The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety, Chapter 18
CHAP. XVIII. A survey of the Causes of Disputes; Sixthly, Idleness.
BUT as this over-active humour has done abundant Mischief to the Church, so is it observable, that the direct contrary has done as much, nay, which is yet stranger, the one is frequently the product of the other, and our too busie zeal, springs from our too great Idleness. How much soever this may sound like Paradox, yet both reason and experience attest the Truth of it; for we are to consider that God has put an active principle into man, which 'tis impossible so to suppress, as that there shall be a total cessation from motion: And therefore every intermitting of sober, regular actings, makes way for wild Extravagant ones; for as nature is said so vehemently to abhor vacuity, that the very inanimate bodies would forsake their specifick motions to prevent it. So when the mind is Empty, when it has no worthy and profitable speculation to Entertain it, every the most improper and preternatural Object offers its self, and importunately crouds in to fill the vacuum. This seems to have been well understood, though ill applied by Pharaoh, when he thought the Israelites proposal of Travelling into the Wilderness to their Devotions, was the Effect of their to … sure at home; and therefore encreases their tasks as the properest way of diverting their design: And in like manner we find those that treat of Politicks, insist upon the necessity of keeping the People busie, in order to which it is, that they mention the use of Mathematicks and other contemplative Sciences, to entertain the active spirits of a Nation, in demonstrating of Problemes, solving Phaenomenas, and drawing Schemes and Diagrams, who else would be practising upon the Government, making new Ideas and Platforms for the Common-wealth: And doubtless there is parity of reason in the Ecclesiastick State, which would have been at more peace, had some men found themselves other diversions.
AND this is confirm'd to us by experiment and observation of Event, for if we look into the Primitive times, we shall find that when there was a necessity of defending the common faith against Heathenism, when Christians were employed in writing apologies and vindications, there were much fewer of these intestine debates (at least such as were Metaphysical and purely National) they had their hands full of the foreign Enemy, and had the less temptation to jangle among themselves. So also when they were under the greatest storms of persecution, when the Church was most violently assaulted from without, it had the greatest Calm within. They were then incessantly employed, and busied their Thoughts in preparing for the fiery trial. Those cloudy days made them keep close at home waiting for the Bridegrooms coming, and suffer'd them not to wander abroad for those unprofitable Curiosities, which though like Oil they might nourish flame, yet would never furnish their Lamps, or gain them admission to the wedding but in the intervals, and especially after the total cessation of their calamity, when their Peace had taken them off their Vigilance, than while they slept, the Envious man had advantage to sow his Tares. Rest made them idle, Idleness made them curious, and Curiosity contentious; and those who under the Tyranny of a Nero or Domitian were in perfect harmony under the gentle pious regiment of a Constantine, grew to the greatest discord, and perhaps (besides the Divine and extraordinary supports the Church had in her greatest conflicts) this may be one of the best natural accounts, how she came to flourish most under her heaviest pressures.
BUT our observation ends not here, for besides this extraordinary importunity of thoughts, which persecuting times occasion'd, Christianity is in its frame and constitution an active State, has its standing business, and besides all accidental, a Series of determinate, constant employments, sufficient to entertain mens minds: from which we may infer, that when this is throughly adverted to, there will be few chasms of Time to be filled with foreign impertinences. And this gives a clear account how our divisions have come to grow upon us, namely, by the Neglect of practick duties, for as every age degenerated more from Primitive piety, so they advanced farther in nice enquiries and new opinions; and as the zeal of practice grew cool, so that of dispute gathered heat and vigour. So that if we consider how far our good works fall short of the first Christians, we need not wonder to see our controversies so far exceed them; that Time which was gain'd from the one, being employed in hammering and forging the other. I do not forget that I have before ranked this diversion of Christian Practice among the effects of our Contentions, and foresee it may be thought very inartificial here, to make it the cause also: But alas, its concern in them is so extravagantly great, as to have at once the relation of Child and Parent, to be both Root and Branch, Fountain and Stream, and like a circle unites in its self Beginning and End: For as it first gave birth to our quarrels, so it finally receives encrease from them. In short, our oscitant lazy piety gave vacancy for them, and they will now lend none back again, for more active duty. And as this neglect of our general calling of Christianity has been thus pernicious, so have the ill effects thereof been improved by the like ill attendance on our particular ones. We find St. Paul takes notice, that the younger widows, who deserted their own Ecclesiastical Office, grew busie-bodies in the Secular affairs of others; and sure we may with truth invert the note, and observe that those, who either desert or neglect their Secular Callings, are the most perniciously medling in Ecclesiastick matters. Did men conscientiously employ themselves in their honest occupations, their Minds would be sufficiently diverted, and it would not become the work of Artificers to make new Schemes of Doctrines or discipline; Divinity would not then pass the Yard and Loom, the Forge and Anvil, nor Preaching be taken in as an easier supplementary Trade, by those that disliked the pains of their own. But all this alas we have seen to the equal shame and detriment of Piety. Mechanicks of all sorts have presum'd to teach what themselves never learnt; and those that serv'd long Apprentiships to other Crafts, have become Divines in a moment, and with the same aemulous industry wherewith they us'd to invent new fashions, have made new Religions. And as Idleness has thus made some Preachers, so it has made more hearers, those who either by the easiness of their Callings, or their slight managery of them, have had the most vacant time, have been the aptest to run after new teachers: Hence it is that Towns and Cities have been the great nurseries of faction, the leisure of Shop-men making them more inquisitive after, and receptive of Novelties. And were that over-grown zeal of Sermons, which has now devour'd all other parts of Religion, among that sort of men throughly scanned, we should find Idleness goes very far in its composition, for besides that Hearing is the most lazy of all religious Offices, as appears by the undisturb'd sleeps men can take at Sermons; it is manifest this insatiate appetite of it, is originally founded either in the not having business, or not attending to it. For should I ask such men, whether if necessity had enforc'd St. Pauls rule upon them, that without their labour they should not eat, they would have spent their whole week at Lectures, and trusted to be fed by the Ear. I believe few could pretend to have begun with so exorbitant a zeal, though the truth is in the issue it sometimes arrives to it; and men that have itching Ears forget the rest of the body, whilest to gratifie them, they totally neglect all care of their Secular concerns, and bring Themselves and Families to want and beggary.
