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
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
be much advanced as long as the Evil is not taken in its Cause and as long as such Principles and Abuses continue among Christians as are and will always be Obstacles to the Progress of the Gospel Lastly I considered that this Matter had not yet been thoroughly handled by any Author at least that I know of Of those who have touched upon it in their Books some have confined themselves to Considerations purely Moral and others to Theological Reflections upon the Errors which are in Vogue or upon the Controversies which divide Christians but they have omitted many things which seem essential no doubt because they did not intend to treat this Subject purposely or because they did not take a View of the whole extent of it As these Considerations have made me wish for a long while that among so many able Men who write about Religion some might undertake so important a Subject so they have determined me to Publish these Essays upon the Causes of Corruption hoping that others will apply themselves to the full Discussion of those Matters which are here but imperfectly hinted at But that the Scope of this Treatise may be the better understood and that no body may expect that in it which according to the Scheme I formed to my self ought not to have a place here I shall acquaint the Reader with one thing which he may perhaps have foreseen from what has been already said I do not propose to my self to handle this Matter in the way of the Divinity Schools No Man therefore ought to wonder if I say nothing of the State in which all Men are born nor of that Inclination to Vice which is observed in them For tho' this is the first Original of Corruption yet certainly this Corruption would be much less if Christians did use the means which God affords them to overcome it and if there were not other Sources which feed and strengthen that vitious Propensity Besides I do not consider Corruption in general as it is Common to all Mankind but I enquire into the Causes of the Corruption of Christians in particular Neither do I design to write a Moral Treatise so that it must not be expected that I should discourse of Self-Love and Pride and of all the other Passions which are the Ordinary Occasions of Mens Sins or that I should trace out all the particular Causes of every Sin This would carry me too far and such things have been often examined I therefore apply my self only to the general Causes and I manage the the Matter thus I divide this Work into Two Parts because the Causes of Corruption may be of Two sorts I shall call those of the first sort Particular or Internal because they are within us and to be found in every particular Man that lives ill Those of the Second sort which are more general I name External because they proceed rather from certain outward Circumstances and from the unhappiness of the Times than from the fault of particular Persons The Causes I shall treat of in the First Part are no other but the ill Dispositions in which most Christians are and which hinder their applying themselves to Piety And of these I shall observe Nine I. Ignorance II. Prejudices and False Notions concerning Religion III. Some Opinions and and Maxims which are used to Authorize Corruption IV. The Abuse of Holy Scripture V. A false Modesty VI. The Delaying Repentance VII Man's Sloth and Negligence in Matters of Religion VIII Worldly Business IX Men's particular Callings The Causes to be Considered in the Second Part are these Seven I. The State of the Church and of Religion in General II. The Want of Discipline III. The Defects of the Clergy IV. The Defects of Christian Princes and Magistrates V. Education VI. Example and Custom VII Books I declare here that in discoursing upon these Sources I do not mean to tax all Christians without exception So when I speak of Ignorance and of Prejudices commonly received Knowing and Learned Men are excepted And when I observe certain Defects in the state of the the Church and of Religion in Discipline in Clergy-men or in Christian Magistrates I suppose those Faults obtain more in some Places than in others In short whoever should apply what is said in this Treatise to all sorts of Persons and Churches would certainly mistake my Design And now I must desire those who may chance to see this Book to examine seriously what 〈◊〉 propose in it No Lover of Truth or Religion can refuse his attention to a Subject of this Nature But I hope it will be more particularly welcome to Church-men and Divines who are called by their Function to set themselves against Corruption and to endeavour all they can to promote Piety and the Glory of God To Conclude I heartily implore his Blessing upon this Work who put it into my Heart to set about it and who is my Witness with what Design and Intention I publish it A TREATISE Concerning the CAUSES OF THE Present Corruption OF CRISTIANS PART I. CAUSE I. Ignorance WHEN a Man thinks of the Causes of that Corruption which over-runs the Christian World the first which offers it self to his mind is Ignorance and therefore I shall begin with it Our Notions and Knowledge are the first Principles of our Actions We can never love a Thing or adhere to it when it is not at all or when it is but imperfectly known to us Supposing then that Men are Ignorant or very little Instructed in Religion there is no wonder that they should be Corrupt for they must of necessity be so On the other hand when they appear to be extreamly Corrupt we may conclude that they want Instruction I do not deny but that Corruption proceeds sometimes from the wickedness of the Heart which resists the Light of the Understanding and that Men frequently Act against their Knowledge But it may safely be said That if Christians were well Instructed they would not be so Corrupt and that wherever an extraordinary Corruption is visible there is likewise a great deal of Ignorance This is confirm'd by the Scripture and by God's Conduct in the Establishing the Christian Religion When the Apostles speak of those Disorders wherein the Heathens lived before their Conversion they ascribe them to the darkness of their Minds * Eph. IV. 18. The Gentiles says St. Paul have their Vnderstanding darkened being alienated from the Life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their Heart The same Apostle calls the Times which preceded the Coming of of Christ the Times of Ignorance And the first Thing which God did to change the Face of the World and to rescue it from Corruption was to dispel the Clouds of their Ignorance and to enlighten them with the Knowledge of himself by the Preaching of the Gospel Although Christians cannot be charged with so gross an Ignorance as that of the Heathens yet they
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
Goodness of God who has so well provided for the Necessities of Men and on the other hand to set Bounds to our Curiosity and to fortify our Faith against those Doubts which might start up in our Minds by reason of so many things which we are ignorant of As therefore of all Truths none are of greater Consequence or of a more intire certainty than those which Religion depends upon so the Proof of those Truths ought to be simple evident and suited to all Mens capacity Thus when in order to prove the Being of a God we alledge for instance the State and Order in which the World subsists when we shew that the World cannot be eternal and that things had a beginning when we establish the Inspiration of Scripture by the Prophecies it contains which were undoubtedly written before their accomplishment When we prove the Truth of the Christian Religion by the Truth of Matters of Fact and History and demonstrate that if the Facts upon which Religion is founded are not certain there is no such thing as certainty in the World in respect of things that are past and that if the Testimony of the Apostles is rejected there are no Witnesses or Historians who may not be rejected upon better grounds When we confirm the Sacred History by the concurring testimony of Pagan Writers and by the most Ancient and the most unquestionable Monuments which past Ages can afford When we reflect upon the manner in which the Christian Religion was planted in the World and upon the alteration it has made in it When we insist upon the Characters of Truth Sincerity and Divinity which are observable in the Scripture In short when we take Religion to pieces and make Men see and feel that its Doctrines its Precepts its Promises and its Threatnings have nothing in them that is absurd or bad or contrary to our natural apprehensions nothing but what perfectly agrees with sound Reason and the Sentiments of our own Consciences and nothing but what is advantagious to particular Persons and to Societies When I say we urge these Proofs and others like them and have the Art of proposing them in a clear and judicious Method it is certain that they contain nothing that is very difficult These are the clearest and the strongest Proofs that can be used in a Subject of this Nature and the Arguments which are made use of to establish these Proofs are for the most part so natural and so conform to the Ideas of our Minds and to the Principles of Common Sense that there are few even of the Vulgar who may not apprehend them if not perfectly and in their whole extent which is reserved to Men of a larger Capacity yet so far at least as sufficiently to be sensible of their Force If then Difficulties and Obscurities are to be met with in the Discussion of the Principles of Religion it is because this Matter is neglected and the People are little Informed But if the same Care had been taken to Instruct Christians in the Fundamental Truths of Religion which was bestowed upon Explaining and Clearing Particular ones they would have another kind of persuasion than they have of the Truth of their Religion These great and sublime Truths have without comparison more suitableness and affinity with the Nature of Men and the Sentiments of their Hearts than many obscure difficult and less necessary things which yet have been effectually taught them 4ly But against this Experience may possibly be Objected It may be said that there are Christians who most certainly have Piety and yet did never meditate much upon the Foundations of Christianity I. Answer That it is not conceivable how a Man should be a pious Christian without being persuaded of the Truth of his Religion For at this rate Piety would be but mere Conceit and Enthusiasm and we must say notwithstanding all that Scripture and Reason tell us to the contrary that Men are Christians without Knowledge or Reason It cannot be otherwise but that good Men must have been convinced of the Truths of the Gospel and have had a lively sense that these are the most certain and the most important of all Truths If we enquire what Principle it is which produces Piety in the Hearts of the most simple People we shall find it is an unmovable Persuasion that there is a God a Judgment a Heaven and a Hell which Persuasion is necessarily founded upon some of the Proofs I have hinted at I grant which no doubt will be Objected to me that in many this Persuasion is not clear enough and that it is not the result of a particular examination but this does not lessen the force of my Argument For though the Persuasion of Good Men should not be so clear and so well grounded as it might be yet it does not follow but that it is sincere a Man may be convinced of a Truth tho' he does not discover all the certainty and all the Proofs of it and tho' he is not able to answer all the Objections against it So that still it is true that there is no Religion without the belief of the General Truths of it After all we must acknowledge that there are Good Men who are not so well instructed upon this Head as it were to be wished And this defect of Instruction this imperfection of their Faith is one of the main Causes of the defects and imperfections of their Piety Thus we may frequently observe in their Conduct such Weaknesses and Opinions as do not agree with the pure Light of Faith and with the exactness of the Rules of the Gospel This is part of the Unhappiness we lament and of that Corruption of which we seek the Causes But no Man will dispute but that if the same Persons had more instruction they would carry Virtue much farther than they do The degree of Piety does ordinarily follow the degree of Faith Where there is no Faith there is no Piety and where Faith is weak and faint Piety is â—anguid and defective This is the geneâ—al State and Character of Christians at this time either downright Impiety or 〈◊〉 Piety that is both feeble and imperfect 5ly In the last place some will perhaps Object here that Incredulity is the effect â—ather than the Cause of Corruption and that Atheism does not produce Corâ—uption but Corruption Atheism To this 〈◊〉 say that these two things do mutually uphold and support each other Many fall into Infidelity because their Hearts are vitiated their licentious way of living takes them off from enquiring into Religion and hinders their believing of Divine Truths But it is not less certain â—hat one of the great Causes of the Disâ—rders of Christians is that either they do â—ot believe at all or that they believe weakly and confusedly and this cannot â—e reasonably contested II. Here is then the first and the prinâ—ipal Defect That Men are not sufficiently â—â—structed in the general Truths and Prinâ—iples of
