Eusebius. Lindamor.
Euseb.
THis Child is so much one in his humour, that despising meer Bread, though never so nourishing and wholesome, his Mother is fain to disguise the Materials of it into Cake, out of a belief that the toothsome, would make the nutritive part go smoothly down. But this lickerish Chit, I see, defeats her plot, and knows already how to nibble off the bait from the hook, and casting by the Meat, make his whole Meal of what was meant onely for Sauce, to give a Rellish to what he rejects for it. This puts me in mind of the unwelcome fate those Papers of mine, that treat of Devotion, have met with: For when I first was so unacquainted with the world, as to expect that Piety and Vertue were able, by their native charms, so much to endear my dress, as to win themselves adorers in a plain, or even a severe one; I ventur’d some of them abroad, though not in Print, yet among my Acquaintance, in a careless Matron-like habit, in which I soon found they almost frighted most of those I had design’d them to work the quite contrary effects on. But when my Acquaintedness with the Genius of the Age had sadly taught me, that I was to alter my Method, that the Eloquence of Vertues Sermons was that which must attract an Auditory, and engage Attention to them; and that those orders of hers, in which she employ’d not Rhetorick for her Secretary, could not be so much as listen’d to, much less obey’d, I endeavour’d to cloath Vertue, though not in a gawdy, in a Fashionable Habit, and devesting her not onely of her Sack-cloth, but her Blacks, where I saw she appear’d in them with Disadvantage, I endeavour’d to give her as much of the modern Ornaments of a fine Lady, as I could without danger of being accus’d to have dress’d her like a Curtizan. This Attempt having not prov’d so unsuccessful, but that many were pleas’d to assure me, I had not been unlucky in it, I spent some time in the self-denying Exercise of minding Words, and improving a Style, I hop’d to be able to improve to Virtue’s service, and subduing my Inclinations to be fit to Teach, as I had done to Learn, her Precepts; I some times, for her sake, tri’d my Pen in a smoother, and more florid style, than that which the nature of the Studies I was most addicted to, made the most familiar to me, flattering my self with a Belief, that since my Writings had usually the good fortune not to be ill approv’d, I might so happily mingle and interweave Instructions with Delight, as to necessitate my Readers to swallow both together, or at least bribe them by the latter to entertain the former.
Lind.
You have better luck, as well as better skill, than many others, if you find it not often to fare with the Fishers of Men as it did with those other Fishers, that first were honoured with that glorious Title, when they complained to our Saviour, that we have toiled all the night, (Luke 5. 5) and have taken nothing. For I see that men are grown witty enough to elude what they cannot despise, and resemble the deaf Adder that stops her spiritual ears from hearkening to the voice of Charmers, be the Charmer never so cunning. And the best Reception that the moving’st Eloquence, that pleads for Piety, can obtain of them, is but such as may serve to make that applicable to the Preacher, which God once said to a Prophet, Lo thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well upon an Instrument; For they hear thy words, but they do them not. But the best is, that you serve a Master, that is as inclinable to reward, as able to discern, Intentions, and does not make his Estimates by Events, but judges of our Performances, not by the Effects they produce, but the Affections they flow’d from, and the Ends they aim’d at.
Euseb.
The Disciple is not above his Master, nor the Servant above his Lord. And therefore, Lindamor, as I dare not repine at the unsuccessfulness of my Endeavours, so I dare think, that whilst it proceeds but from the Obstinacy of others, ‘tis not likely to be imputed to me by Him that complain’d plain’ Himself, That all the day long he had stretch’d forth his hands to an unpersuadable and gain-saying people. Otherwise, I confess, I should not have much cause to be satisfi’d with the Return that all my Indeavours have hitherto brought me home. For I see that men can read a Book of Devotion as unconcern’dly as they do a Romance or a Play, in both of them culling out onely what they call Wit, and making no better use of it than either to exercise or improve their own. They hear the most pathetick Sermons, not as Christians but Oratours, and if in such Discourses they have been so just as to praise the Rhetorick, they think they may well be excus’d if they over-look the Divinity: In short, nothing but what gratifies their Fancy can leave any Impressions on their Memory, and that it self, if it tend to reform them, makes none on their Affections. And some whose happier Pens allow them to do it far more justly than I can, do complain, That if a devout Book have not good store of witty passages, they will not mind it at all, and if it have, they will mind nothing else.
So that, Lindamor, I should sometimes be discourag’d from prosecuting Endeavours, which, though they now and then succeed, are oft-times so unprosperous, if I did not think, with you, that they who labour to win Souls to God, are set on work by him, that having no need of our Performances, seeks in our services but the opportunities of exercising his own Goodness.
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