תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

sitors, being wiser by a new light, did so blot and raze, and scratch out many things more, that the Bible, which was a very fair one in A. D. 1584, came forth exceedingly defaced and spoiled in the year 1586.

I need not observe, that in all the expurgatory indices you shall not find Gasper Schioppius, or the Jesuits censured; nor Baronius, although he declared the kingdom of Sicily to belong to the pope, and not to the king of Spain; but if any thing escape which lessens the pope's omnipotence (it is their own word), then it is sure to fall under the sponges and the razor: so that this mystery of iniquity is too evident to be covered by the most plausible pretences of any interested advocate. But if this be the way, to stop all mouths, but those that speak the same thing, it is no wonder if they boast of unity: they might very well do so; but that the providence of God, which overrules all events, hath by his almighty power divided them, in despite of all their cunning arts to seem to be sons of one mother: only it will be now a much more hard province, to tell when their errors first began, since they have taken order to cut out the tongues of them that tell us. And this they have done to their own canon law itself, and to the old glosses, in which there were remaining some footsteps of the ancient and apostolical doctrine; upon which the craft of the enemy of mankind, and the arts of interested persons, had not quite prevailed; as is largely to be seen in the very censures themselves upon the glosses, published by the command of pope Pius V., 1580 f.

SECTION VII.

The Uncharitableness of the Church of Rome in her judging of others.

4. THE next thing I charge upon them, is, that having done these things to propagate their new doctrines, and to suppress those which are more ancient and catholic; they are so implacably angry at all that dissent from them, that they not

Imprimebantur etiam Hauoviæ, procurantibus Junio et Pappo. 1611.

only kill them (where they have power), but damn them all, as far as their sentence can prevail. If you be a Róman catholic, let your life be what it will; their sacrament of penance is πάσης ἁμαρτάδος ἀναιρετικόν, ' it takes away all their sins' in a quarter of an hour: but if you differ from them, even in the least point they have declared, you are not to be endured in this world, nor in the world to come. Indeed this is one of the inseparable characters of an heretic; he sets his whole communion and all his charity upon his article; for to be zealous in the schism, that is the characteristic of a good man, that is his note of Christianity: in all the rest he excuses you or tolerates you, provided you be a true believer; then you are one of the faithful, a good man and a precious, you are of the congregation of the saints, and one of the godly. All solifidians do thus; and all that do thus are solifidians, the church of Rome herself not excepted; for though in words she proclaims the possibility of keeping all the commandments; yet she dispenses easier with him that breaks them all, than with him that speaks one word against any of her articles, though but the least; even the eating of fish, and forbidding flesh in Lent. So that it is faith they regard more than charity, a right belief more than a holy life; and for this you shall be with them upon terms easy enough, provided you go not a hair's breadth from any thing of her belief. For if you do, they have provided for you two deaths and two fires, both inevitable and one eternal. And this certainly is one of the greatest evils, of which the church of Rome is guilty for this in itself is the greatest and unworthiest uncharitableness. But the procedure is of great use to their ends. For the greatest part of Christians are those that cannot consider things leisurely and wisely, searching their bottoms, and discovering the causes, or foreseeing events, which are to come after; but are carried away by fear and hope, by affection and prepossession: and, therefore, the Roman doctors are careful to govern them as they will be governed; if you dispute, you gain, it may be, one, and lose five; but if you threaten them with damnation, you keep them in fetters; for they that are " in fear of death, are all their lifetime in bondage," saith the apostle and there is in the world nothing so potent as fear of the two

a Heb. ii. 15.

deaths, which are the two arms and grapples of iron by which the church of Rome takes and keeps her timorous, or conscientious proselytes. The easy protestant calls upon you from Scripture, to do your duty, to build a holy life upon a holy faith, the faith of the apostles, and first disciples of our Lord; he tells you, if you err; and teaches you the truth; and if ye will obey, it is well; if not, he tells you of your sin, and that all sin deserves the wrath of God; but judges no man's person, much less any states of men. He knows that God's judgments are righteous and true; but he knows also, that his mercy absolves many persons, who in his just judgment were condemned: and if he had a warrant from God to say, that he should destroy all the papists, as Jonas had, concerning the Ninevites; yet he remembers that every repentance, if it be sincere, will do more, and prevail greater, and last longer than God's anger will. Besides these things, there is a strange spring, and secret principle in every man's understanding, that it is oftentimes turned about by such impulses, of which no man can give an account. But we all remember a most wonderful instance of it, in the disputation between the two Reynolds's, John and William; the former of which being a papist, and the latter a protestant, met, and disputed, with a purpose to confute, and to convert each other, and so they did: for those arguments which were used, prevailed fully against their adversary, and yet did not prevail with themselves. The papist turned protestant, and the protestant became a papist, and so remained to their dying day. Of which some ingenious person gave a most handsome account, in an excellent epigram, which for the verification of the story, I have set down in the margent. But further yet, he considers the natural and

↳ Bella, inter geminos, plusquam civilia, fratres
Traxerat ambiguus religionis apex.

