Book: The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D. D., Volume IV:

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I have already observed, that those who preach up the belief of the
Trinity, or of any other mystery, cannot propose any temporal advantage
to themselves by so doing. But this is not the case of those who oppose
these doctrines. Do _they_ lead better moral lives than a good
Christian? Are _they_ more just in their dealings? more chaste, or
temperate, or charitable? Nothing at all of this; but on the contrary,
their intent is to overthrow all religion, that they may gratify their
vices without any reproach from the world, or their own conscience: and
are zealous to bring over as many others as they can to their own
opinions; because it is some kind of imaginary comfort to have a
multitude on their side.

There is no miracle mentioned in Holy Writ, which, if it were strictly
examined, is not as much, contrary to common reason, and as much a
mystery, as this doctrine of the Trinity; and therefore we may, with
equal justice deny the truth of them all. For instance: It is against
the laws of nature, that a human body should be able to walk upon the
water, as St Peter is recorded to have done; or that a dead carcass
should be raised from the grave after three days, when it began to be
corrupted; which those who understand anatomy will pronounce to be
impossible by the common rules of nature and reason. Yet these miracles,
and many others, are positively affirmed in the Gospel; and these we
must believe, or give up our holy religion to atheists and infidels.

I shall now make a few inferences and observations upon what has been
said.

_First_: It would be well, if people would not lay so much weight on
their own reason in matters of religion, as to think everything
impossible and absurd which they cannot conceive. How often do we
contradict the right rules of reason in the whole course of our lives!
Reason itself is true and just, but the reason of every particular man
is weak and wavering, perpetually swayed and turned by his interests,
his passions, and his vices. Let any man but consider, when he hath a
controversy with another, although his cause be ever so unjust, although
the world be against him, how blinded he is by the love of himself, to
believe that right is wrong, and wrong is right, when it maketh for his
own advantage. Where is then the right use of his reason, which he so
much boasts of, and which he would blasphemously set up to control the
commands of the Almighty?

_Secondly_: When men are tempted to deny the mysteries of religion, let
them examine and search into their own hearts, whether they have not
some favourite sin which is of their party in this dispute, and which is
equally contrary to other commands of God in the Gospel. For, why do men
love darkness rather than light? The Scripture tells us, "Because their
deeds are evil;" and there can be no other reason assigned. Therefore
when men are curious and inquisitive to discover some weak sides in
Christianity, and inclined to favour everything that is offered to its
disadvantage; it is plain they wish it were not true, and those wishes
can proceed from nothing but an evil conscience; because, if there be
truth in our religion, their condition must be miserable.

And therefore, _Thirdly_: Men should consider, that raising difficulties
concerning the mysteries in religion, cannot make them more wise,
learned, or virtuous; better neighbours, or friends, or more serviceable
to their country; but, whatever they pretend, will destroy their inward
peace of mind, by perpetual doubts and fears arising in their breasts.
And, God forbid we should ever see the times so bad, when dangerous
opinions in religion will be a means to get favour and preferment;
although, even in such a case, it would be an ill traffic, to gain the
world, and lose our own souls. So, that upon the whole, it will be
impossible to find any real use toward a virtuous or happy life, by
denying the mysteries of the Gospel.

_Fourthly_: Those strong unbelievers, who expect that all mysteries
should be squared and fitted to their own reason, might have somewhat to
say for themselves, if they could satisfy the general reason of mankind
in their opinions: But herein they are miserably defective, absurd, and
ridiculous; they strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel; they can believe
that the world was made by chance; that God doth not concern himself
with things below; will neither punish vice, nor reward virtue; that
religion was invented by cunning men to keep the world in awe; with many
other opinions equally false and detestable, against the common light of
nature as well as reason; against the universal sentiments of all
civilized nations, and offensive to the ears even of a sober heathen.

