[Nor need we be1 (as even the best New Converts often are) so scrupulous to own Repentance for fear of injuring Humility; since certainly if the latter be a Virtue, she cannot enjoin a Vice so heinous as Ingratitude, by forbidding us even such a Retribution as Acknowledgment; for sure ‘tis the least return we owe to God for his Gifts, to confess that we have received them. Who would not tax him of Unthankfulness, that being loaded with a Prince’s Presents, should disclaim them, for fear of confessing himself to be rich. Altho a Woman prais’d for her Complexion, be bound in Modesty to gainsay those Praises, yet if the Fire have given her a good Colour, ‘tis not thought Pride to refrain contradicting, because the Effect being natural to the Fire, and requiring no excellent Predispositions in the Object, to refer those ascriptions to their Cause, is held to justify the not rejecting them: So tho there be an eye of Vanity in the Publication of those Graces, whose near resemblance (or affinity) to Virtues merely Moral, leaves their Extraction dubious; yet true Repentance is a Grace so purely foreign, that being acted in us by a Principle not native or acquired, but infus’d, to own the having received it, is not to boast our Merits, but acknowledge our Debts; the vanity being rather on the other side, who by pretending to disclaim so supernatural a Grace, imply that they esteem it to be their own Inheritance or Purchase. God’s Goodness being so free, that ‘tis the only Title to its self; and the motives of his Favours being taken from himself and not from us, his Blessings argue indeed the Bounty of the Benefactor, but infer not the Merit of the obliged; since the Spirit’s Irradiations into our Souls (like the Sun’s shining upon Shrubs and Hemlock) is due to the diffusiveness of his Goodness, not the attractiveness of ours. Moral Virtues may perhaps be resembled to Great Mens Cloaths, which supply those that see them, with some conjectures of the Quality of those that wear them: But inspired Graces (such as Repentance is) are like their Liveries, whose Gawdiness evinces not the Footman’s Deserts, but his Lord’s Splendidness; and in mens esteem entitles the Lacquey to nothing but a good Master. Those better Qualities Blood may convey, or Industry acquire, like Honours conferr’d by Princes, suppose the Party deserving; but Heavenly Donatives are like Alms, which ever presume need; and where they are more liberally bestow’d, stronglier conclude the greatness of the Party’s Wants than Merits.
Upon such Considerations, possibly, as these, the great Apostle (after a recital of his first unworthiness) scruples not to write of himself in such bold erms as these; By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace which (1 Cor. 15. 10) was bestowed on me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all, (meaning the College of the Holy Apostles) yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. (I might produce many resembling2 Passages of Scripture, had I not handled this Subject elsewhere.) But truly, since you are commanded in the Gospel to let (Mat. 5. 16) your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father which is in heaven; you ought to consider whether or no your expressing a serious dislike of others present, and your own former practice (in point of Swearing) do not either proclaim your Repentance, or infer you a Hypocrite. And if your Reason (as questionless it will) lead you to embrace the affirmative, believe you are then further to be put in mind, that not only the Confession of our Virtues is justifiable when it is necessary to your Justification, but (tho in all other cases our actions should commend us, not we our selves, Praise being a Debt which he that pays himself, acquits all others of) even the mention of our own Praises is allowable, when they are produc’d, not to extol, but barely to vindicate us, and finds a sufficient defence in its being necessary unto ours.
The owning of Repentance has so much of Penance in it, that there is not any Grace more indispos’d to a perversion into Vanity; for still Repentance (like the Pardon it endeavours to procure) does presuppose a Fault, having this particular unhappiness above other Virtues, that men cannot arrive at it but through Vice. And therefore in the return to the disinterestedness of action, Virtue (who can scarce more reward our love to her, than by imparting unto us a higher degree of it) commonly recompenceth so unselfish a Duty, by making it a powerful engagement to perseverance against Relapses; and any affront or loss sustain’d upon that score, turns to a Blessing, by producing in us towards Religion, the usual property of Sufferers for a Cause, more Zeal and Passion for the Party men have been Sufferers for. But admit you could not own Repentance, without being fancied vain, must the fear of others sins continue (those that are immediately) yours? Will you rather let others sin by imitation of your bad actions, than in their misconstruction of your good ones? And will you quench the Spirit, and refrain from being virtuous, lest men should think you know your self to be so? Especially since our Ignorance in good Performances, tho it criminate the act, degrades the Agent from the Title of Virtuous: Virtue being a habitude elective, and election pre-requiring knowledge. Which reason I might fortify, by asking to what end Preachers should light us so many Candles, and give us so many Touchstones to discover and examine Graces with, if our being conscious to our own Repentance were a fault that deserved it? Undoubtedly, that were (and that were strange) to make it our Duty to seek, what it were our Sin to find.
