with what is false and light 'T is also probity of mind they want who being licentiously given and no great friends to any Religion or Truth either which may lay any restraint upon them in their opinions or practices gladly take any advantages against them That men look upon all professing Religion and Conscience to be Ignorant Superstitious or Cunning so that their Example or Reason are of no Authority with them Neither doth this humour stop among this sort of men but it is soon conveyed into the vulgar too who soon learn to contemn Religion and the Priest especially in times of liberty Wherefore it is to be advised and sincerely Religious men wise and honest who heartily desire the Advancement of true Religion will so do that we be first assured of the truth of our belief and opinions in Religion and be now carefull and just to appear for nothing but what is so and for that reason And when we cannot fairly maintain any thing to be such tho' it appear never so much for the honour and interest of Religion as many very false and forged things have let it rest and go as it is till time may further discover And as for the vulgar it is surely their safest way to rely upon the Conduct of such wise and honest Men though they may be even exhorted to see with their own Eyes too if they can For it is much more easie for them to know who are such than to judge themselves of the truth and falshood Universal conveniencies and inconveniencâ—es of things to know who are the best Guides than to guide themselves This plain dealing without fraud or force will surely much advance the just Esteem of Religion and its Ministers and consequently its influence and efficacy We have but too much proof of this Cause of Infidelity from experience We have seen some Men and that of the first rank who have taught us such a God and that out of his own Books which others judge to be an absolute impossibility And yet after all they will be the only Orthodox and reprobate all those who will not be of their opinion Many also are those who have made the Holy Scriptures the most excellent Collection of Writings which were ever extant to speak such things which hath caused others not brooking their Interpretations nor being sufficient to find out better themselves to have mean and injurious thoughts of them And yet if any pious Man with the sincerest intentions and endeavours to preserve and vindicate their due honour by salving difficulties which seem to check Reason do advance any thing inconsistent with their settled Opinions and Systems he is presently irreligious and a severe Atheist too severe Censures whatever their mistakes may be But they are much more numerous still who have made up such an Hotch-potch in Religion by their Additions to the Holy Scriptures from pretended or enthusiastical Revelations forged or false Miracles Traditions Ecclesiastical Authority and Infallibility as first to turn men's Stomachs against it and at last to cause a great many quite to discharge themselves of it altogether But of these and such like I shall say no more at present But go on to the next general Head 2ly To propose some remedies proper to prevent or repress the influences of these Causes of Infidelity whereof some are more general some more particularly relating to some Causes and Circumstances The first of these is 1st To advise and assist Men to improve and advance their Knowledge to the highest Degree they are capable of For it seems just to deal so uprightly and plainly with the World as not to make use of mere Authority instead of understanding and reason where men are truly capable and honest though where they are ignorant but yet conceited self-willed or dishonest in things of importance and consequence Authority must be allowed to interpose for their own and the publick good which otherwise would greatly suffer Let therefore Men know as much as they can and examine these great verities with the greatest severity Assuredly the more they know the more reason they will see to believe them seriously and resolutely to live according to them Search the Scriptures saith our Saviour to the unbelieving Jews John 5. 39. to convince them that he was the promised Messias and the Person to whom all his Characters there did agree So say we Search the Scriptures Nature it self and Reason too for they bear witness of all these great Truths But then search them throughly examine them to the bottom see clearly reason carefully and justly weigh all things with indifferency and impartiality which will be presently a direction by it self Otherwise as the Jews did erroneously interpret the Holy Scriptures and conclude from them So may Men here through want of patience and attention and apprehension err and mistake in their Conclusion concerning the great Truths of Morality and all Religions We heartily desire that men's Faith and Belief may be the effect of a plain serious and deliberate Conviction more than of Custom where it may be And truly then as well as when it is wrought in the heart by the grace of God which is another Cause mentioned in the Scripture great is its Power and forcible its Operation and life it self is at its devotion and service Such was the effect of it in all the Apostles and particularly such is the Faith in Jesus Christ mentioned of Saint Thomas and Saint Peter when one cries out my Lord and my God and the other Lord whither should we go thou hast the word of Eternal Life Let that then be the first remedy against Infidelity viz. the utmost improvement and best exercise of our knowledge and reason 2ly Possess we our minds with