contempt whilst therefore they direct their Devotions to Her I offered mine to God and rectifie the Errors of their Prayers by rightly ordering mine own At a solemn Procession I have wept abundantly while my consorts blind with opposition and prejudice have fallen into an excess of scorn and laughter There are questionless both in Greek Roman and African Churches Solemnities and Ceremonies whereof the wiser Zeals do make a Christian use and stand condemned by us not as evil in themselves but as allurements and baits of superstition to those vulgar heads that look asquint on the face of Truth and those unstable Judgments that cannot resist in the narrow point and centre of Virtue without a reel or stagger to the Circumference Sect. 4 As there were many Reformers so likewise many Reformations every Country proceeding in a particular way and method according as their national Interest together with their Constitution and Clime inclined them some angrily and with extremity others calmly and with mediocrity not rending but easily dividing the community and leaving an honest possibility of a reconciliation which though peaceable Spirits do desire and may conceive that revolution of time and the mercies of God may effect yet that judgment that shall consider the present antipathies between the two extreams their contrarieties in condition affection and opinion may with the same hopes expect an union in the Poles of Heaven Sect. 5 But to difference my self nearer and draw into a lesser Circle There is no Church whose every part so squares unto my Conscience whose Articles Constitutions and Customs seem so consonant unto reason and as it were framed to my particular Devotion as this whereof I hold my Belief the Church of England to whose Faith I am a sworn Subject and therefore in a double Obligation subscribe unto her Articles and endeavour to observe her Constitutions what soever is beyond as points indifferent I observe according to the rules of my private reason or the humour and fashion of my Devotion neither believing this because Luther affirmed it or disproving that because Calvin hath disavouched it I condemn not all things in the Council of Trent nor approve all in the Synod of Dort In brief where the Scripture is silent the Church is my Text where that speaks 't is but my Comment where there is a joynt silence of both I borrow not the rules of my Religion from Rome or Geneva but the dictates of my own reason It is an urjust scandal of our adversaries and a gross errour in our selves to compute the Narivity of our Religion from Henry the Eighth who though he rejected the Pope refus'd not the faith of Rome and effected no more than what his own Predecessors desired and assayed in Ages past and was conceived the State of Venice would have attempted in our days It is as uncharitable a point in us to fall upon those popular scurrilities and opprobrious scoffs of the Bishop of Rome to whom as temporal Prince we owe the duty of good language I confess there is a cause of passion between us by his sentence I stand excommunicated Heretick is the best language he affords me yet can no ear witness I ever returned him the name of Antichrist Man of sin or Whore of Babylon It is the method of Charity to suffer without reaction Those usual Satyrs and invectives of the Pulpit may perchance produce a good effect on the vulgar whose ears are opener to Rhetorick than Logick yet do they in no wise confirm the faith of wiser Believers who know that a good cause needs not to be pardon'd by passion but can sustain it self upon a temperate dispute Sect. 6 I could never divide my self from any man upon the difference of an opinion or be angry with his judgement for not agreeing with me in that from which within a few days I should dissent my self I have no Genius to disputes in Religion and have often thought it wisdom to decline them especially upon a disadvantage or when the cause of truth might suffer in the weakness of my patronage Where we desire to be informed 't is good to contest with men above our selves but to confirm and establish our opinions 't is best to argue with judgments below our own that the frequent spoils and Victories over their reasons may settle in our selves an esteem and confirmed Opinion of our own Every man is not a proper Champion for Truth nor fit to take up the Gauntlet in the cause of Verity Many from the ignorance of these Maximes and an inconsiderate Zeal unto Truth have too rashly charged the Troops of Error and remain as Trophies unto the enemies of Truth A man may be in as just possession of Truth as of a City and yet be forced to surrender 't is therefore far better to enjoy her with peace than to hazzard her on a battle if therefore there rise any doubts in my way I do forget them or at least defer them till my better setled judgement and more manly reason be able to resolve them for I perceive every mans own reason is his best Oedipus and will upon a reasonable truce find a way to loose those bonds wherewith the subtleties of error have enchained our more flexible and tender judgements In Philosophy where Truth seems double fac'd there is no man more Paradoxical than my self but in Divinity I love to keep the Road and though not in an implicite yet an humble faith follow the great wheel of the Church by which I move not reserving any proper Poles or motion from the Epicycle of my own brain by this means I have no gap for Heresie Schismes or Errors of which at present I hope I shall not injure Truth to say I have no taint or tincture I must confess my greener studies have been polluted with two or three not any begotten in the latter Centuries but old and obsolete such as could never have been revived but by such extravagant and irregular heads as mine for indeed Heresies perish not with their Authors but like the River Arethusa though they lose their currents in one place they rise up again in another One general Council is not able to extirpate one single Heresie it may be cancell'd for the present but revolution of time and the like aspects from Heaven will restore it when it will flourish till it be condemned again For as though there were Metempsuchosis and the soul of one man passed into another Opinions do find after certain Revolutions men and minds like those that first begat them To see our selves again we need not look for Plato's year every man is not only himself there hath been many Diogenes and as many Timons though but few of that name men are liv'd over again the world is now as it was in Ages past there was none then but there hath been some one since that Parallels him and as it were his revived self Now the first of mine was that of
