Design of Scripture than to explain it Philosophically and which is worse according to the Principles of a false Philosophy as divers Commentators do They make use of the Method Notions and Terms of the Schools to find out the Meaning of the Sacred Writings They apply to all Subjects the Rules prescribed by the School-men They carefully distinguish in a Text those Things which are called in the Schools Materia Forma Causa efficiens Finis Subjectum Adjunctum c. They seek in all Reasonings the Major the Minor and they Conclusion as if the Holy Ghost in inspiring the Sacred Authors had followed the Scheme of Aristotle's Logick and had intended to make Syllogisms in Mood and Figure I say nothing here of that Spirit of Dispute and Wrangling which run through the Scholastical Commentaries nor of the false Senses and metaphysical Explications which they put upon the Scripture Such Books are Obstacles rather than Helps to the Understanding of the Word of God they are fit only to perplex what is clear and to spoil Divines and Preachers by taking away from them that Qualification they have most need of I mean Good Sense 4. Another very different way from that Simplicity with which the Scripture should be handled is the Method of those Authors who without Necessity insist upon all the Circumstances of a Text who sift all the Terms of it as if a Mystery did lurk in every Word who descend to the minutest Things and weary themselves in Conjectures and Questions This Exactness is very useless and insipid It may be sometimes necessary to clear a Difficulty to unfold an intricate Meaning and to observe the critical Signification of Words But when the Sense is natural and easie and when the Words are clear to what Purpose should a Man insist upon all those Illustrations What need is there for him to be always pressing the Signification of Words to remark all their different Acceptations and to explain what is to be understood by the Words Death Faith Just every time that these Terms occur The true Method is to pursue the Things themselves and the Meaning of a Text without criticizing upon Worlds and Circumstances 5. It is the Fault of many Commentators to be prolix and too large From every Verse nay from every Word they take occasion to run into a Common-Place and to vent a multitude of Notions so that they really give us Sermons Dissertations or Lectures of Divinity under the Title of Commentaries I do not absolutely condemn diffus'd Commentaries we meet sometimes with good things in them but we find there likewise a great many which signifie nothing When all is done Brevity Clearness and Exactness are infinitely to be preferred in a Commentary before Prolixity and Copiousness Such Length breeds Obscurity and Confusion it makes Preachers lazy it tempts them to fill their Sermons with a hundred needless things it brings them to a Custom of being tedious of making Digressions and of passing by that which is essential and solid All which is very far from promoting the Edification of the Church Besides it is evident that the Defects of Commentaries contribute very much to the Corruption of Christians The Holy Scripture is the Foundation of Religion and Piety but Commentaries are the Stores from which the Sense of Scripture is drawn and from which Preachers commonly take the Matter of their Sermons Few of them endeavour to find out the Sense of a Text by their own Industry they consult their Commentaries like Oracles and they blindly follow their Decisions It is therefore highly requisite that these Books should not lead into Error those who have recourse to them When a bind Man leads another they both fall into the Ditch If then the Guides to whose Conduct Preachers give up themselves are deceitful and false the Word of God will neither be well understood nor well preached and both Preachers and People will err II. It is with Divinity-Books as with Commentaries some are good and others bad The Diversity of Opinions which we see among Authors is a Proof of what I say Some maintain as Divine Truths Things which others reject as false and pernicious Sentiments so that there must be no small Error on one side or the other All Divines will own the Truth of this Remark but it is here of no use because it does not decide which Books of Divinity are good and which are bad Every body will pretend that the bad Books are those which teach a Doctrine contrary to that which obtains in the Society to which he belongs In order to know who is in the Right or in the Wrong it would be necessary to judge here upon the Merits of the Cause and to enter into the Examination of all the Controversies which divide Christians But this I will by no means take upon me to do It will be fitter for me to take notice of those Faults which are common to the greatest part of Divinity-Books I shall say nothing but what must needs be owned by all the sensible Divines of any Party and the Reflections I am to make tho' General may perhaps be of some use to direct our Judgment concerning the