among them and a great many too But certainly the Man of Wit is many ways allied to the World For how can he be Dead to the World when the World is so much Alive to him He is continually agitated by motions of Vanity For every one that he converses with doth nothing but provoke in him the Concupiscence of Pride The Man of Wit I speak still of such a one as lives in a select and chosen World one whose whole design is to gain an advantageous Post in Mens Minds or by the Reputation he hath already gotten is become in reality the Slave of all those who look upon him as their Master He I say is separated from God at a greater distance than any other and there is no likelyhood of his return The delight of Grace may diffuse it self in his Heart ten times a Day it will always find that Heart fill'd with Sensations and Motions that will choke it The Light may illuminate his Mind and dispel its Phantoms the Imagination will easily produce them again There are too many Fetters to break too many Chains to burst before this Captive can be deliver'd But he is in love with his Chains he is not sensible of his Slavery or he glories in it XVIII The Debauchee is not always actually in a Debauch his Blood and Humours cannot hold out to maintain it and when the Fermentation ceases he is asham'd of his Disorders But the Blood is always in a condition to furnish Spirits enough to keep up the Lust of Pride What time then can be favourable for the efficacy of Grace The Cheat feels continual checks of Conscience which trouble and disquiet him but the Wit feels no remorse He will say is it a Crime to have Wit and to merit the esteem of Persons of Worth and Reputation No it is no Crime to have Wit but it is an Error to take the Imagination for the Mind It is not a Crime to merit the esteem of others but it is an illusion to think that a Man merits it I will not say for having abundance of animal Spirits in his Head or a just proportion of the Fibres of his Brain to the Spirits but even for being united to Reason in the purest and closest manner that is possible There is no Merit in the sight of him who alone can judge of and reward Merit but by a conformity to Order and a right use of Liberty A use which cannot be well regulated without the assistance of Grace and of which he who values himself upon it loses the Merit because he doth not render to God alone the Glory which is due to him Do we think that God hath created other Men to employ their Thoughts and bestow their Love on us to turn towards and admire us to run after and rely upon us Certainly God would be worship'd by his Creatures But how by prostrating themselves before his Altars by burning Incense by joining Voices with Instruments and making the Churches resound with harmonious Airs compos'd in his Praise No without doubt God is a Spirit and will be worship'd in Spirit and in Truth He will have the whole Man his Thoughts Motions and Actions But the Man of Wit more than any one attracts the Eyes of other Men and fixes their Motions on himself Instead of putting himself in a posture of Adoration and turning the Minds and Hearts of others towards him who alone ought to be worship'd he exalts himself and assumes an honourable Place in Mens Minds he enters even into the Sanctuary of that Holy Temple the principal Habitation of the living God and by the sensible Pomp and Splendor which surrounds him he prostrates weak Imaginations at his Feet and makes them pay him a true and spiritual Worship a Worship which is due to God alone XIX Now can he who seeks the esteem of Men and robs God of that which he most values in his Creatures can he I say 1 Pet. 5.5 draw down upon himself the favours of Heaven Will God who resists the Proud prevent him with his Blessings The Spirit of God willingly rests on such as are humble such as the World despises These Truths the Scripture assures us of He enlightens those that retire into themselves This Experience shews But he blinds those lively and sparkling Imaginations which are always roving abroad For Truth dwells within us Besides the Grace either of Light or Sense doth not work its effect in the Mind and Heart of those who are united to every thing that is about them This is evident from what hath been here said So then the Man of Wit who seeks after Glory shall find only a vain and transitory one and shall fall for ever with those proud and ambitious Spirits into the disgrace which he deserves XX. But this beautiful ornament of Wit so fatal to those who possess it and value themselves upon it is also very dangerous to those who esteem and admire it in others without possessing it themselves This is a Truth necessary to be known There is nothing more contagious than the Imagination and those in whom it is strong and governing are alway Masters of those that look intently on them Their Air and Behaviour do as I may say diffuse conviction and certainty in all that behold them For they act every thing with so much Passion and Life that if a Man doth not retire into himself to confront that which they say with the answers of inward Truth which is very hard to do in their Presence he is convinc'd without knowing precisely what it is he is convinc'd of because he is struck he is dazled and subdu'd by force XXI Nevertheless we must know that those that have this lively and domineering Imagination are of all Men the most subject to Error their Sentiments are the most dangerous and their Motions the most irregular
confus'd IV. The Love of Order therefore requires of us three Conditions to make any of our Actions conformable to it First That we examine the Action in it self and all its Circumstances as far as we are able Secondly That we suspend our Assent till Evidence forces it from us or the Execution till Necessity obliges us to defer it no longer Thirdly That we readily exactly and inviolably obey Order as far as it is known to us Strength of Mind must make us couragiously undergo the labour of Attention Liberty of Mind must moderate and wisely govern the desire of Assent Submission of Mind must make us follow the Light step by step without ever going before it or forsaking it and the Love of Order must animate and quicken these three Faculties by which tho' it be hid in the bottom of our Heart it discovers it self to the Eyes of the World and sanctifies all our Actions in the sight of God V. But since it is impossible for a Man that is not vers'd in the Science of Morality to discover the Order of his Duties in sudden and unexpected Occasions tho' he have never so great strength and liberty of Mind it is necessary for him to provide against those Occasions which leave him no time for Examination and by a prudent foresight to inform himself of his Duties in general or of some certain and undeniable Principles to govern his Actions by in particular Cases This study of a Man's Duties ought without doubt to be prefer'd before all others Its End and Reward is Eternity He that applies himself to Languages to the Mathematicks to Business and neglects the study of the general Rules for the Government of his Life is like a foolish Traveller who loiters by the way or rambles out of it and is overtaken by the Night an eternal Night which will deprive him for ever of the sight of his Country fill him with immortal despair and leave him expos'd to the dreadful wrath of the Lamb and the power of the Devils or rather the justice of an avenging God VI. He that should go about to examine in particular all the Duties belonging to the several conditions of Men would undertake a Work which he could never finish how indefatigable soever he were For my part I am too sensible of my own weakness to engage in so vast and difficult a Design and all that I here pretend to is to set down in general and that chiefly for my own private use the Duties which all Men as far as they are able ought to pay to God their Neighbour and Themselves Every Man must examine his own particular Duties himself as they relate to the general and essential Obligations and according to Circumstances which vary every moment We should set apart some time for this every day and not expect to find in Books nor it may be in other Men so much Certainty and Light as we may in our selves if we consult the inward Truth sincerely faithfully and in the motion of the Love of Order CHAP. II. Our Duties toward God must be refer'd to his Attributes to his Power Wisdom and Love God alone is the true Cause of all Things The Duties we owe to Power which consist chiefly in clear Judgments and in Motions govern'd by those Judgments I. THe immutable and necessary Order requires that the Creature should depend on the Creator that every Copy should answer to its Original and that Man being made after the Image of God should live in Obedience to God united to God and like God as far as is possible obedient to his Power united to his Wisdom and perfectly like him in all the motions of his Heart Mat. 5.48 Be ye perfect saith our Saviour to his Disciples even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect Indeed we shall not be truly like God till being swallowed up in the contemplation of his Essence we shall be wholly penetrated with his Light and Pleasure But thither it is that we must tend it is that which Faith gives us a Right to hope for that to which it conducts us that which it gives us an earnest of by the inward Reformation which the Grace of Christ works in us For Faith leads us to the understanding of the Truth and merits for us the Grace of Charity Now Understanding and Charity are the two essential strokes which draw our Minds anew after our Original who is call'd in the Scriptures Truth and Love Beloved saith St. John 1 John 3.2 3. now are we the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is And every Man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure Mat. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart saith Christ himself for they shall see God II. To discover the Duties which we owe to God we must attentively consider all his Attributes and consult our selves in reference to them Especially we must examine his Power Wisdom and Love and on our own part our Judgments and Motions For it is only by the Judgments and Motions of our Minds that we render to God that which we owe him as it is chiefly on the account of his Power Wisdom and Love that we indispensably owe him the greatest Duties III. When in thinking on God we consider him only as a Being of infinite Reality or Perfection we are convinc'd that Order requires us to esteem him infinitely But we do not naturally conclude from this alone that we ought to worship fear or love him c. The consideration of God barely in himself or without any relation to us doth not excite those Motions in the Soul which carry it towards Good or the cause of its Happiness and produce in it fit dispositions to receive the influence of that Good There is nothing more evident than that a Being infinitely perfect ought to be infinitely esteem'd No one can refuse God this speculative Duty for it consists only in a simple Judgment which no one can suspend when the Evidence is full and convincing And therefore wicked Men those that have no Religion those that deny the Providence of God willingly pay him this Duty But as they imagine that God doth not concern himself with our Affairs that he is not the true and immediate Cause of every thing that is done here below and that we can have no Communication no Society no Union with him neither by a Reason nor a Power in some sort common both to him and us they brutishly follow the agreeable Motions of their Passions and pay those Duties to a blind Nature which are due only to the Wisdom and Power of the Creatour IV. These mistaken Men argue and conclude right enough but it is from false Principles and you cannot easily make them understand that God requires any Duties of his Creatures if you
miserable Object of his Glory and Pleasures IX A Parent therefore that would preserve to his Children the inestimable right which they have acquir'd by Baptism to the inheritance of Christ must be always watchful in removing out of their sight all Objects that may tempt them He is their guardian Angel and should take up out of their way every Stone that may make them fall It is his Duty to instruct them in the Mysteries of Faith and by Faith to lead them by degrees to the understanding of the fundamental Truths of Religion to fix in them a firm hope of the true Goods and a generous contempt of humane Greatness He should shape their Mind to Perfection and teach them to exercise the faculties of it He should govern them by Reason for there cannot be a more perfect Law than that which God himself inviolably follows But he must begin with Faith For Men especially the younger sort are too sensual too carnal too much abroad to consult the Reason which dwels within them It must shew it self without cloth'd with a Body to strike their Senses They must submit to a visible Authority before they can contemplate the evidence of intellectual Truths Again a Father should never grant his Children any thing that they ask themselves and never deny them any thing that Reason asks for them for Reason should be the common Law the general Rule of all our Wills He should accustom them to obey as well as consult it He should make them give a reason either a good or a plausible one for every thing that they ask and then he may gratify their desires tho' they are not so agreable to Reason if he is satisfied that their intent was to obey Reason He should not chide them too much for fear of discouraging them But this is an indispensable Precept never to act but according to Reason The Soul should will nothing of it self For it is not its own Rule or its own Law It doth not possess Power it is not Independent It ought not to will but with a dependence on the immutable Law because it cannot think act nor enjoy Good but by a dependence on the divine Power This is what young People ought to know But it is perhaps what the old ones do not know It is certainly what all Men do not practise X. We should take care not to burden the Memory of Children with a great number of Actions which are of little use and serve only to confound and agitate a Mind which hath as yet but very little Strength and Capacity and is but too much disturb'd and shaken already by the action of sensible Objects But we should endeavour to make them clearly comprehend the certain Principles of solid Sciences We should use them to contemplate clear Ideas and above all we should teach them to distinguish the Soul from the Body and to know the different properties and modifications of these two Substances of which they are compos'd We should be so far from confirming them in their Error of taking their Senses for Judges of Truth by talking to them of sensible Objects as of the true causes of their Pleasure and Pain that we should be always telling them that their Senses deceive them and should use them in their Presence like false Witnesses that clash with one another to discover their Cheats and Illusions XI Children dye at ten Years old as well as Men at Fifty or Threescore What then will become of a Child at his Death whose Heart is already corrupted who is swell'd with esteem of his Quality and full of the love of sensual Enjoyments What Good will it do him in the other World to understand perfectly the the Geography of this and in Eternity to know the Epochas of Times All our knowledge perishes in Death and the knowledge of these things leads to nothing beyond A Lad knows how to Decline and Conjugate he understands Greek and Latin it may be perfectly well nay perhaps he is already well vers'd in History and acquainted with the Interests of Princes he promises much for this World for which he is not made but what signify all these Vanities with which his Mind and Heart is sill'd Are there solid rewards in Heaven for empty Studies Are there places of Honour destin'd for those that make a correct Theme Will God judge Children by any other Law than the immutable Order than the Precepts of the Gospel which they have neither observ'd nor known Is it the Duty of Fathers to breed up their Children for the State and not for Heaven for their Prince and not for Jesus Christ for a Society of a few Days and not for an eternal Society But let them take notice that those that are best skill'd in these vain Sciences are they that do most mischief to the State and raise the greatest Tempests in it I do not say but they may learn those Sciences But it should be then when their Mind is form'd and when they are capable of making a good use of it and the instructing of them in essential Truths should not be put off to a time when they shall be no more or at least not in a condition to Tast Meditate and Feed upon them XII The labour of Attention being the only way that leads to the understanding of Truth a Father should use all means of accustoming his Children to be Attentive Therefore I think it proper to teach them the most sensible part of the Mathematicks Not that these Sciences tho' preferable to many others are in themselves of any great value but because the Study of them is of such a Nature that a Man makes no progress in them any farther than he is Attentive For in reading a Book of Geometry if the Mind doth not labour by its Attention it gets nothing Now People should be us'd to the labour of the Mind when they are young For then the parts of the Brain are flexible and may be bent any way It is easy then to acquire a habit of being Attentive in which Part I. Chap. V. as I have shewn the whole strength of the Mind consists And therefore those that have accustom'd themselves from their youth to meditate on clear Principles are not only capable of learning all the Sciences but are also able to judge solidly of every thing to govern themselves by abstracted Principles to make ingenious discoveries and to foresee the consequences and events of Enterprises XIII But the Soâ—…nces of Memory confound the Mind they disturb its clear Ideas and furnish it with a Thousand probabilities on all sorts of Subjects which Men take up with because they know not how to distinguish between seeing in part and obscurely and seeing fully and clearly This resting on probabilities makes them wrangle and dispute endlesly For as Truth alone is one indivisible and immutable so that alone can closely and for ever unite Men's Minds Besides the Sciences of Memory do naturally