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
is enough to fill them with a good opinion of themselves Now when Men are thus blinded by Self-love and do not know themselves there is but little hope of them and they will undoubtedly fall into a state of Security These Considerations plainly shew if I â—m not mistaken that Men for the most â—art live in very great Ignorance But I â—hink my self bound to answer an Objectiâ—n which may be offer'd against what has â—een said Some will think no doubt â—â—at it is very difficult for Men to be so â—ell instructed as I suppose they ought to â—e and that the People are not capable â—f such an exact Kowledge of Moraliâ—y To satisfie those who make this Objeâ—tion and to clear this Matter fully I obâ—erve first that by all I have said I do â—â—y no means pretend that all Christians â—â—an or ought to be equally instructed I â—now that there are degrees of Knowledge â—nd that in Morality as well as in Doâ—trines Divines and Men of Parts go a â—reat way beyond the bulk of Mankind It 〈◊〉 sufficient for every one to be instructed â—ccording to his Capacity and his Condition â—ut after all it must be granted that the â—nowledge of the Principles of Morality â—s necssary to every Body or else we must â—â—rike several Precepts out of the Gospel â—nless we imagine that those Precepts are â—ntended only for a small number of Learnâ—d and Subtil Men which is directly opâ—osite to our Saviour's Words who said that his Doctrine is designed for all Mankind for the little ones and the simple rather than for * Mat. XI 25 1 Cor. X. John VI. 45. 1 Thess V. 20. Phil. IV. 8. 2 Pet. II. 5 6 7 8. the Wise and Prudent There is no Christian but ought to be a spiritual man and taught of God When St. Paul says prove all things hold fast that which is good Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise think on these things When St. Peter exhorts Christians to add to their faith all Christian Virtues to grow and abound in all these Virtues such Exhortations do belong equally to all the Professors of Christianity It must not be said that there are Men in the World of very dull and shallow Capacities and that Countrey People and Mechanicks cannot comprehend all these Maxims of Morality This is not so difficult as it is imagined The Duties of Morality are clear they presently affect a Man because they are consonant to the common notices and sentiments of Conscience Chuse what part of Morality you please and you may with due endeavours make either a Handy-crafts-man or a Day-labourer apprehend it so you confine your self to the Knowledge and Practice of those Duties which are necessary to such People in their several Callings Is there any thing more subtil or difficult in the Rules of Morality than there is in a hundred dexterities and shifts which are practised in the Affairs of this Life and which common People can attain to without any great pains If therefore Mens Understandings are so gross and stupid in moral Matters is not because these Matters are above their reach but because they were never taught them â—or never applied themselves to them We ought not to judge of what Men might be by what they are The best Ground becomes barren when it is not cultivated If things were well ordered among Christians in relation especially to the instruction of the People and the Education of Children the generality of them would not be so stupid and ignorant as they are We may therefore conclude that Ignorance is one of the general Causes of Corruption Christians being ill informed of the Truths and Duties of their Religion and wanting instruction both as to Faith and Manners they must needs live in a great neglect of Religious Matters It may be asked whence does this Ignorance proceed I shall observe three principal Causes of it The first is Education the way in which Children are bred up does infallibly lead to Ignorance The second is the want of Means to get good Instruction and particularly the defect of those Instructions which are delivered to Christians in Sermons Catechisms and Books The third is the Sloth and Carelesness of Men who will be at no pains to acquire necessary Knowledge We might bestow very weighty Considerations upon every one of these three Heads but since they will again come in our way in the sequel of this Treatise it is enough to have pointed at them in this place as the three main Sources of Ignorance In truth if Men are ill Educated if they are destitute of the necessary Means of Instruction and take no care about it whence should they have sufficient Knowledge unless they were instructed by Miracles by Revelations and Inspirations they cannot but be Ignorant and Corrupt But now if Ignorance be the first Cause of Corruption it is plain that the first remedy to be used against Corruption is the removing that Ignorance It is that we are to begin at if we would bring back Christians to a Life worthy of the Religion they profess Exhortations Censures and all other such Methods will signifie nothing as long as Mens Minds are not prepared by proper Instructions From all that has been said in this Chapter it may be gathered that the right way to instruct Men is before all things to convince them of the Truth of Religion and to make them sensible that there is nothing more certain or of greater Consequence in the World than the Principles of Christianity The Belief of the General Truths ought especially to be well fixed in their Minds as that there is a God a Providence a Judgment and another Life After this we must proceed to the particular Truths of the Gospel and as we go on in explaining them we ought to shew what influence those Truths have upon Holiness and Salvation But the most important thing of all when these Truths are settled is to shew that the bare Knowledge of the Christian Doctrines is not able to make Men happy that the scope of Religion is to make Men truly good and that without Piety and good Works there is no Salvation It will not be sufficient to recommend Sanctification in general but the Nature of it must besides be distinctly explained it must be shewed which are the general and particular Obligations of a Christian life and what Sins are contrary to these And here those whose business it is to instruct the People ought to be as particular as possibly they can shewing upon each Virtue and Vice what the Nature of it is and what are the several Characters Kinds and Degrees of it and proposing likewise the Motives which should discourage Men from those Vices and prompt them to the practice of the opposite Virtues as also 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
by many Persons of eminent Learning and Piety and it is that which I desire all those who have a Zeal for the Glory of God to take into their serious Consideration CAUSE III. The Defects of the Clergy IN searching after the Causes of the Decay of Piety we cannot but enquire whether Corruption does not proceed from the Pastors and Governors of the Church Pastors are appointed to oppose the Progress of Vice and to be publick Fountains of Instruction Edification and good Example so that in truth their Ministry is of most excellent use when duly exercised But when Vice reigns when Scandals multiply that general Corruption is if not a certain Proof at least a strong Presumption that there is some fault in Pastors If we would be satisfied about this matter we need but reflect upon the Nature of their Office and upon their way of discharging it This is what I design to enquire into in this Chapter In order to which I shall consider 1. What Functions and Duties are annexed to the Office of Pastors And 2. What Qualifications are requisite in them to discharge it worthily There are two principal Functions incumbent on Pastors Instruction and the Government of the Church 1. It would be needless to prove that the Office of Pastors obliges them to instruct the People and to preach the Gospel for this is beyond all Question It will be fitter to observe that the fruit of publick Instructions delivered in Sermons depends upon two things the Matters treated of and the Way of proposing them so that the Faults committed in Sermons are either in the Things themselves or in the Manner of handling them 1. The Matters handled in Sermons are either of Doctrine or Morality What has been said in the first Chapter of this Treatise may serve to discover to us the Defects in Preaching with relation to these two Heads Those who preach the Gospel do not sufficiently instruct the People neither in the Fundamental Doctrines nor in the Duties of Religion And as Catechising is properly designed for the explication of these Truths and Duties I think Ignorance and Corruption chiefly proceed from this that in most Churches things are not well ordered with reference to Catechising They are neither frequent enough nor so proper for Instruction as they should be Besides Catechising is almost every where neglected if not despised The common Notion is that Catechisms are only for Children and for the meaner sort of People The Function of a Catechist which was anciently so considerable in the Church is look'd upon now as a Function of no great importance and it is usually committed to Persons of the least Knowledge and Experience These Faults might easily be remedied One of the most useful Establishments in Churches would be to encrease the Number of Catechisms and to appoint them instead of the Sermon But to render them more useful and more frequented it would be necessary to establish two sorts of them In those of the first sorts the Elements of Religion should be explained in an easy and familiar manner for the benefit of Children and of the less-knowing part of Christians The other should be for those who have attained a higher degree of Knowledge and in these Matters that had been proposed but generally before should be more fully and exactly handled But if it be thought that an Establishment of this Nature and that the multiplying of Catechisings might meet with Difficultie