Novitates, et Oppositiones falsi Nominis Scientitæ [1]. Men create Oppositions which are not[2], And put them into new termes, so fixed as[3], whereas the Meaning ought to governe the Terme, the Terme in effect governeth the Meaning. There be also two false Peaces, or Unities; The one, when the Peace is grounded but upon an implicite[4] ignorance; For all Colours will agree in the Darke: The other, when it is peeced[5] up, upon a direct Admission of Contraries in Fundamentall Points. For Truth and Falshood, in such things, are like the Iron and Clay in the toes of Nabucadnezar's Image; They may Cleave, but they will not Incorporate.
Concerning the Meanes of procuring Unity; Men must beware that, in the Procuring or Muniting[6] of Religious Unity, they doe not Dissolve and Deface the Lawes of Charity and of humane[7] Society. There be two Swords amongst Christians, the Spirituall and Temporall; 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[8] Religion by Warrs, or by Sanguinary Persecutions to force Consciences; except it be in cases of Overt Scandall, Blasphemy, or Intermixture of Practize[9] against the State; Much lesse 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[10] we forget that they are Men. Lucretius the Poet, when he beheld the Act of Agamemnon, that could endure the Sacrificing of his owne Daughter, exclaimed—
Tanium Relligio potuit suadere malorum[11].
