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
Preservative But these Books are not much better than the others nay I cannot tell whether they are not more dangerous Those Moralities are very ill placed and few People are the better for them It is a very suspicious kind of Morality which comes from the Pen of those Authors who write indifferently upon Matters of Love and religious Subjects who sometimes seem to be Libertines and sometimes devout who after they have said a hundred licentious things given you the History of a great many Disorders and related several scandalous Passages entertain you with Devotion and Piety This is a monstrous Mixture If those Authors were truly religious they would forbear writing those things which Religion condemns and which scandalize the publick Such Books are particularly fit to confirm worldly Men in their Opinion that Gallantry provided it does not proceed to the highest degree of Crimes is no great Sin and to persuade young People that they may easily grow devout here after tho' they now spend their Youth in Libertinism From all these Confiderations I infer that let People say what they will all the Books which present their Readers with Impurity either bare-faced or under some Veil are extreamly pernicious Having thus discoursed of ill Books I come now to the Books of Religion It may seem at first that I should rather seek in these the Remedy than the Cause of Corruption Indeed the end of religious Books should be to banish Corruption and to establish Piety in the World and there are many of them which attack Ignorance and Vice with Success and which may prove excellent Preservatives against the Corruption of the Age. But I hope no body will take it amiss if I say that there are Books of Religion which do not conduce much to the promoting of Piety nay that some prove a hindrance to it This I shall now endeavour to shew I shall not speak of any particular Book I will only offer some general Considerations which my Readers may apply as they see Cause It is not my Design to rank among bad Books all those Works to which some of the following Reflections may be applied Some indeed are downright bad but may are in several respects good and useful tho' they have their Faults and as good Books ought to be distinguished from bad ones so it is not less necessary to discern what is good in every Book from what is naught or useless The Books of Religion which I think ought here to be taken notice of are of four sorts 1. Those which explain the Scripture 2. The Books of Divinity 3. The Books of Morality 4. The Books of Devotion 1. It cannot be denied but that among the Books of the first sort there are some very good ones and that we have at this Day great Helps for the understanding of the Holy Scripture But it ought likewise to be granted that some of those Books which are designed for the expounding of Scripture do only obscure and perplex the Sense of it It would be tedious to mention here all the Defects of that kind of Writing I shall therefore observe only the Principal 1. The First and the most Essential is the not Expounding of Scripture according to its true Meaning and this Fault which is but too frequent in Commentaries proceeds chiefly from two Causes 1. That Expositors do not apprehend the Scope of the Sacred Writers and 2. That they enter with Prejudices upon the Reading of Scripture The true way to understand the Scripture is to know the Scope of it and never to swerve from that Good Sense and Piety joined with the Study of Languages History and Antiquity are here very serviceable A Commentator ought in a manner to transport himself into those Places and Times in which the Sacred Authors lived He should fancy himself in their Circumstances and consider what their Design was when they spoke or writ what Persons they had to deal with and what Notions Knowledge or Customs did then obtain But those who being ignorane of these things set about Expounding the Scripture can hardly do it with Success It is a Wonder if they do not miss the true Mark and if they do not obtrude forced and very often false Glosses upon their Readers On the other hand many Authors apply themselves to the examining of Scripture with a Mind full of Prejudices They explain in by the present Notions of the World Nothing is more usual with Commentators than to make the Faithful under the Old Testament speak as if they had been as well acquainted with the Truths of the Gospel as Christians are and as if those Questions and Disputes which are treated in Common-Places of Divinity had been agitated at that time When those Expositors for Instance meet with the World Righteous or Righteousness in the Psalms they fancy that David had in his Thoughts all that Divines have vented concerning Justification and upon this Supposal what do they not say or what do they not make Preachers say It has been observed that almost all Commentators are partial and endeavour to put upon the Scripture a Sense that favours the Opinions of their respective Sects This Spirit of a Party is chiefly remarkable in some of those Commentaries which these last Centuries have produced 2. The second Rule of a Commentator should be to expound clearly and familiarly the literal Sense of Scripture and never to have recourse to a mystical Exposition but in those Places where the Spirit of God directs us to look for it And yet a great many Authors do almost entirely forsake the literal Sense to pursue mystical Explications In their Opinion every thing is mystical in the Holy Scripture especially in the Old Testament They are not contented with unfolding the true Mysteries and Prophecies which