Surely nothing but Faith can convince us of the actual Exiftence of Bodies: We can have no exact Demonftration of any other Being's Exiftence, than the neceflary: and if we warily confider it^ we fhall find it even impoflible to know with perfect Evidence, whether GOD is, or is not the Creatour of a Material, and fenfible World; for no fuch Evidence is to be met with, except in neceflary Relations, which are not to be found betwixt G O D, and fuch a World as this. It was poflible for him not to have created it: If he has made it, it is becaufe he wiWd it, and freely will'd it.
The Saints in Heaven fee by an evident Light, That the F A T H E R begets the SON, and that the HO LY GHOST proceeds from the FATHER and the SON; for thefe are ne- ceflaryEmanations: But theWorld being no neceflaryEmanation from6' O D 3 thofe who moft clear- ly fee his Being, fee not evidently his External Productions. Nevertbeiefs I am perfwaded, that the Blcfled are certain of the World's Exiftence ■„ but 'tis bejcaufe GOD aflures them of it, by ma- nifefting his Will to them, in a manner by us unknown; and we on Earth are certain too: but 'tis becaufe Faith obliges us to believe, That GOD has created this World; and that this Faith is F f conformable F f conformable ' conformable to our natural Judgments, or our compound Senfetions, when they are confirm'd bf all our Senfes, corrected by our Memory, and redtify'd by our Reafon.
1 confefs, that at firft fight the Proof or Principle of our Faith feems to fuppofe the Exigence of Bodies: Fides ex auditu. It feems to fuppofe Prophets, Apoftles, Sacred- Writ and Miracles; but if we clofely examine it, we (hall find, that in fuppofing but the Appearances of Men, Prophets, Apoftles, Holy Scripture, Miracles, &c. what we have learn'd from thefe fuppofVd Appearances, Sands undeniably certain; fince, as 1 have prov'd in'feveral places of this Work, GOD only can reprefent to the Mind thefe pretended Appearances; and He is no Deceiver. For Faith fuppofes all this, Now in the Appearance of Holy Scripture, and by the Seemingnefs of Miracles, we learn, That GO D has created an Heaven and an Earth, that the Word is made Fiejf), and other fuch like Truths, which fuppofe the Exiftence of a created World. Therefore Faith verifies the Exiftence of Bodies; and ah thefe Appearances are a&mMy fabfianiiatedby it. 'Tis needlefs toin- . lift longer upon anfwering an Objection, which feems too abftracted for the common part of Men; and Ibelieve that this will be enough to fatisfie thofe who pretend not to be over-difficult.
From all which we are to conclude, That we both may, and ought to correct our Natural Judg- ments, or compound Perceptions, which relate to the fenfible Qualities, we attribute to the Bodies that furround us, of to That w'e animate. But as for natural Judgments, which relate to the actu- al Exiitence of Bodies; though abfolutely, we are not oblig'd to form free ones to accord with them; yet we ought not to fuperfede doing it,becaufe thefe natural Judgments agree perfectly with Faith.
Finally, J have made this Explanation, chiefly to the intent we may ferioufiy reflect upon this Truth; That nothing but Eternal Wifdomcan enlighten us, and that ail fenfible Notices, wherein our Body is concerned, are fallacious; at leaft are not attended with that Light, which we feel our felves oblig'd to fubmit.to. I am fenfible that thefe Notions will not pafs with the common fort of Men; and that as they are difpos'd by the Superfluity, or Poverty of their Animal Spirits, they will either ridicule, or flinch at the Reafonings I have laid down. For the Imagination cannot en- dure abftraft and urn ordinary Truths: but either confiders them as ghaftly Spectres, or ridiculous Phantafms; But I chufe rather to be the Subject of Droll, and Raillery for the ftrong and bold Ima- gination, and the Object of Indignation, and Fear to the weak and timorous -, than to be wanting in what 1 owe to Truth, and to thofe generous Defenders of the Mind againffc the Efforts of the Body, who know how to diftinguifh the Refponfes of illuminating Wifdom, from the confus'd Noifeof the perplexing, and erroneous Imagination.
