Part 20

The experience of such neglect or infidelity in those whom we had hitherto loved and trusted, and from whom we had expected a suitable return of trust and love, would infallibly sour the temper, and create a constant apprehension of future unkindness. It would efface the native candour of the mind, and bring a cloud of jealousy over it; which would darken our views of human life. It would make us cold, and gloomy, and reserved; indifferent to those who deserved best of us, and unapt for the offices of society and friendship. The more we suppressed these sentiments, the more would they fester and rankle within us; till the mind became all over tenderness and sensibility, and felt equal pain from its own groundless surmises, as from real substantial injuries. In a word, we should have no relish of conversation, no sincere enjoyment of any thing, we should only be miserable _in_, and _from_ ourselves.

And is this a condition to be officiously courted, and sought after? Or rather, could we suffer more from the malice of our bitterest enemy, than we are ready to do from our own anxious curiosity to pry into the infirmities of our friends?

HITHERTO I have insisted on the danger of _giving heed to all words that are spoken_, LEST THOU HEAR THY SERVANT CURSE THEE; in other words, on the FOLLY of taking pains to make a discovery, which may prove unwelcome in itself, and dreadful in the consequent evils it may derive upon us.

II. It now remains that I say one word on the INJUSTICE, and want of equity, which appears in this practice. FOR OFTENTIMES ALSO THINE OWN HEART KNOWETH, THAT THOU THYSELF, LIKEWISE, HAST CURSED OTHERS.

And as in the former case the preacher drew his remonstrance from his knowledge of the world; so in this, he reasons from his intimate knowledge of the human heart.

Let the friendliest, the best man living, explore his own conscience, and then let him tell us, or rather let him tell himself, if he can, that he has never offended in the instance here given. I suppose, on a strict inquiry, he will certainly call to mind some peevish sentiment, some negligent censure, some sharp reflection, which, at times, hath escaped him, even in regard to his _second self_, a bosom friend. Either he took something wrong, and some suspicious circumstance misled him; or, he was out of health and spirits; or, he was ruffled by some ungrateful accident; or, he had forgotten himself in an hour of levity; or a splenetic moment had surprised him. Some or other of these causes, he will find, had betrayed him into a sudden warmth and asperity of expression, which he is now ashamed and sorry for, and hath long since retracted and condemned.

_Still further_, at the very time when this infirmity overtook him, he had no purposed unfriendliness, no resolved disaffection towards the person he allowed himself to be thus free with. His tongue indeed had offended, but his heart had scarce consented to the offence. The next day, the next hour, perhaps, he would gladly have done all service, possibly he would not have declined to hazard his life, for this abused friend.

I appeal, as the wise author of the text does, to yourselves, to the inmost recollection of your own thoughts, if ye do not know and feel that this which I have described hath sometimes been your own case. And what then is the inference from this self-conviction? Certainly, that ye ought in common justice, to restrain your inclination of prying into the unguarded moments of other men. If your best friends have not escaped your flippancy, where is the equity of demanding more reserve and caution towards yourself from them? Without doubt the proper rule is to suppose, and to forgive, these mutual indiscretions, which we are all ready to commit towards each other. We should lay no stress on these casual discourtesies; we should not desire to be made acquainted with them; we should dismiss them, if some officious whisperer bring the information to us, with indifference and neglect. To do otherwise is not only to vex and disquiet ourselves for trifles: It is to be unfair, uncandid, and _unjust_, in our dealings with others; it is to convict ourselves of partiality and hypocrisy, _For thine own heart knoweth, that thou thyself likewise hast done the same thing_.

Ye have now, then, before you the substance of those considerations which the text offers, for the prevention of that idle and hurtful curiosity of looking into the secret dispositions and discourses of other men. Ye see how foolish, how dangerous, how iniquitous it is, _to give heed to all words that are spoken_.

It becomes a man indeed to lay a severe check and restraint on his own tongue. Far better would it be, if all men did so. But they who know themselves and others, will not much expect this degree of self-government, will not, if they be wise, be much scandalized at the want of it; since they know the observance of it is so difficult and sublime a virtue; since they know that nothing less than extraordinary wisdom can, at all times, prevent the tongue of man from running into excesses; since they are even told by an Apostle, _That if any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man_[187].

