The Christian Life Part 3 Volume 4, Part 2 · Chapter 1
CHAP. I. Of Mercy, as it relieveth the Miseries of the Soul.
AFTER the Consideration of Iustice, that of Mercy is to follow: And the proper Object of Mercy being Misery, it will be requisite in order to the explaining of this Vertue, to consider what those human Miseries are which it relates to, and what are the particular Acts of Mercy which belong to them. Now the Miseries which Men are liable to in this Life are reducible to these Heads: First, Either they are such as do affect their Souls; or, Secondly, Such as do affect their Bodies.
I. THE Miseries which do affect the Souls of Men; which may all be comprehended under these five Heads: 1. Sorrow and Dejection of Mind. 2. Errors and Mistakes in matters of lesser Importance. 3. Blindness and Ignorance in things of the greatest Moment. 4. Malice and Obstinacy of Will in destructive and mischievous Courses. 5. Impotency or want of Power to free and recover themselves of them.
I. ONE of the Miseries which affect Mens Souls is Sorrow and Dejection of Mind, which like a Consumption in the Body, preys upon the Soul, dispirits its faculties and renders them faint and languid in all their Operations. By Sorrow of the heart, saith Solomon, the Spirit is broken. Prov. xv. 13. And indeed Sorrow is that Sense of the Soul by which it feels and perceives its own Miseries, and without which it could no more be affected with calamitous things, than Iron is with the blows of the Hammer. This is the Sting by which all sad Accidents do wound and inflame our Spirits, and with which the least trifle in the World can make us miserable in the most prosperous State, and turn all our Enjoyments into Wormwood. Sorrow therefore and Dejection of mind being the Point and Edge of all our Miseries, is upon that account a most proper Object of Mercy; whose peculiar Province it is to ease and relieve the miserable. Whensoever therefore we do converse with the Sorrowful and Dejected, the Law of Mercy requires us to do what we can to support and relieve them; and that first by sympathizing with them, by sharing their Griefs, condoling their Sorrows, and pitying their Calamities, or as the Apostle expresses it, Rom. xii. 15. By weeping with those that weep; which upon the first breaking out of a great Sorrow is the properest Remedy we can administer. For when a Passion is in its Rage and Fury, it is no more to be pacify'd with Reason and Discourse, than the Northern Wind is with a Lecture of Consolation; and till it hath tired it self a while with the Transports of its own Rage, to endeavour to check it with Arguments would be as vain an Attempt, as to damn up the Cataracts of Nile with a Hurdle; which instead of suppressing their Violence would but cause them to roar the louder, and to swell and break forth into more impetuous Torrents. The best Course therefore that can be taken at present, is to humour and gratify the Passion by condoling with it the Calamity which caused it. For as the fiercest Creatures are most easily tamed by gentle management, by soothing and stroaking and being kindly treated; so the best Expedient to mitigate violent Sorrows is to sooth and indulge them till their Violence is abated; to conform our selves to them, and mingle our Tears and Lamentations with them. And accordingly we find that to be pitied and condoled is a real Ease and Comfort to the miserable; and that so far as we partake with other Mens Griefs, we do translate 'em out of their Breasts into our own: So that by sympathizing with them we take part of their Sorrows from them, which like Dimensions may be so divided by us, as to become at least insensible, if not indivisible. Wherefore since 'tis not the Tears of their own Eyes only, but of their Friends Eyes too, that do exhaust the Current of their Griefs; which falling into many Streams will run more peaceably, and by degrees contract themselves into narrower Channels; it is an Act of Mercy that we owe to the sorrowful to condole and sympathize with 'em in their Afflictions. And not to do so, or instead of that, to be either insensible of their Sorrows, or to take no other notice of them, but to mock at, and deride them, is a certain Argument of a cruel and barbarous Temper. And as we ought to sympathize with them in their Sorrows, so, when they are capable of it, we are obliged by the Laws of Mercy to use our best endeavour to support and comfort them under their heaviness, as the Apostle exhorts, 2 Cor. i. 4. sometimes by lessening and extenuating their Affliction, sometimes by applying to them the Consolations of Religion, sometimes by representing to them the evil of immoderate Sorrow, and sometimes by diverting them with innocent Pleasantry, and Chearfulness. For Sorrow diverts the mind from all comfortable thoughts, and like a black Perspective-Glass represents all Objects mournfully and tragically: So that unless others will have Mercy on it and thrust Comforts into its Mouth, it will have no Mercy on it self, but sit pining and languishing under incessant Grief and Discontentedness. Wherefore to chear and comfort dejected and sorrowful minds, is both a great and a necessary Act of Mercy; as on the contrary for any Man causelesly to afflict and grieve another, to add Weight to his Sorrows and Wormwood to his Gall, and take Pleasure in his Griefs and Vexations, is not only inhuman but diabolical: For to rejoyce in the Afflictions, and recreate with the Sorrows of the miserable, is the blackest Character that can be given to a Devil.
