Sed vetera querimur, these are old, haec prius fuere. In our days we have a new scene of superstitious impostors and heretics. A new company of actors, of Antichrists, that great Antichrist himself: a rope of hopes, that by their greatness and authority bear down all before them: who from that time they proclaimed themselves universal bishops, to establish their own kingdom, sovereignty, greatness, and to enrich themselves, brought in such a company of human traditions, purgatory, Limbus Patrum, Infantum, and all that subterranean geography, mass, adoration of saints, alms, fastings, bulls, indulgences, orders, friars, images, shrines, musty relics, excommunications, confessions, satisfactions, blind obediences, vows, pilgrimages, peregrinations, with many such curious toys, intricate subtleties, gross errors, obscure questions, to vindicate the better and set a gloss upon them, that the light of the Gospel was quite eclipsed, darkness over all, the Scriptures concealed, legends brought in, religion banished, hypocritical superstition exalted, and the Church itself [6575] obscured and persecuted: Christ and his members crucified more, saith Benzo, by a few necromantical, atheistical popes, than ever it was by [6576] Julian the Apostate, Porphyrius the Platonist, Celsus the physician, Libanius the Sophister; by those heathen emperors, Huns, Goths, and Vandals. What each of them did, by what means, at what times, quibus auxiliis, superstition climbed to this height, tradition increased, and Antichrist himself came to his estate, let Magdeburgenses, Kemnisius, Osiander, Bale, Mornay, Fox, Usher, and many others relate. In the mean time, he that shall but see their profane rites and foolish customs, how superstitiously kept, how strictly observed, their multitude of saints, images, that rabble of Romish deities, for trades, professions, diseases, persons, offices, countries, places; St. George for England; St. Denis for France, Patrick, Ireland; Andrew, Scotland; Jago, Spain; &c. Gregory for students; Luke for painters; Cosmus and Damian for philosophers; Crispin, shoemakers; Katherine, spinners; &c. Anthony for pigs; Gallus, geese; Wenceslaus, sheep; Pelagius, oxen; Sebastian, the plague; Valentine, falling sickness; Apollonia, toothache; Petronella for agues; and the Virgin Mary for sea and land, for all parties, offices: he that shall observe these things, their shrines, images, oblations, pendants, adorations, pilgrimages they make to them, what creeping to crosses, our Lady of Loretto's rich [6577]gowns, her donaries, the cost bestowed on images, and number of suitors; St. Nicholas Burge in France; our St. Thomas's shrine of old at Canterbury; those relics at Rome, Jerusalem, Genoa, Lyons, Pratum, St. Denis; and how many thousands come yearly to offer to them, with what cost, trouble, anxiety, superstition (for forty several masses are daily said in some of their [6578]churches, and they rise at all hours of the night to mass, come barefoot, &c.), how they spend themselves, times, goods, lives, fortunes, in such ridiculous observations; their tales and figments, false miracles, buying and selling of pardons, indulgences for 40,000 years to come, their processions on set days, their strict fastings, monks, anchorites, friar mendicants, Franciscans, Carthusians, &c. Their vigils and fasts, their ceremonies at Christmas, Shrovetide, Candlemas, Palm Sunday, Blaise, St. Martin, St. Nicholas' day; their adorations, exorcisms, &c., will think all those Grecian, Pagan, Mahometan superstitions, gods, idols, and ceremonies, the name, time and place, habit only altered, to have degenerated into Christians. Whilst they prefer traditions before Scriptures; those Evangelical Councils, poverty, obedience, vows, alms, fasting, supererogations, before God's Commandments; their own ordinances instead of his precepts, and keep them in ignorance, blindness, they have brought the common people into such a case by their cunning conveyances, strict discipline, and servile education, that upon pain of damnation they dare not break the least ceremony, tradition, edict; hold it a greater sin to eat a bit of meat in Lent, than kill a man: their consciences are so terrified, that they are ready to despair if a small ceremony be omitted; and will accuse their own father, mother, brother, sister, nearest and dearest friends of heresy, if they do not as they do, will be their chief executioners, and help first to bring a faggot to burn them. What mulct, what penance soever is enjoined, they dare not but do it, tumble with St. Francis in the mire amongst hogs, if they be appointed, go woolward, whip themselves, build hospitals, abbeys, &c., go to the East or West Indies, kill a king, or run upon a sword point: they perform all, without any muttering or hesitation, believe all.

[6579] "Ut pueri infantes credunt signa omnia ahena Vivere, et esse homines, et sic isti omnia ficta Vera putant, credunt signis cor inesse ahenis."

"As children think their babies live to be, Do they these brazen images they see."

And whilst the ruder sort are so carried headlong with blind zeal, are so gulled and tortured by their superstitions, their own too credulous simplicity and ignorance, their epicurean popes and hypocritical cardinals laugh in their sleeves, and are merry in their chambers with their punks, they do indulgere genio, and make much of themselves. The middle sort, some for private gain, hope of ecclesiastical preferment, (quis expedivit psittaco suum [Greek: chaire]) popularity, base flattery, must and will believe all their paradoxes and absurd tenets, without exception, and as obstinately maintain and put in practice all their traditions and idolatrous ceremonies (for their religion is half a trade) to the death; they will defend all, the golden legend itself, with all the lies and tales in it: as that of St. George, St. Christopher, St. Winifred, St. Denis, &c. It is a wonder to see how Nic. Harpsfield, that Pharisaical impostor, amongst the rest, Ecclesiast. Hist. cap. 22. saec prim, sex., puzzles himself to vindicate that ridiculous fable of St. Ursula and the eleven thousand virgins, as when they live, [6580]how they came to Cologne, by whom martyred, &c., though he can say nothing for it, yet he must and will approve it: nobilitavit (inquit) hoc saeculum Ursula cum comitibus, cujus historia utinam tam mihi esset expedita et certa, quam in animo meo certum ac expeditum est, eam esse cum sodalibus beatam in coelis virginem. They must and will (I say) either out of blind zeal believe, vary their compass with the rest, as the latitude of religion varies, apply themselves to the times, and seasons, and for fear and flattery are content to subscribe and to do all that in them lies to maintain and defend their present government and slavish religious schoolmen, canonists, Jesuits, friars, priests, orators, sophisters, who either for that they had nothing else to do, luxuriant wits knew not otherwise how to busy themselves in those idle times, for the Church then had few or no open adversaries, or better to defend their lies, fictions, miracles, transubstantiations, traditions, pope's pardons, purgatories, masses, impossibilities, &c. with glorious shows, fair pretences, big words, and plausible wits, have coined a thousand idle questions, nice distinctions, subtleties, Obs and Sols, such tropological, allegorical expositions, to salve all appearances, objections, such quirks and quiddities, quodlibetaries, as Bale saith of Ferribrigge and Strode, instances, ampliations, decrees, glosses, canons, that instead of sound commentaries, good preachers, are come in a company of mad sophisters, primo secundo secundarii, sectaries, Canonists, Sorbonists, Minorites, with a rabble of idle controversies and questions, [6581]an Papa sit Deus, an quasi Deus? An participet utramque Christi naturam? Whether it be as possible for God to be a humble bee or a gourd, as a man? Whether he can produce respect without a foundation or term, make a whore a virgin? fetch Trajan's soul from hell, and how? with a rabble of questions about hell-fire: whether it be a greater sin to kill a man, or to clout shoes upon a Sunday? whether God can make another God like unto himself? Such, saith Kemnisius, are most of your schoolmen, (mere alchemists) 200 commentators on Peter Lambard; (Pitsius catal. scriptorum Anglic. reckons up 180 English commentators alone, on the matter of the sentences), Scotists, Thomists, Reals, Nominals, &c., and so perhaps that of St. [6582]Austin may be verified. Indocti rapiunt coelum, docti interim descendunt ad infernum. Thus they continued in such error, blindness, decrees, sophisms, superstitions; idle ceremonies and traditions were the sum of their new-coined holiness and religion, and by these knaveries and stratagems they were able to involve multitudes, to deceive the most sanctified souls, and, if it were possible, the very elect. In the mean time the true Church, as wine and water mixed, lay hid and obscure to speak of, till Luther's time, who began upon a sudden to defecate, and as another sun to drive away those foggy mists of superstition, to restore it to that purity of the primitive Church. And after him many good and godly men, divine spirits, have done their endeavours, and still do.

[6583] "And what their ignorance esteem'd so holy, Our wiser ages do account as folly."

