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
behalf that these Illusions would not have grown so Common if there had not teen a general and in some measure an incurable Corruption in the World But they saw every where a prodigious decay of Piety and little hope of amendment For what may we not say of the present State of Christianity There is in many Places an Ignorant and Superstitious Clergy and People whose whole Religion consists in Ceremonies and in Devotions which are merely External and often Ridiculous above all there appears in those Places a Deluge of Immorality Is it then to be wonder'd at that Quietism and Fanaticism should rear up their Heads in such Places These gross Abuses do not indeed prevail everywhere but generally speaking there is but little of true Piety among Christians there is scarce any Order or Discipline left amonst them Men live as they please the Sacraments are prophaned the Precepts of the Gospel are trampled under foot Charity and Honesty are almost entirely banished No Man sets about the redressing of these Disorders Church-men make it their Capital Business to maintain their Disputes and their Tenets and they apply themselves but faintly to the reforming of Manners Religion being upon this Foot many who had good Intentions could not but perceive that this was not true and genuine Christianity But because they saw no likelihood of Things being brought to a better posture or because they wanted Capacity to find out the Occasions and Remedies of so great an Evil or lastly because they were Men of weak parts they hearkned to those who proposed to them this Mystical Piety This is the Cause of the progress of Fanaticism and the Reason why some Persons of Vertue and Piety are engag'd in that Party And therefore the true way to reclaim them would be to re-establish Order in the Church and to labour for the Reformation of Manners As long as these are neglected all the Precautions and Methods used against Fanatick's by the Clergy or by the Magistrate will either prove unsuccesful or be found contrary to the Spirit of Christianity But after all this Spirit of Fanaticism is highly pernicious For first it opens a Gap to all manner of Licentiousness Not to mention the Mischiess which may redound from thence upon Civil Society Mystical Piety is at large Fountain of Illusions it leads Men into endless Errors and it is apt to turn all Religion upside down for as it is lodged only in inward Sentiments it cannot happen otherwise but that vast Numbers of Men who either want Knowledge or Strength of Parts will take the wandrings of their own Fancies for Divine Inspirations I know that some of those Contemplative Men acknowledge the Scripture for the Rule of their Faith and read it carefully but the mischief is that thro' their Prejudices they fix a wrong Sense upon it so that what they read does but confirm them in their Errors Their Expositions are very singular they do not affix to Words the same Ideas which other Men do they forsake the literal Sense to run after mystical Explications suitable to their preconceived Notions they reject or make very light of those Helps which the Knowledge of Languages History and the Scope of Sacred Writers afford and it is one of their Principles That Women Mechanicks and the most simple People are able to understand the Scripture as well if not better than the most Learned Doctors 2. Fanaticism is an Evil which is hardly to be remedied A Heretick or a prophane Person may sooner be undeceived than a Man intoxicated with Mystical Devotion for these will Reason but the other will hearken to no Reasoning so that he is Proof against all the Arguments which can be offered to him It is in vain to Dispute with People who look on all those who are not of their Mind as Ignorant Men who think themselves Illuminated above the rest of Mankind and who return no other Answer to the Objections urged against them but that they are otherwise persuaded in their Minds There is no good to be done upon them either by Reasoning or by Sense of which they make but little use or even by the Scripture wherein they seek nothing less than the literal meaning 3. Tho' Mystical Men profess a sublime Piety yet their Principles favour Corruption more than one may be apt to imagine How can we reconcile those Maxims concerning Contemplation Inanition and Silence with that Activity Zeal and fervour which the Scripture recommends If Man is a mere Nothing if he is to wait patiently till God works his Will in him and speaks to his Soul it is in vain to exhort Men and it would be to no purpose for them to use any endeavours on their part Besides that Contempt of outward means which the Mysticks express makes way for a total neglect of Devotion introduces Disorder and Licentiousness and is directly opposite to God's design who thought fit to prescribe the use of those means I might add that the Principles of Fanaticism are commodious enough for Sinners so that I do not wonder that some of them should go over to that Party A Devotion which consists in acknowledging a Man's own Nothingness or in Contemplation and Silence is much more acceptable to a Corrupt Person than an exact Morality which obliges a Man to do acts of Repentance to put his own hand to the work and to set about the reforming of his Life and the practising of Christian