Reason that is too say the néerest too not being The Plants besides being haue also life and they draw their nourishment from the Earth and their refresshing from the Ayre The Beastes haue both Béeing Life and Sence and take their foode both from the Elements and from the Plants Man hath Béeing and Life and Sence and Reason and he inioyeth the Elements liueth of the Plants commaundeth the Beastes and discourseth of all things both aboue him and beneath him Lo heere an order such from degrée too degrée that whosoeuer conceiueth not by and by some Author thereof hath neither Reason nor Sence no nor is worthie too haue either life or béeing I pray you from whence commeth this goodly proportion and this orderly procéeding of things by degrées Whence commeth the difference in their partitions Whence commeth it that the hugest and widest things are vnderlings to the least and weakest things Whereof commeth it that some things haue but a dead being and next vnto notbeing and that othersome haue a beeing that is moouing sensible and reasonable howbeit some more and some lesse Commeth it of the things themselues How can that bée For séeing that nothing doth willingly become an vnderling vnto others why bée not the heauiest masses allotted to the best shares Wherof commeth it that the liuing things which in respect of the whole Sea are but as a drop and in respect of the whole Earth are but as a grayne of dust are in degrée of preheminence aboue them And whereof commeth it that man being the fraylest of all liuing wightes is serued by the Elements by the Plants and by the Beastes yea euen by the wildest of them Then is there a deuider or distributer of these things who hauing imparted thē too others had them first himselfe and that most aboundantly and who moreouer is of necessitie almightie seeing that in so vnequall partition he holdeth them neuerthelesse in concorde I say further that all things are comprized vnder these fower that is too wit vnder Beeing Life Sence and Reason according too his diuers imparting of them vnto all things Now I demaund whether was first of Beeing or Notbeing of Liuing or Notliuing of Sensible or Notsensible of Reasonable or Notreasonable Surely it was neither Reasonable nor Sensible nor liuing for the time hath bin that wée were not But wee knowe that wee had fathers and that our fathers had forefathers and the ende of them maketh vs too beléeue that they had a beginning In like cace is it with beasts and plants for wée know the bréeding growing decaying and fading of them Much more then may wée say the same of Being For the things héere beneath which haue but onely bare beeing are farre inferiour too the other things and therefore cannot bring foorth themselues and consequently much lesse bring foorth the other things It remaineth then that Notbeeing Notliuing Notsensible and Notreasonable were afore Beeing Liuing Sensible and Reasonable And yet notwithstanding wée haue both Béeing Life Sence and Reason It followeth therefore that it is a power from without vs which hath brought vs out of Notbéeing into béeing and hath parted the said gifts among vs diuerlly according too his good pleasure For otherwise from out of that nothing which wée were If I may so terme it we should neuer haue come too be any thing at all Now betweene nothing and something how little so euer that something can bee there is an infinite space Néedes therefore must it be that the cause thereof was infinite at leastwise if it may bée called a cause and that is the very same which we call God Let vs come to the nature of the Elements whereof the whole is compated The Fyre is contrarie too the Water and the dry to the moyst and of these contraries are infinite other things produced vnder them Now the nature of contraries is too destroy one another and no twoo things euen of the least can bee coupled togither but by the working of a higher power that is able too compell them But wée see that these things doo not incroche or vsurpe one vppon another but contrariwise that they match toogither in the composing of many things and yet notwithstanding that not so much as two strings beeing of one selfesame nature can agree in one tune without the wit of a man that can skill too streine them and too slake them as he seeth it good It followeth therefore that the heauenly harmonie wherein so many contraries are made too accord both vniuersally and particularly are set toogither and guyded by a spirit Insomuch that if we will say that according too the comon opinion the aire is spread foorth as a stickler betweene the Fyre and the Water and is ioyned too the one by his moysture and too the other by his heate Yée must needes say also that there is a great and souerein Iudge aboue them which hath made them too abyde that stickler Let vs mount vp higher Wee see the Heauen how it mowweth round with a continuall mouing Also wee see there the Planets one vnder another which notwithstanding the violence of the first moueable haue euery one his seuerall course and mouing by himselfe And shall wee say that these mouings happen by aduenture But the same aduenture which made them to moue should also make them to stand still Agein as for aduenture or chaunce it is nothing els but disorder and confusion but in all these diuersities there is one vniformitie of mouing which is neuer interrupted How then Doo they moue of them selues Nay for nothing moueth it selfe and where things moue one another there is no possibilitie of infinite holding on but in the end men must be faine to mount vpto a first beginning and that is a rest As for example from the hammer of a Clocke wée come too a whéele and from that whéele too another and finally too the wit of the Clockmaker who by his cunning hath so ordered them that notwithstanding that he maketh them all too moue yet he himselfe remoueth not It remayneth then that of all these mouings wée must imagine one Mouer vnmouable and of all these so constant diuersities one vnuariable alwaies like it selfe and of all these bodies one spirite And like as from the Earth wée haue styed vp too the Ayre from the Ayre too the Skye from the Skye too the Heauen of Heauens still mounting vp from greater too greater from light too light and from subtile to subtile so let vs aduaunce our selues yet one degrée higher namely too the infinite too the light which is not too bée conceiued but in vnderstanding and too the quickening spirit in respect whereof the thing that wée woonder at héere beneath is lesse then a poynt our light is but a shadowe and our spirit is but a vapour And yet notwithstanding he hath so paynted out his glorie and instuitenesse euen in the things which wée most despise as that euen the grossest wits may easely comprehend
the souereyntie of all other things That the world the Sea the Land and all other things obey Gods tokens And if aâ— any tyme he bring in an Epicure alledging such worshipfull reasons as this With what engines edgetooles did your God buyld the World and such other eyther he sendeth him away with such answere as he deserueth or els by holding his peace sheweth sufficiently that he deserueth no answere at all Varro the best learned of the Latins maketh an vniuersall Historie deuided into thrée tymes The first as I haue â—ayd alreadie is from the Creation of the world vnto the first Olimpiade This man being a man of great reading found the Creation of the world to haue bene but late afore yea and so late that he ioyned it immediatly to the tyme of the first Olimpiade Likewise Seneca found all things to be new and acknowledgeth in many places that God created the whole world and man peculyarly to serue him And euer since the beginning of the World sayth he vnto this day wee be guyded by the intercourses of daies and nights and so foorth Macrobius passeth yet further and sayth that the world cannot be of any long antiquitie coÌ„sidering that the furthest knowledge that is to be had thereof reacheth not beyond two thousand yéeres As touching the Poets whose spéeches do for the most part represent vnto vs the opinion that was admitted among the common people Virgill is full of excellent sentences to that purpose and Ouid hath made a booke expressely of that matter And euen Lucrece also who professeth vngodlinesse sayth that beyond the Warres of Troy and Thebes there was not any iote remayning to rememberance than by the which he could not better haue declared the World to be but young howbeit that after the maner of his own sect he fathereth that thing vpon chaunce which all the wise men ascribe to the euerlasting prouidence Plinie is the only man whom I wonder at that being so curious a searcher of Nature he could not conceyue that which is printed in euery part of it and which euery man might of himself learne by his owne reading therein He maketh a long Calendar of the first inuenters of things as of Letters of Houses of Apparell and of very Bread He reckoneth vp the Companies that haue fléeted from place to place for the peopling and replenishing of Countries And can there bee a greater proofe of newnesse than that Sometymes he sayth that the Earth is become weary and sometymes that it is wexed barreine in yéelding of fruite and Mettalles because it groweth olde But in one place he sayth expressely that mens bodies by little little become of smaller stature by reason of the witherednesse of the world which wexeth olde And is not this a reporting of the Skye to bee like a whéele which gathereth heate and chafeth with rowling and whirling about And what improteth this wexing old but that it had also as ye would say a birthtyme What meaneth the wearing thereof away but that it had erst bene newe What is ment by the chafing of it but that the temperature thereof is altered For if the World be eternall why is not the whéele thereof eternally in one heate and men eternally of small stature Or if at leastwise it be of very auncient continuance why were not men become Pygmées long ago And if the contrary bee to bee seene in Nature what remayneth but to confesse that the World is but of late beginning To bee short the Stoikes as Varro witnesseth of Zeno taught that the world was created of God and that it should perish The Platonists affirme that it is created and mortall but yet is susteyned from perishing by God The Epicures graunt that it had a beginning howbeit by haphazard and not by prouidence The Peripateticks say in their conclusions that it is without beginning and in their premisses they vtterly deny it The greatest despisers of God as Plinie and such other like doe write in their Prefaces That the world is an euerlasting God and throughout the whole treatises of their bookes they vnsay it agayne Now then after so many graue witnesses and after the coÌ„fessions of the parties them selues is there yet any of these pretensed naturalistes to be found which dareth thinke the contrarie still But now since the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ into the earth this doctrine hath bene receyued throughout the world so as the thing which had aforetymes bene disputable among the Heathen is now admitted as an article of faith welnere among all nations and sects on the earth It may bee that the myracles which were seene then in Heauen in Earth in the Sea vppon men and vpon the very Féends made the world to perceyue that there was a Creator of the world For who could doubt that the creating of a newe Starre the restoring of a deadman to life or onely the making of a blindman to see was not the worke of an infinite power yea euen as well as the buylding of the world considering that betwéene béeing and not béeing betwéene life and death betwéene the hauing of a thing and the nothauing the distance is infinite And it may be that the signes which we haue seene from Heauen in our tyme doe serue to make the blasphemers vpon earth vnexcusable But wherof soeuer it came the very Philosophers themselues began to make a grouÌ„ded principle therof insomuch that the Greekes Persians and Arabians and likewise afterward the Turkes and Mahometists did put it into their beléefe as a thing out of all controuersie To be short there is not at this day any ciuill or well ordered people which haue not their Chronicles and Histories of tymes begun alwaies at the Creation of the world wherein they doe all hold of Moyses and agrée all with vs Christians sauing in the controuersie of some fewe yéeres Of all the Philosophers only the Platonists continued in estimation and all men reiected the newfound opinions of Aristotle and they stood at defiance rather with the Gnosticks than with the Christians Sainct Austin sayth concerning the Philosophers of his tyme that their opinion was that God was afore the World howbeit not in time but in order and by way of vndersetting only like as if a foote sayth he were euer in one place the print thereof should also be euer there Unto whom it may be answered in one word that like as abilitie and intent of going went afore the going it self both in the man and in the foote so in God also the power and intent of creating went afore the Creation But it is best to heare their owne words Plotin in his booke of the World findeth himself not a little graueled in this case and he maketh very little account of all Aristotles supposalles If we say sayth he that the Skye is euerlasting as in respect of the whole bodie therof how can
the body and that the Glasses are out of the Spectacles but the eysight is still good Why should we déeme the Soule to be forgone with the Sences If the eye be the thing that séeth and the eare the thing that heareth why doe wee not see things dubble and heare sounds dubble seeing we haue two eyes and two eares It is the Soule then that seeth and heareth and these which wee take to be our sences are but the instruments of our sences And if when our eyes bee shut or pickt out wee then beholde a thousand things in our mynd yea and that our vnderstanding is then most quicksighted when the quickest of our eysight is as good as quenched or starke dead how is it possible that the reasonable Soule should bee tyed and bound to the sences What a reason is it to say that the Soule dyeth with the sences séeing that the true sences do then growe and increase when the instruments of sence doe dye And what a thing were it to say that a Beast is dead because he hath lost his eyes when we our selues see that it liueth after it hath forgone the eyes Also I haue prooued that the Soule is neither the body nor an appertnance of the body Sith it is so why measure we that thing by the body which measureth al bodies or make that to dye with the body whereby the bodies that dyed yea many hundred yéeres agoe doe after a certeine maner liue still Or what can hurt that thing whom nothing hurteth or hindereth in the bodie Though a man lose an arme yet doth his Soule abide whole still Let him forgoe the one halfe of his body yet is his Soule as sound as afore for it is whole in it selfe and whole in euery part of it selfe vnited in it felfe and in the owne substance and by the force and power thereof it sheadeth it selfe into all parts of the body Though the body rot away by péecemeale yet abideth the Soule all one and vndiminished Let the blud dreyne out the mouing wex weake the sences fayle and the strength perish and yet abideth the mynd neuerthelesse sound and liuely euen to the ende Her house must bee pearced through on all sides ere she bee discouraged her walles must be battered doune ere she fall to fléeting and she neuer forsaketh her lodging till no roome be left her to lodge in True it is that the brute Beastes forgo both life and action with their blud But as for our Soule if wee consider the matter well it is then gathered home into it self and when our sences are quenched then doth it most of all labour to surmount it selfe woorking as goodly actions at the tyme that the body is at a poynt to fayle it yea and oftentymes farre goodlyer also than euer it did during the whole lifetyme thereof As for example it taketh order for it selfe for our houshold for the Commonweale and for a whole Kingdome and that with more vprightnesse godlynesse wisedome and moderation than euer it did afore yea and perchance in a body so forspeâ—â—â— so bare so consumed so withered without and so putrified within that whosoeuer lookes vpon him sees nothing but earth and yet to heare him speake would rauish a man vp to heauen yea and aboue heauen Now when a man sees so liuely a Soule in so weake and wretched a body may he not say as is said of the hatching of Chickens that the shell is broken but there commeth forth a Chicken Also let vs sée what is the ordinary cause that things perish Fire doth eyether goe out for want of nourishment or is quenched by his contrary which is water Water is resolued into aire by fire which is his contrary The cause why the Plant dyeth is extremitie of colde or drought or vnseasonable cutting or vyolent plucking vp Also the liuing wight dyeth through contrarietie of humours or for want of foode or by feeding vpon some thing that is against the nature of it or by outward vyolence Of all these causes which can we choose to haue any power against our Soule I say against the Soule of man which notwithstanding that it be vnited to matter and to a bodie is it selfe a substance vnbodily vnmateriall and only conceiuable in vnderstanding The contrarietie of things Nay what can be contrarie to that which lodgeth the contraries alike equally in himselfe which vnderstandeth the one of them by the other which coucheth them all vnder one skill and to bee short in whom the contrarieties themselues abandon their contrarietie so as they doe not any more pursewe but insewe one another Fire is hote and water cold Our bodies mislike these contraries and are gréeued by them but our mynd linketh them together without eyther burning or cooling it selfe and it setteth the one of them against the other to knowe them the better The things which destroy one another through the whole world do mainteine one another in our mynds Againe nothing is more contrary to peace then warre is and yet mans mynd can skill to make or mainteyne peace in preparing for warre and to lay earnestly for warre in seeking or inioying of peace Euen death it selfe which dispatcheth our life cannot bée contrary to the life of our Soule for it seeketh life by death and death by life And what can that thing méete withall in the whole world that may bee able to ouerthrowe it which can inioyne obedience to things most contrary What then Want of foode How can that want foode in the world which can skill to feede on the whole world Or how should that forsake foode which the fuller it is so much the hungryer it is and the more it hath digested the better able it is to digest The bodily wight feedeth vppon some certeyne things but our mynd feedeth vpon all things Take from it the sensible things and the things of vnderstanding abyde with it still bereaue it of earthly things and the heauenly remayne abundantly To be short abridge it of all worldly things yea and of the world it selfe and euen then doth it feede at greatest ease maketh best chéere agréeable to his owne nature Also the bodily wight filleth it selfe to a certeyne measure and delighteth in some certeyne things But what can fill our mynd Fill it as full as ye can with the knowledge of things and it is still eager and sharpe set to receyue more The more it taketh in the more it still craueth and yet for al that it neuer feeleth any rawnesse or lack of digestion What shall I say more discharge our vnderstanding from the mynding of it self and then doth it liue in him and of him in whom all things doe liue Againe fill it with the knowledge of it selfe and then doth it feele it self most emptie and sharpest set vpon desire of the other Now then can that dye or decay for want of foode which cannot be glutted with any thing which is nourished and mainteyned with
garment of the mynd and the garment of the Soule is a certeyne Spirit whereby it is vnited to the bodie And this Mynd is the thing which wee call properly the Man that is to say a heauenly wight which is not to bee compared with Beastes but rather with the Gods of Heauen if he be not yet more than they The Heauenly can not come downe to the earth without leauing the Heauen but Man measureth the Heauen without remouing from the earth The earthly man then is as a mortall God and the heauenly God is as an immortall man To bee short his conlusion is That man is dubble mortall as touching his body and immortall as touching his Soule which Soule is the substantiall man and the very man created immediatly of God fayth he as the light is bred immediatly of the Sunne And Chalcidius sayth that at his death he spake these wordes I goe home againe into myne owne Countrie where my better forefathers and kinsfolk be Of Zoroastres who is yet of more antiquitie than Hermes we haue nothing but fragments Neuerthelesse many report this article to be one of his That mens Soules are immortall and that one day there shall be a generall rysing againe of their bodies and the answers of the Wise men of Chaldye who are the heires of his Doctrine doe answer sufficiently for him There is one that exhorteth men to returne with spéede to their heauenly father who hath sent them from aboue a Soule indewed with much vnderstanding and another that exhorteth them to seeke Paradise as the peculiar dwelling place of the Soule A third sayth that the Soule of man hath God as it were shut vp in it and that it hath not any mortalitie therein For sayth he the Soule is as it were dronken with God and sheweth foorth his â—â—â—uders in the harmonie of this mortall body And agayne another sayth It is a cléere fire procéeding from the power of the heauenly father an vncorruptible substance and the mainteyner of life conteyning almost all the whole world with the full plentie thereof in his bosome But one of them procéedeth yet further affirming that he which setteth his mynde vppon Godlinesse shall saue his body frayle though it bee And by those words he acknowledgeth the very glorifying of the bodie Now all these sayings are reported by the Platonists namely by Psellus and they refuse not to be acknowne that Pythagoras and Plato learned theÌ„ of the Chaldees insomuch that some think that the foresayd Hermes and Zoroastres and the residewe aforementioned are the same of whom Plato speaketh in his second Epistle and in his eleuenth booke of Lawes when he sayth that the auncient and holy Oracles are to be beléeued which affirme mens Soules to bee immortall and that in another life they must come before a Iudge that will require an account of al their doings The effect whereof commeth to this That the Soule of man procéedeth immediatly from God that is to say that the father of the bodie is one and the father of the Soule is another That the Soule is not a bodily substance but a Spirit and a light That at the departure thereof from hence it is to goe into a Paradise and therfore ought to make haste vnto death And that it is so farre from mortalitie that it maketh euen the body immortall What can wee say more at this day euen in the tyme of light wherein we be Pherecydes the Syrian the first that was knowne among the Greekes to haue written in prose taught the same And that which Virgill sayth in his second Eglog concerning the Drug or Spice of Assyria and the growing thereof euerywhere is interpreted of some men to bée ment of the Immortalitie of the Soule the doctrine whereof Pherecydes brought from thence into Greece namely that it should be vnderstood euerywhere throughout the whole world Also Phocylides who was at the same time speaketh therof in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to say The Soule of man immortall is and neuer weares away With any age or length of tyme but liueth fresh for ay And againe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Remnants which remaine of men vnburied in the graue Become as Gods and in the Heauens a life most blessed haue For though their bodies turne to dust as dayly we doe see Their Soules liue still for euermore from all corruption free And in another place he sayes agayne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We hope that we shall come agayne Out of the earth to light more playne And if ye aske him the cause of all this he will answer you in another verse thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because the Soule Gods instrument and Image also is Which saying he seemeth to haue taken out of this verse of Sibils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In very reason Man should bee The Image and the shape of mee Of the same opinion also are Orpheus Theognis Homer Hesiodus Pindar and all the Poets of old tyme which may answer both for themselues and their owne Countries and for the residue of their ages Likewise Pythagoras a disciple of Pherecides held opinion that the Soule is a bodylesse and immortall substance put into this body as into a Prison for sinning And whereas the fléeting of soules out of one body into another is fathered vpon him although the opinion be not directly against the immortalitie of the Soule yet doe many men thinke that hee hath wrong doone vnto him And his Disciple Timoeus of Locres reporteth otherwyse of him For what punishment were it to a voluptuous man to haue his Soule put into a beast that he might become the more voluptuous without remorse of sinne Soothly it is all one as if in punishment of Murder or theft yée would make the Murderer to cut the throtes of his owne Father and Mother or the Théef to commit trecherie ageinst God Howsoeuer the case stand he teacheth in his verses that man is of heauenly race and that as Iamblichus reporteth he is set in this world to behold God And his Disciple Architas sayth that God breathed reason and vnderstanding into him Likewise Philolaus affirmeth that the Diuines and Prophets of old time bare record that the Soule was cuppled with the body for hir sinnes and buryed in the same as in a Graue Of Epicharmus we haue this saying If thou beest a good man in thy heart Death can doe thee no harme for thy Soule shall liue happyly in heauen c. Also of Heraclides we haue this saying We liue the Death of them that is to say of the blessed his meaning is that we be not buried with our bodyes and we dye their Lyfe that is to say wee bee still after this body of ours is dead Of the like opinion are Thales Anaxagoras and Diogenes concerning this poynt yea and so is Zeno too howbeit that he thought the Soule to bee
