did not our naturall feare of civill shame or publique infamie likely to redound for revolting from the rule of life generally acknowledged restraine our motiue faculties from acting those partes which haue beene designed vnto them by the vaine imaginations of our wicked hearts In as much as the heart of man is Gods peculiar inheritance with whose entire faculties he requires to be adored and served this inheritance being once alienated from him doth naturally draw the appurtenances after it even all such homage and services as are due vnto his sacred Maiestie bestowing them vpon those matters whatsoever they be vpon which it hath once bestowed it selfe Thus might the wanton Strumpet haue beene invested with the most glorious attributes of divine goodnesse that the lascivious Poet in heate of lust could haue invented Ilia et Egeria est do nomen quodlibet illi 8. Covetousnesse in S. Pauls Divinitie is Idolatrie With this written veritie most agreeable was the natural notion of those poore barbarous Indians which imagined the Spanyards had no other God besides gold or none so deare vnto them as this mettall was because they saw them hunt so greedily after it both by sea and land Their inordinate and excessiue coveting after it made the Barbarians to cōmit Idolatrie with it CHAPTER XVII The more speciall Fallacies by which Sathan seduced the Heathen to multiplie their gods in excessiue manner 1. ALthough it be true which hath beene said That nothing was by nature or condition so vile as not to be capable of high place amongst the Heathenish gods yet vnto that extremitie of multiplying their gods according to the number of their conceipts the Heathens did not slide but by succession and degrees The Persians as S. Austine tells vs worshipped no more gods then two one good and another evill whom they likewise accounted good so long as he did no ill to them How evill should be without a cause or how good and evill should both proceede from one cause or finally how evill being no part of nothing should come into the world seeing the worlds creation was but an effect of the almightie Creators goodnesse in communicating his being vnto all things are points so ill expressed by most Christians that the grossest errors of the Heathens concerning them may seeme very pardonable From these Persian Magies the Manichees it seemes deriue their heresies both of them as most other Heathens had a true apprehension though both failed in their iudgement or composition of those divine Oracles 1. Is there any evill done in the Cittie which I haue not caused 2. Every good gift is from aboue Before multiplicitie of businesses or artificiall curiosities be nummed the sense of nature every extraordinary or remarkeable effect was vnto men a sensible signe and witnesse of an invisibie power bringing things that were not to light Rom. 1. vers 20. 2. The first roots of that vnrighteousnesse wherein they held the truth thus in a manner desirous to manifest it selfe were 1. Carelesnesse in observing the notifications of divine power 2. Neglect to tender such dutifull service as the more evident manifestations of his goodnesse did in a sort demand The prime seede of both these roots was the imbecillitie of corrupted nature whose chiefe and supreme faculties though well instructed are alwayes apt to be over-borne with the imbred and accustomed desires of sense Of the forementioned apprehension or acknowledgement of some invisible power as chiefe author of good and evill one immediate consequence was this That the same power whether one or moe was the rewarder of such as sought to please him and a revenger of those that neglected or offended it Whence in mindes mis-led by their corrupt appetites the best and finall consequence of the former apprehensions or notions was to wooe the supposed divine powers by all meanes possible to patronize themselues and their actions though vniust dishonest or suspitious rather than to submit their wills and affections wholly to their disposalls or so to frame their liues as they might be capable of their iust favours And as vnskilfull Empyricks seeke remedy from every medicine they haue read or heard of because they know not the distinct vertue of any or how it is proportioned to the effect they ayme at So these poore-blind Heathen daily more and more ignorant in the grounds of true Religion did as it were grope after a new invisible power in every visible effect vntill at length they came to subdivide and breake the generall notion according to the distinction or number of the sensibles which they best or worst affected That every visible effect had an invisible cause was rightly proposed but from this principle they slipt into an erroneous assumption That there should be as many invisible causes as there be distinct or visible events The fallacie is easily put vpon vulgar or Somnolent wittes as if one should say he had ten brethren and every of them a sister some mens mindes would forthwith runne vpon two and twentie brothers and sisters Whether there be as many paternities or fatherhoods in the father as he hath sonnes is sometimes questioned in the Schooles and hard vniversally to determine whether in this sense Quot modis dicitur vnum Relatorum tot modis dicitur alterum Whether tearmes formally relatiue alwayes multiplie according to the number of their proper correlatiues Now to distinguish aright betweene the formall Relation and its immediate ground will in many subiects trouble greatest Artists Well then might the Heathen though ill they did in so doing imagine as many invisible powers as they observed effects produced by causes invisible or as the learned Hooker saith dreame of as many guides of nature as they saw guides of things naturall 3. After once their scattered imaginations had given admission to this erroneous representation or coniecture of many invisible powers distinct names or titles were sought for them from the effects which they had caused As in this Land before surnames continued in succession men commonly tooke their names from the places of their birth or dwelling or from events peculiar to them as strangers in some places yet if their names be hard to be pronounced or remembred are vsually called by the places from whence they came if these be famous or haue sent forth few or none besides to the coasts where they remaine So the image which Titus Tatius found because the partie whom it represented was altogether vnknowne was named Cloacina from a very homely place if it should be exprest in English Or as they framed severall gods according to the varietie of their intemperate desires so they vsually derived their titles from the matters whose avoydance or fruition they most desired As we giue extrinsecall denominations to obiects from the reference they haue to our internall faculties As some we say are intelligible others amiable Goddesses of this ranke were Volupia and Libentina c. 4. Not a
dazeled with contemplation of their effects that as the Sunne-beames put on the hue of coloured glasses through which they shine so doth the sweete disposition of divine providence appeare to him in the similitude of stoicall fate or star gasing coniectures The politician againe noting many which professe their stedfast relying vpon Gods providence either often to misse of what they haue sought or never attaining to that whereto he thinkes they should in reason and by example of the whole world aspire straight way collects The world hath no oeconomicall guide or over-seer but that every man may be his own carver of good hap or fortunes And seeing all things as he imagineth revolue by vncertaine chance to appropriate some part of blind fortunes store vnto themselues to such as haue wit to watch their opportunities will be as easie as for a theefe to catch a prey in a tumult or for souldiers to rifle vnguarded villages or houses which no man lookes vnto This kinde of Atheisme often participates with the two former For such events as manifest the power of God the politicke Atheist vsually ascribes to fortune fate or nature such as rightly observed set forth his wisdome he reduceth them to the mysteries of his owne act These errors incident to the Astronomer and Politician with the false inductions to perswade them shall by Gods assistance be rectified in the Article of divine providence 3 Many not overswayed by affection to any peculiar faculty whereto they were aboue others engaged became most fooles of all by curious prying into others folly By no other meanes were Protagoras Diagoras and perchance the crue of Epicures brought either to deny there was any divine power at all or els to thinke it so vncertaine as men should not trouble their wits about it than by contemplating the multitude of errors concerning the Gods or vanitie of heathen men amongst whom they liued many holding opinions about the Deitie so divers that some must needs be false and the best to an observant speculator but ridiculous The great dissention saith Tully amongst the learned in such importancies enforceth such as thinke they haue attained to some certaintie in this point to reele and stagger Tullie 1. lib de natur Deorum From the same infirmitie of Nature many Christians this day liuing are flexible to a branch of Atheisme very dangerous and much laboured by Iesuiticall disputes all addressed to evince this vniversall negatiue there can be no certaintie of private perswasions about the truth or true sense of Scriptures by representing the varietie of auncient heresies or differences amongst moderne professors The Iesuites propension to this perswasion is but a relique of the aboue-mentioned Heathen Romanes disposition more apt perchance to be impelled vnto absolute Atheisme by how much the multitude of their false Gods had beene increased For having long sought as it were in policie to winne the gods of every Nation they knew vnto their faction and