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
certaine Prophets told Paul that bonds did attend him at Jerusalem but the counsell they gave him not to goe thither was a motion of their owne particular spirit proceeding from their humane affection All the dreames which came to the Prophets were not propheticall they had markes by which they discerned the celestiall visions from naturall impressions to which they were subject as well as other men In the same manner as the divine providence of God hath separated that which was writ by their particular motion from that which was transmitted unto us by divine inspiration The Spirit which dictated the letter of David written with the bloud of poore Uria was quite contrary to that which indited the Psalmes Nathan counselling the building of the Temple seemed speaking like a godly man but the consequence shewes he spake not like a Prophet It is most true that neither sagacity nor humane affections reduced into a just temper are not incompatible with spirituall wisdome contrarily they serve for a helpe to our weaknesse All the articles of our faith are equally true but our beliefe embraces them not with equall facility We have lesse trouble to believe a divine Essence then a Trinity of Persons the immortality of the soule then the resurrection of the body The reason is that in the one we have nothing but a supernaturall revelation for the ground of our beliefe and in the other we are moreover sustained by humane reason which strengthens this faith So our obedience is more voluntary in things to which wee have besides the commandement of God some naturall or personall inclination then in those which are repugnant to our affections I doubt not but Abraham obeyed more joyfully when it was bidden him not to lay his hand upon Isaac then when he was commanded to slay him But in this concurrence namely of the Spirit of God with our spirits wee must marke these two principalls the one of which is alwaies regular and the other hath still some spice of obliquity A man addicted to his sence and that adores his owne opinions will very hardly give place to the Spirit of God Ordinarily Prophecies and Revelations came unto men then when they were asleep where God sent them those extasies whilst they lasted they were as if deprived of all sence which was because the soule is then dis-intangled from many functions and freed from an infinity of thoughts and of objects which possessed it waking being then lesse glued to their naturall judgement and so more susceptible of the influencie of heaven and more capable to receive the impression thereof CHAP. IIII. Concerning the Sences and of the imaginations vulgar meditations matters which seeme better in Painting then in the words of the holy Scripture Why the corporall figure of our Saviour is not delineated in the Gospell Why the sight of the places esteemed holy takes away the admiration thereof REligion contains divers matters which for a simple historicall knowledge are intelligible to the externall senses The starre which appeared to the wise men the manger at Bethlehem the crown of Thornes the punishment of the Crosse the Sepulchre of Christ and his comming out thereof the scarres of his Wounds his Ascension to Heaven are objects perceptible to the imagination Nay we cannot conceive the truth of the naturall body of Christ but under an imaginable and sensible forme But the internall forme of all these theologicall truths which is as it were the soul of Religion is not apprehensible but to the intellect The divinity resident in Christ the personall union of the two Natures the merits of his Death the efficacie of his Intercession the interest of the justice of God in this satisfaction The eternall Election the interiour Vocation Justification the essence of the Faith the regeneration are matters purely intellectuall In every narration principally in each article of faith which lies in the Historie there is ever two things requisite to the intelligence thereof 1. The action with its circumstances Secondly the causes and the consequences thereof Now the first point is better studied and more sought into by the common people as being more delectable to the imagination and far easier to bee conceived then the other which touches not the senses and requires a more spirituall and more laborious exercise of the understanding from whence it comes to passe that the science the conception the proofes and meditations of the vulgar are more imaginative then intellectuall A Deaths head the spectacle of a carkasse or of a dying man will represent our humane fragility more lively then can doe all the sentences of the Bible But the supernaturall causes of this corruption and the consequences thereof from whence results the true intelligence of our mortality they are not read in such characters A picture may give knowledge of an action but the reasons and the motives in which lyes the importance of the story askes another Pensill A Crucifix tells us not why Jesus Christ died Never man was yet converted by the sight of a picture If that were Painters and Sculptors would be the greatest Theologians After the same manner the sufferings of Christ reduced into a Tragedy and elevated by the highest colours of Eloquence what teares soever it may draw from the auditors will never suffice for a saving knowledge If the true pourtraict