promiseth to â—…ie the minde by the inuocation of deuills 11. Of Porpheries epistle to Anebuns of Aegâ—…t desiring him of instruction in the seuerâ—… kâ—…des of Daemones 12. Of the miracles that God worketh by his Angels ministry 1â—… How the inuisible God hath often made â—…selfe visible not as hee is really but as wee câ—…ld be able to comprehend his sight 14. How but one God is to be worshipped for all things temporall and eternall all being in the pâ—…er of his prouidence 15. Of the holy Angels that minister to Gods prouidence 16. Whether in this question of Beatitude we 〈◊〉 trâ—…st those Angels that refuse the diuine â—…ship and ascribe it all to one God or those thâ—… require it to themselues 17. Of the Arke of the Testament and the miracles wrought to confirme the lawe and the promise 18. Against such as deny to beleeue the scriptures concerning those miracles shewen to Gods people 19. The reason of that visible sacrifice that the true religion commands vs to offer to one God 20. Of the onely and true sacrifice which the mediator betweene God and Man became 21. Of the power giuen to the deuils to the greater glorifying of the Saints that haue suffered martyrdome and conquered the ayrie spirits not by appeasing them but by adhering to God 22. From whence the Saints haue their power against the diuels and their pure purgation of heart 23. Of the Platonists principles in their purgation of the soule 24. Of the true onely beginning that purgeth and reneweth mans whole nature 25. That all the Saints in the old law and other ages before it were iustified onely by the mistery and faith of Christ. 26. Of Porphery his wauering betweene confession of the true God and adoration of the Deuils 27. Of Porphery his exceeding Apuleius in impietie 28. What perswasions blinded Porphery from knowing Christ the true wisdome 29. Of the inearnation of our Lord Iesus Christ which the impious Platonists shame to acknowledge â—…0 What opinions of Plato Pophery confuted and corrected 31. Against the Platonists holding the soule coeternall with God 32. Of the vniuersall way of the soules freedome which Porphery sought amisse and therefore found not That onely Christ hath declared it FINIS THE TENTH BOOKE OF THE CITTIE OF GOD Written by Saint Augustine Bishop of Hippo vnto Marcellinus That the Platonists themselues held that One onely God was the giuer of all beatitude vnto men and Angels but the controuersie is whether they that they hold are to be worshipped for this end would haue sacrifices offered to themselues or resigne all vnto God CHAP. 1. IT is perspicuous to the knowledge of all such as haue vse of reason that man desireth to be happy But the great controuersies arise vppon the inquisition whence or how mortall infirmity should attaine beatitude in which the Phylosophers haue bestowed all their time study which to relate were here too tedious and as fruitlesse He that hath read our 8. booke wherein we selected with what Phylosophers to handle this question of beatitude whether it were to be attained by seruing one God the maker of the rest or the others also need not looke for any repititions here hauing 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 memory if it fayle him we choose the Platonists as worthily held the most â—…thy Philosophers because as they could conceiue that the reasoâ—…ble 〈◊〉 soule of man could neuer be blessed but in participation of the light of God the worlds creator so could they affirme that beatitude the ayme 〈◊〉 all 〈◊〉 was vn-attainable without a firme adherence in pure loue vnâ—…â—…hangeable One that is GOD. But because they also gaue way to Pagâ—… 〈◊〉 becomming vaine as Paul saith in their owne imaginations and beleeâ—… oâ—… would be thought to beleeue that man was bound to honor many gods and some of them extending this honor euen to deuills whom wee haue indifferently confuted it reâ—…eth now to examine by gods grace how these immortall and blessed creatures in heauen be they in thrones a dominations principalities or powers whom they call gods and some of them good Daemones or â—…gels as we doe are to be beleeued to desire our preseruation of truth in religion 〈◊〉 piety that is to be more plaine whether their wills be that we should offâ—…r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sacrifice or consecrate ours or our selues vnto them or onely to god 〈◊〉 iâ—… both their God ouâ—… the peculiar worship of the diuinity or to speaâ—…e â—…preslie the deitie because I haue no one fit Latine word to expresse 〈◊〉 â—…d I will vse the Greeke b Latria which our brethren in all translatiâ—… doe translate Seruice But that seruice wherein we serue men 〈◊〉 by the Apostle in these words Seruants bee obedient to your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expressed by another Greeke word But Latria as our Euangeliâ—… 〈◊〉 â—…her wholy or most frequently signifieth the honour due vnto GOD. Iâ—… 〈◊〉 therefore translate it 〈◊〉 of Colo to worshippe or to tiâ—… wâ—… 〈◊〉 it with more then God for wee c worship coliâ—… 〈◊〉 men of honorâ—… memory or presence besides Colo in generall vse is propâ—…â—…o d things vnder vs as well as those whome wee reuerence or adore 〈◊〉 â—…omes the word Colonus for a husbandman or an inhabitant And the â—…lled Caelicolae of Caelum Heauen and Colo to inhabite not to adore or 〈◊〉 yet e as husband-men that haue their name from the village of the â—…ossesse but as that rare Latinist saith Vrbs antiqua fuit f Tyrij tenuêre 〈◊〉 being here the inhabitants not the husbandmen And herevpon the 〈◊〉 haue beene planted and peopled by other greater cities as one hiue â—…duceth diuerse are called colonies So then we cannot vse Colo with â—…o God without a restraint of the signification seeing it is communiâ—…â—…o many sences therefore no one Latine word that I know is sufficient 〈◊〉 the worship due vnto God For though Religion signifie nothing so 〈◊〉 the worship of GOD and there-vpon so wee translate the Greeke 〈◊〉 yet because in the vse of it in Latine both by learned and ignorant â—…erred vnto linages affinities and all kindreds therefore it will not â—…oyde ambiguitie in this theame nor can wee truly say religion is noâ—…t Gods worship the word seeming to be taken originally from huâ—… and obseruance So Piety also is taken properly for the worship of 〈◊〉 the Greekes vse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet is it attributed also vnto the duty towards 〈◊〉 and ordinarily vsed for i the workes of mercy I thinke because â—…ands it so strictly putting it in his presence k for and l before 〈◊〉 Whence came a custome to call God Pious Yet the Greekes neuer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though they vse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for mercy or piety often But in some 〈◊〉 more distinction they choose rather to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods worship â—…lainely worship or good worship But wee haue no one fit worde â—…sse either of these The Greeke
the strangest for man is a a greater miracle then all that hee can worke Wherefore God that made heauen and earth both miracles scorneth not as yet to worke miracles in heauen and earth to draw mens soules that yet affect visibilities vnto the worship of his inuisible essence But where and when he will doe this his vnchangeable will onely can declare b at whose disposing all time past hath beene and to come is He mooueth all things in time but time adoreth not him nor mooueth hee future effects otherwise then present Nor heareth our praiers otherwise then he fore-seeth them ere we pray for when his Angells here them he heareth in them as in his true temples not made with hands so doth he hold al things effected temporally in his Saints by his eternall disposition L. VIVES MAn is a a greater The saying is most common in Trismegistus Man is a great miracle b At whose disposing Paul saith all things lie open and bare vnto Gods knowledge for all time is neither past nor to come but present to him So doth hee determine and dispose of all things as present nor doth yesterday or this day passe or come with him as it doth with vs. His power and essence admitreth no such conditions nor restraintes All eternity is present to him much more our little percell of time yet he that made our soules adapted them times fit for their apprehensions and though hee see how wee see and know yet hee neither seeth nor knoweth like vs. Shall wee run on in a Philosophicall discourse hereof wanting rather wordes then matter or is it bettâ—…r to burst out with Paul into admiration and cry out O the altitude of the ritches wisdome and knowledge of God! How the inuisible God hath often made himselfe visible not as he is really but as we could be able to comprehend his sight CHAP. 13. NOr hurteth it his inuisibility to haue appeared a visible oftentimes vnto the fathers For as the impression of a sound of a sentence in the intellect is not the same that the sound was so the shape wherein they conceiued Gods inuisible nature was not the same that he is yet was he seene in that shape as the sentâ—…e was conceiued in that sound for they knew that no bodily forme could b containe God He talked with Moyses yet Moyses intreated him a If I haue found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy fight shew meÌ„e thy face that I may d know thee And seeing it behouâ—… the law of God to bee giuen from the mouthes of Angells with terror not to a 〈◊〉 of the wisest but to a whole nation great things were done in the mount 〈◊〉 â—…he sayd people the lawe beeing giuen by one and all the rest beholding the â—…ble and strange things that were done For the Israelites had not that confidence in Moyses that the Lacedemonians had in d Lycurgus to beleeue that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his lawes from Ioue or Apollo For when that lawe was giuen the people that enioynes the worshippe of one God in the view of the same people were strange prooâ—… shewne as many as Gods prouidence thought fit to proue that that was the Creator whom they his creatures ought to serue in thâ—… 〈◊〉 L. VIVES 〈◊〉 a visible Iohn in his Gospell saith that no man hath euer seene God and Paul conâ—… it yet Iacob saith Hee saw the Lord face to face And Exod. 33. it is said Moyses 〈◊〉 God face to face as one friend with another which many places of Scripture teâ—… 〈◊〉 is so sure that man cannot behold Gods inuisible nature that some haue said that 〈◊〉 Angels nor Archangels doe see him Chrysost. and Gregor The fathers therefore 〈◊〉 such Maiestie of forme as they thought was diuine for that the Angels spoake 〈◊〉 â—…ers and gaue them the lawe Paul affirmeth to the Hebrewes in these words If 〈◊〉 â—…ken by Angels was stedfast c. The same saith Steuen Actes 7. Now this was no 〈◊〉 for none hee hath saith Chrysostome that Christ saith the Iewes neuer sawe 〈◊〉 was that visible shape that the Angels by Gods appointment take vpon them so 〈◊〉 â—…ing ordinary shapes that it seemes diuine and is a degree to the view of the 〈◊〉 saith he Christ saith they had not seene though they thought they had Exo. 19. 〈◊〉 A diuerse reading in the Latine c If I haue It is plaine saith Gregorie that 〈◊〉 life man may see some images of God but neuer him-selfe in his proper nature as 〈◊〉 â—…pired with the spirit seemeth some figures of God but can neuer reach the view of 〈◊〉 Hence it is that Iacob seeing but an Angell thought hee had seene God And 〈◊〉 for all he was said to speake with him face to face yet said Shew mee thy face that I 〈◊〉 whence it is apparant that hee desired to behold that cleare vncircumscribed 〈◊〉 â—…ch he had but yet beheld in shadowes and figures Moralan Iob. lib. 17. But the Anâ—… 〈◊〉 deputy answered Moyses thus Thou canst not see my face for there shall no man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lâ—…e But a little after Thou shalt see my back parts but my face thou shalt not see 〈◊〉 of the deity left in his creatures we may see and so aspire towards his inuisibility 〈◊〉 knowledge thereof as God giues more grace But his true essence is more amâ—… weake sence and intellect can comprehend or then can be so farre debased But 〈◊〉 â—…th God it is not so nor doe I thinke it impious or absurd to hold that God spake 〈◊〉 â—…he Fathers and after Christ to many of the Saints God euen that God of heaâ—… 〈◊〉 it is not against his Maiestie but congruent to his infinite goodnesse His face 〈◊〉 as Augustine declares d Know thee Or see thee knowingly e Lycurgus 〈◊〉 King of Sparta and Dionassa brother to king Polibites or Plutarch Poliâ—… 〈◊〉 whose death he reigned vntill his brothers wife prooued with child for then hee 〈◊〉 â—…o the childe vnborne if it were a sonne and proouing so hee was protector He gaue 〈◊〉 â—…nians sharpe lawes and therefore feyned to haue them from Apollo of Delphos 〈◊〉 Ioue because hee went into Crete to auoide the maleuolence of some of his 〈◊〉 and there they say learned hee his lawes of Ioue that was borne there Iustine 〈◊〉 in Creete But the Historiographers doe neither agree of his birth lawes nor 〈◊〉 Plutarch nor of his time nor whether there were diuerse so called Timaeus 〈◊〉 and both Lacedemonians but saith that both their deedes were referred to the 〈◊〉 â—…e elder liued in Homers time or not long after Of Lycurgus lawes I omitte to 〈◊〉 seeing they are so rife in Plutarch and Zenophon common authors both 〈◊〉 but one God is to be worshipped for all things temporall and eternall all being in the power of his prouidence CHAP. 14. 〈◊〉 true religion of all mankinde referred to the people of God as well 〈◊〉 hath had increase and receiued
