abhor in all but yourself? If not, they imply guilt as well as misery.
Doubtless they do. Only enquire of your own heart. How often in the mid
career of your vice have you felt a secret reproof, which you knew not
how to bear, and therefore stifled as soon as possible?
18. And did not even _this_ point at an hereafter? A future state of
existence? The more reasonable among you have no doubt of this; you do
not imagine the whole man dies together: although you hardly suppose
the soul, once disengaged, will dwell again in an house of clay.
But how will your soul subsist without it? How are _you_ qualified
for a separate state? Suppose this earthly covering, this vehicle
of organized matter, whereby you hold commerce with the material
world, were now to drop off! Now, what would you do in the regions of
immortality? You cannot eat or drink there. You cannot indulge either
the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, or the pride of life.
You love only worldly things; and they are gone, fled as smoke, driven
away for ever. Here is no possibility of sensual enjoyments; and you
have a rellish for nothing else. O what a separation is this, from all
that you hold dear! What a breach is made, never to be healed!
But beside this, you are unholy: full of evil tempers: for you did not
put off these with the body. You did not leave pride, revenge, malice,
envy, discontent behind you, when you left the world. And now you are
no longer cheared by the light of the sun, nor diverted by the flux
of various objects: but those dogs of hell are let loose to prey upon
your soul, with their whole, unrebated strength. Nor is there any hope,
that your spirit will now ever be restored to its original purity;
not even that poor hope of a purging fire, so elegantly described by
the _Heathen_ poet some ages before the notion was revived among the
doctrines of the _Romish_ church
――Aliæ tenduntur inanes
Suspensæ ad ventos; aliis sub gurgite vasto
Infectum eluitur scelus, aut exuritur igni――
Donec longa dies, exacto temporis orbe,
Concretam exemit labem, purumque reliquit
Æthereum sensum atque aurai simplicis ignem.
19. What a great gulph then is fixed between you and happiness, both
in this world and that which is to come? Well may you shudder at the
thought! More especially when you are about to enter on that untried
state of existence. For what a prospect is this, when you stand on the
verge of life, ready to launch out into eternity? What can you then
think? You see nothing before you. All is dark and dreary. On the very
best supposition, how well may you address your parting soul in the
words of dying _Adrian_:
“Poor, little, pretty, fluttering thing,
Must we no longer live together?
And dost thou prune thy trembling wing,
To take thy flight thou know’st not whither?
Thy pleasing vein, thy hum’rous folly
Is all neglected, all forgot;
And pensive, wavering, melancholy,
Thou hop’st, and fear’st thou know’st not what.”
“Thou know’st not what!” Here is the sting, suppose there were no other.
To be _thou knowest not what_? * Not for a month, or year, but thro’
the countless ages of eternity! What a tormenting uncertainty must this
be? What racking unwillingness must it occasion, to exchange even this
known vale of tears, for the unknown valley of the shadow of death?
“And is there no cure for this?” Indeed there is an effectual cure;
even the knowledge and love of God. There is a knowledge of God
which _unveils_ eternity, and a love of God which _endears_ it. That
knowledge makes the great abyss _visible_; and _uncertainty_ vanishes
away. That love makes it _amiable_ to the soul, so that _fear_ has no
more place! But the moment God says, by the welcome angel of death,
“Come thou up hither!” She
“Claps the glad wing and towers away,
And mingles with the blaze of day.”
20. See ye not, what advantage every way, a _Christian_ has over _you_?
Probably the reason you saw it not before was, because you knew none
but _nominal_ Christians; men who professed to _believe_ more (in
_their way_ of believing) but had no more of the knowledge or love of
God than yourselves. So that with regard to real, _inward religion_,
you stood upon even ground. And perhaps in many branches of _outward
religion_, the advantage was on _your_ side.
May the Lord, the God of the Christians, either reform these wretches,
or take them away from the earth! That lay this grand stumbling-block
in the way of those who desire to know the will of God!
O ye who desire to know his will, regard them not! If it be possible,
blot them out of your remembrance.
