would have come withall the greatnesse and variety as they expected from so great a King and seeing him otherwise they began to despise him and strangely to scoffe the French men where they conceived such hatred against the Spaniards that they could never since forget this disgrace and affront and if we will say that the devill at this meeting grounded the enmity and antipathy which now a daies raignes we shall not say amisse seeing a farre lesser ground then this will serve his turne To all that is said before may be added a great motive which these two Nations have had to contemne and abhorre one another which is that in times past there came not out of France into Spaine any people of sort and note but onely poore beggerly and needy people of the frontiers as Guascons Biernois and others who went as they do to this day in white round caps like a trencher upon their heads bare legged with wooden shoos which they call esclops upon their feet these with a base kind of avarice will put themselves to any base office as keeping of cowes and hogs to sweepe chimneies or the like and though in their eating they bee sober enough for with an onion or a head of garlicke and a peece of bread they will passe the whole day yet in their drinking they are unreasonable and all their gaines goeth in wine which being strong and heady presenâ—ly makes them drunke so that for the most part of the day they go reeling and falling about the streets to the great scandall of the Spaniards amongst whom there is no greater infamy or dishonour then to bee drunke wherefore the Spaniards who saw no other French men but these thought that all the rest had been like them did abhor them and conceive much enmity against them and contempt of them the same occasion had the French for very few or no Spaniards of fashion going into France and they seeing none but poore and wretched people who went to bee touched for the Kings evill verily beleeved that all other Spaniards had been of the same kinde and so from that basenesse they tooke occasion to hold the Spaniards in little esteeme and besides this contempt to encrease this mortall enmity each of these foresaid reasons in my minde are sufficient occasions and motives of the hatred and disdaine we finde between these two Nations especially the divell mixing his care and industry with it But if I should speake mine opinion I think there cannot be a more powerfull reason given for this antipathy then the naturall contrariety of these two Nations humors and so it being so hard a thing to force nature with reason I doe not wonder if the will in which consists hatred or love keeps company with nature and followes her steps obeying her contrarieties and repugnances and we must imagine that to move the will so much the more to the contrariety of humors the divell did helpe forward all the forenamed accidents so that the constellation the diversity of humours the contempt of both nations and the divell joining together there could nothing be hoped for but a mortall hatred and the antipathy which now we see the remedy of which lieth in God only seeing I doe not beleeve that on earth there is any antidote for such a pestilent poison CHAP. XVIII That the conjunction and confederacy of these two crownes is a thing which proceeds from heaven AMongst the great and infallable truths which the Apostle St. Paul writ to lift us up towards the knowledge of God me thinkes that is a marveilous one when he saith Invisibilia Dei per ea quae facta sunt intellectu conspiciuntur which is as much to say that in all and every creature shines the infinite power of the divine wisdome and that they are all like so many tongues to declare unto us what the almighty power of their author is wherefore that must be a grosse and materiall understanding which by the contemplation of things created could not reach to the knowledge of the perfection and noblenesse of of him that made them The same was the royall Prophet his intent when he said Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei opera manuum ejuâ— annuntiat firmamentum whereby is knowne the imperfection and misery of our understanding subject only to the knowledge of the materialities of this world and unable to reach at the knowledge of things which are beyond natures bounds since that in these as Aristotle saith he is as the owle or the night-bat is with the sunne beames when it shines most cleare and bright and the same Psalmist knew this truth when he with such great fervency craved of God Revela oculos meos considerabo mirabilia de lege tua holding it for a certain that it was impossible to arrive to the knowledge of such high mysteries with the imperfection of nature onely wherefore the supreame architect finding that there could bee no equality nor proportion found between his greatnesses and our humane understanding they being infinite and this materiall limited he ordained that man should come to the knowledge of his infinite power by meanes of the visible effects of this world Whence we shall see by this reason that God at all times did communicate himself to men by materiall and visible means as in the guiding of the people of Israel by day with a pillar of cloud by night with a pillar of fire making mount Sinai to shake wheÌ„ he gave the Law affrighting them with thunder lightning sending fire from heaven the deluge and the like by which he did accommodate himselfe to the imperfection of our understanding For if God should not use materiall things and easie to bee understood perhaps the understanding of man would either attribute such effects to some other cause or would not know from whence they proceeded For it is certaine that when God decreed to destroy the world with the floud hee could as well have annihilated and destroyed it without filling of it full of water or doing any other manifest and visible action but it would not have seemed so great a wonder to men if they were all fallen dead without any manifest cause as the rivers over-flowing of their bankes and the opening of the cataracts and windows of heaven was And though God could have destroyed those accursed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah without any apparent signe with making them fall simply without any other visible effect yet he would have their ruine be by meanes of a materiall cause which should manifest the great power of him who sent to doe such an execution as that was to make fire as the sacred text speaketh and brimstome to come downe from heaven a signe that hee could make even the grossest understanding know what the power of divine justice was for if God had used some insensible meanes the cause would not have been knowne nor his great might and power So also
THE ANTIPATHY betweene the French and Spaniard Englished By Robert Gentilys Sold by R Martine at the Venice in old Baly 1641 THE 〈◊〉 AND THE Spaniard OR of the world displayed in lively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 representing the Antipathy of their Humours and different Dispositions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Customes of both those Nations By R. G. Gent. LONDON Printed for 〈◊〉 at the Princes Armes in Pauls Churchyard TO THE RIGHT Worshipfull SIR PAUL PINDAR Knight YOur well known goodnesse which makes you admired praised by every one excited long since a desire in me to testifie unto the world and your self that though a stranger unto you yet I was not such a stranger in the city but that I had heard and taken notice of your daily pious and charitable workes So that this my translation being to goe forth into the view of the world I have made bold to dedicate it unto you for two causes The first my desire to make knowne unto you that you had an unknowne servant who had long wished for some opportunity whereby he might manifest the desire he had to tender his service unto you The second to make this poore worke more acceptable to the world by prefixing your beloved name in the front of it which is greater in the worlds esteeme Quam cui possit invidia nocere Your curteous and noble mind will I hope not disdaine the gift though so smal that it meriteth not so great a Patron I promising ere long to present you with something which shall bee mine owne invention So wishing you many happy daies fore-runners of eternal happinesse I rest Your Worships most devoted servant Robert Gentilis To the Reader TO obviate an Objection I thought good to write these few lines unto thee For it may bee said that the extolling of one is in some sort the vilifying of another and the glorious praises given in this book to the French and Spaniards may seeme a disparagement to our Nation But when I think upon that Prince who desirous to have a valiant man brought before him and one being presented unto him who had many scarres about him which were questionlesse tokens of his bold adventerousnesse said he had rather have had the man who gave those wounds I resolve my selfe that our Nation is rather commended and magnified by their praises then otherwise For if their conquests be so glorious what must the English renowne be who never could bee said to have had but the upper hand of either of them in all attempts or enterprises witnesse Histories Chronicles of all ages If the Authour have beene any thing hyperbolicall in their praises impute it to the Spanish phrase humour which cannot speake in a low stile or strain in your owne discretion accept of his meaning circumscribe his generalities As for example when he saith that these two great Monarchs protect defend others taxe him not with so much indiscretion as to imagine he meant all but onely such petty Princes Dukes as have their adherencies and dependancies upon them And not those who equall in power need not crave ayde of any but God either to defend or vindicate them So submitting my authour and my selfe to thy curteous censure I rest Thine if thou esteeme me worthy of thy favour R. G. The opposition and conjunction of the two great lights of the EARTH CHAP. I. That Peace and Vnion are Gods Attributes and the perfection of nature THAT supreame God who made the Heavens chroniclers of his glory and greatnesse to give us by his visible effects some knowledge and notice of the invisible treasure deposited in the deepe treasures of his owne omnipotency In all his operations as well internall or as the Divines doe terme them ad intra which are the generation of the word and production of the holy Ghost as also in the externall as the creation the providence the preservation and the like sheweth us that his most essentiall and proper attribute is Union Since the reall distinction admitted by sacred Divinity betweene the Divine persons is not sufficient to make the Son not to be the same with the Father and both one with the holy Ghost Nor doth that infinite variety of divers natures whereof this artificial frame of the world is composed besides the universall dependency which they have from one beginning refuse the bond of peace wherewith they are straightly joined together For proof of the first the efficacy wherewith the same God did so much give in charge and urge unto his chosen people the unity of his divine nature shall serve me for a concluding reason he saying unto them a thousand times Hearken O Israel thy God is one and one is his name Which wordes as they are most true and unreproovable witnesses of this truth shall save me a labour of proving it by naturall and theologicall reasons The second which is the dependency which all creatures have from one onely beginning may be plainly