Abraham was borne in a part of Chaldaea which belonged a vnto the Empire of the Assyrians And now had superstition got great head in Chaldaea as it had all ouer else so there was but onely the house of Thara Abrahams father that serued God truly and by all likelyhood kept the Hebrew tongue pure though that as Iosuah telleth the Hebrewes as they were Gods euident people in Egipt so in Mesopotamia they fell to Idolatry all Hebers other sonnes becomming other nations or beeing commixt with others Therefore euen as in the deluge of waters Noahs house remained alone to repaire man-kinde so in this deluge of sinne and superstition Thares house onely remained as the place wherein GODS Cittie was planted and kept And euen as before the deluge the generations of all from Adam the number of yeares and the reason of the deluge being all reckoned vp before God began to speake of building the Arke the Scripture saith of Noah These are the generations of Noah euen so here hauing reckoned all from Sem the sonne of Noah downe vnto Abraham hee putteth this to the conclusion as a point of much moment These are the generations of Thara Thara begot Abraham Nachor and Aram And Aram dyed before b his father Thara in the land wherein hee was borne being a part of Chaldaea And Abraham and Nachor tooke them wiues the name of Abrahams wife was Sarah and the name of Nachors wife was Melca the daughter of Aram who was father both to Melca and Iesea whome some hold also to be Sara Abrams wife L. VIVES WHich a belonged For Mela Pliny Strabo and others place Chaldaea in Assyria And 〈◊〉 onely a part of that Assyria which the ancient writers called by the name of Syâ—… 〈◊〉 countrie but of that Assyria also which Strabo calles the Babilonian Assyria 〈◊〉 maketh a difference betweene Syria and Assyria Cyropaed 1. b Before In his faâ—… 〈◊〉 So all interpretours take it Augustine might perhaps vnderstand it before his 〈◊〉 to Charra which is part of Chaldaea Charrah was a citty in Mesopotamia where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 killed Crassus the Romaine generall â—…hy there is no mention of Nachor Tharas sonne in his departure from Chaldaea to Mesopotamia CHAP. 13. 〈◊〉 the Scripture proceedeth and declareth how Thara and his family left â—…ldaea and came a into Mesopotamia and dwelt in Charra But of his 〈◊〉 â—…chor there is no mention as if he had not gone with him Thus saith the 〈◊〉 Thus Thara tooke Abraham his sonne and Lot his grand-child Abraâ—… 〈◊〉 and Sara his daughter in law his sonne Abrahams wife and hee led them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 countrey of Chaldaea into the land of Canaan and hee came to Charra and 〈◊〉 there Here is no word of Nachor nor his wife Melcha But afterward 〈◊〉 Abraham sent his seruant to seeke a wife for his sonne Isaac wee finde it 〈◊〉 thus So the seruant tooke ten of his maisters Camels and of his Maisters 〈◊〉 â—…th him and departed and went into Mesopotamia into the citty of Nachor â—…ce and others beside doe prooue that Nachor went out of Chaldaea alâ—…â—…led him-selfe in Mesopotamia where Abraham and his father had dwelt 〈◊〉 not the Scriptures then remember him when Thara went thence to 〈◊〉 where when it maketh mention both of Abraham and Lot that was 〈◊〉 â—…and-childe and Sara his daughter in lawe in this transmigration what 〈◊〉 thinke but that hee had forsaken his father and brothers religion and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chaldees superstition and afterward either repenting for his fact 〈◊〉 â—…secuted by the countrie suspecting him to bee hollow-harted deparâ—… him-selfe also for Holophernes Israels enemy in the booke of Iudith 〈◊〉 what nation they were and whether hee ought to fight against them 〈◊〉 answered by Achior captaine of the Ammonites Let my Lord heare the 〈◊〉 mouth of his seruant and I will show thee the truth concerning this people 〈◊〉 these mountaines and there shall no lye come out of thy seruants mouth 〈◊〉 come out of the stock of the Chaldaeans and they dwelt before in 〈◊〉 â—…ia because they would not follow the Gods of their fathers that 〈◊〉 â—…us in the land of Chaldaea but they left the way of their ancestors 〈◊〉 the God of heauen whom they knew so that they cast them out from 〈◊〉 their gods and they fled into Mesopotamia and dwelt there many 〈◊〉 their God commanded them to depart from the place where they 〈◊〉 to goe into the land of Chanaan where they dwelt and so forth as 〈◊〉 Ammonite relateth Hence it is plaine that Thara his family were perâ—… the Chaldaeans for their religion because they worshipped the true 〈◊〉 God L. VIVES Mesopotamia Mesopotamia quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betweene two seas for it lay all beâ—… 〈◊〉 and Euphrates Of the age of Thara who liued in Charra vntill his dying day CHAP. 14. THara dyed in Mesopotamia where it is said hee liued two hundred and fiue yeares and after his death the promises that God made to Abraham began to be manifested Of Thara it is thus recorded The dayes of Thara were two hundred and fiue yeares and hee dyed in Charra Hee liued not there all this time you must thinke but because he ended his time which amounted vnto two hundred and fiue yeares in that place it is said so Otherwise wee could not tell how many yeares he liued because we haue not the time recorded when he came to Charra and it were fondnesse to imagine that in that Catalogue where all their ages are recorded his onely should bee left out for whereas the Scripture names some and yet names not their yeares it is to bee vnderstood that they belong not to that generation that is so lineally drawne downe from man to man For the stem that is deriued from Adam vnto Noah and from him vnto Abraham names no man without recording the number of his yeares also Of the time vvherein Abraham receiued the promise from God and departed from Charra CHAP. 15. BVt whereas wee read that after Thara's death the Lord said vnto Abraham Gette thee out of thy countrey and from thy kindred and from thy fathers house c. Wee must not thinke that this followed immediately in the times though it follow immediately in the scriptures for so wee shall fall into an b inextricable doubt for after these words vnto Abraham the Scripture followeth thus So Abraham departed as the Lord spake vnto him and Lot vvent vvith him and Abraham vvas seauentie fiue yeares old vvhen hee vvent out of Charra How can this be true now if Abraham went not out of Charra vntill after the death of his father for Thara begot him as wee said before at the seauentith yeare of his age vnto which adde seauentie fiue yeares the age of Abraham at this his departure from Charra and it maketh a hundred forty fiue yeares So old therefore was Thara when Abraham departed from Charra that citty of Mesopotamia for
Christian Religion and become true and faithfull Tributaries to the people of Rome manfully defending those bounds of the Romanes by their sword and goods from the violent inuasions of the rest of the Scythians VALENS pleased with their conutions sent LVPIâ—…INIVS and MAVINVS vnto them as Duumuiri to deuide the grounde and assignâ—… places of habitations to the Visigoths But they began to lay burthens of oppression vppon the necks of the people through their coueteousnesse and crueltie now for a while the Gothes did patiently beare and lightly regarded the wrong done vnto them because they were loath beeing but lately entered into the bounds of strangers to kindle any fire of sedition supposing that those greedy Captaines being glutted with wealth would make an end of their oppressions But while these coueteous wretches had little care for the distribution and prouision of victuals they caused such a greeuous famine as was not onely a destruction to those hungry Captaines them-selues but also to the Romaine prince For the Gothes being assailed with pinching famine like hungry beastes tooke vppe their weapons hastily killing the Romaine Captaines and their Guard and then hauing armed them-selues they range ouer all Mysia and so from thencepasse into the nearest Thracia which they compelled to become tributary vnto them Here VALENS encountred them and there was a sore and bloody battell on both sides so that the Romaines were scattered and put to flight and a great many of them slaughtered The Emperour him-selfe beeing wounded was taken prisoner by the enemie whome they burned aliue so great was their furie after the effusion of so much blood And then beeing proud of their victory they march forward to Bizantium and no repugnant forces stopping their passage they besiege the Cittie which held out for some space of time by her owne strength by the industry and councell of DOMINICA who was wife vnto VALENS for the hartes of the Cittizens were fast vnited toward the Prince by the great bounty and liberality of DOMINICA Afterward the siege beeing raized by the valour and power of VALENTINIANVS brother to VALENS they retired backe and departed VALENTINIANVS adopted THEODOSIVS a Spaniard sent for out of Spaine and made him partaker of his Empire He vanquished and putte the Gothes to the worst in many battels compelling them to bee humble sutors for peace which beeing graunted HALARICVS their King comming to visite THEODOSIVS beeing sicke fell him-selfe also into a disease of which hee died within a few moneths after Neither had they any other King or Captaine but such as the Romaine Emperor elected and appointed ouer them In the meane while THEODOSIVS of Millan who was a prince without all controuersie equall to the rest and inferior to none of the most renowned as well in warre as peaee departed out of this life leauing two sonnes behinde him named ARCHADIVS and HONORIVS and one daughter called PLACIDIA He made ARCHADIVS gouernour ouer Byzantium and the Orientall Regiment and HONORIVS ouer the Occidentall and the Cittie of Rome And because they were some-what young hee assigned Tutors and Gardians ouer them in his Testament for their better education namely RVFFINVS ouer ARCHADIVS and STELICO ouer HONORIVS both of them beeing crafty and wicked wretches and so qualified by nature as they could easily insinuate them selues into the bosome of Princes These two bad Protectors abusing the Minority of these Princes beeing an age subiect to iniury that they might increase their owne ritches and strengthen them-selues with great power did not bend their affects to the fruition of any priuate greatnesse but their ambitious and treacherous thoughts aymed at the highest steppe of Royall dignity RVFFINVS coueted the Empire for him-selfe STILICO for his sonne Thus both of them busied their wittes and stretched the sinewes of their strength to satisfie their aspiring thoughtes but they perceiued that they could not come to the vpshotte of their desires but in the time of warre because then the peaceable state beeing troubled with the tempest of warre their hatefull thoughts could not so well be discouered and might with farre greater facility bee effected the mindes of the Princes being perplexed with terrors of the warres which might bee an occasion to grant any thing to men nearest vnto them and such as should haue the chiefest command in the administration of all affaires For they were not ignorant that in quiet time of peace as in a fayre and calme day the darke cloudes of their blacke mindes would soone haue beene discerned and that punishment should with more expedition bee inflicted vppon them the Princes and Nobles hauing leasure of consultation concerning that matter Wherefore both of them solicite and incite the Gothes a people ready to blow the bellowes to kindle the flame of sedition and tumults of war that they would make war against their Prince setting an edge vpon their greedy appetit with hope of a great rich booty the Gothes supposing now that oportunity was their friend so that they might do some great good for themselues or at least the war not attempted returne home again with no smal prey betooke themselues to armes and hauing created HALARICVS to bee their King one of their owne bodie and of the famous house of the BALTHI depart out of their owne bounds not without great feare and terror of those which bordered neare vnto them And within a while after RADAGAISVS ioyned himselfe vnto their King with two hundered thousand Gothes and when as no one land was able to nourrish two such hugh armies the Generalls were constrained to seperate their Tents and one of them going one way and the other another way through Panonia Illiricum and Noricum they burne and spoile all things that commeth in their way and at last they come into Italy Now RVFFINVS foolishly executing his designments was slaine by those souldiers at Thessalonica But STILICO more craâ—…tilie concealed his wicked plot And now RADAGAISVS was come to the Cittie of Rome with his army marching through Etruria putting all in great feare and terror which way soeuer hee went The Citty of Rome troubled with exceeding feare sendeth mercenarie captaines against him at his first approch Now RADAGAISVS vâ—…isedly and rashly ordering his army threw himselfe as it were head-long into places of disaduantage So that the multitude of his souldiers pyned were consumed with famine depriued of their victual And he himselfe seeing things were come to this vnlucky euent attempted with a small company to escape by flight be a secret and priuate way but hee was intercepted and slaine by the Romane souldiers and a great multitude of Gothes were sold at a very low rate After this ouerthrow and slaughter of the Gothes HALARICYS entreth into Italy affrighting euery one with farre greater dread then RADAGAISVS had done before When tydings was brought vnto STILICO which was at Byzantium hee sent some of his souldiers before him which should set vpon the