This last Reflection I must recruit, by adding, That since our improvement of, and thankfulness for Grace, will be expected proportionable to our stock of it, (as the Parable of the Talents, and our Saviour’s declaring, that where much is given, there also much will be required, evinces) we cannot without the knowledge of our Receits, know what our Returns must be (of Gratitude and Duty) to be answerable to them. The utmost that Modesty does exact of you, is the declining of those Praises your actions do deserve, not the refraining actions that deserve Praise, for fear of being suspected to affect it. But truly, Bashfulness, tho in Maids thought a Virtue, in Virtue is a fault; for sure it is one of the worst Complements you can put upon the Spirit, to lock him up in a dungeon, for shame to own his Visits.
The union betwixt Virtues is too strict, and their assistances so reciprocal, that That may be concluded to be no Virtue, that forbids the exercise of any, and does not rather facilitate than obstruct it. Certainly ‘tis better be accused of Vanity, than guilty of Relapses; and if some Reputation must be lost, ‘tis fitter that you should be dishonoured by other mens faults, than God by yours; for he is good enough to recompence his servants, not only for being good, but for their not being thought so for his sake; and to make one day their Dishonour (not only the Foil, but) the Purchase of their Glory. I have spent the more Ink to carry away this Obstruction, because I have observed it to be a Block, at which the best natur’d Novices in Piety are the most prone to stumble; the Devil, our subtle Antagonist, (more Serpent far than that he tempted our First Parents in, when he insinuated himself into our credulous Mother’s easy Faith; in which sly winding Creature, he elected not a fitter Instrument than Emblem) in the Scruple we have laboured to remove, leaving his own to assume the borrowed habit of an Angel of Light; in that Disguise to make Virtue clash with Grace, and pervert Modesty into an Obstacle of Reformation. Thus when Man was once fallen from Paradise, even Cherubims intercepted his return unto the Tree of Life.] (Gen. 3. 24)
The Last Excuse
Lastly, (replies the Swearer) All this I confess to be very true; but what would you have me to do? Long time and custom have so habituated me to this Vice, that I find the Impossibility of my subduing it, as great as my willingness to leave it.
Answ. Well, I am very glad we have brought you to this pass: ‘Tis then confessedly a sin, and a great one: The question therefore is, Whether it be fitter for God to make it no sin, or you not to make it yours; and for him to be reconcil’d to the evil of its nature, or for you to desist from its practice? Your Apology is just as excusing as the Murderer’s would be, who should alledge before his Judge, that since he had been a Murderer from his Youth, he begs to be excused; but truly for his part he could not help it, and he must needs continue the Trade of cutting of Throats, that he had so long practic’d. Is not yours a holy consequence, I have been wicked long, therefore I will continue so still? Sure ‘tis the Devil’s Logick, from those sins that evidence the Justice of our suddener Repentance, to infer the legitimateness of our Relapses into Crimes. The Argument would have as much Reason, and more Honesty, that concludes out of, I have been wicked but too long already; that, Therefore I must be so no more; and from our former want of Piety, infers there needs a greater measure now to make amends for past Omissions. You would judge him uncharitable, that should tell you that you are scarce so much as desirous to be forgiven: But (to shew you how little you have for your opinion, besides your wishes) consider who would think that Delinquent very ambitious of Pardon, who refuses to accept it, unless he may have license to thieve again; and declines to purchase it by an engagement against former Misdemeanors. Certainly,
Weak is th’ Excuse that is on Custom built; For th’ Vse of sinning lessens not the Guilt.
And Custom in Evil rather increases than contracts the fault; for that Custom that now is the Parent, was first the Child of Sin, since the Evil of Custom proceeds from the Custom of Evil; (like Ice, which tho it easily thaw into Water, was first produced out of that Element’s Congelation.) And therefore our equitable and impartial Laws, that in Theft chastise the first faults only with a Brand upon the Hand or Shoulder, punish Relapses with deserved Death.
