unequally supplied there 's all Reason to believe the Diversity of their Graces must proceed from him who is the Chief of Angels as well as Men and who under that Character has merited by his Sacrifice all the Graces which God has given his Creatures but has variously applied them by his different Desires It being undeniable that Jesus Christ long before his Birth or Meriting might be the Meritorious Cause of the Graces given to the Angels and Saints of the Old Testament it ought methinks be granted that by his Prayers he might be the Occasional Cause of the same Graces long before they were demanded For indeed there is no necessary Relation between Occasional Causes and the Time of Production of their Effects and though commonly these sort of Causes are follow'd by their Effects at the Time of their Action yet their Action being not of it self efficacious since its Efficacy depends on the Will of the universal Cause there 's no necessity of their actual Existence for the producing their Effect For Instance Suppose Jesus Christ at this present time should desire of his Father that such a Person might receive such a Supply of Grace at certain Moments of his Life that Prayer of Jesus Christ would infallibly determine the Efficacy of the General Will God has of saving all Men in his Son This Person will receive these Assistances though the Prayer of Jesus Christ be pass'd and his Soul actually think on another thing and never think again on that which he requir'd for him But the past Prayer of Jesus Christ is no more present to his Father than a future For all that must happen in all Times is equally present to God Thus God loving his Son and knowing he shall have such Desires with respect to his Ancestors and those of his own Nation and likewise to the Angels which must enter into the Spiritual Edifice of his Church and constitute the Body whereof he is the Head ought to accomplish the Desires of his Son before they were made that the Elect which preceded his Nativity and which he purchas'd by the Merit of his Sacrifice might as peculiarly belong to him as others and that he might be their Head as really as he is ours I acknowledge it is fit that Meritorious and Occasional Causes should rather precede their Effects than follow them and that Order would have Causes and their Effects exist together For 't is plain that all Merit ought to be instantly recompenc'd and every Occasional Cause actually to produce its Effect provided nothing hinders bâ—t it may or ought be done But Grace being absolutely necessary to Angels and Patriarchs could not be deferr'd But as for the Glory and Reward of the Saints of the Old Testament since that might be deferr'd 't was fit that God should suspend its Accomplishment till Jesus Christ should ascend into Heaven be constituted High Priest over the House of God and begin to exercise the Sovereign Power of Occasional Cause of all Graces merited by his Labours upon Earth Therefore we are to believe that the Patriarchs entred not Heaven till after Jesus Christ their Head Mediator and Fore-runner But though it should be granted that God had not appointed an Occasional Cause for all the Graces afforded the Angels and Patriarchs I see not how it can be thence concluded that Jesus Christ does not at present endue the Church with the Spirit which gives it Increase and Life that he does not pray for it or that his Prayers or Desires are not effectually heard in a word that he is not the Occasional Cause which applies to Men the Graces he has merited I grant if you 'll have it so that God before Jesus Christ gave Grace by particular Wills the Necessity of Order requiring it Whilst by Order the Occasional Cause could not be so soon establish'd and the Elect were very few in Number But now when the Rain of Grace falls not as heretofore on a small Number of Men but is shower'd on all the Earth and Jesus Christ may or ought be constituted the Occasional Cause of the Goods which he has merited for his Church what reason is there to believe God works so many Miracles as he gives us good Thoughts For in short all that is done by particular Wills is certainly a Miracle as not being a Result of the General Laws he has ordain'd whose Efficacy are determin'd by Occasional Causes But how can we imagine that in order to save Men he works so many Miracles useless to their Salvation I would say affords them all these Graces which they resist because not proportion'd to the actual Force of their Concupiscence St. John teaches us That Christians receive from the Fulness of Jesus Christ Graces in abundance For says he the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. For indeed the Graces which preceded him were not comparable to those he distributed after his Triumph If they were Miraculous we are to suppose they were extremely rare Even the Grace of the Apostles before the Holy Spirit was given them could not come in comparison with those they receiv'd when the High Priest of future Goods having entred by his Blood into the Holy of Holies had obtain'd by the Force of his Prayers and sent through the Dignity of his Person the Holy Spirit to animate and sanctifie his Church The unaccountable Blindness of the Jews their gross and carnal Notions their frequent Relapses into Idolatry after so many Miracles sufficiently manifest their disregard for true Goods and the dispiritedness of the Apostles before they had received the Holy Ghost is a sensible Proof of their Weakness So that Grace in those Days was extremely rare because our Nature in Jesus Christ was not yet establish'd the Occasional Cause of Graces Jesus Christ was not yet fully consecrated Priest after the Order of Melchisedech nor had his Father given him that Immortal and Glorious Life which is the particular Character of his Priesthood For 't was necessary that Jesus Christ should enter the Heavens and receive the Glory and Power of Occasional Cause of true Goods before he sent the Holy Spirit according to the Words of St. John The Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified And according to others of Jesus Christ himself It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I go I will send him unto you Now it cannot be imagin'd that Jesus Christ consider'd as God is the Head of the Church as Man he has obtain'd that Quality The Head and Members of a Body must be of the same nature Jesus Christ as Man intercedes for Men as Man he receiv'd from God a Sovereign Power over his Church For as he is God he intercedes not as God he has not receiv'd a Name which is above every Name but he is equal to the Father
Fears and Disquiet and instead of examining the Will of GOD in Holy Writ and referring to Men of untainted Imagination they constantly intend an Imaginary Law which the disorderly motions of Fear have engraven in their Brain And though they be inwardly convinc'd of their Infirmity and that GOD requires not certain Duties they prescribe themselves as being inconsistent with his Service yet they cannot forbear preferring their Imagination to their Understanding and submitting rather to some confus'd and terrifying Sensations that throw them into Errour than to the Evidence of Reason which brings them back to a good Assurance and reduces them into the right way of Salvation There is commonly a good stock of Vertue and Charity in Persons tormented with Scruples but not so much in People devoted to certain Superstitions and whose principal Employment is some Jewish and Pharisaick Practices GOD requires to be worship'd in Spirit and in Truth He is not satisfy'd with our making Faces and paying external Ceremonies with our bending the Knee before him and praising him with a Lip-offering when our Heart is far from him If Men are content with these exteriour Marks of Respect 't is because they cannot fathom the depth of the Heart for even they would be worship'd in Spirit and in Truth GOD demands our Mind and our Heart which as he has created so he preserves only for himself But many there are who to their own misfortune deny him those things which he has all manner of Right and Claim to They harbour Idols in their Hearts which they adore with a spiritual and true Worship and to which they sacrifice themselves and all they have But because the true GOD threatens in the Recesses of their Conscience to punish their excessive Ingratitude with an Eternity of Torments and yet they cannot think of quitting their belov'd Idolatry they therefore bethink themselves of an external Performance of some good Works They betake themselves to Fasting to Almsgiving and Saying of Prayers as they see others do and continue some time in such like Exercises but whereas they are painful to those that have not Charity they commonly forsake them to substitute some little Practicks and easie Devotions in their room which striking in with Self-love necessarily but insensibly subvert the whole System of Morals which our LORD has left us They are faithful fervent and zealous Defenders of those Humane Traditions which Un-enlightned Persons make them believe most useful and the frightful Idea of Eternity daily represents as absolutely necessary to their Salvation It fares not so with the Righteous They hear no less than the Wicked the Menaces of their GOD but the confus'd Noise of their Passions does not deafen them to his Counsels The false Glarings of Humane Traditions do not dazle them so far as to make them insensible to the Light of Truth They place their Confidence in the Promises of CHRIST and follow his Precepts as knowing that the Promises of Men are as vain as their Counsels However it may be said that the Dread which the Idea of Eternity breeds in their Minds sometimes effects so great a Commotion in their Imagination that they dare not absolutely condemn these Humane Traditions and that sometimes they approve them by their Example because they have A shew of Wisdom in Will-worship and Humility like those Pharisaick Traditions mention'd by St. Paul But that which more especially deserves to be consider'd in this place and which does not so much relate to Moral as Intellectual Disorder is that the fore-mention'd Fear stretches the Faith as well as Zeal of those it infects to things false or unworthy the Holiness of our Religion There are many who believe and that with a stiff and obstinate Faith That the Earth rests immovably in the Centre of the World That Brutes are sensible of Real Pain That Sensible Qualities are strew'd and diffus'd over Objects That there are Forms or Real Accidents distinguish'd from Matter and a world of the like false or uncertain Opinions because they conceit it would be repugnant to their Faith to deny them They are frighted with the Expressions of the Holy Scripture which speaks to our Capacity and consequently makes use of the receiv'd manners of Speech without design of making us Philosophers They believe not only what the Spirit of GOD means to teach them but likewise all the Opinions of the Jews They can't see for example that Joshua speaks before his Souldiers as even Copernicus Galilaeus and Des Cartes would speak to the Vulgar part of Men and that though he had been of the Opinion of these Philosophers he would not have commanded the Earth to stand still since he could not have manifested to his Army in words which they did not understand the Miracle GOD shew'd for his People Don't those who believe the Sun immoveable say to their Servants to their Friends or to those who are of their Opinion that The Sun Rises and Sets Do they affect to speak differently from others whenever their chief Design is not to Philosophize Was Joshua so admirably vers'd in Astronomy Or if he was did his Souldiers understand it But were he and his Souldiers Astronomers could we think they would be playing the Philosophers when their Thoughts were intent on Fighting Joshua therefore must have spoke as he did though both he and his Souldiers were of the same Opinion that the best Astronomers hold now-a-days And yet the Words of that great General Sun stand thou still upon Gibeon and what is said afterwards that the Sun stood still according to his Command persuade a great many that the Opinion of the Earth's Motion is not only dangerous but also absolutely Heretical and unwarrantable They have heard that some Devout Men whom we are to treat with much Deference and Respect have censur'd and condemn'd it and have some confus'd Notion of what happen'd to a Famous Astronomer of our own Age upon that occasion All which seems sufficient to make them obstinately believe that Faith is concern'd in that Opinion A certain confus'd Sensation rais'd and encourag'd by a Motion of Fear which yet they are scarce aware of throws them into Suspicions of those who follow Reason in things of Reason's Jurisdiction Hence they regard them as Hereticks they hear them but with Impatience and Regret of Mind and these their secret Apprehensions breed in them as great a Reverence and Submission to these Opinions and several others purely Philosophical as to Truths that are Objects of Faith CHAP. XIII I. Of the Third Natural Inclination viz. The Friendship we have for other Men. II. It makes us approve the Thoughts of our Friends and deceive them by undue Praises OF all our Inclinations taken in the general and in the Sense explain'd in the first Chapter there remains now to be spoken to only that which we have for those we live with and for all the Objects round about us of which I shall say but little
'Mongst all which that which instantly appears Greatest and most Magnificent most Uniform and Comprehensive is that whereof all the Parts have most Symmetry with the Person who constitutes the whole Glory and Sanctity of it And the wisest way of executing that Design is the Establishing certain most simple and fruitful Laws to bring it to its Perfection This is what Reason seems to answer to all those who consult it with Attention when following the Principles which Faith teaches us Let us examine the Circumstances of this Great Design and then endeavour to discover the Ways of executing it XXV The Holy Scripture teaches us That 't is Jesus Christ who ought to make all the Beauty the Sanctity the Grandeur and Magnificence of this Work If Holy Writ compare it to a City 't is Jâ—sus Christ who makes all the Lustre it not being the Sun and the Moon but the Glory of God and the Light of the Lamb that shine upon it When representing it as a Living Body whereof all the Parts have a wonderful Proportion 't is Jesus Christ who is the Head of it 'T is from Him the Spirit and Life are communicated into all the Members that compose it Speaking of it as a Temple Jesus Christ is the Chief Corner-stone which is the Foundation of the Building 'T is He who is the High Priest and Sacrifice of it All the Faithful are Priests but as they participate of his Priesthood they are Victims only as parâ—aking of His Holiness it being in Him and through Him alone they continually offer themselves to the Majesty of God In fine 't is only from the Analogy they bear to Him that they contribute to the Beauty of this August and Venerable Temple which has always been and will eternally continue the Object of the good Pleasure of God XXVI Reason likewise evinces these same Truths For what Proportion is there between Creatures how perfect soever we suppose them and the Action that produces them How can any Creatures which are finite be equivalent to the Action of God of infinite Worth Can God receive any thing from a mere Creature that determines him to act But be it so that God made Man with Hopes of being honour'd by him whence comes it that those who dishonour Him make the greatest Number Is not this a sufficient Indication that God is very negligent of His pretended Glory which He receives from His Work if separated from His Well-beloved Son that it was in Jesus Christ that He resolv'd to produce it and that without Him it would not subsist a moment XXVII A Man resolves upon a Work because he has need of it or has a Mind to see what Effect it will have or lastly because by this Essay of his Strength he learns what he is able to produce But God has no need of his Creatures nor is He like Men who receive new Impressions from the Presence of Objects His Ideas are Eternal and Immutable He saw the World before it was form'd as well as he sees it now Lastly Knowing that His Wills are efficacious he perfectly knows without making trial of his Strength all that He 's capable of producing Thus Scripture and Reason assure us that by Reason of Jesus Christ the World subsists and through the Dignity of his Divine Person receives an additional Beauty which renders it well pleasing in the Sight of God XXVIII From which Principle methinks it follows that Jesus Christ is the Model by which we are made that we were fram'd after His Image and Similitude and have nothing comely in us any farther than we are the Draught and Ectypon of Him that He is the End of the Law and the Archetype of the Ceremonies and Sacrifices of the Jews That to determine that Succession of Generations preceding His Birth they must needs have had some certain Agreements with Him whereby they became more pleasing to God than any other That since Jesus Christ was to be the Head and Husband of the Church 't was requisite he should be typified by the Propagation of Mankind from one Person as related by Moses and explain'd by St. Paul In a word from this Principle it follows that the present World ought to be the Figure of the future and that as far as the Simplicity of General Laws will permit all the Inhabitants of it have been or shall â—e the Figures and Resemblances of the Only Son of God quite from Abel in whom he was sacrificed to the last Member that shall constitute His Church XXIX We judge of the Perfection of a Work by its Conformity with the Idea afforded us by Eternal Wisdom For there is nothing Beautiful or Amiable but as related to Essential Necessary and Independent Beauty Now that Intelligible Beauty being made sensible becomes even in this Capacity the Rule of Beauty and Perfection Therefore all Corporeal Creatures ought to receive from it all their Excellency and Lustre All Minds ought to have the same Thoughts and the same Inclinations as the Soul of Jesus if they would be agreeable to those who see nothing Beautiful nothing Amiable save in what is conformable to Wisdom and Truth Since therefore we are oblig'd to believe the Work of GOD to have an absolute Conformity with Eternal Wisdom we have all Reason to believe that the same Work has infinite Correspondencies with Him who is the Head the Principle the Pattern and the End of it But who can explain all these Agreements XXX That which makes the Beauty of a Temple is the Order and Variety of Ornaments that are found in it Thus to render the Living Temple of the Divine Majesty worthy of its Inhabitant and proportionate to the Wisdom and infinite Love of its Author all possible Beauties are to make it up But it is not so with this Temple rais'd to the Glory of God as with Material ones For that which constitutes the Beauty of the Spiritual Edifice of the Church is the infinite Diversity of Graces communicated from Him who is the Head of it to all the constituent Parts 'T is the Order and admirable Proportions settled among them 't is the various Degrees of Glory shining and reflecting on all sides round about it XXXI It follows from this Principle that to the establishing that Variety of Rewards which make up the Beauty of the Heavenly Jerusalem Men ought to be subject upon Earth not only to Purgative Afflictions but also to the Motions of Concupiscence which make them gain so many Victories by administring such a multitude of various Combats XXXII The Blessed in Heaven no doubt will be endow'd with a Sanctity and Variety of Gifts perfectly corresponding to the Diversity of their Good Works Those continual Sacrifices whereby the Old Man is destroy'd and annihilated will enrich the Spiritual Substance of the New Man with Graces and Beauties And if it were necessary that Jesus Christ should suffer all sorts of Afflictions before He enter'd on the Possession of His
whom according to St. Paul God has made all things is the Man Jesus Christ. 'T is to teach Men that they are created and that they subsist in Jesus Christ 't is to unite them straitly to him 't is to induce them to make themselves like him that God has figur'd Jesus Christ and his Church in the principal of his Creatures For 't is necessary that Jesus Christ should be found in the whole Work of God that it might be the worthy Object of his Love and of the Action that produc'd it LVI If we consider the manner of the First Man's Creation as related by Holy Scripture how his Wife was form'd out of his Flesh and Bone his Love to her and the Circumstances of their Sin we shall doubtless judge that God thought on the Second Adam in the Formation of the First that he consider'd the Father of the future World in creating the Father of the present and that he design'd the First Man and Woman for express Types of Jesus Christ and his Church St. Paul permits us not to doubt of this Truth when he assures us we are form'd of the Flesh and Bone of Jesus Christ that we are his Members and that the Marriage of Adam and Eve is the Figure of Jesus Christ and his Church LVII God might perhaps form Men and Animals by ways as simple as common Generation But since this way typified Jesus Christ and his Church since it wore the Impress of the principal of God's Designs and represented as I may say the well-belov'd Son to his Father that Son in whom alone the whole Work of the Creation subsists God ought to prefer it before all other thereby likewise to teach us that as intelligible Beauties consist in their Relation to Eternal Wisdom so sensible Beauties must though in a manner little known to us relate to Incarnate Truth LVIII Doubtless there are many Analogies and Agreements betwixt the most principal of the Creatures and Jesus Christ who is their Pattern and their End For all is full of Jesus Christ every thing represents and typifies him as much as the Simplicity of the Laws of Nature will permit But I shall not venture to enter on the Particulars of this Subject For besides that I am fearful of mistaking and have not a competent Knowledge either of Nature or Grace of the present World or the future to discover their Relations I know that the Imagination of Men is so sarcastical and nice that we cannot by Reason lead them to God much less to Jesus Christ without tiring their Patience or provoking their Railery Most Christians are accustom'd to a Philosophy that had rather have recourse to Fictions as extravagant as those of the Poets than to God and some of them are so little acquainted with Jesus Christ that a Man would perhaps be reckon'd a Visionist if he said the same things with St. Paul without using his Words For 't is rather that great Name which persuades them than the View of Truth The Authority of Scripture keeps them from blaspheming what they do not understand but whereas they are but little conversant with it it cannot much enlighten them LIX 'T is certain that the Jewish People was the Figure of the Church and that the most Holy and Remarkable Persons among the Kings Prophets and Patriarchs of that Nation were the Types of the Messiah our Saviour Jesus Christ which is a Truth not deniable without undermining the Foundations of the Christian Religion and making the most Learned of the Apostles pass for the most Ignorant of Men. Jesus Christ being not yet come ought at least to be typified For he ought to be expected he ought to be desired and by his Types he ought to strew some sort of Beauty over the Universe to make it acceptable to his Father Thus it was necessary he should in some manner be as ancient as the World and that he should die presently after the Sin in the Person of Abel The Lamb that was slain from the Foundation of the World The Beginning and End Alpha and Omega Yesterday and to Day He is was and is to come These are the Qualifications St. John attributes to the Saviour of Men. LX. But supposing that Jesus Christ ought to be typified 't was necessary it should be done by his Ancestors especially and that their History dictated by the Holy Spirit should be handed down to future Ages to the end we might still compare Jesus Christ with his Figures and acknowledge him for the true Messiah Of all Nations God loving that most which had nearest Relation to his Son ought to make the Jews the Fathers of Jesus Christ according to the Flesh since they had been the most lively and express Figures of his Son LXI But if driving this Difficulty up higher the Reason be demanded of the Choice God made of the Jews to be the principal Figures of Jesus Christ I think I may and ought affirm that God acting always by the simplest ways and discovering in the infinite Treasures of his Wisdom all the Combinations of Nature with Grace chose that which was to make the Church the most ample most perfect and most worthy of his own Greatness and Holiness as I have said before Secondly I think I ought to answer that God foreseeing that what was to happen to the Jewish People by a necessary Consequence of Natural Laws would have more Analogy to his Design of typifying Jesus Christ and his Church than all that could befall other Nations thought fit to choose that People rather than any other For in brief Predestination to the Law is not like Predestination to Grace and though there be nothing in Nature that can oblige God to shed his Grace equally on a whole People yet methinks Nature may merit the Law in the Sense I here understand it LXII 'T is true that all that befell the Jews who represented Jesus Christ was not a necessary Consequence of the Order of Nature There was need of Miracles to make the Jews lively and express Figures of the Church But Nature at least furnish'd Ground-work and Materials and possibly the principal Strokes in most Instances and Miracles finish'd the rest Whereas no other Nation would have been so proper for so just and accomplish'd a Design LXIII If I mistake not we are oblig'd to think that God having a Wisdom prescious of all the Events and Consequences of all possible Orders and all their Combinations never works Miracles when Nature is sufficient and that therefore he must choose that Combination of Natural Effects which as it were remitting him the Expence of Miracles nevertheless most faithfully executes his Designs For Example 'T is necessary that all Sin should be punish'd But that 's not always done in this World Yet supposing it was requisite for the Glory of Jesus Christ and the Establishment of Religion that the Jews should be punish'd in the Face of the whole World for the Crime
if God caus'd it to rain on this Meadow by a particular Benevolence to the Owner this Rain would not fall on the River where 't is insignificant since it could not fall there without a Cause or Will in God which has necessarily some End VII But we have still more Reason to think an Effect is produc'd by a general Will when this Effect is contrary or even useless to the Design which we are taught by Faith or Reason the Cause propos'd For Instance The End which God proposes in the various Sensations he affords the Soul in our tasting different Fruits is that we may eat those which are fit for Nourishment and reject the rest I suppose thus Therefore when God gives a grateful Sensation at the Instant of our eating Poisons or empoison'd Fruits he acts not in us by particular Wills So we ought to conclude since that agreeable Sensation is the Cause of our Death whilst the End of God's giving us diverse Sensations is to preserve our Life by a convenient Nourishment for I once more suppose thus For I speak only with reference to the Grace which God gives us doubtless to convert us so that 't is visible God showers it not on Men by particular Wills since it frequently renders them more Culpable and Criminal For God cannot have so Fatal a Design God gives us not therefore agreeable Sensations by particular Wills when we eat poisonous Fruits But because a poisonous Fruit excites in our Brain Motions like those produc'd by wholsome Fruits God gives us the same Sensations by reason of the general Laws which unite the Soul to the Body that she might be wakeful for its Preservation So likewise God gives not those who have lost an Arm Sensations of Pain relating to it but by a general Will For 't is useless to the Body of this Man that his Soul should suffer Pain relating to an Arm that 's lost 'T is the same case with Motions produc'd in the Body of a Man in the Commission of a Crime Finally supposing we are obliged to think that God scatters his Rain upon the Earth witâ— Intent to make it fruitful we cannot believe he distributes it by particular Wills since it falls upon the Sands and in the Sea as well as on plow'd Lands and is often so excessive on seeded Ground as to extirpate the Corn and frustrate the Labours of the Husbandman Thus it is certain that Rains which are useless or noxious to the Fruits of the Earth are necessary Consequences of the general Laws of the Communications of Motions which God has establish'd for the producing better Effects in the World supposing which I again repeat that God cannot will by a particular Volition that Rain should cause the Barrenness of the Earth VIII Lastly When an Effect happens which has something extraordinary 't is reasonable to believe it is not produc'd by a general Will. Nevertheless 't is impossible to be sure of it If for Example in the Procession of the Holy Sacrament it rains on the Assistants save on the Priests and those which carry it we have reason to think this proceeds from a particular Will of the universal Cause yet we cannot be certain because an occasional intelligent Cause may have this particular Design and so determine the Efficacy of the general Law to execute it IX When the preceding Marks are not sufficient for us to judge whether a certain Effect is or is not produc'd by a general Will we are to believe it is if it be certain there is an Occasional Cause establish'd for the like Effects For Example We see it rain to some Purpose in a Field we do not examine whether this Rain falls or not in the great Roads we know not whether it be noxious to the bordering Grounds nay we suppose it only does good and that all the attending Circumstances are perfectly accommodated to the Design for which we are oblig'd to believe that God would have it rain Nevertheless I say that we ought to judge this Rain is produc'd by a general Will if we know that God has setled an Occasional Cause for the like Effects For we must not have recourse to Miracles without Necessity We ought to suppose that God acts herein by the simplest ways and though the Lord of the Field ought to return Thanks to God for the Bounty yet he ought not to imagine it was caus'd in a miraculous manner by a particular Will The Owner of the Field ought to thank God for the Good he receives since God saw and will'd the good Effect of the Rain when he establish'd the general Laws whereof it is a necessary Consequence and that it was for the like Effects they were establish'd On the contrary if the Rains are sometimes hurtful to the Earth as it was not to render them unfruitful that God establish'd the Laws which make it rain since Drought suffices to make them barren 't is plain we ought to thank God and to adore the Wisdom of his Providence even when we do not â—eel the Effects of the Laws establish'd in our Favour X. But to conclude when we cannot be certified by the Circumstances which accompany certain Effects that there is an Occasional Cause establish'd to produce them 't is sufficient to know they are very common and relate to the principal Design of the general Cause in order to judge they are produc'd by a general Will. For Example The Springs which water the Surface of the Earth are subservient to the principal Design of God which is that Mâ—n should not want things necessary to Life I suppose so Besides these Fountains are very common therefore we ought to conclude they are foâ—m'd by some General Laws For as there is much more Wisdom in executing his Designs by Simple and General Means than by Complicated and Particular as I think I have sufficiently prov'd elsewhere We owe that Honour to God as to believe his way of acting is general uniform constant and proportion'd to the Idea we have of an infinite Wisdom These are the Marks by which we are to judge whether an Effect be produc'd by a general Will. I now come to prove that God bestows his Grace on Men by general Laws and that Jesus Christ has been establishâ—d the Occasional Cause to determine their Efficacy I begin by the Proofs of Holy Scripture XI St. Paul teaches us That Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church That he constantly influences it with Spirit and Life That he forms the Members and animates them as the Soul animates the Body or to speak still more clearly the Holy Scripture teaches us two things The first that Jesus Christ prays continually for his Members The second that his Prayers or Desires are always heard Whence I conclude that he was constituted by God the Occasional Cause of Grace and likewise that Grace is never given to Sinners but through his Means The Occasional Causes have constantly and readily
their Effect The Prayers and diverse Desires of Jesus Christ with reference to the Formation of his Body have likewise most constantly and speedily their Accomplishment God denies his Son nothing as we learn from Jesus Christ himself Occasional Causes produce not their Effect by their own Efficacy but by the Efficacy of the General Cause 'T is likewise by the Efficacy of the Power of God that the Soul of Jesus Christ operates in us and not by the Efficacy of Man's Will 'T is for this Reason that St. Paul represents Jesus Christ as praying to his Father without Intermission For he is oblâ—gâ—d to Pray in order to Obtain Occasional Causes have been establish'd by God for the determining the Efficacy of his General Wills and Jesus Christ according to the Scripture has been appointed by God after his Resurrection to govern the Church which he had purchas'd by his Blood For Jesus Christ became the Meritorious Cause of all Graces by his Sacrifice But after his Resurrection he entred 〈◊〉 the Holy of Holies as High Priest of future Goods to appear in the Presence of God and to endue us with the Graces which he has merited for us Therefore he himself applies and distributes his Gifts as Occasional Cause he disposes of all things in the House of God as a well-beloved Son in the House of his Father I think I have demonstrated in the Search after Truth that there is none but God who is the true Cause and who acts by his own Efficacy and that he communicates his Power to Creatures only in establishing them Occasional Causes for the producing some Effects I have proved for Example That Men have no Power to produce any Motion in their Bodies but because God has establish'd their Wills the Occasional Causes of these Motions That Fire has no power to make me feel Pain but because God has establish'd the Collision of Bodies the Occasional Cause of the Communication of Motions and the violent Vibration of the Fibres of my Flesh the Occasional Cause of my Pain I may here suppose a Truth which I have proved at large in the Third Chapter of the Second Part of the Sixth Book and in the Illustration upon the same Chapter and which those for whom it was principally written don't contest Now Faith assures us that all Power is given to Jesus Christ to form his Church All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth Which cannot be understood of Jesus Christ as to his Divinity for as God he has never received any thing And therefore it is certain that Jesus Christ as to his Humanity is the Occasional Cause of Grace supposing I have well proved that God only can act on Minds and that Second Causes have no Efficacy of their own Which those ought first to examine who would understand my Sentiments and give a Judgment of them XII I say farther that no one is sanctified but through the Efficacy of the Power which God has communicated to Jesus Christ in constituting him the Occasional Cause of Grace For if any Sinner were converted by a Grace whereof Jesus Christ was not the Occasional but only the Meritorious Cause that Sinner not receiving his New Life through the Efficacy of Jesus Christ would not be a Member of the Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head in that manner explain'd by St. Paul by these Words of the Epistle to the Ephesians That we may grow up into him in all things who is the Head even Christ from whom the whole Body fitly join'd together and compacted by that which every Joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every Part maketh increase of the Body unto the edifying it self in Love Which Words not only say Jesus Christ is the Meritorious Cause of all Graces but likewise distinctly signifie that Christians are the Members of the Body whereof Jesus Christ is the Head that 't is in him we increase and live with an entire new Life that 't is by his inward Operation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that his Church is form'd and that thus he has been constituted by God the sole Occasional Cause who by his several Desires and Applications distributes the Graces which God as the True Cause showers down on Men. 'T is on this Account St. Paul says Christians are united to Jesus Christ as their Root Rooted and built up in him 'T is for the same Reason that Jesus Christ compares himself to a Vine and his Disciples to the Branches that derive their Life from him I am the Vine ye are the Branches On the same Grounds St. Paul affirms that Jesus Christ lives in us and that we live in him that we are rais'd up in our Head that our Life is hidden with Jesus Christ in God in a word that we have already Life Eternal in Jesus Christ. All these and many other Expressions of like nature clearly manifest that Jesus Christ is not only the Meritorious but also the Occasional Physical or Natural Cause of Grace and that as the Soul informs animates and consummates the Body so Jesus Christ diffuses through his Members as Occasional Cause the Graces he has merited to his Church by his Sacrifice For my part I cannot see how these Reasons can be call'd in question or upon what Grounds a most edifying Truth and as ancient as the Religion of Jesus Christ can be treated as a dangerous Novelty I grant my Expressions are novel but that 's because they seem to me the fittest of all others distinctly to explain a Truth which can be but confusedly demonstrated by Terms very loose and general These words Occasional Causes and Natural Laws seem necessary to give the Philosophers for whom I wrote this Treatise of Nature and Grace a distinct Understanding of what most Men are content to know confusedly New Expressions being no farther dangerous than involving Ambiguity or breeding in the Mind some Notion contrary to Religion I do not believe that Equitable Persons and conversant in the Theology of St. Paul will blame me for explaining my self in a particular manner when it only tends to make us Adore the Wisdom of God and strictly to unite us with Jesus Christ. First OBJECTION XIII 'T is Objected against what I have establish'd That neither Angels nor Saints of the Old Testament receiv'd Grace pursuant to the Desires of the Soul of Jesus since that Holy Soul was not then in Being and therefore though Jesus Christ be the meritorious Cause of all Graces he is not the Occasional Cause which distributes them to Men. As to Angels I Answer That 't is very probable Grace was given them but once So that if we consider things on that side I grant there is nothing can oblige the Wisdom of God to constitute an Occasional Cause for the Sanctification of Angels But if we consider these blessed Spirits as Members of the Body whereof Jesus Christ is the Head or suppose them
