The Measures of Christian Obedience, Book 5 · Chapter 5
CHAP. V. Of two other Causes of groundless Scruple to good Souls.
The CONTENTS.
A second cause of scruple is their unaffectedness or distraction sometimes in their prayers. Attention disturbed often whether we will or no. A particular cause of it in fervent prayers. Fervency and affection not depending so much upon the command of our wills, as upon the temper of our bodies. Fervency is unconstant in them whose temper is fit for it. God measures us not by the fixedness of our thoughts, or the warmth of our tempers, but by the choice of our wills and the obedience of our lives. Other qualifications in prayer are sufficient to have our prayers heard when these are wanting. Yea, those Vertues which make our prayers acceptable, are more eminently shown in our obedience, so that it would bring down to us the blessings of prayer, should it prove in those respects defective. A third cause of scruple is the danger of idle or impertinent words mentioned Matth. 12.36. The scruple upon this represented. The practical errour of a morose behaviour incurred upon it. This discountenanced by the light of Nature, and by Christianity. The benefits and place of serious Discourse. Pleasureable conversation a great Field of Vertue. The idle words, Matth. 12, not every vain and useless; but false, slanderous and reproachful words; this proved from the place.
ANother thing which disquiets the hearts of good and honest men, and makes them needlesly to call in question the saveableness of their present state, and their title to salvation; is the coldness and unaffectedness, the unsettledness and distractions which they find in themselves when they are at prayers. Good people are wont to cry out of desertions, to think that God has thrown them off, and that his Spirit has forsaken them, if at any time they find a great distraction and dulness of Spirit in their devotions, and a great abatement of that zeal and fervency, that fixedness and attention, which they have happily enjoyed at other times.
But this is a great mistake from mens ignorance of Gods Laws, and of their own selves. For God has no where told them that he will judge them at the last day by the steadiness and fixedness, the tide and fervency of their devotions; but by the integrity of their hearts, and the uprightness of their obedience. The last Sentence shall not pass upon men according to the heat of their affections; but according to the goodness of their lives. So that if they have been careful to practise all God's Commandments according to their power and opportunities, and this of prayer among the rest, in such sort as their unavoidable infirmities would suffer them, they shall be safe in that Judgment notwithstanding any inequality in their bodily tempers, or unconstancy and abatement in their bodily affections.
To state this business so, as that we may neither be unnecessarily scrupulous about these qualifications of our prayers when we cannot, nor, on the other side, irreligiously careless of them when we might, enjoy them; I shall say something of their necessity when they can be had, as well as of that allowance which God will make to them when, through any bodily indispositions, or unforeseen accidents, they cannot.
If we would put up our prayers to God in such manner, as it is fit for us to offer them in, or for him to hear them, we must make them with a due fixedness and attention of mind, and fervency of affection.
We must offer them up with a due fixedness and attention of mind. Our thoughts must go along with our lips, and our souls must be intent upon the business which we are about, when we are making our prayers to God. We must not expect that he should mind those vain words, and mere talk, which we do not; or that he should hear us, when we do not hear our selves: No, it is the work of the Soul, and not the bare labour of the lips, which he attends to; so that if only our Tongues pray, but our minds are straying, this is as good as no prayer at all.
We must offer them up also with much earnestness of desire, and fervency of affection. We must shew that we put a price upon a mercy, before we are fit to receive it; for otherwise there is no assurance that we shall be duely thankful for it. We must not seem cold, and indifferent after it, for that is a sign that we can almost be as well content without it. But we must be eager in our desire, and express a fervency of affection after it; such as we are wont to use in the pursuit of any thing which we greatly value: and this is an inducement for God to give us that, which he sees we so dearly love; it sets a price upon his blessings, and shews the measure of our own vertuous inclinations, and therefore he will encourage and reward it. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man, says St James, availeth much, Jam. 5.16.
