the Arabians That the Souls of men perished with their Bodies but should yet be raised again at the last day not that I did absolutely conceive a mortality of the Soul but if that were which Faith not Philosophy hath yet throughly disproved and that both entred the grave together yet I held the same conceit thereof that we all do for the body that it rile again Surely it is but the merits of our unworthy Natures if we sleep in darkness until the last Alarm A serious reflex upon my own unworthiness did make me backward from challenging this prerogative of my Soul so that I might enjoy my Saviour at the last I could with patience be nothing almost unto Eternity The second was that of Origen That God would not persist in his vengeance for ever but after a definite time of his wrath he would release the damned Souls from torture which error I fell into upon a serious contemplation of the great Attribute of God his Mercy and did a little cherish it in my self because I found therein no malice and a ready weight to sway me from the other extream of despair whereunto Melancholy and Contemplative Natures are too easily disposed A third there is which I did never positively maintain or practise but have often wished it had been consonant to Truth and not offensive to my Religion and that is the Prayer for the dead whereunto I was inclin'd from some charitable inducements whereby I could scarce contain my Prayers for a friend at the ringing of a Bell or behold his Corps without an Orison for his Corps 'T was a good way methought to be remembred by posterity and far more noble than an History These opinions I never maintained with pertinacy or endeavoured to enveagle any mans belief unto mine nor so much as ever revealed or disputed them with my dearest friends by which means I neither propagated them in others nor confirmed them in my self but suffering them to flame upon their own substance without addition of new fuel they went out insensibly of themselves therefore these Opinions though condemned by lawful Councels were not Heresies in me but bare Errors and single Lapses of my understanding without a joynt depravity of my will Those have not onely depraved understandings but diseased affections which cannot enjoy a singularity without an Heresie or be the Author of an Opinion without they be of a Sect also this was the Villany of the first Schism of Lucifer who was not content to err alone but drew into his Faction many Legions and upon this experience he tempted only Eve as well understanding the Communicable nature of Sin and that to deceive but one was tacitely and upon consequence to delude them both Sect. 8 That Heresies should arise we have the Prophesie of Christ but that old ones should be abolished we hold no prediction That there must be Heresies is true not only in our Church but also in any other even in the doctrines heretical there will be super-super-heresies and Arians not only divided from their Church but also among themselves for heads that are disposed unto Schism and complexionably propense to innovation are naturally disposed for a community nor will be ever confined unto the order or oeconomy of one body and therefore when they separate from others they knit but loosely among themselves nor contented with a general breach or dichotomy with their Church do subdivide and mince themselves almost into Atoms 'T is true that men of singular parts and humours have not been free from singular opinions and conceits in all Ages retaining something not only beside the opinion of his own Church or any other but also any I particular Author which notwithstanding a sober Judgment may do without offence or heresie for there is yet after all the Decrees of Councils and the niceties of Schools many things untouch'd unimagin'd wherein the liberty of an honest reason may play and expatiate with security and far without the circle of an Heresie Sect. 9 As for those wingy Mysteries in Divinity and airy subtleties in Religion which have unhing'd the brains of better heads they never stretched the Pia Mater of mine methinks there be not impossibilities enough in Religion for an active faith the deepest Mysteries ours contains have not only been illustrated but maintained by Sylogism and the rule of Reason I love to lose my self in a mystery to pursue my Reason to an O altitudo 'T is my solitary recreation to pose my apprehension with those involved Aenigma's and riddles of the Trinity with Incarnation and Resurrection I can answer all the Objections of Satan and my rebellious reason with that odd resolution I learned of Tertullian Certum est quia impossible est I desire to exercise my faith in the difficultest point for to credit ordinary and visible objects is not faith but perswasion Some believe the better for seeing Christ's Sepulchre and when they have seen the Red Sea doubt not of the Miracle Now contrarily I bless my self and am thankful that I lived not in the days of Miracles that I never saw Christ nor his Disciples I would not have been one of those Israelites that pass'd the Red Sea nor one of Christ's patients on whom he wrought his wonders then had my faith been thrust upon me nor should I enjoy that greater blessing pronounced to all that believe and saw not 'T is an easie