The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety, Chapter 15
CHAP. XV. A survey of the Causes of Disputes; Thirdly, Interest.
BUT besides these two, there is a third Fomenter of divisions, which either for its activity or success must not subscribe to either of them, and that is Interest. This is the great Idol to which the world bows: To this we pay our devoutest homage, give it not only our knees, but our hearts; and as if the making us rich were a second Creation, that could cancel all the obligations of the first: We sacrilegiously entitle our profit to all the Prerogatives of a Creator, give it an absolute unlimited dominion over us, allow it to prescribe us all our measures of good and evil; to rule not only our Reason but our Passions too, (a Soveraignty alas we would never yield to our God) and as if the giving us laws were not Empire enough, we permit it to impose Religions also; for sure they that observe how great an influence it has in Church affairs, will conclude it governs more than the secular part of the world. And indeed if we look back, we shall find 'tis no novel usurpation, but though void of other Title, has the Prescription of many ages. Divinity has long since been made the handmaid of Policy, and Religions modelled by conveniencies of State. The golden Calves became venerable deities, when they were found apt to secure Ieroboams Jealousies: And Machiavils policy, that States should serve themselves of Religion, was a common practice long before 'twas his Rule. And this Example of Communities has been transcrib'd by single Persons. In the Old Testament we find frequent mention of those mercenary Prophets, that turn'd the office into a trade, divin'd for money, nay, sometimes for more contemptible hire, handfuls of Barley and pieces of Bread: And in the New we see the same motive of Secular advantage had force enough to turn an Ecclesiastick into a Laick, make Demas degrade himself, and desert his Ministry, and as it thus stopt his mouth from preaching the Truth, so it open'd those of Others to divulge Errors. Such were those deceivers of whom St. Paul speaks, Tit. 1. 11. who spake things they ought not for filthy lucres sake. So when the same Apostle declaims the most earnestly against the love of money as the root of all evil, we find he fetches his proof of that Charge, from its having made men erre from the faith, 1 Tim. 6. 10. And 'tis St. Peters prediction, that the most damnable Heresies, even the denying of the Lord that bought them, should be introduced by those, who through Covetousness should make merchandize of their Proselytes, 2 Pet. 2. 4. and sure the event attests the presage to have concern'd more than the Age immediately succeeding, there being none of the subsequent which hath not in some degree assisted its completion, nor have we cause to wonder here-at, since 'tis obvious to discern the conjunction and dependence between Covetousness and Heresie. For the Itching ears the Apostle speaks of, being an Epidemick disease, give fair opportunity to every Mountebank to try his Experiments. When men nauseate Old truths, because they are acquainted with them, and embrace doctrines for the very same reason, they should reject them, even because they are New: When they love no Teachers, but such as thus entertain them, and are bountiful to none but such as they love; there is little doubt, but there will be Mints enough set on work, when the Coiners can thus at once stamp new opinions for their Disciples, and Money for Themselves: And God knows they are not a few of our Divisions, that have thence taken birth. It will be needless to ravel far into the Records of Elder times, every mans memory will be able to suggest to him too many, and too pertinent instances. Upon which reflection 'twill be too visible, that much of some mens late pretence to Godliness was but a real pursuit of Gain; and the new light serv'd to guide them to their neighbours Coffers: And probably many of our Disputes had been superseded, had not the Authors foreseen, that though they lost the Question, they should gain what they more sought. A few essays had discover'd how much the Populacy were pleas'd with Novelties, especially such as at once gratified their Levity and their Pride, by casting ill reflections on the things or Persons to whom they owed a reverence; and the liberal contributions such Teachers met with, serv'd still to invite more labourers into that work, where without the uneasiness of a long Expectation, their very seedtime was their Harvest, and by sowing Tares, they immediately reaped Gold: And 'tis no wonder if such quick returns made them diligent at the trade, industrious to provide those wares they saw they could put off so well. And would to God we were secure, that this way of Traffick were yet at an end, for so long as these spiritual Merchants can thus impose on their credulous Chapmen, make them buy one mischief with another, and exhaust their Estates to endanger their Souls, we must not hope our dissentions will ever cease, our flames ever be extinct, that have so much matter to feed them, and such importunate blasts to blow them up.
