slaine in such a stile as were enough to cast a musing Reader into a waking dreame or imagination that the walls the houses the very soile whereon shee trod had beene animated with some peculiar Genius capable of friendship and foehood Horruit Argia dextrasque ad moenia tendens Vrbs optata prius nunc tecta hostilia Thebe Si tamen illoesas reddis mihi coniugis vmbras Nunc quoque dulce solum With griefe o'regrowne to Theban-walls her suppliant hands shee bends Oh Cittie late too dearly lou'd since loue in sorrow ends Now hostile Thebes yet so thou willest my Consorts Corps restore Still shalt thou be a Soile to me as deare as heretofore These or the like speeches of heathen Poets if by Christians they may not be vttered without reproofe Lactantius his censure of Tullie for his too lavish Rhetoricall Prosopopeia made vnto Philosophie shall saue me a labour O Philosophie the guide of life the searcher out of vertue the banisher of vice without thee not onely wee thy followers should be no bodies but even the life of mankinde could be nothing worth for thou hast beene the Foundresse of Lawes the Mistresse of manners and discipline As if forsooth saith this Author Philosophie it selfe could take any notice of his words or as if He rather were not to be praised which did bestow her He might with as good reason haue rendered the like Rhetoricall thanks to his meate and drinke for without these the life of man cannot consist howbeit these are things without sense Benefits they are but they can be no Benefactors As they are the nourishment of the bodie so is wisedome or true Philosophie of the soule 3. That the seminaries of Poetrie should be the chiefe nurses of Idolatry argues how apt the one is to bring forth the other or rather how both lay like twinnes in the wombe of the same vnpurified affection vsually begotten by one spirit Woods and fountaines as every Schoole-boy knoweth were held chiefe mansions of the Muses to whose Courts the Poets resorted to doe their homage invoking their aide as the goddesses whom they most renowned hereto allured by the opportunitie of the place The pleasant spectacle and sweete resounds which woods and shadie fountaines afford will sublimate illiterate spirits and tune or temper mindes otherwise scarce apt for any to retired contemplations They are to every noise as an organized bodie to the soule or spirit which moues it Gentle blasts diffused through them doe so well symbolize with the internall agitations of our mindes and spirits that when wee heare them we seeme desirous to vnderstand their language and learne some good lesson from them And albeit they vtter not expresly what we conceiue yet to attentiue composed thoughts they inspire a secret seede or fertilitie of invention especially sacred 4. But is or was the notion of the Deitie naturally more fresh and liuely in these seminaries of heathenish Poetry than in other places Yes every vnusuall place or spectacle whether remarkeably beautifull or gastly imprints a touch or apprehension of some latent invisible power as President of what we see Seneca's observation to this purpose will open vnto vs one maine head or source of heathenish Idolatrie which well cleansed might adde fertilitie to Christian devotion In vnoquoque virorum bonorum quis deus incertum est habitat deus To proue this conclusion that God is neare vs even within vs thus he leads vs. If thou light on a groue thicke set with trees of such vnusuall antiquitie and height as that they take away the sight of Heaven by the thicknesse of their branches ouer spreading one another the height of the wood the solitarinesse of the place and the vncouthnesse of the close and continued shade in the open aire doe ioyntly represent a kinde of Heaven on earth and exhibit a proofe vnto thee of some divine power present Or if thou chance to see a denne whose spatious concauitie hath not beene wrought by the hand-labour of men but by causes naturall which haue so deepely eaten out and consumed the stones that they haue left a hanging mountain to ouer spread it like a Canopie the sight likewise will affect the minde with some touch or apprehension of Religion We adore the heads of great Rivers c. Vide Parag. 8. 9. of this Chapter 5. And because superstition can hardly sprout but from the degenerate and corrupt seeds of devotion wicked spirits did haunt these places most which they perceived fittest for devout affections As sight of such groues and fountaines as Seneca describes would nourish affection so the affection naturally desirous to enlarge it selfe would with the helpe of these Spirits sleights and instigations incite the superstitious to make their groues more retired and sightly Thus like cunning anglers they first baite the places and then fish them and their appearance being most vsuall when mens mindes were thus tuned to devotion the eye would easily seduce the heart to fasten his affections to the place wherein they appeared as more sacred than any other And to the spirits thus appearing as to the sole Lords and owners of the delightfull soile and chiefe Patrons of these bewitching rites and customes they thought their best devotions were not too good 6. Throughout the story of the Iudges and Kinges of Israel we may obserue how groues were as the banquetting houses of false gods the trappes and ginnes of sacrilegious superstition For this cause in all suppressions of Idolatrie the commission runnes joyntly for cutting downe groues and demolishing Altars So God Deuteronomie the 5. after commandement given to destroy the Amorites addeth this iniunction withall Ye shall overthrow their Altars and breake downe their pillars and ye shall cut downe their groues and burne their graven Images with fire And vnto Gideon the first in my remembrance to whom this warrant was in particular directed Throw downe the Altar of Baal that thy Father hath made and cut downe the groue that is by it Iudg. 6. v. 25. And Ezekiah whiles he remoued the high places and brake the Idolls cut downe the groues 2. King 18. v. 4. The like did Iosias after him 2. King 23. v. 14. How availeable either this destruction of groues was to the extirpation or the cherishing of them to the growth and increase of Idolatrie the good successe of â—agello his like religious policie in winning the Lithuâ—nians his stifly Idolatrous and strangely superstitious Country men vnto Christian Religion may enforme vs. I relate the Story at large as I finde it because it conteines fresh and liuely experiments as well of this present as of diverse other observations in this Treatise And no man will easily distrust auncient reports when he sees them parallele by moderne and neighbour examples The common sort saith mine Author speaking of the Lithuanian about two hundred yeares agoe was very stiffe and would hardly indure to be intreated to relinquish their
a solemne invitation of infernall ghosts to keepe residence about them These are the Harpies which defile Gods service and devoure the peoples offrings which their inchanted Priests would perswade them were presented to accepted by Gods Saints To thinke the Saints should be permitted to receiue our particular petitions and not be permitted to returne their particular answers or not be enabled as freely to communicate their mindes to vs as we to impart our desires to them is an imaginatiō so grosse that it can haue no ground either of faith or common reason Wee may retort Bellarmines and his Consorts arguments for invocation of Saints vpon themselues That the Saints whom they invocate doe not impart their mindes vnto their supplicants in such particular manner as their supplicants impart their desires to them it is either because they will not or they cannot To say they will not if they can is to impeach them of pride or want of charitie to say they cannot is to slander them with impotencie or with want of favour with God For He that enables them as they suppose He doth to heare vs speak from earth to heaven can questionlesse enable them so to speake or expresse themselues that wee might heare them from heaven to earth It is but one and the same branch of his infinite power and goodnesse to giue Saints deceased the like vse and exercise of spirituall tongues as He graunts them by the Romanists doctrine of spirituall eares CHAPTER XXVIII The Romish Church in her publicke Liturgies expressely giues those glorious titles vnto Saints vnto which no other reall worship besides the worship of Latria is answerable 1. SEeing as well prayers in the first place directed vnto Saints as these which they tender immediately vnto God vpon Saints dayes are offered vp in honor of the Saints in the same place wherein and with the same externall signes of observance wherewith they solemnly worship God what note of difference haue they left to distinguish themselues from grosse Idolaters Onely the internall conceipt which they haue of divine excellency as much greater then Angelicall dignitie But how shall we know this different esteeme of God of Christ and of his Saints to be truely seated in their hearts without open confession of the mouth making some distinction in the solemne and publicke profession of allegiance to both Is the forme then of their devotion to God and Christ as accurately distinguished by any soveraigne title from their supplications vnto Saints as petitions to Kings and Princes are from petitions made vnto their officets One of the most peculiar titles of Christ as Mediator by Bellarmines confession is that in the tenth of Iohn Ego sum ostium I am the doore for from this attribute he proues him to be the only immediate Mediator If He who is the doore be the onely immediate Mediator what manner of Mediatrix must shee be which is the gate the blessed gate by which the righteous enter Did he conceiue his second proposition before mentioned in termes more wary then we were aware of Sancti non sunt immediati intercessores Saints are not our immediate intercessors but some Saintesse may make immediate intercession For so they pray vnto the blessed Virgine Ave maris stella Dei mater alma Atque semper virgo Foelix coeli porta Haile starre of the Sea Gods sweete Mother and Mate Everlasting Virgine Heavens happie gate And yet it seemes they make her withall the foundation or foundresse of our faith for so it followeth in the same hymne Funda nos in pace Yea the fountaine of sanctification from whose fullnesse we receiue grace for grace Virgo singularis Intra omnes mitis Nos culpis solutos Mites fac castos Vitam praesta puram Iter para tutum Of Virgines the very prime and floure Whose brest of meekenesse is the bowre From guilt vs free which soule doth waste And make oh make vs meeke and chaste Our liues vouchsafe first to make pure Next that our Iourney proue secure And because God is called the King of heaven and Father of mercy who hath the issues of death in his hands shee must be entitled the Mother of mercy c. Maria mater gratiarum Mater misercordiae Tu nos ab hoste protege Et horâ mortis suscipe Mary of grace Mother milde Who hast mercie for thy childe Hide and saue vs from our foe When from bodies soules shall goe From this her milde and mercifull temper they hope it seemes that shee is able to let some into heaven by the window which may not be allowed to come in by the ordinary doore or foregate Coeli foenestra facta es Officium B Mariae c. The attributes of Wisedome Ecclus the 24. are sung or sayd as part of her honour Ab initio ante secul creata sum vsque ad futurum seculum non desinam et i◠habitatione sancta coram ipso ministravi Of this stamp◠is that Hymne to the Apostles cited by Bellarmine without blushing Lib. de Beatitud Sanct. cap. 17. Quorum praecepto subditur Salus languor omnium Sanate aegros moribus Nos reddentes virtutibus By whose decree all like or pine To soule-sicke Patients health resigne And vnto Vertue vs incline But more sacrilegious by much is that Hymne vnto S. Iohn so well knowne and so common that the notes for Plaine-song were taken out of it vt re mi fa sol la which we might haue just cause to mislike did not the syllables sound otherwise extra dictionem than in dictione they did Vt queant laxis Resonare fibris Mira gestorum Famuli tuorum Solve peccantis Labij reatum Sancte Iohannes That with free hearts thy servants may Thy wondrous Acts and prayse display From sinnefull lips guilt take away O Holy Saint Iohn Did not such as first conceived or commonly vsed this song intend to honour S. Iohn with the best kinde of worship that was in their breasts when they desire their hearts and soules may be purified to the end they might more clearely sound forth his prayse Could the sweet Singer of Israel haue consecrated his best devotions in more solemne sort vnto God then these words imply In as much as wee never reade that S. Iohn did either send downe fire from Heaven or cause the mouths of these Priests of Bell to be stopt with haire and pitch this is to me and will be vnto the vnpartiall Reader a better argument that this blessed Saint did never heare those or like prayers directed vnto him than the Romish Church shall be able to bring That Saints deceased are ordinarily acquainted with mens petitions or desires in particular Yet vnto all these many like we must expect no answere but one but that wee may well expect should be a sound one and worthy the noting Est ergò notandum cum dicimus non deberi peti à sanctis nisi vt orent
of his second proposition That Saints are not immediate Intercessors for vs with God he proues by places of Scripture so pregnant that some of them directly disprooue all mediate or secondary Intercessors or Mediators as Coloss 1. It pleased God that in him should all fulnesse dwell If all fulnesse the fulnesse of mediation or intercession and absolute fulnesse excludes all consort As there is but one God so there is but one Mediator betweene God and man no secondary God no secondary Mediator 1. Ioh. 2. He is the propitiation for our sinnes the absolute fulnesse of propitiation And Ioh. 10. he enstileth himselfe the Doore and Way such a doore and such a way as no man may come vnto the Father but by Him This restriction in our Divinitie makes him the onely doore and the onely way not so in theirs For wee must passe through other doores that we may come to this onely immediate doore that is he is the onely doore whereby the Saints are admitted into Gods presence but Saints are necessary doores for our admission vnto him Opus est Mediatore ad mediatorem Were this Divinitie which they borrow from S. Bernard true they much wrong Aristotle and Priscian in calling him Immediatus Intercessor aut Mediator and are bound to right them by this or the like alteration of his title He is vnicus vltimus aut finalis Mediator He is the onely finall or last Mediator For a Mediator is not of one whence to be an immediate Mediator essentially includes an immediate reference to two parties Christ is no Mediator but betweene God and Man and betweene them he is no immediate Mediator vnlesse men haue as immediate accesse to him as he hath to God the Father As God he best knowes the nature and qualitie of every offence against the Deitie vnto what sentence every offender is by justice liable how far capable of mercy as man he knowes the infirmities of men not by hearesay or information but by experience and is readie to sollicite their absolution from that doome whose bitternesse is best knowne vnto him not at others request or instigation but out of that exact sympathie which he had with all that truely mourned or felt the heavinesse of their burden Whiles he was onely the sonne of God the execution of deserved vengeance was deferred by his intercession Nor did he assume our nature and substance that his person might be more favourable or that his accesse to God the Father might be more free and immediate but that wee might approach vnto him with greater boldnesse and firmer assurance of immediate audience than before we could He exposed our flesh made his owne to greater sorrowes and indignities than any man in this life can haue experience of to the end he might be a more compassionate Intercessor for vs to his Father than any man or Angell can be vnto him We need the consort of their sighes and groanes which are oppressed with the same burden of mortalitie here on earth that our ioynt prayers may pierce the heavens but these once presented to his eares neede no sollicitors to beate them into his heart Surely if the intercession of Saints had beene needfull at any time most needfull it was before Christs incarnation or passion when by the Romanists confession it was not in vse The sonne of God was sole Mediator then 4. As the impietie of their practises doth grieue my spirit so the dissonancy of their doctrine doth as it were grate and torture my vnderstanding while I contemplate their Apologies Sometimes they beare vs in hand that God is a great King whose presence poore wretched sinners may not approach without meanes first made to his domestique servants The conceipt it selfe is grossely Heathenish and comes to be so censured in the next Discourse Now seeing they pretend the fashion of preferring petitions to earthly Princes to warrant the forme of their supplications to the Lord of heaven and earth let vs see how well the patterne doth fit their practise Admitting the imitation were lawfull how could it iustifie their going to God immediately with these or the like petitions Lord I beseech thee heare the intercession of this or that Saint for me through Iesus Christ our Lord. What fitter interrogatories can I propose vnto these sacrilegious supplicants then Malachy hath vnto the like delinquents in his time If I be your Lord and King as you enstyle me where is my feare where is my honour saith the Lord of Hoastes to you Priests that despise my name and yet being chalenged of disloyaltie they scornefully demand Wherein haue Wee despised thy name Yee bring polluted offrings into my Sanctuary and yet yee say wherein haue wee polluted thy Sanctuary If yee offer such blind devotions as these is it not evill Offer them now to thy Governour to thy Prince or Soveraigne Will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person saith the Lord of Hoastes He would either be thought to mock the King and come within iust censure of disloyaltie or els be mocked out of his skin by Courtiers that durst exhibite a petition in this forme vnto his Maiestie Vouchsafe I beseech you to pardon my offences against your Highnes and admit me into good place at the intercession of your Chauncellor Treasurer Chamberlaine or Controller in honor of this his birth-day for the Princes sake your sonne my good Lord and Master yet if we change onely the persons names this petition which could become none but the Princes foole to vtter differs no more from the forme of Popish prayers vpon Saints dayes then the words of Matrimony vttered by Iohn and Mary doe from themselues whilest vttered by Nicolas and Margaret The former respectlesse absurditie would be much aggravated if the Courtiers birthday whom the petitioner would haue graced with the grant of his petition should fall vpon the Kings Coronation day or when the Prince were married Of no lesse solemnitie with the Romanist is the feast of the Crosses invention it is Christs coronation or espousals and yet withall the birth-day of two or three obscure Saints whom they request God to glorifie with their owne deliverance from all perills and dangers that can betide them through Christ their Lord. This last clause must come in at the end of every prayer to no more vse than the mention of a certaine summe of mony doth in feoffements or deedes of trust onely pro formâ Praesta quoesumus omnipotens deus vt qui sanctorum tuorum Alexandri Eventij Theodoli atque 〈◊〉 â—nalis natalitia colimus a cunctis mâ—lis imminentibus eorum intercessionibus liberemur per Dominum c. Grant we beseech thee Almightie God that wee which adore the natiuitie of the Saints of Alexander Event Theod. and Iuuenal may by their intercession be delivered from all evills that hang over vs through Iesus Christ our Lord. To be delivered from evils at or by the intercession of such Saints is
Attribute most inseperable from the divine nature and most soveraigne title of the Godhead is his goodnesse The very names or literall elements of God and good are not in our Country dialect so neare allied as the conceipts which their mention or nomination suggests are in nature So necessarily doth goodnesse presuppose a God or Deitie from which as from a fountaine it flowes and so essentiall is it to this fountaine to send forth sweet streames of ioy and comfort that the Heathen Philosopher vpon the interview of good and evill seemes to suffer torture betweene the contrarietie of his vnsetled conceipts concerning the truth or vanitie of the Godhead Si deus non sit vnde bona Can there be any good without a God Si deus sit vnde mala If there be a God how chanceth it of things that are all are not good many evill Others not altogether heathenish from curiositie of like contemplation not guided by the rule of faith imagine two eternall indâ—fectible creatiue powers the one good and sole fountaine of all goodnesse the other evill and maine souâ—se of all evill and mischiefe in the world Of both these errours and the ignorance that occasioned them we shall haue fitter occasion to speake hereafter Both of them suppose a true notion of divine goodnesse indefinitely considered wherevnto a conceipt or apprehension of divine providence in most Heathen was subordinate Many great and famous Philosophers there be sayth Tully which ascribe the government of the world vnto the wisedome of the Gods not herewith content they further acknowledge all necessary supplies of health and welfare to be procured by their providence For corne and other increase of the earth varietie of times and seasons with those changes of the weather whereby such fruits as the earth brings forth doe grow and ripen are in the same