ILLUS T R ATION UPON THE Fifth CHAPTER of the Second BOOK.
Of the Memory^ and Spiritual Habits.
I Had no mind to fpeak in this Chapter of the Memory, and fpiritual Habits, for feveral Rea- fons; the chief of which is, That we have no clear Idea of our Soul. For how can we clearly explain what are the Difpofitions which the Operations of the Soul leave in her; fwhich Dif- pofitions are herHabits)whilft we have no clearKnowledge of theNature of our Soul? 'Tis plain that 'tis impoffible to know diltinctly the Changes, whereof a Being is capable, when we have no diftinct Knowledge of the Nature of that Being. For if, for Inftance, we had no clear Idea of Ex- tenfion, in vain mould we endeavour to difcover its Figures. However, fince I am defir'd to fpeak of a Matter which I know not in it felf:, fee what a compafs 1 fetch, that I may only keep to clear Idea's.
I fuppofe that there's none but God who acts upon the Mind, and reprefents to it the Idea's of all things } and that if the Mind perceive any Object by a very clear and diftinct Idea, 'tis becaufe God reprefents that Idea in a moft perfect manner.
1 farther fuppofe, that the Will of God being entirely conformable to. O R D E R, and Juftice, we need but to have a Right to any thing, to obtain it. The Suppofitions being laid down, which are eafily conceiv'd, the Spiritual Memory is readily explained. For Order requiring, that Spirits, which have frequently thought of any Object, Ihould more eafily think again upon ir, and have a more clear and lively Idea of it, than thofe who have but feldom confider'd it } The Will of God, which continually operates by Order, reprefents to their VJnderftanding, as often as defir'd, the clear and lively Idea of that Object. So that according to this Explication, the Memory, and other Habits of pure Intelligences, confifts not in an Eafinefs of operating, which refults from any Modifica- tions of their Being; but in the immutable Order of God, and in a Right the Mind obtains to thofe things, which have been already fubmitted to it. And all the Power of the Mind immediatelty and folely The Search after Truth. I {% folcly depends on God alone « the force. or facility of ading, which all Creatures have in their O- perations, being in this Sencebut the efficacious Will of the Creatour.
Nor do I think we are oblig'd to give up this Explication, by reafon of the evil Habits of Sinners" and damn'd Perfons. For tho' God does all that is Real, and Pofitive in the Aftions of Sinners it is evident, by what I have faid in thefirfi Illuflration, that he is not the Author of Sin.
Neverthelefs I believe, as I think I ought, that after the Aclion of the Soul, there remain fome Changes which difpofe it to that fame Action again. But as I know them not, fo I cannot explain them • for I have no clear Idea of my own Mind, wherein to difcover all the Modifications it is capable of. I believe by Theological, and not clear and evident Proofs; that the Reafon of pure Seethe ll Intelligences feeing the Objeas they have before confider'd, more diftinftly than others, is not meer- luxation" ly becaufe God reprefents them in a livelier and perfe&er manner; but becaufe they are really upon the moi e difpos'd to receive the fame A&ion of God in them. Jnft as the facility of playing on an Or- 7th chaP- gan, which fome have acquir'd, proceeds not from any greater Force and Aftion, which the Ani- ^oTm' mal Spirits (that areneceflary to the Motion of the Fingers) have in them, than in other Alen: but from the Smoothnefs, and Glibnefs which the Paflages of the Animal Spirits have gotten by Exer- cife, as in this Chapter is explain'd: But yet I grant the life of Memory, and the other Habits is unneceffary in thofe, who being perfectly united to God, find in his Light, all forts of Idea's; and in his Wilt, all the facility of afting that can be defired.
I LLUST R AT ION Seventh CHAPTER of the Second BOOK.
A Reduction of the Proofs and Explications I have given of Original Sin: Together with the Anjwer to the Objections, that I thought moft urgent.
