quiet and charitable in some dis-agreeings that then and there the inconvenience ceases if they were so in all others where lawfully they might and they may in most Christendome should be no longer rent in pieces but would be redintegrated in a new Pentecost and although the Spirit of God did rest upon us in divided tongues yet so long as those tongues were of fire not to kindle strife but to warme our affections and inflame our charities we should finde that this variety of Opinions in severall persons would be look't upon as an argument only of diversity of operations while the Spirit is the same and that another man believes not so well as I is onely an argument that I have a better and a clearer illumination than he that I have a better gift than he received a speciall grace and favour and excell him in this and am perhaps excelled by him in many more And if we all impartially endeavour to finde a truth since this endeavour and search only is in our power that wee shall finde it being ab extra a gift and an assistance extrinsecall I can see no reason why this pious endeavour to finde out truth shall not be of more force to unite us in the bonds of charity then his misery in missing it shall be to dis-unite us So that since a union of perswasion is impossible to be attain'd if we would attempt the cure by such remedies as are apt to enkindle and encrease charity I am confident wee might see a blessed peace would bee the reward and crown of such endeavours But men are now adayes and indeed alwayes have been since the expiration of the first blessed Ages of Christianity so in love with their own Fancies and Opinions as to think Faith and all Christendome is concernd in their support and maintenance and whoever is not so fond and does not dandle them like themselves it growes up to a quarrell which because it is in materiâ theologiae is made a quarrell in Religion and God is entitled to it and then if you are once thought an enemy to God it is our duty to persecute you even to death we doe God good service in it when if we should examine the matter rightly the Question is either in materiâ non revelata or minus evidenti or non necessariâ either it is not revealed or not so clearely but that wise and honest men may be of different minds or else it is not of the foundation of faith but a remote super-structure or else of meere speculation or perhaps when all comes to all it is a false Opinion or a matter of humane interest that we have so zealously contended for for to one of these heads most of the Disputes of Christendome may be reduc'd so that I believe the present fractions or the most are from the same cause which St Paul observed in the Corinthian Schisme when there are divisions among you are ye not carnall It is not the differing Opinions that is the cause of the present ruptures but want of charity it is not the variety of understandings but the disunion of wills and affections it is not the severall principles but the severall ends that cause our miseries our Opinions commence and are upheld according as our turns are serv'd and our interests are preserv'd and there is no cure for us but Piety and Charity A holy life will make our belief holy if we consult not humanity and its imperfections in the choyce of our Religion but search for truth without designes save only of acquiring heaven and then be as carefull to preserve Charity as we were to get a point of Faith I am much perswaded we should finde out more truths by this meanes or however which is the maine of all we shall be secured though we misse them and then we are well enough For if it be evinced that one heaven shall hold men of severall Opinions if the unity of Faith be not destroyed by that which men call differing Religions and if an unity of Charity be the duty of us all even towards persons that are not perswaded of every proposition we believe then I would faine know to what purpose are all those stirres and great noyses in Christendome those names of faction the severall Names of Churches not distinguish'd by the division of Kingdomes ut Ecclesia sequatur Imperium which was the Primitive * Optat. lib. 3. Rule and Canon but distinguish'd by Names of Sects and men these are all become instruments of hatred thence come Schismes and parting of Communions and then persecutions and then warres and Rebellion and then the dissolutions of all Friendships and Societies All these mischiefes proceed not from this that all men are not of one minde for that is neither necessary nor possible but that every Opinion is made an Article of Faith every Article is a ground of a quarrell every quarrell makes a faction every faction is zealous and all zeale pretends for God and whatsoever is for God cannot be too much we by this time are come to that passe we think we love not God except we hate our Brother and we have not the vertue of Religion unlesse we persecute all Religions but our own for luke-warmnesse is so odious to God and Man that we proceeding furiously upon these mistakes by supposing we preserve the body we destroy the soule of Religion or by being zealous for faith or which is all one for that which we mistake for faith we are cold in charity and so loose the reward of both All these errors and mischiefes must be discovered and cured and that 's the purpose of this Discourse SECTION I. Of the nature of Faith and that its duty is compleated in believing the Articles of the Apostles Creed FIrst then it is of great concernment to know the nature and integrity of faith For there begins our first and great mistake Number 1. for Faith although it be of great excellency yet when it is taken for a habit intellectuall it hath so little roome and so narrow a capacity that it cannot lodge thousands of those Opinions which pretend to be of her Family For although it be necessary for us to believe whatsoever we Numb 2. know to be revealed of God and so every man does that believes there is a God yet it is not necessary concerning many things to know that God hath revealed them that is we may be ignorant of or doubt concerning the propositions and indifferently maintaine either part when the Question is not concerning Gods veracity but whether God hath said so or no That which is of the foundation of Faith that only is necessary and the knowing or not knowing of that the believing or dis-believing it is that only which in genere credendorum is in immediate and necessary order to salvation or damnation Now all the reason and demonstration of the world convinces Numb 3. us that this foundation