wound a thousand and at one blow assassine the honour of a Nation It is as compleat a piece of madness to miscal and rave against the times or think to recal men to reason by a fit of passion Democritus that thought to laugh the times into goodness seems to me as deeply Hypochondriack as Heraclitus that bewailed them It moves not my spleen to behold the multitude in their proper humours that is in their fits of folly and madness as well understanding that wisdom is not prophan'd unto the World and 't is the priviledge of a few to be Vertuous They that endeavour to abolish Vice destroy also Virtue for contraries though they destroy one another are yet in life of one another Thus Virtue abolish vice is an Idea again the community of sin doth not disparage goodness for when Vice gains upon the major part Virtue in whom it remains becomes more excellent and being lost in some multiplies its goodness in others which remain untouched and persist intire in the general inundation I can therefore behold Vice without a Satyr content only with an admonition or instructive reprehension for Noble Natures and such as are capable of goodness are railed into vice that might as easily be admonished into virtue and we should be all so far the Orators of goodness as to protract her from the power of Vice and maintain the cause of injured truth No man can justly censure or condemn another because indeed no man truly knows another This I perceive in my self for I am in the dark to all the world and my nearest friends behold me but in a cloud those that know me but superficially think less of me than I do of my self those of my neer acquaintance think more God who truly knows me knows that I am nothing for he only beholds me and all the world who looks not on us through a derived ray or a trajection of a sensible species but beholds the substance without the helps of accidents and the forms of things as we their operations Further no man can judge another because no man knows himself for we censure others but as they disagree from that humour which we fancy laudible in our selves and commend others but for that wherein they seem to quadrate and consent with us So that in conclusion all is but that we all condem Self-love 'T is the general complaint of these times and perhaps of those past that charity grows cold which I perceive most verified in those which most do manifest the fires and flames of zeal for it is a virtue that best agrees with coldest natures and such as are complexioned for humility But how shall we expect Charity towards others when we are uncharitable to our selves Charity begins at home is the voice of the World yet is every man his greatest enemy and as it were his own Executioner Non occides is the Commandment of God yet scarce observed by any man for I perceive every man is his own Atropos and lends a hand to cut the thred of his own days Cain was not therefore the first Murtherer but Adam who brought in death whereof he beheld the practice and example in his own son Abel and saw that verified in the experience of another which faith could not perswade him in the Theory of himself Sect. 5 There is I think no man that apprehends his own miseries less than my self and no man that so neerly apprehends anothers I could lose an arm without a tear and with few groans methinks be quartered into pieces yet can I weep most seriously at a Play and receive with true passion the counterfeit grief of those known and professed Impostures It is a barbarous part of inhumanity to add unto any afflicted parties misery or indeavour to multiply in any man a passion whose single nature is already above his patience this was the greatest affliction of Job and those oblique expostulations of his Friends a deeper injury than the down-right blows of the Devil It is not the tears of our own eyes only but of our friends also that do exhaust the current of our sorrows which falling into many streams runs more peaceably and is contented with a narrower channel It is an act within the power of charity to translate a passion out of one brest into another and to divide a sorrow almost out of it self for an affliction like a dimension may be so divided as if not indivisible at least to become insensible Now with my friend I desire not to share or participate but to engross his sorrows that by making them mine own I may more easily discuss them for in mine own reason and within my self I can command that which I cannot intreat without my self and within the circle of another I have often thought those noble pairs and examples of friendship not so truly Histories of what had been as fictions of what should be but I now perceive nothing in them but possibilities nor any thing in the Heroick examples of Damon and Pythias Achilles and Patroclus which methinks upon some grounds I could not perform within the narrow compass of my self That a man should lay down his life for his Friend seems strange to vulgar affections and such as confine themselves within that Worldly principle Charity begins at home For my own part I could never remember the relations that I held unto my self nor the respect that I owe unto my own nature in the cause of God my Country and my Friends Next to these three I do embrace my self I confess I do not observe that order that the Schools ordain our affections to love our Parents Wives Children and then our Friends for excepting the injunctions of Religior I do not find in my self such a necessary and indissoluble Sympathy to all those of my blood I hope I do not break the fifth Commandment if I conceive I may love my friend before the nearest of my blood even those to whom I owe the principles of life I never yet cast a true affection on a woman but I have loved my friend as I do virtue my soul my God From hence me thinks I do conceive how God loves man what happiness there is in the love of God Omitting all other there are three most mystical unions two natures in one person three persons in one nature one soul in two bodies For though indeed they be really divided yet are they so united as they seem but one and make rather a duality than two distinct souls Sect. 6 There are wonders in true affection it is a body of Enigma 's mysteries and riddles wherein two so become one as they both become two I love my friend before my self and yet methinks I do not love him enough some few months hence my multiplied affection will make me believe I have not loved him at all when I am from him I am dead till I be with him when I am with him I am not satisfied but
we must consider what it is that bringeth us to this excellent State to be happy in the other World of Eternity and Immutability It is agreed on all hands to be God's Grace and Favour to us But all do not agree by what steps his Grace produceth this effect Herein I shall not trouble your Lordship with a long Discourse how that Grace worketh in us which yet I will in a word touch anon that you may conceive what I understand Grace to be but will suppose it to have wrought its effect in us in this life and from thence examine what hinges they are that turn us over to Beatitude and Glory in the next Some consider God as a Judge that rewardeth or punisheth men according as they co-operated with or repugned to the Grace he gave That according as their actions please or displease him he is well affected towards them or angry with them and accordingly maketh them to the purpose and very home feel the effects of his kindness or indignation Others that fly a higher pitch and are so happy Vt rerum poterint cognoscere causas do conceive that Beatitude and misery in the other life are effects that necessarily and orderly flow out of the Nature of those Causes that begot them in this life without engaging God Almighty to give a sentence and act the part of a Judge according to the state of our Cause as it shall appear upon the Accusations and pleadings at his great Bar. Much of which manner of expression is Metaphorical and rather adapted to contain vulgar minds in