The Anatomy of Melancholy Part 82

lib. 2. polit._ Captain Machiavel will have a prince by all means to counterfeit religion, to be superst.i.tious in show at least, to seem to be devout, frequent holy exercises, honour divines, love the church, affect priests, as Numa, Lycurgus, and such lawmakers were and did, _non ut his fidem habeant, sed ut subditos religionis metu facilius in officio contineant_, to keep people in obedience. [6390]_Nam naturaliter_ (as Cardan writes) _lex Christiana lex est pietatis, just.i.tiae, fidei, simplicitatis_, &c. But this error of his, Innocentius Jentilettus, a French lawyer, _theorem. 9. comment. 1. de Relig_, and Thomas Bozius in his book _de ruinis gentium et Regnorum_ have copiously confuted. Many politicians, I dare not deny, maintain religion as a true means, and sincerely speak of it without hypocrisy, are truly zealous and religious themselves. Justice and religion are the two chief props and supporters of a well-governed commonwealth: but most of them are but Machiavellians, counterfeits only for political ends; for _solus rex_ (which Campanella, _cap. 18. atheismi triumphali_ observes), as amongst our modern Turks, _reipub. Finis_, as knowing [6391]_magnus ejus in animos imperium_; and that, as [6392]Sabellicus delivers, "A man without religion, is like a horse without a bridle." No way better to curb than superst.i.tion, to terrify men's consciences, and to keep them in awe: they make new laws, statutes, invent new religions, ceremonies, as so many stalking horses, to their ends. [6393]_Haec enim (religio) si falsa sit, dummodo vera credatur, animorum ferociam domat, libidines coercet, subditos principi obsequentes efficit._ [6394]Therefore (saith [6395]Polybius of Lycurgus), "did he maintain ceremonies, not that he was superst.i.tious himself, but that he had perceived mortal men more apt to embrace paradoxes than aught else, and durst attempt no evil things for fear of the G.o.ds." This was Zamolcus's stratagem amongst the Thracians, Numa's plot, when he said he had conference with the nymph Aegeria, and that of Sertorius with a hart; to get more credit to their decrees, by deriving them from the G.o.ds; or else they did all by divine instinct, which Nicholas Damascen well observes of Lycurgus, Solon, and Minos, they had their laws dictated, _monte sacro_, by Jupiter himself. So Mahomet referred his new laws to the [6396]angel Gabriel, by whose direction he gave out they were made. Caligula in Dion feigned himself to be familiar with Castor and Pollux, and many such, which kept those Romans under (who, as Machiavel proves, _lib. 1. disput. cap.

11. et 12._ were _Religione maxime moti_, most superst.i.tious): and did curb the people more by this means, than by force of arms, or severity of human laws. _Sola plebecula eam agnoscebat_ (saith Vaninus, _dial. 1. lib. 4. de admirandis naturae arcanis_) speaking of religion, _que facile decipitur, magnates vero et philosophi nequaquam_, your grandees and philosophers had no such conceit, _sed ad imperii conformationem et amplificationem quam sine praetextu religionis tueri non poterant_; and many thousands in all ages have ever held as much, Philosophers especially, _animadvertebant hi semper haec esse fabellas, attamen ob metum publicae potestatis silere cogebantur_ they were still silent for fear of laws, &c. To this end that Syrian Phyresides, Pythagoras his master, broached in the East amongst the heathens, first the immortality of the soul, as Trismegistus did in Egypt, with a many of feigned G.o.ds. Those French and Briton Druids in the West first taught, saith [6397]Caesar, _non interire animas_ (that souls did not die), "but after death to go from one to another, that so they might encourage them to virtue." 'Twas for a politic end, and to this purpose the old [6398]poets feigned those elysian fields, their Aeacus, Minos, and Rhadamanthus, their infernal judges, and those Stygian lakes, fiery Phlegethons, Pluto's kingdom, and variety of torments after death. Those that had done well, went to the elysian fields, but evil doers to Cocytus, and to that burning lake of [6399]h.e.l.l with fire, and brimstone for ever to be tormented. 'Tis this which [6400]Plato labours for in his Phaedon, _et 9. de rep._ The Turks in their Alcoran, when they set down rewards, and several punishments for every particular virtue and vice, [6401]when they persuade men, that they that die in battle shall go directly to heaven, but wicked livers to eternal torment, and all of all sorts (much like our papistical purgatory), for a set time shall be tortured in their graves, as appears by that tract which John Baptista Alfaqui, that Mauritanian priest, now turned Christian, hath written in his confutation of the Alcoran. After a man's death two black angels, Nunquir and Nequir (so they call them) come to him to his grave and punish him for his precedent sins; if he lived well, they torture him the less; if ill, _per indesinentes cruciatus ad diem fudicii_, they incessantly punish him to the day of judgment, _Nemo viventium qui ad horum mentionem non totus horret et contremiscit_, the thought of this crucifies them all their lives long, and makes them spend their days in fasting and prayer, _ne mala haec contingant_, &c. A Tartar prince, saith Marcus Polus, _lib. 1. cap. 23._ called Senex de Montibus, the better to establish his government amongst his subjects, and to keep them in awe, found a convenient place in a pleasant valley, environed with hills, in [6402]"which he made a delicious park full of odoriferous flowers and fruits, and a palace of all worldly contents," that could possibly be devised, music, pictures, variety of meats, &c., and chose out a certain young man, whom with a [6403]soporiferous potion he so benumbed, that he perceived nothing: "and so fast asleep as he was, caused him to be conveyed into this fair garden:" where after he had lived awhile in all such pleasures a sensual man could desire, [6404]"He cast him into a sleep again, and brought him forth, that when he awaked he might tell others he had been in Paradise." The like he did for h.e.l.l, and by this means brought his people to subjection. Because heaven and h.e.l.l are mentioned in the scriptures, and to be believed necessary by Christians: so cunningly can the devil and his ministers, in imitation of true religion, counterfeit and forge the like, to circ.u.mvent and delude his superst.i.tious followers. Many such tricks and impostures are acted by politicians, in China especially, but with what effect I will discourse in the symptoms.

Next to politicians, if I may distinguish them, are some of our priests (who make religion policy), if not far beyond them, for they domineer over princes and statesmen themselves. _Carnificinam exercent_, one saith they tyrannise over men's consciences more than any other tormentors whatsoever, partly for their commodity and gain; _Religionem enim omnium abusus_ (as [6405]Postellus holds), _quaestus scilicet sacrific.u.m in causa est_: for sovereignty, credit, to maintain their state and reputation, out of ambition and avarice, which are their chief supporters: what have they not made the common people believe? Impossibilities in nature, incredible things; what devices, traditions, ceremonies, have they not invented in all ages to keep men in obedience, to enrich themselves? _Quibus quaestui sunt capti superst.i.tione animi_, as [6406]Livy saith. Those Egyptian priests of old got all the sovereignty into their hands, and knowing, as [6407]Curtius insinuates, _nulla res efficacius mult.i.tudinem regit quam superst.i.tio; melius vatibus quam ducibus parent, vana religione capti, etiam impotentes faeminae_; the common people will sooner obey priests than captains, and nothing so forcible as superst.i.tion, or better than blind zeal to rule a mult.i.tude; have so terrified and gulled them, that it is incredible to relate. All nations almost have been besotted in this kind; amongst our Britons and old Gauls the Druids; magi in Persia; philosophers in Greece; Chaldeans amongst the Oriental; Brachmanni in India; Gymnosophists in Ethiopia; the t.u.r.ditanes in Spain; Augurs in Rome, have insulted; Apollo's priests in Greece, Phaebades and Pythonissae, by their oracles and phantasms; Amphiaraus and his companions; now Mahometan and pagan priests, what can they not effect? How do they not infatuate the world? _Adeo ubique_ (as [6408]Scaliger writes of the Mahometan priests), _tum gentium tum locorum, gens ista sacrorum ministra, vulgi secat spes, ad ea quae ipsi fingunt somnia_, "so cunningly can they gull the commons in all places and countries." But above all others, that high priest of Rome, the dam of that monstrous and superst.i.tious brood, the bull-bellowing pope, which now rageth in the West, that three-headed Cerberus hath played his part. [6409]