the founders of the citty did decree the same doe the destroyers of it And what if the one did it to increase the multitude of their cittizens when the other did it to preserue the multitude of their foes Let this then and what soeuer besides fitly may bee so vsed be vsed as an answer of our Lord Iesus Christ his flock and that pilgrim-citty of God vnto all their wicked enemies L. VIVES A a Sanctuarie It is a sacred place from whence it is not lawfull to draw any man for thence is the name deriued comming of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rapio to draw or pull and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the primiâ—… letter And so by a figure called Lambdacismus is made asylum for asyrum Seruiâ—… 〈◊〉 8. Aenead Though indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is tollere to take away as Homer vseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He tooke away the goodly armes After that Hercules was dead his nephews and postâ—…itie fearing the oppression of such as their grand-father had iniured built the first sanctuary at Athens naming it the temple of Mercy out of which no man could bee taken And this Statius testifieth also Now Romulus and Remus built one betweene the tower and the Capitoll calling the place where it stood Inter-montium intending hereby that the multitude of offendors flocking hether for hope of pardon would bee a meane to â—…ent the number of inhabitants in this new Citie To what God or Goddesse it was 〈◊〉 it is vnknowne Dionisius saith hee cannot tell Some say vnto Veiouis But the grâ—…e of the Saâ—…tie is honoured vpon the fourth of the Nones of February as Ouid writâ—… Pastorum 2. In Greece and Asia haue beene many sanctuaries Tiberius Caesar being out of liking with their too much licence tooke from them almost all their liberties and priuiledges as Tacitus and Suetonius do report Of such of Gods elest as liue secretly as yet amongst the Infidels and of such as are false Christians CHAP. 34. AND let this Cittie of Gods remember that euen amongst her enemies there are some concealed that shall one day be her Citizens nor let her thinke it a fruitlesse labour to beare their hate a vntill shee heare their confession as she hath also as long as shee is in this pilgrimage of this world some that are pertaker of the same sacraments with her b that shall not bee pertakers of the Saints glories with her who are partly knowne and partly vnknowne Yea such there are that spare not amongst Gods enemies to murmure against his glory whose character they beare vpon them going now vnto Playes with them and by and by vnto the Church with vs. But let vs not despaire of the reformation of some of these we haue little reason seeing 〈◊〉 we haue many secret and predestinated friends euen amongst our most 〈◊〉 aduersaries and such as yet know not themselues to be ordained for 〈◊〉 â—…dship For the two citties of the predestinate and the reprobate are in this world confused together and commixt vntill the generall iudgement make a separation of the originall progresse and due limits of both which cities what I thinke fitte to speake by Gods helpe and furtherance I will now beâ—… to the glory of the Cittie of God which being d compared with her 〈◊〉 will spread her glories to a more full aspect L. VIVES VNtill a shee heare their confession At the last discouery where euery man shall confesse himselfe which shall bee then when the bookes of mens consciences are opened that is in the world to come b That shall not be partakers According to the words of Christ Many are called but few are chosen c Untill the generall iudgement So it is in the Gospell The Angels shall seperate the euill from the middest of the iust in the end of the world d Compared with her contrary So Aristotle saith Contraries placed together shew both the fuller What subiects are to be handled in the following discourse CHAP. 35. BVt we haue a little more to say vnto those that lay the afflictions of the Romaine estate vpon the profession of Christianitie which forbiddeth men to sacrifice vnto those Idols For we must cast vp a summe of all the miseries or of as many as shal suffice which that Citie or the prouinces vnder her subiection endured before those sacrifices were forbidden All which they would haue imputed vnto our religion had it beene then preached and taught against these sacrifices when these miseries befell Secondly wee must shew what customes and conditions the true God vouchsafed to teach them for the increasing of their Empire a that God in whose hand are al the kingdomes of the earth and how their false Gods neuer helped them a iotte but rather did them infinite hurt by deceit and inducement And lastly we will disprooue those who though they be confuted with most manifest proofes yet will needs affirme still that their gods are to be worshipped and that not for the benefites of this life but for those which are belonging to the life to come Which question vnlesse I be deceiued will be b farre more laborious and worthier of deeper consideration in the which we must dispute against the Philosophers c not against each one but euen the most excellent and glorious of them all and such as in many points hold as we hold and namely of the immortality of the soule and of the worlds creation by the true God and of his prouidence whereby he swayeth the whole creation But because euen these also are to be confuted in what they hold opposite vnto vs wee thought it our dutie not to bee slacke in this worke but conuincing all the contradictions of the wicked as God shall giue vs power and strength to aduance the veritie of the Cittie of God the true zeale and worship of God which is the onely way to attaine true and eternall felicitie This therefore shall bee the method of our worke and now from this second exordium we will take each thing in due order L. VIVES THat God a in whose hand for Christ saith Math. 28. 18. All power is giuen vnto me in heauen and earth b More laborious Operosior harder of more toyle c Not against each one not against euery common Philosopher or smatterer for so is quilibet taken sometimes as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often in the Greeke In this Chapter Augustine shewes briefly both what he hath done already and how he meanes to proceede Finis Libri primi THE CONTENTS OF THE SECND BOOKE OF THE Citie of God 1. Of the method that must of necessity be vsed in this disputation 2. A repitition of the contents of the first booke 3. Of the choise of an history that will shew the miseries that the Romaines endured when they worshipped their Idols before the increase of Christian religion 4. That the worshippers of Pagan gods neuer receiued honest instruction from them but vsâ—…d all filthinesse in their
sacriâ—…es 5. Of the obscaenaties vsed in the sacrifices offred vnto the mother of the gods 6. That the Pagan gods did neuer establish the doctrine of liuing well 7. That the Philosophers instructions are weake and bootlesse in that they beare no diuine authoritie because that the examples of the Gods are greater confirmation of vices in men then the wise mens disputations are on the contrary 8. Of the Romaine Stage-playes wherin the publishing of their foulest impurities did not any way offend but rather delight them 9. What the Romaines opinion was touching the restraint of the liberty of Poefie which the Greekes by the councell of their Gods would not haue restrained at all 10. That the Deuils through their settled desire to doe men mischiefe were willing to haue any villanie reported of them whether true or false 11. That the Greeks admitted the Plaiers to beare office in their commonweales least they should seeme vniust in despising such men as were the pacifiers of their 〈◊〉 12. That the Romaines in abridging thâ—…r liberty which their Poets would haue vpon men and allowing them to vse it vpon their Gods did herein shew that they prised themselues aboue the Gods 13. That the Romaines might haue â—…serued their Gods vnworthinesse by the 〈◊〉 of such obscane solemnitiâ—… 14. That Plato who would not allow Poets to dwell in a well gouerned Citie shewed herein that his sole worth was better then all the Gods who desire to bee honored with Stage-playes 15. That flattery and not Reason created some of the Romaine Gods 16. That if the Romaine Gods had had any care of iustice the Citty should haue had her forme of gouernment from them rather then to borrow it of other nations 17. Of the rape of the Sabine women and diuerse other wicked facts done in Romes most ancient honorable times 18. What the history of Salust reports of the Romains conditions both in their times of danger and those of securitie 19. Of the corruptions ruling in the Romaine state before that Christ abolished the worship of their Idols 20. Of what kind of happinesse and of what conditions the accusers of Christianitie desire to pertake 21. Tullies opinion of the Romaine common-weale 22. That the Romaine Gods neuer respected whether the Citty were corrupted and so brought to destruction or no. 23. That the variety of temporall estates dependeth not vpon the pleasure or displeasure of those Deuils but vpon the iudgments of God Almighty 24. Of the acts of Sylla wherein the Deuils shewed themselues his maine helpers and furtherers 25. How powerfully the Deuils incite men to villanies by laying before them examples of diuine authority as it were for them to follow in their villanous acts 26. Of certaine obscure instructions concerning good manners which the Deuils are said to haue giuen in secret whereas all wickednesse was taught in their publique solemnities 27. What a great meanes of the subuersion of the Romaine estate the induction of those Playes was which they surmized to be propitiatory vnto the Gods 28. Of the saluation attained by the Christian religion 29. An exhortation to the Romaines to renounce their Paganisme THE SECOND BOOKE OF THE CITTY OF GOD Written by Saint Augustine Bishop of Hippo vnto Marcellinus Of the method which must of necessity be vsed in this disputation CHAP. 1. IF the weake custome of humaine sence durst not bee so bold as to oppose it selfe against the reasons of apparant truth but would yeeld this languid infirmitie vnto wholesome instruction as vnto a medicine which were fittest to apply vntill by Gods good assistance and faiths operation it were throughly cured then those that can both iudge well and instruct sufficiently should not need many words to confute any erronious opinion or to make it fully apparant vnto such as their desires would truly informe But now because there is so great and inueterate a dâ—…sease rooted in the mindes of the ignorant that they will out of their extreame blindnesse whereby they see not what is most plaine or out of their obstinate peruersnesse whereby they will not brooke what they see defend their irrationall and brutish opinions after that the truth hath beenetaught them as plaine as one man can teach another hence it is that a there ariseth a necessitie that bindeth vs to dilate more fully of what is already most plaine and to giue the truth not vnto their eyes to see but euen into their heads as it were to touch and feele Yet notwithstanding this by the way What end shall wee make of alteration if we hold that the answerers are continually to be answered For as for those that either cannot comprehend what is said vnto them or else are so obstinate in their vaine opinions that though they do vnderstand the truth yet will not giue it place in their minds but reply against it as it is written of them like spectators of iniquitie those are eternally friuolous And if wee should binde our selues to giue an answer to euery contradiction that their impudencie will thrust forth how falsly they care not so they do but make a shew of opposition vnto our assertions you see what a trouble it would be how endlesse and how fruitlesse And therefore sonne Marcelline I would neither haue you nor any other to whom this our worke may yeeld any benefit in Iesus Christ to read this volume with any surmise that I am bound to answer whatsoeuer you or they shall heare obiected against it least you become like vnto the women of whom the Apostle saith that they were alwayes learning and neuer able to come vnto the knowledge of the truth L. VIVES Hâ—… 〈◊〉 iâ—… that a there ariseth a necessity The latine text is fit necessitus spoken by a Gâ—…e figure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Demosthenes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 necessitas for necesse and it is an ordinary phrase with them though the Latynes say est necessitas as Quintilian hath it Arepetition of the Contentes of the first booke CHAP. 2. THerefore in the former booke wherein I began to speake of the City of God to which purpose all the whole worke by Gods assistance shall haue reserence I did first of all take in hand to giue them their answere that are so shamelesse as to impute the calamities inflicted vpon the world and in particular vpon Rome in her last desolation wrought-by the Vandales vnto the religion of Christ which forbids men to offerre seruice or sacrifice vnto deuills whereas they are rather bound to ascribe this as a glory to Christ that for his names sake alone the barbarous nations beyond all practise and custome of warres allowed many and spacious places of religion for those ingratefull men to escape into and gaue such honor vnto the seruants of Christ not only to the true ones but euen to the counterfeit that what the law of armes made lawfull to doe vnto all men they held it vtterly vnlawfull to offer vnto them
