A Philosophical Commentary on These Words of the Gospel, Luke 14:23, “Compel Them to Come In, That My House May Be Full”. Pierre Bayle
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of JESUS CHRIST, and sometimes the Christians since, have indeed punish’d Crimes committed against their Religions with Death, but the embracing it was never made the Condition of Pardon. And therefore no-<27>thing but the Love of God, and a firm Persuasion of its Truth, cou’d incline these Offenders to bewail their Crime, and confess that Religion which they had once blasphem’d. So far Monsieur Diroys.
O what fine Divisions might a Body run upon this Passage! but there’s no great need of discanting on it; I leave it to every Reader to do this of himself, and apply to the present Methods of France so much as comes to its share in this Discourse. I shall only observe, that this learned Doctor of the Sorbon is of my Mind in the Commentary, to wit, that they who condemn Hereticks to Death with a Proviso of Pardon in case they abjure their Heresy, do much worse than if they condemn’d ’em without Mercy. The Spaniards and Portuguese, who give a horror to all true Christians with their detestable Autos de fe, which our Gazets ring with yearly, act very honestly, the first Demerit once suppos’d, I mean the capital Crime of a poor Jew, in not giving him his Life on condition he declares himself a Christian; and wou’d act still better if they did not mitigate his Punishment by changing it for strangling, because in all probability the dread of being burnt alive is what extorts this feign’d Conversion.
I wou’d willingly know how Mr. Diroys, if sent a Missionary into China, cou’d look a Chinese in the Face, who shou’d read this Book of his, after having first read over the Accounts which the Protestants might and ought to furnish ’em of the Exploits of Popery in Europe, America, and the Indies. Wou’d not they tell Monsieur the Missionary, that by his own Principles, the extorting a Profession by Violence is Evidence enough, that the Religion which requires it, is <28> led by a Spirit at enmity with Truth and Holiness? This he cou’d not deny. Wou’d not they likewise tell him, that the Religion which he now preach’d to them had very lately extorted forc’d Professions in the Kingdom of France, and even constrain’d those to communicate who were first constrain’d to sign; and threatned those with the Gallys if they recover’d, who refus’d the Sacrament in their Sickness, or with having their dead Bodys drawn on a Sledg in case they dy’d in such a Refusal? He durst not deny it, if he found that the Protestants took care to transmit the French King’s Edicts to China; or if he were only an honest Man, as we are willing to suppose him. The Conclusion on the whole is unavoidably this; Therefore the Religion, which you, Mr. Diroys, a Doctor of the Sorbon, come to preach up among us, is led by a Spirit at enmity with Truth and Holiness; whereupon all well-minded Men, Christians or not Christians, ought to cry out, εὀ̑ καì ὑπέρευ, belle, optime, nihil supra.22 And here I can’t but greatly wonder, that the ease of confuting Mr. Diroys on his applying to the Church of Rome, exclusive of all other Churches, the Characters of the Truth of the Christian Religion, has never tempted any one to undertake it. Did I, unworthy I, take up the Cudgels against him, I dare say, I shou’d quickly make appear, that all his Arguments on this Head are purely a begging the Question,23 or palpable Paralogisms and fallacious Reasoning.