but to vexe our minds in this lyfe In his bookes of the Soule hee not onely separateth the Body from the Soule but also putteth a difference betwixt the Soule it selfe the Mind terming the Soule the inworking of the body and of the bodily instruments and the mynd that reasonable substance which is in vs whereof the doings haue no fellowship with the doings of the body and whereof the Soule is as Plato saieth but the Garment This Mynd sayth he may be seuered from the body it is not in any wyse mingled with it it is of such substaunce as cannot be hurt or wrought vpon it hath being and continuance actually and of it selfe and euen when it is separated from the body then is it immortall and euerlasting To be short it hath not any thing like vnto the body For it is not any of al those things which haue being afore it vnderstād them And therefore which of all bodily things can it be And in another place he sayeth thus As concerning the Mynd and the contemplatiue powre it is not yet sufficiently apparant what it is Neuerthelesse it seemeth to bee another kind of Soule and it is that onely which can bee separated from the corruptible as the which is Ayeuerlasting To be short when as he putteth this question whether a Naturall Philosopher is to dispute of all maner of Soules or but onely of that Soule which is immateriall it followeth that he graunteth that there is such a one And againe when as he maketh this Argument Looke what God is euerlastingly that are wee in possibilitie according to our measure but hee is euerlastingly separated from bodily things therefore the time will come that wee shall bee so too He taketh it that there is an Image of God in vs yea euen of the Diuine nature which hath continuance of itselfe Uery well and rightly therfore doth Simplicius gather therof the immortalitie of the Soule For it dependeth vpon this separation vpō continuance of being of it self Besides this he sayth also that hunting of beasts is graūted to man by the lawe of Nature because that thereby man chalengeth nothing but that which naturally is his owne By what right I pray you if there be no more in himself than in them And what is there more in him than in them if they haue a soule equall vnto his Herevnto make all his commendations of Godlines of Religion of blessednes and of contemplation For too what ende serue all these which doe but cumber vs here belowe Therefore surely it is to be cōcluded that as he spake doubtfully in some one place so he both termed and also taught to speake better in many other places as appeareth by his Disciple Theophrastus who speaketh yet more euidently thereof than he The Latins as I haue sayd before fell to Philosophie somewhat later then the Gréekes And as touching their common opinion the exercises of superstition that were among them the maner of speeches which we marke in their Histories their contempt of death and their hope of another life can giue vs sufficient warrant thereof Cicero speaketh vnto vs in these words The originall of our Soules and Myndes cannot bee found in this lowe earth for there is not any mixture in them or any compounding that may seeme to bee bred or made of the earth Neither is there any moysture any wyndinesse or any firy matter in them For no such thing could haue in it the powre of memorie Vnderstanding and conceit to beate in mynd things past to foresee things to come and to consider things present which are matters altogither Diuine And his conclusion is that therefore they bee deriued from the Mynd of GOD that is to say not bred or begotten of Man but created of God not bodily but vnbodily wherevpon it followeth that the Soule cannot be corrupted by these transitorie things The same Cicero in another place sayeth that betwéene God and Man there is a kinred of reason as there is betwéene man man a kinred of blud That the fellowship betwéene man and man commeth of the mortall body but the fellowship betwéene God and man commeth of God himselfe who created the Soule in vs. By reason whereof sayth hée we may say we haue Alyance with the heauenly sort as folke that are descended of the same race and roote whereof that we may euermore be myndfull we must looke vp to heauen as to the place of our birth whether we must one day returne And therfore yet once againe he concludeth thus of himself Think not sayth he that thou thy selfe art mortall it is but thy body that is so For thou art not that which this outward shape pretendeth to be the Mynd of Man is the man in deede and not this lumpe which may bee poynted at with ones Fingar Assure thy selfe therefore that thou art a GOD For needes must that be a God which liueth perceyueth remembereth foreseeth and finally reigneth in thy body as the Great God the maker of all things doth in the vniuersall world For as the eternall God ruleth and moueth this transitory world so doth the immortall Spirit of our soule moue rule our fraile body Hereuntoo consent all the writers of his tyme as Ouid Virgill and others whose verses are in euery mans remembrance There wanted yet the wight that should all other wights exceede In loftie reach of stately Mynd who like a Lord in deede Should ouer all the resdewe reigne Then shortly came forth Man Whom eyther he that made the world and all things els began Created out of seede diuine or els the earth yet yoong And lately parted from the Skie the seede thereof vncloong Reteyned still in frutefull wombe which Iapets sonne did take And tempering it with water pure a wight thereof did make Which should resemble euen the Gods which souereine state doe hold And where all other things the ground with groueling eye behold He gaue to man a stately looke and full of Maiestie Commaunding him with stedfast looke to face the starry Skie Here a man might bring in almost all Senecaes wrytings but I will content my selfe with a fewe sayings of his Our Soules sayth he are a part of Gods Spirit and sparkes of holy things shining vpon the earth They come from another place than this lowe one Whereas they seeme to bee conuersant in the bodie yet is the better part of them in Heauen alway neere vnto him which sent them hither And how is it possible that they should be from beneath or from anywhere els thā from aboue seeing thei ouerpasse al these lower things as nothing and hold skorne of all that euer we can hope or feare Thus ye sée how he teacheth that our Soules come into our bodies from aboue But whether go they agayne when they depart hence Let vs here him what he sayes of the Lady Martiaes Sonne that was dead He is
all That if due Iustice vnto you were doone Both Heauen and Temples should be emptie soone And yet in defacing the false Goddes hée ceasseth not to commend the onely true God in many places Aratus in the same place which is alledged by S. Paule attributeth all to one Iupiter whome hee would haue to bee honored without ceassing As touching the Latins Ouid in his Metamorphosis attributeth the Creation of the World and of all things therein vnto the onely one God And Virgill doth ordinarily call him the King of Goddes and Men and hee describeth hym sheading foorth his power to the vttermost coastes of Heauen and Earth and with his vertue quickening the World and all that is therein But forasmuch as Scoeuola the Highpréest of the Romaines distinguished the Gods of old tyme into thrée sortes that is to wit Philosophicall Poeticall and Ciuill and wee haue séene how the Philosophers and Poets notwithstanding their owne Wyndlases and fables and the infinite superstitions of their tymes doe méete one another in the onely one GOD let vs sée consequently what the Ciuill sort will say vnto vs that is to say what hath bin beléeued not onely by the learned sort of all Nations but also by the very Nations themselues Soothly so incredible hath the vanitie of men bin since their turning aside from the true way that all Nations haue let them selues ronne looce after such absurdities as wee would not beléeue if wee sawe not the like still at this day Some worshipped the Heauen the Plantes and the Starres like silly soules which at their first comming into a Kings Court doe thinke that the first gay apparelled man whome they méete with is the King Some made Gods of the Goodes which God gaue them Some worshipped the Beastes which were for their benefite And finally they made Goddes not only of themselues but also of their Speares Shéelds and Swoordes and buylded Temples to their owne Passions as vnto Fearefulnes Hardines and such others yea and euen vnto things so filthy and lothsome as a man may bee ashamed and abashed to heare spoken of Neuerthelesse the costomable vse of such things made folke too haue no regard of them and the most spirituall sort of them were so possessed with Ambition that it filled all their myndes to the full Yet notwithstanding when they were once awaked and fell a little to the bethinking themselues as of a thing in very déede against Nature they were ashamed of their doings yea and euen of themselues Why Sir answered they to Sainct Austin Thinke you that our Forefathers were so foolish and blinde as to beleeue that Bacchus Ceres Pan and such others were Goddes It is not possible Nay they beleeued but in the onely one GOD whose giftes and functions they honored vnder diuers names and whatsoeuer is more is but Superstition Truely the AEgyptians as wee reade did honour Diuels Men Beastes Serpents and Plants and to bee short euery thing was to them a GOD. But as touching the true GOD they described him in their holy Carects as a Pilot alone gouerning a Ship And all their diuinitie as is to be seene in Iamblichus was referred vnto onely one God Insomuch that the people of I hebais in AEgipt reiected all the said absurdities of many Goddes saying that there was none other God but only he whom they called Câ—ef which was neuer borne nor could euer dye that is to say the Euerlasting Also in Say a Citie of AEgipt the Image of Pallas that is to say of Wisdome had his Inscription I am all that hath bin is or euer shal be and there was neuer yet any mortall man that vncouered my face And Proclus addeth thereto And the Fruites that I haue brought forth is the Sonne as who would say It is the Wisdome whereby God worketh which is the Goddesseworker Now if euen among the AEgiptians the opinion of the one onely God was not quenched much more reason haue we to deeme that it was not quenched among other nations In the Lawes of the twelue Tables were written these words Let Men come to the Goddes chastly Let Pompe bee remoued away If they doe otherwise God himselfe that is to say Iupiter whom onely they called the most gracious and most mightie will reuenge it Yet notwithstanding it is certeyne that afterward Rome became the very Sinckpan of all the Idolatries of the world for in winning of Nations they wan also their Superstitions But could all this wype out in them the print of Nature Nay contrarywise Tertullian speaking of the Heathen of his tyme sayth thus As wholly as their Soules are brought in bondage to false Goddes yet when they awake as a dronken man out of his sleepe they name but one God and the speech of euery man is as it pleaseth GOD. They call vpon him as their Iudge saying God seeth it I referre my self to God God requite it me O record of a Soule by nature Christian To be short in vttering those wordes they looke vp to Heauen and not to the Capitoll for they knowe that Heauen is the Seate of the liuing God Lactantius who came a good while after saith the like When they sweare sayth he when they wish wheÌ„ they giue thanks they name neither Iupiter nor Gods in the plurall number but the onely one God so greatly doth Nature constreyne them to acknowledge the truth If there come an Alarum or if they be threatened with warre they do after the same maner But as soone as the daunger is past by and by they runne to the Temples of many Gods whereas notwithstanding they called but the one God to their succour And in very trueth if we consider the naturall motions which we haue in our afflictions they part not our harts into diuers prayers at once but doe put vs in mynd of onely one God and to offer our prayers vp vnto him Now forasmuch as Nature Mans wisedome and the voyce of all people doe in all Languages commend woorship and confesse one onely God It remayneth for vs to see whether wée may not gather the like euen by the very confession of the false Goddes theÌ„selues which haue gone about to deface his name by al meanes It is a case disputed among the learned by what Spirite the Sybilles spake because it is not vnconuenient that God should compell the very Deuels to set soorth his prayses Howsoeuer the case stand they speake but of onely one God saying There is but onely one true God right great and euerlasting Almightie and inuisible which seeth euery thing But cannot bee beheld himselfe of any fleshly man Also they crye out against the false Goddes and exhort men to beate downe their Altars accounting them happie which giue themselues to the glorifying of the only one God But let vs héere Apollo himselfe Being asked at Colophon by one Theophilus whether there was a God or no and what he is
specially of man who knoweth how to take benefite thereof The temperatenesse of the aire serueth for him and yet the aire can not bee tempered nor the Earth lighted without the Sonne and the Moone Neither can the Sunne and the Moone giue light and temperatnesse without mouing The Moone hath no light but of the Sunne neither can the Sunne yéeld it either to the Moone or too the Earth but by the mouing of the Heauen and the great Compasse of the Heauen going about is the very thing which wée call the World not estéeming these lower parts as in respect of their matter otherwise than as the dregges of the whole And whereas the Elements serue man and the Planets serue the Elements yea and the Planets them selues serue one another doe they not shew that they be one for another And if they be one for another is not one of them in consideration afore another as the ende afore the things that tend vnto the end according to this common rule that the Mynd beginneth his work at the end thereof Now then if the turning about of the Heauen serue to shewe the Planets and they to yéeld light to the Earth and to all things thereon doth it not serue for the Earth And if it serue the Earth I pray you is that done by appoyntment of the Earth or rather by appoyntment of some one that commaundeth both Heauen and Earth Againe seeing that the ende is in consideration afore the things that tend thereto shall this consideration be in the things themselues or rather in some Spirite that ordereth them Soothly in the things themselues it cannot be for if they haue vnderstanding they haue also will and the will intendeth rather to commaund than to obey and vnto fréedome rather than bondage and if they haue no vnderstanding then knowe they neither end nor beginning Moreouer forasmuch as they bee diuers and of contrary natures they should ame at diuers ends whereas now they ame all at one end Nay which more is how should the Sunne and the Moone the Heauen and the Earth haue met euerlastingly in matching their dealings so iumpe together the one in giuing light and the other in taking it In what poynt by what couenant and vnder what date was this done seeing it dependeth altogether vppon mouing which is not to be done but in tyme It remayneth then that the sayd consideration was done by a Spirit that commaundeth al things alike and that he putteth them in subiection one to another as seemeth best to himselfe forsomuch as he is mightie to kéepe them in obedience and wise to guyde them to their peculiar ends and all their ends vnto his owne ende and he that thinketh otherwise thinketh that a Lute is in tune of it owne accord Or if he say that this Spirit is a Soule inclosed in the whole he doth fondly incorporate the Spirit of the Luteplayer in the Lute it selfe and likewise the buylder in the buylding In effect it is all one as if a Child that is borne and brought vp in a house should thinke the house to be eternall or els made of it selfe because he had not seene it made or as if a man that had bin cast out newly borne in a desert Iland and there nursed vp by a Wolfe as Romulus was should imagine himself to be bred out of the Earth in one night like a Mushrom For to beléeue that the World is eternall and that the race of Mankinde is bred of it selfe without a maker is all one thing and spring both of one error Doe not the two Sexes of Male and Female in all liuing things ouerthrowe the sayd eternitie For how should they bee euerlastingly the one for the other seeing they be so diuers Againe haue they bin euerlastingly but two or euerlastingly mo than two If but two where are those two become seeing that eternitie importeth immortalitie and a beginninglesse forebeing from euerlasting inferreth an endlesse afterbeing or cōtinuance to euerlasting And if they were many see ye not still the selfesame absurdities And if ye say they be made euerlasting by succession of tyme what I pray you is death but a token that they were borne What is life I speake of this our life but a continuance of death and what is succession but a prolonging of time Thus then ye see how that aswell by the parts of the World and by the whole World it self as also by the agréement of the whole with his parts and of the parts among themselues we be euidently taught that the fraine of the World had both a workmayster and a beginning But now some man wil aske vs when it began And that is the poynt which we haue to treate of next The viij Chapter When the World had his beginning SOothly it is not for mée to stand here disproouing the doubtes of the Accounters of tymes for the ods of some yeres yea or of some whole hundreds of yeres is not to bee accounted of betwéene eternitie and a beginning But if we haue an eye to the procéeding of this lower World we shall euidently percèyue that like a Childe it hath had his ages his chaunges and his full poynts restes or stoppes so as it hath by little and little growne bin peopled and replenished and that to be short whereas the world supposeth that it shall indure for euer it doth but resemble an old Dotarde which bee hee neuer so forworne and drooping for age yet thinkes himselfe still to haue one yere more to liue But I haue alreadie sufficiently proued that both Heauen and Earth haue had a beginning and also that séeing the one of them is for the other they had the same at one selfe same tyme and both of them from one self same ground And therfore looke what shal be declared of the earth shall also be declared of the heauen and forasmuch as the earth serueth for the vse of liuing creatures and specially of man looke what beginning we shall proue of man the like shall wee haue proued of the disposition of the earth For to what purpose were the Heauen being imbowed about these lower parts like a Uault or to what purpose were the earth being as a flowre or plancher to goe vpon if there were no inhabiter at all vpon earth Surely if the World were without beginning it should also haue bin inhabited from without beginning and no people should be of more antiquitie thā other Or at leastwise how auncient so euer it were yet should no new thing be found therein But if euen the oldest and auncientest things of all be but newe ought it not to bee a sure argument vnto vs of the newnesse thereof What thing I pray you can we picke out in this world for an example of antiquitie Let vs begin at the Liberall Sciences and we shall reade of the first commings vp of them all Philosophie which consisteth in the searching out of naturall things is of so late
the worke of God Also being asked whether was first of the Day or the Night he answered that the Night was sooner by one day as if he had ment to say that afore God had created the light it must néedes bee confessed that out of him there was nothing but darknesse Now this Philosopher also as well as the rest had gone to Schoole in AEgipt Timeus of Locres termeth Tyme the Image of eternitie and sayth that it tooke his beginning from the creating of Heauen and Earth and that God created the very Soule of the World afore the World it selfe both in possibilitie and in tyme. To bee short Plutarke affirmeth that all the naturall Philosophers of old time hild opinion that the begetting or creating of the World began at the Earth as at the Centre thereof and that Eâ—pedocles sayth that the finest kynd of AEr which they cal AEther was the first part thereof that was drawne vp on high And Anaxagoras is reported by Simplicius to affirme that God whom he calleth Mynd or Vnderstanding created the Heauen the Earth the Sunne and the Starres and scarsly is there any one to bee found which teacheth that tyme is without beginning Some of Platoes latter Disciples as namely Proclus writing against the Christians would néedes beare their Mayster downe that he beléeued the world to haue had no beginning But if wee may beléeue Aristotle who was a scholler of his a two and twentie yéeres he taught that the world was created and it is one of the chief Principles wherein they most disagrée Philo who was as another Plato saith that Plato had learned it of Hesiodus And Plutarch who sheweth himselfe to haue perused him throughly leafe by leafe speaketh of him in these words There are sayth he some studyers of Plato which by racking his wordes indeuer by all meanes to make him deny the creation of the World and of the Soule and to confesse the euerlastingnesse of time notwithstanding that in so doing they bereeue him of that most excellent treatise of his concerning the Goddes against the despysers and skorners of whom in his tyme he wrate And what needeth any thing to be alledged for proofe thereof seeing that his whole booke of Timeus is nothing els but an expresse treatise of the Creation of the World The same thing also doth Aphrodisius witnesse concerning Plato In his booke intytled Athlantick he termeth the world a thing Longago created In his matters of State he sayth that the world was setled and founded by God and that it coÌ„teyneth store of good things and that the trouble somenesse which it hath is but a Remnant or Remaynder of the former confusion Also Socrates in his booke of Commonweale termeth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Godhead begotten or created And which of the auncient writers did euer doubt that Plato taught not the Creation of the World considering that he hath made descriptions both of all the parts thereof and of the Gods themselues And also that he sayth that the world was created corruptible of it selfe but yet abode immortall and vncorruptible through the grace of God which vpholdeth it But let vs examin the racking which Proclus offereth vnto him Plato saith he affirmeth in his Commonweale that whatsoeuer hath a beginning hath also an ende Now the World as he sayth in his Timeus shall haue no end Therefore it followeth that it had no beginning If another man should reason after that maner against Proclus Proclus would laugh him to skorne for he shifteth the termes and yet our Soules which he concludeth to be without end faile not to haue had a beginning But though we were neuer so wel contented to let him passe yet doth Plato assoyle him in one word The world saith he is corruptible of it selfe for euery thing that is compounded may also be dissolued but it is not Gods will that it should be corrupted And myne ordinance sayth the euerlasting is of more power to make thee to continue than thine owne Nature is to make thee to perish The which thing he speaketh yet more shortly in another place saying that the world hath receyued an Immortalitie at the hand of the workmayster which made it Now then seeing that by Nature it may perish surely by Nature it had a beginning and the power that hath preserued it from perishing is the very same that made it to bee Proclus addeth Plato propoundeth a Question sayth he whether the World was created after the patterne of a thing forecreated or of a thing without beginning Therefore he dowted whether it were eternall or no. What a conclusion was this for a great Philosopher I aske whether men bee bred of themselues or created of another therefore I vphold that they be bred of themselues as who would lay that in disputing it were not an ordinary matter to set down both the Contraries for the affirming of the one and the denying of the other Agayne if it were begotten or created after the example of a thing aforecreated could it be beginninglesse seeing that the patterne thereof had a beginning And if it were created after the example of a thing vncreated can it come to passe that it should be euerlasting séeing that it is not the very patterne it selfe No but as I haue sayd afore wee admit horned arguments against the trueth whereas in defence of the trueth the perfectest demonstrations suffize vs not Also in another booke intytled of a String he sayth thus Plato in his booke of Lawes sayth that Commonweales and Artes haue infinite tymes bin vtterly destroyed by Waterfluds and Burnings and therefore that men cannot certeinly say from what time men haue first growne into Commonweales Ergo he beleeued that the World had no beginning Nay he sayth these things in his Timeus which is the booke whereof thou canst not dowt but that he treateth there expressely of the Creation of the World And he repeateth the same agayne in his booke of Commonwealematters hauing sayd afore that God created Heauen Earth the Starres and Gods Now then seeing it is one selfsame Author that speaketh these things and in one selfesame place and one immediatly after another is it not certeyne that he ment not to match cleane contrary doctrines together What is to be sayd then but that he spake there after the maner of the common multitude who as Aristotle sayth doe call the things infinite which they be not able to number Or as Moyses himselfe speaketh who calleth the things eternall euerlasting or endlesse which are of very long coÌ„tinuance notwithstanding that he make a booke expressely of the Creation of all things But in déede it was a surmize of the auncientnesse of the World which Plato as it should seeme had brought home out of AEgipt accordingly as the report of Solon sufficiently declareth who telleth him that the AEgiptians had Registers of nyne thousand yeres that is to say as Plutarke interprets
