by the wit and help of Man Wine Oyl Bread and Cloth and other works of Nature are compleated by humane Arts so the Divine Oracles delivered to us obscure and hidden are to be explained by Interpretation not by the force of our own Wit or Invention but by the help of the Spirit who distributes his good things as he pleases and where he pleases making some Prophets and some Interpreters Therefore this Interpretative Divinity consists not in Compounding Dividing Defining after the manner of the Peripateticks neither of which belong to God who neither can be defined divided or compounded but leads to Knowledge by another way which is indifferent between this and Prophetical vision which is a kinde of discovery of the Truth to our purifi'd Intellect as a Key to a Lock and this as it is the most covetous of all Truth so it is the most susceptible of what things are to be understood and is therefore called Possible Intellect wherewith though we do not discover by a full light what the Prophets mean and those who beheld the Divine things themselves yet there is a door open to us that from the conformity of the Truth perceived to our Intellect and by the Light which illustrates us out of those open windows we gain more certainty than from the appearing Demonstrations Definitions Divisions and Compositions and we read and understand not with our outward eyes and ears but with our better senses and extract the Truth flowing from the sacred Scriptures which the other delivered in dark sayings and mysterious sentences and thereby see what is hidden from the wise and great Philosophers yet apprehend them not with so much certainty as that all perplexity may be removed And whereas there is a manifold Truth conceal'd in sacred Scripture holy men have gone about to try various and manifold Expositions of the same For some gently walking along the back of the Letter and expounding one place by another and one letter by another and making out the sence by the Order Etymologie and Propriety and Force of the signification of the words hunt out the truth of Scripture which is therefore call'd Literal Exposition Others refer all things written to the business of the Soul and works of Justice whose Expositions are therefore call'd Moral Others remit them by various Tropes and Figures to the Mysteries of the Church whose Exposition is call'd Tropological Others given to Contemplation refer all things to the Myitery of Celestia glory and this Exposition is call'd Anagogick And these are the four most usual sorts of Exposition besides which there are two more of which the one refers all things to vicissitude of Times Mutations of Kingdoms and Ages therefore call'd Typick Wherein among the Ancients Cyril Methodius and Joachim Abbas did most exel of Modern Authors Jeremy Savanarola of Ferrara The other enquires into the nature and qualities of the Universe the Sensible world and of the whole Fabrick of the World and Nature which Exposition is therefore call'd Physical or Natural wherein Rabbi Simeon ben Joachim excell'd who wrote a very large Volume upon Leviticus wherein discoursing of the natures of all things he shews how Moses according to the congruencie of the threefold World and nature of things ordain'd the Ark the Tabernacle the Vessels Garments Rites Sacrifices and other Mysteries for the appeasing and worshipping God Which Exposition the Cabalists follow especially those who treat of Beresith or the Creation For they who discoursing concerning the Judgement-seat of God by Numbers Figures Revolutions Symbolical reasons refers all things to the first Arch-type search for the Anagogical sence And these are the six most famous Senses or Meanings of the holy Scripture all whose Expositors or Interpreters are by a general word call'd Divines among whom we finde Dionysius Origen Polycarpus Eusebius Tertullian Ireneus Nazianzene Chrysostome Athanasius Basil Damascene Lactantins Cyprian Jerome Austin Ambrose Gregory Ruffinus Leo Cassianus Barnardus Anselm and many other holy Fathers which those ancient times brought forth and some of later years as Thomas Albertus Bonaventure Egidius Henricus Gandavensis Gerson and many others But now seeing that all these Interpretative Divines are but men they are subject to humane frailties sometimes they erre sometimes they write things contrary or repugnant sometimes they differ from one another in many things they are deceiv'd all of um not discerning all things for onely the Holy Ghost has the perfect knowledge of Divine things who distributes to all men according to a certain measure reserving many things to himself that we may be always learning of him for as S. Paul saith All of us know and preach by art onely Therefore all this Interpretative Theologie consists onely in liberty of speech and is a Knowledge separate from Scripture whereby every one has the liberty to abound in his own sence according to those various Expositions recited before which S. Paul in one word calls Mysteries or speaking of Mysteries when the Spirit speaks Mysteries whence Dionysius calls this Significative Theologie treated of by those holy Doctors in several Volumes Nor are we to believe all that they say seeing that many hold very Erroneous Opinions of Faith which are exploded by the Church as we may instance in Papias Bishop of Hierapolis Victorinus Pictoviensis Irenoeus Lugdunensis Cyprian Origen and Tertullian and many others who have err'd in the Faith and whose Tenets have been condemned as Heretical though they themselves are among the Canoniz'd Saints But this requires a deeper spirit of consideration to judge and discern which is not of men nor of flesh and bloud but granted from above by the Father of lights For no man can utter any thing rightly of God but by the light which comes from himself which light is the Word by whom all things were made and who illuminates every man coming into this world giving them power to become the sons of God whoever shall receive and believe Neither is there any who can declare the