and Obstructions it would be necessary at least for the instruction of great numbers of Persons who never assist at those Exercises that Ministers should he obliged to preach upon the same Subjects which are commonly treated in Catechisms As for Sermons the Church would reap more benefit from them if Preachers did always shew true Judgment in the choise of the Matters they handle We must not think that all sorts of Subjects are instructive alike and that in order to Preach the Gospel it is enough to speak of God in a Sermon and to take a Text out of Scripture Every Subject ought to be proposed and pressed according to its importance To insist upon Matters of lesser Moment whilst those which it most concerns Christians to be Informed about are neglected is to swerve from the true intendment of Preaching But because all Preachers have not the Capacity to make this Choice it would be fitting that part of the Matter of their Discourses should be appointed and prescribed to them by a Law For when they are tyed to no Rule when they are at liberty to Preach upon any Subject which they think fit to chuse it happens that many instead of handling the most important things in Religion and of consulting the present State and Necessities of their Flocks apply themselves to various Subjects which are of no great Edification Preachers for the most part consult only their own Inclination in the choice of their Matter and when they pitch upon a Subject it is rather because it pleases them and because they apprehend a facility in treating it than out of a regard to the necessities of their Congregations Those who are fond of Mysteries and Allegories apply their time and studies to the Expounding of the Prophecies and to the unfolding of the Types of the Old Testament Those who are given to Disputing fill their Sermons with nothing else but Controversy And the same may be said of Speculative Divines who are conversant in the Fathers and History they entertain the People with those things which are the ordinary Subject of their Meditations and Studies I do not mean that such things ought never to be spoken of they may sometimes be touched upon provided this be done judiciously But they have a sorry Notion of Religion and Preaching who make those Matters their main Business and fancy they have entirely fulfilled all the parts of the Gospel Ministry when they have Preached upon Types or Controversy What I have now said may be applied to the choice of Texts * 2 Tim. III. 16. All Scripture indeed as St. Paul says is profitable for Instruction that Divine Book contains nothing but what is useful but yet the various usefulness of the several parts of Scripture is to be distinguished and it must be owned that some Places are more useful and instructive than others Some difference is to be made between those Books and Chapters which explain the Doctrine of Redemption the Design of Christ's coming into the World or the Duties of a Christian Life and those which serve only to acquaint us with the Order of Times and to confirm the certainty of History These last have their use since the Truth of History is one of the main Proofs of the Truth of Religion but those Places are more useful which Treat of what we are to believe or to do in order to Salvation It is of another sort of importance to Explain the Gospel than to Preach upon the Book of Joshua or Ruth or upon some
Places of the Prophets I am not ignorant that some have thought that the Scripture is equally Rich every where that all Doctrines may be drawn from all Texts that those Chapters and Verses which seem the most barren and where there appears nothing extraordinary contain Mysteries and Treasures which might exhaust even the Meditations of Angels but this Conceit is so absurd and repugnant to Sense that I do not think it worth my while to Confute it Morals being so Essential a part of Religion should be very particularly insisted upon by Preachers and yet few do it so that Morality of all things is that which is the most superficially handled in the greatest part of Sermons This Fault in Preachers proceeds from several Causes Some have a Prejudice against Morality and think it ought not to be insisted on Others who are conceited with vain Learning imagine that to Preach Morals argues but an ordinary measure of Parts and little skill in Divinity and that it becomes them better to soar after high Speculations and to dive into the Mysteries of Faith and of the most sublime Theology This Custom of insisting more upon Doctrine than Morals proceeds also from another Cause which is that in this last Age Divines were fain to be continually Explaining and Disputing and so the same Method has been followed ever since I am apt to think besides that many Divines neglect Morality because the treating of it is more difficult than the explaining Doctrinal Matters Let those supercilious and speculative Divines say what they will the right handling of Morality is the hardest thing in Preaching It is easie to explain a Text or a point of Doctrine and a Man must be very meanly gifted if with the help of a Commentary or a Commons-Place he is not able to do the feat and to furnish out his hour But to Preach Morals is quite another thing I confess that there is a way of Preaching Morality which requires no great pains If Men content themselves with delivering Moral Sayings concerning Vice and Virtue this may be done without much labour But when a Preacher pursues true Morality when he is to master the Hearts of Men to reform the Manners of a whole Congregation to encounter the Inclinations of his Hearers and to make them renounce their Passions and Prejudices then it is that he meets with many and great difficulties this is an inexhaustible Spring of Labour and Mediation and a task which few Preachers care 〈◊〉 take upon them In Religion Doctrine should never be separated from Morality nor one of these preferred before the other But yet it is necessary to insist more upon Morality than upon Doctrine not only because the design of our whole Religion is to make us good Men but also because Morality cannot effectually be taught without being much dwelt upon It is only by enlarging on matters and entring into many Particulars that the two ends of Morality are to be attained which are instructing Men in their Duty and persuading them to the practice of it Morality is of a vast extent as may appear by considering how many Duties are comprised under these three Heads of Christian Morals Piety Justice and Temperance Besides these Duties which are common to all Men there are some Particular ones relating to the different Conditions Callings Ages and States which Men are in And how many things are there to be considered upon all these Heads This is not all for these Duties vary infinitely by reason of the diversity of Circumstances There are almost as many different Dispositions as there are Persons among a great Multitude of Men who are addicted to the same Vice there are hardly two who are vicious in the same degree and manner It is therefore requisite that Preachers should descend into particulars and that they should so characterize Duties Vertues and Vices that every one may know himself in the Description And yet this relates only to bare Instruction Now if in the next place we intend to engage Men to the Practice of these Duties there new Difficulties will arise and no good Success can be expected but from assiduous Care and constant Labour There are in Man's Heart so many different Dispositions and Motions so many Illusions and Prejudices so many Windings and Artifices that a very particular application is required for us to insinuate our selves into it When the Truths and Doctrines of Religion are to be Taught things need not be so minutely handled and there is no occasion to use such mighty Endeavours nay the being very particular may be a fault He that would Instruct so he is clear should rather be short than prolix The Hearers do easily apprehend the Truths which are proposed to them and the most Corrupt Men are able to discern Truth from Error a Libertine will find who is in the right or in the wrong in a Dispute But it is not so easie a thing to touch the Heart or to conquer inveterate Habits What Tully says in his Dialogue of the Orator deserves to be inserted here it is this (a) Cicero de Orat. Lib. 2. Non enim sicut Argumentum simul atque positum est arripitur alterumque tertium poscitur ita misericordiam aut invidiam aut iracundiam simulatque intuleris possis Commovere Argumentam enim ipsa ratione Confirmat quae simul atque emissa est adhaerescit Illud autem genus Orationis non cognitionem judicis sed perturbationem requirit quam consequi nisi multa varia copiosa simili Contentione orationis nemo potest Quare qui aut breviter aut summisse dicunt docere judicem possunt commovere non possunt Passions are not to be excited in a moment as a Proof does presently persuade so soon as it is proposed A Proof is confirmed by Reasons and Reasons clearly set out make an impression immediately but when we intend to raise the Passions the success does not so much depend upon the Conviction as upon the Perturbation of the Mind Oratory cannot have its effect then without Prolixity Variety Copiousness and Vehemence of Discourse Those therefore who speak briefly and calmly are fit to Instruct but not to move From these Reflections it appears that the Method of those Preachers who are large upon the Explication of Doctrines and succinct upon Morals is directly contrary to the true way of Preaching and that those do very ill understand what Morality is who either despise it or look upon it as the easiest thing in Preaching We may likewise apprehend from what has been said what are the most ordinary Faults of Preachers when they Treat of Morals I shall observe Three of them Their Morality is too general it is defective and it is sometimes false 1. Many Preachers are too general in handling Morality This is the Head which is the most slightly touched upon They spend the greater part of their Sermons in explaining the Sense of a Text
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
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