and necessary belief to credit what our eye and sense hath examined I believe he was dead and buried and rose again and desire to see him in his glory rather than to contemplate him in his Cenotaphe or Sepulchre Nor is this much to believe as we have reason we owe this faith unto History they only had the advantage of a bold and noble Faith who lived before his coming who upon obscure prophesies and mystical Types could raise a belief and expect apparent impossibilities Sect. 10 'T is true there is an edge in all sirm belief and with an easie Metaphor we may say the Sword of Faith but in these obscurities I rather use it in the adjunct the Apostles gives it a Buckler under which I conceive a wary combatant may lye invulnerable Since I was of understanding to know we knew nothing my reason hath been more pliable to the will of Faith I am now content to understand a mystery without a rigid definition in an easie and Platonick description That allegorical description of Hermes pleaseth me beyond all the Metaphysical definitions of Divines where I cannot satisfie my reason I love to humour my fancy I had as live you tell me that anima est angelus hominis est Corpus Dei as Entelechia Lux est umbra Dei as actus perspicui where there is an obscurity too deep for our Reason 't is good to sit down with a description periphrasis or adumbration for by acquainting our reason how unable it is to display the visible and obvious effects
action that it is a lesson to be good and we are forced to be virtuous by the book Again the Practice of men holds not an equal pace yea and often runs counter to their Theory we naturally know what is good but naturally pursue what is evil the Rhetorick wherewith I perswade another cannot perswade my self there is a depraved appetite in us that will with patience hear the learned instructions of Reason but yet perform no farther than agrees to its own irregular humour In brief we all are monsters that is a composition of Man and Beast wherein we must endeavour to be as the Poets fancy that wise man Chiron that is to have the Region of Man above that of Beast and Sense to sit but at the feet of Reason Lastly I do desire with God that all but yet affirm with men that few shall know Salvation that the bridge is narrow the passage straight unto life yet those who do confine the Church of God either to particular Nations Churches or Families have made it far narrower then our Saviour ever meant it Sect. 56 * The vulgarity of those judgements that wrap the Church of God in Strabo's cloak and restrain it unto Europe seem to me as bad Geographers as Alexander who thought he had Conquer'd all the World when he had not subdued the half of any part thereof For we cannot deny the Church of God both in Asia and Africa if we do not forget the Peregrinations of the Apostles the deaths of the Martyrs the Sessions of many and even in our reformed judgement lawful Councils held in those parts in the minority and nonage of ours Nor must a few differences more remarkable in the eyes of man than perhaps in the judgement of God excommunicate from Heaven one another much less those Christians who are in a manner all Martyrs maintaining their Faith in the noble way of perfecution and serving God in the Fire whereas we honour him in the Sunshine 'T is true we all hold there is a number of Elect and many to be saved yet take our Opinions together and from the confusion thereof there will be no such thing as salvation nor shall any one be saved For first the Church of Rome condemneth us we likewise them the Sub-reformists and Sectaries sentence the Doctrine of our Church as damnable the Atomist or Familist reprobates all these and all these them again Thus whilst the Mercies of God do promise us Heaven our conceits and opinions exclude us from that place There must be therefore more than one St. Peter particular Churches and Sects usurp the gates of Heaven and turn the key against each other and thus we go to Heaven against each others wills conceits and opinions and with as much uncharity as ignorance do err I fear in points not only of our own but one anothers salvation Sect. 57 I believe many are saved who to man seem reprobated and many are reprobated who in the opinion and sentence of man stand elected there will appear at the Last day strange and unexpected examples both of his Justice and his Mercy and therefore to define either is folly in man and insolency even in the Devils those acute and subtil spirits in all their sagacity can hardly divine who shall be saved which if they could Prognostick their labour were at an end nor need they compass the earth seeking whom they may devour * Those who upon a rigid application of the Law sentence Solomon unto damnation condemn not onely him but themselves and the whole World for by the Letter and written Word of God we are without exception in the state of Death but there is a prerogative of God and an arbitrary pleasure above the Letter of his own Law by which alone we can pretend unto Salvation and through which Solomon might be as easily saved as those who condemn him Sect. 58 The number of those who pretend unto Salvation and those infinite swarms who think to pass through the eye of this Needle have much amazed me That name and compellation