his Business or a Mechanick his Trade no great inconveniency will ensue from thence in relation to Society But when publick Employments are in the Hands of Men who are not Qualified for them it is hard to tell how much Mischief is occasioned by it Is it not for instance a lamentable thing that so many Persons should dedicate themselves to the Church who want the Talents requisite for so high a Function and that so many who might do great Service in that Profession do not embrace it By this it happens that some of those who are placed at the Helm in several Churches want both Learning and Probity and that Religion is very ill administred so that the People being without Instruction or Conduct live in Ignorance and Disorder The same may be said of the Office of Magistrates when it is entrusted to those who are not proper for it 2. Lawful Callings may prove great Occasions of Corruption and Disorder both in respect of those who embrace them and of the Publick when they are ill exercised when the Duties annexed to them are neglected when Men do not watch against the Temptations which are particular to them and when they look upon them only as means to gratify their Inclinations to get Money to have a Rank to gain Credit or to humour some other Passion I might enter here upon many Particulars but because this would lead me too far I shall confine my self to a few Instances It would be very proper to speak here of the Profession of Church-men and of the Office of Princes Magistrates and Judges and to shew how pernicious both these Kinds of Life prove often not only to those who are raised to them but likewise to Church and State But these Two Articles are of too great Moment to be touched upon only by the by They are Two General Springs of Corruption which deserve to be purposely handled and which are to have a Place in the Second Part of this Book The Profession of Military Men is a kind of Life which corrupts vast Multitudes I do not condemn the Profession in general It is Lawful a Man may live in it like a Christian and there are Persons in Military Employments of a solid Vertue and an exemplary Piety But it must be confessed that the Number of those Persons is not great and that for the generality the Maxims and Deportment of the Men of that Profession agree very little with the Rules of Christianity Those who follow the Employments of War are for the most part Men of loose and vicious Principles Every body knows that if on the one hand some good Men are found to embrace this Profession on the other hand it is the Ordinary Receptacle and the last Shift of Idle and Debauched People and of those who are over-whelmed with Poverty and Misery Besides how do Men live in that Profession saving some few Disorders which Military Discipline does not allow of every thing is lawful there I speak of what is commonly observed To spend their Life in Idleness and Gaming is the least Fault of Soldiers Lewdness is a thing about which no great Scruple is made among them The same might almost be said of Injustice it is well known that commonly Officers do not thrive but the Soldiers pay for it I say nothing of unjust Wars nor of the Cruelty and Inhumanity which often attend that kind of Life because I will not enlarge upon this Subject But it is most certain and every considering Person will own that after the rate that Military men live almost every where War is the School of Vice and that the prodigious Number of those who follow that Employment is one of the principal Causes of Corruption and Debauchery Commerce is one of the most Lawful and Necessary Professions of Life Not only Society but Religion it self may reap great Advantages from it But yet this Calling has its Dangers and Temptations and it is exercised by many in a way which is contrary to good Conscience As the only End of Traffick is Gain and as the Opportunities of getting by unlawful Methods which may be practised with impunity offer themselves every Day so it is evident that if a Merchant has not a strict and well-informed Conscience and Vertue enough to resist the perpetual Temptations to which his Calling exposes him he will forfeit his Innocence and violate every Minute the Rules of Justice and Equity of Charity Truth and Honesty There are few Callings more innocent and more suitable to the Order which God did establish at first than the Employments of those who Exercise Mechanick Trades and get their Livelyhood by bodily Labour And yet this kind of Life proves to a great many an Occasion to Vice because they do not arm themselves against the Temptations and Sins which are ordinary in those Callings It is almost the general Character of this Order of Men to mind nothing but the World to labour only for their Bodies and to do nothing for their Souls Hence it is that they are Ignorant that they know their Religion very little that they are gross sensual given to Intemperance and several other Excesses They are apt besides to be unjust and false They make no Conscience of doing their Work ill of Lying and detaining what is not theirs There is a Thousand petty Frauds and little knavish Tricks used in every Trade which are thought Innocent and Lawful ways of Gain Now it is plain that all this does not contribute a little towards Corruption What I have said of the Employments of Life may be applied to the different States Men are in with relation to Age Condition and their way of Living All these are so many occasions and circumstances which may divert them from their Duty Thus Youth has its particular Temptations Young People are Vain Presumptuous Sensual given to Pleasure violent and bold in their Passions They are likewise Imprudent and Fickle because they want Knowledge and Experience Being thus disposed at that Age they will almost infallibly unless prevented by a good Education Corrupt themselves and contract ill Habits which will stick by them as long as they live Daily Experience shews us that Youth ill spent is the Source of the Corruption of a great many for the rest of their whole Life Old People are commonly Covetous Morose Suspicious wedded to the Opinions they have once embraced and most deeply engaged in their vicious Customs Their Passions are not so boisterous but they are more lasting and harder to be cured than those of Young People And from this we may judge that if Reason and Religion do not correct those Faults of Old People that Age which ought chiefly to be employed in preparing for Death will prove an Obstacle to Piety and Salvation The Rich as St. Paul observes * 1 Tim. V. 17. are proud and high-minded they are apt besides to be slothful they love to satisfie their Passions are full of self-love
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
upon which they have most reason to reproach themselves as is well known to those who make any reflection upon their Conduct And if this Shame is able to spoil those who other wise are Virtuous and to extinguish their Zeal and Piety we ought to reckon it among the Principal Causes of Corruption 3. Shame may lead men to the highest Degrees of Wickedness For besides that a man sins against his Conscience when for fear of Men he dares not do his Duty besides that he offends God in a very provoking manner when he is ashamed to obey him and fears Men more than Him I say that this shame is apt to betray him into the great est Enormities A man is capable of every thing when he becomes a Slave to other mens Judgment and when Complaisance or Humane Consideration have a greater force upon him than the Laws of Religion and his Duty Whenever a man dares not appear good he dares appear in some measure wicked And when he ties to Vertue an Idea of Honour to Vice and from complying in every thing with the Opinions of loose and profane Persons 1. Men do not arrive of a sudden at this degree of Corruption false Shame carries them to it by little and little It makes one sin at first through Complisance tho' with some Reluctancy By this Conscience grows weaker a man contracts the Habit of slighting its Suggestions and Vice becomes more familiar to him Then he begins to sin more boldly the shame of doing good increases and the shame of sinning grows less In a little time he comes to do out of Custom and Inclination what he did before but seldom and with some inward Conflict From thence he proceeds to an open contempt of Piety and so he forsakes an Interest to which he was well affected at first but which this shame has made him dislike Thus many Persons who had good dispositions in their youth being let loose into the World have lost their Innocence and are turned Libertines and Atheists Now this false Modesty being so pernicious we can never labour too much to prevent its ill effects And this we shall succeed in if we seriously consider that there is a great deal both of Error and Cowardice in the sentiments and conduct of those who are hinder'd by shame from discharging the Duties of Religion and Conscience First there is a great deal of Error in their Proceding This Shame is founded upon nothing else but the Judgment which the World makes of Piety But if those who despise Religion are in the wrong as they most certainly are if it is Extravagance and Folly in them to pass a false Judgment upon Piety it is a much greater Madness in those who understand better Things to subscribe to a Judgment which they know to be False and Erroneous and to make that the Principle of their Actions If Vertue is a Thing that is Good Just Necessary Acceptable to God and Useful to those who Practise it if with it we cannot fail of Happiness and if without it there is nothing but Dread and Terror why should we be ashamed to give up our selves to it A Wise Man ought to esteem that which deserves Esteem and if Ignorant and Corrupt People are of another Mind he ought to set himself above their Judgment and to despise the Contempt of the senseless Multitude The Judgment of Men cannot make that Just which is Unjust nor supersede the Necessity of what is Necessary so that it should be of no weight in so important a Concernment as that of our Salvation Our Happiness is not to be Decided by Man's Esteem or Contempt and the Approbation of God and our Conscience is infinitely to be preferred before their groundless Opinions But if there is so much of Error in vicious Shame there is likewise a great deal of Cowardice in it Nothing is more base and unworthy than for a Man to desert the Interest of Vertue when he is sollicited by his own Conscience to adhere to it Not to have Resolution enough to do his Duty in such a Case is on the one hand to submit his Reason and Conscience to the Caprice of others and to depress himself beâ—ow the vilest Things in die World and â—on the other it is to have greater Regard for Men than for God And is there any thing more abject than this Proceeding Is not this shameful Cowardise in a Christian who is called to profess openly his Religion and Faith and who ought to think it his Glory to maintain the Cause of Vertue and Justice in spight of all the Contradiction and Contempt of the Age That Threatning which our Saviour has denounced against those who should not have the Courage to embrace the Christian Profession or should abandon it belongs also to those mean-spirited Christians we are now speaking of * Mat. VIII 38. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful Generation of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the Holy Angels The first and chief Remedy against this false Shame is then to be possessed with the following Reflections Before all things to have a right Apprehension of the Certainty and Importance of Religion to consider that it proposes to us infinite Rewards but that those Rewards are reserved only for those who have the Courage to observe its Precepts to think what Pleasure and Glory it is to be approved of God and of one own Conscience To fix deeply this great Truth in our minds that Mens Judgment is very inconsiderable that our Felicity depends neither upon their esteem nor contempt and to remember that the Scripture calls the Men of the World Fools and that a time will come when Shame Confusion and Misery shall fall to the Lot of those Despisers of Religion while * Rom. II. Glory Honour and Peace shall be to every one that does good 2. We shall easily conquer this Shame if we consider that the Danger of incurring Mens Contempt or Hatred by doing our Duty is not always so great as we may imagine I confess Piety is often despised but yet it frequently commands Respect Even those who think it strange that their Example should not be followed cannot help having a secret esteem and veneration for good Men. When Zeal is accompanied with Meekness and Discretion there is no fear that a Man should make himself odious or ridiculous by practising Vertue A Christian Deportment is so far from exposing Men always to the Contempt of the World that on the contrary it frequently happens that those who would avoid this Contempt by neglecting their Duty do thereby bring it upon themselves 3. There might be yet another Remedy against this Vicious Shame and that is the Example of Men of Authority Whatever they approve or do is reputed Honourable in the World and on the other side what they despise or neglect
general as it is now These Considerations are founded upon two undeniable Facts 1. That the Church was then persecuted And 2. That Discipline was then exercised in it These were two powerful Means to remove Vices and Scandals from the Church We may easily imagine that Men who loved the World and their sins would not have embraced Christiany at a time when whosoever became a Christian did by that very thing expose himself to Persecution Torments and Death This did fright away the greatest numbers of Wicked and Impious Persons But if any of these entred into the Church Discipline for the most part drove them out when they made themselves notorious by a Scandalous life It is easy to judge that in such Circumstances there was more Piety at that time than we observe now in the Church The first Christians were sincere in their Profession Being instructed by the Apostles and apostolical Men they placed the Christian Religion chiefly in a good Life to which they did solemnly engage themselves by Baptism They were united among themselves they governed themselves in matters of Order and Discipline by the Prescripts of the Apostles as much as the Persecution gave them leave and they did with Courage lay down their lives for the Truth Such was the Christianity of the first Ages But the Church did not continue long in that State before this Zeal of those Primitive Christans began to cool On the one hand Persecution ceased and on the other the Ancient Discipline was slackned These two Fences being pluckt up and the Emperors turning Christian the Corruption of the World broke in upon the Church Divers abuses crept into Doctrine Discipline Worship and Manners till the Church fell at last into such a Dismal Darkness of Ignorance Superstition and Vice that Christianity seemed almost quite extinct and destroyed All those who had any true sense of Religiion did lament this they complained openly of it and they longed for a good Reformation This was the State which the Church and Religion were in for some Centuries It did not please God that those Times of Ignorance should last for ever that Darkness began to be dispersed in the last Century Then it was that Learning and Languages revived and that the Holy Scripture which had been for a great while a Book unknown to the People was rescued out of that obscurity in which the Barbarism of former Ages had buried it Men did perceive that divers Errors had been introduced into Religion they discovered several Abuses they went about to redress them and they succeeded so far that in this respect Christianity was restored to its Purity But that great Work could not be finished so that at this Day they Church and Religion are not yet brought to that State of Perfection which they might be in III. For to come now to the present State of Religion it is certain First that many Christian Churches are still very near in the same Darkness Men were in some Ages ago I shall say nothing of the sinking of Christianity in Asia and Africa there is more Knowledge in Europe but yet in many Places we may observe almost all those Disorders which prevailed in the Times of the grossest Ignorance Nay our Age is more unhappy than the precedent in that those Abuses have been consirmed and authorized by Laws and are now supported by Force How many Countries and Churches are there where the People know almost nothing of the Gospel where Religion is reduced to Childish and Superstitious Devotions and Practices where the most Ridiculous things are believed and the most shameful Errors received where the loosness of Manners may almost be parallel'd with Heathenism where the most execrable Crimes are committed In a Word where the Ignorance both of the People and Clergy are general excepting only some few understanding Men who are sensible of these Disorders but are restrained by Fear from discovering their Sentiments From those Places Corruption spreads to others and it would not be difficult to shew by several Instances that the Cause of Impiety Ignorance and Vice is to be found in those Places which should be the Foâ—â—tains of Piety and Religion What I have now said is not to be applied to all Churches for some there are where Religion is not so corrupted and where a purer Christianity is professed But yet let us enquire in the second place whether there are any Christian Societies where nothing is Wanting or to be desired in the State of the Church and Religion and where it would not be necessary to make some Alterations and Constitutions in order to come nearer to Perfection This deserves to be examined with Care and without Prepossession We ought here to lay aside the Spirit of a Party and ingenuously to acknowledge Defects where they are For else if every one is wedded to the Society of which he is a Member nothing can ever be remedied For supposing that there are Defects what Remedy can be used if we are all possessed with This Prejudice that all is Perfect in our Society Is not this the way to Canonize Abuses and to prevent the restoring of Order And First we ought not to wonder if there should still be Imperfections in the purest Societies It would be a kind of Miracle if there were none remaining God does not always think fit to finish his Work all at once unless he had made use of Inspired Men such as the Prophets or the Apostles were It was impossible so to attain Perfection and to provide for every thing at first dash that nothing more should be desired Besides Circumstances are so much altered that it seemâ— necessary to change several things that were left in the last Age. It is further to be considered that tho' Christians did long for a good Reformation yet great Difficulties were to be overcome to bring it about Mens Minds were not much enlightened they were just creeping out of Darkness and a long Custom had almost obliterated the true Ideas of Religion Almost all those who were in Civil or Ecclesiastical Authority did obstinately defend the Abuses which all Good Men thought it necessary to Redress Extream Severity was used towards those who desired this Reformation of the Church All this did terrify a great many well-meaning Persons and was the cause that in several Places those who had Courage enough to Condemn the Abuses openly were not able for want of Means to do all that the Interest of Religion required They were fain in those Places to yield something to the Iniquity of the Times and to settle Things as well as they could till a more favourable Oppotunity Some Churches came nearer to Perfection than others But howsoever if we would pass a right Judgment upon the present State of the Church and Religion we ought to Examine the Thing in it self and without Partiality Upon this I shall offer here some general Considerations and refer to the following Chapter some Heads which will
uncertainty and obscurity in a Religion where there is nothing but Controversy and different Opinions The want of Union is then a most considerable Imperfection in the present State of the Church It were to be wished that some Remedy might be applied to so great an Evil and that those Controversies which produce and cherish it might be turned out of Doors The way to compass this would be to endeavour in good earnest the Reforming of Manners and the restoring of Order This great and noble Design will no sooner be pursued but Men will be ashamed of all these Contentions they will look upon them as trifling Amusements and find no relish in those Disputes which to say the truth do only employ such Persons as are conceited with vain Learning and narrow-spirited Men who are not capable of larger and higher Views IV. If we examine the present State of the Church with relation to Order there we must ingenuously confess that great Defects are to be found In Matters of Order and Discipline Christians ought to Regulate themselves First by the Laws which Christ and his Apostles have set them and then by the Example of the Primitive Church and of the Purest Antiquity it being evident that what has been practised in the First Ages of Christianity and does besides agree with the Rules and the Spirit of the Gospel should have a great regard paid to it by all Christians Now it cannot be denied but that most Churches have considerably departed from that Ancient Order To prove this by some Instances it is certain in fact that the Ecclesiastical Order and Government which obtains in many Places is not such as it ought to be None caâ—n be ignorant of this but those who are altogether unacquainted with Antiquity or who being full of Prejudices find what they please in Scripture and Church-History Can it be said that the Elections of Bishops or Pastors are Canonical as they are managed in many Places arid that the Practice and Order established by the Apostles and the Primitive Christians are observed every where It is certain likewise that all Churches are not furnished with a sufficient Number of Persons to perform Divine-Service and to Instruct and Edify the People When we look back upon the Primitive Church we find that tho' it was poor and persecuted yet it had its Bishops its Priests its Catechists and its Widows At this time we see yet in several Places that one single Town maintains a great Number of Church-men who indeed for the most part are very insignificant but elsewhere it is quite otherwise one single Man does often perform all the Ecclesiastical Functions nay sometimes many Churches have but one Pastor This Disorder as well as many others proceeds partly from the want of necessary Means and Funds to supply the occasions of all Churches Here it might be proper to speak of the Pastoral Functions and of the Administration of Discipline but these Two Heads being important I reserve what I have to say about them for the Two next Chapters We ought here not to omit the want of Union and Correspondence among Churches If they had more Communication and Intercourse one with another great Advantages would follow from thence Right Measures might be taken for the Edification of the People and for the Redressing of Abuses and Scandals that Uniformity which is so necessary both in Worship and in Church-Government and Discipline might be established And that would contribute much to the Honour and Safety of Religion in general The Church would appear then like a well-ordered Society and like One Body of which all the Parts should maintain a relation to and a strict dependance upon one another On the other hand it is a great unhappiness when Churches have little or no Intercourse or Communication one with another so that every one orders its Matters and Customs the Form of its Worship and Government within it self Thus in many respects it would be easie to shew that Things are not altogether Regulated in the Church as they ought to be with relation to Order Men are not sensible of these Defects because they are apt to judge of Religious Matters by the Practice of the present Time and by the Customs of their respective Countries besides that Antiquity is but little known And yet these Defects contribute more than is commonly imagined to the decay of Piety and Zeal The want of Order in any Society does most certainly bring Confusion and Licentiousness into it V. The Worship of God being the end and the essence of Religion we cannot but inquire whether all things are well regulated with relation to that To speak here only of the publick Worship it would be very necessary that it should be performed every where in such a manner that the People might understand the most essential parts of Religion and Divine Worship to be Adoration Praise and the invocation of God and that the discharging of these Duties is the end of Publick Assemblies I remark this particularly because in many places Devotion is placed only in the hearing of Sermons Churches are properly nothing else but Auditories People fancy that Sermons are the chief thing they meet for and that preaching is the principle Function to be exercised by Ministers in the Church The Prayers and the Psalms are looked upon only as Preliminaries or Circumstances to a Sermon This is a dangerous Notion because on the one hand it makes Christians neglect Divine Service and on the other it renders Religion contemptible when Sermons are not so edifying as they should be which happens but too often And therefore it would not perhaps be amiss if as it is practised in several Churches Divine Service was distinguished from Sermons by some circumstances of times or persons so that it might be one thing to celebrate Divine Service and another to hear Sermons Several Reflections might be offered here concerning the principal things relating to Publick Worship such as Forms of Prayers Liturgies the Manner of praising God and Sacred Hymns It would be a question worth the examining whether we ought in Christian Churches to use only Psalms and Canticles out of the Old Testament among which tho' some are most edifying and full of excellent expressions of Piety yet there are many which relate altogether to some particular passages of those times or if they speak of Christ it is only in a Prophetical style very obscure to the People One would think that Christian Hymns which should be sung to the honour of God and Jesus Christ chiefly to celebrate the Wonders of our Redemption might be extraordinary useful to nourish Piety and to stir up Devotion as well as more agreeable to that which the Apostles prescribe and which the Primitve Christians practised in their Assemblies Would it not likewise be necessary to agree about giving the Holy Sacrament to sick and dying Persons and to restore the more frequent use of the Eucharist acpording to the