II. ANOTHER of the Miseries which affect Mens Souls is the Errors and Mistakes they are liable to in matters of less Importance. The Understandings of Men are naturally weak and short-sighted, apt to be imposed upon by shews of Truth, and swallow Lies for Realities, when they are guilded with a fair Probability: And tho' we make loud boasts of Certainty and Demonstration, yet, God knows, many times our Certainties are the Dictates of our wild Imaginations, and our Demonstrations prove nothing but our own Confidence. For Prejudice, Error and Inadvertency are as incident to our Minds, as Diseases are to our Bodies; and there are certain Springs and Principles in all Mens understandings, which do render them liable to be turned about by strange and unaccountable Impulses. And generally our Affections are apt to creep into and mingle with our arguings, so that in most of our Disputes the Argument on both sides is commonly lost, and the Controversy determins in a Conflict of Affections. And in a word, the Generality of Men are unalterably determined in their Opinions by their Fear or their Hope, or their Prejudices, or the Prepossessions of their Education; which, like so many Whirl-pools, having once sucked a Man in, do most commonly keep his head under Water, and never permit him to emerge and recover himself: And if the Prejudices of our Education happen to be false, in all our Reasonings from them we do only spin out one Error from another, and so our Thoughts wander in a Labyrinth, wherein the farther we go, the more we lose our selves. And as our Understandings are very dimsighted, so the Paths wherein we seek after Truth, are commonly very obscure and intricate: For whilst we rack our Brains with nice and curious Speculations, we generally but delude our Reason with the little Images and airy Phantasms of things; while we weary our Eyes with laborious Reading, our Books prove oftner the Tombs, than the Shrines of Truth; and while we pursue it through the stormy Seas of Controversy, there we are tossed with endless Doubts and Difficulties, which like the rolling Waves crowd one upon the neck of another. And thus we grope to and fro in the dark, and 'tis a very great Acquist if in our Search after Knowledge we do but discover our own Ignorance. 'Tis true, as for those necessary Truths which are the Fundamentals of our everlasting Well-being, God hath taken care to propose them to us in so clear a Light, that no Man can be ignorant of them who sincerely inquires after them: But commonly the remoter any Truth is from a necessary Article, the less plain and obvious it is to our Understanding; and therefore if in these we do err and mistake, it is not to be wondered at, considering how weak our Understanding is, and what disadvantageous Prospect it hath. And tho' these our mistakes are many times caused by a corrupt Biass in our Wills, by a factious Prejudice, or an overweening Self-conceit, by a carnal Interest, or a supine Neglect of the means of a better Information; which according as they are more or less wilful, do render our Errors Sins of Infirmity, or damnable Heresy: Yet very often they are merely the Effects of a weak-sighted Mind, that is either unavoidably seduced with fair Shews, or innocently tinctured with false Prejudices: And in this case they are not our Crimes, but our Miseries. For we can no more be obliged not to err in our Opinions, than not to be sick or hungry; all that we are bound to is to understand as well as we can, and if when we do so, we should happen to be deceived, we have a just claim to Mercy and Commiseration. And the proper Acts of Mercy which this miserable Case requires are first Forbearance and Toleration; with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; as the Apostle expresses it, Ephes. iv. 2. that is, abstaining from all harsh Judgments and severe Censures, from all peevish Separations from our Communion and Charity, and mutually treating each other with all the Candor and Forbearance, Lenity and Indulgence that a pitiable Case requires and deserves. For if I am in the right, and my Brother in the wrong, to be sure it is my Happiness, and perhaps 'tis only his Misery; and what an unmerciful part is it for me to damn, or censure, or rigorously treat him, meerly because it is his lot to be miserable and mine to be happy? What if he hath had the ill Luck to have his Brains cast into a different figure from mine, by reading different Books or keeping different Company, or being prejudiced by a different Education; is it reasonable that I should hate or severely judge him, because he hath been unfortunate, and perhaps could no more prevent those little Errors wherein he differs from me, than he could the Moles on his Skin, or the different colour of his Hair and Complexion? What is this but to load the oppressed, and heap Misery upon Misery, which is the most unmanly Cruelty? In this case therefore the Laws of Mercy require us as private Christians, to bear with one another's mistakes, to make the most candid Iudgment and Construction of them, and interpret them in the most favourable sense; and not to separate from one another for Trifles, or fly out into Bitterness and Animosity upon every little Opinion which we judge false and erroneous.
