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IV.

FRANCIS BACON.

(1561-1626.)

1. THE ESSAYES OR COUNSELS, CIVILL AND MORALL, OF FRANCIS LO. VERULAM, VISCOUNT ST. ALBAN.

OF RELIGION. (1612.)

ENLARGED AND TITLE CHANGED TO

OF UNITY IN RELIGION. (1625.)

1. Of Religion.

THE quarrels and divisions for Religion were evils unknowne to the Heathen and no marvell; for it is the true God that is the jealous God; and the gods of the Heathen were good fellowes. But yet the bonds of religious unity are so to be strengthened, as the bonds of humane society be not dissolved.

Lucretius the Poet, when hee beheld the act of Agamemnon, induring and assisting at the sacrifice of his daughter, concludes with this verse:

Tantum relligio potuit suadere malorum.1

But what would hee have done, if he had knowne the massacre of France, or the powder treason of England?3 Certainly he would have been seven times more Epicure and Atheist then he was. Nay, hee would rather have chosen to be one of the Mad men of Munster, then to have beene a partaker of those Counsels. For it is better that Religion should deface mens understanding, then their piety and charitie; retaining reason onely but as an Engine and Charriot driver of cruelty and malice.

1 To such evils could Religion induce men.-LUCRETIUS, De rerum Natura, I. 102. 3 November 5, 1605.

2

3 August 24, 1572.

It was a great blasphemie, when the Divell said; I will ascend, and be like the highest: 20 but it is a greater blasphemie, if they make God to say; I will descend, and bee like the Prince of Darknesse and it is no better, when they make the cause of Religion descend to the execrable accions of murthering of Princes, butchery of people, and firing of States. Neither is there such a sinne against the person of the holy Ghost, (if one should take it literally) as in stead of the likenes of a Dove, to bring him downe in the likenesse of a Vulture, or Raven; nor such a scandall to their Church, as out of the Barke of Saint Peter, to set forth the flagge of a Barge of Pirats and Assassins. Therefore since these things are the common enemies of humane society; Princes by their power; Churches by their Decrees; and all learning, Christian, morall, of what soever sect, or opinion, by their Mercurie rod; ought to joyne in the damning to Hell for ever these facts and their supports and in all Counsels concerning religion, that Counsell of the Apostle would be prefixed, Ira hominis non implet justitiam Dei.

2. Of Unity in Religion.

Religion being the chiefe Band of humane Society, it is a happy thing when it selfe is well contained within the true Band of Unity. The Quarrels and Divisions about Religion were Evils unknowne to the Heathen. The Reason was because the Religion of the Heathen consisted rather in Rites and Ceremonies then in any constant Beleefe. For you may imagine what kinde of Faith theirs was, when the chiefe Doctors and Fathers of their Church were the Poets. But the true God hath this Attribute, That he is a Jealous God; And therefore, his worship and Religion will endure no Mixture, nor Partner.

We shall therefore speake a few words concerning the Unity of the Church; What are the Fruits thereof; what the Bounds; And what the Meanes?

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'The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God?

6

The Fruits of Unity (next unto the well Pleasing of God, which is All in All) are two; the One, towards those that are without the Church; the Other, towards those that are within. For the Former; It is certaine that Heresies and Schismes are of all others, the greatest Scandals; yea more then Corruption of Manners. For as in the Naturall Body, a wound or Solution of Continuity is worse than a Corrupt Humor; So in the Spirituall. So that nothing doth so much keepe Men out of the Church, and drive Men out of the Church, as Breach of Unity; And therefore, whensoever it commeth to that passe that one saith, Ecce in Deserto; Another saith, Ecce in penetralibus; That is, when some Men seeke Christ in the Conventicles of Heretikes, and others in an Outward Face of a Church, that voice had need continually to sound in Mens Eares, Nolite exire, Goe not out. The Doctor of the Gentiles (the Propriety of whose Vocation drew him to have a special care of those without) saith; If an Heathen come in, and heare you speake with severall Tongues, Will he not say that you are mad? And certainly it is little better when Atheists and prophane Persons do heare of so many Discordant and Contrary Opinions in Religion; It doth avert them from the Church, and maketh them, To sit downe in the chaire of the Scorners. It is but a light Thing to be Vouched in so Serious a Matter, but yet it expresseth well the Deformity. There is a Master of Scoffing; that in his Catalogue of Books, of a faigned Library, sets Downe this Title of a Booke; The morris daunce of Heretikes. For indeed, every Sect of them hath a Divers Posture, or Cringe by themselves, which cannot but Move Derision in Worldlings, and Depraved Politickes, who are apt to contemne Holy Things.