Virtues Upon the whole matter Fanaticism makes Religion contemptible because the Men of the World confound true with Mystical Piety They fancy that a Man cannot be devout without being something Visionary and Enthusiastical and that Devotion does not well agree with Sense and Reason The Prejudices I have mentioned in this Chapter are not the only ones which foment and cherish Corruption some others might have been added but they may more conveniently be ranged under the Titles of some of the following Chapters What I have said in this does yet farther shew the necessity of good Instruction which may conquer these Prejudices and give Men true Notions of Religion and Piety CAUSE III. The Maxims and Sentiments which are made use of to Authorise Corruption IT has been shewn in two preceding Chapters that Men are generally involved in Ignorance and that they entertain such Notions concerning Religion and Piety as must of necessity maintain Corruption in the World But they are likewise possest with divers particular Maxims and Sentiments which lead directly to Libertinism A modern Author very well observes * New Moral Essays Tom. 1. in the Preface That People are not only very little acquainted with the extent of that Purity which the Gospel requires but that they are besides full of Maxims incomparably more pernicious than Errors of pure Speculation These Maxims do the more certainly produce Corruption because they are used to Authorise and Countenance it And in fact Mens Blindness and Licentiousness are come to that
Men endeavour to excuse themselves by laying the Sins they commit upon the great Number and the Force of Temptations It is very hard say they to avoid Sin we are so many ways drawn into it Temptations are so strong and so frequent that we must go out of the World if we would preserve our Innocence Sometimes they impute to the Devil the Sins which they fall into and at other times so great is their Audaciousness that they throw them upon God and his Providence All these Excuses are trifling and some of them are impious For to begin with that which is borrowed from the Multitude and Strength of Temptations it is unreasonable to imagine that the number of Temptations is so great that their force is irresistible Temptations are frequent I Confess but it is an Error to think that there is nothing but Snares and Solicitations to Sin in the World This would give us a strange notion of God and of his Works and in that Case Man's Condition would be very Miserable It is certain on the other hand that the Opportunities and Solicitations to Good are very common especially in relation to Christians whom an infinite Number of Objects and Motives call back to God and to their Duty Even Temptations themselves give them occasions of doing Good God supplies them abundantly with all things necessary to Life and Godliness as we are told 2 Pet. 1. Certainly we are to presume that if God permits that Men should here meet with Temptations and Opportunities of undoing themselves he offers them on the other hand many Occasions and Inducements to take care of their Salvation So that the great Number of Solicitations to Good does already destroy the Excuse which is taken from the great Number of Temptations Neither is it more reasonable to complain of the Strength of those Temptations Such a Complaint is very unseemly from Christians who are appointed to overcome the World the Flesh and all other Temptations When all things are well considered it will appear that it is within our selves in our own Negligence and in the perverseness of our Wills that we ought to look for that which makes Temptations so strong and too hard for us They have no more strength than we give them St. James has decided this Question in such a manner as should stop the Mouth of those who seek the cause of Evil any where else but in their own Hearts * 1 Jam. 1.14 Every Man says he is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and inticed The Devil has no more Power over us than Temptations have For he can but tempt us But yet we are apt to ascribe to him a kind of Omnipotence According to the Vulgar Opinion one would think that the Devil is the Author of all the Sins that are Committed that he is every where and that Men are but his Instruments which he uses at pleasure If this was true Men were indeed to be pitied and it would be some Excuse to those who live ill The Scripture teaches us no such thing But the highest pitch of Temerity is to charge God and Providence with our Sins Thus some Men are wont to say such a thing comes to pass because God would have it so and such another thing did not happen because it did not please God that it should When this Excuse is made with relation to Sin it amounts to the most horrid of Blasphemies it lays upon God all the Evil that happens and makes him the Author of it For either this Excuse signifies nothing or else it imports that God is the Cause of what happens and not we This must needs be the meaning of it because Men pretend to excuse themselves with saying God would have it so In a word here is no middle way either the Cause of Sin is in Man or it is not If it is in Man he can accuse no body else but himself he cannot clear him self by saying God would or would not have it so If the Cause of Sin be not in Man he is discharged and all the