that be seeing that the liuing Creatures dye and the Elements passe from one into another and that as Plato affirmeth the Skye it selfe is in continuall wheeling If we say that the Elements and the liuing wights coÌ„tinue their perpetuities in their kynds why doth the Heauen continue his perpetuitie rather in number and particularitie If the cause thereof bee that nothing can slippe out of it because it coÌ„teyneth all things how can that reason agree to the Starres and Planets which doe not conteyne al things as the Heauen or Skye doth and yet we affirme them to be euerlasting And if nothing impeach it without what should let that something may not impeach it within seeing that all liuing wights doe naturally perish through the distemperaÌ„ce of their parts notwithstanding that they liue euen while they bee a dissoluing And what inseweth hereof but that both sortes of bodies as well Coelestiall as terrestriall doe perish yea and both Heauen and Earth likewise sauing that the Coelestiall indure a longer tyme and perish more slowly than the Earthly Certeynly sayth he if we tooke this word eternitie as well in the whole world as in the parts thereof not to betoken an euerlastingnesse that is to say a perpetuitie or continuance without beginning or end but only a difference of continuance there would be the lesse doubtfulnesse in the matter But all shall be out of doubt if we father the same eternitie vpon the will of GOD which of it selfe is able enough to vphold the World for so shall things haue their continuance according to his pleasure some in their kyndes and some particularly in themselues Now if the World were eternall were it not impossible that it should be otherwise than it is But if it haue this being from the will of GOD is it not discharged of that necessitie And what shal then become of this saying of his which he setteth doune in diuers other places namely that the World is of necessitie because it would behoue a second Nature to accompanie the first vnlesse we vnderstand it to be spoken of the necessitie that is conditionall and not of the necessitie that is absolute as they terme it Againe the same will which made the World to bée and hath giuen continuance to the parts thereof some after one sort and some after another and hath disposed of them as it listed it selfe shal it not also haue made them when it listed it selfe Whosoeuer then â—aith that the béeing of the world as well in the whole as in the partes dependeth vpon the will of God taketh from the world all necessitie of béeing And hee that sayeth that there is no necessitie that it should haue bin from euerlasting let vs vse those words for want of other sayth therewithall that it is not euerlasting In his booke of Eternitie and of Tyme he sayth that eternitie and tyme differ in this respect that eternitie is verifyed but of the euerlasting nature and tyme is to be verified of the things that are created So as eternitie is and abideth in God alone whom he calleth the World that is to bee conceyued but in mynd or vnderstanding and tyme abydeth in the worlde that is subiect to the sences adding neuerthelesse that the world to speake properly was not made in tyme after which maner wee also doe say that it was not made in tyme but together with the tyme. But when he hath deliberatly scanned all the definitions of time made by the former Philosophers and hath searched all the corners of his wit too find out the best in the ende heâ— concludeth thus Wee must needes come backe sayth hee too the sayd first nature which I affirmed heretofore to be in eternitie I meane the vnmouable nature which is wholly all at once the infinite and endlesse lyfe and which consisteth whole in one and tendeth vnto one But as yet there was no tyme at all or at leastwise it was not among the Natures that consist in vnderstaÌ„ding but was to come afterward by a certeine maner and kynd of posterioritie Now then if a man will vnderstand how tyme proceeded first from the hygher Natures which rested in themselues good cause shall he haue to call the Muses too his helpe for the vttering therof For it may be that the Muses also were as then Therefore let vs say thus Afore such time as Forenesse issued foorth and had neede of afternesse Tyme which as then was not rested in God with the residew of all things that now are But a certein nature bent to many doings that is to wit the Soule of the world beeing desirous to haue more than the present began to moue it self and so from thence immediatly issewed tyme which passeth on continualy and is neuer the selfsame And we beholding the length therof haue imagined tyme to be the image of eternitie And what is ment by all this contemplation but that a certeine Soule or mynd proceeding from God that is to wit the Spirit of God did mooue and cary the worlde about That with that mouing and of that mouing tyme was bred and brought foorth That afore that moouing there was a settled state or rest as eternitie afore time And that as he himselfe saieth there Tyme and Heauen were made both at once and eternitie was afore them both As touching that it is demaunded what God did afore the World doth not Plotinus himselfe furnish vs with sufficient answere in that he sayth that God not woorking at all but resting in himself doth and performeth very greate things And is not the lyke concluded by the godly doctrine of Gods prouidence whereof he treateth in bookes expresly bearing that tytle for if it be possible for the World to be eternall as well as God where then can there bee any prouidence For what else is Prouidence than the will of God vttered foorth with Reazon and orderly dispozed by vnderstanding And if Gods will bee required where is then the necessitie of béeing which in other places hee attributeth too the world Also where is this saying of his become that our Soules are immortall and that some of them are eternall and afore all tyme And lykewise this that afore God had created the world and breathed a soule into it it was but a dead corse a mingle-mangle of earth and water a darke matter a thing of nothing and at a woorde such a thing as euen the Goddes themselues were abashed at it and that after that God had shed this Soule into the world both lyfe mouing were therby breathed into the Starres Planets and Liuing wyghts For seeing that from notbeing notliuing and notmouing there is an infinite distance to being liuing and mouing Doth it not follow also that there is infinite odds betweene him that is liueth and moueth that is to say God and the thing that wayteth to haue being lyfe and mouing at his hand that is to wit the forementioned Chaos And what is it that
very narrowly for it neither can I yeeld a reason how the Babe is formed in the Mothers Wombe Well doe I see that in that case there is very greate Wisdome and therefore I am of that opinion that it is not for any man too meddle with the searching out of it but that it ought to suffice vs that our Creator hath willed it to be after that fashion For shall wee presume to seeke a reason of the dooing of that thing which without making of an Anatomie we should neuer knowe to haue bene done It is all one as if he should say that Nature whereat wee woonder so much is nothing els but whatsoeuer it pleaseth God to commaund And now what remaineth more but to heare Apollo that is to say the very Diuell himselfe who being prayed to say an Hymne to the great God beginneth it with this verse Which made the first Man and called him Adam which verse Iustine the Martyre affirmeth to haue beâ—e commonly soong in his tyme. After the confession of wickednesse it self if we list also to heare the confession of Ignorance there is not at this day so brutish a Nation which either by reading it in the great letters of the Heauens or by tradition from their predecessors reteine not the opinion that the worlde was created howbéeit that the case doth stand with them as it dooth with the diuersitie of Portratures drawen out the first from the lynely patterne it selfe the second from that first a third from the second and so foorthon vntill the last counterfet reteyne scarse any feature at all of the first originall paterne Of the Nations which we call Sauage or Wyld some affirme themselues to keepe and reuerence the places where they furmyse too haue bin the originall of the Sea of the Sonne of the Moone of the first man and of the first woman c. Othersome holde opinion that there came one froÌ„ the North into their country which heighthened the Ualleyes and leueled the Hilles and replenished their Country with Men and Women whom he had created and that the same partie giueth them fruites of all sortes abundantly Who whensoeuer they prouoke him too wrath will chaunge their good soyle into barrein land and take from them the fatnesse of the heauen May ye not sée clearly here the creation of the world the sinne of man and the curse which God hath giuen to the earth for mans sake And as for the partie whom they speake of it is a mingling of the storie of the Creation with the story of some partie that first brought people from the North into those Countries too inhabite them euen long tyme after ioyning the creation of the world with the peopling of Countries as things not farre diuers accordingly as is doone in diuers Histories And I pray you how many euen of our Neighbournations that inhabite the vttermost borders of the world could euen at this day answere more fitly too that question Now séeing that the World and all the partes thereof doo sing out the creation séeing the wisdom of the world teacheth it vngodlines euen whither it will or no aâ—oweth it Ignorance séeth it and all togither in all ages both taught auowed and perceiued it may not wee with the allowance euen of the blockishest and of the wickeddest pronounce this definitiue sentence That the World had a beginning and that it had it at such tyme as it pleased God the Creator thereof But there remayneth yet one poynt to be discussed namely wherof God created the World and that is matter enough for another Chapter The x. Chapter That GOD created the World of nothing that is to say without any matter or stuffe whereof to make it I Cannot tell whether I may woonder more at the good insight of the auncient Philosophers in the knowledge of many naturall things or at their blindnesse in the knowledge of the author of them in that they set it downe for a definitiue sentence That nothing in al the world is made of nought and therfore that the great workmayster himself could not make any thing without matter or stuffe whereof For in effect it is a measuring of the builder and his building both by one rule or skantling and an abaâ—ing of the power which they themselues confesse to be infinite vnto the state of our infirmitie God say they cannot make any thing without matter whereof And why Because a Mason cannot make any buylding without stuffe whereof As who would say there were a more absurd kynd of reasoning in Logicke than to conclude from the finite to the infinite from the mightlesse to the almightie from the transitorie to the euerlasting Nay rather thou shouldest reason thus Man who is lesse than a Worme in comparison of the highest draweth gold out of the Rocke or out of the dust of the earth Of the same earth or stone he maketh such cloath wyre and leaues of gold foyle as no maÌ„ would déeme to haue come of so grosse a matter Of the gréene Hearbe he draweth out white flower for his sustenance of the stalkes of Flaxe and Hempe he draweth out thréed to make cloath of of ragges he maketh Paper to write on and of the excrements of the little Silkworme he draweth out a great â—eale of Silkcloath Agayne he turkyneth some one rude rough kynd of stuffe into a hundred thousand fashions of the least things he maketh very great things and by the excellencie of his wit draweth most excellent things out of that where the most part of men notwithstanding that they be men as wel as he found not ne perceyued not any thing at all as for example out of the Fâ—â—â—t fire to warme him out of the barreyne Ferne and vyle Seawéede glistering Glasse out of a Shelfish that the Sea casteth vp Purple to make Ornaments of To bee short after a certeyne maner he maketh somewhat of nothing Now seeing that the weakenesse of mortall men can doe so much shall not the mightie power of the euerlasting bee able to doe much more And seeing that a thing of nought is able to doe so much shall any thing be vnpossible to the maker of all things But although this which I haue sayd might suffize the discréete yet notwithstanding let vs discusse more largely this matter concerning matter or stuffe Soothly if God néeded matter or stuffe to worke vpon either he himselfe made it or els it was eternally of it selfe as well as he If he made it he made it of nothing for in seeking the matter of matter ye shall procéede to infinite and so haue I the thing I would haue If it were from euerlasting then were there two eternalles together which is a thing repugnant to all reason and contrary to it selfe For nothing can bee more contrary to eternitie than to say that there is a matter or stuffe which attendeth or wayteth to haue his shape forme or fashion at some workmaster hand or that there is an
worme as thou art thou inuentest a thousand trades and artes which are euerichone of them so many poynts of wisdome and consequently as many prouidences As much as thou canst thou makest all things to stoope to thy lur◠thou applyest the rayne and the drought the heate and the cold to thyne owne commoditie thou turnest the doings of thy neighbors of the Cittie and of thy Commonweale to thine owne profite and honor yea and if it were possible thou wouldest apply the heauen the earth the sea and oftentymes euen God himselfe to thine own benifite Now then who prouideth for the Plants and for the brute beastes in whom thou seest so great prouidence though they themselues haue none at all but onely he which made them Or who directeth the Arrowe to the marke the Arrowe I say which seeth not the marke but the Archer who hath eyes for it And cannot he prouide for all which giueth prouidence to all And he that giueth it thee in such sort as thou the◠by makest al things to stoope to thy Lure whereas yet notwithstanding thou madest them not and of whom thou scarsly knowest the names is not he able to gouerne euery one of them according to their nature and too direct them yea and thee too vnto the end that he hath purposed seeing he hath made them Againe if God be not able to prouide for things and to direct them to their end how say we that he surmounteth all that euer we can imagine sith we cannot deny but that hee which prouides aforehand is of more abilitie than he that cannot And if wee can imagine any thing to be greater then hee why should not wee our selues be that thing And if euen in man the abilitie of prouiding be better then the vnabilitie seeing we vphold that whatsoeuer is excellent in our selues which yet notwithstanding is but in measure and by perticipation the same is infinitely and originally in God Why doe we not graunt that God by his infinite wisdome can direct all things to his ende as well as euery thing can by their particular wisdom which he hath printed therein prouide for the things which the nature thereof requireth Too bee short seeing that Prouidēce is nothing els but a wise guyding of things to their end and that euery reasonable mynd that woorketh beginneth his worke for some end and that God as I haue said afore the workemaister of all things hath or to say more truely is the souereine mynd equall to his owne power doth it not follow that God in creating the worlde did purpose an end And what other could that end bee than himselfe and his owne glory considering that the end wherevnto a thing tendeth cannot be lesse good than that which tendeth vnto it and againe that as farre as his power extendeth in abilitie to create the world at the beginning so farre doth his wisdome extend in abilitie to guyde aud direct it to that end And seeing that the beginner and the end of things the Archer I meane and the marke that he shootes at are both one that is to wit God himselfe can any thing crosse him or incounter him by the way to hinder his atteyning therevnto Well then thou seest now that thou canst not deny GOD the gouernment of the world vnder pretence that he is vnable But you will say that he will not voutsafe to haue a care thereof How come you I pray you to be so priuie to his will Hath nature taught you Nay thou seest in the Plants a certeine inclination to nourish all their parts in beastes a charishnesse to bring vp their yong in men a desire to prouide for their children and household and in all folkes a regard to the mayntenaunce of the things which they haue either made or manured And him that doth otherwise thou estéemest to bee not a barbarous persone or a wylde beast but a very block or a stone Now then shall not he which hath giuen such inclination to all things yea euen to the very sencelesse creatures by his touching of them shall not he himself I say haue it for them all Darest thou beréeue him of that which thou takest to bee a prayse to thy selfe or darest thou father that vppon him which thou takest to bee an iniurie to thy selfe Nay like as this care is a sparke of goodnes so he that is the goodnes it selfe and the welspring of all that euer is good in all things sheadeth foorth this care into all things by his goodnes He say I which hath voutsafed to create vs will not disdeyne to preserue vs. But forasmuch as it was his will to create vs to some purpose for if nature doe not any thing in vayne how much lesse doth he that created nature he will also guyde vs to that purposed end by his wisdome Let vs sée what things wickednes can alledge against so manifest a doctrine First of all steppes me foorth Epicurus and denyeth that he sees any prouidence at all in the world but thinks to marke many things to the contrarie in the whole world whereby he will néedes gather that there is no prouidence no nor if he durst say it any God at al. For if there were a prouidence saith he why should Mountaynes occupie any part of the Earth why should there bée any wyld beastes why should there be any Sea And of that little dry ground that is why should two parts be vninhabitable the one for ouer great heate and the other for ouer great cold and the third part be in daunger to be vnhabited also were it not that men plucked vp the Bryers and Thornes that woulde ouergrowe it Why falleth the Snowe vpon the Corne and the Frost vpon the Uines Why blowe the winds both on Sea and Land To bee short why happen sicknesses and diseases according to the seasons of the yere and finally death And at a word why is man borne in worse case than the least thing that creepeth on the earth and hath néede of many things which all other wights may well forbeare Nay he should rather haue sayd I sée a thousand mouings in the Heauen whereof euery one hath his peculier end and yet tend all neuerthelesse to one selfsame generall end I see them all caryed by one vniuersall moouing notwithstanding that euery of them inforce themselues to the contrarie by their owne proper courses and that this vniuersal motion is moued by one Moouer which moouer so ouerruling them must néedes be of sufficient power to rule them all considering that euen with one twinckling of an eye hee ruleth euen the same Heauen that caryeth all the rest about It followeth then that there is one principall moouer which gouerneth the Heauen and all the diuersitie conteined therein Agayne I see that the Globe of the Earth and of Sea togither is in respect of the Heauen but a litle point or as Pythagoras said but as one of the least Starres that the Moone
ruleth the Tydes of the Sea and the Sunne the seasons of the Earth and they both are disposed by the course of the heauen Wherevpon I conclude that he which ruleth the Heauen ruleth both the Sunne and the Moone and that hee which ruleth them doth also rule both the Sea and the Earth For how is it possible that he which ruleth the whole should come short in ruling any part of the whole Or howe should the force of hym be impeached by the Earth which gouerneth those by whome the earth hath her force Insomuch that if to my séeming his prouidence appere more lightsomly in the Heauen than in the Earth which yet notwithstanding is not so and I cannot yéelde a reason of all the things which I sée I will consider with my selfe that I haue séene many instruments made by men as I my selfe am whereof I sée plainly the effectes but I conceiue not the causes of them Also that in other some I perceyue well the vse of some partes of them namely of the greatest and notablest parts but as for the smaller parts as the Uices Nailes Pinnes Riuers Buttons and such like I haue thought them to be but bywoorks and yet without them the residue could not hold togither nor performe that which they were made for and although they were taken all a sunder and shewed mée seuerally one by one yet could I hardly conceiue them Yea and moreouer that I my selfe haue made some whereof my Seruants and Children haue not perceiued the reason at all but would haue burned them in the fire as seruing to no vse And therefore I will prayse GOD in the things which I knowe woonder at him in the things which I conceiue not and rather thinke my selfe who am as nothing to want wit and vnderstanding than misdéeme him that is the maker of all things too bée faultie in his prouidence But sith fooles must be answered to their follies least they should thinke themselues wise and that the wisdome of these folke consisteth all togither in putting foorth questions and in answering to nothing let vs examine these goodly demaunds ouer from poynt to poynt If there be a Prouidence say they whereto serue the Mountaines Nay say rather if all were of one sort where were then Prouidence For what els is Prouidence but a disposing of many sundrie things to some one ende And how caÌ„ any such disposing be where there is but one selfsame thing euerywhere throughout Bruite beast that thou art So would an Ant speake of thée It would aske whereto serued the rising of thy nose aboue thy face or of thy browes aboue thyne eyes or of thy ribbes aboue the rest of thy bodie all which are higher aboue thy bodie than the Mountaines are aboue the Plaines of the earth Thou estéemest greatly of the beautie that is in thy face and of the proportion that is in thy bodie insomuch that thou fallest euen in loue with them in another and yet thou wilt finde fault with it in the whole world as a deformitie and want of order But thou Lucrece durst thou I pray thée bee so bolde as to speake so of a Painter Or would it not offend thée if another man should speake so grossely of thy bookes If a man should finde fault with the shadowing of a picture in a table it would be answered that the Shoomaker ought not to presume aboue the Pantople For without the blacke the white could haue no grace neither could the bright bée set out without a dimming nor difference and proportion of parts appeare without a medley of contrary resemblance nor finally the â—unning of the Painter be perceiued without diuersitie of colours Also he that should finde fault with the art of thy booke hauing red but some péeces of it here and there should by and by bee answered by the Lawyer That a man cannot iudge of the Lawe without reading it wholly throughout And if there happen any absurditie by and by there starts me vp a whole world of GraÌ„marians which inforce their wittes to the vttermost to excuse it and to finde some elegancie in thyne vncongruities Alledging that that which is vnseemly in the part beautifieth the whole worke and the shadowe more than the perfect colour and the dimme more than the bright when they be fitly placed All the commendation of these paynted things consisteth in their diuersities Insomuch that if thou see a Playne ouerhanged with a shadie Rocke or a dankish denne at the head of a Riuer springing out of it thou likest the better of the table for it and praysest the Paynter the more for his skill Surely it is not possible that the Playne should please thée more than the Hilles or the Riuer more than the Rockes but that neither without other could please thée at all Now if thou diddest consider the World as the worke of God and the Mountaines and other parts which thou mislikest not in themselues but as they be small péeces of that worke doubtlesse thou wouldest say as much thereof And therefore sith thou canst not at one view behold all the whole world together to iudge of the proportion of the whole masse and of the seuerall parts thereof at one instant learne to commend the cunning of the workmaister in the things which thou thinkest thy selfe to vnderstande rather than to call it into question for the things which thou vnderstandest not But let vs sée further what reason thou hast to complaine Thou wouldest shunne both Rayne Hayle Frost Behold the Mountaynes furnish thée with wood and Timber to house thée to shelter thée and to make thée warme Thou followest the commoditie of Traffick and behold they serue thy turne with Riuers from East West North and South making way from the middest of the Land to the Sea and ioyning the Coastes of Sea and Land together The ambition of thy neighbours is suspected of thée and thyne perchaunce is noysome vnto them the high Mountaines are as bounds to separate Nations asunder and to kéepe them from incroching one vpon another I omit the Wines and fruits which they yéeld foorth the clere waters which they shed out the flockes and heards of Cattel which they feede and the pleasant dwellings which they conuey in them If thou couldest finde as many things in thy bare Playne alone I would giue thée leaue to complayne of the Mountaynes Nay on the contrary parte if thou haddest felt the discommodities of the Playnes of Lybie or but onely of the Playnes of Beawsse or of the Desert of Champayne thou wouldest by and by wish that all were Mountaynes and yet notwithstanding if all were playne or al were hilground thou couldest not tell how to commend or discommend eyther of them both Now then let this stand for an answere to all those Philosophers which take vppon them to controll the parts of a worke which they conceyue not whole For to blame the whole World for the Mountaynes sake or
