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THE PREFACE<503> - Pierre Bayle, A Philosophical Commentary on These Words of the Gospel, Luke 14.23, ‘Compel Them to Come In, That My House May Be Full’ [1686]

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A Philosophical Commentary on These Words of the Gospel, Luke 14.23, ‘Compel Them to Come In, That My House May Be Full’, edited, with an Introduction by John Kilcullen and Chandran Kukathas (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005).

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


THE PREFACE<503>

Containing the Reasons for suppressing a large and particular Answer to the Treatise of the Rights of the two Sovereigns, &c. The chiefest of which Reasons is this; That one may in five or six Pages, as shall be seen anon, draw up an unanswerable Defence of what has bin censur’d in the Philosophical Commentary.

Two things might have induc’d me to believe, that I shou’d quickly see an Answer to my Philosophical Commentary: First, if I had allow’d this general Thesis, That Princes ought to proceed in a way of Authority, and by temporal Punishments, against Schismaticks or Hereticks; next, if I had handl’d this matter as jejunely as Castalio did in the last Age, under the name of Martinus Bellius. It must<504> be own’d, the true Topick of this Question was not known in those days; I mean, the Principles and Source of the Arguments, by which the Doctrine of Non-Toleration, either total or partial, is to be overthrown. Accordingly it happen’d, that poor Castalio was presently run down at a strange rate, and very roughly handled by Theodore Beza;162who, were he now to come into the World, durst not attempt answering today’s Writings in defence of Toleration: so much are they beyond those of former days!

But as I took care not to lay my self open on the side of Recrimination, the only thing which gives the Romish Apologists for Persecution an Advantage over our Divines, ever since the great Lights of the present Age have discover’d the true Topick of this Question163(those Divines I mean, who assert, that Princes are bound as Guardians of Religion, by their temporal Authority, to extinguish Heresys, and that my Opinion, touching the Rights of Conscience, leads to Deism) I believ’d my Work wou’d hardly be attack’d, especially with regard to what had bin advanc’d in it concerning the Obligations of acting according to the Lights of Conscience. For tho some Objections, ’tis true, may be made against this, and have actually bin propos’d to my self a hundred times in Conversation; yet it was not probable, that any one wou’d appear in print against a Doctrine which seems to be one of the first Notices of Reason, and suppos’d as a Principle in all Treatises of Morality; all having adopted it, even Hobbs himself, in several places of his Treatise de Cive.

Notwithstanding, I had scarce receiv’d the Account of my Commentary’s being publish’d, when the Post from Amsterdam brought me a Treatise con-<505>cerning the Rights of the two Sovereigns;164wherein the Author advances, that Princes are bound to maintain Religion by destroying Sectarys, and that denying this, as I have done, is an Extreme, vicious to a degree of Folly; that besides, my Opinion concerning the Rights of Conscience, leads directly to Deism. The Author of this Treatise seem’d to be a very good Protestant, which makes the matter so much the worse; as it gives ground to suspect, that we are still of the Mind of the first Reformers, as to the punishing of Hereticks, which must needs enervate and pall the greatest part of our Remonstrances against the late Proceedings in France.

At the same time I was inform’d by several Persons here, that before I had quite finish’d my Commentary, a famous Divine of Holland, in an Answer of his, to a Book entitl’d, The pretendedly Reform’d convicted of Schism, had*attack’d my Opinion about Toleration, and the Rights of Conscience; which ’twas but fit I shou’d know, that I might satisfy all his Difficultys. I was of the same Mind, but their Advice came too late.

The first Page I look’d into, upon opening the Rights of the two Sovereigns, let me understand, that he imputed it to me as my declar’d Opinion, that nothing a body does, in following the Instincts of Conscience, can be sinful; and happening to cast my eye slightly over it, I can safely say, I never lit upon a Page, having open’d it in several places, where I did not find this false Supposition reign, evidently contrary to the plainest and most express Declarations in several Passages of my Commentary; as,<506> not to cite all, particularly pag. 241, 242, 251, 266.

Upon this I took leave of the Treatise of the Two Sovereigns, and contented my self with writing, for the whole Reply, a short Letter to my Bookseller, which was publish’d before the third Part.165As to what concerns the Author of the True System, I carefully read over all he had said upon this Question; and tho I found he had manag’d the Argument like a Man of Sense, and practis’d in Dispute, yet I cou’d not see he had offer’d any one Argument which I might not have confuted solidly, and which an intelligent Reader might not answer of himself, by the help of the Solutions, which I had given to most of this Author’s Objections, which are the very same that had bin propos’d to my self a thousand times over in Conversation; for they offer at first sight to whoever meditates on this matter.

Accordingly I thought it needless to write a new Treatise, and pass’d some Months in this Disposition.

But the Advice I soon after receiv’d from Holland, that the Author of the Rights of the two Sovereigns was not, as he pretended, and as I might well have believ’d on his own Word, a young Volunteer, and this his first Exploit; and that the contrary appear’d from some Expressions in his Advice to the Reader, where he tells the World, that he’s afraid he shall be look’d on as a Man posted Centinel to challenge and stop all bad Books, which gives us an Image of an old Stager who has often appear’d in print:166this Advice, I say, together with some Objections propos’d to me, which were borrow’d from this Book, and with which I saw some were struck, oblig’d me to read it over with more than ordinary Care; and I own, it then appear’d<507> to me much more tolerable than I had judg’d it at first sight. Yet still I dare not affirm, as a great many do, that this is a Work of the Author of the True System of the Church. He had done better, in my Opinion, upon such a Subject as this.

But be it whose it wou’d, I resolv’d to answer the Treatise, and to divide my Book into three Parts. The first to contain some Supplements, which to me seem’d proper for utterly silencing Compellers. The second to be an Answer to the three Chapters of the True System of the Church, cited before in the Margin, and to all the Objections of the Author of the Rights of the two Sovereigns, which consist either in Texts of Scripture, or in horrible Consequences, flowing, as he pretends, from my Opinion; and which, like a Man of Skill in Controvertist Tactick, he has posted in the Outworks of his Book, to startle the Reader at first glance, and put him upon his Guard against me. The third to destroy his whole System, Root and Branch, his Maxims, his Aphorisms, and all he has said directly for his own Opinion.

I press’d the Execution of this Design with so much Ardor, that I had as good as finish’d it by the Latter end of December, 1687. and to redeem the lost time I gave my Translators, or rather, Paraphrasts (for to tell the Truth, they made a full use of the Liberty I allow’d ’em, of accommodating my Thoughts to their own Sense and Stile) my Sheets, fresh from the Pen; and as soon as the first Part was render’d into French, they sent it away to the Printer, with Orders to work it off as soon as possible.

But mark what happen’d, and which I think my self oblig’d to mention in this place, that the World may know the Reasons why only a small part of this Work is like to appear.<508>

Having finish’d my three Parts, and the Translators their Version, I had the Curiosity to look it over, and see all the Sheets together; and then it was, that I began to think they must never see the Light, for in reality they made a Pile which even astonish’d me.

