promiseth to â—…ie the minde by the inuocation of deuills 11. Of Porpheries epistle to Anebuns of Aegâ—…t desiring him of instruction in the seuerâ—… kâ—…des of Daemones 12. Of the miracles that God worketh by his Angels ministry 1â—… How the inuisible God hath often made â—…selfe visible not as hee is really but as wee câ—…ld be able to comprehend his sight 14. How but one God is to be worshipped for all things temporall and eternall all being in the pâ—…er of his prouidence 15. Of the holy Angels that minister to Gods prouidence 16. Whether in this question of Beatitude we 〈◊〉 trâ—…st those Angels that refuse the diuine â—…ship and ascribe it all to one God or those thâ—… require it to themselues 17. Of the Arke of the Testament and the miracles wrought to confirme the lawe and the promise 18. Against such as deny to beleeue the scriptures concerning those miracles shewen to Gods people 19. The reason of that visible sacrifice that the true religion commands vs to offer to one God 20. Of the onely and true sacrifice which the mediator betweene God and Man became 21. Of the power giuen to the deuils to the greater glorifying of the Saints that haue suffered martyrdome and conquered the ayrie spirits not by appeasing them but by adhering to God 22. From whence the Saints haue their power against the diuels and their pure purgation of heart 23. Of the Platonists principles in their purgation of the soule 24. Of the true onely beginning that purgeth and reneweth mans whole nature 25. That all the Saints in the old law and other ages before it were iustified onely by the mistery and faith of Christ. 26. Of Porphery his wauering betweene confession of the true God and adoration of the Deuils 27. Of Porphery his exceeding Apuleius in impietie 28. What perswasions blinded Porphery from knowing Christ the true wisdome 29. Of the inearnation of our Lord Iesus Christ which the impious Platonists shame to acknowledge â—…0 What opinions of Plato Pophery confuted and corrected 31. Against the Platonists holding the soule coeternall with God 32. Of the vniuersall way of the soules freedome which Porphery sought amisse and therefore found not That onely Christ hath declared it FINIS THE TENTH BOOKE OF THE CITTIE OF GOD Written by Saint Augustine Bishop of Hippo vnto Marcellinus That the Platonists themselues held that One onely God was the giuer of all beatitude vnto men and Angels but the controuersie is whether they that they hold are to be worshipped for this end would haue sacrifices offered to themselues or resigne all vnto God CHAP. 1. IT is perspicuous to the knowledge of all such as haue vse of reason that man desireth to be happy But the great controuersies arise vppon the inquisition whence or how mortall infirmity should attaine beatitude in which the Phylosophers haue bestowed all their time study which to relate were here too tedious and as fruitlesse He that hath read our 8. booke wherein we selected with what Phylosophers to handle this question of beatitude whether it were to be attained by seruing one God the maker of the rest or the others also need not looke for any repititions here hauing 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 memory if it fayle him we choose the Platonists as worthily held the most â—…thy Philosophers because as they could conceiue that the reasoâ—…ble 〈◊〉 soule of man could neuer be blessed but in participation of the light of God the worlds creator so could they affirme that beatitude the ayme 〈◊〉 all 〈◊〉 was vn-attainable without a firme adherence in pure loue vnâ—…â—…hangeable One that is GOD. But because they also gaue way to Pagâ—… 〈◊〉 becomming vaine as Paul saith in their owne imaginations and beleeâ—… oâ—… would be thought to beleeue that man was bound to honor many gods and some of them extending this honor euen to deuills whom wee haue indifferently confuted it reâ—…eth now to examine by gods grace how these immortall and blessed creatures in heauen be they in thrones a dominations principalities or powers whom they call gods and some of them good Daemones or â—…gels as we doe are to be beleeued to desire our preseruation of truth in religion 〈◊〉 piety that is to be more plaine whether their wills be that we should offâ—…r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sacrifice or consecrate ours or our selues vnto them or onely to god 〈◊〉 iâ—… both their God ouâ—… the peculiar worship of the diuinity or to speaâ—…e â—…preslie the deitie because I haue no one fit Latine word to expresse 〈◊〉 â—…d I will vse the Greeke b Latria which our brethren in all translatiâ—… doe translate Seruice But that seruice wherein we serue men 〈◊〉 by the Apostle in these words Seruants bee obedient to your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expressed by another Greeke word But Latria as our Euangeliâ—… 〈◊〉 â—…her wholy or most frequently signifieth the honour due vnto GOD. Iâ—… 〈◊〉 therefore translate it 〈◊〉 of Colo to worshippe or to tiâ—… wâ—… 〈◊〉 it with more then God for wee c worship coliâ—… 〈◊〉 men of honorâ—… memory or presence besides Colo in generall vse is propâ—…â—…o d things vnder vs as well as those whome wee reuerence or adore 〈◊〉 â—…omes the word Colonus for a husbandman or an inhabitant And the â—…lled Caelicolae of Caelum Heauen and Colo to inhabite not to adore or 〈◊〉 yet e as husband-men that haue their name from the village of the â—…ossesse but as that rare Latinist saith Vrbs antiqua fuit f Tyrij tenuêre 〈◊〉 being here the inhabitants not the husbandmen And herevpon the 〈◊〉 haue beene planted and peopled by other greater cities as one hiue â—…duceth diuerse are called colonies So then we cannot vse Colo with â—…o God without a restraint of the signification seeing it is communiâ—…â—…o many sences therefore no one Latine word that I know is sufficient 〈◊〉 the worship due vnto God For though Religion signifie nothing so 〈◊〉 the worship of GOD and there-vpon so wee translate the Greeke 〈◊〉 yet because in the vse of it in Latine both by learned and ignorant â—…erred vnto linages affinities and all kindreds therefore it will not â—…oyde ambiguitie in this theame nor can wee truly say religion is noâ—…t Gods worship the word seeming to be taken originally from huâ—… and obseruance So Piety also is taken properly for the worship of 〈◊〉 the Greekes vse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet is it attributed also vnto the duty towards 〈◊〉 and ordinarily vsed for i the workes of mercy I thinke because â—…ands it so strictly putting it in his presence k for and l before 〈◊〉 Whence came a custome to call God Pious Yet the Greekes neuer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though they vse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for mercy or piety often But in some 〈◊〉 more distinction they choose rather to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods worship â—…lainely worship or good worship But wee haue no one fit worde â—…sse either of these The Greeke
freed a-many from it 2. Of the carnall life apparant in the soules viciousnesse as well as the bodies 3. That sinne came from the soule and not the flesh and that the corruption which sinne hath procured is not sinne but the punishment of sinne 4. What it is to liue according to man and to liue according to God 5. That the Platonists teach the natures of soule and bodie better then the Maniches yet they erre in ascribing sinne vnto the nature of the flesh 6. Of the quality of mans will vnto which all affections Good and Bad are subiect 7. That Amor and Dilectio are of indifferent vse in the Scriptures both for Good and Euill 8. Of the three passions that the Stoykes allow a wiseman excluding sadnes as foe to a vertuous mind 9. Of the perturbations of mind which the iust doe moderate and rule aright 10. Whether Man had those perturbations in Paradise before his fall 11. The fall of the first Man wherein Nature was made good and cannot bee repair'd but by the Maker 12. Of the quality of Mans first offence 13. That in Adams offence his Euill will was before his euill woorke 14. Of the pride of the transgressioÌ„ which was worse then the transgression it selfe 15. Of the iust reward that our first parents receiued for sinne 16. Of the euill of lust how the name is geâ—…rall to many vices but proper vnto venereall concupiscence 17. Of the nakednesse that our first parents discouered in themselues after their sinne 18. Of the shame that accompanieth copulation as well in common as in mariage 19. That the motions of wrath and lust are so violent that they doe necessarily require to bee suppressed by wisdome and that they were not 〈◊〉 our Nature before our fall depraued it 20. Of the vaine obscaenity of the Cynikes 21. Of the blessing of multiplication before sinne which the transgression did not abolish but onely linked to lust 22. That God first instituted and blessed the band of marriage 23. Whether if man had not sinned hee should haue begotten children in paradice and whether there should there haue bin any contention betweene chastity and lust 24. That our first parents had they liued without sinne should haue had their members of generation as subiect vnto their wills as any of the rest 25. Of the true beatitude vnattayne ablâ—… 〈◊〉 this life 26. That our first parents in Paradise migâ—… haue produced manking without any shamâ—… appetite 27. That the sinners Angels and men caâ—…not with their peruersenesse disturbe Gods prouidence 28. The state of the two Citties the Heauenly and the Earthly FINIS THE FOVRTEENTH BOOKE OF THE CITTIE OF GOD Written by Saint Augustine Bishop of Hippo vnto Marcellinus That the inobedience of the first man had drawne all mankinde into the perpetuity of the second death but that Gods grace hath freed a many from it CHAP. 1. WE said in our precedent bookes that it was Gods pleasure to propagate all men from one both for the keeping of humaine nature in one sociable similitude and also for to make their vnity of originall be the meanes of their concord in heart Nor should any of this kinde haue dyed but the first two the one whereof was made of the other and the other of nothing had incurred this punishment by their disobedience in committing so great a sinne that their whole nature being hereby depraued was so transfused through all their off-spring in the same degree of corruption and necessity of death whose kingdome here-vpon became so great in man that all should haue beene cast headlong in the second death that hath no end by this due punishment but the vndue a grace of God acquitted some from it whereby it comes to passe that whereas man-kinde is diuided into so many nations distinct in language discipline habite and fashion yet is there but two sorts of men that doe properly make the two citties wee speake of the one is of men that liue according to the flesh and the other of those that liue according to the spirit either in his kinde and when they haue attained their desire either doe liue in their peculiar peace L. VIVES VNdue a grace For God owes no man any thing and therefore it is called grace because it comes gratis freely and because it maketh the receiuer gratum thankfull Who hath giâ—… vnto him first and hee shall be recompensed Rom. 11. 35. If it were due he should not then giue but restore it Not by the workes of righteousnesse which wee haue done but according to his 〈◊〉 hee saued vs. Tit. 3. 5. Of the carnall life apparant in the soules viciousnesse as well as the bodies CHAP. 2. WE must first then see what it is to liue according to the flesh and what according to the spirit The raw and inconsiderate considerer hereof not attending well to the scriptures may thinke that the Epicureans were those that liued according to the flesh because â—…hey made bodily pleasure that summum boâ—… and all such as any way held corporall delight to be mans chiefest good as the vulgar also which not out of Philosophy but out of their owne pronenesse to lust can delight in no pleasures but such as are bodily and sensible but that the Stoickes that placed this summum bonum in the minde liue according to the spirit for what is mans minde but his spirit But the Scriptures prooue them both to follow the courses of the flesh calling the flesh not onely an earthly animate body as it doth saying All flesh is not the same flesh for there is one flesh of men and another flesh of beasts and another of fishes and another of birdes but it vseth the worde in farre other significations amongst which one is that it calleth whole man that is his intire nature flesh vsing the part for the whole as By the workes of the lawe shall no flesh be iustified What meanes hee by no flesh but no man hee explaineth him-selfe immediatly a man is iustified by faith without the workes of the lawe And in another place No man is iustified by the lawe The word was made flesh What is that but man Some misconceiuing this place held that Christ had no humaine soule For as the part is taken for the whole in these words of Mary Magdalene They haue taken away my Lord and I know not where they haue laide him Meaning onely the flesh of Christ which shee thought they had taken out of the Sepulchre so is the part taken for the whole when wee say flesh for Man as in the quotations before Seeing therefore that the Scripture vseth flesh in so many significations too tedious heere to recollect To finde what it is to liue according to the flesh the course being enill when the flesh is not euill let vs looke a little diligently into that place of the Apostle Paul to the Galathians where hee saith The workes of the flesh are
would break the law that he bound him to and forsake his Maker yet did hee not take away his freedome of election fore-seeing the good vse that hee would make of this euill by restoring man to his grace by meanes of a man borne of the condemned seed of man-kinde and by gathering so many vnto this grace as should supply the places of the falne Angels and so preserue and perhaps augment the number of the heauenly Inhabitants For euill men do much against the will of God but yet his wisedome fore-sees that all such actions as seeme to oppose his will do tend to such ends as hee fore-knew to be good and iust And therefore wheras God is said To change his will that is to turne his meeknesse into anger against some persons the change in this câ—…se is in the persons and not in him and they finde him changed in their sufferances as a sore eye findeth the sun sharp and being cured findes it comfortable wheras this change was in the eie and not in the sun which keeps his office as he did at first For Gods operation in the hearts of the obedient is said to be his will where-vppon the Apostle faith It is God that worketh in you both will and deed For euen as that righteousnesse wherein both God him-selfe is righteous and whereby also a man that is iustified of God is such is termed the righteousnes of God So also is that law which hee giueth vnto man called his law whereas it is rather pertinent vnto man then vnto him For those were men vnto whom Christ said It is written also in your law though we read else-where The law of his God is in his heart and according vnto his wil which God worketh in man him-selfe is said to wil it because he worketh it in others who do will it as he is said to know that which hee maketh the ignorant to know For whereas S. Peter saith We now knowing God yea rather being knowne of God we may not hereby gather that God came but as then to the knowledg of those who hee had predestinate before the foundations of the world but God as then is said to know that which he made knowne to others Of this phraze of speach I haue spoken I remember heretofore And according vnto this Will wherby we say that God willeth that which he maketh others to will who know not what is to come hee willeth many things and yet effecteth them not The promise of the Saints eternall blisse and the wickeds perpetuall torment CHAP. 2. FOr the Saints doe will many things that are inspired with his holy will and yet are not done by him as when they pray for any one it is not hee that causeth this their praier though he do produce this will of praier in them by his holy spirit And therfore when the Saints do will and pray according to God wee may well say that God willeth it and yet worketh it not as we say hee willeth that him-self which he maketh others to wil. But according to his eternall wil ioined with his fore-knowledge therby did he create al that he pleased in heauen and in earth and hath wrought al things already as well future as past or present But when as the time of manifestation of any thing which God fore-knoweth to come is not yet come we say It shal be when God wil if both the time be vncertaine and the thing it selfe then we say It shall be if God will not that God shall haue any other will as than then hee had before but because that shall bee then effected which his eternall vnchanging will had from al eternity ordained The promise of the Saints eternall blisse and the wickeds perpetual torment CHAP. 3. VVHerefore to omit many wordes As we see his promise to Abraham In thy seed shall all nations be blessed fulfilled in Christ so shall that be fulfilled hereafter which was promised to the said seed by the Prophet The dead shal liue euen with their bodies shall they rise And whereas he saith I will create new heauens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into minde But be you glad and reioice in the things I shal create For behold I will create Hierusalem as a reioycing and her people as a ioy c. And by another Prophet At that time shall thy people be deliuered euery one that shall bee found written in the booke of life and many that sleepe in the dust of the earth shall awake some to euer lasting life and some to shame and perpetuall contempt And againe they shall take the kingdome of the Saintes of the most High and possesse it for euer euen for euer and euer And by and by after His Kingdome is an euerlasting kingdome c. Together with all such places as I eyther put into the twentith booke or left vntouched All these things shall come to passe and those haue already which the infidels would neuer beleeue For the same GOD promised them both euen hee whome the pagan goddes do tremble before as Porphyry a worthy Phylosopher of theirs confesseth Against the wise men of the world that hold it impossible for mans bodie to be transported vp to the dwellings of ioy iâ—… heauen CHAP. 4. BVt the learned of the world thinke that they oppose this all-conuerting power very strongly as touching the resurrection when they vse that place of Cicero in his third booke de repub Who hauing affirmed that Romulus and Hercules were both deified yet were a not their bodies saith hee translated into heauen for nature will alow an earthly body no place but in the earth This is the wise mans argument which GOD knowes how vaine it is for admit that wee were all meere spirits without bodies dwelling in heauen and beeing ignorant of all earthly creatures and it should be told vs that one day we should be bound in corporal bodies might we not then vse this obiection to more power and refuse to beleeue that nature would euer suffer an â—…ncorporeall substance to bee bound or circumscribed by a corporeall one Yet is the earth full of vegetable soules strangely combined with earthly bodies Why then cannot God that made this creature transport an earthly body into heauen as well as he can bring a soule a purer essence then any celestiall body downe from heauen and inclose it in a forme of earth Can this little peece of earth include so excellent a nature in it and liue by it and cannot heauen entertaine it nor keepe it in it seeing that it liueth by an essence more excellent then heauen it selfe is Indeed this shall not come to passe as yet because it is not his pleasure who made this that we daily see and so respect not in a far more admirable manner then that shall be which those wise men beleeue not for why is it not more strange that a most pure
CHAP. 25. By the fayth of this mistery might the ancient Saints of God also bee iustified together with godly life not only before the law was giuen the hebrewes for they wanted not Gods instructions nor the Angels but also in the very 〈◊〉 of the law though they seemed to haue carnall promises in the types of spyrâ—…al thinges it being therefore called the old Testament For there were Propâ—…s then that taught the promise as wel as the Angels and one of them was he â—…se sacred opinion of mans good I related before It is good for me to adhere vnâ—… In which Psalme the two Testaments are distinguished For first hee â—…ng those earthly promises abound so to the vngodly saith his b feete slippâ—… and that he was almost downe as if hee had serued God in vayne seeing that â—…ty that hee hoped of God was bestowed vppon the impious and that hee laboured sore to know the reason of this and was much troubled vntill hee entred into the sanctuary of God and there beheld their endes whome hee in errour thought happy But then c as hee saith hee saw them east downe in their exâ—…on and destroyed for their iniquity and that all their pompe of temporall 〈◊〉 was become as a dreame leauing a man when hee is awake frustrate of â—…ed ioyes hee dreamed off And because they shewed great here vpon 〈◊〉 saith hee In thy Citty thou shalt make their Image bee held as nothing 〈◊〉 good it was for him to seek those temporalties at none but Gods hands â—…weth â—…aying I was as a beast before thee yet was I alwaies with thee as a beast â—…erstanding For I should haue desired such goodes as the wicked could not 〈◊〉 with mee but seeing them abound with goods I thought I had serued thee 〈◊〉 end when as they that hated thee inioyed such felicity Yet was I alwaies with 〈◊〉 fought no other goddes to begge these thinges vppon And then it followâ—… Thou hast holden me by my right hand thou hast guided me by thy will and hast asâ—… into glory As if all that which he saw the wicked inioy were belonging 〈◊〉 left hand though seeing it he had almost falne What haue I in heauen but 〈◊〉 sayth he And would I haue vpon earth but thee Then hee doth checke himâ—… iustly for hauing so great a good in Heauen as afterwards hee vnderstood 〈◊〉 yet begging so transitory frayle and earthen a thing of God here below d 〈◊〉 heart faileth and my flesh but God is the God of mine heart A good fayling to 〈◊〉 the lower and elect the loftyer So that in another Psalme he sayth My soule â—…geth and fainteth for the Courtes of the Lord. And in another My heart fainteth 〈◊〉 thy sauing health But hauing sayd both heart and flesh fainteth hee reioyned not The God of mine heart and flesh but the God of my heart for it is by the heart that 〈◊〉 â—…sh is cleansed as the Lord sayth Cleanse that which is within and then that 〈◊〉 is without shall be cleane Then he calleth God his portion not any thing of 〈◊〉 but him-selfe God is the God of my heart and my portion for euer Because 〈◊〉 mens manifold choyces he chose him only For e behold saith he they 〈◊〉 â—…thdraw them-selues from them shall perish f thou destroyest al them that go 〈◊〉 from thee that is that make them-selues prostitute vnto many gods and then â—…owes that which is the cause I haue spoken al this of the Psalme As for me it is good for mee to adhere vnto GOD not to withdraw my selfe nor to goe a whoring And then is our adherence to God perfect when all is freed that should bee freed But as wee are now the hold is I put my trust in the Lord God for hope that is seene is no hope how can a man hope for that which he seeth savth the Apostle But when we see not our hope then we expect with patience wherein lette vs do that which followeth each one according to his talent becomming an Angell a messenger of God to declare his will and praise his gratious glory That I may declare all thy workes saith hee in the gates of the daughter of Sion This is that gloryous Citty of God knowing and honouring him alone This the Angells declared inuiting vs to inhabite it and become their fellow Cittizens in it They like not that wee should worship them as our elected Gods but with them him that is God to vs both Nor to sacrifice to them but with them be a sacrifice to him Doubtlesse then if malice giue men leaue to see the doubt cleared al the blessed immortalls that enuy vs not and if they did they were not blessed but rather loue vs to haue vs partners in their happinesse are farre more fauourable and beneficiall to vs when wee ioyne with them in sacrificing our selues to the adoration of the Father the Sonne and the holy Spirit L. VIVES WHich a Psal. 73. diuinely soluing of this question of the Phylosophers Why one God ruling all haue the good so often hurt and the bad so much good Or Epicurus his Dilemma If there be a God whence is euill If none whence is good Augustine recites some verses and we wil breefely interpose here and there a word b Feete slipped or moued by the vnworthy euent to take another way it seeming to him to haue done so little good in this c Them All things saith the wise man are secret vntil the end but then the good life helps and the bad hurts the one rewarded and the other plagued for then all appeareth in truth d My heart A sanctified man in all his troubles and faintings of strength and counsell still keepes heart-hold of God making him his portion for euer loose he all thinges God he will neuer loose Augustine me thinks applyeth this to the defect of spirit through the vehement desire of celestiall comfortes For the soule will languish into much loue and lose all the selfe in entyre speculation of that it affecteth Or he may meane that although all bodily meanes of strength or state do faile a good man yet his minde will stil sticke firmely vnto God and entertaine a contempt of all worldly wealth and all guifts of wit or fortune in respect of this God this onely ritches and heritage e Behold Therefore is it good to adhere to him from whom who-soeuer departeth perisheth f Thou destroyest Wee ought to keepe our soule chaste as the spouse of God which if it go a whoring after the desires and lusts of the world neglecting God hee casteth it off as a man doth his dishonest wife and diuorceth it from him And this is the death of the soule to leaue the true life thereof Of Porphyry his wauering betweene confessing of the true God and adoration of the diuels CHAP. 26. Me thinkes Porphrry I know not how is ashamed of his Thevrgicall acquaintance Hee had some knowledge of good