"Whose religion at this day is mere policy, a state wholly composed of superst.i.tion and wit, and needs nothing but wit and superst.i.tion to maintain it, that useth colleges and religious houses to as good purpose as forts and castles, and doth more at this day" by a company of scribbling parasites, fiery-spirited friars, zealous anchorites, hypocritical confessors, and those praetorian soldiers, his Janissary Jesuits, and that dissociable society, as [6410]Languis terms it, _postremus diaboli conatus et saeculi excrementum_, that now stand in the fore front of the battle, will have a monopoly of, and engross all other learning, but domineer in divinity, [6411]_Excipiunt soli totius vulnera belli_, and fight alone almost (for the rest are but his dromedaries and a.s.ses), than ever he could have done by garrisons and armies. What power of prince, or penal law, be it never so strict, could enforce men to do that which for conscience' sake they will voluntarily undergo? And as to fast from all flesh, abstain from marriage, rise to their prayers at midnight, whip themselves, with stupendous fasting and penance, abandon the world, wilful poverty, perform canonical and blind obedience, to prostrate their goods, fortunes, bodies, lives, and offer up themselves at their superior's feet, at his command?

What so powerful an engine as superst.i.tion? which they right well perceiving, are of no religion at all themselves: _Primum enim_ (as Calvin rightly suspects, the tenor and practice of their life proves), _arcanae illius theologiae, quod apud eos regnat, caput est, nullum esse deum_, they hold there is no G.o.d, as Leo X. did, Hildebrand the magician, Alexander VI., Julius II., mere atheists, and which the common proverb amongst them approves, [6412]"The worst Christians of Italy are the Romans, of the Romans the priests are wildest, the lewdest priests are preferred to be cardinals, and the baddest men amongst the cardinals is chosen to be pope,"

that is an epicure, as most part the popes are, infidels and Lucianists, for so they think and believe; and what is said of Christ to be fables and impostures, of heaven and h.e.l.l, day of judgment, paradise, immortality of the soul, are all,

[6413] "Rumores vacui, verbaque inania, Et par sollicito fabula somnio."

"Dreams, toys, and old wives' tales." Yet as so many [6414]whetstones to make other tools cut, but cut not themselves, though they be of no religion at all, they will make others most devout and superst.i.tious, by promises and threats, compel, enforce from, and lead them by the nose like so many bears in a line; when as their end is not to propagate the church, advance G.o.d's kingdom, seek His glory or common good, but to enrich themselves, to enlarge their territories, to domineer and compel them to stand in awe, to live in subjection to the See of Rome. For what otherwise care they? _Si mundus vult decipi, decipiatur_, "since the world wishes to be gulled, let it be gulled," 'tis fit it should be so. And for which [6415]Austin cites Varro to maintain his Roman religion, we may better apply to them: _multa vera, quae vulgus scire non est utile; pleraque falsa, quae tamen uliter existimare populum expedit_; some things are true, some false, which for their own ends they will not have the gullish commonalty take notice of. As well may witness their intolerable covetousness, strange forgeries, fopperies, fooleries, unrighteous subtleties, impostures, illusions, new doctrines, paradoxes, traditions, false miracles, which they have still forged, to enthral, circ.u.mvent and subjugate them, to maintain their own estates. [6416]One while by bulls, pardons, indulgencies, and their doctrines of good works, that they be meritorious, hope of heaven, by that means they have so fleeced the commonalty, and spurred on this free superst.i.tious horse, that he runs himself blind, and is an a.s.s to carry burdens. They have so amplified Peter's patrimony, that from a poor bishop, he is become _Rex Regum, Dominus dominantium_, a demiG.o.d, as his canonists make him (Felinus and the rest), above G.o.d himself. And for his wealth and [6417] temporalities, is not inferior to many kings: [6418]his cardinals, princes' companions; and in every kingdom almost, abbots, priors, monks, friars, &c., and his clergy, have engrossed a [6419]third part, half, in some places all, into their hands. Three princes, electors in Germany, bishops; besides Magdeburg, Spire, Saltsburg, Breme, Bamberg, &c. In France, as Bodine _lib. de repub._ gives us to understand, their revenues are 12,300,000 livres; and of twelve parts of the revenues in France, the church possesseth seven. The Jesuits, a new sect, begun in this age, have, as [6420]Middendorpius and [6421]Pelargus reckon up, three or four hundred colleges in Europe, and more revenues than many princes. In France, as Arnoldus proves, in thirty years they have got _bis centum librarum millia annua_, 200,000_l_. I say nothing of the rest of their orders. We have had in England, as Armacha.n.u.s demonstrates, above 30,000 friars at once, and as [6422]Speed collects out of Leland and others, almost 600 religious houses, and near 200,000_l._ in revenues of the old rent belonging to them, besides images of gold, silver, plate, furniture, goods and ornaments, as [6423]Weever calculates, and esteems them at the dissolution of abbeys, worth a million of gold. How many towns in every kingdom hath superst.i.tion enriched? What a deal of money by musty relics, images, idolatry, have their ma.s.s-priests engrossed, and what sums have they sc.r.a.ped by their other tricks! Loretto in Italy, Walsingham in England, in those days. _Ubi omnia auro nitent_, "where everything shines with gold," saith Erasmus, St.

Thomas's shrine, &c., may witness. [6424]Delphos so renowned of old in Greece for Apollo's oracle, _Delos commune conciliabulum et emporium sola religions manitum_; Dodona, whose fame and wealth were sustained by religion, were not so rich, so famous. If they can get but a relic of some saint, the Virgin Mary's picture, idols or the like, that city is for ever made, it needs no other maintenance. Now if any of these their impostures or juggling tricks be controverted, or called in question: if a magnanimous or zealous Luther, an heroical Luther, as [6425]Dithmarus Calls him, dare touch the monks' bellies, all is in a combustion, all is in an uproar: Demetrius and his a.s.sociates are ready to pull him in pieces, to keep up their trades, [6426] "Great is Diana of the Ephesians:" with a mighty shout of two hours long they will roar and not be pacified.

Now for their authority, what by auricular confession, satisfaction, penance, Peter's keys, thunderings, excommunications, &c., roaring bulls, this high priest of Rome, shaking his Gorgon's head, hath so terrified the soul of many a silly man, insulted over majesty itself, and swaggered generally over all Europe for many ages, and still doth to some, holding them as yet in slavish subjection, as never tyrannising Spaniards did by their poor Negroes, or Turks by their galley-slaves. [6427]"The bishop of Rome" (saith Stapleton, a parasite of his, _de mag. Eccles. lib. 2. cap.

1._) "hath done that without arms, which those Roman emperors could never achieve with forty legions of soldiers," deposed kings, and crowned them again with his foot, made friends, and corrected at his pleasure, &c.