mens opinions effects of divine goodnesse to mankinde From the perpetuitie of such visible blessings as these Heathen Philosophers deriue from the bountie of their imaginary Gods doth the Doctor of the Gentiles and his fellow Apostle seeke to winne the Inhabitants of Lystra vnto the worship of the onely true invisible God How readily experience of vncouth goodnesse brings forth an expresse conceipt of a Godhead and causeth the often mentioned ingraffed notion to bud or flourish these Heathen had openly testified by their forwardnesse to sacrifice vnto these messengers of our Lord and Saviour as vnto great Gods because strange Authors or rather instruments of vnexpected good to one of their neighbours This confused branch of pietie though misgrowne and set awry was notwithstanding flexible and pliant to these poynts of life proposed by the Apostle Sirs why doe ye these things we also are men of like passions with you and preach vnto you that you should turne from these vanities vnto the living God which made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are therein who in times past suffred all Nations to walke in their owne wayes Neverthelesse he left not himselfe without witness in that he did good and gaue vs raine from heaven and fruitfull seasons filling our hearts with food and gladnesse From this one streame of divine goodnesse experienced in giving raine did the Heathens Christen their great God Iupiter with a Name importing his procurement of this effect the Greekes calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Pluvius So effectuall a witnesse of the Godhead is the accomplishment of any much desired good that such as doubt whether the good we enioy on earth be derived from heaven are often vnwittingly enforced to thinke and speake of whatsoever doth them any extraordinary good or satisfie the vehemency of their desires as of their God 4. The more indissoluble the mutuall conceipts of God and goodnesse are the sooner we loose the one whiles we remaine without experience or apprehension of the other Two conditions of life there be alike hurtfull to this engraffed notion of the Deitie 1. Affluence or abundance of things desired without interposall of indigence 2. Perpetuall indigence or sordide want without vicissitude of ordinary competency or contentment The latter vsually starues the naturall notions or conceipts of God which must be fed with sense or taste of some goodnesse the former affluence or abundance chokes it Amongst all the Barbarians which Tacitus mentioned in his description of Germanie he blemisheth one sort onely with a glauncing touch of irreligion as being so intirely and familiarly acquainted with beggarly need that they needed not the helpe of God or Man more than the beasts of the field Yet that they were altogether Atheists or abettors of infidelitie is scarce credible but very likely that they gaue lesse signes of any Religion than others did which had oftner and better occasions to supplicate the divine powers either for protection from such evills or for collation of such benefits as these Fenni had little cause greatly either to feare or hope Houshold Gods they had none because they cared not for houses Gods or Goddesses of Corne of Wine of Oyle or the like they never sought to because never accustomed to sowe to plant or reape But whether they vsed not to pray for good successe in their huntings or in skirmishing with their rude neighbours or amongst themselues is more then can be determined from Tacitus censure interserted as it seemes rather to please the Reader than seriously to empeach them of any greater crime or more loathsome disease than vsually haunts men of their constitution or condition As of the mightie and noble so of those vile and despised creatures which continue their circular and slouthfull range from house to house liking best to liue as these late mentioned Barbarians did from hand to mouth not many there be which giue any iust proofe of their calling The sense of God and his goodnesse is in most of them stupid and dull saue onely when hunger and thirst or hope of an almes instantly craued by them in his name and vsually granted by others for his sake shall whet or quicken it But as well in life spirituall as in corporall fewer by much though to many loose their stomackes through extreame penury or long fasting then there be of such as spoile or dead their taste by continuall fulnesse As long or hard want doth sometimes sterue so the perenniall current of wealth of peace or ease with other outward blessings doth vsually drowne all sense or notion of that goodnesse whence these and all other good things flow Did that part of the Moone which is next vs alwayes shine we should haue lesse occasion to enquire and greater difficulty to determine whether the light it hath were derived from the Sunne Generally such effects as admit interruption in their existence sooner lead vs vnto the true knowledge of their first and immediate causes then if they enioyed permanent duration A body subiect to some vicissitude of sicknes better discernes what causeth health then
vpon that levell whence the right aspect of heaven and heavenly powers is taken But lest having this libertie of trying all they should come to fasten on that which is best His pollicie is to cast them so farre one wrong way or other in youth that either they shall haue no thought or inclination to retire in mature age or no strength left when they grow old to recover the miscarriages of fresh and liuely motions To sway themselues that way which nature first enclined them or grace doth call them is not easie to be attempted almost impossible to be effected by men that haue beene long fettered in some linke of sociall lust or other filthinesse by men whose mindes haue beene perpetually enwrapt in the curiosities of their proud imaginations Those are the two speciall snares whereby Gods enemy detaines stirring spirits in the dregs of contradicting Atheisme But the men of whom we now speake such as haue wedded their soules to the earth count toyling and moyling in gainefull businesses greatest pleasures are as the tempter knowes of a cleane contrary constitution apt they are not to moue many wayes either vpward or downeward but onely to waggle to and fro within a narrow compasse without whose lists should he tempt them to outray much in any notorious dissolutenesse outragious villany or open blasphemy the vncouthnesse of their distemper procured by these vnnaturall motions might happily admonish them in good time to seeke a medicine The onely meanes he hath herein to prevent them is continually to feede this their deadly disease so kindly and gently as it shall never bewray any danger vntill they be past all possibilitie of recovery They goe to Hell as in a lethargie or deepe slumber Much what to this purpose it is in other parts of these comments observed that the equable morall temper which never alters much from it selfe is most obnoxious to finall miscarriage because seldome so fiercely assaulted by the enemy as to occasion any extraordinary terror of conscience And it is the lesse assaulted because it seldome or lightly rebels against him Now men never much affrighted with the danger wherein all by nature stand nor enflamed with loue of a better Country than they enioy cannot addresse themselues to any resolute or speedy departure out of the territories of civill moralities within which if Satan hold vs he makes full reckoning of vs as of his civill or naturall subiects and this as S. Gregorie obserues is the reason why many are not molested by him CHAPTER VI. Of Disputatiue Atheisme deniall of the God-head or divine providence with the severall curiosities which occasion it 1. FOrraigne supportance is seldome reiected by deserved fame and men of no deserts alwayes seeke to vnderprop their ruinous reputation or groundlesse prayse some by the place which they hold or by the societie wherein they liue others by their auncestors birth or education many by the subiect of their thoughts or worthinesse of matters which they vnworthily handle To professe noble sciences or at the most to haue taken degree in any is ground enough for some men to raise themselues farre aboue such as but yesterday were their full equalls or to stand vpon tearmes of comparison with the best And few there be of their owne Coate that would not willingly yeeld to them what thus they challenge as their due would they shew themselues either able or willing to repay that credit and estimation to the common profession which like bankrouts or decayed Marchants they are enforced either to borrow or beg from it as from the publicke stocke For all of vs are glad to see our owne profession grac't or exalted the rather because we hold it not safe to haue our heights measured onely by our personall stature vnlesse withall we take in the advantage of the ground whereon we stand 2. A second maine stem of habituated Atheisme arose as was lately intimated from this partiall desire in professors to establish the soveraigntie of those arts or faculties wherein they were best seene or most delighted And the best meanes for advancing or establishing their soveraigntie was to extend the limits of their wonted authoritie by reducing all or most effects to their principles as great Lawyers striue to bring most causes to those Courts wherin their practise or authoritie is greatest Another principall veine serving to feed the disease whereto this partiall and intemperate appetite of curious artists ministred first matter wee may if we mistake not fitly deriue from a generall aptitude of the humane soule to take impression from those obiects with which it is most familiar and to iudge of others by their correspondency with these Hence as sollicitors seeking after meanes conducible to any end vsually interceps our desires or intentions of the end it selfe for whose sake onely the meanes in reason were to be sought so doth the curious speculation of creatures visible divert the minds of many from the invisible creator vnto whom the fight of these by nature not misleveled by inordinate or vnwildy appetites would direct all And our generall facility to beleeue with speed what we much affect or strongly desire brings forth peculiar pronesses in the professors of severall arts to frame vniversall rules whether negatiue or affirmatiue from broken and imperfect inductions Now the power and wisedome of God being especially manifested in the workes of creation in the disposition of things created and in matters manageable by humane wit or consultation Satan by his sophisticall skill to worke vpon the pride of mans hart hath erected three maine pillars of Atheisme or irreligion as so many counter sorts to oppugne our beliefe or acknowledgement of the divine providence in the three subiects mentioned Many naturall Philosophers out of a partiall desire to magnifie their owne facultie observing none brought forth without a mother nothing generated without pre-existent seede or matter forth with concludes the course of things naturall which we daily see to haue beene the same from everlasting that generation had no beginning that corruption can haue no ending The imperfection of this induction and the over-reaching inference which some in this kind haue fram'd from a Maxime most true in a sense most impertinent Ex nihilo nihil fit falls in our way againe in the Article of creation The Astronomer likewise finding the influence of starres by experience to haue great force in this inferior world seekes to extend their dominion ouer humane actions or consultations as if all matters of state or private life were by their conventicles or coniunctions authentickly predetermin'd without possibilitie of repeale And thus as the Moone eclipseth the Sunne or lower Planets sometimes hide the higher so haue the Sunne the Moone and Hoast of heaven excluded his sight from approaching vnto the Father of lights Or if through them he can discerne the truth of his existence or see some glimpses of his generall attributes yet the eyes of his minde are so