NOR is it only this one rank of Persons whom Idleness has betrayed to faction, Servants we have frequently seen under the same Seducement, while either having but little work, or but little diligence in it, they have found time to listen after novel doctrines, with which being once tainted, they impatiently thirst after more, and neglecting the duties of their place, spend their time, which by compact is their Masters (and can with no more justice be purloin'd from him than his goods) in following factious Teachers, who instruct them so in their Christian liberty, that they bring them to defie all subjection: And by telling them they are to call no man Master upon Earth, that they are to own no King nor Priest but Christ; teach them to contemn all Authority, Domestick, Civil or Ecclesiastick.
IF we look farther into families, we shall find also that many of our She-zealots become so upon the very same ground, when Women neglect that which St. Paul assigns them as their proper Business, the guiding of the house, their Zeal is at once the product and excuse of their Idleness; and in spight of the ill Character the Wise-man has set on her, whose feet abide not in her house, Prov. 7. 11. it becomes the mark of a Saint, when a Lecture or Conventicle is taken in the way: And though these feminine Irregularities may seem to be of no great concern to the publick, yet experience convinces the contrary; it having been the unhappy priviledge of that Sex (as ancient as their Mother Eve) to be able to do great and important mischiefs; and doubtless many men may give the same account of their Schism and Sedition, that Adam did of his first sin, The woman that thou gavest me, &c. This has always been well understood by Seducers, who have found it the most compendious way to their designs, to lead captive silly women, and make them the Duck-coys to their whole Family: But even those who have mist of this influence over the minds of their Husbands, have yet had it over their Purses, and out of them supported the Rabbies of the Faction; who in gratitude to those wise Abigails give their Husbands the title, and perhaps wish them the fate of Nabal. And God knows, how many men have thus been made contributers to the cause they have most detested, maintain'd that fire which those incendiaries have kindled in the Holy place; Money being no less the sinews of Ecclesiastical than Secular War.
THUS we see how the Idleness even of the most inconsiderable persons has at the rebound been extremely pernicious to the Church, which like a Clock or Watch may be disorder'd by the rust of the least Pin; how much more then, by that of the main wheels and springs; if Negligence in lay-callings have though but an oblique, yet so inauspicious an Influence, the like Neglect in Ecclesiastick must needs have a worse, because more immediate and direct. And would to God we could say this had been wanting to the compleating the mischief: But alas, many of those who are called to labour in the Lords Vineyard, seem to have forgot their Errand, and stand there all the day Idle (a much worse sight than to have seen them so only in the Market-place;) so that I fear there is too evident ground of saying, that the slight execution of the Pastoral Office, has been one of the most eminent Contributors to our distractions. And among all the parts of that Charge, none has been more generally, or more perniciously neglected than that of Catechizing; the want whereof has left People so unbottom'd, that like a house built on the sand, every Wind of Doctrine blows down that Faith which they only profest, but understood not. This is that which has made so many unstable Souls, as St. Peter observes, 2 Pet. 2. 14. to be the proper prey of Deceivers. And God knows, we may from sad experiment confirm the note. I wish the same negligence do not again evidence its self by the same effects: But besides this, which is part of the Publick Ministry, (and deservedly is so, being useful to the whole Church, the aged as well as children) there are private Intercourses between Pastor and People which are of great use, would God they were of equal practice: We know a careful Shepherd does not only turn his flock into a common Pasture, and then think he has done his work, but does with a particular advertence observe the thriving of every one of them, takes notice of their single strayings and diseases, and accordingly applies himself to reduce or cure them, and surely the like care is full as necessary in the spiritual Shepherd, 'tis not the counsel which is promiscuously dispenced in a Sermon (and whereof 'tis odds every man takes that which is least proper for him) that will do the business: Converts come not in now as in St. Peters days, in throngs and shoals, a more distinct and particular application is now necessary; men must be treated with apart, their particular wants discern'd, and applications accordingly made of instructions, reproof or comfort, and 'tis these appropriate Medicines, that are like to make sound flocks. Had Ministers generally bestowed more pains this way, they might probably have frustrated the attempts of Seducers, who could not so easily have insinuated themselves into the people, had