CHAP. III. OF THE WAYS OF PEACE, WHICH CONCERN THE PUBLIC. It remains that we now address ourselves to the laying forth of the PUBLIC ways of peace, such as concern Authority to walk in. SECT. 1. The First Public way of Peace: To suppress the beginnings of Spiritual Quarrels. Which shall be done, if (1.) The broachers of new opinions be by gentle means reclaimed:if (2.) The means of spreading Infection be timely cut off: which are [1.] The Society of the infected; [2.] The Press : -if (3.) Disturbers of Peace; either [1.] By sowing strife, and broaching new Opinions; or [2] By abetting Quarrels, and pertinaciously maintaining dangerous Errors, be timely suppressed. THE first whereof shall be, a careful endeavour TO SUPPRESS THE BEGINNINGS OF SPIRITUAL QUARRELS: a practice, which we may well take out from the authors of our municipal laws; who have taken so strict order against menacing words, which might draw on a fray, and routs and riots which may tend towards insurrection. Seldom do great mischiefs seize upon us wholly at once; but proceed, by certain degrees, to their full height: and, as it is in corruption of manners, so also in depravation of judgment, no man is worst at the first. It is a true word, which Gerson cites out of the Decree, That schism disposes towards heresy for he, that flies off from the Church, must pretend errors, lest he should seem to have made a causeless separation; and, where there is a discord, there will be strife. As that Father said of sin, we may truly say of errors, the beginnings of them are bashful; neither dare they, at their first rise, shew what they mean to be. It shall be therefore the best wisdom of Authority, to check the first motions of contention; and to kill this cockatrice in the egg. Remedies, seasonably applied, are seldom ineffectual. (1.) And this shall be done, first, if, when any heterodox or irregular doctrine shall be let fall, it be taken at the first rebound; and the author and avower fairly dealt withal, and b Jo. Gerson de Schismat. c Discordia, ubi animus est dissentiendi; lis, ubi, necessitate urgente, rem nostram repetimus. Moschon. de Judiciis. strongly convinced of his error; that so he may, by all gentle and loving persuasions, be reclaimed, before the leaven of his misopinion have spread any further, to the souring of others. It shall be needless, to urge how requisite it is, that all brotherly kindness should, in such case, be used. Our proceedings in the cure of the painful tumours of the body, direct us what to do in the spiritual: we lay suppling and mollifying plaisters to these angry swellings, ere we make use of the lancet. I find it a praise given to one Comitulus, a Bishop of Perusia, that he did paterne et materne loqui cum Clero; "treat with his Clergy with the gravity of a father and the affection of a mother" So should erring souls be dealt with. Rigour and roughness may not have place here: much less, cruelty and violence. Our story tells us of one Ithacius, a Spanish Bishop, that, out of his zeal, had obtained of the King, that the Priscillianists, a dangerous and perfidious sect, should be punished with death. A holier Bishop than he, whom the following Ages graced with the name of a Saint, Martin, took part with him in that zealous project: whom yet the rest of the Clergy and Church cried down for intolerably bloody. Upon their clamours, and the monition of an angel, as the story says, Martin bethinks himself of the oversight; recants his error; and professes, that ever since he had given way to that cruel sentence, he had sensibly found in himself a decay of that power of grace which he had formerly felt. What kind of courtesy shall we hold it in our Romish Casuists, that they advise their Confraternity of the blood of Christ, whom the Italians call their Confortatori; whose office is to attend their Heretics, our Martyrs, with tapers and images to their stakes; not to give way, by any means, that at their holy candles any torches should be lighted for the kindling of that fire, wherewith the Heretics should be burned. Their bloodthirsty cruelty adjudgeth us to that flame, which their merciful taper shall not kindle. They, that are prodigal of their faggots, stick to lend a light; and think themselves well discharged of our blood, which their wax would not be accessary unto. Certainly, these butcheries will never be owned in heaven. Fire and sword are no fit means to settle or recover truth". What will ye? saith the blessed Apostle: shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love and in the spirit of meekness? 1 Cor. iv. 21. He speaks not of a sword: he, whose weapons were a Barth. Gavant. Praxi Synod. Diocesanæ. Annotat. Sect. 2. e Vide Notas in Concil. Treverens. Les Confrates de la Sangre de Christo. Martin Vivald. Cas. Buc. not carnal, had nothing to do with that: he speaks of love and meekness; and at the worst, of a rod ". And, as he does, so he charges: Brethren, if any man be overtaken in a fault, whether of judgment or manners, ye, which are spiritual, restore such an one, in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also shouldst be tempted; Gal. vi. 1. A man of understanding, saith the wisest king, is of u cool spirit; Prov. xvii. 27. margin: not fiery and furious. Christ is the Lamb of God; Satan is a Lion; John i. 29; Rev. v. 6; 1 Peter v. 8. the meekness of this Lamb is that, which we must imitate; not the ferity of that Lion. "Be not a lion in thine own house," saith the Wise Man; Ecclus. iv. 30: nor yet in the house of God; as knowing, that the greatest authority in God's Church is given for edification, and not for destruction; 2 Cor. x. 8. and that the destroying of the body is not the way to save the soul. It was the praise of Proclus, Bishop of Constantinople, that he dealt mildly with all men; and, so much the sooner, drew men to Christ, with the cords of love. True belief may be wrought by persuasion; by compulsion, never. Let strong arguments therefore be fetters, wherewith the erring soul shall be bound: let the two edged sword of the Word and Spirit strike deep into the heart, and divide betwixt the man and his error; so, besides the Church's peace, I know not whether the agent or the patient be more happy. Brethren, saith St. James, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know, that he, which converteth the sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins; James v. 19, 20. (2.) In the second place, for the seasonable prevention of those mischiefs and disturbances which follow upon erroneous doctrines, it shall be requisite, to take timely order for cutting off the means and occasions of further spreading the infection thereof which are generally these two, either Personal Society, or Communication of Writings. [1.] In a bodily contagion, we hold it not safe to suffer the sick Persons to converse with the whole; but remove them to a pest-house, remote from the vicinity of others: a practice, which was also commanded by God himself to his ancient people the Jews, in case of their leprosy, which was equally, though not so deadly, infectious. Why should we not be so wise, for the preservation of souls, from the plague of pernicious doctrines1? Paulus cum ense et libro pingitur.