Erastus all Spirits are essentially united to God nor can they be entirely separated from him without ceasing to be But what ought to be their Union with God that they may be as happy and perfect as it is possible for them to be Erast It is plain that this Union ought to be the narrowest that can be for none but God is the sovereign good of Spirits Theod. Thus Erastus we become more perfect the greater and the stronger the Union which we have with God is The damned have but just so much Union with God as is necessary to keep them in being But the blessed are united to God in so perfect a manner that they do not only receive from him a being but also its perfection Let us see therefore Erastus wherein consists this kind of Union with God whereby we receive all the perfection whereof we are capable in this life Erast I have learn'd in the Conferences which I have had with you and by the perusal of the Book of the Inquiry after Truth Chap. 8. of the last Book that God alone is the true cause and true mover as well of Bodies as of Spirits and that natural causes are only occasional causes which determin the true cause to act in consequence of his eternal Will I am persuaded that I can be united to the Bodies that are about me and to that which I animate and move only because I am united to God Dialog 1. for all Bodies cannot by themselves act in my Soul nor make themselves visible to her as she likewise hath not by herself the strength to move any Body since she doth not even know what must be done to stir an Arm. Thus Theodorus if I speak to you and understand you if my Spirit unites itself to yours or my Body to your Body God alone is the true cause of it he is the Bond of all the Unions which I am able to have with all his Works I can be immediately united to none but him since none but he can immediately act in me and I only act through his means But Theodorus I may be united to God and fix my self to him and in that have no relation to any other but him and I may also be united to God with relation to some other thing but God For when I think on abstracted Idea's of things I am united to God by my thought since I see those things only through the means of the Union that I have with God * Dial. 3. But this Union doth not bind me to Creatures On the other side when I feel sensible good it is only by the Union that I have with God and because he acts in me * Dial. 2. For all Bodies are insensible by themselves but this second Union which I have with God fastens me to sensible things for God unites among themselves all his Works and he alone can be the Bond of all Unions I therefore believe that our Union with God upholds our Being and that we should not exist without it But I am persuaded that the Union which fastens us to none but God and hath relation to none but him is that which gives the utmost perfection of which we are capable Theod. Do you not remember Erastus that the Author of the Book of the Inquiry after Truth demonstrates That our Senses never represent things to us as they are in themselves but only according to their relation to our selves and that therefore all sensible knowledg is useful for the preservation and conveniency of our lise but altogether unprofitable for the perfection of the Mind and the knowledg of Truth Erast I do remember it Theodorus and shall never forget it for it was that which persuaded me that of all our Knowledg and Notions none but those that are purely intellectual make us more perfect and indeed we can be said to see in God things as they are only through those forts of Notions When we have a sentiment of things we do not see them in themselves we have no knowledg of them and even in reality they are not the sensible Objects that we do feel but our very selves for our Sensations belong to us and not to those Objects to which we generally use to attribute them How then could our Senses lead us to the knowledg of Truth since we do not know Truth but when we see things such as they are Theod. If you remember also what that Book saith of the Errors of our Imagination and Passions you ought to grant that not only the Imagination and Senses hinder us from discovering Truth but also that our Passions carry and remove us from the true Good In a word that all the thoughts and motions of the Soul that excite themselves in us by reason of some changes that happen in our Body disunite us from God to unite us to Bodies For after all it is necessary that the Soul who ought to mind the preservation of her Body be warn'd to think on it when some new Accident happens to it Erast I grant all these things Theod. Let us suppose then that there never happens any change in the Brain but that the Soul receives some thought which takes it off from the light of truth and the love of true good and disunites her from God to unite her to Bodies If it is certain that the perfection of the mind consists in the knowledg of truth and in the love of true good in one word in an Union with God which hath relation to none but him I ask you In the state which we are in wherein we cannot hinder the communication of motion nor the bodies that are about us from penetrating and agitating ours what are we to do to tend continually towards our perfection do not consult the Gospel now consult only your reason Erast It is plain that we ought by flight to avoid being acted by those Bodies that are about us that we ought to mortify our Senses and keep shut as much as we can all the passages at which sensible Objects come in and disturb our Reason When we cannot stay the motion of those Bodies that are capable of offending us we never fail to step aside to avoid being struck by them Thus when we are not able to stop the action of sensible Objects we ought to avoid them by flight in the same manner as we use to preserve our selves from contagious distempers by change of Air. Let an Insect but prick us we immediately lose sight of the most solid truths let a Fly but buz in our Ears and our mind will be presently fill'd with darkness What shall we do then to hold this truth which still gets away and preserve this light which vanishes from us Must we kill all the Insects and drive away all the Flyes this can never be We must then remove somewhere else for after all it is impossible that the Sensations that divide your thinking Faculty should
in my soul a knowledge of instinct nor any other I cannot tell if you are satisfied Arist But little truly Theod. Shall I tell you why you are not well satisfied 'T is because Erastus hath made a clear and evident answer to an Objection that was not so If you clearly understood what you object Erastus would answer you both clearly and quickly If hereafter you desire to receive from him more satisfaction than you have had hitherto consider well what you intend to ask him He cannot answer you speedily and clearly when he doth not understand you and you do not even understand your self He uses all his endeavours not to answer but when he hath consulted inward truth and had its answer but it never answers him when he doth not know what he asks Yet you would have him give you an answer and that speedy too If he made you any he would deceive you for it would be his answer and not Truths you should receive I will still put some questions to him that you may observe the method I think is proper to go about it and that his answers may instruct you of the Truth we seek I have obliged my self Erastus to prove the existence of God by the effects which fire seems to produce in us but to do it 't is of the greatest consequence to know that 't is not the soul that causes in her self her own sensations See if you have not still some other proof I do not say more solid but more able to convince Aristarchus Think on it Why do you sometimes suffer a pain Do you delight in it Erast I understand you Theodorus I am not to my self the cause of my happiness nor of my misery If I was the cause of the pleasure I feel seeing I love it I should always produce some in me And on the contrary if I was the cause of the pain I suffer seeing I hate it I would never produce it in my self I perceive that there is a superiour cause that acts on me and may make me happy or unhappy Since I cannot act on my self and that bodies produce not in me the sensations which I feel as we said just now Arist You have it not right Erastus you love your Body you either know or feel that there happens some good or ill to it you either rejoyce or are afflicted at it The one is your pleasure and the other your pain Erast What ever Aristarchus says to me puzzles me and throws me into darkness I beg of you Theodorus to disperse it Theod. I do not wonder at it Erastus Whatever he tells you is false or full of obscurity yet seems probable enough Will you never retire within your self Aristarchus How can you conceive I pray you that Erastus loves his body Whatever is within Erastus that is able to love is better than the body of Erastus Erastus knows it His Body cannot act on his Soul he knows it his Body cannot be his Good he knows that too it cannot be properly said then that he loves it But here lies the riddle Erastus loves pleasure more than his body and he resents pleasure when his body is well dispos'd 'T is that obliges him to mind his body and to defend it when any thing offends it Do you think the Drunkards love their body when they gorge it with Wine Do you think the Libertines love their body when they ruine their health Is it not rather because they love the present pleasure Do those who mortifie their body love it when they tear it or do you believe they hate it What is it then they love but the pleasures they hope one day to enjoy What do they hate on the contrary but the everlasting torments they fear to suffer Thus you may see that Erastus doth not cause in himself his pleasure because he finds or is sensible that the body he loves is well dispos'd For he doth not even know that his body is in a good state by any other thing than by the pleasure he hath by it It is true that when we feel by pleasure or by pain that our body is well or ill dispos'd we are affected with joy or grief but if you think on it seriously you will easily perceive that this grief and joy that are the effects of our knowledge differ mightily from those antecedent pains and pleasures of which we speak Therefore they must have some other cause than our selves Do you grant it Arist I am now convinced of it Theod. Now this cause must be superior and always present to us since it acts within us This cause can punish or reward us make us happy or unhappy since pleasure delights us and pain displeases and makes us uneasie If then this Cause were God we should know that God doth not only rule the motions of the heavens But that he hath a hand in our concerns rules whatsoever passes in us and that in order to our happiness we ought to fear him love him and follow his orders For since he makes continual applications to us he requires something from us and if we do not perform what he requires from us 't is not likely that he should reward us and make us happy Arist I own it But how would you prove that it is not some Angel or Demon that hath the Government of us and acts on us How would you prove that there is a Being infinitely powerful and who includes in his being all the perfections imaginable This seems to me very difficult Theod. It is difficult by the method I have taken but when we acknowledge a superior power that acts in us we have not much difficulty to consider him as Soveraign and to allow him all the perfections of which we have some idea Nevertheless I must endeavour to convince you fully Mind me also Enastus As soon as we are prick'd with a Thorn we feel pain This pain doth not proceed from the Thorn nor from the Soul you grant all this it proceeds then from a superior power This power ought to know the moment when the Thorn pricks our body that he may in the same moment produce the pain in our soul But how shall he know it Think on it He cannot know it from us for we know nothing of it yet Nor from the Thorn for the Thorn cannot act on the spirit of that power nor represent it self to him for the Thorn is neither visible nor intelligible by it self there being no relation between bodies and intelligent beings Whence then shall this superior power learn the moment when the Thorn pricks us If you tell me that he shall know it from some other intelligent being I will ask you the same questions of the second intelligent being and if you fly to a third you will get no more by it Yet in the very instant when we are pricked we feel pain The superior cause must then have learnt that the Thorn pricks us without the help