[6428] "'Tis a wonder," saith Machiavel, _Florentinae, his. lib. 1._ "what slavery King Henry II. endured for the death of Thomas a Beckett, what things he was enjoined by the Pope, and how he submitted himself to do that which in our times a private man would not endure," and all through superst.i.tion. [6429]Henry IV. disposed of his empire, stood barefooted with his wife at the gates of Canossus. [6430]Frederic the Emperor was trodden on by Alexander III., another held Adrian's stirrup, King John kissed the knees of Pandulphos the Pope's legate, See. What made so many thousand Christians travel from France, Britain, &c., into the Holy Land, spend such huge sums of money, go a pilgrimage so familiarly to Jerusalem, to creep and crouch, but slavish superst.i.tion? What makes them so freely venture their lives, to leave their native countries, to go seek martyrdom in the Indies, but superst.i.tion? to be a.s.sa.s.sins, to meet death, murder kings, but a false persuasion of merit, of canonical or blind obedience which they instil into them, and animate them by strange illusions, hope of being martyrs and saints: such pretty feats can the devil work by priests, and so well for their own advantage can they play their parts. And if it were not yet enough, by priests and politicians to delude mankind, and crucify the souls of men, he hath more actors in his tragedy, more irons in the fire, another scene of heretics, factious, ambitious wits, insolent spirits, schismatics, impostors, false prophets, blind guides, that out of pride, singularity, vainglory, blind zeal, cause much more madness yet, set all in an uproar by their new doctrines, paradoxes, figments, crotchets, make new divisions, subdivisions, new sects, oppose one superst.i.tion to another, one kingdom to another, commit prince and subjects, brother against brother, father against son, to the ruin and destruction of a commonwealth, to the disturbance of peace, and to make a general confusion of all estates. How did those Arians rage of old? how many did they circ.u.mvent? Those Pelagians, Manichees, &c., their names alone would make a just volume. How many silly souls have impostors still deluded, drawn away, and quite alienated from Christ! Lucian's Alexander Simon Magus, whose statue was to be seen and adored in Rome, saith Justin Martyr, _Simoni deo sancto_, &c., after his decease. [6431]Apollonius Tianeus, Cynops, Eumo, who by counterfeiting some new ceremonies and juggling tricks of that Dea Syria, by spitting fire, and the like, got an army together of 40,000 men, and did much harm: with _Eudo de stellis_, of whom Nubrigensis speaks, _lib. 1.

cap. 19._ that in King Stephen's days imitated most of Christ's miracles, fed I know not how many people in the wilderness, and built castles in the air, &c., to the seducing of mult.i.tudes of poor souls. In Franconia, 1476, a base illiterate fellow took upon him to be a prophet, and preach, John Beheim by name, a neatherd at Nicholhausen, he seduced 30,000 persons, and was taken by the commonalty to be a most holy man, come from heaven. [6432]

"Tradesmen left their shops, women their distaffs, servants ran from their masters, children from their parents, scholars left their tutors, all to hear him, some for novelty, some for zeal. He was burnt at last by the Bishop of Wartzburg, and so he and his heresy vanished together." How many such impostors, false prophets, have lived in every king's reign? what chronicles will not afford such examples? that as so many _ignes fatui_, have led men out of the way, terrified some, deluded others, that are apt to be carried about by the blast of every wind, a rude inconstant mult.i.tude, a silly company of poor souls, that follow all, and are cluttered together like so many pebbles in a tide. What prodigious follies, madness, vexations, persecutions, absurdities, impossibilities, these impostors, heretics, &c., have thrust upon the world, what strange effects shall be shown in the symptoms.

Now the means by which, or advantages the devil and his infernal ministers take, so to delude and disquiet the world with such idle ceremonies, false doctrines, superst.i.tious fopperies, are from themselves, innate fear, ignorance, simplicity, hope and fear, those two battering cannons and princ.i.p.al engines, with their objects, reward and punishment, purgatory, _Limbus Patrum_, &c. which now more than ever tyrannise; [6433]"for what province is free from atheism, superst.i.tion, idolatry, schism, heresy, impiety, their factors and followers?" thence they proceed, and from that same decayed image of G.o.d, which is yet remaining in us.

[6434] "Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque tueri Jussit."------

Our own conscience doth dictate so much unto us, we know there is a G.o.d and nature doth inform us; _Nulla gens tam barbara_ (saith Tully) _cui non insideat haec persuasio Deum esse; sed nec Scytha, nec Groecus, nec Persa, nec Hyperboreus dissentiet_ (as Maximus Tyrius the Platonist _ser. 1._ farther adds) _nec continentis nec insularum habitator_, let him dwell where he will, in what coast soever, there is no nation so barbarous that is not persuaded there is a G.o.d. It is a wonder to read of that infinite superst.i.tion amongst the Indians in this kind, of their tenets in America, _pro suo quisque libitu varias res venerabantur superst.i.tiose, plantas, animalia, montes, &c. omne quod amabant aut horrebant_ (some few places excepted as he grants, that had no G.o.d at all). So "the heavens declare the glory of G.o.d, and the firmament declares his handy work," Psalm xix. "Every creature will evince it;" _Praesentemque refert quaelibet herba deum.

Nolentes sciunt, fatentur inviti_, as the said Tyrius proceeds, will or nill, they must acknowledge it. The philosophers, Socrates, Plato, Plotinus, Pythagoras, Trismegistus, Seneca, Epictetus, those Magi, Druids, &c. went as far as they could by the light of nature; [6435]_multa praeclara, de natura Dei seripta reliquerunt_, "writ many things well of the nature of G.o.d, but they had but a confused light, a glimpse,"

[6436] "Quale per incertam lunam sub luce maligna Est iter in sylvis,"------

"as he that walks by moonshine in a wood," they groped in the dark; they had a gross knowledge, as he in Euripides, _O Deus quicquid es, sive coelum, sive terra, sive aliud quid_, and that of Aristotle, _Ens entium miserere mei._ And so of the immortality of the soul, and future happiness.

_Immortalitatem animae_ (saith Hierom) _Pythagoras somniavit, Democritus non credidit in consolalionem d.a.m.nationis suae Socrates in carcere disputavit; Indus, Persa, Cothus, &c. Philosophantur._ So some said this, some that, as they conceived themselves, which the devil perceiving, led them farther out (as [6437]Lemnius observes) and made them worship him as their G.o.d with stocks and stones, and torture themselves to their own destruction, as he thought fit himself, inspired his priests and ministers with lies and fictions to prosecute the same, which they for their own ends were as willing to undergo, taking advantage of their simplicity, fear and ignorance. For the common people are as a flock of sheep, a rude, illiterate rout, void many times of common sense, a mere beast, _bellua multorum capitum_, will go whithersoever they are led: as you lead a ram over a gap by the horns, all the rest will follow, [6438]_Non qua eundum, sed qua itur_, they will do as they see others do, and as their prince will have them, let him be of what religion he will, they are for him. Now for those idolaters, Maxentius and Licinius, then for Constantine a Christian.

