A TREATISE OF Morality.  
In Two Parts.  
Written in French by F. MALBRANCH, AUTHOR of The Search after Truth. And Translated into English, By JAMES SHIPTON, M. A.  
LONDON: Printed for james Knapton, at the Crown in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1699.   

THE Author's LETTER TO MONSIEUR ****  
SIR,  
I Have sent you the Treatise of Morality which you desire of me with so much importunity. It is divided into two Parts. In the First I have examined wherein Virtue doth precisely consist, and laid down the means of acquiring and preserving it: The Second contains the Duties of it. I know not what Censure you will pass on this Book, you, Sir, who are so nice a Judge; for I confess to you that there are many things in it, which I have not explained with that exactness which you require of Authors. But I desire you to consider two Things. The First is, that having no clear Idea of the Soul, you understand what I mean, the greatest part of the Terms of Morality can express only its Sensations. The Second is, that Books ought to be proportioned, as far as it is possible, to the Capacity of the generality of Mankind, and that if I had been too nice and scrupulous in explaining the signification of the Terms which I make use of, I should have extremely tired the Attentions of my Readers; for People are soon weary of reading a Book that doth not raise agreeable Sensations in their Mind. Perhaps I may think it necessary hereafter to add some Illustrations which may clear those Difficulties which the common Phrase of Speech cannot remove. The success that this Treatise meets with, will determine my Resolution in that Point.  
I am; etc.   

THE CONTENTS OF THE FIRST PART.  
CHAP. I. 
Universal Reason is the Wisdom of God himself. All Men have some Communication with God. True and False, Just and  is the same in respect of all intelligent Being's, and of God himself. What Truth and Order is, and what we must do to avoid Sin and Error. God is essentially Just; he loves the Creatures according as they are amiable, or as they resemble him. We must be Perfect to be Happy; Virtue, or the Perfection of Man consists in a Submission to the immutable Order, and not in following the Order of Nature. The Error of some of the Heathen Philosophers in this Matter, grounded upon their Ignorance of the simplicity and immutability of the Divine Conduct. Page 1.  CHAP. II. 
There is no other Virtue but the Love of Order and Reason. Without this Love all Virtues are false. We must not confound Duties with Virtue: We may discharge our Duties without Virtue. 'Tis for want of consulting Reason that Men approve and follow damnable Customs. Faith serves or conducts to Reason: For Reason is the supreme Law of all intelligent Being's. p. 12.  CHAP. III. 
The Love of Order doth not differ from Charity. Two sorts of Love, one of Union, and the other of Benevolence. The former is due only to Power, or to God alone. The latter aught to be proportioned to perso●●● Merit, as our Duties to relative. Self-love enlightened is not contrary to the love of Union. The love of Order is common to all Men. The Species of the love of Order, natural and free, actual and habitual. Only that which is free, habitual and ruling renders us just in the sight of God. So that Virtue consists in nothing but a free, habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order. p. 21.  CHAP. IU. 
Two fundamental Truths belonging to this Treatise. I. Acts produce Habits, and Habits Acts. II. The Soul doth not always produce the Acts of its ruling Habit. The Sinner may avoid committing any particular Sin, and the just Man may lose his Charity, because there is no Sinner without some love for Order, and no just Man without Self-love. We cannot be justified in the sight of God by the strength of . The means in general of acquiring and preserving Charity. The method used in the explication of these means. p. 23.  CHAP. V. 
Of the Strength of the Mind. Our Desires are the occasional Causes of our Knowledge. The Contemplation of abstract Ideas is difficult. The Strength of the Mind consists in an acquired Habit of enduring the Labour of Attention. The way to acquire it is to Silence our Senses, Imagination and Passions, to Regulate our Studies, and to Meditate only on clear Ideas. p. 40.  CHAP. VI 
Of the Liberty of the Mind. We should suspend our Assent as much as we can, which is the great Rule. By the Liberty of the Mind we may avoid Error and Sin, as by the Strength of the Mind we free ourselves from Ignorance. The Liberty of the Mind, as well as the Strength of it, is a Habit which is confirmed by use. Some instances of its usefulness in Physics, Morality, and Civil Life. p. 51.  CHAP. VII. 
Of Obedience to Order. The means of acquiring a firm and ruling Disposition to obey it. It cannot be done without Grace. How far the right use of our Strength and Liberty contributes toward it, by the Light it produces in us, by the contemptible Opinion it gives us of our Passions, and by the Purity which it preserves and establishes in our Imagination. p. 61.  CHAP. VIII. 
The Means which Religion furnishes us with to gain and preserve the Love of Order. Jesus Christ is the occasional Cause of Grace; we must call upon him with confidence. When we come to the Sacraments, the actual Love of Order is changed into habitual, in consequence of the permanent desires of Christ: The Proof of this Truth being essential to the Conversion of Sinners. The fear of Hell is as good a Motive as the desire of eternal Happiness. We must not confound the Motive with the End. The desire of being Happy, or Self-love, should make us conformable to Order, or obedient to the Law of God. p. 71.  CHAP. IX. 
The Church in its Prayers Addresses its self to the Father by the Son, and why. We should Pray to the Blessed Virgin, Angels and Saints, but not as occasional causes of inward Grace. The Angels, and even the Devils have power over Bodies, as occasional causes. By this means the Devils may tempt us, and the Angels promote the efficacy of Grace. p. 83.  CHAP. X. 
Of the Occasional Causes of the Sensations and Motions of the Soul which resist the Efficacy of Grace, either of Light or Sense. The Union of the Soul with God is immediate, not that of the Soul with the Body. An Explication of some general Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body, necessary for the right understanding the rest of this Treatise. p. 91.  CHAP. XI. 
What kind of death we must die to see God, to be united to Reason, and to deliver ourselves from Concupiscence. It is the Grace of Faith that gives us this happy death. Christians are dead to Sin by Baptism, and alive in Christ by his Resurrection. Of the Mortification of the Senses, and the use we should make of it. We should unite ourselves to corporeal Objects, and separate ourselves from them without loving or fearing them. But the surest way is to break off all Correspondence with them, as far as is possible. p. 99  CHAP. XII. 
Of the Imagination. This Term is obscure and confused. What it is in general. Several sorts of Imagination. Its effects are dangerous. Of that which the World calls Wit. That quality is very opposite to the Grace of Christ. It is fatal to those who possess it, and to those who esteem and admire it in others, tho' they have it not themselves. p. 109.  CHAP. XIII. 
Of the Passions. What they are. Their dangerous effects. We must moderate them. The conclusion of the first Part. p. 119.    

THE CONTENTS OF THE SECOND PART. Of Duties.  
CHAP. I. 
GOod Men often do wicked Actions. The Love of Order must be enlightened to make it regular. Three Conditions required to make an Action perfectly Virtuous. We should study the Duties of Man in general, and take some time every day to examine the Order and Circumstances of them in particular. Page 1.  CHAP. II. 
Our Duties toward God must be referred to his Attributes, to his Power, Wisdom and Love. God alone is the true Cause of all Things. The Duties we own to Power, which consist chief in clear Judgements, and in Motions governed by those Judgements. p. 4.  CHAP. III. 
Of the Duties we own to the Wisdom of God. It is that alone which enlightens the Mind in consequence of certain natural Laws, whose efficacy is determined by our Desires as occasional Causes. The Judgements and Duties of the Mind in relation to the universal Reason. p. 14.  CHAP. IU. 
Of the Duties which we own to the divine Love. Our Will is nothing but a continual impression of the Love which God bears to himself, the only true Good. We cannot love Evil: But we may take that for Evil, which is neither Good nor Evil. So we cannot hate Good: But the true Good is really the Evil of wicked Men, or the true cause of their Misery. That God may be Good in respect of us, our Love must be like his, or always subject to the divine Law, Motions or Duties. p. 21.  CHAP. V. 
The three Divine Persons imprint each their proper Character on our Souls; and our Duties give equal Honour to them all three. Tho' our Duties consist only in inward Judgements and Motions, yet we must show them by outward Signs, in regard of our Society with other Men. p. 30.  CHAP. VI 
Of the Duties of Society in general. Two sorts of Society. Every thing should be referred to the eternal Society. Different kinds of Love and Honour. The general heads of our Duties toward Men. They must be External and Relative. The danger of paying inward Duties to Men. The Conversation of the World very dangerous. p. 36.  CHAP. VII. 
The Duties of Esteem are due to all Mankind, to the lowest of Men, to the greatest Sinners, to our Enemies and Persecutors: To Merits, as well as to Natures. It is difficult to regulate exactly these Duties and those of Benevolence, by reason of the difference of personal and relative Merits, and their various Combinations. A general Rule, and the most certain one that can be given in this matter. p. 42.  CHAP. VIII. 
Of the Duties of Benevolence and Respect. We should procure all Men the true Goods, and not relative Goods. Who it is that fulfils the Duties of Benevolence. The unreasonable Complaints of worldly Men. The Duties of Respect should be proportioned to the greatness of participated Power. p. 52.  CHAP. IX. 
Of the Duties due to Sovereigns. Two Sovereign Powers. The difference between them. Their natural Rights. Rights of Concession. Of the Obedience of Subjects. p. 61.  CHAP. X. 
Of the Domestic Duties of Husband and Wife. The Ground of these Duties. Of the Duties of Parents toward their Children, with relation to the Eternal and Civil Societies. Of their instruction in the Sciencies and Morality. Parents should give their Children a good Example. They should govern them by Reason. They have no right to use them ill. Children own Obedience to their Parents in all Things. p. 69.  CHAP. XI. 
The original of the difference of Conditions. Reason alone ought to govern, but Force is now necessary. The lawful use of Force is to make Men submit to Reason, according to the Primitive Law. The Rights of Superiors. The Duties of Superiors and Inferiors. p. 81.  CHAP. XII. 
Of our Duties toward our Equals. We should give them the place they desire in our Mind and Heart. We should express our inward Dispositions in favour of them by our outward Air and Behaviour, and by real Services. We should yield them the Superiority and Pre-eminence. The hottest and most passionate Friendships are not the most solid and durable. We should not make more intimate Friends than we can keep. p. 90.  CHAP. XIII. 
A Continuatian of the same Subject. If we would be beloved, we must make ourselves amiable. The Qualities which make a Man amiable. Rules for Conversation. Of different Airs. Of Christian Friendships. p. 100  CHAP. XIV. 
Of the Duties which every Man owes to himself; which consist in general in labouring for his own Perfection and Happiness. p. 110.    

A TREATISE OF Morality.  
PART I.  

CHAP. I. Universal Reason is the Wisdom of God himself. All Men have some Communication with God. True and False, Just and  is the same in respect of all intelligent Being's, and of God himself. What Truth and Order is, and what we must do to avoid Error and Sin. God is essentially Just; he loves the Creatures according as they are amiable, or as they resemble him. We must be Perfect to be Happy; Virtue, or the Perfection of Man consists in a Submission to the immutable Order, and not in following the Order of Nature. The Error of some of the Heathen Philosophers in this Matter, grounded upon their Ignorance of the simplicity and immutability of the Divine Conduct.  
I. THE Reason of Man is the Word, 
See the first and second Christian Meditation, or the Illustration on the Nature of Ideas, Search after Truth, Tom. 3.  or the Wisdom of God himself; for every Creature is a particular Being; but the Reason of Man is Universal.  
II. If my own particular Mind were my Reason and my Light, my Mind would also be the Reason of all intelligent Being's; for I am certain, that my Reason enlightens all intelligent Being's. No one can feel my Pain but myself, but every one may see the Truth which I contemplate; so that the Pain which I feel is a Modification of my own proper Substance, but Truth is a Possession common to all Spiritual Being's.  
III. Thus, by the means of Reason, I have, or may have some Society with God, and all other intelligent Being's; because they all possess something in common with me, to wit, Reason.  
iv This Spiritual Society consists in a participation of the same intellectual Substance of the Word, from which all Spiritual Being's may receive their Nourishment. In contemplating this Divine Substance, I am able to see some part of what God thinks; for God sees all Truths, and there are some which I can see. I can also discover something of the Will of God; for God wills nothing but according to a certain Order, and this Order is not altogether unknown to me. It is certain that God loves Things according as they are worthy of Love; and I can discover that there are some Things more Perfect, more Valuable, and consequently more worthy of Love than others.  
V It is true, indeed, that I cannot by contemplating the Word or consulting Reason, be assured whether God doth actually produce any thing out of his own Being or no. For none of the Creatures proceed naturally from the Word; nor is the World a necessary emanation of the Deity; God is fully sufficient for himself; and the Idea of a Being infinitely perfect, may be conceived to subsist alone. The Creatures than suppose in God free and arbitrary Decrees, which give them their Being. So that the Word, as such, not containing in it the Existence of the Creatures, we cannot by the Contemplation of it be assured of the Action of God: But supposing that God doth act, I am able to know something of the manner in which he acts, and may be certain that he doth not act in such or such a manner; for that which regulates his manner of Acting, the Law which he inviolably observes, is the Word, the Eternal Wisdom, the Universal Reason, which makes me Rational, and which I can in part contemplate according to my own desires.  
VI If we suppose Man to be a Rational Creature, we cannot certainly deny him the Knowledge of something that God thinks, and of the manner in which he acts. For by contemplating the substance of the Word, which alone makes me and all other intelligent Being's Rational, I can clearly discover the Relations or Proportions of Greatness that are between the intellectual Ideas comprehended in it; and these Relations are the same eternal Truths which God himself sees. For God sees as well as I, that twice two is four, and that Triangles which have the same Base, and are between the same Parallels, are equal. I can also discover, at least confusedly, the Relations of Perfection which are between the same Ideas; and these Relations are that immutable Order which God consults when he acts, and which ought also to regulate the Esteem and Love of all intelligent Being's.  
VII. From hence it is evident, that there are such things as True and False, Right and Wrong, and that too in respect of all intelligent Being's; that whatsoever is true in respect of Man, is true also in respect of Angels, and of God himself; that what is Injustice or Disorder with relation to Man, is so also with relation to God. For all Spiritual Being's contemplating the same intellectual Substance, necessarily discover in it the same Relations of Greatness, or the same speculative Truths. They discover also the same practical Truths, the same Laws, and the same Order, when they see the Relations of Perfection that are between those intellectual Being's comprehended in the Substance of the Word, which alone is the immediate Object of all our Knowledge.  
VIII. I say, when they see these Relations of Perfection or Greatness, and not when they judge of them; for only Truth or the real Relations of Things are visible, and we ought to judge of nothing but what we see. When we judge before we see, or of more things than we see, we are deceived in our Judgement, or at least we judge ill, tho' we may happen by chance not to be deceived: For when we judge of things by chance, as well as when we judge by Passion or Interest, we judge ill, because we do not judge by Evidence and Light. This is Judging by ourselves and not by Reason, or according to the Laws of Universal Reason: That Reason, I say, which alone is superior to Spirits, and hath a Right to judge of those Judgements which are pronounced by them.  
IX. The Mind of Man being finite, cannot see all the Relations that the Objects of its Knowledge bear to one another; so that it may be deceived when it judges of Relations which it doth not see. But if it judged of nothing but just what it saw, which without doubt it may do; certainly, tho' it be a finite Spirit, tho' it be Ignorant, and in its own Nature subject to Error, it would never be deceived; for then the Judgements framed by it would not proceed so much from itself, as from the Universal Reason pronouncing the same Judgements in it.  
X. But God is infallible in his own Nature; he cannot be subject to Error or Sin, for he is his own Light, and his own Law; Reason is consubstantial with him, he understands it perfectly, and loves it invincibly. Being infinite, he discovers all the Relations that are comprehended in the intellectual Substance of the Word; and therefore cannot judge of what he doth not see. And as he loves himself invincibly, so he cannot but esteem and love other things according as they are valuable and according as they are amiable.  
XI. It is probable that Angels and Saints, tho' in their own Nature subject to Error, are never deceived; because the least attention of Mind represents to them clearly the Ideas of things and their several Relations; they judge of nothing but what they see; they follow the Light, and do not go before it; they obey the Law, and do not set themselves above it: In them Reason alone judges definitively and without appeal. But Man, such as I find myself to be, is often deceived, because the labour of Attention is extremely tiresome to him; and tho' his Application be strong and painful, he hath commonly but a confused fight of Objects. Thus being weary and not much enlightened, he reposes himself on probability, and contents himself for some time with the enjoyment of a false Good; but being soon out of relish with it, he gins his search anew, till being tired or seduced again he takes some rest, till he be in a condition to begin afresh, tho' weakly, his difficult inquiries.  
XII. Since speculative and practical Truths are nothing else but relations of Greatness or Perfection, it is evident that Falsehood is not any thing real. That twice two is four, or that twice two is not five is true, because there is a Relation of Equality between twice two and four, and a relation of Inequality between twice two and five. And he that sees these relations, sees Truths, because the relations are real. That twice two is five, or that twice two is not four is false, because there is no relation of equality between twice two and five, nor of inequality between twice two and four. And he that sees, or rather believes he sees these relations, sees Falsities. He sees relations that are not. He thinks he sees, but indeed he doth not see; for Truth is intelligible, but Falsehood in itself is absolutely incomprehensible.  
XIII. In like manner, that a Beast is more valuable than a Stone, and less valuable than a Man is true; because a Beast bears a greater proportion or relation of perfection to a Stone, than a Stone doth to a Beast; and a Beast hath a less proportion of perfection compared to a Man, than a Man hath compared to a Beast. And he that sees these Relations, sees such Truths as aught to regulate his esteem, and consequently that sort of Love that is determined by esteem: But he that esteems his Horse more than his Coachman, or thinks that a Stone is in itself more valuable than a Fly, or than the very lest of organised Bodies, doth not see that which perhaps he thinks he doth; it is not universal Reason, but his own particular Reason, that makes him judge after that manner: It is not the love of Order, but self-love, which inclines him to love as he doth. That which he thinks he sees, is neither visible nor intelligible; 'tis a false and imaginary Relation: And he that governs his esteem or love by this or the like Relation, must necessarily fall into Error and Irregularity.  
XIV. Since Truth and Order are Relations of greatness and perfection, real immutable and necessary relations, relations comprehended in the substance of the Divine Word; he that sees these relations, sees that which God sees: He that regulates his Love according to these Relations, observes a Law which God invincibly Loves. So that there is a perfect conformity of Mind and Will between God and him. In a word, seeing he knows that which God knows, and loves that which God loves, he is like God, as far as he is capable of being so. So likewise since God invincibly loves himself, he cannot but esteem and love his own Image. And as he loves things in proportion to their being amiable, he cannot but prefer it before all those Being's which either by their nature or corruption are far from resembling him.  
XV. 
See the 3. Discourse of the Treatise of Nature and Grace.  Man is a free Agent, and I suppose him to have all necessary assistances: In respect of Truth, he is capable of searching after it notwithstanding the difficulty he finds in Meditation; and in respect of Order, he is able to follow it, in spite of all the efforts of Concupiscence. He can sacrifice his Ease to Truth, and his Pleasures to Order. On the other side he can prefer his actual and present Happiness before his Duty, and fall into error and disorder. In a word, he can deserve well or ill by doing good or evil. Now God is just; he loves his Creatures as they are worthy of Love, or as they resemble him. His Will therefore is, that every good action should be rewarded, and every evil one punished; that he who hath made a good use of his Liberty, and by that means hath rendered himself in part perfect and like God, should be in part happy as he is, and the contrary.  
XVI. 
See the Remarks upon the seeming efficacy of second Causes, or the 5 and 6 Christian Meditations.  It is God alone that acts upon his Creatures; at least he hath a power of acting on them, and can do what he pleases with them. He hath power therefore to make spiritual Being's happy or miserable; happy by the enjoyment of Pleasure, and miserable by the suffering of Pain. He can exalt the just and perfect above other Men; he can communicate his Power to them for the accomplishment of their desires, and make them occasional causes for himself to act by in a Thousand manners. He can pull down the wicked, and make them subject to the action of the lowest Being's: This Experience sufficiently shows, for we all, as we are Sinners, depend upon the action of sensible objects.  
XVII. He therefore that labours for his Perfection, and endeavours to make himself like God, labours for his Happiness and Advancement. If he doth that which in some sort depends upon himself, that is to say, if he deserves well by making himself perfect, God will do that which in no sort depends upon him, in making him happy. For since God loves all Being's proportionably as they are amiable, and the most perfect Being's are the most amiable; the most perfect Being's shall be the most powerful, the most happy and the most contented. He that incessantly consults his Reason, and loves Order, having a share in the Perfection of God, shall have also a share in his Happiness, Glory and Greatness.  
XVIII. Man is capable of three Things; Knowing, Loving, and sensibly Perceiving; of knowing the true Good, of loving and enjoying it. The knowledge and love of Good are in a great measure in his own power, but the enjoyment of it doth not at all depend upon himself. Nevertheless, seeing God is just, he that knows and loves him, shall also enjoy him. God being just, must of necessity give the pleasure of enjoyment, and by it Happiness, to him that by a painful application seeks the knowledge of the Truth, and by a right use of his Liberty and the strength of his Resolution, conforms himself to the Law of God, the immutable Order, notwithstanding all the efforts of Concupiscence, enduring Pain, despising Pleasure, and giving that Honour to his Reason, as to believe it upon its Word, and to comfort himself with its Promises. It is a strange thing! Men know very well that the enjoyment of Pleasure and avoiding of Pain do not depend immediately on their Desires: They find on the contrary that it is in their own power to have good Thoughts, and to love good Things, that the light of Truth diffuses itself in them as soon as they desire it, and that the loving and following of Order depends on themselves. 
* This Age is so illnatured or so nice, that there are somethings which it is not sufficient for a Man not to say, but he must also assure the World and, that more than once that he doth not say them. And therefore my Readers must pardon me if I seem to distrust their equity.  (I still suppose those necessary assistances which are never wanting to those who have Faith, but through their own negligence.) And yet they seek after nothing but Pleasure, and neglect the foundation of their eternal Happiness, that knowledge and love which resemble the knowledge and love of God, the knowledge of Truth and the love of Order; for as I said before, he that knows Truth and love's Order, knows as God knows and loves as he loves.  
XIX. This then is our first and greatest Duty, that for which God hath created us, the love of which is the Mother of all Virtue, the universal, the fundamental Virtue; the Virtue which makes us just and perfect, and which will one Day make us happy. We are rational Creatures; our Virtue and Perfection is to love Reason, or rather to love Order. For the knowledge of speculative Truths, or relations of Greatness doth not regulate our Duties. It is principally the knowledge and love of the relations of Perfection, or practical Truths wherein consist our Perfection. Let us apply ourselves then to know, to love and follow Order. Let us labour for our Perfection; as for our Happiness, let us leave that to the disposal of God, on whom it wholly depends. God is just, and necessarily rewards Virtue: Let us not doubt then but that we shall infallibly receive all the Happiness that we have deserved.  
XX. The Obedience which we pay to Order and submission to the Law of God, is Virtue in all Senses. Submission to the divine Decrees, or to the power of God is rather Necessity than Virtue. A Man may follow Nature, and yet walk irregularly, for Nature itself is irregular. On the other side, he may resist the action of God, without opposing his Orders; for oftentimes the particular action of God is so determined by second or occasional Causes, that it is not conformable to Order. It is true indeed that God wills nothing but according to Order; but he often acts contrary to it: For Order itself requiring, 
See the 7 and 8 Christian Medit.  that God as the general cause, should act in a constant and uniform manner according to certain general Laws which he hath established, the effects of that cause are many times contrary to Order. He forms Monsters, and is subservient as it were to the Wickedness of Men in this World, by reason of the simplicity of those ways by which he executes his Designs. So that he who should think to obey God, in submitting to his Power, and in following and observing the course of Nature, would offend against Order, and fall into Disobedience every Moment.  
XXI. If all the motions of Bodies were caused by particular acts of the Will of God, it would be a sin to avoid the Ruins of a falling House by flight; for we cannot without injustice refuse to render back to God that Life which he hath given us, when he requires it again. At this rate it would be an Affront to the Wisdom of God, to alter the course of Rivers, and to turn them to Places that want Water; we should follow the Order of Nature and be quiet. But since God acts in consequence of certain general Laws, we correct his Work, without injuring his Wisdom: We resist his action, without opposing his Will; because he doth not will positively and directly every thing that he doth. For example, he doth not directly will unjust Actions, tho' he alone gives motion to those that commit them: And tho' it be only he who sends Rain, yet every Man hath a liberty to shelter himself when it Rains. For God doth not send Rain but by a necessary consequence of general Laws; Laws which he hath established, not that such or such a Man should be wet through, but for greater ends, and more agreeable to his Wisdom and Goodness. If the Rain fall upon Men, upon the Sea, or upon the Sand, it is because he is not obliged to alter the uniformity of his Conduct, for the uselessness or inconvenience of the consequences of it.  
XXII. The case is not the same between God and Men, between the general cause and particulationes. When we oppose the action of Men, we offend them; for since they act only by particular motions of the Will, we cannot resist their action without opposing their Designs. But when we resist the action of God, we do not at all offend him, nay we often promote his Designs: For since God constantly follows those general Laws which he hath prescribed to himself, the combination of those effects which are the necessary consequences of them, cannot always be conformable to Order, nor proper for the execution of his Work. And therefore it is lawful for Men to divert these natural effects, not only when they may be the occasion of their Death, but also when they are inconvenient or disagreeable. Our Duty then consists in submitting ourselves to the Law of God, and following Order: For to submit to his absolute Power is necessity. This Order we may know by our union with the Word; so that the immutable Order may be our Law and our Guide. But the Divine Decrees are absolutely unknown to us: And therefore let us not make them our Rule. Let us leave that chimerical Virtue of following God or Nature, to the Sages of Greece and the Stoics. But let us consult Reason, let us love and follow Order in all things; for than we truly follow God, when we submit to a Law which he invincibly loves.  
XXIII. But tho' the Order of Nature be not precisely our Law, and a submission to that Order be by no means a Virtue, we must observe nevertheless that we ought oftentimes to have a regard to it: Yet still this is because the immutable Order so requires, and not because the Order of Nature is an effect of the Power of God. A Man that suffers Persecution, or rather one that is tormented with the Gout, is obliged to bear it with Patience and Humility, because being a sinner, Order requires that he should suffer, besides other Reasons which need not here be produced. But if Man were not subject to Sin, and the immutable Order did not require that he should suffer to deserve his Reward, certainly he might, nay and aught to seek his ease, and avoid all sorts of inconveniences, tho' he were persecuted, if that were possible, by the inclemency of the Seasons, and by the Miseries which Sin hath brought into the World. And a Man, tho' he be a sinner, may shelter himself from the Rain and the Wind, and avoid the action of an avenging God; because Order requires that he should preserve his Strength and Health, and especially the liberty of his Mind, to think upon his Duty, and search after Truth: And because Rain and Wind being consequences of the general laws of the Order of Nature, it doth not plainly appear that it is the positive Will of God that he should suffer that particular inconvenience. For it would be a heinous Crime in us to avoid the Rain, if God should make it Rain on purpose to wet and punish us: As it was in our first Parent to eat of a Fruit, because of the express Prohibition, and his formal Disobedience. But if Virtue consisted precisely in living in that condition wherein we are placed in consequence of the Order of Nature, he that is born in the midst of pleasure and abundance, would be virtuous without pain; and Nature having been happily favourable to him, he would follow it with pleasure. But Virtue must be painful at present, that it may be generous and meritorious. A Man ought to sacrifice himself for the possession of God: Pleasure is the Reward of Merit, and therefore cannot be the foundation of it, as I shall show hereafter. In a Word, Truth itself informs us of one that was commanded to sell his Goods, and distribute them to the Poor, if he would be perfect; which was to change his state and condition. Perfection then or Virtue doth not consist in following the Order of Nature, but in submitting wholly to the immutable and necessary Order, the inviolable Law of all intelligent Being's.   

CHAP. II. There is no other Virtue but the Love of Order and Reason. Without this Love all Virtues are false. We must not confound Duties with Virtues We may discharge our Duties without Virtue. 'Tis for want of consulting Reason that Men approve and follow damnable Customs. Faith serves or conducts to Reason: For Reason is the supreme Law of all intelligent Being's.  
I. THE Love of Order is not only the chief of all moral Virtues, but the only Virtue: It is the Mother Virtue, the fundamental, universal Virtue; the Virtue which alone makes the Habits or Dispositions of our Minds virtuous. He that bestows his Goods on the Poor out of Vanity or natural Compassion, is not liberal; because it is not Reason that guides him, nor Order that governs him, it is nothing but Pride or Mechanism. Officers that voluntarily expose themselves to Dangers are not brave, if it is Ambition that animates them; nor Soldiers, if it is only an abundance of Spirits, and the Fermentation of the Blood. This imaginary noble Ardour, is nothing but Vanity or Clockwork: A little Wine oftentimes is sufficient to produce a great deal of it. He that bears the Injuries that are offered him, many times is neither moderate not patiented: 'Tis his Slothfulness that makes him , or his ridiculous and stoical Bravery that bears him up, and in imagination sets him above his Enemies: It may be nothing but the disposition of the Machine, want of Spirits, coldness of Blood, Melancholy, and perhaps above all some contagious Distemper of a strong Imagination. The same may be said of all the other Virtues. If the love of Order be not the foundation of them, they are false and vain, and altogether unbecoming a reasonable Nature, which bears the Image of God himself, and hath a communication with him: They derive their Original from the Body only; they are not formed by the Holy Ghost, and whoever makes them the Object of his Desires, and the Foundation of his Glory, hath a base and abject Mind, a mean Spirit, and a corrupted Heart. But whatever a rebellious Imagination may think, it is not mean nor servile to submit to the Law of God himself; nothing is more just than to be conformable to Order; nothing is more great and noble than to obey God; nothing is more brave and generous than to follow the Party of Reason with an unshaken Constancy and inviolable Fidelity, not only when one may follow it with Honour, but then more especially when the circumstances of Times and Places are such that one cannot do it without the greatest Shame and Disgrace: For he that passes for a Fool in following Reason, loves Reasom more than himself: But he that follows Order only when it shines and sparkles in the Eyes of the World, seeks only Glory; and though he may appear very Glorious in the Eyes of Men, he is an Abomination in the Sight of God.  
II. I know not whether I may be mistaken or no, but I believe there are abundance of People that do not rightly know what true Virtue is; and even those that have writ of Morality, do not always speak very clearly and exactly of it. It is certain that all those great Names which they give to Virtues and Vices, produce rather confused Sensations in the Mind than clear Ideas: But because these Sensations affect the Soul, and abstracted Ideas, tho' clear in themselves, do not diffuse their Light but in attentive Minds. Men most commonly rest satisfied with these words, which please the Senses, but leave the Mind in the dark. They fancy that a Discourse the more briskly it strikes upon the Imagination, the more Solid it is; and look upon those exact Reasonings, which disappear when Attention is wanting, as Spectres and Illusions; like Children, who judging of Objects by the Impression they make on their Senses, imagine that there is more Matter in Ice than in Water; in Gold, and heavy and hard Metals, than in the Air which surrounds them almost without being felt.  
III. Besides, whatever is familiar to us doth not surprise us, we never stand to examine it; we think we conceive very well what we have said ourselves, or heard others say a great many times, tho' we have never examined it: But the most solid and evident Truths always create Distrust in us, when they are new. Thus a Word of an obscure and confused Signification, seems clear and obvious, how equivocal soever it be, if common use hath made it current; but a Term which contains nothing equivocal in it, seems obscure and dangerous, if we have never heard it used by those Persons whom we love and esteem. This is the cause that the Terms of Morality are the most obscure and confused, and especially those which we look upon as the most clear, because they are the most common. Every one, for Example, imagines he understands very well the Signification of these Terms; Loving, Fearing, Honouring, Charity, Humility, Generosity, Pride, Envy, Self-love; and if a Man should join clear Ideas to these Terms, and to all the Names which are given to Virtues and Vices, besides that, this supposes more Knowledge than is generally believed, he would certainly take the most confused and perplexed way to treat of Morality: For it will appear in the sequel of this Discourse, that to define these Terms rightly, he ought first clearly to comprehend the Principles of that Science, and to be well versed in the Knowledge of Human Nature.  
iv One of the greatest Defects observable in the Moral Writings of some Philosophers, is, that they confound Duties with Virtues, or that they give the name of Virtues to simple Duties: So that tho' properly there be but one Virtue, to wit, the love of Order, they make an infinite number of them. This is it which causes such Confusion and so perplexes that Science, that it is very hard to understand throughly what a Man must do to be perfectly Good and Virtuous.  
V It is evident that Virtue ought to render him Virtuous that possesses it; and yet a Man may acquit himself of his Duty, and with ease perform acts of Humility, Generosity or Liberality without any of these Virtues: So that a disposition or facility of performing such Duties is not properly Virtue, without the love of Order. When a Man discharges his Duty, he is Virtuous in the Eyes of Men; when he bestows part of his Goods on his Friend, he appears Liberal and Generous: But Men are not always such as they seem to be; and he that never neglects the outward Offices of Friendship, but when they are contrary to the inviolable Order, tho' he may sometimes seem guilty of Infidelity, is a truer and more faithful Friend; at least he is a more Virtuous Man and more worthy of Love, than those hot and zealous Friends who Sacrifice their Kindred, their Life and their eternal Salvation to the Passions of their Friends.  
VI We must not then confound Virtue with Duties by reason of a similitude of Names; it is this that deceives Men. There are some who imagine they follow Virtue, when they follow only a natural Inclination they have to perform some certain Duties; and because they are not guided by Reason, they are in truth Vicious in excess, when they fancy themselves to be Heros in Virtue. But the greatest part of Mankind, being deceived by this confusion of Terms and the splendour of Names, rely upon, and value themselves without Reason, and often judge ill of the most Virtuous Persons; because it is impossible that good Men should follow the Rules of Order any long time, without failing according to outward appearance in some essential Duty. For in short, to be Prudent, Good-natured and Charitable in the Eyes of the World, a Man must sometimes commend Vice, or at least hold his Tongue when he hears it commended: To be esteemed Liberal, he must be Prodigal: If he be not Rash, he shall hardly be accounted Valiant; and if he be not Superstitious or Credulous, let his Piety be never so great, he may perhaps pass for a Libertine in the Opinion of others.  
VII. It is certain that Universal Reason is always the same, Order is immutable, and yet Morality changes according to Places and Times. It is a Virtue among the Germans to drink hard; and a Man can have no conversation with them if he be not drunk: It is not Reason, but Wine that unites their Societies, settles their Agreements, and makes their Bargains. 'Tis reckoned Bravery in a Gentleman to shed the Blood of him that gives him the Lie. Duelling was for a long time a lawful Action amongst the French; and as if Reason was not worthy to determine their Differences, they decided them by Force: They preferred the Law of Brutes or Chance, before the Law of God himself. Nor must we imagine that this Custom was in use only amongst the Men of the Sword, it was in a manner general; and if the Clergy did not fight themselves out of respect to their Character, they had their Champions who represented them, and maintained their Quarrel by shedding the Blood of their Adversaries: Nay, they imagined that God approved this manner of proceeding; and whether their Differences were decided by the Sword or by Lot, they did not doubt but that God sat as Judge in the Cause, and gave it in favour of him that had Right on his side. And indeed, if we suppose God to act by particular wills, where is the Impiety of believing, either that he favours Injustice, or that his Providence doth not extend to all things?  
VIII. But without going to seek for damnable Customs in the past Ages, let any one, by the Light of Reason, judge of those that are at present kept up among us; or let him only observe the Conduct of those very Persons who are appointed for Guides to others. Without doubt, we shall often find that every one of them hath his particular Morality, his own private Religion, and his favourite Virtue; that one talks of nothing but Penance and Mortification; another esteems only the Duties of Charity; and a third cries up nothing but Meditation and Prayer. From whence can this diversity proceed, if the Reason of Man be always the same? From hence no doubt, that they leave off consulting Reason, and suffer themselves to be guided by Imagination, its Enemy; in stead of observing the immutable Order, as their inviolable and natural Law, they frame to themselves Ideas of Virtue, conformable at least in some things to their own Inclinations. For there are some Virtues, or rather Duties, which have a relation to our Tempers or Humours; there are shining and glittering Virtues proper for fierce and lofty Souls; low and humble Virtues which are fit for timorous and fearful Minds, and soft and effeminate Virtues, if I may so call them, which suit very well with Laziness and Inactivity.  
IX. It is true, they agree that Order is the inviolable Law of Spiritual Being's, and that nothing is regular, if it be not conformable to it. But they maintain a little too stiffly, that they are not capable of consulting this Law; and tho' it be graven upon the Heart of Man, so that he need only retire into himself to be instructed in it, they think, like the gross and carnal Jews, that it is as hard to discover it, as to climb up into Heaven, or go down into Hell, as the Scripture speaks.  
X. I must confess, that the immutable Order is not easy to be found; it dwells within us, but we are always roving abroad: Our Senses unite our Soul to all the parts of our Body, our Imagination and Passions extend it to all the Objects which surround us, and often carry it into a World that hath no more reality than imaginary Spaces; this is undeniably so: But then we should endeavour to silence our Senses, Imagination and Passions; and not fancy that we can be reasonable without consulting Reason. But this Order by which we ought to be governed, is a Form too abstracted to serve as a Model for grosser Spirits; I grant it: Let us then give it a Body, let us make it sensible, let us  it in several Dresses to render it agreeable to carnal Men; let us, if I may so speak, incarnate it, yet so as it may be always known again. Let us accustom Men to distinguish true Virtue from Vice, from seeming Virtues, and from simple Duties, which a Man may often perform without Virtue, and not set before them Phantoms or Idols, which attract their Admiration and Respect, by the sensible Splendour and Pomp that surrounds them. For in short, if we are not guided by Reason, if we are not animated by the Love of Order, how exact soever we may be in the performance of our Duties, we can never be solidly Virtuous.  
XI. But, say they, Reason is corrupted, it is liable to Error, it must submit to Faith: Philosophy is but a Servant, we ought to distrust the Light which that affords. (All equivocal Terms.) Man is not his own Light: Religion is the true Philosophy. It is not, I confess, the Philosophy of the Heathens, nor that of those great Talkers, who speak to others before Truth has spoke to them. Reason is immutable, incorruptible, infallible, and aught always to govern; God himself follows it. In a word, we ought never to shut our Eyes against the Light; but we should accustom ourselves to distinguish it from Darkness or false Glares, from confused Sensations, from sensible Ideas, which appear bright and shining Lights to those who are not accustomed to distinguish Truth from Probability, Evidence from Instinct, and Reason from its Enemy, Imagination. Certainly Understanding is preferable to Faith; for Faith will have an end, but Understanding will remain for ever. Faith is, indeed, a very great good; but it is because it leads to Understanding, and without it we cannot deserve the Understanding of some necessary and essential Truths, without which it is impossible to attain either to solid Virtue or everlasting Happiness: Nevertheless, Faith without Understanding, I speak not here of Mysteries of which we can have no clear Idea; Faith, I say, without any Light, if that be possible, cannot make a Man solidly Virtuous: It is the Light which perfects the Mind and regulates the Heart; and if Faith did not enlighten a Man and lead him to some Understanding of the Truth, and some Knowledge of his Duty, without doubt it would not have those Effects which are attributed to it. But Faith is a Term as equivocal as that of Reason, Philosophy, and human Sciences.  
XII. I grant then, that those who have not Light enough to guide themselves, may attain to Virtue, as well as those who can retire into themselves to consult Reason, and contemplate the Beauty of Order; because the Grace of Sense or preventing delectation, may supply the want of Light, and keep them firm and steadfast in their Duty. But that which I maintain, is, First, That supposing all other things equal, he that enters farthest into himself, and hearkens to the Truth within him in the greatest silence of his Senses, Imagination and Passions, is the most solidly Virtuous. Secondly, That such a Love of Order as hath for its Foundation more of Reason than of Faith, that is, more of Light than of Pleasure, is more solid, meritorious and valuable, than another Love which I suppose equal. For indeed, the true good, the good of the Soul should be loved by Reason, and not by the instinct of Pleasure. But the condition to which Sin hath reduced us, makes the Grace of Delight necessary to counterpoise the continual endeavours of our Concupiscence. Lastly, I assert, That if a Man should never, I say, never retire into himself, his imaginary Faith would be wholly useless to him. For the Word became sensible, only to render Truth intelligible. Reason was made incarnate for no other end, but to guide Men to Reason by their Senses; and he that should do and suffer all that Jesus Christ did and suffered, would be neither reasonable nor a Christian, if he did it not in the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Order and Reason. But there is no cause to fear this; for it is absolutely impossible, that any Man should be so far separated from Reason, as never to retire into himself to consult it. And tho' there are many People who perhaps know not what it is to retire into themselves, yet it is impossible but that they must do it sometimes, and must sometimes hear the Voice of Truth, notwithstanding the continual Noise of their Senses and Passions: It is impossible but that they must have some Idea of Order, and some Love for it, which without doubt they cannot have but from something which dwells in them, and renders them so far just and reasonable; for no Man is himself the ground of his Love, nor the Spirit that inspires, animates and guides it.  
XIII. Every Man pretends to Reason, and yet every Man renounces it. This may seem a Contradiction; but there is nothing more true: Every Man pretends to Reason, because every Man hath this engraven on the very Foundation of his Being, that it is an essential Right of human Nature, to have a share of Reason. But all Men renounce Reason, because they cannot unite themselves to it, and receive from it Light and Understanding, without a sort of Labour which is very discouraging, because it hath nothing that pleases the Senses. And therefore since they invincibly desire to be happy, they quit the Labour of Attention, which renders them actually unhappy; but yet when they quit it, they commonly fancy they do it by Reason. The voluptuous Man thinks he ought to prefer the actual Enjoyment of Pleasures before a barren and abstracted View of Truth, which costs him nevertheless abundance of Pains. The ambitious Man imagines that the object of his Passion is something real, and that intellectual Enjoyments are nothing but Phantoms and Illusions; for commonly Men judge of the Solidity of good things by the Impression they make on the Imagination and Senses. Nay, there are some Persons of Piety, who prove by Reason, That we ought to renounce Reason; That we are not to be guided by Light, but by Faith alone; and that blind Obedience is the principal Virtue of a Christian. The Laziness of Inferiors, and their proness to Flatter, is often satisfied with this fancied Virtue, and the Pride of Superiors is always very well pleased with it: So that perhaps there may be some Persons, who will be offended with me, for giving so great an Honour to Reason, as to set it above all other Powers; and think me a Rebel against lawful Authorities, because I take the part of Reason, and maintain that it belongs to Reason to decide and govern. But let the Voluptuous follow their Senses; let the Ambitious suffer themselves to be carried away by their Passions; let the generality of Mankind live by Opinion, or follow wherever their own Imaginations lead them: But let us endeavour to still that confused Noise which sensible Objects cause in us; let us retire into ourselves, and consult the inward Truth, yet let us take great care not to confound its Answers with the malignant Influences of our corrupted Imagination. For it is better, infinitely better for a Man to obey the Passions of those who have a right to command and guide him, than to be wholly his own Master, to follow his own Passions, and voluntarily to blind himself, by assuming such an Air of Confidence in Error, as only the discovery of Truth ought to give him. I have elsewhere laid down the Rules which we ought to observe for avoiding this Miscarriage; but I shall say something of it also in this Discourse, for without this, we cannot be solidly and rationally Virtuous.   