a sincere and zealous Honesty and Probity By which I mean a strong habitual propension and inclination to that which is right and just This will have three Effects very proper to beget or confirm a right belief of the Truth and to preserve us in it The First A fervent love of the Truth The Second A free and ingenuous acknowledgment of it where-ever we discover it be it for us or be it against us Thirdly A desire to act suitable and live according to it I say a sincere and resolute Probity hath these effects For surely never any honest man doubted whether it was material more fit and just of better effect for a good man who will make good use of his knowledge to be knowing rather than ignorant or to believe the truth rather than a lye in order to direct him in all his inward Motions and outward Actions Without the first we shall not trouble our selves to search or find the truth Without the second when we know it we shall either not believe or deny it if possible or if by the clearness and evidence we cannot do that yet we shall turn our minds away from it Finally without the third we shall little esteem or
the Scripture of Faith's justifying or saving as such a kind of instrument nor of any thing which infers it or would so much as give any hint or suspicion of it but as a necessary Condition or Qualification every where in the same manner as Repentance Obedience Confession of Sins and believing him to be raised from the Dead Rom. 10. 9 10. Both these last are Synecdochically taken for being true Christians or Obedience to God by Jesus Christ These notions I conceive have been invented and received principally in opposition to the Pontifician sense and then for want of the knowledge of the Oriental way of speaking or from former prejudices Such notions and language would have seemed very strange and unintelligible to the Greek the Roman and especially the Jew the Adversary of St. Paul whom he endeavours to convince and confute and when understood very mean and improbable And yet there may be truth under all these expressions if they be taken figuratively with some sort of explication and we may be so charitable as to believe that pious and good Men have so understood them and that others sometimes can better tell and explain their thoughts than they themselves As for example if we take Faith first strictly for an Assent but then add so firm repeated attentive and deliberate an one like that of Thomas as to produce in us profound veneration and submission of Soul to God and Christ and an actual Obedience to their Will and Commands and consequently a true Vertue and real Sanctity of Heart and Life I say if this be the Sense of justifying Faith it is true and good and so if believing and relying upon Christ and trust in him for pardon of sin and acceptance be not a presumptuous one but well grounded upon a true Repentance the real Change and Conversion of the Heart and supposing and comprehending that it may pass for a justifying Faith So may receiving and embracing whole Christ as they phrase it as King Priest and Prophet because it includes Obedience to Christ's Laws as a King And on the other hand to receive Christ as a Priest and Prophet may be included in Obedience because we are commanded to believe Christ's Doctrine and to trust in God for the remission of sins procured by him upon repentance finally when they call their justifying Faith a lively Faith or Faith working by love and bringing forth the Fruits of Holiness and good Works it may do very well tho' it is an odd kind of expression of what some contend for That Faith alone justifies without Works or Obedience which is like as if a Man should say That the Root and the Fruit of a Tree nourisheth to signifie that the Root only doth it We have now gone through the explication of the words promised For the application of them let the Apostles own inference suffice at present to recommend unto us a justified State We that are justified by Faith saith the Apostle have peace with God that is we are in a State of Amity and Friendship with God so that we not only have no reason to fear any harm from that Terrible and Almighty Power which the Confederation of all Heaven and Earth cannot secure us from but we have all reason to hope for and be assured of all Instances of Favour and Bounty which his infinite Wisdom shall think fit more and greater than we can conceive What can intercept or restrain his Magnificent goodness to his Friends whom he delights in and delights to honour And then our Consciences will not terrify us or make us uneasie with Menaces or Suspicions of our Guilt and his Justice one Day and drive us from all thoughts of God But on the contrary they will invite encourage command us to make use of him to make him our Refuge our Trust our Solace in all Conditions at all times Then when all the World as kindly as it may now look upon us shall neglect us or forsake us or hate us or which is certain to come to pass sooner or later shall not be able in the least to help us though it would then when Death shall envisage and summon us to an appearance before that Sovereign Tribunal and when we shall stand there to receive our final Doom and irreversible Sentence Oh most desirable and happy of all Conditions without the assurance of which if we would draw our Curtains about us and be serious but one hour we could not be quiet or easie in our selves We proclaim the Person most happy and fortunate who hath the Eye the Ear the Heart of a Prince but what can the greatest Potentates do for us more than heap upon us Riches and Honors for a few Days