Francis Bacon - The Essays 1601
OF UNITY IN RELIGION
Religion being the chief
band of human society,
is a happy thing,
when
itself is well
contained within the true band of unity. The quarrels,
and
divisions about religion,
were evils unknown to the heathen.
The reason
was,
because the religion of the heathen,
consisted rather in rites and
ceremonies,
than in any constant belief.
For you may imagine,
what kind of
faith theirs was,
when the chief 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 speak a few words,
concerning the unity of the
church;
what are the fruits thereof; what the bounds;
and what the means.
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 certain, that
heresies, and schisms,
are of all others the greatest scandals; yea,
more
than corruption of manners.
For as in the natural body, a wound,
or
solution of continuity,
is worse than a corrupt humor;
so in the
spiritual. So that nothing,
doth so much keep
men out of the
church and
drive men
out of the church,
as breach of unity. And therefore,
whensoever
it cometh to that pass, that one saith, Ecce in deserto, another saith,
Ecce in penetralibus; that is,
when some men seek Christ,
in the
conventicles of heretics, and others,
in an outward face of a church,
that
voice had need
continually to sound in men's ears, Nolite exire, -Go 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
hear you speak with several tongues,
will he not say
that you are mad?
And
certainly it is little better, when atheists, and profane persons,
do hear
of so many discordant,
and contrary opinions in religion;
it doth avert
them from the church, and maketh them,
to sit down in
the chair 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 feigned library,
sets down this title
of a book, The Morris-Dance of Heretics. For indeed,
every sect of them,
hath a diverse posture,
or cringe by themselves,
which cannot but move
derision in worldlings, and depraved politics,
who are apt to
contemn holy
things.
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 labors 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 appear to be two
extremes.
For to certain zealants,
all speech of pacification is odious.
Is it peace, Jehu?
What hast thou to do with peace?
turn thee behind me.
Peace is not the matter, but following, and party. Contrariwise, certain
Laodiceans, and lukewarm persons,
think they may accommodate
points of
religion, by middle way,
and taking part of both,
and witty
reconcilements;
as if they would
make an arbitrament between God and man.
Both these extremes are to be avoided;
which will be done,
if the league
of Christians,
penned by our Savior himself,
were in two cross clauses
thereof,
soundly and plainly expounded:
He that is not with us,
is against
us; and again,
He that is not against us, is with us; that is,
if the
points fundamental
and of substance in religion,
were truly discerned and
distinguished,
from points not merely of faith, but of opinion, order,
or
good intention.
This is a thing
may seem to many a matter trivial,
and
done already.
But if it were done less partially,
it would be embraced
more generally.
Of this I may
give only this advice,
according to my small
model.
Men ought to take heed, 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 only
by contradiction. For,
as it is noted,
by one of the fathers, Christ's
coat indeed had no seam, but the church's
vesture was of divers colors;
whereupon he saith,
In veste varietas sit, scissura non sit;
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 subtilty, and
obscurity;
so that it becometh
a thing rather ingenious, than substantial.
A man that is
of judgment and understanding,
shall sometimes hear ignorant
men differ,
and know well within himself,
that those which so differ,
mean
one thing,
and yet they themselves would never agree.
And if it come
so to
pass,
in that distance of judgment,
which is between man and man,
shall we
not think that God above,
that knows the heart,
doth not discern that
frail 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 scientiae. Men create oppositions, which are not;
and put
them into new terms, so fixed,
as whereas the meaning
ought to govern the
term,
the term in effect governeth the meaning.
There be also two false
peaces, or unities: the one,
when the peace is grounded,
but upon an
implicit ignorance;
for all colors will
agree in the dark: the other,
when
it is pieced up,
upon a direct admission of contraries,
in fundamental
points.
For truth and falsehood, in such things,
are like the iron and
clay,
in the toes of Nebuchadnezzar's image; they may cleave,
but they
will not incorporate.
Concerning the means of procuring unity;
men must
beware,
that in the procuring, or muniting, of religious unity,
they do
not dissolve
and deface the laws of charity,
and of human society.
There
be two swords amongst Christians,
the spiritual and temporal;
and both
have their
due office and place,
in the maintenance of religion.
But we
may not
take up the third sword, which is Mahomet's sword,
or like unto
it; that is,
to propagate religion by wars,
or by sanguinary persecutions
to force consciences;
except it be in
cases of overt scandal, blasphemy,
or intermixture of practice against the state;
much less to nourish
seditions;
to authorize conspiracies and rebellions;
to put the sword
into
the people's hands; and the like;
tending to the subversion
of all
government,
which is the ordinance of God.
For this is but
to dash the
first
table against the second;
and so to consider men as Christians,
as
we forget that they are men. Lucretius the poet,
when he beheld the
act of
Agamemnon,
that could endure the
sacrificing of his own daughter,
exclaimed:
Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum.
What would he have said,
if he had known
of the massacre in France,
or the powder treason of
England?
He would have been
seven times more Epicure, and atheist,
than he
was.
For as the temporal
sword is to be
drawn with great circumspection
in
cases of religion;
so it is a thing monstrous,
to put it into
the hands of
the common people.
Let that be left unto the Anabaptists,
and other
furies.
It was great blasphemy,
when the devil said, I will ascend,
and be
like the highest;
but it is greater blasphemy, to personate God,
and bring
him in saying, I will descend,
and be like the prince of darkness;
and
what is it better,
to make the cause
of religion to descend,
to the cruel
and
execrable actions of murthering princes, butchery of people,
and
subversion of states and governments?
Surely this is to
bring down the
Holy Ghost,
instead of the likeness of a dove,
in the shape of
a vulture
or raven; and set,
out of the bark
of a Christian church,
a flag of a
bark
of pirates, and assassins.
Therefore it is most necessary,
that the
church,
by doctrine and decree,
princes by their sword, and all learnings,
both Christian and moral,
as by their Mercury rod,
do damn and send
to
hell for ever,
those facts and opinions
tending to the support
of the
same;
as hath been already
in good part done.
Surely in counsels
concerning religion,
that counsel of the
apostle would be prefixed,
Ira
hominis non implet justitiam Dei.
And it was a
notable observation of a
wise father,
and no less ingenuously confessed;
that those which held
and
persuaded pressure of consciences,
were commonly interested therein,
themselves,
for their own ends.
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