requirean exact and particular Discussion I will first resume the Four Characters which the Scripture gives us of the Christian Church and Religion which are Truth Holiness Union and Order 1. All Christian Societies boast that they profess the Truth and that very thing is enough to shew that many of them are in Error since they do not agree among themselves about the Articles to be believed I will not enlarge on this Head because it would lead me into many Particulars and in some respect into Controversy I shall only say that if we did judge of what is to be Believed in Religion by that which ought to be the Principle and Rule of Faith among Christians I mean the Holy Scripture we would soon perceive on which side the Truth lies We might observe in that Society which vaunts it self to be the purest of all and which even pretends to be Infallible and the only True Church exclusive of all other absurd Tenets and monstrous Doctrines equally repugnant to Scripture and Reason and we should be convinced that the Doctrine of those Churches which did separate from that Society is much more consonant to the Gospel 2. We must have a very mean Notion of Christianity if we can believe that Holiness which is the second Character of the Church is to be found among Christians at this time The complaint of the last Ages was That Religion wanted to be Reformed in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Manners It was reformed in part by the rejecting of those Errors and Abuses which were crept into Doctrine Worship and Discipline but the Reformation of Manners is still behind The People have not as yet been Reformed in this regard except perhaps in those Times and Places where they have been Persecuted As for the rest they have scarce changed any thing besides their Belief and Worship this alone proves that the State of the Church is yet imperfect Holiness is the Scope of Religion it is the chief Character of Christianity so that where Holiness and purity of Manners is not Religion must be very defective III. Union Peace and Charity as was said before are one of the essential Marks of the Disciples and Church of Christ But where is this Character to be found The Church at this Day is Rent into Factions and Parties We cannot say that there is but one Church we must say that there are many Religions and Churches Christians divide not only upon Lawful Grounds which make Separation necessary but about things of small Consequence Upon the least diversity of Opinions they pronounce Anathema against one another form different Sects and Communions Even those Churches which might have a common Belief and Interest are not united Those Men who by their Office should be the Ministers of Peace are but too often the Fire-brands of Division I desire no other Proof of this but that Zeal which most Divines express about the Disputes of Religion and that little Disposition which is found among them to sacrifice some Opinions or Expressions to the Peace of the Church I do not condemn all Disputes without distinction for some are necessary The Apostles command the Rulers of the Church to establish with Care Pure Doctrine and to Confute those who endeavour to corrupt it They did themselves on many Occasions Dispute against false Teachers To desert the Truth when attacked were to make but little account of it This would be a betraying the Interest of Piety since Piety is always founded upon Truth Disputes become necessary when Essential Truths are to be defended Neither would I reduce all profitable or lawful Disputes to those only which concern Fundamentals There are Errors which tho' not Mortal yet are dangerous and so it is needful to oppose them And there are Truths which tho' not Fundamental are yet of great use in Religion and may serve to confirm the Principles of Christianity It is fit that such Truths should be Discussed provided this be done with Moderation and Honesty I only blame useless Disputes or these which tho' they may have their use yet are accompanied with those Passions and Disorders which blind Zeal inspires Such Controversies which are but too common are extreamly fatal to Religion We are not able to express what Mischiefs they occasion in the Church and how prejudicial they are to the progress of Christianity in general and of Piety in particular It may seem at first that because the People do not take cognizance of these Contests they should prove hurtful only to those Learned Men by whom alone they are managed but yet the whole Church feels the ill Effects of them 1. By reason of these Disputes the People are destitute of Edification or at least they do not receive all the Edification which is necessary Church-men being only full of these Study and Meditate upon nothing else in their Sermons they speak only of these Matters which take them up and which seem capital to them They have neither Leisure nor Inclination to mind things of another Nature and to set about Reforming the Manners of Christians or they do it but faintly and carelesly Whilst a Minister is very busy in his Study or Pulpit about Confuting an Adversary whom he never saw or an Error which is unknown to his whole Flock his Sheep are lost his Hearers remain possest with mortal Errors concerning Morality and ingaged in the most vicious Habits This is the Fruit of most Disputes they occasion the Ruin rather than the Edification of the Hearers 2. Disputes keep up among Christians false Zeal Hypocrisy and Licentiousness The People learn by the Example of their Teachers to place their Zeal not in opposing Vice but in understanding Controversy in adhering to certain Opinions and in bearing a strong Hatred to those who dissent from them They judge that what makes the ordinary Employment of Divines what they insist most upon what kindles their Zeal and excites in them the most violent Passions must needs be the most important thing in Religion 3. Sometimes the People take part in the Quarrels of their Teachers from whence proceed unavoidable Animosities and Divisions which extinguish Love and the Spirit of Christianity and which create insuperable Obstacles to the Peace of the Church and the Re-union of Christians Of this we have but too many Instances 4. Lastly the little Union which is in the Church is one of the great Causes of the small Progress of Christianity Christians instead of making their Religion appear Lovely and Venerable to Jews and Infidels expose it to their Contempt Instead of endeavouring to Propagate the Christian Faith and to destroy Idolatry they turn their own Weapons against themselves they mind nothing but the promoting the Interest of their particular Sects and they neglect that of Christianity in-general On the other hand Unbelievers seeing that Christians are not agreed among themselves take occasion from thence to Question every thing and they judge that there can be nothing but
with extraordinary Success CAUSE VI. Example and Custom THere is no doubt to be made but that Birth Education and Imitation are three general Principles of the Irregularities of Mons Conduct The State in which they are born gives them a Byass towards Vice Education as has been shewn in the foregoing Chapter cherishes and maintains in most Men that vicious Inclination But Custom and Example give the finishing Stroke to Mens Corruption and make Vice reign in the World with a Sovereign Sway. This Third Principle is so general and so powerful that some have thought it the chief Cause of Corruption and that we cannot better explain how Sin is propagated and transmitted from the Parents to the Children than by saying that this happens through Imitation And indeed it cannot be denied but that Men are particularly drawn into Evil by Example and Custom If this be not the primary or the only Spring of Corruption it is at least one of the principal Sources of it And therefore I thought it proper to consider this Matter here with some Attention All that I am to say in this Chapter is founded upon these two Suppositions 1. I suppose that Men love to act by Imitation and that Example is one of those things which have the greatest Force upon their Minds But when the Example is general and supported by Custom and Multitude they are yet more inclined to follow it They not only conform to Custom but they think it besides just and lawful to do so General Use is to them instead of Law by which they judge of what is innocent and forbidden And that which doth yet more forcibly determine them to follow Example and the greater Numbers is that they think it a Disgrace to do otherwise So that the Fear of Contempt added to their Inclination makes them perfect Slaves to Custom If some Remnant of Knowledge and Conscience does not suffer them to imagine that there is no Hurt in complying in all things with Custom however they comfort themselves with the Thought that the Evil they do is not very great and that if they are not innocent they are excusable at least when they can plead Example and common Practice in their own Behalf I suppose 2ly That Example and Custom are bad for the most part This I think needs not be proved and if it did this whole Treatise might afford us sufficient Proofs of it since Ignorance Prejudices false Maxims and all the other Causes of Corruption I have mentioned are so many Dispositions Sentiments and Practices which are grown Customary and are established by the most general Use But it is not so needful to prove that the Multitude of ill Examples is very great and that Custom is generally vicious as it is to shew that under the Shelter of Example and Custom Corruption is still spreading farther in the World and in the Church In order to this I shall consider the Power of Custom and Example in these three Respects With relation 1. To Matters of Faith 2ly To the Order of the Church And 3ly To Manners What I am to say upon these three Heads will discover the Source of those three great Imperfections which are observed in the Christian Church I mean Error want of Order and the bad Life of Christians 1. Matters of Faith should not be subjected to the Tyranny of Custom Religion does not depend upon Mens Fancies and Opinions The Truths of it are eternal Truths it is founded upon an immutable Principle and it is not more liable to change than God who is the Author of it And yet we see but too frequently that in Religion as well as in worldy Affairs Example is more prevalent than either Reason Justice or Truth Men do scarce ever examine things in their own Nature but Custom is the Rule of their Faith and Sentiments by this Rule the determine what is true of false what they are to believe or to reject And this Prejudice is so strong and Men have carried it so far that Multitude and Custom are looked upon as a Proof and Character whereby Christians are to distinguish Truth from Error and to judge what side they are to Chuse in Matters of Religion What is the Reason why so many People do not perceive that certain Doctrine are palpable Errors and Monstrous Tenets We wonder how it is possible in so learned and refined an Age as this is that the grossest Fables and Extravagances should still go down with Men of Parts for Divine Truths and Adorable Mysteries A Time will come when Posterity will hardly believe that ever such Opinions were received or that ever Men did in earnest dispute for or against such or such a Tenet It is only the Prejudice of Example and Multitude which do blind Men at this day They have been nurs'd up and Educated in those Persuasions they see them obtaining among Numerous Societies and that is the occasion of their Obstinacy in Error Nothing but this Inclination of Men to follow Custom keeps up in the Church those Disputes which rend it into so many different Sects The Principle and Design of most Disputes is no other but that Men will maintain at any rate the Sentiments of their Party and by this means those who are in Error instead of being undeceived are more and more Confirmed in it Every body swallows without Chewing all that is profest in the Society or Communion in which he lives and Condemns without Examination the Opions which are maintained by small Numbers or by Persons of another Country or Society Those who are prepossessed do not so much as make it a Question whether they may not be mistaken and whether the Truth may not be on the other side It is to no purpose to alledge to such People the most invincible Reasons to press them with express Declarations of Scripture or with un answerable Objections for either they do not attend to all this or if they Examine those Reasons and Objections it is with a Mind full of Prejudices and resolved before-hand to think them frivolous and not to alter their Sentiments They satisfy themselves with some sorry Argument or wretched Answer If any Scruples and Difficulties remain they shake them off in a trice and set their Conscience at rest with this Consideration that they follow the common Opinion they make no do doubt but that they are safe as long as they side with the greater Number Besides the Advantages of the World which may be obtained by the adhering to the general Opinion would fully determine them if they were not determined before and they easily persuade themselves that their Spiritual Welfare and the Truth are to be found in that Party which agrees best with their Temporal Interest 2. Custom is likewise the chief Obstacle to the restoring of Order in the Church I could here make a long Article if I would mention all the Defects which may be observed in the State of the Church and
inclined But yet we must confess that the various Circumstances of Time Plate and of the State of Religion contribute much to the progress of Piety or of Corruption in the World There are some happy Circumstances and some Times very favourable to Piety as on the other hand there are unhappy Circumstances and Times in which it is like a Stranger upon Earth the Means to promote it being then neither so effectual nor so frequent The design of this Work obliges me to consider what may be thought in this respect of the time we live in and whether this Corruption which dishonours Christianity does not proceed from the unhappiness of the Times and from the present state of the Church and Religion But we cannot succeed in this Enquiry nor pass a sound judgment upon the present state of Religion without running back to its first Origin and Nature and without taking a view of those Ages which are elapsed since its first Establishment The Knowledge of the Scripture and of History are here of great use The Scripture informs us what the state of Religion should be and History shews us the different states through which it has passed When we examine Religion by these two Rules we perceive that it neither has been nor will be always in the state it is now in It is fit in the firs place to seek the true Notion of the Christian Church and Religion in Scripture There it is that Chistianity still subsists in all its Beauty for neither the Ages which are past nor the Changes which have happened have been able to tarnish in the least the Brightness of those Native and Lively Colours in which our Saviour's Religion is set forth in Holy Writings We may take notice of four Principal Characters in the â—dea which the Scripture gives us of the Christian Church and Religion And these are Truth Holiness Union and Order 1. The first and the chief Character of this Church and Religion is the Knowledge and the Profession of the Truth this is what distinguishes Christianity from false Religions The Church is the Church of Christ no longer than while she retains the Purity of Faith and of Evangelical Doctrine It would be needless to prove this 2. The Sacred Writers represent the Church as a Society altogether Holy They name her * Eph. V. 27. Pet II. The Spouse of Christ a glorious Spouse having neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing but being holy and without blemish They call her †Heb. XII The house of the living God a holy Nation and the assembly of the first born which are written in heaven They give to Christians the glorious Titles of Kings Priests Saints Elect Children of God and New Men They speak of them as of a People separated from the World and its Vices dedicated to God and to good Works and living in the practice of Piety Temperance Justice Charity and all other Vertues 3. Union and Love is the third Character of the Church and of the true Disciples of Christ The Scripture does not speak to us of many Churches but of one of which all the Faithful are Members in what place soever they may be St. Paul says that there is buâ— one Faith one Baptism and one God the Apostles enjoyn above all things Union and Charity and they give many Precepts to maintain these and to make them flourish among Christians 4. As Holiness and Union cannot be preserved where there is no Order so the Church was to be a well regulated Society in which every thing might be done in a convenient and orderly manner And in fact there are in the Sacred Writings many Laws to this purpose We find there several regulations concerning the way in which the Church ought to be governed and concerning the calling of Bishops and Pastors and the Principal Functions of their Office The Scripture does besides appoint the exercise of Discipline the manner of proceeding in relation to scandalous Sinners and the Administration of Publick Alms. It prescribes the chief acts of Religion and Divine Worship Prayers Fasting Sacraments Preaching and some other Heads All these Laws are designed to establish Order and Piety in the Church and to banish Confusion and Scandals out of it And this order cannot be a thing indifferent since the Apostles have given us Laws about it It is not difficult to shew that most Christian Societies are hardly to be known by these Marks But before we come to that it is necessary to observe the different States through which the Church has passed from her infancy to this time II. If we consider the Church in her infancy we must acknowledge that the first Ages of Christianity were very pure in Comparison of the following But yet must take heed when we speak of the purity of the Primitive Church that we do not form to our selves too advantagious an Idea of it as if Christianity had been then in its utmost Purity and Perfection The Church in her beginnings did consist of Jews and Heathens These Men embracing Christianity did not so entirely strip themselves of their Prejudices and Customs but that they brought with them into the Church some of the Notions of Judaism and even of Gentilism It is well known that this was the first occasion of those Heresies which did stain the Purity of the Christian Doctrines and Morals and the cause of several disorders which happened in the very Times of the Apostles Besides the Apostles and the first Ministers of the Christian Religion were not able by reason of the Persecution and of the obstacles they met with to regulate all things as they would have done if the Church had been in peace We need not therefore wonder if we find Imperfections and Defects apparent enough in the state of the Primitive Church And it is of some importance to observe this not only that we may have true apprehensions concerning this matter but that we may besides obviate an unhappy Consequence which might be drawn in favour of the present Corruption from what has been known in the first Ages of Christianity No doubt but there were Disorders and Scandals at that time but we are to remember that the Church was then made up of Men who for the most part were born and had lived in Paganism and whose life had been spent in the thickest darkness of Ignorance and Vice Yet for all that the Church was then more holy and pure than she has been since or is at this day in most places This is matter of fact which cannot reasonably be contested for besides that it may be verified from the Testimony which the Sacred and some of the Heathen Authors bear to the Innocency of the Primitive Christians and that it is probable that Men were kept in awe while the Apostles were alive in the time of Miracles besidesall this I say there are two Considereations which prove that Corrupton could not be then so great or so
thus Swearing Drunkenness and the greatest of other clamorous Sins might be suppressed if great Men pleased Is it not observed besides that when a Prince is devout Devotion comes into fashion It may be that this Devotion which proceeds from the Example of Princes is not always sincere but at least it regulates Manners as to the exterior and such an outward Reformation may be a step towards true Devotion However this shews that the opinion and example of Men in Authority has a great power And surely if by their credit they can make Vice it self to be honoured would it not be much easier for them to make other Men honour Virtue since it is honourable in its own Nature I am not able to express of what Consequence the Example of great Men is either for Good or Evil. A Prince who is vicious cruel dissolute artificious or unjust is enough to infect a whole State in a very little time to banish Piety from it and to bring into repute Drunkenness Lewdnese Cheating Indevotion and all the other Vices which he allows himself in This we find by daily experience Such as the Prince is so are those about him and from these the Evil spreads upon the whole People by reason of the Credit and Authority to which they were raised and of the Influence they have upon publick and private Affairs What might not be said here of the Life which is led in the Courts of Princes Excepting some few Courts where Licentiousness is not suffered That kind of Life which is followed at Court for the generality agrees little with the Spirit of Christianity People live there altogether in a loose and worldly manner in Luxury Idleness Pomp and Pleasure There the strongest and the most inticing Temptations are to be met with and the most criminal Intrigues Adultery it self are rather a Matter of Railery than Reproach It is almost impossible for a Man to insinuate himself into the Favour of Princes and to advance his Fortune at Court unless he makes it his Maxim to dissemble his Sentiments and to speak directly against his own Thoughts The worst of it is that from thence Corruption diffuses it self almost every where so that many Disorders which are in Vogue would be unknown or at least very rare in the World if they had not been introduced by that Licentiousness which reigns in the Courts of Princes I come now to the Endeavours which Christian Magistrates ought to use for the Edification of the Church and the reviving of Piety these Endeavours relate either to Civil Matters or to Religion 1. In Civil Matters it is their Duty to restrain Libertinism and Corruption by regulating the Manners of their Subjects either by repealing the Laws and Customs which do not agree with Religion and which engage the People into the violation of the Precepts of the Gospel or by reforming the Abuses which are introduced from time to time particularly those which creep into the Administration of Justice In relation to all these things there are several Faults which the Church cannot provide against and which nothing can remedy but the Magistrates Authority 2. The other Care relates directly to Religion 1. Princes and Kings professing Christianity are bound to procure as much as in them lies the Welfare of the Church They ought to set about the establishing of Truth and Peace provided that in order to that they use no Means but such as are sutable to the Gospel They ought by their Authority to see that the Church and Religion want nothing of what is necessary for the maintaining of Order and Decency that Divine Service be duly performed that there be both Places for that Purpose and a sufficient number of Persons to take care of the Edification of the Church that those Persons may subsist honourably that they do their Duty and keep themselves within the bounds of their Calling They must not suffer Church Goods or Revenves to be applied to uses meerly Civil and when these Revenues are not sufficient it becomes their Piety and Justice to allot some part of the publick Revenues for the necessities of the Church In fine as to Manners I observed before that they may easily give a stop to Vice and Impiety to Luxury Swearing and other Scandals which dishonour the Church And if they can do this they ought to do it every Christian being bound to do all that is in his Power to promote the Glory of God 2. It is certain that Magistrates who are Members of the Church ought to protect it to maintain the Order which God has established in it and not to suffer any breach to be made there So that tho' they may regulate many things which concern Religion and tho' the Church owes them a great Regard yet they cannot without Usurpation and Injustice arrogate to themselves the whole Authority with relation to Ecclesiastical Affairs They are neither the Princes nor the Heads of the Church as they are the Princes and the Heads of Civil Society An Authority superior to theirs has instituted Religion Pastors and Discipline There is a Law enacted by the KING of Kings and the Head of the Church which clearly determines the Rights and Duties both of the Church and of the Governour of it All these are Sacred things which earthly Powers are not to meddle with They are Laws which Princes and Magistrates did submit to when they became Members of the Church with respect to these I mean still essential things appointed by the Word of God they have acquired no Right by embracing Christianity since he who becomes Member of a Society cannot by that acquire a Right to alter the natural Form and Constitution of it The Instance of the Kings of Judah shews that a Prince who professes true Religion may interpose in the Affairs of it But we must take care not to carry this Instance too far as those do who ascribe to the Magistrate a supreme Authority in the Church who allow him a Right to order every thing there not excepting Discipline the calling of Pastors nor even the Articles of Faith For besides that under the Law Kings were by no means the Judges of every thing which concerned Religion we are not to argue altogether about the Christian Religion from what was done in the Jewish Church Among â—â—e Jews the Church and the State were mixed together and in some measure undistinguished from one another That meerly spiritual Society which is called the Church and which is confined to no State or People or any particular Form of Civil Government was properly erected since the coming of Christ God acted among the Jews as a Civil Magistrate The Laws of the Jewish Religion were for the most part external Laws which might and ought to be maintained by Force and Authority The Rights of Divine Service and the Functions of Priests were very different from the Evangelical Worship and from the Office of Christian Pastors After all if we
