popular reasons such as are similitudes and arguments of this kind Those which are found in Scripture are not of this rank for the authority thereof makes them become demonstrations and undoubted proofs But all others have no other vertue thē to clear being besides uncapable to prove notwithstanding the vulgar will sooner believe for one bare comparison which maketh no proof then for a reason well concluding This is it that similitudes particular examples and the like arguments have an appearance manifest to the sense and therefore move beyond essentiall reasons which are not perceiveable but by the understanding Notwithstanding this faith is not more solid The man which conceives a point under the sole resemblance of truth and not in the proper essence thereof understandeth it not as he ought This is to have a true opinion but not a true knowledge And more deceive themselves by this meanes presuming they have the knowledge of a point instead whereof they have but the opinion It sufficeth not to say their opinion is conformable to the truth For truth is not known by opinion Whosoever desires the knowledge thereof ought to endeavour the understanding rather of one concluding and formall reason then ten thousand Arguments which have but a bare resemblance of truth CHAP. VIII Of whose who perswade themselves of the truth by false reasons Of those which falsely accuse themselves IT comes to passe that many believe a truth which is grounded on Scripture but conceive it under a false reason He believes the truth which holds we are justified by faith and not by works But if he believe that faith hath a prerogative because it is more excellent then works this reason is false For though faith be more excellent then works the excellency thereof is not the true cause why it justifies rather then works All the vulgar spirits know how to maintain a truth in expresse tearmes of Scripture But in that which the Scripture saith they often imagine a reason either false or impertinent So the friends of Job did maintaine Gods cause his power prudence wisdome and justice but by false presupposition And scarcely could one have said that they err'd if God himselfe had not interposed his judgement in the dispute So some to exalt the grace of God towards them accuse themselves to be the greatest sinners in the world imitating the Apostle S. Paul who speaketh of himself in this manner although that Judas and those that had crucified the Prince of glory were without doubt more guilty Now Saint Paul ranketh not himself simply amongst the greatest sinners but amongst them which had not sinn'd but through ignorance 'T is true that Originall sin is equall naturally in all men and 't is the grace of God which restrains many therein But that to amplifie this grace a man should accuse himself of actuall sinnes which he never committed this is a foolish sort of falshood The water of sprinkling which purified the unclean did defile those which were clean If we would exalt the mercy of God we have enow true arguments without searching imaginary for it If we would justify his severity we find enow true crimes in our life without imposing false ones upon us Whosoever will speak of God ought to speak according unto God that is to say according to the truth otherwise it is to speak against God To maintain truth with false reasons is to imitate the proceeding of Rebecca who to the end the Oracle might be found true had recourse to an abusive means using a fraudulent superstition There is nothing wherein one ought to be so circumspect as in speaking for the truth He that undertakes to maintain it is subject to a grievous censure if he acquits not himself thereof pertinently CHAP. IX Of points whereof one ought to know the causes Many matters of Religion are ridiculous without their causes The understanding whereof decides many questions From whence come the greatest part of errours THe matters of Religion are known principally either by their causes or by their effects The Deity as being the highest cause of all is not demonstrable but by its effects Whose decrees ought also to be sought rather in their effects then in their causes But the other points which are subordinate are represented to us with their causes which teach us the true reasons of every one of them And in this the learned differ from the common people For the vulgar sees not the quality or truth of a point but in the effects and streames But to comprehend it well it behoves to see it in the spring Many matters of Religion are ridiculous without their causes All the ceremoniall law if one knows not the reasons thereof is nothing but a heap of unprofitable burdens The Temple but a shambles and the priesthood but a vaine occupation In lieu thereof considering them in their causes every thing there is important even to the least circumstances VVhosoever shall remember that Jesus Christ suffered out of the City of Jerusalem will admire the providence of this Law which ordained that the sacrifices of oblations whereof the blood ought to be carried into the holy place should be consumed out of the compasse of the Camp or of the City We know that our Lord in the dayes of his flesh was environed with sorrow and feare But if we know not the cause thereof we make him inferiour to many martyrs who bare a smiling face amidst their punishments The Jew understands nothing in the Ceremoniall Lawes for although he knowes the number thereof all their particular forms he is ignorant of the cause thereof not knowing that they were given to serve onely till the coming of Christ The true meanes to well understand a point is to learn the causes thereof and the understanding of them is a soveraign eye-salve to cleare ones self of many difficulties Saint Paul sheweth by the finall cause of the Law that it is uncapable to justifie men for saith he the Law came because of transgressions to wit to discover not to cover them And indeed they which think to be justified by the works of the Law know not why it was given The Law was never given to justifie Gal. 3.21 on the contrary its office is to condemne men A great part of errours which wast Religion and likewise of them which trouble it at this day proceeds from this that the cause is taken for the effect or the effect is taken for the cause Instead that the Sabbath is made for man Pharisaisme concluded that man was made for the Sabbath Instead that meats were not unclean but because they were forbidden superstition believed them to be forbidden because they were uncleane Instead than the alter sanctified the offering they would by their Maximes that the offering did sanctifie the alter Instead that the Scripture sanctifieth the Church it is maintained that the Church sanctifieth the Scripture Instead that justification produceth works they hold that works produce justification
