AEgiptians who bee of most antiquitie hild and taught the same in their Misteries It is a méetly cléere shadowe of that which we reade in the Scripture concerning the fall of the deuill wherevnto he drewe mankynd afterward by his temptations But when as Pherecydes the Syrian agréeing therein with Sibil telleth vs expresly that this Deuill which hath marred and destroyed the whole earth was a Serpent whom he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Snakebread or Adderbread which armeth men by whole troopes against God we by gathering al these testimonies together shall haue the whole storie of the fall of man Hermes being auncienter than all these doth plainly acknowledge the corruption of man yea and that so farre as to say that there is nothing but euill in vs that there is no way for vs to loue God but by hating our selues And to kéepe vs from accusing the Creator The workmaister sayth he to cut off all quarelling is not the procurer of the rust neyther is the Creator the author of the filth and vncleannesse that is in vs. On whom then shall wee father the cause therof God sayth he created man after his owne likenesse and gaue him all things to vse But man in stead of staying vppon the beholding of his father would needes bee medling and doing somewhat of himselfe and so fel from the heauenly contemplation into the Sphere of Elements or of Generation And because he had power ouer al things he began to fall in loue with himselfe and in gazing vpon himself to wonder at himself whereby he so intangled himselfe that he became a bondslaue to his bodie whereas he was free and at libertie afore Now he intangleth this trueth with his accustomed speculations But yet what is this in effect but that the first man being proud of the grace which he had receyued drowned him selfe in the loue of himselfe whereas he might haue liued euerlastingly by drinking still of the loue of GOD And if we mount vp yet higher to Zoroastres who as is written of him was Noes graundchild wee shall finde that in his Oracles he bewayleth the race of Mankynd in these words Alas alas the Earth mourneth euen vnto Children which words cannot be otherwise interpreted than of originall sinne which hath passed from the first man into all his ofspring after which maner the Cabalistes and namely Osias the Chaldian interpret it wherevnto Gemistus the Platonist is not repugnant And as touching the originall of this mischief he denyeth in these words that it came of creation The thing that is vnperfect sayth he cannot proceede of the Creator Now that we be come as it were vp the streame to the first man Adam by whom sinne entered into the world and by sinne death let vs see hēceforth what the opinion of the Philosophers hath bin since the comming of the second man Iesus Christ. We haue a little booke of one Hierocles a Stoick vppon the golden sayings of Pythagoras which shall answer both for the Pythagorists and for the Stoiks Man sayeth he is of his owne motion inclyned to follow the euill and to leaue the good There is a certein stryfe bred in his affections which stepping vp ageinst the will of Nature hath made it to tumble from Heauen to Hell by vndertaking to fight ageinst God He hath a free will which he abuseth bending himself wholy to incounter the Lawes of God and this freedum itself is nothing else but a willingnesse to admit that which is not good rather than otherwise What els is this but as the holy scripture saieth that al the imaginations of manes hart are altogither continewally bent to euill and which wee dayly dispute of namely that our freedome is fresh and foreward vnto euill but lame and lasie vnto dooing well If yee aske him the cause thereof Let vs not blaspheme for all that sayeth he nor say that God is the author of our sinnes but rather that man is of his owne accord become vntoward and that whensoeuer we fall into sinne we do that which is in vs but not which was in vs from God How then shall we make these propositions of his to agree namely that God created man that man is froward and corrupted and yet that God created not man such a one vnlesse we say that God created man good and that afterward man degenerated from his nature But it is the very thing whereunto he commeth of himself Ambition sayth he is our bane and this mischeefe haue wee of ourselues bycause we be gone away from God and do giue ourselues to earthly things which make vs to forget God And that this mischeef is comon to all mankynd he confesseth sufficiently in that he giueth vs an vniuersall remedie that is to wit Religion the which alonly is able sayeth he to rid vs from earthly ignorance without the riddance whereof we can neuer come agein to our former shape and to the lykenes of our kynd which was to be lyke vnto God Now if all the whole kynd be defiled as he sayeth it is surely we must resort backe to one first father frō whom it is spred out into the rest by naturall generation Plutarke wryting of Morall vertue findeth it a very hard matter to make our affection subiect to reason and the body obedient to the spirit And he is driuen to maruell greatly That our féete should be so ready to goe or too stand still whensoeuer Reason loozeneth or pulleth backe the Brydle and that on the contrarie part our affections should carry vs away so headlong for all the restreint that wee can make Also hee thinketh it strange that in our discourses of the greatest matters as of Loue of the bringing vp of our Children and of such like we be driuen to take the brute beastes for our Iudges as who woulde say that nature had stamped no Print of them in our selues And he findeth himself so sore graueled in his consideration that he preferreth the brute beastes before vs in all things sauing in the capacitie which wee haue to knowe God vndoubtedly as perceiuing a continuall following of their kind in all of them wheras in vs only there is contrariwise such an vnkindly and Bastardly Nature that not euen the best of vs haue any whit of our former nature remayning in vs sauing onely shame that we haue it no more And this very gift of knowing God which remayneth to man graueleth Plutarke more than all the rest Man saieth he is a reasonable Creature God hath set him in the world to be serued honored of him and he hath made him to be borne to common ciuill Societie Whereof commeth it then that in his doings he is more vnreasonable more contrarie to Gods will and more against the Lawe of Nature then the very brute beastes In this perplexitie one whyle he saith that man had receiued fayre and sound
bring vs to God and the onely schoolemistresse of whome we ought to learne our saluation To bee short we say not that because Reason comprehendeth not this or that therefore lette vs not beleeue it for that were a measuring of Fayth by Reason as they say But wee say that Reason and Nature haue such a Rule and that that is the common way and yet notwithstanding that this thing or that thing is done or spoken beyond reason and beyond nature I say then that the worke and word of God are an extraordinarie case that forasmuch as they are of God it behoueth vs to beleeue them and to beleeue is to submit our reason and vnderstanding to him And so it is a making of reason seruant to faith by reason and a making of reason to stoope to the highnesse of faith and not an abasing of faith to the measure of reason Now forasmuch as we take reason to our helpe against the Infidels the proofes which she shall yeeld vnto vs to guide vs to the doctrine and schoole of faith shal be chiefly of two sorts namely Arguments Records The Arguments which we will vse against the Iewes we will take out of the grounds of the Iewish Religion the maiestie of God the nature and state of man and the most euident and best authorised principles or conclusions among them Against the Gentiles wee will take them out of their substantiallest Rules out of the most renowmed Authors of Philosophie and out of the expositions of their owne most approued Interpreters one while abiding vpon their principles another while standing vpoÌ„ the conclusions which they themselues do gather of them sometimes drawing such necessarie consequents and sequeales out of them my selfe as they oftentimes perceiued not as though they had not vnderstood what they themselues spake Also against either of them wee will iudge of the cause by his effects and of the effects by their cause of the end by the instrument or moouer thereto and of the mouer by the end so forth of other things which are the strongest arguments that can be as which are either demonstratiue or very neere demonstratiue At a word we will not alledge any argument which shall not be substantiall or at leastwise which we shall not thinke to be so neither will wee vrge any thing whereof we be not throughly perswaded in our selues choosing alway the euidentest easiest that we can to apply our selues to all mens capacities Notwithstanding let not any man looke here for arguments that may bee felt as that I should proue fire to be hotte by touching it or the mysteries of GOD and Religion by the outward sence but let it suffise him that mine argumentes shal bee fully as apparant and commonly more apparant than the argumentes which the Philosophers alledge in naturall things Howbeit that Aristotle would haue men to looke for argumentes of lesse sorce at his hande in his first Philosophie then in his discourses of naturall thinges and for reasons of lesse force in his morals so they be likely than in his first highest Philosophie which thing we may with much better right require in the thinges that surmount both nature and man that is to witte in Diuinitie Moreouer oftentimes heere shall bee questions propounded to vnfold or obiections made to bee confuted which might trouble the Reader if he were not satisfied in them or else breake off the continuance of our proofes And in them I shal be compelled now and then to be obscure either by reason that the nature of the thing depending in controuersie may perchaunce bee of some old forworne opinion or els in respect of the tearmes peculiar to the case which may hap to be lesse vnderstood of the common sorte and more diffuze and lesse pithie in our language wherein such things haue not hitherto bene treated of Neuerthelesse I hope to take such paines in the opening of them that the Reader whosoeuer he be if he take any heede at all shall easily attaine to the vnderstanding of them As touching the Records they shal be in my iudgement of the worthiest sort and such as are least to be suspected or refused as neere as I can choose We be to declare our doctrine vnto men men themselues are a part of the doctrine which we set foorth And what more clearenesse can there bee than to make themselues parties in the proofe Iudges in their own case and witnesses against themselues Vnto men therefore we will bring the witnessings of men euen the things that euerie man readeth in his owne nature and in his owne heart from whence hee vttereth them either wittingly or vnwittingly as things that are so written there that he cannot wype them out though he would neuer so faine These are common insightes or inseâ—s as a man may tearme them namely the perswasion of the Godhead the conscience of euill the desire of immortalitie the longing for felicitie and such other thinges which in this neather world are incident vnto man alone and in al men without the which a man is no more a man insomuch that hee cannot deny them except he be out of his wittes nor cal them in question without beiying of himself wrongfully And here of proceedeth the agreeable consent of all mankind in certainâ— beleefes which depend immediatly vpon the said Principles which consent we ought to hold for certaine and vndoubted For the vniuersalnesse of this consent she weth that it is nature and not instruction imitation or bringing vp that speaketh the voice or nature is the voice of truth As for lying or vntruth it is a fondling and not a thing bred a meere corruption and not a fruit of nature Neuerthelesse whether it were thorough ignorance which hath as good as choked the or through frowardnesse which hath turned reason a wrong way made man as a stranger to himselfe those common and generall Insets haue remained baâ—ren in the most part of men Yet notwithstanding some men in sundrie nations haue mounted aboue the common rate and indeuored to cherish and aduaunce the said Insights and drawen some small sparkes of truth and wisedome out of them as out of some little fire raked vp vnder a great heape of ashes the which they haue afterward taught vnto others and for so doing haue bene called Sophies and Philosophers that is to say Wise men and louers of wisedome These also doo we take for witnesses of our doctrine and amongst them the notablest and such as the world hath esteemed to be wisest And wheresoeuer they shall disagree either one with another or with themselues there shall common reason be Iudge And like as they haue caught some sparkes from the fire so will we kindle a fire of their sparkes how be it in verie deed not to lead vs to saluation the hauen of our life for in that behalfe we haue neede of God himselfe to be our Pilote but to shew vs as it were
it Let vs come downe againe too doo the like heere belowe Wée shall see the Earth replenished with Herbes Trees and Fruites both Sea and Land furnished with Beastes Fisshes Woormes and Birds of al sorts euery of them so perfect in his kind as mans vnderstanding cannot spye any want or superstuitie in thē Whence is all this Is it of the Elements Nay how shall the thing which hath neither life nor sence giue life and sence too other things Or commeth it of the Sunne Nay when did wée euer see him bring foorth any such like thing Whence then is this varietie but of a mast fruitfull vncōsumable might Whence commeth this perfection but of a singular wisedome Of Plants some are hot and some cold some swéete and some bitter some nourishing and some healing And of the most daungerous the remedie is found either in themselues or in the next vnto them Also as touching Beastes the wildest and such as liue by pray kéepe by themselues alone because the flocking of them together would bee noysome But the tame such as are most for our profite doo naturally liue in flockes and heardes because the great numbers of them are for our commoditie Is this also a worke of fortune Nay I say further The Sunne heateth the Earth the Starres doo limit her seazons the Ayre moysteneth her drought the Earth serueth the Grasse the Grasse serueth the Beasts and the Beasts serue Man Each thing serueth other and all serue one alone Whence may this bonde come If things bée euerlastingly and of themselues how haue they thus put themselues in subiection By what meanes or when began they first too do so Also how can one of them be for another seeing that the ende wherefore things are is euer afore the things themselues either in nature or els in consideration and that the eternitie hath not any thing either afore or after it So that if they haue had their beginning of themselues did they bring foorth them selues in seed in flower or in kernell in Egge or in full life small or great and so foorth Againe seeing that the one cannot bée without the other neither Beastes without Grasse nor Grasse without the Earth nor the Earth bring foorth any thing without the Heauen which of them came afore and which of them came after Or if they were all bred together whence commeth this agréement among so many diuers things but of the same mynd which made and still gouerneth all things Seeing then that these things are so linked together and that they tend all to one let vs conclude also that that cannot come to passe but through one who brought them foorth altogether at one instaunt and one burthen when hee thought good But now let vs see whence commeth this other one wherunto they tend that is to wit Man and whether he also bée not for and by that one which hath made them that is to wit for and by God He that seeth but onely the portrayture of a man falleth by and by to thinke vpon a Paynter and the first speech that he vttereth is to aske who made it Now if a dead worke doe make vs to conceiue a liuing worker much more reason is it that a liuing worke as man is should make vs to bethinke vs of a quickening workemaister yea euen of such a one as may bée at least wise as farre aboue man as man is aboue the portrayture of his owne making forsomuch as there is an infinite distaunce betwixt being and not being liuing and not liuing and the same againe is God The proportion in mans bodie which is so well obserued that all our Artes doe borrow from thence doth witnesse vnto vs a singuler Cunning and the parts also in that they all serue each others vse and euery of them serue the whole betoken a great wisedome Now where Cunning and wisedome bee there chaunce hath no place For when a man loseth an eye an arme or a legge wée following the common error do commonly say it is a mischaunce But when a member that was out of ioynt is set in againe or a member that was lost is supplyed though it be but with a botched one none of vs will say it was chaunce because that in the iudgement euen of the grossest sort the propertie of chaunce is to vndo and to marre things and not to make or mend any thing at all Againe by our Sences which conceiue al Colours Sounds Sents Sauors and Féelings wée may see heare smell tast and feele that one selfsame workman made both the Sences and the things that are subiect to the Sences For to what purpose were the Sences without the sensible things or the sensible things without the Sences And seeing that they relye one vpon another which of them was bred first in the world If man made them for his Sences why maketh he not the like still If he made himselfe to bée borne for them why suffereth he himselfe to bée bereft of his Sences one after another Then is it to be sought for elswhere then in man But when in the same man we yet further consider Spéech must wee not needes say that he was made to communicate himselfe to many And how are they borne one for another Againe when wee come to his Mynd which in discoursing reacheth farre beyond all sensible things shall wee not say that there are things merely to bee comprehended by vnderstanding for the which the Mynd was made And on the other side if wee finde a Mynde in our selues which are but a little grayne of the whole world dare wee say that there is no Mynd elswhere then in our selues Moreouer seeing that by this Mynd of ours wee vnderstand all other things which Mynd yet for all that vnderstandeth not ne knoweth not it selfe neither perceiue wee what or whence this Mynde is which so vnderstandeth in vs ought wee not to acknowledge that there is a Mynd aboue vs whereby wee haue vnderstanding of other things and which vnderstandeth knoweth in vs the things which wee our selues knowe not there Now then seeing we vnderstand not ne knowe not our selues my meaning is that we bee ignorant what we bee and what it is from whence our noblest actions procéede can we bee the authors of our selues And from whence then ought wée too acknowledge our selues too haue our originall O man it may bee that thou lookest but too thy father But from father too father we shall come at length too a beginning And soothly thou art very dulheaded too thinke thy selfe too bee the author of a man considering that neither thou in begetting him nor his Mother in bréeding him did once thinke vppon the fashioning of him in hir wombe No more say I than the Nuttree doth when a Nutte falleth from it to the ground which neuerthelesse without the Nuttrées thinking thereof groweth into Roote Sprig Barke and boughes and in the end shootefoorth intoo Leaues Flowers and fruite