for Morality it is there touched but very superficially And yet these are essential Articles in Divinity the Knowledge of which is necessary to those who are called to preach the Gospel to guide a Church or to direct Mens Consciences 3. Divinity-Books are for the most part too Scholastical The Method of the Schoolmens way of handling Divinity may justly be looked upon as a Defiance to Sense and Religion yet that Method has prevailed to that degree that for some Ages it was not lawful to swerve from it Of late Years indeed the School men have lost a great deal of heir Credit and in Divinity as well as in Philosophy many Persons have no longer that blind Deference for them which was paid heretofore Yet for all that a great Number of Divines do still set up that Method for their Rule and it is still as it were sacred in Colleges and Universities Common-Places to this Day savour too much of the Barbarism of the Schools and we find there but too many Remainders of that dry and crabbed Theology which had its Birth in the Ages of Ignorance Instead of those simple and clear Ideas which render the Truth and Majesty of the Christian Religion sensible and which satisfie a Man's Reason and move his Heart we meet with nothing in several Bodies of Divinity but Metaphisical Notions curious and needless Questions Distinctions and obscure Terms In a word we find there such intricate Theology that the very Apostles themselves if they came into the World again would not be able to understand it without the help of a particular Revelation This Scholastick Divinity has done more mischief to Religion than we are able to express There is not any thing that has more Corrupted the Purity of the Christian Religion that has more obscured Matters multiplied Controversies disturbed the Peace of the Church or given rise to so many Heresies and Schisms This is the thing which confirms so many Ecclesiasticks in their Ignorance and Prejudices and which keeps them from applying themselves to the solid Parts of Divinity and to that which is proper to sanctify Men. Now all these Defects are visible Causes of Corruption which may be proved by this single Consideration that it is in Common-Places that Church-men learn their Divinity Supposing then that those Books do not give them a true Idea of Religion what Religion or what Divinity can such Men Teach their People One scholastick and injudicious Author who is in Credit in Country and who is patronized by a Professor is enough to spoil the Minds of Young Divines and to bring into repute the most absurd and dangerous Opinions and Systems Tho' Catechisms are not usually reckoned among Divinity-Books yet it will not be useless to say something of them here Some great Men have bestowed their pains upon Works of this kind to very good purpose and yet in this respect there is stall something to be desired for publick Edification 1. It is to be wished that those Subject should only be treated in Catechisms which ought to be handle there and that all the Matters and Questions which are above the reach of the People and of Children or which are not necessary to Salvation should be banished from thence 2. That some essential Articles about which Catechisms are very jejune should be added to them and particularly these Three A general Idea of the History of the Bible the main Proofs of the Fundamental Truths of Religion and an exact Explication of the Duties of Morality This last Article is for the most part extreamly neglected in Catechisms nothing can be more dry and superficial than what they say upon the Decalogue 3. It would be fitting to make some alteration in the method observed in Catechisms for they are not all familiar enough School Terms or figurative Phrases are used in them which either the People do not understand or to which they affix false Ideas For instance I would not have it said That the Eucharist is the symbol of our spiritual Nourishment and of our Vnion with Jesus Christ For besides that this is not an exact Definition this Style is not proper for a Catechism These Words Symbol spiritual Nourishment Vnion with Jesus Christ are figurative and obscure Terms Would not the thing be plainer both to Children and to every Body if we should say That the Eucharist is a sacred Action and Cerremony wherein Christians eat Bread and drink Wine which are distributed in remembrance of the Death of Christ and of the Redemption wrought by him In those Works which are intended for Youth and for the Common People it concerns and Author to be clear and accurate to omit nothing that is essential to say nothing that is needless to use plain and proper Expressions and to propose nothing but what is natural and easy to be apprehended Catechisms are designed to give Children the first Tinctures and Ideas of Religion Now those Ideas we know commonly stick by them as long as they live if then they are not clear and true it is not possible for them ever to be well acquainted with their Religion III. The third sort of Books are those of Morality This important Part of Religion which regulates Manners has been treated with a great deal of solidity and force in several Excellent Works Nay it is observed that Morality is more cultivated of late than it has been heretofore But it were to be wished that the good Books of Morality we have at this Day were of a more general Usefulness than they are The best Works of this kind are above the Peoples Capacity There are various things in them relating either to the Reasoning part the turn of Thoughts or the Style which cannot be understood but by knowing and discerning Persons Almost all the Able Men who write upon Morals have this Fault that they speak too much like Ingenuous Men and do not accomodate themselves enough to the Capacity of the Readers They do not consider that they ought to be useful to every body that what seems clear to them is obscure to the greatest part of those who peruse their Writings and that a Book of Morality which is only understood by Men of Parts of Learning is of a very limited usefulness They should therefore at least in some of their Works endeavour to speak in a popular manner and to handle Matters with all possible clearness and simplicity This would be no disparagement to them and the doing it well would I think require all the Abilities Parts and Talents of the best Writers It is more difficult than is seems to speak or write in such a manner as that a Man shall say all that is proper to be said and at the same time be intelligible to all sorts of Persons But if there are good Books of Morality there are many on the other hand which have considerable Faults in them and those Faults are of great Consequence because Morality ill Explained is
A TREATISE Concerning the CAUSES OF THE Present Corruption OF CHRISTIANS And the Remedies thereof PART I. LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul s Church-yard 1700. To the Right Reverend GILBERT Lord Bishop of SARVM Chancellor of the Most Noble Order of the Garter My Lord THE Treatise I now Humbly offer to Your Lordship in English has met with a very great and general Applause in French A Second Edition of it was desired in less than two Months after the first and it is already Translated into more Languages than one But that which ought to weigh more than any other Commendation is the high value Your Lordship sets upon this Book for if the most Accomplished Writers are the best Judges of other Mens Works there lies no Appeal from Your Lordship's Judgment concerning the worth of this I have heard Your Lordship deliver Your Opinion of this Performance in a very particular manner and reckon it among the best Books that this Age has produced and that in all respects both for Piety and Learning good Sense and true Judgment Your Lorship thought fit that so valuable a Work should be put into English You were pleased My Lord to commit this Translation to my care and I could wish I had been as well qualified for that Office as I was desirous to discharge it to Your Lordship's Satisfaction But I am Conscious of my want of Abilities in this as well as in all other things and I fear the Work of the Reverend and Worthy Author who honours me with some share in his Friendship has lost several Beauties and Graces by passing through my Hands However My Lord I have rendred his Sense as faithfully as I could and that is all I would be accountable for to the Reader for if among that Variety of nice and Tender Subjects which are touched here the Author mixes any thing which does not suit with every Bodies Notions it is his Province and not mine to defend it He lives in one of the remotest Countries in which the Protestant Religion is received and in what he writes he had his own Neighbourhood chiefly in View so that his main design was to corect things within his reach to which the State of that Church which is now in eminent danger led him But I leave to your Lordship to judge whether that which he thought proper for his own Church may not be likewise of good use to others And now my Lord I do gladly embrace this opportunity to make a publick Acknowledgment of the extraordinary Obligations your Lordship has laid upon me A Post in the service of the Church is not the greatest Favour I have received at your Hands I reckon my self much more beholden to your Lordship for the benefit of your Example and Instructions which I have enjoyed several Years in your Family But here I must make a full stop and how much soever I am inclined to say a great deal upon the subject yet I know your Lordship too well to venture on it for whatever I may think I know I must say nothing The best return I can make for the large experience I have had of your Lordship's Kindness and Generosity is to put up my most hearty Prayers for the long Continuance of your Lordship's Life and Happiness and for the lasting Prosperity of your Family this I do my Lord as truly as I profess my self with all possible Respect Your Lordship 's most Humble most Dutiful and most Obliged Servant Charles Mutel THE Authors PREFACE WE have reason to wonder at the great Corruptions that at present are to be found among Christians The Religion they profess does chiefly tend to Sanctify Men and to Purge the World from Corruption and Vice and one would think it should produce that Effect since it affords such a clear Light such powerful Motives and such effectual Helps to Holiness Notwithstanding all this Whoever enquires into the Notions and Manners of Christians must have no great share of Sincerity or Judgment if he does not acknowledge that Religion has but littil influence upon their Minds and that there is an amazing Contradiction between their Lives and the Rules of Christianity This Corruption is so evident and so generally Confessed that I need not stand to prove it Taking it then for granted that Christians live in a great neglect of their Duties It is natural to enquire into the Causes of this Corruption and to consider what Remedies should be applied to it This is what I intend to do in this Treatise in hopes that such an Enquiry will not be altogether unuseful For First it may Contribute to Maintain the Honour and the Truth of the Christian Religion and to Confute Infidels and Libertines who are apt to despise it because it's Precepts are little practised If Religion say they be true and divine How comes it to pass that it has so little efficacy and that there appears so much Disorder and Licentiousness among the Professors of it To undeceive such Men and to infuse into them a greater respect for Religion it is of very great Importance to discover the Causes of the Decay of Piety and to shew that if Men are Corrupted it is not because Christ's Religion is insufficient to introduce Vertue and Order into the World But that this Evil flows from some other Cause and that if Christians did what they might and ought to do true Piety would not be so uncommon as it is amongst them A Second Advantage which may be reaped from this Enquiry is this it will appear by it that how great soever the Corruption may be It is not however as many imagine past remedy Which imagination is a most dangerous Prejudice while Men look on it as impossible to stem the Tide of Corruption and to re-establish Order and Purity of Manners in the World they do not so much as attempt it they let things go on at the same rate and so the Disorder increases and spreads farther It cannot be denied but that we Corruption is great general and inveterate but God forbid we should look upon it as an incurable Disease The Fountains of it may easily be discovered and it is not impossible to stop them I hope this will be acknowledged by those who shall attentively and without prepossession consider what is proposed in this Work Thirdly There is no means more likely to remove this Corruption than to cut off the Occasions of it That is the surest as well as the most compendious Method One of the main Reasons why so many excellent Books designed to inspire Men with a love of Religion and Piety have not all the effect that might be expected from them is that the Authors do not sufficiently observe the general Causes of the Depravation of Manners It is to little purpose to deplore the Corruption of the Age to exhort Men and to give them fine Lessons of Morality The Work of Reformation cannot
fall very short of that Knowledge they ought to have and it must be confessed that for the most part they live in shameful and deplorable Ignorance This is the Reason why Piety is so much wanting among them and why they are so Depraved and Vicious which is the Thing I will endeavour to make appear In order to this As the Christian Religion may be reduced to these Two Heads First The Knowledge of the Truth Secondly The Practice of Holiness It is fit to Enquire whether with respect to these Christians are furnished with necessary Information I shall make it appear that they are very little Instructed I. In that which concerns the Truths of Religion And II. In what relates to Manners and to the Duties of Christianity The Reflections I shall bestow upon both these Heads will I hope clearly prove That among those vast multitudes of Men who profess themselves Christians there are very few who are well acquainted with their Religion From whence it will be Natural to Conclude That they must needs be very Corrupt I. To begin with the Knowledge of the Truths of Christianity we must distinguish Two sorts of Truths in Religion The General and the Particular Truths The General Truths are those upon which the whole of Religion is founded such as these That there is a God That the Bible is a Divine Book And that the Christian Religion is True By Particular Truths I mean the various Doctrines which Religion contains and which are the Parts of it but which at the same time depend upon the General Truths as upon their Principle The Doctrine of the Sacraments of Justification and many others are of this Number Now let us consider the Ignorance of Christians in reference to these Two sorts of Truths 1. Every Man who makes use of his Reason may easily apprehend That the General Truths are the most important that they are those of which one ought chiefly to be persuaded and that without these General Truths the Particular ones would be useless nay would not be so much as Truths To Enquire Whether there be any Sacraments or how a Man can be Justified one must believe first That there is a God and a Religion For if I am not convinc'd of the Existence of God and of the Truth of Religion it would signifie little to me whether or not there were any Sacraments and all the time I should employ in the prosecution of this Enquiry would be lost This first Reflection does already discover to us an Essential and Capital Defect A great many Christians want Instruction concerning the Principles and Foundations of Christianity they do not sufficiently consider the Certainty and Importance of it Their Knowledge of Religion does seldom go further than the Particular Truths of it and does not reach the General This is so common a Fault that it may be observed even in those whole Profession it is to Study Religion and to Teach it to others Some have spent the best part of their Lives in the Study of Divinity or in Expounding the Scripture who never seriously examined the Arguments for the Truth of Christianity or the Divinity of the Scripture Some are Masters of the principal Controversies which divide Christians who would stand mute if they were called back to the first Elements of Religion and if they were to maintain against an Infidel that there is a Religion or that the Christian Religion is true The People enter yet less than the Divines into the Examination of the general Truths and there are very few who either attend to them or indeed believe them as they ought And yet the Whole of Religion depends upon a firm Persuasion concerning the Principles of Faith it is that which renders the particular Truths effectual to Salvation and which begets Piety and the Love of Virtue When a Man is persuaded that Religion proposes nothing but what is certain he immediately receives with Reverence whatsoever it teaches he feels an Inclination in himself to observe its Precepts and he believes a Judgment and another Life as if he saw them before his Eyes Such is the Efficacy of a true Faith and of a steady Persuasion about fundamental Truths But without this Persuasion it is very hard not to say impossible to adhere sincerely to Religion and to perform the Duties of it And this is the constant Source of the Corruption of Christians It may perhaps be objected that all Christians receive the general Truths of their Creeds and that these are not questioned but by Pagans and Atheists Upon which I shall make two Reflections 1. It is but too true that in the Point of Religion there is at this Day a great Number of Persons who entertain very loose Opinions and that do at least border upon Atheism These pernicious Tenets are spread wider than some People think Not only the Libertines are infected with them but even the Common People All the profane Men and Deists are not to be found at Courts in Armies or among the Learned there are some in Towns among the Vulgar and even among Country Clowns If we examine a little the Discourses and Apprehensions of Men especially of those whose Life is irregular if we do but begin to reason with them and press them we may soon perceive the Principles of Incredulity and Atheism in many of them It will be found that they are not thoroughly persuaded that there is a God and another Life or that if they do not proceed to that degree of Impiety which attacks directly the very Foundations of Religion they harbour at least this Fancy that God doth not narrowly observe Mens Deportment that he will not be so severe as to damn them for some Sins they have committed and that there is not such great Harm in gratifying ones Passions and living at the usual rate of the World These and the like Sentiments are general enough and yet they lead the straight way to Deism and tend plainly to the Subversion of Religion It would be therefore highly necessary in order to root out such dangerous Errours carefully to establish these great Truths that there is a God that this God speaks to us in his Word and that whatever the Gospel tells us of another Life is most certain This I say would be altogether needful if it were but for the Instruction of those I have now mentioned and their Number is greater than is commonly imagined 2ly We may take notice that tho' Christians profess to believe the Truths of their Religion yet that Belief is not lively and strong enough in them all It is beyond all question that most Christians are so only because they were engaged by their Birth in the Profession of Christianity but that after all they know very little of the Truth and Divinity of it They would in like manner have been Jews or Pagans if they had been born in Judaism or Paganism so that properly speaking they cannot be said to
have Faith for Faith is a Persuasion to believe is to be persuaded and it is impossible to believe a thing right without Reason or Examination That which is called Faith is commonly nothing else but a confused and general Opinion which makes but very slight Impressions upon the Heart and Mind but true Faith is a greater Rarity among Christians than we are aware of Now as Faith is the only Principle of Piety so a bad Life does chiefly spring from Want of Faith and from Incredulity And there are two sorts of Infidels some deny and reject Divine Truths others do not quite deny them but they doubt and believe but weakly The Infidels who deny the Fundamentals of Religion are not many but the Number of those who doubt and are not well persuaded is very great This discovers to us the Reason why Men who are acquainted with the Divine Truths and profess to believe them do yet act quite contrary to the Dictates of Faith and Religion There seems to be in their Proceeding a manifest Contradiction It is a thing wondered at that People who believe a God and a Religion should live as if there was neither God nor Religion upon this we are apt to say that Sinners are not consistent with themselves and as if it were impossible to reconcile their Practice with their Belief we cry out that the depth of Man's Heart is unsearchable But there is no such wonder in the Case and the proceeding of bad Christians is not always so contradictory as it seems to be I confess that Men Sin sometimes against the Convictions of their own Consciences and that some who want not Knowledge do yet Live very Ill. This may proceed from Inconsideration from the violence of their Passions from too great a regard to their Temporal Interest from the flattering hope of Pardon or some such Principle But for the most part Men act consonantly and suitably to their Belief and it is but seldom that in the Conduct of their Lives they behave themselves contrary to the Sentiments and Principles that possess them We suppose that bad Christians believe the Truths of Religion and in that we are mistaken Many of them want Faith and are not fully convinced of those Truths Is it to be imagined that so many Persons who live in Sin who make Conscience of nothing and who violate every minute the Rules of their Duty should be thoroughly persuaded that there is a God who sees them and to whom they are to give an Account From all this I Conclude That the Ignorance of the General Truths of Religion is one of the principal sources of Corruption Some will say That these Truths need not be proved and that they are of the number of those first Principles which are taken for granted because they are imprinted on the Hearts of all Men. But this Objection is easily answered by what has been said just now I own that the Ideas and Principles of Religion carry in them a Natural Evidence inasmuch as they are demonstrable from Reason and Conscience and because there are Principles in Men by the help of which they may arrive at the Knowledge of the Truths of Religion But these Principles and Ideas have been in some measure stifled in many either thro' ill Education or worldly Business or Vice or some other Cause so that they feel the force and evidence of them but imperfectly and some have no sense at all of them Upon this Account it is necessary to excite and enlighten those Ideas to explain and establish those Principles I acknowledge further That some parts of those Proofs upon which Religion is built lie open to all Mens Eyes but yet the Ignorant and those who are taken up with other Objects do not observe them They should therefore be made to attend to them just as we make stupid and heedless People take notice of the Beauty of a Palace or the Skill of an Artist in some curious Workmanship which would otherwise pass unobserved by them However the Opinion of those who pretend that the General Truths ought not to be proved is contrary to the Holy Scripture which teaches us to Reason upon the Principles of Religion and to search into the Proofs of them where in order to Convince Men that there is an Almighty and Infinitely Good God it proposes to them the Beauties and Wonders which shine in his Works and exhorts them to the Consideration of them This may be seen in the Book of Job In the XIX and CIV Psal Rom. 1.19 20. and in many other Places 3ly It may further be said That the Proof of General Truths is too difficult for the Common People and that the Learned only are capable of such a Discussion I grant that all sorts of Persons are not able to comprehend all that has been Writ upon these Matters And therefore I do not pretend that it is impossible to have a true Faith without entring into the Detail of all these Proofs and without following with the utmost strictness all the deep and abstracted Reasonings which have been used to prove the Existence of God or the Truth of the Christian Religion I think rather those Matters ought to be treated with great Discretion especially in Sermons It would be a great piece of Imprudence to muster up in a Publick Discourse all the Objections of Atheists or the Subtilties of Libertines these ought to be referred to Private Conferences Those who speak to the People must take heed lest by Disputing and Speculating too much they render the Fundamental Truths Problematical and raise Scruples in Mens minds They ought to build upon this Principle That Men are carried by a Common and Natural Inclination to believe the Existence of God to acknowledge a difference betwixt Good and Evil and to own Providence and the other Truths of Religion but for all that it may be very useful and necessary to confirm those Truths to set them in the clearest Light and to Convince the People of them As to what is said That the Proofs of the Principles of Religion are not suitable to the Peoples Capacity I answer That most of those Proofs are such that there is no need of being either Learned or a Divine to be affected with them We ought to suppose here that the more important any Truth is the clearer and the easier the Proofs of it are I do not speak of all Truths there are some that are most certain whose Proofs are difficult and above the reach of common Understandings such are many Metaphysical Truths and Mathematical Demonstrations but at the same time the knowledge of those Truths is not necessary and a Man without danger may be ignorant of them I speak now only of those Truths which it concerns every Person to know and which are of general usefulness and necessity These are always clear and easily proved And this by the by ought on the one hand to make us admire the Wisdom and
Goodness of God who has so well provided for the Necessities of Men and on the other hand to set Bounds to our Curiosity and to fortify our Faith against those Doubts which might start up in our Minds by reason of so many things which we are ignorant of As therefore of all Truths none are of greater Consequence or of a more intire certainty than those which Religion depends upon so the Proof of those Truths ought to be simple evident and suited to all Mens capacity Thus when in order to prove the Being of a God we alledge for instance the State and Order in which the World subsists when we shew that the World cannot be eternal and that things had a beginning when we establish the Inspiration of Scripture by the Prophecies it contains which were undoubtedly written before their accomplishment When we prove the Truth of the Christian Religion by the Truth of Matters of Fact and History and demonstrate that if the Facts upon which Religion is founded are not certain there is no such thing as certainty in the World in respect of things that are past and that if the Testimony of the Apostles is rejected there are no Witnesses or Historians who may not be rejected upon better grounds When we confirm the Sacred History by the concurring testimony of Pagan Writers and by the most Ancient and the most unquestionable Monuments which past Ages can afford When we reflect upon the manner in which the Christian Religion was planted in the World and upon the alteration it has made in it When we insist upon the Characters of Truth Sincerity and Divinity which are observable in the Scripture In short when we take Religion to pieces and make Men see and feel that its Doctrines its Precepts its Promises and its Threatnings have nothing in them that is absurd or bad or contrary to our natural apprehensions nothing but what perfectly agrees with sound Reason and the Sentiments of our own Consciences and nothing but what is advantagious to particular Persons and to Societies When I say we urge these Proofs and others like them and have the Art of proposing them in a clear and judicious Method it is certain that they contain nothing that is very difficult These are the clearest and the strongest Proofs that can be used in a Subject of this Nature and the Arguments which are made use of to establish these Proofs are for the most part so natural and so conform to the Ideas of our Minds and to the Principles of Common Sense that there are few even of the Vulgar who may not apprehend them if not perfectly and in their whole extent which is reserved to Men of a larger Capacity yet so far at least as sufficiently to be sensible of their Force If then Difficulties and Obscurities are to be met with in the Discussion of the Principles of Religion it is because this Matter is neglected and the People are little Informed But if the same Care had been taken to Instruct Christians in the Fundamental Truths of Religion which was bestowed upon Explaining and Clearing Particular ones they would have another kind of persuasion than they have of the Truth of their Religion These great and sublime Truths have without comparison more suitableness and affinity with the Nature of Men and the Sentiments of their Hearts than many obscure difficult and less necessary things which yet have been effectually taught them 4ly But against this Experience may possibly be Objected It may be said that there are Christians who most certainly have Piety and yet did never meditate much upon the Foundations of Christianity I. Answer That it is not conceivable how a Man should be a pious Christian without being persuaded of the Truth of his Religion For at this rate Piety would be but mere Conceit and Enthusiasm and we must say notwithstanding all that Scripture and Reason tell us to the contrary that Men are Christians without Knowledge or Reason It cannot be otherwise but that good Men must have been convinced of the Truths of the Gospel and have had a lively sense that these are the most certain and the most important of all Truths If we enquire what Principle it is which produces Piety in the Hearts of the most simple People we shall find it is an unmovable Persuasion that there is a God a Judgment a Heaven and a Hell which Persuasion is necessarily founded upon some of the Proofs I have hinted at I grant which no doubt will be Objected to me that in many this Persuasion is not clear enough and that it is not the result of a particular examination but this does not lessen the force of my Argument For though the Persuasion of Good Men should not be so clear and so well grounded as it might be yet it does not follow but that it is sincere a Man may be convinced of a Truth tho' he does not discover all the certainty and all the Proofs of it and tho' he is not able to answer all the Objections against it So that still it is true that there is no Religion without the belief of the General Truths of it After all we must acknowledge that there are Good Men who are not so well instructed upon this Head as it were to be wished And this defect of Instruction this imperfection of their Faith is one of the main Causes of the defects and imperfections of their Piety Thus we may frequently observe in their Conduct such Weaknesses and Opinions as do not agree with the pure Light of Faith and with the exactness of the Rules of the Gospel This is part of the Unhappiness we lament and of that Corruption of which we seek the Causes But no Man will dispute but that if the same Persons had more instruction they would carry Virtue much farther than they do The degree of Piety does ordinarily follow the degree of Faith Where there is no Faith there is no Piety and where Faith is weak and faint Piety is â—anguid and defective This is the geneâ—al State and Character of Christians at this time either downright Impiety or 〈◊〉 Piety that is both feeble and imperfect 5ly In the last place some will perhaps Object here that Incredulity is the effect â—ather than the Cause of Corruption and that Atheism does not produce Corâ—uption but Corruption Atheism To this 〈◊〉 say that these two things do mutually uphold and support each other Many fall into Infidelity because their Hearts are vitiated their licentious way of living takes them off from enquiring into Religion and hinders their believing of Divine Truths But it is not less certain â—hat one of the great Causes of the Disâ—rders of Christians is that either they do â—ot believe at all or that they believe weakly and confusedly and this cannot â—e reasonably contested II. Here is then the first and the prinâ—ipal Defect That Men are not sufficiently â—â—structed in the general Truths and Prinâ—iples of
