Duties It is principally the knowledge and love of the relations of Perfection or practical Truths wherein consist our Perfection Let us apply our selves then to know to love and follow Order Let us labour for our Perfection as for our Happiness let us leave that to the disposal of God on whom it wholly depends God is just and necessarily rewards Vertue Let us not doubt then but that we shall infallibly receive all the Happiness that we have deserv'd XX. The Obedience which we pay to Order and submission to the Law of God is Vertue in all Senses Submission to the divine Decrees or to the power of God is rather Necessity than Vertue A Man may follow Nature and yet walk irregularly for Nature it self is irregular On the other side he may resist the action of God without opposing his Orders for oftentimes the particular action of God is so determin'd by second or occasional Causes that it is not conformable to Order It is true indeed that God wills nothing but according to Order but he often acts contrary to it For Order it self requiring See the 7 and 8 Christian Medit. that God as the general cause should act in a constant and uniform manner according to certain general Laws which he hath establish'd the effects of that cause are many times contrary to Order He forms Monsters and is subservient as it were to the Wickedness of Men in this World by reason of the simplicity of those ways by which he executes his Designs So that he who should think to obey God in submitting to his Power and in following and observing the course of Nature would offend against Order and fall into Disobedience every Moment XXI If all the motions of Bodies were caus'd by particular acts of the Will of God it would be a sin to avoid the Ruins of a falling House by flight for we cannot without injustice refuse to render back to God that Life which he hath given us when he requires it again At this rate it would be an Affront to the Wisdom of God to alter the course of Rivers and to turn them to Places that want Water we should follow the Order of Nature and be quiet But since God acts in consequence of certain general Laws we correct his Work without injuring his Wisdom We resist his action without opposing his Will because he doth not will positively and directly every thing that he doth For example he doth not directly will unjust Actions tho' he alone gives motion to those that commit them And tho' it be only he who sends Rain yet every Man hath a liberty to shelter himself when it Rains For God doth not send Rain but by a necessary consequence of general Laws Laws which he hath establish'd not that such or such a Man should be wet through but for greater ends and more agreeable to his Wisdom and Goodness If the Rain fall upon Men upon the Sea or upon the Sand it is because he is not oblig'd to alter the uniformity of his Conduct for the uselessness or inconvenience of the consequences of it XXII The case is not the same between God and Men between the general cause and particulationes When we oppose the action of Men we offend them for since they act only by particular motions of the Will we cannot resist their action without opposing their Designs But when we resist the action of God we do not at all offend him nay we often promote his Designs For since God constantly follows those general Laws which he hath prescrib'd to himself the combination of those effects which are the necessary consequences of them cannot always be conformable to Order nor proper for the execution of his Work And therefore it is lawful for Men to divert these natural effects not only when they may be the occasion of their Death but also when they are inconvenient or disagreeable Our Duty then consists in submitting our selves to the Law of God and following Order For to submit to his absolute Power is necessity This Order we may know by our union with the Word so that the immutable Order may be our Law and our Guide But the Divine Decrees are absolutely unknown to us And therefore let us not make them our Rule Let us leave that chimerical Vertue of following God or Nature to the Sages of Greece and the Stoicks But let us consult Reason let us love and follow Order in all things for then we truly follow God when we submit to a Law which he invincibly loves XXIII But tho' the Order of Nature be not precisely our Law and a submission to that Order be by no means a Vertue we must observe nevertheless that we ought oftentimes to have a regard to it Yet still this is because the immutable Order so requires and not because the Order of Nature is an effect of the Power of God A Man that suffers Persecution or rather one that is tormented with the Gout is oblig'd to bear it with Patience and Humility because being a sinner Order requires that he should suffer besides other Reasons which need not here be produc'd But if Man were not subject to Sin and the immutable Order did not require that he should suffer to deserve his Reward certainly he might nay and ought to seek his ease and avoid all sorts of inconveniences tho' he were persecuted if that were possible by the inclemency of the Seasons and by the Miseries which Sin hath brought into the World And a Man tho' he be a sinner may shelter himself from the Rain and the Wind and avoid the action of an avenging God because Order requires that he should preserve his Strength and Health and especially the liberty of his Mind to think upon his Duty and search after Truth And because Rain and Wind being consequences of the general laws of the Order of Nature it doth not plainly appear that it is the positive Will of God that he should suffer that particular inconvenience For it would be a hainous Crime in us to avoid the Rain if God should make it Rain on purpose to wet and punish us As it was in our first Parent to eat of a Fruit because of the express Prohibition and his formal Disobedience But if Vertue consisted precisely in living in that condition wherein we are plac'd in consequence of the Order of Nature he that is born in the midst of pleasure and abundance would be vertuous without pain and Nature having been happily favourable to him he would follow it with pleasure But Virtue must be painful at present that it may be generous and meritorious A Man ought to sacrifice himself for the possession of God Pleasure is the Reward of Merit and therefore cannot be the foundation of it as I shall shew hereafter In a Word Truth it self informs us of one that was commanded to sell his Goods and distribute them to the Poor if he would be perfect which was
they proceed from a corrupted Heart where 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
