their hurt and their soules in following their appetites when neede requireth so in flying of death they make it as apparant how much they set by their peace of soule and body But man hauing a reasonable soule subiecteth all his communities with beasts vnto the peace of that to worke so both in his contemplation and action that there may bee a true consonance betweene them both and this wee call the peace of the reasonable soule To this end hee is to avoide molestation by griefe disturbance by desire and dissolution by death and to ayme at profiâ—…e knowledge where vnto his actions may bee conformable But least 〈◊〉 owne infirmity through the much desire to know should draw him into any pestilent inconuenience of error hee must haue a diuine instruction to whose directions and assistance hee is to assent with firme and free obedience And because that during this life Hee is absent from the LORD hee walketh by faith and not by sight and therefore hee referreth all his peace of bodie of soule and of both vnto that peace which mortall man hath with immortall GOD to liue in an orderlie obedience vnder his eternall lawe by faith Now GOD our good Maister teaching vs in the two chiefest precepts the loue of him and the loue of our neighbour to loue three things GOD our neighbour and our selues and seeing he that loueth GOD offendeth not in louing himselfe it followeth that hee ought to counsell his neighbour to loue GOD and to prouide for him in the loue of GOD sure hee is commanded to loue him as his owne selfe So must hee doe for his wife children family and all men besides and wish likewise that his neighbour would doe as much for him in his need thus shall hee bee settled in peace and orderly concord with all the world The order whereof is first a to doe no man hurt and secondly to helpe all that hee can So that his owne haue the first place in his care and those his place and order in humane society affordeth him more conueniency to benefit Wherevpon Saint Paul saith Hee that prouideth not for his owne and namely for them that bee of his houshold denieth the faith and is worse then an Infidell For this is the foundation of domesticall peace which is an orderly rule and subiection in the partes of the familie wherein the prouisors are the Commaunders as the husband ouer his wife parents ouer their children and maisters ouer their seruants and they that are prouided for obey as the wiues doe their husbands children their parents and seruants their maisters But in the family of the faithfull man the heauenly pilgrim there the Commaunders are indeed the seruants of those they seeme to commaund ruling not in ambition but beeing bound by carefull duety not in proud soueraignty but in nourishing pitty L. VIVES FIrst a to doe no Man can more easily doe hurt or forbeare hurt then doe good All men may iniure others or abstaine from it But to doe good is all and some Wherefore holy writ bids vs first abstaine from iniury all we can and then to benefit our christian bretheren when wee can Natures freedome and bondage caused by sinne in which man is a slaue to his owne affects though he be not bondman to any one besides CHAP. 15. THus hath natures order prescribed and man by GOD was thus created Let them rule saith hee ouer the fishes of the sea and the fowles of the ayre end ouer euery thing that creepeth vpon the earth Hee made him reasonable and LORD onely ouer the vnreasonable not ouer man but ouer beastes Wherevpon the first holy men were rather shep-heards then Kings GOD shewing herein what both the order of the creation desired and what the merit of sinne exacted For iustly was the burden of seruitude layd vpon the backe of transgression And therefore in all the scriptures wee neuer reade the word Seruant vntill such time as that iust man Noah a layd it as a curse vpon his offending sonne So that it was guilt and not nature that gaue originall vnto that name b The latine word Seruus had the first deriuation from hence those that were taken in the warres beeing in the hands of the conquerours to massacre or to preserue if they saued them then were they called Serui of Seruo to saue Nor was this effected beyond the desert of sinne For in the iustest warre the sinne vpon one side causeth it and if the victory fall to the wicked as some times it may c it is GODS decree to humble the conquered either reforming their sinnes heerein or punishing them Witnesse that holy man of GOD Daniel who beeing