vndoubted faith in our scriptures all which made choyce rather to endure the tirany of their enemies then bee their owne butchers But now we will prooue out of their owne records that Regulus was Cato's better in this glory For Cato neuer ouer-came Caesar vnto whom he scorned to be subiect and chose to murder himselfe rather then bee seruant vnto him But Regulus ouer-came the Africans and in his generallship returned with diuers noble victories vnto the Romanes neuer with any notable losse of his Citizens but alwaies of his foes and yet being afterwards conquered by them hee resolued rather to endure slauery vnder them then by death to free himselfe from them And therein hee both preserued his paciencie vnder the Carthaginians and his constancy vnto the Romanes neither depriuing the enemy of his conquered body nor his countrymen of his vnconquered minde Neither was it the loue of this life that kept him from death This hee gaue good proofe of when without dread hee returned back vnto his foes to whō he had giuen worse cause of offence in the Senate-house with his tongue then euer he had done before in the battaile with his force therefore this so great a conqueror and contemner of this life who had rather that his foes should take it from him by any torments then that hee should giue death to himselfe howsoeuer must needes hold that it was a foule guilt for man to bee his owne murderer Rome amongst all her worthies and eternized spirits cannot shew one better then hee was for hee for all his great victories continued b most poore nor could mishap amate him for with a fixt resolue and an vndanted courage returned he vnto his deadliest enemies Now if those magnanimous and heroicall defenders of their earthly habitacles and those true and sound seruants of their indeede false gods who had power to cut downe their conquered foes by lawe of armes seeing themselues afterwardes to bee conquered of their foes neuerthelesse would not be their owne butchers but although they feared not death at al yet would rather endure to bee slaues to their foes superiority then to bee their owne executioners How much more then should the Christians that adore the true God and ayme wholie at the eternall dwellings restraine themselues from this foule wickednesse whensoeuer it pleaseth God to expose them for a time to taste of temporall extremities either for their triall or for correction sake seeing that hee neuer forsaketh them in their humiliation for whom hee being most high humbled himselfe so low e especially beeing that they are persons whom no lawes of armes or military power can allowe to destroy the conquered enemies L. VIVES IN a his flesh For hee was afflicted with a sore kinde of vlcere b Most poore Liuy in his eighteene booke and Valerius in his examples of pouerty write this When Attilius knew that his generallship was prolonged another yeare more hee wrote to the Senate to haue them send one to supply his place His chiefe reason why hee would resigne his charge was because his seauen acres of ground beeing all the land hee had was spoyled by the hired souldiers which if it continued so his wife and children could not haue whereon to liue So the Senate giuing the charge of this vnto the Aediles looked better euer after vnto Attilius his patrimony c Especialy being that they He makes fighting as far from Christian piety as religious humanity is from barbarous inhumanity That sinne is not to be auoided by sinne CHAP. 24. VVHat a pernicious error then is heere crept into the world that a man should kill himselfe because either his enemy had iniured him or means to iniure him whereas hee may not kill his enemy whether hee haue offended him or bee about to offend him This is rather to bee feared indeede that the bodie beeing subiect vnto the enemies lust with touch of some enticing delight do not allure the will to consent to this impurity And therefore say they it is not because of anothers guilt but for feare of ones owne that such men ought to kill themselues before sinne be committed vpon them Nay the minde that is more truly subiect vnto God and his wisdome then vnto carnall concupiscence will neuer be brought to yeeld vnto the lust of the owne flesh be it neuer so prouoked by the lust of anothers But if it be a damnable fact and a detestable wickednesse to kill ones selfe at all as the truth in plaine tearmes saith it is what man will bee so fond as to say let vs sinne now least we sinne hereafter let vs commit murder now least wee fall into adultery hereafter If wickednesse be so predominant in such an one as hee or shee will not chuse rather to suffer in innocence than to escape by guilt is it not better to aduenture on the vncertainety of the future adultery then the certainety of the present murder is it not better to commit such a sinne as repentance may purge then such an one as leaues no place at all for repentance This I speake for such as for auoyding of guilt not in others but in themselues and fearing to consent to the lust in themselues which anothers lust inciteth doe imagine that they ought rather to endure the violence of death But farre bee it from a Christian soule that trusteth in his God that hopeth in him and resteth on him farre bee it I say from such to yeeld vnto the delights of the flesh in any consent vnto vncleanesse But if that a concupiscentiall disobedience which dwelleth as yet in our b dying flesh doe stirre it selfe by the owne licence against the law of our will how can it bee but faltlesse in the body of him or her that neuer consenteth when it stirres without guilt in the body that sleepeth L. VIVES COncupiscentiall a Disobedience The lust of the bodie is mooued of it selfe euen against all resistance and contradiction of the will and then the will being ouercome by the flesh from hence ariseth shame as we will shew more at large hereafter b Dying flesh Our members being subiect vnto death doe die euery day and yet seeme to haue in them a life distinct from the life of the soule if then the lustfull motions that betide vs in sleepe bee faltlesse because the will doth not consent but nature effects them without it how much more faltlesse shall those bee wherein the will is so so farre from resting onely that it resists and striues against them Of some vnlawfull acts done by the Saints and by what occasion they were done CHAP. 25. BVt there were a some holy women say they in these times of persecution who flying from the spoylers of their chastities threw themselues head-long into a swift riuer which drowned them and so they died and yet their martirdomes are continually honored with religious memorialls in the Catholike Church Well of these I dare not iudge rashly in any thing
man reade Liuy lib. 1. Dionysius and Plutarch of his whole life besides diuers others e all to insufficient This is plaine for they fetched lawes frō others f it is not reported Yes he fained that he conferred with Aegeria but she was rather a Nimph then a goddesse besides this is known to be a fable g the most learned Here I cannot choose but ad a very conceited saying out of Plautus his comedy called Persa Sagaristio the seruant askes a Virgin how strong dost thou think this towne is If the townsmen quoth shee againe bee well mannered I thinke it is very strong if treachery couetousnesse and extortion bee chased out and then enuie then ambition then detraction then periury then flattery then iniury then and lastly which is hardest of all to get out villanie if these be not all thrust forth an hundred walls are all too weake to keepe out ruine Of the rape of the Sabine women and diuers other wicked facts done in Romes most ancient and honorable times CHAP. 17. PErhaps the gods would not giue the Romaines any lawes because as Salust a saith Iustice and honestie preuailed as much with them by nature as by lawe very good b out of this iustice and honestie came it I thinke that the c Sabine virgins were rauished What iuster or honester part can be plaide then to force away other mens daughters with all violence possible rather then to receiue them at the hand of their parents But if it were vniustly done of the Sabines to deny the Romaines their daughters was it not farre more vniustly done of them to force them away after that deniall There were more equitie showne in making warres vpon those that would not giue their daughters to beget alliance with their neighbours and countrimen then with those that did but require back their owne which were iniuriously forced from them Therefore Mars should rather haue helped his warlike sonne in reuenging the iniury of this reiected proferre of marriage that so he might haue wonne the Virgin that he desired by force of armes For there might haue beene some pretence of warlike lawe for the conqueror iustly to beare away those whom the conquered had vniustly denied him before But he against all law of peace violently forced them from such as denied him them and then began an vniust warre with their parents to whom hee had giuen so iust a cause of anger d Herein indeed he had good and happy successe And albeit the e Circensian playes were continued to preserue the memory of this fraudulent acte yet neither the Cittie nor the Empire did approoue such a president and the Romaines were more willing to erre in making Romulus a deity after this deed of iniquitie then to allow by any law or practise this fact of his in forcing of women thus to stand as an example for others to follow Out of this iustice and honesty likewise proceeded this that g after Tarquin and his children were expulsed Rome because his sonne Sextus had rauished Lucresse Iunius Brutus being consull compelled h L. Tarquinius Collatine husband to that Lucresse his fellow officer a good man and wholy guiltlesse to giue ouer his place and abandon the Cittie which vile deed of his was done by the approbation or at least omission of the people who made Collatine Consul aswell as Brutus himself Out of this iustice and honesty came this also that h Marcus Camillus that most illustrious worthy of his time that with such ease sudued the warlike Veientes the greatest foes of the Romaines and tooke their cheefe citty from them after that they had held the Romains in ten yeares war and foiled their armies so often that Rome hir selfe began to tremble and suspected hir owne safety that this man by the mallice of his backe-biting enemies and the insupportable pride of the Tribunes being accused of guilt perceiuing the citty which he had preserued so vngrateful that he needs must be condemned was glad to betake him-selfe to willing banishment and yet i in his absence was fined at ten thousand Asses k Being soone after to be called home again to free his thankelesse country the second time from the Gaules It yrkes me to recapitulate the multitude of foule enormities which that citty hath giuen act vnto l The great ones seeking to bring the people vnder their subiection the people againe on the other side scorning to be subiect to them and the ring-leaders on both sides aiming wholy rather at superiority and conquest then euer giuing roome to a thought of iustice or honesty L. VIVES SAlust a saith In his warre of Catiline speaking of the ancient Romaines he saith thus The law is a ciuill equity either established in literall lawes or instilled into the manners by verball instructions Good is the fount moderatour and reformer of all lawe all which is done by the Iudges prudence adapting it selfe to the nature of the cause and laying the lawe to the cause not the cause to the lawe As Aristotle to this purpose speaketh of the Lesbian rule Ethic. 4. This is also termed right reason as Salust againe saith in his Iugurth Bomilchar is guilty rather by right and reason then any nationall lawe Crassus saith Tully in his Brutus spake much at that time against that writing and yet but in right and reason It is also called equitie ' That place saith Cicero for Caecinna you feare and flie and seeke as I may say to draw mee out of this plaine field of equitie into the straite of words and into all the literall corners in this notwithstanding saith Quintilian the iudges nature is to bee obserued whether it be rather opposed to the lawe then vnto equitie or no. Hereof wee haue spoken some-thing in our Temple of the lawes But the most copious and exact reading hereof is in Budaeus his notes vpon the Pandects explaining that place which the Lawyers did not so well vnderstand Ius est ars aequi boni This mans sharpenesse of witte quicknesse of iudgement fulnesse of diligence and greatnesse of learning no Frenchman euer paralleld nor in these times any Italian There is nothing extant in Greeke or Latine but he hath read it and read it ouer and discussed it throughly In both these toungs he is a like and that excellently perfect Hee speakes them both as familiarly as he doth French his naturall tongue nay I make doubt whether hee speake them no better hee will read out a Greeke booke in Latine words extempore and out of a Latine booke in Greeke And yet this which wee see so exactly and excellently written by him is nothing but his extemporall birthe Hee writes with lesse paines both Greeke and Latine then very good schollers in both these tongues can vnderstand them There is no cranke no secret in all these tongues but he hath searcht it out lookt into it and brought it forth like Cerberus from darknesse into
that Phygian Troy namely of the Albians the Lauinians both which nations descended from the Troians that accompanied Aeneas d Homer reported at what time Rome was built or at what time Homer liued the auncient writers do not iustly and vniformely define though the first be lesse dubitable then the latter Plutarch in the life of Romulus saith that hee and Remus first founded the walles in the third yeare of the sixt Olimpiad on which day was an eclips of the moone Dionisius and Eusebius say the 1. yeare of the 7. Olympiade after the destruction of Troy CCCCXXXII yeares Solin in Polihist Cincius will haue it built in the twelth Olympiad Pictor in the eighth Nepos and Luctatius to whom Eratosthenes and Apollodorus agree the seauenth Olympiade the second yeare Pomponius Atticus and Tully the seauenth and the third yeare therefore by all correspondency of the Greeke computations to ours it was built in the beginning of the seauenth Olympiad CCCCXXXIII yeares after the ruine of Troy About Homers time of liuing his country and his parentage the Greeke writers keepe a great adoe Some say he was present at the warres of Troy Indeed he himselfe brings in his Phemius singing in the banquet of the wooers Odissi But whether he do it through an ambitious desire to grace his Mr. in beyond the reach of the time or no it is doubtful Others say he liued not vntil an hundred yeares after this warre of Phrigia and some there bee that ad fifty more vnto the number Aristarchus gives him to those times about which there was a Colonye planted in Ionia sixty yeares after the subuersion of the Heraclidae CXXX yeares after the Troians warrs Crates thinketh that there was not foure-score yeares betweene the demolishing of Troy and the birth of Homer Some affirme him to haue beene sonne to Telemachus Vlisses his sonne and Tolycasta daughter to Nestor In the cronicle of Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea we find this recorded We find saith he in the latine history that Agrippa reigning amongst the Latines Homer florished amongst the Greekes as Appollodorus the Grammarian and Euphorbeus the Historiographer do both testifie CXXIIII yeares before the building of Rome and as Cornelius Nepos saith before the fiâ—…st Olympiade an C. yeares Howsoeuer then it fall out Homer was before the building of Rome which Tully also doth beare witnesse of in his Quaestiones Tusculanae e Uirgill declareth Aeneid 5. Pelidae tunc ego fâ—…rti Congressum Aeneam nec diis nec viribus aequis Nube caua eripui cuperem cum vertere ab imo Structa meis maâ—…ibus periturae maenia Troiae c. Then in an hollow cloud I sau'd him when he combatted that Greeke Though hauing neither fate nor force alike Then when mine ownâ—… worke Troy I sought to raze c. f for thankes and thankelesse Gratis ingratis that an aduerbe this an adiectiue g Neptune Neptune after that Laomedon had thus cheated him was alwayes a heauy enemy of the Troyans But Apollo being more gentle and remisse was as good friends with them as before Virgill Aeneid 6. Phaebe graues Troiae semper miscrate labâ—…res Dardana qui Paridis direxti â—…ela manusque Corpus in Acacidae c. Phaebus that alwaies pitied Troies distresse And gâ—…ue the hand of Paris good successe Against Achilles life c. h the senators by the Semprnoian law which Caius Gracchus preferred the Gentlemen of Rome had the iudging all causes twenty yeares together without any note of infamy and then by the law Plautian were selected fifteene out of euery tribe by the suffrages of the people to be iudges for that yeare this was done in the second yeare of the Italian warre Cn. Pompeius sonne to Sextus and L. Cato being consuls Afterwards the law Cornelian which Silla instituted the authority was reduced to the senat who iudged ten yeares together most partially and most corruptedly When the greater sort iudged saith Tully against Verres there was great complaning of vniust indgements Last of all by the law Aurelian preferred by M Aurelius Cotta being praetor both senat and people combined had the hearing and censuring of causes i the people Lucane in his first booke Hinc raptifasces precio sectorque fauoris Ipse sui populus lethalisque ambitus vrbi Annua venali referens certamima campo Hence coyne Fought consulships through this deiection The people sold their voices this infection Fild Mars his field with strife at each election k But heapt vp for the iudges were sworne to iudge truly and the people before they gaue their voices were sworne at a sacrifice not to hold any reward or fauour of the worth of the commonwealths estate and safety That the gods could not iustly be offended at the adultry of Paris vsing it so freely and frequently themselues CHAP. 3. WHerefore there is no reason to say that these gods who supported the empire of Troy were offended with the Troians periury when the Greekes did preuaile against all their protections Nor is it as some say in their defence that the anger at Paris his a adultery made them giue ouer Troyes defence for it is their custome to practise sinne them-selues and not to punish it in others b The Troians saith Salust as I haue heard were the first founders inhabitants of Rome those were they that came away with Aeneas and wandered without any certaine abode If Paris his fact were then to be punished by the gods iudgements it was either to fall vpon the Troians or else vpon the Romaines because c Aeneas his mother was chiefe agent therein But how should they hate it in Paris when as they hated it not in Venus one of their company who to omit her other pranks committed adultery with Anchifes and by him was begotten d Aeneas Or why should his falt anger Menelus and hers e please Vulcane I do not thinke the gods such abasers of their wiues or of themselues as to vouchsafe mortall men to partake with them in their loues Some perhaps will say I scoffe at these fables and handle not so graue a cause with sufficient grauity why then if you please let vs not beleeue that Aeneas is sonne to Venus I am content so f that Romulus likewise be not held to be Mars his sonne g If the one be so why is not the other so also Is it lawfull for the gods to medle carnally with women and yet vnlawfull for the men to meddle carnallie with Goddesses a hard or rather an incredible condition that what was lawfull for Mars h by Venus her law should not be lawfull for Venus by her owne law But they are both confirmed by the Romain authority for i Caesar of late beleeued no lesse that k Venus was his grand-mother then l Romulus of old beleeued that Mars was his father L. VIVES PAris his a adultery This I thinke is knowne to all both blind men and barbers as they say that the warres of Troy arose about
kinsfolkes bewailing her the Priests and other religious following the hearse with a sadde silence Neere to the gate was a caue to which they went downe by a ladder there they let downe the guilty person alone tooke away the ladder and shutte the caue close vp and least she should starue to death they set by her bread milke and oyle of each a quantitie together with a lighted lampe all this finished the Priests departed and on that day was no cause heard in law but it was as a vacation mixt with great sorrow and feare all men thinking that some great mischiefe was presaged to befall the weale publick by this punishment of the Vestall The vowes and duties of those Vestals Gellius amongst others relateth at large Noct. Atticarum lib. 1. b Neuer censuring others Before Augustus there was no law made against adulterers nor was euer cause heard that I know of concerning this offence Clodius indeed was accused for polluting the sacrifices of Bona Dea but not for adulterie which his foes would not haue omitted had it laine within the compasse of lawe Augustus first of all instituted the law Iulian against men adulterers it conteined some-what against vnchaste women also but with no capitall punishment though afterwards they were censured more sharpely as we read in the Caesars answers in Iustintans Code and the 47. of the Pandects Dionysius writeth that at Romes first originall Romulus made a lawe against adultery but I thinke hee speakes it Graecanicè as hee doth prettily well in many others matters Of Romulus his murther of his brother which the gods neuer reuenged CHAP. 6. NOw I will say more If those Deities tooke such grieuous and heinous displeasure at the enormities of men that for Paris his misdemeanour they would needes vtterly subuert the citty of Troy by fire and sword much more then ought the murder of Romulus his brother to incense their furies against the Romaines then the rape of Menelaus his wife against the Troians Parricide a in the first originall of a Citty is far more odious then adultery in the wealth and height of it Nor is it at all pertinent vnto our purpose b whether this murder were commanded or committed by Romulus which many impudently deny many doe doubt and many do dissemble Wee will not intangle our selues in the Laborinth of History vpon so laborious a quest Once sure it is Romulus his brother was murdered and that neither by open enemies nor by strangers If Romulus either willed it or wrought it so it is Romulus was rather the cheefe of Rome then Paris of Troy VVhy should the one then set all his goddes against his countrey for but rauishing another mans wife and the other obtaine the protection of c the same goddes for murdering of his owne brother If Romulus bee cleare of this imputation then is the whole citty guilty of the same crime howsoeuer in giuing so totall an assent vnto such a supposition and in steed of killing a brother hath done worse in killing a father For both the bretheren were fathers and founders to it alike though villany bard the one from dominion There is small reason to be showne in mine opinion why the Troians deserued so ill that their gods should leaue them to destruction and the Romaines so well that they would stay with them to their augmentation vnlesse it bee this that being so ouerthrowne and ruined in one place they were glad to flie away to practise their illusions in another nay they were cunninger then so they both stayed still at Troy to deceiue after their old custome such as afterwards were to inhabit there and likewise departed vnto Rome that hauing a greater scope to vse their impostures there they might haue more glorious honours assigned them to feede their vaine-glorious desires L. VIVES PArricide a in Parricide is not onely the murther of the parent but of any other equall some say ' Parricidium quasi patratio caedis committing of slaughter It is an old law of Num's He that willingly doth to death a free-man shall be counted a Parricide b Whether this murther There be that affirme that Remus being in contention for the Kingdome when both the factions had saluted the leaders with the name of King was slaine in the byâ—…kerng between them but whether by Romulus or some other none can certainely affirme Others and more in number saie that he was slaine by Fabius Tribune of the light horsemen of Romulus because he leaped in scorne ouer the newly founded walles of Rome and that Fabius did this by Romulus his charge Which fact Cicero tearmes wicked and inhumaine For thus in his fourth booke of Offices he discourseth of it But in that King that built the citty it was not so The glosse of commodity dazeled his spirits and since it seemed fitter for his profit to rule without a partner then with one he murdered his owne brother Here did he leape ouer piety nay and humanity also to reach the end hee aimed at profit though his pretence and coullour about the wall was neither probale nor sufficient wherfore be it spoken with reuerence to Quirinus or to Romulus Romulus in this did well c The same godds Which were first brought to Aeneas to I auiniun from thence to Alba by Ascanius and from Alba the Romaines had them by Romulus with the Assent of Numâ—…tor and so lastly were by Tullus transported all vnto Rome Of the subuersion of Ilium by Fimbria a Captaine of Marius his faction CHAP. 7. IN the first a heate of the b ciuill wars what hadde poore Ilium done that c Fimbria they veriest villaine of all d Marius his sette should raize it downe with more fury and e cruelty then euer the Grecians had shewed vpon it before For in their conquest many escaped captiuity by flight and many avoided death by captiuity But Fimbria charged in an expresse edicte that not a life should bee spared and made one fire of the Citty and all the creatures within it Thus was Ilium requited not by the Greekes whom her wronges had prouoked but by the Romaines whom her ruines had propagated their gods in this case a like adored of both sides doing iust nothing or rather beeing able to do iust nothing what were the gods gone from their shrines that protected this towne since the repayring of it after the Grecian victory If they were shew me why but still the better citizens I finde the worse gods They shut out Fimbria to keepe all for Sylla hee set the towne and them on fire and burned them both into dust and ashes And yet in meane-time f Sylla's side was stronger and euen now was hee working out his powre by force of armes his good beginnings as yet felt no crosses How then could the Ilians haue dealt more honestly or iustly or more worthy of the protection of Rome then to saue a citty of Romes for better endes and to keepe out a