Grace only by Jesus Christ the Sacrifice once offer'd on the Cross and now glorified and consummated in God the High Priest of good Things to come the Head of the Church and the Architect of the eternal Temple It clearly denotes that the general Law of the Order of Grace is that God would Save all Men in and by his Son A Truth which S. Paul repeats upon all occasions as being the Foundation of the Religion which we profess It may be I have not light on the proper Word to express clearly that which Faith teaches us concerning Jesus Christ But let not any one therefore be offended with me I am willing to be Taught and shall never contend with Heat and Obstinacy for Terms When any one will give me better I will make use of them But I think that the clearest are the best For we should consider that Words are design'd only to express our Thoughts So that those Words which clearly express false Conceptions are in themselves preferable to those which express the most solid Thoughts confusedly Especially when Men make use of them as I do with a design to explain and prove clearly those Truths which Philosophers themselves do not very well comprehend V. But I desire that the World would do me that Justice or have so much Charity for me as to believe that my introducing some Ideas which I make use of in this Treatise proceeds neither from a resentment against any Persons nor from a desire of justifying my own Notions or ways of Expression I believe that those who have not done me Justice had no design to injure me and that if they judg'd a little too hastily of my Opinion from Terms which they do not understand it was their love to Religion which prompted them to it A Love which cannot be too great and which is hard to be kept within Bounds when it is so fervent as I know it to be in some of my Adversaries The Reader will pardon this short Digression I return to my Subject VI. God never acts without Reason and there are but two general Reasons which determine him to act Order which is his inviolable Law and those general Laws which he hath establish'd and which he constantly observes that so his Actions may bear the Character of his Attributes Therefore seeing that nothing happens in the Creatures which God doth not do and that as to Sinners the immutable order of Justice doth not require that God should do any good to them the Sinner cannot obtain any Good much less Grace without having recourse to the occasional cause which determines the true cause to communicate it to Men. So that there is a kind of necessity that we should know distinctly and precisely what is that occasional cause that so we may make our applications to it with confidence and obtain those assistances without which as I have shew'd it is not possible so much as to form a resolution of sacrificing our predominant Passion to the Law of God VII When a sick Man is in fear of Death and is fully satisfied that there is but one certain Fruit which can restore him to his Health again his Fear is sufficient to make him use some endeavours to get that Fruit. The first Man was immortal only because he knew that the Fruit of the Tree of Life could preserve vigour and give Immortality and that it was in his power to Eat of it So when we are in fear of Hell and know distinctly that Christ is the Tree of Life whose Fruit gives Immortality or to speak clearly and unequivocally to Philosophers when we know that Christ is the occasional cause of Grace the actual fear of eternal Death is sufficient to make us call upon him and pray that he would with relation to us form such desires as may determine God the true cause to deliver us from our Miseries VIII I say once again for we cannot imprint this Truth too deeply in our Minds that Jesus Christ as Man is alone the occasional cause of Grace and it is more certain that his desires procure for us the Spirit which quickens us than it is that to Morrow the Sun will diffuse its Light or the Fire its Heat and Motion The Fire hath sometimes respected the Bodies of Martyrs the Sun is often eclips'd and every Night leaves us in Darkness But Christ never pray'd in vain For if before he had compleated his Sacrifice by which he merited the Glory he now possesses speaking to his Father Joh. 11.42 he said of himself I knew that thou hearest me always Certainly now that he is entred by his Blood into the Holy of Holies and is ordain'd a High Priest of true Goods it would be a very great infidelity to want confidence in him But it may be objected that the Fire communicates its Heat by the necessity of natural Laws and that we cannot come near it without feeling its action whereas on the contrary it depends on the Will of Christ whether he will Pray for those which call upon him This difference is true But what Shall we doubt of the goodness of Christ Can we forget that he bears the Character of the Saviour of Sinners Shall we distrust the promises which he hath made us in so many places of his Gospel Heb. 4.14 15 5 9. Let us remember that we have in him a High Priest who hath experienc'd our Miseries and sympathizes with our Infirmities That he desires nothing so much as to finish his great Work the eternal Temple of which we should be living Stones Luk. 15.7 and that as he saith himself there is Joy in Heaven over one Sinner that repenteth And in those Thoughts let us approach with Confidence the Throne of his Grace the true Mercy-seat Let us ask and we shall receive Let us seek and we shall find let us knock and we shall at last have leave to enter Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be Sav'd Joel 2.32 The Scripture teaches us these Truths IX So then supposing that a Man fears the terrible Judgments of the living God believes in Christ and calls upon him as his Saviour and that in fine he hath receiv'd from him sufficient Strength to form that noble resolution of renouncing his predominant Passion That which he ought to do in this case is to come without delay and throw himself at the Feet of the Priest that by the Sacrament of Penance he may receive absolution of his Sins and justifying Charity which Sinners receive by this Sacrament when they come to it in the motion which the Holy Ghost inspires tho' he doth not yet dwell in them X. To prove the Truth of what I here assert I say that Christ after his Resurrection appear'd to his Apostles and said to them Peace be unto you Joh. 20.21 As my Father hath sent me even so send I you And when he had said this he breathed on them and
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
cloth'd with our Vileness and Infirmities But the Bishop hath more relation to God as Wisdom and Reason incarnate and compass'd about with our Infirmities than as absolute and independent Power to Jesus Christ upon Earth conversing familiarly with Men than to Jesus Christ glorified and made supreme Lord of all the Nations of the World Ye know saith our Saviour to his Apostles Mat. 20.25 that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise Dominion over them and they that are great exercise Authority upon them But it shall not be so among you The Son of Man came not to be ministred unto but to minister and to give his life a Ransom for many Not that Princes have a Right to use their Authority without Reason God himself hath not this miserable Right he is essentially Just and the universal Reason is his inviolable Law But the abuse of the Ecclesiastical Authority is more criminal in the sight of God than the abuse of Royal Authority not only because there is an infinite difference between spiritual and temporal Goods but also because the Ecclesiastical Power that acts imperiously and arbitrarily acts directly contrary to the Character which it bears of Jesus Christ who is always Reason and Reason humbled and proportion'd to the capacity of Men for their Instruction and Salvation V. The end of the institution of these two Powers is very different The Civil Power is ordain'd for the maintenance of Civil Societies The Ecclesiastical Power for the establishment and preservation of the heavenly Society which is begun upon Earth and shall never end The Duty of the Prince regards only the peace of the State the Duty of the Bishop the peace of Christ's Church The Prince should preserve and augment those Conveniences that