But see the devil, that will never suffer the Church to be quiet or at rest: no garden so well tilled but some noxious weeds grow up in it, no wheat but it hath some tares: we have a mad giddy company of precisians, schismatics, and some heretics, even, in our own bosoms in another extreme. [6584]Dum vitant stulti vitia in contraria currunt; that out of too much zeal in opposition to Antichrist, human traditions, those Romish rites and superstitions, will quite demolish all, they will admit of no ceremonies at all, no fasting days, no cross in baptism, kneeling at communion, no church music, &c., no bishops' courts, no church government, rail at all our church discipline, will not hold their tongues, and all for the peace of thee, O Sion! No, not so much as degrees some of them will tolerate, or universities, all human learning, ('tis cloaca diaboli) hoods, habits, cap and surplice, such as are things indifferent in themselves, and wholly for ornament, decency, or distinction's sake, they abhor, hate, and snuff at, as a stone-horse when he meets a bear: they make matters of conscience of them, and will rather forsake their livings than subscribe to them. They will admit of no holidays, or honest recreations, as of hawking, hunting, &c., no churches, no bells some of them, because papists use them; no discipline, no ceremonies but what they invent themselves; no interpretations of 'scriptures, no comments of fathers, no councils, but such as their own fantastical spirits dictate, or recta ratio, as Socinians, by which spirit misled, many times they broach as prodigious paradoxes as papists themselves. Some of them turn prophets, have secret revelations, will be of privy council with God himself, and know all his secrets, [6585] Per capillos spiritum sanctum tenent, et omnia sciunt cum sint asini omnium obstinatissimi, a company of giddy heads will take upon them to define how many shall be saved and who damned in a parish, where they shall sit in heaven, interpret Apocalypses, (Commentatores praecipites et vertiginosos, one calls them, as well he might) and those hidden mysteries to private persons, times, places, as their own spirit informs them, private revelations shall suggest, and precisely set down when the world shall come to an end, what year, what month, what day. Some of them again have such strong faith, so presumptuous, they will go into infected houses, expel devils, and fast forty days, as Christ himself did; some call God and his attributes into question, as Vorstius and Socinus; some princes, civil magistrates, and their authorities, as Anabaptists, will do all their own private spirit dictates, and nothing else. Brownists, Barrowists, Familists, and those Amsterdamian sects and sectaries, are led all by so many private spirits. It is a wonder to reveal what passages Sleidan relates in his Commentaries, of Cretinck, Knipperdoling, and their associates, those madmen of Munster in Germany; what strange enthusiasms, sottish revelations they had, how absurdly they carried themselves, deluded others; and as profane Machiavel in his political disputations holds of Christian religion, in general it doth enervate, debilitate, take away men's spirits and courage from them, simpliciores reddit homines, breeds nothing so courageous soldiers as that Roman: we may say of these peculiar sects, their religion takes away not spirits only, but wit and judgment, and deprives them of their understanding; for some of them are so far gone with their private enthusiasms and revelations, that they are quite mad, out of their wits. What greater madness can there be, than for a man to take upon him to be a God, as some do? to be the Holy Ghost, Elias, and what not? In [6586]Poland, 1518, in the reign of King Sigismund, one said he was Christ, and got him twelve apostles, came to judge the world, and strangely deluded the commons. [6587]One David George, an illiterate painter, not many years since, did as much in Holland, took upon him to be the Messiah, and had many followers. Benedictus Victorinus Faventinus, consil. 15, writes as much of one Honorius, that thought he was not only inspired as a prophet, but that he was a God himself, and had [6588]familiar conference with God and his angels. Lavat. de spect. c. 2. part. 8. hath a story of one John Sartorious, that thought he was the prophet Elias, and cap. 7. of diverse others that had conference with angels, were saints, prophets. Wierus, lib. 3. de Lamiis c. 7. makes mention of a prophet of Groning that said he was God the Father; of an Italian and Spanish prophet that held as much. We need not rove so far abroad, we have familiar examples at home: Hackett that said he was Christ; Coppinger and Arthington his disciples; [6589]Burchet and Hovatus, burned at Norwich. We are never likely seven years together without some such new prophets that have several inspirations, some to convert the Jews, some fast forty days, go with Daniel to the lion's den; some foretell strange things, some for one thing, some for another. Great precisians of mean conditions and very illiterate, most part by a preposterous zeal, fasting, meditation, melancholy, are brought into those gross errors and inconveniences. Of those men I may conclude generally, that howsoever they may seem to be discreet, and men of understanding in other matters, discourse well, laesam habent imaginationem, they are like comets, round in all places but where they blaze, caetera sani, they have impregnable wits many of them, and discreet otherwise, but in this their madness and folly breaks out beyond measure, in infinitum erumpit stultitia. They are certainly far gone with melancholy, if not quite mad, and have more need of physic than many a man that keeps his bed, more need of hellebore than those that are in Bedlam.

SUBSECT. IV.—Prognostics of Religious Melancholy.

You may guess at the prognostics by the symptoms. What can these signs fore tell otherwise than folly, dotage, madness, gross ignorance, despair, obstinacy, a reprobate sense, [6590]a bad end? What else can superstition, heresy produce, but wars, tumults, uproars, torture of souls, and despair, a desolate land, as Jeremy teacheth, cap. vii. 34. when they commit idolatry, and walk after their own ways? how should it be otherwise with them? what can they expect but "blasting, famine, dearth," and all the plagues of Egypt, as Amos denounceth, cap. iv. vers. 9. 10. to be led into captivity? If our hopes be frustrate, "we sow much and bring in little, eat and have not enough, drink and are not filled, clothe and be not warm," &c. Haggai i. 6. "we look for much and it comes to little, whence is it? His house was waste, they came to their own houses," vers. 9. "therefore the heaven stayed his dew, the earth his fruit." Because we are superstitious, irreligious, we do not serve God as we ought, all these plagues and miseries come upon us; what can we look for else but mutual wars, slaughters, fearful ends in this life, and in the life to come eternal damnation? What is it that hath caused so many feral battles to be fought, so much Christian blood shed, but superstition! That Spanish inquisition, racks, wheels, tortures, torments, whence do they proceed? from superstition. Bodine the Frenchman, in his [6591]method. hist. accounts Englishmen barbarians, for their civil wars: but let him read those Pharsalian fields [6592]fought of late in France for their religion, their massacres, wherein by their own relations in twenty-four years, I know not how many millions have been consumed, whole families and cities, and he shall find ours to be but velitations to theirs. But it hath ever been the custom of heretics and idolaters, when they are plagued for their sins, and God's just judgments come upon them, not to acknowledge any fault in themselves, but still impute it unto others. In Cyprian's time it was much controverted between him and Demetrius an idolater, who should be the cause of those present calamities. Demetrius laid all the fault on Christians, (and so they did ever in the primitive church, as appears by the first book of [6593]Arnobius), [6594]"that there were not such ordinary showers in winter, the ripening heat in summer, so seasonable springs, fruitful autumns, no marble mines in the mountains, less gold and silver than of old; that husbandmen, seamen, soldiers, all were scanted, justice, friendship, skill in arts, all was decayed," and that through Christians' default, and all their other miseries from them, quod dii nostri a vobis non colantur, because they did not worship their gods. But Cyprian retorts all upon him again, as appears by his tract against him. 'Tis true the world is miserably tormented and shaken with wars, dearth, famine, fire, inundations, plagues, and many feral diseases rage amongst us, sed non ut tu quereris ista accidunt quod dii vestri a nobis non colantur, sed quod a vobis non colatur Deus, a quibus nec quaeritur, nec timetur, not as thou complainest, that we do not worship your Gods, but because you are idolaters, and do not serve the true God, neither seek him, nor fear him as you ought. Our papists object as much to us, and account us heretics, we them; the Turks esteem of both as infidels, and we them as a company of pagans, Jews against all; when indeed there is a general fault in us all, and something in the very best, which may justly deserve God's wrath, and pull these miseries upon our heads. I will say nothing here of those vain cares, torments, needless works, penance, pilgrimages, pseudomartyrdom, &c. We heap upon ourselves unnecessary troubles, observations; we punish our bodies, as in Turkey (saith [6595]Busbequius leg. Turcic. ep. 3.) "one did, that was much affected with music, and to hear boys sing, but very superstitious; an old sibyl coming to his house, or a holy woman," (as that place yields many) "took him down for it, and told him, that in that other world he should suffer for it; thereupon he flung his rich and costly instruments which he had bedecked with jewels, all at once into the fire. He was served in silver plate, and had goodly household stuff: a little after, another religious man reprehended him in like sort, and from thenceforth he was served in earthen vessels, last of all a decree came forth, because Turks might not drink wine themselves, that neither Jew nor Christian then living in Constantinople, might drink any wine at all." In like sort amongst papists, fasting at first was generally proposed as a good thing; after, from such meats at set times, and then last of all so rigorously proposed, to bind the consciences upon pain of damnation. "First Friday," saith Erasmus, "then Saturday," et nunc periclitatur dies Mercurii) and Wednesday now is in danger of a fast. [6596]"And for such like toys, some so miserably afflict themselves, to despair, and death itself, rather than offend, and think themselves good Christians in it, when as indeed they are superstitious Jews." So saith Leonardus Fuchsius, a great physician in his time. [6597]"We are tortured in Germany with these popish edicts, our bodies so taken down, our goods so diminished, that if God had not sent Luther, a worthy man, in time, to redress these mischiefs, we should have eaten hay with our horses before this." [6598]As in fasting, so in all other superstitious edicts, we crucify one another without a cause, barring ourselves of many good and lawful things, honest disports, pleasures and recreations; for wherefore did God create them but for our use? Feasts, mirth, music, hawking, hunting, singing, dancing, &c. non tam necessitatibus nostris Deus inservit, sed in delicias amamur, as Seneca notes, God would have it so. And as Plato 2. de legibus gives out, Deos laboriosam hominum vitam miseratos, the gods in commiseration of human estate sent Apollo, Bacchus, and the Muses, qui cum voluptate tripudia et soltationes nobis ducant, to be merry with mortals, to sing and dance with us. So that he that will not rejoice and enjoy himself, making good use of such things as are lawfully permitted, non est temperatus, as he will, sed superstitiosus. "There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour," Eccles. ii. 24. And as [6599]one said of hawking and hunting, tot solatia in hac aegri orbis calamitate, mortalibus taediis deus objecit, I say of all honest recreations, God hath therefore indulged them to refresh, ease, solace and comfort us. But we are some of us too stern, too rigid, too precise, too grossly superstitious, and whilst we make a conscience of every toy, with touch not, taste not, &c., as those Pythagoreans of old, and some Indians now, that will eat no flesh, or suffer any living creature to be killed, the Bannians about Guzzerat; we tyrannise over our brother's soul, lose the right use of many good gifts; honest [6600]sports, games and pleasant recreations, [6601]punish ourselves without a cause, lose our liberties, and sometimes our lives. Anno 1270, at [6602]Magdeburg in Germany, a Jew fell into a privy upon a Saturday, and without help could not possibly get out; he called to his fellows for succour, but they denied it, because it was their Sabbath, non licebat opus manuum exercere; the bishop hearing of it, the next day forbade him to be pulled out, because it was our Sunday. In the mean time the wretch died before Monday. We have myriads of examples in this kind amongst those rigid Sabbatarians, and therefore not without good cause, [6603]Intolerabilem pertubationem Seneca calls it, as well he might, an intolerable perturbation, that causeth such dire events, folly, madness, sickness, despair, death of body and soul, and hell itself.