IN order to anfwer methodically to the Difficulties that may arife, touching Original Sin, and its manner of Derivation from Fathers to Children; I thought fit to exhibit in few words,what I have faid on that Subjedt, in feveral places of the foregoing Treatife. Here follow my prin- cipal Proofs, which I have difpofed after a particular fafhion, to make them more fenfibleto thofe that will confider them.
I. God voills Order in his Works. What we clearly conceive to be agreeable to Order, God wills * and what we conceive clearly to be repugnant to It, God wills not: which is a Truth, manifeft to all thofe who can confider the infinitely perfect Being, with a Heady and clear'd View. Nothing can unfix, or trouble their profpeft of this Truth; whilft they clearly fee, that all the Difficulties that can be raifed againft this Principle, proceed but from the Ignorance of thofe things which are necefTary to be known to folve them.
II. God has no other End in his Operations, than himfelf; this Order demands.
III- God creates, and preferves the Mind of Man to be taken up with him, to know and to love him « as being himfelf the End of his own Works •, Order will have it fo. God cannot will, that a Being fhould love what is not amiable- or rather,. He cannot will, that what is lefs amiable, fhould be more beloved. Therefore 'tis evident that Nature is corrupted, and in Diforder, fince the Mind loves Bodies that are not amiable, and that commonly more than God. Original Sin, then, or the Corruption of Nature, needs no Proof: For every one finds plain enough in himfelf a Law, which captivates and diforders him; a Law that is not given by Cod, fince it is contrary to Order, by which His Will is governed.
Neverthelefs Man before his Fall, was admonilhed by preventing Sen rations; and not by clear Knowledge, whether he ought to unite to, or feparate from the encompaffing Bodies; Order re- quired it. 'Tis a Diforder, that the Mind fhould be oblig'd to apply it felf to them: for though it may be united to them, it is not made for them. It ought therefore to have Knowledge of God^ and Senfe of Bodies. Again; whereas Bodies are incapable of being the Good of the Mind, it would with Regret and Pain, unite to them, if it knew them to be only what they are, without be- ing fenfible of fomething in them, which is not. Wherefore the Counterfeit Good ought to be dif- cerned by a preventing Senfation, that it may be lord with a Love of Irtftindt.; and the True Good ought to be known by a clear Knowledge, that it may be lov'd with a rational Love, and a Love of Choice. Lafily, Man being made, and preferved by God, to know, and love him; ought not to have have the Capacity of his Mind either pofTefs'd, or lhar'd in fpight of him, with the Knowledge of the infinite Figures, and Configurations of Bodies about him, or of that he animates-, and yet to know by a clear Knowledge, Whether fuch a Fruit, at fuch a Seafon, be fit for Nourifliment of his Body, maniieftly requires the Intelligence of fo many things, and the making fo many Argumen- tations, as would quite fill up the molt comprehenfive of created Minds.
V.
But though the firft Man was advertis'd by preventing Senfations, Whether he ought, or ought not to mak? ufe of furrounding Bodies, yet he was not mov'd by involuntary, and rebellions Paffions; and he obliterated outof his Mind the Idea's of fenfible things, when he pleas'd, whe- ther r s'd them or not; becaufe Order would have it fo. The Mind may be united to a Body, but it Ihould command it, and not depend on it. Again, All the Love which God invefts us with, ought to terminate on him, becaufe he produces nothing in us but what is for himfelf. Lafily, Bo- dies ate not amiable; but below what within us is capable of loving. Therefore in the firft Inflitu- tion of Nature, Bodies could not turn our Mind towards them, nor incline it to con'fider them, and love them, as its Goods.
VI.
VI.
The Bodies about us aft not on our Soul, fave when they produce fome Motions in our Body, and that thefe Motions are communicated to the principal Part of our Brain. For it is by the Changes which happen in this Part, that the Soul changes her felf, and finds her felf mov'd by fenfible Ob- jects. This 1 have fufficiently prov'd, and Experience demonftrates the fame. Which being fup- pos'd, it is clear, from the preceding Article, that Adam ftopt.when he pleas'd, the Motions communicated to his Body, at leaft thofe communicated to the principal part of his Brain: Order wiWd it fo; and confequently He whofe Will always conforms to Order, and who can do nothing a- gainlt It though He be Almighty. Thus Man might, on certain Occafions, fufpend the Natural Law of the Communication of Motions, feeing he was not tainted with Concupifence, nor did he feel in himfelf any involuntary and rebellious Motions.