Evil lights upon God It is an astonishing thing that Men who believe God to be infinitely Holy and Just can entertain such thoughts 4. Another Excuse is often alledged and it is fetched from Common Practice Custom and Example That which is generally done is thought to be Innocent or at least Pardonable But the Greatness and the Universality of Corruption excuse no body Custom and Example cannot make any thing lawful which is bad Where there is an express Law it is to no purpose to plead Practice to the Contrary Custom or Numbers exempt no Man from doing that which God Commands and will never Protect him at the Day of Judgment Custom and Example are so far from excusing Vice that on the Contrary this very thing that the Custom is bad ought to make Men sensible how necessary it is to set about a good Reformation 5. But if Men think that Example and Custom excuse them they fancy themselvs yet much more excusable when they can alledge the Examples and the Sins of Good Men. The Libertines triumph here To what purpose is it say they to recommend Holiness so strictly and to enforce it with such severe penalties when he see many Good Men follow a course give opposite to those Maxims and to that exact Morality But they ought to consider that it is extream hard or rather impossible to know certainly whether a Man is truly a good Man or not We cannot be assured of this unless we knew Mens Hearts which belongs only to God This Reflection does already defeat the Excuse which is borrowed from the Sins of Good Men. We frequently imagine the Person who sins to be a good Man when he is but an Hypocrite or an Atheist Indeed Piety and Charity require that we should think the best of our Neighbours especially of those in whom the Marks of solid Piety and Vertue appear but neither Charity nor Piety obliges us to confound Vice with Godliness or to call Evil Good Sin is Sin and ought to be condemned wherever we meet with it and more particularly in those who pass for better Men than others When Men who seem to be Pious fall into such Sins as are inconsistent with Regeneration we ought to think that those Men either give the Lye to their Character and are not what we took them for and then we may apply to them the Words of Ezekiel Chap. xxxiii ver 18. When the righteous turneth from his righteousness and committeth iniquity he shall even die thereby or else we must think that tho' they have some Piety it is but weak as yet so that they are not what they appear To be but however we ought to be positive in this That the Examples and the Sins of others will excuse no Man in the sight of God 6. Another very Common Evasion by which Men endeavour to excuse the neglect and omission
Thoughts and a Multiplicity of Designs and Business break in upon his Mind and take possession of his Heart he is filled with these Things all the day he follows and plods upon them without Distraction or Interaction And how is it to be imagined that admidst all this hurry and turmoil he should find that Recollection that Tranquility and that Elevation without which the Exercises of Piety are but mere Hypocrisy Whence comes it to pass that Men bring so little Attention and Sincerity with them to the publick Worship of God Why do Sermons produce so little fruit Why do the most certain and important Truths of Religion the clearest and the most solid Reasonings make either no Impression at all or at least no lasting one upon the Hearers What is the reason why in the most solemn Devotions and particularly in the Holy Communion it is so difficult for Men to lift up their Hearts to God and to shake off a thousand idle or sinful Thoughts which come then to amuse and distract them And lastly why do those Vows and Promises which are made even with some sincerity prove so ineffectual why do the best Resolutions vanish so easily and so soon All this comes from Mens being too much taken up with Temporal Cares 3. These excessive Cares do not only distract the Mind but they do besides directly obstruct Sanctification and lead Men into Sin For first it is impossible to love Religion and Vertue when the Heart is set upon the World Our Saviour tells us * Mat. VI. 22. that no man can serve two masters and St. John declares †John II. 15. that the Love of God is not in those who love the world There is such an Opposition between Bodily and Spiritual Exercises that those who give themselves up to the first are incapable of the others Worldly Occupations render Men Carnal Sensual and Dull they keep up Ignorance and foment Sloth and they weigh down all their Inclinations and Thoughts to the Earth so that they must be Careless and Indifferent about Spiritual Objects and Heavenly Concerns And indeed they are very ill disposed to value those Good thnigs as they deserve or to seek them with that Eagerness and Sincerity which they ought Can we think that Men who propose nothing else to themselves but the amassing of Wealth the making their Court or the Canvassing for Places and who live and toil only for such things should have a due sense of the Concerns of their Salvation It is hard to imagine it But further Religion does not allow Christians to love the World or to cleave to it | 1 Cor. VII It requires that they should possess Temporal Goods as not possessing them and that they should use the World as not abusing it because on