CHAP. III. The Love of Order doth not differ from Charity. Two sorts of Love, one of Union, and the other of Benevolence. The former is due only to Power, to God alone: The latter aught to be proportioned to personal Merit, as our Duties to relative Merit. Self-love enlightened is not contrary to the love of Union. The love of Order is common to all Men. The Species of the love of Order, natural and free, actual and habitual. Only that which is free, habitual and ruling renders us just in the sight of God. Virtue consists in nothing but a free, habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order.  
I. THO' I have not expressed the Principal or Mother Virtue by the authentic name of Charity, I would not have any one imagine that I pretend to deliver to Men any other Virtue than that which Christ himself hath established in these Words: All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two Commandments: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, 
Mat. 22.37.  with all thy Heart, and with all thy Strength, and thy Neighbour as thyself: And of which St. Paul hath given us the elegy in that admirable Chapter of his first Epistle to the Corinthians, which gins thus: 
1 Cor. 13.1.  Tho' I spoke all Languages, even that of Angels themselves, yet if I had not Charity. I should be but like sounding Brass, or a tinkling Cymbal. The ways of Speaking are different according to the diversity of Persons spoken to. The Scripture which is written for all the World, expresses the Truths it contains, in such Terms only as are authorised by the most common Use. But he that would convince and inform the most obstinate Persons, I mean those Men of strong Reason as they fancy themselves, and those whom they call Philosophers, People that find difficulties in every Thing, must endeavour to explain his Sentiments by Terms that as far as may be are free from an equivocal Signification.  
II. These Words, [Thou shalt Love God with all thy Strength, and thy Neighbour as thyself] are clear, but it is chief to those who are inwardly Taught by the Unction of the Spirit: For as to others, they are more obscure than is commonly imagined. To [Love] is an equivocal Term: It signifies two Things among many others, First, to unite our self by the Will to any object as to our Good, or the cause of our Happiness; and Secondly to wish Well to any one. We may love God in the first Sense, and our Neighbour in the Second. But it would be Impiety, or at least Stupidity or Ignorance to love God in the latter Sense, and a kind of Idolatry to love our Neighbour in the former.  
III. The word [God] is likewise Equivocal, and much more than it is thought to be: A Man may fancy he loves God, when indeed he loves only a vast immense Phantom which he hath formed to himself. He may think he loves God when at the same time he lives in Disorder, or without loving Order above all Things. But he is mistaken; for he is so far from loving him, that he doth not so much as know him. 
1 Joh. 2.4, 5.  For he that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his Commandments, is a Liar, and the Truth is not in him: But whoso keepeth his Word, in him verily is the love of God perfected, or he perfectly loves God, 
v. 3.  saith St. John. Hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his Commandments.  
iv Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Strength. The word [all] is clear enough; but [thy Strength] may Minister occasion of Error to those who either have no Humility, or a false and mistaken one. The former may draw from it some ground of Vanity, and the latter of a sinful Negligence. [And thy Neighbour as thyself.] Our Saviour tells us in the Parable of the Samaritan, that all Mankind is our Neighbour. So that the word [Neighbour] is not very clear; and so we find the Jews always took it in a wrong Sense. [As thyself.] Certainly there are none but those that love the true and real good, who fulfil this Commandment in loving their Neighbour as themselves. For a Father who loves his Son with the greatest Tenderness, and carefully procures for him all sensible good Things, what love soever he may have for him, is very far from loving him as God commands us to love our Neighbour.  
V These words then, [Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, etc.] are obscure: But in Truth they are obscure only to those who have a mind to Dispute, or who will not retire into themselves, to behold this Commandment written there with the Finger of God: The Holy Scripture is a closed Book only to those who are not instructed by the unction of the Spirit. For pious Men tho' never so Dull and Stupid, understand this Precept very well. They know that all the application of our Mind, and all the motions of our Heart ought to tend toward God; that we should employ our Thoughts on nothing but him, as far as it is possible: That we do not truly Love him, if we are not nice and exact in doing our Duty: And that to violate the order of Justice, or the immutable Order, is in effect to offend against the Divine Majesty. They are so far from loving Men as capable of doing them Good, that they are afraid to come near great Persons, and are only pleased to be amongst those who stand in need of their Assistance. They love Men not as their Good, nor as capable of enjoying transitory Goods with them, Goods which only serve to cause division every where: But they Love them as Coheirs of the true Goods; true Goods, because they are possessed without division, enjoyed without satiety, and loved without any fear of losing them, like the Pleasures of this present Life. The Father loves his Son; but he had rather see him Deformed than Disorderly. He had rather see him Sick, Dead, or at the Gallows, than see him Dead in the Eyes of him, who never had a more agreeable Sight than that of his only Son fastened to the Cross to re-establish Order in the World. Pious Men understand the Law of God, because they are instructed by the same Spirit that dictated it. But because this Discourse is intended chief for Philosophers, and it lies not in my Power to communicate that holy Unction which produces Light in the Minds of Men; I think myself obliged to endeavour to prove by Reason, and explain as far as I am able in clear Terms, those Truths of which perhaps they are not sufficiently Convinced.  
VI I think than I may say, that justifying Charity, or that Virtue which renders the possessors of it truly Just and Virtuous, is properly a ruling Love of the immutable Order. But that I may clear those Obscurities which ordinarily attend abstract Ideas, I must explain these Terms a little more at large.  
VII. I have already said that the immutable Order consists in nothing else but in those proportions or relations of Perfection which are between the intellectual Ideas comprehended in the substance of the eternal Word. Now we ought to esteem and love nothing but Perfection. And therefore our esteem and love should be conformable to Order. From hence it is evident that Charity or the love of God, is a consequence of the love of Order, and that we ought to esteem and love God not only more, but infinitely more than all other Things; for there can be no finite relation between infinite and finite.  
VIII. There are Two principal kinds of Love, a Love of Benevolence, and a Love which may be called Love of Union. A sensual Man Loves the object of his Passion with a Love of Union; because he looks upon that Object as the cause of his Happiness, and therefore he desires to be united to it, that it may act upon him and make him Happy. He is carried towards it as well by the motion of his Heart, or by his Affections, as by the motion of his Body. The Love which we bear to Persons of Worth and Merit, is a love of Benevolence; for we love them even when they are not in a condition to do us any good: We Love them because they have more Perfection and Virtue than other Men. So that the power to do us Good, or that kind of perfection which relates to our Happiness; in one Word, Goodness excites in us a love of Union, and all other perfections a love of Benevolence. Now God only is Good: He alone hath the Power of acting on us. He doth not really communicate that Perfection to his Creatures; but only makes them occasional Causes for the producing of some Effects: For true and real Power is Incommunicable. Therefore all our love of Union ought to tend toward God.  
IX. We may, for Instance, bring our Body to the Fire, because Fire is the occasional cause of Heat, which is necessary for it: But we cannot love it with a love of Union, without offending against Order; because the Fire is so far from having any power over that part of us which is capable of Loving, that it hath no Power at all. The same may be said of all other Creatures, even Angels and Devils; we ought to love none of them with a Love of Union, with that Love which is an Honour given to Power; for all of them being absolutely impotent, we should by no means love them. When I speak of loving, I mean also fearing and hating them; I mean that the Soul should remain unmoved in their Presence. The Body by a local Motion may come near the Fire, or avoid the Fall of a House; but the Soul must fear and love nothing but God; at least, it must love none but him, with a love of Freedom, Choice and Reason: For since the Union of the Soul and Body is changed into a dependence, it is hardly in our power to hinder sensible Goods from exciting in us some love for them. The motions of the Soul naturally answer those of the Body; and the Object which makes us fly from it, or attracts us to it, almost always begets in us Aversion or Love.  
X. But the Case is not the same with the Love of Benevolence, as with the Love of Union; God is infinitely more amiable with this sort of Love, than all his Creatures together: But as he hath really communicated to them some Perfection, as they are capable of Happiness, they really deserve our Love and Esteem. Order itself requires that we should esteem and love them according to the measure of Perfection which they enjoy, or rather according to that which we know to be in them: For to esteem and love them exactly in proportion to their being amiable, is utterly impossible; because many times their Perfections are unknown to us, and we can never know exactly the proportions that are between Perfections; for we cannot express them either by Numbers, or incommensurable Lines. Nevertheless, Faith takes away a great many difficulties in this matter. For since a finite Being by the relation it hath to infinity, acquires an infinite Value; it is evident that we ought to love those Creatures which have, or may have a great relation to God, infinitely more, than those which do not bear his Image, or which have no immediate union with, or relation to him: It is plain that all other things being equal, one righteous Man, one member of Jesus Christ deserves more of this kind of Love, than a thousand wicked Men; and that God who judges truly and exactly of the Value of his Creatures, prefers one of his adopted Children, before all the Nations of the Earth.  
XI. It is certain, that our Duties ought to be regulated by the Love of Esteem or Benevolence; but yet we must not imagine that we always own more Duties to righteous Men than to Sinners, to the Faithful than to Heretics, or even Heathens themselves. For we must observe, that there are Perfections of several sorts, some Personal or Absolute, and others Relative: Personal Perfections ought to be the immediate Object of the Love of Esteem and Benevolence; but relative Perfections do not deserve either this or any other kind of Love, but only the Object to which these Perfections have a relation. We should love and honour Merit wherever we find it, for Merit is a personal Perfection which ought to regulate our Love of Esteem and Benevolence; but it ought not always to regulate the greatness and quality of our Duties. On the contrary, we own a great many Duties to our Prince, to our Parents, and to all those that are in Authority; for Authority is necessary for the preservation of Order in States, which is the most valuable thing in the World: But the Honour which we pay to them, the Love which we bear them aught to terminate in God alone: 
Colos. 3.23.  As to the Lord, and not unto Men, saith St. Paul. The Honour which we give to Power must be referred to God and not to Men; for the power of Acting is in God alone. In like manner, if a Man have such natural endowments as may be serviceable for the Conversion of others, tho' he have no personal Merit or Virtue, we ought to love him with a love of Esteem which hath a relation to something else; and we are obliged to many more Duties towards him, than towards another Man who hath a great deal of personal Merit, but is not capable of being useful to any but himself. But I shall explain this matter-more at large in another place; what I have said of it here, is only to prevent the Reader from running insensibly whither I have no design to lead him.  
XII. Self-Love, the irreconcilable Enemy of Virtue, or a ruling Love of the immutable Order, may agree with the Love of Union, which is referred to, and honours a Power capable of acting on us; for it is sufficient for that purpose, that this Self-love be enlightened. Man invincibly desires to be happy; and he sees clearly that God alone is able to make him so: This being supposed and all the rest excluded, of which I do not speak, it is evident that he may desire to be united to God. For to take away every thing that may be equivocal, I do not speak of a Man who knows that God rewards only Merit, and who finds none in himself; but I speak of one who considers only the Power and Goodness of God, or one to whom the Testimony of his Conscience and his Faith give a free access, as I may so say, to draw near to God, and join himself to him.  
XIII. But the case is different with the Love of Esteem or Benevolence which a Man ought to bear to himself; Self-love makes it always irregular. Order requires that the Reward should be proportionable to the Merit, and the Happiness to the Perfection of the Soul, which it hath gained by a good use of its Liberty; but Self-love can endure no bounds to its Happiness and Glory. Tho' it be never so much enlightened, yet if it be not just, it must of necessity be contrary to Order; and it cannot be just without diminishing or destroying itself. Nevertheless, when Self-love is both enlightened and just, whether it be destroyed by, or confounded with the Love of Order, a Man hath then the greatest Perfection that he is capable of. For certainly he that always places himself in the rank that belongs to him, who desires to be Happy no farther than he deserves to be so, and seeks his Happiness in the Justice which he expects from the righteous Judge; who lives by Faith, and rests contented, steadfast and patiented in the hope and foretaste of the true Goods; he, I say, is really a good Man, tho' the love he bears to himself reformed indeed and corrected by Grace, be the natural Foundation of his Love of Order above all Things.  
XIV. We must not imagine that the love of Order is like those Virtues, or rather particular Dispositions which may be lost or got. For Order is not a particular Creature which we may begin or cease to love; it is the Word itself, the natural Object of all the Motions of Spiritual Being's. We may begin or cease to love a Creature, because we are not made for them; but we cannot entirely renounce Reason, nor cease to love Order; because Man is made to live by Reason, and according to Order: So that the love of Order naturally Reigns wherever Self-love is not contrary to it. Nay, it often Reigns, tho' Self-love or Concupiscence oppose it; I say, it Reigns not only in good Men, where it hath an absolute Dominion, but also in the wicked, where Self-love bears the Sovereign sway.  
XV. It is certain that a Man sees only as he is enlightened by God; he wills only as he is animated and moved by him. Now God enlightnes him only by his Word, he moves him only by the Love which he bears to himself: For God cannot enlighten Man by a false Reason, nor imprint on him a Love contrary to his own. All Light therefore comes from the Word, and all Motion from the Holy Ghost, seeing it is God alone that acts, and that only by the Wisdom which enlightens him, and the Love which he bears to himself. So that as long as a Man Thinks and Loves, he cannot be totally separated from Reason, nor altogether without the love of Order. To fall into Error, he must make an ill use of Reason; but still he must make use of it; for he that sees nothing, and can judge of nothing, cannot fall into Error. In like manner to love Evil, he must love Good; for he cannot love Evil, but because he looks upon it as Good. Therefore Self-love doth not wholly destroy the Love of Order, but only Vitiates and Corrupts it, by referring that to its self which hath no relation to it. For a Man, whether he loves the Objects with a relation to himself, or otherwise, always loves those that are or seem to be the best; because the love of Order, or the love of good things proportionable to their Perfection or Goodness, is a natural and invincible Love.  
XVI. This I say principally, That the Wicked may at least know themselves to be such, and the Righteous may distrust their Virtue. For since Men, tho' they are never so wretched and miserable, find in themselves some rectitude or some natural love of Order, they imagine that they are really Virtuous. But to obtain the possession of Virtue, it is not sufficient that we love Order with a natural Love, but we must also love it with a free, enlightened and reasonable Love. It is not sufficient to love it, when it agrees with our Self-love. We must Sacrifice every thing to it, our actual Happiness, and if it should require it of us, our very Being. For Virtue consists in a ruling Love of the immutable Order. Our Heart is never rightly disposed, but when it is ready to conform itself to Order in all things; and he that would have Order conformable in some things to his particular Inclinations, hath a perverted Mind and a corrupt Heart. There is no Man, let him be never so Wicked, who doth not sometimes find a beauty in Order that charms him. In all probability the Devils themselves have some Love for Order. They are ready to obey it, when it requires nothing of them contrary to their Self-love: And perhaps some of them would willingly offer some slight Sacrifice to it. They are not all equally Wicked; and therefore they do not all equally oppose Order. Judas was a Wretch governed by Avarice; yet it is reasonable to believe that to deliver his best Friend from Death, he would have Sacrificed a little Mony. He Sold our Saviour for thirty Pieces of Silver, but perhaps he would not have betrayed him for a less Sum. So then to be Virtuous, it is not sufficient to love Order, but we must love it more than all other things: We must have a firm Resolution to follow it every where, whatever it cost us. We must be ready to Sacrifice to it not a few inconsiderable Pleasures, or slight Pains, but our Happiness, our Reputation, and our very Being, in hopes of receiving from God a recompense befitting him to give.  
XVII. But besides all this I must add, that a simple Resolution, tho' never so strong, of following Order in all things, doth not justify us in the fight of God. For God, who makes a true Judgement of the dispositions of our Minds, doth not judge any soul according to its actual and transient Motions, but by that which is fixed and permanent in it. Simple acts are transient: And a Man that finds himself throughly affected with the Beauty of Order, and thereupon takes a holy Resolution of Sacrificing all other things to it, ought still to be in fear for himself. For it scarce ever happens that one single act produces the strongest Habit, and that the actual motion of the Soul, destroys an inveterate Disposition of obeying the inclinations of Self-love. On the contrary Habits are permanent; and tho' a just Man fall seven times a Day, let him comfort himself, God knows the bottom of his Heart. But let him take heed that he be not seduced and corrupted by Concupiscence, and that his imagination receiving dangerous Impressions every Moment from sensible Objects, do not some time or other openly rebel against those severe Laws which are so damping and disagreeable to it. For we must observe that the Habit of Charity is much more tender, and more difficult both to acquire and preserve than sinful Habits: For one single deliberate Act, one mortal Sin always destroys it. A Man is just in the sight of God when his Heart is really more disposed to love good than evil, with a free and rational Love, whether this disposition be acquired by free and rational acts of Love, or otherwise. But because we know only that which actually passes in our Soul, and Charity doth not discover itself sensibly as Concupiscence doth, we cannot be assured of the state we are in. Therefore we ought always to distrust ourselves without desponding, and to Labour even till Death to destroy Self-love and Concupiscence, which continually renews itself, and to fortify the love of Order, which is weakened or destroyed when we cease to keep a watch over ourselves.  
XVIII. For the right understanding of what follows, we must observe that the acts of Love are of two sorts; natural or purely voluntary Acts, and free Acts. All Pleasure infallibly produces in the Soul the natural motion of Love, or makes us love the Object which causes or seems to cause that Pleasure, with a natural, necessary or purely voluntary Love. But every Pleasure doth not produce a free Love; for free Love is not always conformable to the natural Love. This Love doth not depend upon Pleasure alone; but upon Reason, upon Liberty, upon the Power which the Soul hath to resist any Motion that presses it. It is the consent of the Will which makes the essential difference of this species of Love. Now these two different acts of Love produce two different Habits. The natural Love begets in the Soul a disposition toward natural Love: And the love of Choice leaves in it a Habit of that Love. For when a Man hath consented several times to the love of any Good, he hath an inclination or facility to consent to it again.  
XIX. We must know then, that every disposition of Love, whether natural or free, corrupts the Soul, and renders it odious to God, if the object of it be a Creature; but if it be applied to the Creator, it makes the Soul righteous and acceptable to God: Provided nevertheless that the disposition of natural Love be alone in the Heart; for if there be two Habits of Love of different kinds in the Heart, God doth not regard the natural Love, but only that which is free.  
XX. For Example, an Infant at his first coming into the World is a Sinner and deserves the wrath of God, because God loves Order, and the Heart of that Infant is irregular, or turned toward the Body by an habitual disposition of a natural, necessary, or merely voluntary Love 
† See l. 2. c. 1. of the Search after Truth, and the Notes upon that Chap.  which he derives from his Parents, without any consent on his part. Adam at the first instant of his Creation was Just, because his Heart was disposed to love God, tho' he had not as yet acquired a habit of consenting to that Love. So that a natural disposition or habit when it is alone, corrupts or justifies the Soul. For when there is but one habitual Love in the Heart, if that love be Good, there is nothing in it but what is amiable in the Eyes of him who loves Order; and the contrary, if that Love be evil. But when there are two habits of Love of different kinds, God hath no regard but to that which is free. It is probable that the Just have a much greater facility and natural disposition to love the Goods of the Body than the true and real ones. The Pleasures of Sense being almost continually before them, and the preventing delight of Grace much more rare, they are more strongly dispossed by this sort of Habit, which is a natural consequence of Pleasure, to love sensible Objects than the true Good. This is evident by what happens to them in Sleep, or when they are not upon their Guard, but act without Reflection: For than they most commonly follow the motions of Concupiscence. But these irregularities do not corrupt them, because the Habit of Virtue is not changed; for those acts which are not free, cannot change free Habits, but only the Habits of the same kind. From what hath been said it is plain, that the love of Order which justifies us in the sight of God, must be an habitual, free and ruling Love of the immutable Order. And therefore where I speak of the love of Order in the sequel of this Discourse, I generally understand by it this kind of habitual Love, and not an actual not an habitual natural Love, not a love which is not predominant, nor any other motion or disposition of the Soul.   

CHAP. IU. Two fundamental Truths belonging to this Treatise. I. Acts produce Habits, and Habits Acts. II. The Soul doth not always produce the Acts of its ruling Habit. The Sinner may avoid committing any particular Sin, and the just Man may lose his Charity, because there is no Sinner without some love for Order, and no just Man without Self-love. We cannot be justified in the sight of God by the strength of . The means in general of acquiring and preserving Charity. The methodused in the explication of these means.  
I. THat I may give a clear explication of the means of acquiring or preserving the ruling Love of the immutable Order, I shall lay down two fundamental Truths belonging to the first Part of this Treatise. First, that Virtues are generally acquired and fortified by Acts. Secondly, that when we act, we do not always produce the acts of the ruling Virtue: What I say of Virtue, must be also understood of all Habits good or bad, and even of the Passions which are natural to us.  
II. Every one is sufficiently convinced by his own Experience, that those Habits which have a relation to the Body are formed and preserved by Acts. Thus it is universally agreed, that by the acts of Dancing, Playing on an Instrument or speaking a Language, those Habits may be acquired. Most People are persuaded that Men get a Habit of Drunkenness by drinking much; that the company of Women makes a Man soft and effeminate, and that those who converse with Soldiers become generally Stout or Brutish. But there are few who seriously consider, that the Soul itself by its own Acts gets such Habits, as it cannot easily get rid of. A Mathematician is apt to imagine, that it is in his own power not to love the Mathematics, and to give over the Study of them: An ambitious Man foolishly persuades himself that he is not a slave to his Passion: And every one believes, that tho' he be in a miserable subjection to some vicious Habit, he is able whenever he pleases to break the Chains that hold him in Captivity. It is upon this Principle that Men still delay their Conversion; for seeing there is nothing more required to Conversion, than to despise those Enjoyments which they own to be vain and contemptible, and to love God, who certainly alone deserves to be loved; every one persuades himself that he hath, and always shall have Reason and Strength enough to form and put in Execution a Design so just and reasonable.  
III. Besides, as the Will is never forced, we imagine that whatsoever we will, we will just so only because we will. We do not consider that the acts of the Will are produced in us, in consequence of our inward Dispositions; which Dispositions being in truth certain modifications of our own proper Being, but unknown to us, cause us to will in such a manner, that this Volition seems to depend wholly on ourselves; for we will so freely and readily, that we think nothing obliges us to do it. It is true, indeed, that nothing obliges us to will but ourselves; but then that which we call [Our Selves] is not our Being purely natural, or perfectly free in respect of Good and Evil; but our Being disposed toward one of them by certain Modifications, which either corrupt or perfect it, and render us in the sight of God either Just or Sinners; and these Dispositions we should increase or destroy by Acts which are the natural Causes of Habits.  
IU. But to do this, we must farther suppose that other important Truth, that the Soul doth not always produce the Acts of its predominant Habit. For it is evident, that if a Man whose ruling Disposition is Avarice, should never act but by some Motion of Avarice; he would be so far from ever becoming Liberal, that his Vice would continually augment; according to that Principle which we have before laid down, that Acts produce and fortify Habits. Nay, we must allow that it is in the power of a vicious Man to perform some Acts of Virtue, in order to free himself from his vicious Habits, and to become a good Man; but this Proposition requires a little further Explication.  
V I say then in respect of particular Habits, First, That a covetous Man, for Example, may act by a motive of Ambition; this is neither difficult to believe nor prove. Secondly, That a covetous Man may do an Action contrary to Avarice, by which he is governed; for a covetous Man may be also Ambitious. This being supposed, I say that if his Passion for Riches be not moved, and his Ambition be; or if his Avarice be less excited than his Ambition, in a reciprocal Proportion of the force of these two Passions, it is certain that the covetous Man will do an act of Liberality, if at that instant he determines himself to act, which is certainly in his own power to do. For a Man can will nothing but Good; and at that instant the covetous Man will think it better to do that act of Liberality than not do it; he will Sacrifice his love of Money to that of Glory. Thus it is evident, that the Sinner may for Reasons of Self-love, avoid following any certain determinate Motion of his Passions, if he can but excite some contrary Passions, and till then suspend the consent of his Will. But still this is not sufficient to prove that he who Sins may help Sinning; that the Sinner may rid himself of his vicious Habits, and the just Man lose his Charity.  
VI Indeed the Case of particular Habits, as Avarice or Liberality, is not the same with that of the Love of Order, or Self-love; and tho' perhaps it may be granted, that a covetous Man may do an act of Liberality; yet without doubt it will not be so readily agreed, that a Heathen can do an action conformable to Order, or for Love of Order. For my part, I shall not dispute it; but only endeavour to explain my own Sentiments clearly. Let every one follow that which the Evidence of Reason and the Authority of Faith oblige him to believe; and leave me, when I go out of the Way, which should lead me in the Search of Truth.  
VII. If Sinners or Heathens had no Love at all for Order, they would be altogether incorrigible; and if the Righteous had no Self-love, they could not possibly Sin; for according to my first Principle, Habits are formed and preserved by Acts. The Sinner being supposed to have no Love but for himself, cannot act but by Self-love, and therefore all his Actions must increase the Corruption of his Heart. On the other side, if the righteous Man be supposed to have no Love but for Order, he cannot act but by the Love of Order; and then all his Actions must still increase his Virtue: So that upon this Supposition, that a Sinner or a Heathen hath no Love but Self-love, and a just Man no Love but the Love of Order, the Sinner must be incorrigible, and the just Man impeccable. But I think I have sufficiently proved in the foregoing Chapter, that the greatest Sinners have always some disposition to love Order; and I think it cannot be doubted, but that the best Men always retain some Relics of Self-love.  
VIII. It is true indeed, that a Heathen can never acquire Charity, nor do any Action that may merit those Assistances that are necessary for obtaining the ruling Love of the immutable Order; but he may do Actions conformable to Order, he may perform good and meritorious Actions: 
Chap. I.  For a Heathen has always some Idea of Order; this Idea is indelible: He hath always some Love for Order; 
Chap. III.  this Love is natural and immortal. Now all Love is active, when once it is excited. And therefore if his Self-love do not oppose the Action of his Love of Order, his Love of Order will act and produce its proper Acts: Nay, tho' his Self-love should oppose his Love of Order, yet if his Love of Order be more excited than his Self-love, in a reciprocal Proportion of the greatness of these two habitual Loves and their actual Motion, his Love for Order would surmount his Self-love, if at that instant he determined himself to act.  
IX. For instance, an innocent Man is led to Execution. This is contrary to Order. A Heathen knows it, and can by a word speaking, prevent the breach of Order. I suppose that his Self-love is not at all concerned in the Life or Death of the Man. Certainly he will prevent, or at least will have Strength and Reason enough to speak and prevent this Offence against Order. For my part, I do not doubt, upon the Supposition which I have made, but that he would prevent it. For all Men naturally love Order and are so united to it, that one cannot violate Order, without offending them in some measure. The same things being supposed, tho' this Man we speak of were covetous, yet if his Passion for Money were laid a sleep for a little while, or, tho' it were excited, yet if only a Penny were desired of him to save the Life of that innocent Man, certainly he would, or at least might do an action contrary to his Self-love; for in truth, that opposition is but inconsiderable; but it would be a very great Offence against Order, which he is naturally disposed to Love, if he should not offer that small Sacrifice to it.  
X. Now those actions are good, because they are conformable to Order; and they are meritorious, because they are accompanied with a Sacrifice of Self-love to the Love of Order: But they are not meritorious in respect of the true Goods, nor of any thing that leads to the Possession of them, because those Sacrifices they offer are but inconsiderable; and besides, they proceed from a corrupted Heart, where Self-love hath an absolute Dominion.  
XI. A Man can have no Right to the true Goods, if he be not just in the sight of God; and he cannot be just before God, if he be not more disposed to love Order than to love any Thing, and even his own self; or if he be not disposed not to love himself but according to Order. So that tho' we should suppose a Heathen to love Order above all other Things with an actual Love, which cannot be done but by the Motion of Grace; yet God who judges the Soul not according to that which is transient in it, but according to its six'd and permanent Dispositions, could not look upon him as Just and Holy. For one single Act of loving God above all Things, cannot naturally change an inveterate Habit of Self-love. This cannot be done without 
† I shall explain this in Chap. 8.  the use of the Sacraments, which Christ hath instituted for our Justification, whereby one single Act of the love of God hath power to produce a Habit of it, which alone gives us a Right to the true Goods. And therefore none of the Philosophers, not Socrates, nor Plato, nor Epictetus, how enlightened soever they were, in respect of their Duties, nor even those who may be supposed to have shed their Blood for the Order of Justice, can be saved, if they did not receive that Grace which is to be obtained by Faith alone; because God, the just Judge, could not judge them but according to the permanent Disposition of their Wills; and tho' it were naturally possible for a Man to lay down his Neck by an actual Motion of the love of Justice, yet this alone would not change the natural and inveterate Habit of his Self-love, a Habit confirmed and augmented every moment by the Motions of Concupiscence, during the whole Course of his Life.  
XII. Nevertheless, since Heathens always retain some love for Order, they may avoid the Sin which they commit, by reviving that Love, by declining every thing that may excite Self-love, and by not consenting before they are forced to it, as I shall show hereafter; but indeed, they cannot fulfil the Commandments of God; they cannot love Order more than themselves in all Cases. This Reason may convince us of, and Faith informs us that it is impossible for them to do; only those who have Faith can do this, and even amongst them, all have not an equal Power; there are none but the Just, to whom nothing is wanting; for the rest, they may have recourse to Prayer, if they are sensible of their own Weakness; they may by the assistance of their Faith, and in consequence of the Promises of Jesus Christ, not by the necessity of the immutable Order of Justice, merit the next degree of Power to keep the Commandments of God upon all Occasions.  
XIII. I shall repeat in a few words, those essential Truths which I have here proved, and which are necessary for the right understanding of the sequel of this Discourse. Habits are acquired and confirmed by Acts; the ruling Habit doth not always act: A Man may do such Acts as have no relation to it, and sometimes such as are contrary to it; and therefore he may alter his Habits.  
XIV. Again, there is no Man, let him be never so vicious, who hath not some disposition to love Order: And therefore every free and rational Man may, I do not say become just, but correct and amend himself.  
XV. But supposing the assistance of Grace, every Man may become just: For the ruling Love of the immutable Order which justifies us in the sight of God, is a fixed and permanent Disposition, it is a Habit. Now we may acquire this Habit by the assistance of Grace, not only because we may by the help of actual Grace freely perform so many or such vigorous Acts of the love of Order above all Things, as will produce the Habit of it; but with more ease and certainty, because we may come to the Sacraments by the motion of this Love, and the Sacraments of the New Testament infuse into our Hearts justifying Charity.  
XVI. All then that we have to do to acquire and preserve the ruling Love of the immutable Order; or in shorter terms, the love of Order consists in searching diligently what are the things that excite this Love and make it produce its proper Acts, and what those are that can stop the actual Motion of Self-love. Now I know but two Principles which determine the natural Motion of the Will, and stir up the Habits, to wit, Light and Sense. Without one of these Principles, no Habit is formed naturally, and those which are formed remain unactive. If any one will take the pains to consult what he finds within himself, he will easily be satisfied, that the Will never actually loves any good, except the Light discovers it, or Pleasure renders it present to the Soul: And if we consult Reason, we shall be convinced that it must be so; for otherwise, the Author of Nature would imprint useless Motions on the Will.  
XVII. There is nothing then but Light and Pleasure which produce any actual Motion in the Soul. Light discovers to it the Good which it loves by an irresistible impression; and Pleasure assures it, that that Good is actually present; for the Soul is never more fully convinced of its Good, than when it finds itself actually touched with the Pleasure which makes it happy. Let us therefore inquire into the Means by which we may cause the Light to diffuse itself in our Minds, and make our Hearts be touched with such Sensations as are suitable to our Design, which is to produce in us the Acts of the Love of Order, or to hinder us from forming those of Self-love; for it is evident, that all the Precepts of Morality absolutely depend on these Means. In this enquiry, I shall observe the following Method.  
XVIII. First, I shall examine by what Means we may be enlightened as to our Duties: For the Light ought always to go first; and besides, the discovery of Good depends much more upon ourselves than the relish of it. For generally our Wills are the occasional, direct and immediate Causes of our Knowledge, but never of our Sense. Afterwards I shall inquire into the occasional Causes of our Sensations, and the power we have over them, that by their means we may dispose the Author of Grace and Nature to affect us in such a manner, that the Love of Order may be excited in us and quicken us, and Self-love or Concupiscence may remain without Motion.  
XIX. I shall first speak of those Sensations which God produces in us in consequence of the Order of Grace, because these have power to produce in us such Acts of the Love of Order as are capable of forming the Habit of it. After that, I shall treat of those Sensations produced in us by God, in consequence of the Order of Nature; which cannot weaken our vicious Habits, but indirectly, and which we are almost always concerned to avoid, that we may preserve in our Soul the Power and Liberty of loving the true Good, and living according to Order. For the different ways by which we avoid these Sensations, make one of the principal parts of Morality; and most of the Names of Virtue were invented only to express the acquired Dispositions of avoiding them.   

CHAP. V Of the Strength of the Mind. Our Desires are the occasional Causes of our Knowledge. The Contemplation of abstract Ideas is difficult. The Strength of the Mind consists in an acquired Habit of enduring the Labour of Attention. The way to acquire it is to Silence our Senses, Imagination and Passions, to Regulate our Studies, and to Meditate only on clear Ideas.  
I. WE are assured both by Faith and Reason, That God alone is the true Cause of all Things: But Experience teaches us, That he never acts but according to certain Laws which he hath prescribed to himself, and which he constantly observes: For instance, it is God alone that moves all Bodies, which perhaps would require a great many Words to convince some People of. But this being supposed, as having been proved elsewhere, it is evident from Experience, that God never moves Bodies but when they strike against one another. So that this Impulse of Bodies may be said to be the Occasional Cause which infallibly determines the Efficacy of that general Law, by which God produces a vast Variety of Motions in his Workmanship.  
II. Again, it is God alone that diffuses Light in all spiritual Substances; this is a Truth which I have sufficiently explained already: But for the Occasional Cause which determines him to communicate it to us, we must search no where but in ourselves. God by a general Law which he constantly observes, and of which he hath foreseen all the consequences, hath annexed the presence of Ideas to the Attention of our Mind; so that when we can command our Attention, and make use of it, the Light never fails to diffuse itself in us proportionably to our Labour. This is so true, that ungrateful and stupid Man makes it a ground of his Vanity; he imagines himself to be the Cause of his Knowledge, because God always answers his Desires so faithfully and constantly. For having an inward Sense of his own Attention, and no Knowledge of the operation of God, he looks upon the endeavour of his desires, 
Page 9  which should convince him of his Impotence, as the true cause of those Ideas which accompany that endeavour.  
III. Now God must have placed the occasional causes of our Knowledge in ourselves for several Reasons, the chief of which is, that otherwise we should not have been Masters of our Wills. For since our Wills must be enlightened before they can be moved; if it were not in our power to Think, it would not be in our power to Will. We should not be perfectly free, nor consequently in a condition to merit the true Goods, for which we are Created.  
iv The attention of the Mind than is a kind of natural Prayer, by which we obtain the illumination of Reason. But since Sin entered into the World, the Mind often finds itself in the midst of barren and dismal Solitudes; it cannot Pray; the labour of Attention wearies and disheartens it. Indeed the Labour is at first very great, and the recompense but small; and besides we find ourselves continually solicited, pressed and agitated by the Imagination and Passions, whose inspiration and motions we follow with Pleasure. However there is a necessity for it, we must call upon Reason if we will be enlightened by it: There is no other way to obtain Light and Understanding, but by the labour of Attention. Faith is a Gift of God, which we cannot merit; but Understanding is generally given only to merit. Faith is purely Grace in all Senses: But the understanding of Truth is Grace only in such a Sense, that we must merit it by our own Labour, or by cooperating with Grace.  
V Now those who are fitted to undergo this Labour, and are always attentive to the Truth that should guide them, have such a disposition as without doubt deserves a more magnificent Name than any of those that are given to the most splendid Virtues. But tho' this Habit or Virtue be inseparably joined to the love of Order, it is so little known among us, that I know not whether we have given it the honour of a particular Name. I shall therefore take the liberty to call it by an equivocal Name, Strength of Mind.  
VI For the obtaining this true Strength whereby the Mind is enabled to bear the Labour of Attention, we must begin to Labour betimes; for naturally we cannot acquire any Habits but by Acts, we cannot gain Strength but by Exercise: But perhaps the great difficulty lies in beginning. We remember that we have begun, and have been forced to leave off. This disheartens us, we think ourselves incapable of Meditation, and renounce Reason. If this be the case, whatever we can say to excuse our Sloth and Negligence, we must also renounce Virtue, at least in part. For without the Labour of Attention, we can never comprehend the greatness of Religion, the sanctity of Morality, the littleness of every thing but God, the ridiculousness of our Passions, and all our inward Miseries. Without this Labour, the Soul will be in continual Darkness and Disorder; for there is naturally no other way to obtain the Light which should guide us; we shall be eternally disquieted and strangely perplexed; for we are afraid of every thing when we walk in the Dark, and think ourselves environed with Precipices. Faith indeed doth guide and support us; but that is because it always produces some Light by the Attention which it stirs up in us: For there is nothing but Light that can give us Courage and Assurance, when we have so many Enemies to fear.  
VII. What must we do then to set about our Work without being discouraged? Let us see what it is that puts us out of Heart. We meditate with Pain, and without recompense. The Pain on one side disheartens us, and on the other the Reward does not sufficiently encourage us. We must then make the Pain less, and the Reward greater. This is plain. But there is nothing more difficult: Nay, it is impossible for the greatest part of Mankind. And for this Reason it is, that we need a more compendious way to be assured of the Truth, and that the visible Authority of the Church is necessary for our Conduct. For even those of the greatest Genius, if they deviate from Faith, or abandon the Analogy of Faith, wander out of the way which leads to Understanding; they break the Chain of Truths, which are all linked together in such a manner, that one single Falsehood being granted for truth, a Man may overthrow all the Sciences, if he knows how to argue by a deduction of Consequences.  
VIII. To lessen the Pain which we find in Meditation, we must avoid every thing that takes up any room in the Mind unprofitably: And as there is nothing that possesses it more than that which touches, strikes and agitates it; it is evident that we must carefully avoid all Objects that please our Senses and excite our Passions. The Senses and Passions being certain Modifications of the proper substance of the Soul, all intellectual Ideas which do not modify it, must of necessity disappear in the presence of sensible Objects, tho' we strive never so much to retain them, and to discover their Relations. Besides, we are persuaded that it is in our own power to recall these intellectual Ideas; but Experience assures us that our Wills are not the occasional causes of our Senses. And therefore we readily lay hold of those Sensations, by which we enjoy those Delights that pass away, and cannot be recalled; and neglect the pure Ideas whereby we discover the Truth which remains fixed, and which we can contemplate whenever we please. For we must resolve speedily as to those Goods which fly away from us, but we may defer the examination of those that are stable and always present. In short we would always be actually happy: We would never be actually Miserable. Actual Pleasure makes us actually Happy, and actual Pain actually Miserable. Therefore every Sensation which participates of Pleasure or Pain, possesses the Mind: Every motion of the Soul, which hath actual good or evil for its Object, governs the Will. So that we must use very strong endeavours to contemplate Truth, when our Senses are affected, and our Passions stirred: And since we find by Experience, that these endeavours are at that time very insignificant, it is impossible but that the Soul being spent and tired must be discontented and discouraged. And therefore those who treat of Prayer, give us this weighty Admonition, to labour incessantly in mortifying our Senses, and not to meddle with those things which do not concern us, and which may in the sequel by our indiscreet engaging in them, excite in us a Thousand troublesome Motions.  
IX. The next thing we have to do, is to avoid as much as we can, all those Sciences and Occupations which have nothing but show and outward splendour; those Sciences in which the Memory only is employed, those Studies and Occupations in which the Imagination is too much exercised. When a Man's Head is full, he is content with his imaginary Riches, and being swelled with Pride, he scorns the labour of Attention; or if he owns the necessity of it, it will cost him too much Pains to remove all those false Ideas which his Memory furnishes him with. And when the Imagination is too much exercised, the evidence of Truth doth not make a lively impression on us: For it is certain that there is nothing more opposite to Reason, than an Imagination too well furnished, too nice, too active, or rather a malignant and corrupted Imagination: For the Imagination ought always to be silent when Reason Speaks; but when we have used ourselves to employ it much, it continually interrupts and opposes it. And therefore we see that those Men of Sense I speak of, and your great. Wits as they fancy themselves, have not much Piety or Religion; for indeed there are no Men more blind than they. All the Light in them is extinguished by Pride; for being always highly conceited of themselves, and satiated or rather having no Appetite to Truth, they cannot bring themselves to think of earning by the Sweat of their Brow the Bread of the Soul, a Nourishment of which they have no manner of Relish.  
X. A Man must labour with the Soul to maintain the life of the Soul; this is absolutely necessary. But nothing is more servile than to employ the labour of the Soul in getting Money or Honour. That a Mechanic should labour with the Body to maintain the life of the Body, to get Bread, this is conformable to Order; at least while his Body is at Work, he may feed his Mind, and employ it in good Thoughts: But for a Magistrate, a Statesman, a Merchant, to lavish away the strength of his Mind in getting those Goods that are many times of no use for the life of the Body, and always dangerous to that of the Soul, is a very great Folly. And therefore we should in the third Place avoid all such Employments as deprive us of the liberty of the Mind, except God engages us in them by an extraordinary Vocation. For if Charity, or the Laws of the Community in which we live, oblige us to them, and we take upon us no more than we are able to bear; God will make up in us an equivalent to that which we might have obtained by the labour of Meditation. And even then we shall find time enough to examine ourselves in relation to our Duties, if we are not governed by Ambition or Interest in the exercise of our Calling.  
XI. Every Man knows well enough what things are apt to agitate and distract his Mind; at least he may be informed by consulting Experience, or that inward Sense which he hath of himself. And therefore I shall not dwell any longer in setting down particularly what we must do to make Meditation easy to us. It is only the Body which makes the Soul dull and heavy: This is the ground of our Stupidity. Now all sensible Objects work upon us only by means of the Body. Therefore it is evident that to hearken without Pain to the Answers which Truth pronounces within us, we have nothing to do but to silence our Senses, Imagination and Passions; or in a Word, to still that confused Noise which the Body makes in us. Now every Man knows by his own Experience, that the Body is quiet enough, when nothing stirs it from without, or hath not too much stirred it before. For since it retains a long time those impressions and motions which it hath received from sensible Objects, I confess that the Imagination remains polluted and hurt, when we have been so indiscreet as to be too familiar with Pleasure. Notwithstanding the Wound will close up of itself, and the Brain will return to its former state, if we carefully avoid the action of all Objects that strike our Senses; which we are always able to do, at least in some measure, with those necessary Helps, which I all along suppose. Let us do what we can on our part, and we shall be so far from being out of love with Meditation, that we shall find ourselves so well rewarded, that we shall not repent of our Pains; provided nevertheless that we observe the following Rule, without which, notwithstanding all our Meditation, we shall never be rewarded with a clear view of Truth. My Design here is not to teach the Art of Thinking, nor to deliver all the Rules by which the Mind ought to regulate every step in takes in the search of Truth. The Subject of this Discourse is Morality; a Science necessary for all Mankind; and not Logic, which only they who would be capable of discovering Truth in all manner of Subjects are obliged to study throughly.  
XII. The only Rule which I would have carefully observed, is to meditate only on clear Ideas and undeniable Experiments. To meditate on confused Sensations and doubtful Experiments, is lost labour; this is to contemplate nothing but Chimaeras, and to follow Error. The immutable and necessary Order, the divine Law is also our Law: This aught to be the principal Subject of our Meditations. Now there is nothing more abstracted and less Subject to Sense than this Order. I grant that we may also be guided by Order made sensible and visible by the actions and precepts of Jesus Christ: Yet that is because that sensible Order raises the Mind to the knowledge of the intellectual Order; for the Word made Flesh is our Model, only to conform us to Reason, the indispensable Model of all intelligent Being's, the Model by which the first Man was formed, and according to which we are to be reformed by the foolishness of Faith, which leads us by our Senses to our Reason, and to the contemplation of our intellectual Model.  
XIII. A Man that is thrown down on the Ground, supports himself with the Ground, but 'tis in order to rise again. Jesus Christ accommodates himself to our Weakness, but 'tis to draw us out of it. Faith speaks to the Soul only by the Body, it is true; but it is to the end that a Man should not hearken to the Body, that he should retire into himself, that he should contemplate the true Ideas of things, and silence his Senses, Imagination and Passions: That he should begin upon Earth to make the same use of his Mind that he shall do in Heaven, where Understanding shall succeed Faith, where the Body shall be subject to the Soul, and Reason shall have the sole Government. For the Body of itself speaks to the Soul only for itself; this is an essential Truth, of which we cannot be too fully convinced.  
XIV. Truth and Order consist in nothing else but in the relations of Greatness and Perfection which Things have to one another. But how shall we discover these Relations evidently, when we want clear Ideas? How shall we give to every thing the Rank which belongs to it, if we measure nothing but with relation to ourselves? Certainly, if we look upon ourselves as the Centre of the Universe, a Notion which the Body is continually putting into us; all Order is destroyed, all Truth's change their nature; a Torch becomes bigger than a Star; a Fruit more valuable than the safety of our Country: The Earth, which Astronomers consider but as a Point in respect of the Universe, is the Universe itself. And this Universe is yet but a Point in respect of our particular Being. At some certain times when the Body speaks to us, and the Passions are excited, we are ready, if it were possible, to sacrifice it to our Glory and Pleasures.  
XV. By clear Ideas, which I make the principal Object of those who would know and love Order, I mean not only those between which the Mind can discover the precise and exact Relations, such as are all those which are the Object of Mathematical Knowledge, and may be expressed by Numbers, or represented by Lines: But I understand in general by clear Ideas, all such as produce any Light in the Mind of those who contemplate them, and from which one may draw certain Consequences. So that I reckon amongst clear Ideas not only simple Ideas, but also those Truths which contain the Relations that are between Ideas. I comprehend also in this Number common Notions and Principles of Morality, and in a word all clear Truths which are evident either of themselves, or by Demonstration, or by an infallible Authority; tho' to speak nicely, these last are rather certain than clear and evident.  
XVI. By undeniable Experiments, I mean chief those matters of Fact which Faith informs us of, and those of which we are convinced by the inward Sense we have of what passes within ourselves. If we will be governed by Examples, and judge of Things by Opinion, we shall be deceived every Moment; for there is nothing more equivocal and more confused than the Actions of Men, and many times nothing more false than that which passes for certain with whole Nations. Further, it is a very fruitless thing to meditate upon that which passes within ourselves, if we do it with a Design of discovering the nature of it. For we have no clear Ideas of our own Being, nor of any of its Modifications; and we can never discover the nature of any Being's, but by contemplating the clear Ideas by which they are represented to us. But we cannot meditate too much upon our inward Sensations and Motions, to discover their Connexion's and Relations, and the natural or occasional causes which excite them; for this is a thing of infinite consequence in relation to Morality.  
XVII. The knowledge of Man is of all the Sciences the most necessary for our purpose: But it is only an experimental Science, resulting from the reflection we make on that which passes within us. This Reflection doth not discover to us the nature of those two Substances of which we are composed, but it teaches us the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body, and is serviceable to us in establishing those great Principles of Morality, by which we ought to govern our Actions.  
XVIII. On the contrary the knowledge of God is not at all Experimental: We discover the Divine Nature and Attributes, when we can contemplate with Attention the vast and immense Idea of an infinitely perfect Being; for we must not judge of God but according to the clear Idea we have of him. This is a thing not sufficiently taken notice of: For most Men judge of God with a relation to themselves: they make him like themselves a great many ways; they consult themselves, instead of consulting only the Idea of an infinitely perfect Being. Thus they take away from him those divine Attributes which they cannot easily conceive, and attribute to him a Wisdom, a Power, a Conduct, in a word Sentiments resembling, at least in some measure those which are most familiar to them. And yet the knowledge of our Duties supposes that of the Divine Attributes; and our Conduct can never be sure and well grounded if it be not built upon and governed by that which God observes in the execution of his Designs.  
XIX. The Knowledge of Order, which is our indispensable Law, is compounded of both these, clear Ideas and inward Sensations. Every Man knows that it is better to be Good, than Rich, a Prince, or a Conqueror; but every Man doth not see it by a clear Idea. Children and ignorant People know well enough when they do ill; but 'tis because the secret Check of Reason reproves them for it, and not always because the Light discovers it to them. For Order considered speculatively and precisely, only as it contains the Relations of Perfection, enlightens the Mind without moving it; if it be taken only for the Law of God, the Law of all Spiritual Being's, and considered only so far as it hath the force of a Law, (for God loves Order himself, and irresistibly wills that we should love it, or that we should love every Thing in proportion to its being amiable); Order, I say, as it is the natural and necessary Principle and Rule of all the Motions of the Soul, touches, penetrates, and convinces the Mind without enlightening it. So that we may discover Order by a clear Idea, but we know it also by Sensation; for since God loves Order, and continually imprints on us a Love and Motion like his own, we must necessarily be informed by the sure and compendious way of Sensation, when we follow or forsake the immutable Order.  
XX. But we must observe, that this way of discovering Order by Sensation or Instinct, is often rendered uncertain by Sin, which hath introduced Concupiscence; because the secret influences of the Passions are of the same nature with that inward Sensation. For when we act contrary to Opinion and Custom, we often feel such inward Checks as very much resemble those of Reason and Order. Before Sin entered into the World, the Sense of inward Reproof was a sign that could not be mistaken; for than that alone spoke with Authority; but since that time, the secret inspirations of our Passions are not subject to our Wills: So that they are easily confounded with the inspirations of inward Truth, when the Mind is not enlightened. Hence it is that there are so many People who seriously and in good earnest maintain abominable Errors. A false Idea of Religion and Morality, which agrees with their Interests and Passions, appears Truth itself to them; and being convinced by a pleasing Sense within them, which justifies their excess, they drive on their rash and indiscreet Zeal with all the Motion of Self-love.  
XXI. There is nothing then more certain and secure, than Light; we cannot six our Attention too long on clear Ideas; and tho' we may suffer ourselves to be animated by the inward Sense, yet we must never be guided by it. We must contemplate Order in itself, and permit this Sensation only to keep up our Attention by the Motion which it excites in us; otherwise our Meditations will never be rewarded with a clear prospect of Truth; we shall be disgusted every moment, and being always inconstant, doubtful and perplexed, we shall suffer ourselves to be blindly led by our Fancy.  
XXII. Indeed, when our Heart is corrupted, we are not in a Condition to contemplate Order as it is in itself; we consider with Pleasure, only those imaginary Relations which things have to ourselves, and neglect those real Relations which they have to one another. We may then love the Mathematics; but it is because they bring us Reputation or Profit, and because they examine only the Relations of Greatness; whereas Order Consists in the Relations of Perfection. The Evidence of Truth is always agreeable, when it doth not clash with our Self-love; but naturally we do not love a Light which discovers our hidden Disorders; a Light which condemns, punishes, and covers us with Shame and Confusion. Order, the Divine Law, is a terrible, threatening and inexorable Law: No Man can think upon it without fear and horror, when he will not obey it; all this is true. But yet, tho' the Heart be corrupted, Self-love enlightened may sometimes stop or diminish the Motion of the Passions. We do not love Disorder for Disorder's sake; and a Man may desire his Conversion, when he hopes to heighten his Pleasures by it. After all, I suppose the necessary helps; for I confess, that without the assistance of Grace, we cannot labour in our Conversion as we ought, nor so much as have one good Thought which may contribute to the Cure of our Distempers.   

CHAP. VI Of the Liberty of the Mind. We should suspend our Assent as much as we can, which is the great Rule. By the Liberty of the Mind we may avoid Error and Sin, as by the Strength of the Mind we free ourselves from Ignorance. The Liberty of the Mind, as well as the Strength of it, is a Habit which is confirmed by use. Some instances of its usefulness in Physics, Morality, and Civil Life.  
I. WE cannot discover Truth without the Labour of Attention, because this Labour alone is rewarded with Light. Before a Man can support and continue the Labour of Attention, he must have gained some Strength of Mind, and some Authority over the Body to impose Silence on his Senses, Imagination and Passions, as I have showed in the foregoing Chapter. But how great Strength of Mind soever he hath acquired, he cannot Labour incessantly; and if he could, yet there are some Subjects so obscure, that the Mind of Man cannot penetrate into them. Therefore to keep him from falling into Error, it is not sufficient to have a strong Mind to endure Labour, but he must also have another Virtue, which I cannot better express than by the Equivocal Name of Liberty of Mind; by which a Man witholds his Assent till he be irresistibly forced to give it.  
II. When we examine any very compounded Question, and our Mind finds itself surrounded on all sides with very great Difficulties, Reason permits us to give over our Labour, but it indispensably requires us to suspend our assent, and to judge of nothing, when nothing is evident. To make use of our Liberty as much as we can, is an essential and indispensable Precept both of Logic and Morality: For we ought never to believe, till Evidence obliges us to it; we ought never to love that which we may without Remorse hinder ourselves from loving. I speak of Man only as he is Rational, or as he governs himself only by Reason: For the Faithful, as such, have other Principles than Light and Evidence. The Statesman, the Burgher, the Religious, the Soldier, have each of them Principles of their own; and it is reasonable that they should follow them, tho' they do not clearly and evidently see that they are conformable to Reason. But when Faith gives no determination, we should believe nothing but what we see. Where Custom prescribes no Rules, we should follow only Faith and Reason; and tho' human Authority doth determine, and Custom authorises any thing, yet if we know clearly and evidently that their Determinations are false and erroneous, we had better renounce every thing than Reason: I say Reason, and not our Senses, our Imagination, or the secret inspirations of our Passions, which I desire may be taken notice of. I speak also of Authority subject to Error, and not of the infallible Authority of the Church; which can never be contrary to Reason. For Jesus Christ can never contradict himself; Truth incarnate can never be contrary to Truth intellectual, nor the Head which governs the Church to universal Reason, which enlightens all Spiritual Being's.  
III. The Strength of the Mind is to the search of Truth, what the Liberty of the Mind is to the Possession of the same Truth, or at least to Infallibility or exemption from Error: For by the use we make of the Strength of our Mind we discover Truth, and by using the Liberty of our Mind we avoid Error. The Strength and Capacity of the Mind being deficient, Liberty was necessary for it, that by suspending its Assent it might avoid Error, and that the Author of its Being might not also be the Author of its Disorders. For the Liberty of the Mind makes amends for its Weakness and Limitation; and he that hath so much Liberty as to be always able to suspend his Assent, tho' he cannot deliver himself from Ignorance, (a necessary Imperfection of all finite Spirits,) may yet avoid Error and Sin, which render a Man contemptible, and make him liable to Punishment.  
iv It is certain, that if we always made use of our Liberty, as far as we are able, we should never assent but to Evidence, which alone doth never deceive, as I have proved elsewhere, and which also obliges the Will to give its Assent. For when the Mind sees clearly, it cannot doubt that it sees; when it hath examined every thing that there is to examine, in order to the discovery of those Relations or Truths which it searches after, it is necessary that it should rest there, and give over its Inquiries. In the same manner, as to Sin, he that loves nothing but what he evidently knows to be the true Good, nothing but what he cannot help loving, is not irregular in his Love. He loves nothing but God; for there is nothing else which we cannot without Remorse hinder ourselves from loving. There is nothing but God which we clearly and evidently know to be really Good, to be the true Cause of Happiness, a Being infinitely Perfect, an Object capable of contenting the Soul, which being made for the enjoyment of all Good, may suspend its Assent of loving that which doth not contain every thing that is Good.  
V Strength and Liberty of Mind than are two Virtues, which we may call General, or to use the common Term, Cardinal Virtues. For since we ought never to Love any thing, not do any Action, without good Consideration, we must make use of the Strength and Liberty of our Mind every moment: These Virtues, according to my Notion of them, are not natural Faculties common to all Men: There is nothing more rare, nor is there any Man who possesses them perfectly. I know well enough that Man is naturally capable of some Labour of Mind, but that doth not make him have a strong Mind: He can also suspend his Assent; but his Mind is not therefore naturally free, in such a manner as I mean. The Strength and Liberty of Mind, of which I speak, are Virtues which are gotten by use: But because these Virtues add Perfection to the Soul, and restore it in some measure to its original State, (for before Sin, the Mind was every way strong and free); Men do not generally look upon them as Virtues: For they imagine that Virtue instead of correcting and repairing Nature, aught to change or destroy it. Nay, there are some People who think that Strength and Liberty of Mind are Faculties of the Soul, subsisting in a kind of individual; and judging of others by themselves, they imagine that it is impossible to be attentive to those Subjects which frighten and discourage them, and that it is Obstinacy not to Assent to Probabilities by which they are deceived.  
VI But the Strength and Liberty of the Mind are unequal in all Men. There are no two Persons equally fit to retire into themselves, nor equally capable of suspending their Assent: Nay, the same Person doth not long preserve the Strength and Liberty of his Mind in the same Condition: If they do not increase by Use and Exercise, they must necessarily decrease; for there are no Virtues more opposed by, and more contrary to the continual Motions of Concupiscence. Most Virtues agree well enough with Self-love, for we may often perform a great many Duties with Pleasure, and by a motive of Self-love. But we cannot meditate long without Pain, and much less suspend our Assent, or the Judgement which determines the Motions of the Soul and Body. When any Good discovers itself to the Soul, and attracts it by its Charms, it is not at ease, if it remains unmoved; for there is no harder Labour than to keep ourselves firm and steady in a Current;  we cease to act, we are carried away with the Stream.  
VII. Thus we see there is scarce any Man that applies himself to Meditation; and that those who undertake the search of Truth, often want Strength and Courage to bring them to the place of its Habitation; tired and disheartened, they strive to content themselves with what they already possess, or perhaps comfort themselves with a ridiculous contempt of what they cannot attain to, or a cowardly and mean spirited Despair. If they are deceived, they turn Deceivers; if they are tired themselves, they infect others with Sloth and Idleness; and but to see them, is enough to make one like themselves, discouraged with Labour, and out of relish with Truth. For such is the Nature of Men, that they had much rather deceive one another, than consult their common Master; they are so credulous in respect of their Friends, and so unbelieving or so little attentive to the Answers of the Truth within them, that Opinion and Party are the general Rule of their Thoughts and Actions.  
VIII. In order to gain some Liberty of Mind, and to accustom ourselves to suspend our Assent, we must continually reflect on the prejudices or preoccupations of our Minds, and the cause of them. We fancy we comprehend things very well, when we cease to admire them; and their familiarity ridding us of all apprehension, our Mind readily gives its assent, because it hath no interest to withhold it. It signifies nothing to suspend our Assent, if we have no design to examine; for what matter is it if we do fall into Error? But it is great and agreeable to judge of every Thing. Now we cannot examine without Pain; at least we must spend some time in Examination, which the Soul created to be happy, thinks lost, when it is not kept in motion by Pleasure, Vanity or Interest. Hence it is, that the ordinary Language is nothing but perpetual Jargon. For every Man thinks he understands very well what he says himself, or hears another say, when he hath said it, or heard it said a great many times over: They are only new Terms which cause uneasiness, and awaken the Attention; and these new Terms, tho' never so clear and free from equivocal Significations, are always suspected; because every one is capable of Suspicion and Apprehension, but there are few People capable of Attention sufficient to discover Truth, and free themselves from Apprehension. I could fill whole Volumes with Examples of expressions which are universally received, and yet their Sense is undetermined and confused. But every Man should take delight to join clear Ideas, if he can, to his ordinary Discourse; for there are few Employments more agreeable than this, or more proper to free us from our Prejudices, and to procure us some Liberty of Mind.  
IX. By the same Principle it is that most Men imagine they know well enough the Causes of those natural Effects which are common and ordinary; and when you ask the reason of them, they think you must be satisfied, tho' they tell you nothing but what you know already; for they believe that we ought to give over our Inquiries, when we cease to wonder, and that we should assent to every thing, if we have nothing to fear or hope. How comes an Egg to produce a Chicken? 'Tis the Heat of the Hen which Hatches it. This is clear; there is nothing more common; you must be satisfied with this. What is it that causes a Grain of Wheat to shoot out and make way through the Earth to spread its Root there, and produce the Ear? 'Tis the Rain that does all this; What would you have more? Or if you be not contented with these or the like Answers, those who pass for Philosophers will tell you, that Heat and Moisture, Terms clear enough in all Conscience, are the fruitful Principles of the generation and corruption of all Things. They will tell you that the little Animals are engendered of Corruption and Putrefaction; that the great ones preserve their Species by certain seminal or prolific Powers, which form and rank all the parts of the Foetus: But that the Sun and Moon preside over all, or it may be a Primum Mobile, which gives motion to all the Bodies which it contains. These fine Things, or the like, we have heard, when we were Boys from grave Men whom we called our Masters. And because we could never learn if we did not believe without Examination, retain and repeat well, we have believed and repeated these Impertinences so many times, that afterwards we cannot hinder ourselves from believing them and teaching them to others.  
X. If an Ox or any Animal of a new Species should drop from the Clouds, all the Virtuoso's and curious Wits would make abundance of Reflections on a thing that very little deserved their application. But that all Animals should come out of the Womb of their Mothers in a uniform manner, and according to infinitely wise Laws; this is a thing too common to be the subject of their Reflections and Inquiries. 'Tis Nature that doth all those wonderful Things. This great Word explains every Thing. We rest satisfied with it; we do not suspend our Judgement. We believe: But what is it that we believe? Why that Nature does every Thing: Nothing is plainer. Shall we doubt of this! Shall we examine things that we have said and heard a Thousand and a Thousand times? And what will this bring us to? To meditate? No, that costs too much Pains. To go to School and learn? No, that Time's past. We are now asked our Opinion: And therefore our Province is now to determine and to judge.  
XI. There would be no Atheists or Libertines, if Men would reflect a little, I will not say on themselves, but on the least considerable of the Works of God, on a Leaf, a Grain or a Fly. But they have seen these Wonders when they were Children. They have been used to them before they could think in Order, before they could reflect and suspend their Assent. They have been taught to slight and pass them by without regard. Thus they are surrounded with wonderful Works, and do not know it. They are themselves the Masterpiece of God's Workmanship, and yet they think the least of any thing of examining what they are.  
XII. But the advantage of suspending our Assent is much greater in matters of Morality than in any other ' Case whatsoever. For that which relates to Manners is very little known, and very difficult to be known exactly, because the Principles and Ideas which we have of that matter, are obscured by the Passions, which leave us no liberty of Mind, but in respect of those Truths which do not much concern us. So that in matters of Morality we avoid Error almost as often as we suspend our Assent; and these Errors are always of Consequence. Not but that we are often obliged to act, before we know clearly what we ought to do. But whatever we ought to do, we ought never to believe, before Evidence obliges us to it. Nor do I say that we must always remain in doubt: For there are infinite differences between doubting and believing, which have no particular Names. We doubt when every thing is equally probable. We believe when every thing is evident. But as there are innumerable degrees of Probability greater and less, the Mind must place every thing in its proper Rank, if it would judge rightly. And its decisions ought always to be guided by Light and Evidence. For tho' a Principle be not evident, yet perhaps it is evident that this Principle is probable. And therefore the Mind should suspend its Assent, and examine it, if the time permits. It should look upon it as probable, and give it that degree of probability which Light and Evidence allow it. For in fine, the Judgements of the Will ought not to have a greater latitude than the perceptions of the Mind: We should follow the Light step by step, and not go before it. When we judge upon no other ground but because we will judge, and before we are obliged to it by Evidence, this Judgement being of our own production, and not proceeding from the action of God within us, is liable to Error; and tho' it may by Chance be right, yet it is not rightly made, because, as I have said several times, we should make use of our Liberty as much as we can.  
XIII. Let a Man spend but one Year in the Conversation of the World, hearing every thing that is said, and believing nothing, retiring every Moment into himself, to hearken whether the Truth within him speaks the same Language, and still suspending his Assent till the Light appear: I shall reckon such a Man more learned than Aristotle, wiser than Socrates, and more illuminated than the Divine Plato. Nay, I esteem the facility which he will thereby gain of meditating and suspending his Assent, more than all the Virtues of the greatest Men among the ancient Heathens; for if he cultivates a Soil that is not ungrateful, he will gain by his Labour more strength and liberty of Mind than can be imagined. What a vast difference there is betwixt Reason and Opinion; betwixt the Sovereign within which convinces by Evidence, and Men who persuade by Instinct, by their Gestures, Voice, Air and Behaviour; betwixt Men both deceivers and deceived, and the eternal Wisdom, Truth itself! Let those who have not reflected on these things condemn me if they please, and let them begin their Censure by renouncing Reason.  
XIV. But farther, if Men would suspend their Assent also touching matters of Fact, of which they cannot be informed by consulting the inward Truth, but seem in a manner obliged to believe what they are told; how many mistakes and disturbances would they avoid by making a little use of their Liberty? There is nothing does more mischief in the World than the Opinion Men have of Things: But the Opinion they have of Persons excites also an infinite number of Passions. Slander, Calumny and false Reports, are oftentimes the cause of the oppression of Innocence, of irreconcilable Hatreds, and sometimes also of Battles and bloody Wars. A Word ill understood and worse interpreted, is a sufficient ground for a Challenge with Men of a light and hasty Disposition. They will not submit to have Matters fairly cleared: Or if they would, People are not always in a Humour to give them this Satisfaction. What then must we do in this Case? We should believe nothing that is said, we should suspend our Assent, and remember these Words of the wise Man," He that is hasty to believe is light in Heart: For it is the greatest mark of a weak Mind, to believe lightly every thing that is said. Do not we know that the greatest part of Mankind is apt to Poison the most innocent Words and Actions, I do not say out of wilful and devilish Malice, but for their Interest or Diversion, to show their Wit, or from the natural Malignity of their Temper? Have we not observed that almost all common Reports prove false in the end; and that when it is the interest of a Party, that any one should be a Man of Probity and Virtue or the contrary, common Fame disguises and transforms him in a Moment? Let every Man reflect but upon himself. How many false and rash Judgements hath he made of every thing that hath been told him of Persons whom he doth not Love? But let him take notice, that if he once suffer himself to believe all the Ill he hears, his Imaginations and Passions will not be quiet, but will make him believe a great deal more. For the Imagination and Passions never cease to communicate their own Dispositions and malignant Qualities to the Objects which excite them; as the Senses imprint on Bodies those sensible Qualities with which they themselves are affected: For else how could the Passions justify all the Extravagances and Wrongs they commit? We must not always attribute to others what we feel within ourselves: This miscarriage is so frequent, that whenever any one speaks of another, we have reason to be apprehensive of falling into it, and to fear that he doth not speak so much what is true, as what he believes to be true. So that if we would not be deceived in our Opinions of Persons, we should suspend our Assent, and look upon that which is said of them only as probable. Prudence requires us to distrust Men, and to be always on our guard against their Malignity. But we are not allowed to condemn them within ourselves: We must leave the quality of Judge and searcher of Hearts to God alone, if we will not run the hazard of committing a thousand Wrongs.  
XV. That we may clearly comprehend the necessity of endeavouring to gain some liberty of Mind, or some facility of suspending the assent of the Will; we must know that when two or more Goods are actually present to the Mind, and the Mind determines its choice in relation to them, it never fails to choose that which at that instant appears to be the best; supposing an equality in every thing else. For the Soul being capable of loving only by the natural tendency which it hath toward Good, must of necessity love that which hath the greatest conformity with what it loves irresistibly.  
XVI. But we must observe, That the Soul may still suspend its Assent, and not determine itself finally, even when it doth determine itself; especially in regard of false Goods. (I suppose the room which it hath for thinking, not to be taken up by any overviolent Sensations or Motions.) For in fine, we may withhold our Assent, till Evidence obliges us to yield it. Now we can never evidently see that false Goods are true ones, because we can never evidently see that which is not. So that tho' we cannot hinder ourselves from determining in favour of the most apparent Goods, yet by suspending our Assent, we may love none but those that are most solid. For we cannot suspend our Judgement without exciting our Attention; and the Attention of the Mind dispels all those vain appearances and probabilities, which deceive the negligent and weak, those servile Minds which are sold to Pleasure, and will not fight for the preservation and enlargement of their Liberty; in a Word, those who cannot undergo the labour of Examination, but assent imprudently to every thing that pleases their Concupiscence. There is nothing then more necessary than the liberty of the Mind to make us love none but the true Good, live according to Order, inviolably obey Reason, and to procure us true and solid Virtue. And all such Occupations as may any way contribute to gain the Mind a liberty of suspending its Assent, till the light of Truth appears, are always very profitable to Men, who have a natural inclination to judge boldly and adventurously of every thing, and by consequence are extremely liable to fall into Error and Disorder.   