things of God but his own Word for who besides can know the minde of God or whoever was made of his council but the Son of God being the Word of the Father But of this we shall discourse no farther till we have perfected the next Chapter of Prophetick Theologie CHAP. XCIX of Prophetick Theologie AS Prophecie is the speech of the Prophets so is Theologie nothing but the Tradition of the Divines or men discoursing with God However not every one that can remember or repeat a Prophecie or interpret the meaning thereof is presently a Prophet but he that in divine things is endued with the knowledge of Piety Vertue and Sanctity who discourseth with God and meditates upon his Law day and night For so S. John Author of the Apocalypse in the Letters of Dionysius call'd The Divine testifies from holy Writing to whom the Truth it self has said He that hears you hears me and he that despises you despises me Which words are not
Palaemo Profess'd with great Ostentation so that he gave a new Name thereto calling Grammar the Polaemonian Art A man so Arrogant that he boasted That Letters had their beginning and should dye with him so prov'd that he despis'd all the most Learned men of this Age not forbearing to call Marcus Vaâ—ro Hog However the Latin Grammar is so barren and so much beholden to Greek Literature that whoever understands not so much is to be ejected out of the Number of Grammarians Therefore all the Foundation and Reason of Grammar consists only in the use and Authority of our Ancestors who have been pleas'd that a thing shall be so call'd and so written that words shall be so compounded and construed which being so done they esteem well done From whence though Grammar boast it self to be the Art of well-speaking yet doth it falsly claim that Pre-eminence seeing that with more advantage we learn that very thing from our Mothers and Nurses rather than from the Grammarians The Language and Speech of the Gracchi who were most Eloquent Men their Mother Cornelia polish'd and adorn'd Istria taught her Son Siles Son of Aripethis King of Scythia the Greek Tongue And it is well known that in many Provinces where Forreign Colonies have been introduc'd the Children have still retain'd the Dialect of their Mothers Hence it is that Plato and Quintilian are so careful in appointing Rules for the choice of a fit Nurse Far be it from us therefore to acknowledge the reason of well-speaking to these Grammarians who professing Grammar only and making that their only business yet are skill'd in nothing less Priscian could not learn this Art in the whole time of his Life And Didymus is said to have four some say six thousand Books upon this Subject They report that Claudius Caesar was so given to the Greek Tongue that he added three new Letters thereto which he afterwards made use of when he was a Prince Charles the Great is said to have Compil'd a Grammar for the German Tongue giving new Names to the Months and Winds Even to this hour how men toyl and labour Day and Night scribling continually of all sorts Commentaries Forms of Elegancy or Phrases Questions Annotations Animadversions Observations Castigations Centuries Miscellanies Antiquities Paradoxes Collections Additions Lucubrations Editions upon Editions And yet not one of them all whether Grecian or Latine hath given any accompt how the Parts of Speech are to be distinguish'd or what order is to be observ'd in their Construction or whether there be only fifteen Pronouns as Priscian believes or whether more as Diâ—medes and Focas will have it whether a Participle put by its self be sometimes a Participle or whether Gerunds are Nouns or Verbs why among the Greeks Nouns plural of the Neuter Gender are joyn'd with a Verb of the singular Number upon what accompt it may be lawful to pronounce in um Latine words terminating a and us as for Margarita Margaritum for Punctus Punctum how it comes that the Word Jupiter makes Jovis in the Genitive Case Why many write most Latin words with a Greek Diphthong others not as Foelix Quaestio whether the Latin Diphthongs are only written and not pronounced or whether there be a double pronunciation in one Syllable Likewise why in some Latine words some use the Greek y and some the Latin i only as in considero Why in some words some double the Letters some not as causa caussa religio relligio Why the word Caccabus by position long by reason of the double cc is notwithstanding most commonly by the Poets made a Dactyle Whether Aristotles word for the Soul ought to be writ endelechia with a Delta or entelechia with a Tau I omit their infinitie and never-to-be-reconcil'd contentions about Accents Orthography Pronounciation of Letters Figures Etymologies Analogies Declinings manner of Signification change of Cases variety of Tenses Moods Persons Numbers as also about the various impediments and order of Construction Lastly concerning the Number and Pedigree of the Latin Letters whether H be a Letter or not and many other trifles of the same Nature so that not only as to Words and Syllables but also in the very Elements and Foundations of Grammar it self no reason can be given of such their continual warfare Such a kind of Battel as this Lucian of Samos has very elegantly describ'd about the Consonants S and T whether should have the Victory in the word Tbalassa or Thalatta Answerable to which one Andreas Salernitanus hath with very much wit compil'd his Grammatical War But these are poor and low things but more and of greater Consequencâ— could we urge concerning their deprav'd significations of Words with which they impose upon the greatest part of the Universe not a little to the damage of the Publick Weal while they interpret subjection to the Law Servitude Liberty of the People they call that when every one has Liberty to do what he pleases Acrisonomie or Equality of right they call that when there is the same punishment the same reward to all alike In like manner they call that a quiet and peaceable Government when all things submit to the inordinate