This Prolixity proceeded, I. Partly from my not keeping the Sheets by me as I was writing this Work, so that I cou’d not perceive its swelling to such a prodigious Bulk. 2. Partly from a way I have of endeavoring to bring things to the greatest Evidence possible; which requires the confuting all the little Cavils which an Adversary can be suppos’d to think of, and the strengthening the main Argument by several Proofs, firmly supported and link’d together: a great Variety presenting to my Mind in the heat of the Argument. 3. Partly from my Matter’s having a necessary Connexion with a thousand Incidents which engag’d me in new, profound, and nice Discussions; the want of which might bring an Author under a Suspicion of Disingenuity or Unfairness. 4. Partly from the Circumstances of Time, which have produc’d a great Variety of Arguments here among our selves, for and against the Penal Laws, the taking off the Test, &c. all which I was oblig’d to examine. 5. Partly from hence, that they who translated the Work from the English, cou’d not, as they pretended, purge off its native Air without running into a diffuse Stile; besides, that they were pleas’d to divert themselves with mixing several Notions of their own, sometimes borrowing from one System, sometimes from another, and imitating here one Author’s manner of Thinking, but not his Stile; there the Stile of another, but not his way of Thinking: thus affecting an Inequality in the whole, which makes, say they, the Readers<509> ascribe the Commentary to several different Persons, without ever guessing, either at them, or at me; overjoy’d they cou’d disguise so artfully, and puzzle your Finders out of the Fathers of Anonymous or Pseudonymous Books.

The length of the Work, the three Parts of which had each made a Volume of 25 Sheets, was a just Reason for suppressing it; and how was it likely there shou’d be Readers found, much less Buyers, for so bulky a Work, at a time when one can hardly read over the Mercurys, Journals, and stitch’d Pamphlets, which swarm every where in the Booksellers Shops. But when I came to consider the Nature of the Matters treated, and which I have sometimes push’d a little too far, I found a second, and much a stronger Reason for condemning my Work to the shades of the Closet.167Accordingly the Bookseller was order’d to put a stop to the Impression; and, as good luck wou’d have it, he was not got so far in the first Part, as the Reflections on the Disposition of this Country, in relation to the Test. A Subject which was not perhaps so seasonable at this juncture, considering the Train which our Affairs seem to take.

What I had said in the third Part,168touching the Dispute betwixt us and the Church of Rome, about the Rule of Faith,169startl’d my self when I came to consider it all together; for I have shewn, that the Charge of Temerity, which the Author170of the Pretendedly Reform’d convicted of Schism, pushes so home, and in short, the insuperable Difficultys in examining Scripture which have bin all along objected against us; are never to be answer’d but by a way of Retorsion, and by putting the same Arms into the hands of Infidels against Christianity: which tending either to Pyrrho-<510>nism,171or to lull Men in an ill-grounded Assurance of Salvation, there’s a necessity of coming into my System. And without this I make appear, that the next and only surest way is to turn Psychopannichist,172if one cou’d in this World, or at least Omphalopsyche,173or perfect Quietist; and not such as Molinos, who approves, as they say, the most agitating and most polluting Operations of Soul and Body. This likewise had bin somewhat unseasonable.

A Short and Peremptory Answer to all that has bin publish’d against the Rights of an erroneous Conscience.

But what most of all determin’d me to suppress my large Work, was this:

I consider’d, that the chief Reason which shou’d oblige me to reply, was the justifying my self against the odious Imputations with which my Opinion was loaded; as tending to an Indifference for all Religion, and a hundred other wicked Consequences of the same kind. Whoever gives heed to Aspersions of this nature, quits all Claim to the Character of an Intelligent Reader, who judges for himself, and from an attentive Examination of what may be said o’ both sides; and must be content to be rank’d with another sort of Readers, who are govern’d by a way of Prejudice, and who having observ’d, that a Reverend Divine,174in very high Esteem for his Zeal, for his Orthodoxy, and for his Capacity too; and another Author,175who describes himself as posted on the Pass to challenge all Books, and stop the bad; have treated my Doctrine as pernicious: have ground enough, without informing themselves further, to conclude, that the matter must be so. These are the Men<511> with whom I am and ought to justify my self, good Refugees for the most part, and worthy that all occasion of Scandal be taken out of their way; especially considering, that nothing had determin’d me to write the Commentary, but a Sense of the sad Hardships they have undergone.

But what service cou’d a vast Collection of Arguments and Authoritys do me with them; a tedious Train of Reasonings, sometimes a little too abstracted and metaphysical; Clusters of Reflexions on Passages of Scripture, founded on good Sense much more than on the usual beaten Common-places? Wou’d they read a word of ’em, when they saw the Book so bulky? Wou’d they read my Arguments and Discussions all together? Cou’d they always comprehend ’em with that Clearness which is necessary for perceiving the weight of ’em? No, there’s not the least likelihood of this: So that all my pains cou’d be of use only to those who were able before to decide upon this Dispute from the Pieces I have already publish’d, and which to me appear more than sufficient with regard to them. My business therefore was to find out the shortest Proof of the Innocence of my Opinion, and the most obvious to every Understanding; and having had the good fortune to light on it, I thought it best to drop my long Defence.

This Proof is drawn from a Passage of the True System of the Church, whereby it appears that the Author and I are exactly of a mind: Therefore to reason now after this manner.

My Opinion is the same as that of the Author of the True System of the Church.

Therefore it’s Orthodox.

There’s not a Man to be found, among those Readers with whom I stand in need of a Justification,<512> who won’t receive the Consequence with open arms: and as to our Conformity, which serves for the Principle, here’s an instance of it, obvious enough to every Capacity.

The Words of the Author of the True System of the Church, p. 307.

Nay, tho we were actually in the wrong, as to all the Points which keep up the Separation betwixt us and the Church of Rome, yet we shou’d be oblig’d in Conscience to separate from her, and persist in our Separation, till persuaded she has Reason of her side. We are convinc’d in our Consciences, that the Bread in the Eucharist is not the true Body of our Lord; and this being the case, we shou’d be Idolaters, Hereticks, and Hypocrites, shou’d we re-unite with the Church of Rome, and submit to the Decisions of its Councils in this matter. This Principle is self-evident to all who have the least Freedom of Thought, and who know what the Empire of Conscience is, and to what a degree one offends whene’er he resists it.*

He afterwards examines some Objections; the first of which is, That Hereticks who believe themselves<513> unjustly condemn’d by a Church, sin not in separating from her: To which he answers, that this does not follow; “because,” says he, “one always sins in following the Motions of a Conscience either ignorant, or surpriz’d by the Illusions of Error.” Then he shews how these two things may be reconcil’d: first, that one is oblig’d to separate from the true Church when he believes it false; next, that he sins in so separating. “This,” says he p. 308. “happens, because Conscience always obliges, in whatever state it is, to do that in which there’s manifestly less Sin: Now there’s less sin in a Heretick’s separating, than in his persevering in the Orthodox Church, while he believes it Heretical and Idolatrous.”

