PREFACE TO THE REPLY CONSIDERED. 191
utter so much of sobriety." This is your first reason; which you have exactly squared to the old rule, " Calumniare fortiter, aliquid adhserebit;" — " Calumny will leave a scar." Would you were your- self only concerned in these things! But among the many woful miscarriages of men professing the religion of Jesus Christ, whereby the beauty and glory of it have been stained in the world, and itself in a great measure rendered ineffectual unto its blessed ends, there is not any thing of more sad consideration than the endeavours of men to promote and propagate the things which they suppose belong imto it by ways and means directly contrary unto, and destructive of, its most known and fundamental principles. For when it is once observed and manifest that the actings of men in the promotion of any religion are forbidden and condemned in that religion which they seek to promote, what can rationally be concluded but that they not only disbelieve themselves what they outwardly profess, but also esteem it a fit mask and cover to carry on other interests of their own Avhich they prefer before it? And what can more evidently tend imto its disreputation and disadvantage is not easy to conceive. Such is the course here fixed on by you. It is the religion of Christ you pre- tend to plead for and to promote; Init if there be a word true in it, the way you take for that end, — namely, by openly false accusations, — is to be abhorred; which manifests what regard unto it you inwardly cherish. And I wish this were only your personal miscarriage, that you were not encouraged unto it by the principles and example of your chiefest masters and leaders. The learned person who wrote the Letters discovering the Mystery of Jesuitism gives us just cause so to conceive; for he doth not only prove that the Jesuits have pub- licly maintained that " calumny is but a venial sin," nay, none at all, if used against such as you call calumniators, though grounded on absolute falsities, but hath also given us such pestilent instances of their practice, according to that principle, as Paganism was never acquainted withal. — Let. xv.^ In their steps you set out in this your first reason, wherein there is not one Avord of truth. I had formerly told you that I did not think you could yourself believe some of the things that you affirmed, at which you take great offence ; but I must
» The "Provincial Letters" by Blaise Pascal -were published in this country in 1657, according to the profession on the title-page, " Faithfully rendered into English." The first of these celebrated productions appeared 13th January 1656; the last bears date 24th March 1657. It ilhistrates the extent of their influence, and how rapidly their fame had spread, when the same year in which the series closed should have produced a translation of them into English. The language of Owen shows that he must have seen them in this form, for the title of the volume differs from the French title pi'e- fixed to the Letters, and i-uns in the following terms : " Les Provinciales ; or, the Hys- teric of Jesuitisme Discovered in certain Letters, written upon occasion of the present differences at Sorbonne between the Jansenists and the Molinists, from January 1656 to March 1657, S. N."— Ed.
192 A VINDICATION OF THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON FIAT LUX.
now tell you, that if you proceed in venting sucli notorious untruths as here you have heaped together, I shall greatly question whether seri- ously you believe that Jesus Christ will one day judge the world in righteousness. For I do not think you can produce a 2:>leadable dis- pensation to say what you please, be it never so false, of a supposed heretic; for though, it may be, you will not keep faith with him, surely you ought to observe truth in speaking of him. You tell us, in your epistle to your " Fiat," of your " dark obscurity wherein you die daily;" but take heed, sir, lest,
" Indulgentem tenebris imicque rcccssu
Scdis inaspectos coelo radiisqiie pcnates . ' Servantem, tamen assiduis circumvolet alis
SiBva dies animi, scelerumque in pectore dirte."
Stat. Theb. i. 50.
Your next reason is, " Because he talks of swords and blood, fire and fagot, guns and daggers ; which doth more than show that he hath not let go those hot and furious imaginations." But of what sort, by whom used, to what end? Doth he mention any of these but such as your church hath made use of for the destruction of Protestants? If you have not done so, why do you not disprove his assertions? If you have, why have you practised that in the face of the sun which you cannot endure to be told of? Is it equal, think you, that you should kill, burn, and destroy men, for the profession of their faith in Christ Jesus, and that it should not be lawful for others to say you do so? Did not yourself make the calling over of these things necessary, by crying out against Protestants for ^uant of moderation? " It is one of the privileges of the pope," some say, " to judge all men, and himself to be judged by none;" but is it so also, that no man may say he hath done what all the world knows he hath done, and which we have just cause to fear he would do again had he power to his will? For my part, I can assure you, so that you will cease from charging others with that whose guilt lies heavier upon yourselves than on all the professors of Christianity in the world besides, and give any tolerable security against the like practices for the future, I shall be well content that all which is past may be put by us poor worms into perpetual oblivion ; though I know it will be called over another day. Until this be done, and you leave off to make your advantages of other men's miscarriages, pray arm yourself with patience to hear sometimes a little of your own.