will of the Prince That a happy Government when the People wallow in ease and luxury By such-like expositions as these and many other Physick and Law are corrupted nay the very Scriptures and Christ himself are compell'd to be at a kind of variance one with another and himself with himself wresting those holy words not according to the meaning of the holy Ghost nor to the Advantage of humane Salvation but to the sense and meaning of their insignificant Compendiums and discants thereupon whence arise most eminent mischiefs Error in Words being many times the parent of Error in Matter This mistake was grievous to Saul first King of the Jews in the word Zobar which signifies both a Male and the Memory So that when God said I will root out the memory of Amalech Saul thought he had sufficiently executed the Command in destroying all the Males The like Error befell the Greeks and Latines in the word Phos which signifies both Light and Man by which ambiguity of the word the ancient adorers of Saturn being deceiv'd were wont to Sacrifice a Man in their usual Ceremonies whereas otherwise they might have as well appeas'd their Deity by the only kindling of proper Lights and Fires which Error was afterwards reform'd by the prudence of Hercules Last of all Divines and holy Friers mixing themselves among the Tribe of Grammarians are forc'd to make use of Heresie to make good their Contests about the signification of Words overturning the Scriptures for Grammars sake evil Interpreters of words well spoken men truly vain and truly unhappy blinding themselves with their own Art and flying the Light of Truth who while they over-diligently scrutinize into the sorce of Words lose the sence of the Scripture not willing to understand the word of Truth which puts us in
if good and just men be the possessors of Knowledge then Arts and Sciences may probably become useful to the publick Weal though they render their possessors nothing more happy For it is not as Porphyrius and Iamblicus report That Happiness consists in the multitude of Arts or heaps of Words For should that be true they that were most loaden with Sciences would be most happy and those that wanted them would on the other side be altogether unhappy and hence it would come to pass That Philosophers would be more happy than Divines For true Beatitude consists not in the knowledge of good Things but in good Life not in Understanding but in living Understandingly Neither is it great Learning but Good Will that joyns Men to God Nor do outward Arts avail to Happiness only as Conditional means not the Causes of compleating our Happiness unless assisted with a Life answerable to the nature of those good things we profess Therefore saith Cicero in his Oration for Archias Experience tells us That Nature without Learning is more diligent in the pursuit of Praise and Vertue than Learning without natural Inclination It shall not then be needful as the followers of Averroes contend so violently to labour to season our minds with the so long so tedious so difficult so unattainable learning of all sorts of Sciences which Aristâ—tle confesses to be a common felicity and easie to be attain'd to by labour and diligence but only to give our selves to what is more easie and common to all the Contemplation of the most noble Object of all things God which common Act of Contemplation so easie to All men is not obtain'd by Syllogism and Contemplation but by Belief and Adoration Where is then the great felicity of enjoying the Sciences where is the praise and beatitude of the wise Philosophers that make so much noise in the School founding with the Encomiums of those Men whose souls perhaps in the mean time are at that instant suffering the Torments of Hell This St. Austin saw and fear'd while he exclaims with St. Paul The unlearned rise and take heaven by force while we with all our Knowledg are cast down into Hell So that if we may be bold to confess the Truth That the Tradition of all Sciences are so dangerous and inconstant that it is far safer to be Ignorant than to know Adam had never been Ejected out of Paradise had not the Serpent been his Master to teach him Good and Evil. And St. Paul would have them thrown out of the Church that would know more than they ought Socrates when he had div'd into the Secrets of all sorts of Science was then by the Oracle adjudged to be the wisest among many when he had publickly professed That he knew nothing The knowledge of all Sciences is so difficult if I may not say impossible that the age of Man will not suffice to learn the perfection of one Art as it ought to be Which Ecclesiastes seems to intimate where he saith Then I beheld the whole Work of God that man cannot find out the work that is wrought under the Sun for the which man laboureth to seek it and cannot find it yea and though the wise man think to know it he cannot find it Nothing can happen more Pestilential to Man than Knowledge this is that true Plague that invades all Mankind with so much confusion that subverts all Innocence subjecting us to so many Clouds of Sin and Error and at length to Death This is that that hath extinguish'd the Light of Faith casting our Souls into profound darkness which condemning the Truth has mounted Error to a Throne Therefore in my Opinion neither is Valentinian the Emperor to be disprais'd who is reported to be such an open Enemy of Learning nor is Licinius to be accompted blame-worthy who affirm'd Learning to be the Poyson and bane of the Commonwealth But such is the large freeness and free largeness of Truth as can be apprehended by no contemplations of Science by no judgment of Sence how quick soever by no evident proof no Syllogistical Demonstration no humane Discourse of Reason but only by Faith which he that is indued with Aristotle in his Book of First Resolves accompts to be in a better Condition than he that is indued with Knowledge which Words Philoponus Expounding saith is to be better disposed as more knowing by Faith than by Demonstration which is done