vs in his seruice and that wee contrarywise turne all things to our selues as to their proper ende yea and euen our selues to our selues which are nothing If we kept a reckoning of our life how small a part thereof do we bestowe vpon God How fewe of our steppes doe wee walke in his seruice How fewe of our thoughts are directed vnto him And if wée looke vppon our very prayers what are they but continuall offences seeing that euen in the middest of our greatest vehemencie we vanish away by and by into vayne imaginations and are caried as farre away from our prayers into wandering conceyts as heauen is distant from earth and further What Sonne will not fall out with him that speakes euill of his Father or els all that stand by will count him a coward if he passe it ouer with silence Contrarywise which of vs is moued when he heareth Gods name blasphemed or if he be moued that setteth himselfe in defence of him or if he set himselfe in defence doth not by and by forget it What then doth this argewe but that in very trueth our Soule liueth not but our Body and that our Soule hath not her mouings and actions free and liuely seeing it is not moued at the iniuries that are done to the Soule and to the father that made the Soule but at the wrongs that are done to the body and to the father of the bodie If a man breake the Scutchions of our Armes wee take it to bee a great disgrace to vs and a touching of our credite and if hée breake our Images or Pictures we fall out with him and will neuer be reconciled And if it be done to a Prince he makes it a poynt of high Treason and that we doe not the like it is not for want of pride but for want of power to reuenge it On the contrary parte which of vs is greeued at the wrong that is done to his neyghbor or rather which wrongeth not his neyghbor euery day Or which is much moued when he seeth a man slayne before his face vnlesse he be his brother or néere friend Nay which of vs our selues doth not daylie kill his brother eyther in very déede or in heart eyther with the Sword I meane or by hatred euen for the least offence that can be pretended and so teareth or breaketh not the Image of God which he hath paynted and ingraued in man euen euery hower without any regard Now what els is this but that we know not this Image of God to bee in our selues For otherwise how durst wee bee so presumptuous as to offer any hurt or harme vnto it but because the secret consent of all mankinde in such outrage confesseth it to be quite and cleane forgone or at leastwise to bee so disfigured and defaced and so straungely berayed that it can scarsly bee discerned any more And because the kindred that is betwéene all men deriued from the father of their Soules moueth vs very little but the vyle kindred of the flesh moueth vs very much which is as farre inferiour to the other as there is oddes betwixt the soule and a lump of earth or betwéene the fathers of eyther of them that is to wit betwéene GOD and Man Yet notwithstanding seeing that the wickeddest man in the world and such a one as seemeth to bee touched with nothing hauing once slayne him whom he hated most of all men doth by and by after the deede done feele a hart◠byting in his mynd and a torment in his Conscience which thing he feeleth not for the killing of a thousand beastes euery day what can we say to be the cause thereof but only the remaynder of Gods Image common to all men which putteth him in mynd of the wickednesse that he hath done and is highly offended at his owne offence and which according to this saying The good blud lyeth not maketh our indytement of it self and would fayne euen it self be reuenged of vs within vs Therfore let vs say which thing we cannot denye vnlesse wee denye our selues that God created man to be to him as a Child and that man is growne out of kynd yea straungely growne out of kynd not regarding as wee see in most men to bee knowne eyther of his father or of his brethren which thing notwithstanding the bastards of this world do seeke to their vttermost to doe but by his will going about to abolish his pedegrée and al his titles of kindred that he might be called the Sonne of the earth which was the name of Bastards in old tyme rather than the some of him that begate him and created so many things for him to inioye For proofe whereof to be true what ame we at in all our studies and indeuers but the earth and earthly things Had we continued still in our originall creation wee should according to the spirituall substaunce of our Soules haue naturally pursewed spirituall things yea and haue mounted vp aboue the very heauenly things But where seeke wee now our inheritance our welfare and our felicitie but in these transitorie things And whereof are al our suites and quarrels in this world but of Cattell of Corne and of Land Wherefore we must néedes confesse that it is a witnesse of the dishereting of Mankynd from the heritage of his father and that he is in his fathers displeasure and dissauour and that he doth but runne after Peasecoddes as the prodigall Childe did when he had wasted his inheritance licentiously But now to come to those which make most profession of godlinesse whence thinke we commeth the distrust that all of vs haue naturally of Gods goodnesse and assistance but of the feeling of our iust disherison which our conscience is greeued at within vs The sonne of a good and rich father behighteth himselfe as much reléefe as his father is able to yéeld and as he himselfe hath néede of If not but that the Child doubt thereof we presume so farre of the fathers goodnesse that we conclude that his sonne hath offended him and made himself vnworthy of his goodnesse by some great cryme Now then seeing that God is the very goodnesse and riches themselues wherof commeth it that no man can assure himself of them that no man can rest himself boldly enough vpon him that no man can trust vnto him so assuredly as his goodnesse requireth and finally that our requestes are so full of distrust and our hearts so full of vnbeléefe Surely séeing the fault cannot be in Gods goodnesse which is a fountayne that cannot be dreyned drye it must néedes be that the fault remayneth alonly in the naughtinesse and frayltie of our selues which dare not hope for good at the hand of him which is most excellently good because our whole nature telleth vs that we bee vnworthie of his grace by reason we haue offended him too gréeuously If we consider the gouernment and order of the World wee may euen there also find apparantly
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
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
the Romanes nor in the Histories of the Greekes To be short to begin his Historie at the furthest end he maketh his enteraunce at the reigne of the Scyonians which was the very selfesame tyme that Ninus began his reigne euen the same Ninus which made warre against Zoroastres which was about that tyme of Abraham The same Varro accounteth Thebes for the auncientest Cittie of all Greece as builded by Ogyges wherevppon the Greekes called all auncient things Ogygians and by his reckoning it was not past two thousand and one hundred yéeres afore his owne tyme. Trogus Pompeius beginneth his Historie at the bottome of al antiquitie that remained in remembraunce and that is but at Ninus who by report of Diodorus was the first that found any Historiographer to write of his doings The same Diodorus saith that the greatest antiquitie of Greece is but from the time of Iuachus who liued in the tyme of Amoses King of AEgipt that is to say as Appion confesseth in the very tyme of Moyses And intending to haue begun his Storie at the beginning of the world he beginneth at the warres of Troy and he saith in his Preface that his Storie conteyneth not aboue a thousande one hundred thirtie and eight yéeres which fell out sayth he in the reigne of Iulius Caesar in the tyme that he was making warre against the Galles that is to say lesse than twelue hundred yéeres afore the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ. Also the goodly Historie of Atticus whereof Cicero commendeth the diligence so greatly conteineth but seuen hundred yéeres Which thing Macrobius obseruing commeth to conclude with vs. Who doubteth saith he whether the World had a beginning or no yea euen a fewe yeeres since seeing that the very Histories of the Greekes do scarsly conteyne the doings of two thousand yeeres For afore the reigne of Ninus who is reported to haue bin the father of Semiramis there is not any thing to be found in writing Yea and Lucrece himselfe as great an Epicure and despiser of God as he was is constreined to yéeld thereunto when he seeth that the vttermost bound which all Histories bee they neuer so auncient doe atteynt vnto is but the destruction of Troy For thus sayth he Now if that no beginning was of Heauen and Earth at all But that they euerlasting were and so continue shall How â—aps iâ— that of former things no Poets had delight Afore the wofull warres of Troy and Thebes for to wright Yea but the Registers of the Chaldees will some man say are of more antiquitie For as Cicero reporteth they make their vaunt that they haue the natiuities of Childred noted set downe in writing from natiuitie to natiuitie for aboue the space of thrée and fortie thousand yeres afore the reigne of the great Alexander And that is true But as it hath bin very well marked when they speake after their Schoolemaner they meane alwaies as witnesseth Diodorus the moneth yéere that is to say euery moneth to be a yéere which account being reckoned backe from the tyme of Alexander hitteth iust vppon the creation of the World according to the account of the yéeres set downe by Moyses Likewise when the Iberians say they haue had the vse of Letters and of writing by the space of sixe thousand yéeres agoe they speake after the maner of their owne accounting of the yéere which was but fower moneths to a yéere And in good sooth Porphirius himselfe will serue for a good witnesse in that behalfe who sayth that the obseruations of the Chaldees which Callisthenes sent froÌ„ BabyloÌ„ into Greece in the tyme of Alexander passed not aboue a thousand and nyne hundred yéeres As for the obseruations of Hipparchus which Ptolomie vseth they drawe much néerer vnto our tymes for they reach not beyond the time of Nabugodoâ—ozer To be short from our Indictions we mount vp to the Stories of the Romanes and from them to the yéerely Registers of their Priestes and so to the Calenders of their Feastes Holidaies and finally to the time of their driuing of the nayle into the wall of the Temple of Minerua which was done alwaies yéerely in the Moneth of September to the intent that the number of the yéeres should not bee forgotten From thence we procéede to the Greeke Olimpiads the one halfe of which tyme is altogether fabulous and beyond the first Olimpiade there is nothing but a thicke Cloude of ignorance euen in the lightsomest places of all Greece In which darknesse we haue nothing to direct vs if we followe not Moyses who citeth the booke of the Lords warres and leadeth vs safely euen to our first originall beginning And how should the Histories of the Gentiles be of any antiquitie when there was not yet any reading or writing From Printing we step vp vnto bookes of written hand from the Paper which we haue now we come to Parchment from Parchment to the Paper of AEgipt which was inuented in the tyme of Alexander from that vnto Tables of Lead and Waxe and finally to the Leaues and Barkes of diuers Trées From writing we goe consequently to reading and so to the inuention of Letters which Letters the Greekes taught vnto the Latines and the Phenicians to the Greekes who had not any skill of them at the tyme of the warres at Troy as the very names of them doe well bewray and the Iewes taught them to the Phenicians For in very déede what are the Phenicians in account of all Cosmographers but inhabiters of the Seacoast of Palestine or Iewrie And so the saying of Ewpolemus a very auncient writer of Histories is found true namely that Moyses was the first teacher of Grâ—â—â—mer that is to say of the Arte of Reading notwithstanding â—â—at Philo doe father it vpon Abraham and that the Phenician â—ad it of the Iewes and the Greekes of the Phenicians in râ—spect whereof Letters were in old tyme called Phenicians Phenicians were the first if trust bée giuen to Fame That durst expresse the voyce in shapes that might preserue the 〈◊〉 Here I cannot forbeare to giue Plinie a little nippe Letâ—â—â— sayth he haue bin from euerlasting And why so For sayth hâ— the Letters of the AEgiptians had their first comming vp about a fiftéeue yéeres afore the reigne of Ninus But Epigenes a graue Author sayth that in Babylone certeine obseruations of Starres were written in Tyles or Brickes a Seuenhundred and twentie yeeres afore And Berosus and Critodemus which speake with the least doe say fowerhundred and fowerscore yeres O extreame blockishnes he concludeth the eternitie of letters vpon that wherby they be proued to be but late come vp Now then seeing wee find the originall comming vp of Artes of Lawes and Gouernement of Traffick and Merchaundise of soode and of very Letters that is to say both of â—iuing wel and of liuing after any sort should we rather graunt an euerlasting ignorance in man than a kynd of youthfulnesse
