Book I, Part 1, Chapter 2. Of the second Motive that obliges us to Virtue, and the Service of God, which is the Benefit of our Creation

1. Another obligation we have in the pursuit of virtue and the keeping of God's commandments, besides his being in itself, is the consideration of what he is towards us, that is, of those innumerable favors we have received from him ; which, though we have spoken of elsewhere, upon other occasions, we will, nevertheless, treat of them again, that so we may the better understand how much we are obliged to this liberal Benefactor.

2. The first of these benefits is our creation, which being so well known, I will only say, that such a favor is of itself sufficient to oblige man to give himself up entirely to the service of his Creator ; because in justice he stands indebted for all he has received ; and since by this benefit he has received his being, that is, his body with all its senses, and his soul with all its faculties, it follows he is obliged to employ them all in the service of his Creator, under the penalty of being looked on as ungrateful to so bountiful a Benefactor. For if a man builds a house, who should have the use or the rent of it, but he that built it ? If a man plants a vine, who else should have the fruit of it but the planter ? If a man has any children, who are they obliged to serve butthe father that begot them ? This obligation is so strict, that the laws themselves give every father a right and power to sell his own children, if he should be reduced to a very pressing necessity. For his having given them their being, makes his authority over them so absolute, that he may dispose of them as he pleases. What power, then, and authority ought he to have, who is the sovereign Master and Author of all creatures both in heaven and on earth, since the power a father has over his children extends so far ? And if those persons who receive a favor, are, according to Seneca, obliged to imitate a good soil, which returns with interest what it receives, how shall we be able to make God any such return, when, after having given him all we have, we can gx e him no more than what we have received from him ? And if he who gives back but just what he received, does not comply wnyi this precept of the philosopher, what shall we say of him thav does not return so much as the least part of it ? Aristotle tells as it is impossible for a man to make equal returns to the favo a his father and the gods have bestowed on him. How, then, can i. be possible for us to make any return to this great God, who is the Father of all fathers, and from whom mankind has received infinib \y more than from all the fathers in the world together ? If for t son to disobey his father is so heinous a sin, how grievous a crin^ must our rebellion be against God, who has so many titles W» the name of Father, that, in comparison with him, no father cxvoerves to be so called. And, therefore, he, with much reason, ^^mplains of this ingratitude by one of the prophets, in these wo <1§ : If I am your Father, where is my honor ? And if I am your Lord, where is my fear? Mai. i. 6. It is upon the account of the same ingratitude that he expresses his indignation in another place with much more severity and anger, saying, Is it thus that you requite the Lord, 0 foolish and unwise nation ? Is not he thy Father, that has taken thee into his possession, ancL has made and created thee? Deut. xxxii. 6. These are truly the ungrateful creatures, that never lift up their eyes towards heaven to contemplate on it, nor look down to consider themselves. Did they but enter into this consideration, they would soon inform themselves what they are, and desire to have some knowledge at east of their original. They would be willing to know by whom and for what end they have been created, that they might by this means be acquainted with one part of their duty. But having already neglected the one, they easily neglect the other, and live as if they had made and created themselves. This was the crime of that unfortunate king of Egypt, whom God threatened so severely by his prophet, when he sent him this message : Behold, 0 Pharaoh, king of Egypt, it is to thee that I speak, thou great dragon, that liest down in the midst of thy rivers, and say est, The river is mine, and I have made myself. These words, if they ?;re not in the mouths, are at least in the hearts of those who think as seldom of their Creator as if they themselves were the authors of their own being, and would acknowledge no other. St. Augustine's sentiments were quite different from these; for the knowledge of his own origin brought him to the knowledge of him from whom he had received it. Hear how he speaks in one of his soliloquies : " I returned to myself, and entered into myself, saying, What art thou ? And I answered myself, A rational and a mortal man. And I began to examine what this was, and said. O, my Lord and my God, who is it that has created so noble a creature as this is? Who, O Lord, but thou? Thou, O my God, hast made me, and not I myself. What art thou ? Thou by whom

I and all things live. Can any one create and make himself? Can he receive his being and his life from any one else but from thee? Art not thou the chief being, from whom every other being comes ? Art not thou the fountain of life, from which all lives flow ? For whatsoever has life lives by thee, because nothing can live without thee. It is thou, O Lord, that hast made me, and without thee nothing is made. Thou art my Creator, and I am thy creature. I thank thee, O my Lord and my God, because thou hast created me ; thou, by whom I live, and by whom all things live. I thank thee, O my Creator, because thy hands have made and fashioned me. I thank thee, O my Light, for having enlightened and brought me to the knowledge of what thou art, and what I am myself."