manifestly relate to the Times of the Gospel but they turn all things into Figure They find Mysteries Allegories Types and Prophecies every where even in the plainest Discourses This they call searching and diving into the Scriptures But this way of expounding the Word of God is a Fountain of Illusions For as the Holy Ghost does not explain those pretended Mysteries so they must be put to their Guesses and beholden to their Imagination for the Discovery of them and he that is the most copious or lucky in his Conjectures is the greatest Man Now I leave any one to judge whether Commentators who follow no other Guide but their Imagination can avoid being very frequently mistaken and giving a great many handles to Libertines and Infidels 3. We are not to forget here the School-Commentators The Holy Scripture should be expounded in a simple and popular manner and this cannot be denied if we consider that it was given for the Instruction and the Salvation of all Men and that the Discourses of Christ and his Apostles were addressed to the Common People and to such Persons as were far from being Philosophers Nothing therefore seems more repugnant to the
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
Man to be too Just or too Wise and whether there can be a vicious excess in Righteousness or Wisdom If a Man may be over-righteous he may likewise love God too much for to be righteous and to love God is the same thing Now God requires that we should love him with all our Heart and consequently that we should be as righteous as it is possible for us to be But far from being over-righteous we can never be righteous enough And if we can never be righteous enough is there any occasion to exhort us that we should not be over-righteous I wish Men had at least that reverence for the Scripture as not to make it speak Absurdities I know the ordinary Evasion Vicious Men will say that when Piety runs to excess it leads to Superstition or Pride and becomes troublesome and ridiculous Every body says that but without Reason I have refuted that Opinion and shewed that true Piety never degenerates into Superstition or Pride and that Devout Men who are Superstitious or troublesome have but a false Devotion or a misguided Zeal This may direct us to the true meaning of the Sentence in Question Solomon does not speak here of true Justice and Wisdom For whether he may have an eye here upon Superstitious or Hypocritical Persons whose Righteousness is but imaginary which Sense is adopted by many Interpreters or whether he speaks of those who exercise Justice with too much severity as some think or whether as it is conceived by others he gives this advice to busy and presumptuous People who meddle in things which do not concern them and fancy themselves able to determine all Matters however it is plain that Solomon does not speak here of good Men who exactly follow the Rules of true Justice and Wisdom If we stick to the last of these Three Expositions which seems to agree best with Solomon's design then the meaning of this place is clear and rational and has nothing in it contrary to Piety whereas the sense which is put upon these Words by the Libertines is both Absurd and Impious Those who would either justify or excuse Corruption use to object in the second place That since the Scripture teaches that all Men and even good Men are deeply ingaged in Corruption it must follow from thence that Holiness and Good-works are not so very necessary and that the practice of these is impossible Now to prove this universal Corruption of all Men they bring several Declarations of Scripture and this among the rest There is not one that doeth good no not one c. Psal 14. Rom. 3. If their meaning in citing these Words was only to shew that there is no Man altogether free from Sin and if it was granted on the other-hand that good Men do not sin in the same manner that the wicked do I would not quarrel much about this Interpretation tho' not altogether exact or agreeable to the scope of David in the 19th Psalm But there is another design in it which is to inferr from these Words that Men differ very little from one another that they are all guilty of many great Sins and that none do or can practise the Duties of Holiness In a word this is intended for the Apology of Corruption and to silence those who oppose it If what David says in this place is to be strictly understood it will follow that there is not one good Man upon Earth that all Men are perverted that they are all become abominable by their Sins and that there is not one single Person that is just or that fears God But this Consequence raises Horrour it is contrary to Truth and Experience and to what the Scripture declares in a Thousand places where it speaks of Good Men and distinguishes them from the Wicked Nay this Consequence may be destroy'd from what we read in that very Psalm which mentions the Just who are protected by God and the Wicked who persecute them This complaint of David must therefore be understood with some restrictions By reading the XIV Psalm we may perceive that David intends to describe in it the extream Corruption of Men in his time There he draws the Picture of Impiety and Atheism and speaks of those Fools who say in their hearts that there is no God and whose life is a continued chain of Sins It must be observed in the next place that when St. Paul cites these words out of the XIV Psalm in the Epistle to the Romans Chap. III. he does it with a design to shew that the Jews were not much better than the Heathens and that they had as much need of a Saviour * V. 9. What then are we better than they No in no wise