futurum To this also agreeth the Poet Lucan his wordes be these Inuida fatorum series summisque negatum Stare diu nimioque graues sub pondere lapsus Nec se Roma ferens Sic cum compage soluta Secula tot mundi suprema coegerit hora Antiquum repetens iterum Chaos omnia mistis Sidera sideribus concurrent igneapontum Astrapetent tellus extendere littora nolet Excutietque fretum Fratri contraria Phoebe Ibit obliquum bigas agitare per orbem Indignata diem poscet sibi totaque discors Machina diuulsi turbabit foedera mundi The fates enuye the states of mortall men The highest seates doe not continue long Great is the fall vnder the greater burden and greatest thinges doe to them selues great'st wrong Rome was so great whome all the world did feare that Rome her selfe she could no longer beare So when this well couch't frame of worlde shall burne And the last houre so many ages end To former Chaos all thinges shall returne the enuyous fates this issue doe portend Then all the Planets shall confus'dly meete And fires Caelestiall on the flouds shall sleete The earth shall grudge to make the sea a shore And cast it off and push the fload away The Moone enrag'd shall crosse her brother sore And seeke to alter course to shine by day Thus all at oddes in strife and out of frame They shall disturbe the worlde spoyle the same Chapter 15. Of Hell fire THus you haue heard how by the course of nature the worlde shall haue an end What then foloweth I say to the Atheist with S. Paul And thinkest thou ô man that thou shalt escape the iudgement of God shall men thinke there is no punishment for wicked men after this life I wish that they would beleue S. Ambros Christus moriens in nouissimo Testamento singula singulis officia distribuebat Patri spiritum militibus vestimenta corpus Iudaeis pacem Discipulis Crucem Apostolis latroni paraedisium peccatoribus infernum When Christ dyed in his last wil Testament he bequeathed diuers Legacyes To his Father he commended his soule to the Iewes his bodye to the Soldiers his garments to his Disciples peace to his Apostles the Crosse Paradice to the good Theefe which was crucified by him but hel fire to vngodly men But to perswade these vnbeleeuers that there is an hell my reasons are these First I haue manifestly prooued that there is a God and it cannot stand with the nature of God but that he must be iust and there can be no iustice in God vnles he punish offenders they for the moste part do escape punishment in this worlde Gods iudgements doe not ouer take them in this life therefore that God may be iust their iudgement is reserued vnto another world that they may be punished in an other place and where is that but in Hell-sire Secondly whereas Tully a Philosopher Claudius Claudianus a Poet Seneca and others being so many in their description of Hell make mention of Minos Rhadamanthus the Iudges there so cruell and inexorable the furies the fier Tantalus his euerlasting thirste â—xion his wheele alwaies rolling Titius vpon whose bowels the vultures are eternally feding what is this but the same description of hel which is in the Scriptures eternal fire prepared for the deuill and his Angells and as the Prophet Esay writeth fier that shall neuer bee quenched and a worme of conscience gnawing alwaies and neuer dying Thirdly witnes the Atheist that there is a hell for wicked men For many times hauing committed heynous offences though so secret that no man can detect them he so mightie that he feareth no man that should punish him yet he is inwardly troubled vexed in his Conscience what is this his Conscience but a secret feare that God will punish him he soeth that God doth not punish in this world according to the qualitye of such an offence therfore he feareth punishment in an other world then witnes the Atheist his owne Conscience there is a hell Fourthly witnes the Atheist that there is an hell all be it hee denyeth Hell For hee knoweth and also verye well considerreth that in the time of his health he is subiect to sicknes pouertie imprisonment a whole sea of gall and bitternes nay a worlde of discontentments yet he would not dye Nay wheÌ„ he is grieuously sicke his panges intollerable his disease vncurable he would giue a great summe of money yet to prolonge his paine vpon earth to liue heere continually though in continuall sickenes And why is all this but because hee is loath to die why is that but because he feareth death But if hee thought his soule were extinguished by death that after death there should be no iudgement no hel no feeling of sorrowe then why should hee feare death Nay why should not an Atheist which is so worldly wise and which loueth his own ease so much desire to die and so to be at rest rather then to liue in continuall sicknes if he thought that death were an end of sorrowe Therefore it followeth as a necessarie consequent that he feareth death because he thinketh that a farther reckning is to be made of the thinges which he did in this life that greater panges and torments shall ensue after death then could bee incident vnto him in this life and that can bee nothing else but Hell-fier Fiftly let the Atheist for his better satisfaction concerning this point but trauaile into the Land of Canaan to beholde the lake