increaseth day by day CHAP. XVI Of those which studie nothing but controversies what sort of controversies may teach us most doctrine What points of doctrine are the most difficult amongst Christians What expedient may weake ones take in the highest questions A rule which is not to be found but in the reformed Religion Of Miracles Of Martyres Concerning the question where was the Church before the Reformation SOme seek no other instruction but that of controversies a studie truly which is necessary for to furnish Antidotes in places or in times infected with heresies But yet it is incapable to give unto the soule a full reflection He should truly be a foole who would take no other nourishment but from the Treacle or the Rubarbe Controversies shewes not the whole body of Religion but the parts thereof which are in dispute And this is but by accident For our faith is affirmative not negative And our knowledge hath for its object the evidence of truths not the disguising of errors Who would come by this way to a more universall knowledge of religion he must study not only all whatsoever wee dispute with the Roman Catholicks but also whatsoever the Christian Church debates against an infinite of Sects who rob her of her title nay more all the differencies which wee have to decide with the Jewes Mahometans Indians and other Pagans and that which is worse with a multitude of Atheists If there be a controversie in which a Christian armed to the proofe against blasphemies may learne rare and excellent things 't is in that which we have with the Jewes I understand for to have an exact knowledge and not to consider only the trunke but also all the branches the juyce and the marrow from the lowest of the rootes to the highest of the leaves To see the depth of this controversie is more painfull then all the others It hath but very few Philosophicall arguments All therein is drawne from the deep fountaines of the ancient testament and you must lift all the curtaines of the Tabernacle and passe through many vailes before that one can see the holiest of holies This was the exercise of the first Christians For their first disputes began by the Jewes and excepting necessity which obligeth us to turn head to other adversaries this controversie would be more fruitfull then any other There are two sorts of matter in which lies the hardest controversies which be amongst Christians and the most difficult to manage 1. Those which touch the decrees of God as the Prevision or Prescience Prudence Predestination Reprobation c. Secondly Those which concernes the qualities of the soule be it in Nature or be it in Grace Free-will certainty of Faith c. The reason why these two points are more difficult then the others is evident in respect of the first Divine decrees are infinitely distant from our sight as being elevated above all times and inclosed in a volume of which we see nothing but a few characters hard to be discerned at so great a distance Many who thinke they read there distinctly draw most dangerous constructions But it is a wonder in the other point that so many difficulties are found seeing that the subject is so neare our eyes nay that it is within our selves Our intellect is in trouble to know whether our intellect and the will are faculties really different Whether granting the judgement of the Intellect the will must necessary follow or if it remaines in Balance and in power to suspend its action If our faith be placed in the Intellect or in our will Our soule so little knowes thereof that she knowes not where to find her selfe being ignorant whether she resides in the blood or in any other particular part of the body or whether she be universally diffused through all the parts thereof The proximitie it selfe of the subject is the cause of this difficulty The soule no more then the eye cannot see it selfe except it be by a very obscure reflection and that false to for the most part which we call indirect knowledge For to disturbe the spirits of the common people ye need but to set them on these two points which many have chosen expresly as being full of Labirinths He who hath not been acquainted with these slights ought to remember that in each controversie truth lodgeth in a center to which ought to bend all matters which are in dispute In these differences which concerne the will of God towards man or the will of man towards God for all the controversies of Election of universall grace of free will of perseverance and such like may have relation to these two things these maximes ought to be the center to wit that the glory of all good belongs to God That whatsoever is ill proceeds from man We must not attribute to God the ill that proceeds from man Nor to man the good which proceeds from God One cannot take from God the smallest part of his glory without ravishing it intirely because that it is indivisible as a point that admits no parting Commutative justice cannot happen to be in God The creature attributing unto God all the good which is in her cannot faile in excesse nor incurre any danger thereby but in attributing some portion thereof to himselfe he may runne some hazard In these principles which are as undoubtable as familiar as they may easily resolve all the subrilties will they or nill they which may be produced on the one side or the other And the weakest Christian taking heed to the lines which end not in this center or fall aside will easily judge that they are irregular This constant and universall rule may be applyed to all fo 〈…〉 â—octrine John 7.18 and I dare say that of all religions which are in the world there is none but the reformed which attributes to God the glory of all good especially in the salvation of man And certainly there is not one of the others but makes profession to attribute to God this glory but examining them nearly you shall not find any but that take away some part to make thereof a present to man what they avow in generall they steale by retaile or deny it by their consequences to hinder God from possessing of it in effect As to the rest the common people ought to distinguish the certaine and the infallible propositions from prejudicate opinions which may be disputable It 's a common opinion that there are no miracles wrought in the world and that there shall be never more This negative is uncertaine and the proofe neither assured or necessary When all the miracles which the Jesuits doe attest to have bin wrought in the midst of the Indies should be true they would not conclude the least of their errors no more then the annuall miracle at the poole of Shiloa gave authority to Pharisaisme Much lesse can they draw any consequence from the martyrdome which some of them have suffered by the hands