amongst all finding none able to support their reeling state or prevent the working mischiefes of civill discord they first began generally to suspect there were no gods or all Religion to be vaine But the manifestation of the sonne of God and daily increase of true Religion quickly revived the dead notion of divine powers in these Heathens and enforced them to adhere to their wonted Gods in hope the truth revealed which was to evill doers very offensiue might by their helpe quickly be extinguished Nor did they want the broken inductions of Antiquaries or Philosophers to worke a preiudice or disesteeme of Christian faith The Christians sayth Celsus which adore a person comprehended and put to death do but as the barbarous Getes which worship Zamolxis or as the Cilicians doe Mopsus the Achernanians Amphilochus the Thebanes Amphiaras and the Lebadij Triphonius It was to him no doubt a point of wisedome and matter of glory to be so well seene in forraigne Antiquities as not to beleeue the new fangled devices of rude and illeterate Galileans 4. Had not Chronologers noted a greater distance of time betweene them than any one mans age since the Floud at least could fill vp I should haue thought Rabsakeh had spit Celsus out of his mouth No sonne can be more like to his father than the ones irreligious induction against the sonne of God is to the others Atheisticall collections for infringing the omnipotencie of God the Father Obey not Ezechiah sayth Rabsakeh to the besieged Inhabitants of Ierusalem when he deceiveth you saying the Lord will deliver vs. Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the King of Assyria Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad Where are the gods of Sepharuaim Henah and Iuah haue they delivered Samaria out of my hand Who are they among all the gods of the Countries that haue delivered their Country out of mine hand that the Lord should deliver Ierusalem out of mine hand This was a common place so plausible in those times that the proud Assyrians tooke the vniversality of their prosperous successe as a sure note that the true Church if any there were was amongst them that Ezechiah and his subiects were but rebellious schismatickes and their pretended piety but stubborne folly or hypocrisie And Zenacharib himselfe when he sent the second embassage to Ezechiah hath no better argument to empeach the omnipotent power whereon he trusted than the former induction stuft onely with some few more examples of fresh memory Thus shall ye speake to Ezechiah King of Iudah saying Let not thy god in whom thou trustest deceiue thee saying Ierusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the King of Assyria behold thou hast heard what the Kings of Assyria haue done to all lands by destroying them vtterly and shalt thou be delivered Haue the gods of the nations delivered them whom my Father hath destroyed as Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the children of Eden which were in Thelassar Where is the King of Hamath c. In like manner when the old fornicator in the comedy had abused the notion of Gods providence in disposing of Lots to fortifie his hopes of good lucke in an evill cause not the Hypothesis onely but the Thesis it selfe or generall Maxime which Salomon had left registred in fitter termes The lot is cast into the lap but the disposition thereof is the Lords is disproved by his officious slaue from the multitude of experiences of men whose confident reliance on their gods had beene defeated Quid si sors aliter quam voles evenerit Benedice dis sum fretus deos superabimus Abode well and haue well on the Gods I am bold They favour such as trust them I Ken them of old saith the Master Non ego istuc verbum emsitim titi vilitio Nam omnes mortales Deis suat freti sed tamen vidi ego dis fretos soepe multos decipi Tush that 's a saw which with wast
at sundry places at diverse times or with other different circumstances or contrariwise did not diverse effects oftentimes appeare in one and the same time and place or accompanied after one and the same fashion we should hardly so farre distinguish them as that the presence of the one should not represent the other or the remembrance of the one not suggest a severall notice of the other The coexistence of the one would alwayes be taken as a cause of whatsoever event had before accompanied both In events which haue no permanent existence nor obserue any certaine course to sever or abstract each circumstance from other is a matter not so easie to be effected by such as intend it as to be altogether forgotten or not intended The want notwithstanding of such abstraction or winnowing of circumstances is the essentiall root of superstition whose nature cannot be more fully notified than by a misdeeming of such circumstances or adiuncts as accompany extraordinary or vnusuall events befalling vs either for the true causes or procurers of them or for practicall associates or coe-workers fit to share with them in our loue or hate For this reason is grosse superstition most incident to mindes either great in themselues or puffe't vp with externalls but with all illiterate and rude Thus Clowis King of the then heathen Franks attributed the death of his first borne vnto the Christian Religion which his Queene professed or vnto Christ in whose name the Infant had beene baptized Quia Puer in dei vestri baptizatus est nomine Dij nostri illum praesenti luce fraudaverunt Because the poore childe was baptized in the name of your God therefore haue our Gods bereft him of his life And albeit the admirable patience and chearefull thanksgiving of his Queene vnto her God for taking her childe into a better kingdome might haue beene an vndoubted testimony of greater comfort in calamitie than Clowis his wonted Religion could affoord him yet he giues his second sonne for dead vpon his first attachment by sicknesse onely because baptized as the former had beene in Christs name Et hic propter superstitionem vestram incurrit offensam This childe also through your superstition hath incurred the displeasure of our Gods As if he had heard olde Iacob from remembrance of Iosephs miscarriage bitterly complaining of Beniamins losse I shall be robd of my childe as I haue beene But this childes recovery of his bodily health did so farre rectifie the King his fathers minde as to take Christian Baptisme for no necessary signe or forerunner of death to French Children It did not though enlighten him to see the grossenesse of wonted heathenish or his nationall superstition still apprehended by him as a true cause because a perpetuall concomitant of his former good successe in battaile But when he sawe this beginne to faile him in time of neede and victory so farre gone vnto the Almanes his enemies as there was smal hope his gods could call her back out of the memory of his beleeving consorts reverend mention of Christ and declaration of his goodnesse he burst out into this prayer O thou most powerfull God Christ whom my wife Crotilda worshippeth with a pure heart behold I vow the Trophies of my faith vnto thee so thou wilt giue me victory over these mine enemies This being said saith mine Author feare came vpon the Almanes the French were Conquerers the Almanes conquered and made tributaries This present helpe from God at the very point of perill and extreame daunger was a sure document That sincere profession of Christian Religion was no bare adiunct or concomitant but an authorized messenger of health of peace and victorie 2. The like superstition did more desperately possesse Maximinus the chiefe matter of whose accustomed glory was That his raigne had neither beene pestered with famine warre or pestilence the especiall cause of freedome from which annoyances was by him imputed to his carefull worship of other gods and zealous impugning of Christians As if the temporaneall coexistence of these two effects had sufficiently argued the ones causall dependance vpon the other But God shortly after falsifies these foolish collections by fulfilling our Saviours prophecie Cum dicunt pax tuta omnia tunc repentinum eis imminet exitium Whilest they proclaime peace and securitie sudden destruction comes vpon them very remarkeably in this boaster For all these three Pursevants of Gods wrath came vpon him and his people like Iobs messengers each treading on others heeles for hast Eusebius lib. 9. cap. 7. 3. More grossely did some late Mahumetan Moores ascribe their publique calamities vnto their lately deceased Kings bringing in of Lyons and sufferance of Wine to be brought in by Christians And whether in hope of successefull reformation intended by him or to satisfie his ignorant peoples expectation of it the Lyons were killed by his newly elected successors appointment and the Wine brought in by Christians powred out in their open streetes This superstitious iealousie of these barbarous Africans though in these latter times more grosse than credible may be exactly paralleld by the like disposition of moderne Russians It shall suffice to quote the Author the matter related by him hath such semblance with the former that the addition of discourse would rather obscure than adde luster to their mutuall representations 4. All are alike apt to search though all not alike able to finde the true or discover the colourable causes of every effect which much concerne them And as Land for want of direct heires falls oft to collateralls of the same progenie so time and place because of kinne vnto every effect are by the ignorant or misaffected reputed Lords or disposers of successe good or bad to which no cause apparant makes evident claime A liuely character of this disposition thus apt to take the impression of error wee haue in that Poeticall description of Aeacus and his people which wrongfully indited their beds and houses of the disasters which befell them ......... Fugiuntque penates Quisque suos sua cuique domus funesta videt◠Et quia causa latet locus est in crimine notus The houses deem'd to breed their bane the owners quite disclaime And since the cause they doe not knowe the knowne place beares the blame And in that other of Cadmus ..... Seriéque malorum Victus ostentis quae plurima viderat exit Conditor vrbe suâ tanquam fortuna locorum Non sua se premeret Affright with many a direfull sight the Founder leaues the Towne As if th' ill lucke which hunted him had beene its not his owne It was a blast of the same superstitious doctrine or blind perswasion which impelled the Philistines to carrie the Arke from place to place 1. Sam. 5. vers 7. vsque ad cap. 6. v. 8. 5. The confidence of a good cause would scarce so much haue animated the Princes of Germanie as the very name of the places