I shan’t examine how it’s possible to reconcile this to the three Chapters cited above; this is none of my business: I only say, that the words which I have now quoted being subsequent to the three Chapters, are to be reputed the true Sense of the Author, as a Will of a latter date passes for the true Will of the Testator preferably to all former Wills. To which I add, that these very Words contain in substance all that I have said concerning the Rights of an erroneous Conscience.

For it follows from these Passages, that if Luther and Calvin were persuaded of what they spoke against the Church of Rome, they were oblig’d to act as they did, even tho we shou’d suppose the Church of Rome to be really what she pretends, to wit, the Holy Catholick Church mention’d in the Apostles Creed, the Spouse ofJesus Christ,his mystical Body, his Dove, the Ark out of which there is neither Grace nor Salvation.<514>

An erroneous Conscience then lays a Man under an Obligation of revolting against the true Mother Church, of raising the Rabble upon her, seducing as many of her Children as he can, and drawing Citys, Provinces, Kingdoms, into Rebellion against her, spoiling her of her Temples, breaking down her Altars and Images, and defaming her throughout the world for an errand Prostitute, &c. If an erroneous Conscience lays under this Obligation, it lays one by the same rule under that of erecting a new Form of Church-Government and Worship, of establishing Pastors and Consistorys, and all the other Institutions which are necessary for the maintaining Societys, enlarging ’em, making ’em prosper, &c.

Here then we find the very Maxim, against which such a Cry has bin rais’d, contain’d in the Doctrines of the Author of the True System, to wit, That Error in the guise of the Truth enters upon all the Rights and Privileges of Truth; or, which is the same thing, lest any one shou’d take exception at a word, That a Man who’s persuaded such a Doctrine is the pure Truth reveal’d by God, is oblig’d, tho absolutely in an Error, to have all the same Regard and Sollicitousness for this Doctrine, as he ought to have for the celestial Truth who has the good fortune to know it.

For what shou’d it proceed from, that a Heretick is oblig’d, according to this Author, to separate from the true Church; but from hence, that an Orthodox is oblig’d to separate from an Heretical Communion? All the Right the Heretick enjoys is borrow’d, without doubt, from that which belongs to the Truth, for which he’s persuaded he is acting; or, which is the same thing, all his Right consists in this, that he ought to avoid the shock which he must give to Truth and Order, if he did not act according to Conscience;<515> which shock is a greater Sin, than that which he may fall into by following his false Conscience.

Now as it’s impossible to grant, that Heresy disguis’d in the colors of Truth obliges to make a breach with the true Church, without granting at the same time that she obliges to all the natural Consequences of Schism, that is, to the establishing in the schismatical Society the properest Regulations that the Scripture prescribes for the maintaining the true Church; it follows, that Heresy engages every one to all that Luther and Calvin had done, that is, to endeavor, as much as in him lies, to gain over from the Church he has quitted those who still persevere in it, by maintaining with Zeal and Power, as well in Preaching as in Writing, what he takes to be the Truth: and if the Scriptures warrant the making use of corporal Punishments and Armys for the converting of Men, Heresy obliges to these methods also; for the building up her self on the Ruins of the true Church.

The Author cannot deny these Consequences; for he that may do the greater, may do the lesser. A Province which has a right to revolt, has that of chusing a Leader, of establishing a Civil Judicature, and in general of following all the Lights of true Policy, for maintaining the publick Peace, and for helping those to shake off the Yoke of Tyranny, whom she believes Reason, and Piety, and Charity, oblige her to have a compassion of.

And this alone destroys what the Author of the Defence of the Reformation,176and that of the True System,177have advanc’d as a Maxim; That nothing but the Truth has a right to be preach’d: a Principle which they themselves have contradicted, one in a Memoir presented to the King, on occasion of the Declaration making the Conversion of Children of seven<516> years of age valid; the other, in the second Volume of the Politicks of the Clergy,178on occasion of the same Declaration. They have both laid down as constant Principles, that the Education of Children belongs to the Parents, and cannot be deny’d ’em, without violating the most sacred Laws of Nature. They are in the right; but from hence follows,

That Error has a right to be preach’d and taught: for if it had not such a right, the Orthodox might have a just ground for hindring Infidels and Hereticks to instruct their own Children; and then the taking these Children out of their hands wou’d be a most just Action: whereas both these Authors brand it, when practis’d with regard even to Jews, as a very great Abomination.

Now if Heretical Parents have a right to instruct their Children in their Errors, they have a right to have Schoolmasters of their own, Catechists, Preceptors, Preachers, as well to teach their Children, as to improve themselves more and more by the Conversation of Persons more learned than they.

But here’s something stronger still; to wit, That if an erroneous Conscience obliges to make a Schism, as the Author of the System owns, there’s no Action so enormous, which it does not oblige to the commission of; for we can’t conceive a Crime more heinous than that of Luther and Calvin, upon a supposition that the Church of Rome were really what it pretends. If Luther then and Calvin were oblig’d to do what they did, as this Author owns, tho their Consciences shou’d in reality be as erroneous as the Papists suppose, they ought by a stronger reason to commit any lesser Sin than Schism from the Instincts of their Consciences; for he that may do the greater, may the lesser in all these matters.<517>

Now I don’t know where we can find out Crimes, which are not of a less heinous nature than that of rending the mystical Body ofJesus Christ,that Spouse which he has redeem’d with his Blood, that Mother which begets us to God, which nourishes us with the Milk of that Wisdom which is without guile, which leads us to everlasting Bliss. What fouler Crime can we think of, than rebelling against such a Mother, than defaming her all the world over, endeavoring to stir up her Children against her, tearing ’em from her bosom by Millions, to drag ’em as much as in us lies into everlasting Flames, they and their Posterity from Generation to Generation? Where can we find the first-rate High Treason against the Divine Majesty, unless in Instances of this kind; considering it’s notorious, that a Spouse who tenderly loves his Wife, and perfectly knows her Vertue, judges himself much more affronted by Libels, which make her pass for a Punk prostituted to Dog and Cur, than by any Scandals rais’d of himself?

Of all the Crimes that a Subject can fall into, none is more horrible than that of rebelling against his lawful Prince, and stirring up as many Provinces as he can, with a design of dethroning him, tho by the ruin of all the Provinces which continue faithful.

Now as much as the Divine, the Supernatural, the Heavenly, exceed the Human, the Natural, and the Earthly; so much the Church, the Spouse of our LordJesus Christ,surpasses all Societys, Kingdoms, and Commonwealths: And so much all Rebellions against the Church exceed those against the State in Sin. Mr. Daillé has touch’d this matter very worthily in the beginning of his Apology.

Hence one might insist, that were the Church of Rome what she boasts her self, Luther and Calvin<518> had sin’d beyond all comparison more heinously in making a Schism, than if they had, I won’t say, cut a couple of Travellers throats in the skirt of a Wood, or bin cutting of Purses for ten years together at a Church-door; but if they had poison’d or stab’d Charles V or Francis I from an Instinct of Conscience, and a false Persuasion that they had an extraordinary Impulse from on high to such a Work.