5 Common expression in Elizabethan English.

6 Matt. xxiv. 26 (Vulgate): Behold he is in the desert'; 'Behold he is in the secret chambers.

7 1 Cor. xiv. 23.

8 Ps. i. 1.

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-ARBER. See

La Morisque des hereticques. RABELAIS, Pantagruel, II. 7. Douce's Illustrations of Shakespeare, Dissertation III. pp. 576 ff., for full de

As for the Fruit towards those that are within; It is Peace; which containeth infinite Blessings: It establisheth Faith; It kindleth Charity; The outward Peace of the Church Distilleth into Peace of Conscience; And it turneth the Labours of Writing and Reading of Controversies into Treaties of Mortification and Devotion.

Concerning the Bounds of Unity; The true Placing of them importeth exceedingly. There appeare to be two extremes. For to certaine Zelants "all Speech of Pacification is odious. Is it peace, Fehu? What hast thou to doe with peace? turne thee behinde me.12 Peace is not the Matter, but Following and Party. Contrariwise, certaine Laodiceans, and Luke-warme Persons, thinke they may accommodate Points of Religion by Middle-Waies and taking part of both; And witty Reconcilements; As if they would make an Arbitrement betweene God and Man. Both these Extremes are to be avoyded; which will be done, if the League of Christians, penned by our Saviour himselfe, were in the two crosse Clauses thereof soundly and plainly expounded; He that is not with us, is against us: 13 And againe; He that is not against us, is with us: 14 That is, if the Points Fundamentall and of Substance in Religion were truly discerned and distinguished from Points not meerely of Faith, but of Opinion, Order, or good Intention. This is a Thing may seeme to Many a Matter triviall, and done already : But if it were done lesse partially, it would be embraced more generally.

Of this I may give onely this Advice, according to my small Modell. Men ought to take heede of rending God's Church by two kinds of Controversies. The one is, when the Matter of the Point controverted is too small and light, not worth the Heat and Strife about it kindled onely by Contradiction. For, as it is noted by one of the Fathers; Christs Coat, indeed, had no seame: But

scription of the Morris-dance. See also Hone's Ancient Mysteries Described, p. 268, for plate of a Fool's Morris Dance, etched by Cruikshank.

10 is of great importance.

13 Matt. xii. 30.

11 zealots.
14 Mark ix. 40.

12 2 Kings ix. 18.

the Churches Vesture was of divers colours; 15 whereupon he saith, In veste varietas sit, Scissura non sit; 16 They be two Things, Unity and Uniformity. The other is, when the Matter of the Point Controverted is great; but it is driven to an over-great Subtility and Obscurity; So that it becommeth a Thing rather Ingenious than Substantiall. A man that is of Judgement and understanding shall sometimes heare Ignorant Men differ, and know well within himselfe that those which so differ meane one thing, and yet they themselves would never agree. And if it come so to passe in that distance of Judgement, which is betweene Man and Man; Shall wee not thinke that God above, that knowes the Heart, doth not discerne that fraile Men, in some of their Contradictions, intend the same thing, and accepteth of both? The Nature of such Controversies is excellently expressed by St. Paul in the Warning and Precept that he giveth concerning the same, Devita profanas vocum Novitates, et Oppositiones falsi Nominis Scientiæ. Men create Oppositions, which are not; And put them into new termes, so fixed as whereas the Meaning ought to govern the Terme, the Terme in effect governeth the Meaning. There be also two false Peaces, or Unities; The one, when the Peace is grounded but upon an implicite ignorance; For all Colours will agree in the Darke: The other, when it is peeced up upon a direct Admission of Contraries in Fundamentall Points. For Truth and Falshood, in such things, are like the Iron and Clay, in the toes of Nabucadnezars Image; 18 They may Cleave, but they will not Incorporate.

Concerning the Meanes of procuring Unity; Men must beware that in the Procuring, or Muniting, of Religious Unity, they doe not

15 The allusion is to Ps. xlv. 14, where, instead of 'in raiment of needlework,' the Vulgate has circumamicta varietatibus, 'enveloped with varieties.' - ARBER.

16 In raiment let there be variety, but not rents. ST. BERNARD, Ad Guillelum Abbatem Apologia, pp. 983, 4, ed. 1640. — Arber,

17 1 Tim. vi. 20: 'Avoid profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so-called!

18 Dan. ii. 33.

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