II. ANOTHER Act of Mercy which this Case requires, is to endeavour by all prudent and peaceable ways to rectifie one another's Mistakes. If I behold my Brother's Understanding labouring under the misery of Error, Mercy will incline me, so far as I am able, to endeavour his Relief and Recovery; an Error in the Understanding being as great a misfortune, as a wound or a disease in the Body: and what merciful Mind can behold that noblest Part of a Man diseased and affected, without being strongly inclined to administer what it can towards its Health and Recovery? And as Mercy will incline us to it, so it will direct us to the properest Means of effecting it: for if it be Mercy and Compassion that moves me to rectifie my Brother's Mistake, it will move me to endeavour it with the Spirit of Meekness, which as the Apostle assures us, Galat. vi. 1. is the most likely expedient to restore him; that is, calmly and compassionately to represent to him his Error, so as that he may see it is not my Design to expose or upbraid him, to insult over his Folly, or to triumph in his Confutation; but merely to set his Understanding to rights, and to rescue it from the Mistakes in which it is unfortunately entangled. And this, if any thing, will dispose him to listen to my Reasons, and make way for my Arguments to enter into his mind: whereas by deriding his Error, or persecuting it with sharp and bitter Invectives, I shall engage his passion to defend it, as well as his Reason; for witty Jests and severe Sarcasms may provoke an Adversary, but will never convince him. And as Mercy will direct me to treat my erring Brother with Meekness and Compassion, so it will also instruct me not to teaze and importune him with perpetual Disputacity; for this will look rather like an affectation of wrangling with him, than a desire of convincing him: but to wait the fairest Opportunities of remonstrating his Error to him, when he is most at leisure, and most disposed to attend to Reason and Argument. For Errors, like Paper Kites, are many times raised and kept up in Mens minds, by the incessant Bluster of overfierce Opposition.
III. ANOTHER of the Miseries which affect Mens Souls is Blindness and Ignorance in things of the greatest moment, which is doubtless one of the greatest Miseries that can happen to a Soul in this Life. For the Interests of Souls are everlasting, they being born to live happily or miserably for ever; and their Happiness depending upon the right use of their Liberty, and this upon their Knowledge how to use and determine it; it will be impossible for them to attain to eternal Happiness, or escape eternal Misery, without Knowledge to steer and direct them: so that whilst they are ignorant of those Truths, by which their Liberty is to be governed, and their Choices and Actions to be determined to eternal Happiness, they are under a very remote Incapacity of being happy. And what a miserable Case is this, to have an eternal Interest at stake, and not to know how to manage it? To be travelling on this narrow Line, or Frontier which divideth those boundless Continents of everlasting Happiness and Misery, and not to see one step of our way before us, nor to perceive whither we are going till we are gone beyond recovery? Should you behold a blind Man walking upon the brink of a fatal Precipice, without any Guide to direct his steps, and secure him from the neighbouring Danger, would not your Hearts ake and your Bowels yearn for him? Would you not call out to him and warn him of his Danger, and make all the hast you could to take him by the Hand and conduct him to a place of Safety? And is it not a much more deplorable sight, to see a poor ignorant Wretch walking blindfold on the Brinks of Hell, and for want of sight to direct him Heaven-wards ready to blunder at every step into the Pit of Destruction? Can you behold such a miserable Object with a regardless eye, and yet pretend to Pity or Compassion? Can you sit still and see him cast himself into the mouth of such horrid and amazing Danger, without warning him of it, and endeavouring by the best Instructions you can give him to lead him off, and direct him to eternal Happiness? Surely did we but duely understand the Worth and the Danger of Souls, such a woful Spectacle could not but affect our Bowels, and excite us to employ all our Power to convince him of the Danger he is running into, and instruct him how to avoid it. For this is the proper Act of Mercy which this miserable Case calls for, viz. to endeavour to dispel that fatal Ignorance which surrounds Men minds, and to enlighten them with all those Principles of Religion which are necessary to conduct them to eternal Happiness. For it is not so great a piece of Mercy to give a starving Man Bread, as it is to inform an ignorant Sinner and feed his famished Mind with the Bread of Life; because without the former 'tis only his Body will die, whereas without the latter his Body and Soul will die for ever. When therefore we know any Persons to be grosly ignorant of God and Religion, the Laws of Mercy require us to use all