have Faith for Faith is a Persuasion to believe is to be persuaded and it is impossible to believe a thing right without Reason or Examination That which is called Faith is commonly nothing else but a confused and general Opinion which makes but very slight Impressions upon the Heart and Mind but true Faith is a greater Rarity among Christians than we are aware of Now as Faith is the only Principle of Piety so a bad Life does chiefly spring from Want of Faith and from Incredulity And there are two sorts of Infidels some deny and reject Divine Truths others do not quite deny them but they doubt and believe but weakly The Infidels who deny the Fundamentals of Religion are not many but the Number of those who doubt and are not well persuaded is very great This discovers to us the Reason why Men who are acquainted with the Divine Truths and profess to believe them do yet act quite contrary to the Dictates of Faith and Religion There seems to be in their Proceeding a manifest Contradiction It is a thing wondered at that People who believe a God and a Religion should live as if there was neither God nor Religion upon this we are apt to say that Sinners are not consistent with themselves and as if it were impossible to reconcile their Practice with their Belief we cry out that the depth of Man's Heart is unsearchable But there is no such wonder in the Case and the proceeding of bad Christians is not always so contradictory as it seems to be I confess that Men Sin sometimes against the Convictions of their own Consciences and that some who want not Knowledge do yet Live very Ill. This may proceed from Inconsideration from the violence of their Passions from too great a regard to their Temporal Interest from the flattering hope of Pardon or some such Principle But for the most part Men act consonantly and suitably to their Belief and it is but seldom that in the Conduct of their Lives they behave themselves contrary to the Sentiments and Principles that possess them We suppose that bad Christians believe the Truths of Religion and in that we are mistaken Many of them want Faith and are not fully convinced of those Truths Is it to be imagined that so many Persons who live in Sin who make Conscience of nothing and who violate every minute the Rules of their Duty should be thoroughly persuaded that there is a God who sees them and to whom they are to give an Account From all this I Conclude That the Ignorance of the General Truths of Religion is one of the principal sources of Corruption Some will say That these Truths need not be proved and that they are of the number of those first Principles which are taken for granted because they are imprinted on the Hearts of all Men. But this Objection is easily answered by what has been said just now I own that the Ideas and Principles of Religion carry in them a Natural Evidence inasmuch as they are demonstrable from Reason and Conscience and because there are Principles in Men by the help of which they may arrive at the Knowledge of the Truths of Religion But these Principles and Ideas have been in some measure stifled in many either thro' ill Education or worldly Business or Vice or some other Cause so that they feel the force and evidence of them but imperfectly and some have no sense at all of them Upon this Account it is necessary to excite and enlighten those Ideas to explain and establish those Principles I acknowledge further That some parts of those Proofs upon which Religion is built lie open to all Mens Eyes but yet the Ignorant and those who are taken up with other Objects do not observe them They should therefore be made to attend to them just as we make stupid and heedless People take notice of the Beauty of a Palace or the Skill of an Artist in some curious Workmanship which would otherwise pass unobserved by them However the Opinion of those who pretend that the General Truths ought not to be proved is contrary to the Holy Scripture which teaches us to Reason upon the Principles of Religion and to search into the Proofs of them where in order to Convince Men that there is an Almighty and Infinitely Good God it proposes to them the Beauties and Wonders which shine in his Works and exhorts them to the Consideration of them This may be seen in the Book of Job In the XIX and CIV Psal Rom. 1.19 20. and in many other Places 3ly It may further be said That the Proof of General Truths is too difficult for the Common People and that the Learned only are capable of such a Discussion I grant that all sorts of Persons are not able to comprehend all that has been Writ upon these Matters And therefore I do not pretend that it is impossible to have a true Faith without entring into the Detail of all these Proofs and without following with the utmost strictness all the deep and abstracted Reasonings which have been used to prove the Existence of God or the Truth of the Christian Religion I think rather those Matters ought to be treated with great Discretion especially in Sermons It would be a great piece of Imprudence to muster up in a Publick Discourse all the Objections of Atheists or the Subtilties of Libertines these ought to be referred to Private Conferences Those who speak to the People must take heed lest by Disputing and Speculating too much they render the Fundamental Truths Problematical and raise Scruples in Mens minds They ought to build upon this Principle That Men are carried by a Common and Natural Inclination to believe the Existence of God to acknowledge a difference betwixt Good and Evil and to own Providence and the other Truths of Religion but for all that it may be very useful and necessary to confirm those Truths to set them in the clearest Light and to Convince the People of them As to what is said That the Proofs of the Principles of Religion are not suitable to the Peoples Capacity I answer That most of those Proofs are such that there is no need of being either Learned or a Divine to be affected with them We ought to suppose here that the more important any Truth is the clearer and the easier the Proofs of it are I do not speak of all Truths there are some that are most certain whose Proofs are difficult and above the reach of common Understandings such are many Metaphysical Truths and Mathematical Demonstrations but at the same time the knowledge of those Truths is not necessary and a Man without danger may be ignorant of them I speak now only of those Truths which it concerns every Person to know and which are of general usefulness and necessity These are always clear and easily proved And this by the by ought on the one hand to make us admire the Wisdom and
Essence of Religion that it falls to the Ground as soon as they are taken away And in Proportion as the Necessity of a good Life is weakned so much is the Power and Beauty of that Holy Religion which Christ brought into the World lessened Religion contains Doctrines Precepts Promises and Threatnings It does altogether depend upon the Existence of a God and the Certainty of another Life and a Judgment to come But if you banish out of Religion the absolute Necessity of good Works you attack it in all its Parts and you undermine its very Foundations For this makes the Knowledge of its Doctrines vain and needless it turns its Precepts into bare Counsels the Promises of it which are conditional and suppose Obedience cease to be Promises the Threats which God denounces against Sinners are but empty Menaces which God makes only to fright Men but does not intend to execute This destroys the chiefest and strongest Proofs of the Existence of a God and of another Life it ruines that great Argument for Religion which is drawn from the Difference between Virtue and Vice and from the Deserts of both and it contradicts the Necessity the Nature and Justice of the last Judgment All this may easily be demonstrated This Necessity of good Works might likewise be proved from the plain Declarations of the Word of God and it might be shewen that there is no Truth more clearly and frequently inculcated than this in Holy Writ But not to engage in these Particulars which do not properly belong to my Purpose I shall take it for granted that a Holy Life is absolutely necessary for either that is true or there is nothing true in Religion Yet how clear soever this truth may be it is but little known and Men are not much persuaded of it No Man indeed does flatly and without some Preamble deny the Necessity of Holiness every Teacher professes that to be his Doctrine all Christians in Shew at least are agreed about it But when they come to explain their Meaning clearly concerning this Necessity when it comes to the Application or to Practice or when they establish other Doctrines they contradict themselves they hesitate upon the Matter or they explain it with certain Restrictions which sooth Men in Security and dispose them to believe that Salvation may be obtained without good Works which overthrows their Necessity Nay some frame to themselves such a Notion of Religion as even excludes Good Works this will appear in the following Chapters If it be said that though this intire and indispensable Necessity of a good Life were not supposed yet this would not presently open a Door to Licentiousness since there remain other sufficient Motives to Holiness such as those which are derived from the Justice and Reasonableness of the Divine Laws from the Gratitude and Love we owe to God from the Edification of our Neighbour and from our Calling and Duty I answer that these Motives are very just and pressing and that they necessarily enter into that Obedience which all true Christians pay to the Commandments of God I acknowledge besides that they would be sufficient to inspire all men with the Love of Virtue if they did all govern themselves by the Principles of right Reason and Justice But these are not the only Motives which ought to be urged God proposes others besides he promises he threatens he declares * Heb. XII 14. that without holiness no man shall see his face which imports an absolute necessity And surely as Men generally are there are many of them upon whom those Motives taken from Decency Justice Gratitude Duty or the Edification of our Neighbours will have very litte Force The most Honourable Motives are not always the most effectual Man being so Corrupt is so many ways and by so strong a Biass carried towards evil that it is hard for him without an absolute necessity to abstain from it But how much less will he refrain from sin if he is persuaded that it is not necessary to controul his inclinations and to confine himself to a kind of Life which appears unpleasant and melancholy to him Now as this is the Disposition in which most People are we need no longer wonder why there is so little Religion and Piety among Men. 2. If it is difficult to practise those Duties which we do not think necessary especially when they cross our Inclinations it is yet harder to practise them when we do not know them It is not possible to do good or to avoid evil if we do not know the good that we should do and the evil we ought to shun Now in this the generality of Christians want instruction Every body speaks of Piety and Virtue but few Men know what they are The Common People are little acquainted with the Duties of Religion or the Rules of Christian Morals This must be confest and the Glory of God requires that we should ingenuously own it I cannot but enter here into some Particulars to prove this Ignorance 1. There are some essential Duties unknown to a great number of Christians and which were never thought of by an infinity of Men. I will alledge for an Instance one of the plainest and of the most necessary Duties of Morality and that is Restitution Tho' the Scripture should not expresly enjoyn it we need but consult Reason and natural Justice to be convinced that he who has done an injury to another Man by taking from him any part of his Property is bound to make up that damage by restoring to him whatever he has wronged him of There is every day occasion enough to make Restitution nothing being more common than for one Man to appropriate to himself by unlawful means what belongs to another and yet in many places Restitution is a thing without President But this we ought not to wonder at considering that there are Thousands of Christians who never heard a word of this Duty This Matter is so little known and the People are so little instructed about it that a Treatise concerning Restitution written by Mr. la Placette having been published some Years since it has been read as a very singular Book the Subject whereof was new and curious Nay some have gone so far as to censure this Doctrine of Restitution pretending that it was novel and too severe such a pitch of Ignorance are Men arrived at in Matters of Morality And this is not the only Duty which is not understood there are many others besides either among those which are common to all Men or among those which are particular to every Calling and which it does not appear that Men were ever taught or ever made the least Reflection upon Now a Man must needs neglect the Duties that he does not know 2. There are divers Sins which are not commonly ranked among Sins or which Men do not think to be Damning Sins Of this number is Lying and unsincerity either in Discourse or in Dealings Among these