by the cause Therefore saith Theophrastus in his Book of Supernaturals As to so far we may discern by the Cause taking our beginnings from the Sences but after we have passed the Extreams and first Principles we can go no farther either because we know not the Cause or through the defect of our weak understanding Plato in his Timaeus saith That our Abilities will not reach to the Explanation of those things but commands to believe those that deliver'd them before though they speak without any necessity of Demonstration For the Academick Philosophers were in high esteem for affirming That nothing could be Affirmed There were also the Pyronicks and many others who were of the same Opinion That nothing could be affirmed So that Knowledge hath nothing super-excellent above Belief especially where the Integrity of the Author directs the freewill of Believing Hence that Pythagorical Answer of He hath said it And that vulgar Proverb of the Peripateticks We are to believe every man expert in his Art Thus we believe the Grammarian as to the signification of Words The Logician believes the Parts of Speech delivered by the Grammarian The Rhetorician takes for granted his Forms of Argument from the Logician The Poet borrows his Measures from the Musician The Geometrician takes his Proportions from the Arithmetician And upon both these the Astrologer pins his sleeve Supernaturalists use the Conjectures of Naturalists and every Artist rightly trusts to the Method and Rules of another For every Science hath certain Principles that must be believed and can be by no means Demonstrated which if any one deny those Philosophers will streight cry out He is not â—o be Disputed withal as a denyer of Principles or else they will deliver him over to the rack of his own experience as if one should deny Fire to be hot let him be thrown into the Fire and then resolve the Question So that of Philosophers they are forc'd to become Executioners compelling men to believe that by force that they cannot teach by Reason To a Commonwealth there can be nothing more pernitious than Learning and Science wherein if some happen to excel the rest all things are carried by their Determination as taking upon them to be most Knowing who thereupon laying hold upon the simplicity and unskilfulness of the Multitude usurp all Authority to themselves which is oft the occasion of the changing Popular States into Oligarchie which dividing into Factions is at length easily oppress'd by single Tyranny which never any man in the World was ever known to
great occasion of the utter subversion of the Roman Liberty In like manner did Cicero provoke Antony to the great mischief of the Empire and Demosthenes incensed Philip to the ruine of the Athenians so that there is no State of Government but has been highly injur'd by this wicked Art no society of men that ever lent their Ears to the Charms of Eloquence that has not been extreamly mischiefed thereby Moreover a confident Eloquence prevails much in Judicature Eloquence being the Patroness bad Causes are defended the guilty are sav'd from the punishment of the Law and the innocent are Condemned Marcus Cato the most prudent among the Romans forbad those three Athenian Orators Carneades Critholaus and Diogenes to be admitted to publick Audience in the City being men endu'd with such acuteness of Wit and Eloquence of speech that they could with great ease make evil good and good evil And Demosthenes was wont to boast among his friends That he could sway the Opinions of the Judges by vertue of his Eloquence which way soever he pleased and that according to his will and pleasure Philip and the Athenians either made War or Peace Such is the force of Eloquence either to allay or incite the Affections of men having as it were Supream Dominion over Nations to make them follow her Perswasions For this reason Câ—cero was at Rome call'd King because he Rul'd and guided the Senate by his Orations which way he pleas'd Hence it appears that Rhetorick is nothing else but the Art of moving and stirring the Affections by subtile Language exquisite varnishings of neat Phrase and cunning insinuation ravishing the minds of heedless People leading them into the Captivity of Error and subverting the sense and meaning of Truth So that if by the benefit of Nature there is nothing but may be express'd in proper Language what can be more pestilent than the fucus and varnishes of fallacious words The Language of Truth is simple but quick and penetrating a discerner of the intentions of the Heart and like a Sword easily cuts in sunder the difficult Enthymems and Gordion-knots of Rhetorick This made Demosthenes though he contemn'd all other the fine and Eloquent speakers of his time nevertheless to stand in awe of one Phocion who also spoke pithily short plainly and to the purpose and was therefore wont to call him the Hatchet of his Orations Perchance the Ancient Romans were not ignorant of these things who as Suetonius witnesses Twice Expell'd Rhetoricians by Publick Edict out of the City once when Faunius Strabo and Valerius Messala were Consuls and the second time in the Consulships of Domitius Aenobarbus and Licinius Crassus and a third time in the Raigne of Domitian the Emperor by an unanimous Decree of the Senate they were not only expell'd out of Rome but also out of all Italy The Athenians forbad them to come near the Seat of Judicature as being perverters of Justice they also put to Death Timagoras for flattering Darius according to the custom of the Persians in too high and obsequious a manner The Lacedaemonians exil'd Tesiphone only because he bragg'd That he could talk a whole day upon any Subject For there was nothing which they hated more than this curious Artifice of the Tongue appertaining to men that nothing regarded the speaking of Truth but whatever work they propose to themselves that to polish with high-flown and bigg words and only intending to deceive the minds of their Auditors and to boast of their leading them by the Noses And now