Practice of Religion I. The Considerations to be insisted on concerning the first Head relate either to the Things which Children are to be Instructed in or to the manner of Instructing them 1. As to the Things themselves there are Two Articles upon which the Instruction of Youth ought to depend and those are the Truths and the Duties of Religion The chief Rule to be observed with relation to the Truths of Religion is to insist upon those which are the most necessary and to give a distinct Notion of them to Children And here Two Faults are committed The first is when they are not Instructed in all the Truths which are to be known in order to be a Christian the second is when such Instructions are proposed to them as are unsuitable to their Age or even useless To explain my Meaning a little further I say First that there are some essential things which Children are not at all or but imperfectly taught Among these we may reckon the knowledge of Sacred History Religion being founded upon History Religion being founded upon History and Facts it would be requisite that Instruction should begin at the Historical part of Religion and at the main Events which are related both in the Old and New Testament so that Children might know at least in general the principal Ages of the World and the most remarkable things which did happen from the Creation to the coming of our Saviour what the Flood was what were the Egyptian and the Babilonish Captivities what time Moses David the Patriarchs and the Prophets lived in what sort of People the Heathens and the Jews were and what kind of Life our Saviour led It must not be said that History is above the Capacity of Children for on the contrary it is that which is to them the easiest part of Religion which they hearken to with the greatest pleasure and which they remember best Nothing does more smoothly enter into their Minds than History all the things I have no mentioned may be taught them in a Week And this Knowledge is as necessary as it is easily acquired A Man can never understand his Religion well or be thoroughly convinced of its Truth if he does not know the Facts which is supposes We see that it was by the Means of History that God chose to instruct Mankind and that matters of Fact make up the most considerable part of the sacred Writings And therefore it is a strange thing that in Catechisms and other Instructions given to Youth History should be so little insisted upon This is visibly one of the Causes of that profound Ignorance which the greatest part of Christians live in This is the reason why they understand almost nothing of what they read or hear in Sermons and why the Doctrines which they are taught make so little impression upon them Teaching Children History gives them beforehand some Notions of the Truths and Doctrines of Christianity but yet these Truths and Doctrines ought to be proposed to them separately that they may have a more distinct apprehension of them Above all things great care should be taken to imprint upon the Minds of those who are to be instructed the knowledge and the belief of the Principles of Christianity But this likewise is not done as it should be In Catechisms as well as in Sermons particular Truths are dwelt upon and the general ones are touched only by the by This is a Fault I have observed in the very beginning of this Work Now at the same time that Children are suffered to be ignorant about many important Articles they are perplexed with divers useless or not very necessary Instruction Instead of limiting them to the essential parts of Religion their Minds and Memories are filled up with many things which they may safely be Ignorant of Some would have them understand the Disputes of Divines concerning the most curious and abstruse Questions and they are made to get several things by heart which they do not understand and which are of no great use In the mean time Children learn these things and say them without Book and being possessed with the conceit that they are as many Articles of Faith they rank among Divine Truths School terms and Doctrines of which they neither apprehend the Certainty nor the use And thus having none but intricate Ideas about Religion they do not perceive the Beauty the Solidity or the Excellence of it and they have neither true Love nor Respect for it When Children are once instructed in the Truths of Christianity it is particularly necessary to acquaint them with the Duties of it There are two distinct sorts of duties in Religion First the Duties conceming Divine Worship or Service and then the Duties of Morality The First are Adoration the Honour which is paid to God Prayer and Thanks-giving But as these Duties may be performed either outwardly or in wardly it is of very great moment to make Children apprehend that Brayer and all the other Acts of Divine Worship ought to proceed from the Heart that * John IV. God will be served in Spirit and in Truth and that without this the Worship which is paid to him either in private or in publick does only provoke his Displeasure It is not enough therefore to tell Children that they must pray to God or go to Church and to teach them some Form of Prayer to be said at certain Times and Hours All this is but external and if we go no farther if we do not carefully inform them that true Worship is Internal and Spiritual we shall make but Hypocrites of them by tenching them to pray and to perform Religious Acts. The Faults then which are committed in this point are of great Moment and we may easily perceive that Hypocrisy and Indevotion are the Consequences of this Negligence The Religion of most Christians consists only in some external Actions they think they have fulfilled their Duty when they have recited some Prayers or been present at the Publick Worship of God tho' in all they do this kind they have neither Attention nor Elevation of Heart but this Errour which is so capital and yet so common arises chiefly from hence that Children are formed only to a meer outside Devotion and Worship Young People are not much better instructed in Moral Duties I shall not enter here upon all the Consideration which the Subject might afford because I have treated of the want of Instruction concerning Morals in several places of this Treatise and particularly in the 1 Chap. of the First Part. Yet I must say that this Defect proceeds from the Instructions which are given to Youth Much greater care is taken to inform them about the Doctrines than about the Duties of Christianity The Articles of the Creed the Questions concerning the Sacraments and the other Points of Doctrine are handled and examined largely enough in Catechisms and Controversie is not forgot but the Ten Commandments are explained in so
for Morality it is there touched but very superficially And yet these are essential Articles in Divinity the Knowledge of which is necessary to those who are called to preach the Gospel to guide a Church or to direct Mens Consciences 3. Divinity-Books are for the most part too Scholastical The Method of the Schoolmens way of handling Divinity may justly be looked upon as a Defiance to Sense and Religion yet that Method has prevailed to that degree that for some Ages it was not lawful to swerve from it Of late Years indeed the School men have lost a great deal of heir Credit and in Divinity as well as in Philosophy many Persons have no longer that blind Deference for them which was paid heretofore Yet for all that a great Number of Divines do still set up that Method for their Rule and it is still as it were sacred in Colleges and Universities Common-Places to this Day savour too much of the Barbarism of the Schools and we find there but too many Remainders of that dry and crabbed Theology which had its Birth in the Ages of Ignorance Instead of those simple and clear Ideas which render the Truth and Majesty of the Christian Religion sensible and which satisfie a Man's Reason and move his Heart we meet with nothing in several Bodies of Divinity but Metaphisical Notions curious and needless Questions Distinctions and obscure Terms In a word we find there such intricate Theology that the very Apostles themselves if they came into the World again would not be able to understand it without the help of a particular Revelation This Scholastick Divinity has done more mischief to Religion than we are able to express There is not any thing that has more Corrupted the Purity of the Christian Religion that has more obscured Matters multiplied Controversies disturbed the Peace of the Church or given rise to so many Heresies and Schisms This is the thing which confirms so many Ecclesiasticks in their Ignorance and Prejudices and which keeps them from applying themselves to the solid Parts of Divinity and to that which is proper to sanctify Men. Now all these Defects are visible Causes of Corruption which may be proved by this single Consideration that it is in Common-Places that Church-men learn their Divinity Supposing then that those Books do not give them a true Idea of Religion what Religion or what Divinity can such Men Teach their People One scholastick and injudicious Author who is in Credit in Country and who is patronized by a Professor is enough to spoil the Minds of Young Divines and to bring into repute the most absurd and dangerous Opinions and Systems Tho' Catechisms are not usually reckoned among Divinity-Books yet it will not be useless to say something of them here Some great Men have bestowed their pains upon Works of this kind to very good purpose and yet in this respect there is stall something to be desired for publick Edification 1. It is to be wished that those Subject should only be treated in Catechisms which ought to be handle there and that all the Matters and Questions which are above the reach of the People and of Children or which are not necessary to Salvation should be banished from thence 2. That some essential Articles about which Catechisms are very jejune should be added to them and particularly these Three A general Idea of the History of the Bible the main Proofs of the Fundamental Truths of Religion and an exact Explication of the Duties of Morality This last Article is for the most part extreamly neglected in Catechisms nothing can be more dry and superficial than what they say upon the Decalogue 3. It would be fitting to make some alteration in the method observed in Catechisms for they are not all familiar enough School Terms or figurative Phrases are used in them which either the People do not understand or to which they affix false Ideas For instance I would not have it said That the Eucharist is the symbol of our spiritual Nourishment and of our Vnion with Jesus Christ For besides that this is not an exact Definition this Style is not proper for a Catechism These Words Symbol spiritual Nourishment Vnion with Jesus Christ are figurative and obscure Terms Would not the thing be plainer both to Children and to every Body if we should say That the Eucharist is a sacred Action and Cerremony wherein Christians eat Bread and drink Wine which are distributed in remembrance of the Death of Christ and of the Redemption wrought by him In those Works which are intended for Youth and for the Common People it concerns and Author to be clear and accurate to omit nothing that is essential to say nothing that is needless to use plain and proper Expressions and to propose nothing but what is natural and easy to be apprehended Catechisms are designed to give Children the first Tinctures and Ideas of Religion Now those Ideas we know commonly stick by them as long as they live if then they are not clear and true it is not possible for them ever to be well acquainted with their Religion III. The third sort of Books are those of Morality This important Part of Religion which regulates Manners has been treated with a great deal of solidity and force in several Excellent Works Nay it is observed that Morality is more cultivated of late than it has been heretofore But it were to be wished that the good Books of Morality we have at this Day were of a more general Usefulness than they are The best Works of this kind are above the Peoples Capacity There are various things in them relating either to the Reasoning part the turn of Thoughts or the Style which cannot be understood but by knowing and discerning Persons Almost all the Able Men who write upon Morals have this Fault that they speak too much like Ingenuous Men and do not accomodate themselves enough to the Capacity of the Readers They do not consider that they ought to be useful to every body that what seems clear to them is obscure to the greatest part of those who peruse their Writings and that a Book of Morality which is only understood by Men of Parts of Learning is of a very limited usefulness They should therefore at least in some of their Works endeavour to speak in a popular manner and to handle Matters with all possible clearness and simplicity This would be no disparagement to them and the doing it well would I think require all the Abilities Parts and Talents of the best Writers It is more difficult than is seems to speak or write in such a manner as that a Man shall say all that is proper to be said and at the same time be intelligible to all sorts of Persons But if there are good Books of Morality there are many on the other hand which have considerable Faults in them and those Faults are of great Consequence because Morality ill Explained is
A TREATISE Concerning the CAUSES OF THE Present Corruption OF CHRISTIANS And the Remedies thereof PART I. LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul s Church-yard 1700. To the Right Reverend GILBERT Lord Bishop of SARVM Chancellor of the Most Noble Order of the Garter My Lord THE Treatise I now Humbly offer to Your Lordship in English has met with a very great and general Applause in French A Second Edition of it was desired in less than two Months after the first and it is already Translated into more Languages than one But that which ought to weigh more than any other Commendation is the high value Your Lordship sets upon this Book for if the most Accomplished Writers are the best Judges of other Mens Works there lies no Appeal from Your Lordship's Judgment concerning the worth of this I have heard Your Lordship deliver Your Opinion of this Performance in a very particular manner and reckon it among the best Books that this Age has produced and that in all respects both for Piety and Learning good Sense and true Judgment Your Lorship thought fit that so valuable a Work should be put into English You were pleased My Lord to commit this Translation to my care and I could wish I had been as well qualified for that Office as I was desirous to discharge it to Your Lordship's Satisfaction But I am Conscious of my want of Abilities in this as well as in all other things and I fear the Work of the Reverend and Worthy Author who honours me with some share in his Friendship has lost several Beauties and Graces by passing through my Hands However My Lord I have rendred his Sense as faithfully as I could and that is all I would be accountable for to the Reader for if among that Variety of nice and Tender Subjects which are touched here the Author mixes any thing which does not suit with every Bodies Notions it is his Province and not mine to defend it He lives in one of the remotest Countries in which the Protestant Religion is received and in what he writes he had his own Neighbourhood chiefly in View so that his main design was to corect things within his reach to which the State of that Church which is now in eminent danger led him But I leave to your Lordship to judge whether that which he thought proper for his own Church may not be likewise of good use to others And now my Lord I do gladly embrace this opportunity to make a publick Acknowledgment of the extraordinary Obligations your Lordship has laid upon me A Post in the service of the Church is not the greatest Favour I have received at your Hands I reckon my self much more beholden to your Lordship for the benefit of your Example and Instructions which I have enjoyed several Years in your Family But here I must make a full stop and how much soever I am inclined to say a great deal upon the subject yet I know your Lordship too well to venture on it for whatever I may think I know I must say nothing The best return I can make for the large experience I have had of your Lordship's Kindness and Generosity is to put up my most hearty Prayers for the long Continuance of your Lordship's Life and Happiness and for the lasting Prosperity of your Family this I do my Lord as truly as I profess my self with all possible Respect Your Lordship 's most Humble most Dutiful and most Obliged Servant Charles Mutel THE Authors PREFACE WE have reason to wonder at the great Corruptions that at present are to be found among Christians The Religion they profess does chiefly tend to Sanctify Men and to Purge the World from Corruption and Vice and one would think it should produce that Effect since it affords such a clear Light such powerful Motives and such effectual Helps to Holiness Notwithstanding all this Whoever enquires into the Notions and Manners of Christians must have no great share of Sincerity or Judgment if he does not acknowledge that Religion has but littil influence upon their Minds and that there is an amazing Contradiction between their Lives and the Rules of Christianity This Corruption is so evident and so generally Confessed that I need not stand to prove it Taking it then for granted that Christians live in a great neglect of their Duties It is natural to enquire into the Causes of this Corruption and to consider what Remedies should be applied to it This is what I intend to do in this Treatise in hopes that such an Enquiry will not be altogether unuseful For First it may Contribute to Maintain the Honour and the Truth of the Christian Religion and to Confute Infidels and Libertines who are apt to despise it because it's Precepts are little practised If Religion say they be true and divine How comes it to pass that it has so little efficacy and that there appears so much Disorder and Licentiousness among the Professors of it To undeceive such Men and to infuse into them a greater respect for Religion it is of very great Importance to discover the Causes of the Decay of Piety and to shew that if Men are Corrupted it is not because Christ's Religion is insufficient to introduce Vertue and Order into the World But that this Evil flows from some other Cause and that if Christians did what they might and ought to do true Piety would not be so uncommon as it is amongst them A Second Advantage which may be reaped from this Enquiry is this it will appear by it that how great soever the Corruption may be It is not however as many imagine past remedy Which imagination is a most dangerous Prejudice while Men look on it as impossible to stem the Tide of Corruption and to re-establish Order and Purity of Manners in the World they do not so much as attempt it they let things go on at the same rate and so the Disorder increases and spreads farther It cannot be denied but that we Corruption is great general and inveterate but God forbid we should look upon it as an incurable Disease The Fountains of it may easily be discovered and it is not impossible to stop them I hope this will be acknowledged by those who shall attentively and without prepossession consider what is proposed in this Work Thirdly There is no means more likely to remove this Corruption than to cut off the Occasions of it That is the surest as well as the most compendious Method One of the main Reasons why so many excellent Books designed to inspire Men with a love of Religion and Piety have not all the effect that might be expected from them is that the Authors do not sufficiently observe the general Causes of the Depravation of Manners It is to little purpose to deplore the Corruption of the Age to exhort Men and to give them fine Lessons of Morality The Work of Reformation cannot