their Duties that are awed with the thought of a severe Judge sifting every minute-action of theirs than such as we must conceive every circumstance to pass so in reality as the literal sound of the words seems to infer in ordinary construction and yet all that is true too in its genuine sence But my Lord these more penetrating men and that I conceive are vertuous upon higher and stronger Motives for they truely and solidly know why they are so do consider that what impressions are once made in the spiritual Substance of a Soul and what affections it hath once contracted do ever remain in it till a contrary and diametrically contradicting judgement and affection do obliterate it and expel it thence This is the reason why Contrition Sorrow and Hatred for Sins past is encharged us If then the Soul do go out of the Body with impressions and affections to the Objects and pleasures of this life it continually lingreth after them and as Virgil learnedly as well as wittily saith Quae gratia currum Armorumque fuit vivis quae cura nitentes Pascere equos eadem sequitur tellure repostos But that being a State wherein those Objects neither are nor can be enjoyed it must needs follow that such a Soul must be in an exceeding anguish sorrow and affliction for being deprived of them and for want of that it so much prizeth will neglect all other contentments it might have as not having a relish or taste moulded and prepared to the savouring of them but like feavorish tongues that when they are even scorched with heat take no delight in the pleasingest liquors but the sweetest drinks seem bitter to them by reason of their overflowing Gall So they even hate whatsoever good is in their power and thus pine away a long Eternity In which the sharpness and activity of their pain anguish and sad condition is to be measured by the sensibleness of their Natures which being then spiritual is in a manner infinitely more than any torment that in this life can be inflicted upon a dull gross body To this add the vexation it must be to them to see how inestimable and infinite a good they have lost and lost meerly by their own fault and for momentary trifles and childrens play and that it was so easie for them to have gained it had they remained but in their right senses and governed themselves according unto Reason And then judge in what a tortured condition they must be of remorse and execrating themselves for their most resupine and sensless madness But if on the other side a Soul be released out of this Prison of clay and flesh with affections setled upon Intellectual goods as Truth knowledge and the like and that it be grown to an irksome dislike of the flat pleasures of this World and look upon carnal and sensual Objects with a disdainful eye as discerning the contemptible Inanity in them that is set off only by their painted outside and above all that it hath a longing desire to be in the Society of that supereminent Cause of Causes in which they know are heaped up the Treasurers of all Beauty Knowledge Truth Delight and good whatsoever and therefore are impatient at the Delay and reckon all their Absence from him as a tedious Banishment and in that regard hate their Life and Body as Cause of this Divorce such a Soul I say must necessarily by reason of the temper it is wrought into enjoy immediately at the instant of the Bodies dissolution and its liberty more Contentment more Joy more true Happiness than it is possible for a heart of flesh to have scarce any scantling of much less to comprehend For immense Knowledge is natural to it as I have touched before Truth which is the adequated and satisfying Object of the Understanding is there displayed in her own Colours or rather without any And that which is the Crown of all and in respect of which all the rest is nothing that infinite Entity which above all things this Soul thirsteth to be united unto cannot for his own Goodness sake deny his Embraces to so affectionate a Creature and to such an enflamed Love If he should then were that Soul for being the best and for loving him most condemned to be the unhappiest For what Joy could she have in any thing were she barrred from what she so infinitely loveth But since the Nature of superiour and excellent things is to shower down their propitious Influences wheresoever there is a Capacity of receiving them and no Obstacle to keep them out like the Sun that illuminateth the whole Air if no Cloud or solid opacous Body intervene it followeth clearly that this infinite Sun of Justice this immense Ocean of Goodness cannot chuse but inviron with his Beams and replenish even beyond satiety with his delightsome Waters a soul so prepared and tempered to receive them No my Lord to make use of this Discourse and apply it to what begot it be pleased to determine which way will deliver us evenest and smoothest to this happy end of our Journey To be vertuous for hope of a Reward and through fear of Punishment or to be so out of a natural and inward affection to Vertue for Vertues and Reasons sake Surely one in this latter condition not onely doth those things which will bring him to Beatitude but he is so secured in a
is not unremarkable what Philo first observed That the Law of Moses continued two thousand years without the least alteration whereas we see the Laws of other Common-weals do alter with occasions and even those that pretended their Original from some Divinity to have vanished without trace or memory * I believe besides Zoroaster there were divers that writ before Moses who notwithstanding have suffered the common fate of time Mens Works have an age like themselves and though they out live their Authors yet have they a stint and period to their duration This only is a work too hard for the teeth of time and cannot perish but in the general Flames when all things shall confess their Ashes Sect. 24 I have heard some with deep sighs lament the lost lines of Cicero ‖ others with as many groans deplore the combustion of the Library of Alexandria for my own part I think there be too many in the World and could with patience behold the urn and ashes of the Vatican could I with a few others recover the perished leaves of Solomon * I would not omit a Copy of Enoch's Pillars had they many nearer Authors than Josephus or did not relish somewhat of the Fable Some men have written more than others have spoken Pineda quotes more Authors in one work than are necessary in a whole World ‖ Of those three great inventions in Germany there are two which are not without their incommodities and 't is disputable whether they exceed not their use and commodities 'T is not a melancholy Utinam of my own but the desires of better beads that there were a general Synod not to unite the incompatible difference of Religion but for the benefit of learning to reduce it as it lay at first in a few and solid Authors and to condemn to the fire those swarms millions of Rhapsodies begotten only to distract and abuse the weaker judgements of Scholars and to maintain the trade and mystery of Typographers Sect. 25 I cannot but wonder with what exception the Samaritans could confine their belief to the Pentateuch or five Books of Moses I am ashamed at the Rabbinical Interpretation of the Jews upon the old Testament as much as their defection from the New And truly it is beyond wonder how that contemptible