of the present distemperatures and necessities by my own thoughts by the Questions and Scruples the Sects and names the interests and animosities which at this day and for some years past have exercised and disquieted Christendome Thus farre I discourst my selfe into imployment and having come thus farre I knew not how to get farther for I had heard of a great experience how difficult it was to make Brick without Straw and here I had even seene my design blasted in the bud and I despaired in the Calends of doing what I purposed in the Ides before For I had no Books of my own here nor any in the voisinage and but that I remembred the result of some of those excellent Discourses I had heard your Lordship make when I was so happy as in private to gather up what your temperance and modesty forbids to be publick I had come in praelia inermis and like enough might have far'd accordingly I had this only advantage besides that I have chosen a Subject in which if my own reason does not abuse me I needed no other books or aides then what a man carries with him on horse-back I meane the common principles of Christianity and those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which men use in the transactions of the ordinary occurrences of civill society and upon the strength of them and some other collaterall assistances I have run through it utcunque and the sum of the following Discourses is nothing but the sense of these words of Scripture That since we know in part and prophesy in part 1 Cor. 13. and that now we see through a glasse darkly wee should not despise or contemn persons not so knowing as our selves but him that is weak in the faith Rom. 14. we should receive but not to doubtfull disputations Therefore certainly to charity and not to vexations not to those which are the idle effects of impertinent wranglings And provided they keep close to the foundation which is Faith and Obedience let them build upon this foundation matter more or lesse precious yet if the foundation be intire they shall be saved with or without losse And since we professe our selves servants of so meek a Master and Disciples of so charitable an Institute Let us walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called with all lowlinesse and meeknesse with long suffering forbearing Ephes. 4. 2 3. one another in love for this is the best endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit when it is fast tyed in the bond of peace And although it be a duty of Christianity that we all speak the 1 Cor. 1. 10. same thing that there be no divisions among us but that we be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgement yet this unity is to bee estimated according to the unity of faith in things necessary in matters of Creed and Articles fundamentall for as for other things it is more to be wished then to be hoped for there are some doubtfull Disputations and in such the Scribe the Rom. 14. Wise the Disputer of this world are most commonly very farre from certainty and many times from truth There are diversity of perswasions in matters adiaphorous as meats and drinks and holy dayes c. and both parties the affirmative and the negative affirm and deny with innocence enough for the observer and he that observes not intend both to God and God is our common Master we all fellow servants and not the judge of each other in matters of conscience or doubtfull Disputation And every man that hath faith must have it to himselfe before God but no man must either in such matters judge his brother or set him at nought but let us follow after the things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edifie another And the way to doe that is not by knowledge but by charity for knowledge puffeth up but 1 Cor. 8. 1. charity edifieth and since there is not in every man the same knowledge but the conscience of some are Vers. 7. weak as my liberty must not be judged of another 1 Cor. 10. 29. mans weak conscience so must not I please my selfe so much in my right opinion but I must also take order that his weak conscience be not offended or despised for no man must seek his own but every man Ibid anothers wealth And although we must contend earnestly for the faith yet above all things we must put on charity which is the bond of perfectnesse And therefore this contention must be with arms fit for the Christian warfare the sword of the Spirit and the shield of Faith and preparation of the Gospel of peace instead of shooes and a helmet of salvation but not with Colos. 3. 