Christianity I said that the Parâ—icular Truths and the Parts of Religion were better known which does not imply but that in this respect too Ignoranâ—â— is very great and general 1. I shall not scruple to say that theâ— are prodigious Numbers of People whâ—â—â— scarce have any Knowledge at all of thâ—â— Doctrines of Religion If all Christianâ— were obliged to render an account of theiâ— Faith if they were examined upon thâ— Articles of their Belief or the main Factâ— related in Sacred History there would appear in most of them such an astonishinâ— Ignorance or such confused and intricaâ—â— Ideas that one would hardly think theâ— more knowing than if they lived in thâ—â— darkness of Heathenism And what Religion what Piety can we look for amonâ— such Men But besides this gross and palpable Ignorance there are several defects of Instruction to be observed even in thosâ— who have or fancy that they have moâ—â— Knowledge than others I shall particularly take notice of these two 1st Those who exceed the ordinary degree of Knowledge have yet often buâ— a false kind of Light Either they do not know those Truths which they shoulâ— know or else they know them not aright They apply themselves to things which are not essential to Christianity or which â—â—e less considerable than others which â—â—ey do not study Thus in all Christian â—ocieties Instruction is commonly placed in â—â—e Knowledge of the Doctrines and Opiâ—â—ions particular to every one 's own Sect â—nd Party Whoever is able to debate â—ose Points and is skilled in Controverâ—e is said to understand his Religion â—hese Matters may perhaps have their â—â—se but there are other things which â—en are more concerned to know because â—hey are more conducing to Piety and â—et they are almost constantly neglected The occasion of this Error is that the various importance of the Truths of Reâ—igion is not duly weighed and that Religion is not studied in an orderly method Very few Persons distinguish between the more and the less necessary Things between the most useful Subjects and those which are of little Edification Most Men study Religion without Rule and to no purpose and so run out upon many unprotable Subjects That which is called Learning in Divinity or Knowledge of Religion is frequently nothing else but a heap of Notions which have no influence upon Piety or respect to Mens Salvation It is but a confused Medley wherein the least necessary Things are blended without choice and distinction with the most important I do not speak here of the perplext and unaccurate Ideas which Men often have about these Matters I pass by the false Reasonings which are sometimes used to establish the Truths of Christianity as well as those Mists which the School-Divinity has cast upon the Gospel I do only observe That the Knowledge which most Men have of Religion is not very fit to make them sensible of the Beauties of it so that when all is done it is no wonder that it should seem to many an obscure crabbed unpleasant and intricate Science and that it should have so little Effect upon Mens Minds 2dly The other Fault is that Men content themselves with bare Instruction or with the simple Knowledge of the Christian Truths while they are ignorant of their use If they do but know in an Historical manner what is believed by Christians and are able to reason about it and to discern Truth from Error they think themselves sufficiently instructed But these Instructions do not reach the Heart Among that small number of Persons who have some Knowledge there are but few who consider that this Knowledge is to be directed to a Holy Life as to its proper end and intendment and they are fewer yet who actually direct it to that end and make it subservient to the reforming of their Lives And so it comes to pass that a great many of those who are best acquainted with the Truths of Religion have yet but an imperfect and barren Knowledge of it and that with all their Attainments they live still in the darkness of Corruption and Vice II. Hitherto we have considered Ignorance with relation to the Truths and Doctrines which the Christian Faith embraces Let us now view this Ignorance with respect to the Duties which Christianity prescribes Upon this second Head we shall discover yet a greater Ignorance than upon the first For after all something may be done when we are only to infuse into Men some Knowledge of Truths and Doctrines It is usual enough to see very ill Men who in this regard are not destitute of Light But it is much harder to instruct them in the Duties of Holiness We may apply here these Words of our Saviour's * John III. 19 20. Men love Darkness rather than Light because their Deeds are evil for every one that doth evil hateth the Light neither cometh to the Light lest his Deeds should be reproved The Maxims of the Gospel and the Rules of its Morality condemn Sinners and therefore they do not care to be informed about them Those who love the World and their Sins are glad if they can enjoy the Sweets of these without Disturbance and Interruption And therefore they will not enquire much into the Moral Precepts of Jesus Christ they are loth to come at such a Knowledge as would disclose to them the Turpitude of Vice and breed Disquiet and Remorse in them Ignorance begets Security The more ignorant a Man is the fewer Stings he feels in his Conscience and the more Pleasure he takes in his Sin The very shadow of Evil frights a well-instructed Christian but Crime it self does not daunt one who is ignorant He does not hear within himself those Alarms or Reproaches which are either the Preservatives against Sin or the Remedies of it From this it may be judged already that Men are generally very little instructed in what concerns Manners But that we may â—he better understand how great the Ignoraâ—ce is in this Matter it must be observed that whoever will perform the Duties of Religion must be persuaded of their Necessâ—ty and acquainted with their Nature One cannot imagine how they can be practisâ—d by a Man who either does not know them or does not think them necessary This is the plain Reason why Men do so little addict themselves to Piety they know neither its Necessity nor its Nature 1. As the Foundation of Faith is the Belief of the Truth and certainty of those Facts and Doctrines which Religion proposes so the Ground-work of Piety is to be persuaded of the Necessity of the Duties which Christianity requires Without this Persuasion it is impossible for Men to resign up themselves to the Practice of Virtue Now one would think that all Christians should be fully convinced of this Necessity For if there is any certain Truth in Christianity it is this That the Practice of good Works is Necessary Good Works do so immediately belong to the Design and the
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
we may also reckon Luxury Sloth a Soft and Voluptuous Life Many indirect Practices to grow Rich which are established and authorized by Custom Drunkenness which in some Countries is not esteemed a Vice and all those Sins which are only committed by our Thoughts Christians now a-days think themselves innocent so they do not do things manifestly Criminal They conceive that Murther is a Crime but they do not think themselves guilty for passing a rash judgment upon their Neighbours or taking up unjust suspicions of them They believe Uncleanness to be a Sin tho' even some are very indulgent to themselves upon this Head but impure Thoughts or Sensuality go for nothing with them Thus there are many Sins which Men are not instructed about and what wonder is it then if they commit them without scruple and if there is so much Corruption in their Manners 3. There are some general Maxims in Morality without the Knowledge of which it is impossible to have a solid Piety and yet these are almost universally unknown especially these Two which describe to us the Characters of true Holiness The first is That a Habit of Sin is an infallible token of a Corrupt Man and that any one habitual Sin which a Man does not forsake especially when he is warned of it is enough to shut him out of Heaven This Maxim is understood but by very few People Most Men are ingaged in vitious Habits such as Praying without Attention Swearing falling into a Passion or the like These Habits grow stronger with Age Men live and die in them and yet they think they die in a State of Salvation The other Maxim which is neither less important nor better known is that there is a vast difference between Sin and Sin and between Sinners and Sinners that the Frailties of Good Men are one thing and the great and wilful Sins of bad Men another thing If Men do not apprehend this difference they will confound Virtue with Vice and good Men with impious Wretches and yet this is little observed It is commonly believed that all Men being Sinners they are all upon the matter in the same condition and do sin all alike so that there is no great odds between them Such Notions must needs make way for Libertinism 4ly If Christians have some Knowledge concerning the Duties of Morality yet that Knowledge is too general and superficial They know perhaps in the main that some Sins are to be avoided and some Virtues to be practised but that they only know confusedly they content themselves with some general Ideas which for the most part prove useless and insignificant The design of Morality is to regulate Mens Actions in all the Circumstances they may be in and to teach them how they ought to behave themselves in all the different Cases and Emergencies of Life Now as these Cases and Circumstances are infinitely various it is necessary that Men should know their Duty with some exactness and that they should have Rules at hand applicable to all particular Cases by the help of which they may discern what is lawful from what is not For here superficial Knowledge and general Ideas will not serve the turn because they do not determine particular Cases The Principles of Morality are clear but it is requisite to make a just application of them and to draw right Consequences from them Every body acknowledges that Wrong is not to be done to any Man but few know what the doing of wrong is There are innumerable ways of violating Justice in relation to our Neighbours or of getting Money which are sinful and yet these are made use of every day and People think there is no harm in them and so they are guilty of Cheating Extortion and Injustice and they do not know it Whence does this proceed but from Ignorance or from those general and superficial Notions which I have mentioned This is one of the Reasons why some Books and Discourses of Piety produce so little effect they handle things only in the lump they treat of Virtues and Vices of Temperance of Covetousness and Injustice they exhort and threaten but they usually go no further than Generalities and they seldom descend to those Particulars which are so necessary to inform and direct the Conscience 5ly Men are no less Ignorant concerning the Degrees than they are concerning the Parts of Holiness Christians are not only obliged to the Practice of many Virtues but they ought besides that to practise them in the most perfect manner Our Saviour does not require in his Disciples a mean and ordinary degree of Holiness but he calls them to Perfection He demands that they should â—arry Virtue much farther than either the Heathens or the Jews did that they should practise Charity even to the loving of â—heir Enemies that they should be so paâ—ient as to think it their happiness to sufâ—er so humble as chearfully to bear Conâ—empt and Injustice so pure as to banish â—ll uncleanness from their very Thoughts â—nd so of all the other Virtues But an â—nfinite Number of Christians are Strangers â—o these Ideas of Perfection They never â—new the extent of the Duties of Christiaâ—ity they have neither tenderness of Concience nor elevated Sentiments about Morality They think they do much if â—hey observe that which is most simple â—nd easie in every Virtue they confine â—hemselves to that and aim at no other â—erfection so that sublime Virtue and â—iety are not to be sought for amongst them 6ly Lastly Men's Ignorance does not â—nly appear in that they do not know their â—uty but it does likewise discover it self 〈◊〉 this that they do not know themselves The Knowledge of ones self is a Capital â—oint in Religion For it is not enough 〈◊〉 be informed of ones Duty every one â—ust know besides whether he observes it â—â—r not whether he really has Religion â—nd Piety for upon this depends the â—udgment he is to make of himself and of his own Condition Now People are as much in the Dark about this Article as about the others I have mentioned The greatest part of Men live without reflecting upon themselves and in a prodigious unconcernedness about their Spiritual State They do not trouble themselves to inquire whether they are of the number of Good or Bad Men whether they are in a Stated of Grace or of Damnation or not Or if at any time they take this into Consideration they most commonly flatter themselves by pronouncing too favourable a Judgment upon their own Condition There are many who boldly rank themselves among Good Men and yet are not able to give a solid reason of that Opinion they have conceived of their own Probity and Virtue Nay they are perhaps actually engaged in Vice and Impiety If they are but free from noisy and scandalous Sins if they feel now and then some good Motions if they have some good Qualities or an inclination to some Virtues or an abhorrence of some Vices that
is enough to fill them with a good opinion of themselves Now when Men are thus blinded by Self-love and do not know themselves there is but little hope of them and they will undoubtedly fall into a state of Security These Considerations plainly shew if I â—m not mistaken that Men for the most â—art live in very great Ignorance But I â—hink my self bound to answer an Objectiâ—n which may be offer'd against what has â—een said Some will think no doubt â—â—at it is very difficult for Men to be so â—ell instructed as I suppose they ought to â—e and that the People are not capable â—f such an exact Kowledge of Moraliâ—y To satisfie those who make this Objeâ—tion and to clear this Matter fully I obâ—erve first that by all I have said I do â—â—y no means pretend that all Christians â—â—an or ought to be equally instructed I â—now that there are degrees of Knowledge â—nd that in Morality as well as in Doâ—trines Divines and Men of Parts go a â—reat way beyond the bulk of Mankind It 〈◊〉 sufficient for every one to be instructed â—ccording to his Capacity and his Condition â—ut after all it must be granted that the â—nowledge of the Principles of Morality â—s necssary to every Body or else we must â—â—rike several Precepts out of the Gospel â—nless we imagine that those Precepts are â—ntended only for a small number of Learnâ—d and Subtil Men which is directly opâ—osite to our Saviour's Words who said that his Doctrine is designed for all Mankind for the little ones and the simple rather than for * Mat. XI 25 1 Cor. X. John VI. 45. 1 Thess V. 20. Phil. IV. 8. 2 Pet. II. 5 6 7 8. the Wise and Prudent There is no Christian but ought to be a spiritual man and taught of God When St. Paul says prove all things hold fast that which is good Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise think on these things When St. Peter exhorts Christians to add to their faith all Christian Virtues to grow and abound in all these Virtues such Exhortations do belong equally to all the Professors of Christianity It must not be said that there are Men in the World of very dull and shallow Capacities and that Countrey People and Mechanicks cannot comprehend all these Maxims of Morality This is not so difficult as it is imagined The Duties of Morality are clear they presently affect a Man because they are consonant to the common notices and sentiments of Conscience Chuse what part of Morality you please and you may with due endeavours make either a Handy-crafts-man or a Day-labourer apprehend it so you confine your self to the Knowledge and Practice of those Duties which are necessary to such People in their several Callings Is there any thing more subtil or difficult in the Rules of Morality than there is in a hundred dexterities and shifts which are practised in the Affairs of this Life and which common People can attain to without any great pains If therefore Mens Understandings are so gross and stupid in moral Matters is not because these Matters are above their reach but because they were never taught them â—or never applied themselves to them We ought not to judge of what Men might be by what they are The best Ground becomes barren when it is not cultivated If things were well ordered among Christians in relation especially to the instruction of the People and the Education of Children the generality of them would not be so stupid and ignorant as they are We may therefore conclude that Ignorance is one of the general Causes of Corruption Christians being ill informed of the Truths and Duties of their Religion and wanting instruction both as to Faith and Manners they must needs live in a great neglect of Religious Matters It may be asked whence does this Ignorance proceed I shall observe three principal Causes of it The first is Education the way in which Children are bred up does infallibly lead to Ignorance The second is the want of Means to get good Instruction and particularly the defect of those Instructions which are delivered to Christians in Sermons Catechisms and Books The third is the Sloth and Carelesness of Men who will be at no pains to acquire necessary Knowledge We might bestow very weighty Considerations upon every one of these three Heads but since they will again come in our way in the sequel of this Treatise it is enough to have pointed at them in this place as the three main Sources of Ignorance In truth if Men are ill Educated if they are destitute of the necessary Means of Instruction and take no care about it whence should they have sufficient Knowledge unless they were instructed by Miracles by Revelations and Inspirations they cannot but be Ignorant and Corrupt But now if Ignorance be the first Cause of Corruption it is plain that the first remedy to be used against Corruption is the removing that Ignorance It is that we are to begin at if we would bring back Christians to a Life worthy of the Religion they profess Exhortations Censures and all other such Methods will signifie nothing as long as Mens Minds are not prepared by proper Instructions From all that has been said in this Chapter it may be gathered that the right way to instruct Men is before all things to convince them of the Truth of Religion and to make them sensible that there is nothing more certain or of greater Consequence in the World than the Principles of Christianity The Belief of the General Truths ought especially to be well fixed in their Minds as that there is a God a Providence a Judgment and another Life After this we must proceed to the particular Truths of the Gospel and as we go on in explaining them we ought to shew what influence those Truths have upon Holiness and Salvation But the most important thing of all when these Truths are settled is to shew that the bare Knowledge of the Christian Doctrines is not able to make Men happy that the scope of Religion is to make Men truly good and that without Piety and good Works there is no Salvation It will not be sufficient to recommend Sanctification in general but the Nature of it must besides be distinctly explained it must be shewed which are the general and particular Obligations of a Christian life and what Sins are contrary to these And here those whose business it is to instruct the People ought to be as particular as possibly they can shewing upon each Virtue and Vice what the Nature of it is and what are the several Characters Kinds and Degrees of it and proposing likewise the Motives which should discourage Men from those Vices and prompt them to the practice of the opposite Virtues as also the
Directions which may facilitate the performance of all these Duties When Teachers shall go thus to work they will soon perceive some Amendment God's Blessing will accompany the use of those Means which he has appointed Christians being rightly informed will of their own accord apply themselves Virtue to Corruption will lessen by degrees and Christianity recovering its ancient Lustre will begin to appear with another Face than it does at this day CAUSE II. Prejudices and False Notions concerning Religion HOW Ignorant and Corrupt soever Men may be they cannot live absolutely without Religion very few at least can go so far If they are hindered by their Corruption to know and practise pure Christianity yet a remnant of Light and Conscience within them does not suffer them to run themselves wholly into Irreligion and to lay aside all thoughts of Salvation But to reconcile these two Principles of which one draws them off from Religion and the other leads them to it they form to themselves such Ideas of Religion as are agreeable to their Inclinations and flatter their Security and being possessed with those Ideas they confirm themselves more and more in their Corruption These false Notions and Prejudices are worse than Ignorance and prove a greater Obstacle to the reviving of Virtue and Piety It is better to deal with Men who are simply Ignorant than with People who have wrong Apprehensions and are full of Prejudices The former being not prepossessed may more easily be reclaimed but it is much harder to prevail upon preingaged Persons especially in point of Religion because while they maintain their Errors they fancy they defend the Truth and that they promote the Glory of God False Notions and Prejudices in Religion are therefore one of those Causes of Corruption which it concerns us most to take notice of I shall endeavour to point at the chief of them in this Chapter The first I shall name is the Opinion of those who think that Religion is intended only to comfort Men and to render them happy And it is no wonder that Men should commonly resolve all Religion into this The desire of Happiness is natural to Men and as they are sensible upon serious Consideration that perfect Happiness is not to be obtained in this World if it were for no other reason but that they must die they seek in Religion some Consolation and Remedy against that fatal necessity of quitting all the Pleasures and Advantages of this present Life Indeed the sense of their Corruption should restrain them from flattering themselves with the hopes of Salvation but they rely upon the assurances of the Divine Mercy which Religion gives to Men and they persuade themselves that their Sins will not obstruct their Felicity This is properly the Notion which Men entertain of Religion and that which they think it is good for But that Religion should indispensably oblige Men to fear God and to live well and that without this there is neither true Religion nor Happiness is that which is not commonly believed There is no question but that the Design of Religion is to comfort Men and to lead them to Happiness This was God's purpose in sending his Son to redeem the World But this is not the only end of Religion it is intended besides for the Glory of God and the Sanctification of Men and it does properly consist in the Service and Obedience which are paid to God Salvation is a consequence of this Service and a gratuitous Reward which God is pleased to bestow upon those who honour and fear him Nothing therefore is more absurd than the conceit of those who look only upon that side of Religion which promises Comfort and Salvation and nothing is more dangerous or more apt to make Men remiss and careless in their Duty yet this imagination is very common and if I was to define Religion by the ordinary apprehensions which Men have of it I would say that it is nothing else but a mean to bring Sinners to Heaven and to make Men eternally happy whatsoever their course and manner of Life may be But Men would not so easily promise themselves Salvation if they had not very mean and imperfect Ideas of Religion I shall therefore observe Secondly That Men commonly place Christianity either in bare Knowledge or in an external Profession or in Confidence But Holiness does not make a part of their Notion of Religion or at best it makes but a very inconsiderable part of it It is not to be denied but that Knowledge is essential to Religion and that as it holds the first rank in it so it is the Foundation of it all Nay it is impossible to engage Men to Holiness without laying first in them the Foundation of good and sound Doctrine This I have proved in the first Chapter of this Treatise An outward and publick Profession is likewise essential to Religion for one cannot be a Christian without it And further It is beyond all doubt that Religion inspires Confidence Peace and Joy The Knowledge of Christ and of the Salvation he has procured for us must naturally produce these effects Knowledge Profession and Confidence are therefore included in the Idea of Religion but as necessary as they are yet they are not sufficient Knowledge is not the whole of Religion since the Gospel as well as Experience teaches us that it may be found in the worst of Men it is not therefore a saving knowledge but when it produces Piety and Charity The Definition which St. Paul gives of the Christian Religion is that it is a knowledge of the truth according to godliness We may read what the same Apostle tells us concerning that Knowledge which is void of Charity 1 Cor. XIII As for an outward Profession it is altogether useless without Sanctity A Hypocrite may live in the Church and perform even with Applause the external Duties of Piety This we may likewise learn from Scripture and daily Experience Lastly All Confidence which is not supported by Piety is vain and deceitful The bare persuasion that one shall be saved gives no Man a Right to Salvation A very wicked Person may without any ground rely upon God's Mercy and this is what Divines call Presumption and Security * Tit. I. 1. But tho' all this is very plain both from Scripture and good Sense yet Men entertain Opinions contrary to it A great many think themselves Christians because they know the Truths and Doctrines of Christianity I do not enquire here whether all those who think they know Religion do really know it But howsoever this Knowledge true or false makes many judge most favourably of themselves it does so puff them up that they look on themselves as the Stays and Supporters of Religion Others of whom there is an infinite number imagine that so they profess the true Religion they need not fear any thing concerning their Salvation especially if this outward Profession is attended with some apparent
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
