The Sovereign and Final Happiness of Man with Means to Obtain it, Chapter 1
CHAP. I.
The generality of Men pursue a false Happiness. The causes of their mistake. Rules to direct in the search after the blessed End of Man. The Wisdom and Goodness of the Creator, the frame of Man's Nature, and the Holy Scriptures discover it. The things of the World are defective, in all the essential Conditions requisite to Man's Felicity. God alone who is a spiritual infinite eternal Good, can make him perfectly blessed.
THAT the Inclination to Happiness is as universal as the Human Nature, we have the clearest testimony from the experience of all Men. This inclination is neither cold nor barren, but vigorously exerts it self in motions of flight, and aversation from what is apprehended as Evil, and in the pursuit of what is conceived under the appearance of Good. From hence proceeds the unwearied Industry of Men in using means to accomplish their general End. Some waste their Time and Strength in an eager pursuit of sensual Pleasures, and Riches, and Dignities; Others in acquiring the more valuable Treasures of Knowledg, or in purchasing an honourable Reputation, as if the obtaining of these things were the cure of their distempered Desires. But the concurrence of all particular Goods that inrich the Soul within the Sphere of Nature, or that preserve and delight the Body, cannot afford true Content. The Heart still remains empty, and languishes for Satisfaction. 'Tis therefore a just cause of wonder, that an intelligent Creature finding the product of all his Diligence unanswerable to his Hopes, should vainly seek for Happiness where 'tis not to be found; and after innumerable disappointments fly at an impossibility. An Error in the first enquiry might have some colour of excuse, but that having been so often deceived with painted Grapes for the Fruits of Paradise, Men should still seek for substantial Blessedness to fill the Soul, in vain shows that can only feed the Eye, is Madness exceeding all Admiration. What powerful charm obstructs their true judging of things? What Spirit of Error possess them? The only Account that can be given of it is this: Man being fallen from the Holiness and Perfection of his Original State, the Affections are vitiously inclined to sensible things, and the fumes arising from carnal Lusts cloud and overshade the Mind, and hinder its clear discovery of that universal comprehensive Good in whose Fruition true Happiness consists, therefore he earnestly applies himself to please the lower Faculties, allur'd by present Delights, and the facility of obtaining them.
And from hence we may understand, that the only way of their recovery is by clearing the Mind from Ignorance and Folly, that it may discern the sole proper object of the rational Appetite in its true Beauty and Goodness, and by that sight the Will may feel its ravishing Power, and be drawn to a free and firm choice of it. And that the Soul may not faint under the apprehension of insuperable difficulties interposing between it and the obtaining of its Happiness, and therefore content it self with easy Vanities, to propound such means that sincerely used will be effectual, and offer it that assistance that will make it finally victorious over all opposition.
Thus the two leading Faculties being turn'd from the Creature to God, the inferior Wheels will follow their motion, and the Conversation be intirely chang'd. In order to this happy work the following Discourses were composed; wherein are represented those reasons from the Dignity, Capacity, and Immortality of Man's Soul, and from the essential conditions of his Felicity; that impartially considered by the Men of the World, who prefer Earth before Heaven, will discover the vanity of their Designs, and check the fury of their Prosecutions, and turn their Aims and endeavours to that that is infinitely more worthy of them. But the real effecting this belongss solely to his Divine Power, who purchased Heaven for us.
O thou Sun and Life of Souls, shed abroad thy Light and Vital Heat, the belief of the Truth of unseen things, and the love of their superlative Goodness in the Minds and Hearts of Men, that they may not frame to themselves an imaginary Happiness in the injoyments of this perishing Life, but with that zeal and vigour in their Affections and Actions seek after the real Blessedness of the future Life, as becomes an Object so glorious and eternal.
In treating of this Subject, our first inquiry is, What is the blessed End for which Man was created? This we may clearly discover; by considering three things.
1. The Wisdom and Goodness of the Creator, who made all things in order to some End worthy his Perfections.
2. The Human Nature in its highest Faculties, and their utmost Capacities.
3. The Revelation of it in God's Word. Natural Light gives a real signification of God's Intention by the two first: but the most clear and full is in the Holy Scriptures.
I will treat of them in their order.