chiefe enemy to their greatest good Thus they fall from one mischiefe to another vntill their consciences become cauterized with the flames of lust and being past all feeling they giue themselues over vnto lasciviousnesse to worke all vncleannesse with greedinesse 3. All dissolute behaviour is dangerous and serues as fewell to this infernall fire which will excruciate that soule after death whose conscience it seares in this life but that is much worse which is matched with hautie vastnesse of minde for the most part transfused from gluttonish appetite or the Epicurean disposition As Boares and Bulls or other creatures by nature or breeding tame onely through hugenesse of body or fulnesse of plight grow often wilde fierce or mankene so men from a like disposition of body or indulgence to brutish appetites come to a gyantly temper of minde readie to proclaime warre against heaven and heavenly powers What shall wee thinke the Gyants were saith Macrobius but a wicked generation of men which denied the gods who for this reason were thought to haue attempted their deposition from their heauenly thrones He was not pacified sayth a better Writer towards the old Gyants who fell away in the strength of their foolishnesse Hence the same Author prayes ioyntly against these sister sinnes and twinns of hell O Lord father and God of my life leaue me not in their imagination neither giue me a proud looke but turne away from thy servant a Gyantly minde Take from me vaine hope and concupiscence and retaine him in obedience that desireth continually to serue thee Let not the greedinesse of the belly nor lust of the flesh hold me and giue not me thy servant over to an impudent or gyantly minde This he prayes against was the very temper of the Cyclops as Homer and Euripides haue pictured them After Vlysses and his mates had besought the Gyant to be good vnto them for Iupiters sake the supposed protector of the helplesse stranger He answered him in this or like language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. My pettie guest a foole thou art or sure thou comm'st from farre Thou hop'st with names of heavenly Gods the Cyclops stout to scarre Vnto the Gods wee owe no feare wee no observance shâ—w Our selues to be as good as they or better well wee knowe For Goate-nurst loue his loue or hate I waigh it not a whit Nor thee nor thine for him I 'le spare but as I thinke it fit His picture as Euripides hath taken it is more Gyantly vast For he paints him proclaiming his belly to be the onely or greatest God vnto whose sacrifice the fruits increase of the earth are due by title so soveraigne as neither heaven nor earth could withdraw or deteyne them Speeches altogether as vnsavoury will the belly-servers of our time belch out though not directly against God because they liue not in an Anarchie destitute of humane lawes as the Cyclops did yet against the messengers of his sacred will revealed for their salvation whiles we dehort them from these shamefull courses wherein they glory to their destruction And albeit they vse no such expresse forme of liturgie as did the Cyclops while they sacrifice to their bellies yet S. Pauls testimony is expresse that their bellie is their God And of the two Priests or grand sacrificers to this domesticke Idoll the dry Glutton me thinkes resembles the Land-serpent as his brother the beastly Drunkard doth the Water-snake This latter is more vnsightly and vgly to the eye the former more noysome and venemous to religious societie His enmitie against the Womans seed more deadly but lesse avoydable because the working of his poyson is lesse offensiue and more secret 4. Simple Atheisme consists in an equilibration of the minde brought as it were so to hang in its owne light as it cannot see whether way to encline but hoovers in the middle with Diagoras de Dijs non habeo quid dicam c. Concerning the Gods I haue nothing to say for them or against them Howbeit to men thus minded it seemes the safest course lite pendente to sacrifice onely to their owne desires and to hold Gods part by sequestratioÌ„ The curious or disputing Atheist striues to draw himselfe downe a little below this levell by matching the attractions of divine goodnesse with the motions of his owne imaginations But the malignancy of this Atheisme which ariseth from combination of the late mentioned distempers may grow so great as to turne the notions of good and evill topsie turvie transposing these inclinations which nature hath set on heaven and heavenly things towards hell As all inordinate affections more or lesse abate or countersway our propensions vnto goodnesse so the excesse of such as are most malignant bring the soule to an vtter distaste or loathing of whatsoever is truely good and to delight in doing mischiefe Now the very procurers or advancers of mischiefe much affected shall be deified with rites and titles due to God alone as it were in factious opposition to the holy spirit The same vnwildy or vast desires of sensuall pleasures or contentments which disenables men to distinguish that which is truely good from that which seemeth best to their distempers will with the same facilitie draw them blindfold to a like sinister or preposterous choyce of their patrones As the truely godly worship the true God because his greatnesse is so good to all so vnto these wicked or malignant Impes That shall be Lord That shall be God whatsoever it be which they esteeme their greatest good or vnder whose protection they may quietly possesse what they already enioy We see it too often experienced that stubborne desires of lucre honour lust or revenge draw men destitute of other meanes for accomplishing their hopes vnto expresse and wilfull compacts with Devils or performances of sacrifices to infernall powers The observant Poet makes Iuno speake as great Personages in like remedilesse crosses vsually resolue Flectere si nequeo superos Acheronta movebo nor doth the language of that other ought vary from the common practise of forlorne hopes suggested by vast desires Vos mihi manes Este boni quoniam superis aversa voluntas If these and the like prayers or wishes of heathen supplicants found gratefull successe their second edition in plaine English was thus What Heavens haue marr'd whiles Hell amends Fiends goe for Gods and Gods for Fiends 5. With many men otherwise of sober disposition onely too much wedded to the world or to their own wills a sorcerers charme will be as acceptable as a godly prayer so the event ensuing giue present content or satisfaction to their desires Yet many Atheists as Vasques counts it a point of speciall observation vpon wicked practises sometimes recoyle and come to beleeue there is a God or guide of nature by evident experience of magicke feates farre surpassing the power of man or creatures visible 6. It
Philosophers labour to teach vs in many words yea in many volumes I can comprehend in this short precept Let vs persevere such in health as we promise to be in our sicknesse That this Heathen whiles thus well minded otherwise should be so mindfull of his God is a very pregnant proofe from the effect that the naturall ingraffed notions of the Deitie proportionably increase or wane with the notions of morall good or evill The cause hereof is more apparant from that essentiall linke or combination which is betweene the conceipt of vice and vertue and the conceipt of a Iudgement after this life wherein different estates shall be awarded to the vertuous and to the vitious hence the true apprehension of the one naturally drawes out an vndoubted apprehension of the other vnlesse the vnderstanding be vnattentiue or perverted For that any thing should be so simply good as a man might not vpon sundry respects abiure the practise of it or ought so absolutely evill as vpon no termes it might be embraced vnlesse we grant the soule to be immortall capable of miserie and happinesse in another world is an imagination vnfitting the capacitie of brutish or meere sensitiue creatures as shall be shewed by Gods assistance in the Article of finall Iudgement 5. That sicknesse and other crosses or calamities are best teachers of such good lessons as Plinies forementioned friend had learned from them Elihu long before him had observed whose observation includes thus much withall that such as will not be taught by these instructions are condemned for trewants and non-proficients in the schoole of Nature Vertue or Religion that is for Hypocrites and men vnsound at the heart For if the roote or seede of morall goodnesse remaine sound the Maxime holds alwayes true maturant aspera mentem Adversitie is like an harvest Sunne it ripeneth the minde to bring forth fruites of repentance He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous but with Kings are they on the throne yea he doth establish them for ever and they are exalted And if they be bound in fetters and be holden in cordes of affliction then he sheweth them their worke and their transgressions that they haue exceeded He openeth also their eare to discipline and commandeth that they returne from iniquitie If they obey and serue him they shall spend their dayes in prosperitie and their yeares in pleasures But if they obey not they shall perish by the sword and they shall dye without knowledge but the Hypocrites in heart heape vp wrath they cry not when he bindeth them The truth as well of Plinies as of Elihues observation is presupposed by most of Gods Prophets with whom it is vsuall to vpbraid his people with brutish stupiditie and hardnesse of heart to brand them with the note of vngracious children for not returning vnto the Lord in their distresse as if to continue in wonted sinnes or riotous courses after such sensible and reall proclamations to desist were open rebellion against God Senslesnesse of paines in extreame agonies doth not more certainly prognosticate death of body or decay of bodily life and