POPVLAR ERRORS IN Generall Poynts concerning the knowledge of RELIGION Having Relation to their causes and reduced into divers observations By Jean D'Espaigne Minister of the Holy Gospell LONDON Printed for THO. WHITTAKER at the signe of the Kings armes in Pauls Church-yard 1648. To the most Illustrious CHARLES Monarch of great Brittaine c. Defender of the Faith THe deceased King Father of your Majesty was pleased to command the impression of a Manuscript which was the first fruits of my Pen on which hee daigned to cast his eyes where in his Royall goodnesse had more respect to my zeale then to the worke This which I offer at your Majesties feet carries its deniall on the front But that the clemencie of him who was pleased to cast his eye upon the Hysop as well as upon the Cedars of Lebanon makes me hope for a favourable Aspect I beseech the Lord God to accept your oblations and make your Crowne flourish and establish your Throne as the Sun it selfe To the Reader THis Treatise is nothing but a heape of observations very differing there more especially where they are joyned they are for the most part distant in respect of the subject This is the reason wherefore I have only sought to range them in their proper places and passe from the one unto the other without giving them any other connexion or closing them with other cimment I shall marke in the first place the nature and differencie of spirits principally of the common people in matters concerning Religion Secondly the matters which are of the knowledge thereof Thirdly the forme and manner of this knowledge and finally the meanes to obtaine it In all these foure heads which I have placed in as many sections wee shall shew divers popular errors which serve for the subject of this Treatise If this worke be triviall it corresponds to its title which promiseth nothing but popular matters if defective 't is for having omitted that which many have often repeated if clownish this stuffe is not capable of a more artificiall web nor of the polisure of a more elegant stile if rash as shocking so many maximes held as Oracles among the people and partly approved by the silence of the learned weighing them in the ballance of the Sanctuarie we shall find that in matter of Religion nothing ought to be more suspected then vulgar opinions some think to understand very well their religion that will find themselves not only in a darke ignorance but also in a den of Errors The first Section CHAPTER I. The first Errour which arose amongst Christians THe report which was spread among the Disciples of the Lord a few dayes before his Ascension that St. John the Evangelist should not die was the first Errour that sprang up amongst the Christians This opinion contradicted not any article of the Faith and neverthelesse the Spirit of truth would have the censure thereof to remaine till the end of dayes as a Pillar of Salt to season our conceptions Each Errour in things indifferent is unworthy of a Christian Time hath refuted many if antiquity should again arise she would be ashamed to have marked with Heresie those who believed the Antipodes and the Scholasticks who tooke Zona torrida for the flaming sword which made the earthly Paradice unaccessible they would find at this day these imaginations were more specious then veritable But I will lay aside all matters of this quality we contest not here the common opinion which marks the nativity of our Saviour to be in the season of the winter Solstice nor the oracles attributed to the Sybills which if we must believe all that they say have spoken of Jesus Christ more clearely upon the Tripos of Idols then the true Prophets upon the seat of Truth Nor the histories which contain so many particularities of Simon Magus which are for the most part fables Nor the interpretation which takes the foure living creatures described in Daniel for the foure Evangelists Nor the forme which they attribute to the crosse which many say to have been of another fashion then they represent at this day Nor the belief that Adam the men of the ancient world were of giant-like stature these are problems we â—ouch not much lesse will I speak of opinions of which you may put amongst the dorages of old womens tales or that the Hebrew or any other tongue be naturall or that there hath been men ingeudeed by devills or whether witches can transform themselves into wolves or any other species There is none but simple Idiots who believe Luciser to be the name of the devill And many say the tree of the crosse without thinking on the superstition which hath produced this fashion of speech imagining that the crosâ— on which our Saviour suffer'd was made oâ— the wood of the tree of life The opinions which I undertake to refuse are of far greater consequence they concern the true intelligence of Religion in stead of which many embrace an ignorance reduced into art sustained by maximes which under appearance of follid piety do infold divers capitall errors transforming men into stones making superfluous the greatest part of the Scripture and instead of Cherubins engrave upon the walls the figure of many unclean creeping things of these maximes some are avowed by an expresse profession others tacitely authorized by the common practise not onely among the dregs of the people but yet amongst many which are not separated froÌ„ ignorants but by the wainscot of a pulpit CHAP. II. Of the efficacy and differencie of humours upon the intelligency of Religion and of the strange opinions they produce I Hold there are very few men altogether exempt from popular errors the spirits the most pure have still a touch in some point of this contagion The reason is that man naturally seeks to conceive the truth of things the nearest to the form of his own inclination as he that would turn the course of his boul turns his head on that side to this contributes education old customs and the multitude of voices which stupifies the strongest brains Now as the inclinations are different the truth which is unick in it self appeares in divers forms according to the quality of the spirits which conceives it like the Aethiopians representing the uglinesse of the devill have a custome contrary to other people they paint him white so after this manner the diversity of humours produces diversity of conceptions and difference of opinions upon the same subject These humours some times carries away mens spirits to make them seek to be more perfect then God himself some cannot perswade themselves that God is so severe as he saith himself to be and being touched with an humour more pitifull have found wherewithall to extinguish the eternall fire teaching that the damned nay more that the devills after some time of suffering in the end shall be freed from their torments this so favorable an opinion hath gotten them the title of
