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,
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.