Containing some Preliminaries, As I. The removing of Sloth and stupid Indifferency. II. Prejudices arising. (1.) From Authority, Education and Custom. (2.) From Irregular Self-Love, and Pride. How to cure our Prejudices. Some Remarks upon Change of Opinions, Novelty and the Authority of the Church. III. To arm our selves with Courage and Patient Perseverance against (1.) The Censures of ill People, and (2.) our own Indocility. IV. To propose a Right End.
§. I.
The first thing I shall advise against is Sloth, and what may be joyn’d with it a stupid Indifference to any thing that is excellent; shall I call it Contentedness with our Condition how low and imperfect soever it be? I will not abuse the Word so much, ’tis rather an ungenerous inglorious Laziness, we doze on in a Circle with our Neighbours, and so we get but Company and Idleness enough, we consider not for what we were made, and what the Condition of our present State requires. And we think our selves good humble Creatures for this, who busy not our Heads with what’s out of our Sphere and was never design’d for us, but acquiesce honestly and contentedly in such Employments as the generality of Women have in all Ages been engaged in; for why shou’d we think so well of our selves as to fancy we can be wiser and better than those who have gone before? They went to Heav’n no doubt, and we hope that by treading in their steps we likewise in due time may come there, And why should we give our selves any farther trouble? The lowest degree of Bliss in that happy place is more than we deserve, and truly we have too much Humility and Modesty to be Ambitious of a higher.
Thus we hide our faults under the borrowed name of Vertue; an old device taught us by the Enemy of our Souls, and by which he has often deceiv’d us. But ’tis all mistake and nonsense to hope to get to Heaven, if we stint our Endeavours and care for no more but just to get there. For what’s at the bottom of this pretended humble temper? No real Love to GOD and longing to enjoy him, no appetite for Heaven, but since we must go thither or to Hell when we quit this dear beloved World, a taking up with that as the more tolerable place. Had we indeed any true Idea of the Life to come, did we but fix our Eyes and Thoughts in the Contemplation of that unconceivable Blessedness, ’twou’d be impossible not to desire it with the warmest vigor, not to be Ambitious of all we are able to attain. For pray wherein do the Joys of Heaven consist, but in the Fruition of GOD the Only and All satisfying Good? and how can we Enjoy Him but by Loving him? And is it not the property of that Passion to think it can never Enjoy enough but still to thirst for more? How then can we Love GOD if we do not Long and Labour for the fullest Enjoyment of him? And if we do not Love Him how are we like to Enjoy Him in any the least Degree? He needs neither our Services nor our Company, He loses nothing of His Happiness, tho we will not fit our selves to receive those Communications of it He is desirous t’impart to us; and therefore we’ve no reason to think He will force His Bliss upon us, render those Faculties He has given us needless, and make us Happy how unfit soever we are for Beatitude. What did we come into the World for? To Eat and to Drink and to pursue the little Impertinencies of this Life? Surely no, our Wise Creator has Nobler Ends whatever we have; He lent us hither to pass our Probation, to Prepare our selves and be Candidates for Eternal Happiness in a better. And how shall this be done but by Labour and Industry? A Labour indeed, but such as carries its Reward with it, besides what it is entituled to hereafter.
The Truth is, that the Condition of our Present State is such, that we can’t do any thing, much less what’s Great and Excellent without some Pain and Weariness of the Flesh; even our very Pleasures are accompanied with Pain, nor wou’d they relish without it, this is the Sauce that recommends them. And why then shall we be averse to the taking a little Pains in that Case only in which ’twill be worth our while? A Title, an Estate, or Place, can neither be got nor kept without some difficulty and trouble; an Amour, nay even a paltry Dress can’t be manag’d without some Thought and Concern, and are our Minds the only thing that do not need, or not deserve them? Has our Bountiful Lord set no limits to our Happiness but the Capacity of our Nature, and shall we set less, and not strive to extend our Capacities to their utmost reach? Has the obliging Son of GOD thought · no difficulties too mighty, no Pain too great to undergo for the Love of us, and shall we be so disingenuous and ungrateful as to think a few hours Solitude, a little Meditation and Watchfulness too much to return to his Love? No certainly, we cannot have such narrow groveling hearts; no we are all on Fire, and only want to know wherein to employ our Activity, and how to manage it to the best advantage, which if we wou’d do we must in the next place.
