CHAPTER XIX.
Of the excellency and greatness of a devout spirit.
1. I HAVE now finished what I intended in this treatise. I have explained the nature of devotion, both as it signifies a life devoted to God, and as it signifies a regular method of prayer. I have now only to add a word or two in recommendation of a life governed by this Spirit.
And because in this polite age, we have so lived away the spirit of devotion, that many seem afraid even to be suspected of it, imagining great devotion to be great bigotry; that it is founded in ignorance and poorness of spirit; and that little, weak, and dejected minds, are generally the greatest proficients in it.
It shall here be shewn, that great devotion is the noblest temper of the greatest and noblest souls; and that they who think it receives any advantage from ignorance, are themselves entirely ignorant of the nature of devotion, the nature of God, and the nature of themselves.
People of fine parts and learning, or of great knowledge in worldly matters, may perhaps think it hard to have their want of devotion charged upon their ignorance. But if they will be content to be tried by reason and scripture, it may soon be made appear, that a want of devotion, wherever it is, either amongst the learned or unlearned, is founded in gross ignorance, and the greatest blindness and insensibility that can happen to a rational creature.
And that devotion is so far from being the effect of a little and dejected mind, that it must and will be always highest in the most perfect natures.
2. And first, Who reckons it a sign of a poor, little mind, for a man to be full of reverence and duty to his parents, to have the truest love and honour for his friend, or to excel in the highest instances of gratitude to his benefactor?
Are not these tempers, in the highest degree, in the most exalted and perfect minds?
And yet what is high devotion, but the highest exercise of these tempers, of duty, reverence, love, honour, and gratitude to the amiable, glorious parent, friend, and benefactor of all mankind?
Is it a true greatness of mind, to reverence the authority of your parents, to fear the displeasure of your friend, to dread the reproaches of your benefactor; and must not this fear, and dread, and reverence, be much more just, and reasonable, and honourable, when they are in the highest degree towards God?
So that as long as duty to parents, love to friends, and gratitude to benefactors, are thought great and honourable tempers, devotion, which is nothing else but duty, love, and gratitude to God, must have the highest place amongst our highest virtues.
If a prince, out of his mere goodness, should send you a pardon by one of his slaves, would you think it a part of your duty to receive the slave with marks of love, esteem, and gratitude, for his kindness of bringing you so great a gift, and at the same time think it a meanness and poorness of spirit, to shew love, esteem, and gratitude to the prince, who of his own goodness freely sent you the pardon?
And yet this would be as reasonable, as to suppose that love, esteem, honour, and gratitude, are noble tempers, and instances of a great soul, when they are paid to our fellow-creatures; but the effects of a poor, ignorant mind, when they are paid to God.
3. Even that part of devotion which expresses itself in sorrowful confessions, and penitential tears of a broken and contrite heart, is very far from being any sign of a little and ignorant mind.
For who does not acknowledge it an instance of an ingenuous, generous, and brave mind, to acknowledge a fault, and ask pardon for any offence? And are not the finest and most improved minds, the most remarkable for this excellent temper?
Is it not also allowed, that the ingenuousness and excellence of a man’s spirit is much shewn, when his sorrow and indignation at himself rises in proportion to the folly of his crime, and the goodness and greatness of the person he has offended?
Now if things are thus, then the greater any man’s mind is, the more he knows of God and himself, the more will he be disposed to prostrate himself before God in all the humblest acts and expressions of repentance.
And the greater the generosity and penetration of his mind is, the more will he indulge a passionate, tender sense of God’s just displeasure; and the more he knows of the greatness, the goodness, and perfection of the divine nature, the fuller of shame and confusion will he be at his own sins and ingratitude.
And on the other hand, the more dull and ignorant any soul is, the more base and ungenerous, the more senseless it is of the goodness of God, the more averse to humble confession and repentance.
Devotion therefore is so far from being best suited to little, ignorant minds, that a true elevation of soul, a lively sense of honour, and great knowledge of God and ourselves, are the greatest helps that our devotion hath.
4. On the other hand, it shall be made appear, that indevotion is founded in the most excessive ignorance.
And, first, Our blessed Lord and his apostles were eminent instances of great devotion. Now if we will grant, (as all Christians must grant) that their great devotion was founded in a true knowledge of the nature of devotion, the nature of God, and the nature of man, then it is plain, that all those that are insensible of devotion, are in this excessive state of ignorance; they neither know God, nor themselves, nor devotion.
