A Discovery of Divine Mysteries: OR THE NATURE and EFFICACY OF THE Soul of Man, Considered in all its Faculties, Operations and Divine Perfections; and how it governs in Divine and Secular Affairs of Life.  
In Three Parts. 

I. Of the Preference due to the Soul above the Body, by Reason of its Spiritual and Immortal Nature; and how it operates on Things in Heaven and Earth.  
II. How the Soul of Man moves and operates in Religious Duties and Moral Actions, whether towards God, towards ourselves, or towards Man: And of our Duty of Gospel Self-denial; which results from the manner how our Souls operate in our Bodies, under the visible Empire of God.  
III. Concerning our Duties of Time and Eternity, of the present Life and of the Life to come, of the present World and of the World to come, which results from the manner how our Souls ought to be out of our Bodies first of all, and then in our Spiritualised Bodies after the Universal Resurrection.    
With many other Curious Matters: Being a Complete Body of Divine and Moral Philosophy.  
By C. B. D. D. Fellow of the Royal Society.  
LONDON: Printed for Eben. Tracy, at the Three Bibles on London-Bridge, 1700.   

TO THE READER.  
THO' the World be full of Discourses, Treatises, and Essays of Morality, yet we have believed it might not be unnecessary, to Expose these New Essays to the Public View; Either because one cannot enough propose to Mankind their Duties; or else because the greatest part of those Essays, Treatises and Discourses which have appeared already, and of which some have so justly pleased the Relish of the Age, are (if well regarded) no more than only Paintings and Descriptions, or at best but Incitements, not Convictions and Establishments of Duties: For they suppose that the Principles of Religion, Morality, and Duties, are settled and acknowledged; they presuppose them, but they prove them not; they persuade them to those who already do believe them; but if there be some who do not believe them, (as there are too too many who doubt thereof, or at least, who are not sufficiently persuaded of them) they do neither persuade nor convince Them in the least.  
We believe that we have Discovered the precious and inestimable Treasure of an entire Conviction of Religion and Morality, in the Incultivated and Neglected Field of the Natural Knowledge of our Souls, and the no less precious Treasure of that Knowledge of our Souls in the Attention and Reflection upon every one's Proper and Indubitable Sentiment; and we have believed that we ought to render the Discovery Public.  
This is what we have done. And tho' in all this Essay (which is indeed no other than a mere Essay, because it is only an Idea which we rough-draw, and an Overture which we make, but do not fully accomplish by Unfolding and Pressing on in a particular and complete Delineation, all our Duties and all their Circumstances) there needs nothing more, Than that every one should apply his proper Sentiment, and the clear Ideas which he finds in Himself, by Attention and Reflection upon this Indubitable Sentiment which he hath in Himself; Nevertheless, because there are few Persons who are accustomed to Reflect and Reason upon Matters so remote from their Senses, and the Carnal Relish of Human Passions which stir up Attention in Reading the greatest part of other Books; we foresaw that this Essay might appear too strong to some Spirits, who can only digest Matters that are very easy, who are not accustomed to mount up to the Principles of Things, who Rely upon the Credit of Authors, and who are not at all Curious to see what we propose to them in First Notions and Clear Ideas.  
But besides that we believed that an Age so Enlightened as Ours is, would require an Instruction as strong, and that there are Spirits who would willingly be thus Fundamentally Instructed, and that it would be convenient to Impress this Relish upon others, to the end that they may be raised up to a more Perfect Knowledge of God and themselves; We do also hope that the meanest Capacities may here learn how to Know their Souls, and by their Souls their Duties.  
S. Paul would have all the Faithful apply themselves to Augment and Increase Light and Knowledge in themselves; And if there be any Knowledge which is useful and necessary to be Increased and brought to Perfection, it is without doubt The Knowledge of our Soul, which is the most Essential Science which we have to acquire, and the true Science of God and of Salvation, as the Divine Apostle speaks; since we can Know nothing Fundamentally, neither of our Heavenly and Eternal Hope, nor of our Present State upon Earth, nor of our Essential Relation with the Eternal Nature and Essence, (from whence proceed all our Duties) but in Proportion as the Knowledge of our Soul Increaseth.  
We see very Exact and very Religious Observers of Duties, who oftentimes Know not why they perform them; and tho' they do not do amiss in being so, yet they would do much better in Being, and Knowing why they are so; because, whatsoever a Man is Knowingly, and by the Conviction of Reason, he is much more solidly so for himself, and much more profitably so for others.  
We have believed that we ought to give a Complete Science and Knowledge of the Soul, to the end that all the World might thereby Instruct themselves in their Duties, either for a particular Edification, or for the Instruction and Edification of others: And we are persuaded that all those, who will give themselves the pains of Reading with some Attention, and of adding to that Reading some little Reflection upon themselves, to Remark what we Observe of the Natural and Universal Sentiments of all Mankind, (which is the perpetual Light of this Treatise) will find that we have rendered this Matter (otherwise so obscure and difficult of itself) most Intelligible, and Proportioned to the Capacity of the whole World.   

THE CONTENTS.  

PART I.  
OF the Preference due to the Soul above the Body, from the Reason of its Spiritual and Immortal Nature. Page 1.  
Chap. 1. The Curiosity which we ought to have how to know our Souls. ibid. 

The Dignity of our Souls. 6  
The Perception and Certainty which all of us have of our Souls. 8    
Chap. 2. That our Souls undoubtedly are Spiritual Natures, and altogether distinct from Bodies, upon the account of their Intelligent Nature. 11 

Why and how we conceive of God and Angels as Spirits. 12  
This is the common Doctrine of the Schools. 14    
Chap. 3. The manner of our conceiving that Knowledge which is in Beasts, causes a Confusion which must necessarily be rectified. 16 

Four different Opinions, which make four different Degrees of Knowledge in Beasts. 19    
Chap. 4. A general Discussion of the Opinion which gives to Beasts a Knowledge like to ours. 21  
Chap. 5. Whether Beasts have a true Reason, like to ours. 25  
Chap. 6. Whether Beasts have any Reasoning inferior to Reason. 33  
Chap. 7. Whether Beasts have any sort of Knowledge like to ours. 37  
Chap. 8. What Judgement soever is made of Beasts, our Souls are undoubtedly Spiritual, by reason of their Knowing Nature. 43  
Chap. 9 The double, immense, and infinite Ground of Knowledge that is in our Souls, is a new and certain Proof of their Spiritual Nature. 56  
Chap. 10. That Libertines cannot maintain this monstrous Opinion, That the Soul of Man is Corporeal. 59  
Chap. 11. That our Souls are undoubtedly Immortal, by reason of their Knowing Nature. 67  
Chap. 12. That our Souls are undoubtedly Spiritual, by reason of the Principle and Ground of Liberty which we find in them. 75 

Animals have not the Liberty of their Motions. 76  
Our Liberty of Thinking is a certain Character of the Nature and Spiritual Essence in our Souls. 81  
The Empire of our Desires is another certain Proof of the Spirituality of our Souls. 83    
Chap. 13. We have an indubitable Certainty of the Immortal Condition of our Souls, by the Desires and Instincts of Immortality and Eternity which we have. 87  
Chap. 14. Of the Spiritual and Immortal Nature of our Souls, drawn from the Ground of Conscience. 95 

That Conscience is not in the Soul of Man an Effect of Education, or of some Opinion with which it was imprinted and prepossessed in the Infancy. 98    
Chap. 15. That our Souls are indubitably Immortal, by a Certainty that the Sentiment of the Conscience gives us thereof. 104  
Chap. 16. That it is easy not only to give ourselves a Conviction of the Spiritual Nature of our Souls, but to give a neat Idea of them. 112 

That every one feels and perceives his Soul; and that altho' he be ignorant, it is only because he knows not that he knows it. 116    
Chap. 17. Some Essential Reflections, to Rstablish the Order of the Preference of the Soul above that of the Body. 119 

That all the good and ill Fortune are in our Souls, 120  
That the Soul hath Pleasures and Pains independently of the Body. 121  
The Essential Difference of the Pleasures and the Pains which the Soul hath by reason of the Body; and of the Pleasures and the Pains which She hath independently of the Body. ibid.  
That the Pleasures and the Pains which the Soul hath not but upon the account of the Body, are only as it were to show the Pleasures and the Pains of Eternity. 123  
That Virtue is the proper and true Good of the Soul, and Vices its Evils, 124  
That the Passions are the Fevers of the Soul. 126  
That the Soul hath Essentially in her Disorders the Apprehension of a Superior Justice, which wounds her. 128    
Chap. 18. That all these Knowledges are so many Lights and Principles of Morality and Duty. 130 

The Order of Duties between our Souls and our Bodies. 132     

PART II.  
OF our Duties of Religion and of Morality, whether towards God, whether towards ourselves, whether towards Man, and of our Duty of all Gospel Self-denial; which result from the manner how our Souls Are and Operate in our Bodies under the Visible Empire of God. Page 141  
Chap. 1. How we may with Assurance know the manner how our Souls are in our Bodies. ibid.  
Chap. 2. General Experiences of a Power Superior to our Souls and to our Bodies, which Acts in our Souls and in our Bodies. 146 

The first Experience that we have, That God Acts upon us as a Sovereign Ruler, after the manner wherein our Souls Are in our Bodies. ibid.  
The Second Experience of the same Empire in the Sovereign Domination with which our Souls are sent into our Bodies without Consulting them. 147  
A Third Experience of the same thing in Diseases, over which our Soul hath no Empire. 148  
A Fourth Experience of the same in Pleasure and Pain. ib.  
A Fifth Experience of the same in the Ideas which we receive. 150    
Chap. 3. Experiences of the Power which Governs Nature, and which comes to the Assistance of our Souls in a moment. 153 

Another Experience of the same from the diversity of delectable and painful Sentiments. 155  
A Third Experience, That God Acts as an Universal Cause, in the manner that he Acts upon our Souls and upon our Bodies. 156    
Chap. 4. False Ideas which we must avoid by the Light of these Experiences, and first, That of Believing that our Souls are united to our Bodies by any Sympathy, Proportion, or Inclination. 158 

That the Soul is not as Corporeal Forms, tho' it be the Form of a Man. 160  
The difference between a Soul and an Angel. ibid.  
The Opinion of the Ancient Fathers upon all that hath been said concerning the Disproportion betwixt Souls and Bodies. 161    
Chap. 5. That the Body cannot in any manner Act upon the Soul, to Illuminate or Affect it Physically and Immediately, by itself. 164 

That our own Bodies cannot Act Physically and Immediately by themselves upon our Souls, whose Spirituality renders them inaccessible to all sorts of Impressions of bodies. 167  
That the Body doth not cause in the Soul either Pleasure or Pain. 168  
Bodies do not only not cause the Sentiments and Ideas in the Soul, but they do not so much as determine the Soul Physically to make them. 170  
That the Souls of themselves do not make the Ideas or Images of Bodies. 171      


pressing an Ardour as we have to know all things out of ourselves, so much Coldness have we for that excellent Curiosity of knowing ourselves: It is the only Map and the only History, the only Intrigue and the only Matter, which we take no care at all to understand.  

The Dignity of our Souls.  
Yet in the mean time we have a Soul, not only Spiritual, and of a Nature altogether different from the Body, and more excellent than all we can conceive that is Material and Corporeal; but also Immortal and Celestial, imprinted with a thousand Characters of a lively Resemblance of the Supreme Nature and Essence, and destined to an Eternity, and a happy Immortality, in an eternal Union and an Everlasting Society of Delights and Joys with God.  
Moses hath taken care to give us the History and Genealogy of it. For, says he, He that in the Beginning created the Heaven and the Earth, form out of the Common Matter of the Universe the Beasts of the Field, the Birds of the Air, the Fishes of the Sea, by the sole construction of their Members and Corporeal Organs, which he directed to those particular Ends which he had proposed to himself for a general End of his Workmanship: By means of which, he made them capable of those admirable and different Instincts and Movements that we see in them, which is that only Life that Experience makes us see, and Reason suffers us to acknowledge to be in Beasts: By the sole construction or organization of their Bodies, That a most pure and a most subtle Fire, formed from the most pure and most agitated part of their Blood, moved and animated suddenly; They became, says the Holy Historian, Living Creatures. But when he came to Man, to whom he gave the place of Master and King of the visible World, the Common Matter which sufficed to make the other Living Creatures, was not at all sufficient for the making of Man; Man cannot be made like Beasts, by a sole Construction and Organization of his Body; for the Body being framed, it would not have been for all that a Man, it would have been a Beast as Brutish as the rest, if God had not sought out a Soul for it in His own Heart, and in His own Essence: There needed nothing but a well-placing of Matter, and an altogether Earthly Structure of Organs animated by a Blood a little set on fire, to cause a Body to eat and walk, and to make it a living Creature, like the rest: But to make a Man, who, far above the Life of Beasts, hath a Life of Knowledge, Understanding, and Reason; who hath that Empire over himself which we call Liberty, and that Natural Rightness which we call Conscience, there was a necessity of searching for the Principle of this excellent Life out of all the Extent of Matter and the Region of Bodies, and the Creator could find it no where but in Himself. For this is what that Expression of the Holy Writer means, And he breathed into him the breath of life. He grafted upon this Material and Terrestrial Structure, which of itself could have no other than the Life of Beasts, which had been given to the Common Matter of the World in Animals, a lively Image, and an admirable Resemblance of his Eternal Essence: And from the Conjunction of this Terrestrial Structure, and this Celestial and Divine Nature which he poured into it, Man became Man after His Image, and was raised up in the middle of the World, as a Living Statue, to be reverenced by all the Universe.   

The Perception and Certainty which all of us have of our Souls.  
This is the History and Genealogy which Moses gives us of our Soul; in which he appears no less a Philosopher, than a Prophet: And altho' he should never have given it us, we should not have forborn to climb up to that Source or Origin of our Nobility, by the inward Experience and Certainty which we all of us have of ourselves; since there is no body that doth not feel and perceive in himself this Celestial and Divine Part added and engrafted upon this Terrestrial Matter, with a thousand Characters and a thousand Attributes undoubtedly Celestial and Divine. For who is there that doth not perceive in himself a Principle of Knowledge without Bounds, which gives a kind of Immensity to his Soul? Who is there that doth not perceive in himself a Principle and a Ground of an Empire over himself, and over the visible World, in the Foundation of his Liberty, which raises up a Man into a kind of Equality, or at least a Resemblance of Sovereignty with God? Who doth not perceive in himself a Ground of Justice, or Love of Order, of Virtue and Duty, which makes him like to the Eternal Justice, from whence flows all the Order, all the Beauty of the World, both Moral and Natural? Who doth not perceive in himself a Ground of Conscience, whereby every one is punished or rewarded upon the spot, according as he hath done well or ill; in which Man bears in himself a lively Image of that Supreme Justice which continually judges the Universe, and which will one day solemnly manifest its Judgement by a manifest Recompense of the Good, and an awful Punishment of the Wicked?  
Men have essentially this Perception, and this Experience of themselves: Some have it more clear and lively, others more confused, stupid, and dead, if I may so say, according as they have more or less Attention or Reflection upon themselves; but it is certain that they all of them have it. It is apparent, that the ancient Philosophers, and the ancient Poets who were themselves the Philosophers of their time, had not at all read the Book of Genesis, when they made our Souls to descend from Heaven, and confounded them with the Supreme Nature, and said, that they were a Portion of It more particularly applied to animate our Bodies, than the rest of the Universe. It is not any Tradition that hath given Men these Ideas; it is the natural perception, and inward experience and certainty which the Soul essentially hath of itself: And if Men were not diverted and carried away on the one side by their Passions, and on the other side overruled to that degree as they are, by the Empire exercised over them by the Imagination, which dulls and obscures them so, as hath been said; there would be no need of writing Books, to let them know the Nobility and Dignity, the Imaterial Nature and the Spiritual and Immortal Quality of their Souls: Every one would be his own Master, and his own Book to himself. But seeing that the Passions on one side take from us the Attention and Reflection upon ourselves, and that the Imagination, on the other side, presents us with Corporeal Images as soon as we apply ourselves to conceive things Spiritual and Immaterial, it is necessary to awaken and help this natural Sentiment, and to support the feeble and weak Effort of the Understanding and Reason, to unmingle our Soul from that Confusion with the Body which the Imagination causes: For that purpose we must begin to own its Spiritual and Immortal Nature, of which it can accumulate a thousand Proofs; but, not to weary the Spirit by too much Speculation, we will close it up in Three only, drawn from one triple indubitable Sentiment, which every one hath, and upon which every one may easily reflect: For every one finds in himself a Principle of Knowledge, a Principle of Liberty, and a Principle of Conscience, or Love of Order and Justice: And these are the three evident Convictions of the Spiritual and Immortal Nature of our Souls, which sparkle within us. Let us treat of them in order, and explain them one after another.    

CHAP. II.  
That our Souls undoubtedly are Spiritual Natures, and altogether distinct from Bodies, upon the account of their Intelligent Nature.  
IF we should follow the Light of our natural Ideas, there would be no need here of any Effort of Reason, or any Train of Discourse; for the natural Idea which we have of a Spirit, or a Spiritual Nature, is no other than an Idea of an Intelligent Nature, such as we find and perceive in us by that intimate and inseparable Experience which we have of ourselves. For we must observe, and, which admits of no difficulty, that as we do not know Bodies but by the Experience which we have of them, so we know not Spirits but by that Spirit which we have in ourselves, and by that Idea which we have of our Soul, which we know not but under the Idea of a knowing Substance, which we experiment and perceive in us to be capable of divers Matters of knowing, perceiving, and willing, of loving, of hating, of being afflicted and rejoicing, of having Pain and Pleasure, and, in fine, to be generally susceptible of an infinite number of divers Modifications, of which it hath an essential Certainty, as often as it makes them in itself, or suffers or receives them from any thing else.  
As we have no Idea nor Experience of any sort of true Knowledge but that of our own, so we have naturally no Certainty, nor near or immediate Idea, but of our own Spirit: And tho' we form to ourselves an Idea of some Spirit without us, and of some Intelligent Nature, it is only grounded upon that Idea which we have of ourselves, or of that Intelligent Nature which, as I have said, we find and prove to be in us; for we know neither God nor Angel, but by an Idea which we draw and which we form and build upon that Idea which we have of ourselves.  

Why and how we conceive of God and Angels as Spirits.  
The Idea which we have of an Angel, is no other than an Idea of an Intelligent Nature, such as is in us, but separated and disengaged from the Servitude and Union of Bodies, and by consequence enfranchised from the Imperfections and Miseries tied to their Dependence, such as we find in ourselves.  
The Idea which we have of God is in like manner no other than an Idea of an Intelligent Nature, such as is in us, but exempt from all the Imperfections which are in us. It is an Idea of a Nature Intelligent, and existing by itself, with a Power, Wisdom, and Sanctity or Infinite Justice; whereas we conceive of ourselves just as we are, under an Idea of a Created Intelligent Nature, Imperfect, Defective, and Dependent in a thousand manners; but this difference doth not at all hinder, but that this Great and August Idea of the Supreme Spirit may be apprehended under the Idea of that Intelligent Nature which we find and prove in ourselves. We do not know that God knows otherwise than we, were it not that he must of necessity know by Himself essentially all things, without a Cloud, without Obscurity, without Uncertainty, and all at one View: Whereas we only know successively, and dependently of a Superior Power, which gives us Ideas and Perceptions as he pleases.  
As we know no other Spirit than God, Angel, and Man; and as we conceive neither God, nor Angel, nor Man as Spirits, but under an Idea of a Knowing Nature, and knowing with that kind of Knowledge which we find in us; it follows, That the Idea under which we conceive a Spiritual Nature, is the Idea of that Knowing Nature which is in us. And indeed it is impossible to have any clear and positive Idea of a Spirit, which hath not for its Basis and Foundation either Knowledge, or a Knowing Faculty; for all other Definitions and Notions which are given of a Spiritual Substance, have nothing Positive, but consist in Negations.   

This is the common Doctrine of the Schools.  
Thomas Aquinas and the Scholiasts do commonly teach, That we know neither God nor Angels, but after the manner I have been speaking of: For this is what they would say, when they teach, That we do not know either God or Angels, but, as they term it, per alienam speciem; that we know them not but by a borrowed and copied Idea; that we have no proper, original, and immediate Idea of them; for these are their Expressions: And tho' we had not these Authorities, the Experience which we all of us have of the manner how we form to ourselves the Notion and Idea of God and Angels, by Reasoning, and by Abstractions, and by Precision or separation of the Imperfection which we know to be in us, would not permit us to doubt, but that the sole Idea and the sole Notion which we have of a Spiritual Nature, is the Notion or Idea of an Intelligent Nature.  
We know by an indubitable Experience, that there are in the World two sorts of Natures, a Knowing Nature, and a Nature not knowing. And, to distinguish these two Natures, of which we find in ourselves Ideas and Notions altogether distinct, by our Apprehension and Experience not to be doubted of, we have given to the one the Name of Spiritual Nature, and to the other the Name of Corporeal Nature. Here you see the Truth of the Matter. So if we would follow the Ideas and the Pure Lights of Nature, which are always Infallible, there would be no need here of making any Effort of Reasoning, to manifest the Spiritual Nature of our Souls, which we so surely find to be Intelligent: But by the misfortune of a deadly Prejudice, generally established by a precipitate and an inconsiderate Judgement from our Infancy, whereby is formed an almost universal Error, which hath taken place of Truth, we have so confounded, obscured, and involved this lively and pure Light of Nature, and of the Idea of Body and Spirit, or of Spiritual and Corporeal Nature, as it is absolutely necessary to stop here, in order to regulate that Confusion which hath been cast upon these Ideas.    

CHAP. III.  
The manner of our conceiving that Knowledge which is in Beasts, causes a Confusion which must necessarily be rectified.  
WE understand already, that it is the Judgement which we have made of Beasts (when upon the appearance of some exterior Movements like ours, and of some Vital and Natural Functions, we have judged that they had Knowledge like us) which hath caused that Confusion which we are now about to rectify.  
I am no way desirous to change the Language of Men; I will never say that Fire is not hot, nor that Beasts do not know after their fashion; provided Men do not confound their manner of Knowing with ours. That Beasts know, I grant; and let People talk as much of it as they will, provided they allow that they have no Idea of that Knowledge which they give them. Beasts, without doubt, know after their manner, since they fly from and pursue Objects as they are agreeable or disagreeable to them: And it would be a very sad thing, and contrary to the current Style of the Language of Men, if we should not permit that to be called Knowledge in the best sense. Let not then any one believe that I will here make any Innovation in the Language of Men, or at all proceed in the Method of that New Philosophy which changes all Ideas and common Expressions into Paradoxes and Riddles. Let Animals know, with all my Heart, after their manner, which is to fly from, or to pursue, (without knowing for all that what they do, by an Instinct altogether blind in respect to them, but most clear in respect of the Workman which gave it them, and who conducts them) the things which are good or ill for them; and to be thereby capable of a thousand several Movements, occasioned by the different Impressions which come to them from without, and from the divers Fermentations which arise in them from the Mass of Blood and the Humours which are within them. But if we look upon Beasts to be entirely Corporeal, as Moses would have us to conceive; if we conceive them as having Material Souls, as the Scripture makes us to conceive, telling us so constantly, that their Soul is their Blood, and that all that is in them was formed of the common Matter of the Universe: Yet let us take care how we apply to their Movements, which are totally Corporeal, the Idea of that Knowledge which we find in Us: Let Us not conceive that they know in any manner like Us.  
We must take notice of what I say, Like us: For that is the Knowledge which is in question here, and which I will not grant them, because the Rule of wise and infallible Judgements, by which we ought always to guide our Reason, cannot permit me. If by knowing like us, Men meant no other than that they receive, as we do, a Corporeal Impression, by the Eyes, by the , by the Ears, and by the other Organs of the Senses, which passes even to their very Brain, and there determines the very Movements of Flight and Pursuit, without any other Knowledge or Perception like ours; there would be no difficulty at all to let it pass for granted, that they know as we do. For it is certain, that the Light which reflects from the Body of a Man, upon the Eyes of a Beast, is engraven and imprinted there just as it is in us; that Sounds strike their Nerves, and the Tympanum in their Ears; that Scents tickle their Olfactory Nerve, like as they do ours; and that from thence follow the Movements of Flight and Pursuit: And if Men would have it, that this is to know like us, which is infinitely far from it, for there is not that Knowledge which makes our distinction, since there is nothing in That which in us we call Knowledge, I would not insist upon opposing this manner of speaking. But, by the greatest Misfortune in the World, Men do not mean so, when they say, that Beasts know like us.  
There are some People so stupid as to conceive, that Beasts have Perceptions and Representations of Objects in themselves, just as we have; that they have a Certainty of themselves, and true Ideas of things, by which they act and guide themselves. It is so that we judged in our Infancy, according to the more rash and senseless Judgement of the World: And it is this Judgement which I believe aught to be destroyed and subverted.  

Four different Opinions, which make four different Degrees of Knowledge in Beasts.  
At that time when we judged that Beasts knew like us, this false and rash Judgement was divided, and as it were spread into four different Opinions. The one believed that Beasts were animated by the Souls of Men, which going out of their Bodies, passed into those of Beasts; That the Souls of great Captains and valiant Men, made Lions and other courageous Animals; That the Souls of the Voluptuous, made Swine and Bears; The Souls of Crafty Men, Foxes: And that the Quality of every Soul, made the Quality of the Beast into the Body of which it entered; which is the ancient Metempsychosis or Transmigration of Souls, of which the fantastical Imagination is known to all the World. There were others who believed that Beasts were not animated after that fashion, by the proper Souls of Men, but only by Souls like those of Men, but less noble and less perfect; but endued, however, with true Reason, altho' inferior to that of Men. There were others who not being willing that Beasts should have that Species of Reason which without dispute we have, will have them to have a true Reasoning or Ground of Knowledge, perfect enough to go on from one Knowledge to another, and to clear up themselves by the Progress of their Knowledges and Reflections; which is what some have likewise called Reason. We have seen not long ago this Opinion set forth with a fair show of Words, and supported with extreme heat and obstinacy, by the late Monsieur de la Chambre, who at first dash hath given Reason to Animals, tho' he believed their Souls were Corporeal, and not like ours. Lastly, There are others who not being able to endure that Beasts should have either Human Souls, or Souls like to those of Men, nor that they should have that Species of Reasoning inferior to our Reasoning, which Monsieur de la Chambre hath given them; have confined themselves to a pure Knowledge of simple Perception of Objects purely Corporeal, and will have it, that Beasts have only This simple Perception without Discourse and Reasoning, and even without a proper Judgement, or Act of Judging, which is that Act by which we compare our Ideas one with the other, and know their Relation, or their Contrarieties and Oppositions.  
We see here, as it were, the four Propensities, and four different Courses, which the rash and senseless Judgement of our Infancy hath taken, by the which we have judged that Beasts have Knowledge like us. It hath form these four different Opinions, of which there is not one that is not infinitely rash, false, full of Contradictions and Repugnancies.  
We may discuss and examine this Judgement two several ways: First of all, by taking it in general, and abstractedly from the different Opinions into which it is divided; and then by regarding it in particular, in every one of those Opinions, one after another.    

CHAP. IU.  
A general Discussion of the Opinion which gives to Beasts a Knowledge like to ours.  
TO take it in general, in the Abstract, and without descending into the diversity of Opinions into which Men thereupon have divided themselves, it is sure, that this Judgement by the which we have decided that Beasts have Knowledge like us (which we have been pleased to divine, for we have not any Experience of such a Knowledge that is in them, nor any Conviction of Reason) hath been a precipitate, inconsiderate, and senseless Judgement: it hath been made without following or without consulting Reason, and that immutable Rule of Wisdom and natural Logic, which prescribes to us, never to judge beyond the Light of our Reason, and to receive nothing into our Spirit but that which enters there by a clear and certain Evidence. We have not only not followed this Rule, out of which there is no Judgement but what is rash, precipitous, and senseless, altho' it may sometimes happen to be true; but we have entertained this Judgement, and given this Decision, without examining whether it had any solid Foundation.  
We have formed this Judgement upon the Movements which we see Beasts make, and we have not considered neither, that there are such like Movements in Plants and Metals, who have their Sympathies and Antipathies, which cause them to pursue and fly, to approach and withdraw themselves, as if they truly knew, loved, and hated; nor that there is not any need of Knowledge to do any of these things; since we every day see no less admirable Movements most certainly directed to their Ends, in the Workmanship of Men, where we see playing a thousand secret & imperceptible Springs, which make them walk, speak, fly, eat, and every thing else that is most marvellous in Animals; which is what Aristotle hath said clearly in his seventh Chapter of his Book of the Movements of Animals, saying, That as Machines' which we call Automata, when they are moved after a certain manner, do presently make their Movements by the force of Springs wound up; so Animals are moved, having Bones and Nerves, as so many Instruments disposed by the Industry of Nature, which causes in them, what pieces of Wood and Iron with their Spring's cause in Machines'. Nor, that it is not Knowledge which causes these Motions even in us. For it is certain, that Knowledge neither causes nor directs even our voluntary Movements, since none of us knows how he moves his Feet, his Hands, his Tongue and all the Members of his Body; but only he knows that he moves them when he will, if the Organ be fitly disposed, and that Knowledge doth not at all accompany even those Motions which are purely Natural; for our Blood circulates from one Ventricle of the Heart into the other, going out of the one by the Arteries, and returning into the other by the Veins, without our having any Knowledge or Sentiment of them. The Digestion, the Distribution of Chyle, the Separation of Humours in the Spleen, in the Brain, in the Liver, all vital and natural Actions, are made after the same manner.  
This Judgement therefore hath been precipitous and inconsiderate, and will be always so, so long as it shall subsist without having other Principles or Foundations. But it hath not only been inconsiderate and rash, but also senseless, and full of Contradiction and Contrariety, in that it hath judged that Beasts have Knowledge like us, without judging at the same time, that they have a Principle of Spiritual Knowledge like us; for it is a Contradiction to suppose Beasts to have a true Knowledge like us, and not to have it Spiritual as ours is. For either the Act of Knowing is Spiritual in us, or it is not; and if it is Spiritual, how can it be the same in Beasts, which we believe to be wholly Material and Corporeal? There never was so visible a Contradiction as to maintain, That the Act of Knowing is Spiritual, and yet for all that, that it is in a Subject wholly Corporeal and Material, in which there can be nothing that is Spiritual.  
When the Question was to be decided to our advantage, we judged that Knowledge was essentially Spiritual, to do ourselves Honour; and afterwards, when we came to decide it about Beasts, which we have judged to have Knowledge as well as we, (for we have not applied to them any other Idea of Knowledge, than that which we have of our own proper Knowledge; for how could we apply any other to them, since it is manifest we have no other, as hath been observed more than once?) we have forgotten what we had at first decided, That Knowledge was essentially Spiritual; and having at first conceived it as such, we have suddenly degraded it, to make it Corporeal in Beasts. We have believed that Butterflies, Caterpillars, Flies, and Hand-worms ought to be raised to the Honour of Knowing as we do; but being ashamed to give them a Spiritual Knowledge, and a Soul like ours, we have been forced to say, that their Knowledge was Corporeal, altho' like to ours; in which there are two Contradictions; one, in saying, that a Corporeal thing can be like a thing that is Spiritual; the other, That a thing which at first hath been conceived to be essentially Spiritual, should afterwards be found to be Corporeal.   

CHAP. V.  
Whether Beasts have a true Reason, like to ours.  
BUT if the Judgement which we have made of Beasts is so insupportable in the Abstract & the generality of it, it is yet much more in the particular Opinions into which it is divided; for there is not any one of them, which is not either evidently false, or evidently repugnant, and full of Incompatibilities.  
Not to say any thing of the fantastical Dream of the Transmigration of Souls, of which the System is more reasonable, than that which making the Souls of Beasts totally Corporeal, gives them nevertheless a true Knowledge like ours: And to let you see that the Chiefest amongst the Philosophers have very well comprehended, that a Knowing Nature is essentially Spiritual; let us say nothing of it, but only that besides its other Repugnancies, Incompatibilities, and Absurdities, and the rashness and precipitation of Judgement which is common to it with the other Three; it contains the Incompatibility and the Defect of not being able to furnish Human Souls enough to animate all Living Creatures; for it is certain, that there are many more Aunts and Flies only, than there are Men.  
Let us dwell a little longer upon the Opinion of those who give to Beasts a true Reason, and Souls like to ours. They believe they are well grounded in this Opinion, because it is certain that Animals perform Acts of Reason: For who will gainsay that the Foresight of the Ant, that the good Intelligence of the Bees, that a thousand and a thousand admirable Effects of Instinct, which guide Animals, of which the Books and Discourses of Men are full, are not Acts of a true Wisdom and Reason? It is likewise certain, that if Beasts did all these things by a true Knowledge, which enlightened, directed, and conducted them, it would be impossible to take from them the advantage of a true Reason, and of having by consequence a Soul like ours. But being we are far from having any certainty that it is by a true Knowledge, like to ours, that the Instincts of Beasts do operate; which cannot be had but by an Experience, which is absolutely impossible; because one must have been a Brute, to know that which is done in Brutes: we have therefore indubitable certainty, that it is not by Knowledge that Beasts perform these marvellous effects which we have acknowledged to be the Acts of Reason; and we must decide, without hesitation, that there is no true Reason in Beasts.  
The first Prejudice, and the first Certainty which we have, that the Acts of Reason which appear in Beasts are not Acts of their proper Reason, but of an exterior Reason which guides them; and that this Reason and this Wisdom which guides them, is a Wisdom and a Reason more excellent and more certain than that of Man; for there is no likelihood that there should be in Aunts and Bees more Light and more Wisdom than in Man; and they should have a great deal more, without doubt, if it were by Light and true Wisdom that they did all which they do. Let us see a little the Industry, Capacity, and Knowledge of all Birds, who make their Nests at a certain time, a little before they lay their Eggs. Let us look upon the Foresight of the Ant, who heaps up its Provision for the Winter: Let us behold the Agreement and good Order, and all the Policy of that little Monarchical State of the Bees: Let us see all that is spoken of Fishes, of Fowls, and all sorts of Animals, in natural Histories wherein are written their Habilities and their Industry.  
There needs only a little Review of it, by a slight Application, to all that we have read or heard say of it, to see clearly, that if they did these things by Knowledge, by Light, and by Reason, they would have, without comparison, more Light of Knowledge and of Reason than we. If the Ant, for example, bites off by Light and Reason the Ends of the Corn, which she lays up for her Winter's Provision; If the Swallow, in like manner, makes his Nest by Light and by Reason; who can doubt but that this Light and this Reason is more clear and more excellent than that of Man? For we must take notice, that if this be Light, the Ant hath this Light perfect and complete so soon as she is formed, and the Swallow as soon as she is hatched; and they both of them have it without study, and without pain; and they have it by an admirable fecundity, and by a marvellous facility of Ingeny; they need no Master, they instruct themselves: For I do not believe that any Man will think, that these Sciences are given by Tradition from Father to Son, or that they tell them this Secret in their Ear as soon as they come into the World. Long usage among us brings the Works of our Arts to perfection; but There, All is complete and perfect at the first time; for the Swallow knows as well how to build her Nest the first Year, as the tenth; and the Ant knows as well to by't off the Ends of the Corn which she lays up for Winter the first Year. The Light, therefore, and the Reason of Animals would be more perfect than that of Man, if the Instinct which causes them to do those Acts of Reason which they do, were true Light and true Reason. And as there is no likelihood to give to Beasts that advantage of Reason, we may say, That it is a true Certainty, that the Reason which operates in Beasts is not in them; but that it is, as Thomas Aquinas after all the Ancient Fathers says, the Sovereign and Eternal Reason of the Supreme Workman, who preserves his Works, and conducts them to those Ends for which he hath created them, by secret Springs which he hath placed in them, which are diversely determined, according to Accidents, to make a thousand sorts of different Movements, according to their different Business and Occasion.  
From the Fly to the Elephant, as there is nothing in these Bodies so marvellously wrought, ordained, or disposed, but what the Wisdom of the Creator hath ordained and disposed; so there is not any thing in their Movements which That Wisdom doth not move and direct. The Clockmaker knows very well how to make his Clock go, and to make it strike; to mark out the Hours, as if It knew them, without giving it either Knowledge or Reason for it. The Pilot knows well how to take Wind and Tide, and to make the Ship avoid the Rocks and Sand, as if It truly saw them, without giving it, for all that, Light to guide it. And the Heavenly Workman hath known, saith Thomas Aquinas, after the same manner how to give blind Instinct to Beasts, which guides them as if they had true Wisdom. It is effectively true Wisdom, but the Wisdom of the Creator, not theirs. It is nothing but a frenetick Fury of that outrageous and frantic Atheism, which will not acknowledge any Order in the Universe, for fear of acknowledging a Principle of it, which makes Men maintain, That Beasts do by chance that which they do, and that they are not guided by an Immense and Infinite Wisdom, which operates in them throughout all the World after the same fashion. It is indubitable, that there is a Wisdom which shines in their Guidance; and that this Wisdom is Infinite and Immense, since it acts and operates through All, at the same time. And inasmuch as it is certain, that this Wisdom appears, shines, and operates in them; so much it is certain, that it is not of them and in them, because it is too perfect, too clear, too vast, and too immense to be in them.  
But here is another Certainty, That Reason which operates within Beasts, is not in them and from them, and doth not any way enlighten and instruct them, in guiding them. This must pass for certain, That Instinct is not of any other nature in Beasts than in Men; and we see, that the Instincts by which Nature guides our Animal and Natural Actions, does no ways enlighten or instruct us; for that which we do by Instinct, we do, without knowing how, or why we do it. We open, for example, the Mouth as soon as we are born, to take the Breasts of our Mothers or our Nurses, and we know not why or how we do it; we balance ourselves when we stumble, and fling our Bodies on the other side, to make an Equilibrium, and to find out the Line of Direction, and yet we know not what this Equilibrium or Line of Direction is, nor why we seek for it. There are a hundred other things which we do by Instinct, and never know What we do, nor Why or How we do them, when we act by Instinct. And who does not see, if it be so, that there is no means of granting Beasts Instincts to enlighten them, since they do not enlighten us ourselves, who are otherwise undisputably capable of being enlightened by Reason.  
But that which completes our Conviction, that the Reason which guides Beasts is not their proper Reason, nor a Light which is in them to enlighten and instruct them in their Guidance, is, That it is certain, That their Reason never guides them, but that it is a Superior Reason which always guides them; and that this Reason which guides them, is a Reason which guides them always necessarily, and after the same Fashion. The Reason that is in an Intelligent Nature (at least in a finite, imperfect, and limited Intelligent Nature) is a Light which doth not always act after the same fashion; it is not determined to one sort of Matter, and to one Object only; it can enlighten all sorts of Matter more or less; it guides him in whom it is, and is itself guided in its turn.  
Moreover, whosoever hath Reason hath Light, of itself Infinite and Universal, by the which he is able to guide himself in all sorts of Matters, good or ill, according as his Reason is more or less short, and according as he uses it with Prudence and Precaution. Reason is not Reason for one Matter only; it is Reason for all. Now it is certain, that the Reason of Beasts hath not any of these Characters; theirs is an Act of Reason which flows and springs from the Eternal Wisdom, and which is determined to one End precisely; theirs is not a Ground and Principle of Reason, which is in them, and which is of them, for them to make use of for every thing that pleases them. There might be a hundred and a hundred Reflections added one upon another, to prove with an uncontrollable Evidence, that Beasts have not a true Reason which enlightens and instructs them (at least that we are able to know) altho' there is a Sovereign Reason which guides them; but we must remember, that we touch this Matter only by the by; and this pretended Reason of Beasts being evidently destroyed by all the Reflections we have been making, we must pass to the third Opinion, touching the true and proper Knowledge of Beasts, which is that Opinion which gives them Reasoning, altho' it denies them the Ground of Reason, and the advantage of a Spiritual and Immaterial Soul like ours.   

CHAP. VI  
Whether Beasts have any Reasoning inferior to Reason.  
WE have already sufficiently distinguished Reasoning from Reason, to the end that we may conceive the difference of this Third Opinion. Reason speaks the ground of Justice and Conscience in the Heart, as well as a ground of Light and Wisdom in the Spirit, to love Order and Duty, as well as to know it; and it is from thence that arises that crowd of Reflections which we have suppressed: By which it is clear, and aught to be manifest, that there cannot be true Reason in Beasts, because there is not in them a true love of Order, and a Sentiment of Duty, which are inseparable from Reason: For we dare not maintain, that it is by any Sentiments of Duty that Dog's love and follow their Masters, any otherwise than by Instinct, or by the necessary effect of the Mechanic Disposition of the Springs which serve to move them. It would be a fine love of Order and Duty in Dogs, if what they do were through a love of Duty, and by Reason loving those who give them Bread and caress them, and make much of their Sire and their Dam, and him who in such important Occasions have saved their Lives, as it is related in some Histories. We say very well, That it is by Nature that Dogs love their Masters; and this Nature is nothing but the Impression more or less strong, which the Caresses that are made them, or the Food that is given them, makes upon their tender Brains, and the Determination more or less strong which continues of them, and which carry them towards those Persons, when the Corporeal Image by its presence is revived.  
But let us come again to the Third Opinion, which taking away Reason from Beasts, gives them Reasoning, which is the simple Faculty of extending Knowledge by Consequences and Reflections which are made and drawn from things already known. And we say, that this Perfection, or Faculty of Knowing, ought not to be allowed to Beasts, because nothing ought to be granted them but what an evident and certain Conviction lets us know to be in them. We must not envy the Advantages by which they are able to approach us, for we must not envy the Works of God that perfection, which he may have been willing to give them; If I cannot allow Reasoning to Beasts, it is not through Melancholy or malicious Envy, which moves me to be base, and lessen them, nor by a Pride which carries me to elevate ourselves at their costs; but by these two Reasons, and these two Motives, which draw me on, and entirely convince me. The one is, That we cannot attribute Reasoning to them, without having acknowledged before a true and perfect Knowledge in them; which I do not see that they which attribute Reasoning to them, would have us to acknowledge in them. The other, which appears to me clear and evident, That if Beasts did Reason truly, we must of necessity grant them not only Reasoning, but the very Foundation of Reasoning also, which we have been depriving them of, and of Souls entirely like to ours, which is what Faith doth not permit us to think.  
I confess, that if Beasts did what they do by a proper and true Knowledge, it were impossible to deny them the honour of Reasoning: For if Dogs Hunt by a true Knowledge, and not by a simple blind Instinct, which bushes them on towards their Prey, it is certain and evident that they Reason truly, when they waylay a Hare, or when they set a Partridge. It is the same thing with Cats, Foxes, and all other Animals, of which such admirable Industries are related: If all those things which are said of them are done by Knowledge, beside that we see that they Reflect, that they Compare, that they propose an End, that they choose Means for it, that they Weigh, that they Deliberate, which are all of them acts of pure Reasoning: We see moreover, that they enlarge and perfectionate their Knowledge, and that by several Consequences and Reflections which they draw from things already known, they make to themselves a true Knowledge, acquired by the long exercise and long usage of making attention upon Subjects which are the results of their Knowledge, and which is perfect Reasoning; but as the Opinion or Judgement which gives Reasoning to Beasts, supposes that they have a true Knowledge, which they place for a Basis or for a Foundation of all their pretended Reasoning, and that it is no ways certain that Beasts do that which they do, which is admirable and surprising, by Knowledge, since they may do it by Instinct, which is that Reason, and that Wisdom of the Creator which operates in them, according to Thomas Aquinas, and all the ancient Fathers, and which guides and governs them, without Englightning them, in no wise letting them know that which it causes them to do, nor why it makes them do it: It is certain that this Judgement and this Opinion, which gives Reasoning to Beasts, is rash and insupportable.  
And it is yet more so by this Second Reason, That if Beasts did by a true Reasoning that which they do, it would be impossible to deny them the true Ground of Reason. For if Dogs, for Example, Hunt by a true Reasoning, it follows necessarily, that they must love their Master by a true Reason, because it follows that they love him by Knowledge, and by a sensibility of Duty, which is the most perfect Ground of Reason; It is by Reasoning that they follow their Master; It is by true Reason that they are ashamed, when being at a Fault they see themselves reproved: If what they do is Reasoning, their shame, their confusion, their fear at the presence of their Master, are true acts of Conscience; because we have as much reason to judge that these here are acts of a Sentiment of Duty, as we have reason to decide their Movements regulated and directed to an End, are the effects and acts of Knowledge. There remains only to examine the Fourth and Last Opinion, which that Judgement which we have made in our Infancy hath produced.   

CHAP. VII.  
Whether Beasts have any sort of Knowledge like to ours.  
THis is the Opinion of those who retrench themselves within the simple Perception of Objects: for well seeing that 'tis rashness to give to Beasts Reason and Reasoning also, and much more to place in them Human Souls, and not being able to defeat the prevalence which rules over them by a long accustomed Empire, which took its beginning and its root in their Infancy, they say, That indeed Beasts do neither Reason, nor have any manner of Reason; but that they know by simple Perception, by which they represent and paint in themselves Objects, in proportion as they strike their exterior Senses, just as we perceive them, and we ourselves represent them to others. This Opinion is yet less tolerable than all the rest; it is more rash, and hath less foundation; it implies more Contrarieties and Contradictions; because there is nothing more unreasonable, more contradictory, and more confused, than to imagine that Beasts do a thousand acts of Reason without Reason: And there is nothing more contrary than this Judgement to That Reason and natural Logic which God hath given us to conduct us, than to give to Beasts the advantage of that kind of Knowledge which they give them, without going on farther to give them Reason, which is nothing else than even that very Knowledge which they give them. For Reason is nothing else but that sort of Knowledge which instructs and guides by an assured Intuition. This natural Logic teaches us, That we ought to acknowledge nothing but that which enters into our Spirits, as it were by a lively force of clearness and evidence, which is the mark of Truth, for which Nature hath placed in us Intelligence and Knowledge. This Rule is, without doubt, good and certain, and it is no less certain, That we see nothing in Beasts which obliges us to own that there is in them a true Knowledge and perception of Objects, such as we have by that intimate Certainty which the presence or revival of their Species causes in us. We cannot prove that Beasts are truly and interiorly enlightened and made certain and knowing of the presence of Objects, as we are; we divine it, we presume it, we conjecture it, but we prove it not, nor know we how to prove it: for how should we prove it? since we have not any certain Experience of it, and we can only allege Signs altogether equivocal of this their Knowledge, and of their real Certainty like ours, which is the thing in question.  
It is customary to say, That Beasts pursue and fly Objects, according as they are either agreeable or contrary to them, just as we do; That they cry and bemoan themselves just as we do; That they have their Sadnesses and their Melancholies, their Gaieties and their Joys, their Fears and their Courages, just as we have; This is what we have been accustomed to say, and what is full of weakness, and of a lightness and rashness of Judging, unbecoming judicious and rational Persons; since there is not any of these things which necessarily marks out in Beasts a Principle of Certainty and of Light, of interior Knowledge and of real Sensibility like to that which is in us. There are things which Beasts avoid, and there are things which they pursue, we are agreed about this; but this is not a certain mark of a true Knowledge. There are Plants and Metals which eat one another, and pursue one another, without any Knowledge; we see them search after one another, embrace one another, entwine and fasten to one another, or withdraw from one another, as if they had a true knowledge of the Sympathick Qualities which unite them, or of the Antipathick Qualities which divide them; and altho' it be a manner of Speaking common enough to say, That the Loadstone knows Iron, and that Plants know and discern the Juices which are agreeable or disagreeable to them; we do not believe for all that, that the Loadstone hath a true Knowledge and a true Perception; it is only an equivocal and metaphorical Knowledge. To cry and whine are in like manner equivocal Signs of Grief: for the Organ-pipe will whine like a little Infant, it will cry like a Man that suffers the most exquisite Pains, and yet we will not say for all that, that it hath any real Pain. To skip and leap are likewise equivocal Signs of Joy, as well as to laugh and sing; for we see that Monkeys do all That, in whom we are sure there are not any of these Sentiments, of which they let us see the Movements.  
It is an indisputable Maxim of Physic and good Sense, That we must never place in Nature an useless Principle, and without an Effect to which it is necessary. It would, for Example, be ridiculous to be willing to put a Soul endued with a true Knowledge, either into a Clock or a Windmill to make them go, since all their Movements may be made without any such Principle of Knowledge to direct or determine their Movements. And without doubt it is no less ridiculous, to put into Animals a Principle of Knowledge and true Sentiment like unto ours, and a true Light to instruct them, if there be no need of such a Principle to make them do every thing which they do: Now so it is, that there doth not any thing appear in Beasts that is a necessary and inseparable Effect of such a Knowledge, of such a Sentiment, of such a Principle; since there is nothing that Beasts do, which may not be easily explained mechanically, as we say, or which requires that there should be a true and proper Principle of Knowledge in Them.  
Besides, Knowledge is not only not necessary to produce those Movements which we admire in Beasts, and for the which alone we have given it them; but it is certain, that if Beasts had it, it would be of no use to them, to direct or to cause them to make those Movements; for we may not presume that Knowledge can do more in Beasts than in Men: And it is certain, that Knowledge is not only not the next and immediate Principle of the Movements which are common to us with Beasts, but that it neither aids nor assists them in any thing: For, as it hath been hereupon observed, Knowledge doth not cause in us either our natural or vital Movements, nor our voluntary Movements, which are commonly called Animal Movements. It is not Knowledge that directs or determins the Motion of our Heart, the Pulsation of our Arteries, the Circulation of our Blood, etc. It is not likewise Knowledge that determins the Nerves and the Muscles, that moves our Feet or our Hands, our Tongues or our Eyelids. It is not Knowledge that directs them; we do not know what are the Nerves and Muscles which serve to these Motions; so that Knowledge doth not only not cause in us our Movements, but it does not so much as assist them; and if Knowledge neither causes nor assists our Movements, it is clear, that we must not presume that it ought to be in Beasts to cause their Movements.  
It is therefore a pure Capriciousness which places a true Knowledge in Beasts, other than that improper and equivocal Knowledge which common Speech gives even to Plants and Metals. It is not only a Capriciousness, but it is a manifest Contradiction, when we give to Beasts this simple Knowledge of Perception, without Reasoning, and without Reason: For it is certain, that if that which we see in Beasts be a certain Mark and Proof of the least Degree of Proper and True Knowledge, it is no less an invincible Argument of their true Reasoning, and of true Reason, as may be easily comprehended by all that hath been said hereupon: For if it is by Knowledge that Animals follow and execute their Instincts, there is no Reason to limit their Knowledge to a simple Perception: They see much more than simple Objects only; they see what Relation simple Objects have with them; they know their own Businesses, and foresee them; they know their Diseases, and they cure them by Specific Purgatives, which they pick out and discern a thousand times more surely than Physicians do: They perceive and know their Duty, and that God ought to punish and reward them according as they have well or ill discharged their Duty.   

CHAP. VIII.  
What Judgement soever is made of Beasts, our Souls are undoubtedly Spiritual, by reason of their Knowing Nature.  
I Am sure, if we do reflect deliberately upon all that hath been already said against the Judgement of our Infancy, by which we have given a true and proper Knowledge to Beasts, like to that which we experience in us, we shall see, that This Judgement hath been, and is the most rash and most unmaintainable in the World: And that also these equivocal Signs of Knowledge which we see in Beasts, in the resemblance of their exterior Movements with ours, ought in no manner to suspend the Conviction of the Spiritual Nature of our Soul, which results from the Distinction of the Ideas which we naturally have of a Knowing Nature, and of a Corporeal or of an Unknowing Nature, under which Shadow we conceive Animals to be entirely Material and Corporeal, as well in their Souls as in their Bodies  
I am entirely persuaded, that we have not any reason to give to Beasts any Knowledge like to ours: For, for what reason should we give it them? Let us not say of them any thing which we do not know: Let us say, with all my Heart, that they have admirable Instincts, which the Infinite Wisdom guides, since it is an Immense Wisdom which operates at the same time in them as in the whole Universe, and which operates by sure and infallible Means: Let us say, That this Wisdom Operates in them, but not that it Is in them: Let us say, That they know blindly, like Plants and Metals, those Objects which Nature would have them fly from or pursue: Let us say, That they keep and observe the Tract which Education and Discipline hath imprinted on them, to make them perform those Movements which Men have learned them; from whence it comes to pass, that they perform them as often as these same Tracts come to be awakened or revived in them: Let us say all that we see clearly of them; but, not to go beyond our Light, do not let us say any thing but what we see with an entire Evidence: Let us make an infinite difference betwixt that which the easiness of Conjecturing and the rashness of Judging makes the ignorant Vulgar presume, and between that which the Evidence of our proper Sentiment causes us to acknowledge of our own selves: Let us not heed Visions and Chimerical Imaginations; and let us not reason but upon certain and infallible Experiences: Let us say, to our great satisfaction, That the Example of true Knowledge, and of that Certainty of ourselves which we experience so undoubtedly in us, is the proper Distinction of our Nature in the visible World, in the which it is certain, there is none but Man alone that undoubtedly bears this Character of the Divine Resemblance.  
Let us not doubt of this Advantage; but tho' others should doubt of it, we should not for all that doubt of the Advantage of our Spiritual Nature, because it is certain, that a Knowing Nature, such as we experience in us, is essentially a Spiritual Nature, so far, that if others be so obstinate as to place a like Knowledge in Beasts, they must necessarily acknowledge in them a Spiritual Nature. For it is certain, that That Knowledge which we experience in us, and whereupon we have conceived the Idea and the Notion of a Spiritual Nature, as distinct from a Corporeal one, is effectively a thing Spiritual, wholly distinct from all that is called Body, and from all that can be conceived as Body. And this is it which we go about to establish, and to prove invincibly to all those who are willing to give attention.  
What Judgement soever Men may make of Beasts of which we will take no further notice in this Writing, our Souls are undoubtedly Spiritual and Immortal, by reason of the advantage of Knowledge, which makes as it were the first Ground and the first Basis of their Nature, and at the same time the first Conviction of their Quality, Spiritual and Immortal Condition, because, to know truly and properly after the manner that we know, (which is the only thing of which we have the Idea and the Certainty, for we have no Idea of any sort of Knowledge but of that which we experience and find in us) is a thing undoubtedly and essentially Spiritual. And to the end that we may not doubt of it, we need only to examine and to comprehend what it is to know as we know; and we must always remember, that we know of no other Knowledge than our own, of which we have the Idea, either of Certainty or of Experience; for tho' we say commonly, that Beasts have Knowledge, none of us hath any Certainty or Experience of it, by which one may form any Idea of their pretended Knowledge.  
To know then as we know, is to have in ones self a lively and intimate Certainty, which penetrates and enlightens him that hath it, either by a simple Perception, as in the sensation which we have of Heat and Cold, of Sweet and Bitter, of Pleasure and of Pain; or by Idea or clear and distinct Representation, as in the Acts of Seeing and Imagining, and of conceiving his Intellection, by the which we have in us clear and lively Images of the things which we see, which we imagine, and which we conceive; from whence we may be able to draw Reasonings and Consequences for an extension of our Light, and to instruct us of the Relations, Proprieties, and Incompatibilities of things, and to form to us (together with the Rules of our Duties) a thousand Sorts of different Arts and Sciences. See here what it is to know as we know; and it is easy to conceive thereby what this Knowing Nature is, which we find to be in Us. This Knowing Nature is a Nature which hath a Certainty from itself, and of that which is done in itself; whereas the Unknowing Nature which we perceive in that part of us which we call Body, neither hath nor can ever have the Certainty and Perception, Sentiment or Idea, either of itself, or of any thing else, either within it or without it. Of such a Nature are, for Example, Marble, Gold, Diamond, Wood, Plaster, Wax, and generally all Bodies, which can never have the Perception and Certainty either of their own Existence, or of the Impressions which are made upon them by the Seal or the Saw, the Chizel or the Crucible, the Hammer or the Mallet.  
A Looking-glass may serve for a very sensible Example to give a lively and neat Idea of the difference of Natures that are Knowing, and of Nature's Not-knowing: For the Looking-glass receives in it the Image of the Body which is opposed to it, and which is placed before it; for this Image which is received in the Looking-glass (for it must needs be received there, since we see it there, and since it reflects it upon the Eyes of all those who regard it) gives no certainty at all of the Sentiment and Idea of itself to the Glass: The Looking-glass hath the Impression of this Image, as Wax hath the Impression of the Seal; but the Looking-glass neither feels nor perceives this Image which is imprinted on it, any more than the Wax doth the Seal; and in that lies the Character of all Material things, and all Corporeal Natures: As Knowing things have essentially an Idea or an intimate certainty and Experience of themselves, and of what is done in them; so Unknowing and Corporeal Natures, on the contrary, essentially never have them.  
This is that which we call to Know, and to be a Knowing Nature as we are; and nothing is clear and certain in the World, if a Knowing Nature (taken in this sense) be not a Spiritual Nature, and which can have nothing that is Corporeal, and is necessarily distinct from all Body. Nothing is clear, if this is not; for besides that the Act of Knowing is undoubtedly Spiritual and Immaterial, it being impossible to conceive it under a Corporeal Form, because it hath neither Figure, Bulk, nor Colour; and an Act essentially Spiritual cannot proceed but from a Principle purely Spiritual. It is impossible for one to frame to himself another Idea or another Notion of a Spiritual Nature, than that of a Nature that is Knowing, or that hath for its Ground and Basis the Faculty or Virtue of Knowing. It is impossible to have a Notion of a Spiritual Nature, that doth not include Knowledge in it, or which hath it not for its Basis and Foundation. And when we have conceived a Knowing Nature, we have essentially conceived a Nature that is Spiritual. Let one take away, and cut off all that one will; let one despoil a Nature of all other Attributes, and of all other Notions; yet if we conceive it to be Knowing, we have conceived it to be a Spirit. And let a Man assemble all that he pleases, and accumulate as many Notions as he is able to conceive or imagine; yet unless he places a Knowledge there, he will never conceive a Spirit, which is an evident conviction, that an Idea of a Spiritual Nature is no other than an Idea of a Knowing Nature; that is to say, That a Spiritual Nature and a Knowing Nature are but one and the same thing.  
It is effectually but one and the same thing, as Corporeal Nature, and Nature extended or capable of Extension, are but one and the same: For it is a certain Rule, Where the Notions and the Ideas are the same, the Things must be the same also. Corporeal Nature (for Example) and Nature extended or capable of extension, are the same thing; because when we conceive Corporeal Nature, we conceive a Nature which is the Basis of Length, Breadth, and Thickness, and by consequence susceptible of Figure, Colour, and Motion: Now so it is, that it is entirely after the same manner with a Nature Knowing, such as it is in Us, which is that only of which we have the Idea, and with a Spiritual and an Immaterial Nature; the Names are different, but the Notions and Ideas are the same. When I conceive the Knowing Nature that is in Us, I conceive a Nature which hath a Certainty of itself, and of that which is done in it, either by a lively and distinct Idea, or by a Sentiment confused, though inward and penetrating. And when I conceive a Spiritual Nature, I find nothing real and positive in my Idea, but the same thing; that is, a Nature whose Property it is to be able to have an Idea or Certainty of itself, and of that which shall be done in it: For when I conceive a spiritual Nature, and that I examine my Conception and my Idea, to see what they contain, I find nothing positive and effective precisely, but that. I defy even all the Men of the World to give me another Idea of a spiritual Nature, which expresses something that is positive and real; for it is of an Idea and Notion positive, not of an Idea of negation, (by which some define a Spirit) which I am speaking of here: for to conceive of things by Negations, is not to conceive what they are, but what they are not; and to conceive a Spirit, for Example, as some do, by Negation, and exclusion of Visibility and Extension, this is not to conceive a Spirit, but to conceive that a Spirit excludes Extension from its Nature, and to comprehend not what it is, but what it is not, to wit, that it is not a Body. I speak therefore of a positive Notion, and I say that it is is impossible to give of it, or conceive of it any other, by which a Man may define and conceive a Spirit, than thus of that Knowing Nature which we find, and which we know to be in us.  
A Spiritual and a Knowing Nature than are but one and the same thing, and the Knowing and the Corporeal are undoubtedly two things: for as we acknowledge that a Man is not a Lion, that a Triangle is not a Square, that White is not Black, that Bitter is different from Sweet, and Heat from Cold, because we experiment that the Ideas and the Notions of them are altogether different and divers; so we must by this infallible Rule acknowledge, that the Knowing Part in Us, is not at all the Corporeal part, because White is not more sensibly distinct from Black by its Idea, than the Knowing Nature which we find and perceive so undoubtedly in Us, is distinct from Corporeal Nature; since it is certain that there is nothing of that which we know of Corporeal Nature, in that Intelligent or Knowing Nature which we perceive in us, and nothing of that Intelligent Nature in the Corporeal Nature, but the common Notion of Nature, as the common Notion of Colour is found in White and in Black. But if the distinction of our Knowing Nature and of our Corporeal Nature, be so well settled by the diversity of their Ideas, it is no less by that of their Proprieties and Effects; for nothing of that which Corporeal Nature does, can be done by an Intelligent Nature, or by Knowledge: For Example; A Knowing Nature or Knowledge cannot Immediately and Formally, as they say, by itself alone, neither heat, nor moisten, nor dry, nor exclude Bodies by Impenetrability; nor, in a word, perform many of those Effects proper to Extent or Corporeal Nature. And on the contrary, Corporeal Nature on its part can never (what Perfections soever one may fancy to happen to it by the Almighty Power of the Creator) be so much as conceived and imagined as capable of Self-perception, of Reflecting, of Reasoning, of Loving, of Hating, of Desiring: For who can conceive, for Example, that Marble can be raised up to the perfection of being sensible of the Strokes of the Mallet and Chizel, as we perceive otherwise that which wounds us, that which hurts us, with a proper and true Sentiment of inward Pain? Who can imagine that Gold can be capable of having in the Crucible a Sentiment of Burning, like to that which we have when we burn ourselves? We must say the same thing of Properties; for nothing of that which agrees with our Knowing part, can be agreeable to our Corporeal part; and nothing of that which is found in the Corporeal, can be seen in the Knowing. For Example; It is impossible to give a Figure, Shape, and Bulk to a Thought; The Act of Reasoning, of Loving, of Hating, of Deliberating, can never have either Bulk or Figure, Parts or Colour: And on the contrary, no Body can ever have the Agility of Thought, its Vastness, its Light; and no Body can have the Idea or Perception of itself, or form in itself the Images of all those things which compose the visible World, or the least thing which it contains; and it follows evidently from all this, That nothing is clear and certain in the Light of Nature, if this be not, That the Intelligent Nature which is in us, is of a nature altogether distinct and divers from Corporeal Nature; and being so, I do not see that there can be any difficulty to say, That the Knowing Nature that is in us, is essentially Spiritual: for what can that be but Spiritual which is not Corporeal? In the main there is no great matter for the Name, provided that the Thing be indubitable; for what signifies it at the bottom, whether our Soul hath, or hath not the Name of Spiritual, provided that we do acknowledge that it is of a Nature altogether distinct from Body, and infinitely more Excellent than any thing that there can be had of Body, and which it will always have, though we would deny it the Name of Spiritual: But because this Name is affected and determined by the constant usage of the Language of Men, to Immaterial Natures, and distinct from Body, it is indubitable, that the Knowing Nature ought to be called Spiritual. The word Spiritual Nature is a Galimophry, which signifies nothing, if it does not signify that Knowing Nature, of which we have the Idea and the Experience in ourselves. There is nothing real and positive in the World which answers to that word, but a Knowing Nature, such as is in Us.  
It is to express a Knowing Nature, that the Name of a Spiritual Nature was invented, as the Name of Triangle hath been made to express a Figure that hath three Corners; That of a City to express a certain number of Houses, disposed into Streets, and shut up within the compass of Walls, under the same Laws and Policy; That of Animal, to signify that which hath a natural and interior Principle of Motion and Growth; That of Body, that which is susceptible of Extent and Division. The Name of Spirit and Spiritual Nature, hath been made and invented to express this sort of Knowing Nature; and Men have never given the Na●● of Spiritual Nature, but to things which they have conceived under the Idea of a Nature Knowing after that manner.  
We have already observed, that Men have not conceived either God or Angels, but under the Idea of Knowing Natures; and it is certain, that it is for that Reason that we conceive them as Natures more Spiritual, that we conceive them endowed with a greater perfection of Knowledge: For we conceive God more Spiritual than an Angel or than Man, because we conceive Him as the Sovereign and Eternal Source of Knowledge, who hath Essentially the Idea of all things possible, through that Eternal and Substantial Thought, which the Scripture calls his Word, by the which declaring all that He is, and all that he can, and the manner how he can, and aught to do all things, He is to himself first of all his Model and his Notional Wisdom, as they say, and Exemplar; and then his Verve, and his infinite Efficacy and Omnipotency, by which every thing that doth know, knoweth; every thing lives, that hath life; every thing that hath motion, is moved; and every thing that hath a Being doth exist. And as this Idea includes not only more Knowledge, but a Knowledge infinitely more efficacious and more excellent than that of Man or Angel, we do therefore conceive This Spiritual Nature to be much more Spiritual.  
Thus it is out of doubt, that the Knowing Nature that is in us, is essentially a Spiritual Nature, and aught to bear that Name; from whence it follows, That as long as we have a certainty that our Soul is a Knowing Nature so long we have an assurance that our Soul is a Spiritual Nature, distinct from Body. And this is not here a thing which We divine, as They do who place a true and proper Knowledge in Beasts: This is the chief certainty which we have, this of the Knowing Nature of our Souls. We may doubt by an Hyperbolical and Metaphysical Doubt, whether we have a real Body; because, speaking absolutely, God is able, having only regard to the Efficacy and Power with which he can act in us, to give us what Ideas and Sentiments he pleases; God is able to give us the Ideas, and even the Sentiments of a Body, (altho' there were not any Body in the World) just as we have them now; so as it may come to pass in Dreams, to believe that we have things which have not any reality: But we cannot at all doubt whether there be in us a Part or Nature Knowing, because we find that our Soul hath essentially the perception and the certainty of herself, in her Existence, and in the Ideas which the Supreme Power, who rules over her upon the occasion of her Body, clears up, and in the Modifications whereby that Power affects her.   