Ille reformatæ fidei pro partibus instat:
Iste reformandam denegat esse fidem.
Propositis causæ rationibus; alter utrinque
Concurrêre pares, et cecidêre pares.

Quod fuit in votis, fratrem capit alter uterque ;
Quod fuit in fatis, perdit uterque fidem.

Captivi gemini sine captivante fuerunt,

Et victor victi transfuga castra petit.

Quod genus hoc pugnæ est, ubi victus gaudet uterque ;
Et tamen alteruter se superâsse dolet?

regular infirmities of mankind; and God considers them much more; he knows that in man there is nothing admirable but his ignorance, and weakness; his prejudice, and the infallible certainty of being deceived in many things: he sees, that wicked men oftentimes know much more than many very good men; and that the understanding is not of itself considerable in morality, and effects nothing in rewards and punishments: it is the will only that rules man, and can obey God. He sees, and deplores it, that many men study hard, and understand little; that they dispute earnestly, and understand not one another at all; that affections creep so certainly, and mingle with their arguing, that the argument is lost, and nothing remains but the conflict of two adversaries' affections; that a man is so willing, so easy, so ready to believe what makes for his opinion, so hard to understand an argument against himself, that it is plain, it is the principle within, not the argument without, that determines him he observes also that all the world (a few individuals excepted) are unalterably determined to the religion of their country, of their family, of their society; that there is never any considerable change made, but what is made by war and empire, by fear and hope: he remembers that it is a rare thing to see a jesuit of the dominican opinion; or a dominican (until of late) of the jesuit; but every order gives laws to the understanding of their novices, and they never change: he considers there is such ambiguity in words, by which all lawgivers express their meaning; that there is such abstruseness in mysteries of religion, that some things are so much too high for us, that we cannot understand them rightly; and yet they are so sacred, and concerning, that men will think they are bound to look into them, as far as they can; that it is no wonder if they quickly go too far, where no understanding, if it were fitted for it, could go far enough: but in these things it will be hard not to be deceived; since our words cannot rightly express those things; that there is such variety of human understandings, that men's faces differ not so much as their souls; and that if there were not so much difficulty in things, yet they could not but be variously apprehended by several men; and then considering that in twenty opinions, it may be, not one of them is

true; nay, whereas Varro reckoned, that among the old philosophers, there were eight hundred opinions concerning the summum bonum,' and yet not one of them hit the right: they see also that in all religions, in all societies, in all families, and in all things, opinions differ; and since opinions are too often begot by passion, by passions and violences they are kept, and every man is too apt to overvalue his own opinion; and out of a desire that every man should conform his judgment to his that teaches, men are apt to be earnest in their persuasion, and over-act the proposition; and from being true, as he supposes, he will think it profitable; and if you warm him either with confidence, or opposition, he quickly tells you, it is necessary; and as he loves those that think as he does, so he is ready to hate them that do not; and then secretly from wishing evil to him, he is apt to believe evil will come to him; and that it is just it should: and by this time, the opinion is troublesome, and puts other men upon their guard against it; and then while passion reigns, and reason is modest and patient, and talks not loud like a storm, victory is more regarded than truth, and men call God into the party, and his judgments are used for arguments, and the threatenings of the Scripture are snatched up in haste, and men throw arrows, firebrands, and death,' and by this time all the world is in an uproar. All this, and a thousand things more, the English protestants considering, deny not their communion to any Christian who desires it, and believes the apostles' creed, and is of the religion of the four first general councils; they hope well of all that live well; they receive into their bosom all true believers of what church soever; and for them that err, they instruct them, and then leave them to their liberty, to stand or fall before their own

master.

It was a famous saying of Stephen, the great king of Poland; that God had reserved to himself three things. 1. To make something out of nothing. 2. To know future things, and all that shall be hereafter. 3. To have the rule over consciences. It is this last, we say, the church of Rome does arrogate and invade.

1. By imposing articles, as necessary to salvation, which God never made so. Where hath God said, that it is neces

« הקודםהמשך »