14. other armes for a Church-man must not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a striker for the weapons of our warfare are not carnall but spirituall and the persons that use them ought to be gentle and easy to be intreated and we must give an account of our faith to them that ask us with meeknesse and humility for so is the will of God that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men These and thousands more to the same purpose are the Doctrines of Christianity whose sense and intendment I have prosecuted in the following Discourse being very much displeased that so many opinions and new doctrines are commenc'd among us but more troubled that every man that hath an opinion thinks his own and other mens salvation is concern'd in its maintenance but most of all that men should be persecuted and afflicted for disagreeing in such opinions which they cannot with sufficient grounds obtrude upon others necessarily because they cannot propound them infallibly and because they have no warrant from Scripture so to doe For if I shall tie other men to believe my opinion because I think I have place of Scripture which seems to warrant it to my understanding why may he not serve up another dish to me in the same dresse and exact the same task of me to believe the contradictory And then since all the Hereticks in the world have offered to prove their Articles by the same meanes by which true believers propound theirs it is necessary that some separation either of Doctrine or of persons be clearly made that all pretences may not be admitted nor any just Allegations be rejected and yet that in some other Questions whether they be truly or falsly pretended if not evidently or demonstratively there may be considerations had to the persons of men and to the Laws of charity more then to the triumphing in any opinion or doctrine not simply necessary Now because some doctrines are clearly not necessary and some are absolutely necessary why may not the first separation be made upon this difference and Articles necessary be only urg'd as necessary and the rest left to men indifferently as they
Polamo Alexandrinus sic primus philosophatus est ut ait Laërtius in Proëmio unde cognominatus est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what truths we can and a charitable and mutuall permission to others that disagree from us and our opinions I am sure this may satisfie us for it will secure us but I know not any thing else that will and no man can be reasonably perswaded or satisfied in any thing else unlesse he throwes himselfe upon chance or absolute predestination or his own confidence in every one of which it is two to one at least but he may miscarry Thus farre I thought I had reason on my side and I suppose I have made it good upon its proper grounds in the pages following But then if the result be that men must be permitted in their opinions and that Christians must not Persecute Christians I have also as much reason to reprove all those oblique Arts which are not direct Persecutions of mens persons but they are indirect proceedings ungentle and unchristian servants of faction and interest provocations to zeal and animosities and destructive of learning and ingenuity And these are suppressing all the monuments of their Adversaries forcing them to recant and burning their Books For it is a strange industry and an importune diligence that was used by our fore-fathers of all those Heresies which gave them battle and imployment we have absolutely no Record or Monument but what themselves who were Adversaries have transmitted to us and we know that Adversaries especially such who observ'd all opportunities to discredit both the persons and doctrines of the Enemy are not alwayes the best records or witnesses of such transactions We see it now in this very Age in the present distemperatures that parties are no good Registers of the actions of the adverse side And if we cannot be confident of the truth of a story now now I say that it is possible for any man and likely that the interessed adversary will discover the imposture it is farre more unlikely that after Ages should know any other truth but such as serves the ends of the representers I am sure such things were never taught us by Christ and his Apostles and if we were sure that our selves spoke truth or that truth were able to justifie her selfe it were better if to preserve a Doctrine wee did not destroy a Commandement and out of zeale pretending to Christian Religion loose the glories and rewards of ingenuity and Christian simplicity Of the same consideration is mending of Authors not to their own mind but to ours that is to mend them so as to spoile them forbidding the publication of Books in which there is nothing impious or against the publick interest leaving out clauses in Translations disgracing mens persons charging disavowed Doctrins upon men and the persons of the men with the consequents of their Doctrine which they deny either to be true or to be consequent false reporting of Disputations and Conferences burning Books by the hand of the hang-man and all such Arts which shew that we either distrust God for the maintenance of his truth or that we distrust the cause or distrust our selves and our abilities I will say no more of these but only concerning the last I shall transcribe a passage out of Tacitus in the life of Iulius Agricola who gives this account of it Veniam non petissem nisi incursaturus tam saeva infesta virtutibus tempora Legimus cum Aruleno Ruslico Paetus Thrasea Herennio Senecioni Priscus Helvidius laudatt essent capitale fuisse neque in ipsos modo authores sed in libros quoque eorum saevitum delegato Triumviris ministerio ut monumenta clarissimorum ingeniorum in comitio ac foro urerentur scil illo igne vocem populi Rom. libertatem Senatus conscientiam generis humani aboleri arbitrabantur expulsis insuper sapientiae professoribus at que omni bonâ arte in exilium actâ ne quid usquam honestum occurreret It is but an illiterate Policy to think that such indirect and uningenuous proceedings can amongst wise and free-men disgrace the Authors and disrepute their Discourses And I have seen that the price hath been trebled upon a forbidden or a condemn'd Book and some men in policy have got a prohibition that their impression might be the more certainly vendible and the Author himselfe thought considerable The best way is to leave tricks and devices and to fall upon that way which the best Ages of the Church did use With the strength of