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
hath bouÌ„ded or filled vp this distance but only the will of him who only is And if will were the dooer thereof then was it not of necessitie And if it was not of necessitie then where is the eternitie thereof Porphyrius disputing of the Mind or Understanding the which hee termeth the beginning ground or welspring of the World sayeth that it was bred of God from euerlasting by a certeine eternall or beginninglesse breeding euen such a one as was afore all eternitie It was not bred in tyme sayth he for as yet there was no tyme at all and after that tyme was made the world can scarâ—ly bee sayd in very dede to be if it be compared with the foresayd Vnderstanding or Mynd This is all one with the saying of Trismegistus in a certeine place where he calleth this mind the trew euerlasting and first borne Sonne of God and this world Gods yonger Sonne the one begotten of his verie nature and the other of his will Proclus and Simplicius keepe a greate coyle in mayntenance of the eternitie of the world and haue made bookes therof ageinst Philoponus but all their reasons are sufficiently refuted by the things which I haue discoursed against Aristotle But seing they maynteyne Gods Prouidence and the immortalitie of the Soule doo they not reiect eternitie whither they will or no And whereas Proclus wryting against such as vpheld that there bee infinite worlds without nomber sayth that such infinitenes is ageinst reason and knowledge and that the admitting therof excludeth God and abandoneth all things to fortune why should he rather admiâ— infinitenesse of time in this one world than infinitenesse of nomber in many specially seeing hee alloweth Gods prouidence And wheras Simplicius condemneth those to hell which beleeue noâ— the Prouidence vppon the Reasons of Epictetus dooth hee not consequently condemne the defenders of the eternitie of the world too the same punishment And when Auerrhoes himselfe sayth that it is our dewtie to magnifie God by prayer and sacrifize and that it is planted euen in nature to offer sacrifize is he not contrarie to himself for to what end reuerence we God if we be nothing beholden to him neuerthelesse my alledging of these things is not as though I knew not well that the Platonists yea and euen these aformentioned philosophers also do call the world euerlasting and vnbegotten but to shew that the very surest of them haue wauered in this opinion insomuch that they haue left vs principles contrarie to their conclusions and after all their long skirmishes they find no rest but in our Camp And soothly the most part of them be driuen to acknowledge certeine Degrees of eternitie Wherof the first should be that which is measured by the continewance of that which is euermore of it selfe and becometh neither the longer for aught that is to come nor yet the shorter for aught that is past and that is it which is to be ascribed alonly vnto God The second as the measure of such things as haue a fixed and béeing stable and yet haue also a certeine succession in their operations of which sort are the vnderstanding spirits or Angells and this is properly called Aynesse The third as the measuring of durablenesse continued by forenesse and afternesse hauing a beginning but not an end and this they call Tyme attributing it properly to the World And what else is this than to speake that thing by circumstance which we vtter in one word For to what purpose cal they a thing eternall or euerlasting if by the termes Eternall and Euerlasting they meane temporall After which maner the Emperour Iustinian speaking vnproperly of his owne Lawes sayd he hoped that they should be eternall and euerlasting As touâ—hing the opinion of Epictetus the Stoik of Plutarke no man can doubt except he quite and cleane disanull their bookes GOD sayth Epictetus hath ordeined that there should bee Wiinter and Sommer good seasons and bad he hath giuen to the Earth both fruitfulnes and barrennes and his disposing of things so by contraries is to mainteyne the harmony of the whole He hath brought vs into the world giuen vs bodies and members and assigned vs heritages fellowheires It is hee that hath made both the sight and the colours and neither sight nor colours were aught worth if it were not for the light and therefore hath he also made the light Thus from poynt to poynt he leadeth vs to this conclusion that GOD made the World and all that is therein Plurarke sayth thus If God were not the maker of all things then should he bee restreyned in some things and so were he not Lord of all But he is to be acknowledged for Lord of all and therefore of coÌ„sequence he is the maker of them all And here might a great nomber of the forealledged sentences of the selfesame Authors be alledged againe But what shall we say if Galien who in comon account is the most heathenish of al writers after he hath throughly ript vp both man and the world it selfe be in the end constreyned too come backe to the same poynt I make here sayth he in his booke of the vse of parts a true Hymne in the honour of our Maker Whose seruice I beleeue verily consisteth not in the sacrifising of hundreds of Oxen vnto him or in burning great heapes of Frankincense before him but in acknowledging the greatnesse of his wisdome Powre and goodnes and in making the same knowen vnto others For whereas of his owne free will hee hath voutsafed to garnish and beawtifie all things in the best maner that could be and hath not enuied so great a benefite to any thing I hould it for a proofe of perfect goodnes and so farre praysed be his goodnes Again to haue found out the meanes how to adorne things so richly sheweth a souereigne Wisdome and to haue brought to passe and perfected al that euer he had forepurposed betokeneth an incoÌ„parable might and power And in his seauentéenth booke who so considereth sayth he the composing knitting togither of euery liuing thing shall find that it caryeth in it a proofe of the Creators wisdom And seeing that in the middes of that Puddle of humors eche liuing wight hath a Soule dwelling indued with so great force and vertue he ought of reason the more to wonder at the greatnes and excellencie of the Mind that dwelleth in heauen And who is he had he sayd afore which looking but onely vpon the Skinne of a thing woondereth not at the cunning of the Creator Yet notwithstanding hee dissembleth not that he had tryed by all meanes to find some reason of the composing of liuing wights and that hee would rather haue fathered the doing thereof vpon nature then vppon the very author of nature But yet for all that in the end he concludeth thus I confesse saith he that I knowe not what the Soule is nothwithstanding that I haue sought
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
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
father but by and by Will inferreth therevpon Ergo wee ought to obey him and to serue him yea and it procéedeth yet further that sith he is our father and we his children it is for our most behoof to returne vnto him O Lord saith Hermes What thankes shal we yeeld thee And byandby he answereth Lord there is but only one thanke and that is the acknowledging of thy Maiestie And agein The only way to come vnto God is godlines matched with knowledge that is to say to knowe how he wil be serued and therevpon to serue him And Pythagoras was woont to say to the same purpose forasmuch as wee be nothing without God it becommeth vs to liue vnto God Plato commendeth Religion in a thousand places whereof I will not take past two or three sayings here It is mans felicitie saith he to be like vnto God As how By being rightuous and holy How may that be By Religion towards GOD which is the greatest vertue that can be among men Aristotle by many mens report was Religious and as for Auerrhoes his interpreter he was vtterly irreligious Neuerthelesse see how nature swimmeth ouer vngodlines Aristotle sayth it is graffed in nature to doo sacrifice And Auerrhoes sayth that we be bound by nature to magnifie God with Prayers and Sacrifices What is this to say but that it is naturall to man yea euen in respect of his shape and substance to haue a Religion And why Alexander professeth himselfe to be the interpreter of Aristotle and therefore hee shall interprete him for vs here It is sayth he because our whole felicitie consisteth in deuotion towards God For wee looke for none other reward but God himselfe and him being the very souerein good we obteyne by seruing him Now when we heare these words wee may thinke it was a strong torment of conscience that wroong this trueth out of them For all men knowe that chéesly Auerrhoes vrgeth the eternitie of the world and the vniuersalitie of one onely Mynd which yet notwithstanding cannot match with godlynes Epictetus maketh not the like florishes of Philosophie but yet he playeth the Philosopher much better in deede If wee had wit sayth he what should we doe but prayse God continually and sing Psalmes of thankesgiuing vnto him euen in digging and tilling the ground and both in iourneying and in resting As how Euen saying thus Great is God which hath giuen vs these tooles to till the earth withall Great which hath giuen vs hands to woorke withall Greate which hath giuen vs too growe euen not woting it and to breath euen being a sleepe for these are things that cannot be imputed to our owne cunning Such sayth he ought to be the Songs of euery of vs. And againe If I were a Nightingale I should doe as Nightingales doe but being a reasonable Creature what shall I doe now I will euermore prayse God saith he without ceasing and I will exhort you all to do the lyke And Simplice his interpreter hauing first made many goodly discourses addeth that hee which is negligent and slothfull in seruing and honoring God cannot be diligent in any other thing how needfull so euer the