1ONE of the grand Difficulties, that he, who would be highly Virtuous, must expect to surmount and Conquer, especially in such a Degenerous age, as ours, is the Temptation that is afforded by the Universality of vitious Customs and Examples. I wish ‘twere needless, solicitously to prove, either how great an Influence Examples, especially bad ones, have on the generality of Men; or how general bad Examples have been in most Ages, and in particular in That we live in. The Scandal given by bad Examples, tho’ it be one of the most obvious Temptations, is none of the least dangerous. For Interest, Bashfulness, and that very Complaisance and Civility, that is so usually found in well-bred, or good-Natur’d, Persons, makes them very unwilling to offend or disoblige the Company they live with; and whom they have several Inducements rather to please and gratify by imitation and compliance, than tacitly to reproach by Nonconformity to their Sentiments, and Practices. And, in effect, we find, that many that could not be perverted by the Frowns and Threats of the Vitious, have been Debauch’d by their Company and Example. Against this powerful Temptation, Religion strongly arms it’s Hero, both by Precepts and Precedents. Thou shalt not follow a Multitude to do Evil, was the Express Command of the Mosaic Law. Say not thou a Confederacy to all, to whom this People shall say a Confederacy, was the Command of God to his Prophet. Our Saviour makes it an Argument to dissuade his Disciples from an anxious Solicitude about Meat and Drink and Cloathing, that after all these things the Gentiles (which are by far the most numerous part of Mankind) do seek. And, upon the same ground, he endeavours in the same Divine Sermon upon the Mount to keep them from Vain Repetitions in Prayer. And, whereas it may seem an Immodesty to dare to dissent from others, that vastly surpass us in number; the Heroick Conqueror of Canaan speaks thus to the whole Body of the Victorious Jewish Nation, that they may choose to serve whom they thought fit, and worship either the Gods whom their Fathers served, or those Worshipp’d by the Neighbouring Nations, but as for me and my House, we Will serve the Lord, Be you not conformed to this World, says St. Paul. And another Apostle, speaking of himself and the true Christians of his time, scruples not to affirm it passionately and roundly,2 We know that we are of God, and the whole World lies in Wickedness.
Nor does Religion furnish us with Precepts only, to disobey Custom, and Example, but with Precedents too, of which there are Three so illustrious, that I know not how to pass them by. The First is afforded by Lot, who lived in a place, that was grown so Proverbial for the Height of Wickedness, that to aggravate their Sins by the most Hyperbolical Comparison, we must liken them to themselves; and they were grown so wicked, that in a place where an admirable Plenty, and an unbounded Libertinisme could not but make them very populous, there could not be found half a Score of good Men, the generality of that cursed People being fallen so much not only from Virtue, but from common Honesty, that they did not restrain themselves so much, as to Human Vices. And yet, even the Sins of Sodom, which cryed so loud as to reach Heaven, and bring down Fire and Brimstone from thence, disturbed Lot’s Quiet, without destroying his Innocence, and an Apostle assures us, that, that just Man was but vex’d with the filthy Conversation of the wicked, not prevail’d with in the least to imitate it.
The Next Instance of a Religious Courage, inflexible to bad Examples, is afforded us by the three Friends of Daniel, who, at the great Solemnity of the Dedication of Nebuchadnezars Golden Image; when they had, besides that great and stern Monarchs Command, the Example not only of many Men but many Nations, and a more numerous Assembly of Persons, considerable for Quality and Dignity, than the World ever saw before or since, singly opposed their Naked Constancy to the haughty Tyrants Menaces, and the prostrate World’s Example. And yet these Men were Courtiers, bred among that supple sort of fine Creatures; that were as accustom’d to bow their Consciences, as their Knees, to their proud Master. They had not only Lives to lose, but the chief Dignities of the Province of Babylon, then the Queen of Nations. And they could not upon their refusal quit the stateliest Palace in the World, without immediately changing it for a burning Fiery Furnace.
The Last Instance I shall name, and the most illustrious that can be named, is, that I am supplied with by Noah, he lived in an Age, in which there were as many Hainous Sinners almost as there were Men, thô Vice has generally had a Benjamins Portion, in the Distribution of Mankind betwixt It and Virtue, yet, Methusala excepted, the Inequallity was grown such, as gave Vice rather a Monopoly than a Share of Men; or if a Distribution were to be admitted, ‘twas such a one, as That made of Saul and his Army, when all the people were on one side, and only he and Jonathan on the other: ‘Tis strange, that when the World was so recent, that many, that were then alive might remember and converse with one, that for two hundred Years liv’d contemporary with Adam, (for so we may gather Methusala to have done) Men should so soon forget all Sentiments of Piety. But yet in Noah’s time, the World could not be compared to its present State, where thô it be Night in one place, ‘tis Day in another; but to the state of Tohu va Bohu, or the first Chaos, where Darkness was over the face of the Universal Deep. For the Scripture tells us, (Gen. 6. 12) That all Flesh had corrupted his way upon the Earth, that every Imagination of the thoughts of Mans Heart was only evil continually. And tho’ Noah’s Family were saved with him in the Ark, yet it may be doubted, whether that were a certain token of their being untoucht by the general Contagion. For that wonderful Vessel contain’d Beasts clean and unclean, harmless and rapacious, and in it were saved Wolves as well as Lambs, and Vultures as well as Doves. And where God gives the Reason, why he vouchsafed to receive Noah and his House into the Ark, he Expresses it thus; For thee have I seen Righteous before me in this Generation, without making mention of any of his Family. Nor, was the Wickedness of the Antediluvian World more Universal than it was Great; that Mungrel breed were guilty of Sins as Gigantic as Themselves. The Text says, that the Earth was filled with Violence through them; and those Impious Rebels against their Maker broke the Laws of Nature with an Insolence, that provoked him to break off the course of Nature to punish them, since nothing less than an Universal Deluge of Water could place Limits to such an impetuous and over-flowing Impiety. But all these sinful Examples, how general soever, could not prevail on Noah so much as to keep him from giving One of a quite contrary Nature; the Scripture calls him an Herald or3 Preacher of Righteousness; and tho’ it appears not, that he made any Converts, he persever’d in his rejected Admonitions for Sixscore years, a time long enough to have tired his Patience, especially since he did not any of his Hearers Obstinacy. And his Constancy rais’d him as much above the reach of their Temptations, as the Waters that punished their Sin rais’d his Ark above their drowned Mansions. And now go and compare with any Constancy of the following times, where Virtue has always had some Party, tho’ not a numerous one, this unequall’d Singularity of Noah, which God himself seems to have taken special notice of, not only by that Patriarchs wonderful Preservation, but by saying Emphatically, (Gen. 7. 1) Thee have I seen Righteous before me in this Generation, which was so brutish and depraved, that I know not whether he were not obliged to live among worse Brutes before he finish’d the Ark than afterwards, when in it he was shut up with Lyons, Foxes, and Tygres.
4Another Virtue, that belongs to a great Mind, is Constancy, or persevering Patience in Afflictions. This Quality hath so Noble an appearance, that when ‘tis exercis’d even by Malefactors, it obtains our Esteem; and whilest we cannot so much as excuse their Actions, we cannot but commend the Manner of their suffering for them: Calmness of Mind, in the midst of outward Storms, being something that looks so handsomely, that Crimes and Gibbets cannot keep it from doing so; nor hinder those in whom ‘tis found, from being both pitied and applauded.
That this part of Greatness of Mind is befriended by the Christian Religion, more than by any other Institution, will appear; if we consider, what it contributes to Constancy and Patience, under outward Pressures and Calamities, by Precept, by Examples, and by Arguments.
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