Asphaltites where Sodom stood and he shall see the verie Image and Idea of Hell before his eyes ouen in this life When he coÌ„meth thither these thinges shall present themselues vnto him Tetrus odor aspectus horrendus lacus fietidus fumus venenosus poma quae morsu tentata in fumum et fauillam or to fatiscente vanescunt An vgly and loathsome smel of brimstone horrible dreadful prospect a stinking lake poysoning smoke Apples full of filthie vapours and sparkes of fier the thinges which hee shall see with his eyes smell with his Nostrells and taste with his tongue wil make him to confesse there is an hell To them which aske whether hell be a materiall place or no I answer it must of necessitie be so because in it are to be tormented not onely soules but also bodies It is no imaginarie thing because when they come there it shal be no imaginarie punisheÌ„t which they shall suffer If they aske where hell is surely it is in the lowest parts of the earth because they are farthest from Heauen But I wish them not to be so curious in disputing and inquiring Luc 21 2. Contrà menda Chap 6. Dè Trinitat Lib. 1. Chap 3. Apoc 2 4. 14 15. 20. Apoc 3 1. 15 16. Apoc 13. 17 2 Thes 2 39. 1 King 12 31 Mal 2. 9. Act 13 22. Ephe 2. Gal 4. Rom 1. Psalme 14. Psalme 36. Psalme 10.
worship For as much therefore as the bookes of Moses are more auncient then all other bookes therefore that religion is the truest which is contayned in them and because there can be but one true Religion the onely truth is in them therefore they are the word of God And as for the other bookes of the Bible which were written long since they handle the same subiect they holde the same doctrine as the bookes of Moses and are but all partes and members which make one body of the Bible written by the same Spirit and of the same nature and therfore are also the word of God and there is no other written booke of God but the Bible In the seauenth place I could alleage for witnesse that the Bible is Gods word the great multitudes of Martyrs which haue dyed in the defence of the Bible and sealed the same with their owne bloud both before and in and after the times of the ten bloudy persecutions to whome God gaue the gift of patience to suffer death willingly for the testimony of the worde Neither could so manye of them haue suffered in such manner vnlesse God had strengthned them in so good a cause But because this argument is not so forcible to perswade Atheists as it is to exhort christians I passe it ouer Last of all the testimonye of the Gentiles proueth the Bible to be the worde of God For because God the Father had eternally decreed to send his Sonne to take flesh for the saluation both of Iewes and Gentiles and vnlesse they beleeued in him there could be no saluation purchased by his death neither for Iewe nor Gentile That he might be receiued by the consent of each people it could not seeme good vnto his heauenly wisdome vnlesse he did long before our Sauiour should come publish his comming both to the Iewes and Gentiles And therfore Christ was published to the Iewes many wayes as the Apostle speaketh by dreames visions Angels but especially by their owne Prophets Dauid Esay Ieremye Moses Daniell and the rest which were Iewes in that respecte called their owne Prophets that they might giue the more credit vnto them To the Gentiles also he was made known by the heathen Prophets and Prophetesses Baalam Mercurius Trismegistus Hidaspes and especiallye the tenne Virgins called Sybils the heathenish Prophetesses of which we may read at large in the workes not onely of the heathens but also of the Fathers and Ecclesiasticall writers of the Primatiue Church Now forasmuch as the Gentiles were vnacquainted with Moses the Iewish Prophets and not accustomed to read the Canonicall writers and destitute for the most part of the Bible and therefore would giue no credit to the testimonyes cyted out of these bookes and yet were to be conuerted to the Fayth by vertue of the Commission giuen to the Apostles Math 28. where our Sauiour said Goe Preach and baptize all Nations The Apostles and Disciples in the Primitiue Church at their first Preaching to the Gentiles prooued the Bible by the testimonye of heathen writers the Sybils Hydaspes Mercurius as St. Origin and Lactantius declare at large In such sorte did S t Paul deale with the Inhabitants of Creet alleaging for authoritie the verse of their owne Poet Epimenides which Cicero and Lacrtius doe reporte to haue beene a kinde of Prophet or Diuiner among them And therfore St. Paul saith a Prophet of their owne said of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cretians are alwayes lyers foule beastes slowe bellyes Likewise to the Greekes he alleageth the testimonye of a Greeke Poet Menander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euill wordes corrupt good manners And to the Scholers at Athens the testimonye of the Poet Aratus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are his generation meaning God And for this cause the heathens called the Christians Sybillistes because Christian religiō was most of all proued out of the Sybils Oracles which writ more playnly and plentifully then all other heathen writers And as Clemens Alexandrinus writeth S. Paul in one