CHAP. VII. Of Obedience to Order. The means of acquiring a firm and ruling Disposition to obey it. It cannot be done without Grace. How far the right use of our Strength and Liberty contributes toward it, by the Light it produces in us, by the contemptible Opinion it gives us of our Passions, and by the Purity which it preserves and establishes in our Imagination.  
I. THE facility of rendering the Mind attentive, and of withholding its Assent, till Evidence obliges it to give it, are Habits necessary for such as would be substantially Virtuous. But solid Virtue, Virtue every way complete, doth not consist only in those two noble and extraordinary Dispositions of the Mind; there is required besides an exact Obedience to the Law of God, a general Nicety in all our Duties, a firm and governing disposition of regulating all the motions of our Hearts and all the actions of our Life by the known Order; in a Word, the love of Order. For what advantage is it to a Man to have strength and liberty of Mind sufficient to discover the most hidden Truths, and to avoid even the smallest Errors, if he doth not govern his Actions by his Light, if he opposes or forsakes the Truth which he knows, and withdraws himself from the Obedience which he owes to Order, the inviolable, the eternal and divine Law? Certainly this will serve only to render him more Criminal, and to enhance his Gild in the Eyes of him who invincibly loves Order, and indispensably punishes every breach of it.  
II. But how must we gain this fixed and ruling Disposition of governing all the motions of our Heart, and all the actions of our Lives by the known Order? What we are to do for this end is evident from that which hath been said in the fourth Chapter. Habits are formed by Acts: We must therefore frequently make firm and constant resolutions of obeying Order, and sacrificing every thing to it. For by often repeating these actual Resolutions, and pursuing them at least in part, we may by degrees gain some kind of habitual Disposition. This is easy enough to be conceived; but it is by no means easy to be practised. For which way can we frame this heroic Resolution of sacrificing even our predominant Passion to the divine Law? Certainly it is not possible to be done without the assistance of Grace. A Man without Grace may kill himself, he may desire to return again into Nothing: But Nothing is not so terrible as that disconsolate condition of living without that which we love. Nothing is a middle state between Happiness and Misery: So that we may wish not to be, when we are miserable, and desperate in our Misery. But we cannot wish to be miserable, because the desire of Happiness is invincible and irresistible. And therefore without a firm Faith, and the hope of enjoying a Happiness more solid than that which we part with, Self-love tho' never so much enlightened, cannot beget in us a bare resolution of sacrificing our predominant Passion. This is without Dispute.  
III. Now that this Faith and Hope are the Gifts of God 〈◊〉 be proved by several Reasons, the chief of which I take to be this, That it is naturally impossible for a Man who is continually distracted by Objects which please his Senses, and excite his Passions, to have so much command over himself, as to examine the Truths of Religion, with that attention and perseverance which is necessary to be fully convinced of them and submit to them, unless God by a particular favour make him find some delight in this kind of application. Nevertheless, since we may make Nature subservient to Grace a great many ways, we should, out of a Principle of Self-love enlightened, endeavour to retire into ourselves, to confirm our Faith, and increase our Hope. But these Truths require a fuller explication.  
iv Every Man invincibly desires to be Happy, but with a solid and durable Happiness. No Man would be deceived, especially in a matter of so great consequence as eternal Salvation. And therefore every Man who hath already gained some force and liberty of Mind, or indeed every Man who is not so much a Slave to Sin, and so much in subjection to actual Pleasure, that he cannot make any reflection on the way which leads ' to Life, should and may satisfy himself once for all, whether his Being is immortal or not; whether there be a jealous and inexorable God; whether Order is an inviolable Law, and whether every Action conformable or contrary to that Law shall be infallibly rewarded or punished. Self-love enlightened, and the desire of being substantially happy, is without doubt a sufficient Grace to incline us to make some examination of the Truths of Religion. We may deprive ourselves for a moment of a slight Pleasure, to look after the enjoyment of a solid and durable one. For nothing is more reasonable and more agreeable to Self-love enlightened, than to be willing to cease from being actually happy for some time, that we may be solidly happy to all eternity.  
V It is not in a Man's own choice to have the Gospel preached to him. It doth not depend on his own election to happen into a Conversation, or to light of a Book, which may convince and convert him by means of the favourable circumstances of Grace and of his present Condition. But it is, or hath been in his own power to preserve some strength and liberty of Mind, and not suffer his Imagination to be corrupted to that degree, as to render Grace when it is given him ineffectual; and to make him in a manner insensible of the taste of true Good and spiritual Delight, through the abundance, the sprightliness and force of sensible Pleasures which disturb and captivate him. For, as I have already said, it is by the means of this spiritual Delight, that the Truths of Religion make a lively impression on the Mind. Without this we read the Scripture, like the Jews, with a Veil over our Eyes. The Preacher speaks to the Ears; Miracles and Prodigies astonish the Senses; but God doth not speak to the Heart. It is Attention that is the natural cause of Light. But most commonly, as soon as Pleasure ceases, the Attention also fails; at least that kind of favourable Attention which renders the Light agreeable and lovely, and prepares the Soul for a tendency toward Good; because Pleasure is the natural Characteristick of Good, and the Soul invincibly desires to be always happy.  
VI Nevertheless, as we desire to be solidly happy, we may in some measure sacrifice false Pleasures, tho' present, to solid Pleasures, tho' future: Nay, we may seek the latter rather than the former, when the actual hope and the actual appearance of Good are in a reciprocal proportion to each other. Experience teaches us these Truths; for we often quit a slight Pleasure when we hope to enjoy one more solid. But because we invincibly desire to be happy, and to be actually happy, we cannot long resist the actual and continual allurement of sensible Pleasures, how great Strength and Liberty of Mind soever we have acquired: We cannot be willing to put off our Happiness till after Death, which the Imagination looks upon as a true annihilation; the Imagination, I say, which without Grace is always the Mistress of Reason, the Governess of the Passions, and the inward Principle of all the violent Motions which shake the Soul. Thus it is evident, that on the one side, he that commits Sin, and doth not labour to maintain the Strength and Liberty of his Mind, deserves Punishment; and on the other, that neither the most enlightened Law, nor the clearest Philosophy, can impart to the Soul, corrupted and weakened by original Sin, sufficient soundness and strength to walk in the way which leads to Happiness: This St. Paul shows all through his Epistle to the Romans.  
VII. It is necessary than that Man who is capable of Reason and Happiness, should make use of all the Strength and Liberty of Mind that is left him, to inform himself of those things that may increase his Faith and strengthen his Hope, which may put him in the way to Happiness; and without which, as I have shown, it is not possible for him so much as to form a Resolution of Sacrificing his predominant Passion. But what! must we Sacrifice our predominant Passion to be happy? This is a Contradiction; at least, it is very harsh and terrible: It is so; but that is when our Passion appears dressed in all its Charms; we must therefore strip it of them. I do not say, that we must Sacrifice it with all those Ornaments which disguise it: On the contrary, seeing we would not be deceived, seeing we would be solidly happy; I say we must endeavour to know it for what it really is, to discover the Ridiculousness of it, which may make us despise it, or the Deformity of it, which may create in us an aversion for it. This I say, that we should and may by the Strength of our Hope and Faith bring our Mind to such a Temper, that with the help of Grace, it may perform this Sacrifice which appears so terrible, with Pleasure, or at least with Joy and Satisfaction: After all, there is a necessity for it. We must either unavoidably perish together with our imaginary Riches, or throw them overboard to arrive happily at the Port, where we shall find solid and substantial Wealth, not subject to Storms and Tempests.  
VIII. For this end, we must study the Nature of Man; we must know ourselves, our Greatness, our Weakness, our Perfections and Inclinations; we must be fully satisfied of the Immortality of our Being; we must carefully examine the difference between the two Parts of which Man is composed, and the admirable Laws of their Union; from thence we must raise our Minds to the Author of these Laws, and the true Cause of all that passes within ourselves, and in the Objects that are about us. We must contemplate God in those Attributes which are contained in the vast and boundless Idea of an infinitely perfect Being, and never judge of him with relation to ourselves; but support the View of our Mind, if there be occasion, in so abstracted and profound a Subject, by the visible Effects of the universal Cause: Above all, we must examine the Relations which the Conduct of God hath to the Divine Attributes, and find out how his Conduct ought necessarily to be the Rule of ours: Finally, we must penetrate into his eternal Designs, and know at least that he is himself the end of his working, and that the immutable Order is his Law. Then we must go back again to ourselves, compare ourselves with Order, and discover that we are wholly corrupted; we must be sensible and ashamed of our low and unworthy Inclinations; and condemn ourselves as guilty, as Enemies of our God, as not engaging in his Designs, as not obeying his Law, but the filthy Law of Flesh and Blood; we must humble ourselves and tremble before a God jealous of his Glory, and a punisher of Crimes; we must dread his just and terrible Vengeance, Death and Hell; seek for a Mediator with the greatest concern, and find him at length in the Person of Jesus Christ, the only Son of God; who was once offered as a Sacrifice upon the Cross, for the Sins of the World, and is now seated at the right hand of the living God, made Lord of all things, and consecrated a High Priest of the true Goods; once put to death as a Malefactor without Jerusalem, and now within the Temple, in the Holy of Holies, before his Face of the Father, always living to make intercession for Sinners, and to shower down Blessings and Graces upon them; but after all, their inexorable Judge in the day of the Vengeance of the Lord; that eternal Day which shall put an end to all Time, and fix the measures of Good and Evil to all Eternity.  
IX. Can we think of these great Truths, and be convinced of them by frequent Meditations, and yet find our Passions still the same? Can that sensible Pomp and those Charms which surround them; can they, I say, bear that strong and penetrating Light which diffuses itself in the Mind, when we think of Death and Hell, and the World to come, that heavenly Jerusalem enlightened with the Splendour of God himself, and environed with the River of his Pleasures? Certainly, the thought of Death alone must change the whole Face of things in those who have any Sense left, or retain any Strength and Liberty of Mind. But that unavoidable Alternative of two Eternity's, so opposite to each other, which succeed our latest Moment's, must needs break all the Designs, and blot out all the Ideas which our Passions represent to us; at least, they cannot possibly justify their Extravagancies and Irregularities in these times of Reflection.  
X. If to those Truths which Reason discovers when it is guided by Faith, we add that which Reason by itself informs us, of the difference between the Soul and the Body, and of the Laws of the Union of these two Substances; it will not be so difficult to discover the Malignity of the Passions, and to despise their flattering Caresses which irresistibly seduce weak Minds. For when we reflect seriously on the movement and working of our Machine, we sometimes choose rather to govern the Springs of it ourselves, than to be carried along with its Motions; and when we are fully convinced, that all the Splendour and all the Charms of sensible Objects depend only on the manner in which the Fermentation of the Blood and other Humours represent them to us, the desire which we have of being solidly happy carries our Thoughts another way, and sometimes makes us loath and abhor those vain Objects; vain and contemptible without doubt, as well because the Splendour of them vanishes, when the Fermentation abates, or when the Circulation of the Blood supplies the Brain with Spirits of a different Quality, as for a great many other Reasons which need not here be alleged; they pass away, and that is sufficient. But they pass away in such a manner, that they draw along with them those that fasten themselves to them, and destroy them for ever.  
XI. Let every one then examine his predominant Passion by the Principles of the true Philosophy, and those Truths which Faith teaches him, of which he ought to satisfy himself by a good use of Grace and Liberty; (for nothing is more reasonable than Religion, tho' we stand in need os some help to make us throughly comprehend it, and submit ourselves to it;) let every one, I say, examine by the Light of Reason and of Faith, the Passion which holds him in Captivity; and he will find in himself, some desire, at least, to be delivered from its Tyranny: The Enchantmens' which bewitched him, will vanish by degrees; he will be ashamed of himself for being so easily seduced, and if the Fermentation of the Blood and Humours ceases for a little while, and the animal Spirits change their Course, he will find himself so displeased with the Object of his Inclinations, that he will not be able so much as to endure the Presence of it.  
XII. But notwithstanding this, we must not cease to watch over ourselves, to distrust our own Strength, and to meditate on those Subjects which render out Passions ridiculous and contemptible; for we must not imagine ourselves at liberty, because we are not actually ill used by them. Our Imagination remains a long time polluted by the impression of the Passion which hath once reigned in us; for the Wounds which the Brain hath received from the Action of Objects and the Motion of the Spirits, are not easily cured; the animal Spirits flowing naturally to those parts of the Brain which are most open or lie most ready to receive them; it is impossible to heal the Wounds of the Imagination, but by continually turning the Course of the Spirits which renews them; as it is impossible for a Wound in the Body to close up, if you thrust the Sword which made it, every moment into it, or any thing which renews and inflames it.  
XIII. But the Spirits do not only of themselves, and as it were fortuitously, flow into the Wounds which the Brain hath received from the Action of sensible Objects; they are determined also to pass thither continually, by the Pleasure which the Soul receives from thence, and especially by the admirable Construction of the Machine, which goes on in its Motion, without expecting the Orders of the Will, and many times by reason of Sin, contrary to them. So that whenever we cease to resist and divert the Course of the Spirits, the Passions renew and increase their Strength. Now the only way to make a Diversion and Revulsion in the Spirits, is to set before our Minds those Objects, and employ ourselves in those Thoughts to which different courses of the animal Spirits are joined, by the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body: For the Course of the Spirits doth not depend immediately on our Will; but only because the Thoughts which determine the Motion of the Spirits depend on it, as I have shown in the Fifth Chapter. It is impossible then to deliver ourselves from our Passions, if we do not carefully avoid the Objects which excite them, and employ our Minds in such Thoughts as are proper to make them ridiculous and contemptible. But I shall treat of this more particularly hereafter.  
XIV. To make Men reflect yet farther on the Truths which I have here set down, I think myself obliged to add this in particular, That neither the Prayer of Invocation, nor good Works, no nor the Grace of Jesus Christ, doth heal the Wounds which the Brain receives from the violent and irregular Motion which the Passions excite in the animal Spirits: No, the most sublime Grace of Christ, that of Baptism, that which the Soul receives in the Holy Communion, when it comes to it with the most sanctified Dispositions, do not cure this kind of Distempers without a Miracle. It is true, indeed, that the Grace of Justification gives us a Right to those Succours which are necessary to resist the actual Assault of the Passions; but it doth not deliver us from their Attacks, it doth not close the Wounds which the Brain hath received from the Action of sensible Objects. God doth not work Miracles on our Body when he justifies us; he still leaves us all our Weaknesses: Baptism doth not free us from our Concupiscence; and the new Christian who is tormented with the Gout, or disquieted with any Passion, doth not find himself cured of those troublesome Distempers; he only receives the assistance necessary to make him bear patiently the Pain which afflicts him, and uneasily, though bravely, the Caresses of the Passion which Courts and Flatters him.  
XV. The same thing almost may be said of Prayer and good Works; they obtain of God the Succours necessary for the Fight, but they do not deliver us from our Miseries; unless it be that continual fight and resisting naturally makes the Spirits take another Course, and then the Wounds close up and heal of themselves; for to cure the Wounds of the Brain, as well as those of the other parts of the Body, it is sufficient that there be nothing to hinder the separated parts from reuniting.  
XVI. Now the Reason why Grace doth not deliver us from our Passions, nor Baptism from the continual Assaults of our Concupiscence, is because the power of the Grace of Christ appears much more by the continual Victories which the Just obtain over their Domestic Enemies; the Merit of the Saints by this means becomes more pure and illustrious; and since Glory is proportioned to Merit, the holy City, the eternal Temple, the great work of Christ receives innumerable Beauties, which it would not have, if our Passions did not give us continual Assaults. St. Paul was just, but yet he found in his Flesh a Law opposite to that of the Spirit, by which he was animated: He often besought Christ that he would deliver him from that which he calls, A Thorn in the Flesh. But Christ answers him; 
2 Cor. 12. v. 8, 9  My Grace is sufficient for thee; for it is in Weakness that my Power appears, and that Virtue purifies itself. Therefore St. Paul gloried in Infirmities, in Persecutions, in Reproaches, that the Power of Christ, as he saith, might rest upon him.  
XVII. Let us not wonder therefore if the Sacraments leave the Body in the same condition in which they found it, and strengthen only the inward Man, of which we have no perfect Knowledge; nor let us despair, because we see ourselves still insulted and ill-used by sinful Passions, if we always continue steadfast in our Faith, contented with our Hope, and thereby unshaken in our Resolution of Sacrificing all Things to God. But if we would, as indeed we ought, (for we ought always to avoid Dangers;) if we would, I say, deliver ourselves from those troublesome Motions which the Passions excite in us, we must absolutely make use of that Remedy which I have prescribed, and fill our Minds with such Thoughts as may make a Diversion and Revulsion in the animal Spirits, and render the Passions ridiculous and contemptible; there is no other way. But those who either upon Philosophical grounds, or by motives of Self-love enlightened, condemn the Passions as Criminal, must not presently imagine that they are just in the sight of God, nor too hastily esteem themselves above their Brethren. We must, as much as we can, make Nature subservient to Grace; but we must still remember, that Nature doth not justify, and that Grace many times operates in men's Minds and converts them, and yet they perceive no alteration in them.   

CHAP. VIII. The Means which Religion furnishes us with to gain and preserve the Love of Order. Jesus Christ is the occasional Cause of Grace: we must call upon him with confidence. When we come to the Sacraments, the actual Love of Order is changed in 〈◊〉 habitual, in consequence of the permanent desires of ●rist: The Proof of this Truth being essential to the Conversion of Sinners. The fear of Hell is as good a motive as the desires of eternal Happiness. We must not confound the Motive with the End. The desire of being Happy, or Self-love, should make us conformable to Order, or obedient to the Law of God.  
I. WE cannot obtain nor preserve Virtue or the Love of Order, but by actual resolutions of Sacrificing every Thing to it; because naturally Habits are got and maintained by Acts: But we cannot frame a resolution of Sacrificing our predominant Passion, without a lively Faith, and a firm Hope; especially when this Passion appears with all its Charms and Allurements. And therefore since it is Light and Understanding which illuminates Faith, strengthens Hope, and discovers to the Mind the ridiculousness and deformity of the Passions, we should continually meditate on the true Goods, and seek and carefully lay up in our Memory the Motives which may induce us to love them, and to despise transient Enjoyments; and that with so much the greater diligence, because the Light is subject to our Wills; and if we live in Darkness, it is most commonly our own fault. I think I have sufficiently proved these Truths.  
II. But when our Faith is not lively, nor our Hope strong enough to make us resolve to Sacrifice a Passion, which hath got such a Dominion over our Heart, that it corrupts our Mind every Moment, and draws it to its Party; the only thing we ought to do, and perhaps the only thing we can do in this Case, is to seek for that in the fear of Hell, and the just Indignation of an avenging God, which we cannot find in the hope of an eternal Happiness; and in the Motion which that Fear excites in us, to pray to the Saviour of Sinners, that he would increase our Faith and Confidence in him, not ceasing in the mean time to meditate on the Truths of Religion and Morality, and on the Vanity of transitory Enjoyments; for without this we cannot be sensible of our Miseries, nor call upon our Deliverer. Now when we find in ourselves strength enough to form an actual resolution of Sacrificing our Passions to the Love of Order; then, tho' according to the Principles which I have laid down in the foregoing Chapters, we may through the assistance of Grace, by repeating the like Acts, absolutely acquire Charity, or the habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order; yet it is better, without delay, to come to the Sacraments, and in that actual Motion which the Holy Ghost inspires in us, to wash away our Sins by Penance. This is undoubtedly the most compendious and certain way to change the Act into a Habit; the Act, I say, which is transient and doth not work Conversion, into a Habit which remains and which justifies. For God doth not Judge us according to that which is actual and transitory, but according to habitual and permanent Dispositions; and by the Sacraments of the New Testament, we receive justifying Charity, which gives us a Right to the true Goods, and the assistances necessary for the obtaining of them. These Truths I shall here explain either by certain Principles, or by Evidence, or by Faith.  
III. I think I have shown in several places, and by several ways, That God always executes his Designs by general Laws, the Efficacy of which is determined by the action of occasional Causes. I have proved this Truth by the Effects of those second Causes which are known to us, and I think I have demonstrated it from the Idea of God himself, because his Action ought to bear the Character of his Attributes. And therefore I refer the Reader for this Matter to my other Writings. But if Reason could not lead us to this Truth, yet the Holy Scripture would not suffer us to doubt of it, in relation to the Subject which I now treat of: For the Scripture teaches us that Jesus Christ, as Man, is not only the meritorious, but also the distributive or occasional Cause of all Graces; that by his Sacrifice of himself he hath gained a Right over all the Nations of the World, to make use of them as Materials in building the Spiritual Temple of the Church, of which the stately Temple of Solomon was but a Shadow and a Figure; and that now, and ever since the day of his Ascension, he makes use of that Right, and raises that eternal Temple to the glory of his Father, by the Power which he received from him in the day of his Victories, when he was made High Priest of the true Goods, after the irrevocable Order of Melchisedech. 
Eph. 4.15, 16.  Christ is the Head of the Church; he continually infuses into the Members of which it is composed, 
1 Joh. 2.1. 1 T●m. 2.5. Eph. 5.23. Heb. 7.25. Joh. 11.42. Mat. 28.18. Joh. 13.5.  the Spirit which gives it Life and Holiness: He is the Advocate, the Mediator, the Saviour of Sinners: He is in the Holy of Holies, always Living to make intercession for us, and all his Prayers and Desires are heard. In a word, he himself tells us, That all Power was given to him in Heaven and in Earth. Now he did not receive this Power, as God equal to the Father, but as Man like unto us; and God communicates his Power to the Creatures no farther, than as he executes their Wills, and by them his own Designs; for God alone is the true Cause of every thing that is done both in Nature and Grace. Thus it is certain from the Scripture, that Jesus Christ as Man is the occasional cause which determines the efficacy of that general Law, whereby God would Save all Men in and by his Son.  
iv It is necessary that we should be well convinced of this Truth which is essential to Religion, by reading the New Testament, and particularly the Epistle to the Hebrews: And having, as I think, sufficiently proved it in my Treatise of Nature and Grace, and in my Christian Meditations, I shall not insist any longer upon it. I writ for Philosophers, but they are Christian Philosophers, such as receive the Scripture and the infallible Tradition of the Universal Church; and I endeavour to explain the Truths of Faith by clear and unequivocal Terms. This makes me say, that Jesus Christ as Man and High Priest of the true Goods, is the occasional cause of Grace. I might have called him the natural, instrumental, second, distributive Cause, or have made use of some other more common Term: But the commonest Terms are not always the clearest. Tho' People fancy they understand them perfectly, yet commonly they scarce know what they say, when they use them; and if they would take the pains to examine these which I have mentioned they would find that the Term of natural Cause raises a false Idea; that that of instrumental is obscure; that of second so general, that it gives no distinct Idea to the Mind; and that of distributive at least equivocal and confused. Whereas this which I have made use of, [the occasional cause of Grace] hath, I think, none of these defects, at least as to those Persons for whom alone I writ the Treatise of Nature and Grace, tho' many others have taken upon them to judge of it who scarce understand the Principles which I have there laid down. For this Term denotes precisely that God who doth every thing as the true cause, which I think I have proved in several places, imparts his Grace only by Jesus Christ, the Sacrifice once offered on the Cross, and now glorified and consummated in God, the High Priest of good Things to come, the Head of the Church, and the Architect of the eternal Temple. It clearly denotes that the general Law of the Order of Grace is that God would Save all Men in and by his Son: A Truth which S. Paul repeats upon all occasions, as being the Foundation of the Religion which we profess. It may be I have not light on the proper Word to express clearly that which Faith teaches us concerning Jesus Christ. But let not any one therefore be offended with me, I am willing to be Taught, and shall never contend with Heat and Obstinacy for Terms. When any one will give me better, I will make use of them. But I think that the clearest are the best. For we should consider, that Words are designed only to express our Thoughts. So that those Words which clearly express false Conceptions, are in themselves preferable to those which express the most solid Thoughts confusedly: Especially when Men make use of them as I do, with a design to explain and prove clearly those Truths which Philosophers themselves do not very well comprehend.  
V But I desire that the World would do me that Justice, or have so much Charity for me as to believe, that my introducing some Ideas which I make use of in this Treatise, proceeds neither from a resentment against any Persons, nor from a desire of justifying my own Notions or ways of Expression. I believe that those who have not done me Justice, had no design to injure me; and that if they judged a little too hastily of my Opinion from Terms which they do not understand, it was their love to Religion which prompted them to it: A Love which cannot be too great, and which is hard to be kept within Bounds, when it is so fervent as I know it to be in some of my Adversaries. The Reader will pardon this short Digression, I return to my Subject.  
VI God never acts without Reason, and there are but two general Reasons which determine him to act: Order, which is his inviolable Law, and those general Laws which he hath established, and which he constantly observes, that so his Actions may bear the Character of his Attributes. Therefore seeing that nothing happens in the Creatures, which God doth not do, and that as to Sinners, the immutable order of Justice doth not require that God should do any good to them; the Sinner cannot obtain any Good, much less Grace, without having recourse to the occasional cause, which determines the true cause to communicate it to Men. So that there is a kind of necessity that we should know distinctly and precisely what is that occasional cause, that so we may make our applications to it with confidence, and obtain those assistances, without which, as I have showed, it is not possible so much as to form a resolution of sacrificing our predominant Passion to the Law of God.  
VII. When a sick Man is in fear of Death, and is fully satisfied that there is but one certain Fruit which can restore him to his Health again; his Fear is sufficient to make him use some endeavours to get that Fruit. The first Man was immortal only because he knew that the Fruit of the Tree of Life could preserve vigour and give Immortality, and that it was in his power to Eat of it. So when we are in fear of Hell, and know distinctly that Christ is the Tree of Life, whose Fruit gives Immortality, or to speak clearly and unequivocally to Philosophers, when we know that Christ is the occasional cause of Grace, the actual fear of eternal Death is sufficient to make us call upon him, and pray that he would with relation to us, form such desires as may determine God the true cause to deliver us from our Miseries.  
VIII. I say once again, for we cannot imprint this Truth too deeply in our Minds, that Jesus Christ as Man is alone the occasional cause of Grace, and it is more certain that his desires procure for us the Spirit which quickens us, than it is that to Morrow the Sun will diffuse its Light, or the Fire its Heat and Motion. The Fire hath sometimes respected the Bodies of Martyrs; the Sun is often eclipsed, and every Night leaves us in Darkness: But Christ never prayed in vain. For if before he had completed his Sacrifice, by which he merited the Glory he now possesses, speaking to his Father, 
Joh. 11.42.  he said of himself; I knew that thou hearest me always; Certainly now that he is entered by his Blood into the Holy of Holies, and is ordained a High Priest of true Goods, it would be a very great infidelity to want confidence in him. But it may be objected, that the Fire communicates its Heat by the necessity of natural Laws, and that we cannot come near it without feeling its action; whereas on the contrary it depends on the Will of Christ whether he will Pray for those which call upon him. This difference is true. But what! Shall we doubt of the goodness of Christ? Can we forget that he bears the Character of the Saviour of Sinners? Shall we distrust the promises which he hath made us in so many places of his Gospel? 
Heb. 4.14, 15, 5, 9  Let us remember that we have in him a High Priest who hath experienced our Miseries, and sympathizes with our Infirmities: That he desires nothing so much as to finish his great Work, the eternal Temple, of which we should be living Stones; 
Luk. 15.7.  and that, as he saith himself, there is Joy in Heaven over one Sinner that repenteth: And in those Thoughts let us approach with Confidence the Throne of his Grace, the true Mercy-seat. Let us ask, and we shall receive: Let us seek, and we shall find; let us knock, and we shall at last have leave to enter. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be Saved. 
Joel 2.32.  The Scripture teaches us these Truths.  
IX. So then, supposing that a Man fears the terrible Judgements of the living God, believes in Christ, and calls upon him as his Saviour, and that in fine he hath received from him sufficient Strength to form that noble resolution of renouncing his predominant Passion: That which he ought to do in this case, is to come without delay, and throw himself at the Feet of the Priest, that by the Sacrament of Penance he may receive absolution of his Sins, and justifying Charity, which Sinners receive by this Sacrament, when they come to it in the motion which the Holy Ghost inspires, tho' he doth not yet dwell in them.  
X. To prove the Truth of what I here assert, I say, that Christ after his Resurrection appeared to his Apostles, and said to them: Peace be unto you. 
Joh. 20.21.  As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose Sins ye do remit, they are remitted unto them, etc. From whence it is manifest, first that the Apostles, and consequently Priests have power to forgive Sins; this I think cannot be denied. Secondly, that this Sacrament as also all those of the New Testament, tho' for other Reasons than these which I here make use of, do confer justifying Charity, or an habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order. For God doth not judge of a Man by that which he knows to be transient and actual in him, but by fixed and permanent Dispositions. Therefore an actual love of Order doth not justify, but only an habitual Love. For God who inviolably loves Order, cannot love a Heart that is irregular, and more disposed toward evil than toward good. Now the Priest hath power to forgive Sins: Therefore he hath power to render a Sinner acceptable to God. His Absolution then changes the Act into a Habit and a permanent Disposition. For the Priest cannot judge of the state of the Penitent, but only of his actual Resolution. He cannot judge of the Penitent but only by the declaration which the Penitent himself makes to him, and the Penitent himself cannot tell whether the love which he hath for Order be habitual or not. For a Man cannot judge of himself but by the inward sense he hath of himself, and this sense represents to him only the acts which he actually perceives, and not the Habits if they be not formed in him.  
XI. From hence it is evident, that it is a pernicious Error to believe that the Absolution of the Priest delivers the Penitent only from the eternal Punishment due to Sin. For the Priest having no way to be morally assured that a Penitent is justified in the sight of God, could never give Absolution but at a venture, if the Sacrament did not change the Act or the actual resolution of which we have an inward sense, into an habitual Disposition, which is not perceived. And besides, how could this be a power of forgiving Sins, to leave the Sinner in the Death of Sin, and to do good only to the Righteous? It is certain than that there is in Jesus Christ a permanent and efficacious desire in consequence of the power which God hath given him, by making him the occasional cause of Grace; that the state of the Penitent is changed by the absolution of the Priest; and that he is delivered from the guilt of Sin, as well as from the eternal Punishment which is due to it.  
XII. Certainly, if we compare God's two Covenants with Men together, to discover their several relations, the Blessings promised by the Law, with those which Christ hath merited for us, and of which he is the dispenser; we shall see plainly that as the Author of the Law gave a Right by his promises to temporal Goods, so Jesus Christ the Mediator of the new Covenant must also give a Right to real and eternal Goods: And therefore our Sacraments must operate, in those who receive them Grace or justifying Charity, which alone gives a Right to these true Goods. For it is certain, that God who loves Order, cannot give Heaven to those who are more disposed to Evil than to Good, and are actually in Disorder. After all, the Council of Trent hath determined the same thing which I here assert. 
Sess. 7. Can. 8 Sess. 14. Chap 4. Cap. 5.  It is an Article of our Faith, that the Sacraments of the New Testament operate Grace, or justifying Charity; and that the Sinner who comes to the Sacrament of Penance by the motion which the Holy Ghost inspires in him, a motion which doth not justify, for the Holy Ghost doth not yet dwell in him, as the Council declares, and for those reasons which I have set down; that the Sinner, I say, truly receives the habitual Charity of Justification by the efficacy of the Sacrament, which the Saviour of Sinners hath instituted to deliver them from the captivity of Sin.  
XIII. So than it is evident, that the Sinner who is made contrite by any motive whatsoever, for it matters not what it is, when he feels himself touched with Repentance, and hath obtained by his Prayers or otherwise, sufficient strength to form the generous resolution of sinning no more, or of renouncing his predominant Passion, ought speedily to have recourse to Penance, that so he may receive by this Sacrament, that which in all probability he could never obtain by the ordinary way of Prayer.  
XIV. I know very well that many People condemn the fear of Hell, as a motive of Self-love which can never produce any Good: Notwithstanding I have made use of it, as being the most lively and the most common Motive to excite us to do those things which may contribute to our Justification. I know that they reject this motive as useless, and on the contrary approve only of the hope of an eternal Reward, as a holy and reasonable Motive, by which most good Men are animated to Virtue, according to those Words of David, who was always so full of Fervour and Charity; I have inclined my Heart to perform thy Statutes always, 
† Psal. 119.112. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Sept. propter retribuionem Vulg. Lat.  because of the Reward. Notwithstanding, to desire to be Happy, or to desire not to be Miserable, is the same thing, there is nothing more easy to be conceived than this. The fear of Pain and the desire of Pleasure are both of them but motions of Self-love. Now Self-love in itself is not Evil. God continually produces it in us. He irresistibly inclines us to Good, and by the same Motion irresistibly diverts us from Evil. We cannot hinder ourselves from desiring to be Happy, and consequently from desiring not to be Miserable. So then the fear of Hell, and the hope of Heaven are two Motives equally Good: Only that of Fear hath this advantage over the other, that it is more lively, strong and efficacious: because generally, supposing all other things equal, we fear Pain, more than we desire Pleasure: Of this every Man may consult himself. Nor let any one say that the eternal Reward comprehends in it the vision of God; and therefore the hope of Reward is a good Motive: For the same Reason will serve for Fear. Hell excludes the Vision of God; and the fear of not enjoying God, is the same thing with the desire or hope of enjoying him. So that if we compare Pleasure with Pain, the loss of God with the enjoyment of him, fear is as good a Motive as desire or hope. But besides, it hath this advantage, that it is proper to awaken the most drowsy and stupid; and for this reason it is that the Scripture and the Fathers make use of this 
* By Motive I understand that which excites in the Soul any actual motion of that kind of Love which I called  love of Union.  Motive upon all occasions. For after all, it is not properly the Motive which regulates the Heart, but the love of Order. Every Motive is grounded on Self-love, on that invincible desire of being happy, which God continually inspires into us, in a Word on our own Will; for we cannot Love but by our Will. And a Man that burned with a desire of enjoying the presence of God, to contemplate his Perfections, and have a share in the felicity of the Saints, would still deserve the punishment of Hell, if he had a disordered Heart, and refused to sacrifice his predominant Passion to Order. As on the contrary, one that was indifferent as to eternal Happiness, if that were possible, but in all other things was full of Charity, or the love of Order in which Charity is comprehended or of the love of God above all other things, he I say, would be a just Man and solidly Virtuous; for as I have already proved at large, true Virtue, or a conformity to the Will of God, consists wholly in an habitual and ruling Love of the eternal and divine Law, the immutable Order.  
XV. A Man ought to love God not only more than this present Life, but also more than his own Being: Order requires it. But he cannot be excited to this love any other way, than by the natural and invincible love which he hath for Happiness; He cannot love but by the love of Good or his own Will. Now he cannot find his Happiness in himself: He can find it only in God, because there is nothing but God alone capable of acting on him, and making him happy. Again, it is better not to be than to be Miserable: It is better then, not to be than to be out of favour with God: Therefore we ought to love God more than ourselves, and pay him an exact Obedience. There is a difference between the Motives and the End. We are excited by the Motives to act for the End. It is the greatest Crime imaginable to place our End in ourselves. We should do every thing for God. All our Actions should be referred to him from whom alone we have the power to do them: Otherwise, we violate Order, we offend God, and are guilty of Injustice. This is undeniable. But we should seek for the motives which may make us love Order, in that invincible Love which God hath given us for Happiness, For since God is Just, we cannot be happy, if we are not obedient to Order. It matters not whether those Motives be of Fear or of Hope, if they do but animate and support us. The most lively, the most strong, solid and durable are the best.  
XVI. There are some People that make a Thousand extravagant Suppositions, who for want of a true Idea of God, suppose, for instance, that he hath designed to make them eternally Miserable. And in this Supposition, they think themselves obliged to love this Chimaera of their own Imagination above all Things. This perplexes them extremely: For indeed how is it possible to love God, when they deprive themselves of all the rational Motives of loving him; or rather, when instead of him, they represent to themselves a terrible Idol with nothing in it capable of being Loved? God would have us Love him such as he is, and not such as it is impossible for him to be. We must love an infinitely perfect Being, and not a dreadful Phantom, an unjust God; a God, powerful indeed, absolute and supreme, such as Men wish to be, but without Wisdom or Goodness, Qualities which they do not much esteem. For the ground of these extravagant Fancies, which frighten those that form them, is that they judge of God by the inward sense which they have of themselves, and without considering imagine that God may form such Designs as they find themselves capable of forming. But they have no Reason to fear; if there were such a God as they Fancy, the true God, who is jealous of his Honour, would forbid us to adore and love him: They should endeavour to satisfy themselves, that perhaps there is more danger of offending God, in giving him so horrible a form, than in despising that Phantom of their own. We should continually seek for those Motives which may preserve and increase in us the love of God, such as are the Threaten and Promises which relate to the immutable Order; Motives proper for Creatures who invincibly desire to be happy, and of which the Scripture also is full; and not destroy those reasonable Motives, and render the Fountain of all Good odious. For the reason why the Devils cannot love God, is because they have now, through their own fault no motive to Love-him: It is decreed, and they know it, that God will never be good in respect of them. For since it is impossible to love any thing but Good, or that which is capable of giving Happiness, they have no motive to love God, but they have to hate him with all their power as the true but most just cause of the Miseries which they suffer. They cannot love God, and yet they are obliged to love him, because Order requires it; Order, I say, which is the inviolable Law of all intelligent Being's, in what state soever they be, Happy or Miserable. Therefore, since they deserve that which they suffer, they are in a state of disorder, and will be incorrigible in their Wickedness to all eternity. What I have said of this matter is only to show, that nothing can be Evil, nor aught to be rejected, which may make us love God, have recourse to Jesus Christ, and live according to Order. If I am deceived, I desire to be better informed, for this is a matter of great consequence.   