Doctrine it self contained in those Books 1. Almost all the Authors who have writ of Divinity have made of it upon the Matter a Science of meer Speculation They establish certain Doctrines they deliver their Opinions they prove them as well as they can they treat of Controversies and confute their Adversaries but they do not seem to have meditated much upon the Use of the Doctrines they teach with relation to Piety and Salvation They are very short upon this Head which yet is the chiefest of all they are not by half so solicitous to assert the Duties as they are to maintain the Truths of Religion Now this is not teaching Divinity The Design of Religion is to teach Men how they ought to serve God and to make them Holy and Happy If this was considered in the handling of Divinity and if Care was taken to shew what Relation all the Parts of Religion have to the Glory of God and to the Holiness and Felicity of Man there would be much more Piety than there is now among Christians Those who study Divinity would learn betimes to direct it to its true End and this would likewise be a means to distinguish material from insignificant Points and Questions and to ease Religion of all those needless Disputes which are one of the main Causes of the Corruption of Christians 2. What I have now said leads me to a second Observation which is That as several things might be left out of Divinity-Books so other things are wanting which it would be necessary to add to them For the Purpose Common-Places do not insist much upon on the General Truths and Principles of Religion They scarce give us any Instruction about Church-Discipline and Government or about the Belief and Practice of the First Ages of Christianity As
of good things are sprinkled with that Spirit of Fanaticism I shall not stand to give here the Character of those Books nor to shew the mischief they may do in relation to Libertines or to those Persons who want either Knowledge or a discerning Judgment because I will not repeat what I have said of Mystical Piety Part I. Cause II. Art VIII 3. Some Authors who have put out Books of Piety have made it their whole Business to administer Comfort Those who read their Works may easily see that they looked upon the Comfortable side of Religion and that their principal design was to fill their Readers with Confidence Hope and Joy Without doubt it is a laudable and pious Design to use ones endeavours to Comfort the Afflicted and particularly good Men and I confess that we find in the Books which have been composed with that view many edifying things and noble Sentiments of Piety but for all that those Books may easily inspire Men with security when the Consolations which they dispense are not attended with great Circumspection and Prudence I could wish that all those who have published Books of this kind had well considered these two following Truths The first is that the Comforts which Religion affords belong only to true Christians so that it is an essential part of the Duty of Comforters carefully to distinguish Persons and to mark clearly who those are that have aright to Religious Comforts The Second is that it is as necessary to Sanctifie as it is to Comfort Men Nay That the Sanctifying them is the more necessary of the two because Holiness is more essential to a good Man than Consolation and Joy and also because Men are much more inclined to presume than to condemn themselves besides that there are but few who want Comfort in comparison with those who ought to be teâ—tified The Consolations of which the Books of Piety are full are intended either for Afflicted Persons or for Sinners As for the first it is better to teach them how to make a good life of their Afflictions and to bring them to examine and amend their Lives than to discourse to them upon some general Topick of Comfort which perhaps will only lay them faster asleep in security and which is besides generally misapplied For all that the Gospel says of Afflictions is commonly laid together and that too with no great Judgment and what is said only of the Afflictions of the Faithful who suffer for Christ's sake is applied to the Afflictions which are common to all Mankind It is much more necessary to teach Men how to die well than to fortify them against the fear of Death Nay we cannot give them a more substantial Comfort than if we persuade them to live well since a good Life will most certainly bring them to a happy Death But we ought to be particularly cautious when we comfort Sinners and give them assurances of the Divine Mercy for if this is not done with great circumspection we may easily harden and ruin at the same time that we are comforting them This is the mischief of those Books which speak but little of Repentance and insist much upon Confidence whose only design it is to encourage the greatest Sinners and to exhort them to a bold reliance upon God's Mercy without fearing either the heinousness or the Multitude of their Sins Such Consolations are capable of a good Sense but if