former levell so is it likely many of these querulous Romanes did resume their wonted perswasions of divine powers and their favour towardes mankinde after their turbulent thoughts begun to settle and their disquietted minds recover their naturall seate or station Others more blinded by obstinacy did finally mistrust all former apprehensions being neither cleare nor perfectly observed for meere fancies as weake or dimme sights vsually suspect whether they truely did see such things as in farre distances appeared by short and sudden glymses or their eyes did but dazle 8. But all in this place we intended was to search out the originall if not of all yet of some more principall branches of habituate and obdurate Atheisme vnto which search this observation of indulgence to violent passions or pettishnesse of hopefull desires not satisfied was thus far pertinent that these do settle men otherwise by nature and education not irreligious in the very dregs of these impieties Nor is man as was lately intimated like vnto inanimate creatures whose naturall disposition or inclination cannot be preiudiced by custome Stones though they be moved a thousand times one way their aptitude notwithstanding vnto such motion is no way greater in the last course then in the first Farre otherwise it is with man who as he hath naturall apprehensions of goodnesse so hath he inclinations vnto evill no lesse imbred or naturall the strength of whose bent to burst out into all vngodlinesse is alwayes increased by their actuall motions vnlesse reason exercise her authoritie over them either by substracting their incernall nutriment or by preventing outward occasions which provoke them or by taking them at best advantage when they haue spent themselues in the retire Not thus prevented or controuled in time the habits which naturally result from frequencie of their outrage may come to be no lesse stiffe than they are violent The manner how these fits of passion grow into such grievous rooted diseases is as if we should imagine a stone by often mooving downewards every time to retaine some one or few vntill it had at length incorporated all those degrees of gravitation which naturally accrew in the motion into its permanent weight so as laid in a iust ballance the setled sway of it should be as great as the actuall force of its wonted descent perpetually able to counterpoise as heavie and massie a body as the fall of it from an high tower supposing it had fallen into the opposite scale could haue stirred or elevated Of all passions such as worke inwardly are most dangerous because their growth is insensible and vnobservable Such are fretting iealousies ambitious discontents eagernesse of revenge or other desires overmatched with impotencie of effecting them Generally all grievances which haue no vent without which humane affections like to liquors kept in close vessels or nipt glasses secretly multiply their naturall strength Strangulat inclusus dolor atque exaestuat intus Cogitur vires multiplicare suas As all passions obscure the vnderstanding for the present so the setling of them into habits brings a perpetuall blindnesse vpon the soule alwayes breeding either obdurate Atheisme pernicious Heresie or Idolatrie CHAPTER V. Of habituated or setled Atheisme Why this disease was not so Epidemicall in ancient as in latter times Of the disposition or temper from which irreligion or incogitancie of divine powers which is the first and lowest branch of Atheisme vsually springs 1. THE Pharisee though for his conversation and civill carriage precise and strict in respect of most his ancestours did yet exceed them farther in hardnesse of heart than he came short of them in outragiousnesse of passion The sight of our Saviours miracles and experience of his good life would I am perswaded sooner haue wonne the most Idolatrous or boisterous of his forefathers than him or his sober associates vnto true beliefe From consideration of this his temper besides other inducements I haue elsewhere observed people auncient whether in respect of the generall course of the world or of succession in severall kingdomes to haue beene vsually more rash and impetuous in their attempts but not so setled in resolutions which were impious as their successors in time are and haue beene The bent of their nature did sway a larger compasse and to vse the Mathematicians dialect described a greater circle by it actuall motions Hence were they more easily drawne by the peculiar inticements of those times to greater outrages than men of their ranke commonly by ordinary temptations now are Howbeit for the same reason they were more quickly reclaimed by such corrections as moue not our mindes once set amisse 2. And this in part may be the reason why Atheisme was not so habituated nor the deniall or doubt of divine providence so stiffe in them as in the irreligious of our dayes Consonant hereto are the causes before assigned of posterities mistrusting the reports of antiquitie vnto which we may adde this observation not altogether the same with them nor quite different The visible characters of this great booke of nature were of old more legible the externall significations of divine power more sensible and apter to imprint their meaning both purposely suited to the disposition of the worlds non-age which for secular cunning or artificiall observation was for the most part rude and childish in respect of those times and Countries wherein Atheisme through mans curiositie came to full height and growth 3. Those Marriners with whom Ionas sayled in calling every man vnto his God and rousing their sleepie passenger to ioyne in prayer with them did no more then many of their profession in this age vpon like exigences doe A raging sea will cause the naturall notions of God and goodnesse to worke in such as haue taken little or no notice of them by land as one vpon this experiment wittily descants Qui nescit orare discat navigare But few of our time would trouble themselues in such perplexitie with searching out the causes of sudden stormes or if they did the causes ordinarily assigned by the experimentall Weather-wizard or naturall Philosopher would content them Fewer I thinke would make enquiry for whose speciall sinne their common prayers for deliverance were not heard seeing God daily accustometh vs to like repulses in particular dangers the oftner no doubt because we examine not our hearts with like diligence in like extremities nor powre forth our soules with such fervency as these Marriners did Their resolution to find out the author of their ill successe as Iosuah did Achans by lot perswades me the observations of grace and nature did not then iarre so much as now they doe They saith the Psalmist that goe downe to the Sea in ships that doe businesse in great waters These see the workes of the Lord and his wonders in the deepe for he commandeth and raiseth the stormy winde which lifteth vp the waues thereof They mount vp to the heaven and they goe downe againe to the depths their
haue the same distance from the Sunne which had beene noted by vs in two or three former Eclipses For equality of the Moones distance from the Sunne vnlesse it fall out in the Eclipticke line is not sufficient to inferre this effect if an Eclipse or deficiency may properly be tearmed an effect This is a rule most vniversall and transcendent That every Rule which holdes true in some cases and failes in others is taken from sensitiue observations or presentments not perfectly sifted or abstracted whose ingredients notwithstanding dissociate themselues in those particulars wherein they faile Thus Hippocrates Rules of Windes and Waters held true in those Regions wherein he made his observations but not in ours because the soyle which lay East West North or South of his habitation was of a different temper from those Countries which haue the like situation in respect of the Heavens from vs. Many rules againe are oftimes not acknowledged so generall as they are because we take some concurrence of circumstances or accidents or somewhat annexed vnto the latent nature whence the effect iâ— deriued as a concause or necessary condition when as it was onely present not accessary to the event Thus many people in this Land are afraid to begin a good worke vpon the same day that Innocents day fell on the yeare before because they held the circumstance of time as a necessary concurrent to prosperous proceedings And vnlesse experience did teach the contrary a meere disputant would hardly graunt hot water could quench fire because it wants that qualitie which may well seeme to be as a necessary concurrent to the destruction of the contrary forme The evidence of this event hath occasioned Philosophers to obserue a propertie in the fire distinct from heate and another in the water distinct from colde perhaps in part from moisture Which properties sense without the helpe of vnderstanding could never haue distinguished from heate or cold Thus are heate and cold for want of like abstraction taken for those qualities wherein the Medicinall vertue of hearbs or other