CHAP. IX. The Church in its Prayers Addresses its self to the Father by the Son, and why. We should Pray to the Blessed Virgin, Angels and Saints, but not as occasional causes of inward Grace. The Angels, and even the Devils have power over Bodies, as occasional causes. By this means the Devils may tempt us, and the Angels promote the efficacy of Grace.  
I. JESUS CHRIST considered in his humane Nature, being alone the true Propitiatory, or the occasional cause of Grace, as I have shown in the former Chapter, it is evident that we must apply ourselves to him alone for the obtaining of it. Nevertheless we may call upon God, nay, we must Worship or call upon none but him as the true cause of our Good. We may Pray to the Blessed Virgin, to Angels and Saints, not as true causes, nor as occasional or distributive causes of Grace, but as Friends of God, or intercessors with Jesus Christ. We may also Pray to the Angels, as our protectors against the Devil, or as occasional causes of certain effects, which may dispose us to receive inward Grace profitably. But I must explain those Truths more at large, for they are of the greatest Importance; for regulating our Prayers, our Worship, and all our Duties.  
II. The Church being guided by the Spirit of Truth generally addresses her Prayers to the Father by the Son; and when she addresses them to the Son, she considers him as equal to the Father, and consequently calls upon him not simply as he is Man, but as he is God and Man. This appears from the ordinary conclusions of our Prayers: Through Christ our Lord, or, through Jesus Christ our Lord, or, who livest and reignest one God, etc. For since God alone is the true cause, who by his own power can do all that we desire, it is necessary that the greatest part of our Prayers and all our Worship should be referred to him. But as he never acts but when the occasional causes which he hath appointed determine the efficacy of his Laws, it is fit that the manner of our calling upon him should be conformable to this Notion of him.  
III. If Jesus Christ as Man did not intercede for Sinners, it would be in vain for them to call upon him. For since Grace is not given to Merit, the immutable Order of Justice doth not oblige God to grant it to Sinners who Pray for it. It must therefore be the occasional cause which obliges him to do it, in consequence of the Power given to this cause by the establishment of the general Laws of the Order of Grace: Because, as I said before, God never acts but when the immutable Order requires it, or when the occasional or particular Causes oblige him to it. But tho' Christ alone as Man be the particular cause of the good Things which we receive, yet if the Prayers of the Church were always Addressed directly to him, this might give Men some occasion of Error, and induce them it may be to Love him as he is Man, with that kind of Love which is due only to the true Power, and to Worship him even without regard to the divine Person in which his humane Nature subsists. Now Adoration and Love of Union, which are Honours belonging to Power, are due to the Almighty alone: For Christ himself challenges our Adoration and this kind of Love, only as he is at the same time both God and Man.  
iv Therefore the Church hath very great reason to Address her Prayers to God, the only true Cause; but through Christ, who is the occasional and distributive Cause of the good Things which we Pray for. For tho' Sinners never receive Grace, but when Christ Prays for them by his Desires either Actual or Habitual, Transient or Permanent, yet we must always remember that it is God alone who gives it as the true Cause, that so our Love and Devotion may be ultimately referred to him alone. Nevertheless, when we apply ourselves to the true and general Cause, it is the same thing as if we did it to the particular and distributive Cause: Because Christ as Man being the Saviour of Sinners, Order requires that he should be acquainted with their Prayers; and he is so far from being Jealous of the Honour which we give to God, that he himself as Man always acknowledges his Impotence and Subordination; and will never hear those, who like the Eutychians, look upon his humane Nature as transformed into the Divine, and so take from him the qualities of Advocate, Mediator, Head of the Church, and High Priest of the true Goods. Thus we see on one side, that to make our Prayers effectual, it is not absolutely necessary that we should know the Truths, which I have here explained so precisely and distinctly; and on the other, that the Churches proceeding agrees perfectly with the fundamental Virtue of Religion and Morality, namely, that God alone is the final Cause of all Things, and that we cannot have access to him, but by Jesus Christ our Lord. This I think will easily be granted.  
V But the case of the Blessed Virgin, Angels and Saints, hath somewhat more difficulty in it. Nevertheless the sense of the Church is, that they know our Necessities when we call upon them, and that being in favour with God, and united to Christ their Head, they may by their Prayers and Desires solicit him to deliver us from our Miseries. Nay it seems to be beyond Dispute from the example of S. Paul and all the Saints, who constantly recommended themselves to one another's Prayers. For if the Saints on Earth as yet full of Imperfection, can by their Prayers be beneficial to their Friends; I see no sufficient reason to deny the Saints in Heaven this Power. Only we must observe, That they are not occasional causes of inward Grace. For this Power was given to Christ alone, as the Architect of the eternal Temple, the Head of the Church, the necessary Mediator, in a Word as the particular or distributive cause of the true Goods.  
VI So then we may Pray to the Blessed Virgin, to Angels and Saints, that they would move the love of Christ on our behalf. And probably there are some certain times of Favour for each particular Saint, such as are the Days on which the Church celebrates their Festivals. It is possible also, that as natural or occasional Causes, they may have a Power of producing those effects which we call Miraculous, because we do not know the Causes of them; such as the curing of Diseases, plentiful Harvests, and other extraordinary changes in the position of Bodies, which are Substances inferior to Spirits, and over which it should seem that Order requires or at least permits them to have some Power, as a reward of their Virtue, or rather as an inducement to other Men to admire and imitate it. But tho' this be not altogether certain as to Saints, yet I think it cannot be doubted as to Angels. This Truth is of so great Importance on several Accounts, that I think it necessary to give a brief explication of it from the manner of God's proceeding in the execution of his Designs.  
VII. God could not act but for his own Glory; and not finding any Glory worthy of himself but in Jesus Christ, he certainly made all Things with respect to his Son. This is so evident a Truth, that we cannot possibly doubt of it, if we do but reflect a little on it. For what ●elation is there between the Action of God and the product of that Action, if we separate it from Christ by whom it is Sanctified? What proportion is there between an unhallowed World which hath nothing of Divinity in it and the Action of God which is wholly Divine; in a Word, between Finite and Infinite? Is it possible to conceive, that God who cannot act but by his own Will, or the Love which he bears to himself, should act so as to produce nothing worthy of himself, to create a World which bears no proportion to him, or which is not worth the Action whereby it is produced?  
VIII. It is probable then, that the Angels immediately after their Creation, being astonished to find themselves without a Head, without Christ, and not being able to justify God's design in Creating them, the Wicked ones imagined some Worth in themselves with relation to God, and so Pride ruin'd them: Or supposing, which seems most probable, that the eternal Word, to justify to them the Wisdom of God's proceeding, acquainted them that he had a Design to make Man, and to join himself to the two Substances of which Man is composed, Soul and Body, thereby to Sanctify the whole Work to God, which is also composed of none but these two sorts of Being's: The wicked Angels opposed this Design, and would not Worship Jesus Christ, nor submit to one whom they thought their equal, or even inferior to them in his own Nature, how much soever that might be exalted by the hypostatick Union. Upon this, two opposite Parties were formed in the Workmanship of God, S. Michael and his Angels, and Satan and his Ministers, the Foundation of the two eternal Cities, Jerusalem and Babylon.  
IX. The Angels then having a Power over Bodies, either by the Right of their own Nature, for Order seems to require that superior Being's should act on those that are below them: Or rather by the Decree which God had established, to execute his own Designs by them as occasional Causes of certain Effects, to build the holy City, the heavenly Jerusalem, his great Work, in which the Angels are employed under the Wise and only Architect our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the Holy Scriptures: And by this means to manifest the Power of his wellbeloved Son, who wanted Enemies to Fight with and overcome; which Power of his never appeared more illustrious, than when he dethroned the rebel Prince who had brought all the World under subjection to his Laws. (For the Power of a Deliverer is never more Conspicuous, than when our Enemy hath gained an absolute Dominion over us, when we have no Power to resist him, and have groaned a long time under his Tyranny.) The Angels, I say, having an immediate Power over Corporeal Substances, and by them an indirect Power over spiritual Substances, as soon as our first Parents were Created, the wicked Angels tempted the Woman in that manner which we all know, probably grounding their Temptations on the known Design of God, that the World should unite itself to the Soul of Man to Sanctify him, as may be gathered from these Words, Ye shall be as Gods, knowing Good from Evil. 
Gen. 3.5.  For I do not see that illuminated Minds could have any other Motive formally to disobey God, but that of being translated from a profane State to one Divine and worthy of God, by a particular union with the universal Reason, the Eternal Word, for whom and by whom they knew that they were first formed, and by whom they were to be formed anew, they who were all of their kind upon the Earth, and the Heads of that Posterity which might spring from them. Thus the Devils conquered them, and became Masters of them and all their Posterity: And thereby, tho' indeed they promoted the Design of the Incarnation of the Word, for the Sin of the first Man made it necessary upon several Accounts, yet they thought they had overthrown it; imagining belike that the Union with God was to be merited by an exact Obedience to his Orders.  
X. We must know, that not only for Reasons which I have given in my Search of Truth, 
2d Part of the 1st Remark.  when the first Man had Sinned there was a necessity in consequence of the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body, and the immutability of Order, that his Flesh should rebel against his Mind, and also that Concupiscence should be transmitted to all his Posterity, but for other Reasons which I have examined in another Place of the same Book. 
See the Remark on original Sin.  Now Concupiscence is the universal Instrument of that Iniquity which over-ran the whole Earth. And being in the Hands of the Devil, who hath a Thousand ways to stir it up by the Power which he hath over Bodies, he reigned by the help of that till the coming of Christ, who by his Sacrifice merited the quality of High Priest of the true Goods, and of the occasional cause of inward Delight, which alone can counterpoise the force of Concupiscence, and render that Instrument of the Devils Conquests useless to him: For since Man invincibly desires to be happy, there is nothing can cure his Heart corrupted with sensible Pleasures, but the Unction of Grace, the Earnest or Foretaste of true Joys. For the good Angels having no Power to infuse into the Heart of Man the Grace of Sense, and the bad ones having a Power to stir up Concupiscence in it; Sin must necessarily have reigned, not only among the idolatrous Nations, but even among the Jews also. And therefore we find that that People was very Gross and Carnal, always prone to Idolatry, and frequently relapsing into it, notwithstanding the extraordinary Miracles which S. Michael and his Angels wrought in favour of them, and in spite of the Promises and Threats of temporal Good and Evil, which were the Objects of their Concupiscence. For the Angels themselves preserved the Worship of the true God, among those that followed their Conduct, and kept them in their Duty, only by motives of Self-love, and by promising them such Enjoyments, as true Christians think altogether unworthy of their Love.  
XI. There are several Reasons why the Law did not promise the true Blessings; but one of the chiefest is, that since this sort of Enjoyments cannot be the Object of Concupiscence, the knowledge and worship of the true God would have been soon lost among the Jews, and that chosen People reduced to a Handful of Men, belonging to Christ, and Sanctified in every Age by inward Grace. But it was necessary that the knowledge of the true God should be preserved with some lustre among the Jews, a prophetical People, and an unexceptionable Witness of the Truths of Religion, in spite of all the Power and Artifices of the Prince of this World, till at length the only begotten Son of God, for and by whom all things were made, should come down from Heaven to change the Face of Things over all the Earth, and to open the surprising and wonderful Scene of God's Conduct. A Scene which will end with the indissoluble Marriage of the Bride and Bridegroom, who shall enjoy together in Heaven an eternal Felicity in the midst of the divine Brightness, singing Songs of Praise without ceasing to the Glory of him, who shall have put all their Enemies under their Feet by the invincible Power of his Arm, and by ways perfectly suitable to his Wisdom and other Attributes.  
XII. These great Truths do without doubt deserve to be proved and explained more at large, but this is not a place for it. My Design here is chief to show, 
Heb. 1.14.  that the Angels are Ministers of Jesus Christ, sent forth, as S. Paul saith, to Minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation: And that, as occasional Causes; for God communicates his Power no other way to the Creatures; they have a Power, not of giving inward Grace, but of producing in the Bodies, and by their means in the Souls wihch are united to them, certain effects, which may promote the efficacy of Grace, and keep Men from those Stumbling-blocks which the Devils continually lay in their way: For, as the Psalmist saith, 
Psal. 91.11, 12.  He hath given his Angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways: They shall bear thee up in their Hands, lest thou dash thy Foot against a Stone.  
XIII. So then we may pray to the Angels, and desire their protection against that roaring Lion; who, as St. Peter saith, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 
Eph. 6.12.  Or, to use St. Paul's words, Against those Principalities and Powers, against the Rulers of the Darkness of this World, those Princes of the World full of Darkness and Error, against spiritual Wickedness in high places, those evil Spirits which are scattered through the Air; For we wrestle not against Flesh and Blood only. But we must not look upon the Angels as distributive Causes of Grace, nor give them that Worship which is due to Christ alone. 
Col. 2.18, 19  Be not deceived, saith St. Paul, by those who in a voluntary Humility, pay a superstitious Worship to Angels, who meddle with those things which they do not understand, being dazzled by the vain Imaginations of their fleshly Mind; and not keeping themselves united to the Head, from which the whole body of the Church receives the Spirit which gives it Growth and Life, 
v. 15.  even to Jesus Christ, who having spoiled Principalities and Powers, which he had vanquished by his Cross, made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.   

CHAP. X. Of the Occasional Causes of the Sensations and Motions of the Soul which resist the Efficacy of Grace, either of Light or Sense. The Union of the Soul with God is immediate, not that of the Soul with the Body. An Explication of some general Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body, necessary for the right understanding the rest of this Treatise.  
I. IN the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Chapters, I have spoken at large of the occasional Cause of Light; and in the two last, I have endeavoured to show what is the occasional Cause of the Grace of Sense, and what we must do to obtain it. And therefore, seeing there is nothing beside Light and Sense which determines the Will, or the tendency which the Soul hath toward Good in general; all that now remains in relation to the Means of acquiring or preserving the habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order, is to explain the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body, or the occasional Causes of all those lively and confused Sensations, and those indeliberate Motions which unite us to our Body, and by that to all the Objects which are about us. For, to make us love Order and to acquire Virtue, it is not sufficient to obtain the Grace of Sense, which alone can stir the Soul and put it in Motion toward the true Good; but we must also manage ourselves so, that this Grace may work in our Hearts with its full Efficacy. For this end we must carefully avoid the occasional Causes of those Sensations and Motions which resist the Operation of Grace, and sometimes render it altogether ineffectual. This is the most general Principle of all that I shall say in the First Part of this Discourse.  
II. The Soul of Man hath two essential and natural Relations; one to God, the true Cause of all that passes within him; the other to his Body, the occasional Cause of all those Thoughts which relate to sensible Objects. When God speaks to the Soul, it is to unite it to himself; when the Body speaks to it, it is only for the Body to unite the Soul to sensible Good: God speaks to the Soul to enlighten and render it perfect; the Body only to darken and corrupt it, in favour of itself: God by the Light, conducts the Soul to its Happiness; the Body by Pleasure, involves the whole Man in its ruin, and throws him headlong into Misery. In a word, tho' it is God that doth every thing, and tho' the Body cannot act upon the Soul, no more than the Soul can upon the Body, but as an occasional Cause, in consequence of the Laws of their Union, and for the Punishment of Sin, which without meddling with those Laws, hath changed the Union into a Dependence; yet we may say, that it is the Body which darkens the Mind, and corrupts the Heart; for the Relation which the Soul hath to the Body is the Cause of all our Errors and Disorders.  
III. Notwithstanding we should be throughly convinced of this, and never forget it, that the Soul can have no immediate Relation but to God alone, and that it cannot be united directly to any thing but to him; for the Soul cannot be united to the Body, but as it is united to God himself. It is certain for very many Reasons, that if I feel, for instance, the pain of a Scratch, it is God that acts in me, tho' in consequence of the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body; for those Laws derive their force from the Operation of the Divine Will, which alone is capable of acting in me: But the Body by itself cannot be united to the Soul, nor the Soul to the Body. They have no Relation to one another, nor any one Creature to another: I speak of Relations of Causality, such are those which depend on the Union of the Soul and Body. It is God that doth every thing; his Will is the Union of all Unions; the Modifications of Substances depend on him alone, who gives and preserves their Being. This is an essential Truth, which, I think, I have sufficiently proved in another place.  
IU. But tho' the Soul cannot be united immediately to any Thing but God, yet it may be united to the Creatures by the Will of God, who communicates his Power to them, in making them occasional Causes for the production of certain Effects. My Soul is united to my Body, because on one side my Will is made the occasional Cause of some changes which God alone produces on it; and in the other, because the changes which happen in my Body are made occasional Causes of some of those which happen in my Soul.  
V Now God hath established these Laws for many Reasons which are unknown to us. But of those which we do know, one is, that God in following them, acts in a uniform and constant manner, by general Laws, by the most simple and wisest ways; in a word, he Acts in such a manner as admirably bears the Character of his Attributes. Another Reason is, because the Body of Man is his proper Sacrifice; for it seems to Sacrifice itself by Pain, and to be Annihilated by Death. The Soul is in a State of Probation in the Body; and God who desires in some measure to be merited, and to proportion Rewards to Merits, doth by the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body, a simple, general, uniform and constant Method, furnish us with various ways of Sanctifying ourselves, and Meriting the true Goods. I have explained these Truths elsewhere, but it is necessary to remember them here.  
VI This kind of Union of the Soul with God, which hath no Relation to the Creatures, is looked upon by many People as a groundless Imagination. For the Operation of God not being sensible, we think we answer and reprove ourselves, when it is the universal Reason which answers and reproves us in the most secret part of ourselves. It is certain, that he who knows not what Truth and Order is, knows not this Union, tho' perhaps it may act in him; as he who doth not love Truth, nor obey Order, breaks the Union, tho' perhaps he knows it.  
VII. But as for that kind of Union of the Soul with God, which relates to the Creatures, we believe it real, but we have a wrong Notion of it. For we imagine that we receive from the Objects that which comes from God alone: The Cause of this Mistake is the same with that of the former: The Divine Operation not being visible, we attribute to the Objects which strike our Senses, all that we feel in their Presence; tho' they are no otherwise present to the Soul, than as God, who is more present to us than we are to our selves, represents them to us in his own Substance, which is the only intellectual Substance, the only Substance capable of acting on us, and of producing in us all those Sensations which render intellectual Ideas sensible, and make us judge confusedly, not only that there are Bodies, but also that they are those Bodies which operate on us, and make us happy, which is the most general Cause of all our Miscarriages.  
VIII. We would always be happy, and never miserable: Actual Pleasure causes actual Happiness, and Pain, Misery. Now we feel Pleasure and Pain in the presence of corporeal Objects, and believe those Objects to be the true Causes of them. So that there is a necessity almost that we should fear and love them: Nay, tho' we are convinced by Metaphysical and certain Demonstrations, that God alone is the true Cause; yet this doth not give us Strength enough to slight and disregard them, when we actually enjoy them. For the judgements of the Senses work more powerfully on us than the most solid Reasons; because it is not Light, so much as Pleasure which stirs the Soul and puts it in Motion.  
IX. So than it is evident, that to preserve a ruling Love of the immutable Order, we must on the one hand use all our endeavours to strengthen this kind of Union of the Soul with God, which hath no Relation to sensible Objects; and on the other, we must slacken, as much as we can, that kind of Union which relates to Bodies, Substances inferior to ours, which are so far from being able to make us perfect, that they have no power to act on us, nor corrupt us; but only because the Sin of our first Parent hath brought in Concupiscence, which consists wholly in the Loss we have sustained of the power to stop, or suspend the Laws of the Communication of those Motions, by which the Bodies that are about us act on that Body which we animate, and by that on our Mind, in consequence of the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body.  
X. 
Christian Meditat, 13, 14, etc.  I think I have sufficiently proved already, at least as to some Persons, that since all the Motions of the Soul depend on Light and Sense, to excite in us that Motion which carries us toward God, and keeps us united to him; it is necessary that we should continually exercise ourselves in the Labour of Attention, the occasional Cause of Light; and frequently call upon Jesus Christ, the occasional Cause of the Grace of Sense. I shall now examine the Means whereby we may diminish the Union that is between Us and the Creatures, and hinder them from having any share with God in our Mind and Heart: For we are so placed between God and corporeal Objects, that we cannot move toward them, without departing from God; and the breaking off our Correspondence with them, is sufficient to unite us to God, through the continual influence which Christ sheds on his Members.  
XI. That which I shall say of this matter is not so necessary for those that have read and considered the Principles which I have laid down in the Search of Truth: And if all Men were capable of so much Reason as to think methodically, or at least had so much Justice as to believe that an Author hath thought of the Subject he treats of more than they; I should not be obliged to repeat in general, what I have already said or proved in other places, and in various manners. No body reads Apollonius or Archimedes, that hath not learned Euclid; because he can understand nothing of Conical Sections, without knowing the common Elements of Geometry; and in Geometrical matters, when a Man doth not understand a thing, he knows he doth not understand it. But in matters of Morality or Religion, every one, I know not why, thinks himself sufficiently capable of comprehending whatever he reads: So that everyone takes upon him to judge, without considering, that Morality, for instance, I mean Morality demonstrated or explained by Principles, is to the Knowledge of Man, what the Science of curve Lines is to that of straight Lines.  
XII. Wherefore I think it requisite in this place, to suppose certain Principles which I have proved elsewhere, and which are necessary for the sequel of this Discourse. This will perhaps illustrate many Things which I have said, and which I very much fear have not well been understood; but these suppositions are not designed for those who have considered the Principles which I have elsewhere explained, or fully comprehend what I have said hitherto. They may go on to the next Chapter, and save themselves a needless Labour.  
XIII. First then, I take it for granted, that to have a right Notion of the Union of the Soul and Body, we must not confound the Ideas of these two Substances, as most do, who join them together by extending the Soul to all the parts of the Body, and attribute to the Body all the Sensations which belong to the Soul. The Union of the Soul and Body consists in the mutual and reciprocal Action of these two Being's, in consequence of the Operations of the Divine Will, which alone can change the modifications of Substances. The Soul thinks, and is not exended. The Body is extended, and doth not think: Therefore the Soul cannot be united to the Body by Extension, but only by Thinking; nor the Body to the Soul by Sensation, but only by Situation and local Motion. The Body is wounded, but the Soul feels it. The Soul fears an Evil, and the Body flies from it. The Soul would move the Arm, the Arm immediately moves itself; and the Soul sees and feels it. Thus there is a mutual Correspondence between certain Thoughts of the Soul, and certain Modifications of the Body, in consequence of those natural Laws which God hath established, and which he condantly observes. Herein consists the Union of the Soul and Body: The Imagination may raise other Ideas of all this: But this Correspondence is undeniable, and is sufficient for my purpose. So that I neither do, nor aught to build on uncertain Foundations.  
XIV. Secondly, I suppose it to be known, that the Soul is not joined immediately to all the parts of the Body, but only to one part, which answers to all the rest, and which I call, without knowing what it is, the Principal Part; so that, notwithstanding the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body, a Man may have his Arm cut off, and yet have no thought arise in his Soul Correspondent to it; but it is not possible that the least change should happen in the Principal Part of the Brain without causing also some alteration in the Soul. This is verified by Experience; for sometimes parts of the Body are cut off without being felt, because then the Motion of the Amputation doth not communicate itself to the Principal Part. As on the contrary, those that have lost an Arm, often feel a real pain in that very Arm which they have not, because there is the same Motion in the Principal Part of the Brain, as if the Arm was hurt!  
XV. The first Man before his Sin, had an absolute power over his Body; at least he could, when he pleased, hinder the Motion or Action of Objects from communicating itself to the principal part of the Brain, from the Organs of the Senses which might be touched by those Objects; and this he did probably by a kind of revulsion, somewhat like that which we make in ourselves, when we would fix our Attention on those Thoughts which disappear in the presence of sensible Objects.  
XVI. But I suppose in the Third place, that we have not now that power; and therefore to obtain some Liberty of Mind, to think on what we will, and love what we ought, it is necessary that the principal part should be calm and without agitation, or at least that we should still be able to stop and turn it which way we please. Our Attention depends on our Will; but it depends much more on our Senses and Passions. It is a very difficult thing not to look upon that which touches, not to love that which pleases; that which touches, I say, and pleases the Heart. The Soul is never sooner tired, than when it fights against Pleasure, and makes itself actually Miserable.  
XVII. Fourthly, I suppose it to be known, that the principal part is never touched or shaken in an agreeable or disagreeable manner, but it excites in the animal Spirits some Motion proper to carry the Body toward the Object which acts upon it, or to separate it from it by flight; so that those Motions of the Fibres of the Brain which relate to Good or Evil, are always followed by such a course of the Spirits as disposes the Body rightly with relation to the present Object; and at the same time those sensations of the Soul which are correspondent to those agitations of the Brain, are followed by such motions of the Soul as answer to this course of the Spirits. For the impressions or motions of the Brain are in respect of the course of the Spirits, what the sensations of the Soul are in respect of the Passions; and these Impressions are to the Sensations, what the motion of the Spirits is to the motion of the Passions.  
XVIII. Fifthly, I suppose that Objects never strike the Brain without leaving some marks of their Action, nor the animal Spirits without leaving some Tracks of their Course; that these Tracks or Wounds are not easily closed up or effaced, when the Brain hath been often or forcibly struck, and when the Course of the Spirits hath been violent, or hath often begun again in the same manner: That Memory and corporeal Habits consist in nothing else but those Tracks or Impressions which cause in the Brain and other parts of the Body, a particular facility of obeying the Course of the Spirits; and that by this means the Brain is hurt, and the Imagination polluted, when we have had the enjoyment of Pleasures, without apprehending the danger of Familiarity with sensible Objects.  
XIX. Lastly, I suppose that we conceive distinctly, that when many of these Tracks have been made at the same time, we cannot open any one of them, without opening all the rest in some Measure; whence it comes to pass, that there are always many accessary Ideas which present themselves confusedly to the Mind, having a Relation to the principal Ideas to which the Mind particularly applies itself: There are also many confused Sensations and indirect Motions that accompany the principal Passion which moves the Soul, and carries it toward some particular Object. There is nothing more certain than this connection of Impressions, with one another, and with the Senses and Passions. Any one that hath but the least Knowledge of the Nature of Man, and will make but the least reflection on the inward Sense he hath of what passes within himself, may discover more of these Truths in an Hour, than I can tell him in a Month; provided he doth not confound the Soul with the Body, in making the Union betwixt them, and carefully distinguishes the Properties of which the thinking Substance is capable, from those which belong to the extended Substance. And I think it necessary to Advertise the Reader, That this kind of Truths is of very great importance, not only for the distinct Conception of what I have hitherto said, and shall hereafter say, but generally for all the Sciences that have any Relation to Man. Having handled this Subject at large, in the Search of Truth, particularly in the Second Book, I thought not to have said any thing of it here; and if these Suppositions seem obscure to the Reader, and do not give him light enough to comprehend clearly what I shall say in the remaining part of this Treatise, I must refer him to that Book; for I cannot persuade myself to give a long Explication of the same thing over and over.   

CHAP. XI. What kind of death we must die to see God, to be united to Reason, and to deliver ourselves from Concupiscence. It is the Grace of Faith that gives us this happy death. Christians are dead to Sin by Baptism, and alive in Christ by his Resurrection. Of the Mortification of the Senses, and the use we should make of it. We should unite ourselves to corporeal Objects, or separate ourselves from them without loving or fearing them. But the surest way is to break off all Correspondence with them, as far as is possible.  
I. DEath is a compendious way to be delivered from Concupiscence, and to break off at once, that unhappy Union which hinders us from being reunited to our Head. But it is needless to prove here that to procure our own Death, is a Crime, which will be so far from reuniting us to God, that it will for ever separate us from him. It is lawful to despise Life, and even to wish for Death, that we may be with Christ, as St. Paul does: Having a desire to be dissolved, 
Phil. 1.23.  and to be with Christ. But we are obliged to preserve our Health and Life; and it is the Grace of Christ that must deliver us from Concupiscence, or that Body of Death, which joins us to the Creatures. The same Apostle cries our, O wretched Man that I am! 
Rom. 7.24.  who shall deliver me from this Body of Death? The Grace of God through Jesus Christ.  
II. It is certain, 
Exod 33.20.  that we must die before we can see God and be united to him; for no Man can see him, and live, saith the Scripture. But we truly die, so far as we quit the Body, as we separate ourselves from the World, and silence our Senses, Imagination and Passions, by which we are united to our Body, and by that to all those that surround us. We die to the Body and to the World, when we retire into ourselves, when we consult the inward Truth, when we unite ourselves and are obedient to Order. 
Job 28.21.  The eternal Wisdom is hid from the Eyes of all Living. But those who are Dead to the World and to Themselves, who have crucified the Flesh with its disordered Lusts, who are crucified with Christ, and to whom the World is crucified; 
Blessed are the pure in Heart, for they shall see God, Mat. 5.8. 1 Cor. 13.12.  in a word, those who have a clean Heart, a pure Mind, and an unspotted Imagination, are capable of beholding Truth. Now they see God but confusedly and imperfectly, in Part, through a Glass, in a Riddle; but they see him truly, they are closely and immediately united to him, and shall one day see him Face to Face; for we must know and love God in this Life, to enjoy him in the next.  
III. But those who live not only the Life of the Body, but also the Life of the World; who live in the enjoyment of Pleasures, and spread themselves as it were over all the Objects that are about them, can never find out Truth. 
Job 28.13.  For, as the Scripture saith, Wisdom doth not dwell with those that live Voluptuously; Non invenitur in terra suaviter viventium. We must then procure ourselves not that Death which kills the Body, and puts an end to Life, but that which brings the Body under, and weakens Life; I mean the Union of the Soul with the Body, or its dependence on it. We must begin and continue our Sacrifice, and expect from God the Consummation and Reward of it. For the Life of a Christian here on-Earth is a constant Sacrifice, by which he continually offers up his Body, his Concupiscence and Self-love, to the Love of Order; and his Death, which is precious in the Sight of God, is the day of his Victories and Triumphs in Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, the forerunner of our Glory, and the model of our eternal Reformation.  
IV. 
Rom. 6.6.  St. Paul tells us, That our old Man is already crucified with Christ; for by the Sacrifice which Christ hath offered on the Cross, he hath merited for us, for us, I say, particularly who have been washed in his Blood by Baptism, all the Grace's necessary to balance, and even to diminish, by degrees, the weight of Concupiscence; so that Sin no longer reigns in us but by our own Fault. Let us not therefore think to excuse our Slothfulness by imagining that we are not able to resist the Law of the Flesh, which continually rebels against the Law of the Mind. The Law of Sin would have an absolute Dominion over the Motions of our Heart, if Christ had not destroyed it by his Cross. But we who are dead and buried to Sin, by Baptism; 
Rom. 6.4, v. 11.  who are justified and raised to life again in Jesus Christ glorified; who are animated by the influence of our Head, by the Spirit of Christ, and by a Power wholly Divine; we, I say, ought not to believe that Heaven forsakes us in our Combats; and that if we are overcome, it is for want of Succours. Christ never neglects those that call upon him; 'tis impious to believe it; for all the Scriptures say, 
Act. 2. ●1. Rom 10.13. Joel 2.34.  That whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.  
V It is certain, that we could never be glorified and seated in Heaven with Jesus Christ, we could not have eternal Life abiding in us, we could not be Heirs of God, and Joint-heirs with Christ, Citizens of the holy City, and adopted Children of God himself, all which things the Apostles say of Christians, if God were not faithful in his Promises, if he suffered us to be tempted above our Strength; 
1 Cor. 10.13.  which St. Paul also forbids us to believe. But we may truly say, That we are already glorified in Christ, etc. because in effect it depends only on ourselves, to preserve by Grace, the Right which the same Grace gives us to future Blessings; and it is a kind of brutish stupidity in a Man, which one would think should astonish a rational and spiritual Being, to lose infinite Happiness by his own Fault, and incur eternal Damnation through his own Negligence.  
VI This Truth being supposed, as undeniable, let us awaken our Faith and Hope, let us search after the Means to secure our Salvation; and let us Act in such sort, that the Grace which God cannot infuse into us, with any other design but to sanctify and save us, may effectually sanctify us, and make us worthy to enjoy the true Good. Ye are dead, saith St. Paul, 
〈…〉  and your life is hid with Christ in God, Mortify therefore your Members which are upon the Earth. We are dead to Sin, because living in Christ our Head, we should, and by his influence may kill the old Man; it lies in our own power to do it. But to put this Design in execution, according to the Advice which St. Paul here gives, we must labour all our life in the Mortification of our Senses, we must endeavour with the utmost Diligence to keep our Imagination pure and undefiled, we must regulate all the Motions of our Passions by Order; in a word, we must diminish the weight of Sin, which by the actual Efforts of Concupiscence provoked and stirred up, is able to balance the strongest Graces, and to separate us from God. Mortify therefore your Members which are upon the Earth. If we do what depends on us, Grace will work in our Heart with its full Efficacy, we shall die in the sense of St. Paul, and our life being hid with Christ in God, shall appear with Glory, when Christ himself shall appear clothed with Majesty and Honour. 
Col. 3.4.  When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in Glory.  
VII. Of all the Exercises proper to promote the Efficacy of Grace, there is no one more necessary than that of the Mortification of the Senses; for it is our own Body alone that unites us to all other Bodies. It is chief by the Senses that the Soul stretches itself, as I may say, to all the parts of the Body, and by the Imagination and Passions it is carried abroad, and extends itself to all the Creatures. But as Objects are presented to the Mind by the Senses, the Imagination and Passions suppose and depend on them. For it is certain, that the corporeal Image of a sensible Object (I do not here speak of Mathematical Figures) is nothing but the Impression and Motion which that Object hath made in the Brain by means of the Senses; which Impression is renewed by the Action of the Imagination, or the Course of the Spirits. And as for the Passions, they cannot be excited but by the Motion of the animal Spirits, which always supposes that the Brain, the Magazene of these Spirits, is shaken either by the Senses or the Imagination: So that he who mortifies his Senses, attacks the very Foundation of the Union of the Soul with the Body, or rather of its dependence on it; he weakens the animal Life, and diminishes the weight of Sin, Concupiscence; he promotes the Efficacy of Grace, which alone can reunite us to our first Principle: Finally, he procures himself that kind of Death, without which, as the Scripture speaks, it is not possible to see God.  
VIII. The most capacious of all the Senses, that which ministers to all the rest, and without which, the Imagination and Passions would be but faint and languishing, is the Sight. We need but reflect a little on ourselves, and on the use we may make of our Eyes, to be convinced that they expose us daily to a thousand Dangers. One indiscreet look is certainly sufficient to throw us into Hell. It made David fall into an Adultery, which afterwards engaged him in a Murder: Eve suffered herself to be seduced by the Devil, because she ventured to look fixedly on the forbidden Fruit, and found it pleasant to the Eyes. 
Gen. 3.6.  If they had disinherited their Senses, as fallacious, and rejected their Testimony, they had, both of them, preserved their Innocence. I think it not much to my present purpose, to enlarge on the mischievous effects of the Sight, and from thence to prove the necessity of shutting our Eyes in many Cases. I rather choose to examine Things in their first Principles, and to show the use we may lawfully make of all our Senses in general, which I shall confine within the straitest Bounds that can possibly be set to it.  
IX. One of the Principles which I think I have demonstrated several ways in the First Book of the Search of Truth, is this; That our Senses are given us only for the preservation of our sensible Being: In relation to this end, they are perfectly well regulated; but with respect to the use which the World makes of them, there is nothing more false, deceitful and irregular. To prove this, we must consider that we are composed of a Soul and a Body, and that we have two sorts of Good to look after, that of the Soul and that of the Body. The Good of the Soul is found out by the Light; for it is the true Good: That of the Body is discovered by Sense, for it is a false Good; or rather no Good at all. If Men knew sensible Objects only as they are in themselves, and without a sensible perception of that which is not really in them, they could not possibly seek after them and fill themselves with them, without regret and a kind of detestation; and if they had a sense of the true Good, different from what it really is, and without knowing the true Nature of it, they would love it sensually and not meritoriously. For the Soul neither can, nor aught to live but by the intellectual Substance of Reason; and the Body cannot receive Nourishment and Growth but from Bodies. Intellectual Goods do not suit with the mechanical Frame of the Body, and sensible Goods disorder the Soul: Thus Light and Evidence are to the Goods of the Soul, what Sense and Instinct are to those of the Body. This, I think, cannot be denied.  
X. The reason of all this is, that God created the Soul only for himself: He did not make it that it should employ itself about sensible Objects, nor that it should preserve and govern by Reason the Body which it Informs. If we would know distinctly and rationally, the infinite Relations that are between the Bodies which surround us, and that which we animate; if we would know, for instance, when we ought to eat, how much, and what kind of Food is precisely necessary to preserve our Health and Life, we must do nothing else but study Physics; and certainly we should not live very long, at least Children would not, because they want Experience. But Hunger informs us of the necessity of Food, and thereby regulates the quantity of it pretty near the matter. Once it did it truly and exactly, and would do so still, if we would eat the Fruits of the Earth just as God provides them for us. The Taste is a short and unquestionable Trial, whether such and such Bodies are proper for Nourishment or not. Without knowing the Texture of a Stone or a strange Fruit, we need only present it to the Tongue, the faithful Doorkeeper, at least before Sin, of all that aught to enter into the House, to be assured whether it will make any disturbance within. The same may be said of all the other Organs of our Senses. Nothing is quicker than the Touch, to inform us that we are burnt, when we touch a hot Iron without our Knowledge. Thus the Soul leaving the Government of the Body to the Senses, may apply itself to the search of the true Good, contemplate the Perfections and works of its Maker, study the Law of God, and govern all its motions by that. The Senses should only inform it with respect, and cease to interrupt it, when it imposes Silence on them. Thus it was once, but the Sin of our first Parent hath changed that admirable Order; and the union of the Soul and Body remaining still the same, the Soul is reduced to a dependence on the Senses, and is checked and controlled by them, because, as I have often said, it hath lost the power to command them.  
XI. The Senses than were ordained to furnish us with short and certain ways to distinguish Bodies with respect to the preservation of our Health and Life. Therefore we may make use of them to unite ourselves by the Body to sensible Objects, or to separate ourselves from them; this is agreeable to Order. I say, to unite or separate ourselves: Not to love or fear them. For Love and Hatred are Motions of the Soul which should never be determined by confused Sensations; they ought to be guided by Reason, and not by Instinct. It is indifferent to the Body whether the Soul loves Bread or not. If we Eat it without loving it, the Body will nevertheless be nourished by it; and if we love it without eating it, the Body will be never the stronger; but the Soul will thereby be corrupted and disordered. For every motion of the Soul, which instead of tending towards him who continually imprints this Motion on it, that it may love him alone, tends toward Bodies, dead, inferior and impotent Substances; is blind, irregular and sensual. These are not abstracted Chimaeras, but necessary Truths, immutable Laws and indispensable Obligations.  
XII. But what! Can we unite ourselves to Bodies without loving them? Can we fly from our Enemy without fearing him? Yes without doubt we may: For I speak principally of free and voluntary Motions, which certainly we may hinder from following the natural Motions. But supposing we could not: What then must we conclude from thence, but that the Heart of Man is so Corrupted, that his Disease is incurable, and that he cannot make use of his Senses, without inflaming and renewing his Wounds; and consequently that the mortification of the Senses is the most necessary thing in the World in that condition to which Man is reduced? For after all, can it be doubted that God acts only for himself, that he imprints no motion on the Soul but for himself alone, that all love of corporeal Objects is Vicious and Irregular, in a Word, that we are indispensably obliged to love God with all our Heart, with all our Soul and with all our Strength?  
XIII. When the Soul is penetrated with the presence of God, and beholds him Working continually in the Objects which strike the Senses; when the Mind is actually convinced of the impotence of the Creatures in general, and applies itself to govern the Heart according to the Light it hath received; without doubt it may at that instant unite itself to Bodies, or separate itself from them, without loving or fearing them. Indeed this time of Reflection cannot last long. The Mind is soon tired with attention to its Duty; and when the Senses come to be touc'h with any Object that pleases them, the Soul being struck with the first appearance of Good and contented with it, constantly follows by its own Motion, that of the Humours and Blood. All Pleasure excites and determines the natural motion of the Soul; and because Man would always be happy, the free motion of the Will readily conforms itself to the natural Motion which is excited by the Senses. We must resist, if we would not follow that Motion: But we are soon tired with resisting, we lose our beloved ease and become Miserable, when we cease to follow the attraction of Pleasure, which makes us happy.  
XIV. It is better to get out of a Stream which carries us away with it, if we cease but one Moment to strive against it, than to remain there in continual action; at least this is the surest way. It is better to break off, as far as we can, the correspondence which we maintain by the Senses with sensible Objects, than to expose ourselves to innumerable Dangers, by relying on our own Strength which is vain and deceitful. The Imagination may magnify it, the Pride of Man may defend it; but Experience overthrows it, Faith condemns it, and makes it weak and despicable. At least let us take the safest course: The thing in question is Eternity, the dreadful alternative of the Felicity of the Saints, or the punishments of the Devils for infinite Ages. We may successfully stop the Passages by which this dangerous Correspondence between the Senses and false Goods is maintained. The motion of our Hands and Feet is subject to our Will. It is in our own Power to bend our Eyes downward, to turn our Head, and Fly. Thus we may avoid the Blow levelled at us by a murderous Object. But if we stand to receive it, it wounds the Brain, it defiles the Imagination, it penetrates and corrupts the Heart. Whatever effects the force of that Blow produces in the Brain, and in the Nerves which excite the Passions, they are in no wise subject to our Will. So that we may without much difficulty prevent the Mischief by the mortification of our Senses, but we cannot cure it without infinite Conflicts. How happy should we be, if we would learn so much Wisdom by costly Experience, as to hinder it from spreading, and throwing us headlong into Hell!  
XV. Let us endeavour then to convince ourselves throughly, that our Senses are false Witnesses, which constantly give their Testimony against us in favour of our Passions: That if we are permitted to hearken to them for the good of the Body, nothing is more dangerous than to consult them for the good of the Soul: That if it be very ridiculous to go to prove by Reason, that Gold, for instance, or precious Stones are not proper for Nourishment; it is also contrary to Order and good Sense, to examine by the Taste, whether Wine be an Object worthy of our Love and Application: That the motions of the Soul should be governed by Light, and the motions and position of the Body by Pleasure and Instinct: That Light never deceives, and that it leaves the Mind at liberty, without driving it forcibly toward the Good which it presents, that so the Mind may love it with Freedom and Reason; that Pleasure on the contrary is always deceitful, that it takes away or abridges the liberty of the Mind, and carries it naturally not toward God the true Author of that Pleasure, but toward the sensible Object which seems to be the cause of it. Let us remember these Principles, and draw this consequence from them, that the mortification of the Senses is the most necessary exercise for him that designs to live by Reason to follow Order, to labour for Perfection, and to secure to himself a solid Happiness, and an eternal Felicity.  
XVI. Having proved at large in the first Book of the Search of Truth, that our Senses generally speaking deceive us in every thing, I think I need not insist any longer on demonstrating what I have here laid down. I rather fear that those who have read and considered my other Writings, will find Fault with me for repeating the same things over and over. But this Treatise being designed for all sorts of People, it could not be avoided: For all these Truths have a connexion and relation to one another. We must know the Nature of Man and his Diseases, at least in some measure, before we can comprehend the Remedies of them, and understand Morality by Principles. If I should lay down as known all those Truths which I have elsewhere proved, every Reader would not understand what I meant by them, many perhaps would be afraid of them as dangerous, and this Book would in all probability have the same Fate with the unfortunate Treatise of Nature and Grace, which, tho' it were written only for those who had a distinct conception of the Truths which I had before sufficiently explained, as I then declared; underwent so furious a Censure, that those very Heresies were charged upon me, which I had there overthrown in their first Principles.   

CHAP. XII. Of the Imagination. This Term is obscure and confused. What it is in general. Several sorts of Imagination. Its effects are dangerous. Of that which the World calls Wit. That quality is very opposite to the Grace of Christ. It is fatal to those who possess it, and to those who esteem and admire it in others, tho' they have it not themselves.  
I. THo' the Senses are the first original of our Disorders, or the foundation of that union of the Soul and Body which now separates the Soul from God; yet it is not sufficient to regulate the use of them, that Grace may operate in us with its full Strength, but we must also silence our Imagination and Passions. The Imagination doth depend indeed on the Senses, as well as the Passions; but it hath its particular Malignity. When it is stirred up by the Senses, it produces of itself extraordinary effects: And many times tho' the Senses do not actually move it, it acts by its own Strength. Nay sometimes it disturbs all the Ideas of the Soul by the Phantoms which it produces, and enrages the Passions by the violence of the Motions which it excites. But for fear lest some Persons may not clearly comprehend these Truths, I must give a more distinct explication of them.  
II. This Term Imagination is very much used in the World: But yet I can hardly believe that all those who pronounce the Word distinctly, join a distinct Idea to it. I have said already, and say again, for there is no harm in reflecting on it more than once; that the commonest Words are the most confused, and that Men's ordinary Discourse is many times nothing but an empty sound of Words without Sense, which they hear and repeat like Echoes. If a Conversation doth but entertain them agreably, and serves them to communicate their Affections, and to create a mutual esteem of one another, they are satisfied with it. They make the same use of Words as they do of a Man's Air and outward Behaviour. They unite themselves to one another by the Senses and Passions; and many times Reason hath no other share in the Society, than to promote their unjust Designs. For Truth is of no use in this World. Those that employ themselves in the search of it are Enthusiasts, singular and dangerous Persons, who must be shunned like an infectious Air. Thus Words, whose, chief use should be to represent the pure Ideas of the Mind, generally serve only to express Ideas of Sense and those motions of the Soul which are but too apt to communicate themselves by the outward demeanour, the Air of the Face, the Tone of the Voice, and the Posture and Motion of the Body.  
III. Imagination is one of those Terms which Use hath made current, without clearing the signification of it. For common Use explains only those Words that excite, sensible Ideas. Those by which it expresses pure and intellectual Ideas, are all of them either equivocal or confused. Thus the Imagination not being sensible but only by its Effects, and the nature of it being hard to understand, every one makes use of the same Word, without having the same Idea; nay perhaps many People have no Idea of it at all.  
iv The Imagination may be considered in a twofold respect, either as to the Body, or as to the Soul. In relation to the Body, it consists of a Brain capable of Impressions, and of animal Spirits fit to make these Impressions. We may conceive the animal Spirits to be whatever we will Fancy them, provided we understand them to be Bodies, which by their motion are capable of acting in the substance of the principal part of the Brain. In relation to the Soul, the Imagination consists of Images that answer to the Impressions, and of Attention capable of forming these Images or sensible Ideas. For it is our Attention, which as the occasional cause determines the course of the Spirits whereby the Impressions are formed, to which Impressions the Ideas are annexed: And all this in consequence of the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body.  
V These Images or Impressions which are formed as well by the strength of the Imagination, as by the action of Objects, dispose the Brain, the Storehouse of the Spirits, in such a manner, that the course of these Spirits is determined toward certain Nerves, some of which run to the Heart and other Viscera, and cause there Fermentation or Refrigeration, or in short, produce different Motions according to the quality of the Object which is present to the Senses, or the Imagination: The rest of the Nerves answer to the external Parts, and by them the Body is placed in such a Position, and disposed to such a motion as the present Object requires.  
VI The course of the animal Spirits toward those Nerves which answer to the internal parts of the Body is accompanied with Passions on the part of the Soul: Which Passions arising originally from the action of the Imagination, do by the great abundance of Spirits which they send up to the Head, fortify the Impression and Image of the Object which produced them. For the Passions excite, support and strengthen the Attention, the occasional cause of that course of the Spirits, whereby the Impression of the Brain is formed, which Impression determines another course of the Spirits toward the Heart and other parts of the Body, to keep up the same Passions; all this proceeds also from the admirable constitution of the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body. This is sufficient to give a slight Idea of the Imagination, and of the relation it hath to the Passions. I have handled this matter more at large in another place. But this I think is sufficient to make attentive Readers understand in some measure what I mean by Imagination in general.  
VII. In particular by a defiled and corrupt Imagination, I understand a Brain which hath received some Impressions so deep as to carry the Soul and thereby the Body, to Objects unworthy of and unbecoming the dignity of Man's Nature; and by purity of Imagination, I mean a sound and entire Brain without any of those vicious Impressions which corrupt the Mind and Heart.  
By a weak and tender Imagination, I mean a Brain whose principal part, on which the course of the Spirits depends, is easy to be penetrated and shaken.  
By a nice and curious Imagination, I understand a Brain whose Fibres are of so fine and curious a Texture, that they receive and preserve the least Impressions made between them by the course of the Spirits.  
By a strong and lively Imagination, I mean that the animal Spirits which form the Impressions are too much agitated in proportion to the consistence of the Fibres of the Brain.  
By a large and spacious Imagination, I understand such an abundance of Spirits as is able to keep wide open a great many Tracks or Impressions of the Brain at once.  
By a regular and well ordered Imagination, I mean a Brain whose principal part which should obey the attention of the Mind hath none of its Fibres broken by the Passions or any other accident.  
By an Enthusiast or visionary, I mean one whose attention doth indeed determine the course of the Spirits, but cannot moderate their force, nor stop their motion. He thinks on what he pleases; but he sees nothing as it is. For the Impressions being too large or too deep, nothing appears to him in its natural shape: Whatever he saith must always be taken with some allowance or deduction. In this sense every Man is an Enthusiast in respect of some Things: Those that know them best are the Wisest.  
By a senseless and stupid Man, I mean one whose Attention can neither stop nor determine the course of the Spirits.  
By a contagious and headstrong Imagination, I understand such an abundance of animal Spirits, and those so agitated, that they diffuse over all the Body, especially the Face, an Air of Confidence which persuades others. All Men when they are moved with any Passion, and Enthusiasts at all times, have this kind of Imagination.  
VIII. The substance and disposition of the Fibres of the Brain being different in different Persons, and in the same Persons at different Ages, and the animal Spirits being more or less subtle, in greater or less quantity, more or less agitated; it may easily be judged that there are a great many more sorts of Imaginations than those I have here mentioned, and that we have not Terms enough to denote exactly the differences of them. For this word Imagination is a comprehensive Term expressing not only many Ideas, but also an infinite number of Relations arising from the comparison of these Ideas; which relations make the particular character of the several sorts of Imaginations. The Brain of itself in such or such a disposition, considered without the relation it hath to the motion, abundance or solidity of the Spirits, doth not make such or such a particular sort of Imagination; but the relation which arises from the quality of the Spirits compared with the substance of the Fibres of the Brain. For a Man that hath a great abundance of Spirits very much agitated and very solid, hath not therefore a lively and spacious Imagination, if the Fibres of his Brain are too solid, too moist, too much interwoven one within another, etc.  
IX. These things being granted, I say that the Imagination produces as dangerous effects as the Senses; and consequently that it is necessary to keep it silent, if we desire that Grace should operate in us with all its efficacy.  
X. For First, the Imagination, as well as the Senses, speaks only for the good of the Body; for naturally whatsoever comes to the Soul by the Body, is only for the Body. This is a great and Fundamental Principle.  
XI. Secondly, the Imagination, when it is heated, continually interrupts the Soul: It often forces the Mind to answer and discourse with it to the prejudice of Reason. Besides, we may easily avoid the action of sensible Objects, and by that means make our Senses silent: For it is in our own Power to shut our Eyes; or betake ourselves to Flight. But we cannot easily dispel the Phantoms raised by the Imagination; the Mind cannot avoid contemplating whatever passes in the Brain.  
XII. Thirdly, the Senses represent sensible Objects near enough to the Life: But the Imagination extends and enlarges them in such a manner, that the Mind is sometimes charmed and sometimes terrified with them. A Man whose Heart is corrupted by the irregular desires which the Imagination of its self hath stirred up in him, sometimes finds himself cured by the accomplishment of those Desires. The actual enjoyment of the Object of his disorders, delivers him at least for some time from a Passion which owed all its force and vehemence to the Imagination.  
XIII. Fourthly, the Senses join us only to certain Objects that lie round about us, and are within their Sphere: But the Imagination makes the Mind a Slave to every thing. It unites it to the past, present and future, to Realities and Chimaeras, to possible Being's, and to those which neither God himself can create, nor the Mind comprehend. It forms dreadful Phantoms, and then is scared at them. It raises delightful Apparitions, and is pleased with them. It altars and destroys the nature of all Being's, and forms a Thousand extravagant Designs in a World of its own making, composed of Realities and Fictions.  
XIV. Lastly the Imagination, without going so far as downright Madness, disturbs and dissipates all the true Ideas, and corrupts the Heart by innumerable ways. It would be too long to set down the different effects of the several kinds of Imagination. But that which is most opposite to the efficacy of the Grace of Christ, is that which in the Language of the World is called Wit; for the better the Imagination is furnished, the more dangerous it is; subtlety, delicacy, vivacity and spaciousness of Imagination, great qualities in the Eyes of Men, are the most prolific and the most general causes of the blindness of the Mind and the corruption of the Heart. What I here assert being a Paradox, I must not expect to be believed without Proof.  
XV. The Soul is rational only by Reason: It is regular only by Order: It derives its perfection wholly from the immediate and direct union it hath with God. On the contrary, its union with the Body fills it with Darkness, and puts it in disorder: Because in our present Condition we cannot strengthen this union without weaking that which is opposite to it. Now it is by the Imagination that the Soul dilates and spreads itself over the Creatures; for it is united to Truth only by pure Ideas free from all imaginary and fantastical Appearances. So that the more strength, vivacity and extent the Imagination hath, the more the Mind employs itself about sensible Objects; all this I have said before. Now when the Imagination is beautiful, easy, clear and sprightly, the Images which it forms are lively, animated and delightful, always drawn to the Life and even beyond it. Thus he who by the strength of his Imagination raises a great variety of different Objects in his Mind, who makes his Phantoms always appear in a fashionable Dress, and puts them into certain regular and harmonious Motions which give an agreeable agitation to the whole Brain: He, I say, is charmed with his own productions, and instead of contemplating things as they are in themselves and as their Ideas represent them, delights continually in seeing his own Farces acted, and applauds the Fictions of his own Brain.  
XVI. It is natural for all Men to seek Admirers, and the Man of Wit never fails of them. When he speaks, as he speaks well, all the World hearkens to him with Esteem; as he speaks agreably, they hear him with Pleasure; as he advances only certain sensible Truths, which are really false ones (for that which is true to the Senses, is false to the Mind) every one applauds him. Now is it possible for one who knows, or rather by the air and behaviour of his Auditors, is strongly and sensibly persuaded that they admire, love, honour and respect him, is it possible, I say, for such an one to distrust his own Thoughts, and believe that he is mistaken? Can he avoid uniting himself not only to his own Visions which enchant him, but also to that World which applauds him, to those Friends which caress him, and to those Disciples which adore him? Can he be closely united with God who hath so many ties and relations with the Creatures?  
XVII. The Wit is a Man of Honour, I allow it: Yet he may be a Cheat, and there are as many of them of that Character, as any other. He is not Vicious, I grant it: Tho' there are Debauchees among them, and a great many too. But certainly the Man of Wit is many ways allied to the World: For how can he be Dead to the World, when the World is so much Alive to him? He is continually agitated by motions of Vanity: For every one that he converses with doth nothing but provoke in him the Concupiscence of Pride. The Man of Wit, I speak still of such a one as lives in a select and chosen World, one whose whole design is to gain an advantageous Post in men's Minds, or by the Reputation he hath already gotten, is become in reality the Slave of all those who look upon him as their Master: He, I say, is separated from God at a greater distance than any other, and there is no likelihood of his return. The delight of Grace may diffuse itself in his Heart ten times a Day; it will always find that Heart filled with Sensations and Motions that will choke it. The Light may illuminate his Mind, and dispel its Phantoms; the Imagination will easily produce them again. There are too many Fetters to break, too many Chains to burst, before this Captive can be delivered. But he is in love with his Chains, he is not sensible of his Slavery, or he glories in it.  
XVIII. The Debauchee is not always actually in a Debauch; his Blood and Humours cannot hold out to maintain it; and when the Fermentation ceases, he is ashamed of his Disorders. But the Blood is always in a condition to furnish Spirits enough to keep up the Lust of Pride. What time then can be favourable for the efficacy of Grace? The Cheat feels continual checks of Conscience which trouble and disquiet him, but the Wit feels no remorse. He will say, is it a Crime to have Wit, and to merit the esteem of Persons of Worth and Reputation? No, it is no Crime to have Wit, but it is an Error to take the Imagination for the Mind. It is not a Crime to merit the esteem of others, but it is an illusion to think that a Man merits it, I will not say, for having abundance of animal Spirits in his Head, or a just proportion of the Fibres of his Brain to the Spirits, but even for being united to Reason in the purest and closest manner that is possible. There is no Merit in the sight of him who alone can judge of, and reward Merit, but by a conformity to Order, and a right use of Liberty: A use which cannot be well regulated without the assistance of Grace, and of which he who values himself upon it loses the Merit, because he doth not render to God alone the Glory which is due to him. Do we think that God hath created other Men to employ their Thoughts and bestow their Love on us; to turn towards and admire us; to run after and rely upon us? Certainly God would be worshipped by his Creatures. But how! by prostrating themselves before his Altars, by burning Incense, by joining Voices with Instruments, and making the Churches resound with harmonious Airs composed in his Praise? No, without doubt God is a Spirit, and will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth. He will have the whole Man, his Thoughts, Motions and Actions. But the Man of Wit, more than any one, attracts the Eyes of other Men, and fixes their Motions on himself. Instead of putting himself in a posture of Adoration, and turning the Minds and Hearts of others towards him who alone ought to be worshipped, he exalts himself, and assumes an honourable Place in men's Minds, he enters even into the Sanctuary of that Holy Temple, the principal Habitation of the living God, and by the sensible Pomp and Splendour which surrounds him, he prostrates weak Imaginations at his Feet, and makes them pay him a true and spiritual Worship, a Worship which is due to God alone.  
XIX. Now can he who seeks the esteem of Men, and robs God of that which he most values in his Creatures, can he I say, 
1 Pet. 5.5.  draw down upon himself the favours of Heaven? Will God who resists the Proud prevent him with his Blessings? The Spirit of God willingly rests on such as are humble, such as the World despises, These Truth's the Scripture assures us of. He enlightens those that retire into themselves: This Experience shows. But he blinds those lively and sparkling Imaginations, which are always roving abroad: For Truth dwells within us. Besides, the Grace either of Light or Sense, doth not work its effect in the Mind and Heart of those who are united to every thing that is about them: This is evident from what hath been here said. So then the Man of Wit who seeks after Glory, shall find only a vain and transitory one, and shall fall for ever with those proud and ambitious Spirits, into the disgrace which he deserves.  
XX. But this beautiful ornament of Wit; so fatal to those who possess it and value themselves upon it, is also very dangerous to those who esteem and admire it in others without possessing it themselves. This is a Truth necessary to be known. There is nothing more contagious than the Imagination; and those in whom it is strong and governing, are always Masters of those that look intently on them. Their Air and Behaviour, do, as I may say, diffuse conviction and certainty in all that behold them: For they act every thing with so much Passion and Life, that if a Man doth not retire into himself, to confront that which they say with the answers of inward Truth, which is very hard to do in their Presence; he is convinced, without knowing precisely what it is he is convinced of; because he is struck, he is dazzled, and subdued by force.  
XXI. Nevertheless, we must know, that those that have this lively and domineering Imagination, are of all Men the most subject to Error, their Sentiments are the most dangerous, and their Motions the most irregular. For the fuller the Brain is of Spirits, the more rebellious the Imagination is, the Passions are the more violent, the Body speaks in a higher Tone, which never speaks but in favour of the Body, to unite and subject the Soul to the Body, and to separate it from him who alone is able to give it that perfection it is capable of. We should therefore endeavour to silence our own Imagination, and be upon our guard against those that please and excite it. We should as much as is possible avoid the Conversation of the World. For when the Lust either of Pride or Pleasure, is actually provoked, Grace cannot operate in us with its full efficacy.  
XXII. Man is subject to Two sorts of Concupiscence, one of Pleasure, and the other of Grandeur. This is a thing not sufficiently taken notice of. When a Man enjoys sensual Pleasures, his Imagination is polluted, and carnal Concupiscence exerts and fortifies itself. In like manner, when he goes abroad into the World, and seeks to advance himself in it, when he procures Friends, and gains Reputation, the Idea which he hath of himself stretches and grows larger in his Imagination, and the concupiscence of Pride gains new and greater Strength. There are some impressions in the Brain naturally formed for maintaining civil Society, and advancing a Man's private Fortune; as there are others relating to the preservation of his Life, and the propagation of his Species. We are united to other Men by a thousand Relations, as really as we are to our own Body: and every union with the Creatures disunites us from God in the State we are now in, because the impressions of the Brain are not subject to our Wills.  
XXIII. All Men are well enough convinced of the pravity of carnal Concupiscence, they have some fear and abhorrence of it, and in some measure avoid every thing that may provoke it. But there are very few that seriously reflect on the concupiscence of Pride, or apprehend the danger of raising and augmenting it. Every one rashly throws himself into the Conversation of the World, and embarks without fear on that tempestuous Sea, as S. Augustine calls it. We suffer ourselves to be governed by the Spirit that reigns in the World, we aspire to Greatness, and pursue Honour: For indeed how is it possible to remain unmoved in the midst of that Torrent of People that surrounds us, who insult and domineer over us, if they leave us behind them? In fine we get a Name, but it is such a Name as makes a Man the more a Slave, the more Pains he hath taken to deserve it; a Name which straight unites us to the Creatures, and separates us from the Creator; a Name illustrious in the esteem of Men, but a Name of Pride which God will destroy.   