Iuno for all that shee was now as her husband was good friends with the Romaines nor Venus could helpe her sonnes progenie to honest and honorable mariages but suffered this want to growe so hurtfull vnto them that they were driuen to get them wiues by force and soone after were compelled to go into the field against their wiues owne fathers and the wretched women beeing yet scarcely reconciled to their husbands for this wrong offered them were now endowed with their fathers murthers and kindreds bloud but in this conflict the Romaines had the lucke to be conquerors But O what worlds of wounds what numbers of funerals what Oceans of bloudshed did those victories cost for one onely father a in lawe Caesar and for one onely sonne in law Pompey the wife of Pompey and daughter to Caesar being dead with what true feeling and iust cause of sorrow doth Lucane crie out Bella per Emathios plus quam ciuilia campos â—…usque datum sceleri canimus Warres worse then ciuill in th' b Emathian plaines And right left spoile to rage we sing Thus then the Romaines conquered that they might now returne and embrace the daughters with armes embrued in the bloud of the fathers nor duâ—…st the poore creatures weepe for their slaughtered parents for feare to offend their conquering husbands but all the time of the battle stood with their vowes in their mouthes c and knew not for which side to offer them Such mariages Bellona and not Venus bestowed vpon the Romaines or perhaps d Alecto that filthy hellish furie now that Iuno was agreed with them had more power vpon their bosomes now then shee had then when Iuno entreated her helpe against Aeneas Truly e Andromacha's captiuitie was farre more tollerable then these Romaine mariages for though she liued seruile yet Pyrrhus after hee had once embraced her would neuer kill Troian more But the Romaines slaughtered their owne step fathers in the field whose daughters they had already enioyed in their beds Andromacha's estate secured her from further feares though it freed her not from precedent sorrowes But these poore soules being matched to these sterne warriours could not but feare at their husbands going to battell and wept at their returne hauing no way to freedome either by their feares or teares For they must either in piety bewaile the death of their friendes and kinsfolkes or in cruelty reioice at the victories of their husbands Besides as warres chance is variable some lost their husbands by their fathers swords and some lost both by the hand of each other For it was no small war that Rome at that time waged It came to the besieging of the citty it selfe and the Romaines were forced to rely vppon the strength of their walls and gates which f being gotten open by a wile and the foe being entred within the wals g euen in the very market-place was there a most wofull and wicked battell struck betwixt the fathers in law and the sons And here were the rauishers coÌ„quered maugre their beards and driuen to flye into their owne houses to the great staine of all their precedent though badly and bloudily gotten h conquests for here Romulus him-selfe dispairing of his soldiors valors i praid vnto Iupiter to make them stand and k here-vpon got Iupiter his sur-name of Stator l Nor would these butcheries haue euer beene brought vnto any end but that the silly rauished women came running forth with torne and disheueled haire and falling at their parents feete with passionate intreaties insteed of hostile armes appeased their iustly inraged valors And then was Romulus that could not indure to share with his brother compelled to diuide his Kingdom with Tatius the King of the Sabines but m how long would he away with him that misliked the fellowship of his owne twin-borne brother So Tatius being slaine he to become the greater Deity tooke possession of the whole kingdome O what rights of mariage were these what firebrands of war what leagues of brother-hood affinity vnion or Deity And ah what n liues the cittizens lastly led vnder so huge a bed-roll of gods Guardians You see what copious matter this place affordeth but that our intention bids vs remember what is to follow and falles on discourse to other particulars L. VIVES FAther in law a Caesar Iulia the only daughter of C. Caesar was married vnto Cn. Pompeius the great Shee died in child-bed whilst her father warred in France And after that he and his sonne in law waged ciuils wars one against another b Emathian That which is called Macedonia now was called once Emathia Plin. lib. 4. There did Pompey and Caesar fight a set field c And knew not Ouid Fastor 3. hath these wordes of the Sabine women when the Romaines battell and theirs were to ioine Mars speaketh Conueniunt nuptae dictam Iunonis in aedem Quas inter mea sic est nurus ausa loqui O pariter raptae quoniam hoc commune tenemus Non vltra lentae possumus essepiae Stant acies sed vtradij sunt pro parte rogandi Eligite hinc coniunx hinc pater arma tenet Querendum est viduae fieri malitis an orbae c. The wiues in Iunoes church a meeting make Where met my daughter thus them all be spake Poore rauisht soules since all our plights are one Our zeale ha's now no meane to thinke vpon The batails ioine whom shall we pray for rather Choose here a husband fights and there a father Would you be spouselesse wiues or fatherlesse c. e Or perhaps Alecto The 3. furies Alecto Magera Tisiphone are called the daughters of night Acheron Alecto affects yâ— hart with ire hate tumult sedition clamors war slaughters Tâ—… pâ—…es unaâ—…s arâ—…re in prâ—…lia â—…ratres 〈◊〉 â—…is verâ—…re dâ—…s T is thou can make sworne bretheren mortall foes Confounding hate with hate Saith Iuno to Alecto stirring her vp against the Troians Aeneid 7. e Andromache Hectors wife daughter to Tetion King of Thebes in Cilicia Pyrrhus married her after the destruction of Troye f Beeing gotte open Sp. Tarpeius was Lieutenant of the Tower whose daughter Tarpeia Tatius the Sabine King with great promises allured to let in his souldiors when shee went out to fetch water Shee assented vpon condition that shee might haue that which each of his souldiors wore vpon his left arme Tatius agreed and being let in the Soldiours smothered the maide to death with their bucklers for them they wore on their left armes also whereas shee dreamed onely of their golden bracelets which they bore on that arme Plutarch out of Aristides Milesius saith that this happened to the Albanes not to the Sabines In Parallelis But I do rather agree with Liuie Fabius Piso and Cincius of the Latine writers and Dionysius of the Greekes g In the very market place Betweene the Capitoll and Mount Palatine h Conquests Not of the Sabines but of the Ceninensians the Crustumerians and the Attennates i Praid
that the euents of things to come proceed not from Gods knowledge but this from them with not-withstanding in him are not to come but already present wherein a great many are deceiued wherfore he is not rightly said to fore-know but only in respect of ouâ—… actions but already to knowe see and discerne them But is it seen vnfit that this eternall knowledge should deriue from so transitory an obiect then we may say that Gods knowledge ariseth from his prouidence and will that his will decreeth what shall bee and his knowledge conceiueth what his will hath appointed That which is to come saith Origen vppon Genesis is the cause that God knoweth it shall come so it commeth not to passe because God knoweth it shall come so to passe but God fore-knoweth it because it shal come so to passe m Vse the word So do most of the latines Poets Chroniclers and Orators referring fate to men and will to God and the same difference that is here betweene fate will Boethius puts betweene fate and prouidence Apuleius saith that prouidence is the diuine thought preseruing hiâ—… for whose cause such a thing is vndertaken that fate is a diuine law fulfilling the vnchangable decrees of the great God so that if ought be done by prouidence it is done also by fate and if Fate performe ought Prouidence worketh with it But Fortuâ—… hath something to doe about vs whose causes we vtterly are ignorant of for the euents runne so vncertaine that they mixing them-selues with that which is premeditated and we thinke well consulted of neuer let it come to our expected end and when it endeth beyond our expectation so well and yet these impediments haue intermedled that wee call happynesse But when they peâ—…uert it vnto the worst it is called misfortune or vnhappynesse In Dogmata Platonis Whether necessity haue any dominion ouer the will of man CHAP. X. NOr need we feare that a Necessity which the Stoikes were so affraid off that in their distinctions of causes they put some vnder Necessity and some not vnder it and in those that did not subiect vnto it they gâ—… our wils also that they might bee free though they were vrged by necessity But if that bee necessity in vs which is not in our power but will be done do what wee can against it as the necessity of death then is it plaine that our wills are subiect to no such necessity vse we them howsoeuer well or badly For we do many things which wee could not do against our wils And first of all to will it selfe if we will a thing there is our will If we will not it is not For we cannot will against our wills Now if necessity be defined to be that whereby such a thing musts needes fall out thus or thus I see no reason we should feare that it could hinder the freedome of our wills in any thing b For we neither subiect Gods being nor his praesciences vnto necessity when wee say God must needes liue eternally and God must needes fore-know all thinges no more then his honour is diminished in saying hee cannot erre hee cannot die He cannot do this why because his power were lesse if he could doe it then now it is in that he cannot Iustly is he called almighty yet may hee not dye nor erre He is called almighty because he can do all that is in his will not because he can suffer what is not his will which if he could he were not almighty So that he cannot do some things because he can do all things So when wee say that if we will any thing of necessity we must will it with a freedome of will tisâ—… true yet put we not our wil vnder any such necessity as depriues it of the freedome So that our wils are ours willing whatâ—…vve will and if we will it not neither do they will it and if any man suffer any thing by the will of another against his own will his will hath the own power still his sufferance commeth rather froÌ„ the power of God then from his own will for if hee vvilled that it should be other wise and yet could not haue it so his will must needes bee hindered by a greater power yet his will should be free still not in any others power but his that willed it though he could not haue his will performeds wherfore what-soeuer a man suffereth against his wil he ought not attribute it vnto the wils of Angels Men or any other created spirits but euen to his who gaue their wils this power So then c our wils are not vse-les because that God fore-seeth what wil be in them he that fore-saw it what-euer it be fore-saw somwhat and if he did fore know somewhat then by his fore-knowledge there is som-thing in our vvils Wherfore vve are neither compelled to leaue our freedom of will by retayning Gods fore-knowledge nor by holding our willes freedome to denie GODS fore-knowledge GOD forbid vvee should vve beleeue and affirme them both constantly and truly the later as a part of our good faith the former as a rule for our good life and badly doth hee liue that beleeueth not aright of GOD. So God-forbid that wee should deny his fore-knowledge to be free by whose helpe wee either are or shall bee free d Therefore law correction praise disgrace exhortation and prohibition are not in vaine because hee fore-knew that there should bee such They haue that power which hee fore-knew they should haue and prayers are powerfulâ—…â—…o attaine those thinges which hee fore-knoweth that hee will giue to such as pray for them Good deedes hath hee predestinated to reward and euil to punishment e Nor doth man sinne because God fore-knew that he would sin nay therfore it is doubtlesse that he sinneth when he doth sin because that God whose knowledge cannot be mistaken fore-saw that neither fate nor fortune nor any thing else but the man himselfe would sin who if he had not bin willing he had not sinned but whether he should be vnwilling to sinne or no that also did God fore-know L. VIVES THaâ—… a a necessitie Me thinketh saith Tully that in the two opinions of the Philosophers thâ—… 〈◊〉 holding faâ—…e the doer of all things by a very law of necessity of which opinion Democritus Heraclitus Empedocles and Aristotle were and the other exempting the motions of the wil from this law Chrysippus professing to step into a meane as an honorable arbitrator betweene them inclineth rather to those that stand for the minds freedom De fato lib. Therfore did Oenomaus yâ— Cynike say that Democritus had made our mindes slaues and Chrysippus halfe slaues Euseb. de praep Euang. l. 6. Therin is a great disputation about Fate The Stoikes bringing all vnder fate yet binde not our mindes to any necessity nor let them compel vs to any action For all things come to passe in fate by causes precedent and subsequent
slew him as hee was vpon going into Italy Hee was a religious Christian Prince This of him and the rest here mentioned I haue from Eutropius Paulus Diaconus Oros. and Pomp. Laetus l Pompey Ptolomyes guard flew him in a boate before all the people of Alexandria looking on them An vn worthy death for so worthy a man Liu. Flor. Plutarch Lucane Appian m Theodosius He was a Spaniard Gratian at Syrmium made him his fellow Emperor with the peoples great applause being a man both vertuous and valiant descended from Traian and they say like him in person He tooke Maximus at Aquileia and beheaded him n A yonger Valentinian Of the faith and deuotion of Theodosius Emperor CHAP. 26. SO he did not onely keepe the faith which hee ought him in his life time but like a Christian indeede receiued his little brother Valentinian into his protection and defence when Maximus his murderer had chased him from his state and held the care of a father ouer him which he needed not haue done but might easilyly haue taken all to himselfe had his ambition ouerpoysed his religion But he preserued his state imperiall for him and gaue him all the comfort honest courtesie could bestowe And when as the good fortune of Maximus begot him a terrible name Theodosius did not creepe into a corner of his Palace with wizards and coniurers but sent to b Iohn that liued in a wild ernesse of Aegipt whome he had hard was graced from God by the spirit of prophecy to him sent hee and receiued a true promise of victory So soone after hauing killed the tyrant Maximus he restored the c child Valentinian to this empire from whence he was driuen shewing him all the reuerend loue that could be and when this child was slaine as hee was soone after either by treachery or by some other casualty and that Eugenius another tyrant was vnlawfully stept vp in his place receiuing another answer from the prophet his faith being firme hee fetched him downe from his vsurped place rather by prayer then power for the soldiors that were in the battell on the vsurpers side told it vnto vs that there came such a violent wind from Theodosius his side that it smote their darts forth of their hands and if any were throwen it tooke them presently in an instant and forced them vpon the faces of those that threw them And therefore d Claudian though no Christian sings this well of his praise O nimiuâ—… dilâ—…cte deo cui militat aethaer â—…t coniurati veniunt ad clâ—…ssica venti O god's belou'd whomâ—… powers aereall And winds come arm'd to helpe when thou dost callâ—… And being victor according to his faith and presage hee threw downe certaiue Images of Iupiter which had beene consecrated I know not with what ceremonies against him and mirthfully and kindly e gaue his footemen their thunderboults who as they well might iested vpon them because they were glad and said they would abide their flashes well inough for the sonnes of his foe some of them fell in the fight not by his command others being not yet Christians but flying into the Church by this meanes hee made Christians and loued them with a Christian charyty nor diminishing their honoures a whit but adding more to them He suffered no priuat grudges to bee held against any one after the victory He vsed not these ciuill warres like as Cynna Marius and Syâ—… did that would not haue them ended f when they were ended but he rather sorrowed that they were begun then ended then to any mans hurt And in all these troubles from his reignes beginning hee forgot not to assist and succouâ—… the labouring Church by all the wholesome lawes which hee could promulgate against the faithlesse g Valens an Arrian heretike hauing done much hurt therein wherof he reioyced more to be a member then an earthly Emperour He commanded the demolition of all Idols of the Gentiles knowing that not so much as earthly blessings are in the diuells power but all and each particular in Gods And what was there euer more memorable then that religious h humility of his when being euen forced by his attendants to reuenge the iâ—…iury offered him by the Thessalonicans vnto whome notwithstanding at the Bishoppes intreaties hee had promised pardon hee was excommunicaâ—… and showed such repentaunce that the people intreating for him rather did lament to see the imperiall Maiesty so deiected then their feared his warâ—… when they had offended These good workes and a tedious roll of such like did he beare away with him out of this transitory smoake of all kinde of humaine glory their rewarde is eternall felicitie giuen by the true God onely to the good For the rest be they honors or helpes of this life as the world it selfe light ayre water earth soule sence and spirit of life this he giueth promilcually to good and bad and so he doth also with the greatnesse and continuance of the temporall Empires of all men whith he bestoweth on either sort as he pleaseth L. VIVES WHen a as Andragathius one of Maximus his Countes an excellent souldior and a cunning leader managed all the warre and with his trickes brought Theodosius to many shrewd plunges b Iohn An Anchorite that had the spirit of prophecie presaging many things and this victory of Theodosius amongst others Prosper Aquitan Theodosius sent often to him for counsell in difficult matters Diacon c The childe He made him being Gratians brother Emperor of the West but Arbogastes Count of Uienna slew him by treachery set vp Eugenius and with a mighty power of Barbarians stopped the passage of the Alpes to keepe Theodoâ—…s back The godly Prince fasted and prayed all the night before the battle and the next day fought with them though being farre their inferiour in number and yet by gods great and miraculous power gotte a famous victory Eugenius was taken and put to death Arbogastes slew himselfe d Claudian Most men hold him an Aegiptian and so Posidonius that liued with him and was his familiar affirmeth Not Posidonius the Rhodian but a certaine Prelate of Africa He was borne to Poetry elegantly wittied but a little superstitious There is a Poeme of Christ vnder his name perhaps he made it to please Honorius for he was a great flatterer The verses here cited are in his Panegyrike vpon Honorius his third Consulship written rather in his praise then vpon Theodosius though he speake of this victory at the Alpes which like a scurrilous flatterer hee rather ascribeth to Honorius his fate and felicity then to Theodosius his piety For thus hee saith Victoria velox Auspiciis effecta tuis pugnastis vterque Tu fatis genitorque manu te propter Alpeâ—… Inuadi faciles cauto nec profuit hosti Munitis haesisse lâ—…cis spes irrita valli Concidâ—… scopulis patuerunt claustra reuulsis Te propter gelidis Aquilo de monte procellis
