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Essay III: Of Unity In Religion
Essay III: Of Unity In Religion
Religion being the chief band of human society, it is a happy thing when
itself is well contained within the true band of unity. The quarrels and
divisions about religion were evils unknown to the heathen. The reason was
because the religion of the heathen consisted rather in rites and ceremonies
than in any constant belief. For you may imagine what kind of faith theirs
was, when the chief doctors and fathers of their church were the poets. But
the true God hath this attribute, that he is a jealous God; and therefore his
worship and religion will endure no mixture nor partner. We shall therefore
speak a few words concerning the unity of the church; what are the fruits
thereof; what the bounds; and what the means.
The fruits of unity (next unto the well pleasing of God, which is all in
all) are two: the one towards those that are without the church, the other
towards those that are within. For the former; it is certain that heresies and
schisms are of all others the greatest scandals; yea, more than corruption of
manners. For as in the natural body a wound or solution of continuity is worse
than a corrupt humor; so in the spiritual. So that nothing doth so much keep
men out of the church, 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 [Lo! in the desert], another saith Ecce in penetralibus ^1 [Lo! in the
sanctuary]; 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, ^1 - Go not out. The doctor
of the Gentiles ^2 (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, ^3 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, ^4 who are
apt to contemn holy things.
[Footnote 1: Matthew xxiv. 26.]
[Footnote 2: St. Paul.]
[Footnote 3: Rabelais.]
[Footnote 4: Politicians.]
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 ^5 of
mortification and devotion.
[Footnote 5: Treatises.]
Concerning the bounds of unity; the true placing of them importeth
exceedingly. There appear to be two extremes. For to certain zealants ^6 all
speech of pacification is odious. Is it peace, Jehu? What hast thou to do with
peace? turn thee behind me. ^7 Peace is not the matter, but following and
party. Contrariwise, certain Laodiceans and lukewarm persons think they may
accommodate points of religion by middle ways, and taking part of both, and
witty ^8 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 the 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, ^9 and done
already. But if it were done less partially, it would be embraced more
generally.
[Footnote 6: Zealots.]
[Footnote 7: 2 Kings ix. 18, 19.]
[Footnote 8: Ingenious.]
[Footnote 9: Commonplace.]
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 ^10 [Let there be variety in the garment, but let there
be no division]; 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 [Avoid profane novelties of terms, and oppositions of science
falsely so called]. 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 ^11 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.
[Footnote 10: St. Augustine.]
[Footnote 11: Entangled.]
Concerning the means of procuring unity; men must beware, that in the
procuring or muniting ^12 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 ^13 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 ^14 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:
[Footnote 12: Fortifying.]
[Footnote 13: Plotting.]
[Footnote 14: Of the commandments. Exodus xxxii. 15, 16; xxxiv. 1-5, 29.]
"Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum"
[To such ill actions Religion could persuade a man]. What would he have said,
if he had known of the massacre in France, ^15 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 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, ^16 do damn and send to
hell for ever those facts ^17 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 ^18 would be prefixed, Ira hominis non
implet justitiam Dei [The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God].
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.
[Footnote 15: On St. Bartholomew`s Day, 1572.]
[Footnote 16: With which Mercury summoned souls to the other world.]
[Footnote 17: Deeds.]
[Footnote 18: St. James]
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