First, The working of God is always with some design of High Providence. He did not create the World and Man by chance, nor as a Seal impresses its Figure without knowing what is stampt. But he works always by Counsel and Election, knowing what he does, and for what End. Now the last Period wherein all his Works determine, is his own Glory, that being the chiefest Good. He made great variety of Creatures, and bountiful Provisions for their Happiness, ultimately for his own Pleasure. According to his Wisdom and most free Goodness, he was pleased that the World should not only be filled with material and sensitive Beings, that objectively glorify him, by the reflex of the Divine Perfections appearing in them, but to frame a higher rank of Creatures, wherein the Image of his Excellencies was more conspicuous, and that might actively glorify him, by understanding and magnifying, by loving and obeying Him. And as the several kinds of things have degrees of Excellency, they are subordinate in their use: the simple to the compounded, the dead to the living, the lower Natures to the more Noble. By this we may take an estimate of their Dignity and Order. Now for whom was this vast Fabrick raised, and furnished with as many Miracles as Creatures? for whose use were the Lights of Heaven, and the innumerable Forms of lower Beings, Plants, and Beasts on the Earth? If we regard their Operations, 'tis evident they were intended for the benefit of Man. He that understands himself, and will not forfeit the Prerogative of the reasonable Nature, must readily acknowledg that the Preservation and Comfort of Man, was their final Rule in the mind of the Creator, and their mutual usefulness to one another is referred to his advantage. He is the Center of the Universe, wherein the several Orders of visible Beings, as Lines drawn in a Circle, unite. And is Man alone left without an end worthy his excellent Nature? 'Tis not to be conceived without vile Thoughts, even the casting an imputation on the Wisdom of his Maker.
Secondly, The Frame of Man's Nature, and his Capacity is an indication of the End for which he was created. For of things made with design, the End is present in the Mind of the Agent, that directs and regulates all the parts of the Work as the prime reason of it. In a Ship, the Matter, the Form, the Tackling, the number and diversity of Instruments, are all in order to Sail. Now Man consists of two parts, an Earthly, and Spiritual: and to make a right Judgment of his last and happy End, we must consider him with respect to the Soul that is capable of nobler Operations, and higher enjoyments than the Body is; for the true notion of Happiness consists in the perfection and satisfaction of his principal and most receptive Faculties, the Understanding, Will and Affections, and consequently both in Action and Fruition with respect to the most excellent Objects. Hence it necessarily follows that he is made for a more worthy purpose than the pursuit and enjoyment of sensible things, that please the inferior Part, and only content the natural Appetites. To make this evident 'tis requisite to discover the defects and undervalues of all Worldly Things, how miserably they fail in the essential conditions of Felicity that is proper to Man, and this will convincingly prove that the divine Maker, who is infinitely Wise and Good, endowed him with intellectual and immortal Powers, to advance and enjoy his Glory, wherein the intire Blessedness of the reasonable Creature consists.
1. Worldly Things are not perfective of his highest Faculties. Man is but one degree lower than the Angels, and carries the Image of God indelibly ingraven in his Spiritual Immortal Soul; And accordingly the order of things in the visible World is establish'd. Thou hast set him over the Works of thy Hands, and put all things under his Feet. By Nobility of Nature, and the condition of his state, he is incomparably above them. And can inferior things make him better? can Gold be more precious by incorporating with a baser Metal? or Light more resplendent by mixing with Clouds and Smoak? All the Bona adventitia, the good things of this World, Honours, Riches, Pleasure, cannot denominate him truly Wise and Holy, cannot add the least intellectual or moral Good, wherein the rectitude and brightest excellence of Man is truely plac'd.
Nay they are consistent with all those sordid Lusts, that blemish and defame the humane Nature, and sink it below it self. External Honour is no Character of real Desert, and considered absolutely, confers no more to Vertue than to Vice. As Varnish in Painting serves only to give Lustre and Vavacity to the Colours, whether the Design be regular or ill, the Picture deformed or beautiful, and makes the Beauty or Deformity more visible. Splendor of Extraction renders the good or bad qualities of a Person more conspicuous. Folly set in high Degree is more observed than in a low Condition. And usually Titles of Honour are an occasion of absurd Pride to ignorant Souls, that understand not, that Vertue incomparably excells Nobility, as the Light is more glorious and radiant where it springs, than where 'tis reflected. Riches are often joined with habitual Vices in the Possessors, and indifferently serve for bad or good uses. The greedy pursuit of them blasts all true worth of Spirit, and turns the Soul to Earth and Corruption. And sensual Pleasures are so far from advancing Man, that the luxurious enjoyment of them, by the lowest degradement makes him like the Beasts, in all things but Innocence. In short, all the admired things of the World are of so little value, that they debase and inslave him by an overprising and affecting them. 'Tis his true perfection from consciousness of his native worth, and through Royality of Mind, to despise them.
