Essays of Francis Bacon | Page 4

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 reuniting, 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