we leaue single as wanting m meanes of the bargaine chiefly some beeing widowes as Populonia Fulgura and Rumina nor wonder if these want sutors But this rable of base gods forged by inueterate superstition wee will adore saith hee rather for lawes sake then for religions or any other respect So that neither law nor custome gaue induction to those things either as gratefull to the gods or vse-full vnto men But this man whom the Philosophers as n free yet beeing a great o Senator of Rome worshipped that hee disauowed professed that hee condemned and adored that hee accused because his philosophy had taught him this great matter not to bee superstitious in the world but for law and customes sake to imitate those things in the Temple but not acte them in the Theater so much the more damnably because that which he counterfeited he did it so that the p people thought hee had not counterfeited But the plaier rather delighted them with sport then wronged them with deceite L. VIVES APostles a times It may bee the proofes are the Epistles that are dispersed vnder the name of him to Paul and Paul vnto him but I thinke there was no such matter But sure it is that he liued in Nero's time and was Consull then and that Peter and Paul suffred martirdome about the same time For they and hee left this life both within two yeares it may be both in one yeare when Silius Nerua and Atticus Vestinus were Consulls b Booke against superstitions These and other workes of his are lost one of matrimony quoted by Hierome against Iouinian of timely death Lactant of earth-quakes mentioned by himselfe These and other losses of old authors Andrew Straneo my countriman in his notes vpon Seneca deploreth a tast of which he sent me in his Epistle that vnited vs in friendship He is one highly learned and honest as highly furthering good studies with all his power himselfe and fauoring all good enterprises in others c Strato Son to Archelaus of Lanpsacus who was called the Phisicall because it was his most delightfull studie hee was Theophrastus his scholler his executor his successor in his schoole and maister to Ptolomy Philadelphus There were eight Strato's Laërt in Uit. d That not the The grammarians cannot endure Nâ—… and quidem to come together but wee reade it so in sixe hundred places of Tully Pliny Lâ—… and others vnlesse they answere vnto all these places that the copiers did falsify them I doe not thinke but an interposition doth better this I say e Recorded As Dyonisius Phalaris Mezentius Tarquin the Proud Sylla Câ—…a Marius Tiberius Claâ—… and Caligula f Some haue The Persian Kings had their Eunuches in whome they put especiall trust So had Nero g Osyris Hee beeing cut in peeces by his brother Typhon and that Isis and Orus Apollo had reuenged his death vpon Typhon they went to seeke the body of Osyris with great lamentation and to Isis her great ioy found it though it were disparkled in diuers places and herevpon a yearely feast was instituted on the seeking of Osyris with teares and finding him with ioy Lucane saith herevpon Nunquam satis quaâ—…us Osyris the ne're wel-sought Osyris h Be his aduocates Uadaeri is to bring one to the iudge at a day appointed Vadimonium the promise to bee there So the phrase is vsed in Tully to come into the Court and the contrary of it is non obire not to appeare Pliny in the preface of his history and many other authors vse it the sence here is they made the gods their aduocates like men when they went to try their causes i Arch-plaier Archimimus coâ—… of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to imitate because they imitated their gestures whom they would make ridiculous as also their conditions and then they were called Ethopaei and Ethologi whereof comes Ethopeia Quintil. Pantomimi were vniuersall imitators Archimimi the chiefe of all the Mimikes as Fano was in Vespasians time Who this was that Seneca mentions I know not k Terrible She was iealous and maligned all her step-sons and Ioues harlots so that shee would not forbeare that same Daedalian statue which Ioue beeing angry threatned to marry in 〈◊〉 For being reconciled to him she made it be burnt Plut. Hence was Numa's old law No 〈◊〉 touch Iuno's altar Sacrifice a female lambe to Iuno with disheueled hayre l Bellona Some â—…ke her his mother and Nerione or as Varro saith Neriene his wife which is as Gelâ—… a Sabine word signifieth vertue and valour and thence came the Nero's surname â—…es had it from the Greekes who call the sinewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and thence comes our Nerâ—… and the Latine Neruus Plaut Trucul Mars returning from a iourney salutes his wife Neâ—… 〈◊〉 Noct. Att. lib. 10. m Meanes of the bargaine That is one to bee coupled with henâ—…â—…es the Latine phrase Quaerere condicionem filiae to seeke a match for his daughter 〈◊〉 lib. 4. Cic. Philipp It was vsed also of the Lawiers in diuorses Conditione tua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I le not vse thy company n As free We must seeme Philosophy saith Seneca to be free vsing free as with a respect not simply o Seneca Hee was banished by Claudius but 〈◊〉 being executed and Agrippina made Empresse she got his reuocation and senatorship â—…torship of the Emperor that hee might bring vp her sonne Nero. So afterward Trâ—…â—…ximus and he were Consulls Ulp. Pandect 36. Hee was won derfull ritch Tranquill Tatius The gardens of ritch Seneca p People His example did the harme which Eleâ—…â—…ed â—…ed to auoide Macchab. 2. 6. with far more holinesse and Philosophicall truth Seneca his opinion of the Iewes CHAP. 11. THis man amongst his other inuectiues against the superstitions of politique 〈◊〉 Theology condemnes also the Iewes sacrifices chiefly their saboaths sayâ—… 〈◊〉 by their seauenth day interposed they spend the seauenth part of their 〈◊〉 idlenesse and hurt themselues by not taking diuers things in their time â—…et dares he not medle with the Christians though then the Iewes deadly 〈◊〉 vpon either hand least he should praise them against his countries old cusâ—… or dispraise them perhaps against a his owne conscience Speaking of the 〈◊〉 he saith The custome of that wicked nation getting head through all the world the vanquished gaue lawes to the vanquishers This hee admired not â—…ing the worke of the god-head But his opinion of their sacraments hee subscribeth They know the cause of their ceremonies saith hee but most of the people doe they know not what But of the Iewish sacrifices how farre gods institutions first directed them and then how by the men of God that had the mistery of eternity reuealed to them they were by the same authority abolished wee haue both els-where spoken chiefly against the b Manichees and in this worke in conuenient place meane to say some-what more L. VIVES AGainst a his owne Nero hauing fired Rome many were blamed for the
man could neuer please GOD though hee should raise the dead to life b They They take willingly and begge impudently Apollos oracle did alwayes bid his clients remember him with a guift to make them-selues more fortunate by yet the craftie deuill desires not their money he needed not but their mindes that was his ayme c Prohibited Christ forbids his Apostles to assume the name of Maisters to sit high at table or loue salutes in the streetes and commands that the chiefe should bee but as a minister For honor arose with Heathenisme and should fall there-with and not suruiue in the Church nor is it magnanimous to affect but to contemne it d Our very enemies Mat. 5. 44. Loue your enemyes blesse them that curse you c. It sufficeth not to beare them no hate we must loue them which is not impossible For first Christ did it and then Steuen Hierom. e Passions and perturbations or passionate perturbations Of that religion that teacheth that those spirits must bee mens aduocates to the good gods CHAP. 18. IN vaine therefore did Apuleius and all of his opinion honor them so as to place them in the ayre and because God and man as Plato a saith haue no immediate commerce these are the carriers of mens prayers to the gods and their answers to men For those men thought it vnfit to ioyne the gods with men but held the spirits fit meanes for both sides to b to take the prayers hence and bring answers thence that a chaste maâ—… and one pure from Magicall superstition 〈◊〉 â—…se them as his patrons by whome hee might send to the gods that loue 〈◊〉 things as if hee for beare to vse it maketh him farre more fitt â—…o bee heard of 〈◊〉 â—…ies for they loue stage-filthe which chastitie lâ—…heth they loue all the 〈◊〉 of witch-crafts which innocence abhorreth Thus chastity and innoceâ—…â—…hey would any thing with God must make their enemies their 〈◊〉 â—…r else go empty away He may saue his breath in defence of stage-plaies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 highly-admired maister giueth them too sore a blow if any man bee so â—…se as to delight in obscaenity him-selfe and thinke it accepted also of thâ—…â—…ds L. VIVES PLâ—… a saith In Socrates person in his Conuiuium Diotyma hauing put loue as meane 〈◊〉 mortalitie and immortalitie Socrates asked her What that loue was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Daemon Socrates for all those Daemones are betwixt gods and men Soâ—…â—…et â—…et conceiuing her asked the nature of this Daemon He carieth saith she messages 〈◊〉 â—…he gods and men their 's to vs ours to them our prayers their bounties Such as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 middle place of the vniuerse thether descend prophecies thether aimes all cereâ—…â—…es of the Priests charmes Teletae and all the parts of Magicke And shee addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath no coniunction with man but vseth these Daemones in all his 〈◊〉 with men sleeping or waking b Take them Apuleius calls them Saluti-geruli 〈◊〉 â—…ers and administri ministers the first in our respect the second in the gods Caâ—… 〈◊〉 them Angeli messengers that tell the gods what we doe and Praestites because their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…e in all actions Of the wickednesse of arte Magicke depending on these wicked Spirits ministery CHAP. 19. 〈◊〉 â—…ill I out of the publike b light of all the world bring ouer-throwes 〈◊〉 â—…rtes Magicke whereof some wicked and some wretched doe make 〈◊〉 â—…he deuills name why if they bee the workes of the gods are they so 〈◊〉 punished by the lawes or haue Christians diuulged these lawes against 〈◊〉 any other intent then to suppresse a thing so generally pernitious vnto 〈◊〉 kinde what saith that worthy Poet Testor chara deos te germana tuumque Dulce caput Magieas inuitam accingier artes b Sister by heauen and thee that hearst my vowes I would not vse arte Magick could I choose 〈◊〉 which hee saith else-where c Atque satas aliò vidi traducere messes I saw the witch transport whole fields of corne 〈◊〉 these diabolicall artes were reported of power to remooue whole harâ—… 〈◊〉 corne and fruits whether they pleased was not this as Tully saith recorâ—…â—…e xii tables of Romes ancient lawes and a punishment proclaimed for all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vsed it Nay d was not Apuleius him-selfe brought before Christian 〈◊〉 for such practises If hee had knowne them to be diuine hee should haue â—…ed them at his accusation as congruent with the diuine powers and haue â—…ed the opposite lawes of absurde impietie in condemning so admirable 〈◊〉 the deities For so might hee either haue made the Iudges of his minde 〈◊〉 had beene refractâ—…rie and following their vniust lawes put him to 〈◊〉 the spirits would haue done his soule as good a turne as hee had deâ—… in dying fearelesly for the due auouching of their powerfull operations Our martyrs when Christianity was laide to their charge knowing it was the tract of eternall glory denied it not to auoide a temporall torment but auerred it constantly bore all tortures vndantedly and dying securely struck shame vpon the lawes fore-heads that condemned it as vnlawfull But this Platonist wrote a large and eloquent oration c now extant wherein hee purgeth himselfe of all touch of vsing these artes and sees no meanes to prooue his owne innocence but by denying that which indeed no innocent can commit But f for all these magick miracles hee rightly condemneth them as done by the workes and operations of the deuills wherefore let him looke how hee can iustly giue them diuine honors as mediators betweene the gods and vs when he shewes their workes to be wicked and such indeed as wee must auoyde if wee will haue our prayers come neare to the true God And then what are the prayers that hee affirmeth they doe beare vnto the gods Magicall or lawfull If magicall the gods will receiue no such prayers if lawfull then vse they no such ministers But if a sinnet chiefly one that hath sinned in Magicke repent and pray will they carry vp his prayers or obtaine his pardon that were the causers of his guilt and whom hee doth accuse Or doe these deuills to obtaine his pardon first repent them-selues for deceiuing him and receiue a pardon them-selues also afterward Nay none will say so for they that hope to get pardon by repentance are farre from being worthy of diuine honors for if they were desirous of them and yet penitents also their pride were to be detested in the first though their humility were to bee pittied in the latter L. VIVES LIght a of the Some read law b Sister Dido vnto hir sister Anna when Aeneas was departed This Virgill grounds vpon the Romaines lawes who for all their superstion yet condemned Magick Seruius d Atque satas Uirg Pharmaceute Plin. l. 18. Duod Tab. Hee that Enchants the corne c. and so in diuerse places Pliny saith that Uectius Marcellus Nero's Harbinger had an Oliue-yeard in
euill angels though they knew the worlds creator CHAP. 3. 〈◊〉 thus what Platonist or other Philosopher soeuer had held so and 〈◊〉 God and glorified him as God and beene thankfull and not become 〈◊〉 conceits nor haue been an author of the peoples error nor winked at â—…re they would haue confessed that both the blessed immortalls and 〈◊〉 mortalls are bound to the adoration of one onely GOD of gods 〈◊〉 God and ours That sacrifice is due onely to the true God CHAP. 4. 〈◊〉 owe that Greeke Latria or seruice both in our selues and sacrifices 〈◊〉 all his temple and each one his temples he vouchsafing to inhabit 〈◊〉 â—…mme and each in particuler being no more in all then in one for he 〈◊〉 â—…ltiplied nor diminished b our hearts eleuated to him are his altars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sonne is the priest by whom we please him we offer him bloudy saâ—… wee shed our bloud for his truth and incence when wee burne in 〈◊〉 c the gifts he giueth vs we doe in vowes returne him his benefits 〈◊〉 vnto him in set solemnities least the body of time should bring 〈◊〉 vngratefull obliuion we offer him the sacrifices of humility praises 〈◊〉 of our heart in yâ— fire offeruent loue for by the sight of him as we may 〈◊〉 to be ioyned with him are we purged from our guilty filthy affects 〈◊〉 â—…ted in his name he is our blessed founder our desires accomplishâ—… we elect or rather re-elect for by our neglect we lost him him thereâ—… re-elect whence religion is deriued and to him we do hasten with the 〈◊〉 to attaine rest in him being to be blessed by attainment of that fiâ—…â—…tion for our good whose end the Philosophers iangled about is noâ—… to adhere vnto him and by his intellectuall and incorporeall embrace 〈◊〉 growes great with all vertue e and true perfection This good are we â—…loue with all our heart with all our soule and all our strength To this 〈◊〉 â—…ught to be lead by those that loue vs and to lead those wee loue So is 〈◊〉 â—…mandements fulfilled wherein consisteth all the lawe and the Proâ—… Thou shalt loue g thy h Lord thy i God k with all thine heart with 〈◊〉 and with all thy minde and l Thou shalt loue thy neighbour as thy selfe 〈◊〉 a man how to loue him-selfe was this end appointed where-vnto to referre all his workes for beautitude for he that loues himselfe desireth but to bee blessed And the end of this is coherence with god So then the command of louing his neighbour being giuen to him that knowes how to loue himselfe m what doth it but command and commend the loue of God vnto him This Gods true worshippe true piety true religion and due seruice to God onely wherefore what immortall power soeuer vertuous or otherwise that loueth vs as it selfe it desires wee should but bee his seruants for beatitude of whence it hath beautitude by seruing him If it worshippe not God it is wretched as wanting God if it do then will not it bee worshipped for God It rather holds and loues to hold as the holy scripture writeth Hee that sacrificeth to any gods but the one god shall bee rooted out for to be silent in other points of religion there is none dare say a sacrifice is due but vnto god alone But much is taken from diuine worship and thrust into humane honors either by excessiue humility or pestilent flattery yet still with a reserued notice that they are men held worthy indeed of reuerence and honor or at most n of adoration But who euer sacrificed but to him whom hee knew or thought or faigned to be a God And how ancient a part of Gods worship a sacrifice is Caine and Abel do shew full proofe God almighty reiecting the elder brothers sacrifice and accepting the yongers L. VIVES ALL a in summe The Chruch b Our hearts Therevpon are we commanded in diuine seruice to lift vp our hearts at the preparation to communion Herein being admonished to put off all worldly thought and meditate wholly vpon god lifting all the powers of our soule to speculate of his loue for so is the mind quit from guilts and lets and made a fit temple for God b His onely sonne Some read we and the priest please him with his onely sonne read which you like c The guifts What we giue to God is his owne not ours nor can we please him better then referre what hee hath giuen vs vnto him againe as the fount whence they slowed What shall I render ouer to the Lord saith the Psalmist for all his benefites towards â—…ee I will take the cup of saluation and call vpon the name of the Lord. This is the onely relation of grace if thou hast grace d Re-elect Tully deriues religion of relegendo reading againe and calles it the knowledge of GOD as Trismegistus doth Lactantiuis had rather deriue it of religando binding beecause the religious are bound to God in bonds of Piety Augustine of religendo re-electing I thinke because it was fittest for his present allusion e True perfection Plato saith that a happy man by speculation of the diuine pulchritude shal bring forth true vertues not any formes onely In conuiuio f Thou shalt loue O what a few lawes might serue mans life how small a thing might serue to rule not a true Christian but a true man indeed hee is no true man that knoweth not and worshippeth not Christ. What needeth all these Digests Codes glosses counselles and cauteles In how few words doth our great Maister shew euery man his due course Loue thee that which is aboue aswell as thou canst and that which is next thee like thy selfe which doing thou keepest all the laws and hast them persit which others attaine with such toyle scarcely keepe with so many iuitations and terrors Thou shalt then bee greater then Plato or Pythagoras with all their trauells and numbers then Aristotle with all his quirkes and sillogismes what can bee sweeter then loue thou â—…rt taught neither to feare fly nor shrinke g Thy. God to many yet the most properly to his seruants and yet euer common h Lord. And therefore to be reuerenced i God And onely God k Withal thine heart Loue God with all thine heart saith Augustine de doctri Christian. that is referre all thy thoughts with all thy soule that is referre all thy life with all thy mind that is referre all thine vnderstanding vnto him of whome thou hadst them all He leaues no part of vs to be giuen to another but wil haue the fruition ofall himselfe Origen explaines the hart viz the thought worke and memory the soule to bee ready to lose it for Gods sake The minde to professe or speake nothing but Godly things l Thou shalt Augustine de Doct. xpâ—…n saith that all men are neighbours one to another And so saith Christ in the first precept for as Chysostome saith Man is Gods Image
it selfe If you wil I wil proceed if not let it alone Then Glaucus replied that hee should go on with the son and leaue the father till another time So he proceeds to discourse of the birth and sonne of good and after some questions saith that good is as the sun and the son is as the light we haue from the sun And in his Epistle to Hermias he speaketh of such as were sworne to fit studies and the Muses sister lerning by God the guide father of al things past and to come And in his Epinomis hee saith that by that most diuine Word was the world and al therin created This word did so rauish the wise man with diuine loue that he conceiued the meanes of beatitude For many say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is meant of the Word not of the world and so wee haue vsed it in the eighth book speaking of Plato's opinion of beatitude So that Plato mentions the father and the son expresly mary the third he thought was indeclareable Though hee hold that in the degrees of Diuinity the soule of the world the third proceedeth from the beginning and the begininnings sonne Mens which soule if one would stand for Plato might easily be defended to be that spirit that mooued upon the waters which they seeme to diffuse through the whole masse and to impart life and being to euery particular And this is the Trine in diuinity of which he writeth to Dionysius aenigmatically as him-selfe saith Al thinges are about the King of al and by him haue existence the seconds about the second and yâ— thirds about the third I omit to write what Trismegistus saith Iamblichus from him we are all for the Platonist but I cannot omitte Serapis his answer to Thules the King of Egipt in the Troian wars who inquyring of him who was most blessed had this answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. First God and then the sonne and next the spirit All coëternall one in act and merit b The son Porphyry explaning Plato's opinion as Cyril saith against Iultan puts three essences in the Deity 1 God almighty 2. the Creator 3. the soule of the world nor is the deity extended any further Plato he both cal the Creator 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fathers intellect with the Poets though obscurely touch at calling Minerua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 borne without a mother the wisedom brought forth out of the fathers brain c Plotine he wâ—…ote a book of the three persons or substances yâ— first hee maketh absolute and father to the second that is also eternall and perfect Hee calleth the father Mens also in another place as Plato doth but the word arose from him For hee sayth De prouâ—…d lib. 2. in the begining all this whole vniuerse was created by the Mens the father and his Worde d Alme religion tyeth vs to haue a care how wee speake herein e Sabellians They said that the person of the father and â—…f the Son was all one because the scripture saith I and the Father am one Of the true onely beginning that purgeth and renueth mans whole nature CHAP. 24. BVt Porphyry beeing slaue to the malicious powers of whome hee was ashamed yet durst not accuse them would not conceiue that Christ was the beginning by whose incarnation wee are purged but contemned him in that flesh which he assumed to be a sacrifice for our purgation not apprehending the great sacrament because of his diuell-inspired pride which Christ the good Mediator by his owne humility subuerted shewing him-selfe to mortals in that mortal state which the false Mediators wanted and therefore insulted the more ouer mens wretcheds soules falsely promising them succors from their immortality But our good and true Mediator made it apparant that it was not the fleshly substance but sinne that is euil the flesh and soule of man may be both assumed kept and putte off without guilt and bee bettered at the resurrection Nor is death though it be the punishment of sinne yet payd by Christ for our sinnes to bee anoyded by sinne but rather if occasion serue to bee indured for iustice For Christs dying and that not for his owne sinne was of force to procure the pardon of all other sinnes That hee was the beginning this Platonist did not vnderstand else would hee haue confessed his power in purgation For neither the flesh nor the soule was the beginning but the word all creating Nor can the flesh purge 〈◊〉 by it selfe but by that word that assumed it when the word became flesh dwels in vs. For hee speaking of the mysticall eating of his flesh and some that vnderstood not beeing offended at it and departing saying This is a hard saying who can heare it Answered to those that staid with him It is the spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing Therfore the beginning hauing assumed flesh and soule mundifieth both in the beleeuer And so when the Iewes asked him who hee was hee answered them that hee was the a beginning which our flesh and bloud beeing incumbred with sinfull corruption can neuer conceiue vnlesse he by whome wee were and were not doe purifie vs. Wee were men but iust wee were not But in his incarnation our nature was and that iust not sinfull This is the mediation that helpeth vp those that are falne and downe This is the seed that the Angels sowed by dictating the law wherein the true worship of one God was taught and this our Mediator truly promised L VIVES THe a beginning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Augustine will haue the Sonne to bee a beginning but no otherwise then the father as no otherwise GOD. And this hee takes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Valla and Erasmus say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can be no nowne here but an aduerbe as in the beginning I wil speake my minde here of briefly though the phraze be obscure and perhaps an Hebraisme as many in the new Testament are Christ seemeth not to say hee is the beginning but beeing asked who hee was he hauing no one word to expresse his full nature to all their capacities left it to each ones minde to thinke in his minde what he was not by his sight but by his wordes and to ponder how one in that bodily habite could speake such thinges It was the Deity that spake in the flesh whence all those admirable actes proceeded Therefore he said I am hee 〈◊〉 the beginning and I speake to you vsing a mortall body as an instrument giuing you no more precepts by angels but by my selfe This answer was not vnlike that giuen to Moyses I am that I am but that concerned Gods simple essence and maiesty this was more later and declared God in the fâ—…me of man That all the saints in the old law and other ages before it were iustified only by the mistery and faith of Christ.
