The first thing he is reproved for in his Booke is, that Christians wrong themselve much, in that they ground their beleefe upon humane reasons, which is conceived but by faith and by a particular inspiration of God. Which objection seemeth to containe some zeale of pietie; by reason whereof we ought, with so much more mildnes and regard, endevour to satisfie them that propose it. It were a charge more befitting a man conversant, and sutable to one acquainted with the holy Scriptures, than me, who am altogether ignorant in them. Neverthelesse I thinke, that even as to a matter so divine and high, and so much exceeding al humane understanding, as is this verity, wherwith it hath pleased the goodness of God to enlighten as, it is most requisit that he affoord and lend us his helpe; And that; with an extraordinary and privileged favour, that so we may the better conceive and entertaine the same: For, I suppose that meanes meerely humane can no way be capable of it; which if they were, so many rare and excellent mindes, and so plenteously stored with naturall faculties, as have beene in times past, would never by their discourse have mist the attayning of this knowledge. It is faith onely which lively and assuredly embraceth the high mysteries of our Religion. And no man can doubt but that it is a most excellent and commendable enterprise, properly to accommodate and fit to the service of our faith, the natural helpes and humane implements which God hath bestowed upon us. And no question is to be made but that it is the most honourable employment we can put them unto; and that there is no occupation or intent more worthy a good Christian, than by all meanes, studies, and imaginations, carefully to endevour how to embellish, amplifie, and extend the truth of his beleefe and religion. It is not enough for us to serve God in spirit and soule; we owe him besides, and wee yeeld unto him, a corporall worshipping; we applie our limbs, our motions, and all external things, to honour him. The like ought to be done, and we should accompany our faith with all the reason we possesse: Yet alwayes with this proviso, that we thinke it doth not depend of us, and that all our strength and arguments can never attaine to so supernaturall and divine a knowledge: Except it seize upon us, and as it were enter into us by an extraordinarie infusion: And unlesse it also enter into us not onely by discourse, but also by humane meanes, she is not in her dignitie nor in her glorie. And verily I feare therfore, that except this way, we should not enjoy it.
Had we fast-hold on God; by the interposition of a lively faith; had we hold-fast on God by himselfe, and not by us; had we a divine foundation; then should not humane and worldly occasions have the power so to shake and totter us, as they have. Our hold would not then yeeld to so weake a batterie: The love of noveltie; the constrainte of Princes; the good successe of one partie; the rash and casuall changing of our opinions, should not then have the power to shake and alter our beleefe. We should not suffer the same to be troubled at the wil and pleasure of a new argument, and at the perswasion , no, not of all the rhetorike that ever was we should withstand these boistrous billowes with an inflexible and unmoveable constancie:
Illisos fluctus rupes, ut vasta refundit
Et varias circumlatrantes dissipat undas,
Mole sua.
As huge rocks doe regorge th' invective waves,
And dissipate the billowes brawling braves,
Which these gainst those still bellowe out.
Those being big and standing stout.
—Virgil, Aenead, 1. vii. 587.
If this raie of Divinitie did in any sort touch us, it would everie where appeare: Not only our words, but our actions, would beare some shew and lustre of it. Whatsoever should proceed from us, might be seene inlightned with this noble and matchlesse brightness. We should blush for shame, that in humane sects there was never any so factious, what difficultie or strangenesse soever his doctrine maintained, but some sort conforme his behaviors and square his life unto it: Whereas so divine and heavenly an institution never markes Christians but by the tongue. And will you see whether it be so? Compare but our manners unto a Turke, or a Pagan, and we must needs yeeld unto them: Whereas in respect of our religious superioritie, we ought by much, yea by an incomparable distance, out-shine them in excellencie: And well might a man say, Are they so just, so charitable, and so good? Then must they be Christians. All other outward shewes and exterior apparences are common to all religious: As hope, affiance, events, ceremonies, penitence, and martyrdoms. The peculiar badge of our truth should be vertue; As it is the heavenliest and most difficult marke, and worthiest production of Verity it selfe, And therefore was our good Saint Lewis in the right, when that Tartarian King, who was become a Christian, intended to come to Lyons, to kisse the Popes feet, and there to view the sanctitie he hoped to find in our lives and manners, instantly to divert him from it, fearing lest our dissolute manners and licentious kind of life might scandalize him, and so alter his opinion fore-conceived of so sacred a religion. Howbeit the contrary happened to another, who for the same effect being come to Rome, and there viewing the disolutenesse of the Prelates and people of those dayes, was so much the more confirmed in our religion; considering with himselfe what force and divinity it must of consequence have, since it was able, amidst so many corruptions and so viciously- poluted hands, to maintaine her dignitie and splendor. Had wee but one onely graine of faith, wee should then be able to remove mountaines from out their place, saith the Holy Writ. Our actions being guided and accompanied with Divinitie, should not then be meerely humane, but eveil as our beliefe, containe some wonder-causing thing.