towards their Principle Because nothing but the Intuition of Eternal Wisdom which gives Being to Spirits can give them as we may say the Accomplishing Stroke and the utmost Perfection they are capable of When we see GOD as He is we shall be like Him says the Apostle St. John By that Intuition of Eternal Truth we shall be rais'd to that degree of Grandeur to which all Spiritual Creatures tend by the Necessity of their Nature But whilst we live on Earth the Weight of the Body drags down the Mind withdraws it continually from the Presence of GOD or that Internal Light which illuminates it makes perpetual Essays to fortifie its Union with Sensible Objects and compells it to represent things not as they are in themselves but according to the Relation they bear to the Preservation of Life The Body according to the Wise Man fills the Mind with such a multitude of Sensations that it becomes unable to discover the most obvious things the Sight of the Body dazles and dissipates that of the Mind so that the Eye of the Soul has great Difficulty distinctly to perceive any Truth whilst the Eye of the Body is imploy'd in the Discovery which evidences that all Truths are found out and all Sciences learn'd merely by the Attention of the Mind This being indeed its Return and Conversion unto GOD who is our only Tutour who only can instruct us with all Truth by the Manifestation of His own Substance as St. Austin speaks From all which it is manifest that 't is our Duty constantly to withstand the Opposition the Body makes against the Mind and to accustom our selves by degrees to disbelieve the Reports our Senses make concerning all circumambient Bodies which they always represent as worthy of our Application and Esteem because we must never make Sensible things the Object of our Thoughts or the Subject of our Employment 'T is one of the Truths which the Eternal Wisdom seems willing to teach us by His Incarnation For after having exalted a Sensible Body to the highest Dignity possible to be conceiv'd He gave us to understand by the Ignominy He reduc'd this same Body to that is by the Ignominy of the Noblest of all Sensible things what Contempt we ought to have for all Sensible Objects 'T is possibly for the same Reason that St. Paul said He knew not JESUS CHRIST after the Flesh. For 't is not the Flesh of CHRIST we must consider but the Spirit vail'd under the Flesh. Caro vas fuit quod habebat attende non quod erat says St. Austin Whatever is a Visible and Sensible Nature in our LORD merits not our Adoration but because of the Union with the WORD which can only be the Object of the Mind It is absolutely necessary for those who desire to become Wise and Happy to be wholly convinc'd and as it were pierc'd with what I have said 'T is not enough that they believe me on my Word or that they be contented by the glimpse of a transitory Light 't is necessary they should know it by a thousand Experiences and as many undeniable Demonstrations These are Things to be engraven indelibly on their Mind to be made present to their Thoughts in all their Studies and in all the Business and Employs of Life Such as will take the Pains to read the Work I here offer to the Publick with any Application of Thought will if I mistake not enter into such a Frame and Temper of Mind For we have several ways demonstrated that our Senses Imagination and Passions are absolutely useless to the Discovery of Truth and Happiness that on the contrary they dazle and seduce us on all occasions and in general that all the Notices the Mind receives through the Body or by Means of some Motions excited in the Body are all false and confus'd with reference to the Objects represented by them though they are extremely useful to the Preservation of the Body and the Goods that are related to it In this Work we encounter several Errours especially such as have been of longest Growth of universal Reception and have caus'd the greatest Disorder in the Mind and we shew that they almost all proceed from the Mind's Union with the Body We offer in diverse places to make the Mind sensible of its Slavery and Dependence on all Sensible things in order to awaken it from its Lethargy and to put it upon attempting its Deliverance Nor do we rest satisfy'd with a bare Exposition of our Ramblings but moreover explain the Nature of the Mind We don't for Instance insist upon a long Enumeration of all the particular Errours of our Senses and Imagination but chiefly dwell upon the Causes of these Errours And in the Explication of these Faculties and the General Errours we fall into we expose all at one View an infinite Number of particular Errours whereunto we are obnoxious So that the Subject of this Treatise is the Whole Mind of Man We consider it in it self with its Relation to the Body and with its Relation to GOD. We examine the Nature of all its Faculties we point out the Uses to be made of them for the avoiding Errour In fine we explain most of the things we thought necessary to our advancing in the Knowledge of MAN The finest the most delightful and most necessary Knowledge is undoubtedly that of Our Selves Of all Humane Sciences that concerning Man is the most worthy of Man and yet this is none of the most improv'd and most finish'd Science that we have The Vulgar part of Men neglect it wholly Among the Pretenders to Science there are very few which apply to it and much fewer whose Application is successful The generality even of those who go for Men of Parts have but a confus'd Perception of the Essential Difference between the Soul and Body St. Austin himself who has so admirably distinguish'd these two Beings confesses it was long before he could discover it And though it must be acknowledg'd he has better explain'd the Properties of the Soul and Body than all that went before him or have come after him to our present Age yet it were to be wish'd he had not attributed to the Bodies that are about us all the Sensible Qualities we perceive by means of them For in brief they are not clearly contain'd in the Idea which he had of Matter Insomuch that we may pretty confidently say The Difference between the Mind and Body till of late Years was never sufficiently and clearly known Some there are who fancy to themselves they very well know the Nature of the Mind Many others are persuaded 't is impossible to know any thing of it Lastly the greatest Number of all see not of what use that Knowledge could be and therefore despise it But all these so common Opinions are rather the Effects of the Imagination and Inclination of Men than the Consequences of a Clear and Distinct View of their Mind and
Foundation of his System from which may ever be deduc'd all the profit that could be expected from the true to make all necessary advances in the knowledge of Man Since then the Imagination consists only in the Power the Soul has of Forming the Images of Objects by imprinting them as I may so say in the Fibres of the Brain the greater and more distinct the Impresses of the Animal Spirits are which are the strokes of these Images the more strongly and distinctly the Soul will imagine Objects Now as the Largeness and Depth and Cleaverness of the strokes of any Sculpture depend upon the Forcible Acting of the Graving Instrument and the plyable yielding of the Plate so the Depth and the Distinctness of the Impresses of the Imagination depend on the Force of the Animal Spirits and the Constitution of the Fibres of the Brain And 't is the Variety that is found in these two things which is almost the universal Cause of that great Diversity we observe in the Minds of different Men. For 't is no hard thing to account for all the different Characters to be met with in the Minds of Men On the one hand by the Abundance and Scarcity by the Rapidness and Slowness by the Grossness and the Littleness of the Animal Spirits and on the other hand by the Fineness and Courseness by the Moisture and Driness by the Facility and Difficulty of the yielding of the Fibres of the Brain and lastly by the Relation the Animal Spirits may possibly have with these Fibres And it would be very expedient for every one forthwith to try to Imagine to himself all the different Combinations of these things and to apply himself seriously to the Consideration of all the Differences we have observ'd between the Minds of Men. Because it is ever more Useful and also more Pleasant for a Man to employ his own Mind and to accustom it to the finding out Truth by its own Industry than to suffer it to gather Rust by a careless Laziness in applying it only to things wholly digested and explain'd to his hands Besides that there are some things so delicately nice and fine in the different Character of Minds that a Man may easily sometimes discover them and be sensible of them himself but is unable to represent them or make them sensible to others But that we may explain as far as possibly we can all the Differences that are found in different Minds and that every Man may more easily observe in his own the Cause of all the Changes he sensibly perceives in it at different times it seems convenient to make a general Enquiry into the Causes of the Changes which happen in the Animal Spirits and in the Fibres of the Brain Since this will make way for the Discovery of all those which happen in the Imagination Man never continues long like himself all Mankind have sufficient Internal Convictions of their own Inconstancy A Man judges one while in one manner and another while in another concerning the same Subject In a word the Life of a Man consists only in the Circulation of the Blood and in another Circulation of Thoughts and Desires And I am of Opinion a Man can't employ his Time much better than in Searching for the Causes of these Changes we are subject to and entring into the Knowledge of our Selves CHAP. II. I. Of the Animal Spirits and the Changes they are subject to in general II. That the Chyle entering the Heart occasions a Change in the Spirits III. That Wine does the same thing 'T IS confess'd by all the World that the Animal Spirits are nothing but the more subtil and agitated parts of the Blood which Subtilty and Agitation is principally owing to the Fermentation it receives in the Heart and the violent Motion of the Muscles which constitute that part That these Spirits together with the rest of the Blood are conducted through the Arteries to the Brain And that there they are separated from it by some parts appropriated to that purpose but which they are it has not been yet agreed upon From whence we ought to conclude that in case the Blood be very subtil it will have abundance of Animal Spirits but if it be gross the Animal Spirits will be few That if the Blood be compos'd of parts easie to be inflam'd in the Heart or very fit for Motion the Spirits in the Brain will be extreamly heated and agitated And on the contrary if the Blood admits little Fermentation in the Heart the Animal Spirits will be languid unactive and without force And lastly according to the Solidity which is found in the parts of the Blood the Animal Spirits will have more or less solidity and consequently greater or lesser force in their Motion But these things ought to be explain'd more at large and the Truth of them made more sensibly apparent by Examples and uncontroverted Experiments that prove them The Authority of the Ancients has not only blinded some Mens Understandings but we may say has seal'd up their Eyes For there are still a sort of Men that pay so submissive a deference to Ancient Opinions or possibly are so stiff and obstinate that they will not see those things which they could not contradict would they but please to open once their Eyes We daily see Men in good Reputation and Esteem for their Study Write and Dispute publickly against the Visible and Sensible Experiments of the Circulation of the Blood against that of the Gravitation and Elastick force of the Air and others of the like Nature The Discovery Mr. Pacquet has made in our Time and which we have here occasion for is of the number of those that are mis-fortunate meerly for want of being Born Old and as a Man may say with a Venerable Beard I shall not however omit to make use of it and am under no Apprehension of being blam'd by Judicious Men for doing so According to that Discovery it is manifest that the Chyle does not immediately pass from the Viscera to the Liver through the Mesaraick Veins as was believ'd by the Ancients but that it passes out of the Bowels into the Lacteal Veins and from thence into several Receptacles where these Veins coterminate That from thence it ascends through the Ductus Thoracicus along the Vertebrae of the Back and proceeds to mix with the Blood in the Axillary Vein which enters into the Superiour Trunck of Vena Cava and thus being mingled with the Blood it discharges it self into the Heart It ought to be concluded from this Experiment that the Blood thus mingled with the Chyle being very different from that which has already circulated several times through the Heart the Animal Spirits that are only the more fine and subtil parts of it ought to be very different in Persons that are fasting and others after they have eaten Again because in the Meats and Drinks that are us'd there is an infinite Variety
and likewise those that use them have Bodies diversly dispos'd Two Persons after Dinner though rising from the same Table must sensibly perceive in their Faculty of Imagining so great a Variety of Alterations as is impossible to be describ'd I confess those who are in a perfect state of Health perform Digestion so easily that the Chyle flowing into the Heart neither augments nor diminishes the Heat of it and is scarce any Obstruction to the Blood 's fermenting in the very same manner as if it enter'd all alone So that their Animal Spirits and consequently their Imaginative Faculty admit hardly any Change thereby But as for Old and Infirm People they find in themselves very sensible Alterations after a Repast They generally grow dull and sleepy at least their Imagination flags and languishes and has no longer any Briskness or Alacrity They can conceive nothing distinctly and are unable to apply themselves to any thing In a word they are quite different and other sort of People from what they were before But that those of a more sound and robust Complection may likewise have sensible proofs of what I have said they need only make reflection on what happens to them in Drinking Wine somewhat more freely than ordinary or on what would fall out upon their drinking Wine at one Meal and Water at another For it is certain that unless they be extreamly stupid or that their Body be of a make very extraordinary they will suddainly feel in themselves some Briskness or little Drousiness or some such other accidental thing Wine is so spirituous that it is Animal Spirits almost ready made But Spirits a little too libertine and unruly that not easily submit to the orders of the Will by reason of their Solidity and excessive Agitation Thus it produces even in Men that are of a most strong and vigorous Constitution greater Changes in the Imagination and in all the parts of the Body than Meats and other Liquors It gives a Man a Foil in Plautus's Expression and produces many Effects in the Mind less advantagious than those describ'd by Horace in these Lines Quid non Ebrietas designat operta recludit Spes jubet esse ratas in praelia trudit inermem Sollicitis animis onus eximit addocet artes Foecundi calices quem non fecere disertum Contractâ quem non in paupertate solutum It would be no hard matter to give a Reason for all the Principal Effects produc'd in the Animal Spirits and thereupon in the Brain and in the Soul it self by this Commixture of the Chyle and Blood as to explain how Wine exhilarates and gives a Man a certain Sprightliness of Mind when taken with Moderation why it Brutifies a Man in process of time by being drunk to excess why a Man is drousie after a good Meal and a great many others of like Nature for which very ridiculous Accounts are usually given But besides that I am not writing a Tract of Physicks I must have been necessitated to have given some Idea of the Anatomy of the Brain or have made some Supposition as Monsieur Des-Cartes has done before me in his Treatise concerning Man without which it were impossible to explain ones self But finally if a Man shall read with Attention that Discourse of Monsieur Des-Cartes he will possibly be satisfy'd as to all these particular Inquiries because that Author explains all these things at least he furnishes us with sufficient Knowledge of them to be able of our selves to discover them by Meditation provided we are any whit acquainted with his Principles CHAP. III. That the Air imploy'd in Respiration causes some Change in the Animal Spirits THE second general Cause of the Changes which happen in the Animal Spirits is the Air we breath For though it does not forthwith make such sensible Impressions as the Chyle yet it causes at long run what the Juices of Meats do in a much shorter time This Air passes out of the Branches of the Trachea into those of the Arteria Venosa Hence it mingles and ferments with the rest of the Blood in the Heart and according to its own particular Disposition and that of the Blood it produces very great Changes in the Animal Spirits and consequently in the Imaginative Faculty I know there are some Persons who will not be persuaded that the Air mixes with the Blood in the Lungs and Heart because they cannot discover with their Eyes the Passages in the Branches of the Trachea and in those of the Arteria Venosa through which the Air is communicated But the Action of the Intellect ought not to stop when that of the Senses can go no farther It can penetrate that which to them is impenetrable and lay hold on things which have no handle for the Senses 'T is not to be question'd but some parts of the Blood continually pass through the Branches of the Vena Arteriosa into those of the Trachea The Smell and Moisture of the Breath sufficiently prove it and yet the Passages of that Communication are imperceptible Why then may not the subtil parts of Air be allow'd to pass through the Branches of the Trachea into the Arteria Venosa though the Passages of this Communication be undiscernible In fine a much greater quantity of Humours transpire through the imperceptible Pores of the Arteries and the Skin than escape through the other Avenues of the Body and even the Pores of the most solid Metals are not so close but there are found Bodies in Nature little enough to find a free passage through them since otherwise these Pores would quickly be entirely stopt It is true that the course and ragged parts of the Air cannot penetrate through the ordinary Pores of Bodies and that Water it self though extreamly gross can glide through those crannies which will not give admittance to them But we speak not here of the course or branch'd and ragged Parts of Air they seem to be of little use to Fermentation We only speak of the little stiff and pungent Parts and such as have none or very few Branches to impede their passage because these are the fittest for the Fermentation of the Blood I might notwithstanding affirm upon the Testimony of Silvius that even the coursest Air passes from the Trachea to the Heart who testifies he has seen it pass thither by the Art and Ingenuity of Mr. de Swammerdam For 't is more reasonable to believe a Man who says he has seen it than a thousand others who talk at random It is certain then that the most refin'd and subtil Parts of Air which we breath enter into the Heart and there together with the Blood and Chyle keep up the Fire which gives Life and Motion to our Body and that according to their different Qualities they introduce great Changes in the Fermentation of the Blood and in the Animal Spirits We daily discover the Truth of this by the various Humours and the different Characters of
It daily happens that an unexpected Event that has any thing terrible in its circumstances deprives of their Senses Men of a Mature Age whose Brain is not so susceptible of new Impressions who are experienc'd in the World who can make a Defence or at least are capable of taking up some Resolution Children at their first Arrival in the World suffer something from every Object that strikes upon their Senses wherewith they are not yet acquainted All the Animals they see are Creatures of a new Species on their Regard since nothing of what they see at present was ever seen by them before They are destitute of Strength and void of Experience the Fibres of their Brain are of a most fine and flexible temper How then is it possible their Imagination should continue whole when expos'd to the Impressions of so many different Objects 'T is true the Mothers have somewhat pre-accustomed their Children to the Impressions of Objects by having already imprinted them in the Fibres of their Brain before they left the Womb and this is the reason they receive much less damage when they behold with their own Eyes what they in some manner have perceived already with their Mother's 'T is farther true that these adulterate Traces and wounds their Imagination receives upon the sight of so many Objects to them frightful and terrible close up and heal again in time for as much as being unnatural the whole Body is against them and all the parts conspire to their Destruction as has been seen in the preceding Chapter And this is the cause that all Men in general are not Fools from their Cradles But this hinders not but that there may be ever some Traces so strong and deep impress'd as can never be effac'd but will remain as long as Life it self If Men would make serious Reflections upon what happens in their own Breast and contemplate their own Thoughts they would not want an Experimental Proof of what I have said They would generally discover in themselves some secret Inclinations and Aversions which are not in others whereof there seems no other Reason to be given than these Traces of our Infancy For since the causes of these Inclinations and Aversions are peculiar to us they have no foundation in the Nature of Men and since they are unknown to us they must needs have acted on us at a time when our Memory was not yet capable of registring the circumstances of things which might have assisted us in calling them again to Mind and that time could be only that of our tenderest Age. Monsieur Des-Cartes has acquainted us in one of his Epistles that he had always a particular fancy for all Squint-ey'd People and having diligently search'd into the Cause of it at length understood this Defect was incident to a young Maid he lov'd when he was a Child the Affection he retained for her diffusing it self to all others that any way resembled her But 't is not these little irregularities of our Inclinations which subject us most to Error 'T is our having universally or almost universally our Mind adulterate in something or other and our being generally subject to some kind of Folly though perhaps we are not aware of it Let a Man but examine carefully the Temper of those People he converses with and he will easily be perswaded into this Opinion and though himself be an Original for others to Copy after and be look'd upon as such yet he will find all others to be Originals too and all the difference to consist in the Degree of more or less Now one of the Causes of the different Characters of Mens Minds is doubtless the difference of Impressions received by them in their Mother's Womb as has been manifested touching peculiar and unusual Inclinations because these being Species of Folly that are settled and permanent for the most part they cannot have their Dependence on the Constitution of the Animal Spirits which is of a flux and alterable Nature And consequently they must needs proceed from the Base and Spurious Impressions made in the Fibres of the Brain at such time as our Memory was incapable of preserving the Remembrance of them that is in the beginning of our Lives Here then is one of the commonest Causes of the Errors of Mankind I mean that Subversion of their Brain caused by the Impression of External Objects in making their Entrance into the World and this Cause does not so suddenly cease as may be possibly imagined The ordinary Commerce Children are oblig'd to have with their Nurses or even with their Mothers that frequently have had no Education puts the last hand and gives the finishing stroke to the corruption of their Mind These silly Women entertain them with nothing but Fooleries with ridiculous Tales and frightful Stories Their whole Discourse to them is about things sensible and they deliver it in a way most proper to confirm them in the false Judgments of their Senses In a word they sow in their Minds the Seeds of all the Follies and Weaknesses themselves are subject to as of their extravagant Fears and Apprehensions their ridiculous Superstitions and other the like Feeblesses of Mind Which is the Reason that not being accustomed to search for Truth nor to taste and relish it they at last become incapable of discerning it and of making any use of their Reason Hence they become timerous and low-spirited which Temper for a long time sticks by them For there are many to be seen who when fifteen or twenty Years old retain the Character and Spirit of their Nurse 'T is true Children seem not to be greatly qualified for the Contemplation of Truth and for abstract and sublime Sciences because the Fibres of their Brain being extreamly fine are most easily agitated by Objects even the most weak and least sensible that can be and their Soul necessarily admitting Sensations proportioned to the Agitation of these Fibres leaves Metaphysical Nations and pure Intellection to apply her self wholly to her Sensations And thus Children seem improper for and incapable of an attentive Application to the pure Idea's of Truth being so frequently and so easily drawn off by the confus'd Idea's of their Senses Yet in Answer to this it may be said First that 't is easier for a Child of seven Years old to be freed from the Errors his Senses lead him to than for a Man at sixty who all his Life long has been mis-guided by the prejudices of Childhood Secondly that a Child though incapable of the clear and distinct Idea's of Truth is at least capable of being admonish'd that his Senses deceive him upon all occasions and if he cannot be taught the Truth he should not however be encouraged and fortified in his Errors Lastly the youngest Children though never so taken up with Pleasant and Painful Sensations yet learn in little time what Persons more advanc'd in Years cannot in much longer as the Knowledge of the Order and Relations
necessary for them to know we allow them to omit them and likewise to despise them but 't is not fair to judge of them out of a fanciful dislike and ill-grounded suspicions For they ought to consider that the Serious Air and Gravity wherewith they speak the Authority they have obtain'd over the Minds of others and that customary way of confirming their Discourse with a Text of Scripture must unavoidably engage in Error their respectful Auditors who being incapable of Examining things to the bottom are caught with Modes and external Appearances When Error comes cloath'd in the Dress of Truth it frequently has more respect than Truth it self And this illegitimate Respect has very dangerous Consequences Pessima res est Errorum Apotheosis pro peste intellectûs habenda est si vanis accedat veneratio Thus when some Men out of a false Zeal or a Fondness for their own Thoughts bring the Holy Scripture to countenance or support false Principles of Physicks or other of like Nature they are often attended to as Oracles by the admiring Crowd who credit them upon their word because of the Reverence they ascribe to Divine Authority When at the same time some Men of a worse Complection have taken occasion hereby to contemn Religion So that by strangely perverting its Nature Holy Scripture has been the Cause of some Men's Errors and Truth has been the Motive and Original to other's Impiety We should then be cautious says the fore-cited Author of searching after Dead things among the Living and of presuming by our own Sagacity of Mind to discover in the Holy Scriptures what the Holy Spirit has not thought fit to declare in it Ex Divinorum Humanorum malesanâ admixtionâ— continues he non solum educitur Philosophia phantastica sed etiam Religio haeretica Itaque salutare admodum est si mente sobriâ fidei tantum dentur quae fidei sunt All Men who have any Authority over others ought never to determine till they have so much the more seriously consider'd as their Determinations are more obstinately adher'd to and Divines should be more especially regardful lest they give scandal and contempt to Religion through a false Zeal by an ambitious desire of their own Fame and of giving Vogue to their Opinions But it being not my Business to prescribe to them their Duty let them hearken to St. Thomas Aquinas their Master who being consulted by his General for his Opinion touching some Points answers him in these words of St. Austin Multùm autem nocet talia quae ad pietatis doctrinam non spectant vel asserere vel negare quasi pertinentia ad Sacram doctrinam Dicit enim Augustinus in 5. Confess Cùm audio Christianum aliquem fratrem ista quae Philosophi de coelo aut stellis de Solis Lunae motibus dixerâ—nt nescientem aliud pro alio sentienâ—em patienter intueor opinantem hominem nec illi obesse video cum de te Domine Creator omnium nostrûm non credat indigna si fortè situs habitus creaturae corporalis ignoret Obest autem si haec ad ipsam dâ—ctrinam pietatis pertinere arbitretur pertinacius affirmare audeat quod ignorat Quod autem obsit manifestat Augustinus in 1. super Genes Ad literam Turpe est inquit nimis perniciosum ac maximê cavendum ut Christianum de his rebus quasi secundum Christianas literas loquentem ita delirare quilibet infidelis audiat ut quemadmodum dicitur toto coelo errare conspiciens risum tenere vix possit Et non tamen molestum est quod errans homo videatur sed quod Authores nostri ab eis qui foris sunt talia sensisse creduntur cum magno eorum exitio de quorum salute satagimus tanquam indocti reprehenduntur atque respuuntur Vnde mihi videtur tutius esse ut hâ—â—c quae Philosophi communes senserunt nostrae fidei non repugnant neque esse sic asserenda ut dogmata fidei licet aliquandò sub nomine Philosophorum introducantur neque sic â—sse neganda tanquam fidei contraria ne sapientibus hujus mundi contemnendi doctrinam fidei occasio praebeatur 'T is a dangerous thing positively to determine concerning matters that are not of Faith as if they were St. Austin is our Author for it in the fifth Book of his Confessions When I see says he a Christian who is un-instructed in the Opinions of Philosophers about the Heavens the Stars and the Motion of the Sun and Moon and who mistakes one thing for another I I leave him to his Opinions and Uncertainties Nor do I see what injury it can do him provided he has right Notions of Thee our LORD and CREATOR to be ignorant of the Site and Position of Bodies and the different Regulations of Material Beings But he does himself wrong in that he fancies these things concern Religion and takes upon him obstinately to affirm what he does not understand The same Holy Man explains his Thoughts more clearly yet in his first Book of the literal Exposition of Genesis in these Words A Christian should be extreamly cautious of speaking of these things as if they were the Doctrine of the Sacred Writings since an Heathen who should hear him utter his Absurdities that had no appearance of Truth would Ridicule him for it Thus the Christian would be put in confusion and the Heathen but ill-edify'd Yet that which on these occasions is matter of greatest trouble is not that a Man is found in an Error but that the Heathens whom we labour to convert falsely and to their unavoidable destruction imagining that our Authors abound with these ridiculous Notions condemn them and spurn them as Ignorant and Unlearned which makes me think it much the safer way not to affirm as the Maxims of Faith the common receiv'd Opinions of Philosophers though not inconsistent with them though the Authority of Philosophers may sometimes be us'd to make way for their reception nor to reject their Opinions as contrary to Faith lest occasion be given to the Wise Men of the World to contemn the Sacred Truths of the Christian Religion The generality of Men are so careless or unreasonable as to make no distinction between the Word of GOD and that of Men when joyn'd together So that they fall into Error by approving them both alike or into Irreligion by the contempt of both indifferently 'T is easie to see what is the Cause of these last Errors and how they depend upon the Connection of Idea's explain'd in the XI Chapter and I need not stand more largely to explain them It seems seasonable to say something here of the Chymists and of all those in general that imploy their time in making Experiments These are the Men that are in Search after Truth Their Opinions are usually embrac'd without Scruple and Examination And thus their Errors are so much the more dangerous as