fall very short of that Knowledge they ought to have and it must be confessed that for the most part they live in shameful and deplorable Ignorance This is the Reason why Piety is so much wanting among them and why they are so Depraved and Vicious which is the Thing I will endeavour to make appear In order to this As the Christian Religion may be reduced to these Two Heads First The Knowledge of the Truth Secondly The Practice of Holiness It is fit to Enquire whether with respect to these Christians are furnished with necessary Information I shall make it appear that they are very little Instructed I. In that which concerns the Truths of Religion And II. In what relates to Manners and to the Duties of Christianity The Reflections I shall bestow upon both these Heads will I hope clearly prove That among those vast multitudes of Men who profess themselves Christians there are very few who are well acquainted with their Religion From whence it will be Natural to Conclude That they must needs be very Corrupt I. To begin with the Knowledge of the Truths of Christianity we must distinguish Two sorts of Truths in Religion The General and the Particular Truths The General Truths are those upon which the whole of Religion is founded such as these That there is a God That the Bible is a Divine Book And that the Christian Religion is True By Particular Truths I mean the various Doctrines which Religion contains and which are the Parts of it but which at the same time depend upon the General Truths as upon their Principle The Doctrine of the Sacraments of Justification and many others are of this Number Now let us consider the Ignorance of Christians in reference to these Two sorts of Truths 1. Every Man who makes use of his Reason may easily apprehend That the General Truths are the most important that they are those of which one ought chiefly to be persuaded and that without these General Truths the Particular ones would be useless nay would not be so much as Truths To Enquire Whether there be any Sacraments or how a Man can be Justified one must believe first That there is a God and a Religion For if I am not convinc'd of the Existence of God and of the Truth of Religion it would signifie little to me whether or not there were any Sacraments and all the time I should employ in the prosecution of this Enquiry would be lost This first Reflection does already discover to us an Essential and Capital Defect A great many Christians want Instruction concerning the Principles and Foundations of Christianity they do not sufficiently consider the Certainty and Importance of it Their Knowledge of Religion does seldom go further than the Particular Truths of it and does not reach the General This is so common a Fault that it may be observed even in those whole Profession it is to Study Religion and to Teach it to others Some have spent the best part of their Lives in the Study of Divinity or in Expounding the Scripture who never seriously examined the Arguments for the Truth of Christianity or the Divinity of the Scripture Some are Masters of the principal Controversies which divide Christians who would stand mute if they were called back to the first Elements of Religion and if they were to maintain against an Infidel that there is a Religion or that the Christian Religion is true The People enter yet less than the Divines into the Examination of the general Truths and there are very few who either attend to them or indeed believe them as they ought And yet the Whole of Religion depends upon a firm Persuasion concerning the Principles of Faith it is that which renders the particular Truths effectual to Salvation and which begets Piety and the Love of Virtue When a Man is persuaded that Religion proposes nothing but what is certain he immediately receives with Reverence whatsoever it teaches he feels an Inclination in himself to observe its Precepts and he believes a Judgment and another Life as if he saw them before his Eyes Such is the Efficacy of a true Faith and of a steady Persuasion about fundamental Truths But without this Persuasion it is very hard not to say impossible to adhere sincerely to Religion and to perform the Duties of it And this is the constant Source of the Corruption of Christians It may perhaps be objected that all Christians receive the general Truths of their Creeds and that these are not questioned but by Pagans and Atheists Upon which I shall make two Reflections 1. It is but too true that in the Point of Religion there is at this Day a great Number of Persons who entertain very loose Opinions and that do at least border upon Atheism These pernicious Tenets are spread wider than some People think Not only the Libertines are infected with them but even the Common People All the profane Men and Deists are not to be found at Courts in Armies or among the Learned there are some in Towns among the Vulgar and even among Country Clowns If we examine a little the Discourses and Apprehensions of Men especially of those whose Life is irregular if we do but begin to reason with them and press them we may soon perceive the Principles of Incredulity and Atheism in many of them It will be found that they are not thoroughly persuaded that there is a God and another Life or that if they do not proceed to that degree of Impiety which attacks directly the very Foundations of Religion they harbour at least this Fancy that God doth not narrowly observe Mens Deportment that he will not be so severe as to damn them for some Sins they have committed and that there is not such great Harm in gratifying ones Passions and living at the usual rate of the World These and the like Sentiments are general enough and yet they lead the straight way to Deism and tend plainly to the Subversion of Religion It would be therefore highly necessary in order to root out such dangerous Errours carefully to establish these great Truths that there is a God that this God speaks to us in his Word and that whatever the Gospel tells us of another Life is most certain This I say would be altogether needful if it were but for the Instruction of those I have now mentioned and their Number is greater than is commonly imagined 2ly We may take notice that tho' Christians profess to believe the Truths of their Religion yet that Belief is not lively and strong enough in them all It is beyond all question that most Christians are so only because they were engaged by their Birth in the Profession of Christianity but that after all they know very little of the Truth and Divinity of it They would in like manner have been Jews or Pagans if they had been born in Judaism or Paganism so that properly speaking they cannot be said to
Christianity I said that the Parâ—icular Truths and the Parts of Religion were better known which does not imply but that in this respect too Ignoranâ—â— is very great and general 1. I shall not scruple to say that theâ— are prodigious Numbers of People whâ—â—â— scarce have any Knowledge at all of thâ—â— Doctrines of Religion If all Christianâ— were obliged to render an account of theiâ— Faith if they were examined upon thâ— Articles of their Belief or the main Factâ— related in Sacred History there would appear in most of them such an astonishinâ— Ignorance or such confused and intricaâ—â— Ideas that one would hardly think theâ— more knowing than if they lived in thâ—â— darkness of Heathenism And what Religion what Piety can we look for amonâ— such Men But besides this gross and palpable Ignorance there are several defects of Instruction to be observed even in thosâ— who have or fancy that they have moâ—â— Knowledge than others I shall particularly take notice of these two 1st Those who exceed the ordinary degree of Knowledge have yet often buâ— a false kind of Light Either they do not know those Truths which they shoulâ— know or else they know them not aright They apply themselves to things which are not essential to Christianity or which â—â—e less considerable than others which â—â—ey do not study Thus in all Christian â—ocieties Instruction is commonly placed in â—â—e Knowledge of the Doctrines and Opiâ—â—ions particular to every one 's own Sect â—nd Party Whoever is able to debate â—ose Points and is skilled in Controverâ—e is said to understand his Religion â—hese Matters may perhaps have their â—â—se but there are other things which â—en are more concerned to know because â—hey are more conducing to Piety and â—et they are almost constantly neglected The occasion of this Error is that the various importance of the Truths of Reâ—igion is not duly weighed and that Religion is not studied in an orderly method Very few Persons distinguish between the more and the less necessary Things between the most useful Subjects and those which are of little Edification Most Men study Religion without Rule and to no purpose and so run out upon many unprotable Subjects That which is called Learning in Divinity or Knowledge of Religion is frequently nothing else but a heap of Notions which have no influence upon Piety or respect to Mens Salvation It is but a confused Medley wherein the least necessary Things are blended without choice and distinction with the most important I do not speak here of the perplext and unaccurate Ideas which Men often have about these Matters I pass by the false Reasonings which are sometimes used to establish the Truths of Christianity as well as those Mists which the School-Divinity has cast upon the Gospel I do only observe That the Knowledge which most Men have of Religion is not very fit to make them sensible of the Beauties of it so that when all is done it is no wonder that it should seem to many an obscure crabbed unpleasant and intricate Science and that it should have so little Effect upon Mens Minds 2dly The other Fault is that Men content themselves with bare Instruction or with the simple Knowledge of the Christian Truths while they are ignorant of their use If they do but know in an Historical manner what is believed by Christians and are able to reason about it and to discern Truth from Error they think themselves sufficiently instructed But these Instructions do not reach the Heart Among that small number of Persons who have some Knowledge there are but few who consider that this Knowledge is to be directed to a Holy Life as to its proper end and intendment and they are fewer yet who actually direct it to that end and make it subservient to the reforming of their Lives And so it comes to pass that a great many of those who are best acquainted with the Truths of Religion have yet but an imperfect and barren Knowledge of it and that with all their Attainments they live still in the darkness of Corruption and Vice II. Hitherto we have considered Ignorance with relation to the Truths and Doctrines which the Christian Faith embraces Let us now view this Ignorance with respect to the Duties which Christianity prescribes Upon this second Head we shall discover yet a greater Ignorance than upon the first For after all something may be done when we are only to infuse into Men some Knowledge of Truths and Doctrines It is usual enough to see very ill Men who in this regard are not destitute of Light But it is much harder to instruct them in the Duties of Holiness We may apply here these Words of our Saviour's * John III. 19 20. Men love Darkness rather than Light because their Deeds are evil for every one that doth evil hateth the Light neither cometh to the Light lest his Deeds should be reproved The Maxims of the Gospel and the Rules of its Morality condemn Sinners and therefore they do not care to be informed about them Those who love the World and their Sins are glad if they can enjoy the Sweets of these without Disturbance and Interruption And therefore they will not enquire much into the Moral Precepts of Jesus Christ they are loth to come at such a Knowledge as would disclose to them the Turpitude of Vice and breed Disquiet and Remorse in them Ignorance begets Security The more ignorant a Man is the fewer Stings he feels in his Conscience and the more Pleasure he takes in his Sin The very shadow of Evil frights a well-instructed Christian but Crime it self does not daunt one who is ignorant He does not hear within himself those Alarms or Reproaches which are either the Preservatives against Sin or the Remedies of it From this it may be judged already that Men are generally very little instructed in what concerns Manners But that we may â—he better understand how great the Ignoraâ—ce is in this Matter it must be observed that whoever will perform the Duties of Religion must be persuaded of their Necessâ—ty and acquainted with their Nature One cannot imagine how they can be practisâ—d by a Man who either does not know them or does not think them necessary This is the plain Reason why Men do so little addict themselves to Piety they know neither its Necessity nor its Nature 1. As the Foundation of Faith is the Belief of the Truth and certainty of those Facts and Doctrines which Religion proposes so the Ground-work of Piety is to be persuaded of the Necessity of the Duties which Christianity requires Without this Persuasion it is impossible for Men to resign up themselves to the Practice of Virtue Now one would think that all Christians should be fully convinced of this Necessity For if there is any certain Truth in Christianity it is this That the Practice of good Works is Necessary Good Works do so immediately belong to the Design and the
Directions which may facilitate the performance of all these Duties When Teachers shall go thus to work they will soon perceive some Amendment God's Blessing will accompany the use of those Means which he has appointed Christians being rightly informed will of their own accord apply themselves Virtue to Corruption will lessen by degrees and Christianity recovering its ancient Lustre will begin to appear with another Face than it does at this day CAUSE II. Prejudices and False Notions concerning Religion HOW Ignorant and Corrupt soever Men may be they cannot live absolutely without Religion very few at least can go so far If they are hindered by their Corruption to know and practise pure Christianity yet a remnant of Light and Conscience within them does not suffer them to run themselves wholly into Irreligion and to lay aside all thoughts of Salvation But to reconcile these two Principles of which one draws them off from Religion and the other leads them to it they form to themselves such Ideas of Religion as are agreeable to their Inclinations and flatter their Security and being possessed with those Ideas they confirm themselves more and more in their Corruption These false Notions and Prejudices are worse than Ignorance and prove a greater Obstacle to the reviving of Virtue and Piety It is better to deal with Men who are simply Ignorant than with People who have wrong Apprehensions and are full of Prejudices The former being not prepossessed may more easily be reclaimed but it is much harder to prevail upon preingaged Persons especially in point of Religion because while they maintain their Errors they fancy they defend the Truth and that they promote the Glory of God False Notions and Prejudices in Religion are therefore one of those Causes of Corruption which it concerns us most to take notice of I shall endeavour to point at the chief of them in this Chapter The first I shall name is the Opinion of those who think that Religion is intended only to comfort Men and to render them happy And it is no wonder that Men should commonly resolve all Religion into this The desire of Happiness is natural to Men and as they are sensible upon serious Consideration that perfect Happiness is not to be obtained in this World if it were for no other reason but that they must die they seek in Religion some Consolation and Remedy against that fatal necessity of quitting all the Pleasures and Advantages of this present Life Indeed the sense of their Corruption should restrain them from flattering themselves with the hopes of Salvation but they rely upon the assurances of the Divine Mercy which Religion gives to Men and they persuade themselves that their Sins will not obstruct their Felicity This is properly the Notion which Men entertain of Religion and that which they think it is good for But that Religion should indispensably oblige Men to fear God and to live well and that without this there is neither true Religion nor Happiness is that which is not commonly believed There is no question but that the Design of Religion is to comfort Men and to lead them to Happiness This was God's purpose in sending his Son to redeem the World But this is not the only end of Religion it is intended besides for the Glory of God and the Sanctification of Men and it does properly consist in the Service and Obedience which are paid to God Salvation is a consequence of this Service and a gratuitous Reward which God is pleased to bestow upon those who honour and fear him Nothing therefore is more absurd than the conceit of those who look only upon that side of Religion which promises Comfort and Salvation and nothing is more dangerous or more apt to make Men remiss and careless in their Duty yet this imagination is very common and if I was to define Religion by the ordinary apprehensions which Men have of it I would say that it is nothing else but a mean to bring Sinners to Heaven and to make Men eternally happy whatsoever their course and manner of Life may be But Men would not so easily promise themselves Salvation if they had not very mean and imperfect Ideas of Religion I shall therefore observe Secondly That Men commonly place Christianity either in bare Knowledge or in an external Profession or in Confidence But Holiness does not make a part of their Notion of Religion or at best it makes but a very inconsiderable part of it It is not to be denied but that Knowledge is essential to Religion and that as it holds the first rank in it so it is the Foundation of it all Nay it is impossible to engage Men to Holiness without laying first in them the Foundation of good and sound Doctrine This I have proved in the first Chapter of this Treatise An outward and publick Profession is likewise essential to Religion for one cannot be a Christian without it And further It is beyond all doubt that Religion inspires Confidence Peace and Joy The Knowledge of Christ and of the Salvation he has procured for us must naturally produce these effects Knowledge Profession and Confidence are therefore included in the Idea of Religion but as necessary as they are yet they are not sufficient Knowledge is not the whole of Religion since the Gospel as well as Experience teaches us that it may be found in the worst of Men it is not therefore a saving knowledge but when it produces Piety and Charity The Definition which St. Paul gives of the Christian Religion is that it is a knowledge of the truth according to godliness We may read what the same Apostle tells us concerning that Knowledge which is void of Charity 1 Cor. XIII As for an outward Profession it is altogether useless without Sanctity A Hypocrite may live in the Church and perform even with Applause the external Duties of Piety This we may likewise learn from Scripture and daily Experience Lastly All Confidence which is not supported by Piety is vain and deceitful The bare persuasion that one shall be saved gives no Man a Right to Salvation A very wicked Person may without any ground rely upon God's Mercy and this is what Divines call Presumption and Security * Tit. I. 1. But tho' all this is very plain both from Scripture and good Sense yet Men entertain Opinions contrary to it A great many think themselves Christians because they know the Truths and Doctrines of Christianity I do not enquire here whether all those who think they know Religion do really know it But howsoever this Knowledge true or false makes many judge most favourably of themselves it does so puff them up that they look on themselves as the Stays and Supporters of Religion Others of whom there is an infinite number imagine that so they profess the true Religion they need not fear any thing concerning their Salvation especially if this outward Profession is attended with some apparent
Zeal and some assiduity in the publick Exercises of Religion Lastly it is believed by many that God requires nothing else of Men but Confidence and that if they are in that Disposition they cannot come short of Salvation They think that in order to Salvation it is enough to acknowledge that they are miserable Sinners and to trust in he Divine Mercy and in the Merits of Jesus Christ This last Prejudice which reduces Religion to Acts of Confidence is perhaps the commonest of all And yet if we were to determine which of these Three viz. Knowledge Profession and Confidence is the least essential to Religion we must say that it is Confidence It is a thing unconceiveable and contradictory that a Man should be a Christian without Knowing and without making publick Profession of his Religion But a Man may be a Christian and a good Man too and yet want Confidence For as it frequently happens that a bad Man is animated with a false Confidence so a good Man may have a timorous Conscience and be possessed with groundless Fears Sometimes Melancholy or a want of Knowledge or of force of Mind or even Constitution may throw good Men into a State in which they feel no comfort But without insisting upon this it is visibly an Error as common as it is pernicious for Men to pretend that Knowledge Profession or Confidence are sufficient to Salvation when they are separated from the practice of Holiness It may perhaps be objected That no Man has these Opinions and that every Body acknowledges that Religion obliges Men to be Holy I grant that no Man does expresly exclude Holiness it is Confessed by all that the practice of it is necessary But yet I maintain that it is look'd upon as the least necessary thing in Religion And to prove this I need but alledge the difference which is made between Knowledge Profession and Confidence and the practice of good Works The Three first are generally pressed and recomended in another manner than the last As to Knowledge it is not without Reason represented as absolutely necessary it is said that a Man must know and believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith and whoever denies any one of them is excluded from Salvation This necessity are extended to many Doctrines which is not of the same importance with Fundamental Truths many Questions are determined and all these Decisions are made Articles of Faith If any one raises any Doubt about them he is treated as a Heretick and People cry out as if Religion was upon the brink of Ruin So that upon this Head extreme severity is used every Fault is Capital and no allowance is made for Humane Infirmity As to outward Profession the necessity of it is openly maintained and not without just Cause In this Point Man's Duty and the Precepts of the Gospel are rigorously pressed The least dissembling of a Man's Belief the least Act of unlawful Worship is called Apostacy It is declared that Men are bound upon pain of Damnation to forsake and suffer all rather than do any thing against their Conscience In relation to this nothing is remitted or softned and the weak and timorous are no ways indulg'd As to Confidence it is spoken of in such a manner as makes People conceive that it is the more effectual to Salvation the firmer it is and the more removed from doubt The greatest Sinner relies boldly upon the Mercy of God and does not question but that he has a Right to apply to himself all the Promises of the Gospel provided he believe that is to say as it is meant so he has but Confidence enough But when the practice of good Works is Discoursed of the Declarations of the Gospel are not pressed with the same rigor That Zeal which upon all other Heads hearkens to no Accommodation becomes here very tractable and a great deal of remisness appears as to this Article The Doctrines are pressed Publick Profession is strictly enforced and Confidence is highly recommended But it is said That Moral Duties must not be so severely urged and that something is to be allowed for Humane Frailty And yet it seems that as the Scripture inculcates nothing so much as the necessity of a good Life so it were necessary to insist as much at least upon this Point as upon any other and that it should not be rank'd as it is in the lowest Degree and among the least necessary Things One would think likewise that the pressing Sanctification is to require nothing of Men but what is as easy if not more than certain other Duties which are absolutely imposed on them upon pain of Damnation such as the forsaking all that is dear to them in this World and the suffering of Death in time of Persecution But without enlarging upon this Subject it is evident that the generality of Christians do not believe that Holiness is so essential a part of Religion as it really is and that they do not well understand the nature of Christianity from whence it necessarily follows that they must neglect the practice of Holiness But there are some Prejudices which do yet more directly attack Piety and they are those which People entertain concerning Piety and Morality it self I shall instance this first in the Opinion of those who pretend that Morality is not of such great Moment in Religion who speak of it with Contempt and cry it down and who unreasonably setting Faith in opposition to Good-works maintain that it is enough to believe and that those who insist upon Morals do not apprehend the Nature of the Gospel Now one would think that such Absurd and Unchristian Imaginations should be universally rejected but because whatever gratifies Corruption is usually welcome to Men these Opinions have their Advocates even among Divines as might easily be shewn from the Printed Works of some Authors who seem to have had a design to disparage Good-works and to oppose the necessity of Sanctification This Prejudice overturns the Foundations of Morality by destroying its necessity and rendring it Contemptible I only give here a hint of it because I am to shew in other Places that it is the heighth of Extravagance thus to set up Faith against Morality to ascribe all to the one and to speak but very slightly of the other And yet some People do not stop here They think it is dangerous to insist so much upon Morality nay some have proceeded so far as to say This was one of the Characters of Heresy I confess this Opinion is not very common It ought not to be imputed to the People nor even to the Libertines None but a few Conceited Divines have had the face to maintain it which by the by increases the Scandal that is occasioned by such Propositions I am willing to believe that those who advance them qualify them with some Restrictions and that they are not sensible of the terrible Consequences which flow from them but that they have
