and to pass by those who content themselves with their own riches and wisdom There are many obscurities in the Scripture but there are also many things that are extremely clear good Men rest upon what is clear and pay a deference to what is obscure as their reason directs them The pretended wise Men and the wicked who are angry to see what they hate endeavor to obscure the light by darkness they endeavor to blind their own eyes and are but too successful in their attempt If CHRIST had come in splendor as he will at his second appearance if the Prophecies had been so evident that it had been impossible not to have received them In fine if the Christian Religion had been such as that its truth might have been acknowledged without any application of the mind and without any love for God then the negligent and wicked would have received a grace which they did not deserve God only gives himself to those who love him the truth is only discovered to those who seek after it for if it be just to apply one's self to a Problem to find out its resolution 't is necessary that the Sovereign Good which is the greatest truth should be such that it may not be discovered without carefully seeking after it Men little esteem that which they acquire without labour they have but a mean love for that which they have not desired Thus it was necessary CHRIST whom we have so much need of should cause himself to be desired and sought after before he would be found and 't is our happiness that he is hid after such a manner that he can't be sought after without being found Certainly all the obscurities which are in the Prophecies can't hinder but that we may evidently observe that the Messiah is come 'T is now so many Ages since that the time prefixt is past over that there is now no more need of Miracles For if Miracles were necessary when the Apostles preacht JESVS CHRIST 't is because the time of the Messiah's coming was not so precisely fixt but that one might yet expect him If in the Life of CHRIST are found things which appear something strange if for instance his condemnation to death by the chief Priests seems unworthy of the Messiah even these very things should make him to be received because they were foretold and being strange they can only relate to him If all the Jews had received Jesus Christ when he appeared perhaps the modern Jews the Mahometans and the Pagans might have had reason to doubt whether he was the true Messiah they might believe the Scriptures were corrupted but the Jews being always opposed to Jesus Christ are credible Witnesses And we can't reasonably imagin that the Books which the Jews received were corrupted in favor of us But if Holy Writ is not corrupted in Essentials if 't is certain that it is a Book whose authority was not established by the force of Arms or doubtful Miracles if we are sure that the literal Sense is not the chief point of it then we can't doubt the truth of the Christian Religion because CHRIST is found there all along even when there was no Jew I would say when there was no love for sensible good things and when there was no formal opposition to receive CHRIST There 's nothing Aristarchus more comfortable to a Man that desires true happiness who meanly looks upon himself here below as in a strange Land who continually reflects upon his inward misery and the War that his domestic Enemies wage against him there 's nothing I say more comfortable nothing more instructive altogether for a Christian than to read the sacred Books for all that is written was written for our instruction that our hope should be strengthned by the patience and comfort which the Scripture affords us Men find themselves in it every where described as they are either under sin or punishment but God according to his pure mercy always remembring the promise which he made to Abraham saves his people altho' they deserve it not for he hath sworn it by himself he redeems them out of the bondage of Pharaoh and brings them into the promised Land but does not utterly destroy the Canaanites ' til the day that King Solomon becomes Master of all the Enemies of Israel Who is ignorant of the signification of these things I can't particularly explain to you the Prophecies and Figures of the Old Testament for the confirmation of the New I don't pretend to deprive you of the satisfaction of discovering them your self what I said is sufficient to induce you to read the Scriptures as a devout Christian and I desire no more 'T is enough that if you read them you will understand so much as will be necessary to confirm you in the truth of Religion and to persuade your Friend if he is willing to be instructed I 'm certain that Erastus will be pleased to join with you in this Study I 'm satisfied that he has a love for Religion and 't is high time that he wholly apply himself to things which are only capable to make him as happy as he can be in this life There can be no true happiness but in the enjoyment of real good But in this life we can only possess it through hope We cannot therefore be happy in this life but in avoiding every thing that weakens this hope and in seeking after every thing which strengthens it Thus those are miserable that are united to the Body and by its enjoyments weaken their hope But Erastus is happy if he contemns it and if by the study of Religion and Christian Morality he encreases his hope so that future happiness appears to him as if it were present and a foretaste of eternal good things is more agreeable to him than the relish of momentary pleasures DIALOGUE VII That Christian Morality is very useful to the Perfection of the Vnderstanding Arist I Waited for you Theodorus to give you an account of my Joy for I have at last found a means to make my Friend hear me I no longer speak to his Ears I as it were speak now to his Heart I have made him understand most of the things whereof we have discoursed and he seems to be very well satisfied about them I must tell you how things passed betwixt us I had been so offended at his Stupidity and Brutishness when I met him last that as I went home I often repeated to my self the words of Christ Mat. 7.6 Do not cast your Pearls before Swine c. This did comfort me with a Consolation somewhat sensible Indignation and Revenge having some share in it for I must confess that I was somewhat angry and already began to be concerned for having loved so much a person who seemed to be out of his senses Having therefore very much reflected on that saying of our Saviour I no sooner saw my Friend again but it was present to my mind and
Christian Conferences DEMONSTRATING The TRUTH OF THE Christian Religion AND MORALITY By F. MALEBRANCHE To which is Added His MEDITATIONS ON HUMILITY and REPENTANCE LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by J. Whitlock near Stationers-Hall MDCXCV TO THE READER THE many pious Reflections which the Author of The Search after Truth makes in that admirable Book justly induc'd him to believe that they might be of use to demonstrate the Truth of Christian Religion by evident Reasons Those who follow Des Cartes will doubtless allow this to be true for nothing is set down there but what is plainly prov'd or what is an axiom universally granted Now as it is of great importance to convince all sorts of Persons of the Conformity of the Christian Religion with Reason This Author judged that the following Dialogues might be useful to that end Since these Philosophers ought not to be neglected But 't is also hop'd that many others not satisfied with the Proofs deduc'd from old Philosophy will be convinc'd by those that are given here provided these Dialogues be read with all the attention that is requisite to understand a work of this Nature This is all that is desired of them for a serious Application of the mind undoubtedly produces Light It may not be improper to answer a Thing which some Persons might think amiss in the management of this Work they might say that our young Erastus is too learned and answers Theodorus with two much strength and Judgment considering his unripe Years which are represented to be between Fifteen and Twenty But these Gentlemen may observe that our Author supposes Erastus to be altogether free from Prejudice and this ought to be supposed since Theodorus and Aristarchus chuse him Judge of their differences They may also consider that when Erastus speaks afterwards above his Years t is only some things which he had read in The Search after Truth And after all the Design of Christian Dialogues is not that of certain writings made only to indulge the Imagination but rather to instrust the Mind and 't is much better that Erastus should be admir'd for saying Things seldom spoken by those of his Years as they are now Educated than that he should give us occasion to laugh at his Childishness or at that Simplicity that so well expresses the Character of a young raw Student There are some few Passages in these Dialogues where the Author who is known to be a Roman Catholic has made his Interlocutors to speak like Men of that Persuasion But I did not think fit either to alter or omit any Thing this being a bare Translation which ought consequently to represent the Original as much as Possible Neither did did I think it necessary to confute those Passages For the Arguments used by the Roman Catholicks in behalf of their particalar Doctrines are so inconsiderable if compared with those which this Author has offer'd to prove the Truth of the Christian Religion that at this Day they do not deserve that Protestants should lose Time in confuting them As for the Translators Part if you can pardon some few Faults of Print and Gallicisms of which such Works are seldom wholly Free he dares assure you that he has taken all imaginable Care to give here his Author's Sence just in its full Extent and as close and clear as it was possible in such abstracted Notions The CONTENTS Dialogue I. THat their is a God and that none but he really act in us and can make us Happy or Miserable Page 1. Dialogue II. Objections and Answers p. 24. Dialogue III. Of the Order of Nature in the Creation of Man p. 44. Dialogue IV. Of the Disorder of Nature caused by Original Sin p. 61. Dialogue V. Of the Reparation of Nature by Jesus Christ p. 83. Dialogue VI. The Truth of the Christian Religion prov'd by other Reasons p. 104. Dialogue VII That Christian Morality is very useful to the Perfection of the Vnderstanding p. 123. Dialogue VIII That Christian Morality is absolutely necessary for the Conversion of the Heart p. 140. Dialogue IX The