Picture Or certainly the greatest part of Christians in stead of knowing Christ in spirit and adoring him spiritually would alwayes have his imagination tied to the corporall object and his spirit disturbed with the fancy thereof Of thousands of men who returne from Jerusalem or from mount Sina or from the river of Jordan and many other famous places mentioned in the Scripture scarce can you find one which brings back the admiration which he had conceived before he had seen them The spirit of man hath alwayes a more reverent opinion of things which are ancient then of Moderne of those which are farthest off then of those which are neare The objects the most excellent and sacred become contemptible by the facility and proximity of accesse but those who goe out of a devout affection to visite Palestine or Arabia carry with them for the most part exorbitant imaginations which sometimes passe to an excesse impossible in nature thinking to find the third heaven in a cave not considering that the innobling of those places proceeds not from any quality which renders them either more holy or more full of majesty then the other parts of the earth but from the sole reputation of the wonders past under that climate so that the sight takes away the esteeme thereof because it answers not to the imaginations with which they were preoccupied CHAP. V. Of the difference and capacity of spirits Of the faculties of the soule Of those who promise themselves to beleeve so that they have proofe and doe assure themselves they should have beleeved in Christ if they had seene his Miracles Of those who limit God according to their owne wisdome or beleeve the truth because it is conformable to their owne opinion TO dispute whether there bee Spirits more capable of Theologie then others or whether the faculties of the soule are prevalent in this studie are questions remore from our intention without controversie the intellect is the true place of this science although the vulgar imagine that there is more trouble to retaine a point of Religion then to conceive it and wish rather the gift of memorie then that of the understanding The knowledge of salvation is an effect of grace only A single historicall and speculative culative knowledge proceeds from a particular favour of God But this grace destroyes neither the naturall difference nor essence of spirits God employes for our instruction the objects the sences and the other faculties of the soule Jesus Christ himselfe as hee was man became more knowing by experience a man which hath the sence of hearing from whence comes faith hath a manifest advantage for the understanding of preaching above that man whom God hath strucken with deafnesse so there is no doubt but a good naturall understanding presupposing the light of grace knowes better how to conceive a matter of religion and to weigh the importance thereof and search into the causes and to discover the consequences then a spirit naturally stupid and blockish the greatest braines are ordinarily more slow to believe then those which have but mean ones as the highest Planets have the slowest motions but their beliefe is more sollid when once they have known the truth For God employes the same faculties for to produce an effect for which they had nothing but a naturall repugnancie so that the most violent persecutors become oft-times the greatest zelots of the faith whether the faculty of those who believe more promptly be more worthy of praise it 's a point we will not as yet touch The vulgar presuppose that the Science of religion requires nothing but a single apprehension or reception of truths presupposed without any mixtion of the discursive faculty and without any act of the judgement many make scruple of reasoning upon the doctrines oâ— faith because that reason is nothing but a naturall faculty But this maxime in the sence they give unto it is in effect contrary to all reason by the same consequence they ought not to bring to Church neither their eares nor common sence for to discerne the voyce and accents of the Word which is preached unto them noâ— their memorie to retaine the impression for these faculties as well as reason arâ— purely naturall I will leave what is to be spoken upon this subject to come to some remarkes Scarce can a man bee found doubting of some point of religion but he promiseth himselfe firmly to beleeve the truth so that hee may see manifest and concluding proofe there is nothing so common as this voyce If I see the proofe I will believe it But they promise that which is not in their power for every historicall faith it selfe is a gift of God and saving faith proceeds from a particular favour of heaven In the meane time they attribute unto themselves the power thinking that the matters of the faith may as easily be insinuated into our beliefe as philosophical propositions which have no need but of a moral perswasions or of the evidence of the senses for to introduce them into our spirit Whereas theologicall truths the most cleare and palpable are alwaies obscure unto us without a particular illumination With a like vanity many assure themselves that if they had seene the miracles that God wrought in Egypt or that Jesus Christ did in Judea they would not have failed to believe in him They wonder at the stupidity of the Jewes and thinke that if such wonders had been presented to their eyes they should have been far from being incredulous But certainly if a man should see all the rivers converted into blood the Seas cleave in sunder the Heaven open his gates the Mountaines to remove themselves the Sun stand still the Dead to come forth of their graves the Rocks to melt into water when he himselfe should have been in Heaven or should have returned from Hell he would not have returned better if God gave him not another understanding capable of this faith Now the Idolatrie which formes God after the resemblance of man consists not alwayes in Statues or materiall pictures neither in the grosse conception of Ideots who never thinke of God but in imagining some figure apprehensible to the sence and place in Heaven a fantasme for the object of their contemplation But there is one far more subtill which indeed considers God as a Spirit but bounds him by the law of Nature or restraines him to the same lawes which serve for bounds to the humane spirit or confines his wisdome to the maximes of morall and intellectuall vertues Two things amongst all others have seemed most absurd in the true religion the one under the Ancient testament to wit the Circumcision the other under the New to wit the Crosse of Christ the one ordained for a Sacrament the other for the foundation properly of the Alliance both of them shamefull in themselves ridiculous in the quality the Scripture gives them For God would oblige the wisest to search their salvation by a way