CHAP. IX.  
The double, immense, and infinite Ground of Knowledge that is in our Souls, is a new and certain Proof of their Spiritual Nature.  
THE simple Notion of this Intelligent Nature which we find in us, without more unfolding it, and leaving it in that first general Idea which it gives, elevates our Souls above all Corporeal Natures, and makes them essentially Spiritual; but if we unfold a little the general Notion, to consider it a little nearer, in every thing it contains and includes, it will give us a Conviction of the Spiritual Quality, and Immortal Conditions of our Souls, altogether new and more sensible; for we do not only find and perceive that we have that Certainty of ourselves which makes the Foundation, or as it were the first Basis of our Knowing Nature, but we have, besides, by the most undoubted Opinion of the World, a double infinite Foundation of Knowledge; for, without speaking of our active Faculty of Knowing or Thinking, which is that Ground of Knowledge by which we Reflect and Reason, we have in our passive Faculty of Knowing, a double Infinite Ground of Knowledge; one Infinite Ground of the passive Faculty, to be enlightened with Ideas and Lights altogether new; and another Infinite Ground to be affected and penetrated with new Sentiments, which is that sort of Knowledge by which we have an intimate Sentiment of Pleasure and Pain, and generally of all the Modifications wherewith God can affect us, as Sweet and Bitter, White and Black, Heat and Cold, and the other Sensations which we know, and a thousand others which God can cause in us, which we do not know.  
We have in the Ground of our Knowledge this double immense Capacity of Knowledge; one immense Capacity of receiving Ideas and Lights which God may be pleased to give us; for there is nothing which God may be pleased to give us an Idea and a Light of, but we have essentially the Certainty, the Perception, the lively and animated Image of, so soon as it shall please him to give us the knowledge of it. We have not of ourselves the Idea and Light of any thing; for God essentially is the Light of all Spirits, and the Living Source of Knowledge and Understanding, upon whom depends all Knowing Natures, for every thing that they can know out of themselves. We have no Idea of any particular thing, but in the proportion that he gives it us; but as poor as we are, and void of Ideas and Lights by ourselves, so rich are we by this Ground of the Infinite Capacity of our Knowing Nature, which is an immense Capacity, and without Limits, of passive Illumination, ora Faculty of receiving all the Ideas and all the Lights of God.  
The same thing may be said of Sentiment, as of Ideas and Light: As we cannot illustrate nor form by ourselves the Idea of any thing out of Us, so we cannot cause in Us any of these Sentiments, or these agreeable or disagreeable Modifications, accompanied with Pain or Pleasure, which we see occasioned in Us, without Us, by that so ruling and so absolute Power which prevents our Deliberation, and which without hearing our Desires, makes Us rejoice or afflicts Us by those different Sensations of which we have the Experience every moment. We make not these Sentiments in Us, we perceive them, not to say we suffer them; we have not any of them of ourselves; this is a second Emptiness, or a second Indigence which is in Us. But this Emptiness bears the Character of Infinite Grandeur, because it is accompanied with an Immense Capacity of Sentiment; for we are capable by this second Ground of Knowledge of a thousand and a thousand sorts of divers Pleasures, without Bounds or Limits; and of a thousand and a thousand sorts of Pains always new, which God can cause to come out of the Treasure of his Goodness or his Wrath. This is what we experience in Us with an indubitable certainty, and which does not permit Us to doubt of the Spirituality of that Knowing Nature which we call our Soul, because there is There a double Character of Spirituality, which sensibly elevates our Souls above all Corporeal Natures.   

CHAP. X.  
That Libertines cannot maintain this monstrous Opinion, That the Soul of Man is Corporeal.  
LIbertines may indeed suppress the Name of Spiritual Nature, and the Name of Soul, to say that there is nothing in them but Body and Matter; for we cannot force People to call things by their Names: but they cannot but acknowledge in Themselves That Knowing Nature which we call our Soul. They may say, when they reflect not on what they say, That it is their Body that knows; for one cannot oblige People that are obstinate in confounding the Names of things, to speak exactly, and properly to distinguish them; they may (yes without doubt when they do not reflect on it) maintain; That it is their Body that knows; but it is certain, that they can never reflect on it, but they find there cannot be a greater Incompatibility than what they say, and that there is in them a Nature or a Part that Knows, and a Nature that does not Know; and that the Nature which Knows is altogether distinct and divers from that which doth not Know: They conceive, in spite of themselves, that they have two Parts, and two Natures in them, one that knows, and one that does not know; and if they call that Nature and Part which Knows Body, how would they, I pray, call that Part and that Nature which does not know, and which is incapable of knowing?  
The little Reflection and Attention which they make upon Matters in their Opinion of so little consequence, makes them confound and reverse all things; they confound and reverse the most clear and most distinct Ideas of Nature, if one surprises them without letting them perceive that one will draw Consequences against their Libertinsm, and that one demands of them whether an Idea of Knowing Nature be not altogether distinct in their Spirit from the Idea of Corporeal Nature, they will say, Yes: But if one goes on further to make them see their Spiritual Nature, whose Ideas do wound and condemn their Disorder, they say rashly and stupidly, That it is their Body that knows; tho' one sees Impiety and Libertinism pitifully destroying and defeating itself, as often as one obliges it to Reasoning and Reflecting upon itself.  
Thanks to that Light which it hath pleased God in these latter Times to spread over Philosophy, which he hath purged from the Relics of Paganism, none dare any more say, that Body knows: We have seen Systems ridiculous, and equally full of Ignorance and Presumption, reigning in some Schools, where they parted Knowledge between the Soul and the Body. Some would have, that in all Sensations there are two, one which is truly Spiritual in the Soul, and the other (of which nevertheless never any Man had the Experience; for they supposed it and divined it by mere Capriciousness and Fancy) which is purely Corporeal in the Body. Others pretended, that all Sensation was purely Corporeal, and that there was in us no other Spiritual Knowledges than those of Universal Notions, and of Objects purely Intelligible and Spiritual.  
These Chimerical Imaginations are fallen of themselves: We have shown, that there is not in Man two Principles of Knowledge, nor two sorts of Sensation: We have shown, that there is nothing precisely but the same Soul which reasons and speculates the most abstracted Objects, and which at the same time is sensible of Heat and Cold, Bitter and Sweet: We have shown, that nothing is more contradictory and chimerical, than to maintain, That the Perception of Heat and Cold, of Sweet and Bitter, of White and Black, and generally of every thing which Men call Sensible Qualities, is a corporeal Act in the Soul; and that the Act of Speculating Intelligible Objects and Universal Notions is a Spiritual Act; there being nothing more monstrous than to conceive in a Subject undoubtedly Spiritual, this Medley of Spiritual and Corporeal Acts. We have shown, that all Knowledge doth belong to the Soul, and that the Body is incapable of having any Certainty, or any Idea, either of itself, or of that which is done in it.  
These are no more Philosophers which we have to combat withal upon this Subject; these are none but Atheists and Libertines, Fools and Brute Beasts, who cannot maintain the Combat, because, as hath been said, they are disarmed by themselves, and forced to confess, that nothing is more impossible than to conceive, That a Body Thinks, Reasons, Deliberates, and Reflects. There cannot be in effect a Paradox more enormous, there cannot be a greater Contradiction, there cannot be a Thought more monstrous, than to say, That a Body Knows. It is as if one should say, that a Thought is Green or Yellow, that the Act of Reasoning is Cold or Hot, that an Abstraction of Metaphysical Speculation is Square or Eight-cornered; as if one should make Birds to fly in the Sea, and Elephants in the Air; as if one should place Ice in the Fire, and the Sweetness of Sugar or Honey in Wormwood or Gall. This is to unnature things; this is to mingle, subvert, and confound every thing; this is to bring Heaven and Earth together; this is to embroil all the Universe; this is to destroy all neat Ideas; this is to take away and abolish the Distinction of Things; this is to re-plunge the World into its first Chaos, and into the first Darkness which covered it, before the Light which enlightens it had made visible the Distinction and Diversity of its Parts.  
We need not wonder that Libertines are willing to confound the Ideas of Body and Spirit. It is the Genius of that frenetick Fury of Libertinism and Debauchery which carries them on, not to be able to suffer the Light which manifests these Disorders. They represent to us in History furious Men, beginning by extinguishing Flambeaus, by shunning the Day and the Light, as it were to conceal the horror of their Rage and Fury under the horror of Night and Darkness; but these by their good will would destroy the Light of Distinction of a Part that knows, and a Part that does not know: Thanks to the most constant and to the most indubitable of all Experiences, we feel it, we touch it, we see it; they cannot make us doubt but that there is in Us a thing that Knows, and a thing that does not Know; and since We have seen that That which Knows is of a Spiritual Nature, it is impossible for Us to doubt, but that we have in us a Part that is Spiritual.  
This Spiritual Part is our Soul; for it is this Knowing Part that we call the Soul. We do not only perceive that it is distinct from the Body, but we perceive that it hath an Infinite Nobleness above the Body. It hath not any Bulk, nor any Extension; it is a Being wholly Indivisible, and yet in the mean time it contains and embraces the whole Universe. It is a Nature Singular, Determined, and Individual; and it is all the Nature's Heaven, Earth, the Sea, Trees, Birds, all that is seen in the World, by a lively Expression which it makes of them in itself, or which it receives. Intelligendo fit Omnia. All things are made by Understanding.  
This is very much, that this Knowing Part which we experience in Us, hath by this Perfection of its Knowing Faculty that Species of Immensity by which we see it lodge as it were in its Bosom the Heavens, the Earth, and the Seas, and to contain all the Universe, and that admirable Power and Efficacy of transforming itself into all sorts of Natures, and of becoming every thing it knows and conceives, by the lively and animated Expression which it makes thereof in itself: But its Grandeur is not shut up in that alone; its Nobility appears yet more in its immense and infinite Capacity of Reasoning, and extends its Knowledge and its Light upon all sorts of Objects, and all sorts of Truths. For whether it be that it is its essential Property as a Spiritual and Reasonable Nature, and the Act of Reason to see into things, whereby is made known to it all the Relations which they have, and which Truth doth; or whether it is God, who over and above the Idea which He gives of things, causes it moreover to see the Relation of them in the Eternal Idea which he hath of them, I will not go about to decide here. God sees nothing but what the Soul of Man may see, if it pleases him to enlighten it; and when he hath once enlightened it, it can go of itself by its Faculty of Reasoning, to a thousand and a thousand new Truths, which it discovers by its proper Speculation; It Contemplates the Eternal Order, and reads in that Uncreated Light, all the Rules of Duties; It sees all the Proportions and Disproportions of things, it hath no limits to its Knowledge; It can know God, and can plunge itself into the Abyss of his Perfections and his Mysteries; it can even enjoy all his Delights, and with him partake of his Felicity.  
We find that it is sensible of a thousand Pleasures, even in this Estate of Trial and Combat, where it is kept in this Valley of Tears, and this Earthly Inheritance of Thorns; It is susceptible of a thousand sorts of agreeable Sentiments, even in its present Estate, by the which it is penetrated and filled with true and ineffable Felicity. We must not believe that this Sensibility, or this Capacity of feeling Pleasure, is limited to those Pleasures only which we experience at present. As its Knowledge by Ideas and by Lights, is not bounded and limited to the Ideas which it hath at present, since it is certain that we may be enlightened with a thousand sorts of new Ideas which now we have not; so its Knowledge, or the Faculty of Knowing by Perception, is in the same manner infinite and without bounds. This which at present gives us by the occasion of the Body, a thousand several agreeable Sentiments, with which we feel ourselves so sweetly penetrated, will be able always to give us new ones and greater, during all Eternity. These at present are Tastes of Felicity, which we are made to feel and taste, which ought to make us comprehend by these Foretastes, what kind of Pleasure we may taste in Eternity, if we live in such a manner as may render us worthy of having our Fidelity recompensed. Our Soul is something that is great, noble, and admirable, by the Ideas which it is capable of receiving; and it is yet more great and more noble, if you will, by the Pleasure and Felicity which it is capable of having. God, who hath the Treasures of Knowledge and Wisdom, hath infinite Riches of Goodness, and Oceans of Felicities and of Pleasures; and our Soul, which is capable of receiving all the Ideas which God contains in the Treasures of his Knowledge and Wisdom, can also taste all the Pleasures which he contains in the Riches of his Goodness.  
Such is the nature of our Souls, they are not only undoubtedly Spiritual by their Intelligent Nature, but they are in some manner infinite in Dignity and in Nobleness, they are admirable Copies and Images of the Supreme Nature, they carry a thousand Characters of his Grandeur and their Celestial Origine; and that which augments and enhances all this Merit is, that they are undoubtedly as Immortal and Eternal, as Spiritual.   

CHAP. XI.  
That our Souls are undoubtedly Immortal, by reason of their Knowing Nature.  
YES, as undoubtedly Immortal and Eternal; because being Natures altogether distinct, and altogether different from Body, and all Corporeal Nature, it is impossible that Death, which only cuts and makes this havoc upon Bodies, should have any Prey upon them, or give them the least Stroke. If God, who hath drawn them out of his Heart, will not employ his Almighty Power to annihilate and destroy them, in that moment that Death breaks the Structure and Harmony of Body, which will appear hereafter that he cannot be willing to do; there is no  
It is thus that Diseases and Old Age causes us to die; and the violent Accidents of Fire and Sword, or Falls and Ruins do the same. It is the Body that Diseases, Old Age, and violent Accidents, do all attack, it is its Structure that they break and ruin: for they do not touch the very Ground and Matter of the Body; Death doth not touch the Substance of the Body and its Matter, it only touches the Disposition of its Organs, it is That only that it destroys. It's true, that when the Brain can no longer serve to the Universal Cause, and to the Eternal Wisdom and Power which holds our Souls united to the Bodies, for an Occasional and Determinate Cause to determine it, to give us Ideas and Perceptions of other Bodies which are round about Ours, and which act upon them, which is properly the Chain and Knot which holds our Souls united to our Bodies, than It retires our Souls from our Bodies, and they cease to Be in our Bodies. We commonly conceive that our Bodies die, because our Souls do retire themselves; but this is to conceive things very ill: It is not that our Bodies die, because our Souls retire themselves; but on the contrary, our Souls retire themselves because our Bodies die, because the Structure that rendered them fit to serve for a Lodging to our Souls, comes to be broken and destroyed. Death is nothing precisely, but this ruining of the Harmony of the Body, which obliges God to withdraw the Soul: And who does not see that it being so, Death is so far from being able to destroy the Soul, that it cannot do any thing unto it? It cannot so much as cause the least alteration in it; all that it doth precisely to it, is to take from it its Union with the Body; it disunites the two Parts, but it doth not destroy nor annihilate any of them; the Body remains Body, every Part remains in its Nature, the Body remains ruined, and the Soul returns separated.  
Death can do nothing unto our Souls, which are not a Material Structure; it destroys the Souls of Beasts, because their Soul results from the Organization and Harmony of a Material Structure, and from a certain degree of Heat, and quickness in their Blood, which keeping their Members disposed, and their Nerves well extended, keeps them at the same time disposed to receive the Impressions of exterior Bodies, which act upon them, and to move themselves in a thousand manners, according as He hath destined them, who hath ordained and directed to his Ends their particular Structure. But Death can do nothing to our Souls, which are evidently natures wholly Immaterial and Spiritual, in which there is neither Structure nor Harmony of Parts. Diseases cannot at all attack our Souls, they have no Blood nor Humours to be inflamed and set afire: Old Age cannot make them die, because they know not what it is to grow old: Fire and Sword cannot kill them, as Jesus Christ hath said; they have no Parts that the Sword can divide, or that Fire can consume or dry up.  
Let us say something boldly; Though Death should be able to pray upon our Souls as it doth upon our Bodies, it would not cease to be certain that Death could not in the least annihilate them; for it cannot annihilate even our Bodies, which are given as a Prey to it, and upon which it exercises all its cruelties and rigour. Do not our Bodies remain Bodies after our Death? they change indeed the Name and Form, but they subsist in the Ground of their Corporeal Nature. Doth not their Matter remain always? What is there in the World more constant, and what greater and stronger Argument would you have of the Immortality and Eternity of our Souls? Would you have the Corporeal Part to be Eternal, That Nature so base and so vile, and This Nature, so noble, so admirable, so divine, which we have made you acknowledge to be in you, would you have this to have an end, and to return into nothing? That Death should not be able to annihilate the Body which is given it to destroy, and yet that it should annihilate our Souls, upon which it neither hath nor can make any Prey?  
Nothing is so certain and so evident in the World as this is, That all the Bodies of the Universe, and all created Powers, cannot destroy a Spiritual Nature, nor so much as endamage and alter it. That only Power which made our Souls out of nothing, can make them thither to return again; and we are assured by the infallible Prejudgment of his Wisdom, that this Sovereign Power neither aught or can ever be willing to employ his Infinite Power upon such an Essay, or to make such a Trial of it: He that created the Souls, could absolutely annihilate them if he would; but he cannot be willing to it but for some Benefit either of his Glory, or of the common Good of the Universe, or of some singular Advantage of the Perfection of some one of his Creatures, of which he would do himself Honor. And it is impossible for him to find any such Utility by annihilating our Souls, who necessarily acknowledge his Sovereignty over them so long as they endure: For every Intelligent Nature hath Essentially some Sentiment of its Dependence, and is capable of doing Honour to God in a thousand manners, whether it be in serving to his Justice, and in paying Homage to his Power, or in honouring his Mercy, and in serving as a Manifestation of his Wisdom and other Divine Perfections. Experience lets us see, that God annihilates nothing even of Corporeal Nature, since all the Matter which he created in the Beginning to frame the World, subsists wholly entire, without the loseing of one single Atom of it; and the Scripture teaches us, that tho' Heaven and Earth must pass away, it must not be to return into Nothing, but to re-take a Beauty altogether new, after the Conflagration of the Last Day.  
But tho' we could conceive that God should annihilate all the visible World, it would not be possible to conceive that he would be willing to annihilate the least of Souls, because that tho' one could conceive some Benefit in annihilating the World, he could never have any by annihilating the Soul, which Being no more, can no more do Honour to God in any manner; and which Being, doth essentially do him Honour, by the Perception which it hath of him, by the Idea which it gives of him, and by the essential Relation which It hath to Him, as to Its Principle, Its End, and Its Centre. This is sufficient, without doubt, to make us acknowledge with the uttermost Evidence the Spiritual and Immortal Nature of our Souls, by reason of their Knowing Nature, which is the only thing we have hitherto considered in them: But because we can increase this Certainty and this Conviction of the Spiritual Nature and Quality of our Souls, and of their Immortal and Eternal Condition, by the consideration of a second sensible and admirable Advantage which we all of us see and experience in them, we must here give a little attention; I speak of the Ground and of the Principle of Liberty which we all of us find in ourselves, and I say, That This is a further indubitable Proof and Conviction to Us of the Spiritual Nature and Quality of our Souls.   

CHAP. XII.  
That our Souls are undoubtedly Spiritual, by reason of the Principle and Ground of Liberty which we find in Them.  
AS We Experience in Us a Ground and Principle of Knowledge, which alone hath hitherto made Us Know the Spiritual Nature of our Souls, we do there likewise Experience with the same Certainty a Marvellous Empire which we Exercise over ourselves, and which we call Liberty or , by the which we dispose of the Motions of our Bodies, the Desires of our Hearts, and the Thoughts of our Spirit. The Experience of this Triple Ground of Liberty or Empire over Ourselves, is General in all Mankind.  
For altho' we do not all of Us Experience it in the same Degree; yet there is no body who does not Experience it in some Degree or other. We all of us find that we have a free and voluntary Empire over the Motions of our Body, either to Cause them, or to Suspend them, by a mere Empire. We all of us find in the very same manner, that we have the power of turning away our Love and our Pursuit from Objects that do most attract Us. And we find, in fine, that we have the power of applying or suspending our Reasoning, as we please. And it is certain, that this Triple Principle of Liberty, which frames in Us a most singular and most remarkable Distinction of our Nature, is an evident and an indubitable Character of Spirituality in our Souls.  

Animals have not the Liberty of their Motions.  
Animals in truth move diversely, (and are not like Machine's which Men make, which for the most part move after a certain fashion) they turn to the Right and Left, they Advance and Retire, they move all manner of ways. But all these divers Motions are either determined by the manifest and sensible Impression of some External Principle, as when Sheep are attracted by the Verdure, the Ox pricked on by the Goad, or provoked by the secret Course of the Blood and Spirits, which without any external Impression determine a thousand different Motions, as the Skipping of fresh and pampered Horses and other Animals, when a sudden Gaiety makes them make a thousand different Leaping.  
Those Persons also who, by that Rashness of Judging which we have so justly condemned, do believe that Beasts have a true Knowledge like to Ours, by which they Act and Move, do confess that they have not any sort of Liberty of their Movements, that they have not any Empire to make them or to suspend them as they please: They confess, that they are always carried on by an invincible Necessity which draws them. In effect, we see that they always follow either the Exterior Determination of present Objects, of which the Strongest always carries them, as when the Dog being violently attracted by Bread or Meat, is beaten back by the Stick, the Species or Image of which passing through the Eyes, is engraved in the Retina, and is carried by the Optic Nerve as far as the Brain, and to the Root of the Nerves and Muscles, where It determins a Motion quite contrary to that which the Meat produced; or else the Interior Determination of the Fermentations and Boiling of their Blood and Humours, as when they go a Rutting, or when they go to seek and pick out Juices, Plants, or Metals, which Nature hath prepared for them as Remedies against their Diseases.  
St. Augustin observes, That this is the Reason why the Creator hath in such manner ordained in the greatest part of Animals, Passions which serve to the Conservation of their Species, that they do not rise up in them but by certain orderly Intervals, and in certain Seasons only; because not having any command over themselves, to check, to moderate, and to govern in any fashion the Movements which accompany them, they would not be able to serve for the Uses to which they were destined, if these Passions had been in them at all times as they are in Man.  
Animals than have not any Command over their Body, to determine or suspend it, or to check its Motions; but We, We undoubtedly have this Empire, not indeed in regard of Motions purely Natural and Vital; for our Stomach does not hearken to Us at all, either to make or not to make Digestion; our Blood circulates whether we will or no; our Heart hath its twofold Motion of Systole and Diastole, or of Dilation and Contraction; our Arteries in like manner have their Pulsations, which we can neither advance nor retard: But in respect to the Motions which Men call Animal, we have so absolute a Command of them, that they are made, suspended, or checked, for that sole Reason precisely, Because we will; which it may be is a thing the most admirable either in Us, or in all Nature; for we do not know that there needs any thing else than to Will and to Desire, to cause our Muscles and our Nerves to carry the dull Mass of our Bodies either to the Right or the Left, forwards or backwards, above or below, and all manner of ways.  
We must needs see with what Volubility, what Agility, and with what Quickness we move our Tongues, our Feet, and our Hands: And all this is done without our knowing how, by mere Empire, as hath been said hereupon. When we have studied Anatomy and Physic, we know that they are the Muscles and the Nerves which serve to these Motions; but before we had ever known that we had Nerves and Muscles, we spoke, we danced, we leapt, all one; and since we have acquired this Knowledge, we neither speak nor walk the better for it, nor do we make e'er the more use of it to make our Movements; once more I say, it is purely an Empire which our Will exercises upon that Portion of the Common Matter of the World, out of which the Creator hath formed us the Place of our Trial, and our Prison.  
Now I say, That this Empire or Command is an evident Mark of the Spirituality in our Souls, first, because it is already a Mark of a Nature Spiritual, and Superior to all that there is of Body, and to all that there can be had of Material in the World, to have the Power of Willing; because to Will is an Act no less essentially Spiritual than to Know; for all that is Corporeal may be conceived under some Corporeal Image; and it is impossible to conceive either the Act or the Faculty of Willing under any Form or Image Corporeal or Material.  
In the second place, To Will, and especially to Will, and to have the Power of Willing, as we experience in Us, is a farther Mark of a Spiritual Nature, because there is in this Ground of Liberty, by the which we find that we have the Power of Willing and Desiring, something Infinite and Immense; for Our Will and our Desires have no Limits, our Faculty and our Liberty of Willing is truly Infinite; whether it be because there is not any thing but what we can Desire and Will; whether it be because we effectively carry continually in the Bosom of this Liberty an Infinity of Desires and Wills; or lastly, whether it be because we can always conceive new Ones; and it is plainly apparent, no Corporeal Nature can be capable of such a Character of Immensity.  
In the third place, This Power and this Empire which we have of removing our Body by Command and by Will only, is an evident Character of a Nature Spiritual, and Superior to Body, for two Reasons; by the Reason that to Command is a Character and an Act of Superiority; and as so, the Nature that commands, is Superior to that which obeys; from whence it follows, That the Soul, which commands, is of a Nature Superior to Body, which obeys; and by the Reason that this so Efficacious a manner of Empire and Authority, is a lively Image of the Sovereignty of God, which cannot be within a Corporeal Nature.  
St. Augustin had well penetrated into this Reason, when he said, That by it we carry sensibly in Us a lively Resemblance of the Supreme Sovereignty and of the Infinite Power with which He created the World: In effect, by this Empire which we exercise over our Bodies, we have in ourselves the lively Idea of it, and altogether resembling it, in that kind of Almightiness with which we make ourselves obeyed by the Members of our Bodies. God said, Let the Earth come out of Nothing, and it came out by that alone, that it was said to it, Come out. He said, Let the Light be made, and there was Light, by the infinite Efficacy of that Sovereign Will. And we ourselves say, Let the Tongue speak, Let the Foot advance, Let the Hand be lifted up, etc. and so by the incomprehensible efficacy of this Command, the Tongue speaks, the Foot advances, and the Hand is lifted up.  
We do not seek here whether this Efficacy, or this Force comes Effectively from ourselves, for this is not a place for such a re-search: But tho' it should not come from us, the Empire which we exercise with that Virtue and that Efficacy which is undoubtedly in us, is a Character incontestably Spiritual, and not only Spiritual, but Divine. It is impossible to conceive, that a Body can have such an Empire, and this Empire marks essentially the Nature in which it resides, with an admirable Tract of resemblance of the Supreme Power.   

Our liberty of Thinking is a certain Character of the Nature and Spiritual Essence in our Souls.  
If this Empire which we exercise over our Bodies, be so certain a Conviction to us of the Spiritual Nature and Quality of our Souls, of their Celestial Dignity, and their Divine Quality; what will it be if we consider the two other sorts of Empire and Liberty which we exercise over ourselves? If we find the Empire over the Motions of our Body to be so fine, how much more fine shall we find that of the Thoughts, of our Spirit, and the Desires of our Heart? We have the power to extend perpetually our Knowledges without any limits, and to an Infinity, by Reflection, by Speculation of Principles, by Reasoning and by Consequences.  
Nothing can give bounds to our Thoughts, and nothing can stop their Knowledge. If we endeavour to extend them by the bright Light of Reasoning and Reflection, we have before us a vast and an infinite Field of Truth; and tho' we have of ourselves but one Spark of Light, which is that which we call the Ground of our Reason, to wit, that Light which makes us acknowledge and acquiesce to the Truth, that is to say, to the Relations and Conveniences, or to the Oppositions and Contrarieties of things, with this Spark we shall be able by Attention and Reflection to run through all this vast Field, and acquire to ourselves, if I may be permitted to say so, as it were the property and possession of all Truth; We shall be able to lift up ourselves above the Heavens, to know the Order, the Structure, the Harmony, and the Periodick Motions of them; We shall be able to measure the height and the extension of them; We shall be able to reduce the Motions of them to their Principles; We shall be able to see how the Lightning, the Rainbow, the Thunder, and the other Meteors in the Air are formed; We shall be able to penetrate into the Bowels of the Earth, to see the diversity of Metals and Minerals there form, and to see how it sustains itself in the midst of Air, without being supported but by its proper Centre; We shall be able to enter into the vast Ocean of the proper Nature of God; We shall be able (when he pleases to reveal them to us) to know the adorable Mysteries. Nothing can give bounds to our Curiosity nor to our Knowledge.  
And this, without doubt, is a certain and infallible Character of a Spiritual Nature: for Bodies are essentially Finite as well as Blind; and an infinite Light wherewith a Nature is enlightened, or may be enlightened, is in It an indubitable Character of a Nature not only Spiritual, but truly Celestial and Divine. But above all, this Empire which we have over our Hearts, is an Argument and a sensible Conviction to us, of the Spiritual Nature of our Souls.   

The Empire of our Desires is another certain Proof of the Spirituality of our Souls.  
It is a constant Experience, That neither Plants nor Metals, nor Beasts (in whom we place Desire, or to say better, to whom we give the Name of Desires, to their violent Sympathies and Antipathies, which carry them diversely to embrace or to shun one another) have either the power to command their Desires, to suspend them, to pass them by, or to check them. The Loadstone seeks the Pole with a Desire the most vehement one can frame an Idea of; it carries itself towards it with an indefatigable Motion; and yet who ever saw that the Loadstone exercised over itself that Empire of stopping or checking this Motion? Beasts have all of them their Instincts and their rapid Motions towards certain Objects, to which Men also give the Name of Desires; and yet we have never seen an Animal that could command his Instinct or his Desires. We easily check the Motion which carries the Horse to the Mare by Barriers, but never did a Horse thereupon command his Desires. We easily stop the hungry Dog, who runs eagerly to his Food, and so turn him away from it, but he himself does never check the Motion of his Hunger. Animals follow their Instincts and their Desires, like Metals and Plants, by an invincible Necessity which trains them on. As the Mill goes as long as it hath Water or Wind, and a Clock as longs as it hath Line and Weight, so Animals go as far as their Instincts drive them; and they have no more power to check themselves in their pretended Desires, than Clocks and Mills in their Motions.  
But we, we experience in Us an Empire, a Sensible Superiority over own Desires; we kerb them, we turn them by, we resist them, we cast them off, and we confront them and command them with a real Authority. It is true, that this Liberty is extremely enfeebled in the greatest part of us, by natural Corruption, by evil Education, by wicked Imagination, by the Custom and Habit of Vice, by our want of Attention and Application to ourselves. We see well enough, that the power of checking our Passions hath been in our Nature as it were absolute and despotic, and that it hath at present lost something; because we have need of Dexterity and Industry to resist them, and because we have not always force enough to suppress them at their first onset: But this Disorder of our Nature doth not hinder, but that we are sensible of its Nobility, and its true Empire over its proper Desires.  
And tho' there were only almost dead Sparks of Liberty, which are in the most corrupted, and and in those that are most governed by their Vices, and tho' there were no Wise Men to whom it made its Power visible as it does, there would yet be enough of that deadened Spark of slavish and captive Liberty, to acknowledge in it the advantage of our Spiritual Nature; because it is certain that this Empire of our Soul over its Desires, is an evident and an indubitable Character of a Spiritual Nature.  
St. Augustin says, That the only Contrariety of our Desires, is an assured Argument of the Spirituality of our Souls; because that in fine, says he, there would not be in us a combat of Desires, if we were not composed of two Parts; of a Corporeal one, by reason of which we have Corporeal Desires; and of a Spiritual one, which causes us to have Desires quite opposite. But it is not so much from this opposition of our Desires, as from the Empire that we exercise over them, that I will here draw the Conviction of this Advantage and of this Excellency of our Soul.  
This Empire makes us evidently see two things. The one, That we are thereby imprinted with the lively Resemblance of that Wisdom and Sovereign Liberty of the Eternal Nature and Essence, which the Grecian Fathers commonly expressed by that particular Name which their Language only furnishes to express the being Sovereignly Masters of ourselves. The other, That we have an Order essentially in our Nature, from whence is formed that light and that force of Reason which makes us condemn our Desires that are contrary to our Duty. And these two things make us undoubtedly see the Nature and the Spiritual Quality of our Souls, because it is impossible that this double Resemblance of the Supreme Nature, which is a Sovereign Spirit, should be found in a Corporeal Nature.    

CHAP. XIII.  
We have an indubitable Certainty of the Immortal Condition of our Souls, by the Desires and Instincts of Immortality and Eternity which we have.  
THERE might be a great many Reflections added here, to that which hath been just now said, concerning the Empire of our Reason over our Heart, and over our Desires, to draw from thence convincing Arguments of the Indubitable Spiritual Quality of our Souls; but because I am unwilling to tyre the Readers Patience, in holding him too long upon this Speculation, I choose rather to suppress them, and to remark the Certainty of the Immortal Quality and Condition of our Souls, which we shall be able to find by seriously reflecting upon it, in that Ground of Liberty or Will which we experience in Us, and by which I am going to let you see, that we have a certain and an indubitable Conviction of our Spiritual and Immortal Nature.  
The Desires of Immortality which our Soul resents in itself, and which arise from the Ground of Will, which I have called Liberty, are an assured Proof and an indubitable Argument of its Effective Eternity, and by consequence of its Immortality; for without dispute there is in our Nature an Idea and a Desire of Eternity, which hath its Principle in Nature's self, and precedes all our Reasonings and all our Reflections, and which Acts and Operates in Us before we have received any Instruction from other Men.  
Before Men do Reason and Reflect, without Study and without Instruction, by the movement of Nature through all the Habitable Earth, they do not only find and perceive in themselves a confused Idea of Eternity, and a Desire of Immortality; but they distinctly conceive a New and an Immortal Life after this here, in the which they either hope or fear something for themselves, and for their Neighbours and Friends, and into which they carry even their Desires and their Thoughts of Vengeance against their Enemies. They do not only thus conceive a new and Immortal Life for their Souls, from whence issued, in all Nations, whether Civilised or Barbarous, the Religious Rites concerning the Dead, with Expiations, Lustrations, and Sacrifices; but they perceive by Intervals their Hearts pushed on thither by redoubled Desires, and Sighs so vehement, that the present Life is a Burden to them, and they would, if it were in their power, shorten it, and hasten its End.  
Some Men, naturally Courageous and Magnanimous, until the Celestial Light of the true Religion had instructed them, and made them see that they ought to wait till God withdraws them from the present Trial, have been found so transported and so inflamed with the Desire and Love of this new and Immortal Life, that they have not had patience to wait the Course of Nature, to let it bring them thither; but they have violently launched out of it, like furious Madmen. And one cannot say, that this was the Effect of Education, or of some Opinion and Human Invention, with which the Infancy of Men is and hath been prepossessed; for besides that Education neither can be nor hath been the same every where, and that no Human Invention or Opinion hath ever been able to establish itself into an universal Prepossession, how happy soever it hath been; this Pretention is contrary to the Evidence and Notoriety of the most constant Experience of the World, which is, That independently of Education, and before all sort of Instruction, this Idea of Eternity, and this Desire of Immortality was found, and is always found in Nature, of the same Date, if I may so say, as the Sentiment of the Divinity.  
And as there the Character of that which is called Instinct or natural Inspiration is, and that nothing from elsewhere is more assured in the World, than this Maxim and this constant Truth, That natural Instinct is never False, that it hath always a Real Object, and that it never deceives; for this is a Reflection which is too Essential to omit here, or not to repeat it again, That the Instinct of Nature is never False; as appears in all the Instincts of Animals themselves, of which there is not one single one that is False; since it is not at all a Fault, that it makes them to fly from or pursue the things which it inspires them to fly from or pursue; nor can it ever be a Fault; because Instinct is an Inspiration and a Determination of Nature, and by consequence of that Truth and of that Infallible and Eternal Wisdom which is the Author of Nature, which can never inspire or give to Men false Desires, nor determine in Beasts Motions useless and deceitful. It follows, That this new and Immortal Life of our Souls, of which Nature gives us so indubitable an Instinct, must be the most True and the most Real thing of the World.  
My Hope and my Certainty are built upon an hundred other immovable Foundations of Natural Conviction, and Celestial Revelation; but tho' there was only this certain Experience of Natural Instinct, which cannot be disputed, since this Idea and this Desire of this new and Immortal Life hath indisputably its Principle in Nature, and cannot come from an universal Error that Education might cause in all Men, and that it is certain that these are not the Reasonings of Philosophers, who have invented this so Religious an Opinion, as that Ancient speaks, but it is all pure Nature that gives it; I shall not, for my part, be less persuaded of this Immortal Life of our Souls after the short Passage of this Life, than of the present Life; because, in fine, I find the Instinct of it in my first and most natural Sentiments, and because I can never believe that Nature (which does not deceive our Senses when she carries them towards their Objects) does deceive our Hearts and our Desires, when she gives them the clear and lively Instinct of an Immortal Life for our Souls after this Life.  
St. Augustin hath observed, That that which we call Instinct and Nature, in Corporeal Natures and in Spiritual Natures, is God himself: The Instinct, saith he, which operates in Men and in Animals, is God himself. And he hath very good Reason to speak after that manner, because that Instinct in Corporeal Nature are those extraordinary Motions which it makes from time to time, as if it had Knowledge, Reason, and Foresight, although it cannot have either Foresight, or Reason, or Knowledge. And Instinct in Intellectual Nature are the Desires and the Ideas which it finds in itself, without acquiring them by the Senses, or by Reasoning and Reflection: And as it is from God immediately that these Motions in the One, and these Ideas and Desires in the Other do proceed; so it is with Reason that this Holy Doctor saith, That the Instinct which operates in Men and in Animals is God himself; which hath likewise been very well observed by Thomas Aquinas. So that Instinct is Infallible as God himself; and if by Instinct it is that we know the Life to come, it is indubitable and certain by this Victorious Reason, That Instinct never deceives, as it may easily be seen in Corporeal Nature.  
For, as St. Augustin very solidly further observes, we cannot convince the Instinct of Deceitfulness and Error in any part even of Corporeal Nature, in which it might be able to deceive in things of no moment. Let us Regard it; Does it, for example, deceive the Hart, when it makes him run, after he is wounded, to the Herb that heals him? Does it deceive the Ant, when it makes her fit and furnish her Magazens to purpose? Does it deceive the Lamb, whin it makes it fly the Wolf? or the Chickens, or other Birds, when it makes them shun the Kite? It is apparent, it never deceives; and if by Instinct it is that we know the Life to come, the Life to come must needs be indubitable.  
There is no Instinct in Nature, if the Natural Idea which all Nations have had of the Life to come, in all Times and in all Places of the World, be not most certain and most indubitable. There is no Man, saith St. Chrysostom very well, who hath not this Natural Idea of the Life to come, because there is no Man who independently of all Reflection, and of all Education, does not Fear or Hope something (according as he is either Good or Wicked) in that Dream-like dark Time to come, in the which the present Life is lost to our Eyes. This Idea, saith Lactantius, of a Life to come, must needs be a Natural Idea, since Men, who see themselves generally die, have never been able to believe themselves entirely mortal; were they possessed with what sort of Opinion or Religion soever, were they Greeks or were they Jews, were they Romans or were they Barbarians, were they Heathens or were they Christians, they have never been able to believe themselves entirely Mortals, they have always believed or revered their Deaths, which hath been the true beginning of Idolatry; they have always feared or hoped for something after Death, which they could never as much as have thought of, if the Idea of a Life to come had not been Natural.  
It is so Natural, that nothing is able to efface it out of Nature; neither Error of Opinion, nor Corruption nor Education, nor any sort of Prepossession, not even then when there was a positive System of Libertinism made, to say, That the Life to come is nothing but a Chimaera and an Illusion. For, as Tertullian observes, these Atheists themselves, and these Libertines, who have destroyed the Divinity and the Life to come in their Heart and in their Spirit, do find in themselves this Natural Idea, and feel and see the Instinct of It operate; since it is certain, that as often as they find themselves oppressed under a greater force, they have no other Consolation than to think, that they shall be comforted and revenged by a Superior Power in the other Life.  
  

which he conceives to be his Duty, until some Interest or some Passion rises up which opposes it; and there is no Man who doth not more or less resent the Satisfaction of having done his Duty, and the Pain of having failed in it, so long as Nature is Master of itself, and hath not at all been corrupted by the Habit and Corruption of Vice, which hardens it at last, and renders it insensible.  
There is not a Perception or Sentiment so well marked in Nature as that is; from thence we have seen that there arise in Men two divers Grounds equally admirable, a Ground of Virtue, and a Ground of Joys and Felicity, which bear a thousand Characters of a Nature not only Immaterial and Spiritual, but incontestably Celestial and Divine. It is from this natural Ground of Conscience, supported by Grace, that we have seen, and do yet see to issue Faithfulness, Integrity, Constancy, Magnanimity, Justice, Continence, Courage, Shunning of Pleasures, Patience in Labours, Victory over all the Passions, The effective accomplishment, and the inflexible and unsurmountable love of all Duties, Invincible to all Interests, and to all the Charms of Concupiscence, and Inexpugnable to the victorious force of the most delicate Temptations.  
There is, to say truth, little of such Virtue in the World, because there are very few who do not suffer their Conscience to be subjugated to, and stifled by Concupiscence; but these are two indubitable Experiences, That the Seeds and the Births, the Inclinations and the Principles of it are, together with the Idea and the Light of it in all People's Hearts, and that there are some People in whom all these Virtues are real, and mounted to a Sovereign degree of an invincible and constant love of Duty. Libertines would make us believe, That Virtue is but a vain Name, and a fine Phantôme, with which the Imaginations of Men flatter and please themselves, but that it never had any Reality in the Hearts and in the Lives of Men. This Idea favours their Libertinism, and they would willingly establish it, to save them the shame and the reproach of their Disorders, which would appear to them excusable, if Duties were nothing but Chimeras, and Virtues but such Phantômes; but they cannot make good that Pretention, the World hath always had True Virtues in its greatest Corruption, and False and counterfeit Virtues have born witness to the Idea which is of them in Nature, which hath marked them with so sensible a Mark of Spirituality, and with so August and bright a Character of Divinity. Few Men have improved the Seeds of Conscience so far as to the perfection of all Virtues, and all Duties; but there never was any Man, who hath not found in himself the Principles and the Seeds of Virtues and Duties.  
To which we must add the second Ground of Joys and Felicities, which have always accompanied the former; for never did Man follow and practise Virtue, but he found in it a Ground of pure Joys, and unalterable and uncorruptible Felicities; as on the contrary, never did any Man violate Conscience and Duty, but he found a Ground of Misery and Calamity in his own Heart, which was his Judge and his Executioner, and in his own Irregularity, which was his first Torment. The Nero's and the Domitian's were not able neither with their Arms and Sovereign Power, under which they made the whole Universe tremble, neither with their obstinate determination to Evil, neither with their hardening and abandoning themselves to Crimes, to guard and defend themselves from the penetrating force of that Just and Imperious Power, which wounds impure and disorderly Souls with a thousand invisible Arrows, from whence springs a mortal Sadness, and a mortal Pain.  

That Conscience is not in the Soul of Man an Effect of Education, or of some Opinion with which it was imprinted and prepossessed in the Infancy.  
There are some, who, to deliver themselves from the pain which their Conscience gives them, and to abandon themselves to Disorder with more liberty and impunity, would persuade themselves, that all That which we call Conscience, is nothing but the Effects of certain Opinions, with which our Infancy hath been prepossessed, and imprinted upon by the Authority, and by the Empire which our Education hath exercised over us: But there is nothing in the World so foolish, so rash, and so insupportable; for Conscience is, without dispute, before Education, and is also independent of it for the Ground of its Idea, and of its Instinct of Good and Evil. It is true, that Education may prepossess the natural Ground of Conscience with some Opinions, and Opinions very false, which Superstition doth, and the Character which is called Scrupulous; but the Errors with which this natural Ground of Conscience may have been prepossessed, do only invincibly prove the Ground of Conscience: For, as Teriullian says, if there was not in Nature an Idea of Good and Evil, it were impossible that one should err and deceive one's self, by the evil application of that Idea: If there was not an Idea of Good and Evil, one should never deceive himself by acknowledging for Good that which is Evil, and for Evil that which is Good, or that which is Indifferent; all would have appeared Indifferent, and above all, there would neither have been Certain Idea of Good and Evil, of which all Men are agreed, how different soever their Education may be, and how opposite soever their Preposessions were, nor it would not be impossible to imprint what Idea one would of Good and Evil.  
For if Conscience was not a thing natural in Man, if Man had not a natural Idea, and a natural love of Duty, one might then make Men thereupon believe all that one would, one might make them believe that Injustice, Ingratitude, and Treachery, are things commendable and estimable; and yet notwithstanding, nothing is more impossble: For as one can never make a Man believe that a Square hath but three Corners, and that Two and Two make Five; so one can never make him believe that Ingratitude is an Ornament to the Nature of Man, that Injustice merits a Reward, that Treachery is a Virtue, an honest and commendable Quality; and on the contrary, that Justice, Fidelity, and Gratitude, are things condemnable and wicked. Men make Laws according to their Fancy, they establish them by Caprice and by Authority, they make themselves obeyed by the fear of Punishments, when they have the Power in their Hands; but it is remarkable, That Men who make Laws, and can make themselves be obeyed, cannot make themselves believe, but that when they only make unjust and tyrannical Laws, People only pay an exterior Obedience to their Commands, but the Heart and Spirit cries out and demands Justice from Him whom all Men naturally feel over their Heads, as a Protector of Justice, and an Avenger of Oppression and unjust Authority.  
We receive unjust Laws, but we do not believe them just for all that. But as to the natural Laws of Duty and Conscience, all Men receive them and believe them by an invincible determination of a superior Light, which equally persuades them alike. And this is the infallible Character of natural Idea and Light; for there is none but the natural Light that convinces us with that invincible force.  
Conscience is then in us undoubtedly natural: And as certain as it is an essential Companion of our Nature, and a Propriety inseparable from our Soul, from whence arise in us by the help of Grace, all Moral and Christian Virtues; so certain it is that our Souls are Spiritual Natures, because it is impossible to conceive, that a Corporeal Nature can be the Subject of Magnanimity, of Justice, of Fidelity, of Continence, and of Truth; and that a Corporeal Nature can have either the Light of Order and of Duty, or the Inclination or the Determination of Duty, or the Pleasure of the performance, and the Pain of the violation of Duty. Duty, Order, Justice, have no Bodies, they are things totally Spiritual and Intelligible; how then can a Body, or a Corporeal Nature, have the Idea or the Sentiment of them?  
Moreover this Light of Order and Duty which enlightens us, and which pierces us, and which we feel engrafted, and as it were poured into our Soul, is not the Idea or the Rule of one single Duty, it is the Idea and the Rule of all our Actions, and by consequence, of a thousand sorts of Duties; so this is further a Certainty, and an infallible Character of its Spirituality: For how can a Material and Corporeal thing be the Rule of so many divers Actions, and so many different Duties? The only Name of Ruling Human Actions imports essentially the Idea of Spirituality: For with all my heart, let a Man make a Rule, a Square, and a Compass of Gold, of Steel, and of what Matter he will, to measure out a Building, or the Compartments of a Garden or of a Walk; but how can one conceive a Corporeal Rule, let it be made of what Matter soever we can imagine, which can be proper to compass and put into order, and set to rights Human Actions?  
The Rule is then indubitably Spiritual; and if this Rule is Spiritual, if this Idea of Duty, which enlightens us, cannot be Corporeal, our Soul, who is the Subject wherein it resides, cannot but be a Spiritual Nature, because it is as impossible to conceive that a thing Spiritual can be within a Material Subject; as that a Material thing can be within a Spiritual Subject. It is infallible, That every thing that does Spiritual Acts, is Spiritual; and that every thing that is the Basis and the Subject of Spiritual Proprieties and Faculties, is all of it likewise Spiritual; because it is impossible that a Corporeal Principle should produce Spiritual Acts, and that a Material Subject should be the Seat of a Spiritual Attribute, or of an Immaterial Perfection.  
And this is it which ought to put a full end to the Conviction which we have of our Spiritual and Immortal Nature in our principal Part, which we call our Soul; since it is certain our Soul is not only the Principle of a thousand sorts of Spiritual Acts, (for every thing that is called Willing, Thinking, Reflecting, Judging, is essentially a Spiritual Act, because it is impossible to conceive either Knowledge, or Will, or Desire and the Act of Willing, under a Corporeal Image) but the Subject of a thousand Perfections, all Immaterial and Spiritual, if it were not but the Conscience alone, which assisted by Grace, is in us the living Source and the Seat of Justice, of Fidelity, of Gratitude, of Friendship, of Constancy, of Magnanimity, of Truth, of Uprightness, of Incorruptibility, of an hundred sorts of Moral Virtues, and of an hundred sorts of Christian Virtues more Excellent than the Moral ones, of Humility, of Continence, of Despising, Misprising the World, of continual Union with God, of the Ardour of Eternity, of Mortification and of Self-denial, of an hundred such like Dispositions, all Celestial and all Divine, which can have neither for Principle, nor for Subject, a Nature that is Corporeal.    

CHAP. XV.  
That our Souls are indubitably Immortal, by a Certainty that the Sentiment of the Conscience gives us thereof.  
SUCH is the Certainty which we have by the Sentiment of Conscience of our Spiritual Nature, and this so indelible Sentiment of Conscience which we all of us naturally have, is not only an indubitable Argument and Assurance of the Spiritual Nature of our Souls, but it gives us also more sensibly, if we will, unstaggering Certainty of our Immortal Condition; because it gives us Essentially by way of Instinct, the Sentiment of a Justice which ought to be exercised over them by an Eternal Power, after the going out of this Life, which Essentially imports the Idea of a new and an Everlasting Life, of which an Eternal Principle of Order and Justice ought to determine the manner according as we shall be found to have done well or ill, and according as we shall be found worthy of Punishment or Recompense in the Balance of the Supreme Justice and Holiness.  
We have already observed, That the Instincts of Nature are never false, and that they have always some real Object; and if there were nothing else but that alone, we would not doubt but that there is for our Souls a new and an Everlasting Life after this Present Life, since the Instinct that Conscience hath in our Souls of that Justice which ought to be exercised upon them after Death, is the most clear and the most indubitable Instinct that is in all Nature: But independently of that Infallibility of the Instinct, the Idea of the Supreme Being which we find in Us by the Sentiment of Conscience, with a Resentiment so lively and so penetrating, and at the same time so certain and so ineffaceable, under the Idea of an Eternal and Sovereign Justice, which ought to punish the Ill, and recompense the Good, doth infer so necessarily that of an Eternal Power, infinitely clear and vigilant, which watches over the Lives of Men, to observe the Good and the Evil of them; that seeing, as we see, that it does not punish nor recompense in this Life all the Goods and all the Ills, it is impossible for us to suspend our Belief, but that it ought to exercise after Death its Punishments and Rewards in the so Incorruptible and Immortal Grounds of our Souls, which, as we have seen, cannot be destroyed by Death, which does not act but upon Bodies. It is an ancient Reasoning of the Holy Fathers, and even of the profane Philosophers, That God punishing here sensibly some few of the Crimes of Men, and not punishing them all, there need be another Life where he finishes the Justice which he gins here. And this Reasoning carries the most sensible Conviction in the World, since we see so visibly the Hand of God to extend itself upon the Wicked, which is, according to St. Augustin, that which the Kingly Prophet calls the Lightnings of the Supreme Justice, which forerun the Clap of Thunder, Apparuerunt fulgura ejus orbi terrae, vidit & commota est terra; His Lightnings appeared to the Globe of the Earth, the Earth saw and it was moved. But tho' we had never seen such miraculous Examples of the Heavenly Justice upon the Wicked, we should see enough to be convinced of the Immortal Conditions of our Souls, from the so indubitable Sentiment that Conscience gives us of an Eternal Uprightness and Holineus, which ought to recompense us, or to punish us; because there must be nothing certain in the World, if this be not, That this natural Sentiment and this clear Idea of the Supreme Justice and Holiness, cannot Deceive us. Reason, and all that is called Light and Certainty, whether Natural or Supernatural, must needs be nothing but Illusion and Chimaera, if Good and Evil can remain without Reward and Punishment, because God must needs be only a Wisdom and Sanctity indolent and insensible of the Order and Disorder of the World, with the Conduct of which he is charged, if he ought not at last signally to evidence his Justice; and if Natural Reason and Light is any thing, as he cannot be a disarmed and an useless Power, so he is not assuredly a Sleepy Wisdom, and an Indolent and Idle Sanctity.  
He cannot leave either Virtue without a Reward, or Vice without Punishment; and tho' he neither punishes Crimes, nor rewards Virtue in this Life, it follows necessarily, that this Sentiment and this Idea which Conscience gives us of a Justice, which prepares a Reward for Virtue, and a Punishment for Crimes in another Life, is an Idea most true, and which hath a real and most effective Object; and that there is a new Life for our Souls after the present Life, wherein they receive the Price of their Virtues, and the Recompense of the Fidelity and the Constancy of their Trial; and the pain of their unfaithful, dissolute Prevarications, through which they abandon the Interest of God and his Service, for the little and trifling Interest of the false and frenetick Pleasures of their Passions.  
With all these Certainties, and all these Convictions, we ought to see more sensibly the Future Life, into the which our Souls enter in going out of the Body, than we do the Present Life; for it glitters and shines more lively in the midst of us, than the Sun shines or glitters in the midst of the World: But we must take care that we do not apprehend it after the same manner. We are commonly full of Incredulity of the World to come, and of the Immortal Condition of our Souls; it is the just Punishment of our Disorders, and the natural Effect of our Exorbitant Desires. Tho' God should not concern himself, and tho' He should not spread over his Darknesses (He that makes the Day and Night of Grace, as well as the Light and Darkness of Nature) over our Criminal Desires, to blind the Carnal Souls, who forgetting the Advantage of their Spiritual and Immortal Nature, plunge themselves wholly into sensual and earthly Pleasures; our own exorbitant Desires are Veils thick enough to rob us of that Light, how resplendent soever it may be: The Incredulity of the Life to come, and of the Immortal Condition of our Souls, cannot be in Us but by these two Principles.  
If it is so common, it is because the inward Eye is so troubled and obscured by the disorder of carnal and terrestrial Passions, and that this natural Blindness of Passions is augmented by a Veil of Darkness that God puts upon impure and terrestrial Hearts. I know not how Libertines apprehend it; but if they would, in the lucid Intervals of their Reasoning, never so little reflect upon themselves, and upon the Light which they smother, it is sure, that it is impossible but that they must conceive that their Libertinism and their Incredulity is not only an Estate of Obscurity and natural Blindness, but an Effect of the Hand of God which is upon them.  
This is effectually the Effect of the utmost Disorder of the Spirit, and of the uttermost abandonment of God; for how should one be ignorant of the Life to come, and of the Immortal Condition of our Souls, if one had had either any spark of Natural Light, of good Sense and Reason, or any Ray of Grace or Celestial Illumination? Let the Libertines speak, and let them tell us upon what they found their Impious and Sacrilegious System? upon what Principle and upon what Reason they believe that their Souls die with their Bodies? Let them speak; they would be in a great deal of Pain to do it; for this furious and frenetic Judgement, by which they bloody their Hands with the Parricide of their Souls, (if one may be allowed to say so) hath not any Foundation, nor any Principle. There are some to whom the Immortality of the Soul is not incredible, but because they cannot, as they say, comprehend what the Soul will be when it shall be no longer in the Body; but these themselves here do no ways conceive how their Soul is in the Body; and People who do not doubt but that their Soul is, and that it is the thing of the World which hath so much effective Reality, altho' they do not know how it is, do doubt that their Soul can be any thing out of the Body, under pretext that they do not conceive how it will be then. There are some who stupefy themselves on set purpose to judge, that their Soul is no more any thing after this Life, not by any Reason that they have to form this Judgement, but because that the fear of finding at their going out of this Life an Implacable Judge, who they well see aught to punish their Licentiousness and Disorder, if there remains any thing of them after their Death, makes them desire that there should remain nothing of them, and makes them prefer the horror of the Nothingness of this sad and vast Darkness, to the Beauty and Light of that Immortal and Resplendent Life of Joys and Felicities which Reason and Religion equally discover to us, at the end of the short Career of this Life. There are, in fine, some who make the same Judgement, without knowing why they make it; they judge without Reason, and without Principle, contrary to all Reason, and all Principles. I say, against all Lights, all Reasons, and all Principles; for I would fain have them tell us how they conceive God, and how they conceive themselves, if they do not conceive in themselves this Nature and this Immortal Part, of which we have given the Conviction? How they conceive the Knowing and the Intellectual Nature which they find in them, and the Corporeal Nature with which they see themselves environed? I would fain have them tell us from whence they believe comes the Order, the Structure, the Arrangement, and the so well contrived Disposition of the visible World? What they think of those lively Resentments of the Natural Instinct, and of Conscience? What they judge of all that Train of Mysteries and Miracles which makes the Body of that which we call the Holy History, or the History of Religion? O God what shame and Confusion ought we to have in ourselves, to feel so great a disorder in the Spirit? And how ought one fear to see himself abandoned of God to this Disorder, which is a frightful Anticipation of the Utter Darkness of Hell? On the contrary, what Consolation the Wise and Regular Spirits, who study in themselves the Knowledge of the Soul, what Consolation ought they to have, since they so undoubtedly acknowledge in themselves their Spiritual Nature and Immortal Condition, upon so many divers Principles? St. Paul said, that there are two things upon which is built the Certainty and the Hope of our happy Immortality, if we are faithful to God; but he will pardon me, there are a hundred Principles in ourselves, and a hundred Foundations out of ourselves, of it: Every thing gives a Testimony of our Life to come, and of the Immortal Condition of our Souls. Sense and Reason, Nature and Grace, the Ancient Law and the New Law, Jesus Christ and Moses, God and Devil, Body and Spirit, Concupiscence and Conscience, our Ideas and our Desires, our Fears and our Hopes, all things, when we know how to use them, and to reflect upon them.   