we say of the Creator What shall we say of him which is not the Soule of the Plant or of the Beast or of Man but the maker of al things yea which made thē of nothing who is not as some Philosophers haue vphild the Soule of the World but rather if he may be so termed the very life and Soule of all life and Soule in the World But as we see dayly if the Counsell of a Realme can not ceasse one wéeke without confusion of the Commonweale nor the Soule of a man or a Beast forbeare woorking bee it neuer so little without the death of the partie nor the life that is in Plants stay without withering of the Plant nor the Sunne goe downe without procuring darknesse or suffer Eclips without some notable chaūge much more reason haue we to beléeue that if the world and al that is therein were not guyded vphild and cared for by the same power wisedome and goodnesse that created it and set in such order as it is it would in one moment fall from order into confusion and from confusion to nothing For to haue no care of it is to mislike of it and to mislike of it is in God to vndoe it forasmuch as Gods willing of it was the very doing of it Now if Gods Prouidence extend it selfe throughout to all things aswell in Heauen as in Earth wee cannot doubt but that it extendeth also vnto man For what thing is there of so greate excellencie either on Earth as mans body or in Heauen as mans Soule And in extending it selfe to man it must needes extend it selfe equally to all men For who is either greate or small poore or riche in respect of him which made both of nothing Or what oddes is there betwixt them sauing that whereas both of them bee but slaues to him that setteth foorth the tragedie he appareleth the one in Cloth of Gold to play the King and the other in a course Pilche to play the Begger making them to chaunge their apparell when he listeth But hehold here commeth almost an vniuersall grudge For if there be say they a Prouidence how commeth it too passe that ill men haue so much prosperitie and good men so much aduersitie that some be so long vnpunished and othersome so long vnrewarded And to be short that one for his wickednes commeth to the Gallowes and another for the same cause obteineth a Diademe or Crowne This question hath combred not onely the most vertuous among the Heathen but also euen the most Religious of all ages But it were best to take héere a little breth and to put it ouer among diuers other things which remayne to bee treated of in the next Chapter following The xij Chapter That all the euill which is doone or seemeth to be doone in the world is subiect to the prouidence of God I Sayd héeretofore concerning GOD that all things teache vs that there is but one and yet notwithstanding that all things togither cannot sufficiently teache vs what hee is Also let vs say concerning Prouidence That in all things wee see a manifest Prouidence but yet to séeke out the cause thereof in euery thing is as much as to sound a bottomlesse pit if it be not much worse séeing that the will of God is the cause of all causes Surely if a man will blame Gods prouidence because it agreeth not with his owne opinion he is a thousandfold too bee more mislyked than hee that should find fault with the maister of an household for the order of his house where hee hath not lodged aboue one night or controll the Lawes Counsell of a straunge countrie wherof he hath had no further experience than by resorting too the Tauernes and common Innes Or than the Babe that should take vpon him to giue sentence of his fathers doings or than the Uarlet that should presume to iudge of the determination of a Court of Parliament vnder pretence that he had hild some mans Male at the Palace gate or I will say more than the brute beast that should vndertake too déeme of the dooings of men For what are wee to be admitted to the Counsell of God which cannot so much as abyde the brightnesse of his face And what vnderstand we further of him than he voutsafeth too reueale vnto vs What Princis Counseler is so wyse that he can giue his Lord good aduice vnlesse his Lorde doe first make him priuie to his purpose as well present as past and to all the other circumstances perteyning thereunto Or what Husbandman comming from a farre will presume to vnderstand better what tilth what séede what compost and what time of rest such or such a péece of ground requireth than he that hath bin acquainted with it all the dayes of his lyfe And how farre greater thing is it to create than to till But forasmuch as God is reason it self and we through his grace haue some sparke thereof let vs sée whether it bee not so euident in all his dooings that in this poynt it inlighteneth euen the darknesse of our reason And if wee perceiue it not so cleerly in all things let vs acknowledge our selues to be but men betwéene whom and God there is no comparison whereas in very déede there were no difference betwixt him and vs if we could throughly conceiue all his deuices Now then whereas it is sayd that if there be a prouidence why haue good men so much euill and euill men so much good afore wée deale with the matter let vs agree vpon the words I aske of thee which men thou callest good and which thou callest euill and likewise what things thou meanest to bee properly good or euill If I should aske thée why healthy men haue so many diseases and diseased men so much health thou mightest with good reason laugh mée to skorue for health maketh healthy and sicknesse maketh sicke But whereas thou askest mée why good men haue so much euill and euill men so much good pardon me though I cause thée to expound thy meaning for naturally I cannot conceiue that either good men haue euill or euill men haue good For if by good men you meane rich men men of honour and men that are healthy and that ye take riches honour and health to bee the good things then is your question absurd For it is al one as if ye should demaund why hearded men haue heare on their chinnes and beardlesse men haue none But if as I heare thée say thou estéemest Solons pouertie to be better than the gold of Crassus and Platoes honestie better than Dennysis tyrannie and the Collick and the Stone of a wiseman with his wisedom to be better than the health and soundnesse of bodie of the foole with his follie then art thou deceyued with the fayre name of Good for it is another thing than these goodes which causeth thée to preferre them and to estéeme them the better Therfore let vs say that the
begotten of Man wherein hee was contrarie too himselfe To bée short scarsly were there any to be found among the men of old time saue onely Democritus and Epicurus that held the contrary way whome the Poete Lucre immitated afterward in his verses Yet notwithstanding when Epicurus should dye hée commaunded an Anniuersarie or Yéermynd to bee kept in remembrance of hym by his Disciples so greatly delighted hée in a vayne shadowe of Immortalite hauing shaken off the very thing it self And Lucrece as it is written of him made his booke béeing mad at such times as the fittes of his madnesse were off him surely more mad when he thought himselfe wysest than when the fits of his phrensie were strongest vppon him Whosoeuer readeth the goodly discourses of Socrates vpon his drinking of poyson as they bee reported by Plato and Xenophon hymselfe can not doubt of his opiniō in this case For he not only beléeued it himself but also perswaded many men to it with liuely reasons yea and by his own death much more then by all his lyfe And so ye see we be come vnto Plato and Aristotle with consent of all the wyse men of olde tyme vngeinsayd of any sauing of a two or thrée malapert wretches whom the vngraciousest of our dayes would esteeme but as dronken sottes and dizards Certesse Plato who might paraduenture haue heard speake of the bookes of Moyses doeth in his Timaeus bring in God giuing commaundement to the vndergoddes whom he created that they should make man both of mortall and of immortall substances Wherein it may be that he alluded to this saying in Genesis Let vs make man after our owne Image and lykenesse In which case the Iewes say that GOD directed his spéeche to his Angels but our Diuines say hee spake to himselfe But anon after both in the same booke and in many other places Plato as it were comming to him himselfe ageine teacheth that GOD created Man by himselfe yea and euen his Lyuer and his Brayne and all his Sences that is to say the Soule of him not onely indewed with reason and vnderstanding but also with sence and abilitie of growing and increasing and also the instruments whereby the same doe woorke Moreouer hee maketh such a manifest difference betwéene the Soule and the body as that hee matcheth them not toogither as matter and forme as Aristottle doth but as a Pilot and a Ship a Commonweale and a Magistrate an Image and him that beareth it vpon him What greater thing can there be than to be like God Now sayth Plato in his Phoedon The Soule of Man is very like the Godhead Immortall Reasonable Vniforme Vndissoluble and euermore of one sorte which are conditions saith he in his matters of State that can not agree but to things most diuine And therefore at his departing out of the world he willed his Soule to returne home too her kinred and to her first originall that is to wit as hée himselfe sayth there to the wyse and immortall Godhead the Fountaine of all goodnes as called home from banishment into her owne natiue countrie He termeth it ordinarily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say of kin vnto God and consequently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Euerlasting and of one selfesame name with the immortall ones a Heauenly Plant and not a Earthly rooted in Heauen and not in Earth begotten from aboue and not héere beneath and finally such as cannot dye heere forasmuch as it liueth still in another place To be short séeing sayeth he that it comprehendeth the things that are Diuine and immortall that is to wit the Godhead and the things that are vnchaungeable and vncorruptible as trueth is it cannot be accounted to be of any other nature than they The same opinion doth Plutarche also attribute vnto him which appeareth almost in euery leafe of his writings As touching the auncienter sort of Platonists they agree all with one accord in the immortalitie of the soule sauing that some of them deriue it from God and some from the Soule of the World some make but the Reason or mynd onely to be immortall and some the whole Soule which disagreement may well be salued if we say that the Soule all whole together is immortall in power or abilitie though the execution and performance of the actions which are to be doone by the body be forgone with the instruments or members of the body The disagréement concerning this poynt among such as a man may voutsafe to call by the name of Philosophers séemeth to haue begonne at Aristotle howbeit that his Disciples count it a commendation to him that he hath giuen occasion to doubt of his opinion in that behalfe For it is certeine that his newfound doctrine of the Eternitie or euerlastingnesse of the World hath distroubled his brayne in many other things as commonly it falleth out that one error bréedeth many other Because nature sayth he could not make euery man particularly to continue for euer by himself therefore she continueth him in the kind by matching Male and Female together This is spoken either grossely or doubtfully But whereas he sayth that if the Mynd haue any inworking of it owne without any helpe of the Sences or of the body it may also continue of it selfe concluding thereuppon that then it may also be separated from the body as an immortal thing from a thing that is transitorie and mortall It followeth consequently also that the Soule may haue continuance of it selfe as whereof he vttereth these words namely That the Soule commeth from without and not of the seede of Man as the body doth and that the Soule is the onely part in vs that is Diuine Now to be Diuine and to be Humane to be of séede and to be from without that is to say from GOD are things flat contratrie whereof the one sort is subiect to corruption and the other not In the tenth booke of his Moralls he acknowledgeth two sorts of lyfe in man the one as in respect that he is composed of Body and Soule the other as in respect of Mynd onely the one occupied in the powres which are called humane and bodily which is also accompanyed with a felicitie in this lyfe and the other occupied iu the vertues of the mynd which is accompanied also with a felictie in another lyfe This which consisteth in contemplation is better than the other and the felicitie thereto belonging is peculiarly described by him in his bookes of Heauen aboue Tyme as which consisteth in the franke and frée working of the Mynd in beholding the souereine God And in good sooth full well doeth Michael of Ephesus vppon this saying of his conclude that the Soule is immortall and so must al his morals also néedes do considering that too liue wel whether it be to a mans selfe or towards other men were els a vaine thing and to no purpose
now euerlasting sayth he and in the best state berest of this earthly baggage which was none of his set free to himselfe For these bones these sinewes this coate of skin this face and these seruiceable hands are but fetters and prisons of the Soule By them the Soule is ouerwhelmed beaten downe and chased away It hath not a greater batterll than with that masse of flesh For feare of being torne in peeces it laboureth to returne from whence it came where it hath readie for it an happie and euerlasting rest And agayn This Soule cannot be made an Outlaw for it is a kin to the Gods equall to the whole world and to all tyme and the thought or conceyt thereof goeth about the whole Heauen extending it self from the beginning of al tyme to the vttermost poynt of that which is to come The wretched coarse being the Iayle setters of the Soule is tossed to and fro Vpon that are tormeÌ„ts murthers and diseases executed As for the Soule it is holy and euerlasting and cannot bee layd hand on When it is out of this body it is at libertie and set free from all bondage and is coÌ„uersant in that beautifull place wheresoeuer it be which receyueth mens Soules into the blessed rest thereof as soone as they bee deliuered from hence To bee short he seemeth to pricke very nere to the rysing againe of the dead For in a certeyne Epistle to Lucilius his words are these Death wherof we be so much afrayd doth not bereue vs of life but only discontinew it for a tyme and a day will come that shall bring vs to light agayne This may suffise to giue vs knowledge of the opinion of that great personage in whom wee see that the more he grewe in age the nerer he came still to the true birth For in his latest bookes he treateth alwaies both more assuredly and more euideÌ„tly therof Also the saying of Phauorinus is notable There is nothing great on earth sayth he but Man and nothing great in Man but his Soule If thou mount vp thether thou mouÌ„test aboue Heauen And if thou stoope downe agayne to the bodie and compare it with the Heauen it is lesse than a Flye or rather a thing of nothing At one word this is as much to say as that in this clod of clay there dwelleth a diuine and vncoruptible nature for how could it els be greater than the whole world As touching the Nations of old tyme we reade of them all that they had certeyne Religions and diuine Seruices so as they beléeued that there is a Hell and certeyne fieldes which they call the Elysian fields as we see in the Poets Pindarus Diphilus Sophocles Euripides others The more supersticious that they were the more sufficiently doe they witnesse vnto vs what was in their Conscience For true Religion and Superstition haue both one ground namely the Soule of man and there could be no Religion at all if the Soule liued not when it is gone hence Wee reade of the Indians that they burned themselues afore they came to extreme oldage terming it the letting of men loose and the fréeing of the Soule from the bodie and the sooner that a man did it the wiser was he estéemed Which custome is obserued still at this day among the people that dwell by the Riuer Niger otherwise called the people of Senega in Affricke who offer themselues willingly to be buryed quicke with their Maisters All the demonstrations of Logicke and Mathematicke sayth Zeno haue not so much force to proue the immortalitie of the soule as this only doing of theirs hath Also great Alexander hauing taken prisoners ten of their Philosophers whom they call Gimnosophists asked of one of them to trye their wisedome whether there were moâ—men aliue or dead The Philosopher answered that there were moe aliue Because sayd he there are none dead Ye may wel think they gaue a drye mocke to all the arguments of Aristotle and Callisthenes which with all their Philosophie had taught their scholer Alexander so euill Of the Thracians we reade that they sorrowed at the birth of men and reioyced at the death of them yea euen of their owne chidren And that was because they thought that which wee call death not to be a death in déede but rather a very happie birth And these be the people whom Herodotus reporteth to haue bene called the Neuerdying Getes and whom the Greekes called the Neuerdying Getes or Thracians Who were of opinion that at their departing out of this world they went to Zamolxis or Gebeleizie that is to say after the interpretation of the Getish or Gotish tongue to him that gaue them health saluation or welfare and gathered them together The like is sayd of the Galles chiefly of the inhabiters about Marsilles and of their Druydes of the Hetruscians and their Bishops and of the Scythians and their Sages of whom all the learning and wisedome was grounded vpon this poynt For looke how men did spread abroad so also did this doctrine which is so déeply printed in man that he cannot but carie it continually with him Which thing is to bee seene yet more in that which wee reade concerning the hearers of Hegesias the Cyrenian who dyed willingly after they had heard him discourse of the state of mens Soules after this life and likewise concerning Cleombrotus the Ambraciote who slewe himselfe when he had read a certeyne treatise of the immortalitie of the Soule For had it not bene a doctrine most euident to mans wit they would neuer haue bin caried so farre by it as to the hurting of their bodies And if among so many people there be perchaunce some fewe wretched caytifes that haue borne themselues on hand the contrarie which thing neuerthelesse they could neuer yet fully perswade themselues to be out of all doubt or question surely wee may beléeue that they had very much adoe and were vtterly besotted like Drunkards afore they could come to that poynt so as wee may well say of them as Hierocle the Pythagorist sayde namely That the wicked would not haue their Soules to bee immortall to the intent they might not be punished for their faults But yet that they preuent the sentence of their Iudge by condemning themselues vnto death afore hand But if they wil neither heare God nor the whole world nor themselues let them at leastwise hearken to the Deuill as well as they doe in other things who as sayth Plutark made this answer to Corax of Naxus and others in these verses It were a great wickednesse for thee to say The Soule to be mortall or for to decay And vnto Polytes he answered thus As long as the Soule to the body is tyde Though loth yet all sorowes it needes must abyde But when fro the body Death doth it remoue To heauen by and by then it styes vp aboue And there euer youthfull in blisse it doth rest
euerywhere The Lord our God is but one God and in the middes of all the rout that barketh and byteth at her on all sides cryeth out coragiously All your Godds are but error and vanitie Therefore without staying vppon the others which are not worthie so much as to be looked on wee will procéede to that onely one Religion which alonly in trueth professeth the true way and the knowledge of the place whereunto wee would come Now to shewe the way the end whereto it leadeth must be knowen and the end which all of vs tend vnto is a happy lyfe And to leade a happy lyfe is to liue in God who is the very happinesse it self And the same God as I haue made the heathen-men themselues to confesse is but one The Religions therefore which were not the liuery of that but of many cannot bring vs too the happynes which we séeke for it is but one and to be had at the hand of that one Which then is the one Religion that shall leade vs to the one God Shall we séeke for it among the Assyrians They worshipped as many Gods as they had Townes Among the Persians They had as many Gods as there be Starres in the Skye and Fyres on Earth Among the Greekes They had as many Gods as they had fancies Among the AEgiptians They had as many Goddes as they sowed or planted Fruites or as the Earth brought foorth fruites of it selfe To be short the Romanes in conquering the worlde got to themselues all the vanities in the Worlde and they wanted no wit to deuyse others of their owne brayne What shall it auayle vs to aske the way of these blynd Soules which go groping by the Walles sydes and haue not so much as a Child or a Dog to leade them as some blynd folk haue but catch hold vnaduisedly of euery thing that comes in their way But yet among these great Nations we spye a little Nation called the people of Israel which worshippeth the maker of al things acknowledging him for their Father calling vpon him alone in all their néedes as for al the small account that others made of them abhorring all the glistering gloriousnes of the greate kingdomes that were out of the way It is in the Religion of this people and not elsewhere that that we shall find our sayd former marke And therefore we must séeke it onely there and leaue the damnable footsteppes of the rest as being assured that wee may more safely followe one man that is cléeresighted than a thousand that are blind For what greater blindnes of mynd can be than to take the Creature for the Creator a thing of nothing for the thing that is infinite Now that the people of Israell worshipped the true GOD in such sort as I haue described him the continuance of their whole Historie sheweth well ynough All men knowe in what reuerence the Byble hath bin had in all times among the Hebrewes And if any man doubt whether it be Gods word or no that is a question to be decyded otherwise But yet for all that it is out of all doubt that the Hebrewes themselues tooke it to be so and that wee cannot better iudge of their Beléef and Religion than by the Scriptures for the which they haue willingly suffered death And what els doe those Scriptures preach from the first word of them to the last than the onely one God the maker of Heauen and of Earth As soone as you doe but open the Byble byandby ye sée there In the beginning God created the Heauen and the Earth At the very first step in at the gate of that booke it excludeth al the Godds made or deuised by man frō that people to the intent to kéepe them wholy to the true God that created man Open the booke furtherfoorth at all aduenture whersoeuer you list and frō lyne to lyne you shall méete with nothing but the prayses of that God or protestations and thunderings against the strange Gods God made man excellent who for his disobedience is become subiect to corruption Who could punish and imprison such a substance but he that made it He founded the world and peopled it which afterward was ouerwhelmed by the flud and who could let the waters loose but he that held them at commaundement The people of Israell found drye passage through the Red Sea and who prepared them that way but hee that founded the Earth vppon the déepes Also the Sunne stoode still and went backe at the speaking of a woorde and of whose word but of his whose woord is a deede I dispute not heere as yet whether these things bee true or no but I say onely that the Hebrewes beléeued them yea and that they beléeued them in all ages and that they worshipped him whom they beléeued to be the doer of those things who certesse cannot be any other than the same of whom the first lyne of the booke sayeth That he made the Heauen and the Earth Aske of Iob who it is whome he worshippeth and hee will not say it is hee whome the inuention of the Craftesman or of the Imbroyderer or of the proyner of Uynes hath deuised nor that is sponne weaued or hamered nor that hath a Tayle cut with a Razor nor an Image turned arsyuersie nor some iuggling tricke to dazle childrens eyes withall for such as we shall see more plainly hereafter are the Goddes of the heathen but he will say it is the same GOD that founded the earth and stretched out his Metlyne ouer it which hath shet vp the Sea within doores and bounded the rage of his waues which made the light and the darknes which holdeth backe the Pleyads and vnbyndeth Orion which hath created the world and giuen vnderstanding to man It is he sayth Dauid which spreadeth out the Heauens as a Curtaine and maketh him Chambers among the the Waters which hath setled the Earth vppon hir Pillers and chaced away the Sea at one only threatning of his which maketh the Windes his messengers and the Elements his seruants It is hee sayeth Esay which is the first and the last His hand hath grounded the Earth and his right hand hath measured the Heauens As soone as hee called them they appéered together before him Heauen is his Seate and the Earth is his Footestoole Yea and besides all this Moyses will tell vs that streine we our selues to say what we can of him we can say no more of him but that it is he whose name is I am that I am euen he that alonly is of whom all things that are haue their being and in comparison of whom al things are nothing whom neither words nor workes can expresse onely in effect and yet infinite therewithall Some man will say it may be that this so greate a God voutsafeth not to stoope downe vnto vs but hath left the charge both of the world and of men to some Seruants of his whom it behoueth vs to