Thus are a due attention of mind, and a fervent heat of desire in devotion, such qualifications as are necessary to render our prayers becoming either us to offer, or God to hear; so that we must always strive, and, according to our power and present circumstances, endeavour after them. We must take care, as much as we can, to compose our thoughts when we pray, to draw them off from other things for some time before, and still to bring them back again when at any time we find them wandring. And we must endeavour also by a due sense of the necessity, the greatness, and undeservedness of Gods mercies, to heighten our affections, and make them bend vigorously and eagerly after those things which we pray for; that so God seeing we are serious and in earnest with him, he may be induced to grant those benefits which we desire of him.
But then, on the other hand, if after all our care and pains in fixing of our thoughts, and raising of our desires, through some bodily indisposition or unforeseen accidents, which we cannot help, our minds run sometimes still astray, and our desires are cold and languid; this unwill'd dulness and distraction shall not influence our main state; it is a thing which we cannot help, and no man living is perfectly free from it, and therefore God will not be severe upon it, but in great mercy he will pity and connive at it.
For as for the attention of our minds, and the fixedness of our thoughts, either in prayer, or in any other business; it is a thing which is not always in our own power, but may be hindred and interrupted by many accidents whether we will or no. For any thing that makes our bodily spirits tumultuary and restless, renders our attention small and interrupted. Any high motion of our blood, any former impression upon our spirits either by our precedent studies, or our crowd of business, will make great variety of thoughts and roving fancies obtrude themselves upon us; and this is our natural frame and constitution which we must submit to, and cannot remedy. We can no more prevent it, than we can prevent our dreams, but our fancies will be struck, and diverting thoughts will be thrown into us, whether we will or no. For from the natural union of our souls and bodies, our minds, in their most spiritual operations of thinking and understanding, go along with our bodily spirits, and apprehend after their impressions; and we can as well refuse to see when our eyes are open, or to taste what is put into our mouths, as we can refuse to have a thought of those things which are impressed upon our bodily fancy or imagination. The connexion betwixt these is necessary and natural; and there is no breaking or avoiding it. So that let us be either at our prayers, or at any other exercise, if any temper of our bodies, any accidental motion of our blood, any former impressions of foregoing studies or other business stir in our fancies; our thoughts must needs be diverted, and our attention disturbed by them. Nay in our prayers we are more apt to find it thus, than in any other thing. For there men ofttimes use violence, and screw up the fixedness of their minds, and the fervency of their hearts to the highest pitch: and then their bodily spirits, being overstrained, are liable, not only to be discomposed by outward accidents, but also to give back and fall of themselves; and when in this manner they withdraw, there is room made, till they can be again recollected, for other thoughts to arise instead of them. All this, I say, happens from the very nature and frame of our bodies, and from that dependance which our minds and thoughts themselves have upon them; so that we cannot prevent or overcome it wholly. We may, and ought indeed to strive against these distractions as much as we can, and to compose our thoughts as much as our natural temper, or our present circumstances will suffer us: when they wander in our prayers, as soon as we discern it we may recollect them; and when other thoughts intrude, as soon as they are observed we may reject them: but then this is all that we can do, or that God requires we should do; for we cannot pray perfectly and continuedly without them.
And then as for the zeal and fervency of our affections, whether in our prayers or in any thing else, they are fickle and very changeable, and do not depend so much upon the choice of our wills, as upon the temper of our bodies. Some upon every occasion are more warm and eager in their passions, either of love or hatred, hopes or fears, joy or sorrow, than other men either are, or can be. For there is a difference in tempers, as well as in palates; and mens passions do no more issue out upon the same things, in the same eagerness; than their stomachs do after the same food with the same degrees of appetite. So that as for a great fervency and a vehement affection; every man cannot work himself up to it, because all tempers do not admit of it. For zeal and affectionateness in Devotion, as in other things, is more a mans temper than his choice; and therefore it is not to be expected that all people should be able to raise themselves up to a transporting pitch in it; but only that they should, who are born to it.