BUT covetousness is of too unsatiable a nature to be contented with one way of supply, 'tis like the Sea, that receives the Tribute of all Rivers (though far unlike it in lending any back again) and therefore those who have resolv'd upon the thriving sort of Piety, have seldom embarkt all their hopes in one bottom, nor so depended on the bounty of their Proselytes, as to neglect other ways of preying for themselves. They wanted not providence to foresee, how uncertain a revenue popular benevolence is: That the same giddy and violent humour, which had opened their hands so wide, might by working another way close them as fast; or if their inclinations continued, their abilities might fail; (a thing very possible to those, who have such suckers) or if both these remain'd, yet that they were unlikely to grow in proportion to their own appetites, and therefore found it necessary to have some other reserve; and besides this way of flattering, their willing benefactors out of part, contrived another of forcing their unwilling Neighbours out of all their possessions: So making the spoils of some mens honesty a richer booty than that of others folly. Hence Shiboleths found out of Covenants and engagements, to give opportunity of destroying a dissenting brother; by this Art a fat benefice became crime and witness too against its Incumbent, and he was sure to be unorthodox, that was worth the plundering. Thus alas has the Altar of God been attended, or rather invaded by those whose very approach was a guilt, that qualified them rather to lay hold on its horns, than pretend to its service; for sure that God, who has declar'd he hates robbery for burnt-offering, cannot much affect Robbers for Priests. But this is a Theme, so unpleasant I delight not to enlarge on it, and rather wish that the memory of it were so extinct, that it might remain no where but in the penitential Litanies of the Offenders; my design in the present reflection is only to make it an evidence how much covetousness promotes our contentions, which sure is not more visible any where than in this instance: For where there is a design of supplanting, that necessarily requires another of accusing; (even Iezabel her self projects not to seize on Naboths Vineyard without a precedent Charge) to comply with which necessity, not only the lives and conversations, but the doctrines and opinions of our most eminent Divines have been strangely misrepresented, and when that proved not fence enough to the reputation of their Oppressors, they have thought fit to change the Scene, and to combate those opinions in their true shape, upon which they could not so well fasten their disguise. I shall not here need to say with how much, or how little praetext of reason they managed those Disputes: 'Tis enough to my purpose that such Disputes there were, and those founded in the desire of acquiring secular advantages, which sufficiently attests Interest to be a potent Abettor of our quarrels.
BUT God knows that is a truth of which the world affords so many proofs, that we need not confine our selves to this little Angle of it, or owe our convictions only to our domestick transactions; if we look abroad we shall find it too often exemplified. The memorable disturbance given to the Church, as well as State of Germany by the Anabaptists, is a pregnant instance; whose new opinion was but an expedient of investing themselves in new possessions, and their second Baptism but the Solemnity of espousing, not only the flesh, but the world also, which they had renounced in the first.
AND would God they had been the only set of Men, whose doctrines were subservient to their interests, for such tumultuous and Plebeian projects, though like a land-floud they make great spoil at the present, yet soon sink again. Such avowed and excessive greediness devours its self, and the instruments by which it wrought: so that the defeat of the secular Design, is commonly the routing those Opinions, which were formed for the promoting it. But when the same desire has the advantage of a sober guidance; when Avarice puts on the Canonical habit, and twists its self not only with the practice of Men, but the doctrines of the Church; when articles of Religion shall be estimated by their profitableness, and Ecclesiasticks dispute, as Lay-men fight for Money; then alas the mischief seems fatal, the disease so fixt and radicated, as at once discourages, and mocks the attempts of cure.
