Page:History of the Royal Society.djvu/403

 may imitate Christ himself in his Method of healing Mens Bodies: Some Cures he perform'd by his Voice, some by Prayer, but some by the touch of his Hands, and even by his Spittle mingled with Earth. In a gross and sensual Age, the deepest Mysteries of our Religion may be proper to purify the Stupidity of Mens Spirits; but there must be an Application of quite different and more sensible Prescriptions, in a subtile, refined, and enthusiastical Time.

Such is the present Humour of the World; and such must be the Course of its Cure. Men must now be told, that as Religion is a heavenly Thing, so it is not utterly averse from making use of the Rules of Human Prudence: They must be inform'd, that the true Holiness is a Severity over our selves, and not others: They must be instructed, that it is not the best Service that can be done to Christianity, to place its chief Precepts so much out of the Way, as to make them unfit for Men of Business. They must remember, that the chief of the Apostles became all Things to all Men, that he might gain some. But above all, there must be Caution given, that Men do not strive to make themselves, and their own Opinions, ador'd, while they only seem zealous for the Honour of God. This is a Fault which is very incident to Men of Devotion; for when they have once form'd in themselves a perfect Model of the Will of God, and have long confirm'd their Minds by continual thinking upon it, they are apt to contemn ail others that agree not with them in some Particulars. Upon this, they have strait the reproachful Term of Atheists to cast upon them; which tho' it be a Title that ought only to be employ'd against the bold and insolent Defiers of Heaven in their Words and Actions, yet it is too frequently us'd to express Rh