the one hand the Figure of the World passes away and it would be a Folly to fix their Hearts upon vain and transitory Enjoyments And on the other hand they ought to aspire chiefly to the possession of solid and eternal happiness To be therefore taken up only with earthly Things and to let them enter too deep into ones Heart is a Disposition quite contrary to that which a Christian ought to be in 4. Lastly An excessive Application to Temporal affairs hurries a Man into many Disorders We need but reflect a little to be satisfied that a Man who is filled only with the Thoughts and Solicitudes of this Life must be a Slave to his Senses and Passions and that he lays himself open every Moment to a Thousand Temptations which he is not able to withstand Tho' his Employments are lawful in themselves yet he makes them Criminal because to him they are only Means of gratifying his Appetites And the greatest Mischief is that when a Man is once entred upon that Course he still confirms himself in it so that at last he cannot leave it off On the one hand his Passions are still mounting higher on the other Business and Toil grow upon him He first proposos an End to himself and then he will bring it about at any rate as being engaged in Honour and by Interest not do desist If he meets with Obstacles he will do any thing to surmount them If he succeeds Success animates him with new Ardour he is for going further In a word it is an endless labour a continual succession of Cares which are still growing greater and which end only with his Life From all this we may conclude that the abuse of worldly Business is most dangerous and that if we would not have it obstruct our Salvation we ought to observe these three Rules The First is that we should pursue the Things of this World with Moderation One of the most useful Directions for a happy Life is this to lay nothing too much to Heart The way to preserve our Innocence and Tranquility is to crave nothing too eagerly not to rejoyce excessively at any Prosperity not to be dejected above measure for any Disasters which may happen and not to be too hot and peremptory upon any Design The Second Caution to be used is the avoiding Multiplicity of Business and Excess of Imployments as much as is consistent with the Duties of our Calling Every one should consider what he is fit for and what he is called to and go no farther In the Last Place Wisdom requires that among all the Affairs of this Life we should reserve the necessary Time and Care to pay what we owe to God and to mind our Salvation the most important of all Concerns To this end it is very useful to have certain Times of Retirement and Leisure and to accustom our selves to make now and then even in the midst of temporal Employments such Reflections as may call us back to our Duty and be like a Counterpoise to that Byass which carries us toward sensible Objects Let us often think that we are mortal that we have a Soul and that there is another Life after this Let us consider what all our worldly Cares terminate in and what Judgment we shall make of them upon our Death-Beds These Reflections will put us upon wise and moderate Courses and so we shall avoid innumerable Disorders and Miseries which Men fall into by their too great application to Temporal Business CAUSE IX Mens Particular Callings THo' we have seen already that Corruption has its Source in the Abuse of Worldly Business yet it may be proper to insist a little more upon this Matter and to Consider it with relation to the different States and Callings which Men are ingaged in When we speak of Worldly Business we mean chiefly those things about which the greatest part of Life is spent Now those Occupations must needs be suitable to the particular kind of Life which a Man follows And so every Man's kind of Life may be a Source or at least an accidental Cause of Corruption As the World is Constituted it is necessary that there should be
should go by the practice of the Jewish Church it would follow that the Ministers of Religion are invested with Civil Authority and a very great Authority too The Jewish Priests held a considerable Rank in the State as well as in Religion If upon some occasions Kings have deposed Priests upon other occasions Priests have opposed Kings and altered the Government * See Chron. XXIII and XXVI So that without pressing too much those Instances out of the Old Testament the best way is to consult the New and to proceed according to the Laws of the Apostles and the Nature of the Christian Religion And whosoever examins without Prejudice those Sacred Books which have been writ since the Coming of our Saviour will acknowledge that things are now altered and that Magistrates have but a limited Authority in Matters of Religion It is remarkable that the Scripture never mentions them when it speaks of the Church and of the Government of it 3 And yet as the Authority of Princes and Magistrates is derived from God it ought still to subsist entire And therefore they have an unquestionable Right to take care that nothing be done in the Church to the Prejudice of their lawful Authority and of publick Tranquility and that the Ministers of Religion do not stretch their Authority beyond spiritual things The Honour and the Safety of Religion require that this Principle should be laid down for Religion as was