Three Sermons and Prayers | Page 8

terrors and
threatenings, their sins laid open in true colours, and eternal misery the
reward of them; therefore, no wonder they stop their care and divert
their thoughts, and seek any amusement rather than stir the hell within
them.
Another cause of this neglect is a heart set upon worldly things. Men
whose minds are much enslaved to earthly affairs all the week cannot

disengage or break the chain of their thoughts so suddenly as to apply
to a discourse that is wholly foreign to what they have most at heart.
Tell a usurer of charity, and mercy, and restitution--you talk to the deaf;
his heart and soul, with all his senses, are got among his bags, or he is
gravely asleep and dreaming of a mortgage. Tell a man of business, that
the cares of the world choke the good seed; that we must not encumber
ourselves with much serving; that the salvation of his soul is the one
thing necessary; you see, indeed, the shape of a man before you, but his
faculties are all gone off among clients and papers, thinking how to
defend a bad cause or find flaws in a good one; or he weareth out the
time in drowsy nods.
A third cause of the great neglect and scorn of preaching ariseth from
the practice of men who set up to decry and disparage religion; these,
being zealous to promote infidelity and vice, learn a rote of buffoonery
that serveth all occasions, and refutes the strongest arguments for piety
and good manners. These have a set of ridicule calculated for all
sermons and all preachers, and can be extremely witty as often as they
please upon the same fund.
Let me now, in the last place, offer some remedies against this great
evil.
It will be one remedy against the contempt of preaching rightly to
consider the end for which it was designed. There are many who place
abundance of merit in going to church, although it be with no other
prospect but that of being well entertained, wherein if they happen to
fail, they return wholly disappointed. Hence it is become an impertinent
vein among people of all sorts to hunt after what they call a good
sermon, as if it were a matter of pastime and diversion. Our business,
alas! is quite another thing; either to learn, or at least be reminded of,
our duty; to apply the doctrines delivered, compare the rules we hear
with our lives and actions, and find wherein we have transgressed.
These are the dispositions men should bring into the house of God, and
then they will be little concerned about the preacher's wit or eloquence,
nor be curious to inquire out his faults and infirmities, but consider how
to correct their own.

Another remedy against the contempt of preaching is that men would
consider whether it be not reasonable to give more allowance for the
different abilities of preachers than they usually do. Refinements of
style and flights of wit, as they are not properly the business of any
preacher, so they cannot possibly be the talents of all. In most other
discourses, men are satisfied with sober sense and plain reason; and, as
understandings usually go, even that is not over- frequent. Then why
they should be so over-nice in expectation of eloquence, where it is
neither necessary nor convenient, is hard to imagine.
Lastly, The scorners of preaching would do well to consider that this
talent of ridicule they value so much is a perfection very easily
acquired, and applied to all things whatsoever; neither is anything at all
the worse because it is capable of being perverted to burlesque; perhaps
it may be the more perfect upon that score, since we know the most
celebrated pieces have been thus treated with greatest success. It is in
any man's power to suppose a fool's-cap on the wisest head, and then
laugh at his own supposition. I think there are not many things cheaper
than supposing and laughing; and if the uniting these two talents can
bring a thing into contempt, it is hard to know where it may end.
To conclude: These considerations may perhaps have some effect while
men are awake; but what arguments shall we use to the sleeper? What
methods shall we take to hold open his eyes? Will he be moved by
considerations of common civility? We know it is reckoned a point of
very bad manners to sleep in private company, when, perhaps, the
tedious impertinence of many talkers would render it at least as
excusable as the dullest sermon. Do they think it a small thing to watch
four hours at a play, where all virtue and religion are openly reviled;
and can they not watch one half hour to