same Subject continued p. 159. Dialogue X. Reflections on the whole p. 178. Meditations concerning Humility and Repentance with Elevations of the Soul to God Of Man considered as a Creature Of Man considered as the Son of a sinful Father Of Man consider'd as a Sinner CHRISTIAN DIALOGVES DIALOGUE I. That there is a God and that none but him acts really in us and can make us happy or miserable Aristarchus I Must let you know my dear Theodorus how little satisfaction our late Conferences have yielded me I have discours'd with you of my Travels and several adventures of my last Campaigns you know them all do not ask me any more of them You told me a word yesterday which made such an impression on me that I am become insensible to all the things that have hitherto extreamly moved me I find their Emptiness and their Vanity and will have solid Enjoyments and certain Truths Theodorus Give thanks Aristarchus to your deliverer to him that breaks your bonds and changes your heart I have spoke a long time to your ears but at last he that put words into my mouth hath made you understand their meaning You have seen Truth and you love it you desire to see it more plainly that you may love it more fervently Think not Aristarchus that what enlightens you and creates in you the desire you feel now is a word spoke in the air which only affects the body or the sensible man uncapable of understanding How many times have I told you the same things without convincing you of them I spoke then to your ears but the light of truth did not shine in your mind or rather since that Light is always within us it did shine in your mind but it did not enlighten it Being out of your self you hearken'd to a man who only spake to the Body You were in Darkness and would not turn your self towards him who alone can disperse it Learn then my dear Aristarchus to retire within your self to be attentive to Inward Truth to ask and receive the answers of our common Master for without it I assure you all my words will be barren fruitless and like all those I have told you already which you hardly can remember Aristarchus I am willing to do my endeavour to follow you but I fear I shall not be able to do it for I have much ado to understand well the things you have told me now Theod. In the Passion that moves you now you will not fail to give attention to all the things I 'll tell you but you shall not always understand them your attention will hardly be pure enough and your intention sufficiently free from Interest to be always rewarded with the clear and distinct sight of Truth The attention of the mind is the natural Prayer we make to Inward Truth that it may discover it self to us but this Soveraign
I do not know how I came to persuade my self that I should be guilty of want of respect towards the words of the Gospel should I speak any more to him about the Truths of Religion so that I stood before him without saying any thing But if my mind did not express itself by the sound of my voice my heart spoke sufficiently by the air of my face and my Friend might well imagin that I was not come to see him so early merely to bid him good morrow On the other side he being in the main a Man of a civil and mild disposition I cannot doubt but that he repented himself of the Answers he had made me and had pondered on those things which I had told him with a strength and plainness sufficient as I thought to convince him if he had any ways reflected Withal seeing me so early come to see him after the many expressions he had used which ought to have made me decline his Society for a long time being of the temper that I have mentioned he could not help being moved by my zeal and sorry for his want of attention In short whether he was shaken by my former Reasons or touched by some sentiments of Friendship and Gratitude he began after he had been some moments silent with an acknowledgment of his fault and of his sorrow After this he prayed me to repeat once more the proofs that I had offered to him of the Christian Religion assuring me that he had thought on them seriously and that he had found much solidity and light in them how imperfectly soever he remembred them I at first was somewhat unwilling to comply with his desire still remembring the words of Christ but seeing him persist in his demand with heat and eagerness I believed that he was disposed to hear me Accordingly I gave him the satisfaction he desired and he hath received without difficulty the same things that he had rejected with scorn Theod. You see even by this Aristarchus that it was convenient that Christ should cause himself to be expected during many Centuries and hide himself in the Scriptures for those who do not care to find him We easily receive what we desire and find with pleasure what we seek with passion Your Friend could not see two days ago that Truth which you proposed to him because he did not seek it but he hath discovered it because he desired it and hath found it with pleasure if he hath sought it with eagerness If Men do not know God 't is because they do not care to know him and if they do not see the truth of the Christian Religion 't is because the love of sensible things prepossesses them and makes them hate a Religion that destroys it All our Passions justifie themselves and speak incessantly for their conservation and those that hearken to the dictates of their Passions find themselves so strongly moved with compassion towards them that for their sakes they despise the Laws which condemn those Criminals to death For indeed nothing is more despicable than the Christian Religion if we believe our Passions The Gospel hath nothing that appears pleasing it preaches nothing to us but self-denial and Christ doth by the example of his life and death condemn the conduct of those who fix their minds on sensible things Those therefore who esteem nothing besides the objects of their Senses who blindly follow the motions of their Passions voluptuous Men or to use the words of Christ Swine are uncapable of understanding the truth of Religion and enjoying true happiness The Kingdom of God is a Pearl for which they will not sell all what they possess they do not know the value of it Therefore Christ will not have us to propose future happiness to those Wretches nor explain sacred Mysteries to them they being uncapable and unworthy of them We are only to threaten them in the Name of God and make them afraid by the Idea of Eternity or even by the fear of temporal Ills. But when they grow penitent deprive themselves of worldly pleasures and cease to be Swine it is necessary we should explain to them the Mysteries of Religion and the Secrets of the Gospel for being then become Sheep they hear and can discern the voice of the true Pastor of their Souls For this Reason and several others which you will perhaps understand by the Sequel of our Discourses I did not much approve of the design you had to relate all things to your Friend I was asraid for you and had no hopes of him But God who disposes of our hearts hath rewarded your Charity and Zeal and you ought to return your thanks to him for 't We have hitherto discoursed of the Proofs that concern the Truth of Religion and I believe that what I have said is sufficient to persuade reasonable persons that there is no other Religion in the world besides the Christian able to re-establish the Order which Sin hath reversed that none besides God-man could satisfie God's Justice reconcile us and give us an access to him and in a word pay to God a worship worthy of him It is time to shew you that Christian Morality is perfectly conformable to Reason and that in the state to which Sin hath reduced us nothing more useful to re-establish the order of things can be prescribed than the precepts and counsels of Christ concerning Prayer and the privation of sensible things for I suppose no others I entreat you to observe carefully whatever we shall speak of hereafter for you ought rather to instruct your Friend in those things which respect the government of our manners than in such speculative truths as are above the capacity of a carnal and sensible Man I will put some Questions to Erastus for I have not said any thing to him this good while Do you remember Erastus what we have said concerning the End and Order which God proposed to himself when he created Man and are you convinced of it Erast I remember it and am convinced of it I believe that God acts for none but himself that when he makes a Spirit it is that this Spirit may know him and that when he makes a Will it is that this Will may love him This Order seems to me so necessary that I do not believe that God preserves any Spirit but what in some manner knows and loves him I believe that the Union which Spirits have with God by their knowledg and love cannot altogether be dissolved without annihilating them For what kind of being were that Spirit that should know and love nothing But all Spirit that knows and loves knows and loves only by the means of the Union which he hath with God since he is not to himself his light and that the motion which he hath towards good in general and which makes him capable of loving private good doth not proceed from himself nor from any thing below him Theod. That 's true