so great importance but in the essence it self and in the right conception of the truth thereof So some measure the sin of Adam the justice of his punishment the quality of grace the satisfaction of Christ the damnation of infidells by the Lawes and rules of Civill right or by naturall equity having as sleight a foundation as popular spirits who conceive alwayes some point of their religion under maximes of their art or of the condition they professe imploying them not as simple comparisons for to inlighten but as demonstrative proofes CHAP. 7. Why learned men receive the truth with more difficulty then other men and if the promptitude of belief is alwayes most praise worthy TThe same which we have written of the most piercing spirits happens also to men of eminent knowledge which is that they are for the most part slower of belief in a point of Religion then ordinary men there must be more powerfull operations and a longer time for to draw them to the tearmes of an intire perswasion on which I will only say the most prompt belief is not alwayes the most firm The faith of a man who receives the Gospell with a precipitated and easie approbation ought to be suspected of nullity it is to be feared it s rather credulity then sollid faith surely our Lord spake of certain auditors who easily received the word with gladnesse but left it with the same facility which they had brought to its reception the truth is alwayes open and never hides her face to the end that he who receives her may see what manner of guest he is to receive So when a man begins to be illuminated in the first acts of this faith he meets with an infinity of objections which hinder his resolution to an entire belief But he which finds no obstacles therein never considers thereof in good earnest far from having conceived the faith a man who will sound the depth of Religion and know the bottome as far as man can discover he who will learn all the measures of the Tabernacle and know the dimensions and the proportions and weigh all the reasons which forbids the entrance and those which invite him thereto his pace will not be very fast and wil not come very soon to the altar But if once he be enlightened by the light of the Sanctuary the slownes thereof redounds to his advantage for belief is far more cleare being received upon solid grounds more sound As lodging in a spirit refined from all that surcharged it and more solid as having prevented by a ripe deliberation whatsoever might come to shake it In this tryall of religion the learned have alwayes helps which facilitates their understanding and where they know to make use thereof they understand better the importance of a point of the law or of the Gospell the enormity of sinne or the excellency of redem prion far better then the common people That as they have more trouble to be perswaded so they have more objections to be resolved then those which see not the difficulty thereof but the perswasion being formed in them possesses all those advantages which I have related And notwithstanding it is not altogether universally true that the learned are the more difficult to believe the truth the conversion of an idiot proves oftentimes more painfull and troublesome A grosse ignorance incapable to comprehend the easiest matter is the mother of stubbornesse nay more of presumption the enemy of all knowledge Many refuse instruction because they believe they have knowledge enough So that under the shadow of Christian liberty an artificer censures what he understands not CHAP. 8. Why the learned are subject to more doubts then the simple people WE find an infinite number of persons among the common people who never doubt of any point of faith nor of any other matter approved by the orthodoxall Church whereas that ordinarily the most knowing men are full of doubts Now its true that believing and doubting are acts formally contrary for distrust although many teach it is not of the essence of faith no more then vice is not essentiall to vertue and every sort of doubt is a testimony of our weaknesse and a mark of ignorance But it is easie to judge from whence it comes that popular spirits are not subject to so many doubts as the great Theologians For as thier sight extends not it self so farre so they see not all the difficulties which the other discover in the study of Religion as for those who have never doubted of any point it is of necessity that this great security of spirit proceeds from one of those two causes either of a perfect and transcendent faith incompatible with all species of doubt or from an extreame stupidity which never comprehended the importance of a doctrine nor ever sounded the depth thereof A man who hath alwayes had an absolute and unvariable perswasion of all points of Religion without any contradicting thought must necessarily be either An anges or a beast This stupid confidence deceives an infinity of souls especially in the personall application of their beliefe Many hold themselves so assured of their salvation that their spirit is incapable of doubting but not through the excellency of faith which requires a more exact triall but through an excesse of self love from hence it comes to passe they willingly believe whatsoever makes for their advantage But if they have no pertinent reasons it is a most grosse presumption CHAP. 9 Of common proverbs in generall and of certain maximes in favour of ignorance THE vulgar people governe themselves by certain maximes esteemed for oracles but which are indeed as many approved errours The proverbs which belong to Oeconomie exteriour policie and to naturall prudence in the conduct of our lives are nothing to our purpose there are some which touch Religion that are held for assured principalls which have nothing but an abusive and fraudulent appearance whosoever would make the inventory should discover a thousand absurdities For all the proverbiall sentences which are at this day in use have not been dictated by the mouth of the wise or from reason common to all men or from universall experience Ignorance hath brought forth many which are authorised onely by the credit of the multitude And every man who desires to understand very well his Religion ought to take of these prejudicated proverbs which at this time have course such are the following maximes to wit That there 's no sin but with the will which is false Originall sinne in little children omissions proceeding from forgetfulnesse the first motions which are not in the power of man extravagant dreames wandering and idle thoughts doubtles which trouble the spirit are not voluntary and notwithstanding are still sinnes Idiots imagine that sinne resides not but in the will not considering that it hath its place in the Intellect it self but this is to justifie that opinion which some hold that Ignorance is