Argument and Allegations of Scripture and modesty of deportment and meeknesse and charity to the persons of men they converted misbelievers stopped the mouthes of Adversaries asserted truth and discountenanced errour and those other stratagems and Arts of support and maintenance to Doctrines were the issues of hereticall braines the old Catholicks had nothing to secure themselves but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of truth and plaine dealing Eidem minutis dissecant ambagibus Ut quisque linguâ est ne quior Solvunt ligantque quaestionum vincula Per syllogismos plectiles Prudent apotheos hym in infidel Vae captiosis Sycophantarum strophis Vae versipelli astutiae Nodos tenaces recta rumpit regula Infesta discertantibus Idcirco mundi slulta deligit Deus Ut concidant Sophistica And to my understanding it is a plain Art and design of the Devill to make us so in love with our own opinions as to call them Faith and Religion that we may be proud in our understanding and besides that by our zeale in our opinions we grow coole in our piety and practicall duties he also by this earnest contention does directly destroy good life by engagement of Zealots to do any thing rather then be overcome and loose their beloved propositions But I would faine know why is not any vitious habit as bad or worse then a false opinion Why are we so zealous against those we call Hereticks and yet great friends with drunkards and fornicators swearers and intemperate and idle persons Is it because we are commanded by the Apostle to reject a Heretick after two admonitions and not to bid such a one God speed It is a good reason why we should be zealous against such persons provided we mistake them not For those of whom these Apostles speak are such as deny Christ to be come in the flesh such as deny an Article of Creed and in such odious things it is not safe nor charitable to extend the gravamen and punishment beyond the instances the Apostles make or their exact parallels But then also it would be remembred that the Apostles speak as fiercely against communion with fornicators and all disorders practicall as against communion with Hereticks If any man that is called a brother be a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolater or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner with such a one no not to eat I am certain that a Drunkard is as contrary to
to be counted true believers rather then good livers they would rather endeavour to live well then to bee accounted of a right opinion in things beside the Creed For my own particular I cannot but expect that God in his Justice should enlarge the bounds of the Turkish Empire or some other way punish Christians by reason of their pertinacious disputing about things unnecessary undeterminable and unprofitable and for their hating and persecuting their brethren which should be as dear to them as their own lives for not consenting to one anothers follies and senselesse vanities How many volumnes have been writ about Angels about immaculate conception about originall sin when that all that is solid reason or clear Revelation in all these three Articles may be reasonably enough comprized in fourty lines And in these trifles and impertinencies men are curiously busie while they neglect those glorious precepts of Christianity and holy life which are the glories of our Religion and would enable us to a happy eternity My Lord Thus farre my thoughts have carried me and then I thought I had reason to goe further and to examine the proper grounds upon which these perswasions might rely and stand firme in case any body should contest against them For possibly men may be angry at me and my design for I doe all them great displeasure who think no end is then well served when their interest is disserved and but that I have writ so untowardly and heavily that I am not worth a confutation possibly some or other might be writing against me But then I must tell them I am prepared of an answer before hand For I think I have spoken reason in my Book and examined it with all the severity I have and if after all this I be deceiv'd this confirms me in my first opinion and becomes a new Argument to me that I have spoken reason for it furnishes me with a new instance that it is necessary there should bee a mutuall complyance and Toleration because even then when a man thinks he hath most reason to bee confident hee may easily bee deceived For I am sure I have no other design but the prosecution and advantage of truth and I may truly use the words of Gregory Nazianzen Non studemus paci in detrimentum verae doctrinae .... ut facilitatis mansuetudinis famam colligamus But I have writ this because I thought it was necessary and seasonable and charitable and agreeable to the great precepts and design of Christianity consonant to the practise of the Apostles and of the best Ages of the Church most agreeable to Scripture and reason to revelation and the nature of the thing and it is such a Doctrine that if there be variety in humane affaires if the event of things be not settled in a durable consistence but is changeable every one of us all may have need of it I shall only therefore desire that they who will reade it may come to the reading it with as much simplicity of purposes and unmixed desires of truth as I did to the writing it and that no man trouble himselfe with me or my discourse that thinks before hand that his opinion cannot be reasonably altered If he thinks me to be mistaken before he tries let him also think that hee may be mistaken too and that he who judges before he heares is mistaken though he gives a right sentence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristoph in Pluto Was as good counsell But at a venture I shall leave this sentence of Solomon to his consideration A wise man feareth and departeth from evill but a foole