are necessary for the temporal Life The Bishop by his Preaching and Example should instruct and enlighten the People and as the Minister of Christ diffuse inward Grace by the Sacraments in the Members of the Church and thereby communicate the life of the Spirit to those that are committed to his charge In a word the Power of the Prince is ordain'd for the temporal Good of his Subjects that of the Bishop for the spiritual Good of his Children VI. This being laid down as the first Principle the second which follows from it is That since God is the absolute Lord of all Things his Orders give a Right to all necessary and reasonable means for the execution of them A Servant who receives Orders from his Master to carry a message of importance with all speed to his Friend hath no right to take his Neighbour's Horse for the execution of his Master's commands because his Master himself hath not that right But God being the absolute Lord of all Things when he saith to St. Peter Feed my Sheep or when he commands the King to preserve his Subjects in Peace he gives to these two sovereign Powers as far as Order permits an absolute right to all Things necessary for the execution of his Will So that the natural essential and primitive Rights of the temporal Sovereignty are as far as Order permits all necessary means for the preservation of the State and the natural rights of the Ecclesiastical Power are all lawful means necessary for the edification of the Church of Christ VII But the Church and the State being compos'd of the same Persons who at the same time are both Christians and Members of a Body Politick Children of the Church and Subjects of the Prince it is impossible for these two Powers which ought to have a mutual regard to each other and should be absolute and independent in the Administration of their several Functions to exercise their Jurisdiction and execute the Orders of their common Master if they do not perfectly agree together and even in some Cases depart with something of their Rights to one another For this Reason it is that the Prince by the concession of the Church hath now a right of Presentation to many Benefices and the Church by the concession of the Prince enjoys temporal Possessions These are not natural rights because they are not necessary or natural consequences of the Commission which these different Powers have receiv'd from God They are only rights of concession depending on a mutual Agreement whose end ought to be no other than that which God propos'd to himself in the institution of these two Powers VIII The building of the Church of Christ the eternal Temple being the great or indeed the only design of God for all the Societies and Kingdoms of this World shall be dissolv'd when the Work of him who alone is immutable in his designs shall be compleated it is evident that the State hath a reference and should be subservient to the good of the Church rather than the Church to the glory or even the preservation of the State and that one of the principal Duties of a Christian Prince is to furnish Christ with Materials fit to be sanctified by his Grace under the care of the Bishop and to build up the spiritual Edefice of the Church For this end chiefly it is that the Prince should prefer the State in Peace give Orders that his Subjects be instructed in solid Learning such as gives perfection to the Mind and regulates the Heart and take care that the Laws ordain'd for the punishment of Vice and Injustice be strictly observ'd For a People well instructed and obedient to reasonable Laws is better fitted to receive effectually the influence of Grace than a rude vicious and ignorant People For this Reason the Prince ought to employ his Authority in causing the Decrees of Councils to be observ'd and keeping the People in the Obedience which they owe to their Mother the Church of Christ For in fine there is so close an Union between the Church and the State that he who troubles the State troubles the Church which consists of the same Members and he that makes a Schism in the Church is really a disturber of the publick Peace and Tranquility IX But whether a Prince doth or doth not propose to himself this great design of gaining immortal Glory by labouring for Eternity and carrying on a Work which alone shall last for ever it is not for private Men to censure his Conduct And provided that he requires nothing but what flows from the natural Rights given him by the Commission which he hath receiv'd from God he ought to be obey'd in all things even by those that hold the greatest Dignities in the Church X. It doth not belong to me to deduce from the certain Principles which I have here laid down such consequences as contain the particular Duties of those that have a right to command and besides there is more difficulty in it than may be imagin'd There are a great many circumstances to be consider'd which vary or determine these Duties Princes should examine their own Obligations in the sight of God by the light of the
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
it self is absolutely incomprehensible XIII In like manner that a Beast is more valuable than a Stone and less valuable than a Man is true because a Beast bears a greater proportion or relation of perfection to a Stone than a Stone doth to a Beast and a Beast hath a less proportion of perfection compar'd to a Man than a Man hath compar'd to a Beast And he that sees these Relations sees such Truths as ought to regulate his esteem and consequently that sort of Love that is determin'd by esteem But he that esteems his Horse more than his Coachman or thinks that a Stone is in it self more valuable than a Flie or than the very least of organiz'd Bodies doth not see that which perhaps he thinks he doth it is not universal Reason but his own particular Reason that makes him judge after that manner It is not the love of Order but self-love which inclines him to love as he doth That which he thinks he sees is neither visible nor intelligible 't is a false and imaginary Relation And he that governs his esteem or love by this or the like Relation must necessarily fall into Error and Irregularity XIV Since Truth and Order are Relations of greatness and perfection real immutable and necessary relations relations comprehended in the substance of the Divine Word he that sees these relations sees that which God sees He that regulates his Love according to these Relations observes a Law which God invincibly Loves So that there is a perfect conformity of Mind and Will between God and him In a word seeing he knows that which God knows and loves that which God loves he is like God as far as he is capable of being so So likewise since God invincibly loves himself he cannot but esteem and love his own Image And as he loves things in proportion to their being amiable he cannot but prefer it before all those Beings which either by their nature or corruption are far from resembling him XV. See the 3. Discourse of the Treatise of Nature and Grace Man is a free Agent and I suppose him to have all necessary assistances In respect of Truth he is capable of searching after it notwithstanding the difficulty he finds in Meditation and in respect of Order he is able to follow it in spite of all the efforts of Concupiscence He can sacrifice his Ease to Truth and his Pleasures to Order On the other side he can prefer his actual and present Happiness before his Duty and fall into error and disorder