same be Of all vertues saith Hierocles Religion is the guyde for it concerneth the matters of God and therfore Pythagoras beginneth his precepts thereat And the woord which he vseth there for a guyde signifieth a Queene which one word importeth very much namely that al the vertues which we make account of as Hardines Wisdome Iustice and Temperance are nothing if they be not referred vnto God and vsed in respect of him that is to say if Religion do not direct and leade them to God the principall end whereto all our doings ought to tend But what is Religion It is sayeth he the obeying of God the moother of all vertewes and the disobeying of all vyces And our obeying of God must be of such a sorte that we must rather disobey our parents yea and lose our lyues to than disobey him For our obeying of our parents must be for the loue of God and it is of his goodnesse that we possesse our lyues Iamblichus sayeth thus Let vs begin at the best and most precious namely the obseruing of Religion which is the seruing of God And in another place Thou surmisest saith he that there is some other way than Godlynes to atteyne to felicitie and thou askest of me what that way may be But surely say I if the very substance and original power of al goodnes and welfare be in the Gods onely those are happy which consecrate and vnyte themselues to God after our example For in that state are both contemplation and knowledge accomplished and besides the knowledge of the Goddes there is also the knowledge of ourselues which is gotten by casting backe our vnderstanding towards ourselues To be short Proclus as wel vppon his owne iudgment as vppon the opinions of Plato Iamblichus Porphyrius Plotin and others saieth that Religion and the calling vpon God are proper and peculiar to man after the fourth maner as Aristotle termeth it that is to say a naturall propertie which agreeth fitly to the whole kind of man and only to man and without the which he cannot bee a man Now I am not ignorant that they speake sometimes of the seruing of the Gods in the pulrall number as though there were mo Gods then one insomuch that some of the Philosophers turned aside to arte magike and all of them yeelded to the I dolatries Superstitions of their tymes For in deede to knowe that God ought to bee serued and to knowe after what sort he wil be serued and to serue him thereafter are things farre differing But it is inough for this tyme that we win thus much at their hands that of necessitie there is a Religion which thing euen the Nauigations of our tyme doe shewe to be imprinted in all the Clymates of the world and in all kinds of men as which haue discouered Nations that wander in Woods without Law without Magistrate without King but none without some kynd of seruing of God none without some shadowe of Religion Héerby then we know that there is a Religion that is to say a way to Saluation or a way whereby to come home againe vnto God But are there many wayes or but onely one It is a high question but yet easie to be decyded if we consider what Religion requireth of vs and what it is to get for vs. Religion as the men of olde time themselues haue taught vs requireth of vs in effect that we should yéeld full obedience vnto God ful obediēce say I so as we should dedicate our selues to his glorie both our thoughts words and deedes in such sort that our selues and all that euer is in vs should bee referred to his honour If Religion require this how can it be any other then one Or what diuersitie
Temple he foretelleth the ouerthrowe of them both Beeing required a sittingplace at his right hand or at his left he answereth of a Cuppe that such a petitioner is to drinke When men go about to make him King he steales away from them And whereas his Apostles looke for some greate triumphe his accomplishing of it is after the maner that the Prophet Zacharie speakes of namely by ryding vpon a shée Asse euen vpon the Colt of an Asse And yet neuerthelesse Herod the King trembleth at him in his throne the whole Counsell of the Realme are in a perplexitie and all the people are astonished And in his doings he maketh it to appeare sufficiently that he hath the hearts of all men in his hand and that if he himselfe listed hee should be obeyed both of the greatest persons and in the greatest matters Surely then wee may well say that the marke which this Iesus and the marke which the Messias leueleth at are both one namely to drawe men from the earth and to make them to plant their whole hope by his meanes in heauen It followeth that to this office which he did euidently take vppon him he brought the qualities requisite to the executing thereof that is to wit that he was both God and Man I say God as the Sonne of God and Man as borne of a woman without sinne and such in all poyntes as he was forepromised to be Of this hope we haue some footesteppes in the Gospell For some say We haue heard say that Christ endureth for euer And Nathaneel himselfe sayth Sir Art thou the Sonne of GOD and the King of Israell That is to say art thou the Sonne of GOD whom we looke for to be the King of Israell To the same purpose may wée set his two natures heere one against another Hee himselfe was hungrie and yet hee fed many thousands with a feawe Loaues He suffered thirst and yet he gaue other men liuing Waters that ouerflowed He was wéerie and yet he saide come vnto mée all yee that are weerie He payd tribute but he commaunded the Fish to pay the Tributemony for him He was dumb as a Lamb but yet was the very spéech itself He yéelded vp his spirit and dyed but he told them hee had power to take it to him againe To be short hee was condemned but he iustifieth He was slayne but he saueth He prayed but his praying was for vs and hee heareth our prayers For these countermatchings and the lyke doe wee reade of in our Euangelists in whom wee haue the dooings of both natures distinguished and yet notwithstanding ioyned togither in one persone But if they will vtterly deny our Gospels then shall wee in that poynt be more vpright than they for we will not deny al their writing Now they agree with vs that hee was man and for all their casting vp of their Foame against him in their bookes yet are they not able to charge him with any vice euen in his priuate lyfe and therefore the chiefe thing that wee haue to stand vppon is the proofe of his Godhead Iesus sayth our Gospell wrought miracles Hee healed the sicke restored Limmes to the lame gaue sight to the blind and raised the dead vnto lyfe and that not in one or twoo places but in many nor in a corner but in the open sight of the world and there are many thousands of men which will rather dye vpon the Racke than deny him yea or not preach him I aske them vpon their consciences if they will deny that he wrought any miracles If they deny it then what a miracâ—e is this that so many people doe followe a poore abiect without miracles and are contented to dye for his sake euen when he himselfe is dead And if these miracles of his as namely the restoring both of sight and lyfe such others were not very great and farre surmounting all nature of man yet who would lose his lyfe but for a better and how could hee giue the better which could not giue the other And if it bee a miracle to woorke vppon a man by touching him and much more without touching him and most of all without seeing him what a miracle is it to worke in the heartes of whole Nations farre of without seeing them and to touche them without comming at them and to turne them to him without touching them And if the bones of Elias bee commended for prophesying in his Tumbe what shall this Iesus bee for ouercomming so many people and for conquering so many Nations after his death yea and which is a greater matter euen by the death of his seruants who preached nothing but his death But the Rabbines saw welly nough that the miracles of Iesus could not be denyed And truely R. Iohanan sayth in the Talmud that a Neuew of R. Iosua the sonne of Leuy had taken poyson and that beeing adiured by the name of Iesus hee was healed out of hand and this is a verifying of that which Iesus himselfe sayth namely that if they drinke any deadly thing it shall not hurt them And Rabbi Ioses sayth that when a Serpent had bitten Eleazar the sonne of Duma Iames the Disciple of Iesus would haue healed him and Rabbi Samuel would not suffer him And Iosephus their owne Storiwriter speaking of the miracles of Iesus findeth them so wonderfull that hee cannot tell whether he ought to call him Man or God And they ought not to thinke it straunge that he should woorke miracles considering that they beléeue the miracles of Moyses of Elias of Eliseus and diuers others But some of them did attribute his miracles to Magicke and some to the power of the name of God which they charged him to haue vsurped in the examining of both which poynts I beseech them to ioyne with mee without affection As touching Magicke they say that their thréescore and tenne Senators whom they call Sanhedrin were very skilfull in it and so sayth R. Selomoh also the better to conuince the Inchaunters And we reade in Iosephus that Magicke was neuer more frequented in Iewrie then it was among the Doctors at this tyme. Now if their meaning was to conuict Iesus as an euill doer why did they not put him to shame why did they not vse the rigour of the Lawe against him How happeneth it that in their accusing of him they charge him not with any Magicke at all Or if they meant to ouercome him by the arte why did not some one of them woorke the like things or greater Why did not their miracles swallowe vp his Nay contrariwise whereof commeth it that Iosephus calleth Iesus a worker of miracles and the other sort Magicians and deceitfull Cowseners And that his miracles worke still euen after his death whereas theirs vanished away afore they were dead But like as in the tyme of Moyses God suffered great Magicians to be in AEgipt that hee might make his owne power the
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