besides those which flattery consecrated to the dead Caesars as one to C. Caesar by Antonyes law which Cicero reproueth Phillippic 2. one to Augustus and so to diuers others But those that Numa made were the principall alwaies and the principall of them was Ioues Flamin the Diall he onely of all the rest went in a white Hat and was held the most reuerend His ceremonies and lawes are recounted both by Plutarch in his Problemes and also by Gellius lib. 10. out of Fabius Pictor Massurius Sabinus Varro and others The lowst in degree of all the Flamines was the Pomonall Flamine because Pomona the goddesse of Apples was of the least esteeme Others there were of meane dignity as Vulcanes Furidà s Father Falacers The Goddesses that pretected mount Palatine and mother Florà s d which kind of Priesthood Though the Flamines were of great authority yet were all obedient vnto the chiefe Priest for so the people commanded it should be when in the second warre of Affrike L. Mettellus being chiefe Priest with-held the consul Posthumus being Mars his Flamine and would not let him leaue his order nor his sacrifices and likewise in the first warre of Asia P. Licinius high Priest staid Q. Fabius Pictor then Praetor and Quirinall Flamine from going into Sardinia e as their crests they wore Apèx is any thing that is added to the toppe or highest part of a thing here it is that which the Flamine bore vpon his head his cap or his tufte of woll Lucane Et tollens opicem generoso vertice Flamen The Flamine with his cap and lofty crest Sulpitius lost his Priesthood because his crest fell of whilst he was a sacrificing saith Valerius lib. 1. The Romaines gaue not this crest but vnto their greatest men in religion as now we giue Miters they called it Apex saith Seruius vpon the eight Aenead ab apendo which is to ouercome and hence comes Aptus Apiculum filum that was the small tufted thred which the Flamines folded their Crests in Fabius speaketh of these Crests and Virgill Hinâ—… exultantes Salâ—…os nudosque Laper cos lanigerosque apices Here Salii danc'd naked Lupeâ—…ci there and there the tufted crownes Aenead 8. f Onely three of those their chiefe and true Flamines inheritours of the auncient Flaminshippe g the loue of his cittizens Romulus being dead the people began to suspect that the Senate had butchered him secretly amongst them-selues So Iulius Proculus appeased the rage of the multitude by affirming that hee saw Romulus ascending vp into heauen Liuye in his first booke Ennius brings in the people of Rome lamenting for Romulus in these words O Romule Romule dic qualem te patriae custodem Dij genuerunt Tu proauxisti nos intra lvmiâ—…s oras O Pater O genitor patriae O sanguine disoâ—…iunde O Romulus O Romulus shevv vs hovv they thy countries gard the gods begat Thou brought vs first to light O thou our father thy countries father borne of heauenly seed h called Quirinus many of such mens names haue beene chaunged after their deyfying to make them more venerable hauing cast of their stiles of mortality for so was Laeda so called when she was aliue after her death and deification stiled Nemesis and Circe Marica and Ino Matuta And Aeneas Iupiter Indiges Romulus was called Quirinus to gratifie the Sabines In which respect also the Romaines were called Quirites of Cures a towne of the Sabines or else as Ouid saith Siue quòd Hasta Quiris priscis est dicta Sabinis Bellicus a 〈◊〉 veâ—…t in Astra deus Siue suâ—… Reginomenposuâ—…re Quirites Seu qâ—…a Romanis iunxerat ille Cures Or for the Sabines speares Quirites call His weapons name made him celestiall Or els they so enstilâ—… him herevpon because he made them and the Cures one That if the Romaine gods had had any care of Iustice the Citie should haue had their formes of good gouernment from them rather then to goe and borrow it of other nations CHAP. 16. IF the Romaines could haue receiued any good instructions of morality from their gods they would neuer haue beene a beholding to the Athenians for Solons lawes as they were some yeares after Rome was built which lawes notwithstanding they did not obserue as they receiued them but endeauoured to better them and make them more exact and though b Licurgus fained that hee gaue the Lacedemonians their lawes by the authorization of Apollo yet the Romanes very wisely would not giue credence to him c therfore gaue no admission to these lawes Indeed d Numa Pompilius Romulus his sucessor is said to haue giuen them some lawes but e al too insufficient for the gouernment of a Cittie He taught them many points of their religion f but it is not reported that hee had these institutions from the gods Those corruptions therefore of minde conuersation and conditions which were so great that the g most learned men durst affirme that these were the cankers by which all Common-weales perished though their walls stood neuer so firme those did these gods neuer endeauor to with-hold from them that worshipped them but as wee haue proued before did rather striue to enlarge and augment them with all their care and fullest diligence L. VIVES BEholding a to the Athenians In the 300. yeare after Romes building when there had beene many contentions betweene the Patricians the Plebeyans they sent three Ambassadours to Athens to coppy out Solons lawes and to learne the policy and ciuility of the rest of the Greekes that the Romane estate might bee conformed and settled after the manner of the Grecians Chaerephanes was then gouernor of Athens it beeing the 82. Olympiade The Ambassadors dispatched their affaires with all diligence and returned the next yeare after and then were the Decemuiri elected to decree lawes and those wrote the first ten tables of the Romanes ciuill lawe and afterwards they added two more all which were approoued in the great Parliament called Comitia Centuriata And these were their noblest lawes which were written in the twelue Tables Liuy lib. 3. Dionys. lib. 10 others also b Lycurgus The lawes which Lycurgus gaue as â—…e faigned by Apollo's oracle to the Lacedemonians are very famous The Greeke and Latine authors are full of this mans honours and of the hard lawes which he gaue the Spartans There is a worke of Xenophons extant onely of these lawes and many of them are recorded in Plutarche I neede not trouble the Reader in so plaine a matter c therefore gaue no admission And also because Solons lawes were more accomodate and appliable to 〈◊〉 education and mansuetude then the rough seuere ones of Lycurgus as Plato and Aristotle doe very well obserue For his lawes aimed at no other end but to make the Spartanis warriers d Numa Pompilius He was borne at Cures in the country of the Sabines and was the bestman of his time in the world Of this
light Infinite are the significations of words and the proprieties of phrase which onely Budaeus hath fetched out of deepest obliuion and exposed them to mens vnderstandings And yet all these singular and admirable guifts hath hee attained to by his owne industry alone without helpe of any maister O happy fertile witte that in it selfe alone found both maister and scholler and method of instruction That whose tenth part others can hardly leâ—…of great and cunning maisters he alone without helpe of others drew wholy from himselfe I haue not yet sayd any thing of his knowledge in the lawe which he alone hath begun to restore from ruine nor of his Philosophie whereof in his bookes De Asse he hath giuen such proofe as no man possibly could but such an one as had dayly conuersation with such reading of all the Philosophers and deepe instruction in those studies To all this may bee added that which indeed excells all things else an honestie congruent to all this learning so rare and so admirable that being but considered without the other graces of witte and learning it might seeme the worlds miracle his honesty no more then his learning acknowledgeth none his superior A man that in all the diuerse actions of his life giues his religion alwayes the first place A man that hauing wife and many children was neuer drawne from his true square with any profit or study to augment his estate but euer-more swaid both himselfe and his fortunes and directed both Fortune could neuer lead him away though she promised neuer so faire he had her alwayes in his power A man continually in court in Embassages yet neuer followed Princes fauours nor nousled them with flatteries Hee neuer augmented his patrimony because he would neuer depart an haires-breadth from honesty he was alwayes a seuerer censor of his owne conditions then of any others and hauing vndergone offices which were obiects of the greatest enuie he neuer found callumnie from any tongue nor incurd suspition of any error though he had to doe with a free nation and a people as ready to accuse as froward to suspect I see I haue forgot breuities bounds being whirled beyond them with the loue I haue to relate the vertues of mine honored friend now to our purpose Salusts meaning therefore is that as well this ciuill equitie which they call lawe as that naturall equitie which nature produceth in the mindes of the iudicious and then which nothing is better it being therefore called good were no more powerfull with the Romaines in their decretall lawes then in the naturall discretions of vnderstanding men b Out of this Iustice A most bitter Ironie a 〈◊〉 quippe c That the Sabine Virgins When as Romulus could not obtaine women of 〈◊〉 neighbouring nations for his cittizens to marry with by the aduise of his grand-father Numitor and the Senate hee gaue it out that hee would celebrate some games in honour of Neptune the horse-rider or Hippoposeidon so the women their neighbours comming to see the sports the Romanes tooke them all away by force especially the Sabines out of the middest of the exercises For so had Romulus and his companions resolued the fourth month after the building of Rome as Dionysius relateth out of Fabius Pictor Plutarch saith it was the 14. of the Calends of September and both agreed for the city was begun to be built the 12. of the Calends of May on the feast day called Palilia Though Gellius not Aulus with the Attican nights but another ancient writer affirmes it was in the 4. yeare that this was done which is the likelier to be true They tooke away as Dionysius saith six hundred and eighty which I do hold for the more likely then that which other talke of three hundred from whence the names of the Curiae or the wards Iuba addeth three more to the number before Antias Valerius names but fiue hundred twenty and seauen Some say that Thalassus was not a man but onely the signe giuen to shew them when to begin their rape Festus out of Varro saith it was so taken about spinning of woll as a man would say a panier or a basket d herein indeed Both those nations of whence the women were whom they forced away as also others whom the rest by their lamentable intreaties and the feare of their owne dangers moued tooke vp armes against the Romanes the Sabines the Ceninenses the Crustumerians and the Atennates all combined against them Romulus seeing so dangerous a warre likely to ensue vpon him confederateth with the Hetrurians whose powre at that time was very great Caelius Vibennus prince of Hetruria gaue Romulus aide of whom this Mount Caelius in Rome tooke the name His grand-father also sent him succors So that with small adoe he ouerthrew the forces of the Ceninenses the Crustumerians and the Attenuates and contending with the Sabines in a doubtfull and dangerous war vpon a sudden by the entreaty of the women themselues the war ceased and both the parties ioyned in league and amity together e the Circensian plaies Euery yeare was there plaies or games celebrated vnto Neptune Equéster and they were diuersly called the Circensian plaies the Great plaies the Romane plaies and amongst the ancients Consualia of Consus a God to whom they offered sacrifice and beleeued him to gouerne al Counsells and of him Romulus asked instruction in all his perills in the doubts of those marriages His alter was hidden in the earth because as Plato saith counsell ought not only to bee held â—…oly but secret also f after Tarquin Another Ironicall taunte g L. Tarquin Collatine The Kings being casheered out of Rome by the great Centuriall Parliament which Seruius Tullus had before instituted L Iunius Brutus and L. Tarquin Collatine Lucraetias husband were elected Consulls the later of which was son to Egerius Tarquinius Priscus his brother as Liuy saith But Nephew to him saith Dionysius Brutus being desirous not onely to expell the King himselfe but all his name with him disanulled the magistracy of his fellow because his name was Tarquin and so he willingly tooke his goods and departed the citie going to Collatium to dwell Now Tully Offic. lib. 3. confesseth that this was no very honest part of Brutus but because it was most profitable to the assurance of the coÌ„mon-wealth therfore it past for an act of honesty It hath bin obserued saith Iulius Obsequens that no man that euer abrogated his fellowes magistracy liued his yeare to an end the first that did so was this Brutus the next Tiberius Gracchus the third P. Tarquinius h Marcus Camillus This was he that tooke the City Veii after ten yeares continuall siege At that time began the Romanes first to lodge in tents vnder beast skins in winter because they hated this people so deadly that they would not depart thence vntill the warres were ended for euer since the raigne of Romulus for three hundred years