rageth and is confident 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a trick of boyes and bold young fellowes sayes Aristotle but they who either know themselves or things or persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Peradventure yea peradventure no is very often the wisest determination of a Question For there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle notes 2 Tim. 2. foolish and unlearned Questions and it were better to stop the current of such fopperies by silence then by disputing them convey them to Posterity And many things there are of more profit which yet are of no more certainty and therefore boldnesse of assertion except it be in matters of Faith and clearest Revelation is an Argument of the vanity of the man never of the truth of the proposition for to such matters the saying of Xenophanes in Varro is pertinent and applicable Hominis est haec opinari Dei scire God only knowes them and we conjecture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And although I be as desirous to know what I should and what I should not as any of my Brethren the Sons of Adam yet I find that the more I search the further I am from being satisfied and make but few discoveries save of my own ignorance and therefore I am desirous to follow the example of a very wise Personage Iulius Agricola of whom Tacitus gave this testimony Retinuit que quod est difficillimum ex scientiâ modum or that I may take my precedent from within the pale of the Church it was the saying of S. Austin Mallem quidem eorum quae à me quaesivisti habere scientiam quam ignorantiam sed quia id nondum potui magis eligo cautam ignorantiam confiteri quam falsam scientiam profiteri And these words doe very much expresse my sense But if there be any man so confident as Luther sometimes was who said that hee could expound all Scripture or so vaine as Eckius who in his Chrysopassus ventur'd upon the highest and most mysterious Question of Predestination ut in eâ juveniles possit calores exercere such persons as these or any that is furious in his opinion will scorn me and my Discourse but I shall not bee much mov'd at it only I shall wish that I had as much knowledge as they think me to want and they as much as they believe themselves to have In the meane time Modesty were better for us both and indeed for all men For when men indeed are knowing amongst other things they are able to separate certainties from uncertainties If they be not knowing it is pity that their ignorance should bee triumphant or discompose the publike peace or private confidence And now my Lord that I have inscrib'd this Book to your Lordship although it be a design of doing honour to my selfe that I have markt it with so honour'd and beloved a Name might possibly need as much excuse as it does pardon but that your Lordship knowes your own for out of your Mines I have digg'd the Minerall only I have stampt it with my own image as you may perceive by the deformities which are in it But your great Name in letters will adde so much value to it as to make it obtaine its pardon amongst all them that know how to value you and all your relatives and dependants by the proportion of relation
Saint Gregory The lot was throwne and God made to be Judge so as he was tempted to a miracle to answer a question which themselves might have ended without much trouble The two Missals were laid upon the Altar the Church door shut and sealed By the morrow Mattins they found S. Gregories Missall torne in pieces saith the story and thrown about the Church but S. Ambrose's open'd and laid upon the Altar in a posture of being read If I had been to judge of the meaning of this Miracle I should have made no scruple to have said it had been the will of God that the Missall of S. Ambrose which had been anciently used and publickly tryed and approved of should still be read in the Church and that of Gregory let alone it being torn by an Angelicall hand as an argument of its imperfection or of the inconvenience of innovation But yet they judg'd it otherwise for by the tearing and scattering about they thought it was meant it should be used over all the world and that of S. Ambrose read onely in the Church of Millaine I am more satisfied that the former was the true meaning then I am of the truth of the story But we must suppose that And now there might have been eternal disputings about the meaning of the miracle and nothing left to determine when two fancies are the litigants and the contestations about probabilities hinc inde And I doubt not this was one cause of so great variety of opinions in the Primitive Church when they proved their severall opinions which were mysterious questions of Christian Theologie by testimonies out of the obscurer Prophets out of the Psalmes and Canticles as who please to observe their arguments of discourse and actions of Councel shall perceive they very much used to doe Now although mens understandings be not equall and that it is fit the best understandings should prevaile yet that will not satisfie the weaker understandings because all men will not think that another understanding is better then his own at least not in such a particular in which with fancy he hath pleased himself But commonly they that are least able are most bold and the more ignorant is the more confident therefore it is but reason if he would have another beare with him he also should beare with another and if he will not be prescribed to neither let him prescribe to others And there is the more reason in this because such modesty is commonly to be desired of the more imperfect for wise men know the ground of their perswasion and have their confidence proportionable to their evidence others have not but over-act their trifles and therefore I said it is but a reasonable demand that they that have the least reason should not be most imperious