CONTENTS.

RELIGIO MEDICI. PART. I.

SECT. I. The author a Christian

II. Of the reformed religion

III. Charitably disposed to the un-reformed -

IV. But not hopeful of reconcilement

V. A sworn subject to the faith of the church of

heresies

VI. Having no genius to disputes in religion.

ing to wheel of the church

VII. His greener studies polluted with two or three

Follow-

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VIII. In doctrines heretical there will be super-heresies

IX. Wingy mysteries in divinity. Nourish an active

faith

X. Content to understand them without a rigid defini-

tion; by an adumbration

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XI. Eternity of God. • With this I confound my under-

standing'

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XII. Trinity. The visible world a picture of the in-

visible

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XIII. Wisdom of God. "With this attribute I recreate

my devotion'

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XIV. But one first cause. Every essence hath its final

XVI. Two books from whence I collect my divinity.

Nature is the art of God

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45

XVII. Cryptic and involved method of Providence. All

obey the swing of that wheel

XVIII. Fortune (like nature) a relative term. No effect

but hath its warrant

XIX. Second causes perversely commented on.

Con-

46

spiracy of passion and reason against faith 48

XX. Atheism. There was never any

XXI. Credulous disbelievers. Niceties that become us

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not. Solved by a divine concourse'

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XXII. Other niceties, of an easy and possible truth

XXIII. The Bible the only work too hard for the teeth of

XXIV. Too many books in the world

XXV. Obstinacy of the Jews. Inconstancy of Christians.

Persecution

XXVI. All that suffer in matters of religion not martyrs.

It may be homicide

XXVII. Miracles: equal. To create nature as great a

miracle as to contradict or transcend her

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XXVIII. Reliques. Their efficacy to be suspected

XXIX. Cessation of oracles. Uncertainty of human

history

XXX. Spirits and witches. Power of evil spirits

spirits

XXXII. Spirit of God. Invocated

XXXIII. Tutelary and guardian angels -

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XXXI. Traditional magic. Courteous revelations of good

XXXV. The immaterial world. Creation. Inorganity of

the soul

XXXVI. The whole creation a mystery: man particularly

XXXVII. All flesh is grass. The soul outlives death by its

proper nature: without a miracle

XXXVIII. Death should not amaze a Christian

XXXIX. In this world we manifest our divinity but ob-

scurely

XL. Naturally bashful; yet not so much afraid of death

as ashamed thereof

XLI. Unanxious for fame. The world but a dream or

XLII. Age doth not rectify, but incurvate our natures

XLIII. Some other hand than that of nature twines the

thread of life

XLIV. We are happier with death than we should have

been without it

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XLV. To be immortal, die daily. Judicial proceeding at

XLVI. To settle the period of the world, impiety. Anti-
christ the philosopher's stone in divinity

XLVII. The resurrection the life and spirit of all our

XLVIII. How shall the dead arise? Types of the resurrec-

tion to be found in nature

XLIX. Heaven. To define it (or hell) surpasseth my

divinity

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L. LI. Hell. The heart of man the place the devils

LII. Never afraid of hell. The servant, not the slave

of the Almighty -

LIII. Life an abyss and mass of mercies. God better

to the worst than the best deserve

LIV. All salvation through Christ

LV. Our practice runs counter to our theory. We are

LVII. Many saved who to man seem reprobated; and

LVIII. "The compellation of 'little flock' doth deject

LIX. Yet I doubt not of my salvation through the

LX. Who deny good works yet challenge heaven by

the efficacy of their faith

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PART II.

I. Charity: without it faith a mere notion. Naturally

framed to it, having no antipathies; contemn

nothing but the multitude. A rabble among the

gentry, a nobility without heraldry

II. Proper motives of charity. A phytognomy or phy-

siognomy of plants and animals.

Difference of faces

III. The act of charity hath many branches.

of the soul to be apparelled.

not passion. Merciless pens

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Chiromancy.

Nakedness

Controversies need

IV. Uncharity to whole nations. The community of sin

doth not disparage goodness. Self-love. Hard to

judge others, since no man knows himself

V. Unselfishness. Sympathy. Friendship; its powerful-

ness. Three mystical unions: two natures in one

person; three persons in one nature; one soul in

two bodies -

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108

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VI. Wonders in true affection: the soul its object. To
pray for our enemies no harsh precept

VII. No such injury as revenge; no such revenge as con-

tempt of an injury. Man a mass of antipathies.

Charity to ourselves to be at variance with our

vices

VIII. Father-sin of pride escaped. A common and school

philosophy for the reason of others; a reserved and

experimental for mine own. Vanity of toiling for

the knowledge which death gives every fool gratis 113

IX. Marriage. Harmony: an hieroglyphical and shadowed
lesson of the whole creation. Incurables in physic,
law, divinity. No catholicon but death

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X. No man bad. Poisons contain their own antidote.
'Lord defend me from myself,' part of my litany.
Nothing truly alone but God

XI. My life a miracle of thirty years. Dreams. Are we

not all asleep? and the conceits of this life mere

dreams to those of the next

XII. Sleep. Bedward dormative