it is Peace; which containeth infinite Bleffings : it establisheth Faith; it kindleth Charity; the outward Peace of the Church diftilleth into Peace of Confcience, and it turneth the Labours of Writing and Reading of Controverfies into Treatifes of Mortification and Devotion. Concerning the Bounds of Unity; the true Placing of them importeth exceedingly. There appear to be two Extremes. For to certain Zealants all speech of Pacification is odious. Is it peace, Jebu? What haft thou to do with peace? turn thee behind me. Peace is not the Matter, but Following and Party. Contrariwife, certain Laodiceans and Luke-warm Perfons think they may accommodate Points of Religion by Middle Ways, and taking part of both, and witty Reconcilements; as if they would make an Arbitrement between God and Man. Both thefe Extremes are to be avoided; which will be done, if the League of Christians, penned by our Saviour himself, were in the two cross Clauses thereof, foundly and plainly expounded; He that is not with us is against us: and again; He that is not against us is with us;9 that is, if the Points Fundamental and of Substance in Religion, were truly difcerned and diftinguifhed from Points not merely of Faith, but of Opinion, Order, or good Intention. This is a Thing may seem to many a Matter trivial, and done already; but if it were done lefs partially, it would be embraced more generally. 7 2 Kings ix. 18. Rev. iii. 14. 16. 9 Matth. xii. 30. Comp. Adv. of Learning, ii. 25. 7. Of this I may give only this Advice, according to my small Model. Men ought to take heed of rending God's Church by two kinds of Controverfies. The one is, when the Matter of the Point controverted is too small and light, not worth the Heat and Strife about it, kindled only by Contradiction; for, as it is noted by one of the Fathers;10 Christ's Coat indeed had no feam, but the Church's Vefture was of divers colours. Whereupon he faith, In vefte varietas fit, Sciffura non fit; they be two Things, Unity and Uniformity. The other is, when the Matter of the Point controverted is great, but it is driven to an over-great Subtilty and Obscurity, so that it becometh a Thing rather Ingenious than Substantial. A Man that is of Judgement and Understanding shall sometimes hear Ignorant Men differ, and know well within himself, that those which so differ mean one thing, and yet they themselves would never agree: and if it come so to pass in that distance of Judgement, which is between Man and Man, fhall we not think that God above, that knows the Heart, doth not discern that frail Men, in some of their Contradictions, intend the fame thing, and accepteth of both? The Nature of fuch Controverfies is excellently expreffed by St. Paul, in the Warning and Precept that he giveth concerning the fame; Devita profanas vocum Novitates, et Oppofitiones falfi Nominis Scientia." Men create Oppofitions, which are not, and put them into new Terms fo 10 Probably S. Bernard, Opera Paris, 1586, fol. T. i. p. 520. 11 1 Tim. vi. 20. fixed, as whereas the Meaning ought to govern the Term, the Term in effect governeth the Meaning. There be also two falfe Peaces, or Unities; the one, when the Peace is grounded but upon an implicit ignorance; for all Colours will agree in the Dark: the other, when it is pieced up, upon a direct Admiffion of Contraries in Fundamental Points. For Truth and Falsehood, in such things, are like the Iron and Clay, in the Toes of Nebuchadnezzar's Image; 12 They may cleave, but they will not incorporate. Concerning the Means of procuring Unity, Men muft beware that in the Procuring or Muniting of Religious Unity, they do not diffolve and deface the Laws of Charity and of human Society. There be two Swords amongst Christians, the Spiritual, and Temporal; and both have their due Office and Place in the maintenance of Religion. But we may not take up the third Sword, which is Mahomet's Sword, or like unto it: that is, to propagate Religion by Wars, or by fanguinary Perfecutions to force Confciences; except it be in Cafes of overt Scandal, Blasphemy, or Intermixture of Practice against the State; much less to nourish Seditions; to authorize Confpiracies and Rebellions; to put the Sword into the People's Hands, and the like; tending to the Subverfion of all Government, which is the Ordinance of God. For this is but to dash the firft Table against the Second; and fo to confider Men as Christians, as we forget that they are Men. Lucretius the Poet, when he beheld the Act of Agamemnon, that 12 Dan. ii. 33. could endure the Sacrificing of his own Daughter, exclaimed ; Tantum Relligio potuit fuadere malorum.13 What would he have faid, if he had known of the Maffacre in France, or the Powder Treafon of England? He would have been seven times more Epicure and Atheist than he was. For as the temporal Sword is to be drawn with great circumspection in Cafes of Religion, fo it is a thing monftrous to put it into the hands of the Common People let that be left unto the Anabaptifts, and other Furies. It was great Blafphemy, when the Devil faid, I will afcend and be like the Higheft; but it is greater Blasphemy to personate God, and bring him in saying, I will defcend, and be like the Prince of Darkness.14 And what is it better, to make the cause of Religion to descend to the cruel and execrable Actions of Murdering Princes, Butchery of People, and Subverfion of States and Governments? Surely, this is to bring Down the Holy Ghost, instead of the Likeness of a Dove, in the shape of a Vulture, or Raven; and to fet, out of the Bark of a Christian Church, a Flag of a Bark of Pirates and Assassins. Therefore it is most necessary that the Church by Doctrine and Decree; Princes by their Sword; and all Learnings, both Christian and Moral, as by their Mercury Rod 15 do damn and send to Hell for ever, 13 Lucret. i. 95. 14 Ifa. xiv. 14. Comp. Adv. of Learning, ii. 22. 17. 15 The allufion is to the Caduceus, with which Mercury, as the meffenger of the gods, fummoned the fouls of the dead to Hades. thofe Facts and Opinions tending to the Support of the fame, as hath been already in good part done. Surely in Councils concerning Religion, that Counsel of the Apoftle would be prefixed; Ira Hominis non implet Juftitiam Dei.16 And it was a notable Obfervation, of a wife Father, and no less ingenuously confeffed; That thofe which held and perfuaded preffure of Confciences, were commonly intereffed therein themfelves for their own ends. IV. Of Revenge.' EVENGE is a kind of Wild Justice, which the more Man's Nature runs to, the more ought Law to weed it out. For as for the firft Wrong, it doth but offend the Law; but the Revenge of that wrong putteth the Law out of Office. Certainly, in taking Revenge, a Man is but even with his Enemy; but in paffing it over, he is fuperior: for it is a Prince's Part to pardon. And Solomon, I am fure, faith, It is the Glory of a Man to pass by an Offence. That which is past, is gone and irrevocable; and wife Men have enough to do with things present and to come: therefore, they do but trifle with themselves that labour in paft matters. There is no Man doth a wrong for the wrong's fake; but thereby to purchase himself Pro16 James i. 20. 1 See Antitheta in De Augment. Lib. vi. Art. 39. |