He answered in 21. Gréeke verses rehearsed by Lactantius whereof I will holde me contented with the latter thrée which are to be englished thus The selfebred bred without the helpe of Moother Wise of himselfe whose name no wight can tell Doth dwell in fyre beyond all reach of thought Of whom we Angelles are the smallest part The rest of these Uerses commend and set foorth the Maiestie of the great God but these suffize for this matter Héere the Féend doth what he can to magnifie himselfe saying that he is an Angell and a little portion of God but yet hée acknowledgeth him as his Souereine Porphyrius the great enemie of Christians rehearseth many other like The same Apollo being asked how GOD was to be worshipped answered in 22. Uerses calling him the euerlasting Father the Walker vpon the Heauen of Heauens the Fashioner or framer of substances the father of all things the father of all wights both mortall and immortall And on the other side he calleth all others his Children his Seruants his Messengers and the Heraults or blazers abroad of his prayses In another answere comprised in ten Uerses he calleth him the burning Flame the Welspring and Originall of all things the author of life and so foorth and afterward he concludeth I am but Phoebus more of mee ye get not at my hand It is as little in my mynd as I can vnderstand Being asked at another tyme by the Founder of Constantinople whether he should resist an enemie of his or no he answered thus Apollo is not of that mynd beware How thou doest deale he is too strong for thee For God it is that makes him vndertake This enterprise and doth the same maynteyne Euen God I tell thee vnder whom both Heauen And Earth and Sea and euery thing therein And Phoebus eke and Hell it selfe doth quake Proclus sayth that the Oracles acknowledged the great God the Welspring of the fountayne of all things And for an example he alledgeth this Oracle of fower Uerses From God springeth the generation of all matter from the same ground riseth the finenesse of the fyre and the Globes of the World and whatsoeuer els is bred and so foorth That is the answer of Apollo the God so greatly renowmed among the Heathen when he was asked what God was And being vrged to tell what he himselfe was and how he would be called he sayd Call me the Feend that knoweth all and is right sage and wise And at another tyme he sayth thus Wee Feends which haunt both Sea and Land through all the world so wide Do trēble at the whip of God which all the world doth guide These foresayd Oracles are reported by Porphyrius Proclus and other Heathen men wherof some be rehearsed also by Lactantius which may suffize to shewe how the very Deuils doe beléeue one God and quake at him But I hope I shall bee pardoned for handling this matter a little at the largest because the consent of all men in that behalfe which I haue alreadie proued is contrary to the opinion of many men And therefore ye see heere how the World Men and the Deuilles themselues crye out with the holy Scripture Hearken O Israell the Lord thy God is but one God the God of Gods who onely worketh wonders hath not his like among the Gods And that is the thing which I haue gone about to proue in these last two Chapters The fourth Chapter What it is that we can comprehend concerning God NOW albeit that the least things which are in Nature and in our selues doe sufficiently shewe vs that there is but one GOD Yet notwithstanding all Nature is not able to teach vs what that God is neither is man in nature able to comprehend any thing of him and the reason therof is euident in both twayne In Man because the greater can neuer be comprehended by the lesser neither can Man haue any thing in vnderstanding which hath not first bene in his sences as from whence procéedeth vnto him the beginning of all naturall knowledge And he neither seeth nor perceiueth God in himself but only by his effects In Nature because it is a thing wrought by God and no work or effect how great so euer it be can perfectly expresse the cause or worker thereof Man is able to discourse after a sort of the things that are lesse than himselfe as of Beastes Plants and Stones And yet if hee will enter into their substaunces he must néedes stop short and is constreyued to stay vpon the histories of them confessing his knowledge to be but ignoraunce If he come to himself to knowe his owne Soule by the power of his Soule by and by he is at his wits ende For the maner of his discourse is but to procéede from kynd to kynd and to passe from one reason to another But on the contrary part his mynd seeth not it selfe but onely turneth into it selfe leauing not any thing empty without it self whereunto to extend no more than a Circle doth And yet notwithstanding euery thing is equall to it selfe and measurable by it selfe What shall we then thinke that Man can doe if he aduaunce himselfe to the considering of Goddes nature seeing that the least Creatures that are doe put him to his trumpe That is the very thing which hath made the ignorant sort to ouershoote themselues so farre as to counterfect God by a shape like themselues which thing the very Beastes sayth Xenophanes would haue done if they had bin Paynters as which cannot ordinarily conceiue any greater thing than themselues Ye see then how Man is of himself too farre vnable to conceiue such a Greatnesse Againe if we consider the effects a man planteth buyldeth paynteth and weaueth a thousande diuers workes and wee thinke it not straunge that the bruite Beastes conceiue not thereby what Man is howbeit that there is alwaies some proportion of vnderstanding betwene Creature and Creature but betwéene the Creature and the Creator there is none at all Nay there is yet this more that a man shall see and feele the workes of another man and he shall knowe from whence he taketh his stuffe after what maner he matcheth things together and what Arte he hath obserued But shall he for all that knowe what the Soule or Mynd of that man is No nor yet his owne Soule For his doings come nothing néere to that which he is no not so néere as the heate which the Sunne sheadeth into vs from aboue approcheth néere to the naturall power that is in the Sunne the which notwithstanding wee durst not take vpon vs to describe if we had neuer felt it otherwise than in a Prison But if thou couldest haue entered into the mynde of that man at the making of his worke thou shouldest haue seene it farre more beautifull there and all that euer he could do or thou say is alwaies farre lesse than his Conceyt and yet the same Conceyt
haue had a beginning all of them Againe when we consider that the Earth receyueth his Seasons from the Sunne the Sea his Tydes from the Moone the Ayre his Windes from an outward power that is vnseene ought wée not to seeke the beginning thereof aboue and not beneath without them and not within them seeing that nothing héere belowe hath mouing of it selfe And if the Elements which are accounted for the very grounds and beginnings of things acknowledge a beginning of their mouings ought we not to acknowledge the same in all other things Again if we consider how this Moone which maketh the Tydes in the Sea hath no light but from the Sunne which maketh the Seasons on the Earth doe we not conclude by and by that the Seasons of the Earth and the Tydes of the Sea and the continnall chaunges mouings and as ye would say backebreathings of the Elements haue one commoÌ„ beginning But it may bee that these mouings haue place but onely vnder the Moone and not in that fifth Quintessence of the Heauen the substantialnesse and eternitie whereof Aristotle doth so highly commend Nay what if the higher wee mount vp they proclayme their beginning still the lowder What if the thing which we most chiefly wonder at in the Heauen be most repugnant to eternitie The Sunne maketh there his naturall course in the Zodiacke betwéene the two Tropicks or Turnepoynts so as the Zodiacke is as it were his race and the Tropicks are his vtmost listes both the which are so distinguished by degrées and minutes that hee cannot passe one hearebredth beyond them The poynts of his two stops are his vtmost bounds the which so soone as he commeth at by and by he turneth head back againe Must he not theÌ„ néedes haue had a place to set out from seeing he hath a place whereat to stop Euery fower and twentie howers hee is caryed from East to West by the mouing of the Skye and like as by his natural mouing he maketh the Sommer and the Winter so by this violent moouing he maketh Day and Night Can such succession of tymes and Seasons be made otherwise than in tyme or rather be any other thing than tyme The Moone likewise finisheth her course euery Moneth we see how she chaungeth groweth becommeth full and waneth Euery Planet hath his prefixed tyme and his ordinary course To be short men see the rising and the going downe of the Starres and likewise their appearing and their tarying out of sight and the very Heauen it selfe which with himselfe caryeth all the rest about doth it not but by moouing Now whatsoeuer is moued is moued in tyme and all goings or whéelings about must néeds begin at some one poynt like as in the drawing of a Circle the one shanke of the Compasses is set fast in some place and the other shanke is caryed round about What followeth theâ— but that the mouing of the Heauen and of al the things which the Heauen beareth and caryeth about hath had a beginning Then let vs not wonder at the brightnesse and light thereof as Aristotle did for that bewrayeth the matter so much the more apparantly in that it hath not that light but by distribution of mouing nor at his perpetuall mouing for that sheweth the more his streyt seruice whereto he is subiect nor at his Constancie for that is necessitie nor at his huge greatnesse for he is so much the more hugely bowed downe Surely the Skye is as the great whéele of a Clocke which sheweth the Planets the Signes the howers and the Tydes euery one in their tyme and that which seemeth to be his chiefe wonder proueth him to bee subiect to tyme yea and to bee the very instrument of tyme. Now seeing he is an instrument there is a Worker that putteth him to vse a Clockkéeper that ruleth him a Mynd that was the first procurer of his mouing For euery instrument how mouable so euer it be is but a dead thing so farre foorth as it is but an instrument if it haue not life and mouing from some other thing than it it selfe Yea but will some man say the Heauen goeth about continually and in so many worlds and ages as haue bin we perceiue no alteration at all Wretched man that thou art Thy Hart and thy Lights also haue a continuall mouing and neuer lye still and thou with all the witte thou hast canst neither increase it nor restreine it The Phisitions themselues feele it but can find no cause of it The Philosophers ouertyre themselues in seeking it and yet canst thou not tell the ende and the beginning thereof Doest not thou things thy selfe which men as thou art doe déeme to be without end as straunge Milles and Trindles and such other kind of selfmouings of whose beginnings not euen Children are ignorant And yet vnder colour that the great whéele of Heauen hath now of long tyme turned about without ceasing wilt thou be so childish or so bliâ—d as to beléeue that it hath turned so from euerlasting O man the same workmayster which hath set vp the Clock of thy hart for halfe a score yeares hath also set vp this huge engine of the Skyes for certeyne thousands of yeares Great are his Circuits and small are thyne and yet when thou hast accounted them throughly they come both to one Let vs come to the things that haue lyfe and feâ—ce The PlaÌ„ts shoote foorth into branches and beare both bud and fruite but yet either the plant springeth of the kernell or the kernell of the plant and both of theÌ„ procéede of a maker Of liuing wights some bring foorth their yong ones alyue and some lay Egges and we knowe which is ingendred of which but whether the Egge come of the Hen or the Hen of the Egge it must néedes bée confessed that the one of them had a beginning But I will leaue this vayne disputing whether of them was the first which question the holy scripture will discusse in one word Yea and nature it selfe also will discusse it which requireth to haue the first things brought foorth in their perfect being For it is enough for our purpose that they may find themselues conuicted of a beginning throughout all things And I pray you if they cannot tell whether the mouing of their Heart or of their Loongs began first with shutting or with opening at the thrusting of the breth foorth or at the drawing of it in whereof notwithstanding they cannot but knowe that there was a beginning ought they to be admitted to deny that things had a beginning because it might be douted at which poynt they began Now if the Dumb and spéechelesse things â—ry out so lowd and the things that are voyd of reason conclude so reasonably shall only man whom God hath indued both with spéech and reason be either so vnhonest as to hold his peace or so shamelesse as to resist Soothly as touching our bodyes we know the beginning of them
