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
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
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
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
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
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
the sixt sense but is the perception thereof in such Circumstances as make it abominable And here are broken the Laws of what is fit and decorous as I intimated to you in my former Letter and which might have afforded an Answer to this scruple you now again raise in this But thirdly and lastly There is an Analogie betwixt the pleasure of the sixt sense and the pleasure of Tast. The former as it is in order to the propagation of the species of living Creatures so the latter is in order to the sustentation of the Individuals The pleasure of the tast is to engage the Animal to eat sufficiently to nourish him and to renew his strength Now suppose any man had found some Art or Trick to enjoy the pleasure of the Tast of Meats and Drinks all the day long in a manner and from day to day though he eat no more for strength and sustenance than others do were not this man most wretchedly sensual and gluttonous How then can the exciting of the Venereal pleasure by voluntary Pollutions c. be thought to be any other than the foulest Act of Lust that may be thus to indulge to this carnal pleasure meerly for the pleasures sake against the Law of God and Nature Wherefore you see that the Reason of your Consequence is very infirm and that there is something in those Abstract Acts as you call them besides the simple perception of the pleasure of the sixt sense For the very Abstractiveness of this pleasure from the natural end and use of it is its Essential Filth or Moral Turpitude to be abhorred of all holy Souls and abominated for the reasons I have mentioned Nor is the pleasure of the sixt sense lawfully enjoyed but in the state of Matrimony But excess Captivation of Spirit c. are lawful in no state that I know of And thus you have as full Resolution of this point as I can give and if it may have the success to prove satisfactory to you I shall think my pains well bestow'd But if upon a deliberate perusal of what I have writ and an impartial improvement thereof to your best satisfaction you can there should chance to remain any further scruple I shall if you write me word of it readily endeavour to ease you thereof as it becomes Dear Sir Your faithful and affectionate Friend to serve you Hen. More C. C. C. Ian. 16. 1685 6. The fourth Letter to D r More Sir THere was no need of an Apology either for the lateness of your Answer or your freedom in descanting upon some passages in my Sermon I can very easily be contented to stay for what by its excellency will reward my Patience and can easily forgive him that will make me wiser For I am concern'd for no Opinion any farther than I think it true and so far I am and therefore as I profess my self heartily obliged to you for your kind and excellent endeavours to rescue me from an Errour so I must beg your leave to return something in defence of my Hypothesis Which I question not but you will readily grant especially when I assure you that I argue only to be better inform'd And that your Authority is so Sacred with me that nothing less than the desire of Truth should ingage me to oppose it Presuming therefore upon your pardon I shall first offer something in confirmation of my Opinion and then consider what you alledge to the contrary And in the first place 't is agreed betwixt us that there must be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some Principle of free Agency in Man. All that does or can fall under debate is what is the primary and immediate subject of this free Agency Now this being a Rational perfection must be primarily subjected either in the understanding or in the will or to speak more accurately either in the Soul as Intelligent or in the Soul as Volent That the latter cannot be the Root of Liberty will be sufficiently clear if this one Proposition be fully made out viz. that the will necessarily follows the Dictate of the understanding or that the Soul necessarily wills as she understands Now for the Demonstration of this I shall desire but this one Postulatum which I think all the Schools of Learning will allow me viz. that the Object of the Soul as Volent is Apparent good or that the Soul cannot will Evil as Evil. Now good Apparent or evil Apparent is the same in other terms with that which is apprehended or judg'd to be good or evil respectively For to appear thus or thus does not ponere aliquid in re but is an Extrinsecal Denomination of the Object in reference to the Faculty If therefore good Apparent be the Object of the will good Apprehended will be so too and Consequently the Soul necessarily wills as she understands otherwise she will chuse Evil as Evil which is against the supposition This I take to be as clear a Demonstration of the Souls necessarily willing as she understands upon the supposition that our Postulatum be true as can be afforded in the Mathematicks But for more Illustration we will bring it to an example And for the present let it be that of S. Peter's denying of his Master Here I say that S. Peter judged that part most eligible which he chose that is he judged the sin of denying his Master at that present juncture to be a less evil than the danger of not denying him and so chose it Otherwise if he had then actually thought it a greater evil all that whereby it exceeded the other he would have chosen gratis and consequently would have will'd evil as evil There was therefore undoubtedly an errour in his understanding before there was any in his will. And so it is