Turk, or, as the Spaniards do, suffer Moors to live amongst them, and
Jews, than Protestants; my name (saith [6489]Luther) is more odious to
them than any thief or murderer. So it is with all heretics and
schismatics whatsoever: and none so passionate, violent in their
tenets, opinions, obstinate, wilful, refractory, peevish, factious,
singular and stiff in defence of them; they do not only persecute and
hate, but pity all other religions, account them damned, blind, as if
they alone were the true church, they are the true heirs, have the
fee-simple of heaven by a peculiar donation, 'tis entailed on them and
their posterities, their doctrine sound, per funem aureum de coelo
delapsa doctrinci, let down from, heaven by a golden rope, they alone
are to be saved, The Jews at this day are so incomprehensibly proud and
churlish, saith [6490]Luther, that soli salvari, soli domini terrarum
salutari volunt. And as [6491]Buxtorfius adds, so ignorant and
self-willed withal, that amongst their most understanding Rabbins you
shall find nought but gross dotage, horrible hardness of heart, and
stupendous obstinacy, in all their actions, opinions, conversations:
and yet so zealous with all, that no man living can be more, and
vindicate themselves for the elect people of GOD. 'Tis so with all
other superstitious sects, Mahometans, Gentiles in China, and Tartary:
our ignorant Papists, Anabaptists, Separatists, and peculiar churches
of Amsterdam, they alone, and none but they can be saved. [6492]Zealous
(as Paul saith, Rom. x. 2.) without knowledge, they will endure any
misery, any trouble, suffer and do that which the sunbeams will not
endure to see, Religionis acti Furiis, all extremities, losses and
dangers, take any pains, fast, pray, vow chastity, wilful poverty,
forsake all and follow their idols, die a thousand deaths as some Jews
did to Pilate's soldiers, in like case, exertos praebentes jugulos, et
manifeste prae se ferentes, (as Josephus hath it) cariorem esse rita
sibi legis patriae observationem, rather than abjure, or deny the least
particle of that religion which their fathers profess, and they
themselves have been brought up in, be it never so absurd, ridiculous,
they will embrace it, and without farther inquiry or examination of the
truth, though it be prodigiously false, they will believe it; they will
take much more pains to go to hell, than we shall do to heaven. Single
out the most ignorant of them, convince his understanding, show him his
errors, grossness, and absurdities of his sect. Non persuadebis etiamsi
persuaseris, he will not be persuaded. As those pagans told the Jesuits
in Japona, [6493]they would do as their forefathers have done: and with
Ratholde the Frisian Prince, go to hell for company, if most of their
friends went thither: they will not be moved, no persuasion, no torture
can stir them. So that papists cannot brag of their vows, poverty,
obedience, orders, merits, martyrdoms, fastings, alms, good works,
pilgrimages: much and more than all this, I shall show you, is, and
hath been done by these superstitious Gentiles, Pagans, Idolaters and
Jews: their blind zeal and idolatrous superstition in all kinds is much
at one; little or no difference, and it is hard to say which is the
greatest, which is the grossest. For if a man shall duly consider those
superstitious rites amongst the Ethnics in Japan, the Bannians in
Gusart, the Chinese idolaters, [6494]Americans of old, in Mexico
especially, Mahometan priests, he shall find the same government
almost, the same orders and ceremonies, or so like, that they may seem
all apparently to be derived from some heathen spirit, and the Roman
hierarchy no better than the rest. In a word, this is common to all
superstition, there is nothing so mad and absurd, so ridiculous,
impossible, incredible, which they will not believe, observe, and
diligently perform, as much as in them lies; nothing so monstrous to
conceive, or intolerable to put in practice, so cruel to suffer, which
they will not willingly undertake. So powerful a thing is superstition.
