The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety, Chapter 20
CHAP. XX. The Close.
WE have now seen the unhappy riddle of the Unchristianness of Christians unfolded, have observ'd the Originals and Causes of That which is too notorious to all the world in its Effects. And though in this cursory view the Reader is not to think he has any such compleat discovery, as should supersede his own farther inquisition, yet as it may serve to awaken, so somewhat to assist his Industry, give him some light and insight into the wiles of Satan: and by branding some of the chief of those cheats which have robb'd us of our Piety, prepare for the detection of the whole Confederacy: in the interim this Specimen may serve to stop his wonder at the ruinous estate of Christianity, for though 'tis true that it was compacted of all the most incorruptible materials, had all the harmony of parts which the most exact Frame and Composure could give it, and so was qualified both for strength and beauty, to have defied all the injuries of Time; yet while she has so many Underminers, 'tis not strange to see her in the dust, there being no one of these, especially that I last insisted on, which has not destructive efficacy enough; first to deface, and then to ruine her.
BUT it is but an unprofitable acquest to know the Authors of our mischiefs if we stop there, this enquiry being matter not of meer Curiosity, but of the nearest and most pressing Interest: we search not after Malefactors for their acquaintance, but for their punishment, and our own security; and all our discoveries of this kind are vain, if we apply them not to that purpose. Let me therefore conclude with this earnest Petition to the Reader, That he will not to all the native Defects of this discourse, add this accidental one that it shall be perfectly impertinent; a meer waste of his Time and my own; which it will inevitably prove, if it engage him not in an earnest prosecution of those Delinquents it hath appeacht; and in as earnest an endeavour to repair the Mischiefs they have wrought.
IN short, let every man deposit what he has here read, not with his memory only but his conscience, let him there seriously ponder the Excellency of that holy vocation, as S. Paul terms it, Eph. 4. 1. to which he is call'd: and then as seriously consider, whether he have as the Apostle there exhorts, walked worthy of it; if he find he have not (as alas who is there that has?) let him search out as the particulars, so the causes of his Miscarriages: diligently sift out those Fallacies of Satan, or his own heart; those sly Delusions which have made him act thus preposterously against all the Convictions of common reason, natural conscience, or Christian experience; and when he has discovered, let him make no delay to rescue himself from their Treacheries, but manfully break those withs and cords (which are too weak to hold any that will but in earnest remember, he is a Nazarite, a Person consecrate to God) resolutely resist the insidious caresses of those Dalilah's, which will deliver not Himself only, but the Ark to the Philistines. Nor is he to content himself with his own single escape, but to propagate the deliverance, to as many as he can; let him blazon and stigmatize those Imposters (for 'tis a combining with them to conceal them) warn and caution others against those jugling Artifices, by which himself was entrapped, and make his own ship-wracks a Sea-mark for the securing the course of other Passengers. This is the Effect of Christs admonition to S. Peter, when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren; and a piece of that Fraternal charity we all owe to every particular Soul, to whom we have opportunity to dispence it.
BUT besides that private Obligation, it becomes a duty upon a higher, and more publick Account, it being the only way to take off that Scandal we have brought upon our Religion; which as it was not contracted by the irregularities of one or two persons, but by associated and common crimes; so neither will it be removed by a few single, and private Reformations; there must be combinations, and publick Confederacies in Vertue, to ballance and counterpoise those of Vice, or she will never recover that pristine honour which she acquired by the general Piety of her Professors. In those primitive days there was such an abhorrence of all that was Ill, that a vicious person was lookt on as a kind of Monster or Prodigie, and like a putrified Member cut off, as being not only dangerous, but noisome to the Body: but alas, the Scene is so chang'd, that the Church is now made up of such as she would then have cast out; and 'tis now as remarkable an Occurrent to find a good Christian, as it was there to see a bad: and since every thing is estimated not according to its rare and casual, but frequent usual Operations, 'tis easie to conclude, that Christianity has lost as much in its Repute, as it appears to have done in its Efficacy: nor will there be any way of repairing it, till We be generally rendred so malleable to its impressions, that our Lives may attest its Force and Energy.