and our so curious searching out of Pedegrees maketh vs too confesse it whether wée will or no. And if any thing in the worlde might haue any true pretence or lykelyhod to boast of an eternitie our Soules might doe it which without mouing themselues doe doe cause a thousand things to remoue They moūt vp vnto Heauen and go downe to the déepe without shifting their place They hoord vp the whole world in the storehouse of their memorie without combering of any roome there They packe vp all tymes past present and to come together without passing from one too another To be short they conceyue and conteyne all things and after a sort euen themselues also And yet shall we be so bold as too say they be eternal without beginning Nay how can that be sith we sée that they profit and learne yea and oftentimes also appayre and forget from age to age and from day to day How I say can that be sith we sée that they passe frō ignorance to knowledge from darkenesse to light from gladnesse to sadnesse and from hope to despayre and that not by yeeres but euen in minutes and moments And which more is wee sée them receyue great trouble and alteration by and for the things that are mutable and transitorie which florish in the morning and are withered and parched as in an Ouen at night Now to be altered and chaunged importeth a mouing and he that graunteth a mouing graunteth also a beginning and to be moued by things mutable sheweth an ouer great inconstancie of nature which is a thing tootoo contrarie vnto eternitie To be short how can that thing be eternall or euerlasting which cannot so much as by any imagination resemble aught that this word eternitie betokeneth And yet this soule of ours is the thing which in man ioyneth Heauen and Earth togither marketh the chaunges in things aboue and for the most part worketh them in the things beneath carying vp a handfull of dust aboue the skyes and after a sort bringing downe Heauen vnto the Earth Much more reason then is it that neither in the Heauen nor in the Earth nor in all the Harmonie of the whole world which wee so greatly wonder at there should not be any approching at al vnto eternitie Some man perchaunce will say vnto mee that in the partes of the World there is no eternitie but yet there may be in the whole Nay how can a Whole bee eternall which is composed of brittle and temporall parts And what call they the Whole but the huge frame of Heauen whose mouing proueth that it had a beginning Againe some other will perhaps say there is a beginning of moouing in the world as well in the whole as in the parts thereof but yet it doth not therefore followe that it had beginning of béeing Nay if the being thereof was euerlastingly afore the mouing therof how could it be called in Latine Mundus in Gréeke Cosmos that is to say A goodly or beautifull order seeing that for the most part Order dependeth vppon moouing For take from the Heauens their turning about and from the Sunne his course and set them fast in some place where you list and you shall make the one halfe of the Earth blynd and the whole Earth eyther scorched with his continuall presence or desert and vninhabitable by his absence and ye shall make the Sea for the most part vnsayleable and the Ayre vnfruitfull or vntemperate Therefore it will followe at the least that the World hath not bin inhabited euerlastingly nor the Plants thereof bin eternall nor the liuing Creatures no not euen Mankynd bin without beginning Surely I wote not what eyes these Philosophers had who had leuer to eternise the Stones Rocks and Mountaines than themselues for whom those things were made And againe to what purpose serued the Sunne and the Moone at that tyme Wherefore serued Ayre wherefore serued Sea when nothing did yet liue see and breathe It remayneth then that afore mouing it was but a confused heape masse or lump of things without shape and that in processe of tyme as some say a certeyne Soule wound it selfe into it and gaue shape to that bodie and afterward life mouing and fence to the partes thereof according as he had made euery of them capable to receiue insomuch that the world is nothing els but that confused heape now orderly disposed indewed with soule and life so as of that soule and confused lumpe together there is now made one perfect liuing wight A proper imagination surely and méete for a very Beast to father his so orderly essence vppon the shapelessenesse of a Chaos that is to say of confusednesse remoued away rather than vpon the wisedome power of a quickning Spirit But seeing that this Chaos could not receyue eyther shape or order but by the sayd Soule if they be both eternall how met they together in one poynt being of so contrary natures the one to shape and the other to be shaped If it were by aduenture how did that Soule by aduenture so set things in order and how happeneth it that it hath not since that tyme put them out of order againe Or if it were by aduise of whom should that aduise be but of a Superiour And who is that Superiour but God Againe eyther this Soule was tyed really and in very déede to this bodie of the world from all eternitie or els it did but onely pearce through it by his power as seemed best of the owne freewill If it were tyed specially to such a confused masse by whō but by force of a higher power And then what els could that confused Chaos be to him but an euerlasting graue And what els also were that to say than that the sayd Chaos was as a shapelesse Child yet newly begotten and scarce set together in the moothers wombe which within a few daies after by the infusion of a Soule beginneth to haue shape mouing and sence and afterward in his due tyme is borne and being growne vp decayeth agayne and so endeth as our bodies doe Or if a Soule pearced into it and went through it by a freewil and power let vs not striue about termes for a Soule is so named in respect of a bodie whereto it is tyed the same is the liuing GOD who at his pleasure gaue it both shape life and mouing But I will shew hereafter that he not only gaue the Worlde his shape but also created the very matter stuffe and substance thereof But it suffiseth mée at this tyme to wrest from them that he is the maker and shaper thereof Let vs yet more clearely set forth the originall of the World I aske what the world is of it selfe If it moue not it forgoeth both his order and his beautie as I sayd afore And if it moue it sheweth it selfe vncapable of eternitie But there is yet more These lower spaces of the world are the harbrough of liuing creatures and
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
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
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
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
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
man the Countie of Mirandula praying them to consider at least wyse whether the greate studye and peynes which those greate Clerks haue takâ—n to disprooue this destinie can by any meanes bee fathered vppon destinie Now then for a small conclusion of this whole discourse let vs say that God is a souereine Beeing and a souerein mynd and that Beeing and Mynding are all one in him and therefore that as in creating things the might and power of his Beeing extended euen to the least things or els they had not bin at all so the Prouidence forecast and direction of his mynd extend to all things or else they could not continue Let not the confusion of things which we see â—eere belowe trubble vs for the greater the same is the greatâ—â— doth Gods prouidence shewe it self therein as the skill of a Phisition doth in the intricatenesse of a disease But who is he that can limit the sight of the Euerlasting God Surely not the prosperities of the wicked for they be but visors nor the aduersities of the godly for they be but exercises nor the Deathes of the giltlesse for it is but a poudering of their vertewes to preserue them to the vse of posteritie Nay let not euen sinne it selfe which is the very euill in deede cause any grudge of mynd in vs for God Created Nature good but euill is sproong thereof He Created freedome and it is degenerated into Loocenesse But let vs prayse God for giuing vs powers and let vs condemne our selues for abusing them Let vs glorifie him for chastising vs by our owne Loocenesse for executing his Iustice by our vniust Dealings and for performing the ordinaunce of his rightfull will by our inordinate passions It we see a thing whereof we knowe not the cause let vs acknowledge our ignorance and not name it fortune The causes that are furthest a sunder are neere at hand vnto him to performe whatsoeuer he listeth If we do any vnreasonable thing let vs not alledge necessitie He can skill to vse all things without marring them the moouable according to their moouings the things indewed with will according to their passions and the things indewed with reason according to their reasonings In thinking to do our owne will we bring his to passe We be free to followe out owne Nature and our Nature is becomme euill through sinne O wretched fréedome which bringeth vs vnder such bondage And aâ—fore this nature of ours we can neither shun it nor driue it from vs for we be bonâ—â—laues to it and it to sinne and there behoueth a stronger than our selues to rid vs thereof Therefore let vs pray God to bring the fréedome of our wills in bondage to his will and to frée our soules from this hard and damnable kind of fréedome and to graunt vs by his grace not as to the wicked to doe his will in béeing vnwilling to do it but as to his Children at least wise to be willing to doe it euen in not doing it The xiiij Chapter That the Soule of Man is immortall or dyeth not HIthertoo I haue treated of the world that is to be conceiued in vnderstanding and of the sensible World as the Platonists tearme them that is to say of God and of this World Now followeth the examining of the Little World as they terme it that is to say of man Concerning God we haue acknowledged him to be a Spirit and as touching the World we haue found it to be a body In man wee haue an abridgment of both namely of God in respect of Spirit and of the World in composition of body as though the Creator of purpose to set forth a mirror of his woorks intended to bring into one little compasse both the infinitenesse of his owne nature and also the hougenesse of the whole world together Wee see in mans body a Woonderfull mixture of the fower Elements the veynes spreading forth like Riuers to the vttermost members as many instruments of sence as theere be sensible natures in the world a greate nomber of sinewes Fleshstrings and knitters a Head by speciall priuiledge Directed vp too Heauen-ward Hands seruing to all maner of seruices Whatsoeuer he is that shall consider no more but onely this instrument without life without sence and without mouing cannot but think verily that it is made to verie greate purpose and he must needes krie out as Hermes or as the Sarzin Abdala doth that man is a miracle which farre surmounteth not only these Lower Elements but also the verie Heauen and all the ornaments thereof But if he could as it were out of himself behold this body receiuing life and entering into the vse of all his motions with such forewardnesse hands bestirring themselues so nimbly and after so sundrie fashions and the Senses vttering their force so farre of without stirring out of their place think you not that he would be woonderfully rauished and so much more woonder at the sayd life mouing and sence than at the body as he woondered afore at the body to behold the excellencie of the proportion thereof aboue the masse of some stone For what comparison is there betweene a Lute and a Luteplayer or betweene a dumb instrument and him that maketh it to sound What would he say then if he could afterward see how the same man being now quickned atteyneth in one moment from the one side of the earth to the other without shifting of place descending downe to the centre of the world and mounting vp aboue the outtermost circle of it both at once present in a thousand places at one instant imbracing the whole without touching it kreeping vpon the earth and yet conteyning it beholding the Heauens from beneath and beeing aboue the Heauens of Heauens both at once Should hee not be compelled to say that in this sillie body there dwelleth a greater thing than the body greater than the earth yea greater than the whole world togither Then let vs say with Plato that man is dubble outward and inward The outward man is that which we see with our eyes which forgoeth not his shape wheÌ„ it is dead no more than a Lute forgoeth his shape when the Luteplaier ceasseth from making it to sound howbeit that both life mouing sence and reason be out of it The inward man is the Soule and that is properly the very man which vseth the body as an instrument whereunto though it be vnited by the power of God yet doth it not remoue when the body ronneth It seeth when the eyes be shut and sometymes seeth not when the eyes be wyde open It traueleth while the body resteth and resteth when the body traueleth that is to say it is able of it self to parforme his owne actions without the help of the outward man wheras on the contrarie part the outward without the help of the inward that is to wit the body without the presence of the Soule hath neither sence mouing life no nor continewance of