if he has 't was to very little purpose And so he became a Genteel Pedant or a Pedant of a species entirely new rather than a Rational Judicious and a Worthy Man Montagne's Book contains so evident Proofs of the Vanity and Arrogance of its Author as may make it seem an useless Undertaking to stand to remark them For a Man must needs be very conceited that like him could imagine the World would be at the pains of reading so large a Book meerly to gain some acquaintance with its Author's Humours He must necessarily distinguish himself from the rest of the World and look upon his own Person as the Miracle and Phoenix of Nature All created Beings are under an indispensable obligation of turning off the Minds of such as would adore them towards the only One that deserves their Adoration And Religion teaches us never to suffer the Mind and Heart of Man whom GOD created for himself to be busied about us and to be taken up with loving and admiring us When St. John prostrated himself before the Angel of the LORD the Angel forbad him saying I am thy fellow Servant and of thy Brethren Worship GOD. None but the Devils and such as partake of their Pride are pleas'd with being worshipp'd To require therefore that others should be affected and taken up with our particulars what is it but to desire not only to be worshipp'd with an outward and apparent but also with a real and inward worship 'T is to desire to be worshipp'd even as GOD himself desires it that is in Spirit and in Truth Montagne wrote his Book purely to picture himself and represent his own Humours and Inclinations as he acknowledges himself in the Advertisement to the Reader inserted in all the Editions I give the Picture of my self says he I am my self the Subject of my Book Which is found true enough by those that read him for there are few Chapters wherein he makes not some Digression to talk of himself and there are even some whole Chapters wherein he talks of nothing else But if he wrote his Book meerly to describe Himself he certainly Printed it that his own Character might be read in it He therefore desir'd to be the Subject of the Thoughts and Attention of Men though he says there is no reason a Man should employ his time upon so frivolous and idle a Subject Which words make only for his Commendation For if he thought it unreasonable for Men to spend their time in reading his Book he himself acted against Common Sense in publishing it And so we are oblig'd to believe either that he Thought not what he said or did not what became him But 't is a pleasant Excuse of his Vanity to say he wrote only for his Friends and Relations For if so how chance there were publish'd three Editions Was not one enough for all his Friends and Relations Why did he make Additions to his Book in the last Impressions but no Retractions but that Fortune favour'd his Intentions I add says he but make no Corrections because when once a Man has made his Book of publick right he has in my Opinion no more pretence or title to it Let him say what he can better in another but let him not corrupt the Works already sold. Of such as these 't is folly â—o purchase any thing before they are dead Let them think long before they publish Why are they in such haste My Book is always one and the same He then was willing to publish his Book for and deposite it with the rest of the World as well as to his Friends and Relations But yet his Vanity had never been pardonable if he had only turn'd and fix'd the Mind and Heart of his Friends and Relations on his Picture so long time as is necessary to the reading of his Book If 't is a Fault for a Man to speak often of himself 't is Impudence or rather a kind of Sottishness to praise himself at every turn as Montagne does This being not only to sin against Châ—â—stian Humility but also Right Reason Men are made for a sociable Life and to be form'd into Bodies and Communities But it must be observ'd that every particular that makes a part of a Society would not be thought the meanest part of it And so those who are their own Encomiasts exalting themselves above the rest and looking upon others as the bottom-most parts of their Society and themselves as the Top-most and most Honourable assume an Opinion of themselves that renders them odious instead of indearing them to the Affections and Esteem of the World 'T is then a Vanity and an indiscreet and ridiculous Vanity in Montagne to talk so much to his own Advantage on all occasions But 't is a Vanity still more Extravagant in this Author to transcribe his own Imperfections For if we well observe him we shall find that most of the Faults he discovers of himself are such as are glory'd in by the World by reason of the Corruption of the Age That he freely attributes such to himself as can make him pass for a Bold Wit or give him the Air of a Gentleman and that with intent to be better credited when he speaks in his own Commendation he counterfeits a frank Confession of his Irregularities He has reason to say that The setting too high an Opinion of one's self proceeds often from an equally Arrogant Temper 'T is always an infallible sign that a Man has an Opinion of himself and indeed Montagne seems to me more arrogant and vain in discommending than praising himself it being an insufferable Pride to make his Vices the Motives to his Vanity rather than to his Humiliation I had rather see a Man conceal his Crimes with Shame than publish them with Impudence and in my Mind we ought to have that Vnchristian way of Gallantry in abhorrence wherein Montagne publishes his Defects But let us examine the other Qualities of his Mind If we would believe Montagne on his word he would perswade us that he was a Man of No Retention that his Memory was treacherous and fail'd him in every thing But that in his Judgment there was no defect And yet should we credit the Portraicture he has drawn of his own Mind I mean his Book we should be of a different Opinion I could not says he receive an Order without my Table-book and if I had an Oration to speak that was considerably long-winded I was forc'd to that vile and miserable necessity of learning it word for word by Heart otherwise I had neither Presence nor Assurance for fear my Memory should shew me a slippery trick Does a Man that could learn Memoriter word for word long-winded Discourses to give him some Presence and Assurance fail more in his Memory than his Judgment And can we believe Montagne when he says I am forc'd to call my Domestick Servants by the Names of their Offices or their
to have any other Principal End of his Actions than Himself This is a common Notion with all Men capable of any Reflection and Holy Scripture will not suffer us to doubt that GOD has created all things for Himself It is necessary then not only that our Natural Love I mean the Motion he produces in our Mind should tend towards him but also that the Knowledge and the Light he gives it should discover something to us which is in Him For all that comes from GOD can have no other End but GOD. If GOD has made a Mind and given it the Sun for its Idea or for the immediate Object of its Knowledge GOD we should think had made that Mind and the Idea of that Mind for the Sun and not for Himself GOD cannot therefore make a Mind for the Knowledge of his Works were it not that this Mind should in some sort see GOD in contemplating his Works So that it may be said that unless we saw GOD in some manner we should see nothing at all just as we should love nothing at all except we lov'd GOD that is except GOD continually impress'd on us the love of Good in general For that Love being our Will we are unable to love any thing or will any thing without Him since we cannot love particular Goods but by determining towards these Goods the motion of Love that GOD gives us for Himself Thus as we love not any thing but by means of that necessary Love we have for GOD so we know nothing but through that necessary Knowledge we have of Him all the particular Idea's which we have of the Creatures being only the Restrictions of the Idea of the Creator as all the Motions of the Will towards the Creatures are only Determinations of the Motion towards the Creator I suppose there is no Theologist but will agree with me in this that the Impious love GOD with this Natural Love I speak of And St. Augustin and some other of the Fathers maintain'd it as a thing undoubted that the Wicked see in GOD the Rules of Morals and eternal Truths So that the Opinion I am explaining ought not to trouble any body Ab illa incommutabili luce Veritatis etiam impius dum ab ea avertitur quodammodo tangitur Hinc est quod etiam impii cogitant aeternitatem multa rectè reprehendunt rectéque laudant in hominum moribus Quibus ea tandem regulis judicant nisi in quibus vident quemadmodum quisque vivere debeat etiamsi nec ipsi eodem modo vivant Vbi autem eas vident Neque enim in sua natura Nam cum proculdubio mente ista videantur eorumque mentes constet esse mutabiles has verò regulas immutabiles videat quisquis in eis hoc videre potuerit ..... Vbinam ergo sunt istae regulae scriptae nisi in libro lucis illius quae veritas dicitur unde lex omnis justa describitur ...... in qua videt quid operandum sit etiam qui operatur injustitiam ipse est qui ab ea luce avertitur à qua tamen tangitur There are in St. Augustin infinite passages of the like Nature whereby he proves that we see GOD even in this Life through the Knowledge we have of eternal Truths Truth is uncreated immutable immense eternal and above all things It is true independently and by it self and is beholden to nothing else for its Perfection It renders the Creatures more perfect and all Spirits are naturally solicitous to know it nothing can have all these Perfections except GOD therefore Truth is GOD. We see immutable and eternal Truths therefore we see GOD. These are the Reasons of St. Augustin My own are somewhat different and I would not unjustly usurp the Authority of so Great a Man to countenance my Opinion 'T is my thoughts then that Truths even those which are eternal as That twice two are four are not so much as absolute Beings so far am I from believing them to be GOD. For 't is manifest that this Truth consists only in the Relation of Equality which is between twice two and four We do not say then with St. Augustin That we see GOD in seeing eternal Truths but in seeing the Idea's of these Truths for Idea's are real but the Equality between Idea's which is the Truth has nothing real in it When for instance we say the Cloth we measure is three Ells long The Cloth and the Ells are real but the Equality between the three Ells and the Cloth is no real Being but only a Relation intervening between them In saying Twice two are four the Idea's of the Numbers are real but the Equality between them is only a Relation And thus according to our own Opinion we see GOD in seeing eternal Truths not that these Truths are GOD but because the Idea's on which these Truths depend exist in GOD and perhaps too St. Augustin understood it so We are perswaded also that we know changeable and corruptible Truths in GOD though St. Augustin speaks only of the immutable and incorruptible since there is no need of subjecting GOD to any imperfection on this account nothing being more requir'd than that GOD gives us a Manifestation of what He has in Himself which relates to these things But when I say that we see in GOD material and sensible Things special Notice should be taken that I don't say We have the Sensations of them in GOD but only that they proceed from GOD who acts upon us For GOD perfectly knows sensible things but not by any Sensation In perceiving any thing of a sensible Nature two things occur in our Perception Sensation and Pure Idea The Sensation is a Modification of our Soul and 't is GOD who causes it in us which he is able to cause though He has it not Himself because he sees in the Idea he has of our Soul that it is capable of it As to the Idea which is found joyn'd to the Sensation that is in GOD and we see it because he is pleas'd to discover it to us And GOD joyns the Sensation to the Idea when the Objects are present to the intent we may believe them so and may enter into the Sentiments and Passions that we ought to have with relation to them We believe lastly that all Spirits see the eternal Laws no less than other things in GOD but with some difference They know the Divine Order and the Eternal Truths and even the Beings GOD has made according to this Order and these Truths through the Union they necessarily have with the WORD or the WISDOM of GOD who enlightens them as we have before explain'd But 't is through the impression they without intermission receive from the Will of GOD which carries them towards Him and strives as I may so say to conform their Will entirely like His own that they know this Order to be a Law I mean that they know the Eternal Laws
as that Good ought to be lov'd and Evil avoided that Righteousness ought to be lov'd more than Riches that 't is better to obey GOD than to command Men and infinite other Natural Laws For the knowledge of all these Laws is not different from the knowledge of that impression which they constantly feel within themselves though they do not always follow it by the free choice of their Will and which they know to be common to all Minds though it be not equally strong and powerful in them all 'T is by this Dependance of our Mind and its Relation and Union to the WORD of GOD and of our Will to his Love that we are made after the Image and Similitude of GOD. And though this Image be very much blurr'd and defac'd by Sin yet it is necessary for it to subsist as long as we our selves But if we bear the Image of the WORD humbled upon Earth and obey the Motions of the Holy Spirit that Primitive Image of our first Creation that Union of our Mind to the WORD of the FATHER and to the Love of the FATHER and of the SON will be repair'd and be made indelible We shall become like GOD if we be like the Man-God Lastly GOD will be wholly in us and we shall be wholly in GOD in a far perfecter manner than that whereby it is necessary to our Subsistence that we should be in Him and He in us These then are some of the Reasons that induce us to believe that our Minds perceive all things through the intimate presence of Him who comprehends all things in the Simplicity of his Essence Let every one judge of them according to the internal conviction he shall receive after he has seriously consider'd them But for my own part I can see no probability in any other way of explaining it and I presume this last will appear more than probable Thus our Souls depend on GOD all manner of ways For as it is He who makes them feel Pleasure and Pain and all the other Sensations by the Natural Union He has instituted between them and their Bodies which is no other than His Decree and general Will So it is He who by means of the Natural Union He has plac'd between the Will of Man and the Representation of Idea's included in the immensity of the Divine Essence gives them to know all that they know Nor is this Natural Union any thing but his general Will. So that 't is He only who can enlighten us by representing all things to us as 't is He alone that can make us happy by giving us to taste all sorts of Pleasures Let us persist then in our perswasion that GOD is the intelligible World or the place of Spirits as the material World is the place of Bodies That 't is from His Power they receive all their Modifications that 't is in His Wisdom they discover all their Idea's and 't is by His Love they are influenc'd with all their regulated Motions And because His Power and His Love are nothing but Himself let us believe with St. Paul that He is not far from every one of us and that in Him we live and move and have our Being Non longè est ab unoquoque nostrûm in ipso enim vivimus movemur sumus CHAP. VII I. Four different manners of Perception II. How it is that we know GOD. III. How we know Bodies IV. How we know our own Souls V. How we know the Souls of other Men and Pure Spirits IN order to give an extract and illustration of the Notion I have just establish'd concerning the manner of our Minds perceiving all the different Objects of its knowledge it is necessary I should distinguish in it Four manners or ways of Knowing things The First is that whereby we know things by themselves The Second is that of knowing them by their Idea's that is as I understand it in this place by something that is different from themselves The Third is that of Conscience or by internal Sensation The Fourth is their knowing them by Conjecture We know things by themselves immediately and without Idea's when being of a most intelligible Nature they can penetrate the Mind or discover themselves to it We know things by their Idea's when they are not intelligible by themselves whether because they are Corporeal or that they cannot penetrate the Mind or discover themselves to it We know by Conscience whatever is not distinguish'd from our selves Lastly we know by Conjecture the things which are different from our selves and from those we know in themselves and by Idea's when we think that some things are like some others that we already know Of all the things that come under our Knowledge we know none but GOD by Himself For though there be other Spiritual Beings besides Him and such as seem intelligible by their own Nature yet in our present State there is none but He that penetrates the Mind and discovers Himself to it 'T is GOD alone that we see with an immediate and direct View and possibly He alone is able to enlighten the Mind by his own Substance Finally in this Life it is from nothing but the Union that we have with Him that we are capable of knowing what we know as has been explain'd in the foregoing Chapter For he only is our Master who presides over our Mind according to St. Austin without the Deputation or Interposition of any Creature It cannot be conceiv'd that any thing Created can represent infinite that Being without restriction the immense Being the universal Being can be perceiv'd by an Idea that is by a particular Being and a Being different from the universal and infinite Being But as to particular Beings there is no difficulty to conceive how they can be represented by the infinite Being that includes them and includes them in a most Spiritual and consequently most intelligible manner Thus it is necessary to say that GOD is intelligible by Himself though the knowledge we have of Him in this Life be very imperfect and confus'd and that Corporeal things are intelligible by their Idea's that is to say in GOD since GOD alone contains the intelligible World wherein are found the Idea's of all things But though things are possible to be seen in GOD it does not follow that we do see all things in Him We see only those things in Him whereof we have Idea's and there are things We see without Idea's All things in the World whereof we have any knowledge are either Bodies or Spirits properties of Bodies and properties of Spirits As to Bodies 't is not to be doubted but we see them together with their Properties by their Idea's forasmuch as being unintelligible of themselves there is no possibility of seeing them except in that Being which contains them in an intelligible manner Bodies then and their Properties are seen in GOD and by their Idea's and for this reason
the knowledge we have of them is most perfect I mean that the Idea that we have of Extension is sufficient for the displaying to us all the Properties Extension is capable of and we cannot desire a more distinct and fertil Idea of Extension of Figures and Motions than that which GOD furnishes us withal As the Idea's of things which are in GOD include all their Properties in seeing their Idea's we can see successively all the Properties of them for in seeing things as they are in GOD we constantly see them in the most perfect manner and the knowledge of them would be infinitely Perfect if the Mind that perceives them in him were infinite What is wanting to our knowledge of Extension its Figures and Motions is not the defectiveness of the Idea that represents it but of our Mind that considers it But 't is not so in point of the Soul we know her not by her Idea we see her not in GOD we know her only by Conscience and for that reason the knowledge we have of her is imperfect We know nothing of our Soul but what we feel pass within us If we never had had the sensation of Pain Pleasure Light c. it were impossible for us to know whether the Soul was capable of them because we know her not by her Idea But if we saw in GOD the Idea that answers to our Soul we should at the same time know or at least might know all the Properties she is capable of as we know all the Properties Extension is capable of because we know Extension by its Idea It is true we know well enough by our Conscience or by the internal sentiment we have of our selves that our Soul is something great and excellent But 't is possible that what we know of her is the least part of what she is in her self If all we knew of Matter were only Twenty or Thirty Figures wherewith it had been modify'd certainly our knowledge of it had been very inconsiderable in comparison of what we know by the Idea that represents it To understand then the Soul perfectly it is not sufficient to know that only which we receive by internal Sentiment since our Self-Consciousness discovers to us it may be but the least part of our Being It may be concluded from what has been said that though we know the existence of our Soul better than the existence of our Body or than of the things about us yet we have not so perfect knowledge of the Nature of our Soul as of the Nature of our Body which may serve to reconcile the different Sentiments of those who say there is nothing better known than the Soul and of others that affirm we understand nothing less This too may be of Use to prove that the Idea's which represent something to us that 's External are not Modifications of our Soul For if the Soul saw all things by considering her own Modifications she ought to have a more clear and perspicuous knowledge of her own Essence or Nature than of that of Bodies and of the Sensations or Modifications she is capable of than of all the Figures or Modifications incident to Bodies Mean while she knows not that she is capable of this or that Sensation by any View she takes of her self but by Experience whereas she knows Extension to be capable of an infinite number of Figures by the Idea which represents Extension There are morover certain Sensations as Colours and sounds which the generality of Men cannot discover to be Modifications of the Soul but there are no Figures which every one does not know by the Idea he has of Extension to be the Modifications of Bodies What I have been saying shews likewise the reason why we cannot give a Definition explanatory of the Modifications of the Soul For since we know neither the Soul nor its Modifications by Idea's but only by Sensations and such Sensations of Pleasure for instance Pain Heat or the like have no Connexion with Words It is plain that had a Man never seen Colour nor felt Heat he could not be made to understand these Sensations by all the Definitions in the World Now Men having their Sensations occasionally from the Body and all Men's Bodies being not dispos'd alike it often happens that these words are Equivocal and that those which are employ'd to express the Modifications of our Soul signify quite contrary to what they design so that thay often for instance make a Man think of Bitter when 't is suppos'd they make him think of Sweet But though we have not an entire knowledge of our Soul we are sufficiently instructed by Conscience for demonstrating her Immortality Spirituality Liberty and some other Attributes which it is necessary for us to know and for that reason GOD manifests her not to us by her Idea in the way that he gives us to know Bodies True the knowledge we have of our Soul by Conscience is imperfect but it is not false the knowledge on the contrary we have of Bodies by Sensation or Conscience if we may term Conscience that Sensation we have of what occurrs in our Bodies is not only imperfect but also false Wherefore the Idea of Bodies was necessary to correct the Sensations we had of them But we have no need of the Idea of the Soul since the Consciousness we have of her engages us not in Error and there is no fear of mistaking in the Knowledge of her if we be carefull not to confound her with the Body which may be done by Reason Lastly if we had had a clear Idea of the Soul as we have of the Body that Idea had made us consider her as too separate from it and so it had weakned the union of our Soul with our Body by hindring us from regarding our Soul as expanded through all our Members which I explain not more at large There remains now no other Objects of our Knowledge to be spoke to than the Souls of other Men and pure Intelligences and 't is manifest we know them only by Conjecture We know them not at present either in themselves or by their Idea's and whereas they are different from us it is not possible to know them by Conscience We conjecture that the Souls of other men are of the same Species with our own What we feel in our selves we presume that they feel too and when these Sentiments have no Relation to our Body we are sure we are not deceiv'd because we see certain Idea's and immutable Laws in GOD according to which we are certainly assur'd that GOD acts equally on all Spirits I know that twice two are four that it is better to be Righteous than Rich and I am not deceiv'd in believing others know these Truths as well as I. I love Good and Pleasure I hate Evil and Pain I am willing to be happy and I am not deceiv'd in thinking all Men and Angels and even Devils have
enough from hence that their Argumentations upon Natural things are founded merely on Logical Notions such as Act Power and an infinite number of Imaginary Entities which they take no care to distinguish from such as are Real These Gentlemen therefore finding it wonderful easie to see after their manner what they have a Mind to see imagine they have better Eyes than other Men and that they perceive distinctly Extension supposes something else and that 't is only a Property of Matter which Matter may be divested of as of the rest Yet if you make a Demand of them that they would please to explain that thing which they pretend to perceive in Matter besides Extension they offer to do it several ways every of which makes it apparent that they have no other Idea of it than that of Being or of Substance in general This is extreamly evident if we take notice That this their Idea includes no particular Attributes which agree to Matter For whilst we take Extension from Matter we rob it of all the Attributes and Properties which we distinctly conceive do belong to it and though we leave that imaginary thing which they suppose the Essence of it it being manifest that neither Earth nor Heaven nor any thing we see in Nature could be made of it Whereas on the contrary if we take away what they fancy the Essence of Matter provided we leave Extension and we leave all the Attributes and Properties we distinctly conceive included in the Idea of Matter For it is certain that out of Extension all alone might be fram'd an Heaven an Earth and all the Visible World and infinite others So this Something which they suppose over and above Extension having no Attributes distinctly to be conceiv'd belonging to it and clearly included in the Idea we have of it can have nothing real in it if we will credit our Reason nor can be of any use in explaining Natural Effects And that which is said of its being the Subject and Principle of Extension is said gratis and without any distinct Conception in them that say it that is they have no other than a General and Logical Idea of it as of Subject and Principle In so much that we may further imagine a new Subject and a new Principle of this Subject of Extension and so in infinitum the Mind having the Power of representing the General Idea's of Subject and Principle as long as it pleases 'T is true there is a great probability that Men had not so puzzl'd and obscur'd the Idea that they have of Matter had they not some Reasons for it and that there are many who maintain contrary Conclusions to these of ours upon Theological Principles Doubtless Extension is not the Essence of Matter if that be contrary to our Faith And we willingly acknowledge it We are thank GOD very well perswaded of the Feebleness and Limitedness of an Humane Mind We know it is of too little Extent to measure an Infinite Power that GOD can do infinitely more than we can conceive that he communicates only those Idea's which represent to us the things that arrive by the order of Nature and hides the rest from us Wherefore we are always ready to submit our Reason unto Faith but there is need of better proofs than are generally urg'd to ruin the Reasons we have establish'd Because the manner of explaining the Mysteries of Faith are not of Faith and we believe these Mysteries without conceiving how the manner of them can be distinctly explaind We believe for instance the Mystery of the TRINITY though the Humane Mind is unable to conceive it and yet we cease not to believe that the things that differ not in any third differ not in themselves though this Proposition seems to overthrow it For we are convinc'd that Reason is not to be made use of except in Subjects proportion'd to its Capacity and that we ought not to look steadfastly on our Mysteries for fear of being dazel'd by them according that Admonition of the Holy Spirit Qui scrutator est Majestatis opprimetur à gloriâ However if we thought it convenient for the satisfaction of some Men's Minds to explain how our Notion upon this matter may be reconcil'd with what we are taught by Faith concerning Transubstantiation we probably could do it in a way very distinct and perspicuous and could no ways offend against the Decisions of the Church But we think this Explication may be dispens'd with especially in this Work For it ought to be observ'd That the Holy Fathers have almost always look'd upon it as an incomprehensible Mystery and that they never play'd the Philosophers to explain it but contented themselves for the most part with unexact Comparisons fitter to make known the Doctrine than to give a Satisfactory Explication to the Mind Therefore Tradition is for such as Philosophize not on this Mystery and who sumit their Reason to the Rule of Faith without distracting their Brain to no purpose about most abstruse and difficult Questions We should be to blame should we require the Philosophers to give us clear and easie Explications of the manner of our LORD's Body being in the Eucharist for this would be to demand of them novelties in Divinity And in case the Philosophers should make an impudent Answer to the Demand they must be necessarily obnoxious either to the having their Philosophy or Divinity condemn'd For if their Explications were obscure they would give reason to despise the Principles of their Philosophy if their Answer were easie and apparent we should have reason to be apprehensive of Novelty in their Divinity Since then Novelty in point of Divinity bears the Impress and Character of Error and the World has a right and priviledge of despising Opinions merely on the Account of their being Novel and having no foundation in Tradition we ought not to undertake to give easie and intelligible Explications of those things which the Fathers and Councels have not perfectly explain'd and 't is sufficient to hold the Doctrine of Transubstantiation without offering to make out the manner of it For otherwise we might sow the seeds for fresh Disputes and Quarrels whereof there are too many already and the Enemies of the Truth would not fail to use them to malicious purpose and for the oppressing of their Adversaries Disputes in point of Theological Explications seem to be the most useless and most dangerous of any and they are with greater reason to be fear'd for that even Religious Persons often fancy they have a right of breaking their Charity with such as break with their Opinions We have but too common Experience of this Practice and the cause of it lies not very deep Wherefore 't is always the best and surest way not to be eager to speak of things whereof we have no Evidence and which others are not dispos'd to conceive Nor ought obscure and uncertain Explications of Mysteries of Faith which we are under no
it were only that these Beings having no Relation to us the Knowledge of them would be of little use to us as he has not given us Eyes acute enough to reckon the Teeth of an Hand-worm since 't would be useless to the Preservation of our Body to have so penetrating an Eye-sight But though we do not think it fit to judge hastily and rashly that all Being is divided into Spirit and Body yet we think it inconsistent with Reason for Philosophers in explaining Natural Effects to use other Idea's than those that depend on Thought and Extension these in Effect being the only distinct or particular that we have There is nothing more Unphilosophical and Irrational than to imagine vast numbers of Beings from simple Logical Idea's to bestow on them infinite properties and so to go about explaining things which no body understands by things which not only no body conceives but which indeed are impossible to be conceived This is to take the same course that Blind Men would do when intending to discourse of Colours and maintain the Theses that concern them they should make use of the Definitions they receive from the Philosophers and thence make their Inferences and Conclusions For as these blind Men's Arguings and Disputes about Colours must needs be pleasant and ridiculous enough since they could have no distinct Idea's of the Subjects in Question and would only argue from general and Logical Idea's So the Philosophers can never reason justly and solidly upon the Effects of Nature when they only employ general and Logical Idea's as of Act Power Being Cause Principle Form Quality and others of like Nature It is absolutely necessary for them to ground their Disputes and Reasonings only upon the distinct and particular Idea's of Thought and Extension and those which are contain'd in them as Figure Motion c. For we can never expect to arrive to the Knowledge of Nature but by the Consideration of the distinct Idea's we have of it and 't is better not to meditate at all than to throw our Meditation away upon Whimsies and Chimera's We ought not however to assert that there is nothing but Spirit and Body Thinking and Extended Beings in Nature since 't is impossible for us to be mistaken For though these are sufficient for the Explication of Nature and consequently we may conclude without danger of erring That all Natural things as far as our Knowledge goes depend upon Extension and Thought yet absolutely speaking it s not impossible but there may be others whereof we have no Idea nor see any Effect Men are therefore too rash and precipitate in judging as an indisputable Principle that all Substance is distinguish'd into Body and Spirit But they thence infer a rash and unadvis'd conclusion when they determine by the sole light of Reason that GOD is a Spirit 't is true that since we are created after His Image and Similitude and we are taught from several places of the Holy Scripture that GOD is a Spirit we ought to believe and call Him so But Reason all alone can never teach us so much It only tells us that GOD is a Being infinitely perfect and that he ought rather to be a Spirit than a Body since our Soul is more perfect than our Body but it cannot assure us there are not still other Beings more perfect than those Spirits within us and rang'd in an higher order above them than our Minds are above our Bodies But supposing there were such Beings as these as Reason makes it unquestionable that GOD was able to create them 't is evident they would have a nearer resemblance to their Maker than our selves And so the same Reason informs us that GOD would rather have their Perfections than ours which would be reckon'd but imperfections in comparison with them We ought not therefore precipitately to imagine that the word Spirit which we indifferently use to signifie what GOD is and what we are our selves is an univocal Term expressing the same things or very like GOD is farther exalted above Created Spirits than these Spirits are elevated above Bodies and we ought not to term GOD a Spirit so much for a positive Declaration of what He is as to signifie He is not material He is an infinitely perfect Being no Man can doubt of it But as we are not to imagine with the Anthropomorphites that he ought to have an Humane shape because that Figure seems the most perfect though we should suppose Him Corporeal so we ought not to think that the Spirit of GOD has Humane Thoughts and that his mind is like our own because we know nothing perfecter than our own Mind 'T is rather to be believ'd that as he includes in Himself the Perfections of Matter without being material for 't is certain that Matter has a Relation to some Perfection that is in God so He comprehends the Perfections of created Spirits without being a Spirit after our manner of conceiving Spirits that his true Name is HE THAT IS that is being without restriction all Being being Infinite and Universal CHAP. X. Some Instances of Errors in Physicks wherein Men are engag'd by supposing that the things which differ in their Nature their Qualities Extension Duration and Proportion are alike in these things IT has been shewn in the Fore-going Chapter That Men make a rash Judgment in concluding all Beings under two Heads either of Body or Spirit we will make it appear in the succeeding Chapters that they not only make rash Judgments but false too and which are the fruitful Principles of innumerable Errors when they judge that Beings are not different in their Relations and Modes because they have no Idea of these Differences 'T is certain that the Mind of Man searches only after the Relations of things First those which the Objects it considers have to it self and then those which they have with one another For Man's Mind is inquisitive only after its Good and Truth For the finding out its Good it considers carefully by Reason and by Taste or Sensation whether the Objects have any Relation of Agreement with it self For the discovering Truth it considers whether the Objects have any Relation of Equality or Similitude to each other or what precisely is the Quantity that is equal to their Inequality For as Good is not the Good of the Mind any farther than it is agreeable to it so Truth is not Truth but by the Relation of Equality or Resemblance which is found betwixt two things or more whether this Relation be between two or more Objects as between an Ell and a Piece of Cloth For 't is true that this is an Ell of Cloth because of the Equality between the Ell and the Cloth whether it be between two or more Idea's as between the two Idea's of Three and Three and that of Six for 't is true that Three and Three are Six because of the Equality between the two Idea's of Three and Three and the
