in the world And altho' Petrus Bembus is long since dead yet there is still some or other of the number of the holy Cardinals and Bishops who can suggest seasonably to a young Divine intent upon the Bible that those trifles do not become a grave man So that these are only Divines in name while they pursue the aforesaid sorts of Learning or any other rather than Theology esteeming it fitter for men of small capacity and their Curates than for men of those Elevated parts they are of The Jesuits whose supreme Law is their Interest do here dexterously lead their followers for being weary of Divinity and in our times very ignorant and unexpert in it they are very anxious and careful in the cultivating the Arts of Administring publick affairs to their own Ends raising and fomenting Wars searching into the secrets of State deceiving the minds of Princes in finding out curious things and such as may best serve to divert the Court Ladies and in conveying Gun-powder with a Godly simplicity under Kings and in other such like mysteries proper to this most useful sort of men They will not like their Predecessors be troublesome to Printers in the publishing Commentaries and discourses on the Bible they have their Pererius Bonfrerius Cornelius Alapide Jansenius Lorinus Estius Justinianus Masius Sanctius Pintus and Tirinus and those that take pleasure in them may make use of them and they who having nothing else to do may write more The present life needs other studies Jeremias Drexelius and Carolus Scrivanius have written enough for Devotion Now let the Italians help the Italians the books of Nicolas Machiavel and the discourses of Trajanus Boccalini on Parnassus are to be now imployed The present Pope sets a good example to the Universal Church who that he may seasonably and prudently curb the forces of the great Turk which hang as a cloud over Italy the Seat of the Popedom spares neither Councel Labour nor charge that not only Vienna may be delivered but also that the Wars may be continued against the Turks by the Emperour and his Confederates and not be hindred by the French King But then how the Great men Kings and Princes should be induced and persuaded to the true knowledge of Jesus Christ and the study of Piety and good Works and diverted from Adulteries the too great oppression of their Subjects from coveting that which is not their own from rash and unjust wars these belong to others and not to the Pope though he be reputed the supreme Bishop The Popedom is now upheld by Arms and all other things are trifles I grant the Church of Rome hath not had a better or wiser Pope than the present is in this last Age. But then all that love the Christian Religion and Christ cannot digest this that he so carelesly connives that I may represent it smoothly at the manifest and apparent sins which strike the eyes of the whole world of his most Christian most Catholick Kings and the Protectors of the Faith and yet this good Pope if compared with others does not once frown but clearly dissembles at all things lest he should lose his Authority his Revenews and his very Kingdom which is not obscurely aimed at by some body I know not whether it be the part of a wise man to retain the antiquated custom of sending Consecrated Clouts and Blankets with the great peril of his Reputation and in the mean time be too Prodigal and careless of the Episcopal Correption and Admonition to the performance of our duties the amendment of our Neighbours and lastly of all those things which tend to the good of some whole Kingdoms Some esteem the delaâ—â—… of this Pope in the conferring the Cardinals hats and other Ecclesiastical promotions as a principal part of his wisdom nor do I deny that there is in this a secret which I can easily conjecture the cause of but to dispose of them at the Will and Recommendation of the Lord Protector of the Faith which new title is now on the Anvil at Rome perhaps without the consent of the King of Poland the Duke of Lorrain and the Count of Starenburg may seem to the wiser part of mankind too too profane and remote from the Divine and Apostolical prudence Alas whither does the Pope fall how barefaced does Atheism approach this man These great men have excellently plaid their parts against the common Enemy and done that which becomes such persons and therefore the Pope is bound to prefer their Clients and those they recommend in the most Holy Church redeemed with the very blood and Torments of Jesus Christ that so the Body and Spouse of Christ may pay that debt which the King of Italy owes to these Noble men for preventing the dangers which threatned his kingdom But thus our Lords the Popes do always proceed where they dispose of Ecclesiastical preferments according to the pleasure of great men whatever becomes of the Edification and Salvation of the Church and its Members II. The Youth of that Religion in the mean time being seasoned with these studies and examples if they have any and have not forgot and lost all in the Camp is imployed as occasion serves in those offices which become void and pursues the same course of life for the Church