_Lastly_: Since the world abounds with pestilent books particularly
against this doctrine of the Trinity; it is fit to inform you, that the
authors of them proceed wholly upon a mistake: They would shew how
impossible it is that three can be one, and one can be three; whereas
the Scripture saith no such thing, at least in that manner they would
make it: but, only, that there is some kind of unity and distinction in
the divine nature, which mankind cannot possibly comprehend: thus, the
whole doctrine is short and plain, and in itself incapable of any
controversy: since God himself hath pronounced the fact, but wholly
concealed the manner. And therefore many divines, who thought fit to
answer those wicked books, have been mistaken too, by answering fools in
their folly; and endeavouring to explain a mystery, which God intended
to keep secret from us. And, as I would exhort all men to avoid reading
those wicked books written against this doctrine, as dangerous and
pernicious; so I think they may omit the answers, as unnecessary. This I
confess will probably affect but few or none among the generality of our
congregations, who do not much trouble themselves with books, at least
of this kind. However, many who do not read themselves, are seduced by
others that do; and thus become unbelievers upon trust and at
second-hand; and this is too frequent a case: for which reason I have
endeavoured to put this doctrine upon a short and sure foot, levelled to
the meanest understanding; by which we may, as the apostle directs, be
ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh us a reason of
the hope that is in us, with meekness and fear.

And, thus I have done with my subject, which probably I should not have
chosen, if I had not been invited to it by the occasion of this season,
appointed on purpose to celebrate the mysteries of the Trinity, and the
descent of the Holy Ghost, wherein we pray to be kept stedfast in this
faith; and what this faith is I have shewn you in the plainest manner I
could. For, upon the whole, it is no more than this: God commandeth us,
by our dependence upon His truth, and His Holy Word, to believe a fact
that we do not understand. And, this is no more than what we do every
day in the works of nature, upon the credit of men of learning. Without
faith we can do no works acceptable to God; for, if they proceed from
any other principle, they will not advance our salvation; and this
faith, as I have explained it, we may acquire without giving up our
senses, or contradicting our reason. May God of his infinite mercy
inspire us with true faith in every article and mystery of our holy
religion, so as to dispose us to do what is pleasing in his sight; and
this we pray through Jesus Christ, to whom, with the Father and the Holy
Ghost, the mysterious, incomprehensible ONE GOD, be all honour and glory
now and for evermore! _Amen_.




ON BROTHERLY LOVE.[1]

[Footnote: 1 Notwithstanding the text and title of this sermon, and the
many excellent observations which it contains in illustration of both,
there are several passages in it which the dissenters of the time would
hardly consider as propitiatory towards the continuance of brotherly
love. There are also various allusions to the parties which raged at the
time, and some which appear to have been written in defence of the
preacher's character, then severely arraigned by the Irish Whigs, and
held in abhorrence by the people of Dublin, by whom he was afterwards
idolized. [S.]]


HEB. XIII. I.

"Let brotherly love continue."


In the early times of the Gospel, the Christians were very much
distinguished from all other bodies of men, by the great and constant
love they bore to each other; which, although it was done in obedience
to the frequent injunctions of our Saviour and his apostles, yet, I
confess, there seemeth to have been likewise a natural reason, that very
much promoted it. For the Christians then were few and scattered, living
under persecution by the heathens round about them, in whose hands was
all the civil and military power; and there is nothing so apt to unite
the minds and hearts of men, or to beget love and tenderness, as a
general distress. The first dissensions between Christians took their
beginning from the errors and heresies that arose among them; many of
those heresies, sometimes extinguished, and sometimes reviving, or
succeeded by others, remain to this day; and having been made
instruments to the pride, avarice, or ambition, of ill-designing men, by
extinguishing brotherly love, have been the cause of infinite
calamities, as well as corruptions of faith and manners, in the
Christian world.

The last legacy of Christ was peace and mutual love; but then he
foretold, that he came to send a sword upon the earth: The primitive
Christians accepted the legacy, and their successors down to the present
age have been largely fulfilling his prophecy. But whatever the practice
of mankind hath been, or still continues, there is no duty more
incumbent upon those who profess the Gospel, than that of brotherly
love; which, whoever could restore in any degree among men, would be an
instrument of more good to human society, than ever was, or will be,
done by all the statesmen and politicians in the world.