demonstrated by that which historicall Moses writ the beginning of his sacred history attributing the creation of the world to one sole cause Which truth that great Mercurius Trismegistus did also leave engraven in pure Emerald beeing there in followed by the whole troop of Philosophers who unanimously confessed one first cause eternall independent and immortall needing therein no other Tutor but onely the light of naturall reason And if any curious man should aske me the proof of the third point he may yeeld himselfe satisfaction by considering the streight bonds and intrinsecall union wherewith all natures doe linke themselves one with another untill they come unto the first linke from whence they were taken Nor let any one thinke this union and naturall concord of the creatures to be a borrowed perfection or accidentally belonging unto them seeing that the supreame architect who made all thinges deliberately and with wisdome and measure having set every one of them in their owne poste and place convenient for their natures gave unto them all joined together union for the center of their preservation And that so properly and intrinsecally that if the said union could be broken the whole frame of the world whose harmony consisteth in the reciprocall consonancy of all its parts would be brought to nothing He that shall with particular attention consider the seven rings or linkes whereof the chaine of this world is composed shall easily finde out this marvailous bond of union Beginning from the first and last which is God who though he be generally united to all creatures which live in him subsist by him and move through him yet by a more particular assistance he is united unto the Angelicall nature as the perfectest of all creatures This joyneth it selfe with the nature of the heavens which by reason of its incorruptibility is the most perfect next unto the Angelicall To the celestiall enterlaceth it selfe the elementall in whose linke consisteth the diameter of the chain as that which according
to be worthy of so great an honour out of which consideration grew pride which augmenting the raging fire of her mother ambition caused the Angell to forget the respect and honour due unto his creator and to become the heire of contempt These two fierce monsters of nature Pride and contempt made such a slaughter of that faire creature that they left not in him the least signe of perfection and goodnesse yea they did so deprave and pervert his will that seeing himselfe banished out of heaven and condemned to a perpetuall privaâ—ion of God and â—o the terrible habitation of those darkesome prisons of hell hee enragedly protested to be revenged And being unable to execute his vengeance against God his infinite perfection and greatnesse being not to be reached unto he purposed to wreake his vengeance upon man as the creature in most favour not being able to endure those particular favours and prerogatives wherewith he perceived God did intend to honour him Out of which consideration sprung envie the Divels spouse and mother of death With such weapons doth this fierce Leviathan persecute mankinde and with them he brings to an end all his pretences subjecting unto his empire and command all the Provinces of the earth It being most certaine that cities subject to discord and dissension cannot be free from the divels bondage and consequently subject to ruine The epithets which the Prophet Nahum gives unto the citie of Niniveh shall be sufficient and faithfull witnesses for me herein when he cals it the citie of blood the citie of misery the city of death and perdition attributing the cause of these wretched effects to nothing but to the discord and division of her inhabitants And he doth with so much efficacy insist upon this point that he pronounces an infallible curse upon that citie which shall stand divided and in discord The same doth the Prophet Hosea concluding by an enthymeme the ruine which comes through dissension saying Their heart is divided and therefore they shall perish And if this be not sufficient let us consider that wretched tricke he served our first fathers in the beginning of the world where it being a hard taske to beat downe such knowledge and wisedome so perfectly infused as Adam his wives was he used no other weapons then these perswading them that God had enjoyned upon paine of death not to taste of the tree of life onely through an artificiall malice because that none should be so wise as himselfe which he could so well and with such lively reasons perswade them that being already moved with an ambition and desire of knowledge they conceived such enmity and hatred against God that casting away the respect and obedience which they knew was due unto him they did contrary to that which was commanded them remaining thereby subject unto death and their posterity to an abysse of miseries Let him that is curious observe for the confirmation of this truth the sentence which God pronounced against the Serpent when as being willing to punish him by way of retaliation or as they say in Latine poena talionis He tooke for a meanes of the punishment the same way as the Serpent had taken to make man fall from his originall justice and state of innocency saying unto the Serpent I will set enmity betweene thee and the woman as if he should more plainly say thou hast procured through thine accursed perswasions and lyes to set hatred and enmity betweene the woman and I to make her a slave and all her posterity subject to thy will and tyranny And I say unto thee that thou shalt be chastized with the same punishment for I will sowe such terrible hatred and deadly antipathy betwixt you that you shall alwayes live in continuall warre and enmity she endeavouring with all her might to breake thine head and thou