and degenerate issue of Jacob once so devoted to Ethnick Superstition and so easily seduced to the Idolatry of their Neighbours should now in such an obstinate and peremptory belief adhere unto their own Doctrine expect impossibilities and in the face and eye of the Church persist without the least hope of Conversion This is a vice in them that were a vertue in us for obstinacy in a bad Cause is but constancy in a good And herein I must accuse those of my own Religion for there is not any of such a fugitive Faith such an unstable belief as a Christian none that do so oft transform themselves not unto several shapes of Christianity and of the same Species but unto more unnatural and contrary Forms of Jew and Mahometan that from the name of Saviour can condescend to the bare term of Prophet and from an old belief that he is come fall to a new expectation of his coming It is the promise of Christ to make us all one Flock but how and when this Union shall be is as obscure to me as the last day Of those four Members of Religion we hold a slender proportion there are I confess some new additions yet small to those which accrew to our Adversaries and those only drawn from the revolt of Pagans men but of negative Impieties and such as deny Christ but because they never heard of him but the Religion of the Jew is expresly against the Christian and the Mahometan against both For * the Turk in the bulk he now stands he is beyond all hope of conversion if he fall asunder there may be conceived hopes but not without strong improbabilities The Jew is obstinate in all fortunes the persecution of fifteen hundred years hath but confirmed them in their Errour they have already endured whatsoever may be inflicted and have suffered in a bad cause even to the condemnation of their enemies Persecution is a bad and indirect way to plant Religion It hath been the unhappy method of angry Devotions not only to confirm honest Religion but wicked Heresies and extravagant Opinions It was the first stone and Basis of our Faith * none can more justly boast of Persecutions and glory in the number and valour of Martyrs For to speak properly those are true and almost only examples of fortitude Those that are fetch'd from the field or drawn from the actions of the Camp are not oft-times so truely precedents of valour as audacity and at the best attain but to some bastard piece of fortitude ‖ If we shall strictly examine the circumstances and requisites which Aristotle requires to true and perfect valour we shall find the name only in his Master Alexander and as little in that Roman Worthy Julius Caesar and if any in that easie and active way have done so nobly as to deserve that name yet in the passive and more terrible piece these have surpassed and in a more heroical way may claim the honour of that Title 'T is not in the power of every honest Faith to proceed thus far or pass to Heaven through the flames every one hath it not in that full measure nor in so audacious and resolute a temper as to endure those terrible tests and trials who notwithstanding in a peaceable way do truely adore their Saviour and have no doubt a Faith acceptable in the eyes of God Sect. 26 Now as all that dye in the War are not termed Souldiers so neither can I properly term all those that suffer in matters of Religion Martyrs * The Council of Constance condemns John Huss for an Heretick the Stories of his own Party stile him a Martyr He must need offend the Divinity of both that says he was neither the one nor the other There are many questionless canonized on earth that shall never be Saints in Heaven and have their names in Histories and Martyrologies who in the eyes of God are not so perfect Martyrs as was * that wise Heathen Socrates that suffered on a fundamental point of Religion the Unity of God * I have often pitied the miserable Bishop that suffered in the cause of Antipodes yet cannot chuse but accuse him of as much madness for exposing his living on such a trifle as those of ignorance and folly that condemned him I think my conscience will not give me the lye if I say there are not many extant that in a noble way fear the face of death less than my self yet from the moral duty I owe to the Commandment of God and the natural respects that I tender unto the conservation of my essence and being I would not perish upon a Ceremony Politick points or indifferency nor is
Author meant in this place by saying he had not shaken hands that is that he had not so deserted or bid farewel to the Romanists as to stand at swords point with them and then he gives his reasons at those words For omitting those improperations c. So that instead of memet adjungo the Translator should have used some word or Phrase of a clean contrary signification and instead of ex diametro repugnent it should be repugnem Sect. 5 Pag. 8 Henry the Eighth though he rejected the Pope refused not the faith of Rome So much Buchanan in his own life written by himself testifieth who speaking of his coming into England about the latter end of that King's time saith Sed ibitum omnia adeo erant incerta ut eodem die ac eodem igne Very strange utriusque factionis homines cremarentur Henrico 8. jam seniore suae magnis securitati quà m Religionis puritati intento And for confirmation of this assertion of the Author vide Stat. 31 H. 8. cap. 14. And was conceived the State of Venice would have attempted in our days This expectation was in the time of Pope Paul the Fifth who by excommunicating that Republique gave occasion to the Senate to banish all such of the Clergy as would not by reason of the Popes command administer the Sacraments and upon that account the Jesuites were cast out and never since receiv'd into that State Sect. 6 Pag. 9 Or be angry with his judgement for not agreeing with me in that from which perhaps within a few dayes I should dissent my self I cannot think but in this expression the Author had respect to that of that excellent French Writer Monsieur Mountaign in whom I often trace him Combien diversement jugeons nous de choses Combien de fois changeons nous nos fantasies Ce que je tien à ujourdhuy ce que je croy je le tien le croy de toute ma Creance mais ne m'est il pas advenu non une fois mais cent mais mille tous les jours d'avoir embrasse quelque autre chose Mountaign lib. 2. Des Essais Chap. 12. Every man is not a proper Champion for truth c. A good cause is never betray'd more then when it is prosecuted with much eagerness and but little sufficiency and therefore Zuinglius though he were of Carolistadius his opinion in the point of the Sacrament of the Eucharist against Luther yet he blamed him for undertaking the defence of that cause against Luther not judging him able enough for the encounter Non satis habet humerorum saith he of Carolostad alluding to that of Horace Sumite materiam vestris qui scribitis aequam Viribus versate diu quid ferre recusent Quid valeant humeri So Minutius Foelix Plerumque pro disserentium viribus eloquentiae potestate etiam perspicuae veritatis conditio mutetur Minut. in Octav. And Lactantius saith this truth is verified in Minutius himself for Him Tertullian and Cyprian he spares not to blame all of them as if they had not with dexterity enough defended the Christian Cause against the Ethniques Lactant. de justitia cap. 1. I could wish that those that succeeded him