Nay even they whose natural temper fits them for a great fervency and a high affection, are not able to work themselves up to it at all times. For no mans temper is constant and unchangeable; seeing our very bodies are subject to a thousand alterations either from things within, or from others that are without us. If a mans blood is put into an irregular ferment either by a cold air, or an inward distemper, or any discomposing accident; it spoils, not only the fixedness of his thoughts, but the zeal of his affections likewise▪ Let there be any damp or disorder, any dulness or indisposition, either upon a mans blood or spirits; and the discomposure of his body is presently felt in his soul, for his thoughts flag, and his passions run low, and all his powers are under a cloud, and suffer an abatement. And this every man finds in himself, when he labours under a sickly and crazy temper, an aking head, or any other bodily indisposition. For our passions are bodily powers, and are performed altogether by bodily instruments; they live and dye with them, and are subject to all their coolings and abatements, their changes and alterations. And therefore as long as our bodily tempers and dispositions alter, and, by reason of a number of accidents, whether from without or from within themselves, are still changeable and unconstant; the zeal and fervency of our affections must needs be so too.
Thus is some distraction of mind and chilness of affection, either in our prayers, or in pursuit of any other thing, most necessarily incident to all men. We cannot wholly prevent them, or live altogether free from them; but sometimes they will break in, and seize upon us do what we can.
And since we cannot help them, God will not be always angry, or eternally torment us for them. No, he knows that we are flesh and blood, and his love and favour to us doth not alter as our unsetled thoughts, or bodily tempers do. He measures us not by the fixedness of our thoughts, or by the fervency of our affections, which are not always in our own power; but by our wills and actions which are. So that if we are careful to will and chuse what is pleasing to him, and from our hearts entirely to obey him; we need not doubt but that whatever involuntary distractions there may be sometimes in our thoughts, or abatements in our bodily tempers whilst we are at our prayers; we shall still be accepted by him.
We shall be accepted, I say, and the blessings which we sue for obtained, although sometimes our prayers are less attent, and less affectionate, than at other times they are, and we at all times greatly desire they might be. For our fixedness and fervency are not the only things which procure acceptance for our prayers. They are great good things, as I said, and such qualifications as make our requests fit, both for us to offer, and for God to hear; and therefore we must take care still when we pray, in such measure as we are able, to be provided with them. But although they are some, yet are they not the only qualifications of our prayers which prevail with God, and move him to hear them. For our trust and dependance, our submission and resignedness, and other spiritual vertues and instances of obedience, are likewise dispositions which God respects in them; nay indeed which he prizes above all, and principally looks at. So that if we pray with these, God is honoured by our prayers, and he will reward them; and our petitions shall not be put up in vain, although, by reason of some bodily dulness or distraction, the fixt attention of our minds, and the fervency of our hearts, which we endeavour after always, and enjoy at other times, should happen to be wanting.
Yea I add further, so long as our hearts are honest, and our lives entirely obedient, we are always furnished with those qualifications which are sufficient to bring down Gods Grace and Blessing upon us, and which are the principal things that make our prayers themselves an acceptable Offering. A good man is drawing down the blessings of Heaven upon himself all his life long, and not only whilst he is upon his knees: so that if at any time his prayers are less perfect, and chance to falter; that defect will be otherwise supplied, and he will have all that mercy conveyed to him through another means, which his prayers should have obtained for him; seeing that which makes his prayers procure Gods love and mercy for him, will make his obedience procure the very same.
