Occasional Thoughts in Reference to a Vertuous or Christian life

by Lady Damaris Masham

Now this want of a firm assent to the Divine Authority of the Scriptures in such as yet profess to own them for the word of God, is unquestionably evident when such Men acquiesce not in the Precepts of the Gospel, as the Rule of their Actions, any farther than they find those Precepts to be Authoriz'd by the Testimony of their Reason: Of which manner of acting many very common examples may be easily brought.

It is true that how much soever a Man is perswaded of the Authority of any Rule, a strong Passion, or Apparent Interest may yet seduce him from the Obedience due to its prescriptions; but such a Transgression being accompanied with Regret, or followed with Repentance, the Rule is still as much acknowledg'd as if it were obey'd; and none, on the score of a contrary practice, are chargeable with a disbelief thereof, but such who do, on a deliberate Choice and without Remorse, transgress against it; which many professing to be Christians not only themselves do, but even teach their Children the like: in which latter case it cannot be suppos'd that they are misled by the strength of any prevailing Passion.

That we should forgive our Enemies and be patient under injuries (for instance) are, as plainly as words can make them so, commanded in the Scriptures; yet how many are there professing to believe that the Scriptures are the Word of God, who, as if no such Commands as these were deliver'd by Christ, or his Disciples, do both Practice and Teach, the not putting up Affronts unreveng'd; and this only because the Fashion of the Country has establish'd it, that a Gentleman cannot do so with Honour? A Term which herein signifies nothing, but agreeably to certain measures of acting that Men have Arbitrarily made for themselves, and which are not founded upon any Principle of right Reason; however to be obey'd, it seems, by a Gentleman preferably to the Commands of Christ. If there are Cases wherein from want of a due provision in Governments against some sort of Injuries it may be thought that Men are excusable in asserting their own Cause, yet thus much is at the least certain, That this Precept of Forgiveness could not be transgress'd against, as it very frequently is, by Men professing to believe the Authority of the Scriptures, if such were indeed fully perswaded that it was a divine Command which prohibited the avenging of our selves.

But others there are (contrary to these Men) who would find it altogether condemnable for a Man to hazard his own, and anothers Life in a Duel, or Rencounter (tho' caus'd by the Transport of ever so just a provocation) who would see no Evil in his mispending of his Time, consuming Day after Day, and Year after Year, uselesly to himself, or others, in a course of continual Idleness and Sauntring; as if he was made only to Eat and to Drink, or to gratifie his Senses. And how few Parents are there of Quality, even among such as are esteem'd the most vertuous, who do not permit their Daughters to pass the best part of their Youth in that Ridiculous Circle of Diversions, which is pretty generally thought the proper business of Young Ladies; and which so ingrosses them that they can find no spare Hours, wherein to make any such improvements of their understanding, as the leisure which they have for it exacts from them as rational Creatures; or as is requisite or useful to the discharging well their present, or future Duties?

Some formal Devotions are (perhaps) necessary to some of These, to preserve them even in their own good esteem; and they that can regularly find half an Hour, or an Hour in a Day to employ in private upon this, and in reading some pious Book, together with, it may be, a certain Number of Chapters in the Bible, need nothing more to make them be cry'd up for great examples to the Age they live in; as if all this while there were no Precepts for these People in the Gospel, concerning the improvement of their Time, and Talents, as things whereof they must one Day be accountable. For others it may be they cannot but see that there are such Commands; but the Sacred Law of Fashion has made endless Idle Visits, and less Innocent Entertainments, the indispensibly constant Employment of those of their Condition: and when they are grown Old in the perpetually repeated round of such Impertinence and Folly, they have but labour'd much in their Calling.

Another Instance how little many, who profess to believe the Scriptures, do apparently look upon them as the Rule of their Actions, we have in regard of the Precept not to Covet; which is as much forbidden by the Law of God as not to Steal, or Cozen a Man of what is his property: And yet the same Parents who have bred their Children in such a Sense of the Enormity of these last Vices, as that they oftentimes seem to them like things that they are Naturally uncapable of, are so far from teaching them to restrain their Exorbitant Desires, that very oft they themselves with care inspire these into them: Whence it is sufficiently clear that the difference made between Stealing and Cheating, or Coveting (alike forbidden by the Law of God) is from hence, That Ambition is thought a Passion becoming some Ranks of Men, but Cheating or Stealing not Vices proper for a Gentleman. A distinction that must needs refer to some other Rule than that of the Gospel; which therefore is not That which, as a Divine Law, does prescribe to such Men the Measures of their Actions.