truth he could not bear a little while before Arist I give you thanks for this advice Theodorus and will certainly make good use of it the Impatience which is excited within me by the hopes of being serviceable to my friend obliges me to break off our Conversation I must satisfie my self Theod. I commend your zeal and the sincerity of your friendship be of good heart Aristarchus I wish you may return satisfy'd and you Erastus be careful to have in your mind the things that we have said and to discourse about them with Aristarchus as soon as he comes back DIALOGUE III. Of the Order of Nature in the Creation of Man Theod. WEll Aristarchus you have converted your man Erastus told me just now all that past between you and him I even know that he desires to be your Disciple and to have an account of our following conferences Be pleas'd then for his sake to apply your self so that you may demonstrate all things to him with some exactness Arist You take the right way to ingage me for I am extreamly sensible to friendship and methinks my desire to know truth is doubled by the design I have to impart it to my friend Let us go on then I beseech you I am perswaded that there is a God that is to say a Being infinitely perfect whose wisdom and power have no bounds and whose providence extends it self not only to us but even to the atoms of matter I remember your proofs and am convinc'd of them Theod. I can demonstrate nothing of true Religion nor of true Morality till I know what God designs in the creation and preservation of our being Arist You must seek some other principle Theodorus My friend is a Cartesian his Philosophy doth not admit final causes and tho he is now convinc'd that there is a God he will not fail to tell me that we ought not to presume so much of our selves as to believe that God hath been pleas'd to make us privy to his counsels Theod. Your friend will never say this to you if he be a good Cartesian The knowledge of final Causes is of little or no use in Natural Philosophy as Descartes pretends But it is absolutely necessry in Religion Can you obey God if you do not know his will and can you hope to please him and that he will make you happy except you be obedient to him â—… may be you imagine that we can know nothing of Gods design on men by Reason but you are mistaken Do not think too much on your friend Pray think on what I am going to tell you You are perswaded that God is wise and ascribe to him all the perfections whereof you have some Idea God therefore loves most what is most lovely and so must love himself more than all things and be to himself the end of all his actions And by consequence the end of the Creation and preservation of our being It follows then that the faculty by which we know that is to say our Mind and that whereby we love which is our will 〈◊〉 made and preâ—…ved to know and to love God supposing as you do not doubt it they have been made to know and to love Do you find any darkness in what I have told you Pray think on it 't is the ground of all we shall â—ay hereafter Arist All this seems to me as evident as the most certain principles of Natural Philosophy Theod. It hath even more certainty the communication of motion is certain as experience teaches us nevertheless this communication might not be and it will in all likelihood cease after the resurrection that our bodies may be incorruptible but it shall never cease to be the will of God that we know and love him Since then this seems to be plain to you how can it happen that there be men that neither know nor love God since God preserves them but to know and love him Do you think it possible to resist God and that God hath any love for Spirits who have no knowledge of him nor any love for him Do you think God preserves them and do you not know that if God should cease to love them they should be no more Arist I begin to doubt of your principle for you draw some very sad consequences from it Theod. 'T is very strange Aristarchus you should doubt of things of which you have an evidence Will you always forget that light ought to be preferred to darkness and that clear truths are not to be forsaken because we find some difficulty in clearing some dark objections Learn to distinguish truth from what seems to be so and observe that what I objected to you just now is true in one sense and false in another For there is no man but knows and loves God in one sense as you will see it hereafter Therefore stick firmly to this truth that God hath made and preserves spirits but to know and love him And this truth being granted since it is evident endeavour to discover how it may be conceiv'd that all spirits know and love God for that is of the greatest consequence I will put some questions to Erastus that I may insensibly lead you to that truth Do you think Erastus that Spirits can see Bodies Or rather do you think that this material and sensible world can be the immediate object of the mind Do you think that bodies can act in the mind make themselves visible to the mind or enlighten it Erast I do not think it Theod. What then do you see immediately when you see the material and visible world Erast I see If I may say so the Intelligible World Theod. How when you look upon the Stars do you not see the Stars Erast When I look upon the Stars I see the Stars when I look upon the Stars of the material world I see the Stars of the intelligible world and judge that those material Stars are like those of the intelligible world I see For the Sun that I see is sometimes bigger and sometimes less and is never bigger than an intelligible Circle of two or three foot diameter but the material Sun is always the same and according to the sentiment of some Astronomers about thirty thousand times bigger than the Earth 't is not then this Sun I see when I am looking upon it Theod. But Erastus where is this intelligible world which you see Do you think to include it within your self Do you think your soul comprehends in an intelligible manner all the beings that God can make and you can see Can your Soul whose bounds are too narrow whose perfections are finite and who certainly doth not include all things see all things by reflecting on herself Erast I do not think it but I dare not tell you my opinion I imagine that there is none but God that includes the intelligible world and that we see in God whatever we see Theod. But why are you afraid to
the original of light Endeavour to persuade him that God alone is the life and nourishment of the soul That all bodies are invisible by themselves and altogether uncapable of producing any sentiment in our souls That all good is included in God in an intelligible manner in a manner fit to act into the mind to shew it self and cause it self to be felt by it In short that God alone is the true good of the mind all manner of ways and that we ought to love and adore none but him Raise in him a desire to hear you by things on which perhaps he never thought and such as may by their novelty stir up in him a salutary curiosity But above all things endeavour to make him very sensible of his unjustice towards God whilst he follows his passions And that being a sinner and consequently unworthy of being rewarded by the delightful sentiments of pleasure he obliges God in consequence of his immutable orders to affect him with delight in the very moment he offends him Death shall corrupt his body and then God remaining unchangeable in his decrees will avenge during a whole eternity the wrongs he shall have done him by compelling him in a manner not only to be subservient to his disorders but even to reward him for his disobedience In short make him sensible of the necessity there is to repent and strive to inspire in him a saultary horror of all those criminal pleasures that bewitch the senses and corrupt the heart and reason That retiring within himself the confused noise of his passions may not hinder him from hearkning to the secret checks of inward truth and thus he may understand what you shall tell him afterwards DIALOGUE IV. Of the Disorder of Nature caused by Original Sin Theod. WELL what satisfaction have you had of your last visit to your Friend Arist None at all My Friend becomes ill-humoured when ever I speak to him nay sometimes he grows angry and flies out in a passion This troubles me very much Theod. But doth he laugh no more at what you say Arist No. Theod. Be of good heart then your Friend mends and I hope will recover He begins now to feel his wounds since he laughs no more when they are drest Should you wonder to see a man grow ill-humoured and angry if another filled him with wounds confusion and shame why then would you have your Friend insensible You have told him perhaps some truths that oblige him to leave his pleasure to shake off the Old Man to be in a disposition to repent and appear full of confusion and shame in the sense of his unfortunate Friends who will laugh at his change He hath had a prospect of all those things within himself and they have scar'd him If he be vext 't is because you have wounded him and I believe that you have offended him by Convincing him Can any thing grieve and mortifie a worldly man more than the thoughts of being obliged to change altogether his way of living and approve by his own example a manner of life which his Friends ridicule and he himself hath laught at with them all his life-time Perhaps your Friend finds himself obliged to this He is willing to breakhis bonds but he tears himself to pieces his heartis divided and you wonder at his pain and impatience Know my dear Aristarchus that if your Friend heard you without being moved it would show that he is not affected with your words that they do not reach his heart that he is not convinced by that conviction which stirs us to action begins our conversion and makes us suffer because it strips us of the Old Man So I would have you be joyful not because you have filled your Friend with sadness but because his sadness is in all likelihood the sadness that inclines us to repentance Arist You revive me extreamly Let us go on I pray you in our conferences that I may strengthen my self in the knowledge of the proofs of Religion and Morality to convince my Friend fully You prov'd me t'other day that God hath made us to know and love him Pray what consequence do you draw from that principle For I grant that God will not have us to fix on particular good the motion of Love that he incessantly causes in us that we may love him incessantly not with respect to his works which being below us are unworthy of our Love but in himself and according to the idea we have of him as a Being infinitely perfect Theod. All the Precepts of Christian Morals depend upon that Principle You believe it already but you shall see it clearly when I shall make use of it to justifie the counsels which the Eternal Wisdom hath given us in the Gospel I will show you now that this principle is the ground of the Christian Religion that owns the need of a Restorer and Law-giver able to illuminate the Spirit and give a new strength to the Soul of a Mediator between God and Men who may offer a Sacrifice and establish a Worship worthy of God and able to satisfie his justice You own that God will be loved with all our strength that is to say that all the motion of love he creates in us end towards him and that we love creatures only for him and not him with respect to creatures But do you love him always after that manner do you find no difficulty in the practice of his Love do you feel no pain to follow this motion to its utmost or no pleasure to stop it In short do you not find often that the ways of vertue are hard and painful and those of vice smooth and pleasing Arist I am not more perfect than St. Paul I sometimes delight in the love of God according to the inward man but I feel in my body another law that fights against the law of my spirit I suffer when I practice vertue I receive some pleasure in the enjoyment of sensible things in spight of all my opposition and am so much a slave to my body that I cannot even apply my self without pain and reluctancy to things that have no relation to the body Theod. But whence proceeds this pain you resent in doing well and this pleasure you have in doing ill You are not the cause of your own pleasure nor pain for if you were seeing you love your self you would never produce pain in your self and would still be injoying some pleasure Neither is it your body not those that are about you for all bodys are below you and it cannot be conceived that they may act in you or make you happy or unhappy None but God can act in the Soul But do you think that God afflicts you when you do well or that he rewards you when you do ill Do you think that God who desireth that you may love him with all your strength throws you back when you run after him But when you cease to