of other intelligent beings ad infinitum For as you see he would not have so soon an answer seeing 't is no easie matter to find an ultimate in an infinite There must be then an intelligent being that learns in himself and by its self in what moment the thorn pricks us And this intelligent being can be no other than God that is to say a being whose power is infinite and whose will alone is the cause of things For after all there is none but him whose will is efficacious that can see in himself and by himself the existence and the motion of Bodies For it being impossible he should be ignorant of his own will he only can discover within himself the number figure and scituation of bodies and generally whatever happens to them It follows then that all other intelligent beings are enlightned by the Creator And as you see or as you will clearly see if you think on it seriously you should not know that you have a body and that there are others about you if you had not learnt it of him who knows it by himself Do you understand these things Erastus Erast I do plainly Theodorus This is your argument What causes pain is neither the Soul that feels nor the Thorn that pricks but a superior power This power ought at least to know the moment when the thorn pricks he cannot know it from the thorn seeing bodies cannot give any light to spirits they being neither visible nor intelligible by themselves and no relation being to be found between a body and a spirit He can know it then but by himself that is to say by the knowledge of his own will which creates and moves the thorn and whose power is infinite since it is able to create There is then a God and if there was no God I should not be pricked I should feel nothing see nothing and know nothing Theod. Very well But what think you of these reasons Aristarchus Arist Think I think that both you and your echo Erastus talk in the clouds The ground of your proof is that that there is no relation between bodies and spirits From whence you conclude that an Angel cannot see a body immediately and by himself To which I answer that that spirits may know bodies it is sufficient that they penetrate them Theod. What do you mean by penetrating them Certainly Erastus doth not understand you But without asking you explications that perhaps would puzzle and displease you doth your soul penetrate your body your heart or your brain the principal part where she resides Arist I believe it doth Theod. Pray tell me then how your brain is composed or that principal part wherein your soul resides Arist I do not understand Anatomy Theod. How You don't understand Anatomy Must you search in Books or in the head of other men which you do not penetrate to know how the brain which your soul penetrates is compos'd What signifies it then to a spirit to penetrate a body Arist I must confess I have nothing to answer Yet methinks if a spirit penetrates a body he ought to know that body But perhaps there is something that hinders it which I do not understand Theod. If it were so Aristarchus this something would be the God whom we seek I will lose no time to prove it to you For I will not prove the existence of God by imaginary effects You may think on it at your leisure But I rather advise you to make a serious reflection on the things I have told you now and then I hope you will visibly find that there is a God I mean a Being whose Will is Power and Power Infinite since it is able to create You will find that this God doth not walk about the Heavens as the Libertines will have it but that his providence extends it self to all things and that he acts incessantly in us That it is he that gives us the pleasing and painful sentiments we have of sensible objects and that consequently he may make us happy or miserable In short you will know God in the most useful manner for morality You will even confess that God hath made nothing but may serve to demonstrate his existence though 't is more conducing to morality to demonstrate it by something that passes within us One of the reasons why you are not easily brought to be of my mind is that you have perhaps never seriously thought on the things of which we have been speaking For I do not perceive that my proofs are remote or hard to be understood I will be judg'd of it by Erastus And I believe we ought to agree on that point that hereafter you may be prepared on the subjects on which we shall treat Arist It belongs to you Theodorus to set rules for every thing For you know that my resolution is to seek none but such truths as are essential and may make us wiser and more happy I need say no more to you Theod. To this effect Aristarchus I will tell you the course I intend to keep in our Conferences Observe it well that you may think on it at leisure and prepare your self to make me all the Objections you can I believe I have sufficiently demonstrated that there is a God who acts incessantly in us and who may make us happy or unhappy by pleasure and by pain of which he alone is the true cause and therefore I will bring no other proofs of it and will content my self with resolving your difficulties But I will prove to you that the design of God in creating man hath been that man might know and love him that God hath preserved man but to that end In short that that design is so unalterable that sinners and the damned themselves execute it in one sense and that they shall sooner cease to be than they shall wholly cease to know and to love God When I have establisht as a principle that since God acts always for himself we cannot be happy if we resist his will nor unhappy if we obey it I will demonstrate how God will be known and be loved how we can resist his orders and what is yet more â—trange how we are capable to offend him I will show that our nature is corrupted that sin dwells in us that the spirit is a slave to the flesh In short I will explain the cause and the effects of the corruption of nature how our disorders strange us from God and make us his enemies as also our want of a Mediator and Redeemer I will explain the qualities our Redeemer and Mediator ought to have to reconcile us to God and to satifie his justice that Jesus Christ possesses them all and none but him What may cure the blindness of the mind and the malice of our heart That those remedies are to be found in the precepts of the Gospel and the grace of Jesus Christ In fine I will show that none but a God
rewards disorder Era. But Theodore Was not what you call Disorder put into the Child by God himself Since it is by the Decree of his Will that upon certain motions of the Brain certain thoughts should result in the Soul and the communication that is between the Brain of the Mother and that of the Child was established by God The. I own it Erastus however it is not amiss It was requisite that the Vestiges in the Brain and the motions of the Spirits should be attended with the thoughts and agitations of the Soul for the Reasons I have already told you the chief whereof is That Bodies do not deserve the application of a Spirit that is made for none but God It was necessary that Adam should be told by preingaging Sentiments by short and unquestionable Proofs that such and such things were good for his Body It was fit also that the impressions on the Mother's Brain should communicate themselves to that of the Child for the full conformation of his Body Those things are most wisely establisht Disorder is only found in Desire It is good that there result in the Soul certain thoughts when certain impressions form themselves in the Brain but it is not good that those impressions prompt us to the love of sensible things and do not vanish when we desire it or that our Body be not submitted to us Now the Sin of the first Man hath caused this for he became unworthy by his Sin that God should suspend the communication of motions for his sake so not being able to hinder the impression of the Bodies that act on us from reaching as far as the chief part of the Brain which is the seat of the Soul we have of necessity the sentiments and motions of Concupiscence tho God doth nothing else in us but deprive us of the power to hinder the natural communications of motions that is to say without acting in us For Concupiscence precisely as such is nothing it is in us only a want of power over our Body which want proceeds from our Sin only since it would be just without it that our Body were submitted to us Erast I perceive plainly Theodorus that the union of our Spirit with our Body proceeds from God and that our being Slaves to our Body proceeds from Sin All that is plain But you Aristarchus are you persuaded of the Sentiments and Proofs of Theodorus Arist I dare not assent to them for I fear to be mistaken Erast Perhaps it is because Theodorus speaks of the transmission of original Sin as of a thing not impossible to be explained and you have hitherto believed it to be unexplainable this may have prepossessed you Or it may be your Sceptical Friends have so often laught at the simplicity of those that believe what the Church teaches that your imagination hath been formerly somewhat spoilt by it For my part I remember that some time ago I was half stunned by the reflection of the amazement that appeared in the looks of one of those false learned at the appearance of an imaginary difficulty But remembring what Theodorus tells me continually not to suffer my self to be imposed upon by the Air and sensible impression of Men I retired within my self and could not help laughing at my pannick fear Arist Do you think Erastus that I am so much a Fool as to let my self be imposed on Erast You are too wise to do so Aristarchus but you are not yet wise enough not to receive some impression by the bold way and commanding Air of so many People that come to see you It is impossible to be always upon our guard and compare incessantly Mens words with the answers of inward truth and you shall give me leave to tell you that I even observed but two days ago by your countenance that you are a Man born for company that you are very full of complaisance and very easily embrace the Sentiments of others yet the business was of moment Arist I remember it it is true I was moved that person spoke to me in a very strong and lively manner but I soon came to my self Theod. Perhaps it is because the thing nearly concerned you and you were not then about a Philosophical Question or certain Points of Religion that have nothing common with the Senses Arist It is true but really I will no longer believe Men upon their word Theod. No you do not believe them upon their word for words being arbitrary persuade only as far as they enlighten the mind but the Air persuades naturally and by impression It persuades insensibly and without letting us even know what it is that we are persuaded of for all it can do by it self is to agitate and trouble I say it to you Aristarchus you confusedly believe above a million of things which you do not know and which the Commerce you have with the World hath heapt on your memory But be not vext at it there is no man but hath a very great number of those confused Notions for we are all sensible There is no man made for Society but is fastned to other men and receives in his brain the same impressions as those who speak to him with some emotion and force and those impressions are attended by those confused judgments whereof I am speaking Do not imagine that none but Children see and desire what their Mother sees and desires as I told you just now when I explained to you the propagation of original Sin All men live by opinion they commonly see and desire things as those they converse with proportionately to the need they have of their help Children are so strongly united with their Mothers that they see nothing but what she sees But men are capable to see and think of themselves they are not so narrowly united to other men seeing they can live alone they can think alone but seeing they cannot live conveniently out of Society they never think easily and without pain but when they suffer themselves to be persuaded by the air and way of those who speak to them Is it not true Aristarchus that there are some Persons who have prepossessed you against what I have said to you now of original Sin not as Erastus thinks by laughing at those things for you are too well converted to have still any deference for the silly banters of the false learned but rather gravely and piously inspiring you with a secret aversion for some Sentiments that seem new and are too clear for such as are not used to see the light I know it Aristarchus and plainly perceive that nothing but the disorder which they have caused in your mind by the darkness of their terms and the decisive and scientific air of their quality hinders you from assenting to what I have told you now But let not this make you uneasy there is a great number of others distinguisht by the same outward marks of Piety and Learning that approve what
three years he doubtless took great pleasure to teach three or four of us young Men who came to hear him since he wou'd fatigue himself every Morning to repeat the miserable Reasons which he plunder'd out of Aristotle's Problems Now he reads no more for we hearing him no longer with admiration he speaks no more with pleasure He even has much aversion for all Discourses of Learning and as he is a little troublesom we have found out the secret to get rid of his Company by proposing some Question to him to have it resolv'd Theod. This Example Erastus was not needful to convince us that Persons who are wedded to some sensible thing do not search after Truth for its sake You see that we are well enough convinc'd of it You may observe the weakness of other Men and how their Vanity renders 'em miserable provided that you suppose your self in their person for we are all very near one as the other But Erastus we never ought to inspire into any one a Contempt of or Estrangement from a Person unless we are certain I say certain that he is dangerous and contagious Otherwise we must speak in general terms You would perhaps by your judicious Reflection give us to understand that you are witty we already know it but we knew not that you would have it known 'T is a hard thing to accuse others of Vanity without condemning one's self of the same thing or something else equivalent Thus Erastus you may constantly observe continually criticize but think and correct your self and if you would not condemn your self hold your peace You freely grant Aristarchus that the Councels of JESVS CHRIST are necessary to acquire that perfection of the Mind which consists in the knowledg of Truth Nevertheless JESVS CHRIST came not to make us Philosophers his Councels as I told you yesterday tend only indirectly and by reason of their universality to make us wise But if he gave not to his Disciples many Precepts of Logic to reason justly yet he taught them all necessary Rules to live well and gave them also all necessary power to follow them 'T is for this end that JESVS CHRIST is come his design is to remedy the disorder of Sin to reunite us to God by separating us from the Body to save us and raise us up to himself in Heaven We shall eternally remain such as we shall be in the moment that our Soul shall leave our Body If we love God in this moment we shall love him always for the motion of Spirits is only unconstant and meritorious for this life But all human Sciences are in themselves unprofitable to regulate this moment upon which depends our Eternity they merit us not the Assistances of Heaven for this moment they incline not our hearts towards God Thus JESVS CHRIST was not to guide us directly to this perfection of the Mind which is barren for Eternity and which ceases at the moment of Death he was to recommend to us a privation from sensible Good to the end that our hearts may be fill'd with his love being empty of every thing else and to the end that adhering to nothing in the moment that commences Eternity our love may carry us towards God who is the source of all happiness Let us not then any more consider the Councels of JESVS CHRIST with respect to the knowledg of Truth but with respect to this perfection of Mind which consists in the love of real Good in Charity which remains for ever which alone merits Eternity and without which all