This is the first favor we have received from God, and the foundation of all the rest, because all other benefits presuppose a being, and this is first given us at our creation. Nay, there is no benefit but has a near relation to our being, as the accidents of a thing have to the substance of it ; by which you may see how great a benefit this is, and how deeply you are indebted to <£rod for it. If, then, it is certain, that God is very careful and exact in requiring some acknowledgment for all the benefits he bestows upon us, not out of any interest or advantage to himself, but only for our good ; what acknowledgment do we think he will expect from us, for that favor, upon which all others are built ? For God is no less rigorous in exacting our thanks, than he is liberal in conferring his grace ; not that he gets any thing by it, but because the performance of our duty is so very advantageous to us. Thus we read in the Old Testament, that God no sooner bestowed any grace upon his people, than he commanded them not to forget the same. As soon as he had brought his Israelites out of the slavery of Egypt (Exod. xii.), he immediately commanded them to keep a solemn feast every year, in remembrance of that happy day. He destroyed all the first-born of the Egyptians, but, at the same time, to prevent his people's ingratitude, he gave orders, that in return for so signal a favor, they should offer up all their first-born to him. A little, after their departure from Egypt (Exod. xvi. 33), when he first rained down the manna from heaven, a food with which he maintained them for forty years in the wilderness, he ordered immediately that a certain quantity of it should be put into a vessel, and kept in the sanctuary, as a memorial to all their posterity of so extraordinary a mercy ; Exod. xvii. 14. After the victory which he gave them over the Amalekites, he bids Moses write it down in a book for a memorial, and deliver the same to Josue. Now, if God has been so exact, in requiring that his people should never forget those temporal favors he has done them, what will he not expect from us, for this immortal one ? For since the soul he has given us is immortal, the benefit we receive with it must be so too. It was this that introduced the custom amongst the old patriarchs, of erecting altars, as often as God had favored them in any particular manner ; Gen. xiii. 7, 8 ; xiii. 18 ; xxii. &c. Nay, the very names they gave their children expressed the favors they had received, that so they might always be mindful of them. Hence St. Augustine took occasion to say that man ought to think of God every time he draws his breath ; Soliloq. c. 18. Manuale c. 29. Medit. c. 6. Because, as it is by the means of his being that he lives, he should be continually giving God thanks for this immortal being, which he has had from the divine mercy.

We are so strictly obliged to the performance of this duty, that it is the advice even of worldly philosophers never to be ungrateful to God. Hear how Epictetus, a very noted Stoic, speaks upon this matter. " Have a care," says he, " O man, of being ungrateful to that sovereign Power, and forgetting to return thanks, not only for having given you all your senses and life itself, but for all those things that support it : not only for the pleasant fruits, for the wine, the oil, and for whatever other advantages of fortune you have received from him ; but praise him particularly for having endowed you with reason, by which you may know how to make that use of every thing which it ought to be put to, and understand the true worth and excellence of all things." If a heathen philosopher obliges us to such acknowledgments for these common and ordinary things, wThat sentiments of gratitude should a Christian have, who has, beside all these, received the light of faith, which is a most inestimable favor.

5. But you will perhaps ask, What obligations can these benefits lay upon me, which are common to all, and seem rather to be the ordinary graces of God, since they are nothing but the consequences and products of such causes as work always after the same manner? This objection is so much below a Christian, that a heathen would be ashamed to make it, and none but a beast can be guilty of such baseness. That you may the more easily believe me, hear how the same philosopher condemns it : " You will say, perhaps, that you receive all these benefits from nature. Senseless and ignorant creature that you are ! do not you see, that when you say so, you only change the name of God ? For what is nature but God, who is the Author of nature? It is therefore no excuse, ungrateful man, to say you owe this obligation to nature, not to God, because without God there is no such thing as nature. Should you borrow a sum of money of Lucius Seneca, and afterwards say you were obliged only to Lucius, and not to Seneca, that would only change your creditor's name, but not your creditor."