it is evident That never any men were made better by this Art but many worse who though they sometimes speak handsomely of Vertue and Honest things yet are far more Polite Elegant and Ingenious in the defence of Error to sow Sedition to stir up Factions to heap Slanders and Reproaches and Calumnies than in the reconciling of differences making peace maintaining amity or in the commendation of Love Faith or Religion Moreover many men presuming too far upon this Art have revolted from the Orthodox Faith From this Art flow those numberless Sects Heresies and Superstitions that contaminate Religion while some so contemn the Scripture because it abounds not in Ciceronian Phrases that many times they take part with the quaint and fallacious Arguments of the Heathen against the Catholick Truth which is manifest from the Tatian Hereticks and from those whom Libanius the Sophist and Symmachus the Orator great Champions of Idolatry together with Celsus Africanus and Julian the Apostate seduced from the true Religion insulting over Christianity with their flashes of Rhetorick From whose pernicious and Blasphemous Oratory Hereticks have drawn many perswasive Arguments to seduce simple People from the true Faith And do we not now adays see the most Eminent and Learned most Elegant and Subtile Doctors and Disputants in the World to be the greatest heads of Heresies and Factions So are men affected with the Charms of Eloquence that rather than not be Ciceronians they will turn Pagans These becoming Impious while those that are more zealously devoted to Aristotle and Plato become altogether superstitious But all these vain Bablers that so fill the ears of their Auditors with their empty and idle Orations shall one day stand before the great Tribunal to give an account of those Errors which they have so vainly feigned and invented against the Truth of God CHAP. VII Of Logick LOgick succeeds in aid of the foregoing Arts being it self also the Mystery of contention and darkness by which the other Sciences are rendered more obscure and difficult to be understood and this Logick forsooth they call the Art of Reasoning A most miserable and brutish sort of people surely that are not able to reason or discourse without the Assistance of this Art However Servius Sulpitius extols this for the greatest of all Sciences and as it were a Light to those things which are taught by others as being that which as Cicero saith distributes the whole matter into parts and by definition explains the hidden sence of things explains obscurity distinguishes between things doubtful and points out the certain Rule to distinguish Truth from Falshood Furthermore the Logicians promise to find-out the Essential definition of every thing yet are not able to render themselves Masters of their own word in making things so clear but that they may be asked why they could not as well call Man a Man as Animal Rationale or a Mortal Rational Creature More of this you shall find in Boetius whose Works are not esteemed but are beyond all the Predicaments Topicks Analyticks and other trifles of Aristotle whom the Peripateticks following believe that nothing can stand or be known unless what is prov'd by Syllogism that very Syllogism which is set forth by Aristotle who never observed in all his Maximes how all his Arguments are deduced from suppositions or things granted before whose rule those other great boasters following have hitherto as yet made out no true or real
Demonstrations not so much as in Naturals but deduce them all out of the Precepts of Aristotle or some other that went before him whose Authority they preserve and make use of for all their Principles of Demonstration Now Aristotle affirms that for true Demonstration which Creates a Science which is made by Quiddities as the Logicians call them and by the proper differences of things to us unknown and hidden He saith farther that Demonstration is made by the Causes which Causes proceed either De per or secundum quod ipsum Which parts of Speech being convertible and relating back one to another yet saith he no circular Demonstration can be granted out of the Causes for all that If therefore the Principles of Demonstration are unknown and that Circulation be not admitted certainly little or no knowledg can be thence concluded For we believe things demonstrated through certain very weak Principles to which we assent either through the preceding authority of the wise or else approve by experience of our Sences And indeed all Knowledge hath its original from the Sences And it is a certain experiment of the Truth of Speech as Averroes saith when the words agree with the things thought And that is most truly known to the Knowledge of which most Sences concur Out of sensibles we are by the knowledge thereof led to all those things that fall within the compass of our Knowledge But now when all the Sences are subject to be deceived they can surely produce to us no real experience Wherefore seeing that the Sences cannot attain to an Intellectual Nature and that the causes of inferior things out of which the Natures Properties Effects and Passions of those things ought to be discovered and demonstrated are by the consent of all Men altogether unknown to our Sences doth it not hence appear that the way of Truth is wholly shut up and obscured from our Sences So that all those deductions and seeming Sciences deeply rooted in the Sences themselves must of necessity be altohgther erronious uncertain and fallacious Where is then the benefit of Logick where is the fruit of this Scientifical Demonstration from Principles and Experiments which when we must be forced to consent to as to known Terms will not those Principles and Experiments be rather things perfectly known than demonstrated But let us consider this Art a little more remotely Logicians reckon up ten Predicaments which they call most general Genus's Those are Substance Quantity Quality Relation When Where Scituation Habit Action Passion By which they hope to comprehend