in the case of every sinner according to those trite sayings Omnis peccans ignorant and Nemo malus gratis c. And therefore t is that in Scripture Vertue is expressed by the names of Wisdom and understanding and Vice goes under the names of Folly and Errour All who commit sin think it at the instant of Commission all things consider'd a lesser evil otherwise 't is impossible they should commit it But this as the Psalmist expresses it is their Foolishness and in another place have they any understanding that work wickedness From all which I conclude that the will is necessarily determin'd by the Dictate of the understanding or that the Soul necessarily wills as she understands so that in this sense also that of the Stoick is verify'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Soul therefore as Volent cannot be the immediate subject of Liberty If therefore there be any such thing as Free Agency the seat of it must be in the Soul as Intelligent But does not the Soul necessarily understand as the Object appears as well as she necessarily wills as she understands she does so and therefore I do not place the Seat of Liberty in the soul as
that the Humour of the Eligent onely has made this latter practical by putting it into practice instead of the former it being clothed with the circumstances of Iucundum or Vtile when the other recommends it self onely upon the account of Honestum which though he sees as Medea sayes Video meliora proboque and that hic nunc for she speaks of the present case and time yet deteriora sequor notwithstanding he declines that which is absolutè simpliciter melius according to his own judgment and closes with that which seems melius that is Vtilius and jucundius to himself to his Animal Nature against the Dictate of the Divine This is the clear case of the Controversy freed from the clouds of the School And therefore notwithstanding what you have answered it is plain that the Soul may understand Notionally and actually better then she practises and not follow the dictate of her Understanding but of her Animal Appetite To my Objection against your Hypothesis That thence every man would be sincere nor any sin against knowledg you answer That a sinner may be said to sin both knowingly and ignorantly he may know in Theory or habitual judgment such a fact is a sin and yet be ignorant by not actually attending to his Habitual knowledg or by judging the sin upon the whole matter to be the lesser evil and thence implicitly to be no sin and so not sin against knowledg But I answer It is incredible that one that has an habitual knowledg that such a thing is a sin should not remember it is so when he meets with it or is entring upon it It is as if one had the habitual Idea of such a person in his mind and should not remember it is he when he meets him in the very teeth Nor can he judg the sin upon the whole matter to be the lesser evil but he must in the mean time remember it is a sin and so commit it against his knowledg onely sugar'd over with the circumstance of Iucundum or Vtile or both This Composition though there be Ratsbain in the Sugar makes the Soul listen to the dictate of the Animal Appetite and let go that of Moral reason tho they both clamour in her ears at once And there the Soul against the understanding concludes for the suggestion of the Animal Appetite that bears her in hand that such a sin with pleasure and profit is better then an Act of of virtue with pain and wordly loss This I conceive is the naked case of the busines Nor does this choice seem to be of a lesser evil to the Soul as Intellectual which dictates the contrary but as sensual or Animal To your Answer to my third Objection of Attention or Advertency being a defective Principle That though a man may be defective in his Attention yet you cannot easily conceive how Attention it self if duly applied can be defective I reply that mere Attention of it self in a Morally corrupt mind let it be never so great can no better rightly discover the Moral Object than the vitiated eye the Natural It is the Purity of the Soul through Regeneration that enables her to behold the beauty of Holiness as our Saviour speaks Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. There is no seeing of God but by being purified and regenerate into his Image 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As Plotinus somewhere has it touching the Divine Pulchritude If thou beest it thou seest it If we be regenerate into the Image of the Eternal Pulchritude we then shall see it having if I may use the Poets expression here Incoctum generoso pectus Honesto But if this Principle of life be not sufficiently awakened in us no Attention is sufficient to make us rightly discern the beauty of Holiness but onely a shadowy Notion or Meager Monogrammical Picture thereof which will not avail though you use all the Attention in the world against the dictates of the Animal sense and life unmortified in the day of trial Whence the defect of this Principle alone is evident But if you mean by sufficiently attending to the beauty of Holiness the diligent and sincere Inquisition after Truth and Holiness which implies our serious entring into a Method of Purification and clearing our inward Eye-sight by our resolved progress in the way of Mortification and thereby of real Regeneration whereby the Divine Life and sense will sufficiently at length be awakened to counterpoise and overcome the sway and importunity of the Animal life and sense the neglect of this we shall be both agreed in that it is the ultimate ground of all sin and that we shall discern when we seriously make trial the necessity of Grace and Divine Assistance to carry us thro so weighty an Enterprise as you rightly note in this Paragraph