increase and preseruation of all things Now if man and all that is within man and without him doe leade vs to one alone shall he suffer himselfe to raunge out vnto many And if all the Sonnebeames of man I meane his Arts and Sciences tend too one vnitie shall only diuinitie turne vs aside to a pluralitie of Goddes Nay rather by so many vnities she will make vs stye vp to the true and perfect vnitie and that vnitie is the onely one God But let vs sée now how all things being so diuers in the whole worlde are referred one to another The Water moysteneth the Earth the Ayre maketh it fatte with his showers the Sunne inlighteneth it and heateth it according to his seasons The Earth nourisheth the Plants the Plants â—eede the Beastes the Beasts serue man Againe nothing is séene here to be made for itselfe The Sunne shineth and heateth but not for it selfe the Earth heareth and yet hath no benefite thereby the Winds blowe and yet they sayle not but all these things redound to the glory of the maker to the accomplishment of the whole and to the benefite of man To be short the noblest creatures haue néede of the bacest and the bacest are serued by the noblest and all are so linked together from the highest to the lowest that the ring thereof cannot bée broken without confusion The Sunne cannot be Eclipsed the Plantes withered or the Raine want but all things féele the hurt thereof Now then can we imagine that this woorke which consisteth of so many so diuers péeces tending all to one end so cuppled one to another making one body ful of so apparant consents of affections procéedeth from elsewhere than from the power of one alone When in a féeld we sée many Battels diuers Standerds sundry Liueries and yet all turning head with one swaye wee conceiue that there is one Generall of the field who commandeth them all Also when in a Citie or a Realme wee sée an equalitie of good behauior in an vnequality of degrees of people infinite trades which serue one another the smaller reuerensing the greater the greater seruing to the benefite of the smaller both of them made equall in Iustice and all tending in this diuersitie to the common seruice of their Countrie we doubt not but there is one Lawe and a Magistrate which by that Lawe holdeth the said diuersitie in vnion And if any man tell of many Magistrates we will by and by inquire for the soueraine Yet notwithstanding all this is but an order set among diuers men who ought euen naturally to be vnited by the communitie of their kind But when things as wel light as heauy whot as cold moyst as dry liuing as vnliuing endewed with sence as sencelesse and eche of infinite sortes doe so close in one composition as one of them cannot forbeare another nay rather to our séeming the worthiest doe seruice to the bacest the greatest to the smallest the strongest to the weakest and all of them together are disposed to the accomplishment of the worlde and to the contentment of man who alonly is able to consider it ought we not forthwith to perceiue that the whole worlde and all things conteyned therein doe by their tending vnto vs teach vs to tend vnto one alone And séeing that so many things tende vnto man shall man scatter his doings vnto diuers ends Or shall hee bee so wretched as to serue many maysters Nay further to knit vp this poynt withall séeing that all things the nobler they bee the more they doe close into one vnitie as for example wee sée that the things which haue but mere being are of infinite kynds the things that haue life are of infinite sortes the things that haue sence are of many sortes howbeit not of so many and the things that haue reason are many onely in particulars doth it not followe also that the Godhead from whence they haue their reason as nobler thaÌ„ they is also much more one than they that is to say only one as well in particularitie and nomber as also in kynd Howbeit notwithstanding all these considerations forasmuch as there is diuersitie yea and contraritie in worldly things some haue gathered vpon this diuersitie that there be diuers Gods acknowledging neuerthelesse one Almightie aboue them all And othersome in respect of the contrarietie haue set downe but twoo Gods onely The first say If onely one God had made all things there should haue bene no difference in things but there is difference and therefore it must néedes bee that there are many Gods Surely had these men wel considered the things afore alledged by mée they should haue séene that nature is wholly and altogether against this Consequence There is great diuersitie in one Plant in one Wight in one Man and yet notwithstanding the ground thereof is vniforme Yea and it is so true that onely vnitie is fruitfull that we sée how the diuersitie it selfe and that which commeth thereof is vtterly barrein both in Wights as in Mules and in Plants as in the Stergon and also in all other like things If they consider the Sunne hee maketh Plants to growe all at one tyme diuers one from another and as diuers in themselues Hee maketh some of them too shootefoorth some to rypen and some to wither At one instant he both worketh drought in the Earth and draweth vp Clowdes out of it to moysten it he giueth Sommer Daylight fayre weather to some and Winter night and fowle wether vnto othersome Hee maketh some folkes whyte some blacke some read and some Tawny and yet is hee but one selfesame Sunne and one selfesame Creature which at one selfesame instant by one selfesame course and with one selfesame qualitie of heate doth all the sayd things not onely diuers but also contrarie And hee that should say that it is any other than one selfesame Sunne that maketh the Ethyopian blacke and the Scotte yellowiâ—h were not worthy to be answered Now if a Creature doth by heate which is but a qualitie bréede so diuers effectes what shall we say of the Creator I meane the infinite Being of GOD who imparteth himselfe to all things Again if man consider himselfe he féeleth he séeth he speaketh he vnderstandeth a thousand diuers things without any alteration in himselfe Nay which more is he conceiueth he inuenteth and he performeth so diuers workes that Nations doe wonder one at another One man portrayeth out the whole worlde in a little péece of Paper peinting out all the Images of the Heauens and all the Climates of the Earth Some one other counterfeiteth all liuing wights which Créepe which Goe which Flye which Swimme And all this commeth but of one mynd which conceiueth and bréedeth all these formes because it hath no forme of it owne for had it any of it owne it could not breede them because it owne would occupie it to the full What haue we then to
diuine Vnities are grounded and which is the Originall of all that is and of all that as yet is not In his booke of the Soule and of the Spirit he teacheth vs the way to atteyne from many multitudes to this supersubstantiall Unitie which hee calleth the Nature grounded in eteruitie the life that liueth and quickeneth the waking vnderstanding the welspring of all welfare the infinite both in continewance and in power and yet notwithstanding without quantitie and so foorth Neuerthelesse he attributeth much to Angelles and Féendes according to Art Magicke which the Platomists did greatly affect in those daies howbeit in such sort as he continually followeth this rule of his so oft repeated in his bookes That all things are from the true God who is hidden and that the second degrée of Gods that is to say the Angelles and Féendes are from the very selfsame and to bee short that to beléeue any mo Gods than one and to beléeue none at all are both one thing Simplicius sayth Whatsoeuer is beautifull commeth of the first and chiefe beautie All trueth commeth of Gods trueth And all beginnings must needes bee reduced to one beginning which must not bee a particular beginning as the rest are but a beginning surpassing al other beginnings mounting farre aboue them and gathering them all into himselfe yea and giuing the dignitie of beginning to all beginnings accordingly as is conuenient for euery of their natures Also The Good sayth he is the Welspring Originall of al things It produceth all things of it selfe both the first the middlemost and the last The one Goodnesse bringeth foorth many Goodnesses The one Vnitie many Vnities The one Beginning many Beginnings Now as for Vnitie Beginning Good and God they be all but one thing For God is the first cause of all all particular Beginnings or Grounds are fast settled and grounded in him He is the Cause of Causes the God of Gods and the Goodnesse of Goodnesses Porphyrius acknowledged the one GOD who alone is euery where and yet in no one place who filleth al places and yet is conteyned in no place by whom all things are both which are and which are not This God doth he call the Father which reigneth in all he teacheth vs to sacrifize our Soules vnto him in silence and with chast thoughts On the other side he acknowledgeth the other Gods as his Creatures and Seruants some visible some vnuisible vnto whom he alloweth a materiall seruice farre differing from the seruice of the true God As touching Plotin his Schoolemaister surnamed the Diuine whom the Oracle of Apollo as is reported by Porphyrius himselfe didregister in the number of the wise men of this world and in the number of the Gods in the other world He that would alledge the things which he hath spoken diuinely concerning the vnitie of the one God should be fayne to set downe his whole treatises vndiminished The Summe is That there is one Beginner of all things who hath all thiugs and is all things and is all things whose hauing of theÌ„ is as though he had them not because his possessing of them is not as of things that were another mans and his being them is as though he were them not because he is neither all things nor any thing among things but the power of all things That this Beginner dwelleth in himself is sufficient of himself of himselfe bringeth foorth all maner of Essences Soules and siues as being more than Essence and all life That by his Unitie he produceth multitude which could be no multitude vnlesse he abode One. As touching the vndergods he sayth that they neither bée nor can bée happie of themselues but onely by the same meane that men can become happie namely by beholding the light of vnderstanding which is GOD through their parttaking whereof they abide in blessednesse Yea he affirmeth that the Soule of the whole world surmized by the Platomists is not happie but by that meanes namely by beholding the light which created it like as the Moone shineth not but by the ouershining of the Sunne vpon her That was the very opinion of the Platonists as well old as newe coâ—cerning the onely one God notwithstanding that of all Philosophers they were most giuen to the seruing and seeking out of the bodilesse Spirites whom we call Angels and Deuils and whom they called Gods and Féeâ—ds Now let vs come to the Peripatetickes and begin at Aristotle Platoes Disciple who notwithstanding was vnreligious in many places in not yéelding vnto God his due glorie after the maner of these supersticious folke who are ouerliberal in bestowing it vpon others aud yet euen in him shall we finde this selfsame trueth Aristotle leadeth vs by many mouings vnto oue first mouer whom he declareth to bee infinite without beginning and without ende From thence a man may step further for that which is infinite can be but one because as I haue sayd afore the infinitenesse of one restreyneth the power of all others Afterward he defineth him to be Liuing Inunortall and Euerlasting And againe he nameth him he onely possessor of wisedome the Beginner of all Causes and such like None of all which things can bee attributed to any mo than onely one Yet notwithstanding he setteth certeyne Godheads in the Heauen in the Starres and in the Sunne Moone vnto which Godheads he alsotteth the gouermneÌ„t of those things and termeth them heauenly Mynds First substances vnchaungeable and vnpassible which in his opinion cannot wexe old because they be aboue the first Mouable consequently aboue tyme. Yea and Common custome with the force of Loue caried him so farre as to set vp Images vnto Iuno and Iupiter vnder the name of Sauiours for the life of Nicanor and to doe Sacrifize to a woman whom he loued as the Athenians did vnto Ceres But yet in his Abridgement of Philosophie which he dedicated in his olde age vnto Alexander his finall doctrine is this This world sayth he wherein all things are orderly disposed is mainteyned by God the highest thing that is in it is that it is Gods dwelling place No nature is sufficient of it selfe to indure if it bee not assisted by his tuition He is the Father of Gods Men the breeder and Mainteyner of all the things whereof this world is composed and yet for all that he entreth not into them but his power and prouidence ouersitting them from aboue atteyne vnto all things moue the Heauen the Sunne and the Moone Preserue the things on earth and make all and euery thing to doe according to their nature He likeneth him to the great King of Persia who from out of his priuy Chamber gouerned his whole Empyre by his power and officers sauing sayth he that the one is God infinite in power and the other a very bace and féeble wight He sayth moreouer that all the
He answered in 21. Gréeke verses rehearsed by Lactantius whereof I will holde me contented with the latter thrée which are to be englished thus The selfebred bred without the helpe of Moother Wise of himselfe whose name no wight can tell Doth dwell in fyre beyond all reach of thought Of whom we Angelles are the smallest part The rest of these Uerses commend and set foorth the Maiestie of the great God but these suffize for this matter Héere the Féend doth what he can to magnifie himselfe saying that he is an Angell and a little portion of God but yet hée acknowledgeth him as his Souereine Porphyrius the great enemie of Christians rehearseth many other like The same Apollo being asked how GOD was to be worshipped answered in 22. Uerses calling him the euerlasting Father the Walker vpon the Heauen of Heauens the Fashioner or framer of substances the father of all things the father of all wights both mortall and immortall And on the other side he calleth all others his Children his Seruants his Messengers and the Heraults or blazers abroad of his prayses In another answere comprised in ten Uerses he calleth him the burning Flame the Welspring and Originall of all things the author of life and so foorth and afterward he concludeth I am but Phoebus more of mee ye get not at my hand It is as little in my mynd as I can vnderstand Being asked at another tyme by the Founder of Constantinople whether he should resist an enemie of his or no he answered thus Apollo is not of that mynd beware How thou doest deale he is too strong for thee For God it is that makes him vndertake This enterprise and doth the same maynteyne Euen God I tell thee vnder whom both Heauen And Earth and Sea and euery thing therein And Phoebus eke and Hell it selfe doth quake Proclus sayth that the Oracles acknowledged the great God the Welspring of the fountayne of all things And for an example he alledgeth this Oracle of fower Uerses From God springeth the generation of all matter from the same ground riseth the finenesse of the fyre and the Globes of the World and whatsoeuer els is bred and so foorth That is the answer of Apollo the God so greatly renowmed among the Heathen when he was asked what God was And being vrged to tell what he himselfe was and how he would be called he sayd Call me the Feend that knoweth all and is right sage and wise And at another tyme he sayth thus Wee Feends which haunt both Sea and Land through all the world so wide Do trēble at the whip of God which all the world doth guide These foresayd Oracles are reported by Porphyrius Proclus and other Heathen men wherof some be rehearsed also by Lactantius which may suffize to shewe how the very Deuils doe beléeue one God and quake at him But I hope I shall bee pardoned for handling this matter a little at the largest because the consent of all men in that behalfe which I haue alreadie proued is contrary to the opinion of many men And therefore ye see heere how the World Men and the Deuilles themselues crye out with the holy Scripture Hearken O Israell the Lord thy God is but one God the God of Gods who onely worketh wonders hath not his like among the Gods And that is the thing which I haue gone about to proue in these last two Chapters The fourth Chapter What it is that we can comprehend concerning God NOW albeit that the least things which are in Nature and in our selues doe sufficiently shewe vs that there is but one GOD Yet notwithstanding all Nature is not able to teach vs what that God is neither is man in nature able to comprehend any thing of him and the reason therof is euident in both twayne In Man because the greater can neuer be comprehended by the lesser neither can Man haue any thing in vnderstanding which hath not first bene in his sences as from whence procéedeth vnto him the beginning of all naturall knowledge And he neither seeth nor perceiueth God in himself but only by his effects In Nature because it is a thing wrought by God and no work or effect how great so euer it be can perfectly expresse the cause or worker thereof Man is able to discourse after a sort of the things that are lesse than himselfe as of Beastes Plants and Stones And yet if hee will enter into their substaunces he must néedes stop short and is constreyued to stay vpon the histories of them confessing his knowledge to be but ignoraunce If he come to himself to knowe his owne Soule by the power of his Soule by and by he is at his wits ende For the maner of his discourse is but to procéede from kynd to kynd and to passe from one reason to another But on the contrary part his mynd seeth not it selfe but onely turneth into it selfe leauing not any thing empty without it self whereunto to extend no more than a Circle doth And yet notwithstanding euery thing is equall to it selfe and measurable by it selfe What shall we then thinke that Man can doe if he aduaunce himselfe to the considering of Goddes nature seeing that the least Creatures that are doe put him to his trumpe That is the very thing which hath made the ignorant sort to ouershoote themselues so farre as to counterfect God by a shape like themselues which thing the very Beastes sayth Xenophanes would haue done if they had bin Paynters as which cannot ordinarily conceiue any greater thing than themselues Ye see then how Man is of himself too farre vnable to conceiue such a Greatnesse Againe if we consider the effects a man planteth buyldeth paynteth and weaueth a thousande diuers workes and wee thinke it not straunge that the bruite Beastes conceiue not thereby what Man is howbeit that there is alwaies some proportion of vnderstanding betwene Creature and Creature but betwéene the Creature and the Creator there is none at all Nay there is yet this more that a man shall see and feele the workes of another man and he shall knowe from whence he taketh his stuffe after what maner he matcheth things together and what Arte he hath obserued But shall he for all that knowe what the Soule or Mynd of that man is No nor yet his owne Soule For his doings come nothing néere to that which he is no not so néere as the heate which the Sunne sheadeth into vs from aboue approcheth néere to the naturall power that is in the Sunne the which notwithstanding wee durst not take vpon vs to describe if we had neuer felt it otherwise than in a Prison But if thou couldest haue entered into the mynde of that man at the making of his worke thou shouldest haue seene it farre more beautifull there and all that euer he could do or thou say is alwaies farre lesse than his Conceyt and yet the same Conceyt
sort in like case towards God as our eye is towards the Sunne Neither the Sunne nor any thing vnder the Sunne can well bee seene without the Sunne likewise neither God nor any thing belonging to God can bee seene without God how good eyesight or myndsight so euer wee haue But when the Sunne shineth then our eye seeth the things which it sawe not afore iudgeth of them at his ease notwithstanding that the eye bée but the same it was afore and haue but the same power of sight which it had afore without receyuing any newe increase thereof Likewise when GOD voutsafeth to vtter any doctrine vnto vs the selfsame reason which otherwise could neuer haue perceyued it doth then see it and discourse it and allowe of it without receyuing any newe power abilitie or chaunge in it selfe We haue concluded by reason that God is a most single essence And we beléeue by discouery from heauen that in the same most single essence are thrée persons or Inbeings Reason of it selfe could neuer haue atteyned to the finding thereof for we cannot distinguish things vnlesse we conceyue them and yet neuerthelesse reason will serue vs to proue it First of all we haue alreadie acknowledged by Gods effects or doings that there is in him a working nature or power I must be faine to speake in the speech of man seeing that the diuine spéech is vnknowne to vs which is the beginner and mouer of al things And in euery of his workes wee see a singular cunning and in the knitting of all both great and small together wée see a wonderfull order as I haue discoursed heretofore and wee see there is neither order nor cunning where there is no vnderstanding It followeth therefore that the souereine vnderstanding is in God from whom this great order and cunning procéede Againe albeit that of the things which are in this world some vnderstand and some vnderstand not yet notwithstanding all of them are appoynted to some certeyne end and marke as the Sunne to make the day to heate the Moone to lighten the night and all the Planets and Starres to marke out the Seasons and so foorth of all other things Nâ—ne of them stumbleth in his way none steppeth aside from his endâ— and yet notwithstanding the most part of them could not prescribe it to themselues For the beginner of all ends is vnderstanding and in the most of these there is no vnderstanding Néedes must it bee therefore that God the maker of them did also appoynt them their ends and consequently that he had vnderstanding for them Now the innumerable multitude of things and the linking of their ends one to another as they now be do shewe that al of them haue their beginning from one selfsame vnderstanding Then must it néedes be that this common author of their being that is to say the souereine being must also be the souereine vnderstanding séeing he imparteth the effects of vnderstanding to so many things which haue it not Moreouer the things which haue vnderstanding are the disposers and orderers of the other things and not contrarywise Man buyldeth planteth reareth vp Cattell and maketh his commoditie of all of them together Of men themselues the skilfullest make Lawes and take vpon them to rule others To be short the things which haue no vnderstanding doe naturally serue as instruments to those which haue it and the thing which hath the lesse of it serueth that which hath the more of it and no part in nature dealeth to the contrary And as wée haue proued by all the Philosophers themselues it is God