-Mucro furor Pauli liber est conversio Sauli. Durand. Ration. 1. i. c. 3. i Socr. 1. vii. c. 40. * Si serpat venenum, et non sequatur illico antidotum, &c. Bern. Ep. 158. Qui cum lupis est cum lupis ululat. Gerson. It is a true word, that of the Wise Man, "He, that toucheth pitch, shall be defiled therewith;" Ecclus. xiii. 1: no less truly seconded by Tertullian: "Who doubts not," saith he, "but that faith is continually blurred and defaced by the conversation of infidels"?" Neither is it much other, that St. Paul fetches out of the heathen poet Menander", and thereby makes canonical. Most seasonable and needful therefore was that charge of Moses, in the case of Korah's desperate mutiny, Get you out from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs; lest ye be consumed in all their sins; Num. xvi. 24, 26. And the Chosen Vessel, to the same purpose, unto the Christians under the Gospel, revives the like charge from Isaiah; Come out from among them; and be ye separate; and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you; 2 Cor. vi. 17; Isa. lii. 11o. Out of the foreknowledge of this danger it was, that God gave order for the riddance of the seven nations out of the Land of Promise: They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me; Exod. xxiii. 33. And when, afterwards, it appeared that some of those forbidden people were still harboured amongst his Jews, the charge is renewed by Joshua, Come not among these nations, that remain amongst you; neither make mention of the name of their gods; Josh. xxiii. 7. In imitation whereof, it hath been the wisdom of Christian lawgivers, not to allow the residence of heretical persons within their territories. Amongst the rest, that general, and, as it was called, Trabal law was famous, which forbids all heretics, Arians, Macedonians, and others, to convene or abide upon any part of Roman ground. And the godly Church-governors of former Ages, have herein not so much followed as led the way to this just zeal of Christian Emperors. The contestations of Athanasius and Ambrose, in this kind, are better known, than that they need any particular relations. In all which, they approved themselves such as they are called, good shepherds, by a seasonable separation of the diseased and scabby sheep from the rest of their flock, that they might escape a common infection. Upon this ground it is, that both our laws and constitutions have ever straitly inhibited the private convenings of many Quis non dubitat obliterari quotidie fidem commercio infideli? Tert. ad n 1 Cor. xv. 33. 40eipovoi, &c. Uxorem. • Firma tutela salutis est scire quem fugius; periculosa res est hæresis, &c. Chrys. Hom. 19. in Matth. P Nusquam in Romano solo conveniendi morandique habeant facultatem. Ex Justiniano Pamel. de Diversis Relig. non admittendis. c. 18. Cum schismaticis nec secularis panis debet esse communis, multo minùs spiritualis. Cypr. 1. i. Ep. 6. persons disaffected to the religion established': who, by this means, take the opportunity of diffusing their mis-opinions, to the woeful distraction of the Church; and to whet the edge of each other against the received truth: the inconveniences whereof upon a liberty, not given but taken, we have sufficiently felt, and can never sufficiently bewail. Certainly, there is no less venom in error, than in vice; neither are moral evils more dangerous and mortal, than the intellectual. What good magistrate can endure, that, according to the Prophet's complaint, Men should assemble themselves by troops in the harlots' houses? Jer. v. 7. Amongst the Abassins, although their courtezans have public stipends from the common stock; yet they are not allowed to come into their cities: so as those, which connive at their sin, yet endure not their frequence. How can it be less sinful or unsafe, for those who are defiled with their own works, and go a whoring after their own inventions, to be suffered to pack together the spiritual corruptions of themselves and many thousands? [2.] But there is nothing, that hath so much power to poison the world, as the Press; which is able, in one day's warning, to scatter a heresy over the whole face of the earth. In the times of our forefathers, when every page and line was to pass the leisure and pains of a single pen, books were geason; and, if offensive, could not so easily light into many hands to work a speedy mischief. Error, that could but creep then, doth now fly; and, in a moment, cuts the air of several regions. As we are, therefore, highly beholden to that witty citizen of Mentz' for his invention of this nimble Art of Impression, whereby knowledge hath not been a little propagated to the world; so we have reasons to rue the inconveniences, that have followed upon the abuse of this so beneficial a practice. For, as all men are apt to write their own fancies; so they have, by this means, had opportunity to divulge their conceits to all eyes and ears whence it hath come to pass, that those monstrous opinions, which had been fit only to be condemned to perpetual darkness, have at once both visited and infected the public light, to the infinite scandal of the Church and shame of the Gospel". Never age or nation hath had more cause to cry out of this mischief, than this of ours. I hold my hands from the particulars, that I may not seem to accuse in a Treatise of Peace. Nulla cum malis convivia vel colloquia misceantur; simusque ab iis tam separati, quàm sunt illi ab Ecclesiá Dei profugi. Cypr. 1. i. Pory's Introduct. to Leo Afric. Joan. Fast. Moguntinus civis, &c. non plumali canná neque æreá; sed arte quádum perpulchrá, Petri manu, pueri mei, &c. Subscriptum libro Tullii Ciceronis de Officiis, in Biblioth. Col. Emanuelis, et alibi. Quis non horreat profanas novitates et verborum et sensuum? Bern. Ep. 190. |