physicall simples properly consists He that never had seene any creatures indued with sense and motion but such as with these haue reason no reasonable creatures but Ethiopians nor blacknesse in any subiect but in this kinde of men would imagine all those to be one or each to inferre others presence And if the vnderstanding should not vpon new observations correct sense these collections would presently offer themselues Whatsoever hath sense or motion or is blacke is indued with reason and discourse Whatsoever is not capable of these latter adiuncts is vncapable of the former But once observing motion or sense in many creatures wanting the vse of speech or observing many men whose complexion is farre from blacke or blacknesse in diverse subiects which neither haue life motion sense or reason the abstraction of each from other offering it selfe would manifest the folly of former inferences Generally the more in number and more different in nature the subiects be wherein we obserue any accident or propertie the more easie and evident is the abstraction of it from others with which it often hath coniunction The true reason why Mathematicall rules are so perspicuous and evident is because lines and figures are found in every matter that is subiect to sense as numbers and vnities accompany all things we can vnderstand Quantitie we may finde in many bodies without any such concomitance as it had in others For sundry substances much differing in all things else agree onely in shape or figure But where one attribute or qualitie is linked with another in all or most subiects wherein either can be found the distinction betweene them is more difficult vnlesse they belong to severall senses or so belonging we vsually confound their causes or obserue small diversitie betwixt them Seing permanent colours are not vsually seene but in mixt bodies and all mixture is wrought by heate and colde moysture and drinesse we often imagine the diversity of colours should arise from the diverse mixture of these prime qualities as they are reputed when as the diversitie indeed is from the mixture of two more simple more immateriall and more generall and prime As light and darkenesse were first created so their of-springs or propagations Opacitie and Perspicuitie haue first place in all bodies alike communicable to single or compounded to corruptible or incorruptible substances There is no mixt body without their mixture and oftimes where the one is really the other there will be by participation whether in the elements or in bodies perfectly or imperfectly mixt From the different proportions of their mixtures or combinations ariseth all diversitie of colours It skilleth not whether the fire were hot or cold or whether the coales were dry or moyst so the one be bright and the other sootie or dustie the flame at first kindling will seeme blacke afterward reddish or blewish lastly yellow and splendent The originall of reall colours as they call them is no other onely the perspicuitie and opacitie whence they spring are more permanent as being deeper incorporated into the matter and the bond of their mixture more firme 3. Most obiects as they are presented to vs by sense resemble the first Chaos or confused Masse The vnderstanding by sifting and ventilating the severall ingredients and assigning such as are of like natures sorted together to their severall and proper places imitates the great Creator of the world in extracting light out of darkenesse and distinct bodies out of confused heapes and pure celestiall substances out of earthly drosse The right constitution of every Art or Science is a kinde of Creation and their Inventors come nearest to God in wisedome yet not herein to glory or reioyce saue onely that by this cleare resolution of every effect or obiect into its simple and prime Elements the beames of the Creators wisedome and distillations of his goodnesse which lay buried in the confused Congests which sense presents become cleare and sensible if the winde be once touched with grace which should never be excluded but full implored in the search of what truth soever For no truth can be so meane or slender but being made cleare and evident it may elevate the minde to which it so appeares to contemplation of the first truth and is as a step or approach to that light which is inaccessible Nor was it the search no not the curious search of Sciences naturall Astrologicall or Politicke but the professors slouthfull readinesse to relie vpon the representations of sense not accurately sifted from which these three maine streames of Atheisme before mentioned did first issue All three with the source of Superstition or Idolatrie to be prosecuted in the next Discourse we may deriue from a further head then there we did and somewhat more particular and proper then was now intimated 4. It is a dictate of nature engraffed in all That every thing which before was not must
wherein some of their ranke haue beene foyled would haue deterred them from adventuring battle vpon tearmes otherwise equall And the Scottish nation vnlesse our Writers haue wronged them would sometimes haue sought with the English vpon any festivall day in the yeare sooner than vpon Magdalene day as fearing lest the ill happe which it brought them had not beene expiated with the reiterated penitentiall sacrifices of many widowes teares Howbeit I may not condemne all warinesse or serious observation of ominous significations which time or place with their circumstances may afford There is a meane though not easie to finde and harder to hold betweene superstitious feare and presumptuous boldnesse in this kinde That naturall inclination which in many degenerates into impious devotion requires as well a skilfull moderator as a boisterous corrector But this is an argument wherein I had rather be taught than teach though somewhat hereafter must be said for mine owne or others information Of much heathenish superstition in this kinde the Monasteries of our Land haue beene fertile nurseries as the Grecian cleargie is this day tainted with curiosities of this ranke as vniustifiable as the scrupulosities of many olde women to beginne any worke of their vocation vpon the same day of the weeke on which the feast of Innocents or Childermas as they tearme it did fall the yeare before 6. But neither can auncient Story Poeticall description or knowne experience of any moderne disposition so well set out the manner how these naturall seeds of superstition are set on working by intemperate desires or iealous feares as doth that sacred relation of Balaak Balaams conspiracie to curse the Israelites Whatsoever Balaam thought of this businesse Balaak out of his inbred superstition was perswaded that the very place or prospect had beene a cause concurrent to produce the effect for which he supplicated vnto his god Balaak tooke Balaam and brougt him vp into the high places of Baal that thence he might see the vtmost part of the people But Balaak feared as by the words following it seemes that Balaam saw too many at once that this place was too high a fitter levell for a blessing than for a curse And Balaak said vnto Balaam what hast thou done vnto me I tooke thee to curse mine enemies and behold thou hast blessed them altogether And he answered and said Must I not take heede to speake that which the Lord hath put in my mouth Yet this protestation perswades Balaak onely to alter his station not his minde And Balaak said vnto him Come I pray thee with me vnto another place from whence thou maist see them thou shalt see but the vtmost part of them and shalt not see them all and curse me them from thence And he brought him vnto Sede-sophim a place by the very name apt to enchant a superstitious minde with expectation of successe to the toppe of Pisgah and built seaven Altars and offered a bullocke and a ramme on every Altar As before triall made he hoped the change of place would haue altered his lucke so after returne of the like answer he suspects the Prophets wordes as causes of his mishappe and would hire him to be silent And Balaak said vnto Balaam neither curse them at all nor blesse them at all But Balaam answered and said vnto Balaak Told not I thee saying All that the Lord speaketh that I must doe So strong is the conflict betweene the ingraffed notion of Gods power to blesse or curse whom he pleased and the vnrighteousnesse wherein it is detained that after a sentence passed against him he will yet remoue his suite to another Court. Againe Balaak said vnto Balaam Come I pray thee I will bring thee vnto another place if so it may please God that thou maist thence curse them for my sake And lastly perceiving his triple attempt to curse had procured a Trinitie of blessings perhaps a blessing from the Trinitie giuen by each person in course the last more effectuall than the former he abandons the Prophets companie as an vnluckie guest Of Israel saith Balaam He coucheth and lyeth downe as a young Lyon and as a Lyon who shall stirre him vp Blessed is he that blesseth thee and cursed is he that curseth thee Then Balaak was very angry with Balaam and smote his hands together So Balaak said vnto Balaam I sent for thee to curse mine enimies and behold thou hast blessed them now three times Therefore now flee thou to thy place Had God vpon some extraordinary provocation of this people 's vnexpiated sinnes permitted the hireling Prophets curse to haue hit them the place whence it was directed should haue beene either ioynt sharer with old Baal in sacrifices and other divine honours or else haue brought forth some other like new God Or if the second arrow had spedde Baal Pisgah or Sede-sophim had beene more famous amongst the Moabites and their affrighted neighbours than Baalzebub or Baal Peor vntill the memorie of this successe had beene Eclips't by events more glorious elswhere manifested 7. The multiplicitie of Topicke gods amongst