that created all things that haue vnderstanding as well those which are not tyed to bodies as those which haue bodies allotting to them their offices and ends and so consequently he is the very beginner and end of them himself Then once againe so farre foorth as we can describe this vnderstanding by the outward effects thereof it must néedes be in God a most excellent abilitie if it may bee so named by direction whereof he executeth most wisely the actiue or inworking vertue power and nature which we marke in all things in this world howbeit so as the chiefe working of them doth abide and rest still in him I haue proued heretofore that God is infinite which being so nothing can be imagined in him which is not infinite likewise for otherwise he should bee as well finite as infinite both together And infinite he were not if he could vnderstand or knowe that to day which he vnderstood not afore Néedes then must it be that he from al eternitie vnderstandeth and knoweth the things which haue bin which are and which shall be the whole and the parts the generalles the specialles and the particulars the originalles the procéedings and the aftercommings the doings sayings and thoughts of men and so foorth â—o as this vnderstanding in God is euerlastingly infinite Againe vnderstanding is an inworking which abideth and remayneth in the partie which hath it and passeth not into any outward thing For when we vnderstand the course of the Sunne we become the more skilful therof in our selues but as for the Sunne he is nothing altered thereby Also I haue told you alreadie that God is most single and that there is not any thing in him which is not his very essence or being Whervpon it followeth that God not onely hath vnderstanding but also that his vnderstanding is his very essence that is to say he is the very vnderstanding it self Now then let vs see what it is that this vnderstanding begetteth I haue told you that God is a mere doing and that whatsoeuer he doth he doth it from euerlasting and that on the other side being most single there is nothing in him which is not a dooer Wherevpon it followeth that this vnderstaÌ„ding is euerlastingly occupyed in doing And wherein then is it occupyed What is the thing that it worketh vppon Surely it can méete with nothing but it selfe God then conceyued and vnderstood himselfe and it must néedes be that he vnderstood himselfe seeing that the chiefest wisedome is to knowe ones selfe whereof he could not fayle Therefore it was of necessitie that this vnderstanding of God should yéeld a reflexion backe againe to it self as a face doth in a Lookingglasse and as our mynd doth when it setteth it self to the considering of it owne proper nature and that it should conceyue and beget in it selfe a perfect image of it owne selfe which image is the same thing which in the Trinitie we call the Sonne the Word or the Spéech namely the liuely and perfect image and wisedome of the Father Now this vnderstanding is actually euerlasting that is to say euerlasting in â—éede and euerlastingly actuall that is to say euerlastingly doing and therefore wee say that the second person which it begetteth is also euerlasting and God in his vnderstanding had not conceyued any thing that is lesse than himself for it is
hath bouÌ„ded or filled vp this distance but only the will of him who only is And if will were the dooer thereof then was it not of necessitie And if it was not of necessitie then where is the eternitie thereof Porphyrius disputing of the Mind or Understanding the which hee termeth the beginning ground or welspring of the World sayeth that it was bred of God from euerlasting by a certeine eternall or beginninglesse breeding euen such a one as was afore all eternitie It was not bred in tyme sayth he for as yet there was no tyme at all and after that tyme was made the world can scarâ—ly bee sayd in very dede to be if it be compared with the foresayd Vnderstanding or Mynd This is all one with the saying of Trismegistus in a certeine place where he calleth this mind the trew euerlasting and first borne Sonne of God and this world Gods yonger Sonne the one begotten of his verie nature and the other of his will Proclus and Simplicius keepe a greate coyle in mayntenance of the eternitie of the world and haue made bookes therof ageinst Philoponus but all their reasons are sufficiently refuted by the things which I haue discoursed against Aristotle But seing they maynteyne Gods Prouidence and the immortalitie of the Soule doo they not reiect eternitie whither they will or no And whereas Proclus wryting against such as vpheld that there bee infinite worlds without nomber sayth that such infinitenes is ageinst reason and knowledge and that the admitting therof excludeth God and abandoneth all things to fortune why should he rather admiâ— infinitenesse of time in this one world than infinitenesse of nomber in many specially seeing hee alloweth Gods prouidence And wheras Simplicius condemneth those to hell which beleeue noâ— the Prouidence vppon the Reasons of Epictetus dooth hee not consequently condemne the defenders of the eternitie of the world too the same punishment And when Auerrhoes himselfe sayth that it is our dewtie to magnifie God by prayer and sacrifize and that it is planted euen in nature to offer sacrifize is he not contrarie to himself for to what end reuerence we God if we be nothing beholden to him neuerthelesse my alledging of these things is not as though I knew not well that the Platonists yea and euen these aformentioned philosophers also do call the world euerlasting and vnbegotten but to shew that the very surest of them haue wauered in this opinion insomuch that they haue left vs principles contrarie to their conclusions and after all their long skirmishes they find no rest but in our Camp And soothly the most part of them be driuen to acknowledge certeine Degrees of eternitie Wherof the first should be that which is measured by the continewance of that which is euermore of it selfe and becometh neither the longer for aught that is to come nor yet the shorter for aught that is past and that is it which is to be ascribed alonly vnto God The second as the measure of such things as haue a fixed and béeing stable and yet haue also a certeine succession in their operations of which sort are the vnderstanding spirits or Angells and this is properly called Aynesse The third as the measuring of durablenesse continued by forenesse and afternesse hauing a beginning but not an end and this they call Tyme attributing it properly to the World And what else is this than to speake that thing by circumstance which we vtter in one word For to what purpose cal they a thing eternall or euerlasting if by the termes Eternall and Euerlasting they meane temporall After which maner the Emperour Iustinian speaking vnproperly of his owne Lawes sayd he hoped that they should be eternall and euerlasting As touâ—hing the opinion of Epictetus the Stoik of Plutarke no man can doubt except he quite and cleane disanull their bookes GOD sayth Epictetus hath ordeined that there should bee Wiinter and Sommer good seasons and bad he hath giuen to the Earth both fruitfulnes and barrennes and his disposing of things so by contraries is to mainteyne the harmony of the whole He hath brought vs into the world giuen vs bodies and members and assigned vs heritages fellowheires It is hee that hath made both the sight and the colours and neither sight nor colours were aught worth if it were not for the light and therefore hath he also made the light Thus from poynt to poynt he leadeth vs to this conclusion that GOD made the World and all that is therein Plurarke sayth thus If God were not the maker of all things then should he bee restreyned in some things and so were he not Lord of all But he is to be acknowledged for Lord of all and therefore of coÌ„sequence he is the maker of them all And here might a great nomber of the forealledged sentences of the selfesame Authors be alledged againe But what shall we say if Galien who in comon account is the most heathenish of al writers after he hath throughly ript vp both man and the world it selfe be in the end constreyned too come backe to the same poynt I make here sayth he in his booke of the vse of parts a true Hymne in the honour of our Maker Whose seruice I beleeue verily consisteth not in the sacrifising of hundreds of Oxen vnto him or in burning great heapes of Frankincense before him but in acknowledging the greatnesse of his wisdome Powre and goodnes and in making the same knowen vnto others For whereas of his owne free will hee hath voutsafed to garnish and beawtifie all things in the best maner that could be and hath not enuied so great a benefite to any thing I hould it for a proofe of perfect goodnes and so farre praysed be his goodnes Again to haue found out the meanes how to adorne things so richly sheweth a souereigne Wisdome and to haue brought to passe and perfected al that euer he had forepurposed betokeneth an incoÌ„parable might and power And in his seauentéenth booke who so considereth sayth he the composing knitting togither of euery liuing thing shall find that it caryeth in it a proofe of the Creators wisdom And seeing that in the middes of that Puddle of humors eche liuing wight hath a Soule dwelling indued with so great force and vertue he ought of reason the more to wonder at the greatnes and excellencie of the Mind that dwelleth in heauen And who is he had he sayd afore which looking but onely vpon the Skinne of a thing woondereth not at the cunning of the Creator Yet notwithstanding hee dissembleth not that he had tryed by all meanes to find some reason of the composing of liuing wights and that hee would rather haue fathered the doing thereof vpon nature then vppon the very author of nature But yet for all that in the end he concludeth thus I confesse saith he that I knowe not what the Soule is nothwithstanding that I haue sought
very narrowly for it neither can I yeeld a reason how the Babe is formed in the Mothers Wombe Well doe I see that in that case there is very greate Wisdome and therefore I am of that opinion that it is not for any man too meddle with the searching out of it but that it ought to suffice vs that our Creator hath willed it to be after that fashion For shall wee presume to seeke a reason of the dooing of that thing which without making of an Anatomie we should neuer knowe to haue bene done It is all one as if he should say that Nature whereat wee woonder so much is nothing els but whatsoeuer it pleaseth God to commaund And now what remaineth more but to heare Apollo that is to say the very Diuell himselfe who being prayed to say an Hymne to the great God beginneth it with this verse Which made the first Man and called him Adam which verse Iustine the Martyre affirmeth to haue beâ—e commonly soong in his tyme. After the confession of wickednesse it self if we list also to heare the confession of Ignorance there is not at this day so brutish a Nation which either by reading it in the great letters of the Heauens or by tradition from their predecessors reteine not the opinion that the worlde was created howbéeit that the case doth stand with them as it dooth with the diuersitie of Portratures drawen out the first from the lynely patterne it selfe the second from that first a third from the second and so foorthon vntill the last counterfet reteyne scarse any feature at all of the first originall paterne Of the Nations which we call Sauage or Wyld some affirme themselues to keepe and reuerence the places where they furmyse too haue bin the originall of the Sea of the Sonne of the Moone of the first man and of the first woman c. Othersome holde opinion that there came one froÌ„ the North into their country which heighthened the Ualleyes and leueled the Hilles and replenished their Country with Men and Women whom he had created and that the same partie giueth them fruites of all sortes abundantly Who whensoeuer they prouoke him too wrath will chaunge their good soyle into barrein land and take from them the fatnesse of the heauen May ye not sée clearly here the creation of the world the sinne of man and the curse which God hath giuen to the earth for mans sake And as for the partie whom they speake of it is a mingling of the storie of the Creation with the story of some partie that first brought people from the North into those Countries too inhabite them euen long tyme after ioyning the creation of the world with the peopling of Countries as things not farre diuers accordingly as is doone in diuers Histories And I pray you how many euen of our Neighbournations that inhabite the vttermost borders of the world could euen at this day answere more fitly too that question Now séeing that the World and all the partes thereof doo sing out the creation séeing the wisdom of the world teacheth it vngodlines euen whither it will or no aâ—oweth it Ignorance séeth it and all togither in all ages both taught auowed and perceiued it may not wee with the allowance euen of the blockishest and of the wickeddest pronounce this definitiue sentence That the World had a beginning and that it had it at such tyme as it pleased God the Creator thereof But there remayneth yet one poynt to be discussed namely wherof God created the World and that is matter enough for another Chapter The x. Chapter That GOD created the World of nothing that is to say without any matter or stuffe whereof to make it I Cannot tell whether I may woonder more at the good insight of the auncient Philosophers in the knowledge of many naturall things or at their blindnesse in the knowledge of the author of them in that they set it downe for a definitiue sentence That nothing in al the world is made of nought and therfore that the great workmayster himself could not make any thing without matter or stuffe whereof For in effect it is a measuring of the builder and his building both by one rule or skantling and an abaâ—ing of the power which they themselues confesse to be infinite vnto the state of our infirmitie God say they cannot make any thing without matter whereof And why Because a Mason cannot make any buylding without stuffe whereof As who would say there were a more absurd kynd of reasoning in Logicke than to conclude from the finite to the infinite from the mightlesse to the almightie from the transitorie to the euerlasting Nay rather thou shouldest reason thus Man who is lesse than a Worme in comparison of the highest draweth gold out of the Rocke or out of the dust of the earth Of the same earth or stone he maketh such cloath wyre and leaues of gold foyle as no maÌ„ would déeme to haue come of so grosse a matter Of the gréene Hearbe he draweth out white flower for his sustenance of the stalkes of Flaxe and Hempe he draweth out thréed to make cloath of of ragges he maketh Paper to write on and of the excrements of the little Silkworme he draweth out a great â—eale of Silkcloath Agayne he turkyneth some one rude rough kynd of stuffe into a hundred thousand fashions of the least things he maketh very great things and by the excellencie of his wit draweth most excellent things out of that where the most part of men notwithstanding that they be men as wel as he found not ne perceyued not any thing at all as for example out of the Fâ—â—â—t fire to warme him out of the barreyne Ferne and vyle Seawéede glistering Glasse out of a Shelfish that the Sea casteth vp Purple to make Ornaments of To bee short after a certeyne maner he maketh somewhat of nothing Now seeing that the weakenesse of mortall men can doe so much shall not the mightie power of the euerlasting bee able to doe much more And seeing that a thing of nought is able to doe so much shall any thing be vnpossible to the maker of all things But although this which I haue sayd might suffize the discréete yet notwithstanding let vs discusse more largely this matter concerning matter or stuffe Soothly if God néeded matter or stuffe to worke vpon either he himselfe made it or els it was eternally of it selfe as well as he If he made it he made it of nothing for in seeking the matter of matter ye shall procéede to infinite and so haue I the thing I would haue If it were from euerlasting then were there two eternalles together which is a thing repugnant to all reason and contrary to it selfe For nothing can bee more contrary to eternitie than to say that there is a matter or stuffe which attendeth or wayteth to haue his shape forme or fashion at some workmaster hand or that there is an
in déede create the World of nothing that is to say by his owne onely power without the helpe of any thing whereof to make it And to comprehend in fewe wordes whatsoeuer I haue treated of heretofore that GOD of his owne goodnesse wisedome and power did make shape and create the World that is to say That if a man may so say he is the efficient formall and materiall cause thereof without that he néeded eyther helpe patterne or stuffe to make it withall And now let vs consequently see the finall cause that is to wit how and to what ende he guydeth it which shall serue for the next Chapter following The xj Chapter That God gouerneth the World and all things therein by his Prouidence ARistotle was woont to say that the diuersitie of Questions ought also to haue diuersitie of Answers Some sayth he doe aske whether Fire bee hot these must be made to perceiue it by touching it for their sence is sufficient to shape theÌ„ an answer Some demaund whether their father moother be to be honored such are not worthie to be disputed with but rather to be rebuked right sharply And others desire to haue it proued to them by apparant reasons that there is a Prouidence which ruleth the world Such kynd of folke sayth he should be answered by a whippe or a hangman and not by a Philosopher His meaning was in fewe words that there is not any thing so sensible and naturall nor any thing whereof the feeling is so fresh in our sences or so déepely printed in our nature as Gods prouidence ouer the world and that wee ought to thinke it more sure than the things which wee feele with our hands or than the things whereof our owne Conscience conuicteth vs. For in that he ordeyneth a greater punishment for him that doubteth of Gods prouidence than for him that resisteth sence and nature he doth vs to vnderstand that the fault is vntolerable as the which is eyther a manifest guyle or at leastwise an ouergrosse ignorance which the Lawyers affirme to be next â—owsen to guyle And in very déede if the denying that there is any God bee a belying of a mans owne sences and of his owne nature and of all the whole world it self as I haue sayd afore I cannot say but that the graunting that there is a God and yet notwithstanding to denye him the gouernment of things is more vntolerable than the other considering how great iniurie is offered vnto him in coÌ„fessing him after such a sort as to attribute vnto him eyes without sight eares without hearing might without mynd mynd without reason will without goodnesse yea and a Godhead without properties peculiar to a Godhead In respect whereof the auncient Philosophers called the Godhead it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to â—ay God or Prouidence becaue the one cannot bee imagined without the other And therefore in their iudgement as much an Atheist was he that denyed Gods prouidence as he that denyed the Godhead it self I demaund of any man which confesseth that there is GOD I say euen of the sauagest of them all whereby he knoweth it Hée will answere by the orderly conueyance of things which he seeth both aboue and beneath by the order which they kéepe without fayling and by the tending of so innumerable contrarieties to one marke the Heauen heating the Earth the Ayre moystening it the Earth bringing foorth Hearbes the Beastes feeding vppon the same and all seruing for the vse of man It is all one therefore as if he should say that he knoweth him by his Prouidence and by the interlinking of all things together which he hath marked in them all Againe he will say he hath perceyued in Mettalles as ye would say certeyne wombes which nourish them and bring them foorth in Plants a certeyne vertue which draweth their nourishment froÌ„ the earth and with very good proportion distributeth the same abroade from braunch to braunch and from leafe to leafe and which as though it had a kynd of vnderstanding of the owne mortalitie bringeth foorth a seede at such tyme as the decay therof approcheth and in Beastes also that one member doth for another and euery of them for the whole a desire to increase their kynd Doogges to giue sucke and a skilfull care to nourish and preserue their young ones And he hath considered that none of all this could bee so layd for aforehand by it selfe and therefore that there was some other thing aboue them Thus must it néedes be that he is led againe by the consideration of the prouidence to the knowing of God Now if the prouidence which wee haue marked doe make vs to say that there is a GOD by mounting vp from the effects to the causes of them doth it not followe that Prouidence is the peculiar effect of God and that he which denyeth that denyeth the Godhead it selfe forasmuch as the Godhead is not to be knowne but by the Prouidence If God haue no care of the world I aske of thée whether it bée for that he cannot or for that he will not If he cannot how canst thou say he is almightie Or how canst thou say he is infinite seeing thou knowest the bounds of his power Agayne how canst thou call him wise sith it is the propertie of wisedome to guyde things to some certeyne ende and not to leaue any thing subiect to fortune And seeing that his power and wisdome haue extended to all things for the creating of them who shall keepe them from extending to al things for the ordering and mainteyning of them Besides this the Plant hath no reason to guyde it selfe nor to preserue it selfe against that which is to come and yet notwithstanding thou seest there a mynd which furnisheth out all the partes thereof and a wisdome which watcheth ouer it against that which is to come The Beast also hath no more reason than the Plant though it both feele and mooue Yet is there an Inwit in it which the Beast knoweth not of which Inwit concocteth digesteth and distributeth that which the beast hath eaten and disperseth it foorth into his parts by iust proportion watching for it when it sleepeth and thinking vppon it when it thinketh not thereon It perceiueth I woâ—e not how that it hath need of Earth of Ayre or of Nest to lay the yong ones in it prouideth aforehand for the tyme to come and shiftety countries according to the seasons of the yeere choâ—sing them out naturally without fayling at any time In all these things there shineth foorth a certeyne prouidence which yet for all that the beast neither knoweth nor conceiueth Thou thy selfe which art indewed with reason hast a forecast and by that forecast doest the things which other wights doe by nature or rather which nature that is to say the foreordinance of the Creator dooth for them the more whereof thou hast the more also doest thou prouide aforehand For as little a
