CHAPTER XXXI – 14. Useless history and news to be denied
wrath: vengeance is mine, and I will repay, saith the Lord. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good;" 1 Pet. 2:21. 23. 1
Thess. 4:6. Rom. 12:19.
CHAPTER XXXI
New, Vain Histories, and other Men's Matters, &c.
14. ANOTHER piece of carnal pleasure to be denied, is the delight men have in reading unprofitable histories, and hearing news that do not concern us, and meddling with other men's matters where we have no call.
With some fancies this is a notable part of carnal delight: many school-boys, and young effeminate wits, are as much poisoned and carried away with reading romances, feigned histories, and talebooks, and play-books, as by almost any piece of sensuality. O, the precious hours that have been lost upon this trash and trumpery! but of this I spoke before: that which now I speak is, even true history and reports, as matter of mere news, to please a busy, ranging mind.
History is a very profitable study, if it be used for right ends, and be rightly chosen. It is a very great help to understand the Scriptures, and to know the former and present state of the church; and see the wonderful works of providence, that otherwise would be as lost to us.
It is not fit that the wondrous works of God should die with those that have seen them, and not be transmitted to posterity. God should have the honour of his glorious works from generation to generation, and how shall that be if all be forgotten? He that knoweth nothing of any age but that which he lives in, is as foolish as he that knows nothing of any country or town but that which he lives in. Some
history is essential to our faith, and much more is integral to it; and yet much more is very serviceable to it. He that hath not some competent acquaintance with Church history, will be at great disadvantages in the holding and defending his faith itself against an infidel, or the purity of religion against a papist. And he that knoweth not the present state of the world, and of the church through the world, doth scarce know how to order his affections, or compose his prayers even in those greatest petitions, about the honour, and kingdom, and will of God. They cannot grieve with the church in grief, nor mourn with it when it mourns; so that it is a great duty of a Christian to labour to understand by history the former and present state of the church: and it is a great mark of a gracious soul that longs to hear of the prosperity of the saints and free progress of the Gospel; and a mark of a graceless person that careth not for these things.
But when history is not used to acquaint us with the matters of God, or to furnish us with useful knowledge, but to please a ranging, carnal mind, then it is but sinful sensuality or vanity. Many persons have no such delight to read the useful history of church affairs, as they have to read the curiously penned, though less useful history of other matters. Though I know that the history of the whole world is very serviceable to the knowledge of divine things, yet they that use it to holy ends will make choice accordingly, and be no more in it than may suit with those ends. It is the most human, with the most light, ridiculous passages, that are most pleasing to vain unsanctified wits; but the godly delight in it so far as it shows them something of God, and leadeth them to him. In the very reading of Scripture, a carnal reader may be much pleased with the history, that hath no savour in the doctrine, but is weary to read it: and yet I must add this caution