the heathen could hardly haue beene hatcht without a coniunction of the afore observed imbecillity of mans vnderstanding or confused apprehensions of time and place as cogenitors of effects begotten in them and of such affections or dispositions as the holy Ghost deciphers in Balaam The invisible power which filleth every place with his presence comprehended by none was confined within the circumference of that peculiar roome wherein it had beene sensibly manifested From his dominion over the fields testified sometimes by abundance sometimes by scarcitie rare and vnusuall they imagined a god of the field distinct from gods of the woods or waters From declaration of his power or secret touches of his presence in their houses or bodies whether by participation of his goodnesse or permission of evill Angells to torment them Dij Tutelares Penates or Lares Gods Protectors of their houses or families or Guardians of their persons had their originall And seeing there was no corner of the world wherein the invisible and hidden power of God was not sometimes remarkeably manifested in his effects the former gap once opened there could be no restraint of this superstitious vanitie Idolatrie from this one roote might spread as broad as the world was wide The visible and knowne Elements having one common matter for their mother each symbolizing with other in some homogeneall qualitie were allotted to three brother gods The earth to Pluto the water to Neptune the ayre to Iupiter from whose Tribunall lightnings were sent out as proclamations to affright these inferior rebellious regions and thunderbolts as arrowes of vengeance or executioners of his denounced wrath The severall Quarters of every regiment of the earth especially were assigned to Deputie Gods or Presidents yet so as varietie of time had sometime joynt suffrage with distinction of place for erecting these lesser gods which were as
ReligioÌ„ being formerly accustomed to worship the fire for Goâ— and to adore the thunder and lightning with divine honor set groues or trees in common woods of vnusuall height had such authoritie from antiquitie for their sacred esteeme that to cut or burne them or offer them any violence was reputed a sacrilege so fearefull as would instantly provoke vengeance divine But the woods and groues being at length cut downe and wasted without the destruction or harme of any imployed in this businesse they grew more tractable and as if the woods had taught them obedience began to beleeue the Kings authoritie and command becomming at length forward professors of Christian Religion 7. The like superstitious feare had Constantines resolution in reformation expelled out of the Aegyptians who would haue perswaded him that if he tooke their sacred ell or fathom out of Serapes Temple the River Nilus which was vnder this conceited Gods patronage would cease to flow At ille Labitur labetur in omne volubilis aenum But whether Angells had not graced these nurseries of devotion by their appearance vnto Gods servants in them especially before the Law was given is easilier questioned than determined The generall observation of errors springing from ancient truths imperfectly related makes me suspect that the apparition of Angels or manifestation of Gods presence in like places vnto holy men and their demeanour vpon such manifestations was by preposterous imitation drawn to authorize the Idololatricall worship of such spirits as the heathen had seene in visible shape as also of the supersticious esteeme or reverence of the places themselues For in Constantines time as Eusebius tells vs the Heathens had erected their Altars in the oaken groue of Mambree in which the three Angells appeared to Abraham 8. But whether Constantine though much offended with the Altar did with it destroy the groue is vncertaine For albeit the title of the Chapter containing this story in our English Eusebius takes it as graunted that he did the text notwithstanding leaues it doubtfull if not more probable that he did not Nor was it necessary he should in this case follow the example of Iosias or Ezekias having that libertie which they had not to build a Temple in the same place to the Lord vnto zealous devotion in whose service the groue might afford no lesse plenty of fuell than it had done to heathenish supersticion and Idolatry For that which feedeth superstition through want of instruction onely or through licensed opportunities not naturally not of it selfe would proue best nutriment of true devotion to such as haue the spirit of grace or wisdome to disgest it especially if the practises which nourish superstition be controlled by plausible custome or authority No affection more fertile of either than the Poeticall temper according as it is well or ill imployed No place yeelds such opportunities for growth either of roote or branch as woods or groues or like shrowdes or receptacles of retired life nor could the sight or solitary frequenting any of these haue nursed such strange superstition in the heathen but onely by suggesting a liuelier notion of the Godhead than vsuall obiects could occasion And if other mens mindes be of the same constitution with mine our apprehensions of the true God as Creator haue a kinde of spring when he renewes the face of the earth Praesentemque refert quâ—elibet herba Deum The suddainâ— growth of every grasse points out the place of his presence the varietie of flowers and hâ—â—rbes suggestâ— a secret admiration of his inexpressible beautie In this respect the frequency of Sermons seemes most necessary in Citties and great Townes that their Inhabitants who as one wittily observeth see for the most part but the workes of men may daily heare God speaking vnto them whereas such as are conversant in the fields and woods continually contemplate the workes of God And nothing naturally more apt to awaken our mindes and make them feele or see his operations than the growth of vegetables or the strange motions or instincts of creatures meerely sensitiue The secret increase or fructification of vegetables without any inherent motion or motiue facultie and the experience of sensitiues accomplishing their ends more certainely without any sparkle of reason then man doth his by reasonable contriuance or artificiall policie moued some heathens to adore groues woods birds and sensitiue creatures almost of every kinde for gods who yet neither worshipped dead elements or liuing men Dead elemeÌ„ts they neglected because their qualities lesse resemble the operations of the liuing God with some notions of whose nature they were inspired Liuing men they much admired not in that the cause of every actioÌ„ which they effect and the manner of bringing their ends about was too well knowne They saw little it seemeth in their neighbours but what they knew to be in themselues whom they had no reason to take for gods and if one should haue worshipped another perhaps the rest would haue called them fooles as birds or other creatures would haue done so they had knowne what worship meant howbeit such men in every age as could either reveale secrets to come or bring things to passe beyond the observation or experience of former humane wits were even in their life accounted as gods or neare friends vnto some god 9. Others againe that would haue scorned to worship men or almost any other liue-creature otherwise then vpon these tearmes did adore the heads or first springs of Rivers whose continuall motion to feede the streames that flow from them without any visible originall whence their owne store should be supplied is by nature not stifled by art a sufficient motiue to call the invisible Creator and fountaine of all things to mans remembrance And some againe whom sight of ordinary fountaines did lesse affect were put in mind of some divine invisible cause or prime mouer by the annuall overflow of Nilus or the like experiments inscrutable by course of nature The admirable effects of Nilus overflow were the cause of that irreligious and brutish disposition which Seneca noteth in the Aegyptian husbandmen Nemo Aratorum in Aegypto Coelum aspicit No Plowman in Aegypt lookes towardes Heaven The like hath a Romane Poet Te propter nullos Tellus tua postulat imbres Aâ—ida nec plu vio supplicat herba Iove Aegyptian earth saue Nilus streames no water knowes No parched grasse or Ioue or moistned ayre there wo'es The soile being mellowed with this River seemed lesse beholden to heaven than Athens was where as some collect the art of tilling the ground was first invented amongst the Graecians Albeit I rather thinke it was the drinesse of the soile wherein that famous Cittie stood which occasioned that Idololatricall embleme whence some haue taken occasion to coniecture that the art of tillage was first manifested there Athenis vbi ratio colendi agrum primum ostensa esse Graecis dicitur simulachrum terrae extitisse suppliciter