NAY indeed 'tis not only its honour, but its being is concern'd in it, active Principles cease to be when they cease to act. You cannot hinder the fire to burn but by putting it out: and to suppress the Operation of our Religion is indeed to extinguish it; at least to deprive it of its proper and specifick act: so that if it can be said to be; 'tis only by that abuse of speech which calls a dead or painted man, a Man: It may perhaps be a vizor for the Hypocrite, a Stale for the Ambitious, a wash or tincture for the Covetous; but where it is these, it ceases to be its self. The essence and being of Christianity is practice; and according to that Test and proof thereof, where almost can it be said to Exist in the world? we have indeed some images and shadows of it: Some have taken its picture, but the substance and solid body is vanished, resolv'd into Air, and seems sadly to have moraliz'd the poetick Fable of Sybills being worn into a voice, we have turn'd it into a meer noise and sound; nay, which is worse, into an Eccho, that flattering complying voice, which reverberates every mans own language to him: Men dictate to their Religion, and then will needs perswade themselves and others, that their Religion dictates to them, will have the rebounds of their own Fancy or Lust pass for Divine Oracles; so suborning this Aiery fantastick Christianity to legitimate those practices, which the real solid one forbids and Execrates.
To this dismal forlorn estate have we brought that which was designed to bring us to bliss, herein far exceeding the barbarity of the brutish Sodomites, they would have violated the Messengers of their ruine, but we those of our safety: We having not only neglected, but vilified and reproacht the Embassy sent us from Heaven, and instead of embracing that purity and peace it recommended to us, have done our Parts to make it forgotten that ever it was sent upon any such Errand; and indeed so it is like to be, if some Heroick piety do not revive its Memory, and teach us to record it not so much in our books as lives: There, and there only it will be universally legible, there it would indeed appear, what it is in its own nature, the power of God unto Salvation.
AND now why should we not all Emulously contend, who shall first put off that ugly vizor we have put upon our Religion, and restore it to its native form; especially considering that with its Beauty we lose its Dowry too; forfeit all those glorious Rewards which it promises to them that preserve it immaculate. 'Tis only a pure and undefiled Religion that will invest us in those white robes, wherein we are to follow the Lamb. And sure those who have here endeavoured to darken and extinguish all the rays of Spiritual Light, that have lived as if they profest Christianity meerly in spight to defame it, must never hope it shall bring them to shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father, or procure them the reward of blameless Souls. No, it promises no other Crown than that of Righteousness, and therefore they that want the Righteousness must want the Crown also: Nay, besides that so inestimable a Reversion, they lose all those present Joys and satisfactions which true Christian practice would afford them, and which both in respect of the intenseness and duration, infinitely exceed the most profuse sensualities the World ever tasted.
THESE are interests that are sure Important enough, and yet we must be woed to consider them, nay, that does not prevail neither, but with a perverse Coyness we hold off; all the solicitations and importunate Calls of God are lookt upon as Artifices and Designs, as if he had some Ends of his own to serve upon us, and (as the Corinthians suspected St. Paul) meant to make a gain of us; we treat with him as if he were the Person to be advantaged, and barter for Heaven with such an Indifference, as if it would want Us more than We It; never considering that 'tis impossible for him to have any other Concern, than that which his Compassion to us creates, and the more earnest and passionate That is, the more it should excite our own care, it being the Extremest degree of perverse Folly, to abandon and despise our own Interest meerly because a Friend or Patron considers and prizes it. And this brand must lye upon every one of us, who still refuse to discern the things that belong to our Peace, after God has done so much to render them not only visible but attainable.
WHAT shall I say more, but conclude with Christs passionate wish, that we might in this our day, understand the things that belong to our Peace, and O that the Spirit of Peace and Light would descend among us, illuminate us with that true practical Wisdom, which may convince us, that our Duty and Interest are the same thing under several forms, and that while we impiously cast off the one, we do as foolishly betray the other. That so those inestimable advantages our Christianity gives towards both, may not be thus madly lost, serve only as a price in the hand of a Fool, who hath no heart to it, Prov. 17. And to this end let us humbly and earnestly invoke the Father of lights, to illuminate all those whom the God of this world hath blinded, that after he hath sent into the world the Image of his own eternal brightness; caused the Sun of Righteousness so long to shine upon us, it may not serve only to involve us in that most dreadful condemnation, which awaits those who love darkness more than light; but that answering the purpose of our holy calling, walking as Children of light, we may vindicate that Christian profession which we have so defamed, secure to our selves the light of Gods countenance here, and that of his glory hereafter.
FINIS.
ERRATA.
PAge 12. Line 19. for taught Read sought, p. 97. l. 9. for diverts r. divests, p. 99. l. 7. for insiduous r. insidious, p. 105. l. 27. for them r. him, p. 114. l. 14. for one r. own, p. 118. l. 6. for owes r. owns, p. 164. l. 27. for assimulation r. assimilation, p. 165. l. 17. for shouls r. shoals, p. 171. l. 16. for avow r. disavow.
End of the text · Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety (1667)