spirits than impenitency in affliction doth a desperate estate of soule For the people turneth not vnto him that smiteth them neither doe they seeke the Lord of Hosts Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and taile branch and rush in one day And in that day did the Lord God of Hostes call to weeping and to mourning and to baldnesse and to girding with sackcloth And behold ioy and gladnesse slaying oxen and killing sheepe eating flesh and drinking wine let vs eate and drinke for to morrow wee shall dye And it was revealed in mine eares by the Lord of Hostes surely this iniquitie shall not be purged from you till ye dye sayth the Lord God of Hostes 6. The reason of this truth it selfe thus testified by three rankes of witnesses is not obscure in their Philosophy to whom I most accord who teach that the seedes of all truth are sowne by Gods hand in the humane soule and differ onely in reference or denomination from our desires of knowledge indefinitely taken As to our first parents so vnto vs when we first come vnto the vse of reason knowledge it selfe and for its owne sake seemeth sweete and welcome whether it be of things good or evill we much respect not But this desire of knowledge which in respect of actuall apprehension is indifferent neither set vpon good nor evill is vsually taken vp by actuall or experimentall knowledge of things evill or so vnprofitable that our inclinations or adherences vnto them either countersway our inclinations vnto goodnesse or choke our apprehensions of things truely good Now after our hopes of enioying such sense-pleasing obiects be by affliction or calamitie cut of the soule which hath not beene indissolubly wedded vnto them or alreadie giuen over by God vnto a reprobate sense hath more libertie than before it had to retire into it selfe and being freed from the attractiue force of allurements vnto the vanities of the world the Devill or flesh the naturall or implanted seedes of goodnesse recover life and strength and begin to sprout out into apprehensions either in loathing their former courses or in seeking after better And every least part or degree of goodnesse truely apprehended bringeth forth an apprehension of the author or fountaine whence it floweth that is of the divine nature In my prosperitie I said I shall never be moved Lord by thy favour thou hast made my mountaine to stand strong thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled I cryed to thee O Lord and vnto the Lord I made my supplication It may seeme strange to our first considerations as Calvin with some others vpon this place obserue that God should enlighten Davids eyes by hiding his face from him without the light of whose countenance even knowledge it selfe is no better than darkenesse But so it is that prosperitie doth oftentimes infatuate the best men and adversity maketh bad men wise The saying is authentique though the Author be Apocryphall Anima in angustijs spiritus anxius clamat ad te O Lord God almightie God of Israel the soule in Anguish the troubled spirit cryeth vnto thee So is that other Castigatio tua disciplina est eis Thy chastisement is their instruction Calvin hath a memorable story of a prophane Companion that in his jollitie abused these words of the Prophet The heaven even the heavens are the Lords but the earth hath he giuen to the children of men Psal 115. vers 16. The vse or application which this wretch hence made was that God had as little to doe with him here on earth as he had to doe with God in heaven But presently being taken with a suddaine gripe or pang he cryed out O God O God Yet this short affliction did not giue him perfect vnderstanding for afterwards he returned againe vnto his vomit and wallowing
in his wonted vncleanenesse This relation of Calvines serveth as a testimony to confirme the truth of Tertullians observation which serues as a Document or sure experiment of our last assertion Vultis ex operibus ipsius tot ac talibus quibus continemur quibus sustinemur quibus oblectamur etiam quibus exterremur vultis ex anim◠ipsius testimonio comprobemus Qua licet carcere corporis pressa licet institutionibus prauis circumscripta licet libidinibus et cōcupiscentijs euigorata licet falsis Dijs exancillata cum tamen resipiscit vt ex crapula vt ex somno vt ex aliqua valetudine sanitatem suam patitur Deum nominat hoc solo quia proprie verus hic vnus Deus bonus magnus Et quod Deus dederit omnium vox est Iudicem quoque contestatur illum Deus videt deo commendo Deus mihi reddet O testimonium animae naturaliter Christianae Denique pronuncians haec non ad capitolium sed ad coelum respicit Novit enim sedem Dei vivi ab illo inde descendit Shall I proue vnto you there is but one God from his manifold workes by which we are preserued and sustained with which we are refreshed yea by which we are astonished or shall I proue the same truth by the testimony of the Soule it selfe which though it be kept vnder by the prison of the body though surrounded by naughtie and dissolute education though infeebled by lust and evill concupiscence though enslaued to false Gods yet when shee returnes vnto her selfe out of distempers surfet sleepe or other infirmitie and enioyes some gleames of health shee calls on God without addition of other titles because this God which shee calls vpon is truely one truely good and truely great What God shall award is a speech rise in every mans mouth vnto this God the Soule appeales as vnto her Iudge God he sees to God I commend my cause Let God determine of me or for me A worthy testimony that the Soule is naturally Christian Finally the Soule whiles shee acts these or the like parts looketh not to the Capitoll the imagined seate of such Gods as the Romans worshipped but vp to Heaven as knowing the seate of the living God from whom and whence shee is descended Many other authorities which might here be avouched to the same purpose do sufficiently argue that the multiplicitie of Gods was a conceipt or imagination seated or hatched onely in the braine that even the very Heathens themselues which worshipped many Gods and would haue maintained their profession of such service in opposition to their adversaries vnto death being throughly pinched with calamitie or occasioned to looke seriously into their owne hearts did vsually tender their supplications vnto the Deitie or divine power it selfe which filleth all places with his presence whose tribunall is in heaven Seeing anguish of soule contrition of spirit or generally affliction cause naturall notions of God and goodnesse formerly imprisoned in the earthly or fleshly part of this old man to shoote forth and present themselues to our apprehensions in case no calamitie or affliction doe befall vs we are voluntarily to consort with others whom God hath touched with his heavie hand or as Salomon adviseth vs to visite the house of mourning more then the house of mirth Or in case the Lord vouchsafe not to send these his seuerer visitors either to vs or to our neighbours yet he alwayes giues vs libertie to inuite another guest in afflictions roome which expects no costly or curious entertainement fasting I meane now to fast according to the prescript of Gods law is to afflict our soules CHAPTER IX In what respects supernaturall grace or faith infused is necessarie to the right beliefe of these truths which may in part be certainely knowne by diligent search of naturall reason 1. BVt if to nature not blinded by vaine curiosity nor polluted with the dregs of lust if to men free from passion or chastised by the hand of God the apprehension of the Deitie be cleare and evident the habit of supernaturall assent vnto the first Article of this Creed may seeme either altogether superfluous or not very necessary Vnto this difficulty proposed in termes more generall whether faith may be of obiects otherwise evident and exactly knowne some schoole-men acutely thus reply He that by reasons demonstratiue knowes this or other like truths beleeved that there is one God and no more which hath created the world may notwithstanding the evidence of motiues necessitating his will to this assent either doubt or deeme it a truth very obscure and vnevident whether God ever revealed thus much otherwise than by the common light of Nature or helpes of Art Cōsequently to their divinity they might reduce the resolution of the difficultie proposed to fewer termes and more constant thus the habit of faith or supernaturall assent is not necessary to ascertaine vs that the matters beleeved by vs are in themselues true seeing this much as is supposed may be prooved by reasons more evident than faith which is alwayes of obiects vnevident at least wise as apprehended by vs but to assure vs that their truth was testified or avouched by God whose testimony cannot be knowne but by his expresse word written or spoken 2. But if our former assertion that our knowledge of any obiect cannot be more certaine then it is evident be orthodoxall he that could demonstrate any Article of beliefe should be more beholding to the evidence of Art or demonstration than to the supernaturall habit of vnevident faith Wherefore with better consonancy to former discussions and if we be not in both mistaken vnto the truth we may thus resolue the doubt proposed The necessary existence of a God-head or supreame cause with the possibilitie of other things beleeved may be indefinitely knowne by light of Nature or demonstration but so much of these or any Article in this Creede contain'd as every Christian must beleeue or which is all one the exact forme of any one Articles entire truth can never be knowne by Art or Nature but onely by Gods word revealed or the internall testimony of his spirit refashioning his decayed image in mens hearts according to the patterne wherein they were first created That the resurrection though this truth to corrupt nature seemes most difficult is not impossible yea that it is impossible there should not be a resurrection or iudgement after death may be demonstrated but that the wicked shall rise to torments the righteous to ioy glory everlasting is a streame of life which naturally springs not within the circuit of the heavens it must be infused from aboue 3. The naturall man left to himselfe or vsing meere spectacles of art yea though admitted to the glasse of Gods word will alwayes in one point or other conceiue amisse of the Deitie and transforme the incorruptible nature into the similitude of corruption Yet further admitting the naturall man