They neither _can_ nor _will_ do you any good. O suffer them not to
do you harm. Be not prejudiced against Christianity by those who know
nothing at all of it. Nay, they condemn it, all _real substantial_
Christianity; they speak evil of the thing they know not. They have a
kind of _cant_ word for the whole religion of the heart. They call it
_enthusiasm_.
I will briefly lay before you the ground of the matter, and appeal to
you yourselves for the reasonableness of it.
* 21. What a miserable drudgery is the service of God, unless I love
the God whom I serve? But I cannot love one whom I know not. How then
can I love God till I know him? And how is it possible I should know
God, unless he make himself known unto me? By _analogy_ or proportion?
Very good. But where is that proportion to be found? What proportion
does a creature bear to his Creator? What is the proportion between
finite and infinite?
I grant, the _existence_ of the creatures demonstratively shews the
_existence_ of their Creator. The whole creation speaks, that there
is a God. But that is not the point in question. I know there is a God.
Thus far is clear. But who will shew me what that God ♦is? The more I
reflect the more convinced I am, that it is not possible for any of all
the creatures, to take off the veil which is on my heart, that I might
discern this unknown God; to draw the curtain back which now hangs
between, that I may see him which is invisible.
♦ “is.” replaced with “is?” per Errata
This veil ♦or flesh now hides him from my sight. And who is able to
make it transparent! So that I may perceive _through this glass_, God
always before me, till I see him _face to face_.
♦ “of” replaced with “or” per Errata
I want to know this great God who filleth heaven and earth: who is
above, beneath, and on every side, in all places of his dominion; who
just now besets me behind and before, and lays his hand upon me. And
yet I am no more acquainted with him, than with one of the inhabitants
of _Jupiter_ or _Saturn_.
O my friend, how will you get one step farther, unless God reveal
himself to your soul?
22. And why should this seem a thing incredible to you? That God, a
Spirit, and the Father of the Spirits of all flesh, should discover
himself to your spirit, which is itself the breath of God, _Divinæ
Particula Auræ_? Any more than that material things should discover
themselves to your material eye. Is it any more repugnant to reason,
that spirit should influence spirit, than that matter should influence
matter? Nay, is not the former the more intelligible of the two?
For there is the utmost difficulty in conceiving, how matter should
influence matter at all: how that which is totally _passive_ should
_act_. Neither can we rationally account either for gravitation,
attraction, or any natural motion whatsoever, but by supposing in all
the finger of God, who alone conquers that _vis inertiæ_, which is
essential to every particle of matter, and worketh all in all.
Now if God should ever open the eyes of your understanding, must not
the love of God be the immediate consequence? Do you imagine you can
see God without loving him? Is it possible in the nature of things?
_Si virtus conspiceretur occulis_, said the old Heathen, _mirabiles
amores excitaret sui_. How much more if you see him who is the original
fountain, the great archetype of all virtue, will that sight raise in
you a love that is wonderful, such as the gay and busy world know not
of!
23. What benevolence also, what tender love to the whole of human kind,
will you drink in, together with the love of God, from the unexhausted
source of love? And how easy is it to conceive, that more and more
of his image will be then transfused into your soul? That from
disinterested love, all other divine tempers will, as it were naturally,
spring? Mildness, gentleness, patience, temperance, justice, sincerity,
contempt of the world; yea, whatsoever things are venerable and lovely,
whatsoever are justly of good report.
And when you thus love God and all mankind, and are transformed into
his likeness, then the commandments of God will not be grievous; you
will no more complain, that they destroy the comforts of life. So
far from it, that they will be the very joy of your heart; ways of
pleasantness, paths of peace! You will experience here that solid
happiness, which you had elsewhere sought in vain. Without servile fear
or anxious care, so long as you continue on earth, you will gladly do
the will of God here, as the angels do it in heaven. And when the time
is come that you should depart hence, when God says, “Arise and come
away,” you will pass with joy unspeakable out of the body, into all the
fulness of God.
* Now does not your own heart condemn you, if you call _this_ religion
_enthusiasm_? O leave that to those blind zealots, who tack together
a sett of opinions and an outside worship, and call this poor, dull,
lifeless thing, by the sacred name of _Christianity_. Well might you
account _such Christianity_ as this, a mere piece of empty pageantry,
fit indeed to keep the vulgar in awe, but beneath the regard of a man
of understanding.