Brevis est institutio vitae honestae beataeque, si credas:
The institution of an honest and blessed life is but short, if a man beleeve.
Some make the world beleeve that they beleeve things they never doe. Others (and they are the greater number) perswade themselves they doe so, as unable to conceive what it is to beleeve. We thinke it strange if in warres, which at this time doe so oppresse our state we see the events to float so strangely, and with so common and ordinarie a manner to change and alter: The reason is, we adde nothing unto it but our owne. Justice, which is on the one side, is used but for a cloake and ornament; she is indeed alleadged, but not received, nor harboured, nor wedded. She is as in the mouth of a Lawyer, and not as she ought in the heart and affection of the partie. God oweth his extraordinarie assistance unto faith and religion, and not to our passions. Men are but directors unto it and use religion for a show: It ought to be cleane contrarie. Doe hot marke if we doe not handle it as it were a peece of waxe, from out so right and so firme a rule, to draw so many contrary shapes. When was this better seene than now-adaies in France? Those which have taken it on the left, and those who have taken it on the right hand: Such as speake the false, and such who speake the truth of it, do so alike employ and fit the same to their violent and ambitious enterprises, proceede unto it with so conformable a proceeding in riotousnesse and injustice, they make the diversitie they pretend in their opinions doubtfull, and hard to be beleeved, in a thing from which depends the conduct and law of our life. Can a man see from one same Schoole and Discipline, more united and like customes and fashions to proceed? View but the horrible impudencie wherewith we tosse divine reasons to and fro, and how irreligiously wee have both rejected and taken them againe, according as fortune hath in these publike stormes transported us from place to place.
This solemne proposition: Whether it be lawfull for a subject, for the defence of religion, to rebell and take armes against his Prince: Call but to minde in what mouthes but a twelve-moneth agoe the affirmative of the same was the chiefe pillar of the one part; the negative was the maine-underprop of the other: And listen now from whence commeth the voyce and instruction of one and other: and whether armes clatter and clang less for this than for that cause. And we burne those men which say that truth must be made to abide the yoke of our need: And how much worse doth France than speak it. Let us confesse the truth: he that from out this lawfull armie should cull out first those who follow it for meere zeale of a religious affection than such as only regard the defence and protection of their countries lawes or service of their Prince; whether hee could ever erect a compleat company of armed men. How comes it to passe that so few are found who have still held one same wil and progresse in our publike revolutions, and that we see them now and then but faintly and sometimes as fast as they can headlong to runne into the action? And the same men, now by their violence and rashnesse, and now through their slowness demissnes, and heavines to spoile, and as it were overthrow our affaires, but that ihey are thrust into them by casual motives, and particular consideration, according to the diversities wherewith they are moved?
I plainly perceive we lend nothing unto devotion but the offices that flatter our passions.