and Church affairs are either committed to some Curate who is for the most part very ignorant or are managed by these men so carelesly and negligently that they seem to mind nothing less They are wholly taken up with the sublime Speculations of the Mathematicks Criticks the secrets of Polity the Rights of Majesty c. but they have either never tasted at all or lapt like the dogs in the Nile the Institutions and Compendiums of Divinity the methods of Doctrine and the Expressions and Phrases of the Bible and approved Classick Authors in the interim they are unconcern'd for the truth of the Religion of their forefathers and never attain the knowledge of the Roman Catechism in the course of their whole lives being oppressed with a multitude of Beautiful books which tend more to their Reputation and Advantage and the burthen of other affairs I have seen many Libraries where the Catechism was not to be found And from thence it proceeds that it is so scarce amongst them that I could not without much difficulty get a Copy of it for my own use And thus they live from time to time till some Calamity Temptation or disease awake them and separate them a little from those vain tho' sublime studies and then in their distresses they seek solid comforts correspondent to their great Wits For as for the Mass the Invocation of Saints and Angels Purgatory the infallibility of the Pope of Rome and the rest of those Whimsies they keep them in View but like Learned men despise and scorn them as not built upon so much as a rational foundation for without doubt he must be rather an Ass than a Learned man that
that can betide a man on this side Hell is to be given up by God to vile and base Affections and that which the Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hatred of God which is the forerunner of Atheism is the worst and basest the most devilish affection that can take possession of a man but yet is too frequently the effect of Debauchery Schism Inconstancy and neglect of the Service of God and therefore it is the interest of all those that have any spark of Goodness or Virtue left to desert the paths that lead to this Precipice to abhor all that company that may lead them insensibly into this Gulf of eternal Ruine and destroy all their Reputations and temporal happiness into the bargain 2. That it is the interest of all that are exalted to any places of Power and Profit that have any share in the Government to be as tender of Religion as of the Apple of their Eye to discountenance Debauchery and Immorality and especially Atheism Blasphemy Perjury common Swearing c. to the utmost of their powers and however never to employ or trust men of infamous lives or wicked Principles 3. That it is the interest of all men to endeavour to put an end to our Factions in Religion by all the Lawful means that can be thought of 4. Seeing all these miseries I have expressed have sprung from the abuse of Liberty and want of the execution of good Laws and that we see whither a licentious freedom will at last lead us let us heartily submit to the necessary restraints of Discipline and Government and dread no slavery like that of being the bondmen of Lust and the drudges of the Devil And as to our Dissenters I desire they would seriously consider the State of the Churches beyond the Seas of which this Author hath given so exact an account and then reflect upon the little good they have got or done by all their oppositions to that Religion which God by his Providence has established amongst us how many horrid sins they have been guilty of under the mask of Religion and perhaps more out of ignorant Zeal than intentional Wickedness and lastly how deeply they are concern'd in the Guilt of all the Debauchery and Atheism of the present Age by weakening the force and abating the reverence that is due and in all probability would otherwise have been paid to our Civil and Ecclesiastical Governours And because the very root of all our Divisions is a quarrel about our Ceremonies I desire they would reflect seriously upon the last Section of this discourse and if they cannot be satisfied with the proceedings of their Superiours yet at least to abate somewhat of their hitherto inflexible stubbornness And because the sence of Foreigners is like to be more prevalent with them than that of English men who are suspected to be interested I will give them for a Conclusion the sense of a Learned French Protestant in the same case The person I mention is the Author of the History of Calvinism and Popery in Parallel or an Apology for the Reformers and Reformation written against M ur Maimbourg's History of Calvinism part 1. chap. 20. It is fit to be known in the first place that We saith he would not enter into a Schism with a Church nor make any great controversie for a small number of Ceremonies which being of no great use do yet do no great injury to Religion and for this Cause we cannot but be concerned to see a number of good and devout people beyond the Seas out of an excessive Zeal for the simplicity of Worship divorce themselves from the Religion Established by the Prince and