1. By making it an End. 2. By nfing it as a means to a wrong End. Tom. 4. p. 207. Ibid. First, By making it an End. St. Auftin has long fince refolved all Immorality into thefe two Fundamental Disorders. The enjoying what we should use, and the ufing what we fhould enjoy. Omnis Humaná perverfio eft, fays he, fruendis uti velle, atq; utendis frui; 7 to which he fhould have added, to make his Divifion complete, the ufing,what ought to be ufed,to an ill End; and then he would have given us a full diftribution of Immorality, to which all the Inftances of it might be reduced. But we are at prefent concern'd only with the first of thefe, the enjoying what we fhould ufe; between which two St. Aufstin makes this difference, That we are faid to enjoy that thing from which we take Pleafure, and to ufe that which we refer to that from whence we take Pleasure. And elsewhere, Tom. 3. p. 4. To enjoy, fays he, is to cleave with Love to a Thing for it felf, but to use is to refer the Thing used to the obtaining what we Love. Whereby it appears, that by enjoying, St. Austin means the fame as to make an End of a thing, and by ufing to make a Means of it. And if what we enjoy be really an End, and what we ufe be really a Means, then we are right and orderly in our procedure; but if we enjoy as an End what ought only to be ufed as a means, or ufe as a Means what ought to be enjoy'd as an End, then we pervert and tranfpofe the Nature and Order of things, and are guilty of Disorder and Abuse. And thus it is when we make an End of the World; for then we make an End of that which is no more than a Means, and enjoy that which ought only to be ufed. For the World is not our End, whatever it may be to Creatures below us. We were not made for > its Enjoyments; nor can we be ever truly, or fo much as in our own Opinion, Happy in them. I fay, in our own Opinion. For indeed, Men are ready enough! to think one another Happy, and to envy one another upon that occafion; but no Man ever thought_himself fo. 'Tis true indeed, they think they fall be fo; and p.215 after the Disappointments and Abules of one Pleafure, 212, live on in expectation of being more kindly ferv'd by another; fo fupporting themfelves, by their Variety, among their thin Entertainments; as the finking Bird holds up her weight, by renewing her Strokes in the yielding Air. But 'tis moft certain,that all this is but mere Amusement. They keep their Spirits from finking by it, as the Bird does her Body; and that's all. For when the Future Delight comes to be Prefent, and the promifing Reverfion falls into hand; it will be found as empty and vain,as any of thofe tryed Nothings that went before. We may amufe our felves a while with Dreams and Fancies; but there is a Thirt in the Soul of Man,which all the little Citterns of the Creation can never quench, an Emptinefs which they can never fill. God only can do that, and therefore he only is our End. He has made us for himfelf; and accordingly has given us Defires, which none but him-> felf can ever fatisfie. And therefore if we make the World our End, 'tis plain that we fet the Creature in the place of God; are guilty of the higheft Idolatry, tranfgrefs the Laws of Truth, Order and Reafon; mistake our Centre, deceive our felves, and abufe the World. And this thofe do, not only who are guilty of a full and downright acquiefcence in the World, repofing themselves upon it as upon a Centre, feeking Reft and Satisfaction in it; that have no Prospect beyond it, but bound their Defires, their Hopes and Fears, and their whole Expectation within its narrow Limits; but alfo who love and adhere to it for it felf, and embrace 2 Tom. 3. p. 5. it as a true real Good. For this is to make it an End, though not perhaps our Laft and Greatest End. For nothing is lovely for it felf, and upon its own inward Goodnefs, but what is an End; and therefore though we do not terminate in the World and fet up our fi nal reft in it, yet if we Love it and Cleave to it as a true Good, and for it felf, we may be properly faid to make an end of it, or, in the Language of Saint Austin,to Enjoy it; who by Enjoying, as was observ'd before, means the very fame thing; and who accordingly will not allow the World to be Enjoy'd or Lov'd as a true Good, but only to be Ufed, or referr'd to that which is fo. Utendum eft hoc Mundo, fays he, non fruendum. This World is to be Ufed, not Enjoy'd. Which how well it agrees with that Philofophy, which says that the Creatures are fo far from being able to content us, or make us Happy, that they cannot fo much as give us any one Pleafure by way of real Caufes; but are, as to that, as fo many dead empty Cyphers; and at the most serve but as Occafions of thofe grateful Sentiments, which God, the true Source of all Happinefs,produces in us; and that therefore we are not to See love or feek Union with them as our true Goods, or real Caufes of our Happiness, but only to Ufe them Jer and ferve our felves of them, as the Conditions and Occafions of it; I fhall leave to be Confider'd by those who have leifure to enter into fo nice a Meditation; while in the Mean time I go on to give an Account of the other Abufe of the World; which is, 1. 