follow him and stop at some particular good do you think that he fixes you on it by the pleasure you find in it Erast What are you affraid of Aristarchus Is it not plain that God alone can act in us hath not Theodorus demonstrated it to you why do you hesitate will you already leave Principles plainly demonstrated for an objection you cannot solve will you prefer darkness to light Yes 't is God Theod. Softly Erastus I esteem the firmness of your mind but I like the disposition wherein I find Aristarchus better in this case he fears to fail in point of respect towards God and that there may be something hard and violent in the consequence I would draw Erast I have thought on your System Theodore and can explain all this without saying any thing hard or displeasing What you just now did object to Aristarchus plainly evinces original sin the disorder of nature the enmity that is between God and man the necessity of a Mediator Lawgiver and Restorer in short it seems to me that I have a glimpse of the Christian Religion in that Principle Arist You go very fast Erastus I pray you Theodore demonstrate that the proof of original sin is to be found as Erastus pretends in those things you told me just now Theod. How Aristarchus do you not see it Do you not remember the system which I explained to you two days ago But 't is no matter I ask you Is it not a disorder that a spirit who is made for none but God should suffer when he loves God Arist But you say that it is God that makes him suffer Theod. I own it But is it not a disorder that God who hath made spirits for none but himself and gives them no motion but towards himself should repel them from him push them back and use them ill when they come near him and cause in them sentiments of pleasure when they turn from him and fix on some particular good Arist This is not only a disorder but a contradiction This cannot be God doth not contradict nor oppose himself Theod. But Aristarchus Is it not certain that God makes and preserves us for none but himself Is it not also most certain that God alone acts in the Soul and gives her sensations of pleasure or pain when she cleaves to bodies or when she deprives her self of them Is it not God that moves us to love him and also to love bodies if the pleasure we feel at their appearance may be reckoned a sufficient reason for a rensonable spirit to love then Arist It is true But how Theod. I have already explained it to you But yet can this disorder this fight of God against himself give me leave to use these expressions for a while this want of uniformity we imagin to be in Gods Actions proceed from God God made man for himself and even preserves him for himself only but when a man quits the body to unite himself to God by the force of meditation when a man walks in the ways of vertue to come near God he feels pain and this pain proceeds from none but God Doth not this show that God is angry with us and that we have displeased him If God will have us to run after him and to follow and seek him is it possible he can reject and push us back and make us resent pain when we really follow him unless at the same time there be some Enmity between us and him Why doth he repel us when we follow him but because we are unworthy to come near him And how are we unworthy to come near him since he is the end of our Creation unless it be because we are no more such as God had made us and he doth not care for us as we are now and we want a Restorer and a Mediator Arist I doubt you have not well demonstrated yet the Enmity which you believe to be between God and men You say that God repels us when we would come near him because he makes us have a sense of pain in the practice of vertue and the inquiry after truth But I have two things to object to you First that if it seems that God repess and molests us by Sentiments of pain on the other side he comforts us in the deepest recess of our reason for we feel an inward joy in the practice of vertue which makes us know sufficiently that God is our good and if God did not desire we should love him he would not reward us with this inward comfort nor create in us those bitter checks and reproaches that make us uneasie in the injoyment of sensible good Secondly God doth not repel and thrust us from him when we run after him he only gives us notice by sentiments of pain to seek somewhere else than in him the good of the body And as meditation is not conducible to our health we ought to feel some pain in its practice that we may leave it off for all sensible pleasures or pains are only warnings to the body and you ought not to think that God will have us love or hate any thing for the sake of the pleasures or pains we receive in the use of them God will have us to seek or avoid them for the preservation of the Body as you said two days ago but he will not have us love or fear them Theod. Whatever you have said now is true Aristarchus but it doth not overthrow what I had establisht before I own that God comforts us by an inward joy when we love him and that he torments us by knawing checks when we love the good of the body After all what doth this prove nothing else but that God will have us to love him and that he hath made us for himself It is a certain mark that the enmity between God and men is not full and general but it is not a sure sign of a perfect friendship Sinners have offended God there is enmity between them and God you do not doubt it and yet God recalls them to him by checks and reproaches Yet this doth not shew that he loves them perfectly but only that the enmity is not entire and absolute for it cannot be such without causing their destruction And do not imagine that these checks alone such as the Heathens felt them could make them come back reconcile and rejoin themselves to their principle This call was only to justifie God's conduct and condemn that of Sinners For in all likelihood it is to be found even amongst the Damned who will be eternally recalled and eternally repelled and condemned those checks being a condemnation of their malice None return but such as are called back in Jesus Christ for nothing but his grace can make this Call efficacious without the grace of Christ sensible attractions have a greater power than this inward call God pushes us back more than he draws us to him and if he will have us
rewards disorder Era. But Theodore Was not what you call Disorder put into the Child by God himself Since it is by the Decree of his Will that upon certain motions of the Brain certain thoughts should result in the Soul and the communication that is between the Brain of the Mother and that of the Child was established by God The. I own it Erastus however it is not amiss It was requisite that the Vestiges in the Brain and the motions of the Spirits should be attended with the thoughts and agitations of the Soul for the Reasons I have already told you the chief whereof is That Bodies do not deserve the application of a Spirit that is made for none but God It was necessary that Adam should be told by preingaging Sentiments by short and unquestionable Proofs that such and such things were good for his Body It was fit also that the impressions on the Mother's Brain should communicate themselves to that of the Child for the full conformation of his Body Those things are most wisely establisht Disorder is only found in Desire It is good that there result in the Soul certain thoughts when certain impressions form themselves in the Brain but it is not good that those impressions prompt us to the love of sensible things and do not vanish when we desire it or that our Body be not submitted to us Now the Sin of the first Man hath caused this for he became unworthy by his Sin that God should suspend the communication of motions for his sake so not being able to hinder the impression of the Bodies that act on us from reaching as far as the chief part of the Brain which is the seat of the Soul we have of necessity the sentiments and motions of Concupiscence tho God doth nothing else in us but deprive us of the power to hinder the natural communications of motions that is to say without acting in us For Concupiscence precisely as such is nothing it is in us only a want of power over our Body which want proceeds from our Sin only since it would be just without it that our Body were submitted to us Erast I perceive plainly Theodorus that the union of our Spirit with our Body proceeds from God and that our being Slaves to our Body proceeds from Sin All that is plain But you Aristarchus are you persuaded of the Sentiments and Proofs of Theodorus Arist I dare not assent to them for I fear to be mistaken Erast Perhaps it is because Theodorus speaks of the transmission of original Sin as of a thing not impossible to be explained and you have hitherto believed it to be unexplainable this may have prepossessed you Or it may be your Sceptical Friends have so often laught at the simplicity of those that believe what the Church teaches that your imagination hath been formerly somewhat spoilt by it For my part I remember that some time ago I was half stunned by the reflection of the amazement that appeared in the looks of one of those false learned at the appearance of an imaginary difficulty But remembring what Theodorus tells me continually not to suffer my self to be imposed upon by the Air and sensible impression of Men I retired within my self and could not help laughing at my pannick fear Arist Do you think Erastus that I am so much a Fool as to let my self be imposed on Erast You are