they are not proposed with due explication and restrictions vast numbers of People will abuse them That which has been writ by some Authors in Books of Devotion concerning Sin and Good Works is apt to lead Men into this fancy That good Works signify nothing in order to Salvation and that Sin does not obstruct it Under pretense of answering the Accusations of the Devil and of the Law these Authors enervate the strongest Arguments for the necessity of Good Works they confute the Declarations of Scripture concerning Sanctification and they destroy as much as in them lies the Sincerity and Truth of the Precepts and threatnings of the Gospel For what they call the Accusations of the Devil and of the Law is sometimes nothing else but the just apprehensions of a guilty Conscience which are inspired by the Gospel and which should be cherished and fortified to bring Sinners to Repentance instead of being removed by ill dispensed Consolations It is said to this that Sinners are not to be driven to Despair But do we make Sinners desperate by saying that they are not in a State of Salvation when really they are not Do we not comfort them enough when we exhort them to have recourse to God's Mercy and to repent What if we should by unseasonable Consolations fill them with a vain and groundless Confidence would not that security ruin them more certainly than Desperation To make Men fearless is the ready way to undo them After all I cannot imagine why People should talk so much of Despair and seem so hugely afraid of it By the endeavours used in Books and Sermons to keep Sinners from it one would think that we had great reason to fear on that hand and that nothing were more ordinary than for Men to despair of the Divine Mercy and yet there is nothing more unusual For one Sinner who is terrified with his Sins thousands are undone by Security It is remarkable than the Scripture speaks but seldom of Despair and when we have well examined all the places which are thought to mention it we shall not find many that speak positively of it Many Church-men who have Cure of Souls confess that they never saw any Person afflicted with Despair And as for the Instances which are alledged to this purpose it is certain that what is called Desperation is commonly nothing else but a Fit of the Spleen and an effect of Grief and Melancholy So that those who make long Discourses to prevent Sinners falling into Despair take great pains to little purpose and do for the most part fight with a shadow 4. There is another Fault in some Books of Devotion quite contrary to this I have now observed which is that they terrify their Readers without reason If Authors otherwise Pious and Learned had not spoken in their Writings of the Sin against the Holy Ghost of Reprobation Despair the Power of the Devil and of some other Matters many People would have been free from those terrible Frights which the indiscreet handling of those Subjects did throw them into The reading of such Books has occasioned and does still produce great Mischiefs when they are read by Men of weak Heads that are inclined to Melancholy and the Number of such Persons is very considerable Some have fancied they had committed the Sin against the Holy Ghost and being possessed with that dismal Thought they have spent their Lives in dreadful Apprehensions of which nothing could cure them Others have imagined that their Case cure them Others have imagined that their Case was
Religion is attended with some difficulty The general Rule is to chuse those which are instructive and edifying Every body will own this to be a good Rule but all Men do not agree in the Application of it What seems edifying to some appears quite otherwise to others In point of Religion all Men should be of the same Mind since they are all bound to believe the same Truths and practise the same Duties but their Tastes are different because many of them have a vitiated Palate To speak my Mind upon this Subject I think that Christians should chiefly stick to those Books which prove the Truths of Religion and which establish by solid Arguments the fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith and to those which give a clear and exact View of the Duties of Morality To these it may be useful to add the Works in which we find the Examples of Persons eminent for their Piety and Virtue Such Examples are very efficacious to excite Men to the Practice of what is good and they prove a great Preservative against the Scandal occasioned by bad Example and against the Corruption of the Age. But not to enlarge further upon the Choice of Books I refer the Reader to what has been said in this Chapter A judicious Choice of Books being once made the next thing is to make a good use of them And here two Rules are to be observed 1. A Man should read with Judgment And 2. he should read in order to Practice 1. What Book soever we read it is absolutely necessary to read it with Discretion and Judgment We are commanded in Scripture * 1 Thes V. XXI 1 Joh. IV. I. To