pass that not being contented with the practice of Vice they do besides plead Authority for an ill Life They proceed so far as to defend the Cause of Corruption they dispute with those that condem them and they vent such Maxims and Sentiments as if we believe them will justifie or at least excuse all their Disorders I could not omit here the examining of those Maxims since their effect is so pernicious I shall therefore observe them as the third Cause of Corruption The Maxims and. Sentiments which favour Corruption are of two sorts Some are visibly Profane and Impious such are a great many Maxims of the Libertines which go for Currant in the World But there are others which Men pretend to draw from Religion I shall insist particularly upon the latter because as they are taken from Religion it self they are by much the more dangerous When Profane People undertake to defend Vice with Maxims wich are manifestly impious we stand upon our guard against them and we may confute them by the Maxims of Religion But when they employ Religion and the Truths of it in the defence of Vice the danger of being feduced is infinitely greater I shall reduce the Maxims which are made use of to Authorise Corruption to these Four Orders I rank those in the First Order by which Men endeavour to prove that Holiness is not absolutely necessary The Second Order contains those which tend to shew that the practice of Holiness is impossible The Third Comprehends those which insinuate that it is dangerous for a Man to apply himself to good Works The Fourth and the Last includes those which are alledged to excuse Corruption But as it is not less necessary to know the Remedies against Corruption than to discover the Causes of it I shall not only mention but as I go on Confute those Maxims Although nothing is more clearly asserted in the Gospel than the necessity of Good Works yet Christians entertain many Opinions which destroy this necessity and which consequently open a Door to Licentiousness The necessity of Good-works cannot be overthrown but one of these two ways either by saying that God does not require them or else by maintaining that tho' God requires them yet a Man may be Saved without the Practice of them 1. In order to prove that God does not require Sanctity and Good-works as a Condition absolutely necessary to Salvation these two Maxims are abused 1. That we are not saved by our Works And 2. That Faith is sufficient to Salvation The first of these Maxims is intended to exclude Good-works and by the second Men would substitute another Mean for obtaining Salvation I referr the Discussing of these Two Maxims to the next Chapter because they are drawn from the Holy Scripture II. Men endeavour to persuade themselves that tho' they neglect Holiness yet for all that they shall not be excluded from Salvation And that which contributes most to flatter them in this Imagination is first The Notion they have formed to themselves of the Mercy of God God say they is Good and will not judge us with the utmost rigour This is said every Day and it makes every Body hope for Salvation The Divine Mercy indeed is without question the only ground we have to hope for Salvation But the vilest Affront we can offer to that Mercy is to make it an occasion of Security Because God is Good and Merciful must not we therefore endeavour to please him May we freely offend him because he is Good and we hope he will forgive us Those who Reason at this rate understand very little what the Divine Mercy is They must suppose that it extends indifferently to all Men without any regard to their Obedience or Disobedience But this Supposition is evidently false and contrary to the Holy Scripture The Effects of God's Mercy are promised only to those who fear him and depart from evil and by consequence it is a false and pernicious Maxim to say So much Holiness is not necessary God is Good and he will not mark severely what is done amiss This is to ascribe to God an easiness and a connivance utterly unbecoming the Sovereign Judge of the World It is said besides That God will not judge us rigourously That indeed is true God is indulgent towards us and the Gospel is a Covenant of Grace in which God has a great regard to our present Condition and Weakness But it is likewise certain that God will judge us according to the rigour of the Covenant of Grace and that no Salvation is to be had for those who do not fulfil the Condition of the Gospel now this Condition is a true Faith inciting us to Holiness This must be granted and we must acknowledge the necessity of performing this Condition and of leading a Holy Life or else the Gospel is but a Jest and we must say That God does not speak seriously in it that indeed he prescribes certain Conditions that he Commands and Threatens but that nothing of all this is to be strictly understood so that tho' a Man does not comply with the Conditions which God require yet he shall feel the Effects of his Clemency If this is true there is an end of Christian Religion 2. It will no doubt be replied That provided vided a Man Repents and asks God's forgiveness he shall be Saved This is an unquestionable Truth so by Repentance we mean that which the Gospel requires and which consists in a sincere detestation of Sin in true Conversion and Amendment of Life But this is false if by Repentance we mean only a general Confession of Sins accompanied with some sense of grief and fear whereby Sinners hope at the Hour of Death to attone for all the disorder of a Vitious Life I would shew here that this is no saving Repentance but that I am to handle this Matter purposely in another Chapter If Men commonly neglect those things which are not very necessary they apply themselves much less to those which they think to be impossible Now this is the Notion which Men commonly have of Piety It is said first That it is impossible for a Man to be so Holy and to do that whiâ— God Commands A great many like the Precepts of the Gospel very well and acknowledge their Justice and Excellency Would to God say they we might live thus but we are not able to do it And being possest with this Opinion they use no endeavour to practise those Duties which they own to be Just or to attain to that Holiness to which God calls them And indeed what Man would attempt that which he looks upon as impossible Now what is said of Man's Incapacity to do good is very true when we speak of Man considered barely as Man in the corrupt State of Nature But the Question is Whether those whom God has rescued out of that State and called to the Communion of the Gospel are incapable to arrive at that degree
of the Efficacy of Christianity or of the sincerity of its Precepts Promises and Threatnings I grant then that Corruption is great that the Course of the World is very bad and that in all probability there will always be Wickedness upon Earth But that this Corruption should be always the same so that no Reformation can be hoped is what cannot be maintained without affronting Religion without introducing Fatality and extinguishing all Zeal among Christians By the Maxims we have hitherto Examined Men endeavour to prove that the practice of Holiness is either of no great necessity or that it is impossible But there are some others which represent the Study of Vertue as dangerous so that here vicious Men do not stand barely upon the defensive part but they attack their Adversaries who recommend the Duties of Holiness 1. They pretend that we cannot insist so much upon Works without obscuring the Glory of the Divine Mercy We must ascribe all say they to Mercy and nothing to our own Righteousness There is no true Christian but acknowledges That our Salvation is entirely owing to the Divine Mercy and rejects the Opinion which attributes any Merit to Good-works It is that Mercy which gave us Christ for our Redeemer and our Salvation is founded upon that Redemption It is that Mercy which pardons the Sins of those who Believe and Repent and which bears with the Infirmities of Regenerate Christians And it is from the same Mercy that we expect that Glorious and un-merited Reward which is laid up in Heaven for Good Men. All these are as many Acts of the pure Mercy of God But as we have shewed that the Mercy which Saves us does not excuse us from Good-works so the necessity of Good-works does not lessen in the least the Riches of God's Mercy Unless we admit that there are Contradictions in Scripture we must acknowledge that the Doctrine of Sanctification does perfectly agree with the Doctrine of Grace And in Truth to say That God gave up his Son to Death in order to Save Men and that he will grant Remission of Sins and Eternal Happiness to every believing and repenting Sinner is as much as can be said to magnify the Divine Mercy Except we should pretend that God would be more merciful if he did indifferently Save all Mankind and Reward Vice and Vertue alike but this would be a horrid Thought and no less than downright Blasphemy Then Sinners might say indeed Let us continue in Sin that Grace may abound Let us suppose that a Prince pardons a Rebellious Subject and that he is ready to confer the greatest Honours and Benefits upon him on condition that this Subject shall accept of the Pardon that is offered him and shall relapse no more into the same Crime Would any Man be so unreasonable as to say that the Clemency of that Prince would be much greater if he did grant his Favours to this Rebel tho' he should persist in his Crime And yet this is the same thing which some Men would have God do It is very strange that any one should think to Honour God by such Conceits as do not only injure his Mercy but his other Perfections too Because God is Merciful must we forget that he is Holy Just and Good It is said that we must ascribe all to the mercy of God what then must we have no regard to his Holiness his Justice and his Truth Must what the Scripture tells of these last Perfections be faintly and tenderly expounded whilst we press and scrue up to the highest pitch what it says of Mercy As to what is added that we ought to ascribe nothing to our own Righteousness it is unquestionably true But do we ascribe any thing to Man when we say that he is bound to do his Duty and to accept the favour which God is pleased to bestow upon him Can any Man say that the Rebel I Mentioned just now is the Author of his own Happiness and that he deserves the Pardon granted him by his Prince because he accepts of it and fulfils the condition upon which it is offered What reason then has a Man to value himself upon his own Righteousness or to arrogate any Merit to himself since he is indebted to the Grace of God both for the beginnings and the progress of his Sanctification In short we should take heed that for fear of ascribing any thing to Man we may not rob the Divine Grace of what belongs to it by not acknowledging its Gifts and Power in a Regenerate Man 2. Here is another Maxim which is alledged in Confirmation of the preceding and which aims at the same Mark It is this That we must not speak so much of Good-works lest we inspire Men with Pride and Presumption And to support this Maxim it is usual to run out upon Mens inclination to Pride and upon the heinousness of that Sin But this Maxim proceeds only from the false and confused Notions which Men have about Religious Matters Either this Maxim has no Sense at all or else it mounts to this That whosoever applies himself to Holiness and Good-works is in danger of falling into Pride and that a neglect of Vertue contains a Man within the Bounds of Humility Which is as much as to say that a Man may be Holy without Humility and humble without Holiness Two Things which are the most ridiculous and contradictory that can be asserted At this rate it would be a dangerous thing to be a Good Man and more safe to be otherwise By pursuing Vertue and Holiness a Man draws near to Sin and to the greatest of Sins I mean Pride and by neglecting Holiness he attains Humility which is one of the chief Christian Vertues If this is true all that we call Vice or Vertue is but an empty sound It is much that Men should not see that there can be no Holiness without Humility nor Humility without Holiness that where there is Holiness there is Humility and Pride is excluded and that where Pride is there is no true Sanctification The holier a Man grows he becomes the more humble and he is so far from coming the nearer to Pride by proceeding in Holliness that on the contrary he removes the farther from it The instance of our Blessed Saviour who was both perfectly Holy and perfectly Humble is a proof that Humility is not incompatible with Holiness But the Nature of Humility is not well understood There are many who conceive no other Humility but that which arises from the Disorders of a vicious and irregular Life So that when they would humble good Men they rank them among the vilest Sinners they make them say that there is nothing but Wickedness and Abomination in them and that they have deserved Eternal Damnation by innumerable Sins which they have committed every Moment of their Lives and even by the best Actions they have done The strongest Expressions and the most excessive Hyperboles are scarce sufficient to
or Hatred Piety is little Practised in the World it is despised and it is hated and these are the three principal Causes of vicious Shame 1. Piety is little Practised in the World few People love or practise it Now a Man is very inclined to do that which is commonly done he thinks it is safest and most honourable to side with the multitude he is afraid of making himself Ridiculous by being singular It is a Maxim generally received That we ought to comply with Custom and to do as others do The Reason then why many have not the Courage to be on the Side of Religion is because that Side is deserted and abandoned 2. Piety is often despised in the World It is looked upon as a mean and disgraceful thing The strictness of a Man who Acts upon Principles of Religion and Conscience is imputed to weakness of Mind singularity of Humour or Caprice and sometimes to Hypocrisy and Pride Those who profess Devotion and Piety are turned into Ridicule And on the contrary it is thought honourable to comply in every thing with the Ways and Fashions of the Age. Tho' these Sentiments are very unjust yet they make a great Impression because few People have Firmness enough to slight the Judgment and Contempt of Men. We have naturally a quick sense of Honour and nothing is so unsupportable to Self-love as Contempt so that this Temptation is dangerous and it easily produces in a Man a false Shame which diverts him from Religion 3. Piety does likewise procure the Hatred of the World because a good Life accuses condemns and reproaches those who live ill Besides Religion obliges us sometimes to do things which displease and offend Men. How cautious soever it may be it is much if upon many occasions it does not stir up their Jealousy their Hatred or their Spleen A good Man is often bound to refuse what is desired of him He is unacquainted with the Maxims of that mean and fawning Complaisance which is necessary to get every bodies Love Many for this Reason neglect Piety They dare not let shine a Light which discovers the Weaknesses and Errors of others and Fear and Shame together make them think that it would be Ill-breeding as well as a piece of Imprudence to follow a Course of Life which might render them odious From these Considerations it appears already that this Shame is one of the general Fountains of Corruption and that it can produce none but very ill effects first upon those in whom it is and next upon other Men. 1. The natural Effect of vicious Shame is to dissuade a Man from his Duty and to draw him into Sin It makes his Knowledge useless it frustrates the warnings which his Conscience gives him and so it extinguishes in him the Principles of Vertue Those who are possessed with this Shame dare neither Speak nor Act as they ought they dissemble their true Sentiments they offer violence to their Consciences they have not the Courage to speak the Truth or to reprove their Neighbours when occasion requires they are loath to confess or to amend their Faults in a Word they frequently neglect the most indispensable Duties of Piety and Charity And all this because they are checkt by a false Shame But if this Shame hinders us to do Good it does as forcibly prompt us to Evil As soon as a Man thinks it a disgrace to do Good and to distinguish himself by a Christian Deportment he presently conceives likewise that it would be a Shame to him not to imitate the Irregularities of others Hence it is that we applaud Sin that we are carried away by the Solicitations or Examples of Persons of Authority that we cannot withstand the Entreaties of Friends that we ingage in unjust Enterprizes or criminal Diversions and that we fall into many other wicked Practices A very little Reflection upon our selves will easily convince us that Shame produces all these Effects A Heathen Author * Plutarch has proved long ago in an Excellent Tract That false Modesty is one of the greatest obstacles to Vertue and that Men commit many Faults and bring a great deal of Mischief upon themselves only because they dare not refuse to comply with others The effects of this Shame are not less fatal in respect of other Men. As it proceeds from the regard we bear to their Judgments so it usually shews it self in their company so that we cannot but scandalize and corrupt them when we govern our selves by the suggestions of this false Shame For not to mention here the Scandal which this gives to good Men those very Persons for whose sake we use such sinful Compliances and who despise Religion conceive yet a greater Contempt of it when they see that those who ought to support its interest are ashamed of it and dare not openly profess it They judge that Piety must be indeed a very mean and contemptible thing and when they observe that Men are afraid to displease them they take such an Ascendent over them that Vertue dares no more appear in their presence Besides that such an Indulgence towards Vice gives a new force to it If vicious Men are not reproved it confirms them in their ill Habits if they are imitated they are Authorized if we are ashamed to confess our Faults before them we do not heal the Scandal which we have given them and that is the greater for having been occasioned by Men who are thought Pious and not by Libertines But that we may be the more sensible of the pernicious effects of this kind of Shame we ought to take notice of three things which are very remarkable in this matter 1. Shame is a thing which has an absolute power over a Man Other Passions may more easily be resisted but when Shame has gained an Ascendent over the Mind it is extream hard to be conquer'd especially if it proceeds from the regard we have for Men for when it arises from a natural disposition it may sooner be overcome The greatest Threats and Promises will not sometimes shame a Man who will presently yield if Shame can be excited within him How often do we find the most vigorous efforts we can make upon our selves and our best Resolutions quite dashed by a filly bashfulness A Jest a bare Look or a slight Apprehension of being thought ridiculous or a Bigot is sometimes enough to Confound us and to make all our good purposes vanish 2. It ought to be considered that the Shame we speak of here restrains those Persons who in their Hearts are inclined to Vertue those who live in a profound Ignorance or in a total Obduration being not susceptible of this Shame It supposes as has been said some remainder of Conscience and Knowledge soliciting Man to his Duty but it overcomes that Knowledge and those good Sentiments We are to impute to this vicious Shame a great part of the Sins of good Men and this is one of the Articles
ready to restore the greatest Sinners to his Favour when they have recourse to his Mercy and that there are express Promises in the Gospel which assure us of this I grant it God never rejects a repenting Sinner But before a Man can build upon this the hope of being received into God's Favour at the Hour of Death he must be sure that he shall then sincerely repent Now I think I have demonstrated that this is what no Man can depend upon As to the Promises which are made to Repentance in the Gospel I do not deny but that they may be applied in a good sense to all Sinners but yet it is certain that they are made in favour of those whom God was to call to the Christian Religion and chiefly in favour of the Heathens Christ and his Apostles were to assure all Men that the sins they had commited should not exclude them from the Covenant of Grace provided they did sincerely mourn for them and part with them When the Heathens came to Baptism nothing else was required of them but that they should Repent and make a solemn Vow of being Holy for the time to come But as to Christians it cannot be said that God demands nothing of them but Repentance and Sorrow for Sins for he calls them to Holiness upon pain of Damnation In this sense it was that the Apostles preached Repentance and by this we may know how much Christianity is decayed That Repentance which consists in the Confession of Sins and in a Resolution to forsake them is the Duty at which the Heathens began This was the first thing which the Apostles required of them it was preparatory to the Christian Religion St. Paul * Heb. VI. places the Doctrine of Repentance among the Fundamental Points and the first Duties in which the Catechumens were instructed before Baptism But now Christians look upon Repentance as the Duty with which they are to end their Lives that is to say they design to end where the Heathens begun and to enter Heaven at the same Gate which admitted Pagans into the Church 2. It will be said further that sometimes Men who have lived in Sin die to all appearance in very good Dispositions To this I reply That we see a great many more of those Persons who die in a state of Insensibility and that by Consequence a Sinner who puts off his Repentance has more reason to fear than to hope For who has told him that the Fate of these last will not be his and what surer Presage can there be of so Tragical a Death than the present hardness of his Heart Besides I do not know whether it happens frequently as the Objection seems to suppose that Persons who have lived ill are well disposed when they die If Repentance can be saving and effectual when it begins only upon a Death-bed every body must own that it ought to be very lively and deep attended with demonstrations of the most bitter Sorrow and with all the Proofs that a dying Man can give of the Sincerity of his Conversion But we do not see many Instances of this Nature There are but few great Sinners who express a lively Compunction at their Death or a sincere Detestation of their Sins who have a due sense of their Wickedness and endeavour as much as they can to make Reparation for it who practise Restitution and edify all about them by discharging the other obligations of Conscience It is but seldom that we see such Penitents Besides the Expressions of Devotion and Repentance which are used by dying Men are not always sincere It is much to be feared that their Repentance is nothing else but a certain Emotion which the necessity of Dying and the approaches of God's Judgment must needs raise in the Mind of every Man who has his Wits about him and has some Ideas of Religion Nothing is more deceitful than the judging of a Man by what he either says or does when he is under the effects of Fear or Trouble It is commonly said of those who have given some signs of Piety upon their Death-beds that they have made a very Christian End But there is often a great Mistake in that Judgment And to be satisfied of it we need but observe what happens to some who have escaped Death or some eminent Danger While the Peril lasted who could be more humble and holy than they They shewed so much Devotion and uttered such Discourses that all the Standers by were edisyed by them their Tears their Prayers their Protestations of Amendment in a Word their whole Deportment had in all appearance so much of Christian Zeal in it that the Beholders were struck with Admiration But are there many of these who when the Danger is over continue in the same Dispositions remember their Promises or alter any thing in their former Course of Life Almost all of them return to their old Habits as soon as the Calamity is past These are generally the fruits of that Repentance which is excited by the fear of Death in those who Recover And what Effects then can it have in respect of those that Dye I confess we ought not to condemn any Body but I think we should not pronounce a definitive Sentence in favour of those who have led an ill Life For tho' Mens Judgment makes no alteration in the State of the Dead yet it may have a very pernicious Effect upon the Living who conclude from it that a Man may die well tho' he has lived ill And while I am upon this Subject I must say that nothing contributes more to the keeping up of these dangerous Opinions than when the Ministers of Religion commend without Discretion the Piety of the Dead And yet this is frequently done especially in great Towns and in the Courts of Princes There are to be found in those Places mean-spirited and unworthy Preachers who prostitute their Tongues and their Pens to the Praise of some Persons who had nothing of Christianity in their Lives and whose Condition should rather make a Man tremble But if some remnant of Shame restrains them from carrying their Flattery so far as to commend the Lives of those whose Panegyrick they have undertaken then they seek the Matter of their Praises in some signs of Piety which those Persons gave before they left the World Now I dare say that the most Atheistical Discourses and the Corruptest Maxims of Libertines are not by much so subtil a Poyson as such kind of Elogies delivered before Men who are engaged in all the Disorders of the Age and then dispersed through the World 3. The Instance of the Converted Thief who prayed to our Saviour upon the Cross and was received into Paradice is seldom forgotten But this Instance is generally very ill understood First it is supposed without any ground for it that this Thief repented only upon the Cross and that his Conversion was the effect of a sudden Inspiration But
not be very large upon the Proof of it Men take little care of being instructed and of getting Information and Knowledge about Religion The far greater Part either cannot read or never apply themselves to any useful instructive Reading Few hearken to the Instructions that are given them and fewer yet examine or reflect upon them Carnal Lusts and Secular Business do so engross them that they seldom or never give themselves to searching the Truth They generally have an Aversion to spiritual Things Hence it is that in matters of Religion they will rather believe implicitely what is told them than be at the pains of enquiring whether it is true or not And they are every whit as careless about Exercises of Devotion Many would think it a Punishment if they were made to read or to Meditate They never do those things but with reluctancy and as seldom as they can They go about Prayer especially with a strange Indifference and a criminal Indevotion In short very few take the necessary care to preserve themselves from Vice and to behave themselves with Regularity and Caution Very few seek the Opportunities of doing good and avoid the Temptations to which the common Condition of Men or their own particular Circumstances expose them And the greatest Numbers are slaves to their Bodies and wholly taken up with earthly things One of the most sensible and fatal effects of this Negligence is that those Persons use no manner of endeavours to know themselves It is very seldom if ever that they reflect upon what passes within them upon their Thoughts their Inclinations the Motions of their Hearts and the Principles they Act upon or that they take a review of their Words and Actions They do not consider whether they have within them the Characters of good Men or of wicked and hypocritical Persons In a word almost all of them live without Reflection Mens carelesness about Religion is there fore extreamly great But they proceed otherwise in the things of the World about which they are as Active and Laborious as they are Lazy and cold in reference to true Piety They will do every thing for their Bodies and nothing for their Souls They spare no Industry or Diligence they omit nothing to promote their Temporal Concerns If we were to judge by their Conduct we would think that the Supreme Good is to be found in Earthly Advantages and that Salvation is the least important of all things I need not say what Effects such a Negligence must produce The greater part of Christians being Ignorant in their Duty having no Knowledge of themselves declining the use of those Means which God has appointed and without which he declares that no Man can be saved and wearing out their Lives in this Ignorance and Sloth it is not to be imagined that they can have any Religion or Piety and so there must be a general Corruption amongst them I say it must be so unless God should work Miracles or rather change the Nature of Man and invert the Order and the Laws which he has established But because it might be said that Christians do not live like Atheists and that their Negligence is not so great as I represent it Let us consider a little what sort of Care they bestow upon the concerns of their Souls Certainly there are some Persons who are not guilty of this Negligence But excepting these what is it which the rest of Mankind do in order to their Salvation Very little or Nothing They pray they assist sometimes at Divine Service and at the publick Exercises of Religion they hear Sermons they receive the Sacrament and they perform some other Duties of this Nature This is all which the Religion of the greatest part amounts to But first these are not only the Duties which ought to be practis'd there are others which are not less essential and which yet are generally neglected such as Meditation Reading Self-examination to say nothing here of the Duties of Sanctificatification So that if some Acts of Religion are performed others are quite omitted The reason of this Proceeding may easily be discovered There is a Law and a Custom which oblige all Persons to some Acts of Religion to pray to receive the Sacrament and to go now and then to Church If a Man should intirely neglect these external Duties he would be thought an Atheist But there is neither Custom nor Law nor Worldly Decency which obliges a Man to Meditate to examine his own Conscience or to watch over his Conduct and therefore these Duties being left to every ones Direction are very little observed As to the other Duties which Christians form in some measure the want of sincerity in them does most commonly turn them into so many Acts of Hypocrisy They perhaps say some Prayers in the Morning but this is done without Devotion hastily with distraction and weariness and only to get rid of it after they think no more of God all the Day but are altogether busied about the World and their Passions and in the Evening they Pray with greater wandring of Thoughts than in the Morning If it so fall out that they go to Church or hear a Sermon they do not give a quarter of an Hours close Attention to any thing that is said or done in the Publick Assemblies In many Places the whole Devotion of the People consists in being present at some Sermons which are as little Insructive as they are minded or hearkned to The use which is made of the Sacraments especially of the Eucharist converts them into vain Ceremonies and makes them rather Obstacles than Helps to Salvation As to the mortifying of the Body by reasonable Abstinence Fasting and Retirement it is an unknown Duty The Indifference of Christians is therefore but too palpable What they do upon the account of Religion is very little and yet they do that little so ill that it is not much more beneficial to them than if they did nothing at all And now what might not be said if after having thus shewn that what Men do for their Salvation is next to nothing I should undertake to prove that they do almost every thing that is necessary for their Damnation and that they are as zealous and industrious for their Ruin as they are slothful and negligent in what is requisite to preserve them There are means to Corrupt as well as to Sanctify our selves The means of Corruption and Perdition are Ignorance want of Attention neglect of Devotion the love of the World and of the Flesh unruly Passions Temptations and ill Examples Now supposing that a Man was so monstrously Frantick as to form the design of Damning himself what would such a Man do He would neglect the Exercises of Devotion he would not Pray at all or he would Pray only with his Lips he would profane the Sacraments by an unsanctifyed use of them he would only mind his Body and this present Life he would give loose Reins to