State because of a few Ceremonies of small importance the use of which they will not endure Schism is the greatest of all evils and if it were true that these Ceremonies did some harm yet they can never do so much mischief as the scandal of Separation and Division do But yet after all this I believe these Ceremonies are innocent and that these men are very imprudently offended at them This Gentleman is no friend to Ceremonies as appears by this and in what follows is very importunate with our Governours to lay them aside in favour of the Dissenters and yet he cannot but call the Separation made on that account a Schism and an imprudent and scandalous one too and pronounce our Ceremonies innocent which is enough to condemn our Dissenters and make them liable to answer to God and Man for all the misery sin and bloudshed that have already hapned in this quarrel or shall hereafter happen And if the little Religion that is left in the World do with so much difficulty maintain it self against the Atheism that grows upon the age now that the Established Religion is defended by Laws made venerable by a few innocent Ceremonies and the Countenance of our King and Government I leave it to all men to judge what would follow upon the breaking down our Fences and exposing it naked and without Authority to all that please to put a helping hand to the pulling it down THE ORIGINE OF ATHEISM Both in the Popish and Reformed CHURCHES Shew'n by DOROTHEVS SICVRVS Translated out of Latin HE that shall compare the Present Times with those that are Past shall hardly fall upon an Age of more solid Learning excellent discourse or ingenuous Arts than the Present But then alas we find by experience that there was never any thing so great but it left room for its own Ruine for by how much the more Learning and Arts have spread themselves into so much the narrower bounds is Piety contracted so that while the number of Learned men increaseth that of the Pious is daily diminished Not only the Jesuits but the Members of the other Orders though despised by the former in comparison of themselves do abundantly shew that the Church of Rome is replenished with many Learned men Hence many have admired how it should come to pass that this Religion which is composed with so strict superstitious and artificial a respect to the well-being and Polity of the Pope and Jesuits should not only abound with Atheists but even seem to be the source of Atheism it self Those famous men the Elegant Theophilus Spizelius the Religious Anthonius Reiserus the once most Reverend Joannes Mullerus the Zealous Gisbertus Voetius the Learned Josua Arndius though they have otherwise at large discoursed of Atheism yet they do not touch this business But to him that rightly considers it the thing will not be obscure for Italy where the Seat of the Popedom is produceth sublime and active Wits who when they grow up accustom themselves to humane Learning History Criticks Politicks and those other studies which belong to Publick affairs and the secrets of State who in the mean time despise the studies of Piety Scripture and Divinity as mean and easie things which will contribute very little to their Reputations
should from his heart believe these fooleries They either have not the Works of the Reformed Divines or the Pope and Inquisition will not suffer them to read them For they so severely prohibit the reading of them especially in Italy and Spain that they will not suffer their own Answers of our Books to be publickly sold lest men should detect the weakness and falshood of their Superstition from the opposite Arguments and their frivolous Replies tho' all our Arguments according to the custom of these men are represented with the utmost disadvantage being mutilated lamed feigned and falsified which was observed long since by a Learned man Edwin Sands These men I say being overtaken by Temptations examining the whole frame of the Popish Religion as such with their acquired and experienced Judgment find at last that it is nothing but a pack of meer frauds introduced of purpose to delude the silly Rabble preserve the Majesty of the Pope and uphold the Monasteries and in them especially the Idle Lazy Jesuites and Monks Which things being thus dissected and survey'd with great care the summ is easily cast up and is no more than this All Religion is a meer cheat all seek their own Advantage some directly others obliquely What if at last in truth there is no God for I am fully convinced that no man of good Learning and sense ever entered the Roman Church for the sake of Religion and the quieting of his Conscience without any other bye-ends for the chiefest parts of Popery are so contrary not only to the Scriptures but to common sence almost that they are forced to patch up a parcel of Fables and Traditions of all sorts to recommend them to the most rude and ignorant part of the People which yet they will scarce allow to be true from whence it comes to pass that they can neither understand nor teach any thing of more certainty than these false Principles which yet is absolutely necessary here when the Salvation