they found them thus prepossest: but while these with all the arts of a subtile industry infuse their poysons into every one they meet, nothing but the like diligence in administring Antidotes, is like to countermine them. How much of that has been us'd I shall leave to the Consciences of concern'd persons to determine. But besides the ill influence the Pastors negligence has on the People, it has in respect of themselves an immediate propriety to the advancing our debates, the leisure which is thus acquir'd, being apt to betray speculative persons, to the study of those curious questions, which are the great disturbers of our Peace; and of those that study them so few keep themselves in neutrality, that parties are still fomented by it: whereas were the practical business of their Charge throughly attended, the remainder of time would not be more than the study of the more solid, useful parts of Divinity would exact, and consequently there would no surplus be left for those dangerous impertinencies, which as the Apostle says, serve to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers, 2 Tim. 2. 14. But when our Watchmen sleep, 'tis no marvail if they dream too, and entertain themselves and others with those Phantastick notions, which the great day will manifest to have had nothing of weight and reality, besides the Mischiefs they wrought.
AND indeed if we scan the volumes of those vain Speculations, we shall have cause to conclude that Idleness has created as well as fomented them; and they had as well wanted Authors as abettors, had men found themselves more useful business: and that not only the extemporary Chimoera's of Phanaticks, but the more elaborate nicities of the Schools, have been thus derived: we know Air possesses no place, where it first finds not a vacuity, nor could those lighter notions, have filled mens brains, had they found them prepossest with what was more solid: but when men wanted more substantial work for their Understandings, they were fain to employ them thus in making Cob-webs, of which they have made a worse sort of Iewish veil in the Sanctuary, and have now involved the Gospel in greater Obscurities, than the Law, was before: whence our Bezaleels and Aholiabs have been inspir'd for this work I shall not determine; but sure not from him whose Character S. Iohn gives us (in peculiar reference to gospel revelation) that he is light, and in him is no darkness at all, 1 Jo. 1. 5.
THUS we see even Idleness wants not its operation; but is productive of great and mischievous effects; it being the unhappy property of that Vice, that it supplants its Self, and by a fatal Antiperistasis makes men perniciously active: so that we may truly say sloth has made more Business than industry. I am sure in this instance it has cut out work for many ages, though of such a kind, that we have little reason to wish that our Lord at his coming should find us so doing: yet for ought now appears, our activity is so wholly bent that way, that 'tis like to be the only, at least the most intense business we shall be found at.
I MIGHT here take a very apt occasion to declame against Idleness, as the unhappy fountain of so great mischiefs, but that is a vice that has been so often arraign'd, that I need not repeat those charges which all Authors, Natural, Moral and Divine have laid against it. Let but this of its being the Original of faction be added, and there can be nothing wanting to render it a most dangerous crime: yea, and a most monstrous one too, that operates thus preternaturally, that freezes and yet inflames men at once, stupifies and enrages: And yet alas, there is as much riddle in its fate as its nature; 'tis hated, and yet embraced; generally decried, and yet as generally cherished: and though it have no advocates, has many friends. Would God men would at last be ashamed to be what they are asham'd to own, and by a diligent attendance on their proper business, secure themselves first from doing nothing, and then from doing ill; the one being so close an Attendant on the other, that 'tis scarce possible to sever them. And God knows the Church finds too sad proof of their connection. Idleness having serv'd as Ashes to keep alive that fire which has set her in combustion. Thus unhappily passive is she in our disorders, and accessary to all our Guilts and Punishments: All our peccant humors concur to her disease, and like a common mark she receives arrows from all Quarters, we have seen how many Contributers there are to her ruine, every one whereof with a wanton cruelty (like Caesar's murderers) are ambitious to inflict new wounds, and to give her Supernumerary deaths; and whilest she is thus surrounded with Assassines, what can we expect but that her present languishings should End in death. That Christian Religion now crumbled into so many minute fractions, should like dust be scatter'd, and irrecoverably dissipated, and thus infallibly it must be, if either God do not miraculously countermine us, and do more for us than we can do against our selves, or we recover so much sobriety, as to forbear to Massacre what we pretend to Love, and endeavour to bind up those wounds at which our own Souls are like to Expire.