of his Sermons saide vnto the people Libros quoque Graecos sumite agnoscite Sybillam quo modo vnum Deum significet ea quae sunt futura take in hand your Greeke authors read Sybil see how she teacheth that there is one God and fore-telleth thinges to come Hydaspen sumite legite inuenietis De filium multo clarius apertius esse scriptum Doe but vouchsafe to read Hydaspes ye shall finde in him a cleare and euydent testimonye of the Sonne of God And because the Christians were so frequent in alleaging of the Sybils Oracles for confirmation of Christian Fayth vnto the Gentiles and conuerted so manye vnto Christ by these bookes as Iustin Martyr writeth Proclamation was made that vpon payn of death no man should read them any longer nor Hydaspes his writings yet the people would not refrayne from reading them And againe Gods prouidence did wonderfully appeare in the perseruation of the Sybills verses for the behoofe of the Gentiles as of the Bible for the Iewes in that they were verie faithfully kept in the Capitoll of Rome and that being once loste by a mischance when the Capitol was burned yet by publik edicte of the Senate diligent search and inquirie was made for all coppies that could be gotten that so an other booke was newly written and kept in recorde being duely examined corrected and purged of all faultes that might else haue escaped And to that purpose commission was giuen to diuers learned men fitte to bee imployed in such a seruice which was performed with all dilligence and the booke was layed vp in the capitol againe euē as the bookes of Moses were kept in the Arke of the couenant So when the Christians labored the conuersion of the Romans they were not onely furnished with proofes of their Doctrine out of the Sibilles to cōuince the Romans and their idolatrie but also they were freed from suspition of corrupting those bookes or any clause in them contayned because whatsoeuer was by them alleaged was consonant agreeable to their own Coppie which they kept in their Tower or Capitoll or treasure house which was the chiefest place of their recordes Now for as much as nihil est iam dictum quod non fuit dictum prius there can bee no newe or strange inuention now which hath not bin thought of before as the wise man speaketh I cannot finde any way to disprooue the Atheists better then that which the Apostles vsed to disproue the infidels that is by the testimonie and witnesse of heathen Authors For if they will neither stand to arguments drawen from reason neither yet to authoritie neither Diuine nor Humane then they reiect all the Topics of Aristotle and places whereby they should be confuted they renounce the lawes of Schooles and order of disputation by a consequent they shew themselues meerily ignorant and contra indoctos non
to which questions I answer as followeth The incarnation of the Sonne was the worke of the whole Trinitye yet one person was incarnate as if three sisters should make a Coate and one put it on Pater Spiritus imple erunt carnem Christi maiestate Filius tantum assumptione The Father and the holy Ghost filled the flesh of Christ by their maiesty but the Sonne by assumptioÌ„ of it vnto him selfe Quia congruum fuit vt qui erat in deitate Filius Dei esset in humanitate filius hominis It was most fit that the Sonne onely should be incarnate and not the father nor the holy Ghost that he which in his diuinity was the Sonne of God might be in his humanitye the Sonne of man He could not haue beene man had he not beene conceiued And forasmuch as he came into the world to redeeme mankind which he could not doe vnles he were without sinne he could not haue beene without sinne had he not beene conceiued onely and not begotten For if man had begotten him he had begotten him in sinne because omne simile generat sui simile euerye thing which begetteth doth beget that which is like to it selfe and therfore he was not begotten but onely conceiued without the helpe of man and he could not haue beene so conceiued but by the holy Ghost He was therefore conceiued by the holy Ghost that he might be conceiued without sinne As he was conceiued by the holy Ghost that he might be conceiued without sinne so he was borne of a Virgin that he might be borne without sinne But they aske how he could be borne of a Virgin I could aske them how Eue could be borne of Adam without a mother or Adam of the earth without father or mother why could not Christ aswell be borne of a mother without a father as Eue of a man without a woman or Adam without man or woman And because this doth not onely concerne the A theist but also the Iewe and the Maniche S. Augustin for confutation of them both sayth Ego tibi ostendam incredule Iudaee detestande Manichaee peperisse Virginem I will proue to the vnbeleeuing Iewe and the curssed Maniche how a Virgin may bring forth a Childe Against the Iewe he alleageth that twelue roddes according to the number of the 12. Tribes were put into the Arke of the couenant among the rest Aarons rodde wanting moysture and all the rightes of nature contrary to nature brought forth fruite Quod virga potuit virgo non potuit virga potuit contra naturam Nuces producere nunquid Virgo non potuit contra naturam Dei filium generare ostendas mihi quo modo virga Nuces