DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3689#0058
56
tM. Serious Call to
Persons that are well affected to Religion, that receive instruc-
tions of piety with pleasure and satisfaction, often wonder how
it comes to pass, that they make no greater progress in that
Religion which they so much admire.
Now the reason of it is this ; it is because Religion lives only
in their head, but something else has possession of their hearts ;
and therefore they continue from year to year mere admirers,
appraisers of piety, without ever coming up to the reality and
perfection of its precepts.
If it be asked, why Religion does not get possession of their
hearts, the reason is this. It is not because they live in gross
sins, or debaucheries, for their regard to religion preserves them
from such disorders.
But it is because their hearts are constantly employed, perverted,
and kept in a wrong state, by the indiscreet use of such things
as are lawful to be used.
The use and enjoyment of their estates is lawful, and there-
fore it never comes into their heads, to imagine any great
danger from that quarter. They never reflect, that there is a
vain, and imprudent use of their estates, which, though it does
not destroy like gross sins, yet so disorders the heart, and sup-
ports it in such sensuality and dulness, such pride and vanity, as
makes it incapable of receiving the life and spirit of piety.
For our souls may receive an infinite hurt, and be rendered
incapable of all virtues, merely by the use of innocent and lawful
things.
What is more innocent than rest and retirement ? And yet
what more dangerous, than sloth and idleness ? What is more
lawful than eating and drinking? And yet what more destruc-
tive of all virtue, what more fruitful of all vice, than sensuality
and indulgence ?
How lawful and praiseworthy is the care of a family ? And
yet how certainly are many people rendered incapable of all
virtue, by a worldly and solicitous temper ?
Now it is for want of religious exactness in the use of these
innocent and lawful things, that Religion cannot get possession
of our hearts. And it is in the right and prudent management
of ourselves, as to these things, that all the arts of holy living
chiefly consist.
Gross sins are plainly seen, and easily avoided by persons that
profess Religion. But the indiscreet and dangerous use of inno-
cent and lawful things, as it does not shock and offend our con-
sciences, so it is difficult to make people at all sensible of the
danger of it.
A Gentleman that expends all his estate in sports, and a
tM. Serious Call to
Persons that are well affected to Religion, that receive instruc-
tions of piety with pleasure and satisfaction, often wonder how
it comes to pass, that they make no greater progress in that
Religion which they so much admire.
Now the reason of it is this ; it is because Religion lives only
in their head, but something else has possession of their hearts ;
and therefore they continue from year to year mere admirers,
appraisers of piety, without ever coming up to the reality and
perfection of its precepts.
If it be asked, why Religion does not get possession of their
hearts, the reason is this. It is not because they live in gross
sins, or debaucheries, for their regard to religion preserves them
from such disorders.
But it is because their hearts are constantly employed, perverted,
and kept in a wrong state, by the indiscreet use of such things
as are lawful to be used.
The use and enjoyment of their estates is lawful, and there-
fore it never comes into their heads, to imagine any great
danger from that quarter. They never reflect, that there is a
vain, and imprudent use of their estates, which, though it does
not destroy like gross sins, yet so disorders the heart, and sup-
ports it in such sensuality and dulness, such pride and vanity, as
makes it incapable of receiving the life and spirit of piety.
For our souls may receive an infinite hurt, and be rendered
incapable of all virtues, merely by the use of innocent and lawful
things.
What is more innocent than rest and retirement ? And yet
what more dangerous, than sloth and idleness ? What is more
lawful than eating and drinking? And yet what more destruc-
tive of all virtue, what more fruitful of all vice, than sensuality
and indulgence ?
How lawful and praiseworthy is the care of a family ? And
yet how certainly are many people rendered incapable of all
virtue, by a worldly and solicitous temper ?
Now it is for want of religious exactness in the use of these
innocent and lawful things, that Religion cannot get possession
of our hearts. And it is in the right and prudent management
of ourselves, as to these things, that all the arts of holy living
chiefly consist.
Gross sins are plainly seen, and easily avoided by persons that
profess Religion. But the indiscreet and dangerous use of inno-
cent and lawful things, as it does not shock and offend our con-
sciences, so it is difficult to make people at all sensible of the
danger of it.
A Gentleman that expends all his estate in sports, and a