SUBSECT. V.—Cure of Religious Melancholy.

To purge the world of idolatry and superstition, will require some monster-taming Hercules, a divine Aesculapius, or Christ himself to come in his own person, to reign a thousand years on earth before the end, as the Millenaries will have him. They are generally so refractory, self-conceited, obstinate, so firmly addicted to that religion in which they have been bred and brought up, that no persuasion, no terror, no persecution, can divert them. The consideration of which, hath induced many commonwealths to suffer them to enjoy their consciences as they will themselves: a toleration of Jews is in most provinces of Europe. In Asia they have their synagogues: Spaniards permit Moors to live amongst them: the Mogullians, Gentiles: the Turks all religions. In Europe, Poland and Amsterdam are the common sanctuaries. Some are of opinion, that no man ought to be compelled for conscience' sake, but let him be of what religion he will, he may be saved, as Cornelius was formerly accepted, Jew, Turks, Anabaptists, &c. If he be an honest man, live soberly, and civilly in his profession, (Volkelius, Crellius, and the rest of the Socinians, that now nestle themselves about Krakow and Rakow in Poland, have renewed this opinion) serve his own God, with that fear and reverence as he ought. Sua cuique civitati (Laeli) religio sit, nostra nobis, Tully thought fit every city should be free in this behalf, adore their own Custodes et Topicos Deos, tutelar and local gods, as Symmachus calls them. Isocrates adviseth Demonicus, "when he came to a strange city, to [6604]worship by all means the gods of the place," et unumquemque, Topicum deum sic coli oportere, quomodo ipse praeceperit: which Cecilius in [6605]Minutius labours, and would have every nation sacrorum ritus gentiles habere et deos colere municipes, keep their own ceremonies, worship their peculiar gods, which Pomponius Mela reports of the Africans, Deos suos patrio more venerantur, they worship their own gods according to their own ordination. For why should any one nation, as he there pleads, challenge that universality of God, Deum suum quem nec ostendunt, nec vident, discurrantem silicet et ubique praesentem, in omnium mores, actus, et occultas, cogitationes inquirentem, &c., as Christians do: let every province enjoy their liberty in this behalf, worship one God, or all as they will, and are informed. The Romans built altars Diis Asiae, Europae, Lybiae, diis ignotis et peregrinis: others otherwise, &c. Plinius Secundus, as appears by his Epistle to Trajan, would not have the Christians so persecuted, and in some time of the reign of Maximinus, as we find it registered in Eusebius lib. 9. cap. 9. there was a decree made to this purpose, Nullus cogatur invitus ad hunc vel illum deorum cultum, "let no one be compelled against his will to worship any particular deity," and by Constantine in the 19th year of his reign as [6606]Baronius informeth us, Nemo alteri exhibeat molestiam, quod cujusque animus vult, hoc quisque transigat, new gods, new lawgivers, new priests, will have new ceremonies, customs and religions, to which every wise man as a good formalist should accommodate himself.

[6607] "Saturnus periit, perierunt et sua jura, Sub Jove nunc mundus, jussa sequare Jovis."

The said Constantine the emperor, as Eusebius writes, flung down and demolished all the heathen gods, silver, gold statues, altars, images and temples, and turned them all to Christian churches, infestus gentilium monumentis ludibrio exposuit; the Turk now converts them again to Mahometan mosques. The like edict came forth in the reign of Arcadius and Honorius. [6608]Symmachus the orator in his days, to procure a general toleration, used this argument, [6609]"Because God is immense and infinite, and his nature cannot perfectly be known, it is convenient he should be as diversely worshipped, as every man shall perceive or understand." It was impossible, he thought, for one religion to be universal: you see that one small province can hardly be ruled by one law, civil or spiritual; and "how shall so many distinct and vast empires of the world be united into one? It never was, never will be" Besides, if there be infinite planetary and firmamental worlds, as [6610]some will, there be infinite genii or commanding spirits belonging to each of them; and so, per consequens (for they will be all adored), infinite religions. And therefore let every territory keep their proper rites and ceremonies, as their dii tutelares will, so Tyrius calls them, "and according to the quarter they hold," their own institutions, revelations, orders, oracles, which they dictate from time to time, or teach their own priests or ministers. This tenet was stiffly maintained in Turkey not long since, as you may read in the third epistle of Busbequius, [6611]"that all those should participate of eternal happiness, that lived a holy and innocent life, what religion soever they professed." Rustan Bassa was a great patron of it; though Mahomet himself was sent virtute gladdi, to enforce all, as he writes in his Alcoran, to follow him. Some again will approve of this for Jews, Gentiles, infidels, that are out of the fold, they can be content to give them all respect and favour, but by no means to such as are within the precincts of our own church, and called Christians, to no heretics, schismatics, or the like; let the Spanish inquisition, that fourth fury, speak of some of them, the civil wars and massacres in France, our Marian times. [6612]Magillianus the Jesuit will not admit of conference with a heretic, but severity and rigour to be used, non illis verba reddere, sed furcas, figere oportet; and Theodosius is commended in Nicephorus, lib. 12. cap. 15. [6613]"That he put all heretics to silence." Bernard. Epist. 180, will have club law, fire and sword for heretics, [6614]"compel them, stop their mouths not with disputations, or refute them with reasons, but with fists;" and this is their ordinary practice. Another company are as mild on the other side; to avoid all heart-burning, and contentious wars and uproars, they would have a general toleration in every kingdom, no mulct at all, no man for religion or conscience be put to death, which [6615]Thuanus the French historian much favours; our late Socinians defend; Vaticanus against Calvin in a large Treatise in behalf of Servetus, vindicates; Castilio, &c., Martin Ballius and his companions, maintained this opinion not long since in France, whose error is confuted by Beza in a just volume. The medium is best, and that which Paul prescribes, Gal. i. "If any man shall fall by occasion, to restore such a one with the spirit of meekness, by all fair means, gentle admonitions;" but if that will not take place, Post unam et alteram admonitionem haereticum devita, he must be excommunicate, as Paul did by Hymenaeus, delivered over to Satan. Immedicabile vulnus ense recidendum est. As Hippocrates said in physic, I may well say in divinity, Quae ferro non curantur, ignis curat. For the vulgar, restrain them by laws, mulcts, burn their books, forbid their conventicles; for when the cause is taken away, the effect will soon cease. Now for prophets, dreamers, and such rude silly fellows, that through fasting, too much meditation, preciseness, or by melancholy, are distempered: the best means to reduce them ad sanam mentem, is to alter their course of life, and with conference, threats, promises, persuasions, to intermix physic. Hercules de Saxonia, had such a prophet committed to his charge in Venice, that thought he was Elias, and would fast as he did; he dressed a fellow in angel's attire, that said he came from heaven to bring him divine food, and by that means stayed his fast, administered his physic; so by the meditation of this forged angel he was cured. [6616]Rhasis an Arabian, cont. lib. 1. cap. 9, speaks of a fellow that in like case complained to him, and desired his help: "I asked him" (saith he) "what the matter was; he replied, I am continually meditating of heaven and hell, and methinks I see and talk with fiery spirits, and smell brimstone, &c., and am so carried away with these conceits, that I can neither eat, nor sleep, nor go about my business: I cured him" (saith Rhasis) "partly by persuasion, partly by physic, and so have I done by many others." We have frequently such prophets and dreamers amongst us, whom we persecute with fire and faggot: I think the most compendious cure, for some of them at least, had been in Bedlam. Sed de his satis.