CHAP. XIII. Of the Passions. What they are. Their dangerous effects. We must moderate them. The conclusion of the first Part.  
I. THE Senses, Imagination and Passions go always in company together: We cannot examine and condemn them apart. That which I have said of the Senses and Imagination, naturally reaches the Passions also. So that the Reader may easily judge what I am going to say, by what I have already said: For I shall only explain a little more at large what I have been already obliged to say in part, by reason of the close union that is between all the parts of our Being.  
II. By the Passions I do not mean the Senses, which produce them, nor the Imagination which excites and keeps them up: But I mean those notions of the Soul and animal Spirits which are caused by the Senses and Imagination, and act reciprocally on the cause which produced them: For all this is nothing but a continual circulation of Sensations and Motions which mutually produce and fortify one another. If the Senses produce the Passions, the Passions in return, by the Motion which they excite in the Body, unite the Senses to sensible Objects. If the Imagination stirs up the Passions, the Passions, by a Countermotion of the Spirits raise the Imagination; and each of them is reciprocally supported or produced anew by the effect of which it is the Cause; so admirable is the oeconomy of Man's Body and the mutual Relation of all the parts which compose it. But this matter deserves a fuller Explication, in respect of the Consequences which we should draw from it.  
III. The Passions are Motions of the Soul which accompany that of the Spirits and the Blood, and produce in the Body, by the mechanical Frame and Constitution of it, all the dispositions necessary to support and keep up the Cause from whence they arise. At the sight of any Object which moves the Soul, (we will suppose that Object to be some Good) the animal Spirits which come from the Brain to the other parts of the Body, divide themselves into two Branches or Courses. One of these Courses runs, or hath a tendency to run to the external parts, the Legs and Arms; or if they are unserviceable, then to the Lungs and Organs of the Voice, in order to dispose us and those that are with us, to unite us to the Object. The other part of the Spirits goes into the Nerves belonging to the Heart, Lungs, Liver and other Viscera, to proportion the Fermentation and Course of the Blood and Humours, to the quality of the present Good. By this means the Impression which the presence of any Good, or the Imagination forms in the Brain, and which determines the two Courses of the Spirits, is preserved and maintained by new Spirits, with which the latter Course endeavours to supply the Brain by the repeated and violent Shocks wherewith it shakes the Nerves that encompass the Vessels containing the Humours and Blood, the Matter of which the Spirits are continually made.  
iv The Nerves which are distributed into the Limbs being full of Spirits, from their origine in the Brain, even to their extremities; and the Impression of the Object forcibly driving the Spirits into all the parts of the Body, to give them a violent and extraordinary Motion, or put them into a forced Position, the Blood must of necessity ascend up to the Head speedily and in great abundance, by the Action of the Nerves which surround, and compress or dilate the Vessels wherein it is contained. For if the Brain did not send a sufficient quantity of Spirits into the Members of the Body, we could not long preserve the Air, Posture and Motion necessary for the acquisition of Good and the avoidance of Evil. Nay, we should fall into Swoon and Faintings; for this constantly happens when the Brain wants Spirits, and when the Communication which it hath by their means with the other parts of the Body is interrupted.  
V Thus the Body is an admirable Machine, composed of an infinite number of Pipes and Cisterns, which have all innumerable communications with one another. The wonderful operation of this Machine depends wholly on the Course of the Spirits, which is differently determined by the elastic force of the several Springs, and the opening and shutting of the Passages by the Action of Objects on the Senses, and the Motion of the principal part of the Brain; which Motion depends partly on the Will, and partly on the Course of the Spirits, excited by the Impressions of the Imagination and Memory.  
VI But that which I would have chief observed here, is, That the Course of the Spirits in the Nerves, belonging to the Viscera, which drives the Blood up into the Head for the production of Spirits, necessary to dispose the outward parts of the Body, with relation to the present Object, acts with choice, and furnishes the Brain only with such Humours as are proper for the preservation of that Impression by which the Passion is excited; or, which comes all to one, the Blood and Humours which ascend up to the Head, divide themselves in such a manner, that so much of them as is fit for the production of Spirits, agreeable to the prevailing Passion, remains there, and the rest returns by the circulation, to the places from whence it came. These Spirits being made, are presently determined toward the Impression which is the original Cause of all these Motions, to preserve it, and also to revive all the accessary Impressions which may any way fortify and confirm it. From those Impressions both the Principal one and the Accessories, the new Spirits do also receive their direction, and are divided, as the first were, into two Branches; one for the outward, and the other for the inward parts of the Body: For as long as the Passion lasts, this admirable Circulation of the Spirits and Blood is continually made, which sets the Machine a going, according as the present Object requires, with a wonderful Regularity and Order.  
VII. From hence it appears, that the Passions which are most wisely ordained, with relation to their proper end; namely, the preservation of Health and Life, the conjunction of Man and Woman, Society, Commerce, and the acquisition of sensible Goods, are extremely opposite to the acquisition of the true and spiritual Goods, the Goods due to Virtue and Merit.  
VIII. For 1. The Passions are not subject to our Wills: Nothing is more difficult than to govern them, because we have lost that Power by Sin, which otherwise we should have had over our Bodies.  
2. They are so contrary to Virtue and Merit, that a Man must sacrifice and destroy them, if he would deserve the Name and Reward of a truly virtuous Man, or a perfect Christian.  
3. Every Motion which they naturally excite in the Soul, is only for the good of the Body, according to this Maxim, That whatever happens to the Soul by the Body, is only for the Body.  
4. When they are raised, they take up the whole content of the Mind and Heart. The impressions and agitation of the Brain, which they fortify by the Contributions they draw from the Intestines, and send up speedily and abundantly into the Head, disturb all our Ideas; and the Shock and Motion they give the Will by that lively and agreeable Sensation which accompanies them, corrupts our Hearts, and throws us into innumerable disorders.  
But 5. when their Agitation is ceased, yet the Imagination remains polluted by the Impressions which they have made on the Brain, whose Fibres have been bend or broken by the violence of the Spirits which they have put in Motion. These Impressions often dissipate the attention of the Mind, and generally revive the same Passions which produced them, when the Blood is impregnated again with Particles fit to raise such a Fermentation as may produce abundance of Spirits agreeable to the nature of those Passions.  
6. The Passions by their rapid Course make a smooth and easy way for themselves into the Nerves which go to the Heart and other inward parts of the Body, and there excite such Motions as are proper to revive them again; so that the least thing that shakes the Brain, is capable of renewing them.  
7. Lastly, all the Passions justify themselves in such a manner, that it is not possible at the time that they agitate the Mind, to make a solid and impartial Judgement of the Objects which excite them; for such is their malignant quality, that they are not satisfied if Reason too doth not give Judgement in favour of them.  
IX. For I. They confirm the Judgement of the Senses, tho' they are so far from being competent Judges in the Eye of Reason, that they are false Witnesses. II. They show only the wrong side of Objects, and always represent them in that deceitful Shape which suits best with their Interest. III. They revive all those Impressions and accessary Ideas which side with them, and suppress all the rest. iv They cover their irregular Proceed and vicious Designs, with the specious appearances of Reason, Justice and Virtue. The covetous Man, for instance, conceals from himself the Shamefulness, Injustice and Cruelty of his Avarice: He disguises his Passion with notions of Temperance, Moderation, Prudence, Penance, or it may be of Charity, Liberality and Magnificence, by forming imaginary Designs which he will never put in execution; for the Passions are cunning enough to make even the Virtue's opposite to them serve for their Justification. V last, the Passions are always accompanied with a certain pleasant Sensation, which bribe's their Judge, and if he favours them, pays him to his content; whereas if he condemns them, they handle him very cruelly: For what Present can be offered more grateful and charming, to one that irresistibly desires to be happy, than Pleasure, when it is actual Pleasure that gives actual Happiness? And what Treatment can be more rough, than that which the Soul receives from the Passions, when it would Sacrifice them to the Love of Order? We cannot strike them without wounding ourselves; for when they are upon their Guard, the blow which we aim at them, if it takes away their Life only for a little while, recoils back upon ourselves and mortally Wounds us; or rather reduces us to such a condition, as often seems worse than Death itself.  
X. So then it is evident, that those who are so far from moderating their Passions, that they do all they can to gratify them, who live by Humour, and act by Inclination, and judge of every thing by Fancy; in a word, those who follow all the motions of the Machine, and suffer themselves to be led, without knowing who it is that leads them, or whither they go; are continually departing from their true good, and by degrees lose sight of it quite; they blot out the very Remembrance of it, and blindly run headlong into the Abyss where all Evils dwell, and the eternal Privation of all Good.  
XI. It is true, indeed, that sometimes Grace is strong enough to stop in his full career one that abandons himself to the motions of his Passions, and that God in goodness speaks to the Soul in Thunder and Lightning, and with a terrible Voice, which overthrows the Man and the Passion that hurries him away. But Christ very rarely bestows such Favours; and that Man is very senseless, who throws himself into a Precipice, in expectation that God should work a Miracle to save him from death.  
XII. What then must we do to moderate our Passions? I have already spoke of this in the Seventh Chapter and elsewhere; but I shall sum it up here in few words. I. We should avoid the Objects which excite them, and mortify our Senses. II. We should keep our Imagination within the bounds of that respect which it owes to Reason, or makes a continual revulsion in the animal Spirits, which by their Course keep up, and fortify the sinful Impressions. III. We should seek after the means to make our Passions appear ridiculous and contemptible, we should examine them by the Light, confront them with Order, and use our utmost endeavours to discover the foulness, injustice and irregularity of them, and their fatal consequences, as well in respect of this life as the other. iv We should form no Design when they are excited, nor ever enter upon any Business by their direction or influence. V We should get a Habit, and lay an Obligation on ourselves of consulting Reason in every thing; and whenever we have neglected to do it, either by surprise or for any other reason, we should change our manner of proceeding, and at least take upon us the shame we deserve, for having acted like Brutes by the construction and motion of the Machine; much less should we justify the foolish step we have made by continuing in a vicious and sinful Course. VI We should labour to augment the strength and liberty of our Mind, that we may be able to undergo the labour of Attention, and to suspend our Assent till Evidence forces it from us. Without these two Qualifications, we cannot receive from Reason any certain Rules for the Government of ourselves. VII. last; that we may be in a capacity to follow those Rules which destroy the Passions, we should, above all things, have recourse to Prayer, and with confidence and humility draw near to him who came to deliver us by the strength of his Grace, from that Body of Death, or that Law of the Flesh which rebels every moment against the Law of the Spirit. For I have often said already, and do not stick to repeat it here again, because I think there is no fear of reflecting on it too much, That neither Reason by itself, nor all the helps which Philosophy affords us, can without the influence of the second Adam deliver us from the malignity of the first.  
XIII. The sum of what hath been said relating to the First Part of this Moral Essay, is this; First I showed, that Virtue consists precisely in an habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order. Then I spoke of the two principal Qualities necessary for the acquisition of Virtue. After that I laid open the occasional Causes of Light and inward Sense, without which we cannot acquire or preserve the Love of Order. And lastly, I examined into the occasional Causes of certain Sensations which are contrary to those of Grace, and abate the Force and Efficacy of them, that we may avoid them. So that, I think, I have omitted nothing necessary for the acquisition and conservation of Virtue in general. I come now to the Second Part, which treats not of Virtues, but of the Duties of Virtue: For I know of but one single Virtue, which renders those that possess it truly and substantially Virtuous; namely, an habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order.    

A TREATISE OF Morality.  
PART II. Of DUTIES.  

CHAP. I. Good Men often do wicked Actions. The Love of Order must be enlightened to make it regular. Three Conditions required to make an Action perfectly Virtuous. We should study the Duties of Man in general, and take some time every day to examine the Order and Circumstances of them in particular.  
I. THE Actions of those that have attained to the true and solid Virtue, are not therefore all solidly and substantially Virtuous. There is in a manner always some deficiency or imperfection in them; nay, many times they are really sinful. The reason of this is, because a Man doth not always Act by the influence of his predominant Habit, but sometimes by the operation of the Passion, which is actually excited in him. For if the predominant Habit be asleep, as I may say, and the rest awake, the Actions of a good Man may be many ways sinful: But besides, tho' the predominant Habit of the Love of Order be actually excited in a good Man, yet at the same time his Actions may be defective and imperfect, and even directly opposite to Order which he actually loves, and designs to follow. For, beside the difficulty of paying an exact Obedience to the Order which we do know, indiscreet and ill governed Zeal often makes us Act contrary to the Order which we do not know. Wherefore that an Action may be completely Virtuous, it is not sufficient that it proceed from a good Man, nor from a Man actually moved by the Love of Order, but it must also be conformable to Order in all its Circumstances; and that too not by a kind of Chance luckily determining the actual Motion of the Soul, but by the strength of Reason, guiding and governing us in such a manner as to make us fulfil all our Duties.  
II. So then, tho' it be sufficient to make us just and acceptable to God, that the Love of Order be our predominant Habit; yet if we would be perfect and complete, we must be able to govern this Love by an exact Knowledge of our Duties. Nay, I may say, that he who neglects or slights this Knowledge, what Zeal soever he may find within himself for Order, his Heart is by no means rightly disposed. For Order would be loved by Reason, and not altogether by the Heart and fervency of Instinct, which often fills with indiscreet Zeal those whose Imagination is too brisk and lively; who are not used to retire into themselves, but are continually apt to mistake the secret inspirations of their Passions, for the infallible Answers of the inward Truth.  
III. Indeed, those whose Mind is so weak, and their Passions so strong, that they are not capable of giving Counsel to themselves, or rather of taking Counsel of him who enlightens all Men, are excusable before God; if they sincerely desire and follow the Advice of such as they believe to be the best and wisest Men. But those who have or pretend to have Wit and Sense, are guilty in the sight of God, if they undertake any Design without consulting him, that is, without consulting Reason, how fervent soever the Zeal may be which transports them. For we must distinguish the Answers of the inward Truth which illuminates the Mind by the Evidence of its Light, from the Language and secret Inspirations of the Passions, which confound and deceive it by such Sensations as are indeed lively and agreeable, but always obscure and confused.  
iv The Love of Order therefore requires of us three Conditions to make any of our Actions conformable to it: First, That we examine the Action in itself, and all its Circumstances, as far as we are able. Secondly, That we suspend our Assent till Evidence forces it from us, or the Execution, till Necessity obliges us to defer it no longer. Thirdly, That we readily, exactly, and inviolably obey Order as far as it is known to us. Strength of Mind must make us courageously undergo the labour of Attention: Liberty of Mind must moderate and wisely govern the desire of Assent: Submission of Mind must make us follow the Light step by step, without ever going before it, or forsaking it; and the Love of Order must animate and quicken these three Faculties; by which, tho' it be hid in the bottom of our Heart, it discovers itself to the Eyes of the World, and sanctifies all our Actions in the sight of God.  
V. But since it is impossible for a Man that is not versed in the Science of Morality, to discover the Order of his Duties in sudden and unexpected Occasions, tho' he have never so great strength and liberty of Mind; it is necessary for him to provide against those Occasions, which leave him no time for Examination, and by a prudent foresight to inform himself of his Duties in general, or of some certain and undeniable Principles to govern his Actions by in particular Cases. This study of a Man's Duties, aught without doubt to be preferred before all others: Its End and Reward is Eternity. He that applies himself to Languages, to the Mathematics, to Business, and neglects the study of the general Rules for the Government of his Life, is like a foolish Traveller, who loiters by the way or rambles out of it, and is overtaken by the Night, an eternal Night, which will deprive him for ever of the sight of his Country, fill him with immortal despair, and leave him exposed to the dreadful wrath of the Lamb, and the power of the Devils, or rather the justice of an avenging God.  
VI He that should go about to examine in particular all the Duties belonging to the several conditions of Men, would undertake a Work which he could never finish, how indefatigable soever he were. For my part, I am too sensible of my own weakness to engage in so vast and difficult a Design; and all that I here pretend to, is to set down in general, and that chief for my own private use, the Duties which all Men, as far as they are able, aught to pay to God, their Neighbour and Themselves. Every Man must examine his own particular Duties himself, as they relate to the general and essential Obligations, and according to Circumstances which vary every moment: We should set apart some time for this every day, and not expect to find in Books, nor it may be in other Men, so much Certainty and Light as we may in ourselves, if we consult the inward Truth sincerely, faithfully and in the motion of the Love of Order.   

CHAP. II. Our Duties toward God must be referred to his Attributes, to his Power, Wisdom and Love. God alone is the true Cause of all Things. The Duties we own to Power, which consist chief in clear Judgements, and in Motions governed by those Judgements.  
I. THe immutable and necessary Order requires that the Creature should depend on the Creator, that every Copy should answer to its Original; and that Man being made after the Image of God, should live in Obedience to God, united to God, and like God as far as is possible; obedient to his Power, united to his Wisdom, and perfectly like him in all the motions of his Heart. 
Mat. 5.48.  Be ye perfect, saith our Saviour to his Disciples, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect. Indeed, we shall not be truly like God, till being swallowed up in the contemplation of his Essence, we shall be wholly penetrated with his Light and Pleasure: But thither it is that we must tend; it is that which Faith gives us a Right to hope for; that to which it conducts us; that which it gives us an earnest of by the inward Reformation which the Grace of Christ works in us. For Faith leads us to the understanding of the Truth, and merits for us the Grace of Charity. Now Understanding and Charity, are the two essential strokes which draw our Minds anew after our Original, who is called in the Scriptures Truth and Love. Beloved, saith St. John, 
1 John 3.2, 3.  now are we the Sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every Man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself, even as he is pure. 
Mat. 5.8.  Blessed are the pure in heart, saith Christ himself, for they shall see God.  
II. To discover the Duties which we own to God, we must attentively consider all his Attributes, and consult ourselves in reference to them: Especially, we must examine his Power, Wisdom and Love; and on our own part, our Judgements and Motions: For it is only by the Judgements and Motions of our Minds, that we render to God that which we own him; as it is chief on the account of his Power, Wisdom and Love, that we indispensably own him the greatest Duties.  
III. When in thinking on God, we consider him only as a Being of infinite Reality or Perfection, we are convinced that Order requires us to esteem him infinitely. But we do not naturally conclude from this alone, that we ought to worship, fear or love him, etc. The consideration of God barely in himself, or without any relation to us, doth not excite those Motions in the Soul which carry it towards Good, or the cause of its Happiness, and produce in it fit dispositions to receive the influence of that Good. There is nothing more evident, than that a Being infinitely perfect aught to be infinitely esteemed: No one can refuse God this speculative Duty; for it consists only in a simple Judgement, which no one can suspend when the Evidence is full and convincing. And therefore wicked Men, those that have no Religion, those that deny the Providence of God, willingly pay him this Duty. But as they imagine that God doth not concern himself with our Affairs, that he is not the true and immediate Cause of every thing that is done here below, and that we can have no Communication, no Society, no Union with him, neither by a Reason, nor a Power in some sort common both to him and us; they brutishly follow the agreeable Motions of their Passions, and pay those Duties to a blind Nature, which are due only to the Wisdom and Power of the Creator.  
iv These mistaken Men argue and conclude right enough, but it is from false Principles; and you cannot easily make them understand that God requires any Duties of his Creatures, if you do not first rid them of a great many false Maxims; such as these, for instance. That if God concerned himself with our Affairs, the World would not go as it doth; that Injustice would never be advanced to the Throne, and that Bodies would not be ranged so irregularly as they are; that so deformed and misshapen a World as this is, can be nothing but the work of a blind and unintelligent Nature, and that God doth not require of us vile Creatures, Honours unbecoming his Nature; that that which appears right and just to us, is not so in itself or in the sight of God, who if it were, would often Punish those that he ought to Reward; for many times we meet with the greatest Misfortunes, when we are doing the best Actions. I have elsewhere confuted these Principles; and if the Reader doth not clearly comprehend what I am going to say, he may read the first Eight of my Christian Meditations.  
V Wherefore that we may discover the Foundation and Original of our Duties, it is not sufficient to consider the infinitely perfect Being, without the relation it bears to us. On the contrary, we must above all things take notice, that we depend on the Power of God; that we are united to his Wisdom, and that we have no Motion but from his Spirit, from the Love which he bears to himself. We depend on the Power of God; for we have our Existence from that alone, we act by that alone, and can do nothing but by that. We are united to the Wisdom of God; for by that alone we are enlightened, in that alone we discover Truth, we are rational only by that, for that alone is the universal Reason of all intelligent Being's. Lastly, we have no Motion but from the Spirit of God; for as God acts only by his own Will, or by the Love which he bears to himself; so all the Love which we have for Good, is only an Effusion or Impression of that Love with which God loves himself. We love nothing invincibly and naturally but God, because we love, and can love nothing but Good; and Good, I mean the cause of Happiness, is not where but in God; for no Creature can of itself Act on spiritual Substances. I must explain these things more at large, in order to deduce from them the Rules of our Conduct: I begin with Power, and the Duties we own to it.  
VI Glory and Honour belong only to God: 
1 Tim. 1.17.  All the Motions of our Souls ought to tend toward him alone, for in him alone Power resides. All the Wills of the Creatures are of themselves impotent and ineffectual. He alone who gives them their Being's, can give them the Modes of their Being's; for the different Modes of Being's are nothing but the same Being's in such and such particular Fashions or Dispositions; nothing is more evident to one that can sedately and silently consult the inward Truth. For what can be plainer, than that if God, for instance, will keep any Body always in one place, no Creature can remove it into another; and that Man cannot so much as move his Arm, but only because God is pleassed to do that which ungrateful and senseless Man thinks he doth himself? It is the same with the Modifications of spiritual Being's. If God creates or continues a Soul in the Modification of Pain, no other Spirit can deliver it from that Pain, nor make it feel Pleasure, except God gives his Assent, 
I am the Lord, that is my Name, 〈◊〉 Glory will not give to another, Isa. 42.8.  and co-operates with it in the accomplishment of its desires. By this extraordinary Concession and Liberality it is, that God without losing any thing of his Power, without diminishing his Greatness or lessening his Glory, imparts to the Creatures his Glory, Greatness and Power.  
VII. God hath subjected this present World to the Angels; it is they that act, and God that doth every thing. He hath given to Jesus Christ as Head of the Church, a Sovereign Power over all the Nations of the Earth: Christ distributes the true Goods; but it is God alone who sends them, it is he alone that acts in our Souls, and penetrates the hardness of our Hearts. Christ as he is Man, prays, intercedes, desires and performs the Office of Advocate, Mediator and Highpriest. But it is God alone that operates, he only hath power, he is the sole cause and beginning of all Things, and aught to be the sole end. All the Motions of our Souls should tend towards him, and to him alone belong Glory and Honour. This is that eternal, necessary and inviolable Law, which God hath established by the necessity of his own Being, by the love which he necessarily bears to himself; a Love which is always conformable to Order, and makes Order to be the inviolable Law of all spiritual Being's. When God ceases to know himself to be what he is, and to love himself as much as he deserves, to act according to his own Light, and by the Motion of his own Love, when he ceases to observe this Law, than it will be lawful for us to desire Glory ourselves, or give it to any other beside God; then we may without fear, delight in and make much of the Friendship of the Creatures; we may love and be beloved, give and receive Worship and Adoration; we may then show ourselves to the World, to attract the Esteem and Love of the World; we may exalt and expose ourselves to View, as Objects fit to employ those. Minds and Hearts which God hath made only for himself; we may then employ ourselves either about ourselves, or the imaginary Power of the Creatures.  
VIII. There is nothing certainly more agreeable both to Christianity and Reason, than this Principle, That it is God alone who doth every thing; and that he communicates his Power to the Creatures not otherwise than as he makes them Occasional Causes for himself to act by, in such a manner as bears the Character of an infinite Wisdom, an immutable Nature, and an universal Cause; in such a manner, that all the Glory which the work of the Creature deserves, is referred to the Creator alone; when the Creatures by a Power which they have not in them, execute such Designs as were formed before their Creation. What is more holy than this Principle, which clearly shows to such as are capable of rightly understanding it, that in many Cases it is lawful for us to approach the Objects of our Senses by the Motion of our Body; but that we must reserve all the Motions of our Soul for God alone? For we may, nay and many times ought to move toward the occasional Cause of our Sensations, but we must never leave it: We may join ourselves to other Men; but we must never adore them with the Motion of our Love, either as our Good, or as capable of procuring us any Good: We must love and fear only the true Cause of Good and Evil: We must love and fear none but God in the Creatures. 
Jer. 17.7, 5.  Blessed is the Man that trusteth in the Lord, and cursed is the Man that trusteth in Man, and maketh flesh his Arm.  
IX. This probably was the Philosophy of the noble Mordecai, which he taught his adopted Daughter Esther: For the Jews had a more divine Philosophy, than that which the Heathens have left us. In a Motion conformable to the Principles of that Philosophy without doubt it was, that she makes this Prayer to God, and lays before him the true Sentiments of her Heart. Deliver us, O Lord, with thine hand, 
Esther 14.14, etc.  and help me that am desolate, and which have no other helper but thee. Thou knowest all things, O Lord; thou knowest that I hate the Glory of the Unrighteous, and abhor the Bed of the Uncircumcised, and of all the Heathen. Thou knowest my necessity; for I abhor the sign of my high Estate, which is upon mine Head, in the days whereon I show myself, and that I wear it not when I am private by myself: And that thine Handmaid hath not eaten at Haman's Table, and that I have not greatly esteemed the King's Feast, nor drunk the Wine of the Drink Offerings: Neither had thine Handmaid any joy since the day that I was brought hither to this present, but in thee, O Lord God of Abraham. This great Queen takes God to witness, That she had no joy but in him alone. Tho' she were Wife to a Prince that commanded a Hundred and seventeen Provinces, and lived in the midst of Pleasures, yet she despises her Greatness, and abhors the Delights of a voluptuous Court: She remains unmoved in the midst of so many Allurements, and God alone is the Object of all the Motions of her Soul. Thine Handmaid never had any joy but in thee, O Lord God of Abraham. What constancy of Mind! what greatness of Soul! This is it which the Law of God teaches us; and this also is demonstrated by that Principle, that God alone doth every thing, and that the Creatures are only the Occasional Causes of that Splendour which seems to environ them, and of those Pleasures which seem to flow from them. But the Duties we own to Power, which is in none but God, require a more particular Explication.  
X. All our Duties consist properly in nothing but certain Judgements and Motions of the Soul, as I said before. For God is a Spirit, and will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth: All our outward Actions are but Consequences of the Action of our Mind. This clear Perception, That God alone hath Power, obliges us to form the following Judgements.  
1. That God alone is the Cause of our Being.  
2. That he alone is the Cause of the duration of our Being, or of our Time.  
3. That he alone is the Cause of our Knowledge.  
4. That he alone is the Cause of the natural Motions of our Will.  
5. That he alone is the Cause of our Sensations, Pleasure, Pain, Hunger, Thirst, etc.  
6. That he alone is the Cause of all the Motions of our Body.  
7. That neither Men, nor Angels, nor Devils, nor any other Creature, can of themselves do us either good or harm: That they may nevertheless, as Occasional Causes, determine God in consequence of certain general Laws, to do us good or harm, by means of the Body to which we are united.  
8. That in like manner we can do neither good nor harm to any one by our own strength, but only oblige God by our practical Desires, in consequence of the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body, to do good or harm to other Men: For we, indeed, have the Will to move our Tongue or Arm; but it is God alone who can and doth actually move them.  
XI. These Judgements require of us the following Motions.  
1. To love none but God with a Love of Union or Conjunction, because he alone is the Cause of our Happiness, either small or great, transitory or durable: I say with a Love of Union; for we must love our Neighbour not as our Good, or the Cause of our Happiness, but only as capable of enjoying the same Happiness with us. The word Love is equivocal, and therefore we must take care of it.  
2. To have no joy but in God alone; for he that rejoices in any other thing, judges that that other thing can make him happy; which is a false Judgement, and can cause only an irregular Motion.  
3. Never to unite ourselves to the occasional Causes of our Happiness, contrary to the Prohibition of the true Cause; for that would be to oblige God in consequence of his Laws, to promote Iniquity.  
4. Not to unite ourselves to them without a particular necessity; for the Sinner ought to avoid Pleasure, because actual Pleasure gives actual Happiness, and Happiness is a Reward which the Sinner doth not deserve; besides, the Pleasures which we enjoy by the means of the Body, fortify Concupiscence, disturb the Mind, and corrupt the Heart a thousand ways. This is the Ground of the necessity of Penance.  
5. To fear none but God, because he alone can Punish us. We must fear God in this life, to keep us from offending him. The happy day will come, which excluding Sin, shall also banish Fear.  
6. To be sorry for nothing but our Sin, because nothing but Sin can oblige a just God to make us miserable. He that grieves at the loss of a false Good, gives Honour to it, and considers it as a true Good. And he that grieves at a Misfortune which he cannot remedy, afflicts himself in vain. Self-love enlightened, is grieved only for its own Disorders, and Charity for those of others.  
7. Tho' God alone can make us miserable, yet we must not hate him, tho' we may fear him. Only he that is hardened in Sin, hates God out of Self-love; for being sensible that he will not obey God, or knowing, as the damned do, that in the condition which he likes and is pleased with, he hath no means of access or return to God, the invincible love of Happiness inspires him continually with an invincible hatred against him who alone can be the cause of Misery.  
8. We must not hate nor fear the occasional causes of physical Evil or Misery. We may separate ourselves from them. But we must not do that neither against the Will of the true Cause, I mean contrary to Order or the Law of God.  
9 We should will nothing but what God wills; because we can do nothing but what God doth. If we have not the Power to act, it is plain that we should not have the Will to act. Order or the divine Law should also be our Law or the Rule of our Desires and Actions; because our Desires are efficacious only by the power and action of God. I cannot move my Arm by my own Strength: And therefore I ought not to move it according to my own Desires. The Law of God should govern all the effects of Power, not only in God, but also in the Creatures. Order or the Law of God is common to all spiritual Being's: The Power of God is common to all Causes. Therefore we cannot dispense with our Obedience to that Law, because we cannot act but by the efficacy of that Power.  
10. We may nevertheless desire to be happy; nay we cannot desire to be miserable. But we must neither desire nor do any thing to make us happy, but what Order allows of. We shall never find Happiness, if we seek it by the Power of God contrary to his Law. It is an abuse of Power to use it against the Will of him that communicates it. The voluptuous Man who desires to be happy in this World, shall be so perhaps in part, in consequence of the Laws of Nature: But he shall be eternally miserable in the other, in consequence of the immutable Order of Justice, or by the necessity of the divine Law, which requires that every abuse of divine Things should be eternally punished by the divine Power. For we should take good notice, that nothing is more holy, more sacred, and more divine than Power: And he that attributes it to himself, he that makes it subservient to his Pleasures, his Pride, or his own particular Desires, commits a Crime, the enormity of which God alone knows and can punish.  
11. It is an abominable piece of Injustice in any Man, to be proud of his Nobility, Dignity, Quality, Learning, Riches or any other thing. He that glorieth, 
2 Cor. 10.17.  let him glory in the Lord, and refer all things to him, for there is no Greatness nor Power but in God. A Man may set some value on himself, and prefer himself before his Horse: He may and aught to esteem other Men, and all the Creatures. God hath really imparted to them his Being. But to speak properly and exactly, he hath not imparted to them his Power and Glory. God doth every thing that we think we do ourselves: He alone deserves all the Honour which is given to his Creatures: He alone deserves all the motions of our Souls. So that he who would be beloved, honoured and feared by other Men, would put himself in the place of the Almighty, and share with him the Duties which belong to Power.  
12. In like manner, he that fears, loves and honours the Creatures, as real Powers, commits a kind of Idolatry; and his Crime becomes very heinous, when his fear or love runs to that excess, that they rule in his Heart above the fear and love of God. When he is less disposed to employ himself about the Creator than about the Creatures, by a disposition acquired by his own choice, or by free and voluntary Acts, he is an abomination in the sight of God.  
13. All the time that we lose, or do not employ for God, who is the sole cause of the duration of our Being, is a Robbery, or rather a kind of Sacrilege. For since God acts for his own Glory, and not for our Pleasure, we do then, as much as in us lies, render his Action unserviceable to his Designs.  
14. In general, every Gift that God bestows on us, which we render useless in relation to his Glory, is a Robbery; and God, by the necessity of his Law, will call us to an account for it.  
15. Lastly, the Power by which God Creates us and all our Faculties every Moment, gives him an unquestionable Right over all that we are, and over all that belongs to us; which certainly belongs to us no otherwise, than that we may return it to God with all possible fidelity and thankfulness, and by the Gifts of God merit the possession of God himself, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Head, who takes us out of our profane state to sanctify us, and make us fit to honour God, worthy to enter as his adopted Children, into the communion of good Things with the Father and the Son in the Unity of the Holy Spirit to all eternity.   

CHAP. III. Of the Duties we own to the Wisdom of God. It is that alone which enlightens the Mind in consequence of certain natural Laws, whose efficacy is determined by our Desires as occasional Causes. The Judgements and Duties of the Mind in relation to the universal Reason.  
I. HAving discovered the principal Duties which we own to the Power of God; we must next examine those which we own to his Wisdom, which, tho' less known, are no less due. Every Creature depends essentially on the Creator: Every spiritual Being is also essentially united to Reason. No Creature can act by its own Strength: And no spiritual Being can be illuminated by its own Light. For all our clear Ideas come from the universal Reason in which they are contained; as all our Strength proceeds wholly from the efficacy of the general cause, which alone hath Power. He that fancies himself to be his own Light and his own Reason, is no less deceived, than he that thinks he really possesses Power: And he that gives thanks to his Benefactor for the Fruits of the Earth, which serve only to Feed the Body, is very ungrateful, very proud, or at least very stupid, if he refuse to acknowledge himself indebted to God for the true and solid Goods, the knowledge of Truth, which is the Food of the Soul.  
II. The Soul of Man hath two essential Relations. It is united to the universal Reason, and by that it hath, or may have a correspondence with all intelligent Being's, even with God himself. It is united to a Body, and by that it hath, or may have a communication with all sensible Objects. The Power of God is the sole efficacious Principle, or the bond of these two Unions: But impotent and stupid Man imagines that it is by the efficacy of his own Will, that he is Wise and Powerful, that he unites himself to the intellectual World, whose Relations he contemplates, and to the visible World, whose Beauties he admires.  
III. It is God alone, who in consequence of the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body, causes in Man all those bodily Motions which carry him to, or remove him from sensible Objects. But the occasional cause of these Motions being only the different desires of his Will, he attributes to himself the Power of doing that which God alone operates in him; nay, the very endeavour which accompanies his Desires, that painful endeavour, which is a certain mark of impotence and dependence, an endeavour often fruitless and ineffectual, an endeavour which God puts into him to beat down his Pride, and make him deserve his Gifts; this sensible and confused endeavour, I say, persuades him, that he hath Strength and Efficacy. He feels within himself a Will to move his Arm, but doth not see, nor feel the divine Operation in him; and therefore the more exact and punctual God is in answering his Desires, the more disingenuous Man is in not acknowledging the favour and goodness of God.  
iv In like manner, it is God alone, who, in consequence of the natural Laws of the union of the Soul with Reason, discovers to Man all the Ideas which enlighten him, and leads him, as I may say, into the Country of Truth, the Habitation of the Soul, to show him the Beauties and Wonders of it. But the occasional cause of the presence or absence of Ideas being only the different desires of our Will; we inconsiderately attribute to ourselves the Power of doing that which proceeds from the sole operation of God in us. And even the endeavour which accompanies our Attention, that painful endeavour, the certain Mark of impotence and dependence, an endeavour often fruitless, an endeavour which God excites in us to punish our Pride, and make us deserve his Gifts; this sensible and confused endeavour, I say, persuades us, like that which we make to move the parts of our Bodies, that we ourselves are the Authors of that Knowledge which accompanies our Desires. For having no perception at all of the operation of God, and having an inward Sense of our own Attention; we look upon this Attention to be the true cause of those effects which constantly and faithfully attend or follow it; for the same reason as we attribute to our own Wills the power of moving Bodies, and the sensible Qualities wherewith we are affected to the Objects which occasion them.  
V He that by the motion of his Body approaches toward sensible Objects, or withdraws himself from them, feeling the Bodies which he meets with in that Motion strike upon him, easily believes that he himself is the cause of the removal of his own Body; but certainly he never thinks that he gives Being to those Bodies that surround him. But he that by the application of his Mind, leaves the Body as it were, and unites himself, wholly to Reason, imagines that the Truths he contemplates are of his own production: He fancies that he gives a Being to the Ideas he discovers, and that he forms, as I may say, out of his own Substance that intellectual World, in which he loses himself. Because the things which he then beholds do not affect his Senses, he imagines they have no real Existence but in himself. For People judge of the reality of Being's, as they do of the solidity of Bodies, by the impression they make on their Senses.  
VI It is certain that Man is not his own Wisdom, and his own Light. There is an universal Reason which enlightens all spiritual Being's, an intellectual Substance common to all intelligent Natures, an immutable, necessary and eternal Substance. All spiritual Being's contemplate it, without disturbing one another: They all possess it, without prejudicing one another: They all feed of it, without diminishing any thing of its abundance. It communicates itself whole and entire to them all, and entire to every one of them. For all of them may as it were grasp the same Idea at the same time in different places, they may all possess it equally, they may all penetrate or be penetrated by it.  
VII. But two. Men cannot eat the same Fruit, nor embrace the same Body, they cannot, at a distance from one another, hear the same Voice, nor many times see the same Objects. The Creatures are all particular Being's, and therefore cannot be one general and common Good. He that possesses these particular Goods, deprives others of them; and thereby provokes their hatred or envy against him. But Reason is a common Good, which unites those that possess it in a perfect and durable Friendship. It is a Good that is not divided by possession, it is not confined to space, nor becomes the worse for using. Truth is indivisible, 
wisd. 6.12.7.10.  infinite, eternal, immutable and incorruptible. Wisdom never fadeth away: The Light that cometh from her never goeth out.  
VIII. Now this general and immutable Wisdom, 
Prov. 8.  this universal Reason, is the Wisdom of God himself, by which and for which we are made. For God created us by his Power that he might unite us to his Wisdom, and thereby give us the Honour of entering into an eternal Society with him, of conforming our Thoughts and desires to his, and by that means of becoming like him, as far as a created Being is capable of it. 
Wisd. 7.27, 28.  Wisdom remaining in herself, maketh all things new, saith the wise Man, and in all Ages entering into holy Souls she maketh them Friends of God and Prophets. For God loveth none but him that dwelleth with Wisdom. We have no way of access to God, no Society with him, but by his Son, his Word, the universal and intellectual Reason, which was incarnate in the fullness of time, and made visible to enlighten gross and carnal Minds, and to lead them by the Senses, by Faith and by a sensible Authority to Knowledge and Understanding: But still it is Reason, still Wisdom, Light and Truth. For he that rejects the universal Reason, rejects the Author of Faith, who is that very Reason made sensible and proportioned to the weakness of Men, who now hear only by their Senses. Without doubt nothing is more agreeable to Reason, than that which Faith teaches us: The more we think on it, the more we are convinced, provided that Faith conduct all the steps of the Mind, and the Imagination do not cross it in its way, and by vain Chimaeras or humane Thoughts dispel the Light which Faith diffuses in us.  
IX. Now to find out our Duties toward God, as he is Wisdom or the universal Reason of intelligent Being's, it is not sufficient to be throughly convinced of the union of the Soul with God, but we must also carefully examine the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body: For we are so situated between God and Bodies, that as the union between the Soul and Body is augmented and strengthened, so the union of the Soul with God is weakened and diminished; and on the contrary, the less the Body acts on the Soul, the more the Soul is at liberty to consult the inward Truth. I shall not here set down the particular Laws of the union of the Soul and Body; they may be learned elsewhere. But we must remember in general, that our Senses cause our Soul to extend itself to our own Body, and make it attentive to the necessities thereof; and that our Imagination and Passions stretch to all those that are about us: That the Body never speaks to the Soul but for the Body, and that it insolently draws us away from the Presence of our inward Master, who never speaks to us but for the good or perfection of our Being: In a Word, that our union with Reason is now so weak and tender, that the least Sensation which strikes us, breaks it entirely, tho' we endeavour never so much to retire into ourselves, and to retain our Ideas which scatter and disappear.  
X. The Judgements which we ought to form in honour of the universal Reason are these.  
1. There are not more Wisdoms or more Reasons than one.  
2. No Man is Wisdom and Light to himself or any other, nor one intelligent Being to another.  
3. God by his Power is the cause of our clear Perceptions or Cognitions, in consequence of our own Desires or Attention: But the intellectual and common Substance of Truth alone is the Form, the Idea, and the immediate Object of them. The Soul separated from Reason cannot attain to the knowledge of any Truth. It may by the action of God upon it, be sensible of its own Pain, Pleasure, Perception, and all the other particular Modifications of which its substance is capable; but it cannot engross to itself the knowledge of Truths which are common to all spiritual Being's. For Man who depends on the Power of God to be happy and powerful, must also be united to the Wisdom of God to become Rational, Wise, Just and completely Perfect.  
4. We do not derive from the Objects the Ideas which we have of them.  
5. Men whom we call our Masters are only Monitors.  
6. When we retire into ourselves, it is not we that answer ourselves, but the inward Master which dwells in us, which presides immediately over all spiritual Being's, and gives them all the same answers.  
XI. 
Mat. 23.8. See S Augustincts Treathe De M●gistro.  All those may be reduced to that general proposition of our Saviour's, that we have but one Master, even Christ himself, who illuminates us by the evidence of his Light, when we retire into ourselves; and solidly instructs us by Faith, when we consult the visible and infallible authority of the Church, in whose custody the sacred Treasure of his written and unwritten Word is deposited.  
XII. From this great Principle the following Duties are derived.  
1. Not to value ourselves on our Knowledge, but to return our humble Thanks for it to him who is the Fountain and Author of it.  
2. To retire into ourselves as much as we can, and to hearken more readily to Reason than to Men.  
3. To yield only to the Evidence of Reason, and the infallible Authority of the Church.  
4. Whenever Men speak, to be sure to compare that which they say to our Ears, with that which Reason answers to our Mind; never to believe them but in what concerns Matters of Fact, and that too with a kind of saving and reservation.  
5. Never to speak to them, at least not with an air of Confidence, before Reason hath spoke to us by its Evidence.  
6. To speak to them always as Monitors, not as Masters; to question them often, and in different manners; and to lead them insensibly to our common Master, the universal Reason, by obliging them to retire into themselves. There is no way to instruct them but this.  
7. Never to dispute for disputing's sake, nor even to propose Truth to others, when the Company they are in, Passion, or any other Reason give us sufficiently to understand, that they will not retire into themselves, to hear the decision of the impartial Judge.  
8. Never to consult Reason but about such Matters as are suitable to the dignity of it, and useful to ourselves, either to conduct us to Good, or unite us to Truth to regulate our Heart, or procure us Strength or liberty of Mind.  
9 To lay up carefully in our Memory, as far as it is possible to be done, none but certain Principles and such as abound in Consequences; none but necessary Truths, or the precious answer of the inward Truth.  
10. For the most part to neglect Matters of Fact, especially those that have no certain Rules to be judged by, such as are the Actions of Men. They give no light to the Mind, and often corrupt the Heart.  
11. Our inviolable Law is Order, not Custom, which is many times opposite to Order and Reason. To follow Example without confronting it with Order, is to act like Brutes, and by Mechanism only. Nay it is better, tho' that be bad enough, to make our own Pleasure our Law, than foolishly to obey pernicious and wicked Customs. Our Life and Actions should do honour to our Reason, and be answerable to the illustrious Characters we bear.  
12. We should set no value on Subtlety, Beauty, or even Strength of Imagination, nor esteem any of those Studies which cultivate that part of us, which makes us so valuable and acceptable in the Eye of the World. An overnice or over-stock'd Imagination doth not willingly submit to Reason. It is always the Body which speaks by the Imagination; and whenever the Body speaks, it is an unhappy necessity that Reason must be silent or not regarded.  
13. To confirm us in this , we should frequently and with a particular Application examine by the inward. Light that which appears bright and sparkling to the Imagination, that so we may dissipate that false and bewitching Lustre with which it hides its Follies. We should very seldom regard men's outward Behaviour which passes for current Payment in the World.  
14. We should carefully stop up the Passages by which the Soul gets away from the presence of God, and wanders among the Creatures. A Mind continually distracted by the action of sensible Objects, cannot pay that respect and attendance which it owes to Reason. It is a Contempt to Reason to give our Senses their full liberty.  
15. We should ardently love Truth, Wisdom, or the universal Reason: We should esteem all the Gold of Peru but as a Grain of Sand in comparison of it: 
Wis. 7.9.  All Gold in respect of Wisdom is as a little Sand, saith the wise Man We should continually pray to it by our Attention: 
My delights were with th● Sons of Men, Prov. 8.31.  We should place our whole Delight in consulting it, in hearing its Answers, and obeying its Commands; as that delights to converse with us, and to be always among us.   