him also to be an Opiniastre and so conclude all Devoutness Wilfulness and Bigottry Nay they think the Vertuous and Good more Opinionated than the Vicious and Wicked Because these latter urging their Corrupt Opinions as they are buoy'd up by the different commotions of their Blood and Passions stay not long in the same Sentiments but desert them Whereas the Religious remain constant and immovable in theirs as being built upon fixed and unshaken Foundations which depend not on any thing so wavering as the Circulation of the Blood See now the reason why the common sort of People judge the Pious and Vertuous as Opinionated as the Vicious Which is That Good Men are as Passionate for Truth and Vertue as Wicked Men for Vice and Falshood Both one and the other talk much after the same Manner in defending their Opinions In this they are alike though they differ in the Main But this is enough for the World that is unable to distinguish their Reasons and acknowledge the Difference to judge them Alike in every thing because they are Alike in that external way whereof every body is a competent Judge The Godly then are not Obstinate and Opinionated they are only Constant as they ought to be But the Vicious and Licentious are ever Opinionated though they continue but an Hour in their Opinion For those are the Opinionated only who defend a False Opinion though they defend it but a little time The case is much the same with some Philosophers who maintain Chimerical Opinions which they afterwards reject They would have others who defend certain Truths the certainty whereof they plainly see to quit them as Naked Opinions as themselves have done those they were impertinently conceited with And because 't is not easie to pay Deference to them to the prejudice of Truth and the Love a Man naturally has for her makes him heartily espouse her they judge this Man an Opiniastre Those Persons would be to blame obstinately to defend their Chimera's but the others are to be commended for maintaining Truth with Strength and Resolution of Mind The Manner of them both is the same but the Sentiments are different And 't is this Difference of Sentiments which makes the one Constant and the other Obstinate and Opiniated The Conclusion of the Three First Books FROM the Beginning of this Treatise I have distinguish'd as it were two Parts in the Simple and Indivisible Essence of the Soul one whereof was purely Passive the other both Active and Passive together The First is the Mind or Vnderstanding the Second is the Will I have attributed to the Mind three Faculties because it receives its Modifications and its Idea's from the Author of Nature three several ways I have called it Sense when it receives from GOD Idea's confounded with Sensations that is Sensible Idea's upon occasion of some Motions happening in the Organs of the Senses by the Presence of Objects I nam'd it Imagination and Memory when it receiv'd from GOD Idea's confounded with Images which make a sort of languid and feeble Sensaâ—ions which the Mind receives only from some Traces produc'd or excited in the Brain by the Course of the Animal Spirits Lastly I call'd it Pure Mind or Pure Intellect when it receives from GOD the All-pure Idea's of Truth without any mixture of Sensations and Images not by the Union it hath with the Body but with that it has with the WORD or WISDOM of GOD not because it exists in the Material and Sensible World but because it subsists in the Immaterial and Intelligible World not for the knowing Mutable things that are fit for the Preservation of Corporeal Life but for piercing into Immutable Truths which conserve in us the Life of the Spirit I have shewn in the First and Second Book That our Senses and Imagination are very useful to the knowing the Relations External Bodies have to our own that all the Idea's the Mind receives by means of the Body are for the Interest of the Body that 't is impossible to discover any Truth whatever with Evidence by the Idea's of the Senses and Imagination that these confus'd Idea's are of use only in uniting us to our Body and by our Body to all sensible things and that lastly if we desir'd to avoid Error we should not credit their Reports I concluded likewise That it was Morally impossible to know by the pure Idea's of the Mind the Relations which Bodies have with our own that we ought not to reason upon these Idea's to know whether an Apple or a Stone are good to eat but the way to know is to try by Tasting And that though we may employ our Intellect for obtaining a confus'd Knowledge of the Relations foreign Bodies have with ours 't is always the surest way to make use of our Senses I give one Instance more since so necessary and essential things cannot be too deeply imprinted on the Mind I have a Mind to examine for Example Whether 't is more advantagious to be Just or Rich. If I open the Eyes of my Body Justice looks like a Chimaera I see no Allurements that it has The Just I see miserable deserted persecuted naked of Defence and destitute of Comfort For He that is their Comforter and Supporter is not apparent to my Eyes In a word I see not what use Justice and Vertue can be put to But if I contemplate Riches with my Eyes open I presently see the Lustre and Splendor of them and am dazl'd Power Greatness Pleasure and all sensible Goods are the Retinue and Attendants of Wealth and I have no room to doubt but a Man must be Rich if he will be happy Again If I employ my Ears I hear how all Men have Riches in Esteem and that their Talk is only about ways of acquiring them and that they are constantly giving Praises Incense and Honour to those that possess them This Sense then and all the rest inform me that I must be Rich before I can be Happy But let me shut my Eyes and stop my Ears and only interrogate my Imagination and it will constantly represent what my Eyes had seen what they had read and what my Ears had heard to the Advantage and Commendation of Riches but it will represent them in a quite other manner than my Senses For the Imagination always augments the Idea's of those things which are related to the Body and are the Objects of our Love If I resign my self to its Conduct it will presently lead me into an Inchanted Palace much what the same with those celebrated by Poets and Romancers in magnificent Descriptions and here I shall be ravish'd in gazing on those Beauties that need not be describ'd which will convince me that the God of Riches that inhabits it is the only capable of making me Happy Lo here what my Body is able to perswade me for it speaks only on its own behalf and 't is necessary to its welfare that the Imagination bow
be Curious for New Discoveries and always unquiet in the Enjoyment of ordinary Goods Should a Geometrician go to give us New Propositions contrary to Euclide's and pretend to prove that Science full of Errours as Hobbs has essay'd in a Book he wrote against the Pride of the Giometricians I confess we should be to blame to be pleas'd with such sorts of Novelties since Truth being found we ought to be constant in embracing it our Curiosity being given us only to excite us to the Discovery And therefore 't is no common fault with Geometricians to have a Curiosity for new Opinions in their Science They would quickly be disgusted with a Book whose Propositions contradicted those of Euclid for that being infallibly assur'd of the truth of his Propositions by incontestable Demonstrations their Curiosity must cease on that respect An infallible sign that our Inclination for Novelty proceeds only from our want of Evidence as to the Truth of things we desire naturally to know and our not possessing the Infinite Goods which we naturally long to enjoy 'T is then just and equitable that men should be excited by Novelty and fond of persuing it But however there are Exceptions to be made and some Rules to be observ'd which may easily be deduc'd from our Assertion viz. That the Inclination for Novelty is only given us to discover Truth and our real Goods These Rules are three in number the first of which is That Men must not love Novelty in matters of Faith which are not under the Jurisdiction of Reason The second That Novelty is no reason to induce us to believe things to be true or good that is we must not judge any Opinion true because t is Novel nor any Good capable of contenting us because 't is new and extraordinary and we have never yet enjoy'd it The third That when we are moreover assur'd that some Truths lie so deep that 't is Morally impossible to discover them and that some Goods are so little and slender that they can never satisfie us the Novelty ought not to raise our Curiosity nor must we give way to be seduc'd by false Hopes But we will explain these Rules more at large and shew that the want of observing them engages us in a vast number of Errours We commonly meet with Men of two quite opposite humours some that will always blindly and implicitly believe others that will ever plainly and evidently perceive The former having scarce ever made use of their Reason indifferently believe whatever they hear the latter resolving always to exercise their Mind even in matters that are infinitely above it equally despise all sorts of Authorities Those are commonly of a stupid or weak capacity as Children and Women these are Haughty and Libertine Wits as Hereticks and Philosophers We very rarely meet with Men exactly poiz'd in the midst of these two Extremes who seek not for Evidence in matters of Faith by a vain and fruitless Agitation of Mind or that sometimes believe not without Evidence false Opinions about Natural things by an indiscreet Deference and servile Submission of Spirit If they be Men of Religion and defer greatly to the Authority of the Church their Faith extends sometimes if I may be allow'd to say so to Opinions purely Philosophical and they pay them the same respect as the Truths of the Gospel whilst their illegitimate Zeal too readily prompts them to censure and condemn all of a different Sentiment and Persuasion Hence they entertain injurious suspicions against Persons that make New Discoveries and 't is sufficient to pass for a Libertine with them to deny Substantial Forms that the Creatures feel Pleasure and Pain and other Philosophical Opinions which they believe true without any evident Reason only because they imagine some necessary Dependencies between these Opinions and matters of Faith But if Men are more bold and daring the Spirit of Pride carries them to despise the Authority of the Church and they are hardly brought to submit to it They delight in harsh and presumptuous Opinions and love to be thought Bold Wits and upon that prospect talk of Divine things irreverently and with a sort of domineering Arrogance dâ—spising as too credulous such as speak modestly of some receiv'd Opinions Lastly they are extremely dispos'd to doubt of every thing and are quite opposite to those who too easily submit to the Authority of Men. 'T is manifest that these two Extremes have nothing laudable and that those that require not Evidence in Natural Questions are no less culpable than others who demand it in the Mysteries of Faith But yet the former who hazard the being mistaken in Philosophical Questions by too easie a Belief are doubtless more excusable than the latter who run in danger of Heresie by a presumptuous doubting For 't is less perillous to fall into infinite Errours of Philosophy for want of examining them than into one Heresie for want of an humble Submission to the Authority of the Church The Mind reposes it self upon finding Evidence but 't is toss'd and disturb'd when it finds none because Evidence is the Character of Truth And therefore the Errour of Libertines and Hereticks proceeds from their Doubting that Truth is to be met with in the Decisions of the Church because they see it not with Evidence and hoping at the same time that the Points of Faith may be evidently known Now their passion for Novelty is corrupt and disorder'd because having already the Truth in the Faith of the Church they ought no longer to seek for it besides that the Truths we are taught by Faith being infinitely above our Reason they could not be discover'd supposing according to their false Notion that the Church was guilty of Errour But as many Err by refusing to submit to the Authority of the Church so there are no fewer that deceive themselves by submitting to the Authority of Men. The Authority of the Church must always be yielded to because it can never err but we must never blindfoldly resign to the Authority of Men because they are always liable to mistake The Doctrines of the Church infinitely transcend the powers of Reason but the Doctrines of Men are subject to it So that if it be an intolerable Vanity and Presumption to follow the Guidance of our Mind in seeking for Truth in matters of Faith without Respect to the Authority of the Church it is likewise a sordid Levity and a despicable Meanness of Spirit blindly to believe upon the Authority of Men in Subjects depending on Reason Notwithstanding which it may be said that most of those who bear the Name of Learned in the World have purchas'd their Reputation merely by getting by rote the Opinions of Aristotle Plato Epicurus and some other Philosophers and by blindfoldly embracing and wilfully maintaining their Opinions An Acquaintance with the Sentiments of some Philosophers is enough to entitle to Degrees and exteriour Badges of Learning in the Universities And provided
understand but rather Superstition and Hypocrisie The Superstitious out of a slavish Fear and a dejection and timerousness of Spirit start and boggle at a lively and penetrating Wit Explain to them for instance the natural Reasons of Thunder and its Effects and you shall be a reputed Atheist But Hypocrites by a diabolical Malignity transform themselves into Angels of Light for they employ the appearances of Truths of universally sacred and rever'd Authority to withstand from out of partial Interests such Truths as are rarely known and of little Reputation Thus they oppugn Truth by her own Image and whilst they ridicule in their Heart what is reverenc'd by the World they establish their Reputation so much more deep and impregnable in the Minds of Men as the Truth they have abus'd is more sacred and inviolable Such Persons are the strongest powerfullest and most formidable Enemies of the Truth They are not indeed very common but there need be but few to do a world of mischief The Shew of Truth and Vertue frequently do more Evil than Truth and Vertue themselves do Good For one subtile Hypocrite is enough to overthrow what cost a great many truly wise and vertuous much labour and pains to build Monsieur Des Cartes for instance has demonstratively prov'd the Existence of a GOD the Immortality of our Souls and a great many other both Metaphysical and Physical Questions and our Age is under infinite Obligations to him for the Truths he has discover'd to us Notwithstanding there starts up an inconsiderable Person and takes upon him being an hot and vehement Declamer and in Esteem with the People for the Zeal he manifested for their Religion to compose Books full of Calumnies against him and accuse him of the vilest Crimes Des Cartes was a Catholick and was Tutor'd in his Studies by the Jesuits whom he frequently mention'd with an honourable respect This was enough with that malicious Spirit to persuade a People opposite to our Religion and easie to be provok'd upon Matters so nice as those of Religion are that he was an Emissary of the Jesuits and had dangerous Designs because the least shadow of Truth in Points of Faith has more influence on Men's Minds than real and effective Truths in Matters of Physicks or Metaphysicks for which they have little or no regard Des Cartes wrote of the Existence of a GOD and this was sufficient for this Slanderer to exercise his false Zeal and to oppress all the Truths that made for his Enemy's Defence He accus'd him of Atheism and of cunningly and clandestinely teaching it like that infamous Atheist Vanino burn'd at Toulouse who to cover his Malice and Impiety wrote for the Existence of a GOD. For one of the Reasons he alledges for his Enemy's being an Atheist was that he wrote against the Atheists as did Vanino for a cloak to his Villany So easie is it for a Man to overwhelm Truth when supported with the shews of it and when once he has obtain'd an Authority over weaker Minds Truth loves Gentleness and Peace and though she be very strong yet she sometimes yields to the Pride and Arrogance of Falshood and a Lye dress'd up and arm'd in her own Appearances She knows that Errour cannot finally prevail against her and if it be her Fate sometimes to live proscrib'd and in obscurity 't is only to wait more favourable opportunities of manifesting her self for she generally at last breaks out in greater Strength and Brightness even in the very place of her Oppression 'T is no wonder to hear an Enemy of Des Cartes a Man of a different Religion and ambitious to raise himself upon the Ruins of Men above him an injudicious Haranguer in a word a Voetius to talk contemptuously of what he neither does nor will understand But 't is to be admir'd that such as are neither Enemies to Des Cartes nor his Religion should be possess'd with an Aversion and Contempt of him on the account of the Reproaches they have read in Books compos'd by the Enemy both to his Person and his Church That Heretick's Book intitled Desperata Causa Papatus is a sufficient Proof of his Impudence Ignorance Outrage and desire of seeming Zealous thereby to purchase a Reputation amongst his Flock which shews that he 's not a Man to be trusted on his Word For as we are not to believe all the fabulous Stories he has heap'd together in his Book against our Religion so we are not to believe on the strength of his Affirmation those bitter and hainously injurious Accusations he has forg'd against his Enemy 'T is not then the part of a Rational Man to enter into a Persuasion that M. Des Cartes was a dangerous Person because they have perchance read it in some Book or heard it said by others whose Piety is awful and respected for Mens bare words are not to be credited when they accuse others of the highest Crimes nor is the Zeal and Gravity it is spoken in sufficient Inducement to persuade us of the Truth of it For in short 't is possible for Folly and Falshood to be set off in the same manner as better things especially when the Speaker is won over to the Belief of them out of Simplicity and Weakness 'T is easie to be inform'd of the Truth or Falshood of the Indictment drawn up against M. Des Cartes his Writings being easie to come by and not difficult to be understood by an Attentive Person Let a Man therefore read his Books that better Evidence may be had against him than a bare Hear-say and after he has well read them and digested them it may be hop'd the Plea of Atheism will be thrown out and on the contrary all due Respect and Deference paid to a Man who in a most simple and evident manner has demonstrated not only the Existence of a GOD and the Immortality of the Soul but a great number of other Truths that till his time were never thought on CHAP. VII Of the Desire of Science and of the Judgments of the falsly Learned THE Mind of Man is doubtless of a little Reach and Capacity and yet he longs to know every thing All Humane Sciences are unable to satisfie his Desires though he has not room to comprehend any one in particular He is constantly disquieted and impatient for Knowledge either because he hopes to find what he seeks for as we have said in the foregoing Chapters or because he is persuaded that his Soul is agrandiz'd by the vain possession of some extraordinary Knowledge The irregular Desire of Happiness and Greatness puts him upon the Study of all Sciences hoping to find Happiness in moral and looking for that false Greatness in speculative Knowledge Whence comes it that there are Men who spend their Life in Reading the Rabbins and such like Books written in foreign obscure and corrupt Languages by injudicious and sensless Authors but from a Persuasion that the Knowledge of the
Language seem worthy their Study and Application If they read the Holy Scriptures 't is not to learn Piety and Religion but Points of Chronology and Geography and Difficulties of Grammar take them wholly up and they are more earnest to know these things than the salutary Truths of the Gospel they aim at the possession of the Science they have foolishly admir'd in others and for which they are likely to be admir'd by other Fools in their turn 'T is so with them in point of Natural Knowledge not the most Useful but the least Common is their Beloved Anatomy is too mean and low for them but Astronomy is more noble and exalted Ordinary Experiments are unworthy their Application but those rare and wonderful Experiments which can never instruct us are those they most carefully observe Histories that are the most Rare and Ancient they glory to know and whilst they are ignorant of the Genealogy of Princes that at present Reign are diligent in searching for the Pedigree of those who died four thousand Years ago They scorn to learn the most common Histories of their own Times yet endeavour to be critically skill'd in the Fables and Fictions of the Poets They know not so much as their own Relations yet will if you desire it cite several Authorities to prove that a Citizen of Rome was allied to an Emperour and a great many other such things Hardly can they tell the Names of the common Garments in present Use yet busie their Heads to know what were in wear with the old Greeks and Romans Their own Country Animals they are ignorant of while they grudge not to spend several Years in composing huge Volumes on the Creatures of Scripture that they may seem to have a better guess than others at the Signification of unknown Terms Such a Book is the Hearts-delight of its Author and of its learn'd Readers for being patch'd up of Greek Hebrew and Arabick Passages c. of Rabbinical and such like dark and extraordinary Citations it satisfies the Vanity of its Author and the ridiculous Curiosity of those that read it who fancy themselves learneder than others when they can confidently affirm there are six different Words in Holy Writ signifying a Lion or the like They commonly understand not the Map of their own Country or even the Model of their Town whilst they study the Geography of Ancient Greece Italy of the Gauls in Julius Caesar's Time or of the Streets and publick Places of old Rome Labor stultorum says the Wise-man affliget eos qui nesciunt in urbem pergere They know not the way to their City yet are foolishly fatigu'd with fruitless Enquiries They know not the Laws or Customs of the Places where they live yet carefully study the Ancient Right the Laws of the Twelve Tables the Customs of the Lacedemonians or of the Chinese or the Ordinances of the Great Mogul Lastly they would know whatever's Rare Extraordinary and Remote and unknown by others having by an Overthrow of Reason affix'd the Idea of Learning to these things whilst to be esteem'd Learned 't is enough to know what others know not and yet be ignorant of the best and most necessary Truths True the Knowledge of all these things and the like is call'd Science Erudition Doctrine Use will have it so But there is a Science which the Scripture stiles Folly Doctrina stultorum fatuitas I never yet observ'd that the Holy Spirit which bestows so many Elogies on Science in Sacred Writ says any thing in Commendation of that false Science I have been speaking of CHAP. VIII I. Of the Desire of seeming Learned II. Of the Conversation of the Falsly Learned III. Of their Works IF the immoderate Desire of Growing Learned makes Men oftentimes more ignorant the Desire of being thought so not only renders them more ignorant but seems to give a total Subversion to their Reason For the World abounds with such as lose common Sense because they will out-shoot it and speak nothing but silly things because they will speak only in Paradox They deviate so far from the common Thoughts of Mankind whilst they purpose the acquiring the Character of Rare and Extraordinary Wits that they effectively gain their point and are never consider'd without much Admiration or Contempt They are regarded with Admiration when being rais'd to some Preferment or Honour which conceals them we fancy them as much above others in their Parts and Learning as they are by their Quality and Birth But we frequently make a very different Estimate when viewing them near at hand and drawing the Curtain of their surrounding Grandeur we find them contemptible or even Fools and Changelings The Falsly Learn'd shew themselves manifestly in the Books they write as also in their ordinary Conversation It will not perhaps be amiss to give a proof of it As it is Vanity and Desire of Ostentation which engages them in their Studies so when they find themselves in Company the Passion and Desire of Preheminency re-kindles and transports them They are instantly so high upon the Wing that we lose sight of them nor can they often themselves tell where they are They are so fearful of not being above all their Auditors that they are vex'd to think any one can teach them they will stomach the Demand of an Explication and upon the least opposition put on the Look of Scorn and Arrogance In brief The things they say are so novel and extraordinary and so remote from common Sense that the Wise have much ado to hold from laughing while the Ignorant are stunn'd and thunder-struck The first Heat being over if any Man of an Head strong and settl'd enough not to be overturn'd shews that they are out they will however stick obstinately to their Errours the very Look of their confus'd and giddied Hearers turns their own Head round and the sight of so many Approvers which they have convinc'd by the Impression convinces them by rebound at least if it does not convince them it flushes them with Courage to maintain their false Opinions Their Vanity will not suffer them to make any Retraction they constantly invent some Reason for their Defence They never speak with greater Fervency and Zeal than when they have nothing to say They fancy it an Affront and a Design to make them despicable to offer any Reason against them and the stronger and more judicious it is the more it provokes their Pride and Aversion The best way to defend Truth against them is not to dispute it for 't is better both for them and us to leave them to their Errours than provoke their Hatred We must take care not to wound their Heart when we would heal their Mind the Wounds of the former being more dangerous than those of the latter beside that we sometimes fortune to have to do with a Person truly Learned whom 't is possible we may despise for want of rightly taking his Conceptions We must therefore
is very efficacious to the keeping up Society But there is a strange Corruption in these Inclinations no less than in Friendship Compassion Good-will and others which tend to the uniting Men together What ought to hold up a Civil Society is commonly the Cause of its Disunion and Downfal and not to depart from my Subject is often the Cause of the Communication and Establishment of Errour Among all the Inclinations necessary to Civil Society those which subject us most to Errour are Friendship Favour Gratitude and whatever induce us to speak too advantageously on others in their Presence We set no Bounds to our Love of the Person of our Friends together with them we love whatever after any sort appertains to them and whereas they commonly express their Vehemence and Passion for the Defence of their Opinions they insensibly incline us to believe approve and defend them with as great or greater Obstinacy and Passion than themselves because it would often look but ill in them to be hot in maintaining their Opinions whereas we might defend them without being blam'd for it For in them it would be Self-love in us Generosity Our Affection for other Men proceeds from as many Accounts as they may please and serve us several ways Likeness of Humours of Inclinations Employments their Air their Behaviour their Vertue Estate the Affection or Esteem they express for us the Services they have formerly done or those we hope from them and many other particular Reasons determine us to love them If it fortune then that any one of our Friends that is some Person who has the same Inclinations an handsome Deportment delightful Discourse a vertuous Repute or is of great Quality who testifies an Esteem and Affection for us who has done us any former Service or from whom we hope any future or in fine whom we love for any other particular Reason If such a Person I say chances to advance any Proposition we greedily embrace it without consulting our Reason We maintain his Opinion insollicitous for the Truth of it and even sometimes against the Conviction of our Conscience according as we are determin'd by either the Obscurity and Confusion of our Mind the Corruption of our Heart or the Advantages we hope to reap from our False Generosity There is no need of bringing particular Examples of what I say since we rarely can be in Company an Hour together without observing several if we make but a little Reflexion Favour and Laughter according to the Common Saying are seldom on the side of Truth but almost always on the side of those we love 'T is a Well-bred and Obliging Gentleman that speaks he is certainly therefore in the right If what he says be only probable it 's look'd upon as true if absolutely impertinent and ridiculous it will at least amount to a Probability If it be a Man that loves me esteems me has done me some Kindness or is dispos'd or capacitated to do it has maintain'd my Opinion on other Occasions I shall be both ungrateful and unwise if I oppugn his or even fail to applaud him Thus Truth is sported with and made to truckle to our Interest and we caress the false Opinions of each other A worthy Man ought not to take it ill to be inform'd or instructed if it be done by the Rules of good Manners but if our Friends are disgusted when we modestly represent to them their Mistake we must permit them to love themselves and their Errours since they will have it so and because we have no Power to command them nor to change their Mind But a true Friend ought never to approve the Errours of his Friend for we ought to consider that we do them greater Injury than we imagine when we defend their Opinions without distinction Our Applauses serve only to swell their Heart and strengthen them in their Errours whereby they grow incorrigible and act and decide at last as if they were infallible Whence comes it that the most Rich the most Powerful the most Noble and generally all that are above others believe themselves commonly infallible and deport themselves as if they had more Reason than Men of a Lower and Meaner Condition but from a servile Approbation indifferently given to all their Thoughts So likewise the Approbation we give our Friends insensibly leads them to believe themselves wiser than others which makes them arrogant presumptuous and imprudent and obnoxious to the grossest Errours without perceiving them For which Reason it is that our Enemies often do us better Service and open our Mind more by their Oppositions than our Friends by their Applauses because the former keep us to our Guard and make us give heed to what we advance which one thing suffices to acquaint us with our Ramblings but the latter lull us to sleep and give us an ungrounded Confidence that makes us Vain and Ignorant Men should never therefore admire their Friends and submit to their Opinions out of an Affection as they ought not out of Disaffection to oppose their Enemies But they ought to divest themselves of the Spirit of Flattery and Contradiction that they may grow sincere and approve the Evidence of Truth where ever they find it We ought moreover to fix it well in our Mind that most Men are dispos'd to Flatter or Compliment us through a kind of Natural Inclination either to shew their Parts or to obtain the good Favour of others from the Hope of a Return or lastly out of a kind of Invidiousness and Raillery And we ought never to let our Brains be turn'd with any thing they can say to us Is it not a thing of daily Practice to see Men that are unacquainted cry up each other to the Heavens upon the very first Intercourse And what more common than for Men to give excessive Praises and to express even Extatick Admiration to a Person upon a Publick Performance even in the Company of those with whom they have ridiculed him just before Whenever a Man cries out and turns pale with Admiration as if astonish'd at what he hears 't is no good Proof that the Speaker utters Wonders but rather that he has a flattering Auditory that he has Friends or it may be Enemies that give themselves diversion That he talks in an engaging strain that he is Rich or Powerful or if you will 't is a good Proof that his Discourse is founded on the confus'd and obscure but very moving and agreeable Notions of the Senses or that he has a lively Imagination since Praises are bestow'd on Friendship Riches Honours Probabilities but rarely upon Truth 'T will perhaps be expected that having treated in general of the Inclinations of the Mind I should now descend to an exact Discussion of all the particular Motions it is sensible of upon the Sight of Good and Evil viz. That I should explicate the Nature of Love Hatred Joy Sorrow and all the Intellectual Passions whether General or Particular