things should haue disswaded him from woorshipping of the God of that people had not the most manifest trueth driuen him to the contrarie As touching the Romaines what tyme they extended their warres into Iewrie we reade that they reuerenced the Temple of Ierusalem insomuch that Augustus ordeined certeyne Sacrifizes to be offered there both yéerely and dayly and that diuers Heathen princes being prouoked by his sending of offerings thither so carefully followed his example in doing the like But seeing the Romaines brought all the Gods of all the Nations whom they had conquered into Rome how happeneth it that only this God could finde no place there Cicero answereth that it beseemed not the Maiestie of the Empire But if I should appose him vpon his conscience did Bacchus Anubis Pryapus and their shamefull night-wakes and misteries celebrated in the darke yéeld renowme to the state of the Empyre Nay if he will say the trueth they knew that the God of Israell and none other was the true God and that for the harbouring of him it behoued them to driue away all the rest but they had so long tyme foaded folke with Idolatrie that they were afrayd as many Princes are at this day least they might be deposed by their Subiects in receyuing their rightfull Lord. Yet notwithstanding will some saye this sillie people of the Iewes were caryed away from their own Countrey into the fower quarters of the world scattered among other people and parted amōg all Nations of the earth at the pleasure of their enemies that had gotten the vpper hand of them Surely Gods wonderful prouidence is to be noted in this case farre more without comparison than if that people had conquered the whole world by force of armes For by the things which the Poets haue written of them wee see in what contempt they were had of all men But yet let vs heare the wonderment that was made thereat not by a common person but by the great Philosopher Seneca Yet notwithstanding saith he the custome of that Nation hath so preuailed that it is the rather receyued of the whole world and they beeing vanquished haue I wote not by what meanes giuen lawes to their Conquerours Who seeth not here a great motion of mynd in this Philosopher And what man hauing common reason is not rauished thereat as well as he Is it possible for Kings to haue subdewed a people whom they could neuer inforce to chaunge their owne lawes The example thereof is Iewrie which hath bin trodden vnder foote by the Assyrians Persians Greekes Romaines and yet for all their chaunging of their Maysters they could neuer bee brought to alter their lawe There may perchaunce some like constancie bee found among other Nations as in respect of their lawes but that a people being conquered caryed away brought into bondage vnaccounted of led in triumph by diuers Empyres as the Iewes were should not only subdue the harts of their Conquerours to their GOD so as the Conquerours could not fasten their lawes vppon the vanquished sort but contrarywise the vanquished sort haue fastened their lawes vpon their vanquishers the Subiects vppon their Prince the Captiues vpon their Mayster and the condemned vpon their Iudge who I pray you would beléeue it vnlesse he sawe it And if a man see it how can he say that any other can possibly doe it but God But if Seneca will voutsafe to heare Seneca quietly it may be that he himselfe shall finde a resolution to his owne wonderment Namely that the Gods as he sayth which were called inuiolable immortall whom the Iewes left to other Nations were dumbe and sencelesse Images disguysed in the shapes of Men Beastes and Fishes and some in vgly and ilfauoured monsters and that the Feends which possessed those Images required woorse things of men for their seruice thā the horriblest Tyrants that euer were as that men should gash themselues mayme and lame themselues geld themselues and offer men women and children in Sacrifize to them But when folke heard speaking of the true God the maker of Heauen and Earth and that he wil be serued with the hearts and mynds of men that word issewing out of the mouth of a poore prisoner caught men prisoners and ouercame their Gods And in very déede as wee shall see hereafter if we reade the good authors of that tyme eyther they speak but of the one God or if they speak of mo Gods it is but for customes sake and in way of condemning them What els then were the manifold fléetings of the Iewes but as many conueyings abroad of companies of Preachers to shewe forth the true God and as many Armies to destroy the Idols and to roote them out Wee reade that the Coniurers which were in old tyme amōg the Gentiles did vse the name of the God of Israell the God of the Hebrewes and the God that drowned the AEgiptians in coniuring such as were possessed of Deuilles and that the Deuilles trembled at that name This serueth not to proue that they worshipped not other Gods but that they knewe those Gods to be of no force Iulian the Apostata did vnderset his shoulder to shore vp the seruice of the false Gods as much as he could But yet durst he not deny but that the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob is a great and mightie God and he sware by all his Gods that he was one of them that were conuerted to his seruice and that hee knewe him to be very gracious to such as serue him as Abraham had done Who now could euer make an Israelite confesse that any other God was good than the same whom he worshipped And if he be the very God how can it be euen by Iulians owne saying that all the residue should not bee euill seeing that this good God condemneth them and declareth them to bee all wicked Spirites and enemies of mankynde But if Iulian himselfe would tell vs what befell him at Antioche when he asked counsell of his Deuilles who made all his Philosophers to quake and all his great Sorcerers to runne away for feare wee should see well enough what stuffe they be insomuch that euen his owne Historiographer Zosimus is ashamed to make report of it Now I would fayne that the Heathen or their Aduocats should but shewe me one of these two things eyther where any Author of the Iewes yéeldeth record to any God of the Heathen or where any graue Heathen author hath condemned the God that is worshipped by the Iewes Forasmuch then as in a Chapter appropried to the same purpose I haue alreadie proued by all the auncient Authors and by consent of all people that there is but only one God and by Varro euen now that the Iewes do worship the same God what followeth therof but that al of them be Iewes in that poynt and that as many as are not so are al ydolaters and deceiued And for that cause when Orpheus
beléeue the things which they themselues did to be wondered at and woorshipped of the common people And thus much concerning their Gods in generall But if wee come to the particulars the matter will bee yet more cléere wherein I will bee as briefe as I can because it is a matter that is treated of expressely by others Among the innumerable rable of Gods they haue twelue of principall renowme whose names are comprehended in these two verses of Ennius Iuno Vesta Minerua Ceres Diana Venus Mars Mercurius Iupiter Neptune Vulcanus Apollo And vnto these some added Bacchus and Saturne this latter because he might seeme to haue wrong if he should not be counted a God as well as his sonne and the other because it might come to passe that being a firie fellowe he would els make some fray seeing that Ceres is a Goddesse To dispatch the chiefe of them quite and cleane of that doubt Euhemere of Messene will alone suffice who gathering the historie of Iupiter and the rest setteth downe their tytles Epitaphs Inscriptions which were in their Temples namely in the Temple of Iupiter Triphillian where was a piller set vp by Iupiter himself whereon the notablest of his doings were ingrauen And this historie being called holy was translated by Ennius the words whereof are these Saturne sayth he tooke Ops to his wife and Tytan being his elder brother claymed the kingdome but Vesta their mother Ceres and Ops their Sisters counseled Saturne to keepe his possession Which thing when Tytan perceyued finding himselfe to bee the weaker he compounded with Saturne vpon conditiō that if Saturne had any Sonnes he should not suffer them to liue that the kingdom might reuert again vnto his Children According to which composition the first child that was borne to Saturne was killed Afterward were borne Iupiter Iuno twinnes both at one birth of whome they shewed but Iuno and deliuered Iupiter to Vesta to be brought vp in secret After them came Neptune who was serued likewise And last of all came Pluto and Glauca of whom only Glauca who dyed within a while was shewed and Pluto was nurced secretly as Iupiter was Now this came to Tytans hearing who assembling his Sonnes to him took Saturne and Ops and put them in prison But assoone as Iupiter came to age he gaue battell to the Tytans and getting the vpper hand of them deliuered his father mother out of prison At length perceyuing that his father whom he had set vp againe was iealous ouer him and sought his life he deposed him from his estate and droue him into Italy In this only one historie we sée what Saturne Iupiter Iuno Vesta Ops Neptune and Ceres were that is to wit men and women yea surely euen men and among men but onely mere men And yet were they the fathers and mothers of the rest of the Gods and reigned in the Iles of the chiefe Midland Sea and in Candy a litle afore the warres of Thebes and of Troy And by that meanes wee see also from whence the Poets haue fetched their fables which are not as some thinke mere fancies or imaginations without ground but disguising of the trueth and of the Historie True in that they report déedes rightly beseeming men vntrue in that they attribute them as to Gods and not as to men Saturne is taken for the father of them al. And looke what is found of the father is to bee verified of his ofspring The Historiographers therefore haue sayd that his wife did hide his children from him and the Poets haue sayd that hee did eate them vp because a Soothsayer had told him that one of them should depose him To auoyde the absurditie of the word Krouos which is Saturne the Stoikes haue turned it to Chronos that is to say tyme which deuoureth all things But how will they applye all the rest of the Allegorie vnto the Historie Who shall bee the daies lost and who the daies saued What shall Ops be and Iupiter and Pluto who shall be this sonne of tyme that perisheth not with the tyme nor afore it But Hermes whatsoeuer he be who knewe this pedegree well enough holdeth himselfe to the letter accounting Vranus Saturne and Mercurie among the rare men that were in tyme past And Ennius sayth that this Varnus was the father of Saturne and reigned afore him Now because Vranus in Greeke signifieth Heauen the Stoikes more fabulous as sayth Plutarke than the Poets haue called his sonne Time and his graundsonne Iupiter the Welkin or highest region of the ayre whom Euhemere reporteth to haue ordeyned Sacrifices vnto Vranus And Ennius his translator reporteth that he ordeyned them vnto his Graundfather Heauen who dyed in the Ocean and lyes buryed in Aulatie To be short of all these writers of antiquities such as Theodore the Gréeke Thallus Cassius Seuerus Cornelius Nepos and others were none describeth him otherwise than a man insomuch that euen Orpheus himselfe who canonized him for a God speaketh of him after the same maner What reade we of Iupiter Iupiter sayth the Historie deposed his owne father held his assemblies in Mount Olympus stole away Europa in a ship named the Bull and caryed away Ganymed in another ship called the Eagle but he forbare Thetis because an Achilles which should be a man of greater might than his father was to be borne of her Finally after he had made certeyne Lawes and parted the offices of his estate among his friends he dyed and was buryed in the Towne of Gnosus What a life is this but the life of a man yea and of a most wicked man vnworthie not to reigne in heauen but euen to goe vpon the earth Neuerthelesse because his successors inforced men to worship him as well as his Graundfather yea and he himselfe in his life tyme had caused his Subiects Uassalles and Confederates to dedicate Temples vnto him by reason whereof wee see he was called by the names of Labradie Ataburie Tryphill and diuers other all things were fayne to be applied and referred vnto him insomuch that of a man the Poets made him a God of the Mountayne Olympus they made Heauen of a Shippe and Eagle and of Thetis a Goddesse Yet for all this his buryall place putteth al out of doubt and so doth the Epitaph that Pythagoras wrate thereon For to haue a Temple in one place and a Tombe in another and to be worshipped with prayer in the one and to be eaten with wormes in the other are things farre differing Callimachus will needes taunt the Cretanes for shewing his Tombe with this inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Iupiter the sonne of Saturne and yet hee considereth not that in saying that Rhea was deliuered of him among the Parrhasians he himselfe maketh him to dye For what is birth but a beginning of death And therefore Sibill speaketh of the Gods in these words The fond vaynglory which the Cretanes vse About
of God vpon mankynd Let vs see how the auncient writers do further these reasons The common opinion is say Abydenus and Alexander that men being bred of the earth and trusting in their own strength would needes in despight of the Gods goe reare a Tower vp to the Sunne in the same place where Babylon now is and that when they had raised it very high the Gods ouerthrewe it and cast it downe vpon their heads with a great wind and that at that tyme began the diuersitie of Languages wherevpon the Hebrewes called that place Babel Of these things speaketh Sibill also in her verses in the selfesame termes And Hestiaeus and Eupolemus doe ad that the Priests which scaped from thence gate themselues with the misteries of their Iupiter the same was eyther Nembrod or Iupiter Bele into the Plaine of Sennaar from the which place men departing by reason of the confusion of tongues began to seuer themselues abroade to people the rest of the world Here it pleaseth Iulian to fall to scoffing For sayth hee a great sort of such globes as the whole earth is being heaped one vpon an other were not able to reach halfe way to the Sphere of the Moone But the reason of this enterprise of theirs is euident namely that their intent was to haue had a refuge ageinst the height of the waters if any flud should come ageine that is to say to make a banke ageinst Gods wrath which it had bene better for them to haue pacified by prayer And this pryde of theirs is not to be thought so straunge a matter considering how wee reade in the Histories of the Greekes that one Xerxes sent letters of defyance to the Sea and in the Histories of the Romaines that one Caligula vndertooke a quarrell against Iupiter And Iulian himselfe was not a whit wiser when he would néedes take vpon him to impeach the kingdom of God by prohibiting the Christians to reade Poets And whereas Celsus will néedes beare himselfe on hand that the sayd Historie was taken out of the fable of the Aloides all men know that Homer was the first Author of that fable who came a long tyme after Moyses And in good sooth these particularities of the confounding of Tongues of the dispersing of men abroade of the place where it befell of the naming of Phaleg who was borne at the very tyme of the diuision and such other circumstances doe euidently shewe that Moyses speaketh not at rouers whereof there is also this further profe that the Originals of Nations according to the diuiding of households at that tyme are not read of in any other Author As vayne also is this saying of theirs that the burning vp of Sodom is taken from the tale of Phaeton which is in déede as farre from it as Heauen is from the earth For euen at this day there are yet still to bee séene the remaynders of Gods wrath noted by Strabo Galen Mela and others namely the bitter Lake wherein nothing can liue the banks thereof lyued with Bitumen the Stones stiuking and filthie the trées bearing fruites fayre to the eye but falling to Cinder and smoke in the hand which things we reade not of to haue bin séene any where els and yet in a valley most beautifull to behold where stoode at that tyme fiue Cities or according to Strabo thirteene which were all consumed with fire for sinne ageinst nature And Iosephus sayeth that the Image or piller of salt whereinto Loths wyfe was turned was to be séene there euen in his dayes These are the greatest woonders of the booke of Genesis The residew thereof consisteth in the historie of Abraham and of his Children As for the Princes of those dayes we haue nother Pedegrée nor historie of them among the Heathen wryters and therefore it is the more to be woondered at that they haue spoken of our Shepherds For Berosus sayeth that about a ten generations or descents from the vniuersall Flud there was amōg the Chaldees a great man that excelled in Astronomie And that by him Berosus ment to betoken Abraham Eupolemon declareth for he sayth that in the sayd tenth generation Abraham was brone in Camerine a Towne of Babylonie otherwise called Vr or Caldeople who inuēted Astronomie among the Chaldees and was in the fauour of God by whose commaundement hee remoued into Phenice where hee taught the course of the Moone of the Sunne and of the Planets whereby hee greatly pleased the King notwithstanding that he saith hee had receiued it from hand to hand from Enoch whome the Greekes sayeth hee called Atlas vnto whome the Angelles had taught many thinges Also he rehearseth the Battell that was made by Abraham for the recouery of Loth the interteinment of Melchisedek the ouerthwarts that Abraham indured for Sara his wife in AEgipt and the Plague thot God did cast vpon Pharao to make him to deliuer her to Abraham agein And Artabanus in his storie of the Iewes reporteth almost the selfesame things adding that of Abraham the Iewes were called Hebrewes wherin the néerenesse of the names deceiued him Melon in his bookes ageinst the Iewes wrate that Abraham had two wiues and that by the one of them which was an AEgiptian he had twelue children among whom Araby was parted which euen in his tyme had twelue Kings still Those were the twelue Sonnes of Ismaell the Sonne of Abraham by Agar the AEgiptian which are set downe by name in Genesis And that by the other which was a woman of the Countrie of Syria he had but onely one Sonne named Isaac who lykewise had twelue Sonnes of whom the yongest was called Ioseph of whom Moyses sayth he descended Also Alexander setteth foorth Abrahams sacrifice at length and the children that he had by Chetura And in his historie he alledgeth one Cleodemus a Prophet otherwise called Malchas whom he affirmeth to agrée with Moyses in the Historie of the Iewes Ageine Hecataeus the Abderite hauing bene in Iewry did purposely make a booke of Abrahams lyfe which thing he had not of his owne maister King Alexander To bee short that which Orpheus sayeth of a certeine Chaldee vnto whom onely God manifested himselfe seemeth to be spoken of Abraham For he had bin conuersant in AEgipt where the renowme of Abraham was so greate that euen in their Coniurings they made expresse mention of the God whom Abraham had worshipped The same Alexander writeth the fleeing of Iacob for feare of his brother Esawe his abode in Mesopotamia His seuen yeeres seruice his marying with two Sisters the nomber of his Children the rauishing of Dina the slaughter of Sichem and likewise the selling of Ioseph his imprisonment his deliuerance for expounding of Dreames His authoritie in AEgipt His marying with Askeneth the daughter of Pethefer the Highpriest His two Sonnes by name which were borne of her the comming of his brothers into AEgipt the Feast that he made them the fiue partes which he gaue
it Let vs come downe againe too doo the like heere belowe Wée shall see the Earth replenished with Herbes Trees and Fruites both Sea and Land furnished with Beastes Fisshes Woormes and Birds of al sorts euery of them so perfect in his kind as mans vnderstanding cannot spye any want or superstuitie in thē Whence is all this Is it of the Elements Nay how shall the thing which hath neither life nor sence giue life and sence too other things Or commeth it of the Sunne Nay when did wée euer see him bring foorth any such like thing Whence then is this varietie but of a mast fruitfull vncōsumable might Whence commeth this perfection but of a singular wisedome Of Plants some are hot and some cold some swéete and some bitter some nourishing and some healing And of the most daungerous the remedie is found either in themselues or in the next vnto them Also as touching Beastes the wildest and such as liue by pray kéepe by themselues alone because the flocking of them together would bee noysome But the tame such as are most for our profite doo naturally liue in flockes and heardes because the great numbers of them are for our commoditie Is this also a worke of fortune Nay I say further The Sunne heateth the Earth the Starres doo limit her seazons the Ayre moysteneth her drought the Earth serueth the Grasse the Grasse serueth the Beasts and the Beasts serue Man Each thing serueth other and all serue one alone Whence may this bonde come If things bée euerlastingly and of themselues how haue they thus put themselues in subiection By what meanes or when began they first too do so Also how can one of them be for another seeing that the ende wherefore things are is euer afore the things themselues either in nature or els in consideration and that the eternitie hath not any thing either afore or after it So that if they haue had their beginning of themselues did they bring foorth them selues in seed in flower or in kernell in Egge or in full life small or great and so foorth Againe seeing that the one cannot bée without the other neither Beastes without Grasse nor Grasse without the Earth nor the Earth bring foorth any thing without the Heauen which of them came afore and which of them came after Or if they were all bred together whence commeth this agréement among so many diuers things but of the same mynd which made and still gouerneth all things Seeing then that these things are so linked together and that they tend all to one let vs conclude also that that cannot come to passe but through one who brought them foorth altogether at one instaunt and one burthen when hee thought good But now let vs see whence commeth this other one wherunto they tend that is to wit Man and whether he also bée not for and by that one which hath made them that is to wit for and by God He that seeth but onely the portrayture of a man falleth by and by to thinke vpon a Paynter and the first speech that he vttereth is to aske who made it Now if a dead worke doe make vs to conceiue a liuing worker much more reason is it that a liuing worke as man is should make vs to bethinke vs of a quickening workemaister yea euen of such a one as may bée at least wise as farre aboue man as man is aboue the portrayture of his owne making forsomuch as there is an infinite distaunce betwixt being and not being liuing and not liuing and the same againe is God The proportion in mans bodie which is so well obserued that all our Artes doe borrow from thence doth witnesse vnto vs a singuler Cunning and the parts also in that they all serue each others vse and euery of them serue the whole betoken a great wisedome Now where Cunning and wisedome bee there chaunce hath no place For when a man loseth an eye an arme or a legge wée following the common error do commonly say it is a mischaunce But when a member that was out of ioynt is set in againe or a member that was lost is supplyed though it be but with a botched one none of vs will say it was chaunce because that in the iudgement euen of the grossest sort the propertie of chaunce is to vndo and to marre things and not to make or mend any thing at all Againe by our Sences which conceiue al Colours Sounds Sents Sauors and Féelings wée may see heare smell tast and feele that one selfsame workman made both the Sences and the things that are subiect to the Sences For to what purpose were the Sences without the sensible things or the sensible things without the Sences And seeing that they relye one vpon another which of them was bred first in the world If man made them for his Sences why maketh he not the like still If he made himselfe to bée borne for them why suffereth he himselfe to bée bereft of his Sences one after another Then is it to be sought for elswhere then in man But when in the same man we yet further consider Spéech must wee not needes say that he was made to communicate himselfe to many And how are they borne one for another Againe when wee come to his Mynd which in discoursing reacheth farre beyond all sensible things shall wee not say that there are things merely to bee comprehended by vnderstanding for the which the Mynd was made And on the other side if wee finde a Mynde in our selues which are but a little grayne of the whole world dare wee say that there is no Mynd elswhere then in our selues Moreouer seeing that by this Mynd of ours wee vnderstand all other things which Mynd yet for all that vnderstandeth not ne knoweth not it selfe neither perceiue wee what or whence this Mynde is which so vnderstandeth in vs ought wee not to acknowledge that there is a Mynd aboue vs whereby wee haue vnderstanding of other things and which vnderstandeth knoweth in vs the things which wee our selues knowe not there Now then seeing we vnderstand not ne knowe not our selues my meaning is that we bee ignorant what we bee and what it is from whence our noblest actions procéede can we bee the authors of our selues And from whence then ought wée too acknowledge our selues too haue our originall O man it may bee that thou lookest but too thy father But from father too father we shall come at length too a beginning And soothly thou art very dulheaded too thinke thy selfe too bee the author of a man considering that neither thou in begetting him nor his Mother in bréeding him did once thinke vppon the fashioning of him in hir wombe No more say I than the Nuttree doth when a Nutte falleth from it to the ground which neuerthelesse without the Nuttrées thinking thereof groweth into Roote Sprig Barke and boughes and in the end shootefoorth intoo Leaues Flowers and fruite