So that the Author of the System cannot reasonably deny but Luther and Calvin, since they were in his opinion oblig’d to act as they did against the Church of Rome, even tho their Conscience had bin erroneous, and the Church of Rome bin what she pretends; were likewise oblig’d to reach forth their hand against their lawful Prince, if they had felt an inward Impulse of Conscience to such an Attempt: and so of every other evil Action; for, once again, he that may do the greater, may the lesser.

’Twill behove him then, if he please, to answer all the Difficultys, which he and the Author of the Rights of the two Sovereigns, have offer’d against the Doctrine I have advanc’d; for I shall trouble my self about it no further, seeing I may rely on another, who for the future is as much concern’d as I; there being no one ill Consequence imputable to me, which results not from what he has precisely establish’d in Pag. 307. of his System.

I admire the Author of the Rights of the two Sovereigns, wou’d bring Ravillac179so often upon the stage, without taking notice of these two things; first, My answering, that ’twas a folly to press me with Consequences of this kind, since the opposite Opinion cou’d not remedy the Evil; it being a Contradiction, that a Man shou’d be persuaded his Conscience obliges him to this or that, and that his Conscience is de-<519>ceiv’d. Thus every one is persuaded his Conscience is true; and since all the World’s agreed, that one ought to follow the Instincts of a true Conscience, don’t they say enough to encourage Ravillac in his execrable Design? Is it pardonable to trump up an Objection a hundred times, which has bin invincibly confuted, and not offer the least word in answer?

The next thing is, That People imagine, without any good grounds, that a Man who believes himself inspir’d by God to excite one Prince to make war upon another, and destroy him root and branch, and cries out till he’s hoarse again for the execution of his Commission; is not as great a Villain, if deceiv’d, as he who believing he has had an Inspiration to kill the same Prince, and, yet deceiv’d, does actually kill him. Let’s suppose Drabicius180to have taken for Inspiration what was only a Crack or Disorder in his Brain; did not he design, pray, to cause as much mischief in the world as Ravillac? The latter govern’d himself by the High-Priest’s Maxim, It’s expedient that one Man shou’d die for a great many: On the contrary, Drabicius never thought of finding out the One who shou’d be a Price for the Many, but chose to arm a hundred thousand Men against the Emperor, who in four Campagns must have committed a hundred thousand millions of Sins, Profanations, vain Oaths, Pilferings, Burnings, Rapines, Murders, and utterly ruin’d the Lord knows how many innocent Familys. Yet my Adversarys, do they doubt, if this good Man was sincere, as ’tis very probable he was, but that all the Extravagances of his Imagination, all his Efforts, in following the Instincts of an erroneous Conscience, to stir up a bloody and destructive War, pass’d for very venial Sins in the sight of God.<520>

This is truly what we may call weighing things with unequal Weights, looking only at the Surface, swallowing a Camel, and straining at a Gnat: or if this be not so, let ’em assign a good Reason, I shall be oblig’d to ’em, so it be really a good one; that is, founded on the Reality and intrinsick Nature of Objects, more than on the first Impression, which things make from Custom, and a Contagion of Imaginations: Let ’em, I say, assign such a Reason as this, to shew that a Man falsly persuaded he’s inspir’d, and call’d forth by God to avenge his Church, and who sounds to War by his Writings, by his Sermons, imitating Isaiah and the other antient Prophets to get Leagues and Confederacys form’d, who wishes from his Soul, he had the Power that Pompey the Great once boasted, to raise an Army of a hundred thousand Men with a stamp of his Foot, that he might send ’em away, with his holy and paternal Benediction, into the persecuting States, there to ravage and do their worst; sins less than another deluded Soul, who imagining he has such another Inspiration, to avenge the Church by the Death of his Prince, steals into his Palace, and dispatches him with a Dagger.

Whoever thorowly considers this, will find it hard to justify the first of these, rather than the second: the former designing to involve an infinite number of innocent People, in the Punishment of the guilty; and not being able to alledg in excuse, without exposing himself for a dastardly poor Wretch, who wou’d do mischief at a distance, and without hazarding his own Skin, or putting himself to Trouble (even tho it did not follow, that he must hereby resist a divine Inspiration) that if he had been under the Persuasion of the second, he wou’d not have made the Attempt.<521> Happy for one and t’other, might they both appear before the Throne of God, as distemper’d in Brain; having, for Example, each the Pinal Gland set athwart in his Noddle, or expos’d from time to time to the Distillations of a petrifying Humor; which, as overwhelming Cause, might occasion those Paroxisms, and Fits of their pretended Inspiration: their Crimes in this case cou’d no more be imputed to ’em, than to a Frantick or Lunatick; supposing ’em forc’d into ’em by an overwhelming Physical Cause.

Whatever it be, my Opinion and that of the Author of the True System are exactly conformable.

For if I hold, that one is oblig’d to do what his Conscience suggests, as fit to be done; he holds the same.

If he says, that the reason of this is, that hereby he avoids at least the greater Sin; I say the same.

If he says, that it does not from hence follow, that the Party commits an Action void of all Sin; I say so too: and have repeated it so often, that I wonder, how an Author, who has taken upon him to confute me, can pretend any cause of Ignorance.

If I say, that Conscience erring from an invincible Ignorance excuses; he says the same: for I don’t think, he’l disown what his Second, the Author of the Rights of the two Sovereigns, lays down at Page 238. to wit, “That all invincible Ignorance excuses, as well in points of Right as Fact”; and shou’d he disown this, can he disavow what’s to be read at the 189th Page of the System, “That the Truth obliges not, unless where reveal’d and preach’d.” Which plainly imports, That they who obey not a Command, which is neither reveal’d nor preach’d to ’em, are blameless; and by consequence,<522> that an Action committed from an invincible Ignorance is exempt from Sin.

All the difference that can be between us in this matter, is, That I have advanc’d several Remarks, by way of Conjecture, to insinuate, that there are abundantly more in an invincible Ignorance, than we imagine. But this makes no difference at all in the Substance of our Doctrines; since it’s evident, I can have nothing particular on this Head, but bare Conjecture: God alone knowing who are, or are not, maliciously in Error. And I shall never be asham’d of being more favorable in my Opinion, to the Salvation of Men, than others are in theirs.

These last Reasons might likewise have determin’d me to suppress my Answer to the Rights of the two Sovereigns; it being notorious, that all the Difficultys and Objections there offer’d against me, all the Authoritys of Scripture, prove no more, than that it does not follow, a Man is acquitted of Sin, on the score of doing what his Conscience suggests. And having shewn, that I don’t maintain the contrary; there’s nothing farther in it, that can touch me. But if these Objections, these Texts of Scripture, import, that a Man is never acquitted of Sin, by following an erroneous Conscience; it must be allow’d me, that this likewise proves, either there’s no such thing as invincible Ignorance, or if there be, yet that it does not excuse. In either case, this Author proves nothing more against me, than against himself, and against the Author of the True System. I have therefore but one Word more to say upon this matter. You’l alledg Examples of some who have bin severely punish’d, for having done things, which they thought were well-pleasing to God. Be it so: What can we infer from this, but that their<523> Error was insincere; for you your self allow, that sincere or invincible Ignorance (for I take these two Terms to be synonymous) excuses as well in Fact as Right. Let the following Example serve for all.