CHAP. XVI.  
That it is easy not only to give ourselves a Conviction of the Spiritual Nature of our Souls, but to give a neat Idea of them.  
WE have (as we have seen) in our indubitable Sentimment, a certain Conviction of the Spiritual Nature, and of the Immortal Condition of our Soul; so it lies only on our part to have a lively and neat Idea of it, and to make it to us an inexhaustible Ground of Comfort, and an admirable Principle, and clear Light of Morality, I say it lies only on our part; for without entering into the Question, Whether we can have so just and so exact an Idea of our Soul, as to deduce from thence all its Proprieties, and all its Attributes, as we deduce from an Idea of extended Matter every thing that can happen to it, and agree with it; because I will remove from this Writing every thing that carries any Air of Contest, and of the useless Spirit of Curiosity; I believe it my Duty to undeceive here those who say, that they cannot comprehend a Soul, or form a Notion or Idea of it, they believe that it is the most difficult thing in the World; and at this rate almost all Men judge. But what is there more ordinary than for Men to err and deceive themselves, and to be infinitely strangers to Attention and Reflection upon themselves, which alone is able to conduct us to a neat and distinct Knowledge of ourselves: It is difficult for them who never deliberately and seriously reflect upon themselves, to conceive the Soul separately, to distinguish it from the Body, and to consult the Idea of the Spiritual Nature, and the Corporeal Nature, which we find all neat and all distinct in that interior Ground of Reason and Light, which so infallibly and so surely enlightens us, as often as we re-enter a little profoundly into ourselves, to consult and study it. But there is at the bottom no true difficulty to conceive our Souls, and to make ourselves a neat and distinct Notion of them; if we would but give ourselves the trouble of commanding a serious Attention and Reflection upon ourselves, to apply ourselves separately to distinguish what we conceive therein as Body, and what we conceive therein as Spirit; and to learn the two manners of conceiving things which are effectively in us, to wit, the manner of conceiving by Imagination, and the manner of conceiving by pure Intellection or Conception.  
Two things are the occasion that we do not know our Souls, that we have not at all a clear and distinct Idea of them. The one is, That we do not apply ourselves thereto. The other is, That tho' we do apply ourselves thereto, we do not at all conceive the two manners of Conceiving which are in us; we do not conceive at all, that there is a manner of Conceiving by pure Intellect and Spiritual Notion; we will, as hath been before observed, conceive our Soul by Imagination, we will give it a certain Figure, a certain Shape, a certain Colour, and a Form entirely Corporeal; for as this manner of Conceiving by Imagination is most easy, and as it is made in us, even almost without us; and as it gives us no trouble at all, whereas we must have a great deal to conceive things by pure Intellection,; we so strongly accustom ourselves to it, that we come to persuade ourselves that there is nothing real but what we conceive after that sort; yet in the mean time there is nothing more certain than this double manner of Conceiving, and than the two kinds of Being's of Natures and of Objects, which are the Matter and the Subject upon which this double Knowledge, or this double manner of Conceiving exercises itself.  
It was one part of the Error of the Manichees, not to believe any thing real but what was Corporeal: But there are undoubtedly things which are no ways Corporeal, which are, if we will, more real than Corporeal ones; for our Acts, for Example, of Imagining, of Willing, and of Reasoning, are the thing of the World, which we can the least look upon as a thing chimerical and not real. Nothing is more real than our Acts and our Faculties of Thinking; for what is there that we can have a greater certainty of? who does not know, who does not perceive that he Thinks, that he Imagines, that he Reflects, that he Reasons, and that he Desires? and who can ever conceive any of these things under a Corporeal Image and Form? God also is without doubt, something of real Good; for who can doubt that that Principle of Order, of Being, and of Intelligence, which hath given Being and Order to the visible World, hath an Effective Reality? And yet in the mean time we cannot conceive him under any Corporeal Form; and we conceive on the contrary, that he Subsists without being connexed to any Basis, or Terrestrial or Corporeal Mass.  
There are therefore two Orders of things, and by relation to these two Orders, there are two manners of conceiving things: We know and we conceive things Corporeal, under a Corporeal Image, with a certain Bulk, a certain Figure, and a certain Colour, and this is called To Imagine; And we conceive things Spiritual and Intelligible without any Corporeal Form, and this is called To know by pure Notion and by pure Intellection: As we conceive, for Example, the Thought, or the Act of Knowing or Thinking, God, Angels, Universal Notions, and all the Ideas of Duties.  
These two manners of Conceiving are incontestable by the Experience of all Men; and that which occasions the difficulty which a Man commonly hath of knowing his Soul, is because it cannot be known but by Intellection, and because even then, when a Man will give himself the time, and take the pains to re-enter into himself, and to suspend the Pleasure of abandoning the Soul to Sense and Imagination, instead of supporting (as hath been said already) the Intellect, he immediately puts himself into a desire of conceiving the Soul, which is an Object altogether Spiritual, under a Corporeal Image and Form, and that by Imagination: The Question is to conceive it by Inte●ection, and he will at any rate Imagine it; it is a Spirit, and he will make it a Body.  
St. Augustin makes this Confession of himself, That he was a long time abandoned to this Empire of Imagination, which filled him full of darkness; he could not conceive his Soul but as a Wind, an Air, and a subtle Fire: But when he had made a more serious Reflection upon himself, he said that he saw how grossly he deceived himself, in conceiving that his Soul was a Wind, an Air, and a Fire, since it was evident that his Soul was none of all that, because it was impossible but that that which conconceived the Air, the Wind, the Fire, and all things, should be something more than those things which it conceived, and that it was nothing of all that, but that it was that which conceived all those things.  

That every one feels and perceives his Soul; and that altho' he be ignorant, it is only because he knows not that he knows it.  
St. Augustin made himself an Idea and a Notion of his Soul by that Reflection, and thenceforwards he cut off and suspended all the Acts and all the Exercises of the Imagination, when he would Reason concerning God, concerning Angels, and concerning Humanc Souls. See, here we have found a good Guide and a good Master, let us follow his Principles and his Examples; He attained to have the most perfect Idea of the Soul that one can possibly have of it, and we shall attain it likewise with him; he hath learned us to know our Soul with the greatest ease in the World: Let us reflect like him upon ourselves, and upon our proper Faculty of Imagining, of Seeing, of Perceiving, and when we shall have well Reflected, we shall find that we have not need of making any Effort for to know our Souls, that we have nothing to do but to cut off all the Corporeal Images which can present themselves to us, and to shut up ourselves into that which we perceive of ourselves, which is, that we have in us something that Perceives, that Knows, that Reasons, that Loves, that Hates, etc. And when we have well settled and fixed our Thoughts thereon, we shall say that we have found our Soul, that we hold it, that we touch it, that we see it.  
For effectively there is That which is our Soul, there is no Man who may not know it, and who cannot frame a Notion and an Idea of it; because there is no Man who doth not perceive it, and who by the reflection upon his own Sentiment, cannot frame a clear Idea and Notion of it; but we do not at all perceive that we know it, because we Imagine, which is another thing; we go to see for the Idea or Notion of it out of ourselves, we run over all Nature, and a thousand Countries that lie perdue out of Nature, a thousand chimerical Imaginations to find an Idea and a Notion of the Soul which can content the Imagination; we seek afar off for that which is at hand, we search after that which we Have, and we seek out of ourselves for that which we have in the first and most interior Sentiment which we have of ourselves; we are like him, who having heard speak of the Sun, and not at all knowing that it was That so beautiful and so luminous Body, which lightens and which warms all the visible World, that bore that Name, enquired of every body for the Sun, and searched for it every where. We know necessarily what the Soul is, we perceive it, but till we have reflected on it, we do not know that we know it: If we had nothing to do but to reflect, we should then have this clear and distinct Idea of our Soul, That our Soul is that which we Experience makes us Perceive, makes us See, makes us to Love and to Hate; which makes us have Pleasure and Pain, and all the Certitude which we have of ourselves, and of the things which are out of us: From whence we form this Notion, That our Soul is a Knowing Nature and Substance, and indubitably distinct from the Body, Mistress of its Thoughts and Desires, and sensible of Order and Duty, by which we are capable and susceptible of Ideas and Sentiments without bounds and without end, according as the Supreme Nature which rules over us with so sensible and so evident an Empire, will please to give us them; and tho' there were in our Nature but this single Character of our Dependence, of which all our Sentiments and all our Knowledges carry the Idea to our Understanding, it would be impossible to be ignorant, and not to acknowledge that we are under the Hand of a Master, who can make us Sovereignly happy or unhappy when he pleaseth.    

CHAP. XVII.  
Some Essential Reflections, to Establish the Order of the Preference of the Soul above that of the Body.  
THIS is the just Idea and Notion of our Soul, in the which we must cull out and separate Eight or Nine Things, which mark it out by August and altogether Illustrious Characters, and which are so many Principles and Lights of Morality, by the which we ought to Establish the Order of our Duties in relation to our Souls and our Bodies, which is the First Part of this Idea and of this Moral Essay which we have proposed to give you.  

That all the good and ill Fortune are in our Souls.  
We must first of all observe in that Notion which we have made of our Soul, by our reflection upon our Sentiment, and upon the inward and indubitable Experience that we have of ourselves, That the Soul is in Us Our Principal Part, the Ground both of our Being, and to apprehend it aright, all our Being; since the Ground of our Being ought not to be apprehended only in relation to the most noble Part, but to That which causes in Us the good or ill Fortune: For to Be is not estimable, but in relation to Happiness, of which it is the Basis; and so long as it is indubitable, that that Part by which and in which we can and we ought to be Essentially either happy or unhappy, is not only our Principal Part, but the whole true Ground of our Being, so long it is clear and certain, that our Soul is all the true Ground of our Being; because we find, that it is in the Soul that all our Sentiments Essentially are, that is to say, Joys and Pleasures on the one part, and Pains and Griefs on the other, and by consequence Happiness or Unhappiness; for it is the Soul which alone hath Essentially the Certainty and Sentiment of All that we perceive; and if the Soul hath Pleasure, she takes no care at all of the Body; in what Estate soever it may be, she is content, and when she is content, we are contented also.   

That the Soul hath Pleasures and Pains independently of the Body.  
We must observe, in the second place, That the Soul, in which alone is Pleasure and Joy, Grief and Sadness or Pain, hath two sorts of Pleasures, and two sorts of Pains: Pleasures which she hath in herself and by herself, as are those of Duty and of Conscience; and Pleasures which she hath and which she receives from without, upon the occasion of the Body, by that Power and Empire of Nature which rules over us: And Pains, on the other Hand, which she hath in herself, such as are the invisible Wounds of secret Fears, and of Mortal Sadness, with which God pierces her through when He pleases, and those of the Disorder and Irregularity of her Desires and of her Passions; and Pains which she hath and which she receives from without, upon the occasion of the Body.   

The Essential Difference of the Pleasures and the Pains which the Soul hath by reason of the Body; and of the Pleasures and the Pains which She hath independently of the Body.  
Thirdly, We must observe in the Third place, That the Pleasures and the Pains which the Soul hath by herself, and of herself independently of the Disposition of the Body, by the Order, by the Duty, by the Virtue, and by the Impression of Grace, and of the Celestial and Eternal Hope; or by the Irregularity, and Disorder, and Fear of Celestial Judgements, have this Advantage above the Pleasures and the Pains which the Soul hath only upon the occasion of the Body, That the Pleasures and the Pains which the Soul hath as ubjected to and occasioned by the Body, do never go so near to the bottom of the Heart and Soul, as to render it entirely happy or unhappy, because that together with the Pleasures of the Body the Soul may have Pains, which may make it insensible of those Pleasures; and with the Pains of the Body the Soul may have Pleasures which may render it invulnerable and insensible of the Pains of the Body.  
For it is a constant Experience, That the proper Pleasures of the Soul do Heal and take away all the Griefs and all the Pains of the Body; and that the proper Pains of the Soul do dull and blunt likewise the edge of all the Pleasures of the Body: In such a manner, that the Soul, being sick in her Conscience, can never be cured by any Pleasures or any Delights of the Body, which can only suspend and lessen for some short Intervals the Attention of the Soul, to her proper Ills and her interior Wounds; and that the Soul, void of solid Goods, can never be filled and satisfied by any Goods or by any Pleasures of the Body; and, on the contrary, the Soul, being very sound in her Conscience, and being very quiet in the Testimony which she hath in herself, can never be disturbed in her Happiness by the Pains and Contradictions of the Body. She can suffer Poverty and Disease, but She cannot lose her Satisfaction and her Happiness; She is contented in herself, and the Ills of the Body cannot reach that inaccessible Place of the Heart, where She rejoiceth in herself, in Order and Duty on one part, and on the other in a firm and sure expectation of Consolation and Recompense, which she waits for from above.   

That the Pleasures and the Pains which the Soul hath not but upon the account of the Body, are only as it were to show the Pleasures and the Pains of Eternity.  
Fourthly, We must observe in the fourth place, That Pleasures and Pains, be they those which are immediately in the Soul, or be they those which are not in Her but upon the Body's account, are only in her for to show (if I may so say) the Pleasures and Pains which ought to be the Recompense or the Punishment of Virtue or of Vice, and which ought to give us the Manner of the New Estate into which we are going through this present Life, of which we have so indubitable a Certitude, by a thousand Assurances, and by the sole Instinct of Nature, as we have observed already, since it gives Us an Idea which cannot be false, and a Desire which cannot deceive; and so Our Souls have essentially in the Grounds of their Spiritual Nature an Infinite Ground of Happiness, and an Infinite Ground of Misery, which the Pains and the Joys of this Life are only for to give us an Idea of. For it is certain, that the Power which we find rules over Us, both by Pleasure and by Pain, being, as it is, essentially Just, and obliged to Reward or Punish Us according to our Deserts, ought necessarily to Recompense Us, by a thousand sorts of unspeakable Joys and unimaginable Pleasures, and to punish us after this Life, by a thousand sorts of Pains and Dolours, in like manner. So that indeed We carry in our Souls a Ground of Immense and Infinite Happiness or Misery, of which the Alternative and the Manner is decided and determined by Vice and by Virtue; and we are as much assured that this Immortal and Eternal Life, which we are to begin after having finished This here, will be filled with unspeakable Joys and Pleasures, infinitely more touching and piercing than these which we taste at present; as we are, that we have at present Transitory Joys and Pleasures.   

That Virtue is the proper and true Good of the Soul, and Vices its Evils.  
Fifthly, In the fifth place, we must observe, That All that We call Good and Evil, (to wit) the Good and the Evil which are only so upon the account of the Body, are only false Goods and false Evils. The Pleasures of Sense, for Example, are only false Goods and Pleasures, because they promise to make the Heart happy; they make a Show of a certain Felicity which they display to our hungry Hearts, and in stead of that Felicity which they promise, and of which they have given so false and so deceitful a show, they leave the Soul very unhappy, by leaving it empty and hungry on the one part, and on the other part wounded, murdered, and embloodied (if I may so say) with a thousand mortal Scars. The Ills of the Body are after the same manner, they are false Evils, because they have the Appearance of rendering the Soul unhappy, but they cannot do it, since under all Bodily Evils the Soul can be happy by or through her own proper Goods. Now Virtue is the only Good of the Soul, and Vice its only Evil; for the Pleasure and the Pain which she Now hath cannot bear the Name either of Good or Ill, to speak exactly, but the Resemblance only of Good or Evil. The Painful passing away of Time, is a Resemblance of a true Evil, which is an Eternal Ill; and the Pleasant passing away of Time, is the Resemblance of a true Good, which is the Sovereign and Unspeakable Pleasure of Eternity. Virtue hath not only the Resemblance of Good, but it Is Good of or by itself; for besides the making a Man happy and contented, it makes him Good, Commendable, Estimable, and worthy of the Love and of the Esteem of God the Source of all Felicity, who knows no other Good than Virtue; for God does neither esteem nor allow those things for Goods which We call Goods, Places of great Trust, Honours, Reputation, Riches, Credit: He looks upon these things as they are, as Dirt and Dung, and as an Object of Abomination to his Divine Eyes: Virtue only merits his Complacencies, and obtains them; and Virtue only adorns our Souls, and possesses the Place of Riches, of Nobility, of Beauty, and of Agreement.   

That the Passions are the Fevers of the Soul.  
Sixthly, In the sixth place, we may observe, That the Passions are to our Souls (how agreeable soever they may seem to be) the same that Fevers and Diseases are to our Bodies: For they are the Excess of Sensual Love, contrary to that All-spiritual and All-reasonable Love of Order and Duty, which turns away the Soul from her natural Motion towards her Sovereign Good, and drives her on towards false and seeming Goods; as a Fever is an Heat against Nature, contrary to that Natural Ground of Living Heat which entertains Briskness and Motion united in the Blood. Those Desires which our Souls conceive by Occasion of the Body and Sensual Good (which is Its proper Good) are real Fevers and real Frenzies in the Soul: And if, when she is at quiet, she would reflect well upon it, she would find the same by an indubitable Sentiment, forasmuch as she would find that these Heats and Emotions of the Passions turn her out of the Way and End of Sovereign Good and of Reason, and throw her aside into Precipices and Abysses, wherein she not only wanders and loses herself, but she wounds, murders, and Embloodies herself (if I may say so) by a thousand deep Scars, from whence spring a thousand Remorses, like black and livid Blood, which empoison all her Joys, and corrupt all her Pleasures.  
Seventhly, We may observe, in the seventh place, That Our Soul hath Essentially a certain Sentiment of her Limitation and Dependence on the one part, and on the other, of a Superior and overruling Power, on which she depends; for our Souls do Naturally and Essentially feel in themselves Religious Duties: They are, as Tertullian says, Naturally Christians, because besides their feeling in themselves their Weakness and Imperfection, which makes them sensible of their Dependence, they feel besides above them that Eternal and Immense Power which Holy Job felt, as it were an exceeding great Weight upon his Head, under which his whole Being trembled, bend, and was of no force, as well as that of the most sublime Intelligences, sub quo curvantur qui portant orbem, under which they stoop who bear the World.   

That the Soul hath Essentially in her Disorders the Apprehension of a Superior Justice, which wounds her.  
Eighthly, In the eighth place, we may observe, That the Soul, which feels God so Essentially by her first Sentiment, and who so necessarily discovers him in Her, and in all things that she sees out of herself, (for, as Tertullian saith, God discovers himself to Us by all that is in Us, and all that is without Us) doth feel especially in her Disorder that Eternal Sanctity which wounds her and threatens her, and which she feels again on the other part, when she is in Order, and in the place of her Duty, comforting and sustaining her through Hope; and altho' she should not feel it by this kind of Sentiment of Conscience, the most penetrating that can be, she would necessarily feel it by the Sentiment of Reason, which essentially feels a Principle of Order in the World, to which all Created and Emanated Reasons are subjected, and to which they must give an Account of the Violations of Order which they do commit, from whence is formed an indefaceable Sentiment of God as an Avenger of Order, in the Intellectual Part, and in the Understanding, even after the Passions and the Habits of Vice have defaced that of the Heart, which is That which is more commonly expressed by the name of Conscience, or of Sensibility of Order and Duty.  
We must observe, Ninthly, That in the Ground of the Natural Capacity of our Souls, besides that immense Capacity of Pleasure or Felicity, and in like manner that immense Capacity of Grief and Calamity, which we have acknowledged in Us, Our Souls have moreover an Insatiability of Desires and Pleasures, which comes to them like all the rest, from the Ground of their Spiritual Nature, by the which they make, as it were, in an Instant and Moment, a Digestion (if I may be permitted to say so) of all that they can get and possess here below of Goods and Things that are agreeable, and do as soon conceive a new Hunger, and new Appetites. Every One experiences in himself this Insatiable Hunger and Thirst of his Soul, with a lively and pressing Pricking, which bushes her on without ceasing towards some Better thing, and a vehement and rapid Motion, which carries her on after a kind of confused Idea of Contentment and Felicity, which she perpetually believes she can overtake, and, as it were, be joined with; and which she can never be joined with or overtake Effectively, but by the hope of a Future Life, which Grounds and Establisheth the Testimony of Conscience, and an unspeakable Consolation of Heavenly Grace and Impression, which is not known to all the World, but which is known to all those who having understood the Price of their Soul, their Spiritual Nature, and Immortal Condition, have applied themselves to Cultivate it.    

CHAP. XVIII.  
That all these Knowledges are so many Lights and Principles of Morality and Duty.  
EVery One will find all these things in his own proper Sentiment, and in the Notion of the Spiritual Nature of his Soul, if he gives himself never so little trouble to reflect upon it, and unfold it, and That should not only complete in Us the Conviction of her Spirituality, (seeing that it is impossible to conceive in a Substance Corporeal and Material, so many Attributes, so many Advantages, and so many Characters so undoubtedly Spiritual) but it should moreover kindle in Us a thousand glittering Days of clear and indubitable Duties, from whence we should draw That part of Morality which is the Order of Duties and Obligations between our Souls and our Bodies, which we have proposed as the First thing in the Idea and Essay which we give of it.  
All the Order of our Duties between our Souls and our Bodies, springs from that Notion of the Spiritual and Immortal Nature of our Souls, and of the Advantages which follow and accompany it; for it appears by that Notion, and by every thing which we have been discovering of her Followers and her Companions, and as it were Appanages, That they have an Incomparable Essence and Dignity, and in some manner Infinite, a lively Resemblance of the Supreme Nature; a Richness, a Nobleness, a Ground or a Capacity of Felicity and Virtue, Immense and without Bounds, which lies upon our part to replenish with a real Light, Virtue and Felicity; by the which we may from that time be Sovereignly happy in ourselves, in expecting that the Supreme and Eternal Nature, the Living and Eternal Source of Duties and their Rewards, will in Recompense of the Fidelity of our Trial, make us partakers of all Joy and Felicity.  
It appears that St. Augustin had reason to say, That our Souls do immediately touch God, That God only is above their Spiritual and Immortal Nature, and that every thing that is not either an increated Nature, or a Spiritual Nature like them, is Essentially below them. It appears that God had reason to Reclaim them, (if I may so say) and to pursue them in their wand'ring, to bring them back to himself in the manner that he hath done; that he had reason to follow them even into the Flesh, and into this visible World, where they were so visibly gone astray and lost, as having been sent thither to fight for him, and to render themselves worthy to obtain the Crown of Reward. It appears that they could not be Redeemed at a Price too dear; It appears that they make up all our Being, and that our Bodies are only the Matter of the Victories and Combats, and that he was pleased to join our Souls to them, to Try them, and to Recompense and Crown them. It appears that our Souls are All, and that our Bodies are Nothing, and by consequence, that the Goods and Ills of our Souls are our true Goods and our true Ills; and that the Goods and Ills of the Body, are only false and seeming Goods and Evils. And from hence who does not see, that there follows an evident and sensible Order, by which we ought to guide ourselves in relation to our Souls and to our Bodies, quite contrary to that we follow, which makes our Lives to be a Confusion and Disorder, full of Horror?  

The Order of Duties between our Souls and our Bodies.  
It follows from this Knowledge which we have of the Spiritual and Immortal Nature of our Souls, That by how much we ought to love, esteem, cultivate and preserve our Souls, by so much we ought to despise, disregard, and, in some sense, hate our Bodies: It follows, That we ought to quite alter or change all our Conduct, and to turn on the Souls side all the Impressions, and all the Sensibility which we have for the Body: It follows, That we ought to correct and change all our Ideas, and all our Maxims, all the Body, and all the Method of our Lives, the End, the Object, and the Motive of all our Actions, the Bent, the Course, and the Motion of all our Inclinations, and the general and particular View of all our Designs, and to make in ourselves a World altogether New, (if it may be allowed to say so) in putting the Soul in the place which the Body now occupies, and the Body in that of the Souls. All these Consequences have a clear and immediate Evidence: For from hence follows clearly,  
I. The Order of the Esteem which we ought to have of our Souls, and of the Esteem which we ought to have of our Bodies.  
II. The Order between the Pleasures of the Soul, and between the Pleasures of the Body, which are those that the Soul hath by the Body's Occasion; for, as hath been said, and shall be more fully Explained, the Body hath neither Pleasures nor Pains, but we call Pleasures of the Body those which the Soul hath by the Occasion of the Body.  
III. The Order between the Riches of the Soul, which are Virtue, Grace, Religious Exercises, or the Works of Piety, Charity, and Justice, together with the precious Treasure of the Testimony of Conscience, and Eternal Hope; and between the Riches of the Body, which are the Succours and Commodities, for the Necessities, the Businesses, the Eases, and the Agreements of the Body, for the short time of the Voyage and Journey of Eternity.  
iv The Order between the Care of the Body, and between the Care and Cultivation of the Soul, whether in Relation to Men, and the Civil Life, for Policy, Ability and Capacity, and the Sciences; or whether in Relation to God, to a Christian Life, and to Hope Everlasting.  
V The Order between the Health of the Soul, which is free and sound Reason and Conscience, exempt from Vice and Passions; and between the Health of the Body.  
VI The Order between the Beauty of the Body and the Beauty of the Soul, which is a Noble and Generous Inclination, Uprightness, and Love of Duty, together with the glorious Brightness of Virtue, and as it were, the Colour of Grace.  
VII. The Order between the Sensibility of the Soul, whether for the Goods or the Ills of the Soul; and between the Sensibility of the Bdoy.  
All this flows and follows clearly from what hath been just now made clear and established concerning the Spiritual and Immortal Nature of the Soul; and this would be a fair Field of Morality to any Man that would exactly and regularly pursue and explain all the  Particulars; but what hath been said is but an Essay, and an Idea, which we give you, we shall not enlarge upon it here; we shall only say, That the Foundation of all our Duties, is to comprehend well the Difference of the Price and the Value of the Soul, and the Price and Value of the Body; for if this Difference be once well understood, and well dived into, all the rest will follow and appear of its self: And to penetrate well into this Difference, we need only first of all to compare what the Soul is in itself, by the Difference of the Spiritual and Immortal Nature of it; and what the Body is, by its proper Difference of its Perishable and Mortal Matter: And in the Second place, we ought to compare what the one and the other are by their Attributes and their Accidents, or by such things to which the one and the other do serve for a Basis, Foundation and Support. Let us not say any thing of the Foundation of the Body, of that Filth and Corruption, nor of the Foundation of the Soul, of that Nature so Celestial and so Divine, whereof every one can sufficiently form to himself an Idea by what hath been said already; but let us cast an Eye upon the Attributes and Accidents of the one and of the other. What then are the Accidents and the Attributes? what are the Goods and the Advantages which the Body supports and sustains, or which it is capable to receive and sustain? It doth sustain Transitory Riches; It doth sustain I know not what Illusion of Beauty and Charms of the Eyes and the Senses for a time; It doth sustain I know not what Pleasures, which always leave the Soul after they are passed, troubled and wounded on one part, and on the other confused and ashamed of itself; It sustains I know not what Phantômes of Grandeur and of Temporal Felicity, which for a moment surpriseth the Spectators, and Those that enjoy them, and which at an instant disappear, not leaving any Character or Footstep of them, but only by the Regrets and the Despairs of the Privation and of the Despoiling, whereby the Soul remains, as it were, dismantled and torn in pieces.  
And on the contrary, what Goods, and what Advantages doth not the Soul sustain and import in itself? What Goods and what Advantages can't she sustain and receive? O the rich and precious Basis! o the rich and precious Foundation! o the Noble and August Grounds of Riches, of Beauties, of Lights, and of Felicities! Men esteem these Material and Corporeal Riches, but what are they in comparison of the Riches wherewith the Soul may be enriched? Men esteem the Beauty of the Body, which tho' it cover from the Eyes of Men the Filth and stinking Exhalations, and the future Food for Worms, does yet discover to the Eyes of God a monstrous Deformity, from which he turns his Face, and the Infection and the Corruption of a Vanity, of a Pride, and Self-Idolatry which lies hid in our Souls; from whence ariseth that noisome Exhalation whereof St. Augustin speaks, which ascends and mounts up even to God: But what is all this superficial painted Gaiety, and this Illusion of the Eyes, to the Price of the Essential Beauty of Virtue and of Grace? Men esteem the Felicity of the Body; but what signifies all this vain Structure, which like the Statue of the Babylonian King's Dream, hath no other Basis than a little Earth and Clay, upon which the Stone of the Sepulchre was to fall and to demolish, and if it may be permitted to say so, to shatter it into a thousand pieces; what signifies this Chimaera to the Price of a solid and an Eternal Reality, of an Immortal Felicity, and of an Eternal Grandeur for the Soul to make use of, as a Basis to rest itself upon.  
Bodies, with all that they sustain, will tumble down into their Ruins, and return into the Confusion of the common Chaos: The Souls see all these Ruins fall by their sides, and all these Vicissitudes, with all their Ages, pass away under their Feet: And upon these Grounds, or, as St. Paul saith, upon this Foundation of Eternity, the Souls are capable of being reinvested with all the Puissance, with all the Grandeur, and with all the Felicity of God, and to be transformed, (as St. August. saith) as it were, into so many little Divinities. O than the Grandeur and Nobleness! o the inestimable Price and Merit of the Soul! And of which the Divine Redeemer hath Divinely said, That it availeth a Man nothing to gain the whole World, if he lose his own Soul!  
In Effect, the Soul being saved, All is saved, and the Soul being lost, All is lost; After the Soul is lost, there remains nothing but an Eternal Foundation of Misery, a lamentable Foundation of being deprived of all Good, and of being replenished with all Misery, a vast and an infinite Capacity of Grief; a Basis of an Immortal Nature and Substance, which does not subsist, but to be an Eternal Basis, an Immortal Ground, and a lamentable Principle of Evils and Despairs. Men lose, and Men sacrifice the Soul for the Body; But besides That, in losing the Soul, they also necessarily lose the Body; for suppose they could save the Body, what can it give us in Recompense for the loss of the Soul, which is the Ground and the Basis of our Happiness? Let the Bodies speak for themselves, and let them tell us the Pleasures which they can give us in their Dark Regions, after they have made a shipwreck of our Souls? But perhaps our Souls, having once been lost, may be Redeemed again; but who does not know that with Pain God Redeemed them once? O the inestimable Price! o the Incomprehensible Merit of our Souls! which nothing can Redeem from the Everlasting Curse, after they shall have been once delivered to it.  
From thence easily flows all that Order or Preference which we have said is due to the Soul; but as much as the Necessity and the Obligation of this Duty, and of this Order of Preference, is evident and incontestable, so much it is despised, violated, and subverted: For who is there that doth Justice to his Soul? or, to say better, Who is there who does not in a thousand manners every day degrade and dishonour her? Who does not preserve the Body on all Occasions? We fear the least Incommodity of the Body, but we apprehend not the greatest and the most deadly Diseases of the Soul; We fear the Ugliness and the Deformity of the Body, tho' it be never so little, but we have no horror for the monstrous Disgraces of the Soul. How many Women do we see, who cannot endure themselves, if they have their Breath tainted or hot, tho' never so little, whose Souls are all afire by the Heats of a thousand sorts of Earthly and Carnal Concupiscence? We fear and shun Poverty for the Body's sake, we esteem nothing so much as its Riches; but we give ourselves no trouble either for the Poverty or the Riches of the Soul. How many Christian Ladies do we see, who very often appear to be Devout, and believe themselves to Be so, who would not that there should be the least Corner of their Houses which was not properly Furnished and Adorned, who yet have their Souls all naked and despoiled of all Grace and Virtue; They cause their Walls and their Thresholds to be Gilded, but they never labour to Enrich and Deck their Souls with the Beautiful and Divine Colours of Humility, Patience, Self-denial, and Christian Mortification. The Soul is undervalued and forgotten in general, they sacrifice it every moment to the Body; and this Order of Preference, which is so lawfully due, cannot be more subverted; But this is not a place to go on with the Invective, let us pass unto other Duties.    
The end of the First Part.   

A MORAL ESSAY Upon the Soul of Man.  
PART II. Of our Duties of Religion and of Morality, whether towards God, whether towards ourselves, whether towards Man, and of our Duty of all Gospel-Self-denial; which result from the manner how our Souls Are and Operate in our Bodies under the Visible Empire of God.  

CHAP. I.  
How we may with Assurance know the manner how our Souls Are in our Bodies.  
AFTER having acknowledged, That there is in Us a Nature indubitably Spiritual and Immortal, which we call Our Soul, and which we find to be a Knowing, Free, and Reasonable Nature, knowing and loving Order and Duty, and in whom we may be illuminated by the Ideas of all particular Natures, and by the Light of all universal Notions, and rendered happy or unhappy by the inward Sentiment or Perception of a thousand sorts of piercing Modifications, with which we may be affected by the Power and Efficacy of the Supreme Nature, which Rules over Us. The first Thought then that presents itself to our Understanding, is, That we are Compounded of a Spiritual, Celestial, Divine, and Immortal Nature; and of a Corporeal, Material, and Terrestrial Nature: and as this Thought immediately causeth to arise in Us a Curiosity of desiring to know, how these Natures, so opposite, can assemble and meet together, how they can join together, how these Celestial Natures Are in the Terrestrial Habitation of our Bodies, and how they Operate there; so this is what now presents itself to be cleared up, to the end that the Knowledge which we shall acquire of it, may serve as a Foundation and Principle to the Morality of our Duties of Love, of Religion, of Fear, and Thanksgiving towards God, of Temperance towards ourselves, and of Charity, of Fidelity, and of Justice towards all others; and also that of our Duties of Self-denial, of Mortification, and of Crucifying our Flesh and our Senses, according to the Divine Precept and Rule of the Gospel, without which we cannot any ways acquit ourselves of our Duties.  
That we may arrive to a sure Knowledge of the manner how our Souls Are and Operate in our Bodies, which is what we are now in search after, we must observe the Method which we have prescribed us, (viz.) To follow always the two great Lights of our clear Notions on one part; and of our proper Sentiment on the other: by the which we may be able infallibly to Increase and to Ascertain our Knowledge. Reason, with which the Nature of Man is enriched, is that Natural Faculty which we have of Perceiving what Men call True or False, and of enlarging, by that Discernment, our Knowledge and our Certainty, by the Exercise and the Application of that Faculty, upon Matters which lie before us, and of which we may have any Experience, or any certain Knowledge. We may be able to Reason about all Matters in which we can have, or catch (if it may be permitted to say so) one only clear Idea, and one certain Knowledge; and in Reasoning on we may be able, by little and little, most certainly to know them all entirely, and at the bottom; because that clear Idea, and that certain Knowledge which the Evidence of Principles, and the Experience of the thing usually gives, is as a bright Light, by which we may be able to illuminate all the Matter which That hath enlightened, and made us to see, tho' but one single Point of (and if I may so say) one single indivisible Feature; for there is not any Matter which hath not, as it were, a hundred Faces, and a hundred Features, a hundred Umbrages, and a hundred different Appearances, which are only seen successively and one after another, but yet which are infallibly seen, when with a bright Light of a deliberate and serious Reflection we have but patience to turn ourselves round about, to take a view of it on all Sides, in all its Reverses, and in all its Shapes and different Appearances. At first Men knew but one Propriety of Extension or of Quantity and of Matter, and some few Proportions of Numbers, and from thence they drew all the admirable Knowledges of Geometry and of Algebra, all that belongs to the Mathematics, and all the Theory and Practice of those marvellous Arts and Sciences, which serve to so many Advantages and so many Beauties in the World.  
It is the admirable fruitfulness of Human Reason thus to extend, increase and multiply its Light, and from a little Sparkle to make a great Day, and as it were an Immense Brightness: She hath no need but of one little Glimpse, but of one single Principle, but of one clear Notion, and but of one assured Experience in every sort of Matters, to be able afterwards to enlighten and illuminate all Extension. She is like him, who required but one fixed Point out of the Earth, or without the World, to remove Them; she requires but one single known and cleared Point in her Matter, to know it all by little and little with Assurance.  
And as we have already acquired this certain Knowledge of our Soul, That She is indubitably a Nature and a Substance Spiritual and Immortal, which hath nothing of Corporeal; so it is easy for us with this bright Light, and with a perpetual Attention, by reflecting upon our own proper Sentiment, and upon the Experience which we have of ourselves, to come to an entire Illustration of the manner how our Souls Are and Operate in our Bodies, which is That which we are enquiring after, to give a solid Foundation to this Moral Edifice which we are building up: It is to That which we must apply ourselves, and never forget the Rule we have prescribed us, Of never losing sight of the clear Notion of the Spiritual Nature of our Souls, and the Light of our own Experience. Let us see then, after having taken these Outworks, contrary to the thoughts of those who might look upon my Enterprise of Illustrating the manner how our Souls Are in our Bodies, as Rash and Presumptuous, and perhaps, as Visionary and Chimerical; Let us see, I say, what our indubitable Sentiment teaches us concerning the manner how our Souls Are and Operate in our Bodies.   

CHAP. II.  
General Experiences of a Power Superior to our Souls and to our Bodies, which Acts in our Souls and in our Bodies.  
WE may reduce all that it teaches us to two general Heads. It teaches us, That our Souls are ruled over and commanded, and at the same time served and obeyed in our Bodies, by a Power Infinite, which equally causeth these two Functions towards them, of serving them with a Sovereign Regularity, and a Sovereign Exactness; and of Ruling over them with an Invincible Empire.  

I. The First Experience that we have, That God Acts upon us as a Sovereign Ruler, after the manner wherein our Souls are in our Bodies.  
We find First, by the most certain Sentiment that we can have, That our Souls have not the Liberty and the Power to separate themselves from their Bodies. The Body is a Vestment wholly Exterior, with which they are Invested, and a Vestment which they find often incommodious; because that besides that it is only a Vestment which is wholly a Stranger to them, They Resent also by a Superior and an Invincible Force all the Evils which happen to it in spite of them: And as there often happens some, by reason of divers Disordering which the Universal Motion of Nature, and the particular Motion of the Matter which Composeth it, causeth in it; so it cannot be, but that this Vestment of Material and Corruptible Flesh must oftentimes become a trouble to them. It is often incommodious, and we would often Divest it; yet in the mean time we find that we are no-wise Masters of it, but that we must carry it along in spite of Us, until That secret and invisible Power, which hath Clothed us with it without Consulting us, shall Disrobe us, and take it off from us, without taking our Advice, and without regarding our Desires.   

II. The Second Experience of the same Empire in the Sovereign Domination with which our Souls are sent into our Bodies without Consulting them.  
We find in the Second place, That our Souls have not at all the Choice of the Bodies wherein they inhabit, but that they are sent in thither by that Power which we see Governs Nature, and which we call GOD, without any regard for our Inclinations or for our Appetites; for we choose neither the Form, the Shape, the Structure and the Composition and Constitution of our Bodies, nor the Matter out of which they are Formed, nor any of the Accidents which determine the Diversities and the Differences of them. If our Souls might choose themselves Bodies, there would be none Crooked, Deformed, Ill-shaped, Unsound, or Ill-constituted in any manner; they would all be Beautiful, all Healthful, all Strong, and of a Rich and Gentile Shape and Carriage. Nothing is more indubitable than the Sentiment that we have, That we choose neither our Bodies, nor the Time and Place of our Birth, but that it is a greater Force, an Absolute and Sovereign Power, which sends us into such a Body, in such a Time and in such a Place as best pleaseth him.   

III. A Third Experience of the same thing in Diseases, over which our Soul hath no Empire.  
We find in the Third place, That our Souls, which are not at all Mistresses of the Choice and of the Quality of their Bodies, are not likewise Mistresses neither of the Disposition which is agreeable to them, nor of the Indisposition which incommodes them. They are neither Mistresses of Health nor Sickness: Health and Sickness are in Us by an Invincible and an Almighty Empire of Nature; Fevers, Apoplexies, colics, and Dysenteries, neither ask our Leaves to attack us, nor our Agreement to march off.   

iv A Fourth Experience of the same in Pleasure and Pain.  
We find in the Fourth place, That Pleasure and Pain are after the same manner in Us by that Invincible Force of the Power which Rules over Us together with all Nature; for we find that we cannot hinder either the one or the other, or suspend or turn aside the lively and penetrating Impression of them, so often as certain Objects work in Us, or as there are Motions caused in Us in the Material part of Us, which we call our Body. We may easily enough sometimes turn away and suspend the Action of other Bodies upon Ours, and stop its proper Motions; but the Action and Impression being once made, it is impossible to suspend or turn away either the Pleasure or the Pain, so long as the Power which Guides Nature, and which Rules over us, affixeth them to it. Does the violent Heat of a Fever burn our Bodies? our Souls have not at all the Power to suspend in themselves the burning and afflicting Pain and Sentiment. Do the delicious Juices of our Viands water the Tongue and Palate in their Porous and Spongy Substance, if I may be permitted to say so? Do agreeable Odours strike the Nerves destined to carry them to the Brain? Is the inward Organ of the Hearing shaken by the Air melodiously beaten with an harmonious Symphony? Light and Day, have they retraced Colours in the Retina in the bottom of our Eyes, and together with the Figures of Bodies, the Spectacle of the Visible World? It is then impossible that the Soul should suspend the Pleasures of that charming Spectacle of the Visible World, of that Symphony, of those Odours, and of those delicious Tastes.   

V A Fifth Experience of the same in the Ideas which we receive.  
We find in the Fifth place, That our Souls do, by a like Empire, receive the Ideas of all particular Bodies, and of all Their Impressions upon Us; for it is indubitable that it is the Empire of Nature, or to say better, of Him who governs Nature, that determines, and that maketh in Us all those Images of the things which we have from the Occasion of their Impressions upon our Inward and Outward Senses. We do not make properly those Images by the Active Faculty of our Soul, we receive them only by her Passive Faculty. This is what every one doth Experience; for we do, when we please, all that we do, by the Active Faculty of the Soul, which is essentially free: We Reflect, we Reason, we Compare things as we please, and when we please; because these here are the Acts of the Active Faculty of the Soul: But we do not see after the same manner the Sun or the Moon when we please; we remember well enough that we have seen them, we recall an Idea of Remembrance thereof, which obeys us at the very same time and moment, when we will; but That lively Image, and That animated Representation which we have of them by their Presence, and by their Impression upon our Senses; it is certain that That doth not depend upon our Active Faculty, it is certain that we cannot cause it of ourselves, but that we must Receive it. I employ and summon in here, for This, the indubitable Sentiment of every Man, by which it is seen, that we receive the Ideas and the Images of all the particular Bodies which Compose the World, by a sensible and visible Empire and Dominion, which Acts and Operates in our Souls in proportion as these Body's Act and Operate upon our Material and Exterior Senses. We Experiment, That the lively and animated Images of the things which we receive from the Occasion of the Impression which is made in our Bodies, and carried into our Brains, are entirely as Pleasure and Pain, and as the Sentiments of Heat and Cold, of Bitter and Sweet, and such like, which it is indubitably certain we receive, and do not cause in Us.   

VI  
We find in the Sixth place, That by the same Invincible Empire we love Good and Pleasure, or Happiness and Contentments in general; from whence comes (besides the love of Order and Duty, which we look upon as a Good by itself, and as a necessary means to arrive to the Sovereign Good which we know, by a secret Instinct, and a certain confused Idea of Nature, aught to be the Recompense of the love of Order, and of the Real and Effective Order of our Lives and Actions) the love of Pleasure and of sensible Good, which is, The Pleasure which we have from the Occasion of our Bodies. This Experience is also indubitable; for no Man can hinder himself from loving Good and Pleasure; and every one that reflects upon it, will find and perceive it in himself; a Man will find that he is able to deprive himself of one Pleasure when he is in view of another, but he will never find his Heart without the love of Pleasure. It is an Empire of Nature, or to say better, of the Master of Nature, which we can no ways resist. Our Souls are indubitably pushed on continually by a greater Force towards Pleasure; and from thence is formed in Us that Propensity towards Good; but, which carrying us towards sensible Good, is become, by Sin, the Matter and living Source of a thousand Passions which Rule over us.  
We love our Bodies, and the Pleasures which we have from their Occasion, by an Invincible Empire, altho' we see that this Love is oftentimes, in many of its Acts, quite contrary to our Duty, and to the Order of the Supreme Will, and of Reason. The Body enticeth us by our Concupiscence, against our Conscience, and against our Reason; and Nature hath equally placed in Us Concupiscence and Conscience, Passion and Reason.  
You see here Six Remarkable Experiences, which I have been observing concerning the Empire and Dominion which our Souls suffer in our Bodies on the part of the Author of Nature, to which we might add others; but since these here are sufficient to give us a great and clear sight, and to prepare us to understand the manner how our Souls are in our Bodies, and thereby our Duties of Dependence and of Religion, of Fear, and of Love towards God, and our Obligations of Justice and of Charity towards Mankind, and of Temperance towards ourselves; therefore I will let the others alone without using them, and so pass on to let you observe, That as the Author of Nature Commands us, and Rules over us indubitably in all these manners in our Bodies, so He Serves us also and Obeys us, and (if I may be permitted to say so) we Command Him in our Turn, and we are Obeyed with an exact Regularity.    

CHAP. III.  
Experiences of the Power which Governs Nature, and which comes to the Assistance of our Souls in a moment.  

I.  
WE find First, That when we Move our Bodies, we do no more, precisely, than to Will them to Move; for we do not feel that there goes any kind of thing from Us, but the Desire to Move ourselves, and the Act of the Determinative Faculty of the Will, by the which we give a Command to the Body to Move itself; and because we know too well from other things, our Dependence, our Weakness, and our limited Power, to be able to believe that we have a Power to Operate any thing out of Us by our Will alone; since That is the Character of an Infinite Power, as we have already said. Upon this indubitable Experience which we have, that doing nothing but to Will ourselves to Move, we do Move ourselves nevertheless effectively; we therefore conclude, that there must be an Assisting Power which moves our Bodies in the moment that we would have it: And as this Power is Immense and Infinite, since It Operates through all in the same time, moving all the Bodies of Men when they will; and that It is also indubitably Enlightened, Wise, and Unchangeable, since It doth not move them but in the instant that we Will, and by the inviolable Rule of a certain Disposition in our Nerves and in our Members; from whence it comes to pass, That those that have the Palsy, cannot move themselves tho' they would: We conclude therefore, that this can be nothing but the Power of the Author of Nature; from whence we infer, That the Author of Nature intermeddles between our Souls and our Bodies, and that He takes Part and Interest in their Union, and in the manner how these Natures and these Spiritual Substances Are in the Terrestrial and Mortal Habitations of our Bodies.   

II. Another Experience of the same from the diversity of delectable and painful Sentiments.  
We find in the Second place, under this new Consideration, That this same Enlightened, Immense and Immutable Power, doth continually serve our Souls in our Bodies, for to advertise them in an instant, of every thing that is done in them, and to advertise them of it to their Advantage too.  
For so soon as there is any Impression, or any Alteration made or caused within the Body, which of itself tends to the dissolution and destruction of it, or even but to the encumbrance and hindrance of its Functions; so soon the Soul is in an instant advertised thereof by a sad and painful Sentiment, which she finds herself suddenly transpierced with, as with a sharp pointed Instrument, which she finds herself attacked with, without knowing whereby or how it entered: And on the contrary, if there be any Motion made in her Body, which tends of itself either to its good Disposition, or to the Conservation of a Humane Species, the Soul soon, in a moment, finds herself penetrated and tickled with an agreeable Sentiment, which we call Pleasure and Delight, without knowing in like manner either how or where it entered. It is likewise in the same manner with indifferent Impressions, which do neither good nor hurt to the Body; the Soul is in like manner in an instant advertised by this Illuminating, Immense and Immutable Power, but not by the Sentiment of Pleasure or of Pain; (which would be false, if instead of Impressions indifferent to the Body, She should give Sentiments which might affectionate and determine it to Love or to Hate) But Sentiments indifferent, such as are White, Black, Dry and Moist; and Images and Ideas indifferent also, which leave the Soul the liberty of approaching or withdrawing itself from those Objects, upon whose Occasion she hath them. I call this Power Immense, because It Operates through all at the same time within both Poles, and in the two Hemispheres. I call it Illuminating, because it neither gives salsly nor unseasonably, neither Ideas nor Sentiments; And I call it Immutable, because it does not give them but by inviolable and immutable Rules, from which it never swerves.   

III. A Third Experience, That God Acts as an Universal Cause, in the manner that he Acts upon our Souls and upon our Bodies.  
We find in the Third place, That this Power which Acts in Us as well to Obey and Serve us, as to Rule over us, Acts not between our Souls and our Bodies, (between whom it Acts without ceasing, as appears by all these Experiences which we have already remarked) as a Particular and a Free Cause, but as an Universal and Necessary Cause, because we experience that it Acts not from the occasion of the same Immutable Laws, by which it hath resolved to entertain a Commerce between the Soul and the Body; and that this Power Acts exactly and in an Instant, as often as these Immutable Laws require it, be the Consequence of it Good or Evil.  
This Experience is Indubitable; for the Power which Acts in Us, does not cease to determine in our Souls the agreeable Pleasures and Resentments, which by its Immutable Laws ought to accompany the Motions which are profitable either to the good Disposition of the Body, or to the Conservation of the Species, although ' the Disorder of unbridled Concupiscences should follow thereupon, which so often ruin both Soul and Body, and it is after the same manner with all the other agreeable Sentiments which this Power causes in us.  
This Power regards not the Good or the Evil which may happen thereupon for particular Interests, but only the general Good of its Universal Ends, for the guidance of the Universe. Nothing is more Indubitable; and all these so certain and so sure Experiences, joined to the infallible Knowledge which we have already acquired of the particular Nature of our Souls, will make us Easily comprehend how our Souls Are in our Bodies, and how they Operate there.    

CHAP. IU.  
False Ideas which we must avoid by the Light of these Experiences, and first, That of Believing that our Souls are united to our Bodies by any Sympathy, Proportion, or Inclination.  
WE ought above all things to cut off (by this double Light of these Indubitable Experiences, and of the Knowledge which we have already acquired of the Spiritual Nature of our Souls) all the Ideas which we shall find to have been evidently contrary to them; and we shall find however a many such that are very common.  
We find First, That our Souls are not at all United to our Bodies (as most Men do conceive) by any Inclination, or by any Sympathy which is betwixt them, because such an Idea is contrary to the Spiritual Nature of our Souls, as it is taken in itself. This common Idea, That our Soul hath a certain Proportion with our Bodies, which is turned into a Sympathy and a violent Inclination, whereby It is disposed to unite itself to the Body, and by the same Reason, according to the Opinion of some, It is effectively thereby united to the Body, is a false Imagination, which had its Rise from that Idea and that constant Truth, That the Soul is the True Form of the Humane Body as Humane, according to the Definition of the Council of Vienna, as it is effectively so by the Determination of the Creator, who created it to be united to the Body; for under pretence That it is truly the proper Form of a Man or of an Humane Body, since it makes the substantial and specific difference of that Compositum of Body and Spirit, which we call Man, just as Material Forms are in Material Compounds, and are that which make the Essential difference, and that which doth constitute and determine the Species of them; They went about to Conceive it, as if by its own Nature, before the Determination of the Creator, it had been an Imperfect and Incomplete Substance, as a Man may say by Analogy to Material Forms, having essentially Need of the Body, to exercise its Faculties and its Functions. If the Question had been but of the Souls of Beasts, This Idea had been Just, because the Soul of a Beast, which is that last Perfection of the Structure, and of the Organization of the Body, designed to move itself and to nourish itself by a natural and interior Principle, which Aristotle hath very well expressed by his famous Definition, Actus primus Corporis Organici Potentiâ vitam habentis, is not effectively a Form, but wholly Material, whose Nature is essentially imperfect and insufficient to Exist, and to Operate by itself, as Thomas Aquinas teaches us.  

That the Soul is not as Corporeal Forms, tho' it be the Form of a Man.  
But speaking of the Soul of Man, of this new Nature joined to the perfect Organization of the Structure of the Body, which Aristotle himself says comes from without, as Moses hath tanght us, we ought to cut off every Idea, and every Resemblance of a Corporeal Form, and of a Substance by consequence Imperfect, or as a Man may say Incomplete in itself, which might have need of a Chief Head, and by its Nature, of the Assistance and of the Company of the Body, or which might have an Inclination by which she should desire and search after the Body.   

The difference between a Soul and an Angel.  
One conceives, but very ill, the difference of an Angel and the Soul of Man by this Idea, That an Angel is a perfect Substance in itself and by itself; That the Soul of Man is Essentially an Imperfect Spiritual Substance, which hath an Essential Relation to the Body, an Essential Inclination for the Body, an Essential Proportion with the Body. All these Conceptions and Ideas are repugnant to the Spiritual Nature of the Soul; because no Spirit can ever have any Relation to, or Dependence upon the Body, neither any Proportion with the Body, or any Inclination for the Body, but by the free and voluntary Disposition of Him who equally Governs Spiritual and Corporeal Natures. Let it be taken for granted, that the Soul of Man by the Empire of the Creator, should be rendered dependent upon the Body, that it should be destined to suffer a Probation in the Body, to see by what means it would render itself worthy of Eternity; Let her have Pleasures upon the account of the Body; Let her henceforwards please herself in the Body, after she is once united to it; But that she should of her own accord, of her own Nature, and that antecedently, as they say, by her proper and essential Inclination, by her Nature and by her Essence; that she should (I say) require a Body, that she should desire a Body, that she should have any Proportion or any Sympathy with the Body, is the most unreasonable Thought that ever was, or could ever enter into the Mind of Man; since besides that it is so far from the Soul to have need of the Body, or to have an Inclination of itself for the Body, its Spiritual Nature convinces us, that it cannot choose but have a strangeness for the Body, which essentially bounds, limits and keeps back its Knowledge, and renders it a dependent Slave.   

The Opinion of the Ancient Fathers upon all that hath been said concerning the Disproportion betwixt Souls and Bodies.  
This is what we see in its Spiritual Nature, and the Scripture and the Fathers do give us entirely the same Ideas. So far is the Scripture from proposing the Body an Assistant to the Soul, and as a supervening Perfection, that on the contrary it proposes it to us as our Prison and as our Chain, and as our Captivity and our Fetters: And the Ancient Doctors until the Ninth Age, spoke of this Matter agreeable to the Scripture. An Angel and Man, saith S. Gregory of Nice, S. Gregory of Naziance, and S. Augustin, differ without doubt; for an Angel is a Spirit, which God makes trial of out of the Body, and whose Thoughts and Affections he hath not subjected to the Dispositions of a Body; and Man is a Spirit which God makes trial of in the Body, to which he subjects it before he crowns it with Eternity; But the Soul of Man, if God had not disposed of it after that manner, would have had no need of a Body.  
So far were the Ancient Doctors from conceiving our Souls as to have any need of Bodies, or as having of themselves that ardent Desire of being united to the Body, which somewould fain have attributed to them, that they on the contrary have believed that which Experirience makes us see and perceive so clearly, That the Union of Souls with Bodies is a hard and a difficult Empire, which God doth Exercise over them, and which, if he should not sweeten the rigour and the difficulty of it, by the Pleasures of agreeable Sentiments, which he hath annexed to the Acts and Operations of Souls in Bodies, it would be for them not a Trial, but a Hell. They carry the Matter much further; for they maintain, That if God should not, nor aught to Spiritualise Bodies, that is to say, to take away from Souls the Dependence which their present State gives them upon Bodies, he would not raise them up again; because he would not put the Just Souls, whose approved Fidelity deserved to be Crowned, into Bodies which should constrain them, and which enslave their Thoughts, which is what Spiritualised Bodies cannot bear, because the Spiritualization of Bodies will consist in this precisely, That they should no longer exercise an Empire over the Souls, and that they should be no longer a Charge, an Obstacle, and an Encumbrance to them.  
Even in the present State of Union, which requires that the Souls should by the Empire of the Creator, have an Affection for the Conservation of the Body, and by consequence that they should Love the Body, because it is, as it were, a Charm by which they are blinded, to sweeten the pain and the rigour of their Prison. The Just and Holy Souls know well, that they are Captives and Prisoners; they groan with S. Paul under the weight of their Fetters and their Chains, and sigh with him for a deliverance from their Bodies.  
Let us cut off then these gross and Material Ideas, by the which we conceive our Souls, as having this base Inclination of desiring, of their own accord, so improper a Match by an Union with the Body; do not let us degrade them after that manner, nor let us conceive in them any other Relation to Body, or any other Inclination for Body, but that which the Almighty Empire of the Creator gives them, who being willing to have the Pleasure of receiving a free, and a voluntary Service, and the Honour of a Worship from them (in seeing them combat for Order and Duty, for his Eternal Law and for his Love, against the divers Inclinations which they have in their State of Union, upon the occasion of this Terrestrial Nature) sends them for a Trial into the Body, to the end that he might have an occasion to Crown their Fidelity and their Combats.    

CHAP. V.  
That the Body cannot in any manner Act upon the Soul, to Illuminate or Affect it Physically and Immediately, by itself.  
AFter having cut off that common Idea of the Vulgar Opinion, of the Inclination which the Soul of itself hath for the Body; we must also remove that Belief, That the Body can in any manner Act upon the Soul by any Physical Action, be it from Immediation of Substance, be it from an Efflux of their Parts, or Species, or Images, as it is vulgarly conceived; We ought, I say, to banish this Imagination, and this Chimerical Vision; for if we consult the Idea which we have of Corporeal Nature, we shall see, That Body and Matter can never Act, be it by themselves immediately, or be it by Parts derived from them, or by Species or Images reflected from them, but in Driving, but in Dividing and diversely Figuring, as they themselves cannot but be Moved, diversely Driven, Figured, Situated and Divided.  
For it is impossible to conceive in Bodies any other Active Faculty, or any other Passive Faculty: And as the Nature of the Soul is a Spiritual and Immaterial Nature, in which there is not any Part or any Extension, we shall evidently and clearly see, that nothing of all That can have place in her; We shall see, That not being capable of being either Touched nor Driner, Divided nor Figured, or in any other manner, that can be Modified by the Action of Bodies; Nothing is more Chimerical or more ridiculous, than to conceive that there is any Physical Actions of Bodies upon Souls, and by consequence that it is impossible that our Bodies, or any others, should produce and determine Immediately and Physically, by themselves, the Ideas and Sentiments which we have upon their occasion.  
This is what ought to be seriously observed, to undeceive us of that common Opinion and Prepossession, That it is the Juice of the Meat which we eat, which determines, causes and produces Physically and Immediately in our Souls, the Pleasure of Tasting; That it is the Smell, or subtle Exhalations and Evaporations of odoriferous Bodies, which produce Physically in Them the Pleasure of the Smelling; That they are the Pulsations of the Air melodiously beaten, upon that distended Skin at the Entry of the Ear, which we call the Tympanum, which produce in us Physically and Immediately by themselves the Pleasure of Harmonious Sounds; That they are the Beams of Light reflected from all the Points of Objects, which being carried by the Optic Nerve even to the Centre of the Brain, do either Physically produce there the Representation of the Objects which the Soul hath upon that occasion, or determine, at least Physically, the Soul to make itself Images of Objects, wholly Spiritual and wholly Immaterial, which she receives, and which she hath in herself, by their presence.  
Therein lies the vulgar Opinion, and the common Prejudice of believing, That External Bodies, by the Impression which they make upon our Bodies, do either produce Effects in us, or determine us Physically by their Interposition, to frame to ourselves the Sentiments and Ideas which we have upon their occasion. But this common Opinion is indubitably a common Error, combated equally by the Sentiment which every one hath of a Superior and Exterior Force, which sends, and detains the Soul in the Body, and which Acts perpetually in them upon the occasion of the Body; And by the Notion of a Spiritual Nature, which does not at all admit that we should conceive any Action, or any Physical activity of Bodies upon Spirits, and by consequence, neither of ours, nor any other Bodies, upon our Souls.  

That our own Bodies cannot Act Physically and Immediately by themselves upon our Souls, whose Spirituality renders them inaccessible to all sorts of Impressions of Bodies.  
There are some who, not carrying far enough the clear Light of the Notion of a Spiritual Nature, do conceive well, That separated Bodies, say they, cannot Act Physically upon the Souls, but it is not after the same manner with Bodies, which are united to them; Separated Bodies can do nothing to the Souls, (say they) they cannot determine in the Souls any Sentiment, nor any Idea; But the Body united to the Soul doth acquire by that Union a near Disposition, whereby it is enabled to Act Immediately and Physically upon the Soul, and to determine all its Ideas and Modifications, which it hath from the occasion of other Bodies which surround it. This is the common Fancy of the Schools, which indeed is but a most false and a most repugnant Imagination, full of Contradiction and Incompatibility; for besides that the Union that is betwixt the Body and the Soul, is but the Act of the Creator, as I shall Explain it hereafter; so that Union doth not at all change the Nature or Essence of the Body, nor the Nature or Essence of the Soul: The Body united to the Soul, remains still a Body; and the Soul united to the Body, retains still its former Being of a Soul, and by consequence, of a Nature wholly Spiritual, to which no Body can be united, and upon which no Body can have a Physical Action; because Bodies are not united but by a continuity of Parts, neither do they Act but by Impelling, Dividing or Figuring diversely, which cannot be done upon Spiritual Natures, who cannot be subject to any of these Corporeal Passions, and to whom the Body can never approach, by reason of the distance of an infinite Disproportion, which keeps them asunder.   