Again, how comes it that most people have recourse to devotion, when they are in sickness, distress, or fear of death? Is it not because this state shews them more of the want of God, and their own weakness, than they perceive at other times? Is it not because their approaching end, convinces them of something which they did not half perceive before?
Now if devotion, at these seasons, is the effect of a better knowledge of God and ourselves, then the neglect of devotion at other times is owing to ignorance of God and ourselves.
5. Farther, as indevotion is ignorance, so it is the most shameful ignorance, and such as is to be charged with the greatest folly.
This will fully appear to any one that considers by what rules we are to judge of the excellency of any knowledge, or the shamefulness of any ignorance.
Now knowledge itself would be no excellence, nor ignorance any reproach to us, but that we are rational creatures.
It follows plainly, that knowledge which is most suitable to our rational nature, and which most concerns us, as such, to know, is our highest, finest knowledge; and that ignorance which relates to things that are most essential to us, as rational creatures, and which we are most concerned to know, is, of all others, the most gross and shameful ignorance.
6. If a gentleman should fancy that the moon is no bigger than it appears to the eye, that it shines with its own light, that all the stars are only so many spots of light; if after reading books of astronomy, he should still continue in the same opinion, most people would think he had but a poor apprehension.
But if the same person should think it better to provide for a short life here, than to prepare for a glorious eternity hereafter; that it was better to be rich, than to be eminent in piety, his ignorance and dulness would be too great to be compared to any thing else.
That is the most clear and improved understanding, which judges best of the value and worth of things; all the rest is but the capacity of an animal; it is but meer seeing and hearing.
If a man had eyes that could see beyond the stars, or pierce into the heart of the earth, but could not see the things that were before him, or discern any thing that was serviceable to him, we should reckon that he had but a very bad sight.
If another had ears that received sounds from the world in the moon, but could hear nothing that was said or done upon earth, we should look upon him to be as bad as deaf.
In like manner, if a man has a memory that can retain a great many things, if he has a wit that is sharp and acute in arts and sciences, but has a dull, poor apprehension of his duty and relation to God, of the value of piety, or the worth of moral virtue, he may very justly be reckoned to have a bad understanding. He is but like the man that can only see and hear such things as are of no benefit to him.
7. To proceed: We know how our blessed Lord acted in an human body; it was his meat and drink to do the will of his Father which is in heaven.
And if any number of heavenly spirits were to leave their habitations in the light of God, and be for awhile united to human bodies, they would certainly tend towards God in all their actions, and be as heavenly as they could, in a state of flesh and blood.
They would certainly act in this manner, because they would know that God was the only good of all spirits; and that whether they were in the body, or out of the body, in heaven or on earth, they must have every degree of their greatness and happiness from God alone.
All human spirits therefore, the more exalted they are, the more they know their divine original, the nearer they come to heavenly spirits, the more will they live to God in all their actions, making their whole life a state of devotion.
Devotion therefore is the greatest sign of a great and noble genius; it supposes a soul in its highest state of knowledge; and none but little and blinded minds, that are sunk into ignorance and vanity, are destitute of it.
8. If a human spirit should imagine some mighty prince to be greater than God, we should take it for a poor ignorant creature; all people would acknowledge such an imagination to be the height of stupidity.
But if this same human spirit should think it better to be devoted to some mighty prince, than to be devoted to God, would not this still be a greater proof of a poor, ignorant, and blinded nature?
Yet this is what all people do, who think any thing better, greater, or wiser than a devout life.
So that which way soever we consider this matter, it plainly appears, that devotion is an instance of great judgment, of an elevated nature; and the want of devotion is a certain proof of the want of understanding.
The greatest spirits of the Heathen world, such as Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Epictetus, Marcus Antoninus, owed all their greatness to the spirit of devotion.
They were full of God; their wisdom and deep contemplations tended only to deliver men from the vanity of the world, the slavery of bodily passions, that they might act as spirits that came from God, and were soon to return to him.
9. Let libertines but grant that there is a God, and a providence, and then they have granted enough to justify the wisdom, and support the honour of devotion.
For if there is an infinitely wise and good Creator, in whom we live, move, and have our being, whose providence governs all things in all places, surely it must be the highest act of our understanding to conceive rightly of him; it must be the noblest instance of judgment, the most exalted temper of our nature, to worship and adore this universal providence, to conform to its laws, to study its wisdom, and to live and act every where, as in the presence of this infinitely good and wise Creator.