In a word he can deserve well or ill by doing good or evil Now God is just he loves his Creatures as they are worthy of Love or as they resemble him His Will therefore is that every good action should be rewarded and every evil one punished that he who hath made a good use of his Liberty and by that means hath render'd himself in part perfect and like God should be in part happy as he is and the contrary XVI See the Remarks upon the seeming efficacy of second Causes or the 5 and 6 Christian Meditations It is God alone that acts upon his Creatures at least he hath a power of acting on them and can do what he pleases with them He hath power therefore to make spiritual Beings happy or miserable happy by the enjoyment of Pleasure and miserable by the suffering of Pain He can exalt the just and perfect above other Men he can communicate his Power to them for the accomplishment of their desires and make them occasional causes for himself to act by in a Thousand manners He can pull down the wicked and make them subject to the action of the lowest Beings This Experience sufficiently shews for we all as we are Sinners depend upon the action of sensible objects XVII He therefore that labours for his Perfection and endeavours to make himself like God labours for his Happiness and Advancement If he doth that which in some sort depends upon himself that is to say if he deserves well by making himself perfect God will do that which in no sort depends upon him in making him happy For since God loves all Beings proportionably as they are amiable and the most perfect Beings are the most amiable the most perfect Beings shall be the most powerful the most happy and the most contented He that incessantly consults his Reason and loves Order having a share in the Perfection of God shall have also a share in his Happiness Glory and Greatness XVIII Man is capable of three Things Knowing Loving and sensibly Perceiving of knowing the true Good of loving and enjoying it The knowledge and love of Good are in a great measure in his own power but the enjoyment of it doth not at all depend upon himself Nevertheless seeing God is just he that knows and loves him shall also enjoy him God being just must of necessity give the pleasure of enjoyment and by it Happiness to him that by a painful application seeks the knowledge of the Truth and by a right use of his Liberty and the strength of his Resolution conforms himself to the Law of God the immutable Order notwithstanding all the efforts of Concupiscence enduring Pain despising Pleasure and giving that Honour to his Reason as to believe it upon its Word and to comfort himself with its Promises It is a strange thing Men know very well that the enjoyment of Pleasure and avoiding of Pain do not depend immediately on their Desires They find on the contrary that it is in their own power to have good Thoughts and to love good Things that the light of Truth diffuses it self in them as soon as they desire it and that the loving and following of Order depends on themselves * This Age is so ill-natured or so nice that there are somethings which it is not sufficient for a Man not to say but he must also assure the World and that more than once that he doth not say them And therefore my Readers must pardon me if I seem to distrust their equity I still suppose those necessary assistances which are never wanting to those who have Faith but through their own negligence And yet they seek after nothing but Pleasure and neglect the foundation of their eternal Happiness that knowledge and love which resemble the knowledge and love of God the knowledge of Truth and the love of Order for as I said before he that knows Truth and loves Order knows as God knows and loves as he loves XIX This then is our first and greatest Duty that for which God hath created us the love of which is the Mother of all Vertue the universal the fundamental Vertue the Vertue which makes us just and perfect and which will one Day make us happy We are rational Creatures our Vertue and Perfection is to love Reason or rather to love Order For the knowledge of speculative Truths or relations of Greatness doth not regulate our
is because it leads to Understanding and without it we cannot deserve the Understanding of some necessary and essential Truths without which it is impossible to attain either to solid Vertue or everlasting Happiness Nevertheles Faith without Understanding I speak not here of Mysteries of which we can have no clear Idea Faith I say without any Light if that be possible cannot make a Man solidly Vertuous It is the Light which perfects the Mind and regulates the Heart and if Faith did not enlighten a Man and lead him to some Understanding of the Truth and some Knowledge of his Duty without doubt it would not have those Effects which are attributed to it But Faith is a Term as equivocal as that of Reason Philosophy and human Sciences XII I grant then that those who have not Light enough to guide themselves may attain to Vertue as well as those who can retire into themselves to consult Reason and contemplate the Beauty of Order because the Grace of Sense or preventing delectation may supply the want of Light and keep them firm and stedfast in their Duty But that which I maintain is First That supposing all other things equal he that enters farthest into himself and hearkens to the Truth within him in the greatest silence of his Senses Imagination and Passions is the most solidly Vertuous Secondly That such a Love of Order as hath for its Foundation more of Reason than of Faith that is more of Light than of Pleasure is more solid meritorious and valuable than another Love which I suppose equal For indeed the true good the good of the Soul should be lov'd by Reason and not by the instinct of Pleasure But the condition to which Sin hath reduc'd us makes the Grace of Delight necessary to counterpoise the continual endeavours of our Concupiscence Lastly I assert That if a Man should never I say never retire into himself his imaginary Faith would be wholly useless to him For the Word became sensible only to render Truth intelligible Reason was made incarnate for no other end but to guide Men to Reason by their Senses and he that should do and suffer all that Jesus Christ did and suffer'd would be neither reasonable nor a Christian if he did it not in the Spirit of Christ the Spirit of Order and Reason But there is no cause to fear this for it is absolutely impossible that any Man should be so far separated from Reason as never to retire into himself to consult it And tho' there are many People who perhaps know not what it is to retire into themselves yet it is impossible but that they must do it sometimes and must sometimes hear the Voice of Truth notwithstanding the continual Noise of their Senses and Passions It is impossible but that they must have some Idea of Order and some Love for it which without doubt they cannot have but from something which dwells in them and renders them so far just and reasonable for no Man is himself the ground of his Love nor the Spirit that inspires animates and guides it XIII Every Man pretends to Reason and yet every Man renounces it This may seem a Contradiction but there is nothing more true Every Man pretends to Reason because every Man hath this engraven on the very Foundation of his Being that it is an essential Right of human Nature to have a share of Reason But all Men renounce Reason because they cannot unite themselves