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
desperate and that they were in a State of Reprobation and Damnation Others have conceited that they were given up to the Power of Satan and they have taken the Disorders of Imagination for certain Signs of their being possessed with an Evil Spirit And the worst of it is that such indiscreet Discourses are more apt to alarm good than wicked Men. In fine I reckon among the Books which fright Men without Cause all those which contain too rigid and austere Maxims of Devotion and Morality 5. Piety would be better known and more esteemed than it is if Books of Devotion were always writ with Judgment and Good Sense and if there was nothing in them but what upon a severe Examination would appear to be strictly true Those who set about Works of this nature do generally make it their Business to move the Heart and to excite Sentiments of Piety This is a good Design but we ought to know that it is the Force of Reasons the Evidence of Proofs the Greatness of the Objects proposed and the Clearness and Solidity of what a Man says which does truly affect the Heart This is what Judicious Authors chiefly mind and thereby many have had good Success in those excellent Works which they have enriched the Publick with But other Writers do not consider this they rather choose to say tender and pathetical Things than to think or speak with exactness They consult Imagination more than Good Sense they pour out every thing which is in the Heat of Meditation or in the Fervency of their Zeal seems to them proper to move to melt to comfort or to terrifie Hence it is that there are weak places in their Books and Thoughts which appear mean and even false to discerning Readers Contradictions and such like Defects For on the one hand they produce only a confused and not a very rational Devotion in those who read and relish them And on the other hand they expose Religion to the Flouts and Contempt of Libertines We are often troubled and scandalized to find that some Men of Parts express but little Esteem for Books of Piety We hear it said every Day that those Books are only good for Women and for the Vulgar This Contempt chiefly proceeds from a profane Humour and from Libertinism but it springs likewise from the want of Exactness and Solidity which is observable in some Books of Devotion 6. Divers Considerations might be offered here about those Books which contain Forms of Prayers and Devotion but I shall confine my self to these two which appear to me the most material The first is that those kind of Forms make all sorts of Persons indifferently and even good Men say things which cannot agree but to the greatest and the most notorious Sinners which gives People this dangerous Notion That all Men without excepting the Regenerate are extreamly corrupt In divers Prayers we plainly see that those who composed them had no other Design than to draw the Picture of the most heinous Sinners and that they supposed all Men engaged in a deep Corruption and in the most criminal Disorders Exaggerations and Hyperboles are so little spared by some People upon this Head that they utter Absurdities and Falshoods in their Prayers as when they say That ever since we were born we have been continually and every moment offending God by Thoughts Words and Deeds I do not deny but that such Prayers may have their use provided nothing be said in them that is extravagant or contrary to Truth and Common Sense they fit great Numbers of Persons There are but too many of those wretched Christians who can never sufficiently bewail the Enormity of their Sins and the Irregularities of their Conduct I know besides that all Men are Sinners and that the best of them have Reason to humble and abase themselves in the sight of God out of a sense of their own weakness and unworthiness Nevertheless since the Scripture makes a difference between Good and Bad Men it is at least a great piece of Imprudence to appoint the same Language for both and to make them all speak as if they were guilty of the most horrid Crimes and as if there was not one good Man in the World This takes away the Distinction between the Sinners and the Righteous for if these Prayers are proper for all sorts of Persons if all that is said in them is true it is a vain thing to distinguish a good Man from a bad and it is to no purpose to pray to God for his Converting Grace or to make any Promise of Amendment to him All those Lessons of Holiness which the Gospel gives us are but fine Idea's all Men are upon the matter equally bad and they may all be the Objects of God's Mercy how irregular soever their Deportment may be These are the Inferences which may be drawn from those Forms of Devotion I have mentioned and which Sinners do actually draw from them From all this I conclude that in such Works it is necessary to distinguish Persons and Conditions And this accordingly has been judiciously observed by some Authors The other Consideration relates to the Form of Prayers these are not always plain enough They are sometimes studied Discourses which have more of Art and Wit than of Affection in them And we may easily discern how far most Prayers are removed from a due Simplicity if we compare them with those which are contained in Holy Scripture or with the ancient Way of Praying which was received in the Church and of which we may judge by the Liturgies which are now used or which have reached to us Prayers were neither so intricate then nor so long as they are now Long Preambles were not used in the beginning of Prayers and Men did not them by so many Windings approach the Throne of Grace to confess their Sins and to beg Pardon for them Prayers then were short simple and natural much fitted to excite Devotion to lift up the Heart to God and to nourish Piety and Zeal than many Forms which obtain at this day 7. Of all the Books of Piety none are more carefully read and none perhaps have a greater Influence upon the Conduct and Manners of Christians than the Books of Preparation for the Holy Communion The use of the Sacrament is one of the most important Acts of Religion and one of the most efficacious Means to promote Piety and it is certain that the Books which People read in order to prepare themselves for that sacred Action contribute very much to the good or bad use of the Eucharist and by Consequence to the good or ill Life of Christians Now what I have said of the other Books of Devotion may be applied to these Some Books of this kind are extraordinary good but there are others in which among many good things some Defects are observable and particularly these three 1. All the Books of Preparation for the Holy Communion are not instructive
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
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