prove all things and to hold fast that which is good to try the Spirits and the Doctrines whether they are of God This Caution is to be used lest we fall into Errors since every Author is a Man and by consequence may sometimes be mistaken The common People do particularly need this Advice because they are very apt to believe that whatsoever is read in Books especially in Books of Devotion is true But tho' a Book should contain nothing but what is good Discretion is necessary to make a just Application of the Contents of it to out selves because that which is proper for some is not sutable to others The not observing this Rule is the Reason why some Readers who have a pure but a timorous and short-sighted Conscience are terrified without Cause and apply to themselves what is said only of wicked Men when on the other hand hardened Sinners deceive themselves with vain hopes by adapting to themselves what related only to good Men. 2. We ought to read in order to practice and that we may grow better this is the more important Rule of the two and that which distinguishes true from hypocritical Devotion Many are very regular and constant in Reading and they seldom fail to do it Mornings and Evenings But the Deportment of those Persons who are so assiduous in the perusing of good Books is not always agreeable to the Rules of Devotion and Piety When they are but just come from their Reading we find them often sowr peevish and passionate after they have read in the Morning they spend the Day in Slandering Gaming or Idleness and they avoid only the grosser and the more noisie Sins There are Readers of another Character they read and even delight in the Reading of Books of Religion They like well enough those Works which prove the Truths of the Christian Religion or treat of Morals they speak of them advantagiously and they will say fine Things concerning the Abuses which are crept into Religion and upon the Necessity and the Beauty of Morals but all this terminates only in a vain and fruitless Approbation which they give to the Truths and Duties of the Gospel for after all they reform nothing in their Lives Such Readings are but meer Amusements and they are good for nothing but to rock Conscience into a most dangerous Sleep The End of Reading as well as that of all Religion ought to be the Practice of Holiness I. shall here observe last of all that Christians have a Book which alone might suffice to preserve them from the Danger of ill Books and to secure them against the Corruption of the Age if they did use it as they ought I mean the Holy Scripture It is the best of all Books a Work divinely inspired which contains nothing but what is most excellent and true and wherein we find every thing that is necessary to instruct and to sanctifie Men. But it were to be wished 1. That the Translations of Scripture which are in the hands of the People should be rendered more perfect so that they might express the Sense of Sacred Authors with all possible Exactness All those who have studied the Original Text of the Bible will own that this is a necessary Work and that the Translations need some Amendments And so we see accordingly that now and then Divines and Translators apply themselves to the correcting of them 2. It would be to no purpose to have exact Translations of Scripture if Men could not read it I have already remarked it elsewhere as a crying and shameful Abuse that a great part of Christians should not be able to read This Abuse should have been reformed long ago and this might easily be done if every Pastor did endeavour it in his own Church and if the Magistrates did lend a helping Hand toward it 3. The Holy Scripture should be read more than it is and Men should make that use of it for which it was given Other Books are only Streams but when we read the Scripture we drink at the very Fountain-head Humane Books have their Faults and therefore they ought to be read with great Discretion But this Divine Book is most perfect it is a Guide to whose Conduct we may give up our selves without fear or danger This being certain is it not strange that the best of all Books should be the most neglected In many Countries the Bible is a Book unknown to the People In other places the reading of it is permitted but with great Cautions as if it were dangerous for Christians to reveal a Book by which God was pleased to reveal his Will to Men. In those places where Christians have an entire Liberty to read the Scripture great multitudes make no advantage of that freedom Many that are addicted to reading leave the Word of God for other Books In a word very few read it with suitable Dispositions and with a sincere Design of learning the Will of God and of growing the better by it And thus the far greater part of Mankind is destitute of the most efficacious mean and remedy which the Divine Goodness has afforded to Men to preserve them from the Contagion of Sin and to make them happy And so we need not wonder that the Corruption of Christians should be such as