It is upon this subject of brotherly love, that I intend to discourse at
present, and the method I observe shall be as follows:--

I. _First_, I will inquire into the causes of this great want of
brotherly love among us.

II. _Secondly_, I will lay open the sad effects and consequences, which
our animosities and mutual hatred have produced.

III. _Lastly_, I will use some motives and exhortations, that may
persuade you to embrace brotherly love, and continue in it.


I. _First_, I shall enquire into the causes of this great want of
brotherly love among us.

This nation of ours hath, for an hundred years past, been infested by
two enemies, the Papists and fanatics, who, each in their turns, filled
it with blood and slaughter, and, for a time, destroyed both the Church
and government. The memory of these events hath put all true Protestants
equally upon their guard against both these adversaries, who, by
consequence, do equally hate us. The fanatics revile us, as too nearly
approaching to Popery; and the Papists condemn us, as bordering too much
on fanaticism. The Papists, God be praised, are, by the wisdom of our
laws, put out of all visible possibility of hurting us; besides, their
religion is so generally abhorred, that they have no advocates or
abettors among Protestants to assist them. But the fanatics are to be
considered in another light; they have had of late years the power, the
luck, or the cunning, to divide us among ourselves; they have
endeavoured to represent all those who have been so bold as to oppose
their errors and designs, under the character of persons disaffected to
the government; and they have so far succeeded, that, now-a-days, if a
clergyman happens to preach with any zeal and vehemence against the sin
and danger of schism, there will not want too many, in his congregation,
ready enough to censure him as hot and high-flying, an inflamer of men's
minds, an enemy to moderation, and disloyal to his prince. This hath
produced a formed and settled division between those who profess the
same doctrine and discipline; while they who call themselves moderate
are forced to widen their bottom, by sacrificing their principles and
their brethren to the encroachments and insolence of dissenters, who are
therefore answerable, as a principal cause of all that hatred and
animosity now reigning among us.

Another cause of the great want of brotherly love is the weakness and
folly of too many among you of the lower sort, who are made the tools
and instruments of your betters to work their designs, wherein you have
no concern. Your numbers make you of use, and cunning men take the
advantage, by putting words into your mouths, which you do not
understand; then they fix good or ill characters to those words, as it
best serves their purposes: And thus you are taught to love or hate, you
know not what or why; you often suspect your best friends, and nearest
neighbours, even your teacher himself, without any reason, if your
leaders once taught you to call him by a name, which they tell you
signifieth some very bad thing.

A third cause of our great want of brotherly love seemeth to be, that
this duty is not so often insisted on from the pulpit, as it ought to be
in such times as these; on the contrary, it is to be doubted, whether
doctrines are not sometimes delivered by an ungoverned zeal, a desire to
be distinguished, or a view of interest, which produce quite different
effects; when, upon occasions set apart to return thanks to God for some
public blessing, the time is employed in stirring up one part of the
congregation against the other, by representations of things and
persons, which God, in his mercy, forgive those who are guilty of.

The last cause I shall mention of the want of brotherly love is, that
unhappy disposition towards politics among the trading people, which has
been industriously instilled into them. In former times, the middle and
lower sorts of mankind seldom gained or lost by the factions of the
kingdom, and therefore were little concerned in them, further than as
matter of talk and amusement; but now the meanest dealer will expect to
turn the penny by the merits of his party. He can represent his
neighbour as a man of dangerous principles, can bring a railing
accusation against him, perhaps a criminal one, and so rob him of his
livelihood, and find his own account by that much more than if he had
disparaged his neighbour's goods, or defamed him as a cheat. For so it
happens, that, instead of enquiring into the skill or honesty of those
kind of people, the manner is now to enquire into their party, and to
reject or encourage them accordingly; which proceeding hath made our
people, in general, such able politicians, that all the artifice,
flattery, dissimulation, diligence, and dexterity, in undermining each
other, which the satirical wit of men hath charged upon courts; together
with all the rage and violence, cruelty and injustice, which have been
ever imputed to public assemblies; are with us (so polite are we grown)
to be seen among our meanest traders and artificers in the greatest
perfection. All which, as it may be matter of some humiliation to the
wise and mighty of this world, so the effects thereof may, perhaps, in
time, prove very different from what, I hope in charity, were ever
foreseen or intended.