been betrayed into the Speaking or Writing of such things either through some Prejudice or through the heat of Dispute But after all if these Propositions were strictly taken and set out in their true Colours they could not but be looked upon as false rash scandalous and capable of producing most dismal Effects especially being asserted by Divines and if we did not judge charitably of the Intentions of their Authors we might justly say That those who dare disparage Morality and insinuate that the pressing it is a Mark of Heresy do themselves publish a most pernicious Heresy Can it be a Mark of Heresy to insist upon that which our Saviour has so vehemently pressed which is the only thing he inâ—â—â—â—â—â—s in his Sermon upon the Mount * Mat. 5.6 7. which the Apostles perpetually â—â—ge in their Epistles †1 Tim. â— 5 â— John 3.8 and declare to be the end of our whole Religion and the Character whereby the Children of God are discriminated from the Children of the Devil and without which both Christ and his Apostles assure us * Mat. 7.21 Heb. 12.14 that no Man shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven By this the Truth of Religion is as much struck at and injured as Piety it self It gives one an Indignation to see that the Honour of defending Vertue and Piety should be yielded up to Hereticks To say that for the most part Hereticks are strong upon the Head of Morality is in a manner to give up the Cause it is the ready way to confirm them in their Errors and it does basely to ascribe that to Heresy which belongs to True Religion and is the Glory of it It would be to no purpose to alledge that some Hereticks have writ upon Morality with good Success For granting this to be true it is not a Token of their Heresie on the contrary so far they are Orthodox Some Orthodox Christians have recommended Morality as much and better than the Hereticks because they have established it upon the Foundations and Motives which pure Doctrines afford On the other hand there have always been Hereticks who did subvert and ruin Morality as for instance those who are described by St. Paul in the 2d to Timothy and by St. Peter in his 2d Epistle It is then very unreasonable to say That a thing which neither agrees to all Hereticks nor to Hereticks alone is a Mark of Heresy There is much more reason to charge those who speak so injuriously of Morality with maintaining a Heresy which comes very near that of the Gnosticks who were opposed by the Apostles and Condemned and Detested by the whole Church as Corrupters of the Morals of the Gospel But tho' the greatest part of Christians reject the Opinions I have now mention'd and acknowledge the Excellency of Morality yet they form to themselves too easie a Notion of the Duties of it This is another Prejudice which does not a little contribute to that neglect of Piety they live in The Notion of those who think that the Practice of Piety is easy is true in the main * 1 Jâ—hn 5.3 God's Commandments are not grievous †Mat. 11.30 And Christ's yoke is easy and his burthen light We should therefore always suppose that it is not difficult to lead a good Life and to work out one's Salvation But the Error lies in imagining too great an easiness in this and in not considering aright the Nature and the extent of the Duties of Morality There are but few whose Notions in this Matter come up to the Standard of the Gospel and to that Perfection which Christians are to aim at Few understand to what degree the practice of Vertue is to be carried As for the purpose what sort of Justice Equity Honesty Disinterestedness Purity or Charity becomes a Professor of Christ's Religion Instead of rising up to that high and sublime Pitch of Morality which the Gospel demands and instead of being acted by Noble Views and Designs worthy of Christianity Men commonly take up with mean and slight Apprehensions of it According to the general Opinion a very extraordinary and elevated Vertue is not requisite in order to be a good Man It is enough for a Man if he is not a notorious Villain or a profligate Wretch and if he observe some of those Duties which have a shew of Sanctity Thus Holiness is reduced to the lowest Degree of Vertue or rather to the least degree of Sin it is brought to very little and yet that little is often neglected for Men never go so far in Practice as they do in Speculation they always do less than they think themselves bound to do so that their Actions still fall short of the Idea which they form of their Duty 6. What Judgment then are we to make of Christians now a-days Tho' they should Act suitably to their Notion of Piety and Morality yet they would discharge their Duty but very indifferently because that Notion is but low and defective But yet as mean and imperfect as it is their Practice does not reach it They frequently allow themselves in things which are against their own Conscience and tho' they violate the clearest and the easiest Rules of Vertue yet they fancy those to be Sins from which no Man is free and which will however be forgiven At this rate Corruption must needs be very great But as Men often form to themselves too easie a Notion of Piety so they have sometimes too severe an Idea of it It may perhaps seem at first sight that it is not very necessary to remark and confute this Prejudice The general depravation of Manners seems to make it evident that the Notions which prevail at this time are not the rigid ones and that Men do not much trouble themselves about the Rules of too austere a Devotion or Morality But yet it is usual enough for Men to run into this other extream and such an excessive severity is not so inconsistent as it may be thought with the Corruption of Manner For tho' many frame to themselves too hard and rigid a Notion 〈◊〉 Piety yet they do not think themâ—â—lves bound to live according to it but â—â—ey leave those Maxims to the Devout â—â—d they imagine that so much Piety is â—ot necessary so that they fashion to â—â—emselves a commodious Religion and â—â—ch a Morality as has nothing that is trouâ—â—esom or difficult in it Howsoever there are many who look â—pon Piety as an austere thing they conâ—â—ive it to be an enemy to all Joy and that 〈◊〉 debars Men of all Pleasure so that it â—roduces nothing but Sadness and Meâ—â—ncholy And they are besides possessed â—ith this Error that the Practice of it is â—â—easie and difficult or even impossible â—ut why do Men judge of Piety with so â—uch Prepossession and Injustice This â—roceeds from two Causes The first is their Carnal Disposition They are incapable of relishing any other â—leasures but those of the
Body or of this â—resent Life because they are accustomed â—o be governed only by their Senses and â—hat is enough to represent Piety to them â—s sower and distaful not only because it â—oes not procure to them those gross pleaâ—ures but because it does likewise in many â—ases oblige them to renounce them The Second Reason why Men entertain this Prejudice against Piety is that it 〈◊〉 not represented to them in its true shapâ— And here first there is a great deal of him done by the false Pretenders to Devotion who affect a mournful and severe outward appearance and whose behaviour is ofteâ— intollerably stern and savage In the nexâ— place profane Men contribute to this Mischief for as they neither know nor lovâ— Religion so they make odious Pictures oâ— it and they take a delight in carrying the Notions of Devotion too far that it may appear ridiculous Thirdly There are several well-meaning Persons whose Zeal being not regulated and softned by a discreet and prudenâ— Knowledge gives an occasion to those unfavourable Judgments which the World passes upon Piety Such People think that it is the Duty of a Devout Person never to be seen but in an austere Appearance and with a dejected look they are continually censuring and never pleased their Zeal is either Superstitious Scrupulous or Ignorant Sharp or Unseasonable and so it is extremely apt to alienate Mens Minds from Devotion and Piety Fourthly Some Divines and Moralists confirm this Prejudice by their way of recommending the Practice of Piety both in their Publick Discourses and in their â—ooks Religion and its Duties are ofâ—en proposed to the People from the Pulâ—it in such a severe and frightful manner â—s is not very fit to make it appear lovely â—o Men who for the most part have alâ—eady a Prejudice against it We find too â—igid a Morality and several strained Maxâ—ms in many Sermons and Books of Devoâ—ion And it may perhaps be of some â—â—se to give here some Instances of this â—ind When Worldly-minded Men are told â—hat Salvation is a most difficult thing â—nd that whoever will obtain it ought to â—pend his Life in perpetual mourning This is no great attractive to gain them â—o the love of Religion Such Maxims may be true in some respect but they are false and extravagant when they are proposed without Distinction or Explication By the Descriptions which are sometimes made of the Vanity of the World and of Devotion one would think that a Man cannot live like a Christian without laying aside all secular Concerns and Business and giving up himself to Solitude and Retirement Now this is what few Men are capable of and besides it is against the Order of Providence which has placed us in the World to live and labour in it and to enjoy the good things which the Divine Liberality has provided for us That which is asserted by some Moralists concerning the Love of God and their Zeal for his Glory supposes that Men are obliged to think actually upon God at all times and to have a positive intention to promote his Glory in all the actions of their lives But such Morality to say no more is absurd and impossible to be reduced to practice It is not possible for a Man to have God always in his thoughts and to make pious Reflections upon every step he takes or every word he speaks And there are such Actions in Life which cannot without Profanation be referred to the Glory of God by a direct intention St. Paul indeed enjoins us * 1 Cor. X. 31. to do all things to the glory of God But this Rule is not to be taken in the utmost strictness nor extended to all particular Actions It is enough to have a sincere and general intention to procure God's Glory and to do ones duty upon all occasions In order to which these Four Things are necessary 1. That we should not fail to think of God actually in all those Actions that require it 2. That if by reason of the present State we are in we cannot think on God at all times and in all our Action we should at least think often upon him and make frequent Reflections upon our own Conduct 3. That in indifferent Actions we should not abuse our Liberty but demean our selves according to the Rules which the Gospel prescribes and that we should especially have a great regard to the Edification of our Neighbour it being particularly in that sense that this Commandment of doing all things to the Glory of God is to be understood 4. That we should love God above all things and that it should be our chief Care and Endeavour to Obey him and to advance his Glory to the utmost of our Power How many Scruples have been infused into Mens Minds by straining the sense of this Declaration of our Saviour's * Mat. XII 36. Men shall give an account at the Day of Judgment of every idle word that they shall speak What Inferences have not been drawn from this Place to fill good Men with dread and terror It is Expounded as if all Discourses which neither contribute to the Glory of God nor to the Edification of our Neighbours nor to the promoting of our own Salvation were those idle Words of which Men are to give an Account to God And yet it does not appear that Words purely idle are always sinful or that they deserve the severe threatning which our Saviour denounces here We cannot forbear talking every Day of many indifferent things and holding several Discourses which do neither good nor harm Indeed if this should grow into a Habit if we should for the most part speak only of trifling and frivolous Things it would be a Sin But I do not apprehend what hurt there can be in talking now and then of News of Rain or of the Weather Certainly these are not the Words which are meant in this Declaration The Place where we find it and the Terms in which it is conceived do manifestly shew our Saviour's meaning to be this That Men shall give an Account at the Day of Judgment of all the Wicked and Impious Words which they have spoken and that the Pharisees particularly should be answerable to God for the Blasphemies which they uttered against his Miracles These strain'd Maxims produce very pernicious Effects They expose Piety to the Flouts and Contempt of Libertines and they discourage great Numbers from it Young People especially are by this means disgusted with Religion and they take up an Aversion to it which they seldom shake off afterwards They accustom themselves in that Age which is so sensible of Pleasure to look upon Piety under an austere and melancholy Form whilst on the side of the World and of their Passions they see nothing but sweetness and charms Between these Two Objects one of which is so enticing and the other so disgustful it is easy to imagine which side they will chuse They run into the embraces
of the World with the full swing of their Affections But as to Religion they must be urged and driven and it is much if they can be brought to make some steps towards it Even good Men being discouraged by this excessive severity do not make that progress in Sanctification which otherwise they might Their Consciences are disturbed with troublesom Scruples and continual Fears It is therefore very necessary to remove this Prejudice by representing Vertue and Piety under that easy and agreeable shape which is natural to them and by proposing such Ideas of Religion as may neither on the one hand produce Security and lull Mens Consciences asleep nor on the other hand involve them in groundless Scruples But if Men are averse to things austere and painful they are wont likewise to despise those who they think have somewhat what in them that is mean and ridiculous And there are many who have such an Opinion of Piety Which proceeds first from the Ignorance and Corruption of Men who because they are not well acquainted with Religion or are possessed with false Notions of Honour look with Contempt upon every thing which does not agree with the prevailing Customs and Maxims of the World And then we may take notice besides that Libertines do sometimes observe either in that Religion which obtains in the Society wherein they live or in the Deportment of those who have the reputation of being Devout several things which lead them into this Opinion With relation to Doctrines they find certain Articles which Men of good Sense cannot digest and they perceive manifest Abuses in the Worship they see the People amused with Childish Devotions which savour of nothing else but Superstition Credulity or Bigottry Some of those who do profess Devotion seem to them to hold Opinions contrary to sound Reason and to have some odd and ridiculous ways with them They perhaps observe in the Ministers of Religion several Whimsies Ignorances and Weaknesses they do not always find the best Sense in Discourses of Piety neither do they think the Idea which is given them of Religion and it's Duties to be True Rational or Satisfactory From all this they conclude that to give themselves up to it would be a disgrace to them that it is calculated only for the Vulgar and for weak Minds and that the being neither Pious nor Devout argues a strength and a greatness of Soul This certainly is a most false and unjust Prejudice There is nothing more serious nor more worthy of Esteem and Respect than Religion and it is the highest pitch of Injustice to take an Estimate of it by the Errors and Weaknesses of Men. But yet this Prejudice is very common Lastly We are to rank among the Prejudices and false Notions of Men concerning Religion the Opinions of those who are Infatuated with mystical Piety and Fanaticism And it is the more necessary to caution Men against those Opinions because they are grown of late Years to be very common Fanaticism spread very much and there is scarce a Country in Europe where it does not obtain under various Denominations and where it has not occasioned some Disturbance It would be difficult to give here an exaâ—â— Account of mystical Piety and Fanaticism It is a Subject upon which we cannot speak very clearly because we can hardly have perspicuous and distinct Ideas of it besides that the Mysticks are not agreed among themselves They are a Sect which is sub-divided almost to Infinity For not to mention the Anabaptist the Quakers the Quietists and all those who come up to the heighth of Fanatical Extravagances there are many particular Sects which would scorn the Name and yet are wholly or in part possessed with the Principles of the Fanaticks But in the main here is their Character They are almost all agreed in one thing which is that they make but very little count of Outward Means and of those Acts which concern the Exterior of Religion such are the Order of the Church Government Discipline Preaching Liturgies and the publick Exercises of Devotion All these if we believe them are to be considered as the first Elements of Piety which are useful only to imperfect Christians They have no great Esteem neither for those Labours and Studies by which Men endeavour to acquire Knowledge They reason little about Religion and for the most part they alledge no other Arguments for the Articles of their Belief but the inward Sense they have of them They do not condemn Morality and Good-works but among themselves they speak but feebly of them and in such a strain as lessens considerably their usefulness and necessity They say That our Works are nothing but Desilement and Abomination that God does not look upon Works and that Man ought not to judge of his Condition by them but that all depends upon Faith and an Union with God Hence it is that those Books which lay a great stress upon the Practice of Christian Virtues do not relish best with them They prefer Contemplations Meditations and inward Recollections before an active Life and the practice of Morality Nay there are some who think that all the care which Men use and all the efforts that they make to advance in Piety signifie but little According to them the way to Perfection and solid Vertue is for a Man to be in a State of inaction to go out of himself to annihilate himself to have neither Thoughts nor Desires nor Will but to be as it were dead in the sight of God for thus they express themselves in figurative and mysterious Words Under pretence of ascribing all to God they assert that Man is a meer Nothing and an Abyss of Misery that in order to be Happy it is enough for us to be sensible of our Nothingness and to wait in Silence and Tranquility till God is pleased to work his Will in us and that when the Soul is thus in the State of inaction and entirely abandons it self to God then it is that God speaks to and operates in it What they say concerning Man's Nothingness does not hinder but that most of them pretend to be in a State of Perfection and look upon the rest of Christians as Carnal Men who are yet in darkness and who never tasted that which they call the Heavenly Gift I might relate here their refining upon Divine Love and upon Prayer but what I have said is sufficient to discover the Spirit and Character of Fanaticism I am far from charging all those who hold these Opinions with Hypocrisy and Impiety I am persuaded that there are good Men amongst them who are not sensible of their Errors so that I cannot but blame the severity which is used towards them in some Places and the odious Imputations that are cast upon them in order to vilify them all without distinction If they err it is for the most part thro' Weakness and Prepossession rather than thro' Malice Nay it may be said in their