in captiuity confessed vnto his Creator that his sinnes and the sinnes of the people were the reall causes of that captiuity Sinne therefore is the mother of seruitude and first cause of mans subiection to man which notwithstanding commeth not to passe but by the direction of the highest in whome is no iniustice and who alone knoweth best how to proportionate his punnishment vnto mans offences and hee himselfe saith Whosoeuer committeth sinne is the seruant of sinne and therefore many religious Christians are seruants vnto wicked maisters d yet not vnto free-men for that which a man is addicted vnto the same is hee slaue vnto And it is a happier seruitude to serue man then lust for lust to ommit all the other affects practiseth extreame tirany vpon the hearts of those that serue it bee it lust after soueraignty or fleshly lust But in the peacefull orders of states wherein one man is vnder an other as humility doth benefit the seruant so doth pride endamage the superior But take a man as GOD created him at first and so hee is neither slaue to man nor to sinne But penall seruitude had the institution from that law which commaundeth the conseruation and forbiddeth the disturbance of natures order for if that law had not first beene transgressed penall seruitude had neuer beene enioyned Therefore the Apostle warneth seruants to obey their Maisters and to serue them with cheerefulnesse and good will to the end that if they cannot bee made free by their Maisters they make their seruitude a free-dome to themselues by seruing them not in deceiptfull feare but in faithfull loue vntill iniquity be ouerpassed and all mans power and principality disanulled and GOD onely be all in all L. VIVES NOah a layd it Gen. 9. b The latine So saith Florentinus the Ciuilian Institut lib. 4. And they are called Mancipia quoth hee of manu capti to take with the hand or by force This you may reade in Iustinians Pandects lib. 1. The Lacaedemonians obserued it first Plin. lib. 7. c It is Gods decree Whose prouidence often produceth warres against the wills of either party d Yet not vnto free Their Maisters being slaues to their owne passions which are worse maisters then men can be Of the iust law of soueraignty CHAP. 16.
brothers The bastard twins of Laeda and the Swan Night-riders as the Patron gods do watch The wals of stately Rome c. But these were not the Patron Gods of Troy for euen in the beginning of the Troyan warre presently vpon the rape of Hellen they died And therefore she being ignorant of their death lookes for them amongst the other Greeke Nobles from the walles of Troy Homer Iliad 3. Neither were these two the Dij magni the great Gods for Heauen and earth as Varro saith in his 3. booke de lingua Latina are as the Samothracians principles doe teach the Dii magni the great Gods and those whom I haue named by so many names For neither were the two mens shapes which Aeneas set vp before the gates at Samothracia these great Gods nor as the vulgar opinion holdeth were the Samothracians Gods Castor and Pollux Thus farre Varro The Troyan Penates were those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those great gods which sate as protectors of the Citty and Latium Amongst which the Palladium was one and the Sempiternall fire another and herevpon it is that Virgill sings this Vestaque mater Quae Tuscum Tyberim Romana palatia seruas c. And mother Vesta she that lookes To Romes faire buildings and old Tybers brookes c. Though indeed they held it a wicked fact to name the peculiar god Guardian of the Citty nor hold that it is Vesta Valerius Soranus lost his life for being so bold as to name that name But of this too much already d But suppose Iuno spoke For Seruius and Donate say that Iuno called them the fallen gods to make them the more contemptible and free Aeolus from suspecting that he went about to do ought against the gods e Godly Godly in duty vnto his gods his Father and his Sonne all whome he saued from burning For Godlinesse is a dutifull worship vnto God our Country our Parents and our kinsfolkes breefely a thankefulnesse vnto all to whome we are indebted f Panthus This is our of the second of the Aeneads beginning at this verse Ecce autem telis Panthus delapsus Achiuūm Panthus Otriades c. g Sacra suosque These are Hectors words spoken to Aeneas in a dreame h That Rome had not come An Argument from the euent of one thing to the euent of the like the sence is corrupted in the latine it should