The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 1

Whether Cain intended to kill Abel.

Again, they might, for ought we know, be still deceived in the unbelief of their Mortality, even after they had eat of the Fruit: For, Eve observing no immediate execution of the Curse, she delivered the Fruit unto Adam: who, after the tast thereof, perceiving himself still to live, might yet remain in doubt, whether he had incurred Death; which perhaps he did not indubitably believe, until he was after convicted in the visible example of Abel. For he that would not believe the Menace of God at first, it may be doubted whether, before an ocular example, he believed the Curse at last. And therefore they are not without all reason, who have disputed the Fact of Cain: that is, although he purposed to do mischief, whether he intended to kill his Brother; or designed that, whereof he had not beheld an example in his own kind. There might be somewhat in it, that he would not have done, or desired undone, when he brake forth as desperately, as before he had done uncivilly, My iniquity is greater than can be forgiven me.

The Thalmudist's Allegories upon the History of Adam and Eve's Fall.

Some nicities I confess there are which extenuate, but many more that aggravate this Delusion; which exceeding the bounds of this Discourse, and perhaps our Satisfaction, we shall at present pass over. And therefore whether the Sin of our First Parents were the greatest of any since; whether the transgression of Eve seducing, did not exceed that of Adam seduced; or whether the resistibility of his Reason, did not equivalence the facility of her Seduction; we shall refer it to the Schoolman; Whether there was not in Eve as great injustice in deceiving her husband, as imprudence in being deceived her self; especially, if foretasting the Fruit, her eyes were opened before his, and she knew the effect of it, before he tasted of it; we leave it unto the Moralist. Whether the whole relation be not Allegorical, that is, whether the temptation of the Man by the Woman, be not the seduction of the rational and higher parts by the inferiour and feminine faculties; or whether the Tree in the midst of the Garden, were not that part in the Center of the body, in which was afterward the appointment of Circumcision in Males, we leave it unto the Thalmudist. Whether there were any Policy in the Devil to tempt them before the Conjunction, or whether the Issue before tentation, might in justice have suffered with those after, we leave it unto the Lawyer. Whether Adam foreknew the advent of Christ, or the reparation of his Error by his Saviour; how the execution of the Curse should have been ordered, if, after Eve had eaten, Adam had yet refused. Whether if they had tasted the Tree of life, before that of Good and Evil, they had yet suffered the curse of Mortality: or whether the efficacy of the one had not over-powred the penalty of the other, we leave it unto God. For he alone can truly determine these, and all things else; Who as he hath proposed the World unto our disputation, so hath he reserved many things unto his own resolution; whose determination we cannot hope from flesh, but must with reverence suspend unto that great Day, whose justice shall either condemn our curiosities, or resolve our disquisitions.

Lastly, Man was not only deceivable in his Integrity, but the Angels of light in all their Clarity. He that said, He would be like the highest did erre, if in some way he conceived himself so already: but in attempting so high an effect from himself, he mis-understood the nature of God, and held a false apprehension of his own; whereby vainly attempting not only insolencies, but impossibilities, he deceived himself as low as Hell. In brief, there is nothing infallible but God, who cannot possibly erre. For things are really true as they correspond unto his conception; and have so much verity as they hold of conformity unto that Intellect, in whose Idea they had their first determinations. And therefore being the Rule, he cannot be Irregular; nor, being Truth it self, conceaveably admit the impossible society of Error.

