withdraw themselves, from crowds and glitter, and pleasure, to monasteries and convents; where they engage themselves, by irrevocable vows, in certain modes of life, more or less austere, according to the several institutions; but all of them comprising many positive hardships, and all prohibiting almost all sensual gratifications. The fundamental and general principle of all monastick communities, is celibacy, poverty, and obedience to the superiour. In some, there is a perpetual abstinence from all food that may join delight with nourishment; to which, in others, is added an obligation to silence and solitude;—to suffer, to watch, and to pray, is their whole employment.
Of these, it must be confessed, that they fear always, and that they escape many temptations, to which all are exposed, and by which many fall, who venture themselves into the whirl of human affairs; they are exempt from avarice, and all its concomitants, and, by allowing themselves to possess nothing, they are free from those contests for honour and power, which fill the open world with stratagems and violence. But surely it cannot be said that they have reached the perfection of a religious life; it cannot be allowed, that flight is victory; or that he fills his place in the creation laudably, who does no ill, only because he does nothing. Those who live upon that which is produced by the labour of others, could not live, if there were none to labour; and, if celibacy could be universal, the race of man must soon have an end.
Of these recluses, it may, without uncharitable censure, be affirmed; that they have secured their innocence, by the loss of their virtue; that, to avoid the commission of some faults, they have made many duties impracticable; and that, lest they should do what they ought not to do, they leave much undone, which they ought to do. They must, however, be allowed to express a just sense of the dangers with which we are surrounded; and a strong conviction of the vigilance necessary to obtain salvation; and it is our business to avoid their errours, and imitate their piety.