Let us then allow for what we cannot well help. And let this consideration come in aid of the others, employed in the text, to expell an inveterate folly, which prompts us to lay more stress upon words, than such frivolous and fugitive things deserve. Let us regard them, for the most part, but as the shaking of a leaf, or the murmur of the idle air: they rarely merit our notice, and attention, more: or, when they do, we should find it better to indulge our _charity_, than our curiosity; I mean, to _believe well of others_, as long as we can, rather than be at the pains of an anxious inquiry for a pretence to _think ill_ of them.

THE END OF THE SIXTH VOLUME.

NICHOLS and SON, Printers, Red Lion Passage, Fleet Street, London.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] διὰ τοῦτο—referring to the good effect of this way of teaching on the disciples, whom it had enabled, as they confessed, to _understand_ the things, which Jesus had taught them.

[2] Tit. ii. 7.

[3] Rom. xv. 2.

[4] They did this with design, and on principle; as appears from St. Austin’s discourse _de Doctrinâ Christianâ_, in which he instructs the Christian preacher to employ, on some occasions, inelegant and even barbarous terms and expressions, the better to suit himself to the apprehensions of his less informed hearers—_non curante illo, qui docet, quantâ eloquentiâ doceat, sed quantâ evidentiâ. Cujus evidentiæ diligens appetitus aliquando negligit verba cultiora, nec curat quid benè sonet, sed quid benè indicet atque intimet quod ostendere intendit_—and what follows. L. iv. p. 74. Ed. Erasm. t. iii.

[5] 1 Cor. ii. 2.

[6] Archbishop Tillotson.

[7] Heb. iii. 2.

[8] 2 Cor. iv. 5.

[9] Matt. xi. 15.

[10] 1 Pet. iii. 3.

[11] 1 Pet iii. 15.

[12] ALPHONSUS THE WISE—I go on the common supposition, that this Prince intended a reflexion on the _system of nature_ itself; but, perhaps, his purpose was no more than, in a strong way of expression, (though it must be owned, no very decent one) to reprobate the _hypothesis_ [the _Ptolemaic_], which set that system in so bad a light.

[13] —μεταξὺ ἀλλήλων τῶν λογισμῶν κατηγορούντων ἢ καὶ ἀπολογουμένων. See the Paraphrase and Comment on this text by Mr. Taylor of Norwich, to whom I acknowledge myself indebted for the idea which governs the general method of this discourse.

[14] _Nat. Deor._ l. ii. c. 66.

[15] Sallust.

[16] Plato’s _Republic_.

[17] Xenophon’s _Inst. of Cyrus_.

[18] Rom. ch. i. ver. 28-32.—ποιεῖν τὰ μὴ καθήκοντα—συνευδοκοῦσι τοῖς πράσσουσι.

[19] Cicero, passim.

[20] Felix, Acts xxiv. 25.

[21] Ch. ii. 26.

[22] Ch. iii. 1.

[23] Chap. iii.

[24] Rom. vi. 23.

[25] 2 Cor. v. 15.

[26] 2 Cor. v. 19.

[27] 1 John ii. 2.

[28] Rom. iii. 24.

[29] 1 Tim. iv. 10.

[30] Rom. i. 9.

[31] Rom. xv. 13.

[32] Col. ii. 10.

[33] Ephes. iii. 2.

[34] John xii. 48.

[35] Luke xix. 14.

[36] 2 Peter ii. 21.

[37] St. John, xiii. 1.

[38] Ch. xiv. 1.

[39] St. John, xiv. 2.

[40] Ch. xiv. 6.

[41] Ch. xiv. 7.

[42] 1 Cor. ii. 5.

[43] Matt. xxi. 27.—xxii. 46.—xxvii. 14.

[44] Matt. xii. 38.—xvi. 1.

[45] Mark iv. 34.

[46] Mark iv. 34.

[47] Mark iv. 11.

[48] Matt. xiii. 58. Mark ix. 23.

[49] Matt. vii. 6.

[50] Mark iv. 25.

[51] John xx. 29.

[52] Isaiah lv. 8.

[53] Wisdom, ix. 13.

[54] 1 Cor. ii. 11.

[55] Rom. xiii. 3.

[56] Φῶς ἀπρόσιτον. 1 Tim. vi. 16.