of the Soul is under consideration and the business is to be transacted with the most perfect Rhetorician that is with our own Conscience where there is need of the most certain maxims to enable us to resist the Devil when sin or our own Conscience of it tempts us For in matters of Faith we cannot effectually make use of any other testimonies than those of the Scripture nor can any invented reasons be brought which the Animal man shall not find to be such except those of God Therefore the Scripture because it only is certain doth most instruct and confirm the Conscience If any thing besides this is feigned because it is uncertain it cannot secure and quiet the Conscience And thus far for the present of the Popish Religion III. I come now to the Protestant Churches and here if they who call themselves the Reformed Lutherans and Arminians did as much abhor and detest the thing as they do the name and profession of Epicures and Sadduces they would be no less careful of abstaining from Vice and industrious in the exercise of Virtue and Piety than they are now obstinately engaged in the wickedness and debauchery and an impious course of life Nor would they be less careful of keeping of Commandments of the Best and greatest God than they are now fearless of the Deity But to speak the truth almost all of us do rather fear the Envy and detest the Name than bear any Aversion in our minds for the thing which would otherwise be testified by our Lives Actions and Manners For what shall I say as I live and as I desire Christ should shew me mercy I am ashamed and grieved to speak how we live Can they believe the Immortality of the Soul who live little better than beasts or can they be throughly perswaded that there is a reward laid up in Heaven for the Righteous a punishment appointed in Hell for the Wicked who scarce fear to break the Commandments of God in any thing as if they thought GOD were an empty and vain sound and that their Souls should perish with their Bodies and altho' we should grant that there are some who fear God and doubt not but he will assign Rewards and inflict Punishments according as every man has deserved yet they are certainly very few and scarce so many as the gates of Thebes and the mouths of the rich Nile and yet how much less is the number of those whom the dread of the divine Justice can reclaim from Wickedness and mischief or perswade to amend their lives but what need is there of many words No man vigorously pursues heavenly things despising humane no man is sensible of the Anger of God against sin no man changes his Vices for Virtue no man cures his offences committed by the least acts of Charity no man is recalled from Baseness by Modesty or from sin by the fear of God the lives of all are so polluted with great and abominable crimes that I need say nothing of the less and almost daily faults IV. For altho' if we will judge rightly Luxury is the fault of every Age the over sumptuous expences in Diet the excessive magnificence of Dinners and Suppers Surfeits Revellings Whoredoms Adulteries Violence Injustice neglect of good manners and the like are charged as Seneca observes by the men of all Ages upon their own times nor was there ever yet any Generation of men without faults and as the same Philosopher goes on of this our Ancestors have complained we do and our children shall that the Manners of men are totally subverted Villany reigns and the affairs of Mankind go on impairing and descending to all manner of Crimes yet to speak but the truth in this Age of ours the liberty of committing any Villany is encreased to a prodigious height The neglect of all Order and Discipline the Pest and Corruption of good manners and whatever else of Vice impiety and turpitude can be conceived have all of them so prevailed that Impiety and Atheism do almost seem to have invaded the lives of men and to have erected their kingdom in Christendom and to conclude there seems to be but little liberty allowed to Laws and the utmost that is possible to Lust I durst Averr that in this corrupted and debauched Age all sorts of wickedness have prevailed to that degree that it is scarce possible to add any thing to it nor does any improvement seem possible For what sort of Wickedness and Villany is wanting which if it were supposed to be thrown in would make our times worse and wickeder in any part seeing we are come to this that we cannot endure to be told of our Vices nor patiently bear the reproof that we have justly deserved or if there be some few that can endure it yet even there according to the Proverb we do but sing and tell stories to the Deaf Either I am deceived with the Tragedian or this is not the way to Heaven Alas alas what