Now he that lives thus, lives in the spirit of devotion.
And what can shew such great parts, and so fine an understanding, as to live in this temper?
For if God is wisdom, surely he must be the wisest man in the world, who most conforms to the wisdom of God, who best obeys his providence, who enters farthest into his designs, and does all he can, that God’s will may be done on earth, as it is done in heaven.
A devout man makes a true use of his reason; he sees through the vanity of the world, discovers the corruption of his nature, and the blindness of his passions. He lives by a law which is not visible to vulgar eyes; he enters into the world of spirits; he compares the greatest things, sets eternity against time; and chuses rather to be for ever great in the presence of God when he dies, than to have the greatest share of worldly pleasures whilst he lives.
11. Lastly, Courage and bravery are words of a great sound, and seem to signify an heroic spirit; but yet humility, which seems to be the lowest, meanest part of devotion, is a more certain argument of a noble mind.
For humility contends with greater enemies, is more constantly engaged, more violently assaulted, suffers more, and requires greater courage to support itself, than any instances of worldly bravery.
A man that dares be poor and contemptible in the eyes of the world, to approve himself to God; that resists and rejects all human glory; that opposes the clamour of his passions, that meekly puts up all injuries, and dares stay for his reward till the invisible hand of God gives to every one their proper places, endures a much greater trial, and exerts a nobler fortitude, than he that is bold and daring in the fire of battle.
For the boldness of a soldier, if he is a stranger to the spirit of devotion, is rather weakness than fortitude; it is at best but mad passion, and heated spirits, and has no more true valour in it than the fury of a tyger.
Reason is our universal law, that obliges us in all places, and all times; and no actions have any honour, but so far as they are instances of our obedience to reason.
And it is as base to be bold and daring against the principle of reason and justice, as to be bold and daring in lying and perjury.
Would we therefore exercise a true fortitude, we must do all in the spirit of devotion, be valiant against the corruptions of the world, and the lusts of the flesh, and the temptations of the devil: for to be daring and courageous against these enemies, is the noblest bravery that an human mind is capable of.
I have made this digression for the sake of those, who think great devotion to be bigotry and poorness of spirit; that by these considerations they may see, how poor and mean all other tempers are, if compared to it: that they may see all worldly attainments, whether of greatness, wisdom, or bravery, are but empty sounds; and there is nothing wise, or great, or noble, in an human spirit, but rightly to know, and heartily worship and adore the great God, that is the support and life of all spirits, whether in heaven, or on earth.
An extract from the Rev. Mr. Law’s
LATER WORKS.
An extract from the Case of Reason, or Natural Religion, fairly and fully stated. In answer to a book, entitled Christianity as Old as the Creation.
The Introduction, shewing the state of the Controversy.
THE infidelity which is now openly declared for, pretends to support itself upon the sufficiency, excellency, and absolute perfection of reason, or natural religion.
The author with whom I am engaged, makes no attempt to invalidate the historical evidence on which Christianity is founded; but by arguments drawn from the nature of God, and natural religion, pretends to prove that no religion can come from God, which teaches any thing more than that, which is fully manifest to all mankind by the mere light of nature.
His chief principles may be reduced to these following propositions.
1. That human reason, or natural light, is the only means of knowing all that God requires of us.
2. That reason, or natural light, is so full, sufficient, plain, and certain a rule in all religious duties, that no external divine revelation can add any thing to it, or require us to believe or practise any thing, that was not as fully known before. A revelation, if ever made, can only declare those very same things externally, which were before equally declared by the internal light of nature.
3. That this must be the case of natural and revealed religion, unless God be an arbitrary being. For if God be not an arbitrary being, but acts according to the reason and nature of things; then he can require nothing of us by revelation, but what is already required by the nature and reason of things. And therefore, as he expresses it, reason and revelation must exactly answer one another like two tallies¹.
4. That whatever is at any time admitted as matter of religion, that is not manifest from the reason of the thing, and plainly required by the light of nature, is gross superstition.
5. That it is inconsistent with the divine perfections, to suppose, that God can by an external revelation give any religious knowledge, at any time, to any people, which was not equally given at all times, and to all people.
This is the state of the controversy. As to the railing accusations, which this author pours out, at all adventures, upon the clergy, I shall wholly pass them over; my intention being only to appeal to the reason of the reader, and to add nothing to it, but the safe, unerring light of divine revelation.