[6439]_Qui Christum negant male pereant, acclamatum est Decies_, for two hours' s.p.a.ce; _qui Christum non colunt, Augusti inimici sunt, acclamatum est ter decies_; and by and by idolaters again under that Apostate Julia.n.u.s; all Arians under Constantius, good Catholics again under Jovinia.n.u.s, "And little difference there is between the discretion of men and children in this case, especially of old folks and women," as [6440]

Cardan discourseth, "when, as they are tossed with fear and superst.i.tion, and with other men's folly and dishonesty." So that I may say their ignorance is a cause of their superst.i.tion, a symptom, and madness itself: _Supplicii causa est, sappliciumque sui._ Their own fear, folly, stupidity, to be deplored lethargy, is that which gives occasion to the other, and pulls these miseries on their own heads. For in all these religions and superst.i.tions, amongst our idolaters, you shall find that the parties first affected, are silly, rude, ignorant people, old folks, that are naturally p.r.o.ne to superst.i.tion, weak women, or some poor, rude, illiterate persons, that are apt to be wrought upon, and gulled in this kind, p.r.o.ne without either examination or due consideration (for they take up religion a trust, as at mercers' they do their wares) to believe anything. And the best means they have to broach first, or to maintain it when they have done, is to keep them still in ignorance: for "ignorance is the mother of devotion," as all the world knows, and these times can amply witness. This hath been the devil's practice, and his infernal ministers in all ages; not as our Saviour by a few silly fishermen, to confound the wisdom of the world, to save publicans and sinners, but to make advantage of their ignorance, to convert them and their a.s.sociates; and that they may better effect what they intend, they begin, as I say, with poor, [6441]stupid, illiterate persons. So Mahomet did when he published his Alcoran, which is a piece of work (saith [6442]Bredenbachius) "full of nonsense, barbarism, confusion, without rhyme, reason, or any good composition, first published to a company of rude rustics, hog-rubbers, that had no discretion, judgment, art, or understanding, and is so still maintained." For it is a part of their policy to let no man comment, dare to dispute or call in question to this day any part of it, be it never so absurd, incredible, ridiculous, fabulous as it is, must be believed _implicite_, upon pain of death no man must dare to contradict it, "G.o.d and the emperor," &c. What else do our papists, but by keeping the people in ignorance vent and broach all their new ceremonies and traditions, when they conceal the scripture, read it in Latin, and to some few alone, feeding the slavish people in the meantime with tales out of legends, and such like fabulous narrations? Whom do they begin with but collapsed ladies, some few tradesmen, superst.i.tious old folks, illiterate persons, weak women, discontent, rude, silly companions, or sooner circ.u.mvent? So do all our schismatics and heretics. Marcus and Valentinian heretics, in [6443]Irenaeus, seduced first I know not how many women, and made them believe they were prophets. [6444]Friar Cornelius of Dort seduced a company of silly women. What are all our Anabaptists, Brownists, Barrowists, familists, but a company of rude, illiterate, capricious, base fellows? What are most of our papists, but stupid, ignorant and blind bayards? how should they otherwise be, when as they are brought up and kept still in darkness? [6445]"If their pastors" (saith Lavater) "have done their duties, and instructed their flocks as they ought, in the principles of Christian religion, or had not forbidden them the reading of scriptures, they had not been as they are." But being so misled all their lives in superst.i.tion, and carried hoodwinked like hawks, how can they prove otherwise than blind idiots, and superst.i.tious a.s.ses?

what else shall we expect at their hands? Neither is it sufficient to keep them blind, and in Cimmerian darkness, but withal, as a schoolmaster doth by his boys, to make them follow their books, sometimes by good hope, promises and encouragements, but most of all by fear, strict discipline, severity, threats and punishment, do they collogue and soothe up their silly auditors, and so bring them into a fools' paradise. _Rex eris aiunt, si recte facies_, do well, thou shalt be crowned; but for the most part by threats, terrors, and affrights, they tyrannise and terrify their distressed souls: knowing that fear alone is the sole and only means to keep men in obedience, according to that hemistichium of Petronius, _primus in orbe deos fecit timor_, the fear of some divine and supreme powers, keeps men in obedience, makes the people do their duties: they play upon their consciences; [6446]which was practised of old in Egypt by their priests; when there was an eclipse, they made the people believe G.o.d was angry, great miseries were to come; they take all opportunities of natural causes, to delude the people's senses, and with fearful tales out of purgatory, feigned apparitions, earthquakes in j.a.ponia or China, tragical examples of devils, possessions, obsessions, false miracles, counterfeit visions, &c. They do so insult over and restrain them, never hoby so dared a lark, that they will not [6447]offend the least tradition, tread, or scarce look awry: _Deus bone_ ([6448]Lavater exclaims) _quot hoc commentum de purgatorio misere afflixit!_ good G.o.d, how many men have been miserably afflicted by this fiction of purgatory!

To these advantages of hope and fear, ignorance and simplicity, he hath several engines, traps, devices, to batter and enthral, omitting no opportunities, according to men's several inclinations, abilities, to circ.u.mvent and humour them, to maintain his superst.i.tions, sometimes to stupefy, besot them: sometimes again by oppositions, factions, to set all at odds and in an uproar; sometimes he infects one man, and makes him a princ.i.p.al agent; sometimes whole cities, countries. If of meaner sort, by stupidity, canonical obedience, blind zeal, &c. If of better note, by pride, ambition, popularity, vainglory. If of the clergy and more eminent, of better parts than the rest, more learned, eloquent, he puffs them up with a vain conceit of their own worth, _scientia inflati_, they begin to swell, and scorn all the world in respect of themselves, and thereupon turn heretics, schismatics, broach new doctrines, frame new crotchets and the like; or else out of too much learning become mad, or out of curiosity they will search into G.o.d's secrets, and eat of the forbidden fruit; or out of presumption of their holiness and good gifts, inspirations, become prophets, enthusiasts, and what not? Or else if they be displeased, discontent, and have not (as they suppose) preferment to their worth, have some disgrace, repulse, neglected, or not esteemed as they fondly value themselves, or out of emulation, they begin presently to rage and rave, _coelum terrae, miscent_, they become so impatient in an instant, that a whole kingdom cannot contain them, they will set all in a combustion, all at variance, to be revenged of their adversaries. [6449]Donatus, when he saw Cecilia.n.u.s preferred before him in the bishopric of Carthage, turned heretic, and so did Arian, because Alexander was advanced: we have examples at home, and too many experiments of such persons. If they be laymen of better note, the same engines of pride, ambition, emulation and jealousy, take place, they will be G.o.ds themselves: [6450]Alexander in India, after his victories, became so insolent, he would be adored for a G.o.d: and those Roman emperors came to that height of madness, they must have temples built to them, sacrifices to their deities, Divus Augustus, D. Claudius, D.

Adria.n.u.s: [6451]Heliogabalus, "put out that vestal fire at Rome, expelled the virgins, and banished all other religions all over the world, and would be the sole G.o.d himself." Our Turks, China kings, great Chams, and Mogors do little less, a.s.suming divine and bombast t.i.tles to themselves; the meaner sort are too credulous, and led with blind zeal, blind obedience, to prosecute and maintain whatsoever their sottish leaders shall propose, what they in pride and singularity, revenge, vainglory, ambition, spleen, for gain, shall rashly maintain and broach, their disciples make a matter of conscience, of h.e.l.l and d.a.m.nation, if they do it not, and will rather forsake wives, children, house and home, lands, goods, fortunes, life itself, than omit or abjure the least t.i.ttle of it, and to advance the common cause, undergo any miseries, turn traitors, a.s.sa.s.sins, pseudomartyrs, with full a.s.surance and hope of reward in that other world, that they shall certainly merit by it, win heaven, be canonised for saints.