CHAP. IU. Of the Duties which we own to the divine Love. Our Will is nothing but a continual impression of the Love which God bears to himself, the only true Good. We cannot love Evil: But we may take that to be Evil, which is neither Good nor Evil. So we cannot hate Good: But the true Good is really the Evil of wicked Men, or the true cause of their Miseries. That God may be Good in respect of us, our Love must be like his, or always subject to the divine Law, Motions or Duties.  
I. WE depend on the power of God, and do nothing but by his Efficacy: We are united to his Wisdom, and know nothing but by his Light: But this is not all; we are also animated and inspired by his Love in such a manner, that we are not capable of loving any Good, but by the continual impression of the Love which he bears to himself. This is what I must now explain, in order to give a general view of our Duties toward God.  
II. It is certain that God cannot act but for himself: He hath no other Motive but his Love of himself. He cannot Will but by his own Will; and his Will is not like ours, an impression proceeding from, and tending toward something else. As he is his own Good, his Love can be no other but Love of himself: His end is himself, and can be nothing but himself. Therefore he doth not produce in spiritual Being's a Love which hath a different tendency from his own, for the love of Good in spiritual Being's proceeds only from the Will of God, which is nothing else but the Love he bears to himself. But further, there are not Two or more true Goods; there is but one alone; for there is but one true Cause. Therefore there is nothing amiable, I mean with a love of Union, but God. So then, since God cannot will that we should Love that which is not amiable, or not Love that which is amiable, supposing that we are capable of Loving, our Love proceeding from God, must necessarily according to the primitive institution of its Nature, tend toward him, and be referred to him alone.  
III. God having created our Souls with a design to make them happy, continually imprints on them a Love for Good; and as he acts only for himself, and Good neither is nor can be in any but in him, this natural Love of Good, doth of itself carry them toward God alone. For this Love is like that which God bears to himself. It is also invincible and irresistible; because it is a powerful and continual Impression of the divine Love; and it is the same thing with our Will; for it is only by the particular determinations of this Love, that we are capable of loving all Objects that have the appearance of Good.  
iv From hence it is plain, that we cannot love Evil, and that we have no Motion ordained for that end. Notwithstanding we may mistake Evil for Good; and so we may love Evil by loving Good; we may love Evil out of choice, by loving Good naturally; we may love Evil, or rather that which is neither Good nor Evil, by a horrid abuse of that love for Good, which God continually imprints on us, to make us Love him, as being our only Good, or alone capable of making us happy. For we must take particular notice, that the Creatures, tho' they are all Perfect or Good in themselves, are neither Good nor Evil in respect of us, because they have not really the power to do us either Good or Harm. As they are occasional causes of Good or Evil, of Pleasure or Pain, we may unite ourselves to them, or separate ourselves from them by the motion of our Body: But we cannot reasonably Love or Fear them; because every Motion which doth not tend toward God, the beginning and end of it, is irregular, and if it be free and voluntary, deserves to be Punished.  
V It is also evident that we cannot hate Good; for since we invincibly desire to be happy, we cannot separate ourselves from that which makes us so; but we may mistake Good for Evil, and so hate Good from the hatred we have for Evil. And even this hatred is at the bottom a motion of Love. We fly from Evil only by the motion of the Love we have for Good. For God having created us to be happy by loving him, hath given us no motion to separate us from him, but only to unite us to him. The wicked or the damned hate God with an invincible and irreconcilable Hatred; but this proceeds from the very Love which God hath given them for himself. For since God is not their Good, but their Evil, or the cause of their Punishment, according to the Psalmist, 
Psal. 18.26.  With the Pure thou wilt show thyself Pure, and with the Froward thou wilt show thyself Froward; they hate him by that irresistible Motion, which God, who is immutable in his proceeding, gives then for their Happiness.  
VI For the right understanding of this, it is sufficient to observe that actual Pleasure is the formal cause of actual Happiness, as Pain is of Misery. Now the Damned feel Pain; the hardened Sinner fears it. The Damned know that God alone is the cause of Pain, the Sinner believes he is. Therefore both of them, from the very desire they have to be Happy, must of necessity make a wrong use of that Motion which God gives them to unite them to himself, and must separate themselves from him; for the more they are united to God, the more God acts on them, the more sensible they are of their Misery. The Blessed on the contrary, for a like reason, cannot cease to love God. And those that have access to God, those that expect to find their Happiness in him, Sinners who by Faith in Christ have hope of returning and finding favour with God, may by the invincible desire of Happiness, love and fear God. This is our condition in this Life.  
VII. Now that the natural Love which God continually imprints on us, may still continue Love, and not be turned into Hatred; that the love of Happiness may make us Happy, that it may carry us toward God and unite us to him, instead of separating us from him: In a word, that God may be or continue Good in respect of us, and not become Evil, our Love must always be conformable to or resembling the divine Love; we must love Perfection as well as Happiness; we must remain united to the wisdom of God, as well as to his Power. For God when he created Man, gave him in the love of Good, and by the impression of the Love which he bears to himself, as it were two sorts of Love, one of Happiness, and the other of Perfection. By the love of Happiness he united him to his Power, which alone can make him Happy; and by the love of Perfection he united him to his Wisdom, by which alone as his inviolable Law he ought to be governed. God, if I may so say, is divinely inspired with both these Loves: They are inseparable in him; and they cannot be separated in us, without destroying us utterly. For the power of God is Wise and Just: His Wisdom is all Powerful; and he that thinks to retain the love of his Happiness, without the love of his Perfection, without the love of Wisdom, Justice, and the immutable Order; that love of Happiness will only serve to make him eternally Miserable. God by his Power will not be the Good of Men, but their Evil, if by his Wisdom he is not their Law, or the principle of their inward Reformation. For Happiness is a Reward. It is not enough to desire the enjoyment of it, but we must also deserve it: And we cannot deserve it, if we do not govern the motions of our Heart by the inviolable Law of all intelligent Being's, and regulate them according to the Model by which Man was first formed, and by which he must be formed anew. In a word, the love of Conformity, which relates to the immutable Order, or the Wisdom of God, must always be joined with the love of Union, which relates to his Power, that so our Love being like the divine Love, may carry us to all the Happiness and all the Perfection that we are capable of.  
VIII. For we must observe, that in the condition we are now in, our Happiness and our Perfection often clash; and we cannot avoid engaging on one side or the other; either we must Sacrifice our Perfection to our Happiness, or our Happiness to our Perfection; the Love of Order to our Pleasure, or our Pleasure to the Love of Order. Now when we Sacrifice our Happiness to our Perfection, or our Pleasure to the Love of Order, we Merit; for than we obey the Divine Law, though we suffer by it, and thereby we give Honour to the Wisdom of God, or the universal Reason; we leave that to God, which depends wholly on him, our Happiness; and by that Submission, we give Honour to his Power. For Obedience to the Divine Law is partly in our own Power, but the enjoyment of Happiness no way depends on us. Therefore we should give up our Happiness to the disposal of God, and to apply ourselves wholly to our Perfection, giving this honour also to God to believe him on his Word, to rely on his Justice and Goodness, and to live contented by Faith in the Strength of our Hope, according to those words of the Scripture, 
Heb. 10.38. Justus 〈…〉 Virg Lat.  The just shall live by Faith. God is certainly just and faithful; he will give us all the Happiness we deserve; our Patience shall not be Fruitless. But how great soever our Desire be, and our Application in the Search of our Happiness, yet this will not move God to give us the Enjoyment of it, without we deserve it. This excessive Desire will perhaps one day render us unworthy of it, according to those admirable Words of our Saviour himself: 
Mat. 16 24.  If any Man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his Cross, and follow me. For whoever will save his 
† Soul. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life, for my sake shall find it. For what is a Man profited, if he shall gain the whole World, and lose his own Soul? Or what shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul? For the Son of Man shall come in the Glory of his Father, with his Angels; and then shall he reward every Man according to his Works.  
IX. Now this contrariety which we find at present between our Happiness and our Perfection, proceeds from the Union of the Soul and Body, which is changed into a Dependence, as a Punishment of Sin. For the involuntary Motions of the Fibres of the principal part of the Brain, are the occasional Causes of our pleasant or painful Sensations, and consequently of our Happiness or Misery. The Body to which we are joined, hath not the same Interests with Reason: It hath its particular Wants to be supplied; it makes its Demands with boldness and insolence, and treats the Soul roughly if it refuses to grant them. Whereas Reason uses only Threaten and Reproaches, which are not so lively and pressing as actual Pleasure and Pain: We must therefore bravely resolve to be miserable in this Life, that we may retain our Perfection and Integrity; we must Sacrifice our Body, or rather our actual Happiness, that we may remain inseparably united to Reason, and obedient to the Divine Law; being contented with a foretaste of the true Enjoyments, and having a firm hope, that that Divine Law, that Reason which was made Flesh, sacrificed and glorified in our Nature, or our Nature in that, will certainly restore to us all that we have lost for our Obedience to it.  
X. This clear perception, that our Will, or the natural and necessary Motion of our Love, is only a continual Impression of the Love of God, who unites us to his Power, to make us conformable to his Wisdom, or obedient to his Law, obliges us to form these Judgements.  
1. That every Motion of Love which doth not tend toward God, is prejudicial, and leads to Evil, or makes the Cause of our Good to be the Cause of our Evil.  
2. That every Motion of Love, not conformable to the immutable Order, which is the inviolable Law both of the Creatures and of the Creator himself, is irregular; and since God is Just, that Motion obliges him to become our Evil, or the Cause of our Misery.  
3. That we cannot unite ourselves to God, as our Good, if we do not conform ourselves to him as our Law. The Converse of this is also true; we cannot conform ourselves to the Law of God, and by that conformity become Perfect; but we must also unite ourselves to his Power, and by that Union be made Happy.  
XI. This Truth may be also expressed thus, according to the Analogy of Faith: We have no way of access to God, no society with him, no share in his Happiness, but by the universal Reason, the eternal Wisdom, the divine Word, who was made Flesh, because Man was become Carnal; by his Flesh was made a Sacrifice, because Man was become a Sinner; and by the offering up of his Sacrifice was made a Mediator, because Man being corrupted, and no longer able to consult or obey Reason purely intellectual, it could not be the Bond of the Society between God and Him. But yet we must take particular notice, That Reason by becoming incarnate, did not at all change its Nature, nor lose any thing of its Power: It is immutable, and necessarily exists; it is the only inviolable Law of spiritual Being's, and hath the sole Right to command them. Faith is not contrary to Truth; it leads us to Truth, and by it establishes ur Society with God for ever. We must conform ourselves to the Word made Flesh, because the intellectual Word, the Word without Flesh, is a Form too abstracted, too sublime and too pure to fashion or new-mould gross Spirits and corrupt Hearts; Spirits, that can take hold of nothing but what hath a Body, and are disgusted at every thing that doth not touch and sensibly affect them. 
Every High Priest is ordained to offer Gifts and Sacrifices; wherefore it is of necessity that the Man have somewhat also to offer, Heb. 8.3.  The Word was made a Sacrifice, because without a Sacrifice, he had nothing to offer; he could not be a Priest, nor give Sinners any Communion with God, without an Atonement and an Oblation. We must be conformable to him in this Circumstance also; for besides, that it is we who are the Criminals, we are also a part of the Sacrifice, which must be purified, consecrated and offered up, before it can be glorified, and consummated in God to all Eternity. But the life of Christ is our Pattern, only because it was conformable to Order, our indispensable Pattern, and our inviolable Law. We must follow Christ, even to the Cross, because Order requires that this Body of Sin should be destroyed for the Honour of Reason, and the Glory of him from whom it separates us. Order requires, that by voluntary Pain, of which the Body is the occasion, we should deserve the Happiness of which God alone is the Cause, and which we have justly been deprived of, for those unjust and unreasonable Pleasures which we have unworthily and disingenuously required of a just God. These are very trite and very common, but very necessary Truths.  
XII. Motions or Duties.  
1. We should love nothing but God, with a love of Union; and whenever we find any love for the Creatures, any joy in the Creatures arising in us, we should stifle those Sensations, and consider that Power belongs to God alone, and that he inspires us with his Love, to unite us only to himself.  
2. We should be afraid of Pleasures, for they seduce and corrupt us. Pleasure is the distinguishing Mark of Good; God alone can give us the enjoyment of it: But because his Operation is not visible, we look upon the Objects, which are only the occasions of our Sensations, as if they were the Causes of them; and when we enjoy those Objects, we love them as our Good, or at least we love nothing but ourselves, and our own Hapness. Now every Pleasure which inclines us to the love of Bodies, Substances inferior to our own Being, perverts and disorders us; and since the Soul is not the Cause of its own Happiness, it is blind, ingrateful, and unjust, if it loves its Pleasure without rendering to the true Cause of it, the Love and Respect which are due to him: But besides, how is it possible to love God in the midst of Pleasure? How can we actually increase our Charity, when we so many ways provoke and fortify our Concupiscence?  
3. The love of Grandeur, Elevation and Independance is abominable: He that desires to be esteemed and loved, aught to be detested and abhorred. What I shall those Minds which were made to contemplate the universal Reason, and to love the Power of the true Good; shall they, I say, employ their Thoughts and their Love on us? Weak and Impotent as we are, shall we suffer ourselves to be adored? Corrupt and Ignorant as we are, shall we seek Admirers, Imitators and Followers? Certainly, he that doth not see the Injustice of Pride, hath no Communication with Reason; and he that knows it, and yet is not afraid of committing it, renounces Reason entirely.  
4. We should love Order; it is the Law of God, he inviolably observes it, he invincibly loves it. And can we think that we may safely dispense with our Obedience to it? If we deviate from it, the inexorable Justice of the living God will follow us: But if our Love be conformable to that Law, we shall be happy and perfect both, we shall have fellowship with God, and a share in his Happiness and Glory.  
5. We cannot be Rational but by the universal Reason; we cannot be Wise but by the eternal Wisdom; we cannot be Just and Holy but by a conformity to the immutable Order: Let us therefore incessantly contemplate Reason, let us ardently love Wisdom, let us inviolably obey the Divine Law: Let us fashion ourselves anew after our Model; he hath made himself like us, that he might make us like him: He is now levelled to our Capacity, he is proportioned to our Weakness: He is before us; let us open our Eyes to see him: He is within us; let us retire into ourselves and consult him: He solicits us continually; let us hear his Voice, and not hearden our Hearts. 
Heb. 5.  But he is also in the Holy of Holies, ordained a High Priest after the Order of Melchisedech, always living to make intercession for us, and to give us those Succours which we extremely need. Let us therefore approach the true Mercy-Seat of Jesus Christ the Saviour of Sinners, the Head of the Church, the Builder of the eternal Temple; in a word, the occasional Cause of Grace, without which such is our depraved and miserable Condition, that we cannot endeavour our Amendment, we cannot esteem and relish the true Goods, nor so much as desire to be delivered from our Miseries.   

CHAP. V The three Divine Persons imprint each their proper Character on our Souls; and our Duties give equal Honour to them all three. Tho' our Duties consist only in inward Judgements and Motions, yet we must show them by outward Signs, in regard of our Society with other Men.  
I. THe three Divine Persons of the Holy Trinity imprint each their proper Character on the Spirits which they created after their own Image. The Father, whose peculiar Attribute is Power, imparts his Power to them, by making them occasional Causes of all the Effects which are produced by them. The Son communicates his Wisdom, and discovers to them all Truth by closely uniting them to that intellectual Substance which he hath, as he is the universal Reason. The Holy Ghost inspires and sanctifies them, by the invincible Impression which they have for Good, and by Charity or the love of Order, which he sheds abroad in their Hearts. As the Father begets his Word, so the Mind of Man, by his desires, is the occasional Cause of his Knowledge. And as the Father with the Son is the Fountain and Original of the Substantial and Divine Law; so our Knowledge occasioned by our desires, which are the only Things that are truly in our Power, is with us the Principal and Original of all the Regular Motions of our Love.  
II. It is true, the Father begets his Word of his own Substance; because God alone is essentially and substantially his own Wisdom and his own Light. The mutual Love of the Father and the Son, proceeds from themselvees; because God alone is his own Good, and his own Law. But we are not our own Reason, and therefore Light and Understanding cannot be a natural Emanation of our own Substance, We are not our own Good, nor our own Law; and therefore all the Motion we have must proceed from, and carry us to something without us, it must unite us to our Good, and make us conformable to our Pattern.  
III. God made all Things by his Wisdom, and in the Motion of his Spirit or his Love: So also we never act but with Knowledge, and by the Motion of Love. The three Divine Persons have an equal share in the Production of all Things: So also that which we do without Knowledge, and without a full and entire Will, is not properly our own Work. The Father hath, as I may say, a Right of Mission over the Son: So it is in our power to think on what we will. The Son sends the Holy Ghost, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, in the unity of the same Nature; so also our Love is grounded on Light, it proceeds from, and is produced by it. Lastly, The Love which proceeds from a clear Perception or Knowledge, loves itself, the Object of that Knowledge, and the Knowledge itself; as the substantial Love infinitely loves the Divine Substance in the Father begetting, in the Son begotten, and in the Holy Ghost himself, proceeding from the Father and the Son.  
IU. All these Relations of the Mind of Man to the holy Trinity, are but shadows and imperfect Draughts, which can never come up to the Original of all Being's, who by an incomprehensible property of Infinity, communicates himself without Division, and forms a Society of three different Persons in the unity of the same Substance. But tho' the Image of God which we bear, be very imperfect in respect of our Original; yet there is nothing more great and noble for a mere created Being, than this faint resemblance. We labour for our Perfection, only as we maintain and keep it up; we secure our Happiness no further, than we fashion ourselves according to our Model. All our true Judgements and regular Motions, all the Duties which we pay to the Wisdom, Power and Love of God, are so as many Steps by which we advance toward the Fountain of all Good; and an habitual Disposition to frame these Judgements and excite these Motions, is the real Perfection of Man, who essentially depends on the supreme Good, and was made for no other End, but to find his Perfection and Happiness in doing his Duty.  
V Now as the three Persons in the Trinity are but one God, one and the same Substance; so all those Duties which seem to relate particularly to any one of the Persons, give equal Honour to the other two. Every Regular Motion honours the Power of the Father, as its Good; the Wisdom of the Son, as its Law; and the mutual Love of the Father and the Son, as its Principal and Original. On the contrary, every Sin, or every Love of the Creatures dishonours the true Power, opposes the universal Reason, and resists the holy Spirit: So that we cannot absolutely separate the Duties which we own to the Power of God, from those which we own to his Wisdom and to the Substantial and Divine Love; and therefore I have been forced, in the three foregoing Chapters, to repeat the same things after different manners.  
VI Tho' all the Duties which Spiritual Being's own to God, who is a pure Spirit, and will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth, consist only in true Judgements, and Motions of Love conformable to those Judgements; yet Men being composed of a Soul and a Body, living in Societies with one another, educated in the same outward Religious Worship, and thereby tied to certain Ceremonies; they are obliged to an infinite number of particular Duties, which have all of them a necessary Relation to those which I have already set down in general. All these external Duties are arbitrary and indifferent, at least in their first Foundation and Original; but the spiritual Duties are in themselves absolutely necessary. We may dispense with outward Duties, but we can never dispense with the others; they depend on an inviolable Law, the immutable and necessary Order. Outward Duties of themselves do not sanctify those that render them to God; they receive their Worth and Value only from the spiritual Duties which accompany them; but all the Motions of the Soul which are governed by true Judgements, do immediately and of themselves, honour the Divine Perfections.  
VII. Thus, for instance, it is a Duty indifferent in itself, for a Man to pull off his Hat when he comes into a Church. But to enter into the presence of God with respect, and with some inward Motion of Religion, is not an arbitrary, but an essential Duty. He that for some particular Reason cannot be uncovered at Mass, may be covered at the Celebration of it; Women are excused from this Duty; and provided it be known that it is not done out of contempt, but upon necessity, commonly their needs no dispensation for it. None but those that have wrong Notions of things, cenforious and weak People will find fault with it; but no one that is present at that Sacrifice can be excused from offering up to God the Sacrifice of his Mind and Heart, Praises and Motions which honour God. He that prostrates himself before the Altar, is so far from meriting, and honouring God by that outward Duty, that he commits a heinous Crime, if he designs by that Action only to gain the Esteem of the World. But he, who tho' he be unmoved outwardly, is nevertheless inwardly agitated with Motions agreeable to the Knowledge which Faith and Reason give him of the Divine Attributes, honours God, draws near and unites himself to him. He conforms himself to the immutable Law by Regular Motions, which leave behind them a Habit or Disposition of Charity, and thereby truly purifies and sanctifies himself. But there are many People whose Religion is not spiritual; they go no farther than the outside which makes an Impression on them, and often determines them to do that by imitation, which they had no design to do of themselves.  
VIII. Certainly it is a disrespect to the universal Reason, to separate ourselves from it by the use of Wine; or to run away from ourselves, where Reason inhabits, and where it gives its Oracles, and suffer ourselves to be carried by our Passions into a World where the Imagination reigns. In a word, to departed voluntarily, and without any necessity, from the presence of our Good and of our Reason, is a Motion which dishonours the Divine Majesty, it is Irreligious and Impious. But the generality of People do not judge of things after this manner; they judge of a Man's inward Sentiments by his outward Actions and Behaviour; they imagine it a great Crime to do some Actions in a holy Place, tho' perhaps they are not indecent in themselves; and yet never consider, that nothing is more indecent than to neglect the essential Duties of a rational Creature in any place whatsoever. A Man that is Religious even to Superstition passes for a Saint with them, but the Christian Philosopher is counted no better than a Heathen, if he will not abandon Reason to agree with their Notions, and religiously observe their Customs.  
IX. Indeed the Philosopher doth ill, if he neglects the external Duties, 
Mat. 18.6.  and thereby offends the Weak and Simple. It were better for him that a Millstone were hanged about his Neck, and that he were Drowned in the depth of the Sea. Every Man ought to testify his Faith by visible Actions, and thereby incline other Men, who are always affected with the outward Behahaviour, to such Motions as give honour to God. In every thing that relates to God, we should with all Humility assume the air and posture of Adoration. Any other is at least Foolish and Ridiculous. But it is Impious, to use such outward Actions as are superstitious and lead Men's Minds to Judgements and Motions which dishonour the divine Attributes. They are excusable perhaps in such as have but a confused Idea of God: But he that is better instructed in Religion, and hath a more particular knowledge of the divine Perfections, ought not to do any thing out of any humane Consideration, that contradicts his own Light.  
X. The greatest part of Christians have a Jewish Spirit; 
Joh. 17.3.  their Religion is not Spiritual, and consequently not Rational. This is Life eternal, to know the true God, and Jesus Christ his only Son: To have Sentiments worthy of the divine Attributes, and Motions agreeable to those Sentiments: To know Jesus Christ, who alone gives us access to the Father, and diffuses Charity in our Hearts: To be fully convinced, that he alone is the Highpriest of the true Goods, or the occasional cause of Grace, that so we may draw near to him with Confidence, and by his assistance excite in ourselves such Motions as are suitable to the knowledge he hath given us of the true Worship, which honours the divine Majesty. But instead of this, every one frames to himself a Theology, a Religion, or at least a Devotion apart, of which Self-love is the Motive, Prejudice and Possession the Foundation and Beginning, and sensual Goods the End. The Worship of God consists many times only in outward Sacrifices, in verbal Prayers, in Ceremonies which were at first ordained to raise the Mind to God, but now serve only by their splendour and magnificence to refresh the Imagination in most People, when they are tired and out of relish with the performance of their Duties to God. Custom, human Considerations, or Hypocrisy carry their Bodies into the Church: But their Minds and Hearts never come there. And while the Priest offers up Jesus Christ to God in their Presence, or rather while Christ offers up himself to his Father for their Sins on our Altars, they on their part Sacrifice to Ambition, Avarice or Pleasure, spiritual Sacrifices in all the places whither their Imagination carries them.   

CHAP. VI Of the Duties of Society in general. Two sorts of Society. Every thing should be referred to the eternal Society. Different kinds of Love and Honour. The general heads of our Duties toward Men. They must be External and Relative. The danger of paying inward Duties to Men. The Conversation of the World very dangerous.  
I. HAVING explained in general the Duties which we own to God, we must now examine those which we own to other Men, as God hath made us to live in Society with them under the same Law, the universal Reason, and in a dependence on the same Power, that of the King of Kings, and supreme Lord of all things.  
II. We are capable of forming Two sorts of Society with other Men: A Society for some Years, and an eternal Society: A Society of Commerce, and a Society of Religion: A Society maintained by the Passions, and subsisting in a communion of particular and perishing Goods, whose end is the preservation and welfare of the Body; and a Society governed by Reason, supported by Faith, and subsisting in the communion of the true Goods, whose end is a happy Life to all eternity.  
III. The great, or indeed the only design of God, is the holy City, the heavenly Jerusalem, where Truth and Justice inhabit. All other Societies shall Perish, tho' God be immutable in his Designs: But this spiritual Society shall continue for ever. The Kingdom of Christ shall have no end: His Temple shall be eternal: His Priesthood shall never the changed: 
Psal. 110.3.  The Lord hath Sworn, and will not Repent, Thou art a Priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedeck. The House of God is built on an unshaken Foundation, on that belov'd Son in whom God is well-pleased, and by whom all things shall subsist to the Glory of him who gives them their Being.  
iv When we procure any settlement here below for ourselves or our Friends, we build on the Sand, we place our Friends in a tottering House, it will sink under us, at the Hour of Death to be sure. But when we enter ourselves as Workmen in the building of the Temple of the true Solomon, and cause others to come in, we then labour for Eternity. This Work shall last to all Ages. This then is the good which we ought to procure for ourselves, and other Men: This is the chief end of all our Duties toward them: This is that holy Society which we must begin here below, by the love which we own to one another. For since the design of God in these temporary and perishing Societies, is only to furnish Christ, the Architect of the eternal Temple, with fit Materials for the building of his Church; we cannot fail of performing essential Duties, when we engage in the designs of him who would have all Men to be saved, and employ all our Faculties in hastening his great Work, and in procuring to Men those good things for which they were created.  
V So when our Saviour bids us Love one another, we must not imagine that he absolutely commands us any other thing, than to procure one another the true and spiritual Goods. What kind of Blessings were those which he showered on his Apostles and Disciples? Did he give them the fading and perishing Goods, such as the pretended Friends of this World give to those that gratify their Passions? Did he constantly deliver them out of the Hands of their Persecutors? No certainly-Therefore the principal Duties of our Charity do not consist in such things as these. We must assist our Neighbour, and preserve his Life, as we are obliged to preserve our own, but we must prefer the Salvation of our Neighbour before his and our own Life.  
VI To Love therefore is an equivocal Term. It signifies Three very different things, which we must carefully distinguish: To unite ourselves by our Will to an Object, as our Good, or the cause of our Happiness: To conform ourselves to any thing as our pattern, or the rule of our Perfection: And to wish well to any Person, or to desire that he may be happy and perfect. The love of Union is due only to the power of God: The love of Conformity is due only to the law of God, the immutable Order. No Creature is capable of acting on us: No Person can be our living Law, or our perfect Model. Christ himself, tho' he was without Sin, tho' he was Reason incarnate, did some things which we must not do, because the circumstances not being the same, the intellectual Reason, the inviolable Law, the indispensable Model of all intelligent Being's forbids us to do them.  
VII. So then we must not love our Neighbour with a love of Union, nor with a love of Conformity. But we may and aught to Love him with a love of Benevolence. We must Love him in that sense of the Word which signifies to desire his Happiness and Perfection; and as our practical desires are the occasional causes of certain effects which conduce to that end, we must use all our endeavours to procure him solid Virtue, that he may merit the true Goods which are the reward of it. This is the obligation that truly and absolutely lies upon us from that Commandment which our Saviour hath given us in the Gospel, to Love one another as ourselves, and as he hath loved us.  
VIII. To Honour is also an equivocal Word: It denotes a submission of the Mind to the true Power, a respect or outward submission to an occasional Cause, and a simple esteem of any thing in respect of the excellency of its Nature, or the perfection which it doth or may possess.  
IX. That kind of Honour which consists in a submission of the Mi●● to the true Power, is due to God alone. 〈…〉 none but God directly and absolutely in the Powers which he hath ordained: And tho' we are obliged exactly to pay to our lawful Superiors, those outward honours and submissions, which humane Laws and Customs have established, yet all the submission of the Soul must be referred to God alone. It is mean and abject to fear the most excellent of created Being's: It is God alone whom we must fear in it. Nevertheless, we should esteem every thing proporticnably to the excellence of its Nature, or the perfection which it possesses or is capable of possessing. So that the love of Benevolence, respect or relative and outward Submission, and simple Esteem, are as I take it, the Three general Heads to which all the Duties that we own to Men may be reduced.  
X. There is this difference between the Duties which Religion obliges us to pay to God, and those which Society requires us to pay to Men; that the principal Duties of Religion are inward and spiritual, because God searches the Hearts, and absolutely speaking, hath no need of his Creatures; whereas the Duties of Society are almost all external. For besides that Men have no other way to know our inward Sentiments of them, but by outward and sensible marks, they all stand in need of one another, either for the preservation, of their Life, or their particular instruction, or innumerable other things which absolutely require a mutual assistance.  
XI. Therefore to expect from other Men, inward and spiritual Duties which are due to God alone, a pure and uncompounded Spirit, the searcher of Hearts, the only independent and self-sufficient Being, is a diabolical Pride; this is to affect Dominion over spiritual Substances, to attribute to ourselves the quality of searcher of Hearts, and in a Word, to exact that which is no way our due, and which is wholly useless to us. For what signifies our inward adoration to other Men, or what good can theirs do us? If they faithfully perform what we desire of them, what can we complain of? If they respect God himself, if they love and fear him in our Person, certainly we attribute to ourselves power and independence, if we are not satisfied with this. Servants, 
Col. 3.22.  saith S. Paul, obey in all things your Masters according to the Flesh; not with Eye-service, as Men-pleasers, but in singleness of Heart, fearing God. It is God that they must fear. 
v. 23.  And whatsoever you do, do it hearty, as to the Lord, and not unto Men: to God who hath the power of rewarding, and not unto Men, whose Wills are of themselves altegether ineffectual. 
v. 24.  Knowing, as the Apostle goes on, that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the Inheritance: For ye serve the Lord Christ. Ye are bought with a Price, 
〈…〉 7.23.  be not ye the Servants of Men.  
XII. There is so strict an union between the Soul and the Body, and such a mutual relation betwixt the Motions of these two Substances, that it is very difficult to draw near by the motion of our Body, to any Object which is the occasional cause of Pleasure, without uniting ourselves to it by the motion of our Love, as if it were the true cause of that Pleasure. So likewise when the Imagination being dazzled with the splendour which envirous the Great, falls down and prostrates itself before them, it is difficult for the Soul not to follow that Motion, or at least not to bow and lower itself. It should indeed prostrate itself, but than it must be before the power of the invisible God, which it must honour in the Person of the Prince, where that Power visibly resides.  
XIII. When the Body feeds on a delicious Fruit, the Soul which finds itself in some measure happy by the Pleasure it enjoys, should then be affected with Love, but that Love should be addressed only to God, who alone doth and can act on it. But our Senses being grown rebellious by Sin, dislurb our Mind, they insolently withdraw us from the presence of God, and fix all our Thoughts on that impotent matter, which we hold in our Hands, and crush between our Teeth. They make us believe, that the Fruit itself contains and communicates that grateful Taste which delights us; and because the power of God doth not appear visible to our Eyes, we see nothing but the Fruit to which we can attribute the cause of our present Happiness. Our Senses were given us only for the preservation of our sensible Being: What matter is it then to them from whence the Fruit comes, so they have it, or from whence the Pleasure proceeds so they enjoy it?  
XIV. So likewise when we are in the presence of our Sovereign, our Imagination soon dissipates all those abstract Ideas of an invisible Power. The divine Law, the immutable Order, Reason is a Fantom which vanishes and disappears when the Prince Commands, or when he speaks with Authority. The Majesty of the Prince, the sensible splendour of Greatness, that Air of respect and awe, which every one doth and aught to put on, so shake the Brain of an ambitious Man, and indeed of most Men, whose Passions are then excited, that there are but few People who have so much constancy and resolution as to consult the divine Law, to think on the power of the invisible God, to retire into themselves, and to hearken to the Judgements pronounced within them by him who presides immediately over all spiritual Being's.  
XV. This strict union of the Soul and Body, which Sin hath changed into a dependnece, is the cause that there is nothing more dangerous than the Conversation and Business of Courts, and that a Man ought to have a particular call, and strong and extraordinary reasons to make him engage in it. The Societies which are generally formed there, are such whose beginning and end is Ambition and Pleasure, and being governed not by Reason or Faith, but by inconsistent and irregular Passions, they break every Day, and plunge Men in the greatest Miseries. Therefore such as have not Courage and Constancy enough to perform their Duties to God, in the presence of their Prince, in the hurry and perplexity of Business, or when they have too many People looking on them; in a Word, such as suffer themselves to be dazzled, stunned and born down by the Conversation of the World, whatever it may be, aught to avoid it, and to place themselves in a Station, where they may without constraint honour and love the true Power, conform themselves to the divine Law, and render to God the inward and spiritual Duties. These are indispensable Duties; and certainly we own nothing to our Neighbour which may hinder us from paying to God that which we indispensably own him.  
XVI. But besides there is scarce any thing to be got by Men: Their Language is as corrupt as their Heart: It raises only false Ideas in the Mind, and excites only a love of sensible Objects. But their example is yet more dangerous. For besides that it is not so conformable to Reason as their Discourse, it is a living and a moving Language, which irresistibly persuades those that do not stand upon their Guard, We often hear a thing said, without any Thoughts of doing it: But we are so prone to Imitation, that we do mechanically what we see others do. There is no obligation on a Man to do what he only hears talked of, and doth not see practised; but it is a violation of Society, 'tis the way to become Odious or Ridiculous, to be counted Whimsical and Capricious; in short, 'tis looked upon as a kind of Schism, to condemn the general practice of the World by a singular Conduct.  
XVII. Nevertheless Charity and our natural Constitution oblige us many times to live in Society. Every Man cannot bear a retired and solitary Life, and those least of all to whom the Conversation of the World is most dangerous. They must See and be Seen, they must Talk and hear others Talk. Conversation without Passions refreshes and strengthens the Mind. Therefore there is a necessity of living amongst Men. But then we should choose such as are Reasonable, or at least such as are capable of hearing Reason, and submitting to Faith, that so we may labour together for our mutual Sanctification. For we must build in this Life for Eternity, we must begin the eternal Society here below, we must make haste while it is called to Day, to enter into the rest of the Lord, and cause others to enter too; that our Society may be with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ in the unity of the Holy Ghost by an immortal Love, proceeding continually in relation to us, from the power and wisdom of God, the perpetual influence of which will be the efficacious cause of our Perfection and eternal Happiness.   

CHAP. VII. The Duties of Esteem are due to all Mankind, to the lowest of Men, to the greatest Sinners, to our Enemies and Persecutors: To Merits, as well as to Natures. It is difficult to regulate exactly these Duties and those of Benevolence, by reason of the difference of personal and relative Merits, and their various Combinations. A general rule, and the most certain one that can be given in this matter.  
I. THE Three general Heads to which all the particular Duties that we own to other Men may be reduced, are, as I said in the foregoing Chapter, simple Esteem, which ought to be proportioned to the excellence or persection of every Being; Respect or a relative submission of the Mind, proportionable to the subordinate Power of intelligent occasional Causes; and the love of Benevolence, which is due to all that are capable of enjoying those Goods which we may possess in common with them.  
II. Simple Esteem is a Duty which we own to all Mankind. Contempt is an Injury, and the greatest of Injuries. There is nothing contemptible but nothing; for every real Being deserves esteem. And as Man is the noblest of the Creatures, it is a false Judgement, and an irregular Motion, to despise any Man, let him be what he will. The lowest of Men may be exalted to the sovereign Power; and the two first Kings which God gave to the Israelites, were taken as I may say, from the Dregs of the People. Saul of the lowest Family of the least of the twelve Tribes, found the Kingdom in seeking his Father's Asses. 
1 Sam. 9.21.  Am not I a Benjamite, saith he to Samuel, who promised him the Kingdom, of the smallest of the Tribes of Israel? And my Family the least of all the Families of the Tribe of Benjamin? And David, the youngest of the Sons of Jesse; was taken, as he saith himself from the Flocks, to be put at the head of God's chosen People. 
Psal 78.71.  From following the Ewes great with Young, he brought him to Feed Jacob his People, and Israel his Inheritance.  
III. But the Gospel gives us yet another prospect of Things. It teaches us that the Poor are the Members and the Brethren of Christ: 
Mat. 25.40. Luk. 6 20. Luk. 16.9.  That the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them: And that they have power to receive their Friends into everlasting Habitations. For tho' the Rich as well as the Poor are washed by Baptism in the Blood of the Lamb, yet they defile themselves so many ways with Pleasure which inebriates them, and with Ambition which makes them forget their Title of Children of God, that Christ is always angry with them, and continually denounces woes against them in the Gospel. 
Luk. 6.24.  woe unto you that are Rich: For you have received your Consolation. Let the Brother of low Degree, saith S. James, 
Jam. 1.9, 1●.  rejoice in that he is exalted: But the Rich in that he is made low; because as the Flower of the Grass he shall pass away. Go to now ye rich Men, 
c. 5.1, 2, 3.  Weep and Howl for your Miseries that shall come upon you. Your Riches are corrupted, and your Garments are Motheaten. Your Gold and Silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a Witness against you, and shall Eat your Flesh as it were Fire: Ye have heaped Treasure together for the last Days.  
IU. Nor must we Esteem, and give outward marks of our Esteem to the Poor only and to the lowest of Men, but also to Sinners, and to those who commit the greatest Crimes. Their Life is abominable, their practice is odious and contemptible, we must never approve it, tho' it be set off with all the splendour of Greatness. But still their Person merits our Esteem. For nothing deserves contempt but nothing, and Sin which is truly nothing, which corrupts Man's Nature, annihilates his Merit, but doth not destroy the excellence of his Person. The greatest of Sinners may, by the assistance of Heaven, become pure and holy as the Angels: He may enjoy eternal Happiness with us, and take place of us in the Kingdom of God. We should have compassion of his Misery, not that which afflicts and makes him uneasy, but that which corrupts him; not of his pains, but of his disorders, which put him out of a capacity of actually possessing with us those good Things which he may enjoy, without depriving us of them.  
V But besides, what right have we to judge of men's secret Intentions? It is God alone who searches the Hearts. He that commits a Crime, doth it perhaps against his Will; his Mind is weak and disturbed, his flaming and outrageous Passions have, it may be, deprived him in a moment of the use of his Liberty: But supposing him to have acted freely; his contrite and penitent Heart hath perhaps obtained pardon of his Sin, or will obtain it to morrow; a day happy for him, and it may be fatal to you, by your irrecoverable fall, for a punishment of your Pride.  
VI Lastly, the contempt of men's Persons is not only injurious and wrongful, but it also puts him who is so unwise as to show it by outward signs, out of a condition of having a charitable correspondence with the Person despised, or of ever being serviceable to him. For Men will have no communication with those that despise them; they do not naturally enter into Society with others, nor do them any good, but with hope of a return; they will not follow a Trade, when they expect always to lose, and never to get any thing by it; and they never expect any good from those that are so unjust as to despise them: For contempt is a certain sign, not only that they actually want Charity and Benevolence, but also that they are very far from ever having any.  
VII. As to our Enemies and Persecutors, it is certain that Esteem is a Duty more general than Benevolence. There are some Goods which we are not bound to wish our Enemies, for the Love which we own to ourselves, obliges, or permits us at least not to desire that they may have the Power to hurt us: So that we may in some measure want Benevolence for our Persecutors, without failing of our Duties toward them. But the Persecution of our Enemies ought not of itself to diminish the Esteem that is due to them, but rather increase it in this respect, that we should give them more sensible and more frequent Testimonies of it: A Man may pass by his Friend, or even his Father without saluting him; this is no affront to them: But it is an injury to his Enemy, not to pay him this Duty, because his Enemy hath not the same Thoughts of him that other Men have. He hath reason to believe it done out of contempt, whereas a Friend will look upon it as mere Inadvertency.  
VIII. But besides, there is nothing that disunites Men so much as Contempt; for no Man would be counted a cipher in the Society of which he is a Member; no Man would be the lowest part of that Body which he composes with others. So that when men's Minds are already irritated, when they are once separated by any Enmity, they can never be joined again, if the contempt be open and visible. Whereas on the contrary, deadly Enmities may be reconciled, where Men reciprocally pay the Duties of Esteem to one another, and thereby show that they are so far from pretending to a higher Rank in the Society which they would form, that they willingly give it to others, and do Justice both to them and themselves, according to the Judgement which they make of their own, and others Merit. Self love and a secret Pride, do not suffer us long to consider him as our Enemy, who willingly gives us Proofs that he is persuaded of our Worth and Excellence.  
IX. But if we come short in the Duties of Esteem in respect of our Enemies, or those that make no Figure in the World, we exceed in them as to our Friends, or such as are conspicuous for their Birth, Riches, or any other extraordinary Qualification. The Brain is so framed for the good of each particular Person, and for that of Society in general, as it relates to this Life, that the Body mechanically puts on an Air of Esteem and Respect for every thing that comes from our Friends, and from those who are in a condition to do us any Kindness. The esteem which we have for Persons, extends itself to every thing that belongs to them. 
Eccles. 13.23.  When a rich Man speaketh, saith the Son of Sirach, every Man holdeth his Tongue, and look what he saith; they extol it to the Clouds: But if the poor Man speak, they say, What fellow is this? Our Machine is set to this pitch. Two Lutes tuned together, give the same sound; and when they are near one another, if one be touched, the other will move of itself: So our Friends are tuned to us; he that touches one, shakes the other. Those whose favour we have an interest to maintain, are always in the right: They mutually impel, and are impelled by us: They deceive us, and we again deceive them by a rebound, which neither they nor we are sensible of. The Wheels of the Machine will go on in their Motion: Now the Body speaks only for the Body; this is a thing we cannot too carefully observe, For Opinion, or the contagion of the Imagination is the most prolific Root of those Errors and Disorders, which lay waste the Christian World. We should therefore retire into ourselves every moment, and compare that which Men say, with the answers of the inward Truth. We should consult Reason, which puts every thing in its proper place, and doth not confound the Esteem which we own to men's Persons, with the Contempt which is due to their Follies. The approbation we give to the impertinences of our Friends, confirms them in their Errors; and the Respect that is shown to every thing which comes from Persons of Quality, swells them so with Pride, that they attribute to themselves a kind of Infallibility, and think they have a right to say and do whatever comes in their Head; not that we should reprehend them openly neither: They are extremely tender; and we can scarce touch them, without hurting and offending them. Our Duties in relation to them, must be guided by the Rules of Prudence and Charity; but we must not abuse them by sordid Flattery, after we have been deceived ourselves by that admirable Relation which God hath put between our own Bodies, and those that are about us, for the good of Society: Which Relation on the Soul's part is indeed changed into a dependence by Sin, but aught still to be governed by Reason; and when there is occasion, checked and reprimanded by it.  
X. That all the Judgements and Motions of our Esteem, as well as those outward Actions which are the Marks and Effects of it, may be conformable to the divine Law, the immutable Order; we must observe that not only men's Persons, but also their Merits, require our Esteem. As to Persons, nothing is more easy than to acquit ourselves of this Duty; for equality of Esteem is due to equality of Natures. But it is very difficult to proportion our Esteem according to the Merits of Men. For besides, that their true and real Worth is known only to God, their natural Merits have so many different Relations, which should increase or diminish our Esteem, as well as our Respect and Benevolence toward them, that it is impossible for finite Minds, as ours are, to know exactly the Duties we own them; so that we are many times at a loss which way to determine ourselves in this Matter.  
XI. Merits in general, may be divided into free and natural, civil and religious Merits. Free Merits are those which proceed from a good use of the Liberty of the Mind. Natural Merits consist in eminent Qualities of Mind and Body. Civil and Religious Merits arise from the Offices Men bear either in Church or State, and from such Qualifications as are proper for the discharge of those Offices. All Perfection is valuable in itself; but many times it is much more comparatively or relatively. A Diamond is not so perfect as a Fly; but it is a great deal more valuable, because of the Use Men make of it. Also those Being's which have no other Perfection but that of their own Nature, are preferable to those which have acquired Perfections. A rough Diamond hath not so much Beauty as Glass well cut and polished; but it hath much more Value, as Things go. So that a Man might justly be counted a Fool, who would play the Philosopher so much, as to prefer a Fly before an Emerald; and to look upon a rough Diamond, of very great Value, as no better than a Pibble.  
XII. For to judge rightly of the Esteem we ought to make of Things and Persons, it is not sufficient to consider them in themselves, but we must also examine the several Relations which they may have to others of far greater Value. The favour of the Prince gives a lustre to the vilest Persons; and the Esteem Men have for Things, should regulate their Price, and consequently our outward and relative Esteem, unless we resolve to despise Men too, and make ourselves ridiculous and contemptible. Only we must take care not to let our Mind to be corrupted by the Judgements that are commonly made of Things. Our Esteem must be only relative, if the worth of the Thing be but relative; for tho' Men esteem Gold and Silver more than Copper and Iron, or the organised Bodies of Flies; yet we must not pay the Duty of Esteem to Gold and Silver, but to Men who make a wrong Judgement of them. We must not judge of Persons or Things as Men do, who attribute to the Objects of their Passions imaginary Perfections: But whether they are deceived in their Judgements or not, we should have a relative Esteem for that which they esteem perhaps without Reason; because in human Society, the Worth of Things is generally measured by the Esteem Men have of them.  
XIII. The relative Merit of Men is many times much greater than their personal Merit, and since our Duties are to be governed as well by the former as the latter; I say again, That nothing is more difficult than to judge rightly of what we ought to do in the infinite combinations of these different Merits. Things may fall out so sometimes, that we must unavoidably come short in the Payment of what we own, either to a Relation in such a degree, or to a Man that hath done us such a Service, or who bears such an Office in the Society, and is serviceable to the State in such a capacity. What must we do in this Case? What is the common Measure whereby we may precisely discover the Proportion of our Duties? For tho' it be certainly contained in the immutable Order, yet it is not exactly known to us; and if it were, yet many times there are so many Relations to compare, that we should never know what to resolve on, if we stayed till Evidence precisely noted to us every thing that we ought to do.  
XIV. We know well enough, that all other things being equal, we should prefer some Relations before others; our Relations before our Friends, and our Prince before them both. But must we prefer one Relation before six or eight Friends? A Relation who is our Enemy, before a particular Friend? Herein lies the difficulty: For we must at the same time have regard to the Rights of Kindred, of Friendship and of Society. So that it often happens, that we are obliged to prefer an Enemy before a Friend; an Enemy who is a Friend of our Relations, esteemed by the Prince, and serviceable to the State, before a Friend, who is a Person useless to the Public, or hath little or no affection for those who ought to be most dear to us. Therefore there is no general Rule for the Government of ourselves in the Duties of Esteem, Respect and Benevolence, which we own to other Men, but what is liable to a great many exceptions. And that which extremely perplexes all that can be said in this Matter, is; That the Duties of Esteem, Respect and Benevolence, are of different kinds; and many times in the same kind, we ought to prefer one Man as to the Duties of Benevolence, before another, to whom we absolutely own the Duties of Esteem and Respect.  
XV. Seeing then the Order of our Duties is changed and governed by the different Circumstances of Things, which it is not possible to foresee; every Man should carefully examine them, and retire into himself, to consult the immutable Law, without regarding those false Interests which the Passions continually represent; and when he finds himself at a loss, he should have recourse to such as are better skilled than I in these matters; he should consult Persons of the greatest Charity, Prudence and Capacity, rather than those who have their Memory only filled with general Rules, which are insufficient to give a decision in particular circumstances, and many times have neither Sense nor Charity. The only general Rule that I shall venture to give at present, a Rule which is not much followed, but which seems to me to be the most certain one that can be given, is this; That we should prefer the Laws of Friendship in Jesus Christ, and of the eternal Society, before the common Rights of a Friendship and a Society which must end with our Life. I shall explain myself more particularly.  
XVI. That which is finite, how great soever it be, hath of itself no proportion to infinity. Ten thousand Ages, in respect of eternity, is nothing. The proportion of the Universe, to immense and boundless Spaces, can be expressed only by a cipher. An Unite divided by a thousand Millions of Ciphers, by a progression from one to a thousand Millions, instead of from One to Ten, would be a Fraction infinitely too great to express this proportion, for indeed there is none; this is my Position. Now we shall enjoy God in the other life, and enjoy him for ever. Therefore the possession of the Empire of the Universe, in respect of the possession of the true Good; and the time of the enjoyment of this Empire, compared with the eternity of the life to come, are Ciphers; there is no proportion between them: They are totally eclipsed and annihilated by the presence of Eternity. Human Greatness, and Pleasures which pass away with our life; nay, let us join whatever we can think of for our Satisfaction; all this disappears when we reflect a little, and consider that we are immortal: It is nothing, and aught to be counted for nothing. This, I think, every one will allow.  
XVII. Now let us observe this Principle, and we shall see, that he who is an occasion of falling to one single Person, is more cruel than the inhuman Phalaris; that it is just that he should suffer, like that wretched Prince, the same Fire into which he hath made others fall; and that it were better for him, as our Saviour speaks, That he were thrown into the Sea with a Millstone about his Neck.  
XVIII. On the contrary, we shall see that he who labours under Jesus Christ, in the building of the eternal Temple, is incomparably more valuable than the greatest Architect that ever was. There is nothing now to be seen of the Temple of the great Solomon, the Habitation of the living God, and the Glory of a whole People; but this Man's Work shall remain for ever.  
XIX. We shall see clearly, that a deformed Body, a rude and unpolished Mind, a lively and irregular Imagination, a Man of no reputation or fortune in the World, without Friends, and without any Qualifications to recommend him; that such a Man, I say, if he be truly pious, if he fears and loves his God, is infinitely more worthy of our Esteem, than the most beautiful Man in the World, the most caressed and honoured for his admirable Qualities, but with something less Religion. Certainly not one will dare to say, That God the righteous Judge, prefers this Man before the other. Therefore we also are bound to prefer the other if we are sufficiently convinced of the Difference of their Piety.  
XX. A Man may esteem the quality of a Physician more than that of a Lawyer; this is indifferent, and depends on Customs, which vary according to times and places. But to esteem the quality of a Prince more than that of a Christian, to value the Title of a Gentleman more than that of a Priest, after the Order of the Son of God; this is not indifferent: Not but that a Man owes to his Prince other kind of Duties, than he doth to the Minister of his Parish; the Prince hath the sovereign Power, and therefore he must pay him the highest Respect, and an exact Obedience in all things.  
XXI. I have two Relations, or two Friends; one of them is an honest Missionary, who labours, with success, in the building of the Church; the other an accomplished Person in all human Sciences, a great Mathematician, an excellent Philosopher, one that knows the Histories of all Nations, and speaks their Languages: But I do not find that his Learning is serviceable to the eternal Society; nay, I think I discover the contrary. Now which of these two Persons is the most valuable? both of them stand in need of my Assistance; Which shall I prefer? Certainly the good Priest, the honest Preacher whom the World despises, and not the learned Gentleman whom the World adores. I may perhaps give him greater marks of esteem in many Cases, for fear of disgusting his nice and squeamish Constitution. For those that have great Talents in appearance, or according to the judgement of Men, think every thing their due; and that we may not offend them, we may sometimes give them those honours which they do not deserve; for our outward Actions should be governed by the Rules of Charity, and sometimes with respect to the false Judgements of Men. But for my inward Esteem and Benevolence, I own them to those who have the greatest Relation to the eternal Society before all others, tho' they were my professed Enemies, and the lowest of Men in the Eyes of the corrupt World.  
XXII. Sometimes Circumstances may fall out so, that a Man must either give scandal to his Neighbour, or lose his honour and his life. He cannot well defend Truth, without ridiculing him that attacks it, and exposing his Party. He cannot serve his Friend, or it may be his Prince without violating the Christian Charity which he owes to a stranger, and being the cause of his Damnation. What must a Man resolve in these, and innumerable other the like Cases? Nothing is more clear, according to the Principle which I have laid down. For since every thing that relates to infinity, becomes infinite itself by that Relation; no regard ought to be had to the Rights of a temporary Friendship or Society, when the eternal Society is concerned.  
XXIII. But yet we must take care, that in preferring the spiritual Advantage before all other Things; we do not offend our Friends without cause: For we should always do justice, before we exercise Charity. A Man must not steal to marry a Daughter, who he fears will otherwise be ruined. The Grace of Christ may remedy those disorders. He must not give his Friend occasion to break with him, by neglecting those Duties which he hath a Right to expect from him, nor wound one Man's Conscience to cure another's. We should govern the Duties of Charity by Prudence, and endeavour to foresee the Consequences of our Actions. But I think, I may say in general, That there is not a more certain and comprehensive Rule than this, to have always a regard to the Rights of the eternal Society, when they are mingled with other Interests, as it most commonly happens.   