The Mind clearly sees all this And what then must our Self-love enlightned our invincible and insatiable desire of Happiness conclude from hence but that if we would be solidly happy we must submit our selves entirely to the divine Law This is evident in the highest degree V. Our Self-love then is the motive which being assisted by Grace unites us to God as our Good or the cause of our Happiness and subjects us to Reason as our Law or the model of our Perfection But we must not make the motive our End or our Law We must truly and sincerely love Order and unite our selves to God by Reason We must prefer the divine Law before all things Because we cannot slight it and cease to conform our selves to it without losing the liberty of access to God which we enjoy by it We must not desire that Order should accommodate it self to our Will It is impossible to be done for Order is immutable and necessary We must not wish that God would not punish our Iniquities God is a Judge that cannot be corrupted These desires corrupt us These foolish and insignificant Wishes are injurious to the Purity the Justice and Immutability of God they strike at the essential Attributes of the divine Nature We should abhor our own Corruptions and fashion all the motions of our Heart by Order We should revenge on our selves the injuries done to the honour of Order or at least we should humbly submit to the divine Vengeance For he who wishes that God would not punish Theft or Drunkenness doth not love God and tho' the strength of his Self-love enlightned may keep him from Stealing or Drinking yet he is not Righteous He makes that the end which should be only the motive of his desires He must call upon the Saviour of Sinners who alone can change his Heart But he that had rather there should be no God than such an one as delights to make eternally miserable even those that truly love Order and Reason is a just Man For that chimerical Deity that unjust and cruel God is not amiable Grace it self doth not destroy self-Self-love but only regulates it and makes it subject to the divine Law It makes us love the true God and despise that Irregularity and Injustice which a disturb'd Imagination may attribute to the divine Nature VI. From what hath been said it is evident First that we must enlighten our Self-love to the end it may excite us to Vertue Secondly that we must never follow the motion of Self-love only Thirdly that in obeying Order inviolably we labour effectually for the contentment of our Self-love In a word since God alone is the cause of our Pleasure we ought to submit our selves to his Law and labour for our Perfection leaving it to his Justice and Goodness to proportion our Happiness to our Merits and to those of Christ in whom ours deserve an infinite Reward VII I have explain'd in the first Part of this Treatise the most material things that are necessary to make us labour for our Perfection or to acquire and preserve an habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order in which our Duties toward our selves consist They are these in general VIII We should accustom our selves to the labour of Attention and thereby procure some strength of Mind We should never assent but to evidence and so preserve the liberty of our Mind We should continually study Mankind in general and our selves in particular that we may gain a perfect knowledge of our selves We should meditate Night and Day on the divine Law that we may obey it exactly We should compare our selves with Order to humble and despise our selves We should reflect on the divine Justice to fear it and awaken our selves We should think upon our Mediator to call upon him and comfort our selves We should look upon Christ as our Model love him as our Saviour and follow him as our Strength our Wisdom and the Fountain of our eternal Happiness The World seduces us by our Senses It troubles our Mind by our Imagination it carries us away and plunges us in the depth of Misery by our Passions We should break off the dangerous correspondence which we hold with it by our Body if we would strengthen the union which we have with God by Reason For these two unions of the Soul with God and with the Body are incompatible We cannot unite our selves perfectly to God without abandoning the interests of the Body without despising sacrificing and destroying it IX Notwithstanding we are not allow'd to procure our own Death nor to ruin our Health For our Body is not our own It belongs to God to our Country our Family and our Friends We must keep up its strength and vigour according to the use we are oblig'd to make of it But we must not preserve it contrary to the command of God and to the prejudice of other Men. We must expose it for the publick good and not fear to weaken ruin and destroy it in executing the commands of God And so likewise for our Honour and our Fortunes Every thing we have belongs to God and our Neighbour and must be preserv'd employ'd and sacrific'd to the honour of the divine Law the immutable and necessary Order and with a dependence on it I shall not enter into the particulars of this matter for my design was only to lay down those general Principles by which every Man is oblig'd to govern his Life and Actions if he would arive happily at the true and certain place of Rest and Pleasure FINIS BOOKS sold by James Knapton at the Crown in St. Paul 's Church-yard A New Voyage round the World Describing particularly the Isthmus of America several Coasts and Islands in the West-Indies the Isles of Cape Verd the Passage by Terra del Fuego the South-Sea Coasts of Chili Peru and Mexico the Isle of Guam one of the Ladrones Mindanao and other Philippine and East-India Islands near Cambodia China Formosa Luconia Celebes c. New-Holland Sumatra Nicobar Isles the Câ—pe of Good Hope and Santa Hellena Their Soil Rivers Harbours Plants Fruits Animals and Inhabitants Their Customs Religion Government Trade c. By William Dampier Illustrated with particular Maps and Draughts The Third Edition Corrected Capt. Dampier's Voyages Vol. II. in Three Parts First the Supplement of his Voyage round the World being that part that relates to Tonquin Acâ—in Malacca and other Places in the East-Indies Second his Voyage to the Bay of Campeacâ—y in the West-Indies Third his Observations about the Winds and Weather in all parts of the Ocean between the Tropicks with a General Index to both Volumes Octavo Illustrated with particular Maps A New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America giving an Account of the Author's abode there the Form and Make of the Country the Coasts Hills Rivers c. Woods Soil Weather c. Trees Fruit Beasts Birds Fish c. The Indian Inhabitants their Features
unite our selves to corporeal Objects and separate our selves from them without loving or fearing them But the surest way is to break off all Correspondence with them as far as is possible p. 99. CHAP. XII Of the Imagination This Term is obscure and confus'd What it is in general Several sorts of Imagination Its effects are dangerous Of that which the World calls Wit That quality is very opposite to the Grace of Christ It is fatal to those who possess it and to those who esteem and admire it in others tho' they have it not themselves p. 109. CHAP. XIII Of the Passions What they are Their dangerous effects We must moderate them The conclusion of the first Part. p. 119. THE CONTENTS OF THE SECOND PART Of Duties CHAP. I. GOod Men often do wicked Actions The Love of Order must be enlightned to make it regular Three Conditions requir'd to make an Action perfectly Vertuous We should study the Duties of Man in general and take some time every day to examine the Order and Circumstances of them in particular Page 1. CHAP. II. Our Duties toward God must be refer'd to his Attributes to his Power Wisdom and Love God alone is the true Cause of all Things The Duties we owe to Power which consist chiefly in clear Judgments and in Motions govern'd by those Judgments p. 4. CHAP. III. Of the Duties we owe to the Wisdom of God It is that alone which enlightens the Mind in consequence of certain natural Laws whose efficacy is determin'd by our Desires as occasional Causes The Judgments and Duties of the Mind in relation to the universal Reason p. 14. CHAP. IV. Of the Duties which we owe to the divine Love Our Will is nothing but a continual impression of the Love which God bears to himself the only true Good We cannot love Evil But we may take that for Evil which is neither Good nor Evil. So we cannot hate Good But the true Good is really the Evil of wicked Men or the true cause of their Misery That God may be Good in respect of us our Love must be like his or always subject to the divine Law Motions or Duties p. 21. CHAP. V. The three Divine Persons imprint each their proper Character on our Souls and our Duties give equal Honour to them all three Tho' our Duties consist only in inward Judgments and Motions yet we must shew them by outward Signs in regard of our Society with other Men. p. 30. CHAP. VI. Of the Duties of Society in general Two sorts of Society Every thing should be refer'd to the eternal Society Different kinds of Love and Honour The general heads of our Duties toward Men. They must be External and Relative The danger of paying inward Duties to Men. The Conversation of the World very dangerous p. 36. CHAP. VII The Duties of Esteem are due to all Mankind to the lowest of Men to the greatest Sinners to our Enemies and Persecutors To Merits as well as to Natures It is difficult to regulate exactly these Duties and those of Benevolence by reason of the difference of personal and relative Merits and their various Combinations A general Rule and the most certain one that can be given in this matter p. 42. CHAP. VIII Of the Duties of Benevolence and Respect We should procure all Men the true Goods and not relative Goods Who it is that fulfills the Duties of Benevolence The unreasonable Complaints of worldly Men. The Duties of Respect should be proportion'd to the greatness of participated Power p. 52. CHAP. IX Of the Duties due to Sovereigns Two Sovereign Powers The difference between them Their natural Rights Rights of Concession Of the Obedience of Subjects p. 61. CHAP. X. Of the Domestick Duties of Husband and Wife The Ground of these Duties Of the Duties of Parents toward their Children with relation to the Eternal and Civil Societies Of their instruction in the Sciencies and Morality Parents should give their Children a good Example They should govern them by Reason They have no right to use them ill Children owe Obedience to their Parents in all Things p. 69. CHAP. XI The original of the difference of Conditions Reason alone ought to govern but Force is now necessary The lawful use of Force is to make Men submit to Reason according to the Primitive Law The Rights of Superiours The Duties of Superiours and Inferiours p. 81. CHAP. XII Of our Duties toward our Equals We should give them the place they desire in our Mind and Heart We should express our inward Dispositions in favour of them by our outward Air and Behaviour and by real Services We should yield them the Superiority and Pre-eminence The hottest and most passionate Friendships are not the most solid and durable We should not make more intimate Friends than we can keep p. 90. CHAP. XIII A Continuatian of the same Subject If we would be belov'd we must make our selves amiable The Qualities which make a Man amiable Rules for Conversation Of different Airs Of Christian Friendships p. 100. CHAP. XIV Of the Duties which every Man owes to himself which consist in general in labouring for his own Perfection and Happiness p. 110. A TREATISE OF Morality PART I. CHAP. I. Vniversal Reason is the Wisdom of God himself All Men have some Communication with God True and False Just and Vnjust is the same in respect of all intelligent Beings and of God himself What Truth and Order is and what we must do to avoid Error and Sin God is essentially Just he loves the Creatures according as they are amiable or as they resemble him We must be Perfect to be Happy Vertue or the Perfection of Man consists in a Submission to the immutable Order and not in following the Order of Nature The Error of some of the Heathen Philosophers in this Matter grounded upon their Ignorance of the simplicity and immutability of the Divine Conduct I. THE Reason of Man is the Word See the first and second Christian Meditation or the Illustration on the Nature of Ideas Search after Truth Tom. 3. or the Wisdom of God himself for every Creature is a particular Being but the Reason of Man is Universal II. If my own particular Mind were my Reason and my Light my Mind would also be the Reason of all intelligent Beings for I am certain that my Reason enlightens all intelligent Beings No one can feel my Pain but my self but every one may see the Truth which I contemplate so that the Pain which I feel is a Modification of my own proper Substance but Truth is a Possession common to all Spiritual Beings III. Thus by the means of Reason I have or may have some Society with God and all other intelligent Beings because they all possess something in common with me to wit Reason IV. This Spiritual Society consists in a participation of the same intellectual Substance of the Word from which all Spiritual Beings may receive their Nourishment In
contemplating this Divine Substance I am able to see some part of what God thinks for God sees all Truths and there are some which I can see I can also discover something of the Will of God for God wills nothing but according to a certain Order and this Order is not altogether unknown to me It is certain that God loves Things according as they are worthy of Love and I can discover that there are some Things more Perfect more Valuable and consequently more worthy of Love than others V. It is true indeed that I cannot by contemplating the Word or consulting Reason be assur'd whether God doth actually produce any thing out of his own Being or no. For none of the Creatures proceed naturally from the Word nor is the World a necessary emanation of the Deity God is fully sufficient for himself and the Idea of a Being infinitely perfect may be conceiv'd to subsist alone The Creatures then suppose in God free and arbitrary Decrees which give them their Being So that the Word as such not containing in it the Existence of the Creatures we cannot by the Contemplation of it be assur'd of the Action of God But supposing that God doth act I am able to know something of the manner in which he acts and may be certain that he doth not act in such or such a manner for that which regulates his manner of Acting the Law which he inviolably observes is the Word the Eternal Wisdom the Universal Reason which makes me Rational and which I can in part contemplate according to my own desires VI. If we suppose Man to be a Rational Creature we cannot certainly deny him the Knowledge of something that God thinks and of the manner in which he acts For by contemplating the substance of the Word which alone makes me and all other intelligent Beings Rational I can clearly discover the Relations or Proportions of Greatness that are between the intellectual Ideas comprehended in it and these Relations are the same eternal Truths which God himself sees For God sees as well as I that twice two is four and that Triangles which have the same Base and are between the same Parallels are equal I can also discover at least confusedly the Relations of Perfection which are between the same Ideas and these Relations are that immutable Order which God consults when he acts and which ought also to regulate the Esteem and Love of all intelligent Beings VII From hence it is evident that there are such things as True and False Right and Wrong and that too in respect of all intelligent Beings that whatsoever is true in respect of Man is true also in respect of Angels and of God himself that what is Injustice or Disorder with relation to Man is so also with relation to God For all Spiritual Beings contemplating the same intellectual Substance necessarily discover in it the same Relations of Greatness or the same speculative Truths They discover also the same practical Truths the same Laws and the same Order when they see the Relations of Perfection that are between those intellectual Beings comprehended in the Substance of the Word which alone is the immediate Object of all our Knowledge VIII I say when they see these Relations of Perfection or Greatness and not when they judge of them for only Truth or the real Relations of Things are visible and we ought to judge of nothing but what we see When we judge before we see or of more things than we see we are deceiv'd in our Judgment or at least we judge ill tho' we may happen by chance not to be deceiv'd For when we judge of things by chance as well as when we judge by Passion or Interest we judge ill because we do not judge by Evidence and Light This is Judging by our selves and not by Reason or according to the Laws of Universal Reason That Reason I say which alone is superiour to Spirits and hath a Right to judge of those Judgments which are pronounc'd by them IX The Mind of Man being finite cannot see all the Relations that the Objects of its Knowledge bear to one another so that it may be deceiv'd when it judges of Relations which it doth not see But if it judg'd of nothing but just what it saw which without doubt it may do certainly tho' it be a finite Spirit tho' it be Ignorant and in its own Nature subject to Error it would never be deceiv'd for then the Judgments fram'd by it would not proceed so much from it self as from the Universal Reason pronouncing the same Judgments in it X. But God is infallible in his own Nature he cannot be subject to Error or Sin for he is his own Light and his own Law Reason is consubstantial with him he understands it perfectly and loves it invincibly Being infinite he discovers all the Relations that are comprehended in the intellectual Substance of the Word and therefore cannot judge of what he doth not see And as he loves himself invincibly so he cannot but esteem and love other things according as they are valuable and according as they are amiable XI It is probable that Angels and Saints tho' in their own Nature subject to Error are never deceiv'd because the least attention of Mind represents to them clearly the Ideas of things and their several Relations they judge of nothing but what they see they follow the Light and do not go before it they obey the Law and do not set themselves above it In them Reason alone judges definitively and without appeal But Man such as I find my self to be is often deceiv'd because the labour of Attention is extremely tiresom to him and tho' his Application be strong and painful he hath commonly but a confus'd fight of Objects Thus being weary and not much enlightned he reposes himself on probability and contents himself for some time with the enjoyment of a false Good but being soon out of relish with it he begins his search anew till being tir'd or seduc'd again he takes some rest till he be in a condition to begin afresh tho' weakly his difficult enquiries XII Since speculative and practical Truths are nothing else but relations of Greatness or Perfection it is evident that Falshood is not any thing real That twice two is four or that twice two is not five is true because there is a Relation of Equality between twice two and four and a relation of Inequality between twice two and five And he that sees these relations sees Truths because the relations are real That twice two is five or that twice two is not four is false because there is no relation of equality between twice two and five nor of inequality between twice two and four And he that sees or rather believes he sees these relations sees Falsities He sees relations that are not He thinks he sees but indeed he doth not see for Truth is intelligible but Falshood in