§. II. Disengage our selves from all our former Prejudices, from our Opinion of Names, Authorities, Customs and the like, not give credit to any thing any longer because we have once believ’d it, but because it carries clear and uncontested Evidence along with it. I shou’d think there needed no more to persuade us to this, than a consideration of the mischiefs these Prejudices do us. These are the grand hindrance in our search after Truth; these dispose us for the reception of Error, and when we have imbib’d confirm us in it; Contract our Souls and shorten our views, hinder the free range of our Thoughts and confine them only to that particular track which these have taken; and in a word, erect a Tyranny over our free born Souls, whilst they suffer nothing to pass for True that has not been stampt at their own Mint. But this is not all their mischief, they are really the root of Scepticism; for when we have taken up an Opinion on weak Grounds and stifly adher’d to it, coming afterwards by some chance or other to be convinc’d of its falseness, the same disposition which induc’d us to receive the Premises without Reason, now inclines us to draw as false a Conclusion from them; and because we seem’d once well assur’d of what now appears to have nothing in’t to make us so, therefore we fancy there’s nothing certain, that all our Notions are but Probabilities, which stand or fall according to the Ingenuity of their Managers, and so from an unreasonable Obstinacy we pass on to as unreasonable a Levity; so smooth is the transition from believing too easily and too much, to the belief of just nothing at all.
But pray where’s the force of this Argument, "This is true because such a Person or such a Number of Men have said it. Or, which commonly weighs more, because I my self, the dear Idol of my own Heart have sometimes embrac’d and perhaps very zealously maintain’d it?" Were we to Poll for Truth, or were our own particular Opinions th’Infallible Standard of it, there were reason to subscribe to the Sentiments of the Many, or to be tenacious of our Own. But since Truth tho she is bright and ready to reveal her self to all sincere Inquirers, is not often found by the generality of those who pretend to seek after her, Interest, Applause, or some other little sordid Passion, being really the Mistress they court, whilst she (like Religion in another Case) is made use of for a Stale to carry on the Design the better; since we’re commonly too much under the power of Inordinate Affections to have our Understandings always clear and our Judgments certain, are too rash, too precipitate not to need the assistance of a calmer thought, a more serious review; Reason wills that we shou’d think again, and not form our Conclusions or fix our foot till we can honestly say, that we have without Prejudice or Prepossession view’d the matter in Debate on all sides, seen it in every light, have no bias to encline us either way, but are only determin’d by Truth it self, shining brightly in our eyes, and not permitting us to resist the force and Evidence it carries. This I’me sure is what Rational Creatures ought to do, what’s then the Reason that they do’t not?
Laziness and Idleness in the first place; Thinking is a pain to those who have disus’d it, they will not be at the trouble of carrying on a thought, of pursuing a Meditation till it leads them into the confines of Truth, much less till it puts ’em in possession of her. ’Tis an easier way to follow on in a beaten road, than to launch out into the main Ocean, tho it be in order to the making of new Discoveries; they therefore who would be thought knowing without taking too much pains to be so, suppose ’tis enough to go on in their Fore-fathers steps, to say as they say, and hope they shall get as much Reputation by it as those who have gone before.
Again Self-love, an excellent Principle when true, but the worst and most mischievous when mistaken, disposes us to be retentive of our Prejudices and Errors, especially when it is joyn’d as most commonly it is with Pride and Conceitedness. The Condition of our present State (as was said before) in which we feel the force of our Passions e’re we discern the strength of our Reason, necessitates us to take up with such Principles and Reasonings to direct and determine these Passions as we happen to meet with, tho probably they are far from being just ones, and are such as Education or Accident not right Reason disposes us to; and being inur’d and habituated to these, we at last take them for our own, for parts of our dear beloved selves, and are as unwilling to be divorced from them as we wou’d be to part with a Hand or an Eye or any the most useful Member. Whoever talks contrary to these receiv’d Notions seems to banter us, to persuade us out of our very Senses, and does that which our Pride cannot bear, he supposes we’ve been all along deceiv’d and must begin anew: We therefore instead of depositing our old Errors, fish about for Arguments to defend ’em, and do not raise Hypotheses on the Discoveries we have made of Truth, but search for Probabilities to maintain our Hypotheses. And what’s the result of all this? Having set out in a wrong way we’re resolv’d to persist in it, we grope in the dark and quarrel with those who wou’d lead us out of it!
But is there no Remedy for this disorder, since we hope that All are not irrecoverably lost, tho too many are so invellop’d in Prejudice that there’s little probability of disengaging them? Why really the best that I can think of at present is, to Resolve to be Industrious, and to think no Pains too much to purchase Truth; to consider that our Fore-fathers were Men of like Passions with us, and are therefore not to be Credited on the score of Authority but of Reason; to remember likewise our own Infirmity, the shortness of our Views, and the bias which our Passions and secular Interests give us; generously to disengage our selves from the deceptions of sense, from all sinister and little Designs, and honestly to search after Truth for no other End but the Glory of GOD, by the accomplishing of our Own and our Neighbours Minds, and when we have humbly implor’d, as now we may very well hope for the Divine Assistance, that the Father of Lights will shine upon us, and that He who is the Way, the Truth and the Life will lead us into all Truth; why then we shou’d do well to take notice, That it is of no great consequence to us what our old Opinions are any farther than as we persist in ’em; that there’s no necessity that they shou’d be true, but ’tis highly necessary we shou’d fix on what is so; therefore these also must be made to pass the Scrutiny, and be cashier’d if they stand not the Test of a severe Examination and sound Reason.