in the World What are so many Books of Love and Gallantry so many Scandalous Novels either feigned or true and so many Licentious Pieces of Poetry but the productions of that Spirit of Impurity and Dissoluteness which prevails in this Age Nay even Books of Learning which Treat of serious Subjects have a mixture of Impurity This Infection is diffused through all sorts of Books and appears every Day in some new Shape As the number of Impure Books is great so their effect is most pernicious and none ought to wonder that I should assign these Books as one of the general Causes of Corruption No bad Books are more generally read than these none can with more reason be called Publick Fountains of Vice and Dissoluteness The Mischief they do in the World cannot be imagined They prove to an infinity of Persons but especially to Young People Schools of Licentiousness It is by the reading of them that Youth learn to know and to love Vice That Age is prone to Pleasure and to every thing that gratified Sense and that Inclination is so much the stronger because it is cherished and fortified by an Education altogether sensual and because Young People for want of good Instruction have not much Piety nor any great Aversion to Vice From whence we may easily judge that they are susceptible of those Passions which gratifie Sensuality and that it is hard for them to resist those Impressions which the reading of impure Books conveys into their Minds We see in Fact that Uncleanness is commonly the first Sin and the first Passion which seduces Men in their Youth and which engages them into Vice for their whole Life For it seldom happens but that all the Ages of Life retain a spice of the Irregularities of Youth And yet for all that these Books have their Advocates Many Persons reckon that there is no harm either in reading or even in publishing them If we believe some Authors who infect the publick with Books full of Obscenities none but fantastical People posseffed with a ridiculous and precise Devotion find fault with those who write upon this Subject And in defence of their Opinion they alledge this Maxim * Tit. 1. 15. To the pure all things are pure as if St. Paul who does not allow Christians so much as to speak an undecent word did permit them to read and write things which are contrary to Modesty and may occasion Scandal From this Maxim they conclude that there is nothing is those Books that offends Modesty or Religion and they protest that for their part the reading of them does not defile their Imagination I do not know the particular Frame of those Men's Hearts perhaps impure Idea's and lascivious Objects are grown so familiar to them that they do no longer perceive that such Idea's and Objects make any impression upon them But it is unconceivable how People can preserve a chaste Heart when they delight in Writing or Reading filthy things After all tho' they reading of such Works should have no ill effects upon some Persons there are a great many more who will make an ill use of them And this is enough to make every Many who has any Sense of Religion to detest impure Books What I have now said will be granted by many but it will be thought that to rank Books of Love and Gallantry among impure Books and to condemn the reading of them is something to severe I confess that all those Books are not equally bad and that some do not hurt Modesty so visibly as others do But yet there are not many in which a Spirit of Impurity and Licentiousness may not be observed That Love which makes the Subject of so many Books is nothing else at bottom but an impure and irregular Passion of which the Gospel obliges us to stifle the very first Motions What the World calls a mere Intrigue of Gallantry is sometimes a pretty large step towards the Sin of Adultery Sin indeed may be disguised in those Books under another Name and may be dressed in a modest Garb but that makes it slide the more easily into the Mind It is dangerous to dally with things which deserve the almost aversion of a Christian and it is almost impossible but that the horrour of Impurity and of every thing that comes near it must insensibly abate in any one who is addicted to such Readings There are two Maxims in the Gospel which decide this Matter the one is That we are to abstain from the appearance of evil the other that in things indifferent we ought to avoid whatsoever may prove a Scandal or an occasion of falling to any body especially when the Scandal may be foreseen Now here is at least the appearance of Evil it is certain that divers Persons will make an ill use of those Books and by consequence the reading arid publishing of them cannot be excused But as if it were not enough to maintain * 1 Theff V. XXII See Rom. XIV 1. Cop. X. c. that the Books in Question may be read without Sin it is pretended besides that the reading of them is useful and necessary to open the Minds of young People I do not deny but that it is a valuable Quality to have quick and well-fashioned Parts but there are other Books which may be read without danger and which are much fitter to form the Minds and Judgments of young People than Books of Gallantry the reading of which every body knows has often spoiled the Minds of those who were given to it The greatest Mischief that attends this kind of reading is that it corrupts the Heart and sullies the Imagination at the same time that it opens the Mind Now it were better to have a little less of that fashionableness and politeness of Parts which is so much esteemed in the World than to acquire it at the expence of one's Innocency But some People do not stop here They proceed so far as to say that these Books are useful even in reference to Religion and that they are proper to restrain Youth from Vice because we see in them the Follies and Misfortunes which irregular Passions betray Men into I can hardly think that this is alledged in earnest It is a strange sort of Remedy against Impurity to make agreeable Pictures of Love and to represent minutely and in a natural and insinuating manner all the Motions which that Passion excites in those who are possest with it We must be very ill acquainted with the Tempers of Men and particularly of young People if we can fancy that the reading of such Books will put them upon Moral Reflections and inspire them with an aversion to Vice Daily experience shews that nothing is more vain or false than such an Imagination It will be said that at least those Books ought to be excepted in which among Love-Matters and licentious Subjects the Reader meets with fine Moralities which may however serve for a