to set snares for her heele Finally by meanes of enmity and hatred the divell did catch Cain never letting him rest untill he tooke away his brother Abels life By meanes of these two he stirred up Esau his anger against Iacob Saul his revenge against guiltlesse Duvid Pharaohs hardnesse against the children of Israel And with dissention discord and ambition the divell hath brought under his dominion and obedience the most noble and fruitfull Provinces of the earth burning up the fruits of peace respect feare reverence and zeale of the publike welfare towards them to whom they were subject by divine and humane lawes Many times have I considered that excellent and admirable invention which Samson used to revenge himselfe upon the Philistines and I truely finde that it is the same as the divell useth to be revenged upon man since if that I well remember the story Samson having sought all the surest wayes to be revenged of the wrongs he had received could finde none more effectuall then division verily beleeving that thereby he should ruine all his enemies goods and wealth and to that end he tooke a number of Foxes and binding firebrands to their tailes he let them run into the Philistines corne fields The beasts feeling themselves loose began to sever and divide themselves in the fields with such disorder that there were not two left together all taking severall wayes fixing their eyes towards their owne homes and terriers Which division was the cause that all the corne was burnt up leaving the land spoyled and Samson revenged With such like industry doth the Divell subject unto his Empire all the countries of the world overthrowing the best things he can finde in them and leaving them utterly unable to helpe themselves Seeing that to turne a quiet and peaceable citie into a citie of bloud and wretchednesse the first thing he doth is to stirre up ambition in them whom he findes most disposed thereunto and alluring them with their owne proper interests he kindles the fire of discord and dissention in such sort that it being impossible to pacifie and unite it the feare of God the zeale of publicke welfare the respect and obedience due to the Prince and the charity towards ones neighbour are all beaten down whence immediatly followeth the totall perdition and ruine of the common-wealth By all this which we have said we may surely inferre that since discord and division produce no other fruit but bloud ruine perdition and death they cannot be positive effects of God to whom is repugnant to be the authour of evill Nor yet of nature whose treasure consists in unitie but meerly the Divels who seekes nothing but to oppose himselfe to all goodnesse and perfection which God or nature brings forth in this world The contrary effects also which are found in both may beare sufficient witnesse to this truth since that all which God and Nature pretend is nothing but peace and union that which the Divel professeth is nothing but warres and dissention Nature loves preservation the Divell ruine that to generate this to destroy Nature finally desires to make every thing like
unto it selfe by means of peace love and union the Divell strives to subject every thing under his dominion by meanes of division hatred and discord Therefore such effects being directed unto such a detestable and perverse end as destruction wee cannot attribute them to God to whom by reason of his infinite goodnesse and perfection is not onely repugnant to be authour of evill as the Apostle saith but also to will it or desire it And if any selfe-weening or peevish man should contrary this alledging the words of the Prophet who said There is no evill done in the Citie but God doth it and likewise the words of the Apostle in the ninth chapter to the Romans where he seemes to prove that God is cause of the evill which is done in the world he may satisfie himselfe with the Fathers of the Churches ordinary exposition of those places considering that in evill or sin there are two things whereof the one is the materiall of it which is the physicall action or reall execution to which God doth positively concurre it being impossible for the creature to doe any reall act without the ordinary concurrencie of the Creator Since that all that is in the world lives and is preserved through him and in this sense are to be understood those texts which prove God to be the cause of evill But the formall and malicious part of sinne as the deformity of it and privation of righteousnes depends onely from our free and absolute will and not positively from God Because if that were so God should not onely goe against his supreame perfection of being God but should also bee unjust in punishing man he not being the true and immediate cause of sinne And so we must freely confesse that the proper and essentiall cause of sinne is the maliciousnesse of our will depraved both by it selfe and by the Divels temptations And though we finde in holy Scripture that many times God punisheth one sinne with another as Pharaohs insolencie with the hardnesse of his heart the Pharisees incredulity with blindnesse we cannot for all that say that God is the authour of evill because that although those which God punisheth with considered in themselves are sinnes yet if they bee considered as effects of the divine justice to which belongeth to reward and punish every one according to their desert they ought not nor cannot be so called And so our conclusion alwayes remains true that enmities warres discords divisions and other such like accidents are workes of the Divell CHAP. III. That it is monstrous in Nature for one to persecute another that is of his owne likenesse ANY speculative understanding will bee quite astonished and full of wonder if hee consider the abysse of chimeraes falshoods