Conditions might be fully treated of in general yet they are too well known by those that are conversant with the World and of all the thinking part of Mankind to increase with them the Bulk of this Book especially seeing that our Eyes may afford us a very pleasant and solid Instruction of all such matters But if any chuse to read them in Greek rather than to learn them by his own reflection on what he sees I refer him to the second Book of the Rhetoricks of Aristotle which I take to be the Master-Piece of that Philosopher because he says there few things in which he can be mistaken and that he seldom ventures to prove what he asserts It is therefore evident that the sensible Union of the Mind of Men with whatever has any Relation to the preservation of their Life or of the Society of which they are Members differs in different Persons reaching farther in those that have more Knowledge that are in a higher Station and are indued with a larger Fancy whereas that Union is stricter and stronger in those that are more sensible that have a livelyer Imagination and have more blindly given up themselves to the violence of their Passions Such Considerations upon the almost infinite Bands that fasten Men to sensible Objects are of an extraordinary Use and the best way to become a great proficient in this sort of Learning is the study and observation of our selves since from the Inclinations and Passions of which we are conscious in our selves we can be fully assur'd of all the inclinations of other Men and can make a good guess at a great part of the Passions they are subject to to which adding the Information we can get of their particular Exgagements and of the different Judgments that follow from every different Passion of which we shall speak hereafter it may perhaps not prove so hard a Task to guess most part of their Actions as it is for an Astronomer to foretell an Eclipse For though Men be free yet it seldom happens that they make use of their Liberty in opposition to their natural Inclinations and violent Passions Before the Close of this Chapter I must observe that it is one of the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body that all the Inclinations of the Soul even those she has for Goods that have no relation to the Body should be attended with Commotions of the Animal Spirits that render those Inclinations sensible because Man being not a pure Spirit it is impossible he should have any Inclination altogether pure and without mixture of any Passion whatsoever So that the love of Truth Justice Vertue of God himself is always attended by some Motion of the Animal Spirits that render that love sensible though we be not aware of their sensibility being then taken up with livelyer Sensations Just as the Knowledge of Spiritual things is always accompanied with traces on the Brain which indeed make that Knowledge more lively but commonly more confused 'T is true we are frequently inapprehensive of the Imagining Faculty's mixing in any manner with the Conception of an abstracted Truth The Reason of it is that those Truths are not represented by Images or traces of Nature's Institution and that all the traces that raise such Ideas have no Relation with them but such as proceeds from Chance or the Free-will of Men. For Instance Arithmeticians and Algebraists who apply themselves to very abstracted Objects make however a very great use of their Imagination in order to fix the view of their Mind upon these Spiritual Ideas The Cyphers the Letters of the Alphabet and the other Figures which they see or imagine are always join'd to those Ideas though the traces that are wrought by these Characters have no proper Relation to those abstracted Objects and so can neither change nor obscure them Whence follows that by a proper Use and Application of these Cyphers and Letters they come to discover such remote and difficult Truths as could not be found out otherwise Since therefore the Ideas of such things as are only perceivable by the pure Understanding can be connected with the traces of the Brain and that the sight of Objects that are beloved hated or fear'd by a Natural Inclination can be attended with the Motion of the Animal Spirits it plainly appears that the thoughts of Eternity the fear of Hell the hope of an Eternal Happiness though they be Objects never so insensible can however raise in us very violent Passions And therefore we can say that we are united in a sensible manner not only to such things as relate to the preservation of our Life but also to Spiritual things with which the Mind is immediately and by it self united And even it often happens that Faith Charity and Self-Love make that Union with Spiritual things stronger than that by which we are join'd to all sensible Objects The Soul of the true Martyrs is more united to God than to their Body and those that suffer Death for asserting a false Religion which they believe to be true give us sufficiently to know that the fear of Hell has more power upon them than the fear of Death There is for the most part so much heat and obstinacy on both sides in the Wars of Religion and the defence of Superstitions that it cannot be doubted but some Passion has a hand in it and even a Passion far stronger and stedfaster than others because it is kept up by an Appearance of Reason both in such as are deceived and in those that follow the Truth We are then united by our Passions to whatever seems to be the Good or the Evil of the Mind as well as to that which we take for the Good or Evil of the Body Whatever can be known to have any relation to us can affect us and of all the things we know there is not one but it has some reference or other to us We are somewhat concern'd even for the most abstracted Truths when we know them because there is at least that Relation of Knowledge betwixt them and our Mind and that in some manner we look on them as our Property by virtue of that Knowledge We feel our selves as wounded when they are impugned and if we be wounded then surely we are affected and disturb'd So that the Passions have such a vast and comprehensive Dominion that it is impossible to conceive any thing in reference to which it may be said that Men are exempt from their Empire But let 's now see what is their Nature and endeavour to discover whatever they comprehend CHAP. III. A particular Explanation of all the Changes happening either to the Body or Soul in every Passion SEven things may be distinguished in each of our Passions save Admiration only which is indeed but an Imperfect Passion The first is the Judgment the Mind makes of an Object or rather the confused or distinct View of the Relation that Object has to
is not strange that our Sensations should agitate us and quicken our love for sensible things whereas our Light dissipates and vanishes without producing any zeal and ardency for Truth 'T is true that several Men are persuaded that God is their real Good love him as their All and earnestly desire to strengthen and increase their Union with him But few evidently know that by meditating on the Truth we unite our selves to God as far as natural strength can attain that it is a sort of Enjoyment of him to contemplate the true Ideas of things and that that abstracted view of some general and immutable Truths on which all the particulars depend are flights of a Mind that sequesters it self from the Body to unite it self to God Metaphysicks speculative Mathematicks and all those universal Sciences which regulate and contain the particular as the Universal Being comprehends all particular Beings seem to be Chimerical to most Men as well to the pious as to those that do not love God So that I dare hardly make bold to say that the study of those Sciences is the most pure and perfect Application to God that the Mind may be naturally capable of and that it is by the sight of the Intellectual World which is their Object that God has produced and still knows this sensible World from which Bodies receive their Life as Spirits live from the other Those that purely follow the Impressions of their Senses and motions of their Passions are not capable of relishing the Truth because it flatters them not And even the Vertuous who constantly oppose their Passions when they proffer them false Goods do not always resist them when they conceal from them the Truth and make it despicable because one may be pious without being a Man of parts To please God we need not exactly know that our Senses Imagination and Passions always represent things otherwise than they are since it appears not that our Lord and his Apostles ever intended to undeceive us of several Errours upon this matter which Descartes has discover'd to us There is a great difference betwixt Faith and Understanding the Gospel and Philosophy the greatest Clowns are capable of Faith but few can attain to the pure Knowledge of Evident Truth Faith represents to vulgar Men God as the Creator of Heaven and Earth which is a sufficient motive of Love and Duty towards him whereas Reason knowing that God was God before he was Creator not only considers him in his Works but also endeavours to contemplate him in himself or in that immense Idea of the infinitely perfect Being which is included in him The Son of God who is the Wisdom of his Father or the Eternal Truth made himself Man and became sensible that he might be known by Men of Flesh and Blood by gross material Men that he might instruct them by that which was the Cause of their Blindness and draw them to the love of him and disengage them from sensible goods by the same things that had enslav'd them for having to doe with Fools he thought fit to take upon him a sort of Folly whereby to make them wise So that the most pious Men and truest Believers have not always the greatest Understanding They may know God by Faith and love him by the help of his Grace without understanding that he is their All in the sense Philosophers understand him and without thinking that the abstracted Knowledge of Truth is a sort of a Union with him We ought not therefore to be surprized if so few Persons labour to strengthen their natural Union with God by the Knowledge of Truth since to this there is required a continual opposition of the Impressions of the Senses and Passions in a very different way from that which is usual with the Vertuous who are not always persuaded that the Senses and Passions abuse them in the manner that has been explain'd in the foregoing Books The Sensations and Thoughts in which the Body has a share are the sole and immediate Cause of the Passions as proceeding from the Concussion of the Fibres of the Brain raising some particular Commotion in the Animal Spirits And therefore Sensations are the only sensible proofs of our dependence on some things which they excite us to love but we feel not our Natural Union with God when we know the Truth and do not so much as think upon him because he is and operates in us so privately and insensibly as to be imperceptible to our selves And this is the Reason that our natural Union with God raises not our Love for him But it goes quite otherwise with our Union to sensible things All our Sensations prove it and Bodies appear before our Eyes when they act in us Their Action is visible and manifest Our Body is even more present to us than our Mind and we consider the former as the best part of our Selves So that our Union to our Body and by it to sensible Objects excites in us a violent Love which increases that Union and makes us depend on things that are infinitely below us CHAP. VI. Of the more general Errours of the Passions with some particular Instances 'T IS the part of Moral Philosophy to discover the particular Errours concerning Good in which our Passions engage us to oppose irregular affections to restore the Integrity of the Heart and to rule the Course of our Life But here we chiefly aim at giving Rules to the Mind and finding out the Causes of our Errours in reference to Truth so that we shall not proceed farther in those Matters that relate to the Love of true Good We are tending to the Instruction of the Mind and only take the Heart in the way in as much as the Heart is its Master We search into Truth it self without a special Respect to our selves and we consider its Relation with us only because that Relation is the Spring of Self-love's disguising and concealing it from us for we judge of all things by our Passions whence it is that we mistake in all things the Judgments of Passions never agreeing with the Judgments of Truth 'T is what we learn in these excellent Words of St. Bernard Neither Love nor Hatred know how to make a Judgment according to Truth Will you hear a true Judgment As I hear I judge says our Lord he says not as I hate as I love or as I fear Here you have a Judgment of Hatred We have a Law say the Jews and by that Law he ought to die Here a Judgment of Fear If we let him alone say the Pharisees the Romans shall come and take away our Place and Nation Here another of Love as that of David speaking of his Parricide Son Spare the young Man Absalom Our Love Hatred and Fear cause us to make false Judgments only Nothing but the pure Light of Truth can illuminate our Mind nothing but the distinct Voice of our common Master can cause us to make
for instance to be humble and timorous and even outwardly to testifie that Disposition of the Mind by a modest Look and respectful or timorous Deportment when we are in the Presence of a Person of Quality or one that is proud and powerful It being almost ever profitable for the Good of the Body that the Imagination should stoop before sensible Grandeur and give it outward Marks of its inward Submission and Veneration But this is done naturally and machinally without the Consent of the Will and sometimes notwithstanding its Opposition Even such Beasts as Dogs which stand in need of prevailing upon those with whom they live have ordinarily their Bodies so disposed that it machinally takes the Posture that is most suitable in reference to those that are about them For that is absolutely necessary to their Preservation And if Birds and some other Creatures want such a Disposition 't is because they need not asswage the Fury of those whom they can escape by Flight or whose Help is not necessary for the Preservation of their Life It can never be too much observ'd that all the Passions which are raised in us at the sight of something external machinally spread on the Face those Looks that are fit and suited to our present State that is those that are apt by their Impression machinally to dispose the Spectators to such Passions and Motions as are useful for the Good of Civil Society Admiration it self when produced in us by the Perception of something external which others can consider as well as we puts the Face in such a Shape as is fit to strike others with a machinal Impression of Admiration and which acts so regularly on the Brain that the Spirits contain'd in it are driven to the Muscles of the Face to fashion it into a Look altogether like our own This Communication of the Passions of the Soul and the Animal Spirits to unite Men together in reference to Good and Evil and to make them altogether like not only by the Disposition of their Mind but also by the Posture of their Body is so much the greater and more observable as the Passions are more violent by reason that the Animal Spirits are then agitated with more strength And this must needs be so because the Good and Evil being then greater or more present requires a greater Application and a stricter Association of Men to seek or avoid them But when the Passions are moderate as Admiration usually is their Communication is insensible and they do not alter the Countenance by which the Communication uses to be wrought For there being no urgent Occasion it would be needless to put a Force on the Imagination of others or to take them off from their Business to which their Application is perhaps more requisite than to the looking on the Causes of those Passions There is nothing more wonderful than that Oeconomy of the Passions and Dispositions of the Body in reference to the surrounding Objects All our machinal Actions are most becoming the Wisdom of our Maker God has made us susceptible of all those Passions chiefly to unite us with all sensible Things for the Preservation of Society and of our corporeal Being and his Design is so exactly perform'd by the Construction of his Work that we cannot but admire his Wisdom in the Contrivance of the Springs and Texture of it However our Passions and all those imperceptible Bands which tie us to the surrounding Objects often prove by our own Fault fruitful Causes of Errours and Disorders For we make not of our Passions the Use we ought to do we allow them every thing and know not so much as the Bounds we ought to prescribe to their Power so that the weakest and least moving Passions as Admiration for instance have strength enough to draw us into Errour Some Examples whereof are these When Men and especially those that are endu'd with a lively Imagination contemplate the best side of themselves they find for the most part a great deal of Self-complacency and Satisfaction and their internal Satisfaction is increased by the Comparison they make betwixt themselves and others that are not so airy and spirituous Besides that they have many Admirers and that few of their Opposers gain Success and Applause for Reason is seldom or never applauded in opposition to a strong and lively Imagination In short the Face of their Hearers takes on such submissive and dutiful Looks and expresses at every new Word they say such lively Strokes of Admiration that they admire themselves too and that their Imagination pufft up with their pretended Advantages fills them with an extraordinary Satisfaction of themselves And since we cannot see Men in the heighth of a Passion without receiving some impression from it and adopting as I may say their Sentiments how should it be possible that those who are surrounded with a Throng of Admirers should give no access to a Passion that is so flattering and so grateful to Self-love Now that high Esteem which Persons of a strong and lively Imagination have of themselves and their good Qualities puffs them up with Pride and gives them a Magisterial and Decisive Comportment they listen to others but with Contempt they answer but with Jeering they think but with reference to themselves and as they look on the Attention of the Mind that is so requisite for the discovery of Truth as a Slavery so they are altogether indocible Pride Ignorance and Blindness go hand in hand The bold or rather vain-glorious Wits will not be the Disciples of Truth and never retire into themselves unless it be to contemplate and admire their supposed Perfections so that he who resists the Proud shines in the middle of their Darkness without dissipating it There is on the contrary a certain Disposition of the Blood and Animal Spirits that occasions too mean Thoughts of our selves The Scarcity the Dulness and Fineness of the Animal Spirits join'd to the Coursness of the Fibres of the Brain cause the Imagination to be weak and languishing And the Contemplation or rather the confused Sense of that Faintness of Imagination is what breeds in us a vicious Humility which we may call Meanness of Spirit All Men are susceptible of the Truth but all apply not themselves to him who alone is able to teach it The Proud make their Address and listen but to themselves and the Dis-spirited make their Application to the Proud and submit themselves to their Determinations Both the one and the other give ear to bare Men. Proud Minds follow the Fermentation of their own Blood that is their own Imagination and the Low-spirited are over-sway'd by the over-ruling Countenance of the Proud and so are both subjected to Vanity and Lies The Proud is like a rich and powerful Man who has a great Retinue who measures his own Greatness by the number of his Attendants and his Strength by that of the Horses of his Coach whereas the Low-spirited is like
a poor weak and languishing Wretch who though he have the same Spirit and Principles yet because he is Master of Nothing imagines he is almost Nothing himself However our Retinue is not our self and so far is the plenty of the Blood and Animal Spirits the vigour and impetuousness of the Imagination from leading us to the Truth that on the contrary nothing carries us so far from it whereas 't is the Dull if I may so call them that is the cool and sedate Minds that are the fittest for the Discovery of solid and hidden Truths Their Passions being silent and quiet they may listen in the Recess of their Reason to the Truth that teaches them but most unhappily they mind not its Words because it speaks low without a forcible sound and that nothing wakens them but a mighty Noise Nothing convinces them but what glitters to appearance and is judg'd great and magnificent by the Senses they love to be dazled with Brightness and rather chuse to hear those Philosophers who tell them their Stories and Dreams and assert as the false Prophets of former times that the Truth has spoken to them though it has not than to listen to Truth it self For they have already suffer'd four thousand Years and that without opposition humane Pride to entertain them with Lies which they reverence and keep to as to Holy and Divine Traditions It seems the God of Truth is wholly gone from them they think on him and consult him no more they meditate no more and cover their neglect and laziness with the delusive pretences of a sacred Humility 'T is true that we cannot of our selves discover the Truth but we can doe it at all times with the assistance of him that enlightens us and can never doe it with that of all the Men in the World Those that know it best cannot shew it to us unless we ask it of him to whom they have made their Application and unless he be pleased to answer our Questions that is our Attention as he has done theirs We are not therefore to believe because Men say this or that for every Man is a Liar but because he that cannot deceive speaks to us and we must perpetually interrogate him for the solution of our Difficuties We ought not to trust to them that speak only to the Ears instruct but the Body or at the utmost move but the Imagination But we ought attentively to listen unto and faithfully believe him who speaks to the Mind informs the Reason and piercing into the most abstruse Recesses of the inward Man is able to enlighten and strengthen him against the outward and sensible Man that continually labours to seduce and corrupt him I often repeat these things because I believe them most worthy of a serious Consideration God alone is to be honour'd because he only can endue us with Knowledge as 't is he alone that can fill us with Pleasure There is sometimes in the animal Spirits and the rest of the Body a Disposition that provokes to Hunting Dancing Running and other Corporeal Exercises wherein the Force and Activity of the Body are most conspicuous Which Disposition is very ordinary to young Men especially before their Body be in a State of Consistency Children cannot stay in one place and will always be moving if they follow their humour For whereas all their Muscles are not yet strengthened nor perfectly finisht therefore God who as the Author of Nature regulates the Pleasures of the Soul with reference to the Good of the Body causes them to be delighted with such Exercises as may invigorate it Thus whilst the Flesh and Fibres of their Nerves are yet soft the Channels through which the animal Spirits must necessarily flow to produce all sorts of Motion are wore and kept open Humours have no time to settle and all Obstructions and Causes of Corruption are removed The confused Sensation that young Men have of that Disposition of their Body makes them pleased with the thoughts of their Strength and Dexterity They admire themselves when they know how to measure their Motions and to make extraordinary ones and are ambitious of being in the presence of Spectators and Admirers Thus they strengthen by degrees their Inclination to Corporeal Exercises which is one of the principal Causes of Ignorance and Brutishness For besides the time that is by that meanes lavisht away the little use they make of their Understanding causes the chief part of the Brain in whose tractableness the force and quickness of the Mind especially consists to become altogether inflexible and the animal Spirits through disuse are difficultly dispers'd in the Brain in a manner requisite to think of what they please This incapacitates most part of the Nobility and Gentry especially such as follow the War to apply themselves to any thing They answer with a Word and a Blow as the Proverb says for if you speak any thing that they don't willingly hear instead of thinking upon a suitable Reply their Animal Spirits insensibly flow into the Muscles that raise the Arm and make them answer without Consideration with a Blow or a Threatning Gesture because their Spirits agitated by the Words they hear are conveyed to such Places as are most open through Habit and Exercise The sense of their Corporeal Strength confirms them in those insulting Manners and the submissive Aspect of their Hearers puffs 'em up with such an absurd Confidence as makes them believe they have said very fine things when they have but haughtily and brutishly uttered Impertinencies being flater'd by the Fear and Caution of the Standers by It is not possible to have applied our selves to any Study or to make actual profession of any Science to be either Author or Doctor without being conscious of it But that very Consciousness naturally produces in some Men such a vast Number of Imperfections that it would be better with them if they wanted those Honourable Qualities As they look upon them as their most considerable Perfections so they are extreamly pleased with that Contemplation they set them before the Eyes of others with all the possible Dexterity and conceive they have thereby right to judge of every thing without Examination If any be so couragious as to contradict them they at first endeavour skillfully and with a sweet and obliging Countenance to insinuate what they are and what right they have to determine of such Matters And if any still presume to oppose them and that they be at a loss for an Answer they do not stick openly to declare what they think of themselves and of their Adversaries Every inward Sense of any Qualification we enjoy naturally swells up the Courage A Trooper well mounted and accoutred who neither wants Blood nor Spirits is ready to undertake any thing that Disposition inspiring him with an undaunted Boldness So it goes with a Man of Letters when he fansies himself to be Learned and that the Haughtiness of his Heart has
corrupted his Mind he becomes if I may so speak bold and fierce against Truth Sometimes he rashly impungs it without knowing it at other times he consciously betrays it and relying upon his imaginary Learning is always ready to assert either the Affirmative or Negative according as he is possessed with a Spirit of Contradiction It goes quite otherwise with those that make no Ostentation of Learning they are not positive neither do they speak unless they have something to say and it even often happens that they remain silent when they should speak They have neither that Fame nor those outward Characters of Learning which spur Men on to speak without Knowledge and so may decently hold their Peace but the Pretenders are afraid to make a stop since they are sensible they shall be despis'd for their Silence even when they have nothing to say and that they are not always in danger of falling into Contempt though they speak but Impertinencies provided they utter them with a Scientifick Confidence What makes Men capable of thinking enables them to know the Truth but neither Honours Riches University-Degrees nor Chimerical Erudition makes them capable of thinking It 's their own Nature for they are made to think because they are created for the Truth Even bodily Health qualifies them not for thinking well but only is a less Hinderance than Sickness Our Body assists us in some manner in perceiving by Sense and imagining but not at all in conceiving For though without its Help we cannot attentively meditate nor oppose the continual Impression of the Senses and Passions which endeavour to perplex and obliterate our Ideas because in this present State we cannot overcome the Body but by the Body yet 't is plain that the Body cannot illuminate the Mind nor produce in it the Light of Understanding since every Idea that discovers the Truth proceeds from Truth it self All that the Soul receives from the Body relates only to it and when she follows those Glimpses she sees nothing but Phantasms and Dreams that is to say she sees not things as they are in themselves but only as they have relation to her Body As the Idea of our own Greatness or Littleness is a frequent occasion of Errour so likewise the Ideas of outward things that have refference to us make no less dangerous an Impression We have already observ'd that the Idea of Greatness is always attended with a great Motion of Spirits and a great Motion of the Spirits is ever accompanied with the Idea of Greatness and that on the contrary that of Littleness is always followed with a small Motion of Spirits which is in its turn accompanied with the Idea of Meanness From that Principle 't is easy to infer that such things as produce in us great Motions of Spirits must naturally appear greater stronger and more real and perfect than others for in the word Greatness I comprehend all those Qualifications and such like So that sensible Good must needs seem to us more considerable and solid than that which cannot be felt if we judge of it by the Motion of the Spirits and not by the pure Idea of Truth A great House a sumptuous Retinue a fine Furniture Offices Honour Riches will then appear to us to have more greatness and reality in them than Justice and other Vertues When we compare Vertue to Riches by the pure Eyes of the Mind we prefer Vertue but if we make use of our Corporeal Eyes and Imagination and judge of those things by the Motion of the Spirits which they raise in us we shall doubtless chuse Riches rather than Vertue 'T is from the same Principle that we imagine that spiritual and insensible things are almost nothing that the Ideas of our Mind are less noble than the Objects they represent that there is less reality and substance in the Air than in Metalls and in Water than in Ice that those vast Spaces that reach from the Earth to the Firmament are empty or that the Bodies that fill them have not so much reality and solidity as the Sun and Stars In short our reasoning upon that false Principle induces us into an infinite number of Errours concerning the Nature and Perfection of every thing A great Motion of Spirits and by consequence a strong Passion always attending the sensible Idea of Grandeur and a small Motion and consequently a weak Passion still accompanying the sensible Idea of Meanness we are very attentive to and bestow a great deal of our time on the study of such things as raise the sensible Idea of Grandeur whereas we neglect those which afford but the sensible Idea of Meanness Those great Bodies for instance which make their Circumvotions over our Heads have ever made a great Impression upon Men who at first ador'd them because of their Light and Brightness or sensible Idea of Grandeur some bolder Wits presum'd to examine their Motions so that the Stars have been in all Ages the Object either of the Study or of the Veneration of the greatest part of Mankind It may even be said that the fear of their Phantastick Influences which still fright Astrologers and weak Persons is a sort of Adoration paid by a Brain-sick Imagination to the Idea of Greatness that represents Celestial Bodies But the Body of Man on the contrary that is infinitely more admirable and deserves more our Application than whatever we can know of Saturn Jupiter and other Planets has remained a long time almost unknown The sensible Idea of dissected parts of Flesh having nothing great but being rather distastful and noisome it is but a few years since Men of Parts have looked upon Anatomy as a Science that deserved their study There have been Princes and Kings that boasted of being Astronomers the height and magnitude of the Stars seem'd to suit their Dignity and Grandeur but I know not of any that were ever ambitious of knowing Anatomy and skilfully dissecting a Heart or a Brain The same may be said of several other Sciences Rare and extraordinary things incite in Mens Minds greater and more sensible Motions than such as are seen every day we admire them and by a natural Consequence we fix on them an Idea of Greatness that is followed with Passions of Esteem and Reverence This perverts the Reason of several Persons who are so very respectful and curious of all the Remains of Antiquity and whatever comes from far or is rare and extraordinary that they are as Slaves to them because the Mind dares not sit and pronounce upon the Objects of its Veneration I grant Truth is in no great danger because some Men are taken up with the Medals Arms and Habits of the Ancients or with the Dress of the Chinese and Savages It is not altogether unserviceable to know the Map of Ancient Rome nor the ways from Tomquin to Nanquin though it be more useful to us to know those from London to Oxford or from Paris to St. Germain or Versailles
Admiration may be very useful to Sciences since it applies and enlightens the Mind whereas other Passions apply the Mind but enlighten it not They apply it because they raise the Animal Spirits but enlighten it not or enlighten it with false and deceiving Glimpses because they drive those Spirits in such a manner as that they represent Objects only as they are related to us and not as they are in themselves There is nothing harder than to apply our selves a considerable time to any thing which we admire not because the Vital Spirits are not then easily carried to places fitted to represent them In vain we are exhorted to be attentive we can have no Attention or none sufficiently long though we may have an abstracted but not moving Persuasion That the thing deserves our Application We must needs deceive our Imagination to quicken our Spirits and represent to our selves in a new Manner the Subject on which we will meditate that we may raise in us some Motion of Admiration We meet every day with Men that relish not Study and find nothing so painful as the Application of Mind They are convinced that they ought to study certain Matters and to doe their utmost endeavours for it but their endeavours are for the most part vain their progress is inconsiderable and quickly follow'd by weariness True it is that the Animal Spirits obey the order of the Will and make us attentive when we desire it but when the Commanding Will is the Will of mere Reason that is not kept up by some Passion it is so weak and languishing that our Ideas are like wandering Phantasms that afford us but a transient glimpse and vanish in a moment Our Animal Spirits receive so many private Orders from the Passions and are become by nature and habit so prone to perform them that they are easily turn'd from those new and rough ways through which the Will endeavours to lead them So that it is especially in such Cases that we need a particular Grace to know the Truth since we cannot any considerable time bear up the Mind against the incumbent weight of the Body or if we can yet we never doe all we are able But when some Motion of Admiration quickens us the animal Spirits naturally run to the Tracks of the Object which have raised it represent it clearly to the Mind and produce in the Brain whatever is requir'd to Perspicuity and Evidence without putting the will to the trouble of managing the rebellious Spirits Hence it comes that those that are prone to Admiration are fitter to study than others are quick and ingenious and others slow and dull In the mean while when Admiration grows to such an Excess as to produce Amazement and Stupefaction or when it does not excite to rational Curiosity it may prove of very ill Consequence because the animal Spirits are then taken up with representing the admired Object by one of its Faces without so much as thinking on the others which ought no less to be Considered Those Spirits likewise supersede their spreading through all the parts of the Body for the performance of their ordinary Functions whilst they imprint such deep Traces of the Object and break so great a number of the Fibres of the Brain that that Idea raised by them can never be blotted out of the Mind It is not enough that Admiration should make us attentive unless it makes us curious neither is it suficient for the full knowledge of an Object to consider one of its Faces unless we be so far inquisitive as to examine them all that we may judge of it upon sure grounds And therefore when Admiration moves us not to examine things with the utmost Accuracy but instead of that stops our Enquiry it is very unprofitable to the Knowledge of Truth because it fills up the Mind with likelihoods and probabilities and incites us to judge rashly and precipitately of all things Admiration must not center in its self but its business is to facilitate Examination The Animal Spirits that are naturally excited in Admiration offer themselves to the Soul that she may use them to represent the Object more distinctly to her self and to know it better This is Nature's Institution for Admiration ought to move us to Curiosity and Curiosity to conduct us to the Knowledge of Truth But the Soul knows not how to make an Advantage of her own Strength she prefers a certain satisfactory Sensation that she receives from the plenty of the Spirits that affect her before the Knowledge of the Object that has raised them and she chuses rather to be conscious of her own Riches than to dissipate them by use not much unlike those Misers who chuse rather to hoard up their Treasures than to supply their wants with them Men are generally pleased with whatever raises any kind of Passion They not only spend Money to be moved to Sorrow by the Representation of a Tragedy but they also throw it away upon Legerdemains that may stir up their Admiration since it cannot be said that they give it to be deceived Therefore that inward and satisfactory Sensation which we are conscious of in Admiration is the principal cause why we dwell upon it without putting it to the use which Nature and Reason prescribe to us For that delectable Sensation so powerfully holds the Admirers Bent to the admired Object that they will fall into a Passion if any shew them its Vanity A mourning Person relishes so well the sweetness of Sorrow that he 's angry with those that go about to make him merry The case is the same with Admirers who seem to be wounded by the Endeavours that are made to demonstrate the unreasonableness of their Admiration because they feel that the secret Pleasure they receive from that Passion diminishes proportionably as the Idea that caused it vanishes from the Mind The Passions perpetually labour to justifie themselves and insensibly persuade us we doe well to be led by them The Satisfaction and Pleasure with which they affect the Mind that is to be their Judge draws it over by degrees to their side inspiring it with such and the like Reasons We are to judge of things but according to our Ideas but of all Ideas the most sensible are the most real since they act upon us with the greatest force and therefore 't is by those Ideas that I must judge of them Now the Subject I admire contains a sensible Idea of Greatness I must then judge of it by that Idea for I ought to esteem and love Greatness and therefore I am in the right when I insist upon and am taken up with that Object And indeed the Pleasure which the Contemplation of its Idea affords me is a natural proof that it is for my good to think upon it since I seem to add to my growth by such thoughts and fancy that my Mind is more enlarged by embracing so great an Idea whereas the Mind ceases to exist
