An
inquiry into the reason, why the generality of
Christians fall so far short of the holiness and
devotion of Christianity.
IT MAY
now be reasonably inquired, how it comes to pass, that the
lives even of the better sort of people are thus strangely
contrary to the principles of Christianity?
But
before I give a direct answer to this, I desire it may
also be inquired, how it comes to pass that swearing is so
common a vice among Christians? It is indeed not yet so
common among women, as it is among men. But among men this
sin is so common that perhaps there are more than two in
three that are guilty of it through the whole course of
their lives, swearing more or less, just as it happens,
some constantly, others only now and then as it were by
chance.
Now I
ask, how comes it, that two in three of the men are guilty
of so gross and profane a sin as this is? There is neither
ignorance nor human infirmity to plead for it; it is
against an express commandment, and the most plain
doctrines of our blessed Saviour.
Do but
now find the reason why the generality of men live in this
notorious vice, and then you will have found the reason
why the generality even of the better sort of people live
so contrary to Christianity.
Now the
reason of common swearing is this; it is because men have
not so much as the intention to please God in all their
actions. For let a man but have so much piety as to intend
to please God in all the actions of his life, as the
happiest and best thing in the world, and then he will
never swear more. It will be as impossible for him to
swear, whilst he feels this intention within himself, as
it is impossible for a man that intends to please his
prince, to go up and abuse him to his face.
It seems
but a small and necessary part of piety to have such a
sincere intention as this; and that he has no reason to
look upon himself as a disciple of Christ who is not thus
far advanced in piety. And yet it is purely for want of
this degree of piety that you see such a mixture of sin
and folly in the lives even of the better sort of people.
It is for want of this intention that you see men that
profess religion, yet live in swearing and sensuality;
that you see clergymen given to pride, and covetousness,
and worldly enjoyments. It is for want of this intention,
that you see women that profess devotion, yet living in
all the folly and vanity of dress, wasting their time in
idleness and pleasures, and in all such instances of state
and equipage as their estates will reach. For let but a
woman feel her heart full of this intention, and she will
find it as impossible to patch or paint, as to curse or
swear; she will no more desire to shine at balls or
assemblies, or make a figure amongst those that are most
finely dressed, than she will desire to dance upon a rope
to please spectators: she will know, that the one is as
far from the wisdom and excellency of the Christian spirit
as the other.
It was
this general intention that made the primitive Christians
such eminent instances of piety, and made the goodly
fellowship of the saints, and all the glorious army of
martyrs and confessors. And if you will here stop, and ask
yourselves, why you are not as pious as the primitive
Christians were, your own heart will tell you, that it is
neither through ignorance nor inability, but purely
because you never thoroughly intended it. You observe the
same Sunday worship that they did; and you are strict in
it, because it is your full intention to be so. And when
you as fully intend to be like them in their ordinary
common life, when you intend to please God in all your
actions, you will find it as possible, as to be strictly
exact in the service of the Church. And when you have this
intention to please God in all your actions, as the
happiest and best thing in the world, you will find in you
as great an aversion to everything that is vain and
impertinent in common life, whether of business or
pleasure, as you now have to anything that is profane. You
will be as fearful of living in any foolish way, either of
spending your time, or your fortune, as you are now
fearful of neglecting the public worship.
Now, who
that wants this general sincere intention, can be reckoned
a Christian? And yet if it was among Christians, it would
change the whole face of the world: true piety, and
exemplary holiness, would be as common and visible, as
buying and selling, or any trade in life.
Let a
clergyman be but thus pious, and he will converse as if he
had been brought up by an Apostle; he will no more think
and talk of noble preferment, than of noble eating, or a
glorious chariot. He will no more complain of the frowns
of the world, or a small cure, or the want of a patron,
than he will complain of the want of a laced coat, or a
running horse. Let him but intend to please God in all his
actions, as the happiest and best thing in the world, and
then he will know, that there is nothing noble in a
clergyman, but a burning zeal for the salvation of souls;
nor anything poor in his profession, but idleness and a
worldly spirit.
