of fayth which are to be beleued concerning him Being not able to preuaile therein he descended to the Article of the holy Ghost and so stirred vp Macedonius to deny the Godhead of the holy Ghost Being not able to preuaile therein he went to the Articles concerning the Church and so in sundrye ages hath gone from one Article to an other vntill he hath gone ouer all the Articles of the Creed Now being disproued in them all he doth not so rest but returneth againe to the first at which he began not to proue a multiplicitie of Gods as he did before endeuour but to proue a nullitie of any God by disprouing the God-head either of the Father or of the Sonne or of the holy Ghost of all three But he goeth to worke with greater violence to chop off all fayth all religion at one blowe by prouing that there is neuer a God and to this purpose hath he armed his Polititians with arguments against the Bible But to them may be applyed the wordes of Policarpus to Marcian the haereticke who being asked of him Agnoscis me ô Policarpe Dost thou acknowledge me ô Policarpus answered him Agnosco te esse primogenitum Satanae I knowe thee very well thou art the sonne and heire of the Deuill The last cause of Atheisme is the lenitye and ouer great mildnes of Princes and Gouernours which doe suffer Atheists to escape vnpunished I may iustly say it is their fault that there are Atheists that will suffer Atheists For so saith the holye Ghost concerning Azariah the King of Iudah He did vprightly in the sight of the Lord according to all that his Father Amaziah did but the high places were not taken away for the people yet offered and burned Incense in the high places And the Lord smote the King he was a leper vnto the day of his death The King him-selfe you see is commaunded to be a godly man not he but his subiects committed idolatrye yet God punisheth him for the idolatrye of his subiects But that could not stand with the iustice of God to punish the King for his subiects offences vnles it were the Kings faulte that the subiects offended Where the Spanish Inquisition is it is a very rare thing to heare of an Atheist which I speake not to that end as if I did wish that Inquisition to be brought into any Christian Kingdome but onely to shewe that it is better to liue where there is too much seueritie rather then too much loosenes and where nothing is lawfull rather then where all things are permitted as if they were lawfull The Lord of his mercy stirre vp the hearts of all his annoynted Princes inflame their Zeale that they may not onely hate Atheisme as I hope they doe with a perfecte hatred but also banish such impietye that heereafter not onely the opinions but also the verye name of Atheist may be as it were buried in hell and no more heard of in their Kingdomes Chapter 3. How Atheisme may be rooted out of all Christian landes AS prosperitie causeth many men to forget God and others to denye God so aduersitie sicknes imprisonment such like chastisements of God for sinne will make wicked men not onely to acknowledge confesse God but also to stoop downe before him and to flye for succour vnto him When Iulian the apostata was deadly wounded by a dart from heauē he could not be silent but that plague extorted out of his mouth a confession of the power of Iesus Christ whome before he had denyed he cryed out Vicisti Galilaee Iesus of Galile the conquest is thine Though Pharao in his prosperitie had said who is the Lord I knowe him not I will not let the people goe yet when his land was plagued with Frogges he called for Moses and Aaron and said Pray ye for me vnto the Lord that he may take away the Frogges from me and from my people and I will let the people goe that they may doe sacrifice to the Lord But as soone as God gaue him a little rest that the plague ceased he was hardned againe When the hand of the Lord was heauye vpon the men of Ashdod and he destroyed them and smote them with Emeroides they remoued the Arke out of the house of Dagon and said Let vs send the Arke of God vnto his owne place that he slay vs not and our people When Nabuchodonozer was depriued of his Kingdome and turned into an Asse to graze in the field for the space of seuen yeares then he began to be humble to vnderstand himselfe better to lift vp his eyes to heauen to giue thankes to the most high to praise and honour him that liueth for euer to confesse that his power is an euerlasting power that his Kingdome indureth from generation to generatiō that all the inhabitānts of the earth are reputed as nothing that according to his will he worketh in the armye of heauen and in the inhabitants of the earth that none can stay his hand nor say vnto him what dost thou Then he could make both an humble a large consession and say I Nabuchodonozer prayse and extoll and magnifie the King of heauen whose workes are all truth and his waies iudgement and those that walke in pride he is able to abase But for as much as now such miracles doe cease and it belongeth to Gods annointed Kings to be ielous of his glory if they wil abanden Atheisme out of their Kingdomes first of all they must withdrawe their countenace from all vngodly liuers For so long as the Prince dooth looke cheerfully vpon