Concomitancy to infer indistinction and Identity But notwithstanding this Connexion the Ideas of Desire and Benevolence are very distinct as will easily and Clearly appear to any close and attentive Thinker SECT III. The Analogy between Love and Motion particularly with the Motion of the Heart with a further Illustration of the First and Great Division of Love. 1 HAving in the foregoing Section fix'd the general Idea of Love in the Motion of the Soul towards good and this being a Term somwhat Metaphorical and withall not so often applied by Scholastic Writers to this purpose I thought it concern'd me to draw here a short Parallel between Love and Physical Motion and to shew the admirable Agreement and Correspondency that is between them whereby 't will appear that the general Idea of Love could not have had a more convenient Representation 2 The excellent Monsieur Malebranche undertaking to describe the Nature of the Mind and considering its Idea to be very abstract and such as did not fall within the Sphere of Imagination thought it best to Shadow it forth by the two Eminent Propertys of matter viz. that of receiving various Figures and that of Motion or Mobility To the Property of receiving various Figures he resembles that Faculty of the mind which we call understanding And to Motion or Mobility he liken's the Will. The first of these Parallels he persues and illustrates in many Particulars but when he comes to the last he gives only this one instance of resemblance that as all Motions Naturally proceed in a right line unless by the interposition of external and particular causes they are otherwise determin'd so all the Inclinations which we have receiv'd from God are Right and would tend only to the true good were they not turn'd aside to ill ends by the impulse of some forreign cause 3 This indeed is finely observ'd by this Ingenious and Learned Theorist but for an inlargement of the Parallel I consider further that as in the Motion of Bodys Gravity precedes Actual Gravitation that is we necessarily conceive a certain Congruity or Connaturality of a Body to a certain Term before its actual Tendency thither so in the Soul there is a Natural Complacency or liking of good before its actual exerting it self towards it for we desire nothing but what we like or relish as convenient and agreeable to us But this I have touch'd upon already and shall therefore no longer insist upon it 4 Further therefore as this Affection call'd Gravity in Bodys is nothing else but that first impression or alteration made upon them by the various actings of those Effluviums or streames of Particles which issue out from the womb of the great Magnet the Earth so that if there were either no such Magnetic Body or a Vacuum to intercept its influences there would be no such thing as Gravity so in the like manner this radical Complacency and Connaturality of the Soul towards good which I call her Moral Gravity is nothing else but that first Alteration or Impression which is made upon her by the streaming influences of the Great and Supreme Magnet God continually acting upon her and attracting her by his active and powerfull Charms So that if either there were no God or this his influence never so little a while intercepted there would be no such thing as this Complacency or Moral Gravity of the Soul. 5 Again as this Physical Gravity causes in Bodys an actual Effort or Tendency toward the Centre and that with such necessity that they cannot but tend thither even while violently detain'd and when at liberty hasten with all possible speed to this last Term of their Motion so by Vertue of this Moral Gravity the Soul actually puts forth and exerts her self towards the great Magnet good in general or God and that with as much necessity as a stone falls downwards And tho' detain'd violently by the interposition of her Body yet still she endeavours towards her Centre and is no sooner set at liberty but she hastens away to it and unites her self with it For the will notwithstanding all her Soveraignty and Dominion acts according to Nature and Necessity when she tends to her Perfection Nay I take this Necessity to be such that I think it absolutely Impossible for God to Create a Soul without this Tendency to himself and that not only because 't is against Order and Decorum that he should do so but also because this Moral Gravity of the Soul whence proceed all her actual Tendencys is caused by the continual acting of God upon her by this attractive and Magnetic Influences For God is the first Mover in Moral as well as in Natural Motions and whatever he moves he moves to himself 6 Again I consider that as the Gravitation or actual endeavour of Bodys towards the Centre is always alike and uniform however their real Progress may be hinder'd or the swiftness of it resisted by accidental Letts and impediments so is this Moral Gravitation or actual indeavour of the Soul towards good in general or God always equal and uniform for a man does not desire to be Happy more at one time than at another as I have elsewhere shewn I say this endeavour of the Soul towards good is always equal however her real advancing to it be hinder'd or resisted by the Interposition of the Body 7 Again I consider that as Natural Motion is a Tendency or Translation of a Body from an undue and incongruous place to a place of Rest and Acquiescence whereby it acquires as it were a new Form of Perfection so Love is Extatical and carries a man out from himself as insufficient to be his own good towards good without him which by union he endeavours to make his own and so to better and improve his Being till at length his Desire be swallow'd up in the Fruition of the universal good and Motion be exchanged for Rest and Acquiescence 8 This Parallel between Love and Motion in general might be carried on much further but besides that 't is convenient to leave somthing for the Contemplative Reader to work out by himself I have also another Parallel to make between Love and a certain Particular Motion namely that of the Heart wherein as there is as much Harmony and Correspondency in other respects so there is this peculiar in it that this is a Motion perform'd within a man's self and depending upon an intrinsic and vital Principle as well as the other 9 First then we may Consider that the Heart is the great Wheel of the Humane Machine the Spring of all Animal and vital Motion and the Head-fountain of Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Hippocrates somwhere calls it and that its Motion is the First and Leading Motion of all that it begins as soon as the Flame of Life is Kindled and ends not till the vital Congruity be quite dissolv'd And thus 't is in Love. This is the great wheel of the Intellectual
thing To give one instance out of many what is there that passes for an Axiom of a more simple certain and uniform Signification than that Common Proposition in Divinity that we must love God for himself and our Neighbor for God's sake But now when we come to examin what Ideas we have under these words 't is plain that that Idea which is express'd by Love in the first part of the Proposition is not the same with that which is express'd by Love in the Second For Love in reference to God Signifys Simple Desire and in reference to our Neighbor wishing well to which Ideas are as different as East and West and yet because of the Commonnes of the Name and the Jingling turn of the Proposition this passes smoothly and unquestionably for one and the same Love. 5 But tho' this word Love be used to signify Ideas so very different that they seem to have nothing in Common but the Name yet I think there is one thing wherein they all agree and whereof they all partake and which may therefore be acknowledg'd as the General and Transcendental Notion of Love. And that is A motion of the Soul towards good This I say is the first and most general Notion of Love and which runs throughout all the Species of it But then this includes two things For as in the motion of Bodys we first Conceive Gravity or a Connaturality to a certain Term of motion and then the motion it self which is consequent upon it so also in Love which is the motion of the Soul order requires that we first conceive a certain Connaturality or Coaptation of the Soul to good whence arises all the variety of its actual motions and tendencys toward it This I take to be that peculiar Habitude of the Soul to good which the Schools call Complacentia boni a Complacence a Liking or Relish of good which I consider as really distinct from and antecedent to its actual motion towards it For as 't is observ'd by Aristotle with more than Ordinary Nicenes in his 3 d de Anima The motion of Love is in a Circle First good moves and acts upon the Soul and then the Soul moves and exerts it self towards good that so there may be the End whence was the Rise of its motion This first Alteration of the Soul from good answers to Gravity in Bodys and may be call'd for distinction sake the Moral Gravity of the Soul the Second to Gravitation or actual Pressure and may as fitly be call'd the Moral Gravitation of the Soul. 6 I further Consider that this Moral Gravity is impress'd upon the Soul primarily and Originally by good in general or by the universal good or Essence of good that is by God himself who is the Sum and Abstract of all goodness and the Centre of all Love. So that this Moral Gravity of the Soul will be its Connaturality to all good or good in general that is to God as its primary and adequate object and to particular goods only so far as they have somthing of the Common Nature of good something of God in them Whence it will also follow that the Moral Gravitation of the Soul does Naturally and Necessarily respect good in Common or God as the Term of its motion and Tendency So that upon the whole to speak more explicitly the most general and Comprehensive Notion of Love will be found to be A Motion of the Soul towards God. 7 But now in this motion there is great difference For God having unfolded his Perfections in the Creation with almost infinite Variety and as it were drawn out himself into a numerous issue of Secondary goods our Love becomes also Multiplied and divides its cours among several Chanels and tho' after all its turnings and windings we may at last trace it up to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plato speaks the greot Sea of Beauty and Head fountain of all Being and Perfection For we love Particular goods only as they carry some impress of the universal or to speak more properly we love the universal good in the Particulars yet it must be acknowledg'd that the immediat object of our Love becomes hereby more various and Multiplied and Consequently our Love too as receiving its Specification