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
that man holdeth not himself in his state but is falne from the seate of honour wherein God had placed him God had set him aloft aboue the Stones aboue the Plantes aboue the Brute beastes yea and aboue the world it selfe If he abyde still in his degree whence commeth it that so many men make themselues bondflaues to Gold and other mettals and that so many men doe leade the life of Plants and brute beastes in the bodyes of men some giuing themselues to nought els than to eating drinking and sléeping and neuer lifting themselues vp any higher and othersome consuming and wasting themselues in most beastly delights pleasures For what beast is there that would be a Plant or Plant that shooteth not vp to get out of the ground To be short what thing is there in the whole world sauing onely man which doth not very precisely kéepe the owne state and degree I pray you if a man should see one with a princely Crowne al myry on his head tilling the ground and following the Plough what would he thinke but that he were deposed from his Throne and that some mischief were befalne him And what then is to be sayd of that man which toyleth in Doonghils and skulketh into corners to wallowe himselfe in a thousand sorts of filthines and imployeth all his wit vpon such things but that he is falne from the toppe of his mynde and that by the greeuonsnes of that fall he hath so lamed and maymed all his abilities that it lyeth not in him to returne againe from whence he is falne For who can deny but he is borne to greater things than hee doeth Or who can thinke that GOD hath giuen him an immortall Soule to the intent he should imploy himselfe altogether about things which are not so much as worthy to be mortall Or a countenance which he calleth continually to the mynding of Heauen to looke groueling on the myre Or a Scepter to play the dizard with it in a Playe Or a triple Mace to rake Dounghilles withall or too digge the ground withall Againe how is the Lawe and order of gouernement which shineth forth in the whole world and in all the partes thereof turned vpside downe in man who is the Litle World by the disobedience of the Body to the Soule In Plantes in Trees and in brute beastes the soule distributeth nurrishmēt by proportion Their bodyes obeye the direction of their Soules without geynsaying and euery abilitie performeth his duetie accordingly The nurrishing abilitie followeth his appetites and goeth not beyond them The sensitiue followeth his naturall delights but it violateth them not But as for man what shall wee say of him Surely that his body commaundeth his Soule as if the Plough should drawe the Horses as they say that his will suffereth it selfe to be ruled by his appetites that his reason is an vnderling to his sences and that his very whole nature is most commonly quite out of order So must we needes confesse an ouerthrowe of nature in him for whom neuerthelesse nature it selfe was made and that man was swarued aside from his right way seeing that all other partes of the World doe followe their Nature and that Nature itselfe teacheth vs it What is to be sayd then but that man is not onely falne from the state wherein he was to be set in lower degree than he was afore but also that he is falne in himselfe and from himselfe in and from his owne peculiar nature Moreouer it is manifest that the world was created for mans vse for the world knoweth not it selfe nor the creatures that are therein And ageine as for the Angels they needed it not and as for the brute beastes they haue no skill to vse it Onely man hath vnderstanding to vse the seruice thereof and a body that hath neede of their seruice Sith it is so who can doubt that God created man with a knowledge of his creatures and also gaue him power ouer them Whereof commeth it then that the beastes doe naturally knowe their seasons the remedies of their diseases and the Herbes that haue a proprietie of nature to heale them and that only man among all other liuing things knoweth them not insomuch as he is fayne to goe to Schoole to the brute beastes to learne them Also whereof commeth it that these creatures which surely GOD made not to be snares to man for that had bene repugnant to the goodnes of the Creator but for mans benefite and seruice doe now kicke and spurne ageinst man yea euen those which haue no power or strēgth at all to withstand him Let vs omit Woolues Leopards and Lyons which seeme to haue some force to ouermatch the weakenes of man What meaneth it that wormes make vs warre within our Bowels that vermin deuoureth our Corne and that the earth yeeldeth vs not any kind of fruit which hath not a peculiar enemie in it to marre it ere it come to our hand but to driue vs to confesse that man must needes haue offended his maker right greeuously and that whereas Gods putting of his creatures in subiection to man was to the end that man should haue continued in obedience vnto GOD now because man hath rebelled against Gods Maiestie God also suffereth those to rebell against man whom he had put in subiection to man yea euen to the very off kourings of the earth For what els is this contrarietie of the earth to him that tilleth it of the Sea to him that sayleth it and of the aire to the successe of all our labours and trauels but a protestation of whole nature that it disdeineth to serue a creature that was so presumptuous as to disobey his Creator a creature I say which by doing seruice to the creatures hath forgone the authoritie which he had receiued of this Maker Now consequently let vs consider man towards man What is there more disordered or more cōtrarie to nature than is the nature of man himselfe If beastes of one kind doe kill or eate one another wee take it for an ougly thing What an ouglynesse then ought it to be vnto vs when wee see how men who alonly be indued with reason doe euery howre kill one another and roote out one another Nay rather is it not a great wonder to see good agreement and frendship not among Nations not betwéene Coūtries not among Companies but euen in households yea and betweene Chamberfellowes Wolues are cruell but yet in what race of Wolues shall wee find Caribies and Cannibals Lyons also are cruell but yet where were they euer seene in Battell one against another Now what is warre but a gathering and packing vp together of all the sorts of beastlines that are in the world And yet what is more common among men than that A Beast say some will barke or grunt ere he byte a house will cracke ere it fall downe and the Wind whistleth ere it breake things But contrariwise what is man towards man
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
their Goddes doth many a man abuse They be but gastly Ghostes and feendes of hel Or graues of men in whom no soule doth dwell To be short Amalthea and hir Goate that nurced Iupiter which were honored in the Capitoll and all his other misteries represented nothing els but the trauells of his Childhod and of his lyfe as how he was stolen away how he was hidden and how he was nurced all which things are a manifest derogation of his Godhead And Seneca taketh it to be a matter so woorthie to be laughed at that he forgetteth his owne grauitie to giue a mockâ—vnto it Seeing sayth he that this Iupiter was so lecherous why begetteth he not Children still if he be yet aliue Is it bycause he is threescore yeeres old Or hath the Lawe of Papie restreyned him Or hath he obteyned the priuiledge of three Children Or finally is it come into his mynd to looke for the same measure at other folks hands which he hath measured vnto others so as he is afrayd least some Sonne of his should deale with him as he himself delt with Saturne After that manner did this greate Philosopher mocke at his great God wherein he was so much the lesse to be excused bycause he woorshipped him knowing so much as he did As touching Iuno I wilnot stand so much vppon the Poets Varro himself saieth that she was brought vp in Samos and there maryed to hir brother Iupiter by whom shee could not conceyâ—e in respect whereof that Iland was called Parthenie that is to say Maydenland There also was hir famousest Temple where shee stoode in wedding attyre and hir yeerly feastes are in verie deede but playes ordeyned after the fashion of old tyme to represent hir lyfe that is to wit hir mariage hir iealosie and hir incest And as concerning Minerua Iupiters daughter wee reade that shee was deffowred by consent of hir father who had made a promise to Vulcane not to deny him whatsoeuer he should aske so monstruouse and Lawlesse was the whole race of them For as for Venus whose aduoutries are mo than hir Children Euhemere reporteth her too haue bin the first bringer vp of Stewes in the world and that hir woorshippers to honor her withall did call her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and such other which names euen a womaÌ„ that were very farre past shame would take in greate disdeyne To be short in the Temple where Cinaras King of Ciprus was buried who was the first that interteyned her surely I am ashamed that the Heathen were not ashamed of such shamefulnes but yet much more that such as beare the name of Christians are not ashamed too make songs thereof in their books Let vs procéede to the rest Neptune as their holy Historie reporteth had the Seacoast for his share or as othersome affirme he was Iupiters Admiral in respect wher of the Poets of our time call Admiralls Neptunes Pluto had the gouernement of lowe Countries which they disguysing turned into Hell Mars had the Leading of Souldiers in the warres and should haue bin hanged at Athens for a murther What maner of Godds I pray you be these which stand at mens courtesie for their grace And what is the Lawe of that Heauen which receyueth those for Godds whom men would haue hanged on the galowes vpon earth Also Apollo became a Shepeherd