for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin This is the Assertion which St. Paul maintains and which he proves from that complaint which David made of Old †V. 19. There is not one that does good c. From whence he concludes that all mouths must be stopped and that all the World is become guilty before God so that the Law of Moses could neither justify nor sanctifie the Jews But he teaches at the same time that Christ was come to rescue Men out of that miserable Condition And it were a strang thing if we must dill say of Christians that there is none that does good no not one 2. This answer is to be applied to that place in the Ephesians where it is said * Ephes II. 1. i. that we are dead in trespasses and sins for to the same end these words are quoted I do not deny but all Men abstracting from the Divine Grace are to be considered as dead in their Sins That is St. Paul's meaning in that place he speaks here of the Natural state of Men and particularly of Heathens which was a State of Corruption and Death in which they had perished had not God taken pity upon them But the Apostle intends to make the Ephesians sensible of that unparallel'd Mercy of God by which they were converted to Christianity being but poor Heathens before who were dead in their sins and obnoxious to the Wrath of God He does not say to them you are dead in your sins it is falsifying the Text to cite it so and to say we are dead in our sins but you were dead he speaks of the time past when they were Heathens * and 5. c Among whom says he speaking of the Jews we had our Conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind but now he adds God has quickned us together with Christ both you that were Heathens and we that were Jews are raised again from this spiritual death by virtue of God's great Mercy This is the true meaning of that place which gives us a lively Idea of Mens Natural Corruption and of that happy State to which Christ
has exalted them I do not deny but that many Christians are still in the same condition with Heathens or very near it being dead in their Sins and following the course of this World but this can be said only of bad Christians and not of those who have felt the Divine and Sanctifying vertue of the Christian Religion 3. It will be further said that we must needs acknowledge that all Men without exception are Sinners because that is St. John's Doctrine * John 1.8 If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves This is a truth which no Man denies because it is too evident both from Scripture and Experience But we must take care to understand this Proposition aright that all men are sinners and that we explain it so as that it may Comport with that just difference we are to make between good and bad Men else under a pretence that all Men are Sinners the distinction between Virtue and Vice will be taken away It is fit to remark upon this occasion that the Scripture does not give the name of Sinners to all Men but only to the wicked and impious this may be seen in the whole Book of Psalms When we say then that we are all poor Sinners we must know in what sense we say it As to these words If we say that we have no sin we decieve our selves It is visible that St. John says this upon two accounts which relate to two sorts of Sins into which Men may fall First there are great Sins there is that Corruption in which Men lived before their Conversion In this regard St. John might say to those he writes to who were new converted Christians that they were all Sinners meaning that they had all been so for indeed both Gentiles and Jews had been extreamly Corrupt Secondly there are Sins into which those whose Regeneration is not yet perfect may fall as Fhere are Infirmities from which the most regenerate Men are not free In this sense all Men are Sinners and the Christians to whom St. John directs his Epistle were all Sinners also tho' already converted But the question is whether a true Christian sins like other Men and whether he who is a Sinner taking that word according to the ordinary use of Scripture that is to say one in whom Sin reigns is a true Christian That can never be said To this purpose we may hear St. John himself in the III Chapter of the same Epistle where he expresly tells us that he who is born of God does not commit Sin that whoever sinneth is of the Devil and that by this we may know the Children of God and the Children of the Devil Are not these words very plain Who can have the confidence after this to excuse Corruption by saying we are all Sinners But yet it is not only said that we are all Sinners by these Men but besides that we are all Great wretched and abominable Sinners It is no wonder that Men who have such Sentiments should be so Corrupt 4. But to this there is a reply at hand to shew that the justest Men are guilty of very frequent Sins and it is taken from these words The just man sins seven times a day I might let this alone because I am engaged only to answer those Places of Scripture which are wrested into an ill sense about this matter And this that the just man sins seven times a day is no where to be found in the Bible Those who quote these words as if they were Scripture will pretend no doubt that they are contained in Prov. xxiv 16. But there is nothing like this in the Sacred Text. These are the words of Solomon a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again But the wielded shall fall into Mischief Solomon speaks of the frequent Afflictions of good Men and particularly of the ill usage they meet with from wicked Men. In the 15 Verse he addresses himself to the wicked and tells them that it is in vain for them to lay wait for and