from it 8 Nor does our Love receive lesse variety and diversity from the manner of its Motion or Tendency Motion being Specify'd from the manner of it as well as from its Term. And it may be also lastly diversify'd according to the nature of the Part moved whether it be the Superiour or the Inferiour part of the Soul. From these three the Term of Motion the manner of Motion and the nature of the part moved arise all the different kinds of Love such as Divine and Worldly Spiritual and Carnal Charity and Friendship Love of Concupisccnce and Love of Benevolence Intellectual and Sensitive Natural Animal and Rational Love with several others which I shall not stand to enumerate 9 But notwithstanding this variety I believe all will be comprehended under these two in general Concupiscence and Benevolence This I take to be the First and great Division of Love to which all the several kinds of it may be aptly reduced For when I Consider the Motion of Love I find it tends to two things namely to the good which a man wills to any one whether it be to himself or to another and to him to whom this good is will'd So that the Motion of Love may be Consider'd either barely as a Tendency towards good or as a willing this good to some person or Being If it be consider'd in the first way then 't is what we call Concupiscence or Desire if in the second then 't is what we call Benevolence or Charity 10 For there is the same Proportion in Love that there is in Hatred which also involves a double Motion Either a declining or tending from evill which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latins Fuga in our own language Aversion or Abhorrence or else a willing evil to some person or other which we call Malice or Malevolence Concupiscence or Desire answers to the former of these and Benevolence or Charity to the Latter 11 There is indeed this difference to be observ'd between the Motions of Love and the Motions of Hatred that those of Hatred are not necessarily Concomitant For there may be a simple Aversion without any Malice or wishing ill to tho' perhaps the latter can hardly be conceiv'd without the former But now in Love these Motions are always concomitant and reciprocal There is no Desire without Benevolence and no Benevolence without Desire For every thing that is desired is desired to some body and so again desiring to some body implies and supposes simple Desire And this I suppose has been the occasion of that great confusion which has been generally incurr'd in this matter men being very apt from union and
But now this general or universal good being variously participated by Particular Beings hence it comes to pass that our Desire has many Subordinate and Secondary objects which it tends to with more or less Inclination according as the Marks and Footsteps of the universal good appear in them more or less discernable For the universal good is so Congenial and Connatural to the Soul as always acting upon it and attracting it to it self that we love every thing that carries the least image or semblance of it 5 There is this difference only between the love of the universal and the love of Particular goods Our love to the universal good is Natural necessary and unavoidable We have no more Command over this love than we have over the Circulation of our Blood or the Motion of our Pulse For God is the Centre of Spirits as the Earth is of Bodys and in our love of him we are as much determin'd as Fire is to burn or a stone to descend And the Blessed in Heaven Love him with the highest degree of Necessity and Determination But now we are not thus determin'd to the Love of Particular goods I say not thus determin'd For it must be acknowledg'd that there is a sort of determination even here also For good being desirable as good and consequently in every degree of it so far as we consider any thing as good we must needs Love it with a Natural Inclination that which the Schools term a Velleity or Voluntas Naturae or a loving a thing Secundum quid according to a certain respect But it being possible that this Lesser Particular good may in some circumstances come into Competition with a greater Particular good or with the greatest of all the universal good and so upon the whole become evill 't is not necessary nor are we determin'd to love it absolutely thoroughly and efficaciously but may nill and decline it Absolutely tho' still we retain a Natural Love or Velleity towards it as before 6 For the case is the same here as 't is in Evill We necessarily hate evill as evill and the greatest evill we hate Absolutely as well as necessarily But for particular and lesser evills tho' we necessarily hate them too by a Natural Aversion as far as we Consider them as evill yet 't is not necessary that we should always hate them Absolutely but may in some Circumstances Absolutely will them as a means either to avoid a greater evil or to obtain a greater good And in the same proportion as any evil less than the greatest tho' it be necessarily nill'd and declined in some respect may yet be Absolutely will'd and embraced so any Particular good tho' it be in some respect necessarily lov'd may yet Absolutely be nill'd and refused 7 Indeed the Excellent Monsieur Malebranche in his Treatise of Nature and grace asserts this non Determination of our Love to Particular goods in more large and unlimited terms when he tells us that the Natural Motion of the Soul to good in general is not invincible in respect of any Particular good And in this non Invincibility he places our Liberty or Free will. But in my Judgement this Proposition of his must either be Corrected or better explain'd For without this our Distinction it will not hold true Our Love to Particular good is Invincible Secundum quid or as to a certain respect but Absolutely and simply speaking it is not Invincible And if in this Absolute non Invincibility he will have our Liberty or Free will to consist I readily agree with him and do think the Notion to be very sound and good 8 And thus the Difference between our Love of the universal and our Love of Particular goods is clear and apparent Our Love to the universal good is Primary and Immediate but our Love to Particular good Secondary and Mediate Our Love to the universal good is invincible Absolutely and Simply we will it necessarily and we will throughly but our love to Particular good is invincible only in some certain respect We do not always love it thoroughly and effectually tho' we must always love it In short our love to the universal good is like the Motion of our Blood within our veins which we have no manner of empire or Command over but our Love to Particular good is like the Motion of Respiration partly necessary and partly Free. We cannot live without Breathing at all and yet we can suspend any one turn of Respiration in particular but yet not without a natural inclination to the Contrary And so in like manner we can't live without loving some particular good or other but when we point to this or that particular good there is not one but what we may nill and refuse Absolutely and simply tho' yet in some respect we must love it too with a Natural Love. 9 Thus far I have Consider'd the general nature of this First great Branch of Love Love of Concupiscence or Desire I come now to the Kinds of it For the right distribution of which I consider first that any Motion of the Soul is specify'd from the Quality of the Object or Term to which it tends Now the Object of Desire being good it follows that the Kinds of Desire must receive their distinction from the Kinds of good Now good is Relative and the Relation that it implies is a Relation of Convenience either to the Soul or Body that is either to the Soul Directly and Immediately or Indirectly and by the Mediation of Bodily sensations So that all good is either Intellectual or sensual and consequently the same Members of Divisition will be the adequate Distribution of Desire That is an Intellectual Desire whose Object is an Intellectual good and a sensual Desire is that whose Object is a sensual good 10 But I further observe that this same denomination of Intellectual and sensitive may be taken from the Nature of the part moved as well as from the quality of the Object The Appetitive Faculty in man is double as well as the Cognoscitive and consists of a Superiour and Inferiour of a Rational and sensitive part For as in the Cognoscitive part there is Pure Intellect whereby Ideas are Apprehended without any Corporeal Image and Imagination whereby objects are presented to our minds under some Corporeal Affection so also in the Appetitive there is a pure and mere act of Tendency or Propension to the agreeable object which answers to Pure Intellect and is what we call Will or Volition and there is also such a propension of the Soul as is accompany'd with a Commotion of the Blood and Spirits and this answers to Imagination and is the same with what we usually term the Passion of Love. And 't is in the divided Tendency or Discord of these two wherein consists that Lucta or Contention between the Flesh and Spirit That which our B. Lord intimated when he sayd The Spirit truly is willing but the Flesh is