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
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
thing They will say perhaps that they hope to confirm themselves in a good Purpose but what do they found this Hope upon What do they wait for and what new thing do the imagine will happen to them Have they any assurance that God will use for their Conversion other Means and Motives than those which he has used already Nay how do they know but that they shall be deprived of those Means and Helps which hitherto have been tender'd them How can they tell whether there is a time to come for them and whether their Life is not just ready to end All this is very uncertain But what is certainly true is this that through so many Procrastinations their Hearts grow harder and their return to Vertue becomes more difficult The Love of Sin increases by the Habit of sinning and the Means appointed to work Repentance lose something of their force every day These Considerations do evidently shew that the deferring of Conversion is an Error as gross as it is dangerous I think it will not be useless to conclude this Chapter with observing that the Reason why so many put off their Conversion is because they look upon Repentance as an austere and melancholy Duty And this Notion must needs put them upon deferring the Practice of it It is therefore of the greatest moment to destroy that Prejudice and to shew on the contrary that if there is any sad and deplorable Condition it is that of a Man who lives in Sin For that is either a State of Fear and Uncertainty or of Security and Insensibility Such a Man can have no solid Peace of Conscience during his Life and what Agitations must he fall into when the thoughts of Death and of a Judgment to come happens to make some lively Impression upon his Mind For granting that then he may use some endeavours to dispose himself to Repentance yet besides the danger of a late Repentance it is a sad thing to end one's Life in those Struggles and Terrors which must needs accompany such a Repentance A Man who delays his Conversion prolongs his Misery and makes it greater and more incurable But Joy and Tranquility are the portion of a pure Conscience There is no Felicity or Contentment like that of a Soul which is freed from the bondage of Sin Repentance is the beginning of that Happiness which grows sweeter and more perfect according to the progress we make in Virtue Then it is that a Man is happy in all the Circumstances of Life besides that he has the Comfort of being supported at the approaches of Death with that Peace and Joy which flow from a well grounded Confidence in the Divine Mercy from the Testimony of a good Conscience and from a steady hope of Immortality CAUSE VII Mens Sloth and Negligence in Matters of Religion IT is natural and ordinary to Men to be unconcerned about those things which they do not know or of which they do not apprehend the Use and Necessity And so we may easily conceive that Men living in Ignorance and being possessed with those Notions I have now Confuted must needs be very negligent and slothful in what relates to Religion But as this Sloth considered in it self is a visible Cause of Corruption so it will be fitting to take particular notice of it in this Chapter I suppose in the first place that it is impossible for a Man to attain the End which Religion proposes to him without using the proper Means which lead to that End In religious as well as in worldly Concerns nothing is to be had without Labour and Care As there are Means appointed for preserving the Life of the Body so there are some ordained for maintaining the Life of the Soul and th last means is of the two the more necessary because there is more care and forecast requisite in order to Salvation about preserving the Life of die Soul than for supporting that of the Body It is certain that the more excellent any thing is the more it requires our Care but besides that we see the Life of the Body is easily preserved a Natural Inclination prompts us to those things which are necessary for our Subsistence and the means of supplying our bodily Wants offer themselves to us as it were of their own accord But it is not so with the spiritual Life Considering our proneness to Evil and the present State we are in we cannot avoid being undone if we neglect the necessary Care of our Souls and if we follow all the Bents and Propensions of our Nature Religion obliges us upon many occasions to resist our Inclinations and to offer violence to our selves it requires Self-denial Watchfulness and Labour it lays many Duties upon us and it prescribes divers Means without the use of which we cannot but continue still in Corruption and Death I shall then but just name the Chiefest of those Duties and Means Before all things a Christian ought to be Instructed he ought to know with some exactness both the Truths and the Duties of Christianity Now this Knowledge cannot be acquired without Hearing Reading Meditation or some other Care of this Nature In the next place as Religion does not consist in bare Knowledge but chiefly in Practice none of those Means should be neglected which are proper to divert Men from Vice and to spur them on Vertue These Means are very many but they are all comprehended under these two principal Heads The Exercises of Devotion and the Circumspections which every Person ought to use The Exercises of Devotion are mighty Helps to Piety and Salvation I mean such as Meditation Reading and Particularly Prayer which is one of the most essential Acts of Religion as well as one of the most efficacious Means to advance Holiness There are on the other hand several methods of Circumspection and Care which are of absolute Necessity As for instance the foreseeing shunning the occasions which may draw us into sin the seeking those Opportunities and Aids which promote Piety the not being over-much concerned about the Body the cherishing good Thoughts and the resisting evil ones But above all it is a thing of the greatest Importance that every one should endeavour thoroughly to know himself which he cannot do but by examining his present state and by reflecting seriously and frequently upon his Actions and Words and upon the Thoughts and Motions of his Heart All these Cares are essential and necessary For without the use of those Means it is as impossible to be religious and pious as it would be to live and subsist with out Nourishment A Man who will neither eat nor drink must needs die in a little time And so the Spiritual Life will soon be extinct if the only means which can support it are not used Let us see now whether these Cares and Means which I have shewn to be necessary are made use of It is so visible that they are almost totally neglected that I need
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
Thoughts and a Multiplicity of Designs and Business break in upon his Mind and take possession of his Heart he is filled with these Things all the day he follows and plods upon them without Distraction or Interaction And how is it to be imagined that admidst all this hurry and turmoil he should find that Recollection that Tranquility and that Elevation without which the Exercises of Piety are but mere Hypocrisy Whence comes it to pass that Men bring so little Attention and Sincerity with them to the publick Worship of God Why do Sermons produce so little fruit Why do the most certain and important Truths of Religion the clearest and the most solid Reasonings make either no Impression at all or at least no lasting one upon the Hearers What is the reason why in the most solemn Devotions and particularly in the Holy Communion it is so difficult for Men to lift up their Hearts to God and to shake off a thousand idle or sinful Thoughts which come then to amuse and distract them And lastly why do those Vows and Promises which are made even with some sincerity prove so ineffectual why do the best Resolutions vanish so easily and so soon All this comes from Mens being too much taken up with Temporal Cares 3. These excessive Cares do not only distract the Mind but they do besides directly obstruct Sanctification and lead Men into Sin For first it is impossible to love Religion and Vertue when the Heart is set upon the World Our Saviour tells us * Mat. VI. 22. that no man can serve two masters and St. John declares †John II. 15. that the Love of God is not in those who love the world There is such an Opposition between Bodily and Spiritual Exercises that those who give themselves up to the first are incapable of the others Worldly Occupations render Men Carnal Sensual and Dull they keep up Ignorance and foment Sloth and they weigh down all their Inclinations and Thoughts to the Earth so that they must be Careless and Indifferent about Spiritual Objects and Heavenly Concerns And indeed they are very ill disposed to value those Good thnigs as they deserve or to seek them with that Eagerness and Sincerity which they ought Can we think that Men who propose nothing else to themselves but the amassing of Wealth the making their Court or the Canvassing for Places and who live and toil only for such things should have a due sense of the Concerns of their Salvation It is hard to imagine it But further Religion does not allow Christians to love the World or to cleave to it | 1 Cor. VII It requires that they should possess Temporal Goods as not possessing them and that they should use the World as not abusing it because on the one hand the Figure of the World passes away and it would be a Folly to fix their Hearts upon vain and transitory Enjoyments And on the other hand they ought to aspire chiefly to the possession of solid and eternal happiness To be therefore taken up only with earthly Things and to let them enter too deep into ones Heart is a Disposition quite contrary to that which a Christian ought to be in 4. Lastly An excessive Application to Temporal affairs hurries a Man into many Disorders We need but reflect a little to be satisfied that a Man who is filled only with the Thoughts and Solicitudes of this Life must be a Slave to his Senses and Passions and that he lays himself open every Moment to a Thousand Temptations which he is not able to withstand Tho' his Employments are lawful in themselves yet he makes them Criminal because to him they are only Means of gratifying his Appetites And the greatest Mischief is that when a Man is once entred upon that Course he still confirms himself in it so that at last he cannot leave it off On the one hand his Passions are still mounting higher on the other Business and Toil grow upon him He first proposos an End to himself and then he will bring it about at any rate as being engaged in Honour and by Interest not do desist If he meets with Obstacles he will do any thing to surmount them If he succeeds Success animates him with new Ardour he is for going further In a word it is an endless labour a continual succession of Cares which are still growing greater and which end only with his Life From all this we may conclude that the abuse of worldly Business is most dangerous and that if we would not have it obstruct our Salvation we ought to observe these three Rules The First is that we should pursue the Things of this World with Moderation One of the most useful Directions for a happy Life is this to lay nothing too much to Heart The way to preserve our Innocence and Tranquility is to crave nothing too eagerly not to rejoyce excessively at any Prosperity not to be dejected above measure for any Disasters which may happen and not to be too hot and peremptory upon any Design The Second Caution to be used is the avoiding Multiplicity of Business and Excess of Imployments as much as is consistent with the Duties of our Calling Every one should consider what he is fit for and what he is called to and go no farther In the Last Place Wisdom requires that among all the Affairs of this Life we should reserve the necessary Time and Care to pay what we owe to God and to mind our Salvation the most important of all Concerns To this end it is very useful to have certain Times of Retirement and Leisure and to accustom our selves to make now and then even in the midst of temporal Employments such Reflections as may call us back to our Duty and be like a Counterpoise to that Byass which carries us toward sensible Objects Let us often think that we are mortal that we have a Soul and that there is another Life after this Let us consider what all our worldly Cares terminate in and what Judgment we shall make of them upon our Death-Beds These Reflections will put us upon wise and moderate Courses and so we shall avoid innumerable Disorders and Miseries which Men fall into by their too great application to Temporal Business CAUSE IX Mens Particular Callings THo' we have seen already that Corruption has its Source in the Abuse of Worldly Business yet it may be proper to insist a little more upon this Matter and to Consider it with relation to the different States and Callings which Men are ingaged in When we speak of Worldly Business we mean chiefly those things about which the greatest part of Life is spent Now those Occupations must needs be suitable to the particular kind of Life which a Man follows And so every Man's kind of Life may be a Source or at least an accidental Cause of Corruption As the World is Constituted it is necessary that there should be