world and of the world it selfe hee sheweth sufficiently that as man tendeth to God so doth the world also but vnto that ende it should not tend vnlesse it were directed thether and who directeth it thether but he that first made it To bee short the perticular formes of all things present and to come in respect of vs but eternally present with GOD can haue no abyding without a perfect knowledge and a steadie direction of all things But if any dowt hereof remaine yet still let vs heare what the Platonistes say to that matter Surely Plotin hath made two or thrée bookes thereof wherein he teacheth prouidence by all things from the greatest to the smallest comming downe euen to the little flowers which wee see vnblowen in the morning and withered at night as though he had ment to say the same thing that wee reade in the Gospell namely Consider me the Lillies of the field and so foorth Unto the ordinarie complaynt concerning the prosperitie of the wicked and the aduersitie of the vertuous he answereth that the prosperitie of the wicked is but as a Stageplay and the aduersitie of the godly is as a gaming of exercise wherein they bee tyed to a streight dyet that they may win the prize for which they contend Unto the Question concerning euill he answereth that it is nothing els but a fayling of goodnesse which goeth on still diminishing it from degrée to degrée euē to the vttermost and that it procéedeth not from GOD but from the imperfection of the matter which he termeth nothing and that the euill which consisteth altogether in degrées and in fayling of good is so farre of from diminishing Gods Prouidence that it is rather the thing wherein Gods Prouidence sheweth it selfe the more as without the which there were no Prouidence at all to be séene and yet that therewithall God is the author of all abilities and the disposer or ouerruler of all willes Which things to auoyde long discourse are more conueniently to be seene in his owne workes His Disciple Porphyrius departed not from the same opinion howbeit that he was combered with the like perplexities that they be which dispute ageinst it Seeing that God sayth he doth by his skill ouerrule all things and order them by incomparable proprietie of vertue and that on the contrary part mannes Reason being very small is ignorant of most things how skilful and curiouse so euer it seeme to be of the trueth Surely we may then call it wyse when it is not curiouse in serching such doutfull and hard matters as are matched with daunger of blaspheming but rather graunteth that the things which are done are very well as they bee For what can our small Reason finde fault with or reprooue in the doings of that greate Reason to esteeme them eyther lawfull or vnlawfull seeing wee vnderstande them not And in another place If wee suffer a King saieth he to dispose of his owne affayres as he listeth shall wee deny vnto GOD the ordering and disposing of the things heere beneath which hee himselfe created And against such as founde fault with the gouerment of the world which they vnderstand not these are his very words Soothly sayth he there is not a more vniust speech than that which presumeth to teache God Iustice nor a more holy speech than that which yeeldeth to the trueth and to think otherwise is a disease of mynd a great cryme For God not only directeth all things at all tymes too the behoofe and full harmony of the whole vniuersally but also is the cherisher preseruer and repayrer of euery seuerall thing in particular I pray you hathe hee not shewed too Phisicians who haue so much prouidence as hee hathe giuen them skil the things that are too befall too the whole body of man how that some members are to be cut of some to be seared and othersome to be eaten away with Corrasiues for the health of the whole body And yet when the Nurces or Mothers see the Surgiō about to do it do they not weepe and cry out ryght strangely notwithstanding that they knowe it to be for the welfare of the childes body But what doth the Father then who is wiser than they but comfort the patient and hold the playster ready to lay to the wound God lykewyse for the curing of the whole hath ordeyned that men should dye That is the thing that Epicurus findeth fault with that they should be separated asunder as a Toe is sumtime cut of for the sauing of the whole body And could we enter into the mynd of God we should vndoutedly knowe why and to what good end hee hath from the beginning barred some things from being because he foresaw they should be to hurtfull and vnto other some hath giuen death in recompence of their godlynes The summe of all is that nothing is done but by the prouidence of God howbeit that many things seeme repugnāt to his wisdome and goodnes as the cutting off of a Leg or the searing of a member séeme repugnant both to the healing of the whole body and to the purpose of the Surgion Also as touching the aduersities of good men Sée héere what Synesius the Platonist answereth The aduersities sayth he which wee thinke wee indure without our deserts doe helpe vs too weede out our affections out of our ground which is to much inclyned too them and by that meanes the inconueniences which make fooles to doubt of Gods Prouidence doe confirme wise folke the more therein For what man would bee contented to part hence if he found no aduersitie here And therefore it is to be thought that the Rulers of the lower Regions he meaneth the Féends were the first founders of these prosperities which the comon sort maketh so great account of of purpose to bewitch men with them and to lull them a sleepe here Hierocles also hauing made a long discourse concludeth that if we fall into any aduersitie whereof wee cannot coniecture the cause it behoueth to consider that wee bee ignorant in all things and yet we must not procéede so farre as to say that God is the author of euill or that he hath not a care of vs for those sayth he were ouergreate blasphemies Aristotle speaketh not any otherwyse eyther in his greate Moralls or in his little Moralls howbeit that hee be more graueled in his Metaphysiks Howsoeuer the case stand in his booke concerning the world he graunteth vnto God the care of al greate things And thinke you it beséemeth man too set bounds too the wisdome of God who hath limited the natures of all things and to appoynt what God shall estéeme greate or small before whom nothing can be greate or small Neuerthelesse whereas he sayth that the world dependeth vpon God as the end thereof the best of his Desciples do by infallible consequence gather thereof the prouidence of God For seeing that the World dependeth vpon hym
man the Countie of Mirandula praying them to consider at least wyse whether the greate studye and peynes which those greate Clerks haue takâ—n to disprooue this destinie can by any meanes bee fathered vppon destinie Now then for a small conclusion of this whole discourse let vs say that God is a souereine Beeing and a souerein mynd and that Beeing and Mynding are all one in him and therefore that as in creating things the might and power of his Beeing extended euen to the least things or els they had not bin at all so the Prouidence forecast and direction of his mynd extend to all things or else they could not continue Let not the confusion of things which we see â—eere belowe trubble vs for the greater the same is the greatâ—â— doth Gods prouidence shewe it self therein as the skill of a Phisition doth in the intricatenesse of a disease But who is he that can limit the sight of the Euerlasting God Surely not the prosperities of the wicked for they be but visors nor the aduersities of the godly for they be but exercises nor the Deathes of the giltlesse for it is but a poudering of their vertewes to preserue them to the vse of posteritie Nay let not euen sinne it selfe which is the very euill in deede cause any grudge of mynd in vs for God Created Nature good but euill is sproong thereof He Created freedome and it is degenerated into Loocenesse But let vs prayse God for giuing vs powers and let vs condemne our selues for abusing them Let vs glorifie him for chastising vs by our owne Loocenesse for executing his Iustice by our vniust Dealings and for performing the ordinaunce of his rightfull will by our inordinate passions It we see a thing whereof we knowe not the cause let vs acknowledge our ignorance and not name it fortune The causes that are furthest a sunder are neere at hand vnto him to performe whatsoeuer he listeth If we do any vnreasonable thing let vs not alledge necessitie He can skill to vse all things without marring them the moouable according to their moouings the things indewed with will according to their passions and the things indewed with reason according to their reasonings In thinking to do our owne will we bring his to passe We be free to followe out owne Nature and our Nature is becomme euill through sinne O wretched fréedome which bringeth vs vnder such bondage And aâ—fore this nature of ours we can neither shun it nor driue it from vs for we be bonâ—â—laues to it and it to sinne and there behoueth a stronger than our selues to rid vs thereof Therefore let vs pray God to bring the fréedome of our wills in bondage to his will and to frée our soules from this hard and damnable kind of fréedome and to graunt vs by his grace not as to the wicked to doe his will in béeing vnwilling to do it but as to his Children at least wise to be willing to doe it euen in not doing it The xiiij Chapter That the Soule of Man is immortall or dyeth not HIthertoo I haue treated of the world that is to be conceiued in vnderstanding and of the sensible World as the Platonists tearme them that is to say of God and of this World Now followeth the examining of the Little World as they terme it that is to say of man Concerning God we haue acknowledged him to be a Spirit and as touching the World we haue found it to be a body In man wee haue an abridgment of both namely of God in respect of Spirit and of the World in composition of body as though the Creator of purpose to set forth a mirror of his woorks intended to bring into one little compasse both the infinitenesse of his owne nature and also the hougenesse of the whole world together Wee see in mans body a Woonderfull mixture of the fower Elements the veynes spreading forth like Riuers to the vttermost members as many instruments of sence as theere be sensible natures in the world a greate nomber of sinewes Fleshstrings and knitters a Head by speciall priuiledge Directed vp too Heauen-ward Hands seruing to all maner of seruices Whatsoeuer he is that shall consider no more but onely this instrument without life without sence and without mouing cannot but think verily that it is made to verie greate purpose and he must needes krie out as Hermes or as the Sarzin Abdala doth that man is a miracle which farre surmounteth not only these Lower Elements but also the verie Heauen and all the ornaments thereof But if he could as it were out of himself behold this body receiuing life and entering into the vse of all his motions with such forewardnesse hands bestirring themselues so nimbly and after so sundrie fashions and the Senses vttering their force so farre of without stirring out of their place think you not that he would be woonderfully rauished and so much more woonder at the sayd life mouing and sence than at the body as he woondered afore at the body to behold the excellencie of the proportion thereof aboue the masse of some stone For what comparison is there betweene a Lute and a Luteplayer or betweene a dumb instrument and him that maketh it to sound What would he say then if he could afterward see how the same man being now quickned atteyneth in one moment from the one side of the earth to the other without shifting of place descending downe to the centre of the world and mounting vp aboue the outtermost circle of it both at once present in a thousand places at one instant imbracing the whole without touching it kreeping vpon the earth and yet conteyning it beholding the Heauens from beneath and beeing aboue the Heauens of Heauens both at once Should hee not be compelled to say that in this sillie body there dwelleth a greater thing than the body greater than the earth yea greater than the whole world togither Then let vs say with Plato that man is dubble outward and inward The outward man is that which we see with our eyes which forgoeth not his shape wheÌ„ it is dead no more than a Lute forgoeth his shape when the Luteplaier ceasseth from making it to sound howbeit that both life mouing sence and reason be out of it The inward man is the Soule and that is properly the very man which vseth the body as an instrument whereunto though it be vnited by the power of God yet doth it not remoue when the body ronneth It seeth when the eyes be shut and sometymes seeth not when the eyes be wyde open It traueleth while the body resteth and resteth when the body traueleth that is to say it is able of it self to parforme his owne actions without the help of the outward man wheras on the contrarie part the outward without the help of the inward that is to wit the body without the presence of the Soule hath neither sence mouing life no nor continewance of
but weake Sences haue very quicke vnderstanding and likewise on the contrary part Agayne some fall into a consumption which â—ant not the perfect vse of their Sences Sometyme the reasonable part is so earnestly bent and occupyed about the things that iâ— liketh of that by the increasing of it self it hurteth and diminisheth the part that quickeneth Also it standeth in argument against the Sences and reproueth them of falshoode and concludeth contrary to their information And it may bee that the man which hath his digestion perfect and his Sences sound hath not his wit or reason sound in like case Now were the Soule but onely one abilitie it could not be so But now is the same diuided manifestly into wit or vnderstanding and will the one seruing to deuise and the other to execute For we vnderstand diuers things which we will not and wee will diuers things which wee vnderstand not which contrary operations cannot be attributed both to one power Neuerthelesse the vniting of all these powers together is with such distinctnesse and the distinguishing of them is with such vnion that ordinarily they méete all together in one selfesame action the one of them as readily by all likelyhood as the other howbeit that euery of them doth his owne worke seuerally by himselfe and one afore another as in respect of their obiects Thus haue we thrée sorts of men according to the thrée powers or abilities of the inwarde man Namely the earthly man which like the Plant myndeth nothing but sléeping and féeding making al his sences and al his reason to serue to that purpose as in whom the eare of this present life onely hath deuoured and swallowed vp his sences and vnderstanding The Sensuall man as S. Paule himself termeth him who is giuen wholly to these sensible things imbacing and casting downe his reason so farre as to make it a bondslaue to his sences and the pleasures and delights therof And the reasonable man who liueth properly in spirite and mynd who entereth into himselfe to knowe himselfe and goeth out of himselfe to behold God making this life to serue to the atteynment of a better and vsing his Sences but as instruments and seruants of his reason After as any of these thrée powers doe reigne and beare sway in man that is to wit after as a man yéeldeth himselfe more to one thaÌ„ to another of them so becommeth he like vnto the Spirites the brute Beastes or Plants yea and the very Blockes and Stones But it is our disposition euen by leynd to be caryed away by our corrupt nature and by the obiects which hemme vs in on all sides but as for against our nature yea or beyond our nature our nature is not able to doe any thing at all Now it is not enough for vs to knowe that wee haue a Soule whereby wee liue feele and vnderstand and which beeing but one hath in it selfe alone so many sundrie powers or abilities for it will be demaunded of vs by and by what this Soule properly is And soothly if I should say I cannot tell what it is I should not belye my selfe a whit for I should but confesse myne owne ignorance as many great learned men haue done afore me And I should doe no wrong at all to the Soule it selfe for sith wee cannot denyâ— the effects thereof the lesse that we be able to declare the nature and béeing therof the more doth the excellencie therof shine forth Againe it is a playne case that no thing can comprehend the thing that is greater than it selfe Now our Soule is after a sort lesse than it selfe inasmuch as it is wrapped vp in this body in like wise as the man that hath gyues and fetters on his féete is after a sort weaker than himselfe Neuerthelesse let vs assay to satiffye such demaunds as well as wee can And forasmuch as it is the Image of God not only in respect of the gouernment and maintenance of the whole world but also euen in the very nature thereof as wee sayd heretofore when we spake of the nature of GOD if we cannot expresse or conceyue what it is let vs at leastwise be certified what it is not First of all that the Soule and the Body be not both one thing but two very farre differing things and also that the Soule is no part of the body it appeareth of it self without further profe For if the Soule were the body or a part of the body it should grow with the body as the other parts of the body doe and the greater that the body were the greater also should the Soule be Nay contrarywise the body increaseth to a certeyne age and then stayeth after which age is commonly the tyme tha the Soule doth most grow and those that are strongest of mynd are commonly weakest of body and the Soule is seene to be full of liuelinesse in a languisshiâ—g body and to growe the more in force by the decay of the bodie The Soule then groweth not with the body and therefore it is not the body nor any part of the body And whereas I speake of growing in the Soule by growing I meane the profiting therof in power and vertue as the body groweth in greatnesse by further inlarging Againe if the Soule were the body it should lose her strength and soundnesse with the body so as the maimed in bodie should therewith feele also a mayme in his vnderstanding as well as in his members whosoeuer were sick of any disease should also bee sicke in his reason he that â—impeth or halteth should therewith haâ—â— in Soule also the blynd mans Soule should bee blynd and the lame mans Soule should be lame But we see coÌ„trariwise that the maymed and the sicke the Cripples and the blynd haue their Soule whole and sound and their vnderstanding perfect and cléeresighted in it selfe To be short many a man dyeth whose body is sound and differeth not a whit in any part from that it was wheÌ„ it was aliue and yet notwithstanding both life mouing sence and vnderstanding are out of it Let vs say then that in the body there was a thing which was not of the body but was a farre other thing than the body Some wilfull person will obiect here that the force and strength of the Soule groweth with the body as appeareâ—h in this that a man growen wil remoue that which a child cannot and that a child of two yéeres old will goe which thing a babe of two moneths old cannot doe But he should consider also that if the selfesame man or the selfesame child should haue a mischaunce in his legge or in his arme he should thereby forgoe the strength and mouing thereof whereas yet notwithstanding his Soule should haue her former force and power still to moue the other as she did afore Therefore it is to be sayd not that the childs Soule is growen or strengthened by tyme but rather that his sine wes are dried and
