Anti-Socinianism, Part 5
Petrus Abailardus Pariſienſ. Profeſſor.
En Abilardus ego ſum primus in ordine turmae,
Dogmatis inferni Dux & Origo fui.
IN the year of Christs incarnation, 1540.1540. in France was famous Petrus Abailardus, Profeſſor at Paris, a Philoſopher and Divine of great name, of whom Bernard in he cxc. Epiſtle writeth thus: We have here in France a new Divine of an old Maſter, who in his youth did wantonize in the rules of Logick, and now is mad, in the interpretation of the Scriptures: who bearing himſelf up upon the wings of his ſuppoſed great ability, and truſting too much to his own ſufficiency, doth earneſtly content to have all, yea, the moſt deep myſteries of Faith and Religion, to be meaſured and ſquared out by the rule of his reaſon: and when as he ſeems to be ready to render a reaſon of all, he himſelf (ſaith Bernard) preſumes above reaſons, contrary to reaſon, yea contrary to faith it ſelf; For what is more contrary to reaſon, they by reaſon to endeavour to tranſced reaſon? and what more contrary to faith, then to be unwilling to believe, what ever cannot be comprehended within the narrow bounds & ſtrait limits of humane reaſon? So that the Court muſt have the attribute of the Queen that dwells in it, the Queen the name of her Court. Reaſon hath got the attribute of Religion, and Religion in exchange the attribute and property of Reaſon. But who can tell when this exchange was made? What a lamentable weakneſs is this in man, that he ſhould build his eternal welfare on ſo ſandy a foundation, as the approbation of weak and pur-blind reaſon? Likewiſe expounding that ſaying of the Wiſeman*Pro., He that believeth maketh not haſt, ſaith thus, lightly to believe is to make uſe of faith before, or without reaſon; Whereas Solomon in that place intends no ſuch thing: for he ſpeaks not of faith in God, but of that mutual-credulity and truſt which we have in our dealings among our ſelves, and one with another; Thus we ſee, they erre, not knowing the Scriptures: He wrote a book of the bleſsed Trinity, in which he manifeſtly diſcovers that itch of wit with which he was ſo much troubled, and with the very conceit of which he was many times ſo far tranſported out of, or beyond himſelf, and the limits of all true Christianity that he knew not, either what he did, or ſaid. Hear St. Bernard, what he ſays concerning that work, ſo highly commended by his Diſciples and followers; he maketh degrees in the Trinity, meaſures in Majesty, numbers in eternity: He allowes God the Father all power, the Son a certain kind of power, limited and circumſcribed according to his fancy, but as for the Holy Ghoſt, there's none to ſpare for him, he hath no power at all. This is to be a Son to a Father, as one power is ſubordinate to another, as the Species to the Genus, as homo to animal: herein he ſcarce ſhews himſelf to be animal rationale, to be able to judge o… hereticks that went before him, but even following ſuch blind guides muſt needs fall into the dirty ditch with them; for is there not more then Arius here? That book of h…s was found to be ſo ſound and entire that it was condemned by the Belgick councell, and according to order committed to the fire by the hands of the Authour himſelf; afterwards he was forced, not for his goodnes, to retire himſelf into ſome ſolitary place, where he lived, ſolitary enough in reſpect of it ſelf, and yet ſufficiently freguented by the continual concourſe of Students, (and wiſe ones I warrant you) who flocked thirther from all parts, being drawn, or rather ſeduced, by the fame of his great learning; Parturiunt montes, &c. but being come found no ſuch great matter of admiration in h…m, as Fame reported; This place of his abode he firſt called the Trinity, but for what reaſon I could never learne; then changing the name he called it the Comforter, for which he giveth this reaſon, becauſe ſaith he, after all my trouble and molestation, I have found quiet and comfort here; which name continues unto this very day; the place being called the Abby of the Comforter; and indeed there cannot but be a great deal of comfort found in the place, there was ſo much in the Master of it, and in the Doctrine which he profeſſed; for what true comfort can be expected, but by, or from the Comforter himſelf? which he could not have, being under-valued and un-Goded by him.
He enveighed bitterly in many of his writings againſt the Doctrine of our redemption by Chriſt, and that Satisfaction, which was made and performed by him in our place and ſteed, openly denying it, and often proteſting againſt it: declaring the death of Chriſt to be to no other purpoſe, then an example of conſtancy, and an argument to move us, to lone and honour Christ ſo much the more, who was pleaſed to go before us in ſo uncouth a way, leaving us the print of his foot-ſteps, that we by the ſame way might follow after, to the ſame glory, where he ſits ready to receive us. This opinion of his concerning the end of Chriſts comming into the World, together with his death and paſſion, he expreſſeth in his own words thus, that the Lord of glory ſhould wholly empty himſelf, that he ſhould become leſſe then the Angels, that he ſhould vouchſafe to be borne of a Woman, that be ſhould be converſant in the World, that he ſhould become weak in himſelf, ſhould ſuffer many indinities and reproaches from others, and lastly by that baſe and ignominious death of the croſſe, ſhould paſſe from this vale of miſery to his ancient ſeat of glory, is for no other end, but to deliver unto men, by ſo living and teaching, ſuch a form of life as may be acceptable unto God, by ſuffering and dying to bequeath unto them an example of love and charity, which we ought to practiſe, if need ſo require, one towards another. Sure he never attained to ſo much charity from this great example, as to practiſe it in himſelf towards any other whatſoever; he thought it better, as moſt in the World do, to ſleep quietly (if it were poſſible) in a whole skin; But if this be all the cauſe for which Chriſt dyed, then are we yet in our ſins, and the Lord have mercy upon us, there is leſſe comfort in this, then, if he had given us a thump on the back with a ſtone. Bernard in his cxc 11. Epiſtle giveth us this deſcription of him, when he ſpeaketh of the Trinity, ſaith he, you would judge him to be an Arian, when of grace a Pelagian, when a the perſon of Christ a Neſtorian; to which we add, when he ſpeaketh of the redemption which Chriſt wrought, and ſatisfaction he made for us, we may well take him to be a Socinian, though this kind of denomination had not then a being. So that we ſee he was a meer compoſition of hereſies, a man made up of dangerous and Deviliſh opinions, which he endeavoured with all the art he had to publiſh, with all the dexterity he could to ſet forth, for his greateſt advantage, namely, to court others to a liking and embracing of them.