which I hope I have sufficiently spoke to by this I will onely add that what occurs Psal. 48. vers 5 6 7. seems a figure of this Spiritual Progress towards the beauty of Holiness in virtue of which every one at last appears before God in Sion according to that promise of our Saviour Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. And now lastly for your Reply to what I said touching the Instance of Martyrdome which Reply of yours is this That he that is notionally convinced that the denying of Christ is the greatest evil in the world cannot possibly chuse it so long as he continues that judgment there being according to his then Apprehension no greater evil for the avoiding of which he should think it eligible If therefore he should then chuse it he must chuse it as a greater evil that is simply as evil than which I think there can be no greater absurdity c. This Reply is handsome and smart but in my judgment not free from a fallacious subtilty If where the greater evil is chosen the two compared evils were of one kind that Absurdity would be manifestly consequent but when one of the Evils is Moral suppose the greatest Moral evil that is the other Natural and very great or the greatest Natural Evil that is suppose a painful torturous and ignominious Death in the avoiding of which is implied the securing to himself the natural Ease and sweetness of this present life tho upon this account he chuse that which is the greatest Moral evil and is so esteemed in his notional judgment yet he cannot be said then to chuse it as evil but as the onely effectual means and therefore good or expedient for that end viz. the avoiding the highest natural Evil and enjoying the sweet of that great Natural Good a life painless and at ease And therefore upon this account he having onely a Notional judgment of the Moral evil of that highest sin mentioned but a lively sense both of the natural evil and Good here specified which are the one avoided the other secured by chusing the aforesaid Moral Evil It
of one kind that absurdity would certainly follow But where one of the evils is Moral the other Natural tho a man should chuse the greatest Moral evil yet he cannot be said to chuse it as evil but as the only means of avoiding the natural evil and consequently as good This is the sum of your Answer To which I return that I cannot conceive how the diversity of the compared evils as to their Specifick Nature can any thing alter the case the Question as to eligibility being not concerning their specifick natures but concerning their Degrees not which is Natural and which Moral but which has most of the general nature of evil So that if I chuse that which to me has the most of the general nature of evil notwithstanding its being an evil of another kind I certainly chuse evil as evil Neither can this be brought off by saying that t is chosen as a means of avoiding the natural evil and consequently as good for it can never be good to chuse a greater evil to avoid a less that being all over loss and damage And thus as briefly and as fully as I could have I set down the grounds of my opinion which I am ready to part with upon the first conviction of their weakness or insufficiency If you should find any thing in this paper worth your notice you may return answer at your best leisure for I would by no means divert you from more important concerns I am very sensible what interruptions I have already given you but I hope you will easily pardon me when you consider that t is the peculiar reverence I have for your Judgment which has brought this trouble upon you from Dear Sir Your highly obliged Friend and Servant J. Norris AN APPENDIX COnsidering with my self that those into whose hands these Papers may light may not all of them have that other Book of mine which contains the Hypothesis here defended concerning the Root of Liberty and that t is very necessary the Hypothesis should be seen with its Defence I thought it convenient to set it down here for the Benefit of the Reader The Hypothesis runs thus That the will cannot be the immediate Subject of Liberty must be acknowledg'd plain if the will necessarily follows the Practical Dictate of the understanding And that it does so I think there is Demonstration 'T is an unquestionable Axiom in the Schools of Learning that the Object of the will is Apparent good Now Apparent good in other words is that which is Judged to be good and if so then it Follows that the will cannot but conform to the Dictate of the understanding Because otherwise somthing might be the Object of the will that is not apprehended good which is contrary to the supposition In short the will as Aquinas well expresses it is the conclusion of an Operative Syllogism and follows as necessarily from the Dictates of the understanding as any other Conclusion does from its Premises and Consequently cannot be the immediate Subject of Liberty But then are we not involv'd in the same Difficulty as to the understanding Does not that act with equal if not More Necessity than the Will So I know 't is Ordinarily taught But if this be absolutly and universally true I must Confess it above the reach of my Capacity to Salve the Notion of Morality or Religion For since t is evident that the will necessarily conforms to the Dictates of the understanding if those very Dictates are also wholly and altogether necessary there can be no such thing as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man is bound hand and foot has nothing left him whereby to render him a Moral Agent to qualify him for Law or Obligation Virtue or Vice Reward or Punishment But these are consequences not to be indured and therefore I conclude according to the Rules of right reasoning the Principle from which they