to persecute the Just for adds he a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again but the wicked shall fall into Mischief and perish The meaning is that God takes care of the Just and that if he permits that they should fall into many Calamities he does likewise deliver them This is asserted almost in the same words Psal xxxvii 24. Though the just fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand To the same purpose we are told Job V. 19. He shall deliver thee in six troubles yea in seven there shall no evil touch thee This admits of no difficulty and all Interpreters are agreed about it And yet for all that as men are apt to entertain every thing which excuses Corruption this Proverb That the just man sins seven times a day prevails and passes for an Article of Faith Is it not a lamentable thing that Men should be thus obstinately bent to wrest the Scripture into a sense favourable to Corruption and that they should dare to falsify it at this rate There are many falsifyings in the way of citing this Passage 1. Whereas Solomon says only the just he is made to say the justest man to give the greater force and extent to this Sentence to debase Piety the more and to insinuate that the best and holiest Men are great Sinners 2. Solomon is made to say that the just Sins but he does not say that he says only that the just falls I know that to fall signifies sometimes to sin but falling denotes likewise very frequently to be afflicted and a Man is blind who does hot see that in this Text the word fall is used in this second sense The 17 Verse which comes immediately after that which we are now examining proves it beyond exception rejoyce not when thine enemy falleth c. Besides those who are acquainted with the Sacred style know that it does not usually express the Sins of infirmity to which the Just are subject by the word fall that word importing commonly the fall of wicked Men. 3. Solomon is made to say That the justest Man sins seven times a day This is another falsifying an addition to the Text which is of no small consequence Seven times a day is not in the Text there is only seven times Every body knows that Seven times signifies many times And so the meaning would be that the Just do nothing else but transgress that many times a Day he falls into Sin But who does not see that this would be the description of a Man in whom Sin reigns and who is habitually ingaged in it and not the Character of a good Man I do not say but that just Men have their weak sides and fall sometimes into Sin this happens more or less according to the degree of their Regeneration but it is Impious to say that their Life is spent in continual Sins and
that ye should obey it in the lusts hereof The Apostle pursues these Exhortations to the end of the Chapter 2. The Promises and Instances of God's Mercy are frequently also taken in a sense which favours Corruption and Security All that the Gospel says upon this head is interpreted by vicious Men as if the Son of God was come into the World to give Men a license to sin To this purpose the Instances of that Woman who was a sinner of Zacheus and the converted Thief are often alledged as likewise the Parable of the Prodigal Son of the Publican and of the Labourers And from these Instances as well as from our Saviour's Declarations †Mat. 11.13 that he is not come to call the righteous but Sinners to Repentance it is concluded that the greatest Sinners may obtain Salvation as well as the Just But if those who quote these Instances did narrowly examine them they would read in them their own Condemnation For first all these Sinners mentioned in the Gospel did repent and were Converted That Woman who had been a Notorious Sinner expresses the most lively Sorrow the Publican smites his Breast the Prodigal comes to himself again and detests his former excesses Zacheus if he was an unjust man restores fourfold From these Instance we may very well infer that God never rejects returning sinners But even this is an invincible Argument that there is no mercy for those who persist in their Sins and that too in hopes of Pardon Besides we must know that our Saviour's design in all these Parables and Instances was to inform Men that he was come to invite the greatest Sinners to Repentance and especially to let the Jews understand that for all the high opinion they had of their own Dignity and Merit the Heathens who lived in the greatest Corruption were to be admitted into God's Covena◠and to have a Share in his favour Which actually happened to all those Heathens who did believe in Jesus Christ These Instances and Parables then represent the Stare Men were in at that time and not the State of those who are entred already into the Christian Church It can never be said too much nor remembred too often in the reading of the Gospel that there is a vast difference between those Heathens who never heard a word of God or Jesus Christ◠and Christians who are born in the Church and live in the Covenant with God Thus I think I have examined those Places of Scripture which are most commonly abused by the Libertines If I have omitted any I hope what has been said in this Chapter may serve to suggest pertinent and satisfactory Answers to them CAUSE V. A false Modesty COrruption is not wholly to be imputed to that Ignorance or to those Prejudices and loose Opinions which prevail among Christians For men do not always sin through want of Knowledge or out of mere Wantonness and Libertinism There are many who acknowledge the viciousness of the Age and the necessity of a good life and yet they neglect their Dury intirely or at least they are very remiss in the doing