now euerlasting sayth he and in the best state berest of this earthly baggage which was none of his set free to himselfe For these bones these sinewes this coate of skin this face and these seruiceable hands are but fetters and prisons of the Soule By them the Soule is ouerwhelmed beaten downe and chased away It hath not a greater batterll than with that masse of flesh For feare of being torne in peeces it laboureth to returne from whence it came where it hath readie for it an happie and euerlasting rest And agayn This Soule cannot be made an Outlaw for it is a kin to the Gods equall to the whole world and to all tyme and the thought or conceyt thereof goeth about the whole Heauen extending it self from the beginning of al tyme to the vttermost poynt of that which is to come The wretched coarse being the Iayle setters of the Soule is tossed to and fro Vpon that are tormeÌ„ts murthers and diseases executed As for the Soule it is holy and euerlasting and cannot bee layd hand on When it is out of this body it is at libertie and set free from all bondage and is coÌ„uersant in that beautifull place wheresoeuer it be which receyueth mens Soules into the blessed rest thereof as soone as they bee deliuered from hence To bee short he seemeth to pricke very nere to the rysing againe of the dead For in a certeyne Epistle to Lucilius his words are these Death wherof we be so much afrayd doth not bereue vs of life but only discontinew it for a tyme and a day will come that shall bring vs to light agayne This may suffise to giue vs knowledge of the opinion of that great personage in whom wee see that the more he grewe in age the nerer he came still to the true birth For in his latest bookes he treateth alwaies both more assuredly and more euideÌ„tly therof Also the saying of Phauorinus is notable There is nothing great on earth sayth he but Man and nothing great in Man but his Soule If thou mount vp thether thou mouÌ„test aboue Heauen And if thou stoope downe agayne to the bodie and compare it with the Heauen it is lesse than a Flye or rather a thing of nothing At one word this is as much to say as that in this clod of clay there dwelleth a diuine and vncoruptible nature for how could it els be greater than the whole world As touching the Nations of old tyme we reade of them all that they had certeyne Religions and diuine Seruices so as they beléeued that there is a Hell and certeyne fieldes which they call the Elysian fields as we see in the Poets Pindarus Diphilus Sophocles Euripides others The more supersticious that they were the more sufficiently doe they witnesse vnto vs what was in their Conscience For true Religion and Superstition haue both one ground namely the Soule of man and there could be no Religion at all if the Soule liued not when it is gone hence Wee reade of the Indians that they burned themselues afore they came to extreme oldage terming it the letting of men loose and the fréeing of the Soule from the bodie and the sooner that a man did it the wiser was he estéemed Which custome is obserued still at this day among the people that dwell by the Riuer Niger otherwise called the people of Senega in Affricke who offer themselues willingly to be buryed quicke with their Maisters All the demonstrations of Logicke and Mathematicke sayth Zeno haue not so much force to proue the immortalitie of the soule as this only doing of theirs hath Also great Alexander hauing taken prisoners ten of their Philosophers whom they call Gimnosophists asked of one of them to trye their wisedome whether there were moâ—men aliue or dead The Philosopher answered that there were moe aliue Because sayd he there are none dead Ye may wel think they gaue a drye mocke to all the arguments of Aristotle and Callisthenes which with all their Philosophie had taught their scholer Alexander so euill Of the Thracians we reade that they sorrowed at the birth of men and reioyced at the death of them yea euen of their owne chidren And that was because they thought that which wee call death not to be a death in déede but rather a very happie birth And these be the people whom Herodotus reporteth to haue bene called the Neuerdying Getes and whom the Greekes called the Neuerdying Getes or Thracians Who were of opinion that at their departing out of this world they went to Zamolxis or Gebeleizie that is to say after the interpretation of the Getish or Gotish tongue to him that gaue them health saluation or welfare and gathered them together The like is sayd of the Galles chiefly of the inhabiters about Marsilles and of their Druydes of the Hetruscians and their Bishops and of the Scythians and their Sages of whom all the learning and wisedome was grounded vpon this poynt For looke how men did spread abroad so also did this doctrine which is so déeply printed in man that he cannot but carie it continually with him Which thing is to bee seene yet more in that which wee reade concerning the hearers of Hegesias the Cyrenian who dyed willingly after they had heard him discourse of the state of mens Soules after this life and likewise concerning Cleombrotus the Ambraciote who slewe himselfe when he had read a certeyne treatise of the immortalitie of the Soule For had it not bene a doctrine most euident to mans wit they would neuer haue bin caried so farre by it as to the hurting of their bodies And if among so many people there be perchaunce some fewe wretched caytifes that haue borne themselues on hand the contrarie which thing neuerthelesse they could neuer yet fully perswade themselues to be out of all doubt or question surely wee may beléeue that they had very much adoe and were vtterly besotted like Drunkards afore they could come to that poynt so as wee may well say of them as Hierocle the Pythagorist sayde namely That the wicked would not haue their Soules to bee immortall to the intent they might not be punished for their faults But yet that they preuent the sentence of their Iudge by condemning themselues vnto death afore hand But if they wil neither heare God nor the whole world nor themselues let them at leastwise hearken to the Deuill as well as they doe in other things who as sayth Plutark made this answer to Corax of Naxus and others in these verses It were a great wickednesse for thee to say The Soule to be mortall or for to decay And vnto Polytes he answered thus As long as the Soule to the body is tyde Though loth yet all sorowes it needes must abyde But when fro the body Death doth it remoue To heauen by and by then it styes vp aboue And there euer youthfull in blisse it doth rest
world and of all that is therein That in the world he created Man after his owne Image as in respect of mynd and after the Image of his other creatures as in respect of life sence and mouing mortall so farre foorth as he holdeth the likenesse of a creature and immortall so farre foorth as he beareth the Image of the Creator that is to wit in his Soule That he which goeth out of himself to see the world doth forthwith see that there is a God for his workes declare him euerywhere That he which will yet still doubt thereof néedeth but to enter into himselfe and he shall meete him there for he shall finde there a power which he seeth not That he which beléeueth there is one God beléeueth himselfe to bee immortall for such consideration could not light into a mortal nature and that he which beléeueth himselfe to be immortal beléeueth that there is a God for without the vnutterable power of the one God the mortall and immortall could neuer ioyne together That he which seeth the order of the world the proportion of man and the harmonie that is in eyther of them compounded of so many contraries cannot doubt that there is a Prouidence for the nature which hath furnished them therewith cannot bee vnfurnished thereof it selfe but as it once had a care of them so can it not shake of the same care from them Thus haue we thrée Articles which followe interchaungeably one another Insomuch that he which proueth any one of them doth proue them all thrée notwithstāding that I haue treated of euery of them seuerally by it selfe Now let vs pray the euerlasting God that wee may glorifie him in his workes in this world and he voutsafe of his mercie to glorifie vs one day in the world to come Amen The xvj Chapter That mans nature is corrupted man falne from his first originall and how YET for all this let not man bee proude of the excellencie or immortalitie of his Soule for the more he hath receyued of his maker the more is he indebted to him and the more excellent that his nature is the more lothsome and daungerous is the corruption therof The Peacocke is sayd to be proud of his gay fethers when he sets vp his tayle round about him but when he hath once stretched out his wings he falles into a dump and as soone as he lookes vpon his féete he casts mée downe his tayle and is ashamed Euen so as long as we thinke vpon the liuelinesse of our Spirit and the excellencie of our Soule as in respect of the nature thereof surely wee haue whereof to glorifie God that gaue it vnto vs and of his gracious goodnesse hath voutsafed to honor vs aboue al other creatures On the other side if wee consider how this nature of ours is straungely defiled and corrupted and how farre it is digressed from the first originall thereof surely there is no remedie but we must be ashamed of our selues and woonder to see from how great a heigth we be now falne and sunke downe Euen so the best Wine becommeth the sharpest and eagrest Uineger and of Egges which were in old tyme the delicats of Kings is made the rankest poyson For looke what degrée of goodnesse a thing holdeth while it abydeth in his nature the same degrée of euill doth it come vnto when it falleth into corruption Now then looke how much our originall generation was the better so much shall the corruption that lighteth into it be the woorser which thing according to the order which I haue vsed hetherto wee may examine towards God towards the world towards men and towards our selues Greatly in good sooth is man bound vnto God if he would consider it and very blynd is hée if he haue not the skill to perceiue it Of the great multitude of Creatures which God had created hee hath giuen to some but onely bare béeing to some both béeing and lyfe and to other some both béeing lyfe and sence But vnto man he hath giuen all these and moreouer a reasonable mynd whereby he and onely he héere beneath knoweth in all things what they haue and what they bee which thing they themselues knowe not Which is an euident proof that whatsoeuer they haue or whatsoeuer they be they haue it and are it for man not for themselues For to what purpose are all their vertues and excellent properties if they themselues knowe them not The Sonne excellent among the celestiall bodyes and the Rose among flowers The beast is a degree aboue the Trees and among the Beastes one hath some one poynt which another hath not But what skilles it what thou art or what thou hast if thou knowe it not What booteth thee the light if thou see it not what art thou the better for swéete sents if thou smell them not Or what auayleth it thee to excell in any thing if thou discerne it not Of a trueth only man of al the things in this inferior World can skill of these things and how to inioy them and therfore it must néedes be that they were made for none but him that is to wit that to speake properly GOD hath giuen vnto him whatsoeuer all other creatures either haue or be and he hath not dealt with him simply as with a Creature but rather as with a Child of his for whom he hath expresly created this worlde and giuen it him to possesse Now if the thing that is possessed bee infinitely lesse than the possessor thereof and the world is giuen to man to possesse how farre then doth man excell the world And how greatly is man bound vnto God who created him of nothing that is to say not only hath giuen the world vnto man but also giuen euen man to man himselfe Wherefore if he acknowledge not him to whom he is beholden not only for this inheritance but also euen for his owne being what shall we say but that he is an vnnaturall and bastardly Childe euen such a one as hath lost not onely his right mynd but also euen his sences But of so many men of whom all and singuler persons stand bound both ioyntly and seuerally in the whole and for the whole of that great bond for performance of the Condition thereof how fewe be there which doe once thinke of it and how much fewer be there which thinke well of it Nay how fewe bee there which knowe that there is such a bond and how much fewer doe dispose themselues to acknowledge it And if perchaunce some one or two among many doe dispose them selues thereunto yet notwithstanding who is he that euer was able to atteyne vnto it considering that it importeth a yéelding vnto God of that which is his due that is to wit the imploying of our selues and of all that he hath giuen vnto vs euen our whole being and life our Sences our Reason our doings and finally all that euer we haue both within and without
who euen in laughing threatneth in saluting sleaeth vnder faire countenance of courteous interteynement cloketh a thousand Serpents a thousand Lyons a thousand Quickesands and a thousand Rockes at once Well let vs leaue the wicked which discouer themselues too much What doe wee in all our bargayning buying and selling but beguyle one another or what doe we in our dalying but delude one another And what els is the whole societte of man which we so highly commend but a selfgaine and a very incroching one vppon another the greater sort as tyrants vppon the meaner the meaner vpon the inferiour sort and the inferiour sort one vppon another too take him in some trippe To bee short if wee doe any good it is but to the end to bee seene asfor in secret wee will doe none at all Ageine if wee forbeare to doe euill it is but for feare least the World should knowe it and were that feare away wee would stick at nothing Wherto then serueth vs our reason which should further vs vnto all goodnes but to couer our naughtinesse that is to say to make vs woorse and more vnreasonable yet notwithstanding how vnreasonable so euer wee bee in all our doings we cannot but knowe that there is a reason and were it not in vs we could not conceiue it and were it not corrupted we should not swarue from it and yet if we examine oure selues we shalnot bee able to deny but that we digresse very farre from it Therefore we may well deeme of our reason as of an eysight that is either impayred or inchaunted It hath the ground of sight still but yet it standeth the partie in no stead but onely to beguyle him by false images and illusions Let vs come to man in himselfe and see whether at leastwise he loue himselfe better than other men and the more wee stirre him the more shall we feele the stinche of his corruption When a diseased man feeles peine wee say there is corruption in his body and furthermore that there is a default in Nature or that the partie hath taken some great surfet which hath brought him to that case Nowthen what shal we say of the great nomber of diseases wherwith mankind is peyned and wherewith he is so wholy ouerwhelmed that there is not any age of his life any part of his body or any small string in any part of his flesh which hath not some peculiar disease Nay I say further that man alone is subiect too mo diseases than all other liuing things in this World togither The Philosophers sawe it and haue made bookes expresly thereof and are vtterly amased and graueled in seeking out the cause thereof and they could neuer yet yéelde any Reason thereof which might satisfie others or themselues Neuerthelesse the most parte of them come to this point that man is the most vnhappiest of all liuing wights and they find fault with God and nature for it whom notwithstanding they confesse to haue doone nothing but iustly in that behalfe One sayes that onely Man fleaeth himselfe through impatience of greef Another sayes That the lyfe of man is such as that death is rather to bee desired of him than lyfe And of such speeches doe all their Schooles ring There is another which with great woonderment reckeneth vp certeine hundreds of diseases whereunto the eye alone is subiect Now which of all the beastes hath so much as the thirtith part of them in his body Is it likely that God which hath giuen to Man so great preheminence aboue all his creatures created him of purpose to torment him aboue all other creatures Or rather is it not to be sayd that man in his originall was created farre after another sort than he now is whether it be in respect of the Creator himselfe or of the ende for which hee created him Surely then let vs say as we haue sayde afore that the very cause why Man alone hath mo diseases in his body than all other Creatures toogither is for that hee hauing abused Gods gracious gifts hath doone more euill than all they could skill too doe and that the very euill and vntowardnes that is in them is but to punish man withall as for example the Hayle and Snowe serue not to hurt the earth or the fruites of the earth but to punish him that should take the benefite of them Againe when we come to consider the Soule and the body knit together what a number of affections doe we méete withall there which as saith Plutark are so much more sorowfull and gréeuous than the bodily diseases as the Soule is more sinfull and blame-worthie than the bodie To bring these passions to some reasonable order the Philosophers haue made bookes expresly of Morall vertue and giuen precepts say they to bring them to obedience wherein they confesse the rebelliousnesse that is naturally in vs against reason But who feeleth not in himselfe that their remedies serue not so much to take away the mischief as to cloke it Which is a playne declaration that it is not a spot which may bee washed away but a déepe impression bronded in nature as it were with a fearing yron which in very déede is not to bee wyped out agayne but couered nor to be subdewed and ouercome but with much a do to be restreyned and hild short Furthermore seeing that reason is so much more excellent than passion or affection as the forme shape or fashion say they is more excellent than the matter or stuffe wherin it is whence commeth this infection in vs that maketh the matter to ouermayster the forme and causeth the forme as ye would say to receyue shape and fashion of the matter that is to say which putteth reason in subiection to affection to the impressions which affection yéeldeth contrary to the order which is obserued in all the whole world beside For what els is this Intemperance of ours but reason such as it now remayneth imprinted with lust and concupiscence And what els is anger but reason atteynted with choler and so foorth of the rest And if a man will say that these things are naturall in vs whereof commeth it that of these affections wee conceyue inwardly remorse and outwardly shame yea and that so naturally as wee must of necessitie néedes feele them whether wee will or no and can no more let them than we can restreyne the beating of our Pulses or the panting of our Hearts but because that shame and remorse for sinne are naturall in vs but the sinne it selfe is against nature As for example there be things the doing wherof is in vs vyce and in brute Beasts nature for they be angry they aduenge themselues and they company together indifferently and in open sight and of so doing they bee not ashamed because it is their nature Now were these affections and fleshly pleasures as naturall in vs as in the Beastes as little should we bee ashamed of them as they But