to it and receive from it Light and Understanding without a sort of Labour which is very discouraging because it hath nothing that pleases the Senses And therefore since they invincibly desire to be happy they quit the Labour of Attention which renders them actually unhappy but yet when they quit it they commonly fancy they do it by Reason The voluptuous Man thinks he ought to prefer the actual Enjoyment of Pleasures before a barren and abstracted View of Truth which costs him nevertheless abundance of Pains The ambitious Man imagines that the object of his Passion is something real and that intellectual Enjoyments are nothing but Phantoms and Illusions for commonly Men judge of the Solidity of good things by the Impression they make on the Imagination and Senses Nay there are some Persons of Piety who prove by Reason That we ought to renounce Reason That we are not to be guided by Light but by Faith alone and that blind Obedience is the principal Vertue of a Christian The Laziness of Inferiours and their proness to Flatter is often satisfied with this fancied Vertue and the Pride of Superiours is always very well pleas'd with it So that perhaps there may be some Persons who will be offended with me for giving so great an Honour to Reason as to set it above all other Powers and think me a Rebel against lawful Authorities because I take the part of Reason and maintain that it belongs to Reason to decide and govern But let the Voluptuous follow their Senses let the Ambitious suffer themselves to be carried away by their Passions let the generality of Mankind live by Opinion or follow wherever their own Imaginations lead them But let us endeavour to still that confus'd Noise which sensible Objects cause in us let us retire into our selves and consult the inward Truth yet let us take great care not to confound its Answers with the malignant Influences of our corrupted Imagination For it is better infinitely better for a Man to obey the Passions of those who have a right to command and guide him than to be wholly his own Master to follow his own Passions and voluntarily to blind himself by assuming such an Air of Confidence in Error as only the discovery of Truth ought to give him I have elsewhere laid down the Rules which we ought to observe for avoiding this Miscarriage but I shall say something of it also in this Discourse for without this we cannot be solidly and rationally Vertuous CHAP. III. The Love of Order doth not differ from Charity Two sorts of Love one of Vnion and the other of Benevolence The former is due only to Power to God alone The latter ought to be proportion'd to personal Merit as our Duties to relative Merit Self-love enlightned is not contrary to the love of Vnion The love of Order is common to all Men. The Species of the love of Order natural and free actual and habitual Only that which is free habitual and ruling renders us just in the sight of God Vertue consists in nothing but a free habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order I. THO' I have not express'd the Principal or Mother Vertue by the authentick name of Charity I would not have any one imagine that I pretend to deliver to Men any other Vertue than that which Christ himself hath establish'd in these Words All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two Commandments Thou shalt love the Lord thy God Mat. 22.37 with all thy
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
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
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
would be capable of discovering Truth in all manner of Subjects are oblig'd to study throughly XII The only Rule which I would have carefully observ'd is to meditate only on clear Ideas and undeniable Experiments To meditate on confus'd Sensations and doubtful Experiments is lost labour this is to contemplate nothing but Chimeras and to follow Error The immutable and necessary Order the divine Law is also our Law This ought to be the principal Subject of our Meditations Now there is nothing more abstracted and less Subject to Sense than this Order I grant that we may also be guided by Order made sensible and visible by the actions and precepts of Jesus Christ Yet that is because that sensible Order raises the Mind to the knowledge of the intellectual Order for the Word made Flesh is our Model only to conform us to Reason the indispensable Model of all intelligent Beings the Model by which the first Man was form'd and according to which we are to be reform'd by the foolishness of Faith which leads us by our Senses to our Reason and to the contemplation of our intellectual Model XIII A Man that is thrown down on the Ground supports himself with the Ground but 't is in order to rise again Jesus Christ accommodates himself to our Weakness but 't is to draw us out of it Faith speaks to the Soul only by the Body it is true but it is to the end that a Man should not hearken to the Body that he should retire into himself that he should contemplate the true Ideas of things and silence his Senses Imagination and Passions That he should begin upon Earth to make the same use of his Mind that he shall do in Heaven where Understanding shall succeed Faith where the Body shall be subject to the Soul and Reason shall have the sole Government For the Body of it self speaks to the Soul only for it self this is an essential Truth of which we cannot be too fully convinc'd XIV Truth and Order consist in nothing else but in the relations of Greatness and Perfection which Things have to one another But how shall we discover these Relations evidently when we want clear Ideas How shall we give to every thing the Rank which belongs to it if we measure nothing but with relation to our selves Certainly if we look upon our selves as the Center of the Universe a Notion which the Body is continually putting into us all Order is destroy'd all Truths change their nature a Torch becomes bigger than a Star a Fruit more valuable than the safety of our Country The Earth which Astronomers consider but as a Point in respect of the Universe is the Universe it self And this Universe is yet but a Point in respect of our particular Being At some certain times when the Body speaks to us and the Passions are excited we are ready if it were possible to sacrifice it to our Glory and Pleasures XV. By clear Ideas which I make the principal Object of those who would know and love Order I mean not only those between which the Mind can discover the precise and exact Relations such as are all those which are the Object of Mathematical Knowledge and may be express'd by Numbers or represented by Lines But I understand in general by clear Ideas all such as produce any Light in the Mind of those who contemplate them and from which one may draw certain Consequences So that I reckon amongst clear Ideas not only simple Ideas but also those Truths which contain the Relations that are between Ideas I comprehend also in this Number common Notions and Principles of Morality and in a word all clear Truths which are evident either of themselves or by Demonstration or by an infallible Authority tho' to speak nicely these last are rather certain than clear and evident XVI By undeniable Experiments I mean chiefly those matters of Fact which Faith informs us of and those of which we are convinc'd by the inward Sense we have of what passes within our selves If we will be govern'd by Examples and judge of Things by Opinion