That the Body doth not cause in the Soul either Pleasure or Pain.  
We must banish all those gross Imaginations, by which Men conceive that our Body's Act Immediately and Physically, in any manner whatsoever, upon our Souls; be it for the illuminating them, or for the producing in them either Pleasure or Pain: That cannot be for two Reasons; for the general Reason, That Bodies can never be united to Spirits, and Act Physically upon them; and for a particular Reason, That if they could have any Action upon them, they could not have one so Superior and so Excellent; For to cause Pain or Pleasure, or generally any Modification in the Soul, by which she is so intimately affected, and as it were, altered and penetrated in her Substance, is an Act of Superiority and Dominion; This is an Act of a Superior Nature, which keeps the Body under it, and subjected to it: It is clear, That the Body cannot at all be Superior to the Soul, especially to cause in it either Pleasure or Pain, which are not only the Acts of a Superior Nature, but the Acts of a Nature Supreme, in whom is Essentially this Sovereign Dominion over all created Natures, to cause in them either Happiness or Unhappiness, and by consequence the Pleasure and the Pain which makes up this Happiness or Unhappiness.  
Moreover, Pain and Pleasure, and generally every Modification of the Soul is Essentially a Spiritual Act or Passion. This is essentially a Vital Act of the Soul, which is undoubtedly Spiritual; for every Act of the Soul is of the same Nature with the Soul, every Act of the Soul being Immanent, as the Schoolmen say, and by consequence received within the Soul; and it is not possible to conceive that any thing should be received within the Soul, which is not Spiritual. Therefore there is nothing more incompatible, than to conceive that the Body can produce any thing that is Spiritual.  
I could here make use of the Authority of all the ancient Doctors, who have held, That God alone can Exercise upon created Spirits, that Physical Action by which they are Modified in themselves, and by which they receive those Sentiments or Ideas whereof they are not at all Masters, which is that which is called Agere per illapsum. But that that we may better support this Tract rather upon the Experience of our own proper Sentiment, and upon the clear Notions and Ideas which we can attain to by Reasoning, than upon any Authority, we will not, if you please, have any regard to an Authority so great and so worthy of Deference and Respect.  
Let us say no more of it then, but let us see if we can conceive, That our Bodies by the Impressions which they receive from without, or which come to them from their own proper Spirits, and from their own proper Humours, can by their Physical Action affect our Souls, or determine them to cause to themselves either Pleasure or Pain, or the Images which they have of things by reason of Corporeal Impressions.   

Bodies do not only not cause the Sentiments and Ideas in the Soul, but they do not so much as determine the Soul Physically to make them.  
This is another vulgar Imagination and Opinion, That if the Body doth not cause in Us these Sentiments and these Ideas, at least it doth determine the Soul to make them. But we ought also to cut off this Imagination and this Idea, for many Reasons: First of all, for the Pleasure and the Pain; because, besides that it is always impossible to conceive in the Body a Physical Action upon the Soul, since a Body cannot Act but by Stirring, Dividing, Figuring and Removing; and that the Soul can neither be Stirred, Figured, nor Divided, nor Corporeally affected in any manner. It is also incompatible to conceive, That the Soul can cause to itself, and in itself, either Pleasure or Pain, for that moreover that the one and the other are things which are above it, it is certain that Pleasure and Pain are things which we receive, and which make in Us this invincible Power of Nature, which we have so often taken notice of, to be no other than the Author and Master of Nature; and to say, That the Soul causeth in itself either Pleasure or Pain, a Man may as well say, That she causeth the Health and Sickness, the Beauty or Deformity of the Body.   

That the Souls of themselves do not make the Ideas or Images of Bodies.  
It is after the same manner with the particular Ideas of things which she receives by reason of the divers Modifications and Configurations of the Brain, caused by the Impressions of Exterior Bodies, as with Pleasure and with Pain; for whatsoever Affection we can conceive the Soul to have by the Impression of the Idea received into the Brain, it is impossible to conceive it Imprinted by herself, with that lively and animated Image which she hath in herself. This living and animated Image which she hath in herself, is like a Seal which hath made an Impression upon her: She suffers and receives more than she acts, and whatever Advertisement is conceived there from the presence of the Object, it is impossible to conceive that she should make the Pourtraicture which she hath thereof in herself.  
To tell me that There is the King, is nothing at all if I am blind; to give me the means of representing to myself the Figure of him there needs a great deal more than the single Advertisement of the presence of the Object. Tho' then we should conceive that the Soul should be Stirred, Advertised and Determined by the Physical Action of the Body, which is incompatible with the Spiritual Nature of the Soul, it is certain that we cannot conceive for all that, that the Soul can make to itself the Images of things as she hath them; it is an Impression wholly Immaterial and wholly Spiritual, which she receives by her Passive Faculty: And as Wax which hath a Capacity of receiving the Impression of the Seal, hath not for all that the Power of imprinting it upon itself, or to make in itself that Figure which it receives thereof; the Soul also, which in this respect hath nothing above the Wax, but that its Knowing Nature gives it essentially an inward Certainty and Experience of every thing which is made in herself, can well receive those Images of things wherewith she finds herself Imprinted, but she cannot make them herself.   

This Doctrine is the common Doctrine of the Schools, when they speak of Angels.  
All the Schoolmen do hold, That Angels cannot make to themselves the particular Ideas of things, and that they ought to receive from God the Species of the things which they know, without which they would remain eternally without the Idea of any thing out of themselves, but only with an inseparable Sentiment of themselves, and with a Light of Reason, by which Reasoning upon their Dependency whereof they essentially have the Sentiment, they know the Supreme Being by an abstractive Knowledge and Idea.  
To the end that the Angels might see the visible World, it was needful That God should imprint in them the Idea, which is that we call a Species in relation to Angels, and in relation to separated Souls; for a Species and an Idea are the same thing in respect of Spirits. God alone, who is a Knowing Being by himself, as he is an Existent Being by himself, God alone hath Essentially of himself and by himself, his Eternal and Subsistent Idea, by which he knows, and can distinctly see all things possible, Present and to Come. The created Spirits, who are not Thinking Being's by themselves, much less Spirits Knowing by themselves and in themselves the things which are Exterior to them, have need to receive the Ideas of particular things, to the end they may have a Knowledge of them. If they had by themselves the Idea of one sole particular thing out of themselves, there would not be any Idea which they might not have; for what a Man by Himself hath, all That he can always have. God hath all Perfection, because he hath it by Himself; and the Soul of Man would have been ignorant of nothing, and would have had the Ideas of all things, if she had had the Power by herself to form an Idea of the least thing.    

CHAP. VI  
How a Corporeal Impression received into the Sense, passeth into the Soul.  
THE Soul than hath no Power of giving to itself neither the Idea nor Knowledge, nor Sentiment of any particular thing, and she cannot receive them of any body; but it is the Author of Nature, and of our Particular Being, rather than of the rest of Nature; the Life of every thing that lives, and the Light of every thing that is enlightened, who gives us all the Sentiments, and all the Ideas which we have from the occasion of our particular Bodies, and of others which environ us. And to clear this Point so obscure and so difficult, and at the same time so important and so necessary, in order to make us comprehend our dependence upon God, it is necessary that I should Observe, That all the World agree, and ought necessarily to agree about two things upon this Subject.  

Propositions Essential and Certain.  
The One, That we do not know, nor see, nor seel any Bodies which environ us, but by reason of the Impression which they make, either Immediately by themselves upon our Bodies and upon our Senses, or Mediately (if I may be permitted to say so) by their thin and subtle Particles, or by their Species, or the Images which they send us from them by the Light which results from all the Points of their Superficies which regard us; That this Impression ought to be carried, and arrive through the Exterior Senses as far as the Brain, which is the Seat and Organ of the Senses which we call Internal, where all the Rays of the exterior Impression ought to be terminated; and that this Action or Impression carried to the Brain, aught to engrave and imprint itself there, to the end that the Soul may be advertised of the presence of the Object, and that she may thence receive the Spiritual Image in herself.  
The Other is, That this Corporeal Impression, which we otherwise call a Corporeal Species or Phantôme, which ought necessarily to precede the Act of Knowing, which ought to come to the Soul, is not that which makes in the Soul her Knowledge, nor even that which determines her Physically; forasmuch as that Impression being Corporeal, it always keeps its Impossibility and its Disproportion of being able to unite itself to the Soul, of being able to Act upon the Soul, of being able to arrive as far as the Soul, of being able to affect the Soul, of being able to enlighten it, or of being able to modify it in any manner by itself, and to render it Knowing.  
These Impressions, Images or Phantômes, cannot Act but upon the Body; they are like the Seal, which doth not Act but in Figuring the Matter, and Imprinting the Cutts of the Graver, wherewith the Seal itself is Imprinted; They can Imprint and Engrave themselves, where they find Body and Matter; but they cannot pass from the Region of the Body, they must necessarily acquiesce where the Body terminates, they cannot pass within the Soul; That is another Country, not for them, That is not the soft Substance of the Fibres of the Brain, That is a Nature wholly Spiritual, where no Seal can Imprint itself; There is nothing more certain.   

A Point unanimously acknowledged.  
All the Philosophers, both Ancient and Modern, do agree in this Principle, That they are not the Corporeal Species, Images, or Impressions engraven in our Brain, which render our Souls formally Knowing. Thus the Presupposition is indubitable, and one may yet suppose it as certain and unquestionable, altho' some have believed, and maintained it with much vehemency, That these Images of Objects so engraven in the Brain, are not at all as Tables within which the Soul sees things.   

Another Presupposition that the Soul doth not see the Objects in the Passages of the Brain, or the Species, as in Pictures, and that she neither sees, nor feels them.  
This is a thing which we know by an indubitable Sentiment, That so far are these Corporeal Images and Species from being as Tables which we bring near to the Soul, and in which she sees things, that we do not so much as see or know even themselves only, which gave occasion of that Expression of the Schoolmen, Videntur ut quò non ut quod; non cognita faciunt cognoscere. We may then presuppose, that it is not at all these Tables whereon the Soul sees the Object; and this being presupposed, we have no more to do, than to search into the manner how the Soul hath by the occasion of these dead and Corporeal Images and Impressions, those living and animated Ideas and Images which she hath in herself, and by which she is rendered formally and actually Knowing, having in herself a lively Representation, or an inward Sentiment of the Objects which render themselves present by the Material Impression which is received in the Body.   

That Men do not commonly Explain how the Passage of the Material Impressions of Corporeal Objects, make a Passage into the Spiritual Substance of the Soul.  
One may say, That here are the Limits, (or if a Man may be permitted to say so) the Pillars of Humane Intelligence; there hath appeared nothing, neither hath there been any thing in Nature more inaccessible than the Knowledge, and the clear Notion of the manner how this Passage is made, and this Transmission from the Corporeal into the Spiritual Region, and than the manner how the Corporeal Impressions of the Senses, whether Interior or Exterior do become Spiritual Ideas and Perceptions in the Soul. Men have said almost nothing thereupon, but enormous and monstrous Contradictions: But we need not despair of arriving at a clear Notion, and an indubitable Certainty thereof, how dark soever this Mystery may be wrapped up, if we follow that Rule which prescribes to us, to go always, notwithstanding the resistance of Prejudices, thither where the Evidence and clearness of Principles and Consequences calls us and leads us on; In following on the one part, the double shining Light of the Experience which we have of a Superior Light and Power, which rules over us, and which enlightens us, and of the Certainty we have made ourselves of the Spiritual Nature of our Souls; And on the other part, in following the infallible Principle of this certain Truth, That it is God alone who Essentially unites things Spiritual and Corporeal, and who alone can unite our Bodies and our Souls; we shall carry a certain and an infallible Light in this so dark and so obscure a place, and we shall come to have a clear Idea of that which we search after.   

That it is the Author and the Principle of the Union of the Soul and of the Body, which makes the Commerce between the Soul and the Body, and by consequence, between the Soul and the Corporeal Objects.  
We find that these Corporeal Images, and these Material Impressions, do not pass into the Soul to render it actually and formally Knowing by themselves, for this would be a Repugnancy with a Witness, if it were only in this, because a Corporeal thing cannot be the enlightening and illuminating Form of a Spiritual Nature. We find that these Images, and these Corporeal Impressions, do not quit their quality and material Essence, to change themselves by a Chimerical and an Impossible Metamorphosis to Spirituals; We find that these Corporeal Images are not the Tables and Glasses to which the Soul doth apply herself, and towards which she turns herself, to contemplate and see in them the Objects which are rendered present to the Body, in drawing upon them their Idea and Representation; We find that these Images or Corporeal Impressions, which the Exterior Objects do engrave in our Brains, are no other thing than the Occasional Cause of the Action by which He who unites the Body and Soul, doth Instruct Us and Enlighten Us, who in the Quality of the First Cause, concurs Essentially with all Second Causes, and who in the Quality of an Universal Cause, hath been pleased to render in Men the Concourse of his Illumination and the Essential Irradiation of his Life, by which He makes to live all that liveth, dependent of divers Impressions which are brought and received within our Brains, for to conserve his Character of Universal Cause, in such a manner, that these Images serve to no other purpose, than to determine the Author of Nature (who is necessarily the immediate Cause and immediate Principle of the Union of the Soul and of the Body, and by consequence, of our Corporeal Impressions, and of our Spiritual Faculties) to give (as an Essential Cause of all the Light and of all the Life which is in created Being's) the Ideas and the Sentiments of things, at that moment that the general Course of the Universal Movement of Corporeal Matter and of Nature, or the free and accidental Determination of some particular Cause, doth make in that Structure of Bone, of Flesh, and of Nerves, which we call Human Body, any Impression which is carried to the Centre of all that Structure, which is the Brain. This is the Formal Act of the Power which unites the Soul to the Body, and the Body to the Soul; This is the Active and Formal Union of the Soul to the Body; This is It which is the immediate and necessary Principle and Cause which makes the Commerce betwixt the Body and the Spirit; This is It which makes the Passage to the Corporeal Species and Images, from the Corporeal to the Spiritual Region; This is It which Spiritualizeth our Phantômes, not by a Chimerical and Impossible Metamorphosis, but by an Infallible and an Omnipotent Efficacy of his Action as First Cause and as 'Cause Universal, by which from the occasion of divers Impressions made in the Body, He gives to Souls the Ideas and Sentiments, which ought to correspond and accompany them in the Intention of the End of his Workmanship.  
It would be very surprising, if this Idea should appear New to those Understandings who know that it is an Idea so common and so necessary, To regard God as the immediate Author, and necessary Cause of the Union of our Souls and of our Bodies; for when it shall be known that God is the immediate and necessary Principle and Cause of this Union, it ought not to appear strange or new, That it is God who makes and who entertains this Commerce, which is the essential and necessary continuance thereof, and that he continually Acts after this manner upon our Souls, from the occasion of the Impressions of Bodies, seeing that the Action by which he makes this Union, which ought necessarily to be renewed, reiterated and continued every moment, cannot consist but in this everliving Commerce between the Soul and between the Body, as shall be proved hereafter.  
In sum, all is thereby clear and easy, all of a piece, and made very plain; Thereby we do not only ascend to the true Principle and immediate Cause of the Union of our Souls and of our Bodies, but we clearly conceive thereby how this Union, so incomprehensible and so admirable, is made; how it is He that is the First Tie, and Essential Band thereof; And He is at the same time the Light and the Life of all Spirits, as He Acts perpetually in Us, and doth not less Animate the little World, which is the Assembly of the Body and Spirit whereof Man consists, than the Universal World, which is the Assembly of all Corporeal Natures; Thereby doth subsist our dependence upon Him in all the Acts of our Life, as well as in the Foundation of our Being, which depends every moment upon the continuation of that Action by which he at first Created us. Happy it is, that the Notion which we have made of the manner whereby we know all things which are without us, should lead us back, and unite us so intimately to the Source of our Being, and that we cannot know how our Knowledges and Sentiments are formed in us, without knowing likewise together with the dependence that all our Life and all our Being hath from Him, the Immensity, the Excellency, and the Superiority of his infinite Essence above all created Being's.  
The blind and ignorant Pride of Humane Understanding will not, perhaps, suffer in some People, that we should humble it after this manner, and that we should thus bring it back again to God; It will revolt, it may be, against the Evidence of the things which I have been speaking of, and it will, perhaps, choose much rather not to comprehend at all how the Corporeal Impressions of Objects become in our Souls Spiritual Images and Sensations, than to comprehend it after a manner which gives it so lively an Idea of its Dependence and its Nothingness: But we must not suffer it peaceably and quietly to enjoy the Pleasure of its affected Ignorance, of its criminal Independency; we must convince it, not only that there is no other means of Explaining the manner how we have, by reason of Corporeal Impressions, the Ideas and Sentiments of things, but we must also necessarily make it acknowledge, That this perpetual Action of the Illumination and Irradiation of God in us, as an Essential Act of his Supreme Sovereignty over us, is the inseparable Character of our Essential Dependence, and the necessary continuance of the Function by which he unites the Souls to Bodies, so as Faith teaches it.    

CHAP. VII.  
A Proof of what hath been decided, That it is God, as Author of the Union of the Soul and Body, who gives to the Soul the Sentiments and Ideas of things, from the occasion of Corporeal Impressions which are made upon the Material Senses.  
THIS continual Action of God in us, whereby he Acts perpetually in us in the Quality of the First and Universal Cause, Enlightening us, and affecting us with several Sentiments, by reason of divers Impressions which are made either by a Cause from within, or by a Motion from without, in our Brain, ought necessarily to be acknowledged by two or three sorts of Proofs, and different Reasons equally convincing.  

The first Proof by the Essential Union of our Souls with God.  
First of all, We have the indubitable Sentiment and Experience thereof: For if we rereflect well upon our own Sentiment, we shall find equally two Unions in us; an Union of our Bodies with all the visible World, and an Union of our Souls with a Nature Knowing, Immense, Infinite, and Unchangeable, which with an Eye always vigilant, and always attentive to all the Movements of our Brains, penetrates us continually with a thousand lively Sentiments, and enlightens us with a thousand Ideas upon their Occasion.  
Our Bodies are undoubtedly united to all other Bodies, and by consequence, to all the visible World; Because there is not one single Motion made about them, which doth not come to them through some one of their Parts, or through some one of the Organs which the provident Wisdom of the Creator hath disposed so diversely to receive their different Motions. If the Sun, or any other Luminous Body, be moved in the middle of that imperceptible Matter which it drives in strait Lines from all sides, our Eyes receive in the instant and in the moment, the Impression of it, by the necessary Effect of the continuation of Motion, or of the effort of Motion which is imprinted in that Matter, because they find themselves so disposed to let it pass through the different Humours whereof they are composed, and to receive it in that thin and subtle Web which is formed in the bottom of our Eyes, about the Extremities of the Optic Nerves, and which is called the Retina. If there be a Shock of two solid Bodies in the Air, or any vehement Fomentation of Exhalation, as it happens in Thunder, from whence arise redoubled Trepidations in this fluid Matter, like to those Circles which are described upon the Superficies of Water one after the other, and one against another, this Motion comes to strike in our Bodies that which is called the Tympanum in the Organ of Hearing. It is generally in the same manner with all other Bodies, some of them are united to our Bodies by the subtle Vapours which they emit from them, as are Odours; others by an Immediation (as they say) of the Superficies of their Parts: and there is not any one single one of them, which doth not Act upon our Bodies after their manner.  
But if our Bodies are so naturally united to all other Bodies by Contiguity, which communicates the Motion of one to the other, our Souls are yet more sensibly united to a Superior and an overruling Nature, which imprints on them Ideas and Sentiments as it pleases by General Wills, and universal and immutable Laws, which it almost never departs from, but in those extraordinary Occasions, in the which it Acts as a particular Cause, and works that which we call a Miracle.  
We cannot be ignorant or insensible of this Empire which the Author and Master, the Sovereign and the Lord of Nature Exercises over us, for the Reasons which have been already observed, and which S. Augustin had so well dived into, that he said, That a reflective and an attentive Man would much rather doubt of the Union of his Body with the visible World, to which it is tied by all its Parts, than of that Union of his Soul with God; since the Action thereof is never interrupted, but it is sensible and visible; for we know nothing, if we do not know that it Acts in us, and that it Rules us either by a lively and an involuntary Sentiment, or by the Light wherewith it penetrates us; since it is impossible not to acknowledge God in this Principle, so Enlightening and so Vigilant of the one Part, and on the other so Efficacious and so Commanding, who Presides over all our Knowledges and over all our Sentiments, and who makes them in us in spite of us, with so admirable and so illuminating a Wisdom; and so much the better, as causing in us undoubtedly all the Pleasure and all the Pain which we resent by the occasion of our Bodies, We see plainly, that he is the Sovereign Arbiter as well as the Principle of Happiness and Unhappiness, which is the most Essential Character and Attribute of that which we call Divinity or Supreme Nature. Tho we should not have this so assured Experience of the Union which our Souls have with God, by the continual Irradiation of his Divine Life and Influence in us, the which agrees so well with this Idea which Faith gives, That it is God who is the Immediate Cause of the Union of our Souls and our Bodies (for we must observe by the way, that it would be an Impiety to doubt of it, since not only God, according to Faith, Created our Souls, but he Infuses them also, as they say, and unites them to our Bodies), we could not possibly be ignorant of it, if we gave any attention to his Supreme Sovereignty over us, and to our Essential Dependence upon Him in all the Acts of our Life, as well as in all the Foundations of our Being, and by consequence, in all our Knowledges.  
Can the Sunbeam shine when it is separated from the Sun? And can the created Spirit either subsist one moment, or have the least Light, or the least Spark of Life or of Knowledge, without the Irradiations of the Supreme Being? The Ancients said very well, when they said, That all things were full of God; That God was the Soul of the World, the Life of every thing that Lives, and the Being of every thing that Is and doth Subsist. They had much better than Us conceived the Supreme Nature, when they said that It was the Circumference and Centre of a Circle, That it was the Sun and its Rays; That it contained All, and replenished All; And that its Action was the Life and the Motion of all things. God is Effectively and Essentially applied to all the Parts of the Universe; and that there is not one only thing, from which he withdraws himself for one only Minute, Natural Evidence persuades us no less than the Divine and Heavenly Authority of S. Paul, That every thing that Lives, every thing that Moves, every thing that Is, Lives, Moves, and Is in Him, In ipso vivimus, movemur & sumus. But tho' he should not continually apply himself to all the other Parts of the Universe, yet it must needs be that he should apply himself to Spiritual Natures, and to every thing that is called Spirit, or Knowing and Spiritual Nature; for that also the Scriptures and the Holy Fathers do teach us, That He is the Father, that is to say, the Lively and Essential Source of all Light, and by consequence, of all Knowledge, the Sun of Intelligence, and the Life of all Spirits.   

Exposition of this Principle by S. Augustin.  
St. Augustin by the force of this Natural Evidence Divinely said, That we are so Essentially united to God, that we may say, we are much more in God even by our Bodies, not only than we are in the Air, or within any other Corporeal Space whatsoever, but than we are in ourselves; because, in fine, saith he, It is certain, that God not only contains and environs our Bodies better than any Corporeal Space, but he continually gives them their Being and their Motion, by his Action and by his Almighty Influence, a thousand times more than the Illumination of the Sun gives Light and Splendour to its Rays.  
But this which the Holy Doctor says of our Bodies, hath much greater force in it when he saith it of our Souls; for tho' it be true, that our Bodies are in God, in whom all things are Essentially, it is much more so, that our Souls are in Him, because they are tied to him by a thousand times more Dependences than the Body, since they continually receive Life from him through all the Acts of all their divers Faculties, which are without number. If a Man demands, says he, Where is the place of the Soul? That is a Question which our gross and curious Imaginations make, who being desirous to conceive all things after a Corporeal manner, would determine a certain Space and a certain Extent to Souls; But it would be very well (says he) to answer them, and to say to them, for to undeceive them of this Manichean Idea, That they are in God, that they Live, they See, they Perceive, and they Imagine in God; for it is certain that they do not any thing of all this, but by the Immediate and Physical Influence, and the continual and Essential Irradiation of his Divine Life, which he communicates to them without ceasing. And because the Life of God and of every Spirit is to See, to Know, and to Love, it is certain, That every thing that Thinks, every thing that Seethe, every thing that Loveth, and every thing that Knoweth, doth Think, See, Love, and Know in him and by him, by whom is every thing that is, by whom is moved every thing that moves, and by whom liveth every thing that lives: For byreason that He is the First Being, or Principle of Being, it must needs be, that every thing that Is, receiveth without ceasing its Being from him, by a perpetual and never-interrupted Communication of this Supreme Essence; By the reason that He is the Principle of Life, or the Essential and Original Life, it must needs be, That every thing that lives, receives continually a Life from Him by a like Influence, and by a like Communication of his Life; and by consequence, That every thing that Thinks and Knows, Thinketh and Knoweth by Him, since to Think and Know is the Life of Spirits.  
This is the solid Metaphysic of S. Augustin, and this is also the Theology of S. Thomas, who hath so often made use of these Arguments under the Name and Notion of a First Agent, of a First Cause, and of an Essential Principle of Life; And this is the same common Notion of all the Doctors that ever were, under the more consued Name and Idea of Concourse; because it is certain, that this Action of God which we call his Concourse, cannot be, in relation to the Passive Faculty by which our Soul hath the Ideas and Sentiments of Corporeal Objects, but a Vision and a Chimaera, if it be not that Action by which I say, That in the Quality of a First and Universal Cause on the one Part; and on the other, of a Particular Cause of the Union of our Souls and Bodies, He determines in us our Sentiments, and gives us our Ideas from the Occasion of the Impressions which either Actions from without on the part of the Bodies which are round about us, cause upon our Brains; or the Determination of the Circulation of the Blood, of the Humours, and of the Spirits within us, which oftentimes are the Occasion of the Action of the Supreme Cause, without the intervening of any thing from without.   

That this is not to have recourse to a Miracle, but to Explain what sort of Commerce there is betwixt the Soul and the Body.  
There is no need of opposing here, that This is to have recourse to Miracle, or to make God descend from Heaven to favour our Ignorance; for this is no ways to have recourse to Miracles, thus to reduce things to their Essential Principle, and to their Necessary and Immediate Causes on the one Part, and on the other Part, to the common and universal Experience of all Men, and to the most constant Ideas of Religion, which is what we are doing here, when having caused to be observed, that we receive the Sentiments and Ideas of particular Bodies by the only Passive Faculty of the Soul, and by a Superior Power which Rules over us, and which Enlightens us; and having demonstrated, that we cannot at all be Knowing Being's by ourselves, since that is the Privilege of God alone; but that we are Essentially Knowing by an Exterior and Superior Irradiation and Illumination, and that this Illumination and Irradiation cannot come to us, neither from other Bodies, nor from our own, by reason of the Impossibility that there is, that a Body can be United to a Spirit to Act upon it, and Enlighten, or Affect and Modify it; we say that it comes from God, from God the Author of our Being, and the Necessary Cause and Principle of the Union and of the Meeting together of the two different and disproportioned Parts which Compose us. This is neither to have recourse to Miracle, nor to call to God to descend to the help of Humane Weakness and Ignorance; but on the contrary, this is to mount up again to the true Principle of all the particular Ideas, and all the Sentiments which we have of Bodies, and of things Corporeal, upon the Occasions of our Bodies; This is to reduce the confused Idea of the Union which God makes of our Souls and Bodies, to a clear and neat Idea; This is to acknowledge the true Principle of our Light, and to cut off all the false Ideas by the which we have been accustomed either to make Ourselves God, in Figuring to ourselves that we have of ourselves Pleasure and Pain, and the Ideas of things; or to make Gods of all the Bodies which environ us, in believing that They are those which Enlighten and Illuminate us, or which at the same time make us Happy by Pleasure, and Unhappy by Pain and Dolour. Not to be willing that we should refer to God the Action which unites our Souls to our Bodies, is Not to be willing that we should refer to him the Creation of Souls, and the Existence of the World; And as the Passage which the Body makes in the Soul by Corporeal Impressions, is either the necessary continuance, or the very Act of the Union of our Souls and of our Bodies; not to be willing that it is God who doth This Immediately, is Not to be willing that it should be him, who by himself Immediately unites both our Bodies and our Souls, which is a Species of Atheism.   

The happy Fecundity of this Principle for Morality.  
Thus we are able to felicitate ourselves, and to rejoice ourselves, in having found out, (together with the clear Idea and Notion of the manner how our Souls have their Ideas and their Sentiments upon the Occasion of the Body) the Discovery of our Intimate Union with God, and of our perpetual Dependence upon him, of a continual Action of him in us, of a living Source of Lights and of Pleasures which are in him, and of a fruitful, and of an abounding Source of the Duties of Love and Fear, of Dependence and of Gratitude, which ought to keep us continually united to him. Let others study God in the visible World, and Morality in the Books of the Doctors, I will for my part, neither study the one nor the other, but in my own Soul, and in the manner whereby she perceives, and whereby she knows every thing that she doth know out of herself.  
Let others make Efforts of Imagination, and prescribe to themselves a thousand Practices for to keep themselves continually present to God; I for my part will desire no more than my Principle, and a moderate Attention to that which passes continually in me, never to lose the sight of God, but to have him always present. Let other search into imperfect Reasonings for the Motives of the Love and the Fear which they own to God; for my part, I will only reflect upon the Pleasures which I have in the very Acts even of the Animal Life, for to see in God a Source of infinite Felicities, and by consequence, an immense and an infinite Loveliness; for what should I more naturally love, than that Living Source of Pleasure, since it is nothing but Pleasure that I love?  
But this is not all; I will besides only reflect upon the Equality with which God Enlightens every moment all Men, to conceive that he is the Father and the common Centre in whom we are all united, and in whom we ought all of us to love one another, to honour one another, and to support one another, and to observe Fidelity and Justice towards one another.  
There are moreover, I see, in this Knowledge of my Soul, Incitements to Duty, as well as Duties themselves. Let others seek to fright their Concupiscences by the dreadful Paintings of Eternal Judgement; for my part, I need only a simple View, and a moderate Reflection upon the Pains and Dolours which we resent upon the account of our Bodies, by the efficacious Impression of that Power which keeps our Souls united to our Bodies: For if to affectionate us to the preservation of our Bodies, and to remove far from us the things which are hurtful to them, it penetrates us with such lively Dolours, what will those be wherewith it will transpierce our impure and rebellious Souls, which shall render themselves deserving of his Anger? And what Pains must he have established to oblige us to watch after the conservation of our Souls, since he takes so much pains to make us watch for the preservation of these miserable Bodies, which are only a vile and despicable Garment of the Soul? But let us not any farther enlarge here upon these Moral Consequences, whose solid Principles and Foundation we shall discover in its proper place; Let us advance, and after having made clear the manner how our Souls have Ideas and Sentiments upon the occasion of our Bodies, and after having cut off many Ideas, and many Prepossessions full of Error, with which it was impossible to conceive the manner how our Souls Are and Operate in our Bodies, we must now endeavour to conceive it.    

CHAP. VIII.  
How our Souls Are in our Bodies.  
THAT Evidence which we have of the manner how we have Sentiments and Ideas, gins to give a Light to our Eyes, which makes us see the manner how our Souls are in our Bodies; and we have another Light which will completely let us see it, and as it were, touch it; and This is the Experience of the manner how we move our Bodies.  
We have a continual Experience, That our Souls have Power to move our Bodies; for there is nothing more certain in the Sentiment which we have of ourselves, there is nothing that we experiment, and that we find so indubitably in us; but the same Experience which we have that we move our Bodies when we please, provided that they have on their part no Obstacle or Impediment which resist it, makes us perceive and see, that this Power which we exercise by the precise Empire of our Will, is not at all a Power or a Force which we have in our Soul and in our Will.  
The admirable Efficacy wherewith we see that we move our Bodies only by the Will, which is a manner of Almightiness, and the Character by which we conceive the Infinite Power of God, who alone made all things by his Will, aught to make us acknowledge, that it is not by our own proper Power that we effectually remove our Bodies by the Will only; for if we conceive that it is the sole Efficacy of our Will which causeth in us these Motions, at what instant we please, we should attribute to ourselves a kind of Almightiness, or at least an Infinite Power; for to Act and Operate out of ourselves by the Will only, and by a pure Empire, is, as hath been said, a true Character of an Infinite Force and Virtue: And there needs nothing more to make us conceive, That it is not at all by our own proper Virtue and Force that we move our Bodies, tho' it may be by our Will,; And it is unquestionable, that the Force and Virtue which always moves them at that instant when we please, cannot be but God himself; for that Force and that Virtue is a Force and Virtue which is Almighty, Immense, and at the same time always Vigilant and Attentive to Enlighten our Desires and our Wills, to Obey him exactly: And there is none but God alone who can have all these Characters, and all these Attributes of Force, of Immensity, of Infinite Light or Vigilance. There is nothing more certain, and we have it by the same unquestionable Certainty, That God, who from the Occasion of the Impressions made by the External Objects, or by the Internal Humours upon the Body, Acts perpetually upon our Souls, to Enlighten them, and to Affect them with the divers Sentiments wherewith they are Affected, Acts also perpetually upon our Bodies, for to move them upon the Occasion of the Desires, or of the Will of the Soul; and if it should so fall out, that from this alone should result the Union of our Souls and our Bodies, it would be easy for us to conceive the manner how our Souls Are in our Bodies. Let us see then if we can make it appear, That from this double Action of God, from his Action upon the Souls upon the Occasion of the Body, and from his Action upon the Bodies upon the Occasion of the Souls, the Union of these two Parts of our Being doth result.  
We have, if you take notice of it, cut off many false Ideas, which a Man commonly hath of the Inclinations, of the Proprieties, and of the Faculties of our Souls, of their Proportion with the Body, and of the manner how they move their Bodies: And that is not done without design, or to no purpose; for with so many false Ideas, so evidently contrary to the Idea which our Interior Sentiment gives us of our Souls, and of their Spiritual Nature, it were impossible to conceive the manner how they Are in our Bodies, and how they Operate there; but if we continue to follow the living Light which hath conducted us hitherto, which is the Notion of our Soul as of a Spiritual Nature, whereof we have so intimately the Certainty, and the Experience of that Supreme Power which Acts perpetually upon the Soul from the Occasion of the Body, and upon the Body from the Occasion of the Desires and the Wills of the Soul, it will be easy for us to form a just and exact Idea thereof.  

That our Souls are not in our Bodies, but as they are united to our Bodies.  
We commonly conceive the manner how our Souls Are in our Bodies, under the Idea of Union; and tho' we have not been accustomed to say of one only of the united Parts, that it is in the other, and that we do not speak very regularly, when we say that the most noble and ruling Part is in the less; we must not change the Language of Men, we must let them say that our Souls are in our Bodies, tho' they are but united there, and the Body is rather contained than containing, since the Soul is the principal Part, and that which keeps the uppermost place in the Assembly which unites them; We must let People speak as they please, but we must here nevertheless cut off the false Ideas which spring up, and are formed upon the occasion of these Popular Expressions. The Word of Union of the Soul and Body, gives occasion at first (if we do not take heed to it) to the Imagination, of conceiving the Soul after a Corporeal manner; for as we see none but Corporeal Unions, so we go about at first to conceive the Soul united to the Body, as if she herself were Body: And as we conceive the things, which we say are in others, limited by their Circumference, and adjusted to their Extent, and to their Grandeur, we go about also at first to conceive the Soul as shut up within the Circumference of Body; but we must cut off all these Ideas, because they are Acts of the Imaginative Faculty, by which we would conceive the Soul under a Corporeal Form and Image; She who is only Intelligible, and no ways Imaginable. But that we may go surely in the way of Truth, and of just and true Ideas of things, we must remember, that when we speak of our Souls, we remove far from us all Corporeal Ideas.  
Thus we will say that the Soul is in the Body, but we will take care not to conceive it, for all that, as truly and properly contained in the Body; We will say that she is united to the Body, but we will not conceive her as poured into, and mingled with the Body, or as adjusted to its Extent by a Co-extension and Immediation of Greatness, of Figure, or of Substance; But see here how we ought to conceive it. Let us first of all consider what the Body is.   

What the Body is.  
The Body is a Portion of the common Matter of the World, united by an intimate Contiguity to all the rest of the visible World, disposed and ranged through a marvellous meeting together of Bones, of Nerves, of Membranes, of Cartilages, of Arteries, of Veins, of Muscles, of Bowels and of Flesh, in a Structure full of Harmony, whereby all the Parts are united to one common Centre, which is the Brain, wrapped up in Membranes, and distributed and divided into its divers Compartments proper to receive and to retain the Traces and the Impressions which the other Bodies which environ it, make perpetually upon it, and proper likewise to determine all the Muscles and all the Members, every one to the Movement for the which it is destined, when they themselves come to be determined.   

That neither our Souls do come of themselves to lay hold on the Body, nor does the Body cause the Soul to descend; but it is God who assembles them together.  
There you see how I conceive the Body; And whereas we have conceived the Soul as a Nature purely. Spiritual, capable of Perceiving, of Knowing and of Willing; We have no more to do, than to see how this Spiritual Nature can become united to that Terrestrial Structure. Whereupon the first thing that is to be conceived, is, That neither the Body can lay hold on the Soul, or draw it to it, for to subject it, and for to shut it up; Nor can the Soul on its side neither be driven by any Inclination, to become poured upon the Body, nor become tied there of itself, by its Choice and Good liking, as being to be so ill matched. We must therefore comprehend before all things, that these two Parties, and these two so far distant Natures, do neither of themselves, by consent, and by an appointed Rendezvous, assemble, nor by Chance do they meet together; but that it is the Infinite Power (which Governs the World, and which would have it be adorned by the Beauty of this so rare and singular a Work) which, as Faith teacheth, and all the World conceiveth, brings them together, and assembles them, and makes all the Union that is between them.  
St. Augustin most solidly observes, That God makes three Functions for our sakes, That of the Creator of the Matter of our Bodies, and of the Substance of our Souls; That of the Author of the Structure and Organisation of our Bodies; And lastly, That of the Principle of the Union of the two Parties, and of the two Natures, which compose Us, Creator, Fictor, Unitor. He is as essentially the efficient and immediate Principle of the Union of our Souls, and of our Bodies, as he is of the Structure of the Body, and of the Creation of the Soul; There is no other Power in the World, that can shut up this Immaterial, Immortal and Eternal Nature, within that Terrestrial and Carnal Structure. This is a certain Truth, we read it in our own proper Sentiments, and in the infallible Light of the notion of the Soul and of the Body; and there is nothing in the World more undoubtable than this Principle, That it is God that unites our Souls to our Bodies, and I believe no Man will disagree with it; and the Question is not Whether he doth it, but How he doth it.    

CHAP. IX.  
How God can assemble and unite the Soul and the Body.  
GOD cannot without doubt, Unite these two so opposite Natures, but in such a manner, that they may be United and Assembled; so that we must see first of all, how a Spirit and a Body may be Assembled and United. Men fall into a thousand Errors upon this matter, and all these Errors happen, because they will apply the Idea, which they have of the Union of two or more Bodies, to the Union of the Soul and Body; which is the greatest mistake in the World, and the entire Subsersion of Reason and good Sense; for it is evident, that the Union of a Spirit with a Spirit, cannot be conceived by the Idea of the Union of a Body with a Body; so likewise, the Union of a Spirit with a Body, cannot be comprehended by the Idea, which we have of the Union of two Bodies. We must shun this defect and disorder, and give attention to this certain and infallible Rule, That Union being a Relation of one thing to another, it follows, that she must change the Nature and the Idea, according to the Nature of the Things which are United; and thus to conceive an Union of a Spirit and a Body, we must comprehend wherein and whereby these two Natures may be united.  

How two Spirits may be united.  
That we may well form an Idea thereof, We must first of all conceive the Union of two Spirits; for when we shall have comprehended how two Spirits may be united, we shall with much more ease comprehend the Union of a Bound die a Spirit.  
If we give good attention thereto, we shall find that there being nothing in a Spiritual Nature, but Knowledge, Sentiment and Will (for there is nothing precisely, but That which we know in Spiritual created Natures) It is impossible to conceive the Union of two Spirits, otherwise than by the Union of their Thoughts, of their Sentiments, and of their Wills. Things cannot be united, but by that which is in them, and there being nothing in Spirits, but this triple ground of the Faculty of Thinking, or of Knowing, of the Faculty of Perceiving, which is itself a manner of the Faculty of Knowing; And lastly, Of the faculty of Willing, and freely determining themselves: It is clear, that two Spirits cannot be united, but by the Faculties, and by the Acts and Faculties of Thinking, Perceiving, and of Willing.   

That which makes precisely the Union of two Spirits.  
But this is not enough to have found and conceived, that two Spirits cannot be united, but by their Faculties of Thinking, of Knowing, and of Willing; we must see also wherein the Union of the two Faculties of Thinking, and the two Faculties of Perceiving, and of the two Faculties of Willing, may consist. Wherein then may this Union consist? It cannot without doubt consist, but in the mutual respective and reciprocal dependence of the Faculties and their Acts: If we conceive that an Angel thinks necessarily, as often as another Angel thinks, that he hath a Sentiment of Pleasure and of Pain, of Joy or of Sadness, as often as the other is sad or rejoices; That he hath a motion of love or of hatred, as often as the other loves or hates: We shall conceive without doubt, these two Angels united, and united in an Hypostatical Union, or in Unity of Person, and in a Substantial and Physical Union, especially if this dependence of Thought, of Sentiment, and of Will, be of the one side mutual and reciprocal, and on the other, not voluntary and arbitrary, but necessary and forced, caused by a Superior Power, which leaves them not the liberty of breaking the Band of this mutual dependence.  
This mutual, and not arbitrary dependence, caused by that Empire, and that Physical Action of a Superior Power, will so unite these two Spirits, that it will be no longer a simple Angel, but a Compositum wholly Spiritual of two Angels, which will make no more than one single Whole in two individual Substances, altogether distinct: Such a mutual dependence, makes precisely all the Physical Union that can be, betwixt two Spirits; since cutting off all other Ideas, by that alone these two Angels will be comprehended to be united, and not conceiving That, though we may conceive other Things between these two Angels, It will however be impossible to conceive them United, for it is impossible to conceive any other Thing, whereby two Spirits may be united; we must not here imagine Embrace, Penetration, Minglings, Extensions, or Adjustments of Magnitude or of Quantity.   

Wherein the union of a Spirit, and a Body may consist.  
It is in that precisely, that the Union of two Spirits can consist, and it is easy to conceive thereupon the Idea of the Union of a Body and of a Spirit; for if we conceive a Mutual and Reciprocal Dependence, caused by the Physical Action of a Superior Power, between the movements of that Structure of Bone, of Flesh, and of Nerves, which we call Humane Body; And between the Thoughts, the Sentiments, the Wills, or desires of a Spirit; we conceive this Spirit and this Body united, and as making no more than one single Whole, and one single Person.  
Whatsoever other Things we may fancy to ourselves, we can never thereby at all, conceive a Spirit united to a Body; but in the moment that we have conceived that Thing only, we have conceived them United: For what is it to be United, but to be One; but to become one and the same Whole? And who sees not, that all This Results from the Mutual Dependence of the Operations of a Soul, and of the Motions of the Body? Let Us not then go about to make impossible Efforts of Imagination, for to conceive the Union of the Soul with the Body, by a kind of a Co-extension or Local Circumscription of the Soul with the Body, by a Kind of Mingling, of Penetration, of Confusion, and Immediation, by an adjustment of Figure, and Magnitudes, etc. All this would be well, between Body and Body; but concerning the Union of a Spiritual Nature, with a Corporal Structure of Flesh, of Bones, of Muscles of Nerves; all these material Ideas ought to be removed and banished a great way off.  
God was pleased to do himself honour, by this admirable Composition of Spirit, and of Body; and having found that it was agreeable to his Dignity of Universal Cause, to tie together the determination of Ideas (by the which, he was willing that we should by little and little, and successively be Enlightened) to the diversity of Impressions, which should be made upon our Brain, by the divers Objects which should strike upon it; and to tie together the Determination of divers Sentiments (by the which he was willing, that we should be Advertised by way of Instinct, of that which should be good or evil to our Body) to divers Impressions which should affect it; he hath Established this mutual Relation, That when these Impressions are received in the Body, there is so soon, and at the same time, by his infinite Efficacy, conformable Sentiments and Ideas, which are determined in the Soul, and on the contrary, as often as there is in the Soul, Thoughts, and Sentiments, or Wills, that require that the Body should be moved, if its Structure be well disposed, the Motion is by the same Efficacy of his infinite Power, determined in the Body.  
The Creator hath thought fit to conserve thereby, the Dignity of the Universal Cause, and to unite our Souls to all the Visible World, in tying Them to a particular Body, by a Physical and Substantial Union. Our Souls lose something thereby, even very much of their Natural Liberty, but they conserve some Character of their Grandeur, by the Immensity, by which their Union with the Body renders them present to all the Immensity of the Universe; since by the contiguity of all Bodies, which compose the World, without any interruption of vacuity, they continually receive a Thousand and a Thousand divers Ideas, from all its parts, in proportion as they come, (which they continually do by their Motions, or by their Fluxes) Either to strike or to affect some one of the Parts of our Body.   

This Decision ought to pass for a Demonstration.  
I will not stay here to prove that it is God the Author of Nature, or acting as Universal Cause, who makes, and who entertains by his continual Action, this Mutual Dependence, and this Reciprocal Relation: Since besides, that I have already let you see clearly, That it is He alone, who can be the immediate and efficient Principle and Cause of the Union of our Souls and of our Bodies, because the Body can neither subject the Soul to be united to it, nor can the Soul be willing to submit to the Body, which humbleth and constraineth it: I have moreover proved very evidently, That none but God alone can give to the Soul, the Sentiments and Ideas which she hath, from the occasion of the Impressions which are made upon the Body, by other Bodies, which environ Us, and which Act perpetually upon Us.  
This continual Action of the Author of Nature, who Enlightens Us by the Ideas, which we receive upon the occasion of that Impression of exterior Objects, and who affectionates Us to the Conservation of the Body, by the agreeable or disagreeable Sentiments which he gives Us, for to make Us know by way of Instinct, that which is profitable or hurtful to the Conservation of our Bodies, and of Human Species; This Action I say, joined to that, by which he Moves our Bodies, when our Thoughts and our Wills require it, is properly the Action, by the which He unites our Bodies to our Souls, and our Souls to our Bodies; This is the active or actual Union; This is what the Schools call the Unitive Action of God, which joined to the immutable Decree and Will, by the which he hath determined to continue it, so long as the Structure of the Body shall subsist, makes in the Soul and in the Body, that Estate of Union which we call Passive and formal Union.   

Against them who say that this is to have recourse to a Miracle.  
And you must not come here again, to say that it is a manner very easy to explain every thing by a Miracle, and to call God to the support of our Ignorance; For so far it is from being contrary to Rules, to make God the Author of our Union with the Body, That this is the first Rule of good Reasoning, That we acknowledge the Cause and the Principle in the Effect, and to see that God alone can unite two Natures so opposite and disproportionate, as are Spirit and Body, as he only can Create them: Moreover, so far it is from having recourse to Miracles, That it is on the contrary, to reduce the Thing to all Common Laws, to say, that it is God the Author of Nature, the necessary Principle of this Union, who, that he may conserve this Dignity of Universal Cause, establishes in the divers Modifications of a certain Part of the Body, the occasional Cause of the Ideas, and of the Sentiments of the Soul, which is the most Regular manner of Acting, The most Natural and most conformable to his ordinary manner of Acting, and by consequence, the most contrary to Miracle, which is not, but when God changes his ordinary manner of Acting, and departs from his general Will.   

The Action whereby God preserves the Union, is continual.  
As to the rest, let us not fear that God is too much Employed, and hath too many Affairs, than continually to entertain This Union by his perpetual Action, multiplied and diversified into so many Manners, in determining so many Sentiments and Thoughts, or Ideas on one part in the Souls, and so many Motions on the other part in the Bodies to the Souls liking; for this Supreme Agent, who Animates, and who Essentially moves the Universe, who gives Life to every Thing that Lives, Motion to every Thing that is Moved, Thought to every Thing that Thinks, and Light to every Thing that is Enlightened, is in no wise encumbered by so much Action: It is on the contrary, his Essence and his Nature to Act thus continually, and to be Equally the Soul of the Corporeal, as well as of the Intelligible World, to be equally applied to the one and to the other; To the one for to Entertain and direct its Motions, to the other for to Englighten all its Thoughts, and to Determine its Sentiments, or its sensible Modifications: Pater meus usque modo operatur.  
As God conserveses Things by a new Creation, renewed every Instant, or to say better, always continued, so he Entertains the Union of Souls and Bodies, by that continual Application which he hath of Acting on one part on the Souls, in Enlightening them diversely from the occasion of Impressions, which external Objects, or the internal Course of the Animal Spirits, make continually in our Brains; and on the other part upon Bodies, in determining their Motions according to the occasion of the Thoughts of the Sentiments, and of the Wills of the Soul.   

Union can be nothing else.  
Let us not fear then, Let us not at all fear, that God is fatigued with so grand an Exercise, nor that it is unworthy of him, to be thus always Employed upon Nature, and upon his Workmanship; since it is on the contrary, not only his Pleasure and his Glory, but the Essential Act of his Supreme Nature also; But let Us comprehend that no other Idea can make Us conceive the Union of our Souls with our Bodies: For let us not believe that the Body and the Soul can be united like two Liquors, or like two Metals, which are melted one with the other; Let us not conceive that this Union can be made like the Union of Bodies to Bodies, which are made either by an unctuous or viscous humour, which binds the Parts of them together, or by Nails, Pegs and Joints; Let Us not imagine here any Thing that is material; Let Us cut off every Thing which presents itself Corporeal to our Spirit; Let Us conceive precisely this mutual and necessary Dependence, and having conceived thereby the Union of our Souls and of our Bodies, We shall find that we have comprehended the manner, how our Souls are in our Bodies. They are not there by a Local and Corporeal Circumscription; They are not there as Liquor is in the Vessel, as the Bird is within the Nest, or in his Cage, or as the Body is in the Air, which environs it; They are there as God is in the World, in which we must so conceive Him, as that we must conceive Him, saith St. Augustin, much more containing than contained; Let us remember, that though the Nature of the Soul is a Spiritual Nature, which doth as essentially exclude Local Extension, and by consequence, all sorts of Ideas of Local Presence, such as we commonly conceive under the Corporeal Immages of Immediation of Proportion, and of Co-extention of Substances, as it doth essentially include the Grounds, and the Acts of the knowing Faculty: Bodies have their proper fashion of Being within Places, and Spirits have theirs likewise. There is nothing of likeness between the one and the other; And from the moment that you shall conceive the manner how a Spirit is within a Place, by any thing resembling the manner, how do you conceive that Bodies are in their Places? Say, and hesitate not, that you deceive yourselves, since you confound the Things of the World, which are most distinct, and by confounding Them, you subvert and destroy both Corporeal and Spiritual Nature.   

The Doctrine of Thomas Aquinas.  
Thomas Aquinas saith very well, that Spirits are not in Bodies, or in a Corporeal Spirit, but in two manners; Either by the Action which they exercise upon certain Bodies, or certain Corporeal Spaces; Or by the Action which they suffer, and which they receive upon the Occasion of certain Bodies; which is the manner how the Devils are in the Fire of Hell, whose Motion they determine by the Empire of their Will, upon the Occasion where of they are penetrated with an intimate Sentiment of Burning by the Supreme Power and Justice which punishes them. This Idea of Thomas Aquinas is just and exact, and it is thus we ought to conceive that our Souls are in our Bodies; They are not there but because they have the greatest part of their Thoughts and of their Ideas, and all their Sentiments of Pleasure and of Pain, by the Occasion of the Body; and because that they Act upon the Body by the Action of their Will, which removes them and moves them in the manner that hath been said already.  
They are no otherwise in the Body: Every thing that we shall conceive beyond this, will be False, Contradictory, Impossible, and Chimerical; they will only be Corporeal Images, of which there is not any one that can agree to the Soul, and to the manner how she is in the Body: For it is with the manner how the Soul is in the Body, as it is with the Soul itself; we cannot comprehend it, as often as we conceive it by Imagination; what Corporeal Image soever we may make of it, under what Material Form soever we may conceive it, it is not at all the Soul that we do conceive. And it is the same with the manner how the Soul is in the Body; From the moment that we imagine it, it is no more That which we imagine it; for to imagine, is to conceive under a Corporeal Form and Image, and it is impossible to conceive any thing Corporeal in the Soul, either in the Foundation and Substance, or in the Accidents of it. The manner how the Soul is in the Body, is altogether as Spiritual, as is the Substance of the Soul. And all these Ideas which conceive the manner how the Soul is in the Body, with any Resemblance with the manner how Bodies are in Corporeal Spaces, are False, Chimerical, and Monstrous Ideas, because they conceive the Soul as Corporeal.   

In what part the Soul is, and whether it be in all the Body.  
If it be demanded after this, In what part of the Body the Soul is, or Whether she is in all the Body? The Question will not be difficult to resolve, because there needs no more than to apply the Principle of Thomas Aquinas, of the manner how Spirits are in Places; because it will make us easily to comprehend without any Corporeal Image or Material Imagination, That all the Soul is in all the Body, and all of it in all the Essential and Integral Parts of the Body, as God is all in all the World, and in all the Parts of the World; not by that Co-extension, and and Local Chimerical Presence, which gross Spirits do imagine, but by the Intimate Presence of his Sovereign Essence, Essentially Operating in all the World, and in all the Parts of the World. We must say the same of the Soul, that it is in all the Body, by the Relation of its Dependence and Activity.  
But this does not hinder but that we may say, That she is more properly and more particularly in the Brain, since it is by that Part that the Action of the Soul upon the Body immediately commences, and that all the Action of the Body upon the Soul terminates wholly in that Part; as it sensibly appears by that which interrupts and suspends the Action of the Soul upon the Body, and the Action of the Body upon the Soul: For as often as it happens, that the Action of the Body upon the Soul is interrupted, it is because there is some relaxation, or some obstruction in some of the Nerves, which hinders the Motion from being continued in the Part affected of the Body as far as the Brain; and when the Action of the Soul upon the Body is interrupted, as when the Soul would move the Paralytic Foot, but cannot at all move it: It is likewise because the Motion which gins always by the Brain, or by the determination of the Nerves, which have their Origine in the Brain, or if you will, by that most subtle Portion of the Blood, which we call Animal Spirits, cannot be continued so far as to that diseased Part.  
But after having Explained the manner how our Souls Are in our Bodies, which gives us so lively an Idea of our Dependence upon the Supreme Being, and upon all his Divine Attributes, we must now see how our Souls Operate in our Bodies, and observe all the Differences of our divers Operations, for the clearing every thing that may have any difficulty, and require Day and Light, for the better apprehending the Sovereign Per●●● 〈◊〉 of the Supreme Nature; (the which Operates continually in us, and Rules over us so many ways, in all our divers Operations) and the Essential Subjection and Limitation of all created Natures, which do in so many ways depend upon this Supreme Nature.    

CHAP. X.  
What the Soul doth in the Body, and what it doth not.  
WE observe first of all, That there are in Us the Operations or Acts of the Body, and the Operations or Acts of the Soul; for there are things which the Body doth in Us, and things which the Soul doth in the Body.  
This is a certain Rule, That the Soul doth not do any thing which she doth not perceive that she doth, and that she doth every thing that she perceives that she doth. Thus we may say with Assurance, That our Souls do not make the Digestion in Us, the Circulation of the Blood, the Natural and purely Animal Respiration in Us, the Separation of the Chyle, which is the prepared Juice of concocted and digested Victuals in the Stomach, together with the Faeces or gross Matter which is discharged into the Bowels, the Motion of the Heart, of the Veins and of the Arteries, the Ebullitions and Fermentations of the Blood, and of that Matter which provokes carnal Concupiscence. It is moreover certain, That the Souls do not make, neither the Preparation of Spirits, either Vital or Animal, nor the Continuation of the Motion or of the Impression of External Objects, which are carried by the Nerves, as by little well stretched Chords, from all the Circumference of the Body to the most Integral part of the Brain, as to the common Centre of all its Structure and all its Organization, nor the retracement of Objects which is made in the bottom of the Eye in the Retina, or that which is made in that part of the Brain which is the Organ of that which we call the Common and Internal Sense; It is sure that they do not make the Relaxation of the Muscles and of the Nerves, which cause the Tympanum to be relaxed, with all the Nerves which serve to Hearing, and the Optic Nerves which serve to the Sight, from whence Sleep comes; That they do not cause Fevers, the Stone, the Gout, the Cholique, the Bloodyflux, Palsies, Obstructions, Apoplexies, and Diseases in general: Our Souls do nothing of all this, these are the Acts of the Body, or its Alterations, and its Passions; for altho' the Perception and the Sentiments of the Soul do accompany some one of these Effects, she feels and perceives them in such a manner, that she perceives at the same time that they go before and precede her Sentiments and her Perception; and that being so, she doth not at all Cause them; Much better doth she perceive that she hath Essentially the Empire over every thing that she doth, and that she hath none at all over all these things.  

That our Souls do not Operate out of themselves, but by Will; and cause not in Us neither Heat nor Digestion, nor any Corporeal Effect.  
There are some who conceive our Souls as the Physical and Immediate Causes of that Heat, for Example, which Concocts and Digests the Meat in our Stomach, and which keeps in our Blood that degree of ardour and quickness which is necessary, to the end that it may spread abroad the Nourishment, and maintain Motion in all the Body; They conceive the Soul of Man as having formally the Vegetable Faculty which nourishes, and which causes the Body to increase, by the which, as Thomas Aquinas says, we are rather Plants than Men: And this is what they express by that common manner of Speaking, when they say that our Souls are not only Reasonable but Vegetable, or Vegetating. But as we ought not to conceive or say any thing of our Souls, but that which we find included and contained in the Idea and Notion which give us the Sentiment which we have of them, and that this is a certain sure Rule, by which we ought to guide our Opinions and our Judgements, Not to Judge but according to our Light, not finding at all in that Idea of our Soul, which gives us that intimate Sentiment which we have of it, that our Soul hath any such Virtue to do it Immediately; and notwithstanding any other Virtue and Faculty that she may have for it, we do not at all believe that it ought to be attributed to her.  
We experience in our Soul no other Power, nor no other Virtue upon Body, than that of being able to move that Structure of Bone, of Flesh, and of Nerves, which we call our Body, and thereby other Bodies to which we do apply it: So likewise she hath not the Power to make and determine all the Motions of the Body; She can do nothing, and she doth nothing (as hath been already said) in the Vital and Natural Motions: There are none but the Motitions which we call Animal or Voluntary, that she can determine by her Empire. There needs no other Proof of this here, than that which we draw from our Sentiment, which is the only bright and clear Light which Enlightens us in the Knowledge of our Soul; for we ought not to conceive any thing of her, but that which we Experience of her, and that which evidently follows from that Experience: And it is certain, that that Vegetating Faculty, and that Virtue of Heating the Meat and the Blood, is neither found nor perceived, nor doth follow from any thing that is found and perceived, in the Soul.  
But besides this Reason, there is this farther evident Conviction that is drawn from two Principles, from a Principle of St. Augustin, which is, That the Acting or Operating Soul is always free, as the Receiving Soul is never so: And from the Principle of Essential Certainty which the Soul hath of herself, and of every thing that is done in her, and much more of that which is done by her, which is that which we have acknowledged to make the Foundation or the Ground of the Knowing Nature; For it follows from these two Principles, That if the Soul was the Cause of the Heat of the Stomach and of the Blood, of the Formation and of the Distribution of the Chyle, and the like, in Us, she would have Essentially the Sentiment and the Perception of it, because she Essentially perceives every thing that she doth; And not only the Perception, but the Empire, because she hath Essentially the Empire over every thing that she doth, as Acting according to S. Augustin's Observation; that is to say, That she can increase or diminish Heat, That she can advance or retard Digestion, and make it as she pleases: For this is an intimate Sentiment which we have from ourselves, That we are Free in the things that we have the Power and Virtue of doing by the Active Faculty. Our Soul perceives her Liberty in all the things whereof she is the Cause and the Principle. There is nothing which we certainly know, but the Soul is the Active Cause and the Principle of it, of which she hath gained the Empire either to do or not to do, as she pleases.  
We have no more to do than to reflect upon the Faculty which she hath of Thinking or of Willing, and of Determining herself, which are the two only Active Faculties that we know in her; for the others are Passive and Receptive Faculties, if I may so say. And we shall see, that the Soul hath Essentially the Empire as well as the Certainty of that double Faculty, and of all the Acts which proceed therefrom; We shall see that she suspends her Thoughts and her Reasonings, That she puts them by, That she determines and applies them to Matters as she pleases; And we shall see that she is in the same manner Mistress of her Will, (without the Motion that carries her towards God in general) if she be not preoccupyed and transported with some Passion or other. Now the Soul hath neither the Sentiment nor the Certainty of the Act and Virtue of Healing, of Concocting, and of Digesting, nor the Empire over them; For neither do we any ways perceive that our Soul Exercises these Functions, nor have we Power to suspend or to advance them; if we had the Power, we should always without doubt make a very good and laudable Digestion, and we should always take heed of producing in ourselves any excessive Heat; this would deliver us from all the Distempers of the Bowels, and from all the ill Consequences which follow thereupon. In my Opinion, there is nothing more insupportable than this gross Idea, of having the Soul to be the Formal or Physical Cause of the Heat which is in our Bodies, because that besides that the Soul cannot be the Formal Cause of Heat, since nothing can be the Formal Cause of Heat but that which is hot; Nor likewise can it be the Efficient or Physical Cause, since it is impossible to conceive that a Spirit should produce Heat, and yet we not at all know in our Souls any other Virtue of Operating out of themselves, than that of moving the Body by Empire and by Will, as hath been said, and by them other Bodies to whom they apply themselves: It is certain that there is nothing more ridiculous, than to imagine and to conceive our Soul as an Enemy to herself, in refusing Heat sometimes, even to a general Decay and Languishing of the whole Body, and at other times increasing it even to a frightful Conflagration of the Blood and Humours, of the Bowels, and of all the Viscera which serve to keep up the Life of the Body. This we must acknowledge for certain and indubitable, That there are a thousand things done in Us, which are only (if I may so say) but the Acts of of the Body and its Life.   