which many to one we had better have wanted Even the continuance of bodily Life and Health the greatest bodily Blessings are out of their Power but how much more the goods of the mind and the Treasures of Heaven Whereas the Eternal Sovereign Lord of the Universe hath all things perfectly at his own disposal to bestow upon whom he pleaseth and that here with the Wisdom and Care of a Father but hereafter certainly Fullness of Joy and Pleasures for ever more Besides where God fixes his Affection and vouchsafes his Friendship we are sure there is true Worth and something of real and good Value though of his own gift when Earthly greatness through ignorance misinformation humour or necessity may misplace them And the belief of and reflection upon God's Approbation who is the best Judge is at all times extreamly gratefull and satisfactory to us naturally This is certain that a wise and just Man takes more pleasure in not being unworthy of Favour which he doth not enjoy than in enjoying what he doth not deserve We conclude all in turning St. Paul s Doctrine and Inference into an exhortation and motive Let us use our utmost Care and Endeavour on our part and God will not fail to perform what is to be done on his to get into the Number of those who are Evangelically justified our Sins pardoned our Souls inhabited and sanctified by the Holy Spirit and our Eternal Salvation assured that so we may enjoy the great Honour and the unspeakable Comfort of being the Friends of God and at peace with him through our Lord Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and Holy Spirit be all Honour and Praise both now and for evermore Amen Annotations and Additions On the Discourse of Justification a FOR the ample Proof of the Notion and Sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes which I have given I think what follows will be abundantly sufficient 1 Let it be premised that though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in its most precise Notion signifies to pronounce just to discharge acquit and absolve from Fault and Punishment yet in its more general Use it signifies more generally Viz. to treat or use as just in our Opinions Words or Actions and
rarely comes before we arrive at an Age thought fit to manage an Estate and it is well if we then see it So that we have been under the power of Examples and are formed usually by them before we are capable of the Discipline of an Instructor or Tutor Whence it is that men seldom much change the Inclinations they have contracted to that time and generally if by good example and government we are well season'd and temper'd to that Age or some few years beyond we seldom prove at least very bad Although by long and frequent ill company and example too great a part may be undone again and sometimes all spoiled which is very rare because it is very difficult to obliterate those early characters and impressions so often repeated Have no fellowship with the unfruitfull works of Darkness but rather reprove them saith the Apostle in that excellent Epistle Eph. 5. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. From the good you 'll learn good among the bad you 'll surely grow worse like to that of the Wise man Prov. 13. 20. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise but the companion of fools shall be destroyed Aspice quid faciunt commercia venerat obses The Youth once was very innocent behold what he is now how strangely changed by lewd company 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Associate not thy self to a wicked man These and such like are the Sayings of the Scripture and the wiser sort of men which do but remind us of the efficacy of examples upon our manners and that far beyond the power and force of all Precepts Instructions and Directions Nor do I yet know how this prevalency of example may be prevented or remedied but either 1. by a more than ordinary felicity of temper from the birth whereby we are enclined to use our Reason more than our Senses and are capable of giving Precepts and Examples too or 2. by the providence and grace of God which may happily order the condition of our lives or even immediately work upon our minds and particularly by afflictions or finally which is most in our own power by some considerable retirement from too frequent and tumultuous conversation and accustoming our selves to Reading and Thinking That be spoken to the First General viz. the Reasons of the Efficacy of Examples against Precept II. The Second is the Reasons of the prevailing influence of bad Examples against good ones Why ill Examples do so much more harm than good ones do good we may observe these among others 1. Evil examples are infinitely more numerous We can hardly light upon a good one we can hardly miss a bad one Good ones we can hardly see any bad ones we cannot but see many The High and the Low the Rich and the Poor and the Middle too It hath been thought indeed that this last sort of men are generally the most Sober and Religious because great and rich men think themselves above God and Religion poor men below it The one behave themselves as if God Almighty dared not to take notice of them the other as if he would not both equally mistaken But suppose it so yet Bad examples far out-number the Good among all ranks and conditions of men though of different vices according to their respective temptations of different particular Vices but the same general want of the sense of Vertue of Conscience and the fear of God in all And now if the number of Good Examples be so small in proportion to Bad ones how much greater