CHAPTER II

A further Illustration of the same

Being thus deluded before the Fall, it is no wonder if their conceptions were deceitful, and could scarce speak without an Error after. For, what is very remarkable (and no man that I know hath yet observed) in the relations of Scripture before the Flood, there is but one speech delivered by Man, wherein there is not an erroneous conception; and, strictly examined, most hainously injurious unto truth. The pen of Moses is brief in the account before the Flood, and the speeches recorded are but six. The first is that of Adam, when upon the expostulation of God, he replied; I heard thy voice in the Garden, and because I was naked I hid my self. In which reply, there was included a very gross Mistake, and, if with pertinacity maintained, a high and capital Error. For thinking by this retirement to obscure himself from God, he infringed the omnisciency and essential Ubiquity of his Maker, Who as he created all things, so is he beyond and in them all, not only in power, as under his subjection, or in his presence, as being in his cognition; but in his very Essence, as being the soul of their causalities, and the essential cause of their existencies. Certainly, his posterity at this distance and after so perpetuated an impairment, cannot but condemn the poverty of his conception, that thought to obscure himself from his Creator in the shade of the Garden, who had beheld him before in the darkness of his Chaos, and the great obscurity of Nothing; that thought to fly from God, which could not fly himself; or imagined that one tree should conceal his nakedness from Gods eye, as another had revealed it unto his own. Those tormented Spirits that wish the mountains to cover them, have fallen upon desires of minor absurdity, and chosen ways of less improbable concealment. Though this be also as ridiculous unto reason, as fruitless unto their desires; for he that laid the foundations of the Earth, cannot be excluded the secrecy of the Mountains; nor can there any thing escape the perspicacity of those eyes which were before light, and in whose opticks there is no opacity. This is the consolation of all good men, unto whom his Ubiquity affordeth continual comfort and security: And this is the affliction of Hell, unto whom it affordeth despair, and remediless calamity. For those restless Spirits that fly the face of the Almighty, being deprived the fruition of his eye, would also avoid the extent of his hand; which being impossible, their sufferings are desperate, and their afflictions without evasion; until they can get out of Trismegistus his Circle, that is, to extend their wings above the Universe, and pitch beyond Ubiquity.

The Second is that Speech of Adam unto God; The woman whom thou gavest me to be with me, she gave me of the Tree, and I did eat. This indeed was an unsatisfactory reply, and therein was involved a very impious Error, as implying God the Author of sin, and accusing his Maker of his transgression. As if he had said, If thou hadst not given me a woman, I had not been deceived: Thou promisedst to make her a help, but she hath proved destruction unto me: Had I remained alone, I had not sinned; but thou gavest me a Consort, and so I became seduced. This was a bold and open accusation of God, making the fountain of good, the contriver of evil, and the forbidder of the crime an abettor of the fact prohibited. Surely, his mercy was great that did not revenge the impeachment of his justice; And his goodness to be admired, that it refuted not his argument in the punishment of his excusation, and only pursued the first transgression without a penalty of this the second.

The third was that of Eve; The Serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. In which reply, there was not only a very feeble excuse, but an erroneous translating her own offence upon another; Extenuating her sin from that which was an aggravation, that is, to excuse the Fact at all, much more upon the suggestion of a beast, which was before in the strictest terms prohibited by her God. For although we now do hope the mercies of God will consider our degenerated integrities unto some minoration of our offences; yet had not the sincerity of our first parents so colourable expectations, unto whom the commandment was but single, and their integrities best able to resist the motions of its transgression. And therefore so heinous conceptions have risen hereof, that some have seemed more angry therewith, than God himself: Being so exasperated with the offence, as to call in question their salvation, and to dispute the eternal punishment of their Maker. Assuredly with better reason may posterity accuse them than they the Serpent or one another; and the displeasure of the Pelagians must needs be irreconcilable, who peremptorily maintaining they can fulfil the whole Law, will insatisfactorily condemn the non-observation of one.

The Devill knew not our Saviour to be God when he tempted him.

The fourth, was that speech of Cain upon the demand of God, Where is thy brother? and he said, I know not. In which Negation, beside the open impudence, there was implied a notable Error; for returning a lie unto his Maker, and presuming in this manner to put off the Searcher of hearts, he denied the omnisciency of God, whereunto there is nothing concealable. The answer of Satan in the case of Job, had more of truth, wisdom, and Reverence, this; Whence comest thou Satan? and he said, From compassing of the Earth. For though an enemy of God, and hater of all Truth, his wisdom will hardly permit him to falsifie with the All-mighty. For well understanding the Omniscience of his nature, he is not so ready to deceive himself, as to falsifie unto him whose cognition is no way deludable. And therefore when in the tentation of Christ he played upon the fallacy, and thought to deceive the Author of Truth, the Method of this proceeding arose from the uncertainty of his Divinity; whereof had he remained assured, he had continued silent; nor would his discretion attempt so unsucceedable a temptation. And so again at the last day, when our offences shall be drawn into accompt, the subtilty of that Inquisitor shall not present unto God a bundle of calumnies or confutable accusations, but will discreetly offer up unto his Omnisciency, a true and undeniable list of our transgressions.