in truth certain modifications of our own proper Being but unknown to us cause us to will in such a manner that this Volition seems to depend wholly on our selves for we will so freely and readily that we think nothing obliges us to do it It is true indeed that nothing obliges us to will but our selves but then that which we call Our Selves is not our Being purely natural or perfectly free in respect of Good and Evil but our Being dispos'd toward one of them by certain Modifications which either corrupt or perfect it and render us in the sight of God either Just or Sinners and these Dispositions we should encrease or destroy by Acts which are the natural Causes of Habits IV. But to do this we must farther suppose that other important Truth that the Soul doth not always produce the Acts of its predominant Habit. For it is evident that if a Man whose ruling Disposition is Avarice should never act but by some Motion of Avarice he would be so far from ever becoming Liberal that his Vice would continually augment according to that Principle which we have before laid down that Acts produce and fortifie Habits Nay we must allow that it is in the power of a vitious Man to perform some Acts of Vertue in order to free himself from his vitious Habits and to become a good Man but this Proposition requires a little further Explication V. I say then in respect of particular Habits First That a covetous Man for Example may act by a motive of Ambition this is neither difficult to believe nor prove Secondly That a covetous Man may do an Action contrary to Avarice by which he is govern'd for a covetous Man may be also Ambitious This being suppos'd I say that if his Passion for Riches be not mov'd and his Ambition be or if his Avarice be less excited than his Ambition in a reciprocal Proportion of the force of these two Passions it is certain that the covetous Man will do an act of Liberality if at that instant he determines himself to act which is certainly in his own power to do For a Man can will nothing but Good and at that instant the covetous Man will think it better to do that act of Liberality than not do it he will Sacrifice his love of Mony to that of Glory Thus it is evident that the Sinner may for Reasons of Self-love avoid following any certain determinate Motion of his Passions if he can but excite some contrary Passions and till then suspend the consent of his Will But still this is not sufficient to prove that he who Sins may help Sinning that the Sinner may rid himself of his vitious Habits and the just Man lose his Charity VI. Indeed the Case of particular Habits as Avarice or Liberality is not the same with that of the Love of Order or Self-love and tho' perhaps it may be granted that a covetous Man may do an act of Liberality yet without doubt it will not be so readily agreed that a Heathen can do an action conformable to Order or for Love of Order For my part I shall not dispute it but only endeavour to explain my own Sentiments clearly Let every one follow that which the Evidence of Reason and the Authority of Faith oblige him to believe and leave me when I go out of the Way which should lead me in the Search of Truth VII If Sinners or Heathens had no Love at all for Order they would be altogether incorrigible and if the Righteous had no Self-love they could not possibly Sin for according to my first Principle Habits are form'd and preserv'd by Acts. The Sinner being suppos'd to have no Love but for himself cannot act but by Self-love and therefore all his Actions must encrease the Corruption of his Heart On the other side if the righteous Man be suppos'd to have no Love but for Order he cannot act but by the Love of Order and then all his Actions must still encrease his Vertue So that upon this Supposition that a Sinner or a Heathen hath no Love but Self-love and a just Man no Love but the Love of Order the Sinner must be incorrigible and the just Man impeccable But I think I have sufficiently prov'd in the foregoing Chapter that the greatest Sinners have always some disposition to love Order and I think it cannot be doubted but that the best Men always retain some Relicks of Self-love VIII It is true indeed that a Heathen can never acquire Charity nor do any Action that may merit those Assistances that are necessary for obtaining the ruling Love of the immutable Order but he may do Actions conformable to Order he may perform good and meritorious Actions Chap. I. For a Heathen has always some Idea of Order this Idea is indeleble He hath always some Love for Order Chap. III. this Love is natural and immortal Now all Love is active when once it is excited And therefore if his Self-love do not oppose the Action of his Love of Order his Love of Order will act and produce its proper Acts Nay tho' his Self-love should oppose his Love of Order yet if his Love of Order be more excited than his Self-love in a reciprocal Proportion of the greatness of these two habitual Loves and their actual Motion his Love for Order would surmount his Self-love if at that instant he determin'd himself to act IX For instance an innocent Man is led to Execution This is contrary to Order A Heathen knows it and can by a word speaking prevent the breach of Order I suppose that his Self-love is not at all concern'd in the Life or Death of the Man Certainly he will prevent or at least will have Strength and Reason enough to speak and prevent this Offence against Order For my part I do not doubt upon the Supposition which I have made but that he would prevent it For all Men naturally love Order and are so united to it that one cannot violate Order without offending them in some measure The same things being suppos'd tho' this Man we speak of were covetous yet if his Passion for Mony were laid a sleep for a little while or tho' it were excited yet if only a Penny were desir'd of him to save the Life of that innocent Man certainly he would or at least might do an action contrary to his Self-love for in truth that opposition is but inconsiderable but it would be a very great Offence against Order which he is naturally dispos'd to Love if he should not offer that small Sacrifice to it X. Now those actions are good because they are conformable to Order and they are meritorious because they are accompanied with a Sacrifice of Self-love to the Love of Order But they are not meritorious in respect of the true Goods nor of any thing that leads to the Possession of them because those Sacrifices they offer are but inconsiderable and besides
they proceed from a corrupted Heart where self-Self-love hath an absolute Dominion XI A Man can have no Right to the true Goods if he be not just in the sight of God and he cannot be just before God if he be not more dispos'd to love Order than to love any Thing and even his own self or if he be not dispos'd not to love himself but according to Order So that tho' we should suppose a Heathen to love Order above all other Things with an actual Love which cannot be done but by the Motion of Grace yet God who judges the Soul not according to that which is transient in it but according to its six'd and permanent Dispositions could not look upon him as Just and Holy For one single Act of loving God above all Things cannot naturally change an inveterate Habit of Self-love This cannot be done without †I shall explain this in Chap. 8. the use of the Sacraments which Christ hath instituted for our Justification whereby one single Act of the love of God hath power to produce a Habit of it which alone gives us a Right to the true Goods And therefore none of the Philosophers not Socrates nor Plato nor Epictetus how enlightned soever they were in respect of their Duties nor even those who may be suppos'd to have shed their Blood for the Order of Justice can be saved if they did not receive that Grace which is to be obtain'd by Faith alone because God the just Judge could not judge them but according to the permanent Disposition of their Wills and tho' it were naturally possible for a Man to lay down his Neck by an actual Motion of the love of Justice yet this alone would not change the natural and inveterate Habit of his Self-love a Habit confirm'd and augmented every moment by the Motions of Concupisence during the whole Course of his Life XII Nevertheless since Heathens always retain some love for Order they may avoid the Sin which they commit by reviving that Love by declining every thing that may excite Self-love and by not consenting before they are forc'd to it as I shall shew hereafter but indeed they cannot fulfill the Commandments of God they cannot love Order more than themselves in all Cases This Reason may convince us of and Faith informs us that it is impossible for them to do only those who have Faith can do this and even amongst them all have not an equal Power there are none but the Just to whom nothing is wanting for the rest they may have recourse to Prayer if they are sensible of their own Weakness they may by the assistance of their Faith and in consequence of the Promises of Jesus Christ not by the necessity of the immutable Order of Justice merit the next degree of Power to keep the Commandments of God upon all Occasions XIII I shall repeat in a few words those essential Truths which I have here prov'd and which are necessary for the right understanding of the sequel of this Discourse Habits are acquir'd and confirm'd by Acts the ruling Habit doth not always act A Man may do such Acts as have no relation to it and sometimes such as are contrary to it and therefore he may alter his Habits XIV Again there is no Man let him be never so vitious who hath not some disposition to love Order And therefore every free and rational Man may I do not say become just but correct and amend himself XV. But supposing the assistance of Grace every Man may become just For the ruling Love of the immutable Order which justifies us in the sight of God is a fix'd and permanent Disposition it is a Habit. Now we may acquire this Habit by the assistance of Grace not only because we may by the help of actual Grace freely perform so many or such vigorous Acts of the love of Order above all Things as will produce the Habit of it but with more ease and certainty because we may come to the Sacraments by the motion of this Love and the Sacraments of the New Testament infuse into our Hearts justifying Charity XVI All then that we have to do to acquire and preserve the ruling Love of the immutable Order or in shorter terms the love of Order consists in searching diligently what are the things that excite this Love and make it produce its proper Acts and what those are that can stop the actual Motion of Self-love Now I know but two Principles which determine the natural Motion of the Will and stir up the Habits to wit Light and Sense Without one of these Principles no Habit is form'd naturally and those which are form'd remain unactive If any one will take the pains to consult what he finds within himself he will easily be satisfied that the Will never actually loves any good except the Light discovers it or Pleasure renders it present to the Soul And if we consult Reason we shall be convinc'd that it must be so for otherwise the Author of Nature would imprint useless Motions on the Will XVII There is nothing then but Light and Pleasure which produce any actual Motion in the Soul Light discovers to it the Good which it loves by an irresistible impression and Pleasure assures it that that Good is actually present for the Soul is never more fully convinced of its Good than when it finds it self actually touch'd with the Pleasure which makes it happy Let us therefore enquire into the Means by which we may cause the Light to diffuse it self in our Minds and make our Hearts be touch'd with such Sensations as are suitable to our Design which is to produce in us the Acts of the Love of Order or to hinder us from forming those of Self-love for it is evident that all the Precepts of Morality absolutely depend on these Means In this enquiry I shall observe the following Method XVIII First I shall examine by what Means we may be enlightned as to our Duties For the Light ought always to go first and besides the discovery of Good depends much more upon our selves than the relish of it For generally our Wills are the occasional direct and immediate Causes of our Knowledge but never of our Sense Afterwards I shall enquire into the occasional Causes of our Sensations and the power we have over them that by their means we may dispose the Author of Grace and Nature to affect us in such a manner that the Love of Order may be excited in us and quicken us and Self-love or Concupiscence may remain without Motion XIX I shall first speak of those Sensations which God produces in us in consequence of the Order of Grace because these have power to produce in us such Acts of the Love of Order as are capable of forming the Habit of it After that I shall treat of those Sensations produc'd in us by God in consequence of the Order of Nature which cannot weaken our vitious Habits but
their Censure by renouncing Reason XIV But farther if Men would suspend their Assent also touching matters of Fact of which they cannot be inform'd by consulting the inward Truth but seem in a manner oblig'd to believe what they are told how many mistakes and disturbances would they avoid by making a little use of their Liberty There is nothing does more mischief in the World than the Opinion Men have of Things But the Opinion they have of Persons excites also an infinite number of Passions Slander Calumny and false Reports are oftentimes the cause of the oppression of Innocence of irreconcileable Hatreds and sometimes also of Battels and bloody Wars A Word ill understood and worse interpreted is a sufficient ground for a Challenge with Men of a light and hasty Disposition They will not submit to have Matters fairly clear'd Or if they would People are not always in a Humour to give them this Satisfaction What then must we do in this Case We should believe nothing that is said we should suspend our Assent and remember these Words of the wise Man He that is hasty to believe is light in Heart For it is the greatest mark of a weak Mind to believe lightly every thing that is said Do not we know that the greatest part of Mankind is apt to Poison the most innocent Words and Actions I do not say out of wilful and devilish Malice but for their Interest or Diversion to shew their Wit or from the natural Malignity of their Temper Have we not observ'd that almost all common Reports prove false in the end and that when it is the interest of a Party that any one should be a Man of Probity and Vertue or the contrary common Fame disguises and transforms him in a Moment Let every Man reflect but upon himself How many false and rash Judgments hath he made of every thing that hath been told him of Persons whom he doth not Love But let him take notice that if he once suffer himself to believe all the Ill he hears his Imaginations and Passions will not be quiet but will make him believe a great deal more For the Imagination and Passions never cease to communicate their own Dispositions and malignant Qualities to the Objects which excite them as the Senses imprint on Bodies those sensible Qualities with which they themselves are affected For else how could the Passions justify all the Extravagances and Wrongs they commit We must not always attribute to others what we feel within our selves This miscarriage is so frequent that whenever any one speaks of another we have reason to be apprehensive of falling into it and to fear that he doth not speak so much what is true as what he believes to be true So that if we would not be deceiv'd in our Opinions of Persons we should suspend our Assent and look upon that which is said of them only as probable Prudence requires us to distrust Men and to be always on our guard against their Malignity But we are not allow'd to condemn them within our selves We must leave the quality of Judge and searcher of Hearts to God alone if we will not run the hazard of committing a thousand Wrongs XV. That we may clearly comprehend the necessity of endeavouring to gain some liberty of Mind or some facility of suspending the assent of the Will we must know that when two or more Goods are actually present to the Mind and the Mind determines its choise in relation to them it never fails to choose that which at that instant appears to be the best supposing an equality in every thing else For the Soul being capable of loving only by the natural tendency which it hath toward Good must of necessity love that which hath the greatest conformity with what it loves irresistibly XVI But we must observe That the Soul may still suspend its Assent and not determine it self finally even when it doth determine it self especially in regard of false Goods I suppose the room which it hath for thinking not to be taken up by any over-violent Sensations or Motions For in fine we may with-hold our Assent till Evidence obliges us to yield it Now we can never evidently see that false Goods are true ones because we can never evidently see that which is not So that tho' we cannot hinder our selves from determining in favour of the most apparent Goods yet by suspending our Assent we may love none but those that are most solid For we cannot suspend our Judgment without exciting our Attention and the Attention of the Mind dispels all those vain appearances and probabilities which deceive the negligent and weak those servile Minds which are sold to Pleasure and will not fight for the preservation and enlargement of their Liberty in a Word those who cannot undergo the labour of Examination but assent imprudently to every thing that pleases their Concupiscence There is nothing then more necessary than the liberty of the Mind to make us love none but the true Good live according to Order inviolably obey Reason and to procure us true and solid Vertue And all such Occupations as may any way contribute to gain the Mind a liberty of suspending its Assent till the light of Truth appears are always very profitable to Men who have a natural inclination to judge boldly and adventurously of every thing and by consequence are extremely liable to fall into Error and Disorder CHAP. VII Of Obedience to Order The means of acquiring a firm and ruling Disposition to obey it It cannot be done without Grace How far the right use of our Strength and Liberty contributes toward it by the Light it produces in us by the contemptible Opinion it gives us of our Passions and by the Purity which it preserves and establishes in our Imagination I. THE facility of rendering the Mind attentive and of with-holding its Assent till Evidence obliges it to give it are Habits necessary for such as would be substantially Vertuous But solid Vertue Vertue every way compleat doth not consist only in those two noble and extraordinary Dispositions of the Mind there is requir'd besides an exact Obedience to the Law of God a general Nicety in all our Duties a firm and governing disposition of regulating all the motions of our Hearts and all the actions of our Life by the known Order in a Word the love of Order For what advantage is it to a Man to have strength and liberty of Mind sufficient to discover the most hidden Truths and to avoid even the smallest Errors if he doth not govern his Actions by his Light if he opposes or forsakes the Truth which he knows and withdraws himself from the Obedience which he owes to Order the inviolable the eternal and divine Law Certainly this will serve only to render him more Criminal and to enhance his Guilt in the Eyes of him who invincibly loves Order and indispensably punishes every breach of it II. But how must we