How there is a Corporeal Act of Seeing, Hearing, and Smelling, which is alike in Man and Beast.  
This is extremely remarkable; for it follows from hence, That as there is in Us a Material Principle of Vegetation, or a Vegetative Life, which the Soul doth not Cause; so there is likewise a certain kind of Acts, of Seeing, of Hearing, of Tasting, of Smelling, of Touching, of Self-moving, or of Sensibility in the Body, in which the Soul hath not any part, to which she doth not influence any thing, and of which she hath not so much as a Sentiment: For when the Image reflected from the Superficies of a Body which is before us, by the Rays of Light which result from all the Points of its Exterior Superficies, is en graven in that subtle, thin Web, formed in the bottom of our Eye, from the Extremities of the delicate Threads of the Optic Nerve, which makes an end of carrying to the Brain the Material Image which it hath received, the Soul so far meddles not at all; and this Action may very well be called the Act of Seeing, or Corporeal Vision, because it cannot be carried into the Brain, but it must there engrave the Corporeal Image of the Object which is before us, and it must affect it after a certain particular Fashion, which is capable to determine a Motion either of Flight or Pursuit, without the Souls meddling with it in any manner, as we see every day happens by the force and vehemence of certain sudden Impressions, which make us shun or approach in spite of ourselves, and which make us either open or shut our Eyelids, or turn to, or turn away our Face, whatsoever Determination we have to the contrary. It is in the same manner with the Acts of Tasting, Hearing and Moving; For Odours, for Example, being received through the Os cribriformis into the Olfactory Nerve, do there determine a Motion which may lead on and determine another in the Nerves and Muscles, which answer to the Olfactory Nerve, without the Souls meddling, or taking any part therein; and the Body doth then feel Odour Corporeally, and moves itself either by withdrawing or approaching, according as the Odour withdraws or approaches. Noise, or the Pulsation of the Air, causes the same thing in the Organ of Hearing; The sudden noise of the Report of a Pistol, or of a sudden Ruin, makes us fly and tremble, before the Soul perceives it. The Body hath also its proper Action of Tasting and of Touching, which precedes that of the Soul; And this is that which makes the Sensitive Life and Knowledge proper to Beasts: It is very truly said, That they Taste, that they Understand, that they are Sensible, provided that in so saying we do not at all understand that they see as we do, with any certainty either of themselves, or of their Objects or their Acts.  
Thus we may likewise place in Beasts all the Passions; for there are in Us Corporeal Motions, which precede, and which accompany those Emotions of our Souls which we call Passions. And as the Names of Passions may very well be given to these Corporeal Emotions which are in our Bodies, before those of our Souls, which are raised up upon their Occasion, it is certain that it is not ill said, That Animals have Joys, Sorrows, Desires, etc. since they have all the Corporeal Emotions which we have in the Resentments of Joy, of Sorrow, of Pleasure and of Pain, with which our Soul is agitated.  
Our Soul then doth not either do any thing of that which in our Senses precedes her Sensation or her Perception and Certainty, or any thing of that which precedes in any part of the Body whatsoever, her Emotion, or her lively Resentment in her Passions. The Soul doth never any thing but what is Spiritual, she never doth any thing that is Corporeal. Every Configuration of Body, every Emotion of Body, every Movement of Body, is the proper Act or Passion of Body, and is never the proper Act of the Soul. We do not know in our Soul any Faculty of Acting out of herself but by the Will; Every thing that she doth is Essentially in her, she is not capable but of those sorts of Acts which the Schoolmen call Immanent; and as all these Acts are of the same Nature with her, since they are Essentially received in her, so no Corporeal Act can ever be her proper and immediate Act; A Corporeal Act may be an Act commanded by her, but it can never be an Act done in her and by her, which is that we call her Elicite Act; And it is easy for us by this Principle, infallibly to discern what the Body and what the Soul do in Us.   

A Rule to discern what the Body doth without any Cooperation with the Soul, and what the Soul doth in the Body.  
This Rule is certain, and will never deceive, That every Act by the which we formally have an indubitable Certainty of ourselves, is an Act and Operation of the Spirit; and Every Act which does not bear in us that Certainty, but only makes some change in the Humours or in the solid Parts of our Bodies, is an Act and Operation of Body. And by this Rule, as to Sleep, to Digest, to have Health or a Fever, to have the Gout or the Stone, etc. are Acts or Operations, or Passions and Alterations of Bodies: So to Perceive Objects, to be Passionated with any Desire, with any Fear, or with any like Emotion, to be Sensible of Heat and Cold, White and Black, Sweet and Bitter, to Imagine, to Remember, Judge, Doubt, Compare, Reflect, Infer, Speculate, Deliberate, to Reason, and Conceive the abstracted and universal Notions of things, to be sensible of Duty, to have Remorse, to determine itself to Love or Hate, etc. are Essentially the Acts of the Soul.   

That Pleasure and Pain are in the Soul, and not in the Body.  
It is very important well to observe this Rule, because there are some who are so gross, that they have not any neat & distinct Idea, that they know not in the least how to Explain the proper Operations of the Soul, and the proper Operations of the Body. How many are there of them likewise, who confound these things so Essential to be distinguished? How many are there who believe (for Example) that it is the Body that hath the Pleasure of Drinking, of Eating, and of being Warmed, and generally all the Pleasures, which are not in the Soul but upon the account of the Body? If they had reflected, they would have seen plainly, that these sorts of Pleasures give us an entire Certainty of ourselves, and that so they are Acts of a Knowing Nature: They will see moreover, that they affect that part which Reasons, and which Determines itself freely in us, which all the World conceive as Spiritual, and every one well knows it to be the Soul; But what shall we do in this Case? It is that Curse, which being thrown upon the Serpent, fell upon the Spirit and the Heart of Man, and which Operates, and will Operate aswel as the Benediction of Fruitfulness given to the Earth, even to the end. Men will have always an infinite difficulty to reflect upon themselves, and to raise themselves up to the Knowledge of their Spiritual Nature, Super ventrem tuum Gradieris; Upon thy belly shalt thou go, etc.   

If Habits, whether of Sciences or of Virtues, are in the Body or in the Soul.  
There presents itself here, upon the occasion of what hath been said, a Question which it imports us to clear up and decide; which is, To know in what part of the Soul or Body the Habits, whether of Virtue or of Science, do reside, which ought to be a fruitful Principle of most important Moral Consequences; For altho' there can be no Question made, as to the Acts of Science and of Virtue, which are indubitably in the Soul, yet there is nevertheless a true Question which ought to be cleared, as to the Subject of Habits.  
The Habits of Sciences and of Virtues do indubitably subsist partly in the Body, since it is certain with regard to Sciences, that they subsist partly by the Memory, and that the Memory depends upon the Corporeal Organ, as shall be said more at large: And so in the same manner with respect to Virtues; It is sure that they are not settled into Habits, but by the Faculty and the Disposition which the Soul acquires of Practising the Acts thereof, and of fulfilling the Duties of them; which she does not acquire, but by a certain profound Impression of the lively Images of Duties which deface the Images of the difficulty of their Acts, which are commonly taken from the resistance of the Body, or of the Inclinations which are entailed upon the Body; this is the cause that there must necessarily be some change which happens in the Brain, and in the Corporeal Species and Images, which determine the Thoughts and the Affections of the Soul, as often as we establish in Us the Habit of one Virtue: For Example, It is impossible that the Virtue and the Habit of Continence should be established, without that the Images of Pleasure, which were engraven in the Brain by deep Traces and Impressions, come to be as it were defaced by new Images and new Impressions, which give to the Soul the power and the liberty of suspending and turning away the Thoughts of Pleasure, and of determining the Motions of the Spirits and of the Nerves, to a side opposite to that which would cause the impure Blood and Humours to flow into those places where Concupiscence is set on fire.  
It is almost the same thing with all other Virtues, they have need that the Imagination should be subjected to them; and as the Organ of the Imagination is Corporeal, so there is no Virtue whose Habit doth not subsist partly in the Organ of the Imagination, for to keep it tame and submiss; So it is out of question, that all the Habits, whether of Sciences or of Virtues, are partly in the Body: There will be some who perhaps will maintain, that they are There entirely; but the surest way is to say, that they are partly in the Body, and partly in the Soul. In the Body, for the Sciences, it is the Order, the Connexion, and the Enchaining of Corporeal Species, which serve to that which we call Memory; And for the Virtues, it is the Imagination purified, or the Brain imprinted with Corporeal Traces and Images, which make us think more strongly upon the Duties of Virtue, than upon Pleasures which are contrary to it: And in the Soul it is, for the Sciences, the train of Consequences well formed in their Principles, and the facility which Reason hath there to exercise itself, and to employ itself there: And for the Virtues, it is the natural love of Uprightness, fortified above the Instinct of Conscience, by the reflection and by the taste of Reason, from whence is formed in the Soul a Disposition of force against the Pleasures which Concupiscence may oppose against it.   

How Grace Operates upon the Body.  
This is a sure Decision, and may be applied to Supernatural Virtues; for supernatural Virtues as well as Natural, have need that the Imagination should be purified. Grace can enter immediately through the Soul, tho' for the most part she immediately enters by the Imagination; but whether she enters immediately by the Soul, or that she doth not, she Acts necessarily at least by a Counter-blow upon the Body, that is to say, upon the Organ of the Imagination; And it is impossible that our Heart should be pure and innocent, if our Imagination is impure and defiled, or overruled by the Images of the World, of Vanity and of Pleasure; from whence is formed a Principle of Christian Morality very fruitful and very remarkable, which makes us see at once the indispensible necessity of the constant and continual Practice and Observation of all the Gospel, as it would be easy to justify it, by an exact and particular Examination hereof, if we had proposed here any other thing than to give Overtures and Principles.  
There needs no more to be said of it, for to have a sure Discernment of the Acts of the Body and of the Acts of the Soul; and there is no more Question, but to observe the proper Differences of the Operation of the Soul; Let us follow them one after another.    

CHAP. XI.  
Operations depending, and Operations independing upon the Body.  
WE observe Secondly in us, in the proper Operations of the Soul, Operations which do depend upon the Body, and Operations which do not depend upon the Body; For we Experience that there are Acts in us which we have independently of all Disposition of the Body, as the Acts of the Will, which is the necessary and invincible love of Good in general; but it is not after the same manner, neither with those of the Liberty of our Heart, which is the Power that we have to determine ourselves to Love or to Hate, to Fly or Pursue freely; Nor with those of the Conscience, which do commonly presuppose Liberty; Nor with those of Reasoning, which do all of them alike suppose a certain Disposition of a just Organization, and of a just Temperament in the Body, without the which we can neither exercise our Determinative Faculty, which is called Liberty, nor the Sensibility of Duty, which we call Conscience, nor our Active Faculty of Thinking, which we otherwise call the Faculty of Reasoning; from whence it happens, that Sleeping or falling into Rave through Diseases or through Madness, we lose the very entire, and very free usage of these Faculties: Whereas, being Fools or Mad, Well or Ill, Sleeping or Waking, we love always alike that which is Good in general, & would all be happy and content. There is only This Movement of our Will, which is entirely independent of the Disposition of the Body, all the rest do more or less depend upon it; I say, more or less, because there are divers Degrees of the Dependence, which the Operations of the Soul have upon our Bodies. The Acts of Perception, of Imagination, of Reminiscency, and of Passionating one's self, depend thereupon much more than the Act of Understanding or of Reasoning, and the Acts of Liberty and of Conscience, which are the Faculties we have the most independent on the Disposition of the Body. The Acts of Perceiving, of Imagining, etc. depend much more upon the Disposition of the Body, than these three Faculties of Intellection or Reason, of Liberty and of Conscience; because these three Faculties do not depend upon it but indirectly and occasionally, or accidentally, inasmuch as their Acts cannot be exercised in all their Perfection, if the Imagination be not calm and sedate; For the Soul hath no need of a certain positive Disposition of the Body, or of a certain Determination which should happen to her from it, for to determine her to conceive by pure Intellection, and to be sensible of Duty, but only of not being troubled, diverted and transported by foolish and confused Thoughts, which she conceives through the disorder of the Organ of the Imaginative Faculty; This aught to make us comprehend how the Passions are pernicious, since they all of them take away the Sceptre and the Empire from Reason, to give it to the Imagination, and that they give to this Faculty, already rebellious and impure, and unruly enough of itself, a rapid and untameable Motion, which infinitely augments its unruliness; But to Perceive, to Imagine, to Remember, to Passionate itself, the Soul hath need of being necessarily determined by a certain Disposition and a certain Configuration of the Brain, which ought to precede her Act of Imagining, of Perceiving, of Passionating, and of calling to Mind by Memory, properly so called; This hath given place to the division of the Organical Faculties, and of the Inorganical Faculties of the Soul, for we have believed that we might call those Organical, which do not Operate but upon the occasion, and by the determination of a particular Disposition of the Body.   

CHAP. XII.  
Acts voluntary, and Acts involuntary. Grief is involuntary, Despair is not.  
WE observe in Us in the third place, Operations or Acts voluntary, and Operations and Acts involuntary; For we Experience, that there are Things which we do with the Will and by the Will; and Things which we do not do, neither by the Will nor with the Will; as are for Example, the Acts of all kind of Pains; for our Soul doth in such manner receive Pain, by the invincible Empire of Nature, that is to say, of that Power which governs Nature, and which rules over it, that she doth cause it in receiving it: It is in our Soul that Grief is made, and there is nothing made in her, to which she doth not contribute and concur, and it is in spite of her, that she concurs to cause Grief in herself. Grief is altogether involuntary, but it is not the same with the proper and true Passion of Despair, as some have been pleased to say, for the Despair of the Soul which sees and perceives the Impossibilities of avoiding Evil, and of attaining the Good which she pursues; This dejection and this discouragement, accompanied with this profound Sadness, and with this cruel Sentiment of Privation, is truly and properly voluntary; because the Will is that Motion, by which our Soul is driven on invincibly towards Good, to unite it to herself, and to be united to it; This is the love of Good in general, and we ought to call properly voluntary, every thing that comes from this love of Good, and from the Motion which carries and drives us towards it; as its certain that from thence comes Despair, as well as all the other resentments of the Appetite; for we should not be so afflicted, penetrated, and overwhelmed with the privation of Good, if we did not love it: This is that which made St. Augustin say, That the Eternal Despair of the Reprobates in Hell, is a true love of the Sovereign Good.   

CHAP. XIII.  
Acts Free and Acts Necessary. The Empire of God over Us.  
WE observe in the fourth place, Acts Free, and Acts Necessary, for I distinguish betwixt Free Acts and Voluntary Acts; every Thing that is Free is Voluntary, but every Thing that is Voluntary is not Freevill The Will is the necessary and invincible Motion of our Soul towards Good; This is that necessary love, and that invincible determination which we have for Good in general, by the which we eat Evil, and every thing that hurts and afflicts us, and we pursue sometimes one particular Good, and then another, as they more or less immediately concern Us. You see there precisely what the Will is, as hath been already said; and to speak exactly, nothing is Voluntary, but what is made in Us by the determination or flowing of this Motion, or of this general love of Good, and every thing that is done by this Motion, is truly and properly Voluntary; From whence it comes to pass, that all the Passions are Voluntary: But there is something more wanting to make an Action Freevill  
Liberty is commonly confounded with the Will, but this is only by the ignorant Vulgar, or by those who will not give themselves the trouble to reflect upon the diversity of the Operations of the Soul. Liberty (to say truth) is accompanied with the Will, which is that which gives occasion to the Confusion which men make of these two Terms; But the Will is not precisely Liberty. Liberty is precisely that Empire which we have of being able to determine ourselves, of which we have spoken in the beginning of this Treatise; and often times we have not that Liberty in the Acts which flow from that Charm, by the which the Supreme Being draws Us to him under the confused Idea of Good, which is that we call the Will. There are Acts Voluntary which are not at all Free, tho' all that are Free are Voluntary; and after this Observation, we must come to observe the difference of our Free Acts and of our Necessary Acts, for the difference of them is Essential and Important.  
All the Acts of the Passions and of the Sensations, and all those of the Imagination and of the Memory are properly Necessary, altho' often Voluntary; They are never Free immediately and in themselves: They may be Free in a manner afar off in the Will, which being able to prevent them, and to avoid them, in removing the Objects afar off, or in shutting their Entry into their Senses, yet does not do it; but they can never be Free properly and formally in themselves, because it does not at all depend upon our Liberty or upon our Will, to be sensible or not to be sensible of Heat or Cold, Green or Grace, when the Objects of them are applied and are present to the perceptive Faculty of the Soul: We may easily shut our Eyes, and not let that reflective Light to enter in from the Superficies of the Object, which Engraves itself in our Retina; We may easily shut our Eyelids and our Ears, we may stop our Nostrils, and not put the Meat into our Mouths; But we cannot hinder the Impression of Light, if once it is entered into our Eyes, nor that of Odour or Savour, if they have affected those Nerves, which are proper to carry the Impression of them to the Brain; We must necessarily have a living and penetrating Sense thereof; The perception and certainty of an intimate and of an animated Experience which affects Us, and penetrates Us to the bottom of our Soul, and which some express very well, by the term of a lively and intimate modification of the Soul.  
There is in Nature a Power which handles Us at its pleasure, and which Rules over Us with an invincible Efficacy; it enters into the perceptive and appetitive Faculty of our Soul, as it were vi & armis: It makes in Us, without Us, and in spite of Us, a thousand Ideas, a thousand Sentiments, a thousand Passions, and a thousand different Resentments: It is not only not in our power, to cause in Us Heat or Cold, White or Black, the Idea of a Man, or the Idea of a Lion; But it is not then in our power to shut the entry to these Sentiments or to these Ideas; so long as the exterior Organs of our Senses are open to the Corporeal Impressions of the Objects, which environ Us, we cannot either suspend Pleasure or Pain, or any other Sentiments, or any of the Ideas which we have upon the occasion of exterior Bodies, which Act upon Ours; Nor can we make that that which causes Pain, should produce pleasure in Us, or what gives Us the Sentiment of Green, should give Us that of Yellow; We cannot at all change the qualiity of our Sentiments nor of our Ideas: There is nothing Free in Us in that respect, all is Necessary, all is Forced, all comes from an Empire, and from a Power invincible and inflexible.  
God hath been pleased to imprint in Us the Sentiment of his Likeness, by the Liberty which he hath given Us; But he hath been pleased to give Us and imprint in Us also continually the Sentiment of our Subjection and Dependence; He hath been pleased to make Us see his Sovereign Empire and his Infinite Power, with the Character of his Immensity expanded through All, and through All operating by that perpetual Empire, which he exercises at the same time in all the parts of the World, in making the same Ideas, the same Sentiments, and the same Passions continually to enter into the Souls of Men, at such time as the same Impressions are made in their Brains, either by the external Actions of Objects, or by the fortuitous Course, or the irregular Motion of the Blood, of the Spirit, and of the Humours. If we should seriously reflect upon these two sorts of Operations, of Acts Free, and of Acts Necessary, which we experience in Us; as it will be impossible for Us not to know our Spiritual Nature, so it will be impossible for Us to be ignorant of our Dependence, and we should have the heart as well penetrated with Religious Sentiments, with which we ought to be penetrated towards God, as the Spirit instructed or enlightened with the clear and indubitable Idea of our Spiritual Nature, and of the Essential Union which she hath with God.   

CHAP. XIV.  
Acts of Conscience, Acts of Concupiscence, Acts of Reason, Acts of Passion.  
WE observe in Us in the fifth place, Acts of Conscience, and Acts of Concupiscence, Acts of Reason, and Acts of Passion; for I am not willing to separate things which do so much resemble one another. Conscience is that sensibility of Duty, which we have explained and described elsewhere. Reason saith and includes more than Conscience, for Reason is that Ground of the Superior Light, which doth not only Regulate Duties, but the Conduit also of all sorts of Affairs. Conscience imports Reason, every Act of Conscience is an Act of Reason; but every Act of Reason is not an Act of Conscience. Concupiscence and Passion are almost like Reason and Conscience, Every Act of Passion is an Act of Concupiscence, but every Act of Concupiscence is not an Act of Passion.  
Concupiscence is the Will enticed to the side of Sensible Objects; It is the love of Good in general, essentially imprinted in Man, and grounded in the Essence of the Soul, turned out of the way by the Empire of Sense, to the side of Sensible Good. The Soul loving Good in general, and Spiritual and Rational Good in particular, conserveses the Name of the Will, and is otherwise called the Rational Appetite; and this same Soul loving Sensible Good, is called Concupiscence, or the Sensitive and Material Appetite, which is in us an Universal Ground of all sorts of Evil Desires, and Evil Inclinations, and the true Matter of that which we call Passions. This love of Sensible Good, is called simple Concupiscence, when it is not extraordinarily overheated, and set on Fire by the lively Impression of some Object, which is that which makes it turn into Passion. It is simple Concupiscence, when the Brain is not Imprinted with any Corporeal Image, that presents to the Soul the lively Idea of some Part, or of some kind of sensible Good. It is Passion, when the Impression of any Object hath caused to spring up in the Soul, a more lively and more touching Idea than usually, of what kind soever it may be of sensible Good: This Corporeal Image retraced in the Brain, with Tracks better marked, & more deep doth dilate the Vessels, which make the commerce betwixt the Heart and the Brain; it spreads its Rays thro'out all the Body, it diffuses there a Blood more fired, and it causes an Universal Motion, with a thousand different Characters, according to the diversity of the Passion.  
This Ground of Sensibility for sensible Good, This Ground of the Appetitive Faculty, This Ground of Love of Good in General, turned into sensible Love, is the Ground of all the Passions of Ambition, of Avarice, of the love of Pleasures, of tender Friendship, and not only of the Passions, but of all their Acts, and of all their divers Estates, of their Joys and of their Sorrows, of their Hope, and of their Fears, of every Sentiment of the Soul that is called Passion.  
The Soul is subjected to this misery, by the General Law of her Union with the Body, to have necessarily a love for every thing that is presented to her, under the Idea of a sensible Good, or of the Good of the Body, and capable of causing her to have agreeable Sentiments; This is the General Law of the Union, and of the punishment of God, since sin, which hath diminished to the Soul, the Empire which she had over the Body, hath augmented the Effect of the General Law of the Union. Concupiscence is natural, and essential to Man, so far as to a certain Degree: And it is in this Sense that St. Agustin says, That the love of sensible Good might have been to Man in his State of Innocence, or (if you please) of pure Nature; but that Degree of Concupiscence, in which we are born Children of Wrath, which is a domineering Concupiscence, cannot be in Man but by the punishment of his Revolt, which makes it just that he should find, and resent in himself by the Revolt from his Sensible Love, against his Reason and his Conscience, the disorder of his Revolt against God.  
It is by the Law of the Union of the Soul with the Body, that the Soul sees her Love of Good in General, turn to the side of Sensible Good; That she conceives the most lively Sparkles of it, as often as any disposition makes the Blood and the Spirits to flow more lively through all the Body, upon the occasion of some Sensible Good, which hath been Marked in the Brain with most profound Tracks: But it is by the punishment of sin, that the Soul hath not command enough over the Fibres, to hinder them from conceiving too much Motion; or to stop the vehement Course of the Blood and Spirits, which give to the Imagination that so Tyrannical force, which it exercises over Reason.  
Men distinguish the ground of Love into concupiscible and irascible Appetite; But this is but one and the same Appetite, which is diversely moved and determined by Goods conceived as easy, and by Goods conceived as hard to be acquired; that is to say, that the Soul doth otherwise pursue after Goods where she sees not any difficulty, and otherwise those Goods in which she sees difficulty, the which excite in her bold and courageous Motions, from whence comes the Passions of Boldness or Courage, of Hope and Expectation.  

A fruitful Overture of Morality.  
You see here generally what Concupiscence is and its Passions. It might be useful to descend into the particulars of all the divers Motions, and of all the divers Acts, whether of Concupiscence, or of Passions, and to explain how we Love and how we Hate, how we Attend, and how we Desire, how we Rejoice, and how we are Sad, how we are raised up by Courage, and how we are depressed by Fear and Despair; but it suffices to say in general for the end of the Design of this Essay, That the Soul suffers these divers Agitations, according to the Images of Sensible Good, which are diversely Engraved in our Brain, and in those Parts of it, where is the Seat and the Organ of that which we call the Internal Sense, or Common Sense and Imagination; three Names to signify one and the same thing: This aught to make Us comprehend how we ought to watch over ourselves, for to keep our Imaginations pure, by the usage of Mortification, by the frequent Suspension from the commerce of the World, and by the practice of Retirement, of holy Reading, and of Meditation; And how we ought to fear the deadly Poisons of Pleasure, which add by their usage a new Concupiscence, besides that of Nature, and that of the Punishment, and the Curse of God.   

Acts of Conscience.  
You see here once more, what Concupiscence is in Us, and the Passions. We do too much experience their Acts, and we cannot likewise but perceive in us Acts of Conscience, and of Reason, contrary to those of Concupiscence, and of Passion: Concupiscence or the Sensitive and Material Appetite, never Reigns so in us, but that the Rational Appetite doth in some measure oppose its Dominations.  
The Love of Good in general, doth not so suffer itself to be carried away to the side of Sensible Good, but that there remains some Activity and some force in it, to drive the Soul to the side of Spiritual and Rational Good: Conscience and Reason shine always a little in the midst of the greatest darknesses of disorder and corruption: Spiritual and Rational, Celestial and Eternal Good, make an Interview one with the other, and the Soul always remains sensible of it; She takes pleasure in it, as St. Paul says, Then even when she is enticed away by Sensible Love. The Law of the Spirit doth always a little contradict that of the Flesh; This is an Eternal Combat, and from thence came the Acts of Conscience, and of Reason, which are always seen in Us sensibly, as well as those of Concupiscence and of Passion, to serve for a witness to God, and for the Justifications of his Judgements.    

CHAP. XV.  
Confused Ideas or Sentiments, and clear and distinct Ideas or Notions.  
WE observe in Us in the sixth place, The Acts of a confused Idea, or of pure Sentiment, without any distinct Image of the Object which determines them, and Acts of distinct Ideas: For there are Things which we do not know but by a Sentiment, or an Idea confused; and there are some who speak thus, and give the Name of a confused Idea to Acts of pure Sentiment; and we must give leave to every one to speak as he pleases, and accommodate ourselves to the relish of all the World, when it doth not embroil or confound any thing, as this here. There are Things then which we do not know but after this manner, and such are all the Sensible Qualities of Bodies; for we know not either Light or Savour, nor Odour, Sound or Color, at least by the Acts by which we perceive them, but by pure Sentiment, without any neat Idea.  
We are able well enough to attain by reasoning, to Form in us a neat and distinct Idea of all those Things on the Parts of the Objects, which determine in us the lively Sentiment thereof, which Sentiment penetrates and affects us intimately at their presence. For Example, We are well able to convince ourselves by many Reflections, that it is nothing but Light, according as it is diversely reflected and modified, which causes the Sentiments of the diversity of Colour which we have; We may convince ourselves, that as it is nothing but the division of the Flesh and the Fibres, that is, the immediate Object of Pain when a Thorn pricks us, so it is nothing also, but a gentle Titillation of the Tongue and Palate, that is the immediate Object of the Sentiment of Savour: But the Idea which we make to ourselves by our Reasoning and by our Reflection, is quite another thing; so is that which gives us the Impression of the Object, by the Act which we call Sentiment. It is certain, that our Sensations do not by themselves give us the Idea of any of their Objects. We perceive, White, Black, Light, Heat, Cold, Bitter, Sweet, without knowing what White is, or Black, Light, Heat, Cold, Bitter or Sweet; but only that we perceive them after such and such a manner, which we are not able to make others comprehend, who never perceived them.  
On the contrary we have Acts of a near Idea, and of a clear and distinct Image, by the which we are able to make those comprehend that which we know and perceive, who never did perceive any thing of the like. For this is the difference of Knowledges by Idea, and of Knowledges by Sentiment. Strive, for Example, To make a Man who never felt Pain, to comprehend what Pain is. We may say the same of Pleasure, of White, of Black, of Green, of Yellow, of Sweet, of Bitter, of Heat and Cold; You shall Reason to all Eternity before you shall be ever able to make that confused Idea, which you have of those things after your Sentiments, to pass into the Spirit of any Man, though of the most easy and most ready Conception; but for the Things which we know by clear Idea, as all those Things which we imagine, or which we conceive by pure Intellection, so soon as we have conceived the Idea of them, we are able to Communicate them to others, and Instruct them of it. For Example, We have seen a Square or Triangle, a Man, a Beast, a House; because it is by neat and distinct Ideas that we have seen these things, we are able to describe them, to Paint them, to make them be comprehended as we have conceived them, either by Imagination or by Intellection.  
This is therefore a most remarkable difference of our Operations, That we have Knowledges by Idea, either of Imagination, or of Intellection; and Knowledges by pure Sentiment or confused Idea. Upon which there is this to be observed, That these last are indubitably the Modification of the Soul, which she receives from Him who exercises in her that Empire of which we have so often spoken, by the which she is Advertised of that which is good for, or hurtful to the conservation of the Body, by pure Instinct, without being properly instructed or enlightened from the Nature and the Essence of the Things, upon whose occasion she receives them. He that keeps the Souls united to Bodies, could have been able to dispose of the Soul for the conservation of the Body; if he had been contented, for Example, to give them by Idea the distinct Knowledge of the disranging of the Fibres, which is caused by that excessive Action of Heat, which is called Burning; and yet the Souls would have been far from being that way disposed to be affectionated for the conservation of the Body; they would rather often times have made use of that Knowledge, to suffer It to be destroyed, and to deliver themselves from their Servitude, if there had not been a Pain, that is to say, an afflicting Modification in the Soul, annexed to that Alteration, and that disranging of the Conjunction, and of the legimitate Situation of the Fibres, which compose the Flesh and the Nerves.  
This here is the Secret and the Mystery of confused Operations and Knowledges, or of pure Sentiments; This is the Ligament of the Soul and the Body; The Secret which the Creator hath found to associate the two Natures: The Soul would never have been willing to apply the Body to the Act of Eating, if the Sensible Modification of Pleasure, which God gives the Soul upon the occasion of Eating, had not been annexed to the Titillation of the Fibres of the Tongue and of the Palate, which is caused by Salts and the Juices of Meats, which insinuate themselves therein, and moisten them.  
It hath pleased him, who hath thought fit to keep us in this Trial of Body, to sweeten to us the Prison of it, and it is by these Sensible Modifications he principally doth it. There are a hundred kinds of them, and there 's no doubt but God can multiply them yet more, if he pleases, as well those that are delightful, as those that are afflicting and dolorous; and it is certain, that though we have them not now, but upon the occasion of the Body, yet they are independent of the Body; and God can send them into Souls separated from the Body, and into the Angels, if he pleases; altho' we do not know that he causes it in the Angels, but when he punishes the Rebellious ones in Hell, who are effectively burnt, not by an Action of Fire, which altars their Substances, for that is impossible, but by the Almighty Action of God, who upon the occasion of material Fire destined to Act upon the Bodies of Men, doth imprint upon them that Pain which we resent upon the occasion of Fire, and which we call the Pain of Burning.  
Moreover, these Modifications of the Soul, which render it certain of the good or ill Qualities of the Body, not instructed, knowing, nor enlightened from their Composition, are divers in the Sentiments which they give of themselves; but all alike and all the same in the Genus and Species of Modification; in as much as there are certain Passions of the Soul, which intimately affect, penetrate, and modify it. These have all of them this in common, that they have indeed an Object out of the Soul; but that this Object is only an Object of Determination or of Occasion, not an Object of Representation, which they express and represent; for the Heat and the Cold that we feel, have not as we have already said, any thing like them (as far as we conceive) out of us; And that Modification wherewith we are intimately affected, when we say we are Hot or Cold, is no ways the Image and Representation of that which is in the Organ, affected by the external Object, or in the external Object itself; This is not an Idea, this is a pure Sentiment: This is not a Representation which the Soul makes to itself, but a certain Modification or Passion, so determined as that she is affected against her Will, that she hath it: And we must say the same thing of Green and of Yellow, of Bitter and of Sweet, as of Hot and Cold; There is indeed something far out of the Soul, which otherwise affects the Retina or the Organ of Sight in that which is called Green, than in that which is called Yellow; But the Sentiment of Green and of Yellow, have not any thing which represents that which is in the Object, upon the occasion whereof we have it; There is no Likeness betwixt the Green wholly Spiritual, which I have in Me by my Sentiment, and that material Green which is out of Me in the Object called Green.   

CHAP. XVI.  
Acts of Imagination, and Acts of Intellection, Libertinism and Heresy.  
WE have in the seventh place, Knowledges of Imagination, and Knowledges of Intellection, of which it hath been so often spoken of; but we must not fail to observe the difference of them, because that one of the fruitful Principles of our Errors, is to confound Objects Imaginable with Objects Intelligible, or to apply the Imagination, where we ought to make use only of the Intellection; and to make use of the Intellection where we ought to employ the Imagination. To desire to know by Imagination that which cannot be known but by Intellection, is the Principle of the Essential Errors of Libertinism, of Impiety and of Irreligion; For thereby it is that there are some who are ignorant of God, of Spirits, of the Immortality and Spirituality of the Soul, of Eternity, of Paradise; because not at all distinguishing the Intellection from the Imagination, and not being able to believe things of which they cannot form to themselves the Idea, they fancy that they cannot have an Idea but of things which they can Imagine or conceive with a Corporeal Image, which represents some Bigness or Figure; They believe that Figure and Extension are the Essential Attributes of things Real; so that not being able to form to themselves any Corporeal Image of God, of Spirits, of Spiritual Souls, of Paradise and of Eternity, they fall into the Unhappiness of Libertinism and Incredulity; whereas if they gave attention, that there are things purely Intelligible, which cannot be the Object of the Imagination, as not being able to be conceived under any Bulk, and any Figure or Corporeal or Material Form, but what ought to be conceived by pure Intellection, they will conceive the Idea of all those things, at least a feeble and imperfect one.  
And if this be the Principle of the Essential Errors against Religion, To desire to know all by Imagination; To desire to Explain and to know by Intellection the Visible and Corporeal Nature, is a Principle of the Errors of Philosophy, which reduces the Explication of Corporeal Nature to idle and abstracted Terms of Forms and of Qualities, without descending to a more particular Examination of the Composition of Bodies, which we call Mixed, which are made of the Assembly of the Elements: For as not being willing to comprehend and know things Spiritual, but by the Imagination, we must of necessity be ignorant of them, so not being willing to Explain Corporeal things, but by Ideas Intelligible, we leave them eternally in those empty and abstracted Terms, which give not any particular and distinct Idea of them.  
It is of Importance therefore to Remark this Division of our Knowledges of Intellection, and of our Knowledges of Imagination. The Difference is, That the One depends altogether upon the Body; that is to say, The Knowledge by Imagination, which is not in Us but from the occasion of a certain Disposition of the Brain, and of a certain Retracement of the Corporeal Images of the Objects which we Imagine; And the other, that is to say, The Intellection does not depend thereupon, but inasmuch as it takes occasion from Objects known by Imagination, to exercise itself even upon Bodies, which, as much Bodies as they are, do not cease to be Intelligible, there being this Difference between things Imaginable and things Intelligible, That the Imaginable are Imaginable and Intelligible at the same time; but the Intelligible cannot in any manner be Imagined. Thus as to the rest, we call the Acts of the Imagination Corporeal Knowledges: And tho' that there is this Difference between Knowledges by Imagination and Knowledges by Intellection, that That which we Imagine is represented under a certain Figure, and a certain Bulk or Bigness, and with certain other Corporeal Proprieties; and that which is known by pure Intellection is represented and known without any thing of the like; We must not for all that go about to fancy, That to Imagine is a Corporeal Act in the Soul: To say truth, to Imagine doth presuppose some Retracement of a Corporeal Image in the Brain; but the Act of Imagination in itself is wholly Spiritual, altho' it represents things after a Corporeal manner, and with a Corporeal Form. This is not only evident by the Reason above related, That every thing which is in the Soul is Essentially Spiritual, every Modification of the Soul, and every Vital Act, being by reason of the Immanence Essentially Spiritual; But moreover, because it is evident, that the Act of Imagining, tho' it represent Essentially a Figure and a Bulk, yet hath neither Figure nor Bigness; And so far are the Images which the Souls make or receive in Imagining, from having any Figure or any Bigness, or occupying any Space, that thousands of them may meet together at the same time in one Soul without justling one another, and without constraining or incommoding one another, which they could not do if they were Corporeal; for Bodies justle, incommode, and drive away one another. St. Augustin did with reason admire, that the Heavens, the Earth, and the Sea, should be Lodged together at the same time in his Head; and he drew from thence this just Consequence, That of necessity these Images, by which our Soul Figures to itself the Extent of these vast Bodies, can be no ways Corporeal, nor can they have in them any Extension, and that they are no less Spiritual than the Soul in which they are engraven, because it is certain that they penetrate one another, and agree together; whereas if they were Corporeal, they would knock against one another, and drive one another out, and could not be Lodged together at the same time in the same place.   

CHAP. XVII.  
Acts of Sensation and, Acts of Imagination, Folly, Frenzy, Visions.  
WE have in the Eighth place Acts of pure Sensation, which come from the Determination of present Objects; and Acts of pure Imagination, which come and are in us out of the present Objects, as are the Imaginations of Dreams, of confused Thoughts, Rave of sick Persons, Folly and Frenzy, and all that which we call Visions, whether those which are only Illusions of the Internal Sense, or those which are sometimes given from God, or by Daemons or good Angels.  

What pure Sensation is.  
The Knowledges which we have of present Objects, by their immediate Impression, are called Sensations; These Knowledges are not in us but from the occasion of the Impression which is made immediately by the Objects upon our External Organs, by which it is communicated to the Brain by the continuation of Motion which follows the Nerves, the which from all the Extremities of the Body terminate in the Brain. This Motion carried to the Brain, doth engrave there a certain Corporeal Image of the Object; and that moment that this Corporeal Image is engraven in the Brain, He who holds the Soul united to the Body, gives to the Soul an Intelligible Idea of it, with a lively and penetrating Resentment, and an intimate Certainty of this Image; the which is sometimes accompanied with a confused Sentiment either of Pleasure or of Pain, of Bitter or of Sweet, of Heat or of Cold, etc. And sometimes it is only a simple Certainty of the presence of the Object, and a pure Image which represents it.   

Sympathy and Antipathy.  
When the Sensation by which one Man doth see and understand another, is made with a confused Sentiment of Pleasure, and with a certain Agreement which carries a Desire of being united to him, and which makes a Man pleased with him, That is called Sympathy; And when on the contrary this Sensation is made with a confused Sentiment of disagreement and strangeness, That is called Antipathy. You see there the general Idea of Sensation, which are the Knowledges that we have by the Determination of present Objects.  
As for those Acts that are in us without any Determination of present Objects, such as are the Acts of Dreams, and the other above expressed, they are all of them the Acts of the Imagination, which are never in us but by the occasion of a certain Disposition of our Brain, which remains from the Impression of past Objects, or which is determined by the Course of the Spirits and of the Humours, as in Folly or Frenzy; or by some Exterior or Superior Cause, as in the Visions and in the Illusions of the Imagination, caused by good Angels or by Daemons.   

Dreams, Folly, Frenzy, and the diversity of Temperaments and of Genius's.  
It is easy to comprehend thereby Dreams, Folly, Rave, Frenzy, the Illusions of the Imagination, and Visions. If the Brain comes to be dried to a certain degree, and the Blood hath received a Motion a little more agitated than ordinary, and which is not required in a good Constitution and Disposition of the Organ of the Internal Sense, which we call Common Sense, it must necessarily be, that the Impression of former Objects which remains still there, and which are there again retraced de novo, should be embroiled, confounded and mingled in a thousand confused and precipitous manners, according to the confusion and precipitation of the Motion of the Blood and Animal Spirits on the one part, and on the other of the Fibres of that part of the Brain which is the Organ of the Internal Sense; and from thence comes necesssarily that kind of Folly which consists in a disorder, and a fantastic confusion of Thoughts, without dependence, without order, and without connexion; For that which we call Good Sense and Judgement, is nothing but the Power and the Faculty which the Soul hath, to order and regulate our Thoughts, to suspend and stay them, that she may consider and maintain their connexion and dependence; And she loses this Faculty and this Power, when the Motion of the Blood, of the Humours, and of the Animal Spirits, or of the Fibres of the Brain, to which are annexed the Species of things, that is to say, the Impressions which remain of the Objects, is disordered and embroiled in such sort, that the natural order and connexion of these Species cannot be observed and kept, but are confusedly and tumultuously excited and stirred up by a tumultuous and irregular agitation of the Organ in which they reside.  
There are divers sorts of Follies; there are the Furious and the Peaceable, there are the Rejoicing and the Melancholy, and there are general ones, and particular ones, which are fastened to one single Object: And all these diversities do proceed from the divers manner whereby the Brain is disordered; and it would be easy to Explain them particularly, if there was occasion. It is sufficiento say, that in what manner soever Folly subsists, it is the greatest Humiliation of our Nature, and that which gives us the best Prospect of the Misery of the Servitude of our Souls, in the present Estate of Union with the Body; since they lose by Folly the Empire and the Liberty of their Thoughts, being forced to follow the fantasticalness, the perplexity, the disorder and the confusion of the irregular Motion of the Brain, either too much dried and burnt up by Choler and Melancholy, or too much overflowed, or too much moistened by Phlegm, without being able either to suspend or stop them, or to hasten or advance them. This lets us see the Limitation even of our Spiritual Nature, which is Finite even in the most Divine Perfection that she possesses; for this disorder of the loss of the Empire and of the Liberty of Thoughts happens in Man, because he doth not possess as God doth, an Infinite Liberty, that is to say, an Infinite Empire, but only a Finite Liberty or a Finite Empire over himself; For it is this which makes, that God, as the Universal Cause, doth not respect this Liberty of Man, but determines in his Soul Thoughts conformable to the Agitations of his Brain, which is the Occasional Cause by which he is determined in this Quality of Universal Cause, to give Thoughts and Ideas to the Soul: God concurs with Fools as he doth with Natural Causes, for the making of Monsters; he follows the Motion of the Brain as a Necessary Cause.  
Raving doth not differ from Folly, but by the Intervals which it hath, and because it is only an Accident, and a transient Symptom of a Fever, which too strongly agitates the Brain. Frenzy is but a violent Raving, and both the one and the other let us see, that there must be a Superior Power, who with an absolute Empire Determines our Thoughts from the Occasion of the Motions of our Brain, and Confirms by a sensible Argument, all that we have said concerning the Union of our Souls with our Bodies, and concerning the continual Action by which we believe that God Determines our Thoughts and our Sentiments, from the Occasion of divers Impressions which are made on our Bodies, either by External Objects, or by the Fermentation of their proper Humours. If we reflect seriously upon it, we shall see, that it is not at all possible to think, that the Soul in these States of Folly and Frenzy should make in herself her Thoughts; We shall be persuaded that she receives them from that Superior Power which unites her to the Body, and which Acting as an Universal Cause, hath no regard to the incongruity of these Thoughts, as it hath no regard to the incongruity of Monsters, in the Motions which it gives to the common Matter of the Universe, by its inviolable and infallible Laws, but makes the Fortune of the Disorder, and of the Disranging of the Harmony of the Body, to follow and run upon the Soul, not ceasing to determine her Thoughts according to the Occasion which that part gives her thereof, and that common Centre of the Organizanization which it hath established for the occasional Cause of its Essential Concourse, or of the Action by which it Enlightens us. God Determines the Thoughts in Madmen and in Fools, by the immutable Laws which he hath Established in the Union of Bodies with Souls; which is, To give Ideas upon the Occasion of the Corporeal retracement of Objects which are made in the Brain, without having regard either to the Order or to confusion of the Thoughts.   

Visions.  
The Illusions of the Imagination, by which Men believe they see by Intervals, Things which in effect they do not see, are a kind of short and transient Folly; and they are made by a deep and lively retracement of some particular Species, which so occupy the Organ of the internal Sense, that the other Species there remain as it were all of them defaced; from whence it happens, that the Imagination of it is livelily determined: And as this is the effect of lively and strong Imaginations, to represent Things absent as if they were just present, and as if they actually struck the Senses; so it happens from thence, that Men do believe they see that which they do not see, because they judge that the Image that they have of it, is determined by the presence of the Object, not minding that it comes from the Imagination only; and thus it is that there are a thousand sorts of Illusions, and vain and chimerical Visions in certain Spirits, which we call feeble or weak; tho' indeed they are too strong, because that these sorts of Illusions proceed not but from an excessive force of the Imagination, the which is a true and real weakness of Reason; since the Imagination is never excessively strong, but Reason is thereby as much weak, because the Power of Reason is to rule over the Imagination, to redress, to correct it, to suspend its Operations, and to consider it nearly, to see wherein it exceeds: The supernatural Visions which come from God, are when God as a particular Cause makes a miraculous and supernatural Impression in the Imagination, that is to say, which doth not at all come from the necessary consequences of the Course of the natural Motion of the Blood, of the Humours, and of the Spirits; and those which come from good and evil Angels, are made by the Natural Empire that Angels have over Bodies, by virtue whereof, they stir up Images in the Brain, which determine God as an Universal Cause, by the Law of the Union of the Soul with the Body, to give Ideas and Thoughts, of which the Corporeal Images are the occasional Cause; for be it what it will, an Angel or a Devil, which retrace a certain Object in our Brain, God gives us necessarily the Idea of it by that immutable Law of Union which we have often explained, which is no other but the confused Idea which Philosophers commonly express by the Term of Concourse, which they conceive as the Universal Influence, and perpetual and necessary Action of the Creator, acting as an Universal Cause, and animating by his Intimate Co-operation, and by the most efficacious influence of his Life and of his Power the whole Universe, reduced to a clear and distinct Idea, under the name of the Action, by which God makes and entertains the Union of the Souls with Bodies.   

The diversity of Temperaments, and of Genius's.  
After which, there remains nothing more to be said upon the occasion of this difference of the Operation of the Soul, unless that it is thereby easy to comprehend, that all the diversity which is observed betwixt one Man and another, does not come but from the diversity of the Temperament, and from the material Structure and Harmony of the Body, and from the greater or lesser Disposition, whereby the Objects which strike the Senses, are lively represented to the passive or to the active Faculty of the Thinking Soul; for if one is Choleric, and the other Phlegmatic, it does not at all happen, because the Soul of one is more lively and more sensible than the Soul of another; but because the same things do more hurt the Brain of the one, and less hurt the Brain of the other; and it is in the same manner with the advantage of the Understanding, of the Judgement, and of the Memory, and of the other Natural Qualities: But let us go on and see further, what other Operations our Souls make in our Bodies.    

CHAP. XVIII.  
Acts of Spiritual Reminiscency, and Acts of Corporeal Memory.  
WE observe in the ninth place, Acts of Reminiscency or of Remembrance Spiritual, and to speak properly Inorganical, and Acts of Corporeal Memory, or of Mechanic Memory, if we may be admitted to say so; for if you observe, you will find that beyond or above that Organical Mechanic Memory, which determins (in the same order, and in the same connection that it hath received them) the Species and the Motions of the Fibers of the Spirit, from whence are form the Motions of the Muscles of the Throat and of the Tongue, which make us recite or sing truly, an Air without dreaming of it, or those of the Feet, which make us dance a Currant or a Ballet; There is another Species of Memory, by which we conserve the most abstracted Ideas of Sciences, in all the order and all the Arangement that Demonstrations make of them; for tho' Corporeal and Mechanic Memory serves to these Sciences, for conservation of these Kind's of Terms which serve thereto, yet it is undubitable that there are a thousand sorts of Knowledges wholly intellectual, which we have acquired by Speculation and Reasoning, the remembrance of which remains with us, which does no way depend upon that Organ of the Corporeal Memory, which goes like a Wheel, or like a Clock, so long as it hath Line and Weights; for tho' this Corporeal Memory is lost, this Spiritual Reminiscency remains; and so far is Reminiscency or Spiritual Memory from being weakened by Time and Old Age, that she is always growing more perfect; for we see that abstracted and speculative Sciences are perfectioned more and more, tho' the Memory diminishes in speculative Men.  
There might be a thousand Reflections made upon this double Memory, for the Corporeal on the one side operating, as she does sensibly by Spirits, without the determination of the Soul; and often times without her participation, from whence proceed a thousand marvellous Effects, as to observe the Order, and the Dependence of Tones and of Pauses, or Cadences in Singing or in Dancing, and to repeat thousands of Words in the Order that we have learned them, may serve for a sensible Demonstration of the inutility of the Principle of a Knowledge like to ours, which we so imprudently give to Beasts; Since it is certain that Memory makes us Sing and Dance without our dreaming of it; And on the other side, Reminiscency and the Faculty (wholly Spiritual of the Soul) of Remembrance, make us see in our Souls their Spiritual Quality and Nature, by the Immensity of its Ideas, of its Principles, and of its Consequences, and by the enchaining of the one with the other, which she Treasures up in herself.   

CHAP. XIX.  
Acts of Spiritual Resentment, and Acts of Corporeal Passion. The difference of Pleasure and Joy, of Grief and Sadness.  
WE observe in us in the tenth place, Acts of Spiritual Passion, and Acts of Corporeal Passion; for we have not only Pleasures and Pains, but we have Joys and Sorrows; Things altogether different. Pain and Pleasure are Sensations, these are Modifications and confused Sentiments of the Soul, which affect it and penetrate it, without Enlightening it; but in respect to the conduct of the Body, by Relation to which, they instruct it, teaching it to apprehend what is good and what is ill for the Body, by way of Instinct. A Joy and Sadness are Passions, or Acts and Resentments of the Appetite of that Love which we have said, caries us towards Good, and do flow from the Idea o● the Opinion which we have of it.  

The difference of Pain and Sadness.  
Pain is very different from Sadness, not only in the Sentiment which the one and the other gives us, but also in the manner whereby the one and the other enter into our Souls. Pain is made in us, without us; it enters indeed by our Senses, but it is not us who open the Gate of our Soul to it, we are very willing to keep it shut; it makes way, it enters, it penetrates it in spite of us, and independently of our Reflections, even to the bottom of our Soul: On the contrary, we open the Gate to Sadness, it enters by our Thought and by our Reflection; and it is after the same manner, with Pleasure and Joy as it is with Pain and Sadness; Pleasure is a Sentiment like Pain which is made in us, without us, independent of our Thought and of our Reflection; and Joy on the contrary, enters by the Gate of our Thought, and of our Knowledge or Reflection.   

Joys Corporeal, and Corporeal Sadnesses.  
And as Pain and Sadness, Pleasure and Joy, are divers Operations in us; so there is likewise in us a great difference of Joys and Sadnesses; we have two sorts of them, which we may call Corporeal, and we have some which we may call, and which we have always called Spiritual; both the one and the other are Passions of the Soul, for they are the Acts of the Appetitive Faculty, which we otherwise call the Will; not by way of free Determination and deliberate Act, but by way of Resentment and Emotion, and this is properly called Passion. We have Corporeal Joys and Sadnesses, not that the Body can have any resentment of Joy or Sadness, for it cannot have them in any manner; but because we have them upon the occasion of the Body, or by the Principle of the Sensible or Corporeal Appetite, which is the love of Sensible Good. Corporeal Joys and Sadnesses do arise in Us these two ways; either because the violent Passion of love for some Sensible Good, hath a happy or unhappy Success, from whence Joy and Sadness spring up by a necessary Resentment, or because the Humours of the Body (of which there are some Earthy and Melancholy ones, which lock up the Fibres of the Brain and Heart, and thereby give occasion to sad Thoughts, Conditions, and Dispositions; and some that are sweet and gay, which dilate the Heart, the Spleen & the Brain, and make the Blood and Spirits flow easily through every part, and thereby occasion agreeable and joyful Thoughts) do determine the Disposition of the Brain, and the rest of the Body to be the occasion of the Reflections and Motions of Joy and Sadness.   

Spiritual Joys, and Sadnesses.  
We have on the contrary, Spiritual Joys and Sadnesses, which are the true Passions or true Resentments of the Rational or Spiritual Appetite; for altho' they are form with much more Deliberation and Reflection than Corporeal Joy and Sadness; they are truly Spiritual Passions, because the Resentment that forms them, is not an Act of the active or determinative Faculty of the Soul, but of that kind of Power and passive Faculy, from whence spring up all the Resentments of the Appetite.   

Natural and Supernatural Joy and Sadness.  
Spiritual Joy is sometimes a Joy purely Rational, and which comes from the Knowledge of the sweetness of Repose, of the good Order of Affairs, and of the Society and Fidelity of Friends; and sometimes it is a Celestial and Divine Joy, as is that Joy which the Conscience and the Sentiments of Grace gives, and of Eternal Hopes, which St. Paul calls the Peace of God, and the Joy of the Holy Ghost, or in the Holy Ghost.   

Penitence.  
We must say the same thing of Sadness; for there is also a Spiritual Sadness, which doth not at all reach up to God, but which regards nothing but the Natural State; and there is a Holy and Supernatural Sadness, which is caused by Penitence, that lively Sentiment, and that lively and penetrating Resentment of the unworthiness of Sin, from whence flow those Sacred Tears which render the Soul so pure and so fair before God, for they are like a vehement Fire, which consumes in us all the Matter and all the Impurity of Sin. But let Us generally remark the difference of our Natural and of our Supernatural Operations.    

CHAP. XX.  
Acts Natural, or Natural Operations; and Acts Supernatural, or Operations of Grace.  
THERE is in the eleventh place, a most essential and most important Division and Difference to be observed, of which the Experience is constant and indubitable from our Operations and Acts, which ought not here to be forgotten; to wit, the Distinction and the Difference of our Natural Acts, or our Natural Operations, and of our Supernatural Acts, or our Supernatural Operations: For there is incontestably in Us in all our Faculties, besides their Natural Acts, Operations Supernatural, which make an Impression there of that almighty Virtue, and of that invisible Force from above, which we commonly call Grace.  
This Eternal and Sovereign Power which Rules over us, and which Acts continually in us (enlightening us by all the Ideas, and all the Images which we have of things, & penetrating us with a thousand divers Sentiments, sometimes of Pleasure, and sometimes of Pain) is called Nature, when by reason of the communication of Motions, & of the Corporeal Impressions which arrive as far as the Brain, it Acts in us by the general Wills, and the immutable Laws of its Natural Providence, which have no other end but the beauty and the conservation of the visible World; But when by other views and for other respects, when for the final Building of its Eternal Temple, when for the formation of its Eternal Court, if we may be permitted to say so, when for the accomplishment of the favourable Decrees of its Predestination, freely made for the Consummation of its Elect, which is the Object of a Providence, entailed and combined in a thousand manners upon the former; when in this View it Operates in Us for to correct the Corruption, or to aid the weakness and insufficiency of Nature for our Sanctification; it changes its Name, and is called Grace.  
Thus there is in us Nature and Grace, or the Operations of Nature, and the Operations of Grace; and Grace is almost no less visible than Nature.  
The Libertines, those Foolish and Rash, and at the same time Gross and Carnal Spirits, who judge of every thing by their Senses, under pretence that Grace is neither to be seen nor to be felt, though it is felt inwardly as sensibly as the most Corporeal Objects, and tho' it hath by the inward Sentiment an indubitable Evidence, I say, the Gross and Carnal Libertines will affirm, That all that we say of Grace, is nothing but a Dream and a Chimaera, because they pretend that Grace is a Fancy, which hath no other Reality than that which the Fanatical Imagination of some superstitious and sick Spirits hath given it. But the Judgement and Decision of such People ought not at all to put us to a stand; but on the contrary, it rather makes for the Truth, and effective Reality of Grace, that it should be called in Question by these Fanatic Enemies of all Truth.  
Grace makes itself appear at all times in the World, and especially since the accomplishment of the Mystery of God in the Flesh, encompassed with a Light and a Brightness, so evident, that we may as well doubt whether there be a World, as to doubt there hath been brought in by Christianity a New Light of the Mysteries and Precepts of Morality and Divine Truths; We may also as soon doubt of that which is called Nature, as of that which is called Grace, or of a Supernatural Principle, which (contrary to the impure and corrupt Inclinations of Nature, always inclined towards the Earth) doth turn and elevate our Hearts and our Spirits towards God, towards Eternity, and towards Heaven, and makes us find ineffable Tastes and unspeakable Delights in Humiliation and Sufferings, and in the greatest Abnegation, and the greatest Crucifixion of the Senses. Christianity is Established in the World by a Force and a Virtue indubitably Heavenly and Divine, which Operates more Miracles in the Spirit, and in the Hearts of Men, than in the Corporeal Nature, whereof she appears so highly and so indubitably a Mistress; since she hath changed the Laws of it in all its Parts as she pleased, with an Empire, the most Absolute that ever was. This Force and this Virtue so unquestionably Heavenly and Divine, which hath raised the Dead, and imprinted the Marks of its Sovereign Power, and Omnipotent Empire upon all Visible and Corporeal Nature, hath Acted and Operated with the same Power and the same Empire, upon the Hearts and upon the Spirits, and it continues to Act and to Operate after the same manner: And as its Operation is called a Miracle, when it Acts and Operates extraordinarily upon Corporeal Nature; so it is called Grace, when it Acts and Operates upon our Souls, for our Sanctification and our Salvation.  
Grace then is incontestably something that is as Real as Nature; and there are in us by consequence, most real Operations of Grace, which is of Importance to observe and to distinguish well, and to keep unmixed by the inward and indubitable Sentiment which we have of it. Grace Operates in Us in such manner, that what it Operates in Us, is our Operation, and our Operation is its.  
It Operates in Us sometimes by way of Light or Illumination, and sometimes by way of anticipating or preventing Pleasure and Delectation; and it Operates after this sort in two manners, by transient Acts, and by permanent and settled Habits. Transient Irradiations, whether they be by Illumination, or by Celestial Delectation, which we commonly express by the Name of Inspirations, are that which we call Actual Grace; and those permanent and habitual Dispositions of holy and righteous Inclinations and Affections, which keep the Soul turned towards God, tied to Duty and to Virtue, and determined to the Observation of the Divine Law, are that which we call Habitual Grace or Divine Charity. For that which we call Habitual Grace, hath nothing in it that is Physical beyond Divine Charity, or that happy Situation and Disposition of the Heart, which regards and loves God and Duty as the Sovereign Good, with a firm and inconcussible determination of the Will, from which nothing can draw it, until Human Liberty coming to be too lose, doth so diminish the Heavenly Impression, so that Temptation is able to prevail; that is it which makes the sad Falls of the Just.  
There are some who conceive that this Heavenly Impression is not so much for the producing of Actions, Holy and Just in themselves, as for the producing them of a certain Fashion whereof they have not, and of which they do not give any distinct Idea; They believe that it is Essential to our Actions, that they are made by a Supernatural Principle, to the end that they may be agreeable to God, and worthy of that Eternal Recompense, which St. Paul calls the Crown of Justice. But that is altogether a pure Illusion of certain School men, who conceived it after that manner. Grace is necessary for the Foundation of Holy and Just Actions themselves, and not only for some Circumstance whereof they might stand in need, to make them worthy.  
This would be mere Pelagianism, and most Gross to believe, That we can without the inward Delectation of Grace, preserve Continence, pardon our Enemies, and love God above all things, by an Effective Love and Efficacy, which withdraws our Heart from the World, and from ourselves, and ties it to that Eternal and Sovereign Beauty. it is Grace which draws us from Time, from the World, and from ourselves, and makes us taste God and Eternity. It is Grace which causeth Us to do all the Good which we do; for all that we do without Grace is poisoned and corrupted by some secret return of Self-love, which is that Venomous Root whereof St. Austin so often speaks, which Poisons all that it touches, and even all that it comes near.  

How Grace is Efficacious.  
It is demanded whether Grace be Efficacious by its self, or whether it be only by the free Determination and Co-operation of Human Will? But besides, that this may not perhaps be a place to decide Qustions of this Nature, There is nothing perhaps but an Equivocation in all the Disputes which Christians can have amongst themselves thereupon. For since there are two certain Truths amongst Christians, that Grace of itself is Victorious over the impure Delectation of Concupiscence, whereof it invincibly suspends the Charm, by the Heavenly and Inward Taste which it gives Us of God, of our Duty, and of Eternal Happiness; and that at the same time it regards our Liberty, or at least it doth not restrain it, leaving Us to our own Choice to Cooperate with it or not: It seems that amongst Christians, it ought necessarily to be acknowledged, that in one Sense, Grace is Efficacious and Victorious by itself, and that in another it is not so: It is Efficacious by itself against inordinate Desires, but not against our Liberty; for it invincibly suspends the Charm of Concupiscence, but it doth not at all invincibly engage our Co-operation so often as it Opein Us. I say, so often, because it is of that we are Discoursing: But for certain Occasions, there is no doubt but Grace doth engage Us.    