capable of doing more hurt than good 1. An Author who Treats of Morality should always have these Two Rules in his view 1. To explain exactly the Nature of the Duties which it prescribe And 2. to persâ—â—de Men to the practice of those Duties Now these Two Rules have not been sufficiently observed by all those who have published Moral Books 1. They do not always represent with due exactness the Nature of Vice or Virtue Either the Notions they give of them are not true or they are too general On the one hand they are not accurate enough in describing the true Characters of each Virtue and Vice and on the other hand they do not distinguish their various Kinds and Degrees which yet ought to be done if they intend that Men should know their own Pictures 2. They do not press Men enough to the practice of Virtue The End of Morality is to work upon Man's Heart and Passions In order to compass this End Two things are necessary 1. That all those great Motives which the Gospel affords should be strongly urged And 2. that the false Reasons and Motives which engage Men into the Love of this World and give them any Aversion to Holiness should be Confuted Morals cannot be usefully handled without the observation of these Two Maxims the second especially for the Reason why many are not prevailed upon by the Arguments and Motives which are offered to them is because they are hindred by other Arguments and Motives A Reader frames in himself a Hundred Objections against what he reads in a Book of Morality Man's Heart is no sooner inclined to any Vice but it grows fertile in Evasions Reasons and Pretences Every Sinner has his Excuses and his Shifts If these who Teach Morality do not obviate those Objections and destroy those Excuses they can never obtain their Design but this is a trouble which few Authors care to take upon them 2. Books of Morals would produce more fruit than they do if the Morality they Teach was neither too much relaxed nor too severe Morality is relaxed when it does not propose the Duties of a Christian Life in their full extent or when it does not assert the absolute necessity of the observation of those Duties It is strained and too severe when it imposes Duties which God has not Commanded or which cannot possibly be practised and when it ranks among Sins things which are innocent I touch this only by the by because I have spoken already in some other Places of this Treatise both of the remiss and over severe Notions which Men form to themselves about Religion See Part I. Cause I. Art II. and Cause II. Art V VI. and Part II. Cause III. Art I. 3. Some of the Authors who handle Morality are guilty of another Fault and that is a want of accuracy and exactness in their Ideas and Reasonings They do not consider enough whether every thing they advance is strictly solid and true whether the Principles they lay down will hold whether their Maxims are not stretched too far or absurd whether they do not contradict themselves whether they do not make use of frivolous Reasons whether nothing is false or mean in the Motives they urge in a word whether or not their works will be able to stand the Censure of a Judicious Reader Moralists as well as the generality of Preachers are a little too much carried away by the heat of their Imagination and Zeal and they do not reason enough They often go about to move People with Rhethorical Figures rather than by dint of reasons And this is a very ill Method In Matters of Morality it chiefly concerns a Man to speak and to argue close without this it is impossible that he should either convince the Mind or produce a solid and diserning Piety 4. The World is full of Books of Morality and yet there are several important subjects which have not hitherto been treated as they ought or if they have it was in Works which are not read by the People Those who study Morality are often sensible of this defect and complain justly that they do not find in Books all the light and helps they look for there It is but of late that any thing has been writ with exactness in French upon Restitution Who can doubt but that a good Book concerning Impurity would be highly useful This sin is exceeding common but it is one of those about which the People are the least instructed If Christians understood the Nature of this Vice its Consequences and the duties of those who have fallen into it they would certainly avoid it more carefully than they do I might say the same of Injustice of Swearing and of some other Subjects IV. I come in the Last place to Books of Devotion It is very necessary to make a right Choice of them because of all the Books of Religion they are those which are the most read 1. I cannot help saying in the first place that there are Books of Devotion which are capable of introducing Corruption of Manners and diverting Christians from the study of Holiness We may easily apprehend how there should be Books of this kind if we confider that many even among Divines think it dangerous to insist upon good Works and to press Morality And there are Books of Devotion which were made on purpose to maintain so strange an Opinion Some Authors have taught that true Devotion and solid Piety is not that which consists in the Practice of Good Works they have writ that the Doctrine which represents good Works as a necessary condition in order to Salvation overthrows the Doctrine of Justification by Faith that Works cannot be looked upon as the way to Heaven that all we have to do now under the Gospel Covenant is to receive and to accept of the Salvation purchased for us and that the Gospel requires Works only from the Motives of Gratitude and Love Nay those Authors enter into dispute they refute the Arguments drawn from the Exhortations Promises and Threatnings of Scripture which might be urged against them and they tax with Pharisaism or Pelagianism those who are of an Opinion Contrary to their I cannot think the Authors of such Books did publish them with ill intentions but I could wish they had abstained from â—riting things which gives such mighty advantages of Libertines and which may blast the fruit of all the Books of Morality and of all the Exhortations which â—â—e addressed to Sinners And yet these Books are Printed and which is more surprizing those Divines who are so rigid and scrupulous in point of Books and Sentiments do not oppose the publishing of such Works but they suffer them quietly to pass for Current in the World 2. The Books of Mystical Devotion are likewise most dangerous and their number is greater than we imagine For to say nothing of those in which Mystical and Fanatical Principles are openly proposed many Works which are otherwise full