Again,
let a tradesman but have this intention, and it will make
him a saint in his shop; his every-day business will be a
course of wise and reasonable actions, made holy to God,
by being done in obedience to His will and pleasure. He
will buy and sell, and labour and travel, because by so
doing he can do some good to himself and others. But then,
as nothing can please God but what is wise, and
reasonable, and holy, so he will neither buy nor sell, nor
labour in any other manner, nor to any other end, but such
as may be shown to be wise, and reasonable, and holy. He
will therefore consider, not what arts, or methods, or
application, will soonest make him richer and greater than
his brethren, or remove him from a shop to a life of state
and pleasure; but he will consider what arts, what
methods, what application can make worldly business most
acceptable to God, and make a life of trade a life of
holiness, devotion, and piety. This will be the temper and
spirit of every tradesman; he cannot stop short of these
degrees of piety, whenever it is his intention to please
God in all his actions, as the best and happiest thing in
the world. And on the other hand, whoever is not of this
spirit and temper in his trade and profession, and does
not carry it on only so far as is best subservient to a
wise, and holy, and heavenly life, it is certain that he
has not this intention; and yet without it, who can be
shown to be a follower of Jesus Christ?
Again,
let the gentleman of birth and fortune but have this
intention, and you will see how it will carry him from
every appearance of evil, to every instance of piety and
goodness. He cannot live by chance, or as humour and fancy
carry him, because he knows that nothing can please God
but a wise and regular course of life. He cannot live in
idleness and indulgence, in sports and gaming, in
pleasures and intemperance, in vain expenses and high
living, because these things cannot be turned into means
of piety and holiness, or made so many parts of a wise and
religious life. As he thus removes from all appearance of
evil, so he hastens and aspires after every instance of
goodness. He does not ask what is allowable and
pardonable, but what is commendable and praiseworthy. He
does not ask whether God will forgive the folly of our
lives, the madness of our pleasures, the vanity of our
expenses, the richness of our equipage, and the careless
consumption of our time; but he asks whether God is
pleased with these things, or whether these are the
appointed ways of gaining His favour? He does not inquire,
whether it be pardonable to hoard up money, to adorn
ourselves with diamonds, and gild our chariots, whilst the
widow and the orphan, the sick and the prisoner, want to
be relieved; but he asks, whether God has required these
things at our hands, whether we shall be called to account
at the last day for the neglect of them; because it is not
his intent to live in such ways as, for aught we know, God
may perhaps pardon; but to be diligent in such ways, as we
know that God will infallibly reward.
He will
not therefore look at the lives of Christians, to learn
how he ought to spend his estate, but he will look into
the Scriptures, and make every doctrine, parable, precept,
or instruction, that relates to rich men, a law to himself
in the use of his estate.
He will
have nothing to do with costly apparel, because the rich
man in the Gospel was clothed with purple and fine linen.
He denies himself the pleasures and indulgences which his
estate could procure, because our blessed Saviour saith,
"Woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received
your consolation." [Luke vi. 24] He will have but one
rule for charity, and that will be, to spend all that he
can that way, because the Judge of quick and dead hath
said, that all that is so given, is given to Him.
He will
have no hospitable table for the rich and wealthy to come
and feast with him, in good eating and drinking; because
our blessed Lord saith, "When thou makest a dinner,
call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy
kinsman, nor thy rich neighbours, lest they also bid thee
again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest
a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:
and thou shalt be blessed: for they cannot recompense
thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of
the just." [Luke xiv. 12, 13, 14]
He will
waste no money in gilded roofs, or costly furniture: he
will not be carried from pleasure to pleasure in expensive
state and equipage, because an inspired Apostle hath said,
that "all that is in the world, the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not
of the Father, but is of the world." [1 John ii. 16]
Let not
any one look upon this as an imaginary description of
charity, that looks fine in the notion, but cannot be put
in practice. For it is so far from being an imaginary,
impracticable form of life, that it has been practised by
great numbers of Christians in former ages, who were glad
to turn their whole estates into a constant course of
charity. And it is so far from being impossible now, that
if we can find any Christians that sincerely intend to
please God in all their actions, as the best and happiest
thing in the world, whether they be young or old, single
or married, men or women, if they have but this intention,
it will be impossible for them to do otherwise. This one
principle will infallibly carry them to this height of
charity, and they will find themselves unable to stop
short of it.