Motive which regulates the Heart but the love of Order Every Motive is grounded on Self-love on that invincible desire of being happy which God continually inspires into us in a Word on our own Will for we cannot Love but by our Will And a Man that burn'd with a desire of enjoying the presence of God to contemplate his Perfections and have a share in the felicity of the Saints would still deserve the punishment of Hell if he had a disorder'd Heart and refus'd to sacrifice his predominant Passion to Order As on the contrary one that was indifferent as to eternal Happiness if that were possible but in all other things was full of Charity or the love of Order in which Charity is comprehended or of the love of God above all other things he I say would be a just Man and solidly Vertuous for as I have already prov'd at large true Vertue or a conformity to the Will of God consists wholly in an habitual and ruling Love of the eternal and divine Law the immutable Order XV. A Man ought to love God not only more than this present Life but also more than his own Being Order requires it But he cannot be excited to this love any other way than by the natural and invincible love which he hath for Happiness He cannot love but by the love of Good or his own Will Now he cannot find his Happiness in himself He can find it only in God because there is nothing but God alone capable of acting on him and making him happy Again it is better not to be than to be Miserable It is better then not to be than to be out of favour with God Therefore we ought to love God more than our selves and pay him an exact Obedience There is a difference between the Motives and the End We are excited by the Motives to act for the End It is the greatest Crime imaginable to place our End in our selves We should do every thing for God All our Actions should be refer'd to him from whom alone we have the power to do them Otherwise we violate Order we offend God and are guilty of Injustice This is undeniable But we should seek for the motives which may make us love Order in that invincible Love which God hath given us for Happiness For since God is Just we cannot be happy if we are not obedient to Order It matters not whether those Motives be of Fear or of Hope if they do but animate and support us The most lively the most strong solid and durable are the best XVI There are some People that make a Thousand extravagant Suppositions who for want of a true Idea of God suppose for instance that he hath design'd to make them eternally Miserable And in this Supposition they think themselves oblig'd to love this Chimera of their own Imagination above all Things This perplexes them extremely For indeed how is it possible to love God when they deprive themselves of all the rational Motives of loving him or rather when instead of him they represent to themselves a terrible Idol with nothing in it capable of being Lov'd God would have us Love him such as he is and not such as it is impossible for him to be We must love an infinitely perfect Being and not a dreadful Phantom an unjust God a God powerful indeed absolute and supreme such as Men wish to be but without Wisdom or Goodness Qualities which they do not much esteem For the ground of these extravagant Fancies which frighten those that form them is that they judge of God by the inward sense which they have of themselves and without considering imagine that God may form such Designs as they find themselves capable of forming But they have no Reason to fear if there were such a God as they Fancy the true God who is jealous of his Honour would forbid us to adore and love him They should endeavour to satisfy themselves that perhaps there is more danger of offending God in giving him so horrible a form than in despising that Phantom of their own We should continually seek for those Motives which may preserve and encrease in us the love of God such as are the Threatnings and Promises which relate to the immutable Order Motives proper for Creatures who invincibly desire to be happy and of which the Scripture also is full and not destroy those reasonable Motives and render the Fountain of all Good odious For the reason why the Devils cannot love God is because they have now through their own fault no motive to Love-him It is decreed and they know it that God will never be good in respect of them For since it is impossible to love any thing but Good or that which is capable of giving Happiness they have no motive to love God but they have to hate him with all their power as the true but most just cause of the Miseries which they suffer They cannot love God and yet they are oblig'd to love him because Order requires it Order I say which is the inviolable Law of all intelligent Beings in what state soever they be Happy or Miserable Therefore since they deserve that which they suffer they are in a state of disorder and will be incorrigible in their Wickedness to all eternity What I have said of this matter is only to shew that nothing can be Evil nor ought to be rejected which may make us love God have recourse to Jesus Christ and live according to Order If I am deceiv'd I desire to be better inform'd for this is a matter of great consequence CHAP. IX The Church in its Prayers Addresses its self to the Father by the Son and why We should Pray to the Blessed Virgin Angels and Saints but not as occasional causes of inward Grace The Angels and even the Devils have power over Bodies as occasional causes By this means the Devils may tempt us and the Angels promote the efficacy of Grace I. JESUS CHRIST consider'd in his humane Nature being alone the true Propitiatory or the occasional cause of Grace as I have shewn in the former Chapter it is evident that we must apply our selves to him alone for the obtaining of it Nevertheless we may call upon God nay we must Worship or call upon none but him as the true cause of our Good We may Pray to the Blessed Virgin to Angels and Saints not as true causes nor as occasional or distributive causes of Grace but as Friends of God or intercessors with Jesus Christ We may also Pray to the Angels as our protectors against the Devil or as occasional causes of certain effects which may dispose us to receive inward Grace profitably But I must explain those Truths more at large for they are of the greatest Importance for regulating our Prayers our Worship and all our Duties II. The Church being guided by the Spirit of Truth generally addresses her Prayers to the Father by the Son and when she
addresses them to the Son she considers him as equal to the Father and consequently calls upon him not simply as he is Man but as he is God and Man This appears from the ordinary conclusions of our Prayers Through Christ our Lord or through Jesus Christ our Lord or who livest and reignest one God c. For since God alone is the true cause who by his own power can do all that we desire it is necessary that the greatest part of our Prayers and all our Worship should be refer'd to him But as he never acts but when the occasional causes which he hath appointed determine the efficacy of his Laws it is fit that the manner of our calling upon him should be conformable to this Notion of him III. If Jesus Christ as Man did not intercede for Sinners it would be in vain for them to call upon him For since Grace is not given to Merit the immutable Order of Justice doth not oblige God to grant it to Sinners who Pray for it It must therefore be the occasional cause which obliges him to do it in consequence of the Power given to this cause by the establishment of the general Laws of the Order of Grace Because as I said before God never acts but when the immutable Order requires it or when the occasional or particular Causes oblige him to it But tho' Christ alone as Man be the particular cause of the good Things which we receive yet if the Prayers of the Church were always Address'd directly to him this might give Men some occasion of Error and induce them it may be to Love him as he is Man with that kind of Love which is due only to the true Power and to Worship him even without regard to the divine Person in which his humane Nature subsists Now Adoration and Love of Union which are Honours belonging to Power are due to the Almighty alone For Christ himself challenges our Adoration and this kind of Love only as he is at the same time both God and Man IV. Therefore the Church hath very great reason to Address her Prayers to God the only true Cause but through Christ who is the occasional and distributive Cause of the good Things which we Pray for For tho' Sinners never receive Grace but when Christ Prays for them by his Desires either Actual or Habitual Transient or Permanent yet we must always remember that it is God alone who gives it as the true Cause that so our Love and Devotion may be ultimately refer'd to him alone Nevertheless when we apply our selves to the true and general Cause it is the same thing as if we did it to the particular and distributive Cause Because Christ as Man being the Saviour of Sinners Order requires that he should be acquainted with their Prayers and he is so far from being Jealous of the Honour which we give to God that he himself as Man always acknowledges his Impotence and Subordination and will never hear those who like the Eutychians look upon his humane Nature as transform'd into the Divine and so take from him the qualities of Advocate Mediator Head of the Church and High Priest of the true Goods Thus we see on one side that to make our Prayers effectual it is not absolutely necessary that we should know the Truths which I have here explain'd so precisely and distinctly and on the other that the Churches proceeding agrees perfectly with the fundamental Vertue of Religion and Morality namely that God alone is the final Cause of all Things and that we cannot have access to him but by Jesus Christ our Lord. This I think will easily be granted V. But the case of the Blessed Virgin Angels and Saints hath somewhat more difficulty in it Nevertheless the sense of the Church is that they know our Necessities when we call upon them and that being in favour with God and united to Christ their Head they may by their Prayers and Desires sollicite him to deliver us from our Miseries Nay it seems to be beyond Dispute from the example of S. Paul and all the Saints who constantly recommended themselves to one another's Prayers For if the Saints on Earth as yet full of Imperfection can by their Prayers be beneficial to their Friends I see no sufficient reason to deny the Saints in Heaven this Power Only we must observe That they are not occasional causes of inward Grace For this Power was given to Christ alone as the Architect of the eternal Temple the Head of the Church the necessary Mediator in a Word as the particular or distributive cause of the true Goods VI. So then we may Pray to the Blessed Virgin to Angels and Saints that they would move the love of Christ on our behalf And probably there are some certain times of Favour for each particular Saint such as are the Days on which the Church celebrates their Festivals It is possible also that as natural or occasional Causes they may have a Power of producing those effects which we call Miraculous because we do not know the Causes of them such as the curing of Diseases plentiful Harvests and other extraordinary changes in the position of Bodies which are Substances inferiour to Spirits and over which it should seem that Order requires or at least permits them to have some Power as a reward of their Vertue or rather as an inducement to other Men to admire and imitate it But tho' this be not altogether certain as to Saints yet I think it cannot be doubted as to Angels This Truth is of so great Importance on several Accounts that I think it necessary to give a brief explication of it from the manner of God's proceeding in the execution of his Designs VII God could not act but for his own Glory and not finding any Glory worthy of himself but in Jesus Christ he certainly made all Things with respect to his Son This is so evident a Truth that we cannot possibly doubt of it if we do but reflect a little on it For what â—elation is there between the Action of God and the product of that Action if we separate it from Christ by whom it is Sanctified What proportion is there between an unhallow'd World which hath nothing of Divinity in it and the Action of God which is wholly Divine in a Word between Finite and Infinite Is it possible to conceive that God who cannot act but by his own Will or the Love which he bears to himself should act so as to produce nothing worthy of himself to create a World which bears no proportion to him or which is not worth the Action whereby it is produc'd VIII It is probable then that the Angels immediately after their Creation being astonish'd to find themselves without a Head without Christ and not being able to justify God's design in Creating them the Wicked ones imagin'd some Worth in themselves with relation to God and so Pride ruin'd them Or supposing
But it is needless to prove here that to procure our own Death is a Crime which will be so far from reuniting us to God that it will for ever separate us from him It is lawful to despise Life and even to wish for Death that we may be with Christ as St. Paul does Having a desire to be dissolv'd Phil. 1.23 and to be with Christ But we are oblig'd to preserve our Health and Life and it is the Grace of Christ that must deliver us from Concupiscence or that Body of Death which joyns us to the Creatures The same Apostle cries our O wretched Man that I am Rom. 7.24 who shall deliver me from this Body of Death The Grace of God through Jesus Christ II. It is certain Exod 33.20 that we must die before we can see God and be united to him for no Man can see him and live saith the Scripture But we truly die so far as we quit the Body as we separate our selves from the World and silence our Senses Imagination and Passions by which we are united to our Body and by that to all those that surround us We die to the Body and to the World when we retire into our selves when we consult the inward Truth when we unite our selves and are obedient to Order Job 28.21 The eternal Wisdom is hid from the Eyes of all Living But those who are Dead to the World and to Themselves who have crucified the Flesh with its disorder'd Lusts who are crucified with Christ and to whom the World is crucified Blessed are the pure in Heart for they shall see God Mat. 5.8 1 Cor. 13.12 in a word those who have a clean Heart a pure Mind and an unspotted Imagination are capable of beholding Truth Now they see God but confusedly and imperfectly in Part through a Glass in a Riddle but they see him truly they are closely and immediately united to him and shall one day see him Face to Face for we must know and love God in this Life to enjoy him in the next III. But those who live not only the Life of the Body but also the Life of the World who live in the enjoyment of Pleasures and spread themselves as it were over all the Objects that are about them can never find out Truth Job 28.13 For as the Scripture saith Wisdom doth not dwell with those that live Voluptuously Non invenitur in terra suaviter viventium We must then procure our selves not that Death which kills the Body and puts an end to Life but that which brings the Body under and weakens Life I mean the Union of the Soul with the Body or its dependence on it We must begin and continue our Sacrifice and expect from God the Consummation and Reward of it For the Life of a Christian here on-Earth is a constant Sacrifice by which he continually offers up his Body his Concupiscence and Self-love to the Love of Order and his Death which is precious in the Sight of God is the day of his Victories and Triumphs in Jesus Christ raised from the dead the forerunner of our Glory and the model of our eternal Reformation IV. Rom. 6.6 St. Paul tells us That our old Man is already crucified with Christ for by the Sacrifice which Christ hath offer'd on the Cross he hath merited for us for us I say particularly who have been washed in his Blood by Baptism all the Graces necessary to balance and even to diminish by degrees the weight of Concupiscence so that Sin no longer reigns in us but by our own Fault Let us not therefore think to excuse our Slothfulness by imagining that we are not able to resist the Law of the Flesh which continually rebels against the Law of the Mind The Law of Sin would have an absolute Dominion over the Motions of our Heart if Christ had not destroy'd it by his Cross But we who are dead and buried to Sin by Baptism Rom. 6.4 v. 11. who are justified and rais'd to life again in Jesus Christ glorified who are animated by the influence of our Head by the Spirit of Christ and by a Power wholly Divine we I say ought not to believe that Heaven forsakes us in our Combats and that if we are overcome it is for want of Succours Christ never neglects those that call upon him 't is impious to believe it for all the Scriptures say Act. 2. â—1 Rom 10.13 Joel 2.34 That whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be sav'd V. It is certain that we could never be glorified and seated in Heaven with Jesus Christ we could not have eternal Life abiding in us we could not be Heirs of God and Joint-heirs with Christ Citizens of the holy City and adopted Children of God himself all which things the Apostles say of Christians if God were not faithful in his Promises if he suffer'd us to be tempted above our Strength 1 Cor. 10.13 which St. Paul also forbids us to believe But we may truly say That we are already glorified in Christ c. because in effect it depends only on our selves to preserve by Grace the Right which the same Grace gives us to future Blessings and it is a kind of brutish stupidity in a Man which one would think should astonish a rational and spiritual Being to lose infinite Happiness by his own Fault and incurr eternal Damnation through his own Negligence VI. This Truth being suppos'd as undeniable let us awaken our Faith and Hope let us search after the Means to secure our Salvation and let us Act in such sort that the Grace which God cannot infuse into us with any other design but to sanctify and save us may effectually sanctify us and make us worthy to enjoy the true Good Ye are dead saith St. Paul 〈…〉 and your life is hid with Christ in God Mortify therefore your Members which are upon the Earth We are dead to Sin because living in Christ our Head we should and by his influence may kill the old Man it lies in our own power to do it But to put this Design in execution according to the Advice which St. Paul here gives we must labour all our life in the Mortification of our Senses we must endeavour with the utmost Diligence to keep our Imagination pure and undefil'd we must regulate all the Motions of our Passions by Order in a word we must diminish the weight of Sin which by the actual Efforts of Concupiscence provok'd and stir'd up is able to balance the strongest Graces and to separate us from God Mortify therefore your Members which are upon the Earth If we do what depends on us Grace will work in our Heart with its full Efficacy we shall die in the sense of St. Paul and our life being hid with Christ in God shall appear with Glory when Christ himself shall appear cloth'd with Majesty and Honour Col. 3.4 When Christ
