THis last Discourse, to which the River had afforded the occasion, inviting me to Survey as much of it as was within my View, a little more attentively, gave me the opportunity of taking notice of a manifest difference betwixt the Lands that lay near it, and those whose Situation was remoter from it, and having acquainted Eusebius with what I had observ’d, which his own Eyes could not but presently bear witness to; One (says he) that should only consider how swiftly this Stream runs along these flowery Meadows, and how great a quantity of Water passes through them, and from them, towards the Sea, would be apt to conclude, that certainly these Grounds retain none of the Water which runs from them so hastily, and so plentifully, especially since we can see no Chanels, nor other manifest Inlets, and Receptacles, that should divert and retain the fugitive Water, so that the Grounds confining on the River, must be but little advantag’d by its Neighbourhood. But, (continues Eusebius) though these Grounds have not any patent Passages, whereby to derive Water and Fatness from the River, and therefore must suffer the greatest part of it to run by them undiverted, yet still some of the Cherishing and Fertilizing moisture is from time to time soak’d in by the Neighbouring Ground, and (perhaps by blind Pores, and crooked Chanels) so dispersed thorow the whole Fields, that they have thereby Water, and in that vehicle Fertility convey’d to them, which you will not doubt, if you do but with me take notice, how much the Lands that lye on both sides near the Course of the River, are more Verdant, and Flourishing, and more Rich than those less happy Grounds, to whom their Remoteness denies the advantage of so improving a Neighbourhood.
Thus (resumes Eusebius) many a pious Person that is an Assiduous attendant on the means of Grace, and has a care to place himself as it were in the way, by which the Ordinances of God, especially those of Reading, and Expounding of the Scriptures, are wont freely and copiously to flow, is (especially upon any fit of Melancholy, or distress of Mind) apt to be extremely discourag’d from prosecuting that course of Duties, and by looking upon the little that he remembers of so many excellent Sermons as he has heard, he is often inclined to conclude not only he has lost all the good Sermons that he has heard already, but that at least for such as he there is little to be expected from them for the future.
But though to lose so much of a thing, so precious as the Doctrine of Salvation, be that, which is oftentimes a fault, and always an unhappiness, yet ‘tis a far less Mischief to forget Sermons than to forsake them, the one may be but an effect of a weak Memory, the other is that of a depraved Will, perverted by Laziness, Impatience, or some greater fault, we should scarce allow it for a Rational proceeding; if one in a Consumption, or Disentery, because he grows not Fat with Feeding, should resolve to renounce Eating and Drinking.
But this (says Eusebius) is not that which I chiefly intended: For Pious, but melancholy Persons, are oftentimes too Partial against themselves, to be competent Judges of their own Estate, they seem not to forget any Sermon so much as that, Charity should begin at home; And they are much more carefull not to accuse any body wrongfully than themselves, though they might remember, that in the Estimate of Christ himself, all Grounds are not equally Fruitfull that are good, some bringing forth hundred, some sixty, some but thirty Fold, and yet to all he vouchsafes the title of Good; and though, as mad Men that have quite lost their VVits, seldome or never complain of the want of them; so those that have forfeited, or are devoid of Grace, rarely bemoan themselves of the weakness of it. And ‘tis no mean sign of Proficiency in Piety, to be apt to deplore ones unproficiency; ‘Tis true, that Preaching is not always, and I fear not so much as often, the Savour of Life unto Life, the Perversness of the Hearers making it but too frequently the Savour of Death unto Death. But yet, speaking in the general, though it aggravate the Sins committed in spite of it, yet it usually hinders many others from being committed; and he that twice a VVeek is told of God, and Duty, and Heaven, and Hell, has his Conscience more awak’d than he that never hears of any of these things. And if you but compare one of these despondent Christians, we are considering, with the careless Sensualists, that fly a rowzing Sermon, as they should do what it would deter them from; you will easily discern a sufficient disparity between them, to invite you to conclude, that the Instructiveness of Preaching may, like the moisture of the River, be convey’d but by little and little at a time, and by unperceived Passages, and yet be able to impart Fertility: For though much run by, yet commonly something will stick, which we may safely conclude, if though we can discern it no other way, it disclose it self by the Effects; for ‘tis not always to those that remember the most of them, that Sermons do the most good, as VVater retained in Ponds makes not the Bottom flourishing, but the Banks, and the Efficacy of a Sermon is better to be collected from the Impression it has on the Understanding, and Affections, than from that it leaves on the Memory, whether we retain the Particulars faithfully or no, and carry them home with us; yet if a Sermon leave us Devouter than it found us, if we go from God’s Ordinances, with a love to them, and a rellish of them, and a purpose to frequent them, we may be Despondents, but are not altogether Non-proficients; that incorruptible Seed by which we are Regenerated, being once thrown into an honest Heart, may, as our Saviour intimates, grow up we know not well how, and though perhaps by insensible degrees, yet at length attain Maturity. To dispatch, (concludes Eusebius) whether or no a Man can orderly repeat all the Particulars that composed the Sermon, it does him good, if it either makes him good, or keeps him so: And its Operation is to be estimated, not so much by what we Remember, as by what we Resolve.
What you have been saying, (subjoyns Lindamor) when he perceived that Eusebius had done speaking, suggests to me a Reflection, that till now I did not dream of; And though it differ from that wherewith you have been pleased to entertain us, yet because ‘tis applicable to the same purpose, and occasioned by the same River, I shall without scruple, though after your Discourse, not without Blushes, tell you, that it is this; I, among many others that Live near it, have often resorted in hot Weather to this River, to bathe my self in it, and after what I have been hearing, I now begin to consider, that though incomparably the greater part of the River run by me, without doing me any good, and though when I went out of it, I carried away little or none of it with me; yet whilst I stayed in it, that very Stream, whose Waters run so fast away from me, washed and carried off whatever Foulness it might find sticking to my Skin: And besides, not only cooled me, and refreshed me, by allaying the intemperate heat that discomposed me, and made me faint, but also help’d me to a good Stomach for some while after.
Thus (resumes Lindamor) I have sometimes found, that a moving Sermon, though it did not find me qualified to derive from it the Advantages it questionless afforded better Auditors, and when I went from it, I found I had retained so little of it, that it seemed to have almost totally slipt out of my Memory, yet the more Instructive and Pathetick passages of it had that Operation upon me, as to cleanse the Mind from some of the Impurities it had contracted, by Conversing to and fro in a defiling World, without suffering Pollutions to stay long, and settle where they began to be Harboured; And besides, I found that a course of such Sermons, as I have been mentioning, did oftentimes (and if it had not been my own fault, would have always done so) both allay those Inordinate heats that tempting Objects are but too apt to Excite; refresh my drooping Spirits, that continually needed to be revived, and raise in me an Appetite to the means of Grace, which are Piety’s (and consequently the Soul’s) true and improving Aliments. So that, (concludes Lindamor) though I seldome let Sermons do me all the good they may, and should, yet I dare not forsake them, because I forget them; since ‘tis to do a Man some good, to make him less bad than he was, and to give a Value and Inclination for the means of growing better than he is.
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