too wise to do so Aristarchus but you are not yet wise enough not to receive some impression by the bold way and commanding Air of so many People that come to see you It is impossible to be always upon our guard and compare incessantly Mens words with the answers of inward truth and you shall give me leave to tell you that I even observed but two days ago by your countenance that you are a Man born for company that you are very full of complaisance and very easily embrace the Sentiments of others yet the business was of moment Arist I remember it it is true I was moved that person spoke to me in a very strong and lively manner but I soon came to my self Theod. Perhaps it is because the thing nearly concerned you and you were not then about a Philosophical Question or certain Points of Religion that have nothing common with the Senses Arist It is true but really I will no longer believe Men upon their word Theod. No you do not believe them upon their word for words being arbitrary persuade only as far as they enlighten the mind but the Air persuades naturally and by impression It persuades insensibly and without letting us even know what it is that we are persuaded of for all it can do by it self is to agitate and trouble I say it to you Aristarchus you confusedly believe above a million of things which you do not know and which the Commerce you have with the World hath heapt on your memory But be not vext at it there is no man but hath a very great number of those confused Notions for we are all sensible There is no man made for Society but is fastned to other men and receives in his brain the same impressions as those who speak to him with some emotion and force and those impressions are attended by those confused judgments whereof I am speaking Do not imagine that none but Children see and desire what their Mother sees and desires as I told you just now when I explained to you the propagation of original Sin All men live by opinion they commonly see and desire things as those they converse with proportionately to the need they have of their help Children are so strongly united with their Mothers that they see nothing but what she sees But men are capable to see and think of themselves they are not so narrowly united to other men seeing they can live alone they can think alone but seeing they cannot live conveniently out of Society they never think easily and without pain but when they suffer themselves to be persuaded by the air and way of those who speak to them Is it not true Aristarchus that there are some Persons who have prepossessed you against what I have said to you now of original Sin not as Erastus thinks by laughing at those things for you are too well converted to have still any deference for the silly banters of the false learned but rather gravely and piously inspiring you with a secret aversion for some Sentiments that seem new and are too clear for such as are not used to see the light I know it Aristarchus and plainly perceive that nothing but the disorder which they have caused in your mind by the darkness of their terms and the decisive and scientific air of their quality hinders you from assenting to what I have told you now But let not this make you uneasy there is a great number of others distinguisht by the same outward marks of Piety and Learning that approve what
will consult inward truth and believe only what it shall tell me I mistrust all Men and even you Theodorus you may speak as much as you please I will not believe you the sooner for it if truth doth not speak as well as you Your way of speaking is able to impose upon Men your Air is that of a Man persuaded of what he saith and that Air is persuasive you ought to be feared as well as others I honour and love you but I honour and love truth more than you and only love you so much the more as I find you more united to that truth I love than a world of others Theod. You are now in the best disposition of a true Philosopher and a true Friend for there is nothing but truth that enlightens true Philosophers and unites true Friends I desire you to observe and love in me nothing but truth I speak to you but I do not enlighten you I am not your light nor your good therefore do not believe me If my Air and way of expression make an impression on your imagination I would have you to know that it is not with a design to impose upon you I have no design in it I speak naturally and if I have some design it is only that of awakening your attention by something that may penetrate you Arist I believe it Theodorus and as you would be sorry to deceive me you will not take it ill if I am aware of you and do not believe you upon your word But go on I pray you I am inwardly convinced of the matters which you proved to me yesterday and even of your way of explaining the transmission of Original Sin Theod. I told you yesterday some things that are not absolutely necessary for what will follow There is no necessity of your being persuaded of the manner how Adam could happen to fall nor how his Sin could transmit it self into his Off-spring It is enough that you know that Men are born in Sin and Corruption that there is an enmity between God and them that their body is not under their subjection and that consequently their mind is in darkness and their heart in sin and disorder You cannot doubt of these things if you are persuaded of what I told you yesterday or make some reflections on the strugling that you feel within you of your self against your self of the law of your mind against that of your body of your self after the inward man against your self after the outward and sensible man You believe Aristarchus that the order of things is reversed it must therefore be re-establisht But how shall that be done Shall it be by the Heathens Philosophy They are ignorant of our Ills and cannot cure them Shall it be by the Religion of the Deists They will not admit of a Mediator Shall it be by the Law of Mahomet it encreaseth Concupiscence Shall it be then by the Law of Moses it is just and holy I own it but who shall keep it It shews us Sin it makes us sensible of the decease it makes us know the want of the Physician and the need of Grace that there must be a Mediator to reconcile Mankind to God but it doth not give us that Mediator it promises represents and gives us an image of him but it doth not possess him Moses himself hath need of an Intercessor to God and if he was a Mediator and Intercessor between God and his People it was only as a Type of the true Mediator between God and men His Mediation was only to obtain for them a long life upon earth and temporal enjoyments for he doth not promise them Heaven he doth not reunite them to God he doth not merit them Charity In fine he doth not send them the Holy Ghost that alone removes the fear of Slaves and alone gives right to the inheritance of Children None but Christ is capable to make peace between God and men for none but him can atone the justice of God by the excellency of his Sacrifice intercede to God by the dignity of his Priesthood obtain all things and send us the Holy Ghost by the quality of his Person None but him that came down from Heaven can take us thither with him and none but him that is united to God by an union of substance can reunite us to God by a supernatural union none but the true Son of God can intitle us to his Adoption God having made all things by his Son and for him it was just he should repair all things by him and establish him Head of his Church Judge over his People and Sovereign Lord of all the Creation Who but God-man could retribute to God an honour worthy of him have a fellow-suffering of our miseries and sanctify them in his Person Who but him could be predestinated before the beginning of time as a work worthy of God represented in all Ages as the end of the Law and wished for by all Nations as the only Person able to deliver them from their misery Man being become sensible and carnal it was necessary that the Word should be made Man that the intelligible Light should make himself sensible and that he who enlightens all Men in the deepest recess of their reason should instruct them likewise by their Senses by Miracles Parables and familiar Comparisons United as we are to all corporeal Beings and having a dependence upon whatsoever we are united to it was necessary that we should be taught Self-denial Privation and Repentance and strengthned by the cherishing delights of Grace as also comforted by the sweetness of Hope The Christian Religion doth whatever ought to be done and Christian Morality teaches whatsoever ought to be known But I must prove to you more at large and by a method that may convince your Friend that none but the Christian Religion can re-establish the Order that Sin hath reversed I begin with those things that concern Religion and then will come to Morality I pray you therefore to be attentive Aristarchus Do you believe that God is merciful Arist Can I not believe it Theod. And do you believe that he is just Arist Yes certainly Theod. * This Work being chiefly against such as have but little deference to the Authority of the Fathers I do not quote them to prove my Assertions tho' I give their Arguments when I judge them proper for my design When I quoted The Inquiry after Truth the Reason was that the Reader may see in that Book the things that I have not sufficiently explained in this However it is easy to perceive that I do not pretend to convince any one by the Authority of that Book I quote it as Geometricians do Euclid and Apollonius You must believe then that it is impossible that Sin can remain unpunished and that God must needs revenge himself on such as offend him and that it is necessary that he satisfy himself by atoning his Justice Arist