had not as much cause of complaint against him surely he is noted to have had many errors contra fidem In Philosophy there is no man more Paradoxical than my self but in Divinity I love to keep the Road c. Appositely to the mind of the Author saith the Publisher of Mr. Pembel's Book de origine formarum Certe saith he in locis Theologicis ne quid detrimenti capiat vel Pax vel Veritas Christi â novarum opiniorum pruritu prorsus abstinendum puto usque adeo ut ad certam requlam etiam loqui debeamus quod pie prudenter monet Augustinus de Civ Dei l. 16 cap. 23. ne verborum licentia impia vi gignat opinionem at in pulvere Scholastico ubi in nullius verba juramus in utramvis partem sine dispendio vel pacis vel salutis ire liceat major conceditur cum sentiendi tum loquendi libertas c. Capet in Ep. Dedicat. Pembel de origine form praef Heresies perish not with their Authors but like the River Arethusa though they lose their Currents in one place they rise again in another Who would not think that this expression were taken from Mr. Mountaigne l. 2. des Ess cap. 12. Where he hath these words Nature enserre dans les termes de son progress ordinaire comme toutes autres choses aussi les creances les judgements opinions des hommes elles ont leur revolutions and that Mountaigne took his from Tully Non enim hominum interitu sententiae quoque occidunt Tull. de nat deorum l. 1. c. Of the River Arethusa thus Seneca Videbis celebratissimum carminibus fontem Arethusam limpidissimi ac perlucidissimi ad imum stagni gelidissimas aquas profundentem sive illas primum nascentes invenit sive flumen integrum subter tot maria à confusione pejoris undae servatum reddidit Senec. de consolat ad Martiam Sect. 7 Pag. 12 Now the first of mine was that of the Arabians For this Heresie the Author here sheweth what it was they are called Arabians from the place where it was fostered and because the Heresiarch was not known Euseb St. Aug. and Nicephorus do all write of it the reason of this Heresie was so specious that it drew Pope John 22 to be of the same perswasion Where then was his infallibility Why Bellarmine tells you he was nevertheless infallible for that for saith he he maintained this opinion when he might do it without peril of Heresie for that no definition of the Church whereby 't was made Heresie had preceded when he held that opinion Bellar. l. 4. de Pontif. Roman cap. 4. Now this definition was first made 't is true by Pope Banedict in the 14 Age but then I would ask another question that is If 'till that time there were nothing defined in the Church touching the beatitude of Saints what certainty was there touching the sanctity of any man and upon what ground were those Canonizations or Saints had that were before the 14 Age The second was that of Origen Besides St. Augustine Epiphanius and also S. Hierom do relate that Origen held that not onely the souls of men but the Devils themselves should be discharged from torture after a certain time but Genebrard endeavours to clear him of this Vid. Coquaeum in 21 lib. Aug. de Civ Dei cap. 17. These opinions though condemned by lawful Councils were not Heresie in me c. For to make an Heretique there must be not only Error in intellectu but pertinacia in voluntate So St. Aug. Qui sententiam suam quamvis falsam atque perversam nulla pertinaci animositate defendunt quaerunt autem cauta solicitudine veritatem corrigi parati cum invenerint nequaquam
to be adopted and design'd Successor and the Emperour 's own Son to be disinherited and against the Emperour whom he so much praised when he had need of him after his death he writes a scurrillous Libel In Nero's Court how ungratefully doth he behave himself towards Agrippina who although she were a wicked woman yet she deserv'd well of him and of her Son too who yet never was at rest till he had taken away her life and upon suspicion cast in against her by this man Afterwards not to mention that he made great haste to grow rich which should not be the business of a Philosopher towards Nero himself how well did it become his Philosophy to play the Traitor against him and to become a complice in the Conspiracy of Piso And then as good a Tragedian as he was me thinks he doth in extremo actu deficere when he must needs perswade Paulina that excellent Lady his wife to die with him what should move him to desire it it could in his opinion be no advantage to her for he believ'd nothing of the immortality of the Soul I am not satisfied with the reason of Tacitus Ne sibi unicê dilectam ad injurias relinqueret because he discredits it himself in almost the next words where he saith Nero bore her no ill will at all and would not suffer her to die it must surely be then because he thought he had not liv'd long enough being not above 114 years old so much he was and had not the fortitude to die unless he might receive some confirmation in it by her example Now let any man Judg what a precious Legacy it is that he bequeaths by his nuncupative Will to his friends in Tacitus Conversus ad amicos saith he quando meritis eorum referre gratiam prohiberetur quod unum jam tamen pulcherrimum habebat imaginem vitae suae relinquere testatur It cannot be denyed of him that he hath said very well but yet it must as well be affirmed that his Practice hath run counter to his Theory to use the Author's phrase The Scepticks that affirmed they knew nothing The ancient Philosophers are divided into three sorts Dogmatici Academici Sceptici the first were those that delivered their opinions positively the second left a liberty of disputing pro contra the third declared that there was no knowledg of any thing no not of this very proposition that there is no knowledge according to that Nihil sciri siquis putat id quoque nescit An sciri possit quod se nil scire fatetur The Duke of Venice that weds himself to the Sea by a Ring of Gold c. The Duke and Senate yearly on Ascension day use to go in their best attire to the Haven at Lio and there by throwing a Ring into the water do take the Sea as their spouse Vid. Hist Ital. by Will. Thomas Cambro brit Busbequius reports that there is a custom among the Turks which they took from the Greek Priests not much unlike unto this Cum Graecorum Sacer dotibus mos sit certo veris tempore aquas consecrando mare clausum veluti reserare ante quod tempus non facile se committunt fluctibus ab ea ceremonia nec Turcae absunt Busb Ep. 3. legat Tursic But the Philosopher that threw his money into the Sea to avoid Avarice c. This was Apollonius Thyaneus who threw a great quantity of Gold into the Sea with these words Pessundo divitias ne pessundare ab illis Polycrates the Tyrant of Samos cast the best Jewel he had into the Sea that thereby he might learn to compose himself against the vicissitude of Fortune There go so many circumstances to piece up one good action To make an action to be good all the causes that concur must be good but one bad amongst many good ones is enough to make it vitious according to the rule Bonum ex causa integra malum ex partiali Sect. 56 Pag. 121 The vulgarity of those Judgments that wrap the Church of God in Strabo's Cloak and restrain it unto Europe 'T is Strabonis Tunica in the Translation but Chlamydi would do better which is the proper expression of the word that Strabo useth it is not Europe but the known part of the World that Strabo resembleth to a Cloak and that is it the Author here alludeth to but we have no reason to think that the resemblance of Strabo is very proper Vid. Sir Hen. Savil in not ad Tac. in vita Agricolae Sect. 57 Pag. 123 Those who upon a rigid application of the Law sentence Solomon unto damnation c. St. Aug. upon Psal 126. and in many other places holds that Solomon is damned Of the same opinion is Lyra in 2 Reg. c. 7. Bellarm. 