for loue and of a Shepeherd hee became Laomedons Mason He playd a feawe Iuggling tricks to deceiue folk withall but in the end as Porphyrius telleth vs hee was killed by Python mourned for by the daughters of Triopus and buryed at Delphos Who euer sawe a thing more ageinst reason than the transforming of him into the Sonne which is as much as to shet vp the Sonne into the earth But yet such are the Godds of the Greeks and Romanes that is to wit deadfolks euen kings and Quéenes whom loue or feare hath made to be taken for Gods And in good sooth they did not any thing to their Godds which men do not at this day to their dead to such as are of reputation They make them Temples Chappell 's and altars they apparell them after their age they set them vp Pensils and Penons according to their degree or trade of liuing they make them a funerall feast they celebrate Anniuersaries or Yeermynds all of one sort Insomuch that as Tertullian saieth the Obitfeast differeth not froÌ„ Iupiters feast nor the wodden Canne from his Drinking-cup nor the Cearer of deadfolks from the Birdgasers for the Birdgasers also had to deale with the dead And therefore wee must not think it straunge that Alexander would néeds be a God sith he knew that men woorshipped such or that Scipio Affricane thought that the greate gate of Heauen ought to bee set open for him for his argument concluded the lyke saying If men for slaughters made to heauen admitted be Then should the greatest gate of Heauen be opened vnto me Or that the gentle Ladies Larentia and Flora were Canonized at Roome for they deemed themselues to haue deserued as much by their professioÌ„ as Venus had deserued at the hands of the Cyprians Or that Caligula tooke vpon him to haue Altars erected and sacrifise offered vnto him for he was both more myghtie and also more mischeuous than those whome he worshipped Let this suffice for the Greate ones And for the Little ones we will content ourselues with Esculapius alone whom the Emperour Iulian that greate enemies of Christians commendeth as his sauior aboue all the rest He is sayeth he the Sonne of Iupiter Then say I he is a man for men begot not Goddes But he came downe intoo the World by the Sonne and from the Sonne vnto the Earth for the health and welfare of men What Author eyther in earnest or in iest did euer say so No but he was sayeth the Historie the sonne of the fayre Coronis renowmed in these verses A goodlyer Lady was not to be found In all Emonia going on the ground This Coronis being with Chyld by Apollos preest gaue it forth for the sauing of hir honor that she was gotten with Chyld by Apollo himself whereby it appeareth that hir sonne Esculapius was not the Chyld of Heauen as Iulian reporteth but as men sayd in old tyme a Chyld of the Earth that is to say a bastard And Tarquilius a Roman wryteth that he was a Chyld found in Messine and learned the vertues of some herbes at the hand of Chyron the Centaure and playd the Pedlar a whyle at Epidaure and that afterward being striken to death as Cicero saith with Thunder he was buried at Cyuosures To be short what miracle reade wee to haue bin done by him more than that he shewed men the herbs called Scordion and Asclepiodotes By which reason we may as well Deifie the bird Ibis for the Clisters or the Stag for the herb Ditanie But to conclude what a beastlynes were it to leaue the Creator of all things and to
worship a man for his knowing of some two or three of them Among other Nations of the world the AEgiptians haue vpon the lyke reasons Deified their King Apis forbidding all men vppon peyne of death to say he was a man and I am euen ready to shudder at the remembrance of his misteries Likewise the Babylonians deified their Bele the Mawres their Iuda the Macedonians their Cabyrus the Latines their Faunus the Sabines their Saâ—cus and the Romanes their Quirinus that is to wit the first founders of their Townes and Citties or the leaders of them to inhabite in forrein Countries and the eldest of these their Gods that is to say their auncientest Princes they called Saturnes their Sonnes Iupiters their Graundsonnes Herculeses and so foorth wherevpon it came to passe that in diuers Nations there were diuers Saturnes Iupiters and Herculeses Afterward the Emperours deified themselues and their fréends and some their Mynions as Alexander did Ephestion and as Arian did Antinous and some their Children and some their wiues Cicero béeing but a Citizen of Arpie was so prwd that he would néedes Deifie his daughter Tullia he sticked not to say to Atticus that he would make her to be worshipped as another Iuno or Minerua considering that she was not inferiour to them in any thing But he came in too rough a time to make Gods What more Euen in one man were a thousand Gods to be found For they made Gods of faithfulnes of constancie of wisedome and of all the other vertues and likewise of Loue of Pleasure of the instruments of pleasure and of all other vices Also of feare palenesse gastfulnes and all passions Lykewise of Agewes of the Hemerodes of the Falling siknesse and of maladies and diseases Also of Dounghils of Snow of Blastings and of the very Winds insomuch that the greate Emperour Augustus did sacrifice to the winde Circius which trobled him in Gall. The cause of these absurdities is in two things the one is Gods iust striking of men with blindnes for their turning away from him vnto man insomuch that whereas they will néedes become equall with God they fall by degrees from poynt to poynt euen to the casting of themselues downe vnto Beastes and Wormes that is to say they become inferiour to beastes The other is that Princes vnlightened by GOD are so desirous of vainglorie and their Seruants are such flatterers that the Princes perceiuing themselues to haue men at their commaundement thinke themselues to be more than men and their seruants to bée made Idols themselues doe willingly make Idols of their Princes Hereof wee reade in the very Lawes of the Christian Emperours that their answers are called Oracles their persons Godheads and their countenances diuine brightnesse Who reading this can doubt but that if such Lawiers had come in the first ages they would haue made vs good store of Gods Nay would God we sawe not still among vs greate nombers of lyuely and plaine-speaking examples of mans inclined disposition to the worshipping of creatures notwithstanding that our Lawe in euery lyne thereof doe reproue vs for it and after a sort twich vs euery howre by the Cote to pull vs from it Now therefore let the premisses be a president vnto vs both of the vanitie of the Godds and of the blockishnes of men which haue both worshipped them and made them And so let vs commit the knitting vp of this matter to Cicero himself who saith thus The conuersation and custome of men sayth he hath allowed the aduanuncing of those men into heauen both in reputation in good will by whom they had receiued any greate benefite Of that sort are Hercules Castor Pollux Esculapius Liber and such other so as Heauen is peopled with mankind And if I listed to search ransacke the Antiquities and Registers of the Greekes I should find that the same Gods whom we take for the greatest haue had their originall from among vs. And for the verifying thereof Inquire whose the Tumbes are that are shewed in Greece and consider with thy selfe what their mysteries and Ceremonies are and thou hauing accesse thither shalt vnderstand without doubt that my saying reacheth very farre The xxiij Chapter That the spirites which made themselues to be worshipped vnder the names of those men were feends that is to say Diuels or wicked Spirites NOw séeing that the sayd Gods were but men yea and not Men but Stocks and Images of men that the same slocks if they had bene any more than Stocks should rather haue worshipped men we must néedes say with Seneca that the men which worshipped them were become worse than stocks But herevnto it wil be answered that they gaue answers of things to come and that they wrought effects beyond the reache of man which shewed that there was a lyfe and power in them or els they had not seduced folke so long time This is the second part which I haue taken in hand to prooue namely that although all the auncient Philosophers agrée that there are both good Spirits and bad the one sort whom we call Angels Seruants and Messengers of God and the other sort Diuels enemies to Gods glorie and our welfare yet notwithstanding the Spirits which were serued in Stocks and Images as Hermes hath told vs were vncleane and mischeuous Spirites These Féends therefore to purchase themselues authoritie did borrowe the names of men and most commonly of the wickeddest men Yea and when they were asked what they were they sayd in their owne Oracles that they were so as for exaÌ„ple he that was worshipped at Delphos said he was the sonne of Latona Esculapius the sonne of Apollo Mercurie the sonne of Iupiter and Maia and so foorth as we reade in Oracles rehearsed by Porphyrius But what honest man will not refuse for neuer so greate gayne to take vppon him the name of a wicked man or rather abhorre both the name and the very rememberance of him And who then will not conclude that those Deuils which to winne themselues credite clothed themselues after that sort with the cases of so wicked men were worse than the men Also they were drawne sayth Hermes into Images by Arte Magicke yea and by the reporte of Porphyrius and Proclus they taught men receyts wherewith to drawe them thether and to bind them there as wee reade of Proserpyne Hecate and Apollo Of whom one commaunded to beset her Image with Wormewood to paynt a certeyne number of Rattes about it and to offer vnto her Blud Myrrhe and Storax to draw her thither Another commaunded to wype out the lines and figures to remoue the tuzzimuzzies of flowers from his féete and to take the braunch of Olife out of his hand that is to say from his images hand that he might withdrawe himselfe Who sees not that they made themselues to bee drawne in and driuen out by things that haue no force at all specially ouer Spirites That it say
