The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral
and drive men out of the church, as breach of unity. And therefore,
whensoever it cometh to that pass, that one saith, Ecce in deserto,
another saith, Ecce in penetralibus; that is, when some men seek Christ,
in the conventicles of heretics, and others, in an outward face of a
church, that voice had need continually to sound in men's ears, Nolite
exire,--Go not out. The doctor of the Gentiles (the propriety of whose
vocation, drew him to have a special care of those without) saith, if
an heathen come in, and hear you speak with several tongues, will he not
say that you are mad? And certainly it is little better, when atheists,
and profane persons, do hear of so many discordant, and contrary
opinions in religion; it doth avert them from the church, and maketh
them, to sit down in the chair of the scorners. It is but a light thing,
to be vouched in so serious a matter, but yet it expresseth well the
deformity. There is a master of scoffing, that in his catalogue of books
of a feigned library, sets down this title of a book, The Morris-Dance
of Heretics. For indeed, every sect of them, hath a diverse posture, or
cringe by themselves, which cannot but move derision in worldlings, and
depraved politics, who are apt to contemn holy things.
As for the fruit towards those that are within; it is peace; which
containeth infinite blessings. It establisheth faith; it kindleth
charity; the outward peace of the church, distilleth into peace of
conscience; and it turneth the labors of writing, and reading of
controversies, into treaties of mortification and devotion.
Concerning the bounds of unity; the true placing of them, importeth
exceedingly. There appear to be two extremes. For to certain zealants,
all speech of pacification is odious. Is it peace, Jehu,? What hast
thou to do with peace? turn thee behind me. Peace is not the matter,
but following, and party. Contrariwise, certain Laodiceans, and lukewarm
persons, think they may accommodate points of religion, by middle way,
and taking part of both, and witty reconcilements; as if they would
make an arbitrament between God and man. Both these extremes are to be
avoided; which will be done, if the league of Christians, penned by our
Savior himself, were in two cross clauses thereof, soundly and plainly
expounded: He that is not with us, is against us; and again, He that is
not against us, is with us; that is, if the points fundamental and of
substance in religion, were truly discerned and distinguished, from
points not merely of faith, but of opinion, order, or good intention.
This is a thing may seem to many a matter trivial, and done already. But
if it were done less partially, it would be embraced more generally.
Of this I may give only this advice, according to my small model.
Men ought to take heed, of rending God's church, by two kinds of
controversies. The one is, when the matter of the point controverted,
is too small and light, not worth the heat and strife about it, kindled
only by contradiction. For, as it is noted, by one of the fathers,
Christ's coat indeed had no seam, but the church's vesture was of divers
colors; whereupon he saith, In veste varietas sit, scissura non sit;
they be two things, unity and uniformity. The other is, when the matter
of the point controverted, is great, but it is driven to an over-great
subtilty, and obscurity; so that it becometh a thing rather ingenious,
than substantial. A man that is of judgment and understanding, shall
sometimes hear ignorant men differ, and know well within himself, that
those which so differ, mean one thing, and yet they themselves would
never agree. And if it come so to pass, in that distance of judgment,
which is between man and man, shall we not think that God above, that
knows the heart, doth not discern that frail men, in some of their
contradictions, intend the same thing; and accepteth of both? The nature
of such controversies is excellently expressed, by St. Paul, in the
warning and precept, that he giveth concerning the same, Devita profanas
vocum novitates, et oppositiones falsi nominis scientiae. Men create
oppositions, which are not; and put them into new terms, so fixed,
as whereas the meaning ought to govern the term, the term in effect
governeth the meaning. There be also two false peaces, or unities: the
one, when the peace is grounded, but upon an implicit ignorance; for all
colors will agree in the dark: the other, when it is pieced up, upon
a direct admission of contraries, in fundamental points. For truth and
falsehood, in such things, are like the iron and clay, in the toes of
Nebuchadnezzar's image; they may cleave, but they will not incorporate.
Concerning the means of procuring unity; men must beware, that in the
procuring, or reuniting, of religious unity, they do not dissolve and
deface the laws of charity, and of human society. There be two swords
amongst Christians, the spiritual and temporal; and both have their due
office and place, in the maintenance of religion. But we may not take up
the third sword, which is Mahomet's sword, or like unto it; that is,
to propagate religion by wars, or by sanguinary persecutions to force
consciences; except it be in cases of overt scandal, blasphemy, or
intermixture of practice against the state; much less to nourish
seditions; to authorize conspiracies and rebellions; to put the sword
into the people's hands; and the like; tending to the subversion of all
government, which is the ordinance of God. For this is but to dash the
first table against the second; and so to consider men as Christians, as
we forget that they are men. Lucretius the poet, when he beheld the act
of Agamemnon, that could endure the sacrificing of his own daughter,
exclaimed: Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum.