II. I will therefore now, in the second place, lay open some of the sad
effects and consequences which our animosities and mutual hatred have
produced.

And the first ill consequence is, that our want of brotherly love hath
almost driven out all sense of religion from among us, which cannot well
be otherwise; for since our Saviour laid so much weight upon his
disciples loving one another, that he gave it among his last
instructions; and since the primitive Christians are allowed to have
chiefly propagated the faith by their strict observance of that
instruction, it must follow that, in proportion as brotherly love
declineth, Christianity will do so too. The little religion there is in
the world, hath been observed to reside chiefly among the middle and
lower sorts of people, who are neither tempted to pride nor luxury by
great riches, nor to desperate courses by extreme poverty: And truly I,
upon that account, have thought it a happiness, that those who are under
my immediate care are generally of that condition; but where party hath
once made entrance, with all its consequences of hatred, envy,
partiality, and virulence, religion cannot long keep its hold in any
state or degree of life whatsoever. For, if the great men of the world
have been censured in all ages for mingling too little religion with
their politics, what a havoc of principles must they needs make in
unlearned and irregular heads; of which indeed the effects are already
too visible and melancholy all over the kingdom!

Another ill consequence from our want of brotherly love is, that it
increaseth the insolence of the fanatics; and this partly ariseth from a
mistaken meaning of the word moderation; a word which hath been much
abused, and bandied about for several years past. There are too many
people indifferent enough to all religion; there are many others, who
dislike the clergy, and would have them live in poverty and dependence;
both these sorts are much commended by the fanatics for moderate men,
ready to put an end to our divisions, and to make a general union among
Protestants. Many ignorant well-meaning people are deceived by these
appearances, strengthened with great pretences to loyalty: and these
occasions the fanatics lay hold on, to revile the doctrine and
discipline of the Church, and even insult and oppress the clergy
wherever their numbers or favourers will bear them out; insomuch, that
one wilful refractory fanatic hath been able to disturb a whole parish
for many years together. But the most moderate and favoured divines dare
not own, that the word moderation, with respect to the dissenters, can
be at all applied to their religion, but is purely personal or
prudential. No good man repineth at the liberty of conscience they
enjoy; and, perhaps a very moderate divine may think better of their
loyalty than others do; or, to speak after the manner of men, may think
it necessary, that all Protestants should be united against the common
enemy; or out of discretion, or other reasons best known to himself, be
tender of mentioning them at all. But still the errors of the dissenters
are all fixed and determined, and must, upon demand, be acknowledged by
all the divines of our church, whether they be called, in party phrase,
high or low, moderate or violent. And further, I believe it would be
hard to find many moderate divines, who, if their opinion were asked
whether dissenters should be trusted with power, could, according to
their consciences, answer in the affirmative; from whence it is plain,
that all the stir which the fanatics have made with this word
moderation, was only meant to increase our divisions, and widen them so
far as to make room for themselves to get in between. And this is the
only scheme they ever had (except that of destroying root and branch)
for the uniting of Protestants, they so much talk of.

I shall mention but one ill consequence more, which attends our want of
brotherly love; that it hath put an end to all hospitality and
friendship, all good correspondence and commerce between mankind. There
are indeed such things as leagues and confederacies among those of the
same party; but surely God never intended that men should be so limited
in the choice of their friends: However, so it is in town and country,
in every parish and street; the pastor is divided from his flock, the
father from his son, and the house often divided against itself. Men's
very natures are soured, and their passions inflamed, when they meet in
party clubs, and spend their time in nothing else but railing at the
opposite side; thus every man alive among us is encompassed with a
million of enemies of his own country, among which his oldest
acquaintance and friends, and kindred themselves, are often of the
number; neither can people of different parties mix together without
constraint, suspicion, or jealousy, watching every word they speak, for
fear of giving offence, or else falling into rudeness and reproaches,
and so leaving themselves open to the malice and corruption of
informers, who were never more numerous or expert in their trade. And as
a further addition to this evil, those very few, who, by the goodness
and generosity of their nature, do in their own hearts despise this
narrow principle of confining their friendship and esteem, their charity
and good offices, to those of their own party, yet dare not discover
their good inclinations, for fear of losing their favour and interest.
And others again, whom God had formed with mild and gentle dispositions,
think it necessary to put a force upon their own tempers, by acting a
noisy, violent, malicious part, as a means to be distinguished. Thus hath
party got the better of the very genius and constitution of our people;
so that whoever reads the character of the English in former ages, will
hardly believe their present posterity to be of the same nation or
climate.