a great Number but also differ by the different Perceptions and Judgments that cause or accompany them Those different Judgments of the Soul concerning Good or Evil produce different Motions in the Animal Spirits to dispose the Body in relation to the Object and consequently cause in the Soul Sensations that are not altogether like Whence it proceeds that some Passions are observ'd to differ from each other though their Commotions be not different In the mean while the Commotion of the Soul being the chief Thing observable in every Passion 't is better to refer them to the Three original Passions in which those Commotions are very different than to treat confusedly and disorderly of them in reference to the different Perceptions we may have of the Good and Evil that raises them For we may have so many different Perceptions of Objects in reference to Time to our selves to what belongs to us to the Persons or Things to which we are united either by Nature or Choice that it is wholly impossible to make an accurate Enumeration of them When the Soul perceives any Good which she cannot enjoy it may perhaps be said that she hopes for it though she desires it not However 't is plain that this her Hope is not a Passion but a simple Judgment And therefore 't is the Commotion that attends the Idea of any Good of which we take the Enjoyment to be possible that adopts Hope into a true Passion It is the same when Hope grows into Security For the latter is a Passion only because of the Commotion of Joy that mixes with that of Desire since the Judgment of the Soul that considers any Good as certain is a Passion but as much as it is a foregoing Taste of the Good that affects us Last of all When Hope diminishes and is succeeded by Despair 't is visible again that the latter is a Passion but because of the Commotion of Sorrow that mixes with that of Desire for the Judgment of the Soul that considers any Good as unattainable would not be a Passion should we not be actuated by that Judgment But because the Soul never looks upon Good or Evil without any Commotion and even without any Alteration in the Body we often give the Name of Passion to the Judgment that produces it confounding together whatever happens both to the Soul and Body at the sight of any Good or Evil For the Words Hope Fear Boldness Shame Impudence Anger Pity Derision Grief and the Names of all other Passions in common use are short Expressions made up of several Terms by which can be explain'd in particular whatever Passions contain We understand by the Word Passion the View of the Relation any thing has to us the Commotion and Sensation of the Soul the Concussion of the Brain and the Motion of the Spirits a new Commotion and Sensation of the Soul and lastly a Sensation of Pleasure that always attends the Passions and makes them grateful All these we commonly understand by the Name of Passions but sometimes it only signifies either the Judgment that raises it or only the Commotion of the Soul or the bare Motion of the Spirits and Blood or lastly something else that accompanies the Commotion of the Soul It is very useful for the Knowledge of Truth to abridge Ideas and Expressions but that often causes some considerable Errour especially when those Ideas are abridg'd by popular Use For we ought never to abridge them but when we have made them very clear and distinct by a great Application of Mind and not as 't is ordinarily done as to Passions and sensible Things when we have made them familiar to us by their Sensations and the mere Action of the Imagination which easily imposes on the Mind There is a great difference betwixt the pure Ideas of the Mind and the Sensations or Commotions of the Soul Pure Ideas are clear and distinct but 't is a hard Task to make them familiar whereas Sensations and Commotions are intimate with us but can never plainly and distinctly be known Numbers Extension and their Properties may be clearly known but unless we make them sensible by some expressive Characters 't is very difficult to represent them to our Mind because whatever is abstracted moves us not On the contrary the Commotions and Sensations of the Soul may easily be represented to the Mind though the Knowledge we have of them be but confused and imperfect for all the Words that raise them lively strike the Soul and make it attentive Thence it proceeds that we often imagine we rightly understand some Discourses that are altogether incomprehensible and that reading some Descriptions of the Sensations and Passions of the Soul we persuade our selves that we perfectly comprehend them because they strongly move us and that all the Words that reverberate upon our Eyes agitate our Soul The hearing of the very Names of Shame Despair Impudence c. straightway excite in our Mind a confused Idea and obscure Sensation that powerfully influences us and because this Sensation is very familiar to us and presents it self without any Trouble or Endeavour of the Mind we fancy it to be clear and distinct These Words however are the Names of compounded Passions and by consequence abridg'd Expressions which popular Use has made up of many confused and obscure Ideas Seeing we are oblig'd to employ such Terms as common Use has approv'd of the Reader should not be surpriz'd to meet with Obscurity and sometimes with a sort of Contradiction in our Words And if it were but consider'd that the Sensations and Commotions of the Soul that answer to the Terms us'd in such Discourses are not wholly the same in all Men because of their different Dispositions of Mind they would not so easily condemn us when they could not enter into our Opinions This I say not so much to prevent Objections against my self as that we may understand the Nature of the Passions and what we are to think of Books treating of such Matters After so many Cautions I shall not stick to say that all the Passions may be referr'd to the three Primitive namely Desire Joy and Sorrow and that it is specially by the different Judgments the Soul makes of Goods and Evils that such as relate to the same Primitive Passion differ from each other For Instance I may say that Hope Fear and Irresolution that is the Mean betwixt them both are Species of Desire That Boldness Courage and Emulation c. have a greater Relation to Hope than to all others and that Timidity Cowardise Jealousie c. are Species of Fear I may say that Alacrity and Glory Kindness and Gratefulness are Species of Joy caused by the Sight of the Good that we know to be in us or in those to whom we are united as Derision or Jeering is a sort of Joy commonly arising at the Sight of the Evil that befalls those from whom we are separated Lastly That Distaste
Tediousness Regret Pity Indignation are so many kinds of Sorrow caused by the Consideration of something displeasing But besides those Passions and several others I pass by which particularly relate to some of the Primitive Passions there are yet many others whose Commotion is almost equally compounded either of Desire and Joy as Impudence Anger and Revenge or of Desire and Sorrow as Shame Regret and Vexation or of all Three together when Motives of Joy and Sorrow meet And though these last Passions have no particular Names that I know of they are however the most common because in this Life we scarce ever enjoy any Good without a Mixture of Evil nor suffer any Evil without Hopes of being freed of it and enjoying Good And though Joy be altogether contrary to Sorrow yet it allows of its Company and even admits it an equal Sharer in the Capacity of the Soul as Volent when the Sight of Good and Evil divide its Capacity as Intelligent All the Passions therefore are Species of Desire Joy and Sorrow and the chief difference betwixt those of the same sort must be taken from the different Perceptions or Judgments that cause or accompany them So that to become learned in the Nature of Passions and to make of them the most accurate Enumeration possible it is requisite to enquire into the different Judgments that may be made of Good and Evil. But as we especially intend to find out the Cause of our Errours we need not so much to insist upon the Judgments that precede or cause the Passions as upon those that follow them and which the Soul makes of Things when she is agitated by some Passion because those last Judgments are the most liable to Errour Such Judgments as precede and cause the Passions are almost ever false in something because they are for the most part grounded upon such Perceptions of the Soul as consider Objects in relation to her and not as they are in themselves But the Judgments that follow the Passions are false all manner of ways because such Judgments being only made by the Passions are only grounded upon the Perceptions the Soul has of Objects as relating to her or rather to her own Commotion In the Judgments that precede the Passions Truth and Falshood are join'd together but when the Soul is agitated and judges by every Inspiration of the Passion Truth vanishes and Falshood remains to be the Principle of so many more false Conclusions as the Passion is greater All Passions justifie themselves continually offering to the Soul the moving Object in the fittest way for preserving and increasing her Commotion The Judgment or the Perception that causes it gets still new Forces from the Increase of the Passion and the Passion likewise augments proportionably as the Judgment that produces it in its turn is strengthen'd Thus false Judgments and Passions join in Confederacy for their mutual Preservation And should the Heart never cease sending up Spirits for keeping open the Tracks of the Brain and supplying the Expences which that violent Sensation or Commotion make of the same Spirits Passions would perpetually increase and never allow us to be sensible of our Errours But as all our Passions depend on the Fermentation and Circulation of the Blood and that the Heart can never furnish as many Spirits as are necessary for their Preservation they must needs expire when the Spirits diminish and the Blood grows cool again Though it be an easie matter to discover the ordinary Judgments of Passions yet 't is not a thing to be neglected there being few Subjects that deserve more the Application of an Enquirer after Truth who endeavours to free himself from the Dominion of the Body and will judge of every thing by true Ideas We may instruct our selves in this Matter two ways either by pure Reason or by our inward Consciousness when we are agitated by some Passion For Instance Experience teaches us That we are apt to judge of those we love not to their Disadvantage and to spit all the Venom of our Hatred at the Object of our Passion We also know by Reason that as we cannot hate but what is Evil so 't is necessary for the preservation of Hatred that the Mind should represent to it self the worst part of its Object For 't is sufficient to suppose that all Passions justifie themselves and give such a Disposition first to the Imagination then to the Mind as is fit to preserve their own Commotion directly to conclude what are the Judgments which all the Passions cause us to make Those that are endued with a strong and lively Imagination that are extremely sensible and much subject to the Motions of Passions may perfectly inform themselves of those things by their own inward sense and it often comes to pass that they speak of them in a more pleasing and instructing manner than others whose Reason over-tops their Imagination yet it follows not that those that discover best the Springs of Self-love that penetrate farthest into Man's Heart and more sensibly discover its Recesses are always the greatest Understandings This only proves that they are livelier quicker of Imagination and sometimes more malicious than others But those that without consulting their inward Sense make use only of their Reason to enquire into the Nature and Effects of Passions though they be not always so quick-sighted as others are always more rational and less obnoxious to Errour because they judge of things as they are in themselves They see very near what Men posseâ—t with Passions can doe as they suppose them more or less agitated but do not rashly judge of the Actions of others by what they would doe themselves in such Occasions for they well know that Men are not equally sensible to the same things nor alike susceptible of involuntary Commotions and therefore 't is not by consulting our Sensations which the Passions create in us but by listening to Reason that we must treat of the Judgments that accompany them lest we should draw our own Picture instead of discovering the Nature of Passions in general CHAP. XI That all the Passions justifie themselves What Judgments they cause us to make in their Vindication WE need no long deduction of Arguments to demonstrate That all Passions justifie themselves That Principle is sufficiently evident both by our internal Consciousness of our selves and the Behaviour of those we see agitated by them and therefore we need only barely propound it to consider it as we should do The Mind is such a Slave to the Imagination that it always obeys when the Imagination is over-heated and dares not answer when the same is incensed because it meets with Abuses when it resists and is always rewarded with some Pleasure when it humours that imperious Faculty Even those whose unruly Imagination persuades them they are transmuted into Beasts find out Reasons to prove they must live as Beasts do walk Four-footed eat Grass and imitate every Action that is purely
them For instance that those Persons who speak several Tongues are as many individual Men as they know different Languages since Speech distinguishes us from Beasts that the Ignorance of Tongues deprives us of a multitude of things since Ancient Philosophers and Strangers are more Learned then we Suppose but these and the like Principles and Conclusions and you 'll quickly form such Judgments as are fit to beget the Passion for Tongues and consequently like those wherewith the same Passion inspires the Linguists to vindicate their Studies There is not a Science so abject and contemptible but some part of it will shine very bright to the Imagination and dazle the Mind when Passion heightens those false Glimpses That Splendour I own vanishes when the Blood and Spirits cool and the Light of Truth begins to shine but that Light disappears also when the Imagination grows warm again and leaves but some transitory Shadows of those solid Reasons which pretended to condemn our Passion Farthermore when the Passion that agitates us finds it self a dying it repents not of its demeanour but on the contrary it disposes all things either to an honourable Funeral or to be reviv'd spedily again that is to say it always prepares the Mind to frame Judgments in its Vindication In this condition it makes a sort of Alliance with such other Passions as may keep it up in its weakness supply it with Spirits and Blood in its necessity raise it out of its Ashes and give it a new Birth For Passions are not unconcern'd for one another and those that can live together faithfully contribute to their mutual preservation So that all the Passions that are not contrary to the Studies of Tongues or of any thing else do continually sollicite and fully confirm those Judgments that are made to vindicate it A Pretender to Learning imagines himself now as surrounded with respectfull Hearers then as Conquerour of those whom he has amaz'd with his unintelligible words and almost always as one rais'd far above the common sort of Men. He flatters himself with the Commendations he receives with the Preferments that are proposed to him with the Courtship that is made to him He 's of all Times and Countries He is not limited as vulgar Wits to the present nor confin'd within the Walls of his Town but is continually communicating himself abroad and his Communication makes his Delight See how many Passions combine together to manage the Cause of pretended Learning how hotly they prosecute their Judgments and bribe the Mind in its favour Should every Passion act separately without caring for the rest they would vanish immediately after their Rise not being able to make a sufficient number of false Judgments to maintain themselves and defend the Glimmerings of Imagination against the Light of Reason But all Passions concur admirably well to their mutual Preservation assisting and strengthning each other though never so remote provided they be not declared Enemies as though they were minded to follow the Rules of a well-order'd State If the Passion of Desire were alone all the Judgments it might pass would only amount to represent the Good as attainable For the Desire of Love consider'd as such is produced by the Judgments we make that it is possible to enjoy such a Good And so this Desire could only form Judgments about the Possibility of enjoying it since the Judgments which follow and preserve the Passions are exactly like those which precede and produce them But that Desire is animated by Love fortified by Hope increased by Joy renewed by Fear attended by Courage Emulation Anger Irresolution and several other Passions that form each in their turn a great variety of Judgments which succeed each other and maintain the Desire that has produced them 'T is not therefore strange that the desire of a mere Trifle or of a Thing that is evidently hurtful or fruitless should however justifie it self against Reason for many Years nay during the whole Life of a Man that is agitated with it since so many other Passions endeavour to vindicate it I shall here set down in few Words how Passions justifie themselves that I may explain Things by distinct Ideas Every Passion agitates the Blood and Spirits which when agitated are driven into the Brain by the sensible Sight of the Object or the Strength of the Imagination in such a manner as is fit to imprint deep Tracks representing that Object They bend and even sometimes break by their impetuous Course the Fibres of the Brain and thereby leave the Imagination soil'd and corrupted For these Traces obey not the Commands of Reason nor will they be blotted out when it pleases on the contrary they put a Force upon it and oblige it incessantly to consider Objects in such a manner as moves and inclines it to favour the Passions Thus the Passions act upon the Imagination and the corrupted Imagination makes an Effort against Reason by continually representing Things not as they are in themselves that the Mind might pronounce a true Judgment but as they are in reference to the present Passion that it might pass a favourable Sentence in its behalf The Passions not only bribe the Imagination and Mind in their favour but produce in other Parts of the Body such Dispositions as are necessary to preserve them The Spirits they move stop not in the Brain but run as I have elsewhere shewn to all other Parts of the Body especially to the Heart the Liver the Spleen and the Nerves that surround the principal Arteries and lastly to all Parts whatsoever that may supply necessary Spirits for the maintenance of the predominant Passion But while these Spirits disperse themselves into all the Parts of the Body they destroy all along and by degrees whatever might hinder their Course and make their Passages so slippery and smooth that a very inconsiderable Object exceedingly moves us and consequently inclines us to make such Judgments as favour the Passions Thus it comes to pass that they establish and justifie themselves If we consider how various the Constitution of the Fibres of the Brain and withal the Commotion and Quantity of the Spirits and Blood may be in the different Sexes and Ages we shall easily and nearly conjecture to what Passions some Persons are most subject and consequently what Judgments they pass upon Objects For instance we may make a very near Guess by the plenty or want of Spirits that is observable in some People the same Thing being proposed and explained to them in the same manner that some of them will make Judgments of Hope and Joy whilst others shall pass such Judgments as proceed from Fear and Sorrow For those that abound with Blood and Spirits as young Men cholerick Persons and those that are of a Sanguine Complexion use to doe being very susceptible of Hope because of the secret Sense of their Strength will not believe that they shall meet with any Opposition to their Designs which
false Supposition of the Philosophers which we are here endeavouring to destroy that the surrounding Bodies are the true Causes of our Pain and Pleasure Reason seems to justifie a Religion like the Pagan Idolatry and approve the universal Depravation of Morals Reason I grant teaches not to adore Onions and Leeks for instance as the Sovereign Divinity because they can never make us altogether happy when we have them or unhappy when we want them neither did the Heathens worship them with an equal Homage as their great Jupiter whom they fansied to be the God of Gods or as the Sun whom our Senses represent as the universal Cause that gives Life and Motion to all things and which we can hardly forbear to look on as the Sovereign Divinity if we suppose as the Pagan Philosophers that he Comprehends in his Being the true Causes of what he seems to produce as well upon our Soul and Body as upon all the Beings that surround us But if we must not pay a Sovereign Worship to Leeks and Onions they deserve at least some particular Adoration I mean they may be thought upon and loved in some manner if it be true that they can in some sort make us happy and may be honour'd proportionably to the good they doe us Surely Men that listen to the Reports of Sense think Pulse capable of doing them good otherwise the Israelites would not have bewailed the loss of them in the Wilderness or look'd on themselves as unhappy for being deprived thereof had they not fansied to themselves some great Happiness in the Enjoyment of them See what an Abyss of Corruption Reason plunges us into when it goes hand in hand with the Principles of Pagan Philosophy and follows the footsteps of the Senses But that the Falshood of that wretched Phylosophy and the Certainty of our Principles and Distinctness of our Ideas may not be longer doubted it will be necessary plainly to establish the Truths that contradict the Errours of the Ancient Philosophers or to prove in few words that there is but one true Cause since there is but one true God that the Nature and Force of every thing is nothing but the Will of God that all Natural things are not real but only occasional Causes and some other Truths depending on them It is evident that all Bodies great and little have no force to move themselves a Mountain a House a Stone a Grain of Sand the minutest and bulkiest Bodies imaginable are alike as to that We have but two sorts of Ideas viz. of Spirits and Bodies and as we ought not to speak what we conceive not so we must only argue from those two Ideas Since therefore our Idea of Bodies convinces us that they cannot move themselves we must conclude that they are moved by Spirits But considering our Idea of finite Spirits we see no necessary Connexion betwixt their Will and the Motion of any Body whatsoever on the contrary we perceive that there is not nor can be any Whence we must infer if we will follow Light and Reason That as no Body can move it self so no Created Spirit can be the true and principal Cause of its Motion But when we think on the Idea of God or of a Being infinitely perfect and consequently Almighty we are aware that there is such a Connexion betwixt his Will and the Motion of all Bodies that it is impossible to conceive he should will that a Body be moved and it should not be moved And therefore if we would speak according to our Conceptions and not according to our Sensations we must say that nothing but his Will can move Bodies The moving force of Bodies is not then in themselves this force being nothing but the Will of God Bodies then have no proper Action and when a moving Ball meets with another and moves it the former communicates nothing of its own to the latter as not having in it self the Impression it communicates though the former be the Natural Cause of the latter's Motion and therefore a natural Cause is not a true and real Cause but only an occasional which in such or such a Case determines the Author of Nature to act in such or such a manner 'T is certain that all things are produced by the Motion of visible or invisible Bodies for Experience teaches us that those Bodies whose parts are in greater Motion are always the most active and those that Cause the greatest Alterations in the World so that all the Forces of Nature are but the Will of God who Created the World because he will'd it who spake and it was done who moves all things and produces all the Effects we see because he has established some Laws by which Bodies Communicate their Motion to each other when they meet together and because those Laws are efficacious they and not the Bodies act There is then no Force Power nor true Cause in all the Material and sensible World Nor need we admit any Forms Faculties or real Qualities to produce Effects which the Bodies bring not forth or to divide with God his own Essential Force and Power As Bodies cannot be the true Causes of any thing so likewise the most Noble Spirits are subject to the same impotency on that respect They cannot know any thing unless God enlightens them nor have the Sensation of any thing unless he modifies them nor will unless he moves them towards himself They may indeed determine the Impression God has given them to himself towards other Objects but I doubt whether it can be call'd a Power For if to be able to sin is a Power it is such a one as the Almighty wants saith St. Austin somewhere If Men had of themselves the Power of loving Good it might be said that they have some Power but they cannot so much as love but because God Wills it and that his Will is Efficacious They love because God continually drives them towards Good in general that is towards himself for whom alone they are Created and preserved God moves them and not themselves towards Good in general and they only follow that Impression by a free Choice according to the Law of God or determine it towards false and seeming Goods according to the Law of the Flesh But they cannot determine it but by the sight of Good For being able to doe nothing without an Impression from above they are incapable of loving any thing but Good But though it should be supposed which is true in one sense that Spirits have in themselves the Power of knowing Truths and loving Good should their Thoughts and Will produce nothing outwardly it might still be said that they were impotent and unoperative Now it seems undeniable that the Will of Spirits is not able to move the smallest Body in the World it being evident there is no necessary Connexion betwixt the Will we may have of moving our Arm for instance and the Motion of the same Arm. It moves
without Examination They consult their Memory and therein immediately find the Law or Prejudice by which they pronounce without much reflexion As they think their Parts better than other Men's they afford little Attention to what they read Hence it comes that Women and Children easily discover the Falsity of some Prejudices which they see attack'd because they dare not judge without examining and that they bring all the Attention they are capable of to what they read whilst Scholars on the contrary stick resolutely to their Opinions because they will not be at the Trouble of examining those of others when quite contrary to their preconceiv'd Notions As to the Attendants on the Great Men of the World they have so many external Adherencies that they cannot easily retire into themselves nor bring a competent attention to distinguish Truth from Probability Nevertheless they are not extremely addicted to any kinds of Prejudices For strongly to prosecute a Wordly interest neither Truth nor Probability must be rely'd on As a seeming Humility or Civility and external shew of Temper are Qualities which all Men admire and are absolutely necessary to keep up Society amongst Proud and ambitious Spirits Men of Worldly Designs make their Vertue and Desert to consist in asserting nothing and believing nothing as certain and indisputable It has ever been and will ever be the Fashion to look upon all things as Problematical and with a Gentleman-like Freedom to Treat the most holy Truths lest they should seem bigotted to any thing For whereas the Gentlemen I mention are neither applicative nor attentive to any thing but their Fortune there can be no Disposition more Advantageous or that seems more reasonable to them than that which the Fashion justifies Thus the Invaders of Prejudices whilst they flatter on one hand the Pride and Remisness of these Worldly Men are well accepted by them but if they pretend to assert any thing as Undeniable and to manifest the Truth of Religion and Christian Morality they are look'd upon as Opinionated and as Men who avoid one Precipice to run upon another What I have said is methinks sufficient to conclude what should be answer'd to the different Judgments divers Persons have pronouc'd against The Treatise concerning the Search after Truth and I shall make no Application which every Man may do himself to good purpose without any trouble I know indeed that every Man do will not do it but perhaps I might seem to be the Judge in my own Case if I should defend my self as far as I was able I therefore resign up my Right to the Attentive Readers who are the natural Judges of Books and I conjure them to call to Mind the request I made in the Preface of the foregoing Treatise and elsewhere Not to judge of my Opinions but by the clear and distinct Answers they shall receive from the only Teacher of all Mâ—n after having consulted him by a serious attention For if they consult their Prejudices as the decisive Laws to judge of the Book Concerning the search after Truth I acknowledge it to be a very ill Book since purposely wriâ—ten to detect the Falsity and Injustice of these Laws ADVERTISEMENT WHereas the following Illustrations were compos'd to satisfie some particular Persons who desir'd a more special Explication of some important Truths I think fit to premise that cleary to apprehend what I shall say it will be requisite to have some Knowledge of the Principles I have offer'd in the Treatise concerning the Search after Truth Therefore it will be the best way not to meddle with these Observations till after having carefully read the whole Work for which they were made and only to examine them at a second reading as they shall be found referr'd to by the Margin This Caution however is not absolutely necessary to be observ'd by understanding Persons because I have endeavoured so to write these Elucidations as that they might be read without referring to the Book they were compos'd for I know that Truth is of all things in the World that which gives least trouble to acquire it Men use not willingly to collate those Passages in a Book which have Reference to one another but commonly read things as they fall in their way and understand of them as much as they can wherefore to accommodate my self to this Temper of Men I have tried to make these Remarks intelligible even to those who have forgotten the Places of the foregoing Treatise whereunto they refer Nevertheless I desire those who will not be at the trouble of carefully examining these Illustrations not to condemn them of false and extravagant Consequences which may be deduc'd from want of understanding them I have some Reason to make this Request not only because I have right to demand of the Readers who are my Judges not to condemn without understanding me but on several other Accounts which it is not necessary for me to declare in this Place ILLUSTRATIONS UPON THE TREATISE Concerning the SEARCH after TRUTH THE FIRST ILLUSTRATION UPON THE First CHAPTER of the First BOOK God works whatever is real in the Motions of the Mind and in the Determinations of them notwithstanding which he is not the Author of Sin He works whatever is real in the Sensations of Concupiscence and yet is not the Author of it SOME Persons pretend that I relinquish the Comparison of the Mind and Matter too soon and fansie the one has no more Power than the other to determine the Impression which God gives it and therefore wish me to explain if I can what it is that God works in us and what we do our selves when we sin since in their Opinion I shall be oblig'd by my Explication either to grant that Man is capable of giving himself some new Modification or to acknowledge that God is actually the Author of Sin I answer That Faith Reason and my own inward Consciousness oblige me to quit the Comparison where I do being every way convinc'd that I have in my self a Principle of my own Determinations and having Reasons to persuade that Matter has no such Principle which shall be prov'd hereafter Mean while here is what God operates in us and what we do our selves when we sin First God continually drives us by an invincible Impression towards Good in general Secondly He represents to us the Idea of a particular Good or gives us the Sensation of it Lastly He inclines us to this particular Good First God drives us continually towards Good in general For God has made us and still preserves us for Himself He wills that we shall love all Good and is the first or rather only Mover In brief this is evident from innumerable things that I have said elsewhere and those I speak to will not dispute it Secondly God represents to us the Idea of a particular Good or gives us the Sensation of it For 't is he alone that enlightens us and the surrounding Bodies cannot