Nor are the Obstacles that oppose your cure, so stubborn as you are pleas’d to fancy them. We flatter our selves in augmenting the Difficulty of our Repentance, that we may lessen the Guilt of our Neglects. The truth on’t is, our baseness adds dimensions to these difficulties, because we are really loath to forsake our sins, and yet would fain cheat our Consciences into a belief, that our refractoriness and impenitency do proceed, not from our unwillingness to mend, but from our impotence. We do not, in this case, like many flourishing Orators, who out of ostentation use to create Monsters, afterwards to quell them; but like Children in the dark, who fancy first horrid mishapen Bug-bears, and then are frighted by them.
And yet when the slight Penalty of a Shilling is laid upon each Oath, and strictly exacted, we may easily discern a visible abatement in the tale of your sins, as long as you are true to your engagement; which were not most men too soon weary of, would (probably) soon make them weary of Offences of that nature.
‘Tis the opinion both of Pious and of Judicious Persons, that Swearing is therefore, tho not the most unpardonable, at least the most inexcusable of Vices; because that in it men have most power to refrain: And in effect, this sin is so destitute both of Temptations, Advantages, and Apologies, that in subduing the Custom of Swearing, we have scarce any thing but the Custom to subdue. Try; ‘tis less easy to surmount the belief of the difficulty, than the difficulty it self, which nothing makes so much invincible, as our thinking that it is so.
Here, a willingness to hoise Sail (to quit this ruinous Vice) serves for a prosperous Gale. If therefore Christ by giving you a desire to shake off the clogging Yoke of Sin, do call you to himself, give me leave to say to you, as the people did to the blind man of Jericho, Be of good comfort, rise, (Mark 10. 49) he calleth thee. And to compleat that comfort, I must tell you, that the Operation of Saving Grace upon the Sicknesses of the Soul, is like that of the Pool of Bethesda upon the Infirmities of (John 5. 2, 3, 4) the Body, since without all regard either to the age or greatness of the disease, so the remedy be but duly applied, the Cure is infallible.
I shall never despair of the recovery of any, that is but heartily desirous to be reclaim’d; since that which God was pleas’d to make me lately instrumental to work upon a Gentleman, whose Nation being French, his Vice little younger than himself, Humor extremely Cholerick, and his apprehensions of the Successlessness of his Endeavours very great, obliged him to vanquish Indispositions numerous and great enough to make that concurrence very frequent in one single person; and yet before one Fortnight was effluxt, he obtain’d so visible a Conquest over this stubborn Vice, that he had afterwards only as many relicks of it to suppress, as might keep him from growing proud of so sudden a Recovery.
So easy is it after having vanquish’d the Imagination of the Difficulty, to overcome the Difficulty it self; for in matter of uneasy Christian Duties, we must not only consider the disproportion of our Weaknesses to the Obstacles we must surmount, but allow the disproportion of those Obstacles, to the Supernatural Assistances we ought to hope for. For God requires nothing at our hands, which his own Favour (zealously implor’d by our addresses) will not enable us to execute. And in this, the Commands of God, differ from those of men, that the latter but lay on us an Obligation, the former invest us with a Power to obey them. As when our Saviour commanded the sick man (in the Gospel) to take up his bed, and walk, (Mark 2. 9, 12) at the same instant he strengthens his Sinews to perform what he enjoin’d: And in the first Creation, that powerful Command, Let there be light, gave that bright (Gen. 1. 3) Creature an Existence, to make it capable of paying him an Obedience. Let not then Tasks above the forces of our Nature, disanimate those that may expect assistances from his Almightiness, who in the same Leaves where he commands us to perform more than we are able, promises to do in us what he commands; since difficulties are not essential properties of obstacles, but only disproportions to the powers they are to resist. But admit that your habitude of swearing have rendred your Conversion as difficult as you pretend; sure then, that which Custom of sinning has confessedly made so uneasy, the continuance of that Custom is very unlikely to facilitate: As probably may he, whom a Surfeit of Melons has cast into a Fever, hope for a Cure by eating more again. No, no; remember that bad Customs, like Consumptions, admit of Remedies in the beginning, but grow still more incurable by delay; and Vices, like young Trees, the longer they are let grow, the greater difficulty there is in felling of them; each single sin being not bad only for the evil of the act, but the propensity it gives to repetition.
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Footnotes
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The Lines included within this Parenthesis [] may perhaps pass for one, and appear somewhat foreign both to the Theme and Style of this Discourse: I have yet ventur’d to insert· them here, to please a Person that I much affect; leaving to the Reader a liberty to skip them if he please; but if he chance to vouchsafe them· a perusal, I must beg for them his attention, not that they deserve it, but because they need it. It ends p. 87. ↩
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In an Essay of mistaken Modesty. ↩