rather than Vnderstanding Pag. 63. SECT II. The Measures of Love of Concupiscence all reduced to these two general Heads what we must desire and what we may desire The Measures of these both in general and in Particular Whether Sensual Pleasure be in its self evil with an Account of the true Notion of Original Concupiscence and of Mortification pag. 73. SECT III. The Measures of Love of Benevolence particularly of Self-love p. 112. SECT IV. The Measures of Common Charity p. 118. SECT V. The Measures of Friendship pag. 124. Motives to the Study and Practice of Regular Love by way of Consideration pag. 135. PART I. SECT I. The general designe of this undertaking and its great usefullness to the whole drift of Morality 1 THE Subject of these Contemplations is Love. A thing that has employ'd many curious pens to little purpose and has been perhaps the most and withall the worst written upon of any Subject in the world 'T is I confess strange that men should write so darkly and Confusedly of that which they feel and experiment so intimately but I must take the boldness to say that what I have hitherto seen upon this Subject has been so Confused ambiguous and indistinct that I was thereby rather distracted than inform'd in my Notions concerning it 2 Finding therefore no Satisfaction in advising with Books I was fain to shut my Eyes and set my self a Thinking without having any regard to what others had observ'd upon the same matter so as to be in the least sway'd or determin'd in my Conclusions by it A method that would tend more to the discovery of Truth and to the Advancement of all Notional Learning than that narrow straitlaced humour of adhering to the Dictates of those who have nothing more to recommend them but only the luck of being born before us 3 My design therefore here is to employ my Meditations about two things 1 st the Theory of Love according to its full Latitude and Comprehension and 2 ly the Measures of its Regulation The discharge of which double undertaking will thoroughly exhaust the Subject and answer the Ends both of Speculation and Practise 4 I think it requisite to begin with the Theory of Love. For since the Physitian thinks it necessary to know the Anatomy of that Body which he is to Cure and the Logician to open the nature of those Intellectual operations which he is to direct I know not why the Moralist should not think himself equally concern'd to frame a just Theory of that Affection of the Soul which he is to regulate 5 The whole work I conceive to be of great usefulness and general importance to all the purposes of Morality nay indeed to contain the whole Sum and Substance of it For what is the grand intendment and final upshot of Morality but to teach a man to Love regularly As a man Loves so is he Love is not only the Fulfilling but also the Transgressing of the Law and Vertue and Vice is nothing else but the Various Application and Modification of Love. By this a Good man is distinguish'd from a bad and an Angel of Light from an Angel of Darkness This is that which discriminates the Orders of men here and will consign us to different Portions hereafter according to that of St. Austin Faciunt Civitates duas Amores duo Hierusalem facit Amor Dei Babylonem Amor Saeculi Interroget ergo se quisque quid Amet inveniet unde sit Civis The two Loves make the two Cittys The Love of God makes Hierusalem the Love of the World Babylon Let every one therefore ask himself what 't is he Loves and he will find to which Citty he belongs 6 He therefore that shall rightly state the Nature and prescribe due Measures for the Regulation of Love not only serves the Cause of Morality but may be truely sayd to discharge the whole Province of a Moralist This I take to be a Sufficient Apology for the undertaking it self and if the Performance come up to the Moment of the Design whereof the world is to judge I know of nothing wanting to render it both Serviceable and acceptable to the Public SECT II. Of the dignity and Nature of Love in general and of the first and great Division of it 1 LET us make Man in our Image after our own likeness sayd God. Now among other instances of Resemblance wherein man may be likened to God such as the Internal Rectitude of his Nature or Self-dominion and his External dominion over the Creatures and the like this I think may be Consider'd as one and perhaps as the Chiefest of all that as in the Divine nature there are two Processions one by way of Intellect which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or word and the other by way of Love which is the H. Spirit so likewise in the Humane nature there are as it were two Processions and that of the same kind too as in the Divine Vnderstanding and Love. 2 These are the two Noble Facultys that branche out from the Soul of man and whereby he becomes a little Image of the Trinity And altho' we generally value our Selves most upon the Former yet I know not whether there be not an Equality in these as there is in the Divine Processions and whether it be not as much the Glory of man to be an Amorous as to be a Rational Being 3 Sure I am that in the Gentile Theology and in the most refined Philosophy of the Ancients the preheminence is given to Love. Socrates in Plato's Symposion says Concerning Love that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the eldest and most honorable of the Gods. And we know Love is made the first Hypostasis in the Platonic Triad The Holy Scripture goes yet higher and does not only in several places set forth Love as the Flower of the Divinity and magnify the Divine Essence chiefly from that Excellence but seems to resolve all the Perfection of the Deity into this one Point For when it defines God it does not say he is Wisdom or Power no not so much as Wise or Powerfull but seems to overlook all his other Perfections and says in the Abstract that he is Love. They are great words of St. Iohn and such as make much for the great Dignity of this Divine Affection God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God. So Noble a thing is Love and so deserving of our most intense Theory and Inspection 5 And indeed it needs it as well as deserves it For there is nothing that darken's the Nature of things and obscures the Clarity of our Conceptions more than Ambiguity of Terms and I know nothing that is more Equivocal and full of Latitude than this word Love. It is given to things whose Ideas are Notoriously different and men seem to have agreed together not to detect the Fallacy and from the Identity of the name to conclude the Identity of the
frame as the other is of the Natural this is the Spring and Ferment of the Soul that gives her Life and Energy and without which she would be utterly torpid and unactive Love is the first and Mother Motion that both prevents and actuates all the rest 'T is from her that all the Inclinations and Passions of the Soul take their rise and did we not first love we should neither Hope nor Fear nor hate nor be Angry nor Envy nor be any other way affected Nay we Love and Desire before we can Apprehend Judge Reason or Discourse nay our Love is then Commonly most impetuous and high-set we love long before we know what 't is to Love nay before we know whether we love or no even as soon as we receive the Breath of Life And as 't is the First so it is also the Last Motion 'T is the Vltimum Moriens of the Intellectual as the Heart is of the Natural Structure This is the Motion that out lives and sees the Funeral of all the other Operations of the Soul. For when either Age or sickness by disturbing the Crasis of the Body has also untuned and disorder'd the Facultys of the Soul when the man can no longer understand nor Discourse nor Remember when all his Rational Facultys are as 't were benumm'd and death-struck yet still he Loves and inclines towards Happiness with as much weight as ever for Love is strong as Death and as Importunate as the Grave many waters cannot quench Love neither can the Floods drown it 10 Again we may consider that as by the Pulsation of the Heart the Arterial blood is transmitted to the Brain whereby are generated those Animal Spirits which are the Instruments of Motion throughout the Body and which very Animal Spirits do again return and assist the Motion of the Heart by Contracting its Muscular Fibres and so straitning its Ventricles to expel the blood contain'd in them into the Arteries the same Reciprocation may we observe in the Motion of Love. That Moral Gravity and Gravitation of the Soul impress'd on her by the universal Good acting attractively upon her and whereby she stands inclined to good in general first moves the understanding which as the Schools allow is moved by the will quoad exercitium actus tho' not quoad specificationem And then the understanding Moves the will as to particular and actual Volitions concerning particular Goods For as to these we will nothing but what we first know and judge pro hic nunc fit to be will'd Which by the way may give great light to that intricate and perplex'd Controversy whether the will moves the understanding or the understanding the will. For they both move one another tho' in different respects Even as the Heart by its Motion sends Spirits to the Brain and is by those very Spirits assisted in her Motion This indeed is a wonderful instance of Resemblance and the more I consider it the more strange I think it and full of Mystery 11 Again as by the Continual Reciprocation of the Pulse there is caused a Circulation of the Blood which is expell'd out of the Heart into the Arteries out of these into the parts which are to be Nourish'd from whence 't is imbibed by the Capillary Veins which lead it back to the Vena Cava and so into the Heart again and same may in proportion be applied to Love. This is the Great Pulse of the Body Politic as the other is of the Body Natural 'T is Love that begets and Keeps up the great Circulation and Mutual Dependence of Society by this Men are inclined to maintain Mutual Commerce and intercourse with one another and to distribute their Benefits and Kindnesses to all the parts of the Civil Body till at length they return again upon themselves in the Circle and Reciprocation of Love. 12 And if we further Meditate upon the Motion of the Heart we shall find that it is not only an apt Embleme of Love in General but that it also Mystically points out to us the two great Species of Love Concupiscence and Benevolence The Motion of the Heart we know is Double Dilatation and Contraction Dilatation whereby it receives blood into its Ventricles and Contraction whereby it expels it out again And is it not so also in this great Pulse of the Soul Love Is there not here also the like double Motion For we desire good which answers to the Dilatation and immission of the Blood and we also wish well to which answers to the Contraction and Emission of it 13 I know not what some may think of this and I know there are a sort of men in the world that never think themselves and look with Scorn and Contempt upon such Notions as are not to be found out without more than Ordinary Thinking But for my part I must needs own that I stand amazed at this wonderful Harmony and Correspondence and that I am thereby the more Confirm'd in that Celebrated Notion of the Platonists that as the Soul is the Image of God so the Body is the Image of the Soul and that this Visible and Material is but the Shadow or as Plotinus will have it the Echo of the Invisible and Immaterial World. SECT IV. Of the First Great Branch of Love viz. Love of Concupiscence or Desire with the several Kinds of it 1 WE have Consider'd the Nature of Love in general and have shewn it to Consist in a Motion of the Soul towards Good whence we took occasion to represent the Analogy between Love and Physical Motion which we find to be exact and Apposite even to Surprise and admiration We have also discover'd the double Motion of this Mystical Pulse and accordingly have branch'd out Love into two General Parts Love of Concupiscence and Love of Benevolence I come now to treat of each of these severally 2 And first of Love of Concupiscence or Desire The general Idea of which I conceive to be A simple Tendency of the Soul to good not at all considering whether it wills it to any Person or Being or no. Not that there is or can be any desire without wishing well to For as I observ'd before these are always inseperable Concomitants but their Ideas being very distinct I think I may very well abstract from the one when my business lies only to consider the other 3 Concerning this Love of Desire I further consider that the Primary and Adequate object of it is the same that is of all Love namely good in general or God. For we desire good as good or good in Common before we desire this or that good in particular And when we do desire any particular good 't is still for the sake of the universal good whereof it partakes and according to the degree of this Participation either real or apparent so we measure out and dispence our Love. So that good in general is the Primary and Adequate object of Desire 4