flow to be so too To clear up then the whole Business I shall no longer consider the understanding and will as Faculties really distinct either from the Soul it self or from one another but that the Soul does immediately understand and will by it self without the intervention of any Faculty And that for this Demonstrative Reason in short because in the contrary Hypothesis either Judgment must be ascribed to the will and then the will immediately commences understanding or the Assent of the will must be blind brutish and unaccountable both which are Absurd This being premised I grant that as the Soul necessarily wills as she understands For so we must now speak so likewise does she necessarily understand as the Object appears And thus far our sight terminates in fatality and necessity bounds our Horizon That then which must give us a prospect beyond it must be this that altho the Soul necessarily understands or judges according to the appearance of things yet that things should so appear unless it be in Propositions self-evident is not alike necessary but depends upon the degrees of Advertency or Attention which the Soul uses and which to use either more or less is fully and immediately in her own Power And this Indifferency of the Soul as to attending or not attending I take to be the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bottom and Foundation into which the Morality of every action must be at length resolv'd For a farther proof and illustration of which Hypothesis let it be apply'd to a particular case that we may see how well it will answer the Phenomena In the Case then of Martyrdom I look upon sin as an evil and not only so but while I attend fully to its Nature as the greatest of evils And as long as I continue this Judgment 't is utterly impossible I should commit it there being according to my present apprehension no greater evil for the declining of which I should think it eligible But now the evil of Pain being presented before me and I not sufficiently attending to the evil of sin this latter appears to be the lesser evil of the two and I accordingly pro hic nunc so pronounce it and in Conformity to that dictate necessarily chuse it But because t was at first absolutely in my Power to have attended more heedfully there was liberty in the Principle the mistake which influenc'd the action was vincible and consequently the Action it self justly imputable This is the Hypothesis I shall now sum up the whole matter in this Order of Reasoning 1. THat a Creature void of Liberty cannot be capable of Law or Obligation Vertue or Vice Reward or Punishment is certain 2. That Man is capable of all these is certain 3. That Man therefore is indow'd with Liberty is certain 4. That Liberty is a Rational Perfefection or a Perfection belonging to an Intellectual Nature is certain 5. That therefore this Liberty must be subjected either in the understanding or will or to speak more properly in the Soul as Intelligent or in the Soul as Volent is certain 6. That it cannot be subjected in that Part which acts Necessarily is certain 7. That the will necessarily follows the Dictate of the understanding Or that the Soul necessarily wills according as she understands is certain 8. That therefore this Liberty cannot be immediately subjected in the will or in the Soul as Volent is certain 9. That therefore it must be subjected in the Soul as Intelligent is certain 10. That even the Soul as Intelligent so far as it acts necessarily cannot be the Immediate subject of Liberty is also certain 11. That the Soul as Intelligent necessarily judges according as the Object appears to her is certain 12. That therefore the Soul as judging or forming a judgment can no more be the Immediate subject of Liberty than the Soul as Volent is certain 13. That since the Soul necessarily wills as she judges and necessarily judges as things appear we have thus far no glimps of Liberty is certain 14. That therefore our Liberty must be founded upon the No Necessity of some certain things appearing determinately thus or thus or that we have no Liberty at all is as Certain 15. That things appearing thus or thus unless in self-evident Propositions depends upon the various degrees of Advertency or Attention and nothing else is certain 16. That therefore we have an Immediate Power of Attending or not Attending or of Attending more or less is certain 17. That therefore this Indifferency of the Soul as to Attending or not Attending or Attending more or less is the Prime Root and Immediate subject of Human liberty is no less certain which was the Point to be demonstrated ERRATA PAG. 37. for Divisition read Division p. 43. for Conveiances read Conveionce p. 57. line 14. after for add Our p. 58. l. 20. for of read or p. 71. for pertual read perpetual p. 90. for serve r. serves p. 97. for Common r. Commonly p. 120. l. 19. for as r. that p. 179. l. 2. after take add no. p. 202. for hunc r. nunc p. 204. l. 18. before of the r. violence Books Printed and sold by Henry Clements ARchaeologiae Atticae Libri Septem by Francis Rous and Zachary Bogan 4o. Mr. Rodericks Visitation Sermon at Blanford-Forum 4o. 1683. Sermon at the Consecration at the L d Weymouths Chappel at Long Leat 4o 1684. Education of young Gentlemen 5th Edition 12o. Angliae notitia five praesens Status Angliae succinte Enucleatus 12o. 1688. Smith aditus ad Logicam 12o. Brerewoodi Elementa Logicae 12o. De. Civ Dei l. 14. Cap. 28. Tom. 5. 1.4.16 Lib. 1. De Inquirendâ veritate p. 2. Contemp. and Love. p. 296. Can. Rom. 7. See Idea of Happiness Lib. de Lumine Tom. 1. Cap. 14. p. 1006. Phil. 3. Psal. 16. Psal. 42. Psal. 119. Psal. 73. 1.2 1.7 5.8 Dan. 10. Lib. De Mor. Eccl. Lib. 1. cap. 6. Consid. upon the Nature of Sin. Lib. 3. con gent. cap. 122.