VII.
VII.
But Adam loft that Power by finning; Order would have it fo.• for it is not reafonable, that in Favour of a Sinner, and a Rebel, there Ihould be any other Exceptions, to the general Law of the Communication of Motions, than what are abfolutely neceflary to the Prefervation of our Life and Civil Society. Therefore the Body of Man being continually fliaken, by the Action of fenfible Objects, and his Soul agitated by all the Concuflions of the principal part of his Brain, he is be- come a dependent on the Body, to which he was only united, and over which he had a Sovereign- ty before his Fall.
VIII., Let us fee now how the firft Man was capable of finning. It is natural to love Pleafure, and to taft it; and this was not forbidden Adam. The Cafe is the fame with joy: one may rejoice at the fight of his Natural Perfections •, That is not evil in it felf. Man was made to be happy, and 'tis Pleafure and Joy which actually beatific and content: Adam therefore tailed PleafoVe in the ufe of fenfible Goods •, and he felt a Joy upori viewing his own Perfections: For 'tis impoflible to confider ones felf, as happy, or perfect, and not be pofTefs'd with it. He felt no fuch Pleafure in his Duty -, for though he knew God was his Good, it was not in a fenfible way; as I have prov'd in feveral places. So the Joy he might find in his Duty, was not very fenfible • which being fup- pos'd, we conclude, That whereas the firft tJWan had not an infinite Capacity of Mind, his Plea- fure, or his Joy weakned its clear fight, which gave him to know, That God was his Good, and that he ought only to love him. For Pleafure is in the Soul, and the Modification of it; and therefore fills up our Capacity of Thought, proportionably as it affect and works onus: this is a thing which we learn by Experience, or rather from that inward Senfation we have of our felves.
We may then conceive, That the firft Man having infenfibly fuffer'd the Capacity of his Mind, to be pofTefs'd, or divided, by the lively Senfe of a prefumptuous Joy, or, it may be, fome Love, or fenfible Pleafure; thePrefence of Godr and the Confideration of his Duty were eras'd from his Mind, for neglecting couragioufly to purfue his Light in the Search of his True Good: fo this Di- ffraction made him capable of falling. For his principal Grace and ftrength was his Light, and the clear Knowledge of his Duty; forafmuch as then he had no need of preventing Delights, which are now neceflary to oppofe to Concupi fence.
IX. i And it muft be obferv'd, that neither the preventing Senfe of Pleafure, which Adam felt in the ufe of the Goods of the Body, nor the Joy that pofTefs'd him, when reflecting on his own Happi- . nefs or Perfection, was the true Caufe of his Fall; for he knew very well, that none but God could give him rhatSenfeof Pleafure or Joy: and fo he in Duty ihould have lov'd him only, for- afmuch as none merits our Love, fave the true Caufe of our Felicity. As nothing pertui bated his Knowledge and Light, whilft he ftrove to keep it pure and incorrupt; fo he might, and ought to have expung'd from his Mind, thofe Senfations which divided it, and which endanger'd its falling off, and lofing fight of him, who ftrengthened, and enlightned it. He ought to have well re- membred, that if God offer'd himfelf not to his Senfe, but only his Vnderftanding, as his Good, ft was to afford him a readier way to merit his Reward, by a continual Exercife of his Liberty.
Suppofing then, That Adam and Eve have finn'd, and confequently thereupon felt in themfelves involuntary iThe Search after Truth, %\j involuhtafy and rebellious Motions - I fay, That their Children muft needs be born Sinners, and •fubjed, as they were, to Motions of Concupifcencc. See my Reafons for it* X.