Now when they are truly possessed with blind zeal, and misled with superst.i.tion, he hath many other baits to inveigle and infatuate them farther yet, to make them quite mortified and mad, and that under colour of perfection, to merit by penance, going woolward, whipping, alms, fastings, &c. An. 1320. there was a sect of [6452]whippers in Germany, that, to the astonishment of the beholders, lashed, and cruelly tortured themselves. I could give many other instances of each particular. But these works so done are meritorious, _ex opere operato, ex condigno_, for themselves and others, to make them macerate and consume their bodies, _specie virtutis et umbra_, those evangelical counsels are propounded, as our pseudo-Catholics call them, canonical obedience, wilful poverty, [6453]vows of chast.i.ty, monkery, and a solitary life, which extend almost to all religions and superst.i.tions, to Turks, Chinese, Gentiles, Abyssinians, Greeks, Latins, and all countries. Amongst the rest, fasting, contemplation, solitariness, are as it were certain rams by which the devil doth batter and work upon the strongest const.i.tutions. _Nonnulli_ (saith Peter Forestus) _ob longas inedias, studia et meditationes coelestes, de rebus sacris et religione semper agitant_, by fasting overmuch, and divine meditations, are overcome.

Not that fasting is a thing of itself to be discommended, for it is an excellent means to keep the body in subjection, a preparative to devotion, the physic of the soul, by which chaste thoughts are engendered, true zeal, a divine spirit, whence wholesome counsels do proceed, concupiscence is restrained, vicious and predominant l.u.s.ts and humours are expelled. The fathers are very much in commendation of it, and, as Calvin notes, "sometimes immoderate. [6454]The mother of health, key of heaven, a spiritual wing to arear us, the chariot of the Holy Ghost, banner of faith," &c. And 'tis true they say of it, if it be moderately and seasonably used, by such parties as Moses, Elias, Daniel, Christ, and his [6455]apostles made use of it; but when by this means they will supererogate, and as [6456]Erasmus well taxeth, _Coelum non sufficere putant suis meritis._ Heaven is too small a reward for it; they make choice of times and meats, buy and sell their merits, attribute more to them than to the ten Commandments, and count it a greater sin to eat meat in Lent, than to kill a man, and as one sayeth, _Plus respiciunt a.s.sum piscem, quam Christum crucifixum, plus salmonem quam Solomonem, quibus in ore Christus, Epicurus in corde_, "pay more respect to a broiled fish than to Christ crucified, more regard to salmon than to Solomon, have Christ on their lips, but Epicurus in their hearts," when some counterfeit, and some attribute more to such works of theirs than to Christ's death and pa.s.sion; the devil sets in a foot, strangely deludes them, and by that means makes them to overthrow the temperature of their bodies, and hazard their souls.

Never any strange illusions of devils amongst hermits, anchorites, never any visions, phantasms, apparitions, enthusiasms, prophets, any revelations, but immoderate fasting, bad diet, sickness, melancholy, solitariness, or some such things, were the precedent causes, the forerunners or concomitants of them. The best opportunity and sole occasion the devil takes to delude them. Marcilius Cognatus, _lib. 1. cont. cap. 7._ hath many stories to this purpose, of such as after long fasting have been seduced by devils; and [6457]"'tis a miraculous thing to relate" (as Cardan writes) "what strange accidents proceed from fasting; dreams, superst.i.tion, contempt of torments, desire of death, prophecies, paradoxes, madness; fasting naturally prepares men to these things." Monks, anchorites, and the like, after much emptiness, become melancholy, vertiginous, they think they hear strange noises, confer with hobgoblins, devils, rivel up their bodies, _et dum hostem insequimur_, saith Gregory, _civem quem diligimus, trucidamus_, they become bare skeletons, skin and bones; _Carnibus abstinentes proprias carnes devorant, ut nil praeter cutem et ossa sit reliquum._ Hilarion, as [6458]Hierome reports in his life, and Athanasius of Antonius, was so bare with fasting, "that the skin did scarce stick to the bones; for want of vapours he could not sleep, and for want of sleep became idleheaded, heard every night infants cry, oxen low, wolves howl, lions roar" (as he thought), "clattering of chains, strange voices, and the like illusions of devils." Such symptoms are common to those that fast long, are solitary, given to contemplation, overmuch solitariness and meditation. Not that these things (as I said of fasting) are to be discommended of themselves, but very behoveful in some cases and good: sobriety and contemplation join our souls to G.o.d, as that heathen [6459]Porphyry can tell us. [6460]"Ecstasy is a taste of future happiness, by which we are united unto G.o.d, a divine melancholy, a spiritual wing,"

Bonaventure terms it, to lift us up to heaven; but as it is abused, a mere dotage, madness, a cause and symptom of religious melancholy. [6461]"If you shall at any time see" (saith Guianerius) "a religious person over-superst.i.tious, too solitary, or much given to fasting, that man will certainly be melancholy, thou mayst boldly say it, he will be so." P.

Forestus hath almost the same words, and [6462]Cardan _subtil, lib. 18. et cap. 40. lib. 8. de rerum varietate_, "solitariness, fasting, and that melancholy humour, are the causes of all hermits' illusions." Lavater, _de spect. cap. 19. part. 1._ and _part. 1. cap. 10._ puts solitariness a main cause of such spectrums and apparitions; none, saith he, so melancholy as monks and hermits, the devil's hath melancholy; [6463]"none so subject to visions and dotage in this kind, as such as live solitary lives, they hear and act strange things in their dotage." [6464]Polydore Virgil, _lib. 2.

prodigiis_, "holds that those prophecies and monks' revelations? nuns, dreams, which they suppose come from G.o.d, to proceed wholly _ab instinctu daemonum_, by the devil's means;" and so those enthusiasts, Anabaptists, pseudoprophets from the same cause. [6465]Fracastorius, _lib. 2. de intellect_, will have all your pythonesses, sibyls, and pseudoprophets to be mere melancholy, so doth Wierus prove, _lib. 1. cap. 8. et l. 3. cap.

7._ and Arcula.n.u.s in 9 Rhasis, that melancholy is a sole cause, and the devil together, with fasting and solitariness, of such sibylline prophecies, if there were ever such, which with [6466]Casaubon and others I justly except at; for it is not likely that the Spirit of G.o.d should ever reveal such manifest revelations and predictions of Christ, to those Pythonissae witches, Apollo's priests, the devil's ministers, (they were no better) and conceal them from his own prophets; for these sibyls set down all particular circ.u.mstances of Christ's coming, and many other future accidents far more perspicuous and plain than ever any prophet did. But, howsoever, there be no Phaebades or sibyls, I am a.s.sured there be other enthusiasts, prophets, _dii Fatidici_, Magi, (of which read Jo. Boissardus, who hath laboriously collected them into a great [6467]volume of late, with elegant pictures, and epitomised their lives) &c., ever have been in all ages, and still proceeding from those causes, [6468]_qui visiones suas enarrant, somniant futura, prophetisant, et ejusmodi deliriis agitati, Spiritum Sanctum sibi communicari putant_. That which is written of Saint Francis' five wounds, and other such monastical effects, of him and others, may justly be referred to this our melancholy; and that which Matthew Paris relates of the [6469]monk of Evesham, who saw heaven and h.e.l.l in a vision; of [6470]Sir Owen, that went down into Saint Patrick's purgatory in King Stephen's days, and saw as much; Walsingham of him that showed as much by Saint Julian. Beda, _lib. 5. cap. 13. 14. 15. et 20._ reports of King Sebba, _lib. 4. cap. 11. eccles. hist._ that saw strange [6471]visions; and Stumphius Helvet Cornic, a cobbler of Basle, that beheld rare apparitions at Augsburg, [6472]in Germany. Alexander ab Alexandro, _gen. dier. lib. 6.

cap. 21._ of an enthusiastical prisoner, (all out as probable as that of Eris Armenius, in Plato's tenth dialogue _de Repub._ that revived again ten days after he was killed in a battle, and told strange wonders, like those tales Ulysses related to Alcinous in Homer, or Lucian's _vera historia_ itself) was still after much solitariness, fasting, or long sickness, when their brains were addled, and their bellies as empty of meat as their heads of wit. Florilegus hath many such examples, _fol. 191._ one of Saint Gultlake of Crowald that fought with devils, but still after long fasting, overmuch solitariness, [6473]the devil persuaded him therefore to fast, as Moses and Elias did, the better to delude him. [6474]In the same author is recorded Carolus Magnus vision _an._ 185. or ecstasies, wherein he saw heaven and h.e.l.l after much fasting and meditation. So did the devil of old with Apollo's priests. Amphiaraus and his fellows, those Egyptians, still enjoin long fasting before he would give any oracles, _triduum a cibo et vino abstinerent_, [6475]before they gave any answers, as Volateran _lib.