how he is the beginning and end of all things Those holy persons that read the Scripture with an intention to find Christ never fail to find him there for he is in every place of it But they have not the spirit of this world but that of God whereby they know the greatness of the Gift that God hath imparted to them The outward and sensible Man is not capable of the things which the Divine Spirit teacheth us for the eye hath not seen the ear hath not heard nor the heart of man ever understood what God hath prepared for those that love him I do not only speak of those false learned who deny the corruption of Nature the necessity of Grace and the Divinity of Christ yet assume the quality of Christians I also speak of those who live in the bosom of the Church but have little love for Religion It is impossible they should be very well learned in the knowledge of Christ seeing they do not love him and do not study the Scriptures professing the Christian Religion perhaps only because it is that of their Parents Arist You have told us a great many things both to day and yesterday since I have seen my Friend I imagin that he wants me as I do to know what he will think of these things I must leave you to go to him Theod. Do Aristarchus make him sensible of the general corruption of Nature and the enmity that is between God and man and endeavor to demonstrate plainly to him the necessity of Christ's satisfaction If you find that he receives your Sentiments as he ought and is willing to be instructed immediately fall on the praises of our Redeemer and stir him up to the love of his Saviour by the consideration of the chief obligations he hath to him Tell him That Christ is the Way the Truth and the Life That he is our intelligible light that enlightens us in the deepest recess of our Reason and our sensible light that instructs us by Miracles by Parables and Faith That he alone is the food of the Soul That his light is the sole producer of Charity and that none but him can give us the holy Spirit whereby we become the children of God Tell him that he hath been predestinated before all time to be our King and Chief our Pastor and Law-giver That God receives our Prayers through him only That we are made clean only by his blood and enter into the Holy of Holies only through his Sacrifice In short That Christ is all things to us that in him we are new creatures and new men that have not been condemned in Adam that without Christ we are nothing have right to nothing but are sold to Sin Slaves to the Devils and the eternal objects of God's wrath Use all your endeavors to make him think on Christ to unite him to and make him esteem and love Christ and conclude with these words of St Paul at the end of one of his Epistles If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha 1 Cor. 16.22 DIALOGUE VI. The Truth of the Christian Religion proved by other Reasons Arist AH Theodorus how unsatisfy'd am I in my Friend Theod. Yes Aristarchus I can easily see it the Air of your Countenance does not rejoice those that examin it 't is not an Air of Triumph or of Victory that might please those who take part of it But how cou'd he resist you Arist As I was well persuaded of the truth of the Christian Religion by the proofs of original Sin and the necessity of a Mediator so I imagined I cou'd convince him by proposing the same proofs but I know not to what I should attribute the ill success of my words when I spoke to him instead of persuading him I provoked him and he rejected all that I proposed to him with a kind of scorn he would not so much as agree with me in common Notions but continually said that my Reasons were the Reasons of Philosophy Such Answers grieved me I strove to convince him and continued to repeat the same things hoping that at last he would reflect but all my Efforts were entirely lost 'T is something strange Theodorus that a Man can't convince others of the same thing that he himself is fully convinced of for it appears to me that all Men ought to see the same things Theod. If all Men were equally attentive to inward truth they would all equally see the same things but your Friend is not like you he is taken up with a multitude of things and his pride has now for many years kept him unconversant even with himself so that abstracted proofs and reasonings built upon Notions which have no dependance of the senses persuade him not because these proofs don't touch him and because he has many confused reasons which hinder his application to them When a Man has discovered a Geometrical Demonstration he can convince all Men of it to whom he clearly proposes it because that these things are sensible that they freely apply themselves to them that there 's no reason why they should not believe them that they are not prepossess'd by the authority of Men that deny them and that when they see these kinds of truth they see them after a sensible manner But 't is not the same with certain truths which are contrary to our inclinations there we think not seriously and we have many reasons not to believe them It 's necessary Aristarchus that I demonstrate to you the truth of the Christian Religion by more sensible proofs than those of our preceding Conferences it may be your Friend will more willingly hearken to them Do you take his place and object whatever you can imagin against what I shall offer I only suppose that God hath made our Souls to know and love him 'T is what your Friend assents to You have heard Aristarchus of one Moses the famous Legislator of the Jews to whom God gave the Ten Commandments upon Mount Sinai Do you believe what the Scripture says of him Arist But what if he was a Cheat an Impostor Theod. Very well Aristarchus you suppose your self under your Friend's character but you know that he must have an excessive bold spirit I would say the most ignorant and most transported of bold spirits who dares say that Moses was a Cheat you do much honour to your Friend Arist I know what I say Theod. Well then if you know him so well speak for him I will engage him in your person You have reason Aristarchus and ought not to oppose a Sentiment that is universally received by all reasonable persons unless you have good proofs that they are deceived Arist There is much prejudice Theod. Right but this common Reason does not justifie you nor will it justifie the most extravagant doubts that may be raised but I may tell you that there was never any Man that could be more unreasonably accused of Imposture
body or more noble than it or else you ought to begin again and say that Beasts have some other Felicity than that of drinking and eating and of enjoying their Body Arist This Reason convinces me but what would you conclude from thence Theod. Thus Aristarchus you believe that the Jews were Men as we are and that they had a Soul I would say a Substance which thinks perceives wills and reasons and is distinct from the Body your Friend whose place you take being a Cartesian does not doubt of this Arist 'T is true he proves demonstratively that the Existence of the Soul is more certain than that of the Body Theod. This being granted Aristarchus I say that Judaism as to the Letter is not a Religion which God has established for Men and that it could not render the Jews either more perfect or more happy because Moses propounded no other Felicity to the Jews than the enjoyment of the Body and that this sort of happiness is only proper for Beasts if it is true that Beasts have a Soul After Moses had propounded this carnal and ceremonial Law to the Jews which was a shadow of things to come Deut. 28. he promised that if they would observe it their Land should be fruitful that they should have great Families and numerous Flocks that they should be Masters over their Enemies and that God would preserve them as a People which he had chosen But if they would not observe it he told them that they should want all the necessaries of life and foretold those temporal Evils which are come upon them In fine he promised no other recompence or punishment no other happiness or misery than the enjoyment or privation of Bodies it seems there was no Hell no Paradise no Eternity for the Jews Arist But whence comes that 'T is certain the Jews were very gross and carnal Theod. 'T is not Aristarchus that the Jews were gross and carnal but because Moses being only the Figure could only promise good things in a Figure and could not bring them into the inheritance of Children The chief Priests according to the Law of Moses entered into the Sanctuary made with hands which was only a Figure of the true one They entered there with the blood of He-Goats and Calves which could not purifie the Conscience therefore the Law of Moses could not justifie men it gave them no part in eternal happiness therefore Moses was not to promise them any such thing that was the propriety of Jesus Christ who is entred with his own blood into Heaven the true Sanctuary and who hath purchased eternal Salvation as being the onely High-Priest of good things to come Can you think that the Jews were more carnal than the Heathens Can you imagin that Moses was more gross than Poets who make mention of their gods after so unworthy a manner But the Heathens thought of another life The Poets speak of the Elizian Fields and of Hell as places destined for the recompence of Virtue and the punishment of Vice There is no Motive more strong no Idea more terrible no Recompence more agreeable than that of Eternity and the most barbarous Nations are capable of being smitten shaken and carried on to the exercise of Virtue by this thought that they would be eternally rewarded for it yet Moses reckons a great number of Blessings and Cursings without mentioning Eternity Arist 'T is because he did not believe there were Spirits he believed not the Immortality of the Soul Theod. This Consequence is very just and did I not know that the Law of the Jews and their Covenant with God was a Figvre of the New Covenant I perhaps might think my self obliged by the deference I owe to the Books of Moses to be of the sentiment of the Sadducees for only this Party appears reasonable as I have already said for I have not yet spoken any thing that overthrows it But as your Friend is a Cartesian he is too much convinced of the Immortality of the Soul and that Beings which think are distinguisht from matter that cannot think to draw the same Consequences as you do Arist 'T is true this must convince him Theod. Nevertheless he was not convicted of it I could wish that the Body were our true happiness but is this happiness capable of recempencing those who fulfil the precept of loving God with all their heart with all their soul and with all their might This might perhaps be a sufficient reward to the Roman Virtue for happiness must be proportionable to its Virtue But is this worthy of God Is this sufficient to make those truly happy who truly love him You see plainly Aristarchus that they are not Why then did Moses enjoin us to love God with all our might And why did he only promise us the enjoyments of our Bodies for the recompence of this love unless it be that the love of God is indispensibly above all things and that Moses was not to promise the happiness he could not give This seems to me sufficient to convince you that Judaism was but the shadow and figure of Christianity