has placed them in And besides there is no Christian but ought to allow himself some times of Retirement nay there are some Temporal Employments which do not hinder a Man to live in a Retired manner But after all it would be the Ruin of Society and of most Christian Vertues if every one should live a-part and busy himself only in Spiritual Exercises God does not require this he has Created Man to labour in the World and those who follow an honest Employment in it act suitably to his Will and sink their Business may prove a Help to their Salvation I need not I think advertise the Reader that I speak here only of lawful Employments and not of those which are bad and contrary to the Laws of Nature or Religion And yet these last are very common but because every body may easily see that such Occupations must unavoidably engage Men in to sin I will make it my chief business to shew that lawful and innocent Employments prove to many Persons a hind'rance to Piety and Salvation Temporal Employments then being not bad in themselves they cannot occasion Corruption but by the Abuse that is made of them Now there are four Faults which Men commit in this matter 1. The first is when they are intirely taken up with Worldly Things We have shewed already that Men live in a prodigious Sloth and Carelesness about Religion and that they do almost nothing for their Souls and their Salvation From this it follows that they must be employed only about their Bodies and the Concerns of this Life And in fact if we inquire into their Cares we shall find that they terminate in the World and in their Temporal Interest and this I think needs not be proved 2. Their Hearts sink too deep into the things of the World The Business of Life is innocent when it is followed with Moderation but it diverts Men from Piety when it is pursued more and with greater eagerness than it deserves That excessive love of the World makes the unhappiness of Men. Instead of esteeming Temporal Goods in proportion to their Worth and as remembring that they are not able to procure them true Felicity in s of considering that they are not made for this life only and that they cannot long enjoy those advantages which they court they give up themselves wholly to the World they set their Hearts and Affections upon it and they act as if this life was the ultimate end of all their Actions They labour only for their Bodies and for the gratifying of their Appetites This is the Mark aimed at in all their Thoughts and Projects This is what inflames their Desires and what excites in them the most violent Passions of Grief or Joy of Anxiety or Impatience They are far from having such a hearty concern for Religion and Piety In relation to this their Affections are faint and languid and they do nothing but with Indifference or by constraint 3. The Third Fault is when Men are too much employ'd and when they overload themselves with Business It is a great piece of Wisdom both in respect of the Tranquility of this Life and the concerns of another to avoid the excess and the hurry of Business as much as possibly we may without being wanting to the Duties of our Calling to confine our selves to necessary Cares and to wave all superfluous ones Men would live happy if they did but know what their Profession requires of them and limit themselves to it without medling in that which does not concern them But here they observe no bounds They will fly at all they will busie themselves about many things which do not belong to their Province This without doubt is a dangerous Disease and the occasion of several Disorders 4. In the last place there is one thing more to blame and that is when worldly Business becomes an occasion of Sin by the abuse that is made of it For besides that it is a very ill Disposition in a Christian to be fond of the World most Men are so unhappy as to direct all the business of Life to a bad end which is to satisfy and to enflame the more their irregular Appetites And by this means many Enterprizes and particular Actions of theirs which in themselves are innocent become evil and unlawful and engage them in all manner of Sins These Considerations is prove already that the greatest part of Mens Vices proceeds from their Temporal Affairs but this will appear yet more clearly by the following Reflections 1. This excessive Application to Temporal Concerns engrosses almost our whole Time so that it does not leave us a sufficient share of it to be spent in cares of another nature Men confess this themselves and plead it for an Excuse They alledge their Business A Man who is engaged in the World will say I have no time to read or to perform the Exercises of Religion I have too much Business my Employ or my Calling does not leave me a minute of leisure And the Truth is they are too busie for the most part If they have any spare time some hours or some days of rest wherein the course of their ordinary Employments is interrupted they are not in a condition to improve to the best Advantage those short Intervals of Relaxation 2. And truly Secular Business does not only take away the best part of Mens Time but it does besides distract their Minds and invade their Hearts and Affections When for a whole Day or Week the Mind and Body have been in agitation a Man is weary and spent the activity of his Thoughts is exhausted his Head is too full to be clear he is not able to drive away in an instant so many Worldly Idea's to calm his Passions and to turn himself of the sudden to Spiritual Exercises So that he must either absolutely neglect the Duties of Piety or perform them very ill When a Man has brought himself to a Habit of being employed only in Worldly Affairs he is no longer Master of his own Thoughts and Motions It is with great difficulty if he can at all apply himself to Objects that are foreign to him Those Objects affect him but weakly he must make great Efforts before he can fasten upon them and if he fixes there for a few moments it is a violent state in which he cannot continue long Those Thoughts of which he is constantly full crowd in upon him and he returns immediately to these Things which he loves and which commonly take him up This is the true reason why Men love andrelish Spiritual Things so little and why they think it so hard to subdue their Minds with Reading Attention and Meditation This is particularly the main Source of Indevotion in the Exercises of Piety Why is the Mind so apt to wander in Prayer The too great Application to Temporal Affairs is the Cause of it As soon as a Man is awake in the Morning a throng of
different Professions among Men that some should Cultivate the Earth that others should apply themselves to Arts and Trades and that others should exercise Magistracy or Traffick The difference of Sex Age Condition and other Circumstances creates a great variety in relation to particular Callings Now this diversity of Employs and Conditions is innocent in it self the World subsists and Society is preserved by it But yet it cannot be denied but that a great part of the Disorders which happen in the World proceeds from the kind of Life which Men chuse and from the particular State they are in and that because they abuse it and do not demean themselves in it with Caution and Prudence The Proof of this shall conclude the First Part of this Treatise But here we are to use some distinction There are Callings which are bad in themselves and others which are Lawful and Innocent they are not all therefore equally dangerous and some produce Corruption more necessarily than others All Professions or Callings are not Lawful some are Unlawful and Criminal The World is full of People who make Sin it self their Ordinary Calling and Profession There are infinite Numbers who instead of following an honest Employment subsist only by the Sins which they commit themselves or which they make others commit This might easily be proved by abundance of Instances How many are there whose Trade is a constant Practice of Obscenity Lewdness and Debauchery of Artifice and Intrigue Lying and Knavery How many are there who are professed Usurers and Cheats who are always employed in Acts of Injustice Cruelty and Violence nay there are Societies Form'd for that purpose the Trade of Robing of Punishing the Innocent and that by committing Rapine by Sea and Land is erected into an honourable and lawful Employment Many Persons are suffered at this Day among Christians whose Profession was formerly counted Infamous Many are tolerated who are only Ministers of Voluptuousness and whose only Business it is to introduce Licentiousness of Manners to corrupt the Youth by training them up to the love of Pleasure and to a Luxurious and Effeminate Life and to furnish those who are inclined to Debauchery Sensuality Idleness or Gaming with the Means to gratify their Inclinations Now all these Professions are not only inseparable from Sin but they likewise make way for all kinds of Vice among Christians We ought to pass almost the same Judgment upon the way of Living of those who without making a publick Profession of Vice propose no other end to themselves in this World but the pleasing of their Appetites Some have no other view than to enjoy the Pleasures of Life and they level their whole Conduct at that Mark. Others desiring to grow Rich or to raise themselves to Honours make no scruple of using all the Means which Interest Ambition and Injustice have established in the World They make use of Fraud Violence and Extortion it is their Maxim and their Study to dissemble their Sentiments and to do mischief to those who stand in their way In a Word they betake themselves to every thing that may further the success of their Designs Such a method of Life is manifestly contrary to the Spirit of Christianity and it must needs be highly sinful since both the End of it and the Means used to obtain that End are so There are other Kinds of Life which do not seem altogether so bad and yet are not much better This may particularly be said of Idleness The Profession of many is to have none at all and to be as little Employed as they can They think it the happiest of all Conditions to have nothing to do and to live at Rest and free from Action But yet it is unworthy of a Man and much more of a Christian to be useless in the World And if this Idleness is shameful and culpable in it self it is much more so in its Effects and Consequences It betrays Men into frivolous or dangerous Pastimes For a Man cannot be perfectly Idle The want of useful Business must be supplied with Amusements and those Amusements are generally sinful Thus we see Multitudes of People who excepting the time which they must needs bestow upon the Necessities of Nature and upon some external and indispensable Acts of Religion consume the best part of their Lives at Play or in Diversions in unprofitable Reading and Conversations in meeting Companies in receiving or returning Visits or in other such things which tho' they are thought innocent yet they enervate the Mind they devour Time they enslave a Man to the Opinions and Modes of the World and they make him most frequently transgress the Laws of Religion It would not be difficult to apply this to professed Gamesters to those who spend their time in trifling Discourses and impertinent Visits and to many other Persons I might easily shew if it was necessary that such a Life has little of Christianity in it and that it is a great deal more to blame than is commonly believed Thus Men follow divers kinds of Life which are essentially Bad and wherein by Consequence Purity of Heart and Innocency of Life cannot be preserved As to those kinds of Life and Occupations which are Lawful I might observe in the first place that for the most part Men are too much wedded to them and that they commonly abuse them But I will not press this Consideration having shewn already in the foregoing Chapter that too great application to Temporal Affairs robs Men both of the Time and of that Inclination and Freedom which are necessary to mind Spiritual Things and that it makes them Dull Earthly-minded Sensual and Slaves to their Passions To speak then only of what concerns particular Callings I shall observe these Two general Faults 1. It is a great Mischief that Men embrace Professions which are not fit for them Every Profession requires some particular Qualifications and Talents and since all Men have not those Qualifications it follows that all Men are not fit for all Employments and that Distinction and Choise are to be used in pitching upon a Profession The Welfare of Societies and of particular Persons does in a great measure depend upon that Choice If no Care is taken of this Employments must be ill discharged and from thence a great many Disorders will arise both in Church and State Now if we take a Survey of the different Callings which Men are ingaged in we will find that they are often destitute of those Qualifications which are necessary for the right discharging of them And the worst of it is that this happens in the most considerable Employments and in those which might contribute most to the preserving of Order and the encouraging of Vertue in the World As to Professions of lesser Importance the Choice is much easier every body almost is capable of them and the Faults which may be committed there are not of great Consequence If a Husband-man does not well understand
minding themselves in every thing and being little affected with the Miseries of others So that Riches may easily spoil those who possess them and do actually spoil many The Poor are almost all of them Vicious because they are ignorant forsaken from their Infancy and grown up in Want and Idleness and among bad Company They have little Religion they will live without Working they are given to Stealing and Dishonesty Envy fills their Hearts and they only keep within the bounds of Duty when they can do no mischief Those who live un-confined and much in the World have for the most part little of a Christian Character They lie open to abundance of Temptations and what is most dangerous in that kind of life is that a Man has no sooner embraced it but he thinks it honourable lawful and necessary he harkens no longer to the rules of Religion he is ashamed of them and governs himself only by the Maxims of the World Others lead a retired Life they avoid great Companies and they seldom appear in Publick That State may have its advantages but it has its dangers too Those who live thus retired are apt to think themselves much better than other Men because their Conduct seems regular and free from Scandal and this inspires them with a secret Pride a great Opinion of themselves an austere and imperious Humour which makes them apt to speak ill and to judge rashly of other People and this drives Charity Gentleness and Humility out of their Hearts I think I have said enough to shew that Mens various kinds of Life have a general influence upon the Irregularities of their Deportment But no make this Truth yet more evident I shall add two Reflections to all that has been said The first is That of all the Temptations which are apt to seduce Men none are more dangerous than those which are 1. Necessary and unavoidable 2. Ordinary and frequent 3. Hidden and imperceptible Now the Temptations arising from Mens particular Callings have these Three Characters 1. They are necessary and unavoidable we may withstand them but we cannot avoid altogether being exposed to them 2. They are frequent and constant those Employments in which the greatest part of our Lives is spent offering them to us perpetually 3. They are hidden and imperceptible for besides that Men reflect little upon what is ordinary and happens every day those Temptations are varnished with the specious Pretenses of Example and Custom and even of the lawfulness of the Calling and of Necessity Thus a Trades-man is necessarily exposed to the danger of wronging his Neighbour and of transgressing the Rules of Justice Equity or Sincerity The opportunity of doing this returns every minute and as often as he buys or sells this Temptation is imperceptible and except he has a niceness of Conscience he will not be sensible of it by reason that his Profession is innocent that he is allowed to get and that most of the unlawful ways of gain are Authorized by Custom 2. The Second Reflection is that the greatest and the most insuperable Obstacles to Piety proceed for the most part from a Man's Calling It is that which obstructs more than any thing else the effect of the Gospel and Men's Conversion We Preach we Exhort to Repentance But to whom do we speak We speak to Men engaged in Professions which considering how they behave themselves in them divert them from Piety and furnish them with a thousand Opportunities of sinning We speak to People who have chosen already the Course of their whole Life who are resolved to continue in the state they are in and to alter nothing in it and who have formed to themselves that Scheme of Employments which they intend to follow at any rate We Preach to People who arc no sooner out of the Church but they meet at home and in their ordinary Business with perpetual hindrances to Holiness and with Temptations which it is certain they will not withstand Such Hearers may be Preached to long enough before they reap any fuit from what they hear Sermons are presently gone but the Temptations arising from the Professions which Men chuse are continual and last as long as their Lives They accompany a Man every where he is not jealous of them he seeks them he gives up himself to them and he fancies he may lawfully do so This is the visible occasion of the Gospels having so little Efficacy upon Mens Minds I shall conclude this Chapter with two Remarks which may serve for a Remedy against this Source of Corruption 1. Every one ought to examine the state and kind of life he is in that if this State has something in it that is evil or contrary to the Duty of a Christian he must alter and correct it If the Profession is bad in it self nothing else can be done but to quit it If it is lawful we must take care not to render it dangerous or sinful either by neglecting the Duties to which it obliges us or by not avoiding the snares and Temptations that attend it or by making it an Occasion and Pretense to satisfy our inordinate Affections I confess we may meet here with difficulties It is hard for a Man to leave off a Profession to go out of his ordinary road of Life and to renounce some Engagements when they are once formed And yet this ought and may be done if those Engagements are not lawful It is better we should offer some violence to our selves by breaking them off or by correcting what is amiss in them than to run our selves into infinite Miseries But the beâ—way is to obviate the Evil in its beginning Therefore I say 2ly That since People use to resolve upon a Profession while they are young that Choice requires a great deal of Prudence and Caution for no less than Temporal and Eternal Happiness or Misery depends upon it But it is a sad thing to see how rashly and inconsiderately this matter is gone about Interest Chance Passion the Humour of Parents or of young People are the things which determine so important a choice It is not much considered whether a Calling is lawful or proper for him that embraces it little or no care is taken to form the Inclinations of Young Persons they are given up to their own Conduct and to all the Temptations of that Profession to which they are destined And thus we need no longer wonder why Employments are ill discharged why most People lose their Innocence in them and why there is a general Corruption to be observed in all States and Conditions This is the Ordinary Effect and Consequence of Mens particular Callings The End of the First Part. A TREATISE Concerning the CAUSES Of the Present Corruption of CHRISTIANS And the Remedies of it PART II. CAUSE I. The Present State of the Church and of Religion in General PIety is always necessary and the Practice of it is never impossible to those who arte well
inclined But yet we must confess that the various Circumstances of Time Plate and of the State of Religion contribute much to the progress of Piety or of Corruption in the World There are some happy Circumstances and some Times very favourable to Piety as on the other hand there are unhappy Circumstances and Times in which it is like a Stranger upon Earth the Means to promote it being then neither so effectual nor so frequent The design of this Work obliges me to consider what may be thought in this respect of the time we live in and whether this Corruption which dishonours Christianity does not proceed from the unhappiness of the Times and from the present state of the Church and Religion But we cannot succeed in this Enquiry nor pass a sound judgment upon the present state of Religion without running back to its first Origin and Nature and without taking a view of those Ages which are elapsed since its first Establishment The Knowledge of the Scripture and of History are here of great use The Scripture informs us what the state of Religion should be and History shews us the different states through which it has passed When we examine Religion by these two Rules we perceive that it neither has been nor will be always in the state it is now in It is fit in the firs place to seek the true Notion of the Christian Church and Religion in Scripture There it is that Chistianity still subsists in all its Beauty for neither the Ages which are past nor the Changes which have happened have been able to tarnish in the least the Brightness of those Native and Lively Colours in which our Saviour's Religion is set forth in Holy Writings We may take notice of four Principal Characters in the â—dea which the Scripture gives us of the Christian Church and Religion And these are Truth Holiness Union and Order 1. The first and the chief Character of this Church and Religion is the Knowledge and the Profession of the Truth this is what distinguishes Christianity from false Religions The Church is the Church of Christ no longer than while she retains the Purity of Faith and of Evangelical Doctrine It would be needless to prove this 2. The Sacred Writers represent the Church as a Society altogether Holy They name her * Eph. V. 27. Pet II. The Spouse of Christ a glorious Spouse having neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing but being holy and without blemish They call her †Heb. XII The house of the living God a holy Nation and the assembly of the first born which are written in heaven They give to Christians the glorious Titles of Kings Priests Saints Elect Children of God and New Men They speak of them as of a People separated from the World and its Vices dedicated to God and to good Works and living in the practice of Piety Temperance Justice Charity and all other Vertues 3. Union and Love is the third Character of the Church and of the true Disciples of Christ The Scripture does not speak to us of many Churches but of one of which all the Faithful are Members in what place soever they may be St. Paul says that there is buâ— one Faith one Baptism and one God the Apostles enjoyn above all things Union and Charity and they give many Precepts to maintain these and to make them flourish among Christians 4. As Holiness and Union cannot be preserved where there is no Order so the Church was to be a well regulated Society in which every thing might be done in a convenient and orderly manner And in fact there are in the Sacred Writings many Laws to this purpose We find there several regulations concerning the way in which the Church ought to be governed and concerning the calling of Bishops and Pastors and the Principal Functions of their Office The Scripture does besides appoint the exercise of Discipline the manner of proceeding in relation to scandalous Sinners and the Administration of Publick Alms. It prescribes the chief acts of Religion and Divine Worship Prayers Fasting Sacraments Preaching and some other Heads All these Laws are designed to establish Order and Piety in the Church and to banish Confusion and Scandals out of it And this order cannot be a thing indifferent since the Apostles have given us Laws about it It is not difficult to shew that most Christian Societies are hardly to be known by these Marks But before we come to that it is necessary to observe the different States through which the Church has passed from her infancy to this time II. If we consider the Church in her infancy we must acknowledge that the first Ages of Christianity were very pure in Comparison of the following But yet must take heed when we speak of the purity of the Primitive Church that we do not form to our selves too advantagious an Idea of it as if Christianity had been then in its utmost Purity and Perfection The Church in her beginnings did consist of Jews and Heathens These Men embracing Christianity did not so entirely strip themselves of their Prejudices and Customs but that they brought with them into the Church some of the Notions of Judaism and even of Gentilism It is well known that this was the first occasion of those Heresies which did stain the Purity of the Christian Doctrines and Morals and the cause of several disorders which happened in the very Times of the Apostles Besides the Apostles and the first Ministers of the Christian Religion were not able by reason of the Persecution and of the obstacles they met with to regulate all things as they would have done if the Church had been in peace We need not therefore wonder if we find Imperfections and Defects apparent enough in the state of the Primitive Church And it is of some importance to observe this not only that we may have true apprehensions concerning this matter but that we may besides obviate an unhappy Consequence which might be drawn in favour of the present Corruption from what has been known in the first Ages of Christianity No doubt but there were Disorders and Scandals at that time but we are to remember that the Church was then made up of Men who for the most part were born and had lived in Paganism and whose life had been spent in the thickest darkness of Ignorance and Vice Yet for all that the Church was then more holy and pure than she has been since or is at this day in most places This is matter of fact which cannot reasonably be contested for besides that it may be verified from the Testimony which the Sacred and some of the Heathen Authors bear to the Innocency of the Primitive Christians and that it is probable that Men were kept in awe while the Apostles were alive in the time of Miracles besidesall this I say there are two Considereations which prove that Corrupton could not be then so great or so