For I suppose no man is so silly as to imagine that it is the lifting up of his eyes and hands, the composedness of his countenance, the quaintness of his phrase, the eloquence of his expressions, the volubility of his language, or any other external thing which makes his prayers so powerful, and brings down the blessing of God upon them. But it is that dependance upon God, that confidence in God, that love of God and desire of goodness, that acknowledgment of his tenderness and power, that submission to his Authority, and resignation to his pleasure, which are all implied in prayer, and fitly expressed by it, and which make up the very life and spirit of it: these, I say, it is which God looks at in our prayers, and for the sake whereof he so graciously accepts and rewards them. But now as for all these, they are expressed every whit as much by the obedience of our lives, as by the prayer of our lips; nay indeed much more ▪ in as much as our actions are a more perfect expression and certain evidence of all these tempers of a good heart, than our words are. They differ as much as words and deeds, as profession and performance; for whereas in our prayers we only speak and profess all this, in the obedience of our lives we work and perform it. We shew our love and resignation to God, when for his sake we deny our selves, and give up our own will in obedience to his. We acknowledge his Power and Authority most effectually, when we obey it; and owne his Providence to the best purpose, when we contentedly acquiesce in it, and patiently submit to it; and confess his love and kindness after the most acceptable sort, when we throw our selves upon it, and work and endeavour all our lives long in hopes and expectations of it. In our daily actions of Justice and Charity, of Temperance and Sobriety, of Meekness, Patience, Mercy and Forgiveness, and in all other instances of obedience, we give God the honour to chuse for us, to dispose of us, to be sought after and intrusted by us. We evidence our esteem of him, our love for him, our trust in him, our dependance on him, our resignation to him; and that most effectually. So that whatsoever can move God in our prayers, will move him in a higher degree, and after another fashion in our obedience; the Spirit of goodness which is evidenced in our prayers, being evidenced much more in the course of good actions. No Rhetorick therefore of our Prayers is like to that of a good life, every action of obedience in a good man having the effect of a prayer, and calling down upon him the same mercy and the same Grace, which would be procured by a supplication.
Let a man therefore make sure in the first place of a good life, and of an honest and intire obedience; and then he need not fear to want those things which all good men have need to pray for, seeing he will shew so much daily in his life as will make his requests be granted, and his prayers be hearkened to. He cannot perish for want of those mercies which he prays for, although it be sometimes with coldness and distraction; because not only the other obedient tempers of his prayers, when through some unchosen hindrances a due fixedness and fervency are wanting, but also the constant and uninterrupted obedience of his life is daily ascending up, and brings them down upon him.
Let no good soul therefore be further troubled and disquieted upon this account, as if, because after all his care his prayers are sometimes dull and cold, and his thoughts therein are much distracted, he should either be eternally punished for them, or at least go without those blessings which he desires in them. For so long as the Spirit of obedience appears both in his Prayers and in his actions, the unwilled distractions of his mind, and the dulness and frozenness of his affections at some times, shall be no hindrance either to his Suit at present, or to his happiness hereafter: his request shall not be thrown by, nor he condemned for them; but, so far as God sees it fitting for him, it shall be granted, and he shall eternally be saved notwithstanding them.
3. A third scruple which is wont causelesly to disquiet and trouble good and honest minds, is the words of our Saviour Matth. 12. I say unto you, That as concerning every idle word which men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof at the Day of Judgment, ver. 36.
This seems to be a strict and a severe Saying. For in all the crowd and variety of converse, in the infinite numbers of Questions and Answers, and other occasions of discourse; what man in all the World, but especially of those who are of a conversation that is free and open, courteous and ingenuous, cheerful and delightsome, which tempers the Gospel doth not only allow, but approve of; who, I say, of all men, but of men of this temper especially, among all the occasions of speech can avoid a multitude of words? and where much is said, how can it be but that much must be idle and impertinent?
This is a great snare, and to avoid it men run into a great errour. For they are led to place a great Religion in holy talk, and religious forms of expression, which they prize so far as to think their conversation is unhallowed without it. And if at any time their seriousness was thrown aside, and their Discourse, though innocent, was vain and useless, they are greatly troubled and afraid, and think they are fallen within the limits of damnation.