haue beene non Romam ad istam cladem that it had run thus Vt sapientius multò existimaret si non illud putaret Romam ad hanc cladem non fuisse venturam nisi illi periissent sed illud potius putaret illos olim c. i deuills for the old writers acknowledged some of these Daemones or Genii to be very euill and slothfull For one Genius excelled another in vertue wisdome and power Augustus his Genius was more cheerefull and lofty then was Marke Anthonies as that same Aegiptian magician affirmed in Plutarke in Marke Anthonies life Nor doth our Christian religion deny that there is preheminence of some aboue others aswell amongst the Angells as the Deuills k Gods guardians Iust such guardians as Plato in his Policy saith that drunken and luxurious Magistrates are that need guardians for themselues Of the sanctuary of Iuno in Troy which freed not any that fled into it from the Greekes at the Citties sack where as the Churches of the Apostles saued all commers from the Barbarians at the sacke of Rome Caesars opinion touching the enemies custome in the sacke of Citties CHAP. 4. NOr could Troy it selfe that was as I sayd before a the mother of the Romanes progeny in al her hallowed temples saue any one from the Grecian force and fury though they worshiped the same gods nay did they not in the very sanctuary of Iuno b Ipso Iunonis asylo Custodes lecti c Phaenix dirus Vlisses Praedam asseruabant Huc vndique Troia gaza Incensis erepta adytis mensaeque deorum Craterésque auro solidi captiuaque vestis Congerit c. To Iunos sanctuary Comes all the prey and what they thither carry Is kept by choise men the Phenician And dire Vlisses thether the whole state Of Troies wealth swarmes the gods their temples plate There lies the gold in heapes and robes of worth Snatcht from the flaming coffers c. Behold the place dedicated vnto so great a goddesse was chosen out not to serue for a place whence they might lawfully pull prisoners but for a prison wherein to shut vp all they tooke Now compare this temple not of any vulgar god of the common sort but of Iupiters sister and Queene of all the other gods vnto the Churches built as memorialls of the Apostles To the first all the spoiles that were pluckt from the gods and flaming temples were caried not to be bestowed backe to the vanquished but to bee shared amongst the vanquishers To the second both that which was the places owne and d what euer was found also els-whereto belong to such places with all religious honor and reuerence was restored There was freedome lost here saued there was bondage shut in here it was shut out thether were men brought by their proude foes for to vndergo slauery hither were men brought by their pittifull foes to be secured from slauery Lastly the temple of Iuno was chosen by the e vnconstant Greekes to practise their proud couetousnesse in whereas the Churches of Christ were by f the naturally cruell Barbarians chosen to excercise their pious humility in Perhaps the Greekes in that their victory spared those that fled into the temples of the g Common gods and did not dare to hurt or captiuate such as escaped thither But in that Virgill plaies the Poet indeed and faignes it Indeed there he describes the h generall custome of most enemies in the sacking of cities and conquests which i custome Caesar himselfe as Salust that noble true historian recordeth forgetteth not to auouch in his sentence giuen vpon the conspirators in the Senate-house that in these spoiles the Virgins are rauished the Children torne from their Parents bosomes the Matrons made the obiects of al the victors lust the temples and houses all spoiled all things turned into burning and slaughter and lastly all places stopt full of weapons carcasses bloud and lamentation If Caesar had not named temples wee might haue thought it the custome of a foe to spare such places as are the habitations of their gods but the Senators feared the ruine of their temples not by an vnknowne or stranger enemy but by k Catiline and his followers who were Senators and Citizens of Rome themselues But these were villaines though and their countries parricides L. VIVES MOther a of the Romanes For the Troyans that came with Aeneas into Italy built Lauinium the Lauinians Albalonga the Albans Rome But Saluste sayth that the Troyans themselues that wandred about with Aeneas without dwellings built Rome at the first b Iunonis They are Aeneas his words Aenead 2.