CHAP. VIII. Of the Duties of Benevolence and Respect. We should procure all Men the true Goods, and not relative Goods. Who it is that fulfils the Duties of Benevolence. The unreasonable Complaints of worldly Men. The Duties of Respect should be proportioned to the greatness of participated Power.  
I. THe greatest part of what hath been said touching the Duties of Esteem, may be also applied to the Duties of Benevolence and Respect. However, I think it necessary to say something farther of them here, that the Nature and Obligations of them may be more distinctly understood.  
II. As to the Duties of Benevolence or Charity, we own them to all Men in general; and tho' there be some particular Goods, which we ought not to wish nor procure to some Persons, nor in some Circumstances, yet the true Goods which we may give without depriving ourselves or others of them, ought never to be refused to any one whatsoever. We should never conceal Truth, the nourishment of the Soul, from those that are capable of receiving it. We should give good example to all the World. No one should ever be excepted in the public Prayers and Offices of the Church. The Sacraments should never be refused to such as are rightly disposed to receive them. These are the true Goods, which relate to the eternal Society. And since God would have all Men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the Truth; he that refuses to any one the Duties of Christian Charity, opposes the designs of God, and undermines the Foundation of that Society which we have with him by Jesus Christ.  
III. But for the good Things of this World, as they are not properly Goods, as their real worth depends on the relation they may have to the true Goods, in short as they are such things as cannot be communicated without dividing; it very often happens that we are obliged not to impart them to some Persons. For instance, if a Father out of too much Indulgence to his Children who are debauched, or prone to debauchery, furnishes them with Money; he is the cause of their disorders, and wrongs the Poor who stand in need of his assistance: As he that gives a Sword to a mad Man, or a Man transported with Passion, is really the cause of the Murder that ensues. The Prodigal robs the Poor, and by his indiscreet Liberalities kills the Souls of his riotous Companions: And he that gives a drunken Servant the liberty to drink as much as he pleases, doth him a kindness which is forbidden by the Laws of Charity and Benevolence. In a Word, he that gives any power to impotent Minds, which can neither consult, nor follow Reason, is the cause of their destruction, and of all the Mischiefs which spring from the abuse of Power.  
iv These are undeniable Truths, and the reason of them is plain. Money, for instance, is not properly a Good, because we cannot truly possess or enjoy it, for spiritual Subitances cannot possess Bodies: It is such a Good as cannot be communicated without division, and therefore the love of Benevolence should distribute it in such a manner, that it may be useful, and become a Good, or rather a proper means of acquiring Good, to those who receive it. For otherwise, there is a double breach of our Duty toward our Neighbour: We hurt those to whom we give it, and we injure all those who by the Laws of Charity have a just title to it, to whom we do not give it.  
V But Pain and Disgrace, which in themselves are real Evils, become good in many cases; and the love of Benevolence which we own to all Men, obliges us to inflict them on those that deserve it, over whom we have authority, to reclaim them from their disorders by the fear of Punishment. She is a cruel Mother that will not suffer a gangrened Arm of her Child to be cut off: But she is much more cruel, that suffers his Mind and Heart to be corrupted by Ease and Pleasure. He that sees his Friend ruined by underhand Intrigues, and takes no notice of it, or for his own advantage enters into a correspondence in prejudice of the Friendship he hath vowed, is a perfidious Friend, and not fit for humane Society. But he is much more perfidious, who for fear of grieving and displeasing us, suffers us to fall into Hell, or by gratifying our Passions, joins with the only Enemies we have to blind and destroy us.  
VI Who then is he that can render to his Neighbour the Duties of Charity or Benevolence? Certainly he that knows the vanity of transitory Enjoyments, and the solidity of the future Goods, the stability of the heavenly Jerusalem, built on that  Rock, the well beloved Son of the Almighty: He that compares Time with Eternity, and following the great principle of Christian Morality, measures the Duties of Civil Friendship and Society by the Rules of that Society which is joined here upon Earth by Grace, and cemented for ever in Heaven by the perpetual communion of a Good which shall be given whole and entire to all, and entire to every one of us: He in fine, that continually meditates on that divine Society which we ought to have with the Father by the Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, the mutual love of the Father and the Son, and the Fountain of that happy Love which shall for ever unite us to God. He and he alone is capable of paying to his Neighbour the Duties of Benevolence. All other Men are destitute of Charity, and are so far from loving us with the love which is due to us, and is contained in the Second great Commandment of the Christian Law, that they do not so much as know their essential Obligations toward us. The Correspondence they have with us, their Friendship, their Society will rather be the fatal cause of our Misery, than the happy foundation of our Joy and Tranquillity.  
VII. Let People say what they will, that we ought to separate the Laws of civil Society from those of Christian Charity, to me they seem inseparable in the practical part. The Citizen of my earthly City is already by Grace a Citizen of the holy City; the Subject of my Prince is a Domestic of the House of God. Now ye are no more Strangers and Foreigners, 
Eph. 2.19.  saith S. Paul, but Fellow-citizens with the Saints, and of the Household of God; and are built upon the Foundarion of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief Cornerstone; in whom all the Building fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy Temple in the Lord. Shall I then engage in the designs of a Friend who seeks to advance his Fortunes here upon Earth, and hazards the possession which he hath in Heaven? Shall I by my Counsels and Friends favour his Ambition, and advance one who wants that constancy and resolution that are necessary for subordinate Governments, to a station which all wise and understanding Men are afraid of? A Friend trembles for his Friend, when he beholds him in the midst of dangers. A Mother is frighted, when she sees her Child clambering up a steep Place. And shall not I be in fear for a Relation, for a dear Friend in Christ, whom I see environed on all sides with dreadful precipices, and yet still climbing higher to a place that makes the strongest Heads giddy?  
VIII. The present Life should be considered with relation to that which is to follow, and shall be followed by no other. The Society which we now form, is no otherwise durable, than as it is the beginning of that which shall never have an end. It is for this second Society, that the First is ordained: It is to merit Heaven that we live upon Earth. I repeat this Truth often, because it is necessary that we should be throughly convinced of it. We should engrave it deeply on our Memory. We should incessantly revolve it in our Mind, for fear lest the continual action of sensible Objects should blot out the remembrance of it. If we are fully convinced of this Truth, if we make it the Rule of our Judgements and desires, we shall not be concerned at the want of those things which we shall not much esteem: We shall not then take such measures as tend only to make us happy upon Earth, and before the time of recompense; but such as lead us whither we ought to direct our aim, to that perfection which makes us acceptable in the sight of God, and worthy to enter into an eternal Society with him through Christ our Lord.  
IX. But because Men have but a weak and abstracted Idea, of the greatness of future Goods, they seldom think on them, and when they do they are not affected with them; for only sensible Ideas, shake the Soul, only the presence of Good and Evil touches, and puts it in Motion. On the contrary, the Imagination and Senses being continually and forcibly struck by the Objects which are round about us, we are constantly thinking on them, and always with some motion of Passion; and as we naturally judge of the solidity of any good by the impression it makes on our Mind, we look upon them with Esteem, we desire them with Impatience, and embrace them with Pleasure. And therefore we think that those Persons have no Kindness nor Friendship for us, who stop us in our career, instead of joining with us to catch the Prey which escapes out of our Hands.  
X. Observe but a pack of Dogs, when they are going out a Hunting how they rejoice, and as it were caresses and congratulate one another. Eager for the sport, they mechanically excite each other, and many times the Huntsman himself, by leaping and jumping, motions which reciprocally require the like, for all Machine's, at least those of the same Species, are narnrally made to imitate one another. If there be any one hotter than the rest, that ranges too wide, and starts the Game too far off, him they shut up and leave him behind. But what a howling and crying there is! What sensible expressions of an extreme Grief! All this is but Mechanism and Clockwork. Just so it is with those that know not the true Good, when any Passion possesses them. If you do not assist and further their designs, if you thwart and oppose them, they will always be reproaching and exclaiming against you, that you neglect the Duties of Society, of Friendship and Affinity, that you make them miserable, and profess yourself their Enemy. If you endeavour to convince them by Reason, presently you are a Stoic, a Cato. If you go about to restrain them by considerations of Religion, than you are precise and bigoted. The Wheels of the Machine are set a going, and will go on a long time. Devout and pious Men will still be Whimsical and Capricious, without Breeding, Friendship or Civility. They will always be shunned, as not fit for humane Society: For indeed there can be no Society but between such as hope for the same kind of advantages. But pious Men seek after the true Goods, for which those others have no inclination, who have no taste, no sense of any thing but the objects of their Passions.  
XI. Good Men being truly animated by Charity, never break Friendship with those that live disorderly out of anger or resentment. They still hope to reclaim them by their Example, their Patience, and their Counsels favoured and assisted by Grace. As they are convinced of the Truth of their own Sentiments, and throughly affected with the sweetness of the true Goods, of which they have already a kind of foretaste; they think of nothing but to make others see what they see themselves. They would fain make them relish the inexhaustible Fountain of all Pleasures. The abhorrence which they have for Vice inspires and animates them, and makes them speak in such a Dialect as strikes a damp on those that really find themselves happy, when they follow the agreeable motion of their Passions. This is the cause that a vicious and debauched Man, and by debauched I mean all those that do not look upon the immutable Order as their Law, or the inviolable Rule of their Actions, those that think Reason an insupportable Yoke: This, I say, is the cause that a debauched Man considers those of a regular Life as his Enemies, that he avoids their Conversation with a kind of aversion and abhorrence, and will have no Correspondence with them, being inwardly persuaded that they will not quit the solid and substantial Goods to engage in his designs, and join with him in the pursuit of Phantoms, which vanish and disappear at the Moment that they are embraced.  
XII. These sort of People are always complaining that the Laws of Religion are confounded with those of Nature, that devout and godly Men are good for nothing in the World, and that they are obstinate and illbred People. They would have Folks converse with them like kind Relations, faithful Friends, or truehearted Countrymen, and not like Men prepossessed with Notions which they do not relish nor approve. But this is not possible to be done. A Man cannot act but according to his own Light. Shall he that sees clearly, suffer a blind Man to fall into a Precipice, and not call out to him and stop him? And would the blind Man think you have reason to complain of the kindness that is done him, and say to his Friend, let me alone: Do you think you see better than I? We are all blind: Believe me, you are prejudiced. Am not I more concerned in my own preservation than you? You had better go blindly along with me, for I am sure I am in the finest way in the World.  
XIII. If I serve my Friend according to his desires, I ruin him and myself too. This is the prejudice that blinds me. Perhaps he hath some reason to complain of me; but he is unreasonable, if he imagines that I renounce his Friendship, or if he renounces mine. If my Friend were not a Christian, or not capable of being one; if our whole Being were to be annihilated by Death, than I could converse with him in such a manner as he desires, and have the same Friendship for him that he hath for me; I could then be a good Relation, a good Friend, or a good Countryman according to the Idea he hath of those Qualities. But Eternity changes the Face of things, and it is the greatest madness in the World not to have a regard to it.  
XIV. A Christian, a Priest, a Gentleman and a Friend are not four different Persons. When the Gentleman is in Hell, what will become of the Priest and the Friend? If these Qualities are inseparable in the same Person, it is evident that the Priest is deceived, if he thinks he hath a right to act the part of the Gentleman: And if I give him different Advice according to his different Qualities, certainly I misled and abuse him. When Qualities are inseparable, the most excellent of them should govern all the rest; and tho' we may abstract and distinguish them when we only reason in the air, yet when we come to act, we must join them all together.  
XV. Whether therefore we give Alms to the Poor, visit the Sick or those that are in Prison, instruct the Ignorant, assist our Friends with our Counsels, or do any other action of Charity or Duty; we should refer all to the Salvation of our Neighbour, we should always consider that we live among Christians, and therefore that we ought to do such Actions as are required of us by the eternal Society which we all have in Christ Jesus. We should give our assistance to Sinners, Heretics, and even Heathens themselves, because they are capable of entering into this blessed Society: And we should be more concerned for those that are excluded out of it, than for those that are in slavery in a strange Country. We should be more solicitous to make them come into it, than to preserve to them this miserable Life: a Life which we ought not much to value, but only as it is a Time which relates to Eternity, and may deserve it by the Grace which Christ, the Highpriest of the true Goods, distributes to Men, and thereby solicits them to enter into a communion of the same happiness with him.  
XVI. As to the Duties of Respect or external and relative Submission, they are due to Power, and therefore we cannot proportion them according to the merits of Persons, nor regulate them by our own Light, with respect to the interests of our eternal Society in Christ. We must follow the Customs and Laws of the State in which God hath placed us. It is a Duty of Justice to pay Respect and Tribute to those to whom God hath given Authority over us. It is all one whether they be good or bad, nay whether they be Christians or not: Whether they make a good or a bad use of our Contributions. And the reason of this is, because it is God whom we Honour in their Persons; for all Honour is relative, and must be ultimately referred to him alone who really possesses Power. So that it is an injury and a wrong to our Prince, to deny him the Respects which are due to him; and it is a formal disobedience against the King of Kings, to refuse to submit ourselves, and give sensible marks of our Submission to those whom he hath appointed his Lieutenants and Vicegerents upon Earth. The primitive Christians paid to the Roman Emperors, even those who cruelly persecuted Christ himself in his Members, all the Respect, Submission and relative Honour that was due to their participated Power: Well knowing that Honour is properly due to God alone, and must be referred solely to him, 
1 Tim. 1.17.  according to S. Paul's Words, Unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be Honour and Glory. They knew that the Duties of Respect ought not to be proportioned to the interest of the Church, or rather that they ought to be referred thither, because that is the great, or indeed the only design of God; but that this is never better done, than when Christians pay those Duties with all possible exactness: For indeed this is the right way to oblige sovereign Princes, who are always jealous of their Glory and Authority, to favour Christian Societies more than any other in their Dominions. But I must discourse more at large of our Duties as they relate to the different kinds of Society which we form with other Men.   

CHAP. IX. Of the Duties due to Sovereigns. Two Sovereign Powers. The difference between them. Their natural Rights. Rights of Concession. Of the Obedience of Subjects.  
I. ALL the Duties which we own to participated Powers, may be reduced to Two general Heads; Duties of Respect, and Duties of Odedience. The Duties of Respect depend on the Laws and Customs observed in every State, and consist in certain outward and sensible marks of the Submission which the Mind pays to God in the Person of its Superiors. Those Duties vary according to the different Circumstances of Times and Places. Sometimes Subjects prostrate themselves before their Prince; sometimes they put one Knee to the Ground, or both: At other times they only make a profound reverence and stand uncovered; and sometimes also they remain covered in his Presence, without losing the Respect which is due to him. These are arbitrary Ceremonies, and are governed by Use and Custom.  
II. But that which is essential to Morality, is that the Soul itself should be touched with Respect in the Presence of the Prince, who is the Image of the true Power: and that in such a proportion as the Prince actually exercises the Authority he hath received, or  himself, as I may say, with the Power and Majesty of God. For we own more respect to the King, when he is in the Seat of Justice, than in a Thousand other Circumstances; and to the Bishop in the actual administration of his Episcopal Functions, than at any other time. And indeed we are naturally inclined to measure the respect due to Grandeur and Power by the sensible operation they have on us. Certainly when we are in the Presence of the Almighty, our Mind ought to prostrate itself. Now tho' we are always in the sight of God, yet we come into his Presence in a more particular manner, when we approach Superior, who is his Image. Therefore it is not sufficient to put on an outward air of Respect and Veneration, but the Mind must also humble itself, and respect the Greatness and Power of God in the Majesty of the Prince.  
III. There is no great difficulty in paying the Duties of Respect to the higher Powers; nay the Brain is framed in such a manner, that the Imagination willingly bows before the splendour that environs them; wherefore I think it needless to say any more of these Duties. But an exact Obedience to the commands of our Superiors is a continual Sacrifice, much more difficult and burdensome than the Slaughter of Beasts; and therefore Self-love is an irreconcilable Enemy to it. There are few People that discharge this Duty like Christians, or in expectation that he whom they Honour in the Person of the Prince, should be their only Reward. Every one in a manner dispenses with himself, as much as he can, from paying an Obedience that doth not suit with his own conveniences; and some preposterously obey unjust Commands, because they do not know the exact order and measure of their Duties. For opposite Powers having each their separate Rights, their different interests are many times so intermingled, that it is very difficult to know which of them ought to be obeyed; and in these cases every Man follows his own particular humour or advantage, for want of certain Rules to govern his Actions by. I shall therefore here lay down one or two Principles, which may give us some Light toward the clearer discovery of these Duties.  
iv There are but two sovereign Powers in the World, the Civil and the Ecclesiastical: The Prince in monarchical States, and the Bishop: The Prince, who is the Image of God Almighty, and his Minister upon Earth; and the Bishop, who is the Image of Christ, and his Vicar in the Church. The Prince derives his Authority over other Men from God alone; so doth the Bishop; and neither of them ought to use it any otherwise than God doth himself, with respect to the immutable Order, the universal Reason, the inviolable Law of all intelligent Being's, even of God himself. The Prince notwithstanding hath a more absolute Power than the Bishop. He hath Authority to make Laws, and is not subject to them himself; he may act without control, and is not obliged to give an account of his Conduct to any Man; for he seems to have more Relation to God as Power, than as Reason; to God clothed with Majesty and Glory, than to God made Man, and like us; to Christ glorified than to Christ upon Earth, and clothed with our Vileness and Infirmities. But the Bishop hath more relation to God as Wisdom and Reason incarnate and compassed about with our Infirmities, than as absolute and independent Power; to Jesus Christ upon Earth, conversing familiarly with Men, than to Jesus Christ glorified and made supreme Lord of all the Nations of the World. Ye know, saith our Saviour to his Apostles, 
Mat. 20.25.  that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise Dominion over them, and they that are great, exercise Authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a Ransom for many. Not that Princes have a Right to use their Authority without Reason. God himself hath not this miserable Right; he is essentially Just, and the universal Reason is his inviolable Law. But the abuse of the Ecclesiastical Authority is more criminal in the sight of God, than the abuse of Royal Authority; not only because there is an infinite difference between spiritual and temporal Goods, but also because the Ecclesiastical Power that acts imperiously and arbitrarily, acts directly contrary to the Character which it bears of Jesus Christ, who is always Reason, and Reason humbled, and proportioned to the capacity of Men for their Instruction and Salvation.  
V The end of the institution of these two Powers is very different. The Civil Power is ordained for the maintenance of Civil Societies. The Ecclesiastical Power for the establishment and preservation of the heavenly Society, which is begun upon Earth, and shall never end. The Duty of the Prince regards only the peace of the State, the Duty of the Bishop the peace of Christ's Church. The Prince should preserve and augment those Conveniences that are necessary for the temporal Life: The Bishop by his Preaching and Example, should instruct and enlighten the People; and as the Minister of Christ, diffuse inward Grace by the Sacraments in the Members of the Church, and thereby communicate the life of the Spirit to those that are committed to his charge. In a word, the Power of the Prince is ordained for the temporal Good of his Subjects; that of the Bishop for the spiritual Good of his Children.  
VI This being laid down as the first Principle, the second which follows from it is. That since God is the absolute Lord of all Things, his Orders give a Right to all necessary and reasonable means for the execution of them. A Servant who receives Orders from his Master to carry a message of importance with all speed to his Friend, hath no right to take his Neighbour's Horse, for the execution of his Master's commands, because his Master himself hath not that right. But God being the absolute Lord of all Things, when he saith to St. Peter, Feed my Sheep; or when he commands the King to preserve his Subjects in Peace, he gives to these two sovereign Powers, as far as Order permits, an absolute right to all Things necessary for the execution of his Will. So that the natural, essential and primitive Rights of the temporal Sovereignty, are, as far as Order permits, all necessary means for the preservation of the State; and the natural rights of the Ecclesiastical Power, are all lawful means necessary for the edification of the Church of Christ.  
VII. But the Church and the State being composed of the same Persons, who, at the same time, are both Christians and Members of a Body Politic, Children of the Church, and Subjects of the Prince; it is impossible for these two Powers, which ought to have a mutual regard to each other, and should be absolute and independent in the Administration of their several Functions, to exercise their Jurisdiction, and execute the Orders of their common Master, if they do not perfectly agree together, and even in some Cases, depart with something of their Rights to one another. For this Reason it is, that the Prince, by the concession of the Church, hath now a right of Presentation to many Benefices; and the Church, by the concession of the Prince, enjoys temporal Possessions. These are not natural rights, because they are not necessary or natural consequences of the Commission which these different Powers have received from God: They are only rights of concession depending on a mutual Agreement, whose end ought to be no other than that which God proposed to himself in the institution of these two Powers.  
VIII. The building of the Church of Christ, the eternal Temple, being the great, or indeed the only design of God, (for all the Societies and Kingdoms of this World shall be dissolved, when the Work of him who alone is immutable in his designs, shall be completed); it is evident that the State hath a reference, and should be subservient to the good of the Church, rather than the Church to the glory, or even the preservation of the State; and that one of the principal Duties of a Christian Prince, is to furnish Christ with Materials fit to be sanctified by his Grace under the care of the Bishop, and to build up the spiritual Edefice of the Church. For this end chief it is that the Prince should prefer the State in Peace, give Orders that his Subjects be instructed in solid Learning, such as gives perfection to the Mind, and regulates the Heart, and take care that the Laws ordained for the punishment of Vice and Injustice be strictly observed. For a People well instructed, and obedient to reasonable Laws, is better fitted to receive effectually the influence of Grace, than a rude, vicious and ignorant People. For this Reason, the Prince ought to employ his Authority in causing the Decrees of Councils to be observed, and keeping the People in the Obedience which they own to their Mother, the Church of Christ. For in fine, there is so close an Union between the Church and the State, that he who troubles the State, troubles the Church which consists of the same Members; and he that makes a Schism in the Church, is really a disturber of the public Peace and Tranquillity.  
IX. But whether a Prince doth or doth not propose to himself this great design of gaining immortal Glory by labouring for Eternity, and carrying on a Work which alone shall last for ever; it is not for private Men to censure his Conduct. And provided that he requires nothing but what flows from the natural Rights given him by the Commission which he hath received from God, he ought to be obeyed in all things, even by those that hold the greatest Dignities in the Church.  
X. It doth not belong to me to deduce from the certain Principles which I have here laid down, such consequences as contain the particular Duties of those that have a right to command; and besides, there is more difficulty in it than may be imagined. There are a great many circumstances to be considered, which vary or determine these Duties. Prince's should examine their own Obligations in the sight of God, by the light of the immutable Order and the divine Law, rather than refer themselves to the Counsels of Men, who most commonly flatter them. They should also consult the fundamental Laws of the State, and consider them as the ordinary Rules of their Conduct. So likewise the Bishops, if they would not abuse their Authority, are bound to observe the Laws of the Church, which they have promised to keep at their Consecration.  
XI. But for Subjects, I think it certain that they ought to obey blindly and without reserve, when only their own interest is concerned: For provided their Obedience to one of the two Powers, do not make them omit the payment of that which they own to God, or to the opposite Power; without doubt, they are bound to obey. To censure the Actions of their Sovereign, is to make themselves his Judges. It is attributing to themselves a kind of independence, to yield only to their own light. It is a Contempt and a Rebellion against the higher Power, to expect that he should give an account of his Actions to any one but God who hath ordained him. But still, this is when he commands nothing against God himself, or against the Power which represents him. For since the Obedience which we pay to our Prince is due to God alone, and referred wholly to him, it is clear that we may and aught to disobey him when he commands us that which God forbids, either immediately by the divine and immutable Law, or by the other Power which he hath ordained.  
XII. But when the eternal Law doth not answer our attention by its Evidence, or when the written Laws are obscure, and the two sovereign Powers give us contrary Commands, there is a necessity that we should inform ourselves of their natural Rights, and draw from them such consequences as should govern our Actions. We should have recourse to Persons of understanding; and above all, we should carefully examine the Circumstances and Consequences of the Command that is imposed on us. And when at length we find ourselves bound by the Obedience which we own to God, to disobey either of the Powers which are his Representatives, we should do it bravely and undavauntedly, but yet with all the respect which is due to those that are in Authority. For tho' we are not always bound to obey the Powers ordained by God, which are no way Infallible; yet we are scarce ever allowed to cast of the Respect that belongs to them, how much soever they abuse their Authority. They do not lose their Dignity, nor their Character by unjust Commands, and therefore we must still honour God in their Person: And they on their part should remember, that they have a Master who will deal with them as they have treated their Subjects, and that they, as well as other Men, aught to submit to the divine Law, to which God himself, if I may so say, is subject. And tho' they may be satisfied perhaps that they have a Right to force Obedience from their Subjects, yet they should not be angry, if in some difficult and intricate Cases, they make a scruple of obeying them, or do not readily perform their Commands: For Men ought not to be forced to act against their Conscience. They cannot all have the same sense of things, when there are great difficulties to overcome, before they can understand the Order of their Duties. They should be governed by Reason; and when they have not Light and Understanding enough to know it, and do not otherwise neglect the Duties which they do know, certainly they deserve compassion and indulgence.  
XIII. What I have said of the sovereign Powers, belongs also to subordinate Powers. We own Obedience to a Magistrate, a Governor, or any one that executes the Orders of the Prince, as well as to the Prince himself; even as we own to the Prince the Obedience which is due to God, the Fountain of all Power. We ought not indeed to pay them so profound a Respect, nor so general and blind an Obedience as we do to the Sovereign; even as we ought to obey the Sovereign in so universal a manner as we do the Law and the Power of God; because they are not invested with the whole power of the Prince, no more than the Prince is with the whole power and the Infallibility of God. But we own them an Obedience proportionable to their power, and to the knowledge we have that they execute the Orders of their Master and ours. If we are persuaded that they encroach upon us, or require of us such Duties as the Prince doth not expect or approve of; we may free ourselves from their exactions by a dextrous management, or by such ways as do not violate the Respect that is due to them, in regard of the Person whom they represent. We should inform ourselves of the Prince's pleasure, from the Prince himself; and if we can have no access to him, we should presume that he refers himself to his Ministers. And then we should humbly, and without murmuring, sacrifice to God the Goods which belong to him, and which he hath given us that we should offer them to him again, and thereby merit the enjoyment of more solid possessions, which no power shall be able to take away from us. We should with a truly Christian bravery, show by a ready Obedience our Contempt of transitory Enjoyments, and look upon the Cross of Christ, not as the Instrument of our Punishment, but as our triumphal Chariot, which shall certainly carry us, as it did our Forerunner and our Pattern, to eternal Thrones, where we shall Judge with him the great Ones of the Earth, in the day when the Fire shall devour their Riches, and make all their Grandeur to disappear.   

CHAP. X. Of the Domestic Duties of Husband and Wife. The Ground of these Duties. Of the Duties of Parents toward their Children, with relation to the Eternal and Civil Societies. Of their instruction in the Sciencies and Morality. Parents should give their Children a good example. They should govern them by Reason. They have no right to use them ill. Children own Obediene to their Parents in all Things.  
I. THose that govern the State have not a continual relation to all the particular Members of which it is composed, and there are a great many People who never in their life receive any Command from their Sovereign or his Ministers: Therefore that which I have said in the last Chapter, is not of so great and general use, as the Explication of the mutual Duties of Husband and Wife, Parents and Children, Masters and Servants, a Lord and his Tenants, or those that are under his Jurisdiction, and such Persons as daily converse together, and have many different relations to one another. We should inform ourselves more particularly of these private and domestic Duties. I shall therefore endeavour to fix the Grounds and Principles of them, from which every one may easily deduce Consequences.  
II. The nearest Union that can be betwixt any Persons, is that of the Man and the Woman; for it expressly figures the Union of christ with his Church. It is an indissoluble Union; for God being immutable in his Designs, the Marriage of Christ and his Church shall continue for ever; it is a natural Union, and the two Sexes, by their particular constitution, in consequences of the admirable Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body, have the most violent of all the Passions for each other; because the love of Christ to his Church, and that of the Church to her Lord, her Saviour and her Husband, is the greatest love that can be imagined, as appears from the Canticles. For in short, the Man and the Woman are made for one another. And if we can conceive that God in creating them, had not a design to join them together, than we may also conceive that the Incarnation of the Word was not necessary; and that the principal, or the only design of God, which is figured by the marriage of the Man and the Woman, more particularly than by any other thing, is not the establishment of his Church in Jesus Christ, who is the Basis and Foundation of it, in whom also the whole Universe subsists, who brings the whole Work of God out of its profane State, and by his quality of Son, renders it worthy of the Majesty of the Father.  
III. This Principle sufficiently shows, that the mutual Duties of Christ and his Church, are the Model of those of Husbands and Wives; and that the Marriage of Christians, like that of the first Man and Woman, being the figure of the marriage of Christ and the Church, ought not to differ in any of its consequences or circumstances from the reality which it represents. And therefore St. Paul derives from this very Principle, the mutual Duties of the Husband and Wife. His Words are these:  
IU. 
Eph. 5.22  Wives, submit yourselves unto your own Husbands, as unto the Lord. For the Husband is the Head of the Wife, even as Christ is the Head of the Church; and he is the Saviour of the Body. Therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the Wives be to their own Husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your Wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of Water, by the word; that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish. So ought Men to love their Wives as their own Bodies; he that loveth his Wife, loveth himself: For no Man ever yet hated his own Flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church; for we are Members of his Body, of his Flesh, and of his Bones. For this cause shall a Man leave his Father and his Mother, and shall be joined unto his Wife, and they two shall be one Flesh. This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular, so love his Wife even as himself; and the Wife see that she reverence her Husband.  
V From these admirable Words of St. Paul, we see that the Duty of a Husband is to maintain his Wife, and to supply her abundantly with all things necessary for her subsistence; to assist and guide her by his Wisdom and Counsels, and to comfort her in her Afflictions and Infirmities; in a word, to love her as himself, and after the example of Christ, to expose his life for her defence. And that the Wife on her part ought to obey her Husband as her Lord, to fear and respect him, to seek to please none but him, and to govern the Family in subordination to his Authority, and with a dependence on his Designs, provided they are agreeable, or at least not contrary to the designs of God.  
VI Now the design of God in the institution of Marriage, is not only to supply the State with Members to compose the Body of it, and to defend and maintain its Honour and Reputation; but more especially to furnish Christ with Materials for the external Temple, with Members of the Church, and perpetual Worshippers of the divine Majesty. For married Persons are not only the Figures, but also the natural Ministers of Christ and the Church. God hath joined them together not only to express his great design, but also to act in it. It is true, since Sin came into the World, they beget Children only for the Devil, and by an action altogether brutish; and if it were not for Christ our Mediator, it would be a heinous Crime to communicate to a Woman that miserable fertility of bringing forth an Enemy of God, to damn a Soul for ever, to labour for the Glory of Satan, and the establishment of the infernal Babylon. But Christ came to remedy the disorders of Sin; and it is permitted by the Sacrament of Marriage, the Figure of his eternal Alliance, to give our Children, as I may say, to the Devil, that Christ may have the glory to snatch them out of his Hands, and having washed them in his own Blood, to make them enter into his Building.  
VII. Now the principal Duty of Parents is to educate their Children in such a manner, that they may not lose their Baptismal Innocence and Purity. Married Persons may live in continence, as Adam and Eve did before their Sin. Christ doth not want Materials for the building of his Temple. How many Nations are there still that are ignorant of the Mystery of our Reconciliation? But that Parents by their Ambition, their Avarice, their disorderly course of Life, their ill Example, nay by barely neglecting to instruct their Children, should deprive them of the possession of the true Goods, and make them fall again into the slavery of the Devil, in which they were Born, and from which they had been once delivered; this is the greatest Crime that Men are capable of committing.  
VIII. A Father may educate his Children so as to be the Honour of his Family, the delight of their Country, and the support of the State; he may leave them the peaceable enjoyment of large Possessions, and all possible Splendour: Yet still he is a cruel and unnatural Father, and the more cruel, because he charms their Maladies in such a manner, that they will not be sensible of them, till they are past remedy: He is Impious and Wicked, and so much the more, because with that which he pulls down from the sacred Temple of the living God, he builds up the profane Babylon: He is Senseless and stupid, and the more because there cannot be a greater degree of Folly, a more gross Stupidity, a more brutish and surious Despair, than that of a Father who is regardless of the inevitable alternative of Two very different Eternity's, which shall succeed our latest Moment's; who builds for himself and his Family on the Brow of a Precipice exposed to Storms and Tempests, and just ready to bury for ever the miserable Object of his Glory and Pleasures.  
IX. A Parent therefore that would preserve to his Children the inestimable right which they have acquired by Baptism, to the inheritance of Christ, must be always watchful in removing out of their sight all Objects that may tempt them. He is their guardian Angel, and should take up out of their way every Stone that may make them fall. It is his Duty to instruct them in the Mysteries of Faith, and by Faith to lead them by degrees to the understanding of the fundamental Truths of Religion, to fix in them a firm hope of the true Goods and a generous contempt of humane Greatness. He should shape their Mind to Perfection, and teach them to exercise the faculties of it. He should govern them by Reason; for there cannot be a more perfect Law, than that which God himself inviolably follows. But he must begin with Faith: For Men, especially the younger sort, are too sensual, too carnal, too much abroad to consult the Reason which dwells within them. It must show itself without, clothed with a Body to strike their Senses. They must submit to a visible Authority, before they can contemplate the evidence of intellectual Truths. Again, a Father should never grant his Children any thing that they ask themselves, and never deny them any thing that Reason asks for them: for Reason should be the common Law, the general Rule of all our Wills. He should accustom them to obey, as well as consult it. He should make them give a reason either a good or a plausible one, for every thing that they ask; and then he may gratify their desires, tho' they are not so agreeable to Reason, if he is satisfied that their intent was to obey Reason. He should not chide them too much, for fear of discouraging them. But this is an indispensable Precept never to act but according to Reason. The Soul should will nothing of itself: For it is not its own Rule, or its own Law. It doth not possess Power; it is not Independent. It ought not to will but with a dependence on the immutable Law, because it cannot think, act, nor enjoy Good, but by a dependence on the divine Power. This is what young People ought to know: But it is perhaps what the old ones do not know: It is certainly what all Men do not practise.  
X. We should take care not to burden the Memory of Children with a great number of Actions, which are of little use, and serve only to confound and agitate a Mind which hath as yet but very little Strength and Capacity, and is but too much disturbed and shaken already by the action of sensible Objects. But we should endeavour to make them clearly comprehend the certain Principles of solid Sciences. We should use them to contemplate clear Ideas, and above all we should teach them to distinguish the Soul from the Body, and to know the different properties and modifications of these two Substances of which they are composed. We should be so far from confirming them in their Error of taking their Senses for Judges of Truth, by talking to them of sensible Objects as of the true causes of their Pleasure and Pain, that we should be always telling them that their Senses deceive them; and should use them in their Presence like false Witnesses, that clash with one another to discover their Cheats and Illusions.  
XI. Children die at ten Years old, as well as Men at Fifty or Threescore. What then will become of a Child at his Death, whose Heart is already corrupted, who is swelled with esteem of his Quality, and full of the love of sensual Enjoyments? What Good will it do him in the other World, to understand perfectly the the Geography of this; and in Eternity, to know the Epochas of Times? All our knowledge perishes in Death, and the knowledge of these things leads to nothing beyond. A Lad knows how to Decline and Conjugate, he understands Greek and Latin it may be perfectly well; nay perhaps he is already well versed in History, and acquainted with the Interests of Princes; he promises much for this World, for which he is not made; but what signify all these Vanities, with which his Mind and Heart is filled? Are there solid rewards in Heaven for empty Studies? Are there places of Honour destined for those that make a correct Theme? Will God judge Children by any other Law than the immutable Order, than the Precepts of the Gospel, which they have neither observed nor known. Is it the Duty of Fathers to breed up their Children for the State, and not for Heaven; for their Prince, and not for Jesus Christ; for a Society of a few Days, and not for an eternal Society? But let them take notice, that those that are best skilled in these vain Sciences, are they that do most mischief to the State, and raise the greatest Tempests in it. I do not say but they may learn those Sciences: But it should be then when their Mind is formed, and when they are capable of making a good use of it; and the instructing of them in essential Truths, should not be put off to a time when they shall be no more, or at least not in a condition to Taste, Meditate and Feed upon them.  
XII. The labour of Attention being the only way that leads to the understanding of Truth, a Father should use all means of accustoming his Children to be Attentive. Therefore I think it proper to teach them the most sensible part of the Mathematics: Not that these Sciences, tho' preferable to many others, are in themselves of any great value, but because the Study of them is of such a Nature, that a Man makes no progress in them any farther than he is Attentive. For in reading a Book of Geometry, if the Mind doth not labour by its Attention, it gets nothing. Now People should be used to the labour of the Mind when they are young: For then the parts of the Brain are flexible, and may be bend any way. It is easy then to acquire a habit of being Attentive, in which, 
Part I. Chap. V  as I have shown, the whole strength of the Mind consists. And therefore those that have accustomed themselves from their youth to meditate on clear Principles, are not only capable of learning all the Sciences, but are also able to judge solidly of every thing, to govern themselves by abstracted Principles, to make ingenious discoveries, and to foresee the consequences and events of Enterprises.  
XIII. But the So●…nces of Memory confound the Mind, they disturb its clear Ideas, and furnish it with a Thousand probabilities on all sorts of Subjects, which Men take up with, because they know not how to distinguish between seeing in part, and obscurely, and seeing fully and clearly. This resting on probabilities makes them wrangle and dispute endlessly. For as Truth alone is one, indivisible and immutable, so that alone can closely and for ever unite Men's Minds. Besides the Sciences of Memory do naturally beget Pride. For the Soul doth as it were enlarge and extend itself through the multitude of things with which the Head is filled. And tho' the content of the Mind be then taken up, as I may say, with nothing but Emptiness, or with things of little or no use, as the position of Bodies, the the series of Times, the actions and opinions of Men; yet it imagines itself to have as great an extent, duration and reality, as the objects of its Knowledge. It stretches itself to all the parts of the World. It goes back to past Ages; and instead of considering the nature of its own Being, what it is at present, and what it shall be in eternity, it forgets its self and its own Country, and wanders in an imaginary World, in Histories made up of Realities which are now no more, and Chimeras which never were.  
XIV. Not that we should slight History, for example, and never study any but the solid Sciences, such as of themselves make the Mind perfect, and regulate the Heart. But we should study them all in their proper order. A Man may apply himself to History, when he knows himself, his Religion, and his Duties; when his Mind is formed, and he is thereby capable of distinguishing, at least in some measure, between the Truth of the History, and the Imaginations of the Historian. He may study Languages: But it should be when he is Philosopher enough to know what a Language is: When he throughly understands that of his own Country: And when the desire of knowing the Thoughts of the Ancients, begets in him a desire of knowing the Language: For than he will learn more in one Year, than he can in Ten, without this desire. He must be a Man, a Christian, an Englishman, before he is a Grammarian, a Poet, an Historian, or a Foreigner. He should not study even the Mathematics, only to fill his Head with the properties of Lines, but in order to procure to his Mind, that strength, extent and perfection of which it is capable. In a word, he should begin his studies with those Sciences that are most necessary, or such as may most contribute to the perfection of his Mind and Heart. He that only knows how to distinguish the Soul from the Body, and doth not confound his Thoughts and Desires with the different motions of his Machine, is more solidly learned, and more capable of being so, by the knowledge of this one real Science, than he that understands the Histories, Laws and Languages of all Nations, but withal is so deeply Buried, as I may say, in the Ignorance of his own Being, that he takes himself for the more subtle part of his Body, and imagines that the immortality of the Soul is a Question not to be resolved.  
XV. I am satisfied that I speak nothing but Paradoxes, and that it would need a great many Words to persuade others to be of my Opinion. But I would have them only open their Eyes. Do we find that those who understand Virgil and Horace very well are wiser Men than those that understand S. Paul but indifferently? It is experience that must convince such as will not consult Reason. Now where is the experience which proves that the reading of Tully is more useful than that of the all-divine Words of the eternal Wisdom? O, say they, we make Boys read Tully for the Latin. But why do not they make them read the Gospel for Religion and Morality? Poor Children! they breed you up like Citizens of old Rome, and you will get its Language and its Morals. They ne-never think to make you reasonable Men, true Christians, and Inhabitants of the holy City. You are mistaken, say they, we do think of it, we do make it our business: But I am sure it's not the fashion to mind it throughly. St. Augustin lamented this in vain, 
Confess. l. 1.  and it is to no purpose that I trouble myself about it. We shall still see young Lads when they come from School, and aught to know something, for none of them scarce mind any thing afterwards; we shall still see them, I say, ignorant in the knowledge of Man, of Religion and Morality. For can they be said to know Man, who cannot so much as distinguish the Soul from the Body? Have they learned the first elements of Religion and Morality, who are not fully convinced of original Sin, and the necessity of a Mediator? They are well stocked with the precepts of Grammar. They can say Lily by Heart, and repeat all the cramp Words in Faruaby and Butler. This is sufficient. They can declaim pro and con on any Subject. A rare Qualification indeed, to be able equally to maintain Truth and Falsehood, without knowing how to distinguish one from the other! But what! It is not reasonable that Boys should know more than their Fathers: Nor is it fit that they should have more Learning than some of their Masters.  
XVI. But I leave it to Tutors and Schoolmasters to examine the order of their Duties, and to take care of the performance of them. For I would not have Parents obliged to instruct their Children themselves, because a great many are not capable of doing it, or have other business, which you shall never persuade them to be of less Importance than the education of their Children: But then they should endeavour at least to choose a good Master. Let them not imagine that a Young Man who only understands Greek and Latin, and doth not know, much less can govern himself, is a fit Person to inform the Mind and regulate the Heart of a Child. But when they have happily met with one that is, let them not by their Example and Behaviour pull down that which a Tutor by his Pains and Diligence hath been building up. Children, by reason of their weakness and dependence, are extremely affected with the Language of the Imagination and Senses, with the outward Air and Behaviour, especially of their Parents. This is a natural Language which persuades insensibly, it penetrates the Soul, and in a delightful manner begets conviction and assurance in the Mind.  
XVII. If a Master teaches his Scholars to judge of things by Principles of Religion and Reason, to silence their Senses, Imagination and Passions, to despise sensible Objects, humane Greatness, and transitory Pleasures; an indiscreet Father shall talk of these false Goods before his Children, with such an Air, Voice and Gestures, as are able to shake a settled Mind, and move even those that are least prone to Imitation. Perhaps he may speak to them of the true Goods: But then his Discourse shall be so Cold and Faint, that it shall only beget in them contempt and aversion. But you shall hear him Twenty times a Day, and that with concern, bid them hold up their Head, keep their Body steady, and carry themselves handsomely. He shall applaud and commend them for repeating a few passionate Lines with a Grace. He shall sensibly discover his Joy by the Air of his Face, if he finds in them any qualification which the World esteems, and only make a Jest and a Diversion of their greatest and most material Imperfections, such as discover to those that are skilled in the knowledge of Man, an abominable pravity and corruption. And if a Tutor tho' never so good a Christian and a sensible Man should go about to extinguish their Pride and Self-love; the Approbation of a peremptory Father, or a fond Mother shall beget in them such a hatred and contempt of him, as shall make him incapable of ever doing them any good. 
* The greatest Reverence and Respect should be showed to Children.  Maxima debetur puero re●erentia, saith a judicious Author. Example and outward Behaviour irresistibly persuade young People, when they suit with the corruption of their Nature: And he that without saying a Word, doth Evil in their Sight, with an Air of Pleasure and Satisfaction, speaks to them more strongly and forceably, than he that discourses to them coldly of Virtue, and exhorts them to follow it. This is a matter that deserves the greatest consideration, with respect to the instruction and education of Youth.  
XVIII. There are some Fathers who always use their Children Arbitrarily and Tyrannically: They never do them Justice: They are severe to them without cause; and instead of enlightening them by Reason, and making them submit to it, they fancy that the Will of a Father is the inviolable Law of a Child. But when the Father is Dead, what then will be the Law of the Son? Without doubt his own Will: For he hath never been told that there is an eternal Law, the immutable Order: He hath not been accustomed to obey it. Nay he will not stay till his Father be Dead, or grown Old and unable to keep him in Slavery any longer, before he prescribes a Law to himself. He will naturally find it in his Pleasures. For this unjust and brutish Law is better perhaps than the will of an unreasonable Father; I am sure it is more agreeable and easy. A young Man will quickly be satisfied of this, when once he hath tasted the sweetness of it. And then whether the Father be dead or alive, the Son will easily find means to obey this Law, and yield to its Enchantments. He will look upon his Father as an Enemy and a Tyrant, if he hath yet Strength and Vigour enough left to interrupt him in his Pleasures, and disturb him in his Debauches: and Being persuaded by the example and conduct of his Father, that every thing ought to obey his own Will and Pleasure, he will employ all his Power, and all those Persons over whom he hath any Authority, in gratifying his desires. For he will find himself actually happy, in giving himself up to his Pleasures; and will not have Education and Experience enough to apprehend the fatal Consequences of them. Children therefore should be governed by Reason, as far as they are capable of it. They have ●ll the same Inclinations with grown Men, tho' the Objects of their desires are different; and they will never be solidly Virtuous, if they are not accustomed to obey a Law which shall never perish, if their Mind which was formed after the universal Reason, be not formed anew after the same Reason made sensible by Faith.  
XIX. A Father must not imagine that his quality of Father gives him an absolute and independent Sovereignty over his Son. He is a Father only by the Efficacy of the Power of God; and therefore he ought not to command his Son but according to the Law of God. He is a Father in consequence of a brutish Action, in which he knows not what he doth; for it is only Experience which teaches him, that in gratifying his Passion, he also preserves his Species. What Right can he have over the Mind and Heart of another Man, from an Action like that of Brutes, an Action which he ought to blush at, and which I am ashamed to mention? A Mother carries her Burden with a great deal of Trouble and Hardship, and brings it into the World with extreme Pains. But she doth not give it Shape and Growth, much less doth she give a Being to the Soul which animates her Child: Therefore she hath no Right to command him but in Subordination to the universal Reason, because she had no power to conceive him, but by the Efficacy of the divine Power.  
XX. Nevertheless, a Son should stand in fear of his Parents when they are angry with him; for God who gives and preserves his Being, God who can throw him headlong into Hell, God who hath all manner of Authority over him, commands him by his Law to obey them; and by that command gives them a Right to command him. But Parents should not make use of this Right against the Will of him from whom they receive it; They should not assume it to themselves as a Reward of a sinful, or at least an indecent and beastly Action; They should employ it in promoting the great Design of God, the eternal Temple, the end and masterpiece of all his Works; in labouring not for Time but for Eternity, and preserving in the Members of Christ the Spirit of Holiness which they received at their Baptism. And Children on their part should pay Obedience to their Parents, as to God himself whose Person they represent; They should show a Respect in their presence as in the presence of the Almighty; They should endeavour all they can to please them, and further their designs, as far as Order permits. Perhaps they shall not live ever the longer upon Earth; for this was the Reward of the Jews, but they shall live eternally happy in Heaven with the wellbeloved Son of God, who was obedient to his Father unto death, even the shameful and cruel death of the Cross.   