and solid enough We find nothing else in some of them but a heap of Thoughts which have no dependance upon one another of Rhetorical Figures Allegories and Comparisons fetched from the Old Testament or from prophane History These things may have their Use they may be place in a Sermon But not to say that sometimes those Thoughts and Comparisons are not very apposite or suitable to the Subject I shall only observe that something more than this is necessary to stir up Devotion in the Communicants I do but just name this because I have delivered my Opinion more at large concerning this Defect in my three Reflections upon Books of Morality and in the 5th upon Books of Devotion 2. Other Books of Preparation are too general They only consider in the lump the Duties of Christians in reference to the Communion they speak of Self-Examination Repentance Faith and Charity But all this is of no great use to many gross and ignorant Christians who neither know those Duties nor how they ought to be performed Besides all those who come to the Sacrament are not in the same Condition some being good Men and others impious and hypocritical Persons There are likewise several degrees of good Men as well as of Hypocrites and ungodly Persons and the same Man may be better or worse at one time than he is at another Therefore it would be fitting that Books of Preparation were composed in such a manner that every Reader may be led by them into those Reflections which are suitable to the State he is in It is a gross Error to imagine that a general Preparation or Discourse concerning the receiving of the Sacrament is proper for all sorts of Persons I confess that this is not the Fault of all the Books of Preparation some we have which are particular enough The true Characters by which every Man may know his own State are very exactly described by some Authors but it is an unhappiness that such Works are not better calculated for the use of the common People 3. I think I may safely say in the third place that the too severe Notion which some Books give of the Communion is one of the Causes why so many People do neither live nor receive the Sacrament as they ought It is a sad thing that the Minds of Christians should be filled with so many Scruples in relation to the Sacrament by inconsiderate Discourses and over-strained Maxims Writers and Preachers do sometimes speak of the Holy Sacrament as if every thing in it was full of Snares and as if Hell and Damnation were constantly waiting about it They represent the Communion as so extraordinary so difficult and so dangerous an Action that those who read or hear those Discourses are tempted to keep off from the Holy Table and despair of partaking of it as they ought So that whereas there should be nothing but Joy when the Eucharist is celebrated in the Church many are then agitated with extream Perplexities and Terrors By this indiscreet Severity it happens that many good Men receive the Sacrament without Comfort because their Consciences are disturbed with divers Scruples which proceed from the reading of those Books There is a great number of pious Christians who never receive the Sacrament but with strange apprehension and dread in so much that several think they receive it to their Condemnation Nay this discourages likewise many Sinners who have some inclination to Good and some desire to set about the Work of Repentance Indeed we must take heed not to flatter Sinners in their Vices nor to propose to them too easie a Devotion and Morality It is very fit in my Judgment to give them a great Idea of the Purity which is required in so Holy and Solemn an Action as the Communion is and of the State which a Christian ought then to be in But as this State of Purity and Holiness is attained only by degrees that Idea how true soever it may be is apt to fright a Sinner in the beginning of his Conversion because he does not find in himself at first all the Characters of true Repentance and sincere Regeneration He ought therefore to be informed that the beginnings of Repentance are weak that it has its Degrees and its Progress and so that he ought not to be disheartened that God will accept of his Devotion and Endeavours provided his Repentance increase afterwards and he forsake his Sins honestly The Matter is over done in point of Devotion and Morality not only when we propose Rules which are too rigid but also when we say things which tho' true and consonant to the Gospel are not sufficiently accomodated to the State of those we speak to These are the principal Reflections I thought fit to bestow both upon Books of Religion and upon bad Books All that remains now is to enquire what Remedies are to be applied to the Cause of Corruption The surest of all would be to exterminate all the ill Books and to take care that none such should be made for the time to come But as this is not to be hoped the only Remedy which can be tried is on the one hand to prevent as much as we can the Effect of bad Books and on the other to engage Men to read and to make a good use of good Books The Books which are contrary to Religion and good Manners may easily be known but how to keep Men from reading and being corrupted by them is the Difficulty And in all probability this is a Point which will never be entirely gained Yet I think it is not impossible to prevent in some measure the Mischief which those Books occasion in the World In order to this it would be requisite to take care in the first place that young people might not read Books which inspire Libertinism To this end the Authors who have writ things repugnant to Modesty and Honesty should be expelled the Schools It is a surprizing thing that the Ecclesiasticks who have the direction of Academies and Colleges and who are bound by their Character to redress this Abuse have not done it yet In the next place it would be necessary that in Families Books which are apt to corrupt Youth should be taken out of their way and that they should not be indulged in dangerous Readings As for the rest I see no other Remedy but that Preachers should strongly insist in their Sermons upon the Reasons which ought to make Christians averse to the reading of ill Books I I know that all these precautions will not wholly suppress those Books nor prevent their being read by divers Persons but we may however gain thus much that ill Books shall not be so freely and so commonly read as they are and that they shall do less hurt As for Books of Religion every one should endeavour to discern those which are good and to make a good use of them Indeed the discerning and the Choice of Books of
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
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
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