behalf that these Illusions would not have grown so Common if there had not teen a general and in some measure an incurable Corruption in the World But they saw every where a prodigious decay of Piety and little hope of amendment For what may we not say of the present State of Christianity There is in many Places an Ignorant and Superstitious Clergy and People whose whole Religion consists in Ceremonies and in Devotions which are merely External and often Ridiculous above all there appears in those Places a Deluge of Immorality Is it then to be wonder'd at that Quietism and Fanaticism should rear up their Heads in such Places These gross Abuses do not indeed prevail everywhere but generally speaking there is but little of true Piety among Christians there is scarce any Order or Discipline left amonst them Men live as they please the Sacraments are prophaned the Precepts of the Gospel are trampled under foot Charity and Honesty are almost entirely banished No Man sets about the redressing of these Disorders Church-men make it their Capital Business to maintain their Disputes and their Tenets and they apply themselves but faintly to the reforming of Manners Religion being upon this Foot many who had good Intentions could not but perceive that this was not true and genuine Christianity But because they saw no likelihood of Things being brought to a better posture or because they wanted Capacity to find out the Occasions and Remedies of so great an Evil or lastly because they were Men of weak parts they hearkned to those who proposed to them this Mystical Piety This is the Cause of the progress of Fanaticism and the Reason why some Persons of Vertue and Piety are engag'd in that Party And therefore the true way to reclaim them would be to re-establish Order in the Church and to labour for the Reformation of Manners As long as these are neglected all the Precautions and Methods used against Fanatick's by the Clergy or by the Magistrate will either prove unsuccesful or be found contrary to the Spirit of Christianity But after all this Spirit of Fanaticism is highly pernicious For first it opens a Gap to all manner of Licentiousness Not to mention the Mischiess which may redound from thence upon Civil Society Mystical Piety is at large Fountain of Illusions it leads Men into endless Errors and it is apt to turn all Religion upside down for as it is lodged only in inward Sentiments it cannot happen otherwise but that vast Numbers of Men who either want Knowledge or Strength of Parts will take the wandrings of their own Fancies for Divine Inspirations I know that some of those Contemplative Men acknowledge the Scripture for the Rule of their Faith and read it carefully but the mischief is that thro' their Prejudices they fix a wrong Sense upon it so that what they read does but confirm them in their Errors Their Expositions are very singular they do not affix to Words the same Ideas which other Men do they forsake the literal Sense to run after mystical Explications suitable to their preconceived Notions they reject or make very light of those Helps which the Knowledge of Languages History and the Scope of Sacred Writers afford and it is one of their Principles That Women Mechanicks and the most simple People are able to understand the Scripture as well if not better than the most Learned Doctors 2. Fanaticism is an Evil which is hardly to be remedied A Heretick or a prophane Person may sooner be undeceived than a Man intoxicated with Mystical Devotion for these will Reason but the other will hearken to no Reasoning so that he is Proof against all the Arguments which can be offered to him It is in vain to Dispute with People who look on all those who are not of their Mind as Ignorant Men who think themselves Illuminated above the rest of Mankind and who return no other Answer to the Objections urged against them but that they are otherwise persuaded in their Minds There is no good to be done upon them either by Reasoning or by Sense of which they make but little use or even by the Scripture wherein they seek nothing less than the literal meaning 3. Tho' Mystical Men profess a sublime Piety yet their Principles favour Corruption more than one may be apt to imagine How can we reconcile those Maxims concerning Contemplation Inanition and Silence with that Activity Zeal and fervour which the Scripture recommends If Man is a mere Nothing if he is to wait patiently till God works his Will in him and speaks to his Soul it is in vain to exhort Men and it would be to no purpose for them to use any endeavours on their part Besides that Contempt of outward means which the Mysticks express makes way for a total neglect of Devotion introduces Disorder and Licentiousness and is directly opposite to God's design who thought fit to prescribe the use of those means I might add that the Principles of Fanaticism are commodious enough for Sinners so that I do not wonder that some of them should go over to that Party A Devotion which consists in acknowledging a Man's own Nothingness or in Contemplation and Silence is much more acceptable to a Corrupt Person than an exact Morality which obliges a Man to do acts of Repentance to put his own hand to the work and to set about the reforming of his Life and the practising of Christian Virtues Upon the whole matter Fanaticism makes Religion contemptible because the Men of the World confound true with Mystical Piety They fancy that a Man cannot be devout without being something Visionary and Enthusiastical and that Devotion does not well agree with Sense and Reason The Prejudices I have mentioned in this Chapter are not the only ones which foment and cherish Corruption some others might have been added but they may more conveniently be ranged under the Titles of some of the following Chapters What I have said in this does yet farther shew the necessity of good Instruction which may conquer these Prejudices and give Men true Notions of Religion and Piety CAUSE III. The Maxims and Sentiments which are made use of to Authorise Corruption IT has been shewn in two preceding Chapters that Men are generally involved in Ignorance and that they entertain such Notions concerning Religion and Piety as must of necessity maintain Corruption in the World But they are likewise possest with divers particular Maxims and Sentiments which lead directly to Libertinism A modern Author very well observes * New Moral Essays Tom. 1. in the Preface That People are not only very little acquainted with the extent of that Purity which the Gospel requires but that they are besides full of Maxims incomparably more pernicious than Errors of pure Speculation These Maxims do the more certainly produce Corruption because they are used to Authorise and Countenance it And in fact Mens Blindness and Licentiousness are come to that
pass that not being contented with the practice of Vice they do besides plead Authority for an ill Life They proceed so far as to defend the Cause of Corruption they dispute with those that condem them and they vent such Maxims and Sentiments as if we believe them will justifie or at least excuse all their Disorders I could not omit here the examining of those Maxims since their effect is so pernicious I shall therefore observe them as the third Cause of Corruption The Maxims and. Sentiments which favour Corruption are of two sorts Some are visibly Profane and Impious such are a great many Maxims of the Libertines which go for Currant in the World But there are others which Men pretend to draw from Religion I shall insist particularly upon the latter because as they are taken from Religion it self they are by much the more dangerous When Profane People undertake to defend Vice with Maxims wich are manifestly impious we stand upon our guard against them and we may confute them by the Maxims of Religion But when they employ Religion and the Truths of it in the defence of Vice the danger of being feduced is infinitely greater I shall reduce the Maxims which are made use of to Authorise Corruption to these Four Orders I rank those in the First Order by which Men endeavour to prove that Holiness is not absolutely necessary The Second Order contains those which tend to shew that the practice of Holiness is impossible The Third Comprehends those which insinuate that it is dangerous for a Man to apply himself to good Works The Fourth and the Last includes those which are alledged to excuse Corruption But as it is not less necessary to know the Remedies against Corruption than to discover the Causes of it I shall not only mention but as I go on Confute those Maxims Although nothing is more clearly asserted in the Gospel than the necessity of Good Works yet Christians entertain many Opinions which destroy this necessity and which consequently open a Door to Licentiousness The necessity of Good-works cannot be overthrown but one of these two ways either by saying that God does not require them or else by maintaining that tho' God requires them yet a Man may be Saved without the Practice of them 1. In order to prove that God does not require Sanctity and Good-works as a Condition absolutely necessary to Salvation these two Maxims are abused 1. That we are not saved by our Works And 2. That Faith is sufficient to Salvation The first of these Maxims is intended to exclude Good-works and by the second Men would substitute another Mean for obtaining Salvation I referr the Discussing of these Two Maxims to the next Chapter because they are drawn from the Holy Scripture II. Men endeavour to persuade themselves that tho' they neglect Holiness yet for all that they shall not be excluded from Salvation And that which contributes most to flatter them in this Imagination is first The Notion they have formed to themselves of the Mercy of God God say they is Good and will not judge us with the utmost rigour This is said every Day and it makes every Body hope for Salvation The Divine Mercy indeed is without question the only ground we have to hope for Salvation But the vilest Affront we can offer to that Mercy is to make it an occasion of Security Because God is Good and Merciful must not we therefore endeavour to please him May we freely offend him because he is Good and we hope he will forgive us Those who Reason at this rate understand very little what the Divine Mercy is They must suppose that it extends indifferently to all Men without any regard to their Obedience or Disobedience But this Supposition is evidently false and contrary to the Holy Scripture The Effects of God's Mercy are promised only to those who fear him and depart from evil and by consequence it is a false and pernicious Maxim to say So much Holiness is not necessary God is Good and he will not mark severely what is done amiss This is to ascribe to God an easiness and a connivance utterly unbecoming the Sovereign Judge of the World It is said besides That God will not judge us rigourously That indeed is true God is indulgent towards us and the Gospel is a Covenant of Grace in which God has a great regard to our present Condition and Weakness But it is likewise certain that God will judge us according to the rigour of the Covenant of Grace and that no Salvation is to be had for those who do not fulfil the Condition of the Gospel now this Condition is a true Faith inciting us to Holiness This must be granted and we must acknowledge the necessity of performing this Condition and of leading a Holy Life or else the Gospel is but a Jest and we must say That God does not speak seriously in it that indeed he prescribes certain Conditions that he Commands and Threatens but that nothing of all this is to be strictly understood so that tho' a Man does not comply with the Conditions which God require yet he shall feel the Effects of his Clemency If this is true there is an end of Christian Religion 2. It will no doubt be replied That provided vided a Man Repents and asks God's forgiveness he shall be Saved This is an unquestionable Truth so by Repentance we mean that which the Gospel requires and which consists in a sincere detestation of Sin in true Conversion and Amendment of Life But this is false if by Repentance we mean only a general Confession of Sins accompanied with some sense of grief and fear whereby Sinners hope at the Hour of Death to attone for all the disorder of a Vitious Life I would shew here that this is no saving Repentance but that I am to handle this Matter purposely in another Chapter If Men commonly neglect those things which are not very necessary they apply themselves much less to those which they think to be impossible Now this is the Notion which Men commonly have of Piety It is said first That it is impossible for a Man to be so Holy and to do that whiâ— God Commands A great many like the Precepts of the Gospel very well and acknowledge their Justice and Excellency Would to God say they we might live thus but we are not able to do it And being possest with this Opinion they use no endeavour to practise those Duties which they own to be Just or to attain to that Holiness to which God calls them And indeed what Man would attempt that which he looks upon as impossible Now what is said of Man's Incapacity to do good is very true when we speak of Man considered barely as Man in the corrupt State of Nature But the Question is Whether those whom God has rescued out of that State and called to the Communion of the Gospel are incapable to arrive at that degree
Christian ought to know is that God has placed him in this World not to offend but to glorifie and serve him The Gospel tells us every where that this Life is the time which God gives us to sanctify our selves in That this Earth is the Place where Christian Vertues are to be pracised that now is the time to labour to walk to fight and to sow if we intend to obtain Salvation and that whoever neglects these Duties shall be shut out of Heaven In the Life to come these Opportunities will be over the Door will be shut and the Sentence which God shall pronounce at the Day of Judgment will be founded upon that which Men do in this Life Nay we may draw an Argument from the nature of Holiness it self to demonstrate that the practice of it is not referred to another Life The greatest part of the Duties which God prescribes such as Repentance Patience Chastity Sobriety Almsgiving and Hope cannot be practised in Heaven Here then is the Time the Place and the Opportunity to perform these Duties Let us reflect upon what St. Paul says in his Epistle to Titus Chap. 11. There he declares That the Grace of God which brings Salvation teaches Men to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World That is In this Life and upon Earth and then he adds looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the Great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ He makes a distinction between the Duty and the Hope of a Christian between this World and that which is to come This Life is the time and this World the place wherein we ought to practise Temperance Justice and Godliness It must not be asked Where the difference then lies between this Life and the other between Grace and Glory For the difference is great and sensible enough in other Respects In the next Life we shall be perfectly Holy our Holiness will be of another Nature than it is here we shall be like the Angels and as we shall practise no longer a great many Duties which we practise here on Earth so we shall exercise many Vertues which cannot be exercised in this Life 4. I ought not to omit here another Maxim which is not only very common but is likewise most pernicious by reason of the use that is made of it Some say That there was always and that there will always be Corruption that this is the way of the World that Men will always be men and that the World will not change It is necessary to dwell a little upon this Maxim because it is specious and tends as well as the former to make Men believe that Corruption is necessary and unavoidable It has besides a general Influence upon the Subject Matter and Design of this Book for it is to little purpose to descant upon the Sources of Corruption if there is no amendment to be hoped for I have four Things to say upon this Maxim 1. The Inference which is made from it is absurd For tho' an Evil is general it does not follow that it is to no purpose to endeavour to keep our selves free from it unless it were an Evil from which Men could not possibly preserve themselves There have been always and there will always be Diseases in the World and yet no Man hitherto has been so weak as to maintain that the Precautions and Remedies which are used against Diseases are altogether useless Thus tho Corruption reigns in the World yet that does not hinder but that Men ought to use their best endeavours to escape it and it does not prove but that they may actually avoid it if they use those means which God affords them to that end 2. This Maxim is founded upon a false Supposition For tho' it is true that there has been always and that there will always be Corruption in the World yet it ought not to be supposed that this Corruption is alike at all times or that things are always to be in the same state they now are in This were a false Supposition and contrary to Experience as may easily be proved with respect to the Time past the present and the future First when we reflect upon past Ages we cannot say that all Times have been alike in reference to Religion It is not to be denied but that before Christ's coming the World was plunged in a general Corruption and that the State of it has been considerably altered by the Preaching of the Gospel Can any one deny but that the Primitive Church was purer than the Church which we find in the Ninth or Tenth Century At this day tho' there is a general Dissoluteness yet there is more or less Corruption in some places than in others It is true in Fact that where the Gospel is duly Preached and where there is some Order and Discipline left there appears more Piety and Religion than in other Places As for the time to come we must not think it impossible to restore Things to a better State or imagine that the World will always continue as it is tho' the Means were used which God has appointed to Reform it For this will no sooner be done but Corruption will abate as I hope to make it appear in the Second Part of this Book 3. This Maxim is directly contrary to the Word of God The Scripture often speaks of the Corruption of the World but does it always in such a manner as gives us to understand that Christians may and ought to renounce it St. Paul speaks of the sinful Courses which the World lies in Eph. 11. But he supposes that the Ephesians did no longer follow those Courses after they were Converted to the Christian Religion The same Apostle Commands us * Rom. 12.2 not to be conformed to this present World And St. James when he describes the Spirit and Character of that †Jam 1.2 7. pure and undefiled Religion which is acceptable to God he tells us among other things that it consists in man's keeping himself unspotted from the World 4. In the Last place this Maxim is extreamly dangerous In that Sense and Design in which it is proposed it leads to Impiety it robs Religion of all its Power and it furnishes Libertines with a Plea which does intirely justify them For in short either Corruption may be remedied and Men may be reduced to a more Christian Life or it may not If it cannot be remedied this Maxim is true and prophane Men are in the right But in that Case I say it again Religion is but a Name for if no stop can be given to Corruption if things must still go on at the same rate why do we talk of Religion or why do we Preach the Gospel We may teach and exhort as long as we please but for all that there will be neither more nor less Sin Men will always be what they are and the World will not alter What Notion must this give us
of their Duty is that they do not profess Devotion and Piety This is the ordinary Plea of Men of Business of Worldlings of Young People of Courtiers of Military Men and of a great many besides in all Conditions We do not pretend to Devotion they cry we are ingaged in the World And with this shift they not only think themselves excusable for neglecting Piety but they fancy they have a Right to neglect it and that they do a great deal if they observe some of the External Duties of it One can hardly believe that these Persons are in carnest when they make such an Excuse It astonishes a Man to find Christians who have the considence to say That Piety is not their Business that they are of another Profession and that they are not at leisure to be Devout I fancy there are Two Things which deceive those who who alledge this Excuse 1. That they do not well understand what Devotion is they look upon it as a very austere and singular way of living from whence they conclude that but few People are able to apply themselves to it and so they turn it over to the Clergy to Women or to those who have much leisure I have observed already the Falseness of this Prejudice and shewed that Piety is neither singular nor austere 2. The other cause of their Error seems to be this that they do not consider that Piety is every Bodies Business and that such is the nature of it that it may be practised by all Men. Not but that secular Occupations and Callings do frequently obstruct Piety and ingage Men in Vice and therefore a Christian should never be so taken up with the Affairs of this Life as thereby to disable himself from performing the Duties of Christianity But after all a Man may live like a good Christian in any lawful Calling and in that sense properly we are to understand the Words of St. Paul That the Grace of God which brings Salvation has appeared unto all Men teaching them to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World * Tit. II. 11. Do those who plead it for an Excuse that they do not profess Devotion imagine that there are two ways to go to Heaven the one for Devour and the other for Worldly Men the one narrow and the other broad Do they think that the Commandments of God do not concern all Men that there is respect of Persons with God or that he dispenses with his own Laws How can they prove these Distinctions Are not we all Christians Have not we all been Baptize Does not God give us all the same Laws Or have some more reason to love God than others And ought not the great Concern of our Salvation to be equally dear to us all I grant that those who have greater opportunities and more Leisure than others ought to make use of these Advantages But I maintain at the same time that none stand in greater need of Piety than those who say we are engaged in the World we do not pretend to Devotion It is because they are not Devout that their Condition is very sad and the more they are engaged in the World the greater are the Temptations and Distraction to which they are liable Now he that is exposed to a Storm had need take more care than he who enjoys a Calm These are the principal Maxims and Sentiments which are made use of to Authorize Corruption Whoever takes notice of what is said and done in the World must needs acknowledge that these and the like Maxims are vented abroad every day so that in order to obstruct the Progress of Corruption it is absolutely necessary to undeceive Men in reference to these Sentiments and to oppose that Criminal Boldness which shamefully Corrups the Truths of Reilgion and turns Impieties into Religious Maxims and Articles of Faith CAUSE IV. The Abuse of Holy Scripture IT is a daring piece of Confidence to Authorize Corruption with Maxims borrowed from Religion but it is the last degree of Audaciousness and Impiety to turn the Holy Scripture to such a scandalous use and to seek in that Divine Book Pretences and Apologies for Vice and yet the Extravagance and Temerity of many bad Christians come up to this pitch Several declarations of the Word of God are made by them as many Maxims under which they think to shelter themselves and if we believe them there is nothing either in their Practice or Opinions but what is agreeable to the Will and Intentions of God himself This Abuse of the Scripture I design to shew in this Chapter to be one of the Causes of Corruption and it cannot he too seriously considered The Passages of Scripture which are abused to this purpose may be reduced to these Four Heads The first comprehends the places which are brought against the necessity of Good Works Under the second we will examine those declarations of Scripture by which some endeavour to prove That all Men without exception are in a state of Corruption which subjects them to Sin In the third place we shall answer the Arguments drawn from the Examples of those Saints whose Sins are Recorded in Scripture And lastly we shall make some Reflections upon those Scripptures in which the Divine Mercy is promised to the greatest Sinners There are divers Passages in Scriptures which being ill understood lead many into this perswasion That Good Works are not of absolute Necessity And First nothing is more confidently alledged to this purpose than what we read in many places * Rom. III. c. That we are justified by Faith and not by our Works No Doctrine is more clearly and expresly delivered in the Gospel than that of Justification by Faith But it is a Perverting of this Doctrine to conclude from it that Salvation may be obtained without Good Works This Conclusion must needs be false since the Gospel enjoyns Good Works as a necessary Condition in order to Salvation St Paul tells us that †Heb. XX. 14. without Holiness no man shall see God And does not that import that none shall be saved without Holiness and Good Works The same Apostle teaches us that at the Day of Judgment when Men shall be admitted into or excluded from Heaven God will have a regard to their Works to the good or evil which they shall have done | Rom. 11. 6. God will render to every man according to his Works * 2 Cor. V. 10. We must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ that we may receive according to what we have done whether good or bad This is very positive and therefore since there can be no Contradiction in Scripture here is enough already to Convince us that the Doctrine of Justification by Faith has nothing in it which destroys the necessity of Good Works But it will appear yet less difficult to reconcile these two Doctrines if we suppose that which no Man can reasonably Contest