Spend-thrifts and Gamesters so many Citizens contaminated with all manner of Villany and Wickedness but from this one fountain of the ill and perverse Education and Government of Children for they that attribute the debauchery of the Age to the Reformation do without doubt need Physick That loose and impious Education and ill discipline which is now in use added to the negligence and dissoluteness of the Magistrates who are more intent upon their own private and domestick advantages than the publick good that I may make no complaints against the Princes of the World must certainly bear the blame of all this Wickedness Thus you have the first and principal cause of the present Atheism in my opinion XII And now I come to the next which is the contempt of the Clergy and Church-men I will not at large inquire into the Causes of this nor whether many of them have not brought this disesteem upon themselves by their own faults tho' it is not possible that our Clergy should not be vile in the eyes of men while they see how basely and poorly they seek Church Functions and Preferments how careless they are of their people and unconcern'd for the Glory of God Now I say when men see all this is it possible that they should not despise those who seek their own and not the things of Jesus Christ And the very Clergy too observe at time the small esteem the people have of them as appears by their frequent complaints in their Pulpits tho' they either know not or are pleased to dissemble their knowledge of the Cause as if they abhorred the remedy more than the disease I will only add this that the contempt of the Person for the most part brings with it a contempt of the Office Now how deep this is rooted in the minds of the men of this Age no man can be ignorant I remember I heard a person of no mean consideration at Amsterdam use these words That he valued his Cat as much as he did his Minister Thus did an Evangelical hearer speak of an Evangelical Pastor If any that were not of the Established Church had thought a little under valuingly of them it might have been born provided it had not been attended with publick scandal because they have nothing to do with them as S. Paul bore with the Athenian Philosophers who call'd him Babler and a setter forth of strange Gods but when the Auditors who are committed to his care despise his Admonitions and Doctrine as if they were too good and learned in the Scriptures to be instructed by such a man as it does not seldom happen that those who have wealth and power in the world will hardly submit themselves to the Church-discipline and instruction there I say the contempt is not to be indured because attended with the contempt of the Ministery and tending to the great damage of the hearers And to this purpose is that of the Apostle let no man despise thee For I cannot allow the Exposition of Chrysostom and others who think that Titus was admonished to behave himself so both as to his Doctrine and Life as not to deserve to be despised For altho' it is most certain that integrity of manners does add to the Authority of the Teacher and render his Doctrine more acceptable and that a good life as Primasius saith makes the Doctrine of more Authority yet the very sound and sense of the words shew that the Apostle here does not prescribe what Titus should do but what others should not do Joh. Crocius upon this place take it that the Apostle did not here speak to Titus but to the whole Church of Crete and ordains that seeing Titus was commanded to encounter with their vices and errors and to defend the Truth and Religion no man should be so prodigal of his Salvation as to despise either his Person or his Office or prefer himself before him as better or more worthy For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used as is observed by S. Hierom. Witteberg and Fr. Baldwin Comm. p. 1501. B. signifies thus much When any one being confident of himself that he is better than another despiseth him whom he thinks beneath him And as being above him in wisdom thinks the inferiour person worthy to be despised Therefore this is to be imprinted in the first place in the minds of all that belong to the Church of what Order or Dignity soever they are of that they ought to be subject to their Minister because all are sinners who stand in need of Instruction Exhortation reproof and Consolation all which are administred by the Ministers of the Church by the word of God commended to them therefore they are to be heard of all as the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God But if there be any that will not hear as the greatest part of the men of this Age will not that they are not to be connived at but to be rebuked with all Authority As the Apostle directs in the last cited place out of Titus that they may understand saith the grave Balduinus the Authority of the Ministery excells all worthly Power We have already the heavy sentence revealed against these despisers Luk. X. 16. Matth. X. 40. Joh. XIII 20. But if there be any Drones and unworthy of the Ministery let them be driven out of the Hive But as to those who teach the true Doctrine and Religion and Catechise in publick and in private and serve Christ and their people faithfully without any vain hopes of lucre out of love these I say ought to have obedience liberality and reverence shewn towards them lest if we act otherwise by the just judgment of GOD we should be left so far to our selves as to maintain Seducers Hypocrites mercenary men those that are