MEMB. II.

SUBSECT. I.—Religious Melancholy in defect; parties affected, Epicures, Atheists, Hypocrites, worldly secure, Carnalists; all impious persons, impenitent sinners, &c.

In that other extreme or defect of this love of God, knowledge, faith, fear, hope, &c. are such as err both in doctrine and manners, Sadducees, Herodians, libertines, politicians: all manner of atheists, epicures, infidels, that are secure, in a reprobate sense, fear not God at all, and such are too distrustful and timorous, as desperate persons be. That grand sin of atheism or impiety, [6617]Melancthon calls it monstrosam melancholiam, monstrous melancholy; or venenatam melancholiam, poisoned melancholy. A company of Cyclops or giants, that war with the gods, as the poets feigned, antipodes to Christians, that scoff at all religion, at God himself, deny him and all his attributes, his wisdom, power, providence, his mercy and judgment.

[6618] "Esse aliquos manes, et subterranea regna, Et contum, et Stygio ranas in gurgite nigras, Atque una transire vadum tot millia cymba, Nec pueri credunt, nisi qui nondum aere lavantur."

That there is either heaven or hell, resurrection of the dead, pain, happiness, or world to come, credat Judaeus Apella; for their parts they esteem them as so many poet's tales, bugbears, Lucian's Alexander; Moses, Mahomet, and Christ are all as one in their creed. When those bloody wars in France for matters of religion (saith [6619]Richard Dinoth) were so violently pursued between Huguenots and Papists, there was a company of good fellows laughed them all to scorn, for being such superstitious fools, to lose their wives and fortunes, accounting faith, religion, immortality of the soul, mere fopperies and illusions. Such loose [6620]atheistical spirits are too predominant in all kingdoms. Let them contend, pray, tremble, trouble themselves that will, for their parts, they fear neither God nor devil; but with that Cyclops in Euripides,

"Haud ulla numina expavescunt caelitum, Sed victimas uni deorum maximo, Ventri offerunt, deos ignorant caeteros."

"They fear no God but one, They sacrifice to none. But belly, and him adore, For gods they know no more."

"Their God is their belly," as Paul saith, Sancta mater saturitas;—quibus in solo vivendi causa palato est. The idol, which they worship and adore, is their mistress; with him in Plautus, mallem haec mulier me amet quam dii, they had rather have her favour than the gods'. Satan is their guide, the flesh is their instructor, hypocrisy their counsellor, vanity their fellow-soldier, their will their law, ambition their captain, custom their rule; temerity, boldness, impudence their art, toys their trading, damnation their end. All their endeavours are to satisfy their lust and appetite, how to please their genius, and to be merry for the present, Ede, lude, bibe, post mortem nulla voluptas. [6621]"The same condition is of men and of beasts; as the one dieth, so dieth the other," Eccles. iii. 19. The world goes round,

[6622] ———"truditur dies die, Novaeque pergunt interire Lunae:"

[6623]They did eat and drink of old, marry, bury, bought, sold, planted, built, and will do still. [6624]"Our life is short and tedious, and in the death of a man there is no recovery, neither was any man known that hath returned from the grave; for we are born at all adventure, and we shall be hereafter as though we had never been; for the breath is as smoke in our nostrils, &c., and the spirit vanisheth as the soft air." [6625]"Come let us enjoy the pleasures that are present, let us cheerfully use the creatures as in youth, let us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments, let not the flower of our life pass by us, let us crown ourselves with rose-buds before they are withered," &c. [6626]Vivamus mea Lesbia et amemus, &c. [6627] "Come let us take our fill of love, and pleasure in dalliance, for this is our portion, this is our lot."

Tempora labuntur, tacitisque senescimus annis.[6628] For the rest of heaven and hell, let children and superstitious fools believe it: for their parts, they are so far from trembling at the dreadful day of judgment that they wish with Nero, Me vivo fiat, let it come in their times: so secure, so desperate, so immoderate in lust and pleasure, so prone to revenge that, as Paterculus said of some caitiffs in his time in Rome, Quod nequiter ausi, fortiter executi: it shall not be so wickedly attempted, but as desperately performed, whatever they take in hand. Were it not for God's restraining grace, fear and shame, temporal punishment, and their own infamy, they would. Lycaon-like exenterate, as so many cannibals eat up, or Cadmus' soldiers consume one another. These are most impious, and commonly professed atheists, that never use the name of God but to swear by it; that express nought else but epicurism in their carriage, or hypocrisy; with Pentheus they neglect and contemn these rites and religious ceremonies of the gods; they will be gods themselves, or at least socii deorum. Divisum imperium cum Jove Caesar habet. "Caesar divides the empire with Jove." Aproyis, an Egyptian tyrant, grew, saith [6629]Herodotus, to that height of pride, insolency of impiety, to that contempt of Gods and men, that he held his kingdom so sure, ut a nemine deorum aut hominum sibi eripi posset, neither God nor men could take it from him. [6630]A certain blasphemous king of Spain (as [6631]Lansius reports) made an edict, that no subject of his, for ten years' space, should believe in, call on, or worship any god. And as [6632]Jovius relates of "Mahomet the Second, that sacked Constantinople, he so behaved himself, that he believed neither Christ nor Mahomet; and thence it came to pass, that he kept his word and promise no farther than for his advantage, neither did he care to commit any offence to satisfy his lust." I could say the like of many princes, many private men (our stories are full of them) in times past, this present age, that love, fear, obey, and perform all civil duties as they shall find them expedient or behoveful to their own ends. Securi adversus Deos, securi adversus homines, votis non est opus, which [6633] Tacitus reports of some Germans, they need not pray, fear, hope, for they are secure, to their thinking, both from Gods and men. Bulco Opiliensis, sometime Duke of [6634]Silesia, was such a one to a hair; he lived (saith [6635]Aeneas Sylvius) at [6636]Vratislavia, "and was so mad to satisfy his lust, that he believed neither heaven nor hell, or that the soul was immortal, but married wives, and turned them up as he thought fit, did murder and mischief, and what he list himself." This duke hath too many followers in our days: say what you can, dehort, exhort, persuade to the contrary, they are no more moved,—quam si dura, silex aut stet Marpesia cautes, than so many stocks, and stones; tell them of heaven and hell, 'tis to no purpose, laterem lavas, they answer as Ataliba that Indian prince did friar Vincent, [6637]"when he brought him a book, and told him all the mysteries of salvation, heaven and hell, were contained in it: he looked upon it, and said he saw no such matter, asking withal, how he knew it:" they will but scoff at it, or wholly reject it. Petronius in Tacitus, when he was now by Nero's command bleeding to death, audiebat amicos nihil referentes de immortalitate animae, aut sapientum placitis, sed levia carmina et faciles versus; instead of good counsel and divine meditations, he made his friends sing him bawdy verses and scurrilous songs. Let them take heaven, paradise, and that future happiness that will, bonum est esse hic, it is good being here: there is no talking to such, no hope of their conversion, they are in a reprobate sense, mere carnalists, fleshly minded men, which howsoever they may be applauded in this life by some few parasites, and held for worldly wise men. [6638]"They seem to me" (saith Melancthon) "to be as mad as Hercules was when he raved and killed his wife and children." A milder sort of these atheistical spirits there are that profess religion, but timide et haesitanter, tempted thereunto out of that horrible consideration of diversity of religions, which are and have been in the world (which argument Campanella, Atheismi Triumphati, cap. 9. both urgeth and answers), besides the covetousness, imposture, and knavery of priests, quae faciunt (as [6639]Postellus observes) ut rebus sacris minus faciant fidem; and those religions some of them so fantastical, exorbitant, so violently maintained with equal constancy and assurance; whence they infer, that if there be so many religious sects, and denied by the rest, why may they not be all false? or why should this or that be preferred before the rest? The sceptics urge this, and amongst others it is the conclusion of Sextus Empericus, lib. 3. advers. Mathematicos: after many philosophical arguments and reasons pro and con that there are gods, and again that there are no gods, he so concludes, cum tot inter se pugnent, &c. Una tantum potest esse vera, as Tully likewise disputes: Christians say, they alone worship the true God, pity all other sects, lament their case; and yet those old Greeks and Romans that worshipped the devil, as the Chinese now do, aut deos topicos, their own gods; as Julian the apostate, [6640]Cecilius in Minutius, Celsus and Porphyrius the philosopher object: and as Machiavel contends, were much more noble, generous, victorious, had a more flourishing commonwealth, better cities, better soldiers, better scholars, better wits. Their gods overcame our gods, did as many miracles, &c. Saint Cyril, Arnobius, Minutius, with many other ancients of late, Lessius, Morneus, Grotius de Verit. Relig. Christianae, Savanarola de Verit. Fidei Christianae, well defend; but Zanchius, [6641]Campanella, Marinus Marcennus, Bozius, and Gentillettus answer all these atheistical arguments at large. But this again troubles many as of old, wicked men generally thrive, professed atheists thrive,

[6642] "Nullos esse Deos, inane coelum, Affirmat Selius: probatque, quod se Factum, dum negat haec, videt beatum."