Virtues are but imaginary Let us examin the Morality of the Gospel with relation to the Rule of Manners but let us examin it with all possible strictness that there may be no Subject for a second Enquiry let us not be convinc'd less of our Duties by Reason than we are by Faith Certainly if the things which I have prov'd concerning JESVS CHRIST in the preceding Conferences are true there remains no doubt about the truths of Morality we must renounce our own Wills we must bear his Cross we must weep fast and suffer JESVS CHRIST hath said it If he is God if he is Wise 't is evident that his Councels are very advantageous to us But because we can't be too much convinc'd of the truth of these Propositions which are so incommodious and which offend us so sensibly we must endeavor to discover by our own Reason that there is no other remedy for our Evils Perhaps we shall do like those that are dangerously hurt who to preserve a miserable life present their own Bodies to the Surgeons to be cut and burnt they believe these Men upon their word and confide in their Operations and expose themselves to a great pain in an uncertain prospect of a Good which in itself is very inconsiderable What then should hinder us from imitating them when the evidence of Reason concurs with the certainty of Faith If we refuse to believe in JESVS CHRIST if we fear not Eternity if we hearken to out Senses and Passions yet it may be that Reason join'd to Faith will effect our Conviction And it may be that by continually condemning our laziness it will excite in us a profitable Inquietude Let us therefore examin those things in their Principle We ought only to love what is lovely No Thing is lovely but what is good but no Thing is good with respect to us if it be uncapable of doing us good if it be uncapable of rendring us more perfect and happy for I speak not here of a kind of Good which consists in the perfection of every thing Now no Thing is capable of rendring us more perfect and happy if it be not above us and capable of acting in us But all Bodies are below us they can't act in us they can't produce in us either pleasure or light then they are not to be belov'd What think you Erastus Erast When I ask my Reason I freely rest upon this but when I make use of my Senses I doubt it Yet as my Reason answers me more distinctly than my Senses as it is preferable to my Senses and as it never deceives me tho' my Senses always do when I make use of them to judge of Truth I believe that sensible Objects are uncapable of rendring me more perfect and happy Theod. Then you ought not to love Bodies Erast 'T is true this is evident Theod. But don't you love them Erast Much Theodorus I follow not my Reason I follow my Senses my Pleasure Theod. Thus Erastus To love sensible things it 's sufficient to taste Pleasure in the use of 'em Pleasure captivates the Heart it acts more powerfully upon you than your reason since you love because of pleasure such things as you know by reason are unworthy of your Love Erast I have for a long time known what you now tell me Theod. I don't doubt it 't is not to teach you what I now tell you but
causes heat but it doth not cause pleasure Pleasure is a sentiment of the Soul which the Soul causes in it self When its body is well dispos'd the Soul rejoyces at it and its joy is its pleasure but Fire causes the heat we feel for as it contains it in it self it can disperse it without Theod. Can you conceive Erastus that your Soul causes in it self its pleasure and causes it when it knows its body is well dispos'd Can you know what changes happen now to your body Doth the pleasure you receive when you warm your self delay its coming till you find out what passes in your hands Doth it stay also for the orders of your Soul and do you feel that this depends from you as an effect depends from its cause Do you also apprehend well that Fire really contains this heat you feel This heat you only feel when your hands are out of the Fire for whilst your hands are in the Fire which according to Aristarchus contains heat you do not feel it but a very great pain which perhaps is not in the Fire When you retire within your self to consult your Reason do you well conceive that Matter is capable of any modifications differing from Motion and Figure Do you believe that it is by heat that Fire separates the particles of Wood when it burns it That by heat it agitates the particles of Water when it makes it boyl That by heat it purifies Metals when it melts them Extracts Water out of Mud when it drys it Drives with violence Cannon-balls and overthrows by Mines the Walls of Cities and the highest Towers In short have you ever found in Fire some effect that may prove it is possess'd of heat Erast I confess I cannot easily understand how this heat I feel is capable of producing any of the effects you have now mention'd And I cannot even see any relation between this heat and any of the effects of Fire I have sufficiently experienc'd by its effects that Fire hath motion but I have not found yet that it hath heat Theod. You will do well Aristarchus to consider on what Erastus said now In the mean time hear the answers he will make me If I held this Thorn hard upon your hand Erastus what should I do to it Erast As it is sharp I imagine you would make a hole in it Theod. What else should I do to it Erast If I ought to speak but what I know you would do nothing else to it Theod. But what should you feel Erast Perhaps I should feel some pain Theod. This Perhaps is very Judicious But if I drew this Feather over your Lips what should I do to them Erast You should move their fibres Theod. What else should I do to them Erast Nothing else Theod. But what should you feel Erast I don't know Theod. Try Erast I feel a kind of a troublesome pleasure which may be called Titillation Theod. What think you Aristarchus of the answers of Erastus Are they true Can any false consequence be directly deduced from them He speaks but what he understands from that Inward Master whom he faithfully consults Mark how he applys himself Let us go on Erastus What doth this fire produce in your hand Erast Hold Sir I have seen them lay much Wood in the Chimney this Wood is no more there Then 't is gone Arist 'T is burnt 't is annihilated Erast That 's a story annihilated I did not see it go out it must then have gone in invisible particles It could not go from thence without changing its place that is to say without motion The Wood then is continually divided and its particles move themselves from the Chimney towards my hands Those particles are bodys they strike against my hands I have it Theodorus Fire without doubt moves the fibres of my hands Theod. Is that all Erastus Erast 'T is all I know I say nothing but what I see Am I to blame Theod. But pray do you feel nothing Erast I feel some heat Theod. Come nearer the fire yet nearer a little more what do you feel Erast Some pain Theod. 'T is enough Whence proceeds this heat that pleases you and this pain that scorches you This heat that makes you more pleased and more happy this pain that disturbs you and makes you in some manner unhappy Erast I do not know it Theod. Do you believe that fire is above you and can make you happy or miserable Erast No certainly I only believe here what I see I see that Fire can move variously the Fibres of my hand for bodies may methinks act on bodies but they cannot communicate sensations which they have not Can a Thorn infuse pain by the little hole it makes in the flesh Can a Feather spread titillation on my Lips when it goes over them No Theodorus I do not believe that any one of all the bodies about me is able to make me more happy or unhappy Theod. Well said Erastus I am sure you will never worship the Fire nor even the Sun You are already wiser than those famous Chaldeans illustrious Brachmanes and ancient Druids who worship'd the Sun Erast How Were there ever men mad enough to esteem the Fire or the Sun as Deities Theod. Yes Erastus Not some Men or some Nations but almost all Nations and the most famous too as the Greeks the Persians the Romans and several others You may be informed by Aristarchus who hath read learned Books he will talk with you whole days together of the different manners in which several Nations have worshipped Fire and the Sun Erast I do not much care to know the follies of others Be pleas'd to go on with your Questions Theod. I will presently Erastus But by the way Aristarchus have you compared your answers with those of Erastus Have you observ'd how he applies himself how he consults the Master that teaches him in the deepest recess of his reason he never answers but after him he warrants nothing but what he sees and for that reason I defie you to draw directly any false consequences from his answers But if you mind it those that you made me before to the same questions may in a manner justifie the Religion of those who place Fire or the Sun among the Gods For if Fire or the Sun can reward and punish you make you happy or unhappy they must be above you they must have power over you and you ought to pay submission to them for it is an inviolable Law that inferiour things shall be subservient to superiour I need tell you no more of it I only assure you that the Pagans never reasoned like Erastus and that in all likelihood they argu'd like you since we see by their Religion that they have followed the same thred of consequences I have drawn now from your Answers Observe it Aristarchus when God speaks when inward Truth answers there is no creature but guides us to the Creator You 'll understand this
well hereafter But when we judge rashly of things without consulting any other master than our imagination or the doctrine of certain false-learned 't is impossible for us to come near God Arist I can't express to you the pleasure I find in this new way of Philosophising I rejoyce to see that Children and ignorant men are the most capable of true wisdom and I am charm'd to learn from Erastus things on which I had not so much as thought before His answers instruct me more than the high reasonings of our Philosophers and methinks every word he speaks spreads in my mind a pure Light that doth not dazzle by its lustre and yet disperses all my Darkness Theod. I will go on then with my questions to Erastus since you are so well pleased with hearing him Hear me my dear Erastus you told me just now that Fire can move variously the particles of your hand because bodies can act on bodies You believe then that bodies have a power to move those they meet Erast My Eyes tell me so but my mind doth not tell me so yet for I have not yet examined that question Theod. Well then answer me Hath a body power to move it self Erast I do not believe it Theod. Is then the power that moves bodies distinguish'd from these bodies Erast I don't know Theod. Take notice Erastus that I do not speak of motion The local motion of a body is a kind of being of that body with respect to those that are about it I do not speak of that but of the power which causes it I ask you if this power is something that is corporeal and if it is in the power of bodies to communicate it Erast I do not believe it for if it were any thing corporeal it would not be able to move it self No Theodorus I do not believe that bodies can communicate to those they meet a power which they have not themselves a power they could not communicate though they had it In short a power whose diffusion and communication they could not be able to direct in a manner as regular as is that which we see since bodies do not even know either the bigness or motion of those they meet It seems to me that an intelligent being and one and the same intelligent being must produce and regulate all the motions of matter since the communication of the motion is always the same in the same accidents For all bodies or many intelligent beings would not easily agree together to act always after the same manner in the communication of motions Arist Methinks Erastus runs too fast and loses himself For it seems to me that those things which are always done the same way are not done by an intelligent being but by a blind action caeco impetu naturae Theod. You mistake your self Erastus is not out and you ought not to attribute to a blind impetuosity that which comes from the immutability of the author of nature I see you do not know that 't is the mark of an excellent workman to produce admirable effects by acting always after the same manner and by the most simple means I will not undertake to lead you to God that way it is too difficult and does not afford us a notion of God so useful to morality I would discover him to you as the Sole Author of the felicity of the Just and of the misery of the Wicked and in a word as being alone able to act in us For I ought not only to demonstrate to you that he is which certainly is but seldom doubted of but I ought also to demonstrate to you that he is our good in all respects for that 's a thing which is not sufficiently known I return to Erastus You are perswaded my dear Erastus that neither Fire nor the Sun nor any one of those bodies that surround you are the true causes of what you feel at their presence and in this you are wiser than all those who have worshipped Fire or the Sun You do not even believe that bodies have any natural power to move those they meet and in that too you see more clearly than those who worship the Heavens the Elements and all those bodies which Aristotle call'd divine because he believed they had in them a power to move themselves and to produce by this motion all the good or evils whereof men are capable But it is not sufficient to know that bodies do not act on you you must also discover the true cause of all that is produced in you You feel warmth and pain at the presence of Fire Now Fire doth not produce this warmth and this pain in you What must it be then Erastus Erast I must confess to you that I know nothing of it Theod. Is it not your soul who acts on her self who afflicts her self when Fire separates the particles of the body she loves or who rejoyces when the same fire produces in her body a motion proper to keep you alive and help the circulation of the blood Erast I do not believe it Theod. Why Pray Erast Because the soul doth not know that the fire moves or separates the fibres of the body I felt heat and pain before I had learnt by the reflections I made what fire is able to produce on my body And do not believe that Clowns who know nothing of what fire doth operate in them are free from pain when they are burnt Besides I do not know what is the motion that is proper to keep me alive and help the circulation of the blood And if I were to feel no heat till I knew it perhaps I should never feel any In short when I happen to burn my self by inadvertency I feel pain before all things I might perhaps conclude by the pain I feel that there is in my body some motion at work which offends it but ' its evident that the knowledge of those motions neither precede nor cause any pain Theod. Your Reasons Erastus are altogether sound But what think you of them Aristarchus Arist They seem to me probable enough However Erastus how can you tell but that your soul hath a certain knowledge of instinct which discovers to her in a moment all that happens in her body Answer me Erastus Answer me quickly then 'T is a strange thing you never answer me readily Erast I do not understand your meaning but all that I can say to you is that when I know actually something I am sure that I do know it for I am not distinguish'd from my self If my soul had actually some knowledge of instinct or whatsoever other you please for I don't understand that word very well I should know it Yet now that I come near the fire I do not know that I have the knowledge of the motions that are actually produced in my hand tho I feel in it sometimes a pain and sometimes a kind of pleasure or titillation There is not then actually
