HKB
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Often appears with: will, choice, and freedom · ungrateful and overgrateful · the nature and attributes of God · religious persecution and toleration · providence and divine governance · preservation of self · prayer and worship · pleasure, pain, and the good life · pleasure and pain connected · parental discipline · means and ends · logic, method, and demonstration
Usually: argument (4) · wonder (3) · detachment (2) · exhortation (2) · reverence (1)
“Pain has the same efficacy and use to set us on work that pleasure has, we being as ready to employ our faculties to avoid that, as to pursue this.” John Locke, An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 · insight
He argues that democratic zeal for unity can lead to oversimplifying human means, while divine unity allows infinite variety of actions toward one design, distinguishing human simplification from God’s complex means.
Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of choosing Senators. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day. Absent Members, in such Manner, and under …
Locke argues that pain serves to warn and protect, often arising from the same things as pleasure, and he claims pain’s degrees guide humans toward preserving themselves and ultimately seeking God’s joy.
4. An end and use of pain. Pain has the same efficacy and use to set us on work that pleasure has, we being as ready to employ our faculties to avoid that, as to pursue this: only this is worth our consideration, that pain is often produced by the same objects and ideas that produce pleasure in us. This their near conjunction, which makes us often feel pain in the sensations where we expected pleasure, gives us new …
Locke explains that when a person is content with their current state (no uneasiness), there is little or no industry or action; he ties this to divine design placing hunger and thirst to preserve life and the species.
34. This is the Spring of Action. When a man is perfectly content with the state he is in—which is when he is perfectly without any uneasiness—what industry, what action, what will is there left, but to continue in it? Of this every man’s observation will satisfy him. And thus we see our all-wise Maker, suitably to our constitution and frame, and knowing what it is that determines the will, has put into man the unea…
He claims the gods act by their own law and design includes human comfort, so humans owe gratitude; he adds that parents force useful discipline, and that ‘overgrateful’ or ungrateful attitudes both distort duty.
you under an obligation nevertheless; indeed, perhaps the greatest part of the benefit which he bestows is that he is ready to give even when you are complaining against him. XXIV. Do you not see how parents force children during their infancy to undergo what is useful for their health? Though the children cry and struggle, they swathe them and bind their limbs straight lest premature liberty should make them grow c…