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.

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 owe to our selves, as well as those which we owe to our Neighbour, may be reduc'd to this general Head, of labouring for our Happiness and Perfection: Our Perfection which con∣sists chiefly 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 su∣preme Good.

II. The perfection of the Mind consists chiefly in the conformity of the Will to Order. For he that loves Order above all things, hath Vertue: 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 suita∣ble Reward of a tried and approv'd Vertue. That almighty and all righteous Law shall judge his Cause, and shall reward him to all Eternity.

III. To seek after Happiness is not Vertue, but Ne∣cessity: For Vertue 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 en∣creas'd or diminish'd. We cannot cease to Love our selves; tho' we may cease to Love ourselves amiss. We cannot stop the motion of Self-love; but we may re∣gulate it according to the divine Law. We may by the motion of Self-love enlightned, supported by Faith and Hope, and govern'd by Charity, we may, I say, sacrifice present to future Pleasure, and make our selves Miserable for a time, to escape the eternal Vengeance

of the righteous Judge. For Grace doth not destroy Nature. The motion which God continually im∣prints 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 de∣ceiv'd and corrupted by pleasing appearances: The foretast of the true Goods supports him in his course. But the Sinner, being blinded by his Passions, for∣gets God, his Rewards and Punishments, and employs all the motion which God gives him for the true Good, in the pursuit of Fantoms and Il∣lusions.

IV. Self-love therefore, or the desire of being hap∣py is neither Vertue nor Vice: But it is the natural motive to Vertue, 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 our selves 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 lov'd and fear'd. 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 punish'd, and every act of Obedience rewarded. In the present state of things, wickedness and disorder is attended with Hap∣piness: The exercise of Vertue 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 chang'd, then there is no God: For an unjust God is a mere Chimera. The Mind clearly sees all this. And what then must our Self-love en∣lightned, our invincible and insatiable desire of Hap∣piness conclude from hence, but that if we would be solidly happy, we must submit our selves entirely to the divine Law? This is evident in the highest de∣gree.

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 Rea∣son, 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 our selves to God by Reason. We must prefer the divine Law before all things: Because we cannot slight it, and cease to conform our selves to it, with∣out losing the liberty of access to God which we en∣joy by it. We must not desire that Order should accommodate it self 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 Ini∣quities; 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 Im∣mutability of God; they strike at the essential At∣tributes of the divine Nature. We should abhor our own Corruptions, and fashion all the motions of our Heart by Order: We should revenge on our selves 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 enlightned 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 ami∣able. Grace it self 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 disturb'd Ima∣gination 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 Vertue. Secondly, that we must

never follow the motion of Self-love only. Thirdly, that in obeying Order inviolably, we labour effectu∣ally for the contentment of our Self-love. In a word, since God alone is the cause of our Pleasure, we ought to submit our selves to his Law, and labour for our Perfection; leaving it to his Justice and Good∣ness, to proportion our Happiness to our Merits, and to those of Christ, in whom ours deserve an infinite Re∣ward.

VII. I have explain'd in the first Part of this Trea∣tise the most material things that are necessary to make us labour for our Perfection, or to acquire and pre∣serve an habitual and ruling Love of the immutable Order; in which our Duties toward our selves consist. They are these in general.

VIII. We should accustom our selves 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 our selves in particular, that we may gain a perfect know∣ledge of our selves. We should meditate Night and Day on the divine Law, that we may obey it exactly. We should compare our selves with Order, to humble and despise our selves. We should reflect on the divine Justice, to fear it, and awaken our selves. We should think upon our Mediator, to call upon him, and comfort our selves. 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 Mi∣sery by our Passions. We should break off the dan∣gerous 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 incom∣patible. We cannot unite our selves perfectly to God, without abandoning the interests of the Bo∣dy, without despising, sacrificing and destroying it.

IX. Notwithstanding we are not allow'd to pro∣cure 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 oblig'd to make of it. But we must not pre∣serve it contrary to the command of God, and to the prejudice of other Men. We must expose it for the publick good, and not fear to weaken, ruin and de∣stroy 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 preserv'd, employ'd and sacrific'd to the honour of the divine Law, the immutable and necessa∣ry 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 oblig'd to govern his Life and Actions, if he would arive happily at the true and certain place of Rest and Pleasure.

FINIS.