namely that when the Scripture says that Faith is sufficient to Salvation we are to understand by the word Faith in this Proposition that true Faith which the Gospel requires Now if we ask what that Faith is and by what Marks it may be known All the Apostles will unanimously tell us that true Faith produces a Holy Life and that it discovers it self by all manner of Good Works They assign Good Works as the essential Mark and Character that distinguishes a saving from an Hypocritical Faith By that very thing therefore that the Gospel requires Faith it does likewise require Good Works since Faith cannot be without Works And by consequence the Opinion of those who fancy that Faith is sufficient without Works is evidently absurd and contrary to the Gospel and to the Nature of Faith it self But to set this matter still in a clearer light it is necessary to take notice here of two Mistakes which Men are apt to run into when they speak of Faith and Good Works The first is that they separate Faith from Works they look upon Faith as a thing quite different from Works and which supplies the want of them or rather they oppose Faith to Works as if these two things were contrary to each other A Corrupt Man will say I confess that I have not Good Works but however I have Faith Those who speak thus suppose that they may have Faith tho' they have not Works but St. James has directly confuted this Imagination †Jam. II. What does it profit my Brethren though a man say he has Faith and have not Works can Faith save him If Faith have not Works it is dead being alone Who can after this separate saving Faith from Good Works Can we separate that from Faith which God has declared to be inseparable from it It shews that Men are strangely blinded With Ignorance and Prejudice when at this time of day we are fain to prove things so plain and questionable The Second Illusion is that Men place Faith in Confidence alone and many define it by that They fancy that to have Faith is nothing else but to believe that God is merciful and to rely upon the Merits of Christ because Faith embraces the Promises of the Gospel the natural effect of which Promise is to fill the Heart with assurance and tranquility It is beyond all doubt that for the most part true Faith is attended with Confidence But Confidence is not the Whole of Faith and I cannot Imagine what part of God's Word countenances that Notion which places the Essence of Faith in Confidence alone The Faith which the Gospel speaks of consists in believing that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and the Saviour of the World in embracing his Doctrine as true and in making Profession of it in doing his Commandments and hoping for Salvation from him But the resolving all Faith and Religion into Acts of Confidence is the most extravagant Conceit that can enter into a Man's Head If this Notion was true it would follow from it that in order to be saved it is enough fore Man to believe that he shall be saved Which is the same thing as to say that whoever would have a right to confide in God needs do no more in order to that than actually to trust in him and that is a most ridiculous Thought which turns all Religion into a strong Fancy Before we believe a thing we ought to know why we should believe it and have good reason and solid Grounds for our Belief Before we trust in God we ought to satisfy our selves that we have a Right to confide in him for can a Man be saved only because without any ground or reason he fancies that he shall We ought not to rely upon God but according to his Promise Now God has promised nothing to those who live and are hardned in Sin far from promising any thing to them he threatens them with inevitable ruin What claim or title then can an obdurate Sinner have to the Mercy of God What Confidence can he repose in God's Promises as long as he continues impenitent None at all except we suppose in God a general Decree to save indifferently all sorts of Persons It must not be said that these Considerations are apt to Alarm and Disturb the Peace of Men's Consciences for they will Alarm none of those who are animated with true Faith and sincere Piety And as to others we do them a great piece of service when we awaken and terrify them out of that false Quiet into which a groundless Confidence has betraied them On the other hand it is a dangerous thing to teach that Confidence is the most essential thing to Faith for by this we may alarm some good Men who either through Melancholy or want of Instruction are destitute of Confidence and inward Peace And it has certainly happened that several Pious Persons are fallen into black Thoughts and sad Scruples concerning their Salvation and that they have in some measure desponded because they did not find Confidence and a sense of the love of God in themselves From all these Reflections it does evidently appear that Faith never ought nor can be separated from Good Works and that Christians are as much obliged to aply themselves to Good Works as they are to believe and to have Faith But now if it be asked why St. Paul â—hen opposes Faith to Works and why he excludes Works when he treats of Justification I answer that the Apostle â—ins at two things by this His design â—s to shew 1. That Works are not the Cause and Foundation of Men's Salvation â—ut that it flows from the pure Mercy of God through Jesus Christ This he proves with respect both to the Heathens and the Jews in the first Chapters of his Epistle â—o the Romans But he did not mean to say â—hat Good Works are not necessary under â—he Covenant of Grace His expressions are too clear to leave the least Room for any doubt about this matter To reâ—eject the meritoriousness of Good Works â—s one thing and to deny their necessity is â—nother But 2ly because it may be obâ—ected that St. Paul does intirely exclude Works and that he uses expression which implie that Christians are no longer obliged to the practice of them and that they have no influence on Men's Salvation either as Causes or Conditions but on the contrary are opposed to Faith Therefore I add that he speaks thus with relation to the Works of the ceremonial Law and especially to Circumcision There were many in St. Paul's time who asserted that Christians were bound to observe those Legal Ordinances It was about the Question that the Apostles met a Jerusalem and determined * Acts. XV. that Christians 〈◊〉 justified by Faith only and that the yoke of Mosaical Ordinances ought not to be laid up on them The same Conroverly is handled by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians where
not be very large upon the Proof of it Men take little care of being instructed and of getting Information and Knowledge about Religion The far greater Part either cannot read or never apply themselves to any useful instructive Reading Few hearken to the Instructions that are given them and fewer yet examine or reflect upon them Carnal Lusts and Secular Business do so engross them that they seldom or never give themselves to searching the Truth They generally have an Aversion to spiritual Things Hence it is that in matters of Religion they will rather believe implicitely what is told them than be at the pains of enquiring whether it is true or not And they are every whit as careless about Exercises of Devotion Many would think it a Punishment if they were made to read or to Meditate They never do those things but with reluctancy and as seldom as they can They go about Prayer especially with a strange Indifference and a criminal Indevotion In short very few take the necessary care to preserve themselves from Vice and to behave themselves with Regularity and Caution Very few seek the Opportunities of doing good and avoid the Temptations to which the common Condition of Men or their own particular Circumstances expose them And the greatest Numbers are slaves to their Bodies and wholly taken up with earthly things One of the most sensible and fatal effects of this Negligence is that those Persons use no manner of endeavours to know themselves It is very seldom if ever that they reflect upon what passes within them upon their Thoughts their Inclinations the Motions of their Hearts and the Principles they Act upon or that they take a review of their Words and Actions They do not consider whether they have within them the Characters of good Men or of wicked and hypocritical Persons In a word almost all of them live without Reflection Mens carelesness about Religion is there fore extreamly great But they proceed otherwise in the things of the World about which they are as Active and Laborious as they are Lazy and cold in reference to true Piety They will do every thing for their Bodies and nothing for their Souls They spare no Industry or Diligence they omit nothing to promote their Temporal Concerns If we were to judge by their Conduct we would think that the Supreme Good is to be found in Earthly Advantages and that Salvation is the least important of all things I need not say what Effects such a Negligence must produce The greater part of Christians being Ignorant in their Duty having no Knowledge of themselves declining the use of those Means which God has appointed and without which he declares that no Man can be saved and wearing out their Lives in this Ignorance and Sloth it is not to be imagined that they can have any Religion or Piety and so there must be a general Corruption amongst them I say it must be so unless God should work Miracles or rather change the Nature of Man and invert the Order and the Laws which he has established But because it might be said that Christians do not live like Atheists and that their Negligence is not so great as I represent it Let us consider a little what sort of Care they bestow upon the concerns of their Souls Certainly there are some Persons who are not guilty of this Negligence But excepting these what is it which the rest of Mankind do in order to their Salvation Very little or Nothing They pray they assist sometimes at Divine Service and at the publick Exercises of Religion they hear Sermons they receive the Sacrament and they perform some other Duties of this Nature This is all which the Religion of the greatest part amounts to But first these are not only the Duties which ought to be practis'd there are others which are not less essential and which yet are generally neglected such as Meditation Reading Self-examination to say nothing here of the Duties of Sanctificatification So that if some Acts of Religion are performed others are quite omitted The reason of this Proceeding may easily be discovered There is a Law and a Custom which oblige all Persons to some Acts of Religion to pray to receive the Sacrament and to go now and then to Church If a Man should intirely neglect these external Duties he would be thought an Atheist But there is neither Custom nor Law nor Worldly Decency which obliges a Man to Meditate to examine his own Conscience or to watch over his Conduct and therefore these Duties being left to every ones Direction are very little observed As to the other Duties which Christians form in some measure the want of sincerity in them does most commonly turn them into so many Acts of Hypocrisy They perhaps say some Prayers in the Morning but this is done without Devotion hastily with distraction and weariness and only to get rid of it after they think no more of God all the Day but are altogether busied about the World and their Passions and in the Evening they Pray with greater wandring of Thoughts than in the Morning If it so fall out that they go to Church or hear a Sermon they do not give a quarter of an Hours close Attention to any thing that is said or done in the Publick Assemblies In many Places the whole Devotion of the People consists in being present at some Sermons which are as little Insructive as they are minded or hearkned to The use which is made of the Sacraments especially of the Eucharist converts them into vain Ceremonies and makes them rather Obstacles than Helps to Salvation As to the mortifying of the Body by reasonable Abstinence Fasting and Retirement it is an unknown Duty The Indifference of Christians is therefore but too palpable What they do upon the account of Religion is very little and yet they do that little so ill that it is not much more beneficial to them than if they did nothing at all And now what might not be said if after having thus shewn that what Men do for their Salvation is next to nothing I should undertake to prove that they do almost every thing that is necessary for their Damnation and that they are as zealous and industrious for their Ruin as they are slothful and negligent in what is requisite to preserve them There are means to Corrupt as well as to Sanctify our selves The means of Corruption and Perdition are Ignorance want of Attention neglect of Devotion the love of the World and of the Flesh unruly Passions Temptations and ill Examples Now supposing that a Man was so monstrously Frantick as to form the design of Damning himself what would such a Man do He would neglect the Exercises of Devotion he would not Pray at all or he would Pray only with his Lips he would profane the Sacraments by an unsanctifyed use of them he would only mind his Body and this present Life he would give loose Reins to
practised there would be less Corruption and more Zeal in the Church These were the Sentiments of many Doctors in the last Age they saw that the want of Order and Discipline was going to bring Libertinism into the Church But yet their endeavours were not altogether useless Some Churches drew considerably nearer to the Apostolical Institution and there are some where Discipline is not yet quite Abolished They still make use of some part of those means prescribed by the Gospel for the Correction of Manners They do not admit all Persons indifferently to the Sacrament They retain the use of Publick Penances and even in some places of Excommunication But yet there are still many things wanting in the Order and Government of those Churches as will appear by comparing their present practice with that of the Primitive Church and with the Canons of the Ancient Discipline I do not pretend that in this matter the practice of the first Christians ought to be copied in every thing but certainly in many points we ought to conform to it If we examine in what manner Discipline is administred now a days we may observe several Defects in it which are pretty considerable For instance we shall find Churches where Excommunication is used about Matters of no great importance where that which is called Excommunication is rather a civil Sentence or Punishment than an Ecclesiastical Censure and where not the Pastors of the Church but civil Judges Excommunicate Another common Fault is that Discipline is exercised only upon two or three sorts of Sinners Fornicators and Notorious Blasphemers are indeed severely proceeded against but a great many persons are suffered in the Church who have nothing of Christianity in their Deportment such as Drunkards idle People and several other Sinners whom the divine Laws subject as much to the rigor of Discipline as Adulterers It would be altogether Necessary to use Discipline against those who enter into Marriage only to conceal their shame and yet in most Churches no satisfaction is demandded of such People This is a matter of very great moment There is no sufficient care taken to be satisfied about the Sincerity of Sinners Repentance when they are to be restored to the peace of the Church The Apostolical Precept about avoiding all familiar intercourse with Scandalous Sinners is out of use By all this we may see that few Churches can boast a pure Discipline But supposing that true Discipline might be found in some places yet how many defects do creep into the best constituted Churches either through the stubborness of Sinners the opposition of corrupt Magistrates or through the fault and carelesness of Pastors The best Laws are good for nothing when they are not observed so that whether those who ought to exercise Discipline for the giving a stop to Scandals do it not or whether they have not the power to do it it is still true that Corruption proceeds from the want of Discipline What must we say then of those Churches where Discipline is wholly unknown where neither Church nor Pastors have any Authority to govern or inspect where Ministers dare not exclude any one from the Sacrament but admit all Persons indifferently to the Holy Communion which Abuse would have been thought an unheard of Profanation in the Primitive Church and where all publick Penances are out of Doors I say nothing of Excommunication if any Man should propose the restoring of it his design would be looked upon in many places as an unpardonable Crime And the strangest thing of all is that this want of Discipline is to be found in Churches which acknowledge the Scripture for the rule of Religion and that there are Divines who instead of promoting the re-establishment of Discipline oppose it and maintain that none are to be debarred from the Sacrament who cannot endure the very Name of Excommunication and who pretend that where the Magistrate punishes Vice there is no need of any other Discipline Those Divines have not the greater number on their side but their Opinion prevails because it favours Policy and Licentiousness We are to impute to this fatal remisness the loosness and irregularity of the Manners Christians I need not insist more upon this for every one is sensible of it Good Order keeps Men in Duty but where there is no Order Vice must of necessity bear sway What should restrain People Excepting some general Admonitions which are delivered in Sermons every Person is left to himself and lives as he thinks fit Private Men are not bound to give an account of their Conduct to any Body Those who lead the most Un-christian Life Sweaters Covetous Profane Lewd and Intemperate Persons all sorts of People live peaceably in the Church they are reputed Members of it they are mingled among true Christians they enjoy with them the same Spiritual Priviledges at least in all outward appearance and they are admitted to the same Sacraments As long as things are in this state we must not hope to see any abatement of Corruption But that nothing may be omitted which may contribute to the clearing of this matter it is necessary to answer some Objections and that which is alledged to excuse or even to justifie the taking away of the Ancient Discipline 1. Against the restoring of Discipline some say which was objected in the last Age that it is sufficient for the Edification of the Church that the Gospel should be Preached in it since that is the ordinary mean which God has appointed to procure the Conversion and the Salvation of Men. The Gospel no doubt is sufficient to teach us all that is necessary to be known in Religion but it is not true that God makes use only of the Preaching of the Gospel for the Salvation of Men For he uses other Means besides as for instance the Sacraments and those means among which Discipline is to be reckoned are prescribed by the Gospel it self so that whosoever submits to the Gospel must likewise submit to that Order we speak of But further the Gospel barely Preached and known is not sufficient to Salvation nothing but the practice of the Gospel can save a Man and it is to little purpose to Preach it if the Manners of Christians are not regulated and if Discipline is not used to that end as a Mean appointed of God As to Preaching it will be shewen in the next Chapter that Men ascribe more efficacy to it than it has and that there is a mistake in the Opinion which they commonly entertain of it 2. Those who are for Mystical Devotion and Piety will certainly say That Discipline is not essential to Religion that it is a matter of external Order and that external things are useful only to carnal and imperfect Christians But I desire those who have such Opinions to speak more reverently of an Order of which God is the Author and which the Apostles have so expresly recommended It cannot be thought that the Apostles who
unknown Facts She only proceeds against Notoriously Scandalous and Impenitent Sinners and she receives them as soon as they express their Repentance And is there any thing of Tyranny or danger in this It is proper to observe here especially with reference to Excommunication which is thought the severest part of Discipline that when the Church proceeds to that extremity she does not properly speaking act by way of Authority as if she had an absolute power to punish a Sinner and to cut him off from her Body But that Sinner has already by his Life cut himself off from the Communion of Christ he is no longer a Member of the Church so that the Church only declarâ—s that which is done and determined already tho' she should not declare it Neither is there any Cause to fear that the Publick Peace should be disturbed by the exercise of Discipline On the contrary Society will be the better Regulated for it For Discipline does not touch Civil Matters Excommunication it self does not hinder a Man from being still a Member of the Common-wealth nor that all the Duties of Justice and Humanity should be discharged towards him As for the Authority of Civil Powers it is no ways injured by this as evidently appears from the first Christians exercising Discipline openly in the fight of the Heathen Magistrates without any opposition from them Christ did not come into the World to Erect a Temporal Kingdom nor to draw Men off from their Submission to the Authority of Kings and Magistrates It is the Principle of a true Christian * Mat XXII To render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and to God the things which are God's This Principle will not deceive a Man and as long as we adhere to it all things will be in order Religion is so far from giving any just umbrage to Princes that on the contrary it strengthens their Authority Submission to the higher Powers is recommended by the Apostle in the most earnest manner The Christians of the first Ages who were very strict observers of Discipline distinguished themselvs by their Loyalty to Princes Nay it is observable that their Discipline which was so severe against Sinners was as strict against those who were wanting in the Fidelity and Respect due to Superiors witness that Cannon * Can. Apost 84. which enjoins the Deposition of those Bishops and Clergy-men who should offer an Affront to the Prince or his Officers Whosoever will take the pains to weigh this Matter will acknowledge that Discipline is a distinct thing from the Civil Power Each of these has its bounds and limits The Church does not touch the Body nor Civil Matters and it is not the Magistrate's business to regulate things relating to Conscience and Salvation Indeed if Magistrats imagine that they have a right to Govern the Church as they think fit and that they hold the same Rank in it which they hold in the Civil Society so that the Ministers of Religion are but their Officers Discipline may seem to them to lessen their Authority But let those who entertain such thoughts see how they can reconcile them with the Gospel and with the Nature of the Christian Religion Notwithstanding all this it will be said that Church-men have been known to usurp a Dominion over Consciences and over Kings It is true Church-men have abused their Authority but because a thing has been abused is it therefore to be abolished Wise Men will rather say that things ought to be restored to their natural State and to their lawful Use Else the whole Authority of Kings and Magistrates might be pulled down and we might argue thus Monarchical Governments liable to great Inconveniences Kings have been Tyrants and Usurpers therefore there must be no more Kings Magistrates and Judges have been unjust Covetous Cruel and therefore no Magistrates are to be endured Would not this Argument be extravagant and impious And yet the like Argument is used against Discipline In Church as well as in State Government there will be always some inconveniency to be feared this Evil is almost unavoidable there being no Form of Government which the Malice of Men may not abuse But those Abuses are without comparison a less Evil than Anarchy which is the most dangerous State of all But let us clear the Matter of Fact upon which the Objection I am now Confuting is founded It is supposed that Discipline did introduce Tyranny but on the contrary it was upon the Ruins of Discipline that Tyranny was erected This is known to all those who have any knowledge of Antiquity When did Bishop and Clergy-men usurp that excessive Authority over mens Estates Persons Consciences It was when the Observation of the Ancient Discipline was slackned when Discipline began to wear out of use when Sinners and especially great Men were exempted for Money when that which should have been transacted by the whole Church was referred only to the Clergy and when publick Confession was changed into a private one It was by these means and not by the due Exercise of Discipline that Church-men made themselves Masters of all What we ought to do then is this First to enquire what is of Divine Institution in Discipline and to restore that in the next place to consider what the Salvation of Sinners and the Honour of the Church require and what was good and edifying in the practice of the Primitive Church in order to conform to it and lastly to provide by good Laws that no Man may exceed the bounds of his Calling particularly that in restoring to the Clergy their lawful Authority all just measure may be taken to prevent their abusing it If Christian Princes are bound to preserve the Rights of the Church they ought likewise to take care that nothing be done against their own Authority and to punish those who oppose it or who disturb the Civil Society whether Ecclesiasticks or Lay-men This we are to treat of in another place Besides when we speak for the re-establishment of Discipline we mean that Pastors should be subjected to it as well as their Flocks and that if there is an Order in the Church to regulate the Manners of Christians there should be one also to regulate the Clergy and to lay strict Obligations on them to discharge their Duty in all its parts And that according to the Ancient Practice Discipline ought to be more severe against the Ecclesiasticks who fail in their Office than against the People But as we have complained in this Chapter of the want of Discipline with Relation to the Church in general so we are going to shew in the next that this want is neither less observable nor less fatal in those things which concern the Governors of the Church I conclude with saying that in Order to remedy the Corruption of Manners among Christians it is absolutely Necessary to restore the use of Discipline This is what has been and is still heartily wished for