increaseth day by day CHAP. XVI Of those which studie nothing but controversies what sort of controversies may teach us most doctrine What points of doctrine are the most difficult amongst Christians What expedient may weake ones take in the highest questions A rule which is not to be found but in the reformed Religion Of Miracles Of Martyres Concerning the question where was the Church before the Reformation SOme seek no other instruction but that of controversies a studie truly which is necessary for to furnish Antidotes in places or in times infected with heresies But yet it is incapable to give unto the soule a full reflection He should truly be a foole who would take no other nourishment but from the Treacle or the Rubarbe Controversies shewes not the whole body of Religion but the parts thereof which are in dispute And this is but by accident For our faith is affirmative not negative And our knowledge hath for its object the evidence of truths not the disguising of errors Who would come by this way to a more universall knowledge of religion he must study not only all whatsoever wee dispute with the Roman Catholicks but also whatsoever the Christian Church debates against an infinite of Sects who rob her of her title nay more all the differencies which wee have to decide with the Jewes Mahometans Indians and other Pagans and that which is worse with a multitude of Atheists If there be a controversie in which a Christian armed to the proofe against blasphemies may learne rare and excellent things 't is in that which we have with the Jewes I understand for to have an exact knowledge and not to consider only the trunke but also all the branches the juyce and the marrow from the lowest of the rootes to the highest of the leaves To see the depth of this controversie is more painfull then all the others It hath but very few Philosophicall arguments All therein is drawne from the deep fountaines of the ancient testament and you must lift all the curtaines of the Tabernacle and passe through many vailes before that one can see the holiest of holies This was the exercise of the first Christians For their first disputes began by the Jewes and excepting necessity which obligeth us to turn head to other adversaries this controversie would be more fruitfull then any other There are two sorts of matter in which lies the hardest controversies which be amongst Christians and the most difficult to manage 1. Those which touch the decrees of God as the Prevision or Prescience Prudence Predestination Reprobation c. Secondly Those which concernes the qualities of the soule be it in Nature or be it in Grace Free-will certainty of Faith c. The reason why these two points are more difficult then the others is evident in respect of the first Divine decrees are infinitely distant from our sight as being elevated above all times and inclosed in a volume of which we see nothing but a few characters hard to be discerned at so great a distance Many who thinke they read there distinctly draw most dangerous constructions But it is a wonder in the other point that so many difficulties are found seeing that the subject is so neare our eyes nay that it is within our selves Our intellect is in trouble to know whether our intellect and the will are faculties really different Whether granting the judgement of the Intellect the will must necessary follow or if it remaines in Balance and in power to suspend its action If our faith be placed in the Intellect or in our will Our soule so little knowes thereof that she knowes not where to find her selfe being ignorant whether she resides in the blood or in any other particular part of the body or whether she be universally diffused through all the parts thereof The proximitie it selfe of the subject is the cause of this difficulty The soule no more then the eye cannot see it selfe except it be by a very obscure reflection and that false to for the most part which we call indirect knowledge For to disturbe the spirits of the common people ye need but to set them on these two points which many have chosen expresly as being full of Labirinths He who hath not been acquainted with these slights ought to remember that in each controversie truth lodgeth in a center to which ought to bend all matters which are in dispute In these differences which concerne the will of God towards man or the will of man towards God for all the controversies of Election of universall grace of free will of perseverance and such like may have relation to these two things these maximes ought to be the center to wit that the glory of all good belongs to God That whatsoever is ill proceeds from man We must not attribute to God the ill that proceeds from man Nor to man the good which proceeds from God One cannot take from God the smallest part of his glory without ravishing it intirely because that it is indivisible as a point that admits no parting Commutative justice cannot happen to be in God The creature attributing unto God all the good which is in her cannot faile in excesse nor incurre any danger thereby but in attributing some portion thereof to himselfe he may runne some hazard In these principles which are as undoubtable as familiar as they may easily resolve all the subrilties will they or nill they which may be produced on the one side or the other And the weakest Christian taking heed to the lines which end not in this center or fall aside will easily judge that they are irregular This constant and universall rule may be applyed to all fo 〈…〉 â—octrine John 7.18 and I dare say that of all religions which are in the world there is none but the reformed which attributes to God the glory of all good especially in the salvation of man And certainly there is not one of the others but makes profession to attribute to God this glory but examining them nearly you shall not find any but that take away some part to make thereof a present to man what they avow in generall they steale by retaile or deny it by their consequences to hinder God from possessing of it in effect As to the rest the common people ought to distinguish the certaine and the infallible propositions from prejudicate opinions which may be disputable It 's a common opinion that there are no miracles wrought in the world and that there shall be never more This negative is uncertaine and the proofe neither assured or necessary When all the miracles which the Jesuits doe attest to have bin wrought in the midst of the Indies should be true they would not conclude the least of their errors no more then the annuall miracle at the poole of Shiloa gave authority to Pharisaisme Much lesse can they draw any consequence from the martyrdome which some of them have suffered by the hands