is convincing and taste alone hath made all mankind agree in that If the mind saw in bodies but what is in them without having a sentiment of what is not in them their use would be very painful and inconvenient to us for who would take the pains to examine with care the nature of all things that are about us to cleave to or leave them What should tell us when we ought to sit down to dinner and when rise from it What should place us at a reasonable distance from the fire And should we not often doubt whether we burnt or warm'd our selves In short would it not happen sometimes that we should be the cause of our own death by Inadvertency by Grief or even out of desire of making near discoveries in Anatomies Therefore it is most reasonable that God incline us to seek the good of the body and shun its contrary by the foregoing sensations of Pleasure and Pain For after all if men were oblig'd to examine the Configuration of a Fruit those of all the parts of their bodies and the different relations which result from the one to the other to be able to judge if in the present heat of their blood and a thousand other dispositions of their body this Fruit were good to nourish them 't is obvious that such things as are altogether unworthy of the application of their minds would wholly fill its capacity and that also unprofitably enough since they would not be able to preserve themselves any considerable time by that only way Arist I must confess this conduct is very wise and most worthy its Author But yet we feel some pleasure in the use of sensible things why then must we not love them Theod. Because they are not lovely you are a rational creature and your reason doth not represent to you bodies as your good If sensible objects did contain in themselves what you feel when you use them if they were the true cause of your Pleasure and Grief you might love and fear them but your reason doth not tell you so as I yesterday prov'd it to you You may use them but not love them you may eat of a fruit but not settle your Love upon it Likewise you ought to avoid Fire or a Sword but ought not to fear them * See the 8th Chapter of the 6th Book of the Inquiry after Truth We must love and fear what is able to cause pleasure and pain that 's a common notion which I do not contradict But we must take heed not to confound the true efficient cause with the occasional I say it once more we must love and fear the efficient cause of pleasure and of pain and we may seek or avoid their occasional causes provided we do not do it against the positive orders of that efficient cause and do not force it in consequence of its natural Laws to work in us what is against its precepts And we must not imitate the voluptuous who make God an instument of their sensuality and oblige him in consequence of his first will to reward them with a sentiment of pleasure in the very moment when they offend him for that 's the greatest Injustice can be committed Believe me Aristarchus the good of the body cannot be belov'd but by Instinct but the good of the mind can and ought to be belov'd by reason The good of the body can be belov'd but by Instinct and with a blind Love because the mind cannot even perceive so clearly that the good of the body is a real good for the mind cannot see what is not It cannot clearly perceive that Bodies are above the Spirit that they can act in it punish or reward it and render it more happy and more perfect but the good of the mind ought to be lov'd by reason God will be lov'd with a Love of choice with a reasonable Love a meritorious Love a Love worthy of him and worthy of us we see clearly that God is our good that he is above us that he can act in us that he can reward us and render us not only more happy but also more perfect than we are is it not this sufficient to make a Spirit love God And thus we see that God was not to make man love him by the instinct of Pleasure when he created him he was not to make use of this kind of art nor implore any force against the Liberty of a reasonable creature to lessen the merit of his Love For the first man ought to have adhered to God and could do it without the help of a preingaging pleasure though now Pleasure is commonly necessary to remedy the blindness which sin has brought upon us and to withstand the continual attacks of Concupiscence against our Reason I 'le say it again Aristarchus that you may remember it It was necessary that the antecedent pleasure and not the light of reason should incline us to the good of the body since reason cannot even represent to its self the bodies that are about us as a good But there was no need that God should make use of preingaging pleasure as of a kind of art to cause himself to be beloved by the first man since it was sufficient that he should enlighten his reason he being the sole and only good of Spirits Arist I grant all these things are very well imagin'd but there is still in your System a difficulty that puzzles me For methinks you confound Concupiscence with the institution of Nature and making God the Author of the pleasure we feel in the use of sensible things you also make him Author of Concupiscence since it is nothing else but that pleasure considered as striving against our reason Theod. This institution of Nature is thus Aristarchus God hath made the Soul and the Body of man and 't was his pleasure for the preservation of his work that as often as there should be in the body some certain motions there should result in the Soul some certain sentiments provided those motions did communicate themselves as far as a certain part of the Brain which I shall not specifie but because the will of God is efficacious there never hapned any motions in that part of the Brain but there followed some sensations and because the will of God is unchangeable this was not changed by the sin of the first man Yet as before man had sinned and whilst all things were in perfect good order it was not just that the body should hinder the Spirit from thinking on what is desired It follows that man had necessarily such a power over his body that he did as it were separate the principal part of his brain from the rest of his body and did hinder its usual communication with the sensitive Nerves as often as he desired to apply himself to truth or to some other thing than the good of the body And by those means it was in Adam's power first to make use
of his taste to discern the things that were useful to the preservation of the body and then to eat on without taste and pleasure because the pleasure be felt in the use of sensible things never overruled his desires it only modestly warn'd of what he was to do for the good of his body Adam therefore could think on what he would and one may say that even when he slept his Spirit was awake For after all it cannot be believed that in the state of Original Righteousness there should be such a great disorder in the most admirable work of God that the spirit should be as slave to the body This is the institution of Nature Now you shall hear its Corruption The first man by degrees stranging himself from from the presence of God by suffering the capacity of his Spirit to be fill'd with sensible pleasures or the sentiments of his own excellency or with some other Ideas which by reason of the narrowness of his Spirit did blot out the remembrance of his Duty and Dependance fell at last into a disobedience to Gods command and then lost the power he had over his body For it is not just that a Sinner should reign over any thing and that God should suspend the Laws of the Communication of motions in favour of a wicked and rebellious man * I do not speak here of the Concupiscence which consists in the difficulty we find to put our selves in the presence of God and in the unvoluntary inclination we have to think always upon our selves For the motions of sensible Objects communicating themselves as far as the brain and also leaving there some deep Impressions it is necessary according to the first will of the Author of Nature that there should result in the Soul some sentiments and motions which carry her even in spight of her self to sensible things Arist All this is very well but why doth God continue to be willing that the impressions of the brain and the agitations of the animal spirits should be followed by sentiments and sensible motions since that hinders us now from loving him and applying our selves to the Truth for which we are made Theod. But why Aristarchus will you have the will of God to depend from that of the first man You have seen that the institution of Nature is admirably well ordered and would you have this Institution alter'd on the account of the mutability of Adam's will Do you not know that the inconstancy of the will is a mark of a narrow Understanding and that God is too just to repent All what God has will'd he wills it still and because his will is efficacious he doth it God had rather for some time be subservient to the injustice of men and even in one sense to reward them by the pleasure they feel in their Debaucheries than to alter the order of things which he hath most wisely establisht And men are so unworthy of God after the rebellion of their first Father that 't is just in one sense that God remove them from him continually and in a manner reward them when they go from him but it is a transitory reward a deceitful reward the price of sin that fattens the Victim for the Sacrifice and prepares sinners for the day of the Lord for that day when the Judge and Saviour of the world will hurry the impious in the fire everlasting to satisfie the divine justice as he will raise with him the elect to an Eternal Glory to exalt the Goodness and Mercy of his Father Therefore Aristarchus the Will of God which forms and rules so wisely all things was not to depend from that of the first man It was necessary that this will should subsist and that he whose wisdom has no bounds should re-establish in a manner worthy of himself the order of things which Free-will had overthrown He hath done it Aristarchus by his 〈◊〉 Will which makes the order of Grace by the 〈◊〉 design of his Son's Incarnation by that great work of Mercy which surpasses all his other works and 〈◊〉 him infinitely more honour than all that 〈◊〉 of Nature which is admir'd with so much 〈◊〉 and represents in so lively a manner the infinite wisdom of its Author Erast Give me leave Theodorus to offer to you the greatest difficulty I find in all the things you have told us now God is infinitely wise he hath foreseen from all Eternity whatever was to fall out in the order of things he was to establish he hath foreseen the sin of the first man before he was form'd why then did he make him Or why did he make him free or why did he not bind and fasten him to his duty by preingaging Pleasures In short why did he establish an order that was to be overthrown and a Nature that was to grow corrupt I grant that he hath repaired the corruption of Nature by the wisest method imaginable but would it not have been wiser to have made one uncapable of Corruption I beg of you to tell me if these things may not justly make us doubt whither an infinite intelligent being rules all Theod. But supposing I did not give you an answer Erastus what could you directly infer from my silence but that I do not know the designs of God I have evidently demonstrated to you by arguing only upon clear Ideas that there is a God and that none but him acts really in us Believe what you have seen and do not wilfully blind your self by opposing to the light of truth some objections which can rise but from the darkness of our minds When we see evidently a thing we must not cease to believe it as soon as some difficulty we cannot solve is offer'd to us Nevertheless Erastus though I do not flatter my self to know God's designs I 'le endeavour to satisfie you in few words for I will not engage my self to say to you whatever may be thought upon that subject God made man because it was his will and it was his will because man is better than nothing and that he is more capable of honouring him than nothing God made man free because the will of man is made to love good but man being able to love but what he sees if God had not made him free or if God did infallibly and necessarily carry him towards all that hath the appearance of a good or towards all that man being apt to err may consider as a good it might be said that God is the cause of sin and of the disorderly motions of the will God made man free and left him to himself without determining him by preingaging pleasure because God will be loved by reason since we are rational Creatures He will be lov'd with an Understanding Love with a Love worthy of him and worthy of us a meritorious Love and which he may remunerate for other reasons which I have already told you He foresaw that man would cease to