§ I. Of another Part of this Motive that obliges us to the Service of God, which is, that we are to receive our Perfection from him.

6. It is not justice alone that obliges to the service of our Creator: our own necessities force us to address ourselves to him, if we desire to arrive at the happiness and perfection of our being, which is the end of our creation. For the better understanding hereof, you must conceive that, generally speaking, whatever is born is not born with all its perfections : it has something, but it wants much more yet, and none but he that began the work can rightly finish it. So that no being can be perfected by any other cause than that which put the first hand to it. This is the reason why all effects have an inclination and tendency towards those particular causes which produced them, that they may receive their last stroke and perfection from them. The plants love the sun, and run as deep as they can into the earth wThich shot them forth. The fishes continue in the waters where they were first engendered. A chicken runs under the hen's wings as soon as it is hatched, and follows her up and down for shelter. A lamb, as soon as it is brought forth, runs after its ewe, and can distinguish it from a thousand others of the same color. It follows her without ever losing sight of her, and seems to say, " Here it is I received whatsoever I have, and it is here I will receive whatsoever I want." This is what usually happens in the works of nature ; and if those of art had any sense or motion, they would do the same. Should a painter draw a piece and leave out the eyes, what would it do were it sensible of its wants ? whither would it go ? Not to the palaces of kings or princes, who, as such, could never be able to supply its defects, but to the master's house, that he who drew the first strokes might give the last, and finish it quite. Is not this your own case, O rational creature? You are not yet finished. You have, it is true, received something, but there is a great deal yet wanting to make you as complete and perfect as you should be. You are scarce any more than a rough draught. You have received nothing of the beauty and lustre you are to have. This you will be very sensible of, if you do but observe the propension of nature itself, which, being always in want, never rests, but is continually craving and wishing for more. God thought fit to starve you out, that your own wants might force you to have recourse to him. For this reason it was he left you at first unfinished. His not giving you at your creation all that you stood in need of, was an effect not of covetousness, but of love. It was not to leave you poor, but to make you humble. It was not to forsake you in your necessities, but to oblige you to address yourself to turn. For since you are really poor and blind, why do you not go to the Father that made you, and to the painter that first began to draw you, that he may give you what you have not yet received ? Consider whether David did not understand this secret, when he said, Thy hands, 0 Lord ! have made me, and formed me : give me understanding, and I will learn thy commandments ; Ps. cxviii. 73. As if he had said, all that is in me is the work of thy hands,

0 Lord ! but thy work is not yet completed. I am not quite finished, O Lord, because the eyes of my soul are not yet opened.

1 have not light enough to see what is convenient for me. Whom shall I have recourse to for the obtaining what I want, unless to him who has given me what I have ? Grant me, O Lord ! that light which is necessary for me. Enlighten the eyes of this wretch that has been born blind, that he may see thee, and that thou, O God ! may est finish what thou hast already begun in me.

7. As, therefore, there is none but this great God that can perfect the understanding, so neither is there any beside him, that can complete and rectify the will, with all the other faculties of the soul : that so he who first began the work, may finish it. It is this Lord alone, who satisfies without leaving any want, who enlarges without noise, who enriches without vanity, and gives a solid contentment, without possessing many things : with whom the creature lives, though poor, yet content; though rich, yet destitute ; though alone, yet happy ; though deprived of all things, yet possessing all. v It is upon this occasion the wise man says, with so much reason, One is as it were rich, when he hath nothing ; and another is as it were poor, though he hath great riches ; Prov. xiii. 7. By this we are taught that the poor man, who has God for his inheritance, as St. Francis had, is truly rich, and that he whom God takes no notice of is very poor, let him be ever so rich in worldly, possessions. What advantage have great and wealthy men by all their riches, if they are, nevertheless, racked with such cares and diseases, that all they have cannot give them any ease ? Or what comfort can rich clothes, a plentiful table, and chests crammed with gold and treasures, bring to an unquiet and troubled mind ? How often, and with what restlessness, does the rich man turn and toss about every night in his down-bed ; nor can all his wealth help him to the least wink of sleep, or give any rest to his disturbed conscience ? It follows, from what has been said, that we are infinitely obliged to serve God, not only on account of his benefits, but for whatsoever else contributes to the making our happiness complete.