them the eyes of the people will be defixed vpon them also they will admire them and think their vices to be vertues You know what Hamon said Thus shall he be honoured whome the King doth honour and againe the argument must followe aswell on the contrary side Thus and thus shall he be dishonoured whome the King doth dishonour You are not ignorant of the saying of Salomon Indignatio Regis est nuncius mortis The displeasure of the King is but a fore-runner of death If the King giue countenance to Atheists the people will respect them by his example if he frowne vpon them the people will trample ouer them The King is like the maior preposition in a Sillogisme the people are like the conclusion But it is a most certaine rule in Logicke Conclusio sequitur deteriorem partem If the maior be negatiue or perticuler the conclusion will bee so if any thing bee worser then other in the King the people wil be sure to followe that Secondly they must be assisting vnto their Ministers For God in the Primitiue Church gaue them the gift of working miracles to credit their office and calling whereby they did chastise Gods enemies So St. Paul stroke Elymas the sorcerer with blindenes for peruerting and seducing the Deputye from the fayth And St. Peter stroke Ananias and
especiall thinges which may best serue for this purpose The Scriptures foretolde long before the time that the world should be conuerted to Christian Religion all Nations should beleeue and submit themselues to the obedience of the Faith a thing in mans iudgement not to bee expected For the Prophet saide concerning the Kingdome of Christ I meane his Kingdome of the Gospell or of Grace The Heathens raged the people murmured against the Lord and his Christ but in vaine the Kinges of the earth stood vp banded them selues and the Princes assembled themselues togeather But he that sitteth in heauen shall laugh them to scorne the Lord shall haue them in derision Euen I haue set my King vpon Sion mine holie mountaine I will declare the decree that is the Lorde hath saide to me thou art my Sonne this day haue I begotten thee aske of me and I shall giue thue the Heathen for thine inheritance and the endes of the earth for thy possession There could not be a more vnlikely thing foretolde and yet it was fulfilled long since no Atheist can denie it Tertullian to this purpose saith who was able to gouerne the world but onely Christ of whome it was foretolde that his Kingdome should be extended ouer the whole world The Kingdome of Salomon saith her was confined within the Land of Iudaea from Dan to Beersheba and his territories did reach no farther Darius raigned ouer the Pabylonians and Persians but no farther Pharao ouer the Aegiptians and there his dominion ceased Nabuchodonozer was a great Monarche yet he reigned not ouer the whole worlde but onely from India vnto Aethiopia the like may bee saide of the Greekes the Romās which were called the Lords of the world and yet the whole world was not knowne vnto them much lesse subdued by them But as for the Kingdome of Christ it hath extended it selfe farre and wide the Gospell hath bin preached in al places and receaued of all Nations of the Parthians Medes Elamites the inhabitantes of Mesopotamia Armenia Phnygia Cappadocia Aegipt Pamphilla Asia Africa and the vttermost Indies Of this assertion there bee so many recordes that it cannot bee denyed As for some few things which are foretolde in the Scriptures not yet fulfilled as namely the conuersion of the Iewes and the destruction of Antichrist the time is not yet come to passe that they should be fulfilled for all thinges must be performed in that due time which God in his secret wisdome hath appointed There are other thinges also foretolde which must goe immediately before the ende of the world which are not yet performed because as you see the ende is not yet But it is a sufficient argument to induce Infidelles to beleeue that all these thinges shall come to passe because they see all other things alreadie performed in their time and order For as hee that sometimes lyeth shall not bee beleeued though hee tell the truth so hee which alwaies hath tolde the truth cannot without impietie bee suspected of fallhood God cannot deceaue or bee deceaued And which is not to bee omitted St. Peter did prophecie that at the latter end there should bee such Atheistes which should denie these thinges and the Prophecie is now verified otherwise this my labour might haue bene spared their impiety maketh it good which the Prophet hath foretolde Againe there is in Daniel an auncient Prophecie concerning the death of our Sauiour Christ euen the verie time and computation of yeares is defined when hee should be put to death Seauenty weekes saith hee are determined vpon thy people and vpon the holy Cittie to finish the wickednesse and seale vp the sinnes and reconcile the iniquitie and bring in euerlasting righteousnesse to annoynt the moste holy From the going foorth of the commaundement to bring againe the people and build Ierusalem to Messias the Prince shall bee 69. weekes and after he shall bee slaine but so that for one weeke hee shall teach but in the middle of the weeke hee shall cause the Sacrifice and