and for others it being reasonable enough for all their great advantages upon other men they will be soone perswaded to it for although wise men might be bolder in respect of the persons of others less discerning yet they know there are but few things so certaine as to create much boldness and confidence of assertion If they doe not they are not the men I take them for 2. When an action or opinion is commenc'd with zeale and piety against a knowne vice or a vitious person commonly all the Numb 2. mistakes of it's proceeding are made sacred by the holiness of the principle and so abuses the perswasions of good people that they make it as a Characteristick note to distinguish good persons from bad and then whatever error is consecrated by this means is therefore made the more lasting because it is accounted holy and the persons are not easily accounted hereticks because they erred upon a pious principle There is a memorable instance in one of the greatest questions of Christendome viz. concerning Images For when Philippicus had espyed the images of the six first Synods upon the front of a Church he caused them to be pulled down now he did it in hatred of the sixth Synod for he being a Monothelite stood condemn'd by that Synod The Catholiques that were zealous for the sixth Synod caused the images and representments to be put up againe and then sprung the question concerning the lawfullness of images in Churches Philippicus and his party strived by suppressing images to do disparagement to the sixth Synod the Catholiques to preserve the honour Vid. Paulum Diaconum of the sixth Synod would uphold images And then the question came to be changed and they who were easie enough to be perswaded to pull downe images were over-awed by a prejudice against the Monothelites and the Monothelites striv'd to maintain the advantage they had got by a just and pious pretence against images The Monothelites would have secur'd their error by the advantage and consociation of a truth the other would rather defend a dubious and disputable error than lose and let goe a certain truth And thus the case stood and the successors of both parts were led invincibly For when the Heresie of the Monothelites disbanded which it did in a while after yet the opinion of the Iconoclasts the question of Images grew stronger Yet since the Iconoclasts at the first were Heretiques not for their breaking Images but for denying the two wils of Christ his Divine and his Humane that they were called Iconoclasts was to distinguish their opinion in the question concerning the Images but that then Iconoclasts so easily had the reputation of Hereticks was because of the other opinion which was conjunct in their persons which opinion men afterwards did not easily distinguish in them but took them for Hereticks in gross and whatsoever they held to be hereticall And thus upon this prejudice grew great advantages to the veneration of Images and the persons at first were much to be excused because they were misguided by that which might have abused the best men And if Epiphanius who was as zealous against Images in Churches as Philippicus or Leo Isaurus had but begun a publike contestation and engaged Emperours to have made Decrees against them Christendom would have had other apprehensions of it then they had when the Monothelites began it For few men will endure a truth from the mouth of the Devill and if the person be suspected so are his wayes too And it is a great subtlety of the Devill so to temper truth and falshood in the same person that truth may lose much of its reputation by its mixture with error and the error may become more plausible by reason of its conjunction with truth And this we see by too much experience for we see many truths are blasted in their reputation because persons whom we think we hate upon just grounds of Religion have taught them And it was plain enough in the case of Maldonat that said of an explication of a place of Scripture that it was In cap 6. Iohan most agreeable to Antiquity but because Calvin
to be discerned because those accidentall and adherent crimes which makes the man a heretique Numb 3. in questions not simply fundamentall or of necessary practice are actions so internall and spirituall that cognizance can but seldome be taken of them And therefore to instance though the opinion of Purgatory be false yet to beleeve it cannot be heresie if a man be abused into the beliefe of it invincibly because it is not a Doctrine either fundamentally false or practically impious it neither proceeds from the will nor hath any immediate or direct influence upon choice and manners And as for those other ends of upholding that opinion which possibly its Patrons may have as for the reputation of their Churches infallibility for the advantage of Derges Requiems Masses Monthly minds Anniversaries and other offices for the dead which usually are very profitable rich and easie these things may possibly have sole influences upon their understanding but whether they have or no God only knowes If the proposition and article were true these ends might justly be subordinate and consistent with a true proposition And there are some truths that are also profitable as the necessity of maintenance to the Clergy the Doctrine of restitution giving Almes lending freely remitting debts in cases of great necessity and it would be but an ill argument that the preachers of these doctrines speake false because possibly in these articles they may serve their owne ends For although Demetrius and the Crafts-men were without excuse for resisting the Preaching of S. Paul because it was notorious they resisted the truth upon ground of profit and personall emoluments and the matter was confessed by themselves yet if the Clergie should maintaine their just rites and Revenues which by pious dedications and donatives were long