Body or of this â—resent Life because they are accustomed â—o be governed only by their Senses and â—hat is enough to represent Piety to them â—s sower and distaful not only because it â—oes not procure to them those gross pleaâ—ures but because it does likewise in many â—ases oblige them to renounce them The Second Reason why Men entertain this Prejudice against Piety is that it 〈◊〉 not represented to them in its true shapâ— And here first there is a great deal of him done by the false Pretenders to Devotion who affect a mournful and severe outward appearance and whose behaviour is ofteâ— intollerably stern and savage In the nexâ— place profane Men contribute to this Mischief for as they neither know nor lovâ— Religion so they make odious Pictures oâ— it and they take a delight in carrying the Notions of Devotion too far that it may appear ridiculous Thirdly There are several well-meaning Persons whose Zeal being not regulated and softned by a discreet and prudenâ— Knowledge gives an occasion to those unfavourable Judgments which the World passes upon Piety Such People think that it is the Duty of a Devout Person never to be seen but in an austere Appearance and with a dejected look they are continually censuring and never pleased their Zeal is either Superstitious Scrupulous or Ignorant Sharp or Unseasonable and so it is extremely apt to alienate Mens Minds from Devotion and Piety Fourthly Some Divines and Moralists confirm this Prejudice by their way of recommending the Practice of Piety both in their Publick Discourses and in their â—ooks Religion and its Duties are ofâ—en proposed to the People from the Pulâ—it in such a severe and frightful manner â—s is not very fit to make it appear lovely â—o Men who for the most part have alâ—eady a Prejudice against it We find too â—igid a Morality and several strained Maxâ—ms in many Sermons and Books of Devoâ—ion And it may perhaps be of some â—â—se to give here some Instances of this â—ind When Worldly-minded Men are told â—hat Salvation is a most difficult thing â—nd that whoever will obtain it ought to â—pend his Life in perpetual mourning This is no great attractive to gain them â—o the love of Religion Such Maxims may be true in some respect but they are false and extravagant when they are proposed without Distinction or Explication By the Descriptions which are sometimes made of the Vanity of the World and of Devotion one would think that a Man cannot live like a Christian without laying aside all secular Concerns and Business and giving up himself to Solitude and Retirement Now this is what few Men are capable of and besides it is against the Order of Providence which has placed us in the World to live and labour in it and to enjoy the good things which the Divine Liberality has provided for us That which is asserted by some Moralists concerning the Love of God and their Zeal for his Glory supposes that Men are obliged to think actually upon God at all times and to have a positive intention to promote his Glory in all the actions of their lives But such Morality to say no more is absurd and impossible to be reduced to practice It is not possible for a Man to have God always in his thoughts and to make pious Reflections upon every step he takes or every word he speaks And there are such Actions in Life which cannot without Profanation be referred to the Glory of God by a direct intention St. Paul indeed enjoins us * 1 Cor. X. 31. to do all things to the glory of God But this Rule is not to be taken in the utmost strictness nor extended to all particular Actions It is enough to have a sincere and general intention to procure God's Glory and to do ones duty upon all occasions In order to which these Four Things are necessary 1. That we should not fail to think of God actually in all those Actions that require it 2. That if by reason of the present State we are in we cannot think on God at all times and in all our Action we should at least think often upon him and make frequent Reflections upon our own Conduct 3. That in indifferent Actions we should not abuse our Liberty but demean our selves according to the Rules which the Gospel prescribes and that we should especially have a great regard to the Edification of our Neighbour it being particularly in that sense that this Commandment of doing all things to the Glory of God is to be understood 4. That we should love God above all things and that it should be our chief Care and Endeavour to Obey him and to advance his Glory to the utmost of our Power How many Scruples have been infused into Mens Minds by straining the sense of this Declaration of our Saviour's * Mat. XII 36. Men shall give an account at the Day of Judgment of every idle word that they shall speak What Inferences have not been drawn from this Place to fill good Men with dread and terror It is Expounded as if all Discourses which neither contribute to the Glory of God nor to the Edification of our Neighbours nor to the promoting of our own Salvation were those idle Words of which Men are to give an Account to God And yet it does not appear that Words purely idle are always sinful or that they deserve the severe threatning which our Saviour denounces here We cannot forbear talking every Day of many indifferent things and holding several Discourses which do neither good nor harm Indeed if this should grow into a Habit if we should for the most part speak only of trifling and frivolous Things it would be a Sin But I do not apprehend what hurt there can be in talking now and then of News of Rain or of the Weather Certainly these are not the Words which are meant in this Declaration The Place where we find it and the Terms in which it is conceived do manifestly shew our Saviour's meaning to be this That Men shall give an Account at the Day of Judgment of all the Wicked and Impious Words which they have spoken and that the Pharisees particularly should be answerable to God for the Blasphemies which they uttered against his Miracles These strain'd Maxims produce very pernicious Effects They expose Piety to the Flouts and Contempt of Libertines and they discourage great Numbers from it Young People especially are by this means disgusted with Religion and they take up an Aversion to it which they seldom shake off afterwards They accustom themselves in that Age which is so sensible of Pleasure to look upon Piety under an austere and melancholy Form whilst on the side of the World and of their Passions they see nothing but sweetness and charms Between these Two Objects one of which is so enticing and the other so disgustful it is easy to imagine which side they will chuse They run into the embraces