1. Tom. lib. 1. Controv. c. 5. THE SECOND PART Sect. 2 Pag. 127 I Wonder not at the French for their Frogs Snails and Toad-stools Toad-stools are not peculiar to the French they were a great delicacy among the Romans as appears every where in Martial It was conceived the Emperour Claudius received his death by Poyson which he took in a Mushroom Suet. and Tac. Sect. 1 Pag. 130 How among so many millions of faces there should be none alike It is reported there have been some so much alike that they could not be distinguished as King Antiochus and one Antemon a Plebeian of Syria were so much alike that Laodice the King's Widow by pretending this man was the King dissembled the death of the King so long till according to her own mind a Successor was chosen Cn. Pompeius and one Vibius the Orator C. Plancus and Rubrius the Stage-player Cassius Severus the Orator and one Mirmello M. Messala Censorius and one Menogenes were so much alike that unless it were by their habit they could not be distinguished but this you must take upon the faith of Pliny lib. 7. c. 12. and Solinus cap. 6. who as this Author tells elsewhere are Authors not very infallible Sect. 3 Pag. 138 What a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hot skirmish is between S. and T. in Lucian In his Dialogue judicium vocalium where there is a large Oration made to the Vowels being Judges by Sigma against Tau complaining that Tau has bereaved him of many words which should begin with Sigma Their Tongues are sharper than Actius his Razor Actius Navius was chief Augur who as the Story saith admonishing Tarqu. Priscus that he should not undertake any action of moment without first consulting the Augur the King shewing that he had little faith in his skill demanded of him whether by the rules of his skill what he had conceived in his mind might be done to whom when Actius had answered it might be done he bid him take a Whetstone which he had in his hand and cut it in two with a Razor which accordingly the Augur did Livy And therefore we must conceive it was very sharp Here the
inaccessible Light cometh to us cloathed in the dark Weeds of Negations and therefore little can we hope to meet with any positive Examples to parallel it withal I doubt he also mistaketh and imposeth upon the several Schools when he intimateth that they gain-say this visible worlds being but a Picture or Shadow of the Invisible and Intellectual which manner of Philosophizing he attributeth to Hermes Trismegistus but is every where to be met with in Plato and is raised since to a greater height in the Christian Schools But I am sure he learned in no good School nor sucked from any good Philosophy to give an actual Subsistence and Being to first Matter without a Form He that will allow that a Real Existence in Nature is as superficially tincted in Metaphysicks as another would be in Mathematicks that should allow the like to a Point a Line or a Superficies in Figures These in their strict Notions are but Negations of further Extension or but exact Terminations of that Quantity which falleth under the Consideration of the Understanding in the present purpose no real Entities in themselves so likewise the Notions of Matter Form Act Power Existence and the like that are with Truth considered by the Understanding and have there each of them a distinct Entity are nevertheless no where by themselves in Nature They are terms which we must use in the Negotiations of our thoughts if we will discourse consequently and conclude knowingly But then again we must be very wary of attributing to things in their own Natures such Entities as we create in our Understandings when we make Pictures of them there for there every different consideration arising out of the different impression which the same thing maketh upon us hath a distinct Being by it self Whereas in the thing there is but one single Vnity that sheweth as it were in a Glass at several positions those various faces in our understanding In a word all these words are but artificial terms not real things And the not right understanding of them is the dangerousest Rock that Scholars suffer shipwrack against I go on with our Physician 's Contemplations Upon every occasion he sheweth strong parts and a vigorous brain His wishes and aims and what he pointeth at speak him owner of a noble and a generous heart He hath reason to wish that Aristotle had been as accurate in examining the Causes Nature and Affections of the great Universe he busied himself about as his Patriarch Galen hath been in the like considerations upon this little World Man's Body in that admirable Work of his De Vsu Partium But no great humane thing was ever born and perfected at once It may satisfie us if one in our age buildeth that magnificent Structure upon the others foundations and especially if where he findeth any of them unsound he eradicateth those and sixeth new unquestionable ones in their room But so as they still in gross keep a proportion and bear a Harmony with the other great Work This hath now even now our learned Countryman done The knowing Mr. White whose name I believe your Lordship hath met with al in his excellent Book De Mundo newly printed at Paris where he now resideth and is admired by the World of Letter'd men there as the Prodigie of these latter times Indeed his three Dialogues upon that Subject if I am able to judge any thing are full of the profoundest Learning I ever yet met withal And I believe who hath well read digested them will perswade himself there is no truth so abstruse nor hitherto conceived out of our reach but mans wit may raise Engines to scale and conquer I assure my self when our Author hath studied him throughly he will not lament so loud for Aristotle's mutilated and defective Philosophy as in Boccaline Caesar Caporali doth for the loss of Livies ship-wracked Decads That Logick which he quarrelleth at for calling a Toad or Serpent ugly will in the end agree with his for no body ever took them to be so in respect of the Vniverse in which regard he desendeth their Regularity and Symmetry but onely as they have relation to us But I cannot so easily agree with him where he affirmeth that Devils or other Spirits in the Intellectual World have no exact Ephemerides wherein they may read before-hand the Stories of fortuite Accidents For I believe that all Causes are so immediately chained to their Effects as if a perfect knowing Nature get hold but of one link it will drive the entire Series or Pedigree of the whole to its utmost end as I think I have proved in my fore-named Treatise so that in truth there is no Fortuitness or Contingency of things in respect of themselves but onely in respect of us that are ignorant of their certain and necessary Causes Now a little Series or Chain and Complex of all outward Circumstances whose highest link Poets say prettily is fasten'd to Jupiter's Chair and the lowest is riveted to every Individual on