The rise and progress of religion in the soul ..

Chapter I

Page The Introduction to the work, with some general account of its design, - - - - - - 13

A prayer for the success of it, in promoting the rise and progress of religion, - - - - -21

Chapter XI

A solemn address to those who will not be persuaded to fall in with the design of the gospel, - - 106

A compassionate prayer in behalf of the impenitent sinner, - - - - - - - -118

Page

Chapter XII

An address to a soul so overwhelmed with a sense of the greatness of its sins, that it dares not apply itself to Christ with any hope of salvation, - - 121

Reflection on the encouragement he has to do it, ending in an humble and earnest application to Christ for mercy, 125

Chapter XIII

The doubting soul more particularly assisted in its inquiries as to the sincerity of its faith and repentance, .--.-..- 128

The soul submitting to divine examination, the sincerity of its repentance and faith, - - - - 134

Chapter XIV

A more particular view of the several branches of the Christian temper; by which the reader may be further assisted in judging what he is, and what he should endeavour to be, 136

A review of the several branches of this temper in a scriptural prayer, 149

Chapter XV

The reader reminded how much he needs the assistance of the Spirit of God to form him to this temper, and what encouragement he has to expect it, - - - 152

An humble supplication for the influences of divine grace to form and strengthen religion in the soul, 157

Chapter XVI

The Christian convert warned of, and animated against those discouragements which he must expect to meet when entering on a religious course, - - - 160

Page

The soul, alarmed by a sense of these difficulties, committing itself to divine protection, - - 165

Chapter XVII

The Christian urged to, and assisted in, an express act of self-dedication to the service of God, - 167

An example of self-dedication ; or a solemn form of renewing our covenant with God, ... 170

Together with an abstract of it, to be used with proper and requisite alterations. 175

Chapter XVIII

Of entering into church communion, by attendance upon the Lord's Supper, ----- 177

A prayer for one who desires to attend, yet has some remaining doubts concerning his right to that solemn ordinance, - - - - - - - 182

Chapter XIX

Some more particular directions for maintaining continual communion with God, or being in his fear all the day long; in a letter to a pious friend, - - 185

A serious view of death, proper to be taken as we lie down on our beds, - - - - - - 199

Chapter XXIII

The sad case of a relapse into known and deliberate sin, after solemn acts of dedication to God, and some progress made in religion, - - - 234

A prayer for one who has fallen into gross sin, after religious resolutions and engagements, - - 241

Preface

The several hints given in the first chapter of this Treatise, which contains a particular plan of the design, render it unnecessary to introduce it with a long preface. My much-honoured friend, Dr. Watts, had laid the scheme, especially of the former part. But as those indispositions, with which (to the unspeakable grief of the churches) God has been pleased to exercise him, had forbid his hopes of being able to add this to his many labours of love to immortal souls, he was pleased, in a very affectionate and importunate manner, to urge me to undertake it. And I bless God, with my whole heart, not only that he hath carried me through this delightful task, (for such indeed I have found it,) but also that he hath spared that worthy and amiable person to see it accomplished, and given him strength and spirit to review so considerable a part of it. His approbation, expressed in stronger terms than modesty will permit me to repeat, encourages me to hope that it is executed in such a manner as may by the divine blessing, render it of some general service. And I the rather hope it will be so, as it now comes abroad into the world, not only with my own prayers and his, but also with those of many other pious friends, which I have been particularly careful to engage for its success.

Into whatever hands this work may come, I must desire that, before any pass their judgment, they

10 PREFACE.

would please to read it through, that they may discern the connexion between one part of it and another. This I the rather request, because I have long observed, that Christians of different parties have been eagerly laying hold on particular parts of the system of divine truth, and have been contending about them, as if each had been all; or, as if the separation of the members from each other, and from the head, were the preservation of the body instead of its destruction. They have been zealous to espouse the defence, and to maintain the honour and usefulness of each apart; whereas their honour as well as usefulness, seems to me to lie much in their connexion: and suspicions have often arisen betwixt the respective defenders of each, which have appeared as unreasonable and absurd, as if all the preparations for securing one part of a ship in a storm were to be censured as a contrivance to sink the rest. I pray God to give to all his ministers and people more and more of the spirit of wisdom, and of love, and of a sound mind ; and to remove far from us those mutual jealousies and animosities, which hinder our acting with that unanimity which is necessary in order to the successful carrying on our common warfare against the enemies of Christianity. We may be sure these enemies will never fail to make their own advantage of our multiplied divisions and severe contests with each other. But they must necessarily lose both their ground and their influence, in proportion to the degree in which the energy of Christian principles is felt, to unite and transform the hearts of those by whom they are professed.