is vnknowne to the Latines f This sway The women adored Iuno Fluona for stopping this fluxe at conceptions Festus g Clâ—… and dust alluding to mans beginning and end Genesis 1. In claye hee began and in dust bee shall end That these gods elections are without all reason since that baser gods haue nobler charges CHAP. 3. BVt why doth hee call so many of the selected gods to this charge and theâ—… Vitumnus and Bentinus get the principall offices of all the rest Select Ianus he maketh way for the seed select Saturne hee brings it select Liber hee puts it freely forth and so doth Libera a be shee Ceres or Venus to the women select Iuno with her daughter Mena's helpe brings fluxe of blood to b nourish the birth But base Vitumnus he brings life to it obscure Sentinus he giues it sence Which two guifts are as farre aboue the rest as they are short of reason For as the reasonable creature excelleth that which is but onely sensitiue as the beast so the sensitiue must needes excell that which hath neither sence nor life So that Vitumnus the quickner and Sentinus the sence-giuer had more reason to be selected then either Ianus the seed-guider Saturne the giuer or Liber and Libera the loosers which seede it were vnworthy to imagine vnlesse it were animated and made sensitiue which select gifts the select gods giue not but onely a couple of poore obscure fellowes that must stand at the doore when these are let in If they reply Ianus is god of all beginnings and therefore iustly openeth the wombe Saturne of all seede and therefore iustly worketh in the mans sowing of it Liber and Libera of the distillation of seede in all spermaticall creatures and therefore must worke in this dispersing of mans Iuno of all births and purgations and therefore iustly must haue a hand in the womans at this time Wâ—… what of Vitumnus and Sentinus haue they dominion ouer all things liuing and sensitiue If it bee granted then see how these two are aduanced For seedes to growe on earth is earths nature but to liue and haue sence that comes from the gods of the starres they say But if they say that these two haue swaye onely ouer fleshly sensitiues why then could not hee that giueth sence to fishes and all things else giue flesh sence also and extend his generall power through each peculiar what need then of Vitumnus and Sentinus If hee that rules life and sence rule all things else and gaue the charge of fleshly sensitiues to these his two seruants as a place of no credite Kept these selected gods so fewe attendants that they could not commit the said base offices to some of their followers but must debase all their cause of selection their nobility to bee ioyned fellow-worke-men with such a base couple Nay Iuno the selected Queene of all the selected c Ioues wife and sister yet is Interduca to the children and worketh with a couple of base goddesses Adeona and Abeona And there is goddesse Mens that sends the childe a good minde shee 's no select and yet d how can a greater guift be giuen to man Now Iuno playes Iterduta and Domiduca as though it were such a matter to make a iourney or to come well home if one bee not in his right minde yet the goddesse of this good guift was none of the select Truely shee deserued it before Minerua e that had charge of the childes memory in this quartering of duties For who doubteth that it is better to haue a good minde then a memory neuer so capable for hee that hath a good minde is neuer euill But f many wicked men haue admirable memories and are so much worse because they cannot forget their euill cogitations Yet is Minerua selected And for Vertue and Felicitie of whom our fourth booke treateth those goddesses they had but neuer selected them whilest Mars and Orcus the one the causer of death and the other the receiuer these were selected Seeing therefore that in these worthlesse affaires shared amongst so many the Patritian and Plebeian God worke all together in huggermugger and that some gods that were not held worthy of selection had more honorable charges in the businesses then the selected it resteth to beleeue that their being knowne to the vulgar more then the other and not their bearing charge aboue the other put in their names 〈◊〉 this bill of selection And therefore Varro himselfe saith that g many father-gods and mother-goddesses were growne ignoble like mortall men If therefore felicity bee not to bee placed amongst those selects because they gotte their places rather by chance then desert yet surely fortune