The knowledge De genes ad lit lib. 4. Where hee calleth it morning when the Angells by contemplating of the creation in themselues where is deepe darkenesse lift vp themselues to the knowledge of God and if that in him they learne all things which is more certaine then all habituall knowledge then is it day It growes towards euening when the Angels turne from God to contemplate of the creatures in themselues but this euening neuer becommeth night for the Angells neuer preferre the worke before the worke man that were most deepe darke night Thus much out of Augustine the first mentioner of mornings euenings knowledges What wee must thinke of Gods resting the seauenth day after his sixe daies worke CHAP. 8. BVt whereas God rested the seauenth day froÌ„ al his workes sanctified it this is not to be childishly vnderstood as if God had taken paines he but spake the word and a by that iâ—…telligible and eternal one not vocall nor temporal were all things created But Gods rest signifieth theirs that rest in God as the gladnesse of the house signifies those yâ— are glad in the house though some-thing else and not the house bee the cause thereof How much more then if the beauty of the house make the inhabitants glad so that wee may not onely call it glad vsing the continent for the contained as the whole Theaâ—…er applauded when it was the men the whole medowes bellowed for the Oxen but also vsing the efficient for the effect as a merry epistle that is making the readers merry Theâ—…fore the scripture affirming that God rested meaneth the rest of all things in God whom he by himself maketh to rest for this the Prophet hath promised to all such as he speaketh vnto and for whom he wrote that after their good workes which God doth in them or by them if they first haue apprehended him in this life by faith they shal in him haue rest eternal This was prefigured in the sanctification of the Saboath by Gods command in the old law whereof more at large in due season L. VIVES BY a that intelligible Basil saith that this word is a moment of the will by which wee conceiue better of things What is to be thought of the qualities of Angels according to scripture CHAP. 9. NOw hauing resolued to relate this holy Cities originall first of the angels who make a great part thereof so much the happier in that they neuer a were pilgrims let vs see what testimonies of holy wriâ—…t concerne this point The scriptures speaking of the worlds creation speake not plainly of the Angels when or in what order they were created but that they were created the word heauen includeth In the beginning God created heauen and earth or rather in the world Light whereof I speake now are there signified that they were omitted I cannot thinke holy writ saying that God rested in the seauenth day from all his workes the same booke beginning with In the beginning God created heauen and earth to shew that nothing was made ere then Beginning therefore with heauen earth and earth the first thing created being as the scripture plainely saith with-out forme and voide light being yet vn made and darknesse being vpon the deepe that is vpon a certaine confusion of earth and waters for where light is not darknesse must needes be then the creation proceeding and all being accomplished in sixe dayes how should the angels bee omitted as though they were none of Gods workes from which hee rested the seuenth day This though it be not omitted yet here is it not plaine but else-where it is most euident The three chilâ—… sung in their himne O all yee workes of the Lord blesse yee the Lord amongst which they recken the angels And the Psalmist saith O praise God in the heauens 〈◊〉 him in the heights praise him all yee his angells praise him all his hoasts praise 〈◊〉 sâ—…e and Moone praise him staâ—…res and light Praise him yee heauens of heauens 〈◊〉 the waters that be aboue the heauens praise the name of the Lord for hee spake the 〈◊〉 and they were made he commanded they were created here diuinity calls the â—…ls Gods creatures most plainly inserting them with the rest saying of all He spâ—…ke the word and they were made who dares thinke that the Angels were made after the sixe daies If any one bee so fond hearken this place of scripture confounds him vtterly e When the starres were made all mine angels praised mee with a loude voice Therefore they were made before the starres and the stars were made the fourth day what they were made the third day may wee say so God forbid That dayes worke is fully knowne the earth was parted from the waters and two â—…nts tooke formes distinct and earth produced all her plants In the second day then neither Then was the firmament made betweene the waters aboue and below and was called Heauen in which firmament the starres were created the fourth day c Wherefore if the angels belong vnto Gods sixe dayes worke they are that light called day to commend whose vnity it was called one day not the first day nor differs the second or third from this all are but this one doubled vâ—…to 6. or 7. sixe of Gods workes the 7. of his rest For when God said Let there be light there was light if we vnderstand the angels creation aright herein they are made partakers of that eternall light the vnchangeable wisdome of God all-creating namely the onely be gotten sonne of God with whose light they in their creation were illuminate and made light called day in the participation of the vnchangeable light day that Word of God by which they all things else were created For the true light that lightneth euery man that coÌ„meth into this world this also lightneth euery pure angell making it light not in it selfe but in God from whom if an Angell fall it becommeth impure as all the vncleane spirits are being no more a light in God but a darknesse in it selfe depriued of all perticipation of the eternall light for Euill hath no nature but the losse of good that is euill L. VIVES NEuer were a pilgrims But alwayes in their country seeing alwayes the face of the father b When the starres Iob. 38 7. So the Septuagints doe translate it as it is in the teâ—…t c Wherefore if The Greeke diuine put the creation of spirituals before that of things corporall making God vse them as ministers in the corporall worke and so held Plato Hierome following Gregorie and his other Greeke Maisters held so also But of the Greekes Basil and Dionysius and almost all the Latines Ambrose Bede Cassiodorus and Augustine in this place holds that God made althings together which agreeth with that place of Ecclesiasticus chap. 18. vers 1. He that liueth for euer made althings together Of the vncompounded vnchangeable Trinity the Father the Sonne
Hiâ—…ome expoundes it thus Wee may not omit to declâ—… how GOD that cannot lie promised life before eternity Euen since the world as it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…s made and time ordeined to passe in daies months years in this course the times passe 〈◊〉 come being past or future Whervpon some Philosophers held no time present but all either past or to come because all that we doe speake or thinke either passeth as it is a doing or is so come if it bee not done We must therefore beleeue an eternity of continuance before these â—…ldly times in which the Father was with the Sonne and the Holy Ghost and if I may say so all â—…ity is one Time of Gods nay innumerable Times for he being infinite was before time and shall exceede all Time our world is not yet 6000. yeares old what eternities what huge Times and originalls of ages may we imagine was before it wherein the Aâ—…gells Thrones Dominations and other hoasts serued God and subsisted by Gods command â—…out measure or courses of Times So then before all these Times which neither the tongue 〈◊〉 declare the minde comprize or the secret thought once touch at did GOD the Father of visdome promise his Word and Wisdome and Life to such as would beleeue vpon this promise Thus far Hierome Peter Lumbard obiecting this against him-selfe maketh Hierome speake it as confuting others not affirming himselfe Sent. lib. 2. So doth he with Augustine also is many places an easie matter when great authors oppose ought that wee approoue Augstine against the Priscillianists saith that them times were called eternall before which there was no time as if one should say from the creation our common reading is before the world began the greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The defence of Gods vnchanging will against those that fetch Gods workes about from eternity in circles from state to state CHAP. 17. NOâ—… doe I doubt that there was no man before the first mans creation but deny the I cannot tell what reuolution of the same man I know not how often or of others like him in nature nor can the Philosophers driue mee from this by obiecting acutely they thinke that nullum a infinitum est scibile infinite thâ—…s are beyond reach of knowledge And therefore God say they hath definite formes in himselfe of all the definite creatures that hee made nor must his goodnesse be euer held idle nor his workes temporall as if he had had such an e ternity of leasure before and then repented him of it and so fell to worke therefore say they is this reuolution necessary the world either remayning in change which though it hath beene alwaies yet was created or else being dissolued and re-edified in this circular course otherwise giuing Gods workes a temporall beginning wee seeme to make him disallow and condemne that leasure that he rested in from all eternity before as sloathfull and vselesse But if hee did create from eternity now this and then that and came to make man in time that was not made before then shall hee seeme not to haue made him by knowledge which they say containes nothing infinite but at the present time by chance as it came into his minde But admit those reuolutions say they either with the worlds continuance in change or circular reuolution and then wee acquit GOD both of this so long and idle seeming cessation and from all operation in rashnesse and chance For if the same things bee not renewed the vatiâ—…ion of things infinite are too incomprehensible for his knowledge or prescience These batteries the vngodly doe plant against our faith to winne vs into their circle but if reason will not refute them faith must deride them But by Gods grace reason will lay those circularities flat inough For here is these mens error running rather in a maze then stepping into the right way that they proportionate the diuine vnchangeable power vnto they humaine fraile and weake spirit in mutability and apprehension But as the Apostle saith b Comparing themselues to themselues they know not themselues For because their actions that are suddainely done proceede all from new intents their mindes beeing mutable they doe imagine not GOD for him they cannot comprehend but themselues for GOD and compare not him to himselfe but themselues in his stead vnto themselues But wee may not thinke that GODS rest affects him one way and his worke another hee is neuer affected nor doth his nature admit any thing that hath not beene euer in him That which is affected suffereth and that which suffers is mutable For his vacation is not idle sloathfull nor sluggish nor is his worke painefull busie or industrious Hee can rest working and worke resting Hee can apply an eternall will to a new worke and begins not to worke now because he repenteth that hee wrought not before But if hee rested first and wrought after which I see not how man can coceiue this first and after were in things that first had no beeing and afterwards had But there was neither precedence nor subsequence in him to alter or abolish his will but all that euer hee created was in his vnchanged fixed will eternally one and the same first willing that they should not be and afterwards willing that they should be and so they were not during his pleasure and began to be at his pleasure Wonderously shewing to such as can conceiue it that hee needed none of these creatures but created them of his pure goodnesse hauing continued no lesse blessed without them from alll vn-begunne eternity L. VIVES NVâ—… infinitum a Arist. metaphys 2. and in his first of his posterior Analitikes he saith that then know we a thing perfectly when we know the end and that singularities are infinite bâ—…â—…rsalities most simple So as things are infinite they cannot bee knowne but as they are defiâ—… they may And Plato hauing diuided a thing vnto singularities forbiddes further progresse for they are infinite and incomprehensible b Comparing Cor. 2. 10. This place Erasmus saith Augustine vseth often in this sence Against such as say that things infinite are aboue Gods knowledge CHAP. 18. BVt such as say that things infinite are past Gods knowledge may euen aswell leape head-long into this pit of impiety and say that God knoweth not all numbers That numbers are infinite it is sure for take what number you can and thinke to end with it let it bee neuer so great and immense I will ad vnto it not one nor two but by the law of number multiply it vnto ten times the summe it was And so is euery number composed that one a cannot be equall to another but all are different euery perticular being definite and all in generall infinite b Doth not GOD then know these numbers because they are infinite and can his knowledge attaine one sum of numbers not the rest what mad man would say so nay they dare
painfull is iustly termed 〈◊〉 death then life and therefore is it called the second death because it folâ—…th the first breach of nature either betweene God and the soule or this and the â—…dy of the first death therefore wee may say that it is good to the good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the bad But the second is bad in all badnesse vnto all good to none L. VIVES IT a is called Bruges copy differs not much all is one in substance b Second death 〈◊〉 2. 11. and 21 8. Whether death propagated vnto all men from the first be punishment of sinne to the Saints CHAP. 3. â—…ere's a question not to be omitted whether the first death bee good to 〈◊〉 â—…ood If it be so how can it be the punishment of sinne for had not our 〈◊〉 sinned they had neuer tasted it how then can it bee good to the vpâ—… cannot happen but vnto offenders and if it happen but vnto offenders 〈◊〉 not be good for it should not be at all vnto the vpright for why should 〈◊〉 punishment that haue no guilt Wee must confesse then that had not 〈◊〉 parents sinned they had not dyed but sinning the punishment of death â—…cted vpon them and all their posteritie for they should not produce 〈◊〉 â—…ng but what them-selues were and the greatnesse of their crime depraued 〈◊〉 â—…ture so that that which was penall in the first mans offending was made 〈◊〉 in the birth of all the rest for they came not of man as man came of the 〈◊〉 The dust was mans materiall but man is mans parent That which is earth is 〈◊〉 flesh though flesh be made of earth but that which man the father is man the 〈◊〉 is also For all man-kinde was in the first man to bee deriued from him by the 〈◊〉 when this couple receiued their sentence of condemnation And that 〈◊〉 man was made not in his creation but in his fall and condemnation that 〈◊〉 â—…got in respect I meane of sinne and death For his sinne a was not cause of 〈◊〉 weaknesse in infancie or whitenesse of body as we see in infants those God would haue as the originall of the yonglings whose parents he had cast downe to 〈◊〉 mortality as it is written Man was in honor and vnderstood not but became 〈◊〉 the beasts that perish vnlesse that infants bee weaker in motion and appetite 〈◊〉 all other creatures to shew mans mounting excellence aboue them all comâ—…le to a shaft that flieth the stronger when it is drawne farthest back in the 〈◊〉 Therefore mans presumption and iust sentence adiudged him not to those â—…lities of nature but his nature was depraued vnto the admission of conâ—…entiall in-obedience in his members against his will thereby was bound to death by necessity and to produce his progeny vnder the same conditions that his crime deserued From which band of sin if infants by the mediators grace be freed they shall onely bee to suffer the first death of body but from the eternall penall second death their freedome from sinne shall quit them absolutely L. VIVES HIs sinne a was not Here is another question in what state men should haue beene borne had they not sinned Augustine propounds it in his booke De baptis paruul some thinke they should haue beene borne little and presently become perfect men Others borne little but in perfect strength onely not groweth and that they should presently haue followed the mother as we see chickens and lambes The former giue them immediate vse of sence and reason the later not so but to come by degrees as ours do Augustine leaues the doubt as hee findes it seeming to suppose no other kinde of birth but what we now haue Why the first death is not withheld from the regenerat from sinne by grace CHAP. 4. IF any thinke they should not suffer this being the punishment of guilt and there guilt cleared by grace he may be resolued in our booke called De baptismo paruulorum There we say that the seperation of soule and body remaineth to succeed though after sinne because if the sacrament of regeneration should be immediately seconded by immortality of body our faith were disanulled being an expectation of a thing vnseene But by the strength and vigor of faith was this feare of death to be formerly conquered as the Martires did whose conflicts had had no victory nor no glory nay had bin no conflicts if they had beene deified and freed from corporall death immediatly vpon their regeneration for if it were so who would not run vnto Christ to haue his child baptised least hee should die should his faith be approued by this visible reward no it should be no faith because he receiued his reward immediatly But now the wounderfull grace of our Sauiour hath turned the punishment of sinne vnto the greater good of righteousnesse Then it was said to man thou shalt die if thou sinne now it is said to the Martir die to auoid sin Then if you breake my lawes you shall dy now if you refuse to die you breake my lawes That which we feared then if we offended we must now choose not to offend Thus by Gods ineffable mercy the punishment of sin is become the instrument of vertue and the paine due to the sinners guilt is the iust mans merit Then did sinne purchase death and now death purchaseth righteousnes I meane in the Martires whome their persecutors bad either renounce their faith or their life and those iust men chose rather to suffer that for beleeuing which the first sinners suffred for not beleeuing for vnlesse they had sinned they had not dyed and Martires had sinned if they had not died They dyed for sinne these sinne not because they die The others crime made death good which before was euill but God hath giuen such grace to faith that death which is lifes contrary is here made the ladder whereby to ascend to life As the wicked vse the good law euill so the good vse death which is euill well CHAP. 5. FOr the Apostle desiring to shew the hurt of sin being vnpreuented by grace doubted not to say that the law which forbids sinne is the strength of sinne The sting 〈◊〉 saith he is sinne and the strength of sinne is the lawe Most true for a forbidding of vnlawfull desires increase them in him where righteousnesse is not of power to suppresse all such affects to sinne And righteousnesse can neuer be lâ—…d without gods grace procure this loue But yet to shew that the law is not euill though hee calls it the strength of sinne hee saith in another place in the 〈◊〉 question The law is holy and the commandement holy and iust and good Was that then which is good saith he made death to me GOD forbid buâ—… sinne that it might appeare sinne wrought death in me by that which is good b that siâ—…e might be out of measure sinfull by the commandement Out of measure 〈◊〉
first forsaken of Gods grace and confounded with his ownenakednesse and so with the figge leaues the first perhaps that came to hand they couered their nakednesse aâ—…d shame their members were before as they were then but they were not a shameful before whereas now they felt a new motion of their disobedient flesh as the reciprocal b punishment of their disobedience for the soule being now delighted with peruerse liberty and scorning to serue GOD could not haue the body at the former command hauing willingly forsaken GOD the superior iâ—… could not haue the inferior so seruiceable as it desired nor had the flesh subiect as it might haue had alwaies had it selfe remained Gods subiect For then the flesh beganne to couet and contend against the spirit and c with this contention are wee all borne d drawing death from our originall and bearing natures corruption and contention or victory in our members L. VIVES NOt a shamefull Not filthy nor procuring shame they had not beene offenside had wee 〈◊〉 sinned but had had the same vse that or feete our hands now but hauing offended there was an obscaene pleasure put in them which maketh them to bee ashamed of and couered b Reciprocall Which disobedience reflected vpon them as they obeied not GOD to 〈◊〉 nature subiected them so should they finde a rebell one of the members against the rule of reason d With this Some bookes ads some-thing here but it is needlesse d Drawing 〈◊〉 That is vpon the first sinne arose this contention betweene the minde and their affects which is perpetually in vs wherein the minde is some-times victor and some-times 〈◊〉 some read without victory implying that the affections cannot be so suppressed but then they will still rebell against reason and disturbe it This is the more subtile sence and seemeth best to mee In what state GOD made Man and into what state hee feil by his voluntary choice CHAP. 14. FOr GOD the Creator of nature and not of vice made man vpright who being willingly depraued and iustly condemned be got all his progeny vnder the 〈◊〉 deprauation and condemnation for in him were we all when as he beeing â—…ced by the woman corrupted a vs all by her that before sinne was made of himselfe VVee had not our perticular formes yet but there was he seede of 〈◊〉 naturall propagation which beeing corrupted by sinne must needs produce man of that same nature the slaue to death the obiect of iust condeÌ„nation and therefore this came from the bad vsing of b free will thence aroâ—… all this teame of calamity drawing al men on into misery excepting Gods Saints froÌ„ their corrupted originall euen to the beginning of the second death which hath no end L. VIVES COrrupted a vs all A diuersity of reading Augustines meaning is that we being all potentially in hm and hee beeing corrupted by sinne therefore wee arising all from him as our first fountaine draw the corruption a long with vs also b Free will For our first parents abused the freedome of it hauing power aswell to keepe Gods hests eternally as to breake them That Adam forsooke GOD ere GOD for sooke him and that the soules first death was the departure from GOD. CHAP. 15. VVHerefore in that it was sayd You shall die the death because it was not sayd the deaths if we vnderstand that death wherein the soule leaueth the life that is GOD for it was not forsaken ere it forsooke him but contrary the owne will being their first leader to euill but the Creators will being the first leader to good both in the creation of it before it had being and the restoring of it when it had falne wherefore if we doe vnderstand that God meant but of this death where hee saith whensoeuer thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death as if hee had sayd whensoeuer you forsake mee in disobedience I will forsake you in iustice yet verily doe all the other deaths follow the denunciation of this death For in that the soule felt a disobedient motion of the flesh and therevpon couered the bodies secret partes in this was the first death felt that is the departure of the soule from God Which was signified in that that when the man in mad feare had gone and hid himselfe God said to him Adam where art thou not ignorantly seeking him but watchfully warning him to looke well where hee was seeing God was not with him But when the soule forsaketh the body decaied with age then is the other death felt whereof God said in imposing mans future punishment earth thou wast and to earth thou shalt returne That by these two the first death which is of whole man might be accoÌ„plished which the second should second if Gods grace procure not mans freedome from it for the body which is earth returnes not to earth but by the owne death that is the departure of the soule from it Wherefore all christians b holding the Catholike faith beleeue that the bodily death lieth vpon mankind by no lawe of nature as if GOD had made man for to die but as a c due punishment for sin because God in scourging this sinne sayd vnto man of whom we all are descended Earth thou wast and 〈◊〉 earth thou shalt returne L. VIVES EArth a thou wast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Septuagints by the later article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implying the element of earth the graue of althings dying b Holding the Augustine often auerreth directly that man had not died had he not sinned nor had had a body subiect to death or disease the tree of life should haue made him immortall And S. Thomas Aquiâ—…as the best schoole diuine holds so also But Scotus either for faction or will denies it al making mâ—… in his first state subiect to diseases yet that he should be taken vp to heauen ere he died but if he were left on earth he should die at length for that the tree of life could not eternize hâ—… but onely prolong his life c A due deserued by his guilt Of the Philosophers that held corporall death not to be penall whereas Plato brings in the Creator promising the lesser gods that they should neuer leaue their bodies CHAP. 16. BVt the Philosophers against whose callumnies we defeÌ„d this City of God 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 church thinke they giue vs a witty scoffe for saying that the soules seperation from the body is to be held as part of the punishment when as they affirme 〈◊〉 â—…n a is the soule perfectly blessed when it leaueth the body and goeth vp pâ—… and naked vnto God If I should finde no battery against this opinion out of their owne bookes I should haue a great adoe to prooue not the body but the corruptibility of the body to be the soules burden wherevpon is that which we 〈◊〉 in our last booke A corruptible body is heauy vnto the soule In adding corâ—…le he sheweth that this being