that should be scandalous to naturall prudence to the end that their wisdome should not undertake to controule his which neverthelesse happens without thinking thereon to the most religious spirits The ancient Christians in their ordinary prayers demanded of God the retarding of the last day This request was founded upon the comming of Antichrist which they knew ought to preceed that day which would bring with it many calamities which they sought to keep from them by their prasers upon this that the Assembling of the Elect and the calling of so many people would require a long space of time and upon other reasons which was knowne unto them but they tooke not heed that the holy Ghost whose foresight surpasses that of man commanded them to say Come Lord Jesus come For a close we shall marke that in divers matters of religion many submit their beliefe to the testimony of the Scripture because that they find therein some reason or circumstance which seemes to agree with their naturall judgement They perswade themselves of the truth of an history or the equity of a law or the excellencie of a mystery or the importance of a Sacrament or the justice of a rigorous execution for as much as they meet therein a certaine shadow or an appearance conformable to the thoughts which are the most prevalent in their spirits the faith proceeding thereof is vaine as wee shall declare hereafter in its proper place CHAP. VI. Some say Knowledge produceth Atheisme all here saies have not proceeded from learned men The abuses of humane learning in religion THe common people reproches Athiesme to the learned and their scorning of all religion An accusation but too true in respect of many Some doe so inclose themselves within the thoughts of a Science or particular faculty that their spirit cannot admit any principall higher then that of their owne art from whence it comes to passe that they know no other divinity then the matter and the forme or the temperature of the body or the vertue of herbs or the law of nature or nature it selfe Others although most speculative in the higher causes attaine not to the first But certainly we must impute this crime to their ignorance not to their knowledge for to say the truth there was never Atheist but was ignorant never a perfect Philosopher but acknowledged a God the most specious arguments that impiety euer displayed for to sight against this fundamentall point of religion if we look neerly unto it are nothing but popular reasons And it is impossible to an Atheist to sustain his cause without disavowing some principalls of naturall reason If Atheisme were grounded upon knowledge the perswasion would be the stronger in stead that its weaknesse is subject to a thousand doubts which wearies those which are most obstinate As I have seene in a learned man famous in his profession who having called my selfe to comfort him in his sicknesse assured me upon the silence he exacted of me that his health depended upon the resolution of a point which he never could believe and asked the proofe thereof which was if there were a God a question so criminall that cannot proceed but from a spirit full of Egyptian darknesse what learning soever he hath in other matters Againe the vulgar charge the learnâ—d to have been the authors of all the heresies which have troubled the Church complaining that all the errors have had the originall from their subtilties who have seduced the common people and which cannot proceed but from learned men But we find two sorts of heresies Some more artificiall and subtill which cannot proceed but from the invention of learned men of this ranke are those who have fallen upon the attributes and the divine decrees The predestination the Trinity the Union of the two Natures in Christ and such like points The others more grosse and stupid as that of the Anthropomorphites And these proceeds from imaginations of the vulgar In generall Idolatrie hath alwaies began by ideots Nay the greatest part of popery â—he invocation of Saints the adoration of their reliqnes the worship of Images the prayers for the dead have never drawne their originall but from the superstition of the vulgar In heresies the most subtill the learned conduct the multitude but in those whose stuffe is more grosse as in the exterior practice and Ceremonies of religion the people lead the skilfull who carried by a multitude as by a crowd or a torrent suffer themselves to be lead to the very melting of the Calfe of gold Nay what is more shamefull one hath seene learned and able men most grosly deceived by the imposture of idiots not only simple in matter of action but moreover in things purely dogmaticall without speaking of the gravity of Tertullian miserably seduced by the dotages of Montanus nor so many spirits abused by Priscilla and Maximilla pretended prophetesses The learned who have believed something of Purgatory hath been brought to this beliefe by the revelation of silly devotious women by the apparition of soules that good people said they had seen with their eyes by the Enthusiasmes of some melancholy men and by the recite of some Miracles which oft-times were but effects of nature as the nocturnall fires which often appeare in Church-yards The errors of the first sort are knowne for the most part by the names of some chiefe Hereticks which hath produced them Thus the blasphemies of the Sabellians Arrians Euticheans Nestorians are marked with the name of their authors famous for having been Patriarkes of so many severall bands of hereticks but the errors of the second sort have not so certaine a Genealogie it s not so easie to name the inventors of the offerings for the dead of the adorations of Saints or of the service of Images or the noting the time of their originall because these abuses have bin generated from the confused medly of the common people so that the true father of them is unknown But a man may take notice of a familiar abuse in those who make use of humane learning for in many religion takes some taint of their humours so very often they give it the bent or a forme set set out according to the rules of the art which they exercise or of some other Science with which they are indued In the greatest part of the Fathers wee find alwaies either in matter or phrase something which smells of Platonisme a Philosophie which they had dranke in with their studies Afterwards that of Aristotle came into favour the Theologians have imitated his language his countenance and his gate The excesse to which this disguise obtained was never so put off but many indeavoured to set it againe on foot So we have seen many Lawyers and Phisitians who accommodate Theologie to the maximes of their profession not only in the tearmes or in the method as when the one makes it personall reall and active the others Patholotick and Therapentiâ—ke which is not of