and understand all things whatever are contain'd within the round circumference of the World They add moreover five Predicables so call'd because they are predicated of themselves and of their parts that is to say Genus Species Difference Proper Accident Then they assigne four Causes of every thing the Material Formal Efficient and Final by which they believe themselves able to discover the Truth or Falshood of all things by a certain infallible Demonstration Now they compound every Syllogism oâ— Demonstration of three Terms the first is the Subject of the Question and is called the Major the next the Predicate of the Question the third is the Middle participating between both with these terms they form two Propositions which they call the Prâ—mises out of which at length springs the Conclusion This is that egregious Engine and these the Terms and Parts thereof whereby they undertake to joyn divide and conclude all things by the help of certain Axiomes which they dream impossible to be refuted These are the deep and profound Mysteries of Artificial Logick invented with so much care by these fallacious Doctors which being such great and secret Mysteries are not to be exposed or learnt by any other than they who are able to give great rewards for the same and to be at large expences to purchase Authority among the Schoolmen These are the Nets and these are the Hounds with which they hunt the Truth of all things whether natural as in Physicks or supernatural as in Metaphysicks but according to the Proverb of Clodius and Varro can never overtake by reason of their bawling and brawling one with another CHAP. VIII Of Sophistry BUt the late Schools of Sophistry have made an addition of far greater and more Monstrous Prodigies such a Scroll of Infinituâ—s Comparatives Superlatives Incipits and Desinits Formalities Haecceities Instances Ampliatioâ—s Restrictions Districtions Intentions Suppositions Appellations Obligations Consequences Indissolubles Exponibils Replications Exclusives Instances Cases Particularizations Supposits Mediates Immediates Completes Incompletes Complexes Incomplexes with many more vain and intolerable Barbarisms which are thick sown in their Logical Systemes whereby they endeavour to make all those things to appear Truths which are in themselves absolutely false and impossible and those things which are really true like furies breaking out of the Trojan Horse they seek to ruine and destroy with the Flames of their barbarous words Others there are who will admit of no more than three Predicaments not but two Figures of Syllogisms and of them but eight Moods laughing to scorn all Modal Compositions together with concrete and abstract Terms Others are not wanting who have found out the eleventh Predicament and a fourth Figure of Syllogisms Increasing the number likewise of Predicables and Causes and have moreover invented so many invincible Stoical subtleties that the Niceties of Cleanthes and Chrysippus together with the little conceits of Daphita Euthydemus and Dionysiodorus seem dull and meer rustical when compared with the new devices of our Modern Sophisters in the Study whereof the whole fray of our Sophisters are so stupidly employ'd that their whole business seems to be to learn to erre and with perpetual Skirmishes to render more obscure if not quite to obliterate the Truth which they pretend to explain so that the great Art which they profess is but a Gallimaufry of depraved and barbarous words by nice and froward Cavilling perverting the use of Speech offering violence to the poor Tongue that is scarce able to manage them the glory whereof consists only in noise and reproach the professors themselves coveting Combate rather than Victory and seeking all occasions rather of Contest than to find out the Truth So that he is the best Man among them who is most impudent and fullest of Clamour of whom Petrarch writeth that whether it be the modesty of their Stile or a confession of their Ignorance they are implacable in their Language yet dare not abide a true Challenge and are unwilling to appear in publick knowing what frivolous Ornaments they are attir'd withal and therefore like the Parthians they exercise a flying Fight and darting their volatile words up into the Air may be said to commit their Sails to the Wind. These are they who as Quintilian says are extraordinary subtile in Disputing but take them from their impertinent Cavilling and they are no more able to endure the blows of right Reason like little Buggs that
Arguments and talk in wrangling Syllogisms with Hereticks but to labour to convince them by the Word of God then to determine the matter according to the Decrees and Canons of the Church and either to reduce him to the Orthodox Faith or pronounce him a Hereticks for he is no Heretick who is not obstinate nor is he a favourer of Hereticks who seeks to defend an innocent person condemned of Heresie left he should be deliver'd up by these cruel and ravenous Inquisitors to be butchered without a cause And although it be expresly provided in the Law that the Inquisitors shall have no power of Examining nor any Jurisdiction over any suspition defence or favour of Heresie which is not a Heresie manifestly exprest and absolutely already condemn'd yet these bloudy Vultures going beyond the Priviledges and Commission of their Office against all right and contrary to the Canons themselves take upon them to meddle with ordinary things arrogating and usurping the power of Popes in those things which are not Heretical but onely Scandalous or offensive to the ear most cruelly raging against the poor Country-women whom being once accused of Witchcraft and condemned without the examination of any lawful Judge they expose to most strange and unheard-of Torments till having extorted from them what they least thought to confess they finde matter to proceed upon to condemnation and then they think they do the Office of Inquisitors truly when they never leave the business off till the poor woman be burnt