this Knowledge ought to be the chief Study of those who preach the Gospel But the surest and the most compendious way to know Man's heart aright is to consult our own to reflect upon our selves and to have a spotless Conscience Without this a Man is still a Novice and a Bungler in Preaching And so in the Exercise of Discipline in private Exhortations in the visiting of the Sick in Prayers and in all other Pastoral Functions there is still something defective when a Man does not perform them out of a Principle of Charity but only to discharge the outward Obligations which his Office lays upon him Pious and good Church-Men who are not on the other hand destitute of Gifts fulfill much better the Duties of their Ministry A Pastor who loves his Profession who lays the Functions of it to heart who is thoroughly convinced of the Truths of Religion and who practises the Rules of it who in private humbles himself before God and ardently implores his Blessing â—ho is ever intent upon seeking Means to Edify the Church who turns all his Meditation that way who thinks Day and Night of the Necessities of his Flock must needs be successful he has in himself the Principle of all Benedictions and happy Success When he is Speaking or Exhorting it is his Heart that speaks and the Language of the Heart has a kind of Eloquence and Perswasiveness in it which is soon discerned by the Hearers and which always raises a Pious and a Zealous Preacher above a Mercenary and Hypocritical one The want of Piety in Pastors is therefore the principal Source of the Faults they commit and of the Mischiefs which proceed from their Remisness Whosoever will seriously and without Prejudice Consider all that I have now said must own That the Cause of the Corruption of Christians is chiefly to bâ— found in the Clergy I do not mean to speak here of all Church-men indifferently We must do right to some who distinguish themselves by their Talents their Zeal and the holiness of their Lives But the Number of these is not considerable enough to stop the Course of those Disorders which are occasioned in the Church by the vast Multitudes of remiss and corrupt Pastors These pull down what the others endeavour to build up Some perhaps will ask Whence do all these Faults of the Clergy proceed In answer to this Question I have Three Things to say 1. It ought not to be thought strange that Pastors should not fulfil all the Obligations of their Office As things are constituted almost every where with relation to Discipline to the Inspection and Authority over Private Persons to the Visiting of the Sick and to some other parts of their Employment they cannot if they would discharge their Duties Neither the Magistrates nor the People would suffer it On the other hand the Defects of Pastors are the consequences of the Contempt and Abasement which their Office is brought under as well as of the Poverty they live in This Contempt and Poverty discourage a great many who might otherwise considerably Edify the Church and they are the Cause why Multitudes who have neither Education nor Talents nor Estates dedicate themselves to the Ministry of the Gospel It is commonly imagined that all sorts of Persons are good enough for the Church and whereas the Jews did offer their most Excellent Things to God among Christians what is least valued is Consecrated to God and the Church Some are devoted to the Holiest and the most exalted of all Professions who would not be thought capable of an Employment of any Consideration in the Common-wealth If then we intend to remedy the Faults of the Clergy we should begin with Redressing what is defective in the State of the Church and Religion in general 2. Many Ecclesiasticks fail in the Duties of their Calling because they do not know what it obliges them to and this they do not know because it was never Taught them There are indeed Schools Academies and Universities which are designed to Instruct those Young Men who aspire to this Profession but I cannot tell whether Schools and Academies as they are ordered almost every where do not do more hurt than good For first as to Manners Young People live there Licentiously and are left to their own Conduct The Care of Masters and Professors does not extend to the Regulating of the Manners of their Disciples And this Disorder is so great that in several Universities of Europe the Scholars and Students make publick Profession of Dissoluteness They not only live there Irregularly but they have Priviledges which gives them a Right to commit with impunity all manner of Insolencies Brutalities and Scandals and which exempt them from the Magistrates Jurisdiction It is a shame to Christianity that Princes and Church-men should not have yet abolished those Customs and Establishments which smell so rank of the Ignorance and Barbarism of the Heathens And yet these Universities are the Nurseries out of which Pastors Doctors and Professors are taken Those Scholars who neither have Birth nor sense of Vertue or Honour and who have spent their Youth in Licentiousness and Debauchery spread themselves into all Churches and become the Depositaries and in some measure the Arbitrators of Religion As to the Studies which are pursued at Universities I observe in them these Two Faults The first relates to the method of Teaching Divinity is treated there and the Holy Scripture explained in a Scholastical and altogether Speculative Manner Common Places are read which are full of School-Terms and of Questions not very material There Young Men learn to Dispute upon every thing and to resolve all Religion into Controversies Now this Method ruins them it gives them intricate and false Notions of Divinity and it begets in them Dispositions directly opposite to those which are necessary to find out Truth The other Fault is more Essential Little or no Care is taken in Academies to Teach those who Dedicate themselves to the Service of the Church several Things the knowledge of which would be very necessary to them The Study of History and of Church Antiquity is neglected there Hence it is that most Divines may be compared with People who having never travelled know no other Customs or ways of living but those which obtain in their Countries As soon as you take these Divines out of their Common-Places they are in a Maâ—â— and every thing seems new and singular to them Morality is not taught in Divinity-Schools but in a superficial and Scholasticâ— manner And in many Academies it is noâ— taught at all They seldom speak there of Discipline they give few or no Instructionâ— concerning the manner of exercising the Pastoral Care or of Governing the Church So that the greater part of those who are admitted into this Office enter into it without knowing wherein it consists all the Notion they have of it is that it is a Profession which obliges them to preach and to
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
very particular Attention I have already touched them by the by but I will propose them more distinctly here 1. That common Opinion That it is necessary to embrace the Sentiments and the Ways of Living which are received in the World is that which makes Corruption spread and insinuate it self every where Men make it a Law to themselves and repute it honourable to comply with Custom It is laid down for a Maxim That we must live as other do and accommodate our selves to the Fashions which are established and that it would make us ridiculous if in Behaviour and Manners we should differ from the Age and the Place we live in I do not absolutely reject this Maxim because it is capable of a very good Sense A Christian should not profess an unsociable Piety He may lawfully observe certain Decences and comply to a certain degree with the Opinions and Manners of those he converses with nay he ought to do this for the Interest of Religion and Piety But such a Compliance and such regards become Criminal when they engage him to act against Duty and Conscience If the Custom be bad he ought to depart from it and to do in spite of it whatsoever God commands he does not deserve the Name of a Christian who has not the Courage to do this And yet few People are capable of this Resolution the greatest part is overcome by the temptation of the Multitude the regard they bear to the Example and Judgment of others produces in them a false shame which hinders them from doing their Duty and prompts them to Evil notwithstanding all the checks of Conscience And nothing is so fatal and pernicious in the state of those who thus comply with Custom as that they become such habitual Slaves to it that they are no more able to alter their conduct When a Man is once got into a certain Course of Life in the World he pursues it and he is still engaging deeper into it till at last he comes under a kind of impossibility of leaving it tho' he would because in order to that he must break off those Ties and Engagements which he has been contracting for a great while he must withdraw from divers Companies and enter quite upon another way of living now it is very seldom if ever that People can resolve upon all this 2. Even those Persons who are well disposed are shaken by Example and Custom I said something of this in the Chapter of False-shame A great many are satisfied that the side of the Multitude is not the best and that the Manners of the Age do not agree with Religion but they dare not swerve from Custome the fear of being hated reproached or despised restrains them and frequently extorts sinful Compliances from them I shall take notice to this purpose of what happens every Day to Young People whom Parents have endeavoured to breed up to Piety and good Manners When they first go out of their Father's House they are ashamed and afraid of doing ill things Sin raises some kind of horror in them With these Dispositions they lanch into the World they are placed either in the Army or at Court. And there they do not find those Maxims of Piety practised which have been infused into them but they have only ill examples before their Eyes They see there Persons who have been recommended to them for behave themselves upon whom their promotion and fortunes depend and who are reputed