deceits persecutions and garboiles which pride and ambition doe breed in the heart of man to so detestable and perverse an end as the destruction of the particular creatures of the same kinde A thing so horrible monstrous and terrible that it goeth beyond the nature of the fiercest beasts of the earth amongst which you shall hardly finde any that will abuse and persecute another of the same species or kinde And therefore he said very well who left it to us for a Proverbe that man with man is like unto a Wolfe since that this beasts cruelty in tearing in peeces a poore Kid is not greater then the rigor and tyranny of a bruitish and soule-lesse man against another man Another said that one man against another is a Lion and a third who would expresse the venome of his heart said that one man towards another is a man declaring unto us that his fiercenesse surpasseth the fiercenesse not onely of these but also of all other beasts whereof there is not any that abhorreth from the preservation of its owne species and nature And if we doe in truth consider this point we shall finde that among creatures there is not any which hath more ground or reason to humble it selfe and to love the particulers of its kinde nor lesse reason to grow proud and persecute them then man Since that pride hath alwaies for her seale some noblenesse prerogative or excellency whereupon she builds her close pretences and presumptions And man is farre from all these his composition and first frame being of the lowest basest grossest and vilest drosse of the world which is the earth out of the slime and ordure of which man was framed And therefore the monstrousnesse and violence of pride is no lesser in man then if one would exalt the element of the earth above the heavens And if we will shew his begining state and end we shall plainly see this truth reduced into a short and compendious definition which most patient Iob made of him saying that the nobility of man consistes in being borne of woman to whom the expositers upon this text doe attribute variablenesse fragility imprudency and all manner of imperfections In having a short life and full of miseries calamities and afflictions there being none of Adams children that can glory of having had the least shadow of pleasure and content which he hath not paid for with a thousand griefes and bitternesses in a most incredible inconstancy and variability because he never continueth in the same state and purpose but is wholly a disordered and confused chaos which hath no determined nor sure end And finally it is a brickle and unsafe vessell into which as the Prophet David saith the treasure of life is deposited and which one and that a very small stone is able to breake and reduce to nothing Because that though his phantasticall prides be all of gold and silver and doe reach up to the heavens yet the foot and basis thereof being of clay like Nebuchadnezars statue some smal stone of weaknesse or disaster hitting against it they straightwaies come downe with their whole frame and all their chimeraes and fall into a poore and stinking grave so that if we consider him from the top to the toe we shall finde nothing in him but is contrary and repugnant to pride Whence followeth that man having no ground whereupon hee may grow proud he cannot have any for the persecuting of others persecution being the daughter of ambition and arrogancy but that the basenesse of his composition should rather invite him to peace amity and love And though these forealledged reasons should not move man to withdraw himself from such an execrable and cruell montrousnesse as to be the butcherer of his owne kinde yet his equality and similitude with all the rest might move him to procure peace and amity the holy Ghost in Sâ—lomons bookes and nature it selfe teaching us that all thinges doe love their like which being most true it shall also bee more repreheÌ„sible in man to persecute one another then in any other creature seeing that amongst all the created species there is not any that hath its particulars more like equall and proportionable then man reserving its
and as by the way delight the Reader with some passages which when I remember I cannot forbear laughing and afterwards to fall into a strange admiration in seeing how much the name and sight of a Spaniard hath beene and is abhorred in France I went out of Spaine drawne by that curiosity to which the desire and appetite of knowing inclines unquiet mindes And being told that in France I might satisfie my desires I was not slow in taking my journey that waies it being neare unto Spaine and there being also ordinary commerce betweene them I undertooke my journey with as much ease as my poverty could afford me which was not so great but that I did ride on horseback and had some money though not much which I also was forced to lay out to make me a suit of cloths I beleeved that as soon as I should come into France without any other art or ostentation that onely seeing of me in Spanish habit would make all the world affect me and strive who should first have me home to his house I thought that a spanne of ruffing which I wore stiffe starched would serve me for bill of Exchange beleeving that having them on none durst deny to lend me money if I desired to borrow of him Then I assured my selfe that I should be esteemed of respected and in a manner feared by reason of six palms of rapier which hanged by my side raking with the chape upon the ground At last I arrived into France cloathed in Spanish habit as may be presumed of one that went into France with a pretence of finding favour onely because hee was a Spaniard I travelled all the way from Burdeaux to Paris without any accident worth the writing unlesse it were some base words they gave mee when I paid my