13. cap. 4._ records, and Strabo _Geog. lib. 14._ describes Charon's den, in the way between Tralles and Nissum, whither the priests led sick and fanatic men: but nothing performed without long fasting, no good to be done. That scoffing [6476]Lucian conducts his Menippus to h.e.l.l by the directions of that Chaldean Mithrobarzanes, but after long fasting, and such like idle preparation. Which the Jesuits right well perceiving of what force this fasting and solitary meditation is, to alter men's minds, when they would make a man mad, ravish him, improve him beyond himself, to undertake some great business of moment, to kill a king, or the like, [6477]they bring him into a melancholy dark chamber, where he shall see no light for many days together, no company, little meat, ghastly pictures of devils all about him, and leave him to lie as he will himself, on the bare floor in this chamber of meditation, as they call it, on his back, side, belly, till by this strange usage they make him quite mad and beside himself. And then after some ten days, as they find him animated and resolved, they make use of him. The devil hath many such factors, many such engines, which what effect they produce, you shall hear in the following symptoms.

SUBSECT. III.--_Symptoms general, love to their own sect, hate of all other religions, obstinacy, peevishness, ready to undergo any danger or cross for it; Martyrs, blind zeal, blind obedience, fastings, vows, belief of incredibilities, impossibilities: Particular of Gentiles, Mahometans, Jews, Christians; and in them, heretics old, and new, schismatics, schoolmen, prophets, enthusiasts, &c._

_Fleat Herac.l.i.tus, an rideat Democritus_? in attempting to speak of these symptoms, shall I laugh with Democritus, or weep with Herac.l.i.tus? they are so ridiculous and absurd on the one side, so lamentable and tragical on the other: a mixed scene offers itself, so full of errors and a promiscuous variety of objects, that I know not in what strain to represent it. When I think of the Turkish paradise, those Jewish fables, and pontifical rites, those pagan superst.i.tions, their sacrifices, and ceremonies, as to make images of all matter, and adore them when they have done, to see them, kiss the pyx, creep to the cross, &c. I cannot choose but laugh with Democritus: but when I see them whip and torture themselves, grind their souls for toys and trifles, desperate, and now ready to die, I cannot but weep with Herac.l.i.tus. When I see a priest say ma.s.s, with all those apish gestures, murmurings, &c. read the customs of the Jews' synagogue, or Mahometa Meschites, I must needs [6478]laugh at their folly, _risum teneatis amici_?

but when I see them make matters of conscience of such toys and trifles, to adore the devil, to endanger their souls, to offer their children to their idols, &c. I must needs condole their misery. When I see two superst.i.tious orders contend _pro aris et focis_, with such have and hold, _de lana, caprina_, some write such great volumes to no purpose, take so much pains to so small effect, their satires, invectives, apologies, dull and gross fictions; when I see grave learned men rail and scold like b.u.t.ter-women, methinks 'tis pretty sport, and fit [6479]for Calphurnius and Democritus to laugh at. But when I see so much blood spilt, so many murders and ma.s.sacres, so many cruel battles fought, &c. 'tis a fitter subject for Herac.l.i.tus to lament. [6480]As Merlin when he sat by the lake side with Vortigern, and had seen the white and red dragon fight, before he began to interpret or to speak, _in fletum prorupit_, fell a weeping, and then proceeded to declare to the king what it meant. I should first pity and bewail this misery of human kind with some pa.s.sionate preface, wishing mine eyes a fountain of tears, as Jeremiah did, and then to my task. For it is that great torture, that infernal plague of mortal men, _omnium pestium pestilentissima superst.i.tio_, and able of itself alone to stand in opposition to all other plagues, miseries and calamities whatsoever; far more cruel, more pestiferous, more grievous, more general, more violent, of a greater extent. Other fears and sorrows, grievances of body and mind, are troublesome for the time; but this is for ever, eternal d.a.m.nation, h.e.l.l itself, a plague, a fire: an inundation hurts one province alone, and the loss may be recovered; but this superst.i.tion involves all the world almost, and can never be remedied. Sickness and sorrows come and go, but a superst.i.tious soul hath no rest; [6481]_superst.i.tione imbutus animus nunquam quietus esse potest_, no peace, no quietness. True religion and superst.i.tion are quite opposite, _longe diversa carnificina et pietas_, as Lactantius describes, the one erects, the other dejects; _illorum pietas, mera impietus_; the one is an easy yoke, the other an intolerable burden, an absolute tyranny; the one a sure anchor, a haven; the other a tempestuous ocean; the one makes, the other mars; the one is wisdom, the other is folly, madness, indiscretion; the one unfeigned, the other a counterfeit; the one a diligent observer, the other an ape; one leads to heaven, the other to h.e.l.l. But these differences will more evidently appear by their particular symptoms. What religion is, and of what parts it doth consist, every catechism will tell you, what symptoms it hath, and what effects it produceth: but for their superst.i.tions, no tongue can tell them, no pen express, they are so many, so diverse, so uncertain, so inconstant, and so different from themselves. _Tot mundi superst.i.tiones quot coelo stellae_, one saith, there be as many superst.i.tions in the world, as there be stars in heaven, or devils themselves that are the first founders of them: with such ridiculous, absurd symptoms and signs, so many several rites, ceremonies, torments and vexations accompanying, as may well express and beseem the devil to be the author and maintainer of them. I will only point at some of them, _ex ungue leonem_ guess at the rest, and those of the chief kinds of superst.i.tion, which beside us Christians now domineer and crucify the world, Gentiles, Mahometans, Jews, &c.