prudent means to instruct and inform them: and if they are in our power, as our Children and Servants are, to take care to train them up in the fear and nurture of the Lord, to catechize and instruct them in the Doctrines of Faith, and season their Minds with the Principles of pure Religion; that so understanding their Duty, and the vast and indispensable Obligations of it, they may not leap blindfold into eternal Perdition. For whilst we train them up in Blindness and Ignorance, we do in effect Predestinate them to eternal Ruin, and like those barbarous Parents that offered up their Children to Molock, devote them as so many Sacrifices to the Devil. Wherefore we stand obliged, not only in Fidelity to God, who hath committed their Souls to our charge, and will one day require an account of them at our Hands; but also in Mercy to them, that they may not perish eternally for lack of knowledge; to take all possible care to instruct their minds in the Duties and Obligations of Religion. And as Mercy obliges us to instruct our Children and Servants who are in our power and disposal, so it also obliges us to instruct others whom we know to be ignorant of God and their Duty; to take all fair opportunities to insinuate the Knowledge of Divine Things to them, and to cultivate their rude and barbarous Minds with the Principles of Vertue and Religion; or at least where we cannot be admitted to do them this good Office our selves, or our endeavouring it may be looked upon as a piece of Sauciness or Pedantry, to recommend their miserable Case to others who have more Authority with them, or from whose hands it may be better taken. For sure if we have any Mercy or Compassion in us, we cannot sit still, and see a miserable Wretch wandring in the dark upon the Confines of eternal Ruin, without endeavouring by some way or other to reduce and light him back to Heaven. Hence 2 Tim. ii. 25, 26. 'Tis made a necessary act of Mercy, Meekly to instruct those that oppose themselves, that is, out of ignorance of the Gospel, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the Truth, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil who are taken captive by him at his will.
IV. ANOTHER of the Miseries which affect Mens Souls, is Malice and Obstinacy of Will in mischievous and destructive courses; which is doubtless one of the greatest Infelicities that can happen to a Man on this side Hell. For to be obstinate in mischievous courses is but one remove from the forlorn Condition of a damned Soul, which being fixed and determined to Evil by the invincible Obstinacy of its own will, lies under a fatal Necessity of being its own eternal Hell and Devil: so that every degree of Obstinacy in Wickedness is a nearer Approach to eternal Damnation, and will at last inevitably center in it, if it be not stopped in its Course and Progress, and cured by a timely Application. Now what a deplorable sight is this, to see a wretched Soul obstinately pursuing his own destruction, and even forcing his way to Hell through all the resistances of his Religion, and Reason, and Conscience together? Should you see a mad Man break loose from his Chain, and run his Head against a Wall, or catch up a Knife or Dagger and thrust it into his own Breast, and repeat Stab after Stab, in despight of all your Counsels and Dissuasives, would you not pity and lament his Case, and heartily wish him deprived of all that Liberty which he employs only to his own Destruction? And is it not a much more lamentable spectacle, to see a wild and desperate Soul break loose from those ties of Religion and Conscience which bind it to its Duty and Happiness; and in a deaf and obstinate Rage seize on the Weapons of Perdition, and plunge them into its own Bowels, and by repeated Acts of Wickedness imbrue its hands in its own blood; whilst the blessed Spirit, with its own natural sense of God, are strugling with it in vain, and fruitlesly endeavouring to disarm its desperate Fury, that it may not wound it self to eternal Death? What merciful Heart can forbear wishing, O would to God this miserable Soul had no Will, that it had not the Liberty to choose or act! Would to God it were a Stone, or a Tree that have no power to dispose of, or determine their own Motions, rather than be thus left at liberty as it is, only to murder and destroy it self? But since to wish thus would be in vain, who that hath any Pity can sit still and see a miserable Wretch thus outrage himself, without endeavouring to hold his Hands, and bind him down with Reason and good Counsel? And this is the proper Act of Mercy which the miserable Case in hand requires, viz. When we see an obstinate Sinner resolutely pursuing his own Destruction, to endeavour, by prudent and seasonable Reproofs, by pious and compassionate Counsels, and Admonitions, to reclaim him from the Error of his way. For thus our Holy Religion directeth us to exhort one another daily while it is called to day, least any of us should be hardened, i. e. irrecoverably hardened, through the deceitfulness of sin. Heb. iii. 13. And how acceptable a work