of little Flock doth not comfort but deject my Devotion especially when I reflect upon mine own unworthiness wherein according to my humble apprehensions I am below them all I believe there shall never be an Anarchy in Heaven but as there are Hierarchies amongst the Angels so shall there be degrees of priority amongst the Saints Yet is it I protest beyond my ambition to aspire unto the first ranks my desires onely are and I shall be happy therein to be but the last man and bring up the Rere in Heaven Sect. 59 Again I am confident and fully perswaded yet dare not take my oath of my Salvation I am as it were sure and do believe without all doubt that there is such a City as Constantinople yet for me to take my Oath thereon were a kind of Perjury because I hold no infallible warrant from my own sense to confirm me in the certainty thereof And truly though many pretend an absolute certainty of their Salvation yet when an humble Soul shall contemplate our own unworthiness she shall meet with many doubts and suddenly find how little we stand in need of the Precept of St. Paul Work out your salvation with fear and trembling That which is the cause of my Election I hold to be the cause of my Salvation which was the mercy and beneplacit of God before I was or the foundation of the World Before Abraham was I am is the saying of Christ yet is it true in some sense if I say it of my self for I was not onely before my self but Adam that is in the Idea of God and the decree of that Synod held from all Eternity And in this sense I say the World was before the Creation and at an end before it had a beginning and thus was I dead before I was alive though my grave be England my dying place was Paradise and Eve miscarried of me before she conceiv'd of Cain Sect. 60 Insolent zeals that do decry good Works and rely onely upon Faith take not away merit for depending upon the efficacy of their Faith they enforce the condition of God and in a more sophistical way do seem to challenge Heaven It was decreed by God that only those that lapt in the water like Dogs should have the honour to destroy the Midianites yet could none of those justly challenge or imagine he deserved that honour thereupon I do not deny but that true Faith and such as God requires is not onely a mark or token but also a means of our Salvation but where to find this is as obscure to me as my last end And if our Saviour could object unto his own Disciples and Favourites a Faith that to the quantity of a grain of Mustard-seed is able to remove Mountains surely that which we boast of is not any thing or at the most but a remove from nothing This is the Tenor of my belief
in any essential matter of the Doctrine as by the Harmony of Confessions appears 5 Epist Theod. Bezae Edmundo Grindallo Ep. Londinens Wherein I dislike nothing but the Name that is Lutheran Calvinist Zuinglian c. Now the accidental occasion wherein c. This is graphically described by Thuanus in his History but because his words are too large for this purpose I shall give it you somewhat more briefly according to the relation of the Author of the History of the Council of Trent The occasion was the necessity of Pope Leo Tenth who by his profusion had so exhausted the Treasure of the Church that he was constrained to have recourse to the publishing of Indulgences to raise monies some of which he had destined to his own Treasury and other part to his Allyes and particularly to his Sister he gave all the money that should be raised in Saxony and she that she might make the best profit of the donation commits it to one Aremboldus a Bishop to appoint Treasurers for these Indulgences Now the custome was that whensoever these Indulgences were sent into Saxony they were to be divulged by the Fryars Eremites of which Order Luther then was but Aremboldus his agents thinking with themselves that the Fryars Eremites were so well acquainted with the trade that if the business should be left to them they should neither be able to give so good an account of their Negotiation nor yet get so much themselves by it as they might do in case the business were committed to another Order they thereupon recommend it to and the business is undertaken by the Dominican Fryars who performed it so ill that the scandal arising both from thence and from the ill lives of those that set them on work stirred up Luther to write against the abuses of these Indulgences which was all he did at first but then not long after being provoked by some Sermons and small Discourses that had been published against what he had written he rips up the business from the beginning and publishes xcv Theses against it at Wittenberg Against these Tekel a Dominican writes then Luther adds an explication to his Eckius and Prierius Dominicans thereupon take the controversie against him and now Luther begins to be hot and because his adversaries could not found the matter of Indulgences upon other foundations then the Pope's power and infallibility that begets a disputation betwixt them concerning the Pope's power which Luther insists upon as inferiour to that of a general Council and so by degrees he came on to oppose the Popish Doctrine of Remission of Sins Penances and Purgatory and by reason of Cardinal Cajetans imprudent