What would he have said, if he had known of the massacre in France,
or the powder treason of England? He would have been seven times more
Epicure, and atheist, than he was. For as the temporal sword is to be
drawn with great circumspection in cases of religion; so it is a thing
monstrous to put it into the hands of the common people. Let that be
left unto the Anabaptists, and other furies. It was great blasphemy,
when the devil said, I will ascend, and be like the highest; but it is
greater blasphemy, to personate God, and bring him in saying, I will
descend, and be like the prince of darkness; and what is it better,
to make the cause of religion to descend, to the cruel and execrable
actions of murthering princes, butchery of people, and subversion of
states and governments? Surely this is to bring down the Holy Ghost,
instead of the likeness of a dove, in the shape of a vulture or raven;
and set, out of the bark of a Christian church, a flag of a bark of
pirates, and assassins. Therefore it is most necessary, that the church,
by doctrine and decree, princes by their sword, and all learnings, both
Christian and moral, as by their Mercury rod, do damn and send to hell
for ever, those facts and opinions tending to the support of the same;
as hath been already in good part done. Surely in counsels concerning
religion, that counsel of the apostle would be prefixed, Ira hominis non
implet justitiam Dei. And it was a notable observation of a wise father,
and no less ingenuously confessed; that those which held and persuaded
pressure of consciences, were commonly interested therein, themselves,
for their own ends.
Of Revenge
REVENGE is a kind of wild justice; which the more man's nature runs to,
the more ought law to weed it out. For as for the first wrong, it doth
but offend the law; but the revenge of that wrong, putteth the law out
of office. Certainly, in taking revenge, a man is but even with his
enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior; for it is a prince's part
to pardon. And Solomon, I am sure, saith, It is the glory of a man, to
pass by an offence. That which is past is gone, and irrevocable; and
wise men have enough to do, with things present and to come; therefore
they do but trifle with themselves, that labor in past matters. There
is no man doth a wrong, for the wrong's sake; but thereby to purchase
himself profit, or pleasure, or honor, or the like. Therefore why should
I be angry with a man, for loving himself better than me? And if any man
should do wrong, merely out of ill-nature, why, yet it is but like the
thorn or briar, which prick and scratch, because they can do no other.
The most tolerable sort of revenge, is for those wrongs which there is
no law to remedy; but then let a man take heed, the revenge be such as
there is no law to punish; else a man's enemy is still before hand, and
it is two for one. Some, when they take revenge, are desirous, the
party should know, whence it cometh. This is the more generous. For the
delight seemeth to be, not so much in doing the hurt, as in making
the party repent. But base and crafty cowards, are like the arrow that
flieth in the dark. Cosmus, duke of Florence, had a desperate saying
against perfidious or neglecting friends, as if those wrongs were
unpardonable; You shall read (saith he) that we are commanded to forgive
our enemies; but you never read, that we are commanded to forgive our
friends. But yet the spirit of Job was in a better tune: Shall we (saith
he) take good at God's hands, and not be content to take evil also? And
so of friends in a proportion. This is certain, that a man that studieth
revenge, keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal, and do
well. Public revenges are for the most part fortunate; as that for the
death of Caesar; for the death of Pertinax; for the death of Henry the
Third of France; and many more. But in private revenges, it is not so.
Nay rather, vindictive persons live the life of witches; who, as they
are mischievous, so end they infortunate.
Of Adversity
IT WAS an high speech of Seneca (after the manner of the Stoics), that
the good things, which belong to prosperity, are to be wished; but the
good things, that belong to adversity, are to be admired. Bona rerum
secundarum optabilia; adversarum mirabilia. Certainly if miracles be the
command over nature, they appear most in adversity. It is yet a higher
speech of his, than the other (much too high for a heathen), It is true
greatness, to have in one the frailty of a man, and the security of
a God. Vere magnum habere fragilitatem hominis, securitatem Dei. This
would have done better in poesy, where transcendences are more allowed.
And the poets indeed have been busy with it; for it is in effect the
thing, which figured in that strange fiction of the ancient poets, which
seemeth not to be without mystery; nay, and to have some approach to the
state of a Christian; that Hercules, when he went to unbind Prometheus
(by whom human nature is represented), sailed the length of the great
ocean, in an earthen pot or pitcher; lively describing Christian
resolution, that saileth in the frail bark of the flesh, through the
waves of the world. But to speak in a mean. The virtue of prosperity,
is temperance; the virtue of adversity, is fortitude; which in morals
is the more heroical virtue. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old
Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New; which carrieth the
greater benediction, and the clearer revelation of God's favor. Yet even
in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as
many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath
labored more in describing the afflictions of Job, than the felicities
of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and
adversity is not without comforts and hopes. We see in needle-works and
embroideries, it is more pleasing to have a lively work, upon a sad and
solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work, upon a lightsome