that the Old Covenant only represented the true reconciliation of God with Men and that the Priests according to Aaron's Order the Sacrifices and Ceremonies of the Law ought to be abrogated by the Sacrifice of the Lamb without spot which takes away the sins of the world which worthily satisfies the Justice of God which introduces us into the Holy of Holies and promises the true happiness to all those who are members of that Body whereof he is the Head Thus you see that I have no design to become a Jew unless you believe me stupid enough to look upon the Body as my proper good the Body I say which can't be the happiness of Brutes if they have a Soul distinct from their Body and more Noble than it But as for you Aristarchus you have now a design to turn Turk I speak to you as you take upon you the character of your Friend you are for a Paradise where you would always be indulging your self in sensual pleasure you would have many Women to satisfie those Passions which are even here below called brutish and shameful * Chap. of Order Chap. of Judgment Chap. of Mercy c. the great Mahomet promises them as fair as new laid Eggs and as beautiful as Oriental Pearls they shall have black rolling Eyes Arist Enough Theodorus the Turkish Religion is certainly unworthy of reasonable Men it is even unworthy of Beasts if they have a Soul more Noble than their Body And I acknowledge that the Alcoran destroys itself by its own Principles as well as Judaism does in the Letter For in fine 't is certain that the enjoyments of the Body are not worthy of the Soul That those who love them become not thereby more perfect That those who enjoy them are thereby often ashamed And that the promises of Moses not to mention those of
by few things he could unite himself to God in a manner close enough to receive from him all the necessary lights This made him extremely learned Had he still disengag'd himself more from his Senses less immers'd himself in the World and yet more carefully apply'd himself to seek after Truth it is certain that he would have carried the Sciences of which he hath treated much further and his Metaphysics would not be such as he hath left them to us in his Writings Arist But Theodorus now that so many able Men have wrote of Philosophy Mathematics and other Learning methinks it is enough if we read their Works Those learned Persons whereof I was just now speaking to you know Des Cartes as well as Des Cartes could know himself My Friend whom I have a mind to convert understands him so throughly that nothing can be mention'd out of that Author but is known by him nay and the very place where it lies yet he never meditates reads a Book in three days and knows it all Therefore I judg that Retirement is not necessary for Learning Theod. Not for that Learning which resides in Memory and doth not enlighten the Mind Do you think that those Persons who so easily remember other Mens Opinions can see the truth of them Do you think that your Friend knows Des Cartes or rather do you think that he sees what Des Cartes saw If you do you are much mistaken I will grant to you that your Friend knows all the words which Des Cartes hath us'd better than Des Cartes himself did or that he can better relate Des Cartes's Opinion than Des Cartes himself could have done it In short I will believe if you will that he is fitter to make a Man a Cartesian to enlighten the minds of those that hear him and make them receive Des Cartes's Sentiments than Des Cartes himself was yet for all this I do not believe that he truly knows Des Cartes Des Cartes's Philosophy is in his memory and imagination and for that Reason he speaks pertinently of it but I do not believe that it is in his mind and for that Reason he neither sees nor approves those Sentiments that are the necessary Consequences of it It seems as a Paradox that a Man who doth not know a Truth should sometimes be more capable of persuading another of it than he who exactly knows it and discover'd it himself yet if you consider that we instruct others only by Words you will easily perceive that those that have any force of imagination and a happy memory often can remembring what they have read explain themselves more clearly than those who are accustom'd to meditation and who discover Truth by themselves Thus Aristarchus do not imagin that those who speak pertinently to you concerning some certain Truths see them perfectly for it is not always so many times this happens yet those Truths are only in their memory or else they see them by an imaginary sight for that sight furnishes expressions lively and that seem to signify much tho' they signify nothing distinct only to those whom they move to retire within themselves There is much difference between seeing and seeing between seeing after having read and seeing after having meditated And to find out those that see distinctly and perfectly possess a Truth from those who do not possess it there needs truly to propose to them some question that depends from it for then those that see clearly speak clearly but the others always speak in such a manner as discovers their want of light Examin your learned Men Aristarchus according to this method and you will find that the most learned are the most ignorant that they have the less penetration and the greatest rashness that they cannot so much as discern Truth from what seems to be such that they speak without conceiving what they say and that often in the very instant that you admire them what is most to be admired in them is nothing but an effect of that memory which like a Watch goes of itself and whose springs unbend themselves by the action of the imagination In short you will see after all that almost all their knowledg is destitute of light and evidence of that intellectual light and evidence that is darkned by the slightest sensation and dissipated by the smallest motion and that therefore Retirement a privation of sensible things the mortification of the senses and passions are absolutely necessary for the perfection of the understanding as also for the conversion of the heart But this doth not justify the Morals of the Gospel for Christ did not come to teach us the Mathematics Philosophy and such other Truths which by themselves are unuseful enough for our Salvation All knowledg of Truth rendring the mind in some manner more perfect it was necessary that Christ's directions should be proper to purchase it But the true perfection of the mind and the shortest way to learn generally all Sciences being an Union with God not the natural Union which is incessantly interrupted by the motions of Concupiscence but the Union which a clear sight and a continual love make indissolvable It was necessary that Christ's Precepts should put us in the way whereby we may attain to that Union You will see at our next Interview that the Christian Religion alone can lead us to it In the mean time I leave you with Erastus to meditate on the things which we have said now DIALOGUE VIII That Christian Morality is absolutely necessary for the Conversion of the Heart Theod. WEll Aristarchus are you convinc'd that Retirement from Business a Privation of Pleasures in a word that a mortification of the Senses and Passions is absolutely necessary for the discovery of secret abstracted and sound Truths whose knowledg puffs not up the Heart For I well know that the Commerce of the World engages the Mind in the Study of such Sciences as render a Man famous and that Concupiscence gives us a Passion for all Truths which are useful to make a Man considerable in the World Arist Yes Theodorus I am convinc'd Truth in itself appears so mean a thing to Men toss'd with Passion or join'd to some sensible Object that they can't but despise it and tho' there are many that seek after it 't is I confess out of design and hope to draw some advantage from it The brightness and glory which environs the Learned sparkles and dazles us our secret Pride awakes and stirs us up But the pure light of Truth is not lively enough to make us perceive it when we are preingaged with other things Erast I have known some Men who probably read in the Morning for a matter of Talk in the Afternoon for as soon as they had left the little Company that applauded them they have had such an horror for Books and every thing call'd Learning that they cou'd not abide to hear it spoke of You remember Mr. F. for
broken off all their Bonds to be strictly joyn'd to God! But how much to be pitied are not those whom God calls to live in the Midst of the World to convert it what Woes have they not to undergo what Enemies to fight with I tremble said he when I think on 't yet with Christ's Help any Thing may be brought under Yet continued he do you think we are oblig'd to live amidst the Hurry of the World For my part I do not see that God calls me to this And indeed the Glories of the World dazzle me my Imagnation grows confus'd my Mind dissipates it self and I am disperst and out of my self as soon as I do not keep a strict Watch over my Actions As for you said he to me you are strong you are not afraid of the World your Imagination is firm and settled and God has given you Grace to loath the World after you had enjoyed its Pleasures I admire added he skilfully to make me reflect on my inward Misery how the Traces which were imprinted on your Brain by sensible Objects could so happily wear out how the Passions whose Impulse you formerly follow'd could be calm'd and how the Commerce which you have had with the World does not encrease and prompt Concupiscence in you As you have experienced that the Figure of this World passeth away you enjoy it as enjoying it not for a Man of your Sense will not suffer himself to be deceived twice But I alas am so stupid that I have no sooner got out of a Snare but I fall into it again and I am so insensible as to fancy my self wholly free while I am a Slave to my Passions As soon as I have resolv'd to get rid of some ill Habit I fondly imagine I have really cast it off So that I am like a Patient who thinks he is perfectly cur'd merely because he passionately desires to get out of Bed and go abroad While Erastus spoke thus I felt within me what he said of himself and knew him to have that Firmness of Mind for which he commended me This so deeply struck me and laid me open to my self in so clear and lively a manner that the State of my Soul at once affected me with Terrour and Pity while on the other side Erastus seem'd to me so lovely and ingenious and spoke to me in so sweet and natural a manner that I could not