our natural Judgment so long as it 's not positively corrigible by Light and Evidence For every natural Judgment coming from God may be rightly seconded by our free Judgments when God furnishes us not with means to manifest its falsity And if on such occasions we mistake the Author of our Mind may seem in a manner to be the Author of our Errors and Delinquencies This Reasoning is possibly good though it must be acknowledg'd that it ought not to go for an Evident Demonstration of the Existence of Bodies For indeed God does not irresistibly force us to consent to it if we give our consent it is a free act and we may with-hold it if we please If this arguing I have made be just we are to believe it highly probable that there are Bodies but this bare Argumentation alone ought not to give us a plenary Conviction and Acquiescence otherwise it is we our selves that act and not God in us it being by a free act and consequently liable to Error that we consent and not by an invincible Impression for we believe it freely because we will and not because we see any obliging Evidence Surely nothing but Faith can convince us of the actual Existence of Bodies We can have no exact Demonstration of any other Being's Existence than the necessary and if we warily consider it we shall find it even impossible to know with perfect Evidence whether GOD is or is not the Creatour of a Material and sensible World for no such Evidence is to be met with except in necessary Relations which are not to be found betwixt GOD and such a World as this It was possible for him not to have created it If he has made it it is because he will'd it and freely will'd it The Saints in Heaven see by an evident Light That the FATHER begets the SON and that the HOLY GHOST proceeds from the FATHER and the SON for these are necessary Emanations But the World being no necessary Emanation from GOD those who most clearly see his Being see not evidently his External Productions Nevertheless I am perswaded that the Blessed are certain of the World's Existence but 't is because GOD assures them of it by manifesting his Will to them in a manner by us unknown and we on Earth are certain too but 't is because Faith obliges us to believe That GOD has created this World and that this Faith is conformable to our natural Judgments or our compound Sensations when they are confirm'd by all our Senses corrected by our Memory and rectify'd by our Reason I confess that at first sight the Proof or Principle of our Faith seems to suppose the Existence of Bodies Fides ex auditu It seems to suppose Prophets Apostles Sacred-Writ and Miracles but if we closely examine it we shall find that in supposing but the Appearances of Men Prophets Apostles Holy Scripture Miracles c. what we have learn'd from these supposs'd Appearances stands undeniably certain since as I have prov'd in several places of this Work GOD only can represent to the Mind these pretended Appearances and He is no Deceiver For Faith supposes all this Now in the Appearance of Holy Scripture and by the Seemingness of Miracles we learn That GOD has created an Heaven and an Earth that the Word is made Flesh and other such like Truths which suppose the Existence of a created World Therefore Faith verifies the Existence of Bodies and all these Appearances are actually substantiated by it 'T is needless to insist longer upon answering an Objection which seems too abstracted for the common part of Men and I believe that this will be enough to satisfie those who pretend not to be over-difficult From all which we are to conclude That we both may and ought to correct our Natural Judgments or compound Perceptions which relate to the sensible Qualities we attribute to the Bodies that surround us or to That we animate But as for natural Judgments which relate to the actual Existence of Bodies though absolutely we are not oblig'd to form free ones to accord with them yet we ought not to supersede doing it because these natural Judgments agree perfectly with Faith Finally I have made this Explanation chiefly to the intent we may seriously reflect upon this Truth That nothing but Eternal Wisdom can enlighten us and that all sensible Notices wherein our Body is concern'd are fallacious at least are not attended with that Light which we feel our selves oblig'd to submit to I am sensible that these Notions will not pass with the common sort of Men and that as they are dispos'd by the Superfluity or Poverty of their Animal Spirits they will either ridicule or flinch at the Reasonings I have laid down For the Imagination cannot endure abstract and un-ordinary Truths but either considers them as ghastly Spectres or ridiculous Phantasms But I chuse rather to be the Subject of Droll and Raillery for the strong and bold Imagination and the Object of Indignation and Fear to the weak and timorous than to be wanting in what I owe to Truth and to those generous Defenders of the Mind against the Efforts of the Body who know how to distinguish the Responses of illuminating Wisdom from the confus'd Noise of the perplexing and erroneous Imagination THE ILLUSTRATION UPON THE Fifth CHAPTER of the Second BOOK Of the Memory and Spiritual Habits I Had no mind to speak in this Chapter of the Memory and spiritual Habits for several Reasons the chief of which is That we have no clear Idea of our Soul For how can we clearly explain what are the Dispositions which the Operations of the Soul leave in her which Dispositions are her Habits whilst we have no clear Knowledge of the Nature of our Soul 'T is plain that 't is impossible to know distinctly the Changes whereof a Being is capable when we have no distinct Knowledge of the Nature of that Being For if for Instance we had no clear Idea of Extension in vain should we endeavour to discover its Figures However since I am desir'd to speak of a Matter which I know not in it self see what a compass I fetch that I may only keep to clear Idea's I suppose that there 's none but God who acts upon the Mind and represents to it the Idea's of all things and that if the Mind perceive any Object by a very clear and distinct Idea 't is because God represents that Idea in a most perfect manner I farther suppose that the Will of God being entirely conformable to ORDER and Justice we need but to have a Right to any thing to obtain it The Suppositions being laid down which are easily conceiv'd the Spiritual Memory is readily explain'd For Order requiring that Spirits which have frequently thought of any Object should more easily think again upon it and have a more clear and lively Idea of it that those who have but seldom consider'd it The Will of God which
of the Body is the Cause but of gross Vices such as Intemperance and Vncleanness and not of those which are call'd Spiritual as Pride and Envy and I am persuaded there is that Correspondence between the Disposition of our Brain and those of our Soul as that there is not perhaps any corrupt Habit in the Soul but what has its Principle in the Body St. Paul in several places terms by the Name of the Law the Wisdom the Desires and the Works of the Flesh whatever is contrary to the Law of the Spirit He speaks not of Spiritual Vices He reckons amongst the Works of the Flesh Idolatry Heresies Dissentions and many other Vices which go by the Name of Spiritual To give way to Vain-glory Wrath and Envy is in his Doctrine to follow the Motions of the Flesh. In short It appears from the Expressions of that Apostle That all Sin proceeds from the Flesh not that the Flesh commits it or that the Spirit of Man without the Grace or Spirit of CHRIST can do good but because the Flesh acts upon the Spirit in such a manner that the latter works no evil without being sollicited to it by the former Hear what St. Paul says in the Epistle to the Romans I delight in the law of the Lord after the inward Man But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members And a little lower So then with my mind I my self serve the law of God but with the flesh the law of sin He speaks after the same manner in several places of his Epistles So that Concupiscence or the Rebellion of the Body not only disposes us to Carnal of shameful Vices but likewise to those which are thought to be Spiritual I here shall endeavour to prove it by a sensible manner When a Man 's in Conversation it is certain as I think that some Tracks are machinally produc'd in his Brain and Motions excited in his Animal Spirits that beget in his Soul corrupt Thoughts and Inclinations Our Thoughts on these Occasions are not naturally conformable to Truth nor our Inclinations to Order They rise in us for the Good of the Body and of the present Life because 't is the Body that exites them So they obliterate the Presence of God and the Thoughts of our Duty out of our Mind and tend only to recommend us to other Men and make them consider us as worth their Affection and Esteem Therefore this secret Pride which kindles in us on such Occasions is a Spiritual Vice whose Principle is the Rebellion of the Body For Example If the Persons in whose Presence we are are rais'd to Honorary Posts and Titles the Lustre of their Grandeur both dazzles and dejects us And as the Traces which their Presence imprints on our Brain are very deep and the Motions of the Spirits rapid they radiate as I may say through all the Body they spread themselves on the Face and give a sensible Testimony of our Reverence and Fear and our most latent Sentiments Next These Traces by the sensible Expressions of our inward Motions work upon the Person that observe us whom they dispose to Sentiments of Candour and Civility by the Traces which our respectful and timorous Deportment machinally produce in his Brain which Traces rallying on his Face and disarm him of that Majesty which appear'd in 't and give the rest of his Body such an Air and Posture as at length rid us of our Concern and re-embolden us Thus by a mutual and frequent Repercussion of these sensible Expressions our Air and Behaviour at last settles in that fashion which the governing Person wishes But as all the Motions of the Animal Spirits are attended with Motions of the Soul and the Traces of the Brain are pursu'd by Thoughts of the Mind 't is plain that since we are depriv'd of the Power of expunging these Traces and stopping these Motions we find our selves sollicited by the over-ruling Presence of the Person to embrace his Opinions and submit to his Desires and to be wholly devoted to his Pleasure as he indeed is dispos'd to study ours but in a very different manner And for this Reason worldly Conversation quickens and invigorates the Concupiscence of Pride as dishonest Commerce feasting and enjoying sensible Pleasures strengthen Carnal Concupiscence which is a Remark very necessary for Morality 'T is of great Use and Advantage that there are Traces in the Brain which incessantly represent Man to himself to make him careful of his Person and that there are others which serve to make and preserve Society since Men are not made to live alone But Man having lost the Power of erasing them when he pleas'd and when convenient they perpetually provoke him to Evil. As he cannot hinder their representing him to himself he is continually sollicited to Motions of Pride and Vanity to despise others and center all things in himself And as he is not Master of those Traces which importune him to keep up Society with others he is agitated by Motions of Complaisance Flattery Jealousie and the like Inclinations as it were in spight of him Thus all those which go by the Name of Spiritual Vices derive from the Flesh as well as Vnchastness and Intemperance There are not only in our Brain Dispositions which excite in us Sensations and Motions with reference to the Propagation of the Species and the Preservation of Life but it may be a greater Number that stir up in us Thoughts and Passions with respect to Society to our own private Advancements and to those of our Friends We are by Nature united to all surrounding Bodies and by them to all the things that any way relate to us But we cannot be united to them save by some Dispositions in our Brain Having not therefore the Power of withstanding the Action of these natural Dispositions our Union turns into Dependence and we grow subject through our Body to all kind of Vices We are not pure Intelligences all the Dispositions of our Soul produce respective Dispositions in our Body and those in our Body mutually excite others like them in our Soul Not that the Soul is absolutely incapable of receiving any thing except by the Body but because as long as She is united to It she cannot admit any Change in her Modifications without making some Alteration in the Body 'T is true she may be enlightned or receive new Ideas and the Body need not have any hand in it but that 's because pure Ideas are not Modifications of the Soul as I have prov'd in another place I speak not here of sensible Ideas because these include a Sensation and every Sensation is a mode of the Souls existing The Second OBJECTION against the Eleventh and Twelfth Articles If Original Sin descends by reason of the Communication which is found between the Brain of the Mother and that of
any convincing Proof deny Spiritual Habits whom it may be good to satisfie if possible Lastly If respect be had to natural Equity which forbids us to condemn the secret Purposes and Intentions after all this I say what I offer may possibly appear improbable But yet I can't see why it should be taken ill that I endeavour to content even the most querelous Minds touching their Difficulties about Original Sin THE ILLUSTRATION UPON THE Third CHAPTER of the Third PART of the Second BOOK Wherein I speak of the power of Imagination of some Authors and particularly of Tertullian AS I am well satisfy'd that the most general and fruitful Principle of Errors in the Scicences and especially in Morals is the Impression made by lively Imaginations on the Mind of Men who are manag'd more by Mechanism than by Reason so I thought it lay upon me to set this truth to open view by all the ways that might awaken them from their slumber on its account And because Examples strike deepest especially when the Instance is somewhat great and uncommon I thought that the celebrated Names of Tertullian Seneca and Montague were the most proper to raise their Attention and give them a sensible conviction of the contagious Empire of the Imagination over Reason For if Words all-dead and unanimated by the look and sensible behaviour of these famous Authors have still more Force than the Reason of a great many others if the Turn of Expression that gives but a faint Idâ—a of the sensible action which the Imagination lively diffuses over the Face and the rest of the Body of those who are pierc'd with what they say is able to Agitate Penetrate and Convince a great many certainly it must be granted that nothing is more dangerous than a respectful Attention to Men of a strong and lively Imagination For their Air and Way is a natural Language so powerful and convincing and they know how to Image things so passionately to the Life that they seldom fail of raising the Senses and â—assions against Reason and pouring as I may say Conviction and Certitude into their Spectators I easily foresaw in alledging these great Examples that it was impracticable to cure those who were amaz'd and thunder-struck with the reading of these three fam'd Authors For a little knowledge of the nature of Man will suffice to teach us that the wounds of the Brain are harder to be heal'd than those of the other parts of the Body and that 't is easier to close up a sore not expos'd to fresh insult from without than to make a perfect cure of an inveterate Prejudice that justifies it self each minute by very-probable-Reasons 'T is extreamly difficult to close up exactly the Traces of the Brain because expos'd to the course of the Spirits and liable to be constantly renew'd by infinite other Traces which may be call'd accessory These sorts of Wounds cannot ordinarily be cur'd or made up till the Brain receives others more deep which opposing them cause a violent and continual Revulsion in the Spirits For we ought not to reckon a Prejudice quite cur'd when we fancy it is because we are not actually affected with it then only the cure is perfected when the Trace is quite shut up and not when the Spirits desist from their wanted course for some particular Reason I knew then well enough that such as had been prostrated and over-whelm'd by the Force and Motions of Tertullian ravish'd and dazl'd by the loftiness and beauties of Seneca charm'd and corrupted by the gentile easie and natural Turns of Montague would not change their Opinion by reading a few Pages of my Book I judg'd on the contrary I should incur their displeasure by trying to dissolve the inchantment which so held them But as I hop'd these Examples would be useful to my design for the fore-mention'd Reasons I thought I was to be more regardful of the Profit of many who were Free from Prepossession than of the Spleen of some particulars that I concluded would censure the liberty I had taken I consider'd there were very few so strongly prevented with esteem for these Authors but it was hop'd might return to sound sence again I concluded lastly that there being hardly one it may be prepossess'd with all Three together because of the diverse Characters of their Imagination the most Opinionated might find I was in the right in a good many things I know what Respect I ought to have for the Works of Tertullian as well on account of the Subjects that he treats of as of the Approbation they have receiv'd from several Persons who ought to be able to judge of them And I have sufficiently manifested that Temper of Mind by what I have said of him and by the Quality of the Book de Pallio of which alone I have spoke with so much freedom though there were others it may be fitter for my purpose But after all I don't think that Time ought to change and amplifie the Ideas of things that all Antiquities are venerable and that illegitimate Reasons and extravagant ways are worthy of Respect because they were a long time in the World before us I can't think that affected Obscurities ought to be venerated like Sacred Mysteries Sallies of Imagination to go for shining Lights of Knowledge and African Heats which work in a Mind naturally full of Fire to be look'd on as Motions of a Prophetick Spirit which can divulge nothing but sublime Truths I am certain that even those who defer most to Tertullian's Works will agree with me in all this and that they are too equitable to justifie the Disorders of Imagination against Reason But it may be they are a-kin to those Judicious Persons who though they infinitely love Truth yet they are not insensible to outside Manners For I have oftentime observ'd some of them so enchanted with certain strong lively great and pompous Expressions of Tertullian that having prov'd to them that Author was none of the most Judicious and Reasonable they would think it enough to convince and surprize me only to repeat them I own that Tertullian has Expressions extreamly strong and bold which produce most lively and animated Images in the Mind and upon that score I justly bring him for an Example of the Power which strong Imaginations have to move and convince by Impression Thus those who urge to me these Objections confirm my Opinion by opposing it Their Prepossession and Esteem for Tertullian justifies my Conduct the frequent Citations and the big Words which they alledge prove what I say For they use not in Discourse to produce entire Reasonings but often quote strong and lively Expressions in order to dazzle perturbate and convince by the sensible Impression There is no Reason I think to imagine that I set up for a Censor of so many great Men who cite Tertullian constantly in the Pulpit and elsewhere They have their Reasons for it into which I neither do nor ought to
as it is more united to Universal Reason and less sensible to the impression of the Senses and Passions In a word as it is more reasonable But 't is requisite that I explain as clearly as possibly I can the sense I have about Natural or Divine Order and Law For the difficulty that is found to embrace my Opinion proceeds it may be from the want of a distinct conception of my meaning 'T is certain that God comprehends in himself after an intelligible manner the Perfections of all the Beings he has created or can create and that by these intelligible Perfections he knows the Essence of all things as by his own Wills he knows their Existence Which perfections are likewise the immediate Object of the Mind of Man for the Reasons I have given Therefore the intelligible Ideas or the Perfections which are in God which represent to us what is external to him are absolutely necessary and immutable But Truths are nothing but relations of Equality or Inequality that are found between these Intelligible Beings since it is only true that 2 times 2 are 4 or that 2 times 2 are not 5 because there is a Relation of Equality between 2 times 2 and 4 and of Inequality between 2 times 2 and 5. Therefore Truths are as immutable and necessary as Ideas It has ever been a truth that 2 times 2 are 4 and 't is impossible it should ever be false which is visible without any Necessity that God as supream Legislator should have establish'd these Truths so as is said by M. des Cartes in his Answer to the six Objections We easily comprehend then what is Truth but Men find some difficulty to conceive what is this immutable and necessary Order what is this Natural and Divine Law which God necessarily wills and which the Righteous likewise will For a Man's Righteousness consists in his Loving Order and in his conforming his Will in all things to it as that which makes a Sinner in his disliking Order in some things and willing that it should conform to his Desires Yet methinks these things are not so mysterious as is imagin'd and I am perswaded all the difficulty that is found in them proceeds from the trouble the mind is at to aspire to abstract and Metaphysical Thoughts Here then is in part what are my Thoughts of Order 'T is evident that the perfections which are in God representative of created or possible Beings are not all Equal That those for Example which represent Bodies are less noble than others that represent Spirits and that even in those which represent only Bodies or Spirits there are degrees of perfection greater and lesser ad infinitum This is clearly and easily conceiv'd though it be hard to reconcile the simplicity of the Divine Essence with that variety of Intelligible Ideas included in his Wisdom For 't is evident that if all the Ideas of God were equal he could see no difference between his Works since he cannot see his Creatures save in that which is in himself representing them And if the Idea of a Watch which shows the Hour with all the different Motions of the Planets were no perfecter than that of another which only points to the hour or than that of a Circle and a Square a Watch would be no perfecter than a Circle For we can judge of the Perfection of Works only by the Perfection of the Ideas we have of them and if there was no more understanding or sign of Wisdom in a Watch than a Circle it would be as easie to conceive the most complicated Machines as a Square or a Circle If then it be true that God is the Vniversal Being who includes in Himself all Beings in an intelligible manner and that all these intelligible Beings which have in God a necessary Existence are not equally perfect 't is evident there will be between them an Immutable and Necessary Order and that as there are Eternal and necessary Truths because there are Relations of Magnitude between intelligible Beings there must likewise be an immutable and necessary Order by reason of the Relations of Perfection that are between these Beings 'T is therefore an Immutable Order that Spirits should be nobler than Bodies as it is a necessary Truth that 2 times 2 should be 4 or that 2 times 2 should not be 5. But hitherto immutable Order seems rather a Speculative Truth than a necessary Law For if Order be consider'd but as we have just now done we see for Example that it is True that Minds are more noble than Bodies but we do not see that this Truth is at the same time an Order which has the force of a Law and that there is an Obligation of preferring Minds before Bodies It must then be consider'd that God loves himself by a necessary Love and therefore has a greater degree of love for that which in him represents or includes a greater degree of perfection than for that which includes a less So that if we will suppose an Intelligible Mind to be a thousand times perfecter than an Intelligible Body the love wherewith God loves Himself must necessarily be a thousand times greater for the former than for the latter For the Love of God is necessarily proportion'd to the Order which is between the intelligible Beings that he includes Insomuch that the Order which is purely Speculative has the force of a Law in respect of God himself supposing as is certain that God loves himself Necessarily And God cannot love Intelligible Bodies more than Intelligible Minds though he may love created Bodies better than created Minds as I shall show by and by Now that immutable Order which has the force of a Law in regard of God himself has visibly the force of a Law in reference to us For this Order we know and our natural love comports with it when we retire into our selves and our Senses and Passions leave us to our Liberty In a word when our Self-love does not corrupt our Natural Being we are made for God and that 't is impossible for us to be quite separate from him we discern in him this Order and we are naturally invited to love it For 't is His Light which enlightens us and his Love which animates us though our Senses and Passions obscure this Light and determine against Order the Impression we receive to love according to it But in spite of Concupiscence which conceals this Order and hinders us from following it it is still an essential and indispensable Law to us and not only to us but to all created Intilligences and even to the Damn'd For I do not believe they are so utterly estrang'd from God as not to have a faint Idea of Order as not to find still some beauty in it and even to be ready to conform to it in some particular Instances which are not prejudicial to Self-Love Corruption of Heart consists in Opposition to Order Therefore Malice or Corruption of
Will being not equal even among the Damn'd it is plain they are not all equally opposite to Order and that they do not hate it in all cases unless in consequence of their Hatred to God For as no one can hate Good consider'd barely as such so no one can hate Order but when it seems to thwart his Inclinations But though it seem contrary to our Inclinations it nevertheless retains the force of a Law which Condemns and also punishes us by a Worm that never dies Now then we see what Order is and how it has the strength of a Law by that necessary Love which God has for himself We conceive how this Law comes to be general for all Minds God not excepted and why it is necessary and absolutely indispensible Lastly we conceive or we may easily conceive in general that it is the Principle of all Divine and Humane Laws and that 't is according to this Law that all Intelligences are judg'd and all Creatures dispos'd in the respective rank that belongs to them I acknowledge it is not easie to explain all this in particular and I venture not to undertake it For should I go to show the Connexion particular Laws have with the general and account for the agreement which certain manners of acting have to Order I should be forc'd to engage in Difficulties that it may be I could not resolve and which would lead me out of sight of my subject Nevertheless if it be consider'd that God neither has nor can have any other Law than his own Wisdom and the necessary Love he has for it we shall easily judge that all Divine Laws must depend on it And if it be observ'd that he has made the World with reference only to that Wisdom and Love since he acts only for Himself we shall not doubt but all natural Laws must tend to the Preservation and Perfection of this World according to indispensable Order and by their dependance on necessary Love For the Wisdom and Will of God regulates all things There is no need I should explain at present this Principle more at large what I have already said being sufficient to infer this Consequence That in the first institution of Nature it was Impossible for Minds to be subjected to Bodies For since God cannot act without Knowledge and against his Will he has made the World by his Wisdom and by the motion of his Love He has made all things by his Son and in his Holy Spirit as we are taught in Scripture Now in the Wisdom of God Minds are perfecter than Bodies and by the necessary Love God has for himself he prefers what is more perfect to what is less so Therefore it is not possible that Minds should be subject to Bodies in the first institution of Nature Otherwise it must be said that God in creating the World has not follow'd the Rules of his Eternal Wisdom nor the Motions of his natural and necessary Love which not only is inconceivable but involves a manifest contradiction True it is that at present the created Mind is debas'd below a material and sensible Body but that 's because Order considered as a necessary Law will have it so 'T is because God loving himself by a necessary Love which is always his Inviolable Law cannot love Spirits that are repugnant to him nor consequently prefer them to Bodies in which there is nothing evil nor in the hatred of God For God loves not Sinners in themselves Nor would they subsist in the Universe but through JESUS CHRIST God neither preserves them nor loves them but that they may cease to be Sinners through the Grace of CHRIST JESUS or that if they remain eternally Sinners they may be eternally condemned by immutable and necessary Order and by the Judgment of our LORD by vertue of whom they subsist for the Glory of the Divine Justice for without Him they would be annihilated This I say by the way to clear some difficulties that might remain touching what I said elsewhere about Original Sin or the general Corruption of Nature 'T is if I mistake not a very useful reflection to consider that the Mind has but two ways of knowing Objects By Light and by Sensation It sees them by Light when it has a clear Idea of them and when by consulting that Idea it can discover all the properties whereof they are capable It sees things by Sensation when it finds not in it self their clear Idea to consult it and so cannot clearly discover their properties but only know them by a confus'd Sensation without Light and Evidence 'T is by Light and a clear Idea the mind sees the Essences of things Numbers and Extension 'T is by a confus'd Idea or Sensation that it judges of the Existence of Creatures and knows its own What the Mind perceives by Light or by a clear Idea it perceives in a most perfect manner moreover it sees clearly that all the Obscurity or Imperfection of its Knowledge proceeds from its own Weakness and Limitation or from want of Application and not from the Imperfection of the Idea it perceives But what the mind perceives by Sensation is never clearly known not for want of any Application on part of the Mind for we always are very applicative to what we feel but by the defectiveness of the Idea which is extreamly obscure and confus'd Hence we may conclude that it is in God or in an immutable nature that we see all that we know by Light or a clear Idea not only because we discover by Light only numbers Extension and the Essences of Beings which depend not on a free Act of God as I have already said but also because we know these things in a very perfect manner and we should even know them in an infinitely perfect manner if our thinking Capacity were infinite since nothing is wanting to the Idea that represents them We ought likewise to conclude that we see in our selves whatever we know by Sensation However this is not as if we could produce in our selves any new modification or that the sensations or modifications of our Soul could represent the Objects on occasion whereof God excites them in us But only that our Sensations which are not distinguished from our selves and consequently cannot represent any thing distinct from us may nevertheless represent the existence of Beings or cause us to judge that they exist For God raising Sensations in us upon the presence of Objects by an action that has nothing sensible we fancy we receive from the Object not only the Idea which represents its essence but also the Sensation which makes us judge of its existence For there is always a pure Idea and a confused Sensation in the Knowledge we have of things as actually existing if we except that of God and of our own Soul I except the Existence of God For this we know by a pure Idea and without Sensation since it depends not on any cause and
his Creatures also For hereby we pay Legitimate Honour to their Creatour Merit his good Graces and oblige him to shower new Benefits upon us 'T is manifest he approves of the Honour that is given to his Creatures since they partake of his Power and all Power deserves to be honour'd But because Honour ought to be Proportion'd to Power and that the Power of the Sun and all other sensible Objects is such as derives to us all sorts of Goods 't is reasonable we should Honour them with all our Strength and next to God Consecrate to them all our Being These are the Natural Reasonings a Man would fall into that should ground upon the Prejudice of the Efficacy of Second Causes and probably such was the Arguing of the first Founders of Idolatry Take here his Sense of it who passes for the most Learned of all the Jews He Prefaces a a Treatise he wrote about Idolatry with these Words In the days of Enos Men fell into strange Illusions and the Wise Men of that Age quite lost their Sense and Reason Enos himself was one of those deluded Persons whose Errours were these Since God said they has created the Heavens and Stars to govern the World has constituted them on â—igh and invested them with Glory and Lustre and employs them in executing his Commands 't is just that we should honour them and pay them our Deference and Homage 'T is the Will of our God that Honour should be given to those whom he has exalted and enthron'd in Glory as a Prince requires that his Ministers should be â—onour'd in his Presence because the Honour which is given to them redounds to himself When once this Notion had entred their Head they fell to building Temples in Honour of the Stars gave them Sacrifice and Praises and even prostrated themselves before them thereby imagining to purchase the favour of Him that created them And this was the Original of Idolatry It is so Natural and just to have grateful Resentments in Proportion to the Goods we receive that almost all Nations have ador'd the Sun because they all concluded him the Cause of the Blessings they enjoy'd And if the Aegyptians ador'd not only the Sun and Moon and River Nile because its overflowing caus'd the Fertility of their Country but even the vilest of Animals 'T was as Cicero relates from the Emolument they receiv'd from them Therefore as we cannot and indeed ought not to Extirpate from Men's Minds their Natural Inclination for the true Causes of their Happiness 't is evident there is at least some danger in ascribing Efficacy to Second Causes though we conjoyn the necessity of an immediate Concourse which has methinks I know not what of incomprehensible purport and which strikes in as an after-game to justifie our imbib'd Prejudices and Aristotle's Philosophy But there 's no danger in speaking only what we see and of Attributing only to God Efficacy and Power since we see nothing but His Wills which have an absolutely necessary and indispensible connexion with Natural Effects I own that now adays Men are Wise enough to avoid those gross Errors of Heathens and Idolaters but I fear not to say our Mind is still dispos'd or rather our Heart is often bent like that of the Heathens and that there will ever be in the World some kind of Idolatry until the Day in which JESUS CHRIST shall restore up His Kingdom to God his Father having first destroy'd all Empire Dominion and Power that God may be All in all For is it not a kind of Idolatry to make a God of ones Belly as speaks S. Paul Is not he an Idolater to the God of Riches who labours Night and Day to acquire them Is this to render to God the Worship we owe Him Is this to adore Him in Spirit and in Truth to have our Hearts fill'd with some sensible Beauty and our Mind struck and dazled with the Lustre of some imaginary Grandeur Men fancying to themselves that Circumambient Bodies afford the pleasures they enjoy in the use of them Unite to them with all the Powers of their Soul and thus the Principle of their Corruption lies in the sensible Conviction of the Efficacy of Second Causes 'T is only Reason that assures them none but God Acts in them But besides that this Reason speaks so low that it is scarce Audible and that the Contradicting Senses cry so loud that their Clamour Stunns and Stupefies them they are yet farther confirm'd in their Prejudice by Reasons and Arguments that are so much dangerous as they have more External Characters and sensible marks of Truth The Philosophers but especially the Christian Philosophers ought to wage an uninterrupted War with Prejudices or the Judgements of their Senses and particularly those of so dangerous importance as that of the Efficacy of Second Causes And yet there are Men whom I extremely honour as I have just Reason who from I know not what Principle endeavour to confirm this Prejudice and to make so holy so pure and solid a Doctrine as this which owns no other true Cause than God pass for Superstitious and Extravagant Opinion They will not have us to Love and Fear God in all things but to Love and Fear all things with reference to God We ought say they to Love the Creatures since they are good to Love and respect our Father to give Honour to our Prince and Superiours since God Commands it Nor do I deny it but I deny that we are to Love the Creatures as our Goods though they be good or perfect in themselves I deny that we are to pay service and respect to Men as to our Masters Or to explain my self more clearly I say we must not serve our Master obey our Father or Prince with any other design than to serve and obey God S. Paul who became all things to all Men and was complaisant in all things for the Salvation of those he Preach'd to speaks thus Servants be obedient to them that are your Masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in singleness of your Heart as unto CHRIST not with Eye-Service as Men pleasers but as the Servants of Christ doing the Will of God from the Heart with good Will doing Service AS TO THE LORD AND NOT TO MEN. And in another Epistle Not with Eye-Service as to MEN but in singleness of Heart fearing GOD. And whatever ye do do it Heartily AS TO THE LORD and NOT VNTO MEN. We must therefore obey our Father serve our Prince and Honour our Superiours AS UNTO GOD AND NOT UNTO MEN. This is manifest and can have no Evil consequences For hereby Superiours would always be more honour'd and better serv'd But I think it may be said That a Master who would be honour'd and serv'd as having in himself another Power than that of God would be a Devil and that those who serv'd him under that apprehension would be