To bring but one instance more of the Commands of Christ being comply'd with but so far only, as they do comply with some other Rule prefer'd thereto by such as yet pretend to be Christians; Chastity (for example) is, according to the Gospel, a Duty to both Sexes, yet a Transgression herein, even with the aggravation of wronging another Man, and possibly a whole Family thereby, is ordinarily talk'd as lightly of, as if it was but a Peccadillo in a Young Man, altho' a far less Criminal Offence against this Duty in a Maid shall in the Opinion of the same Persons brand her with perpetual Infamy: The nearest Relations oftentimes are hardly brought to look upon her after such a dishonour done by her to their Family; whilst the Fault of her more guilty Brother finds but a very moderate reproof from them; and in a little while, it may be, becomes the Subject of their Mirth and Raillery. And why still is this wrong plac'd distinction made, but because there are measures of living establish'd by Men themselves according to a conformity, or disconformity with which, and not with the Precepts of Jesus Christ, their Actions are measur'd, & judg'd of? A thing which would be unaccountable if Men were indeed heartily perswaded of the Divine Revelation of our Saviours Doctrine; and did not profess to believe this but because it is the Fashion of their Country so to do; and that their Parents have done so before them; or, at most, that possibly they may have receiv'd from their Education some impressions which will not permit them to reject the Christian Religion, any more than firmly induce their Assent to the Truth of it.

That Men who have any Vertue, or Sobriety, and who are not intirely destitute of good Sense, can suffer in themselves such an uncertainty about what is of so great moment to them as the Truths of the Christian Religion, is indeed strange; but as the slightest Arguments against any Truth have some weight to those who know not the Evidence of that Truth, so also such as have never been accustom'd, whilst Young, to exercise themselves in any Rational Inquiry, do usually in a more advanc'd Age look upon the easiest Labour of this kind as painful: And thence (for the most part) do either lazily think it best to acquiesce, as well as they can, in such Mens Sentiments as they have imagin'd the best to understand this matter; or else are readily inclin'd from the disagreement, and contrariety of Peoples thoughts about it, to take a Resolution of not troubling themselves at all concerning it; as being a thing wherein there is no certainty to be found, and probably therefore but little Truth: An Opinion which the too commonly avow'd Scepticism of the Age helps much to confirm unthinking People in; and that the more, because to doubt of what the most believe (tho' few have any other Reason for so doubting but that others do not doubt) has very much prevail'd in our Days to intitle Men to the Reputation of more than ordinary Wit and Sagacity. But the Scepticism among us has truly been so far from being the effect of uncommon Light, and Knowledge; as that it has been, and is much owing to the preceding fashionableness of a very general Ignorance, both in regard of Religion, and also of other useful Sciences; for Men's not knowing how profitably, and with pleasure to employ their Time, is apparently one great cause of their Debauchery; and so long as the Consciousness and Shame of not acting like rational Creatures is not extinguished in them, the uneasiness of that remorse puts them Naturally upon seeking out Principles to justifie their Conduct upon; few Men being able to indure the constant Reproaches of their own Reason: Whence if they do not conform their Actions to the dictates of that, they will Naturally indeavour to warp their Reason to a compliance with their practices: A reconcilement one way, or other, between these, being necessary to the making Men, that are not very profligate indeed, in good conceit, or even at Peace with themselves.

By that want of Knowledge which I have ventur'd to say is fashionable, I understand not only ignorance among Men, who have leisure for it, of Arts and Sciences in general; but also, and especially the want of such particular Knowledge as is requisite to every one for the well discharging either their Common or peculiar Business and Duty; wherein Religion is necessarily included, as being the Duty of all Persons to understand, of whatever Sex, Condition, or Calling they are of. Now to affirm that the greater part of People are ignorant concerning that which is not only their Duty to know, but which also many are so sensible they ought to know, as that they pretend to understand it enough to be either zealous about, or else to contemn it; and to assert likewise that they want the knowledge of what is peculiarly belonging to them, in their particular Station, to understand; are such Charges as ought not to be alledg'd, if they are not so evidently true, as that we cannot open our Eyes without seeing them to be so.

In respect of Religion, it is, I think, universally allow'd to be true of the common People of all sorts (tho' surely not without Matter of Reproach to some, or other, whose Care their better Instruction ought to be) that they are very ignorant. But we will consider here only such superior Ranks of Persons, in reference to whom what has already been said, has been spoken: And to begin with the Female Sex, who certainly ought to be Christians; how many of these, comparatively, may it be presum'd that there are, from the meanest Gentlewoman to the greatest Ladies, that can give any such account of the Christian Religion, as would inform an inquisitive Stranger what it consisted in; and what are the grounds of believing it? Such Women as understand something of the distinguishing Opinions of that Denomination they have been bred up in, are commonly thought highly intelligent in Religion; but I think there are but very few, even of this little number, who could well inform a rational Heathen concerning Christianity itself: Which is an Ignorance inexcusable in them, tho', perhaps, it is very often the effect only of the want of other useful Knowledge, for the not having whereof, Women are much more to be pitty'd than blam'd.