For it is with the mysteries of our religion, as with wholesome pills for the sick, which swallowed whole, have the virtue to cure; but chewed, are for the most part cast up again without effect.
Interpretation
Religious beliefs can be beneficial if accepted wholeheartedly, but questioning or dissecting them may lead to spiritual doubt or rejection.
In this quote, Thomas Hobbes compares religious beliefs to wholesome pills that have the power to heal when taken in their entirety. He suggests that just as pills should be swallowed whole for their medicinal value, faith and religious teachings are most effective when accepted without doubt or skepticism; when questioned or analyzed too closely, they often lose their potency and are rejected.
In practice
In a sermon discussing the importance of unwavering faith, this quote can illustrate the need for trust in religious teachings.
Baptism is the sacrament of allegiance of them that are to be received into the Kingdom of God, that is to say, into Eternal life, that is to say, to Remission of Sin. For as Eternal life was lost by the committing, so it is recovered by the remitting of men's sins.
Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.
For it is not the shape, but their use, that makes them angels.
For to accuse requires less eloquence, such is man's nature, than to excuse; and condemnation, than absolution, more resembles justice.
Scientia potentia est, sed parva; quia scientia egregia rara est, nec proinde apparens nisi paucissimis, et in paucis rebus. Scientiae enim ea natura est, ut esse intelligi non possit, nisi ab illis qui sunt scientia praediti.
The end of knowledge is power ... the scope of all speculation is the performing of some action or thing to be done.
God removes the sin of the one who makes humble confession, and thereby the devil loses the sovereignty he had gained over the human heart.
Creation stories had never been regarded as historically accurate; their purpose was therapeutic. But once you start reading Genesis as scientifically valid, you have bad science and bad religion.
Death focuses the mind on the things that really matter: why are we here, and what should we do?
The philosophy of waiting is sustained by all the oracles of the universe.
No one should question the faith of others, for no human being can judge the ways of God.
I know not what to call this, nor will I urge that it is a secret, overruling decree, that hurries us on to be the instruments of our own destruction, even though it be before us, and that we rush upon it with our eyes open.
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