à Ioue pluviam comprecantis scribit Pausanias Cornar de Re vinitoria lib. 1. cap 8 pag. 56. Some whether halfe Christians or meere Pagans ranked by the auncient in the bed-rolle of heretickes haue held the Marigold and like flowers not vncapable of divine honour by reason of their liue-sympathie with the Sunne The auncient Galles did offer sacrifice vnto the Mistleto because the manner of its originall is without example in vegetables being caused as they conceived rather by secret celestiall influences than by any earthly or materiall propagation So easily are mindes apt to admire things strange and vncouth drawne through curiositie of observation vnto superstitious and idololatricall performances That in strange predictions we should apprehend the working of a divine wisedome which we apprehend not in our ordinary cogitatiōs though in them he alwayes worke falls out no otherwise than the like error in the common sort of heathen in whom trees of vnusuall height or like spectacles did raise an imaginatiō of Gods presence which sight of grasse of ordinary hearbes or lower shrubbes though in the lowest of them he be continually present could not prompt vnto their drowsie fantasies As seldome are our imaginations so throughly awaked as to take expresse notice of Gods presence without strong pushes of vnusuall accidents or violent incursion of vnacquainted obiects· Much familiaritie breeds contempt of their persons whose presence were it rare and vncouth would beget admiration awe and reverence This experiment so certaine in civill conversation that it is now growne into a Proverbe is rooted in that vndoubted Maxime in matters naturall A consuetis nulla fit passio and it beares no better fruit in matters Theologicall For albeit Gods presence be most intimate in our soules and his working in other creatures manifested vnto our eyes yet because this contact of his presence is perpetuall and the manifestation of his power continually obvious wee vsually haue no sence or feeling of the one or other vntill it touch vs after some vnusuall manner or open our eyes by presenting them with wonders Howbeit whilest these are absent to shake of the slumber and to inapt vs that are Christs Ministers to be affected with Gods presence such abstraction of our selues from secular turbulencies as the Poets vsed would be much availeable Carmina secessum scribentis otia querunt Good verses alwayes doe require A vacant minde and sweete retire Another thought he alwaies lost himselfe in the great preasse at Rome without hope of finding himselfe till he and his wits met againe at his rurall home Mihi me reddentis agelli And is it possible wee should not perceiue a great losse of Gods presence so long as we continue in places filled onely with the sound of secular contentions or debatements wherein the world and devill finde opportunitie to instampe their image vpon our soules preventing all impression of matters heavenly But when we come into solitary or vncouth places either deckt with natiue comelinesse and vnborrowed beautie or never soyled by secular commerce or frequency the conceipt of God and his goodnesse gaines first possession of our vacant thoughts and ravisheth our mindes with the fragrancy of his presence To haue some place of retire which hath beene witnesse of no thoughts but sacred is a great helpe vnto devotion the renewed sight or remembrance of every circumstance or locall adjunct occasions vs to resume our former cogitations without any curbe or impediment which in places wherein our mindes haue much runne on other matters we can hardly prosecute without interruption or mixture of worldly toyes 10. Would God it were free to make that harmelesse vse or application of these observations vnto others which I haue often made and hope to make each day more than other vnto my selfe And though I expect not the concurrence of many men no not of my brethren and companions to second me in my desire of that reformation which I haue no great cause to hope I shall ever see in this Land yet can I not deeme it a fruitlesse labour to powre forth my wishes in the worlds sight before Him who alone can doe all things And what is thy servant O Lord could most desire to see or heare before he goe hence and be no more seene or heard amongst the sonnes of mortall men That thy Temples throughout this Land might be more secluse and the liues of thy Ministers more retired That no action speech or gesture which beare the character of conversation secular or meerely civill should once so much as present it selfe to our sences whiles we approach thy dwellings That in these short passages from our private lodgings to thy secluse and silent Courts we might perceiue as great an alteration in our behaviour and affections as if we had gone out of an old world into a new or travelled from one kingdome to another people 11. Had not those priviledges of retired life wherewith superstition had blest her children beene held too glorious by reformers of Religion for reformed devotion to enioy the ingenuous povertie of the English Cleargie might haue made the whole world rich in all manner of spirituall knowledge The losse of Monasteriall possessions had beene light if as in temporall States the honour with some competent portion of auncient inheritance remaines entire vnto the next heire male while the greatest part of the Lands possessed by the father goes for dowrie vnto his daughters so that libertie of enioying themselues which had beene peculiar to them before all priviledges of secular Nobilitie which impaired them might haue beene reserved to the sonnes of Levi though but with some corners of their auncient retired mansions whose magnificēce had brought them vnto nothing Retired life it selfe is such an hidden treasury as were it within kenne of possibilitie to be regained in these our dayes Ecclesiasticall dignities though offered gratis would without equivocation be freely refused even by such as best deserue them He that now brings iron would bring brasse in stead of brasse we should haue silver in stead of silver gold towardes the rebuilding of Gods Temple or he that now scarce brings any quantitie of better mettall well refined to this good worke would bring Pearle Topas the Onyx and every precious stone in great abundance But now through want of these sacred gardens which might haue beene stored with spirituall simples the infectious disease of these Atheisticall and sacrilegious times is become incurable in the Physicians themselues Ambition even in Gods messengers over-groweth age and makes vs more vndiscreete and childish in the period of maturitie than we were in any part of our infancy For few if any of vs or seldome if at any time of our childhood haue longed to put on our best apparrell towards bed-time And yet what trickes and devises over and aboue all that Machiavill hath meditated doe we put in practise rather to over-burden than invest our soules with titles of dignitie
their purposes or affections change they are so ready to sing Canticum novum ditties so strangely contrary to their late passionate songs that no devise can better emblazen the inconstancy of their boysterously blind perswasions than Polyphoemus as the Poet pictures him in his woeing fit Candidior folio nivei Galataea ligustri Floridior prato longa procerior alno Spendidior vitro tenero lascivior haedo Laevior assiduo detritis aequore chonchis Solibus hybernis aestiva gratior vmbra Nobilior pomis Platano conspectior alta Lucidior glacie maturâ dulcior vua Mollior cygni plumis et lacte coacto Et si non fugias riguo formosior horto This was his note whiles his loue did kindle in hope much changed with alteration of his possibilities Saevior indomitis eadem Galataea iuvencis Durior annosa quercu fallacior vndis Lentior salicis virgis vitibus albis His immobilior scopulis violentior amne Laudato Pavone superbior acrior igne Asperior tribulis faeta truculentior vrsa Surdior aequoribus calcato immitior hydro Et quod praecipuè si possem demere vellem Non tantum cervo claris latratibus acto Verùm etiam ventis volucrique fugacior aura 6. Is it not a miserable condition whereunto the vnconstancy of humane passions seekes to bring the inflexible rule of truth vsually wrested to hold as exact consort with our Palinodies or recantations as with our first approved lessons although the one be more dissonant to the other than the latter part of Polyphoemus his song was to the former For without some apprehension of consort with Gods word no dogmaticall assertion can be conceived or maintained as true by any Christian though a Christian onely in his owne conceit So true it is which was before generally observed and often intimated that even the worst of Heathenish humors for the most part alter onely their course not their nature in those parts of the world which of heathens haue turned Christians As the Sea-water is no lesse salt in the reciprocation or stanch than while it boyles or over-flowes the bankes And if it be not tedious to resume the burden of this discourse As the common notion of Gods goodnesse occasioned the heathen to conceit every procurer of any good much affected for a God so this affectionate loue of divine truths in generall fastens our vnpurified perswasions vnto whatsoever we vehemently loue or much affect as to a truth divine or practice either warranted or commended to vs by the word of God Loue or hatred towards any object divine or humane if it be vnpurified affectionate or excessiue is alwayes prone either to slaunder divine justice where men are faultie or to miscensure mens actions in cases overruled by divine justice Priamus doting affection towards his vnlawfull daughter-in-law misswayed his minde to accuse the gods as authors or direct causes rather than to suspect her as any occasion of the evills which he feared or suffered And that vnpurified affection which many beare vnto truths or goodnesses divine confusedly apprehended will not suffer them to see or acknowledge Gods speciall providence in their punishments Ready they are at all assayes to inveigh against or meditate revenge vpon their brethren for chastisements appointed to them by the finger of God though executed by the hand of man God is too good to be the author of evill vnto them though of evill onely temporall That is in the true resolution of their secret thoughts they are so well perswaded of themselues that nothing to their apprehension is borne or bent to doe them harme besides the envy or malice of other men Every portion of Scripture which reproues or forbids malice doth by their interpretation in this taking condemne all such of malice or envy as any way vexe or displease them 7. What poysonous humor can wee condemne in any Heathen whose very dregges are not incorporated in the grand tyrannous monster of our times faction I meane with its members To eares animated with the spirit of this blind