this sensual Love. And accordingly Plato in his symposion distinguishing between his two Cupids Intellectual and sensual Love stiles the Latter by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Vulgar or Epidemical Love. 19 Indeed this is a very strange Affection and has so universally prevail'd as to turn all other Love almost out of the World. This is a Passion that has made more slaves than the greatest Conquerours more stir and disturbance in the world than either Ambition Pride or Covetousness and has caused more Sin and Folly than the united force of all the Powers of Darkness It has wounded almost as many as Death and devour'd like a Contagion or the Grave It makes no distinction the wise man is as little secure from it as the Fool Age submits to it as well as youth the strong as well as the weak the Hero as well as the Coward In fine this one Passion sets on fire the whole course of Nature rages and spreads with an unlimited Contagion and is an Image of the universal Conflagration 20 And that which increases the wonder is the vilenes of that structure which is made the Object of this sensual Love. 'T is not indeed much to be wonder'd that we should love Corporeal Pleasure all Pleasure being in its Proportion lovely but that the imbracing such poor Materials should afford any that 's the wonder Should one Angel fall in love with the pure and refined Vehicle of another tho' Matter even in its highest Exaltation is but a poor sort of Being there would however be somthing of Proportion in this but to see a man Idolize and dote upon a Masse of Flesh and Blood that which the Apostle calls our Vile Body Or as 't is in the Original more Emphatically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the body of our Humiliation that is at present the Reversion of Worms and may the very next Minute be a Carcase this is indeed so strange to one that thoughtfully considers it that one would think all Mankind were intoxicated with some general Philtrum or Love Potion that has thus Charm'd them into this most stupid and Wretched degree of Idolatry So that whether we consider the greatness of the Effects or the slenderness of the Cause this Kind of sensual Love is of all the most wonderfull and unaccountable 21 One thing more I have to observe concerning this Kind of sensual Love the Desire of Corporal Contact occasion'd by the Aspect of sensible Beauty and that is that this is a Passion peculiar to Man. Brutes are below it and Angels are above it For Man being a middle sort of Creature between an Angel and a Beast 't is requisite he should have somthing to distinguish him from each and that in his Appetitive as well as in his Intellective Part. And thus it is in his Intellective part he has Reason and Discourse which is above sensible knowledge and short of Intuition And so likewise in his Appetitive there is this Desire of Corporal Contact arising from the sight of Beauty which is a mixt Love partly Intellectual and partly sensual and is thereby distinguish'd from the Love of Brutes which is purely sensual for they are not affected with Beauty and the love of Angels which is purely Intellectual So great Harmony and Proportion is there in the works of him who made all things in Number Weight and Measure SECT V. Of the Second Great Branch of Love viz. Love of Benevolence its division into Self-Love and Charity where also 't is enquired whether all Love be Self-Love 1 HAving dispatch'd the First great Branch of Love Love of Concupiscence or Desire with the several Kinds of it I come now to consider the Second viz. Love of Benevolence By this I understand a desiring or willing of good to some Person or Being that is Capable of it And herein 't is differenc'd from Love of Concupiscence The Idea of Love of Concupiscence is A simple Tendency of the Soul to good not at all considering whether it wills it to any Person or Being or no. But the Idea of Benevolence is A desiring or willing this good to some Being or other As far as 't is a Desiring or willing of good it agrees with Love of Concupiscence but it is distinguish'd from it in that it wishes well too 2 For as in Physical Motion a Body may be consider'd either as simply moving towards another or as moving this other to some Certain Body so in Love which is a Moral Motion the Soul may be consider'd either as simply desiring or willing good which is Concupiscence or as desiring or willing it to some Capable Being and this is that Species of Love which we call Benevolence 3 And I further Meditate that as in Motion the Body that moves another may either move it towards it self as in Circular Motion or towards some other Body as in Direct Motion So in the Love of Benevolence this wishing well to may either be a willing of good to ones self or to some other Being If to ones self then 't is that special sort of Benevolence which we call self-love If to another then 't is what we call Charity 4 Then again as to Charity this may be consider'd either as extended to all men in Common grounded upon one Common Consideration viz. Similitude of Nature and a Capacity of being benefitted which is Common Charity Or as confined to one or two and as Mutual and as Mutually known and withall as in a special degree of Intensness and Application and then 't is Friendship which differs not from Common Charity but as 't is qualify'd by the preceding modifications 5 But this our Division is in danger of being closed up again by some who contract all these kinds of Benevolence into one by telling us that all Love is self-Love Thus the Epicureans of old who by this Plea thought to evade the necessity of owning a Providence For when you argue from the Perfections of God that the world is cared for and govern'd by him No say they the quite contrary follows For all Love is self-Love and proceeds from Indigency if therefore God be such a Full and Perfect being as you suppose he cannot be concern'd for any thing abroad as having no self-interest to serve 6 And indeed the Conclusion would be right were the Principle so For if all Benevolence did proceed from Indigence it would certainly follow that the more perfect and self-sufficient any being is the less he must needs regard the good of others and consequently a being that is absolutely perfect must necessarily be utterly void of all Benevolence or Concern for anothers welfare 7 But to hear an Epicurean Maintain this Principle is no wonder Even Plato himself in some places seems to look favourably towards it particularly in his Lysis where purposely treating of Friendship he concludes toward the end of the Dialogue that Friendship arises from Indigence necessity and privation The same he
six the Bounds of Regulating our Love and that both because of the Difficulty of Loving Regularly and because of the Moment and Consequence of it 2 For the Difficulty as t is impossible not to love at all so is it one of the Hardest things in the world to love well Solus sapiens scit Amare says the Stoic The wise man only knows how to Love. And there are very few of these wise Men in the World and to love regularly is oftentimes more than the wisest of us all can do For first the Appetite which we have to good in General is so strong and Craving that it hurries us on to all sorts and degrees of Particular good and makes us fasten wherever we can trace the least Print or Foot-step of the universal good Now this Promiscuous and Indefinite prosecution of Particular goods must needs oftentimes engage us in sin and irregularity For though these particular objects of Love separately considered are good as being Participations of the universal good yet consider'd as they stand in relation either to one another or to the universal they may become evil in as much as there may be a Competition and the the lesler may hinder the greater As for instance The pleasure of sense as indeed all Pleasure singly and separately consider'd is good but the enjoyment of it may in some circumstances be against a greater good the good of Society and then 't is evil as in Fornication or Adultery But now we are so violently push'd on to Particular good by that General Thirst after good in Common that we don't mind how things are in Combination but only how they are singly and separately in themselves For to observe how things are in Combination requires thought and Reflexion which in this Hurry we are not at leisure to make but to find how things are Singly in themselves there needs nothing but direct Tast and natural sensation Whence it comes to pass that we more readily do the one than the other and so are very apt to transgress order and to love irregularly 3 This is one ground of the Difficulty of Loving well and as I conceive a very considerable one tho' no one that I know of did ever assign this as the cause of this difficulty But there is also another For as from the love of good in general we are eagerly carried out to Particular goods so from the Original Pravity and Degeneracy of our Nature among all these Particular goods that which we most eagerly propend to is sensual good The Lower life is now highly invigorated and awaken'd in us the Corruptible Body as the wise man complains presses down the Soul and the Love which we have to good in general does now by the Corruption of our Nature almost wholly display and exert it self in the prosecution of this one Particular good the good of Sense 4. Now though good of Sense be as truely good as good of the Intellect as being a Rivulet of the same Sea and a Ray of the same Sun yet as I said before it may in some Circumstances and Combinations cross and thwart some higher Interest and so become Evil. And the strong inclination which we now have to the good of Sense in general will often betray us into the love and enjoyment of it in those particular circumstances wherein it is evil and against Order And that oftentimes even when we consider it as Evil that is when we do not only mind it as it is singly in it self but as it is in a certain Combination For this