of Jesus Christ representing his naturall face were to be found in the world I would never blame the curiosity of those who would seek the possession and who all superstition set apart would preserve it as one of the most precious jewels that the eye of man can behold Many have thought that they have the originall in an Epistle of Lentulus to the Senate of Rome of which I will say no more but that it is no Roman stile Some others have drawne the Copy from the Monument of a fabulous history which speaks of a Statue erected in memory of our Saviour Howsoever it comes to passe it is a strange thing that the Scripture which paints forth the stature of Saul the haire of Absalom the colour and visage of David expresses not any figure of our Saviour We find not therein the least Idea nor any lineament neither of his face colour aspect stature or yet of his voyce But that by which he was discernable from other men consisted not in his visible forme or in any extraordinary difference of Lineaments otherwise Judas had not needed a signe to make him to be known so that the representation of him at this day to the eye of flesh would make him contemptible to him that would not conceive a divine Majesty under a common and indifferent appearance Or it would be a Patron of Idolatry which would not faile to multiply under so favourable a pretext Our humane vanity would have added there to some frivolous and impertinent speculations of Phisiognomie Or superstition would cast its sight upon each man who should have some seeming resemblance of such a
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
from the merit of so many learned pens ancient and moderne which have travelled to set us at ease Their works have converted many souls the writing of a man powerfull in spirit preach as well as his voice But this eulogie appertains not to all them who undertake to write And all the authors even those which are worth the reading are not for the vulgar Besides the books which may serve to instruct the common people are made hurtfull by their quantity The number is become so exorbitant and still multiplyed daily in such abundance that the greater part of Christians imploye ten times as much time in this reading as in that of the Bible That famous Doctor Luther had in hatred his own books and wished that they were buried for feare the readers should spend that time in them they ought in the Scripture I am not of their opinion who regret the losse of so many books of the ancient fathers and other writings which time hath caused to vanish On the contrary I think that this losse is a great gaine to us and a discharge of many unprofitable burthens The naturall history dictated by Solomon and divers other writings mentioned in Scripture it selfe were never lost without the particular providence of God which would not that his Church should bee overcharged with so many volumes Of all the Apostles there are but six whose writings have bin preserved and yet it is certaine that the other Apostles were no lesse carefull to write to their flocks Nay it is credible that those whose Epistles we have writ many others which the wisdome of God hath suppressed Jesus Christ himselfe writ not nor would that all his miracles should be comprized in the history lest their prolixity should exceede the measure of our life and the capacity of our memory The reading the fathers is not a taske of the vulgar To understand them you must know the history of their times There occur in this field an infinite number of particulars and matters which serve for no use at this day and even many which are full of thornes which the common people cannot handle without pricking themselves to the blood If the fruicts which are found scattered in this vast extension of the fathers were collected a part and heaped together in one volume this abridgement would be of great profit But we are to speake of moderne Writers the multitude whereof is prodigious Many books are reputed learned which are more filld with word then matter If from all the books in divinity which goe up and downe the world there be taken away the repetitions the amplifications the superfluous allegations and a million of intire volumes great and small which declare nothing but what so many others have said before the residue will be very few One may say of the greatest part of them that whosoever hath read one hath read them all There are alwayes the same conceptions the same reasons saving that the words are different That which one calls dirt the other nameth dung Where they differ onely in the order transposing what others have said and disguising it with other transisions conjunctions or with some pleasing point All this with a new title makes men think that this booke is altogether new The world is full of writers and there is not a pedant which will not be one For so that a man fill up much paper this is enough to get a great reputation I know one that to attaine to this used the following method which is common to him with many others To make a treatise of controversie or commentary which is at this day as a bridge for asses he had upon the table five or sixe divers authors tooke one line from one and another from an other and beating all together then adding thereto some Hebrew word transcribed out of the Dictionary and a long thrid of passages out of the fathers made a composition