CHAP. XXI.  
Seven or Eight Differences of our Acts of Intellection. And how God Acts perpetually in Us, in the two Capital Faculties of our Soul.  
WE observe in the twelfth place, Seven or Eight notable Differences of divers Acts of pure Intellection; for we have of them in the first place, Notions which are Applicable to a thousand divers Subjects, as are all those Ideas which we call in the Schools Abstracted or Universal, by which we conceive Essences and Universal Natures, without any individual Difference; as for Example, The Idea of a Circle, of a Square, of a Triangle, the Idea of a Man, of an Angel, of a Lion, of a Stone in general; and on the contrary, We have such as are singular and individual Ideas, which cannot be applied but to one certain determined Object, which they Represent or Conceive. We have in the second place, Such as are directly in View, and others that are in View by Reflection, by which we come again upon our simple View, and compare the one with the other, for to observe their Diversities and their Singularities. We have in the third place, A simple Conception or Representation of Objects, which we call simple Apprehension; and we have the Judgement and the Comparison thereof, by which we decide the Relations and the Agreements of Things, their Equality, their Identity, their Disproportions, etc. We have in the fourth place, Aquiescence and decisive Judgement, by way of Affirmation, or by way of Negation; and a Doubt or Suspension, and Balancing of the Decision in the Obscurity of Things, or in the Equality of Reasons, which is called to Doubt. We have in the fifth place, Simple Speculation of Objects, without any Motion of the Spirits, to go further: And an Effort and Agitation of the Thought, to extend Knowledge, and to pass on from that which we knew, to that we do not as yet know, which is that proper Species of Reasoning, which brings into the World all the Arts and Sciences.  
In Relation to all these different Acts of the Intellection, there is this to be observed, That it is not but by pure Accident, considering the State of Union with the Body, that they depend upon the Disposition of the Body; for they don't depend upon a Configuration, Determination, or a particular Disposition of the Brain, or of any other Part or Humour of the Body, as the Acts of Imagining, of Remembering, of Passion, and of Perceiving by proper Sensation; but in what Estate soever the Body is, provided that the too vehement Motions of the Spirits, and of the Fibres of the Brain, leaves the Soul her Liberty of Thinking, The Soul exercises all these divers Acts, upon all Objects which can be presented to it. Secondly, We ought to observe, that all those Acts are the proper Acts of the Active Faculty of the Soul, and by consequence, Acts Free in their Nature, which are not necessary or constrained, but by Accident, and by particular Rencounters; for whether God gives them for Recompense of their Hope, or the Attention of their Spirit, as some conceive; Or whether the Spirit makes them itself, by the Light which it hath once received from God, to discover the Essences of Things, in separating that which is Essentially agreeable to them, from those which they have not but by Accident, and as it were Accessorily, as well as the Proportions and Relations of Equality, or Inequality, which are in them, as others have more willingly conceived it: It is hour, always true to say, That the Soul forms these Ideas and these Notions: Since it is certain, that she forms them at least by her Attention, that is to say, that she renders herself Attentive by herself, and by her own proper Choice and Determination; from whence there comes to her afterwards, these Ideas, and these Notions, as hath been said already.  

That God Acts perpetually in Us, in our Perceptive Faculty, and in our Appetitive Faculty.  
After this particular Account, I do not see that one could wish for any thing more, to be fully instructed of the manner how our Souls Are, and Operate in our Bodies; unless it be that there is this general Reflection, to spread over all that hath been said, That it is God who is indubitably our Light and our Life, who Operates in Us, in all these divers Acts of our Perceptive Faculty, and of our Appetitive Faculty, in the same manner, that he perpetually Acts in our Spirits and in our Hearts; in our Spirits by the Act of his continual Illumination, and in our Hearts by that of his insurmountable and invincible Attraction; for that which we call in Us the Heart and the Will, or the Appetitive Faculty, is but a vehement and an invincible Desire, by which God draws us to himself, under the confused Idea of Good, of Pleasure, and of Happiness, which are not to be found but in him: And as all the Acts of the Perceptive Faculty, are but only different Modifications of his Eternal Illumination, which Operate in Us in an hundred divers manners; So all these divers Acts of our Appetitive Faculty, all these divers Resentments of our Passions, are but the divers Modifications of that Desire, and of that Motion, of that Attraction, and of that Ardour so inflamed with Pleasure, and with Sovereign Good, by which he perpetually draws us to himself, which is the Principle of that Insatiability of Desires, and of that perpetual Emptiness of Heart, which nothing can satisfy and fill, till it be filled by Himself; Him of whom St. Paul hath so well said, That a time will come, and that He shall be All in All. Erit Deus Omnia in Omnibus.  
It is in God that we See and Perceive, all that we See and Perceive; And it is in God that we Love and we Desire, all that we Love, and all that we Desire; It is from God that we receive all our Light, and it is in God that all the Motions of our Heart do centre. We know not at all that it is He that searcheth us, but it is He who is the true Object, and the true End of all our Pursuits, as He is the Principle and the Mover of them: It is He that drives us on, and who Stimulates Us in all our Desires; and it is He who is the Centre and Term of all our Desires.  
Our Poor Soul goes groping through all the Bodies, which environs it, searching for a Pleasure and Contentment, which should satisfy it; and it is God who is that Sovereign Pleasure, which makes the Soul thus search after it. Our Soul regards God, by all its Being, and by all its Motion, and God regards the Soul, as it were, by all the Rays of his Infinite Essence; She holds fast to God on every side, if we may be permitted to say so; & God ties Himself to her by a thousand Regards of his Puissance of His Bounty, and of His intimate and continual Influence. We cannot separate our Souls from God, nor God from our Souls; We can know nothing clear of them, but as far as we see and know God wholly united, and wholly applied to her; and that we do not see them all turned towards God, either to receive from Him their Light, or to dart themselves towards him, to the end, they may find in Him their Satisfaction and their Joy, their Contentment and their Sovereign Felicity: The Body doth a little interpose betwixt them, but this is it which completely gives us Knowledge of our State upon Earth.    

CHAP. XXII.  
Man upon Earth, and the visible Point wherein He ought to regard himself, for to comprehend His State, and his Duties of this present Life.  
OUR Souls being the chiefest part of Us, as we have seen, that are in Relation to God; Our Bodies are given to them for a Trial, and for a Matter to Exercise themselves upon: Our Souls are Essentially United to God, and God removes them as it were from Him for a time, placing them, and keeping them in the Bodies, to see if they can pierce the Veil of them, and break through the Wall to go to Him, by their Free and Voluntary Union, which He would have them add to their Essential Union: The Bodies which he gives them, as it were a Burden, and for a House upon the Road of Eternity, are the only thing that can stop them, and make them to wander, and be lost in that Course: The Bodies which are to God in the Quality of the immediate Cause of the Union of Soul and Body; the occasion of the determination of Ideas and Sentiments, which He gives to the Souls, are to the Souls the perpetual occasion of their Ruin, and the obstacle of their Free and Voluntary Union with God. Man is thereby a Composition of Body and of Soul, which holds to God both by the one and by the other, and to Men through God chief, who unites us all in Himself, one to the other, as in the common Centre and Principle of our Being, and of our Life; and afterwards, by the Body, which unites all of us again, the one to the other, by a thousand Relations, either of Duties or of Businesses, into a Natural Society first of all, and then into a Politic Society.  
Such is Man, or to say better, such is the Soul in the Body; she is there equally a Tenant to the Visible World by the Body, and to the Intelligible World by herself; a Tenant to God Essentially by herself, and accessorily and accidentally, as it were to all the Visible World by the Body, and even to created Intelligences, to whom is committed some Intendance or some Direction over the Visible World, who are able to Act upon her, in Acting upon the Body. She is there a Tenant for God, as it were in a Enclosed Field and Amphitheatre of the Body, against the Flesh and the Senses, and against all the Visible World, etc. Even against that Rebellious part of the Invisible World, against those unhappy Spirits, who have been permitted to tempt, and to try by their Assaults the Fidelity of Souls, destined to fill up the places, that their Rebellion had left empty, in the Heavenly and Eternal Court.  
There you see Man in his present State; there you see the best of Prospects, in which he ought to be regarded, for to know well his State in the Body, and in the present Life, from whence do arise all his Duties; whether those which ought to Regulate us, in Relation to God and ourselves, or those which ought to put us into Order, in Relation to other Men, during the Course of this Mortal and Transitory Life.  
There is nothing that Men do so ill comprehend and conceive as Life; I speak here according to common usage, which calls the present Life simply Life, though it be only the Shadow of the True Life which is to come, as shall be said in its proper place. We conceive the present Life, as if it were all the Life of Man, and as if we were not in the Body, and in the present World, but for Ambition, and for Vanity and Pleasure, to See and to be Seen, to enjoy the present Good, and to make to ourselves a Felicity wholly Corporeal, in the vain Honours and the vain Pleasures of this World; Man blinded by Self-love, and by his Pride, looks upon himself in his Body, to be in the midst of this Visible World, as it were the Centre of himself, and of all things: He makes to himself an Idea of Independency, in Relation to every thing that is above him or about him: He believes there is nothing, but what is owing to him and his Passions, and he believes all is reducible to him, and that there is nothing but what ought to serve his Desires and his Pleasures. He knows not any Duty; He believes himself wholly Free, and wholly Master of himself, Se Liberum natum putat, saith the Divine Writer, and he believes it too! But to undeceive himself, he need only reflect upon what hath been Explained and Cleared, of the manner how our Souls are in our Bodies; for so far is He from finding himself Free, and Disfranchised of Duties, and of being Independent and Master of himself; That he will find himself charged with all the Parts of Duty accountable to God, to Himself, and to all Mankind, to the Future Life, and to the World to come; He will understand that That which he calls Life, is but a Trial or a Proof; That Time is for Eternity, and the present World for the World to come; That all his Being is Essentially Relative to the Supreme Being; That he owes all to God; That he owes a thousand things to himself, contrary to his most lively Inclinations, and that he owes no less to all Mankind: Instead of his Imaginary Independence, he will see in himself nothing but Dependence and Servitude. And so far will he be from finding himself in the Body, and in the Visible World, as it were in that Garden of Pleasure, which he Figures to himself (as the Scripture saith) into which he is only sent to gather the agreeable Flowers and Fruits, he will find himself there as it were in an Enclosed Field, or an Amphitheatre, where he hath nothing to do but to struggle and to combat; but let us see from thence how the Particulars of our Duties do arise.   

CHAP. XXIII.  
How the Conviction of all our Duties, and especially of our Duties towards God, doth arise from thence.  
ALL our Duties do arise from the Relation which we have with God; from the Alliance which we have with Mankind, whether it be by the Soul or by the Body, or by God himself; and from the Engagements which the Soul hath for the Body, and the Body for the Soul: for Duty is Essentially an Order of Relation and Respect, of one thing to another, and the manner how our Souls Are, and Operate in our Bodies, doth discover to Us all the Engagements of Order, of Respect, and of Relation, which our Souls have towards our Bodies, and our Bodies towards our Souls; and which we have Essentially with God, whether it be in the Soul or in the Body, and accidentally with Mankind; whether those which we generally have with all Mankind, or those which we particularly have with some one or other amongst them, partly by the Body, and partly by the Soul.  

Our Duties towards God.  
We have as many Relations to God, as he hath Regards in his Divine Attributes and Eternal Essence, which have Relation to Us; and as there is nothing in that Eternal and Sovereign Essence or Being, which doth not regard Us, either in respect of His Superiority, Power and Authority, or by the Rays of Charms, of Attractions Amability and Loveliness, or by the Chains and Bands of Dependence, or by the Terrors and the Threaten of his Vengeance; So we may say, that there is not one single Perfection in God, from which there doth not arise a thousand Duties in Relation to Us. There is not one single Point, saith St. Agustin else where, within the little Circumference of our Being, upon which there doth not fall a Million, as it were, of Lines, from all the Points (if I may so say) of this vast and immense Circumference of the Supreme Nature; and there is not one of these Lines, or of these Relations of Dependence, of Respect, and of Union, but what makes in us as many Duties.  
All our Being is owing to God, and it is owing to Him under a thousand and a thousand Regards; and tho' it would be much more easy to count the Hairs of our Heads, and the Sands of the Sea, than to count the Number of the Essential Obligations wherein we are bound to him; yet, methinks, we may reduce them to these Four General Heads; To the Duties of Fear, To the Duties of Affiance, To the Duties of Dependence, and To the Duty of Love, whether it be of Union and of Holy Concupiscence, or of Preference, or of pure Complacency and entire Resignation: And if we would reflect well upon the manner How God Acts and Operates continually in Us by an Omnipotent and Infinite Action, by which he makes and entertains the Union of our Souls and of our Bodies, we shall find, That it discovers to Us, and makes Us see more sensibly than any thing else, the Love, the Fear, the Affiance, and all the Sentiment of Dependence which we own him.   

The Fear of God.  
We ought to fear him, as he who can render our Souls irreparably unhappy, according to the Word of the Wisdom Incarnate, Fear not, says he, those who threaten to kill your Bodies, but fear him who is able to deliver up your Souls to despair, and plunge them into everlasting fire. You see here the first Duty; The first, not in Dignity, or by the order of Excellency and of Rank, saith St. Augustin, but the first in relation to our interessed Sensibility; since it is thereby that it commonly gins to be touched. And can this Duty be more lively drawn near us, and placed before our Eyes, than by an Action so efficacious and so Sovereign, by an Empire so Almighty and so Invincible, by which God causes in us the dolorous and affecting Sentiment of all kinds of Pains, of Incommodity and Diseases, the Ideas whereof may be always present, either by our own Pains, or by those of other Men. Men strive to make terrible Pictures of God's Vengeances, to establish and imprint the fear of them; but, as I have observed, there is no need of making such Efforts, when one hath once conceived the manner how our Souls have Pain and Grief in our Body; we have nothing to do but to remember that God will wound and strike after another manner the Impure and Reprobated Souls, delivered up his to Wrath and to his Eternal Vengeance, than he now wounds us by to make us sensible and concerned for the conservation of our Bodies.   

Of Hell.  
I found once a Libertine, who told me he could not comprehend that Hell should be such as they said it was. I did no more than ask him If he had never had a Fever, the Cholique, or the , which might have very much disturbed him, and if he had never had them, if he had ever seen any body in those torments. The Libertine answered, That he himself had had but too much Experience of them. Alas, said I to him, do you but imagine now an Eternal Fit of a burning Fever, or the Cholique, or the Rage of a desperate , and you have conceived what Hell is; Do not you apprehend, That the Power which at present makes in us these so sad Conditions, can make them eternally in our Souls, if they have rendered themselves worthy of his Wrath; And there needed no more to that Spirit, who till then was most disordered, and the greatest Libertine, perhaps, that ever was, to make him conceive Hell: He confessed it, and believed it so well, that he quitted not only Debaucheries, but the World; He afterwards made an edifying Repentance, which was known to a great many.  
The Scripture teaches us, that all the Evil, the Pains and the Calamities in the World, which at present do afflict Mankind, all the Terrors and Dreads which affright them, are no other but Lightnings which come out beforehand from the Cloud of God's Wrath, and from the Shadows of the Manifestations of his Vengeance; The sharpest Pain, the Sword, the Fire, the Plague, Diseases, general and particular Calamities, are not in the World, saith the Wise Man, but to serve for an Idea and a Demonstration of the Justice and the Wrath which God ought signally to manifest upon Sinners, Ad vindictam creata sunt.  
Hell is nothing but the fixed and settled Wrath of God upon Sinners; and it is impossible to doubt but that it ought to settle upon them, since they persist even to the Death in the obstinacy of their Revolt and their Irregularity, because he cannot abandon eternally his Creatures to the liberty and obstinacy of their Licentiousness and of their Revolt: How much then ought we to fear him for that Wrath that can make in us Wounds so deep and so cruel, and at the same time so irremediable and so incurable, when he shall Act by a true Spirit of Wrath and Vengeance; Seeing that now he Acts only by Goodness and Bounty, or by the Spirit of his well-doing Inclination, that he does not hurt us but to heal us, yet he gives us such dolorous and such sensible Wounds! Oh God of Vengeances, how heavily will you lay your Hand upon us, and how will your Wrath strike and wound us, since your Goodness and your Mercy wounds us with Pains so lively and so penetrating!   

The Duty of Religion.  
We ought then, without doubt, to fear this so terrible a Power. But if we ought thus to fear it, because it hath a delicate Grandeur, which is hurt by our Revolt, and a formidable Anger and Wrath, which ought severely to punish our Disorders; we ought no less also to apprehend our Dependence: And the lively and penetrating manner whereby this Supreme Nature makes us perpetually to feel its Empire over the double part of our Being, Acting in our Souls and in our Bodies continually, carries it into our Heart, and puts upon our Head, as it were an immense Weight, as Job felt, under the which our whole Being must be perpetually incurvated and debased with Respect and with Dependence; as are in the Divine Word, those Sublime and Immortal Intelligences, which bend not at all under the Weight of the Universe which they bear, yet do notwithstanding bend and prostrate themselves perpetually under his Throne, debased in themselves in their Dependence and in their Nothingness.   

Of Faith or Affiance in God.  
We don't commonly conceive, That Affiance is a Duty for which we are accountable to God, tho' it is one of the most Essential Homages that we own him; It is the most Essential Act of the Supreme Worship which we own to his Sovereign Bounty and to his Sovereign Puissance; We do never sufficiently acknowledge these two Attributes, but by our full and entire Affiance, which is the most Essential Part of that which in the Divine Word is called Faith; for it is not the Acquiescence of our Spirit in things Revealed, which is that which is most agreeable to God in Faith. It is Affiance which gives the greatest Value and the greatest Merit to our Faith: And in Effect, it is not so great a Wonder that we believe That God doth not deceive us in that which he says; but to attend without Wavering, and with a full and entire Assurance, all that which we hope from him with Affiance; This is that excellent Faith which is the Soul of that Christian Prayer, of which the Divine Redeemer hath given a Lesson to the World, and not to Hesitate at all, because he does not do every thing that we will; This is that Faith which removes Mountains, that the Divine Redeemer would have us have in our Hearts; Therein is an excellent and exquisite Worship; There is the Sovereign Homage paid to the Sovereign Power and to the Sovereign Goodness: And this is a Worship which God requires of us, and which he will receive from our Hearts, and of which he cannot be frustrated without resenting it, and without being extremely offended thereby. He says to our unbelieving Hearts, to our uncertain and doubting Hearts, that which our Saviour said to S. Peter, Modicae Fidei quare dubitasti? and he says it to them with an extreme Indignation and an extreme Sentiment; because, as he would have us do every thing that we desire to do, with a chaste and pure Affiance; so he wills that we should desire it with a lively and ardent Faith, animated with Affiance and a full Assurance as much as is possible.  
The Duty of Affiance is indubitable, and nothing can make us so well apprehend it, and at the same time persuade us, than the perpetual Miracle by which, and with which we have seen, that God Operates in our Bodies according to the Desires of our Souls: I say, the Miracle, not that that Action (by which God transports and moves our Members and our Bodies, where we will in the moment that our Souls desire) ought to be regarded as a true and proper Miracle; since we do not at all call that a Miracle, which is made in consequence of the Laws of Nature, or the General Will of God: But because there is nothing more Divine in all the Miracles that can be, than that Regularity whereby the Desires of our Wills are followed by the Effective Motion of our Members and of our whole Body, at such time as they are not hindered by any Relation, or by any Obstruction of the Nerves, or by any Dislocation or Fracture of the Bones, we may say that this is a perpetual Miracle of Nature, which perpetually Preaches to us this Divine Affiance of that Evangelical Faith, of which one single Spark, like a Grain of Mustardseed, is able to remove Mountains: For as this Eternal Power, by the Effect and the Engagement of his General Will, by which he makes and entertains the Union of Souls and Bodies, applies himself to move and transport our Bodies as we will, according to the Laws and the Rules of that Union, which he hath resolved never to departed from, to Act as an Universal Cause, as it seems fit to his Greatness, and worthy of his Sovereign and Infinite Wisdom. So when we unite ourselves to him by an entire and perfect Affiance, we unite ourselves to his Almightiness, and we make him sure to do every thing that we expect from him without Doubt and without Uncertainty according to the Sacred Oracles of the Gospel. And thus it is that the Saints under the New Law, and the Prophets under the Old Law, have disposed of the Heavenly Almightiness to make it do Wonders and Miracles (the Historical Fact of which, is the most established, and the most incontestable thing in the World) almost as we do make use of the Members of our Bodies, and the things whereof we have the most free disposition. Our Affiance, which strictly and intimately unites us by its lively Faith to the Eternal Goodness and Power, renders them, as it were, in some manner united and dependent upon us. This Eternal Goodness, and this Eternal Power, have so great an Inclination to communicate and expand themselves, that they only wait for our lively Faith, or our Affiance, to put themselves into our Hands, as it were, and to be obedient to our Desires.   

The love of Holy Concupiscence for God.  
But it is above all the Duty of Love, whether it be of Complacency and Preference, or of Union and Holy Concupiscence, which springs and flows sensibly from the Knowledge we have been acquiring, of the Sovereign Source of Beauty and of Felicities, which that Eternal Essence contains, to which we so certainly see that we are able to aspire, and to drink eternally of it; since at this very hour, wherein he doth nothing but make us Combat, and keep us in Trial and in Exercise, to see if we render ourselves worthy of being Rewarded; He makes us feel so indubitably the Pleasures, and the Delights which he contains; and He discovers to us so many Charms, and so many Beauties, in his Sovereign Nature.  
Brutish Men remove themselves far from God by Pleasure; and Pleasure is a Rivulet that flows from that pure and eternal Source, by which our Heart ought naturally to mount up again to God. The present Pleasure which wholly, essentially and immediately comes from God, aught to bring us back again to him. God doth not give it us, but to draw to himself our Hearts, to which he hath not given Motion but for Pleasure; He hath not given us Love but for Good and Pleasure; and he makes us see that the Source of Good and Pleasure is in Him.  
There are some who conceive the Love of Union (or of this Holy Concupiscence, which I here speak of, and whereupon I Establish Duty) as a Disorder and Irregularity of Self-love, which Reverses the Order of the Essential Relation, which all Creatures ought to have to God; but this is not rightly to comprehend the Free and Voluntary Relation, by which we ought to relate ourselves too God. We do not only relate ourselves to God by the Confession of our Dependence, and of His Supereminent Excellence over us, by which we do acknowledge, that we deserve to be Annihilated by him; We do no less relate ourselves to him, by that which we do from the Source of Pleasure and Happiness, which we acknowledge in Him only. It is no less agreeable for him, to be the Source of Happiness and of Pleasure, which is as it were the Accomplishment, the Perfection, and the Crowning of our Being, than to be the Source and the Principle of the Foundation of our Being. The Love of Union, or of this Sacred Thirst, which I call Holy Concupiscence, doth no less Honour to God, than the Love of the most pure, and the most disinteressed Complacency.  
God is not so much God by any other way, (if we may be permitted to say so) than in being the only and essential Source, and necessary Principle of Happiness and of Pleasure. St. Austin saith, That Felicity is in God, the Summit of his Divinity, because his Infinite Felicity is that which is most Divine and most Eminent in Him; and we may say, That the Advantage of containing and shutting up in Himself Felicity and Pleasure, is, (if we may be permitted to enhance upon the Expression of St. Augustin) the Act and the Summit of that very Summit of his Divinity.  
This Love then of Union and of Holy Concupiscence, is not only not Evil and Imperfect, but it is positively Infinitely Perfect, and the greatest Honour that can be rendered to the Supreme Being; and all the Motions of our Heart ought to be continual and uninterupted Acts thereof. Our Heart and our Will in general, is not, as hath been said, but the Love of Good and of Pleasure: And as it is God who is the Good and the Pleasure, or at least, the Source and the Principle of Pleasure; since it is He only that causeth it, and since it is in Him and by Him, that we ought only to Hope for our Sovereign Pleasure; All the Pant of our Heart, and all its Agitations for Pleasure, aught to be turned and directed towards Him; Our Heart ought continually to regard nothing but Him, and to search after nothing but Him; All its Motion ought to Centre in Him: This Torrent or this River ought to have this perpetual Course, it ought to Flow in this Channel, and it ought not to suffer one single Rill, or one drop of its Waters to be lost; Its Course and its Motion ought never to stand still, or be turned aside, or diverted from that Bound and Centre, or go never so little out of its Channel. Our Heart doth never turn aside from God, who is its Bound and its Centre, but it wanders; and it never wanders from God, but it Revolts, and commits an extreme Out rage upon Him. In Loving God thus, we are able to Love every thing that we are pleased to Love; as St. Augustin says, Because that in loving him after this manner, whatsoever we shall Love, it will be Him that we shall principally Love; it will be Him that we shall Love with a Final and Central Love; if I may be permitted to say so with the Holy Fathers; but not loving God after this manner, We cannot love any thing without a Fault, without Impiety, and without Sacrilege; to any other Objects whatsoever, that our Love is tied, without him, and out of him, it is a Profanation of the most Sacred Thing of the World; Since it is the Profanation of the invincible and insurmountable Motion of Attraction, by which God draws us to himself under the confused Idea of Good; which he would have us to render distinct and neat, in acknowledging that it is He alone that is the Good, whereby our necessary and invincible Love of Good, is rendered a free and a deserving Love; because this Sovereign Being is so Good, that He is willing to make it deserving, for our applying ourselves to distinguish that He alone is the Good; that it is He alone who gives us Pleasure, and can make in us Contentment: And since we have made the distinction, let us not be deceived by false Ideas of false Goods, which the rash Judgements of our Passions, and of our Senses, propose to us, and make us place amongst their Objects.   

The Love of Complacency.  
And it is not only this Love of this Holy Concupiscence, which we own to God. We own him also an infinite Love of Complacency, wholly disinteressed, and wholly pure: We ought to Love this Eternal and Sovereign Beauty, for its own sake; and if we Reflect upon the manner how she discovers herself to Us, in the manner whereby she Acts continually in our Souls, as hath been Explained; We shall see, that as it is God that we Love by that confused Motion of our Heart, by which we Love, and search after Pleasure; so it is only Him likewise that we Love by the Natural Love, that we have for Order, for Truth, and for Justice, and generally for all Duty; for it is God who is this Order, this Truth, and this Justice, which we Love, when (as wholly Irregular as we are) we Love Order and Duty in spite of ourselves; and when we hate and condemn the disorder and violation of Duty which we commit, This Truth, this Justice, and this Order, which makes itself thus to be beloved by all Spirits, and all Hearts, in all parts of the World, is nothing else but God himself: This is the Sovereign Beauty of Nature, and of the Supreme Essence, the Lively and Eternal Source of Order, of Equity, and of Duty; the Eternal and Substantial Truth, which not discovering itself but by Rays, as it were escaping out, and all obscured by the Clouds of our inordinate Desires, through which, these pass even to our Eyes, makes this Sovereign Adoration of Love from all Hearts, to be rendered to it. That Beauty which we have in Virtue and in Duty, is nothing else but the weak Glimmerings of the ineffable Beauty, and Charm of the Supreme Being: Every thing that we Love, whether it be in the Abstracted Idea of our Duties, or in the real Charms of the Creatures, is nothing but the Splendour and the Rays; or to say better, The Shadow of that Charm of Sovereign Beauty and Perfection, which gloriously Shines in the Supreme Nature.  
Nature commences equally in us the Love of Complacency, and the Love of Union, or of Holy Concupiscence, which all Created Spirits own to God: As it is God whom we Love necessarily under the confused Idea of Happiness, of Contentment, and of Pleasure; so it is him whom we Love invincibly under the Ideas, and under the Names of Truth, of Justice, of Beauty, of Virtue, of Duty or of Equity; for that Truth, that Justice, that Beauty, and that Equity, that All-Intelligible, and All-Invisible Light of Truth, of Equity, and of Duty, which Shines in all places of the World; that makes itself be Seen, Loved and Adored, invincibly by all Hearts, in all Ages, and in all People Civilised and Barbarous, cannot choose but be at least the Glimmering of an Eternal and an Infinite Light, wholly Intelligible, and wholly Invisible, which subsists Eternally, and Essentially by itself; and makes a part, and one even of the Principal Grounds of that Sovereign Nature and Perfection, which we call the Supreme Nature and Being: And as we perceive that this Glimmering, and these Glances of this Original Beauty, is so amicable by itself, that as corrupt as we are, we cannot hinder ourselves from Loving it; so it is easy for us to comprehend, That this Sovereign Nature (from which it flows, together with that Almighty Charm, whereof we resent so strong, and so invincible an Empire continually) deserves well our Complacency, and to be Loved only and Sovereignly for itself.  
Thus it is, That in Reflecting upon the manner how the Eternal Beauty gives a glimpse of itself to our Souls, through the Bodies which obscure it, and which are as it were Vails, and Walls, betwixt the Souls and it; We are able, and we ought, to lift up ourselves above all Corporeal and sensible Beauties, and Images, for to despise them, and to mount up to the Eternal Beauty, to Adore and to Love it only.  
But if all our Duties towards God, spring so Naturally from these Ideas, which the knowledge of our Souls gives us of Him; those which we own to ourselves, and which we own to other Men, do no less flow from thence.    

CHAP. XXIV.  
Duties towards ourselves, and towards other Men; and first of Temperance, and of the Crime of Incontinence.  
YOU see there how all our Religious Duties towards God, do spring and flow from that fruitful Principle of the Visible Empire with which God; who holds our Souls in our Bodies, Acts perpetually in them. Let us see now how those for which we are indebted to ourselves, do thence arise and spring likewise.  
We have included them all a long while ago, under the Term and Name of Temperance; and Temperance includes all in Effect: It means every thing that we own to ourselves, whether for the Body, or for the Soul; and who sees not, that it springs from what hath been said, concerning the Assembly of the Soul and the Body, That God for such Noble Ends, condemns all Dissoluteness which dishonours and degrades both the one and the other. There are some who are hard to be convinced of the Disorder, and of the Crime of certain Incontiniences; But let them conceive well the Design of God in the Union, which He makes of Souls and Bodies; and in the End of the Instincts and Motions of Pleasure, which He gives for the Propagation of the Human Species, and they will see that not only this Pleasure hath in its Intention, an Essential Relation of one Sex to another (this will make them conceive the horrors of those Monstrous Impurities which the Civil and Politic Laws do no less condemn, than Religion and Nature;) but that it ought likewise so necessarily to be Enclosed within the Sacred Bed, and Holy Society of Marriage, That from the moment it breaks off, and goes out from thence, it becomes Criminal and Sacrilegious. If we did well comprehend, That it is God that raises up the Bodies to an Honour of Alliance with the Souls, and that he doth it to make them serve for a Trial, and for a Matter, to their Triumph, and to their Recompense; We should not only clearly conceive the Disorder of all kinds of Inconveniences, and of all Intemperances', of which there is not any one, but which in defiling our Bodies, violates the most Holy, and the most Religious of all Consecrations: But we should livelily conceive that Obligation of the Sanctification of Souls and Bodies, which St. Paul Preaches continually, and which he requires to be so perfect, that St. Gregory had reason to say, That it goes as far, as to impose upon us the Obligation of Spiritualizing our Bodies, almost as much in this Life, as they ought to be in the other. It is the same thing with the Duties, for which we are accountable one to another; they spring all of them from the same Principle, and from the same Knowledge; Let us but say a word or two of them in general.  
There are two sorts of Duties from Man to Man, there are general ones and particular ones; The general, are those which bind us equally to all Men; The particular ones, are those which are limited and determined to Particulars; We are accountable to all Men for Justice, for Charity, for Civility, and for good Behaviour, for a certain Honour due to the Impression of the Divine Resemblance, and to the Regards of Natural Equality; And we own Friendship to our Friends, Piety to our Parents, Acknowledgements to our Masters, Obedience to our Superiors: And all these Duties flow with an indubitable Clearness and Evidence, from the Knowledge which we have acquired, of the manner how our Souls are in our Bodies, essentially united to God by themselves, and accidentally by their Bodies to all the Visible World, and to all the Bodies of Civil and Natural Society.  
As to Common Duties, it cannot be, but that we seeing into the manner how our Souls are in our Bodies wholly united equally in God, wholly animated with one and the same Influence, with Divine Life, marked with one and the same Resemblance with him, and equally impelled by the same Love of Duty: It cannot be, I say, But that we must be obliged to Love, and to accomplish all the extents of Juslice, of Truth, of Charity, and of Civility, or of mutual and reciprocal Respect towards all Men, who under all the Differences of unequal Conditions and Fortunes, do conserve the Honour of Natural Equality, and the Divine Resemblance.  

The Duty of Blood, and of Alliances.  
And as to particular Duties, whether they be those which immediately proceed from our Bodies, as those of Piety which makes the Alliance betwixt Parents and Children, Husbands and Wives, Brothers and Neighbours; or those which proceed immediately from the Soul, as the Acknowledgement which obliges us to our Benefactors, and the Obedience which submits us to our Superiors, as having the Sovereignty, and the Character of God's Authority; They do all of them equally spring from the same Knowledge; because in Regard of the Relations, which we have one to another by the Body, it is indubitable, That (the Bodies entering as they do into the Order of Providence, by which God prepares us to the Order of Eternity, by the present Trial of Time); He Wills that we should follow all the Duties which occur to us from their Occasion; And He Wills by consequence, That we should be more entirely United to those, from whom we hold our Bodies, or who hold their Bodies from Us.  
The Bodies are the Knot, and the Ligament of our Union with the Visible World, as hath been said; and they are there by the Knot and the Ligament of Natural and Civil Society; and as the one and the other doth not subsist, but by the particular Societies of Families and of Alliances which compose them; For as Rivulets form Rivers, and Rivers the Ocean, the particular Societies of Families began to form Towns and Burroughs, and those Towns and Burroughs which proceed from thence, do form States and Commonwealths, whereof is made the Universal Society which is Governed by the Common Law, which is called Jus Gentium, or The Law of Nations, besides the particular Laws of every Country and of every State. So it cannot be that particular Societies, who are the Basis and the Foundation of all the Civil and Political World, should not have their Laws, their Policy and Equity, as well as the Universal Society, and by consequence, their Duties; to which it is necessary we should be obliged in proportion to the divers Degrees of Relation which it gives us one to another. From whence arises the Duties of Citizen to Citizen, of Brother to Brother, of Neighbour to Neighbour, of a Son to his Father, of a Servant to his Master, and of a Master to his Servant.   

The Crime of Superstition.  
There are some People (and it is a Disorder very common and very much spread abroad) who make no account of these Duties; and they are for the most part People that are otherwise nice and scrupulous concerning the Commendable, but not Essential Practices of certain Popular Institutions or Devotions; They would believe themselves very guilty, if they should have omitted or violated them; and yet they do not at all believe that they hurt their Consciences, in violating or omitting the Duties of Friendship, of Fidelity, of Charity, of Proximity, of Paternal Piety, and of those other Natural Duties, which arise in us from these Relations which have been Explained. And yet in the mean time there is no Religion without an Effective Accomplishment of all these Duties, which have all of them their Principle and their Source in God; We cannot worship God in Spirit and in Truth, as he would have us worship him, if we do not love and embrace in him all those Obligations; And the pretended Religion of these false Worshippers, is nothing but Superstition and Illusion, equally vain and criminal.  
I say Superstition; for Superstition is not only, as some conceive, the worshipping of false Divinities; the false worshipping of the true Divinity is no less a Superstition, than the worshipping of false Divinities; and all that pretended Piety which despises the least of Natural Duties, and which does not prefer them to those Devotions, Practices, Customs, and Humane Institutions, howsoever authorised and approved of by the Church, is a real Superstition; For it is so far from being Piety and Religion, that it is Irreligion and Sacrilege; It is a sort of Impiety which belongs to the Species of Idolatry, and the Species of Blasphemy; because it is Superstition, and Superstition is a Species of Idolatry, and a Species of Blasphemy; since to conceive of God Ideas which dishonour him, is the most express, and the most criminal Species of that which we call Blasphemy: And those who think to please God by a false Worship, as they do, who omitting their Natural and Essential Duties, think to please him by Accessary Duties, do incontestably commit that outrage of Blasphemy: It is not the True God, the Principle of all Natural Duty, which they adore; it is, as that Ancient hath said, a ridiculous Idol which they offer up Incense to; It is a Fantastical Divinity which they have forged, and which they adore, with the Nonsensical and Impertinent Conceits which they offer him.  
It would be of great Importance, seriously to reflect upon this Principle, because the World is full of Superstition and of Superstitious Men: The Spirit of Man is so feeble, and so little enlightened of its true Duty, he knows God so little, and he knows himself so little, that he makes a thousand false Ideas: And on the other side, his Self-love is so industrious and so apt to deceive him, that it makes him believe all that it pleases, to maintain itself in the quiet possession of that tyrannical Empire, which withdraws him from the obedience which he owes to God. We violate the Foundation of Religion, whose Duties would so much incommode our Self-love; and we are so blind, that we think to cover and deface all the Crime and all the Irregularity of this Essential Irreligion, by these Accessary Worships and Observations. This is the Disorder for which the Prophets in their Time did reprove false Worshippers; This is it for which the Divine Redeemer blamed the Scribes and Pharisees; This is it for which we may blame our Age as much as any other.  
But if there be Irregularity and Disorder in Superstitious Worship, there is no less in Accusing and Condemning for Superstition, the innocent Worship which true Faith and sincere Piety may animate in Us; and it is worth while to make some Reflections thereupon.   

The Disorder of being Scandalised at Indifferent Worship.  
Such is the Disorder and Crime of Superstition. But we must here observe upon this Occasion, That as it is a real sort of Impiety, to desire to honour God by vain Worship, which cannot please him, since it is to attribute to him a liking of that which is unworthy of him, and, as that Ancient said, to make him Weak, Ridiculous, and Fantastical: So it is also a pitiful Weakness (and almost no less condemnable, because it is so full of Pride and Presumption) which cannot suffer that a pure and sincere Faith should annex to the Indifferent and External Worship, an outward Demonstration of Inward Piety and Religion; Which is that which hath always made amongst the truly Faithful, that Body of Public Ceremonies and Particular Devotions, which the Church hath never Condemned, which Charity hath always well Interpreted, and which Piety hath Practised, and hath never looked upon as Evil, because she hath only looked upon them as Accessories.  
These are two Excesses almost equally condemnable, To Will that God should be contented with Superstitious Worship, and Not to be willing to suffer others to annex the External Demonstration of their sincere Faith, and of their Internal Religion, to Indifferent Worships, especially when they go so far as to Judge and Condemn them as Superstitious and Idolatrous, and to break the Charity and the Band of Unity, as the fanatics of these later Times have done; Under the Pretext of avoiding Superstition, they fell into Presumption, and into a Presumption no less Impious and Sacrilegious, than the most condemnable Superstition. S. Paul would that in things Indifferent, Every one should abound (says he) in his own Sense, that he should follow his particular Relish, and should condemn no man. S. Paul would have it, and this is the Reason; for why should we Judge that which of itself is not condemnable, and which being Indifferent, may be animated with a true Piety, as those do, who are so much offended at the Placing of the Communion-Table, at Bells, Organs, and the Surplice, and at the divers Ceremonies which the Church suffers or authorises; Let them but make a serious Reflection upon this Principle, and they will have, perhaps, as much horror of their Sacrilegious and rash Presumption, which they pronounce against the Church, as of the Superstition which they hitherto believed they saw in Her.   

Obedience due to Powers, and to the Church.  
But let us pass on to new Duties; for if there are Duties which do arise from the Obligation which we have one to another by the Body, inasmuch as the Body is the Knot and the Band of our Union with the Material and Visible World; than it is impossible but that Duties also should proceed from it, inasmuch as it unites us into a Political Society, and renders us Members either of a Monarchy, or of a Republic. Thus if God (by some particular Providence, or by a Concatenation or Engagement of the natural Events which result from the Universal Motion by which he Governs Nature and Politic Society, as Universal Cause) hath caused the Sovereignty of his Authority to fall into the Hands of some one of the Members of the common Society, under what Name or Form soever he Exercises it, it is certain that our Obedience is due unto him as unto God, so long as he Acts by virtue of that Character and that Sovereignty; And we cannot know that which our Souls own to God, but we must at the same time acknowledge that which is owing to all those who bear any Character of Authority and Superiority derived from Him; Such are Kings, Judges, Magistrates, Officers of War, and Pastors of the Church, who with the Sovereignty of the Grace of Redemption, which they have to Administer to others, have that likewise of Power and Authority from God Incarnate, for the Direction and Discipline of the External Order of his Visible Monarchy, which is what we call the Church, and for the Conservation of the Unity of Worship, and of the Purity of the Sacraments and of Doctrine, the want of which is the occasion of Schisms and Heresies.   

The Duty of Christian Unity, and the Crime of Schisms and Heresies.  
There are some People, who are otherwise of great Justness and great Exactness of Reasoning, and of clear Ideas and quick Notions, who do not for all that comprehend the Crime of Schism and Heresy. They believe, That retaining that which they call the Foundation of Faith and Salvation, which is to Worship and acknowledge Jesus Christ as Mediator and Redeemer, by whom only Men and Angels themselves can please God, Every one may make a Religion to himself, and follow it according to his own Conscience, and give, as well as he understands, his Sense of the Divine Mysteries and of the Divine Word; This is the Occasion that amongst such it is not material, as to the Fundamentals, what Society they adhere to amongst Christians, and that they account as nothing That which we call Schism and Heresy; But besides that it cannot be in vain, that the Divine Word so much condemns Schisms and Heresies, tho' we should not know the Crime and Disorder of them, we need but only reflect upon that Sovereign Unity of the Sovereign Power which Presides over the Union of our Souls and Bodies, for to see and comprehend it clearly.  
This Sovereign Uniformity, this Unity of Conduct, of Rules, & immutable Laws, whereby this Infinite Power which holds our Souls united to our Bodies, Acts upon our Bodies, and in all the Souls in all the Parts of the World after the same manner, is a sensible Proof and Conviction of its Sovereign Unity; And it is impossible to have an Idea of this Sovereign Unity, without thereby seeing the Crime of all that which we call Schism and Heresy.  
But let us proceed, and see how it follows from all that hath been said of the manner how God Acts in our Souls upon the Occasion of our Bodies, as a Necessary and Universal Cause, with a Clearness and Evidence so sensible, That we cannot firmly acquit ourselves of any of our Duties, but by the constant and regular Practice of that Christian Self-denial, which makes the whole Foundation of the Gospel, by which we ought to watch without ceasing, to fortify in us Conscience and Natural Right, by weakening our Concupiscences.    

CHAP. XXV.  
The Necessity of Gospel Self-denial, Established and Justified by the same Principles.  
GOD, who Acts (as hath been said) as Universal Cause in the Dependence which he entertains between the Soul and the Body, doth give, as it were in spite of himself, to our Souls, by the inviolable Law of the Union of the Soul and the Body, agreeable Pleasures and Sentiments, which fortify Concupiscence, as often as he is thereto determined in consequence of an immutable Decree of his General Will, by the Disposition of the Body; And as these Occasions do continually present themselves, if we do not watch to turn them away, so Concupiscence is augmented continually thereby; And as this fatal Concupiscence is Essentially contrary to our Duties, because it is Essentially a Revolt against Order, against the Law, and the Eternal Righteousness; Non est legi Dei subjecta, (saith St. Paul) nec enim potest: So from thence it comes to pass, that if we are not perpetually attentive to decline the Occasions of these Pleasures which entertain and augment Concupiscence or sensible Love, it increases and raises itself to that degree, that Righteousness, Reason and Conscience are wholly stifled, and all the Natural and Civil Duties so enfeebled and weakened, that they are not able to support themselves against any Temptation that hath the least strength in it.  
If God had not given us the Power, and a Command to moderate and correct our Concupiscence, by this continual Vigilance of Self-denial, possibly we might be in some manner excusable in our opposition to Justice, to Charity, to Truth, to the Respect of natural Equality, and to all other general and particular Obligations of our Reasonable Nature.  
The necessity that there is that He should affectionate Us to the Conversation of the Body, produces not only this sensible Love, which we call Concupiscence, but an inevitable necessity that he should perpetually augment it by this Action of Universal Cause; but he hath given us the Grace, and the Precept of Sel-denial, through his All-foreseeing and Fatherly Goodness; For in that instant wherein as Universal Cause he is obliged to entertain and augment Concupiscence in us, if we do not watch to avoid in us the Occasions which determine him to give us sensible Pleasures; He does not only give us the Power to avoid those Occasions, by the Empire which he gives us over the Liberty of our Thoughts and our Motions; But as a Particular Cause, he came in Person to bring us the Law, the Example, and the Grace of Self-denial; and he doth not cease to call to us, and press us by the clear and loud voice of his Gospel, that we should continually stand upon our guard, and never slacken our care to cut off all these Occasions.  

Every Pleasure is pure and innocent in itself, and only criminal by its Circumstances.  
It would be very ill to understand Christian Morality and the Gospel, to regard it as a malignant Inclination and a Jealousy which God hath of us, to grudge us our little Pleasure, and our Natural Satisfaction. God doth not at all hate Pleasures, neither is he capable of grudging us them. There is not one Pleasure which doth not immediately derive itself from him, and which he doth not cause, and by consequence, which he doth not love, and which he would not willingly that we should taste of: his Design is to nourish us eternally with Joy and Pleasure, as he doth not live himself but with Joy and Pleasure, with that Divine and Heavenly Food; and yet he spreads abroad a thousand Pleasures in the mean time, upon all the Acts of our Natural Life, whether it be to make them serve to sweeten, as hath been said, the Pain of our State of Trial, or else to give us, as it were, some Earnest, or Taste beforehand, of the Sovereign Felicity, which he contains in his Supreme Essence, and wherewith he will abundantly fill us in his happy Eternity; for the present Pleasures enter in the general Idea which St. Paul gives us of the present World, as of a Shadow, a Figure, and a kind of Prospect of the World to come; they are given us as Shadows and Figures, as an Earnest and a Foretaste, as Drops and Particles of that Ocean of Pleasure, which the World to come prepareth for us; And God can neither hate them in themselves, nor envy them us, nor hinder us from them in respect of themselves.  
He doth not do it in Effect; neither doth he prohibit or condemn any of them, as the Church hath decided against those Heretics, who destroy and condemn Marriage. It is never the Pleasure in itself, and for itself, which God concondemns and prohibits, and which renders us Impure and Criminal: On the contrary, every Pleasure is most proper of itself to purify us, because it is most proper to unite Us to God, as to its lively Source, and the Source also of all Purity. It is never the Pleasure which causeth the Sin, and which disorders or corrupts the Heart of Man by itself; It is the Reinversement, and the Violation of the Order of Pleasure, which causeth the Impurity, the Disorder, and the Crime of that Thing in the World, which is the most amiable, and the most pure in itself.  
God doth not deny Us any Pleasure for the Pleasure's sake; but he hath enclosed this Rivulet and this Current within its Banks and its Channel; He hath prescribed certain Bounds and certain Circumstances to it, beyond which he will not have it pass. God as a Particular Cause, by the Regards of his Paternal Providence over us, is obliged to prescribe certain Circumstances, and certain Conditions, to the Pleasures which he makes in us as Universal Cause: He hath been obliged to enclose the Sea within a Bank, that it might not overflow the whole Earth; and he hath been forced to Limit in us the Desire of Pleasures which he is obliged to give us upon the Occasion of the Body, within Barriers and Ramparts; to the End that our Concupiscence should be Bounded, and that it should not injure his Rights, nor trouble the good Order of the Universe, nor settle itself under the Shade of Bodily Pleasures, and so forget the Pleasures to come by too great a Relish of the present Pleasures.   

The Necessity of Gospel-Self-denial and Mortification.  
You see here what is the Reason we are debarred from Pleasures, and that all Pleasures of the Body are dangerous, and require in us a continual Vigilance and Attention to remove or moderate them. This is the Principle of that Self-denial and of that Self-hatred which the Gospel so strictly commandeth us. Our Concupiscences have need to be restrained, to the end that our Soul may preserve its Liberty and its Purity, its Empire and its Reason, together with our Obedience and Subjection to God and his Duties; and if we do not soon prevent them by continually weakening them in the beginning, it is impossible but that they will subdue and stifle in us all our Duties. It belongs only to us to render Concupiscence weak, and our Duties strong and stable, by the constant Practice of Self-denial. With this constant Exercise of Self-denial, and Opposition to the Inclination of Pleasure, we shall acquit ourselves of all our Duties; for Self-love being tamed thereby, and easily suppressed, gives free leave for all the Virtues to issue out of the Natural Foundations of Conscience, and out of the Supernatural Principle of Grace. Without this Exercise and Usage of Self-denial we cannot clearly acquit ourselves of any Duty; We may from time to time, and by Intervals, perform some Acts of them, when they are easy, and assisted by some Interest or Passion, but we can never constantly accomplish them.   

There is no Heart Pure and Innocent without Gospel Self-denial.  
God Incarnate calls his Gospel, The Salt of the World; and it is by this Law of Self-denial that it is effectively so. It is this Mystical and Spiritual Salt, which hinders the Corruption of our Hearts and our Duties; By the Practice of Self-denial these Duties subsist and continue Incorruptible in the Hearts of Men, without which they degenerate into an universal Corruption; And that is the Reason that there is so little Honesty, Virtue, and Love of Duty in the World, and in this Part of the World especially, from whence Gospel Self-denial is banished by express Profession; Every one can play his Part in it; One may find a Colour for the Corruption of his Heart, an Appearance and a Masque of Honesty, and sometimes also of Piety and Superficial Religion; but there is never any Truth or Fidelity, Amity or Equity, and much less Piety and Effective Religion. Under this Superficies and this apparent Colour, They have their Hearts estranged from all Duties, being opposite to all their Obligations, void of all Virtues, and subdued by all Vices; They can here deceive themselves, they may believe of them what they will, and flatter themselves with Friendship, Truth and Equity; but God sees them in the Light of his Eternal Truth, full of a secret Opposition to Charity and Justice, full of themselves, and enslaved by their Passion of Pleasure and Self-love.  
These Acts do not always proceed from this Foundation of Corruption, because the Occasions thereof are not continual; but the Foundation of Corruption is always established in the Heart, it doth not fail to express and manifest itself in these Rencounters and Occurrences. There is nothing then more constant and more certain than this Maxim, That without Gospel Self-denial there cannot be in the Hearts of Men, either any solid Religion towards God, or any true Honesty towards Men; And this Rule so Established by the constant Experience of the World, follows necessarily from the Principles whereby our Souls are in our Bodies.  
But let us pass to our Third Part, and let us see How our Souls ought to Be out of the Body, to draw from thence the last Part of Morality, which ought to Regulate the Order of our Duties betwixt the present and future Life, between Time and Eternity, and between the present World and the World to come.    
The End of the Second Part.   

A MORAL ESSAY Upon the Soul of Man.  
PART III. Concerning our Duties of Time and Eternity, of the Present Life, and of the Life to come; of the Present World, and of the World to come; which Result from the manner how our Souls ought to be out of our Bodies, first of all; and then in our Spiritualised Bodies, after the Universal Resurrection.  

CHAP. I.  
An Objection against the Design of this Third Part, to be Answered; which is, to believe that it is impossible to know, how our Souls are to be out of our Bodies.  
SINCE we are accustomed to limit our Knowledges by our Senses; and that we do not only follow with an extreme Propensity, the Facilily of Imagining, whose Acts we Exercise, without doing any Violence to ourselves; But besides, we make but very little use of the Faculty of Reasoning, or of serving ourselves with the Lights already acquired, to enlighten the Matters, which we have not as yet dived into: I have Reason to believe that many will Censure my Undertaking of Rashness, to go about to speak of a thing so impenetrable, in their Opinion so remote, and so hid from our Sights; as is the manner how our Souls Are, and how they Operate out of our Bodies.  
Perhaps there are those who will tell me, as it is said in the Book of Job, Nunquid ingressus es portas mortis, aut ostia tenebrosa vidisti? But I hope that all reasonable Persons will find, that my Curiosity is lawful: and that I have Reason to Communicate it to all the World, in desiring that every one may know how our Souls are out of our Bodies; and that all those who are willing to give themselves the trouble of being Attentive, to use their Reason, will Judge that my Enterprise is not Rash.  
It is true, that we conceive nothing out of the Circumference, and beyond the Activity of our Senses, and of our Imagination; and by consequence, out of our Bodies, but an Immensity of Darkness; and that it is impossible, but that it should appear Rash, to attempt to carry a Light into it: But if we remember that Reason hath Rays, and a Light, to which nothing can give Bounds; which is that which St. Paul means, when he says that the Spirit, that is to say, the Spiritual Nature pierces, penetrates, and enlightens all things: If we consider the advantage, which Reason and the proper Intelligence of our Spiritual Nature gives us, of being able surely to Enlarge our Knowledges, by the infallible Consequences which we draw from things we have already known, for those which we do not know as yet; We shall find that there is nothing more Natural, and less Rash, than to endeavour to decide by the clear Idea which we have of our Soul, and by the Notion, no less clear, which we have of the Supreme Nature; which alone, is able to be the Cause of the divers Conditions of the Soul, of the Estate wherein it ought to place our Souls, after they shall have finished their Trial in the Body; and that this Eternal Justice, shall have fixed upon them his Anger or his Love, according as they shall have rendered themselves worthy, by their Obedience and Fidelity, or by the obstinacy of their Disorder and Revolt.  
This double Notion, which we have so clear and so distinct, of God, and of our Spiritual Nature, joined to that which we have of our present State, as of a State where our Obedience and Fidelity are put to a Trial, and where the Eternal Justice hath his Eyes open, to see our Combat with the Flesh, and with our Senses; We form a sure Light, by which we are able to enter & march safely into that obscurity, and those darknesses; And since we have a Taper in our hands, lighted by those Ideas, so clear, and so certain of the Knowledges, which we have already acquired; why then should we not carry it into that dark and unknown Country, which is of so great Importance to us, to discover and know? Since we have Wind and Sails enough to carry us over to this New World, why then should not we go thither to make a Map of it? Since our Reason may be illuminated above the Darkness of the Night of our Senses, and of our Imagination, why should not we illuminate the Blind, who being once Enlightened, will no more resist the Light of Divine and Heavenly Revelation, which they often esteem (when they are not Enlightened by Reason) but as a Fable, and a Fiction? Then let us not fear to attempt this Discovery, and Explain how our Souls are to be out of the Body, since we are able to speak of it with some certainty.  

The certainty of a New Estate, of a New and Immortal Life for our Souls, after this Present Life.  
We are able to speak most certain, and make as St. John did, a Description, and a Topography of this World to come, and of this Heavenly Jerusalem. We do not only know by the evident Conviction of the Spiritual Nature of our Souls, That they are not at all destroyed, and annihilated by Death, which is not an advantage to the Spiritual Nature, because there is nothing, even in the most Corporeal Nature (which is most Frail, most Perishable, and most subject to Corruption, and the most liable to Death) that Perishes entirely; But we know with the same Certainty, That the Soul subsists with all its Foundation of Life, which we see it hath, which is the advantage, and essential Distinction of the Spiritual Nature: For there is this Difference between a Spiritual or Knowing Nature, and a Nature Corporeal, That the Corporeal Nature may be deprived of Life, but not of its Being, for its Life is distinct from its Being in the Body; for the Life of the Body is but a Motion, which it hath there by its Structure, its Organization, and its inward and natural Composition, which it may lose, and doth every day lose, without losing the Foundation of its Being; And in preserving all the Basis of its material Substance, which always remains and subsists, notwithstanding any Change which may happen to it in its Structure, and its outward and sensible Form: But in Knowing or Spiritual Nature, the Life and Being, are but one and the same thing; Since Knowledge and Sensibility, or the Acts of the Appetitive Faculty, which are the Basis, and the Foundation of their Being, are also essentially the Foundation of their Life: For (in Spiritual Nature) to Live, is, not to Eat, Walk or to be Moved; but to Know, to Perceive, to Will, to have Joy and Sadness, Pain and Pleasure.  
Those of the Heathen Philosophers (who had some Glimmering of a true Idea of the Spiritual Nature, but not under the Name of Spiritual Nature, but only of a Knowing Nature) did so well perceive, That the Knowing Nature was Essentially Living, that we see they all of them Established thereupon the Certainty of the Immortality of Man's Soul; because indeed, say they, This Matter whereof the Soul of Man is form, is a Matter essentially Knowing, and by consequence Living; if it is Air or Fire, it is not only an Air and a Fire that is most subtle, but an Air and a Fire of a singular Nature, an Air and a Fire essentially Knowing, and by consequence Living: Thus, though the Souls of Men should be this Air, and this material Fire, say they, as some do imagine; yet for all that, they would not cease to be Immortal, because they would be always Essentially Living.  
We see this System in all the Books of the Ancient Philosophers; and we see at the same time, That this Notion of the Soul, as a Nature essentially Knowing, (whereof we have a certainty, by a Conviction so lively, and so full of Sentiments) convinced all these Ancient Sages, not only, That Death doth not touch the Life of our Souls, not only, that it doth not destroy them; But on the contrary, That Death makes the Life of them perfect, because it breaks their Prison, and takes away from their Thoughts and their Views, the Wall which stops them, and the Veil which blinds them: And their Conviction was so great thereupon, that they did not speak with less Certainty and Pleasure, of this New and Immortal Life of our Souls after Death, than we speak to one another of some Neighbouring Provinces, or of some New Discoveries; They did no more doubt of this New Life, than we do of Italy or of Spain: For to speak of Canada, and the American Isles, would be too little to express the Certainty. They did not only speak of it with Assurance, and without incertainty, They spoke of it with Incredible Joys and Transports, They longed to arrive at the happy end of their Voyage, They conceived ardent desires for Death.  
They did more than all this, they advanced it further; And we know That in a Famous Common Wealth of Grece, they were obliged to Prohibit and Suppress a Book that had been Writ upon the Immortality of the Soul, because it did so livelily Impress upon their Spirits, the Conviction of their Immortality, that they were fearful lest it should Depopulate the Earth, and cause the Race of Mankind to be destroyed, because they saw it had carried a great many of them, not only to neglect the Business, and the Duties of Life, and of the Republic, but even to hasten on their own Deaths. It is not to be questioned here, whether this Prudence were not a little too Precautious; it is not our business; our business is to Remark the Effect, which the Notion of a Knowing Nature hath produced, to make Men believe That their Souls subsist, and live after their Death.  
The Conviction hereof, is effectively Lively, and Sensible by that alone, independently of all the Regards of Religion; and it is incredible, how much Force and Evidence it receives from all the Foundations and Circumstances of Religion, of which, this New Life which our Souls ought to have out of our Bodies, is as it were the Point in View, and the only and perpetual Object. All the Old, and all the New Testament, All the Law, and all the Gospel, Moses and Jesus Christ, The Prophets and the Apostles, All the Miracles and all the Mysteries, have no other Essential Termination and End, than this New and Immortal Life of our Souls after our Death. Both the Old and the New Testament, under the Names of the New World, the Future World, the Age to come, the Life Everlasting, the Heavenly Jerusalem, do not speak almost of any thing else: And these cannot be Fables and Fictions, for if they were nothing else but Fables, than this Sovereign Power, which hath been manifested to the World, with a thousand Characters of Wisdom, of Holiness, of Truth, and of Goodness, by that Miraculous Train of Prodigious Events, which make what we call the Holy History, and the Body of Religion, must have laboured for above these Six thousand Years to deceive the Word, and to laugh at Mankind, which is the most impossible thing in the World.  
The Conviction then which is lively, and penetrating independently of Religion, is yet much more so by Religion; The Faithful knows much better than the Philosopher, That when this House of Clay, which he Inhabits at present, shall fall and crumble into Dust, He shall pass out of this Melancholy and obscure Habitation, into a New, and an Heavenly Habitation, not made with men's hands, into the proper Habitation, and the Eternal Palace where God himself dwells. The Philosopher knows it, because he knows That the Souls of Men departing from the Body, do pass into a New Life, full of Darkness or of Light, of Happiness or of Misery, according as they have rendered themselves worthy in their Bodies, either of the Love, or the Anger of Him who is essentially the Life; and by consequence, the Punishment, or the Reward of all Intelligent Natures, according as they have deserved, that He should Act in them, and Reward or Punish them.  
Socrates having already the Mortal and Deadly Draught in his Hand, spoke after this manner: Says the Roman Orator and Philosopher, That it did not seem to him, that they led him to Death, but that he was going to mount up to Heaven. Cato was Transported with Joy, at the sight, and at the presence of Death. The Wise Man, saith Plutarch, goes with Pleasure out of the Darkness of the Earth, to enjoy in Heaven an Immortal Light with the Gods. Have Courage, saith this Other, Let not Death affright Us, since after Death, we shall either be Gods, or like Gods: Let us not fear, that our Bodies will bury our Souls under their Ruins: When the Heavens shall fall, and Corporeal Nature shall entirely perish and disappear; There is a necessity, that the Spirit which Animates Us, and which is the Foundation of our Being, must subsist and remain under those Ruins, without being hurt or endamaged by them; Such is the Conviction and Certainty of the Philosopher.  
But the Faithful is much more inflamed, and Transported with this so animated, and so lively Certainty and Persuasion. He sees with St. Stephen, the Heaven's open over his Head, and he is taken and wrapped up thither, like St. Paul, with unspeakable Joys and Ecstasies; He hath this Certainty and this Persuasion, so lively, and so animated, by two divers Principles; He hath it by the Impression of Faith, and of Grace, which makes him See and Feel (if I may say so) this New Life, without Reasoning, by way of Supernatural Inspiration and Illumination; and He hath it when he will Reflect and Reason, by an evident Conviction, which the Reflection upon the Mysteries and Miracles of Christianity, and upon all Religion, give him of it; for tho' there were none but that Historical single Fact, of the Mystery of the Incarnation of God; the truth of which, is incontestably Established by so many Miracles, and so many sensible Convictions, it would be impossible to call into doubt, that New and Immortal Life of this New State, we are speaking of; into which, our Souls must enter when they go out of our Bodies; because it is not possible to conceive, That if there was no other for Men but this present Life, that God would have become Man upon the Earth, to undergo all that Train of humbling, and dolorous Mysteries, which he hath undergon; Since it is certain, That if there was no other Life for Men, there would be no advantage neither for God nor for Men, in those Mysteries which do no wise Regard the present Life, but only the Life to come. God can do nothing in Vain, and in vain would He have been Born as he was Born, in vain would He have Lived as he did Live, in vain would He have Died as he did Dye; if He had not been Born, if He had not Lived, and if He had not Dyed, to Redeem Men from Eternal Death, and to give them that Happy and Immortal Life, which the First Man had lost them. God Incarnate came not to make this Present Life, neither more agreeable, nor more fortunate, or more happy to Us; He came not to spread abroad Treasures and Riches, to give Honours and great Employments, to Distribute Dignities, to give Pleasures to the Senses, and to the Cupidinous Desires of this Present Life; St. Paul calls him, the High Priest of Goods to come; and the Prophets, who Prophesied of Him, called Him the Father of the Ages to come, and King of the Future World; but I must not enlarge here any more upon this; on the contrary, I must shut it up, and return to the Point we proposed, to Illustrate in this Third Part, which is The manner how our Souls Are to be out of our Bodies.    