Sensual Concupiscence in us may be so strong that though we do actually consider a sensual pleasure so circumstantiated as Evil yet we may for that time think it a lesser Evil than to deny our selves the gratification of so importunate an Appetite and so chuse it and be guilty of an exorbitant and irregular Love. 5 And if we further consider how we are perpetually sorrounded with sensible goods which by Troops thrust themselves upon us while those that are Intellectual require our Search and Inquisition how early they attack us and what deep impressions they make upon our then tender Faculties how much the Animal part is aforehand with the Rational that we live the life of Plants and Beasts before we live the life of men and that not only in the sense of Aristotle while we are in the Womb but long after we have beheld the Sun that the Seducer Eve is Form'd while Adam sleeps and that sensuality comes to be Adult and Mature when our Discourses are but young and imperfect So that by that time we arrive to some competent use of our Reason there has been laid in such a stock of Animal impressions that 't is more than work enough for our riper Age even to unravel the prejudices of our youth and unlive our former life I say if we consider this the Difficulty of Regular love will appear so great that instead of admiring at the ill course of the World one should rather be tempted to wonder that men love so regularly as they do So great Reason had the Stoic to say The wise man only knows how to love 6 But were it onely a piece of Difficulty to steer the Ship right and were there not also danger of splitting against Rocks and of other ill Contingencys the Pilot might yet be secure and unconcern'd commit himself to his Pillow and his Vessel to the Winds But 't is otherwise there is Moment and Consequence in Loving regularly as well as Difficulty No less a thing than Happiness depends upon it private Happiness and publick Happiness the Happiness of single Persons and the the Happiness of the Community the Happiness of this world and the Happiness of the next 7 For as Motion is in the Natural so is Love in the Moral world And as the good state of the Natural World depends upon those Laws of Regular Motion which God has establish'd in it in so much that there would need nothing else to bring all into confusion and destruction but the irregular Motion of those Bodies which it consists of so does the welfare and happy state of the Intellectual world depend upon the Regularity of Love. According as this Motion proceeds so is the Moral world either an Harmonical Frame or a disorderly Chaos and there needs nothing but the Irregularity of Love to undermine the Pillars of Happiness and to put the Foundations of the Intellectual World out of Course And accordingly we see that God who loves Order and takes care for the perfection of both worlds has prescribed both Laws of Motion and Laws of Love. And for the same reason 't is a thing of great importance and necessity to state these Laws and Measures the welfare of the Moral world being as much concern'd in Love as that of the natural is in Motion 8 And this is the Reason why Love as Dirigible is made the subject of Morality
ill grounded and unreasonable And then as to the shame which naturally attends the acting of this sensual pleasure in all its instances though it may in the first place be question'd whether this shame be from Nature or no and not rather from Education and Arbitrary usages yet for the present I will suppose it natural and the Account of it I conceive must be this it being a thing of vast consequence and Moment to the interest of Sociable life that man should be propagated in a decent and regular way and not as Brutes are God thought it convenient for this purpose to imbue our Natures with this impression of shame with respect to venereal pleasure in general Not because this sensual delectation is in its own nature simply evil but lest our Inclination to sensual pleasure in general should betray us into those instances of it which are so Which this natural impression was intended as a curb to prevent By all which it plainly appears notwithstanding all the intricacy wherewith some confused Thinkers have entangled this matter that Sensual even the grossest sensual pleasure cannot be in its own nature and as such evil and consequently that it may be desired by us in such convenient Circumstances wherein no higher good is opposed 39 Now from this Hypothesis it will follow first that Original Concupiscence must be far otherwise stated than usually it is It is commonly understood to be a vicious disposition or Depravation of Nature whereby we become inclined to evil Now if you ask what evil They tell you t is Carnal or sensual pleasure But now as it has been abundantly demonstrated this is not simply and in its own nature evil but only as 't is Circumstantiated And this original Concupiscence is not so particular as being a blind Appetite as to point to sensual pleasure in this or that Circumstance but is carried only to sensual pleasure in common or as such Which being not evil neither can the inclination that respects it be evil or sinful every Act or Inclination being specified from its Object It must not be said therefore that this Originary Concupiscence or natural Impression toward sensible good is formally evil and sinful the most we can allow is that it is an Occasion of evil the strong tendency we have to sensual pleasure in common being very apt to betray us to consent to the enjoyment of it in inconvenient Instances and Circumstances 40 Another Consequent from the Premises is this that the Duty and vertue of Mortification does not consist as 't is vulgarly apprehended in removing and killing the natural Desire of sensual pleasure For the natural Desire of sensual pleasure is not evil its Object not being so and consequently not to be eradicated But that it consists in such a due Repression and Discipline of the Body that our natural desire of sensual pleasure in Common may not carry us to the express willing of it in such instances as are against Order and the good of Society SECT III. The Measures of Love of Benevolence particularly of Self-love 1 HAving prescribed some general Measures for the Regulation of the first great Branch of Love Love of Concupiscence I come now to set bounds to the other Arm of the same great Sea Love of Benevolence And because this is first divided into Self-love and Charity or wishing well to ones self and wishing well to some other Being I shall in the first place state the Measures of regulating self-love 2 This sort of Love is generally the most irregular of any and that which causes irregularity in all the rest We love our selves First and last and most of all Here we alwaies begin and here we most commonly end and so immoderate are we in it that we prosecute our own private interest not only without any respect to the Common good but oftentimes in direct Opposition to it and so we can but secure to our selves a Plank care not what becomes of the Vessel we sail in This is the great Sucker of Society and that which robbs the Body Politick of its due nourishment and drains the Common Fountain to feed our own lesser Streams Nay so foolishly immoderate and inordinate are we in the love of our selves that we prefer our own little interest not only before greater of the Public but before greater of our own and love our Bodyes better than our Souls a lesser interest that 's present better than a greater that's distant tho equally sure ond infinitely greater In short t is from the inordinateness of this one Principle Self-love that we ruin the good of the Community here and our own selves both here and hereafter Here therefore is great need of Regulation 3 Now I suppose the Measures of Self-love may all be reduced to this one in general viz. that self-love is never culpable when upon the whole matter all things being taken into the Account we do truely and really love our selves It is then only culpable when we love our selves by halves and in some particular respects only to our greater disadvantage in others of more importance And because this we generally do hence it comes to pass that self-love is commonly taken in a bad sense as if 't were a thing evil and irregular in it self But that 's a mistake Self-love is a Principle and Dictate of Nature and the Instrument of attaining to that Happiness which is the End of our Creation and consequently can never be faulty when upon the whole matter all things consider'd it is a true Love of our selves 4 Now to make it so three things are required First that we do not mistake our true selves by wishing well to or consulting the welfare of our worser part in prejudice to our better by feeding the Brute and starving the Man. This would be to love our selves in a little and to hate our selves in much and would therefore upon the whole better deserve the name of self-hatred than self-love If therefore we would love our selves truely and regularly we must learn in the first place not to mistake our true selves 5 The next requisite is that we do not mistake our true Interest by willing to our selves a lesser good when the having it will cost us the loss of a greater This is properly that Foolish Exchange condemn'd by our B. Saviour 'T is to gain a World and loose a Soul and what gain 's that This is indeed the Bargain of Fools and Madmen and yet such Bargains we usually make and what adds to the folly think that we love our selves all the while But this is not to love our selves truely and therefore not Regularly 6 The third and last Requisite for the Regulation of self-love is that we do not will any good to our selves that is not consistent with the good of the Community And that not only because the Publick good is of greater Consequence than any Private good can be but also because that which is against