[57] John xiv. 22.

[58] Τὴν λογικὴν λατρείαν. Rom. xii. 1.

[59] The dispute about _Easter_, in the second century.

[60] The dispute about _Images_, in the eighth century.

[61] Matt. xi. 29.

[62] Matt. x. 34.

[63] Job xxxii. 21.

[64] Plutarch, or whoever was the author of a fragment, printed among his moral discourses, and entitled, Πότερον τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς ἢ τὰ τοῦ σώματος Πάθη χείρονα. Par. Ed. vol. ii. p. 500.

[65] Called _Æones_. See Grotius in loc.

[66] Ἀπεράντοις.

[67] Dat nobis et Paulus brevem γενεαλογίαν, sed perutilem. GROTIUS.

[68] Rom. xii. 15.

[69] Rom. i. 32.

[70] 1 Peter iii. 16.

[71] _Les petites morales_; as the French moralists call them.

[72] Φιλανθρωπία.

[73] Φιλαδελφία.

[74] Τῆ φιλ. εἰς αλλ. ΦΙΛΟΣΤΟΡΓΟΙ.

[75] _The integrity of the upright shall guide them._ Prov. xi. 3.

[76] Δείπνου γενομένου—

[77] See more on this subject in the DISCOURSE _on Christ’s driving the merchants out of the temple_, at the end of the next volume.

[78] Ver. 14.

[79] If it be asked, why their _feet_? the answer is, that it was customary in the east for one to wash the feet of another. And this practice gave an easy introduction to the present enigmatical washing; which was equally expressive of the information designed, when performed on this part of the body, as on any other.

[80] Grotius saw the necessity of looking beyond the literal meaning of those words—_If I wash thee not_. “Mos Christi, says he, est a rebus, quæ adspiciuntur, ad sensum sublimiorem ascendere.” His comment then follows. “_Nisi te lavero_, id est, nisi _et sermone et spiritu eluero_ quod in te restat minus puri,” &c. Considering how near Jesus was to his crucifixion, when he said this, one a little wonders how the great commentator, when he was to assign the mystical sense of these words, should overlook that which lay before him. Surely his gloss should have been, _Nisi sanguine meo te eluero_, &c.—Let me just add, that the force of these words, as addressed to Peter, will be perfectly understood, if we reflect that he, who said to Jesus—_Thou shalt never wash my feet_—said on a former occasion to him, when he spoke, without a figure, of his _death_ (though not, then, under the idea of a propitiatory sacrifice, or ablution)—_Be it far from thee, Lord; this shall not be unto thee_. Matt. xvi. 22. So little did Peter see the necessity of being _washed_ by the blood of Christ! And so important was the information now given him in this _mystical_ washing—_If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me_.

[81] A remarkable instance will be given, in the Discourse referred to above, at the close of the next volume.

[82] Mark iv. 33. John xvi. 12.

[83] John xiv. 26.

[84] 1 John i. 7.

[85] Rev. i. 5.

[86] Eph. i. 7. Coloss. i. 14.

[87] 1 Cor. v. 7.

[88] 1 Pet. i. 12. 1 Cor. vi. 11. and elsewhere, _passim_.

[89] Rom. iii. 25.

[90] Luke xii. 46.

[91] Rev. vii. 14.

[92] 1 John. vi. 7.

[93] Matt. xviii. 7.

[94] Matt. vi.

[95] Ver. 12.

[96] Phil. iv. 18.

[97] See Whitby in loc.

[98] See passages cited by Dr. Hammond.

[99] 1 Cor. iii. 13.

[100] 1 Pet. i. 7.

[101] 1 Pet. iv. 12.

[102] Eccles. ii. 5.

[103] Heb. xii. 1.

[104] Heb. vi. 4, 5, 6.

[105] The difficulty in the two concluding verses of this chapter, arises from a _vivacity of imagination in the pursuit and application of metaphors_; a faculty, in which the Orientals excelled, and delighted. They pass suddenly from one idea to another, nearly, and sometimes, remotely, allied to it. They relinquish the primary sense, for another suggested by it; and without giving any notice, as we should do, of their intention. These numerous _reflected lights_, as we may call them, eagerly catched at by the mind in its train of thinking, perplex the attention of a modern reader, and must be carefully separated by him, if he would see the whole scope and purpose of many passages in the sacred writings.