maketh warres to cease A God of wisedome and a God of glorie and yet a God that hath compassion on the poore and despiseth not the weake and sillie ones And as if he had feared lest Israel vpon such occasions as seduced the Romanes might misdeliver devotions confusedly intended to him vnto stormy waues or tempests or with the Aramites confine his power to vallies or mountaines or with others make him a God of the sea onely not of the land He hath sounded a counterblast to those impulsions where with the heathens were driven headlong into Idolatrie in that excellent song of Iubile The Lord is a great God and a great King aboue all Gods In his hand are the deepe places of the earth the strength of the hills is his also The sea is his and he made it and his hands formed the drie land O come let vs worship and fall downe let vs kneele before the Lord our maker For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheepe of his hand It was his pleasure to try them with penurie of water after he had tried them with scaricitie of bread that by his miraculous satisfaction of their intemperate desires of both as also of their lusting after flesh he might bring them to acknowledge him for a God as powerfull over the foules of the aire as over the fish in the sea as able to draw water out of the hard rocke as to raine bread from heaven And having indoctrinated them by their experience of his power in these and like particulars he commends this generall precept or morall induction to their serious consideration Hath God assayed to goe and take him a nation from the middest of another nation by temptations by signes and by wonders and by warre and by a mightie hand by a stretched out arme and by great terrors according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes Out of heaven he made thee to heare his voice that he might instruct thee and vpon earth he shewed thee his great fire and thou heardest his words out of the middest of the fire Know therefore this day and consider it in thine heart that the Lord he is God in heaven aboue and vpon the earth beneath there is none else And lastly That no sencelesse or liuing creature through the faulty ignorance of man might vnawares purloine any part of his honour the Psalmist hath invited all to beare consort with his people in that song of prayse and acknowledgement of his power Prayse ye the Lord from the heavens prayse him in the hights Prayse yee him all his Angells prayse yee him all his hosts Prayse yee him Sunne and Moone prayse him all yee Starres of light Prayse him yee heavens of heavens and yee waters that be aboue the heavens Let them prayse the name of the Lord For he commanded and they were created He hath also stablished them for ever and ever he hath made a decree which shall not passe Prayse the Lord from the earth yee dragons and all deepes c. Let them prayse the name of the Lord for his name alone is excellent his glory is aboue the earth and heaven CHAPTER XIX Of divers errors in Philosophie which in practise proued seminaries of Idolatrie and sorcerie 1. THe best Apologie which the greatest heathen clearks could make for themselues for the grosser fopperies of the vulgar they would not vndertake to defend was borrowed from a plausible Philosophicall opinion thus expressed by the Poet His quidam signis atque haec exempla secuti Esse apibus partem divinae mentis haustus Aethereos dixere Deum namque ire per omnes Terrásque tractúsque maris coeâ—umque prosundum Hinc peciâ—des armenta viros genus omne serarum Quemque sibi tenues nascentem arcessere vitas Scilicet huc reddi deinde ac resoluta referri Omnia nec merti esse lâ—cum sed viva volare Syderis in numerum atque alto succedere coelo Sâ—me by these signes and these examples thereto drawne haue taught The soules of Bees to be divine of heavenly spirits a draught For God say they as find they may who Natures workes per vse Through earth through seas through heavens profound liue goodnesse doth diffuse From his liue presence Cattle men birds sucke the spirit of life From him all springs in him all ends though death be nere so rife Yet nothing dies what earth forsakes findes place in starry skie What we thinke into nothing slits aboue the Heavens doth flie This opinion was worse construed by some than either the Author or Commentator meant many the most auncient especially agree in this That Deus was Anima mundi That the world was animated by God as our bodies are by our soules Whence they concluded as some later Romanists doe That all or most visible bodies might be religiously worshipped or adored with reference to Gods residence in them The Antecedent notwithstanding being graunted the practises which they hence sought to justifie are excellently refuted by S. Austine who hath drawne them withall a faire and streight line to that marke whereat they roved at randome or blind guesse by wayes successiuely infinite For answering any objection the Heathen Divines could make against vs or refuting any Apologie made for themselues I alwayes referre the Reader to this good Fathers learned labours of excellent vse in his time But my purpose is not to make men beleeue these heresies are yet aliue by hot skirmishing with them The lines of my method rather lead me to vnrippe their originalls so farre onely as not discovered they might breed daunger to our times Now in very truth the opinion pretended by them to colour the filth of their Religion did minister plentie of fuell and nutriment as learned Mirandula hath observed to those monsters whose limmes and members had beene framed from the seeds of errors hitherto mentioned and the illiterate in all probabilitie tooke much infection at eies and eares from Poeticall descriptions or Emblematicall representations of Gods immensitie such as Orpheus if wee may beleeue Clemens Alexandrinus did take out of the Prophet Esay cap. 66. vide Ciem Alexand. lib. 6. Strom. Ipse autem in magno constans firmus Olympo est Aureus huic Thronus est pedibus subiectaque Terra Oceani ad fines illi protenditur ingens Dextera montanas atque intus concutit illi Ira bases motus nec possunt ferre valentes Ipse est in coelis terram complectitur omnem Oceani ad sinus expansa est manus illi Vndique dextera Not held by them He heavens doth firmely hold Whole earth 's but footestoole to his throne of Gâ—ld Ins mightie Palme the Ocean vast doth rolle The rootes of mountaines shake at his controlle Or e Heavens through earth his right hand doth extend It all inclasps all it not comprehend 2. Iupiter though
ReligioÌ„ being formerly accustomed to worship the fire for Goâ— and to adore the thunder and lightning with divine honor set groues or trees in common woods of vnusuall height had such authoritie from antiquitie for their sacred esteeme that to cut or burne them or offer them any violence was reputed a sacrilege so fearefull as would instantly provoke vengeance divine But the woods and groues being at length cut downe and wasted without the destruction or harme of any imployed in this businesse they grew more tractable and as if the woods had taught them obedience began to beleeue the Kings authoritie and command becomming at length forward professors of Christian Religion 7. The like superstitious feare had Constantines resolution in reformation expelled out of the Aegyptians who would haue perswaded him that if he tooke their sacred ell or fathom out of Serapes Temple the River Nilus which was vnder this conceited Gods patronage would cease to flow At ille Labitur labetur in omne volubilis aenum But whether Angells had not graced these nurseries of devotion by their appearance vnto Gods servants in them especially before the Law was given is easilier questioned than determined The generall observation of errors springing from ancient truths imperfectly related makes me suspect that the apparition of Angels or manifestation of Gods presence in like places vnto holy men and their demeanour vpon such manifestations was by preposterous imitation drawn to authorize the Idololatricall worship of such spirits as the heathen had seene in visible shape as also of the supersticious esteeme or reverence of the places themselues For in Constantines time as Eusebius tells vs the Heathens had erected their Altars in the oaken groue of Mambree in which the three Angells appeared to Abraham 8. But whether Constantine though much offended with the Altar did with it destroy the groue is vncertaine For albeit the title of the Chapter containing this story in our English Eusebius takes it as graunted that he did the text notwithstanding leaues it doubtfull if not more probable that he did not Nor was it necessary he should in this case follow the example of Iosias or Ezekias having that libertie which they had not to build a Temple in the same place to the Lord vnto zealous devotion in whose service the groue might afford no lesse plenty of fuell than it had done to heathenish supersticion and Idolatry For that which feedeth superstition through want of instruction onely or through licensed opportunities not naturally not of it selfe would proue best nutriment of true devotion to such as haue the spirit of grace or wisdome to disgest it especially if the practises which nourish superstition be controlled by plausible custome or authority No affection more fertile of either than the Poeticall temper according as it is well or ill imployed No place yeelds such opportunities for growth either of roote or branch as woods or groues or like shrowdes or receptacles of retired life nor could the sight or solitary frequenting any of these haue nursed such strange superstition in the heathen but onely by suggesting a liuelier notion of the Godhead than vsuall obiects could occasion And if other mens mindes be of the same constitution with mine our apprehensions of the true God as Creator haue a kinde of spring when he renewes the face of the earth Praesentemque refert quâ—elibet herba Deum The suddainâ— growth of every grasse points out the place of his presence the varietie of flowers and hâ—â—rbes suggestâ— a secret admiration of his inexpressible beautie In this respect the frequency of Sermons seemes most necessary in Citties and great Townes that their Inhabitants who as one wittily observeth see for the most part but the workes of men may daily heare God speaking vnto them whereas such as are conversant in the fields and woods continually contemplate the workes of God And nothing naturally more apt to awaken our mindes and make them feele or see his operations than the growth of vegetables or the strange motions or instincts of creatures meerely sensitiue The secret increase or fructification of vegetables without any inherent motion or motiue facultie and the experience of sensitiues accomplishing their ends more certainely without any sparkle of reason then man doth his by reasonable contriuance or artificiall policie moued some heathens to adore groues woods birds and sensitiue creatures almost of every kinde for gods who yet neither worshipped dead elements or liuing men Dead elemeÌ„ts they neglected because their qualities lesse resemble the operations of the liuing God with some notions of whose nature they were inspired Liuing men they much admired not in that the cause of every actioÌ„ which they effect and the manner of bringing their ends about was too well knowne They saw little it seemeth in their neighbours but what they knew to be in themselues whom they had no reason to take for gods and if one