plentifully and liberally when reduced to any streights or exigencyes And lastly that we alwaies prefer the good of his Soul before any other interest of his and make it our strictest concern to promote his Happy condition in the other world This indeed is the most excellent and necessary Office of Friendship and all without this is but of little signification 12. And thus much for the Conducting of Friendship I proceed now to the Measures that are to be observ'd in the Dissolution of it And here two things come to be consider'd the Cause and the Manner of dissolving it And first 't is supposed that there may be a Cause for the Dissolution even of Friendship The wise man tells us that for some things every Friend will depart and Marriage which is the strictest Frindship has its Divorce For t is with the union of two Friends as with the union of Soul and Body There are some degrees of distemperature that although they weaken and disturb the union yet however they are consistent with it but then there are others again that quite destroy the Vital Congruity and then follows Separation 13 Now as to the Cause that may justify a Dissolution of Friendsh it can be no other than something that is directly contrary to the very Design and Essence of Friendship such as a notorious Apostacy to vice and wickedness notorious Perfidiousness deliberate Malice or the like To which were I to speak my own sense I would add a desperate and resolv'd continuance in all this For I think as long as there is any hopes of amendment the man is rather to be Advised than Deserted 14 But if hopeless and irreclaimable we may and must desert him But let it be with all the tenderness imaginable with as much unwillingness and reluctancy as the Soul leaves her over-distemper'd Body And now our greatest care must be that our former Dearness turn not to inveterate Hatred There is great danger of this but it ought not to be so For tho the Friend be gone yet still the Man remains and tho he has forfetted my Friendship yet still I owe him common Charity And 't were well if we would rise a little higher and even yet pay him some little respect and maintain a small under-current of Affection for him upon the stock of our former dearness and Intimacy For so the deceased Ghost loves to hover for a while about her old Companion though by reason of its utter discongruity it be no longer fit for the mutuall intercourses of Life and Action MOTIVES TO THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF REGULAR LOVE By way of Consideration 1. COnsider O my Soul that the very Essence of the most Perfect Being is Regular Love. The very same Apostle that saies God is Love saies also in another place that God is Light and that in him there is no darkness at all Joh. 1.5 God therefore is both Love and Light Light invigorated and actuated by Love and Love directed and regulated by Light. He is indeed a Lucid and Bright act of Love not Arbitrary Love but Love regulated by the exactest Rules and Measures of Essential Perfection For how Regular a Love must that needs be where the same Being is both Love and Light 2. Consider again my Soul that the Material World the Offspring and Emanation of this Lucid Love is altogether conformable to the Principle of its production a perfect Sample and Pattern of Order and Regularity of Beauty and Proportion the very Reflexion of the first Pulchritude and a most exact Copy of the Divine Geometry And if thou could'st but see a draught of the Intellectual world how far more Beautiful and delightsom yet would that Orderly Prospect be And wilt thou my Soul be the only Irregular and Disorderly thing among the Productions of God Wilt thou disturb the Harmony of the Creation and be the only jarring String in so Composed and well-tuned an Instrument As thou wilt certainly be if thou dost not Love Regularly For 3 Consider My Soul that 't is Regular Love that makes up the Harmony of the Intellectual world as Regular Motion does that of the Natural That Regularity of the understanding is of no other Moment or Excellency than as it serves to the Regulating of Love. That herein lies the Formal Difference between good and bad Men in this world and between the good and bad Spirits in the other Brightness of understanding is Common to both and for ought we know in an equal Measure but one of these loves Regularly and the other does not and therefore one we call an Angel and t'other a Devil For 't is Regular Love upon which the welfare and Civil Happiness of Society depends This is in all respects the same to the Moral world as Motion is to the Natural And as this is maintain'd in its Course by Regularity of Motion so must the other be upheld by Regularity of Love. And therefore further 4. Consider O my Soul that the God of Order he that is both Light and Love has prescribed two sort of Laws with respect to the two worlds Laws of Motion and Laws of Love. Indeed the Latter have not their Effect as Necessarily and determinately as the former for the Laws of Motion God executes by himself but the Laws of Love he has committed to the execution of his Creatures having endow'd them with choice and Liberty But let not this my Soul be used as an Argument to make thee less Studious of Loving Regularly because thou art not irresistibly determin'd and necessitated to Love according to Order but art left to thy own Choice and Liberty Neither do thou fancy God less concern'd for the Laws of Love than for the Laws of Motion because he has not inforced those with the same Necessity as he has these For 5. Consider yet further My Soul that God has taken as much care for the Regulation of Love as is consistent with the Nature of Free Agents For has he not prescribed Laws of Regular Love And has he not furnish'd thee with a stock of Natural Light and understanding of Reason and Discourse to discern the Antecedent Equity and Reasonableness of these Laws And lest thou should'st be negligent in the use of this Discursive Light has he not as a farther security of thy Regular Love against the danger either of Ignorance or Inconsideration furnish'd thee with certain Moral Anticipations and Rational Instincts which prevent all thy Reasonings and Discoursings about what thou oughtest to Love and point out the great Lines of thy Duty before thou art able and when thou dost not attend enough to see into the Natural grounds of it And left all this should prove insufficient or ineffectual has he not bound thy Duty upon thee by the most weighty Sanctions and most prevailing Ingagements of Rewards and Punishments of Eternal Happiness and Eternal Misery And to make all this efficacious does he not assist thee by the Graces of his
Spirit in the Regulation of thy Love And what can God do more with the safety of his own Wisdom and of thy Liberty And lest thou should'st fancy that 't is either in vain or unnecessary to apply thy self to the Study of Regular Love 6. Consider yet further My Soul that the great Mystery of godliness is nothing else but a Mysterious Expedient for the promotion of Regular Love. As it proceeded from Love so does it wholly tend to the Regulation of it 'T was to attone for the Irregularities of Love that the Son of God became a Sacrifice to his Father To attone for it so far that all the Lapses and Misapplications of our Love should be forgiven provided we return to the Regularity of Love for the future Had he not done so much to return to Regular Love had been in vain and had he done more it had been Needless But herein is the Mystery of Godliness that by the wise dispensation of God the matter is so order'd that Happiness is attainable by the Order of Love and not without it And can there be a stronger ingagement O my Soul to perswade thee to the Study of Regular Love or to convince thee that God is not less concern'd for the Harmony of the Moral than of the Natural world for the Order of Love than for the Order of Motion Be wise then O my Soul and consult the Ends of God the Harmony of the World and thy own Eternal Happiness And that these thy Considerations may be the more effectual apply thy self with all possible elevation of spirit to the God of Light and Love. THE PRAYER O God of Order and Beauty who sweetly disposest all things and hast establish'd a Regular course in the visible World who hast appointed the Moon for certain Seasons and by whose decree the Sun knoweth his going down let the Moral world be as Regular and Harmonious as the Natural and both conspire to the declaration of thy Glory And to this End grant that the Motion of our Minds may be as orderly as the Motion of Bodyes and that we may move as regularly by Choice and free Election as they do by Natural instinct and Necessity O God of Light and Love warm and invigorate my Light and direct and regulate my Love. In thy Light let me see Light and in thy Love let me ever Love. Lord I am more apt to err in my Love than in my understanding and one Errour in Love is of worse Consequence than a thousand in Judgment O do thou therefore watch over the Motions of my Love with a peculiar governance and grant that I my self may keep this Part with all diligence seeing hence are the issues of Life and Death O Spirit of Love who art the very Essence Fountain and Perfection of Love be thou also its Object Rule and Guide Grant I may Love thee and what thou love'st and as thou love'st O Clarify and refine inlighten and actuate my Love that it may mount upward to the Center and Element of Love with a Steddy Chast and unfullied Flame make it unselvish universal liberal generous and Divine that loving as I ought I may contritribute to the Order of thy Creation here and be perfectly Happy in loving thee and in being lov'd by thee Eternally hereafter Amen Letters Philosophical and Moral to D r Henry More with the Doctor 's Answers Advertisment to the Reader THe Publication of this Correspondence was almost extorted from me by the importunity of some friends who would not endure to think that any Remains of so great and extraordinary a Person should be lost And truely when I consider'd how curious and busy some men are in recovering a few broken Fragments of some old dull Author that had scarce any thing to recommend him but only that he lived a great while ago I began to think there was some force in the Argument and that I should be unkind to the world as well as to the Memory of my deceased Friend should I detain in obscurity such rich Treasures of excellent Theory as are contain'd in these Letters To the publishing of which I was yet the less unwilling to consent because of that near Relation which some of them have to the Matter of some part of this Book which may receive some further Light from what is herein contain'd But there is more in the business yet I had formerly in a Discourse at first printed by it self and dedicated to the Doctor but now inserted in my Collection of Miscellanies lately publish'd laid down an Hypothesis concerning the Root of Liberty which whether for its novelty and singularity or because not well understood underwent a great deal of Censure at its first appearing And the Excellent Dr. himself was pleased to animadvert upon it And I think has urged all that can be said against it But I think I have sufficiently vindicated the truth of the Notion and was therefore willing it should now appear to the world in its full strength and evidence which could not have been more abundantly confirm'd to me than in its being able to stand the shock of so severe a Speculatist Epistola prima ad Clarissimum Virum Henricum More Vir eximie QUum eruditionem tuam Humanitatem ex scriptorum tuorum genio pari passu ambulare animadvertam insuper in ipso Libri tui Vestibulo te Coram profitentem audiam te non tibi soli laborare sed etiam pro omnibus iis qui exquirunt sapientiam eousque mihi nativus exolevit pudor ut ad te ignotum licet Oraculi vice de quibusdam Arduis sciscitatum mitterem Duo igitur sunt ut apud virum horarum quam parcissimum Compendio agam quae animum meum suspensum tenent In Enchiridio tuo Metaphysico demonstrare satagis immobile quoddam extensum à Mobili materia distinctum existere Quod demonstrationum tuarum nervis adductus non solum Concedere paratus sum sed etiam firmissime Credo Illud tantum me male habet quod dimensionem istam incorpoream quam spatii nomine designare solemus in infinitum porrigas undequaque immensam statuas Hoc equidem ut admittam nondum à facultatibus meis impetrare potui Quum enim spatium illud sit Quantitas permanens cujus omnes partes quotquot sunt vel esse possunt simul existunt contradictoria mihi videtur affirmare quisquis illud infinite extensum dixerit Infinitum enim esse tamen secundum omnes partes actu existere repugnant Nam secundum omnes partes actu existere est certis limitibus claudi Eodem modo ac quilibet numerus quantuscunque assignetur continetur sub certa specie numeri proindeque finitus concludi debet Fateor aliter se rem habere in quantitate successiva cujus partes existunt aliae post alias quae quoniam post quantamcunque appositionem incrementi ulterius capax est suo modo cenferi possit