"There are no gods, heavens are toys, Selius in public justifies; Because that whilst he thus denies Their deities, he better thrives."

This is a prime argument: and most part your most sincere, upright, honest, and [6643]good men are depressed, "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong" (Eccles. ix. 11.), "nor yet bread to the wise, favour nor riches to men of understanding, but time and chance comes to all." There was a great plague in Athens (as Thucydides, lib. 2. relates), in which at last every man, with great licentiousness, did what he list, not caring at all for God's or men's laws. "Neither the fear of God nor laws of men" (saith he) "awed any man, because the plague swept all away alike, good and bad; they thence concluded it was alike to worship or not worship the gods, since they perished all alike." Some cavil and make doubts of scripture itself: it cannot stand with God's mercy, that so many should be damned, so many bad, so few good, such have and hold about religions, all stiff on their side, factious alike, thrive alike, and yet bitterly persecuting and damning each other; "It cannot stand with God's goodness, protection, and providence" (as [6644]Saint Chrysostom in the Dialect of such discontented persons) "to see and suffer one man to be lame, another mad, a third poor and miserable all the days of his life, a fourth grievously tormented with sickness and aches, to his last hour. Are these signs and works of God's providence, to let one man be deaf, another dumb? A poor honest fellow lives in disgrace, woe and want, wretched he is; when as a wicked caitiff abounds in superfluity of wealth, keeps whores, parasites, and what he will himself:" Audis Jupiter haec? Talia multa connectentes, longum reprehensionis sermonem erga Dei providentiam contexunt. [6645]Thus they mutter and object (see the rest of their arguments in Marcennus in Genesin, and in Campanella, amply confuted), with many such vain cavils, well known, not worthy the recapitulation or answering: whatsoever they pretend, they are interim of little or no religion.

Cousin-germans to these men are many of our great philosophers and deists, who, though they be more temperate in this life, give many good moral precepts, honest, upright, and sober in their conversation, yet in effect they are the same (accounting no man a good scholar that is not an atheist), nimis altum sapiunt, too much learning makes them mad. Whilst they attribute all to natural causes, [6646]contingence of all things, as Melancthon calls them, Pertinax hominum genus, a peevish generation of men, that misled by philosophy, and the devil's suggestion, their own innate blindness, deny God as much as the rest, hold all religion a fiction, opposite to reason and philosophy, though for fear of magistrates, saith [6647]Vaninus, they durst not publicly profess it. Ask one of them of what religion he is, he scoffingly replies, a philosopher, a Galenist, an [6648]Averroist, and with Rabelais a physician, a peripatetic, an epicure. In spiritual things God must demonstrate all to sense, leave a pawn with them, or else seek some other creditor. They will acknowledge Nature and Fortune, yet not God: though in effect they grant both: for as Scaliger defines, Nature signifies God's ordinary power; or, as Calvin writes, Nature is God's order, and so things extraordinary may be called unnatural: Fortune his unrevealed will; and so we call things changeable that are beside reason and expectation. To this purpose [6649]Minutius in Octavio, and [6650] Seneca well discourseth with them, lib. 4. de beneficiis, cap. 5, 6, 7. "They do not understand what they say; what is Nature but God? call him what thou wilt, Nature, Jupiter, he hath as many names as offices: it comes all to one pass, God is the fountain of all, the first Giver and Preserver, from whom all things depend," [6651]a quo, et per quem omnia, Nam quocunque vides Deus est, quocunque moveris, "God is all in all, God is everywhere, in every place." And yet this Seneca, that could confute and blame them, is all out as much to be blamed and confuted himself, as mad himself; for he holds fatum Stoicum, that inevitable Necessity in the other extreme, as those Chaldean astrologers of old did, against whom the prophet Jeremiah so often thunders, and those heathen mathematicians, Nigidius Figulus, magicians, and Priscilianists, whom St. Austin so eagerly confutes, those Arabian questionaries, Novem Judices, Albumazer, Dorotheus, &c., and our countryman [6652]Estuidus, that take upon them to define out of those great conjunction of stars, with Ptolomeus, the periods of kingdoms, or religions, of all future accidents, wars, plagues, schisms, heresies, and what not? all from stars, and such things, saith Maginus, Quae sibi et intelligentiis suis reservavit Deus, which God hath reserved to himself and his angels, they will take upon them to foretell, as if stars were immediate, inevitable causes of all future accidents. Caesar Vaninus, in his book de admirandis naturae Arcanis, dial. 52. de oraculis, is more free, copious, and open, in this explication of this astrological tenet of Ptolemy, than any of our modern writers, Cardan excepted, a true disciple of his master Pomponatius; according to the doctrine of Peripatetics, he refers all apparitions, prodigies, miracles, oracles, accidents, alterations of religions, kingdoms, &c. (for which he is soundly lashed by Marinus Mercennus, as well he deserves), to natural causes (for spirits he will not acknowledge), to that light, motion, influences of heavens and stars, and to the intelligences that move the orbs. Intelligentia quae, movet orbem mediante coelo, &c. Intelligences do all: and after a long discourse of miracles done of old, si haec daemones possint, cur non et intelligentiae, coelorum motrices? And as these great conjunctions, aspects of planets, begin or end, vary, are vertical and predominant, so have religions, rites, ceremonies, and kingdoms their beginning, progress, periods, in urbibus, regibus, religionibus, ac in particularibus hominibus, haec vera ac manifesta, sunt, ut Aristoteles innuere videtur, et quotidiana docet experientia, ut historias perlegens videbit; quid olim in Gentili lege Jove sanctius et illustrius? quid nunc vile magis et execrandum? Ita coelestia corpora pro mortalium beneficio religiones aedificant, et cum cessat influxus, cessat lex, [6653]&c. And because, according to their tenets, the world is eternal, intelligences eternal, influences of stars eternal, kingdoms, religions, alterations shall be likewise eternal, and run round after many ages; Atque iterum ad Troiam magnus mittetur Achilles; renascentur religiones, et ceremoniae, res humanae in idem recident, nihil nunc quod non olim fuit, et post saeculorum revolutiones alias est, erit,[6654] &c. idem specie, saith Vaninus, non individuo quod Plato significavit. These (saith mine [6655]author), these are the decrees of Peripatetics, which though I recite, in obsequium Christianae fidei detestor, as I am a Christian I detest and hate. Thus Peripatetics and astrologians held in former times, and to this effect of old in Rome, saith Dionysius Halicarnassus, lib. 7, when those meteors and prodigies appeared in the air, after the banishment of Coriolanus, [6656] "Men were diversely affected: some said they were God's just judgments for the execution of that good man, some referred all to natural causes, some to stars, some thought they came by chance, some by necessity" decreed ab initio, and could not be altered. The two last opinions of necessity and chance were, it seems, of greater note than the rest.

[6657] "Sunt qui in Fortunae jam casibus omnia ponunt, Et mundum credunt nullo rectore moveri, Natura, volvente vices," &c.

For the first of chance, as [6658]Sallust likewise informeth us, those old Romans generally received; "They supposed fortune alone gave kingdoms and empires, wealth, honours, offices: and that for two causes; first, because every wicked base unworthy wretch was preferred, rich, potent, &c.; secondly, because of their uncertainty, though never so good, scarce any one enjoyed them long: but after, they began upon better advice to think otherwise, that every man made his own fortune." The last of Necessity was Seneca's tenet, that God was alligatus causis secundis, so tied to second causes, to that inexorable Necessity, that he could alter nothing of that which was once decreed; sic erat in fatis, it cannot be altered, semel jussit, semper paret Deus, nulla vis rumpit, nullae preces, nec ipsum fulmen, God hath once said it, and it must for ever stand good, no prayers, no threats, nor power, nor thunder itself can alter it. Zeno, Chrysippus, and those other Stoics, as you may read in Tully 2. de divinatione, Gellius, lib. 6. cap. 2. &c., maintained as much. In all ages, there have been such, that either deny God in all, or in part; some deride him, they could have made a better world, and ruled it more orderly themselves, blaspheme him, derogate at their pleasure from him. 'Twas so in [6659]Plato's time, "Some say there be no gods, others that they care not for men, a middle sort grant both." Si non sit Deus, unde mala? si sit Deus, unde mala? So Cotta argues in Tully, why made he not all good, or at least tenders not the welfare of such as are good? As the woman told Alexander, if he be not at leisure to hear causes, and redress them, why doth he reign? [6660]Sextus Empericus hath many such arguments. Thus perverse men cavil. So it will ever be, some of all sorts, good, bad, indifferent, true, false, zealous, ambidexters, neutralists, lukewarm, libertines, atheists, &c. They will see these religious sectaries agree amongst themselves, be reconciled all, before they will participate with, or believe any: they think in the meantime (which [6661]Celsus objects, and whom Origen confutes), "We Christians adore a person put to [6662]death with no more reason than the barbarous Getes worshipped Zamolxis, the Cilicians Mopsus, the Thebans Amphiaraus, and the Lebadians Trophonius; one religion is as true as another, new fangled devices, all for human respects;" great-witted Aristotle's works are as much authentical to them as Scriptures, subtle Seneca's Epistles as canonical as St. Paul's, Pindarus' Odes as good as the Prophet David's Psalms, Epictetus' Enchiridion equivalent to wise Solomon's Proverbs. They do openly and boldly speak this and more, some of them, in all places and companies. [6663]"Claudius the emperor was angry with Heaven, because it thundered, and challenged Jupiter into the field; with what madness! saith Seneca; he thought Jupiter could not hurt him, but he could hurt Jupiter." Diagoras, Demonax, Epicurus, Pliny, Lucian, Lucretius,—Contemptorque Deum Mezentius, "professed atheists all" in their times: though not simple atheists neither, as Cicogna proves, lib. 1. cap. 1. they scoffed only at those Pagan gods, their plurality, base and fictitious offices. Gilbertus Cognatus labours much, and so doth Erasmus, to vindicate Lucian from scandal, and there be those that apologise for Epicurus, but all in vain; Lucian scoffs at all, Epicurus he denies all, and Lucretius his scholar defends him in it:

[6664] "Humana ante oculua foede cum vita jaceret In terris oppressa gravi cum religione, Quae caput a coeli regionibus ostendebat, Horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans," &c.

"When human kind was drench'd in superstition, With ghastly looks aloft, which frighted mortal men," &c.

He alone, like another Hercules, did vindicate the world from that monster. Uncle [6665]Pliny, lib. 2. cap. 7. nat. hist. and lib. 7. cap. 55, in express words denies the immortality of the soul. [6666]Seneca doth little less, lib. 7. epist. 55. ad Lucilium, et lib. de consol. ad Martiam, or rather more. Some Greek Commentators would put as much upon Job, that he should deny resurrection, &c., whom Pineda copiously confutes in cap. 7. Job, vers. 9. Aristotle is hardly censured of some, both divines and philosophers. St. Justin in Peraenetica ad Gentes, Greg. Nazianzen. in disput. adversus Eun., Theodoret, lib. 5. de curat. graec. affec., Origen. lib. de principiis. Pomponatius justifies in his Tract (so styled at least) De immortalitate Animae, Scaliger (who would forswear himself at any time, saith Patritius, in defence of his great master Aristotle), and Dandinus, lib. 3. de anima, acknowledge as much. Averroes oppugns all spirits and supreme powers; of late Brunus (infelix Brunus, [6667]Kepler calls him), Machiavel, Caesar Vaninus lately burned at Toulouse in France, and Pet. Aretine, have publicly maintained such atheistical paradoxes, [6668]with that Italian Boccaccio with his fable of three rings, &c., ex quo infert haud posse internosci, quae sit verior religio, Judaica, Mahometana, an Christiana, quoniam eadem signa, &c., "from which he infers, that it cannot be distinguished which is the true religion, Judaism, Mahommedanism, or Christianity," &c. [6669]Marinus Mercennus suspects Cardan for his subtleties, Campanella, and Charron's Book of Wisdom, with some other Tracts, to savour of [6670]atheism: but amongst the rest that pestilent book de tribus mundi impostoribus, quem sine horrore (inquit) non legas, et mundi Cymbalum dialogis quatuor contentum, anno 1538, auctore Peresio, Parisiis excusum, [6671]&c. And as there have been in all ages such blasphemous spirits, so there have not been wanting their patrons, protectors, disciples and adherents. Never so many atheists in Italy and Germany, saith [6672]Colerus, as in this age: the like complaint Mercennus makes in France, 50,000 in that one city of Paris. Frederic the Emperor, as [6673]Matthew Paris records licet non sit recitabile (I use his own words) is reported to have said, Tres praestigiatores, Moses, Christus, et Mahomet, uti mundo dominarentur, totum populum sibi contemporaneum se duxisse. (Henry, the Landgrave of Hesse, heard him speak it,) Si principes imperii institutioni meae adhaererent, ego multo meliorem modum credendi et vivendi ordinarem.

To these professed atheists, we may well add that impious and carnal crew of worldly-minded men, impenitent sinners, that go to hell in a lethargy, or in a dream; who though they be professed Christians, yet they will nulla pallescere culpa, make a conscience of nothing they do, they have cauterised consciences, and are indeed in a reprobate sense, "past all feeling, have given themselves over to wantonness, to work all manner of uncleanness even with greediness," Ephes. iv. 19. They do know there is a God, a day of judgment to come, and yet for all that, as Hugo saith, ita comedunt ac dormiunt, ac si diem judicii evasissent; ita ludunt ac rident, ac si in coelis cum Deo regnarent: they are as merry for all the sorrow, as if they had escaped all dangers, and were in heaven already:

[6674] ———"Metus omnes, et inexorabile fatum Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari."

Those rude idiots and ignorant persons, that neglect and contemn the means of their salvation, may march on with these; but above all others, those Herodian temporizing statesmen, political Machiavellians and hypocrites, that make a show of religion, but in their hearts laugh at it. Simulata sanctitas duplex iniquitas; they are in a double fault, "that fashion themselves to this world," which [6675]Paul forbids, and like Mercury, the planet, are good with good, bad with bad. When they are at Rome, they do there as they see done, puritans with puritans, papists with papists; omnium horarum homines, formalists, ambidexters, lukewarm Laodiceans. [6676]All their study is to please, and their god is their commodity, their labour to satisfy their lusts, and their endeavours to their own ends. Whatsoever they pretend, or in public seem to do, [6677]"With the fool in their hearts, they say there is no God." Heus tu—de Jove quid sentis? "Hulloa! what is your opinion about a Jupiter?" Their words are as soft as oil, but bitterness is in their hearts; like [6678]Alexander VI. so cunning dissemblers, that what they think they never speak. Many of them are so close, you can hardly discern it, or take any just exceptions at them; they are not factious, oppressors as most are, no bribers, no simoniacal contractors, no such ambitious, lascivious persons as some others are, no drunkards, sobrii solem vident orientem, sobrii vident occidentem, they rise sober, and go sober to bed, plain dealing, upright, honest men, they do wrong to no man, and are so reputed in the world's esteem at least, very zealous in religion, very charitable, meek, humble, peace-makers, keep all duties, very devout, honest, well spoken of, beloved of all men: but he that knows better how to judge, he that examines the heart, saith they are hypocrites, Cor dolo plenum; sonant vitium percussa maligne, they are not sound within. As it is with writers [6679]oftentimes, Plus sanctimoniae, in libello, quam libelli auctore, more holiness is in the book than in the author of it: so 'tis with them: many come to church with great Bibles, whom Cardan said he could not choose but laugh at, and will now and then dare operam Augustino, read Austin, frequent sermons, and yet professed usurers, mere gripes, tota vitae ratio epicurea est; all their life is epicurism and atheism, come to church all day, and lie with a courtesan at night. Qui curios simulant et Bacchanalia vivunt, they have Esau's hands, and Jacob's voice: yea, and many of those holy friars, sanctified men, Cappam, saith Hierom, et cilicium induunt, sed intus latronem tegunt. They are wolves in sheep's clothing, Introrsum turpes, speciosi pelle decora, "Fair without, and most foul within." [6680]Latet plerumque sub tristi amictu lascivia, et deformis horror vili veste tegitur; ofttimes under a mourning weed lies lust itself, and horrible vices under a poor coat. But who can examine all those kinds of hypocrites, or dive into their hearts? ]f we may guess at the tree by the fruit, never so many as in these days; show me a plain-dealing true honest man: Et pudor, et probitas, et timor omnis abest. He that shall but look into their lives, and see such enormous vices, men so immoderate in lust, unspeakable in malice, furious in their rage, flattering and dissembling (all for their own ends) will surely think they are not truly religious, but of an obdurate heart, most part in a reprobate sense, as in this age. But let them carry it as they will for the present, dissemble as they can, a time will come when they shall be called to an account, their melancholy is at hand, they pull a plague and curse upon their own heads, thesaurisant iram Dei. Besides all such as are in deos contumeliosi, blaspheme, contemn, neglect God, or scoff at him, as the poets feign of Salmoneus, that would in derision imitate Jupiter's thunder, he was precipitated for his pains, Jupiter intonuit contra, &c. so shall they certainly rue it in the end, ([6681]in se spuit, qui in coelum spuit), their doom's at hand, and hell is ready to receive them.

Some are of opinion, that it is in vain to dispute with such atheistical spirits in the meantime, 'tis not the best way to reclaim them. Atheism, idolatry, heresy, hypocrisy, though they have one common root, that is indulgence to corrupt affection, yet their growth is different, they have divers symptoms, occasions, and must have several cures and remedies. 'Tis true some deny there is any God, some confess, yet believe it not; a third sort confess and believe, but will not live after his laws, worship and obey him: others allow God and gods subordinate, but not one God, no such general God, non talem deum, but several topic gods for several places, and those not to persecute one another for any difference, as Socinus will, but rather love and cherish.