The fifth is another reply of Cain upon the denouncement of his curse, My iniquity is greater then can be forgiven: For so it is expressed in some Translations. The assertion was not only desperate, but the conceit erroneous, overthrowing that glorious Attribute of God, his Mercy, and conceiving the sin of murder unpardonable. Which how great soever, is not above the repentance of man; but far below the mercies of God, and was (as some conceive) expiated in that punishment he suffered temporally for it. There are but two examples of this error in holy Scripture, and they both for Murder, and both as it were of the same person; for Christ was mystically slain in Abel, and therefore Cain had some influence on his death as well as Judas; but the sin had a different effect on Cain, from that it had on Judas; and most that since have fallen into it. For they like Judas desire death, and not unfrequently pursue it: Cain on the contrary grew afraid thereof, and obtained a securement from it. Assuredly, if his despair continued, there was punishment enough in life, and Justice sufficient in the mercy of his protection. For the life of the desperate equalls the anxieties of death; who in uncessant inquietudes but act the life of the damned, and anticipate the desolations of Hell. 'Tis indeed a sin in man, but a punishment only in Devils, who offend not God but afflict themselves, in the appointed despair of his mercies. And as to be without hope is the affliction of the damned, so is it the happiness of the blessed; who having all their expectations present, are not distracted with futurities: So is it also their felicity to have no Faith; for enjoying the beatifical vision, there is nothing unto them inevident; and in the fruition of the object of Faith, they have received the full evacuation of it.

Cain, as the Rabbins think, was the man slain by Lamech, Gen. 4, 23.

The last speech was that of Lamech, I have slain a man to my wound, and a young man in my hurt: If Cain be avenged seven fold, truly Lamech seventy and seven fold. Now herein there seems to be a very erroneous Illation: from the Indulgence of God unto Cain, concluding an immunity unto himself; that is, a regular protection from a single example, and an exemption from punishment in a fact that naturally deserved it. The Error of this offender was contrary to that of Cain, whom the Rabbins conceive that Lamech at this time killed. He despaired in Gods mercy in the same Fact, where this presumed of it; he by a decollation of all hope annihilated his mercy, this by an immoderancy thereof destroyed his Justice. Though the sin were less, the Error was as great; For as it is untrue, that his mercy will not forgive offenders, or his benignity co-operate to their conversions; So is it also of no less falsity to affirm His justice will not exact account of sinners, or punish such as continue in their transgressions.

Thus may we perceive, how weakly our fathers did Erre before the Floud, how continually and upon common discourse they fell upon Errors after; it is therefore no wonder we have been erroneous ever since. And being now at greatest distance from the beginning of Error, are almost lost in its dissemination, whose waies are boundless, and confess no circumscription.

CHAPTER III

Of the second cause of Popular Errors; the erroneous disposition of the People

Having thus declared the infallible nature of Man even from his first production, we have beheld the general cause of Error. But as for popular Errors, they are more neerly founded upon an erroneous inclination of the people; as being the most deceptable part of Mankind and ready with open armes to receive the encroachments of Error. Which condition of theirs although deducible from many Grounds, yet shall we evidence it but from a few, and such as most neerly and undeniably declare their natures.

How unequal discerners of truth they are, and openly exposed unto Error, will first appear from their unqualified intellectuals, unable to umpire the difficulty of its dissensions. For Error, to speak largely, is a false judgment of things, or, an assent unto falsity. Now whether the object whereunto they deliver up their assent be true or false, they are incompetent judges.