Of these symptoms some be general, some particular to each private sect: general to all, are, an extraordinary love and affection they bear and show to such as are of their own sect, and more than Vatinian hate to such as are opposite in religion, as they call it, or disagree from them in their superst.i.tious rites, blind zeal, (which is as much a symptom as a cause,) vain fears, blind obedience, needless works, incredibilities, impossibilities, monstrous rites and ceremonies, wilfulness, blindness, obstinacy, &c. For the first, which is love and hate, as [6482]Monta.n.u.s saith, _nulla firmior amicitia quam quae contrahitur hinc; nulla discordia major, quam quae a religione fit_; no greater concord, no greater discord than that which proceeds from religion, it is incredible to relate, did not our daily experience evince it, what factions, _quam teterrimae factiones_, (as [6483]Rich. Dinoth writes) have been of late for matters of religion in France, and what hurlyburlies all over Europe for these many years. _Nihil est quod tam impotentur rapiat homines, quam suscepta de salute opinio; siquidem pro ea omnes gentes corpora et animas devovere solent, et arctissimo necessitudinis vinculo se invicem colligare._ We are all brethren in Christ, servants of one Lord, members of one body, and therefore are or should be at least dearly beloved, inseparably allied in the greatest bond of love and familiarity, united partakers not only of the same cross, but coadjutors, comforters, helpers, at all times, upon all occasions: as they did in the primitive church, Acts the 5. they sold their patrimonies, and laid them at the apostles' feet, and many such memorable examples of mutual love we have had under the ten general persecutions, many since. Examples on the other side of discord none like, as our Saviour saith, he came therefore into the world to set father against son, &c. In imitation of whom the devil belike ([6484]_nam superst.i.tio irrepsit verae religionis imitatrix_, superst.i.tion is still religion's ape, as in all other things, so in this) doth so combine and glue together his superst.i.tious followers in love and affection, that they will live and die together: and what an innate hatred hath he still inspired to any other superst.i.tion opposite? How those old Romans were affected, those ten persecutions may be a witness, and that cruel executioner in Eusebius, _aut lita aut morere_, sacrifice or die. No greater hate, more continuate, bitter faction, wars, persecution in all ages, than for matters of religion, no such feral opposition, father against son, mother against daughter, husband against wife, city against city, kingdom against kingdom: as of old at Tentira and Combos:

[6485] "Immortale odium, et nunquam sanabile vulnus, Inde furor vulgo, quod numina vicinorum Odit uterque locus, quum solos credit habendos Esse deos quos ipse colat."------

"Immortal hate it breeds, a wound past cure, And fury to the commons still to endure: Because one city t' other's G.o.ds as vain Deride, and his alone as good maintain."

The Turks at this day count no better of us than of dogs, so they commonly call us giaours, infidels, miscreants, make that their main quarrel and cause of Christian persecution. If he will turn Turk, he shall be entertained as a brother, and had in good esteem, a Mussulman or a believer, which is a greater tie to them than any affinity or consanguinity. The Jews stick together like so many burrs; but as for the rest, whom they call Gentiles, they do hate and abhor, they cannot endure their Messiah should be a common saviour to us all, and rather, as [6486]Luther writes, "than they that now scoff at them, curse them, persecute and revile them, shall be coheirs and brethren with them, or have any part or fellowship with their Messiah, they would crucify their Messiah ten times over, and G.o.d himself, his angels, and all his creatures, if it were possible, though they endure a thousand h.e.l.ls for it." Such is their malice towards us. Now for Papists, what in a common cause, for the advancement of their religion they will endure, our traitors and pseudo-Catholics will declare unto us; and how bitter on the other side to their adversaries, how violently bent, let those Marian times record, as those miserable slaughters at Merindol and Cabriers, the Spanish inquisition, the Duke of Alva's tyranny in the Low Countries, the French ma.s.sacres and civil wars. [6487]_Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum_.

"Such wickedness did religion persuade." Not there only, but all over Europe, we read of b.l.o.o.d.y battles, racks and wheels, seditions, factions, oppositions.

[6488] ------"obvia signis Signa, pares aquilas, et pila minantia pilis,"

Invectives and contentions. They had rather shake hands with a Jew, Turk, or, as the Spaniards do, suffer Moors to live amongst them, and Jews, than Protestants; "my name" (saith [6489]Luther) "is more odious to them than any thief or murderer." So it is with all heretics and schismatics whatsoever: and none so pa.s.sionate, violent in their tenets, opinions, obstinate, wilful, refractory, peevish, factious, singular and stiff in defence of them; they do not only persecute and hate, but pity all other religions, account them d.a.m.ned, blind, as if they alone were the true church, they are the true heirs, have the fee-simple of heaven by a peculiar donation, 'tis entailed on them and their posterities, their doctrine sound, _per funem aureum de coelo delapsa doctrinci_, "let down from, heaven by a golden rope," they alone are to be saved, The Jews at this day are so incomprehensibly proud and churlish, saith [6490]Luther, that _soli salvari, soli domini terrarum salutari volunt._ And as [6491]Buxtorfius adds, "so ignorant and self-willed withal, that amongst their most understanding Rabbins you shall find nought but gross dotage, horrible hardness of heart, and stupendous obstinacy, in all their actions, opinions, conversations: and yet so zealous with all, that no man living can be more, and vindicate themselves for the elect people of G.o.d." 'Tis so with all other superst.i.tious sects, Mahometans, Gentiles in China, and Tartary: our ignorant Papists, Anabaptists, Separatists, and peculiar churches of Amsterdam, they alone, and none but they can be saved.

[6492]"Zealous" (as Paul saith, Rom. x. 2.) "without knowledge," they will endure any misery, any trouble, suffer and do that which the sunbeams will not endure to see, _Religionis acti Furiis_, all extremities, losses and dangers, take any pains, fast, pray, vow chast.i.ty, wilful poverty, forsake all and follow their idols, die a thousand deaths as some Jews did to Pilate's soldiers, in like case, _exertos praebentes jugulos, et manifeste prae se ferentes_, (as Josephus hath it) _cariorem esse rita sibi legis patriae observationem_, rather than abjure, or deny the least particle of that religion which their fathers profess, and they themselves have been brought up in, be it never so absurd, ridiculous, they will embrace it, and without farther inquiry or examination of the truth, though it be prodigiously false, they will believe it; they will take much more pains to go to h.e.l.l, than we shall do to heaven. Single out the most ignorant of them, convince his understanding, show him his errors, grossness, and absurdities of his sect. _Non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris_, he will not be persuaded. As those pagans told the Jesuits in j.a.pona, [6493]they would do as their forefathers have done: and with Ratholde the Frisian Prince, go to h.e.l.l for company, if most of their friends went thither: they will not be moved, no persuasion, no torture can stir them. So that papists cannot brag of their vows, poverty, obedience, orders, merits, martyrdoms, fastings, alms, good works, pilgrimages: much and more than all this, I shall show you, is, and hath been done by these superst.i.tious Gentiles, Pagans, Idolaters and Jews: their blind zeal and idolatrous superst.i.tion in all kinds is much at one; little or no difference, and it is hard to say which is the greatest, which is the grossest. For if a man shall duly consider those superst.i.tious rites amongst the Ethnics in j.a.pan, the Bannians in Gusart, the Chinese idolaters, [6494]Americans of old, in Mexico especially, Mahometan priests, he shall find the same government almost, the same orders and ceremonies, or so like, that they may seem all apparently to be derived from some heathen spirit, and the Roman hierarchy no better than the rest. In a word, this is common to all superst.i.tion, there is nothing so mad and absurd, so ridiculous, impossible, incredible, which they will not believe, observe, and diligently perform, as much as in them lies; nothing so monstrous to conceive, or intolerable to put in practice, so cruel to suffer, which they will not willingly undertake. So powerful a thing is superst.i.tion. [6495]"O Egypt" (as Trismegistus exclaims) "thy religion is fables, and such as posterity will not believe."

I know that in true religion itself, many mysteries are so apprehended alone by faith, as that of the Trinity, which Turks especially deride, Christ's incarnation, resurrection of the body at the last day, _quod ideo credendum_ (saith Tertullian) _quod incredible_, &c. many miracles not to be controverted or disputed of. _Mirari non rimari sapientia vera est_, saith [6496]Gerhardus; _et in divinis_ (as a good father informs us) _quaedam credenda, quaedam admiranda_, &c. some things are to be believed, embraced, followed with all submission and obedience, some again admired.