To describe them in particular, to produce their arguments and reasons, would require a just volume, I refer them therefore that expect a more ample satisfaction, to those subtle and elaborate treatises, devout and famous tracts of our learned divines (schoolmen amongst the rest, and casuists) that have abundance of reasons to prove there is a God, the immortality of the soul, &c., out of the strength of wit and philosophy bring irrefragable arguments to such as are ingenuous and well disposed; at the least, answer all cavils and objections to confute their folly and madness, and to reduce them, si fieri posset, ad sanam mentem, to a better mind, though to small purpose many times. Amongst others consult with Julius Caesar Lagalla, professor of philosophy in Rome, who hath written a large volume of late to confute atheists: of the immortality of the soul, Hierom. Montanus de immortalitate Animae: Lelius Vincentius of the same subject: Thomas Giaminus, and Franciscus Collius de Paganorum animabus post mortem, a famous doctor of the Ambrosian College in Milan. Bishop Fotherby in his Atheomastix, Doctor Dove, Doctor Jackson, Abernethy, Corderoy, have written well of this subject in our mother tongue: in Latin, Colerus, Zanchius, Palearius, Illyricus, [6682]Philippus, Faber Faventinus, &c. But instar omnium, the most copious confuter of atheists is Marinus Mercennus in his Commentaries on Genesis: [6683]with Campanella's Atheismus Triumphatus. He sets down at large the causes of this brutish passion, (seventeen in number I take it) answers all their arguments and sophisms, which he reduceth to twenty-six heads, proving withal his own assertion; "There is a God, such a God, the true and sole God," by thirty-five reasons. His Colophon is how to resist and repress atheism, and to that purpose he adds four especial means or ways, which who so will may profitably peruse.

SUBSECT. II.—Despair. Despairs, Equivocations, Definitions, Parties and Parts affected.

There be many kinds of desperation, whereof some be holy, some unholy, as [6684]one distinguisheth; that unholy he defines out of Tully to be Aegritudinem animi sine ulla rerum expectatione meliore, a sickness of the soul without any hope or expectation of amendment; which commonly succeeds fear; for whilst evil is expected, we fear: but when it is certain, we despair. According to Thomas 2. 2ae. distinct. 40. art. 4. it is Recessus a re desiderata, propter impossibilitatem existimatam, a restraint from the thing desired, for some impossibility supposed. Because they cannot obtain what they would, they become desperate, and many times either yield to the passion by death itself, or else attempt impossibilities, not to be performed by men. In some cases, this desperate humour is not much to be discommended, as in wars it is a cause many times of extraordinary valour; as Joseph, lib. 1. de bello Jud. cap. 14. L. Danaeus in Aphoris. polit. pag. 226. and many politicians hold. It makes them improve their worth beyond itself, and of a forlorn impotent company become conquerors in a moment. Una salus victis nullam sperare salutem, "the only hope for the conquered is despair." In such courses when they see no remedy, but that they must either kill or be killed, they take courage, and oftentimes, praeter spem, beyond all hope vindicate themselves. Fifteen thousand Locrenses fought against a hundred thousand Crotonienses, and seeing now no way but one, they must all die, [6685]thought they would not depart unrevenged, and thereupon desperately giving an assault, conquered their enemies. Nec alia causa victoriae, (saith Justin mine author) quam quod desperaverant. William the Conqueror, when he first landed in England, sent back his ships, that his soldiers might have no hope of retiring back. [6686]Bodine excuseth his countrymen's overthrow at that famous battle at Agincourt, in Henry the Fifth his time, (cui simile, saith Froissard, tota historia producere non possit, which no history can parallel almost, wherein one handful of Englishmen overthrew a royal army of Frenchmen) with this refuge of despair, pauci desperati, a few desperate fellows being compassed in by their enemies, past all hope of life, fought like so many devils; and gives a caution, that no soldiers hereafter set upon desperate persons, which [6687]after Frontinus and Vigetius, Guicciardini likewise admonisheth, Hypomnes. part. 2. pag. 25. not to stop an enemy that is going his way. Many such kinds there are of desperation, when men are past hope of obtaining any suit, or in despair of better fortune; Desperatio facit monachum, as the saying is, and desperation causeth death itself; how many thousands in such distress have made away themselves, and many others? For he that cares not for his own, is master of another man's life. A Tuscan soothsayer, as [6688]Paterculus tells the story, perceiving himself and Fulvius Flaccus his dear friend, now both carried to prison by Opimius, and in despair of pardon, seeing the young man weep, quin tu potius hoc inquit facis, do as I do; and with that knocked out his brains against the door-cheek, as he was entering into prison, protinusque illiso capite in capite in carceris januam effuso cerebro expiravit, and so desperate died. But these are equivocal, improper. "When I speak of despair," saith [6689]Zanchie, "I speak not of every kind, but of that alone which concerns God. It is opposite to hope, and a most pernicious sin, wherewith the devil seeks to entrap men." Musculus makes four kinds of desperation, of God, ourselves, our neighbour, or anything to be done; but this division of his may be reduced easily to the former: all kinds are opposite to hope, that sweet moderator of passions, as Simonides calls it; I do not mean that vain hope which fantastical fellows feign to themselves, which according to Aristotle is insomnium vigilantium, a waking dream; but this divine hope which proceeds from confidence, and is an anchor to a floating soul; spes alit agricolas, even in our temporal affairs, hope revives us, but in spiritual it farther animateth; and were it not for hope, "we of all others were the most miserable," as Paul saith, in this life; were it not for hope, the heart would break; "for though they be punished in the sight of men," (Wisdom iii. 4.) yet is "their hope full of immortality:" yet doth it not so rear, as despair doth deject; this violent and sour passion of despair, is of all perturbations most grievous, as [6690]Patritius holds. Some divide it into final and temporal; [6691]final is incurable, which befalleth reprobates; temporal is a rejection of hope and comfort for a time, which may befall the best of God's children, and it commonly proceeds [6692]"from weakness of faith," as in David when he was oppressed he cried out, "O Lord, thou hast forsaken me," but this for a time. This ebbs and flows with hope and fear; it is a grievous sin howsoever: although some kind of despair be not amiss, when, saith Zanchius, we despair of our own means, and rely wholly upon God: but that species is not here meant. This pernicious kind of desperation is the subject of our discourse, homicida animae, the murderer of the soul, as Austin terms it, a fearful passion, wherein the party oppressed thinks he can get no ease but by death, and is fully resolved to offer violence unto himself; so sensible of his burthen, and impatient of his cross, that he hopes by death alone to be freed of his calamity (though it prove otherwise), and chooseth with Job vi. 8. 9. xvii. 5. "Rather to be strangled and die, than to be in his bonds." [6693]The part affected is the whole soul, and all the faculties of it; there is a privation of joy, hope, trust, confidence, of present and future good, and in their place succeed fear, sorrow, &c. as in the symptoms shall be shown. The heart is grieved, the conscience wounded, the mind eclipsed with black fumes arising from those perpetual terrors.

SUBSECT. III.—Causes of Despair, the Devil, Melancholy, Meditation, Distrust, Weakness of Faith, Rigid Ministers, Misunderstanding Scriptures, Guilty Consciences, &c.