For the assured truth of things is derived from the principles of knowledge, and causes which determine their verities. Whereof their uncultivated understandings, scarce holding any theory, they are but bad discerners of verity; and in the numerous track of Error, but casually do hit the point and unity of truth.

Arguments of sensitive quality most prevailing upon vulgar capacities.

Their understanding is so feeble in the discernment of falsities, and averting the Errors of reason, that it submitteth unto the fallacies of sense, and is unable to rectifie the Error of its sensations. Thus the greater part of Mankind having but one eye of Sense and Reason, conceive the Earth far bigger than the Sun, the fixed Stars lesser than the Moon, their figures plain, and their spaces from Earth equidistant. For thus their Sense informeth them, and herein their reason cannot Rectifie them; and therefore hopelesly continuing in mistakes, they live and die in their absurdities; passing their days in perverted apprehensions, and conceptions of the World, derogatory unto God, and the wisdom of the Creation.

Again, being so illiterate in the point of intellect, and their sense so incorrected, they are farther indisposed ever to attain unto truth; as commonly proceeding in those wayes, which have most reference unto sense, and wherein there lyeth most notable and popular delusion.

For being unable to wield the intellectuall arms of reason, they are fain to betake themselves unto wasters, and the blunter weapons of truth: affecting the gross and sensible ways of Doctrine, and such as will not consist with strict and subtile Reason. Fable. Thus unto them a piece of Rhetorick is a sufficient argument of Logick; an Apologue of Esop, beyond a Syllogysm in Barbara; parables than propositions, and proverbs more powerful than demonstrations. And therefore are they led rather by Example, than Precept; receiving perswasions from visible inducements, before electual instructions. And therefore also they judge of human actions by the event; for being uncapable of operable circumstances, or rightly to judge the prudentiality of affairs, they only gaze upon the visible success, and therefore condemn or cry up the whole progression. And so from this ground in the Lecture of holy Scripture, their apprehensions are commonly confined unto the literal sense of the Text, from whence have ensued the gross and duller sort of Heresies. For not attaining the deuteroscopy, and second intention of the words, they are fain to omit the Superconsequencies, Coherencies, Figures, or Tropologies; and are not sometime perswaded by fire beyond their literalities. And therefore also things invisible, but into intellectual discernments, to humour the grossness of their comprehensions, have been degraded from their proper forms, and God Himself dishonoured into manual expressions. And so likewise being unprovided, or unsufficient for higher speculations, they will alwayes betake themselves unto sensible representations, and can hardly be restrained the dulness of Idolatry: A sin or folly not only derogatory unto God but men; overthrowing their Reason, as well as his Divinity. In brief, a reciprocation, or rather, an inversion of the Creation, making God one way, as he made us another; that is, after our Image, as he made us after His own.

Moreover, their understanding thus weak in it self, and perverted by sensible delusions, is yet farther impaired by the dominion of their appetite; that is, the irrational and brutal part of the soul, which lording it over the soveraign faculty, interrupts the actions of that noble part, and choaks those tender sparks, which Adam hath left them of reason. And therefore they do not only swarm with Errors, but vices depending thereon. Thus they commonly affect no man any further than he deserts his reason, or complies with their aberrancies. Hence they imbrace not vertue for it self, but its reward; and the argument from pleasure or Utility is far more powerful, than that from vertuous Honesty: which Mahomet and his contrivers well understood, when he set out the felicity of his Heaven, by the contentments of flesh, and the delights of sense, slightly passing over the accomplishment of the Soul, and the beatitude of that part which Earth and visibilities too weakly affect. But the wisdom of our Saviour, and the simplicity of his truth proceeded another way; defying the popular provisions of happiness from sensible expectations; placing his felicity in things removed from sense, and the intellectual enjoyment of God. And therefore the doctrine of the one was never afraid of Universities, or endeavoured the banishment of learning, like the other. And though Galen doth sometimes nibble at Moses, and, beside the Apostate Christian, Julian. some Heathens have questioned his Philosophical part, or treaty of the Creation: Yet is there surely no reasonable Pagan, that will not admire the rational and well grounded precepts of Christ; whose life, as it was conformable unto his Doctrine, so was that unto the highest rules of Reason; and must therefore flourish in the advancement of learning, and the perfection of parts best able to comprehend it.