Augustine Bishop of Hippo vnto Marcellinus Of the Contents of the first Booke CHAP. 1. AT my first entrance vpon this Discourse of the Citty of God I held it conuenient first of all to stop their mouthes who in their extreame desire of onely temporall blisse and greedinesse after wordly vanities doe make their exclaime vpon Christianity the true and onely meane of saluation whensoeuer it pleases God in his mercy to correct and admonish them rather then in his iustice to punish or afflict them with any temporall inconuenience And because the vnlearned and vulgar sort of those persons are incited against vs the more by the endeuours and examples of those whom they holde learned thinking vpon their assertions that such calamities as haue befallen them of late neuer befell in times past and being confirmed in this error by such as know it for an error and yet dissemble their knowledge wee thought it fi◅e to shew how farre this their opinion swarued from the truth out of such bookes as their owne authors haue left vnto posterity for the better vnderstanding of the estates of precedent ages and to make it plaine apparant that those imaginary gods which they either did worship as then in publick or as now in secret are nothing but most foule vncleane spirits and most deceitfull and malignant deuils so that their onely delight was to haue most bestiall abhominable practises either published as their true exploits or faigned of them by poe◅icall muentions these they cōmanded to be publikely presented in playes at solemne feastes to the end that mans infirmitie presuming vpon these patternes as vpon diuine authorities might neuer be with-drawne from acting the like wickednesse This we confirmed not by meere coniectures but partly by what of late times our selfe hath beheld in the celebration exhibited vnto such gods and partly by their owne writings that left those reports recorded not as in disgrace but as in the honour of the gods So that Varro a man of the greatest learning and authoritie amongst them of any writing of diuinity and humanitie and giuing each obiect his proper attribute according to the worth due respect thereof sticketh not to affirme that those stage playes are not matters of humaine inuention but meerely diuine things whereas if the cittie were quit of all but honest men stage-plaiers should haue no roome in meere humanity Nor did Varro affirme this of himselfe but set it downe as he had seene the vse of these playes in Rome being there borne and brought vp L. VIVES NOw must we passe from the historicall acts of the Romaines vnto their religion sacrifices ceremonies In the first bookes we asked no pardon because for the Romaine acts though they could not be fully gathered out of one author a great part of them being lost with the writings of eloquent Liuie yet out of many they might But in the foure bookes following we must needes intreate pardon if the reader finde vs weake either in diligence or abilitie For there is no author now extant that wrote of this theame Varro's Antiquities are lost with a many more if wee had but them we might haue satisfied Saint Augustine that had his assertions thence But now we must pick y◠vp frō seuerall places which we here produce least comming without any thing we should seeme both to want ornaments bare necessaries If it haue not that grace that is expected we are content in that our want is not wholy to bee shamed at and our endeuours are to bee pardoned in this respect that many learned and great Schollers to omitte the vulgar sort haue beene willingly ignorant in a matter of such intricate study and so little benefite which makes our diligence the lesse faultie This Varro testifies Iuuenall seemes to bee ignorant whether Money were worshipped in Rome for a goddesse or no. Satyra 1. Et si funesta pecunia templo Nondum habitas nullas nummorum ereximus aras Though fatall money doth not sit Ador'd in shrine nor hath an altar yet Notwithstanding Varro reckoneth vp her with God Gold and God Siluer amongst the deities Who wonders then if we be not so exact in a thing that the goodnesse of Christ hath already abolished out of humaine businesses as some of those idolators were or as Varro himselfe was who not-with-standing did truly obiect vnto the Priests that there was much in their deities which they vnderstood not hee being the best read of all that age Besides humaine learning should sustaine no losse if the memory as well as the vse of those fooleries were vtterly exterminate For what is one the better scholler for knowing Ioues tricks of lust or Uenus hers what their sacrifices are what prodigies they send which God owes this ceremonie and which that I my selfe know as much of these dotages as another yet will I maintaine that the ignorance of these things is more profitable then in any other kinde and therefore I haue had the lesse care to particularize of the deities kindes temples altars feasts and ceremonies of euery God and Goddesse though I would not send the reader empty away that desireth to haue some instruction herein The contents of the second and third booke CHAP. 2. AND hauing propounded a methode of our discourse in the end of the first booke whereof we haue prosecuted some parcels in the bookes following now we know that we are to proceed in these things which our order obligeth vs to relate We promised therefore to say some-what against those that impute the Romaines calamities vnto Christianitie and to make a peculiar relation of the euills that wee should finde their cittie or the prouinces thereof to haue endured ere their sacrifices were prohibited all which questionlesse they would haue blamed vs for had they befallen them in the times of our religious lustre and authoritie This we performed sufficiently I thinke in the two last bookes in the former of them reciting the euills which were either the onely ones or the sorest and most extreame I meane those corruptions of manners In this last of those which these fooles haue so maine a feare to suffer as afflictions a of body and goods which the best men often-times pertake of as well as the worst But for the things that make them euill and depraue their soules those they detaine with more then patience with extremitie of desire Then I toucht a little at the citty and so came downe speedily to Augustus But if I would haue dilated not vpon these reciprocall hurts that one man doth to another as was desolations c. but vpon the things that befall them by the very elements and from nature which b Apuleius briefly speakes of in one place of his booke De Mundo saying that all earthly things haue their changes c reuolutions and dissolutions for he saith that by an exceeding earth-quake the ground opened at a certaine time and swallowed vp whole
king domes to good and to bad not rashly nor casually but as the time is appointed which is well knowne to him though hidden for vs vnto which appointment not-with-standing hee doth not serue but as a Lord swayeth it neuer giuing true felicitie but to the good For this both a subiects and Kings may eyther haue or wante and yet bee as they are seruants and gouernours The fulnesse indeed of it shall bee in that life where b no man shall serue And therefore here on earth hee giueth kingdomes to the bad as well as to the good least his seruants that are but yet proselites should affect them as great maâ—…ters And this is the mysterie of his olde Testament wherein the new was included that c there all the gifts and promises were of this world and of the world to come also to those that vnderstood them though the eternall good that was meant by those temporall ones were not as yet manifested nor in whâ—… gifts of God the true felicitie was resident L. VIVES SUbiects a and Stoicisme A slaue wise is a free man a King foolish a 〈◊〉 b No man shall serue Some bookes wante the whole sentence which followeâ—… And therefore c. c There all The rewards promised to the kâ—…pers of the law in the old Testament were all temporall how be it they were misticall types of the Celestiall Of the Iewes kingdome which one God alone kept vnmoued as long as they kept the truth of religion CHAP. 34. TO shew therefore that all those temporall goods which those men gape after that can dreame of no better are in Gods hands alone and in none of their Idolls therefore multiplied he his people in Aegipt from a a very few and then deliuered them from thence by miraculous wounders Their women neuer called vpon Lucina when their children multiplied vpon them incredibly and when he preserued them from the b Aegiptians that persecuted them and would haue killed all their children They suckt without Ruminas helpe slept without Cunina eate and dranke without Educa and Potica and were brought vp without any of these puppy-gods helpes married without the Nuptiall gods begot children without Priapus crossed through the diuided sea without calling vpon Neptune and left al their foes drowned behind them They dedicated no Goddesse Mannia when heauen had rained Manna for them nor worshipped the Nymphes when the rocke was cleft and the waters flowed out they vsed no Mars nor Bellona in their warres and conquered not without Victory but without making Victory a goddesse They had corne oxen hony apples without Segetia Bobona Mella or Pomona And to conclude all things that the Romaines begged of so many false gods they receiued of one true God in far happier measure had they not persisted 〈◊〉 their impious curiosity in running after strange gods as if they had beene enchaunted and lastly in killing of Christ in the same kingdome had they liued happily still if not in a larger And that they are now dispersed ouer the whole earth is gods especiall prouidence that what Alters Groues Woods and Temples of the false gods he reproueth and what sacrifices he forbiddeth might all be discerned by their bookes as their fall it selfe was foretold them by their pâ—…phets And this least the Pagans reading them with ours might thinke wee had fâ—…igned them But now to our next booke to make an end of this tedious one L. VIVES FRom a very few The Sonnes of Israell that went into Aegipt were 70. Gen. 49. b Aegiptians Here is a diuersity of reading but all one sence and so is there often else-where which I forbeare to particularize or to note all such occurences Finis lib. 4. THE CONTENTS OF THE fifth booke of the City of God 1. That neither the Romaine Empire nor any other Kingdome had any establishment from the powre of Fortune nor from the starres chapter 1. 2. Of the mutuall Sympathie and dssimillitude of the health of body and many other accidents in twinnes of one birth 3. Of Nigidius the astrologians argument in this question of the twinnes drawne from the potters wheele 4. Of Esau and Iacob two twinnes and of the diuersity of their conditions and quallities 5. How the Mathematicians may bee conuicted of professing direct vanity 6. Of twinnes of different sexes 7. Of the election of daies of marriage of planting and of sowing 8. Of their opinion that giue not the name of Fate the position of the starres but vnto the dependance of causes vpon the will of God 9. Of Gods fore-knowledge and mans freedome of election against the opinon of Cicero 10. Whether Necessity haue any dominion ouer the will of man 11. Of Gods vniuersall prouidence ruling all and comprising all 12. How the ancient Romaines obtained this encrease of their Kingdome at the true Gods hand beeing that they neuer worshipped him 13. Of ambition which beeing a vice is notwithstanding herein held a vertue that it doth restraine vices of worse natures 14. That we are to auoide this desire of humaine honour the glory of the righteous beeing wholy in God 15. Of the tempor all rewardes that God bestowed vpon the Romaines vertues and good conditions 16. Of the reward of the eternall Cittizens of heauen to whome the examples of the Romaines vertues were of good vse 17. The fruites of the Romaines warres both to themselues and to those with whom they warred 18. How farre the Christians should bee from boasting of their deedes for their eternall country the Romaines hauing done so much for their temporall city and for humaine glory 19. The difference betweene the desire of glory and the desire of rule 20. That vertue is as much disgraced in seruing humaine glory as in obeying the pleasures of the body 21. That the true God in whose hand and prouidence all the state of the world consisteth did order and dispose of the Monarchy of the Romaines 22. That the Originalls and conclusions of warres are all at Gods dispose 23. Of the battaile wherein Radagaisus an idolatrous King of the Gothes was slaine with all his army 24. The state and truth of a christian Emperors felicity 25. Of the prosperous estate that God bestowed vpon Constantine a christian Emperor 26. Of the faith and deuotion of Theodosius Emperor 27. Augustines invectiue against such as wrote against the bookes already published FINIS THE FIFTH BOOKE OF THE CITTIE OF GOD Written by Saint Augustine Bishop of Hippo vnto Marcellinus That neither the Romaine Empire nor any other Kingdome had any establishment from the power of fortune or from the starres CHAP. 1. WHereas it is apparant to all mens discretion that felicity is the hope of al humane desires and that she is no goddesse but merely the gift of a god and consequently that there is no god worthy of worshippe but he in whose power it lieth to bestow this felicity vpon men so that if shee were a goddesse herselfe the worship of al the