I have studied the greatest plainness of speech, that the lowest of my readers may, if possible, be able to understand every word; and I hope persons

PREFACE. 11

of a more elegant taste and refined education, will pardon what appeared to me so necessary a piece of charity. Such a care in practical writers, seems one important instance of that honouring all men, which our amiable and condescending religion teaches ; and I have been particularly obliged to my worthy patron, for what he has done to shorten some of the sentences, and to put my meaning into plainer and more familiar words. Yet, I dare say, the world will not suspect it of having contracted any impropriety or inelegance of language by passing through the hands of Dr. Watts.

I must add one remark here, viz. That though I do in this book consider my reader as successively in a great variety of supposed circumstances, beginning with those of a thoughtless sinner, and leading him through several stages of conviction, terror, &c, as what may be previous to his sincerely accepting the gospel, and devoting himself to the service of God; yet I would by no means be thought to insinuate that every one who is brought to that happy resolution, arrives at it through those particular steps, or feels agitations of mind equal, in any degree, to those I have described. Some sense of sin, and some serious and humbling apprehension of our danger and misery in consequence of it, must indeed be necessary, to dispose us to receive the grace of the gospel, and the Saviour who is there exhibited to our faith: but God is pleased sometimes to begin the work of his grace on the heart almost from the first dawning of reason, and to carry it on by such gentle and insensible degrees, that very excellent persons, who have made the most eminent attainments in the divine life, have been unable to recount any remarkable history of their conversion. And, so far as I can learn, this is most frequently the case

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with those of them who have enjoyed the benefit of a pious education, when it has not been succeeded by a vicious and licentious youth. God forbid, therefore, that any should be so insensible of their own happiness as to fall into perplexity with relation to their spiritual state, for want of being able to trace such a rise of religion in their minds as it was necessary, on my plan, for me to describe and exemplify here. I have spoken my sentiments on this head so fully in the eighth of my sermons on Regeneration, that I think none who has read, and remembers the general contents of it, can be in danger of mistaking my meaning here. But as it is very possible this book may fall into the hands of many who have not read the other, and have no opportunity of consulting it, I thought proper to insert this caution in the preface to this ; and I am much obliged to that worthy and excellent person who kindly reminded me of the expediency of doing it.

Philip Doddridge.

THE EISE AND PROGRESS

RELIGION IN THE SOUL.

Chapter I. The Introduction To The Work, With Some General Account Of Its Design

That true religion is very rare, appears from comparing the nature of it with the lives and characters of men around us, 1, 2. The want of it is matter of just lamentation, 3. To remedy this evil is the design of the ensuing treatise, 4. To which, therefore, the author earnestly bespeaks the attention of the reader, as his own heart is deeply interested in it, 5, 6. A general plan of the work, of which the first fifteen chapters relate chiefly to the rise of religion, and the remaining chapters to its progress, 7 — 12. The chapter concludes with a prayer for the success of the work.

1. When we look around us with an attentive eye, and consider the characters and pursuits of men, we plainly see, that though, in the original constitution of their natures, they only, of all the creatures that dwell on the face of the earth, are capable of religion, yet many of them shamefully neglect it. And whatever different notions people may entertain of what they call religion, all must agree in owning, that it is very far from being a universal thing.

2. Religion, in its most general view, is such a sense of God on the soul, and such a conviction of our obligations to him, and of our dependence upon him, as shall engage us to make it our great care to conduct ourselves in a manner which we have reason to believe will be pleasing to him. Now, when we have given this plain account of religion, it is byno means necessary that we should search among the savages of the African or American nations, to find instances of those who are strangers to it. When we view the conduct of the generality of people at home, in a Christian and Protestant nation, in a nation whose obligations to God have been singular, almost beyond those of any other people under heaven, will any one presume to say, that religion has a universal reign among us? Will any one suppose that it prevails in every life; that it reigns in every heart? Alas! the avowed infidelity, the profanation of the name and day of God, the drunkenness, the lewdness, the injustice, the falsehood, the pride, the prodigality, the base selfishness, the stupid insensibility about the spiritual and eternal interests of themselves and others, which so generally appear among us, loudly proclaim the contrary. So that one would imagine, upon this view, that thousands and tens of thousands thought the neglect, and even the contempt of religion, a glory rather than a reproach. And where is the neighbourhood, where is the society, where is the happy family, consisting of any considerable number, in which, on a more exact examination, we find reason to say, " Religion fills even this little circle?" There is, perhaps, a freedom from any gross and scandalous immoralities, an external decency of behaviour, an attendance on the outward forms of worship in public, and, here and there, in the family; yet amidst all this, there is nothing which looks like the genuine actings of the spiritual and divine life. There is no appearance of love to God, no reverence for his presence, no desire of his favour as the highest good: there is no cordial belief of the gospel of salvation; no eager solicitude to escape that condemnation which we have incurred by sin; no hearty concern to secure that eternal life which Christ has purchased and secured for his people, and which he freely promises to all who will receive him. Alas ! whatever the love of a friend, or even of a parent, can do ; whatever inclination there may be to hope all things, and believe all things, the most favourable ; evidence to the contrary will force itself upon the mind, and extort the unwilling conclusion, that, whatever else may be amiable in this dear friend, in that favourite child, " religion dwells not in his breast."