practice of the Apostles and of the Primitive Church Fasting being enjoyned by our Saviour and established by the example of the Apostles and by the universal practice of the first Christians and of all the Churches in the World for several Ages there is reason to wonder that in some places this Duty should be almost out of date For as to solemn Fasts which are celebrated from time to time and seldom enough those are not properly the Fasts of which the Gospel speaks and which were observed by the Ancients They are Acts of publick Humiliation designed for times of Calamity or of extraordinary Devotion and the use of these ought not to be too frequent because Custom is apt to lessen their effect But I mean those Fasts which are helps to Devotition and Holiness and Means to mortify the Body and to dispose Men to Humiliation and Repentance Uniformity in Divine Worship would be another very necessary Establishment It would shew the unity of Faith it would render Religion venerable and prevent those Disorders and Confusions which are inevitable when Rites and Practices quite different nay sometime contrary to one another are observed in several Churches Lastly Care should be taken that divine Service might be performed every where in an orderly grave and decent manner The exterior of Religion has a greater influence than we imagine upon the essence of it besides that we save an express Law * 1 Cor. XIV 40. Which says that all things should be done decently and in order Indeed Pageantry and Pomp the great number of Ceremonies and whatever savours of Superstition ought to be avoided as well as every thing which is contrary to the essence of Evangelical Worship And it were better to fall into an excess of Simplicity than to Clog Religion with too many Ceremonies But yet under pretence of Simplicity we are not to run into Confusion and to neglect the externals of Religion and Divine Service If we should examine by this Rule what is done in some Churches with relation for instance to the Laws and Forms of Publick Assemblies to the celebration of Divine Worship and the Sacraments and to the Persons who receive the Communion and who officiate we might find there several things to be rectified And it would be very useful to take this into Consideration for the want of Gravity and Decency and a dry and careless performing of Publick Worship render Religion despicable and make the People who commonly judge of things by their Outsides to entertain a mean notion of divine Service which produces the contempt of Religion and by consequence ill Manners VI. This contempt of Religon is another Fault which ought not to be passed over in silence It has been always the general sense of Mankind that Religion is to be honoured and respected The Heathen Religions as false as they were did attract the Veneration of the People and the same may be seen at this day among the several Nations of Infidels Certainly then the Christian Religion deserves all the veneration and respect which Men are capable of But it must be confessed that in many places it is falling of late into a very great outward meanness Men are accustoming themselves to look with indifference and with haughtiness and scorn upon every thing which has some relation to the Church or to Religion This appears especially in the contempt which is expressed towards the Clergy Tho' the Scripture represents their Office as a most Excellent and Honourable Imployment tho' it enjoyns Christians to * Heb. XIII 27. 1 Thess V. 13. Honour Love and Reverence those who have the rule over them yet the Ecclesiastical Order is generally but little honoured And what is more surprizing it is most depressed and abased in those Churches which otherwise profess a purer Doctrine and Worship than other Christian Societies I do not speak of all Churches in general but whoever sees what is practised in many places would be apt to think that it was a part of the Reformation of the Church to strip the Clergy of all Ecclesiastical Authority and of every thing that might render them venerable to the People and to set them upon a low and contemptible Foot Their Character is become Abject if not Odious and it becomes so more and more every day That which makes it more despicable is the Poverty which many of them are forced to live in It is not difficult to find out the Grounds of this Contempt It may be justly charged upon the Clergy themselves their Character is become vile because they support it but it does not follow that Men have a Right to despise them all that is to be done is to endeavour the reclaiming of them If under pretence of Persons being unworthy or of some abuse in Offices it was lawful to despise the Professions themselves would not even Magistracy be often the vilest of all employments May we not say besides that Church-Men do not well maintain their Character because they are despised An Office which is slighted will never be well discharged it is seldom that great worth is to be found in a Post which is little honoured or rather much despis'd The chief Cause of this Contempt was the manner in which things were ordered in the last Century Persecution Poverty and the Opposition of the higher Powers were at first great Obstacles to the establishing of good Order Princes and great Men did possess themselves of the Revenues and Authority of the Church Nothing was left to Church-men but the care of making Sermons and of Administring the Sacraments They were turned into bare Preachers a Character which for the most part is not very fit to create Respect I say nothing here of the Discipline and Government of the Church because I am to speak of these more largely by and by This Abasement of Religion and of the Ministry is a visible Cause of Corruption As soon as Sacred things are disregarded Impiety must needs prevail especially if the Ministers of Religion are despised then Religion can have no great force upon Men's Minds The Master cannot be honoured when his Servants are slighted Men who are without Authority cannot contain the People in their Duty Whatsoever comes from an abject Person who is neither beloved nor esteemed can never be received with submission The contempt of Pastors draws of necessity after it the contempt of Divine Service of Preaching and of other Sacred Functions The Poverty of Church-men is not much less fatal to the Church than the immense and excessive Riches which did formerly corrupt the Clergy For besides that in those times and places in which the Christian Religion is predominant and professed by Persons of Quality Poverty makes the Ministers of Religion Contemptible to the People and even to Great Men it being certain that in those Circumstances it is necessary that Ministers should live with some credit besides this I say that Poverty disables them from exercising
unhappiness of the Times and the Perfecution This is unquestionable matter of fact and therefore I shall take it for granted and only say in short that then all those who embraced Christianity were engaged by a solemn Vow to renounce the Vices of the Age and to lead a holy Life that those who were Baptized were not suffered to live disorderly that vicious Persons were debarred the Holy Mysteries that those who fell into great Sins were Excommunicated as well as those who were Contumacious and Incorrigible that such were not restored to the Peace of the Church but after various degrees of Penance and a publick acknowledgment of their Faults and that as to those who relapsed they were received only at the Hour of Death Very clear Monuments of this Practice are still extant in the Writings of the Ancient Doctors of the Church as well as in the Old Canons and Decrees of Councils This Discipline must needs have been very severely observed since St. Ambrose was not afraid to put it in Practice against the Emperor Theodosius I am not ignorant that the Primitive Church has varied about certain Circumstances that the Penitents were treated sometimes with more and sometimes with less severity and that the time of their Penance was longer or shorter But as to the main or the essence of Discipline it did always obtain in the Primitive Church And it was as little questioned then Whether Discipline ought to be observed as whether Christians should be Baptized This usage among the first Christians is at least a strong presumption in favour of Discipline but it being consonant besides to what we read in the New Testament I do not see how there can remain any doubt about this Matter IV. In the last place the Nature of Discipline it self proves the usefulness and necessity of it All those who are not blinded with Prejudice must own that Discipline considered in it self is altogether agreeable to the Spirit of Christianity 1. The honour of Religion and the promoting of Christ's Kingdom require Order in the Church Who does not see but that if the Church did tolerate Scandalous Persons and take them into her Bosom and make no difference between them and the Faithful She might justly be charged with all the Disorders and Scandals which are observed in the Lives of bad Christians and be looked upon by Infidels as a Prophane Society where Vice is permitted But the Exercise of Discipline is an authentick disowning of Vice whereby the Church declares publickly that She does not allow of it 2. Discipline is a most efficacious means to procure the Conversion of Sinners A Man must be very much hardened when the being removed from the Communion of Christians does not reclaim him But when a Scandalous Person is suffered to live in the Society of the Faithful when he is admitted to the same Priviledges with other Members of the Church this gives him an occasion to harden himself in Sin and to think that he is as good a Christian and that he has as much Right to Salvation as others which is a most dangerous but withal a most common Imagination 3. Discipline is useful to the Church in general Many who may otherwise have ill Inclinations are restrained by Example or Shame or Fear or ever by Conscience Good Men are thereby doubly Edified since on the one hand this Rigour confirms them in their Duty and that on the other hand it makes reparation for the Scandal which other Mens Sins give them From all this I conclude that Discipline is a Sacred Necessary and Inviolable Order It cannot be said that it is a Humane or Arbitrary Establishment which may be altered or which was only to continue for a time An Order which has its Original in the express Laws of Christ and his Apostles and which is appointed in Scripture as a general Law an Order which has been observed in the Primitive and Apostolical Church an Order which is founded upon the very Nature of the Church and Religion and which perfectly agrees with the Spirit of the Gospel such an Order certainly ought to be followed as being of a necessary and indispensable obligation I say it again there is nothing more positive than this in the Institution of the Sacraments Discipline as well as the Sacraments is founded upon Dvine Institution and confirmed by the practice of the Primitive Church but in Discipline there is one thing more than in the Sacraments for whereas the Sacraments considered in themselves and without respect to the divine Institution are things indifferent and of no use Discipline in it self is just and useful agreeable to the Principles of Christianity as well as to plain reason and sense I have perhaps been too large upon this Subject but it was to be proved in the first place that Discipline is necessary and instituted by God since that is the ground I go upon in this whole Chapter This Sacred Order which had been fetled in the beginnings of Christianity was altered in process of time And in this as in many other things Christians grew remiss This was done by degrees for good Laws are not commonly abolished all at once but through insensible changes We learn from Ecclesiastical History that the slackning of Discipline is chiefly to be imputed to the taking away some publick Penances Those Penances were converted into private Confessions and Penances At first this alteration was only concerning some Sins which were not thought to deserve the utmost rigor of Discipline for as to great Sins such as Murder and Adultery the Ancient Order was still in force But at last about the end of the IV. Century Publick Penances were Abolished first in the Eastern and sometime after in the Western Churches Instead of Penances private Satisfactions were appointed and then Men unhappily began to be more concerned about the exterior of Penance than about what is Spiritual in it and fit to reclaim Sinners This was done at first by a kind of Relaxation or Indulgence but that which at the beginning was no more than an exception to the Law succeeded in the room of the Law it self and from thence sprang Indulgences Satisfactions Penance Auricular Confession and many other Practices which are but Corruptions of the Ancient Discipline The Bishops on the other hand being distracted by temporal Cares after the Conversion of the Emperors to the Christian Religion began to neglect the essential parts of their Function and the Conduct of their Flocks They were for humouring great Men who thought it hard to submit to the publick Order This is a short account how the purity of the Christian Religion was considerably adulterated in the point of Discipline We are now to examine what the present state of the Church and Religion is with relation to Discipline All the abuses which came up in the room of the Ancient Discipline do still subsist in most places both in the Greek and in the Latin Church The Canons and
by many Persons of eminent Learning and Piety and it is that which I desire all those who have a Zeal for the Glory of God to take into their serious Consideration CAUSE III. The Defects of the Clergy IN searching after the Causes of the Decay of Piety we cannot but enquire whether Corruption does not proceed from the Pastors and Governors of the Church Pastors are appointed to oppose the Progress of Vice and to be publick Fountains of Instruction Edification and good Example so that in truth their Ministry is of most excellent use when duly exercised But when Vice reigns when Scandals multiply that general Corruption is if not a certain Proof at least a strong Presumption that there is some fault in Pastors If we would be satisfied about this matter we need but reflect upon the Nature of their Office and upon their way of discharging it This is what I design to enquire into in this Chapter In order to which I shall consider 1. What Functions and Duties are annexed to the Office of Pastors And 2. What Qualifications are requisite in them to discharge it worthily There are two principal Functions incumbent on Pastors Instruction and the Government of the Church 1. It would be needless to prove that the Office of Pastors obliges them to instruct the People and to preach the Gospel for this is beyond all Question It will be fitter to observe that the fruit of publick Instructions delivered in Sermons depends upon two things the Matters treated of and the Way of proposing them so that the Faults committed in Sermons are either in the Things themselves or in the Manner of handling them 1. The Matters handled in Sermons are either of Doctrine or Morality What has been said in the first Chapter of this Treatise may serve to discover to us the Defects in Preaching with relation to these two Heads Those who preach the Gospel do not sufficiently instruct the People neither in the Fundamental Doctrines nor in the Duties of Religion And as Catechising is properly designed for the explication of these Truths and Duties I think Ignorance and Corruption chiefly proceed from this that in most Churches things are not well ordered with reference to Catechising They are neither frequent enough nor so proper for Instruction as they should be Besides Catechising is almost every where neglected if not despised The common Notion is that Catechisms are only for Children and for the meaner sort of People The Function of a Catechist which was anciently so considerable in the Church is look'd upon now as a Function of no great importance and it is usually committed to Persons of the least Knowledge and Experience These Faults might easily be remedied One of the most useful Establishments in Churches would be to encrease the Number of Catechisms and to appoint them instead of the Sermon But to render them more useful and more frequented it would be necessary to establish two sorts of them In those of the first sorts the Elements of Religion should be explained in an easy and familiar manner for the benefit of Children and of the less-knowing part of Christians The other should be for those who have attained a higher degree of Knowledge and in these Matters that had been proposed but generally before should be more fully and exactly handled But if it be thought that an Establishment of this Nature and that the multiplying of Catechisings might meet with Difficultie and Obstructions it would be necessary at least for the instruction of great numbers of Persons who never assist at those Exercises that Ministers should he obliged to preach upon the same Subjects which are commonly treated in Catechisms As for Sermons the Church would reap more benefit from them if Preachers did always shew true Judgment in the choise of the Matters they handle We must not think that all sorts of Subjects are instructive alike and that in order to Preach the Gospel it is enough to speak of God in a Sermon and to take a Text out of Scripture Every Subject ought to be proposed and pressed according to its importance To insist upon Matters of lesser Moment whilst those which it most concerns Christians to be Informed about are neglected is to swerve from the true intendment of Preaching But because all Preachers have not the Capacity to make this Choice it would be fitting that part of the Matter of their Discourses should be appointed and prescribed to them by a Law For when they are tyed to no Rule when they are at liberty to Preach upon any Subject which they think fit to chuse it happens that many instead of handling the most important things in Religion and of consulting the present State and Necessities of their Flocks apply themselves to various Subjects which are of no great Edification Preachers for the most part consult only their own Inclination in the choice of their Matter and when they pitch upon a Subject it is rather because it pleases them and because they apprehend a facility in treating it than out of a regard to the necessities of their Congregations Those who are fond of Mysteries and Allegories apply their time and studies to the Expounding of the Prophecies and to the unfolding of the Types of the Old Testament Those who are given to Disputing fill their Sermons with nothing else but Controversy And the same may be said of Speculative Divines who are conversant in the Fathers and History they entertain the People with those things which are the ordinary Subject of their Meditations and Studies I do not mean that such things ought never to be spoken of they may sometimes be touched upon provided this be done judiciously But they have a sorry Notion of Religion and Preaching who make those Matters their main Business and fancy they have entirely fulfilled all the parts of the Gospel Ministry when they have Preached upon Types or Controversy What I have now said may be applied to the choice of Texts * 2 Tim. III. 16. All Scripture indeed as St. Paul says is profitable for Instruction that Divine Book contains nothing but what is useful but yet the various usefulness of the several parts of Scripture is to be distinguished and it must be owned that some Places are more useful and instructive than others Some difference is to be made between those Books and Chapters which explain the Doctrine of Redemption the Design of Christ's coming into the World or the Duties of a Christian Life and those which serve only to acquaint us with the Order of Times and to confirm the certainty of History These last have their use since the Truth of History is one of the main Proofs of the Truth of Religion but those Places are more useful which Treat of what we are to believe or to do in order to Salvation It is of another sort of importance to Explain the Gospel than to Preach upon the Book of Joshua or Ruth or upon some
Places of the Prophets I am not ignorant that some have thought that the Scripture is equally Rich every where that all Doctrines may be drawn from all Texts that those Chapters and Verses which seem the most barren and where there appears nothing extraordinary contain Mysteries and Treasures which might exhaust even the Meditations of Angels but this Conceit is so absurd and repugnant to Sense that I do not think it worth my while to Confute it Morals being so Essential a part of Religion should be very particularly insisted upon by Preachers and yet few do it so that Morality of all things is that which is the most superficially handled in the greatest part of Sermons This Fault in Preachers proceeds from several Causes Some have a Prejudice against Morality and think it ought not to be insisted on Others who are conceited with vain Learning imagine that to Preach Morals argues but an ordinary measure of Parts and little skill in Divinity and that it becomes them better to soar after high Speculations and to dive into the Mysteries of Faith and of the most sublime Theology This Custom of insisting more upon Doctrine than Morals proceeds also from another Cause which is that in this last Age Divines were fain to be continually Explaining and Disputing and so the same Method has been followed ever since I am apt to think besides that many Divines neglect Morality because the treating of it is more difficult than the explaining Doctrinal Matters Let those supercilious and speculative Divines say what they will the right handling of Morality is the hardest thing in Preaching It is easie to explain a Text or a point of Doctrine and a Man must be very meanly gifted if with the help of a Commentary or a Commons-Place he is not able to do the feat and to furnish out his hour But to Preach Morals is quite another thing I confess that there is a way of Preaching Morality which requires no great pains If Men content themselves with delivering Moral Sayings concerning Vice and Virtue this may be done without much labour But when a Preacher pursues true Morality when he is to master the Hearts of Men to reform the Manners of a whole Congregation to encounter the Inclinations of his Hearers and to make them renounce their Passions and Prejudices then it is that he meets with many and great difficulties this is an inexhaustible Spring of Labour and Mediation and a task which few Preachers care 〈◊〉 take upon them In Religion Doctrine should never be separated from Morality nor one of these preferred before the other But yet it is necessary to insist more upon Morality than upon Doctrine not only because the design of our whole Religion is to make us good Men but also because Morality cannot effectually be taught without being much dwelt upon It is only by enlarging on matters and entring into many Particulars that the two ends of Morality are to be attained which are instructing Men in their Duty and persuading them to the practice of it Morality is of a vast extent as may appear by considering how many Duties are comprised under these three Heads of Christian Morals Piety Justice and Temperance Besides these Duties which are common to all Men there are some Particular ones relating to the different Conditions Callings Ages and States which Men are in And how many things are there to be considered upon all these Heads This is not all for these Duties vary infinitely by reason of the diversity of Circumstances There are almost as many different Dispositions as there are Persons among a great Multitude of Men who are addicted to the same Vice there are hardly two who are vicious in the same degree and manner It is therefore requisite that Preachers should descend into particulars and that they should so characterize Duties Vertues and Vices that every one may know himself in the Description And yet this relates only to bare Instruction Now if in the next place we intend to engage Men to the Practice of these Duties there new Difficulties will arise and no good Success can be expected but from assiduous Care and constant Labour There are in Man's Heart so many different Dispositions and Motions so many Illusions and Prejudices so many Windings and Artifices that a very particular application is required for us to insinuate our selves into it When the Truths and Doctrines of Religion are to be Taught things need not be so minutely handled and there is no occasion to use such mighty Endeavours nay the being very particular may be a fault He that would Instruct so he is clear should rather be short than prolix The Hearers do easily apprehend the Truths which are proposed to them and the most Corrupt Men are able to discern Truth from Error a Libertine will find who is in the right or in the wrong in a Dispute But it is not so easie a thing to touch the Heart or to conquer inveterate Habits What Tully says in his Dialogue of the Orator deserves to be inserted here it is this (a) Cicero de Orat. Lib. 2. Non enim sicut Argumentum simul atque positum est arripitur alterumque tertium poscitur ita misericordiam aut invidiam aut iracundiam simulatque intuleris possis Commovere Argumentam enim ipsa ratione Confirmat quae simul atque emissa est adhaerescit Illud autem genus Orationis non cognitionem judicis sed perturbationem requirit quam consequi nisi multa varia copiosa simili Contentione orationis nemo potest Quare qui aut breviter aut summisse dicunt docere judicem possunt commovere non possunt Passions are not to be excited in a moment as a Proof does presently persuade so soon as it is proposed A Proof is confirmed by Reasons and Reasons clearly set out make an impression immediately but when we intend to raise the Passions the success does not so much depend upon the Conviction as upon the Perturbation of the Mind Oratory cannot have its effect then without Prolixity Variety Copiousness and Vehemence of Discourse Those therefore who speak briefly and calmly are fit to Instruct but not to move From these Reflections it appears that the Method of those Preachers who are large upon the Explication of Doctrines and succinct upon Morals is directly contrary to the true way of Preaching and that those do very ill understand what Morality is who either despise it or look upon it as the easiest thing in Preaching We may likewise apprehend from what has been said what are the most ordinary Faults of Preachers when they Treat of Morals I shall observe Three of them Their Morality is too general it is defective and it is sometimes false 1. Many Preachers are too general in handling Morality This is the Head which is the most slightly touched upon They spend the greater part of their Sermons in explaining the Sense of a Text