do not first rid them of a great many false Maxims such as these for instance That if God concern'd himself with our Affairs the World would not go as it doth that Injustice would never be advanc'd to the Throne and that Bodies would not be rang'd so irregularly as they are that so deform'd and mishapen a World as this is can be nothing but the work of a blind and unintelligent Nature and that God doth not require of us vile Creatures Honours unbecoming his Nature that that which appears right and just to us is not so in it self or in the sight of God who if it were would often Punish those that he ought to Reward for many times we meet with the greatest Misfortunes when we are doing the best Actions I have elsewhere confuted these Principles and if the Reader doth not clearly comprehend what I am going to say he may read the first Eight of my Christian Meditations V. Wherefore that we may discover the Foundation and Original of our Duties it is not sufficient to consider the infinitely perfect Being without the relation it bears to us On the contrary we must above all things take notice that we depend on the Power of God that we are united to his Wisdom and that we have no Motion but from his Spirit from the Love which he bears to himself We depend on the Power of God for we have our Existence from that alone we act by that alone and can do nothing but by that We are united to the Wisdom of God for by that alone we are enlightned in that alone we discover Truth we are rational only by that for that alone is the universal Reason of all intelligent Beings Lastly we have no Motion but from the Spirit of God for as God acts only by his own Will or by the Love which he bears to himself so all the Love which we have for Good is only an Effusion or Impression of that Love with which God loves himself We love nothing invincibly and naturally but God because we love and can love nothing but Good and Good I mean the cause of Happiness is no where but in God for no Creature can of it self Act on spiritual Substances I must explain these things more at large in order to deduce from them the Rules of our Conduct I begin with Power and the Duties we owe to it VI. Glory and Honour belong only to God 1 Tim. 1.17 All the Motions of our Souls ought to tend toward him alone for in him alone Power resides All the Wills of the Creatures are of themselves impotent and ineffectual He alone who gives them their Beings can give them the Modes of their Beings for the different Modes of Beings are nothing but the same Beings in such and such particular Fashions or Dispositions nothing is more evident to one that can sedately and silently consult the inward Truth For what can be plainer than that if God for instance will keep any Body always in one place no Creature can remove it into another and that Man cannot so much as move his Arm but only because God is pleass'd to do that which ungrateful and senseless Man thinks he doth himself It is the same with the Modifications of spiritual Beings If God creates or continues a Soul in the Modification of Pain no other Spirit can deliver it from that Pain nor make it feel Pleasure except God gives his Assent I am the Lord that is my Name 〈◊〉 Glory will not give to another Isa 42.8 and co-operates with it in the accomplishment of its desires By this extraordinary Concession and Liberality it is that God without losing any thing of his Power without diminishing his Greatness or lessening his Glory imparts to the Creatures his Glory Greatness and Power VII God hath subjected this present World to the Angels it is they that act and God that doth every thing He hath given to Jesus Christ as Head of the Church a Sovereign Power over all the Nations of the Earth Christ distributes the true Goods but it is God alone who sends them it is he alone that acts in our Souls and penetrates the hardness of our Hearts Christ as he is Man prays intercedes desires and performs the Office of Advocate Mediator and High-Priest But it is God alone that operates he only hath power he is the sole cause and beginning of all Things and ought to be the sole end All the Motions of our Souls should tend towards him and to him alone belong Glory and Honour This is that eternal necessary and inviolable Law which God hath establish'd by the necessity of his own Being by the love which he necessarily bears to himself a Love which is always conformable to Order and makes Order to be the inviolable Law of all spiritual Beings When God ceases to know himself to be what he is and to love himself as much as he deserves to act according to his own Light and by the Motion of his own Love when he ceases to observe this Law then it will be lawful for us to desire Glory our selves or give it to any other beside God then we may without fear delight in and make much of the Friendship of the Creatures we may love and be belov'd give and receive Worship and Adoration we may then shew our selves to the World to attract the Esteem and Love of the World we may exalt and expose our selves to View as Objects fit to employ those Minds and Hearts which God hath made only for himself we may then employ our selves either about our selves or the imaginary Power of the Creatures VIII There is nothing certainly more agreeable both to Christianity and Reason than this Principle That it is God alone who doth every thing and that he communicates his Power to the Creatures no otherwise than as he makes them Occasional Causes for himself to act by in such a manner as bears the Character of an infinite Wisdom an immutable Nature and an universal Cause in such a manner that all the Glory which the work of the Creature deserves is refer'd to the Creator alone when the Creatures by a Power which they have not in them execute such Designs as were form'd before their Creation What is more holy than this Principle which clearly shews to such as are capable of rightly understanding it that in many Cases it is lawful for us to approach the Objects of our Senses by the Motion of our Body but that we must reserve all the Motions of our Soul for God alone For we may nay and many times ought to move toward the occasional Cause of our Sensations but we must never leave it We may join our selves to other Men but we must never adore them with the Motion of our Love either as our Good or as capable of procuring us any Good We must love and fear only the true Cause of Good and Evil We must love and fear
also in the Creatures Order or the Law of God is common to all spiritual Beings The Power of God is common to all Causes Therefore we cannot dispense with our Obedience to that Law because we cannot act but by the efficacy of that Power 10. We may nevertheless desire to be happy nay we cannot desire to be miserable But we must neither desire nor do any thing to make us happy but what Order allows of We shall never find Happiness if we seek it by the Power of God contrary to his Law It is an abuse of Power to use it against the Will of him that communicates it The voluptuous Man who desires to be happy in this World shall be so perhaps in part in consequence of the Laws of Nature But he shall be eternally miserable in the other in consequence of the immutable Order of Justice or by the necessity of the divine Law which requires that every abuse of divine Things should be eternally punish'd by the divine Power For we should take good notice that nothing is more holy more sacred and more divine than Power And he that attributes it to himself he that makes it subservient to his Pleasures his Pride or his own particular Desires commits a Crime the enormity of which God alone knows and can punish 11. It is an abominable piece of Injustice in any Man to be proud of his Nobility Dignity Quality Learning Riches or any other thing He that glorieth 2 Cor. 10.17 let him glory in the Lord and refer all things to him for there is no Greatness nor Power but in God A Man may set some value on himself and prefer himself before his Horse He may and ought to esteem other Men and all the Creatures God hath really imparted to them his Being But to speak properly and exactly he hath not imparted to them his Power and Glory God doth every thing that we think we do our selves He alone deserves all the Honour which is given to his Creatures He alone deserves all the motions of our Souls So that he who would be belov'd honour'd and fear'd by other Men would put himself in the place of the Almighty and share with him the Duties which belong to Power 12. In like manner he that fears loves and honours the Creatures as real Powers commits a kind of Idolatry and his Crime becomes very hainous when his fear or love runs to that excess that they rule in his Heart above the fear and love of God When he is less dispos'd to employ himself about the Creator than about the Creatures by a disposition acquir'd by his own choice or by free and voluntary Acts he is an abomination in the sight of God 13. All the time that we lose or do not employ for God who is the sole cause of the duration of our Being is a Robbery or rather a kind of Sacrilege For since God acts for his own Glory and not for our Pleasure we do then as much as in us lies render his Action unserviceable to his Designs 14. In general every Gift that God bestows on us which we render useless in relation to his Glory is a Robbery and God by the necessity of his Law will call us to an account for it 15. Lastly the Power by which God Creates us and all our Faculties every Moment gives him an unquestionable Right over all that we are and over all that belongs to us which certainly belongs to us no otherwise than that we may return it to God with all possible fidelity and thankfulness and by the Gifts of God merit the possession of God himself through Jesus Christ our Lord and Head who takes us out of our prophane state to sanctify us and make us fit to honour God worthy to enter as his adopted Children into the communion of good Things with the Father and the Son in the Unity of the Holy Spirit to all eternity CHAP. III. Of the Duties we owe to the Wisdom of God It is that alone which enlightens the Mind in consequence of certain natural Laws whose efficacy is determin'd by our Desires as occasional Causes The Judgments and Duties of the Mind in relation to the universal Reason I. HAving discover'd the principal Duties which we owe to the Power of God we must next examine those which we owe to his Wisdom which tho' less known are no less due Every Creature depends essentially on the Creator Every spiritual Being is also essentially united to Reason No Creature can act by its own Strength And no spiritual Being can be illuminated by its own Light For all our clear Ideas come from the universal Reason in which they are contain'd as all our Strength proceeds wholly from the efficacy of the general cause which alone hath Power He that fancies himself to be his own Light and his own Reason is no less deceiv'd than he that thinks he really possesses Power And he that gives thanks to his Benefactor for the Fruits of the Earth which serve only to Feed the Body is very ungrateful very proud or at least very stupid if he refuse to acknowledge himself indebted to God for the true and solid Goods the knowledge of Truth which is the Food of the Soul II. The Soul of Man hath two essential Relations It is united to the universal Reason and by that it hath or may have a correspondence with all intelligent Beings even with God himself It is united to a Body and by that it hath or may have a communication with all sensible Objects The Power of God is the sole efficacious Principle or the bond of these two Unions But impotent and stupid Man imagines that it is by the efficacy of his own Will that he is Wise and Powerful that he unites himself to the intellectual World whose Relations he contemplates and to the visible World whose Beauties he admires III. It is God alone who in consequence of the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body causes in Man all those bodily Motions which carry him to or remove him from sensible Objects But the occasional cause of these Motions being only the different desires of his Will he attributes to himself the Power of doing that which God alone operates in him nay the very endeavour which accompanies his Desires that painful endeavour which is a certain mark of impotence and dependance an endeavour often fruitless and ineffectual an endeavour which God puts into him to beat down his Pride and make him deserve his Gifts this sensible and confus'd endeavour I say persuades him that he hath Strength and Efficacy He feels within himself a Will to move his Arm but doth not see nor feel the divine Operation in him and therefore the more exact and punctual God is in answering his Desires the more disingenuous Man is in not acknowledging the favour and goodness of God IV. In like manner it is God alone who in consequence of the natural Laws of the
Good his Love can be no other but Love of himself His end is himself and can be nothing but himself Therefore he doth not produce in spiritual Beings a Love which hath a different tendency from his own for the love of Good in spiritual Beings proceeds only from the Will of God which is nothing else but the Love he bears to himself But further there are not Two or more true Goods there is but one alone for there is but one true Cause Therefore there is nothing amiable I mean with a love of Union but God So then since God cannot will that we should Love that which is not amiable or not Love that which is amiable supposing that we are capable of Loving our Love proceeding from God must necessarily according to the primitive institution of its Nature tend toward him and be refer'd to him alone III. God having created our Souls with a design to make them happy continually imprints on them a Love for Good and as he acts only for himself and Good neither is nor can be in any but in him this natural Love of Good doth of it self carry them toward God alone For this Love is like that which God bears to himself It is also invincible and irresistible because it is a powerful and continual Impression of the divine Love and it is the same thing with our Will for it is only by the particular determinations of this Love that we are capable of loving all Objects that have the appearance of Good IV. From hence it is plain that we cannot love Evil and that we have no Motion ordain'd for that end Notwithstanding we may mistake Evil for Good and so we may love Evil by loving Good we may love Evil out of choice by loving Good naturally we may love Evil or rather that which is neither Good nor Evil by a horrid abuse of that love for Good which God continually imprints on us to make us Love him as being our only Good or alone capable of making us happy For we must take particular notice that the Creatures tho' they are all Perfect or Good in themselves are neither Good nor Evil in respect of us because they have not really the power to do us either Good or Harm As they are occasional causes of Good or Evil of Pleasure or Pain we may unite our selves to them or separate our selves from them by the motion of our Body But we cannot reasonably Love or Fear them because every Motion which doth not tend toward God the beginning and end of it is irregular and if it be free and voluntary deserves to be Punish'd V. It is also evident that we cannot hate Good for since we invincibly desire to be happy we cannot separate our selves from that which makes us so but we may mistake Good for Evil and so hate Good from the hatred we have for Evil. And even this hatred is at the bottom a motion of Love We fly from Evil only by the motion of the Love we have for Good For God having created us to be happy by loving him hath given us no motion to separate us from him but only to unite us to him The wicked or the damn'd hate God with an invincible and irreconcilable Hatred but this proceeds from the very Love which God hath given them for himself For since God is not their Good but their Evil or the cause of their Punishment according to the Psalmist Psal 18.26 With the Pure thou wilt shew thy self Pure and with the Froward thou wilt shew thy self Froward they hate him by that irresistible Motion which God who is immutable in his proceeding gives then for their Happiness VI. For the right understanding of this it is sufficient to observe that actual Pleasure is the formal cause of actual Happiness as Pain is of Misery Now the Damn'd feel Pain the harden'd Sinner fears it The Damn'd know that God alone is the cause of Pain the Sinner believes he is Therefore both of them from the very desire they have to be Happy must of necessity make a wrong use of that Motion which God gives them to unite them to himself and must separate themselves from him for the more they are united to God the more God acts on them the more sensible they are of their Misery The Blessed on the contrary for a like reason cannot cease to love God And those that have access to God those that expect to find their Happiness in him Sinners who by Faith in Christ have hope of returning and finding favour with God may by the invincible desire of Happiness love and fear God This is our condition in this Life VII Now that the natural Love which God continually imprints on us may still continue Love and not be turn'd into Hatred that the love of Happiness may make us Happy that it may carry us toward God and unite us to him instead of separating us from him In a word that God may be or continue Good in respect of us and not become Evil our Love must always be conformable to or resembling the divine Love we must love Perfection as well as Happiness we must remain united to the wisdom of God as well as to his Power For God when he created Man gave him in the love of Good and by the impression of the Love which he bears to himself as it were two sorts of Love one of Happiness and the other of Perfection By the love of Happiness he united him to his Power which alone can make him Happy and by the love of Perfection he united him to his Wisdom by which alone as his inviolable Law he ought to be govern'd God if I may so say is divinely inspir'd with both these Loves They are inseparable in him and they cannot be separated in us without destroying us utterly For the power of God is Wise and Just His Wisdom is all Powerful and he that thinks to retain the love of his Happiness without the love of his Perfection without the love of Wisdom Justice and the immutable Order that love of Happiness will only serve to make him eternally Miserable God by his Power will not be the Good of Men but their Evil if by his Wisdom he is not their Law or the principle of their inward Reformation For Happiness is a Reward It is not enough to desire the enjoyment of it but we must also deserve it And we cannot deserve it if we do not govern the motions of our Heart by the inviolable Law of all intelligent Beings and regulate them according to the Model by which Man was first form'd and by which he must be form'd anew In a word the love of Conformity which relates to the immutable Order or the Wisdom of God must always be joyn'd with the love of Union which relates to his Power that so our Love being like the divine Love may carry us to all the Happiness and all the Perfection that