such Now concerning this I inquire 1. whether there be any Moral Turpitude in it or no. And 2ly supposing there is wherein it lies For my own part I am so divided betwixt Arguments on both sides that I know not what to resolve For first that there is some Moral or intrinsick Turpitude in Sensuality as such I am tempted to suspect from the Authority of many great Moralists especially among the Antients who when they lay open the immorality of Adultery or Fornication do not fetch their Arguments wholely from those ill effects which either of them has upon the welfare of society but resolve part of their immorality into Sensuality as such abstracted from those other ill Consequences Besides I observe that in the Divine Writings not to say any thing of our Ordinary Oral discourses such peculiar Epithetes and Adjuncts of infamy are given to Adultery which can belong to it on no other score than as 't is an act of sensuality Nay and as if that were the principal Ingredient it oftentimes receives a Denomination from the sensuality but never from the injustice infaithfulness or the like Thus it is call'd the sin of uncleanness And Adulterers are said to be unclean persons filthy brutish c. In the like manner David in his Penitentials for that sin insists much upon its sensuality and accordingly speaks of washing and cleansing and making clean All which seems to imply that the immorality of Adutery is not wholly to be deriv'd from those mischeivous effects it has upon Society but does also partly if not chiefly consist in the mere sensuality and consequently that Sensuality as such is immoral Again 2ly to proceed from mental abstraction to real separation there are some acts of sensuality such as voluntary Pollutions c. which are really separated from such ill effects and yet these by the consent of all Nations were ever condemn'd as dishonorable and immoral and yet there is nothing in them besides the sensuality and consequently there seems to be a Moral Turpitude even in Sensuality as such Again 3ly that there is some natural Turpitude in Sensuality as such I am apt to believe when I consider how unanimously 't is vilify'd and decry'd by those who were mere strangers to Revelation and so could not derive this Notion from the prohibition of some certain Species of it Sir I need not tell you what a Continual Topic for Invectives this has been to the Platonists and Stoicks Now how these men who follow'd the mere Conduct of Nature should all conspire in such abject and disdainful thoughts of Sensuality unless it were some way or other disagreeable to the unsophisticate and genuin relish of the Soul I cannot comprehend Again 4ly and lastly that there is some Natural intrinsick Turpitude in Sensuality as such seems to receive no small confirmation from that natural shame which attends the acting of it and that not only in Circumstances professedly unlawful but also in those which are otherwise reputed whereby men seem conscious to themselves of some incongruity in the thing as such From this and more that might be alledg'd it seems to me that there must be some Moral Turpitude in sensuality as such But now wherein this immorality should ly I am still to seek As also I am how to unwind my self from the Difficulties of the other side For first I find that the more Modern Masters of Morality such as Grotius Dr Cumberland Puffendorf with many others resolve the immorality of Adultery wholly into those pernicious effects it has upon Society without bringing in the sensuality as such into any part of the Account which they could not do did they Apprehend any moral Turpitude in Sensuality as such Again 2ly that there is no moral Turpitude in Sensuality as such seems to appear from hence that if there were it would be so in all its instances and Consequently even in Marriage it self But 't is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that hence arises a considerable Difficulty For if there be no Moral Turpitude in sensuality as such then all abstracted Acts of it as Voluntary Pollutions c. must be held lawful which are yet condemn'd And if there be then Marriage must be condemn'd which yet is held lawful Again 3ly I can see no reason why that sort of Corporal indulgency which is emphatically call'd sensuality should be charged with any moral Turpitude when as other pleasures of sense and those perhaps equally intense are not so Such as using choice perfumes eating delicious Sweet-meats c. T is plain these all agree in this that they are gratifications of sense and therefore why there should be a Moral Turpitude in one and not in another I am yet to learn. Again 4ly and lastly to argue from the simple and absolute nature of the thing I cannot imagine how it should be a Moral incongruity for a man to please himself What malice is there in it either against God himself or his Neighbour For that there is in some particular instance as in Adultery or in Degree as in intemperance is purely accidental and therefore ought not to be charged upon sensuality as such These considerations do prevail with me to think that there is no Moral Turpitude in Sensuality as such that all the Pleasures of sense are in themselves equally indifferent like the Trees of Paradise So that if that which we here treat of only be evil it must be as the forbidden Fruit because made so by a Positive law which yet I know not of as an instance to try our obedience But how to reconcile this with the former difficulties I profess I know not And here Sir I desire your unerring hand to lead me out of this Labyrinth and that at your own leisure For I am not in hast and would by no means be troublesome to you you would be pleased to give me a Resolution of this whole matter and that you would not only satisfy the Doubts but also pardon the boldness of Most worthy Sir Your most real Friend and most humble Servant J. Norris Allsouls Coll. Ian. 28. 1684◠D r More 's Answer Sir YOU may very well judge me more than ordinarily rude and uncivil that I have not all this time answered your so friendly and affectionate Letter But I have such abundance of business lying upon my hands that I could not find time till now and foreseeing that I shall be suddenly more busy than before in this strait of time that I am in I have chosen rather than to be still silent to write though but briefly and it may be brokenly to the point you propound Viz. concerning the Moral Turpitude of Sensuality You have shewed a great deal of not onely wit and eloquence but solidity of Reason in pleading pro and con in the case But you had proceeded more clearly if you had first defined what you meant by sensuality which according to the ordinary acception of the word signifies
boldness a little to vellicate and your Answer to my Objections against it I could not but observe your ingenious dexterity therein with pleasure And yet I must ingenuously confess that I still stick where I was nor can conceive but that the free Agency we are conscious to our selves of is placed in the Soul as Volent as much as intelligent because this Volency as I may so speak is implyed in her Attention or Advertency and is a necessary requisite thereof The thing therefore that I affirm being this viz. That this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is placed in the Soul as Volent as well as Intelligent the Volency of the Soul being required to make those free attentions or Advertencies on the object let us see how you demonstrate that it cannot be seated in the Soul as Volent Your argument in breif is this For I intend to answer your Letter with all possible brevity I can That since the Soul cannot will evil as evil she must necessarily will and and chuse according as the betterness of the Object appears to her understanding otherwise she will chuse evil as evil which is against the supposition To this I answer that though she does not chuse according as the betterness of the Object appears to her understanding it does not thence follow that she will chuse evil as evil but that she will chuse a natural good and prefer it before the Moral So that the absurdity of chusing evil as evil here vanisheth and the demonstration falls to the ground And this was the case of S. Peter in denying Christ. The Object of his choice was that natural good his security from pain and punishment which he preferred before that Moral good the faithful and professed adhesion to his Lord and Master Christ Jesus Nor could the understanding of S. Peter err so grosly as not in the Notion to think that faithfulness to his Lord Christ was better absolutely than the securing himself from pain and punishment as indeed there is no comparison betwixt the Moral or Divine good and the natural but there was wanting in this Act the exertion of his will towards the Divine good or else the Divine Nature or Grace was wanting whence he slipt into this choice of the meaner good And as for that Maxim Omnis peccans ignorant If it be true in that Vniversality the sense is that whoever sins it is out of defect of either Notional knowledg or inward sense such as accompanies real Regeneration in which sense the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Insensati in Scripture are to be understood and on the contrary the Pythagorick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those