to subsist by themselves : for they put an eternal constraint upon Nature; take off from Religion what’s comfortable in it, and put in its place Fear, Pain, and Despair. The Jansenists, endeavouring to make all men Saints, do not find ten in a whole Kingdom, to make such Christians as they would have them. Christianity is divine : but they are Men that embrace it; and therefore we must, by all means, calculate every thing for human capacities. Too austere a Philosophy makes few wise men; too rigorous Politicks, few good subjects; too hard a Religion, few religious Persons whose devotion is of long continuance. Nothing can be lasting, which does not suit with Nature. GRACE, of which we talk so much, suits it self with it : for God makes use of the docility of our minds, and of the tenderness of our hearts, to make himself belov’d. ’Tis certain, that too rigid Divines raise a greater aversion against themselves, than against sins. The penance they preach up, makes people prefer the easiness of continuing in vice, before the difficulties that attend the getting out of it.
"The other extreme appears to me equally vicious. If I hate morose people, who make a sin of every thing, I hate no less those easy and complaisant Teachers, who make a sin of nothing; who countenance the depravation of nature; and become secret favourers of immorality. The Gospel, in their hands, is more indulgent than Morals; and Religion, when manag’d by them, does not so strongly oppose vice, as Reason does. I love learned honest men, who make a sound judgment of our actions; who seriously exhort us to the good : and, as far as in them lies, dissuade us from the bad. I would have them know the true difference of things, by a just and nice