And this has a very ill effect, for it frights men from all the innocent freedom of converse, and the cheerful entertainments of company. It makes them to appear staid and reserved, silent and morose; to contribute nothing to the harmless mirth and cheerfulness of conversation themselves, and to frown upon it in others. For all converse and society is managed by the tongue, and the ordinary entertainment of company is talking and discourse; but where men think every idle and useless word so dangerous a sin, they are afraid to speak. So that all that comes from them is studied and deliberate, grave and composed; they neither dare use any freedom themselves, nor can without offence allow it to be used by others.
But this is so far from being injoined by Christ, that it is discountenanced by nature; it is so far from being a piece of Religion and a holy Duty, that 'tis rather a piece of immorality and ill manners. For Aristotle and other Philosophers of old, have long ago made urbanity, or an innocent freedom and fac…tiousness in conversation, a Vertue; and have noted this affected reservedness and unpleasurable moroseness in Discourse with a harsh censure. aforeign. Ethic ad Nicom. l. 4. c. 8.Those, says he, who will neither contribute to the harmless mirth of company themselves, nor bear with it in others, are justly to be branded with the reproachful names of clownish and morose.
And as it was discountenanced by the light of nature, so is it also by the Laws of Christ. For whatsoever some men may think of it, or how innocently soever they may be misled into that conceit about it; yet is it a temper which Christ never intended to plant amongst us. For his coming into the world was after another way, in a free use of the innocent allowances, and liberties of mankind. The Son of man, says St Matthew, came eating and drinking, i. e. not in the singular Austerities of John the Baptist, but in a free way of conversation, such as others used, Mat. 11.19. And his Religion injoyns the vertues of candor and benignity, affability and courtesie, an open freedom and alacrity, and all those other ways whereby our conversation may be rendred innocently agreeable, and whereby we may in any wise benefit, whether by profiting or pleasing one another. Whatsoever things, says St Paul, are bforeign.lovely or grateful to men, think on these things, Phil. 4.8. Love is the Epitome of our whole Duty, and all the sweetners and endearments of society that can be, so long as they are lawful and honest, are not only consistent with it, but parts and expressions of it.
As for the grave entertainments of discourse and religious conference; they, without doubt, have a great use, and in their place may deserve a great commendation. For good Christians may be much better'd and improved, by having their Graces awakned, their pious affections inflamed, their holy purposes fixt and setled, their endeavours directed and encouraged, and every thing that is good in them quickned and confirmed by them. But then 'tis to be considered that even good things themselves must be taken in their own season, and must not be suffered to ingross all our time, a great part whereof is to be spent upon other things. For we have not only one thing to do, but at several times sundry things call for us. There is a time, says Solomon, to every thing, and a season to every purpose under Heaven: there is a time to weep, and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance, Eccles. 3.1, 4. There is a time for diversion, as well as a time for business; a time wherein to have a more liberal and free discourse, as well as a time for godly and religious conference.
Nay the innocent delights of conversation and pleasurable entertainments of discourse, are themselves a great field of vertue, and an exercise and occasion of many instances of obedience. For in them we may every one of us exercise in our own persons, and be examples unto others, of much courtesie and kindness, civility and condescension, affability and obligingness Let no man think then that his hours of common converse are lost hours, and that whatsoever time he spends upon offices of civility, and freedom of company, is misplaced, and stoln from God and Religion. For we are fulfilling Gods Laws, and doing his work, whilst we keep all these Commandments in the pleasurable entertainments of common life; they are such business as he has set us, and our obedient performance of them is no less his service, than Devotion, holy Conference, and Meditation.
It is no prejudice or hindrance to Religion therefore to be free and open in conversation, and pleasurable and chearful in common life; but rather an instance and expression of it. It is no part of any mans duty to be talking always in Scripture-phrase and sanctified expression, or else to be wholly silent and severely morose, and not to talk at all. For an innocent chearfulness, and freedom of discourse is not so truly the good mans sin, as the exercise of his vertue and obedience.