said before ought not to disturb Society and true Religion will never disturb it If then any Christians or Church-men under pretence of Religion should break in upon the Civil Government and the publick Peace Kings and Princes have a Right to restrain them and then they do not oppose Religion but those only who abuse and dishonour it After these Considerations I think any Man is able to judge whether the decay of Piety and Religion is not in part to be imputed to Christian Princes and Magistrates We need but enquire whether both in Civil and Religious Matters they observe the Duties I have now described I say no more of this because every body is able to make the Application But I must add that if the want of Zeal in Magistrates is enough to introduce Confusion and Vice into the Church the Mischief is much greater when not only they do not what they ought for the good of Religion but when they use their Authority besides to the prejudice of it I cannot forbear mentioning here two great Abuses The First is when Princes and Magistrates assume the whole Authority to themselves so that except Preaching and Administring the Sacraments they will do every thing in the Church When they presume to determine Articles of Faith to rule the Conscience of their Subjects and to force them to embrace one Persuasion rather than another when they will by all means take upon them to call Pastors without regard to that Right of the Church and Church-men which is established in Scripture and confirned by the practice of the first Ages of Christianity when they seize upon Church-Estates tho' there is no Reason to fear that Wealth should corrupt their Clergy and tho' such Revenues might be applied to several pious Uses and particularly to the Relief of Country-Churches most of which are not sufficiently edified for want of necessary Endowments and Funds A great deal might be said about that which was done in the last Century with relation to Church-Revenues and it were to be wished that People had been a little more scrupulous than they were when they invaded the Possessions of the Church and confounded them with the Revenues of the State Besides this the Magistrates Authority is fatal to the Church when he hinders the Exercise of true Discipline and when he substitutes such Regulations as he thinks fit in the room of Apostolical Laws This is one of the greatest Obstructions to the restoring of Apostolical Discipline Tho' the Church and her Pastors should be willing to observe the ancient Order and to oppose Corruption by those Means which the Gospel enjoins yet this is not to be done if those who have the Authority in their hands will not give way to it The Church is not in a Condition to resist and to make head against the Magistrate when he uses Force and She ought not to do it if She could The second Abuse is when the Magistrate makes it his business to abase Religion in the Persons of its Ministers by despoiling them as much as he can of every thing that might procure them Respect and Authority in the Church This Policy is as contrary to the Interest of Religion and to the promoting of Piety as it is common now adays in several Christian Dominions It is well done of the Magistrate to preserve his Authority and to keep the Clergy from exceeding the bounds of their Calling but from thence it does not follow that he ought to trample them under foot to bring them under a general Contempt and to vilifie their Character which after all is Sacred and Venerable This is to sacrifice Religion to Policy and Pride and this Proceeding is a manifest Cause of the Contempt of Religion and of the Corruption which necessarily follows that Contempt since commonly nothing is more despised in the World than that which great Men despise I declare it once more by all that has been said I do not mean to detract any thing from the Respect due to Civil Powers neither do I speak of all Christian Princes and Magistrates among whom there are some who have Piety and Zeal and who labour with success for the Good of Religion But the Glory of God requires that we should speak the truth so that I could not but take notice of this Cause of Corruption Upon the whole Matter it is to be hoped that if Christian Magistrates would be pleased to make serious Reflections upon all these things we should soon see an end of some of these Disorders and that a happier time will come when they will use their Authority to advance the Honour of God and to restore Truth Piety and Peace among Christians CAUSE V. Education NOthing is more natural than to look for the Original of Corruption in the time at which it begins I mean in the first years of Life It is not only when Men have attained to a ripeness of Age that they are inclined to Vice but that Inclination discovers it self from their Youth The Root of that Ignorance of those Prejudices and of the greatest part of the ill Dispositions they are in may be found in their tender years We had need then look back upon the beginnings of Life and seek in Youth and in Infancy it self the Source of Corruption When we enter upon this Enquiry and consider that Men if nothing restrains them will run into Vice from their Youth out of a propension which is common to all we cannot but perceive at first sight that there must be in
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