Spiritual and consequently not Rational This is Life eternal to know the true God and Jesus Christ his only Son To have Sentiments worthy of the divine Attributes and Motions agreable to those Sentiments To know Jesus Christ who alone gives us access to the Father and diffuses Charity in our Hearts To be fully convinc'd that he alone is the High-Priest of the true Goods or the occasional cause of Grace that so we may draw near to him with Confidence and by his assistance excite in our selves such Motions as are suitable to the knowledge he hath given us of the true Worship which honours the divine Majesty But instead of this every one frames to himself a Theology a Religion or at least a Devotion apart of which Self-love is the Motive Prejudice and Possession the Foundation and Beginning and sensual Goods the End The Worship of God consists many times only in outward Sacrifices in verbal Prayers in Ceremonies which were at first ordain'd to raise the Mind to God but now serve only by their splendor and magnificence to refresh the Imagination in most People when they are tir'd and out of relish with the performance of their Duties to God Custom human Considerations or Hypocrisy carry their Bodies into the Church But their Minds and Hearts never come there And while the Priest offers up Jesus Christ to God in their Presence or rather while Christ offers up himself to his Father for their Sins on our Altars they on their part Sacrifice to Ambition Avarice or Pleasure spiritual Sacrifices in all the places whither their Imagination carries them CHAP. VI. Of the Duties of Society in general Two sorts of Society Every thing should be refer'd to the eternal Society Different kinds of Love and Honour The general heads of our Duties toward Men. They must be External and Relative The danger of paying inward Duties to Men. The Conversation of the World very dangerous I. HAVING explain'd in general the Duties which we owe to God we must now examine those which we owe to other Men as God hath made us to live in Society with them under the same Law the universal Reason and in a dependance on the same Power that of the King of Kings and supreme Lord of all things II. We are capable of forming Two sorts of Society with other Men A Society for some Years and an eternal Society A Society of Commerce and a Society of Religion A Society maintain'd by the Passions and subsisting in a communion of particular and perishing Goods whose end is the preservation and welfare of the Body and a Society govern'd by Reason supported by Faith and subsisting in the communion of the true Goods whose end is a happy Life to all eternity III. The great or indeed the only design of God is the holy City the heavenly Jerusalem where Truth and Justice inhabit All other Societies shall Perish tho' God be immutable in his Designs But this spiritual Society shall continue for ever The Kingdom of Christ shall have no end His Temple shall be eternal His Priest-hood shall never the chang'd Psal 110.3 The Lord hath Sworn and will not Repent Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck The House of God is built on an unshaken Foundation on that belov'd Son in whom God is well-pleas'd and by whom all things shall subsist to the Glory of him who gives them their Being IV. When we procure any settlement here below for our selves or our Friends we build on the Sand we place our Friends in a tottering House it will sink under us at the Hour of Death to be sure But when we enter our selves as Workmen in the building of the Temple of the true Solomon and cause others to come in we then labour for Eternity This Work shall last to all Ages This then is the good which we ought to procure for our selves and other Men This is the chief end of all our Duties toward them This is that holy Society which we must begin here below by the love which we owe to one another For since the design of God in these temporary and perishing Societies is only to furnish Christ the Architect of the eternal Temple with fit Materials for the building of his Church we cannot fail of performing essential Duties when we engage in the designs of him who would have all Men to be sav'd and employ all our Faculties in hastning his great Work and in procuring to Men those good things for which they were created V. So when our Saviour bids us Love one another we must not imagine that he absolutely commands us any other thing than to procure one another the true and spiritual Goods What kind of Blessings were those which he showr'd on his Apostles and Disciples Did he give them the fading and perishing Goods such as the pretended Friends of this World give to those that gratify their Passions Did he constantly deliver them out of the Hands of their Persecutors No certainly-Therefore the principal Duties of our Charity do not consist in such things as these We must assist our Neighbour and preserve his Life as we are oblig'd to preserve our own but we must prefer the Salvation of our Neighbour before his and our own Life VI. To Love therefore is an equivocal Term. It signifies Three very different things which we must carefully distinguish To unite our selves by our Will to an Object as our Good or the cause of our Happiness To conform our selves to any thing as our pattern or the rule of our Perfection And to wish well to any Person or to desire that he may be happy and perfect The love of Union is due only to the power of God The love of Conformity is due only to the law of God the immutable Order No Creature is capable of acting on us No Person can be our living Law or our perfect Model Christ himself tho' he was without Sin tho' he was Reason incarnate did some things which we must not do because the circumstances not being the same the intellectual Reason the inviolable Law the indispensable Model of all intelligent Beings forbids us to do them VII So then we must not love our Neighbour with a love of Union nor with a love of Conformity But we may and ought to Love him with a love of Benevolence We must Love him in that sense of the Word which signifies to desire his Happiness and Perfection and as our practical desires are the occasional causes of certain effects which conduce to that end we must use all our endeavours to procure him solid Vertue that he may merit the true Goods which are the reward of it This is the obligation that truly and absolutely lies upon us from that Commandment which our Saviour hath given us in the Gospel to Love one another as ourselves and as he hath loved us VIII To Honour is also an equivocal Word It denotes a submission of the
from paying to God that which we indispensably owe him XVI But besides there is scarce any thing to be got by Men Their Language is as corrupt as their Heart It raises only false Ideas in the Mind and excites only a love of sensible Objects But their example is yet more dangerous For besides that it is not so conformable to Reason as their Discourse it is a living and a moving Language which irresistibly persuades those that do not stand upon their Guard We often hear a thing said whithout any Thoughts of doing it But we are so prone to Imitation that we do mechanically what we see others do There is no obligation on a Man to do what he only hears talk'd of and doth not see practis'd but it is a violation of Society 't is the way to become Odious or Ridiculous to be counted Whimsical and Capricious in short 't is look'd upon as a kind of Schism to condemn the general practice of the World by a singular Conduct XVII Nevertheless Charity and our natural Constitution oblige us many times to live in Society Every Man cannot bear a retir'd and solitary Life and those least of all to whom the Conversation of the World is most dangerous They must See and be Seen they must Talk and hear others Talk Conversation without Passions refreshes and strengthens the Mind Therefore there is a necessity of living amongst Men. But then we should choose such as are Reasonable or at least such as are capable of hearing Reason and submitting to Faith that so we may labour together for our mutual Sanctification For we must build in this Life for Eternity we must begin the eternal Society here below we must make hast while it is call'd to Day to enter into the rest of the Lord and cause others to enter too that our Society may be with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ in the unity of the Holy Ghost by an immortal Love proceeding continually in relation to us from the power and wisdom of God the perpetual influence of which will be the efficacious cause of our Perfection and eternal Happiness CHAP. VII The Duties of Esteem are due to all Mankind to the lowest of Men to the greatest Sinners to our Enemies and Persecutors To Merits as well as to Natures It is difficult to regulate exactly these Duties and those of Benevolence by reason of the difference of personal and relative Merits and their various Combinations A general rule and the most certain one that can be given in this matter I. THE Three general Heads to which all the particular Duties that we owe to other Men may be reduc'd are as I said in the foregoing Chapter simple Esteem which ought to be proportion'd to the excellence or persection of every Being Respect or a relative submission of the Mind proportionable to the subordinate Power of intelligent occasional Causes and the love of Benevolence which is due to all that are capable of enjoying those Goods which we may possess in common with them II. Simple Esteem is a Duty which we owe to all Mankind Contempt is an Injury and the greatest of Injuries There is nothing contemptible but nothing for every real Being deserves esteem And as Man is the noblest of the Creatures it is a false Judgment and an irregular Motion to despise any Man let him be what he will The lowest of Men may be exalted to the sovereign Power and the two first Kings which God gave to the Israelites were taken as I may say from the Dregs of the People Saul of the lowest Family of the least of the twelve Tribes found the Kingdom in seeking his Father's Asses 1 Sam. 9.21 Am not I a Benjamite saith he to Samuel who promis'd him the Kingdom of the smallest of the Tribes of Israel And my Family the least of all the Families of the Tribe of Benjamin And David the youngest of the Sons of Jesse was taken as he saith himself from the Flocks to be put at the head of God's chosen People Psal 78.71 From following the Ews great with Young he brought him to Feed Jacob his People and Israel his Inheritance III. But the Gospel gives us yet another prospect of Things It teaches us that the Poor are the Members and the Brethren of Christ Mat. 25.40 Luk. 6 20. Luk. 16.9 That the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them And that they have power to receive their Friends into everlasting Habitations For tho' the Rich as well as the Poor are wash'd by Baptism in the Blood of the Lamb yet they defile themselves so many ways with Pleasure which inebriates them and with Ambition which makes them forget their Title of Children of God that Christ is always angry with them and continually denounces woes against them in the Gospel Luk. 6.24 Wo unto you that are Rich For you have receiv'd your Consolation Let the Brother of low Degree saith S. James Jam. 1.9 1â— rejoyce in that he is exalted But the Rich in that he is made low because as the Flower of the Grass he shall pass away Go to now ye rich Men c. 5.1 2 3. Weep and Howl for your Miseries that shall come upon you Your Riches are corrupted and your Garments are Moth-eaten Your Gold and Silver is canker'd and the rust of them shall be a Witness against you and shall Eat your Flesh as it were Fire Ye have heaped Treasure together for the last Days IV. Nor must we Esteem and give outward marks of our Esteem to the Poor only and to the lowest of Men but also to Sinners and to those who commit the greatest Crimes Their Life is abominable their practice is odious and contemptible we must never approve it tho' it be set off with all the splendor of Greatness But still their Person merits our Esteem For nothing deserves contempt but nothing and Sin which is truly nothing which corrupts Man's Nature annihilates his Merit but doth not destroy the excellence of his Person The greatest of Sinners may by the assistance of Heaven become pure and holy as the Angels He may enjoy eternal Happiness with us and take place of us in the Kingdom of God We should have compassion of his Misery not that which afflicts and makes him uneasy but that which corrupts him not of his pains but of his disorders which put him out of a capacity of actually possessing with us those good Things which he may enjoy without depriving us of them V. But besides what right have we to judge of Mens secret Intentions It is God alone who searches the Hearts He that commits a Crime doth it perhaps against his Will his Mind is weak and disturb'd his flaming and outragious Passions have it may be depriv'd him in a moment of the use of his Liberty But supposing him to have acted freely his contrite and penitent Heart hath perhaps obtain'd pardon of his Sin or will obtain it to morrow a
be not continually quicken'd and spur'd on But we should never correct them without enlightning them and letting them know what it is that is requir'd of them and not then neither except they can perform their Duty with more ease than bear the Punishment which is inflicted on them And as no one can determine his choice without some Motive we should put them in a condition to be able to choose with Pleasure and to do that willingly which is worth nothing if it be not voluntary The Springs of their Mind should be set in order as well as those of their Machine and the fear of Evil should only serve to carry them toward Good to bring them near to the Light and make them behold and love the beauty of Order It is this kind of correction which Men are made to suffer in the presence and for the honour of that Reason which they have cast off that enlightens the Mind and gives understanding and not inhumane and brutish Punishments which are sit only to manage Brutes to train up Horses and Dogs and to teach Men to make their own Will the inviolable rule of their Actions XI Inferiors are oblig'd to pay a ready and exact Obedience not only to the Commands of their Superiors which are express'd and signified to them but also to their Will when it is clearly known tho' it be not signified And tho' he that stays for an express Order from his Superior before he obeys him and performs his Will doth not hereby shew any disrespect to his Person or any opposition to his Authority yet he doth not sufficiently respect in him the divine Power and Majesty But a Minister who by the asendent he hath over his Prince by his alliances and creatures draws all the Authority to himself and reduces his Master to such a condition that he is afraid to command him deserves to be treated like a Rebel An insolent Servant who by the knowledge he hath of his Master's concerns or of the weakness of his Mind deprives him of the liberty of signifying his Pleasure to him is many times more guilty of Disobedience than a lazy and negligent Servant who doth not perform the Orders that are given him A Son who by the rigorous constitution of his Mind and Body or by the Reputation and Fortune he hath gain'd in the World is got into such a Post that his Father who is in a low Condition weak and impotent dares not impose any Command on him violates the Duties of filial Obedience if he knows his Father's Will and doth not perform it A Wife who by her untoward and ungovernable Temper is grown so formidable to an easy good-natur'd Husband that he dares not discover his Mind to her is more Disobedient tho' she exactly performs every thing that he bids her Eph. 5.33 than one that fears and reverences her Husband according to the Apostles Precept tho' she do not always obey his Commands An inferior Clergy-man who by the Credit he hath gotten in the World or by his Personal Qualifications stops the Mouth of his Superiors and doth not do that which he certainly knows they require of him is guilty of Disobedience In a word he that withdraws himself in any manner whatsoever from the Obedience which he ows to others leaves his Post and rebels against Authority And tho' he may secure himself from the Censures of Men and the Laws of those that do not penetrate and search the Hearts yet he shall not escape the Judgment of the righteous Judge who unfolds all the turnings and windings of self-Self-love He that obeys Men as Men and not as God himself according to the Precepts of Religion and Reason cannot possibly fulfil all the Duties of Obedience as on the contrary he that desires to please God in obeying the Commands of Men is so happily guided and influenc'd by that desire that he performs easily and naturally every thing that the most enlightned Mind can impose on him CHAP. XII Of our Duties toward our Equals We should give them the place they desire in our Mind and Heart We should express our inward Dispositions in favour of them by our outward Air and Behaviour and by real Services We should yield them the Superiority and Pre-eminence The hottest and most passionate Friendships are not the most solid and durable We should not make more intimate Friends than we can keep I. THE greatest part of the Duties which we pay to other Men consist only in certain sensible Marks whereby we give them to understand that they hold an honourable place in our Mind and Heart Those who are satisfied that we have a particular esteem for their Worth and Qualifications cannot but feel some Emotion and Pleasure which must unite them to us And there is no Man but must be touch'd with a sensible Displeasure which will separate himself from us if he finds that we do not give him that place in our Mind which he desires how great respect soever we outwardly shew him For the place of spiritual Beings doth not lye among Bodies their Habitation their Seat their place of Rest hath no relation to that magnificence which strikes the Senses and is only the work of Men's Hands The Soul dwels with Honour in the very Souls of those that Honour it and rests with Pleasure in the Heart of an affectionate Friend What Glory what Honour is it then to possess the esteem of the universal Reason What rest and satisfaction will theirs be whom God shall take into his Heart and treat them as his Friends The vaniry of Men should raise in us these Thoughts and the Seeds of Pride which we all have in us should make us aspire to the Happiness of getting an honorable Place a fix'd and immoveable Seat in all intelligent Beings united to Reason and in Reason it self and of being our selves a sacred Temple where God himself may reside for ever For God who is a pure Spirit deth not dwell with Pleasure in material Temples tho' never so Costly and Magnificent II. It is the eternal Wisdom the immutable Order of Justice that should regulate these spiritual Places which are to be fill'd by substances of the same kind But as long as we are upon Earth subject to Error and Sin we deserve none of them at least we do not know which of them we deserve Therefore we ought always to take the lowest and expect to be remov'd higher according to the degree of our Vertue and Merit But Men never trouble themselves about the place which they hold in the divine Reason the indispensable Rule of that which they ought to possess in created Minds and labour only to advance themselves to a place which they do not deserve They hide their Imperfections they shew only their best side they endeavour by seducing others to get an empty Name to themselves and when they have or fancy they have deceiv'd them they entertain with extreme delight the