wife with-out all doubt his fathers obedience was of the greater merite so that for his sake God saith that hee will doe Isaac that good that he did him In thy seede shall all the nations of the world bee blessed saith he because thy father Abraham obeyed my voyce c. Againe saith he the God of thy father Abraham feare not for I am with thee and haue blessed thee and will multiply thy seede for Abraham thy Fathers sake To shew all those carnally minded men that thinke it was lust that made Abraham doe as it is recorded that hee did it with no lust at all but a chaste intent teaching vs besides that wee ought not compare mens worths by singularitie but to take them with all their qualities together For a man may excell another in this or that vertue who excelleth him as farre in another as good And al-be-it it be true that continence is better then marriage yet the faithfull married man is better then the continent Infidell for such 〈◊〉 one a is not onely not to be praised for his continencie since he beleeueth not but rather highly to bee dispraised for not beleeuing seeing hee is continent But to grant them both good a married man of great faith and obedience in Iesus Christ is better then a continent man with lesse but if they be equall who maketh any question that the continent man is the more exellent L. VIVES SUch an a One is not Herein is apparant how fruitlesse externall workes are without the dew of grace do ripen them in the heart the Bruges copy readeth not this place so well in my iudgement Of Esau and Iacob and the misteries included in them both CHAP. 27. SO Isaacs two sonnes Esau and Iacob were brought vp together now the yonger got the birth-right of the elder by a bargaine made for a lentiles and potage which Iacob had prepared Esau longed for exceedingly so sold him his birth-right for some of them and confirmed the bargaine with an oth Here now may we learne that it is b not the kind of meate but the gluttonous affect that hurts To proceed Isaac growes old and his sight fayled him he would willingly blesse his elder sonne and not knowing he blessed the yonger who had counterfeited his brothers roughnesse of body by putting goats skins vpon his necke and hands and so let his father feele him Now least some should thinke that this were c â—…lent deceipt in Iacob the Scripture saith before Esau was a cunning hunter 〈◊〉 â—…ed in the fieles but Iacob was a simple playne man and kept at home d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…lesse one without counterfeyting what was the deceipt then of this plaâ—… dealing man in getting of this blessing what can the guile of a guiltlesse true hearted soule be in this case but a deepe mistery of the truth what was the blessing Behold saith he the smell of my sonne is as the smell of a field which the Lord 〈◊〉 blessed God giue thee therefore of the dew of heauen and the fatnesse of earth â—…d plenty of wheate and wine let the nations bee thy seruants and Princes bow downe vnto thee bee Lord ouer thy bretheren and let thy mothers children honor thee cursed be he that curseth thee and blessed be he that blesseth thee Thus this blessing of Iacob is the preaching of Christ vnto all the nations This is the whole scope in Isaac is the law and the prophets and by the mouths of the Iewes is Christ blessed vnknowen to them because hee knoweth not them The odour of his name fills the world like a field the dew of heauen is his diuine doctrine the fertile â—…th is the faithfull Church the plenty of wheat and wine is the multitude â—…ed in Christ by the sacraments of his body and blood Him do nations serue and Princes adore Heâ—… is Lord ouer his brother for his people rule oâ—…r the Iewes The sonnes of his father that is Abrahams sonnes in the faith doe honour him For hee is Abrahams sonne in the flesh cursed bee hee that curseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 blessed be he that blesseth him Christ I meane our Sauiour blessed That is â—…ly â—…ught by the Prophets of the woundring Iewes and is still blessed by oâ—… of them that as yet erroneously expect his comming And now comes 〈◊〉 â—…er for the blessing promised then is Isaac afraid and knowes hee had blessed the one for the other Hee wonders and asketh who he was yet complaineth hee not of the deceit but hauing the mysterie thereof opened in his heart hee forbeares fretning and confirmeth the blessing Who was hee then saith he that hunted and tooke venison for me and I haue eaten of it all before thou camest and I haue blessed him and hee shall bee blessed Who would not haue here expected a curse rather but that his minde was altered by a diuine inspiration O true done deedes but yet all propheticall on earth but all by heauen by men but all for God! whole volumes would not hold all the mysteries that they conceiue but wee must restraine our selues The processe of the worke calleth vs on vnto other matters L. VIVES FOr a lentiles There is lenticula a vessell of oyle and lenticula of lens a little fitchie kinde of pease the other comes of lentitas because the oyle cannot runne but gently lente out of the mouth it is so straite But the scriptures say that they were onely read poâ—…ge that Esau solde his birth-right for and therefore hee was called Edom redde b Not the 〈◊〉 of This is a true precept of the Euangelicall lawe Heere I might inscribe much not allow the commons any licentiousnesse but to teach the rulers diuerse things which I must let alone for once c Fraudulent deceipt For deceipt may be either good or bad Of Iacobs iourney into Mesopotamia for a wife his vision in the night as hee went his returne with foure women whereas he went but for one CHAP. 38. IAcobs parents sent him into Mesopotamia there to get a wife His father dismissed him with these words Thou shalt take thee no wife of the daughters of Canaan Arise get thee to Mesopotamia to the house of Bathuel thy mothers father 〈◊〉 thence take thee a wife of the daughters of Laban thy mothers brother My GOD blesse thee and increase thee and multiply thee that thou maist bee a multitude of people and giue the blessing of Abraham to thee and to thy seede after thee that 〈◊〉 maiest inherite the land wherein thou art a stranger which God gaue Abraham Heere wee see Iacob the one halfe of Isaacs seede seuered from Esau the other halfe For when it was said in Isaac shall thy seed bee called that is the seed pertaining to Gods holy Cittie then was Abrahams other seede the bond-womans sonne seuered from this other as Kethurahs was also to bee done with afterwards But now there was this doubt risen about Isaacs two sonnes whether
nations to the other What greater proofe need wee then this to confirme that the Israelites and all the world besides are contained in Abrahams seed the first in the flesh and the later in the spirit Of Moyses his times Iosuah the Iudges the Kings Saul the first Dauid the chiefe both in merite and in mysticall reference CHAP. 43. IAcob and Ioseph being dead the Israelites in the other hundred fortie foure yeares at the end of which they left Egypt increased wonderfully though the Egyptians oppressed them sore and once killed all their male children for feare of their wonderfull multiplication But Moses was saued from those butchers and brought vp in the court by Pharaohs daughter the a name of the Egiptian Kings God intending great things by him and he grew vp to that worth that he was held fit to lead the nation out of this extreame slauery or rather God did it by him according to his promise to Abraham First hee fled into Madian for killing an Egiptian in defence of an Israelite and afterwards returning full of Gods spirit hee foyled the enchanters h of Pharao in all their opposition and laide the ten sore plagues vpon the Egiptians because they would not let Israel depart namely the changing of the water into bloud Frogges c Lyce d Gnattes morren of Cattell botches and sores Haile Grashoppers darkenesse and death of all the first borne and lastly the Israelites being permitted after all the plagues that Egypt had groned vnder to depart and yet beeing pursued afterwards by them againe passed ouer the redde Sea dry-foote and left all the hoast of Egipt drowned in the middest the sea opened before the Israelites and shut after them returning vpon the pursuers and ouer-whelming them And then forty yeares after was Israell in the deserts with Moyses and there had they the tabernacle of the testimonie where God was serued with sacrifices that were all figures of future euents the law being now giuen with terror vpon mount Syna for the terrible voyces and thunders were full prooses that God was there And this was presently after their departure from Egipt in the wildernesse and there they celebrated their Passe-ouer fiftie dayes after by offring of a Lambe the true type of Christs passing vnto his father by his passion in this world For Pascha in Hebrew is a passing ouer and so the fiftith day after the opening of the new Testament and the offring of Christ our Passeâ—…ouer the holy spirit descended downe from heauen he whom the scriptures call the finger of God to renew the memory of the first miraculous prefiguration in our hearts because the law in the tables is said to be written by the finger of GOD. Moyses being dead Iosuah ruled the people and lead them into the land of promise diuiding it amongst them And by these two glorious captaines were strange battels wonne and they were ended with happy successe God himselfe auouching that the losers sinnes and not the winners merits were causes of those conquests After these two the land of promise was ruled by Iudges that Abrahams seede might see the first promise fulfilled concerning the land of Canaan though not as yet concerning the nations of all the earth for that was to be fulfilled by the comming of Christ in the flesh and the faith of the Gospell not the precepts of the law which was insinuated in this that it was not Moyses that receiued the law but Iosuab h whose name God also changed that lead the people into the promised land But in the Iudges times as the people offended or obeyed God so varied their fortunes in warre On vnto the Kings Saul was the first King of Israel who being a reprobate and dead in the field and all his race reiected from ability of succession Dauid was enthroned i whose sonne our Sauiour is especially called In him is as it were a point from whence the people of God doe flowe whose originall as then being in the youthfull time thereof is drawne from Abraham vnto this Dauid For it is not out of neglect that Mathew the Euangelist reckoneth the descents so that hee putteth foureteene generations betweene Abraham and Dauid For a man may be able to beget in his youth and therefore he begins his genealogies from Abraham who vpon the changing of his name was made the father of many nations So that before him the Church of God was in the infancie as it were from Noah I meane vnto him and therefore the first language the Hebrew as then was inuented for to speake by For from the terme of ones infancie hee begins to speake beeing called an infant k a non sancto of not speaking which age of himselfe euery man forgetteth as fully as the world was destroyed by the deluge For who can remember his infancie Wherefore in this progresse of the Cittie of God as the last booke conteined the first age thereof so let this containe the second and the third when the yoake of the law was laide on their necks the aboundance of sinne appeared and the earthly kingdome had beginning c. intimated by the Heifer the Goate â—…d the Ramme of three yeares old in which there wanted not some faithfull persons as the turtle-doue and the Pidgeon portended L. VIVES THe a name of To anoyde the supposition that Pharao that reigned in Iacob and Iosephs time was all one Pharao with this here named Pharao was a name of kingly dignity in Egipâ—… Hieron in Ezechiel lib. 9. So was Prolomy after Alexander Caesar and Augustus after the two braue Romaines and Abimelech in Palestina Herodotus speaketh of one Pharao that was blinde They were called Pharao of Pharos an I le ouer-against Alexandria called Carpathoâ—… of old Proteus reigned in it The daughter of this Pharao Iosephus calleth Thermuth b Of Pharao Which Pharao this was it is doubtfull Amasis saith Apion Polyhistor as Eusebius citeth him reigned in Egipt when the Iewes went thence But this cannot be for Amasis was long after viz. in Pythagoras his time vnto whom he was commended by Polycrates king of Samos But Iosephus saith out of Manethon that this was Techmosis and yet sheweth him to vary from him-selfe and to put Amenophis in another place also Eusebius saith that it was Pharao Cenchres In Chron. and that the Magicians names were Iannes and Iambres Prep euangel ex Numenio c Lyce So doth Iosephus say if Ruffinus haue well translated him that this third plague was the disease called Phthiriasis or the lousie euill naming no gnattes Peter denatalibus and Albertus Grotus saith that the Cyniphes are a kinde of flye So saith Origen Albertus saith that they had the body of a worme the wings and head of a flye with a sting in their mouth where-with they prick and draw-bloud and are commonly bred in fens and marishes troubling all creatures but man especially Origen calleth them Snipes They do flie faith he but are so
Terra and Tartarus but the most say that Uulcan made her and Hercules killed her with a shaft so she was set vp in the skie betweene the tropike of Cancer and the Equinoctiall line But after that Prometheus had prophecyed vnto Ioue being to lye with Thetis that the sonne he begat should bee greater then the father He was loosed prouided he must euer weare an iron ring vpon his finger in memory of his bondage and hence came the vse of rings they say Lactantius saith he first made Idols of Clay He stole fire saith Pliny lib. 7. that is be taught the way how to strike it out of the flints and how to keepe it in a cane It is sure saith Diodorus lib. 5. that hee did finde out the fewell of fire at first The Pelasgiues as Pausanias testifieth ascribe the finding of fire vnto their Phoroneus not vnto Prometheus Theophrastus saith this is tropicall and ment of the inuentions of wisdome f He taught Old Iaphets sonne the worlds full wisest man doth Hesiod call him vnto Epimetheus his younger brother they say hee did willingly resigne the kingdome of Thessaly giuing him-selfe wholly vnto celestiall contemplation and for that end ascending the high mount Caucasus to behold the circumuolution of the starres their postures c. And then descending downe came taught the Caldees Astronomy and pollicy to the which I thinke the fable of the Eagle feeding vpon his liuer hath reference and to his doubtfull cares arising still one from another The interpreter of Apollonius Rhodius saith there is a riuer called Aquila that falling from Caucasus runnes through the heart of the country Promethea lying close to that mount Herodotus writeth that Prometheus the King of Scythia knowing not which way to bring the riuer Aquila to runne by his kingdome was much troubled vntill Hercules came and did it for him Thus of the riuer these two agree Diodorus saith that Prometheus was the King of Egypt and when Nilus had ouer flowed the country and drowned many of the inhabitants he was about to kill him-selfe but Hercules by his wisdome found a meane to reduce the riuer to his proper chanell and herevpon Nilus for his swiftnesse of course was called Aquila g Yet are Yes Atlas was wise and so was Epimetheus but to late for Prometheus is one of a forewit Epimetheus an after witted man for he being warned by his brother Prometheus to take no gift of Ioue neglected this warning and tooke Pandora and afterwards as Hesiod saith he knew he had receiued his hurt And therefore Augustines reason is â—…ong and acute How was he such a great doctor when wee can finde no wise men that hee left behind him who can iudge of his wisdome seeing there was no wise men of his time for â—…ome onely iudgeth of wisdome h His brother Atlas There were three of this name 〈◊〉 Seruius in Aeneid l. 8. A Moore the chiefe An Italian father to Electrae and an Arcadian 〈◊〉 to Maia the mother of Mercury These three the writers doe confound as their vse is For Diodorus lib 4. maketh Atlas the Moore sonne to Caelus and brother to Saturne father to the Hesperides and grand-father to Mercury a great astronomer one who by often ascending the mountaine of his name froÌ„ whence he might better behold the course of the heauens giue occasion of the fable of his sustayning heauen vpon his shoulders Pliny lib. 7. saith that 〈◊〉 the son of Lybia this Moore assuredly was the inuentor of Astrology lib. 2. inuented the â—…here Alex. Polyhistor thinketh that he was Henoch the inuentor of that star-skil that Aâ—…s taught the Phaenicians and Egiptians afterwards when hee trauelled these countries This knowledge in Astronomy might well giue life to that fable of Heauen-bearing Some â—…e it arose from the inaccessible hight of mount Atlas that seemeth to the eye to vnderâ—… the skies saith Herodotus and reacheth aboue the cloudes nor can the top be easily disâ—…d the cloudes beeing continually about it this was a great furtherance to the fiction The Italian Atlas was that ancient king of Fesulae as it is reported i Cecrops his Pausanias 〈◊〉 that Actaeus was the first King of Attica and Cecrops an Egiptian his step-son inheriâ—… kingdome after him and hee they say was a man from his vpper parts and a beast in 〈◊〉 â—…her because hee by good lawes reduced the people from barbrisme vnto humanity or 〈◊〉 â—…her parts were feminine say some because hee instituted marriage in that country and was as it were the first author in those parts of father and mother for before they begot children at randon and no man knew his owne father Affricanus saith that Ogyges was the first 〈◊〉 of Athens that from the deluge in his daies the land was vntilled and â—…ay desert 200. yâ—…ter vntill Cecrops his time But for Actaeus and others named as Kings thereof before 〈◊〉 â—…hey are but bare names Annal. lib. 4. k Phorbas Brother to Perasus saith Pausanias 〈◊〉 â—…rgus and father to Triopas The Rhodians saith Diodorus beeing sore vexed by serâ—…â—…nt to the Oracle and by the appointment thereof called Phorbas into their Island giâ—… 〈◊〉 part thereof to him his heires and so they were freed from that plague for which 〈◊〉 â—…eed that he should after his death be honored as a God but this as seemes by Dioâ—…â—…s â—…s not Phorbas the Argiue nor these of Perasus or Argus but a Thessalian the sonne of 〈◊〉 l Triopas Sonne to Phorbas Paus. Diodorus mentions one Triopas the sonne of vnâ—… parents some say of Neptune and Canace some of Apollo The people hated him saith 〈◊〉 â—…pouerishing the Temples and for killing his brother Higinius saith that some tooke 〈◊〉 bee that celestiall constellation in heauen called Ophinchus who is wound about with a 〈◊〉 for Triopas hauing taken off the roofe of Ceres temple to couer his own palace withal 〈◊〉 â—…enged her selfe vpon him with a bitter hunger and lastly in his end a dragon appeared 〈◊〉 afflicted him sore at last he died and being placed in heauen he was figured as if a 〈◊〉 â—…guirt him about m Iasus Father to Io of whom Argos was called Iasium and the Arâ—… â—…ians n Sthenelas After Iasus saith Paus. Crotopus Agenors son reigned hee beâ—… â—…las o Mercury Tully as I said before reckneth 4. Mercuries This is the third son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Maia taught by his grand-father inuenting many excellent things of himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Magician as Prudentius writes therefore feigned to be the carier and recarier of 〈◊〉 and from hell p Hercules There were 6. of this name as Tully saith The 1. and most 〈◊〉 son to the eldest Ioue and Liscitus he contended with Apollo for the Tripos 2. an Eâ—… son to Nilus reputed the author of the Phrygian letters 〈◊〉 one deâ—…fied amongst the Iâ—… vnto whom they offer sacrifices infernal 4. Son vnto Astery
doe better for the solution of this question to beginne at that time chiefly because then the Holy Spirit descended vpon that society wherein the second law the New Testament was to bee professed according as Christ had promised For the first law the Old Testament was giuen in Sina by Moyses but the later which Christ was to giue was prophecied in these words The law shall goe forth of Zion and the word of the LORD from Ierusalem Therefore hee said himselfe that it was fit that repentance should bee preached in his name throughout all nations yet beginning at Ierusalem There then beganne the beleefe in CHRIST crucified and risen againe There did this faith heate the heartes of diuers thousands already who sold their goods to giue to the poore and came cheerefully to CHRIST and to voluntary pouerty withstanding the assalts of the bloud-thirsty Iewes with a pacience stronger then an armed power If this now were not done by Magike why might not the rest in all the world bee as cleare But if Peters magike had made those men honour Christ who both crucified him and derided him beeing crucified then I aske them when their three hundered three scorce and fiue yeares must haue an end CHRST died in the a two Gemini's consulshippe the eight of the Calends of Aprill and rose againe the third daie as the Apostles saw with their eyes and felt with their hands fortie daies after ascended hee into Heauen and tenne daies after that is fiftie after the resurrection came the Holy Ghost and then three thousand men beleeued in the Apostles preaching of him So that then his name beganne to spread as wee beleeue and it was truely prooued by the operation of the Holy Ghost but as the Infidels feigne by Peters magike And soone after fiue thousand more beleeued through the preaching of Paul and Peters miraculous curing of one that had beene borne lame and lay begging at the porch of the Temple Peter with one word In the name of our LORD IESVS CHRIST set him sound vpon his feete Thus the church gotte vppe by degrees Now reckon the yeares by the Consulls from the descension of the Holie Spirit that was in the Ides of Maie vnto the consulshippe of b Honorius and Eutychian and you shall finde full three hundered three score and fiue yeares expired Now in the next yeare in the consulship of c Theodorus Manlius when christianity should haue beene vtterly gone according to that Oracle of deuills or fiction of fooles what is done in other places wee neede not inquire but for that famous cittie of Carthage wee know that Iouius and Gaudentius two of Honorius his Earles came thether on the tenth of the Calends of Aprill and brake downe all the Idols and pulled downe their Temples It is now thirty yeares agoe since almost and what increase christianity hath had since is apparant inough and partly by a many whom the expectation of the fulfilling of that Oracle kept from beeing reconciled to the truth who since are come into the bosome of the church discouering the ridiculousnesse of that former expectation But wee that are christians re â—…re indeed and name doe not beleeue in Peter but in f him that Peter beleeued in Wee are edifyed by Peters sermons of Christ but not bewitched by his charmes nor deceiued by his magike but furthered by his religion CHRIT that taught Peter the doctrine of eternitie teacheth vs also But now it is time to set an end to this booke wherein as farre as neede was wee haue runne along with the courses of the Two Citties in their confused progresse the one of which the Babilon of the earth hath made her false gods of mortall men seruing them and sacrificing to them as shee thought good but the other the heauenly Ierusalem shee hath stucke to the onely and true GOD and is his true and pure sacrifice her selfe But both of these doe feele one touch of good and euill fortune but not with one faith nor one hope nor one law and at length at the last iudgement they shall bee seuered for euer and either shall receiue the endlesse reward of their workes Oâ—… these two endes wee are now to discourse L. VIVES IN the a two First sure it is Christ suffered vnder Tyberius the Emperor Luke the Euangelist maketh his baptisme to fall in the fifteenth yeare of Tyberius his reigne So then his passion must be in the eighteenth or ninteenth for three yeares hee preached saluation Hier. So â—…ith Eusebius alledging heathen testimonies of that memorable eclips of the Sunne as namely our of Phlegon a writer of the Olympiads who saith that in the fourth yeare of the two hundered and two Olympiade the eighteenth of Tyberius his reigne the greatest eclips befell that euer was It was midnight-darke at noone-day the starres were all visible and an earth-quake shooke downe many houses in Nice a city of Bythinia But the two Gemini Ruâ—… and Fusius were Consulls in the fifteenth yeare of Tyberius as is easily prooued out of Tacitus lib. 5. and out of Lactantius lib. 4. cap. 10. where hee saith that in that yeare did Christ suffer and him doth Augustine follow here But Sergius Galba afterwards Emperor and L. Sylla were Consulls in the eighteenth yeare b Honorius and In the consulship of these two 〈◊〉 draue the Gothes and Vandals into Italy Honorius the Emperor beeing Consull the fourth time Prosper saith this was not vntill the next yeare Stilicon and Aurelian beeing 〈◊〉 c Theodorus Claudian made an exellent Panegyrike for his consulship wherein hee sheweth that hee had beene Consul before Prosper maketh him Consull before Honorius his fourth Consulship but I thinke this is an error in the time as well as in the copie For it must bee read Beeing the second time Consul Eutropius the Eunuch was made Consull with him but soone after hee was put to death Wherevpon it may bee that Eutropius his name was blotted out of the registers and Theodorus Manlius hauing no fellow was taken for two Theodorus and Manlius as Cassiodorus taketh him but mistakes himselfe Yet about that time they began to haue but one Consull d Now 30. yeares Vnto the third yeare of Theodosius Iunior wherein Augustine wrote this e In him that Peter For who is Paul and who is Apollo the ministers by whom you beleeue Finis lib. 18. THE CONTENTS OF THE nineteenth booke of the City of God That Varro obserued 288. sectes of the Philophers in their question of the perfection of goodnesse 2. Varro his reduction of the finall good out of al these differences vnto three heads three definitions one onely of which is the true one 3. Varro his choise amongst the three forenamed sects following therin the opinion of Antiochus author of the old Academicall sect 4. The Christians opinion of the cheefest good and euill which the Philosophers held to bee within themselues 5. Of liuing sociably with our neighbours how