will the influence of these certainly be For if we observe 't is frequency and repetition of thoughts and affections and actions which form our Manners Those Objects which we most frequently and generally converse withall which possess our thoughts have the command of our affections and consequently our inclinations and actions We seldom think or talk of love hate desire delight in any but them And this is the reason why in a Family small or great and in Palaces themselves the single example even of one or two of the greatest in it though deservedly honour'd and beloved too doth so little good upon all the rest though it would otherwise be far worse It is because they are very many against one And how much less is it to be expected that in a place consisting of many scores or hundreds of Families the example of one or two whose business it should be to back their instructions with good ones should have any visible good effect unless their number be increased which would become the Ecclesiastical and Civil care too or some more be pleased to give their assistance and make up a number 2. But Secondly the Greatness of bad Examples is another cause of their greater influence I do not know but that in proportion to their number there may be as many Religious and Vertuous persons in the Superiour as in the Inferiour Ranks of men and that with more judgment and generosity But still the greatest part of the Great the Potent the Honourable the Rich the more is the pity are of the bad side Though in the whole lump of all sorts of men put together infinitely the Major part in their practices at least should vote for the licentious and vicious side yet it would not have near the influence it now hath were not the Major part of the Great on that side too and of the same Party to head and lead them So that it appears it is not only the number of Voters but also the power and greatness of them that makes ill example go so far and prevail so much Were it the property of the vulgar and inferiour sort only to be Irreligious Immoral and Dissolute we should soon see that Party decrease and generally desert both in inward Principles and outward Practices One excellent example of a great Man would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 outweigh a great number of small ones The generality of men far from wise first esteem the Men and then the Manners At least the dignity and height of a vicious man makes that Vice seem little and tolerable if not honourable which were it only seen in those of lower place would be thought contemptible and punishable Alea turpis Turpe adulterium mediocribus haec tamen illi Omnia cùm faciant hilares nitidique vocantur We admire men for their power pomp and wealth and then all that belongs to them leaving not out their very vices too Like as the Pagans of old not only deify'd their Heroes but built Temples and erected Altars to some of their flagitious actions and abominable crimes as Tully somewhere complains On the contrary the poor and mean man's actions according to the Wise-man's little History Eccl. 9. 14. though never so wise and beneficial too for that very reason are not heeded or soon forgotten Indeed it is Truth and Reason and not vulgar opinion only that Power and Greatness Ability to effect and bring to pass
chearfull with others Such then be the second Answer to the plea of the extreme difficulty pains and pain in conversion and reformation in correcting this propension of depraved Nature and quitting the most numerous evil examples Namely that we have the Grace of God to assist us and render it more easie that the difficulty is principally at the beginning and first onset and yet that even there the pleasure and ease far out-weigh the pain and labour and finally that in the suite of a virtuous state of Soul exercises and actions there are pleasures sincere deep constant and durable and but the sample and commencement of infinitely greater still The difficulty and pain will lie on the side of Vice and that it is most true that a sincere and generous good Man may find it more hard and vexatious to him to be brought to do an evil thing than the most bold and accustomed sinner to do a good one Go we on further and 3. Suppose if we please that which is false the utmost difficulty labour and suffering throughout the whole course of a virtuous and conscientious life nay suppose we may lose life itself for their sake and in their cause have we never heard of any thing hereafter or have we satisfied our selves with a demonstration that we are not concern'd in that Will there be no reward for the righteous no vengeance for the wicked had not these very Gentiles themselves their Elysian Fields for the just their Tartara Styx and Acheron and various sorts of never ending punishments for their wicked too Had not the Jews many of whom were infected with the Heathen Manners their Paradise for the Holy and their Gehinnom for sinners if they did not believe the Fable they assuredly did believe the moral of it viz. the happy state of the good and the miserable one of the bad and that everlasting too as might be shown As for Christians do they not know that in the day when God shall judge the World by Jesus Christ he will render to every Man according to his deeds to those who patiently continue in well-doing eternal life and to those who obey unrighteousness indignation wrath tribulation and anguish Hath not Truth itself told them that there is a time when the righteous shall go into everlasting life but the wicked into everlasting punishment we need not stand to reason upon such