2. It is an aggravation of the sin of loquacity and idle talk, when it is done in a proud, self-conceitedness of your own wit, with an unmannerly contempt of others. This is the case of abundance that have not the manners or patience to stay till another man hath done his speech. They think others so long that their list will not hold till they come to the end. Yea, many pretended learned men and disputants have this disease, that without any shame, or respect to order, or their own reputation, they are in such haste to answer, and talk themselves, that they cut off the speech of others in the midst, as if they should say, Hold your tongue, and let me speak that am wiser. And their excuse is, You are so long that I shall forget half before you come to the end. But if it be in a disputation or about great matters, it is usually much more to the advantage of the truth and hearers, to speak all that necessarily must be considered together, in a continued speech: for the parts of truth have such a dependence one upon another, like the members of a body, or the wheels of a watch, that they are not understood disjunctly, half the sense of them being respective to the other parts. Therefore to deliver it (in such cases) by fragments, and chopping of words, and frequent interruptions one of another, is to chat or contend, and not to open the truth with the clearness and gravity which it requireth. These, therefore, that accuse others of speaking too long, to excuse their uncivil interruptions, may take their answer from Augustine, _Absit ut multiloquium deputem quando necessaria dicuntur, quantalibet sermonum multitudine ars prolixitate dicantur_. The huge volumes of Augustine, Chrysostom, Suarez, Calvin, yea, Tostatus himself, are seldom accused of idle words. If you depute to each their equal share of time, a composed discourse is fitter and spareth time better, than interrupting altercations and exchange of words; and if your memory cannot hold all that is said, either take notes, or crave the help of some repetition, or answer the part which you do remember.
3. Idle talk is worst when it is about holy things, and tendeth to profane them: when men unreverently babble about the Scriptures, or controversies of religion; or when by fluent tongues men design the increase of some faction, or propagating of some error, or the setting forth their parts. Saith Hierom, (ad Nepot.) _Verba volvere et apud imperitum vulgus admirationem sui facere, indoctorum hominum est: nihil tam facile quam vilem plebem et indoctam, volubilitate linguæ decipere, quæ quicquid non intelligit, plus miratur_. Profane loquacity is the worst kind of loquacity.
4. Idle words are the greater sin when they are magnified and justified, and taken to be lawful, if not some excellent thing. As some unhappy scholars that spend whole days and months about some trivial, unnecessary studies, while Christ, the wisdom of God, (or the subject of divine philosophy,) is neglected:[533] he that heareth some of their supposed critical curiosities, would say with Paul, "The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are vain," 1 Cor. iii. 20. And if he compare their lives with their studies, perhaps he will remember, "They became vain in their imaginations; their foolish hearts were darkened, and professing themselves wise, they became fools," Rom. i. 21.
5. Idle words are an aggravated sin, when they are studied, and pompously set forth at great labour and cost, as a matter to be gloried in; as in plays and romances: worse than tobacco-houses where men sell smoke. The pleasure, the love, the labour, the cost, the time, the deceit, the temptation, the impenitency, are the great aggravations of this sin.
[Sidenote: The sinfulness of much idle talk.]
_Direct._ III. Understand and consider the mischief of the sin of babbling, idle talk. For the common cause of it is, that men take it to be so small a sin, that they think there is no danger in it; and therefore they fear it no more than a scratched finger.
1. (Besides the general evil mentioned tit. 1. direct. i.) consider that much idle talk is a multitude of sins. Though one idle word were never so small a sin, yet when it cometh to hundreds and thousands, and is your daily, hourly custom, all set together cannot be small. Many thousand pence is more than one shilling or pound. And your frequent custom of idle talk, may amount to a greater sinfulness, than Noah's once drunkenness, or David's once adultery, or Peter's once denying Christ. If a swearer should swear as oft, or a liar lie as oft, or a thief steal as oft as many women (and men too) speak idly, what monsters should we take them for!