3. To a heart that firmly believes the gospel, and views persons and things in the light of eternity, this is one of the most mournful considerations in the world. And indeed, to such a one, all the other calamities and evils of human nature appear trifles when compared with this, the absence of real religion, and that contrariety to it, which reigns in so many thousands of mankind. Let this be cured, and all the other evils will easily be borne; nay, good will be extracted out of them: but if this continue, it "bringeth forth fruit unto death," Rom. vii. 5, and in consequence of it, multitudes, who share the entertainments of an indulgent Providence with us, and are at least allied to us by the bond of the same common nature, must, in a few years, be swept away into utter destruction, and be plunged beyond redemption " into everlasting burnings."

4. I doubt not but that there are many, under the various forms of religious profession, who are not only lamenting this in public, if their office in life calls them to an opportunity of doing it, but are likewise mourning before God in secret, under a sense of this sad state of things; and who can appeal to him that searches all hearts, as to the sincerity of their desires to revive the languishing cause of vital Christianity and substantial piety, and, among the rest, the author of this treatise, may with confidence say, it is this which animates him to the present attempt, in the midst of so many other cares and labours; for this, he is willing to lay aside many of those curious amusements in science which might suit his own private taste, and perhaps open a way to some reputation in the learned world : for this, he is willing to wave the laboured ornaments of speech, that he may, if possible, descend to the capacity of the lowest part of mankind : for this, he would endeavour to convince the judgment, and to reach the heart, of every reader : and in a word, for this, without any dread of the name of an enthusiast, whoever may at random throw it out upon the occasion, he would, as it were, enter with you into your closet from day to day, and with all plainness and freedom, as well as seriousness, would discourse to you of the great things which he has learned from the Christian revelation, and on which he assuredly knows your everlasting happiness to depend: that if you hitherto have lived without religion, you may now be awakened to the consideration of it, and may be instructed in its nature and importance; or that, if you are already, through divine grace, experimentally acquainted with it, you may be assisted to make a greater progress.

5. But he earnestly entreats this favour of you, that, as it is plainly a serious business we are entering upon, you would be pleased to give him a serious and an attentive hearing. He entreats that these addresses, and these meditations, may be perused at leisure, and be thought over in retirement; and that you would do him and yourself the justice to believe the representations which are here made, and the warnings which are here given, to proceed from sincerity and love ; from a heart which would not designedly give one moment's unnecessary pain to the meanest creature on the face of the earth, and much less to any human mind. If he be importunate, it is, because he at least imagines that there is just reason for it; and fears, lest amidst the multitudes who are undone by the utter neglect of religion, and among those who are greatly damaged for want of a more resolute and constant attention to it, this may be the case of some into whose hands this treatise may fall.

6. He is a barbarian, and deserves not to be called a man, who can look on the sorrows of his fellow-creatures without drawing out his soul unto them, and wishing, at least, that it were in the power of his hand to help them. Surely earth would be a heaven to that man who could go about from place to place, scattering happiness wheresoever he came, though it were only the body that he was capable of relieving, and though he could impart nothing better than the happiness of a mortal life. But the happiness rises in proportion to the nature and degree of the good which he imparts. Happy, are we ready to say, were those honoured servants of Christ, who in the early days of his church, were the benevolent and sympathizing instruments of conveying miraculous healing to those whose cases seemed desperate ; who poured in upon the blind and the deaf the pleasures of light and sound, and called up the dead to the powers of action and enjoyment. But this is an honour and happiness which it is not fit for God commonly to bestow on mortal men. Yet there have been in every age, and, blessed be his name, there still are those, whom he has condescended to make his instruments in conveying nobler and more lasting blessings than these to their fellow-creatures. Death has long since veiled the eyes, and stopped the ears of those who were the subjects of miraculous healing, and recovered his empire over those who were once recalled from the grave. But the souls who were prevailed on to receive the gospel, live for ever. God has owned the labours of his faithful ministers in every age to produce these blessed effects; and some of them being dead, yet speak, Heb. xi. 4, with power and success in this important cause. Wonder not then if, living and dying, I be ambitious of this honour; and if my mouth be freely opened, where I can truly say, " My heart is enlarged," 2 Cor. vi. 11.