[6495]O Egypt (as Trismegistus exclaims) thy religion is fables, and
such as posterity will not believe. I know that in true religion
itself, many mysteries are so apprehended alone by faith, as that of
the Trinity, which Turks especially deride, Christ's incarnation,
resurrection of the body at the last day, quod ideo credendum (saith
Tertullian) quod incredible, &c. many miracles not to be controverted
or disputed of. Mirari non rimari sapientia vera est, saith
[6496]Gerhardus; et in divinis (as a good father informs us) quaedam
credenda, quaedam admiranda, &c. some things are to be believed,
embraced, followed with all submission and obedience, some again
admired. Though Julian the apostate scoff at Christians in this point,
quod captivemus intellectum in obsequium fidei, saying, that the
Christian creed is like the Pythagorean Ipse dixit, we make our will
and understanding too slavishly subject to our faith, without farther
examination of the truth; yet as Saint Gregory truly answers, our creed
is altioris praestantiae, and much more divine; and as Thomas will, pie
consideranti semper suppetunt rationes, ostendentes credibilitatem in
mysteriis supernaturalibus, we do absolutely believe it, and upon good
reasons, for as Gregory well informeth us; Fides non habet meritum, ubi
humana ratio quaerit experimentum; that faith hath no merit, is not
worth the name of faith, that will not apprehend without a certain
demonstration: we must and will believe God's word; and if we be
mistaken or err in our general belief, as [6497]Richardus de Sancto
Victore, vows he will say to Christ himself at the day of judgment;
Lord, if we be deceived, thou alone hast deceived us: thus we plead.
But for the rest I will not justify that pontificial consubstantiation,
that which [6498]Mahometans and Jews justly except at, as Campanella
confesseth, Atheismi triumphat. cap. 12. fol. 125, difficillimum dogma
esse, nec aliud subjectum magis haereticorum blasphemiis, et stultis
irrisionibus politicorum reperiri. They hold it impossible, Deum in
pane manducari; and besides they scoff at it, vide gentem comedentem
Deum suum, inquit quidam Maurus. [6499]Hunc Deum muscae et vermes
irrident, quum ipsum polluunt et devorant, subditus est igni, aquae, et
latrones furantur, pixidem auream humi prosternunt, et se tamen non
defendit hic Deus. Qui fieri potest, ut sit integer in singulis hostiae
particulis, idem corpus numero, tam multis locis, caelo, terra, &c. But
he that shall read the [6500]Turks' Alcoran, the Jews' Talmud, and
papists' golden legend, in the mean time will swear that such gross
fictions, fables, vain traditions, prodigious paradoxes and ceremonies,
could never proceed from any other spirit, than that of the devil
himself, which is the author of confusion and lies; and wonder withal
how such wise men as have been of the Jews, such learned understanding
men as Averroes, Avicenna, or those heathen philosophers, could ever be
persuaded to believe, or to subscribe to the least part of them: aut
fraudem non detegere: but that as [6501]Vanninus answers, ob publicae,
potestatis formidinem allatrare philosophi non audebant, they durst not
speak for fear of the law. But I will descend to particulars: read
their several symptoms and then guess.
Of such symptoms as properly belong to superstition, or that
irreligious religion, I may say as of the rest, some are ridiculous,
some again feral to relate. Of those ridiculous, there can be no better
testimony than the multitude of their gods, those absurd names,
actions, offices they put upon them, their feasts, holy days,
sacrifices, adorations, and the like. The Egyptians that pretended so
great antiquity, 300 kings before Amasis: and as Mela writes, 13,000
years from the beginning of their chronicles, that bragged so much of
their knowledge of old, for they invented arithmetic, astronomy,
geometry: of their wealth and power, that vaunted of 20,000 cities: yet
at the same time their idolatry and superstition was most gross: they
worshipped, as Diodorus Siculus records, sun and moon under the name of
Isis and Osiris, and after, such men as were beneficial to them, or any
creature that did them good. In the city of Bubasti they adored a cat,
saith Herodotus. Ibis and storks, an ox: (saith Pliny) [6502]leeks and
onions, Macrobius,
[6503]Porrum et caepe deos imponere nubibus ausi,
Hos tu Nile deos colis.———
Scoffing [6504]Lucian in his vera Historia: which, as he confesseth
himself, was not persuasively written as a truth, but in comical
fashion to glance at the monstrous fictions and gross absurdities of
writers and nations, to deride without doubt this prodigious Egyptian
idolatry, feigns this story of himself: that when he had seen the
Elysian fields, and was now coming away, Rhadamanthus gave him a mallow
root, and bade him pray to that when he was in any peril or extremity;
which he did accordingly; for when he came to Hydamordia in the island
of treacherous women, he made his prayers to his root, and was
instantly delivered. The Syrians, Chaldeans, had as many proper gods of
their own invention; see the said Lucian de dea Syria. Morney cap. 22.