should bee one amongst them or rather aboue them who giueth not her gifts by reason but euer casualty as it falleth out Shee of right should haue beene their chiefe as shewing 〈◊〉 â—…er chiefly vpon them when as we see it was no vertue nor reasonable 〈◊〉 of theirs but onely the power of fortune as all their adorers doe beâ—… 〈◊〉 made them bee selected For witty Salust it may bee excluded not 〈◊〉 â—…hen he sayd Fortune ruleth in euery thing disposing them rather accordâ—…â—…ill then vnto truth For they can shew no reason why Venus should bee 〈◊〉 Vertue obscure seeing both are made goddesses and their merits are â—…parable If Venus deserued her enhansement in this that more affect her 〈◊〉 â—…ue why then is Minerua famous and Lady Money obscure seeing that 〈◊〉 of men there is h more loues coyne then knowledge and euen in the 〈◊〉 you shall not finde one but it is set to sale and still there is more respect 〈◊〉 â—…hich respecteth other ends i then to that which other ends doe most 〈◊〉 If therefore the fond vulgar were the selectors why was not Money puâ—… 〈◊〉 Minerua since all their trades aime at Money But the wise-men selected 〈◊〉 â—…hy was Venus preferred before Vertue which all reason will of right 〈◊〉 Certainely as I sayd if fortune who as they thinke that thinke her 〈◊〉 â—…ull ruleth in euery thing disposing them rather according to her lust 〈◊〉 then to right or reason had so much power ouer the gods that shee 〈◊〉 â—…nce and obscure whom shee list then should the first place of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 right haue beene hers that had such authoritie ouer the state of the 〈◊〉 But may wee not thinke that Fortune was Fortunes owne foe and so kept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the place Sure it was so shee was her owne foe that could giue adâ—…ments to others and tooke none her selfe L. VIVES 〈◊〉 a bee shee Wee said shee was sister to Dionysius and that they two betoken the Sunne and Moone that rule in naturall seedes of all sorts we wil shew that Luna is also Uenus and Ceres Apulei Metamorph. lib. 11. Macrob. Saturn 1. Val. Prob. Seruius in Georg. 1. Prophyry saith the Moones generatiue vertue is called Ceres Uirgill following Varro ioynes liber and Ceres whence it is plaine that
all nature should lust after the women of earth and marrying them beget Gyants of them CHAP. 23. â—…is question wee touched at in our third booke but left it vndiscussed wheâ—…er the Angels being spirits could haue carnall knowledge of women for 〈◊〉 â—…itten He maketh his Angels spirits that a is those that are spirits hee 〈◊〉 his Angels by sending them on messages as hee please for the Greeke 〈◊〉 â—…rd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Latines call c Angelus is interpreted a messenger 〈◊〉 â—…ether he meant of their bodyes when he addeth And his ministers a flaâ—… or that he intimate that Gods ministers should burne with fiery zeale â—…ritie it is doubtfull yet doe the scriptures plainly auerre that the Anâ—… appeared both in visible and palpable figures b And seeing it is so 〈◊〉 a report and so many auerre it eyther from their owne triall or from 〈◊〉 that are of indubitable honestie and credite that the Syluanes and 〈◊〉 commonly called e Incubâ—… haue often iniured women desiring and acâ—…â—…rnally with them and that certaine deuills whome the Frenchmen call 〈◊〉 doe continually practise this vncleannesse and tempt others to it which â—…ed by such persons and with such confidence that it were impudence 〈◊〉 it I dare not venter to determine any thing heere whether the 〈◊〉 beeing imbodyed in ayre for this ayre beeing violently mooued is 〈◊〉 â—…lt can suffer this lust or mooue it so as the women with whome 〈◊〉 â—…ixe many feele it f yet do I firmely beleeue that Gods Angels could 〈◊〉 â—…ll so at that time nor that the Apostle Peter did meane of them when he sayd If God spared not the Angels that had sinned but cast them downe into hell and deliuered them into chaines of darkenesse to be kept vnto damnation but rather of those that turned apostata's with the diuell their prince at first in him I meane that deceiued man-kinde in the serpent That men were also called the Angels of God the scripture testifieth also saying of Iohn Behold I send mine Angel before â—…hy face which shall prepare the way before thee And Malachie the prophet by a peculiar grace giuen him was called an Angell But some sticke at this that in this commixtion of them that were