of it acting for the most part against their own persuasions There must be then other Springs of Corruption in Men besides those which we have hitherto discovered It is necessary to search into these and to find out if possible why many persons who want no Instruction and are solicited by the Motion of their own Consciences to embrace the side of Vertue and Piety do not withstanding continue in Vice and Corruption This seems to proceed chiefly from two Dispositions which Men are commonly i◠On the one hand they are restrained by an ill Shame from acting suitably to the sentiments of their own Consciences and on the other hand they put off their Conversion hoping that they shall one Day make up all the Irregularities of their Conduct by Repentance I look upon these two Disposition as two of the principal Causes of Corruption and therefore I thought in might be proper to consider them both distinctly I design to treat of false Modesty in this Chapter and to shew 1. The Nature and 2. the Effects of it 1. By false Modesty I mean that Shame which hinders Men to do that which they know to be their Duty I call this Shame vicious or illl to distinguish it from another kind of Shame which is good and commendable which consists in being ashamed to do ill things If false Shame is a source of Corruption that other Shame which restrains from Evil is a Principle of Vertue and a Preservative against Sin And therefore it ought to be as carefully cherished and maintained as vicious Shame should be avoided or shaken off For as soon as the sense of this commendable Shame is gone Innocency is irrecoverably lost It is a part of the Character of Sinners in Scripture that their Wickedness raises no blushing or confusion in them I say then that this false Shame keeps Men from doing at the same time what they know and approve to be their Duty and it is under that Notion particularly that I am to consider it here It is not my design to speak of that Shame which arises from Ignorance or Contempt and which is to be met with in those profane and worldly Men who because they do not know Religion or judge it unworthy of their Application think it a disgrace to follow its Maxims I refer such Men to the first Chapter of this Book and to some further Considerations which I am to insist upon elsewhere The Shame I speak of at present supposes some Knowledge in the Mind and some value for and inclination to Piety From whence it appears how dangerous the Effects of that Shame are and how important it is to know and observe them since it seduces and corrupts even those who are none of the worst Men and of whom otherwise we might reasonably hope well Now to apprehend the Nature of this vicious Shame it must be observed that Shame commonly springs from two Causes Sometimes it proceeds from the Nature of the thing we are ashamed of or from the Opinion we have of it Thus Men are ashamed of things which either are or appear dishonest in their Nature But sometimes also Shame is an effect of the regard we bear to other Mens Judgment and then we are ashamed to do things which may bring Contempt upon us and Disgrace us in the World One may soon perceive that the Shame that is vicious does not arise from the first of these Causes Religion has nothing in it that is shameful arid dishonest for far from that it is of all things the most Comely and Honourable and the most worthy of a Man and it appears such even to those who by reason of a groundless Shame dare not practise the Rules of it The true Cause then of this false Modesty is a feeble regard to Mens Judgment and a fear of falling under their Contempt
unhappiness for Children that in this respect they are so much neglected Men have not the Patience to reason with them and to Teach them to Speak and to Act wisely They are suffered to be among People who can neither Speak nor Reason they converse for the most part only with Servants or other Children By this means they accustom themselves to take up false Notions to judge of Things only by their appearances to resolve rashly and without Consideration and to be governed only by their Senses Passions or Prejudices From thence proceed almost all the Faults which they commit afterwards but this is especially the Cause of that affection which Men bear to Sin and to the Things of this World The first Quality of a Christian is to be a Rational Man it being impossible that a Man who cannot make use of his Reason and who has no Sense should judge aright of Spiritual Things curb his Passions renounce his Prejudices and constantly follow the Rules of his Duty 3. I shall not here enumerate all the particular Faults which are suffered in Children but there are two which I cannot but take notice of because I look upon them as the cause of most of the Passions and Vices so which Men are addicted First there are no sufficient endeavours used to make Children tractable and to subject them to the Will of others The ground-work of a good Education is to keep them in Awe and Obedience and not to let them grow independent and obstinate in their own Will and Passions so that when we command or forbid them a thing it is by all means necessary to make them obey When we observe in them too strong an Inclination to any thing tho' the thing were innocent yet because they desire it too earnestly they are not always to be indulged in it But care is to be taken that when we Cross their Will we do it with Mildness and in such a manner as may give them to understand that it is with reason and for their good we oppose them and not out of humour or only to vex them When Children are thus dealt with they may be turned which way soever we please It keeps