honest Men they see such Persons I say living in a licentious manner This at first surprizes and troubles them their Conscience holds out for a while but example does insensibly lessen in them the Aborrence of Vice their good Dispositions vanish in a little time and at last they swim with the Stream they embolden themselves in ill things and they become finished Libertines They do in like manner drink in the Atheistical Sentiments which commonly are in fashion among Persons of Quality If they are but told that Men of Wit and Quality do not believe a thing or that they entertain any Opinion that is enough to make them embrace that Opinion and question the Truths of Religion 3. In the last place Men are apt to think that if Custom does not justify it does at least excuse Vice and that if they do amiss in the following the general practice it is but a sin of Infirmity which God will not take notice of This is the last refuge of a great many Persons they will own that Mens Manners are very much depraved and that there is little of true Piety among them but they will say this is the fashion now a-days this is the way of the World and he cannot be very guilty who does only what others do Nay several Men who are not Libertines and who see what should be done for the good of the Church and the promoting of Piety fancy themselves under no Obligation to oppose Custom Their excuse is that it signifies nothing to strive against a torrent So that sloth and timorousness together magnifying the difficulties which their imagination represents to them they make no efforts and they let things go on at the usual rate While Custom corrupts and blinds some it intimidates and discourages others and thus Vice and Disorder are still taking deeper roots Now two sorts of Remedies may be applied to this Cause of Corruption to wit particular and general Remedies The particular Remedies are those cautions which every body ought to use to prevent his being seduced by Example and Custom There are Two principal means for a Man to keep himself free from this Seduction the first is to avoid ill Examples as much as possible to withdraw from those Conversations and to abstain from those Imployments which draw Men into Sin and to chuse a kind of Life which may not engage us too far into the World and on the contrary to seek after good examples and to be conversant with virtuous Persons * See Part. I. Cause III. Artic. II. 4. c. Cause V. Art II about the end But as notwithstanding all these Circumspections we cannot avoid being often temptted by ill Example so we ought in the second place to arm and fortifie our selves against this Temptation by strongly possessing our Minds with the Sentiments which Religion inspires I have shewed elsewhere what Judgement a Christian ought to make of Custom and Men's Opinion It is evident that God having set us a Law by which he will judge us and having give us the knowledge of that Law and powerful Encouragements to make it the Rule of our deportment neither Example nor the Judgement of the World can any ways excuse us from doing what God commands or deliver us from the Punishment which our Disobedience deserves Those who have a greater Regard to Custom than to their Duty are so much the more inexcusable because the Gospel expresly forbids us to govern our selves by the Practice or Example of
the Men of the World St. Paul exhorts Christians †Rom. XII Eph. II and IV. Tit. II. Mat. VII XIII XIV Not to be conformed to this present world not to walk after the course of this world not to follow other mens way of living to renounce the world and the lusts of it Our Saviour enjoins his Disciples To avoid the wide gate and the broad way of the multitude and to strike into The narrow path which is walked in but by a few These are Reflections which every Man who believes the Gospel would frequently and seriously make and which should serve him for Remedies against the Temptations arising from Example and Custom There are other general Remedies which tend to lessen the number of bad Examples and to alter the Customs and Usages which are contrary to the Christian Religion For tho' it may seem that to go about the abolishing of that which is established by a general Custom and a long Use is to attempt and impossibility and tho' we cannot expect that this Cause of Corruption should be intirely removed yet the difficulty is not so great but that it might in some measure be overcome This we might have Reason to hope for if First those who know and love their Duty would discharge it with Courage and if they did add to their Knowledge a Zeal supported by Prudence and Firmness How great soever the Degeneracy of Men may be there is still something in Virtue which attracts their Respect and their Love The Endeavours of good Men against Vice are always attended with some Success If the benefit of their Exhortations and good Examples does not reach far they may at least be useful to their Families and their Acquaintance But something more than this is requisite to reform general Customs and Practices and none can do this more easily and effectually than those who are raised above other Men and who are in publick Stations I say therefore Secondly that if Christian Princes and Magistrates would use their Authority to this End and be exemplary themselves the Corruption of the World would considerably abate and bad Examples would neither be so frequent nor so forcible as they are It is in their Power to banish the greatest part of those Customs which are commonly received and to establish contrary ones The Care and Example of Pastors are likewise a most efficacious Remedy If they did instruct Christians as they ought if they did oppose the Corruption of the Age with the pure Maxims of the Gospel if they did set themselves against Abuses if they did endeavour in publick and in private to bring all those that err into the way of Truth if they applied themselves to the instructing of Youth and if their Manners were edifying and exemplary there is no doubt but that they would soon stop the Current of Vices and Scandals It should be their chief Care to oppose Abuses and ill Customs in their beginnings because when they have once taken Root the Remedy is much more difficult In fine as Customs are established by degrees so they are not abolished all at once and therefore those who do not succeed at first in so good a Design ought not presently to be discouraged and to grow weary CAUSE VII Books THIS is the last Cause of Corruption which I shall mention but without question it is one of the most generaland of the most remarkable Books are as many publick Fountains from which vast numbers of Notions and sentiments which are commonly received among Men and which are the Principles of their actions diffuse themselves into the World And as it is impossible but that among an infinity of Books a great many must be bad so it is certain that Books contribute very much to the keeping up of Corruption If Men as we have shewed in the precedent Chapters are ignorant and full of Prejudices if they have loose and impious Notions concerning Religion if great Defects are observable both in the Lives of Christians and in the state of the Church in general if the People are ill instructed and Children are ill educated the cause of all these Disorders is partly to be found in Books It is therefore a most important subject which I am to handle in this Chapter but it is likewise a very large one by reason of the prodigious Multitude of Books which I might have an opportunity to speak of here But I must confine my self to that which is most material to be said upon this Head I shall speak 1. of Ill Books and 2. of Books of Religion The number of bad Books is infinite and it would be very hard to give a Catalogue of them but I think that among all the sorts of ill Books none do greater Mischief in the World than either those which lead to Irreligion and Impiety or those which are impure and filthy The first attack Faith and the other corrupt Manners 1. The most dangerous of all Books are those which attack Religion such are not only all the Books of Atheists and Deists but such are likewise all those Works which tend to overthrow either the Authority of the Holy Scripture or the Facts and Doctrines of Christianity or the difference between Virtue and Vice or any other Principle of Religion Frank also in the same Order the Books which introduce Scepticism and the design of which is to render the Principles of Faith or Morality uncertain and dubious Those Books in which Impiety appears bare-faced are not the most pernicious Few Persons ever durst maintain Atheism openly or deny directly the Fundamentals of Religion And besides avowed Atheists and Deists have not many Followers Their Opinions raise horrour and a Man's Mind rebels against them But those Men who tho' they do not openly espouse the Cause of Impiety but pretending all the while that the acknowledge the existence of a God and a Religion do yet shake the principal Truths of Faith those Men I say diffuse a much more subtil and dangerous Poison and this may be particularly said of the Scepticks In the main they drive at the same thing with the Atheists they assault Religion with the same Weapons and make the same objections There is only this difference that the Atheist decides the Question and denies whereas the Sceptick after he has mustered up all the Objections of the Atheist and started a thousand Scruples leaves in some manner the Question undetermined he only insinuates that there is no solid Answer to those difficulties and then he concludes with a false Modesty and tells us that he dares not embrace either side and that which way soever a Man turns himself he meets with nothing but Obscurity and Uncertainty This differs little from Atheism and it does naturally lead to incredulity It is an astonishing thing that Books containing such pernicious Principles should have been published and that Libertinism in Opinions about Religion should have grown up to that pitch which we
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