CHAP. XI. The original of the difference of Conditions. Reason alone ought to govern, but Force is now necessary. The lawful use of Force is to make Men submit to Reason, according to the Primitive Law. The Rights of Superiors. The Duties of Superiors and Inferiors.  
I. IT is certain that the difference of Conditions amongst Men is a necessary consequence of original Sin, and that many times their Nobility, Riches and Grandeur are derived from the Injustice and Ambition of their Ancestors. But the iniquity of their Forefathers being buried in Oblivion, and the lustre which their Riches and Honours have left in their Families, still remaining, we are dazzled with the splendour of their Quality, which appears bright and shining to our Senses, and strikes our Imagination; but we never think of the Injustice, which perhaps is the original of that splendour, because it is not visible and apparent.  
II. The generality of Men who judge of things by the impression which they make on their Senses, look upon those that go attended with a magnificent Train, as something more than Men; and instead of shutting their Eyes in sight of a stately Palace, that they may make a sound judgement of the personal Merit of him that dwells in it, they open them insensibly, to behold the beauty that courts and enchants them, and join to the Person of the owner, all the Gold and Marble with which the House is adorned. But a Christian Philosopher beholds without being moved, the Magnificence which astonishes and prostrates weak Imaginations; and being persuaded that that which belongs to Man is not the Man himself, and that greatness of Mind is not consistent with Injustice and abuse of Power, he sees nothing more monstrous and deformed, than a low and despicable Soul dwelling in a proud and lofty Building, and admired by all the World. And whether he thinks himself obliged by his quality and the custom of the World to appear splendid and magnificent in the Eyes of other Men, or looks upon those vain Ornaments wherewith the rich endeavour to hid their wretched Mortality, he is still sensible of his own and others weakness, he contracts and as it were annihilates himself within himself, and measures great Men only by the merit which he finds in them.  
III. But besides, that there are very few of these Philosophers, how much a Philosopher soever any Man is, he is often surprised unawares by the sensible impression and unexpected Motions of a rebellious Imagination; and the vanity which fills Mankind, doth so much favour the natural Judgements which are formed in us without our consent, touching human greatness, that Men always have and ever will judge of the Esteem which they own to other Men, by the Train, the Magnificence and the Splendour that environs them. Now these Judgements which every one pronounces within himself in favour of Persons of Quality, or such as have the appearance of Persons of Quality; these Judgements, I say, which are pronounced more strongly and definitively by a submissive Air and a respectful Behaviour, than by Words, swell Men with Pride, and beget in them an Opinion of their own greatness. This is it which makes them despise Virtue and Reason in those that are below them, and esteem, without distinction, every thing that is heightened and set off to advantage by the Quality of the Persons. This is the Reason that a haughty Lord looks upon his Vassals as Creatures of a despicable Species; and that Servants harken to their Masters as to Virtue itself, and Reason incarnate. In short, this is the Cause that Superiors do not pay to those that are under them, the Duties which are owing to their Nature; and Inferiors think it meritorious to act contrary to the divine Law, in obedience to the Commands that are imposed on them.  
IU. Human Nature being alike in all Men, and created for Reason, it is Merit alone that should distinguish, and Reason that should govern them. But Sin having left Concupiscence in those that first committed it, and in all their Posterity, Men, tho' all equal by nature, do not now join in a Society of equality under one common Law, to wit, Reason. Force, the Law of Brutes, that which gives the Lion the command over the Beasts, hath gotten the sovereign sway among Men; and the Ambition of some and the Necessity of others, hath obliged all Nations, as I may say, to cast off God, their natural and lawful King, and the universal Reason, their inviolable Law, and to choose them visible Protectors, who by Force may defend them against Force. It is Sin then which hath introduced into the World the difference of Qualities or Conditions; for Sin, or Concupiscence being supposed, these differences must necessarily follow: Reason itself requires that it should be so; because Force is the Law that must keep those in their Duty who have cast off their Obedience to Reason. In fine, God himself approves this difference of Conditions, as is plain from the Scriptures.  
V But the necssity of the Remedies shows the greatness of the Distempers. We need not seek after them, when we have no occasion for them; and the esteem and use that ought to be made of Force, is grounded only on the miserable necessity to which we are reduced by our universal Contempt of Reason. Therefore those that have Authority to command other Men, and to decide their Differences, ought not to value themselves, and to be proud of this Right; They should rather be afraid of profaning their Power, by making it subservient to their Pleasures; for nothing is more Sacred, nothing more Divine. The Almighty, their natural and lawful Sovereign, will deal with them, as they, who are but subordinate Powers, have dealt with their Subjects. They hold their places but during his Pleasure; They should continually reflect on this. God can pull them down, if they do not endeavour to set up Reason; and sooner or later, Death, that cruel Enemy of their Power, Riches and Pleasures, will make them like other Men. It will present them before the living Law, which penetrates the Heart, and lays open all the folds and recesses of it; and they will find the Reward or Punishment of their good or bad Actions, written in eternal and indelible Characters, in the immutable and necessary Order. 
Wisd. 6.5, 6, 8.  Horribly and Speedily, saith the wise Man, shall he come upon you; for a sharp Judgement shall be to them that are in high places. For Mercy will soon pardon the meanest; but mighty Men shall be mightily tormented; a sore trial shall come upon the mighty. Superiors therefore should look upon themselves as Lieutenants, as I may say, and Vicegerents of Reason, the primitive and indispensable Law; and should employ their Authority only against such as refuse to obey that Law. They should never make use of Force, the Law of Brutes, but against Brutes, against those that know not Reason, and these that will not submit to it; and should hearken to their Inferiors favourable, calmly and charitably. For if they confound their own desires with the immutable Order, and the secret inspirations of their Passions with the dictates of the inward Truth; that Truth which they slight and disregard, shall be the Law by which they shall be judged, by which they shall certainly be condemned, and by the Efficacy of which they shall be eternally tormented.  
VI 
Eccles. 32.1, 2.  If thou be made the Master of a Feast, says the Son of Sirach, lift not thyself up, but be among them as one of the rest, take diligent care for them, and so sit down. And when thou hast done all thy office, take thy place that thou mayst be merry with them. A Family, a Community, a Society, whose Head applies himself wholly to maintain the Peace and supply the Necessities of it, is in a continual Feast. The Superior ought not to take his place of Honour, till he hath performed his devoirs, nor put himself at the head of others, but only to protect and defend them, to reconcile their differences, and to rejoice them with his presence. Superiors, and especially Princes, are called in Scripture and in ancient Authors, Shepherds of the People; and the Governor of a Feast, who disturbs the Table, and interrupts the Music, 
Hinder not Music, verse 3.  represents a Head, who breaks the agreeable Harmony and Concert of all the Members of the Body which he ought to govern and maintain in a perfect Union and a mutual Correspondence. The end of all Government, is Peace and Charity, and the means of attaining this end, is to advance Reason to the sovereign sway; for there is nothing but Reason that can unite men's Minds, put them in tune to one another, and make them act in concert. Reason is a natural and universal Law, which few People observe in all Points, but no one dares openly reject, and which all Men pretend to follow, even at the same time that they depart from it.  
VII. Wherefore a Magistrate, a Father, who is the natural Head of his Family, a Master who hath Scholars or Servants under him; in a word, every Superior aught to breath into his Inferiors a Spirit of Reason, Justice and Charity, as his and their inviolable Law. He should assume to himself no other Right but the use of proper means to make them respect and submit to it. But let him not doubt, but that all those means are his true and natural Rights, in proportion nevertheless to the Authority which he hath received from the Superior Power. For the Power which gives any Commission, doth also give the same Right to the use of all lawful means for the execution of it, which that Power itself hath; if itself, or Custom, and especially Reason, directs nothing in particular touching these Means. Thus a Magistrate hath no power to punish Criminals but according to the Laws, tho' he may by his own Authority make use of a thousand ways to prevent their Villainies where the Laws give no particular directions. A Father may correct his Children with a Rod or a Cudgel, and that severely, but he must not kill or maim them, and thereby render them unserviceable to the State, on which he himself depends, and to which they belong. A Master may whip his Scholar, but he can not use him cruelly and injuriously without injuring the Father, who hath not given him this Authority, any more than Custom or the Laws of the Community. But, excepting that which Custom, Reason, or a Superior power prescribes, those that are in Authority may challenge to themselves as their natural Right, the use of all other fit means to reduce such as are under their command to the Obedience, not of their own Will, but of Reason; of Reason, I say, not their own Will; for neither a Father, nor a Magistrate, nor a Prince, no nor God himself, if this could be, if the Word were not Consubstantial with him, if it were possible for him not to beget and love it; not God himself, I say, hath any Right to make use of his Power, in obliging Men, who were created for Reason, to submit to a Will not conformable to Reason.  
VIII. Notwithstanding, a Servant, a Scholar or a Subject, ought not to dispute the Will of his Superiors; he should have so much Deference for them as to believe that they are rational Men as well as he, and much more than he; and when Evidence or the express Commandment of the Law of God prescribes nothing to the Contrary, he is bound to obey instantly and without murmuring. Nay, he is not allowed so much as to offer any Objections, in order to be satisfied of his doubts, but only when this kind of Liberty carries with it no signs of Contempt, and cannot offend the Person in whom he ought to fear and respect the Power of God himself. But Superiors, on their part, should have a great regard to the nicety and scrupulousness of other Men; they must not imagine themselves to be infallible, nor by their haughty and insolent manner of proceeding, oblige those that are under them to fear them, instead of fearing God in their Person. The invisible God is not so terrible to weak Imaginations, as the sensible and threatening Air of a choleric Father or Master; and many times, a Superior heated and disturbed by Passion, makes his Inferiors commit greater Crimes than he doth himself; for the suddenness of his Passion having blinded him, his Fault is less voluntary; but the Offence of those that obey him contrary to Reason, is the more heinous, because for fear of displeasing and provoking him, they deliberately offend against God.  
IX. Not that a Superior must never show his Authority, and make himself feared by those that are under his Command. Reason requires that he should sometimes be angry, that as this Passion mechanically produces something terrible in the Face, his outward Air may strike a terror into the Wicked, and dispose them to Obedience: If this will not do, he must also add Threaten, and in the end proceed to Punishment, and to a kind of Injury and Violence. It is absolutely necessary that Power should make Men submit to Reason, and force them to follow it, when Reason itself, tho' well enough known, hath not Charms enough to attract them, Men look upon Reason as impotent and unactive, as unable to reward its followers, and to punish those that side with its Adversaries. But they must be delivered from this Error, in which they are confirmed by all the prejudices of their Senses, and be convinced by their Senses and by a visible manner of proceeding, that Reason and Power are not two different Deities; that the Almighty is essentially Reason, and the universal Reason Almighty. Those that are powerful and reasonable amongst Men, by the particular relation which they have to the divine Power and Reason, should by force constrain unreasonable Minds to fear that Reason which they do not love; as they should by Reason, dispose such as love it, to unite themselves to Power, and to rejoice in it, in expectation of their Happiness, which shall be given to them according to the ruses which the same Reason prescribes. Wherefore those that despise Reason must be threatened, punished, and made miserable. For since it is easier to obey Reason without Pleasure, than to disobey it with Pain, perhaps wicked Men being made sensible by the fear of Punishment of the greatness of those Miseries which they may avoid, if they will conform themselves to Reason, will be more easily disposed to follow the Motions of Grace, without which no Man can pay to the eternal Law, all the Obedience which is due to it.  
X. The Passions are not evil in themselves: Nothing is more wisely designed, nor more useful for the maintenance of Society than they, provided they are raised and governed by Reason. For sensual Men must be taught by their Senses, and carried whether they ought to go, by something which may impel and put them in motion. A Scholar will not gain much ground under the conduct of a sober, phlegmatic, slow-paced Master, without Spirit and without Passion. Children and Servants, whose Minds are not fashioned according to Reason, advance slowly toward Virtue, if they be not continually quickened, and spurred on. But we should never correct them, without enlightening them, and letting them know what it is that is required of them, and not then neither, except they can perform their Duty with more ease than bear the Punishment which is inflicted on them. And as no one can determine his choice without some Motive, we should put them in a condition to be able to choose with Pleasure, and to do that willingly which is worth nothing if it be not voluntary. The Springs of their Mind should be set in order as well as those of their Machine; and the fear of Evil should only serve to carry them toward Good, to bring them near to the Light, and make them behold and love the beauty of Order. It is this kind of correction which Men are made to suffer, in the presence and for the honour of that Reason which they have cast off, that enlightens the Mind, and gives understanding; and not inhuman and brutish Punishments, which are sit only to manage Brutes, to train up Horses and Dogs, and to teach Men to make their own Will the inviolable rule of their Actions.  
XI. Inferiors are obliged to pay a ready and exact Obedience not only to the Commands of their Superiors which are expressed and signified to them, but also to their Will, when it is clearly known, tho' it be not signified. And tho' he that stays for an express Order from his Superior, before he obeys him and performs his Will, doth not hereby show any disrespect to his Person, or any opposition to his Authority; yet he doth not sufficiently respect in him the divine Power and Majesty. But a Minister who by the asendent he hath over his Prince, by his alliances and creatures draws all the Authority to himself, and reduces his Master to such a condition that he is afraid to command him, deserves to be treated like a Rebel. An insolent Servant, who by the knowledge he hath of his Master's concerns, or of the weakness of his Mind, deprives him of the liberty of signifying his Pleasure to him, is many times more guilty of Disobedience than a lazy and negligent Servant, who doth not perform the Orders that are given him. A Son who by the rigorous constitution of his Mind and Body, or by the Reputation and Fortune he hath gained in the World, is got into such a Post, that his Father who is in a low Condition, weak and impotent dares not impose any Command on him, violates the Duties of filial Obedience, if he knows, his Father's Will, and doth not perform it. A Wife who by her untoward and ungovernable Temper is grown so formidable to an easy good-natured Husband, that he dares not discover his Mind to her, is more Disobedient, tho' she exactly performs every thing that he bids her, 
Eph. 5.33.  than one that fears and reuerences her Husband, according to the Apostles Precept, tho' she do not always obey his Commands. An inferior Clergyman, who by the Credit he hath gotten in the World, or by his Personal Qualifications, stops the Mouth of his Superiors, and doth not do that which he certainly knows they require of him, is guilty of Disobedience. In a word, he that withdraws himself in any manner whatsoever, from the Obedience which he owes to others, leaves his Post, and rebels against Authority: And tho' he may secure himself from the Censures of Men, and the Laws of those that do not penetrate and search the Hearts, yet he shall not escape the Judgement of the righteous Judge, who unfolds all the turn and wind of Self-love. He that obeys Men as Men, and not as God himself, according to the Precepts of Religion, and Reason, cannot possibly fulfil all the Duties of Obedience; as on the contrary he that desires to please God, in obeying the Commands of Men, is so happily guided and influenced by that desire, that he performs easily and naturally every thing that the most enlightened Mind can impose on him.   

CHAP. XII. Of our Duties toward our Equals. We should give them the place they desire in our Mind and Heart. We should express our inward Dispositions in favour of them by our outward Air and Behaviour, and by real Services. We should yield them the Superiority and Pre-eminence. The hottest and most passionate Friendships are not the most solid and durable. We should not make more intimate Friends than we can keep.  
I. THE greatest part of the Duties which we pay to other Men, consist only in certain sensible Marks, whereby we give them to understand, that they hold an honourable place in our Mind and Heart. Those who are satisfied that we have a particular esteem for their Worth and Qualifications, cannot but feel some Emotion and Pleasure which must unite them to us: And there is no Man but must be touched with a sensible Displeasure which will separate himself from us, if he finds that we do not give him that place in our Mind which he desires, how great respect soever we outwardly show him. For the place of spiritual Being's doth not lie among Bodies; their Habitation, their Seat, their place of Rest hath no relation to that magnificence which strikes the Senses, and is only the work of Men's Hands. The Soul dwells with Honour in the very Souls of those that Honour it, and rests with Pleasure in the Heart of an affectionate Friend. What Glory, what Honour is it then to possess the esteem of the universal Reason? What rest and satisfaction will theirs be whom God shall take into his Heart, and treat them as his Friends? The vaniry of Men should raise in us these Thoughts, and the Seeds of Pride which we all have in us, should make us aspire to the Happiness of getting an honourable Place, a fixed and  Seat in all intelligent Being's united to Reason, and in Reason itself, and of being ourselves a sacred Temple, where God himself may reside for ever: For God, who is a pure Spirit death not dwell with Pleasure in material Temples, tho' never so Costly and Magnificent.  
II. It is the eternal Wisdom, the immutable Order of Justice, that should regulate these spiritual Places, which are to be filled by substances of the same kind. But as long as we are upon Earth, subject to Error and Sin, we deserve none of them, at least we do not know which of them we deserve. Therefore we ought always to take the lowest, and expect to be removed higher according to the degree of our Virtue and Merit. But Men never trouble themselves about the place which they hold in the divine Reason, the indispensable Rule of that which they ought to possess in created Minds, and labour only to advance themselves to a place which they do not deserve. They hid their Imperfections; they show only their best side; they endeavour by seducing others, to get an empty Name to themselves; and when they have, or fancy they have deceived them, they entertain with extreme delight the doubtful and equivocal marks of an Esteem, which cannot make a Man truly and substantially happy or contented, but only when it is governed and supported by Reason, which alone is the supreme Judge of Merit, and alone able to give it an eternal reward.  
III. Tho' Honour and Glory, absolutely speaking, be due only to God, yet created Spirits may also challenge it in regard of the relation they bear to the divine Perfections, and the resemblance they have of the Model by which they were formed. We have reason to believe that they do, in some measure at least, correspond with their original. We are certain that the Image of the invisible God, stamped on the very Foundation of their Being, is indelible. Therefore we may, nay and aught, as long as we live with them, to give them marks of Esteem and respect; and so much the more, because we cannot acquit ourselves of the obligation we are under to preserve Charity for them, without the performance of these Duties.  
iv For, since Men invincibly desire to be happy, they cannot, without an extraordinary degree of Virtue, unite themselves with those that despise them; because in consequence of the Laws ordained for the good of Society, they feel an extreme Pain, when they find themselves not well entertained in the Minds of others. In Winter we get away from such places as are exposed to Winds and Frost; because in consequence of the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body, the Soul is unhappy in those places. How is it possible, when we are governed by our Passions and Pleasures, to unite ourselves to those, whose Coldness chills and freezes us, to those who sensibly afflict us by the incommodious and disagreeable place they give us in their Mind and Heart? Therefore we must not think to maintain Charity amongst Men, to bring them near and unite them to us, and to be serviceable to them, if we do not pay them such Duties as may persuade them that they shall live easily and contentedly with us.  
V Since it is not in our Power to infuse inward Grace into the Hearts of Men, which alone can dispose them to sacrifice their present Happiness to the Love of Order; we are many times obliged to make use of their Concupiscence or Self-love, to moderate their Passions, and favour the efficacy of the Grace of Christ. For if in the Old Testament, the Angels, to preserve the Worship of the true God among the Jews, governed them only by Motives of Self-love, as not being themselves the dispensers of the true Goods, nor of the Grace necessary to deserve them, certainly we ought also to labour for the Conversion of Men by those natural means which the general Laws supply us with. We must Plant and Water, and expect from Heaven the increase and maturity. We must endeavour to employ to a good purpose, the universal Instrument of Iniquity, the Concupiscence of Pride and Pleasure, or rather Self-love, the abundant source of all our Miseries. The Grace of Christ coming to our assistance, will change Men's Hearts, and enable the Weak to go on in the ways of Righteousness, which we shall have taught them, by a prudent and charitable management of those things that are in our Power.  
VI It is certain then, that tho' our Duties for the most part consist only in certain outward and sensible Marks, by which we signify to other Men, that they have such a place in our Mind and Heart, as may content their Self-love; yet we are obliged to perform them exactly, not with a design to advance our own private Interest, nor to fortify and keep up Concupiscence in others, which we do in some measure please and gratify by these Duties, but to destroy and sacrifice it by the assistance of the Grace of Christ.  
VII. Now tho' our equals do not sensibly represent the Power and Majesty of God, to which the submission of the Mind is due; yet we ought to treat them as our Superiors, and to give them sensible Marks of our inward Respect, upon this consideration, that their Merit, their Virtue, and the invisible Relation which they have to God, renders them worthy of these Duties; or if they are not worthy of them, that we cannot contribute to make them so, if we do not first gain their Friendship and Affection.  
VIII. As for those that are below us, we should not treat them as our Superiors, tho' we may look upon them as such, according to those general Words of S. Paul," Let each esteem other better than themselves; 
Phil. 2.3.  But we should in many cases treat them as our Equals and Friends. For the main end of our Duties is to preserve Charity among Men, and to join ourselves with them in an affectionate and durable Friendship, that we may be useful to them, and they to us. For this end it is necessary that our Duties should be sincere, or at least it should be probable, that we give other Men the same place within us, which we express by our outward Signs. Thus a Superior may descend so far as to treat his Inferiors like equals, and they will be pleased and satisfied with it; for there is some likelihood of Sincerity in this. But if he stoops below them, they will have reason to believe, if they look upon him as a Man of Wit, but not much Virtue, that he mocks and abuses them. They will be apt to imagine that this excessive Humility is only a Blind to cover some extraordinary design. Or else they will despise him, as a Man of a low and mean Soul, in which it is no advancement to possess the highest Place. They will look upon themselves to be without a Head, and will live every one according to his own Fancy, when he that should guide and govern them so imprudently debases himself. For when the Head stoops too low, the Members despise him, and he cannot raise himself up again, without angering and discontenting them. But when he treats them only as his Equals, they are sensible that they still have a Master, and are not surprised to see him resume the Command and Authority.  
IX. When our Equals out of a Principle of Virtue humble themselves below us, and give us the precedence, yet they do not fully acquit themselves of their Duties toward us, unless they yield us the pre-eminence too, and give us real or at least probable Testimonies of a particular Esteem and Affection. For if we do not believe that their Humiliation is a mark of the esteem they have for us, our Self-love cannot be satisfied with it. Virtue may make a Man lower himself to one whom he despises. Now it is more disagreeable and displeasing to be obeyed by one that despises us, than to be commanded by one that gives us real marks of his Esteem and Friendship. It is Nature many times that gives us Masters: We may obey without debasing, without sacrificing and destroying ourselves: But we cannot naturally and without Virtue love Contempt. This is a thing that can never agree with Self-love; how dextrous soever it be in accommodating every thing to its own ends. For we cannot, without the greatest regret, see ourselves stripped of our Excellence and Grandeur, in the very Seat of our Pride and Vanity. Perhaps our Equal may give us a great example of Virtue, in putting himself below us. We may admire his Humility, and perhaps imitate it naturally and out of Pride; for many times the proudest Men are the most Civil and Obliging. But if he would have us Love him, he must give us an honourable and delightful place in his Mind and Heart: He must flatter our unjust and proud Concupiscence. Then, tho' in appearance he be not so. obsequious and obedient to our Will, he will be better qualified for a Friend; and will perfectly fulfil the Duties he owes us, if he makes use of the entrance which we give him into our Heart, by the place which he gives us in his, to mortify our Concupiscence in us, and set up in its place the immutable Order of Justice.  
X. It is not so easy a thing as may be imagined, to persuade others, that they are placed in our Mind and Heart as they desire to be, and to discover the true Sentiments they have of us. We must therefore examine what are the least equivocal and most sensible marks of the inward Dispositions of Men's Minds, that so we may discover the bottom of their Hearts, and satisfy them of the Respect and Friendship we have for them. It is certain that bare Words are equivocal and deceitful Signs in the Mouths of most Men. Besides, the institution of them being arbitrary, and depending on the Will of Men, they do not strongly and forcibly persuade these Truths which they express. None but weak People, or such as have a great Opinion of themselves, will be deceived by them; or it may be such as have no experience of the World. But the Air and Behaviour is a natural Language, which is understood without Studying; it persuades by a lively Impression, and as I may say, diffuses conviction in the Mind. Besides, this Language is not deceitful, or if it be, it is very rarely, because it is a natural and in a manner necessary effect of the actual disposition of the Soul. For the Soul discovers its greatest Secrets by the Air which it mechanically puts into the Face; and when we are once acquainted with the different Airs, we may discover in the Heart of him that speaks, the Sentiments and Motions with which he is agitated in relation to us.  
XI. Therefore if we would persuade Men that they hold the place which they desire in our Esteem and Friendship, we should really Esteem and Love them; and indeed it is our Duty so to do. We should in their presence excite within ourselves such Motions as they may naturally and sensibly understand by the Air which these Motions give to our Face: And when our Imagination is cold in relation to them, because their Merit doth indeed appear very mean and indifferent, we should represent to ourselves some Motives that may warm and agitate us: Or at least we should endeavour to manage things so, that Men may attribute to the coldness of our Constitution, that indifference which is so grating and disagreeable, and the want of a winning and obliging complaisance in our Behaviour toward them. But above all things, we must take care not to put on a forced and affected Air, which betrays itself and cannot hold long, because it doth not agree with the actual dispositions of our Mind. Nothing is more gross and offensive; we had better hold our Tongue, than praise any Man with such a fawning and perfidious Air, as tickles and betrays none but stupid and senseless People. Charity and Religion are sufficient to stop the natural Motions of our Machine; for they furnish us with reasonable Motives enough to honour and love other Men sincerely, and to despise ourselves.  
XII. But beside Words and the outward Air and Behaviour, there are also real Services which are the surest and most convincing marks of Esteem and Affection. By these it is, that we should make new Friends, and try those that we have already. But as these Duties are the most difficult and painful of all, so we must not presently imagine that he who fails in the performance of them, hath no Affection or Friendship for us. For we should consider, that there are some People who by their natural Constitution are so cold, so heavy, so reserved, in short, so difficult to be stirred, that they do little or nothing for their Friends. But then they do nothing for themselves neither. This is a thing that ought to be taken notice of; for he that thinks that these kind of Men have no Friendship for any Body, must also believe that they do not love themselves. But I think I may say, That generally speaking, there is no Friendship more solid and durable, than that of those Persons who seem to want Friendship, because they have not that spriteliness of Imagination which some have; and that short-lived Fire, which kindles and blazes out, as soon as a Man opens his Heart to them, and doth them the honour to lay before them the need he hath of their Assistance. The Reason of which is this:  
XIII. It is the Fermentation of the Blood, and the abundance of Spirits which heat men's Imagination, and give them a Motion which animates and impells them. Now those who have strong and lively Passions, and a warm Imagination, are inconstant beyond expression; for it is not Reason that governs them, Reason which is always the same, but Humours, which are soon kindled and as soon go out again; Humours, whose Fermentation excites contrary Motions every hour. Besides, 'tis most commonly the Body which speaks in them; and as the Body speaks only for the Body, or for those Things which have a Relation to the Body, the least interest determines toward their own particular Profit, the Motion which at first was produced in them for the Profit of a Friend, only because they found some Advantage in it themselves; for it is always pleasant and agreeable to get new Friends and keep the old ones. In short, there is no solid and durable Friendship, but that which is founded upon Religion, fortified by Reason, animated and supported by the charming Pleasure that proceeds from a mutual Possession of Truth. But Religion, Reason and Truth, are mere Phantoms to an Imagination that is struck and wrought upon by other Objects. They have nothing in them that affects the Senses, therefore they have nothing solid in them. They have no Relation to the Body, nor to the Society which is formed by the Body, and for the good of the Body; they have nothing therefore that pleases the Imagination, which speaks only for the good of the Body, for that which animates and rejoices it, which gives and preserves its Being.  
XIV. When a Man hath entertained the unhappy design of making his Fortune in this World, of pushing forward and advancing himself; let him endeavour to make those his Friends, who have a strong and lively Imagination, and let him excite and put them in motion. Their motion will perhaps carry him to the greatest Dignities. It is the Imagination that reigns here below, and distributes Riches and Honours. There needs only a strong and prevalent Imagination, to give an honourable Place in men's Minds to a worthless Person, and to discountenance and disgrace a Man of the greatest Wisdom, Learning and Virtue. He than that would advance his Fortunes, must settle himself well in the Opinion of such as are active and stirring, he must gain their Favour and Affection, and he must quicken and spur them on; they will carry him a great way; they will lift him to a great height. But let him look to himself; nothing is more incomprehensible, nor more ungovernable than the Imagination; it goes upon very ticklish Wheels, and very difficult to be kept in order: He must be well acquainted with all its fantastical and variable Springs, and must know how to try and manage them with Art and Dexterity. For otherwise, those Friends that have raised him up, will throw him down again, and trample him under their Feet with as many expressions of Rage and Indignation, as they have before given him of Favour and Friendship.  
XV. But for those that are contented with their Fortune, and would have good and real Friends, let them seek them among such as are lovers of Truth and Justice; let them ground their Friendships on a mutual Communication of the true Goods, the immutable Goods which make Friendships firm and constant, the inexhaustible Goods, which exclude Envy and Jealousy; and let them assure themselves, that those Persons who seem to be least exact in performing the Duties of Friendship, if this proceeds from the natural Coldness of their Constitution, are the most sincere and faithful Friends. Their Imagination is not slippery and inconstant; but let it be what it will, they can restrain and govern it. Their Passions are not sprightly nor violent; but they know how to esteem and love according to Reason. Their Friendship is not an inconstant Passion, but a solid Virtue; and tho' it may be for want of Spirits and Flame, they appear cold and unmoveable outwardly, yet they have all the inward Sentiments and Motions for their Friends which they ought to have.  
XVI. But tho' we ought many times to be satisfied with those that do not give us sensible Marks of their Friendship, yet we ought not to be satisfied with ourselves, if we do not give them lively and sensible Expressions of ours. For the greatest part of Mankind being governed more by Sense than Reason, they will never be satisfied, except they read in our Face, and are convinced by our Services, that we are concerned for their Interests. We are bound in duty to make some steps for them, which we would not make for ourselves. Perhaps they do not feel the pain that we do in motion; for it may be they love to be in Agitation. They have not the same Opinion that we have of the good Things of this Life; for they are blinded by their Passions. And therefore judging of others by themselves, they will be apt to believe that we have no Esteem or Friendship for them, if we do not leave the most sacred and the most important Business, to serve them, if we do not do for them, what we would not do for ourselves; and this belief will infallibly excite in them some unjust, and it may be sinful Passions.  
XVII. For this Reason it is, that Society is a grievous and painful slavery to those that are not made for it, and can live without it; it is perhaps the sharpest and severest Penance. It is a Trade, in which many times the honestest and fairest Dealers lose much more than they get; they venture a great deal, and make but small Returns. We should therefore enter into no particular Alliances, which oblige us to such Duties, as either the natural Constitution of our Machine, or any other Reasons will not suffer us to perform; for we should not get Friends to make Enemies of them. Nothing is more grievous and irksome than an Enemy who was once a Friend, and who abuses the Favours that are bestowed on him. Let every one therefore examine his own Strength, and not suffer himself to be overcome by the dangerous pleasure of knowing and being known; and let him engage himself no farther in any Society, than he is able and willing to perform the Duties of it, no farther than that he may be serviceable to others without injuring himself, or at least that the Injury he doth to himself may be less than the Service he doth to others.   

CHAP. XIII. A Continuation of the same Subject. If we would be beloved, we must make ourselves amiable. The Qualities which make a Man amiable. Rules for Conversation. Of different Airs. Of Christian Friendship.  
I. THough we should not enter into any particular Alliance with all the sorts of People, especially when we do not find in ourselves Strength and Art enough to maintain it; yet we should study to gain the love of all Mankind, to the end there may be no one whom we may not be capable of serving. Now the way to be beloved, is to make ourselves amiable. It is an unreasonable and ridiculous pretention to challenge Love and Friendship; and those that are not beloved, aught to blame none but themselves. If Men do not always do Justice to Merit, because they do not know it, and most commonly judge amiss of it, yet every one is a competent Judge of amiable Qualities, and those that possess them never want Friends. The Merit of other Men obscures and puts out ours; and when we do them Justice, we seem to wrong ourselves. We cannot exalt them, without depressing ourselves, and when we get them below us, we think ourselves the greater. But we may love other Men, without any injury to ourselves. Nay, on the contrary, the Soul grows greater as it were by diffusing itself in the Hearts of others, and seems to cloth and adorn itself with the Glory which environs our Friends. So that a Man never fails of being beloved, if he makes himself amiable, but he is not always esteemed, tho' his Merit be never so great.  
II. What then are the Qualifications that make us amiable? They are very easy to be discovered. It is not Wit, nor Learning, a handsome Face, or a fine Shape, 'tis not Quality, Riches, no nor Virtue itself; all this will not do the business. For a Man may have an Aversion for one that possesses all these valuable Endowments. What is it then? 'Tis to appear such to others, that they may be persuaded they shall be easy and contented in our Company. If great Riches make a Man covetous; if Wit makes him proud; if Nobility makes him haughty and insolent; if Virtue and Merit itself makes him think every thing his due; all these Qualifications, how valuable soever they be, will never make the possessors of them amiable. Men would invincibly be happy; therefore he alone can gain the Love, I do not say the Esteem of Men, who is good either in reality or in appearance. Now no Man, how perfect soever he may be in himself, is good with relation to others, if he doth not impart to them the Favours which God hath bestowed on him.  
III. Thus the Man of Wit who ridicules and plays upon every Body he comes near, makes himself odious to all the World; and the Scholar, that is always showing his Learning, puts himself in the Habit of a Pedant, and appears in a ridiculous Dress. Those that have a great deal of Wit, if they would be beloved, must impart it to others. They must put such a stamp on the fine Things they speak, and make them pass so well, that every one may be satisfied with himself in their Company. He that hath Learning and Knowledge, must not magisterially dictate to others those Truths of which he is convinced himself; he must have the Art to diffuse Light insensibly in the Minds of his Auditors, so that every one may find himself enlightened, without the shame of having been his Scholar. A liberal Man will never be beloved, if he takes a pride in showing his Liberality, or brags of it. This is in effect to upbraid those on whom he bestows his Favours, and makes them as much ashamed. But he who imparts his Wit and Learning, as well as his Money and Grandeur to others, without letting it be known, or without drawing any Advantage from it, must necessarily win their Hearts by this virtuous Liberality; the only virtuous, I say, and charitable, the only generous and sincere Liberality; for all other kind of Liberality is nothing but a mere effect of Self-love; it is all interested, or at least very ill managed.  
IU. But he that is continually exposing our Nakedness, to advance or divert himself to our prejudice; nay, he that for want of due respect toward us, takes too much liberty, and uses too much familiarity with us; in a word, all rude and illbred People, beget in us an irreconcilable hatred and aversion. There is no Man perhaps equally strong and hardy in all parts of him; and when we know a Man to be weak in any place, we should not fall upon him there; we can hardly touch him without hurting him. We should use all Men with Respect and Charity, and be extremely tender of striking them in a sensible part. But on the other side, we should have a care of reproaching them with their extreme nicety and tenderness by an over-cautious and affected Behaviour: We should converse with them according to Nature, as far as their Quality, Humour, and actual Dispositions permit us so to do; and not be too fearful of setting upon them on that side where they fear nothing. They loved to be attacked where they are strong and well fortified; and are pleased with Raillery and satire, when they are sure it cannot hurt them. A Man that hath Wit naturally, loves the exercise of the Wit, as well as that of the Body, when he hath a strong and vigorous one. The Resistance he makes, the Victories he obtains, give him Testimonies of his Strength and Excellence, and discover them to others, which begets in him a secret Pleasure and Satisfaction. For Motion delights and enlivens us; and he that contradicts us impertinently doth not so much offend us, as he that gives us no occasion of showing those Qualities which we foolishly admire in ourselves, and would have others admire too.  
V Men are much more sensible and tender, in relation to those Qualities which are esteemed in the World, than to those which are really valuable in themselves; to those Qualities which concern their Profession or Employment, than to those Perfections which are essential to their being; to those, in fine, which they have not, or rather those which the World doth not much believe they have, whether they have them or not, than to any others. Thus there cannot be a greater Affront put upon a Soldier who hath not yet given much proof of his Valour, than to call him Coward. For Courage is a thing esteemed in the World; besides, it is thought absolutely necessary for a Soldier; in fine, one that wants it, or fears the World should think he wants it, doth all he can to conceal that kind of Infirmity; for we are very careful to cover every thing that being discovered brings us Shame and Disgrace. It is the same thing with all other Conditions. If an ignorant Lawyer or Physician knows that you think him so, you shall never be his Frirnd, especially if you are so indiscreet as to speak your Thoughts freely of him, and this comes to his Ears. If you give a Woman cause to believe that you think her ugly, you certainly make her angry. For Women value themselves upon Beauty; as Men do upon Wit; not that they do not pretend to Wit, nay and Learning too; for some of them set up for Wits and Scholars at a strange rate, and are so more than many grave Doctors. We should know the World, if we would please it; at least we should converse with People with so much Modesty, Civility and Respect, that they may attribute the Injuries we do them to simplicity or inadvertency: There is no other way to make ourselves beloved: for it is impossible to gain the love of others, when we offend and make them uneasy.  
VI The Air and Behoviour is, as I said before, a Language much more expressive and intelligible than Words, and represents to the life our inward Dispositions in relation to others. We should therefore take a particular care to carry ourselves with an Air of Modesty and Respect, and that in proportion to the Quality and known Merit of the Persons with whom we converse: I mean such an Air as sensibly shows that we do them Right within ourselves, and willingly give them that place in our Mind and Heart which they desire, and think they deserve. A careless and negligent Air is acceptable only to Inferiors, and is no where tolerable but amongst Equals. For tho' it be pleasing in regard it shows that we are not much taken up with ourselves, yet on the other side it is disagreeable, because it is a sign that we do not much trouble ourselves about other People. The grave and stately Air is very offensive and uncasie. For besides, that it denotes a great Opinion of ourselves, it makes others think that we have but little esteem for them. This Air is allowable only in Superiors; and is never becoming in them neither, but when it actually represents the Power with which they are invested. It becomes a Prince, a Judge on the Bench, a Priest at the Altar, or any one who by his Character, or otherwise, introduces others into the presence of God. But it makes a Man ridiculous and contemptible who puts it on unseasonably and preposterously, and begets in us a secret Indignation and Aversion for the Vainglorious Fop that assumes it. But for the haughty and disdainful Air, it is provoking beyond all expression; for it shows in a very significant and sensible manner, that a Man hath no esteem nor kindness for others. This Air in a Prince makes him look terrible and dreadful; but in a private Man it makes him appear a frightful and ridiculous Monster, and must naturally beget in others an extreme contempt, and an irreconcilable hatred.  
VII. All other different Airs are composed of these four: They are all natural and involuntary Effects of the esteem we have of ourselves with relation to others; and according as our Imagination is struck, with the appearance of the Quality and Merit of those that are about us, so we do insensibly and in consequence of the Laws ordained for the good of Society, put on such an Air as is most proper to preserve the place which we think we deserve in the Mind of others, that place I mean which we actually and at that instant imagine we deserve; for it is not Reason, but Imagination which acts in these Encounters. It is not an abstracted Knowledge of our own Qualifications with relation to those of others, but a sensible View of their Grandeur or Meanness, and the inward Sense we have of ourselves, which sets the Wheels of the Machine a going, in order to put the Body in such a posture, and give such an Air to the Face, as discovers to Men the actual dispositions of our Mind toward them. It is evident therefore, that to put on that natural and unaffected Air of Modesty and Respect which makes us amiable, to those especially who have a great deal of Pride, it is not sufficient to believe that other Men are of greater Quality and Worth than ourselves, but our Imagination must be actually moved by that belief, and must put the animal Spirits in motion, which are the immediate Cause of all the alterations which happen in and upon the Body.  
VIII. But the Imagination is so unaccountable a thing, and consequently the Mind of those that suffer themselves to be governed by the actual Disposition and Motion of their Machine, that many times the same Air causes quite contrary effects in two different Persons, or in the same Person at different times. This depends on the Fabric and Position of the Imagination, and the quality of the animal Spirits. A pitiful and dejected Air moves Compassion in some, and Hatred in others, or it may be Contempt or Laughter. Therefore we should open our Eyes, and read in People's Faces the effect which our Behaviour causes in them, and shape or correct our Air by theirs; this is the surest way. And indeed it is what every one doth naturally and without thinking, especially when he stands in need of the Assistance of others, and passionately desires to gain their Favour and Affection. I shall say no more of the means whereby we may accustom ourselves to such an Air and Behaviour as will make us amiable. The World is so corrupted and so much given to flattery, that I much fear People would make an ill use of it. They are already but too knowing in this matter, and the World is never the better for it, For till Men learn to consult Reason, and to make no account of the outward Behaviour, they will still be governed and misled by the Imagination of such as have a sprightly Temper and a dextrous Wit; for it is the Imagination which gives the Face and the rest of the Body these different Airs, which please and tickle the wisest Men, and never fail to deceive the simple.  
IX. When a Man grows rich and powerful, he is never the more beloved, if he doth not grow better too in respect of others, by his Liberality, and the Protection he affords them; for nothing is good, nor beloved as such, but that which doth good, that which makes Men happy. Nay, I know not whether they really love rich Men tho' they be Liberal, or powerful Men tho' they protect them. For generally speaking, they do not make their court to rich Men, but to their Riches; they do not esteem great Men, but their Greatness; or rather every Man seeks his own Glory, his own Support, his own Ease and Pleasure. Drunkards do not love Wine, but the pleasure of drinking; for if the Wine be naught, or do not please their , they will not drink it. A lewd Man, as soon as his Passion is satisfied, abhors the Object that excited it; and if he still loves it; 'tis because his Passion is still alive. Now all this is because fading and perishing Enjoyments can never be a Bond strong enough to join men's Hearts in a strict Union. A durable Friendship can never be built on transitory Goods, nor formed by Passions which depend on a thing so inconstant as the circulation of the Blood and Humours: This can only be done by a mutual Possession of Reason, the common Good. The Enjoyment of this universal and inexhaustible Good, is the only thing that can make constant, secure and easy Friendships. This is the only Good that we can possess without Envy, and communicate without injuring ourselves. We should therefore excite one another to labour for the acquisition of this Good, and join all together for the mutual procurement of it. We should liberally impart to others that which we have already gotten, and not scruple to demand of them that which they have conquered by their Pains and Application, in the Country of Truth. Thus we should enrich ourselves with the Treasures of Wisdom and Reason; for we gain a better Possession of Truth, the more we communicate it. The Friends we get this way will be true, constant, generous, sincere and immortal Friends; for Reason never dies, Reason never changes; it gives to all those who possess it, immortality in their Life, and immutability in their Conduct.  
X. But who is it that shall lead us to Reason, who shall subject us to its Laws, and make us its true Disciples? It is Reason itself; but Reason incarnate, humbled, made visible and sensible, and proportioned to our Weakness. It is Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of the Father, the natural and universal Light of intelligent Being's, who because he could be no longer the Light of our Minds, immersed in Flesh and Blood by Sin, was made Sin himself, and by the foolishness of the Cross, makes a lively impression on our Senses, and fixes our Eyes and Thoughts on him. It is Christ, and Christ alone that can lead us to Reason, and reunite us in his Divine Person by the mediation of his glorified Humanity. Our Nature subsists in Reason through him, and by him Reason will reign in our Minds and Hearts. For in fine, we are created for Reason, by that we are intelligent Being's; we were first formed by it, and by it we must be formed anew. Christ crucified is our holy Sacrifice, and the perfect Model of the Sacrifice which we must offer up of our Self-love to the Love of Order; but being raised from the dead, consummated in God, and made an Highpriest after the eternal Order of which Melchisedech was the Figure he is the inexhaustible source of those Celestial influences, which alone can teach us how to Sacrifice, as he did, our corrupt Nature, and thereby to merit a divine Being, a glorious and incorruptible Transformation; to be perfectly reunited to our Original, and to live wholly on the intellectual Substance of Reason, by divine Chatity, in perpetual Peace, and in an everlasting Society.  
XI. If we are true Christians here on Earth, we shall be faithful Friends; and we shall find faithful Friends not where but amongst those that have solid Piety. For there can be no true and constant Friendship but in the immutability of Reason; and we cannot in our present condition constantly follow Reason, but by the strength which Reason incarnate gives us. We cannot sacrifice our own interests to the Laws of Friendship but by a Charity unknown to Nature, and which derives its original and efficacy from the true Tabernacle, where Christ exercises the Office of Highpriest. Your worldly and licentious Friend hath been always faithful to you. It may be so. For he always found his advantage in it, or hopes one time or other to repay his Self-love. But would he serve you do you think to his own prejudice, or without the hope of a return, when even the Righteous themselves are most commonly excited to serve God, or other Men, only by the hope of a reward, which is so much the more grateful to their enlightened Self-love, as it infinitely exceeds the greatness of their Services?  
XII. There are really no such things as disinterested Friends. They alone may be reckoned as such, who do not expect their reward from us. They alone can truly be our Friends, who desire nothing in this tottering and unstable World. They alone are our good Friends, our sincere, faithful and serviceable Friends, who do us Service, because Reason and Charity command them to do it; and expect from God alone those good Things which are capable of contenting their Self-love, the only enlightened, generous and lawful Self-love. Let us therefore make choice of such Friends; and for those Friendships which we have already contracted, let us endeavour to fix and settle them on the immutability of Reason, and to purify them by the Sanctity of Religion. Let us make ourselves amiable, only to make the Law of God beloved; and let us look upon the Salvation of our Brethren, as the reward of the Services we do them. This reward will soon be followed by another: And the Glory which we shall receive, for having wrought under Christ in the finishing of his Building, shall endure for ever. The Society of the World should tend only to establish an eternal Society in Christ. We should converse with Men only that we may labour for their Sanctification, and they for ours. Certainly God hath sent us into the World with no other design. Happy, then infinitely more happy than we can imagine shall we be, if by engaging in this just Design of our common Master, we make ourselves worthy through Christ our forerunner, to enter into his rest, and to enjoy his Glory and Pleasure to all Eternity!   

CHAP. XIV. Of the Duties which every Man owes to himself; which consist in general in labouring for his own Perfection and Happiness.  
I. THE Duties which we own to ourselves, as well as those which we own to our Neighbour, may be reduced to this general Head, of labouring for our Happiness and Perfection: Our Perfection which consists chief in a perfect conformity of our Will with the immutable Order: And our Happiness, which consists wholly in the enjoyment of Pleasure, I mean solid and substantial Pleasure, capable of contenting a spiritual Substance made for the possession of the supreme Good.  
II. The perfection of the Mind consists chief in the conformity of the Will to Order. For he that loves Order above all things, hath Virtue: He that obeys Order in all things, fulfils his Duty. And he that sacrifices his present Pleasure to Order, that suffers Pain, and despises himself out of respect to the divine Law, merits a solid Happiness, the genuine and suitable Reward of a tried and approved Virtue. That almighty and all righteous Law shall judge his Cause, and shall reward him to all Eternity.  
III. To seek after Happiness is not Virtue, but Necessity: For Virtue is free and voluntary, but the desire of Happiness is not in our own Choice. Self-love, properly speaking, is not a quality which may be increased or diminished. We cannot cease to Love ourselves; tho' we may cease to Love ourselves amiss. We cannot stop the motion of Self-love; but we may regulate it according to the divine Law. We may by the motion of Self-love enlightened, supported by Faith and Hope, and governed by Charity, we may, I say, sacrifice present to future Pleasure, and make ourselves Miserable for a time, to escape the eternal Vengeance of the righteous Judge. For Grace doth not destroy Nature. The motion which God continually imprints on us toward Good in general never stops. The Wicked and the Righteous equally desire to be happy: They equally tend toward the source of their Felicity. Only the Righteous doth not suffer himself to be deceived and corrupted by pleasing appearances: The foretaste of the true Goods supports him in his course. But the Sinner, being blinded by his Passions, forgets God, his Rewards and Punishments, and employs all the motion which God gives him for the true Good, in the pursuit of Phantoms and Illusions.  
iv Self-love therefore, or the desire of being happy is neither Virtue nor Vice: But it is the natural motive to Virtue, and in wicked Men becomes the motive to Vice. God alone is our end: He alone is our Good: Reason alone is our Law: And Self-love, or the invincible desire of being happy, is the motive which should make us love God, unite ourselves to him, and submit to his Law. For we are not our own Good, nor our own Law. God alone possesses Power; therefore he alone is to be loved and feared. We invincibly desire to be happy: Therefore we should inviolably obey his Law. For we cannot imprint this too deeply on our Minds, that the Almighty is also Just; that every Disobedience shall be punished, and every act of Obedience rewarded. In the present state of things, wickedness and disorder is attended with Happiness: The exercise of Virtue is hard and painful. And it is necessary it should be so, to try our Faith, and to give us means of acquiring true and genuine Merit. But it must not nor cannot continue so always. If the Soul be not immortal, if the Face of things shall not one Day be changed, then there is no God: For an unjust God is a mere Chimaera. The Mind clearly sees all this. And what then must our Self-love enlightened, our invincible and insatiable desire of Happiness conclude from hence, but that if we would be solidly happy, we must submit ourselves entirely to the divine Law? This is evident in the highest degree.  
V Our Self-love then is the motive which being assisted by Grace, unites us to God, as our Good, or the cause of our Happiness; and subjects us to Reason, as our Law, or the model of our Perfection. But we must not make the motive our End, or our Law. We must truly and sincerely love Order, and unite ourselves to God by Reason. We must prefer the divine Law before all things: Because we cannot slight it, and cease to conform ourselves to it, without losing the liberty of access to God which we enjoy by it. We must not desire that Order should accommodate itself to our Will: It is impossible to be done; for Order is immutable and necessary. We must not wish that God would not punish our Iniquities; God is a Judge that cannot be corrupted. These desires corrupt us: These foolish and insignificant Wishes are injurious to the Purity, the Justice and Immutability of God; they strike at the essential Attributes of the divine Nature. We should abhor our own Corruptions, and fashion all the motions of our Heart by Order: We should revenge on ourselves the injuries done to the honour of Order; or at least we should humbly submit to the divine Vengeance. For he who wishes that God would not punish Theft or Drunkenness, doth not love God; and tho' the strength of his Self-love enlightened may keep him from Stealing or Drinking, yet he is not Righteous. He makes that the end, which should be only the motive of his desires. He must call upon the Saviour of Sinners, who alone can change his Heart. But he that had rather there should be no God, than such an one as delights to make eternally miserable even those that truly love Order and Reason, is a just Man: For that chimerical Deity, that unjust and cruel God is not amiable. Grace itself doth not destroy Self-love, but only regulates it, and makes it subject to the divine Law. It makes us love the true God, and despise that Irregularity and Injustice which a disturbed Imagination may attribute to the divine Nature.  
VI From what hath been said it is evident, First, that we must enlighten our Self-love, to the end it may excite us to Virtue. Secondly, that we must never follow the motion of Self-love only. Thirdly, that in obeying Order inviolably, we labour effectually for the contentment of our Self-love. In a word, since God alone is the cause of our Pleasure, we ought to submit ourselves to his Law, and labour for our Perfection; leaving it to his Justice and Goodness, to proportion our Happiness to our Merits, and to those of Christ, in whom ours deserve an infinite Reward.  
VII. I have explained in the first Part of this Treatise the most material things that are necessary to make us labour for our Perfection, or to acquire and preserve an habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order; in which our Duties toward ourselves consist. They are these in general.  
VIII. We should accustom ourselves to the labour of Attention, and thereby procure some strength of Mind. We should never assent but to evidence, and so preserve the liberty of our Mind. We should continually study Mankind in general, and ourselves in particular, that we may gain a perfect knowledge of ourselves. We should meditate Night and Day on the divine Law, that we may obey it exactly. We should compare ourselves with Order, to humble and despise ourselves. We should reflect on the divine Justice, to fear it, and awaken ourselves. We should think upon our Mediator, to call upon him, and comfort ourselves. We should look upon Christ as our Model, love him as our Saviour, and follow him as our Strength, our Wisdom, and the Fountain of our eternal Happiness. The World seduces us by our Senses: It troubles our Mind by our Imagination; it carries us away and plunges us in the depth of Misery by our Passions. We should break off the dangerous correspondence which we hold with it by our Body, if we would strengthen the union which we have with God by Reason. For these two unions of the Soul, with God, and with the Body, are incompatible. We cannot unite ourselves perfectly to God, without abandoning the interests of the Body, without despising, sacrificing and destroying it.  
IX. Notwithstanding we are not allowed to procure our own Death, nor to ruin our Health. For our Body is not our own: It belongs to God, to our Country, our Family, and our Friends. We must keep up its strength and vigour, according to the use we are obliged to make of it. But we must not preserve it contrary to the command of God, and to the prejudice of other Men. We must expose it for the public good, and not fear to weaken, ruin and destroy it in executing the commands of God. And so likewise for our Honour and our Fortunes. Every thing we have belongs to God and our Neighbour, and must be preserved, employed and sacrificed to the honour of the divine Law, the immutable and necessary Order, and with a dependence on it. I shall not enter into the particulars of this matter; for my design was only to lay down those general Principles by which every Man is obliged to govern his Life and Actions, if he would arrive happily at the true and certain place of Rest and Pleasure.  
FINIS.    

BOOKS sold by James Knapton, at the Crown in St. Paul 's Church-yard.  
A New Voyage round the World: Describing particularly the Isthmus of America, several Coasts and Islands in the West-Indies, the Isles of Cape Verd, the Passage by Terra del Fuego, the South-Sea Coasts of Chili, Peru, and Mexico; the Isle of Guam one of the Ladrones, Mindanao, and other Philippine and East-India Islands near Cambodia, China, Formosa, Luconia, Celebes, etc. New-Holland, Sumatra, Nicobar Isles; the C●pe of Good Hope, and Santa Helena, Their Soil, Rivers, Harbours, Plants, Fruits, Animals and Inhabitants. Their Customs, Religion, Government, Trade, etc. By William Dampier. Illustrated with particular Maps and Draughts. The Third Edition Corrected.  
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The Memoirs of Monsieur Pontis, who served in the French Armies 56 Years. Translated by Charles Cotton Esq Fol.  
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Latin Common Prayer, 12s.  
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Mr. Dryden 's Plays, bound or single, viz.  
1 Dramatic essay  
2 Wild Gallant  
3 Rival Ladies  
4 Indian Emperor  
5 Maiden Queen  
6 Sir Martin Marrall  
7 Tempest  
8 Mock ginger  
9 Tyrannic Love  
10 Conq. of Granada  
11 Marriage A-la-mode  
12 Love in a Nunnery  
13 Amboyna  
14 State of Innocence.  
15 Aurenzebes  
16 All for Love  
17 Limberham  
18 O Oedipus  
19 Troilus & Cressida  
20 Spanish Friar  
21 Duke of Guise  
22 Albion & Albanius  
23 Don Sebastian  
24 Amphytrion  
25 King Arthur  
26 Cleomenes  
27 Love Triumphant   

Mr. Shadwel 's Plays, bound or single, viz.  
1 Sullen Lovers  
2 Humorist  
3 Royal Shepherdess  
4 Virtuoso  
5 Psyche  
6 Libertine  
7 Epsom Wells  
8 Timon of Athens  
9 Miser  
10 True Widow  
11 Lancashire Witches  
12 Woman Captain  
13 Squire of Alsatia  
14 Bury Fair  
15 Amorous Biggot  
16 Scowrers  
17 Volunteers   

Mr. Otway 's Plays, bound or single, viz.  
1 Alcibiades  
2 Friendship in fashion  
3 Orphan  
4 Soldiers fortune  
5 Atheist  
6 Titus and Berenice  
7 Venice preserved  
8 Don Carlos  
9 Caius Maius  
10 Windsor Castle, a poem   

Mr. Lea 's Tragedies, bound or single, viz.  
1 Sophonisba  
2 Nero  
3 Alexander the Great  
4 Gloriona  
5 Mithridates  
6 Theodosius  
7 Caesar Borgia  
8 Lucius Jun. Brutus  
9 Constantine  
10 O Oedipus  
11 Duke of Guise  
12 Massacre of Paris  
13 Princess of Cleve   

Also these, and all other Modern Plays.  
Mr. Anthony  
Abdelazer  
Alphonso K. of Naples  
Antony and Cleopatra  
Adventures of 5 hours  
Bellamira  
Black Prince and Tryphon  
Bussy d' Amboyse  
Country Wit  
Country Wife  
Chances  
Circe  
Cheats  
City Politics  
Cambyses  
Destruction of Jerusalem  
Duke and no Duke  
Devil of a Wife  
Distressed Innocence  
Dame Dobson  
Dutch Lover  
Don Quixot, 3 parts  
Double Dealer  
Empress of Morocco  
Earl of Essex  
English Monarch  
English Friar  
Edward the Third  
Emperor of the Moon  
English Lawyer  
Fond Husband  
Feighned Courtesans  
Forced Marriage  
Female Virtuoso  
Fortune Hunters  
Fatal Marriage  
Gentleman Dancing Master  
Greenwich Park  
Henry 5 & Mustapha  
Heir of Morocco  
Hamlet  
Ibrahim  
Island Princess  
Ingratitude of Commonwealth  
Julius Caesar  
Injured Lovers  
Innocent Impostor  
Innocent Usurper  
King and no King  
King Lear  
Love in a Tub  
London Cuckolds  
Love for Money  
Man of Mode  
Mulberry Garden  
Macbeth  
Madam Fickle  
Maids Tragedy  
Marriage-hater matched  
Maids last prayer  
Othello  
Old Bachelor  
Oroonoko  
Plain Dealer  
Philaster  
Pope Joan  
Regulus  
Rehearsal  
Richmond Heiress  
Scornful Lady  
She would if she could  
Siege of Babylon  
Sir Solomon Single  
Squire Oldsap  
Successful Stranger's  
Sir Courtly Nice  
Sir Patiented Fancy  
Triumphant Widow  
Titus Andronicus  
Treacherous Brother's  
Traitor  
Virtuous Wife  
Very good Wife  
Widow Ranter  
Woman's Conquest  
Woman Bully  
Wives Excuse  
Love for Love  
Pyrrbus King of Epire  
Mock Marriage   
And all other Plays.