THAT this is the case not only in a particular and private Church, but that which assumes to be the Universal and Catholick is too apparent. The one Position of the Popes right to dispose Kingdoms, outstrips all other principles of rapine: this is to drive a whole-sale trade, when all other petty Merchants, deal but for parcels: which as it is a much bolder, so is it a more prejudicial attempt than the invading of private possessions, and this Duo gladii, the double armature of S. Peter, a more destructive Engin, than the tumultuary weapon snatcht up by a Fanatick: but sure S. Peter's sword though once rashly managed by himself, was never design'd to arm his successors to invade Kingdoms: This property of it seems rather to have been derived from the Praetorian souldiers, who insolently assumed the disposing of the Empire, wherein they at the last arrived to that impudence, that after the Death of Pertinax they made open port sale of it, foreign, in a base and sordid manner, as if it had been of common marketable wares: I cannot say the Court of Rome transcribes that indecent owning of the traffick; but it has in other instances so well attested its good managery, that 'tis not very credible, that Crowns and Scepters are conferred gratis. And to this so advantageous a Doctrine others bear proportion: Those of Purgatory, Indulgences, and Supererogation, are ready instances, wherein the Assertors themselves seem to be unanimous in nothing but in a joynt reference to profit, for when they come to minute definitions they vary and disagree; satisfie one another, as little as their common Antagonists: and therefore in the Council of Trent they prudently chose in their decrees to propose the bare Articles backt by the Authority of the Church, and Anathemas of the Council, as having by precedent discussions of the points in their congregations discern'd the small accord that was among themselves, when they descended to particulars. And indeed the Opinions were so various as to the grounds of the Doctrines, that one would wonder how from so differing premisses, they should all inferr the same conclusion; were it not that the conspiration of Interest was too potent for the diversity of Judgment. And sure 'twas a strange deference was given to it, when in the matter of Indulgences, there was (by the Testimony of their own Writers) four different Opinions, and yet all Catholick: which moderation towards Speculative dissenters, compar'd with the great severity against those that opposed its Practice, speaks loud enough that the Orthodoxy of the point, lay wholly in the Profitableness: and that Luther himself had been no Heretick, had he busied himself only in such disquisitions, as impeded not the gain of that Doctrine. Nor is this meerly surmise and conjecture, for if we consult the memorials of those transactions, we shall find this was the thing that most alarm'd Rome, put that Court in almost as great a commotion as the birth of Christ did Herods: and accordingly in their private consults, the closer cabals of the Colledge; the securing this part of their invaded treasure was the grand deliberation, upon which account it was, that when Adrian shewed some Inclination to the reforming abuses both in this and other instances, one of his Cardinals who better knew the entrigues of affairs, admonisht him against that unskilful piece of Ingenuity, not only from the Example of his Predecessors, who were resolute never to confess Faults by mending them, but by representing to him, That no reformation could be made, which would not notably diminish the rents of the Church, which having four foundations, the one Temporal, the other three Spiritual, Indulgencies, Dispensations, and Collations of Benefices; no one of them could be stopped but that one quarter of the revenues would be cut off. What a resemblance this advice carries to the oration of Demetrius to his fellow crafts-men, Act. 19. 25. I need not stand to demonstrate, but while such considerations as this, bear sway in Church matters, where Profit shall be the Touch-stone both for faith and manners, we are not to wonder if no gainful Tenet be deposited; or Peace bought with that which in most mens esteem is of far more value.
AND this is it which ominates sadly as to our divisions with the Romanists, were our differences meerly the product of Heat and Passion, they would like the smaller clefts in the ground, want nothing but a cooler season to cement and close them: but when they are thus form'd into an interest, become the Design not of single persons or ages, but of corporations and successions; the Breach seems like the scissures and ruptures of an Earthquake, and threatens to swallow all that attempt to close it, and reserves its cure only for omnipotence. Indeed till spiritual and secular Concerns be reduced into their proper ranks, which are now mixt and confounded, the better to disguise the preposterous subordination of the nobler to the inferior; till we have forgotten the unhappy Chymistry of turning all even Religion its self into Gold, we must never hope to get out of the Furnace; our flames will still grow fiercer, and with this unnatural effect to consume not the Dross, but the purer Metal. In a word, till men can sever themselves from their Avarice and mean pursuits of gain, they will never cease to seperate from their brethren. For as the most soveraign Balsoms cannot cure a hurt while the arrow remains in the flesh: so neither can the most pacifick Remedies at all avail, so long as the same worldly Aims, which made the wound, still stick in it.