But in how different a light does it now appear? If there be such a
religion as I have sketched out, must not every reasonable man see,
there is nothing on earth to be desired in comparison of it?――But if
any man desire this, let him ask of God: he giveth to all men liberally
and upbraideth not.
24. May you not ask, quite consistently with your principles, in some
manner resembling this;
O thou Being of beings, thou cause of all, thou seest my heart; thou
understandest all my thoughts. But how small a part of thy ways do I
understand! I know not what is above, beneath, on every side. I know
not my own soul. Only this I know, I am not what I ought to be. I see
and approve the virtue which I have not. I do not love thee, neither am
I thankful. I commend the love of mankind; but I feel it not. Thou hast
seen hatred, malice, envy in my heart. Thou hast seen anger, murmuring,
discontent. These uneasy passions harrow up my soul. I cannot rest,
while I am under this yoke. Nor am I able to shake it off, I am unhappy,
and that thou knowest.
Have compassion upon me, thou whose years do not fail! On me, who have
but a short time to live. I rise up, and am cut down as a flower. I
flee as it were a shadow. Yet a little while, and I return to dust, and
have no more place under the sun.
Yet I know thou hast made my soul to live for ever. But I know not
where; and I am unwilling to try. I tremble, I am afraid to go thither,
whence I shall not return. I stand quivering on the edge of the
gulph; for clouds and darkness rest upon it. O God! _Must_ I go always
“creeping with terrors, and plunge into eternity with a peradventure!”
O thou lover of men, is there no help in thee? I have heard (what
indeed _my_ heart cannot ♦conceive) that thou revealest thyself to
those that seek thee, and pourest thy love into their hearts: and that
they who know and love thee, walk through the shadow of death and fear
no evil. O that this were so! That there was such an unspeakable gift,
given to the children of men! For then might _I_ hope for it. O God, if
there be, give it unto _me_! Speak that _I_ may see thee! Make thyself
known unto _me_ also in the manner that thou knowest! In any wise let
me know thee and love thee, that I may be formed after thy likeness!
That I may be love, as thou art love; that I may now be happy in thee;
and when thou wilt, fall into the abyss of thy love, and enjoy thee
through the ages of eternity!
♦ “receive” replaced with “conceive” per Errata
A farther APPEAL
To MEN of
REASON _and_ RELIGION.
PART III.
_And when he came near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy
day, the things which belong unto thy peace!_ Luke xix. 41, 42.
I. 1. NOW, what can an impartial person think concerning the present
state of _religion_ in _England_? Is there a nation under the sun which
is so deeply fallen from the very _first principles_ of all religion?
Where is the country, in which is found so utter a disregard to even
_Heathen morality_? Such a thorough _contempt_ of _justice_ and _truth_,
and all that should be dear and honourable to rational creatures?
What species of _vice_ can possibly be named, even of those that nature
itself abhors, of which we have not had, for many years, a plentiful
and still increasing harvest? What _sin_ remains either in _Rome_
or _Constantinople_, which we have not _imported_ long ago (if it
was not of our native growth) and _improved_ upon ever since? Such a
_complication_ of villainies of every kind, considered with all their
_aggravations_, such a _scorn_ of whatever bears the face of _virtue_,
such _injustice_, _fraud_, and _falshood_: above all, such _perjury_,
and such a _method of law_, we may defy the whole world to produce.
What multitudes are found throughout our land, who do not even
_profess_ any religion at all? And what numbers of those who _profess
much_, and confute their profession by their _practice_? Yea, and
perhaps by their exorbitant pride, vanity, covetousness, rapaciousness,
or oppression, cause the very _name of religion_, to stink in the
nostrils, of many (otherwise) _reasonable_ men?
2. “However, we have many thousands still, of truly, _virtuous_
and _religious_ men.” Wherein does their _religion_ consist? In
_righteousness_ and true _holiness_? In _love_ stronger than death?