this is to God, St. Iames informeth us, Chap. v. 19, 20. Brethren if any of you err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know that he who converteth a Sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. Whereas by permitting Men to run on in their sins without any check or disturbance, under a pretence of Complaisance and Civility, is as much as to say; Sir, you are going headlong to destruction, and go you are like for me; for my part whether you are damned, or saved, is much at one to me; if you are minded to make an experiment of damnation, much good may it do you; I know should I attempt to hinder or disturb you, you will think me rude and troublesome, and therefore rather than I will run the hazard, e'en let the Devil take you. And would it not be a high Complement, if you saw a Man plunging a Sword into his Bowels, to cry, Sir, I would hold your Arm, but that I am afraid you will be angry with me? 'Tis true, this merciful Work of Reproof and Admonition ought to be managed with a great deal of Caution: if the Person we reprove be out of our power, we ought to observe the mollia tempora fandi, to forbear him till his Passion is down, or his intemperate Draught digested, till his Mind is sedate and calm, and best disposed to attend to and receive a pious Admonition: for he who reproves a Man when his Mind is disordered by Passion or Intemperance, doth but Preach Patience to a Northern Wind, which the more he endeavours to resist, the lowder it will storm and bluster. But then when he is fit to receive a Reprehension, we ought to give it with the greatest Privacy: If he offend in publick Conversation, where there are other Witnesses of it besides our selves, unless the matter be highly scandalous, it is sufficient for the present that we express our Dislike of it by the Severity of our Looks, and the Seriousness of our Behaviour; and afterwards between him and our selves, to remonstrate to him the Folly and Danger of his Sin. For to reprove Men publickly looks more like Malice, then Mercy; especially till we have first made Trial of private Reprehensions, and found them ineffectual. But then with our Reproofs we ought to take care that we do not intermingle Lightness, or Drollery on the one hand, nor Passion, or sharp Invectives on the other; but that we perform this merciful Office with the greatest Modesty, Seriousness, and Compassion; first endeavouring to anticipate the Offender's Displeasure, with kind and gentle Insinuations of our unfeigned Respect and Benevolence towards him; then representing his Crime to him with such a compassionate sense of the Evil and Danger of it, as may convince him that that which renders us so severe to his Sin, is nothing but mere Mercy and Charity to his Soul: for to reprove a Man lightly, or passionately, looks more like a design to deride, or reproach him for his Sin, than to reclaim him from it. Lastly, we ought to take great care that the Matter we reprove him for be really culpable, that we do not reprehend him for any innocent Freedom, no nor for every trifling Indecency; but only for plain and unquestionable Trespasses upon Religion: lest he should look upon our Reproofs as the language of a supercilious and morose Spirit, that affects to domineer and find fault, and as such should despise and reject them. To avoid which it is highly adviseable, that while we reprove what is evil in him, we should commend what is good; that so our bitter Pill being sweetened with a due Commendation, may be rendered more palatable, and so go down with less Difficulty. But if the Offender whom we reprove be under our Power and Government, to our Reproofs and Admonitions we are obliged in Mercy to add Correction, if Necessity requires: for when it is come to that pass, that our Child or Servant must smart or be damned, 'tis a cruel Softness and Indulgence, not to chastize him. Were your House on fire, you would think it a Mercy to be rescued from the Flames, though you were dragged out by the Hair of the Head: And when the Flames of Hell are kindling about your Child or your Servant, would it not be much more merciful to snatch him away, though with Smart and Violence, than to stand still and let him perish for fear of hurting him? 'Tis true, Correction ought not to be used till gentler Means have been tried and found ineffectual: For Blows are Arguments for Beasts, and for beastly Natures, fit only to be applied to stubborn and obstinate Tempers that are insensible of Reason and Persuasion: But when they are applied, it ought to be done with the greatest Tenderness and Compassion, when our Minds are calm, and our Passion allayed; that so the Offender may be sensible we do it not to wreak our Spleen, or vent and ease our Fury, but meerly to reclaim and amend him: The Sense of which will cause the Correction to operate more kindly in him, to affect his Ingenuity as well as his Fear, and to melt him with the Mercy, whilst it breaks him with the Severity of it: This therefore is the Mercy which we are obliged to exercise towards obstinate and stubborn Offenders.