owne indytement and willingly beare witnesse against himselfe by his owne voluntarie confession Surely that man is straungly infected with vyce it is witnessed sufficiently by the Histories of all ages which in effect are nothing els but registers of the continuall Manslaughters Whoredomes Guyles Rauishments and Warres And when I say Warres I thinke that in that worde I comprehend all the mischief that can be imagined And that these vyces were not created in mans nature but are crept into it it appeareth sufficiently by the bookes of the Ceremonies of al Nations all whose Church-seruices are nothing but Sacrifices that is to say open protestations both euening and morning that we haue offended God and ought to bee sacrifized and slayne for our offences according to our desarts in stead of the sillie Beastes that are offered vnto him for vs. Had man bene created with vyce in him he should haue had no conscience of sinne nor repentance for it For repentance presupposeth a fault and conscience misgiueth the insewing of punishment for the same And there can be neither fault nor punishment in that which is done according to creation but onely in and for our turning away from creation Now the Churchseruice and Ceremonies of all Nations doe witnesse vnto vs a certeyne forthinking and remorce of sinne against God And so they witnesse altogether a forefeeling of his wrath which cannot bee kindled against nature which he himselfe created but against the faultinesse and vnkindlynesse that are in nature Also what els are the great number of Lawes among vs but authenticall Registers of our corruption And what are the manifold Commentaries written vppon them but a very corruption of the Lawes themselues And what doe they witnesse vnto vs but as the multitude of Phisitions doth in a Citie namely the multitudes of our diseases that is to wit the sores and botches whereto our Soules are subiect euen to the marring and poysoning of the very playsters themselues Againe what doe the punishments bewray which we haue ordeyned for our selues but that wee chastise in vs not that which GOD hath made or wrought in vs but that which wee our selues haue vndone or vnwrought nor the nature it selfe but the disfiguring of nature But yet when we consider that among all Nations that Lawmaker is beléeued and followed by and by which sayth Thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steale thou shalt not beare false witnesse whereas great perswasion is required in all other lawes which are not so naturall It must néedes be concluded that the Consciences of all men are perswaded of themselues that the same is sinne and that sinne deserueth punishment that is to wit that sinne is in nature but not nature it selfe But to omit the holy Scripture which is nothing els but a Lookingglasse to shewe vs our spots and blemishes what are all the Schooles of the Philosophers but instructions of the Soule And what els is Philosophie it selfe but an arte of healing the Soule whereof the first precept is this so greatly renowmed one know thy selfe Aristotle in his Moralles sheweth that the affections must be ruled by reason and our mynd bee brought from the extremes into the meanes and from iarring into right tune Which is a token that our mynd is out of tune euen of it owne accord seeing that it néedeth so many precepts to set it in tune agayne And yet is not Aristotle so presumptuous as to say that euer he brought it to passe in his owne mynd Theophrast his Disciple was woont to say that the Soule payd wel for her dwelling in the bodie considering how much it suffered at the bodies hand And what els was this but an acknowledgement of the debate betwéene the bodie and the mynd But as sayth Plutarke he should rather haue sayd that the bodie hath good cause to complayne of the turmoyles which so irksome and troublesome a guest procureth vnto him Plato who went afore them sawe more cléerly than both of them He condemneth euerywhere the companie and fellowship of the body with the soule and yet he condemneth not the workmanship of God But he teacheth vs that the Soule is now in this bodie as in a prison or rather as in a Caue or a graue And that is because he perceiued euidently that contrarie to the order of nature the Soule is subiect to the bodie notwithstanding that naturally it should and can commaund it The same Plato sayth further that the Soule créepeth bacely vpon these lower things and that it is tyed to the matter of the bodie the cause whereof he affirmeth to be that she hath broken her wings which she had afore His meaning then is that the soule of her owne nature is winged and flyeth vpward that is to say is of a heaueÌ„ly diuine nature which wings she hath lost by meanes of some fall But to get out of these bonds and to recouer her wings the remedie that Plato giueth her is to aduaunce her selfe towards God and to the things that concerne the mynd By the remedie we may coniecture what he tooke the disease to be namely that our Soule hauing bin aduaunced by God to a notable dignitie the which it might haue kept still by sticking vnto God fell to gazing at her gay feathers till she fell headlong into these transitorie things among the which she créepeth now like a sillie woorme reteyning nothing as now of her birdlike nature saue onely a rowsing of her feathers and a vayne flapping of her wings Now he sayth that he learned all this of a secret Oracle the which he had in great reuerence And of â—â—â—cueth in this doctrine of the originall of our corruption wee haue to marke the same poynt which wee haue noted in some other things afore namely that the néerer wee come to the first world the more cléere and manifest we finde the matter Empedocles and Pythagoras taught that the Soules which had offended God wâ—â— condemned and banished into bodies here belowe And Philâ—â—â—aus the Pythagorian addeth that they receyued that opinion from the Diuines and Prophets of old tyme. Their meaning is that the body which ought to be the house of the soule is by Gods iust iudgemeÌ„t turned into a prison to it and that which was giuen it for an instrument is become Manicles and Stocks So then there is both a fault and the punishment and the fault must néedes procéede from one first man euen in the iudgement of those men of olde tyme which acknowledged the Creation of the world Also those auncient fathers seeme to haue heard what prouoked the first man to sinne For Homer speaketh of a Goddesse whom he calleth Até that is to say Waste Losse or Destruction which troubled heauen and therefore was cast downe to the earth where she hath euer since troubled Mankynd And herevpon Euripides calleth the Féendes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Falne from Heauen And the
Seede but that he corrupted it afterward Anotherwhile hee sayth that he delt with reason as perfumers doe with Oyles which neuer ceasse medling and mingling of them till there remayne no sent of Oyle at all And in one place perceiuing by all likelihod this corruption to be so vniuersal he saith further that at the very beginning and from their first comming into the Worlde men intangled and confounded themselues with sinne Whereby we may perceiue that had the thing bin declared vnto him in such sort as wée beléeue it surely hee would willingly haue imbraced and receiued it as the only solution of so many perplexities wherein he was intangled Let vs come to the Platonists All of them agrée in these points That the Soule of Man is a spirit and that a spirit cannot naturally receiue any affection from a body neither which may cause it to perish nor which may doe so much as once trouble it Yet notwithstanding on which side so euer they turne themselues they cannot deny but that our mynds are trubbled with infinite affections and passions in this body and that they be subiect one while to starting besides themselues through pryde anger or enuie an another while to be cast downe with Riottousnes Gluttonie and Idlenes yea and to receiue diuers impressions not only from the body but also from the aire the water and from Mistes and finally from euery little thing in the world Now how can this contrarietie be reconciled except their meaning be as ours is that naturally our Soules are not subiect to any of these things but that they bee put in subiection to them beyond the course of nature If it bee beyond the course of nature by whome is it doone but by him that commaundeth nature to whome it is as easie to put a spirit in Prison as to lodge a man in a house If it be done by him who is the rightuousnes it selfe doth it not followe that it was for some fault committed by the Soule If for some fault then seeing that the punishment thereof is in all men in whome should that first fault be but in that man which was the originall of all men as in whom all of vs say I were materially Now againe this fault cannot bee imputed to the body for it is in the will and the body of it selfe hath no will neither can it be imputed to any â—â—fection receiued first from the body for the Soule could not be wrought into by the body In the Soule therefore must the fault of mankind néedes be and for the soules offence doth the Soule itself suffer punishment and make the body also to suffer with her Howbeit that we may the better iudge of their opinions let vs heare them in the chief of them one after another Plotine hauing considered that the Soule is of nature diuine heauenly and spirituall concludeth that of itselfe it is not wrought into by the body But afterward perceiuing how it is defiled ouermaistred by sinne and by force of necessitie linked vnto lust he commeth backe to this solution That hir béeing here beneath is but a banishment too her which he termeth expresly a fall and otherwise as Pato doth a losing of hir wings That the vertue which she hath is but a Remnant of hir former nature That the vyce which she hath is taken by dealing by these bace and transitorie things and too bee short that al the vertue which is learned is but a purging of the Soule which must be fayne to be as it were newfurbished to scoure of the greate Rust that hath ouergrowen it In these Contradictions therefore hee maketh this question to himselfe What should bee the cause sayth hee that our Soules being of a diuine nature should so forget both God their father and their kinred and themselues Surely answereth he the beginning of this mischeef was a certeine rashnes ouerboldnesse wherethrough they would needes plucke their neckes out of the collar and be at their owne commaundement by which abuse turning their libertie into licentiousnes they went cleane backe and are so farre gone away from GOD that like Children which being newly weaned are byanby conueyed away from their Fathers and Moothers they knowe neither whose nor what they be nor from whence they came Now in these words he agreeth with our Diuines not only in this that corruption came in by sin but also in the kind of sinne namely Pryde wherby we be turned away froÌ„ our Maker In another place The Soule saith he which was bred for heauenly things hath plundged itselfe in these materiall things and matter of itselfe is so euill that not onely all that is of matter or matched with matter but also euen that which hath respect vnto matter is filled with euill as the eye that beholdeth darknes is filled with darknes Here ye sée not onely from whence we be turned away but also too what that is too wit from God to vanitie from the Creator to the creature from good to euill But of this inclyning to the materiall things he sometymes maketh the body to be the author as though the body had caried the Soule away by force of his imaginations and he acquitteth the mynde thereof as much as he can insomuch as hee sticketh not to affirme that notwithstanding all this marrednesse yet the Soule liueth and abideth pure and cleane in God yea euen whyle the Soule whereof the Mynd is as yee would say the very eisight or apple of the eye dwelleth in this body Howbeit besides that he is reproued for it by Porphyrius Proclus and others his owne reasons whereby he proueth that the Soule is not naturally subiect to the body be so strong that it were vnpossible for him too shift himself from them In this the great Philosopher is ouershot that he will needes seeke out the cause of sinne in Man as Man is now Where finding Reason caried away by Imagination and Imagination deceiued by the Sences he thought the fault to haue procéeded of that wheras in deede he should haue sought the cause in Man as he was first created when he had his Sences and Appetites absolutely at commaundement whose wilfull offending hath brought vppon vs the necessitie of punishment which we indure And in good sooth this saying of his in another place cannot be interpreted otherwise namely that the cause why the Soule indureth so many trubbles and passions in this body is to be taken of the life which is led afore out of the body that is to say that the subiection of the Soule to the Body is not the originall cause of the sinne therof but rather a condemnation thereof to punishment Neither also can he scape froÌ„ these conclusions of his owne namely that the Soule beeing separated from the body hath her wings sound and perfect and that the Body being ioyned to the Soule hath no power to breake her wings and yet that she findeth herself there
we found our second marke of Religion namely that the seruice of God which Religion is to teach vs must be grounded vppon his word and reuealed vnto vs by his ownselfe Let vs heare what the heathen say in this case who knewe very well that all the Ladders of their Philosophie were too short to reache thereunto and that it behoued men to be inlightened and instructed from aboue Diuinitie saith Plato cannot be laydforth after the maner of other kinds of seruing but hath neede of continuall mynding And then our wit is foorthwith kindled as with a fyre which afterward gathereth light more more and maynteineth it selfe Finally sayth he we know nothing of Gods matters by our owne skill If he which of all the auncient Philosophers saw most cléere confesse here that his sight faileth very much if it be not ayded from aboue what may we déeme of others And in good sooth in matters of Religion he sendeth vs euermore to the auncient Oracles that is to say according to his meaning to Gods word Aristotle in his Supernaturals rehearseth and commendeth a certeyne answere of Simonides too Hieron Kyng of Sicilie which is that it belongeth to none but onely God to haue skill of the things that are aboue nature and howe much lesse then to be skilfull in Diuinitie and to dispose of Religion that is to say to shewe the meane how to ouercome and surmount nature And whereas Cicero in his Lawes sayeth that there is not any lawe among men wherto men are bound to obey vnlesse it be ordeined by GOD and deliuered as it were with his owne mouth if he had bene well examined he would haue sayde no lesse concerning Religion It is certaine saith Iamblicus that we be bound to do the things that please God But which are those Surely sayth he they be not possible to be knowen of any man but of him that hath heard God himselfe speake or which haue learned them by some heauenly instruction And Alpharabius the Arabian agreeth thereunto in these words The things that concerne GOD and are to be beleeued through holy fayth are of a higher degree than all other things because they proceede from diuine inspiration and mans wit is too weake and his reason too short too attayne to them And therefore we reade that as they which haue ordeined and stablished any Religion in any Nation haue giuen it foorth as proceeding from God verily because nature taught them that it belongeth to none but to God alone to appoynt how hee shal be serued neither would the ordinance therof otherwise be obserued because the parties that were to obey it would make as great account of thēselues as of the partie that should inioyne it Thus by the definitiue sentence of the Philosophers our second marke standeth firme which will serue vs to discerne the true Religion from the inuentions of men so as we may well refuse for vntrueth whatsoeuer is not grounded vpon Gods word But in following our former purpose let vs consider yet further whether this will suffice or no. We haue néede of a Lawe that procéedeth from Gods mouth and what may that I pray you be but the same which proceedeth from holynesse it self namely that we should be holy as he is holy And if we cannot of our selues know God nor how he ought to be serued alas how shall we performe it when he hath declared it vnto vs The ende of Religion sayeth Plato is to knit man vnto God The way to bring this to passe is to become rightuous and holy or as saith Iamblichus to offer vnto GOD a cleane mynd voyd of all naughtines and cléere from all spot What man as euen they themselues confesse could euer vaunt therof And what els then is Religion to all of vs but a booke wherein we reade the sentence of our death that is to wit our very death in deede vnlesse that in the ende wee find some grace or forgiuenesse of our sinnes Yet notwithstanding Religion is the Pathway to life yea euen to eternall life a Pathway that hath a certeyne ende and which beguyleth vs not Therefore it must by some meanes or other fill vs vp the great gulfe that is betwéene endlesse death and endlesse life and betwéene the dwellingplace of blessednes and the horriblenes of Hell And therefore let our third marke be That Religion must put into our hands a meane to satisfie Gods Iustice without the which not onely all other Religions but also euen that which conteineth the true seruing of the true GOD were vtterly vayne and vnprofitable Now mans reason hath well perceiued that some such meane was néedefull in Religion but to knowe what that meane is was to high a thing for mans reason to atteyne vntoo In respect whereof the Platonists busied themselues very much in finding out some meane to cleanse men from their sinnes and too knit them vnto God beeing reconciled to his fauour and they set downe certeine degrées wherby to atteine therunto But yet in the end they confesse all their washings and clensings to be vtterly vnsufficient There are which say it is to bee done by abstinence by vertuous behauiour by skill or by Iupiters mysteries and some say it is to be done by al of them successiuely one after another But yet when they haue bestirred themselues on all sides Porphyrius conclusion is That they be Ceremonies without effect and yet notwithstanding that there must of necessitie néedes be a meane to purge and iustifie men and that the same must bee vniuersall and that it is not possible admitting Gods prouidence as we ought to doe that God should leaue mankind destitute of that meane And that this remedie ought to be conteyne din Religion hee sheweth sufficiently in that hee seeketh it in taking the Orders and in the Consecrations hallowings and other misteries of his owne Religion which in the end he letteth go againe But yet more apparantly doth Hierocles shewe it who sayth that Religion is a studie of Wisedome that consisteth in clensing and perfecting the life that men may be at one with God and become like vnto him and that to atteyne to that cleanesse the meane is to enter into a mans owne conscience and to consider of his sinne and to confesse it vnto God Thus farre he is very well Neuerthelesse here they stoppe ouershort euerychone of them for vppon confession inseweth but death vnlesse God who is the very Iustice it selfe and more infinitely contrary to euill than we can imagine be appeased and satisfied for our offences whereas in Religion we séeke for very life To bee short of the great nomber of Religions which are in the Worlde some haue no certeine restingpoint atall as we reade of some people of Affrik which worship that thing which they méete first in the morning and that is but a vaine Ceremonie Some haue a restingpoynt howbeit an euill one as for example all they
Altar to him dight This Cleomede was one of those that pleasured these Gods by beating one another with strokes of hand and foote of whom we reade that he slewe his aduersarie at one blowe But of such a one as Socrates Plato or Pythagoras he would neuer haue sayd so much Againe he sayth thus Archilochus is a very Saint and seruant of the Gods Yea verely of such Gods in déede for he chose the wickeddest and leaudest subiect of whom to make his verse But of Theognis or of a Phocylides which had exhorted folk to good life he would neuer haue sayd so much Of Cypselus he sayd thus A happie man is Cypselus and loued of the Gods If it bee so then what are Busyris Phalaris and al other Tyrants for there neuer was a greater Tyrant than he But the sayd Oracle sayd also that Iupiter and Apollo had prolonged the life of Phalaris for his wel handling of Cariton and Menalippus Now what fitter meane can there be to make Tyrants that is to say enemies of mankind in the world than to beare men on hande that such are beloued of the Goddes Zosimus their great Patron rehearseth an Oracle which answered That for the appeasing of an Earthquake at Athens it behoued them to honor Achilles as a God This was a playne turning away of man from God to the creature The same answered likewise to the mē of Methymnus that it behoued them to worship a woodden head of Bacchus that was found by fishing in the Sea And this was a making of them more blynd than the stocke it self And when they were demaunded concerning the maner of woorshipping and seruing these Gods they answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to say Send you the heads to Iupiter the lights vnto his Syre The dubble signification of the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fos which signifieth a man and may also signifie a Torch or a Light did cut off the liues of many folkes Which doubtfulnesse of spéech the Idoll coueted not of any intent to spare them but to haue matter of excuse against such as made conscience to doe it For being asked by the Athenians how they might make amends for their killing of Androgeus hee willed them to sende yéerely to King Minos seuen bodies of eyther sex chosen from among them all to appease the wrath of God and that kynd of Sacrifize continued still in Athens in the tyme of Socrates Now then what els is all their doctrine than a seruing of the Deuill and of Creatures yea euen with a seruice which in very déede is deuilish and horrible Al these Oracles are reported by Oenomaus a Heathen man who sought them out by Porphyrie our enemie who by them would induce vs to make great account of thē who in the beginning of his booke appealeth vnto GOD that he setteth not any thing downe of his own head by Chrysippus the Stoike in his booke of Destinie who by those Oracles goeth about to proue it and by Zosimus himself who maketh so great moane to see their mouthes stopped and their Temples shut vp And surely it is not to be marueled though the Peripateticks putting thē to tryall did vtter great griefes against those Oracles and that the Platonists which went to worke more faithfully were driuen to cōclude that not only the vncleane Spirites but also euen their Goddes whom they thought to bee pure were subiect to lying Let vs come to their Myracles In the Temple of Venus there was a Lamp that neuer went out and the Image of Serapis hung vnfastened in the ayre Diuers deceyts may be wrought in the like case and it is well knowne that the like wonders are seene euen in naturall things as a Fountaine to light a Torch and a Stone to hang by yron in the ayre And they which haue the skill to vse such things and to gather together the vertues of many into one may wonderfully bleare the eyes euen of the wisest As for example it hath bene seene that some haue found out a deuise how to burne vp one water with another and to breake open a strong Locke almost without touching it And that the Féends which know more than wee doe better serue their owne turnes with the wonders of Nature than we doe it is not to be doubted Insomuch that the Phisition which knoweth the vertues of Hearbes maketh things of them which the Gardyner that sowed them and cherished them vp would wonder at and cannot doe But loe here a strange case Accius Nauius the greate Birdgazer of Rome did cut asunder a Whetstone with a Razor in the presence of King Tarquine What a number of Witches are dayly burned which doe much more by their familiaritie with the Deuill For they stop a Tunne that is pearced full of holes they hold fast a Waterspout from running and they bynd the naturall abilities and yet notwithstanding they confesse that their so doing is by the wicked Spirites and the wicked Spirites discouer not themselues otherwise than so vnto them And in very trueth the Angelles and the Féends differ not properly in strength and power but in will and practise like as among men the good men differ not from the wicked men eyther in strength of bodie or in stoutnesse of courage but in the applying of their bodies and mynds Also it may bee that the Image of Feminine Fortune hath spoken and likewise the Image of Iuno Moneta and such others And that Castor and Pollux haue wyped away the sweat from the Horses of the Romanes as they traueled And that the Ladie Claudia drewe the Shippe wherein the Idoll of the Goddesse Bona was which so many yoong men could not once stirre Let vs admit all these things to bee true notwithstanding that Titus Liuius say that hee becommeth olde in reckoning them vp Wee stand not to dispute whither Spirites can speake by Images or no for wee doubt not thereof But I say that the Spirites which speake in them be wicked Spirites and turne vs away to the Creature to make vs offend the Creator Neither do I hold opinion that Spirites cannot take bodies vpon them nor that they bee vnable to doe feates farre passing the power of men for thereof examples are to bee seene yea moe than were requisite But the thing that I vphold is this that the Spirites which seeke to haue the praise of a victorie obteyned or of the asswaging of a Plague which is due but to the only one God or which will haue them ascribed to Fortune which is but an imagination or to a Iuno which is but a Blocke or to a good Goddesse the mother of the Gods a mother whom the veryest wretches in the worlde as I sayd afore would disclayme to be their mother are very Deuilles And in good sooth whereas the Deuill which tooke vppon him the name of that Goddesse suffered himself to be drawne by Claudia who had so ill reporte among all men It agréed very