Some of my Acquaintance were strangely surpris’d at the Edicts for drawing on Sledges the dead Bodys of those who refus’d the Communion, and for putting those to Death who shou’d exer-<29>cise any Function of the Reform’d Religion in France, and all Ministers who shou’d come into the Kingdom without a Licence, with large Rewards to the Discoverers, and Penaltys on those who shou’d harbor ’em; the Fate precisely of the Proscrib’d in Rome during the Triumvirate.24 These Gentlemen told me, they cou’d never have believ’d, that in an Age so clear-sighted and so civiliz’d as ours, a Nation which passes for very polite, cou’d ever come to such cruel Extremitys. I soon chang’d the Object of their wonder, by letting ’em see there was much more reason to be surpriz’d at the Church of Rome’s chaffering so long, and trifling away so much time without coming to Blood; that as this was her natural Element, and the Scene she most delighted in, and the Mark which her truest Arrows oftnest hit, she ought by the course of nature, and by the tendency of human things, to have struck the Blow much sooner, and lodg’d her Arrow, which was not the four nor the five hundredth she had let fly at Hugonotism in the very midst of the Mark. And as to what they mention’d concerning the Civility of the Age, I let ’em know, that false Religions are always excepted out of the number of those things whose Nature may be humaniz’d. Cruelty is their indelible Character; they have the Power of effacing from the Hearts of Father and Mother those Sentiments of Love and Tenderness for their Infants, which Nature has so deeply imprinted upon ’em. They have had the Power of making Parents stand the broiling and sacrificing these innocent Creatures before their Eyes. <30>
Aulide quo pacto Triviai Virginis arma
Iphianassai turparunt sanguine foede
Ductores Danaum delecti prima virorum. 25
Why then shou’d they boggle at the Lives of their Enemys? The Church of Rome is now in the very Posture which becomes her best, and sets her off to the greatest Advantage; all she had bin hitherto transacting in France might well have had the Substance and full Effect of the extremest Cruelty, but the Pomp of it was wanting: This she has at last compass’d with great Glory; and after having turn’d herself often round her resting-place, you see her lolling at full length, and perfectly at her ease.
It remains that I offer a Word or two in answer to those who pretend, that Toleration creates endless Confusions in a State, and prove it too by the Advice which Mecenas gives Augustus in the 52d Book of the History of Dion Cassius: Worship the Gods, says he to him, at all Seasons, and in all the ways of Worship which the Religion of your Ancestors prescribes, and take care, that your People, do the same; shew your Abhorrence of those who cause the least Innovations in religious Matters, and restrain ’em by your Authority, not only from a Reverence to the Gods, but also from a Regard to your own Dignity, in as much as these Innovators, by introducing new Worships, divide the Body of the People, whence naturally spring Factions, Cabals, Seditions, Conspiracys, things of very pernicious Consequence in a State.26 These words taken in gross, and as coming from a Pagan Politician, have an appearance of excellent reason; but nothing in nature can be <31> more ridiculous, than applying ’em as the Roman Catholicks eternally do, to the instigating Christian Princes to persecute different Communions: because in the first place, by virtue of this Advice Augustus and his Successors were oblig’d to persecute the Jews and Christians; and the Emperors of Japan, China, &c. to oppose those with all their Might who mention Christianity in their Dominions, which the Pope and his Adherents will never allow: and therefore they must change the general Maxim of Mecenas into this particular Maxim; Worship God in the way of your Ancestors, where it shall appear that they worship’d God aright; oppose all Innovations except they be for the better: And then it’s a mere indefinite Sentence, which decides nothing.
In the second place, The Maxim of Mecenas was much more reasonable in his times than it wou’d be at present, because the Romans, granting a full Liberty of Conscience to all the Sects of Paganism, and frequently adopting the Worships of other Countrys, it might justly be presum’d, that a Man who did not find his Account in a Religion so large and comprehensive, but affected Noveltys, cou’d have no other design than that of making himself the Head of a Party, and forming political Cabals under a Pretence of worshipping the Gods. But this Presumption does not easily reach a Christian, as well because he is persuaded, that JESUS CHRIST has left us a standing Rule which we are strictly to follow, as because the Church of Rome imposes a necessity of believing all her Decisions; in which case he who is persuaded, that she has not Reason of her side, is bound in conscience, as he wou’d avoid <32> the Guilt of Hypocrisy, to withdraw from her Communion.
To shew the Absurdity of those who pretend that Toleration causes Dissensions in the State, we need only appeal to Experience. Paganism was divided into an infinite number of Sects, which paid the Gods several different kinds of Worship; and even those Gods which were supreme in one Country, were not so in another: yet I don’t remember I have ever read of a Religious War among the Pagans,