them from stubbornness and Self-love it teaches them to overcome their Desires to submit to Corrections and to follow the Advice which is give them In a word Tractableness in a Child is a disposition to every thing that is good and the foundation of all Virtues But no good can be expected from a Child who is not docile and obedient If he is permitted while young to be independent and to do what he lists he will be much more absolute when he comes to a riper Age. The other Fault which it is very necessary to prevent is the love of the Body and of the Objects of Sense A carnal Temper is by the testimony of Scripture it self the root of all Vices But the first rise of that irregular Affection which Men bear to every thing that gratifies their Body is in their Infancy For besides that Children govern themselves only by sense that Byass they have towards sensible things is forfeited by the sensual Education which is bestowed upon them None but gross and Material Objects are proposed to them they are entertained only with those things which affect the Senses and no Ideas but those of bodily Pleasures or Pains are excited in them The Promises and ' Threats the Rewards and Punishments which are used to gain upon them relate only to Corporeal things And here it ought not to be omitted that they are chiefly spoiled by being indulged in Gluttony and the Vanity of Cloaths These are the two first Passions of Children the two Inclinations by which they begin to grow Corrupt and to love the World nothing makes so much impression upon them as that which affects their Eyes or their Palate If Children were used to a simplicity of Diet and Apparel this would preserve them from many dangerous Vices and Passions it would dispose them for those Virtues which are the most necessary to a Wise Man and a Christian it would inure them to Sobriety Labour Prudence Humility to the Contempt of Pleasure and to Firmness and Patience in Calamities This would make their Constitution stronger and prevent divers Infirmities which both afflict and shorten their lives But ill Custom prevails against the Maxims of Reason and Christianity Little caution is use in relation to their Diet they are suffered to eat much beyond that which Nature requires and they are accustomed to be liquorish and dainty in their eating As for Cloaths and Decking Fathers and more especially Mothers have that Weakness that they love to see their Children fine and spruce Besides this the way of breeding up Children of the better sort makes them soft effeminate and lovers of Pleasure The fruit of such an Education is that Children become Slaves to their Bodies and to their Senses they are taken with nothing but bodily Pleasures and worldly Things From thence Spring in process of time Intemperance Uncleanness Pride Covetousness and most of the greater kind of Sins This is likewise the principal cause of Indevotion and of the little relish which Men find in spiritual Things particularly in Religion and Piety A sensual Education occasions all these Evils 4. It will not be improper to observe here that frequently the Education which is given to those Children who are destined to Sciences and considerable Employments either in the Church or in Civil Society does but corrupt their Inclinations They are sent to Colleges and Universities where being trusted with themselves they live in Independence and Libertinism and they are sent thither at an Age in which without a kind of Miracle they cannot fail of being undone They are as it were emancipated from the inspection of their Parents they are exposed without defence to the most dangerous Seductions and that at the very time when they are the most unfit to regulate their Conduct and the most susceptible of ill Impressions and vicious Examples Children would be much better Educated with relation both to Sciences and good Manners if their Parents did not make so much haste and if they did not spur them on to Study till their Judgment was a little formed and especially if they took care to confirm them in the Principles of Religion and Virtue before they were sent from Home Some alteration should likewise be made in Colleges For the very Studies which Youths pursue there are instrumental to Debauch them They learn Latin and Obscenity together Authors are put into their Hands the reading of whom raises impure Ideas in their Minds and as if there was a design to stifle in them all sense of Modesty they are made to interpret and to rehearse very undecent things When all is well considered young People acquire but little of useful Learning in Colleges and Academies at the rate they live and study in those Places and there too they
desperate and that they were in a State of Reprobation and Damnation Others have conceited that they were given up to the Power of Satan and they have taken the Disorders of Imagination for certain Signs of their being possessed with an Evil Spirit And the worst of it is that such indiscreet Discourses are more apt to alarm good than wicked Men. In fine I reckon among the Books which fright Men without Cause all those which contain too rigid and austere Maxims of Devotion and Morality 5. Piety would be better known and more esteemed than it is if Books of Devotion were always writ with Judgment and Good Sense and if there was nothing in them but what upon a severe Examination would appear to be strictly true Those who set about Works of this nature do generally make it their Business to move the Heart and to excite Sentiments of Piety This is a good Design but we ought to know that it is the Force of Reasons the Evidence of Proofs the Greatness of the Objects proposed and