Desired it may be, but hoped it cannot, that, in the church of God, there should be no noise of axes and hammers, no difference in judgements and conceits. While there is corruption in our nature,-narrowness in our faculties,sleepiness in our eyes,-difficulty in our profession,-cuoning in our enemies, duσvóŋta, hard things in the scriptures,'—and an envious man to superseminate; there will still be rí érépws Opovouvres, men that will be differently minded. No instrument was ever so perfectly in tune, in which the next hand that touched it, did not amend something; nor is there any judgement so strong and perspicacious, from which another will not, in some things, find ground of variance. See we not in the ancient churches those great lights, in their several ages, at variance amongst themselves? Irenæus with Victor", Cyprian with Stephen, Jerome with Austin", Basil with Damascus, Chrysostom with Epiphanius, Cyril with Theodoret ? In this hard necessity, therefore, when the first evil cannot easily be avoided, our wisdom must be to prevent the second; that, where there is not perfection, yet there may be peace; that dissension of judgements break not forth into disunion of hearts; but that, amidst the variety of our several conceits, we preserve still the unity of faith and love, by which only we are known to be Christ's disciples. Give me leave, therefore, out of an earnest desire of peace and love amongst learned men, in the farther handling of this argument, briefly to inquire into these two questions: 1. How peace may be preserved amongst men, when differences do arise? 2. How those differences may, in some degree, be composed and reconciled? For the former, let us first remember, that knowledge is apt to beget pride," and pride is ever the mother of contention; and, in Saint Austin's phrase, the mother of heresies ■ Vid. Vincent. Lirinens. cap. 15, 16, 25.—Isid. Pelus. 1. 2. Epist. 90. Aug. Epist. 105. de Civit. Dei, l. 16. c. 2. De vera Relig. cap. 8. Defence, part 1. p. 319; et vid. Jewel's Reply, artic. 8. p. 294. ́ b Euseb. hist. 1. 5. c. 16. 1. 7. c. 3. e Euseb. • Basil, d Aug. et Hier. in Epist. amoeb. apud Aug.Ep. 8. 19. Ep. 10, et 77. nich. 1. 2. c. 8, et Ep. 89. 1 Cor. i. 2, 3. i Superbia hæreticorum mater Aug. de Gen. contra Ma m too; "Rarò quisquam circa bona sua satis cautus est," saith the historian. A very hard thing it is, and rarely to be ɛeen, for a man, endued with excellent parts, to be wary, temperate, and lowly in the employment of them. And therefore Satan hath usually set on work the greatest wits in sowing errors in the church; as Agrippina gave Claudius poison in his delicatest meat; or, as thieves use to pursue their prey with the swiftest horses. "Ornare abs te diabolus quærit," as Saint Austin said once unto Licentius, a man of a choice wit, but a corrupt mind: wherein certainly Satan would fail of his end, if men would make no other use of their parts and learning than the same father directeth them unto," Ut scientia sit tanquam machina quædam, per quam structura pietatis assurgat ";" if they would use their learning as an engine for the more happy promoting of piety and pure religion. And, indeed, why shouldst thou, who art, haply, a man of more raised intellectuals, of more subtile and sublime conceits, despise the judgements of thy meaner brethren? Who is it that hath made thee to differ? And why hath he made thee to differ? As he hath given thee more variety of learning, it may be, he hath given thy bro ther more experience of divine things: and you know a great cosmographer may miss a way, which a man, less learned in theory, but more versed in travel, may easily keep. Certainly, as the juice of the same earth is sweet in the grape, but bitter in the wormwood; as the same odour is a refreshment to the dove, but a poison to the scarabæus; so the same learning, qualified with charity, piety, and meekness, may be admirably useful to edify the church, which, with pride. contempt, and corrupt judgement, may be used unto harmful purposes; χαλεπωτάτη γὰρ ἀδικία ἔχουσα ὅπλα, as the philosopher speaks, Nothing is more dangerous than wickedness in armour"," This, therefore, shall be my first rule;-to correct and 1 Aug. ad Licentium Ep. 49. in Aug. Ep. Quint. Curt. 1. 