de veritat. relig. Guliel. Stuckius [6505]Sacrorum Sacrificiorumque
Gentil. descript. Peter Faber Semester, l. 3. c. 1, 2, 3. Selden de
diis Syris, Purchas' pilgrimage, [6506] Rosinus of the Romans, and
Lilius Giraldus of the Greeks. The Romans borrowed from all, besides
their own gods, which were majorum and minorum gentium, as Varro holds,
certain and uncertain; some celestial, select, and great ones, others
indigenous and Semi-dei, Lares, Lemures, Dioscuri, Soteres, and
Parastatae, dii tutelares amongst the Greeks: gods of all sorts, for
all functions; some for the land, some for sea; some for heaven, some
for hell; some for passions, diseases, some for birth, some for
weddings, husbandry, woods, waters, gardens, orchards, &c. All actions
and offices, Pax-Quies, Salus, Libertas, Felicitas, Strenua, Stimula,
Horta, Pan, Sylvanus, Priapus, Flora, Cloacina, Stercutius, Febris,
Pallor, Invidia, Protervia, Risus, Angerona, Volupia, Vacuna,
Viriplaca, Veneranda, Pales, Neptunia, Doris, kings, emperors, valiant
men that had done any good offices for them, they did likewise canonise
and adore for gods, and it was usually done, usitatum apud antiquos, as
[6507]Jac. Boissardus well observes, deificare homines qui beneficiis
mortales juvarent, and the devil was still ready to second their
intents, statim se ingessit illorum sepulchris, statuis, templis, aris,
&c. he crept into their temples, statues, tombs, altars, and was ready
to give oracles, cure diseases, do miracles, &c. as by Jupiter,
Aesculapius, Tiresias, Apollo, Mopsus, Amphiaraus, &c. dii et Semi-dii.
For so they were Semi-dii, demigods, some medii inter Deos et homines,
as Max. [6508]Tyrius, the Platonist, ser. 26. et 27, maintains and
justifies in many words. When a good man dies, his body is buried, but
his soul, ex homine daemon evadit, becomes forthwith a demigod, nothing
disparaged with malignity of air, or variety of forms, rejoiceth,
exults and sees that perfect beauty with his eyes. Now being deified,
in commiseration he helps his poor friends here on earth, his kindred
and allies, informs, succours, &c. punisheth those that are bad and do
amiss, as a good genius to protect and govern mortal men appointed by
the gods, so they will have it, ordaining some for provinces, some for
private men, some for one office, some for another. Hector and Achilles
assist soldiers to this day; Aesculapius all sick men, the Dioscuri
seafaring men, &c. and sometimes upon occasion they show themselves.
The Dioscuri, Hercules and Aesculapius, he saw himself (or the devil in
his likeness) non somnians sed vigilans ipse vidi: So far Tyrius. And
not good men only do they thus adore, but tyrants, monsters, devils,
(as [6509] Stuckius inveighs) Neros, Domitians, Heliogables, beastly
women, and arrant whores amongst the rest. For all intents, places,
creatures, they assign gods;
Et domibus, tectis, thermis, et equis soleatis
Assignare solent genios———
saith Prudentius. Cuna for cradles, Diverra for sweeping houses, Nodina
knots, Prema, Pramunda, Hymen, Hymeneus, for weddings; Comus the god of
good fellows, gods of silence, of comfort, Hebe goddess of youth, Mena
menstruarum, &c. male and female gods, of all ages, sexes and
dimensions, with beards, without beards, married, unmarried, begot, not
born at all, but, as Minerva, start out of Jupiter's head. Hesiod
reckons up at least 30,000 gods, Varro 300 Jupiters. As Jeremy told
them, their gods were to the multitude of cities;
Quicquid humus, pelagus, coelum miserabile gignit
Id dixere deos, colles, freta, flumina, flammas.
Whatever heavens, sea, and land begat,
Hills, seas, and rivers, God was this and that.