2. The sensible World cannot give compleat satisfaction to Man. Felicity is the complacence and test of the Soul in the enjoyment of a suitable Object, commensurate to its real capacity and duration. Such an Object must be a Spiritual Good,*Beatitudo est bonorum omnium complexio, secretis omnibus malis. Cicer. pure without Alloys, infinite and eternal. Now all things in the World are in every respect insufficient to satisfy our Desires.
1. They are not a convenient Good to the Soul. What proportion is there between a spiritual Nature and carnal Sensualities, between the divine Offspring, and the low voluptuousness of Flesh? What are Treasures of Gold and Pearls, but shining Dust and the froth of the Sea, and can these enrich a Heavenly Being? What is Honour and Reputation? an invisible imagination form'd in a few Heads: What is Praise, a favourable sound from a few Mouths? And can a Fancy, a Breath be the solid Good of the Soul? As well may an empty Dream afford substantial Nourishment to the Body.
Hence the Expectation is far above the Fruition of earthly Things. Whilst seen by the false Beams of Fancy and the Passions, they promise fair, but upon trial are found to be a meer Illusion, that has nothing real but the bitterness that attends them. And from hence there is a perpetual generation of Desires in the Breasts of Men, the†Quicquid illis congesseris, non finis erit cupiditatum sed gradus. Sen. end of one is the beginning of another, as Fewel increases the Fire. The wanting Soul becomes more ardent by failing in what it expected, and makes endless inquiries for matter of satisfaction. Seneca observed an image of this in Nature, and gives the Moral of it.‖Nullum tormentum sentit resupinata testudo, inquieta est tamen desiderio naturalis status, nec aut ea desinit niti, & quatere se quam in pedes constitit. Ergo omnibus constitutionis suae sensus est. A Tortoise if turn'd on the Back, though it suffer no pain, is violent in Motion till it recovers its natural Posture. Thus Man, though free from external Troubles, yet is in restless changes, always casting about till he obtains the Happiness for which he was made, that is adequate to his Capacity. Who will shew us any Good? is the voice of Mankind chasing several Hopes, and ingaged in infinite errors in the search of Felicity here below. But the confluence of all worldly things cannot quiet the ravings of their misguided Appetites. The Persian Kings with all their Royalties, and Revenues and Delights,Athen. were so unsatisfied, that they proclaimed a Reward to any that invented a new Pleasure. The sweetest Enjoyments are not without secret distastes. The most pleasurable Heights are infinitely distant from Felicity. Therefore the most prosperous in the World are fain to borrow the Opinions of others, who blindly admire what they never had experience of, to conceit themselves Happy. For their real inward Sence is perfectly contrary to the vain Fancies of those below them.
Nay, suppose a Man possest of all the Varieties that compound earthly Felicity, the more full the less satisfied he is: for his desires being unquencht, when all things are ready that promised to appease them, and no lure of Hope remaining, the disappointment in a mistaken Object, and despair of ever finding satisfaction here, necessarily involves him in a double Misery. Of this we have the certain Testimony of Solomon himself, who after a curious and earnest search for Happiness, declares that all, even the most valued things below, are Vanity, pompous Names without sence and reality, and therefore vexation of Spirit.Media de fonte teporum surgit amari aliquid, quod in ipsis floribus angat. Lucret. Now what a poor Happiness is the World when the fullest possession of it is so far from inriching a Man with true content, that it makes his Poverty desperate.
2. The Things of the World are temporal, not commensurate to the duration of the Soul. Blessedness signifies an unchangeable State, not a transient Passage: The Object must be firm as the Center, and the Fruition of it without end or interruption. The fear that arises from the naked possibility of losing it, dashes our Joy, how much more the certainty. Now suppose the whole World were the Portion of a Man, can he joyfully acquiesce in it? The fear, nay certainty of parting with all these things, are inseparable Properties of our possessing them. Fear, upon the account of their transitory condition, certainty, from Death that is inevitable to all Men.