since ascertained upon them is it to be presumed in order of Law and charity that this end is in the men subordinate to truth because it is so in the thing it selfe and that therefore no judgement in prejudice of these truths can be made from that observation But if aliunde we are ascertain'd of the truth or falshood of Numb 4. a proposition respectively yet the judgement of the personall ends of the men cannot ordinarily be certaine and judiciall because most commonly the acts are private and the purposes internall and temporall ends may sometimes consist with truth and whether the purposes of the men make these ends principall or subordinate no man can judge and be they how they will yet they doe not alwayes prove that when they are conjunct with error that the error was caused by these purposes and criminall intentions But in questions practicall the doctrine it selfe and the person Numb 5. too may with more ease be reproved because matter of fact being evident and nothing being so certaine as the experiments of humane affaires and these being the immediate consequents of such doctrines are with some more certainty of observation redargued then the speculative whose judgement is of it self more difficult more remote from matter and humane observation and with lesse curiosity and explicitenesse declared in Scripture as being of lesse consequence and concernment in order to Gods and Man's great end In other things which end in notion and ineffective contemplation where neither the doctrine is malicious nor the person apparently criminall he is to be left to the judgement of God and as there is no certainty of humane judicature in this case so it is to no purpose it should be judged For if the person may be innocent with his Error and there is no rule whereby he can certainly be pronounced that he is actually criminall as it happens in matters speculative Since the end of the Commandment is love out of a pure conscience and faith unfained and the Commandment may obtaine its end in a consistence with this simple speculative Errour Why should men trouble themselves with such opinions so as to disturbe the publicke charity or the private confidence Opinions and persons are just so to be judged as other matters and persons criminall For no man can judge any thing else it must be a crime and it must be open so as to take cognizance and make true humane judgement of it And this is all I am to say concerning the causes of heresies and of the distinguishing rules for guiding of our judgments towards others As for guiding our judgements and the use of our reason Numb 6. in judging for our selves all that is to be said is reducible to this one proposition Since errors are then made sinnes when they are contrary to charity or inconsistent with a good life and the honour of God that judgement is the truest or at least that opinion most innocent that 1. best promotes the reputation of Gods Glory and 2. is the best instrument of holy life For in questions and interpretations of dispute these two analogies are the best to make propositions conjectures and determinations Diligence and care in obtaining the best guides and the most convenient assistances prayer and modesty of spirit simplicity of purposes and intentions humility and aptnesse to learn a peaceable disposition are therefore necessary to finding out truths because they are parts of good life without which our truths will doe us little advantage and our errours can have no excuse but with these dispositions as he is sure to find out all that is necessary so what truth he inculpably misses of he is sure is therefore not necessary because he could not finde it when he did his best and his most innocent endeavours And this I say to secure the persons because no rule can antecedently secure the proposition in matters disputable For even in the proportions and explications of this rule there is infinite variety of disputes And when the dispute is concerning free will one partie denyes it because he beleeves it magnifies the grace of God that it workes irresistably the other affirmes because he beleeves it engages us upon greater care and piety of our endeavours The one opinion thinks God reapes the glory of our good actions the other thinks it charges our bad actions upon him So in the question of merit one part chooses his assertion because he thinks it incourages us to doe good works the other beleeves it makes us proud and therefore he rejects it The first beleeves it increases piety the second beleeves it increases spirituall presumption and vanity The first thinks it magnifies God's justice the other thinks it derogates from his mercy Now then since neither this nor any ground can secure a man from possibility of mistaking we were infinitely miserable if it would not secure us from punishment so long as we willingly consent not to a crime and doe our best endeavour to avoid an errour Onely by the way let me observe that since there are such great differences of apprehension concerning the consequents of an article no man is to be