Fifthly and Lastly, ANOTHER of the Miseries which affect Mens Souls is Impotency, or Want of Power to recover themselves out of their vicious Courses; for a vicious State doth so miserably weaken and disable Mens Faculties, so impair the health and vigour of their Minds, that it is not in their Power to help and recover themselves out of it. For to their Recovery it is necessary, first that their Thoughts should be determined to a fixed and exact Consideration of the Evil and Danger of their Sins, and of the blessed Hopes which God hath set before them to tempt them to renounce and forsake them: And then that these Considerations should so prevail upon and influence their Wills, as to captivate them into a thorough Resolution of Amendment; both which Effects are out of the reach of the Sinners Power, considered singly, and without the concurrence of the Divine Grace. For his Mind is so depressed and bowed down towards these earthly and sensible Objects, which have been hitherto the sole Companions of his Thoughts, that it is not able to raise up it self to the Consideration of Divine Things: And though now and then, a good Meditation may break in upon him, and seize upon his Thoughts, yet it cannot hold them a quarter of an hour together; they are so roving and slippery, so backward and averse to any thing that is serious and divine: So that unless the Divine Spirit lays hold upon them, and by his powerful and importunate Inspirations confines and fixes them, the Man will never be able to reduce them to any fast and steady Consideration. And when with the Holy Spirit's Assistance he hath effected this, he hath a perverse and obstinate Will to deal with; which no Considerations will be able to determin to a fixed Resolution of Amendment, but what are set home upon his Mind, and continually actuated and enlivened with the vigorous Influence of the Spirit of God. So that of himself every habitual Sinner is a most weak and impotent Creature, that with all the Powers of his Mind and Will, the utmost Efforts and Struglings of his own Faculties is not able without a supernatural Aid to rescue himself from Sin and Misery. For how many sorrowful Instances do we every day converse with of Men, who in their sober Thoughts will sadly lament their own Follies; and blush in the morning when they remember how their Brains were set a float by their last Night's Intemperance; who yet when the next Temptation beckoneth them to their Lust again, return as greedily to it as ever; and though when they have repeated their Sin, they curse it and resolve against it, yet when they are tempted, sin again, and then weep and call themselves miserable: But still alas! the same Inchantment confineth them to the same Circle? Now in this Philosophy is at a stand, nor can there any other rational account be given of it, but only the miserable Frailty and Impotence which Men contract by vicious Courses. What then is to be done for these miserable Persons in this their forlorn and helpless Condition? Why, besides all the above-named Instances of Mercy which we are obliged even for Pity's sake to apply to them; we are also bound in Mercy earnestly to recommend their woful Condition to the God of all Grace and Compassion, to beseech him to commiserate their Impotence, and with the out-stretched Arm of his Grace to touch their dead Souls, and raise them up into Newness of Life. For though in all Cases of Misery Prayer is a proper Act of Mercy, yet there is none that doth so much need and call for our Prayers as this: For in all other Cases, either it is in the Power of the Miserable to help themselves, or it is in the Power of the Merciful to rescue and relieve them, or the Miseries are such as will quickly end and expire into Eternal Ease; but as for th… Misery of the obstinate Sinner, it is such as God alone can remedy, and such as i… it be not remedied the sooner, will quickly determine in endless and remediless Misery. Wherefore if we have any Bowels of Mercy or Compassion in us, How can we sit still and see an impotent Sinner bound as it were to the stake of Perdition, and not able to escape, though he sees the Flames of Hell rising round about him; without lifting up our Eyes to God, in whom alone his Help and Salvation lyes, and earnestly imploring him to commiserate the perishing Wretch, and to snatch him from his approaching ruin? Wherefore as the Law of Mercy obliges us in general to pray for all that are in Misery, so more especially for these wretched Creatures, who are already within the Suburbs of endless Misery; and unless God stretches forth his Arm and saves them, will be within a few moments beyond the reach of Prayer and Mercy. And thus you see what those Instances of Mercy are, which we are obliged to exercise towards the Souls of Men: And for the enforcement of our Duty herein, I shall subjoyn some Considerations to excite our Christian Compassion.