In the 116th Page, the Author objects the Example of the Worshippers of the Golden Calf, to prove, that a Man, tho sincerely believing he does God great Honor, and acting from an honest Intention, may yet grievously offend him. To this I shall only ask this short Question, in Answer: Were those Israelites, who worship’d the Golden Calf, under an invincible Ignorance, or were they not? If they were, you were very wrong in affirming, Page 238. That invincible Ignorance excuses as to Fact and Right; and you have contradicted the Author of the True System of the Church, if as publick Fame informs us, he and the Author of the Apology for the Reformation against Maimbourg’s History of Calvinism,181be one and the same Person; for he asserts, Chap. 10. of the second Recrimination, n. 6. That the Idolatry of the Jews cou’d not proceed from Ignorance; that the Words of the Law were not subject to various Interpretations; that there was no Ambiguity in ’em: and therefore that their Rebellion proceeded purely from Malice and Obliquity; and therefore deserv’d no Indulgence. One might have seen a great many curious Reflections on this point in my second Part.182Yet if the Ignorance of the Israelites; who worship’d, was affected and vincible, I shan’t hinder the Judges, in Ecclesiastical Causes, to condemn ’em as culpable.

I had drawn a strong Confirmation of all the Remarks I now make, in Chap. 27, & 28. of my third Part,183from the famous Distinction of Points fundamental and non-fundamental: which besides the<524> good Reception it meets with from all Protestants, is so necessary to the Author of the True System of the Church, that one may say, it’s the very Corner-stone or Pedestal of his whole Work. Here’s an Abstract of what I had very much enlarg’d on there, and which I have suppress’d, together with a hundred other things.

Non-fundamental Points, according to the Author of the True System, and the rest of the Reform’d, are of such a Nature, that things being in other respects equal, one is as certainly sav’d by erring in ’em, as by believing the Truth; without the least need of repenting, or asking Forgiveness of God for these Errors at the Moment of Death: for were there any such necessity, the distinction of Fundamental and Non-fundamental wou’d be null. In the number of these Non-fundamental Points, they reckon the real Presence ofJesus Christin the Eucharist,184and the five contested Points between the Remonstrants and the Anti-Remonstrants, ever since the Synod of Dort.185You may err in these Points, as the Lutherans and Remonstrants do, according to the Calvinists; or be Orthodox in ’em, as these are; it’s all one as to eternal Salvation: for we make no doubt, and the Author of the True System makes less than others, but one may be sav’d in the Lutheran or Arminian Communions, without the least need of retracting upon a Deathbed. Yet if we consider the Matter and Substance of the Errors of these two Sects, we can’t but qualify ’em with the Name of horrible Blasphemys, outrageous Lyes given to God, grievous Calumnys against the reveal’d Truth. In effect, if it be true, as we believe, thatJesus Christdoes not give us his Body to be eaten, the Lutherans who affirm, that we depreciate the Eucharist, that we rob Chris-<525>tians of the strongest Pledg of the infinite Love ofJesus Christ,and his adorable Flesh of the glorious Prerogative of being the Instrument of all our heavenly Gifts and Graces; blaspheme God himself most outrageously, by charging the Truth, which he has reveal’d us in his Word, with these three notable Defects.

Likewise, if it be true, that God damns the greatest part of Mankind, without having afforded ’em the necessary means of Salvation, and by leaving ’em under an irresistible necessity of sinning; which God thought fit, that the Sin of the first Man shou’d lay ’em under: they who maintain, that this Doctrine makes God the Author of Sin, and on a Supposition of his punishing this Sin eternally, represents him as a cruel unjust Being, and consequently leads to Atheism; it being impossible and a Contradiction in Terms, that God shou’d be God, unless exempt from every thing that we conceive to be a moral Imperfection, by the clearest and most distinct Ideas: These, I say, who maintain this, affront God himself in the most outrageous manner, rendring that which he judges most worthy his supreme Perfection, incompatible with his Nature, and destructive of it. Yet all these Outrages and Blasphemys hinder not, according to the Author of the True System, but the Lutherans and Arminians are in as fair a way of Salvation as we. He must therefore of necessity own, that Errors, which, consider’d in the matter of ’em, are direct Affronts to the Majesty of God, and Blasphemys against his holy Truth, become most innocent from hence alone, that they are entertain’d from a sincere Persuasion of the Truth of ’em; and from a Persuasion, that the not maintaining ’em, wou’d be injurious to the divine Nature. Add to<526> this, that no one is so unjust, as to impute to those he believes in an Error, all the frightful Consequences which are chargeable on it; nor to maintain, that if they were convinc’d their Errors necessarily led to ’em, they wou’d notwithstanding persist: The most that any one does, is shewing ’em, what, in his Opinion, they tend to, hoping, if they cou’d perceive it as he does, that they wou’d immediately forsake it.

This invincibly proves, that if the Author of the True System reasons consequentially, as an Author of good Sense shou’d do, he ought to acknowledg, that there are altogether as many unaffected Errors in Christianity, as there are Non-fundamental Points, and consequently a very great number; and that Sincerity absolves the Erroneous, even where they are most opposite at bottom to what God has reveal’d, concerning his Attributes and Perfections. For let no one deceive himself, an Error’s not Non-fundamental because of its being small, but because of the Obscurity or Ambiguity of the Proofs, which shew the opposite Truth is contain’d in the reveal’d Word. Nor is there any Error which ought not to be reputed Fundamental, how insignificant soever the opposite Doctrine may be towards Salvation, how slight and trifling in its own nature; if it boldly strikes at the clear, and plain, and express Authority of Scripture: as saying, for example, that Noah entred the Ark with four Persons only, or that St. Paul was never a Persecutor of the Christians.

I had almost forgot one short Proof, and possibly more convincing than any other, of the Conformity of my Opinion with that of the Author of the System; by virtue of the Passage already cited from him;186to wit, that the Author of the Rights of the two Sovereigns had so fully perceiv’d, that no exception<527> cou’d be taken at what I have said, by any one that had taught the Substance of that Passage, that he has taken special care not to make the same Confession: “A conceal’d Heretick,” says he, “who is in the Bosom of the Church, is not oblig’d to separate; because his Separation wou’d be a new Sin added to Heresy: and tho his Conscience shou’d tell him, he ought to separate, yet he is not oblig’d to obey this Conscience, because it’s erroneous.” This is plainly contradicting the Author of the System, and yet there was no avoiding it.