estimation of them Let vs examine the reasons which they giue them One saies that they were tyed to the Starres and yet they mocked at the diuinations of the Chaldees euery where Now then of so many Astrologers as were among the Gentiles and haue made bookes thereof name me any one that hath foretold the doings not of an Empire but of some one man not a hundred yeeres aforehand but a yeere aforehand sauing that the diuell now and then by Gods sufferance hath executed the same euill which hee himselfe foretold vpon the partie that asked counsell of him But Ptolomie wil say the foretellings of the Astrologers are a meane betwéene necessitie and chaunce for they foresée not the euentes or fallings out but ouely the inclinations or dispositions of things as many as promise any further doe but abuse men What thinke wee then that this Ptolomie would haue sayd if he had read these prophesies so particular that they séeme rather stories of things past than foretellings of things to come Surely he would haue sayd that they could not haue proceeded but onely from God as he setteth downe and deemeth very wel in letter things And that they which foretell particular things must needes be inspired of God And agein that the iudgements of such as gaze vpon the Starres are doubtfull howbeit that they which foretell the good part approch neerer the trueth by reason of a certeine power that beareth sway in their Soule although that otherwile they haue no skill at all in the arte And in very deede the best Astronomers haue reiected Iudiciall Astrologie as in vain and without foundation yea euen after they haue well tyred themselues in it But in Israel we reade of a Neateheard called Amos whose Prophesies were no lesse euident for the matters they treated of than were the Prophesies of Daniell and Esay Auerrhoes and his followers haue a peculiar opinion of mans Soule namely that we haue a certaine capacitie of vnderstanding which they terme an vnderstanding in possibility the which informeth and teacheth by the working of an vniuersall mynd which by the particular imaginations of euery man commeth to be ioyned to the vnderstanding in possibilitie that is common to all And therefore they say that Prophesying proceedeth properly of that Coniunction in men that haue a strong and liuely imagination If it be so I would haue the disciples of Auerrhoes who had so goodly an imagination to imagine this to shewe mee some Prophesie of their Maisters or of their owne Also let them answere mée how it happeneth that our Prophetes for the most part haue commonly bent old men seeing that after their doctrine old men cannot Prophesie by reason of the féeblenes of their imagination But forasmuch as these men doe preache vnto vs that the worlde is eternall how happeneth it that Prophesying hath not bene instilled into men by the sayde coniunction euerlastingly concerning tyme and in all tymes séeing that to become a Prophet there néedeth no more but to haue a very strong imagination forasmuch as the separated vnderstandings are euermore readie and disposed to the said Coniuntion How happeneth it also that a man being come to that point Prophesieth not of all things that he can imagine But hereby we see manifestly that this Prophesying of theirs is not an habit but a passion that fadeth a way like the sound of a Lute when the player ceasseth to strike Or if they say that a man must first get him both the actiue and the contemplatiue habits and then the said vnderstanding matcheth it selfe with our imagination as the forme of a thing matcheth with the substance thereof whereof commeth it that Dauid being a Shepheard and Amos a Neteheard did prophesie so wonderfully Some will haue it that Prophesying is deriued into man by the Starres conditionally that he be disposed to receiue it Herevpon they prescribe him a certeine diet whereby he must make his body equall and euenly counterpeysed by Alchimie and afterward he must gather togither the Beames of the Skie into a mirrour which they call Alchemusie made according to the Rules of Catoptrik and finally he must stellifie by Astrologie as well the man himselfe as the foode that he vseth And they say that Apollonius of Thianey prophesied after that maner These are Toyes to bee laughed at rather then worthie to bee answered And let euery man consider whether our Prophetes being Shepherds Neateheards and vnlearned were framed with such curiousnes to Prophesie according to diet Nay when his wittes bee somewhat well wakened he shall perceiue that they were inspired with things which the Starres could neither doe nor betoken nor knowe forasmuch as they bee still in the hand of the first cause and are not come downe so lowe as to bee subiect to the second causes The Platonists therfore come somewhat nearer the truth specially Iamblychus and Porphyrius by name For they say that the foretelling of things farre of aforehand cannot be done nother by art nor by nature but only by inspiration from God Howbeit forasmuch as they speake of many Gods and tooke the diuels for Angells it may be obiected ageinst vs that our Prophesies proceeded eyther from diuells or from Angells But if we call to mynd the Oracles of diuells and compare them with our Prophesies there will appeare as much difference betwixt them as is betweene the discretion of a wise man and the tittlecattle of a foole Therefore let vs heare what they say The Gods sayeth Porphyrius foretel naturall things by the order of naturall causes which they marke and they foretell things that depend vpon our owne wil by coniectures takē of our doings But forasmuch as they be swifter than we they preuent vs and outrunne vs and that in such sort that as naturall things are deceyuable and mens cases are variable vncerteyne so they both as welthe good as the bad bee subiect to lying What els is this to say but that they can foretell nothing of vs furtherfoorth than they learne by our doings nor of naturall things furtherforth than they reade them in nature that is to say than they reade them as in a booke howbeit with a sharper and swifter eysight than we But nother diuell nor Angell can reade that in the Starres which is not there nor in men that which men themselues knowe not specially considering that the greatest learned men doe hold opinion that they enter not so farre In the Starres they could not reade the names of Iosias Vrias or Cyrus niether in the hearts of Iosias Vrias and Cyrus themselues who were not at that tyme in the world could they reade the déedes which they were to do certeine hundred yéeres after For only vnto God are those tymes present which are to come but as for to Angells and vs there is no more of the roll of tyme knowen than it pleaseth God of his gracious goodnes to vnfold vnto vs. It followeth then by the doctrine
of God vpon mankynd Let vs see how the auncient writers do further these reasons The common opinion is say Abydenus and Alexander that men being bred of the earth and trusting in their own strength would needes in despight of the Gods goe reare a Tower vp to the Sunne in the same place where Babylon now is and that when they had raised it very high the Gods ouerthrewe it and cast it downe vpon their heads with a great wind and that at that tyme began the diuersitie of Languages wherevpon the Hebrewes called that place Babel Of these things speaketh Sibill also in her verses in the selfesame termes And Hestiaeus and Eupolemus doe ad that the Priests which scaped from thence gate themselues with the misteries of their Iupiter the same was eyther Nembrod or Iupiter Bele into the Plaine of Sennaar from the which place men departing by reason of the confusion of tongues began to seuer themselues abroade to people the rest of the world Here it pleaseth Iulian to fall to scoffing For sayth hee a great sort of such globes as the whole earth is being heaped one vpon an other were not able to reach halfe way to the Sphere of the Moone But the reason of this enterprise of theirs is euident namely that their intent was to haue had a refuge ageinst the height of the waters if any flud should come ageine that is to say to make a banke ageinst Gods wrath which it had bene better for them to haue pacified by prayer And this pryde of theirs is not to be thought so straunge a matter considering how wee reade in the Histories of the Greekes that one Xerxes sent letters of defyance to the Sea and in the Histories of the Romaines that one Caligula vndertooke a quarrell against Iupiter And Iulian himselfe was not a whit wiser when he would néedes take vpon him to impeach the kingdom of God by prohibiting the Christians to reade Poets And whereas Celsus will néedes beare himselfe on hand that the sayd Historie was taken out of the fable of the Aloides all men know that Homer was the first Author of that fable who came a long tyme after Moyses And in good sooth these particularities of the confounding of Tongues of the dispersing of men abroade of the place where it befell of the naming of Phaleg who was borne at the very tyme of the diuision and such other circumstances doe euidently shewe that Moyses speaketh not at rouers whereof there is also this further profe that the Originals of Nations according to the diuiding of households at that tyme are not read of in any other Author As vayne also is this saying of theirs that the burning vp of Sodom is taken from the tale of Phaeton which is in déede as farre from it as Heauen is from the earth For euen at this day there are yet still to bee séene the remaynders of Gods wrath noted by Strabo Galen Mela and others namely the bitter Lake wherein nothing can liue the banks thereof lyued with Bitumen the Stones stiuking and filthie the trées bearing fruites fayre to the eye but falling to Cinder and smoke in the hand which things we reade not of to haue bin séene any where els and yet in a valley most beautifull to behold where stoode at that tyme fiue Cities or according to Strabo thirteene which were all consumed with fire for sinne ageinst nature And Iosephus sayeth that the Image or piller of salt whereinto Loths wyfe was turned was to be séene there euen in his dayes These are the greatest woonders of the booke of Genesis The residew thereof consisteth in the historie of Abraham and of his Children As for the Princes of those dayes we haue nother Pedegrée nor historie of them among the Heathen wryters and therefore it is the more to be woondered at that they haue spoken of our Shepherds For Berosus sayeth that about a ten generations or descents from the vniuersall Flud there was amōg the Chaldees a great man that excelled in Astronomie And that by him Berosus ment to betoken Abraham Eupolemon declareth for he sayth that in the sayd tenth generation Abraham was brone in Camerine a Towne of Babylonie otherwise called Vr or Caldeople who inuēted Astronomie among the Chaldees and was in the fauour of God by whose commaundement hee remoued into Phenice where hee taught the course of the Moone of the Sunne and of the Planets whereby hee greatly pleased the King notwithstanding that he saith hee had receiued it from hand to hand from Enoch whome the Greekes sayeth hee called Atlas vnto whome the Angelles had taught many thinges Also he rehearseth the Battell that was made by Abraham for the recouery of Loth the interteinment of Melchisedek the ouerthwarts that Abraham indured for Sara his wife in AEgipt and the Plague thot God did cast vpon Pharao to make him to deliuer her to Abraham agein And Artabanus in his storie of the Iewes reporteth almost the selfesame things adding that of Abraham the Iewes were called Hebrewes wherin the néerenesse of the names deceiued him Melon in his bookes ageinst the Iewes wrate that Abraham had two wiues and that by the one of them which was an AEgiptian he had twelue children among whom Araby was parted which euen in his tyme had twelue Kings still Those were the twelue Sonnes of Ismaell the Sonne of Abraham by Agar the AEgiptian which are set downe by name in Genesis And that by the other which was a woman of the Countrie of Syria he had but onely one Sonne named Isaac who lykewise had twelue Sonnes of whom the yongest was called Ioseph of whom Moyses sayth he descended Also Alexander setteth foorth Abrahams sacrifice at length and the children that he had by Chetura And in his historie he alledgeth one Cleodemus a Prophet otherwise called Malchas whom he affirmeth to agrée with Moyses in the Historie of the Iewes Ageine Hecataeus the Abderite hauing bene in Iewry did purposely make a booke of Abrahams lyfe which thing he had not of his owne maister King Alexander To bee short that which Orpheus sayeth of a certeine Chaldee vnto whom onely God manifested himselfe seemeth to be spoken of Abraham For he had bin conuersant in AEgipt where the renowme of Abraham was so greate that euen in their Coniurings they made expresse mention of the God whom Abraham had worshipped The same Alexander writeth the fleeing of Iacob for feare of his brother Esawe his abode in Mesopotamia His seuen yeeres seruice his marying with two Sisters the nomber of his Children the rauishing of Dina the slaughter of Sichem and likewise the selling of Ioseph his imprisonment his deliuerance for expounding of Dreames His authoritie in AEgipt His marying with Askeneth the daughter of Pethefer the Highpriest His two Sonnes by name which were borne of her the comming of his brothers into AEgipt the Feast that he made them the fiue partes which he gaue
Cloke too Thou shalt not beare false witnesse not only in word either false or hurtfull but also ydle Thou shalt not commit aduoutry No for if thou doe but looke vpon a woman with a lust vnto her thou hast committed adultrie already Moreouer so little leaue hast thou to couet any mans goods that to succor him thou must dispossesse thy selfe and sell all that euer thou hast Finally Thy God is only one God and no mo but thy neighbour is euery man whom thou meetest of what Countrie state condicion or calling soeuer he or thou be To bee short worshippest thou God doe it with the knees of thy heart Doest thou fast When thou doest it annoint thy face Doest thou almes Let not thy left hand knowe it giue of thy néede and not of thine abundance I demaund now whether the exhibiting of the substance and body of the Lawe in sted of the counterfet or Portrayture thereof and the requiring of the mynd in sted of the flesh be an abolishing or defacing of the Lawe whether the stablishing thereof bee the disanulling thereof The clearing and inlightening thereof be the quenching thereof or the fulfilling therof in himself and the spreading thereof ouer all Nations of the Earth bee the breaking thereof Nay moreouer the Lawe say the Cabalistes was giuen to man for the sinne of the Serpent that is to say accordiâ—g to our doctrine not for vs to accomplish for wee cannot atteine thereto but to shew vnto vs how farre the infection of that venome hath caried vs away from that duetie which God and nature it selfe require of vs. Which end of the Lawe is greatly inlightened vnto vs by the comming of our Lord Iesus in that he teacheth vs that the Lawe is not satisfied with an outward and pharisaicall obedience that is to wit to speake fitly by hipocrisie but by the vncorrupt obedience of the Heart yea euen much more by an vnfeyned acknowledgement of our disobedience than by the greatest profession of obedience that a man can shewe If they vrge yet further why then was not this lesson of yours giuen vs at the beginning I answere that euen from the beginning foorthon Moyses and the Prophetes gaue it you in willing you to circumcise your hearts to offer vp the sacrifice of prayse and obedience to absteine from vnhalowing the Saboth day with vnrightuousnes and such otherthings And in speaking to you of the land of Canaan they haue told you lowd inough by all their dooings that it behoued you to haue a further reache of mynd namely to the things which as Esay saith neitheir eye hath séene nor eare heard nor heart of man conceiued The seruice then which God required of you is spirituall and the reward which we ought to looke for is spirituall also But you lyke Children as ye be thought not but as the most part of you doo still at this day vpon the body and the world whereas GOD spake to you concerning your Soules and the welfare of them which lyeth in him Euen so the Schoolemaister promiseth his yoong Scholer a Marchpaine or some other banketing stuffe to make him to learne not that vertue shall not like the Child much bettter and be a greater reward to him when he hath atteyned vnto it but because that if he should talke to him of vertue or of honour at that tyme he can no skill of any of them both and he would bee the negligenter to his lesson and the more vnable to conceiue a greater thing And truely ye would haue sayd vnto Moyses Let not God speake vnto vs but to thee and yet was he fayne to couer his face because ye could not abide it To the same purpose doth Esay say that ye were fayne to haue line after line and precept after precept and lisping Prophets to dallie with you like newe weaned children that they might make you to vnderstand Also S. Paule sayth in the same sence that ye were trained vp like babes vnder the discipline and tutorship of the law To bee short all Mankind after the maner of one only man hath his birth his Childhood and his youth and his spirituall nourishment proportionable to euery age as well as euery of vs hath by himselfe Nature ought to be a Lawe vnto vs. And verely GOD ment to make vs to feele how sore it is corrupted in vs and because that in those first ages wee did transgresse it and breake it so many and so sundrie waies like yoong Scholers which to speake rightly cannot write one right letter without a sample therefore God gaue vs the Law written and there remayned at leastwise so much conscience in vs all as that none of vs could say but it was most iust Neuerthelesse it was Gods will that wee should trye our strength for a tyme in the doing thereof whereby we perceyued in the end that wee could not atteyne thereto like as the Child that indeuereth to followe the Copie of a good Skriuener and cannot atteyne to the fashioning of one letter aright furtherfoorth than his maister guideth his hand At length came Gods grace brought by Iesus Christ when our accusation I meane the accusation of all Mankynd and specially of the Church was made and concluded both by Nature and by the Lawe the Interpreter of Nature and that so apparantly as none of vs can denye but that he deserueth very great punishment nor any of vs say that he deserueth any reward at the hand of the euerlasting God whose reward being proportionable if I may so terme it to the giuer cannot be but euerlasting So then Nature hath made man readie to receiue the Law the Lawe hath made him readie to imbrace grace and God as séemed conuenient to his wise prouidence hath in this last age of the world caused his grace to be brought and preached vnto vs by his Gospell euen vnto vs which were as folke standing on the Scaffold readie to bee executed to the intent that such as perish should acknowledge his Iustice such as are saued should acknowledge his onely grace in Iesus God and Man the onely Sauiour and Redéemer of Mankynd Amen The xxxij Chapter That Iesus Christ was and is GOD the Sonne of GOD against the Heathen NOw then wee haue Iesus Christ such a one as hée was promised vnto vs in the Scriptures namely God and Man the Mediatour of mans saluation as sayth S. Paule manifested in the flesh crucified by the Iewes preached to the Gentyles beléeued on in the world and taken vp into glorie And forasmuch as I haue alreadie prooued the trewnesse and diuinenesse of the Scriptures and that according to them the Mediatour was to be such a one as Iesus was here I might make an end of this work for the coÌ„clusion followeth of it self The Scriptures are of God In them we haue found Iesus to be the Messias the Mediator and the Redéemer of Mankynd therefore it followeth that we ought to receiue him for