we shall be deceiv'd every Moment for there is nothing more equivocal and more confus'd than the Actions of Men and many times nothing more false than that which passes for certain with whole Nations Further it is a very fruitless thing to meditate upon that which passes within our selves if we do it with a Design of discovering the nature of it For we have no clear Ideas of our own Being nor of any of its Modifications and we can never discover the nature of any Beings but by contemplating the clear Ideas by which they are represented to us But we cannot meditate too much upon our inward Sensations and Motions to discover their Connexions and Relations and the natural or occasional causes which excite them for this is a thing of infinite consequence in relation to Morality XVII The knowledge of Man is of all the Sciences the most necessary for our purpose But it is only an experimental Science resulting from the reflection we make on that which passes within us This Reflection doth not discover to us the nature of those two Substances of which we are compos'd but it teaches us the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body and is serviceable to us in establishing those great Principles of Morality by which we ought to govern our Actions XVIII On the contrary the knowledge of God is not at all Experimental We discover the Divine Nature and Attributes when we can contemplate with Attention the vast and immense Idea of an infinitely perfect Being for we must not judge of God but according to the clear Idea we have of him This is a thing not sufficiently taken notice of For most Men judge of God with a relation to themselves they make him like themselves a great many ways they consult themselves instead of consulting only the Idea of an infinitely perfect Being Thus they take away from him those divine Attributes which they cannot easily conceive and attribute to him a Wisdom a Power a Conduct in a word Sentiments resembling at least in some measure those which are most familiar to them And yet the knowledge of our Duties supposes that of the Divine Attributes and our Conduct can never be sure and well grounded if it be not built upon and govern'd by that which God observes in the execution of his Designs XIX The Knowledge of Order which is our indispensable Law is compounded of both these clear Ideas and inward Sensations Every Man knows that it is better to be Good than Rich a Prince or a Conqueror but every Man doth not see it by a clear Idea Children and ignorant People know well enough when they do ill but 't is because the secret Check of Reason reproves them for it and not always because the Light discovers it to them For Order consider'd speculatively and precisely only as it contains the Relations
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
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
the Happiness of which God alone is the Cause and which we have justly been depriv'd of for those unjust and unreasonable Pleasures which we have unworthily and disingenuously requir'd of a just God These are very trite and very common but very necessary Truths XII Motions or Duties 1. We should love nothing but God with a love of Union and whenever we find any love for the Creatures any joy in the Creatures arising in us we should stifle those Sensations and consider that Power belongs to God alone and that he inspires us with his Love to unite us only to himself 2. We should be afraid of Pleasures for they seduce and corrupt us Pleasure is the distinguishing Mark of Good God alone can give us the enjoyment of it But because his Operation is not visible we look upon the Objects which are only the occasions of our Sensations as if they were the Causes of them and when we enjoy those Objects we love them as our Good or at least we love nothing but our selves and our own Hapness Now every Pleasure which inclines us to the love of Bodies Substances inferiour to our own Being perverts and disorders us and since the Soul is not the Cause of its own Happiness it is blind ingrateful and unjust if it loves its Pleasure without rendring to the true Cause of it the Love and Respect which are due to him But besides how is it possible to love God in the midst of Pleasure How can we actually encrease our Charity when we so many ways provoke and fortify our Concupiscence 3. The love of Grandeur Elevation and Independance is abominable He that desires to be esteem'd and lov'd ought to be detested and abhor'd What I shall those Minds which were made to contemplate the universal Reason and to love the Power of the true Good shall they I say employ their Thoughts and their Love on us Weak and Impotent as we are shall we suffer our selves to be ador'd Corrupt and Ignorant as we are shall we seek Admirers Imitators and Followers Certainly he that doth not see the Injustice of Pride hath no Communication with Reason and he that knows it and yet is not afraid of committing it renounces Reason entirely 4. We should love Order it is the Law of God he inviolably observes it he invincibly loves it And can we think that we may safely dispense with our Obedience to it If we deviate from it the inexorable Justice of the living God will follow us But if our Love be conformable to that Law we shall be happy and perfect both we shall have fellowship with God and a share in his Happiness and Glory 5. We cannot be Rational but by the universal Reason we cannot be Wise but by the eternal Wisdom we cannot be Just and Holy but by a conformity to the immutable Order Let us therefore incessantly contemplate Reason let us ardently love Wisdom let us inviolably obey the Divine Law Let us fashion our selves anew after our Model he hath made himself like us that he might make us like him He is now level'd to our Capacity he is proportion'd to our Weakness He is before us let us open our Eyes to see him He is within us let us retire into our selves and consult him He sollicites us continually let us hear his Voice and not hearden our Hearts Heb. 5. But he is also in the Holy of Holies ordain'd a High Priest after the Order of Melchisedech always living to make intercession for us and to give us those Succours which we extremely need Let us therefore approach the true Mercy-Seat of Jesus Christ the Saviour of Sinners the Head of the Church the Builder of the eternal Temple in a word the occasional Cause of Grace without which such is our deprav'd and miserable Condition that we cannot endeavour our Amendment we cannot esteem and relish the true Goods nor so much as desire to be deliver'd from our Miseries 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. I. THe three Divine Persons of the Holy Trinity imprint each their proper Character on the Spirits which they created after their own Image The Father whose peculiar Attribute is Power imparts his Power to them by making them occasional Causes of all the Effects which are produc'd by them The Son communicates his Wisdom and discovers to them all Truth by closely uniting them to that intellectual Substance which he hath as he is the universal Reason The Holy Ghost inspires and sanctifies them by the invincible Impression which they have for Good and by Charity or the love of Order which he sheds abroad in their Hearts As the Father begets his Word so the Mind of Man by his desires is the occasional Cause of his Knowledge And as the Father with the Son is the Fountain and Original of the Substantial and Divine