I have one Observation more to make concerning what I had somewhere advanc’d,187rather to strengthen a bare Conjecture, or as an Objection for my Adversarys to bite upon, than a formal Assertion; to wit, that after one has sincerely and diligently sought the Truth, he ought to embrace that which appears Truth in his eyes, and that this is instead of absolute Truth to him. This is often cry’d out against in the Rights of the two Sovereigns. But that it might appear to all my Readers, who stand in need of as short a proof of my Orthodoxy (that is, of the Conformity of my Opinions with those of the Author of the True System of the Church) as this which I have now given; I have shewn in my third Part,188by a great number of Observations, which are very close to my purpose, that all this Author has answer’d the Objections of Messieurs de Meaux and Nichole, concerning the Rule of Faith, amounting to this: We must give due Attention to the Word of God, and the Truth will by this means draw near to us, and make it self felt to the Soul: it’s plain, all the Distinctions he has invented, unknown to all our Controvertists before him, and consequently a sign he has bin beaten out of the old Track, and forc’d to seek<528> for new cover from the storm, contains in Substance no more than this; to wit, that a Christian does his Duty, if he seeks Knowledg with Sincerity and a teachable Mind, and if he holds by that which he feels to be the Truth; and that this Feeling, even as the Tast, with regard to Foods, ought to amount to a Proof to us of what is the the good and wholesome Nourishment of the Soul.

That Christians, who persecute, are more inexcusable than the Pagans who persecuted the Primitive Church.

It remains, that I now say a word or two concerning the following Supplement. I have some reason to fear this Subject, being so very much beaten ever since the late Persecution in France, that my Readers may be tir’d with it. But beside, that I have occasionally handl’d some Matters which are worth the examining, I thought nothing cou’d be more seasonable, than a Dissertation which overthrows the Ne plus ultra189of Compellers, to wit, their pretending, that God will one day punish the Persecutors of Orthodoxy, and reward the Persecutors of Heresy. I shew, that this Hope is vain, and that the Doctrine of compelling grants an Impunity to Hereticks, who believing they shall do great Service to God, root up his Church like so many wild Boars: And this, together with the many other Enormitys, which, as I prove anew, are inseparable from this cursed Doctrine, may, and ought to inspire Protestants with a just Horror, and necessary Distrust of that Church, which for so many Ages past has made it the invariable Rule of its Conduct, and still will practise by it here and elsewhere, unless depriv’d of the Means and<529> Power. This is the only Security of the Church of England, as Monsieur Fagel190has justly observ’d, in that polite and wise Letter of his, worthy the Pen of the first Minister of a well-govern’d Commonwealth, in which he discovers the Sentiments of their Highnesses of Orange, whom we look on at present as the tutelar Angels of the Reformation: A Letter which gives new Life and Spirit to all good Patriots; who moreover wou’d do well continually, to read the Historys of those Persecutions, which Popery has stir’d up in the World, and the Treatises which confute its abominable Theory; or, in Imitation of that King of Persia of old,191order one of their Domesticks to come to ’em every Morning, with this Lesson; Remember what has lately bin done in France.

Nothing’s more true, than that Popery is chargeable with whatever’s most odious and infamous in Persecutions; and that of all those she has hitherto stir’d up, none is more inexcusable than this last Persecution, mov’d amidst all the shining Lights which set the present so much above all former Ages.

Say the Pagans persecuted the first Christians, I don’t wonder at it: ’Twas in a great measure pardonable in Men, who cou’d not but look on Christianity as the strangest, the most unaccountable Innovation; to see a parcel of little Fellows, scatter’d thro the Roman Empire, treat their Religion as abominable (a Religion which had subsisted for so many Ages) and pretend to nothing less than the intire Destruction of their Temples, Statues, and Sacrifices. No body cou’d give an instance, how great soever his Reading might be, of any thing like it, either since the Foundation of Rome, or before.

Laws they might have found, and Injunctions made from time to time, to prevent the introducing new<530> Ceremonys; but this cou’d mean no more, than that there were sometimes those, who without derogating from the establish’d Religion, had endeavor’d to insinuate the Rites of other Countrys, and practise ’em clandestinely in Rome. An Attempt so new and impious, according to the Prejudices of Pagans, as that of the Christians, how cou’d it chuse but enrage the Emperors and Ministry?

Besides, the Emperors, for the most part, had never handl’d any thing but the Sword, they were utter Strangers to Politeness and Literature; nor had their Ministers of State ever consider’d the Nature of Religion seriously, any more than the Pontiffs, Priests, and Augurs. They were in this respect, and in all others (I speak of the Churchmen) under the grossest Ignorance; those among the Pagans, who had any Knowledge of the Arts and Sciences, being generally of the Laity. On the whole, both sorts contented themselves, as to what concern’d Religion, with following the Doctrines deliver’d from Father to Son, and were of Opinion, that no one Religion ought to destroy another.

What cou’d be expected from such a sort of Men, but the persecuting those who shou’d tell ’em, the Religion of the Empire ought to be abolish’d as ridiculous, infamous, execrable; and that of a God, crucify’d between two Thieves, adopted in its room?

But today, as is known by a hundred Experiences, that the World is divided into various Opinions about the Gospel, and that Conscience won’t allow one’s making Profession of the Doctrines of a Sect which he believes naught; now that it’s known, the Protestants are not wedded to their Opinions by any vain Motives, because, without mentioning other Countrys, the Reform’d Ministers of France have, for more than a<531> hundred Years past, held tack with the learnedest of the Romish Communion, in verbal Conferences and controversial Writings; that they have often had the better in these Disputes; that few considerable Books have bin publish’d against ’em, which they have not confuted; that they have publish’d some which have not bin answer’d; that they daily publish new ones, loading the Church of Rome with so many Scandals and Reproaches, and with such loud and insulting Defiances, that since no one appears in its Vindication, there’s a strong Presumption, their Cause won’t bear it; this Communion having too many good Pens, and too much Pride to pass over Injurys: I add, that they have of late Years offer’d such Reasons against the Authority of the Church, that no one can answer ’em directly, nor any other way, than by offering in return as great Difficultys against the Examination of private Judgments: Now, I say, that all these things are well known, it’s altogether inexcusable to ruffle and dragoon ’em.

What I have bin just saying, is enough to shew, that the Question about the Authority of the Church, and the Rule of Faith, are a Rock which they must for ever split upon, as well as we; and I own, this had furnish’d me, in the third Part of this Work,192with an Argument for Toleration, which I cou’d not suppress without regret, tho forc’d to sacrifice it to other Considerations. Here’s a small Sketch of it:

The Protestants wou’d be absolutely to blame in compelling Catholicks (I mean, upon any other account than their particular Doctrines of dispensing with Oaths of Allegiance, and extirpating Sects) shou’d these represent, that they cou’d not depart from that Foundation of their Faith, which they find in the<532> Authority of Councils, unless a better were propos’d; and that they can’t bring themselves to believe, that a private Interpretation is better than that which, for so many Ages together, has bin given by all those who have govern’d the vast Body of the Romish Communion.

You may fancy this Reason as weak as you will, it’s at least a specious one; the rather, because the Ministers are driven by it to a particular Grace of the Holy Spirit, to compound a greater Certainty of their Faith, than that which the Church of Rome proposes.