pratulit ego tibi ostendam quo modo Virgo filium peperit That which a rodde could doe could not a Virgin doe a rodde could contrary to nature bring forth Almonds and could not a Virgin contrary to nature bring forth the Sonne of God shewe me how the rodde brought forth Almonds and I will shewe thee how a Virgin brought forth a Childe Rubus sustâ—…uit ignem non amisit viriditatem sic Virgo peperit Christum non amisit virginitatem The Bush burned and yet continued greene but as the Bush bore the heat of the fire without losse of viriditye so the Virgin bore a Childe wtthout losse of virginitye This may suffice to confute the Iewe which doth allow the authoritye of the bookes of Moses but it wil not serue for the confutatioÌ„ of the Atheist for he will aske me how it may stand with humane reason and with the rules of arte how this may be and how there may be penetratio corporum that one body should penetrate an other I will not therfore cyte the authorityes exaÌ„ples of the scriptures how Christ arose out of his graue the graue being shut vp the stone not rolled away how after his resurrection he went into the house where his Disciples were the doores being locked how at his ascension he peirced the heauens how he is as before I haue shewed liberrimum agens medijs non alligatum a free agent and not tyed to meanes whereby he worketh how he hath metaphysicum imperium in singula a supernaturall power whereby he ouer-ruleth all creatures But I will dispute by reason against the Atheist as S. Augustin doth against the Maniche Solis radius specular penetrat soliditatem illius insensibili soliditate pertransit talis videtur foris qualis intus nec quum ingreditur violat nec quum egreditur dissipat quoniam ad ingressum egressum specular integrum perseuerat Specular non rumpit solaris radius neque igitur integritatem Virginis vitiare potuit ingressus aut egressus Deitatis The Sun-beame peirceth through the glasse the glasseis not broken how it passeth through so solid hard a body the eye or sense of man cannot perceiue it looketh alike both within and without wheÌ„ it entreth in the glasse is not cracked by the entrance of it when it goeth out agayne the glasse remaineth without blemish as it was before and so it is with our Sauiour Christ which passed through the Virgins wombe He came in forme of a seruant that he might suffer si enim cognouissent Dominum gloriae non crucifixissent for if he had beene outwardly glorious that the Iewes had knowen him to be the Lord of glory they had neuer put him to so vnglorious a death And seeing that he came to dye it behoued him to dye vpon the Crosse to choose that death aboue all other Placuit Deo hominem reconciliasse eodem modo quo nouit cecidisse homo damnatus est in ligno reconciliatus est in ligno vixit in ligno vitae mortuus est in ligno scientiae reuixit in ligno Crucis Quia primus Adam deceptus est in ligno secuÌ„dus Adam passus est in ligno It pleased God that maÌ„ should rise by the same maner as he fel but maÌ„s saluatioÌ„ came by the wood of y e tree therfore his saluatioÌ„ came throgh the wood of the tree Because the first Adam was deceiued in the tree the secoÌ„d AdaÌ„ suffered in the tree Man liued in the wood of life man dyed in the wood of knowledge man reuyued agayne in the wood of the crosse The differeÌ„ce being shewed between creating redeming how hard it was for the Son to redeeme ouer that it was for the Father to create as namely the Father did his work by speaking the Son his worke by doing the Father commauÌ„ding the Son by obeying the father in 6. dayes the Son in no lesse time theÌ„ 33. yeares the father w t ease the Son with groning the Father as an ageÌ„t the Son as a pacieÌ„t the Father with the letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He which is but an aspiration the Sonne in the letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thau which representeth the gallowes or the Crosse
After reproach by due course did follow glorie after suffering death victorie and triumph ouer death else hee could not haue deliuered vs from death And because vnderstanding creatures are in three places deuils and damned soules in hell men vppon earth Angelles and blessed soules in Heauen due course required that he should descend into hell to triumph among the Deuils damned soules arise from the dead to triumph before men and ascend vp into heauen to Triumph among the Angells blessed soules which are in heauen It was no strange thing for him to descend into hel because that descension was onely in soule therefore an easie passage Of his resurection from the dead we see manie resemblances for out of the ashes of the dead Phoenix doth arise a liue Phoenix of the Corne buried and rotted in the earth foringeth vp Corne againe in greater measure then it was sowed all these thinges being as vnlikely and as impossible as the resurection from the dead In Alcumistrie they see that when golde is brought to powder there is a speedie reduction of that same powder into golde againe so ofal other metalles the heauens yeelde no moysture to the earth but they take it vp againe And as for his ascention vp into heauen it was most naturall vnto him for where should a glorified body be but in a place of glory and where should