but give the deepest Attention imaginable to what he said But at last after he had spoken some of those Words which never come out of the Mouth but when the Heart is open he lookt in my Face to read in my Eyes the Effect which they had produc'd in my Soul and seeing me as I was then his Countenance at once chang'd according to mine his Speech fail'd him as mine did me he open'd his Mouth but was not able to utter a Word and when we had gaz'd on each other a Moment more to know one another our Disorder encreas'd and we were oblig'd to part This is part of what past between Erastus and my self at our last Enterview for I have not seen him to day and by the little I have now told you of it you may believe that he has not only convinc'd my Reason but also made himself Master of my Heart Whenever I think on him I as it were feel him drawing me along but while he takes me with him the things I leave call me back and I lose him However I do not lose him for a long time and I know very well what I shall do Theod. You surprize me much Aristarchus What! would you imitate Erastus follow a young Man's Example what will not your Friends say Arist They may say what they will 'T is not after all that I would follow Erastus for I should be ashamed to do it But 't is that Erastus is in the Path in which I would tread because I know 't is the best I own that I have a particular Love for him and the Example he shows me makes me resolve to do what I think I ought to do But I follow the Dictates of my Reason I obey the Gospel and walk in the Way that leads me whither I would go though Children or Mad-men went before me I ought not to go out of it for when a Man hath Business he goes along without minding who besides him walks the Streets I have lavish'd the best half of my Life in the Hurry of Business and the Diversions which Woâ—…y Men usually take All my former Studies have only 〈◊〉 to pervert my Understanding I did read only in order to make a Figure in the World to make my self fit for Conversation and to gain the Name of a Wit and a Man of Learning so that I hardly know any thing of the Christian Religion and Morals but what I have heard you say of them Is it not time then I should look to my self and seriously minding what is most essential repent me of my former disorderly Course of Life I had promised Erastus to study the Holy Scripture with him All keep my Word to him his Retirement ought not to make me forbear it for that sort of Study is most proper in a Retirement In short had not I a mind to endeavour as much as I can wholly to convert my Friend I should not a little surprize Erastus for I then would be before him where he is a going But I hope to surprize him otherwise perhaps I shall not go by my self to meet him there My Friend's Heart is chang'd and as 't is difficult he should be able to lead a Christian Life in the sight of the Libertines with whom he formerly kept Company who would continually persecute him I believe 't will be no hard matter to make him resolve to fly to a Retirement Theod. You are in the Right Aristarchus I advise you to relate to your Friend what pass'd between you and Erastus just as you told it me now and to give him an account of the Design you have to follow him If he sincerely desires to alter his Course of Life I am sure he wishes for some Place to which he may retire For 't is likely he does not find himself arm'd with a Resolution strong enough to conquer the Shame which those who follow Christ are put to by the World But your Overture backt with your Example will probably make him resolve to fly to some dark Retreat The Thing in doing of which a Man who is in great Reputation in the World finds most difficulty is in resolving to pass for a Fool or Mad-man the rest of his Life But let that Man think that he forsakes the World and follows such a Friend as you and then his Imagination will not so much disturb his Reason For our Imagination is usually comforted by Examples and if on one side it fancies that some Men will laugh at what we are going to do it remembers at the
mortally as the Children of Adam and neither love nor esteem our selves or others but in and through Christ in whom all things subsist and by whom we are reconcil'd to God The Elevation of the Soul of GOD. O GOD let me always be sensible of the wretchedness of my condition as a Son of fallen Adam that as such I am not worthy to think on thee or to adore and love thee but am a Child of Darkness a Sojourner in a dry and parched Land banished from thy Presence despised and rejected by thee and Heir to thy Eternal Malediction and that I have no right to complain of thy just rigour either to thy self or to thy Creatures Grant that I may humble my self before thee and abhor my self in this condition in which I am incapable of loving thee and that I may with an humble Faith fly to thy Son who has restored us to Peace and by whom we have free access to thee to render that which we owe to thee and to ask of thee that which thou seemest to owe to our Misery O Jesus my Deliverer perfect thy own work strip me of the old and cloth me with the new Man I will not henceforth love any thing in my self but what thou hast put into me or rather I will only love thee in my Heart Thou art all my Wisdom and all my Strength be thou also all my Glory and all my Felicity The Sixth Consideration MAN considered as the Son of a Father who revolted against God is a miserable weak and tender Child destitute both of Cloaths and Arms expos'd to the injuries of the Weather and given up as a prey to the fury of wild Beasts Adam in the State of Innocence was strong and mighty he was seated in an inaccessible place and under the protection of God nothing durst assault him and he was able to resist every thing After his Fall all the Creatures made War upon him and he was not able to resist any of them All the Posterity of this rebellious Parent do not only partake of his Sin but also of his Punishment Let us illustrate this Truth by distinct Ideas 'T is Pleasure that rules with a Soveraign and Arbitrary Power in the Heart of Man especially when his Reason is blinded For Pleasure is the Natural Character of good and Men cannot forbear loving that which is good And therefore Pleasure is as it were the weight of the Soul which inclines it by degrees and at last pulls it forcibly towards the Object that is the true or seeming Cause of that Sensation tho' Reason may oppose it for some time Adam before his Fall did not feel those preventing and preingaging Pleasures which afterwards constrained him to place his Affection on the Objects of his Senses He enjoy'd a perfect liberty and a full power to dispose of himself He was neither forced nor enticed but of his own accord and according to the measure of Light that was in him he inclined to love his real good But together with his Innocence he lost his perfect Liberty Not being longer Master of Pleasure nor able to stop the Sensation of it he was at last inslaved by it and both his Understanding and Affections were subdu'd under the tyranical dominion of Terrestrial Things He became altogether Earthly a Slave to Sin subject to Death and to a thousand other Miseries which it would be needless to describe We are all born like our first Father chained to the Earth For we do all Naturally feel Pleasure in the use of sensible things which are the good of the Body but we don't Naturally feel any good in those things which contribute to the perfection of the Mind And it is this irregularity of our Pleasures that disorders our Affections and is the most fruitful source of all our Miseries And while we are in this wretched condition we cannot by our selves draw near to God neither are we able to find in the Natural Order of things a Creature that is noble and pure enough and sufficiently elevated by the dignity of its Person and by the greatness of its Merits to reconcile us to God But we find all that we want or can desire in the Christian Religion This Holy Religion does continually exhort us to Mortification Resignation to a Circumcision of the heart and lessening of the weight of Sin and it gives us also a Mediator by whose Merit we receive the weight of Grace that victorious delight which passeth all understanding and which draws us to God notwithstanding all the resistance of our Passions and of the Pleasures of our Senses For these two things the privation of Pleasures and the delectation of Grace are absolutely necessary to us in a state of Sin We must by a continual Mortification of our Senses and Passions diminish that weight of Concupiscence which draws us to the Earth and ask of God through our Mediator Christ Jesus the delectation of his Grace without which all our endeavours to diminish the weight of Sin would be in vain for it would still weight us down and the least weight of Sin would infallibly draw us along with it and keep us as it were fastened to the Earth and under the dominion of our Enemies The Elevation of the Soul to GOD. O GOD let me never forget that I am an unhappy exile from my Native Countrey that I am in the midst of my Enemies who are still plotting my Destruction that the Air of the World is pestilential and poysonous and that all the Creatures draw me to themselves and divert me from thee Make me sensible O God that my Domestick Enemies are most dangerous that I ought to fear my self more than the World and the World more than the Devil and that among so many Enemies I have no strength to defend my self no arms to resist them nor understanding to discern them Inspire me with a deep sense of all my Infirmities Wounds and Miseries of which I have yet but a very imperfect knowledge O JESVS I see nothing in my self but weakness when I look upon my self without thee but when I feel thee with me I find my self endued with an invincible strength Through thee will we push down our Enemies and through thy Name will we tread them under that rise up against us For I will not trust in my Bow neither shall my Sword save me O thou derided buffeted and scourged Jesus thou that wast covered with Spittle and Blood and humbled even to the Death confound my Pride and Sensuality Drive all my Domestick Enemies out of my Heart by the Vertue of thy Sufferings and by the Merit of thy Holy Resignation Cloth thy self in Purple O my King put on thy Crown of Thorns and take thy Reed in thy hand come to my assistance and judge and subdue all my Enemies make the Earth tremble before thee when thou ascendest the Throne of thy Cross slay Death it self and for ever destroy the Pride of Sin