difference which he maketh The Nature of the Gods sayth he is neither mightie nor excellent for it is subiect to the selfesame beit Nature or Necessitie which ruleth the Heauen the Earth and the Sea But there is not any thing so excellent as God who ruleth the World and is not subiect to Nature but commaundeth Nature it selfe And he is full of the like sentences As for Plutarke he suffereth himselfe to raunge oueroften into fables but yet in good earnest he speaketh thus Let vs not woorship the Elements the Heauen the Sunne the Moone and so foorth for they be but Lookingglasses for vs wherein to consider the cunning of him that ordeyned all things and all the World is but his Temple Againe Wherefore doth Plato call God the Father and Maker of all He calleth him the Father of the begotten Gods and of men like as Homere also doth but he calleth him the Creator of the things that haue no life nor Reason And therefore sayth he in another place he made the World as a Common house both to Men Gods Yea sayth he further Although there were many moe such Worldes as this is yet notwithstanding the one onely God should gouerne them all Now this true God whom he calleth the great God the great Workemayster the Sea of Beautie the Ground of all good things and the true Béeing of whom alone it can be said Thou art and not thou hast bin or shalt be is he whom he meaneth by the name of Iupiter saying That of the Gods one is called Liberall another Gentle and a third the Dryuer away of euill but the great Iupiter is in Heauen who hath care vniuersally of all things Thus ye see then how all the Philosophers of all tymes of all Sects and of all Nations haue agréed in one God which is the thing that the learned Varro noted very well namely that although the Teachers of the Heathen named many Gods and Goddesses yet notwithstanding they comprehended them all vnder one which was Iupiter of whom the residue were but powers and functions And this Iupiter is he whom such folk worshipped vnder another name as worshipped the only one God without Images and he sayth that so God ought to bee worshipped And to that purpose alledgeth he these verses of the right learned Poet Valerius Soranus The loue almightie is the King of Kings and God of Gods One God and all the Father both and Moother of the Gods But now it is tyme to come to the auncient Poets which were also Philosophers and who by their feynings opened the gap to the pluralitie of Gods Among these the first that wee méete with is Orpheus whom Iustine calleth the first Author of them the first giuer of names vnto them and the first blazer of their Pedegrées But yet there is a Recantation of his in his Hymne vnto Musaeus which is called his Testament that is to say his last doctrine whereunto he would haue men to sticke Lift vp thyne eyes sayth he to only maker of the World He is but one bred of himselfe and of that one are all things He is all in all he seeth all and is seene of none He onely giueth both welfare and wofull teares and warre He sitteth in Heauen gouerning all things with his feete he toucheth the Earth and with his right haÌ„d the vtmost shores of the Sea He maketh the Mountaynes Riuers and deepe Sea to quake and so foorth And in another place he calleth him the Firstborne the Great the Apparant who hath created an incorruptible house for them that are immortall Also vnder the name of Zeus or Iupiter he sayth of him as followeth Looke vp to that same only King which did the world create Who being only one selfbred all other things begate And being with them all vnseene of any mortall wight Beholdeth all things giuing Man now wealth and harts delight Now wofull warre For sure there is none other King but hee I see him not because the Clowdes a couert to him bee And in the eye of mortall man there is but mortall sight Too weake too see the lightfull Ioue that ruleth all with right For sitting in the brazen Heauen aloft in Throne of gold He makes the earth his footstoole and with either hand doth hold The vtmost of the Ocean waues and at his presens quake Both Mountaynes huge hideous Seas and eke the Siygian Lake And anon after againe The endlesse Skye and stately Heauens and all things els besyde Did once within the Thundring Ioue close hoorded vp abyde The blessed Gods and Goddesses whose beeing is for ay And all things past or yet to come within Ioues bowâ—lles lay From Ioues wyde womb did all things come Ioue is both first last Beginning Middes and End is Ioue From Ioue are all things past Ioue layd foundation of the Earth and of the starry Sky Ioue reigneth King The selfesame Ioue of all things farre and ny The Father and the Author is One power one God is hee Alonly Great one Lord of all This royall Masse which wee Behold and all the things that are conteyned in the same As Fyre and Water Earth and Ayre and Titans golden flame That shines by Day and droopy Night and euery other thing Are placed in the goodly House of Ioue the heauenly King Phocilides followeth him in these wordes There is but onely one God mightie wise and happie And againe Honor the onely God Also All of them are mortall men God reigneth ouer their soules And Theognis who is of the same tyme speaketh not any otherwise Homere whom Pythagoras reporteth to be punished in Hell for making Fables of the Gods cannot make a notabler difference betwéene the true GOD and al the rest of the Gods whome men worshipped in this time than when hee saith That if they were all hanged at a Cheyne beneath he would pull them vp spight of their téeth and also that he maketh them all too quake vnder him and that whensoeuer there is any greater déede talked of he speaketh alwaies but of one God in the singular nomber Also Hesiodus who described the pedegrees of the Gods sheweth his heléef sufficiently in this onely one verse written to his brother Both Goddes and Mortall Men from one selfe race descend That is to say All the Goddes are created by the onely one God Likewise Sophocles saith thus Certesse of Goddes there is no mo but one Who made the Heauens and eeke the earth so round The dreadfull Sea which cleaps the same about And blustring Winds which rayze the Waues aloft But we fond men through folly gone astray Euen to the hurt and damning of our soules Haue set vp Idols made of Wood and Stone Thinking lyke fooles by meanes of honoring them Toâ— giue full well too God his honor due Euripides goeth yet further saying Thou Neptune and thou Iupiter and all You other Goddes so wicked are you
Suydas he addeth this praier I adiure thee ô Heauen the wise woorke of the great God I adiure thee ô voyce which God vttered first when he founded the world I adiure thee by the onely begotten Speeche and by the Father who conteyneth all things c. There is no man but he would woonder to sée in this author the very woords of S. Iohn and yet notwithstanding his bookes were translated by the Platonists long tyme afore the coÌ„ming of our Lord Iesus Christ. And it is no maruayle though we find sayings of his in diuers places which are not written in his Poemander considering that hee wrote sixe and thirtie thousand fiue hundred and fiue and twentie Uolumes that is to say Rolles of Paper as Iamblichus reporteth And it is said that this Trismegistus otherwise called Theut is the same that taught the AEgiptians to reade and which inuented them Geometrie and Astronomie which deuided AEgipt into partes which left his forewarning against ouerflowings written in two Pillers which Proclus reporteth to haue beene standing still in his tyme and to be short which had bene reputed and honored as a God among them And it may be that the treble outcry which the AEgiptians made in calling vppon the first Beginner whome they tearmed the darkenesse beyond all knowledge like too the Ensoph of the Hebrewes and the Night of the Orpheus was still remayning vnto them of his diuinitie Thus haue you séene how Zoroastres and Mercurie haue aunswered vnto vs the one for the Persians and Chaldeans and the other for the AEgiptians For in matters of Wisdome the wise ought to be beléeued for the whole Nation Now let vs come to the Greekes Orpheus which is the auncientest of them all as soone as he beginneth to speake of these misteries doth first and formost shut all Heathenish folke out of the doores and then sayth thus Let thine eye be vpon the word of God and start not away from it for that is it that made the world and is immortall and according to the old saying is perfect of it selfe and the perfecter of all things and it cannot be seene but with the mynd And afterward I adiure thee Ô Heauen sayth he the wyse woorke of the great God I adiure thee thou voyce of the father which he spake first and so forth For this as appeareth afore was a praier which he had learned of Mercurie from whom also procéeded the common misterie of the Poets That Pallas was bred of Iupiters brayne The same man sayth that the first Moother of things was wisdome and afterward delightfull loue And in his Argonawte hee calleth this loue most auncient most perfect in it selfe and the bringer foorth and disposer of all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherevpon Pherecydes also sayth That God intending too make the worlde chaunged himselfe into loue And Iamblichus sayth that Pythagoras had the Philosophie of Orpheus alwayes before his eyes and therefore it is not for vs to woonder though he attributed the creation of al things to Wisdome as Proclus reporteth commended three Gods togither in one as Plato doth Howsoeuer the case stand Aristotle sayeth that they fathered all their perfection vpon thrée And Parmenides did set downe Loue as a first beginner insomuch that in disputing in Plato he leaueth vs there an euident marke of the thrée Inbeeings or Persones as Plotine noteth but we shall see it layd foorth more playnly hereafter by Numenius the Pythagorist Zeno the father of the Stolks acknowledged the word to be God and also the Spirit of Iupiter And Alcinous reporteth that Socrates and Plato taught that God is a mynde and that in the sauie there is a certaine 〈◊〉 which Inshape as in respect of God is the knowledge which God hath of himselfe and in respect of the worlde is the Patterne or Mauld thereof and in respect of it selfe is very essence This in fewe words centeyneth much matter that is to wit the one essence which God begetteth by the conâ—idering or knowing of himselfe according to the patterne whereof he hath buylded the world But yet Plato himselfe speaketh more playnly in his Epinomis Euery Starre sayth he keepeth his course according to the order which ho logos the Word hath set which word he calleth Most diuine In his booke of Commonweale hee calleth him the begotten Sonne of the Good most lyke vnto him 〈◊〉 all things the Good sayth he being as the 〈◊〉 that shineth in the skye and the begotten Sonne beeing as the power of the Sunne whereby we see that is to say as the light Also in his Epistle to Hermius Erastus and Coriscus hee chargeth them with an othe to reade it often and at the least two of them togither saying Call vppon God the Prince of al things that are and shal be and the Lord the Father of that Prince and of that Cause of whome if wee seeke the knowledge aright we haue as much sâ—ill as can bee giuen to blessed men Then is there a Lorde and Cause of all things and moreouer a father of the same Lorde But anto King Dennis who had asked of him the nature of God he setteth down al the thrée parsons The nature of the first saith he is to be spoken of in Riddlewise to the intent that if any mischaunce befall the Letter by Sea or by Land the reading thereof may be as good as no reading at all Thus then stands the case All things are at commaundement of the King of the whole world and all things are for his sake and he is the cause of the beautie that is in them And about the second are the secoÌ„d things and about the third are the third and so foorth Now these as he himselfe sayth are Riddies to Dennis the Tyrant vnto whome he wrote and my eâ—pounding of them of the three Iâ—béeings or Persones in the Godhead is by the consent of all the Platonists who haue made long Commentaries vppon those woords agréeing all in this poynt that by these three Kings hee meaneth the Good the vnderstanding and the Soule of the World And Origene against Celsus alledgeth certayne other places of Plato to the same purpose the which I leaue for auoyding of tediousnes But this doctrine which beeing reuealed from aboue came from hand to hand vnto Aristotle who liued about thrée hundred yeres afore the comming of Christ séemeth to haue decayed in him who intending to ouerthrowe al the Philosophers that went afore him corrupted their doctrine diuers wayes And therewithall he gaue him self more to the seeking and searching of Naturall things than to the mynding of the Author of them Yet notwithstanding he fathereth the cause of all things vppon a certayne Understanding which he calleth Noun that is to say Mynde acknowledging the same to bee infinite in God and also vppon a Frée
or Candy and Saturne his Father which were worshipped among the Greekes after the example of the other Iupiter and Saturne which were of farre more antiquitie they were but a little whyle afore the warres of Troy and long after the tyme of Moyses What maner of antiquitie then is that which passeth not the space of three thousand yeeres And should the Greekes haue come by the knowledge thereof if it had not bin written by others than themselues But this poynt shall be handled more at large in another place What shall we say of Trafficke betwéene Nations and of bargayning betwéene man and man seeing that from Coyne of gold wee must come to Coyne of siluer from Coyne of siluer to Coyne of brasse and from Coyne of brasse to Coyne of yron yea euen among the Romanes themselues And againe from Money stamped and coyned to Money by weight and measure without stamp from weight to exchaunge of wares and of one thing for another and from exchaunge to that blessed comonnesse of al things which was in the first ages of the world Nay the greater halfe of the world continueth still the sayd exchaunge euen vnto this day and some Nations had neuer had any skill thereof as yet if the Nauigations of our tyme had not taught it them And as for Nauigation it selfe which is as the sinewes of Trafficke and Merchaundise if we beléeue Plinie the first Shippe that euer was set a flote was vppon the red Sea and the first Shippe that euer came into Greece came from the Coast of AEgipt And if we credit Strabo the Tyrians were the first that excelled in Nauigation insomuch that some men make them the first authors thereof For as touching the Nauigations of Vlysses they passed not out of the Midland Sea And what els was it if it were a true Storie but a floting of a Uessell at the pleasure of the winde without kéeping of any certeyne course or direction For it is certeyne that the voyage which he had to make is ordinarily done nowadayes in lesse than sixe or seuen daies And doth all this leade vs any further than to that little Countrey which on the one side is bounded with AEgipt and on the other side with the redd Sea And doe not the Stories of that Countrie direct vs to the Arke of Noe For what els was that Arke but a Shippe as the true Berosiâ—s doth in déede call it And wheras Moyses telleth vs that anon after the Flud such and such of Noes ofspring inhabited the Iles is it not asmuch to say as that the example of the Arke had imboldened them to venture vpon the Sea But forasmuch as Trafficke seemeth to serue for liuing wealthily and simple liuing went afore liuing wealthily I pray you how long is it agoe may we thinke since men liued by Acornes From the delicates of Apitius wee come to honest howshold fare and from such howshold fare to poore labouringmans fare that is to say from deyntinesse to thriftinesse so foorth from thriftinesse to brutishnesse at such tyme as men wayted for the falling of Acornes and Mast from the Trees like Swine To bee short from Cities and Townes we come to houses dispersed from houses to Sheds from Sheds to Tents and from Tents to the life of the people called the Nomads or Grazyers I meane not here the Americanes nor yet the barbarous people of old tyme but euen the very Greekes and Romanes themselues Wee knowe the first finding out of Corne of Meale and of Ploughes If it were Triptolemus who taught it to the Greekes he was the sonne of Ceres Or if it were Ceres it was the Goddesse of AEgipt the wife of Osyris And what was this Osyris to speake of his most antiquitie but Misraim the graundchild of Noe Plinie sayth that afore the Persian warres there was no common Baker in Rome The first Cherries that came in Rome were brought thither by Lucullus When the Galles came into Italy there were no Uynes in all Gallia insomuch that the worde which signifieth Wine aswell in Greeke as in Latin is straunge to them both and is borowed of the Hebrewe woord Iaijn The Earth hath bin manured by little and little euen yet it is scarsly halfe inhabited And at one word our deifying of the first founders of Corne of Wine of Tillage of Fewel and of Baking as of personages of great account aboue vs all doth well conuince vs of our former rudenesse And yet wée mocke at the sillie barbarous people of the Newfound Lands for terming vs folke falne from Heauen when they see our great Shippes whereas notwithstanding it is not yet ful two thousand yeares agoe since we were worse than they But wée should not haue knowne those things will some man say vnlesse they had bin put in writing and therefore Histories are of more antiquitie than all the things that we haue spoken of Bée it so But yet let vs repayre from the Histories of the Romanes to the yéerely Registers of their Hyghpriests and we shall finde that the Romane Writers are of much later tyme than the Greekes and the Greekes of much later tyme than the Babylonians For their greatest antiquitie is but from the reigne of the Persians And Phericydes the Assyrian whom they report to haue bin the first that wrate in prose was welnere eight hundred yéeres after Moyses The Romane Historie florished not vntill such tyme as their Commonweale began to droope and the beginning thereof is nothing thing els but a Musterbooke of names and a recouÌ„ting of Shéelds falne from Heauen and of Launces trimmed with flowers The Greeke Histories began at the Empyre of the Persians And Plutarke who was a diligent searcher thereof sayth expressely that beyond Thebes the Countrie was nothing but Sand and a wast Wildernesse vnapprochable a frozen Seacoast or scorched Countries such as men paynt in the vttermost parts of Mappes that is to say eyther vayne fables or darke ignorance And yet for all this what els is the life of Theseus than a heape of fond fables or what euidentnesse or certeyntie is there in the Greeke Histories afore the fowerscorthe Olympiade that is to say afore the reigne of Darius seeing there was not yet any skill vsed in marking out the tyme eyther of the warres of the Medes or of the warres of Peloponnesus Varro the best learned of the Latins intending to make an Historie of the Worlde could well skill to diuide it into three parts The first concerning that age which was from the beginning of the world vnto the Flud the second from the Flud vnto the first Olimpiad which falleth out about the tyme of the building of Rome and the third from the first Olimpiad vnto his owne tyme. But as he calleth this later age Historicall so calleth he the second age fabulous because he found not any certeyntie thereof neither in the Originall Registers and Recordes of
he did at home in his house in the Countrie after he had giuen ouer the affayres of the Commonweale and the warreâ— and he would haue answered thée that he was neuer lesse ydle than when he was ydle nor lesse alone than when he was alone And yet thou thinkest that it stoode God greatly on haÌ„d to make this goodly place of that world for thée and to harber such blasphemers as thou art therein as if he could not haue forborne thée or liued without thy companie God did the same thing without the world which he doth still with the world that is to wit he is happie in himselfe The world hath nothing at all augmented his felicitie or happinesse But to the intent as yâ— would say to shed foorth his happinesse out of himselfe it liked him to create the world Yea but why did he it no sooner What a number of faults are heere in one spéech Thou wilt néedes be priuie to the cause of Gods will in al things and yet is Gods will the cause of the causes of all things By eternitie thou haddest not bin able to haue knowne his power for the Maiestie therof would haue made the darke and it is so bright that thou couldest haue séene lesse than thou couldest see now if thou wert lodged in the body of the Sunne Now he maketh thee to perceyue his power by the creation of the world his eternitie by comparison of tyme his glorious brightnesse by the shadowe thereof By eternitie thou couldest not haue knowne his wisedome for thou wouldest haue déemed all things as wise as he seeing they had bin as euerlasting as he And what wisedome had remayned in him if all things had bin of necessitie and nothing at his owne choyce and libertie But now thou seest his wisedome in the Stones in the Herbs in the dumb creatures yea and euen in the workmanship of thy selfe Thou seest it in the order in the succession and in the bréeding of all things Thou gasest at it in the greatest things and thou wonderest at it in the smallest as much in the Flye and the Ant as in the whole Cope of heauen wheras the eternitie of things would haue caused thée to haue attributed Godhead to the Skyes the Starres the Earth the Rockes the Mountaynes and in effect to all things rather than thy selfe as they did which were taught so to do Also by this eternitie thou couldest not haue conceyued his goodnesse because thou wouldest haue thought that GOD had had as much néede of the World as the World had of him Thou shouldest not haue knowen thy selfe to bee any more beholden to him than to the fire for heating thée or to the Sunne for giuing thée light because they should no more bee eyther fire or Sunne if they forwent that nature But he sheweth thée by the creation both that he himselfe is euer and that thou hast had thy being since the tyme that it pleased him to create thée that he without thée is eternall and that thou without his goodnesse haddest neuer bin that little which thou art and to bee short that he is not tyed to any néede or necessitie as Aristotles God is which could not refuse to driue that Mill but was tyed to it whether he would or no but that his doing of things is altogether of his owne infinite goodnesse wherethrough he voutsafeth to impart himselfe vnto others by making the thing to bée which was not yea and by making the thing happie which of it selfe could not so much as be Now had man any will or skill to acknowledge the power wisedome and goodnesseÌ„ of his God I thinke not Then was it for thy benefite and not for his owne that he made not the World eyther of greater antiquitie or eternall For had he made it eternall let vs so speake seeing ye will haue it so thou wouldest haue made a God of it and thou canst not euen now forbeare the doing thereof And had he made it of more antiquitie thou wouldest haue made it an occasion to forget thy God and for all the newnesse thereof yet wilt thou not beare it in thy mynd Then seeke not the cause thereof in his power The cause thereof is in thyâ—e owne infirmitie Nay the cause thereof is in his goodnesse in that he intendeth to succour thyne ignorance And so notwithstaÌ„ding al their obiections we shall by this meanes hold still our conclusion to wit That the World is but of late continuance That it had a beginning and that concerning the tyme of the first beginning thereof and concerning the continuance thereof vnto our daies we ought to beléeue the bookes of Moyses aboue all The ix Chapter That the wisedome of the World hath acknowledged the Creation of the World SIth we haue seene with what consent that whole harmonie of the World chaunteth the Creation therof and the praise of the Creator now it followeth that we see what the wisedome of the world hath beléeued in that behalf wherein we haue to coÌ„sider the selfsame thing which we considered in the doctrine of the thrée Persons that is to wit that the néerer we come to the welhead thereof the more clerer we finde it yea and it is also a schoolepoynt of Platoes teaching That in these high matters of the Godhead of the Creation of the world and of such other like we must giue credite as vnto a kynd of Demonstration to the sayings of men of most antiquitie as folke that were better and néerer to God than wée Here I should begin at Moyses as the auncientest of all writers and whom all the Heathen Authors doe honor and woonder at in their writingsâ— And the very first worde of his booke simply set downe in these termes In the beginning God created Heauen and Earth ought to bee vnto vs as a maximée of Euclyde which in those daies men were ashamed to call in question But to the intent we confound not the word of God with the word of man forasmuch as the folke with whom wee haue to deale are such as refuse those whom they cannot accuse let vs ouercome them rather by their owne Doctors Certeynly whosoeuer will take the payne to coÌ„ferre Mercurius Trismegistus with Moyses shall reape therby most singular contentation In Genesis Moyses describeth the Creation of the World and so doth Mercurie likewise in his Poemander Moyses espyeth darknesse vpon the Waters And Mercurie seeth a dreadfull shadowe houering on the moyst nature and the same moyst nature as it were brooded by the word of God Moyses sayth that GOD spake and foorthwith things were made and Mercurie acknowledgeth and bringeth in Gods worde shining whereby he created the light and made the World and all that is therein Moyses parteth the nature of moysture into twayne the one mounting aloft which he calleth Heauen and the other remayning beneath which he calleth Sea And Mercurie seeth a light fire which he calleth AEther mounting vp as it