I have prov'd at large, in the Chapter that occafion-'d this Difcourfe, that there is fuch a Com- munication between the Brain of the Mother, and that of the Child, that all the Motions and Traces excited in the former, are ftirr'd up in the latter. Therefore as the Soul of the Mantis united to its Body, at the very inftant of its Creation, it being the Conformation of the Body, which obliges Gcd, in confequence of his general Will, to inform it with a Soul h 'tis plain, that at the very moment of this Soul's Creation, it has corrupt Inclinations, and turns towards the Body: finceithas, from that fame moment, Inclinations anfwerable to the Motions that are adually in the Brain it is united to.
XI. But becaufe it is a Diforder, That the Mind fhould propend to Bodies, and expend its Love up- on them } the Infant is a Sinner, and in Diforder, as foon as out of the Hands of his Maker. God who is the Lover of Order, hates him in this Estate; notwithstanding his Sin is not free and eligi- ble. But his Mother conceiv'd him in Iniquity, becaufe of the Communication eftablifh'd by the Order of Nature, betwixt her Brain, and the Brain of her Infant.
XII. Now this Communication is very good in its Institution, for feveral Reafons. Firfi, Becaufe ufe- ful, and it maybe, necefTary to the Conformation of the Foetus. Secondly, Becaufe the Infant, by this means, might have fome Inteicourfe with his Parents; k being but reafonable, that he mould know, to whom he was oblig'd for his Body, which he animated. Lafily, Ke could not, but by help of this Communication, know external Occurrences, and think of them, as he mould do. Having a Body, 'twas fit he fhould have Thoughts relating to it, and not be hood-wink'd to the Works of God, amongft which he liv'd. There are, likely, many other Reafons for this Com- munication than thofe I have given; but thefe are sufficient to juftifie it, and to cover His Condud from Genfure and Reproach, every Will of whom is neceflarily conformable to ORDER.
♦XIII, ♦XIII, However, there is noReafon, that the Infant, in fpight of his Will, fhould receive the Traces of fenfible Objeds. If the Souls of Children were cteated but one moment before they were uni- ted to their Bodies; if they were but an instant in a State of Innocence and Order, they would have plenary Right and Power, from the neceffity of Order, or of the Eternal Law, to fufpend. that Communication: juft as the fir/l Man, before his Sin, ftopt when he pleas'd the Motions which arofe in him^ Order requiring, That the Body fhould be obedient to the Mind. But where- as the Souls of Children were never well-pleafing to God ^ it was never reafonable, that God on their behalf fhould difpence with the Law of the Communication of Motions ^ and fo it is juft that Infants fhould be born Sinners, and in Diforder. And the Order of Nature, which is juft, and equitable, was not the Caufe of their Sin; but the Sin of their Progenitors. In which fence it is not juft and reafonable, that a finful Father fhould procreate Children perfeder than himfelF, or that they fhould have a Dominion over their Bodies, which their Mother has not over her own..
XlV. ,'Tistrue, That after the Sin oi Adam, which ruin'd and corrupted all things, God might by changing fomethingin the Order of Nature, have remedied the Difoider which that Sin had caus'd. But God changes not his Will in that 'manner: He wills nothing but what is juft, and what He once wills, He ever wills. He never corrects himfelf, nor repents of what he does •, but his Will is con- stant and immutable. His Eternal Decrees depends not on the inconstant Will of Man, nor is it v juft they fhould be submitted to it.
XV.
XV.
But if it may be permitted to dive into the Councels of the Almighty, and to fpeak our Thoughts upon the Motives, which might determine him to eftab'lifh the Order now explain'd, and permit the Sin of Adam; I can't fee how we can conceive a Notion more worthy the Greatnefs of God, and more confonant to Reafon and Religion, than to believe his principal Defign in his External Operations, was the Incarnation of his SON, That God eftablilh'd the Order of Nature, See the 5. and permitted the Diforder which befel it, to help forward his Great Work; that Dla]oP^n. He permitted all Men to be fubjed to,Sm,that none might glory in himfelf^ and fufxet'&Concupifcence °anCc^~„ in the Perfedeft, and Holiest of Men, left they fhould take a vain Complacency in their own Per- fatio„. fons. For upon confidering the Perfection of one's Being, 'tis difficult to defpife it, unlefs, at the Aug.ih fame time, we contemplate, and love the Supreme Good \ before whom all our Perfedion and 5M. lib.61 Greatnefs diflblves, and falls to nothing. > cap. 3.