CHAP. II.  
What is to be Illustrated in this Third Part, concerning the Future State of our Souls out of our Bodies; and first, whether our Souls when they go out of our Bodies, do pass into a true Corporeal Place.  
THAT which we already said, Teaches Us That our Souls Are, and Subsist out of our Body; That they Live, and have Essential Acts and Proprieties, inseparable from their Knowing Nature; but we do not learn from thence, How our Souls Are out of the Body, which is however, what we have proposed to Illustrate.  
To satisfy our Curiosity thereupon, we must see if there be any place, into which our Souls do pass; We must see what they Know, and how they know it; whether they have Joys and Pleasures, Grief and Sadness; whether they retain, or lose the Ideas of this Life; whether they have any Reminiscence or Memory; and whether they conserve the Habits of Arts and Sciences; what are the Faculties, whether Perceptive, or Sensible and Appetitive, that they use, whether they conserve Liberty, whether, etc.  
To have a neat Idea, of the manner How our Souls Are out of the Body; We must exactly Illustrate all these things: Let us begin with the place into which they pass.  

That when our Souls go out of the Body, they do not pass into a true Corporeal Place, by a Local Transport or Passage, properly so called.  
As we have acknowledged in Our Souls, a Nature wholly Spiritual, and since we have demonstrated, that Spirits are not in places, where we conceive them to be by a Co-extension, and a Local and Corporeal Circumscription; and that so they have not properly any Place at all, no more than the Supreme Essence, and are not said to be in the Places, wherein we say they Are but by a pure Relation of Operation and Activity; as Thomas Aquinas teaches: So when we ask in what place do the Souls pass, when they go out of the Body, and out of the Visible World, We must take a great deal of care not to degrade our Souls, by conceiving them as if they ought to pass into a certain New Space, and a certain Corporeal Circumscription, by a Local Transportation or Passage, properly so called, as if they were a Material Substance. We have said that our Souls are not in our Bodies, by Co-extension, or by Local Circumscription, but by a pure Relation of the Reciprocal Dependence and Activity, which is between Them and the Bodies; and when we ask Where is it that our Souls Are, and Whither do they go, when they go out of our Bodies? We do not look for a Corporeal Space, or a part of the Extent which composes the World, or which is out of the World, with which they have an agreeableness, and in which, they are shut up and contained; This would be well enough, if they were Material and Corporeal: When we say That our Souls go out of our Bodies, we ought not to conceive, That they cease from being shut up in our Bodies, from Corresponding with our Bodies, from Penetrating our Bodies, from Occupying, or filling the Space and the Extent of our Bodies, by the Immediation of their Substances, or by the Reduplication of their Presence, as they speak (in some Schools) Chymerically, in my Opinion; but only that they cease from having that Relation, that they had with the Body of a Mutual Dependence, and of a Mutual Activity; for we must Reason, concerning the Souls going out of the Body, as concerning the Presence of the Soul within the Body; and as we have said, That the Soul is not present with the Body, and united to the Body, but by a Relation of Empire and Servitude, both at the same time, which the Soul hath with the Body, and the Body with the Soul, which makes the Soul have the power of determining the Motions of the Body; and the Servitude of receiving almost all her Knowledges, and all her Sentiments generally by the Body, or by the Occasion of the Body; so when we say that the Soul goes out of the Body, we ought not to conceive any thing else, but that she ceases to have that Relation with the Body.  
We must not conceive a Local Passage, a Local Motion, a Local Transportation, properly so called, of our Souls, by a Succession of divers Correspondencies to divers Corporeal Spaces; for all that is to Imagine, and not to conceive by Intellection, which is the only manner whereby the Soul is conceived and all that belongs to the Soul, and the manner how our Souls go out of the Body; we must conceive precisely the End of their Empire over the Body, and the End of their Captivity and of their Dependence upon the Body. By this only they cease to be in the Body, that they have no longer the Power of determining its Motions, nor the Subjection of Receiving by it, or having their Thoughts dependently of it.  
The Ideas which we commonly have thereupon, are all contradictory, chimerical, and monstrous; they are Manichean Ideas, by which we conceive Spirits as true Bodies: And we must always remember that which can never be too much reiterated, against the Custom which we have, of being desirous to Imagine every thing; That Bodies are Bodies, and Spirits Spirits; That Bodies have a Local Dimension, a Co-Extension, and a Local Circumscription; that they have a certain Bulk; that they do, or may fill Essentially a Space and a certain Extension; But that Spirits have none of all that, neither Dimension, nor Bulk, nor Space, nor Extension; they have no more Dimension, Bulk nor Extension, than they have Colour and Figure: From whence it follows, That it is not by a Local Transportation properly so called, that our Souls go out of our Bodies; because that is not done but by a Progress of Motion and of Correspondence to divers Spaces, and by a new Union which they contract with some other Body or new Corporeal Space.    

CHAP. III.  
That our Souls going out of our Bodies, go not properly but into God.  
WE have conceived clearly after what manner our Souls go out of our Bodies, by that which hath been said, which makes us conceive how the Physical and Substantial Union which was between these two so disproportioned and so distant Natures, is dissolved and broken; since the Efficacy of that Puissance which attexes the Spirits to the Body, doth suspend the Act and the Empire thereof, and gives them no more any Relation of Dependence upon the Bodies; but we have not learned whither they go, and we must form a just Idea of it. Our Imagination labours, and takes a great deal of pains about it; because she would, at what Price soever, attribute to our Souls all the Passions or Corporeal Qualities and Proprieties; She would shut them up in a certain Space and in a certain Dimension; She forgets what we have said, That Spiritual Natures are not shut up in any Space or in any Place.  
The Heathens Imagined Elysian Fields for the Souls that were Innocent, and an Hell, after their fashion, for the Guilty. Those amongst Us, who imitate them, do conceive likewise a Local Passage and Transportation after the fashion of Bodies, into certain new Spaces, by a successive progress of Motion: But the Idea which we have conceived of our Souls, as of a Nature wholly Spiritual, must redress that which is too gross in these Ideas which are wholly Material; and we must conceive, that our Souls in going out of the Body, do go immediately, as the Scripture saith, (without any Local or Corporeal Passage) into God, who, as St. Augustin saith, Is more the true Place of Spirits, than the Sea is the Place for Fishes, and the Air the Place for Birds. The Body, saith the Wiseman, returns to the Earth from whence it was taken, and the Soul returns to God who made it, and from whom it issued out; that is to say, It hath no more immediate Union but with God alone, which occasions us to say very exactly, That she goes into God.  
We have said, That our Souls have an Essential Union with God, in whom they live, and to whom they are much more united, by all their Parts, and by all the Faculties of their Being, than the Beams are united to the Sun, than a River is united to its Spring, than the living Branch is united to its Root; We have said, That all Knowing Created Natures do depend as immediately upon God in all the Acts of their Life, and by consequence, in all the Acts of their Perceptive and Appetitive Faculties, as they depend upon him for the Foundation of their Being, as well as all other Created Natures, that is to say, That as they cannot come out of nothing, but by the Almighty and Efficacious Action of his Eternal Essence; so they can neither Think nor Will but by the continual Action of his Supreme Influence; We have said, That as God is the sole Being Existing by himself, so he is the sole Living Being, and by consequence, the sole Thinking and Willing Being by himself; and from thence arises a Relation, and an Essential Union of all Created Spirits with the Supreme Spirit, and of the Supreme Spirit with the Created Spirits. All the Rivers drink of the Sea, saith that Ancient, all the Branches suck up perpetually the the Juice and the Sap of the Root, the Beams draw perpetually their Heat and Light from the Sun, and all Living Being's drink perpetually of that Living and Eternal Spring of Life, and all Spirits of that Living and Eternal Source of Knowledge.  
It is the Natural Estate of all Spiritual Natures, to have this immediate Union with God; but this Supreme Spirit (being willing to do Honour to his Almightiness, and to his Wisdom, being willing to make the Idea of all kinds of Creatures possible to proceed from himself, and to render it Real and Effective to make the World thereby complete and finished; and being willing to assemble together Corporeal and Spiritual Nature in one single Whole; and being willing, perhaps, thereby to put Pure Spirits into the Places of the Fallen Angels, and to triumph over the Rebellious Ones, in causing himself to be Served in Bodies by Inferior Spirits) would have it that this Immediate Union which the Created Spirits have Essentially with Him, should be in some manner suspended and interrupted, or at least obscured and diminished, in regard of those, whose Fidelity and Obedience he was willing to make Trial of in the Body.  

The Union of Bodies interrupts and suspends the Immediate Union of our Souls with God.  
Our Souls naturally, like other Created Spirits, ought not to have any Dependence upon any Bodies for to have the Ideas of things; they ought only to depend immediately upon God, and by consequence, ought only to have Union with Him; But this Supreme Spirit having been pleased for the Reasons we have said, for many others which we conceive, and for more yet apparently which we do not conceive, that our Souls should have their Thoughts and their Sentiments, their Desires and their Affections upon the Occasion of the Body, to the End that That should be a continual Subject of Victory and of meritorious Exercise, He hath thought fit, that for a time this Immediate and Essential Union of all Created Spirits with the Eternal Essence, should become in our Souls Mediate (if I may be permitted to say so) and that the Essential Union of God and of all Created Spirits, should not Operate in them but by an Accessary Union with this Matter Organised, or disposed into a certain Structure of Bones, of Flesh and of Nerves, which we call Human Body.  
This Union of our Souls with our Bodies is not, as we have said, but this precisely, That our Bodies (by the divers stir up, the divers Agitations, and the divers Configurations of the Brain, which they receive from Bodies which environ them, or from the natural Course of the Blood, or from their proper Humours) are the Occasion and Condition of the Determination of the Ideas and Sentiments which the Supreme Spirit gives us; that is to say, That the Body is the Occasional Cause which Determines the Influence of the Essential Union which we have with God, and thereby, it is in some manner betwixt us and God, it diminisheth in some manner our Essential Union with him, because it hinders, if I may be permitted to say so, the Immediation of him.  
Without That, we could not say that our Souls were in our Bodies; they would be immediately in God, because the Place of the Souls and of all Spirits, is entirely their Relation of Dependence and of Activity; and our Souls in that case would have no Relation and Dependence but upon God only. It is for that Reason that the Scripture speaks to us of the Union of our Souls with our Bodies, or of our present Life, not only as it were of a Wall between God and us, but as it were of a Banishment as it were a Voyage and a Running away or Departure, which we make from God, Peregrinamur à Domino, saith St. Paul; and this is Effectively as it were a kind of Departure from God, and by consequence, a Banishment, a Voyage, a Running away from him, because it is a Suspension and an Interruption of the Essential and Immediate Union which all Spirits have necessarily with him.   

Our Souls going out of the Body, are immediately united to God.  
Now since our Souls entering into Bodies, do go out from God, according to the Expressions of the Divine Word, which are exact and just when we know how to comprehend and penetrate them; we must say likewise, That our Souls going out of the Body, return to God and in God, as the Scripture Effectively saith it; God is on both sides the Term of the Voyage: It is from him we part in ceasing to be united immediately to him, by reason of the Intervention of Body, through which the Action of the Influence of his Divine Life in us doth pass, and it is to him that we return in Dying, and in going out of the Body; because our Dependence on the Body ceaseth by Death, and Death beating down the Wall which was between God and us, the Union of God to us, and of us to God, becomes Pure and Immediate. God is the Term we arrive to, as well as that from whence we parted; we are come out of him, and we enter again into him; that is to say, That as before our Souls are united to our Bodies, they have no Union with any thing but with God, and by consequence they are nowhere but in God; so after the same manner, so soon as their Union with the Body ceaseth, they begin to be nowhere but in God only, because they have no more Relation but with God only; there is nothing of an Intervention, there is no more of a Partitionary Occasion and Condition between God and the Soul, which determines or suspends the Influence of his Divine Action in us, and by which we receive all the Ideas, and all the Sentiments that we have.    

CHAP. IU.  
What this Immediate Union is which our Souls have with God, when they go out of the Body, which makes us say that they go to God.  
THUS it is that we ought to Conceive the Place where our Souls Are, after they are gone out of the Body. We must Conceive that they Are in God, not only, as S. Augustin saith, as the World is in God; For, saith he, you must Answer to him who shall Ask you where the World is, That it is in God; since there is no other Place out of the World, where the World can be, and since it is God alone who penetrates and environs it by the Immensity of his Operation; but because Spirits have no other Place than their Relation of Dependence and Activity, and that after the going out of the Body, our Souls do no more depend either upon any Corporeal Nature, or upon any Spiritual Nature, which ought to be the Occasion or Condition of the Ideas with which they ought to be Enlightened, or of the Sentiments with which they ought to be Affected, but immediately from God only, who gives them as he pleases to them. It is God therefore who immediately Enlightens them; it is God immediately, who, without being Determined by any thing Exterior, Determines all the Sentiments which they have: This is it which makes us evidently see the necessary Consequence and Connexion of the incontestable Principles which have been hitherto Established; for we must say nothing of our Souls, nor of any Matter whatsoever, but that which we know of it by a Certain Light; And as we have no such Light by which we can judge, that our Souls, when they go out from the Dependence upon the Body, aught to enter into another Servitude, and another sort of Dependence upon any Created Nature; so we have not any Reason to Conceive any other Relation of Dependence in our Souls, which they ought to have when they are gone out of the Body, than that which they have Essentially with God; and by consequence we ought to say in Terms purely Natural, That it is in God only that our Souls Are that moment that they go out of the Body: We say it by the only Lights of Reason, and we ought extremely to rejoice, that Philosophy is agreed here with the Divine Word, which gives us entirely the same Idea.  

This Notion of the Immediate Union of our Souls with God, Established and Proved by Scripture.  
For besides that the Scripture saith we return to God and into God, it saith expressly also, That our Habitation shall not be after this Life in Houses made with Hands, or in Corporeal Spaces; for this is what St. Paul means, when he calleth it Domum non manufactam à Deo, aeternam. He tells us, That there will be no more Sun and Moon which we might have need of, because the Brightness of God will Enlighten us; Civitas non eget Sole neque Luna ut luceant in ea; nam Claritas Dei illuminabit eam; Nox non erit illic, & non egebunt lumine lucernae, neque lumine Solis, quoniam Dominus Deus illuminabit illos. It saith, That after this Life we shall dwell with God, and God with us: Ecce Tabernaculum Dei cum hominibus, & habitabit cum eyes. It is very full of these sorts of Expressions, and if we will reduce them to neat Ideas, we shall find, that they mean nothing else, than what we have said, That after the going out of our Bodies, there is no more any thing betwixt God and our Souls, to suspend, or to diminish the Essential Union of them, or to be the Occasional Cause of his Operation, and of his Influence in Us; but that it is only He immediately, who determins our Thoughts, our Ideas, and all the Essential Acts of our New Life; for this is what St. John means, when he saith, That in this New Life, and New Estate after our Death, it is God himself who shall Enlighten Us, without our having any need, either of the Sun, or the Moon, or of any other sort of Light, which is at present but the Occasional Cause of his Illumination, by which we See.   

How we must understand, That Holy Souls Ascend into Heaven, and Criminal Souls Descend into Hell.  
We must therefore conceive our Souls to be united immediately to God, that moment that they go out of the Body; and we must cut off all the Idea of any Corporeal Place, in which we might conceive them to be after the fashion of Bodies.  
For when the Scripture makes us conceive, That the Saints are carried up into Heaven, before the Corporeal Resurrection, after which, there will be a real Local Transportation of Bodies; it would only make us conceive, That God who Unites these Holy Souls to Jesus Christ, and to His Glory, makes himself, and all Heaven wherein he Reigns, to be as present to them, as the Objects which we now see, feel, and perceive more nearly, are at present to Us. We should very illy conceive Heaven, wherein Jesus Christ Reigns in Body and in Soul, if we should conceive it, as including and containing God, and discovering and manifesting Him to the Saints; we must, on the contrary, saith St. Augustin, Conceive Heaven, and Jesus Christ also to be in God, who contains All, and who is contained of Nothing, who manifests and discovers All, and whom Nothing neither manifests nor discovers; and Holy Souls are not in Heaven, but in as much as they are in God, in whom, and by whom, they are united and present to Heaven, and to Jesus Christ, by the lively and distinct Idea, which they have of His glorious Presence, like to those Ideas, which the most present Objects give Us, by their immediate Impression, by which they strike our Senses: For we must not go about to imagine That they are in Heaven, by any sort of Extension, or Corporeal Dimension, and Local Circumscription, after the manner of Bodies.   

How the Souls of the Wicked are in God.  
And we must Reason after the same manner, concerning the Souls of the Wicked, They are most really in Hell; but this is, because they are in God, who fastens them there, and unites them to the Fire of his Wrath, as He doth the Souls of the Just to Jesus Christ, and to that part of the Heavens where He Reigns: There is indeed this great Difference, That the Immediate Union, which is between the Souls of the Just and God, is an Union of Love, of Tenderness, and of Favour or good Liking; and the Immediate Union, which is between God and the Reprobated Souls, is a Union of Wrath, of Enmity, and of Implacable Vengeance. They are in God, and God (say the Holy Fathers) is their First and True Hell; if it may be permitted to use an Expression so strong. Not that there is not an Hell, or a Corporeal Place, wherein the Bodies of the Wicked Are to be shut up, after the Resurrection, and where we are to conceive their Souls before hand; but we must say, that they are in such a Place, where God keeps the Fire of His Wrath continually Burning; and they are there Effectively, after the manner that Spirits are in Corporeal Places, as really as it is possible: God gives them perpetually the Idea thereof, and by the Occasion of that Idea, he Impresses on them a dolorous Sentiment of real Burning; that is to say, The same Sentiment, which we have upon the Occasion of Elementary Fire, when by its too great Activity, it Disranges, Agitates, and violently Scorches up the Fibres of those Parts of our Bodies, upon which it Acts; and the Virtue and Efficacy of His Power, by his Irrevocable Decree, fixeth them there, and is a Chain which no force can break, and which no length of Duration can wear out; but it is always truly said, That it is in God (who contains Hell as well as Heaven, as St. Augustin further saith; And who unites Impure Souls to Fire Everlasting, in the manner as hath been said) that properly and chief the Reprobate Souls Are, as well as the Holy Souls. They are only but Accessorily, if I may so say, either in Heaven or in Hell, within these Material Places and Spaces, of which, God gives them that lively Idea, which renders Them present to them.    

CHAP. VI  
Whether Jesus Christ be the Occasional Cause of these Ideas, and Sentiments of Holy Souls, out of the Body.  
THAT which we have been saying, concerning the Fire of Hell, might give Occasion here to some to Imagine, That it is not perhaps so certain, as we would have them believe it to be, That the Union of Souls with God, and of God with the Souls, is Immediate from the Moment that they go out of the Body; because They may Imagine, That as God unites Impure Souls to Hell Fire, Establishing it as the Occasional Cause of that particular Torment, and of that That Pain of Burning, with which he Afflicts them with; so he Establishes also an Occasional Cause of the agreeable Ideas and Sentiments, which he gives to the Saints: And there are some, who would willingly conceive, That the Soul of Jesus Christ, might very well be the Occasional Cause of all the Ineffable Pleasures of Holy Souls, so much the rather, because the Analogy of the Divine Conduct, inspires us to acknowledge an Occasional Cause of their Joy, and their Felicity, as there is an Occasional Cause of the Torment of the Reprobates.  
But this ought not to shake a Truth, so well Established and Proved, as is that of the Immediate Union of God with our Souls, and of our Souls with God, from the Moment that they go out of our Body: This Union is without doubt Immediate, and without the Intervention of any thing, and without Dependence upon any Occasional Cause, for the Foundation and Essentiality of this New State; For tho' there may be some Occasional Cause of the Accessary Pain of Reprobated Souls, and of the Accessary Felicity of Holy Souls; yet it is certain, That there is none at all for their Essential Pain, and their Essential Felicity.  
St. Paul speaks it expressly of Holy Souls, when he says, That God shall be all in them; Erit Deus Omnia in Omnibus: The whole Scripture says so likewise, when it says, We shall see God Face to Face; for these Expressions do import an Immediate Union of God with us: Since it would not at all be to see him Face to Face, but to see him through a Veil, if we did only receive from him Ideas and Lights, upon the occasion of some Things that was extraneous to Him.  
Let then the Adorable Humanity of Jesus Christ, be with all my heart, an Occasional Cause of a thousand Joys, and a thousand Accessary Felicities to Holy Souls; as St. John says it expressly enough, in the Description he makes us of our State out of our Bodies, under the Name of the New City, or of the Heavenly Jerusalem, where the Holy Lamb gives a thousand Pleasures. But as to the Foundation of this New State, as to the Lights and Ideas, the Sentiments, and the Joys which constitute it, and are the Essence of it; they depend not upon any Occasional Cause, they come from the Immediate Union of God with the Holy Souls, Independently of all Exterior Occasional Determination, God penetrates them with His Glorious Light, and with the Intimate Impression of His Beatific Presence; and he fills them full with his Ineffable Joys and Pleasures.  

How Impure Souls are united to Hell Fire.  
We need only say The same thing, in Proportion of Reprobate Souls: Let then the Action of the Terrible Element which God makes, to be Serviceable to His Anger, be the Occasional Cause of the Accessary Pain of the Wicked; for as the Impurity of the Reprobate Souls, is a perpetual Object of Horror, wherewith the Sovereign Purity of the Divine Eyes, is sensibly hurt; so it is not improbable, That the Terrible Element, which naturally Cleanses and Purifies all things, should be likewise Employed as an Occasional Cause to a Particular Action, by which, the Eternal Sanctity applies itself, to make them feel the Horror of their Impure State: But that does not at all hinder, but that for the Ground of this unhappy State, it should be entirely Independent of all sort of an Occasional Cause; for it is certain, That God is immediately united to the Reprobates by his Anger, as He is immediately united by His Love, to the Just Souls.  
God is the Principal Fire which burns them, and His Anger is the Fire and Brimstone, that Feeds their Chief and Principal Torment. We commonly conceive very ill, That which we call The Pain of the Damned, when we conceive it as a simple Privation, or a Partition Wall betwixt God and the Reprobated Souls: There may well be an Eternal Wall of Separation; but there is also an Eternal and Immediate Union: There is a Wall of Separation, betwixt God's Goodness and Sinners; that is, a Wall which stops all the Influences of Mercy, of Grace, and of Glory; but it is likewise an Union, which nearly attracts all the Characters of his Anger, and his Vengeance. God also makes himself to be felt as nearly, and as immediately, to the Reprobates, as to the Saints: The Unhappy see God Face to Face, but it is only his Terrible Face which they see; It is not that Illuminating Face which Enlightens the Just, and wherein he promised to Moses, to let him see and find All Good; It is a Face Sparkling with Thunder, which penetrates them with Fear, and covers them with Horror and Darkness; They are Eternally in God, as in a Raging Sea, which dashes against them, and tosses them, and threatens them perpetually with its Storms and Tempests.  
And this is All in my Opinion, that we can desire to know, upon the Principal Head of that which Regards the State of our Souls out of our Bodies; Let us conceive, with all my heart, That there is, above those Heavens which we know, a Heaven wholly Enlightened, and abounding with Joy, and overwhelmed with Pleasures, wherein the Holy Souls are involved; And let us conceive on the other side, a Place replenished with Flames and Darknesses, with Horror, and all manner of Despair, which the Criminal Souls do fall into. All this is most True, and these Places are most Real and Effective; but it is in God, in whom the Holy Souls do find this Enlightened Heaven, and in whom the Criminal Souls, do find these Flames, and these Darknesses, these Despairs, and these Horrors: It is God, who by an Immediate Union of his Almighty Activity, causeth in Them this Light and these Darknesses, these Sadnesses and these Joys, these Pleasures and these Pains, all the Paradise and all the Hell: Erit Deus Omnia in Omnibus, it is by an Immediate Union of God with Them, and They with God, that they are in Heaven and in Hell; Since it is by this Union, that they have this Lively Idea thereof, which renders these Places present to them.    

CHAP. VII.  
That which makes the Difference, between the Present and Future State of the Soul.  
IT follows, from what hath been said, That that which makes the Essential Difference, of the manner how our Souls are in our Bodies, and of the manner how they are out of our Bodies, is, That when they are in the Body, than they have but Successively the Ideas, and the Knowledges of Things, from the Occasion of different Impressions, which come and arrive to the Brain, by the Action of other Bodies, which are round about Us; and that they have not also the Sentiments, and the several Movements of the Appetite, but from the Occasion of divers Dispositions of Bodies; and when they are parted from the Body, they receive immediately from God these Ideas, and these Sentiments, which is requisite for the Disposition of Vice or Virtue, which we otherwise call Merit of Demerit, in which they find themselves, when they are parted from the Body.  
Now the Body, by the divers Impressions which it receives from other Bodies, or by the divers Dispositions which are raised & form in it, by the Ebullition of the Blood, by the Course of the Spirits, and by the divers Excesses or Fermentations of Humours, is the Occasional Cause of all these Ideas, and of all the Sentiments of the Soul; because that the Supreme Being, by which it Lives, it Perceives, Thinks and Wills, for to conserve the Dignity, and good Order of its Greatness, in acting as Universal Cause, was pleased to tie the Determination of these Ideas and Sentiments, to those Dispositions of the Body, which result from the Laws of Motion, by which He moves all the Corporeal Nature; and by which, he composes and conserveses the Visible World with an infinite Wisdom, which alone was able to produce so many Prodigious Effects, with so much Order, and so much Harmony, from two or three Immutable Laws, by which He moves the Matter of the Universe.  

That in this New State of the Soul out of the Body, God is not determined to Act in Them, but by a necessary and immutable Love of Order, and by their Virtuous or Criminal Disposition.  
God doth not Act, but as an Universal Cause with our Souls, so long as they are in the Body; He doth but follow the Law of Motion of the common Matter of the Visible World, which diversely affecting our Bodies, necessarily determines him by Virtue of his Immutable Decree, to give to the Souls those Ideas and those Sentiments, which answer the different Impressions, wherewith the Body is affected; but when the Soul is out of the Body, God doth lay aside the Character of Universal Cause, as to this purpose; He no longer follows, in respect of them, the Laws of the Motion of the Universe.  
Soul's part with the World, in parting with the Body; They have no longer any Relation with the Body, nor by consequence, with the Visible World, from that very instant that they have no more to do with their particular Bodies. So long as they are in the Body, they are united to all the Visible World; because that their Thoughts, and their Sentiments, do depend upon the Laws of the Motion, which moves all the Matter of the World, it being that which gives them an Essential Relation to all the Parts of it; because there is not any one of them, which may not be an Occasion of the Determination of these Ideas and Sentiments; but after Death, all that ceases, there is a new Order of things, there are no more the same Laws; God afterwards follows none but the Law of his Eternal and Inflexible Justice, to Punish or to Reward the Souls, according as they have made themselves deserving.  
It is no more the Motion of the Universe, and the particular Disposition of every one's Temperament which results from it, which determins the diversity of our Ideas and Sentiments: It is only the Pure and Holy Disposition, or the Impute and Criminal Disposition of our Souls, which determins the Sovereign and Eternal Justice and Equity, to give us the Ideas and Sentiments, proper to Reward or Punish our Irregular, or our Virtuous Disposition.  
God hath no longer Reason to be willing to manage, and conserve the Dignity and Character of Universal Cause. He hath no longer Reason to manage, and conserve the Liberty of our Souls: The time of our Trial is ended; The time of Merit is past; There is no more question, to see whether they will make themselves worthy, that is, over. They are fixed in an Immutable State, That is, Eternity. There is no more Vicissitudes or Diversifications, no more Instability or Changes, no more an Alternativeness, or a Passage from Evil to Good, and from Good to Evil; from Vice to Virtue, and from Virtue to Vice. The Tree lies where it falls; And as the State of the Soul is fixed by this State of Immutability, which is properly That which we call Eternity, so God fixeth himself to Love or to Hate, to Punish or to Reward; He Acts thenceforwards, as a particular Cause, because that He immediately takes in the Ground of His Eternal Love of Order, the determination of all these Ideas and Sentiments, which he gives to our Souls.  
That is all the Light, which we can give to our First Curiosity, concerning the State of our Souls out of our Body; by which, we see that they are not properly but in God, and that it is He only, who is the Cause and Occasion of all their Ideas and Sentiments. We must now proceed, and endeavour to Know all that belongs to this State, by clear and infallible Lights.    

CHAP. VIII.  
How the Just Souls See and Know God out of the Body, and how the Criminal Souls do also See and Know Him.  
TO this purpose, we would willingly Know, in the first place, What those things Are, which the Soul Knows out of the Body; and it is easy to Resolve it, by those Principles which we have settled: For since we have said, That there is not at all, any other Occasional Cause of the Ideas and Sentiments of the Soul, when it is once out of the Body, than the Irregular and Vicious Disposition, and the Regular and Virtuous Disposition of the Soul, on one one part; and on the other, the Necessary and Eternal Love, which God hath for Order; so it is certain, That this Sovereign Wisdom, this Essential Life of all Intelligent Natures, dispenseth his Lights and his Darknesses, by his Sovereign Equity; and that so he Acts otherwise in the Just Souls, than in the Souls which are Criminal and Reprobate.  
As to the Just Souls, They have as it were, a true Immensity of Knowledge. First of all, They Know God and See Him; I say, They see Him; for it is not a simple Knowledge, Abstractively such as we have at present, that is, to See, to Perceive, to Touch, and (if I may say so) to Taste, as the Holy Writ saith; But this is to See by a kind of Vision, which we call Intuitive, which is not at all a simple, or bare View of Speculation, or a pure Contemplation of Reasoning; but this is a lively, and penetrating Impression of the whole Substance of the Divinity, which renders itself present and intimate to the Soul, by an intimate and penetrating Sentiment; just as the Material Objects do now render themselves present to us, by the Immediate Action, whereby they strike upon, and advertise our Senses; This is to see God, as it were by Sensation; This is to perceive Him Present, by a lively, and an indubitable Experience of His Ineffable Nature, and His Beatific Vision; just as we perceive the Presence of Things, whereof we have the most lively Idea, and the most certain, and most indubitable Experience.  
This Intuitive Knowledge, or Vision of God, is not at all the indubitable Knowledge and Sentiment of His Existence only; but it is the clear and distinct Knowledge and Idea, of All his Attributes in general, and of all his Perfections in particular; it is a clear and distinct View of all the marvellous Table, and of all the Charming Spectacle of the Beauties of this Supreme Nature; and especially, the delicious and ineffable Sentiment of his Goodness, and of his Love, by which he pours (if I may say so) all the Joys, and all the Felicities of his Heart, into these Sanctified and Happy Souls.  
Moreover, These Just Souls, in thus Knowing God, do at the same time, no longer Know themselves, by that confused Sentiment, by which they at present disentangle themselves, as it were, by main strength, and force of Reason, from the Body; but by a clear and distinct Sentiment, and by an Idea equally neat and lively, all Shining, and all Bright, whereby they see themselves with all their Nobleness, and with all the Characters of Resemblance, which they have with God; just as they now see a Picture, exposed to their View, almost like their Corporeal Image, which the Nature of the Soul doth exclude.   

CHAP. IX.  
How the Just Souls See and Know the Visible World, and what they Know of the Politic and Civil World.  
IT is not only God and Themselves, that they Know; They also distinctly see in God, all the visible World, because, besides that the Scripture does in a manner speak to us of it; It is a Knowledge, which is naturally inherent in every created Spirit, unless God for a time suspends this Knowledge for Reasons of his Providence, as he now does to our Souls, which he makes Trial of in the Body; and to whom he doth not give these Knowledges, as we said before, but Successively from the Occasion of the different Impressions, made upon our Bodies, by the divers parts of the Visible World, which present themselves to our Senses, one after another.  
It is in Order, That Spirits being Superior to Bodies, by Reason of their Knowing Nature, should Know Bodies; Also, when the Disposition of the present Oeconomy, which requires That God should not Enlighten the Souls, but Successively, as we said before, and from the Occasion of the Immutable Laws of the Motion of the Universe; When, I say, this present Disposition shall cease, the Illumination of God, being no more annexed to these Vicissitude 〈…〉 of the Universe, and of the 〈…〉 of Bodies, received in our Material Senses, will give in an Instant at once, an Idea of all Corporeal Nature, and of all the Visible World, in its Whole, and in its Parts; in its Immensity, or in its Extent; in its agreeable Variety, in its Order and Symmetry to all Souls, which have not deserved his Anger; and instead of this Light, he needs but only to spread Darknesses upon the Criminal and Rebellious Souls.  
The Scripture tells us of Holy Souls, as if they had the pleasure of walking upon the Globes of the Heavens, and to be in the midst of the Stars, to walk upon the Sun, and upon the Moon; and after this manner of speaking, it accommodates itself to our gross manner of conceiving the most Spiritual Things, under Corporeal Forms: But we need conceive by all these Expressions, no more than what we have said, of a clear and distinct Idea of all the Visible World, which God gives to the just Souls, they walk after their manner upon the Arches of the Heavens, they march upon the Sun and Moon, etc. because that the lively Idea, which they have of all the Visible World, makes all the parts thereof present, and as it were subjected and placed under their Feet. They are at the same time at both the Poles of the World, they fill its whole Extent, they are in both the Hemispheres, their Horizon is not at all a limited Horizon, which never permits us to see here but a little Portion of the Universe; It is not bounded, but by the Bounds of Nature; We do not at present see Bodies, but only those parts of them, which reflect the Light upon us; We do not see the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, and the Terraqueous Globe of the Earth and Seas, but only one side of them; but the pure Souls, immediately enlightened by God, as they Are, They see at the same time the whole Globe of the Sun, all the Face of the Moon, both the Hemispheres of the Earth; There is no Antipodes to them; They see All at one View, all the fair Prospects of Nature, and all the Beautiful Table of the Visible World: For besides, That their Knowledge is Universal in this respect, so it is not at all Successive, but all at once. So much for the Natural World.  

What the Souls out of the Body Know, concerning the Civil and Politic World.  
As to the Civil and Politic World, I confess, it will not be easy to determine what they see of it, and what they do not see of it; because we have no Principle so well Established thereupon, that I know, as to make us willing to build a sure Determination upon it; We may most probably say, That God discovers to Innocent Souls, that which regards their Family, and their Friends; but to say, That he sets before their Eyes, a Diversified Table of Events, Revolutions, Intrigues, and the Mannagements, and Contrivances of Courts and States, the Successes of Wars, Negotiations and Treaties, the vast and ambitious Designs of Great Princes, and a peculiar Account of Families, and particular Fortunes, is a thing which I dare neither affirm, nor gainsay; for the Scripture gives us sufficiently to understand, That there are Angels too, amongst whom these Knowledges are partly Communicated, or it may be, wholly given to them: But as to Souls, I do not find either in the Scripture, or in the clear Notion which we have, either of the Soul, or of God (who enlightens the Soul) any thing, thereupon which may Establish a solid, and an infallible Judgement; if it be not that God makes them see something of it, which may contribute to the satisfaction of the innocent and pure Souls. It is very certain, That that which is of certainty therein, is, That if they do see all these things, they undervalue them as much as we esteem them; and that all those great Changes and Revolutions, which we attribute to Fortune, are to their Eyes, but what the Play of Children is to ours; or to say better, The business of Aunts or of Bees; or that perpetual and impertinent Agitation, which we see in those Flies, whom a vain and unnecessary Motion drives too and fro, in the middle of the Air, without any purpose or advantage.    

CHAP. X.  
That Criminal Souls are in Darkness, and see nothing.  
SUCH is the knowledge in Just Souls, in Relation to Extension; But we ought to have sufficiently comprehended, That it ought not to be in the same manner, in the Impure and Criminal Souls: For that Order, which requires that the Just one should be illuminated, wills on the contrary, that the other should be filled with Darknesses; so that instead of that Immensity of Light, and Knowledge, which the former have, this other, will have only an Immensity of obscurity, of Night, and of the horror of Darknesses; These will be Darknesses, that is to say, an obscurity and privation on all sides of Kowledge and of Light. Jesus Christ makes use of the Expression of outward Darknesses, or Darknesses environing, that is to say, which will encompass on every side; for it is so, I understand these outward Darknesses, of which the Divine Redeemer speaks so often. They will know and see God after their manner, but it will be only his Wrath, which they will see by a kind of Intuitive Vision, in the manner as it hath been hereupon already Explained; They will see the Eternal and Essential Light, but that Light will only serve to blind them; because it will only leave them the Ideas of his Wrath, and of their Sins, and of all the Circumstances, that possibly may augment their Despair.  
Instead of the Beauteous Spectacle of Nature, which the Just shall have Eternally, they will never have any, but the Idea of that dark and burning place, which the Supreme Justice hath prepared for their Bodies; and if they do know any thing of their Family, and of their Friends, it is only to augment, and redouble the Pain of their Regrets, of their Privation, and eternal Desolation; Ejicite in tenebras exteriores, ibi erit fletus & stridor dentium. The Soul of the Father, for Example, I speak of the ambitious and covetous Soul, which loves nothing but the World and its Vanity, for himself and his Family, will see in his Children, all that can be capable of augmenting his Regret, and his Remorse. The Soul of a Prince, in the same manner unjust and reprobate, will see in the State which he hath quitted, that which will increase his Pain, etc.   

CHAP. XI.  
The Faculties of the Souls, of which the Acts will be Exercised out of the Body.  
AFTER having seen the Matter, and the extent of the Souls Knowledges out of the Body; We must now see what perceptive, or Knowing Faculties the Soul will Exercise upon this Matter, and upon these Objects.  
We have observed in the Soul, in its present State of Union with the Body, a Faculty of Knowing by Sensation, a Faculty of Imagining, or of Representing things to us by lively and distinct Images, a Faculty of Recollecting ourselves by Memory and Reminiscency, a Faculty of Conceiving by pure Intellection, a Faculty of Reasoning, or Extending Knowledge acquired thereupon by new Consequences, and a Faculty of Separating universal Notions of Things, from Particular and Individual Differences, to frame thereof general Maxims and Principles, whither they be of pure Speculation, or Moral and Practical, for the Order of Life and Action, and for the Perfection of Arts and Sciences.  

How the Souls will have Acts of Sensation without any Exterior Sense or Corporeal Organs.  
The Souls, whether they be Just or Reprobate, do Exercise all these Faculties; for tho' Sensation, Imagination, and the Memory, have at present Corporeal Organs, yet we must not say for all that, that these Faculties ought no more to Exercise themselves out of the Body. The Corporeal Organ doth now serve but for two Purposes, To be an Occasion to the Universal Cause of the Knowledge that it ought to give to the Soul from the presence of such or such an Object, and To be also an Occasion to it, of giving to the Soul divers and different Ideas according to the diversity of Objects; and it is for that Reason that he hath Established a diversity of them.  
All the Parts of the Body cannot be shaken by the Motion of the Air, which striking upon our Ears, causes that which we call a Report or a Sound. The Motion of the Beams of the Sun, which in striking upon our Eyes causes a sense of the Light, cannot affect any other part than that subtle Web, which is in the inward part of the Eye, which we call the Retina. The exterior Fibres of the Skin, which cover the Hand and the whole Superficies of the Body, will be sufficiently shaken by the Rencounter of a Thorn, of a Needle, of the Point of a Sword, and of a thousand such like things, to the end that the Motion may be carried by reason of the continuity of the Fibres and Nerves, as far as the Brain; but neither Sounds nor Light will ever shake them enough to carry the Impression of them to the Brain. When the Ears are well stopped, you will to little purpose expose the whole Body to the Harmony of a melodious Symphony, which is only the Air melodiously struck; for this Air so melodiously struck will find no other part in the Body than the Ear only, by which it can carry its Harmony so far as to the Brain. The Canals or the Membranes and Nerves of the Ear, which we call the Internal Ones, are the only Gates and the only Ways, whereby this Air so melodiously struck, can make its Impression on the Brain. It is after the same manner with the Impression of the Sunbeams in respect of the Eyes, of Savours in respect of the  and the Tongue, and of Odours in respect of the Organ of Smelling. The Eyes being shut, it would be ridiculous to expose the Hands and the rest of the Body to the Light, the Light cannot at all pass its Impression to the Brain: It would be Nonsense to sequeeze the Juice of delicate Food with the Hands, and apply it to any other part of the Body than the Mouth only, this Juice will nowhere make that agreeable Tickling which it makes upon the Tongue and Palat. The Universal Cause, which being willing to advertise us of all the Impressions that all that Diversity of different Bodies whereof the World is composed, doth make upon our Bodies, hath been pleased to conserve the Character of Universal Cause, and hath prepared in our Bodies so many different Organs, and different Structures of Fibres and Nerves, to receive the Impressions of these Exterior Bodies, which he hath foreseen would there have different Impressions: Thus it hath made in our Eyes a Structure of Skins, or of Tunicks or Coats, and of Transparent Humours, to let the Rays of Light pass through, and an admirable Web of the Extremities of the subtle Fibres or Filaments of the Optic Nerve, to receive and carry thereby the Impression to the Brain; He hath stretched out at the Entrance of the Ear, a thin and subtle Membrane, just like a little Drum, to receive the Impression of the Air that is struck, or of the divers Concussions of it, which causes that which we call the Report, or Sound, or Voice, etc.  
These are called the Organs of different Sensations, which are necessary in the present State, to the end that God might Conserve his Character of Universal Cause, which he hath so justly affected to Conserve in all the Extents of his Natural Providence: But as when the Souls are out of the Body, there is an Order altogether New, where God Acts no more as Universal Cause, being no further obliged to be determined by an Exterior Occasion to determine in the Souls the Ideas and Sentiments which they ought to have; so the Faculties which are now Organical, will have even after the Universal Resurrection, their Exercise and their Acts without any Organs. The Souls have no need at all to Eat, for to have a thousand sorts of agreeable and delicious, or disagreeable and loathsome Tastes, if it pleases God to give them. They will have no need at all of Ears, nor even of Voice, of Organs, Harpsichords, guitars, or Violins, to cause a lively and penetrating Sentiment of a thousand sorts of Melodies. They will have no need at all of Eyes, to have the Pleasure of the Prospect of the Visible World. The Scripture itself will not permit us to doubt, that the Souls have not out of the Body before the Resurrection, real Sensations, altho' they have no Corporeal Organs; for to Burn is an Act of the Sensitive Faculty, a real and a proper Sensation; and the Scripture teaches, That the wicked Rich Man burns, and that the Souls of the Wicked are to burn eternally in Hell.   

The Imagination and Memory.  
That which we have said concerning Acts of Sensation, doth decide the Question of the Faculty of Imagining and of the Acts of the Memory; for it is certain, that tho' these Faculties are now Organical, yet they are but only Accidentally so, (as they say) as well as the Faculty of Feeling; It is only in respect to the present Order, and to the Manner of Gods Acting as Universal Cause, that they are Organical, they are not so for any Insufficiency or Incapacity of the Soul, which requires such Helps. Thus it is certain the Holy Souls will have an Idea of all Corporeal Natures, and of all the Structure of the World, by Ideas and Images altogether like those whereby we see present Corporeal Objects, or we Imagine them when they are absent, when the Tracks which their presence had lest behind them come to be resuscitated and renewed. We may say the same thing of Memory, of which we may say, That God supplies the Corporeal Species by his lively Determination, which calls back to the Souls the Ideas of things, which the Corporeal Species would send back if they had them. It is without doubt that Souls do recollect themselves not truly by proper Acts of Corporeal Memory; for that is Organical, and by Mechanism, as we have said, but by lively Ideas which God supplies and puts in the room or place of those Corporeal Species.   

How the Just Souls see in the Word of God Things past, present, and to come.  
St. Augustin, and other Ancient and Modern Doctors, do say, That Sanctifi'd Souls do Read in the Word of God, as in a Book, Things past, Things present, and Things to come; And this Notion is just and exact, provided that we comprehend that this Action of Reading in the Souls, is rather an Act of the Passive Faculty of the Soul, by which she receives the Light and the Ideas, than of the Active Faculty by which she goes about to search, as it were, of her own accord; for we must call to mind this double Faculty, whereof one is the Cause of the Souls being Instructed and Enlightened from without; and the other, That she Instructs and Enlightens herself all manner of ways from within. This is the Principle of all Sciences; We may say that the Souls Read in the Divine Word, Things past, present, and to come, provided we comprehend, That it is not the Soul which goes to search the Divine Word, as we conceive that we go to search a Book by the help of Corporeal Eyes; but that it is the Word of God which goeth to be united to the Soul, showing, uniting and communicating itself to it, either Immediately by itself, as some conceive, or Mediately, as we say, by an Omnipotent Action, by which it modifies and imprints us with created Ideas drawn from the proper Substance of the Soul, wherein it Copies out and Paints itself in proportion to that which it would communicate of itself, as others are pleased to conceive it.  
The Word of God is nothing else but that Substantial and Eternal Idea, by which the Supreme Essence Reflects in some manner upon itself, in admiring its Perfection and its Fullness, and forms, by that Reflection upon all which it hath found in itself, a Platform or Model of all that which it can do, and of the manner How it ought to be done. This Eternal Idea is as it were the Source of all Particular Ideas, and the Essential Mirror of all things; There is the Light which Enlightens all the Conduct of God out of himself, and by which he Enlightens us in the Body and out of the Body, by all the Ideas which he gives us.  
There is the Wisdom, which being once Incarnate by a Personal Union with a singular Humanity to be the Light of the World, is Incarnated in some manner a thousand and a thousand times every moment, by a Transient and Accidental Union with all Created Spirits to be their Actual Light; This is that Eternal and Universal Idea, from whence do spring all the particular Ideas which Enlighten us; and it is certain, that the Souls see either in it, or by it, (for I will not here decide this Point) all that which they see, and all that which they know, either in their present State of Union with the Body, or in that of their Liberty and Separation from the Body. And this lively and Eternal Idea, from whence all the rest do arise, serves instead of Memory and Species to Souls separated and disengaged from Body, for all that which we would that they should Recollect.   

The Acts of Intellection.  
Since the Souls have out of the Body the Exercise of the Faculties of Perceiving, of Imagining, and of Recollecting, which they do not Exercise here but dependent upon the Body, there is no doubt but that they Exercise by a greater Reason the Acts of the Inorganick Faculties; Thus we may say without difficulty, That they compare one thing with another, That they conceive the Nature of Bodies by pure Intellection, That thty form Universal Notions, That they draw Consequences from thence, That they Extend their Knowledge of Intellection, I say Intellection; for as to those Ideas, whether confused or distinct, which appertain to the Passive Faculty of the Soul, whether Sensitive or Imaginative, the Soul cannot Extend them or Augment them of herself, either in the Body or out of the Body: She hath no more as to that, than what she receives; but as to the Knowledge of Intellection, it is certain, That the Soul can perpetually Extend them, Increase them, and Augment them in the Body, and out of the Body.  
I do not at all doubt, but that Holy Souls have an Ineffable Pleasure in perpetually Extending their Knowledge of Intellection, by Consequences and Lights always New, which they draw from their Light and their Knowledge already acquired; They always find something to discover in the Immense Spaces of Truth; They always find something to be Enlightened of the Perfection of the Supreme Essence, which they always see All-entire and All exposed to their Eyes, and which they never know so perfectly, but that there always remains something to be known and discovered; It is a Sea, of which they can never sound the Bottom, and in which they always make a Progress; They always Drink of this Eternal and lively Spring and they are always Thirsty; They Drain from thence every moment by a full and entire Knowledge of the Intuitive Vision, but they always find it full and inexhaustible to Reason and Intellection; They always find something to be known in the Foundation of its infinite Incomprehensibility, and they do there always know something that's New, and something yet to be known.  
The Reprobate Souls do also find by the Exercise of their Reasonings, a thousand and a thousand new Despairs in their State of Reprobation and Misery; The Prophets say that they always remain awake, to the end that they may see always; Evigilabunt ut videant semper, and that does well enough express the Exercise of the Active Faculty in unhappy Souls.  
After having given an Account of the Perceptive Faculties, we ought to take care to know how the Appetitive Faculties are out of the Body; We are able to say in a very few words, all that one can wish to know thereof, and all that can certainly be decided of them.    

CHAP. XII.  
How the Will is in Just Souls, and in those that are Reprobate.  
THE Will, which is that invincible and insurmountable Movement which pusheth on All-knowing Natures towards Good, Is without doubt, and Operates perpetually in Just Souls, and in Reprobated Souls; but it Is there, and it Operates there very diversely. The Just Souls have found the Good they sought, They are arrived to the Term which they have so long pursued, They embrace it, They possess it, They lose themselves, They plunge themselves, They drown themselves, and They engulf themselves in it; They are arrived to the Place of their Repose, to the Centre of their Desires, to the Port of their Wishes; They have nothing more to follow or to search after; In this fortunate State they possess, and they taste with an inexplicable Tranquillity, and an incomprehensible Satiety, the Sovereign Good; They are contented, they are at quiet: But this Tranquillity and this Satiety does not lull them asleep, nor ever cloy them; The Will satisfied and arrived to its Term, does not cease proceeding on always; It Operates and stirs up itself eternally in a most happy Repose. These Holy Souls are always satiated and always a Hungry, always at quiet and always stirred up; They Will and Desire always that which they have, they would always have more of it; and being intimately, and immediately united to the Sovereign Good, and to all his Joys, they are always still vehemently desirous of being more united to it.  
Thus the Will hath its Exercise in Holy Souls; and it hath it in all its Perfection, without any of the Imperfections, to which it is at present subject; It is no more floating and wavering, between the false Images of Good, which the Imagination and the Senses present to it, in the present State, and between the true and solid Goods which Instinct and Reason, which Philosophy and Religion propose to it; It is happily drawn in by the Evidence, or to say better, by the presence and enjoyments of the Sovereign Good. That kind of Liberty, of being able to balance itself between true and false Goods, which we so illy conceive as a great perfection of Liberty in Man, is an Imperfection, which the Will is delivered from; It cannot be turned aside, by any Image of false Goods, which do now, in so deadly a manner, turn aside our Wills; it is a Repose, an Acquiescency, and an Eternal Satiating of the Soul in God, and in the Assemblage of all the Goods which it finds in God, which do not at all leave it the liberty of loving false Goods; This is a perpetual Attraction, always insurmountable and invincible; This is a Charm, always Almighty, and a strong and robust Chain, by which, God draws them, carries them away by force, and fastens them to his Sovereign Beauty, and to his Sovereign Delights.  

The Will in the Reprobate Souls.  
It is not at all after the same manner with Reprobate Souls; The Will, it is true, remains in them; They conserve that Movement, which draws all Created Spirits, and even the Increated, towards Good; for the Will is also in God, but it is not in Him, as the love of Good is in us; but that Will which remains in the Reprobate Souls, does not Operate there, as it doth in Holy Souls; They are driven and moved essentially, by an invincible Love towards Good; and instead of Good, which they seek for with so much vehemence, They see nothing before them but Pains, Despair and Misery; They launch out, and throw themselves perpetually towards the Good, by Efforts and Movements inconceivable; and He, in whom they see the Source of Good, and as it were, all the Treasure, and all the Foundation of Good, Repulses them, and throws them back again, and in the same time, wounds, and transpierces them, with a thousand deadly Darts: They are Eternally thirsting after Pleasure, and they have Eternally nothing but Grief, Pain and Despair, for their Portion; so that the Will placed in them, to be the Beginning, and the Seat of their Happiness, is found to be the Eternal Principle, and Seat of their Unhappiness and Despair.  
It would be to no purpose to lose time, in saying, That all the agreeable Passions will be in the Holy Souls, and all the afflicting one's in the Reprobate, that is comprehended of itself; as also, That these Passions will be in the Appetitive Faculty, independently of the Body, as we have said, That the acts of Perceiving, Imagining, and Remembering, will be in the Perceptive Faculty. So there remains nothing more to finish this last Illustration, and to draw from thence, the so-essential Instruction of our Duties, of Time, and of Eternity; of the Present Life, and the Future Life; of the Present World, and the World to come; of all our Present Condition, and of all our Future State; Than to remark, that this Estate of the Souls out of the Body, will not be changed in the main at bottom (but only in some Circumstances, not essential) by the Reunion of the Bodies, which will be made by the Universal Resurrection.    

CHAP. XIII.  
That this State of the Souls out of the Body, will not be changed in the main or at Bottom, by the new State of the Universal Resurrection, but only in some accessary Circumstances.  
ALthough we do not at all find in the Sentiment, or in the precise Idea which we have of our Souls, the Certainty, and the Conviction of their Future Reunion with the Bodies, which Faith teaches us aught to be made by the Universal Resurrection; it is for all that certain, That considering all the Train, and all the Concatenation of the Mysteries and Principles, whereof the Divine System of Religion, and of Christianity is form, considering also the honour of the Divine Attributes, which require That God should be jealous of his Glory, and of the happy Event and Success of his Designs; It is altogether evident, That God (who hath been pleased to Assemble the two kinds of Natures, which only are known to Us, whether as Existing, or as Possible, (viz.) To wit, Corporeal Nature, and Spiritual Nature, into one single Compositum, and one single Whole, or Hypostasis, to make thereof the Masterpiece of the Visible World, and as it were an Epitome, an Abridgement, or a curious Recapitulation of all his Works) ought necessarily to Re-place it, and to Re-establish it such, as he form it, and designed it at first.  
He ought to do it, either for his own honour and glory as Creator, to the end, That Man may eternally subsist in this admirable Composition of Body, and of Spirit, who holding equally of the Visible and Corporeal World, and of the Intelligible and Spiritual World, makes, as it were, a Third, and a kind of One, altogether singular, which infinitely exalteth his Wisdom and his Power; or else for the honour and glory of the Redemption, and of the Man-God, who would eternally remain Imperfect and Defective, if things were not Re-established upon the foot of the first Platform, and of the first Design of the Creation; and by consequence, if the Bodies were not replaced with the Souls, because the Man-God, would not be altogether a Repairer, and a Restorer, if he did not re-place Man, such as he was at first Created and Designed; and his Triumph over Sin, over Death and Satan, would not be complete and finished, if the half of Men should remain in the Jaws of Death.  
Considering then all this Train of the Divine System of Religion; it is without doubt, most clear and certain, That the Universal Resurrection, aught to be a Circumstance of that glorious Solemnity of Justice, which God ought then to make at the Consummation of Ages, for the Consecration of his Eternal Temple, for the Overture and Commencement of his Immortal Reign, for the Solemn Coronation of his Predestined, for the complete Triumph of the Man-God, for the Justification of all his Providence, and the Declaration of all his Designs: It is, I say, indubitable and constant, That then, at the end of the present Oeconomy, and then when God will put an end to the Vicissitudes of Time, and to the liberty of Revolt, and of Licence, which he gives at present to his Creatures, then when he will fix all things in an Immutable and Eternal Order, then when he will give a beginning to the New World; He will then Re-establish all the Bodies, and Reunite every Soul to that which she animated, during the present Life: But in the mean time, as we cannot say, That our Souls find in themselves, the Sentiment of their future Reunion with their Bodies, so we will not speak of it here, but as a Truth of Faith; because we proposed to ourselves, to decide nothing concerning Them, but what we should find Established, either by our own proper Sentiment, and our indubitable Experience, or by a clear Light of Evidence, arising from the Notion which we have made ourselves of it, as of a knowing Nature, sensible of Order and Duty, no less than of Pleasure and Pain, and of all that is done in Her; but this Truth presupposed and elsewhere sufficiently justified to the Idea of the Divine Attributes, and in all the Train of the Principles of Religion, and of Christianity, We may speak with assurance, of the manner how our Souls will be in their Resuscitated Bodies.  
He who calls Himself the Resurrection, and the Life, the Firstborn amongst the Dead, the Father of the Ages to come; He in whom we are all raised up again, in Mystery and in Figure, according to St. Paul's Expression, and by whom, we all of us ought to be raised up again effectively, at the Last Day; He tells us, that we shall be then, even in our Bodies, like the Angels, disfranchised from the Businesses, and the Inclinations, which we have upon the Occasion of the Body. St. Paul also teaches us, That our Bodies shall be Spiritualised, and we may upon this Principle, decide with certainty, That the Reunion of Bodies, doth not at all change the Foundation of that State of the Soul out of the Body, the manner and circumstances, whereof we have been Illustrating.  
When St. Paul saith, That our Bodies shall be Spiritualised by the Resurrection, he doth not say, that they shall change Nature; and that by an impossible Conversion and Metamorphosis, they shall become Knowing Natures, and shall cease to be Extended Substances: He means, that the Bodies shall be no more a Charge to the Souls, that they shall be to them, no more an Obstacle, or Hindrance in any thing; and that they shall only serve to do Honour, to the glory of the Creation and of the Redemption.  
We will first of all, take away from Bodies, that which we call Gravity; which is nothing else but an Impulsion, wholly exterior towards the Centre of the Earth, which happens to them at present, from the Impression of the Creator, by reason of their Terrestrial Nature, and Composition. We will restore to them their natural Indifference to Motion, and to Rest: For Bodies of themselves, have not any Motion, neither of Lightness, nor of Weight; they neither ascend, nor descend; they neither move themselves Perpendicularly, nor Horizontally, as they say. At this present, as they are part of the Visible and Corporeal World, which ought wholly to subsist upon that indivisible Point, which is called its Centre, which sustains all Bodies, without being sustained of any thing; They must be moved, and driven continually towards the Centre, and middle of the Earth, which doth not sustain itself upon its self, but by that Impulsion of all its Parts, and of all that which we call Terrestrial Bodies, which from all parts tend towards this middle, and the same indivisible Point; but then being no longer Parts of the Terrestrial World, they no longer follow the Laws of that Motion, which moves Corporeal and Terrestrial Nature; they will neither have Levity nor Gravity, but a Perfect and Sovereign Agility, that is to say, an entire Indifference for all sorts of Motion; which will cause them, without any Resistance, to be carried every where, where the Souls would have them.  
We will fix in these Resuscitated Bodies, such a Degree of Heat, and Motion in the Blood, as shall be necessary to entertain the natural Movements; with a certain Agility and Disposition, for the Animal and Voluntary Motions, which the good Constitution of a healthful Body requires: This Heat will be sufficient to make the Blood and Humours to flow, but not to escape, or dissipate the least of the Parts, either fluid, or solid Parts of the Body; from whence it will happen, That there will not be any Dissipation, and that Nourishment, which is only to repair the Dissipation, will be never necessary. Those Inclinations, which are now placed in Man, for the Propagation of Species, will cease by this Reason, and this Principle; because, in these Bodies, fixed in an Immutable Situation of Parts, and which never take Nourishment, there will not be any excess of Superfluous Matter, by which those natural Ebullitions and Fermentations are made, which give occasion to those Desires, and to those Inclinations, which we now have for the Propagation of Species: Erunt sicut Angeli Dei, neque nubent, neque nubentur.  
Almost in the same manner, the Senses will have all their Functions; and altho' the Souls ought to be enlightened, and affected with Ideas and Sentiments, upon the Occasion of their Bodies, thus Spiritualised, in proportion, as they themselves shall be affected, by the Corporeal Impression of other Bodies, which shall act upon them; however, that will not at all hinder, but that the Union of the Souls with God, and of God with the Souls, shall be near and immediate, because, that independently of these Corporeal Impressions, He will Act continually in them. The Bodies are now an essential Occasional Cause of all the natural Action of God in the Souls; but then they shall be the Cause Occasional, not Essential. God will Act by himself immediately in them, enlightening them, and diversely modifying or affecting them, without any Regard of the Body, in a thousand manners. The Bodies shall be no longer neither a Wall, nor a Veil between God and the Souls, nor a Channel of Communication between the Souls and God: He will Act in them independently of the Disposition of the Body, which is now the essential Condition of his natural Action in us. Then, when the Holy Souls shall be reunited to their Bodies, They will not at all fail, as hath been said, to have the whole Spectacle of the Visible World; altho' there be but one part of the Visible World, whose Species comes to be retracted in the Material Eyes: They will not at all fail to have the Pleasure of Melodies, altho' there be not any Symphony, which strikes their Corporeal Ears: Civitas non egebit Sole neque Lunâ, nam Claritas Dei illuminabit eam. Such will be our Souls in their Spiritualised Bodies, after the Universal Resurrection; & there remains nothing more for us to do, after this last Illustration, than to make use of these Knowledges, to reform our Ideas, and correct our Judgements; about Eternity, and about Time; about the Present Life, and the Future; about the Present World, and the World to come: And thereby, to comprehend the whole Extent of our Duties.   