the Clearness and Solidity of what a Man says which does truly affect the Heart This is what Judicious Authors chiefly mind and thereby many have had good Success in those excellent Works which they have enriched the Publick with But other Writers do not consider this they rather choose to say tender and pathetical Things than to think or speak with exactness They consult Imagination more than Good Sense they pour out every thing which is in the Heat of Meditation or in the Fervency of their Zeal seems to them proper to move to melt to comfort or to terrifie Hence it is that there are weak places in their Books and Thoughts which appear mean and even false to discerning Readers Contradictions and such like Defects For on the one hand they produce only a confused and not a very rational Devotion in those who read and relish them And on the other hand they expose Religion to the Flouts and Contempt of Libertines We are often troubled and scandalized to find that some Men of Parts express but little Esteem for Books of Piety We hear it said every Day that those Books are only good for Women and for the Vulgar This Contempt chiefly proceeds from a profane Humour and from Libertinism but it springs likewise from the want of Exactness and Solidity which is observable in some Books of Devotion 6. Divers Considerations might be offered here about those Books which contain Forms of Prayers and Devotion but I shall confine my self to these two which appear to me the most material The first is that those kind of Forms make all sorts of Persons indifferently and even good Men say things which cannot agree but to the greatest and the most notorious Sinners which gives People this dangerous Notion That all Men without excepting the Regenerate are extreamly corrupt In divers Prayers we plainly see that those who composed them had no other Design than to draw the Picture of the most heinous Sinners and that they supposed all Men engaged in a deep Corruption and in the most criminal Disorders Exaggerations and Hyperboles are so little spared by some People upon this Head that they utter Absurdities and Falshoods in their Prayers as when they say That ever since we were born we have been continually and every moment offending God by Thoughts Words and Deeds I do not deny but that such Prayers may have their use provided nothing be said in them that is extravagant or contrary to Truth and Common Sense they fit great Numbers of Persons There are but too many of those wretched Christians who can never sufficiently bewail the Enormity of their Sins and the Irregularities of their Conduct I know besides that all Men are Sinners and that the best of them have Reason to humble and abase themselves in the sight of God out of a sense of their own weakness and unworthiness Nevertheless since the Scripture makes a difference between Good and Bad Men it is at least a great piece of Imprudence to appoint the same Language for both and to make them all speak as if they were guilty of the most horrid Crimes and as if there was not one good Man in the World This takes away the Distinction between the Sinners and the Righteous for if these Prayers are proper for all sorts of Persons if all that is said in them is true it is a vain thing to distinguish a good Man from a bad and it is to no purpose to pray to God for his Converting Grace or to make any Promise of Amendment to him All those Lessons of Holiness which the Gospel gives us are but fine Idea's all Men are upon the matter equally bad and they may all be the Objects of God's Mercy how irregular soever their Deportment may be These are the Inferences which may be drawn from those Forms of Devotion I have mentioned and which Sinners do actually draw from them From all this I conclude that in such Works it is necessary to distinguish Persons and Conditions And this accordingly has been judiciously observed by some Authors The other Consideration relates to the Form of Prayers these are not always plain enough They are sometimes studied Discourses which have more of Art and Wit than of Affection in them And we may easily discern how far most Prayers are removed from a due Simplicity if we compare them with those which are contained in Holy Scripture or with the ancient Way of Praying which was received in the Church and of which we may judge by the Liturgies which are now used or which have reached to us Prayers were neither so intricate then nor so long as they are now Long Preambles were not used in the beginning of Prayers and Men did not them by so many Windings approach the Throne of Grace to confess their Sins and to beg Pardon for them Prayers then were short simple and natural much fitted to excite Devotion to lift up the Heart to God and to nourish Piety and Zeal than many Forms which obtain at this day 7. Of all the Books of Piety none are more carefully read and none perhaps have a greater Influence upon the Conduct and Manners of Christians than the Books of Preparation for the Holy Communion The use of the Sacrament is one of the most important Acts of Religion and one of the most efficacious Means to promote Piety and it is certain that the Books which People read in order to prepare themselves for that sacred Action contribute very much to the good or bad use of the Eucharist and by Consequence to the good or ill Life of Christians Now what I have said of the other Books of Devotion may be applied to these Some Books of this kind are extraordinary good but there are others in which among many good things some Defects are observable and particularly these three 1. All the Books of Preparation for the Holy Communion are not instructive