For how
is it possible for a man that intends to please God in the
use of his money, and intends it because he judges it to
be his greatest happiness; how is it possible for such a
one, in such a state of mind, to bury his money in
needless, impertinent finery, in covering himself or his
horses with gold, whilst there are any works of piety and
charity to be done with it, or any ways of spending it
well?
This is
as strictly impossible, as for a man that intends to
please God in his words, to go into company on purpose to
swear and lie. For as all waste and unreasonable expense
is done designedly, and with deliberation, so no one can
be guilty of it, whose constant intention is to please God
in the use of his money.
I have
chosen to explain this matter, by appealing to this
intention, because it makes the case so plain, and because
every one that has a mind may see it in the clearest
light, and feel it in the strongest manner, only by
looking into his own heart. For it is as easy for every
person to know whether he intends to please God in all his
actions, as for any servant to know whether this be his
intention towards his master. Every one also can as easily
tell how he lays out his money, and whether he considers
how to please God in it, as he can tell where his estate
is, and whether it be in money or land. So that here is no
plea left for ignorance or frailty as to this matter;
everybody is in the light, and everybody has power. And no
one can fail, but he that is not so much a Christian, as
to intend to please God in the use of his estate.
You see
two persons: one is regular in public and private prayer,
the other is not. Now the reason of this difference is not
this, that one has strength and power to observe prayer,
and the other has not; but the reason is this, that one
intends to please God in the duties of devotion, and the
other has no intention about it. Now the case is the same,
in the right or wrong use of our time and money. You see
one person throwing away his time in sleep and idleness,
in visiting and diversions, and his money in the most vain
and unreasonable expenses. You see another careful of
every day, dividing his hours by rules of reason and
religion, and spending all his money in works of charity:
now the difference is not owing to this, that one has
strength and power to do thus, and the other has not; but
it is owing to this, that one intends to please God in the
right use of all his time, and all his money, and the
other has no intention about it.
Here,
therefore, let us judge ourselves sincerely; let us not
vainly content ourselves with the common disorders of our
lives, the vanity of our expenses, the folly of our
diversions, the pride of our habits, the idleness of our
lives, and the wasting of our time, fancying that these
are such imperfections as we fall into through the
unavoidable weakness and frailty of our natures; but let
us be assured, that these disorders of our common life are
owing to this, that we have not so much Christianity as to
intend to please God in all the actions of our life, as
the best and happiest thing in the world. So that we must
not look upon ourselves in a state of common and
pardonable imperfection, but in such a state as wants the
first and most fundamental principle of Christianity,
viz., an intention to please God in all our actions.
And if
any one was to ask himself, how it comes to pass, that
there are any degrees of sobriety which he neglects, any
practices of humility which he wants, any method of
charity which he does not follow, any rules of redeeming
time which he does not observe, his own heart will tell
him, that it is because he never intended to be so exact
in those duties. For whenever we fully intend it, it is as
possible to conform to all this regularity of life, as it
is possible for a man to observe times of prayer.
So that
the fault does not lie here, that we desire to be good and
perfect, but through the weakness of our nature fall short
of it; but it is, because we have not piety enough to
intend to be as good as we can, or to please God in all
the actions of our life. This we see is plainly the case
of him that spends his time in sports when he should be at
Church; it is not his want of power, but his want of
intention or desire to be there.
And the
case is plainly the same in every other folly of human
life. She that spends her time and money in the
unreasonable ways and fashions of the world, does not do
so because she wants power to be wise and religious in the
management of her time and money, but because she has no
intention or desire of being so. When she feels this
intention, she will find it as possible to act up to it,
as to be strictly sober and chaste, because it is her care
and desire to be so.
This
doctrine does not suppose that we have no need of Divine
grace, or that it is in our own power to make ourselves
perfect. It only supposes, that through the want of a
sincere intention of pleasing God in all our actions we
fall into such irregularities of life as by the ordinary
means of grace we should have power to avoid; and that we
have not that perfection, which our present state of grace
makes us capable of, because we do not so much as intend
to have it. It only teaches us that the reason why you see
no real mortification or self-denial, no eminent charity,
no profound humility, no heavenly affection, no true
contempt of the world, no Christian meekness, no sincere
zeal, no eminent piety in the common lives of Christians,
is this, because they do not so much as intend to be exact
and exemplary in these virtues