CHAP. XIV.  
What is Time and Eternity; the Present World, and the World to come; the Present Life, and the Future Life.  
IT is easy for us, after all that hath been Illustrated, concerning that Future State of our Souls, in the New and Immortal Life, which they ought to Commence, in going out of the Body: It is easy for us, I say, to comprehend what is Time and Eternity; the Present World, and the World to come; the Present Life, and the Future Life. That which we Men call Time, is taken either by Relation, to the Duration of the Abode of every Soul in its Body; or by Relation, to the Duration of the whole present Oeconomy of the Visible World, destined to the Trial of the Souls in the Bodies; and in whatsoever signification Men take Time, in the Opposition which Men make of it to Eternity, It signifies, precisely, a State of Instability, of Change, and of Vicissitude, and a State which ought to have an End; for these are the two things which enter essentially into the Idea of that which is called Time, Vicissitude and End. The space of the Duration, that our Souls are in our Bodies, is called Time, for those two Reasons; because it ought to have an End, and because in the Interim, so long as it endures, it holds us exposed to a thousand Changes, and to a thousand Vicissitudes; and above all, to the Vicissitude of being able to pass from Good to Evil, and from Evil to Good, from Sin to Virtue, and from Virtue to Crimes or Vice.  
You see here exactly, what Time is; and Eternity ought to be conceived by Opposition; for Eternity is, on the contrary, The immutable and interminable State, and Order of things: As much as Time, includes Instability and End; so much does Eternity exclude them both. Time speaks Change and End; Eternity speaks the being always the same, and never ending: Thus as our present State in the Body is Time, so our Future State out of the Body is Eternity; and there is the Principal clear Light, by which we ought to Judge of the difference of our Present, and of our Future State. All may Change, and all aught to have an End in out Present State; but nothing aught to Change, nor have an End in our Future State, whether it be Happy or Unhappy. This is, as every one may see, a fruitful Source, and abounding with strong and pressing Consequences, which ought to penetrate Us, and to cause a General and Universal Change in our Ideas.  
Our Present State, which is called Time, is likewise called the Present Life; and our Future State, the Life to come; because, that tho' in the two States, it is only the same Soul, which in each State is essentially Living; yet it is very much to the purpose, that we distinguish these two Lives, by their divers Objects and Conditions, altho' there be but one and the same Foundation of Life in the two States. The Present Life doth not Exercise itself, but upon the false and perishable Objects of Time, and its deceitful and deceiving Oeconomy. The Future Life Exercises itself upon Objects wholly True, and wholly Solid. The Present Life, is a perpetual alternativeness of real Cares and Torments, and of false Shadows of Repose; of effective Business, and of seeming Riches; of the agitations and Fevers of the Passions, and lucid Intervals of Reason; a Theatre of Eternal Mutations; a Chain enterlincked with short and transitory Felicities, and long and durable Miseries; a rapid and precipitous Torrent, which amongst some slender and false Pleasures, and some, but always bitter drops of Pleasure, rolls on with cruel Pains, and tormenting Briers; A vehement and impetuous Whirlwind of hurry and Ambition; Which after having much tormented and agitated the Body and the Soul; after having raised a thousand Storms in the Heart and in the Spirit, is dissipated into Air and Smoak. The Future Life, on the contrary, is either but one Day all Uniform, all united to everlasting Triumphs and Felicities, or one eternal Night of Horror and Despair.  
In fine, Our Present State, is also called the Present World; and our Future State, the World to come; because our Present State ties us, and affixes us to the Visible and Corporeal World, much more sensibly, than to the Spiritual, and Intelligible World; and our Future State ought to break off our Union, and our Relation to the Visible World, and to unite us wholly and solely to God, and to the pure Spirits, which make, together with God, that which we call the Intelligible World.  
And all these Ideas, ought equally to make us undervalue our Present State, for such as it is, and infinitely to esteem our Future State, for that which it ought to be; for whether we conceive our Present State, under the Idea of Life, under the Idea of Time, or under the Idea of the Present and Visible World; and on the contrary, Whether it be that we conceive our Future State, under the Idea of Eternity, under the Idea of a Future Life, or under the Idea of the World to come; the one appears infinitely Precious and Essential, and the other infinitely Despisable. They ought, moreover, to make us conceive clearly, the Crime, and the going astray of our Love of Time, of the Present Life and World; and that of our indifference and forgetfulness for the Future Life, the World to come, and for Eternity. There are some, who wonder that the Gospel should be a perpetual Condemnation of the World; And who would that the Divine Redeemer had more complaisance for our Appetites and our Inclinations thereto, and that he had not found it so ill that we should love an Appearance so amiable, and which hath so many Charms and Enchantments; But they need only consider what this Love, or the Love of the World is, upon which he lets fall his so terrible Condemnations and Curses.  
'Tis this World the Gospel condemns, and thunders out so many anathemas and Curses against; It is this Love of Time, of Life, and of the present World, which blinds, which besots and enchants Men, and makes them forget the World to come, or the future State of Souls out of Bodies. It is not at all that Assemblage of Elements which makes the World, that is condemned; It is not that Society of Men, whether Natural, Civil, or Politic, which is sometimes also called the World, which is rendered Criminal; But it is the Corruption of Hearts blinded and enchanted by the Figure of this transitory World, from whence is formed that overruling love of Vanity, which makes Eternity to be forgotten; which is that impure and detestable World, which the Man-God, Highpriest of future Happiness, and Father and Monarch of the Age to come, hath necessarily cried down, to recall Men from this wand'ring of Vanity, to the Essential Station of Eternity.  
He could not but condemn the World in every Part in that Sense, in its Conceits, in its Opinions, in its Maxims, in its Customs, in its Prosperities, and in its Goods, in its Joys and in its Pleasures; because there could nothing flow from so impure a Source, but what must be impure; But this is not a Place to enlarge upon it, it is enough to have comprised the Judgement which we ought to make of our two States, and the Preference which we ought to give to the one above the other, we must now see the Obligations which come to us from thence.   

CHAP. XV.  
The General Order betwixt Time and Eternity, the present and the future Life, and the present World and the World to come, which follows from the Knowledge which we have been now acquiring.  
THERE is without doubt a real Order of Duties between Time and Eternity, the present Life and the future, the present World and the World to come; We will not take notice of it, but it is certain that Time is indebted to Eternity, the present Life to the future, the present World to the World to come, our present State to the future State. Time is indebted to Eternity; for it Is not but for the sake of Eternity: And that which it owes to Eternity, is, that it ought to refer all unto it. The Order of Time is, that it should be carried back to the Point of Eternity; All that is done in Time, and which is not carried back to Eternity, States with an absolute Power, and with a Sovereign Authority, to gain Battles, to Conquer Provinces, to make all the Neighbouring Thrones and Kingdoms shake around us, to give what Motion and Impression we will to the Universe, to reduce to an effective Reality that Idea of an Universal Monarchy, the Vision and Chimerical Ambition of which we have reproached in the last Age in our Neighbours; We believe that it is something very fine, and it is true, that nothing in Human Affairs is greater; but even That if it be not in the Order of Eternity, or if it be not made for the End or Prospect, and for the Scope of Eternity, all that is nothing but a great and vast Folly, but a great and frightful Wand'ring from the Mark and from the End, a Childish Illusion and Amazement, a Sport of Aunts, and a Triumph of those little Infects that we see roll and remove with so much Effort, one Grain of Sand, or one little Clod of Earth without any solid Profit. We must redress our Conduct by those Lights and those Knowledges, which discover to us equally our Duties, and the Motives and Incentives to our Duties.  
The Holy Fathers have said, That the Eternity was a Light which is no sooner risen in a Spirit and in a Heart, but that it causes more Instructions, and more Lights of Duties to arise, than there flows Rays from the Body and the Globe of the shining Sun, who is all Light and all Rays; and what sort of Expression soever this may be, it doth not come up to the Truth. Good God what crowd of Rays doth not this beautiful Sun of Eternity spread over all our Ways? What an Ocean of them doth not he pour upon us, against our so Excessive and so Idolatrous an Esteem of the World, and of its Vanity, against our Adoring of vain Beauties, against the Illusions of Riches, against the Phantôme of Grandeur, against the Chimeras of Fortune, against the Enchanting and Bewitching of Pleasures, against the Vanity of our Enterprises, against the Inutility of our violent Transports, against the Foolishness of our Leagues and Alliances, against the Blindness of our Maxims, and the Errors of our Opinions? One of the Ancients said, That the Contemplation of Wisdom did cause in the Spirit and in the Hearts of Men, that which the fixed looking upon the Sun causes in Corporeal Eyes, which being blinded with his great Light, see not any thing more in the World; But it is the Knowledge of the future State of our Souls out of the Body, and in the Eternal World, which marvellously causeth this Effect; When we have well viewed the World to come, and the new State of our Souls, we see nothing in this World but Darknesses and Shadows, but a great and vast Nothingness, but a perpetual Illusion; For this is not only a Light which obscures all the present Advantages, and all the Objects of Human Passions; but 'tis a Day that annihilates them, and effaces them entirely.  
From thence there springs together with the clear Knowledge and Conviction of a thousand and a thousand Obligations, a thousand and a thousand Incitements to Vigilance, whether it be on the side of Fear, or on the side of Hope: The fear of the infinite Ills of the unhappy Fortune of this new Place, doth not leave us any thing in the Pains of Virtue which we might fear, nor any thing in the Pleasure of the World and of Sin, with which we might be affected. The short and little Interval which is between the Pleasure of Passions and of Sin, and between these so affrighting Ills, doth not permit us one single moment to have the least rest; The Thunder rumbles over our Head, and is ready to break upon us; we touch the End of the present Life as it were with Foot and Hand, we see it before us as a high and lofty Wall, which stops our further Progress in spite of us, and which presents itself like an unsurmountable Wall, against which our exorbitant Desires ought to dash themselves in pieces, and which ought to give a violent Interruption to our Covetousness; and at the same time a large and vast Gate open to our Souls and to our Sins, for to procure them the Passage to Eternity, and to make them enter into a new Career of Unhappiness or of Felicity; the sort of which ought to be decided by the Disposition and Situation of the Order or Disorder in which we die.  
We see in the End of our Lives, which is so near and so inevitable, this Gate and this Wall all at once; and the greatness of the Despair which we see so near us, if we remain so carelessly Sleeping, is so powerful an Incitement to Vigilance, and at the same time so fruitful a Principle of so many Duties and of so many Obligations of Attention concerning ourselves, of Reflection, of Deliberation, and of Consultation concerning the End and Event of Lise, concerning the Means and the Help of Innocence, that if I would here give a particular Account of them, I should be forced to make a great Volume; whereas I will only show, and give an Overture to the particular Reflections of every one. I cannot however but remark, That the Duty of Vigilance, or of the Cooperation of Salvation, does include them altogether; and that it is (together with the Misprisal of this present Life, and the lively and ardent Desire of the future Life) the most Essential Duty of the Order of Time and of Eternity, which deserves here a particular Reflection.   

CHAP. XVI.  
The Duty of the Cooperation of Salvation, and what Divine Predestination, and what Divine Reprobation is, on God's part.  
ALTHO' there are some amongst Men more particularly called to that which we call Salvation, which is that which we mean by Divine Predestination, Men more particularly favoured and cherished for the happy End and the favourable Event, of that Alternativeness of Happiness or Unhappiness, which is determined in Time for Eternity; Men with whose Salvation God charges himself, as a particular Cause if you will; for it is thus that some few conceive it: Yet it is nevertheless certain and indubitable, That all Men are generally Called to Salvation, to that happy Lot of Eternity, which Associates Man to all the Felicities of God, Even those themselves which Men conceive as Reprobates, antecedently, as they say, on God's part, who are those whom God abandons to the common Graces of the general Vocation, and with whose Salvation he doth not charge himself, or, to say better, he doth not meddle as to the Success and the Event, but as Universal Cause. This is called his Reprobation; for on his part there is not any other which comes purely from him, or which can be imputed to him; Even those very Men, I say, which others conceive as Reprobated on God's part, are really Called to Salvation: God generally prepares for them Means not only sufficient, but abounding; and he would withal his Heart that they should put no Obstacle to the sincere Intentions which he hath of Associating all Men to his Felicity and his Glory in his most happy Eternity. It is true, he will not use all his Power to surmount the Obstacles which Men may put there, he will not charge himself with the making the Salvation of all Men to succeed at what Price soever it be, which is the Sense in which St. Augustin says in some places, That God will not Save all Men, he will not charge himself with the Effective Success and Event of the Salvation of all; which if he should do, it would be impossible that there should one single Man perish; which is the Sense in which St. Augustin says, That God being willing to Save Men, there can be no Liberty which can resist him; He will not concur to the Success and to the Event of the Salvation of All as Universal Cause; He has believed that he ought to have more regard to the Honour of his Divine Attributes, than to the Interests generally of all his Creatures; and that being willing to Save all Men, as to himself, and to give to them all sufficient and necessary Means thereto, he might suffer some of them to Perish by their own Negligence and their own Fault; which is the Sense in which St. Paul compares him to the Potter, who makes what he pleases of his own Clay, without any manifest Cause to contradict him, and the unsearchable Mysteries of his Judgements, upon which he cries out, Oh the depth!  
But the same Authority of the Divine Word, which teaches us, that there are Men more Dear, and more in Favour, with whose Salvation God does charge himself more particularly, or that he anticipates by a more favourable Predestination, doth teach us, That All are Called, and sincerely Called, and that He would have all Men to be Saved, and that he would not have one single Man Perish. And it is very strange, that some Men, who do not believe the Predestination of some few after the manner that they believe it, but that upon this Divine Authority they will believe that All are sincerely Called, since the Divine Word is no less express for the general and Universal Vocation of All, than for the Predilection and Favour of a Special Predestination for some Few; nay, it is more express and more formal for the General Vocation of All, than for this Predilection of Particular Predestination for some Few, at least after the manner that they conceive it, who will not that All are truly and sincerely Called; And if we must necessarily quit one of these two Truths, both which ought to be equally respected and retained, we ought rather to quit That of Predilection and Singular Predestination of some Few, than that of a General Vocation of All; for besides that it is the same Divine Authority which requires both these Opinions to be received and respected, That of the General Vocation hath moreover the Authority, the Foundation and the Help of Natural Evidence, which makes us see in God the Heart of a Father for all Men, and a Foundation of Liberty in all Men, which was not given them but to serve them, to determine in Time the Lot of their Eternity.  
We cannot believe, That there is one single Man, whom God hath Created to be Damned, as some have believed that there are a great many. On Man's side the State of Trial which holds us here balanced betwixt the two Eternity's, which we have said make the Foundation of the Present State, gives us Ideas quite contrary, since we are not there preserved Free but to determine this Lot; And on God's side it appears to us so well in the manner how he continually Operates in all Men in the Order of Nature, that we cannot at all conceive, that he being so Essentially good in Nature, should not be so in Grace also.  
Salvation is then a Lot whereby we may render ourselves happy if we will; how Reprobate soever we are, we have all Grace enough, if we have enough of Vigilance and enough of Cooperation, to surmount the Obstacles of Salvation, which do proceed wholly from our Natural Corruption, and not from any Opposition or Difficulty which God imposeth upon us.  
All the World speaks of this Cooperation of Salvation, and of Christian Vigilance, which ought to Animate and Conduct it; but there are but few People who will apply themselves to understand well what is this Vigilance and this Cooperation of Salvation. What means the Holy Scripture, when it bids us Watch, Vigilate, and when it bids us Work out our Salvation? It is of Importance to frame well a neat Idea of it, since what we ought to do in this respect, is but a Cooperation; for we of ourselves do not know how to work out our Salvation, all that we can do in this Case is but to Cooperate: And as this word Cooperation essentially imports a Relation to an Action and Operation of Another; so we must say, that our Cooperation of Salvation ought to be the Deed in Us which God does there, or which he would have done there by the Impression of his Grace and of his Heavenly Vocation; and we shall have thereby a most distinct and most easy Notion of all the Duty, and all the Obligation of Cooperation of Salvation; For since to Cooperate to Salvation, is to be Active, to Watch, to Labour, to Do and Achieve in us that which God hath begun there by his Grace, which would finish jointly with us, that which it begun without us; That the Vocation to Salvation, with all the Impressions of Grace which accompany it, is in us but a beginning of a Separation from the World, a Disesteem of the Vanities of it, a flaming and lively ardent Desire for Eternity, a Victory over our Passions, the mystic Death of our Senses, a holy Hatred of ourselves; It follows from thence, That our Cooperation to Salvation is not a vain Presumption, and a vain Confidence of Faith, by which we regard ourselves, as indubitably set apart to Eternal Election; which is, if I may be permitted to say so, the Fanaticism, or the Fanatic and Chimerical Thought, and the false Piety of some pretended Faithful Ones, who place all the Essential Cooperation of Salvation, in the Belief that they are as indubitably Saved as Jesus Christ himself. It is neither a false appearance of Zeal, and of Devotion, or a Superstition about more essential Practices, wherein we every day see, certain false Worshippers do place their whole Religion; nor is it a simple Observation of the exterior Actions of Justice, and of Duty, nor a superficial Sentiment of God, which only makes them vent towards him some inefficacious and unprofitable Desires and Sighs, which is no more than to say, Domine, Domine, Lord, Lord, as the Divine Redeemer hath remarked: But it is a constant, a perpetual, and an indefatigable Application, to withdraw ourselves from the World, to mortify ourselves, to diminish the force of our disorderly Concupiscence, to purify our Imaginations, to contemplate the Eternal Beauties, to premeditate the next end of Life, to avoid the Pleasures of Sense, and to taste those of Grace and Eternity. When we omit this Co-operation, all the rest are useless; in vain do we repeat our Prayers, in vain do we frequent Divine Mysteries.  
St. Paul saith, That this is beating the Air, that is to say, that it is to do nothing. It is upon my Impure Senses, and upon my Rebellious Flesh, saith this Apostle, That I strike, and not upon the Air. I know, that to work out my Salvation, I have only to do to work upon my Heart; and for that Reason, it is upon It that I strike all my blows. I subject my Senses, I chastise my Body, I make a continual Violence upon my Inclinations; for to do otherwise, were to beat the Air, and to lose both Time and Labour. Co-operation then is essential to Salvation, which is the most essential Duty of the Order of Time, and of Eternity, and by consequence, of our Present State: And this Duty aught more to employ us, than the care of our Fortunes, and the other interests of our Pasions; it ought not to give us one moment of Truce; it ought to keep us always in Breath; it is for that reason, that our Saviour expresses it, by the Name of Vigilance; it ought effectively to be a perpetual Application to Watch, and to stir up our Heart to prepare it, and put it into a State, capable of receiving this Impression of its proper Glory, and its proper Felicity; which God would make upon those amongst us whom he shall find disposed to finish and consummate his Divine Resemblance, which Nature and Grace began, and which his Glory only finisheth.   

CHAP. XVII.  
The Duty of a lively, and ardent Desire of a Future Life.  
ALtho' the Co-operation of Salvation, doth essentially import a Disesteem of the Present Life, and a lively and ardent Desire of the Future; yet notwithstanding, these two Duties are different in their Foundations; since the Duty of Co-operation of Salvation ceasing, we do not cease however to be obliged to endure the Present Life, with some sort of Impatience; and to Sigh after the Future, with an ardent and expressive Desire. It is Essential to observe, and to remark, That we ought effectively to be inflamed with a lively, and ardent Desire of the Life to come, by a true Obligation, and a true Duty, which we cannot omit or violate, without rendering ourselves infinitely culpable towards God, and worthy of all his Anger, and all his Vengeance.  
Here is an Obligation very New, for almost all Men, who do so love the Present Life, that they cannot so much as only comprehend, that they can love and desire the Future; but this Obligation which appears New, to the Carnal Taste of our Terrestrial Love, is of the same Date in the Soul of Man, as the Obligation of Regarding, and seeking God only as the Sovereign Good; for since it is but in this Future Life, that God is possessed, it follows, that in as much as we are obliged to have this Love of that Holy Thirst, and of that Sacred Concupiscence for God, that love of Union, and of Possession, and of Joy, the Duty of which, hath been already Established; so much are we obliged to Love and Desire, with an ardent and impressed Desire, the Life to come.  
St. Augustin perfectly understood this Principle; for it is for that Reason, that he said, That he that findeth himself well in this World, and would always continue here, hath not the least spark of the least perfect Love, which all Men ought to have for God: And it is upon this Principle, that all the other Holy Doctors have decided the same thing; They have not only determined, that it is an essential Duty in the Heart of Man, To Groan and Sigh after the Life to come; but they have remarked, that therein, is the most inseparable Character of the Divine Predestination, and of the Impression which the Holy Ghost makes in them to whom he bears witness of the Eternal Election, and Adoption of the Heavenly Father: Those that are Predestinated, say they, are the bemoaning and desolate Turtle-Doves, who sigh without ceasing after the Celestial Spouse, who does not receive these chaste Birds to his chaste Embraces, but in the Life to come. They are the Citizens of the Heavenly Country, who look upon themselves as banished upon Earth; They are the true Israelites, who could find nothing good and agreeable in Babylon, and who could not propose to themselves any other Pleasure, than that of returning to their dear Jerusalem; They are the tender and passionate Children, who can find no pleasure out of the Presence, and House of their Father; They are the judicious Travellers, who regard the Places where they pass, as Places which they ought not to place their Hearts upon, as Places whereat their Hearts ought not to stop, since they cannot Rest there themselves; They are (say the Fathers) Stones out of their Quarry, and a Fire out of its Sphere; They continually throw themselves forwards towards him, who allures them with a Charm so sweet in this New Life; Their Hearts continually say that which the Lips only Pronounce in the Person of Reprobates, in the Prayer which our Saviour, the King of the Age to come, teacheth us, Let thy Kingdom come.  
Such are those who are Predestinated, the Citizens, and the Children of the Kingdom of Heaven; Filii Regni. They do not long, but after the Future Life, which is their Kingdom, and that of their Heavenly Father: The Reprobates, on the contrary, they love only the Present Life; they do not at all know of any other Goods, or other Pleasures, than those of the Earth. The Dove that went out of the Ark, returned to the Ark again, because she found no place where she could rest her Feet; but the Ravens did not return at all, because loving Corruption, their Impure Taste engaged them to all the dead Bodies, which they found in the way. He that is Predestinated, groans here, because he Suffers, and he Suffers because he is separated from God, and from His Eternal Delights. The Reprobate, on the contrary, does wallow in Joys; he esteems himself happy, he is contented with his false Prosperity, because he doth not at all think of God, and his Immortal Felicities. He hath his Satisfaction and Consolation in this World, which obliges the King of the World to come, to dart out his Curse, and his Compassion upon him, in these Terms, so violent and so terrible, Woe be to you, that you have had your Consolation in this World.  
To Love then, and to desire the Future Life; to Sigh after the coming of the Eternal Kingdom, and to return without ceasing, from the midst of Babylon, towards the Heavenly Jerusalem, is an indispensable Duty of the Love of God, and of that proper Charity which we own to ourselves; and if we do not find in us, this Love of the World to Come, and this Character of the Divine Predestination, we ought to begin there by the Co-operation, which we ought to contribute to our Salvation; to apply ourselves without ceasing, to contemplate the Beauty, and the Charms of the Eternal World, and the advantages of the Future Life, above the Present; to the end, that perpetual Contemplation may purify our Imaginations; that so we may hate our Earthly Taste, and imprint the Celestial one upon us, which will cause that we shall cease to be those Earthly Men, of whom St. Paul speaks, upon whom remains the Curse of Adam, and that we shall become those Heavenly Men, who being thenceforwards drawn after the lively resemblance of the New Man, shall eternally be the perfect Images of his Glory, and of his Sovereign Felicity in Heaven.   

CHAP. XVIII.  
A Recapitulation of Moral Consequences, drawn from what hath been Established, concerning our Souls, for the Conviction of our Duties, and the Condemnation of our Disorders.  
WE had proposed to add here for a Fourth Part, a Recapitulation of all the Moral Consequences, which might be drawn from what hath been cleared, concerning our Souls, in Relation to our Duties, and to our Disorders; and to have given it by way of an Alphabetical Table: And therein, to have let you see a Conviction of all our Duties, and a solid Establishment of all our Obligations, the Shame and Disorder of all our Passions, the Rule of all our Sentiments, and generally an Universal Conduct for all our Life to come. But we were afraid That would have excessively increased the Volume: And we are therefore determined to close up all, with a general Consideration of the little esteem which we have for our Souls; and with the Condemnation of Five principal Disorders in our Lives, which we believe, have deserved a particular Reflection.  

How unreasonable we are, to make so little an Account of our Souls, after so much that hath been already said of them.  
We have showed, that there is in our Souls a Spiritual Nature, a Heavenly Origin, an Immortal Condition, a Divine Quality, an Essential Union with God, an Everlasting State of Misery or Happiness, after a short Trial in this Life. We have showed, That they come from God, that they are always essentially in God; that it is but for a little moment of Time, that their Union with the Body, suspends their immediate Union with God; and that thus they ought quickly to return to God, and remain everlastingly in Him. We have seen, that They are imprinted with so many glorious and eminent Tracts of the Divine Resemblance, which have rendered them worthy to be (if I may be permitted to say so) reclaimed and redeemed so dearly, at the Price of the annihilation of all the greatness of a God, at the Price of a thousand sorts of Revile and Humiliations, and of all the Merit of his Blood and Life.  
We have seen how they ought to lay aside, the deceitful Garment of the present Felicity of the Body, as a Theatrical Habit; how they ought to change Opinions, Tastes and Ideas; how all the Spectacle of Time ought to be Effaced, and how that of Eternity ought to discover itself to our Eyes; how they are to be happy in all the proper licity of God, or unhappy according to the Extent of his Power and his Anger. And there is not one of these Ideas and of these Circumstances, which ought not to serve us for a Light to Enlighten in us a thousand Duties; and which on the contrary is not a clear Light, to let us see in ourselves a thousand Disorders, wherewith we ought to be penetrated with Confusion and to Reproach ourselves; who carrying in us that Foundation of Reason, and that Light of the Spirituality, of the Eternity, and of the Divine Quality of our Souls which we do, we ought to guide otherwise than we do, our Relishes and our Sentiments, our Opinions and our Maxims, our Desires and our Affections, all our Actions and all our Life.  
Oh the Folly and Disorder! Oh the Vanity and Illusion! Oh the Charm and Enchantment! Oh the Fury and Frenzy of Man! who bearing an Eternal and Immortal Soul in his Hands, doth not know the Price nor the Fragility of the Treasure which he carries, but continually strikes it against a thousand Rocks! Our Souls are Immortal and Eternal, their Nature is not at all Frail and Mortal, they ought to last Eternally like God; but as their Being and their Nature is durable and solid, so is their Happiness, and so is their Lot of Eternity nice and uncertain. There is no Glass so brittle, there is not one moment of the Day wherein we do not strike them against Rocks and Marbles, against all the Occasions of Sin and Ruin which present themselves. We do not only hurt them so senselessly and inconsiderately, but we Stake this Treasure so inestimable and so infinite, against the smallest Pleasures which the furious and implacable Enemy of our Souls can propose and offer to us. No King did ever Stake his Kingdom and his Throne upon the Chance of one die. What do I say, No King? No Man did ever Stake his Fortune and his Hope, tho' never so mean; And We! do not We continually Stake to Nothingness & to Shadows, Eternal Thrones and Kingdoms, Immortal Hopes and Fortunes? David would not have the Pleasure to quench the burning Thirst wherewith he was inflamed, at the peril of the Life of some few of his Soldiers; How, said he, shall I Drink at so dear a Price? Shall I hazard Souls for my Thirst? And yet We! We have no Desire, tho' never so senseless, we have never so little Thirst, which we will not content at the Price of the Eternal Loss of our Souls, or at least of the evident danger of that Irreparable Loss. What shall we call Fury and Frenzy, if this be not? O the Folly then and the Disorder! O the Madness and Frenzy of our Thoughts and of our Desires, of our Relishes and of our Passions! if we do not henceforwards guide them by the Knowledge which we have of the Heavenly Origine of the Spiritual Nature, of the Immortal Condition, of the Divine Quality, and of the Everlasting State after this Life, of the Immutable Felicity or Misery of our Souls, and of all the other Advantages which we have showed to be in them.   

Five Moral Consequences in Relation to Five Principal Circumstances concerning the Nobility of our Souls.  
We might draw a thousand particular Instructions, and a thousand strong Condemnations of our Disorders, from all these Knowledges; but since we only intent here to open a Way, as it were, to the end that every one may be Instructed by himself in his Particular, and draw those Consequences which are proper to himself, we will only draw Five of them from hence against Five of our most common Disorders, which we do not acknowledge for Disorders only, which we shall make to Answer to the Five Principal Circumstances of the Dignity and of the Excellence which we have showed to be in our Souls.  
We shall draw from the Principle of the Celestial Origine, and of the Essential Dependence of our Soul, and of our Union with God, from the Principle that they proceed from God, that they live in God, and that they ought necessarily in a short time to return to God, the Consequence of a terrible Condemnation of our forgetfulness and of our going astray from God; whereof we are so little afraid, and wherein we do not acknowledge even the Disorder and the Irregularity.  
We shall draw from the Principle of the Spiritual Nature of our Souls, a Consequence of the clear and sensible Conviction of the Disorder, of our foolish and Idolatrous love of our Body, which we believe to be so lawful and so innocent.  
We shall draw from the Principle of our Immortal Condition, the Consequence of an evident Conviction of the Disorder of our bewitching love of the present Life, whereof we have so little Remorse.  
We shall draw from the Principle of the Divine Quality of our Souls, which is the Honour of the Divine Resemblance (which Nature gins in them by Conscience and by the Seeds of Virtue, and which Grace and Glory do finish) the Consequence of the Condemnation of that little care which we have to cooperate to the Honour of the Divine Resemblance.  
We shall draw from the Principle of the Alternativeness of the immutable State of Felicity and Misery, which must succeed the present Fortune, and which we have presently to decide by the good usage of Time and of this Life, the Conviction of the outrageous Folly of our violent Transports, and of our fury of Ambition for the present Fortunes, which we regard as the only Prudence and the only Wisdom of this Life.   

The Condemnation of our Forgetfulness, and of our Wand'ring from God.  
First of all, How condemnable are we for forgetting God? since it is true, That our Souls do not only come from God, but they live Essentially in him; and that after this short Interruption of their Immediate Union with him, which makes the present Life, they ought to return, and eternally remain in him. How great is the Disorder, in your Opinion, of this Forgetfulness?  
The Scripture saith, That the Stars being incapable of Sentiments and of Knowledge, have a perpetual Acknowledgement for him who gave them Light; and for that Reason to testify it to him, they send him back perpetually their Light, and are continually turned towards him, as if it were to tell him, that for Him only they desire to shine, that it is for Him only that they do shine; Lucent ei qui fecit illas. Here is an Idea and a Lesson which they give us of the continual Application and perpetual Return which we ought to have towards God, for perceiving and acknowledging his Presence, his Divine Illumination and his Influence in us; But we are far enough from following this Lesson, our Heart and our Spirit do turn themselves equally from him, they equally lose themselves in useless Thoughts, and plunging themselves, and advancing farther and farther into this Land of Forgetfulness, and this Region of Darkness; they do not so much as once a Day, no not, perhaps, once a Week, once a Month, once a Year, call to mind their Divine Origine, and their Celestial Dependence; Obstupescite Coeli super hoc, here would the Prophet Esay say: All Nature saith the same thing with the Prophet, and would rise and Arm herself against this so monstrous Ingratitude, and this so monstrous Insolence. There is not betwixt Man and Man the like Example of Injustice, of Brutality, and of Rashness.  
It would be very much, that the Heart only should forget God, and should wander from him, in searching as she doth, her Happiness and her Pleasure out of him, which is the greatest Wand'ring that can be. But it is not the Heart alone that for gets God, and wanders from him, the Spirit itself, the Spirit who could have quitted itself at so easy a rate of the Duty of its Dependence and its Acknowledgement, the Spirit forgets him, the Spirit effaces his Idea, the Spirit turns itself wholly from him, it revolts entirely: And tho' the Spirit receives continually a Light and Thought from God; it is by him that she Perceives all that she perceives, it is by him that she Thinks all that she Thinks, and it is by him that she Knows all that she Knows; and yet so far is she from acknowledging and perceiving it, that she believes that she is a Light to herself, and she doth not at all believe that she oweth any thing to God for it. If the the Sun did never Set, or were never under a Cloud, we should not at all believe that it was by it we had the Light, we should believe that the Light, by the help of which we see all things, were in our Eyes; and because God doth continually Enlighten us, because that this Sun never Sets, because that this Sun is always ready to Enlighten us every instant, we believe that we have in ourselves the Light and the Ideas where with He Enlightens us. The Dog lifts up his Head to him who gives Bread to him, the Spirit of Man doth not at all lift up his Thoughts towards him who continually gives him all his Light and all his Life; O Ingratitude! O Revolt!  
What Judgement do you think doth God make of those Men who live in Courts, in Palaces, and in great Offices of all sort of Profession, who pass their Days, their Weeks, their Months, their Years, all their whole Life, without any true Remembrance, or any true Sentiment of him, and of the continual Dependence which we have, of the perpetual Irradiation of his Eternal Essence? With what Eyes do you think doth he look upon them? What Violence do you think doth he offer himself, in not hastening the end of their Lives, and the beginning of his Vengeance? Yet He never spoke with more Resentment than Laboravi sustinens, He never thundered or demanded Justice from Heaven or Earth with more vehemence, He never demanded it with a greater Indignation. Let us see if there be any thing like this amongst Men, from a Subject to a King, from Children to their Parents, from Husbands to their Wives, from Servants to their Masters, or amongst the most savage Beasts towards those who take care to feed them.  
But if you conceive thereby how Criminal our forgetfulness of, and our wand'ring from God is, you will apprehend how unhappy it is, by the Anger with which God will receive those ungrateful Souls who forget him, when they shall return to him. The Rivers which flow from the Sea, return to the Sea; The Bodies which came from the Earth, return to the Earth; And our Souls which came from God, return also necessarily to God: They are as it were Portions of himself, which he recalls, and would have reunited to the Whole, if we may be permitted to say so, after the Ancient Fathers. Exivi à Patre & veni in mundum (saith Jesus Christ) & iterum relinquo mundum & vado ad Patrem; I am come out from my Father, and I am come into the World, and I must again leave the World and go to my Father. He said it for himself and for us equally.  
He being come from God, aught to return to God; being sent from God to the Earth, aught to return to God: And our Souls, which in the same manner are sent into the Body, and into the Visible World, to be there tried, aught to return to God; they came from God, and they return to God, and in God. In vain do we wander, do we lose ourselves and go astray. We never lose ourselves for God; he never lets us go for altogether; he hath his Cord and his Chain, by which he holds us, and by which he recalls us when he pleases, and when he thinks fit; He will recall us, yes, and our ungrateful Souls, who are now all of them turned away from him, always Fugitives and Vagabonds, wand'ring from Vanity to Vanity, will be much astonished when we shall return to him. O what Surprise! what Astonishment! what Confusion! what Disorder! what Dread! what Efforts! but fruitless Efforts of Flying, of Hiding one's self, and of Escaping! What Commotions! what Storms! what Agitations in the Hearts of these Fugitive Slaves brought back to their Master, of these Rebellious Subjects dragged in Chains before their King!  
At this Meeting, what Despair in these Souls! what Movements in God If these Souls on their side are Troubled, Amazed, Affrighted and Agitated in themselves, God, how is he on his side? how does he receive them? how do they find him? what Entertainment? what Accosting? what Reception, in your Opinion? But what Reproaches! or to say better, What Thunder and Thunderbolts! what Looks! what Rage! what Threaten! what Indignation! But if the the Accosting and the Meeting causes so much Pain, what will the Judgement and the Condemnation do? what will the Account which they must give of all the Thoughts of the Spirit, and all the Motions of the Heart, of them who forget God?  
There is not one Hair of our Head lost, saith the Divine Word; That is to say, saith S. Augustin, That all our Thoughts are counted, all our Steps are written down, there is an Account kept of all our Respirations; not one of our Thoughts, not one of the Motions of our Hearts shall be lost, and every one of them which shall have wandered from God (if we may be permitted to say so) in our Lives; Every one of them which shall not have God for its Mark, for its principal End and overruling Object, will be found Impious and Sacrilegious: And then what Surprise will there be anew! what Regret! what Stinging and bitter Repentance! what Shame and Confusion! what Despite! and what Rage of ungrateful Souls against themselves! what Despair and what Fury! with what Evidence and with what Sentiment will they acknowledge their Wand'ring? With what Cries and with what Howl will they tear themselves to pieces, and will say, Ergo erravimus; Ah! it is too true, That so much as we have forgot God, we have been truly wand'ring! All the Pleasure and the Happiness which we have searched for out of God, hath been a real Wand'ring! Oh! how far do we find ourselves from that Mark and Goal which we then did run to with so much violence and fury! Oh! Pleasures! Oh! Goods, which we searched for out of God, and which we now see, are not where but in God? O Error! O Wand'ring!   

The Condemnation of our blind and senseless love of our Body.  
If by the Principle of our Origine, and of our Celestial Dependence, which ought to make us so essentially to turn to God; we ought so mightily to condemn our forgetfulness, and our wand'ring from God. We ought no less to condemn by the Principle of Nature, and the Spiritual Quality of our Souls, our Foolish and Idolatrous love of our Bodies. For in fine, Since our Souls is the true Foundation of our Being, how comes it to pass, That we only know our Bodies? That we only Love, Adore, and Idolise our Bodies? That we are not concerned, but for the Interests of our Bodies? That we do not labour, or much concern ourselves, but for our Bodies? We are sensible to all their little Businesses, to all their little Advantages, to all their little Commodities; and insensible to all the Businesses, to all the Interests and Advantages of our Soul!  
Our Soul is, as hath been said, The whole Foundation of our Being. It is by her, That we ought to be eternally happy or unhappy? She is all our True and Essential Being; The Body, and every thing which hath the Body for its Basis, for its Foundation, and for its Subject, is no more, than as it were an accident of our True Being. The Whole Man is in the Soul; or to say better, It is the Soul only, that is the Whole Man; because Man is nothing properly, but what he ought to be Eternally; for there is nothing truly and properly real, but what is Eternal. To be for a Moment, for a Day, for a Year, or for some short time; This is not properly to Be. Eternity is the true Ground, and the true Basis of a solid and real Being: Nothing properly and truly Is, but that which is to be for ever. To be for a time only, is not truly to Be: It is a Shadow of Being; It is a Figure of Being. The Present World is not according to St. Paul, but a Figure of a World; not a True World, because it passes away.  
All Corporeal Felicity therefore, all Grandeur, all Abundance, all the Advantages which have Bodies for a Basis, and for a Subject, cannot make to a Man a true and real Being, since Death ought to make her Prey upon them. The true Being of a Man, is that which ought to Be Eternally; and since it is by the Soul only, and by the advantages or disadvantages of the Soul, that Man ought to be Eternally, all that which he ought to be. Therefore there is nothing more true, than to say, That it is the Soul only, which is the Whole Man.  
Beauty, Ladies, which you make as the Basis and Foundation of all your Being; And the Debaucheries, in which you infamous Sensual Men make your Felicity, and all your Being to consist, will not go along with you into Eternity. The Body, which is the Basis of Beauty and of Debauchery, is laid in the Grave, and remains on this side, when the Soul returns to God, and makes her Passage into Eternity; and then, at the Consummation of Time, and the Establishment of the Immutable Order of the World to come, when the Soul shall come to Reassume the Body, She will take with it nothing of that, which at present makes her Felicity and her Pomp's.  
The Pleasures of the Body, are all of them Essentially false, as well as empty. They leave the Heart, even during this Life, sick and Famished, and they leave the Soul eternally deceived; they disappear, they fly away, they leave the Soul in a cruel Privation, and in an insupportable Desolation of Regret and of Repentance, of Horror, and of Despair. O Vanity then of Vanities! Illusion of Illusions! Thus to abandon ourselves, to love nothing but our Bodies; and neglect the care of our Souls.  
The Soul, at this very hour, hath her Goods, her Riches, her Grandeurs, and her Pleasures; which are worth more, without comparison, than the Pleasures, the Goods, Riches, and Grandeurs of the Body. But tho' the Soul should have none but the Pleasures, the Riches, and the Grandeurs of Eternity: The expectation of those Pleasures, of those Grandeurs, and of those Riches of Eternity, aught to possess us, instead of the Pleasure, Grandeur, and Riches of the Body. In the mean time, How great is our furious and ridiculous Blindness thereupon? What do we take care for, but the Body? What do we take Pains for, but the Body? Does not every thing rely upon the Body? Do not all all things terminate in the Body? Do not all things turn about the Body?  
See a little, all the Pains, all the violent Transports, all the agitation of Human Life; if we seek for great Riches, Treasure and Fortune; is it not that we may have a sure and infallible Mean, of being able to make upon the Body, all the Impressions of Pleasure and Voluptuousness, that we would desire? to prefer it to High Places, to make it carry itself Superbiously? to make it be reverenced by the People, & the Multitude? To cause it to be Lodged magnificently? To cause it to be delicately, and excellently well Clothed? It is for the Body, that we Labour, that we Sow, that we Reap. It is the Body, that all Arts sweat for; The Body takes up all; there is neither place nor time for the Soul. See if you can find from Morning till Night, That the Body leaves the Soul one moment free, and at leisure? What say you to this Conduct? What think you of it? Is this good Order? Is this indeed Justice and Reason?  
Ah! poor Soul, how ill art thou Lodged, how unjustly and unworthily art thou Treated! yet in the mean time, thou art an Immortal and Eternal Nature and Substance, or to say better, an Immortal and Eternal Queen, to whom equally belong, both Time and Eternity, the Present World, and the World to come: It is to Thee, that all aught to be Subservient, for thou art the sole End of all the present Oeconemy. There cannot be a greater Subversion of Order, and of Reason, than that Outrage, which we commit upon our Souls; than that Preference which we give to our Bodies. Thou Reason of Man, do thou Justice to thyself; Thou Soul of Man, know thy Price and thy Nobleness; begin to know thyself, and to know thy Body. Oh Soul! Oh Body! If we could weigh you in a just Balance, what shame should we not have, that we thus vilify and debase, degrade and dishonour our Souls, at the rate that we do?  
They are not at all now sensible of the Outrage that they do to themselves, but they will be cruelly sensible of it one day; and that one day will quickly come: What Reproaches, and what Shame then will they not endure? What Indignation, and what Storm, will they not then conceive against themselves? And with what Air, will they look down from Heaven, and from the bosom of God upon their Bodies, turned into Worms, or into Serpents; or if you will into Dust and Ashes only, as they are lying in their Graves. See there, will they then say, The Idols we Adored; See there The Subjects of our Felicities; See there the Theatre of our Vanities; See there the Object of all our Designs; See there The Matter of our Passions; See there our perpetual and eternal Illusion.  
Even the Happy Souls will make this Reproach, which will serve to augment their Joy, of having at last acknowledged the Justice that was due to them. But the Reprobate Souls, with what Grief will they cast their frightful and terrible looks towards their Bodies; and with what Horrors will they join Themselves again to them, at the Universal Resurrection? Good God What Rage and what Despair! What Horrors, and what Furies! It is then for Thee, thou Case off filthiness and ordure, that we have kindled this Fire! It is long of thee, That this of Fire and Brimstone, is prepared for us! It is long of thee, That we shall burn Eternally! but let Us endeavour to prevent these Things, and let us turn all our esteem, and all our cares towards our Souls, of which, there will be nothing lost, but all will be Converted on the contrary, into an Eternal Harvest of Incorruption and Immortality, of Felicities and of Joys; as St. Paul says, Whereas all that is done (as the same Apostle says) that is cast into, and sown in the Body, is cast and sown in pure loss, and produces nothing but an eternal Harvest of Pain and of Despair.   

The Condemnation of that little Care, which we have to Cooperate, to the Honour of the Divine Resemblance.  
It is one of the best Advantages of our Souls, That they are made after the Image and Resemblance of God. It is for that Reason, the Sacred Historian, who hath given us the History of their Creation, does principally exalt their Dignity, and their Nobility. And it is with Reason (saith St. Augustin) because there is there a Recapitulation of all their Advantages. This Advantage of our Souls, of being the Images and Resemblances of God, implies, saith He, all their other Advantages, and adds something which nothing else contains.  
How happy are we, that God hath made us his Images, saith St. Chrysostom? for what advantage do you think here, we have of being his Image? It is not only a glorious Title which flatters our Pride, or which puffs up our Vanity; it is a Right which we have to the Immortal Happiness, and to the Ineffable Participation of all his Felicity. We are his Images in Nature, that we may be his Images also in Glory: For it is not in vain, that we are the Portraiture, and the lively animated Picture of that Supreme and Eternal Nature, in the Foundation of the Essence of our Souls. God does not leave his Works imperfect; for, having made in us his Images in Nature, he hath made us capable of being the lively Images of all his Felicity.  
This is it, which makes what I call, the Divine Quality of our Souls; Great Nobility, without doubt! But a Nobleness, which ought to cost dear to our Irregular Inclinations, and to all our Desires which are contrary to Duty and Virtue; which ought to give, as it were, the Body, and put the Colours upon the Picture of the Divine Resemblance which Nature Gins in Us, which Grace Perfectionates, and which Glory Consummates: For God cannot, and ought not to imprint the Image of his Eternal, and Sovereign Felicity, but in our Souls, wherein, a constant and perpetual Vigilance to exercise Mortification and Virtue, will have Copied out, during the whole Course of our Present Life, his Eternal Righteousness and Holiness. We are not in the Present Life, but to finish that Divine Resemblance of Holiness and Virtue, which Nature hath rough-drawn in us by that love of Order and of Duty, which we call Conscience; That is the Reason we ought to render ourselves Subjects disposed to receive the happy Impression of the Sovereign Felicity, which ought to complete this Resemblance. The Scripture teaches us, That none of us shall enter into Heaven, before we be compared with God, as with an Original, whereof we ought to be the Copies; and it is for that we ought to be continually employed, as St. Chrysostom saith, To Exercise this Heavenly Agriculture of eradicating even the least Fibres, or Strings of our Irregular Covetous Desire; and to make Christian Virtues to rise, and to grow in their Place; whereof we have twice received the Seeds, the one by Nature, and the other by Grace.  
God hath rough-drawn the Table, saith St. Augustin; and then he hath put into our hands the Pencil and the Colours; and he hath given us all our Life-time to complete and finish it. We ought not to lose one moment of Time; He would, that every moment we should give one stroke of the Pencil, and that without ceasing, we put Colours upon Colours; That is the Eternal and only Task, and all the Employment of Life; that is all the Exercise of our sojourning in the Body: But instead of finishing this Table, and instead of culvating these precious Seeds of Virtue, which ought to form in us the Divine Resemblance, we Nip these Sacred and Divine Buds of Conscience, and of Grace; and we commonly see in the Soul but a Field, very ill cultivated, covered with the Thistles & Briers or all Vices: We expunge the rough Draught of the Table, which God had begun; and instead of that excellent Painting, which he would have seen finished in us, he sees nothing but a monstrous and horrible Representation of all the Corruption of Devils form from the hideous Assemblage of all Vices.  
It is not easy to say, with what trouble he sees this Disorder. The Holy History teacheth us, That the sad and deadly Spectacle, which the Impure Souls did expose to his Eyes, at the time of the Deluge, made him hate and detest his own Workmanship, which he at first had found so beautiful; for it is said, That he was at first surprised with Love and Admiration, for the Workmanship which he had begun: Vidit cuncta quae fecerat & erant valdè bona. It teaches us, that he Repent himself of having made Man, and of having given him the Liberty of flinging Dirt and Ordure upon this rich and beautiful Work, upon which he had imprinted his own Resemblance and Visage: But St. Chrysostom observes very well, that what he said there, concerning the Inundation of Impurity, which obliged him to send upon the Earth that Inundation of Water, whereby he drowned the World; He saith it continually, upon our Occasion, That it was by reason of our Vices, and our Covetous Desires, by which he had effaced in us the Divine Resemblance. He could not suffer this Indignity, this Outrage: He thundered in himself, and meditated a just Vengeance.  
How terrible, and how formidable shall this Vengeance be? It is from hence, he will say, in looking upon his Image so Blotted, and Effaced in our Souls, and covered over with the horrible Colours of all Vices. Is this then, will he say, the fine Piece that thou hast finished? Is it thus, that thou hast answered all my Intentions? Is it then for the making of this fine Work, that thou hast employed all thy Life? Look upon the Original; compare these Lines with my Lines; compare the Original with the Copy.   

The Condemnation of our enchanted Love of the Present Life.  
God, who does not deny us any good thing, would not deny us the Pleasure of loving Life; so far are we (in loving Life) from displeasing God, that we cannot truly love Life, but that we must love God, in whom is the Source and Principle of Life essentially; so then, it cannot be amiss to love Life: But we must not mistake ourselves, and under the Specious Pretence of loving Life, to love only the Present Life.  
God does not forbid us absolutely to love the Present Life; he commands us indeed to love it in some respect. We may say, That there is a love of Life permitted, a love of Life commanded, and a love of Life forbidden. We are commanded to love the Present Life; in That we are commanded to rest satisfied with our State of Trial in our Body. We ought not at all to murmur at it, or be impatient under the Pains, or the Melancholies which accompany it. We are commanded to submit ourselves to that Order of Providence, which makes us pass through so difficult a Trial: And as in the ancient Spectacle of the Combats of the Gladiators, which were showed to the People, The Combatants were not permitted to go out of the Amphitheatre, till the Magistrate, or he that proposed the Price, gave the Signal of the end of the Combat, and caused the Gate of the Amphitheatre to be opened; so we are not at all permitted to hasten our Death, which we ought to expect from the hand of him that hath put us; into the Lists, to whom it belongs to give the the Signal of the end of our Combat, and to open the Gate of the Amphitheatre; we are then commanded to love the Present Life in that respect. We are also permitted to enjoy the Agreements, which we there find, as it were, upon the way; This is That Love, which is permitted us, as we have said; but we are not at all permitted to place therein all our Heart, all our Pleasure, and all our Happiness; for that would be to make it our last End and Sovereign Good. We are not at all permitted, to love the Present Life better than the Future; For thus to love the Present Life, is a Love that is criminal.  
It is so very Criminal (that it may be) it is the greatest of all the Disorders that our Hearts can fall into: For to love the Present Life, in prejudice to the love and the desire of the Future, is the greatest of all the Idolatries that the Heart of Man can commit; it is to make the Body and the Visible World his God, because this is to make of them his Sovereign Good; and we always make that our God, which is our Sovereign Good. This sin of loving the Present Life, was the sin of Esau; The sin of the Israelites, who perished in the Desert for having despised the Land of Promise; The sin of the Tribes, who would not pass the River Jordan; and in the Gospel, it is the sin of the wicked Rich Man, of the Prodigal Son, and of the easy and happy ones of this Age; upon whom falls the Curse of Jesus Christ, because they have their Consolation in this World; that is to say, saith St. Chrysostom, The heart and affection to this Present Life; a Disposition which is not only criminal, by reason of that kind of Idolatry, which we have said it contains; and by reason of the Disesteem, which it makes of the order of God's eternal Predestination, and of the Subversion of his Designs: But also, because it is in the Soul, as it were the Foundation of Corruption, from whence are form all sorts of Vices, Irregugularities and Disorders, and which produces naturally the grossest of Libertinism and Atheism, saith Thomas Aquinas, Because by reason of much loving the Present Life, we come (saith he) to hate the Future, and to wish that there were none at all; and when we are gone as far as to hate it, we shall easily come not to believe it at all; and when the Future Life is once become a Fable, Divinity soon after will be but a Chimaera only.  
This excessive Love then of the Present Life, is a great Disorder and Irregularity; and this Irregularity is mounted in us, even to the last Period, and to the highest Degree: I call it a Love enchanted of the Present Life; for it is a Love of Charm and of Enchantment; It is a Fury and a Rage, a Madness and a Frenzy of Love. The Future Life allures us to it by a thousand Charms; it glitters before us, I will not say like a Sun, but like an Immensity of Light, which ought to carry as much Ardour into our Hearts, as Conviction into our Spirits; it opens her Bosom to us, and lends us an assisting Hand: Instinct and Religion, Grace and Nature, the Law and the Gospel, Heaven and Earth, all of them show our Future Life in a happy Immortality, all sparkling with Joys, with Felicities, and with Glories: The sweet and ineffable Impression of Grace and the Holy Spirit; The lively sparkles of Heavenly Regeneration, which operate in us by a thousand secret Incitements; The Example of the truly Faithful, who groan without ceasing, with St. Paul, in Expectation of their Deliverance from their Bodies, and of the manifestation of the Future Life, and of the Glories of the Children of God, do solicit and impel us, and do call upon us. The World itself by its Contradictions, and the Present Life by its Pains and its Disgusts, do render the Love and the desire of the Future Life necessary to us, to comfort us under our present Pains and Miseries; And yet notwithstanding, we have the deadly weight upon our heart, which inclines us, and fixes us to the Earth, and to this miserable Life; we are not able to raise ourselves up, to desire Celestial Beauties, and the Eternal Delights; we are more ready to say, Let God take care of Heaven for himself, and let him leave the Earth for us. We see here what sort of Creatures we are; it is impossible to make the least Ray or Spark of the Love of the Future Life, to enter into our hearts.  
St. Paul notwithstanding, teaches us, That the Present World is but a Shadow of the World to come; and the Present Life, upon that account, cannot be but the Shadow of the Future; that is to say, there is the same difference between the Present Life and the Future Life, as there is between a Body that is all real, and all effective; and between the Shadow, which is only a void and an empty Figure. All the Shadows here below, that is to say, all the Joys, and all the Felicities of this Life, which are only Shadows here, are in the Future Things real: All that is here a Figure, is there Reality. The Honours, the Pomp's and the Glories, the Abundance, the Pleasures, are There true Pomps, true Honours, true Glory, true Abundance, true Pleasures. Conceive the Difference, saith St. Chrysostom, between the Shadow and the Sun; conceive how great are the Beauties of that Planet, which animates all the Beauty of the World, above that drowsy Obscurity, which hath only a pure Nothingness of Privation for the Body, and the Foundation of its Being; and when you have comprehended that, do not believe that you have comprehended the advantage of the Future Life above the Present Life. St. Paul said very well, That to die, is gain; Mori lucrum. We gain without doubt; because that instead of a World of Shadows, of Figures, of Illusions of Vanities, of Dreams of pure Nothings, clothed with the Painted Superficies of Being, or rather with the simple and false Appearance, we enter into the Possession of a World, where all is Real, all Solid, all Effective, and all Immortal.   

The Condemnation of our violent Desires, for the Establishment of our Present Fortunes; and of our deadly Indifference for the sort of Event of our Eternal Predestination, which is decided in this Present Life.  
We have acknowledged by the State of Trial, in which we have seen our Souls are at present, their uncertain and doubtful State of Alternativeness, of the formidable coming of Eternity, in which they ought to enter, in going out of Time, and out of the Present Life. We have acknowledged, that we are here, as it were, suspended and balanced betwixt two Extremes, of two different Eternity's; of which, we have the Lot to decide by our Vigilance, and by our Application to Sanctify ourselves, and to prepare ourselves for that Impression of Glory and Sovereign Felicity, which God will really give to all those whom he shall find prepared and disposed for it, by a faithful and constant Co-operation with his Grace; and there follows from thence, a Condemnation equally just and formidable, of our violent Desires for our present Fortunes, and of our brutal Indifference for that of Eternity, which we are to make for ourselves; and for which, we cannot rely and repose ourselves upon any one else.  
If our Lot of Eternity was cast upon us, after the manner as some conceive it; if it was a Destiny which ought to be effected without us, and if we were only to expect the Event, and the infallible and inevitable Execution of it; there would not be any Thing to reproach us thereupon; we might in the mean time, wholly employ ourselves about our present Fortunes: But besides That, even then when God hath a particular Cause in the Predestination of some few, and that he Charges himself with the success of their Salvation, which I believe he does for a certain number; he does not at all save even these Privileged Persons without their Co-operation. It is certain, That in regard to the generality of Men, he does not concur to their Predestination and their Salvation, but as Universal Cause; and that the Success of it is left to the Vigilance of every one. Thus our Souls do themselves beforehand, decide by the good or ill usage of Time, of the Present Life, and of Grace, the Alternativeness of the Immutable State of Happiness or Unhappiness, in which they are to be fixed and established when they depart hence. Thus It is certain, That all the Occupations, all the Designs, and all the Erterprises of Men, which have not for their End, the great Object of that building of our House of Eternity, which the Scripture frequently mentions, which we ought to be building every moment of this Present Life, as it were, by so many Stones that we are to raise one upon another, to the end, that our Souls may find their Habitations ready prepared. It is certain (once again) That all our Occupations, all our Cares, all our violent Desires, all our Designs, and all our Erterprises, are things not only vain and unprofitable, but foolish, furious and frenetic.  
Our Souls ought to enter into a State of Everlasting Happiness, or Everlasting Misery; they are to enter into the fixed and immortal Order of the Love, or of the Hatred of God: After the Expiration of the short Time and Account of their Trial, They are to receive (saith St. Paul) accordingly as they have believed, and governed themselves in the Body; accordingly as they have heaped up a Treasure of Anger, or a Treasure of Love; the Price of their happy Eternity, or the Pain of their Eternal Unhappiness: It is their part to decide this Lot; They are suspended and balanced betwixt the two affrighting Extremities; Every moment of the Present Life, enters into one or other of these two Extremities, and can thereby decide and determine the Event thereof; But instead of seriously thinking upon so great an Interest, we heap up Wind, we make Spiders-Webs, we build up Edifices, which are to bury us under their Ruins.  
We give splendid Names and specious Titles to this Vanity and this Frenzy; we call it, To extend the Limits of an Empire; to be Masters of the World; to make a great and puissant Fortune; to raise a stately Structure, and to Establish a mighty Family; to possess the chief Rank of Nobility, to make a fair Way to Advancement, to be Exalted to be Governors, to leave a raised and settled Posterity, a thousand fine Names, but Names only, Shadows and Illusions, Chimaeras and Visions, and true Ruins and Miseries! Can you call this the Building of a famous Structure, and a mighty Fortune, to attain great Credit, and vast Riches; and yet for all that, to be buried three days after in a Grave, and remain eternally Poor and Naked, Hungry and Starved, torn to pieces by Despairs, and throughly pierced with Torments? Can you call this Advancement and Preferment? Can you call it Elevation and Fortune to find at the going out of this Life, which is so short and so uncertain, a so affrighting Horror of a vast and infinite Solitude, a sad Desert of Universal Privation and Misery; and in the midst of the Horror of this Immensity of Nothingness, an Immensity of Power and Wrath armed against You! A terrible and implacable God, Who regarding his Eternity as his Foundation and his Riches, as Tertullian saith, and as a Foundation which he would make to advance his Glory, in all the moments of Time which he gives us, and which are as so many Portions which he requires of us, is rendered an inflexible and an inexorable Avenger of the loss and dissipation which we make thereof, in following those Visions and Chimeras of Fortune!  
After all this, Labour, you vain and ambitious Men; Labour to make to yourselves an uncomfortable and an eternal Despair; Labour to leave here behind you a Great Name; and to find in the New World (wherein you are to enter so quickly, and wherein you are to stay so long) a misery without end, and without bounds. Labour to leave your Children, goodly Houses and fair Palaces, and not find where to Lodge yourselves in this New Country, where you are to Inhabit always. Labour to leave them vast Riches, and to carry along with you, your poor, naked, empty Souls murdered with Sins, and torn in pieces with Remorse, transpierced with Regrets, having nothing at all for a Foundation, but that infinite heap of Wrath and Vengeance, which they have amassed to themselves, by all the Cares and violent Desires of raising their Families and their Fortunes.  
Do you believe that the eternal Despair of a Soul, which the Chimaera of Fortune, which the Fury of Ambition, which the Vanity of the Court have possessed during all the Present Life, will be much comforted by the Settlement which it hath left his Children? I do not know what you think of it, but it is certain, That whether God let him see or no the State of his Family; whether his Children have any true acknowledgement or no for his Memory, which is so doubtful, and so uncertain; whether they maintain, or waste what He had raised them to; it cannot be for that Soul, but an Eternal Subject of Regret, of Repentance and of Remorse. This poor Father burns, and his Children enjoy the Fruit of his eternal Misery; They possess his great Estate, his fine Houses, his great Revenue, whilst He suffers the Despair and the Punishment of them. O the Fury of our Ambition! O the Blindness of our Passions! O the Impertinence of our violent Transports! Let us make a good use, Let us make a good use of the Knowledge which we have of the Immutable State of Misery, or of Felicity, into which we are to pass, when we are to go out of this Life. Let us undeceive ourselves, and disabuse ourselves from all our care after Greatness and Temporal Fortune, and think only of making for ourselves a Grandeur and a Fortune which will be Eternal.    
FINIS.