1. Fear of losing them. Such is the instability of worldly Things through vicissitudes of Times, disasters of Chance, decays of Nature, that we cannot be secure of them a day.*Nec unquam placidam sceptra quietem, certumve sui tenuere Diem. S. n. Honour is a casual Happiness, depending on the uncertain Opinions of Men that rise and fall every Hour. Riches are deceitful, not only because they do not supply our greatest Wants, but fly from us when we think our hold is fastest. They are a Quick-Silver no Art can fix.†Forma bonum fragile est, quantum que accedit ad annos, Fit minor, & spatio carpitur illa suo. Ovid. Beauty is a fading Flower often blasted, while the stalk remains. All things under the Sun are Vanity. What ever is measur'd by Time, is in a continual Flux like a Torrent, one part is present to the Eye, because another is swiftly past away. So that 'tis evident they are insufficient to make a Man happy. For who can possess them without a just jealousy lest they should slip away, or by violence be ravisht from him. As the Inhabitants of Campania, the most fruitful and delicious part of Italy, but near Vesuvius that always flames, or smoaks and scatters Ashes abroad, are in frequent apprehensions lest a sudden deluge of Fire should break forth and devour their Palaces and Gardens, and Vineyards, and change that natural Paradise into a Scene of Horrour, an accidental Hell. Now the very suspicion of losing what is our Happiness is perfectly irreconcileable to it.
2. There is a certainty of losing all earthly things at Death. Other Evils may surprise us unexpected, or not come when fear'd. And this relieves Mankind in the present state that is liable to innumerable Evils, that many may be prevented. But the last evil is inevitable. Though Men are distinguisht in the condition of Living, yet all are equal in the necessity of Dying. Human Greatness in every kind, Nobility, Riches, Empires cannot protect from the sovereign and suddain hand of Death that overthrows all. The expressions of Scripture concerning the frailty of Man are often precisely and literally verified; He is like Grass, in the Morning it flourisheth and groweth up, in the Evening it is cut down and withereth.
Now suppose the World constant and faithful to you till the last hour of your Lives, will it not fail you then? And can that be the Happiness of a Man that attends him for a time and leaves him for ever? The most conspicuous difference of Men in this World is that of the Victorious over the Vanquisht prostrate at his Feet. But Death makes them equal. Then the wretched Captive shall upbraid the proud Conqueror, Art thou become weak as we? art thou become like us? 'Tis no wonder then that the wise Preacher despises all the States of the present Life as Vanity. For the Fabric cannot be more solid than the Foundation, nor the Accident more real than the Being on which it depends. On every side Death is in our view, and the Shadow of it approaching darkens our brightest Days. 'Tis no wonder then that he equals the Fool with the Wise. For all that Wisdom that is confin'd to mortal things dies with them. Nay he confounds Man with the Beast. One thing befals them: as the one dieth so dieth the other, yea they have all one Breath, so that Man has no preeminence above them. While we regard him only with the Eye of Sence, what shall we see in his Life, but Folly mixt with Anxieties and Cares? and what in his Death, but wasted Spirits, the Springs of Motion disordered, and at last the living Frame dissolved into the Earth from whence it came?
But if we consider the Soul, that carries in it the clear marks of its Original from God; by the same reason that every thing shall be reunited to its Principle, that shall return to God that gave it, and remain for ever. The Felicity therefore to which it naturally aspires, must be parallel to its duration. From these Considerations 'tis above all doubt that Man was designed by his Maker for a higher End than the enjoyment of the present World.
2. The consummate Happiness of Man is in his Communion with God. For God is a Spiritual Good suitable to the Nature of his better and divine part, and communicates Himself to the Spiritual Faculties, the Understanding and Will, the principles of Man's eminent Operations, and most capable of enjoying Felicity: God is an infinite Good, and can so fully appease all the rational Appetites, that nothing is wanting to his entire Blessedness. God is an unchangeable Good, not to be lost with this Life, but may be securely enjoyed to Eternity. In the Knowledg and Love, in the Imitation and Enjoyment of his Excellencies, the highest elevation, and compleat satisfaction of the rational Nature consists. As Man by applying himself to unworthy things is degraded into a lower Order, and his Thoughts and Affections that are Spiritual in respect of their Principles, are Sensual and Perishing in respect of their Object: so when the noble Faculties are exercised in a perfect manner on their Soveraign Good, he is advanc't to an equality of Perfection and Joy with the Angels.
The more refined‖Vid. Plat▪ Symp. & Phoed. Heathens had a glimpse of this Happiness, some streaks of it run through their Philosophy. But till God was pleased to reveal it, the World sat in Darkness, and slept securely in the shadow of Death, unconcerned for an invisible future Felicity. 'Tis necessary therefore to inquire into his Word what that blessed State is wherein the final Happiness of Man consists.