There is no hostilitie so excellent as that which is absolutely Christian. Our zeale worketh wonders, whenever it secondeth our inclinations towards hatred, crueltie, ambition, avarice, detraction, or rebellion. Towards goodnes, benignitie, or temperance it goeth but slowly, and against the haire, except miraculously, some rare complexion leade him unto it, it neither runnes nor flieth to it. Our religion was ordained to root out vices, but it shrowdeth, fostreth, and provoketh them. As commonly we say, 'We must not make a foole of God. Did we believe in him, I say not through faith, but with a simple beleefe; yea (I speake it to our confusion) did we but beleeve and know him, as wee doe another storie, or as one of our companions; we should then love him above all other things, by reason of the infinite goodnes and unspeakable beauty that is and shines in him: Had he but the same place in our affections that riches, Pleasures, glory, and our friends have: The best of us doth not so much feare to wrong him as he doth to injure his neighbour, his kinsman, or his master. Is there so simple a minde who, on the one side having before him the object of one of our vicious pleasures, and on the other to his full view perfect knowledge and assured perswasion, the state of an immortall glorie, that would enter into contention of one for the other? And so we often refuse it through meere contempt: for what drawes us to blaspheming, unlesse it be at all adventures, the desire it selfe of the offence? The Philosopher Antisthenes, when he was initiated in the mysteries of Orpheus, the priest saying unto him that such as vowed themselves to that religion should after death receive eternall and perfect felicities, replied, 'If thou beleeve it, why dost thou not die thy selfe? Diogenes more roughly (as his manner was) and further from our purpose, answered the priest who perswaded him to be one of his order, that so he might come unto and attaine the happinesse of the other world: 'Wilt thou have me beleeve that those famous men, Agesilaus and Epaminondas, shall be miserable, and that thou, who art but an asse, and doth nothing of any worth; shalt be happy, because thou art a Priest? Did we but receive these large promises of everlasting blessednesse with like authoritie as we do a philosophicall discourse, we should not then have death in that horror as we have:
Non jam se moriens dissolvi conquereretur,
Sed magis ire foras, vestemque relinquere ut anguis
Gauderet, praelonga senex aut cornua cervus.
He would not now complains to be dissolved dying,
But rather more rejoice, that now he is forth-flying,
Or as a Snake his coat out-worne,
Or as old Harts, doth cast his horne.
—Lucretius, iii. 630
I will be dissolved, should we say, and be with Jesus Christ. The forcible power of Platoes discourse of the immortality of the soule provoked divers of his Schollers unto death, that so they might more speedily enjoy the hopes he told them of.
All which is a most evident token that we receive our religion but according to our fashion and by our owne hands, and no otherwise than other religions are received. We are placed in the countrie where it was in use; where we regard her antiquity, or the authority of those who have maintained her; where we fears the menaces wherewith she threatneth all misbeleevers, or follow her promises. The considerations ought to be applied and employed to our beleefe, but as subsidiaries: they be human bonds. Another country, other testimonies, equall promises, alike menaces, might semblaby imprint a cleane contrary religion in us: we are Christians by the same title as we are either Perigordins or Germans. And as Plato saith: 'There are few so confirmed in Atheisme but some great danger will bring unto the knowledge of God's divine power. The part doth not touch or concerne a good Christians: It is for mortall and worldly religions to be received by a humane convoy. What faith is that like to be which cowardice of heart doth plant and weaknesse establish in us? A goodly faith, that beleeves that which it beleeveth onely because it wanteth the courage not to beleeve the same. A vicious passion, as that of inconstancie and astonishment is, can it possibly ground any regular production in our mindes or soules? They establish, saith he, by the reason of their judgement, that whatsoover is reported of hell, or of after-comming paines, is but a fiction: but the occasions to make triall of it, offering itselfe at what time age or sicknesse doth summon them to death, the errour of the same, through the horrour of their future condition, doth then replenish them with another kind of beleefe. And because such impressions make mens hearts fearfull, hee by his lawes inhibiteth all instruction of such threats and the perswasion that any evill may come unto man from the Gods, except for his greater good, and for a medicinable effect, whensoever he falleth into it. They report of Bion that being infected with the Atheismes of Theodorus, he had for a long time made but a mockerie of religious men; but when death did once seize upon him he yeelded unto the extremest superstitious: As if the Gods would either be removed or come again, according to Bions businesses Plato and these examples conclude that we are brought to beleeve in God either by reason or by compulsion, Atheisme being a proposition as unnaturall and monstrous as it is hard and uneasie to be established in any mans minde, how insolent and unruly soever he may be: many have beene seene to have conceived either through vanitie or fiercenesse, strange and seld-knowne opinion, as if they would become reformers of the world by affecting a profession only in countenance: who though they be sufficiently foolish, yet are they not powerfull enough to ground or settle it in their consciences. Yet will not such leave to lift up their joyned hands to heaven, give them but a stoccado on their breast: and when fear shall have supprest, or sicknesse vanquished this licentious fervour of a wavering minde, then will they suffer themselves gently to be reclaimed, and discreetly to be perswaded to give credit unto true beliefe and publike examples. A decree seriously digested is one thing, and these shallow and superficiall impressions another, which bred by the dissolutenesse of a loose spirit, doe rashly and uncertainely float up and downe the fantasie of a man. Oh men, most braine-sicke and miserable, that endeavour to be worse than they can!