reckonings at Innes which because they were of no great importance and spoken by people which could not offend me I bore with patience I came into Paris with that desire which the citie deserves all men should have which come to see it I began to walke the streets with a Spanish gravity state and garbe yet I was faine to leave it and hasten my pace forsaking my wonted gravity for I had not scarce gone twenty paces when I heard a noyse behinde me of children that called to me Senor Senor de la Burricapany Ravanicos Sir Sir out of your budget bread and radishes with a thousand other injurious words and such untuned voices that I was by necessity forced to goe into the first house that I found open leaving the doore and court as full of little children and men as if it had been the Councell chamber gate By misfortune there were three little boyes playing in the entry who seeing mee in a habit which they were not accustomed to did entertaine mee with such out-cries fears and shreekes that with their noise many began to look out at the windows then came a groome who thinking I had done those children some injury strook me such a blow on the head with a Curry-comb he had in his hand that he had almost astonied me I thought to excuse my self in those troubles with some humble reasons but it was a kinde of preaching to a desart And so after I had made my complaint to 30. or 40. that were come into the entry they resolved to put me into the street and turn me over to my first tormentors who waited at the doore for me whose number being by the one halfe increased they began to follow mee up another street with such a noise and tumult that from all sides came an infinite of people to see the cause of this extraordinary tumult thinking I was some fellow that was whipped up and down the streets I was so troubled and besides my selfe that I had not the wit to aske where I was and though I could have done it yet that accursed company of Humble-bees did not give me time to doe it so that all as I could doe was to hasten my pace endevouring to finde some gate of the Citie taking it for my last remedy to goe out of it But my evill fortune not yet satisfied to my greater confusion caused me to see a Church which stood open and a Priest saying Masse in it and many hearing of him I went in thanking God a thousand times for the favour he had done me in delivering mee out of the hands of so many Caldeans I was scarce gone up the second step but there began such a laughter amongst the poore lame people that stood begging at the Church doore that they which were within the Church very attentive at masse turning their backes to the Altar began to gaze upon me and second the others laughter whereat I remained so astonished and confused that I stood a great while still in the midst of the Church turning my selfe no way and I had stood so a great while longer if one of them as stood next to me had not come to mee and bid me make cleane my cloke So I went into a corner of the Church where looking upon my selfe from head to foot I found a hares scut and a peece of a sheepes gut pinned upon my cloake and the rest of it embroidered with spittles and other filth which together with my habit had beene the cause of the tumult in the street and laughter in the Church the sudden murmure of them which heard masse was so loud that the Priest looked about three or foure times to see the motive of this newes and because I perceived he knew that I was the cause of that whispering and noise every time he turned himselfe about to the people and cast his eyes upon me mee thought he reproved me as a disquieter and disturber of that spirituall rest Which did so trouble me and make me so ashamed that I repented a thousand times that I was come into the Church Once amongst the rest when the Priest turned towards the people he looked upon me and whether it was true or but onely my imagination I thought that in stead of saying Dominus vobiscum hee had said to mee Why doest not thou get thee hence with which impression I suddenly went out of the Church so enraged astonished and troubled that not looking what was before me nor regarding where I set my feet as I came out of the doore I hitting my head against a Friers nose who stood in the middle of it begging with a box in his hand and gave him such a knocke that he fell on his hands and head to the ground and the box tumbled downe the steps at the bottome whereof stood ten or twelve foot-boies holding their masters horses who enraged against me for the knocke I hit the Frier began to make a tumult and hold up their rough cudgels against me and surely they would have evill entreated me if my laying hands on my patient sword and the sacrednes of the place where they stood had not stayed them
when hee gave the Israelites their freedome taking them out of Egypt hee could in the night have opened the gates of the citie and made them come out or by day have blinded all the people of Egypt that they might not have seene them or finde some other meanes to free them out of bondage but if he had done so hee had not caused that feare which materiall means did and the visible tokens which he shewed in turning the waters into bloud filling the land with Locusts and Frogges and Flies with other marvailous wonders effects by means of which all that barbarous people and even Pharaoh himselfe confessed the omnipotencie of the God of the Hebrewes and besought Moses and his brother Aaron to pray for them that those plagues might be taken away from them and that they would obey him And if God had used some other signe as had not been so plaine and manifest as this and that which hee used at the red Sea peradventure the Egyptians would not have attributed the deliverance of their slaves to the power of God nor the