our love and we are so free in the love of finite good that we even feel the secret reproaches of our reason when we fix our selves on it Because he that made us for himself speaks to us that we may turn to him and give no bounds to the motion of love which he incessantly produces in us All the motion that the soul hath towards good comes from God and God only acting for himself all the motion of the soul hath no other end nor bound than God in the Institution of Nature God presenting to spirits no other Idea but himself since he hath made spirits for himself All the motion of our wills is towards him since wills move themselves towards those things only which the spirit perceives But men thinking that they see creatures in themselves the consent they give to the motion that God imprints in them ends in the creatures and it may be said with a great deal of truth that the free will of men or their consent to the motion they receive from God tends to the creatures though the natural motion of their love can tend only to God By this you see Aristarchus that God preserves spirits for himself only that the faculties they enjoy to know and love know and love none but him that sinners do not overturn the laws of nature that they are inviolable and that this general principle of Religion and Morality viz. That God hath made us for himself is undeniable Arist But if the order of nature is that we know and love God and if we cannot resist that order since the motion of our love for the creatures tends of necessity towards the Creator how can it be said that we really offend God Theod. It may be said for many reasons God incessantly moves spirits towards good either general or particular for all good is to be beloved He invincibly moves them towards general good but 't is otherwise with the impression he gives them towards particular good God doth not limit towards that good the act which he produces in them For if we observe it duely we sufficiently perceive that in the very time when we fix on some finite good we have some motion to go further if we will So we offend God by stopping his act and not letting him act in us according to the full extent of his act The reason why God moves us towards good is because it moves us towards him and he moves us towards himself because he loves himself 'T is then the love of God to himself that produces our love in us Therefore our love ought to be like to that which God bears to himself But it is not like it when it concenters in a particular good it is then unworthy of the cause that hath produced it and it may be said to be displeasing to him Order is certainly the essential and necessary Will of God according to which and by which he wills whatever he wills for God loves order he wills nothing but order his will always follows order But a creature who loves more those things that are less lovely thwarts order withdraws himself from it and even overthrows it as much as he is capable of it He resists then to the will of God and so deserves to come into the order of his justice since he leaves that of his goodness which is the first and most natural God alone can act in the soul and cause in her some pleasure And by his decree or general will that makes the order of nature 't was his desire that pleasure should attend certain motions in the body So those that produce in their body these motions without reason even against the secret reproaches of their reason oblige God in consequence of his general will to renumerate them by pleasing sentiments even in the very time when they ought to be punished They therefore use violence against his justice and offend him But they only use this violence by the love they have for particular good So this love offends God For all those who love their pleasure without minding the true cause that produces it offend that cause since God never causes pleasure with an intent that we should fix on it but rather that we may love the cause that produces the pleasure and that we may unite with the thing that determines that cause to produce it You see therefore Aristarchus that God is offended when we fix the motion of love he causes in us on particular good But though you might not see it you cannot doubt but it is so for when we confine our love to some particular good we feel an inward check in the secret of our reason and a just check is a mark of infidelity against him that causes it those checks or reproaches can proceed but from a general cause since they are generally to be found in all mankind and must therefore be just since they are caused by a just God and this just God is offended when we confine our love to particular good This single Argument is sufficient for 't is unnecessary to seek metaphysical proofs of a thing whereof we are convined by inward sentiments that is by a light which strikes through the blindest and by a punishment that stings the most hardened sinners Arist I believe all this and I pray you to go on Theod. If you believe all this Aristarchus you may see your friend ask him at first if he desires to be happy Show him that none but God can act and cause in him that pleasure he loves so much and that renders him the more happy the greater it is Let him know that God is just that he will be obey'd that it cannot be conceived he should make truely happy those who do not follow his orders nor unhappy those that follow them that so we ought to use all our endeavours to know the Will of God and ought to obey it with all the fidelity imaginable You are sensible that men must be either stupid or out of their senses not to see those things and that those that see them and are not affected with them must either be mad or desperate but do not tell him so take heed above all things you do not awaken his passions and principally his pride for he would conceive nothing of what you might tell him make him understand as much as you can that God acts only for himself That he hath made our spirit only for himself That he hath given some motion to our heart only to incline it towards him That therefore we ought not to make an ill use of the motion of love which God causes in us by loving any thing besides him or without relation to him Make him understand that God is his true good not only by being alone capable to make him happy but also because none but God can make him more perfect not only as he is the cause of pleasure but also as he is
the original of light Endeavour to persuade him that God alone is the life and nourishment of the soul That all bodies are invisible by themselves and altogether uncapable of producing any sentiment in our souls That all good is included in God in an intelligible manner in a manner fit to act into the mind to shew it self and cause it self to be felt by it In short that God alone is the true good of the mind all manner of ways and that we ought to love and adore none but him Raise in him a desire to hear you by things on which perhaps he never thought and such as may by their novelty stir up in him a salutary curiosity But above all things endeavour to make him very sensible of his unjustice towards God whilst he follows his passions And that being a sinner and consequently unworthy of being rewarded by the delightful sentiments of pleasure he obliges God in consequence of his immutable orders to affect him with delight in the very moment he offends him Death shall corrupt his body and then God remaining unchangeable in his decrees will avenge during a whole eternity the wrongs he shall have done him by compelling him in a manner not only to be subservient to his disorders but even to reward him for his disobedience In short make him sensible of the necessity there is to repent and strive to inspire in him a saultary horror of all those criminal pleasures that bewitch the senses and corrupt the heart and reason That retiring within himself the confused noise of his passions may not hinder him from hearkning to the secret checks of inward truth and thus he may understand what you shall tell him afterwards DIALOGUE IV. Of the Disorder of Nature caused by Original Sin Theod. WELL what satisfaction have you had of your last visit to your Friend Arist None at all My Friend becomes ill-humoured when ever I speak to him nay sometimes he grows angry and flies out in a passion This troubles me very much Theod. But doth he laugh no more at what you say Arist No. Theod. Be of good heart then your Friend mends and I hope will recover He begins now to feel his wounds since he laughs no more when they are drest Should you wonder to see a man grow ill-humoured and angry if another filled him with wounds confusion and shame why then would you have your Friend insensible You have told him perhaps some truths that oblige him to leave his pleasure to shake off the Old Man to be in a disposition to repent and appear full of confusion and shame in the sense of his unfortunate Friends who will laugh at his change He hath had a prospect of all those things within himself and they have scar'd him If he be vext 't is because you have wounded him and I believe that you have offended him by Convincing him Can any thing grieve and mortifie a worldly man more than the thoughts of being obliged to change altogether his way of living and approve by his own example a manner of life which his Friends ridicule and he himself hath laught at with them all his life-time Perhaps your Friend finds himself obliged to this He is willing to breakhis bonds but he tears himself to pieces his heartis divided and you wonder at his pain and impatience Know my dear Aristarchus that if your Friend heard you without being moved it would show that he is not affected with your words that they do not reach his heart that he is not convinced by that conviction which stirs us to action begins our conversion and makes us suffer because it strips us of the Old Man So I would have you be joyful not because you have filled your Friend with sadness but because his sadness is in all likelihood the sadness that inclines us to repentance Arist You revive me extreamly Let us go on I pray you in our conferences that I may strengthen my self in the knowledge of the proofs of Religion and Morality to convince my Friend fully You prov'd me t'other day that God hath made us to know and love him Pray what consequence do you draw from that principle For I grant that God will not have us to fix on particular good the motion of Love that he incessantly causes in us that we may love him incessantly not with respect to his works which being below us are unworthy of our Love but in himself and according to the idea we have of him as a Being infinitely perfect Theod. All the Precepts of Christian Morals depend upon that Principle You believe it already but you shall see it clearly when I shall make use of it to justifie the counsels which the Eternal Wisdom hath given us in the Gospel I will show you now that this principle is the ground of the Christian Religion that owns the need of a Restorer and Law-giver able to illuminate the Spirit and give a new strength to the Soul of a Mediator between God and Men who may offer a Sacrifice and establish a Worship worthy of God and able to satisfie his justice You own that God will be loved with all our strength that is to say that all the motion of love he creates in us end towards him and that we love creatures only for him and not him with respect to creatures But do you love him always after that manner do you find no difficulty in the practice of his Love do you feel no pain to follow this motion to its utmost or no pleasure to stop it In short do you not find often that the ways of vertue are hard and painful and those of vice smooth and pleasing Arist I am not more perfect than St. Paul I sometimes delight in the love of God according to the inward man but I feel in my body another law that fights against the law of my spirit I suffer when I practice vertue I receive some pleasure in the enjoyment of sensible things in spight of all my opposition and am so much a slave to my body that I cannot even apply my self without pain and reluctancy to things that have no relation to the body Theod. But whence proceeds this pain you resent in doing well and this pleasure you have in doing ill You are not the cause of your own pleasure nor pain for if you were seeing you love your self you would never produce pain in your self and would still be injoying some pleasure Neither is it your body not those that are about you for all bodys are below you and it cannot be conceived that they may act in you or make you happy or unhappy None but God can act in the Soul But do you think that God afflicts you when you do well or that he rewards you when you do ill Do you think that God who desireth that you may love him with all your strength throws you back when you run after him But when you cease to
