But were you to succeed, do you imagine any good would be done by it? You yourself may find it easy to live a virtuous life, without the assistance afforded by religion, from having a clear perception of the advantages of virtue and the disadvantages of vice, and possessing a strength of resolution sufficient to enable you to resist common temptations; but think how great a proportion of mankind consists of weak and ignorant men and women, and of inexperienced, inconsiderate youth of both sexes, who have need of the motives of religion to restrain them from vice, to support their virtue, and retain them in the practice of it till it becomes habitual, which is the great point for its security; and, perhaps, you are indebted to her1 originally, that is, to your religious education, for the habits of virtue upon which you now justly value yourself. I would advise you, therefore, not to attempt unchaining the tiger, but to burn this piece before it is seen by any other person, whereby you will save yourself a great deal of mortification from the enemies it may raise against you, and perhaps a good deal of regret and repentance. If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be without it ?? She was a great reader of Scripture, which she read, not for the purposes of vanity and impertinent curiosities; not to seem knowing or to become talk 1 His mother. 2 Part of a letter from Franklin, to one who had asked his opinion about publishing an irreligious work. ing; not to expound or rule; but to teach her all her duty; to instruct her in the knowledge and love of God, and of her neighbour; to make her more humble; and to teach her to despise the world and all its gilded vanities, and that she might entertain passions wholly in design and order to heaven. The religion of this excellent lady took root downward in humility, and brought forth fruit upward in the substantial graces of a Christian, in charity and justice, in chastity and modesty, in fair friendships and sweetness of society. She had not very much of the forms and outsides of godliness, but she was largely careful for the power of it, for the moral, essential, and useful parts; such which would make her be, not seem to be, religious.' We know, and what is better, we feel inwardly, that religion is the basis of civil society, and the source of all good and all comfort. In England we are so convinced of this, that there is no rust of superstition with which the accumulated absurdity of the human mind might have crusted it over in the course of ages, that ninety-nine in a hundred of the people of England would not prefer to impiety." A sense of religion, where it is sincere, will necessarily be attended with a complete resignation of our own will to that of the Deity; as it teaches us to regard every event, even the most afflicting, 1 Jer. Taylor, Funeral Sermon on Lady Carbery, vi. 473. (Heb. ed.) 2 Burke. as calculated to promote beneficial purposes, which we are unable to comprehend, and to promote, finally, the perfection and happiness of our nature.1 In God have I put my trust; I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.2 Man, when he resteth and assureth himself upon divine protection and favour, gathereth a force and faith which human nature in itself could not obtain.3 Let them practise and converse with spirits; Une prière habituelle, une rêverie religieuse qui a pour but de se perfectionner soi-même, de se décider, dans tout, par le sentiment du devoir." I believe it is with religion as with paternal affection; some profligate wretches may forget it, and some may dose themselves so long with perverse thinking, as not to see any reason for it; but in spite of all the ill-natured and false philosophy of these two sorts of people, the bulk of mankind will love their children. And so it is, and will be, with the fear of God and religion: whatever is general has a powerful cause, though every one cannot find it out.6 The Scriptures having diffused the light, Deists have insensibly imbibed it; and finding it to accord with reason, they flatter themselves that their 1 Dugald Stewart, Outlines. 5 Madame de Stäel. 6 Swift, Corr. xv. 315. 2 Psalm lvi. 11. Letter from Archbishop King. reason has discovered it. "After grazing," as one expresses it," in the pastures of revelation, they boast of having grown fat by nature."1 We may see but too evidently that, though a great part of mankind pretend to be saved by faith, yet they know not what it is, or else wilfully mistake it, and place their hopes upon sand, or the more unstable water. Believing is the least thing in a justifying faith; for faith is a conjugation of many ingredients, and faith is a covenant, and faith is a law, and faith is obedience, and faith is a work, and indeed it is a sincere clinging to and closing with the terms of the Gospel in every instance, in every particular. . . . There are but three things that make the integrity of Christian faith; believing the words of God, confidence in his goodness, and keeping his commandments.2 ... Cast up, therefore, your reckonings impartially; see what is, what will be required at your hands; do not think you can be justified by faith, unless your faith be greater than all your passions: you have not the learning, not so much as the common notices of faith, unless you can tell when you are covetous, and reprove yourself when you are proud; but he that is so, and knows it not (and that is the case of most men) hath no faith, and neither knows God, nor himself. 3 But still ('tis to be feared) even among too many 1 The Gospel its own Witness, p. 112. (Fuller.) 2 Jer. Taylor, Fides Formata, vi. 286. 3 Ibid. 290. Protestants themselves zeal for particular forms and ceremonies, more than for virtue and religion itself; a concern for the distinguishing doctrines of parties, more than for the commandments of our common Lord; a desire of compelling each other's faith, more than of reforming our own manners, continue to hinder the growth of Christian charity; and, like the worm at the root of Jonah's gourd, to eat out the vitals of true religion.' There are too many men whose ambition or boldness, or self-conceit, or interest, leads them to obtrude upon others, as parts of religion, things that are not only strangers but oftentimes enemies to it. And there are others who, out of an indiscreet devotion, are so solicitous to increase the number and the wonderfulness of mysteries, that to hear them discourse of things, one would judge that they think it the office of faith not to elevate, but to trample upon reason; and that things are then fittest to be believed, when they are not clearly to be proved or understood.2 When faith includes charity, it will bring us to Heaven; when it is alone, when it is without charity, it is nothing at all.3 No man should fool himself by disputing about the philosophy of justification, and what causality faith has in it, and whether it be the act of faith that justifies, or the habit? Whether faith as a good work, or faith as an instrument? Whether . 1 Dr. Clarke, vol. iii. Serm. xiv. 2 Boyle, iv. 158. (4to ed.) 3 Jer. Taylor, vi. 271. |