The errour of Paganisme and the ignorance of our sacred truth, was the cause of this great soules-fall: but onely great in worldly greatnes; also in this next abuse, which is, that children and old men are found to be more susceptible or capable of religion, as if it were bred and had her credit from our imbecillitie. The bond which should binde our judgement, tie our will, enforce and joyne our soules to our Creator, should be a bond taking his doubling and forces, not from our considerations, reasons, and passions, but from a divine and supernaturall compulsion, having but one forme, one countenance, and one grace ; which is the authoritie and grace of God, Now our heart being ruled and our soule commanded by faith, reason willeth that she drawes all our other parts to the service of her intent, according to their power and facultie. Nor is it likely but that this vast worlds-frame must beare the impression of some markes, therein imprinted by the hand of this great wondrous architect,-and that even in all things therein created there must be some image, somewhat resembling and having coherencie with the workeman that wrought and framed them. He hath left imprinted in these higlh and misterious works the characters of his divinitie: and onely our imbecilitie is the cause wee can not discover nor read them. It is that which himselfe telleth us, that by his visible operations be doth manifest those that are invisible to us. Sebond hath much travelled about this worthie studie, and sheweth us, that there is no parcell of this world that either belyeth or shameth his Maker. It were a manifest wronging of God's goodnesse if all this universe did not consent and sympathise with our beleefe. Heaven, earth, the elements, our bodies, our soule, yea all things else, conspire and agree unto it: onely the meanes how to make use of them must be found out: They will instruct us sufficiently, be we but capable to learne and to to understand. For this world is a most holy temple, into which man is brought there to behold statues and images not wrought by mortall hand, but such as the secret thought of God hath made sensible, as the Sunne, the Starres, the Waters and the Earth, thereby to represent the intelligible unto us. 'The invisible things of God,' saith St. Paul, 'doe evidently appeae by the creation of the world, judgeing of his eternall Wisdome and Divinity by his workes.
Atque adeo faciem coeli non invidet orbi Ipse Deus, vultusque suos corpusque recludit. Semper volvendo! seque ipsum inculcat et offert Ut bene coqnosci possit, doceatque videndo Qualis est, doceatque suas attendere leges.
God to the world doth not heav'ns face envie,
But by still moving it doth notifie
His face and essence, doth himselfe applie,
That he may well be knowen, and teach by seeing,
How he goes, how we should marke his decreeing.
—MANIL. 1. iv. 840
Now our reason and humane discourse is as the lumpish and barren matter, and the Grace of God is the form thereof. 'Tis that which giveth both fashion and worth unto it. Even as the vertuous actions of Socrates and Cato are but frivolous and unprofitable because they had not their end, and regarded not the love and obedience of the true creator of all things, and namely, because they were ignorant of the true knowledge of God: So is it of our imaginations and discourse; they have a kind of body, but a shapelesse masse, without light or fashion, unlesse faith and the grace of God be ioyned thereunto. Faith, giving as it were a tincturo and lustre unto Sebonds arguments, make them the more firme and solid: They may well serve for a direction and guide to a young learner, to lead and set him in the right way of this knowledge. They in some sort fashion and make him capable of the grace of God, by meanes whereof our beliefe is afterwards achieved and made perfect. I know a man of authority, brought up in letters, who confessed unto me that he was reclaimed from out the errours of mis-beleeving by the arguments of Sebond. And if it happen they be dispoyled of this ornament, and of the helpe and approbation of faith, and taken but for meere humane fantazies, yet to combat those that headlong are fallen into the dreadfull error and horrible darkenesse of irreligious even then shall they be found as firme and forcible as any other of that condition that may be opposed against them. So that we shall stand upon terms to say unto our parties,
Si melius quid habes, accerse, vel imperium fer.
If you have any better, send for me, Or else that I bid you, contented be.
—Horace 1. i.
Let them either abide the force of our proofes, or show us some others, upon some other subject, better compact and more full.