I. CONSIDER the inestimable Worth of those Souls, upon which your Mercy is to be employed. I confess, were the Souls of Men of the same alloy with their Bodies, whose highest Pleasures do consist in the gratification of a few brutish Senses, and are nothing else but the agreeable Touches of certain little Skins and Arteries, which are as inconsiderable as a Lutestring; and which, after they have repeated these Pleasures some twenty or thirty years, do commonly expire into Insensibility and Rottenness; were, I say, their Souls of the same Make and Frame, it were not so much to be admired that we are so indifferently affected towards them. But these precious Beings are of a much nobler Constitution, their Faculties are made to relish Godlike and Angelical Delights, to drink for-ever of that Divine Nectar of Contemplation, and Holiness, and Love, and to feast upon those Joys with which God entertains himself, and all his Choir of Angels: And as they are born to much higher Pleasures and Enjoyments, than those wretched Bodies which inclose them, so they are also made for an infinitely longer Life and Duration: For they must live for ever in inconceivable Happiness or Misery; and when their Bodies are mouldered into insensible Dust, be partaking either of the Raptures of Angels, or of the Horrors and Agonies of Devils. And can I think my self obliged in Mercy to feed and cloath the Body of my Child or Servant, the Body which within a few days in despight of all my Care and Pains will resolve into a Clod of stupid Earth! and yet be altogether unconcerned what becometh of that precious Soul, which must be the subject of an everlasting Happiness or Misery? Is it possible I should be so careful and sollicitous as I am, to heap up great Fortunes for my Children, that so they may swim in Plenty a few Moments, wear fine Cloaths, and fare deliciously every day, and at last go down to the Worms with Pomp; and in the mean time neglect that immortal Being within them, which, when all the Wealth I provided for them is shrunk into six foot of Earth and a Winding-sheet, must be a glorified Spirit, or a damned Ghost! Sure did we but seriously consider, with what vast Capacities of Happiness or Misery the Souls of Men are framed and constituted, and what proportionable Fates do attend them; we should be much more solicitous than we are, not only to secure our own Souls, but also to make a timely provision for the Souls of our Children and Relations.