I own, That Concupifunce may be the occafion of our Merit, and that 'tis most juft the Mind fhould for a Seafon follow Order with Pain and Difficulty, that it may merit to be eternally fubjed to it with Eafe and Pleafure. I grant, That upon that'Profp^d God might have permitted Con- cupifcence, when he forefaw the Sin. But Comupifcence not being abfolutely necefTary to our Merit- ing, if God permitted it, it was, That Man might be.able to do no good, without the Aids which JESUS CHRIST has merited for him: and that he might not glory in his own strength. For 'tis vifible, That a Man cannot encounter and conquer himfelf, unlefs animated by the Spirit G e tif ' n8 F. MaLebranche Concerning of Chrift, who, as Head of the Faithful, infpires them with quite oppofite Sentiments to thofe o£ Concupifcence, derived to them from the Original Man.
XVI. Suppofing then, That Infants are born with Concupifcence, 'tis plain they are effeftively Sinners, fince their Heart is fet upon Bodies as much as it is capable: there is as yet "in their Will but one. Love, and that diforder'd and corrupt • and fo they have nothing in them that can be the Qbjeft of the Love of God, becaufe he cannot love Diforder.
XVII.
XVII.
But when they have been regenerated in JESUS CHRIST, that is, when their Heart has been converted to God, either by an actual Motion of Love, or by an internal Difpofition, like that which remains after an Aft of Loving God: then Concupifcence is no more a Sin in them, becaufe it does not folely poffefs the Heart, nor domineer any longer in it. Habitual Love, which remains in them, through the Grace of Baptifm in our L O R D, is more free, or more ffcrong than that which is in them through the Contagion of Concupifcence deriv'd from Adam. They are like the Juft, who in their Sleep obey the Motions of Concupifcence, yet lofe not the Grace of their Baptifm, becaule their Confent to thefe Motions is involunta: y..
XVIII. It fhould not be thought ftrange, That I believe it poflible for Children to love God with a Love of Choice, at the time of their Baptifm. For fince the Second Adam is contrary to the Firfi, why mould he not, at the tim.e of Regeneration, deliver Children from the Servitude of their Body, whereunto they are fubjefted by the Firjl? That being enlightned and quickned by a lively and efficacious Grace, to the loving of God, they may love him with a free and rational Lfve, without being obflruftedby the firfi Adam. You fay, it is not obfervable, that their Body for a moment leaves afting on the Mind; But is that fuch a Wonder, that we can't fee what is not vifible? One. fingle Inftant is fufficient for the Exercife of that Aft of Love: And as it may be perform'd in the Soul, without imprinting any Footfteps in the Brain, 'tis no more to be admir'd, that the Adult in their Baptifm do not always mind it; for we have no Memory of things which are not regift- red in the Traces of the Brain.
XIX. St. Paul teaches us,That the Old Man, or Concupifcence, is crucify?d with JESUS CHRIST,' and that we are dead and buried with him by Baptifm. What means this, but that then we are deliver'd from the Warring of the Body again]} the Mind, and that Concupiscence is as it were Morti- fy'd in that moment: 'Tis true it revives; but having been deftroy'd, and thereby left Children in a State of loving God, it can do them no harm by its reviving. For when there are two Loves in the Heart, a Natural, and a Free, Order will, that the Free be only refpefted. But if Infants ia Baptifm lov'd God by an Aft in no wife free, and afterwards lov'd Bodies by many Afts of the fame Species; God could not perhaps, according to Order, have more refpeft to one fingle Aft, thantomany, which were all natural, and without Liberty. Or rather, if their contrary Loves were equal in force, he mnft have refpeft to that which was laft; by the fame Reafon, that when there has been fucceffively in an Heart Two Free-Loves contrary to each other, God has always re-: fpeft to the Laft, fince Grace is deftroy'd by any one Mortal Sin.