actually dividing the capacity he hath to think and lessning the knowledge of his duty without being removed by it out of God's presence in short without weakning by little and little his love and his fear insomuch that actual pleasure seems a Reason or sufficient Motive to love what is not worthy of our love Adam ought to have remained fixt and unmoveable in the presence of God and not have suffered the capacity of his spirit to be divided by all those pleasures that were in perfect subjection to his Will and used only to warn him of what he was to do for the preservation of his life and as he should so he could have done it And had he made a good use of his Free-will during the time prescrib'd for a Reward he should have been confirm'd in his Righteousness not only by a more clear knowledge of God's continual operation on him but by a sensible knowledge which invincibly fixes on God all Spirits naturally desiring to be happy For the Saints do not only see by a Far-fetch'd and Metaphysical Sight that God alone is capable of acting in them and making them happy But they also feel it by an â—nspeakable comfort which God diffuses in them which â—enetrates them and unites them with him so strongly â—hat they cannot forsake him to love any thing else I speak of those things according to the present â—nowledge of human understanding and do not preâ—end always to certifie the truth or existence of things when I answer to what may be objected to me my â—tmost Design is to prove their Possibility Arist This is sufficient Theodore But how would â—ou explain the Transmission of Original Sin and the â—eneral Disorder of human Nature For it is our Soul â—hat hath sinn'd and is corrupt How comes it to â—e possible that coming from the hands of God they â—row corrupt as soon as they are united to Bodies Theod. Our Soul is made to love God She keeps â—n the Order of her Creation when she loves him that â—s to say when the motion which God gives her carries â—er towards him in the Sense that I explain'd it to you yesterday On the contrary she strays from the Order when having a motion sufficient to reach to God she stops at some particular good and thus hinders God's Act in her I do not believe it can be conceiv'd that she can be orderly or disorderly another way If then I demonstrate that by reason of the Union which Children have with their Mother the Soul of Children is by necessity turn'd towards Bodies that their Soul loves only Bodies and all her motion confines it self to some sensible thing from the moment she is form'd I shall have demonstrated the cause of the general disorder of Nature and how we are all born in Sin I prove it thus There is no Woman but hath in her Brain some Impression that represents to her sensible things either because she actually sees Bodies or receives her nourishment from them You do not doubt of this for after all we must at least eat to live and we cannot eat but our Brain receives some Impression of it since we remember it There happens also no Impression in the Brain without being follow'd by some Emotion in the Spirits which doth incline the Soul to the love of the thing that is present to the mind at the time of that Impression that is to say to the love of this or that Body for Bodies only can act on the Brain See the 7th Chapter of the 2d Book of the Inquiry after Truth In short there is no Woman but hath in her Brain some steps and vestiges or some motion of Spirits which makes her think and carries her to sensible things Now when the Child is in his Mother's Womb he feels the same Impression and Emotion of Spirits with his Mother therefore in that state he knows and loves Bodies The daily Instances we have of Children that fear or abhor those things that frighted their Mother whilst they were with Child sufficiently shews that they have had the same Impression and consequently the same Idea's and Passions as their Mothers since they sometimes never saw since they were born those things which they so much abhor And those Instances even shew us that the Impressions and Agitations are greater and consequently the Idea's and Passions more lively in Children than in their Mothers since they remain affected with them and oftentimes their Mothers no more remember it I perceive Erastus that you wonder to hear me say that Children see imagin and desire the same things with their Mothers Erast I must own that this amazes me but it seems to me demonstrated however there being holy Women and full of the love of God how come their Children to be Sinners Theod. It is because the love of God doth not communicate itself like the love of Bodies the reason whereof is that God is not sensible and that there are no steps in the Brain that by the institution of Nature do represent God nor any of those things that are purely intelligible A Woman may well represent to herself God in the Form of a Reverend old Man but whilst she thinks on God her Child shall think on an old Man when she loves God her Child will love old Men and this love of old Men doth not a justify All the Vestiges in the Brains of Mothers communicate themselves to Children But the Idea's that are join'd to those Vestiges by the Will of Man or by the Identity of Time and not by Nature do not communicate themselves to them for Children in the Womb are not as knowing and holy as their Mothers Erast But Theodore Children are not free I own they love Bodies but they cannot hinder themselves from loving them How then are they Sinners How are they corrupt Theod. Their Sin is not of their own chusing nor free and voluntary yet they are corrupt For all Spirits that are averse from God and inclin'd towards corporeal Beings do not follow God's Orders if it be true that God will be loved more than Bodies Concupiscence is not a Sin in virtuous persons because there is in them a love of choice that opposes it Concupiscence doth not reign in them but it reigns in Children their natural love is bad and they have no other When two sorts of loves are to be found in a heart God regards only that love which is free so Dreams are not sinful in pious Men because the love of choice that went before leaves in the Soul a disposition that carries and turns her towards God But in a Child who was never turned towards God nothing but his Nature and what God has fixt in him by the Decree of his first Will can be good he is a Child of wrath and must of necessity be damned For it cannot be conceived that God will ever reward the disposition of his heart except you also conceive that God
how he is the beginning and end of all things Those holy persons that read the Scripture with an intention to find Christ never fail to find him there for he is in every place of it But they have not the spirit of this world but that of God whereby they know the greatness of the Gift that God hath imparted to them The outward and sensible Man is not capable of the things which the Divine Spirit teacheth us for the eye hath not seen the ear hath not heard nor the heart of man ever understood what God hath prepared for those that love him I do not only speak of those false learned who deny the corruption of Nature the necessity of Grace and the Divinity of Christ yet assume the quality of Christians I also speak of those who live in the bosom of the Church but have little love for Religion It is impossible they should be very well learned in the knowledge of Christ seeing they do not love him and do not study the Scriptures professing the Christian Religion perhaps only because it is that of their Parents Arist You have told us a great many things both to day and yesterday since I have seen my Friend I imagin that he wants me as I do to know what he will think of these things I must leave you to go to him Theod. Do Aristarchus make him sensible of the general corruption of Nature and the enmity that is between God and man and endeavor to demonstrate plainly to him the necessity of Christ's satisfaction If you find that he receives your Sentiments as he ought and is willing to be instructed immediately fall on the praises of our Redeemer and stir him up to the love of his Saviour by the consideration of the chief obligations he hath to him Tell him That Christ is the Way the Truth and the Life That he is our intelligible light that enlightens us in the deepest recess of our Reason and our sensible light that instructs us by Miracles by Parables and Faith That he alone is the food of the Soul That his light is the sole producer of Charity and that none but him can give us the holy Spirit whereby we become the children of God Tell him that he hath been predestinated before all time to be our King and Chief our Pastor and Law-giver That God receives our Prayers through him only That we are made clean only by his blood and enter into the Holy of Holies only through his Sacrifice In short That Christ is all things to us that in him we are new creatures and new men that have not been condemned in Adam that without Christ we are nothing have right to nothing but are sold to Sin Slaves to the Devils and the eternal objects of God's wrath Use all your endeavors to make him think on Christ to unite him to and make him esteem and love Christ and conclude with these words of St Paul at the end of one of his Epistles If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha 1 Cor. 16.22 DIALOGUE VI. The Truth of the Christian Religion proved by other Reasons Arist AH Theodorus how unsatisfy'd am I in my Friend Theod. Yes Aristarchus I can easily see it the Air of your Countenance does not rejoice those that examin it 't is not an Air of Triumph or of Victory that might please those who take part of it But how cou'd he resist you Arist As I was well persuaded of the truth of the Christian Religion by the proofs of original Sin and the necessity of a Mediator so I imagined I cou'd convince him by proposing the same proofs but I know not to what I should attribute the ill success of my words when I spoke to him instead of persuading him I provoked him and he rejected all that I proposed to him with a kind of scorn he would not so much as agree with me in common Notions but continually said that my Reasons were the Reasons of Philosophy Such Answers grieved me I strove to convince him and continued to repeat the same things hoping that at last he would reflect but all my Efforts were entirely lost 'T is something strange Theodorus that a Man can't convince others of the same thing that he himself is fully convinced of for it appears to me that all Men ought to see the same things Theod. If all Men were equally attentive to inward truth they would all equally see the same things but your Friend is not like you he is taken up with a multitude of things and his pride has now for many years kept him unconversant even with himself so that abstracted proofs and reasonings built upon Notions which have no dependance of the senses persuade him not because these proofs don't touch him and because he has many confused reasons which hinder his application to them When a Man has discovered a Geometrical Demonstration he can convince all Men of it to whom he clearly proposes it because that these things are sensible that they freely apply themselves to them that there 's no reason why they should not believe them that they are not prepossess'd by the authority of Men that deny them and that when they see these kinds of truth they see them after a sensible manner But 't is not the same with certain truths which are contrary to our inclinations there we think not seriously and we have many reasons not to believe them It 's necessary Aristarchus that I demonstrate to you the truth of the Christian Religion by more sensible proofs than those of our preceding Conferences it may be your Friend will more willingly hearken to them Do you take his place and object whatever you can imagin against what I shall offer I only suppose that God hath made our Souls to know and love him 'T is what your Friend assents to You have heard Aristarchus of one Moses the famous Legislator of the Jews to whom God gave the Ten Commandments upon Mount Sinai Do you believe what the Scripture says of him Arist But what if he was a Cheat an Impostor Theod. Very well Aristarchus you suppose your self under your Friend's character but you know that he must have an excessive bold spirit I would say the most ignorant and most transported of bold spirits who dares say that Moses was a Cheat you do much honour to your Friend Arist I know what I say Theod. Well then if you know him so well speak for him I will engage him in your person You have reason Aristarchus and ought not to oppose a Sentiment that is universally received by all reasonable persons unless you have good proofs that they are deceived Arist There is much prejudice Theod. Right but this common Reason does not justifie you nor will it justifie the most extravagant doubts that may be raised but I may tell you that there was never any Man that could be more unreasonably accused of Imposture
than Moses 'T is one essential quality of a Cheat to avoid the Light but the Miracles of Moses were wrought before all the people in the sight of Six hundred thousand fighting Men there was a great number of them and some were repeated every day for many years together But not to stay upon these unprofitable proofs let us reflect upon the manner how the Israelites were nourished in the Wilderness forty years every morning the Earth was covered with Manna except the Sabbath day when it was kept till the next day it was corrupted and full of Worms except the Sabbath day This Manna ceased to fall when the Israelites had once eaten of the fruits of the Land of Canaan and from that time they never saw it â—…ll Can one doubt of a Fact which was continued Forty years Or can one attribute to a natural Cause this Rain or Dew which fell but for Forty years which ceased to fall every Saturday and which could not be kept without corruption but upon Saturdays Is Saturdays Air or Sun different from that of other days Did the first Repast which the Israelites had in the Land of Canaan change the face of Heaven or the situation of the Stars which caused it to rain Manna Is' t not evident by these Circumstances that this Rain was not Natural Arist But what proofs have you that the Pentateuch Joshua and other Books from whence you borrow what is spoken of Manna are true If they were Fabulous Theod. If they were Fabulous Aristarchus the Jews were Men of a different nature from us they were Fools and stupid to a very improbable degree Think you Aristarchus that Men who have but a little of common Sense would without Reason or Examination receive Books as authentic and as a Rule of their Faith and Conduct I 'll explain my self Think you that a whole Nation would submit to a Law so very severe and painful by the force of Arms or some reason of Interest without being compelled thereto as 't were by Divine Authority Think you that upon a Fabulous History derived from our Ancestors we should be so stupid and insensible blindly to submit our selves to a Ceremony so shameful and incommodious as is that of Circumcision How can it be imagined that the Jews receiv'd the Law which they observe and the Books which they call Canonical without consideration These Books flatter them not they continually menace and reproach them with the stupidity infidelity and malice of their Ancestors The Jews were not obliged by force of Arms to receive these authentic Books wherefore do they receive them wherefore do they preserve them so carefully wherefore are there no Men so constant as they to the Religion of their Fathers 'T is without doubt either because the Jews are not Men as we are or rather because their Religion and Books have all the possible characters of truth But Aristarchus you believe that God hath made us to know and love him and to make use of the most reasonable Religion for there must be an outward worship for Men that make use of their senses and who live in society We must then of all Books that treat of Religion believe those that have the greatest appearance of truth but there are none comparable to the Scripture for the Reasons I have told you as also for innumerable other Reasons We ought then to look upon these Books as our Rule and there to search the Religion which we ought to sollow