II. CONSIDER how much you are interested and concerned in the Fate of the Souls of others, but especially of your Children and Servants, for in this state of Danger wherein we are placed, God hath committed us to one another's Care, with a strict Injunction that we should exhort one another daily, while it is called To day, least any of us be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Heb. iii. 13. And if when it is in our power to prevent it, we suffer our Brother to be irrecoverably hardened in his Sin, we are accountable for it at the Tribunal of God, who will one day severely charge us for this our cruel Unfaithfulness to our Brother, in suffering him to miscarry for ever, without admonishing him of his Danger, and endeavouring to rescue him from it by our charitable Counsels and Persuasions: So that if we suffer him to fall by neglecting to exhort and admonish him, in all probability he will not fall alone, but pull us down along with him into Eternal Perdition. Wherefore it concerns us for our own sakes, so far as we have opportunity to discharge all Offices of Mercy towards the Souls of others; lest whilst they perish through our Neglect, we should be involved in their Ruin. But then as for our Children and Servants, their Souls are more immediately committed to our Care and Conduct, as being placed under our Power and Disposal by God's over-ruling Providence; which by bestowing them upon us, and placing them with us, doth in effect thus bespeak us: These precious Souls I intrust in your hands, to be educated and trained up to Eternal Happiness: See you give me a good Account of them, for if they perish through your Neglect, whenever I make Inquisition for Blood, I will certainly require it at your hands. How then shall we be able to lift up our Heads, when God shall demand of us, What are become of those precious Iewels which he committed to our trust? If through our barbarous Neglect they should happen to be lost and forfeited to Eternal Misery; if through a wretched Regardlesness of their Eternal Interest, we have not instructed and admonished them; if through a cruel Fondness and Indulgence we have not reproved and corrected them; or if by our wicked Connivance or Example we have encouraged and soothed them up in any destructive course of Action; and so they should finally miscarry. Lord, what a dreadful Account shall we have to give, when we come to appear at thy Tribunal! Where the Blood of our Children and our Servants Souls shall join with our own Personal Guilts, to cry aloud for Vengeance against us. Wherefore if we have no Pity or Compassion for them, yet let us at least be so merciful to our selves, as not to omit those Offices of Mercy, which we are obliged to render to them.
III. CONSIDER what a mighty Influence your Mercy may have upon their Welfare. It is not to be imagined how many Souls might be saved from perishing, were we but so kind and merciful as to distribute the Bread of Life to one another, according as we have Ability and Opportunity: How many a dark Mind might be enlightened by our sound and pious Instructions? How many a head-strong Will might we curb and restrain by our prudent and seasonable Reproofs and Admonitions? And how can we tell, but these our merciful Endeavours may, through the Concurrence of Divine Grace, prove blessed means of their final Recovery and Happiness? And if so, What better Office can we do in the World; or what higer Dignity can we aspire to, than to be the Saviours and Redeemers of Souls? And if by our Instructions and Admonitions, we might do so much good in our common Conversation among Men; How much more might we do in our own Families? For our Children and Servants being under our Power and Government, will upon that account receive our Admonitions with greater Awe and Reverence; and consequently comply with them with greater Ease and Readiness. And then we having the Conduct of their young and tender Years, in which their Minds and Manners may be easily shaped in any Form, it is in our Power to stamp upon them what Impressions we please: So that would we but now take Care to instruct their Minds, and regulate their Wills, with wise and good Principles and Admonitions, we might easily impregnate their Natures with strong dispositions to Vertue and Religion; and so by degrees cultivate those Dispositions into a State of Grace, and habitual Goodness. And when this blessed Effect is so much in our Power, what a cruel Neglect is it not to contribute towards it so far as we are able? Should you see a Mother deny a morsel of Bread to her famished Child, when she hath enough and to spare; or strip it stark naked in a deep Winter's Frost, and expose it to the Mountains to be starved with Cold; Would you not brand her for a Monster of her Sex, and exclaim against her with the greatest Detestation and Abhorrence? And yet alas! that unnatural Cruelty which we should so much abhor in another, we our selves are too often guilty of in a much higher Degree. For by neglecting to instruct and educate our Families in Religion, we deny them the most necessary thing in the World, even that which is the Food and Raiment of their Souls; without which they cannot live, but must necessarily starve and famish for ever: And therefore by how much more precious their Souls are than their Bodies, and by how much more deplorable eternal Death is than temporal, by so much more barbarous and inhumane are those Parents, who do not institute their Children in Religion, than those who suffer them to perish with Hunger▪ or Cold. For are you such Infidels as to imagine, that they are born only for this Life, and that there is nothing beyond the Grave in which they are concerned? If not, What account can you give of this your unnatural Neglect of them? If you think they must live for ever when they are gone out of this World, Why then do not you take care that they may live in the other World as well as in this? O Improvident that we are! Can we be so much concerned that they may be happy for a Moment, and yet so indifferent whether they are happy or miserable for ever▪ Are their Souls such Trifles, or their everlasting Fate such an Indifferent Matter, as that when it is so much in your Power, you think it not worth your while to concern your selves so much about them? Wherefore in the Name of God, consider with your selves, what an infinite deal of Good you are capable of doing them by your Pious Instructions and Admonitions; and what an unnatural Barbarity it would be to omit and neglect it.