beast the least iarre in opinion though concerning matters of greater difficultie than consequence and better able to abide long search than speedy determination sounds as a deadly heresie alreadie condemned by Gods owne mouth Not to consort with these men in their occasionlesse vociferations against others presumed errors is in their verdit to be backward in religion to renounce the vnitie of faith to giue our hearts to the enemy As he that in singing obserues due time or a constant tone amongst such as regard neither but following the eare rise and fall with most or sweetest voyces shall by immusicall hearers be censured as the author of discord No sect or profession almost throughout any age but hath beene haunted with one or other violent humor with whose tincture if a man can cunningly temper or colour his discourses he may vent whatsoever he pleaseth albeit compounded of the very lees and refuse of that heresie which he seemeth most to oppugne Blasphemy breathed from some mens mouths so it be spiced or interspersed with holy phrase is suckt in as greedily by their followers as if it were the Spirit of life the very poyson of Aspes distilling from others lippes so it be tempered with the infusion or expression of propheticall fervencie in reproving sinne doth relish to their factious consorts as the quintessence of zeale Finally whilest one factious minde inveighs against his opposites bitternesse it selfe becommeth sweete to his associates but if an indifferent man shall lift the doctrine refute the error or reproue the passions of the one or other his discourses though seasoned with the spirit of meekenesse of sinceritie and judgement breeds a grievous disgust in both 8. The true originall or roote of this accused partialitie in putting good for evill and evill for good hony for gall and gall for hony will better appeare from a more particular inquiry or Philosophicall search of the meanes by which it comes to passe That the selfe same sence or exposition of Scriptures which ere whiles did most offend should forthwith best please the very same parties And lest I should giue offence to any Christian Reader the instance shall be chiefly in those with whom all Christians are justly offended CHAPTER XLVI Shewing by instances of sacred Writ that the same sense of Gods word which sometimes most displeased may shortly after most affect or please the selfe same parties with them manner how this alteration is wrought 1. ACtuall fruition of excessiue pleasure either hinders the working or dulls the apprehension of inherent griefe So doth satisfaction of vehement desires because most pleasant drowne all taste of petty annoyances and dead the impression of such vngratefull qualities as accompany the qualitie eagerly afected Extremitie of thirst will make a man to be in charitie almost with any kinde of moysture and cover a multitude of faults in drinke of which no one but would be very offensiue
to the spirit or to mens labours whom they presume to be throughly sanctified doe as lightly esteeme the opinion of greatest scholars auncient or moderne in divine mysteries as they highly magnifie their wit and judgement in artificiall learning or sacred generalities For matters of sanctification of election and salvation are as the onely trade or facultie which these men professe and of which they deeme their owne corporation onely free others not fit to be consulted or at least their voyces not to be taken vntill they haue served the like compleate apprenticeship to their supposed spirit or beene as long professors of the pure Word alone renouncing all commerce with naturall reason They are more offended with their followers for having recourse to it than ordinary tradesmen are with their servants or apprentices for haunting Alehouses Tavernes or worse places 7. Their first intention I am verily perswaded is to magnifie Gods grace more then others to their thinking doe Now it is a Maxime as plausible as true that Gods graces can never be magnified too much by any But it is a fault common almost to all to doe many things much amisse before we haue done them halfe enough The wisest oft miscarry in their proiects these men erre in their very first attempts their very intentions are mislevelled in that they thinke there is no direct way to grace but by declining helps of art or gifts of nature The first and immediate issue of this perswasion thus seeking to nurse a perpetuall irreconcileable faction betwixt Scripture and reason to magnifie grace by nullifying nature and art is that every action which is not warranted by some expresse rule of Scripture apprehended by grace is non ex fide not of faith whose onely compleate rule is scripture and being not of faith it must be a sinne so that these two propositions 1. all actions warranted by the expresse word of God must needs be lawfull 2. all lawfull actions must needs be warranted by the expresse word of God differ no more in their Logicke then this verse read forward doth from it selfe read backward for Grammaticall sense Odo tenet mulum madidam mappam tenet anna And after once out of a scrupulous feare to sinne in any action by following reason without expresse warrant of Scripture for the particular they haue for a while accustomed themselues to levell every action or saying and to square each thought by some expresse suteable rule of Scripture the Scripture and their thoughts or apprehensions become so intwined that in fine they are perswaded whatsoever they haue don thought or spoken in matters concerning God or Christians duties is warranted by some expresse rule or other of sacred Writ Whose testimonies for the most part they vse no otherwise then men in high place and authoritie often vse the placets or suffrages of their inferiors to countenance their peremptory designes by way of ceremony or formalitie which if they doe not voluntarily they shall doe at length against their wills Concerning the true meaning of that Maxime Whatsoever is not of faith is sinne we haue elswhere delivered our opinion The Scripture we grant to be the compleate and perfect rule of faith to be the onely rule likewise of planting the roote or habite whence all good actions or resolutions must grow It is not the onely rule for rectifying every particular branch in the growth These must be rectified by necessary or probable deductions which reason or rules of art sanctified by the habit of faith frame out of Scriptures of sacred Maximes CHAPTER XLVIII Of the more particular and immediate causes of all the forementioned errors or misperswasions 1. TO giue one prime Philosophicall cause of all or most morall misperswasions or transfigurations of sacred Oracles is perhaps onely possible to the cause of causes Two Maximes neverthelesse there be vndoubtedly experienced in matters naturall from which as from two principall heads the maine streame of errors doth most directly spring though much increased by confluence of such fallacies as haue beene deciphred The Maximes are one Intus apparens prohibet alienum common in Philosophicall Schooles the other Mota faciliùs moventur as well knowne and of as great vse amongst the Mathematickes or such as write Mathematically of Mechanicall instruments The efficacie of every agent resultes from the fit disposition of the patient whence it is that the internall distemper or indisposition of the organ will not admit the proper stampe or impression of any externall though its proper object Not that any distemper can so prevent the force or any indisposition so dead the agencie of the object as it shall not moue and agitate the organor that it is possible for the organ being moued or agitated by externall objects to be altogether barren For the very motion of it is a kinde of conception But the organ being prepossessed by abundance of heterogeneall matter mingled with it the impression or conception proues like the monstrous brood of males and females of diverse kindes And the more vehemently the organ is agitated the more sensible is the representation or apprehension of the inherent humors and in as much as the object is rightly apprehended as the cause of this actuall motion or representation it is likewised judged but amisse to be such it selfe as the motion or representation which it worketh Thus we somtimes mis-gather those things the Sunne for example to be hote themselues which produce heate in others those to be colde which cause sense of colde those moyst which leaue an impression of moysture where none was or was vnfelt before their operation Yet is the Moone neither colde nor moyst in its selfe although the true cause of coldnesse or moystning in subiects aptly disposed to either qualitie Braines stuffed with cold will easily suspect fragrant or vnknowne odoriferous perfumes of the lothsome smell which indeed they cause by provoking the putrified phlegme to imprint its selfe vpon the organ As the Sunne shining through a red glasse transports the rednesse vpon the eye and being the immediate cause of the actuall representation now made is judged to be of the same hue So externall colours presented to eyes subiect to suffusion or possessed with reall effluxions of other visibles cause a representation of those internall humors in the organ whence colours externall being the true cause of our present actuall sight we deeme them to be like vnto the internall humors which are seene Many like irritations of the flesh are vsually caused by the spirit seeking to imprint the right sence or Character of Gods word could the polluted heart or minde infected with preiudicate opinions admit the impression But carnall lusts or implanted phantasies being by this meanes set on working conceiue a depraved sense or a sense quite contrary to the spirits meaning and yet imagine it to be suggested by the word of God onely because it concurres to the actuall producing of such humors or phantasies 2.