Fervent _gratitude_ to God? And tender _affection_ to all his
creatures? Is their religion, the religion of the _heart_? A renewal
of soul in the image of God? Do they _resemble_ him they _worship_? Are
they free from pride, from vanity, from malice and envy; from ambition
and avarice, from passion and lust; from every uneasy and unlovely
_temper_? Alas, I fear neither they (the great part at least) nor _you_,
know what _this religion_ means; or have any more notion of it, than
the peasant that holds the plough, of the religion of a _Gymnosophist_.
’Tis well if the _genuine religion_ of Christ has any more alliance
with what you _call religion_, than with the _Turkish_ pilgrimages
to _Mecca_, or the _Popish_ worship of our Lady of _Loretto_. Have
not _you_ substituted in the place of the _religion of the heart_,
something (I do not say equally _sinful_, but) equally vain, and
foreign to the _worshipping_ of God in _spirit and in truth_?――――What
else can be said even of _prayer_, (_public_ or _private_) in the
manner wherein you generally perform it? As a thing of _course_,
running round and round, in the same dull track, without either the
_knowledge_, or _love_ of God? Without one heavenly _temper_, either
attained or improved? O what mockery of God is this!
And yet even _this religion_, which can do you no good, may do you
much harm. Nay, it is plain, it does: it daily increases your _pride_,
as you measure your goodness by the _number_ and _length_ of your
performances. It gives you a deep _contempt_ of those, who do not come
up to the full _tale_ of your virtues. It inspires men with a _zeal_,
which is the very fire of hell, furious, bitter, implacable, unmerciful;
often to a degree that extinguishes all compassion, all good nature and
humanity. Insomuch, that the execrable _fierceness_ of spirit, which
is the natural fruit of such a religion, hath many times, in spite of
all ties, divine and human, broke out into open violence, into rapine,
murder, sedition, rebellion, civil war, to the desolation of whole
cities and countries.
_Tantum_ hæc _Religio potuit suadere malorum_!
3. Now if there be a God, and one that is not a mere idle spectator of
the things that are done upon earth, but a rewarder of men and nations
according to their works, what can the event of these things be? It was
reasonable to believe, that he would have risen long ago and maintained
his own cause, either by sending the famine or pestilence among us,
or by pouring out his fury in blood. And many wise and holy men have
frequently declared, that they daily expected this; that they daily
looked for the patience of God to give place, and judgment to rejoice
over mercy.
4. Just at this time, when we wanted little of _filling up the measure
of our iniquities_, two or three clergymen of the CHURCH of ENGLAND
began vehemently to _call sinners to repentance_. In two or three years
they had sounded the alarm, to the utmost borders of the land. Many
thousands gathered together to hear them; and in every place where they
came, many began to shew such a _concern_ for religion, as they never
had done before. A stronger _impression_ was made on their minds, of
the importance of things eternal, and they had more earnest _desires_
of serving God, than they had ever had from their earliest childhood.
Thus did God begin to draw them toward himself, with the cords of love,
with the bands of a man.
Many of these were in a short time deeply _convinced_ of the _number_
and _heinousness_ of their _sins_. They were also made throughly
sensible of those _tempers_, which are justly hateful to God and
man, and of their utter _ignorance_ of God, and entire _inability_,
either to know, love, or serve him. At the same time, they saw in the
strongest light, the _insignificancy_ of their _outside religion_: nay,
and often confessed it before God, as the most abominable _hypocrisy_.
Thus did they sink deeper and deeper into that _repentance_, which must
ever precede _faith_ in the Son of God.
And from hence sprung _fruits meet for repentance_. The drunkard
commenced sober and temperate; the whoremonger abstained from adultery
and fornication; the unjust from oppression and wrong. He that had been
accustomed to curse and swear, for many years, now swore no more. The
sluggard began to work with his hands, that he might eat his own bread.
The miser learned to deal his bread to the hungry, and to cover the
naked with a garment. Indeed the whole form of their life was changed.
They had _left off doing evil and learned to do well_.