not fail of probable Reasons to confound the Soul with the Body Experience they 'll say teaches us That the Body is capable of Feeling Thinking and Reasoning 'T is the Body which is sensible of Pleasure and Pain 'T is the Brain which thinks and reasons The weight of the Body makes heavy the Mind Madness is a true distemper and those who have most Wisdom lose it when that part of the Brain where it resides is diseas'd The Essences of Beings are unknown to us and therefore Reason cannot discover of what they are susceptible So that reason refers us to Experience and Experience confounds the Soul with the Body and teaches us that this is capable of thinking Such would be their Reasons And in Truth those who assure us That the Essences of Being are unknown and make it Criminal for Philosophers to demonstrate Extension no Modification of Being but the very Essence of Matter would do well to consider the mischievous Consequences deducible from their Principles and not go to overthrow the only Demonstration we have for the Distinction between the Soul and Body For in fine the Distinction of these two Parts of our Selves prov'd by clear Ideas is the most Fruitful and necessary of all Truths in point of Philosophy and perhaps of Divinity and Christian Morality But this Distinction is likewise exactly demonstrated in many Places of the Search after Truth And I undertake to Monsieur de la Ville notwithstanding his Answer fraught with Ambiguities Figures and Contradictions or rather I undertake to the Libertines for as for him I believe him so setled in his Faith as not to want such sort of Proofs I undertake I say to the Libertines That they will never find any Sophism in my Demonstration That 't is impossible to conceive it clearly and distinctly without embracing it and that all the Proofs they offer to confound the Soul with the Body are drawn from Senses that they are obscure and confus'd and can never perswade such as Judge of things by clear and distinct Ideas From this Principal That the Essence of Body consists not in Extension and that the Essences of things are unknown I could still draw many other Consequences opposite to Faith But that is not necessary and I would rather if it were possible reconcile all false as well as true Philosophies with Religion However impious and Heretical would be the Consequences I could deduce from the Opinions of Philosophers I should think I wanted the Charity which I owe them if I endeavoured to make their Faith suspected So far am I from imitating the Conduct of Monsieur de la Ville who leaving a Principle demonstrated in all its Strength and receiv'd by all Ages lays out himself in drawing Heretical Consequences from it tho' of no use but to strengthen the Calvinists and encrease their Number and to disturb the Faith of the Orthodox I would on the contrary that no one should think on these Consequences or disown them as false and wrong-inferr'd from the Principal All Truths hang in a Chain together and no false Principle can be held but those who are any thing vers'd in the Art of Reasoning may infer from it abundance of Consequences repugnant to Religion So that if it were permitted to blacken the Faith of others upon Consequences drawn from Principles believ'd by them since there is no Man but Errs in something we might treat all the World as Heretical Wherefore the allowing Men to Dogmatize and to make others Faith suspected who are not of their Opinion would be opening a Gap to infinite Quarrels Schisms Disturbances and even Civil Wars and all Mankind is concern'd to look upon the Abettors of such a Conduct as Slanderers and Disturbers of the publick Peace For in short the different Parties in Religion which are almost always form'd from such like Consequences produce strange Events in a State which all Histories abound with But the Liberty to Philosophize or to reason upon Common Notions is not to be denied Men it being a Right which is as natural to them as to breath Divines ought to distinguish Theology from Philosophy Articles of our Faith from Opinions of Men. Truths which GOD imparts to all Christians by a visible Authority from those which he bestows on some particular Persons in Recompence of their Attention and Industry They should not confound things that depend on so different Principles No Question Humane Sciences ought to be made subservient to Religion but with a Spirit of Peace and Charity without condemning one another so long as we agree about Truths which the Church has determin'd For this is the way for Truth to shine out and all Sciences to be brought to greater and greater Perfection by the Addition of New Discoveries to the Ancient But the Imaginations of most Men cannot be reconcil'd to New Discoveries but even Novelty in Opinions never so advantageous to Religion frights them whilst they easily inure themselves to the falsest and obscurest Principles provided some Ancient has advanc'd them But when once these Principles are grown familiar they find them evident though never so obscure They believe them most useful though extremely dangerous And they are so well us'd to say and hear what they do not conceive and to slurr a real Difficulty by an imaginary Distinction that they are ever well satisfy'd with their false Idea's and can't endure to be talkt to in a clear and distinct Language like Men coming out of a dark Room they are fearful of the Light which strikes too violently on their Eyes and they imagine we go to blind them when we try to dissipate the involving Darkness Thus though I have shown by many Consequences that 't is dangerous for Example to maintain that Beasts have a Soul more noble than the Body yet since this Opinion is ancient and most Men are accustom'd to Believe it whilst the contrary bears the Character of Novelty Those who judge of the Harshness of Opinions rather by the Fear they produce in the Imagination than by the Evidence and Light they shed in the Mind will be sure to vote the Cartesians Opinion dangerous and will condemn these Philosophers as rash and presumptuous rather than those who make Beasts capable of Reasoning Let a Man but say in Company with an Air of Gravity or rather with a Look into which the Imagination scar'd with something extraordinary forms the Face Really the Cartesians are strange People They maintain That Beasts have no Soul I am afraid in a little time they will say as much of Man And this will be enough to perswade a great many that this is a dangerous Opinion No Reasons can prevent the Effect of this Discourse upon weak Imaginations and unless there happen to be some brisk Wit that with the gayety of Carriage shall re-embolden the Company from the Fear they had conceiv'd the Cartesians might tire themselves to Death before they could by their Reasonings obliterate
First That I have retracted that pretended Errour about Original Sin The same Proposition being found in the same Words in the Eddition he cites and in all those that are Printed at Paris Secondly That Proposition is not my peculiar Opinion since it is the common Doctrine of the Schools But though it were not at present taught yet 't is certainly no Errour much less a most pernicious one as he elsewhere stiles it The two Errours he supposes me to substitute in the Room of this recanted one are Two things I never said and which he puts upon me 'T is but reading his own Words relating to the Question to discover the Truth of what I say and therefore I shall not stand to prove it especially since 't is done sufficiently by an unknown Hand I could only wish this unknown Person had alledg'd the Reasons which I had for saying That an Infant at the time of Baptism was justified by an Actual Love and which I have given in the Illustration upon Original Sin Let a Man judge then after he has examin'd the candid and sincere Advertisement of Monsieur de la Ville whether I have not reason to require the Equitable Readers not to credit him on his bare Word For if we believe him he is the most sincere and courteous Man in the World but we cannot find all the Marks of Sincerity and Candour when we carefully examine him At the End of his Advertisement he protests he has endeavour'd as much as possible to observe all the Moderation which he ought that he has no ill Will but to the Errours of his Adversaries and for their Persons all Esteem and Respect Whilst yet one cannot consider that Advertisement without discovering at least the Symptoms of a disingenuous Spirit and a Malign Temper which surprizes and irritates Mens Minds I pray God to pardon him his Outrages to Regulate his Zeal and to inspire him with the Spirit of Meekness Charity and Peace towards his Brethren I know not whether he finds Pleasure in abusing me so hainously as he does but I desire to assure him That it is Matter of much Sorrow and Trouble to me That I am forc'd in the Defence of Truth to give some Suspicion of his Probity and that I should on the contrary be extreamly joyful if he could know how sincerely I honour respect and love him in Him in whom we all are Brethren Noverit quam euâ— non contemnam quantum in illo Deum timeam cogitem caput nostrum in cujus corpore fratres sumus Aug. ad Fortunianum Epist. 3. FINIS F. MALEBRANCHE's TREATISE CONCERNING Light and Colours BEING AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE Fourth CHAPTER of his Sixth BOOK Never before Printed This being suppos'd let there be imagin'd a small Hole to be made at the Point A I say that all the Parts of the Water as RSTV contain'd therein will tend towards the Point A by the right Lines RA SA c. For all the Parts which were equally press'd before cease to be so on that side which answers to the Hole They must therefore tend towards it since every Body that is press'd must tend to move it self that way where it finds the least Resistance But if a Stopple be put in the Orifice A and it be hastily thrust inwards the same Parts RS TV c. will all tend to remove themselves from the Hole directly by the same Lines AR AS c. Because upon the advancing in of the Stopple they are more press'd on the Side wherein it enters Lastly If we conceive the Stopple moved hastily backwards and forwards all the Parts of the subtile Matter which exactly fills the Foot-ball whose Elasticity is very great and which difficultly contracts or extends it self will receive infinite Vibrations from the Pressure Let us now suppose an Eye at T or elsewhere directed towards a Torch at A the Parts of the Torch being in continual Motion will constantly press the subtile Matter on all sides and consequently quite from A to the Fund of the Eye And the Optick Nerve being vehemently press'd and shaken by very quick Vibrations will excite in the Soul the Sensation of Light or of a lively and glittering Whiteness If we suppose at S a dark Body M the subtile Matter being not reflected towards the Eye that way directed nor vibrating the Optick Nerve the Body will appear black as when we look into the Mouth of a Cave or the Hole of the Pupil of the Eye If the Body M be such as that the subtile Matter vibrated by the Torch be reflected towards the Eye without any Diminution of the Quickness of the Vibrations the Body M will appear White and so much the more White as there shall be more Rays reflected It will likewise appear Luminous as Flame if the Body M being polish'd shall reflect all or almost all the Rays in the same order But if the Body M be such as that the subtile Matter reflected has its Vibrations less quick in certain Degrees that cannot be exactly determin'd the Result will be one of the primitive Colours Yellow Red Blue provided all the Parts of the Body M diminish equally the Vibrations caused by the Flame in the subtile Matter and all the rest of the Colours made up of a Mixture of the primitive will arise according as the Parts of the Body M shall unequally diminish the Quickness of the said Vibrations This is what I meant when I advanc'd in some Places of my Book that Light and Colours consisted only in the Vibrations of Pressure as they were more or less quick produced by the subtile Matter on the Retina This simple Exposition of my Opinion will perhaps make it seem probable enough to those at least who are acquainted with M. Des Cartes's Philosophy and who are not satisfied with the Explication which that Learned Man gives of Colours But that a more solid Judgment may be made on my Opinion it is not enough to have barely propos'd it it is requisite to produce some Arguments to confirm it To that End it is necessary to observe First That Sound is rendred Sensible only by the Vibrations of the Air which shake the Ear for upon the Air 's being drawn out of the Air-Pump Sound is no longer heard Secondly That the Difference of Tones proceeds not from the Strength of these Vibrations of the Air but from their Quickness as it is more or less Thirdly That though the Impressions which Objects make upon the Organs of our Senses differ sometimes but according to more or less the Sensations which the Soul receives from them differ essentially There are no Sensations more opposite than Pleasure and Pain and yet a Man that scratches himself with Pleasure feels Pain if he scratches a little harder than ordinary There is great probability that Bitter and Sweet which cause Sensations essentially different differ only by more and less For there are those who taste that
they had committed in murthering our Saviour it was fit that Jesus Christ should come into the World about the Reign of Herod supposing that People by the necessary Consequence of the Order of Nature was to be divided about that time that Civil Wars and perpetual Seditions were to weaken them and that lastly the Romans were to ruine and disperse them with the total Destruction of their City and Temple 'T is true there seems to be something extraordinary in the Desolation of the Jews But as it shews greater Wisdom in God to produce so surprizing Effects by the most simple and general Laws of Nature than by particular Wills which are always Miracles I question whether on that Occasion we are to fly unto a Miracle But for my part I dispute it not here since 't is a Fact that we cannot easily nor need we explain our selves upon And I produce this Instance only to make some Application of my Principles and to make them more easily intelligible to others I have I think said enough of Nature and Grace to satisfie all equitable and moderate Persons about an infinite Number of Difficulties which disturb only their Minds who must needs judge of God by themselves For if Men would consult the Idea of an Infinitely Perfect Being of a General Cause of an Infinite Wisdom and if they would consent to the Principles I have establish'd conformable to that Idea I believe they would neither be surpriz'd nor offended at the Conduct of GOD and that they would change their Murmurs and Censures into Wonder and Adoration CONCERNING Nature and Grace DISCOURSE III. Of the Manner of GRACE's acting in us PART I. Concerning Liberty I. THERE is nothing more rude and unform'd than the Substance of Spirits if we separate it from God For what 's a Mind void of Understanding and Reason destitute of Motion and Love Yet it is the Word and Wisdom of God which is the universal Reason of Minds and 't is the Love whereby God loves himself that gives the Soul the Motion she has towards Good If the Mind knows Truth 't is by its Natural and Necessary Union with Truth it self If it is reasonable 't is so through supreme Reason Lastly If it be a Spirit or Intelligence 't is in one sense because its Substance is enlightned penetrated and perfected by the Light of God himself These Truths I have explain'd in another Place So likewise the Substance of the Soul is not capable of loving Good save by its Natural and Necessary Union with the Eternal and Substantial Love of the Supreme Good it advances not towards Good any farther than convey'd by God it is volent only from the Motion it continually receives from him it lives only through Charity and wills merely through the Love of Good which God makes it participate though it abuses it For in fine God making and preserving Minds only for himself inclines them towards him as long as he preserves their Being and communicates the Love of Good to them whilst they are capable of receiving it Now that natural and continual Motion of the Soul towards Good in general towards Good indefinite towards God is what I here call Will Since 't is that Motion which capacitates the Substance of the Soul to love different Goods II. This Natural Motion of the Soul towards Good in general is invincible for 't is not in our Power not to will to be happy We necessarily love what we clearly know and lively feel to be our Good All Minds love God by the Necessity of their Nature and if they love any thing else by a Free Choice of their Will 't is not because they seek not God or the Cause of their Felicity but because they are deceiv'd 'T is because perceiving by a confus'd Sensation that surrounding Bodies make them happy they consider them as good and by an Ordinary and Natural Consequence love them and unite to them III. But the Love of all these particular Goods is not naturally invincible Man consider'd in his Original State might supersede loving those Goods that fill'd not the whole Capacity of his Affection There being but one Good which includes all others he might sacrifice every other Love to the Love of this For God having made Minds only for himself cannot invincibly carry them to the loving any thing besides him or without relation to him Lastly our own inward Consciousness informs us that we can reject a Fruit though we are inclin'd to take it Now that Power of loving or not loving particular Goods the Non-invincibility which is found in the Motion which carries Minds to the loving what does not seem every way inclusive of all Goods That Power or Non-invincibility is what I call Liberty Thus placing the Definition instead of the thing defin'd that Expression our Will is free signifies that the Natural Motion of the Soul towards Good in general is not invincible in point of Good in particular To the Word Free the Idea of Voluâ—tary is commonly annex'd but in the Sequel of this Discourse I shall take the Word in the Sense I have observ'd as being the most Natural and Ordinary IV. The Word Good is equivocal and may signifie either Pleasure which makes formally happy or the true or seeming Cause of Pleasure In this Discourse I shall constantly take the Word Good in the second Sense because indeed Pleasure is imprinted on the Soul that she may love the Cause that makes her happy that she may advance towards it by the Motion of her Love and may strictly unite to it to be perpetually happy When the Soul loves nothing but her own Pleasure she in effect loves nothing distinct from her self For Pleasure is only a Condition or Modification of the Soul which renders her actually happy and content But whilst the Soul cannot be the Cause of her own Pleasure she 's unjust ungrateful and blind if she loves her Pleasure and forgets to pay the Love and Devotion which is due to the true Cause that produces it in her As none but God can act immediately and by himself on the Soul and make her sensible of Pleasure by the actual Efficacy of his all-potent Will so he alone is truly Good However I term the Creatures Good which are the seeming Causes of the Pleasures we feel occasionally from them For I am unwilling to deviate from the customary way of Speaking any farther than is necessary to explain my self clearly All Creatures though Good in themselves or Perfect with reference to the Designs of God are not Good with reference to us They are not our Good nor the true Cause of our Pleasure or Felicity V. The natural Motion which God constantly imprints on the Soul to carry it to love him or to make use of a Term which is the Abridgement of several Ideas and can be no longer equivocal or confus'd after the Definition I have given of it the Will is determin'd towards particular Goods either
and absolute Lord of all things by right of Generation These Truths are evident as we are assur'd by Jesus Christ himself who says that his Father has given him power to judge Men because he is the Son of Man So we ought not to think that Scripture Expressions which make Jesus Christ the Author of Grace must be understood of him consider'd in his Divine Person For if so I confess I should not have prov'd him the Occasional Cause since he would be the True Cause of it But whereas it is certain that the Three Persons of the Trinity are equally the True Cause of Grace because all the External Operations of God are common to them all my Proofs are undeniable since Holy Scripture says of the Son and not of the Father or the Holy Spirit that he is the Head of the Church and that in this Capacity he communicates Life to the constituent Members of it Second OBJECTION XIV 'T is God who gives the Soul of Jesus Christ all the Thoughts and Motions relating to the Formation of his Mystical Body So that if on one hand the Wills of Jesus Christ as Occasional or Natural Causes determine the Efficacy of the General Wills of God on the other 't is God himself who determines the several Wills of Jesus Christ. And thus it comes to the same thing For in brief the Volitions of Jesus Christ are always conformable to those of his Father I grant that the particular Volitions of the Soul of Jesus Christ are always conformable to the Wills of his Father not as if there were any particular Wills in the Father which answer to those in the Son and determine them but only that the Volitions of the Son are always conform'd to Order in general which is the necessary Rule of the Will of God and of all those who love him For to love Order is to love God 't is to will what he wills 't is to be Just Wise Regular in our Love The Soul of Jesus desires to form to the Glory of his Father the largest most sumptuous and accomplish'd Temple possible Order demands this since nothing can be made too great for God All the several Thoughts of this Soul perpetually intent on the Execution of its Design proceed likewise from God or the Word to which it is united But its various Desires are certainly the Occasional Cause of these various Thoughts for it thinks on what it wills Now these diverse Desires are sometimes entirely free and probably the Thoughts which excite them do not invincibly determine the Soul of Jesus Christ to apply her self to the Means of executing them For in brief 't is equally advantageous to the Design of Jesus Christ whether it be Peter or John that causes the Effect which the Regularity of his Work requires 'T is true the Soul of Jesus is not indifferent in any thing that relates to his Father's Glory or that Order necessarily demands but is entirely free in all the rest there is nothing extraneous to God which invincibly determines his Love Thus we ought not to wonder if Jesus have particular Wills though there be not the like Wills in God to determine them But let it be granted that the Volitions of Jesus Christ are not free and that his Light invincibly carries him to will and to will always in a determinate manner in the Construction of his Church But it is Eternal Wisdom to which his Soul is united that must determine his Volitions We must not for that Effect suppose Particular Wills in God But all the Wills of Jesus Christ are Particular or have no Occasional Cause to determine their Efficacy as have those of God For the Soul of Jesus Christ having not an infinite Capacity of Thinking his Notices and consequently his Volitions are limited Therefore his Wills must needs be Particular since they change according to his diverse Thoughts and Applications For probably the Soul of Jesus Christ otherwise imploy'd in Contemplating and tasting the infinite Satisfactions of the True Good methinks ought not according to Order desire at once to think on all the Ornaments and Beauties he would bestow upon his Church nor on the different Ways of executing each of his Designs For Jesus Christ desiring to render the Church worthy of the infinite Majesty of his Father would gladly perfect it with infinite Beauties by Ways most conformable to Order He must then constantly change his Desires there being but one infinite Wisdom who can fore-see all and prescribe himself General Laws for the executing his Designs But the future World being to subsist eternally and to be infinitely more perfect than the present it was requisite that God should establish an Occasional Cause Intelligent and Enlightned by Eternal Wisdom to remedy the Defects which should unavoidably happen in the Works that were form'd by General Laws The Collision of Bodies which determines the Efficacy of the General Laws of Nature is an Occasional Cause without Understanding and Liberty and therefore 't is impossible but there must be Imperfections in the World and Monsters produc'd which are not of such account as that the Wisdom of God should descend to remedy them by Particular Wills But Jesus Christ being an Intelligent Occasional Cause illuminate with the Wisdom of the Word and susceptible of Particular Wills according to the particular Exigencies of the Work he forms 't is plain that the future World will be infinitely more perfect than the present that the Church will be without Spot or Wrinkle as we are taught by Scripture and that it will be a Work most worthy of the Complacency of God himself 'T is in this manner that Eternal Wisdom renders as I may say to his Father what he had taken from him For not permitting him to act by Particular Wills he seem'd to disable his Almighty Arm But becoming incarnate he so brings it to pass that God acting in a manner worthy of him by most Simple and General Laws produces a Work wherein the most Illuminate Intelligences cannot observe the least Imperfection PROOFS founded on REASON XV. Having demonstrated by the Authority of Scripture that the diverse Motions of the Soul of Jesus Christ are the Occasional Causes which determine the Efficacy of the General Law of Grace by which God would have all Men sav'd in his Son 't is necessary to shew in general by Reason that we are not to believe God acts in the Order of Grace by Particular Wills For though by Reason separate from Faith it cannot be demonstrated that God has constituted the Wills of Man-God the Occasional Causes of his Gifts yet it may without Faith be shewn that he distributes them not to Men by Particular Wills and that in two manners a priori and a posteriori that is by the Idea we have of God and by the Effects of Grace For there is nothing but serves to prove this Truth First then for the Proof of a priori A wise Being
quod dicis amâ—o videmus verum esse quod diâ—o ubi quaeso id videmus Nec ego utique in te nec tu in me sed ambo in ipsa quae supra mentes nostras est incommutabili veritate Confess de S. Aug. l. 12. c. 25. See St. Austin De libero arbitrio c. Book 2. Chap. 8. Nec natura potest justo secernere iniquum Lucretius Diogenes * And now O Inhabitants of Jerusalem judge betwixt me and my Vineyard Isa. 5.3 Art 6. 8. See the Fifth Dialogue of Christian Conversations See the first Illustration Est quippe supâ—rbâ—a peccâ—â—um maximum uti daâ—is taâ—quam innaris S Bern. de diligendo Deo This is omitted in some Editions Ch. 1.18 Ch. 4. â—â— Cor. 13. L. 31. c. 20 Propinquior nobis qui fecit quam multa quae facta sunt In illo enim vivimus movemur sumus Istorum autem pleraque remota sunt à mente nostra propter dissimilitudinem sui generis Recte culpantur in libro sapientia inquisitores hujus saeculi Si enim tantum inquit potuerunt valere ut possent aestimare saeculum quomodo ejus Dominum non facilius invenerunt Ignota enim sunt fundamenta oculis nostris qui fundavit â—erram propinquat mentibus nostris De Gen. ad litt l. 5. ch 16 De Trinitate lib. 8. ch 8. 1 Tim. 16.16 * St. Cyrill of Alexandria upon the words of St. John Erat lux vera St. Aug. Tr. 14. upon St. John St. Greg. c. 27. upon 28 of Job †Inaccessibilem dixit sed omni homini â—umana sapienti Scriptura quippe sacra omnes carnalium sectatores humanitatis nomine notare solet St. Greg. in cap. 28. Job Ex. 33 20. Neither is it found in the land of the living Job 28.13 Job 28.31 Now we see through a Glass darkly but then face to face Now I know in part c. 1 Cor. 13.2 The natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him 1 Cor. c. 2.14 Ad Moysen dicitur non videbit me homo vivet ac si aperte diceretur Nullus unquam Deum spiritualiter videt qui mundo carnaliter vivit St. Greg. upon the 28. of Job ch 28. Answer to the fifth Objection against the second Meditation towards the end Eccl. c. 9.1 I judge not mine own self For I known nothing by my self yet I am not hereby justified but â—e that judgeth me is the Lord 1 Cor. â— 4.4 John 13.37 Eccl. 21.18 Book 1. Mark 12.30 For the most extraordinary of these Opinions See Suarez Metaphysicks Disp. 18. Sect. 2. Assert 2. 3. Scot. in 4. Sent. Dist. 12.1 D. 37.2 D. 17. Palaudan in 4. Sent. D. 12. Q. 1 Art 1. Perer. 8. Phys. Ch. 3. Conimbr upon Aristotle's Physicks and many others cited by Suarez See Eonseca's Metaphys qu. 13. Sect. 3. and Soncin and Javell upon the same Question Ruvio lib. 2. Ph. Tract 4. qu. 2. See Suarez Disp. 18. Sect. 1. Ch. 1. of the second Book of his Physicks See Fonsesa Suarez and others before cited * Book 1. of his Topicks C. 1. * In his Metaph. Disp. 18. Sect. 1. Assert 1. †In Metaph Arist. qu. 7. Sect. 2. See Book 4. Ch. 11. toward the end and Book 6. Part 2. Ch. 7. See Ch. 2. Book IV. Suarez ib. See Chap. the last of The Search * See the Illustration upon the Fourth Chapter of the second Part concerning Method †See the first Illustration upon the Fifth Chapter Lib. 1. de Retract 1 Cor. 10.19 * Nemo habet de suo nisi mendacium peccatum Concil Araus 2. Can. 22. * In the Sence explain'd in the Chapter belonging to this Illustration * I still mean a true and efficacious Force * It seems evident to me that the Mind knows not by internal Sensation or Conscience the motion of the Arm she Animates She knows by Conscience only what she feels or thinks By inward Sensation or Conscience we know the sense we have of the Motion of our Arm. But Conscience does not notify the Motion of our Arm or the pain we suffer in it any more than the Colours we see upon Objects Or if this will not be granted I say that inward Sensation is not infallible for Error is generally found in the Sensations when they are compos'd I have sufficiently prov'd it in the first Book of the Search after Truth Gen. 1. Isa. 44.24 Job 10.8 * Vulg. totum 2 Macc. Ch. 7. v 22 23. Acts 17 25. Psal. 104 14. Engl. Poverty and Riches Eccl. 11.14 Gen. 2.19 Ch. 1.21 Omnia quippe portenta contra naturam dicimus esse sed non sunt Quomodo enim est contra naturam quod Dei fit voluntate Cum voluntas tanti utique creatoris conditae rei cujusque natura sit Portentum ergo fit non contra naturam sed contra quà m est nota natura S. Aug. de Civita De i l. 21. c. 8. Some of St. Austin's Principles are these What has never sinned can not suffer evil But according to him Pain is the greatest Evil and Beasts suffer it That the more Noble cannot have the less Noble for its end But with him the Soul of Beasts is Spiritual and more Noble than the Body and yet has no other End That what is Spiritual is Immortal yet the Soul of Beasts though Spiritual is subject to Death Many such like Principles there are in his Works whereby it may be concluded That Beasts have no such Spiritual Soul as he admits in them Ch. 44.24 2 Mac. 7.22 23. Sol homo generant â—ominem Arist. Phy. Ausc. l. 2. c. 2. See St. Th. upon the Text. V. Suarez l. 1. de concursu Dei cum voluntate Durand in 2 dist Qu. 5. Dist. 37. De Genesi ad liâ—eram l. 5. c. 20. In 4 Sent. Dist. 1. q. 1. D Aliaco ibid. * Book 4. c. 1. Deut. c. 6. * Acts 14.15.16 Ergo nihil agis ingratissime mortalium qui te negas Deo debere sed naturae quia nec naturae Deo est nec Deus sine natura sed idem est utrumque nec distat Officium si quod a Seneca accepisses Annaeo diceres te debere vel Lucio Non creditorem mutares sed nomen Sen. l. 4. de Benef. Isa. 45.7 Amos. 3.6 â— Moses Maimonid Vide Vossium lib. 2. de Idololatriâ— Ipsi qui irridentur Aegyptii nulâ—am belluam nisi ob aliquam 〈◊〉 quam ex ea caperent consecrâ—vâ—rant Cic. l. 1. de Nâ—tura Deorum Phil. 3.9 * No Whoremonger nor unclean Person nor covetous Man who is an Idolater Eph. 5.5 †They that worship him must Worship him in Spirit and in Truth Joh. 4.24 Nos si hominem patrem vocamus honorem aâ—aâ—i deferimus non Authorem vitae nostrae ostendimus Hier. in c. 33. Matth. 1 Cor. 9.22 10.33 Eph. 6.6 Col. 3.22 * Ep. 3. Ch. 2.28 Ch. 2.57 Ch. 6. contra Epist. Manichei Ch. 16. de Tran. l. 10. alibi Part 2. Ch. 3. Art 6. * De Quantitate animae Ch. 31 32. c. Lib. 4. de anima ejus origine Ch. 12. alibi Lins. c. 37. * Book IV. Chap. 2. Book VI. Part II. Chap. 7. Book III. Part II. Chap. 8. * Sess. 8. * Th. Pac. ch 4. †L. 3. ch 13. Cog. Nat. * By that Bull it is forbidden under Pain of Excommunication to give any Explication of the Decrees of the Council Vlium omnino interpretationis genus super ipsius Concilii decretis quocunque modo edere c. That Power is reserv'd to the Pope * Edit Strasb p. 190. Par. Edit 1. p. 172. in the second p. 190. in the third 187 in the fourth 95. * Pag. 90. Search after Truth Ch. ult Prov. 8.22 Eccl. 24.5 14. Eph. 14.21 22 23.2.10 21 22.4.13 16. Coll. 1.15 16 17 18 19. Ps. 72.17 Joh. 17 15.24 Rom. 8.29 1 Peâ— 1 2â— Apâ—c 13.8.1.8 c. Apoc. 21.23 Col. 1.18.2.20 Ephes. 1. â—2 Rom. 11.32 Gal. 3.22 Isaiah 5.3 4. 1 Cor. 8.11 * By True Cause I understand that which acts by its own Force Eph. 1.22 23.4.16 Col. 1.24.2.19 1 Cor. 12.27 Acts 1.24 c. Joh. 7.39 Heb. 7.25 Rom. 8.34 1 Joh. 2.1 Eph. 4.13 Ibid. 15 16. Joh. 5.4 5. 2 Cor. 13.2 Rom. 5.14.17 18 19. 1 Cor. 15.48 1 John 2.27 Luk. 10. Eph. 11.12 Heb. 2. 1 Cor. 12.27 Eph. 5.30 c. * Illustrations upon the Search after Truth First Illustration on the 7 th Ch. of the 2 d. Part of the 3 d. Book of the Search Second Illustration Col. 2.19 Heb. 7.25.9.24 Joh. 11.42 Mat. 28.18 Chap. 4 13 15 16. Col. 2.19 Col. 2.7 Joh. 1.17 Hebr. 4. Hebr. 7.16 17. Joh. 16.7 To the Intent that now unto the Principalities and Powers in Heavenly Places might be known by the Church the manifold Wisdom of God Eph. 3.10 1 Joh. 2.1 Mat. 9.15 Joh. 11.42