convince the Apostolicall writings of falshood and so by consequence to annihilate C ristianity CHAP. 19. Why the opinions the most erronious are maintained with greater obstinacy then those which are lesse absurd The plea of these which burnt their children Pretexts for transubstantiation THe more monstrous is the errour the more pertinacious is the belief when once it hath taken place in the spirit the reason is because the falshoods the most enormous are made important by the highest pretexts of truth and are not authorised but by the most undoubted maximes of religion under the colour of this soveraigne power◠they make men renounce their judgement of reason nay more disavow their own proper sences If ever there were an error incapable it was the impiety of the Israelites who burnt their own children as a sacrifice pleasing to God Neverthelesse neither nature which cried out against those horrors nor the threatnings frō heaven which condemned them could not hinder their practise But it needs must be that some violent passion which brake in sunder the strongest chains of naturall affections was moved with some powerfull engine cloaked over with some very specious pretext Their apology might be that the chiefest good of man consists in the remission of his sinnes that this remission could not be without the effusion of blood That it were a folly to go about to appease God by the blood of beasts and therefore some humane sacrifice must be offered That this sacrifice ought to be innocent and that a greater innocence could not be found then in a little infant That to be of the proper substance of the man which did present it and so it was necessary that his offering should be offered in expiation But if the sacrifice ought to be but Eucharisticall then it were but to mock God to present him a calf or a pigeon his Majesty requiring more noble offerings nay more demanding our own bowels and that they knew not how to offer him a more precious present then the life of their own children Under this pretext and such like this abomination passed for the most ardent piety which a man may show to God equallising or rather surpassing all which the Scripture extolls in Abraham for an action of this quality So that the excesse of errour augments the perswasion The article of transubstantiation is produced under the name of the most excellent and most dreadfull misterie of all religion bearing upon its front the expresse words of the sonne of God whose presence is fearfull to the Angels arming it selfe with the power of his omnipotency inclosing within its titles all the Majesty of heaven and the salvation of the whole world By how much the representation of this opinion is prodigious by so much the more it makes them believe it misterious From thence it comes that that belief is maintained with more pertinacity then any error whose absurdity is lesse apparant Also the believing hereof is esteemed so much the more meritorious by how much lesse the object is to be believed as indeed that man who firmly believes this transubstantiation should have were it true more faith then ever had all the Patriarks and Apostles together The third Section CHAPTER 1. What manner of knowledge or instruction is most naturall to the vulgar TWO men may know one and the same truth but in divers manners A Country man may know that an Eclypse ought to happen on such a day having read it in an Almanack but that is not called Science as an Astronomer who knows by demonstration foreseeing the Eclypse in his causes He is not learned in religion who knows all the matters but he that knows them in the manner they ought to be known on which many faults are to be observed There are two traditions or wayes of instruction on which the vulgar repose themselves Sentences and generall propositions 2 Histories in these two consists almost all the knowledge of the common people As for the first head the ignorant content themselves to know the generalities because the intelligence of particular points requires a sharper sight and a more fixed contemplation It s easier to an Idiot to say These Things then to restrain this generality to its species to know how to give each one of them its proper name To the other the instruction which is given them by history pleaseth them because of its facility for it consists in actions and circumstances perceptible to the imagination so that all their knowledge lodgeth either in copious generalities or in the single individuums but the points which are as it were mediums between these two wearies more the spirit obliging them to reason and to take the measure weight and number and the names of all things This is the cause the vulgar cast it off In the mean time many are Orthodoxall in the generality of a point who erre grossely in the particulars thereof witnesse the article of providence upon which the common people will give a cleare opinion in respect of the generality of this doctrine but in the particular points imagine a world of absurdities CHAP. 2. Of the superficiall knowledge of each point of Of religion Of their definitions and of their exact Knowledge An example in the doctrine of the Eucharist THE ignorance of generall as well as particular points proceed from this that popular spirits learn an infinity of descriptions but very few definitions I speak not in favour of subtil and artificiall definitions of which every one is not capable But certainly it is impossible to have the true knowledge of a point without knowing how to mark and define the essence if not exactly yet at least very near the truth When a man can say sinne is the poyson of the soule and knows how to give it a hundred epithites of this sort yet hath he not learnt what sinne is this ignorance is entertained by a multitude of Preachers who are content to declaim by descriptions and abundance of metahpots never showing but the superficies of matters in stead of setting forth the dimensions I leave the points which are elevated above all definition The imagination of Idiots who not understanding what is properly that eternity although they know that God hath neither beginning nor end believe him neverthelesse to have more age then he had foure thousand yeares since This point and many others are not the mark at which we shoot I could show that the greatest part of our differencies proceed from the ignorance of definitions If the Romish Church comprehended intercession to be a sacerdotall act and that Christ prayes in quality of a soveraign Priest dead for us and this function consists in the comparition of his person c. She would never transport to others the title of intercessor But to make you see how many excellent matters the exact intelligence of one point furnisheth in respect of a superficiall knowledge we will produce only one example In the words of the Lord