should haue worshipped another perhaps the rest would haue called them fooles as birds or other creatures would haue done so they had knowne what worship meant howbeit such men in every age as could either reveale secrets to come or bring things to passe beyond the observation or experience of former humane wits were even in their life accounted as gods or neare friends vnto some god 9. Others againe that would haue scorned to worship men or almost any other liue-creature otherwise then vpon these tearmes did adore the heads or first springs of Rivers whose continuall motion to feede the streames that flow from them without any visible originall whence their owne store should be supplied is by nature not stifled by art a sufficient motiue to call the invisible Creator and fountaine of all things to mans remembrance And some againe whom sight of ordinary fountaines did lesse affect were put in mind of some divine invisible cause or prime mouer by the annuall overflow of Nilus or the like experiments inscrutable by course of nature The admirable effects of Nilus overflow were the cause of that irreligious and brutish disposition which Seneca noteth in the Aegyptian husbandmen Nemo Aratorum in Aegypto Coelum aspicit No Plowman in Aegypt lookes towardes Heaven The like hath a Romane Poet Te propter nullos Tellus tua postulat imbres Aâ—ida nec plu vio supplicat herba Iove Aegyptian earth saue Nilus streames no water knowes No parched grasse or Ioue or moistned ayre there wo'es The soile being mellowed with this River seemed lesse beholden to heaven than Athens was where as some collect the art of tilling the ground was first invented amongst the Graecians Albeit I rather thinke it was the drinesse of the soile wherein that famous Cittie stood which occasioned that Idololatricall embleme whence some haue taken occasion to coniecture that the art of tillage was first manifested there Athenis vbi ratio colendi agrum primum ostensa esse Graecis dicitur simulachrum terrae extitisse suppliciter
sacrificers to reiterate his everlasting sacrifice here on earth as by joyning other everlasting intercessors with him as his assistants in heaven is an argument more directly pertinent to some Articles following in the Creede My present observations must be limited by the references to the maine conclusion intended That the Romish Church in her publicke Liturgie doth often giue the realtie of Christs soveraigne titles sometimes the very titles themselues vnto Saints sometimes leauing not so great difference betweene the divine Maiestie or glorious Trinitie and other coelestiall inhabitants as the Heathens did betwixt their greater and lesser Gods or as we do between ordinary Princes and their subiects Tyâ—urne or Bedlam would quickly take order with him that would seeke or suffer an act of the prerogatiue royall as granting of pardons creation of Barons calling of Parliaments to passe joyntly in the name of the Kings Maiestie of the Queenes or Princes in the name of all the officers of the Court and Common-wealth descending as low as Bay liffes Constables Church-wardens and Tythingmen And the Pope would take it as an hereticall diminution of his plenary power if every Bishop should receiue his Pall every sinner his indulgence every soule in Purgatory her dismission in his Holines name and in the name of all his Cardinalls Bishops Priests and Deacons Yet in the translation of a Christian soule from this life to a better after they haue directed their supplications to all the severall orders of Saints for their intercession with God in the very agony of death they draw their safe conducts in this forme Depart out of this world in the name of God the Father Almightie who hath created thee in the name of Iesus Christ the sonne of God who suffered for thee in the name of the holy Ghost who was powred forth vpon thee in the name of Angells and Aâ—changells in the name of thrones and dominations in the name of principalities powers in the name of Cherubims and Seraphims in the name of Patriarckes and Prophets in the name of holy Apostles and Evangelists in the name of holy Martyrs and Confessors in the name of holy Monkes and Eremites in the name of Virgins and of all Gods Saints and Saintesses This day let thy soule be in peace and thy habitation in holy Sion If thus they pray with their lips onely they mocke God as well as the Saints If thus they pray with internall affection of heart and spirit they really worship Saints with the selfe same honour wherewith they honour God Nor is it credible they doe intend or possible though intended they should in one and the same prayer or continued supplication produce the like change in the affections of their heart and spirit as an Organist doth in Musicke by changing the stoppes Or though they could produce the like change in every severall ejaculation yet the honour wherewith they honour God and the Saints should continue still of the same kind and differ onely in degree or modulation Or might they not with lesse impietie admit a Christian soule into the Church militant than translate it into the Church triumphant in other names besides the Trinitie They might better baptize them onely in the name of God the Father and of S. Francis S. Bennet and S. Dominicke c. without any mention of God the sonne and holy Ghost rather than joyne these as commissioners with them in dismissing soules out of their bodies To censure this part of their Liturgie as it deserues it is no prayer but a charme conceived out of the dregs and reliques of Heathenish Idolatrie which cannot be brought forth but in blasphemie nor be applyed to any sicke soule without sorcery CHAPTER XXIX Proouing by manifest instances and confessed matters of fact that the Romish Church doth really exhibit divers parts of that honour or worship vnto Saints which by her confession is onely due vnto God That her nice distinctions of Dulia and Latria or the like argue no difference at all in the reallitie or substance of the Worship but at the most divers respects of one and the same Worship 1. THe more vpon these occasions I looke into the Romane Liturgie the more I am enforst to commend the Heathen Philosophers ingenuous reply to Anaxarchus sophisticall allegations for honouring Alexander as a God I for my part sayth Callisthenes doe not thinke Alexander vnworthy of any honour which is convenient to be given to men But the differences betwixt Honour humane and divine are determined as by many other things so by the building of Temples by the erection of Statues Wee consecrate shrines and offer sacrifice and incense to the Gods vnto the same Gods Hymnes are due as prayses are to men But the honour due to the Gods is specially differenced by the manner of adoration Men are greeted with kisses but the Gods are saluted with adoration being placed so high that wee may not touch them Vnto the Gods likewise wee expresse our ioyfull thankesgiving in solemne dances and songs And no marvell if the honour which we giue to Gods be distinguished from the honour which we giue to men seeing divers kindes of honours are allotted to divers Gods The honour given to Heroickes deceased differeth from honour truely divine It is therefore vnfitting to confound these vnfitting to extoll men by lavish honour aboue humane state or to coarctate the Gods vnto a state vnfitting their dignitie or to worship them after the same manner as wee doe men Nor could Alexander himselfe be well pleased if a priuate man should vsurpe royall titles by election or vnlawfull suffrages Much more iustly will the Gods be moued with indignation if any mortall man shall either arrogantly affect or willingly accept divine honours though proffered by others 2. Yet thinks the Romanist either God will not be angry or els his anger may be quickly appeased with the mentall conception of former distinctions never vttered Albeit they make the Virgin Mary Queene of Heaven and Mother of mercie and bestow his other best titles in hymnes or solemne service vpon the Saints it must suffice him that some few other parts of divine honour mentioned by this Heathen as offering of sacrifice erection of Temples and Altars are reserved onely to his Maiestie These by their own confession are proper acts of that religious worship which may not be communicated to any Saint or Angell and so are vowes conceived in solemne and legall forme Let vs see then how well their practises sute with their speculations in these points and what neede the devotions of vulgar breasts haue of sublimated braines to preserue them from the poyson of damnable and more than Heathenish Idolatrie If I should aske one of them What service is this you celebrate to day Whose Church is this wherein you celebrate it they would make no scruple to say the one was S. Peters Church the other his Masse If both Church and Masse doe beare
of reliques or worshipping of images their meaning was as if they had prayed that the Pope would approoue of whatsoever the people should publickly practise for it is but another part of the former conclusion that all whom he shall vouchsafe to canonize may be lawfully adored by the vniversall Church in publicke and solemne Liturgies so that to worship such is now more necessary than it was before 2. Never had the infernall powers since their fall so just occasion given them by any creatures of insultation and triumph at the wonderfull successe of their policies as by these latter Romanists who as well by Apologizing for their superstition towards the dead whereof others haue chalenged them as by seeking to reforme some grosse abuses whereof themselues were ashamed haue beene fetcht over to commit more detestable and more blasphemous idolatry with living men than any Heathen ever did with their deceased Heroicks with their false Gods or true devills Such as worshipped those beastly Romane Emperours whom their Successors consecrated were not bound to beleeue nor could their Successors perswade themselues that the Senate could not erre or doe amisse in decreeing divine honour to them That people not knowing what faith meant did onely as their chiefe Magistrates commanded them nor did these command all throughout the Empire to be partakers with them in their idolatrous worship But now to dispute whether the Pope doe well or amisse in canonizing men after death whom he knew not living is held a point of heresie or infidelitie His absolute infallibilitie as well in declaring who are Saints as in determining what honour is due vnto them is prest vpon vs as a Maxime of faith And is not this to worship him with divine honour That conceipt which the old Romanes had of their consecrated Emperours came as farre short of this divine excellency which Papists imagine in the Pope as the Iewes opinion of their Messias whom they expected should be a King doth of that esteeme which true Christians make of Christ whom they adore as God The superstitious knowledge or rather the practicall ignorance of the true God differeth no otherwise in