The Works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 16

by John Dryden

He said, "that our most stedfast hold in dangers and temptations, was to have a noble courage against the foe of our salvation, in a distrust of our own strength, but a firm reliance on our Lord, so that we should not only fear nothing under the conduct of such a general, but also should not doubt of victory." He said also further, "that, in those dangerous occasions, the want of confidence in God was more to be feared, than any assault of the enemy; and that we should run much greater hazard in the least distrust of the divine assistance, in the greatest dangers, than in exposing ourselves to those very dangers." He added, lastly, "that this danger was so much the more formidable, the more it was hidden, and the less that we perceived it."

These thoughts produced in the soul of this holy man an entire diffidence of himself, together with a perfect humility. He was the only discourse of the new world; Infidels and Christians gave him almost equal honour; and his power over nature was so great, that it was said to be a kind of miracle, when he performed no miracle But all this served only to raise confusion in him; because he found nothing in himself but his own nothingness; and being nothing in his own conceit, he could not comprehend, how it was possible for him to be esteemed. Writing to the doctor of Navarre, before his voyage to the Indies, he told him, "That it was a singular grace of heaven to know ourselves; and that, through the mercy of God, he knew himself to be good for nothing."

"Humbly beseech our Lord," he wrote from the Indies to Father Simon Rodriguez, "that I may have power to open the door of China to others; where I am, I have done but little." In many other passages of his letters, he calls himself an exceeding evil man; a great sinner; and conjures his brethren to employ their intercessions to God in his behalf. "Bring to pass, by your prayers," says he to one of them, "that though my sins have rendered me unworthy of the ministerial vocation, yet God may vouchsafe, out of his infinite goodness, to make use of me."

"I beseech you," says he to another, "to implore the heavenly assistance for us; and to the end you may do it with the greater fervency, I beseech our Lord, that he would give you to understand, how much I stand in need of your intercession."

"It is of extreme importance to my consolation," he writes to the fathers of Goa, "that you understand the wonderful perplexity in which I am. As God knows the multitude and heinousness of my sins, I have a thought which much torments me; it is, that God perhaps may not prosper our undertakings, if we do not amend our lives, and change our manners: it is necessary, on this account, to employ the prayers of all the religious of our Society, and of all our friends, in hope that, by their means, the Catholic church, which is the spouse of our Lord Jesus, will communicate her innumerable merits to us; and that the Author of all good will accumulate his graces on us, notwithstanding our offences."

He attributed all the fruits of his labours to an evident miracle of the Divine Power, which made use of so vile and weak an instrument as himself, to the end it might appear to be the work of God. He said, "that they who had great talents, ought to labour with great courage for the safety of souls; since he, who was wanting in all the qualities which are requisite to so high a calling, was not altogether unprofitable in his ministry."

As he had a mean opinion of himself, and that his own understanding was suspected by him, he frequently, by his letters, requested his brethren of Italy, and Portugal, to instruct him in the best method of preaching the gospel profitably. "I am going," said he, "to publish Jesus Christ, to people who are part Idolaters, and part Saracens; I conjure you, by Jesus Christ himself, to send me word, after what manner, and by what means, I may instruct them. For I am verily persuaded, that God will suggest those ways to you, which are most proper for the easy reduction of those people into his fold; and if I wander from the right path, while I am in expectation of your letters, I hope I shall return into it, when I shall have received them."

All that succeeded well to his endeavours in the service of our Lord, he attributed to the intercession of his brethren. "Your prayers," he writ to the Fathers at Rome, "have assuredly obtained for me the knowledge of my infinite offences; and withal the grace of unwearied labouring, in the conversion of Idolaters, notwithstanding the multitude of my sins."

But if the designs which he was always forming, for the advancement of religion, happened to be thwarted, he acknowledged no other reason of those crosses than his own sins, and complained only of himself.

As for those miracles which he continually wrought, they passed, in his opinion, as the effects of innocence in children, or for the fruits of faith in sick persons. And when, at the sight of a miraculous performance, the people were at any time about to give him particular honours, he ran to hide himself in the thickest of a forest; or when he could not steal away, he entered so far into the knowledge of himself, that he stood secure from the least temptation of vain glory. It even seemed, that the low opinion which he had of his own worth, in some sort blinded him, in relation to the wonders which he wrought, so that he perceived not they were miracles.