Law so our Knowledge occasion'd by our desires which are the only Things that are truly in our Power is with us the Principal and Original of all the Regular Motions of our Love II. It is true the Father begets his Word of his own Substance because God alone is essentially and substantially his own Wisdom and his own Light The mutual Love of the Father and the Son proceeds from themselvees because God alone is his own Good and his own Law But we are not our own Reason and therefore Light and Understanding cannot be a natural Emanation of our own Substance We are not our own Good nor our own Law and therefore all the Motion we have must proceed from and carry us to something without us it must unite us to our Good and make us conformable to our Pattern III. God made all Things by his Wisdom and in the Motion of his Spirit or his Love So also we never act but with Knowledge and by the Motion of Love The three Divine Persons have an equal share in the Production of all Things So also that which we do without Knowledge and without a full and entire Will is not properly our own Work The Father hath as I may say a Right of Mission over the Son So it is in our power to think on what we will The Son sends the Holy Ghost who proceeds from the Father and the Son in the unity of the same Nature so also our Love is grounded on Light it proceeds from and is produc'd by it Lastly The Love which proceeds from a clear Perception or Knowledge loves it self the Object of that Knowledge and the Knowledge it self as the substantial Love infinitely loves the Divine Substance in the Father begetting in the Son begotten and in the Holy Ghost himself proceeding from the Father and the Son IV. All these Relations of the Mind of
them this miserable Life a Life which we ought not much to value but only as it is a Time which relates to Eternity and may deserve it by the Grace which Christ the High-Priest of the true Goods distributes to Men and thereby sollicits them to enter into a communion of the same happiness with him XVI As to the Duties of Respect or external and relative Submission they are due to Power and therefore we cannot proportion them according to the merits of Persons nor regulate them by our own Light with respect to the interests of our eternal Society in Christ We must follow the Customs and Laws of the State in which God hath plac'd us It is a Duty of Justice to pay Respect and Tribute to those to whom God hath given Authority over us It is all one whether they be good or bad nay whether they be Christians or not Whether they make a good or a bad use of our Contributions And the reason of this is because it is God whom we Honour in their Persons for all Honour is relative and must be ultimately refer'd to him alone who really possesses Power So that it is an injury and a wrong to our Prince to deny him the Respects which are due to him and it is a formal disobedience against the King of Kings to refuse to submit our selves and give sensible marks of our Submission to those whom he hath appointed his Lieutenants and Vicegerents upon Earth The primitive Christians paid to the Roman Emperors even those who cruelly persecuted Christ himself in his Members all the Respect Submission and relative Honor that was due to their participated Power Well knowing that Honour is properly due to God alone and must be refer'd solely to him 1 Tim. 1.17 according to S. Paul's Words Unto the King eternal immortal invisible the only wise God be Honour and Glory They knew that the Duties of Respect ought not to be proportion'd to the interest of the Church or rather that they ought to be refer'd thither because that is the great or indeed the only design of God but that this is never better done than when Christians pay those Duties with all possible exactness For indeed this is the right way to oblige sovereign Princes who are always jealous of their Glory and Authority to favour Christian Societies more than any other in their Dominions But I must discourse more at large of our Duties as they relate to the different kinds of Society which we form with other Men. 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 I. ALL the Duties which we owe to participated Powers may be reduc'd to Two general Heads Duties of Respect and Duties of Odedience The Duties of Respect depend on the Laws and Customs observ'd in every State and consist in certain outward and sensible marks of the Submission which the Mind pays to God in the Person of it's Superiors Those Duties vary according to the different Circumstances of Times and Places Sometimes Subjects prostrate themselves before their Prince sometimes they put one Knee to the Ground or both At other times they only make a profound reverence and stand uncover'd and sometimes also they remain cover'd in his Presence without losing the Respect which is due to him These are arbitrary Ceremonies and are govern'd by Use and Custom II. But that which is essential to Morality is that the Soul it self should be touch'd with Respect in the Presence of the Prince who is the Image of the true Power and that in such a proportion as the Prince actually exercises the Authority he hath receiv'd or cloaths himself as I may say with the Power and Majesty of God For we owe more respect to the King when he is in the Seat of Justice than in a Thousand other Circumstances and to the Bishop in the actual administration of his Episcopal Functions than at any other time And indeed we are naturally enclin'd to measure the respect due to Grandeur and Power by the sensible operation they have on us Certainly when we are in the Presence of the Almighty our Mind ought to prostrate it self Now tho' we are always in the sight of God yet we come into his Presence in a more particular manner when we approach Superiour who is his Image Therefore it is not sufficient to put on an outward air of Respect and Veneration but the Mind must also humble it self and respect the Greatness and Power of God in the Majesty of the Prince III. There is no great difficulty in paying the Duties of Respect to the higher Powers nay the Brain is fram'd in such a manner that the Imagination willingly bows before the splendour that environs them wherefore I think it needless to say any more of these Duties But an exact Obedience to the commands of our Superiors is a continual Sacrifice much more difficult and burdensome than the Slaughter of Beasts and therefore Self-love is an irreconcileable Enemy to it There are few People that discharge this Duty like Christians or in expectation that he whom they Honour in the Person of the Prince should be their only Reward Every one in a manner dispenses with himself as much as he can from paying an Obedience that doth not suit with his own conveniences and some preposterously obey unjust Commands because they do not know the exact order and measure of their Duties For opposite Powers having each their separate Rights their different interests are many times so intermingled that it is very difficult to know which of them ought to be obey'd and in these cases every Man follows his own particular humour or advantage for want of certain Rules to govern his Actions by I shall therefore here lay down one or two Principles which may give us some Light toward the clearer discovery of these Duties IV. There are but two sovereign Powers in the World the Civil and the Ecclesiastical The Prince in monarchical States and the Bishop The Prince who is the Image of God Almighty and his Minister upon Earth and the Bishop who is the Image of Christ and his Vicar in the Church The Prince derives his Authority over other Men from God alone so doth the Bishop and neither of them ought to use it any otherwise than God doth himself with respect to the immutable Order the universal Reason the inviolable Law of all intelligent Beings even of God himself The Prince notwithstanding hath a more absolute Power than the Bishop He hath Authority to make Laws and is not subject to them himself he may act without controul and is not oblig'd to give an account of his Conduct to any Man for he seems to have more Relation to God as Power than as Reason to God cloth'd with Majesty and Glory than to God made Man and like us to Christ glorified than to Christ upon Earth and