oblation to cease But these weekes are annuae hebdomadae euery weeke is seauen yeares and so reckoning weekes consisting of yeares not onely of daies as for euery day in the weeke should be reckoned a yeare 70. of Daniels weekes make 490. yeares But the Temple which was the first and cheifest thing reaedified in Ierusalem began in the second yeare of Cyrus the builders were hindred 42. yeares as it appeareth out of the Gospell and in the 46. yeare it was finished because the laste 4. yeares they had quietnes Longimanus in the second yeare of his raigne giuing foorth a newe edict that they should builde without molestation and no man vnder payne of death should hinder the workemen as in times past they had done From the second year therfore of Longimanus the Emperour to Alexander the great were 145. yeares from Alexander to the natiuitye of our Sauiour 310. from his birth to his baptisme 30. these being put together make yeares 485. so the 69. weekes make 482. yeares but at his baptisme the whole 482. yeares that is 69 were fullye complete and ended In the next weeke or 7. yeares our Sauiour taught the people and in the middle thereof that is in the fourth yeare he was put to death What Iewe or Atheist can except against the truth of this Prophecye A second proofe that the bookes of the Bible are the worde of God is the generall consent and agreement of so many writers which writ at diuers times in diuers places remote one from an other in diuers languages and vpon diuers occasions all writing of one and the selfe-same subiect all agreeing in Doctrine none contradicting other that they might not so fitlie bee termed diuers writers as diuers pennes of the same writer The bookes of Moses were written in the wildernesse of Iosua Iudges and the Kinges in the land of Promise of Daniell in Babylon the workes of St. Paule some at Rome some in other places as Athens Ephesus Laodicea Nicapolis St. Iohns reuelation in Pathmos the Booke of Iob no man knoweth by whome when nor where The Bookes of Moses about 2554. yeares after the creation of the worlde the Psalmes some of them 605. yeares after Moses the bookes of Ezra after the returne from Captiuitie about 605. yeares after Dauid by whome manie of the Psalmes were made Betweene Dauid and the Captiuitie Esay and Osee vnder King Ioathan Achaz and Ezechiaz Ieremie vnder Iosias Ioachim Zedechias Ezechiel Abacuc Daniel in Captiuitie and the whole new Testament long after the olde yet all agree as the diuers thunders which haue one voyce foure Beastes which sing one song Vox tamen vna manet qualem decet esse sororum Damascen compareth them to a Garden bedecked with varyetie of hearbes of excellent vertue which are to be gathered one by one and yet to make one Garland or diuers precious stones in one brest-plate
Saephira with present death for telling a lye to the holy Ghost And because miracles after a short time were to cease our Sauiour Christ left the sworde of excommunication in his Church to be in place of miracles and to continue vnto the end of the worlde And since the Church hath no other sword now but the ceÌ„sure of excoÌ„munication which is so greatly dispised if it would please God to put it the hearts of Princes to strengthen excommunication with their Princely authoritye to adde the sworde of the Kingdome to the keyes of the Church not to suffer any person that is noted of impietye to dwell in the lande none that is tanquam Publicanus Ethnicus as an heathen or infidell to dwell among Christians but to deliuer them ouer to the hang-man whome the Church hath deliuered ouer to Suthan vnles they he heartily openitent and speedily reformed no dout but then God would be better knowne in Iuda and his name in Ierusalem would be greater I say if any man be an Atheist let him not be honoured among the people but let him haue Micheas his entertainment which was to be fed with the bread of affliction and water of affliction or let him be banished out of the lande not by Ostracisme as Aristâ—des was for his vertues but as Ouid was for his vices and that I may vse the phrase of the holy Ghost let his house be made a Takes As Tully wished that it were written in euery mans forhead what he thought of the common-wealth of Rome that so true-hearted subiectes might be knowne from Traytours so I wish it were written in all mens forheads what they think of God and of Christian religion We can iudge no farther of them then wee heare by their blasphemy and prophane wordes which they vtter see by their loose liues and conuersations But so farre we may iudge as we heare and see and we finde there are so many that we haue good cause to crye out with the Prophet Dauid and to say Help Lord help there is not a godly man left for the faithful are fayled from among the children of men they speak deceitfully euery one with his neighbour flattering with their lippes and speake with a double heart the Lord cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud thinges Thus much I am fare there is no policye to religion no wisdome to well doing and most firme is the estate of that man be he high or of lowe degree which procureth God to be his freind Chapter 4. That there is a God THey which call them-selues