of the World with the full swing of their Affections But as to Religion they must be urged and driven and it is much if they can be brought to make some steps towards it Even good Men being discouraged by this excessive severity do not make that progress in Sanctification which otherwise they might Their Consciences are disturbed with troublesom Scruples and continual Fears It is therefore very necessary to remove this Prejudice by representing Vertue and Piety under that easy and agreeable shape which is natural to them and by proposing such Ideas of Religion as may neither on the one hand produce Security and lull Mens Consciences asleep nor on the other hand involve them in groundless Scruples But if Men are averse to things austere and painful they are wont likewise to despise those who they think have somewhat what in them that is mean and ridiculous And there are many who have such an Opinion of Piety Which proceeds first from the Ignorance and Corruption of Men who because they are not well acquainted with Religion or are possessed with false Notions of Honour look with Contempt upon every thing which does not agree with the prevailing Customs and Maxims of the World And then we may take notice besides that Libertines do sometimes observe either in that Religion which obtains in the Society wherein they live or in the Deportment of those who have the reputation of being Devout several things which lead them into this Opinion With relation to Doctrines they find certain Articles which Men of good Sense cannot digest and they perceive manifest Abuses in the Worship they see the People amused with Childish Devotions which savour of nothing else but Superstition Credulity or Bigottry Some of those who do profess Devotion seem to them to hold Opinions contrary to sound Reason and to have some odd and ridiculous ways with them They perhaps observe in the Ministers of Religion several Whimsies Ignorances and Weaknesses they do not always find the best Sense in Discourses of Piety neither do they think the Idea which is given them of Religion and it's Duties to be True Rational or Satisfactory From all this they conclude that to give themselves up to it would be a disgrace to them that it is calculated only for the Vulgar and for weak Minds and that the being neither Pious nor Devout argues a strength and a greatness of Soul This certainly is a most false and unjust Prejudice There is nothing more serious nor more worthy of Esteem and Respect than Religion and it is the highest pitch of Injustice to take an Estimate of it by the Errors and Weaknesses of Men. But yet this Prejudice is very common Lastly We are to rank among the Prejudices and false Notions of Men concerning Religion the Opinions of those who are Infatuated with mystical Piety and Fanaticism And it is the more necessary to caution Men against those Opinions because they are grown of late Years to be very common Fanaticism spread very much and there is scarce a Country in Europe where it does not obtain under various Denominations and where it has not occasioned some Disturbance It would be difficult to give here an exaâ—â— Account of mystical Piety and Fanaticism It is a Subject upon which we cannot speak very clearly because we can hardly have perspicuous and distinct Ideas of it besides that the Mysticks are not agreed among themselves They are a Sect which is sub-divided almost to Infinity For not to mention the Anabaptist the Quakers the Quietists and all those who come up to the heighth of Fanatical Extravagances there are many particular Sects which would scorn the Name and yet are wholly or in part possessed with the Principles of the Fanaticks But in the main here is their Character They are almost all agreed in one thing which is that they make but very little count of Outward Means and of those Acts which concern the Exterior of Religion such are the Order of the Church Government Discipline Preaching Liturgies and the publick Exercises of Devotion All these if we believe them are to be considered as the first Elements of Piety which are useful only to imperfect Christians They have no great Esteem neither for those Labours and Studies by which Men endeavour to acquire Knowledge They reason little about Religion and for the most part they alledge no other Arguments for the Articles of their Belief but the inward Sense they have of them They do not condemn Morality and Good-works but among themselves they speak but feebly of them and in such a strain as lessens considerably their usefulness and necessity They say That our Works are nothing but Desilement and Abomination that God does not look upon Works and that Man ought not to judge of his Condition by them but that all depends upon Faith and an Union with God Hence it is that those Books which lay a great stress upon the Practice of Christian Virtues do not relish best with them They prefer Contemplations Meditations and inward Recollections before an active Life and the practice of Morality Nay there are some who think that all the care which Men use and all the efforts that they make to advance in Piety signifie but little According to them the way to Perfection and solid Vertue is for a Man to be in a State of inaction to go out of himself to annihilate himself to have neither Thoughts nor Desires nor Will but to be as it were dead in the sight of God for thus they express themselves in figurative and mysterious Words Under pretence of ascribing all to God they assert that Man is a meer Nothing and an Abyss of Misery that in order to be Happy it is enough for us to be sensible of our Nothingness and to wait in Silence and Tranquility till God is pleased to work his Will in us and that when the Soul is thus in the State of inaction and entirely abandons it self to God then it is that God speaks to and operates in it What they say concerning Man's Nothingness does not hinder but that most of them pretend to be in a State of Perfection and look upon the rest of Christians as Carnal Men who are yet in darkness and who never tasted that which they call the Heavenly Gift I might relate here their refining upon Divine Love and upon Prayer but what I have said is sufficient to discover the Spirit and Character of Fanaticism I am far from charging all those who hold these Opinions with Hypocrisy and Impiety I am persuaded that there are good Men amongst them who are not sensible of their Errors so that I cannot but blame the severity which is used towards them in some Places and the odious Imputations that are cast upon them in order to vilify them all without distinction If they err it is for the most part thro' Weakness and Prepossession rather than thro' Malice Nay it may be said in their