their hurt and their soules in following their appetites when neede requireth so in flying of death they make it as apparant how much they set by their peace of soule and body But man hauing a reasonable soule subiecteth all his communities with beasts vnto the peace of that to worke so both in his contemplation and action that there may bee a true consonance betweene them both and this wee call the peace of the reasonable soule To this end hee is to avoide molestation by griefe disturbance by desire and dissolution by death and to ayme at profiâ—…e knowledge where vnto his actions may bee conformable But least 〈◊〉 owne infirmity through the much desire to know should draw him into any pestilent inconuenience of error hee must haue a diuine instruction to whose directions and assistance hee is to assent with firme and free obedience And because that during this life Hee is absent from the LORD hee walketh by faith and not by sight and therefore hee referreth all his peace of bodie of soule and of both vnto that peace which mortall man hath with immortall GOD to liue in an orderlie obedience vnder his eternall lawe by faith Now GOD our good Maister teaching vs in the two chiefest precepts the loue of him and the loue of our neighbour to loue three things GOD our neighbour and our selues and seeing he that loueth GOD offendeth not in louing himselfe it followeth that hee ought to counsell his neighbour to loue GOD and to prouide for him in the loue of GOD sure hee is commanded to loue him as his owne selfe So must hee doe for his wife children family and all men besides and wish likewise that his neighbour would doe as much for him in his need thus shall hee bee settled in peace and orderly concord with all the world The order whereof is first a to doe no man hurt and secondly to helpe all that hee can So that his owne haue the first place in his care and those his place and order in humane society affordeth him more conueniency to benefit Wherevpon Saint Paul saith Hee that prouideth not for his owne and namely for them that bee of his houshold denieth the faith and is worse then an Infidell For this is the foundation of domesticall peace which is an orderly rule and subiection in the partes of the familie wherein the prouisors are the Commaunders as the husband ouer his wife parents ouer their children and maisters ouer their seruants and they that are prouided for obey as the wiues doe their husbands children their parents and seruants their maisters But in the family of the faithfull man the heauenly pilgrim there the Commaunders are indeed the seruants of those they seeme to commaund ruling not in ambition but beeing bound by carefull duety not in proud soueraignty but in nourishing pitty L. VIVES FIrst a to doe no Man can more easily doe hurt or forbeare hurt then doe good All men may iniure others or abstaine from it But to doe good is all and some Wherefore holy writ bids vs first abstaine from iniury all we can and then to benefit our christian bretheren when wee can Natures freedome and bondage caused by sinne in which man is a slaue to his owne affects though he be not bondman to any one besides CHAP. 15. THus hath natures order prescribed and man by GOD was thus created Let them rule saith hee ouer the fishes of the sea and the fowles of the ayre end ouer euery thing that creepeth vpon the earth Hee made him reasonable and LORD onely ouer the vnreasonable not ouer man but ouer beastes Wherevpon the first holy men were rather shep-heards then Kings GOD shewing herein what both the order of the creation desired and what the merit of sinne exacted For iustly was the burden of seruitude layd vpon the backe of transgression And therefore in all the scriptures wee neuer reade the word Seruant vntill such time as that iust man Noah a layd it as a curse vpon his offending sonne So that it was guilt and not nature that gaue originall vnto that name b The latine word Seruus had the first deriuation from hence those that were taken in the warres beeing in the hands of the conquerours to massacre or to preserue if they saued them then were they called Serui of Seruo to saue Nor was this effected beyond the desert of sinne For in the iustest warre the sinne vpon one side causeth it and if the victory fall to the wicked as some times it may c it is GODS decree to humble the conquered either reforming their sinnes heerein or punishing them Witnesse that holy man of GOD Daniel who beeing in captiuity confessed vnto his Creator that his sinnes and the sinnes of the people were the reall causes of that captiuity Sinne therefore is the mother of seruitude and first cause of mans subiection to man which notwithstanding commeth not to passe but by the direction of the highest in whome is no iniustice and who alone knoweth best how to proportionate his punnishment vnto mans offences and hee himselfe saith Whosoeuer committeth sinne is the seruant of sinne and therefore many religious Christians are seruants vnto wicked maisters d yet not vnto free-men for that which a man is addicted vnto the same is hee slaue vnto And it is a happier seruitude to serue man then lust for lust to ommit all the other affects practiseth extreame tirany vpon the hearts of those that serue it bee it lust after soueraignty or fleshly lust But in the peacefull orders of states wherein one man is vnder an other as humility doth benefit the seruant so doth pride endamage the superior But take a man as GOD created him at first and so hee is neither slaue to man nor to sinne But penall seruitude had the institution from that law which commaundeth the conseruation and forbiddeth the disturbance of natures order for if that law had not first beene transgressed penall seruitude had neuer beene enioyned Therefore the Apostle warneth seruants to obey their Maisters and to serue them with cheerefulnesse and good will to the end that if they cannot bee made free by their Maisters they make their seruitude a free-dome to themselues by seruing them not in deceiptfull feare but in faithfull loue vntill iniquity be ouerpassed and all mans power and principality disanulled and GOD onely be all in all L. VIVES NOah a layd it Gen. 9. b The latine So saith Florentinus the Ciuilian Institut lib. 4. And they are called Mancipia quoth hee of manu capti to take with the hand or by force This you may reade in Iustinians Pandects lib. 1. The Lacaedemonians obserued it first Plin. lib. 7. c It is Gods decree Whose prouidence often produceth warres against the wills of either party d Yet not vnto free Their Maisters being slaues to their owne passions which are worse maisters then men can be Of the iust law of soueraignty CHAP. 16.
WHerefore although our righteous fore-fathers had seruants in their families and according to their temporall estates made a distinction betwixt their seruants and their children yet in matter of religion the fountaine whence all eternall good floweth they prouided for all their houshold with an equall respect vnto each member thereof This natures order prescribed and hence came the name of The Father of the family a name which euen the worst Maisters loue to bee called by But such as merit that name truely doe care that all their families should continue in the seruice of GOD as if they were all their owne children desyring that they should all bee placed in the houshold of heauen where commaund is wholy vnnecessary because then they are past their charge hauing attained immortality which vntill they bee installed in the Maisters are a to endure more labour in their gouernment then the seruants in their seruice If any bee disobedient and offend this iust peace hee is forth-with to bee corrected with strokes or some other conuenient punishment whereby hee may bee re-ingraffed into the peace-full stocke from whence his disobedience hath torne him For as it is no good turne to helpe a man vnto a smaller good by the losse of a greater no more is it the part of innocence by pardoning a small offence to let it grow vnto a fouler It is the duetie of an innocent to hurt no man but withall to curbe sinne in all hee can and to correct sinne in whome hee can that the sinners correction may bee profitable to himselfe and his example a terrour vnto others Euery family then beeing part of the cittie euery beginning hauing relation vnto some end and euery part tending to the integrity of the whole it followeth apparantly that the families peace adhereth vnto the citties that is the orderly command and obedience in the familie hath reall reference to the orderly rule and subiection in the cittie So that the Father of the familie may fetch his instructions from the citties gouernment whereby hee may proportionate the peace of his priuate estate by that of the Common L. VIVES THe Maisters a are to endure It is most difficult and laborious to rule well and it is as trouble-some to rule ouer vnruly persons The grounds of the concord and discord betweenethe Citties of Heauen and Earth CHAP. 17. BVt they that liue not according to faith angle for all their peace in the Sea of temporall profittes Whereas the righteous liue in full expectation of the glories to come vsing the occurences of this worlde but as pilgrimes not to abandon their course towardes GOD for mortall respects but thereby to assist the infirmity of the corruptible flesh and make it more able to encounter with toyle and trouble Wherefore the necessaries of this life are common both to the faithfull and the Infidell and to both their families but the endes of their two vsages thereof are farre different The faythlesse worldly citty aymeth at earthly peace and settleth the selfe therein onely to haue an vniformity of the Cittizens wills in matters onely pertayning till mortality And the Heauenly citty or rather that part thereof which is as yet a pilgrime on earth and liueth by faith vseth this peace also as befitteth vnto it leaue this mortall life wherein such a peace is requisite and therefore liueth while it is here on earth as if it were in captiuity and hauing receiued the promise of redemption and diuers spirituall guifts as seales thereof it willingly obeyeth such lawes of the temporall citty as order the things pertayning to the sustenance of this mortall life to the end that both the Citties might obserue a peace in such things as are pertinent here-vnto But because that the Earthly Citty hath some members whome the holy scriptures vtterly disallow and who standing either to well affected to the diuells or being illuded by them beleeued that each thing had a peculiar deity ouer it and belonged to the charge of a seuerall God as the body to one the soule to another and in the body it selfe the head to one the necke to another and so of euery member as likewise of the soule one had the witt another the learning a third the wrath a forth the desire as also in other necessaries or accidents belonging to mans life the cattell the corne the wine the oyle the woods the monies the nauigation the warres the mariages the generations each being a seuerall charge vnto a particular power whereas the cittizens of the Heauenly state acknowledged but one onely God to whom that worshippe which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was peculiarly and solly due hence came it that the two hierachies could not bee combined in one religion but must needs dissent herein so that the good part was faine to beare the pride and persecution of the bad but that their owne multitude some-times and the prouidence of GOD continually stood for their protection This celestiall society while it is here on earth increaseth it selfe out of all languages neuer respecting the temporall lawes that are made against so good and religious a practise yet not breaking but obseruing their diuersity in diuers nations all which do tend vnto the preseruation of earthly peace if they oppose not the adoration of one onely GOD. So that you see the Heauenly citty obserueth and respecteth this temporall peace here on Earth and the coherence of mens wills in honest morality as farre as it may with a safe conscience yea and so farre desireth it making vse of it for the attaynement of the peace eternall which is so truely worthy of that name as that the orderly and vniforme combination of men in the fruition of GOD and of one another in GOD is to be accompted the reasonable creatures onely peace which being once attained mortality is banished and life then is the a true life indeed nor is the carnall body any more an encombrance to the soule by corruptibility but is now become spirituall perfected and entirely subiect vnto the souerainety of the will This peace is that vnto which the pilgrime in faith referreth the other which he hath here in his pilgrimage and then liueth hee according to faith when all that hee doth for the obteining hereof is by him-selfe referred vnto God and his neighbour with-all because being a cittizen hee must not bee all for him-selfe but sociable in his life and actions L. VIVES THe a true life Ennius vsed the Latine phrase Uita vitalis to which Augustine alludeth Cicero That the suspended doctrine of the new Academy opposeth the constancie of Christianity CHAP. 18. AS for the new Academians whome Varro auoutcheth to hold no certeinty but this That all things are vncertaine the Church of God detesteth these doubts as madnesses hauing a most certaine knowledge of the things it apprehendeth although but in small quantity because of the corruptible body which is a burden to the soule and because as the
is the righteousnesse of GOD made manifest without the law hauing witnesse of the law and the Prophets to wit the righteousnesse of GOD by the faith of IESVS CHRIST vnto all and vpon al that beleeue This righteousnesse of GOD belongeth vnto the New Testament and hath confirmation from the Old namely the law and the prophets Wee must therefore first of all propound the cause and then produce the confirmations for CHRIST himselfe so ordered it saying Euery scribe which is taught vnto the kingdome of heauen is like vnto an housholder which bringeth out of his treasury things both new and old He saith not both and new but if hee had not respected the order of dignity more then of antiquity he would haue done so and not as he did Places of Scripture prouing that there shal be a daie of Iudgement at the worlds end CHAP. 5. OVr Sauiour therefore condeming the citties whom his great miracles did not induce vnto faith and preferring aliens before them telleth them this Isay vnto you it shal be easier for Tyrus a and Sydon at the day of iudgement then for you And by and by after vnto another cittie Isay vnto you that it shal be easier for them of the Land of Sodome in the daie of iudgement then for thee Here is a plaine prediction of such a day Againe The men of Niniuie saith hee shall arise in iudgement with this generation and condemne it c. The Queene of the south shall rise in Iudgement with this generation and shall condemne it c. Heere wee learne two things 1. that there shal be a iudgement 2. that it shal be when the dead doe arise againe For Our Sauiour speaking of the Niniuites and of the Queene of the South speaketh of them that were dead long before Now b hee sayd not shall condemne as if they were to bee the iudges but that their comparison with the afore-said generation shall iustly procure the iudges condemning sentence Againe speaking of the present commixtion of the good and bad and their future seperation in the day of Iudgement hee vseth a simily of the sowne wheate and the tares sowne afterwards amongst it which hee expoundeth vnto his disciples Hee that soweth the good seed is the Sonne of Man the field is the world the good seed they are the children of the Kingdome the tares are the children of the wicked the enemy that soweth that is the deuill the haruest is the end of the world and the reapers bee the Angells As then the tares are gathered and burned in the fire so shall it bee in the ende of this worlde the Sonne of Man shall send forth his Angells and they shall gather out of his Kingdome all things that offend and they which doe iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire there shal be weeping and gnashing of teeth Then shall the iust men shine as the Sunne in the Kingdome of their Father Hee that hath eares to heare let him heare Hee nameth not the Iudgement day heere but hee expresseth it farre more plainely by the effects and promiseth it to befall at the end of the world Furthermore hee saith to his disciples Verely I say vnto you that when the Sonne of Man shall sit in the Throne of his Maiesty then yee which followed mee in their regeneration shall sit also vpon twelue thrones and iudge the twelue tribes of Israell Here wee see that Christ shall bee iudge together with his Apostles Wherevpon hee sayd vnto the Iewes in another place If I through Beelzebub cast out deuills by whom doe your children cast them out therefore they shal be your iudges But now in that he speaketh of twelue thrones we may not imagine that he and one twelue more with him shal be the worlds Iudges The number of twelue includeth the whole number of the Iudges by reason of the two parts of seauen which number signifieth the totall and the vniuerse which two parts foure and three multiplied either by other make vp twelue three times foure or foure times three is twelue besides others reasons why twelue is vsed in these words of our Sauiour Otherwise Mathias hauing Iudas his place Saint Paul should haue no place left him to sit as Iudge in though hee tooke more paines then them all but that hee belongeth vnto the number of the Iudges his owne wordes doe proue Know yee not that we shall iudge the Angells The reason of their iudgements also is included in the number of twelue For Christ in saying To iudge the twelue tribes of Israel excludeth neither the tribe of Leui which was the thirteenth nor all the other Nations besides Israell from vnder-going this iudgement Now whereas hee saith In the regeneration heereby assuredlie hee meanes the resurrection of the dead For our flesh shal be regenerate by incorruption as our soule is by faith I omit many things that might concerne this great daie because inquiry may rather make them seeme ambiguous or belonging vnto other purpose then this as either vnto CHRISTS dayly comming vnto his church in his members vnto each in perticular or vnto the destruction of the earthly Ierusalem because Our Sauiour speaking of that vseth the same phrase that hee vseth concerning the end of the world and the last iudgement so that wee can scarcely distinguish them but by conferring the three Euangelists Mathew Marke and Luke together in their places touching this point For one hath it some-what difficult and another more apparant the one explayning the intent of the other And those places haue I conferred together in one of mine Epistles vnto Hesychius of blessed memory Bishoppe of Salon the Epistle is intituled De fine seculi of the worldes ende So that I will in this place relate onely that place of Saint Mathew where CHRIST the last iudge beeing then present shall seperate the good from the badde It is thus When the Sonne of Man commeth in his glory and all the holy Angells with him then shal he sit vpon the throne of his glorie and before him shal be gathered all nations and he shall seperate them one from another as a sheepheard seperateth the sheepe from the goates and hee shall set the sheepe on his right hand and the goates on his left Then shall the King say to them on his right hand come yee blessed of my father inherite yee the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundations of the worlde For I was an hungered and you gaue mee meate I thirsted and you gaue mee drinke I was a stranger and you lodged mâ—… I was naked and yee cloathed mee I was sicke and yee visited mee I was in prison and yee came vnto mee Then shall the righteous answere him saying LORD when saw wee thee an hungred and fedde thee or a thirst and gaue thee drinke c. And the King shall answere and say vnto them Verely I say vnto you in asmuch as yee haue done