deuise or vppon euerlasting forepurpose If he doe them vppon newe deuise thou stumblest at that which thou wouldest eschewe for by thy reckoning God doth that which he did not afore namely in sheading foorth his influence anewe and in producing by that influence the thing that was not afore Or if he do them vpon euerlasting forepurpose then confessest thou that which thou meanest to denye to wit that God determined euerlastingly to make or doe things by his power and that according to that determination he giueth to euery thing in their tymes whatsoeuer hée had foreallotted them of his goodnesse For what difference makest thou in the cace betwéene one Plant and all Plants betwéene the Plant that is newe sprong vp to day and the Plant that was withered a thousand yeeres agoe betwéene the whole World and the least thing conteyned therein if thou be fayne too admit a new deuice as well for the least thing as for the greatest Nay thou hast deuised thée a God that is turned about vppon his Whéele a God that hath but a little more wit than thy selfe and a little more strength than thy selfe and yet such are thy spéeches of him sometime that I cannot tell whither thou wouldest be contented to be likened to him or no. Let vs sée his other Reasons All the auncient Philosophers sayth he sauing Plato beleeued that tyme is without beginning A strange case that he which taketh so great pleasure in controlling all men that went afore him will now néedes shéeld himselfe vnder them But I haue alreadie prooued that that saying of his is false And againe what greater contraries can there be than tyme and eternitie Also The Heauen sayth he is a diuine body vncorruptible the dwelling place of the Goddes wherein there hath not any corruption bin seene that can be remembred Ergo it is eternall But how will he proue this Diuinitie and this Quintessence of his Whence will hée prooue this vncorruptible nature What wil he answere to this saying of his owne that the Goddes and Godheads dwell aboue Heauen and vtterly without the compasse or reache of tyme Is not this a setting downe of that thing for a ground which is the thing that resteth to be proued and to speake after his owne maner a crauing of the principle But if we beléeue Plutarke who affirmeth that Aristotle helde opinion that the Heauen is a mingled nature of heate and moysture together shall it not bee corruptible of it selfe as well as the grounds are whereof it is composed hee addeth that the auncient Greekes called it AEther as ye would say Ayrun because it ronneth about continually And what will hee answere to Plato who saith that the Heauen or Skye is called AEther of his brightnesse in which respect also he calleth the Starre of Mars Aithon Also what will he answere to al the former Philosophers who are of opinion that the Skye is as Cristall composed of Water And finally what is this Running about but a departing froÌ„ one place to another Soothly great reasons to maynteine eternitie for if a man doe but breathe vpon them they vanish into smoke And therfore Plotin in his booke of the World and Damascius in expounding Aristotles booke of the Skye and Proclus in his second booke vpon Platoes Iimeus haue very well noted that for the prouing of the eternitie Aristotle hath set downe many things which néede none other disproofe than bare denyall and which would be as hard for him to proue as to proue the eternitie it selfe What is to bée thought then if euen by the propositions of Aristotle himselfe and of his Schollers wee proue against him and his Schollers that the World had a beginning The World say they is eternall and yet as eternall as it is it dependeth vpon God In that poynt they all agráe The disagréement among them is in this that some of them make the depending thereof vpon God to bee as vpon an efficient cause and some as vpon a finall cause and euery of them draweth Aristotle to his side as much as he can Now if it depend vpon GOD as an effect dependeth vpon his efficient cause who séeth not that an effect is after his cause and that there went a working power afore the effect distinguished essentially from the cause therof And where is theÌ„ this goodly ground of theirs become that the World is eternall because no foreworking power went afore it Or if it depend vppon God as the finall cause thereof that is to say if it were for him and not from him so as it was not a thing of his making but a thing that he could not conueniently forbeare wheresoeuer an ende is intended is there not also a forecast And where forecast is can chaunce and necessitie beare there any sway And if God had no néede of the World was it not at his choyce whether it should be or no And being at his choyce can it bee beginninglesse seeing that the being therof dependeth vpon another than it selfe Againe if the World depend vpon God as vpon the end thereof the working power which they themselues require in the creation of all things shall eyther haue gone afore it or not If it must néedes haue gone afore it then was it not from euerlasting for this word forego being a betokener of tyme excludeth the world from eternitie or euerlastingnesse Or if there néeded not any foreworking power to haue gone afore the world but that it be simply an issewe procéeding from the force of the cause why should it not procéede as well in tyme as from euerlasting seeing that the sayd force or power is directed by Reason and by Will And why then hold they this principle That the World cannot be of creation because that if it were so some cause must néedes haue gone afore it Again whence hath the Skye his beginning of mouing but from an Instant And whatsoeuer could be neuer so little a while without mouing why might it not be without mouing a longer while seeing that the respect is all one both of eternitie vnto all tymes and of infinitenesse vnto all places Therefore whereas Aristotle sayth that the World notwithstanding that it is eternall dependeth vpon God he graunteth consequently that it is not eternall Secondly contrary to the teaching of all that went afore him he deliuereth vs thrée first grounds namely Matter Substance or Stuffe forme shape or fashion and Priuation Want or bereaâ—ing and his Schooles are so greatly delighted therwith that there is nothing els to bee heard spoken of in them But if these be the first beginnings or grounds of things where is then their eternitie And if they kéepe a circuit in going round about how can it bee that they had not a beginning Also how can a substance be imagined to be without forme shape or fashion or forme shape or fashioÌ„ to be without a substance seeing that euen mishapennesse it selfe is a kynd
With these fellowes wee our selues shall not néede to deale but only heare Porphyrius disprouing them after this maner If neither God sayth he be of Matter nor Matter of God but both of them be Beginnings alike whereof then commeth it that there is so great ods betwixt them sith we hold opinion that God is Good and the very worker or Doer and contrarywise that Matter is Euill and but only a Sufferer The cause of this difference cannot proceed from the one to the other at leastwise if our saying be true namely that the one of them is not of the other And much lesse proceedeth it of any third considering that wee acknowledge not any higher cause which beeing admitted it followeth that these two so disagreeable Beginnings met and matched together by chaunce and consequently that all things are tossed and tumbled together by Fortune Agayne If God sayth he bee apt to the beautifying and orderly disposing of Matter and Matter be apt to receiue beautie and orderlines at Gods hand I demaund froÌ„ whence this mutuall aptnesse and disposition commeth For considering that they bee so disagreeing and so full contrary one to another surely they could neuer haue agreed of themselues but must of necessitie haue had a Third to make the attonemeÌ„t betwixt them Now I am sure you will not say that there was any third to commaund them Neither wil I beleeue that they fell to greement by aduenture To bee short seeing that Matter is not sufficient of it self to be in happie state but needeth Gods helpe thereunto but God is of himself abundantly sufficient both to be and to be happie who seeth not that GOD is of more excellencie than Matter and that Matter is not of it selfe so much as able to be For were it able to bee it were also able to be happie And therefore it is not to be denyed but that he whom wee confesse to haue perfected Matter was also the very first maker and Creator of Matter But how could he make it of nothing Let vs heare once agayne what the sayd Porphyrie sayth vnto this poynt Handycrafts saith he haue need of instruments or tooles For their working is outwaâ—â—â— and they haue not their matter or stuffe at commaundment But the naturall Powers as more perfect being within things doo performe all their doings by their only being After that sorte the Soule by his essentiall life doth nourish growe ingender breathe feele and so foorth So likewise the Imagination by the only one Inworking of it selfe giueth diuers qualities and mouings to the bodie all at one instant So also the bodilesse Spirites themselues as the Diuines report doe worke wonderous things by their imaginations without instrument or action Much rather therefore shall the workemayster of the whole world who is a Mynd giue substance to the whole by his owne only being that is to wit to this diuidable world himselfe being vndiuidable For why should it be thought strauÌ„ge that a thing which is without a bodie should produce things that haue bodies considering that of a very smal seede there groweth so great a Beast composed of so many so great and so differing parts For though the seede bee little the reason of the seede cannot bee small seeing it worketh so great things neither on the other side can it be great forasmuch as it vttereth and sheweth it selfe euen in the smallest percelles Now this reason of the seede needeth matter to worke vppon but so doth not the Reason of God for he needeth not any thing but maketh and frameth all things and notwithstanding that he bring foorth and moueth all things yet abydeth he still in his owne proper nature Now when as the sorest and learneddest enemie that euer ChristiaÌ„s had acknowledgeth this doctrine in good faith and in so expresse wordes who dareth open his lippes any more against it Dare the Epicures with their motes doo it How can they alledge any reason for them selues being by their owne opinion made by haphazard at aduenture without reason Or shal the naturall Philosophers do it with their temperings and mixtures First let them examine their Maister Galene concerning the things which I haue alledged out of him in the former Chapter and if that will not suffize them they shall heare him yet agayne in this Chapter Certesse as it cannot bee denyed but that as he laboureth by all meanes possible to father the causes of all things vppon the Elements and vppon the mixture of them together so is he driuen at euery turne to acknowledge somewhat in them which he is ashamed to father vpoÌ„ them In discoursing how the babe is formed in the moothers wombe he findeth himselfe turmoyled with many opinions But yet in the end Soothly concludeth he I see so great a wisedome and so mightie a Power that I cannot thinke that the Soule which is in the child that is begotten maketh the shape thereof considering that it is altogether voyde of reason but rather that it is formed by that which we call Nature In his booke of the tempering of things a place that serued best for the exalting of the powers of the Elements to the vttermost he very sharply reproueth those which father the cause of the forming of the parts of the bodies of liuing things vpon the qualities of the Elements Notwithstanding saith he that these Qualities be but instrumeÌ„ts and that there bee another that is the framer or fashioner of things In his booke of the opinions of Plato and Hippocrates he maketh the vitall spirite to bee the excellentest of all things that haue a bodie and yet for all that he will not haue it to be eyther the substance or the dwelling place but only the instrument of the Soule And in his booke of Flesshes he procéedeth further sayth that in treating of Leachcraft he spake often according to the common opinion but that if it came to the poynt of vttering the opinioÌ„ that he himslfe hild he declared that both man and Beast haue their beginning from aboue and that their Soules are from Heauen and finally that the Soule procéedeth neither from the qualities of the Elements nor from any of all the things that wee see here beneath Now if the Soule of man or of the very Beastes procéede not of the Elements how should it possibly procéede of the Matter And if it procéede not of the Matter must it not néedes procéed of the forme or rather must it not néedes be the very forme it selfe And what els is so excellent a forme than an excellent substance And from whence is that by his owne saying but from a former fashioner or shaper And what els shal that former be than a Creator seeing that euen shaping is a creating of a substance Now therefore let vs conclude for this Chapter both by vnsoluble reasons and by the testimonies aswell of our enemies as of our friends that God both was able to create and also did
making a Clocke of great compasse where the very greatnesse if selfe diminisheth the estimation thereof If thou bee afrayd least the spirit of God should soyle it selfe in these corruptible things remember that looke with what mynd Cincinnatus commaunded his men of Warre and ruled the Commonweale with the very same mynd did he both till and dung his ground and yet thou coūtest him neuer the more defiled or imbaced thereby The selfesame Sunne which giueth light in the Skye pearceth through the darke Cloudes and foggie Mistes dryeth vp drawghts and Sinks and sheadeth foorth his beames euen into the things which seeme most filthie and lothly and yet he himselfe is not blemished or defiled therewith Now then art thou afrayd least God who careth for all things without care moueth them without touching them and atteyneth to them without putting himself foorth is not able to wéeld these lower things without defyling himself by them But it were more conuenient sayth Aristotle that God should deale with the great things himself as the King of Persia doth in his priuie Chāber and that he should leaue the care of the smaller things to his Princes As who would say that the Gardyner which hath sowed both the great Cabbage and the little Turnippe both the Gourd and the Melone should make more account of the one for the greatnesse therof than of the other for the smalnes therof Or as though thou wouldest not also the more woonder at the King if without stirring out of his priuie Chamber he could appoynt all things to be done or rather doe all the things himselfe which other men doe What is the thing I pray thée which thou commendest in Mithridates but that he could call all his Souldiers euery one by his owne name Or in Phillip King of Macedonie but that he him selfe made the prouision for all his whole Hoste euen for their cariages and for fodder for their Beastes Or in the great Captaynes of our tyme but that they can skill not onely to make Warre and to order their Battelles but also to set downe what the dayly expences of their Armies will come vnto euen to euery loafe of bread and euery bottle of Hay and welnere within one or two shot how many shot of the Cannon will make a breach in such a wall or such a Bulwarke and so foorth Or finally in this Captayne or that sauing that this Captaine could skill to set the Sunne vpon the face of his enemies and another to cast the winde the dust or the smoke in their eyes and another to serue his owne turne by a Marris and some other to drawe his enemie into a myrie and dirtie Countrie And what viler or baser things can there be than these aforerehearsed Finally what is it that ye commend in the skilfullest Warriours of them al but that they could skill to serue their own turne Or in the most glorious Conquerours but that they gat the victorie in the ende And so thou must néedes graunt that whereas the Counterparties fayled to doe the like it was not for want of courage or goodwill but for want of power or skill Now whatsoeuer is in the whole World is the Armie or Hoste of God an Armie or Hoste I say not which he hath gathered of his neighbours but which he hath created with his owne hands He knoweth all the Starres by name for he made them He hath prouided foode for all liuing things and one of them is no greater to him than another for they haue no being at all any longer than he listeth If he make warre here beneath all his Armies are readie to do him seruice and to wage battell vnder his Banner yea euen the ambitiousnesse of Princes to punish themselues one by another If Nations wexe proud he armeth against them the Grashoppers and the Locusts the Horefrostes and the Blastings the Windes and the Uapors of the Earth In euery of vs he hath his inlookers to chastize vs in our flesh our corruptions in our mynde our passions and in our Soules our sinnes and disorders There is not so small a thing which serueth not him to very great purpose nor thing so vyle which serueth not his glorie nor thing so enemylike which fighteth not to get him the victorie nor thing so wrongfull which executeth not his Iustice nor thing so much against him which hitteth not the marke that he ameth at Therfore pleade not in this behalf vnaduisedly for Gods glorie For the more stirring the more chaunge the more disorder there is here beneath the more doth he shewe the vnmouable decree of his euerlasting Prouidence which will they or nill they directeth all the vncoustancies of this world to one certeyne end And if perchaunce thou be afrayd least GOD should bee tyred with the payne and trauell for he hath néede of thyne vngodlines to reléeue him consider how thyne own Soule without any toyle to it selfe and without thy priuitie doth at one selfesame instant both prouide for the susteyning of thée and make all thy parts to grow euery of them according to his peculiar portion and proportion giuing sence euen to thy nailes and the heares of thy head which are but outgrowings and not parts of thy bodie And if thou wilt know how this Prouidence is occupied without toyle consider how that thy Soule notwithstanding all the businesse which thy Soule doth without thy thinking theron forbeareth not also in the meane while to mount vp euen vnto heauen and by the discourses thereof to turmoyle the whole Earth to lay for the maintenance and defence of innumerable howsholds likewise for the decay and ouerthrow of as many others and to search into the dealings of the enemie to make them to serue his owne turne to treate both of Warre and Peace together at one tyme and with the selfesame persons both at once And darest thou now thinke that God is toyled in the things which thou thy selfe doest without toyle Or that he is tyred with the gouernments wherein thou wouldest take pleasure Or that he being a free and infinite Spirite doth not that in a limited bodie which thy Soule being finite in it selfe doth in thy bodie where it is as in a prison To bee short seeing thou presumest to doe thy will with the things wherof thou canst not make one heare shall GOD be vnable to doe his will with the things which he of his owne only wil hath made and created The vertue that is in a kernell or a Plant sheadeth it selfe from the roote to the vttermost braunches yéelding nourishment seuerally to the stocke or stalke to the pith to the barke to the flowers to the leaues and to the fruite to euery of them according to the proportion and nature thereof The Sunne it selfe in kéeping his course and without mynding any such thing yéeldeth heate to innumerable Plants and to innumerable people and yet heateth not himself one whit the more Now if a creature doe so what shal
foorth diuers Seruants diuers waies all to one place to the intent that of many some one at the least may escape and come home againe They méete there all together At the first sight the thing which was forecast by good order seemeth to them to happen by aduenture A Captayne hauing deuised to take the Gate of some Citie causeth a Cart or a Charyot to bee broken vpon the Drawbridge as it were by some mischaunce that his ambush may in the meane while breake foorth and enter the Towne The Warders fall to beating of the Wagoner for it and othersome excuse him as ouertaken by misfortune And so the thing which was a pollicie of Warre in the Captayne that deuised it is a chaunce or fortune to the Towne that wist not the ground of it A wise man to giue a glyke to another wise man or a Captayne to beguyle a Captayne or an enemie to delude his enemie cyphereth a letter grossely for the nonce and sendeth it such a way as he imagineth that it shal be surprized He that lighteth vpoÌ„ it is glad of so good aduenture and thinking that he readeth the secretes of his aduersaries hart buildeth all his affayres in good earnest vpon things contriued to deceyue him And so the thing which was a rare deuise in the one is a rare aduenture to the other Now if among men which are all of one kynde and haue welneere like portion of reason there bee such oddes betwéene age and age betwéene qualitie and qualitie and betwéene wit and wit that the same which in one is prouidence is fortune in another shall wee thinke it straunge that the thing which seemeth fortune to vs that are but blindnesse and ignorance should be singular prouidence as in respect of God Or that he which is the only cause of all causes should haue the skill to assemble them together to some one certeyne effect how farre distant soeuer they be As for example if he make thee to finde a Treasor in digging of a pit or to scape a fall from a plancher in going to walke vppon it wouldest thou steale that benefite from the goodnesse of GOD who brought thée to the one place or saued thée from the other I say from God who is thy maker to father it vpon blynd Fortune which knoweth thée not And why should it be harder for him to match two causes together that are farre asunder than to haue made them so farre at oddes one from another Or than it is for thy selfe to put wood to fire and fire to water thy meate into the water which are causes so farre distant and yetnotwithstanding thou ioynest them together to one certeyne ende which is the nourishment of thy bodie And what things are further distant in thy mynd than a Charyot a Draw-bridge and an Hoste of men which things notwithstanding thou couldest skill to bring fitly together for the taking of a Citie Thus looke wherein thou doest chiefly place fortune there doth the rarest and most wonderfull poynt of Prouidence most euidently shewe it selfe But now comes me the other Aduocate who to bring vs vnto Destinie and to a certeyne necessitie of all things and of al doings maketh his hand of all the things which we haue alledged against Fortune Therefore let vs see how we may walke betwéene Fortune and Destinie so as wee may shunne chaunce without failing into necessitie and perceiue whether the same be Prouidence or no. If all things say they be guyded by GOD to some one certeyne end yea euen those also which seeme casuall then can they not bee turned any other way I willingly graunt them that And if they cannot bee turned then are not mens doings free but of necessitie Nay this coÌ„sequent is vtterly false because the things which haue free will to endeuer themselues contrary to Gods will haue not free power to restreyne his will from ouerruling them But let vs lay foorth this matter more at large that it may bee the better vnderstood We see in the Skye a great number of Starres that are fixed and many also as the Planets which haue euery of them their peculiar mouings turnes courses seuerally to themselues Now the highest Heauen by his vniuersall mouing carieth all the Starres about as well the mouable as the vnmouable without any stopping or interrupting of their perticular mouings whereby bee made innumerable figures aspects and respects which I leaue to the Astrologers to declare The Sunne maketh the day and the yéere the Moone maketh the moneths the quarters the Pleyads and Hyads make the Seasons the Dâ—gstarre maketh the heate of the Sommer and so foorth Let vs put the case that the highest Heauen stood still and that the lower Heauens kept on their peculiar mouings or let vs put the case that he went on and that all the rest stood still and then should there bee none of the sayd figurings and aspects to bee seene But let them all alone as they bee let the highest Heauen by his mouing carie all the Starres about and let euery of them continue the hauing and executing of his owne peculiar nature the mouable as mouable and the vnmouable as vnmouable and euery of them indeuer accordingly against the Uniuersall and then shall wee see the woonderfulnesse of the Heauen which by an vniforme kynd of mouing that leaueth to euery Starre his proper and peculiar mouing yéeldeth euery day diuers formes in the Skye which cause alterations in the ayre which thing neyther his owne sole mouing could doe if the residue of the Starres stoode still neyther could the courses and mouings of the Starres bring it to passe if they were not carried about by the mouing of him Now let vs see how this example agréeth with our matter God by his will and power hath created all powers and disposed all willes That his power ouerruleth all powers al men confesse For who is he that maketh a Clocke and cannot rule it But that his will should direct all willes to such ende as he listeth without forcing them froÌ„ their nature which is to be free there is the dowâ— God forbid that he which created nature to doe him seruice should be vnable to vse the seruice thereof without marring it God then say I guydeth all things to the performance of his will the mouable by their mouings and the vnmouable by their stedfastnesse the things indewed with sence by their appetites and the reasonable things by their willes the naturall things by their thraldome and the things that haue will by their freedome And the freer that they be the greater is his glorie as in déede it is a more commendable thing to cause libertie to yéeld freely to obedience by gentle handling than to hale it by forâ—e and compultion as it were tyed in a chayne If the willes of all men were caried by Gods will without hauing their awne peculiar mouings the power of God could not shine foorth in them so