doubtful and equivocal marks of an Esteem which cannot make a Man truly and substantially happy or contented but only when it is govern'd and supported by Reason which alone is the supreme Judge of Merit and alone able to give it an eternal reward III. Tho' Honour and Glory absolutely speaking be due only to God yet created Spirits may also challenge it in regard of the relation they bear to the divine Perfections and the resemblance they have of the Model by which they were form'd We have reason to believe that they do in some measure at least correspond with their original We are certain that the Image of the invisible God stamp'd on the very Foundation of their Being is indelible Therefore we may nay and ought as long as we live with them to give them marks of Esteem and respect and so much the more because we cannot acquit our selves of the obligation we are under to preserve Charity for them without the performance of these Duties IV. For since Men invincibly desire to be happy they cannot without an extraordinary degree of Vertue unite themselves with those that despise them because in consequence of the Laws ordain'd for the good of Society they feel an extreme Pain when they find themselves not well entertain'd in the Minds of others In Winter we get away from such places as are expos'd to Winds and Frost because in consequence of the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body the Soul is unhappy in those places How is it possible when we are govern'd by our Passions and Pleasures to unite our selves to those whose Coldness chils and freezes us to those who sensibly afflict us by the incommodious and disagreeable place they give us in their Mind and Heart Therefore we must not think to maintain Charity amongst Men to bring them near and unite them to us and to be serviceable to them if we do not pay them such Duties as may persuade them that they shall live easily and contentedly with us V. Since it is not in our Power to infuse inward Grace into the Hearts of Men which alone can dispose them to sacrifice their present Happiness to the Love of Order we are many times oblig'd to make use of their Concupiscence or Self-love to moderate their Passions and favour the efficacy of the Grace of Christ For if in the Old Testament the Angels to preserve the Worship of the true God among the Jews govern'd them only by Motives of Self-love as not being themselves the dispensers of the true Goods nor of the Grace necessary to deserve them certainly we ought also to labour for the Conversion of Men by those natural means which the general Laws supply us with We must Plant and Water and expect from Heaven the increase and maturity We must endeavour to employ to a good purpose the universal Instrument of Iniquity the Concupiscence of Pride and Pleasure or rather Self-love the abundant source of all our Miseries The Grace of Christ coming to our assistance will change Men's Hearts and enable the Weak to go on in the ways of Righteousness which we shall have taught them by a prudent and charitable management of those things that are in our Power VI. It is certain then that tho' our Duties for the most part consist only in certain outward and sensible Marks by which we signify to other Men that they have such a place in our Mind and Heart as may content their self-Self-love yet we are oblig'd to perform them exactly not with a design to advance our own private Interest nor to fortify and keep up Concupiscence in others which we do in some measure please and gratify by these Duties but to destroy and sacrifice it by the assistance of the Grace of Christ VII Now tho' our equals do not sensibly represent the Power and Majesty of God to which the submission of the Mind is due yet we ought to treat them as our Superiors and to give them sensible Marks of our inward Respect upon this consideration that their Merit their Vertue and the invisible Relation which they have to God renders them worthy of these Duties or if they are not worthy of them that we cannot contribute to make them so if we do not first gain their Friendship and Affection VIII As for those that are below us we should not treat them as our Superiors tho' we may look upon them as such according to those general Words of S. Paul Let each esteem other better than themselves Phil. 2.3 But we should in many cases treat them as our Equals and Friends For the main end of our Duties is to preserve Charity among Men and to joyn our selves with them in an affectionate and durable Friendship that we may be useful to them and they to us For this end it is necessary that our Duties should be sincere or at least it should be probable that we give other Men the same place within us which we express by our outward Signs Thus a Superior may descend so far as to treat his Inferiors like equals and they will be pleas'd and satisfied with it for there is some likelyhood of Sincerity in this But if he stoops below them they will have reason to believe if they look upon him as a Man of Wit but not much Vertue that he mocks and abuses them They will be apt to imagine that this excessive Humility is only a Blind to cover some extraordinary design Or else they will despise him as a Man of a low and mean Soul in which it is no advancement to possess the highest Place They will look upon themselves to be without a Head and will live every one according to his own Fancy when he that should guide and govern them so imprudently debases himself For when the Head stoops too low the Members despise him and he cannot raise himself up again without angring and discontenting them But when he treats them only as his Equals they are sensible that they still have a Master and are not surpriz'd to see him resume the Command and Authority IX When our Equals out of a Principle of Vertue humble themselves below us and give us the precedence yet they do not fully acquit themselves of their Duties toward us unless they yield us the pre-eminence too and give us real or at least probable Testimonies of a particular Esteem and Affection For if we do not believe that their Humiliation is a mark of the esteem they have for us our Self-love cannot be satisfied with it Vertue may make a Man lower himself to one whom he despises Now it is more disagreable and displeasing to be obey'd by one that despises us than to be commanded by one that gives us real marks of his Esteem and Friendship It is Nature many times that gives us Masters We may obey without debasing without sacrificing and destroying our selves But we cannot naturally and without Vertue love Contempt This is a thing
it self makes him think every thing his due all these Qualifications how valuable soever they be will never make the possessors of them amiable Men would invincibly be happy therefore he alone can gain the Love I do not say the Esteem of Men who is good either in reality or in appearance Now no Man how perfect soever he may be in himself is good with relation to others if he doth not impart to them the Favours which God hath bestow'd on him III. Thus the Man of Wit who ridicules and plays upon every Body he comes near makes himself odious to all the World and the Scholar that is always shewing his Learning puts himself in the Habit of a Pedant and appears in a ridiculous Dress Those that have a great deal of Wit if they would be belov'd must impart it to others They must put such a stamp on the fine Things they speak and make them pass so well that every one may be satisfied with himself in their Company He that hath Learning and Knowledge must not magisterially dictate to others those Truths of which he is convinc'd himself he must have the Art to diffuse Light insensibly in the Minds of his Auditors so that every one may find himself enlightned without the shame of having been his Scholar A liberal Man will never be belov'd if he takes a pride in shewing his Liberality or brags of it This is in effect to upbraid those on whom he bestows his Favours and makes them as much asham'd But he who imparts his Wit and Learning as well as his Mony and Grandeur to others without letting it be known or without drawing any Advantage from it must necessarily win their Hearts by this vertuous Liberality the only vertuous I say and charitable the only generous and sincere Liberality for all other kind of Liberality is nothing but a mere effect of self-Self-love it is all interested or at least very ill manag'd IV. But he that is continually exposing our Nakedness to advance or divert himself to our prejudice nay he that for want of due respect toward us takes too much liberty and uses too much familiarity with us in a word all rude and ill-bred People beget in us an irreconcilable hatred and aversion There is no Man perhaps equally strong and hardy in all parts of him and when we know a Man to be weak in any place we should not fall upon him there we can hardly touch him without hurting him We should use all Men with Respect and Charity and be extremely tender of striking them in a sensible part But on the other side we should have a care of reproaching them with their extreme nicety and tenderness by an over-cautious and affected Behaviour We should converse with them according to Nature as far as their Quality Humour and actual Dispositions permit us so to do and not be too fearful of setting upon them on that side where they fear nothing They lov'd to be attack'd where they are strong and well fortify'd and are pleas'd with Raillery and Satyr when they are sure it cannot hurt them A Man that hath Wit naturally loves the exercise of the Wit as well as that of the Body when he hath a strong and vigorous one The Resistance he makes the Victories he obtains give him Testimonies of his Strength and Excellence and discover them to others which begets in him a secret Pleasure and Satisfaction For Motion delights and enlivens us and he that contradicts us impertinently doth not so much offend us as he that gives us no occasion of shewing those Qualities which we foolishly admire in our selves and would have others admire too V. Men are much more sensible and tender in relation to those Qualities which are esteem'd in the World than to those which are really valuable in themselves to those Qualities which concern their Profession or Employment than to those Perfections which are essential to their being to those in fine which they have not or rather those which the World doth not much believe they have whether they have them or not than to any others Thus there cannot be a greater Affront put upon a Souldier who hath not yet given much proof of his Valour than to call him Coward For Courage is a thing esteem'd in the World besides it is thought absolutely necessary for a Souldier in fine one that wants it or fears the World should think he wants it doth all he can to conceal that kind of Infirmity for we are very careful to cover every thing that being discover'd brings us Shame and Disgrace It is the same thing with all other Conditions If an ignorant Lawyer or Physician knows that you think him so you shall never be his Frirnd especially if you are so indiscreet as to speak your Thoughts freely of him and this comes to his Ears If you give a Woman cause to believe that you think her ugly you certainly make her angry For Women value themselves upon Beauty as Men do upon Wit not that they do not pretend to Wit nay and Learning too for some of them set up for Wits and Scholars at a strange rate and are so more than many grave Doctors We should know the World if we would please it at least we should converse with People with so much Modesty Civility and Respect that they may attribute the Injuries we do them to simplicity or inadvertency There is no other way to make our selves belov'd for it is impossible to gain the love of others when we offend and make them uneasie VI. The Air and Behoviour is as I said before a Language much more expressive and intelligible than Words and represents to the life our inward Dispositions in relation to others We should therefore take a particular care to carry our selves with an Air of Modesty and Respect and that in proportion to the Quality and known Merit of the Persons with whom we converse I mean such an Air as sensibly shews that we do them Right within our selves and willingly give them that place in our Mind and Heart which they desire and think they deserve A careless and negligent Air is acceptable only to Inferiours and is no where tolerable but amongst Equals For tho' it be pleasing in regard it shews that we are not much taken up with our selves yet on the other side it is disagreeable because it is a sign that we do not much trouble our selves about other People The grave and stately Air is very offensive and uncasie For besides that it denotes a great Opinion of our selves it makes others think that we have but little esteem for them This Air is allowable only in Superiours and is never becoming in them neither but when it actually represents the Power with which they are invested It becomes a Prince a Judge on the Bench a Priest at the Altar or any one who by his Character or otherwise introduces others into the presence of God But it makes
form'd anew Christ crucified is our holy Sacrifice and the perfect Model of the Sacrifice which we must offer up of our self-Self-love to the Love of Order but being rais'd from the dead consummated in God and made an High-Priest after the eternal Order of which Melchisedech was the Figure he is the inexhaustible source of those Celestial influences which alone can teach us how to Sacrifice as he did our corrupt Nature and thereby to merit a divine Being a glorious and incorruptible Transformation to be perfectly reunited to our Original and to live wholly on the intellectual Substance of Reason by divine Chatity in perpetual Peace and in an everlasting Society XI If we are true Christians here on Earth we shall be faithful Friends and we shall find faithful Friends no where but amongst those that have solid Piety For there can be no true and constant Friendship but in the immutability of Reason and we cannot in our present condition constantly follow Reason but by the strength which Reason incarnate gives us We cannot sacrifice our own interests to the Laws of Friendship but by a Charity unknown to Nature and which derives its original and efficacy from the true Tabernacle where Christ exercises the Office of High-Priest Your worldly and licentious Friend hath been always faithful to you It may be so For he always found his advantage in it or hopes one time or other to repay his Self-love But would he serve you do you think to his own prejudice or without the hope of a return when even the Righteous themselves are most commonly excited to serve God or other Men only by the hope of a reward which is so much the more grateful to their enlightned self-Self-love as it infinitely exceeds the greatness of their Services XII There are really no such things as disinterested Friends They alone may be reckon'd as such who do not expect their reward from us They alone can truly be our Friends who desire nothing in this tottering and unstable World They alone are our good Friends our sincere faithful and serviceable Friends who do us Service because Reason and Charity command them to do it and expect from God alone those good Things which are capable of contenting their Self-love the only enlightned generous and lawful Self-love Let us therefore make choice of such Friends and for those Friendships which we have already contracted let us endeavour to fix and settle them on the immutability of Reason and to purify them by the Sanctity of Religion Let us make our selves amiable only to make the Law of God belov'd and let us look upon the Salvation of our Brethren as the reward of the Services we do them This reward will soon be follow'd by another And the Glory which we shall receive for having wrought under Christ in the finishing of his Building shall endure for ever The Society of the World should tend only to establish an eternal Society in Christ We should converse with Men only that we may labour for their Sanctification and they for ours Certainly God hath sent us into the World with no other design Happy then infinitely more happy than we can imagine shall we be if by engaging in this just Design of our common Master we make our selves worthy through Christ our forerunner to enter into his rest and to enjoy his Glory and Pleasure to all Eternity CHAP. XIV Of the Duties which every Man owes to himself which consist in general in labouring for his own Perfection and Happiness I. THE Duties which we owe to our selves as well as those which we owe to our Neighbour may be reduc'd to this general Head of labouring for our Happiness and Perfection Our Perfection which consists chiefly in a perfect conformity of our Will with the immutable Order And our Happiness which consists wholly in the enjoyment of Pleasure I mean solid and substantial Pleasure capable of contenting a spiritual Substance made for the possession of the supreme Good II. The perfection of the Mind consists chiefly in the conformity of the Will to Order For he that loves Order above all things hath Vertue He that obeys Order in all things fulfils his Duty And he that sacrifices his present Pleasure to Order that suffers Pain and despises himself out of respect to the divine Law merits a solid Happiness the genuine and suitable Reward of a tried and approv'd Vertue That almighty and all righteous Law shall judge his Cause and shall reward him to all Eternity III. To seek after Happiness is not Vertue but Necessity For Vertue is free and voluntary but the desire of Happiness is not in our own Choice Self-love properly speaking is not a quality which may be encreas'd or diminish'd We cannot cease to Love our selves tho' we may cease to Love ourselves amiss We cannot stop the motion of Self-love but we may regulate it according to the divine Law We may by the motion of Self-love enlightned supported by Faith and Hope and govern'd by Charity we may I say sacrifice present to future Pleasure and make our selves Miserable for a time to escape the eternal Vengeance of the righteous Judge For Grace doth not destroy Nature The motion which God continually imprints on us toward Good in general never stops The Wicked and the Righteous equally desire to be happy They equally tend toward the source of their Felicity Only the Righteous doth not suffer himself to be deceiv'd and corrupted by pleasing appearances The foretast of the true Goods supports him in his course But the Sinner being blinded by his Passions forgets God his Rewards and Punishments and employs all the motion which God gives him for the true Good in the pursuit of Fantoms and Illusions IV. Self-love therefore or the desire of being happy is neither Vertue nor Vice But it is the natural motive to Vertue and in wicked Men becomes the motive to Vice God alone is our end He alone is our Good Reason alone is our Law And Self-love or the invincible desire of being happy is the motive which should make us love God unite our selves to him and submit to his Law For we are not our own Good nor our own Law God alone possesses Power therefore he alone is to be lov'd and fear'd We invincibly desire to be happy Therefore we should inviolably obey his Law For we cannot imprint this too deeply on our Minds that the Almighty is also Just that every Disobedience shall be punish'd and every act of Obedience rewarded In the present state of things wickedness and disorder is attended with Happiness The exercise of Vertue is hard and painful And it is necessary it should be so to try our Faith and to give us means of acquiring true and genuine Merit But it must not nor cannot continue so always If the Soul be not immortal if the Face of things shall not one Day be chang'd then there is no God For an unjust God is a mere Chimera