or else have so far gilded the Inquisitors hand until he take pitie of her as sufficiently purg'd for an Inquisitor may alter the punishment from penal into pecuniary and convert it to the use of the Office by which there is not a little Money to be got and some of these poor creatures are forc'd to pay them an annual Stipend for fear of being harass'd to Torment And when the Goods of Hereticks are confiscated then the Inquisitor gets no small matter The very accusation or highest suspicion of Heresie nay the very Citation of the Inquisitor is enough to bring a womans credit in question which is not to be salved without money given to the Inquisitor which is no small gain Thus while I was in Millain several Inquisitors did torment many honest Matrons some of very good Quality and privately milk very large sums from the poor affrighted and terrified women till at length their Cheating being discovered they were severely handled by the Gentry hardly escaping Fire and Sword When I was President of the Commonwealth in the Citie of Mediomatricum I had a very great Contest with an Inquisitor who being a loose fellow had hal'd a poor Country-woman into his Slaughter-house being a place of disrepute and all for a very slight Accusation not so much to Examine her as to Crucifie her This woman when I undertook to defend her Cause and found and had made it evident that there was nothing of Proof to make out the Crime the Inquisitor made answer that there was one proof not to be question'd That her mother many years ago was burnt for a Witch Which Article when I shew'd how impertinent it was and that it was not for the Law to condemn one for the fact of another presently he lest he should have seemed to have talkt out of Reason before produces this Argument That therefore it was so and the Proof good because Witches were wont to devote their children to the devil as also because they are wont to Conceive by lying with the devil and therefore there is an inherent Guiltiness in the Off-spring Wicked Father said I is this thy way of Theologie Are these the Fictions for which thou harriest silly women to Torture are these the Sophisms with which thou condemnest Hereticks Thou thy self in my opinion art far worse than Faustus or Donatus Grant it were as thou sayst dost thou not hereby abrogate the grace of Baptism if for the impiety of a Parent the Off-spring should be the devils due And if it were true that Incubi did generate yet was never any one of that opinion so infatuated as to think those Spirits did mingle any thing of their own nature with the suffoced seed But I tell thee upon the true grounds of Faith and by the true natures of our Humanities we are all one mass of sin and eternal malediction sons of perdition sons of the devil sons of the wrath of God and heirs of hell but by the grace of Baptism Satan is cast out of us and we are made new creatures in Jesus Christ from whom no man can be separated but by his own sin for far is it from truth that he should suffer for another mans sin Seest thou not now how invalid thy most sufficient Proof is how vain in Law and indeed how absolutely Heretical it is The cruel Hypocrite grew very wroth against me and threatned to sue me as a favourer of Hereticks However I persisted in defence of the poor creature and at length by the power of the Law I delivered her out of the Lions mouth and the bloudy Monk stood rebuk'd and sham'd before um all and ever after infamous for his Cruelty and the Accusers of the poor woman in the Capitol of the Church of Metz whose Subjects they were were very considerably Fin'd CHAP. XCVII Of Scholastick Theologie IT remains that we discourse concerning Theologie I shall pass by the Theologie of the Gentiles mentioned in Orpheus Musaeus and Hesiod which all men acknowledge to be Poetical and fictitious and which Lactantius and Eusebius and many other eminent Doctors of the Christians have convinced by most strenuous Arguments Nor shall we speak of the Religion of Plato or the rest of the Philosophers whom we have already shew'd to be the teachers of nothing but Errour But we shall here discourse concerning the Christian Religion This onely depends upon the faith of its Doctors seeing that it can fall under no Art or Science And first of Scholastick Divinity a certain Hodge-podge or Mixture of Divine Precepts and Philosophical Reasons looking like a Centaur written after a new manner far different from the antient way of delivery diffus'd into little Questions and subtil Syllogisms without any Elegancie of speech and which has brought not a little profit to the Church in the convincing of Hereticks The first Authors whereof and who were most excellent therein were Thomas Aquinas Albertus sirnamed the Great and many other famous men besides Johannes Scotus a most subtil and acute Writer though a little more given to Contention Hence Scholastick Theologie sell into Sophisms while those newer Theosophists and as it were Sutlers of the Word of God never worthy of the title of Divines but for their money of so sublime a Studie and Contemplation made a meer Logomachie wandring from School to School starting little Questions framing Opinions forcing the Scriptures inducing a strange sence with intricate words and more nimble to ventilate