13 Secondly, By using it as a Means to a Wrong End. We are fuppofed here not to make the World an End in any Senfe, and indeed 'tis a very Confiderable degree of Self-regulation for a Man to proceed thus far, not to Enjoy, but only to Use the World. But let not him that is arriv d to this pitch,think himself fecure from all further danger; fince it is not fufficient,not to make make an end of the World it self, unless we also use it to a Right End. We are to make a Right Ule of it, as well as to stay and detain our felves in the bare Ve of it; otherwife we fhall not answer the Caution of the Text, fo to Use the World as not to Abuse it. Now the End for which the World ought to be Ufed, g can be no other than that for which it was Made; And if we would know what that was, we need only Confider, who it was that made it; fince it is impoffible that God, whofe Perfections are Infinite, fhould act for any other End than Himfelf; who is therefore the Final as well as the Efficient, Caufe of all his Works. And fo the Scripture reprefents it, Prov. 16. 4. The Lord hath made all things for himself, fays the Wise Man. To which agrees that of St. Paul, Rom. 11. 36. Of him, and through him, and to him are all things, to whom be Glory for ever, Amen. And again yet more Exprefly, Col. 1. 16. All things were Created by him, and for him. Since then all things are made for God, who is the End as well as Founder of the Creation; 'tis plain that all things ought to be referr'd to hira; and Confequently that if we would make a right Ule of the World, we muft Ufe it for God and for his Glory. According as we are alfo Exhorted by the Tame Apoftle, I Cor. 10. 31. Whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, to do all to the Glory of God. Wherein is alfo Comprehended the Good and Welfare of Human Society;fit being for the Glory of God that his Creatures, whom he made for the Greatest and Supremeft Happiness, even the Enjoyment of Himfelf, fhould be as Profperous and Happy as may be, both in this Life and in the Next. So then we are to Ufe the World for the Honour and Glory of God, and for the true Interest and Welfare of Society, and accordingly not to Ufe it for thefe, or for Contrary Ends, is to Abuse it; as those do, + and, surely, of ourselves too: First, First, Who, instead of imploying that Power, Intereft, Authority, Station, Wealth or Grandeur,which they have in the World,for the Service of the Chriftian Church, and for the Incouragement of true Religion and Vertue, for the Advancement of God's Kingdom in the Hearts and Lives of Men, and the Righteoufnefs thereof; Ufe all thefe for Contrary Purpofes, to incourage Vice, or Vicious Principles, to pervert Men from a right Religion, or to Debauch them in it; and thereby do promote the Intereft of the Devils Kingdom, and Side with the Powers of Darkness againit God. This is to arm the Creatures against the Creator, to fight against God with his own Forces, to Ufe the World directly to the difhonour of him that made it; and is therefore in a very grofs and heinous Manner to Abufe it. For Temporals are in order to Spirituals; and this prefent World ought to ferve the Intereits of the next; and as all Worldly Power and Grandeur is from God, fo it ought to be used and laid out for God, and for the advancement of his Honour and Glory! And therefore all they who have any Confiderable Share or Intereft in the World, whether by way of Power, Honour, or Wealth, or whatever elfe may give them any Command or Influence over the Minds or Bodies of Men, ought to employ all these things for the advantage of God's Glory, for the Interefts of his Kingdom, for the Promotion of his True Religion, and for the Edification of his Church; and if they do not, they are Traitors to God, and Abuse both his Kindness and his Gifts. Which is done alfo, Secondly, By thofe who Ufe the Good Things of the World, the Productions of Nature, the Fruits of the Earth, or any of God's Creatures, in fuch a manner or degree as tends to their Prejudice. For the Creatures were intended for our Good; and there fore |