[106] 1 Cor. iv. 7.

[107] 1 Cor. xiii.

[108] As in the case of the _real presence_ in the sacrament of the altar.

[109] As in the case of _good works_.

[110] An ingenious writer, who appears not to have been hackneyed in the ways of controversy, and is, therefore, the more likely to see the truth, in any plain question of religion, as well as to declare it, expresses himself, fully, to the same effect—“It is very weakly urged, that religion should keep pace with science in improvement; and that a subscription to articles must always impede its progress: for nothing can be more absurd than the idea of a progressive religion; which, being founded upon the declared, not the imagined, will of God, must, if it attempt to proceed, relinquish that Revelation which is its basis, and so cease to be a religion founded upon God’s word. God has revealed himself; and all that he has spoken, and consequently all that is demanded of us to accede to, is declared in one book, from which nothing is to be retrenched, and to which nothing can be added. All that it contains, was as perspicuous to those who first perused it, after the rejection of the papal yoke, as it can be to us NOW, or as it can be to our posterity in the FIFTIETH GENERATION.” See _A Scriptural Confutation of Mr. Lindsey’s Apology_. Lond. 1774. p. 220.

[111] Rom. xi. 33.

[112] Rom. x. 17.

[113] 1 Cor. ix. 16.

[114] Heb. iv. 12.

[115] 1 Cor. xii. 7.

[116]

——potus ut ille Dicitur ex collo furtim carpsisse coronas, Postquam est impransi correptus voce magistri. Hor. 2. Sat. iii. 254.

[117] John xii. 48.

[118] 2 Cor. iv. 7.

[119] Matth. x. 16.

[120] Cic. Off. L. i. c. 31.

[121] See the Story of Musonius Rufus in Tacitus, Hist. L. iii. c. 81.

[122] Cic. de Or. L. ii. c. 18.

[123] Bene præcipiunt, qui vetant quidquam agere, quod dubites, æquum sit an iniquum: æquitas enim lucet ipsa per se; dubitatio cogitationem significat injuriæ. Cic. de Off. L. I. ix.

[124] Matth. v. 8.

[125] To the same purpose, Seneca, of the old heathen philosophers: “Antiqua sapientia,” says he, “nihil aliud, quàm FACIENDA et VITANDA, præcepit: et tunc longè meliores erant viri: postquam docti prodierunt, boni desunt. Simplex enim illa et aperta virtus in obscuram et solertem scientiam versa est, docemurque disputare, non vivere.” Senec. Ep. xcv.

[126] Corrumpere et corrumpi, _sæculum_ vocatur. Tacitus.

[127] Frequens imitatio transit in mores. Quinctil. L. I. c. XI.

[128] _Vitam impendere vero._ His motto.

[129] Mes ennemies auront beau faire avec leurs injures; ils ne m’ôteront point l’honneur d’être un homme véridique en touts chose, _d’être le seul auteur de mon siecle, & de beaucoup d’autres, qui ait écrit de bonne foi_. Rousseau, Lettre à M. de Beaumont.

[130] “Une preuve de sa bonne foi, c’est qu’il [M. Newton] a commenté l’Apocalypse. Il y trouve clairement que le Pape est l’Antichrist, et il explique d’ailleurs ce livre comme tous ceux qui s’en sont mêlés. Apparemment qu’il a voulu par ce commentaire CONSOLER LA RACE HUMAINE de la supériorité qu’il avoit sur elle.” Œuvres de Voltaire, T. v. c. 29. 1757.

“If he [K. James I.] has composed a commentary on the Revelations, and proved the Pope to be Antichrist; may not a similar reproach be extended to the famous Napier; and even to NEWTON, at a time when learning was much more advanced than during the reign of James? From the grossness of its superstitions, we may infer the ignorance of an age; but never should pronounce concerning the FOLLY OF AN INDIVIDUAL, from his admitting popular errors, consecrated with the appearance of religion.” Hume’s Hist. of Great Britain, Vol. VI. p. 136. Lond. 1763. 8vo.

[131]

Nil actum credens, dum quid superesset agendum. Lucan.

[132] HIPPIAS, THE ELEAN. Cic. de Oratore, c. 32.

[133] SOCRATES.