But as for that opinion, that every idle and impertinent word shall be severely accounted for at the Day of Judgment, which is the great sourer of conversation, and the occasion of this conceit; it is a great mistake. For it is not every idle and unprofitable, but every false, slanderous, or otherwise sinful and unlawful word whereof our Saviour speaks, when in that 12th of St Matthew he tells us, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of Judgment.
As for the word which we translate cforeign.idle, it may signifie false and deceitful; as those words are which belye our dforeign.works, when our actions do not answer them. And this is agreeable to the use of the word eforeign.vain, which sometimes signifies the same that false or lying. In which sense it is used in the third Commandment, where we are bid not to take the Name of God in vain, i. e. in perjury or falshood. For that sense our Saviour gives to it in his repetition of the Commandments, Mat. 5. It hath been said to them of old, saith he, in the third Commandment, thou shalt not forswear thy self or swear falsly, v. 33.
But if nothing more than useless and unprofitable were noted by the word it self which we translate idle; yet is it no unusual thing in the Scriptures by several words to mean and intend more, than in their literal sense they do express. Thus are the abominable works of darkness mentioned Eph. 5, called fforeign.unfruitful works; where the meaning surely is, not only that they bring in no profit or advantage, but also that they are most deadly and mischievous, v. 11: and the wicked servant spoken of Mat. 25, is called the gforeign.unprofitable servant, v. 30. And after the same use of speech, our words, which do not only tend to none, but to very ill fruit, may be called hforeign.idle or unprofitable words.
And so they are in this place. For the idle words whereof our Saviour speaks v. 36; are such words as are not only idle and unprofitable, but positively wicked and evil; being indeed false, slanderous, and reviling words; as will appear from the consideration of these particulars.
For the words which are threatned in that 36. ver. are such as are a sign, not of a trifling, but of an evil heart. How can ye, says he, being evil, speak good things; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. So that as a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth, or speaketh good things; an evil man likewise, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth evil things, v. 34, 35.
And being the fruits of an evil heart, they are the signs, not of an impertinent, but of an evil man. The tree is corrupt, says he, if the fruit be corrupt; for the tree is known by its fruits, v. 33.
And since they are such words as are thus sinful in themselves, and an argument of so much sin in us; they shall in the last Judgment be charged upon us to condemn us. For by thy words, says he, as well as actions, thou shalt be justified, and by thy words, if they be such idle words as I mean, thou shalt be condemned, v. 37.
The words then which are spoken of in this place from the 33. to the 38. ver. are such as are a sign of a wicked heart, as make a wicked man, and render us in the last Judgment liable to condemnation.
But now words of this black dye and of these mischievous effects, are not every idle and impertinent; but false, slanderous, railing, or otherwise sinful and forbidden words. But false and slanderous words are especially struck at in this place, such as were those lying and contumelious ones that occasioned all this discourse, when the Jews most reproachfully charged his Miracles upon the Devil, telling him that he cast out Devils through Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils, v. 24. Upon occasion of which black calumny, he proceeds in all the following verses to warn them against such blasphemous speeches; demonstrating clearly the unreasonableness of them, v. 25, to 31; the sinfulness of them, ver. 33, 34, 35; and the mischievous effects of them in the two next verses. Such reproachful words as these let me tell you, says he, you shall be called to an account for, as well as for your works and actions. I say unto you, and you may believe me, for you will find it true, that every idle, or slanderous and reproachful word, such as now you have spoken against me, that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. For when that day comes, think you of it as you please now, mens words as well as their actions shall be called to an account: by thy words thou shalt be justified, and, if they have been such as yours now are, by thy words thou shalt be condemned, ver. 36, 37.
And thus by all this it appears, that the idle word here threatned by our Lord, is not every word that is vain and useless, but only such as are railing, false, or slanderous. And in this sense some Manuscripts read the place. For in the Book of Steph. it is not every idle, but every iforeign, &c.wicked word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment.
So that as for this third scruple, it is as groundless as was the former; no good man need to be disquieted by it, since they shall never be condemned for it.