There is no error but hath its nutriment from truth in whose roote it is engraffed like a wilde plant in a naturall stocke no vice but hath similitude in part with one or other vertue Now where vice or bad habits doe abound no character of any morall vertue or precept divine can leaue any true stampe or compleate impression of it selfe well may it moue or tickle the predominant humour with which it symbolizeth in part The covetous and niggardly disposition will solace it selfe with precepts of frugalitie and this solace taken in a conceited conformitie to the rule of life doth stiffen him in his wonted sinne The commendations of ingenuitie or freedome of spirit sympathize well with braue resolute mindes as they doe in part with stubbornnesse or selfe-will and the applause which the stubborne or selfe-willed take in this their partiall sympathie with the temper of Saints or holy men works a delight in them to glory in their shame So the prayse of valour or courage in good causes is as a watch-word to foole-hardinesse which once started will admit no curbe or restraint from any sacred precept commending warinesse or ingenuous feare The approbation given by Gods word to excessiue zeale or indignation swelling vpon just occasions oftimes provokes malitious dispositions to vent their bitternesse in a kinde of affected imitation of Saints Now not onely all imitation of counterfeit goodnesse but all counterfeit imitation of true goodnesse will in the end bring forth true and reall naughtinesse Generally as the word of life and grace where it fructifies doth translate our naturall dispositions into goodnesse supernaturall so the opinion or presumption of having our actions warranted or our dispositions countenanced from Gods word or will revealed doth sublimate all corruptions by nature inherent or acquired by custome into a degree of evill more then naturall 3. These grosse preposterous misconstructions admit no set bounds or limits of increase or waning besides the different degrees or qualities of the humour whence they spring As excessiue intemperance breeds an hate or loathing of divine goodnesse and disposeth to an amitie with hell so in others rightly perswaded as well of the truth of the Deitie as of the veracitie of his written word indefinitely conceived some particular rootes of bitternesse may be so venemous and malignant as will cause them to cast aspersions of blasphemie vpon the salvificall sense of these sacred oracles and to deifie contrary misconstructions prompted onely by the lusts and corruptions of the flesh Choler in some men though abundant is forthwith pacified with placid behaviour or gentle language but in others is so peevish and fretfull as maketh them interpret all addressements to pacifications to be but mockerie That which at other times to them or at all times to other men would be reputed affabilitie is in the heate of present distemper flatterie what others would take for true submission or be glad to entertaine as a serious proffer of reconcilement whiles this humor is stirred is dissimulation or subtiltie to entrap them The reason of such vncharitable misconstructions is the same which was given before Whatsoever is obvious to thoughts inwardly perplexed or grieved is apprehended as evill because it reviues or exasperates the cause of griefe and being apprehended as irkesome to their present dispositions the vnderstanding or fancie must play the Parasites and make good such imputations as the predominate humor layes vpon the obiect Others words or gestures alwayes provoke some motion in vs and with the motion some humor or other is set on working Now if the humor be tart or bitter the motion of it will be vnpleasant to the partie in whom it resides For this reason men sickly or cholericke prosecute all that speake to them or whatsoever moues the fretting humor with the same dislike they haue of it or their internall grievances thus occasioned All is one whether the speech or behaviour be faire or foule so the irkesome disposition be exasperated which sometimes is more offended with the antipathie of affabilitie or proffered courtesie than with churlish or boysterous opposition of the like temper in others For being boysterously opposed it either relents or findes opportunitie to exonerate it selfe and spend its venome by vehemencie of provoked motion but gathers strength by fretting inwardly at their speech or gestures which vnseasonably endevour to allay it as the Spring-sunne by stirring humors being not able to draw them out or digest them produceth agues Some tempers of minde in like sort there be very apt to be offended with divine truth either bluntly obscurely doubtfully or vnseasonably propounded and yet as ready to be friends with it distinctly and placidly represented Others are so tainted with the sower leaven of Pharisaisme that the more evident the truth is made or more plausibly delivered vnto them the more bitterly they maligne it and the proposers of it for the inward griefe of a worme-bitten conscience doth more disquiet the soule and spirit than any choler can doe the body or animal facultie Thus the high Priest rent his cloathes at our Saviours interpretation of that place in Daniel Hereafter shall ye see the Sonne of man as if he had spoken blasphemie Albeit his manner of delivering this divine truth manifest enough to sober examinours were most placid and in tearmes mitigated below the tenour of a direct answer to the question proposed Had he prophecied to haue made them Kings or vpon opportunitie of his late triumphant entertainment interpreted the Prophets words of himselfe then comming as their Generall to outbraue the Romanes with golden shieldes or glittering armour he might haue gained that applause which they afterward gaue to Herod Non vox hominis sed Dei SECTION VI. Of qualifications requisite for conceiving aright of the divine Nature and his Attributes CHAPTER XLIX The generall qualification or first ground for preventing misconceits of the Divine Nature or Attributes is purification of heart 1. THe Heathens grossely either multiply or mis-figure the divine Nature we varnish their vnsightly pictures or conjoyne their distracted representations both misproportion or deface him in his Attributes Now as it is the corruption of nature wherein we communicate too deepely with the Heathen which maketh vs partakers of their sins so shall we proue our selues more vnexcusable by much then they were vnlesse their example excite in vs religious care and alacritie to vse those meanes which many of them by light of nature questionlesse without the internall light of grace saw to be necessary for attaining the true knowledge of the Deitie To the better sort of them it was a cleare truth and a received Maxime That as the Sunne cannot be seene without its owne light so God could not be knowne without his illuminations That by these illuminations profered to all the most part were not in any degree inlightned for want of internal preparation The preparation or disposition by them required was purification of the soule