God knoweth those that bee his and the deuill cannot draw a soule of them vnto damnation For this God knoweth as knowing all things to come not as one man seeth another in presence and cannot tell what shall be-come either of him hee seeth or of him-selfe here-after The diuell was therefore bound and locked vp that hee should no more seduce the nations the Churches members whom he had held in errour and impiety before they were vnited vnto the Church It is not said that hee should deceiue no man any more but that he should deceiue the people no more whereby questionlesse hee meaneth the Church Proceed vntill the thousand yeares bee fulfilled that is either the remainder of the sixth day the last thousand or the whole time that the world was to continue Nor may wee vnderstand the deuill so to bee barred from seducing that at this time expired hee should seduce those nations againe whereof the Church consisteth and from which hee was forbidden before But this place is like vnto that of the Psalme Our eyes waite vpon the Lord vntill hee haue mercy vpon vs for the seruants of God take not their eyes from beholding as soone as he hath mercy vpon them or else the order of the words is this Hee â—…t him vp and sealed the doore vpon him vntill a thousand yeares were fulfilled all that commeth betweene namely that he should not deceiue the people hauing no necessary connexion here-vnto but beeing to bee seuerally vnderstood as if it were added afterwards and so the sence runne thus And he shut him vp and sealed the dore vpon him vntill a thousand yeares were fulfilled that hee should not seduce the people that is therefore hee shutte him vp so long that he should seduce them no more L. VIVES FRom the a thousand Iohns mention of a thousand yeares in this place and Christs words I will not drinke hence-forth of the fruite of the vine vntill that day that I drinke it new with you in my Fathers kingdome together with many Prophecies touching Christs kingdome in Hierusalem made some imagine that Christ would returne into the world raise the Saints in their bodyes and liue a thousand yeares heere on earth in all ioy peace and prosperitie farre exceeding the golden age of the Poets or that of Sybilla and Esayas The first Author of this opinion was Papias Bishop of Hierusalem who liued in the Apostles times Hee was seconded by Irenaeus Apollinarius Tertullian lib. de fidelium Victorinus 〈◊〉 Lactantius Diuin Instit. lib. 7. And although Hierome deride and scoffe at this opinion in many places yet in his fourth booke of his Commentaries vpon Hieremy hee saith that hee dare not condemne it because many holy martyrs and religious Christians held it so great an authority the person some-times giueth to the position that we must vse great modesty in our dissention with them and giue great reuerence to their godlynesse and grauity I cannot beleeue that the Saints held this opinion in that manner that Cerinthus the heretique did of whome wee read this in Eusebius Cerinthus held that Christ would haue an earthly kingdome in Hierusalem after the resurrection where the Saints should liue in all societie of humaine lusts and concupiscences Besides against all truth of scripture hee held that for a thousand yeares space this should hold with reuells and mariage and other works of corruption onely to deâ—…iue the carnall minded person Dionisius disputing of S. Iohns reuelation and reciting some ancient traditions of the Church hath thus much concerning this man Cerinthus quoth he the author of the Cerinthian heresie delighted much in getting his sect authority by wresting of scripture His heresie was that Christs Kingdome should bee terrestriall and being giuen vp vnto lust and gluttony himselfe he affirmed nothing but such things as those two affects taught him That all should abound with banquets and belly-chere and for the more grace to his assertions that the feasts of the law should be renewed and the offring of carnall sacrifices restored Irenaeus publisheth the secresie of this heresie in his first booke they that would know it may finde it there Thus farre Eusebius Hist. Eccl. lib. 3. wherefore this was not Papias his opinion whose originall Hierome would otherwise haue ascribed vnto Cerinthus who was more ancient then Papias a little though both liued in one age nor would Iraeneus haue written against Cerinthus for he allowed of Papias his opinion neither did all the sects agree in one as touching this thousand yeares but each one taught that which seemed likeliest vnto him-selfe and no wonder in so vaine a fiction Dionisius of Alexandria as Hierome affirmeth In Esai lib. 18. wroâ—… an elegant worke in derision of these Chiliasts and there Golden Hierusalem their reparation of the temple their bloud of sacrifices there Sabbath there circumsitions there birth there mariages there banquets there soueraignties their warres and tryumphs c. b The cheare shall exceed So saith Lactantius The earth shall yeeld her greatest faecundity and yeeld her plenty vntilled The rockie mountaines shall sweate hony the riuers shall runne wine and the fountaines milke To omit Cerinthus his relations which are farre more odious c Chiliast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a thousand d On the sixt day There is a report that in the bookes of Elias the Prophet it was recorded that the world should last 6000. yeares 2000. vnder vanity vnto Abraham 2000. vnder the law vnto Christ. and 2000. vnder Christ vnto the iudgement This by the Hebrewes account for the LXX haue aboue 3000. yeares from Adam to Abraham And in Augustines time the world lackt not 400 yeares of the full 6000. So that now our Vulgar accoumpt is aboue 6700. yeares Namely from Our Sauiour 1522. Whom Eusebius and such as follow the LXX affirme to haue beene borne in the yeare of the world 5100. and somewhat more Therefore Augustine saith that the later end of the 6000. yeares passed along in his time And Lactantius who liued before Augustine vnder Constantine saith that in his time there was but 200. of the 6000. yeares to runne Of the binding and loosing of the Diuell CHAP. 8. AFter that saith S. Iohn he must be loosed for a season Well although the Diuell be bound and lockt vp that he should not seduce the Church shall hee therefore be looosed to seduce it God forbid That Church which God predestinated and setled before the worlds foundation whereof it is written God knoweth those that be his that the Deuill shall neuer seduce and yet it shal be on earth euen at the time of his loosing as it hath continued in successiue estate euer since it was first erected for by and by after hee saith that the Diuill shall bring his seduced nations in armes against it whose number shal be as the sea sands And they went vp saith hee vnto the plaine of the earth and compassed the tents of the Saints about and
and purely exhibited did signifie spotlesse and holy men such as Christ him-selfe onely was and no other Seeing therefore that in the iudgement all being clensed that neede clensing there shall not bee any sinne left in the Saints but each shall offer himselfe in righteousnes vnto God as an immaculate and pure oblation thus shall it be then as in the yeares afore when that was represented typically which at this day shal be fulfilled truely for then shall that purity be reall in the Saints which erst was prefigured in the sacrifices And thus of that Now as for those that are not worthy of being clensed but condemned thus saith the Prophet I will come to you in iudgement and I wil be a swift witnesse against the South-sayers and against the adulterers c. for I am the Lord and change not as if he said your fault hath now made you worse and my grace once made you better but I change not He will be witnesse him-selfe because he shall in that iudgement neede no other Swift because he will come on a sudden vnlooked for and when he is thought to bee farthest of and againe because hee will conuince the guilty conscience without making any words Inquisition shal be made in the thoughts of the vngodly saith the wise man Their conscience also bearing witnes saith the Apostle and their thoughts accusing one another or excusing at the day when God shall iudge the secrets of men by Iesus Christ according to my Ghospell Thus then shall God be a swift witnesse in calling that presently vnto the thoughts which shall forthwith condemne them L. VIVES NO a man except The question of the Uirgin Mary was not yet a foote but grew afterward betweene two orders of friers both fiery and led with vndaunted generalls the Dominicans by Thomas of Aquin and the Franciscans by Iohn Duns Scotus Now the councell of Basil decred that she was wholly pure from all touch of sinne But the Dominicans obiected that this was no lawfull counsell and the Minorites of the other side avowed that it was true and holy and called the Dominicans heretiques for slandering the power of the Church so that the matter had come to a shrewd passe but that Pope Sixtus forbad this theame to be any more disputed of Thus do these men esteeme councells or canons bee they againe their pleasures iust as an old wiues tale in a Flaxe-shope or at an Ale-house Gossiping Of the seperation of the good from the bad in the end of the last iudgement CHAP. 27. THat also which I alledged to another purpose in the eighteenth booke out of this Prophet belongeth to the last iudgement They shal be to me saith the Lord of Hostes in that day that I shall do this as a flocke for I will spare them as a man spareth his owne Sonne that serueth him then shall you returne and discerne betweene the righteous and the wicked betweene him that serueth God and him that serueth him not for behold the day commeth that shall burne as an Ouen and all the proud yea and all that do wickedly shal be stuble and the day that commeth shall burne them vp saith the Lord of Hostes and shall leaue them neither roote nor branch But vnto you that feare my name shall the sunne of righteousnes arise and health shal be vnder his winges and yee shall go forth and grow vp as fat Calues And yee shall tread downe the wicked for they shal be dust vnder the soules of your feete in the day that I shall do this saith the Lord of Hostes. This distance of rewards and punishments seuering the iust from the vniust is not seene by the transitory light of this worldly sunne but when it appeareth before that sunne of righteousnesse in the manifesation of the life to come then shall there bee such a iudgement as neuer was before Moyses Law to be spiritually vnderstood for feare of dangerous errour CHAP. 28. BVt whereas the Prophet procedeth saying Remember the law of Moyses my seruant which I commended vnto him in Horeb for all Israell with the statutes and iudgements this is fittly added both to follow the precedent distinction betweene the followers of the law and the contemners of it as also to imply that the said law must bee spiritually interpreted that Christ the distinguisher of the good and bad may therein be discouered who spoke not idly him-selfe when he told the Iewes saying Had yee beleeued Moyses yee would haue beleeued me for be wrote of me for these men conceyuing the Scriptures in a carnallience and not apprehending those earthly promises as types of the eternall ones fell into those damnable murmurings that they durst bee bold to say a It is in vaine to serue God and what profit is it that wee haue kept his commaundement and that wee walked humbly before the Lord of Hostes Therefore b wee count the proud blessed euen they that worke wickednesse are set vp c. These their words seeme euen to compell the prophet to foretell-the last iudgement where the wicked shall be so farre from all shadow of happinesse that they shal be apparantly wretched and the good so acquite from all lasting misery that they shall not be touched with any the most transitory but fully and freely be enthroned in eternal blessednesse For their words before seeme to say thus all that do euill are good in Gods eye and please him These grumblings against God proceeded meerely of the carnall vnderstanding of Moyses law Where-vpon the Psalmist saith that he had like to haue fallen him-selfe and that his feete slipped through his fretting at the foolish seeing the prosperity of the wicked in so much that he saith How doth God know it or is there knowledge in the most high and by and by after Haue I clensed mine heart in vaine and washed mine hands in innocency but to cleare this difficulty how it should come to passe that the wicked should bee happy and the iust miserable he addeth this Then thought I to know this but it was too painefull for me vntill I went into the Sanctuary of God and then vnderstood I their end At the day of the Lord it shall not be so but the misery of the wicked and the happinesse of the Godly shall appeare at full in far other order then the present world can discouer L. VIVES IT is a in vaine A wicked fond and absurd complaint of such as onely like brute beasts conceiue respect nothing but what is present looke but into the conscience of the wicked and you shall finde their hearts torne in peeces looke but vpon the time to come and you shall see a shole of plagues prepared for them which you may thinke are slowe but heauen assureth you they are sure b Wee count the wicked Your account cannot make them fortunate Helias his comming to conuert the Iewes before the iudgment CHAP. 29. NOw the Prophet hauing
many things which were they not to bee seene and confirmed by sufficient testimony would seeme as impossible as the rest whereas now wee know them partly all and partly some of vs. As for other things that are but reported without â—…estimony and concerne not religion nor are not taught in scripture they may bee false and a man may lawfully refuse to beleeue them I doe not beleeue all that I haue set downe so firmely that I doe make no doubt of some of them but for that which I haue tried as the burning of lyme in water and cooling in oyle the loade-stones drawing of Iron and not moouing a straw the incorruptibility of the Peacoks flesh whereas Platoes flesh did putrifie the keeping of snow and the ripening of apples in chaffe the bright fire makeing the stones of his owne colâ—…our and wood of the iust contrarie these I haue seene and beleeue without any doubt at all Such also are these that cleare oyle should make blacke spottes and white siluer drawne a black line that coales should turne black from white wood brittle of hard ones and incorruptible of corruptible peeces togither with many other which tediousnesse forbiddeth me heere to insert For the others excepting that fountaine that quensheth and kindleth againe the dusty apples of Sodome I could not get any sufficient proofes to confirme them Nor mett I any that had beheld that fountaine of Epyrus but I found diuerse that had seene the like neere vnto Grenoble in France And for the Apples of Sodome there are both graue authors and eye-witnesses enow aliue that can affirme it so that I make no doubt thereof The rest I leaue indifferent to affirme or deny yet I did set them downe because they are recorded in our adâ—…ersaries owne histories to shew them how many things they beleeue in their owne bookes with-out all reason that will not giue credence to vs when wee say that God Almighty will doe any thing that exceedeth their capacity to conceiue What better or stronger reason can be giuen for any thing then to say God Almighty will doe this which hee hath promised in those bookes wherein he promiseth as strange things as this which he hath performed He will do it because he hath said hee will euen hee that hath made the incredulous Heathens beleeue things which they held meere impossibilities L. VIVES WHy then a cannot God Seeing the scope of this place is diuine and surpasseth the bounds of nature as concerning the resurrection iudgment saluation and damnation I wonder that Aquinas Scotus Occam Henricus de Gandauo Durandus and Petrus de Palude dare define of them according to Aristotles positions drawing them-selues into such labyrinths of naturall questions that you would rather say they were Athenian Sophisters then Christian diuines b Sufficient Mans conceipt being so slender and shallow in these causes of things in so much that Virgil said well Faelix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas c Grenoble It was built by Gratian and called Gratianopolis Valens being Emperour of the East It standeth in Daulphine and reteineth part of the old name That the alteration of the knowne nature of any creature vnto a nature vnknowne is not opposite vnto the lawes of nature CHAP. 8. IF they reply that they will not beleeue that mans body can endure perpetuall burning because they know it is of no such nature so that it cannot bee said of it that nature hath giuen it such a quality we may answer them out of the scriptures that mans body before his fall was of such a nature that it could not suffer death and yet in his fall was altered vnto that mortall misery wherein now all man-kinde liueth to dye at length and therefore at the resurrection it may vndergoe such another alteration vnknowne to vs as yet But they beleeue not the Scriptures that relate mans estate in Paradise if they did we should not neede to stand long with them vpon this theame of the paines of the damned whereas now wee must make demonstration out of their owne authors how it is possible that there may bee a full alteration of nature in any one obiect from the kinde of being that it had before and yet the lawes of nature be kept vnviolated Thus wee read in Varro's booke De Gente Pop. Rom. Castor saith hee relateth that in that bright starre of Venus a which Plautus calles Hesperugo and Homer the glorious b Hesperus befell a most monstrous change both of colour magnitude figure and motion the like neuer was before nor since and this saith Adrastus Cyzicenus and Dion Neapolites two famous Astronomers befell in the reigne of Ogyges A monstrous change saith Varro and why but that it seemed contrary to nature such we say all portents to be but wee are deceiued for how can that be against nature which is effected by the will of God the Lord and maker of all nature A portent therefore is not against nature but against the most common order of nature But who is hee that can relate all the portents recorded by the Gentiles Let vs seeke our purpose in this one What more decretall law hath God laide vpon nature in any part of the creation then hee hath in the motions of the heauens what more legall and fixed order doth any part of nature keepe and yet you see that when it was the pleasure of Natures highest soueraigne the brighest starre in all the firmament changed the coulour magnitude and figure and which is most admirable the very course and motion This made a foule disturbance in the rules of the Astrologians if there were any then when they obseruing their fixed descriptions of the eternall course of the starres durst affirme that there neuer was nor neuer would bee any such change as this of Venus was Indeed wee read in the Scripture that the Sunne stood still at the prayer of Iosuah vntill the battle was done and went back to shew Hezechias that the Lord had added fifteene yeares vnto his life As for the miracles done by the vertues of the Saints these Infidels know them well and therefore auerre them to be done by Magicke where-vpon Virgil saith as I related before of the witch that she could Sistere aquam fluuiis vertere syder a retrò Stop floods bring back the starres c. For the riuer Iordan parted when Iosuah lead the people ouer it and when Heliah passed it as likewise when his follower Heliseus deuided it with Heliah his cloake and the sunne as wee said before went back in the time of Hezechiah But Varro doth not say that any one desired this change of Venus Let not the faithlesse therefore hood winck them-selues in the knowledge of nature as though Gods power could not alter the nature of any thing from what it was before vnto mans knowledge although that the knowne nature of any thing bee fully as admirable but that men admire nothing but rarieties For
talked with this Theodorus at Antioch 〈◊〉 asked him if hee felt no payne who told him no for there stood a young-man behind me in a white raiment who oftentimes sprinckled cold water vpon me and wiped my sweat a way with a towell as white as snow so that it was rather paine to mee to bee taken from the racke q Ualens An Arrian when Augustine was a youth this Emperour made a law that Monkes should goe to the warres and those that would not hee sent his souldiors to beate them to death with clubbes An huge company of those Monkes liued in the deserts of Egipt Euseb. Eutrop. Oros r By their owne Immediatly after Ualens his death Arianisme as then raging in the church s In Persia Vnder King Gororanes a deuillish persecutor who raged because Abdias an holy bishop had burnt downe all the Temples of the Persians great god their fire Cassiod Hist. trip lib. 10. Sapor also persecuted sore in Constantines time a little before this of Gororanes Of the vnknowne time of the last persecution CHAP. 53. THe last persecution vnder Antichrist Christs personall presence shall extinguish For He shall consume him with the breath of his mouth and abolish him with the brightnesse of his wisdome saith the Apostle And here is an vsuall question when shall this bee it is a saucy one If the knowledge of it would haue done vs good who would haue reuealed it sooner then Christ vnto his disciples for they were not bird-mouthed vnto him but asked him saying Lord wilt thou at this time a restore the Kingdome to Israel But what said he It is not for you to knowe the b times or seasons which the Father hath put in his owne power They asked him not of the day or houre but of the time when hee answered them thus In vaine therefore doe wee stand reckning the remainder of the worlds yeares wee heare the plaine truth tell vs it befits vs not to know them Some talke how it shall last 400. some fiue hundered some a thousand yeares after the Ascension euery one hath his vie it were in vaine to stand shewing vpon what grounds In a word their coniectures are all humane grounded vpon no certenty of scripture For hee that said It is not for you to know the times c. stoppes all your accounts and biddes you leaue your calculations But c this beeing an Euangelicall sentence I wonder not that it was not of power to respresse the audacious fictions of some infidels touching the continuance of christian religion For those obseruing that these greatest persecutions did rather increase then suppresse the faith of CHRIST inuented a sort of greeke verses like as if they had beene Oracle conteyning how CHRIST was cleare of this sacreledge but that Peter had by magike founded the worship of the name of CHRIST for three hundered three score and fiue yeares and at that date it should vtterly cease Oh learned heads Oh rare inuentions fit to beleeue those things of CHRIST since you will not beleeue in CHRIST to wit that Peter learned magike of CHRIST yet was he innocent and that his disciple was a witch and yet had rather haue his Maisters name honored then his owne working to that end with his magike with toile with perills and lastly with the effusion of his bloud If Peters witch craft made the world loue CHRIST so well what had CHRISTS innocence done that Peter should loue him so well Let them answere and if they can conceiue that it was that supernall grace that fixed CHRIST in the hearts of the nations for the attainment of eternall blisse which grace also made Peter willing to endure a temporall death for CHRIST by him to bee receiued into the sayd eternity And what goodly gods are these that can presage these things and yet not preuent them but are forced by one witch and as they affirme by one c child-slaughtring sacrifice to suffer a sect so miurious to them to preuaile against them so long time and to beare downe all persecutions by bearing them with patience and to destroy their Temples Images and sacrifices which of their gods is it none of ours it is that is compelled to worke these effects by such a damned oblation for the verses say that Peter dealt not with a deuill but with a god in his magicall operation Such a god haue they that haue not CHRIST for their GOD. L. VIVES AT this time a restore So it must bee read not represent b It is not for you He forbiddeth all curiosity reseruing the knowledge of things to come onely to himselfe Now let my figure-flingers and mine old wiues that hold Ladies and scarlet potentates by the eares with tales of thus and thus it shal be let them all goe packe Nay sir he doth it by Christs command why very good you see what Christs command is Yet haue wee no such delight as in lies of this nature and that maketh them the bolder in their fictions thinking that wee hold their meere desire to tell true a great matter in so strange a case c Euangelicall Spoken by Christ and written by an Euangelist Indeed Christs ascension belongeth to the Gospell and that Chap. of the Actes had been added to the end of Lukes Gospell but that his preface would haue made a seperation d Child-slaughtering The Pagans vsed to vpbraid the Christians much with killing of Children Tertull Apologet. It was a filthy lie Indeed the Cataphrygians and the Pepuzians two damned sects of heresie vsed to prick a yong childes body all ouer with needles and so to wring out the bloud wherewith they tempered their past for the Eucharisticall bread Aug ad Quodvultd So vsed the Euâ—…hitae and the Gnostici for to driue away deuills with Psell. But this was euer held rather villanies of magike then rites of christianity The Pagans foolishnesse in affirming that Christianity should last but 365. yeares CHAP. 54. I Could gather many such as this if the yeare were not past that those lies prefixed and those fooles expected But seeing it is now aboue three hundred sixty fiue yeares since Christs comming in the flesh and the Apostles preaching his name what needeth any plainer confutation For to ommit Christs infancy and child-hood where in he had no disciples yet after his baptisme in Iordan by Ihon as soone as he called some disciples to him his name assuredly began to bee â—…lged of whom the Prophet had said hee shall rule from sea to sea and from the 〈◊〉 to the lands end But because the faith was not definitiuely decreed vntill 〈◊〉 his passion to wit in his resurrection for so saith Saint Paul to the Athenians Now hee admonisheth all men euery where to repent because hee hath appoinâ—…da daie in which hee will iudge the world in righteousnesse by that man in whom â—…ee hath appointed a faith vnto all men in that hee hath raised him from the dead Wee shall