7. In forming my general plan, I have been solicitous that this little treatise might, if possible, be useful to all its readers, and contain something suitable to each. I will therefore take the man, and the Christian, in a great variety of circumstances. I will first suppose myself addressing one of the vast 2*

IS THE RISE AND PROGRESS

number of thoughtless creatures, who have hitherto been utterly unconcerned about religion; and will try what can be done, by all plainness and earnestness of address, to awaken him from this fatal lethargy, to a care, (chap. 2.) an affectionate and an immediate care about it, (chap. 3.) I will labour to fix a deep and awful conviction of guilt upon his conscience, (chap. 4.) and to strip him of his vain excuses and his flattering hopes, (chap. 5.) I will read to him, oh ! that I could fix on his heart, that sentence, that dreadful sentence, which a righteous and an almighty God has denounced against him as a sinner; (chap. 6.) and endeavour to show him in how helpless a state he lies under this condemnation, as to any capacity he has of delivering himself, (chap. 7.) But I do not mean to leave any in so terrible a situation; I will joyfully proclaim the glad tidings of pardon and salvation by Christ Jesus our Lord, which is all the support and confidence of my own soul; (chap. 8.) and then I will give some general view of the way by which this salvation is to be obtained, (chap. 9.) urging the sinner to accept of it, as affectionately as I can, (chap. 10.) though nothing can be sufficiently pathetic, where, as in this matter, the life of an immortal soul is in question.

S. Too probable it is, that some will, after all this, remain insensible ; and therefore, that their sad case may not encumber the following articles, I shall here take a solemn leave of them, (chap. 11.) and then shall turn and address myself as compassionately as I can, to a most contrary character ; I mean to a soul overwhelmed with a sense of the greatness of its sins, and trembling under the burden, as if there were no more hope for him in God; (chap. 12.) and that nothing may be omitted which may give solid peace to the troubled spirit, I shall endeavour to guide its inquiries as to the evidences of sincere repentance and faith, (chap. 13.) which will be further illustrated by a more particular view of the several branches of the Christian temper, such as may serve at once to assist the reader in judging what he is, and to show him what he should labour to be, (chap. 14.) This will naturally lead to a view of the need we have of the influences of the blessed Spirit to assist us in the important and difficult work of the true Christian; and of the encouragement we have to hope for these divine assistances, (chap. 15.) In an humble dependence on which I shall then enter on the consideration of several cases, which often occur in the Christian life, in which, particular addresses to the conscience may be requisite and useful.

9. As some peculiar difficulties and discouragements attend the first entrance on a religious course, it will here be our first care to animate the young convert against them, (chap. 16.) And that it may be done more effectually, I shall urge a solemn dedication of himself to God, (chap. 17.) to be confirmed by entering into the full communion of the church by an approach to the sacred table, (chap. 18.) That these engagements may be more happily fulfilled, we shall endeavour to draw a more particular plan of that devout, regular, and accurate course, which ought daily to be attended to, (chap. 19.) and because the idea will probably rise so much higher than what is the general practice, even of good men, we shall endeavour to persuade the reader to make the attempt, hard as it may seem, (chap. 20.) and shall caution him against various temptations, which might otherwise draw him aside to negligence and sin, (chap. 21.)

10. Happy will it be for the reader, if these exhortations and cautions be attended to with becoming regard ; but as it is, alas ! too probable, that notwithstanding all, the infirmities of nature will sometimes prevail, we shall consider the case of deadness and languor in religion, which often steals upon us by insensible degrees, (chap. 22.) from whence there is too easy a passage to that terrible one of a return unto known and deliberate sin, (chap. 23.) And as the one or the other of these tends, in a proportionable degree, to provoke the blessed God to hide his face, and his injured Spirit to withdraw, that melancholy condition will be taken into a particular survey, (chap. 24.) I shall then take notice also of the case of great and heavy afflictions in life, (chap. 25.) a discipline which the best of men have reason to expect, especially when they backslide from God, and yield to their spiritual enemies.