Alphabet without knowing how to join them to make entire words thereof Religion as it is in the knowledge of many consisteth in the multitude of matters confusedly heaped together in the mind without symmetry or proportiō without any form either of building or body the head and feet being confounded Some of our controversies concern the same order and rank of points The Romane Catholicks coming to contend with us begin voluntarily with the question of the Church giving it the highest place to the end they may make it passe as a rule and principle of faith But the Article of the Church holdeth not the first rank in the Creed CHAP. IIII. Of those which believe the truth by vertue of a false principle or of some passage of Scripture which toucheth not the question MAny believe the truth by a false faith The Turk believes God the creation providence the immortality of the soul Christ born of a virgin a great Prophet and the word of God because the Alchoran saith it These points are true in themselves but the belief which he hath thereby cannot be formally true because it depends on a false principle Truth may not be believed for a lyes sake One may not commend them which endeavour to amplifie the Oracles of the Sybills to the end they may make them speak more advantagiously in favour of the Christian Religion Nor the pious frauds of them which under colour of proving the immortality of the soul have supposed fabulous apparitions It importeth not onely what we believe but also why we believe it A man which believeth there is a God because Philosophy or naturall reason teacheth him so hath not a Theologick faith although the beliefe which he hath touching God be true in it self and in its principles He that believeth all the Articles of Christianity because great Doctors believe them or onely because the Church holds them for true hath built his faith upon mans testimonie 'T is a complaint of a person eminent in humane learning that being Orthodox in the Article of Christs Divinity notwithstanding in his interpretation and Paraprases upon the new Testament he did enervate or allude asmuch as was possible for him all the most manifest passages which authorise the beliefe of this point But on the other side the world is full of people which upon every sort of matter alledge a multitude of Texts though oft times the twentieth part suit not to the subject They which believe a truth but ground it upon a passage of Scripture which maketh not to the purpose believe the truth falsely That which they believe is very true but that by vertue whereof they believe it is not so For the Scripture ill applyed is no more Scripture but a perverting thereof although it be alleadged to prove the truth which it teacheth in other passages And 't were to be wished that many would bring hither as much feare and discretion as they abound in impertinent quotations But the vulgar often suffer thēselves to be led more by passages which come by the by then by those which lead straight to the mark I have seene a man which could never be brought from the Invocation of Saints for any Text alleadged unto him unlesse when one quoted to him the passage of Esay 63. ver 16. which notwithstanding is not the most concluding of all those which are made use of in this controversie A Rabbin converted to the faith and who had writ against those of his nation found the Trinity and the two natures of Christ in the foure Hebrew letters of the word Jehovah And made almost more esteem of this Cabbalistick proof then of all the passages of the old Testament infinitely more cleare and expresse upon this subject That which remaines to be said requires another Parenthesis CHAP. V. Every point of Religion hath its peculiar reasons examples and considerations to this purpose ALL the points of Religion and all the lesser branches of them have every one their particular reason And the Scripture saith not only that it is so but also how and why it is so It gives us not simple positions but teacheth by demonstration and arguments even to the resolving of objections which may be moved to the contrary This is not then sufficient when a man knows all his Religion by Propositions or Maximes though conceived in proper Scripture tearms if he know not also the particular reason of every one of them And to render a reason of our faith is not only to alleadge the Scripture which affirms such or such points but also to shew why these points which the Scripture affirmeth are such and that they are the causes of every one of them in particular Divinity is all full of demonstrative arguments They which have but a naked knowledge of conclusions see well the face and externall shape of Religion But the beating of its arteries the spirit which moves it and the faculties which stir within it are visible to them who know the reasons wherewith it is animated It is not to the purpose to alleadge that one ought not to demand a reason what God saith and that it is enough to believe what the Scripture pronounceth is true This objection is of value as touching points the search whereof is forbidden us as Why God sheweth mercy more to one then to another and for other matters which we may call transcendent which God hath bounded with praecipices environed with high barricadoes which hinder us from entring in thereat But in those whereof the Scripture teaches us the reasons 't is a foolish modesty to reason against his command which obligeth us to learn them Nay this is a manifest arrogance to will the ignorance of those reasons the Scripture gives us thereof under pretence of believing the Scripture simply For the Scripture it self teacheth us to reason upon many points infinitely raised above us When it is asked Why God permitted that sinne should enter into the world though it were in his power to hinder it Many reasons of this permission may be found full of excellent doctrine and saving the matters we have excepted there is not any point of Religion nay any particle whereof one may not find some reason either exprest in the Scripture or duly averred by lawfull consequences or resulting from the property of the subject If there be any thing which seemeth to be out of all enquiry they are the principles of nature As for example The prohibitiō of marriage between brother and sister is the voice of nature which hath no need to be propped with reasons since it is reason it self And though one may always say that the Scripture would oblige men to search the alliance of the remotest races to the end that the affections correspondencies of humane societie might be multiplied which would not be if marriages should be alwayes contracted within the same family Which would by this shame restrain the license which might grow from the facility