Earth steered and levelled by God Almighty at the first setting out of the first Mover I conceive to be that Divine Providence and Mercy which to use our Author 's own Example giveth a thriving Genius to the Hollanders and the like And not any secret invisible mystical Blessing that falleth not under the search or cognizance of a prudent indagation I must needs approve our Authors Aequanimity and I may as justly say his Magnanimity in being contented so cheerfully as he saith to shake hands with the fading Goods of Fortune and be deprived of the joys of her most precious blessings so that he may in recompence possess in ample measure the true ones of the mind like Epictetus that Master of moral Wisdom and Piety who taxeth them of high injustice that repine at Gods Distribution of his Blessings when he putteth not into their share of goods such things as they use no Industry or Means to purchase For why should that man who above all things esteemeth his own freedom and who to enjoy that sequestreth himself from commerce with the vulgar of mankind take it ill of his Stars if such Preferments Honours and Applauses meet not him as are painfully gained after long and tedious Services of Princes and brittle Dependances of humorous Favourites and supple Compliances with all sorts of Natures As for what he saith of Astrologie I do not conceive that wise men reject it so much for being repugnant to Divinity which he reconcileth well enough as for having no solid Rules or ground in Nature To rely too far upon that vain Art I judge to be rather folly than impiety unless in our censure we look to the first Origine of it which favoureth of the Idolatry of those Heathens that worshipping the Stars and heavenly Bodies for Deities did in a superstitious Devotion attribute unto them the Causality of all Effects beneath them And for ought I know the belief of solid Orbs in the Heavens
and their regularly-irregular Motions sprung from the same root And a like Inanity I should suspect in Chiromancy as well as Astrologie especially in particular contingent Effects however our Author and no less a man than Aristotle seem to attribute somewhat more to that conjectural Art of Lines I should much doubt though our Author sheweth himself of another mind that Bernardinus Ochinâ—s grew at the last to be a meer Atheist When after having been first the Institutor and Patriarch of the Capucine-Order so violent was his Zeal then as no former religious Institution though never so rigorous was strict enough for him he from thence fell to be first an Heretick then a Jew and after a while became a Turk and at the last wrote a furious Invective against those whom he called the three Grand Impostors of the World among whom he ranked our Saviour Christ as well as Moses and Mahomet I doubt he mistakes in his Chronologie or the Printer in the name when he maketh Ptolomy condemn the Alchoran He needeth not be so scrupulous as he seemeth to be in averring down-rightly That God cannot do contradictory things though peradventure it is not amiss to sweeten the manner of the expression and the sound of the words for who understandeth the nature of contradiction will find Non-Entity in one of the terms which of God were impiety not to deny peremptorily For he being in his proper Nature Self-Entity all Being must immediately flow from him and all Not-Being be totally excluded from that Efflux Now for the recalling of Time past which the Angels posed Esdras withal there is no contradiction in that as is evident to them that know the essence of Time For it is but putting again all things that had motion into the same state they were in at that moment unto which time was to be reduced back and from thence letting it travel on again by the same motion and upon the same wheels it rouled upon before And therefore God could do this admirable Work though neither Esdras nor all the power of Creatures together could do it And consequently it cannot in this Question be said that he posed Mortality with what himself was not able to perform I acknowledge ingenuously our Physician 's experience hath the advantage of my Philosophy in knowing there are Witches Yet I am sure I have no temptation to doubt of the Deity nor have any unsatisfaction in believing there are Spirits I do not see such a necessary conjunction between them as that the supposition of the one must needs infer the other Neither do I deny there are Witches I only reserve my Assent till I meet with stronger motives to carry it And I confess I doubt as much of the efficacy of those Magical Rules he speaketh of as also of the finding out of Mysteries by the courteous Revelation of Spirits I doubt his Discourse of an Vniversal Spirit is but a wild Fancy and that in the marshalling of it he mistaketh the Hermetical Philosophers And surely it is a weak argument from a common nature that subsisteth only in our understanding out of which it hath no being at all to infer by parity an actual Subsistence or the like in reality of nature of which kind of miscarriage in mens discoursings I have spoken before And upon this occasion I do not see how seasonably he falleth of a sudden from natural Speculations to a Moral Contemplation of Gods Spirit working in us In which also I would enquire especially upon his sudden Poetical rapture whether the Solidity of the Judgement be not out-weighed by the airiness of the Fancy Assuredly one cannot err in taking this Author for a very fine ingenious Gentleman But for how deep a Scholar I leave unto them to judge that are abler than I am If he had applied himself with earnest study and upon right grounds to search out the Nature of pure Intellects I doubt not but his great Parts would have argued more efficaciously than he doth against those that between Men and Angels put only Porphyrie ' difference of Mortality and Immortality And he would have dived further into the tenour of their Intellectual Operations in which there is no Succession nor ratiocinative Discourse for in the very first instant of their Creation they actually knew all that they were capable of knowing and they are acquainted even with all free thoughts past present and to come for they see them in their causes and they see them all together at one instant as I have in my fore-mentioned Treatise proved at large And I think I have already touched thus much once before in this Letter I am tempted here to say a great deal concerning Light by his taking it to be a bare Quality For in Physicks no Speculation is more useful or reacheth further But to set down such Phaenomena's of it as I have observed and from whence I evidently collect the Nature of it were too large a Theam for this place When your Lordship pleaseth I shall shew you another more orderly Discourse upon that Subject wherein I have sufficiently proved it to be a solid Substance and Body In his proceeding to collect an Intellectual World and in his discoursing upon the place and habitation of Angels as also in his consideration of the activity of glorified Eyes which shall be in the state of rest whereas motion is required to seeing and in his subtil Speculation upon two Bodies placed in the Vacuity beyond the utmost all-enclosing Superficie of Heaven which implieth a Contradiction in Nature methinks I hear Apelles cry out Ne sutor ultra Crepidam or rather it putteth me in