management of the conference he had with him it came to pass that he rejected the whole body of Popish Doctrine So that by this we may see what was the accidental occasion wherein the slender means whereby and the abject condition of the person by whom the work of Reformation of Religion was set on foot Sect. 3 Pag. 3 Yet I have not shaken hands with those desperate Resolutions Resolvers it should be without doubt who had rather venture at large their dedecayed Bottom than bring her in to be new trimm'd in the Dock who had rather promiscuously retain all than abridge any and obstinately be what they are than what they have been as to stand in a diameter and at swords points with them we have reformed from them not against them c. These words by Mr. Merryweather are thus rendred sc Nee tamen in vecordem illum pertinacium hominum gregem memet adjungo qui labefactatum navigium malunt fortunaoe committere quà m in navale de integro resarciendum deducere qui malunt omnia promiscuè retinere quà m quicquam inde diminuere pertinacitèr esse qui sunt quà m qui olim fuerunt ita uti isdem ex diametro repugnent ab illis non contra illos reformationem instituimus c. And the Latine Annotator sits down very well satisfied with it and hath bestowed some Notes upon it but under the favour both of him and the Translator this Translation is so far different from the sense of the Author that it hath no sense in it or if there be any construction of sense in it it is quite besides the Author's meaning which will appear if we consider the context by that we shall find that the Author in giving an account of his Religion tells us first that he is a Christian and farther that he is of the reform'd Religion but yet he saith in this place he is not so rigid a Protestant nor at defiance with Papists so far but that in many things he can comply with them the particulars he afterwards mentions in this Section for saith he we have reform'd from them not against them that is as the Archbishop of Canterbury against the Jesuit discourseth well We have made no new Religion nor Schism from the old but in calling for the old and desiring that which was novel and crept in might be rejected and the Church of Rome refusing it we have reform'd from those upstart novel Doctrines but against none of the old and other sense the place cannot bear therefore how the Latine Annotator can apply it as though in this place the Author intended to note the Anabaptists baptist I see not unless it were in respect of the expression Vecordem pertinacium hominum gregem which truly is a description well befitting them though not intended to them in this place howsoever I see not any ground from hence to conclude the Author to be any whit inclining to the Bulk of Popery but have great reason from many passages in this Book to believe the contrary as he that prefix'd a Preface to the Parisian Edition of this Book hath unwarrantably done But for the mistake of the Translator it is very obvious from whence that arose I doubt not but it was from the mistake of the sense of the English Phrase Shaken hands which he hath rendred by these words Memet adjungo wherein he hath too much play'd the Scholar and shew'd himself to be more skilful in forraign and ancient customs then in the vernacular practise and usage of the language of his own Country for although amongst the Latines protension of the Hand were a Symbole and sign of Peace and Concord as Alex. ab Alexandro Manum verò protendere pacem peti significabant saith he Gen. Dier lib. 4. cap. 〈◊〉 which also is confirmed by Cicero pro Dejotaro and Caesar l. 2. de Bello Gallico and was used in their first meetings as appears by the Phrase Jungere hospitio Dextras and by that of Virgil Oremus pacem Dextras tendamus inermes And many like passages that occur in the Poets to which I believe the Translator had respect vet in modern practise especially with us in England that ceremony is used as much in our Adieu's as in the first Congress and so the
some Errors of the Press and one or two main ones of the Latine Translation whereby the Author is much injured it cannot be denyed but he hath pass'd over many hard places untoucht that might deserve a Note that he hath made Annotations on some where no need was in the explication of others hath gone besides the true sense And were we free from all these yet one great Fault there is he may be justly charg'd with that is that he cannot manum de Tabula even in matters the most obvious which is an affectation ill-becoming a Scholar witness the most learned Annotator Claud. Minos Divion in prefat commentar Alciat Emblemat praefix Praestat saith he brevius omnia persequi leviter attingere quae nemini esse ignota suspicari possint quam quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perque locos communes identidem expatiari I go not about by finding fault with his obliquely to commend my own I am as far from that as 't is possible others will be All I seek by this Preface next to acquainting the Reader with the various entertainment of the Book is that he would be advertized that these Notes were collected ten years since long before the German's were written so that I am no Plagiary as who peruseth his Notes and mine will easily perceive And in the second place