other side many have believed that the dreame which came to Pilates wife proceeded from Satan who foreseeing his own ruine in the death of Christ assaied to hinder the sentence If speculations might be received I could say that Satan might be in doubt of the qualitie of Jesus Christ seing in him so great wonders as constrained them to call him the son of God and then againe an extreame annihilation which seemed incompatible with his divinity so that he thought to overwhelm him with torments as he got his desire on the first Adam by flatteries That although he knew that the future death of Christ was foretold by the Prophets by the sacrifices and other figures and by the faith of the ancient fathers notwithstanding he might imagine that as Isaac upon the point he was to be sacrifised by the expresse command of God was exempted from death some such like thing might befall Jesus Christ I might also say that Satan having the day before procured the death of Christ and employed Judas to this purpose it is very incredible that he changed his mind in so short a time But to come nearer unto the businesse this dreame which happened to Pilates wife is inserted in the history as proceeding from an extraordinary cause If this cause be uncertain yet 't is dangerous to attribute to the power of Satan that which might proceed from the inspiration of God By the same reason before alleadged we may conclude that Pilate as well as his wife was induced by Satan to pronounce Christ innocent But certainly I had rather take the Testimony of his innocence for the voice of God then for a subtilty of the Devil CHAP. XIII Of hidden reasons of some impertinent opinions on this subject According to the vulgar all publick calamities or particular are but punishments of sinne or corrections or trialls But they ought to be referred to many other causes which are to us unknown VVe see not the providence of God but in parcells If we could see his works in their totall and join all ages together we might perceive in their linking together an order of causes and justice which cannot be observed in retaile Some hold that the personall sins of the fathers are not punished in their children unlesse when they are made partakers thereof with them And notwithstanding many children never having committed any evill have been borne with notable infirmities which their fathers sinnes have drawn upon them The piety of Josias hindred not that God should visit in his own person the idolatrie of Manasses although with such a temper as turned this punishment into mercy In the contentions of these times touching Gods foreknowledge reprobation and such like points every man attempts to produce such an opinion that God may be found just To this purpose all the distinctions and reasons are sought out which may be conceived But if God himself should heare out of the midst of a whirlwind that man which thinks he well pleadeth the cause of God will be found to have maintianed it with bad arguments And without doubt we shall heare of reasons whereof man never thought upon CHAP. XIIII Of points resulting from others and of the multitude of consequences THere is nothing wherein the vulgar is more subject to fail then in the deduction of consequences when one point is drawn from another This is principally seen when one comes from a geneâ—all point to a particular for generall Maxâ—mes are easie to the common people But â—rant of knowing their exceptions they â—re easily deceived when they will apply â—hem to some particular subject The same â—ncongruity is often found when they make a generall rule of a particular examâ—le It is true that in some matters an exâ—mple alone is sufficient to make up an universall proposition if we could produce onely one man which hath been justified â—r saved by works it would universally fâ—lâ—ow that the justification of all others ought to be attributed to works The reason whereof is evident such as is the justification of one such is the justification of all others On the other side if we shew but one which was justified without works this is an universall Maxime for all And the onely example of Abraham produced by Saint Paul is as strong as a demonstration but one cannot make a Maxime of this that David never saw the children of the righteous brought to beggerie The policy which God set up in Israell impeded this calamity whereunto many such as Lazarus might be subject Deut. 15.4 Psal 37. and 25. Many think they do enough when they draw a consequence from a principle and then another and finally an entire chain of conclusions but the more a consequence is removed from its principle the more feeble and weak it is Those which are immediately tyed to their foundation are strongest as in a building the part which is nearest to the foundation is also the firmest Others in what proportion they are removed therefrom lose their force and the last often ends in points and spiders webbes more subtile then solid The fourth Section CHAP. I. Generall considerations on the Scripture Of matters which seem vulgar and of easie understanding GOD would not that the Scripture should be very short to the end we might abound in knowledge nor over large that our time might suffice to learn it There was a King that read it fourty times Method is requisite thereunto They who read it onely in retail and in confusion cannot comprehend the harmony and contexture thereof The vulgar ought to know that the distinction thereof into Chapters and verses having been made by godly men but subject to erre is found oftentimes irregular separating that which ought to follow in a continued threed and confounding that which ought to be distinguished As for the rest 't is true that no man can promise himself a perfect understanding thereof There are more then a thousand passages which no man ever yet understood The Argument of Saint Paul concerning those which are baptised for the dead the fire which must prove every mans work the Prison wherein S. Peter lodgeth the spirits of all men the thousand yeares of the Revelations from whence the Millenaries have taken their names are to us as sealed letters nor to speak of an infinite number of questions in history in Chronologie in the names of places plants precious stones instruments of musick and other subjects the knowledge whereof is reserved for heaven But on the other side the clearest passages are oft times made obscure by prejudices which cover as a veile the eyes of many readers The true cause which renders the Scripture dark to them â—s this because they search that which is â—ot there We will represent something upon this point Many matters of Scripture seem triviall It saith that the sun shines as well on the on just as the just that we brought nothing into the world shal carry nothing therefrom a thing which