And if we deceive our selves in the choice of these Books our Error would only depend on this that there would be no mark to discern sacred Books from profane or rather from this that there would be neither sacred Books nor Religion which were pleasing to God Arist What you say Theodorus is highly reasonable but my Friend will rashly tell me that Mahomet was a Prophet and that the Alcoran is a Divine Book how would you have me to answer him Theod. Compare the Miracles of Moses with those of that Impostor and shew him what difference there is betwixt his making a tame Pigeon whisper in his Ear before all the people or making a famisht Bull bring him a Book through the multitude or attributing a * The Falling-sickness Disease shameful enough to the apparition and dazzling lustre of the Angel Gabriel and the Miracles which confirm the mission of Moses or the covering the Earth with Insects changing Water into Blood filling the Air with thick darkness agitating it by Thunder inflaming it by Lightning making it to rain celestial Food for forty years to be conducted by a Cloud in the day-time and Fire by night both of them in form of a Pillar I pass over many other Miracles that God performed by Moses in the sight of all Egypt and all the people of Israel The Alcoran relates no such Miracles in favour of Mahomet it does not so much as mention those which I have already spoken of which are such gross cheats * Chap. of the Cow of Women and other things of the version of Du Rier and 't is well known that many Men despised the false Prophet which is the Author of them because he did no Miracle But Aristarchus let us not insist altogether upon this the Alcoran destroys itself by itself as well as Iudaism as you shall see presently I 'll suppose that Mahomet was a Prophet and that his Book is as authentic as the Old Testament grant to me that there is at least an equal Authority to two Books so different and let us first see which is the Religion that the holy Scripture propounds to us Arist How Theodorus will you be a Jew Theod. Yes certainly Aristarchus if Judaism be the Law which the holy Scripture proposes to us as capable of making most perfect and happy as for me I look upon holy Scripture as a Divine Book but perhaps Judaism as to the Letter is not the end of the Law Take heed Aristarchus think you that Beasts have a Soul I mean a Substance which animates or informs their Body and which is more noble than it Arist To what purpose Theod. Only answer Arist Yes I believe that Beasts have a Soul and that their Soul is more noble than their Body Theod. I 'll prove that you are mistaken what is the end the good or happiness of Beasts think you that Beasts have any other natural Felicity than the enjoyment of their Bodies Arist No I believe the end of Beasts is to eat and drink Theod. Then God hath made the Soul of Beasts for the enjoyment of their Body but the Soul of Beasts is more noble than their Body Then God has not well ordered his work nor proposed to Beasts an end worthy of them if that which makes them more happy and perfect must be more noble than that which receives its happiness and perfection Thus you ought to observe that God has not given to Beasts a Soul distinct from their
body or more noble than it or else you ought to begin again and say that Beasts have some other Felicity than that of drinking and eating and of enjoying their Body Arist This Reason convinces me but what would you conclude from thence Theod. Thus Aristarchus you believe that the Jews were Men as we are and that they had a Soul I would say a Substance which thinks perceives wills and reasons and is distinct from the Body your Friend whose place you take being a Cartesian does not doubt of this Arist 'T is true he proves demonstratively that the Existence of the Soul is more certain than that of the Body Theod. This being granted Aristarchus I say that Judaism as to the Letter is not a Religion which God has established for Men and that it could not render the Jews either more perfect or more happy because Moses propounded no other Felicity to the Jews than the enjoyment of the Body and that this sort of happiness is only proper for Beasts if it is true that Beasts have a Soul After Moses had propounded this carnal and ceremonial Law to the Jews which was a shadow of things to come Deut. 28. he promised that if they would observe it their Land should be fruitful that they should have great Families and numerous Flocks that they should be Masters over their Enemies and that God would preserve them as a People which he had chosen But if they would not observe it he told them that they should want all the necessaries of life and foretold those temporal Evils which are come upon them In fine he promised no other recompence or punishment no other happiness or misery than the enjoyment or privation of Bodies it seems there was no Hell no Paradise no Eternity for the Jews Arist But whence comes that 'T is certain the Jews were very gross and carnal Theod. 'T is not Aristarchus that the Jews were gross and carnal but because Moses being only the Figure could only promise good things in a Figure and could not bring them into the inheritance of Children The chief Priests according to the Law of Moses entered into the Sanctuary made with hands which was only a Figure of the true one They entered there with the blood of He-Goats and Calves which could not purifie the Conscience therefore the Law of Moses could not justifie men it gave them no part in eternal happiness therefore Moses was not to promise them any such thing that was the propriety of Jesus Christ who is entred with his own blood into Heaven the true Sanctuary and who hath purchased eternal Salvation as being the onely High-Priest of good things to come Can you think that the Jews were more carnal than the Heathens Can you imagin that Moses was more gross than Poets who make mention of their gods after so unworthy a manner But the Heathens thought of another life The Poets speak of the Elizian Fields and of Hell as places destined for the recompence of Virtue and the punishment of Vice There is no Motive more strong no Idea more terrible no Recompence more agreeable than that of Eternity and the most barbarous Nations are capable of being smitten shaken and carried on to the exercise of Virtue by this thought that they would be eternally rewarded for it yet Moses reckons a great number of Blessings and Cursings without mentioning Eternity Arist 'T is because he did not believe there were Spirits he believed not the Immortality of the Soul Theod. This Consequence is very just and did I not know that the Law of the Jews and their Covenant with God was a Figvre of the New Covenant I perhaps might think my self obliged by the deference I owe to the Books of Moses to be of the sentiment of the Sadducees for only this Party appears reasonable as I have already said for I have not yet spoken any thing that overthrows it But as your Friend is a Cartesian he is too much convinced of the Immortality of the Soul and that Beings which think are distinguisht from matter that cannot think to draw the same Consequences as you do Arist 'T is true this must convince him Theod. Nevertheless he was not convicted of it I could wish that the Body were our true happiness but is this happiness capable of recempencing those who fulfil the precept of loving God with all their heart with all their soul and with all their might This might perhaps be a sufficient reward to the Roman Virtue for happiness must be proportionable to its Virtue But is this worthy of God Is this sufficient to make those truly happy who truly love him You see plainly Aristarchus that they are not Why then did Moses enjoin us to love God with all our might And why did he only promise us the enjoyments of our Bodies for the recompence of this love unless it be that the love of God is indispensibly above all things and that Moses was not to promise the happiness he could not give This seems to me sufficient to convince you that Judaism was but the shadow and figure of Christianity that the Old Covenant only represented the true reconciliation of God with Men and that the Priests according to Aaron's Order the Sacrifices and Ceremonies of the Law ought to be abrogated by the Sacrifice of the Lamb without spot which takes away the sins of the world which worthily satisfies the Justice of God which introduces us into the Holy of Holies and promises the true happiness to all those who are members of that Body whereof he is the Head Thus you see that I have no design to become a Jew unless you believe me stupid enough to look upon the Body as my proper good the Body I say which can't be the happiness of Brutes if they have a Soul distinct from their Body and more Noble than it But as for you Aristarchus you have now a design to turn Turk I speak to you as you take upon you the character of your Friend you are for a Paradise where you would always be indulging your self in sensual pleasure you would have many Women to satisfie those Passions which are even here below called brutish and shameful * Chap. of Order Chap. of Judgment Chap. of Mercy c. the great Mahomet promises them as fair as new laid Eggs and as beautiful as Oriental Pearls they shall have black rolling Eyes Arist Enough Theodorus the Turkish Religion is certainly unworthy of reasonable Men it is even unworthy of Beasts if they have a Soul more Noble than their Body And I acknowledge that the Alcoran destroys itself by its own Principles as well as Judaism does in the Letter For in fine 't is certain that the enjoyments of the Body are not worthy of the Soul That those who love them become not thereby more perfect That those who enjoy them are thereby often ashamed And that the promises of Moses not to mention those of
but also the desire And sometimes the Imagination does so augment all things that the pleasure it produces excites the Concupiscence after a more strong and lively manner than that we enjoy even in the use of Bodies Persons who have too quick and delicate an Imagination may sometimes cure the hurt they have received in a contagious discourse by tasting the pleasures which are represented to them or of which they form'd themselves too great an Idea And there are certain bashful lazy and judicious persons and of a certain disposition of mind hard to describe to whom it is convenient sometimes to shew the world to give 'em a dislike of it But Erastus this is rare and 't is extremely dangerous to be familiariz'd with sensible things You have an horror for Tobacco you are pleas'd not to be subject to the necessity of always having some with you yet if you were to be with Men who frequently use it their discourse and manner would engage you by degrees to use it your self and Use would subject you to it as well as others for I know some who can't be without it that could not endure it heretofore Erast. It is true Theodorus that the great Secret to resist Concupiscence is to have continually an eye to the purity of our Imagination and to take heed that it leave not footsteps in the Brain which may carry us to the love of sensible things thus to remedy the beginning of our Irregularities The Councels of JESVS CHRIST which only tend to deprive us of the use of sensible things are admirable but they are very uneasie methinks Philosophy furnishes us with a Remedy more commodious than that of the Gospel 't is this Philosophy teaches me that all Bodies which are about me can't act in me and that 't is God only that causes in me the pleasure and grief which I feel in their use this being granted I can enjoy Bodies without loving them for as I only ought to love that which is truly capable of making me happy to excite in me the love of God I have only to remember in the use of sensible things that 't is God who makes me happy by their means Thus I ought not to shun Bodies on the contrary I ought to seek them that so by exciting pleasure in me they may continually make me to think of God who is the cause of it Whence comes it that the Blessed love God constantly and that they can't leave off loving him if it is not that they see him and that they are ty'd to him by a preingaging pleasure Well then I see God by Philosophy I perceive him in every thing if I eat I think of God because 't is God that makes me eat with pleasure I 'm not careful to love good entertainment as there 's nothing but God which acts in me I only love him Theod. You Erastus are free from sin and confirm'd in grace for who shall disunite you from God the most violent pleasures tie you more strongly to him and pains can only produce in you a fear and respect for him but do you your self often make use of your own Remedy and have you never acted contrary to the remorse of your Conscience Erast. I am very sensible Theodorus that this Remedy of my Philosophy is not soveraign but pray explain to us the defects of it Theod. I will When you taste of Fruit with pleasure your Reason tells you that there is a God whom you see not who causes in you this pleasure your Senses tell you on the contrary that this Fruit which you see which you hold in your hands 〈◊〉 which you eat is that which causes in you this pleasure which of these two speaks higher your Reason or your Senses As for me I find that the noise of my Senses is so great that I even think no of God in that moment but perhaps Erastus is such a Philosopher that his Senses are silent as soon as he pleases and that they never speak to him without first obtaining his Licence If so your Remedy is good for you for the privation of Bodies is not absolutely necessary to those who have no Concupiscence Adam could taste of pleasures without becoming their Slave tho he had done better to have let them alone Then let those who feel no Concupiscence in them and whose Body is intirely subject to the Spirit make use of your Remedy 't is good for them they are just by themselves they descend in a right Line from the Pre-Adamites Neither did Christ come for them he came not to save the Just but Sinners He came for us who are Sinners Children of a sinful Parent sold and subject to Sin and who always feel in our Bodies the Rebellion of our Senses and Passions When the obligation we have to preserve our health and life constrains us to enjoy some pleasure then we must make a necessity of Virtue and make use of your Remedy if we can remembring that these are not the Objects which cause in us this pleasure but God only we must thank him for them and pray to him that he would defend us from the malignity of sensible Objects we must use them with fear and with a kind of horror for without the grace of JESVS CHRIST that which gives life to the Body gives death to the Soul you know the Reasons of it Erast. But why Pleasure in itself is not ill I receive it then it does me no harm I thank God for it and love him the more it unites me to God who is the Author of it then it does me good Theod. The love of God which the enjoyment of Pleasure causes in you is much interested I 'm much afraid Erastus that in loving God as the Author of your Pleasure you love your self instead of loving God But I wish that this love be not ill I also wish that you have the power of raising your self up to God in the time that you enjoy some Pleasure but this Pleasure makes traces in the Brain these traces continually agitate the Soul and in the time of Prayer or some other necessary business they disturb the Action blind the Mind and stir up the Passions Thus when you would even make a good use of Pleasure at the moment that you should taste it the trouble that it disperses thro' the Imagination has so dangerous Consequences that you had better have been depriv'd of it Think you Erastus that there has been a Race of Mankind so very stupid as to get drunk for the honor of God and to bring him into one's mind for the pleasure of drunkenness and do you observe that the pleasure which is found in the excessive use of sensible things is such as can't be pray'd for to God without remorse Hence it is that this pleasure was not ordain'd by Nature to carry us directly to God but for the use of Bodies so far as they shall be necessary for the preservation