upon which he wrote his name And the ignorant said behold the Commentaryes of N. upon the Psalmes or upon some of the smaller Prophets It were a great good for the publique that none should write but he that had very rare conceptions or so little common that they might be held for new One onely extraordinary observation comprehended in ten or twelve lines is more worth then all the great tomes out of which nothing that is new can be learned All the books that can be written in divinity are either doctrinall or morall or historicall or of prophecie or of controversie or mixed and composed of all these together or of many of them The forme whereof is divers Commentaryes common places meditations formes of prayer homilyes discourses of vertues and vices and the like particular treatise As for controversies I have thereof said my opinion Also for commentaryes two or three for the most part suffise taken from amongst the rest who for the most part have more of Grammar then divinity and sound of nothing but repetitions The same choice is necessary amongst authors which handle all Religion heaped together in a body Amongst so many bookes of meditations there are scarce two which containe any rarity There are seene many words set out to say that which the world knoweth already well enough There is likewise a great multitude of Sermons which run from hand to hand The vulgar often admire Preachers who putting what they say in writing you shall find that they have said nothing extraordinary We have seene Homilies dictated by great personages in whom beside the wide and rampant style you meete with even childish discourses but the world will be deceived The expositions upon the decalogue the Creed and Lords Prayer are the subject of infinite treatyes wherein you shall scarcely find any thing but repetitions from some other and matters very common As for formes of prayer fitted to particulars although their ayme be rather to frame a Christians practise in this exercise then to give him instruction if it appertaines not to all to give their conceptions for rules and prescribe the forme and words an other ought to use in speaking to God But furthermore they which spend all their time in this kind of reading shall abide alwaies in an ignorant devotion This would be an inestimable good if instead of so many volumes which steale away the greatest part of our life we had a collection of the rarest secrets in Religion separated from all vulgar matters and freed from all these masses of words Such a worke would teach us more in one day then so many others could doe in an age I shall willingly subscribe to their advise who have said that this would bee the richest piece that hath bin put out since the Apostles time It s true that those have not observed the true field from whence these matters must be taken but it is easie to be found CHAP. XI Great knowledge lieth not in the quantity of matters but in their quality The title of great divines given fasly to many BY the common voice that man is held for a great divine who knowes the languages necessary to this profession who understands Philosophie who hath read the fathers and can relate what they thought upon every point of religion who is versed in Ecclesiasticall History who is ready in controversies in schoole distinctions and subtilities besides the exact knowledge of common places which are in use bordured with texts of Scripture and stuft with other allegations But all these qualities together cannot make a great Divine but in reputation This is truly a great advantage to heare the Prophets and God himselfe in the same language wherein they spake 'T is certaine that the Scripture is pure and more emphaticke in its originall tongues then in any translation But the onely knowledge of tongues supplyes but a Grammaticall understanding wherein many Jewes and Greeks may excel without deserving the title of Divines Good store of Philosophie sufficeth not though a good Divine ought to be a good Philosopher To know what Tertull. said or what was St. Austins opinion is not of the very essence of Divinity so much doth it come short of being the higest degree thereof Many that lived before all these fathers were in the world ceased not to be as great Divines as they which have employed at this day thirty yeares in this reading of the fathers The same is of History Before the subject thereof was in the world Divinity was compleate A man endowed with memory who can tell what beresies have reigned what orders were made in such councels what disputes or diversities have arose in Church Policie c. may bee held knowing in History But this is follie to hold him in this respect for an eminent Divine The knowledge of controversies is accidental and embraceth not all the dimensions of Religion The knowledge of the most subtile points of Divinity reduced to the forme of art a promptuary of ordinary passages and arguments upon all kinds of subjects are not sufficient neither to give us a great Divine The idea thereof belongs to another discourse whence we may learne That extraordinary knowledge consisteth not so much in the multitude of matters as in the rarity of them I will now conclude this treatise of Popular Errors that I may passe to a higher subject and assay after this offering of goates haire to present you with scarlet for the ornament of the Sanctuary Amen FINIS