the damned Crue yet doe think there is no damnation they sweare continually by the name of God and yet they think there is no God See how they are ouertaken vnawares As St. Paul might very well dispute with the Athenians in the defence of that God whome he preached vnto them and say There is a God besides all those Gods which you superstitiouslye doe worship and is yet vnknown vnto you witnes your selues and your owne Altar Doe not think it absurd that I preach vnto you such a God for if there be not why do you then erect an Altar vnto him write this superscriptioÌ„ vpon it IGNOTO DEO TO THE VNKNOWNE GOD. So I dispute against them if they be as they confesse their selues a damned crue how shall they thinke to escape damnation If they swearo by the name of God why doe they deny God for in swearing by him vnawares they doe confesse him They weare by the woundes and bloud of Christ yet deny the merits of the death of Christ The man of God calleth such men fooles and such fooles may be rebuked euen out of their owne Booke intituled THE SHIP OF FOOLES Preb scelus horrendum blasphema tricuspide telo Gent humana petit genitum Patris Altitonautis Atque illi exprobat quod nostros induit artus Languoresque tulit nostros miseratus abalto Casum insaelicen quo primus corruit Adam To them I say no more then out of their owne Booke Desine sacrilegis iterum crucifigere labris Virgineum partum poenamque horresce propinquane They were thought worthy to be put into the Ship of Fooles which are swearers but much more doe they shewe them selues to be fooles which sweare by God and yet say there is no God But I will proue to the damned Atheist by these reasons that there is a God First they read euery day in the booke of nature that there is a God I meane by the booke of nature the great frame of heauen earth For what is this whole visible world but Epistola a Deo scripta ad humanum genus A letter or Epistle written from God vnto mankind For in it we may read of the inuisible God in his workes and his name is engrauen there in hierographicall letters Lactantius proueth it out of Tully an heathen Philosopher by the same argument his wordes are these Nemo est tamrudis tam seris moribus quin oculos suos in coelum tollens tametsi nesciat cuius Dei prouidentia regatur hoc omne quod cernitur aliquam tamen esse intelligat ex ipsa rerum magnitudine moles dispositione constantia vtilitate pulchritudine temperatione nec possefieri quis id quod mirabiliratione constat consilio maiori aliquo sit instructuÌ„ No man is such a rusticke so brutish and voyde of coÌ„mon sence and reason but as often as he looketh vp to heauen if he deny this his owne eyes shall witnes against him for although this be not sufficient to bring him to the perfecte vnderstanding of that God by whose prouidence he seeth the worlde is gouerned yet what his eye hath seene his tongue may tell The very greatnes of the frame of heauen the constant motion of the starres the wonderfull temperature of the elements doth shewe there is a God which guideth these thinges and by a consequent there is a God which made these thinges Mercurius Trismegistus doth proue it Singula haec astra non similem aqualem cursum faciunt in coelo Quis est qui euique modum magnitudinem cursus terminauit vrsa haec quae circase voluitur vniuersum mundum secum circumferens quis est qui ei fabrifecit instrumentum quis est qui mariterminum imposuit quis est qui terram stabiliuit est enim aliquis ô Tati qui herum omnium factor est Dominus Impossibile enim est vellocum vel numerum vel mensuram terminari absque factore When we see the motion of the planets fixed starres contrary one to an other the celestiall spheres in continuall volubilitye the multiplicitye of their motions their diurnall or daylye course from the East to the West their retrograde and vyolent motion from the West to the East their trepidat motion from the South to the North. When we see the sea farre higher then the
in the wrong But yet all nations besides had their Priests their Altars their Gods their rules and principles of the religion which they professed which is an argument that by nature they knewe there was a GOD. And that I may descend vnto the work-manship of man to shewe that there is a God It is truely said that hominis fabricatio est innumeris Dei testimonijs ornata the verye work-manship of man him selfe doth aboundantly witnes that there is a God Let vs therefore first of all looke into the soule of man and afterward into the state of his bodye There is in it not onely an infinite capacitye in so much that the more it knoweth the more it is able to learne It is able to conceiue not onely the whole worlde but also two worldes yea infinite worldes It is of infinite desire which is neuer satisfied I will not speak of Daniel which was called vir multorum disideriorum a man of manye desires nor of Moses which in this transitorye life desired to see the very face of God but of Alexander the great which when he thought he had subdued the whole worlde yet was not therewith contented but affected more worldes and hearing a Philosopher say there were infinite worldes wept for greife to thinke how great a labour it should be for him to subdue