Religio Medici, Hydriotaphia, et al, | Page 8

do desire, and may
conceive that revolution of time and the mercies of God may effect, yet
that judg- ment that shall consider the present antipathies between the
two extremes,--their contrarieties in condition, affection, and
opinion,--may, with the same hopes, expect a union in the poles of
heaven.
Sect. 5.--But, to difference myself nearer, and draw into a lesser
circle; there is no church whose every part so squares unto my
conscience, whose articles, constitu- tions, and customs, seem so
consonant unto reason, and, as it were, framed to my particular

devotion, as this whereof I hold my belief--the Church of England; to
whose faith I am a sworn subject, and therefore, in a double obligation,
subscribe unto her articles, and en- deavour to observe her constitutions:
whatsoever is beyond, as points indifferent, I observe, according to the
rules of my private reason, or the humour and fashion of my devotion;
neither believing this because Luther affirmed it, nor disproving that
because Calvin hath dis- avouched it. I condemn not all things in the
council of Trent, nor approve all in the synod of Dort.<3> In brief,
where the Scripture is silent, the church is my text; where that speaks,
'tis but my comment;<4> where there is a joint silence of both, I
borrow not the rules of my religion from Rome or Geneva, but from the
dictates of my own reason. It is an unjust scandal of our ad- versaries,
and a gross error in ourselves, to compute the nativity of our religion
from Henry the Eighth; who, though he rejected the Pope, refused not
the faith of Rome,<5> and effected no more than what his own pre-
decessors desired and essayed in ages past, and it was conceived the
state of Venice would have attempted in our days.<6> It is as
uncharitable a point in us to fall upon those popular scurrilities and
opprobrious scoffs of the Bishop of Rome, to whom, as a temporal
prince, we owe the duty of good language. I confess there is a cause of
passion between us: by his sentence I stand excommunicated; heretic is
the best language he affords me: yet can no ear witness I ever returned
to him the name of antichrist, man of sin, or whore of Babylon. It is the
method of charity to suffer without reaction: those usual satires and
invectives of the pulpit may per- chance produce a good effect on the
vulgar, whose ears are opener to rhetoric than logic; yet do they, in no
wise, confirm the faith of wiser believers, who know that a good cause
needs not be pardoned by passion, but can sustain itself upon a
temperate dispute.
Sect. 6.--I could never divide myself from any man upon the
difference of an opinion, or be angry with his judgment for not agreeing
with me in that from which, perhaps, within a few days, I should
dissent myself. I have no genius to disputes in religion: and have often
thought it wisdom to decline them, especially upon a disadvantage, or
when the cause of truth might suffer in the weakness of my patronage.
Where we desire to be informed, 'tis good to contest with men above
our- selves; but, to confirm and establish our opinions, 'tis best to argue

with judgments below our own, that the frequent spoils and victories
over their reasons may settle in ourselves an esteem and confirmed
opinion of our own. Every man is not a proper champion for truth, nor
fit to take up the gauntlet in the cause of verity; many, from the
ignorance of these maxims, and an inconsiderate zeal unto truth, have
too rashly charged the troops of error and remain as trophies unto the
enemies of truth. A man may be in as just possession of truth as of a
city, and yet be forced to surrender; 'tis therefore far better to enjoy her
with peace than to hazard her on a battle. If, therefore, there rise any
doubts in my way, I do forget them, or at least defer them, till my better
settled judgment and more manly reason be able to resolve them; for I
perceive every man's own reason is his best OEdipus,<7> and will,
upon a reasonable truce, find a way to loose those bonds where- with
the subtleties of error have enchained our more flexible and tender
judgments. In philosophy, where truth seems double-faced, there is no
man more para- doxical than myself: but in divinity I love to keep the
road; and, though not in an implicit, yet an humble faith, follow the
great wheel of the church, by which I move; not reserving any proper
poles, or motion from the epicycle of my own brain. By this means I
have no gap for heresy, schisms, or errors,