The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 1Browne, Thomas, Sir
Religion
The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 1
Browne, Thomas, Sir
Christianity; Ethics; Religion and medicine
Insolent zeals that do decry good Works, and rely onely upon Faith, take
not away merit: for depending upon the efficacy of their Faith, they
enforce the condition of God, and in a more sophistical way do seem to
challenge Heaven. It was decreed by God, that only those that lapt in
the water like Dogs, should have the honour to destroy the _Midianites_;
yet could none of those justly challenge, or imagine he deserved that
honour thereupon. I do not deny, but that true Faith, and such as God
requires, is not onely a mark or token, but also a means of our
Salvation; but where to find this, is as obscure to me, as my last end.
And if our Saviour could object unto his own Disciples and Favourites, a
Faith, that, to the quantity of a grain of Mustard-seed, is able to
remove Mountains; surely that which we boast of, is not any thing, or at
the most, but a remove from nothing. This is the Tenor of my belief;
wherein, though there be many things singular, and to the humour of my
irregular self; yet if they square not with maturer Judgements I
disclaim them, and do no further favour them, than the learned and best
judgements shall authorize them.
THE SECOND PART
SECT. 1
Now for that other Virtue of Charity, without which Faith is a meer
notion, and of no existence, I have ever endeavoured to nourish the
merciful disposition and humane inclination I borrowed from my Parents,
and regulate it to the written and prescribed Laws of Charity; and if I
hold the true Anatomy of my self, I am delineated and naturally framed
to such a piece of virtue. For I am of a constitution so general, that
it comforts and sympathizeth with all things; I have no antipathy, or
rather Idio-syncrasie, in dyet, humour, air, any thing: I wonder not at
the _French_ for their dishes of Frogs, Snails, and Toadstools, nor at
the Jews for Locusts and Grasshoppers; but being amongst them, make them
my common Viands, and I find they agree with my Stomach as well as
theirs. I could digest a Sallad gathered in a Churchyard, as well as in
a Garden. I cannot start at the presence of a Serpent, Scorpion, Lizard,
or Salamander: at the sight of a Toad or Viper, I find in me no desire
to take up a stone to destroy them. I feel not in my self those common
Antipathies that I can discover in others: Those National repugnances do
not touch me, nor do I behold with prejudice the _French_, _Italian_,
_Spaniard_, or _Dutch_; but where I find their actions in balance with
my Country-men's, I honour, love, and embrace them in the same degree.
I was born in the eighth Climate, but seem for to be framed and
constellated unto all: I am no Plant that will not prosper out of a
Garden: All places, all airs make unto me one Countrey; I am in
_England_, every where, and under any Meridian. I have been shipwrackt,
yet am not enemy with the Sea or Winds; I can study, play, or sleep in a
Tempest. In brief, I am averse from nothing; my Conscience would give me
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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