they sift all the words and examine all the Circumstances of it with the utmost Nicety In a word they drain the Subject But when they come to the Application they content themselves with two or three general Uses they address to their Auditory some loose Exhortations to a good Life even when they are to speak upon a Moral Subject they confine themselves for the most part to general Considerations Nothing is Particularized or treated with the necessary exactness Now Generalities are of no great use in Matters of Morality To say in general Terms that Men ought to be good and to declaim against Sensuality or Covetousness is that which will convince no Man It is not bawling or sending Sinners to Hell that is likely to win upon them If should be distinctly shewn what it is to be a good Man Vertues and Vices should be Characterized and their various Kinds and Degrees observed particular Rules ought to be given to the Hearers they ought to be furnished with necessary Motives and Directions we are to Confute their Mistakes and to obviate their Objections and Excuses Till we come to this Preaching will be attended with little Success 2. The Moral Discourses of Preachers are often defective for besides that they handle Morality in a superficial Manner there are some essential Articles which they seldom or never speak of among which we may reckon Restitution The Moralities of Preachers turn almost altogether upon Four or Five Heads they attach only some of the grosser Sins such as Blasphemies Uncleanness and such other Vices But this is to confine themselves to the first Elements of Piety and Morality True Morality goes a great deal further Piety does not only banish the more heinous Sins it does besides fill the Heart with a sincere love of Virtue it softens and rectifies the Inclinations it produces in a Man Gentleness Humility Patience Resignation to the Will of God Divine Love Tranquillity under all Events Charity towards other Men and a Zeal for Justice and Goodness This is the main of Piety this is what should be incessantly laid before Christians to make them apprehend the Extent and Perfection of the Morals of the Gospel 3. The Moral Discourses of Preachers are False 1. When they are too remiss 2. When they are too severe And 3. When they are Contradictory Their Morality is too remiss when it does not propose all the Duties of Holiness in their full latitude when it flatters Sinners or does not sufficiently awaken their Consciences It is over-severe when it raises groundless Scruples in Men's minds when it represents as a Sin that which is not really so or when it makes a necessary Duty of any thing which may be omitted without danger Preachers likewise over-do things in the Pictures they draw for Virtues and Vices If they are to speak of Covetousness or forbidden Pleasure they strive to make of these the most hideous Pictures they can they paint out a Covetous or a Voluptuous Man as a Monster they affect the most lively Descriptions and Figures and their Sermons are loaded with every thing that their Collections afford upon the subject But all this is only noise and so much Breath spent in vain Such Morality does not hinder the Voluptuous or Covetous Man from pursuing his ordinary course it is rather apt to harden him in it because as he does not see himself in the dismal Picture which is made of these Vices so he thinks himself free from them or at least not very guilty of them Lastly Preachers do sometimes deliver Contradictory Morals Having not sufficiently meditated upon the Principles of Religion and Morality they run themselves into Contradictions they say one thing in one place and the contrary in another they lay down Principles which destroy the Consequences they will draw from them or they draw Consequences which over-turn the Principles they have laid down II. The Faults I have hitherto observed relate to the Matter of Preaching those which are committed in the manner are not indeed so essential but yet they are important enough to deserve some notice here It is to no purpose to preach pure Doctrine and good Morality if this is not done in a proper way to instruct and to perswade The most important Truths lose their force in the Mouth of a Man who either cannot speak of them in a sutable manner or expresses them obscurely And so likewise the way of exhorting and censuring is often the reason why Exhortations and Censures prove ineffectual Either they are not accurate or convincing enough or they are Gold and Languid or they are not seasoned with Prudence and Mildness but are a kind of Fire which has more of Anger and Indiscretion than of true Zeal in it and which offends more than it affects or perswades the Hearers Divers Considerations might be here insisted upon concerning the way of Preaching but I think what is most Material to be said on this Subject may be reduced to this one thing that the manner of Preaching is not Simple and Natural enough The way of Preaching should correspond with the Design of Religion and Sermons which is to inform the Understanding and to move the Heart This End is attained by those who think and speak clearly and naturally when every thing in Reasoning Method Stile and Exterior is regulated by Nature and true Sense But it has been observed long ago to Preachers are particularly apt to fail in this respect False and confused Ideas un-accurate Reasonings strained or impertinent Reflections forced and unnatural Expressions are almost become the Property of that Order of Men. One would think that most Preachers take pains not to follow Nature as if a Man was too sooner in the Pulpit but he must speak no longer like the rest of Mankind as if the part of a Preacher was something like that of a Prophet among the Jews Nay this is passed into a Proverb so that odd Ways and injudicious Reflections are called Ways and Reflections of Preachers 1. If Nature was consulted and it men did consider the end of Preaching they would see in the first place that the Method which is followed by many in the explaining of Scripture and the composing of Sermons had need be reformed in some respects and that it does not agree so well as it should with the simplicity of the Gospel For instance why should Time be wasted in Exordiums and Preliminaries Why should a Preacher dwell upon the explaining of Words and Phrases which every Body understands or upon pressing the least Circumstances of a Text What signify those needless Digressions those Objections which no body thinks of those citations and stories which in some Countries fill up Sermons and so many other small Niceties which clog these kind of Discourses All this might be let alone without prejudice to publick edification 2. It is for want of Consulting Nature that Preachers are obscure Sometimes the Obscurity of their Sermons arises from the things
should go by the practice of the Jewish Church it would follow that the Ministers of Religion are invested with Civil Authority and a very great Authority too The Jewish Priests held a considerable Rank in the State as well as in Religion If upon some occasions Kings have deposed Priests upon other occasions Priests have opposed Kings and altered the Government * See Chron. XXIII and XXVI So that without pressing too much those Instances out of the Old Testament the best way is to consult the New and to proceed according to the Laws of the Apostles and the Nature of the Christian Religion And whosoever examins without Prejudice those Sacred Books which have been writ since the Coming of our Saviour will acknowledge that things are now altered and that Magistrates have but a limited Authority in Matters of Religion It is remarkable that the Scripture never mentions them when it speaks of the Church and of the Government of it 3 And yet as the Authority of Princes and Magistrates is derived from God it ought still to subsist entire And therefore they have an unquestionable Right to take care that nothing be done in the Church to the Prejudice of their lawful Authority and of publick Tranquility and that the Ministers of Religion do not stretch their Authority beyond spiritual things The Honour and the Safety of Religion require that this Principle should be laid down for Religion as was said before ought not to disturb Society and true Religion will never disturb it If then any Christians or Church-men under pretence of Religion should break in upon the Civil Government and the publick Peace Kings and Princes have a Right to restrain them and then they do not oppose Religion but those only who abuse and dishonour it After these Considerations I think any Man is able to judge whether the decay of Piety and Religion is not in part to be imputed to Christian Princes and Magistrates We need but enquire whether both in Civil and Religious Matters they observe the Duties I have now described I say no more of this because every body is able to make the Application But I must add that if the want of Zeal in Magistrates is enough to introduce Confusion and Vice into the Church the Mischief is much greater when not only they do not what they ought for the good of Religion but when they use their Authority besides to the prejudice of it I cannot forbear mentioning here two great Abuses The First is when Princes and Magistrates assume the whole Authority to themselves so that except Preaching and Administring the Sacraments they will do every thing in the Church When they presume to determine Articles of Faith to rule the Conscience of their Subjects and to force them to embrace one Persuasion rather than another when they will by all means take upon them to call Pastors without regard to that Right of the Church and Church-men which is established in Scripture and confirned by the practice of the first Ages of Christianity when they seize upon Church-Estates tho' there is no Reason to fear that Wealth should corrupt their Clergy and tho' such Revenues might be applied to several pious Uses and particularly to the Relief of Country-Churches most of which are not sufficiently edified for want of necessary Endowments and Funds A great deal might be said about that which was done in the last Century with relation to Church-Revenues and it were to be wished that People had been a little more scrupulous than they were when they invaded the Possessions of the Church and confounded them with the Revenues of the State Besides this the Magistrates Authority is fatal to the Church when he hinders the Exercise of true Discipline and when he substitutes such Regulations as he thinks fit in the room of Apostolical Laws This is one of the greatest Obstructions to the restoring of Apostolical Discipline Tho' the Church and her Pastors should be willing to observe the ancient Order and to oppose Corruption by those Means which the Gospel enjoins yet this is not to be done if those who have the Authority in their hands will not give way to it The Church is not in a Condition to resist and to make head against the Magistrate when he uses Force and She ought not to do it if She could The second Abuse is when the Magistrate makes it his business to abase Religion in the Persons of its Ministers by despoiling them as much as he can of every thing that might procure them Respect and Authority in the Church This Policy is as contrary to the Interest of Religion and to the promoting of Piety as it is common now adays in several Christian Dominions It is well done of the Magistrate to preserve his Authority and to keep the Clergy from exceeding the bounds of their Calling but from thence it does not follow that he ought to trample them under foot to bring them under a general Contempt and to vilifie their Character which after all is Sacred and Venerable This is to sacrifice Religion to Policy and Pride and this Proceeding is a manifest Cause of the Contempt of Religion and of the Corruption which necessarily follows that Contempt since commonly nothing is more despised in the World than that which great Men despise I declare it once more by all that has been said I do not mean to detract any thing from the Respect due to Civil Powers neither do I speak of all Christian Princes and Magistrates among whom there are some who have Piety and Zeal and who labour with success for the Good of Religion But the Glory of God requires that we should speak the truth so that I could not but take notice of this Cause of Corruption Upon the whole Matter it is to be hoped that if Christian Magistrates would be pleased to make serious Reflections upon all these things we should soon see an end of some of these Disorders and that a happier time will come when they will use their Authority to advance the Honour of God and to restore Truth Piety and Peace among Christians CAUSE V. Education NOthing is more natural than to look for the Original of Corruption in the time at which it begins I mean in the first years of Life It is not only when Men have attained to a ripeness of Age that they are inclined to Vice but that Inclination discovers it self from their Youth The Root of that Ignorance of those Prejudices and of the greatest part of the ill Dispositions they are in may be found in their tender years We had need then look back upon the beginnings of Life and seek in Youth and in Infancy it self the Source of Corruption When we enter upon this Enquiry and consider that Men if nothing restrains them will run into Vice from their Youth out of a propension which is common to all we cannot but perceive at first sight that there must be in
succinct and superficial a manner that we do not find there so much as the Names of a great many Vices Virtues and Duties Children who should be raised up to Christian Perfection are only taught the Ten Commandments and from the Explication which is given of these they gather that they should not be Idolaters Blasphemers or profane Persons that they should neither commit Murder nor Adultery that they should not steal or bear false witness But how many other Duties are there of which they have no manner of Notion They are not taught what it is to be Gentle Humble Sincere Charitable Pure Sober and Patient Many Persons because they were never instructed in these Virtues which are the principal Ornaments of a Christian do not practise or so much as know them We are to impute to these slight and defective Instructions that Opinion which is commonly received That whosoever is free from those six or seven great sins forbidden in the Decalogue is a good Man 2. The Success of Instruction depends in the second place upon the Method and way of Teaching The Method of Teaching should on the one hand be clear and proportioned to the Age and Capacity of Children and on the other it should be delightful and fit to make them love Religion By this two Ends which ought to be aimed at will be attained the Mind will be enlightned and the Heart moved What is clear informeth the Mind and what is delightful wins the Heart and inspires into it a strong Affection for Religion and for the Duties of it 1. Perspicuity is never more necessary than it is in the Instructing of Youth Children having no Ideas as yet of most things and not being used to the signification of Words cannot understand what is said to them unless it be delivered with much clearness and simplicity and unless every thing be avoided which may puzzle or seem obscure to them This Perspicuity results First from the things that are taught It is a certain Truth is always clear and easie to be understood and that on the contrary Whatsoever is obscure and difficult is not very necessary So that provided Instruction goes no farther than essential Doctrines and Duties it cannot be very hard for Children to apprehend what is said to them Secondly Clear Expressions and plain and popular ways of speaking produce distinct Ideas in the Minds of those who are instructed but a dark or too high a Stile figurative or learned Phrases spoil the Fruit of Instructions Lastly Order and Method contribute mightily to Clearness It is not fit that Children should be loaded at first with many Doctrines and Precepts General Instructions the Principles of Religion and the simplest Ideas ought to go foremost and then particular Instructions and more complex Ideas may be proposed but still with a due Regard to the Age Capacity and Progress of Children 2. Instruction is to be delivered in a delightful manner This is the way to insinuate our selves into the Minds of Children Nothing wins more upon them than a sweet and pleasant way of speaking and nothing gives them so much disgust as roughness and severity If Religion was represented to them with an attractive Aspect they would certainly embrace it with eagerness But for the most part those who teach or speak to them of Religion do it with an Air of Severity and a dismal Tone and with those Circumstances which make them averse to it Commands Threatnings and Constraint are used to make them take their Catechisms or say their Prayers if they fail to do this their Teachers are angry and beat them When we exhort them to Piety in stead of going about this with such a Gentleness as might make Virtue amiable to them we speak in a harsh and chiding manner The Effect of this is that Children seeing nothing in Religion that is inticing take up a Prejudice against it they look upon that Instruction to which they are compelled as a hard piece of Labour and Drudgery Religion is no sooner mentioned but it damps their good humour they do nothing but by Constraint and against their Will they free themselves from that Constraint assoon as they can and they bear during their whole Life an Aversion or at least an Indifference to Religion II. I have been discoursing hitherto of what relates to the Knowledge of Religion and I hope I have clearly proved that generally speaking Children are ill instructed I am now to consider Education with relation to Practice For it would be to no Purpose to infuse into young People a perfect Knowledge of the Truths and Duties of Religion if they were noâ— taught to make a good use of that Knowledge and to direct it to its true End which is the Practice of Virtue and Piety But it is seldom that the Care of Parents and of those who have the instructing of Children goes so far If they take some Care about their Instruction they generally neglect them as to the practical Part and they little enquire whether they live according to the Precepts of Religion Now Instructions thus dispensed do not only prove useless but they may likewise make Children doubly wicked and fill them with the most dangerous Prejudices When Children observe that Religion is proposed to them only in an Historical and Speculative Manner and that provided they remember what is told them and are able to give an Account of it they are commended for being well skilled in Religion and that as for the rest they are permitted to live as they please and that they are not chid tho' they do not practise what they were taught they conclude from all this that Religion consists wholly in the Knowledge and Profession of certain Truths and that it is not absolutely necessary to frame their Lives according to the Rules of the Gospel They accustom themselves besides to slight their Knowledge and to act against the Principles of their own Consciences These pernicious Sentiments are infused into Children when Instructions are not directed to Practice To prevent so great an Evil these Rules are to be observed 1. The Design of proposing the Truths and Doctrines of Christianity to Children should be to beget in them a love and a respect for them and in order to that we should let them see their Certainty their Importance and their Use It ought then to be carefully inculcated to them that there is nothing more true and certain nothing of greater Importance or that concerns us nearer than Religion and that in Comparison with it all that we see in the World is of very little or no Consequence and lastly that it was revealed for no other End but to make us good and to conduct us to the highest Bessedness By this Method Instruction will always terminate in Practice By teaching Children to know God we shall excite in them a Love and Reverence towards that Supreme Being By speaking to them of Providence we shall make them apprehend that God