children in subjection with all gravity and who is not lifted up with pride and self-conceit Every body knows how much might be said if the Conduct of Clergy-Men was to be examined upon all these Heads Are not many of them scandalous by the irregularity of their Manners How gross and shameful soever the Sin of Drunkenness may be yet do they never commit it and is not this Vice very common among them in some Countries Are not some of them furious and passionate in their Actions and Words Do we never observe in them a sordid Covetousness and an excessive study of Self-Interest Are their Families always well ordered Are not Positiveness and Pride very remarkable in some Persons of that Profession Is there not often just Cause to complain that they are implacable in their Hatred that they have little Charity and that there is less Prepossession and more of Gentleness and true Zeal to be found among Lay-Men than among Divines I say nothing of some other Faults which are not less scandalous in Church-Men as when they are given to swearing when they are dissolute and undecently free in their Words when they are wedded to Divertisements and Pleasures Worldly-minded Lazy Crafty Unjust and Censorious When such Vices appear in the Lives of Clergy-Men it is the greatest of Scandals from that minute the Gospel becomes of no effect in their Mouths the Laws of God are trampled upon the most sacred things are no longer respected Divine Worship and the Sacraments are profaned the Ministry grows vile Religion in general falls under Contempt and the People being no longer curbed by the Reverence due to it give up themselves to an entire Licentiousness I confess that Christians ought to follow the Doctrine rather than the Example of their Guides and that it is possible to profit by the Instructions of a Man who does not practise what he teaches But every body has not discretion and firmness enough to separate thus the Doctrine from the Example and not to be shaken by the Scandal occasioned by Church-Men when their Life and their Preaching contradict each other Men are very much taken with Outsides and govern themselves more by Imitation than Reason A great many Persons want nothing but Pretexts and Excuses to justifie them in ill things and there is no pretence more specious than that which the ill Lives of the Ministers of Religion affords When the People see Men who are incessantly speaking of God and recommending Piety and yet do not practise themselves what they preach they reject all that comes from them they fancy that the Gospel is preached only for Forms-sake and that the Maxims of Religion may be safely violated 2. But St. Paul requires somewhat more in Pastors than not to be scandalous this is but the first and the lowest degree of Probity He would have them besides to be adorned with all manner of Virtues * 2 Tim. III. c. Tit. I. and II. To be vigilant prudent grave modest and given to hospitality gentle charitable lovers of good men wise just holy and chaste shewing themselves in all things patterns of good works of purity gravity and integrity And indeed Pastors are not only appointed to instruct and govern their Flocks but they are obliged besides to set them a good Example and to be their Patterns and they do not edifie less by their good Examples than by their Exhortations The Purity of their Manners and the regularity of their Conduct give a great Weight to all the Functions of their Ministry these make their Persons venerable and engage a great many to imitate them Now whether these Qualifications are to be found in Pastors every body may judge I except those who ought to be excepted but for the generality Wherein do Church-Men differ from other Men Do they distinguish themselves by a regular and exemplary Life Their Exterior indeed is something different they live more retired they preserve a little Decorum tho' ever this is not done by all but as for the rest are they not as much addicted to the World and taken up with earthly things have they not as many humane and secular Views are they not as much wedded to Interest and other Passions as the bulk of Christians are 3. This second degree of Probity is not sufficient The Life of an Hypocrite may be blameless and even edifying by composing his Exterior he may pass for a Saint There is therefore a third Degree and that is the Rectitude of the Heart a good Conscience a great measure of true Piety Devotion Humility and Zeal Pastor ought to be in private inwardly and in the sight of God what they appear to other Men. And certainly none can have greater Inducements to Piety than a Man whose ordinary Business it is to meditate upon Religion to speak of it to others to reprove Hypocrisie and Vice to perform Divine Service to administer the Sacraments to visit afflicted and dying People and to give an account to God of a great number of Souls I do not know whether there is a higher Degree of Impiety and Hypocrisie than when a Man who is in these Circumstances is not a good Man Such a Man makes but Sport with the most sacred things in Religion he does properly play the part of a Comedian and of an Hypocrite all his Life No Profession damns more certainly than that of a Church-Man when it is thus exercised It may perhaps be said that all these Moralities are nothing to my purpose that this third degree of Probity is necessary only for the Salvation of Pastors in particular and that as the People are unacquainted with the inward Dispositions of their Teachers and are not able to distinguish true from counterfeit Piety it is enough for their Edification that the Exterior should be well regulated But those who think this are very much mistaken This want of Piety and Devotion is capital and here we find the main Cause of the remisness of Pastors and of the Corruption of the People From whence do those Faults proceed which we have observed in Clergy-Men How comes it to pass that some of them are ignorant and lazy that others apply themselves to unprofitable Subjects and Studies that others preach only out of Vanity and that their Discourses are languid and jejune All this is because their Hearts are void of Devotion and Piety There are some preaching Matters and those too the most edifying which can never be well managed but by a Man animated with sincere Piety Those Preachers who describe the Beauty of Virtue or the happy State of a good Conscience the hopes of another Life or the necessity of working out one's Salvation and who are not affected and pierced thorough with what they say do but stammer about these things and they will hardly excite those Motions in other Men's hearts which they never felt in their own We cannot preach with Success without knowing the heart of Man and
and Zeal did visibly decay Not but that Religion may receive and has actually received great Helps from Christian Magistrates they have sometimes contributed very effectually to the promoting of Piety and those who do so deserve immortal Honour But it must likewise be granted that the Vices and ill Examples of Christian Magistrates Corrupt the Church more than if it were under Heathen Governors The Duty of Christian Princes and Magistrates as well as of all the Members of the Church is double They are bound First to serve God and to discharge the Obligations which Religion lays upon all Men and Secondly to take care that God may be served and honoured by all those who are subject to their Authority 1. Every Christian ought to serve God and to live according to the Precepts of the Gospel That very thing then that a Magistrate is Christian obliges him to be a lover of Piety and Virtue It is a Common Notion especially among great Men that Piety and Devotion do not become those who are exalted to Dignities and that publick Persons â—re not to be ruled by the Maxims of Religion But whosoever maintains this Opinion must deny the Principles of Religion and be either an Atheist or a Deist For supposing the Truth of Christianity it is beyond all doubt that a Christian Prince or Magistrate has as much need of Piety as other Men have He is bound to be a good Man by the same duty and interest which engage private Men to be so he has a Soul to be saved as well as they and as he is a publick Person he is to give an account of his conduct to that Judge with whom there is no acception of Persons and before whom the greatest of Monarchs is no more than the Meanest of Slaves If the eminent Station of a Magistrate makes some difference between him and Christians of a lower Order that difference obliges him to a higher degree of Piety The Character he bears requires a great stock of Virtue No small measure of Probity is requisite to acquit himself worthily in that Calling to do no Injustice not to seek in his Dignities the means to gratifie his Interest his Vanity his Pride or his other Passions Without a firm and solid Virtue he cannot withstand those Temptations which offer themselves every minute and which are the more dangerous and subtil because in those exalted Posts ill things for the most part may be done with safety If we add to all this that an ill Magistrate is answerable for the greatest part of the Disorders which happen and of the Crimes which are committed in Society it must be confessed that Magistracy is a kind of Life wherein Piety is extreamly necessary and in which great Circumspection and a sublime Virtue are the only Preservatives against a thousand opportunities of transgressing the Duties of Conscience and violating the most Sacred Laws of Religion and Justice II. It is the duty of Christian Princes and Magistrates to labour for the promoting of Virtue and the suppressing of Vice among Men. We have shewn already that it is their interest to do so since Religion is the surest Foundation of their Authority and of the Fidelity of their People but their Duty does besides indispensably oblige them to this It cannot be denied but that this Obligation lies upon them since every Christian is bound to advance the Kingdom of Christ and to edify his Neighbours as much as he can in that State and Condition he is in The Duty here is answerable to the abilitry so that we may apply to this purpose that Maxim of the Gospel * Luke XII that to whom soever much is given of him much shall be required Private Men cannot do much towards promoting the Glory of God their Zeal and Good intentions are for the most part useless it is not in their power to hinder general disorders this ought therefore to be done by Men of Authority and they may do it easily Besides a Christian Magistrate is to consider that it was Providence which raised him to the Post he is in and that by consequence he is engaged in Justice and Gratitude to use his Authority for the Glory of God Lastly Would it not be a strange thing that Christian Princes and Magistrates should do no Service to Religion when Kings and Princes who are not Christian can do so much hurt to it Now they may advance the Kingdom of God and banish Corruptions these two ways 1. By their Example 2. By their Care 1. By their Example This Method is of great efficacy Examples are very forcible but their effect depends for the most part upon the Quality and Character of the Persons they come from It has been made appear in the foregoing Chapter how much benefit redounds to the Church from the good Lives and Examples of the Governours of it But the example of Kings Princes and Magistrates is in some respects of greater weight When a Church-Man recommends Virtue by an exemplary Life it is often said that his Profession obliges him to live so and this consideration makes his to be example of little force upon worldly-minded Men. But when Princes and Magistrates are pious those Men have no such thing to say The Splendor and Authority which surround Greatness gives much credit to every thing that comes from great Men. They may sometimes do more good with one word than a Preacher can do by many Sermons I have shewed in the first Part of this Work that one of the greatest Obstacles to Piety is a false Shame which restrains Men from doing their Duty for fear of being observed and despised and I am to shew hereafter that Custom has introduced among Christians a great many Maxims and Practices contrary to the Spirit of the Gospel These two things occasion Corruption and till they are remedied Vice and Impiety must still reign But the Example of great Men is sufficient to remove almost intirely both these Springs of Corruption They are the Judges of Honour and Custom it is in their power to make any thing which is reputed shameful to be thought Honourable and to abolish that which is generally received So that how scarce and despesed soever Piety may be an Idea of Honour would be affixed to it if it was favoured and professed by great Men and that would be respected in them which in others is looked upon with Indifference or Contempt That which has happened with relation to Duels is a strong proof of what I say To decline fighting a Duel has been thought for a long time a Disgrace and an Infamy A false notion of Honour did then bear down the strongest Principles of Nature Reason and Christianity and drive Men to that excess of Brutality and Madness that they would cut one anothers Throat for a trifle But in those places where Christian Princes have abolished Dâ—els People are now of another mind and think it no shame to refuse a Challenge And
thus Swearing Drunkenness and the greatest of other clamorous Sins might be suppressed if great Men pleased Is it not observed besides that when a Prince is devout Devotion comes into fashion It may be that this Devotion which proceeds from the Example of Princes is not always sincere but at least it regulates Manners as to the exterior and such an outward Reformation may be a step towards true Devotion However this shews that the opinion and example of Men in Authority has a great power And surely if by their credit they can make Vice it self to be honoured would it not be much easier for them to make other Men honour Virtue since it is honourable in its own Nature I am not able to express of what Consequence the Example of great Men is either for Good or Evil. A Prince who is vicious cruel dissolute artificious or unjust is enough to infect a whole State in a very little time to banish Piety from it and to bring into repute Drunkenness Lewdnese Cheating Indevotion and all the other Vices which he allows himself in This we find by daily experience Such as the Prince is so are those about him and from these the Evil spreads upon the whole People by reason of the Credit and Authority to which they were raised and of the Influence they have upon publick and private Affairs What might not be said here of the Life which is led in the Courts of Princes Excepting some few Courts where Licentiousness is not suffered That kind of Life which is followed at Court for the generality agrees little with the Spirit of Christianity People live there altogether in a loose and worldly manner in Luxury Idleness Pomp and Pleasure There the strongest and the most inticing Temptations are to be met with and the most criminal Intrigues Adultery it self are rather a Matter of Railery than Reproach It is almost impossible for a Man to insinuate himself into the Favour of Princes and to advance his Fortune at Court unless he makes it his Maxim to dissemble his Sentiments and to speak directly against his own Thoughts The worst of it is that from thence Corruption diffuses it self almost every where so that many Disorders which are in Vogue would be unknown or at least very rare in the World if they had not been introduced by that Licentiousness which reigns in the Courts of Princes I come now to the Endeavours which Christian Magistrates ought to use for the Edification of the Church and the reviving of Piety these Endeavours relate either to Civil Matters or to Religion 1. In Civil Matters it is their Duty to restrain Libertinism and Corruption by regulating the Manners of their Subjects either by repealing the Laws and Customs which do not agree with Religion and which engage the People into the violation of the Precepts of the Gospel or by reforming the Abuses which are introduced from time to time particularly those which creep into the Administration of Justice In relation to all these things there are several Faults which the Church cannot provide against and which nothing can remedy but the Magistrates Authority 2. The other Care relates directly to Religion 1. Princes and Kings professing Christianity are bound to procure as much as in them lies the Welfare of the Church They ought to set about the establishing of Truth and Peace provided that in order to that they use no Means but such as are sutable to the Gospel They ought by their Authority to see that the Church and Religion want nothing of what is necessary for the maintaining of Order and Decency that Divine Service be duly performed that there be both Places for that Purpose and a sufficient number of Persons to take care of the Edification of the Church that those Persons may subsist honourably that they do their Duty and keep themselves within the bounds of their Calling They must not suffer Church Goods or Revenves to be applied to uses meerly Civil and when these Revenues are not sufficient it becomes their Piety and Justice to allot some part of the publick Revenues for the necessities of the Church In fine as to Manners I observed before that they may easily give a stop to Vice and Impiety to Luxury Swearing and other Scandals which dishonour the Church And if they can do this they ought to do it every Christian being bound to do all that is in his Power to promote the Glory of God 2. It is certain that Magistrates who are Members of the Church ought to protect it to maintain the Order which God has established in it and not to suffer any breach to be made there So that tho' they may regulate many things which concern Religion and tho' the Church owes them a great Regard yet they cannot without Usurpation and Injustice arrogate to themselves the whole Authority with relation to Ecclesiastical Affairs They are neither the Princes nor the Heads of the Church as they are the Princes and the Heads of Civil Society An Authority superior to theirs has instituted Religion Pastors and Discipline There is a Law enacted by the KING of Kings and the Head of the Church which clearly determines the Rights and Duties both of the Church and of the Governour of it All these are Sacred things which earthly Powers are not to meddle with They are Laws which Princes and Magistrates did submit to when they became Members of the Church with respect to these I mean still essential things appointed by the Word of God they have acquired no Right by embracing Christianity since he who becomes Member of a Society cannot by that acquire a Right to alter the natural Form and Constitution of it The Instance of the Kings of Judah shews that a Prince who professes true Religion may interpose in the Affairs of it But we must take care not to carry this Instance too far as those do who ascribe to the Magistrate a supreme Authority in the Church who allow him a Right to order every thing there not excepting Discipline the calling of Pastors nor even the Articles of Faith For besides that under the Law Kings were by no means the Judges of every thing which concerned Religion we are not to argue altogether about the Christian Religion from what was done in the Jewish Church Among â—â—e Jews the Church and the State were mixed together and in some measure undistinguished from one another That meerly spiritual Society which is called the Church and which is confined to no State or People or any particular Form of Civil Government was properly erected since the coming of Christ God acted among the Jews as a Civil Magistrate The Laws of the Jewish Religion were for the most part external Laws which might and ought to be maintained by Force and Authority The Rights of Divine Service and the Functions of Priests were very different from the Evangelical Worship and from the Office of Christian Pastors After all if we
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
commonly leave their Innocency 5. The means of procuring to Children a happy Education are not used as they should be These Means are Instruction Encouragement and Correction Instruction is very much neglected as I shall more particularly shew when I come to speak of the Education of Youth with reference to Religion Parents seldom give good Directions to their Children to teach them how they ought to live They do worse they train them up to ill things and give them bad Instruction By the Discourse and the Maxims they utter in the hearing of their Children they infuse Sentiments and Principles of Covetousness Pride Sensuality and Dissimulation into them they teach them to act upon the Motives of Interest and Passion or by the Notions of a false Honour Nay they do sometimes directly teach them Vice they encourage them to Lye and Cheat to be Revengeful and Passionate So that Young People are not only destitute of good Instructions but they are besides infected from their Infancy with several most pernicious Principles I need not say what the Consequences of such an Education are like to be If few Children are formed to Virtue by Instruction few are made Virtuous by the good Example of their Parents It is much when this Example is not bad and dangerous In most Families Children see nothing that Savours of Christianity except some external Acts of Religion they observe that every one of the Family is imployed about Temporal things the discourses they hear turn altogether on Interest or some trifling Subject They are Witnesses of a great many Disorders of the Heats and Quarrels of their Fathers and Mothers of their Avarice their Swearing their Lying their Intemperance their Impiety and their want of Respect for Religion These are the Examples which for the most part Children have before their Eyes and which Corrupt them more than any thing else At that Age almost every thing is done by Imitation and Example and no Example makes more Impression upon them than the Example of their Parents because it is always in sight and they think besides they cannot do amiss as long as they Copy after it It is very useful in educating Children to encourage them I mean not only that they should be exhorted and incited to their Duty and that from the Motives of Honour and from the pleasure that attends the doing of it but that likewise we should express our Satisfaction and our love and esteeem of them when they do as we would have them A Word of Praise a little Reward inspires new Ardor into them We may do what we please with Children when we can prevail upon them with gentle Methods and win their Love They then accustom themselves betimes to do their Duty out of Inclination and from noble and generous Views But to use always Severity towards Children and to take no notice of their Endeavours to do well is the way to discourage them and to extinguish in them the Love of Virtue Yet Severity is necessary and upon some occasions we ought not to forbear Rigour and Correction Those indulgent Parents who being restrained by a false Tenderness cannot find in their heart to Chastise their Children do infallibly ruin them But if the want of Correction and Discipline makes Children unruly Chastisement ill dispensed produces the same effect There are commonly three Faults committed in the Correcting of Children The first relates to the Cause for which they are chastised Correction should not be used but for those Faults which have something of Vice in them as when Children are guilty of Malice of some ill Habit or of great Negligence and even then we should not proceed to Chastisement but after we have tried other ways to no purpose But this Rule is little observed Children are punished for all sorts of Faults indifferently and very often for small ones They will sometimes be severely chastised because they can not say their Lesson without Book or for some other little disorder they have done in the House through Imprudence and without Malice and at the same time Faults against Piety and good Manners shall be passed over These Corrections produce several ill effects and especially this that Children form to themselves false Notions of their Duty The fancy that the Faults for which they are punished are the most considerable and that there is more hurt in spoiling their Cloaths or in missing a word of their Lesson that in Lying or in praying without attention which lessens in them the Abhorrence of Vice The Second Error which relates to the Nature of the Correction inflicted upon Children is when no other Chastisements are used but those which make the Body smart Such Corrections without doubt are useful and necessary because Children are chiefly moved by those things which strike the Senses but they are not the only Ones to which recourse is to be had To beat Children every time they do amiss is to use them like Beasts There are other ways of punishing are mortifying them The most profitable Corrections are those which excite in them Sorrow and Shame for the ill they have done Lastly There is an Error in the Chastising of Children when they are not Corrected with Discretion and Gentleness Prudence and even Justice requires that regard should be had to the Nature of their Fault to the Disposition they are in and to other Circumstances and it becomes that Love which a Father owes his Children to Correct them with Lenity and Moderation and to forbear excessive Severities Children should perceive the Tenderness of their Parents even in their Corrections and be made sensible that it is with Reluctancy and only in order to their Good that they treat them with some Rigour If Chastisements were dispensed with these Cautions they would at the same time that they cause Pain beget in Childrens Minds a Sorrow for having done amiss and they would make them love their Parents even while they are Punishing them But for the most part Parents or those who have an Authority over Children Chastise them without Discretion and with a Rigour which borders upon Cruelty they punish them rather out of Passion Spite or Revenge than upon wise and sober Consideration Such a proceeding discourages and provokes Children and it makes them hate their Duty I confess this Method may strike Terror into them and Curb them a little but they grow the more stout and incorrigible by it and they will certainly run into Licentiouness assoon as they are no longer restrained by the fear of Punishment From what has been said hitherto it is plain that Men's Corruption is a consequence of the Education they had in their Youth But this will yet more evidently appear by the Reflections I am now going to make upon the way of bringing up Children in Religion and Piety We are here to consider Education in reference to the two Ends of it which are the educating of Youth First in the Knowledgwe and then in the
Practice of Religion I. The Considerations to be insisted on concerning the first Head relate either to the Things which Children are to be Instructed in or to the manner of Instructing them 1. As to the Things themselves there are Two Articles upon which the Instruction of Youth ought to depend and those are the Truths and the Duties of Religion The chief Rule to be observed with relation to the Truths of Religion is to insist upon those which are the most necessary and to give a distinct Notion of them to Children And here Two Faults are committed The first is when they are not Instructed in all the Truths which are to be known in order to be a Christian the second is when such Instructions are proposed to them as are unsuitable to their Age or even useless To explain my Meaning a little further I say First that there are some essential things which Children are not at all or but imperfectly taught Among these we may reckon the knowledge of Sacred History Religion being founded upon History Religion being founded upon History and Facts it would be requisite that Instruction should begin at the Historical part of Religion and at the main Events which are related both in the Old and New Testament so that Children might know at least in general the principal Ages of the World and the most remarkable things which did happen from the Creation to the coming of our Saviour what the Flood was what were the Egyptian and the Babilonish Captivities what time Moses David the Patriarchs and the Prophets lived in what sort of People the Heathens and the Jews were and what kind of Life our Saviour led It must not be said that History is above the Capacity of Children for on the contrary it is that which is to them the easiest part of Religion which they hearken to with the greatest pleasure and which they remember best Nothing does more smoothly enter into their Minds than History all the things I have no mentioned may be taught them in a Week And this Knowledge is as necessary as it is easily acquired A Man can never understand his Religion well or be thoroughly convinced of its Truth if he does not know the Facts which is supposes We see that it was by the Means of History that God chose to instruct Mankind and that matters of Fact make up the most considerable part of the sacred Writings And therefore it is a strange thing that in Catechisms and other Instructions given to Youth History should be so little insisted upon This is visibly one of the Causes of that profound Ignorance which the greatest part of Christians live in This is the reason why they understand almost nothing of what they read or hear in Sermons and why the Doctrines which they are taught make so little impression upon them Teaching Children History gives them beforehand some Notions of the Truths and Doctrines of Christianity but yet these Truths and Doctrines ought to be proposed to them separately that they may have a more distinct apprehension of them Above all things great care should be taken to imprint upon the Minds of those who are to be instructed the knowledge and the belief of the Principles of Christianity But this likewise is not done as it should be In Catechisms as well as in Sermons particular Truths are dwelt upon and the general ones are touched only by the by This is a Fault I have observed in the very beginning of this Work Now at the same time that Children are suffered to be ignorant about many important Articles they are perplexed with divers useless or not very necessary Instruction Instead of limiting them to the essential parts of Religion their Minds and Memories are filled up with many things which they may safely be Ignorant of Some would have them understand the Disputes of Divines concerning the most curious and abstruse Questions and they are made to get several things by heart which they do not understand and which are of no great use In the mean time Children learn these things and say them without Book and being possessed with the conceit that they are as many Articles of Faith they rank among Divine Truths School terms and Doctrines of which they neither apprehend the Certainty nor the use And thus having none but intricate Ideas about Religion they do not perceive the Beauty the Solidity or the Excellence of it and they have neither true Love nor Respect for it When Children are once instructed in the Truths of Christianity it is particularly necessary to acquaint them with the Duties of it There are two distinct sorts of duties in Religion First the Duties conceming Divine Worship or Service and then the Duties of Morality The First are Adoration the Honour which is paid to God Prayer and Thanks-giving But as these Duties may be performed either outwardly or in wardly it is of very great moment to make Children apprehend that Brayer and all the other Acts of Divine Worship ought to proceed from the Heart that * John IV. God will be served in Spirit and in Truth and that without this the Worship which is paid to him either in private or in publick does only provoke his Displeasure It is not enough therefore to tell Children that they must pray to God or go to Church and to teach them some Form of Prayer to be said at certain Times and Hours All this is but external and if we go no farther if we do not carefully inform them that true Worship is Internal and Spiritual we shall make but Hypocrites of them by tenching them to pray and to perform Religious Acts. The Faults then which are committed in this point are of great Moment and we may easily perceive that Hypocrisy and Indevotion are the Consequences of this Negligence The Religion of most Christians consists only in some external Actions they think they have fulfilled their Duty when they have recited some Prayers or been present at the Publick Worship of God tho' in all they do this kind they have neither Attention nor Elevation of Heart but this Errour which is so capital and yet so common arises chiefly from hence that Children are formed only to a meer outside Devotion and Worship Young People are not much better instructed in Moral Duties I shall not enter here upon all the Consideration which the Subject might afford because I have treated of the want of Instruction concerning Morals in several places of this Treatise and particularly in the 1 Chap. of the First Part. Yet I must say that this Defect proceeds from the Instructions which are given to Youth Much greater care is taken to inform them about the Doctrines than about the Duties of Christianity The Articles of the Creed the Questions concerning the Sacraments and the other Points of Doctrine are handled and examined largely enough in Catechisms and Controversie is not forgot but the Ten Commandments are explained in so