covetous of great Revenues carnal men who are totally unfit for that spiritual work idle bellies indeed of the Ministers of Christ and such as wallow in the very mire of Pleasures and Riches which hath already hapned not only to our forefathers but to some of the most flourishing Churches of these times as we see with sorrowful hearts XIII The ill tho' frequent way of Preaching gives us the third cause of Atheism The first duty of a Preacher is to set forth the Power and Nature of Religion and the second is to perswade men to Faith and good works as all agree who know what it is For it is in vain to exhort those men who are ignorant of the force and nature of true Positive Divinity and Religion But a great sort of our Preachers having only lightly touched or rather for the most part totally neglected their Text fall presently to the exhortation which whoever does prosecute without the knowledge of Faith and true Religion does but play the Philosopher instead of preaching Christ as Philip Melancthon has plainly pronounced in this affair I would not have the latter omitted
but I had rather they would much oftner handle the former For seeing the Gospel teacheth many things above our Reason it is not possible to know which is the true Worship of God and Religion unless we know what the Gospel teacheth Therefore he will do most good to the Church tho' he will not at first be so acceptable as an English Moralist who can best set forth the matter of Faith which many either totally neglect contenting themselves with inculcating the precepts concerning manners without delivering the summ of the Christian Religion or do only lightly touching it and yet after all we wonder whence it comes to pass that those that have so many years frequented our Sermons being asked concerning the heads of the Christian Religion can give no account of them when yet they never in all their lives heard much if any thing of them I lament the misery of these poor sheep but I shall never more wonder at the multitude of Atheists and of those that are ignorant of all Religion But in short if the truth may be spoken the greatest part of the Preachers never learned the Compendium and form of true Theologie and what more can be expected from such men But I know not how it comes to pass that no Mechanick shall be suffered to exercise a Trade who hath not spent a great time in learning of it But all are suffered to preach without distinction or choice nor do I at all regard the Certificates which are usually given to young beginners in some places for how and at what price they are purchased of the Professors is as clear as the light But Paul's precept was that the Bishop should be apt to teach And he only will be such who has a right notion of Religion and has by the assistance of the Holy Ghost had experience of the force and power of it in the various events of his life For as a builder first forms the whole building in his mind So the teachers of any Arts ought to have the whole Scheme of the Arts they profess to teach in their minds that they may be able to shew the beginning and Series or order of all the precepts But all other Arts because they may be comprehended by reason may be more easily apprehended whereas the Gospel which contains many things above and against the judgment of reason is not apprehended without difficulty and therefore the Preacher is obliged to take the more pains that he may render the most obscure things plain And he will then be able to do this when he has possessed his own mind with a comprehensive knowledge of all the Doctrine of Religion before he begins to teach others Therefore it will never be laborious or difficult to such a Preacher to invent what he should speak but rather his prudence is to be imployed in the chusing out of the great variety and plenty what may seem most profitable and useful for the whole Christian Religion is of a Divine Original and being delivered to us in writing by the Prophets and Apostles those writings are to be followed Now in this the first thing is to understand rightly those things which he has undertaken to handle for no man can clearly teach another that thing which he doth not throughly understand himself That Verse of Horace is very common Verbaque praevisam rem non invita sequentur For unforc'd words wait on a well known thing Nor does any man attain the knowledge of the holy Scriptures by study only but it is necessary that by instruction of the Holy Ghost he should feel the force of them in his own mind and so be able by his own Experience and Practice to interpret them The next things required in a good Preacher is that he have a good way and manner of interpreting or expressing himself which is delivered in those precepts by which youth is instructed in Eloquence or Rhetorick For no man can ever know the way of teaching well if he be not well instructed in Eloquence in his youth and be very much and a great while conversant with those Arts in which the precepts of Rhetorick are contained And then an Interpreter ought to know the Genius of the language for the holy Scriptures have a certain