also by what he said to me Yesterday when I was come back from my Friend's Would you have me give you some account of it Theod. You will oblige me we are always very fond of knowing the last Words of those that leave us Arist Erastus never exprest himself with more Eloquence and Happiness of Thought He told me among other Things that Man is not only united to his own Body but also to all those that surround him that our Passions diffuse our Soul into all sensible Objects as our Senses diffuse it through every part of the Body and that those who launch into the wide World continually running after Riches Pleasures and Honours dissipate and lose themselves by being disperst as it were out of themselves While they fancy that they enlarge their own Being they weaken themselves and become Slaves to those whom they would command And while they encrease their Power on the Bodies that surround them they lose that which they have on the Truth that penetrates them Let me consider said he how Man comes to be sensible Out of his Brain certain Nerves are emitted whose infinite number of Branches are disperst over all the Parts of his Body These Nerves or Fibres which correspond to the Seat of the Soul agitate her as soon as they are stirred they disperse her through all the Parts into which they insinuate themselves and whatsoever happens in the Body breaks her Quiet and disturbs her Now let me examine the Condition which that Man is in who is led by his Passions and fasten'd to every Thing Out of his Heart some Bonds may in one sense be said to be emitted and thence their strings are disperst through all sensible Objects These Strings are no sooner stirr'd by the Motion of those Objects but his Heart is also mov'd If these Objects are remov'd at some distance his Heart must follow or be torn In short his Soul disperses her self by the Means of these Tyes through whatever surrounds him just as she diffuses her self by the Means of Nerves over every Part of the Body When a Man inconsiderately gives himself up to the Commerce of the World the Tyes of his Heart fasten him to a Thousand Objects which only serve to make him wretched and if he be mad enough to have a real Love for those Objects or to be pusst up with his new Greatness he is said he to me like those who would be proud of a Dropsie or of Wens or Bunches that swell their Body to a bigger Bulk than ordinary Do you think continued he that the Souls of Gigantic Men are greater than those of other Men They have indeed a larger Body and can put a greater Mass of Matter into Motion but if you examine them well you 'll find that their Motions are more irregular The very Horses and Elephants are stronger than they and more bulky and if these Men measur'd the Greatness of their Soul by that of their Body they would make themselves universally ridiculous Yet it were a juster Thing to measure the Greatness of the Soul by that of the Body than by that of Riches and Honours For after all our Body is more our own than our Wealth and we are more united to it than we are to our Clothes our House or our Lands How foolish and vain then are not Men when they pretend to grow greater by being disperst out of themselves Truely cry'd he Imaginary Greatness makes Men become very miserable Creatures Every thing offends them every thing disturbs them every thing holds them fast And can Men in a perpetual Hurry and as it were wounded in every Part be able to Think Can they be able to cleave to Truth for which alone they are made with which alone they can be nourish'd and through which alone they can grow more wise and more happy They are commonly mad stupid thoughtless Creatures void of Light and Understanding Do you think added he that the Voluptuous and those who continually strive to extend their Slavery by enlarging the Bounds of their Commands do so much as know that they are not made for Bodies nor for a Time and that they are not on Earth barely to live there Alas they know nothing of this they do not perceive that Bodies are inferiour to them uncapable of acting on them and altogether unworthy of their Love As they have not yet felt the Sting of Death they cannot strictly be said to know they shall dye Their Tongues indeed say they must and they believe it but they do not know it They think they shall be no more but they do not know they shall dye What vast difference is there not between seeing and seeing 'T is but a very little while since I know that I am not made for Corporeal Beings that the Figure of this World passeth away that the true Good of Spirits is a Spiritual Good and even since I know what it is to dye Nay as my Understanding is but small I have too been obliged to think with my utmost application to comprehend these Truths Before this I thought of Death what my Eyes discover'd to me of it and scarce any thing more And if I had not been in a greater Capacity of applying my self to thinking than those who are in the Hurry of Business or a hunting after Pleasure I must confess I had not known what I believe is unknown to great Numbers of Men. The application of the Mind produces Light and discovers Truth The sight of Truth gives perfection to the Mind and regulates the Heart Such an application is then necessary But can a Man when he is pull'd and drawn on all sides struck and wounded every where thrust back when he would get forwards dragg'd forwards when he would go back and continually disturb'd and misus'd can such a Man I say think with application Can a Man who fears every thing yet desires hopes for and runs after every thing think on what he does not see Truth is distant and not sensible nor is it a Good which we find our selves press'd to love We must seek it if we would find it But we may still put off the Search for it never wholly leaves us On the contrary Bodies cause themselves to be felt every Moment press us to love them and continually oblige us to cleave to them for they are transitory and leave us as soon as they have tempted us So because Opportunity when lost is not easily recover'd Men are quickly determin'd to enjoy them but as for Truth they put off from time to time the applying of themselves to it because it never leaves them nor causes it self to be felt and for that reason it does not press them to love it How happy are those added he who wait for Eternity in Deserts and who finding themselves too weak to preserve the Freedom of their Mind and the purity of their Imagination against the Efforts and Malignity of sensible Objects have bravely
Injustice My Being is in a manner the Being of God and my Time is properly God's Time for I am more God's than my own or rather I am not at all my own nor do I subsist by my self and yet I neither live nor employ God's Time but for my self Alas how do I deceive my self O my God all that Time which I do not employ for thee I cannot be said to employ it for my self and I can neither seek nor find my self but by seeking and finding thee The Second Consideration MAN in himself is nothing but Weakness and Infirmity He cannot desire Good in general but by vertue of a continual Impression from God who does incessantly turn and force him towards himself for God is that indefinite and universal Good which comprehends all other good things Man is also not able by himself to desire any Particular Good but only so far as he is capable of determining the Impression which he receives from God Man is utterly unable to do Good but through a new supply of Grace which illuminates him by its Light and attracts him by its Sweetness for by himself he is only able to Sin He could not so much as move his Hand if God did not communicate to his Blood and to the Aliment by which he is nourished a part of that Motion which he has spread through the whole Mass of Matter and afterwards determine the Motion of the Spirits according to the different Acts of the impotent Will of Man by guiding them towards the Pipes of the Nerves which the Man himself does not so much as know A Man indeed may desire to move his Hand but 't is God alone that can and knows how to move it For if Man did not eat and if that which he eats were not digested and agitated in his Entrails and Heart to be afterwards turn'd to Blood and Spirits without expecting the Orders of his Will or if these Spirits were not guided by a knowing Hand through a Million of different Tubes it would be in vain for Man who is ignorant of his own Body to desire to put it into Motion The Elevation of the Soul to GOD. O GOD let me never forget that without thee I can neither desire nor do any thing not even so much as move the smallest Member of my Body Thou O God art all my Strength in thee do I place all my Hope and Confidence Do thou cover me with shame and confusion and fill me with inward remorse if ever I shall be guilty of so much Ingratitude and Presumption as to lift up that Arm against thee which owes even that Motion which I seem to give it rather to the invincible Power of thy Will than to the feeble Efforts of mine The Third Consideration MAN in himself is nothing but Darkness He does not produce in himself those Ideas by which he perceives all things for he is not his own Light and since Philosophy teaches me that the Objects cannot form in the Mind those Ideas by which they are represented it must be acknowledg'd that 't is God alone who enlightens us He is that great Sun which penetrates all things and fills them with his Light and that Great Master who instructs every Man that comes into the World All that we see we see in him and in him we may see all that we are capable of seeing For since God includes the Ideas or likenesses of all Beings and we also are in him for in him we live move and have our Being 't is certain that we see or may successively see all Beings in him He is that intelligible World in which all Spirits are and in which they perceive the Material World which is neither visible nor intelligible by it self The Elevation of the Soul to GOD. O GOD to whom I owe all my Thoughts thou Light of my Soul and of my Eyes without whom the Sun himself in all his Glory would be invisible to me make me ever sensible of thy Power and my Weakness thy Greatness and my Meanness thy Light and my Obscurity and in a word what thou art and what I am The Fourth Consideration MAN by himself is insensible and in a manner Dead The Body cannot act upon its own Soul A Sword indeed may pierce me and cause some alteration in the Fibres of my Flesh but I perceive clearly that it cannot make me suffer Pain A harmonious sound may first shake the Air and then the Fibres of my Brain but my Soul cannot be shaken by it My Soul is far above my Body neither is there any necessary Relation between those two Parts of my self On the other hand I find that Pleasure Pain and all my other Sensations are produced in me without any dependency upon me and oftentimes even in spight of all my endeavours to the contrary And therefore I cannot doubt but that there is a Being different from my Soul which inspires it with Life and Sensation and I know no other Power but that of God which is able to act thus upon his Creatures 'T is he then who is the Soveraign of the Soul and can only punish or reward it The Elevation of the Soul to GOD. O GOD since I live but by thee make me also to live only for thee and may I be insensible of all things but the love of thee O God make me sensible that none of all the Creatures can either hurt me or do me good That there is not one among them all that can make me feel either Pleasure or Pain That I ought neither to scar nor love them That thou alone O my God deservest both my love and fear because thou art only able to reward me with the Joys of thy Elect or punish me with the Torments of the Reprobate O my chaste Delight thou Author of Nature and cause of all the Pleasures that I feel thou knowest that these very Pleasures instead of uniting me to thee who alone canst make me sensible of them chain me like a wretched Slave to the Earth Grant I beseech thee that I may never more be so violently assaulted by them in the use of those things which thou hast forbidden Scatter a holy dread and a wholesome bitterness on the Objects of my Senses that I may be able to disengage my self from them and let me feel in thy love those unutterable delights of thy Grace which may unite me closer to thee Grant that the sweetness which I taste in loving thee may augment my love and that my love may renew the sense that I have of thy sweetness May I grow thus in Charity till at last being full of thee and empty of my self and every thing else I may re-enter and lose my self in thee O my All as in the Fountain of all Beings May that Word God shall be All in All be entirely accomplished on me and may I find my self and all things else in thee Of MAN Considered as the Son of a