God be but in heauen which is his throne and dwelling place Chapter 14 The end of the world THe Atheist thinketh the worlde shall haue no ende but hee alleadgeth no reasons to proue his vngodly assertion more then haue bin already answered by St. Peter Our reasons to proue an end and consummation of all things are these 1. What-soeuer had a beginning must also haue an end That the worlde had a beginning I haue alreadie proued in the 8. Chapter and the sequell followeth in natural Philosophie y t it must therefore haue and end because it had a beginning There must bee resolutio in materiam primam a resolution into that chaos wherof it was first made according to Aristotle the great Philosopher of the world 2. Man is commonly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little world and for his sake the great worlde was partly made for if hee stretcht foorth his armes at length from the endes of his two middle fingers to his head foote may be drawne a circle his head is as the North pole his feete instead of the South his armes as the expansion of heauen his handes as the East and West his Nauel as the Center In him are colde heate moysture drinesse as the foure Elemēts his heart still mouing representeth heauen which is in continuall motion his soule an immortal Spirit guiding moouing the bodie resembleth God the guider of the worlde But man which is the lesser worlde declineth it followeth therefore as a good consequent that the greater worlde also doth decline and where there is declination there is also corruption and death That man declineth it is manifest for men are of lower stature lesser bones and strength and shorter life then their fore fathers were but whatsoeuer is languishing faynting declining doth growe to an end whence commeth this but from the declining estate of the greater world The earth we see w t is the lower part of it is not so fruitefull as before it was but beginneth to bee baren like the wombe of Sara the fruites which she doth bring foorth yeeld not so much nutriment as before they did And how commeth that to passe but because the heauen also fainteth the Planets wax olde and cannot affoord so great vertue influence to these lower bodies as in times past they did as I'liny and Aulus Gellius testifie But this is a manifest proofe seeing lesse and weaker bodies are conceiued euerye age in the wombe of nature that nature waxeth olde and wearye of conceiuing cuiuscunque est senectus illius est mors whatsoeuer waxeth olde that also dyeth and hath an end 3. If a man do but behold the face of heauen the Moone looketh pale and wan Mars lesse rubicund Sol lesse orient Iupiter not of so amiable and fauourable countenance Venus more hipocriticall all the rest both of the wandring fixed stars more weake suspicious then they did before That mightye Gyant which was wōt to runne his vnwearied race now waxeth weary as if he would stand still in heauen as he did in the dayes of iosue shineth more dimly apeareth more sildome then before what is this but an argument that shortly the high Arch of heauen which is erected ouer our heads will fall dissolue it selfe 4. What do so many irregular threatning Eclipses portend such vn-vsuall aspects of the starres such fearfull Coniunctious of Planets such prodigious apparitions of Comets but that as the Apostle speaketh The feruent desire of the creature wayteth when the sonnes of God shal be reuealed euerie creature groneth with vs and trauaileth in paine together vnto this present that they may bee deliuered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God 5. Empires and kingdomes and all estates haue their fatall periods Daniel his exposition of Nabuchodozer his dreame is now almost fulfilled the head of gold the shoulders of Siluer the belly of brasse are already worne out nothing of that image is now lefte but the very stumps of clay their dates are ended their periods determined long since how is it possible that feete of claye should continue for euer seing golde siluer brasse yron such strong mettals are consumed what now remayneth therefore but the stone cut out of the rocke without hands which bruiseth this image in peices The euerlasting kingdome of Iesus Christ in an other worlde vnto which all the temporal kingdomes in this worlde must giue place that all these being expired Christ in heauenly kingdome may rule for euer what remaineth now but that we looke dayly howerly for this kingdome that now we begin to climbe Jacob his Ladder a peccato ad poenitentiam a poenitentia ad opera ab operibus ad iudicium a iudicio ad miserccordiam a misericordia ad gloriam from sinne to repentance from repentāce to good workes from workes to iudgment from iudgement to mercye from mercy to glorye there is the glory of God standing vpon the top of the Ladder Last of all that the worlde shall haue an end be consumed with fier witnes not onely St. Peter the Apostle but also Ouid the Poet his wordes be these Esse quoque infatis reminiscitur affore tempus Quo mare quo tellus correptaque regia coeli Ardeat mundi moles operosa laboret That the worlde shall haue an end witnes Lucretius his words are these Vna dies dabit exitio multosque per annos Sustentata ruet moles machina mundi Accidet exitium Coeli terraeque