BUT in the mean time 'tis a Melancholick consideration that Christianity should be by its Professors thus unworthily prostituted; that the many various and opposite Religions for which we severally pretend so much zeal, should be but divers waies to the same irreligious End; wherein our Elders seem to resemble those in the Story of Susanna, who when they meant to part with each other, yet did unawares meet by the impulse of the same Lust. We find it moved the patience even of the Lamb of God, to see his Fathers house made a house of merchandize, though the Traffick was for the furnishing of Sacrifices: with what abhorrence must we think does he now behold those, who drive so much a worse trade in it: who sell not accommodations for worship, but the worship its self to accommodate their interests, and do not only make Gain in the Temple, but of it. A thing the sacrilegious Rapine of our days has made literally true, where besides the revenues, the very fabrick and materials of Churches, have been marketable ware: Iudas's good husbandry has been taken up, and ad quid Perditio haec? put as the common Motto upon every thing that could be sold for more, nay sometimes for less than Three hundred pence. And as Dionysius took away the golden beard from Aesculapius, to rectifie the indecency of the Sons having a beard when the Father had none: and Iulian robb'd the Christian altars with this impious Sarcasm, foreign; that 'twas unfit the Son of Mary should be serv'd in Plate. So do men now a-days make themselves regulators of holy things, correct the indecorums of the sanctuary, that they may rifle its treasures. Thus do we see the Apostles affirmation sadly verified that those who will be rich fall into Temptation, and a snare, 1 Tim. 6. 9. Such is the greediness of a covetous appetite, that it swallows indiscriminately whatever looks like prize, and rather than it want its prey, God Himself shall be robb'd. Nay, 'twere to be wisht in this instance, that That were all; but alas he is mockt too, used not only unjustly, but contumeliously; we thus make him a property to our sordid designs, and when he has profest that he will not be serv'd together with Mammon, we attempt that which is yet far more blasphemous, and make him pay service to him with whom he disdains to share it when paid by others.
NEITHER is Covetousness the only Vice that serves its interest upon Religion: but as 'tis made a factor for that, so is it a cloak and disguise for many other. Of this the Catalogues of primitive Hereticks give sufficient witness; divers whereof as the Nicolaitans, Cerinthians, Carpocratians and Gnosticks seem to have constituted distinct sects in Christianity, only that they might introduce the most bestial parts of Heathenism, and pretended an association in Religion, when indeed it was in lust. How far some of our modern Sects resemble them in this Particular, I will not undertake to pronounce: though there want not those who make severe, and not improbable Conjectures concerning it. But whether that be the main design or no; 'tis certain both that wickedness, and many other find great shelter among them. He that brings resolution to uphold a Faction shall not miss of Entertainment, how many or how great vices soever he brings with it; and he that is of a godly party, shall in spight of the loudest Guilts be a godly man. So meritorious a thing is it in some mens account to be factious, that it covers the multitude of sins: hence it is that Criminals so frequently fly to new Churches for Sanctuary: and 'twill still be the concern of such to have so creditable a Refuge; and therefore we are not to wonder if this Interest combine with the former in promoting our Dissentions.
BUT alas, as it advances those, so does it our guilt too, that have more than on vile End to which we accommodate our Piety: and still implies the greater affront to our God, by how many the more and baser interests we shroud under his Patronage. Alas, is it not enough as Iob speaks to hide our iniquities in our own bosomes, but must we wrap them in the Veil of the Sanctuary. We read that Goats once lent a covering for the Tabernacle; but here by an impious Inversion, the Tabernacle must lend a covering to the Goats▪ The most bestial appetites be both concealed and preserv'd under the Shadow of Religion. Plutarch tells us that when Marcellus would have consecrated a Temple joyntly to Honour and Vertue, the Priests resisted it, saying, Two Gods dwelt not in one Church: and if their vain deities exacted such a solemnity of Respect, and would not be Inmates to one another, can we think the true God will be content to be made so to all our vilest lusts. This is sure the highest Contumely to the divine Majesty; and never could the abomination of desolation more properly be said to stand in the holy place than in this sense: for as the natures of these Guilts are fitly exprest by abomination, so is the effect of them by desolation; they having brought the most fatal mischiefs on the Church.
AND now would God all that are concern'd in this guilt, would soberly ponder the weight of it, There are two things of which God has exprest himself peculiarly Tender, his honour and his Church; this is the invading him in both; the exposing the one to Reproach and Contempt, and the other to Ruine and Destruction; and doubtless were there nothing of the former, this later alone must be sadly accounted for. It remains yet a Character of infamy upon Achan, that he troubled Israel to enrich himself: and on Balam that he not only loved the wages of iniquity, but ensnared the people in uncleanness: and sure the same with many aggravations belongs to those, who by the like unworthy practice, have not only rendred the Church a prey to foreigners, but made it so to its self; engag'd one part of it against another, till the whole is so wasted, that our Religion seems now neerer extinction, than our quarrels about it.