

78 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES 



If therefore men try to arrive at such knowledge, their conclu 

 sions are sure to be heretical, i.e. at variance with the teaching 

 of Revelation, which is the only source of knowledge as to the 

 divine character and will. Bacon frequently insists in his writings 

 on the necessity of keeping theology and science separate : see 

 Bk. 2, pp. 3") and 1 83. In the (i5th Aphorism of the first book of the 

 Novum Organum, he says, " An ill-advised admixture of things 

 human and divine produces a fantastical philosophy, and an 

 heretical religion." In his 17th Essay he mentions among the 

 causes of superstition "the taking an aim at divine matters by 

 human, which cannot but breed mixture of imaginations." We 

 may here briefly consider what Bacon's attitude towards religion 

 was. He says in the text that the more we study nature, and 

 see how law and harmony regulate its apparent diversity, the 

 more convinced we become of the existence of a God, who put in 

 motion originally, and who still controls, the vast machinery of 

 the system. In his 16th Essay he says, "I had rather believe 

 all the fables in the Legend, [a book containing the lives of the 

 Saints] and the Talmud, and the Alcoran than that this Universal 

 Frame is without a mind.... It is true that a little philosophy 

 inclin^th man's mind to atheism : but depth in philosophy 

 bringeth men's minds about to religion: for while the mind of 

 man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest 

 in them and go no further. Biit when it beholdeth the chain of 

 them confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to providence, 

 and deity." See below, p. 46. Bacon, then, certainly believed 

 in the existence of God, and in the government of the world by 

 divine providence. These he regarded as truths established by 

 natural religion. Natural religion, then, according to Bacon, 

 falls within, and is demonstrated by philosophy. Theology, 

 Bacon says, does not come within the sphere of philosophy. 

 It rests simply on faith : its dogmas are not to be tested or 

 criticised by reason, nor to be rejected if they are repugnant to 

 reason (see Bk. 2, p. 183). If Bacon had been asked why he 

 believed in the Christian theology, he would have replied because 

 it is contained in the Bible. He did not ask whether the Bible 

 was worthy of credit, nor did he care to co-ordinate his theo 

 logical with his other beliefs. He was too much interested in 

 science to devote his time to theology. He lived in an age of 

 violent theological discussion, but took neither part nor interest 

 in it. Theological discussions are, he says, for the most part 

 frivolous and unfruitful. Unity as to the essentials of religion 

 is all that is necessary. (See Essay 3.) He would have allowed 

 perfect freedom of judgment, limited only by the positive declar 

 ations of Scripture. He accepted the doctrines of Christianity, 

 but his was rather a belief of the lips than of the heart : and he 

 was always more interested in the moral than in the doctrinal 

 aide of Christianity. (See Macaulay's Essay on Bacon. ) Bacon's 