III. I shall now, in the last place, make use of some motives and
exhortations, that may persuade you to embrace brotherly love, and
continue in it. Let me apply myself to you of the lower sort, and desire
you will consider, when any of you make use of fair and enticing words
to draw in customers, whether you do it for their sakes or your own. And
then, for whose sakes do you think it is, that your leaders are so
industrious to put into your heads all that party rage and virulence? Is
it not to make you the tools and instruments, by which they work out
their own designs? Has this spirit of faction been useful to any of you
in your worldly concerns, except to those who have traded in whispering,
backbiting, or informing, and wanted skill or honesty to thrive by
fairer methods? It is no business of yours to inquire, who is at the
head of armies, or of councils, unless you had power and skill to
choose, neither of which is ever likely to be your case; and therefore
to fill your heads with fears, and hatred of persons and things, of
which it is impossible you can ever make a right judgment, or to set you
at variance with your neighbour, because his thoughts are not the same
as yours, is not only in a very gross manner to cheat you of your time
and quiet, but likewise to endanger your souls.

_Secondly_: In order to restore brotherly love, let me earnestly exhort
you to stand firm in your religion; I mean, the true religion hitherto
established among us, without varying in the least either to Popery on
the one side, or to fanaticism on the other; and in a particular manner
beware of that word, moderation; and believe it, that your neighbour is
not immediately a villain, a Papist, and a traitor, because the fanatics
and their adherents will not allow him to be a moderate man.

Nay, it is very probable, that your teacher himself may be a loyal,
pious, and able divine, without the least grain of moderation, as the
word is too frequently understood. Therefore, to set you right in this
matter, I will lay before you the character of a truly moderate man, and
then I will give you the description of such a one as falsely pretendeth
to that title.

A man truly moderate is steady in the doctrine and discipline of the
Church, but with a due Christian charity to all who dissent from it out
of a principle of conscience; the freedom of which, he thinketh, ought
to be fully allowed, as long as it is not abused, but never trusted with
power. He is ready to defend with his life and fortune the Protestant
succession, and the Protestant established faith, against all invaders
whatsoever. He is for giving the Crown its just prerogative, and the
people their just liberties. He hateth no man for differing from him in
political opinions; nor doth he think it a maxim infallible, that virtue
should always attend upon favour, and vice upon disgrace. These are some
few lineaments in the character of a truly moderate man; let us now
compare it with the description of one who usually passeth under that
title.

A moderate man, in the new meaning of the word, is one to whom all
religion is indifferent; who although he denominates himself of the
Church, regardeth it no more than a conventicle. He perpetually raileth
at the body of the clergy, with exceptions only to a very few, who, he
hopeth, and probably upon false grounds, are as ready to betray their
rights and properties as himself. He thinketh the power of the people
can never be too great, nor that of the prince too little; and yet this
very notion he publisheth, as his best argument, to prove him a most
loyal subject. Every opinion in government, that differeth in the least
from his, tendeth directly to Popery, slavery, and rebellion. Whoever
lieth under the frown of power, can, in his judgment, neither have
common sense, common honesty, nor religion. Lastly, his devotion
consisteth in drinking gibbets, confusion, and damnation[1]; in
profanely idolizing the memory of one dead prince,[2] and ungratefully
trampling upon the ashes of another.[3]

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