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. II. Our Duties toward God must be refer'd to his Attributes, to his Power, Wisdom and Love. God alone is the true Cause of all Things. The Duties we owe to Pow∣er, which consist chiefly in clear Judgments, and in Motions govern'd by those Judgments.

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. Be ye perfect, saith our Saviour to his Dis∣ciples, even as your Father which is in Heaven is per∣fect. Indeed, we shall not be truly like God, till be∣ing

swallowed up in the contemplation of his Essence, we shall be wholly penetrated with his Light and Plea∣sure: 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 ear∣nest of by the inward Reformation which the Grace of Christ works in us. For Faith leads us to the under∣standing 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 call'd in the Scriptures Truth and Love. Beloved, saith St. John, 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. Blessed are the pure in heart, saith Christ himself, for they shall see God.

II. To discover the Duties which we owe to God, we must attentively consider all his Attributes, and con∣sult our selves in reference to them: Especially, we must examine his Power, Wisdom and Love; and on our own part, our Judgments and Motions: For it is only by the Judgments and Motions of our Minds, that we render to God that which we owe him; as it is chief∣ly on the account of his Power, Wisdom and Love, that we indispensably owe him the greatest Duties.

III. When in thinking on God, we consider him only as a Being of infinite Reality or Perfection, we are convinc'd 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, &c. The consideration of God barely in himself, or with∣out 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 ought to be infinitely esteem'd: No one can refuse God this speculative Duty; for it consists only in a simple Judg∣ment, 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 Du∣ties to a blind Nature, which are due only to the Wis∣dom and Power of the Creatour.

IV. These mistaken Men argue and conclude right enough, but it is from false Principles; and you can∣not 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 in∣stance. That if God concern'd himself with our Affairs, the World would not go as it doth; that Injustice would never be advanc'd to the Throne, and that Bo∣dies would not be rang'd so irregularly as they are; that so deform'd and mishapen 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 it self 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 con∣sider 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 enlightned, in that alone we discover

Truth, we are rational only by that, for that alone is the universal Reason of all intelligent Beings. 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 no where but in God; for no Creature can of it self Act on spiritual Substances. I must explain these things more at large, in order to de∣duce from them the Rules of our Conduct: I begin with Power, and the Duties we owe to it.

VI. Glory and Honour belong only to God: All the Motions of our Souls ought to tend toward him a∣lone, for in him alone Power resides. All the Wills of the Creatures are of themselves impotent and ineffectual. He alone who gives them their Beings, can give them the Modes of their Beings; for the different Modes of Beings are nothing but the same Beings 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 plain∣er, 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 pleass'd to do that which ungrateful and senseless Man thinks he doth him∣self? It is the same with the Modifications of spiritual Beings. 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, and co-operates with it in the accom∣plishment of its desires. By this extraordinary Con∣cession 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 per∣forms the Office of Advocate, Mediator and High-Priest. But it is God alone that operates, he only hath power, he is the sole cause and beginning of all Things, and ought to be the sole end. All the Mo∣tions 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 esta∣blish'd 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 Beings. 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, then it will be lawful for us to desire Glory our selves, 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 belov'd, give and re∣ceive Worship and Adoration; we may then shew our selves to the World, to attract the Esteem and Love of the World; we may exalt and expose our selves to View, as Objects fit to employ those. Minds and Hearts which God hath made only for himself; we may then employ our selves either about our selves, 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 com∣municates his Power to the Creatures no otherwise than as he makes them Occasional Causes for himself to act by, in such a manner as bears the Character of an in∣finite Wisdom, an immutable Nature, and an universal Cause; in such a manner, that all the Glory which the work of the Creature deserves, is refer'd to the Creator alone; when the Creatures by a Power which they have not in them, execute such Designs as were form'd before their Creation. What is more holy than this Principle, which clearly shews to such as are ca∣pable 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 our selves 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. 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 con∣formable 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, 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 shew my self, and that I wear it not when I am private by my self: And that thine Hand-maid hath not eaten at Haman's Table, and that I have not greatly esteem'd the King's Feast, nor drunk the Wine of the Drink Offerings: Neither had thine Hand-maid any joy since the day that I was brought hither to this pre∣sent, 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 Pro∣vinces, and liv'd in the midst of Pleasures, yet she de∣spises her Greatness, and abhors the Delights of a vo∣luptuous Court: She remains unmov'd in the midst of so many Allurements, and God alone is the Object of all the Motions of her Soul.

Thine Hand-maid

never had any joy but in thee, O Lord God of Abra∣ham.

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 Splendor which seems to environ them, and of those Pleasures which seem to flow from them. But the Duties we owe to Power, which is in none but God, require a more particular Explication.

X. All our Duties consist properly in nothing but cer∣tain Judgments and Motions of the Soul, as I said be∣fore.

For God is a Spirit, and will be worship'd 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 Judgments.

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, &c.

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 gene∣ral Laws, to do us good or harm, by means of the Bo∣dy 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 Judgments require of us the following Motions.

1. To love none but God with a Love of Ʋnion or Conjunction, because he alone is the Cause of our Happiness, either small or great, transitory or durable: I say with a Love of Ʋnion; 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 rejoyces in any other thing, judges that that other thing can make him happy; which is a false Judgment, and can cause only an irregular Motion.

3. Never to unite our selves to the occasional Cau∣ses 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 our selves to them without a parti∣cular necessity; for the Sinner ought to avoid Pleasure, because actual Pleasure gives actual Happiness, and Happiness is a Reward which the Sinner doth not de∣serve; 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 Pu∣nish us. We must fear God in this life, to keep us from offending him. The happy day will come, which ex∣cluding Sin, shall also banish Fear.

6. To be sorry for nothing but our Sin, because no∣thing but Sin can oblige a just God to make us mise∣rable. 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 enlightned, is griev'd 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 harden'd in Sin, hates God out of Self-love; for being sensible that he will not obey God, or knowing, as the damn'd do, that in the condition which he likes and is pleas'd with, he hath no means of access or re∣turn 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 our selves 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 Beings: 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 punish'd by the di∣vine 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 enor∣mity 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, Learn∣ing, Riches or any other thing.

He that glorieth, 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 him∣self before his Horse: He may and ought to esteem other Men, and all the Creatures. God hath really im∣parted 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 our selves: 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 belov'd, honour'd and fear'd 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 Ido∣latry; and his Crime becomes very hainous, 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 dispos'd to employ himself about the Creator than about the Creatures, by a disposition acquir'd by his own choice, or by free and voluntary Acts, he is an abomina∣tion 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 Be∣ing, 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 un∣questionable 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 prophane 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.

Notes

• Mat. 5.48.
• 1 John 3.2, 3.
• Mat. 5.8.
• 1 Tim. 1.17.
• I am the Lord, that is my Name, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Glo∣ry will not give to ano∣ther, Isa. 42.8.
• Jer. 17.7, 5.
• Esther 14.14, &c.
• 2 Cor. 10.17.