Preservative But these Books are not much better than the others nay I cannot tell whether they are not more dangerous Those Moralities are very ill placed and few People are the better for them It is a very suspicious kind of Morality which comes from the Pen of those Authors who write indifferently upon Matters of Love and religious Subjects who sometimes seem to be Libertines and sometimes devout who after they have said a hundred licentious things given you the History of a great many Disorders and related several scandalous Passages entertain you with Devotion and Piety This is a monstrous Mixture If those Authors were truly religious they would forbear writing those things which Religion condemns and which scandalize the publick Such Books are particularly fit to confirm worldly Men in their Opinion that Gallantry provided it does not proceed to the highest degree of Crimes is no great Sin and to persuade young People that they may easily grow devout here after tho' they now spend their Youth in Libertinism From all these Confiderations I infer that let People say what they will all the Books which present their Readers with Impurity either bare-faced or under some Veil are extreamly pernicious Having thus discoursed of ill Books I come now to the Books of Religion It may seem at first that I should rather seek in these the Remedy than the Cause of Corruption Indeed the end of religious Books should be to banish Corruption and to establish Piety in the World and there are many of them which attack Ignorance and Vice with Success and which may prove excellent Preservatives against the Corruption of the Age. But I hope no body will take it amiss if I say that there are Books of Religion which do not conduce much to the promoting of Piety nay that some prove a hindrance to it This I shall now endeavour to shew I shall not speak of any particular Book I will only offer some general Considerations which my Readers may apply as they see Cause It is not my Design to rank among bad Books all those Works to which some of the following Reflections may be applied Some indeed are downright bad but may are in several respects good and useful tho' they have their Faults and as good Books ought to be distinguished from bad ones so it is not less necessary to discern what is good in every Book from what is naught or useless The Books of Religion which I think ought here to be taken notice of are of four sorts 1. Those which explain the Scripture 2. The Books of Divinity 3. The Books of Morality 4. The Books of Devotion 1. It cannot be denied but that among the Books of the first sort there are some very good ones and that we have at this Day great Helps for the understanding of the Holy Scripture But it ought likewise to be granted that some of those Books which are designed for the expounding of Scripture do only obscure and perplex the Sense of it It would be tedious to mention here all the Defects of that kind of Writing I shall therefore observe only the Principal 1. The First and the most Essential is the not Expounding of Scripture according to its true Meaning and this Fault which is but too frequent in Commentaries proceeds chiefly from two Causes 1. That Expositors do not apprehend the Scope of the Sacred Writers and 2. That they enter with Prejudices upon the Reading of Scripture The true way to understand the Scripture is to know the Scope of it and never to swerve from that Good Sense and Piety joined with the Study of Languages History and Antiquity are here very serviceable A Commentator ought in a manner to transport himself into those Places and Times in which the Sacred Authors lived He should fancy himself in their Circumstances and consider what their Design was when they spoke or writ what Persons they had to deal with and what Notions Knowledge or Customs did then obtain But those who being ignorane of these things set about Expounding the Scripture can hardly do it with Success It is a Wonder if they do not miss the true Mark and if they do not obtrude forced and very often false Glosses upon their Readers On the other hand many Authors apply themselves to the examining of Scripture with a Mind full of Prejudices They explain in by the present Notions of the World Nothing is more usual with Commentators than to make the Faithful under the Old Testament speak as if they had been as well acquainted with the Truths of the Gospel as Christians are and as if those Questions and Disputes which are treated in Common-Places of Divinity had been agitated at that time When those Expositors for Instance meet with the World Righteous or Righteousness in the Psalms they fancy that David had in his Thoughts all that Divines have vented concerning Justification and upon this Supposal what do they not say or what do they not make Preachers say It has been observed that almost all Commentators are partial and endeavour to put upon the Scripture a Sense that favours the Opinions of their respective Sects This Spirit of a Party is chiefly remarkable in some of those Commentaries which these last Centuries have produced 2. The second Rule of a Commentator should be to expound clearly and familiarly the literal Sense of Scripture and never to have recourse to a mystical Exposition but in those Places where the Spirit of God directs us to look for it And yet a great many Authors do almost entirely forsake the literal Sense to pursue mystical Explications In their Opinion every thing is mystical in the Holy Scripture especially in the Old Testament They are not contented with unfolding the true Mysteries and Prophecies which manifestly relate to the Times of the Gospel but they turn all things into Figure They find Mysteries Allegories Types and Prophecies every where even in the plainest Discourses This they call searching and diving into the Scriptures But this way of expounding the Word of God is a Fountain of Illusions For as the Holy Ghost does not explain those pretended Mysteries so they must be put to their Guesses and beholden to their Imagination for the Discovery of them and he that is the most copious or lucky in his Conjectures is the greatest Man Now I leave any one to judge whether Commentators who follow no other Guide but their Imagination can avoid being very frequently mistaken and giving a great many handles to Libertines and Infidels 3. We are not to forget here the School-Commentators The Holy Scripture should be expounded in a simple and popular manner and this cannot be denied if we consider that it was given for the Instruction and the Salvation of all Men and that the Discourses of Christ and his Apostles were addressed to the Common People and to such Persons as were far from being Philosophers Nothing therefore seems more repugnant to the
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-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-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-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