eldest Writers of the Latine Church that in their times it was ab antiquo the custome of the Church to pray for the Soules of the Faithfull departed in the dreadfull mysteries And it was an Institution Apostolicall sayes one of them and so transmitted to the following Ages of the Church and when once it began upon slight and discontent to be contested against by Aërius the man was presently condemn'd for a Heretick as appeares in Epiphanius But I am not to consider the Arguments for the Doctrine Numb 13. it selfe although the probability and faire pretence of them may help to excuse such persons who upon these or the like grounds doe heartily believe it But I am to consider that whether it be true or false there is no manner of malice in it and at the worst it is but a wrong errour upon the right side of charity and concluded against by its Adversaries upon the confidence of such Arguments which possibly are not so probable as the grounds pretended for it And if the same judgement might be made of any more of Numb 14. their Doctrines I think it were better men were not furious in the condemning such Questions which either they understood not upon the grounds of their proper Arguments or at least consider not as subjected in the persons and lessened by circumstances by the innocency of the event or other prudentiall considerations But the other Article is harder to be judged of and hath made greater stirres in Christendome and hath been dasht at Numb 15. with more impetuous objections and such as doe more trouble the Question of Toleration For if the Doctrine of Transubstantiation be false as upon much evidence we believe it is then t is accused of introducing Idolatry giving Divine worship to a Creature adoring of bread and wine and then comes in the precept of God to the Jewes that those Prophets who perswaded to Idolatry should be slaine But here we must deliberate for it is concerning the lives Deut. 13. of men and yet a little deliberation may suffice For Idolatry Numb 16. is a forsaking the true God and giving Divine Worship to a Creature or to an Idoll that is to an imaginary god who hath no foundation in essence or existence And is that kind of superstition which by Divines is called the superstition of an undue object Now it is evident that the Object of their Adoration that which is represented to them in their minds their thoughts and purposes and by which God principally if not solely takes estimate of humane actions in the blessed Sacrament is the only true and eternall God hypostatically joyned with his Holy humanity which humanity they believe actually present under the veile of the Sacramentall signes And if they thought him not present they are so farre from worshipping the bread in this case that themselves professe it to be Idolatry to doe so which is a demonstration that their soule hath nothing in it that is Idololatricall If their confidence and fancyfull opinion hath engag'd them upon so great mistake as without doubt it hath yet the will hath nothing in it but what is a great enemy to Idolatry Et nihil ardet in inferno nisi propria voluntas And although they have done violence to all Philosophy and the reason of man and undone and cancelled the principles of two or three Sciences to bring in this Article yet they have a Divine Revelation whose literall and Grammaticall sense if that sense were intended would warrant them to doe violence to all the Sciences in the Circle and indeed that Transubstantiation is openly and violently against naturall reason is an Argument to make them disbelieve who believe the mystery of the Trinity in all those niceties of explication which are in the Schoole and which now adayes passe for the Doctrine of the Church with as much violence to the principles of naturall and supernaturall Philosophy as can be imagin'd to be in the point of Transubstantiation 1. But for the Article it selfe we all say that Christ is there Numb 17. present some way or other extraordinary and it will not be amisse to worship him at that time when he gives himselfe to us in so mysterious a manner and with so great advantages especially since the whole Office is a Consociation of divers actions of Religion and Divine Worship Now in all opinions of those men who think it an act of Religion to communicate and to offer a Divine Worship is given to Christ and is transmitted to him by mediation of that action and that Sacrament and it is no more in the Church of Rome but that they differ and mistake infinitely in the manner of his presence which errour is wholly seated in the Understanding and does not communicate with the will for all agree that the Divinity and the Humanity of the Sonne of God is the ultimate and adequate object of Divine Adoration and that it is incommunicable to any creature whatsoever and before they venture to passe an Act of Adoration they believe the bread to be annihilated or turn'd into his substance who may lawfully be worshipped and they who have these thoughts are as much enemies of Idolatry as they that understand better how to avoid that inconvenience which is supposed to be the crime which they formally hate and we materially avoid This consideration was concerning the Doctrine it selfe 2. And now for any danger to mens persons for suffering Numb 18. such a Doctrine this I shall say that if they who doe it are not formally guilty of Idolatry there is no danger that they whom they perswade to it should be guilty and what persons soever believe it to be Idolatry to worship the Sacrament while that perswasion remaines will never bee brought to it there is no feare of that And he that perswades them to doe it by altering their perswasions and beliefes does no hurt but altering the opinions of the men and abusing their understandings but when they believe it to be no Idolatry then their so believing it is sufficient security from that crime which hath so great a tincture and residency in the will that from thence only it hath its being criminall 3. However if it were Idolatry I think the Precept of God Numb 19. to the Jewes of killing false and Idolatrous Prophets will be no warrant for Christians so to doe For in the case of the Apostles and the men of Samaria when James and John would have cald for fire to destroy them even as Elias did under Moses Law Christ distinguished the spirit of Elias from his own Spirit and taught them a lesson of greater sweetnesse and consign'd this truth to all Ages of the Church that such severity is not consistent with the meekenesse which Christ by his example and Sermons hath made a precept Evangelicall At most it was but a Iudiciall Law and no more of Argument to make it necessary to