concessions The case is plain what we ought to do if we have but common sense and understanding Is it not a most contemptible and pitiable condition we are in if we suffer our selves to perish everlastingly because we will not take the pains of a few days to be saved to fall into a state of meanness and misery whence no redemption through mere laziness or cowardice having not the heart to encounter some difficulty or courage to bear some present pains and pain though it were the pulling out of an Eye or cutting off an Hand Oh! where is the wisdom of such who easily swim down in a pleasant stream which runs into a dead Sea or a lake of Fire and Brimstone Where is their reason who forewarned dance on merrily with a jolly croud in a smooth way till at last they tumble altogether into the mouth of a Volcano when they were an hundred times advised and entreated to take a certain path at its entrance indeed more solitary rugged and a little toilsome if you please But which in a short time would bring them into a place beyond all imagination delicious furnished with the most agreeable and excellent company eternally secure from any disturbance from within or without Whose part is it now to wonder are the riotous dissolute and vicious to wonder at the folly and weakness as they think of the pious vertuous and well-governed or these at the willfull madness or sottishness of the former These no doubt if all be true that hath been said But some who have the greatest reason to fear will not believe so great severity so they term it of Almighty God to sinners though they are willing to believe his kindness and bounty to the good Men can believe almost what they please and that against the most universal Tradition Reason and Conscience of Mankind But they have some reason what 's that Sinners cannot hurt God and do but enjoy themselves Is this said in earnest or is it only because they will not openly own Infidelity But 1 They would hurt God Almighty if they could and every one else were their power answerable to their will God himself would not be safe or happy Every knowing and willfull Sinner who opposeth or complies not with God's most wise and beneficial Government of the World by his Laws and Decrees by his Commands and Appointments hath the Insolence and doth what he can to make God and all the World besides the Ministers of his Personal pleasures and lusts and is the Enemy of God and all that he hath made And I think such an one deserves the severest punishment and so doth all humane Government judge and act too The very will and purpose alone is a tendency to such mischief it is a partial and inchoative cause and is accordingly to be used of which further reasons may be still given But 2. According to this reasoning God must not reward his faithful Servants who love him for they can as little profit God as the rebellious and malicious hurt him If God accept the will for the deed and reward it too why may he not punish the will for the deed likewise And 3. I do not see but that the Act of will is the only proper Act of a Man and that all external effect is from God when and in what measure he pleaseth So that in proper speaking a sinner hurts no body but wills to do it He is indeed inwardly malicious proud careless of every one but himself or gratifying his own lusts that these have any external effect more or less comes from another hand Lastly he can hardly seem in earnest who asks why vicious Men should be punished so severely only for enjoying themselves Nevertheless because we do not know how childish trifling and foolish Vice may indeed render some Men even in things of the vastest importance we say that to take the three capital and general ones malice pride and sensuality impiety injustice covetousness and an hundred others being only their kinds or instruments the malicious Man delights in mischief and would do nothing else too if God would permit or rather lend him his power for such a purpose The proud Man and the envious which seems compos'd of pride and ill-nature would have every one under his feet and may affect superiority in every thing to such a degree as to permit none to enjoy any good thing but himself if his will and desires were attended by an equal power to execute them The sensualist who seems most intended in this excuse if he will
End and not to leave our selves to a tumultuous boonness of spirit and to the fortuitous tides or rushes of our appetites and passions So it hath been said of the Ancient Epicureans that their Exclusion of their Deities from humane Affairs was recommended by them as a comfortable dogm freeing Men from all fear and solicitude to please or displease them 6ly Sometimes in some men infidelity hath proceeded from a sowerness of mind great displeasure conceived and fermented into an impatience against God and his Providence Perhaps their impetuous desires have been crossed their darling designs broken and their jolly hopes frustrated or their sweet enjoyments suddenly swept away from them whence first they have entertained very hard thoughts of God and his Providence and broken out into rude and unmannerly expressions against them Then in revenge proceeded to wish them out of the World and at last have thought it more easie and safe to deny them 7ly In others again an affectation of singularity and despising what is common an humour of contradicting of what is ordinarily believed disposeth to infidelity Because the generality of men do believe those great truths so often mentioned therefore they will not They would seem more searching or fortunate or bold in their