Again, Their individual imperfections being great, they are moreover enlarged by their aggregation; and being erroneous in their single numbers, once hudled together, they will be Error it self. For being a confusion of knaves and fools, and a farraginous concurrence of all conditions, tempers, sexes, and ages; it is but natural if their determinations be monstrous, and many wayes inconsistent with Truth. And therefore wise men have alwaies applauded their own judgment, in the contradiction of that of the people; and their soberest adversaries, have ever afforded them the stile of fools and mad men; and, to speak impartially, their actions have made good these Epithets. Non sani esse hominis, non sanus juret Orestes. Had Orestes been Judge, he would not have acquitted that Lystrian rabble of madness, who, upon a visible miracle, falling into so high a conceit of Paul and Barnabas, that they termed the one Jupiter, the other Mercurius; that they brought Oxen and Garlands, and were hardly restrained from sacrificing unto them; did notwithstanding suddenly after fall upon Paul, and having stoned him drew him for dead out of the City. It might have hazarded the sides of Democritus, had he been present at that tumult of Demetrius; when the people flocking together in great numbers, some crying one thing, and some another, and the assembly was confused, and the most part knew not wherefore they were come together; notwithstanding, all with one voice for the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. It had overcome the patience of Job, as it did the meekness of Moses, and would surely have mastered any, but the longanimity, and lasting sufferance of God; had they beheld the Mutiny in the wilderness, when, after ten great Miracles in Egypt, and some in the same place, they melted down their stoln ear-rings into a Calf, and monstrously cryed out; These are thy Gods, O Israel, that brought thee out of the land of Egypt. It much accuseth the impatience of Peter, who could not endure the staves of the multitude, and is the greatest example of lenity in our Saviour, when he desired of God forgiveness unto those, who having one day brought him into the City in triumph, did presently after, act all dishonour upon him, and nothing could be heard but, Crucifige, in their Courts. Certainly he that considereth these things in God's peculiar people will easily discern how little of truth there is in the wayes of the Multitude; and though sometimes they are flattered with that Aphorism, will hardly believe, The voice of the people to be the voice of God.

Lastly, being thus divided from truth in themselves, they are yet farther removed by advenient deception. For true it is (and I hope I shall not offend their vulgarities,) if I say, they are daily mocked into Error by subtler devisors, and have been expressly deluded by all professions and ages. Thus the Priests of Elder time, have put upon them many incredible conceits, not only deluding their apprehensions with Ariolation, South-saying, and such oblique Idolatries, but winning their credulities unto the literal and down right adorement of Cats, Lizzards, and Beetles. And thus also in some Christian Churches, wherein is presumed an irreprovable truth, if all be true that is suspected, or half what is related; there have not wanted many strange deceptions, and some thereof are still confessed by the name of Pious Frauds. Thus Theudas an Impostor was able to lead away Four thousand into the Wilderness. and the delusions of Mahomet almost the fourth part of Mankind. Thus all Heresies, how gross soever, have found a welcome with the people. For thus, many of the Jews were wrought into belief that Herod was the Messias; and David George of Leyden and Arden, were not without a party amongst the people, who maintained the same opinion of themselves almost in our days.

The Author's Censure upon Judgment by Urine.

Physitians (many at least that make profession thereof) beside divers less discoverable wayes of fraud, have made them believe, there is the book of fate, or the power of Aarons breast-plate, in Urins. And therefore hereunto they have recourse, as unto the Oracle of life, the great determinator of Virginity, Conception, Fertility, and the Inscrutable infirmities of the whole Body. For as though there were a seminality in Urine, or that, like the Seed, it carried with it the Idea of every part, they foolishly conceive, we visibly behold therein the Anatomy of every particle, and can thereby indigitate their Diseases: And running into any demands, expect from us a sudden resolution in things, whereon the Devil of Delphos would demurr; and we know hath taken respite of some dayes to answer easier questions.