mind of one of the Titles in Pantagruel's Library which he expresseth himself conversant in namely Quaestio subtilissima utrum Chimaera in vacuo bombinans possit comedere Secundas intentiones with which short Note I will leave these Considerations in which if time and other circumstances allowed it matter would spring up of excellent Learning When our Author shall have read Mr. Whites Dialogue of the World he will no longer be of the Opinion That the Unity of the World is a conclusion of Faith For it is there demonstrated by Reason Here the thread of the Discourse inviteth me to say a great deal of the Production or Creation of Mans Soul But it is too tedious and too knotty a piece for a Letter Now it shall suffice to note that it is not Ex traduce and yet hath a strange kind of near dependance of the Body which is as it were Gods instrument to create it by This thus said or rather tumbled out may seem harsh But had your Lordship leisure to peruse what I have written at full upon this Point I doubt not but it would appear plausible enough to you I cannot agree with him when he seemeth to impute Inconvenience to long Life and that length of time doth rather impair than improve us For surely if we will follow the
Period of true Religion this Gentleman's intended Theam as I conceive I have no occasion to speak any thing since my Author doth but transiently mention it and that too in such a phrase as ordinary Catechisms speak of to vulgar Capacities Thus my Lord having run through the Book God knows how sleightly upon so great a sudden which your Lordship commanded me to give you an account of there remaineth yet a weightier task upon me to perform which is to excuse my self of Presumption for daring to consider any Moles in that Face which you had marked for a Beauty But who shall well consider my manner of proceeding in these Remarks will free me from that Censure I offer not at Judging the Prudence and Wisdom of this Discourse These are fit Inquiries for your Lordships Court of highest Appeal In my inferiour one I meddle onely with little knotty pieces of particular Sciences Matinae apis instar operosa parvus carmina fingit In which it were peradventure a fault for your Lordship to be too well versed your Imployments are of a higher and nobler Strain and that concerns the welfare of millions of men Tu regere Imperio Populos Sackville memento Hae tibi erunt Artes pacisque imponere morem Such little Studies as these belong onely to those Persons that are low in the Rank they hold in the Common-wealth low in their Conceptions and low in a languishing and rusting Leisure such an one as Virgil calleth Ignobile otium and such an one as I am now dulled withal If Alexander or Caesar should have commended a tract of Land as fit to fight a Battel in for the Empire of the World or to build a City upon to be the Magazine and Staple of all the adjacent Countries no body could justly condemn that Husbandman who according to his own narrow Art and Rules should censure the Plains of Arbela or Pharsalia for being in some places sterile or the Meadows about Alexandria for being sometimes subject to be overflown or could tax ought he should say in that kind for a contradiction unto the others commendations of those places which are built upon higher and larger Principles So my Lord I am confident I shall not be reproached of unmannerliness for putting in a Demurrer unto a few little particularities in that noble Discourse which your Lordship gave a general Applause unto and by doing so I have given your Lordship the best Account I can of my self as well as of your Commands You hereby see what my entertainments are and how I play away my time Dorset dum magnus ad altum Fulminat Oxonium bello victorque volentes Per populos dat jura viamque affectat Olympo May your Counsels there be happy and successful ones to bring about that Peace which if we be not quickly blessed withal a general ruine threatneth the whole Kingdom From Winchester-House the 22 I think I may say the 23 for I am sure it is Morning and I think it is Day of December 1642. Your Lordships must humble and obedient Servant Kenelm Digby The Postscript My Lord LOoking over these loose Papers to point them I perceive I have forgotten what I promised in the eighth sheet to touch in a word concerning Grace I do not conceive it to be a Quality infused by God Almighty into a Soul Such kind of discoursing satisfieth me no more in Divinity than in Philosophy I take it to be the whole Complex of such real motives as a solid account may be given of them that incline a man to Virtue and Piety and are set on foot by God's particular Grace and Favour to bring that work to pass As for Example To a man plunged in Sensuality some great misfortune happeneth that mouldeth his heart to a tenderness and inclineth him to much thoughtfulness In this temper he meeteth with a Book or Preacher that representeth lively to him the danger of his own condition and giveth him hopes of greater contentment in other Objects after he shall have taken leave of his former beloved Sins This begetteth further conversation with prudent and pious men and experienced Physitians in curing the Souls Maladies whereby he is at last perfectly converted and setled in a course of solid Vertue and Piety Now these accidents of his misfortune the gentleness and softness of his Nature his falling upon a good Book his encountring with a pathetick Preacher the impremeditated Chance that brought him to hear his Sermon his meeting with other worthy men and the whole Concatenation of all the intervening Accidents to work this good effect in him and that were ranged and disposed from all Eternity by Gods particular goodness and providence for his Salvation and without which he had inevitably beer damned This chain of Causes ordered by God to produce this effect I understand to be Grace FINIS * A Church Bell that tolls every day at six and twelve of the Clock at the hearing whereof every one in what place soever either of House or Street betakes himself to his prayer which is commonly directed to the Virgin b A revolution of certain thousand years when all things should return unto theirformer estate and he be teaching again in his School as when he delivered this Opinion b Sphaera cujus centrum ubique circumferentianullibi * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nosce teipsum * Post Mortem nihil est ipsaque Mors nihil Mors individua est noxia corpori nec patiens animae Toti morimur nullaque pars manet nostri In Rabbelais * Pineda in his Monarchica Ecclesiastica quotes one thousand and forty Authors * In his Oracle to Augustus * Thereby is meant our good Angel appointed us from our Nativity * Who willed his friend not to bury him but hang him up with a staff in his hand to fright away the Crows In those days there shall come lyars and false prophets †Urbem Romam in principio Reges habuere * Pro Archia Poeta †In qua me non inficior mediocriter esse * In his Medicus Medicateus * That he was a German appears by his Notes Pag. 35. where he hath these words Duleissima nostra Germania c. * In Praefat Annotat * Excepting two or three Particulars in which reference is made to some Books that came over since that time Printing Guns * Tho. Aquin in com in Boet de Consolat prope â—inam This Story I have but upon relation yet of a very good hand