beget Pride For the Soul doth as it were enlarge and extend it self through the multitude of things with which the Head is fill'd And tho' the content of the Mind be then taken up as I may say with nothing but Emptiness or with things of little or no use as the position of Bodies the the series of Times the actions and opinions of Men yet it imagines it self to have as great an extent duration and reality as the objects of its Knowledge It stretches it self to all the parts of the World It goes back to past Ages and instead of considering the nature of its own Being what it is at present and what it shall be in eternity it forgets its self and its own Country and wanders in an imaginary World in Histories made up of Realities which are now no more and Chimera's which never were XIV Not that we should slight History for example and never study any but the solid Sciences such as of themselves make the Mind perfect and regulate the Heart But we should study them all in their proper order A Man may apply himself to History when he knows himself his Religion and his Duties when his Mind is form'd and he is thereby capable of distinguishing at least in some measure between the Truth of the History and the Imaginations of the Historian He may study Languages But it should be when he is Philosopher enough to know what a Language is When he throughly understands that of his own Country And when the desire of knowing the Thoughts of the Ancients begets in him a desire of knowing the Language For then he will learn more in one Year than he can in Ten without this desire He must be a Man a Christian an Englishman before he is a Grammarian a Poet an Historian or a Foreigner He should not study even the Mathematicks only to fill his Head with the properties of Lines but in order to procure to his Mind that strength extent and perfection of which it is capable In a word he should begin his studies with those Sciences that are most necessary or such as may most contribute to the perfection of his Mind and Heart He that only knows how to distinguish the Soul from the Body and doth not confound his Thoughts and Desires with the different motions of his Machine is more solidly learned and more capable of being so by the knowledge of this one real Science than he that understands the Histories Laws and Languages of all Nations but withal is so deeply Buried as I may say in the Ignorance of his own Being that he takes himself for the more subtil part of his Body and imagines that the immortality of the Soul is a Question not to be resolv'd XV. I am satisfied that I speak nothing but Paradoxes and that it would need a great many Words to persuade others to be of my Opinion But I would have them only open their Eyes Do we find that those who understand Virgil and Horace very well are wiser Men than those that understand S. Paul but indifferently It is experience that must convince such as will not consult Reason Now where is the experience which proves that the reading of Tully is more useful than that of the all-divine Words of the eternal Wisdom O say they we make Boys read Tully for the Latin But why do not they make them read the Gospel for Religion and Morality Poor Children they breed you up like Citizens of old Rome and you will get its Language and its Morals They ne-never think to make you reasonable Men true Christians and Inhabitants of the holy City You are mistaken say they we do think of it we do make it our business But I am sure it 's not the fashion to mind it throughly St. Augustin lamented this in vain Confess l. 1. and it is to no purpose that I trouble my self about it We shall still see young Lads when they come from School and ought to know something for none of them scarce mind any thing afterwards we shall still see them I say ignorant in the knowledge of Man of Religion and Morality For can they be said to know Man who cannot so much as distinguish the Soul from the Body Have they learnt the first elements of Religion and Morality who are not fully convinc'd of original Sin and the necessity of a Mediator They are well stockt with the precepts of Grammar They can say Lilly by Heart and repeat all the cramp Words in Faruaby and Butler This is sufficient They can declaim pro and con on any Subject A rare Qualification indeed to be able equally to maintain Truth and Falshood without knowing how to distinguish one from the other But what It is not reasonable that Boys should know more than their Fathers Nor is it fit that they should have more Learning than some of their Masters XVI But I leave it to Tutors and School-masters to examine the order of their Duties and to take care of the performance of them For I would not have Parents oblig'd to instruct their Children themselves because a great many are not capable of doing it or have other business which you shall never persuade them to be of less Importance than the education of their Children But then they should endeavour at least to choose a good Master Let them not imagine that a Young Man who only understands Greek and Latin and doth not know much less can govern himself is a fit Person to inform the Mind and regulate the Heart of a Child But when they have happily met with one that is let them not by their Example and Behaviour pull down that which a Tutor by his Pains and Diligence hath been building up Children by reason of their weakness and dependence are extremely affected with the Language of the Imagination and Senses with the outward Air and Behaviour especially of their Parents This is a natural Language which persuades insensibly it penetrates the Soul and in a delightful manner begets conviction and assurance in the Mind XVII If a Master teaches his Scholars to judge of things by Principles of Religion and Reason to silence their Senses Imagination and Passions to despise sensible Objects humane Greatness and transitory Pleasures an indiscreet Father shall talk of these false Goods before his Children with such an Air Voice and Gestures as are able to shake a setled Mind and move even those that are least prone to Imitation Perhaps he may speak to them of the true Goods But then his Discourse shall be so Cold and Faint that it shall only beget in them contempt and aversion But you shall hear him Twenty times a Day and that with concern bid them hold up their Head keep their Body steady and carry themselves handsomly He shall applaud and commend them for repeating a few passionate Lines with a Grace He shall sensibly discover his Joy by the Air of his Face if he finds
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-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