much as it doth now when all willes inforce themselues seuerally against his will and yet neuerthelesse euen in following their owne sway doe finde themselues led they wote not how whether soeuer it pleaseth him Neither should wée see the said diuersities of figures in the Heauen which bréede so diuers effects of Warres of Peace of decayes of prosperitie of aduersitie and such other which serue all to the Prouidence of the euerâ—asting God but wee should see euerywhere one vniforme will holding all other willes fast fettered and carrying them whether soeuer it listed and the more streightly that they were tyed vp the lesse should we estéeme of his power as who would say he stoode in feare to let them loose Agayne if wee imagine all those willes to haue free scope to followe their own lykings without any gouernment of higher power to ouerrule them and restreyne their whâ—n they intend to breake out wee should undoubtedly see diuers ends in things where as now they tend all to one And libertie would turne into loosenesse loosenesse into disorder and disorder into destruction whereas the world doth necessarily require ordâ—r and order requireth all things to bee referred to some one certeyne ende God therefore to shew his power in our fréedome and libertie hath left our willes to vs and to restreyne them from â—â—senesse he hath so ordered them by his wisedome that he worâ—â—th his owne will no lesse by them than if wee had no will at all Let vs enforce ourselues as much as wee list against his will and yet euen our disobedience shall turne to the fulfilling of his will Let vs goe Eastward when his will goes Westward and yet doth his mouing coÌ„duct vs still But alveit that God do leade foorth and guyde the one will as well as the other yet notwithstanding right happie as that will which indeuereth to followe and vnhappie is that which must bee haled and dragged Likewise in a keness of Hounds euery of them runneth according to his naturall inclination and yet all of them serue the purpose of the Hunter Also in an Hoste of men one fighteth for honour another for spight a third for gayne and al for victorie to the Prince that sent them into the field Take from the Hounds their naturall inclinations and from the Souldierrâ— theâ— perticular willes and dispositions and ye doe away Hunting and the Armie must néedes disperse Yea say they but God sawe al things and all the courses of the world from euerlasting al at one instant and things cannot fal out otherwise than he hath forséene them It séemeth therfore that nothing is casual nothing at the choyce of our wil nor any thing that is not of necessitie Yes for as God beholdeth all things with one view so doth he also behold euery of them woorking according too their seuerall properties He séeth the motting of the Heauen and the particular mouings of the Sunne and the Moone to bring forth the Eclipses of necessitie he seeth men coÌ„sulting of warre of peace of alyance and other things willingly and hee séeth the Plants spâ—ing vp and growe naturally He himself hath set downe the second third yea and fourth causes and hath linked them one to an other to do what he will haue done but the thing that deceiueth vs in this case is that we consider not that our wills are among these causes and that according to their fréenesse such as it is they work fréely in the doings of this world lyke as all other causes woork euery of them according to their peculiar moouings inclinations abilities natures or kynds After the same maner the man that is acquaynted withâ— his howseholdmatters will deeme aforehand which of three parts his eldest sonne will choose and which his second will choose though he be farre of froÌ„ them bicause he knoweth their natures and inclinations and yet for all that hee inclyneth them not to the dooing of the one or of the other Ageine another foreséeth that a Prince will kéepe peace or make warre bycause he knoweth him two be eyther of a quiet or of an vnquiet disposition Euen so is it with God sauing that he being néere and innermore to al things than the things themselues are doth knowe them most perfectly wheras we haue nothing but by coniectures and those verye weake To be short as in respect of God the things are of necessitie which as in respect of themselues are things of casualtie the cause wherof is that the matter which in the things themselues is to come is present to his sight euerlastingly and his foreséeing of things to come is not in the causes of them as it is vnto wyse men but in himself who is the cause of all causes and therfore he séeeth not that thou shalt do this or shalt not do that as of a thing to come but whatsoeuer thou art to doo he séeth thée doing it from euerlasting naturally if it be to be done naturally and willingly if it be to be 〈◊〉 willingly and yet thy will is no lesse subiect to his will than thy nature is subiect to the power that created it neither is the fréedom of thy will such as it is now after thy fall any more compelled in taking deliberation than thy nature is compelled in growing or shuming When I speake heere of fréewill I meane not to deale with this Question whether it lye in vs to choose the way of Saâ—â—ation or no. For as it is a thing that surmounteth the whole nature of mankind and excéedeth the proportion of our 〈◊〉 vnderstandings so must it necessitie ensue that wee must bee drawen by some hygher cause from aboue as in a case that concerneth the forsaking of our selues and of our owne desires and not the following of them Ageine I intend not to take away the extraordinarie motions which God worketh in vs when he vseth vs sometymes beyond the inclination of our nature â—y bréeding that in vs by a secret operation which was not in vs of our selues But I speake peculiarly of these inferiour doings which are proportionable to our wit and to the capacitie of our reason in which things our Fréewill as mayâ—od as it is hath abilitie to exercyse itself notwithstanding that is be vtterly lamâ—aud vnable to mount vp any higher After that maner therefore may we 〈◊〉 betwéene the Fortune of Epicurus and the deâ—mie of Chrysippus by Prouidence and betwéene casualtie and necessitie by the will of Got and betwéene Loocenesse and Bondage by leauing their mouings frée which yet neuerthelesse shall come to the end which God hath listed to appoint vnto them whatsoeuer windings and wreathings they séeme to themselues to make in the meane tyme. And as touching the destinie of the Astrologers who make all things subiect to the whéelings about of the Skye and make all things to be as much of necessitie as the mouings thereof we will leaue them to pleade their case ageinst that greate Learned
hardened which the soule vseth as strings and instruments too moue withall and therefore when age hath loosened and weakened them a man hath neede of a staffe to help them with although he haue as good a wil to runne as he had when he was yoong The soule then which moueth theÌ„ all at one becke hath the selfsame power in infancie which it hath in age and the same in age which it hath in the prime of Youth and the fault is only in the instrument which is vnable to execute the operations thereof like as the cunning of a Luteplaier is not diminished by the moystnesse or slacknesse of his Lute strings nor increased by the ouer high streyning and tytght standing of them but in deede in the one hee cannot shewe his cunning at all and in the other he may shewe it more or lesse Likewise the spéech of Children commeth with their teeth howbeit that the speech doe manifestly vâ—ter it self first in that they prattle many things which they cannot pronounce and in old men it goeth away agein with their teeth and yet their cloquence is not abated thereby Asfor Demosthenes although hee surmounted all the Orators of his tyme yet were there some letters which he could not pronounce Giue vnto old age or vnto infancie the same sinewes and teeth and as able and lustye Limmes and members as youth hath and the actions which the soule doeth with the body and by the body I meane so farre foorth as concerne the abilities of sence and lyuelynes shal be performed as well in one age as in another But haddest thou as greate indifferencie in iudging of the force and power of thyne owne soule as of the cunning of a Luteplayer I say not by the nimblenes of his fingars which are perchaunce knotted with the gout but by the playne and sweete Harmonie of his Tabulatorie as they terme it which maketh thée to déeme him to haue cunning in his head although hee can no more vtter it with his hanos so as thou wouldest consider how thou hast in thy selfe a desire to go though they féete be not able to beare the a discretion to iudge of things that are spoken though thyne eyes cannot conuey it vnto thee a sound eloquence though for want of thy teeth thou cannot well expresse it and which is aboue all the rest a substantiall quicke and heauenly reason euen when thy body is most earthly and drooping Thou wouldest soone conclude that the force and power of quickening moouing and perceyuing is whole and sound in thy Soule and that the default is altogether in thy body Insomuch that if she had a newe body and new instruments giuen vnto her she would bee as â—ustie and chéerely as euer she was and that the more she perceyueth the body to decay the more she laboreth to retyre into her self which is a playne proofe of that she is not the body nor any part of the body but the very life and inworker of the body And sith it is so there néedeth no long skanning whether the Soule be a substance or a qualitie For seeing that qualities haue no being but in another thing than themselues the life which causeth another thing to be cannot be a qualitie Forasmuch then as the Soule maketh a man to be a man who otherwise should be but a Carkesse or Caryon doubtlesse vnlesse we will say that the only difference which is betwixt a man and a dead Carkesse is but in accidents we must néedes graunt that the Soule is a forming substance and a substantiall forme yea and a most excellent substance infinitly passing the outward man as which by the power and vertue thereof causeth another thing to haue being and perfecteth the bodily substance which séemeth outwardly to haue so many perfections But herevpon inseweth another controuersie whether this substance bee a bodily or an vnbodily substance which case requireth somewhat longer examination Soothly if we consider the nature of a body it hath certeine measurings and comprehendeth not any thing which is not proportioned according to the greatnesse and capacitie thereof For like as it selfe must bee fayne to haue a place in another thing so must other things occupye some certeyne place in it by reason whereof it commeth to passe that things can haue no place therein if they be greater than it without anoying the one the other To be short if the thing bee lesse than the body that conteyneth it the whole body shall not conteyne it but only some part thereof And if it be greater then must some part thereof néedes be out of it for there is no measuring of bodies but by quaÌ„titie Now we see how our Soule comprehendeth heauen and earth without anoying eyther other and likewise tyme past present and to come without troubling one another and finally innumerable places persons and Townes without combering of our vnderstanding The great things are there in their full greatnesse and the small things in their vttermost smalnesse both of them whole and sound in the Soule whole and sound and not by parcelmeale or only but in part of it Moreouer the fuller it is the more it is able to receiue the moe things that are touched in it the moe it still coueteth and the greater the things bee the fitter is shee to receyue them euen when they be at the greatest It followeth therfore that the Soule which after a sort is infinite cannot be body And so much the lesse can it so bee for that whereas it harboreth so many and so great things in it it selfe is lodged in so small a body Agayne as a thousand diuers places are in the Soule or Mynde without occupying any place so is the Mynd in a thousand places without chaunging of place that erewhiles not by succession of tyme nor by turnes but oftentymes altogether at one instant Bid thy Soule or Mynd goe to Constantinople and foorthwith to turne backe agayne to Rome and straight way to be at Paris or Lyons Bid it passe thorowe America or to go about Affricke and it dispatcheth all these iourneys at a trice looke whether soeuer thou directest it there it is and or euer thou callest it backe it is at home agayn Now is there a body that can bee in diuers places at once or that can passe without remouing or that can moue otherwise than in tyme yea and in such tyme as within a little vnder or ouer is proportioned both to his pace and to the length of the way which it hath to goe Then is it certeine that our Soule is not a bodily substance which thing appeareth so much the more plainly in that being lodged in this body which is so mouable it remoueth not with the body Also it is a sure ground that two bodies cannot mutually enter eyther into other nor conteyne eyther other but the greater must alway néedes conteyne and the lesser must néedes bee conteyned But by our Soules we enter not
which we see afarre of is round whereas our reason deemeth it to be square or that a thing is small which our reason telleth vs is greate or that the ends of lyues in a long walke do meete in a poynt whereas our reason certifieth vs that they runne ryghtfoorth with equall distance one from another For want of this discretion certeine Elephants sayth Vitellio which were passing ouer a long bridge turned backe beeing deceyued and yet they wanted not sight no more than we do But they that led them were not deceyued Their Leaders then besides their eysight had in them another vertue or power which corrected their sight and therefore ought to be of hygher estimation In lyke â—ase is it with the rest of the other sences For our hearing telleth vs that the thunderclappe is after the lyghtening but skill assureth vs that they be both togither For there is a certeine power in vs which can skil to discerne what proportion is betweene hearing and seeing Also the tong of him that hath an Agew beareth him on hand that euen sugre is biâ—â—er which thing he knoweth by his reason to be vntrew To be short those which haue their sences most quicke and lyâ—ely be not of the greatest wisdum and vnderstanding A man therefore differeth from a beast and excelleth men by some other power than sence For whereas it is comonly sayd that such as haue séene most are comonly of greatest skill we see that many haue traueled farre both by sea and land which haue come home as wise as they wentfoorth A horse hath as good eyes as he that rydes vpon him and yet for all his traueling neither he nor paraduenture his Ryder whom he beareth become any whit the wyser by that which they haue seene whereby it appereth that it is not enough to see things vnlesse a man do also mynd them to his benefite Now there is great difference betweene the lyuelynes of the Sence and the power that gouerneth the Sence lyke as the report of a Spye is one thing and the Spye himself is another and the wisdum of the Capteine that receyueth the report of the Spye is a third Nay who can deny that Sence and Reason are dyuers things or rather who wilnot graunt that in many things they be cleane contrarie Sence biddeth vs shun and eschew greef whereas Reason willeth vs to profer our leg sometyme to the Surgion to be cut of Sence plucketh our hand out of the fire and yet we our selues put fire to our bare skin He that should sée a Sceuola burne of his owne hand without so much as once gnashing his téeth at it would thinke he were vtterly senslesse so mightily dooth Reason ouerrule sence To be short Sence hath his peculiar inclination which is appetite and Reason lykewyse hath his which is will And lyke as reason doth oftentymes ouerrule sence and is contrarie to it so will correcteth the sensuall appetyte or lust that is in vs and warreth ageinst it For in an Agew we couet to drink and in an Apoplexie we couet to sleepe and in hungre we couet to eate and yet from all those things doth our will restreyne vs. The more a man followeth his lust the lesse is he led by will and the more he standeth vpon the pleasing of his Sences the lesse reason vseth he ordinarily Againe let vs consider the brute Beastes which haue this sensitiue part as well as we If we haue no more than that how commeth it to passe that a little child driueth whole flockes and heards of them whether he listeth and sometymes whether they would not Whereof commeth it that euery of them in their kynd doe all liue nestle and sing after one sorte whereas men haue their lawes Commonweales maners of buylding and formes of reasoning not only diuers but also commonly contrary Now what can harber these contrarieties together but onely that which hath not any thing contrary vnto it and wherein all contrary things doe lay away their contrarietie Surely it is not the Sence that can doe it whose proper or peculiar obiect is most contrary to the sence Besides this as I haue sayd afore whereas we conceyue wisedome skill vertue and such other things which are all bodilesse our sences haue none other thing to worke vpon than the qualities of bodily substances And whereas we make vniuersall rules of particular things the Sences atteyne no further than to the particular things themselues And wheras we conclude of the causes by their effects our Sences perceyue no more but the bare effects And whereas concerning the things that belong to vnderstanding the more vnderstandable they bee the more they refresh vs Contrarywise the stronger that the sensible things are the more do they offend the Sence To be short the selfesame thing which wee speake in behalfe of the Sences procéedeth from elswhere than from the Sences And we will easely discerne that he which denyeth that besides the common Sence there is in man a reason or vnderstanding distinct and seuered from the Sence is voyd both of vnderstanding and of Sence But see here a grosse reason of theirs This reason or power of vnderstanding say they which is in man is corruptible as well as the power of perceyuing by the Sences I thinke I haue prooued the contrary alreadie neuerthelesse let vs examine their reasons yet further The forme or shape of euery thing say they doth perish with the matter Now the Soule is as ye would say the forme or shape of the body therfore it corrupteth with the body This argument were rightly concluded if it were ment of the materiall forme But I haue proued that the Soule is vnmateriall and hath a continuance of it selfe And in déede the more it is discharged of matter the more it reteyneth his owne peculiar forme Therefore the corrupting of the matter toucheth not the Soule at all Again if mens Soules liue say they after their bodies then are they infinite for the world is without beginning and without ending and as wee knowe nature can away with no infinite thing therefore they liue not after their bodies Yes say I for I haue proued that the world had a beginning and that with so substantiall reasons as thou art not able to disproue Therefore it followeth that the inconuenience which thou alledgest can haue no place Another saith If dead mens Soules liue still why come they not to tell vs so And he thinketh he hath stumbled vpon a woonderful suttle deuise But how doth this followe in reason There hath not come any man vnto vs from the Indies of a long tyme ergo there be no Indies May not the same argument serue as well to proue that wee our selues are not because wee neuer went thether Againe what intercourse is there betwéene things that haue bodies and things that haue no bodies or betwene heauen and earth considering that there is so small intercourse euen betwéene men which liue all vnder
persecuted the Christians a fresh contrarie to the custome of the Romanes insomuch that Nero made them to be put to the slaughter as if they had bin the authors of the burning of Rome which he himself had caused to be set on fire And we reade that in the same time the Senate made certeyne decrées whereby many thousands of Christians infected with the Iewish superstition for so did they terme them bycause they had their originall from the Iewes were banished into dyuers Iles. Which thing the Senate would not haue done considering their ordinary maner of proceeding in caces of Religion if the hastie increase of that spirituall kingdome had not put them in feare And within a whyle after we see how all the Emperours were amazed at this flocking of people togither vnto thē for counsel how to extinguish that doctrine and how fires were kindled ageinst them on all sides and yet how Nations neuerthelesse were shaken at the voice of the Apostles and the verie Courts of Princes with their Legions of Souldyers were made to inclyne vnto Christ. Sufficient witnesses whereof be the Lawes of that age wherein it was inacted that the Swoordgirdle of a Souldyer should not bee worne of any Christian that they should not beare any office or haue any charge in the Court and such other And Vlpian the Lawyer did himself write fower bookes ageinst the christians And truely we reade that a greate many gaue ouer their charges rather than thei would forsake the Christen fayth Moreouer in the tyme of Marcus Aurelius there was a Legion that was called the Legion of Malta which was altogither of Christians of which Legion hee witnesseth in a certeine Epistle of his that being vpon a time brought to vtter distresse by the Marcomanes this Legion obtayned by prayer beth Thunder from Heauen ageinst the enemie and Rayne wherewith to refresh the whole army whereupon that Legion was afterward called the Thunderer And therefore saieth Tertullian in his Apologie If as many of vs as be Christians should get vs away into some corner of the world ye would woonder to see how feaw people ye should haue remayning to you ye should be fayne to seeke other Cities to commaund or rather you to flee away out of hand and too hyde yourselues for yee should haue mo enemyes than Citizens left ye We haue filled now whole Cities Ilands and Castles Counselles Palaces and Courtes Trybes Legions and Armyes What warre were we not able inough to vndertake if we listed And what is it that we might not bring to passe dying so manfully and so willingly as wee do Nay the Lawe of our warre teacheth vs to dye and not to kill Now what kingdome euer had so greate increase in so short tyme But which is a greater matter what a thing is it to vanquish by yeelding to be furthered by retyring and to conquer by dying We reade of the Emperour Tiberius that vppon a letter written to him from Pilate reporting the miracles of Iesus his giltlesse death and his rysing agein from the dead he preferred a bill to the Senate with his assent vnto it to haue had them proclayme Iesus to bee God and that the Senate refused it because they themselues were not the authors thereof but that Tyberius abode still in his opinion And therevpon Tertullian sayth Goe looke vpon your Registers and the Acts of your Senate Also Vespasian the scourge of the Iewes forbare the Christians and Traiane moderate the persecution vpon the report of their innocencie made vnto him by Plinie Marcus Aurelius hauing felt the helpe of their prayers did the like Likewise did Antonine but to another end namely because that as he himselfe writeth in an epistle of his persecution did stablish the Church of the Christians To bee short Alexander the sonne of Mammea did in his Chappell worship Iesus surnamed Christ of whom also he tooke his Poesie and therefore the Antiochians called him the Archpriest of Syria And it is reported that for Christs sake the Emperour Adrian builded many Temples without Images Finally the good Emperours of Rome Vespasian Adrian Traiane Antonine the méeke and such others had Christ in estimation and allowed of the Christians But how farre Surely as to acknowledge in their hearts that they were good and honest men and that Iesus had more in him than was of Man But yet for all this If they be accused say these good Emperours let them bee punished if not let them not be sought This is a good proofe and allowance of their innocencie but surely it is but a slender reléefe for them Contrarywise the wicked Emperours Nero Domitian Valerian Commodus Maximine Decius and such others condemned them and by their condemning of them did iustifie them For what did they euer allowe but euill But what maner of condemning is this Kill all burne all yea whole Cities haue no respect of sex of age or of qualitie Scarcely had the Christians any breathingtime but a new counterbuffe came vpon thē againe they were no sooner from the torture but they must too it againe And yet God did so rule all things by his prouidence to the intent the whole glorie in this misterie should redound to himself that the mield dealing of the good Emperours did in déede iustifie the trueth but yet durst they not aduaunce or further it whereas on the contrary part the malice of the other sort condemned it and persecuted it to the vttermost but yet could they not destroye it To be short in fewe yéeres there passed ten horrible persecutions vppon that poore Church and yet in the end the Emperours themselues submitted themselues to the Crosse of Christ and their Empyres sought their welfare there Therefore we may alwaies come back to this poynt That he yea only he which first created the world of nothing when there was not yet any thing to withstand him is able to recouer the world from Sathan and to subdue it to himself without the helpe of any thing euen by instruments repugnant to him and in despight of the whole world bending itself ageinst him But what will ye say if he subdue not onely men but also their Gods not only the world but also the Souereynes of the world I meane the Diuels which at that time held the world vnder their tyrannie Let vs reade the Histories of the Greekes Romanes that were afore the comming of Christ and what shall wee find in them but the Myracles and Oracles of Diuels What els haue Varro Cicero Titus Liuius and such others among the Romanes or Herodotus Diodorus Pausanias and the residewe among the Greekes On the contrarie part we see that euen euer since Christ was borne and preached the world hath chaunged his hewe Iesus was borne vnder the Emperour Augustus and see here what Apollo answereth vnto him An Hebrew Child which daunteth with his powre The blessed