our M is not wont to be written so but in the end of a word Here therefore according to their custome they fall to descating vpon the letters and because the ◠Mem is here closed vp whereas it ought cōmonly to be written open thus ◠they say there must needes bée some great misterie hidden and shut vp there and that as Rabbi Tanhuma was séeking the reason thereof a voyce from heauen answered him razi li razi li that is to say I haue a secret which by the consent of them all concerned the Messias But some of them passe further and say that this cyphred Letter importeth sixe hundred that is to wit sixe hundred yeeres which are to be reckened from this Prophesie vnto the Messias And in very deede frō the fourth yeere of the reigne of Achas at which time the Prophesie was vttered we shall find by account that they fall not out long after the time of Herod Another is read in the Talmud in these wordes Rabbi Elias sayth to Rabbi Iehudas brother of Rabbi Sala the Essene The worlde cannot haue any mo than fowerscore and fiue Iubilees that is to say Fower thousand two hundred and Fiftie yeres and in the last Iubilee shall the sonne of Dauid come without doubt but whether in the beginning therof or in the end thereof I cannot tell Rabbi Asse is of his opinion in the same case To be short R. Moyses Ben Maimon sayth in his Epistle to the Iewes of Affricke that there is an auncient Tradition that Christ should bee borne in the yeere of the Worlde fower thousand fower hundred seuentie and fower The which according to their owne account should be past now more then nyne hundred yeres ago And Rabbi Moyses of Geround and Leuy the sonne of Gerson speake of another which behighted it in the yere of the world fiue thousand one hundred and eightéene which by their owne account is expired more than two hundred yeeres since Finally after much alteration and vayne expectation to no purpose the conclusion of the greatest Rabbines commeth to this poynt That it is needeles to calculate any more for the comming of Christ That all the tymes limited by the Prophetes are already past and that there remayneth not any thing els than repentance and good woorkes Ouer and besides the tyme they doe also deliuer vs certeine tokens of Christs comming in their traditions When the Messias commeth say they there shal be fewe wise men in Israell and many Seducers Inchaunters and Wizards The wisedome of the Scribes shall stinke and the Schooles of Diuinitie shall become Brothelhouses Good men in Israell shall bee abhorred and the countenances of the men of that age shal be ful of vnshamefastnesse Is not this a liuely description of the maners of the Iewes yea euen of the Pharisies themselues in the tyme of Herod and of the destruction of the Temple Let vs hearken what Iosephus their owne History writer speaketh of them Iewry was at that time sathi he a Den and Harbour of Theeues of Murderers of Inchaunters and of Seducers of the people And doubtlesse God was offended at their extreme vngodlinesse insomuch that he abhorred both Hierusalem the Temple and brought in the Romaines thither to purge thē as it were with fire Yea and I beleeue sayth he that if the Romanes had staied neuer so little to come to destroy them either the earth would haue swallowed them vp or some great waterflud must haue drowned them or els they had bin burned vp as Sodom was For that generation was much worse than euer Sodom was Thus then aswell the writings as also the notablest Traditions of the auncient Iewes doe poynt vs to the tyme of Herod And truely Tacitus Suetonius and Iosephus himselfe witnesses voyd of suspitiō report that in that age it was bruted euery where that out of Iewrie should come a King that should reigne ouer all the whole world and that this saying was grauen in a very open and renowmed place of the Castle at Hierusalem which thing caused the Iewes to bee so readie to rebell and so loth to serue the Romaines And it appeareth by the whole Historie of that age that all the people yea and Herod himselfe had their eyes and eares euer open wayting and watching for the Messias the one to imbrace him and the other to destroye him For as in all the former tymes wee reade not that any man tooke vpon him to be the Messias much lesse that any was receiued as he so in this age there scarsly passed any one yéere but some one or other stepped vp to be he verely because that to their seeming they had the disposition of the people and the very tyme it self answerable to their intent Herod therefore who perceiued himselfe to haue bene but newly proclaymed King by the Romaines fearing to bee dispossessed of his Crowne did what he could to destroye the blud royall of Iuda defacing their Genealogies and not sparing euen his owne sonnes Yea and there stepped vp certeine Courtyerrabbins which would néedes make the world beléeue that Herod was the promised Messias whereof some will haue the Herodians to procéede which are spoken of in the Gospell And this sect was greatly furthered by the opinion of the fleshly sort which by the Messias looked for a restitution of their State that is to wit of Uineyards of gorgeous buildings of precious Stones and of all things sauing of themselues Also about the same tyme stepped vp one Iudas a Gawlonite who called the people to libertie and mainteyned with some assistence of the Pharasies that they ought not to pay tribute to the Emperour So also did another Iudas the sonne of one Ezechias a Capteyne of Cutthrotes and a certeyne Shepheard named Athrouges whose pretence was no lesse than to bee Kings and to deliuer their followers from the yoke of bondage Likewise vnder the gouernement of Faelix and in the reigne of Agrippa a certeyne AEgiptian taking vpon him to be a Prophet led certeyne people vp to Mount Oliuet and made them beléeue that from thence they should see the walles of Hierusalem fall downe and then they should goe in thither Againe vnder the President Cuspius Fadus one Thewdas vndertooke the like enterprise Al which are signes that they tooke aduauntage of the tyme and abused the hope of the people to the maintenance of their owne ambition But which more is we reade in the Talmud that in the tyme of Agrippa one Barcozba which name signifieth the Sonne of Lying stept vp among the people and pretending to be Christ was taken so to bee by the Rabbines themselues and reigned thirtie yeeres and a halfe yea and that as Ramban reporteth in his sentences of Kings they required not any signe of him insomuch that the great Rabbine Akiba the wisest of al the Talmudists became his Harnesbearer and applyed vnto him the second Chapter of
caÌ„not be ment of Dauid for he is dead and rotten in his graue yea and he shal be raysed againe within the third day for it is written He will quicken vs after two dayes and in the third day will he rayse vs vp ageine Also he shall go vp into Heauen to sit at the right hand of God for it is written The Lord hath sayd to my Lord sit thou on my right hand And all these Texts are so expounded by Rabbi Moyses Hadarsan by R. Hacadoseh by R. Ionathan the Sonne of Vziell and others and they be all accomplished in Iesus For their owne writer Iosephus sayth In the tyme of Tyberius there was one Iesus a wise man at leastwise if he was to be called a man who was a worker of great miracles and a teacher of such as loue the trueth and had a greate trayne as well of Iewes as of Gentyles Neuerthelesse being accused vnto Pilate by the cheefe of the Iewes he was crucified But yet for all that those which had loued him from the beginning ceassed not to continue still For he shewed himself alyue vnto theÌ„ a three dayes after his death as the Prophetes had foretold of him both this and diuers other things And euen vnto this day doe those continue still which after his name are called Christians Certesse then let vs conclude as this Iewe doth in the selfesame place and in his owne words This Iesus was in very deede the Christ. For as for the goodly tale That Christes Disciples stole him out of his Graue and that for feare they did cast hym downe in a Gardyne where he was found afterward the fondnesse and fabulousenesse thereof appéereth in this that whereas because hee had sayd in his lyfetyme Destroy this Temple and in three dayes I will rayse it vp ageine And also There shall none other signe be giuen vnto you but the signe of the Prophet Ionas and so foorth therevpon the Iewes caused Pylate to set a sure gard about the Sepulchre Yet notwithstanding Pylate writing afterward to the Emperour Claudius aduertised him of the resurrection of Iesus so as the greater and surer the gard was that Pylate did set the mo and the stronger were the witnesses to proue the Iewes lyars in that behalf Also the high Priestes béeing so inraged against Iesus as they were would not haue sticked to haue hanged vp the sayd found Carkesse openly in the Marketplace whereby they might haue abolished all the reputation of Iesus out of hand Ageine on the other side the Apostles were men so afrayd of death so weakeharted so féeble in faith and so vtterly without credit that there is not any lykelihod that they durst take the matter in hand Nay which more is what benefite could they haue had by his dead Carkesse what should it haue booted them to haue forgone their Children their Wyues yea and themselues too for such a one Should they not rather haue had cause to haue bene offended at his cowsmage and therevpon bene the readier to haue condemned the remembraunce of him them selues and to haue turned all men away from him Contrariwise they preach nothing but his resurrection for that are they contented to dye for that doe they teache other men to dye alonly by that doe they hope too liue and dye most blessedly and of all the whole noÌ„ber of them there was not so much as one that could be brought to say otherwise nay rather which could bee made to conceale it and not to speake of it though they were let alone yea or for any promise or threatning that the greatest personages in the worlde could make vnto them Surely therefore if euer any deede were true we must needes say that this is it Finally Daniell sayth After that the Anoynted is slaine The Prince of a people to come that is to say the Emperour of Rome shall destroye the Citie and the Sanctuarie and his end shal be in destruction and vnto the end of the warre be desolations ordeyned But he shall stablish his couenant with many in one weeke and in halfe a weeke shall he cause the Sacrificing and Offering to ceasse And to the same effect Iesus himselfe sayth Weepe for your selues and for your Children and let them which are in Iewrie flee into the Mountaines Abhomination shall abide in the holy place and of the Temple one stone shall not be left vpon another And yet neuerthelesse this Gospell sayth he shall be preached ouer all the world for a witnesse to al Nations Who can say that this was not accomplished within a while after the death of Iesus And who seeth not yet still the remnants of this desolation vpon Hierusalem and vppon all that people Yea and moreouer that this their vtter ruine and ouerthrowe is not to bee fathered vpon any other thing than vpon their putting of Iesus to death Iesus was apprehended in Mount Oliuet and from Mount Oliuet was Hierusalem beseeged He was crucified on the day of the Passouer and on that day was the Citie entered into Hee was whipped in the Romaine Emperours Pauilion by Pylat and in the Emperours Pauilion were the Iewes whipped by the Romaines for their pleasure He was deliuered by them into the hands of the Gentyles and they themselues were scattered abroade into the whole world to bée a skorning stocke to all Nations Of these things and many other like doe the Rabbines complaine in their Histories and the more they speake of them the more doe they confesse Gods Iudgement vpon themselues For what els are all these things but the execution of this their owne sentence giuen vpon themselues his blud be vpon vs vpon our Children Insomuch that as Iosephus reporteth when Tytus sawe the sayd extremities he lifted vp his eyes to heauen and sayd Lord thou knowest that my hands are cleere from all this blud that is shed And afterward when vpon the taking of the Citie he had considered the force and strength of the place and the people he sayd In very deede God hath fought on our side in the taking of this Citie for otherwise what power could euer haue woÌ„ne it Also the TeÌ„ple was burnt doune though he did what he could to haue saued it because sayth Iosephus the vneschewable day of the destruction thereof was come Likewise the Citie was rased cast vp vppon heapes and made leuell with the ground as if neuer man had dwelt there and ten hundred thousand men were put to the sword within it which thing wee reade not to haue bene done to any otâ—er Citie taken by the Romaines To bee short the signes that went afore and the voyce that gaue warning from heauen the opening of the Temple of it own accord seemed to be forefeelings of Gods wrath that was to light vpon them Again the Fountayne of Silo which was dryed vp afore swelled vp to giue water to the Romaine Hoste