at the Conquests of Alexander And why Because that beeing but a meane King of Macedonie he passed into Asia and conquered it with fortie thousand men and no moe Had he caryed a hundred thousand with him we would haue had the lesse estimation of his deedes But how much greater account would we haue made of him if he had done it with halfe his number And had he done it with the tenth man O how we would haue wondered And if wee made a God of him for conquering so what diuine honor would we think sufficiēt for him now At leastwise who would not haue thought him if not a God yet at the least assisted with the power and might of GOD But had these Souldiers ouercome their enemies by being beatē at their hands had they conquered by causing themselues to bee killed had they brought Kingdomes in obedience by submitting themselues to their Gibbets had it not bene a cryme to haue left them vnwoorshipped for Gods For if betwéene the able man and the vnable man the skilfull and the vnskilfull the difference bee that the vnskilfull can doe nothing vnlesse he haue very well and abundantly wherewith but the skilfull can worke much vpon little and by his cunning ouercome the awknesse of his stuffe What is the difference betwéene the skilfullest man and God but that the man can of a little make somewhat whereas God can of nothing and without helpe of any thing make great things yea and euen one contrary of another and by another Which is as much to say as that he is of infinite power able to fill vp the infinite distance that is betwéene contraries and specially betwéene nothing and something Now let vs see what Iesus hath done and let vs bring with vs the same eyes and the same reason which wee did to the iudging and discerning of the Historie of Alexander First our Lord Iesus was borne destitute of al worldly helps From ten to tenthousand and from tenthousand to ten millions men doe atteyne but who can atteyne from nothing to so huge a thing He was accompanyed by a fewe ignorant Fishermen of grosse wit And yet is it no small matter that he could cause them to giue ouer their Trade to follow him But what Instruments were they to make Preachers to the whole world being rather cleane contrary to such a purpose And to incourage them he sayes vnto them Blessed are ye when ye indure all maner of aduersities for my names sake This had bene enough to haue driuen them away and yet they followe him At length he sendeth them of Ambassage to al Nations And what was their message He that taketh not vp his Crosse and followeth me is not worthie of me What is he that would at this day take such a charge vpon him no though he were well rewarded for his labour They shall whippe you in their Synagog sayth he Who would vndertake to deale in such a case Specially vppon such a perswasion as this Hee that will saue his life shall lose it In the ende he dyeth And how Crucified betwéene two Théeues Those fewe followers of his are at their wits end He leaueth neither Children nor kinsfolke behinde him to vpholde his sillie kingdome The kingdome of Heauen that he had talked of seemeth to bee buryed in the earth What worldly kingdome had not perished in this plight How long did the throne of Alexander reigne notwithstanding that it was vphild with the hope of some Children with the policie of great Capteynes with the force of victorious Armies and with the very terrour of his name In the meane while those sillie Shéepe of Christ came together and wēt and preached to Hierusalem and afterward to all the world And what preached they That Iesus had bene crucified and that it behoued them to beléeue in him If he was a man what was more vayne If he was a God what was more absurd Yet notwithstanding if they may haue audience they teach men to suffer for him if they be shut out they will rather dye than forbeare to speake of him and if they bee accused for it they preach their cryme before their Iudges Malefactors are tormented to make them tell their fault and these are tormented to make them to conceale it Those hold their peace to saue themselues from death and these dye for speaking Their persecutors crye out what a miserie is this that we cannot ouercome an old man or a woman what a shame is it for vs to be more wearie of tormenting them than they bee of the torments Yet notwithstanding in lesse than fortie yéeres the world is filled full of this doctrine and the Countries are conquered to Iesus Christ by those fewe Disciples preaching his bludshed and sheading their owne from Hierusalem to Spayne yea and from Hierusalem to the Indyes And looke by what meanes this kingdome is founded by the same also is it stablished and from tyme to tyme increased and mainteyned What man if he knowe how farre man can extend can attribute these things vnto man Hée is God sayth a wise man which doth that which no creature can do And who euer did such things either afore Iesus or after him Also Aristotle sayth that of nothing can nothing bee made that in deede is a rule in nature But what els are these doings of Christ but a making not only of some thing but also of that greatest things of nothing And who can vyolate or ouercome the lawe of nature but only he that created nature Now God spake the word and it was done this surpasseth nature But when Iesus sayth He that doth not take vp his Crosse and followe me is not worthie of me to our fleshly vnderstanding it is as much as if he should say Flee from me and yet men followe him and seeke him The word say I which were enough to driue vs away draweth vs vnto him by disswading he perswadeth vs in turning vs away he turneth vs to him in throwing vs downe he setteth vs vp and in killing vs he maketh vs euerlasting Who can drawe one contrarie out of another as the effects of water out of fire and the effects of fire out of water but he that made both fire and water And who can drawe perswasion out of disswading and conuerting out of diuerting but he that made both the heart of the man that hearkeneth and the speech of the partie that speaketh And what is the conquering of the liuing by the dying of himselfe and his but as ye would say a working of an effect by taking away the cause What is this subduing of the world by disarming tying and deliuering of himselfe but a taking of a way contrarie to his businesse and a choosing of instruments most cōtrarie to his working And he that doth a thing by instruments contrarie thereunto nay rather by such instruments as are directly hurtfull to it and can no way further it doth he not shew that he could do
but to shewe that it was not in the power of the great Emperour of the world to make folk beléeue a man to be a God what payne or cost soeuer he put himselfe vnto Yea say they but to beléeue the myracles of Iesus we would see myracles still The tyme hath bene that they were seene the tyme hath bene that they were beléeued and tyme hath altered the course of them what a number of things doe we beléeue which we see not And what reason or what benefite should leade vs to the beléeuing of any other rather than of them But we should bée the more assured of them As much might the former ages haue sayd and as much may the ages say that are to come and so should it behoue myracles to bee wrought to all men and at all tymes And were it once so then should myracles bee no myracles forsomuch as in trueth they haue not that name but of the rare and seeldome sight of them The Sunne giueth light daylie to the world he maketh the day the yéere and the seasons of the yéere Trées hauing borne flowers and fruite become bare and afterward shoote out their buddes and florish agayne The Uyne turneth the moysture of the Earth into Wine the graine of Corne turneth it into eares of Corne and the Pipen or kernell of an Apple into an Appletrée And infinite men receyue shape and birth euery hower Al these are very greate miracles and God and none other is the doer of them nature teacheth it thée and thou caÌ„st not denie it But forasmuch as thou séest them euery day thou regardest them not and yet the leasf of them would make thée to wonder if it were rare To succour thyne infirmitie the Sunne forgoeth his lyght a drye sticke florisheth water is turned into wyne and the dead are raysed to lyfe and all this is too shewe vnto thée that the same power which wrought in creating things at the beginning woorketh now still wheÌ„soeuer it listeth and that if the effects liue the cause of them is not dead And if thou shouldest sée euery day some miracle in the Sunne in Plants and in man surely in lesse than a hundred yeres miracles would be chaunged into nature with thee and the helpes of thyne infirmitie would turne thee to vnbeleef and to make the world beleeue agein God should be faine to create a new world for the world An example whereof may bee the people of Israell who hauing their meate their drinke their trayning vp and their gouernement altogither of miracle did in lesse than forty yeres turne them al into nature and lyke folke accustomed continewally to phisick which turne their medicines into nourishment of their bodies they abused the stayes of their fayth by turning them into occasions of distrust and vnbeleef Now God created nature and hath giuen it a Lawe which Lawe he will haue it to followe Neuerthelesse sometymes for our infirmities sake he interrupteth it to the intent to make vs to knowe that he is Lord of nature But if he should do it at our appoyntment then should we be the Lords both of nature and of him and if he should do it in all caces we would make a rule of it and we would make bookes and calculations of it no lesse than of the Eclipses of the Sunne or of the Moone or rather than of the motions of the eyghth Sphere and we would impute all those interruptions and chaunges to the nature of nature itself Therefore it is both more conuenient for his glorie and more behooffull to our saluation that nature should still followe hir nature and that miracles should continue miracles still that is to say that they should be rare as necessarie helpes to the infirmities of our nature I meane not of one man or of one age but of all mankynd or at leastwise of al the Church togither which is but as one comonweale and one man Yet remayneth Mahomet and he séemeth to be a iolly fellowe for he made a great part of the world to beléeue in him He was an Arabian and tooke wages of the Emperour Heraclius to serue him in his warres anon after the declyning of the Empyre and in a mutinie among the Arabian Souldyers he was chosen by them to be their commaunder as we sée dyuers tymes in the bands of the Spanyards Whether he were a good man or no let the people of Mecha who woorshippe him at this day iudge which condemned him to death for his Robberies and murthers And he himself in his Alcoran confesseth himself to bee a sinner an Idolater an adulterer giuen to Lecherie and subiect to women and that in such words as I am ashamed to repeate But he hath inlarged his Empyre by his successors and layd his Lawe vppon many Nations What maruell is that For why Auendge your selues sayeth he with all your harts take as many wiues as ye be able to kéepe Spare not euen nature itself What is he though he were the rankest Uarlet in the world that myght not leuie men of that pryce considering the corruption that is in mankynd Hee reigned as a Lord say they but yet by worldly meanâ—â— yea and vtterly vnbeséeming a man If ye enquyre of his Doctryne say they it is holy conformable to the old and new TestameÌ„t and admitted of God But as good as yée make it yet may yée not examin it nor dispute of it vpon peyne of death And what man of iudgement would not haue some suspition of the persone though he were very honest which should say Behold ye be payed and in good monny but yée may not looke vpon it by daylyght If yée looke for his miracles In déede God sent Moyses and Christ with miracles but Mahomet comes with his naked swoord to make men beléeue and asfor other miracle he woorks none And therefore al his Alcoran is nothing els but kill the Infidells reuendge your selues he that kills most shall haue greatest share in paradise and he that feyghteth lasily shal be damned in hell How farre is this geare of from suffering and both from conquering and continewing by sufferance What wickednesse myght not bee stablished by that way of his Notwithstanding to allure the Iewes he exalteth Moyses and reteyneth Circumcision and to the intent he myght not estraunge the Christians he sayeth that Christ is the Spirit Woord and Power of God and that Mahomet is Christes seruant sent to serue him and Prophesied of by him afore Ageine to please the Heretiks called Nestorians he affirmeth that yet for all this Christ is not very God nor the Sonne of God but that he hath in déede the Soule of God Thus doe ignorance and violence in him incounter one another the one to choke the trueth and the other to inforce the falsehod What practyses what wyles what countersayings what inforcements what armyes what cruelties vseth he not too perswade men And yet what hath he wonne by all this
that worship the soothfast and euerlasting God shall inherit lyfe for euer time without end dwelling in Paradyse alyke euer florishing greene But of the other sort she sayth thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to say rosted coÌ„tinually with fyrebraÌ„ds of peines Socrates in defence of himself Plato in his Cratylus Plato in his Theetetus Plato in his Gorgias Plato in his Phoedon and in his tenth booke of Lawes Plato in his Axiochus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in his Common-weale Plutarke concerning the slowe punnishing of the wicked There is but one true Religion Marsilius ficinus coÌ„cerning the Christian Religion In the last cap. of his Esculapius Plato in his Epinomis and in his Thoeâ—tetus Aristotle in his fifth booke of Moralles and in his first of Heauen Auerrhoes vppon that first booke of Heauen Alexander of Aphrodyse concerning the prouidence of God cyted by Cyrillus Simplicius vppon Epictetus Hierocles in his first chapter against Atheifts Hierocles cap. 6. 19. 11. Iamblichus in his 45. Chapter of Mysteries Proclus in his booke of praying Thaâ— there is but one true Religion An obiection The first mark of the true Religion The second marke of true Religion Plato in his second Epistle and in his Parmenides Aristotle in his Supernaturals Cicero in his first booke of Lawes Iamblichus Alpharabius in his booke of Sciences The third marke of true Religion Hierocles in his 14. and 24. Chapters and in his preface An obiection Iob. 38. Pâ—alm 104. Esay 48. 61. Iob. 38. Psal. 104. Origen ageinst Celsus lib. 3. Cato in his oration for the Rhodians The Heathen acknowledged the true God to be in Israell Austin in the Citi of God lib. 8. chap. 31. Denis of Halycarnassus lib. 1. Tacitus lib. 5. or as some editions haue lib. 2. AppioÌ„ ageinst Iosephus 2. Kings 18. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hecataeus the Abderita * Moenina Alexander who vaunted himselfe as a God Iosephus in his Antiquities lib. 11 cha 8. Cicero in his oration for Flaccus Seneca in his Booke of Superstitions Seneca in his booke of Superstition Austin de Ciâ—itate Dei lib. 6. cap. 10. Origen against Celsus lib. 3. Iulian ageinst the Galileans Zosimus lib. 4. Socrates lib. 3. cap. 11. Hermes in his Esculapius translated by Apulcius Austin de Ciuitate Dei lib. 8. cap. 23. The Gods of the Egiptians Cyprian concerning the vanity of Idols Plutarke in his treatise of Isis and Osyris The Gods of the Phoenicians Sanchoniation traslated by Iosephus The Gods of the Greekes Herodotus lib. 2. Aulus Gelliuâ— lib. 3. cap. 11. li. 17. ca. 21. Pophirius in the lyfe of Pythagoras Apuleius and Aulus Gelins The Gods of the Romanes Titus Liuius Decad 4 libro â—kimo Valerius Maâ—mus lib. 1. Plinius lib. 13. cap 13. Austin lib. 7. cap. 14. Lactantius lib. 1. Austin de Ciuitate Dei lib. 7. cap. 17. Cicero concerning the Nature of the Goddes the first of his Tusculane questions Seneca lib. 2. cap. 4. and 42. The Goddes of Greater Nations Eusebius de prepar euangelica lib. 4. Euhemere as he is cited by Lactantius Hermes in his Aselepius Seneca in his Moralles The Lawe of three children Scipio Affrican in Ennius Esculapius Iulian ageinst the Galilaeans Xenophon in his Equiuocations Cicero concerning the Nature of the Godds in his booke of Lawes and in his Tusculane Questions Porphyrius in his booke of the Answeres of the Gods Eusebius de praeparat euangel lib. 3. Cap. vltimo Porphyriâ—s in his sayd booke of the Answers of the Goddes Euseb. de praepart euang lib. 5. Cap. 6. and. 7. Iamblychut concerning Mysteries cap. 27. and 31. Porphyrius in his booke of answers c. Euseb. lib. 4. Cap. 4. The Sacrifising of Men. Enseb. lib. 4. Cap. 7. Denis of Halycarnassus lib. 1. Diodorus of Sicilie lib. 20. Porphyrius in his booke of Abstinence Histrus and Manethon cited by Eusebius Tertullian in his booke of Apologie Erichtho in Lucane The godly AEnaeas in virgill Caesar in his bookes of his Warres in Gaullond Procopius lib. 2. of the warres in Gothland Euseb. lib. 4. Cap. 7. The yeere after the building of Rome 657. Plinie lib. 30. Cap. 1. Quintilian in his booke of Fanaticall things Shamefull Seruices Austin in his second booke of the Citie of God Cap. 11. Austin in his first booke of the Citie of God Cap. 32. Austin lib. 2. Cap. 4. 5. 6. 13. In infinite places in the Digests Zosimus lib. 2. The Oracles of the Gods were false vncerteine vayne and wicked Porphyrius in his bookes of the Answere of Oracles False Miracles Iupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Markes wherby to knowe Diuels Porphirius in his secoÌ„d book of Abstinence In his Epistle to Anebon alledged by Eusebius lib. 4. cap. 11. Iamblichus in his booke of Mysteries in many places Iamblichus in his booke of Mysteries Apulcius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Austin in his ninth booke of the Citie of God chap. 19. What and where the true Religion is Marks whereby to discerne Gods word That the Byis of more antiquitie then all other writings Cicero in his second booke of the Ends of things Aulus Gellius in his 20. book Cap. 1. Denis of Halycarnassus lib. 1. cap. 2. Plinie lib. 34. cap. 5. Pomponius ff of the originall of Lawe Denis of Halâ—carnassus Appion in the fourth booke of his Historie against the Iewes Eusebius li. 10. Cap. 3. Strabo lib. 15. Porphirius li. 4 Eusebius in his booke of preparation to the Gospell Gene. 49. 5. 7. Obiect oâ—â— The Bible tendeth altogither to the glorie of God Mans welfare Seneca in his exhortations The Style of the Scriptures The lawes and commaundements in the Scripture The doctrine of the Scriptures exceedeth the reach of man Prophesies sowed throughout all the Byble Gene. 15. Gene. 49. Rabbi Moyses vpoÌ„ the booke Abubacher Deuter. 32. Iosua 7. 1. King 16. verse 34. 1. King 13. 2. King 22. verse 15. 19. Esay 44. 45. Jerem. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. c. Daniel 9. Daniel 5. Esay 13. 2â— 47 Ieremy 50. Daniel 15 Daniel 7. Daniel 8. Daniel 9. Obiections Ptolomie in booke of the fruite The same thing doth Moises of Narbon say vppon the booke of Abubacher Auempare Roger Bacon in his booke of the Sixe sciences of experience and in his abridgement of Diuiniâ—â—e An obiection concerning the witnesse of the Greekes The Answere Aristobulus writing to Ptolomy Philoâ—netor lib. 1. Hecateus concerning the Iewes Herennius Philo concerning the Iewes Aristaeas concerning the translation of the Threescore and Ten Interpreters Eusebius in his eight booke of the preparation to the Gospell Origines in his fourth booke ageinst Celsus An Obiection concerning the style The Solution Ciâ—ero in his Tusculane Questions Osorius the Portingale Obiections concerning the vncrediblenesse of things in the Scriptures The Creation of the world and of Man The fall of Man The ege of the first men The generall Flud Alexander Polyhistor Abydemus alledged by Cyrill in his first booke against Iulian. Iosephus