we leaue single as wanting m meanes of the bargaine chiefly some beeing widowes as Populonia Fulgura and Rumina nor wonder if these want sutors But this rable of base gods forged by inueterate superstition wee will adore saith hee rather for lawes sake then for religions or any other respect So that neither law nor custome gaue induction to those things either as gratefull to the gods or vse-full vnto men But this man whom the Philosophers as n free yet beeing a great o Senator of Rome worshipped that hee disauowed professed that hee condemned and adored that hee accused because his philosophy had taught him this great matter not to bee superstitious in the world but for law and customes sake to imitate those things in the Temple but not acte them in the Theater so much the more damnably because that which he counterfeited he did it so that the p people thought hee had not counterfeited But the plaier rather delighted them with sport then wronged them with deceite L. VIVES APostles a times It may bee the proofes are the Epistles that are dispersed vnder the name of him to Paul and Paul vnto him but I thinke there was no such matter But sure it is that he liued in Nero's time and was Consull then and that Peter and Paul suffred martirdome about the same time For they and hee left this life both within two yeares it may be both in one yeare when Silius Nerua and Atticus Vestinus were Consulls b Booke against superstitions These and other workes of his are lost one of matrimony quoted by Hierome against Iouinian of timely death Lactant of earth-quakes mentioned by himselfe These and other losses of old authors Andrew Straneo my countriman in his notes vpon Seneca deploreth a tast of which he sent me in his Epistle that vnited vs in friendship He is one highly learned and honest as highly furthering good studies with all his power himselfe and fauoring all good enterprises in others c Strato Son to Archelaus of Lanpsacus who was called the Phisicall because it was his most delightfull studie hee was Theophrastus his scholler his executor his successor in his schoole and maister to Ptolomy Philadelphus There were eight Strato's Laërt in Uit. d That not the The grammarians cannot endure Nâ—… and quidem to come together but wee reade it so in sixe hundred places of Tully Pliny Lâ—… and others vnlesse they answere vnto all these places that the copiers did falsify them I doe not thinke but an interposition doth better this I say e Recorded As Dyonisius Phalaris Mezentius Tarquin the Proud Sylla Câ—…a Marius Tiberius Claâ—… and Caligula f Some haue The Persian Kings had their Eunuches in whome they put especiall trust So had Nero g Osyris Hee beeing cut in peeces by his brother Typhon and that Isis and Orus Apollo had reuenged his death vpon Typhon they went to seeke the body of Osyris with great lamentation and to Isis her great ioy found it though it were disparkled in diuers places and herevpon a yearely feast was instituted on the seeking of Osyris with teares and finding him with ioy Lucane saith herevpon Nunquam satis quaâ—…us Osyris the ne're wel-sought Osyris h Be his aduocates Uadaeri is to bring one to the iudge at a day appointed Vadimonium the promise to bee there So the phrase is vsed in Tully to come into the Court and the contrary of it is non obire not to appeare Pliny in the preface of his history and many other authors vse it the sence here is they made the gods their aduocates like men when they went to try their causes i Arch-plaier Archimimus coâ—… of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to imitate because they imitated their gestures whom they would make ridiculous as also their conditions and then they were called Ethopaei and Ethologi whereof comes Ethopeia Quintil. Pantomimi were vniuersall imitators Archimimi the chiefe of all the Mimikes as Fano was in Vespasians time Who this was that Seneca mentions I know not k Terrible She was iealous and maligned all her step-sons and Ioues harlots so that shee would not forbeare that same Daedalian statue which Ioue beeing angry threatned to marry in 〈◊〉 For being reconciled to him she made it be burnt Plut. Hence was Numa's old law No 〈◊〉 touch Iuno's altar Sacrifice a female lambe to Iuno with disheueled hayre l Bellona Some â—…ke her his mother and Nerione or as Varro saith Neriene his wife which is as Gelâ—… a Sabine word signifieth vertue and valour and thence came the Nero's surname â—…es had it from the Greekes who call the sinewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and thence comes our Nerâ—… and the Latine Neruus Plaut Trucul Mars returning from a iourney salutes his wife Neâ—… 〈◊〉 Noct. Att. lib. 10. m Meanes of the bargaine That is one to bee coupled with henâ—…â—…es the Latine phrase Quaerere condicionem filiae to seeke a match for his daughter 〈◊〉 lib. 4. Cic. Philipp It was vsed also of the Lawiers in diuorses Conditione tua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I le not vse thy company n As free We must seeme Philosophy saith Seneca to be free vsing free as with a respect not simply o Seneca Hee was banished by Claudius but 〈◊〉 being executed and Agrippina made Empresse she got his reuocation and senatorship â—…torship of the Emperor that hee might bring vp her sonne Nero. So afterward Trâ—…â—…ximus and he were Consulls Ulp. Pandect 36. Hee was won derfull ritch Tranquill Tatius The gardens of ritch Seneca p People His example did the harme which Eleâ—…â—…ed â—…ed to auoide Macchab. 2. 6. with far more holinesse and Philosophicall truth Seneca his opinion of the Iewes CHAP. 11. THis man amongst his other inuectiues against the superstitions of politique 〈◊〉 Theology condemnes also the Iewes sacrifices chiefly their saboaths sayâ—… 〈◊〉 by their seauenth day interposed they spend the seauenth part of their 〈◊〉 idlenesse and hurt themselues by not taking diuers things in their time â—…et dares he not medle with the Christians though then the Iewes deadly 〈◊〉 vpon either hand least he should praise them against his countries old cusâ—… or dispraise them perhaps against a his owne conscience Speaking of the 〈◊〉 he saith The custome of that wicked nation getting head through all the world the vanquished gaue lawes to the vanquishers This hee admired not â—…ing the worke of the god-head But his opinion of their sacraments hee subscribeth They know the cause of their ceremonies saith hee but most of the people doe they know not what But of the Iewish sacrifices how farre gods institutions first directed them and then how by the men of God that had the mistery of eternity reuealed to them they were by the same authority abolished wee haue both els-where spoken chiefly against the b Manichees and in this worke in conuenient place meane to say some-what more L. VIVES AGainst a his owne Nero hauing fired Rome many were blamed for the
besides his female rapes defamed heauē but with one d Ganimede but she hath both shamed heauen and polluted earth with multitudes of e profest and publike Sodomites It may be thought that Saturne that gelded his father comes neere or exceedes this filthinesse O but in his religion men are rather killed by others then guelded by them-selues He eate vp his sonnes say the Poets let the Physicall say what they will history saith he killed them yet did not the Romaines learne to sacrifice their sonnes to him from the Africans But this Great mother brought her Eunuches euen into the Romaine temple keeping her bestiall reakes of cruelty euen there thinking to helpe the Romaines to strength by cutting away their strengths fountaines What is Mercuries theft Venus her lust the whoredome and the turpitude of the rest which were they not commonly sung vpon stages wee would relate what are they all to this foule euill that the Mother of the gods onely had as her peculiar chiefly the rest being held but poeticall fictions as if the Poets had inuented this too that they were pleasing to the gods So the◅ it was the Poets audatiousnesse that recorded them but whose is it to exhibite them at the gods vrgent exacting them but the gods direct obscaenity the deuills confessions and the wretched soules illusions But this adoration of Cibele by gelding ones selfe the Poets neuer inuented but did rather abhorre it then mention i◅ Is any one to bee dedicated to these select Gods for blessednesse of life hereafter that cannot liue honestly vnder them here but lies in bondage to such vncleane filthinesse and so many dammed deuills but all this say they hath reference to the world nay looke if it be not to the wicked f ◅hat cannot bee referred to the world that is found to bee in the world But we doe seeke a minde that trusting in the true religion doth not worshippe the world as his God but commendeth it for his sake as his admired worke and being expiate from all the staines of the world so approcheth to him that made the world wee see these selected gods more notified then the rest not to the aduancement of their merits but the diuul ging of their shames this proues them men as not onely Po◅es but histories also do explaine for that which Virgill saith Aen. 8. Primus ab aethereo venit Saturnus Olympo Arma Iouis fugiens regnis exul ademptis An g Whence Saturne came Olimpus was the place Flying Ioues armes exil'd in wretched case d so as followeth the same hath h Euemerus written in a continuate history translated into latine by Ennius whence because much may bee taken both in Greeke and also in Latine that hath bin spoken against these error by others before vs I cease to vrge them further L. VIVES B◅g a Of. These Galli were allowed to beg of the people by a law that Metellus made O◅id shewes the reason in these verses Dic inquam parua cur stipe quaerat opes Contulit aes populus de quo delubra Metellus Fecit ait dandae mos stipis inde manet Tell me quoth I why beg they basely still Metellus built the shrine o' th' townes expence quoth he and so the begging law came thence Cicero in his sacred and seuerest lawes of those times charged that None but the Idaean goddesses Priests should beg his reason is because it fills the mind with folly and empties the purse of mony But what if Augustine or Cicero saw now how large and ritch societies go a begging to those on whome they might better bestow something whilest hee meane time that giueth it sitteth with a peece of browne bread and a few herbes drinking out of an earthen put full of nothing but water and a great sort of children about him for whose sustenance he toyleth day and night and he that beggeth of him is a ritch begger fed with white and purest bread patrridge and capons and soaked in spiritfull and delicious wines b Red any thing Of their interpretation c Monsters He seemeth to meane Priapus d Ganimede Sonne to Troos King of Phrigia a delicate boy Tantalus in hunting forced him away and gaue him to Ioue in Crete Ioue abused his body The Poets fable how Ioue catcht him vp in the shape of an eagle and made him his chiefe cupbearer in place of Hebe and Vulcan Iuno's children and turned him into the signe Aquary e Profest Openly avowing their bestiall obsc◅ity f What cannot There is not any other reading true but this g Whence Saturne E◅r to Aeneas Uirg Aenead h Euemerus Some read Homerus falsely for it was Eue◅rus as I said that wrot the History called Sacred Of the Naturalists figments that neither adore the true deity nor vse the adoration thereto belonging CHAP. 27. WHen I consider the Physiologies which learned and quick witted men haue endeuoured to turne into diuine matters I discouer as plaine as day that they cannot haue reference to ought but naturall and terrestriall though inuisible obiects all which are farre from the true God If this extended no further then the congruence which true religion permitted then were their want of the knowledge of the true God to be deplored and yet their abstinence from acting or authorizing obscaenity to be in part approued But since that it is wickednesse to worship either body or soule for the true God whose onely dwelling in the soule maketh it happy how much more vile is it to adore these things with a worship neither attaining saluation nor temporall renowne and therefore if any worldly element be set vp for adoration with temple priest or sacrifice which are the true Gods peculiar or any created spirit all were it good and pure it is not so ill a thing because the things vsed in the worship are euill as because they are such as are due onely to his worship to whom all worship is due But if any one say hee worshippeth the true God in monstrous statues sacrifices of men crowning of priuities gelding paiments for sodomy wounds filthy and obscaene festiuall games hee doth not offend because hee that hee worshippeth is to bee worshipped but because he is not to be worshipped so as hee doth worship him But he that with these filthinesses worshippeth not God the creator of all but a creature be it harmlesse or no animate or dead double is his offence to God once for adoring that for him which is not hee and once for adoring him with such rites as is a not to be afforded vnto either But the foulnesse of these mens worship is plaine but what or whom they worship is not so were it not for their owne history that recordes the gods that exacted those bestialities so terribly so therefore doubtlesse they were deuills called by their politique Theologie into Idols and passing from thence into mens hearts L. VIVES IS a not to be Nothing is to be worshipped in that manner neither God nor that