that want this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though they have a Notional knowledg of the thing yet they may sin and that from the want of this sensibility of Spirit But he that is born of God sins not because the seed remains in him this life or sensibility in the New Birth which is an higher and more effectual Principle then Notional knowledg Which alone is not able to determine the choice of the Soul to a Moral or Spiritual Object without the accession of the other For life and sense can onely counterpoise life and sense not mere Notion Whence the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the Moral or Divine good is not followed but what is pleasing and grateful to the Animal nature So that the soul here wills or chuses against the dictate of her understanding which is the sin against conscience otherwise there would be no such thing The cheif Pith of the last Paragraph of your Confirmation is this Though it be necessary the Soul judg as things appear yet 't is not necessary except onely in self-evident Propositions that things should appear thus or thus but that will wholly depend upon the degrees of Advertency or Attention And in this say you I place the seat of free Agency viz. in an immediate power in the Soul of attending or not attending or of attending more or less to the Objects that occur I demand therefore is this any thing more then what is couched in that of the Poet Quid verum atque bonum quaero rogo omnis in hoc sum Viz. A sincere Inquisition and sincerity is immediatly in our power that is it is in our power to do as well as we can after that Truth and Good in which human Happiness consists Which if it be done in a mere Notional way there will still remain that liberty I mentioned above of the Soul chusing contrary to the dictates of her understanding So that there will be more liberties then you conclude for in this Paragraph But if this diligent and sincere Inquisition or sincere desire of knowing what is man and whereto serveth he what is his good and what is his evil be absolutely sincere it cannot fail to inquire what is the most safe and effectual way to have Objects duly represent themselves to the understanding as the Objects of sight to a pure and clear eye And what can this be but the Purification of the soul as I intimated in my last to you which is by Mortification and real Regeneration that the Divine Principle may be more fully awakened in us and so become life and sense to us in virtue whereof the soul will be free and able to chuse what is absolutely the better that is to prefer the Moral or Divine Good before that which is Animal or Natural and if this state advance to the highest never to chuse any if they stand in competition but the Moral or Divine according to that of S. Iohn above mentioned He that is born of God sinneth not c. Wherefore so far as I see it may be but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betwixt us as to this point where you place the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Soul in her immediate power of using the best means she can to find out what is her best good or readiest means to true happiness and riddance of sin and errour Which taken in the full sense thereof as I have intimated is as I conceive a sound and useful Theorem and well adapted for the chastising of the world for their sloth and laziness in these things We come now to your Answers to my Objections And to that of Video meliora proboque you answer indeed learnedly and scholastically by saying a thing may be judged good either by a Speculative or Vniversal knowledg or by a practical knowledg when it is lookt upon and pronounced of pro hic nunc as cloathed with all its circumstances the former is not alwaies followed but the latter is But is there any thing more in this but that the Eligent when as both these knowledges are speculative or universal the former already granted the other plainly implyed by the choice of the Eligent who in such circumstances judges the choice is universally to be made else how is he obliged to make it but
is no wonder that though retaining still his notional judgment of that greatest Moral Evil he yet chuses it to avoid that horrid natural evil and to enjoy the sweet of that Natural Good viz. this life with ease and safety there being in one scale of the balance nothing but the mere truth of Notion in the other the urgent weight of Life and sense which will easily preponderate if there be not life and sense also which is the state onely of the Regenerate to weigh against it in the other scale of the balance So that though the Notional judgment be not corrupted but that such a sin is still held the greatest Moral Evil that is yet the Soul is born down to follow the suggestion of the Animal Life and sense against the dictate of her notional discernment and may truely pronounce with Medea Video meliora proboque Deteriora sequor Nor need I proceed any further For what is already said I hope will reach every Particular of the whole Paragraph which contains your Reply to this last point At least it will make good that the Soul does not chuse evil as evil in the present case which is the main sting of your Argument That we agree in our sentiments touching Humility and Spiritual Mortification this profession of yours I easily beleive from reading what occurs in the latter part of your Sermon which is excellently good solid and edifying And that I have satisfied you in my Determination concerning the pleasure of the sixt sense I am glad of that also And as for this last scruple you move whether what I have said does not conclude against all those who marry in such an Age when it is impossible according to the course of Nature that this end of propagation should be served I say it does not so conclude Because there is a considerable end of marriage besides that of propagation of children which in our Liturgie the Office of Marriage takes notice of viz. mutual society Help and Comfort which comprizeth all the handsome Adjustments of the married Parties Secular affairs and Oeconomical Conveniences and also their mutual help to one another in Piety and devout pursuance of fitting themselves for the future State their Age remainding them that it is not far off And in this Regard their mutual Society may be very delectable to one another while their discourses and Meditations are of the Joyes of the other World and so they may live chastly and comfortably without any frustranious abuse of their bodyes upon the titillation of lust which exact Christian Temperance and holy Meditations and discourses together of their joyous change into the other near approaching state ought to prevent Sir I have told you freely my sentiments touching all the things you have propounded but I dictate nothing but leave all to your own free judgment and so wishing you good success in your vertuous studies I take leave and rest Dear Sir Your affectionate Friend to serve you Hen. More C. C. C. Febr. 22. 1685 6. The fifth Letter to Dr. More Sir AS I cannot express the thanks which I owe you for your great Condescension and Civility so neither can I the pleasure which I had in perusing your ingenious and learned Answer it is spun throughout with a very fine thred and richly fraught with curious and retired sense But yet tho I was and still am exquisitely pleased I am not fully satisfyed with it whether the defect be in your letter or in my Apprehension I shall not take upon me to determine But so it is I cannot as yet bring over my judgment to yours and that I do not dissent without some Considerable reason it shall be the business of this paper briefly to shew you And first then I observe that the Postulatum upon which I ground my Demonstration of the will 's necessarily following the Dictate of the understanding is by you admitted as indeed it is by all except only the School of the Nominals namely that the Soul cannot will evil as evil This you admit by saying Paragraph the second that the Absurdity of chusing evil as evil vanishes only you deny the Consequence of that acknowledged absurdity upon such a choice as is made against the Practical Dictate by saying that it vanishes Here then is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the truth or falsehood of which I am content the Demonstration should either stand or fall to the ground Now to make appear that this is a true Consequence that the will by not following the Practical Dictate would chuse evil as evil I shall not add any Positive and direct proof to the former Demonstration but only consider whether the Consequence is any thing invalidated or evaded by what you have offer'd You say that although the Soul does not chuse according as the Betterness of the Object appears to her understanding it does not thence follow that she will chuse evil as evil but that she will chuse a natural good and prefer it before the Moral True but unless this natural good be in the present Circumstance all things consider'd judg'd greater and more eligible than the Moral the chusing of it will not be the chusing of good but of evil as evil For a less good whether natural or any other it matters not tho good singly consider'd yet in Competition with a greater does induere speciem mali as a less evil tho evil singly consider'd yet in competition with a greater does Commence good and eligible Such a choice therefore as is here suppos'd would not be the choice of a natural good nay not so much as of good but of evil as evil There is therefore no choice but what is according to the appearing Betterness of the Object which Conclusion you your self seem unawares to slip into by using the word Prefer for what is it to Prefer but to think or pronounce upon the whole matter to be better or more eligible And thus you say again concerning St. Peter that he prefer'd the natural good of security from pain before the Moral good of adhesion to his Lord. Well if so then however strange it may seem his understanding did err so grossly as at that instant not to think Faithfulness to his Master to be absolutely better than security from pain otherwise his chusing the latter would have been the chusing of what he then thought a lesser good and consequently of evil as such Nor will it suffice to say that there was wanting in that act of his denial the exertion of his will toward the divine good That indeed is true but not the whole Truth for had there not been also a defect in his understanding there would have been nothing amiss in his will. As for your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sensibility of spirit I have a very good liking to the notion and do think it a Concomitant if no◠the principal part of real Regeneration But whereas you say those that want