of his Life The Rhetorician will rather deny the manifest Truth than yield to his Opposer in the least Syllogistical Conclusion Arithmeticians and Geometricians number and measure all things but neglect the Measures and Numbers of their lives and souls The Musicians are all for Sounds and Songs not minding the Discords of corrupt Manners Therefore Diogenes the Sinopian was wont to reprove them that they would fitly make the Harmony and Strings agree but that there was neither measure nor harmony in their customs of living Astrologers behold the Heavens and the Stars and foretel others what shall happen in this world but they never minde the evil which every moment hangs over their own heads Cosmographers describe the situations of Countries the forms of Mountains the course of Rivers and limits of distinct Regions but they make a man never the wiser nor better Philosophers with great vaunting dive into the Causes and Beginnings of things while they neglect perhaps not so much as know God the Creator of all things There is no Peace among Princes and Magistrates being easily drawn for small advantages to seek the destruction one of another Physicians cure the bodies of the sick and neglect the health of their souls Lawyers diligent in observing the Laws of Men however transgress the Commands of God whence it is grown to be a Proverb Neither physicians live well nor Lawyers die well Physicians being the most disorderly sort of men and Lawyers the most dishonest Divines make a great noise while they preach to us the observation of the Commands of God and holy Doctrine but their words and conversations differ very much being such as had rather seem to know than love God Now then he which knows all things to speak and write well he who understands the nature of Verse the course of Times the ways of Reasoning the ornaments of Speech the colours of Rhetorick he that remembers all things the proportions and sums of Numbers the harmony of Sounds the measures of Dancing the measures of all Quantities the inflexions and reflexions of the Sun-beams the situation of the Earth and Sea the various ways of rearing all sorts of Edifices and Engines the ordering of Battels the tilling of Ground the taking feeding fatting of Beasts Birds and Fish every kinde of Country-trade every species of Mechanick Industry Painting Graving Founding Hammering Hewing Factoring Sayling the course of the Stars their Influences upon inferiour Bodies the forebodings of Destiny Divinations of all sorts the hidden monstrosities of Magick Art the secrets of the Cabalists the causes of all Natural things the reformation of Manners the Governments of Commonwealths Family-order Remedies for Diseases vertues of Medicines and skill in mixture the delicate Dressing of Meats Let him know both Laws all the Pleadings of the most learned Doctors and Council the wrangling of the Sorbonnists the hypocrisie of the Monks with all the Learning of the holy Fathers he I say who knoweth all this and more if there be any thing yet remaining yet he knoweth nothing unless he know the will of Gods Word and perform the same He that hath learned all things and hath not learned this hath learn'd in vain and all his Knowledge is in vain In the Word of God is the Way there is the Rule there is the Gole or Mark whither he ought to bend his Course that will not go astray but drives to reach the Truth All other Sciences are subject to Time and Forgetfulness and not onely these Sciences and Arts but also the Letters Characters and Languages which we use shall perish and others rise in their places and peradventure they have more than once been already lost and have as often come to light again Neither has there been one manner of Orthography in one Age nor alike with all men Nor is the true Pronunciation of the Latine Tongue at this day any where to be found The ancient Characters of the Hebrew are quite lost they which are now in use being found out by Esdras for the Hebrew Language was corrupted by the Caldeans a Misfortune that has happened well-near to all the Languages of the world so that there is hardly one at this day which understands its own Antiquity new words growing into use and the old ones decaying So that there is nothing fixt or durable Finally the opinion of Terence is That nothing is now spoken which has not been spoken before And many there are among whom Volaterrane is one that would have it that the Gun which is by most accounted a New Invention of the Germans was used in ancient time and this they endeavour to prove out of Virgil. There Salmon lay in cruel torments bound Curs'd Imitator of th' Olympick Sound He born by four fleet Steeds his Flambean shaking Through Greece and Elis Towns his journey taking Triumphing went and call'd himself a God Mad as he was still thundring as he rode Thunder and Tempests seem'd to fill the skie With so much noise his speedy Coursers flie Much to this purpose hath Ecclesiastes spoken when he saith There is nothing new under the sun nor can any man say Behold this is new for it hath been in times past before us There is no remembrance of things past neither they which shall be in the later days shall remember the things which shall be hereafter And in another place he saith The learned and the ignorant also shall die What then shall we here say but that all Sciences and Arts are subject to death and forgetfulness neither shall they for ever remain alive but together with death shall pass to death forasmuch as Christ himself saith That every plant which the heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out and cast into everlasting fire So far are we to be from believing that Knowledge availeth to Immortality but that the Word of God alone endures for ever The knowledge whereof is so needful to us that he that despiseth it that esteems it not and is not a hearer thereof as the Word it self testifies in the holy Scripture God will send upon him a Curse Damnation and everlasting Judgement Ye are not therefore to think that it belongeth onely to Divines but to every one man and woman old and young so that every one according to the grace and capacity given to them is bound to have the knowledge thereof and not of dissent a hairs breadth from the true sence and meaning of it For this cause the Old Testament commands us in this manner These words shall be in thy heart all the days of thy life and thou shalt declare them to thy children and grandchildren and command them to keep and observe them Thou shalt ponder them sitting in thy house and going thorow the street sleeping and waking and shalt binde them as a token to thy hand they shall always be and move before thy eyes and thou shalt write them over the doors of thy house Thus Josiah read all the words and