altogether execrable or els the gods were showne by them to bee none but men departed whome worm-eaten antiquity perswaded the world to bee gods whereas they were deuills that delighted in those obscaene mynisteries and vnder their names whom the people held diuine got place to play their impostures and by illusiue miracles to captiuate all their soules But it was by gods eternall secret prouidence that they were permitted to confesse all to Nâ—…a who by his Hydromancy was become their friend and yet not to warne him rather to burne them at his death then to bury them for they could neither withstand the plough that found them nor Varro's penne that vnto all memory hath recorded them For the deuills cannot exceed their direct permission which GOD alloweth them for their merits that vnto his iustice seeme either worthy to be onely afflicted or wholy seduced by them But the horrible danger of these bookes and their distance from true diuinity may by this bee gathered that the senate chose rather to burne them that Numa had but hidden then e to feare what hee feared that durst not burne them Wherefore he that will neither haue happinesse in the future life nor godlinesse in the present let him vse these meanes for eternity But hee that will haue no society with the deuill let him not feare the superstition that their adoration exacteth but let him sticke to the true religion which conuinceth and confoundeth all their villanies and abhominations L. VIVES TO a Hydromancy Diuination by water Diuination generally was done by diuers means either by Earth Gâ—…mancy or by fire Pyromancy or Ignispicina found by Amphiarans as Pliny saith or by smoake Capâ—…mancy or by birds Augury or by intrailes Aruspicina vsed much by the Hetrurians and by Ianus Apollo's sonne amongst the Heleans and after him by Thrasibulus who beheld a dogge holding the cut liuer or by a siue called Coscinomancy oâ—… by hatchets Axinomancy or by Hearbes Botinomancy the witches magike or by dead bodies Nâ—…mancy or by the starres Astrologie wherein the most excellent are called Chaldees though neuer borne in Caldaea or by lottes Cleromancy or by lines in the hand Chiromancy or by the face and body Physiognâ—…my or by fishes Icthyomancy this Apuleius was charged with or by the twinckling and motion of the eies called Saliatio the Palmique augury Then was there interpretation of dreames and visions or sights of thunder or lightning noyses sneezings voices and a thousand such arts of inuoking the deuills which are far better vnnamed Hydromancy I haue kept vnto the last because it is my theame It is many-fold done either in a glâ—…sse bottle full of water wherein a Childe must looke and this is called Gastromancy of the glasses belly or in a basen of water which is called Lecanomancie in which Strabo sayth the Asians are singular Psellus de damonibus affirmeth this also and sheweth how it is done that the deuills creepe in the bottome and send sorth a still confused found which cannot bee fully vnderstood that they may be held to say what euer 〈◊〉 to passe and not to lye Many also in springs did see apparitions of future things 〈◊〉 â—…aith that in Aegina a part of Achaia there is a temple of Ceres and a fountaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein sick persons after their offring sacrifice behold the end or continuance of 〈◊〉 â—…ses Iamblichus tells of a caue at Colophon wherein was a Well that the Priest haâ—…â—…ifice certaine set nights tasted of and presently became inuisible and gaue anâ—…â—…at asked of him And a woman in Branchis saith he sat vpon an Axle-tree and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rod that one of the goddesses gaue her or dipping her foote or skirt in the water so 〈◊〉 â—…d prophecied Apulcius writeth out of Uarro that the Trallians inquiring by 〈◊〉 of the end of the warre of Mithridates one appeared in the water like Mercurie 〈◊〉 that looked in it and sung the future successe of the war in 360. verses but because of â—…tion of the boy I thinke hee meanes Gastromancie Apolog. de Magia This last 〈◊〉 Nâ—…a vse in a fountaine Plutarch saith that there were women in Germanie that 〈◊〉 euents by the courses noyse and whirle-pittes of riuers In his life of Caesar. 〈◊〉 Pythagoras A carefull respect of the times for Numa was dead long before 〈◊〉 was borne Some say that he was Pythagoras his scholler and Ouid for one they all 〈◊〉 â—…ror is lighter in a Poet then in an Historiographer c Caesar Dictator and Priest 〈◊〉 dedicates his Antiquities d Aegeria Some held her to be one of the Muses 〈◊〉 called the wood where shee vsed Lucus Camaenarum the Muses wood Some 〈◊〉 but a water-nimphe and that after Numa his death Diana turned her into a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith she was called Aegeria ab egerendo of putting forth because the great 〈◊〉 sâ—…rificed vnto her for the ayde shee was thought to giue them in the deliueâ—… 〈◊〉 â—…estus e To feare For Numa durst not burne them for feare of prooâ—…â—…nger against him Finis lib. 7. THE CONTENTS OF THE eight booke of the City of God 1. Of the questions of naturall theology to be handled with the most excellent Philosophers chapter 1. 2. Of the two kinds of Philosophers Italian and Ionian 3. Of the Socraticall discipline 4. Of Plato the chiefe of Socrates his schollers who dâ—…d philosophy into three kinds 5. That the chiefe controuersie with the Plâ—…sts is about theologie and that all the Pâ—…rs opinions heereof are inferior to theâ—…y 6. How the Platonists conceiued of the naturall part of Philosophy 7. The excellency of the Platonists aboue the rest in logick 8. That the Platonists are to be preferred in Morallity also 9. Of the Philosophy that commeth nearest chrtianity 10. What the excellence of a religions christian is in these philosophicall artes 11. Whence Plato might haue that knowledge that brought hiâ—… so neare the christian doctrine 12. That the Platonists for all their good opâ—… of the true GOD yet neuerthelesse held thaâ—… worship was to be giuen to many 13. Of Platoes affirmation that the gods were all good and louers of vertue 14. Of such as hold three kinds of reasonable soules In the gods In ayery spirits and in Men. 15. That neither the ayry spirits bodies 〈◊〉 hight of place make them excell men 16. What Apuleius the Platonist held concerning the qualities of those ayry spirits 17. Whether it becomes a Man to worsâ—… those spirits from whose guilt he should be pâ—…e 18. Of that religion that teacheth that those spirits must bee mens Aduocates to the good Gods 19. Of the wickednesse of art magick depending on these wicked spirits ministry 20. Whether it bee credible that good Gods had rather conuerse with those spirits then wiâ—…h Men. 21. Whether the Gods vse the diuills as their messengers and be willing that they should 22. The renouncing of the worship of those spirits against Apuleius 23. Hermes Trismegistus his
then aâ—…reall on earth they feed rest breed and flye as neare it as may bee and when they are weary earth is their port of retirement This from an imperfect coppy of Apuleius yet Augustines reason of the place must stand for though the spirits bee aboue the birds yet the birds are â—…ill aboue vs but I meane not heare to play the disputant What Apuleius the Platonist held concerning the qualities of those ayrie spirits CHAP. 16. THis same Platonist speaking of their qualities saith that they are as men subiect to passions of anger delight glory vnconstancie in their ceremonies and furie vpon neglect Besides to them belong diuinations dreames auguries prophesies and all â—…gicians miraculous workes Briefly he defineth them things created passiue reasoâ—…le â—…reall eternall In the three first they perticipate with vs in the fourth with â—…ne in the fift with the gods and two of the first the gods share with them also 〈◊〉 the a gods saith hee are creatures and giuing each element to his proâ—…habitants hee giues earth to men and the other creatures water to the 〈◊〉 c. aire to these spirits and Aether to the gods Now in that the spirits are creâ—…res they communicate both with men and beasts in reason with gods and â—…in eternity with gods onely in passion with men onely in ayrie essence with 〈◊〉 So that they are creatures is nothing for so are beasts in that they are reasoâ—…able so are we equally in that they are eternall what is that without felicity b Temporall happinesse excells eternall miserie In that they are passiue what geâ—… by that so are we and were we not wretched wee should not bee so in tâ—…â—…ir bodies are ayrie what of that seeing a soule of any nature is preferrâ—… 〈◊〉 a body of what perfection so euer And therefore the honor giuen by tâ—…â—…le is not due to the soules inferiour But if that amongst these spirits qualitiâ—… 〈◊〉 had reckoned wisdome vertue and felicitie and haue made them communâ—… these with the gods then had he spoake some-what worth noting yet oâ—… we not to worship them as God for these ends but rather we should know him of whom they had these good gifts But as they are how farre are they from woâ—…h of worship being reasonable to be wretched passiue to be wretched eternall 〈◊〉 euer wretched wherefore to leaue all and insist on this onely which I said 〈◊〉 spirits shared with vs that is passion if euery element haue his creaâ—… and ayre immortalls earth and water mortalls why are these spirits 〈◊〉 â—…o perturbations to that which the Greekes call c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence our 〈◊〉 passion deriueth word d of word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and passion being e a motion of 〈◊〉 â—…e against reason Why are these in these spirits that are not in beasts 〈◊〉 apparance of such in beasts is f no perturbation because it is not against 〈◊〉 which the beast wanteth And that it is a perturbation in men g their â—…esse or their h wretchednesse is cause For we cannot haue that perfecâ—… wisdom in this life that is promised vs after our acquittance from mortalâ—… 〈◊〉 the gods they say cannot suffer those perturbations because that their 〈◊〉 is conioyned wiâ—…h felicity and this they affirme the reasonable soule 〈◊〉 absolutely pure enioyeth also So then if the gods be free from passion beâ—… they are i creatures blessed and not wretched and the beasts because â—…e creatures neither capable of blessednesse nor wretchednesse it romaiâ—…â—…t these spirits be perturbed like men onely because they are creatures not â—…d but wretched L. VIVES THâ—… a Gods Plato also in his Timaeus saith that they are inuisible creatures Apuleius de deo Sâ—…cr makes some vncorporall Daemones viz. Loue Sleep b Temporal It is said that Chyron 〈◊〉 sonne refused immortality that Vlysses chose rather to liue and die at home with his â—…er and friends then to liue immortal amongst the goddesses Plato saith it is better to liue a 〈◊〉 little while then to be eternally possest of all bodily pleasures without iustice the other 〈◊〉 de legib the Philosophers haue a saying it is better to be then not to be of that hereafter 〈◊〉 So Tull. Tus. qu. translateth it Quintil. l. 6. termeth it affects holds yâ— most proper 〈◊〉 â—…ly of their ancients vseth passion for it but I make doubt that the copy is faulty li. 20. 〈◊〉 â—…ds are It helpeth the passions of the belly being 〈◊〉 thervpoÌ„ d Word of word as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 passio of pâ—…tior to suffer e A motion Tully hath it from Zâ—…no f No perturbation Tully Tusc. quaest The affections of the body may be inculpable but not the mindes all which arise out of the neglect of reason and therefore are existent onely in men for that which wee see by accident in beasts is no perturbation g Their foolishnesse For wee are ouer-borne with false opinions and our selues rather worke our affects then receiue them ab extra and as Sâ—…a saith we are euer worse afraide then hurt The Stoikes held all perturbations to haue their source from deprauation of opinion For desire is an opinion of a future good and feare an opinion of future euill sorrow of present euill ioy of present good all which we measuring by the fondnesse of our thoughts and not by the nature of things thence it comes that wee are rapt with so many violent thoughts h Their wretchednesse This is mans miserie that the very wisest is subiect to sorrow ioy and other affects doe he what he can i Creatures Socrates durst not confesse that these spirits were bad or wretched but hee boldly affirmes they are neither good nor happy Plato Conuiuio Whether it becomes a man to worship those spirits from whose guilt he should be pure CHAP. 17. WHat fondnesse then nay what madnesse subiects vs vnto that religion of deuills when as by the truth of religion we should be saued from participation of their vices for they are mooued with wrath as Apuleius for all his adoring and sparing them affirmes but true religion biddeth vs not to yeeld to wrath but rather a resist it b They are wonne with guifts wee are forbidden to take bribes of any They loue honors we are c prohibited all honors affectation They are haters of some louers of some as their affects transport them truth teacheth vs to loue all euen d our very enemies Briefly all the intemperance of minde e passions and perturbations which the truth affirmes of them it forbiddeth vs. What cause is then but thine owne lamentable error for thee to humble thy selfe to them in worship whom thou seekest to oppose in vprightnesse of conuersation and to adore those thou hatest to imitate when as all religion teacheth vs to imitate those we adore L. VIVES RAther a resist Christ in Mathewes Gospels vtterly forbids anger Abbot Agatho said that an angry