11. Instances of this kind will, I fear, be too frequent ; yet, I trust, there will be many others, whose path, like the dawning light, will " shine more and more unto the perfect day," Prov. iv. 13. And therefore we shall endeavour, in the best manner we can, to assist the Christian in passing a true judgment on the growth of grace in his heart, (chap. 26.) as we had done before in judging of its sincerity. And as nothing conduces more to the advancement of grace than the lively exercise of love to God, a holy joy in him, we shall here remind the real Christian of those mercies which tend to excite that love and joy, (chap. 27.) and, in the views of them, to animate him to those vigorous efforts of usefulness in life which so well become his character, and will have so happy an efficacy on brightening his crown, (chap. 28.) Supposing him to act accordingly, we shall then labour to illustrate and assist the delight with which he may look forward to the awful solemnities of death and judgment: (chap. 29.) and shall close the scene by accompanying him, as it were, to the nearest confines of that dark valley, through which he is to pass to glory ; giving him such directions as may seem most subservient to his honouring God, and adorning religion, by his dying behaviour, (chap. 30.) Nor am I without a pleasing hope, that through the divine blessing and grace, I may be, in some instances, so successful as to leave those triumphing in the views of judgment and eternity, and glorifying God by a truly Christian life and death, whom I found trembling in the apprehensions of future misery; or, perhaps, in a much more dangerous and miserable condition than that ; I mean, entirely forgetting the prospect, and sunk into the most stupid insensibility of those things, for an attention to which the human mind was formed, and in comparison of which all the pursuits of this transitory life are emptier than wind, and lighter than a feather.

12. Such a variety of heads must, to be sure, be handled but briefly, as we intend to bring them within the bulk of a moderate volume. I shall not, therefore, discuss them, as a preacher might properly do in sermons, in which the truths of religion are professedly to be explained and taught, defended and improved in a wide variety, and long detail of propositions, arguments, objections, replies, and inferences, marshalled and numbered under their distinct generals. I shall here speak in a looser and freer manner, as a friend to a friend; just as I would do, if I were to be in person admitted to a private audience, by one whom I tenderly loved, and whose circumstances and character I knew to be like that which the title of one chapter or another of this treatise describes. And when I have discoursed with him a little while, which will seldom be so long as half an hour, I shall, as it were, step aside, and leave him to meditate on what he has heard, or endeavour to assist him in such fervent addresses to God, as it may be proper to mingle with those meditations. In the mean time, I will here take the liberty to pray over my reader and my work, and to commend it solemnly to the divine blessing, in token of my deep conviction of an entire dependence upon it. And I am well persuaded, that sentiments like these are common, in the general, to every faithful minister, to every real Christian.

A PRAYER FOR THE SUCCESS OF THIS WORK IN PROMOTING THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF RELIGION.

Oh thou great eternal Original, and Author of all created being and happiness! I adore thee, who hast made man a creature capable of religion, and hast bestowed this dignity and felicity upon our nature, that it may be taught to say, " Where is God our Maker?" Job xxxv. 10. I lament that degeneracy spread over the whole human race, which has

"turned our glory into shame," Hos. iv. 7, and has rendered the forgetfulness of God (unnatural as it is) so common, and so universal a disease. Holy Father, we know it is thy presence, and thy teaching alone, that can reclaim thy wandering children ; can impress a sense of divine things on the heart, and render that sense lasting and effectual. From thee proceed all good purposes and desires; and this desire above all, of diffusing wisdom, piety, and happiness in this world, which, (though sunk in such deep apostasy,) thine infinite mercy has not utterly forsaken.

" Thou knowest, 0 Lord, the hearts of the children of men," 2 Chron. vi. 30, and an upright soul, in the midst of all the censures and suspicions it may meet with, rejoices in thine intimate knowledge of its most secret sentiments and principles of action. Thou knowest the sincerity and fervency with which thine unworthy servant desires to spread the knowledge of thy name, and the favour of thy gospel, among all to whom this work may reach. Thou knowest, that hadst thou given him an abundance of this world, it would have been, in his esteem, the noblest pleasure that abundance could have afforded to have been thine almoner, in distributing thy bounties to the indigent and necessitous, and so causing the sorrowful heart to rejoice in thy goodness dispensed through his hands. Thou knowest, that hadst thou given him either by ordinary or extraordinary methods, the gift of healing, it would have been his daily delight to relieve the pains, the maladies, and the infirmities of men's bodies; to have seen the languishing countenance brightened by returning health and cheerfulness ; and much more, to have beheld the roving distracted mind reduced to calmness and serenity in the exercise of its rational faculties. Yet happier, far happier, will he think himself, in those humble circumstances in which thy Providence has placed him, if thou vouchsafe to honour these his feeble endeavours as the means of relieving and enriching men's minds; of recovering them from the madness of a sinful state, and bringing back thy reasonable creatures to the knowledge, the service, and the enjoyment of their God; or of improving those who are already reduced.