This is evident from the Example of two Ministers, who have answer’d to two Works of Port-Royal, about the Rule of Faith.193They have bin forc’d, at the very opening of the Scene, to do what the antient Poets did only in the extremest intricacy of the Plot; have recourse ad Deum ex Machina, to the Grace of the good God.

Yet this hinders not but the Papists are very unjust in compelling us, as long as we offer Difficultys against their Rule of Faith, which they can never abso-lutely satisfy; all that they can say in direct Defence, and without Retorsion, not amounting to a quarter part, I won’t say of a Proof, but of a good Color.

Now since we are oblig’d to fly to Grace for an Answer to the Objections of Rome, we can no longer pretend to constrain any other sort of Christians; since they may equally fly to the same Asylum, when unable to answer the Arguments of the opposite Party.

The Papist, the Socinian, the Anabaptist, the Quaker, the Arminian, the Labadist, will answer, when hard prest; I own, the Opinions which I entertain do not carry in ’em a convincing Evidence: But God has had the Goodness to lead<533> me into this Sense, either by a subjective Grace, or by the favorable Dispositions of my Temper and Constitution, or by a happy Concurrence of Circumstances, or by turning aside those Objects which might have warp’d me to the wrong side, &c.

Thus Grace might be a Plaister for what it does not touch, and for what it does; it might become a Principle of Concord and charitable Forbearance: whereas there are no kind of Controversys so inextinguishable, as those which Grace has given Occasion.

It’s easily seen that this Demonstration, which I have carry’d very far, comes up to the Remark in the English Preface to Lactantius, De Mortibus Persecutorum; That the Persecutions of Christian against Christian can’t chuse but be unjust, because they have no demonstrative Evidence whereby infallibly to decide who is right and who wrong.

And because this has never bin so clearly discover’d as in our days, therefore I conclude, that the late Persecution in France is more inexcusable than that of the antient Pagans.

Who is not in a Sweat, at reading what a Bishop of France, and two Reform’d Ministers of the same Country, and Heads of the Party, have wrote concerning the Faith of Children: Who, I say, is not in a Sweat, to think what a swadder these Authors must be in, when laboring to prove, either that Children believe the Gospel by Acts of Faith exerted on the Authority of the Church, or that they begin to exert Acts of Faith upon the Evangelick Truths themselves, and in virtue of the Truths themselves.

They may look long enough for what’s never to be found: Children have no Motive of Belief, that has<534> any relation to the Objects themselves; for they who believe the Gospel, wou’d swallow the Alcoran, and all the Storys in Amadis de Gaul, if propos’d in the same manner. The Ground of their Belief then at most (for many of ’em know not explicitely why they believe at all) is an Opinion they have, that their Father or Mother tell ’em such and such things in serious earnest, and know very well what they say when they explain the Catechise to ’em; and there’s reason to believe, that of a hundred Men who live to a good old Age, fourscore die without any other reason for their Belief, but a preconceiv’d Opinion of the Capacity and Honesty of their Instructors: They, good People, wisely relying on what the Book-Learned tell ’em, more than on what themselves might judg of matters, not being bred either to write or read, and living almost all their life long among Cows and Sheep, or with the Hammer, or some other such Tool in hand, from morning till night.

What a twirl has the Church-Controversy had! and how wou’d Beza look (were he to come again into the World, with that little Poem of his printed before the singing Psalms, and which the Protestant Children were all oblig’d to get by heart, Petit Troupeau)194to find that Extent is now-adays such a Mark, according to us, of the true Church, that we dispute the Church of Rome’s Pretensions, on this very account among others, that it is not extended and universal enough. I speak thus, because I’m assur’d from the mouth of several Refugee Ministers, tho only two of their Body have written upon this new Notion,195that for thirty years past the most knowing have held, that the true Church must include either all, or very near all Christian Communions.<535>

How many of our People have died in the Lord heretofore, with an incredible Consolation, to think that the Church of Rome not being the Little Flock, as the Reform’d seem’d to be, the Kingdom of Heaven must belong to these alone? Behold ’em launch’d into the Ocean of Eternity with a hopeful Cargo!

A Thought upon Molinos.196

I’m at last come to an end of this long Preface, if yet I ought to make an end of it without saying a word or two to Molinos. They instance this Man black as Hell, and still reeking with the Anathema’s of the Inquisition, as an Objection, he and his Disciples, against what I had positively asserted; That the Truths of Morality are so plain in Scripture, that all Christians discover ’em without any Difficulty or Controversy upon these Points. I answer, either that Molinos must be one of those Visionarys, who, when they are not asleep, reason after the manner of those in Dreams, without the least Coherence in their Words, Principles, or Consequences; or else that he was an errand Impostor, who out of mere Vanity or Singularity (to say no worse) wou’d persuade his Votarys to the strangest and most accommodating of all Paradoxes, to wit, That the most sensual Pollutions are a great Advancement in the purgative, and even in the illuminative way. But besides, the little progress his Doctrine has made, and the pains which a world of People take to prove he never taught such Abominations, sufficiently justify me. Add to this, That having ask’d several why they believ’d Molinos innocent, I found the best reason they cou’d give me, was, because he was condemn’d at Rome: so that they have in a manner own’d to me, that if he had<536> bin clear’d there, they shou’d have thought him guilty.*

  • Proh Superi quantum mortalia Pectora caecae
  • Noctis habent!197 ———

<537>a SUPPLEMENT to the Philosophical Commentary on These Words of Jesus Christ,

Compel ’em to come in.

[162. ]Sebastian Castellio, De haereticis an sint persequendi (Whether heretics should be persecuted), 1554; see DHC, art. “Castalion, Sebastian,” and Lecler, op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 336–59. Theodore Beza, De haereticis a civili magistratu puniendus libellus (Concerning heretics, who should be punished by the civil magistrate), 1554; see DHC, art. “Beze, Theodore de,” and Lecler, op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 325–32.

[163. ]This is irony.

[164. ]Pierre Jurieu, Des droits des deux soverains en matière de religion, la conscience et le prince, pour détruire le dogme de l’indifférence des religions et de la tolérance universelle, contre un livre intitulé ‘Commentaire philosophique’ (Rights of two sovereigns in matters of religion, conscience and the prince; to destroy the dogma of the indifference of religions and universal tolerance, against a book [of Bayle] entitled “Philosophical Commentary,” 1687.

[* ]Ch. 22, 23, 24. of a Book entitl’d, The True System of the Church, &c. by Mr. Jurieu. [Pierre Jurieu, Le vray système de l’église et la véritable analyse de la foi … sur la nature de l’Eglise, son infaillibilité et le juge de controverses (The true system of the Church and true rule of faith … on the nature of the Church, its infallibility and the judge of controversies), 1686, an answer to Nicole, “The self-styled Reformed convicted of schism.” Reviewed by Bayle, NRL, OD, p. 525.]