next place that Pastors should discharge their Duty with relation to young People and that to this end in all Places and Churches the necessary Order and Method were established for instructing the People and particularly Children I remark this because in this respect things are not well ordered so that in many Places such helps andmeans are very much wanting It is well known that the opportunities of Instruction and the helps to Piety are mighty scarce in the Country and in Villages Schools are there managed at a very ordinary rate and many Places have no School at all whereby it happens that many Persons cannot so much as read There likewise Divine Service is but seldom performed and very carelesly too The Ministers who are appointed in those Places are generally either Men of little worth or Men who do not watch over their Flocks as they ought and who are remiss in the Exercise of their Office These are the essential Defects which should be remedied by those who have Authority in Church or State Above all it is requisite that Church-Men should have a strict inspection over Schools and Families and that Catechisings were more frequent than they are Young People ought to be the chief objects of the care of Pastors no part of their Office is more useful or rewards their Labours with better success than that Their endeavours to mend those who are come to Age are for the most part to little purpose but what they do for Children â—s of great benefit If therefore they have a Zeal for the Glory of God and if they wish to see a change in the face of the Church let them apply themselves to the instructing of youth and make it their Business to form a New Gneration Among the particular Establishments which might be made for the edification of the Church and the benefit of young People there is one which would be of great use and which seems to me absolutely necessary And that is that with relation to Children who have attained the Age of discretion the same order should be observed for their admission to the Sacrament which was practised in the Primitive Church when Catechumens were to be received into the Church by Baptism This admission was very solemn A long Probation and Instruction went before it The Catechumens were required to give an account of their Faith and the bound themselves by solemn Promises and Vows to renounce the World and to live Holy No such thing is done at this day in the Administration of Baptism because young Children are baptized but what is not done at the time of Baptism should be done when they come to Years of discretion And truly if there be not a publick and solemn Profession a Promise in due form on the Children's part I do not see how we can well answer what is objected by some against Infant-Baptism which yet is a good and laudable Practice A Man cannot be obliged to profess the Christian Religion against his will or without his knowledge This engagement is a personal thing is which every bold should act and answer for himself When Children are baptized they know nothing of what is done to them it is there fore absolutely necessary that when they come to the years of Reason they should ratify and confirm the Engagements they came under by their Baptism and that they should become Members of the Church out of Knowledge and Choice Now the fittest time for such a Confirmation and Promise is when they are admitted to the participation of the Holy Sacrament The Order then which I mean is this First that when Children desire to be admitted to the Sacrament they should be instructed for some Weeks before and that at the same time they should be informed of the Sacredness and importance of this Action and of the Promise they are to make that so they might prepare for it betimes In the next Place that they should be examined and that they should publickly render an account of their Faith This Examination being over that they should be required to renew and confirm in a publick and solemn Manner their Baptismal Vow to renounce the Devil and his Works the World and the Pomp of it the Flesh and its Lusts and to promise that they will live and die in the Christian Faith And then that they should be admitted to the Communion by Benediction and Prayers It will no doubt seem to some that I am here proposing a Novelty and that too not very necessary that there is no occasion for all this Solemnity that it is enough to examine and exhort Children in private and that this Confirmation of the Baptismal Vow is included and supposed in the admission to the Sacrament To this I say that the order I propose will be thought a Novelty by none but such as do not know what was anciently practised and who call Innovation every thing which does not agree with the Custom of their Country or their Church This is an imitation of the Ancient and the Apostolical Order and besides this Establishment being altogether sutable to the Nature of the Christian Religion as I have just now made it appear it ought not to be rejected As for what is said that it is sufficient if Children are examined and admitted in Private I answer that the Corruption of the Age we live in is so great that in many Churches this Admission and the Examination which precedes it is but three or four hours Work and sometimes less Pastors and those to whom this Function is committed do often go about it very negligently they content themselves with some Questions which for the most part relate only to Doctrine and Controversy the address to Chidren general exhortations to Piety but they take no care to instruct them in Morals or to examine their Conduct they do not require of them an express Ratification of the Baptismal Vow I know there are Pastors who do their Duty but the best thing would be to have this Form of Examination and Admission regulated in such a manner that it might not be in the Breast of every Minister to do in this Matter as he thinks fit And that all this might be done the more orderly it would be fitting that according to the Practice of the Primitive Church some Persons should be appointed on Purpose to instruct Young People and Catechumens What Care soever may be taken of Children and whatever may be done for them in private Instructions it is certain that publick and solemn Exhortations on the one hand and Promises on the other would make a much greater Impression upon them They would then look upon their Admission with Respect they would remember it all their Lives and this Solemnity would prove as useful and edifying to the whole Church as it would be to young People I offer this with the greater Confidence because an Order like this has been setled of late in some Churches and is there observed
the Men of the World St. Paul exhorts Christians †Rom. XII Eph. II and IV. Tit. II. Mat. VII XIII XIV Not to be conformed to this present world not to walk after the course of this world not to follow other mens way of living to renounce the world and the lusts of it Our Saviour enjoins his Disciples To avoid the wide gate and the broad way of the multitude and to strike into The narrow path which is walked in but by a few These are Reflections which every Man who believes the Gospel would frequently and seriously make and which should serve him for Remedies against the Temptations arising from Example and Custom There are other general Remedies which tend to lessen the number of bad Examples and to alter the Customs and Usages which are contrary to the Christian Religion For tho' it may seem that to go about the abolishing of that which is established by a general Custom and a long Use is to attempt and impossibility and tho' we cannot expect that this Cause of Corruption should be intirely removed yet the difficulty is not so great but that it might in some measure be overcome This we might have Reason to hope for if First those who know and love their Duty would discharge it with Courage and if they did add to their Knowledge a Zeal supported by Prudence and Firmness How great soever the Degeneracy of Men may be there is still something in Virtue which attracts their Respect and their Love The Endeavours of good Men against Vice are always attended with some Success If the benefit of their Exhortations and good Examples does not reach far they may at least be useful to their Families and their Acquaintance But something more than this is requisite to reform general Customs and Practices and none can do this more easily and effectually than those who are raised above other Men and who are in publick Stations I say therefore Secondly that if Christian Princes and Magistrates would use their Authority to this End and be exemplary themselves the Corruption of the World would considerably abate and bad Examples would neither be so frequent nor so forcible as they are It is in their Power to banish the greatest part of those Customs which are commonly received and to establish contrary ones The Care and Example of Pastors are likewise a most efficacious Remedy If they did instruct Christians as they ought if they did oppose the Corruption of the Age with the pure Maxims of the Gospel if they did set themselves against Abuses if they did endeavour in publick and in private to bring all those that err into the way of Truth if they applied themselves to the instructing of Youth and if their Manners were edifying and exemplary there is no doubt but that they would soon stop the Current of Vices and Scandals It should be their chief Care to oppose Abuses and ill Customs in their beginnings because when they have once taken Root the Remedy is much more difficult In fine as Customs are established by degrees so they are not abolished all at once and therefore those who do not succeed at first in so good a Design ought not presently to be discouraged and to grow weary CAUSE VII Books THIS is the last Cause of Corruption which I shall mention but without question it is one of the most generaland of the most remarkable Books are as many publick Fountains from which vast numbers of Notions and sentiments which are commonly received among Men and which are the Principles of their actions diffuse themselves into the World And as it is impossible but that among an infinity of Books a great many must be bad so it is certain that Books contribute very much to the keeping up of Corruption If Men as we have shewed in the precedent Chapters are ignorant and full of Prejudices if they have loose and impious Notions concerning Religion if great Defects are observable both in the Lives of Christians and in the state of the Church in general if the People are ill instructed and Children are ill educated the cause of all these Disorders is partly to be found in Books It is therefore a most important subject which I am to handle in this Chapter but it is likewise a very large one by reason of the prodigious Multitude of Books which I might have an opportunity to speak of here But I must confine my self to that which is most material to be said upon this Head I shall speak 1. of Ill Books and 2. of Books of Religion The number of bad Books is infinite and it would be very hard to give a Catalogue of them but I think that among all the sorts of ill Books none do greater Mischief in the World than either those which lead to Irreligion and Impiety or those which are impure and filthy The first attack Faith and the other corrupt Manners 1. The most dangerous of all Books are those which attack Religion such are not only all the Books of Atheists and Deists but such are likewise all those Works which tend to overthrow either the Authority of the Holy Scripture or the Facts and Doctrines of Christianity or the difference between Virtue and Vice or any other Principle of Religion Frank also in the same Order the Books which introduce Scepticism and the design of which is to render the Principles of Faith or Morality uncertain and dubious Those Books in which Impiety appears bare-faced are not the most pernicious Few Persons ever durst maintain Atheism openly or deny directly the Fundamentals of Religion And besides avowed Atheists and Deists have not many Followers Their Opinions raise horrour and a Man's Mind rebels against them But those Men who tho' they do not openly espouse the Cause of Impiety but pretending all the while that the acknowledge the existence of a God and a Religion do yet shake the principal Truths of Faith those Men I say diffuse a much more subtil and dangerous Poison and this may be particularly said of the Scepticks In the main they drive at the same thing with the Atheists they assault Religion with the same Weapons and make the same objections There is only this difference that the Atheist decides the Question and denies whereas the Sceptick after he has mustered up all the Objections of the Atheist and started a thousand Scruples leaves in some manner the Question undetermined he only insinuates that there is no solid Answer to those difficulties and then he concludes with a false Modesty and tells us that he dares not embrace either side and that which way soever a Man turns himself he meets with nothing but Obscurity and Uncertainty This differs little from Atheism and it does naturally lead to incredulity It is an astonishing thing that Books containing such pernicious Principles should have been published and that Libertinism in Opinions about Religion should have grown up to that pitch which we
now see it at The Enemies of Christianity did never oppose it with so much Subtlety and with such vigorous Efforts as some Christians do at this day Some Books appear from time to time which are only Collections of all the Objections of Heathens and Atheists against the Existence of God against Providence the Divinity of Scripture the Truth of sacred History the Foundations of Morality and many other important Heads so that Impiety is now arrived at its greatest height It might be more general but we cannot imagine how it could rise higher And this occasions a very considerable objection It may be asked how it comes to pass that Incredulity and Sceptism should appear in so knowing an Age as this is and that Men of Parts and Learning should entertain such impious Sentiments It is necessary to dwell a little upon the examining of this difficulty because it it so apt to perplex Many The Infidels urge it with great assurance and they pretend to infer for it that Religion cannot and a Philosophical and Learned Age and that none but the Mob and the credulous part of Mankind believe it They say that ignorant Ages were the most favourable times to Religion that then every thing was believed but that since Men have begun to examine Matters a little more narrowly they are become incredulous But any reasonable Man who does not love wrangling may easily be satisfied upon this Point First Infidels have no ground to suppose that Men had more Faith in the Ages of ignorance than they have now for this supposition is altogether false There was but little Faith in those Ages for we are not to call by the name of Faith a silly Credulity which made the grossest impostures to pass the Current for certain and even for Divine Truths The Infidels do likewise suppose falsly that the Learning of an Age more enlightened that the precedent is prejudicial to Religion for on the contrary it has done great Services to it If some subtil Spirits have attackt it a great many knowing and judicious Persons of extraordinary erudition and eminent worth have illustrated and proved the truth of it with greater Solidity of Arguments than ever was known before This must be acknowledge to the Honour of God and for the credit of the Christian Religion But it will be said that those who make Objections against Religion are learned that the are Philosophical Men who in all other things reason true and can distinguish truth from error Let it be so but then I ask those who urge this Objection how it happens that we see every day Men of parts and sense who yet will obstinately maintain palpable Errors and refuse to yield to the Evidence of some Truths which are clear as the Sun To this nothing else can be said but that such Men are not so knowing and perspicacious as they should be or that they do not make that use which they ought of their Parts and Judgment I confess that indeed a Man must have some Parts and Subtilty to be able to find difficulties every where But that Man makes a wretched use of his Parts when they serve him only to wrangle about the most certain Truths Those which the Infidels call strong Objections against the Truths of Faith are but for the most part vain Subtilties and meer Slights of Wit which may be used alike upon all sorts of Subjects That we may be convinced of this I shall only name here some or those Truths of Matters of Fact which are thought unquestionable and which no Man tho' he had a Mind can doubt of It is certain that the same Objections by which the Infidels attack Religion may be turned against such Truths or Matters of fact The Subtilties of Scepticism may puzzle a Man who shall maintain that there was heretofore an Emperour at Rome called Augustus or who shall believe with all Mankind that Parents ought to love their Children and that it would be a sin to murder a poor Wretch who is begging an Alms I say a Man who maintains these Truths may be hard put to it before he can get rid of all the questions of a Captious Sophister But does it follow from thence that this Man is mistaken It is to be imagined that a Man can doubt in good earnest whether or not there was ever at Rome an Emperour named Augustus or whether Parents ought to love their Children Will any ever be so extravagant as to believe seriously that it is indifferent whether we cut a poor Mans Throat or give him an Alms The Subtilties of Arguments signify nothing against facts which are well averred or against those natural Sentiments which are common to all Mankind Now Religion is founded upon Facts and its Principles are in part natural Truths and Sentiments which we must needs feel and believe at all times He that would destroy Religion must confute those Fact and Sentiments and Infidelity will never be able to do it Philosophical Knowledge is very much extolled by the Infidels they pretend chiefly to a great exactness in Reasoning and yet they visibly run counter to right Reason and transgress the Rules which true Philosophy prescribes It is contrary to Reason to judge that a thing is false or dubious because there are some difficulties in it it ought to be considered that no Man knows all Things or is able to answer all Objections and that what seems obscure to one Man will appear very clear to another When we have Reasons on the other hand to believe that a thing is true when its Proofs are stronger and more numerous than its difficulties and when there are Proofs which upon other occasions are sufficient to determine our Judgment true Sense requires that we should yield to such an Evidence This Method is particularly to be folowed when the Matter in question is of some moment In such things we are wont to govern our selves by the greater Evidence and to chuse the safer side What can be therefore more Irrational than to hazard Eternity and to question the Truth of Religion up on such Considerations as would have no weight with us and as would not stop us a Minute in the Ordinary Affairs of this Life Further it is contrary to the Rules of good Sense to pass a judgment upon those things of which we have no distinct Idea or which we do not thoroughly know Men who can give no account of the Operations of their Souls or of a hundred things they see before their Eyes will yet talk at random about the manner in which God Acts or foresees future evants about what God ought or ought not to have done for the Orderly disposing of all things about the ends which that Supreme Being proposes to it self and about the Means which may conduce to those Ends. This is the height of Extravagance and Temerity and yet it is at this rate that the Infidels Reason I must add besides that Men of Parts are
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
†Mat. XXII to render to Caesar the things which are Caesars 2. One of the Chief Precepts of the Christian Religion is ‖ Rom. XIII That all Men should obey and be subject to the Higher Powers Now this Precept could not possibly be observed if in the Natural Establishment of Civil Society there was something incompatible with the Profession of Christianity * Mat. VI. No man can serve two Masters when they command contrary things But St. Paul goes further he tells us that the preservation of Kings and the submitting to their Authory is a mean for Christians * to lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty 3. It is remarkable that whatever is good and just in the Civil is so likewise in the Religious Society and that whatever is prescribed by Religion is just and even beneficial to Civil Society The Law of Nature which is the Foundation of Civil Laws is confirmed by the Christian Religion and does perfectly agree with the Principles and Morals of the Gospel An evident proof of this is that when Christian Emperors and Lawgivers did set about the making of Laws and Constitutions they retained the essential parts of the Laws and Constitutions received among the Romans and the Greeks in the time of Heathenism And to this Day the Old Roman Law is followed among Christians excepting some Laws which have been altered or abrogated either because they were contrary to natural Justice and Equity or because they were not of a general and necessary Use 4. It is certain that Religion and Civil Society do mutually support one another when both are well Regulated Religion contributes to the happiness of Society by rendring the Authority of Princes more Sacred and Inviolable and the good Order of Society contributes to the welfare and the progress of Religion Let us suppose a Magistrate who loves Piety and Justice it is plain that at the same me that he promotes the Interest of Religion * 1 Tim. II. he strengthens the welfare of Society and that he cannot procure the good of Society without advancing the interest of Religion If we suppose on the other hand a Magistrate who does not Act by the Principles of Religion and Justice it is visible that by suffering Religion to be violated or despised he shakes the surest Foundation of his own Authority and of publick Tranquility and that by failing in the Duties of his Office and in the Exercise of Justice he makes the People grow Vicious and neglect the Duties of Piety From these Considerations it does manifestly appear that Princes and Magistrates may either procure great Advantages to Religion or do it a considerable prejudice and that they are in part the Authors of the Corruption which reigns in the World When Civil-Society is well Governed Men are disposed by that very thing to practise the Duties of Christianity In proportion as the People are well Ordered they are more tractable and susceptible of the impressions of Piety As they are used to be Governed by the Laws of the Magistrate they do the more easily submit to the Holy Discipline of Christ yea and by Obeying Civil-Laws they do already discharge some part of the Duties of Religion But when Princes and Magistrates either through Ignorance or want of Probity and Vertue give way to the violation of Justice and good Order it is impossible but that Religion must suffer by it For besides that the People cannot break the Civil-Laws without violating the Principles of Religion How can they perform the Duties of Christianity when they do not discharge those of Nature It is very hard to persuade People to the observation of the Precepts of the Gospel who do not submit to the Laws of natural Reason and Justice It is not to be expected that Men who do not order their outward Actions aright should regulate their Thoughts and resist their Passions or that being strangers to the first Elements of Vertue they should come up to the practice of the most sublime Precepts of Christian Morals Besides the want of Order in the Administration of Justice and Government draws after it all kinds of Disorders with relation to Manners such as Dishonesty and what is most dangerous a Spirit of Libertinism and Independence which makes Men untoward and refractory to good Discipline We are to observe here that the greatest part of Mens Lives are taken up with Civil Matters All Persons are bound to Obey the Magistrate and few are altogether free from Law-Suits and Business so that when the People are not well Governed with relation to Civil Things they do so accustom themselves to live without Rule of Restraint that Religion can no longer have any Power over them The neglect and remisness of Princes and Magistrates do occasion all this Mischief But if the bare Carelesness of Magistrates is so fatal to Society how must it be when they themselves are Vicious and Unjust either in their own particular Conduct or in the Exercise of their Office The greatest Unhappiness that can befal any People is when those who are invested with the Supream Authority favour Injustice and Vice It may be said then That the publick Fountains are poisoned The whole State is ordered by the Sovereigns they are those from whom the Laws receive their Force who appoint Judges and Magistrates and who regulate the Administration of Justice When inferior Magistrates prevaricate this may be remedied by the Sovereign but when the Sovereign himself fails in his Duty no redress can be expected Not but that subordinate Officers and Magistrates may likewise occasion a great deal of Mischief If we suppose in a Province or a Town Magistrates and Judges who want Integrity who consult only their Profit and Interest in the Exercise of their Office who are not proof against Bribes who Administer Justice from a principle of Covetousness or Passion who Act by Recommendation or Favour and who are full of Artifice and Dissimulation This is enough to introduce and authorize Wickedness throughout their whole Jurisdiction to pervert Right to banish Justice and Honesty from all Courts to make way for Knavery and Litigiousness for the protracting of Suits the abuse and violation of Oaths and many other Disorders Then it is that Vice is in fashion and repute that Vertue and Innocency are oppressed and that the People grow Corrupt Now all this being a direct undermining of Religion and Piety let any Body judge whether I have not Reason to say that the Corruption of the Age may be imputed to Princes and Magistrates But all these Evils are yet more unavoidable when the Princes or Magistrates who are the Authors of them profess the Christian Religion A Heathen Magistrate has not by much that influence upon Religion and Manners that a Christian has The Church was purer and more separated from the World when the Superior Powers were contrary to it but as soon as the Emperors had embraced Christianity Piety