Rome-Heathen and Rome-Christian than the ordinary knowledge of Christ in the old Testament and in the New The idolatry of Rome-Heathen agrees with the idolatry of Rome-Christian as the type or shadow with the body or substance 3. Bellarmine giveth Melancthon the lye for saying the Romish Church ascribes a divine power to Saints in knowing mens thoughts I aske them not knowing our thoughts how can they know our petitions No Catholique saith he did ever teach that they know our prayers as they are cōceived in our minds but as they are in God who reveales them to his Saints and Angels He would not thus fiercely avert the imputation of the Antecedent vnlesse he knew the inference to be legall and vnavoydable To pray then to Saints out of presumed beliefe that they know the secrets of our hearts were by his confession to ascribe a divinitie vnto them and to worship them with divine honour plaine idolatrie Therefore they pray vnto them out of assurance that God who sees our hearts acquaints them with our hearts desires Yet that one Saint that every Saint should by this meanes know every mans prayers that is enjoyned to pray vnto them necessarily supposeth a participation of that infinite knowledge which is incommunicable To see the secrets of mans heart is one of Gods peculiar titles If Saints by enioying his presence enioy this sight no reason can be conceived why in seeing him they may not see all things that are in him all that he sees And so they shall not be onely Gods but as was observed before Gods Almightie by participation But admitting that all such as enioy Gods presence doe heare our prayers I demaund what ground of beliefe Romane Catholiques can haue that many whom they must pray vnto are partakers of Gods presence Onely this The Pope hath canonized them But seeing the world is full of dissimulation and hypocrisie seeing men are partiall to giue better testimony of such as they seeke to preferre than they can deserue how can his Holines know them to be true Saints vnlesse he know their hearts by better testimony than humane As a Christian he knowes that onely the pure in heart enioy the blessed sight of God But how can he so infallibly know as becomes a Pope whether such as lived in England in Spaine in Asia America or other remote parts of the world were pure in heart or but hypocrites If he may erre in this knowledge the people must erre in practise 4. Their resolution of this point comes to this finall issue Saints celestiall see our hearts in seeing God Romane Catholiques see the integritie and puritie of their hearts whose faces they never saw in the Pope or by reading his decrees He stands as God to them on earth as the true God is to the Saints in heaven He knowes as certainely who goes to heaven and what they doe there as God knowes what is done in earth And out of this confident beliefe of his infallible all-seeing spirit his creatures pray to S. Francis Dominicke Aquinas as vnto secondary or intermediate Intercessors with the same assurance of faith that they doe to Christ as to their principall Mediatour And reason they haue so to doe God Almightie hath said that Christ is in heaven and the Pope hath sayd of Aquinas Dominicke or some other they are in heaven Thus like foolish Mariners or Fresh water Souldiers after they had beene long carried vp and downe with the blasts of vaine doctrine fearing ship-wracke in the open Ocean of former ages idolatrie and yet ashamed to returne to the Haven whence they loosed lest wise men should laugh at them they put in at the jawes of hell for Harbour SECTION V. Of the transformation of the Deitie or divine power in his nature attributes word or will revealed CHAPTER XLI Transformation of the divine nature doth issue from the same originall or generall fallacie from which Idolatrie and multiplicitie of Gods was observed to issue Chapter 17. 1. AMONGST the Heathen many who did not altogether so vainely multiplie their gods did most grossely misfigure the divine nature or God-head The common roote to both these branches of errour but from which the latter doth more directly spring and take more kindly was pronenesse to conceiue of matters heavenly and invisible according to the best forme or patterne which they had of matters visible or earthly Now to be sole Lord of the whole earth without consorts of like nature would be a life to the wisest and healthiest of men most irkesome And the Philosopher out of a popular opinion either of his owne or times more auncient makes competent store of friendes or alliances necessary supporters of faelicitie Now as that happinesse which in this life they hoped for supposed friends or other contentments so the common notion of the
Vide Annotationem ex Seneca parag 4. huius capitis a Adeò autem natura hunc amnem suprà reliquos omnes extulit vt eo impore increscat quo maximè vlta feruoribus terra aquam desiderat expletura annuam ficim cùm in ea parte quâ Aegyptus in Aethiopiam vergit nullis aut raris imbribus adversus sicâ—itatem adiu veâ—â—â—r Cuius incrementi foecundissimi ratio solid uinitati accepta ferendâ— est frustrae emâ— alias quisquam rationes scrutabitur Et fortè hoc pramio à mundi origine Deus Aegyptum remunerari voluit prasciens fore vt Christus sâ—curus in ea lateret Herodem cruentum evaderet Foâ—cat lib. 2. pag. 229. b Gymnoâ—ot hista Nilum venerantur magno culâ—u ipsumque aquam tâ—rramque simulesse praedicant Ibid pag 230. c Why the Aegyptians neglecting heaven did overesteem the River Nilus See Section 1. chap 4. par 4. of this Booke * Vide Plin in â—anegyâ— a Non est omâ—â—teÌ„ dainea re et Gallâ—arum admiratiâ— Nihil habent Dâ—uidae â—a suâ—s appellant magoâ— visâ—o arbore in qua â—â—guaÌ„tâ—r simodo sit robâ—â— â—acratius Iam per se roborum eliguÌ„t lucos nec vlla sacra sine ea fronâ—e conficâ—unt vt inde appellatâ— quoque interpretatione Graeâ—apossint Drâ—â—da videâ—i Enimaerâ— quicquid adnascatur illis è coelo missum putant signumque esse electae ab ipso Deo arboris Esta temâ—d raruÌ„ adâ—â—du inuentu et repertuÌ„ magna religione petitur et ante omma sexta Luna qua princitia mensiuÌ„ annoruÌ„que his facit et saeculi post tricesimuÌ„ annuÌ„ quia iaÌ„ vâ—â—uÌ„ abundè habeat necsit 〈◊〉 Omnia sananteÌ„ appellaÌ„tes suo vocabulo sacrificijs epulisqueâ—â—è sub arbore prepaâ—atis duo admo â—eÌ„t caÌ„didi coloris taurâ—s quoruÌ„ cornua tuÌ„c primuÌ„ vinâ—â—atur Sâ—câ—edos caÌ„dida veste cultus arboreÌ„ scaÌ„dit falce aurea demetit CaÌ„dido id excipitur sago 〈…〉 pâ—ecantes â—t suuÌ„ denuÌ„ Deus prosperuÌ„ faciat his quibus dederit Facâ—nditateÌ„ eâ— poâ—â—darâ—â—â—â—uÌ„que animali sâ—e 〈◊〉 arbitraÌ„tur coÌ„traque venena omnia esse remedio Tantagentium â—â—rebus frâ—â—â—lis pâ—eâ—umque religio est Plin nat hist l 16. p. 409. Ovid. * Horace * Augilae ipsi Africa populi nullos Deos putaruÌ„t prater defunctoruÌ„ manes à quibus responsa petere solebant sepulchris incubantes vt Mela abijque prodiderunt Gyraldus histor Deorum Syritagma 1. pag. 6. * Aristotl 1. Ethicorum * Vigesimo post quam domâ— disceâ—serat die SestoÌ„ peruenit â—ide in Eleunta profectus Protesilao super ipsius tumulum sacrificat quod Proteâ—â—â—â— câ—â—ditur Graeco 〈◊〉 quis â—â—◠〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 militaruns primus in Afiâ—â—â—â—edem intulisse Sacrâ—ficij verò scopus hic erat vt felicior ipsi quam Pretesilao dâ—scâ—nsus in Asâ—am esset Arrianus de expedit Alex lib. 1. pag. 12. * Arrian l. 4 pag. 85. * Vide Platarchâ—â— * Then King Herod heard of him for his name was spread abroad and said Iohn Baptist is risen againe from the dead and therefore great workes are wrought by him Mark 6. vers 14. Vide Matth. 14. vers 1 2. a Platâ—ipse ad senectâ—ten se diligentia per tulit Erat quidem corpus validuÌ„ ac forte spiritus et illi nomen latitudo pectoris feceâ—at sed nauigationes at pericula multum detiaxerunt viribus parsimonia tameÌ„ et eorum quae auiditateÌ„ euocant modus et diligens sui tutela perduxit illuÌ„ ad senectutem multis probibentibus caufis Nam hoc scis puto platoni diligentia sua beneficio coÌ„tigisse quod natalâ— suo decessit annum vnum atque octogesimum impleuit sine vlla deductione Ideo Magi quiforte Athenis erant immolauerunt defancto amphoris fuisse sortis quan humanae rati quia consummasset perfectissimuÌ„ numerum quem nouem nouies multiplicata componunt Seneca Epistola 58. b Hinc etiam Romulus quem quidem eundem esse Quirinum putant quorum remanerent animi atque aternitatefruerentur dij rite sunt hab ti cum et optimi eflent et aterni Cicero lib. 2. de natura Dâ—orum c Aâ—us enim tuus ó Ascâ—epi medicinae primus inuenter cui templum consecratum est in monte Libya circa Litius Crocodilorum in quo eius iacet mundanus hâ—rno idest corpus reliquus enim vel potius totus si est homo totus in sensu vitae meliorremeauit in coeluÌ„ omnia etiam nunc hominâ—bus adiumeÌ„ta prastan infiâ—mas numine nunc suo qua antè so ebat medician aâ—teprabere Ecce dixit mortuum colipro Deo in eo loco vbi habebat sepulchruÌ„ failu ac fallens dicendo quod remeauit in coeluÌ„ omnia etiam nunc hominibus adiumenta prasians infiâ—mis Aug de Civit Deiad Marcelimuâ—â— l 7. c 26 Terrenis euim dijs atque munlanis facile est trasci vt â—ote qui sunt ab hominâ—bus ex vtraque natura facti atque couipositi Ex vtraque natura dicit ex anima et corpore vt pro anima sit damon prâ—corpure simulachrum Vnde contigit mouâ—t ab Aegyptus hac sancta animalia nuncupari câ—lique per singular ciuitates eorum animas qui eas consecrauere viuemes ita vt corumlegibus incolintur et coruÌ„ nominibus nuncupentur Augustinus ibidem * In his CoÌ„mentaries vpon the forecited place of S. Augustine Litera q. * Levit 19.28 * Cum Mamerâ—â—â— freti aâ—â—â—lae ad sesâ—â—â—â— dorum des ques Rhegâ—â—â—â—oleâ—â—â—â—tu agitabâ—nt â—ueâ—os triginta qumque cuÌ„que his Châ—â— magistâ—um tib â—â—xem 〈◊〉 naues acta ad vnum onmes periere Mame â—tiui istuÌ„ puâ— orum in te â—â—um luxcâ—e câ—m ali 〈…〉 〈◊〉 Vetu inscriptiodâ—n messe Mamertinorum indurat fieti accolarum Interiecto dein tempâ—â—e Hippias qui inter Graecos sapientiae laude claruit elegis titulos earum statuarum fecit Paâ—â—san lib 5. pag 337. If not the fathers certainly the mothers of these children would solaâ—e themselues with such â—jaculations whilest they beheld their statues as Andromache did O mea sola mihi super Astyanactis Im go sicculâ—s sic ille manus sic ora ferebat nâ—ne a â—ualitecium pubesceret auâ— Virgil Aeneid 3 Marc. Tullius qui non tantum perfectus Orator sed etiam Philâ—sâ—phâ— fuit siquidem solus extitit Platonis imitator in eo libro quo se ipse de morte silia consolatus câ— non dubitauit dicere Deos qui publicè colerentur homines fuisse Qâ—â—d pius testimonium co debet grauissinum iudicari quod et augurale habet sacerdotium et eâ—â—dem se colere venerarique testatur Itaque intra paucos versiculos duas res nobis dedit Nam dum Imaginem filiae eodem se mâ—do consecraturum esse profiteretur quo illi à veteribus sunt consecrati et illoâ— mortuos esse docuit et origmem vanae superstitionis ostendit Cum vero