discoveries and opinions than all the World besides They would appear to know or at least dare to say that which the generality of Men have been ignorant of or that which if some few of the more curious and inquisitive and penetrating have thought as well as themselves yet they had not the courage to publish it Now these men are under a far more dangerous prejudice from affectation of singularity and novelty than the generality of men whom they usually despise are from Antiquity Custom and Example If we consider both these abstractedly it is far safer to follow common received opinions of many Countries and Ages especially if believed of great importance than the new inventions of one or some few Though both may be false yet if no other reasons be considered the old is much more likely to be true than the new And I believe it is the experience of those who impartially examine things that generally the common and well near universally received opinion of all places and ages especially if thought of great consequence whether true or false are at last found in the main part of them to be true And it is one of the best Employments of men of great Wit and more than ordinary sagacity and capacity to conceive and deliver them more clearly and distinctly and to pare off and separate some absurdities and falshoods which may in some tract of time by passing through many unskilfull hands have been fastned to them But of this more will be said when we come to the remedies of infidelity 8. To add no more at present Envy against the Professors but of Ingenuity Philosophy and Sobriety much more of Religion and Piety especially if attended with any thing of Dignity Reputation and Revenue hath been the Cause I doubt in many ill-tempered and ill-living Men of this Infidelity Some of these at first out of this ill-humour and quality feign to themselves and then industriously bring themselves to believe it that the things are frivolous or false for which Men of Learning and Religion have been thought worthy of their Rewards of Esteem Honour and Revenue And what 's the Cause or Reason No other but that their Eye is evil and they would not have them to enjoy them They do not well abide it to see them in possession of that which either they would have themselves whether deservedly or not or at least no body else Others again speak meanly or disgracefully of their Doctrine Opinion and Profession because they spoil the Reputation of their manner of life and are inconsistent with that licentiousness and liberty which they profess practise and delight in Hence it is they give them the bad and contemptible names of Pedantries uncertainties or falshoods Here we may take in another sort of men which are but servants and attendants to the former those viz. who get their livelihood and sometimes more by the excesses contentions quarrels perjuries and other wickednesses of the Age. These two as far as their Wit and Interest will go help on and promote the disbelief of all sober vertuous and religious Principles These and others which may be still added are the inward Causes and inherent in our selves of unbelief and disbelief and which are most in our own Power to prevent or remove There are also some others external and occasional such as the Example of witty and acceptable Company Hypocrisie in Religion both revealed and natural so taken and seeming at least especially in the Teachers of them when men profess they believe their grand Truths but do not live in any sort as if they did Which accusation is partly false for the generality of men though they do not indeed live near up to their Faith yet they would be much worse without it Partly it is to be put to another Cause viz. heedlesness and want of application of their belief to their practice But perhaps few things have been more an occasion of the Infidelity of some men than the over-zealous and blind Credulity of others Some men's believing too much and otherwise than they ought and yet fiercely imposing it hath been the Cause of others believing too little and sometimes they who have most complained of Scepticism and Infidelity Unbelief and Disbelief which are different things have contributed much to it themselves The introducing of many Opinions of neither light or use or very little either way uncertain or trivial nay sometimes not only justly suspicious but manifestly false and then the imposing them under what Penalties men have in their own Power the least of which is commonly the Censures and Reproaches of Enemies or Indifferents in Religion Hereticks Atheists Infidels I say these have begotten and extremely nourished Scepticism and Infidelity especially in this knowing and inquisitive Age bold when they dare lurking and doing more mischief oft-times when they dare not shew themselves because they cannot be examined and receive their Answers This is the infirmity of those well-meaning Men who will have every thing believed and imposed too which seems to them to make for the honour and reputation of their Religion not minding what should be in the first place known whether it be true or false But it is the wickedness of those who do it for their own secular interest and care not how much Mankind be abused so that their Domination be advanced and secured at least they connive at it and let it pass This Cause hath its effect principally among the ingenious and witty the great and haughty but not wise and just who want either leisure or patience or capacity or probity to examine and distinguish things They easily throw away the Wheat with the Chaff what is true and solid