of their conversation That so many naturall relations met in one man which might have brought the title of father and uncle together would have brought a thousand confusions in the world That the same proximity being disputed amongst them which are of the same blood would have produced divers strifes in families for the reason as that of the straight line which oblige the brother to marry his half sister that the woman who in case of injury or dissertion might find a refuge with their brothers had lost his refuge if the brotherhood had been confounded in the marriage And other reasons which one might alleadge for this law CHAP VI. Of the exercise of the mind in every point of Religion The default of the vulgar and of preachers herein The Scripture speaks by proofs GOd would that our knowledge should be discursive in part and that this faculty of the soule which passeth from one subject to another for to discern them compare them together and give judgement thereof might also be sanctified by this exercise in matters of Religion But because it is more difficult to reason upon a point then to conceive it nakedly and barely the common people is contented to heare that such a thing is true or good or just without searching why or how it is such The ignorant love onely to heare a thing affirmed or denyed insomuch that to the understanding of a proposition or assertion thus naked there is need of but a bare apprehension or understanding of words without other trouble of mind Whereupon they are delighted in maximes and proverbs because it is not needfull to conceive the sense thereof easie to whosoever understandeth the words For 't is to be presupposed they are grounded on reason and 't is enough to hold them for true without any other form of enquiry This same facility is the cause we have more talkers then preachers Provided they stretch out a point by a long train of equivalent tearms that they delate a text into Paraphrases that they heape togeather a great masse of sentences of Scripture they think they have worthily handled and the vulgar abide therewith satisfied But the interpretation thereof requires much more then this Certainly Jesus Christ himselfe and the most excellent instruments which have spok by his spirit have not contented themselves to pronounce the affirmative or negative upon any point but besides have shewed the reasons thereof If they teach that the worship of God ought to be spirituall they give this proofe thereof to wit that God is a spirit If the alleadge to make the Jewes see that the Messias ought to die and rise again the words of the Psalmest thou shalt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption they frame thereof an argument which imports that this Oracle cannot relate but to David or to Christ that the body of David had notoriously felt the same corruption which death brings to other men So that this prophecy could not belong but to Christ If they say that man is not justified by the Law they prove it by the end of the Law which is to manifest sinne If they declare that Circumcision doth not justifie they shew it by the example of Abraham who was justified before he was circumcised So that his circumcision being after his justification could not have produced it If they affirm that there was a Law before that of Moses they argue that where there is no law there is no sin Now we read that there was sin before Moses this is proved because that death which is the wages of sinne raigned from Adam to Moses If they maintaine free Election they produce the decree given before the infants had none either good or evil If they maintain that the Covenant of grace could not be disanulled by the Law they make it cleare that it did precede the Law foure hundred and thirty yeares If they publish that Christ is greater then the Angells they prove it by his titles which were never conferred upon them If they preach the weaknesse of the Jewish priesthood they take it from this that the Scripture hath substituted for it another of anorder altogether different to it after the order of Melchisedech for if perfection had been in the Leviticall Priesthood what need had there been that anothe Priest should arise which was according to the order of Aron If they teach that Jesus Christ ought to die they note that where there is a Testament there the death of the Testatour ought to intervene before the heires can have benefit thereof In brief if they speak of the resurrection or of other points of faith their discourse never consists in bare assertions but in reasons and demonstrative proofs CHAP VII Of Popular reasons as well in the Romane Religion as amongst the vulgar of the Orthodox Churches The difference betwixt the maximes of faith and those of charity THose which among the vulgar reason upon matters of Religion are accustomed to conceive them as reasons one may call popular These reasons are taken from the superficies not from the very substance of truth This is the reason why oft times they are found false although their facility render them plausible to the ignorant If it were needfull one might shew that the Romane Religion is for the most part propt up by popular reasons Popular is the comparison of Intercessours which are employed towards the Grandees of this world brought for the Invocation of Saints Popular is the question whether we ought to condemn our ancestours and so many souls which hold the faith we at this day disallow Popular are the marks under which they represent the Church For the antiquity multitude locall succession are not essentiall properties thereof Popular are the austerities fastings scourgings and externall mortification of the Monks profession Popular are the images and the title which is given them that they are the booke of Ideots The most ordinary reason which authoriseth the reason of the common people is that of charity Prayers for the dead have been covered under this pretence and many sometime have extended even to hell praying even for the damned not to deliver them wholly from pain knowing that is impossible but for to procure for them some diminution thereof whereunto charity carrieth them The maximes of charity are more persuasive and efficacious amongst the common people then the maximes of faith The reason thereof is because that those of faith are more removed from the appearance and have not so much relation with reason and naturall affection as those of charity which are more intelligible and more agreeing with the common notion of men Notwithstanding to say truth every act of Religion which is undertaken without faith is also without charity And the charity of the ignorant is a strange fire which is not acceptable at the altar But our discourse properly concerns them who being orthodox in points of Religion prop not up the belief of them but upon