10. 119. n Basil. Hexam, Hom. 5. Greg. Nyssen. in Cant. Hom. 3. p. 514. Epiph. Hæres. 40. Arist. Rhet. Fab. 1. 12. c. 1. Male vim suam potestas aliorum contumeliis experitur : Plin. 1. 8. Ep. 24. Οὐδὲν ὑπὲρ τὸ, Πίστευσον, τῆς ὑμετέ pas éσTI σopías: Naz. Orat. 3. p. 97. Studiorum rudes, literarum profani, expertes artium: Minut. Felix. Hoc est fastidium vestrum, sapientia hæc arrogans, quà nos ut rudes despuitis. Arnob. cont. Gentes 1.3. Aug. de Bapt. 1. 2. c. 4, 5. Cypr. ad Quir. keep down the rising of our knowledge, with humility in ourselves, and charity to our brethren; not to censure every one for dull and brutish, who in judgement varieth from our own conceits. It was an old trick of the Gentiles (as Gregory Nazianzen, Arnobius, and Minutius tell us) to object illiterateness unto the Christians: but a very unfit way it is for Christian men amongst themselves to refute adverse opinions, or to insinuate their own, by the mutual undervaluing of each other's parts and persons. Ever, therefore, in our censures, let us look to what is wanting in ourselves, and to what is useful in our brethren; the one will make us humble; the other, charitable; and both, peaceable. Pride made the Donatists forsake the Catholic unity, which Saint Cyprian, in the same judgement, but with more humility, did not disturb. Secondly, Peace may, in this case, be preserved by moderating the fervour of our zeal against those that are otherwise minded. There is in the nature of many men a certain Depμórns°, a 'heat,' an activeness of spirit, which then principally, when conversant about objects divine and matters of conscience, is wonderful apt, without a due corrective of wisdom and knowledge, to break forth into intemperate carriage, and to disturb peace. It was zeal in the women which persecuted Saint Paul; (Acts xiii. 50) and it was zeal in him too, which persecuted Christ before he knew him. (Philip. iii. 6. Acts xxvi. 9) For as the historian P saith of some men, that they are 'sola socordia innocentes,' bad enough in themselves, and yet do little hurt, by reason of a phlegmatic and torpid constitution, indisposing them for action; 'so, on the contrary, men there may be, who having devotion, like those honourable women, not ruled by knowledge,— and zeal, like quicksilver, not allayed nor reduced unto usefulness by wisdom and mature learning.—may be (as Nazianzen saith they were in his time') the causes of much unquiet. It was a grave censure, which Tacitus gave of some Tacit. • Vid. Casaub. in Baron. Exercit. 14. Sect. 6. Depμótns xwpis λóyov kal éñiστήμης ἄσχετος. Νaz. Orat. 26. quàm utiles. Liv. dec. 3. 1. 10. ταύτης αἴτιον, &c. Naz. Orat. 26. Spiritus magni magis · Φύσεις μεγάλαι καὶ θερμαὶ τῆς ταραχῆς Tacit. in Vita Agric. cui contrarium planè erat exemplum Magni Basilii apud Naz. Orat. 20. p. 362. et Ep. 26. over-violent assertors of their liberty; and it may be verified of others, who as violently maintain their opinions,-" Quod per abrupta inclarescerent, sed in nullum reipublicæ usum." Two great inconveniences there are, which may, in controversies, from hence arise. 1. That, by this means, truth itself may be stretched too fart; and, by a vehement dislike of error on the one side, we may run into an error on the other: as Dionysius Alexandrinus, being too fervent against Sabellius, did lay the grounds of Arianism"; and Chrysostom, in zeal against the Manichees, did much extol the power of nature; and Illyricus, out of a hatred of the Papists' lessening of original sin, ran into another extreme, to make it an essential corruption.. 