it hath been represented in this Work The Conclusion of this Treatise THis is what I had proposed to say concerning the Causes of Corruption I might have been larger upon these Matters and have added many things which I have not touched This is a very copious Field and a Subject which can hardly be exhausted yet I think I have observed what is most material But it will be to little purpose to have detected the Causes of Corruption if those Cause do still subsist and therefore I conclude this Work with an earnest entreaty to my Readers that they will make serious Reflections upon it and that if they find that in Fact Corruption proceeds from those Causes I have mentioned they wil strive to remove them The Undertaking will no doubt appear very difficult to many They will own the Truth of what I have said but they will look upon the design of opposing the Corruption of the Age as vain and chimerical They will say that all this is very fine in the Theory but that the Practice of it is impossible I confess here is some difficulty but yet I am persuaded that what I have proposed might successfully be done at least in some respects But the general Causes of Corruption can scarce be remedied but by publick Persons I therefore apply my self here particularly to Divines and to the Pastors of the Church and I conjure them to make it their serious Business to discover and to stop the Springs of Corruption Let them turn all their Endeavours that way let them labour to dispel the Ignorance and Prejudices which so many Christians live in and to confute those Maxims and Sentiments which feed Security and Libertinism let them press with Zeal the restoring of Order and Disciplines let them incessantly lay before the People and the Magistrates the necessity of redressing several Abuses which are now in vogue let them inculcate these things and insist upon them with Zeal but at the same time with Prudence and Charity let them concert Measures among themselves let them act unanimously in so noble a Design Above all things let them take care to season young People with good Instruction and to inspire them with Sentiments of Religion and Vertue These are the Solicitudes which become the Ministers of Jesus Christ These are Enterprizes worthy of their Character and their Zeal and the things which ought chiefly to be considered in the Assemblies of the Clergy But let them not be discouraged by the Difficulties they are like to meet with They will still gain something even when they may fancy they labour in vain If they do not obtain all that they desire if they do not cure the whole Evil they will remove at least some part of it So holy an Enterprize will sooner or later be fortunate in the Issue and God will pour down a Blessing upon those Means which he himself has appointed One would think that Providence is at work to bring about happier Times and that things are tending that way This is an Age of Knowledge and Religion is now better proved and explained than ever it was There is a considerable number of judicious and learned Divines and Pastors who are deeply grieved to see the present Face of things and who are sensible how necessary it would be to oppose Corruption So many Books which are writ on purpose to revive true Christianity and to bring Men to Holiness seem to bode some blessed Revolution and to argue a general Disposition towards it God who presides over all things and particularly over that which concerns Religion bless the Designs and Endeavours of all those who have good Intentions and grant that we may quickly see Truth Piety Peace and Order intirely restored among Christians FINIS Book Printed for R. Chiswell SCRIPTORVM ECCLESIASTICORVM Historia Literaria facili prespicua methodo digesta in 2 Vol. Fol. Authore GVL. CAVE S. T. P. His Primitive Christianity 5th Edit 8º His Dissertation concerning the Government of the Ancient Church by Bishops Metropolitans and Patiâ—â—ons 8º Arch-Bishop Tenison's Conference with Pulton the Jesuit His Nine Sermons on several Occasions Seven Volumes of Arch-Bishop Tillotson's Sermons Published from the Originals by Dr. Barker Vol. 1st of Sincerity and Constancy in the Faith and Profession of the True Religion 3d Edition Corrected 1700. Vol. 2d and 3d On several Occasions Second Edition Corrected 1700. Vol. 4th Of Natural and Instituted Religion c. Second Edition Corrected 1700. Vol. 5th Proving Jesus to be the Messias c. Second Edition Corrected 1700. Volumes 6th and 7th Upon the Attributes of God Second Edition Corrected 1700. Ten Sermons on several Occasions by Bishop Patrick His Hearts Ease or Remedy against all Troubles The 7th Edition 1699. His Commentary on Genesis Exodus Leviticus and Numbers in Four Volumes His Commentary on Duteronomy 1700. Valentine's Private Devotions The 26th Edition 169â— Wharton's Sermons in Lambeth-Chappel in 2 Vol. 8º with his Life The Second Edition 1700. Dr. Conant's Sermons in Two Vol. 8º Published Bishop Williams Dr. Wake of Preparation for Death The 6th Edition 1699. Dr. Fryer's Nine Years Travels into India and Persia Illustrated with Copper Plates Fol. 1698. Bishop Willams Of the Lawfulness of Worshipping God by the Common-Prayer With several other Discourses Mr. Tulley's Discourse of the Government of the Thoughts The 3d Edition 12º 1699. The Life of Henry Chichele Arch-Bishop of Cantâ—â—â—ury in which there is a particular Relation of many Remarkable Pasâ—â—â—â— in the Reigns of Henry V. and VI. Kings of England Written in Latin by Arthur Duck L. L. D. Chancellor of the Diocess of London and Advocate of the Court of Honour Now made English and a Table of Contents annexed 8º 1699. The Judgement of the Ancient Jewish Church against the Unitarians in the Controversy upon the Holy Trinity and the Divinity of our Blessed Saviour With a Table of Matters and a Table of Texts of Scriptures occasionally explained by Peter Alix D. D. Short Memorials of Thomas Lord Fairfax Written by Himself Published 1699. The Life of John Whitgift Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in the time of Queen Elizabeth and King James I. Written by Sir Geo. Paul Comptroler of his Grace's Houshold To which is annexed a Treatise intituled Conspiracy for pretended Reformation Written in the Year 1591. By Richard Cosin L. L. D. Dean of the Arches and Official Principal to Arch-Bishop Whitgift 8o. 1699. An Exposition of the 39 Articles of the Church of England by Dr. Burnet Bishop of Sarum Fol. 1700. His Sermon to the Societies for Reformation of Manners March 25. 1700. A Practical Discourse of Religious Assemblies By Dr. William Sherlock Dean of St. Pauls The 3d. Edition 1700. ☜ Several Discourses of Repentance by the most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury being the EIGHTH VOLUME Published by Dr. Barker 1700. In the Press The Fourth and Last Part of Mr. RVSHWORTH's Historical Collections Containing the Principal Matters which happen'd from the beginning of the Year 1645. where the Third Part ended to the Death of King Charles the First 1684. Impartially Related Setting forth only Matter of Fact in Order of Time without Observation or Reflection Fitted for the Press in his Life-time To which will be added Exact Alphabetical Tables