[134] 2 Cor. xii. 2.

[135] 1 Cor. xiii. 2.

[136] Philip. iii. 6.

[137] Matt. v. 17.

[138] BAYLE, Comm. Phil. Part II. Ch. IV. LOCKE on Toleration, Letter I. WARBURTON, D. L. B. v. S. 11.

[139] 1 Tim. i. 15.

[140] 1 Cor. xv. 9.

[141] De se tromper en croyant vraie la religion Chrétienne, il n’y a pas grand’ chose à perdre: mais quel malheur de se tromper en la croyant fausse! M. Pascal, p. 225.

[142] Plutarch. BRUTUS.

[143] Of opening private letters, and employing spies of state. CLARENDON.

[144] John x. 32.

[145] “Illa in illo homine mirabilia fuerunt, comprehendere multos amicitiâ, tueri obsequio, cum omnibus communicare quod habebat, servire temporibus suorum omnium, pecuniâ, gratiâ, labore corporis, scelere etiam, si opus esset, et audaciâ: versare suam naturam, et regere ad tempus, atque huc et illuc torquere et flectere; cum tristibus severè, cum remissis jucunde; cum senibus graviter, cum juventute comiter; cum facinorosis audacter, cum libidinosis luxuriosè vivero. Hâc ille tam variâ multiplicique naturâ, &c.” _Cicero pro M. Cælio_, c. iii.

[146] Juventus pleraque, sed maximè _nobilium_, Catilinæ incœptis favebat. _Sallust._ c. 17. And again: omnino _cuncta plebes_, Catilinæ incœpta probabat. c. 37.

[147] 1 John iii. 21.

[148] St. Ambrose. Apud Whitby.

[149] John xviii. 31.

[150] Rom. iii. 4.

[151] The words ταπεινὸς, and _humilis_, are observed to be generally, if not always, used in a bad sense by the Greek and Latin writers.

[152] Philipp. ii. 5. 8.

[153] Matthew xvi. 24.

[154] Matth. xxiii. 33.

[155] Mark x. 21.

[156] For it is with propositions, as with _characters_, in relation to which the language of the true moralist is: “Explica, atque excute intelligentiam tuam, ut videas quæ sit in eâ species, forma, et notio viri boni.” Cic. de Off. l. III. c. 20.

[157] Prov. ii. 4.

[158] 1 Tim. v. 6.

[159] Prov. ix. 8.

[160] Queis humana sibi doleat natura negatis. Hor. I. S. i. 75.

[161] Eccles. v. 11.

[162] Prov. xvi. 25.

[163] Prov. xxiii. 5.

[164] Si hoc est _explere_, quod statim profundas. CIC. Phil. ii. 8.

[165] Quid sumus, et quidnam victuri gignimur. PERSIUS.

[166] 1 Tim. vi. 9.

[167]

Ardua res hæc est, opibus non tradere mores, Et cùm tot Crœsos viceris, esse Numam. MARTIAL, XI. vi.

[168] Matth. xix. 23.

[169] Ps. lxii. 10.

[170] Luke xvi. 9.

[171] 2 Cor. xiii. 14.

[172] 1 Thess. iv. 8.

[173] Acts xi. 16.

[174] Eph. i. 13.

[175] It was the easier to do this, as the Heathens had their Minerva and Diana, as well as grosser deities; and their vestal virgins too; though, I doubt, in less numbers than the shameless votaries of the Corinthian Venus. See STRABO, L. viii. p. 378. Par. 1620.

[176] Ps. xlvi. 4.—lxxx. 1.—xxvi. 8.

[177] Nullis POLLUITUR casta domus stupris. HOR.

Cum castum amisit POLLUTO CORPORE florem. CATUL.

[178] Dr. Whitby on the place.

[179] Rom. vi. 21.

[180] Job xx. 11.

[181] Prov. xxi. 17.

[182] The poet says well of such _stains_, as these;

_Impressæ resident nec eluentur._ CATULL.

[183] SUET. J. Cæsar, c. 45.

[184] Ps. xxxvii. 38.

[185] Eccles. c. xi. 9.

[186] Pompey, who burnt the papers of Sertorius.

[187] James iii. 2.

[Transcriber’s Note:

Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.

Greek words beginning with ϖ have had the character replaced with π.]