2. Hereby men do marvellously alienate the minds of one another from peace, by loading contrary doctrines with envious consequences; such as the consciences of those whom we dispute withal, do extremely abhor;-which course usually tendeth to mutual exacerbation, whereby truth never gaineth half so much as charity and peace do lose. Thirdly, Requisite it is to the preservation of the public peace, that we all keep ourselves in our own station, and labour to do God service in the places and callings wherein he hath set us, and not aλλorpioεTIOжOTEV, to busy ourselves with matters which (as the Apostle speaks') are τà άμяτρа unsuitable to us, and without our measure.' (2 Cor. x. 13, 14) By this one thing hath the Church of Rome caused that great schism in the Christian world, because she doth ÚTEρEXTEÍVELY, stretch herself above her measure,' and not content herself with that degree which belongeth unto her, u Vid. Basil. Ep. 41. * Nimium altercando, veritas amittitur: A. Gell. Integro autem libello Dionysium hunc ab Arianismi suspicione vindicat M. Athanasius. Tom. i. 1. Quod unà cum Nicæna Synodo conspiravit Dionys. Ardore feriendi adversarios, premit interdum socios: Joseph. Acosta de Hieronymo, citante Riveto in Psalm 16. Sixt. Senens, 1. 5. in Proœmio. y 1 Pet. iv. 15. Prov. xxvi. 17. * Τὰ πρόβατα, μὴ ποιμαίνετε τοὺς ποιμένας, μηδὲ ὑπὲρ τοὺς ἑαυτῶν ὅρους ἐπαίρεσθε· μὴ τοίνυν ἔστω τὶς κεφαλὴ, μόγις που χεὶρ τυγχάνων, ἢ ποὺς, ἢ ἄλλο τι τῶν εὐτελεστέρων μελῶν τοῦ σώματος. Ναι. Orat. 9. vid. etiam Orat. 26. p. 450, 453, 454. Quidam in corpore Christi oculi, quidam manus, &c. Basil. in Psalm 33. Οὐ παντὸς τὸ περὶ Θεοῦ φιλοσοφείν οὐχ οὕτω τὸ πρᾶγμα εὔωνον καὶ τῶν χαμαὶ ἐρχομένων ἀλλ ̓ ἔστιν ὅτε, καὶ οἶς, καὶ ἐφ' ὅσον, &c. Νaz. Orat. 33. as Nilus, archbishop of Thessalonica, doth largely declare in a book purposely written on that argument. Excellent counsel is that of Solomon, not only in a case he there puts, but in divers others;" If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place." Eccles. x. 4. E. sede itio,' may, with a little heat, turn into seditio. Consider, all are not eyes and hands in the body of Christ, to take upon them the burden of great affairs; and truth can seldom be worse served, than when a man who indeed loves it, but hath not parts nor learning enough to be a champion for it, shall put himself unseasonably upon disputes; and, so as he spake, "Veritatem defendendo concutere, to betray the truth by a weak defence. "Are all apostles?" saith Saint Paul; " Are all: prophets? Are all teachers ?" Hath not God dealt to every man a several measure? Hath he not placed every man in a several order? Have we not all work enough to do in our own places, except we rush into the labours, and intrude ourselves on the business of other men? Hæc magistro relinquat Aristoteli, canere ipse doceat." It was a smart rebuke of Tully against Aristoxenus the musician, who would needs turn philosopher:whereunto agreeth that answer of Basil the Great to the clerk of the Emperor's kitchen, when he jeered him for his soundness against the Arian faction, Σόν ἐστι, τῶν ζωμῶν καρύκης φροντίζειν, « Your business is to look to the seasoning of your broth, and not to revile the doctrine or the doctors of the church." Let us, therefore, content ourselves with the apostle's ruleEvery man to abide in the calling, and to keep the station wherein God hath set him; (1 Cor. vii. 24) and not out of ambition, discontent, emulation, or any other polypragmatical distemper, to grow weary of our own employments, and to immix and interpose ourselves in things, which are without and above order. Fourthly; Hereunto much conduceth, a brotherly mildness towards those who are contrary-minded: a mutual vyxaтáßaσis, and condescension' to the weakness of one с a Tusc. Quæst. Theod. Hist. l. 4. cap. 17. b Οὔ τοι, τέκνον ἐμὸν, δέδοται πολεμήϊα ἔργα ̓Αλλὰ σὺ γ ̓ ἱμερόεντα μετέρχεο ἔργα γάμοιο. Ταῦτα δ' Αρηϊ που - Συμπεkal 'Аohn пárra μeλhoei, Iliad. e. Vid. Euseb. 1. 5. hist. cap. 24. pievexoĥvai τoîs dσbeveσrépoîs, Basil. Epist. 203.-Vid. elegantissimum Naz. locum, Orat. p. 12. 203. |