The principal agent and procurer of this mischief is the devil; those whom God forsakes, the devil by his permission lays hold on. Sometimes he persecutes them with that worm of conscience, as he did Judas, [6694]Saul, and others. The poets call it Nemesis, but it is indeed God's just judgment, sero sed serio, he strikes home at last, and setteth upon them "as a thief in the night," 1 Thes. ii. [6695]This temporary passion made David cry out, "Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thine heavy displeasure; for thine arrows have light upon me, &c. there is nothing sound in my flesh, because of thine anger." Again, I roar for the very grief of my heart: and Psalm xxii. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, and art so far from my health, and the words of my crying? I am like to water poured out, my bones are out of joint, mine heart is like wax, that is molten in the midst of my bowels." So Psalm lxxxviii. 15 and 16 vers. and Psalm cii. "I am in misery at the point of death, from my youth I suffer thy terrors, doubting for my life; thine indignations have gone over me, and thy fear hath cut me off." Job doth often complain in this kind; and those God doth not assist, the devil is ready to try and torment, "still seeking whom he may devour." If he find them merry, saith Gregory, "he tempts them forthwith to some dissolute act; if pensive and sad, to a desperate end." Aut suadendo blanditur, aut minando terret, sometimes by fair means, sometimes again by foul, as he perceives men severally inclined. His ordinary engine by which he produceth this effect, is the melancholy humour itself, which is balneum diaboli, the devil's bath; and as in Saul, those evil spirits get in [6696]as it were, and take possession of us. Black choler is a shoeing-horn, a bait to allure them, insomuch that many writers make melancholy an ordinary cause, and a symptom of despair, for that such men are most apt, by reason of their ill-disposed temper, to distrust, fear, grief, mistake, and amplify whatsoever they preposterously conceive, or falsely apprehend. Conscientia scrupulosa nascitur ex vitio naturali, complexione melancholica (saith Navarrus cap. 27. num. 282. tom. 2. cas. conscien.) The body works upon the mind, by obfuscating the spirits and corrupted instruments, which [6697]Perkins illustrates by simile of an artificer, that hath a bad tool, his skill is good, ability correspondent, by reason of ill tools his work must needs be lame and imperfect. But melancholy and despair, though often, do not always concur; there is much difference: melancholy fears without a cause, this upon great occasion; melancholy is caused by fear and grief, but this torment procures them and all extremity of bitterness; much melancholy is without affliction of conscience, as [6698]Bright and Perkins illustrate by four reasons; and yet melancholy alone may be sometimes a sufficient cause of this terror of conscience. [6699]Felix Plater so found it in his observations, e melancholicis alii damnatos se putant, Deo curae, non sunt, nec praedestinati, &c. "They think they are not predestinate, God hath forsaken them;" and yet otherwise very zealous and religious; and 'tis common to be seen, "melancholy for fear of God's judgment and hell-fire, drives men to desperation; fear and sorrow, if they be immoderate, end often with it." Intolerable pain and anguish, long sickness, captivity, misery, loss of goods, loss of friends, and those lesser griefs, do sometimes effect it, or such dismal accidents. Si non statim relevantur, [6700]Mercennus, dubitant an sit Deus, if they be not eased forthwith, they doubt whether there be any God, they rave, curse, "and are desperately mad because good men are oppressed, wicked men flourish, they have not as they think to their desert," and through impatience of calamities are so misaffected. Democritus put out his eyes, ne malorum civium prosperos videret successus, because he could not abide to see wicked men prosper, and was therefore ready to make away himself, as [6701]Agellius writes of him. Felix Plater hath a memorable example in this kind, of a painter's wife in Basil, that was melancholy for her son's death, and for melancholy became desperate; she thought God would not pardon her sins, [6702]"and for four months still raved, that she was in hell-fire, already damned." When the humour is stirred up, every small object aggravates and incenseth it, as the parties are addicted. [6703]The same author hath an example of a merchant man, that for the loss of a little wheat, which he had over long kept, was troubled in conscience, for that he had not sold it sooner, or given it to the poor, yet a good scholar and a great divine; no persuasion would serve to the contrary, but that for this fact he was damned: in other matters Very judicious and discreet. Solitariness, much fasting, divine meditation, and contemplations of God's judgments, most part accompany this melancholy, and are main causes, as [6704]Navarrus holds; to converse with such kinds of persons so troubled, is sufficient occasion of trouble to some men. Nonnulli ob longas inedias, studia et meditationes coelestes, de rebus sacris et religione semper agitant, &c. Many, (saith P. Forestus) through long fasting, serious meditations of heavenly things, fall into such fits; and as Lemnius adds, lib. 4. cap. 21, [6705]"If they be solitary given, superstitious, precise, or very devout: seldom shall you find a merchant, a soldier, an innkeeper, a bawd, a host, a usurer, so troubled in mind, they have cheverel consciences that will stretch, they are seldom moved in this kind or molested: young men and middle age are more wild and less apprehensive; but old folks, most part, such as are timorous and religiously given." Pet. Forestus observat. lib. 10. cap. 12. de morbis cerebri, hath a fearful example of a minister, that through precise fasting in Lent, and overmuch meditation, contracted this mischief, and in the end became desperate, thought he saw devils in his chamber, and that he could not be saved; he smelled nothing, as he said, but fire and brimstone, was already in hell, and would ask them, still, if they did not [6706]smell as much. I told him he was melancholy, but he laughed me to scorn, and replied that he saw devils, talked with them in good earnest, Would spit in my face, and ask me if 1 did not smell brimstone, but at last he was by him cured. Such another story I find in Plater observat. lib. 1. A poor fellow had done some foul offence, and for fourteen days would eat no meat, in the end became desperate, the divines about him could not ease him, [6707]but so he died. Continual meditation of God's judgments troubles many, Multi ob timorem futuri judicii, saith Guatinerius cap. 5. tract. 15. et suspicionem desperabundi sunt. David himself complains that God's judgments terrified his soul, Psalm cxix. part. 16. vers. 8. "My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments." Quoties diem illum cogito (saith [6708]Hierome) toto corpore contremisco, I tremble as often as I think of it. The terrible meditation of hell-fire and eternal punishment much torments a sinful silly soul. What's a thousand years to eternity? Ubi moeror, ubi fletus, ubi dolor sempiternus. Mors sine morte, finis sine fine; a finger burnt by chance we may not endure, the pain is so grievous, we may not abide an hour, a night is intolerable; and what shall this unspeakable fire then be that burns for ever, innumerable infinite millions of years, in omne aevum in aeternum. O eternity!

[6709] "Aeternitas est illa vox, Vox illa fulminatrix, Tonitruis minacior, Fragoribusque coeli, Aeternitas est illa vox, —meta carens et orta, &c. Tormenta nulla territant, Quae finiuntur annis; Aeternitas, aeternitas Versat coquilque pectus. Auget haec poenas indies, Centuplicatque flammas," &c.

This meditation terrifies these poor distressed souls, especially if their bodies be predisposed by melancholy, they religiously given, and have tender consciences, every small object affrights them, the very inconsiderate reading of Scripture itself, and misinterpretation of some places of it; as, "Many are called, few are chosen. Not every one that saith Lord. Fear not little flock. He that stands, let him take heed lest he fall. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, That night two shall be in a bed, one received, the other left. Strait is the way that leads to heaven, and few there are that enter therein." The parable of the seed and of the sower, "some fell on barren ground, some was choked. Whom he hath predestinated he hath chosen. He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy." Non est volentis nec currentis, sed miserentis Dei. These and the like places terrify the souls of many; election, predestination, reprobation, preposterously conceived, offend divers, with a deal of foolish presumption, curiosity, needless speculation, contemplation, solicitude, wherein they trouble and puzzle themselves about those questions of grace, free will, perseverance, God's secrets; they will know more than is revealed of God in his word, human capacity, or ignorance can apprehend, and too importunate inquiry after that which is revealed; mysteries, ceremonies, observation of Sabbaths, laws, duties, &c., with many such which the casuists discuss, and schoolmen broach, which divers mistake, misconstrue, misapply to themselves, to their own undoing, and so fall into this gulf. "They doubt of their election, how they shall know, it, by what signs. And so far forth," saith Luther, "with such nice points, torture and crucify themselves, that they are almost mad, and all they get by it is this, they lay open a gap to the devil by desperation to carry them to hell;" but the greatest harm of all proceeds from those thundering ministers, a most frequent cause they are of this malady: [6710]"and do more harm in the church" (saith Erasmus) "than they that flatter; great danger on both sides, the one lulls them asleep in carnal security, the other drives them to despair." Whereas, [6711]St. Bernard well adviseth, "We should not meddle with the one without the other, nor speak of judgment without mercy; the one alone brings desperation, the other security." But these men are wholly for judgment; of a rigid disposition themselves, there is no mercy with them, no salvation, no balsam for their diseased souls, they can speak of nothing but reprobation, hell-fire, and damnation; as they did Luke xi. 46. lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, which they themselves touch not with a finger. 'Tis familiar with our papists to terrify men's souls with purgatory, tales, visions, apparitions, to daunt even the most generous spirits, "to [6712]require charity," as Brentius observes, "of others, bounty, meekness, love, patience, when they themselves breathe nought but lust, envy, covetousness." They teach others to fast, give alms, do penance, and crucify their mind with superstitious observations, bread and water, hair clothes, whips, and the like, when they themselves have all the dainties the world can afford, lie on a down-bed with a courtesan in their arms: Heu quantum patimur pro Christo, as [6713]he said, what a cruel tyranny is this, so to insult over and terrify men's souls! Our indiscreet pastors many of them come not far behind, whilst in their ordinary sermons they speak so much of election, predestination, reprobation, ab aeterno, subtraction of grace, preterition, voluntary permission, &c., by what signs and tokens they shall discern and try themselves, whether they be God's true children elect, an sint reprobi, praedestinati, &c., with such scrupulous points, they still aggravate sin, thunder out God's judgments without respect, intempestively rail at and pronounce them damned in all auditories, for giving so much to sports and honest recreations, making every small fault and thing indifferent an irremissible offence, they so rent, tear and wound men's consciences, that they are almost mad, and at their wits' end.

"These bitter potions" (saith [6714]Erasmus) "are still in their mouths, nothing but gall and horror, and a mad noise, they make all their auditors desperate:" many are wounded by this means, and they commonly that are most devout and precise, have been formerly presumptuous, and certain of their salvation; they that have tender consciences, that follow sermons, frequent lectures, that have indeed least cause, they are most apt to mistake, and fall into these miseries. I have heard some complain of Parson's Resolution, and other books of like nature (good otherwise), they are too tragical, too much dejecting men, aggravating offences: great care and choice, much discretion is required in this kind.

The last and greatest cause of this malady, is our own conscience, sense of our sins, and God's anger justly deserved, a guilty conscience for some foul offence formerly committed,—[6715]O miser Oreste, quid morbi te perdit? Or: Conscientia, Sum enim mihi conscius de malis perpetratis.[6716]