[165. ]Not included in the 1708 translation. See OD, vol. 2, p. 444. Translation: “I have just been reading the treatise Of the Rights of Two Sovereigns, etc, against a book entitled ‘Philosophical Commentary’ [above, p. 386, note 164] and have found it a false and very weak attack on that Commentary. From the beginning the author avows that in spite of himself and nature, anger and the will of one of his friends make him step forward as an author. To avow such a thing shows little judgment. Anger should not enter into the composition of a work; one should look with a serene eye on the objects, and not through a cloud that confounds them and jumbles them as much as anger does. One must not, I say, look at them thorough such a cloud when one wishes to refute a man, and he had done much better if he had followed the counsels of the nature that discouraged him from turning author. In fact his work is faulty in the places where it ought to be the most essentially solid, because it goes only on a false position on the state of the question and combats a phantom, I mean an opinion that he imputes to me falsely. He labours to prove that one very often sins and offends God in acting according to the lights of conscience. Who denies this? Have I not said so, in more than one place? He accuses me also of introducing religious indifference, and on the contrary there has never been a doctrine more opposed to that than the doctrine that one should always act in accordance with one’s conscience. Similar illusions reign in the place where he speaks of the legislative power of the sovereign in religious matters. As for citations from Scripture, they are very frequent in his book, but mostly misunderstood and in the style of St. Augustine. In a word, this author meddles with things he has not considered, and continually commits the fallacy of not proving what he ought [ignoratio elenchi: see Appendixes, ‘Bayle’s Use of Logic,’ p. 581]. I believe this proceeds less from bad faith than from inexperience in the composition of polemical works, or from a bad habit of judging things precipitately and without much thought, and of reading new books cursorily and intermittently. Such a way of reading should be allowed to anyone who does not wish to become a critic, but when one wishes to refute people it is quite unpardonable. In fact able readers never pardon anyone who examines so negligently what he refutes, that he dares to attribute to his adversary, and refute on that footing, the opposite of what he taught.”

[166. ]The author was in fact Pierre Jurieu.

[167. ]Explained in the next section.

[168. ]Not the third part of the Philosophical Commentary (p. 283), but the third part of the answer to The Rights of Two Sovereigns (see above, pp. 388–89), of which only the first part was published, as this “Supplement” to the Philosophical Commentary.

[169. ]See Appendixes, “The Rule of Faith,” p. 591.

[170. ]Pierre Nicole, Les prétendus Réformés convaincus de schisme (The self-styled Reformed convicted of schism), Paris, 1684.

[171. ]See Appendixes, “Philosophical Controversies,” p. 596 (“Pyrrhonism”). See also DHC, art. “Nicolle,” rem. C.

[172. ]Psychopannichist: maintained that the soul sleeps between death and the resurrection of the body.

[173. ]Omphalopsyche: mystics who practiced “navel gazing.”

[174. ]Jurieu, in The True System. See above, p. 387, note.

[175. ]Jurieu again, in Rights of Two Sovereigns; see above, p. 386, note 164.

[* ]Take notice, that this is an excellent short Argument to the Roman Catholicks, without entring into a dispute upon the main of the Controversy betwixt us, that our Fathers were necessarily oblig’d to quit the Romish Communion. Mr. Daillé has handled it very solidly in Chap. 8. of his Apology; and since him, the Author of the True System has made use of it, to get clear of a very perplexing Objection of Maimbourg, in his Book against Dr. Lewis du Moulin. [Jean Daillé, Apologie des Eglises réformées où est monstré la necessité de leur séparation d’avec l’Eglise romaine contre ceux qui les accusent de faire schisme en is Chrestienté (Defense of the Reformed Churches, showing the necessity of their separation from the Roman Church, against those who accuse them of making a schism in Christianity), 1633 (English translation 1653); DHC, art. “Daillé, Jean.” On the True System see above, p. 387, note.]

[176. ]Jean Claude, La défense de la Réformation contre le livre intitulé: Prejugés légitimes contre les calvinistes (Defense of the Reformation against the book [of Nicole] entitled “Lawful presumptions against the Calvinists”), 1673. See DHC, art. “Claude, Ministre de Charenton.”

[177. ]Jurieu; see above, p. 387, note.

[178. ]Jurieu; see above, p. 37, note 3.

[179. ]Ravaillac assassinated Henry IV, contrary to the generally held tenet that no ruler, not even a tyrant, should be assassinated. See Appendixes, “Church and State,” p. 589.

[180. ]Drabicius was a violent fanatic. See DHC, art. “Drabicius.”

[181. ]Pierre Jurieu, Histoire du calvinisme et celle du papisme mises en parallèle: ou apologie pour les réformateurs, pour la réformation, et pour les réformez, divisée en quatre parties; contre un libelle intitulé l’histoire du calvinisme par M. Maimbourg (The history of Calvinism and that of papism put in parallel: or defence of the Reformers, the Reformation and the Reformed, divided into four parts; against a book entitled “History of Calvinism” by M. Maimbourg), 1683.

[182. ]Of the unpublished answer to The Rights of Two Sovereigns. See above, p. 390, note 168.

[183. ]Of the unpublished answer to The Rights of Two Sovereigns.

[184. ]See Appendixes, “The Eucharist,” p. 589.

[185. ]See Appendixes, “Grace, Original Sin, Predestination,” p. 588.

[186. ]See above, p. 392.

[187. ]See above, pp. 258, 261, 271, etc.

[188. ]Of the unpublished answer to The Rights of Two Sovereigns.

[189. ]“The ultimate.”

[190. ]Gaspar Fagel, Grand-Pensionary of Holland, Their Highness the Prince and Princess of Orange’s Opinion about a general Liberty of Conscience, etc. Being a collection of Four Select Papers, viz., I. Mijn Heer Fagel’s First Letter to Mr. Stewart. II. Reflections on Monsieur Fagel’s Letter. III. Fagel’s Second Letter to Mr. Stewart. IV. Some extracts out of Mr. Stewart’s Letters, which were communicated to Mijn Heer Fagel, London, 1689.

[191. ]Herodotus, Histories, V.105.

[192. ]Of the unpublished answer to The Rights of Two Sovereigns.

[193. ]Claude and Jurieu. See DHC, art. “Nicolle,” rem. C.

[194. ]“Little Flock,” implying that the true Church is a small group.

[195. ]Probably Claude and Jurieu; see above, p. 407, note 193, and p. 395, notes 176, 177.

[196. ]Miguel de Molinos, whose teachings on mysticism and morality were condemned by Rome in 1687; see Denzinger, ed. cit., p. 375. See article in the Catholic Encyclopedia, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10441a.htm.

[* ]The Reader shou’d take this along with him, That at worst Molinos allows carnal Desires and impure Motions to be Sins, when they proceed from our selves; and that he does not justify ‘em, but when excited by an external Agent, to wit, the Devil or unclean Spirits. So that he does not properly err as to the Right, but as he assigns a false Cause of certain inordinate Motions. He does not therefore deny the Substance of that Morality which other Christians are agreed in.

[197. ]Ovid, Metamorphoses, VI.472: “Ye gods, what blind night rules in the hearts of men”; translated Frank J. Miller, Loeb Classical Library.