now see it at The Enemies of Christianity did never oppose it with so much Subtlety and with such vigorous Efforts as some Christians do at this day Some Books appear from time to time which are only Collections of all the Objections of Heathens and Atheists against the Existence of God against Providence the Divinity of Scripture the Truth of sacred History the Foundations of Morality and many other important Heads so that Impiety is now arrived at its greatest height It might be more general but we cannot imagine how it could rise higher And this occasions a very considerable objection It may be asked how it comes to pass that Incredulity and Sceptism should appear in so knowing an Age as this is and that Men of Parts and Learning should entertain such impious Sentiments It is necessary to dwell a little upon the examining of this difficulty because it it so apt to perplex Many The Infidels urge it with great assurance and they pretend to infer for it that Religion cannot and a Philosophical and Learned Age and that none but the Mob and the credulous part of Mankind believe it They say that ignorant Ages were the most favourable times to Religion that then every thing was believed but that since Men have begun to examine Matters a little more narrowly they are become incredulous But any reasonable Man who does not love wrangling may easily be satisfied upon this Point First Infidels have no ground to suppose that Men had more Faith in the Ages of ignorance than they have now for this supposition is altogether false There was but little Faith in those Ages for we are not to call by the name of Faith a silly Credulity which made the grossest impostures to pass the Current for certain and even for Divine Truths The Infidels do likewise suppose falsly that the Learning of an Age more enlightened that the precedent is prejudicial to Religion for on the contrary it has done great Services to it If some subtil Spirits have attackt it a great many knowing and judicious Persons of extraordinary erudition and eminent worth have illustrated and proved the truth of it with greater Solidity of Arguments than ever was known before This must be acknowledge to the Honour of God and for the credit of the Christian Religion But it will be said that those who make Objections against Religion are learned that the are Philosophical Men who in all other things reason true and can distinguish truth from error Let it be so but then I ask those who urge this Objection how it happens that we see every day Men of parts and sense who yet will obstinately maintain palpable Errors and refuse to yield to the Evidence of some Truths which are clear as the Sun To this nothing else can be said but that such Men are not so knowing and perspicacious as they should be or that they do not make that use which they ought of their Parts and Judgment I confess that indeed a Man must have some Parts and Subtilty to be able to find difficulties every where But that Man makes a wretched use of his Parts when they serve him only to wrangle about the most certain Truths Those which the Infidels call strong Objections against the Truths of Faith are but for the most part vain Subtilties and meer Slights of Wit which may be used alike upon all sorts of Subjects That we may be convinced of this I shall only name here some or those Truths of Matters of Fact which are thought unquestionable and which no Man tho' he had a Mind can doubt of It is certain that the same Objections by which the Infidels attack Religion may be turned against such Truths or Matters of fact The Subtilties of Scepticism may puzzle a Man who shall maintain that there was heretofore an Emperour at Rome called Augustus or who shall believe with all Mankind that Parents ought to love their Children and that it would be a sin to murder a poor Wretch who is begging an Alms I say a Man who maintains these Truths may be hard put to it before he can get rid of all the questions of a Captious Sophister But does it follow from thence that this Man is mistaken It is to be imagined that a Man can doubt in good earnest whether or not there was ever at Rome an Emperour named Augustus or whether Parents ought to love their Children Will any ever be so extravagant as to believe seriously that it is indifferent whether we cut a poor Mans Throat or give him an Alms The Subtilties of Arguments signify nothing against facts which are well averred or against those natural Sentiments which are common to all Mankind Now Religion is founded upon Facts and its Principles are in part natural Truths and Sentiments which we must needs feel and believe at all times He that would destroy Religion must confute those Fact and Sentiments and Infidelity will never be able to do it Philosophical Knowledge is very much extolled by the Infidels they pretend chiefly to a great exactness in Reasoning and yet they visibly run counter to right Reason and transgress the Rules which true Philosophy prescribes It is contrary to Reason to judge that a thing is false or dubious because there are some difficulties in it it ought to be considered that no Man knows all Things or is able to answer all Objections and that what seems obscure to one Man will appear very clear to another When we have Reasons on the other hand to believe that a thing is true when its Proofs are stronger and more numerous than its difficulties and when there are Proofs which upon other occasions are sufficient to determine our Judgment true Sense requires that we should yield to such an Evidence This Method is particularly to be folowed when the Matter in question is of some moment In such things we are wont to govern our selves by the greater Evidence and to chuse the safer side What can be therefore more Irrational than to hazard Eternity and to question the Truth of Religion up on such Considerations as would have no weight with us and as would not stop us a Minute in the Ordinary Affairs of this Life Further it is contrary to the Rules of good Sense to pass a judgment upon those things of which we have no distinct Idea or which we do not thoroughly know Men who can give no account of the Operations of their Souls or of a hundred things they see before their Eyes will yet talk at random about the manner in which God Acts or foresees future evants about what God ought or ought not to have done for the Orderly disposing of all things about the ends which that Supreme Being proposes to it self and about the Means which may conduce to those Ends. This is the height of Extravagance and Temerity and yet it is at this rate that the Infidels Reason I must add besides that Men of Parts are
Design of Scripture than to explain it Philosophically and which is worse according to the Principles of a false Philosophy as divers Commentators do They make use of the Method Notions and Terms of the Schools to find out the Meaning of the Sacred Writings They apply to all Subjects the Rules prescribed by the School-men They carefully distinguish in a Text those Things which are called in the Schools Materia Forma Causa efficiens Finis Subjectum Adjunctum c. They seek in all Reasonings the Major the Minor and they Conclusion as if the Holy Ghost in inspiring the Sacred Authors had followed the Scheme of Aristotle's Logick and had intended to make Syllogisms in Mood and Figure I say nothing here of that Spirit of Dispute and Wrangling which run through the Scholastical Commentaries nor of the false Senses and metaphysical Explications which they put upon the Scripture Such Books are Obstacles rather than Helps to the Understanding of the Word of God they are fit only to perplex what is clear and to spoil Divines and Preachers by taking away from them that Qualification they have most need of I mean Good Sense 4. Another very different way from that Simplicity with which the Scripture should be handled is the Method of those Authors who without Necessity insist upon all the Circumstances of a Text who sift all the Terms of it as if a Mystery did lurk in every Word who descend to the minutest Things and weary themselves in Conjectures and Questions This Exactness is very useless and insipid It may be sometimes necessary to clear a Difficulty to unfold an intricate Meaning and to observe the critical Signification of Words But when the Sense is natural and easie and when the Words are clear to what Purpose should a Man insist upon all those Illustrations What need is there for him to be always pressing the Signification of Words to remark all their different Acceptations and to explain what is to be understood by the Words Death Faith Just every time that these Terms occur The true Method is to pursue the Things themselves and the Meaning of a Text without criticizing upon Worlds and Circumstances 5. It is the Fault of many Commentators to be prolix and too large From every Verse nay from every Word they take occasion to run into a Common-Place and to vent a multitude of Notions so that they really give us Sermons Dissertations or Lectures of Divinity under the Title of Commentaries I do not absolutely condemn diffus'd Commentaries we meet sometimes with good things in them but we find there likewise a great many which signifie nothing When all is done Brevity Clearness and Exactness are infinitely to be preferred in a Commentary before Prolixity and Copiousness Such Length breeds Obscurity and Confusion it makes Preachers lazy it tempts them to fill their Sermons with a hundred needless things it brings them to a Custom of being tedious of making Digressions and of passing by that which is essential and solid All which is very far from promoting the Edification of the Church Besides it is evident that the Defects of Commentaries contribute very much to the Corruption of Christians The Holy Scripture is the Foundation of Religion and Piety but Commentaries are the Stores from which the Sense of Scripture is drawn and from which Preachers commonly take the Matter of their Sermons Few of them endeavour to find out the Sense of a Text by their own Industry they consult their Commentaries like Oracles and they blindly follow their Decisions It is therefore highly requisite that these Books should not lead into Error those who have recourse to them When a bind Man leads another they both fall into the Ditch If then the Guides to whose Conduct Preachers give up themselves are deceitful and false the Word of God will neither be well understood nor well preached and both Preachers and People will err II. It is with Divinity-Books as with Commentaries some are good and others bad The Diversity of Opinions which we see among Authors is a Proof of what I say Some maintain as Divine Truths Things which others reject as false and pernicious Sentiments so that there must be no small Error on one side or the other All Divines will own the Truth of this Remark but it is here of no use because it does not decide which Books of Divinity are good and which are bad Every body will pretend that the bad Books are those which teach a Doctrine contrary to that which obtains in the Society to which he belongs In order to know who is in the Right or in the Wrong it would be necessary to judge here upon the Merits of the Cause and to enter into the Examination of all the Controversies which divide Christians But this I will by no means take upon me to do It will be fitter for me to take notice of those Faults which are common to the greatest part of Divinity-Books I shall say nothing but what must needs be owned by all the sensible Divines of any Party and the Reflections I am to make tho' General may perhaps be of some use to direct our Judgment concerning the Doctrine it self contained in those Books 1. Almost all the Authors who have writ of Divinity have made of it upon the Matter a Science of meer Speculation They establish certain Doctrines they deliver their Opinions they prove them as well as they can they treat of Controversies and confute their Adversaries but they do not seem to have meditated much upon the Use of the Doctrines they teach with relation to Piety and Salvation They are very short upon this Head which yet is the chiefest of all they are not by half so solicitous to assert the Duties as they are to maintain the Truths of Religion Now this is not teaching Divinity The Design of Religion is to teach Men how they ought to serve God and to make them Holy and Happy If this was considered in the handling of Divinity and if Care was taken to shew what Relation all the Parts of Religion have to the Glory of God and to the Holiness and Felicity of Man there would be much more Piety than there is now among Christians Those who study Divinity would learn betimes to direct it to its true End and this would likewise be a means to distinguish material from insignificant Points and Questions and to ease Religion of all those needless Disputes which are one of the main Causes of the Corruption of Christians 2. What I have now said leads me to a second Observation which is That as several things might be left out of Divinity-Books so other things are wanting which it would be necessary to add to them For the Purpose Common-Places do not insist much upon on the General Truths and Principles of Religion They scarce give us any Instruction about Church-Discipline and Government or about the Belief and Practice of the First Ages of Christianity As
of good things are sprinkled with that Spirit of Fanaticism I shall not stand to give here the Character of those Books nor to shew the mischief they may do in relation to Libertines or to those Persons who want either Knowledge or a discerning Judgment because I will not repeat what I have said of Mystical Piety Part I. Cause II. Art VIII 3. Some Authors who have put out Books of Piety have made it their whole Business to administer Comfort Those who read their Works may easily see that they looked upon the Comfortable side of Religion and that their principal design was to fill their Readers with Confidence Hope and Joy Without doubt it is a laudable and pious Design to use ones endeavours to Comfort the Afflicted and particularly good Men and I confess that we find in the Books which have been composed with that view many edifying things and noble Sentiments of Piety but for all that those Books may easily inspire Men with security when the Consolations which they dispense are not attended with great Circumspection and Prudence I could wish that all those who have published Books of this kind had well considered these two following Truths The first is that the Comforts which Religion affords belong only to true Christians so that it is an essential part of the Duty of Comforters carefully to distinguish Persons and to mark clearly who those are that have aright to Religious Comforts The Second is that it is as necessary to Sanctifie as it is to Comfort Men Nay That the Sanctifying them is the more necessary of the two because Holiness is more essential to a good Man than Consolation and Joy and also because Men are much more inclined to presume than to condemn themselves besides that there are but few who want Comfort in comparison with those who ought to be teâ—tified The Consolations of which the Books of Piety are full are intended either for Afflicted Persons or for Sinners As for the first it is better to teach them how to make a good life of their Afflictions and to bring them to examine and amend their Lives than to discourse to them upon some general Topick of Comfort which perhaps will only lay them faster asleep in security and which is besides generally misapplied For all that the Gospel says of Afflictions is commonly laid together and that too with no great Judgment and what is said only of the Afflictions of the Faithful who suffer for Christ's sake is applied to the Afflictions which are common to all Mankind It is much more necessary to teach Men how to die well than to fortify them against the fear of Death Nay we cannot give them a more substantial Comfort than if we persuade them to live well since a good Life will most certainly bring them to a happy Death But we ought to be particularly cautious when we comfort Sinners and give them assurances of the Divine Mercy for if this is not done with great circumspection we may easily harden and ruin at the same time that we are comforting them This is the mischief of those Books which speak but little of Repentance and insist much upon Confidence whose only design it is to encourage the greatest Sinners and to exhort them to a bold reliance upon God's Mercy without fearing either the heinousness or the Multitude of their Sins Such Consolations are capable of a good Sense but if they are not proposed with due explication and restrictions vast numbers of People will abuse them That which has been writ by some Authors in Books of Devotion concerning Sin and Good Works is apt to lead Men into this fancy That good Works signify nothing in order to Salvation and that Sin does not obstruct it Under pretense of answering the Accusations of the Devil and of the Law these Authors enervate the strongest Arguments for the necessity of Good Works they confute the Declarations of Scripture concerning Sanctification and they destroy as much as in them lies the Sincerity and Truth of the Precepts and threatnings of the Gospel For what they call the Accusations of the Devil and of the Law is sometimes nothing else but the just apprehensions of a guilty Conscience which are inspired by the Gospel and which should be cherished and fortified to bring Sinners to Repentance instead of being removed by ill dispensed Consolations It is said to this that Sinners are not to be driven to Despair But do we make Sinners desperate by saying that they are not in a State of Salvation when really they are not Do we not comfort them enough when we exhort them to have recourse to God's Mercy and to repent What if we should by unseasonable Consolations fill them with a vain and groundless Confidence would not that security ruin them more certainly than Desperation To make Men fearless is the ready way to undo them After all I cannot imagine why People should talk so much of Despair and seem so hugely afraid of it By the endeavours used in Books and Sermons to keep Sinners from it one would think that we had great reason to fear on that hand and that nothing were more ordinary than for Men to despair of the Divine Mercy and yet there is nothing more unusual For one Sinner who is terrified with his Sins thousands are undone by Security It is remarkable than the Scripture speaks but seldom of Despair and when we have well examined all the places which are thought to mention it we shall not find many that speak positively of it Many Church-men who have Cure of Souls confess that they never saw any Person afflicted with Despair And as for the Instances which are alledged to this purpose it is certain that what is called Desperation is commonly nothing else but a Fit of the Spleen and an effect of Grief and Melancholy So that those who make long Discourses to prevent Sinners falling into Despair take great pains to little purpose and do for the most part fight with a shadow 4. There is another Fault in some Books of Devotion quite contrary to this I have now observed which is that they terrify their Readers without reason If Authors otherwise Pious and Learned had not spoken in their Writings of the Sin against the Holy Ghost of Reprobation Despair the Power of the Devil and of some other Matters many People would have been free from those terrible Frights which the indiscreet handling of those Subjects did throw them into The reading of such Books has occasioned and does still produce great Mischiefs when they are read by Men of weak Heads that are inclined to Melancholy and the Number of such Persons is very considerable Some have fancied they had committed the Sin against the Holy Ghost and being possessed with that dismal Thought they have spent their Lives in dreadful Apprehensions of which nothing could cure them Others have imagined that their Case cure them Others have imagined that their Case was
of Religion with relation to Order But having done this already in the beginning of this Second Part I shall only say in general that nothing contributes so much to the maintaining of Disorder as Custom does The most beneficial Laws and Institutions are looked upon as dangerous Innovations when they are not Authorized by Practice Men dare not so much as attempt to introduce them On the other hand useless or ill Practices are thought Sacred Establishments as soon as they are confirmed by Time and Custom If Men do but endeavour to lay aside some Ceremony to make some alteration in a Liturgy or in the Form of Divine-Services It seems to many that the very essence of Religion is struck at Thus it happens that Abuses which are palpable and acknowledge by all Men of Sense subsist for whole Ages and cannot be Reformed The difficulty of reviving the Apostolical Discipline and of restoring Church-Government and the Ministry of Pastors to the State they ought to be in proceeds from the same Cause Because a certain Form of Ecclesiastical Government and Discipline obtains in a Country it is pretended to be the best and most perfect in which nothing is to be altered and those are not so much as heard who propose the establishing of another If any one thinks it a Fault to suffer Scandalous Sinners in the Bosom of the Church if he thinks that they ought to be Excommunicated and that Christians ought to maintain no familiar Intercourse with them tho' such a Man has the Laws of the Apostles on his side yet he shall be called an Innovator Tho' he should plainly shew the Inconveniences of the ordinary Practice and the necessity of Discipline from Scripture from the Pattern of the first Christian Ages and by the most convincing Arguments yet Custom will still be urged against him the Divine Laws shall give place to common Usage and the present Practice shall prevail above that of the Primitive Christians III. Example and Custom have a great force especially in those things which concern Manners Men are not altogether such Slaves to Custom in Matters of Opinion about Religion because Opinions are shut up within the Heart but in Practical Things and in Manners there are few Men who are not carried away by the Stream of the Multitude People think themselves excused from the Observation of the plainest and the most Sacred Duties as soon as they cannot observe them without departing from Custom and so they conform to the common Use how bad soever it may be Those who Condemn the vicious and corrupt Manners of the Age and practice the Rules of the Gospel who for instance abstain from Swearing and reprove those who do it who make scruple of Lying and of transgressing the Rules of their Duty are looked upon in the World as Homoursome People and stigmatized with Odious Names and Imputations If they plead the express Commands of Christ and his Apostles instead of giving up the Cause Men will strain the Scripture and by force Explications and impious Glosses endeavour to fix a Sense upon it which may favour the ordinary Practice While Piety dares not shew it self Vice is respected and bad Men carry it boldly every where because the Numbers are of their side Maxims directly opposite to the Moral Precepts of our Saviour are not only received and tolerated but they are defended as innocent for this single Reasons That the generality of Men approve and practise them This might be confirmed by innumerable Instances We can hardly imagine any thing more contrary to the Precepts of the Gospel than that worldly Life which is led by many Christians They spend their whole time in the Cares of the Body they wear out their Lives in Idleness Gaming Pleasures and Divertisements they deny themselves nothing they make it their study to live Luxuriously and to gratify themselves This kind of Life is inconsistent with Piety but because it obtains among Persons of the higher Rank it is very hard to persuade those who follow it that they ought to quit it It is by alledging common Practice that Men defend a soft and effeminate Life Fashions contrary to Chastity and Modesty the too great familiarity of the Young Persons of both Sexes the reading of ill Books the Plays which would Honesty and Religion scandalous Diversions and those Assemblies where the most inticing baits and allurements to Vice are to be met with and where the Minds of Young People receive the most dangerous Impressions All these Things I say are defended by Custom So that when Luxury and expensiveness and state in Apparel Eating or Furniture are once established we endeavour to no purpose to bring Men to Christian Moderation and to banish that multitude of Scandals and Vices which must needs attend such kind of Excesses Thus in some Nations where Drunkeness is in Vogue it is in vain to oppose so vicious a Custom In spight of all that can be said against Drunkenness and Intemperance People are so far from parting with that Vice that they fancy there is no sin in being Drunk To put up no Injuries to indulge Revenge to be tender and nice upon the Point of false Honour to stick at nothing that can promote one's Fortune to assume all Shapes to disguise one's Sentiments and to supplant others All these are Maxims which are followed without scruple because they are authorized by Use and by the false Opinions of Men. It would signifie nothing to alledge to those who are possessed with such Sentiments what the Gospel enjoins us concerning Patience forgiving of Injuries Humility Sincerity Justice and Charity such Morals will not be so much as hearkened to because these Matters are otherwise determined by Custom By the same reason it it pretended that in Offices in Trade in Arts and in the various Professions of Life every thing which is usually practised by Men in those several Callings may Lawfully be done Nay even an Oath is not sufficient to undeceive People most Men explain their Oaths and regulate their Consciences by the Example of others they use all the Methods of Gain which Custom has introduced without enquiring whether they are justifiable or not When I speak here of Custom and Example I do not only mean that which is established by general Use but that likewise which is authorized by Men in Credit The Quality of Persons produces the same effect that great Numbers do one single Example has sometimes as much force as the united Examples of a Multitude All that is done and approved of by Princes great Men Magistrates and Persons of Quality is a Law to a great many People A small Number of Considerable Persons who join their endeavours to bring a Practice into fashion is enough to make it in a little time to be generally followed how bad soever it may be This is so commonly seen that I think it needless to give Instances of it I shall add Three Considerations which deserve a