called Gods Angels with the women of earth there were Gyants begotten and borne as though that we haue no such extraordinary huge statured creatures euen in these our times Was there not a woman of late at Rome with her father and mother a little before it was sacked by the Gothes that was of a giantlike height in respect of all other It was wonderfull to see the concourse of those that came to see her and shee was the more admired in that her parents exceeded not our tallest ordinary stature Therefore there might bee giants borne before that the sonnes of God called also his Angells had any carnall confederacy with the daughters of men such I meane as liued in the fleshly course that is ere the sonnes of Seth medled with the daughters of Caine for the Scripture in Genesis saith thus So when men were multiplied vpon earth and there were daughters borne vnto them the sonnes of God saw the daughters of men that they were faire and they tooke them wiues of all that they liked Therefore the Lord said my spirit shall not alway striue with man because he is but flesh and his daies shal be 120. yeares There were Gyants in the earth in those daies yea and after that the sonnes of God came vnto the daughters of men and they had borne them children these were Gyants and in old time were men of renowne These words of holy writ shew plainely that there were Gyants vpon earth when the sonnes of God tooke the fayre daughters of men to bee their wiues g for the scripture vseth to call that which is faire good But there were Gyants borne after this for it saith There were Gyants vpon earth in those daies and after that the sonnes of God came vnto the daughters of men so that there were Gyants both then and before and whereas it saith They begot vnto themselues this sheweth that they had begotten children vnto God before and not vnto themselues that is not for lust but for their duty of propagation nor to make themselues vp any flaunting family but to increase the Cittizens of God whome they like Gods angels instructed to ground their hope on him as the sonne of the resurrection Seths sonne did who hoped to call vpon the name of the Lord in which hope he and all his sons might be sons and heires of life euerlasting But we may not take them to bee such Angels as were no men men they were without doubt and so saith the Scripture which hauing first sayd the Angels of God sâ—… the daughters of men that they were good and they tooke them wiues of all whome they liked addeth presently And the Lord said my spirit shall not alway striue with mâ—… because hee is but flesh For his spirit made them his Angels and sonnes but they declined downewards and therefore hee calleth them men by nature not by grace and flesh being the forsaken forsakers of the spirit The 70. call them the Angels and sonnes of God some bookes call them onely the sonnes of God leauing out Angels But h Aquila whome the Iewes prefer before all calls them neither but the sonnes of Gods both is true for they were both the sonnes of God and by his patronage the bretheren of their fathers and they were the sonnes of the Gods as borne of the Gods and their equalls according to that of the Psalme I haue said yee are Gods and yee are al sonnes of the most high for weâ—… do worthily beleeue that the 70. had the spirit of prophecy and that what soeuer they altered is set downe according to the truth of diuinity not after the pleasure of translators yet the Hebrew they say is doubtfull and may be interpreted 〈◊〉 the sonnes of God or of Gods Therefore let vs omit the scriptures that are 〈◊〉 i Apocripha because the old fathers of whome wee had the scriptures 〈◊〉 not the authors of those workes wherein though there bee some truths yâ—… their multitude of falshhoods maketh them of no canonicall authority Sâ—… Scriptures questionlesse were written by Enoch the seauenth from 〈◊〉 As the canonicall k Epistle of Iude recordeth but it is not for â—…ng that they were left out of the Hebrew Canon which the Priests kept in 〈◊〉 â—…mple The reason was their antiquity procured a suspicion that they 〈◊〉 not truly diuine and an vncertainety whether Henoch were the author or 〈◊〉 â—…ing that such as should haue giuen them their credit vnto posterity neuer 〈◊〉 them And therefore those bookes that go in his name and containe those 〈◊〉 of the giants that ther fathers were no men are by good iudgements held 〈◊〉 â—…ne of his but counterfeite as the heretiques haue done many