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 the World; and for this end God inspir’d the Faithful of these first Days with an extraordinary Zeal: yet I can’t but think that the intervals of Peace and Respite which they enjoy’d, sometimes for many years together, contributed mainly to the establishing the Christian Religion. It’s certain, all our Accounts of the ten Persecutions are deliver’d by Historians none of the most exact, and that they are all stuff’d with Declamation and Hyperbole. Christianity had undoubtedly perish’d, without a continual course of Miracles for the three first Centurys, if all the Pagan Emperors had apply’d themselves in good earnest to the extinguishing it: but God was pleas’d to entertain ’em with other Thoughts and other Affairs, which oblig’d ’em to let the Christians live in Peace. And the great Progress of the Christian Church is as much owing to this, as to its Patience under Sufferings.
I can’t conclude without a short Reflection on these words of the Panegyrick of the Abbé Robert, Great Penitentiary of the Church of Paris; That his Majesty chose not the lawful means, to wit, Fire and Sword, which his Ancestors had frequently employ’d against the Hereticks of their times. Pray observe his Language in the presence of a full Sorbon,33 the Language of Popery in general: Fire and Sword are wholesom and warrantable Methods with all who are not Orthodox. If so, pray how cou’d the Duke of Guise, who was murder’d by Poltrot,34 pronounce with so much Emphasis the Saying which is ascrib’d to him, and mention’d so much to his Honor? The Story is this: That at the Siege of Roan a Hugonot <39> Gentleman being brought before him, who had conspir’d his Death, and who own’d he was not prompted to it from any Hatred to his Person, but purely from the Instincts of his own Religion, and because he thought his Death might be of service to it; the Duke releasing him, said: Go, Sir, if your Religion enjoins you to assassinate those who have never injur’d you, mine obliges me to give you your Life, tho I might justly take it away; and now judg you which of the two is best. This were a truly Wise and Christian Saying, from any one but a Catholick, at the head of a persecuting Army: but when one considers that the Person who speaks thus is a Persecutor on the score of Religion, he can’t but despise him, as acting an unnatural part, and turning Religion into Grimace; one who out of rank Pride and a Bravado pardons a private Person who deserves Death, while at the same time he exercises the most savage and horrible Crueltys on a whole Body of innocent People. Was not this very Duke of Guise of the same Religion as Francis I and Henry II? Had not he approv’d and advis’d the Edict of Chateau-Briant, and that of Romorantin, which first decreed the Protestants to death? Did not he labor with all his might to settle the Inquisition in France? which, strictly speaking, had bin setting up a Slaughterhouse for Men, a Court of Fire and Faggot, beset and continually surrounded with Bloodhounds. Was not he the principal Promoter of all the Measures which were broken by the precipitate Death of Francis II for marching Troops thro all the Provinces of the Kingdom, to force <40> every living Soul to sign a Formulary, on pain of Banishment and Confiscation of Goods (which was the gentlest Treatment). For how many, alas, must they have put to death! Last of all, Was not this the very Duke, who had suffer’d his Troops to massacre a whole Congregation of Hugonots at Vassi, only because they were assembled at their Prayers in a Barn? In a word, the Obstinacy of this single Person, and his persisting to have these poor People inexorably punish’d with Death, was it not the cause of all the Civil Wars on the score of Religion; which France had never felt, if these People had bin suffer’d to worship God in their own way? And did not he do all this out of a Zeal for Religion? Had he done any thing like it, if he had bin a Pagan? Wou’d not he have tolerated Protestants as well as Papists? Was not all this Conduct of his approv’d by Pope and Clergy? How then cou’d he pretend that his Religion taught him to pardon those who had injur’d him, since it oblig’d him to murder and torment, by a thousand exquisite ways, a world of poor People, who never had done him the least prejudice, and who had no other demerit, but that of serving God according to the Light of their Consciences? Observe the horrible Turpitude and Kind of Farce, which mixes with those Religions that persecute, and compel to come in. A Man of such a Religion will make no difficulty of protesting he’s ready to pardon one of a different Religion all private Offences committed against himself; yet he’l truss him up to a Gibbet, or send him to the Gallys, because he wants the true Faith, even tho he had receiv’d <41> kind Offices from him. In good truth, this Duke did not think before he spake, when he durst make a comparison of the two Religions, and give his own the Preference in point of Charity. The Gentleman, who had conspir’d his Death, upon a persuasion of its being for the Interest of the Protestant Religion, was a Stranger to the true Principles of this Party; for there’s no Protestant Divine, but says, and preaches, and maintains, that Assassination is an unlawful means of promoting the Interest of Religion: but the Duke, conformably to a Doctrine approv’d and enjoin’d a thousand times over in his own Religion, gave his Opinion in Council for the enacting of sanguinary Laws against a world of innocent inoffensive People; nor was there a Pulse in his Body, that did not beat high for the extirpating Protestants by the most violent methods. And, with such Dispositions as these, was it not mocking the World to glory in being of a Religion which enjoins Forgiveness? I wish the Convertists would think a little of this. They are got into such Circumstances, that all the fairest Maxims of Christian Morality are mere Ironys, Farce, and unaccountable Jargon in their mouths. For can they have the face to say, that they sacrifice their Resentments for the Love of JESUS CHRIST, forgive Injurys, and seek peace with all Men? Can they have the face to say this, when we may so justly reproach ’em, that by constraining Conscience, which they believe a Christian Duty, they are under a necessity of pillaging, smiting, imprisoning, kidnapping, and putting to death a world of People, who do no prejudice to the <42> State, nor to their Neighbor; and who are guilty of no other Crime, than that of not believing, from a sense of their Duty to God, what others do believe from a sense likewise of their Duty to God?
The Age we live in, and, I’m apt to think, the Ages before us, have not fallen short of ours; is full of Free-Thinkers and Deists. People are amaz’d at it; but for my part, I’m amaz’d that we have not more of this sort among us, considering the havock which Religion has made in the World, and the Extinction, by an almost unavoidable Consequence, of all Vertue; by its authorizing, for the sake of a temporal Prosperity, all the Crimes imaginable, Murder, Robbery, Banishment, Rapes, &c. which produce infinite other Abominations, Hypocrisy, sacrilegious Profanation of Sacraments, &c. But I leave it to my Commentary, to carry on this matter.
And the Lord said unto the Servant, Go out into the Highways and Hedges, and COMPEL THEM TO COME IN, that my House may be fill’d.
Containing a Refutation of the Literal Sense of this Passage.
PART the First.
I leave it to the Criticks and Divines to comment on this Text in their way, by comparing it with other Passages, by examining what goes before and what follows, by descanting on the Force of the Expressions in <44> the Original, the various Senses they are capable of, and which they actually bear in several places of Scripture. My design is to make a Commentary of an uncommon kind, built on Principles more general and more infallible than what a Skill in Languages,