* 5. But this was not all. Over and above this _outward change_, they
began to experience _inward_ religion. _The love of God was shed abroad
in their hearts_, which they continue to enjoy to this day. They love
him, _because he first loved us_, and with-held not from us his Son,
his only Son. And this love constrains them to love all mankind, all
the children of the Father of heaven and earth, and inspires them with
every holy and heavenly temper, the whole mind that was in Christ.
Hence it is that they are now uniform in their behaviour, unblameable
in all manner of conversation. And in whatsoever state they are, they
have learned therewith to be content: insomuch that now they can _in
every thing give thanks_: they more than patiently acquiesce, they
rejoice and are exceeding glad, in all God’s dispensations toward them.
For as long as they love God (and that love no man taketh from them)
they are always happy in God. Thus they calmly travel on through life,
being never weary nor faint in their minds, never repining, murmuring
or disatisfied, casting all their care upon God, till the hour comes
that they should drop this covering of earth, and return unto the great
Father of Spirits. Then especially it is, that they rejoice with joy
_unspeakable and full of glory_. You who credit it not, come and see.
See these living and dying Christians.
“Happy while on earth they breathe
Mightier joys ordain’d to know,
Trampling on sin, hell and death,
To the third heaven they go?”
Now if these things are so, what reasonable man can deny (supposing
the scriptures to be true) that God is now visiting this nation, in a
far other manner than we had cause to expect? Instead of pouring out
his fierce displeasure upon us, he hath made us yet another tender of
mercy: so that even when _sin did_ most _abound, grace_ hath _much more
abounded_.
6. Yea, _the grace of God which bringeth salvation_, present salvation
from inward and outward sin, hath abounded of late years in such a
_degree_ as neither we nor our fathers had known. How _extensive_ is
the change which has been wrought on the minds and lives of the people!
Know ye not that the sound is gone forth into all the land? That there
is scarce a city or considerable town to be found, where some have not
been roused out of the sleep of death, and constrained to cry out, in
the bitterness of their soul, _What must I do to be saved_? That this
_religious concern_ has spread to every age and sex; to most orders
and degrees of men? To abundance of those in particular, who in time
past, were accounted monsters of wickedness, _drinking in iniquity like
water_, and committing all _uncleanness with greediness_.
7. In what age has such a work been wrought, considering the
_swiftness_ as well as the _extent_ of it? When have such _numbers_
of sinners in so _short_ a time been recovered from the error of their
ways? When hath religion, I will not say, since the _reformation_, but
since the time of _Constantine the Great_, made so large a progress
in any nation, within so small a space? I believe, hardly can either
antient or modern history, supply us with a parallel instance.
* 8. Let understanding men observe also the _depth_ of the work, so
_extensively_ and _swiftly_ wrought. It is not a slight or superficial
thing: but multitudes of men have been so thoroughly _convinced of
sin_, that their _bones were smitten asunder, as it were with a sword
dividing the very joints and marrow_. Many of these have been shortly
after so filled with _peace and joy_ in _believing_, that whether they
were in the body, or out of the body, they could scarcely tell. And
in the power of this faith they have trampled under foot, whatever the
world accounts either terrible or desirable: having evidenced in the
severest trials, so fervent a love to God, so invariable and tender a
good-will to mankind, particularly to their enemies, and such a measure
of all the fruits of holiness, as were not unworthy the apostolic
age. Now so deep a repentance, so firm a faith, so fervent love and
unblemished holiness, wrought in so many persons, within so short a
time, the world has not seen for many ages.
9. No less remarkable is the _purity_ of the religion which has
extended itself so _deeply_ and _swiftly_. I speak ♦particularly, with
regard to the doctrines held by those, among whom it is so extended.
Those of the church of _England_, at least, must acknowledge this. For
where is there a body of people in the realm, who, number for number,
so closely adhere to what our church delivers as pure doctrine? Where
are those who have approved and do approve themselves more _orthodox_,
more sound in their opinions? Is there a _Socinian_ or _Arian_ among
them all? Nay, were you to recite the whole catalogue of _heresies_,
enumerated by Bishop _Pearson_, it might be asked, who can lay any one
of these to their charge?
♦ “paticularly” replaced with “particularly”