Gender and Boyle's Law of Gases

12. Boyle’s Concern over the Sectaries

12 Boyle’s Concern over the Sectaries Boyle agreed with the sectaries that “the right, and the skill to govern, are two very distinct things: nor does the one confer the other.” There certainly are rulers whose “power is unguided by prudence,” but Boyle was not sympathetic with the democratic political aspirations of “the vulgar.” There must needs be a ruler and he must be obeyed even when he is not wise, for the vulgar, who yet make up the far greatest and loudest part of those, that would intrude themselves into state-affairs, upon the pretence of their being ill managed by their superiours . . . whatever the course of affairs be, these cannot but be incompetent judges of their being politick. . . . the vulgar is rarely admitted to have such a prospect into the true state of affairs, as is requisite to enable them to judge of the expedience or unadvisedness of them.1 (W, II, 412–413) A careful reading of Boyle’s writings from this period reveals his preoccupation with the sectaries and his determination to undercut the natural philosophy upon which their religious and social doctrines rested. Thus, Some Considerations Touching the Style of the Holy Scriptures, written in 1651 and 1652, attacks certain sectaries; it proceeds by defending the scriptures against detractors, and though he states that it is not meant to deal with “atheists and antiscripturalists,” it nevertheless does so in many places. The term “antiscripturalist” was used not precisely but rather pejoratively, to refer to a range of sectarian attitudes toward the scriptures. Roughly, these sectaries did not defer to the Bible as authoritative, nor did they defer to authorized readers of it; they denied that the scriptures provide the primary point of contact with God. Instead, the sectaries held, as we have seen, that God speaks directly to his people through the inner light, or his spirit within. For some, the spirit could reveal the true meaning of the scriptures; for others, the spirit might reveal the scriptures to be irrelevant . Potentially, then, each individual becomes an authority. 116 Hill provides numerous examples of sectaries who, as Boyle put it, “profaned” the scriptures and alarmed their fellows. Perhaps the best exemplar of the connections among sectarianism, natural magic, and anti-scripturalism is John Everard (1575–c. 1650), who was¤ned under Laud for Familism, Antinomianism and Anabaptism . Everard translated Hermes Trismegistus and many works of mystical theology, including ‘that cursed book’, Theologia Germanica . He thought God was in man and nature . . . and allegorized the Bible. “The dead letter is not the Word, but Christ is the Word,” he said. “Sticking in the letter” has been “the bane of all growth in religion.”2 (Boyle himself used Everard’s translation of Hermes Trismegistus; see W, II, 57.) Many others were also charged with allegorizing the scriptures (Hill, Upside Down, 218ff.). Boyle was very concerned about the threat these sectaries presented , remarking in the Style, Wherefore, as in infectious times, when the plague reigns . . . so now that anti-scripturism grows so rife, and spreads so fast, I hope it will not appear unseasonable to advise those, that tender the safety and serenity of their faith, to be more than ordinarily shy of being too venturous of any books, or company, that may derogate from their veneration of the scripture; because by the predominant and contagious profaneness of the times, the least injurious opinions harboured of it, are prone to degenerate into irreligion. But I fear, you will think I preach. (W, II, 294–295) The best defense against these errors is studying the Bible to improve one’s “reverence for the scripture it self, and Christianity in general” and to ¤nd “solid evidences of that great truth, that the scripture is the word of God, which is indeed the grand fundamental.”3 We must continually bear in mind that for seventeenth-century Christians there was little distinction between proper religion and the good society. Boyle was typical in holding that the scriptures teach truths about government and society; the view was that, as Jacob remarks , “Good government, on the whole, is informed by scriptural religion” (Jacob, “Boyle’s Circle,” 131). Boyle’s Concern over the Sectaries 117 We know that Boyle kept abreast of sectarian threats, for among the Boyle Papers is a set of notes taken on sermons preached during the late summer and autumn of 1655 at Allhallows, London, by “leading Fifth...