people of Israel who was rough and of a hard beliefe would have believed that he by his omnipotence onely could have wrought any such effect In the law of Grace God used the same meanes to make himselfe knowne seeing that all the miracles which hee wrought as the Evangelists set them downe were done by sensible and materiall signes from which every grosse and rough understanding might gather the greatnesse and the supreme power of the Creator For who could be so grosse but seeing sight restored to a blinde man with onely laying a little dirt upon his eyes might not know that the dirt of it selfe had no such vertue and that therefore hee who applied that medicine had a command above nature And who will but say seeing a Lazarus who had lyen in the grave foure dayes raysed onely by saying Lazarus come forth that hee had power over death And that the satisfying five thousand people with five loaves and two fishes onely by blessing of them doth not infer supreme worth and power And that seeing the healing of one the restoring of sight to another turning water into wine banishing death by naturall means doe not presuppose that this is a supernaturall power and vertue And if that Christ had done these wonders without visible and materiall meanes onely by his absolute power peradventure his infinite power had not beene knowne and therefore let us conclude with Saint Paul that by meanes of visible and materiall things wee come to the knowledge of the invisible things of God as his Infinitenesse his Immensity his Goodnesse and Omnipotencie And if in all nature there be any visible thing which sheweth us this divine power it is the miraculous conjunction of these two Nations so prodigious a one that any grosse understanding may plainly perceive that it is an immediate worke of Gods omnipotencie which only could undoe that which the Divell with so much diligence and art had done since we cannot imagine that any secondary causes could have so much worth industry and power as in an instant to unite two natures so infinitely distant one from the other and make them come froÌ„ an extream hatred and enmity to the other extreame of union And seeing that if the discord and contrariety of these two Nations had been a new or superficiall accident the onely consideration of good understandings and the perspicuity of wise and prudent persons might have been sufficient to remedy it but being nature and antipathy which like originall sin goes by succession from the Fathers to the children and so to the grand-children and especially being fostered and maintained by the Divels malice we must infallibly beleeve that it is the worke of heaven and that this union was onely reserved to God for to prevent an abysse of evils and miseries which by the said enmity were threatned And so God to whose goodnesse it belongeth to dispose sweetly of things having created and preserved the world by means of the union and peace of his creatures seeing that the discord of these two Nations was sufficient almost to ruine it stayed through his omnipotencie the fury of this raging evill and through his goodnesse and mercie provided such a perfect and salutiferous remedy as this divine union is that so the world might not only be freed from its imminent ruine the calamities which threatned it by reason of this enmity but might also bee enriched with those pretious fruits which from this union may be expected And as the end which God pretended in this confederacie is no other but this so it is plainly knowne that the Divell with all his followers hath not had power to hinder the execution of it though hee raised a thousand inventions pretences and feares both amongst the common people and also the most Noble egging them on with the fire of enmity and hatred to oppose themselves with all the power as might bee against Gods decree the Common-wealths repose and the good of the whole world and though the Divell went loose and puffed up holding the victory certaine with his forces against that small aid which was promised yet his care and labour being against the will of God and the universall peace I wonder not that God did send a woman to breake his head through the wisdom of so good a physitian whilest hee laid wait and snares for her heele And though there were no other reason to prove that this confederacie came from heaven this would of it selfe be a sufficient proofe that wee see it was gloriously effected against all humane endevours and propounded difficulties and against such great oppositions as I will now leave to the wise mans contemplation and the pennes of others who peradventure will write of this matter Wherefore I conclude saying that this conjunction being made at that time when this antipathy was most rooted between these two Nations wee must needs confesse that it was done by divine power since neither hatred nor disdaine nor the diversity of climates and humours nor the variety of customes nor mistrust nor the Divels endevours were able to hinder it CHAP. XIX Of Gods marvailous invention to unite these two Nations IT will not be hard to perswade an understanding man that this so important so glorious confederacie comes from heaven was ordained for the generall good of mankinde the effects circumstances means of effecting it having been such and so mysterious that they prove it to be true and that which now stupifies mans understanding is the marvailous and divine invention which God used in uniting those two Nations so different amongst themselves a meanes so â—ngenious and soveraigne that it not bee hoped nor looked for from any other place thâ—n from that inaccessible and majesticall Consistorie of the holy Trinity seeing that in it God hath shewed three effects of his immense God-head which are Omnipotencie in uniting from