Heart and with all thy Strength and thy Neighbour as thy self And of which St. Paul hath given us the elogy in that admirable Chapter of his first Epistle to the Corinthians which begins thus 1 Cor. 13.1 Tho' I spake all Languages even that of Angels themselves yet if I had not Charity I should be but like sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal The ways of Speaking are different according to the diversity of Persons spoken to The Scripture which is written for all the World expresses the Truths it contains in such Terms only as are authoris'd by the most common Use But he that would convince and inform the most obstinate Persons I mean those Men of strong Reason as they fancy themselves and those whom they call Philosophers People that find difficulties in every Thing must endeavour to explain his Sentiments by Terms that as far as may be are free from an equivocal Signification II. These Words Thou shalt Love God with all thy Strength and thy Neighbour as thy Self are clear but it is chiefly to those who are inwardly Taught by the Unction of the Spirit For as to others they are more obscure than is commonly imagin'd To Love is an equivocal Term It signifies two Things among many others First to unite our selve by the Will to any object as to our Good or the cause of our Happiness and Secondly to wish Well to any one We may love God in the first Sense and our Neighbour in the Second But it would be Impiety or at least Stupidity or Ignorance to love God in the latter Sense and a kind of Idolatry to love our Neighbour in the former III. The word God is likewise Equivocal and much more than it is thought to be A Man may fancy he loves God when indeed he loves only a vast immense Phantom which he hath form'd to himself He may think he loves God when at the same time he lives in Disorder or without loving Order above all Things But he is mistaken for he is so far from loving him that he doth not so much as know him 1 Joh. 2.4 5. For he that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a Lier and the Truth is not in him But whoso keepeth his Word in him verily is the love of God perfected or he perfectly loves God v. 3. saith St. John Hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his Commandments IV. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Strength The word all is clear enough but thy Strength may Minister occasion of Error to those who either have no Humility or a false and mistaken one The former may draw from it some ground of Vanity and the latter of a sinful Negligence And thy Neighbour as thy self Our Saviour tells us in the Parable of the Samaritan that all Mankind is our Neighbour So that the word Neighbour is not very clear and so we find the Jews always took it in a wrong Sense As thy self Certainly there are none but those that love the true and real good who fulfil this Commandment in loving their Neighbour as themselves For a Father who loves his Son with the greatest Tenderness and carefully procures for him all sensible good Things what love soever he may have for him is very far from loving him as God commands us to love our Neighbour V. These words then Thou shalt love the Lord thy God c. are obscure But in Truth they are obscure only to those who have a mind to Dispute or who will not retire into themselves to behold this Commandment written there with the Finger of God The Holy Scripture is a clos'd Book only to those who are not instructed by the unction of the Spirit For pious Men tho' never so Dull and Stupid understand this Precept very well They know that all the application of our Mind and all the motions of our Heart ought to tend toward God that we should employ our Thoughts on nothing but him as far as it is possible That we do not truly Love him if we are not nice and exact in doing our Duty And that to violate the order of Justice or the immutable Order is in effect to offend against the Divine Majesty They are so far from loving Men as capable of doing them Good that they are afraid to come near great Persons and are only pleas'd to be amongst those who stand in need of their Assistance They love Men not as their Good nor as capable of enjoying transitory Goods with them Goods which only serve to cause division every where But they Love them as Co-heirs of the true Goods true Goods because they are possess'd without division enjoy'd without satiety and lov'd without any fear of losing them like the Pleasures of this present Life The Father loves his Son but he had rather see him Deform'd than Disorderly He had rather see him Sick Dead or at the Gallows than see him Dead in the Eyes of him who never had a more agreable Sight than that of his only Son fasten'd to the Cross to re-establish Order in the World Pious Men understand the Law of God because they are instructed by the same Spirit that dictated it But because this Discourse is intended chiefly for Philosophers and it lies not in my Power to communicate that holy Unction which produces Light in the Minds of Men I think my self oblig'd to endeavour to prove by Reason and explain as far as I am able in clear Terms those Truths of which perhaps they are not sufficiently Convinc'd VI. I think then I may say that justifying Charity or that Vertue which renders the possessors of it truly Just and Vertuous is properly a ruling Love of the immutable Order But that I may clear those Obscurities which ordinarily attend abstract Ideas I must explain these Terms a little more at large VII I have already said that the immutable Order consists in nothing else but in those proportions or relations of Perfection which are between the intellectual Ideas comprehended in the substance of the eternal Word Now we ought to esteem and love nothing but Perfection And therefore our esteem and love should be conformable to Order From hence it is evident that Charity or the love of God is a consequence of the love of Order and that we ought to esteem and love God not only more but infinitely more than all other Things for there can be no finite relation between infinite and finite VIII There are Two principal kinds of Love a Love of Benevolence and a Love which may be call'd Love of Vnion A sensual Man Loves the object of his Passion with a Love of Vnion because he looks upon that Object as the cause of his Happiness and therefore he desires to be united to it that it may act upon him and make him Happy He is carried towards it as well by the motion of his Heart or by his Affections as
by the motion of his Body The Love which we bear to Persons of Worth and Merit is a love of Benevolence for we love them even when they are not in a condition to do us any good We Love them because they have more Perfection and Vertue than other Men. So that the power to do us Good or that kind of perfection which relates to our Happiness in one Word Goodness excites in us a love of Vnion and all other perfections a love of Benevolence Now God only is Good He alone hath the Power of acting on us He doth not really communicate that Perfection to his Creatures but only makes them occasional Causes for the producing of some Effects For true and real Power is Incommunicable Therefore all our love of Union ought to tend toward God IX We may for Instance bring our Body to the Fire because Fire is the occasional cause of Heat which is necessary for it But we cannot love it with a love of Vnion without offending against Order because the Fire is so far from having any power over that part of us which is capable of Loving that it hath no Power at all The same may be said of all other Creatures even Angels and Devils we ought to love none of them with a Love of Union with that Love which is an Honour given to Power for all of them being absolutely impotent we should by no means love them When I speak of loving I mean also fearing and hating them I mean that the Soul should remain unmov'd in their Presence The Body by a local Motion may come near the Fire or avoid the Fall of a House but the Soul must fear and love nothing but God at least it must love none but him with a love of Freedom Choice and Reason For since the Union of the Soul and Body is chang'd into a dependance it is hardly in our power to hinder sensible Goods from exciting in us some love for them The motions of the Soul naturally answer those of the Body and the Object which makes us fly from it or attracts us to it almost always begets in us Aversion or Love X. But the Case is not the same with the Love of Benevolence as with the Love of Union God is infinitely more amiable with this sort of Love than all his Creatures together But as he hath really communicated to them some Perfection as they are capable of Happiness they really deserve our Love and Esteem Order it self requires that we should esteem and love them according to the measure of Perfection which they enjoy or rather according to that which we know to be in them For to esteem and love them exactly in proportion to their being amiable is utterly impossible because many times their Perfections are unknown to us and we can never know exactly the proportions that are between Perfections for we cannot express them either by Numbers or incommensurable Lines Nevertheless Faith takes away a great many difficulties in this matter For since a finite Being by the relation it hath to infinity acquires an infinite Value it is evident that we ought to love those Creatures which have or may have a great relation to God infinitely more than those which do not bear his Image or which have no immediate union with or relation to him It is plain that all other things being equal one righteous Man one member of Jesus Christ deserves more of this kind of Love than a thousand wicked Men and that God who judges truly and exactly of the Value of his Creatures prefers one of his adopted Children before all the Nations of the Earth XI It is certain that our Duties ought to be regulated by the Love of Esteem or Benevolence but yet we must not imagine that we always owe more Duties to righteous Men than to Sinners to the Faithful than to Hereticks or even Heathens themselves For we must observe that there are Perfections of several sorts some Personal or Absolute and others Relative Personal Perfections ought to be the immediate Object of the Love of Esteem and Benevolence but relative Perfections do not deserve either this or any other kind of Love but only the Object to which these Perfections have a relation We should love and honour Merit where-ever we find it for Merit is a personal Perfection which ought to regulate our Love of Esteem and Benevolence but it ought not always to regulate the greatness and quality of our Duties On the contrary we owe a great many Duties to our Prince to our Parents and to all those that are in Authority for Authority is necessary for the preservation of Order in States which is the most valuable thing in the World But the Honour which we pay to them the Love which we bear them ought to terminate in God alone Colos 3.23 As to the Lord and not unto Men saith St. Paul The Honour which we give to Power must be refer'd to God and not to Men for the power of Acting is in God alone In like manner if a Man have such natural endowments as may be serviceable for the Conversion of others tho' he have no personal Merit or Vertue we ought to love him with a love of Esteem which hath a relation to something else and we are oblig'd to many more Duties towards him than towards another Man who hath a great deal of personal Merit but is not capable of being useful to any but himself But I shall explain this matter-more at large in another place what I have said of it here is only to prevent the Reader from running insensibly whither I have no design to lead him XII Self-Love the irreconcileable Enemy of Vertue or a ruling Love of the immutable Order may agree with the Love of Union which is refer'd to and honours a Power capable of acting on us for it is sufficient for that purpose that this Self-love be enlightned Man invincibly desires to be happy and he sees clearly that God alone is able to make him so This being suppos'd and all the rest excluded of which I do not speak it is evident that he may desire to be united to God For to take away every thing that may be equivocal I do not speak of a Man who knows that God rewards only Merit and who finds none in himself but I speak of one who considers only the Power and Goodness of God or one to whom the Testimony of his Conscience and his Faith give a free access as I may so say to draw near to God and join himself to him XIII But the case is different with the Love of Esteem or Benevolence which a Man ought to bear to himself Self-love makes it always irregular Order requires that the Reward should be proportionable to the Merit and the Happiness to the Perfection of the Soul which it hath gain'd by a good use of its Liberty but Self-love can endure no bounds to its Happiness
a Man ridiculous and contemptible who puts it on unseasonably and preposterously and begets in us a secret Indignation and Aversion for the Vain-glorious Fop that assumes it But for the haughty and disdainful Air it is provoking beyond all expression for it shews in a very significant and sensible manner that a Man hath no esteem nor kindness for others This Air in a Prince makes him look terrible and dreadful but in a private Man it makes him appear a frightful and ridiculous Monster and must naturally beget in others an extreme contempt and an irreconcilable hatred VII All other different Airs are compos'd of these four They are all natural and involuntary Effects of the esteem we have of our selves with relation to others and according as our Imagination is struck with the appearance of the Quality and Merit of those that are about us so we do insensibly and in consequence of the Laws ordain'd for the good of Society put on such an Air as is most proper to preserve the place which we think we deserve in the Mind of others that place I mean which we actually and at that instant imagine we deserve for it is not Reason but Imagination which acts in these Encounters It is not an abstracted Knowledge of our own Qualifications with relation to those of others but a sensible View of their Grandeur or Meanness and the inward Sense we have of our selves which sets the Wheels of the Machine a going in order to put the Body in such a posture and give such an Air to the Face as discovers to Men the actual dispositions of our Mind toward them It is evident therefore that to put on that natural and unaffected Air of Modesty and Respect which makes us amiable to those especially who have a great deal of Pride it is not sufficient to believe that other Men are of greater Quality and Worth than our selves but our Imagination must be actually mov'd by that belief and must put the animal Spirits in motion which are the immediate Cause of all the alterations which happen in and upon the Body VIII But the Imagination is so unaccountable a thing and consequently the Mind of those that suffer themselves to be govern'd by the actual Disposition and Motion of their Machine that many times the same Air causes quite contrary effects in two different Persons or in the same Person at different times This depends on the Fabrick and Position of the Imagination and the quality of the animal Spirits A pitiful and dejected Air moves Compassion in some and Hatred in others or it may be Contempt or Laughter Therefore we should open our Eyes and read in Peoples Faces the effect which our Behaviour causes in them and shape or correct our Air by theirs this is the surest way And indeed it is what every one doth naturally and without thinking especially when he stands in need of the Assistance of others and passionately desires to gain their Favour and Affection I shall say no more of the means whereby we may accustom our selves to such an Air and Behaviour as will make us amiable The World is so corrupted and so much given to flattery that I much fear People would make an ill use of it They are already but too knowing in this matter and the World is never the better for it For till Men learn to consult Reason and to make no account of the outward Behaviour they will still be govern'd and misled by the Imagination of such as have a sprightly Temper and a dextrous Wit for it is the Imagination which gives the Face and the rest of the Body these different Airs which please and tickle the wisest Men and never fail to deceive the simple IX When a Man grows rich and powerful he is never the more belov'd if he doth not grow better too in respect of others by his Liberality and the Protection he affords them for nothing is good nor belov'd as such but that which doth good that which makes Men happy Nay I know not whether they really love rich Men tho' they be Liberal or powerful Men tho' they protect them For generally speaking they do not make their court to rich Men but to their Riches they do not esteem great Men but their Greatness or rather every Man seeks his own Glory his own Support his own Ease and Pleasure Drunkards do not love Wine but the pleasure of drinking for if the Wine be naught or do not please their Palat they will not drink it A lewd Man as soon as his Passion is satisfied abhors the Object that excited it and if he still loves it 't is because his Passion is still alive Now all this is because sading and perishing Enjoyments can never be a Bond strong enough to join Mens Hearts in a strict Union A durable Friendship can never be built on transitory Goods nor form'd by Passions which depend on a thing so inconstant as the circulation of the Blood and Humours This can only be done by a mutual Possession of Reason the common Good The Enjoyment of this universal and inexhaustible Good is the only thing that can make constant secure and easie Friendships This is the only Good that we can possess without Envy and communicate without injuring our selves We should therefore excite one another to labour for the acquisition of this Good and join all together for the mutual procurement of it We should liberally impart to others that which we have already gotten and not scruple to demand of them that which they have conquer'd by their Pains and Application in the Country of Truth Thus we should enrich our selves with the Treasures of Wisdom and Reason for we gain a better Possession of Truth the more we communicate it The Friends we get this way will be true constant generous sincere and immortal Friends for Reason never dies Reason never changes it gives to all those who possess it immortality in their Life and immutability in their Conduct X. But who is it that shall lead us to Reason who shall subject us to its Laws and make us its true Disciples It is Reason it self but Reason incarnate humbled made visible and sensible and proportion'd to our Weakness It is Jesus Christ the Wisdom of the Father the natural and universal Light of intelligent Beings who because he could be no longer the Light of our Minds immers'd in Flesh and Blood by Sin was made Sin himself and by the foolishness of the Cross makes a lively impression on our Senses and fixes our Eyes and Thoughts on him It is Christ and Christ alone that can lead us to Reason and reunite us in his Divine Person by the mediation of his glorified Humanity Our Nature subsists in Reason thro' him and by him Reason will reign in our Minds and Hearts For in fine we are created for Reason by that we are intelligent Beings we were first form'd by it and by it we must be