them all as if he had hoped to conquer all Mans appetite is neuer satisfied giue him a Citye he desireth a Kingdome giue him a kingdome he affecteth an Empire giue him an Empire he desireth a worlde If he could be made Lord of the whole world and knew that besides that there were no more yet would he not rest there but desire somwhat which is greater then the worlde And what can that be but only God So then forasmuch as man is not satisfied with knowledge and contemplation but laboureth to knowe more that still Aristotles proposition shall be veryfied in him Omnes homines naturaliter scire desiderant all men naturallye are desirous of knowledge neither yet with possession but desireth to haue more what can that be but Dei maiestas in mente voluntate tanquam in speculis reflexa et vnita euen the Maiestie of God in mans minde and in his will as it were in two glasses seene and reflected backe againe Againe forasmuch as the proper obiect of the minde is truth as Tully writeth but the minde of man is infinite as I haue declared the obiect must be correspondent vnto the minde therefore truth must be infinite and there must be no end of the knowledge and apprehension of truth And forasmuch as that truth which is in creatures dependeth vpon vncertaintyes therefore there is some other truth which is immutable and most certayne and that is God Also the substance of mans soule hath not his originall or beginning from any materiall thing because it is not of seed as in due course I will proue vnto you neither yet is it mortall as I will shewe when I come to speake of the soule Therfore it is not of any naturall cause but is the effect of such a cause as is supernaturall and metaphisicall and that is God But to leaue the soule of man and come to his bodye Mercurius Trismegistus writeth of it in this sorte Si vis opisicem etiam per mortalia intueri cogita ô fili hominis in vtero fabricam opificis exacte artificium expende disce quisuam artifex pulchram hanc diuinam hominis imaginem cordat quisnam sit qui oculos circumscribat nares aures perforauerit os aperuerit nertias extenderit colligauerit venas in canales efformauerit ossa indurauerit carni cutam circum diderit digitos articulos distiuxerit pedibus basim dilatauerit splenem extenderit poros cauauerit heper latum fecerit pulmonem perforauerit ventrem capacâ—â—… fecerit honorabilia palam figurauerit turpia absconderit vide quot artes in vna materia quis haec omnia fecit qua mater quis pates nisi solus immanifestus Deus If thou ô man wilt see the inuisible workeman doe but thinke vpon man how he is framed in the wombe who made his eyes round his eares and nostrels holowe his mouth open who stretched out his sinewes hardned his bones skinned his flesh parted his fingers who made the passage from his veynes who widened the bottomes of his feet dilated his splene who opened his pores his lunges dilated his liuer made his belly of such capacitye his honest partes to be open and his secret partes to be hidden who did all these thinges but onely the inuisible God A third reason to proue there is a God is the generall consent not onelye of the learned men of the worlde but also of the worlde it selfe And why should any fewe wicked men thinke them selues wiser then the worlde The denyers of the God head haue beene these men of name Diagoras Theodotus Cyrenaeus Euemarus Tegeates Callimachus Podicus Caeus Plinius Lucianus Lucretius Doletus Epicurus some of them denying that there was a God others that he tooke the care of gouerning and guiding the worlde and besides these verye fewe But as for the famous and learned Philosophers of the worlde they confessed there was a God Empedooles said Deus est cuius centrum est vbique circumferentia autem nusquam God his center is euerye where his circumference no where Socrates called him magnum Iudicem the great Iudge as Tully witnesseth Plato acknowledged him in all his workes Aristotle the greatest of all which in deed was equiualent to all the Philosophers I may iustlye say there is almost no leafe in his workes but in it he inserteth the name of God euen as almost no page of the Bible but in it is vnderstood the name of Christ who is called by him prima causa causa causarum ens entium primus mortor author omnium lux aterna simplicissimus actus conditor mundi infinitus immensus inaffabilis Deus The first cause the cause of causes the essence of all thinges of whome all things haue their being the first mouer the author of all thinges the eternall light most pure act maker of the world infinite vnmeasurable vnspeakable God Aristotle when he liued was accused by Hiero the Priest because Contra patrios mores ritus multitudine deorum vnum solum â—erum Deum agnouit Contrary to the religion of his countrye where many Gods were worshipped he acknowledged but one onely true God And when he dyed the last wordes which he spake were these Ens entium miserere mei God haue mercy vpon me The like was acknowledged by Mercurius Trismegistus Quid Deus immutabile bonum Mundus factus est propter hominem homo propter Deum What is God an immutable goodnes the worlde was made for man and man for God Ego fi lt et humanitatis gratia et erga Deum pictatis haec scribo I write