peculiar Idiom and Phrase which those that are not acquainted with it from their youth cannot understand Nor is it enough to have some degree of knowledge in the tongues but to enable a man to judge well Logick and Rhetorick are of great use Lastly if he be able to draw a summ or Compendium of the whole doctrine out of the holy Scriptures he will then endeavour that the people also may comprehend the whole Christian Doctrine The Primitive Church seems to have aimed at this heretofore when she took such care that the ignorant might be throughly instructed before they were admitted to Baptism whom she then called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Catechumens For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Catechise doth not signifie to teach simply but to read to a person and make him repeat after the Teacher And I wish the custom were retained in the Church of exacting of every man once an account of the Doctrine for we do more diligently consider and deeply look into those things which we are bound to recite in other words without changing the sense The last cause of Atheism we fetch from the total abolition of all Ceremonies for we see that Religion was never more despised than in those Churches where there is no Ceremonies For there is an absolute necessity of some external shews which may recommend and render Religion more August and Venerable to the common people who are not able without them to see into the greatness and dignity of this thing and we ought not to undervalue that improvement which children make while they Sing the Psalms Read the Bible and repeat the Catechism aloud in the Church For if Ceremonies are not impious as they are which are instituted by the Papists for Justification and if there be any use of them such as the recommending Religion to the people and children for whose sake they were chiefly instituted and both which they retain and preserve in the word and teach I see no reason why they should be abolished O how earnestly do I desire that those who govern our Church-affairs would more deeply consider this last cause which at first sight appears so light and contemptible and that they would understand what Ecclesiastical Prudence is concerning which we conjecture Nicolaus Videlius will with the assistance of God publish something in his Elegant book of the Prudence of the ancient Church Tho' ours should at least be so unhappy as leave this thing very imperfect It is a most impious thing to think that all Ceremonies were instituted by wicked Popes There ever were some wise and holy men who throughly understood that the minds of the common people were so stupid and low that they could never apprehend the Dignity and Majesty of Religion unless their minds were fixed and detained with some outward and visible Rites till they might by that means by degrees be more and more lifted up and so learn to admire it And yet I would not have too much haste made here because Abraham Scultetus a prudent Divine otherwise in this very Age left us a Tragical example of the ill effects that followed at Prague And thus at length I have opened this putrid sore and now if the work might be acceptable and it might promote the cure of it O how great thanks should I give to our God but if the evil should happen to be only exasperated and the attempt should incense the Patients I shall comfort my self with the Conscience of my undertaking and the usual reward of a Physician FINIS Anno 1196. Lib. 1. c. 26. Quin videmus tempora ipsa in Atheismum procliviora qualia fuerunt Augusti Caesaris tranquilla fuisse Bacon de superstitione L. 16. c. 6. p. 27 Cicero de fine bon l. c. 7. Lact. de falsa relig l. 3. c. 16. Joseph Ant. L. XVIII cap. 2. Apud imperitos prodigii loco accipiebatur ipsa aquarum penuria quod in pace sors seu natura nunc fatum Ira Dei vocabatur Tact. H. l. 4. c. 26. Quibus quaestui sunt capti Superstitione Animi Liv. l. 4. Parum Philosophiae naturalis homines inclinat in Atheismum at Altiorem Scientiam eos ad Religionem circumagere Baconis Ser. fidelis XVI De falsa Sapientia l 3. c. 17. Adversae deinde res admonuerunt Religionum confugimus in capitolium ad â—eos ad sedem Jovis O. M. Liv. l. 5. Nullum crimen abest facinusque libidinis ex quo Paupertas Romana perît turpi fregerunt secula Luxu Divitiâ—â—molles Juven Sat. 6. Rom. 1. 30. Principis est ea maximè curare quae ad Deos pertinent nam metuunt minus ne quid injusti accipiunt à talibus minus insidiantur ut Deos habenti Socios Arist Polit. l. 5. c. 11. Licentia urbium aliquando disciplinà metúque nunquam sponte considet Sen. ep 97. Europae speculum or a View or survey of the State of Religion in the Western parts of the World p. 121. This and several other passages make me think the Author was a Hollander If our Laws 〈…〉 Act. XVII 18. Tit. II. 15. 1 Cor. IV. 1. 1 Tim. III. 2. I cannot assent to my Author in this viz. that there is any thing in the Gospel against the judgment of Reason illuminated by Faith If the Rite of Confirmation were duly put in execution with us no Church can take a better and more effectual care for this than ours has done