He ſet forth many books, by which he ſowed abroad many hereſies, and got many followers, among which was Arnold of Brixia as chief, whom Bernard calls Abailardus, his ſtandard bearer, and doth much condesmne him for his opinions, yet commends him for his good converſation, and auſterity of life, utinam tàm ſanae eſſet Doctrinae, quàm districta est vitae, no bad wiſh I aſſure you; would to God, ſaith he, he had bin as ſound in his Doctrine, as he was ſtrict in his life. Epiſt. c x c v. Cujus converſatio mel & doctrina venenum, whoſe courſe of life was as Honey, but his Doctrine as poyſon. Epiſt. cxv I. Cui caput columbae, cauda Scorpionis, who had the head of a dove, but the taile of a Scorpion; whom Brixia ſpewed out, Rome abhorred, France refuſed, Germany abominated, and Italy would not entertain.
This purity of life in the Scholler; doth much condemn the looſe and licentious converſation of the Maſter: for without queſtion he was it boon companion, and one that loved his belly well, otherwiſe he had not bin taken and overtaken with ſuch libidinous crimes of which he was accuſed; For according to the old rule ſine Cerere & Baccho friget Venus, concupiſcence waxeth could, where it is not heightened with wine, and pampered with luſty and luſtfull meats; which being as fewel abſtracted, the fire either goeth out of it ſelf, or is quickly extinguiſhed; But this filthy wretch, it ſeems, took not this courſe; for giving way to his untamed luſt, he defloured and defiled a May'd, for which he was taken and guelded; in ſo much as that he that for al his high intendments would not make himſelf an Eunuch for the Kingdome of God's ſake, muſt, by others, be made an Eunuch for his beaſtly luſt ſake, and by reaſon of his blaſphemons hereſies which he maintained and publiſhed to the ſubverſion of many others, he was by the means of Bernard, and the Biſhops of France condemned for an heretick, himſelf excommunicate, and his books to be openly burned in the ſight of all thoſe that would behold them. It is no marvel he took him to a ſolitary place, as one that might well be aſhamed to ſee, or to be ſeen by others. Now theſe are the chief heads of that corrupt doctrine, which were noted to be in this perverſe and blaſphemons heretick, and which he being full of the Spirit of pride and errour did in diſputing, and by writing principally endeavour to maintain.
1. That Reaſon was to be Judge of the Articles of faith, affirming, that he could comprehend within the bounds of humane reaſon, that whole immenſe, which is God himſelf.
2. That the Doctrine of the bleſsed Trinity, as the reformed Churches did believe and hold it, was not to be credited; For he made degrees in the Trinity, he denyed the Holy Ghoſt to be of the eſſence of the Father, and called it the ſoul of the World.
3. That Original ſin was nothing elſe, but that very debt of damnation, in which we were bound, when we were made obnoxions to eternal puniſhment for the fault of our Originall, that is of our firſt parents from whom we took our original; referring it rather to the puniſhment for, then to the guilt of ſin, and he gives this reaſon for it; but what reaſon there is in it, let any indifferent Reader judge; becauſe, ſaith he, he who could not as yet make any uſe of free will, nor had as yet any exerciſe of his reaſon, could have no tranſgreſſion or negligence imputed to him.
4. That Chriſt did not ſatiſfie the Juſtice of God for our ſins; For after a tedeons diſpute which he had againſt the Satisfaction of Chriſt, he ſaith, that Chriſt dyed noſtro bono, for our good, and noſtro exemplo, for our example, but as our ſurety and nostro loco in our place, or noſtra vice, in our ſteed, are words which neither he, nor any of his followers can abide.
5. That the Law conteineth not any promiſe of life in it; and that it did conſiſt of imperfect precepts, becauſe our bleſſed Saviour, Matt. 5. gives a cleer and full expoſition of it; he publiſheth likewiſe many figments concerning it.
This is the Authour, and theſe the chief heads of thoſe, vile and direfull opinions which he maintained, and though he have gone far, and done much for the furtherance of this graceleſſe babe, which he had begotten; yet there are ſome that come after him, that are in this matter to be preferred before him, both for addition hereunto, and propagation hereof, uſing ſuch execrable and damnable expreſsions, that are far unbeſeeming the ears of a Chriſtian; but Ordine quiſq ſuo, every one in his own place, and according to his own order; And therefore this Abailardus challengeth, the firſt place, as the revier of the old hereſies of Arius, Ebion, Photinus, and Samoſatenus, with others of the like ſort, who out of theſe, as alſo the Turkiſh Alcaron and Jewiſh Talmude, patched up a new one of his own, as they that came after him, did revive his, with their additions and augmentations alſo: For the Devil will looſe nothing by lying ſtill for a time, but makes a gain of his loſſe, and that to his very great advantage.