subject to the same Passions with the Vulgar and that those Passions hinder them from discerning the Truth These Makers of Objections who pretend to Politeness and Wit are not generally sound at Heart but they love Licentiousness they are not addicted perhaps to a gross and shameful but to a more refined Libertinism they observe a little Decorum but they do not relish the Maxims of Devotion and Piety and they cannot endure to be tied to them Vanity has likewise a great share in their Conduct A great many imagine that it is for their Credit to distinguish themselves from the Vulgar and not to believe the things which are believed by the People And when they have once embraced this way and set up for Scepticks in the World they think themselves bound in point of honour to maintain that Character Men of Knowledge are sometimes governed by many Prejudices and false Motives A preconceived Notion or a meer Circumstance is sufficient to determine them to the embracing of an Opinion What has been said of the Conduct of Princes may be applied to the Opinions and Hypotheses of the Learned Wars and such other great Events upon which the Fate of Nations depends and which make so much stir in the World do not always proceed from Wise and Mature Deliberation sometimes they are but the effect of a Passion of a Humour or of some particular Circumstance Thus it is with the Learned We think too well of them if we fancy that they are always determined by the greater Weight of Reason The Motives which prompt them to maintain certain Opinions are often very slight They are not sensible of this they think themselves guided by Reason and they do not perceive the true Principle of their Actions or Judgments If Infidels did strictly examine themselves they would find perhaps that their Scruples were first raised and have been maintained since either by some Book they read when they were Young or by the Love they had for some Persons or by their Aversion to others or by some ill treatment they have met with or by the Praises which have been given them for their Wit or by some Prejudice they have conceived against Religion in General when they heard it ill defended or against certain Tenets which are particular to the Society they live in and manifestly absurd or by some other Motion of this Nature If we call to mind in the last Place what has been said in the beginning of this Treatise to wit that few Christians apply themselves sincerely to the study of the general Truths and of the Principles of Faith we shall not wonder that among so many who never inquired into the Proofs of Religion some should be inveigled by the Objections of Libertines and fall into Infidelity I have in a manner stept out of my way but this Digression is not impertinent since these Considerations may serve as a remedy against Incredulity and Scepticism which some Authors would fain establish by their Writings One would think that every body should abhor those Impious Books but yet they are read and liked by many Persons Young People especially who for the most part love Novelty and are inclined to Vanity and Licentiousness do easily imbibe the Principles which are scattered through such Books They are imposed upon by the Genteelness the Wit and some kind of Learning which they commonly find there Being not well grounded in Religion they are struck with the Reasonings of Infidels they very first Objection puzzles them they begin to doubt of many things and in a little time they become thorough-paced Scepticks I leave any one to judge what effects this may produce in an Age so prone to Vice as this is and if Young People can avoid being Corrupted when they are no longer restrained by Religion and Conscience There is no Condition more remediless nor is there any State more deplorable than when Incredulity is joyned with dissoluteness of Manners People then are hardly to be reclaimed Age and ill Life fortifie their Doubts and Scruples and they continue in that State to their dying Day This is the fruit which many reap from the reading of those pernicious Books but it is not all the Mischief which is occasioned by such Writings They may fall into the Hands of many who have no great compass of Knowledge and beget several Scruples in the Minds even of good Men. After these Reflections I make no doubt but it will be granted that no Books are more dangerous than these and that to have the Confidence of Publishing them is a superlative Degree of Impiety II. The Books I have now spoken of assault Religion and Piety in general and by consequence open a door to all manner of Disorders and Vices There are others which tho' they do not attack the Principles of Faith do yet introduce Licentiousness of Manners It would be a long Work if I should specify here their several sorts which are as many as there are Vices Passions or received Errors among Men This is a Detail which I cannot enter into Being then forced to stint my self I shall only speak of impure Books And I chuse this particular Species of ill Books because the number of these is not only very great but because they are those likewise which do most generally Corrupt Men. Their Number is prodigious First we have the Obscene Books of the Heathen which are not only read by Men but are put likewise into the Hands of Youth Some People are so infatuated with these Books that they fancy a Man cannot be a Master of Greek or Latin unless he has read all the Obscenities written in those Two Languages which is as extravagant an Opinion as if a Man should pretend that whosever designs to acquire a thorough Knowledge of the French or of any other living Language and to be able to speak and write elegantly in it must read all the leud Poems and all the scandalous Books which this Age has produced Secondly Besides impure Books of Pagan Authors we have those that are writ by Christians The World is ove-run with Books of this Stamp their Number increases every Day and their amazing multitude is one of the strongest Proofs of the extream Corruption of the Times It is the last degree of Impudence to write in that Style and then to disperse it in the World by the Press The Dissolution must need be very great when this is done so freely and so often as it is in this Age. Nothing can be imagined more lascivious or execrable than some Books which have been and still are Published from time to time Paganism did never produce any thing more abominable upon the Head of Impurity than several Works which were hatched in the very Bosom of Christianity so that in this respect Christians have no cause to reproach Heathens These Detestable Books are not the only Impure ones nor perhaps the more dangerous vast Numbers of others are currant
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
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
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
Religion is attended with some difficulty The general Rule is to chuse those which are instructive and edifying Every body will own this to be a good Rule but all Men do not agree in the Application of it What seems edifying to some appears quite otherwise to others In point of Religion all Men should be of the same Mind since they are all bound to believe the same Truths and practise the same Duties but their Tastes are different because many of them have a vitiated Palate To speak my Mind upon this Subject I think that Christians should chiefly stick to those Books which prove the Truths of Religion and which establish by solid Arguments the fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith and to those which give a clear and exact View of the Duties of Morality To these it may be useful to add the Works in which we find the Examples of Persons eminent for their Piety and Virtue Such Examples are very efficacious to excite Men to the Practice of what is good and they prove a great Preservative against the Scandal occasioned by bad Example and against the Corruption of the Age. But not to enlarge further upon the Choice of Books I refer the Reader to what has been said in this Chapter A judicious Choice of Books being once made the next thing is to make a good use of them And here two Rules are to be observed 1. A Man should read with Judgment And 2. he should read in order to Practice 1. What Book soever we read it is absolutely necessary to read it with Discretion and Judgment We are commanded in Scripture * 1 Thes V. XXI 1 Joh. IV. I. To prove all things and to hold fast that which is good to try the Spirits and the Doctrines whether they are of God This Caution is to be used lest we fall into Errors since every Author is a Man and by consequence may sometimes be mistaken The common People do particularly need this Advice because they are very apt to believe that whatsoever is read in Books especially in Books of Devotion is true But tho' a Book should contain nothing but what is good Discretion is necessary to make a just Application of the Contents of it to out selves because that which is proper for some is not sutable to others The not observing this Rule is the Reason why some Readers who have a pure but a timorous and short-sighted Conscience are terrified without Cause and apply to themselves what is said only of wicked Men when on the other hand hardened Sinners deceive themselves with vain hopes by adapting to themselves what related only to good Men. 2. We ought to read in order to practice and that we may grow better this is the more important Rule of the two and that which distinguishes true from hypocritical Devotion Many are very regular and constant in Reading and they seldom fail to do it Mornings and Evenings But the Deportment of those Persons who are so assiduous in the perusing of good Books is not always agreeable to the Rules of Devotion and Piety When they are but just come from their Reading we find them often sowr peevish and passionate after they have read in the Morning they spend the Day in Slandering Gaming or Idleness and they avoid only the grosser and the more noisie Sins There are Readers of another Character they read and even delight in the Reading of Books of Religion They like well enough those Works which prove the Truths of the Christian Religion or treat of Morals they speak of them advantagiously and they will say fine Things concerning the Abuses which are crept into Religion and upon the Necessity and the Beauty of Morals but all this terminates only in a vain and fruitless Approbation which they give to the Truths and Duties of the Gospel for after all they reform nothing in their Lives Such Readings are but meer Amusements and they are good for nothing but to rock Conscience into a most dangerous Sleep The End of Reading as well as that of all Religion ought to be the Practice of Holiness I. shall here observe last of all that Christians have a Book which alone might suffice to preserve them from the Danger of ill Books and to secure them against the Corruption of the Age if they did use it as they ought I mean the Holy Scripture It is the best of all Books a Work divinely inspired which contains nothing but what is most excellent and true and wherein we find every thing that is necessary to instruct and to sanctifie Men. But it were to be wished 1. That the Translations of Scripture which are in the hands of the People should be rendered more perfect so that they might express the Sense of Sacred Authors with all possible Exactness All those who have studied the Original Text of the Bible will own that this is a necessary Work and that the Translations need some Amendments And so we see accordingly that now and then Divines and Translators apply themselves to the correcting of them 2. It would be to no purpose to have exact Translations of Scripture if Men could not read it I have already remarked it elsewhere as a crying and shameful Abuse that a great part of Christians should not be able to read This Abuse should have been reformed long ago and this might easily be done if every Pastor did endeavour it in his own Church and if the Magistrates did lend a helping Hand toward it 3. The Holy Scripture should be read more than it is and Men should make that use of it for which it was given Other Books are only Streams but when we read the Scripture we drink at the very Fountain-head Humane Books have their Faults and therefore they ought to be read with great Discretion But this Divine Book is most perfect it is a Guide to whose Conduct we may give up our selves without fear or danger This being certain is it not strange that the best of all Books should be the most neglected In many Countries the Bible is a Book unknown to the People In other places the reading of it is permitted but with great Cautions as if it were dangerous for Christians to reveal a Book by which God was pleased to reveal his Will to Men. In those places where Christians have an entire Liberty to read the Scripture great multitudes make no advantage of that freedom Many that are addicted to reading leave the Word of God for other Books In a word very few read it with suitable Dispositions and with a sincere Design of learning the Will of God and of growing the better by it And thus the far greater part of Mankind is destitute of the most efficacious mean and remedy which the Divine Goodness has afforded to Men to preserve them from the Contagion of Sin and to make them happy And so we need not wonder that the Corruption of Christians should be such as