that I made this Recuil meerly for mine own entertainment and not with any invention to evulge it Truth is my witness the publication proceeds meerly from the importunity of the Book-seller my special friend who being acquainted with what I had done and about to set out another Edition of the Book would not be denied these Notes to attex to it 't is he not I that divulgeth it and whatever the success be he alone is concern'd in it I only say for my self what my Annotations bear in the Frontispiece Nec satis est vulgasse fidem That is that it was not enough to all persons though pretenders to Learning that our Physitian had publish'd his Creed because it wanted an exposition I say further that the German's is not full and that Quicquid sum Ego quamvis Infra Lucilli censum ingeniumque my explications do in many things illustrate the text of my Author 24 Martii 1654. ANNOTATIONS UPON RELIGIO MEDICI The Epistle to the Reader CErtainly that man were greedy of life who should desire to live when all the World were at an end This Mr. Merry weather hath rendred thus Cupidum esse vitae oportet qui universo jam expirante mundo vivere cuperet and well enough but it is not amiss to remember that we have this saying in Seneca the Tragoedian who gives it us thus Vitae est avidus quisquis non vult mundo secum pereunte mori There are many things delivered Rhetorically The Author herein imitates the ingenuity of St. Austin who in his Retract corrects himself for having delivered some things more like a young Rhetorician than a sound Divine but though St. Aug. doth deservedly acknowledge it a fault in himself in that he voluntarily published such things yet cannot it be so in this Author in that he intended no publication of it as he pofesseth in this Epistle and in that other to Sir Kenelm Digby The First PART Sect. 1 Pag. 1 THe general scandal of my Profession Physitians of the number whereof it appears by several passages in this Book the Author is one do commonly hear ill in this behalf It is a common speech but onely amongst the unlearned sort Vbi tres Medici duo Athei The reasons why those of that profession I declare my self that I am none but Causarum Actor mediocris to use Horace his phrase may be thought to deserve that censure the Author rendreth Sect. 19. The natural course of my studies The vulgar lay not the imputation of Atheism onely upon Physitians but upon Philosophers in general who for that they give themselves to understand the operations of Nature they calumniate them as though they rested in the second causes without any respect to the first Hereupon it was that in the tenth Age Pope Silvester the second pass'd for a Magician because he understood Geometry and natural Philosophy Baron Annal 990. And Apuleius long before him laboured of the same suspicion upon no better ground he was accus'd and made a learned Apology for himself and in that hath laid down what the ground is of such accusations in these words Haec fermè communi quodam errore imperitorum Philosophis objectantur ut partem eorum qui corporum causas meras simplices rimantur irreligiosas putant eoque aiunt Deos abnuere ut Anaxagoram Lucippum Democritum Epicurum caeterosque rerum naturae Patronos Apul. in Apolog. And it is possible that those that look upon the second causes scattered may rest in them and go no further as my Lord Bacon in one of his Essayes observeth but our Author tells us there is a true Philosophy from which no man becomes an Atheist Sect. 46. The indifference of my behaviour and Discourse in matters of Religion Bigot's are so oversway'd by a preposterous zeal that they hate all moderation in discourse of Religion they are the men forsooth qui solos credant habendo◠esse Deos quos ipsi colunt Erasmus upon this accompt makes a great complaint to Sir Tho. More in an Epistle of his touching one Dorpius a Divine of Lovain who because upon occasion of discourse betwixt them Erasmus would not promise him to write against Luther told Erasmus that he was a Lutheran and afterwards published him for such and yet as Erasmus was reputed no very good Catholick so for certain he was no Protestant Not that I meerly owe this Title to the Font as most do taking up their Religion according to the way of their Ancestors this is to be blamed amongst all Persons It was practised as well amongst Heathens as Christians Per caput hoc juro per quod Pater antè solebat saith Ascanius in Virgil and Apuleius notes it for an absurdity Vtrum Philosopho put as turpe scire ista an nescire negligere an curare nosse quanta sit etiam in istis providentiae ratio an de diis immortalibus Matri Patri cedere saith he in Apolog. and so doth Minutius Vnusquisque vestrum non cogitat prius se debere deum nosse quà m colere dum inconsultè gestiuntur patentibus obedire dum fieri malunt alieni erroris accessio quam sibi credere Minut. in Octav. But having in my riper years examined c. according to the Apostolical Precept Omnia probate quod bonum est tenete Sect. 2 Pag. 2 There being a Geography of Religions i. e. of Christian Religion which you may see described in Mr. Brerewood's Enquiries he means not of the Protestant Religion for though there be a difference in Discipline yet the Anglican Scotic Belgic Gallican and Helvetic Churches differ not