Though Julian the apostate scoff at Christians in this point, _quod captivemus intellectum in obsequium fidei_, saying, that the Christian creed is like the Pythagorean _Ipse dixit_, we make our will and understanding too slavishly subject to our faith, without farther examination of the truth; yet as Saint Gregory truly answers, our creed is _altioris praestantiae_, and much more divine; and as Thomas will, _pie consideranti semper suppetunt rationes, ostendentes credibilitatem in mysteriis supernaturalibus_, we do absolutely believe it, and upon good reasons, for as Gregory well informeth us; _Fides non habet meritum, ubi humana ratio quaerit experimentum_; that faith hath no merit, is not worth the name of faith, that will not apprehend without a certain demonstration: we must and will believe G.o.d's word; and if we be mistaken or err in our general belief, as [6497]Richardus de _Sancto Victore_, vows he will say to Christ himself at the day of judgment; "Lord, if we be deceived, thou alone hast deceived us:" thus we plead. But for the rest I will not justify that pontificial consubstantiation, that which [6498]Mahometans and Jews justly except at, as Campanella confesseth, _Atheismi triumphat. cap. 12. fol.

125_, _difficillimum dogma esse, nec aliud subjectum magis haereticorum blasphemiis, et stultis irrisionibus politicorum reperiri_. They hold it impossible, _Deum in pane manducari_; and besides they scoff at it, _vide gentem comedentem Deum suum, inquit quidam Maurus_. [6499]_Hunc Deum muscae et vermes irrident, quum ipsum polluunt et devorant, subditus est igni, aquae, et latrones furantur, pixidem auream humi prosternunt, et se tamen non defendit hic Deus. Qui fieri potest, ut sit integer in singulis hostiae particulis, idem corpus numero, tam multis locis, caelo, terra_, &c. But he that shall read the [6500]Turks' Alcoran, the Jews' Talmud, and papists'

golden legend, in the mean time will swear that such gross fictions, fables, vain traditions, prodigious paradoxes and ceremonies, could never proceed from any other spirit, than that of the devil himself, which is the author of confusion and lies; and wonder withal how such wise men as have been of the Jews, such learned understanding men as Averroes, Avicenna, or those heathen philosophers, could ever be persuaded to believe, or to subscribe to the least part of them: _aut fraudem non detegere_: but that as [6501]Vanninus answers, _ob publicae, potestatis formidinem allatrare philosophi non audebant_, they durst not speak for fear of the law. But I will descend to particulars: read their several symptoms and then guess.

Of such symptoms as properly belong to superst.i.tion, or that irreligious religion, I may say as of the rest, some are ridiculous, some again feral to relate. Of those ridiculous, there can be no better testimony than the mult.i.tude of their G.o.ds, those absurd names, actions, offices they put upon them, their feasts, holy days, sacrifices, adorations, and the like. The Egyptians that pretended so great antiquity, 300 kings before Amasis: and as Mela writes, 13,000 years from the beginning of their chronicles, that bragged so much of their knowledge of old, for they invented arithmetic, astronomy, geometry: of their wealth and power, that vaunted of 20,000 cities: yet at the same time their idolatry and superst.i.tion was most gross: they worshipped, as Diodorus Siculus records, sun and moon under the name of Isis and Osiris, and after, such men as were beneficial to them, or any creature that did them good. In the city of Bubasti they adored a cat, saith Herodotus. Ibis and storks, an ox: (saith Pliny) [6502]leeks and onions, Macrobius,

[6503] "Porrum et caepe deos imponere nubibus ausi, Hos tu Nile deos colis."------

Scoffing [6504]Lucian in his _vera Historia_: which, as he confesseth himself, was not persuasively written as a truth, but in comical fashion to glance at the monstrous fictions and gross absurdities of writers and nations, to deride without doubt this prodigious Egyptian idolatry, feigns this story of himself: that when he had seen the Elysian fields, and was now coming away, Rhadamanthus gave him a mallow root, and bade him pray to that when he was in any peril or extremity; which he did accordingly; for when he came to Hydamordia in the island of treacherous women, he made his prayers to his root, and was instantly delivered. The Syrians, Chaldeans, had as many proper G.o.ds of their own invention; see the said Lucian _de dea Syria._ Morney _cap. 22. de veritat. relig._ Guliel. Stuckius [6505]_Sacrorum Sacrificiorumque Gentil. descript._ Peter Faber Semester, _l. 3. c. 1, 2, 3._ Selden _de diis Syris_, Purchas' pilgrimage, [6506]

Rosinus of the Romans, and Lilius Giraldus of the Greeks. The Romans borrowed from all, besides their own G.o.ds, which were _majorum_ and _minorum gentium_, as Varro holds, certain and uncertain; some celestial, select, and great ones, others indigenous and Semi-dei, Lares, Lemures, Dioscuri, Soteres, and Parastatae, _dii tutelares_ amongst the Greeks: G.o.ds of all sorts, for all functions; some for the land, some for sea; some for heaven, some for h.e.l.l; some for pa.s.sions, diseases, some for birth, some for weddings, husbandry, woods, waters, gardens, orchards, &c. All actions and offices, Pax-Quies, Salus, Libertas, Felicitas, Strenua, Stimula, Horta, Pan, Sylva.n.u.s, Priapus, Flora, Cloacina, Stercutius, Febris, Pallor, Invidia, Protervia, Risus, Angerona, Volupia, Vacuna, Viriplaca, Veneranda, Pales, Neptunia, Doris, kings, emperors, valiant men that had done any good offices for them, they did likewise canonise and adore for G.o.ds, and it was usually done, _usitatum apud antiquos_, as [6507]Jac. Boissardus well observes, _deificare homines qui beneficiis mortales juvarent_, and the devil was still ready to second their intents, _statim se ingessit illorum sepulchris, statuis, templis, aris_, &c. he crept into their temples, statues, tombs, altars, and was ready to give oracles, cure diseases, do miracles, &c. as by Jupiter, Aesculapius, Tiresias, Apollo, Mopsus, Amphiaraus, &c. _dii et Semi-dii._ For so they were _Semi-dii_, demiG.o.ds, some _medii inter Deos et homines_, as Max. [6508]Tyrius, the Platonist, _ser. 26. et 27_, maintains and justifies in many words. "When a good man dies, his body is buried, but his soul, _ex homine daemon evadit_, becomes forthwith a demiG.o.d, nothing disparaged with malignity of air, or variety of forms, rejoiceth, exults and sees that perfect beauty with his eyes. Now being deified, in commiseration he helps his poor friends here on earth, his kindred and allies, informs, succours, &c. punisheth those that are bad and do amiss, as a good genius to protect and govern mortal men appointed by the G.o.ds, so they will have it, ordaining some for provinces, some for private men, some for one office, some for another. Hector and Achilles a.s.sist soldiers to this day; Aesculapius all sick men, the Dioscuri seafaring men, &c. and sometimes upon occasion they show themselves. The Dioscuri, Hercules and Aesculapius, he saw himself (or the devil in his likeness) _non somnians sed vigilans ipse vidi_:" So far Tyrius. And not good men only do they thus adore, but tyrants, monsters, devils, (as [6509]

Stuckius inveighs) Neros, Domitians, Heliogables, beastly women, and arrant wh.o.r.es amongst the rest. "For all intents, places, creatures, they a.s.sign G.o.ds;"

"Et domibus, tectis, thermis, et equis soleatis a.s.signare solent genios"------

saith Prudentius.