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we translate seruice but with 〈◊〉 it onely to God their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we turne it Religion but still with a â—…ence to God their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wee haue no one word for but wee may 〈◊〉 worship which wee say is due onely to him that is the true God and â—…uants gods Wherefore if there be any blessed immortalls in heaâ—…â—…ther loue vs nor would haue vs blessed them wee must not serue but 〈◊〉 loue vs and wish vs happinesse then truly they wish it vs from the 〈◊〉 they haue it Or shall theirs come from one stocke and ours from 〈◊〉 L. VIVES 〈◊〉 dominations Iamblichus diuides the supernall powers into Angels Archanâ—…s Heroes Principalities and Powers and those hee saith doe appeare in diuerse â—…ions In Myster All the other Platonists make them but gods and Daemones 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to serue but it grew to be vsed for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to worship Suidas But â—…e the seruice of men called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the place hee quoteth is 〈◊〉 c. Ephes. 6. 5. Hence ariseth the dictinction of adoratio Latria Dulia and â—…lla makes Latria and Dulia both one for seruice or bondage and sheweth it 〈◊〉 of Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seruice or bondage is mercenary For an â—…h in Xenophon I would redeeme this woman from slauery or bondage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Cyrus Cyripaed lib. 3. then the wife replied Let him redeeme himselfe from bonâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 With his owne life Ibid. The scriptures also vse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for to bee seruile 〈◊〉 You shall doe no seruile worke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And againe Thou shall make 〈◊〉 to bâ—… slaue to thy Prince 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in Iob a begger is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haue the last syllable but one long c Wee worship And so doth holy â—…tion d Things vnder vs Rightly for Colâ—… is to handle or exercise so 〈◊〉 all that wee vse or practise learning armes sports the earth c. It is also to inhabite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such as till hired grounds are called coloni as they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in hired houses in citties and husbandmen that till their owne ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…nt forth to inhabit any where are called coloni Therevpon grew the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…olonies to omit the Greekes and Asians The townes that send out the colonies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Metropolitane cities thereof f Tyrii The Tyrianâ—… built Carthage and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Dido Elisa that â—…ed from Pigâ—…lion after the death of Sicheus her husband This 〈◊〉 is as common as a 〈◊〉 g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All one with Latria saith Suidas and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 are all one belonging to the gods For Orpâ—… they say first taught the misteries of religion and because hâ—…e was 〈◊〉 Thracian hee called this duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or else of Threâ—… 〈◊〉 oâ—… word to see h It is refâ—…rred Being taken for piety which is referred to our country pâ—…rents and kiâ—…d i The workes The vulgar call the mercifull godly mercy godlinesse So do the Spaniâ—…ds and French that speake Latine thâ—… 〈◊〉 k Fore and. These two words some copieâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherevpon it is said I will haue mercy and no sacrifice Osâ—… 6. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 None of the learned vse it in that sence indeed The opinion of Plotine the Platonist concerning the supernall illumination CHAP. 2. BVt wee and those great Philosophers haue no conflict about this question for they well saw and many of them plainely wrot that both their beatitude â—…dours had originall from the perticipation of an intellectual light which they â—…nted God and different from themselues this gaue them all their light and by the 〈◊〉 of this they were perfect blessed a in many places doth Plotine ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which we call the soule of this vniuerse hath the beatiâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with vs â—…ly a light which it is not but which made it 〈…〉 it hath al the intelligible splendor This he arâ—… 〈…〉 from the visible celestiall bodies compared with these 〈…〉 the 〈◊〉 for b one and the Moone for another for 〈…〉 held to proceed from the reflection of the Sunne So saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the reasonaâ—… or intellectuall soule of whose nature all the 〈…〉 that are contained in Heauen hath no essence aboue it bâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 creatâ—…d both it and all the world nor haue those supernall creâ—…tures their 〈◊〉 or vnderstanding of the truth from any other origâ—…ll then ours hath herein truly agreeing with the scripture where it is wriâ—… 〈◊〉 There was a man sent from God whose name was Iohn the same came for a witnesse to beare witnesse of the light that allmen d through him might beleeue e He 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the light but 〈◊〉 to beare witnesse of the light That was the true light f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that cometh into the world which difference sheweth that 〈◊〉 â—…sonable soule which was in Iohn could not bee the owne light but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…tion of â—…ther the true light This Iohn him-selfe confessed in his 〈◊〉 where he said Of â—…is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all we receiued L. VIVES 〈…〉 the contemplation of that good father ariseth all beatitude Plâ—… 〈…〉 saith yâ— our soules after their temporal labours shal enioy 〈◊〉 〈…〉 with yâ— soule of the vniuerse b For one For the Prince 〈◊〉 〈…〉 ariseth the Mâ—… for the worlds soule c Ther was A 〈◊〉 〈…〉 〈◊〉 â—…ger from 〈◊〉 consequently Iohn an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he could bring no such newes from any but God d Through him not in him 〈◊〉 for cursed is the man that trusteth in man but in the light by his testimonie yet 〈◊〉 cannot be distinguished to either side e Hee was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thâ—…ophilact will haue a misterie The Saints are lights You are the light of the Christ. for they are deriued from his light Thence followeth that That was the true 〈◊〉 saith Augustine because that which is lightened ab externo is light also 〈◊〉 true light that enlightneth Or the article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may haue relation to the preceâ—…â—…the sence bee Iohn was not that light of which I spake f Which lightneth not that 〈◊〉 â—…ghtned but because none are enlightned but by this light or as Chrysostome 〈◊〉 each man as farre as belongs to him to be lightned If any doe shutte their â—…st the beames the nature of the light doth not cause the darkenesse in them but 〈◊〉 â—…licious depriuing them-selues of such a good other-wise so generally spred 〈◊〉 word g That commeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Origen allegorizeth vpon it it lightneth 〈◊〉 into the world of vertues not of vices 〈◊〉 worship of God wherein the Platonists failed in worshipping good or
it selfe If you wil I wil proceed if not let it alone Then Glaucus replied that hee should go on with the son and leaue the father till another time So he proceeds to discourse of the birth and sonne of good and after some questions saith that good is as the sun and the son is as the light we haue from the sun And in his Epistle to Hermias he speaketh of such as were sworne to fit studies and the Muses sister lerning by God the guide father of al things past and to come And in his Epinomis hee saith that by that most diuine Word was the world and al therin created This word did so rauish the wise man with diuine loue that he conceiued the meanes of beatitude For many say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is meant of the Word not of the world and so wee haue vsed it in the eighth book speaking of Plato's opinion of beatitude So that Plato mentions the father and the son expresly mary the third he thought was indeclareable Though hee hold that in the degrees of Diuinity the soule of the world the third proceedeth from the beginning and the begininnings sonne Mens which soule if one would stand for Plato might easily be defended to be that spirit that mooued upon the waters which they seeme to diffuse through the whole masse and to impart life and being to euery particular And this is the Trine in diuinity of which he writeth to Dionysius aenigmatically as him-selfe saith Al thinges are about the King of al and by him haue existence the seconds about the second and yâ— thirds about the third I omit to write what Trismegistus saith Iamblichus from him we are all for the Platonist but I cannot omitte Serapis his answer to Thules the King of Egipt in the Troian wars who inquyring of him who was most blessed had this answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. First God and then the sonne and next the spirit All coëternall one in act and merit b The son Porphyry explaning Plato's opinion as Cyril saith against Iultan puts three essences in the Deity 1 God almighty 2. the Creator 3. the soule of the world nor is the deity extended any further Plato he both cal the Creator 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fathers intellect with the Poets though obscurely touch at calling Minerua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 borne without a mother the wisedom brought forth out of the fathers brain c Plotine he wâ—…ote a book of the three persons or substances yâ— first hee maketh absolute and father to the second that is also eternall and perfect Hee calleth the father Mens also in another place as Plato doth but the word arose from him For hee sayth De prouâ—…d lib. 2. in the begining all this whole vniuerse was created by the Mens the father and his Worde d Alme religion tyeth vs to haue a care how wee speake herein e Sabellians They said that the person of the father and â—…f the Son was all one because the scripture saith I and the Father am one Of the true onely beginning that purgeth and renueth mans whole nature CHAP. 24. BVt Porphyry beeing slaue to the malicious powers of whome hee was ashamed yet durst not accuse them would not conceiue that Christ was the beginning by whose incarnation wee are purged but contemned him in that flesh which he assumed to be a sacrifice for our purgation not apprehending the great sacrament because of his diuell-inspired pride which Christ the good Mediator by his owne humility subuerted shewing him-selfe to mortals in that mortal state which the false Mediators wanted and therefore insulted the more ouer mens wretcheds soules falsely promising them succors from their immortality But our good and true Mediator made it apparant that it was not the fleshly substance but sinne that is euil the flesh and soule of man may be both assumed kept and putte off without guilt and bee bettered at the resurrection Nor is death though it be the punishment of sinne yet payd by Christ for our sinnes to bee anoyded by sinne but rather if occasion serue to bee indured for iustice For Christs dying and that not for his owne sinne was of force to procure the pardon of all other sinnes That hee was the beginning this Platonist did not vnderstand else would hee haue confessed his power in purgation For neither the flesh nor the soule was the beginning but the word all creating Nor can the flesh purge 〈◊〉 by it selfe but by that word that assumed it when the word became flesh dwels in vs. For hee speaking of the mysticall eating of his flesh and some that vnderstood not beeing offended at it and departing saying This is a hard saying who can heare it Answered to those that staid with him It is the spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing Therfore the beginning hauing assumed flesh and soule mundifieth both in the beleeuer And so when the Iewes asked him who hee was hee answered them that hee was the a beginning which our flesh and bloud beeing incumbred with sinfull corruption can neuer conceiue vnlesse he by whome wee were and were not doe purifie vs. Wee were men but iust wee were not But in his incarnation our nature was and that iust not sinfull This is the mediation that helpeth vp those that are falne and downe This is the seed that the Angels sowed by dictating the law wherein the true worship of one God was taught and this our Mediator truly promised L VIVES THe a beginning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Augustine will haue the Sonne to bee a beginning but no otherwise then the father as no otherwise GOD. And this hee takes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Valla and Erasmus say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can be no nowne here but an aduerbe as in the beginning I wil speake my minde here of briefly though the phraze be obscure and perhaps an Hebraisme as many in the new Testament are Christ seemeth not to say hee is the beginning but beeing asked who hee was he hauing no one word to expresse his full nature to all their capacities left it to each ones minde to thinke in his minde what he was not by his sight but by his wordes and to ponder how one in that bodily habite could speake such thinges It was the Deity that spake in the flesh whence all those admirable actes proceeded Therefore he said I am hee 〈◊〉 the beginning and I speake to you vsing a mortall body as an instrument giuing you no more precepts by angels but by my selfe This answer was not vnlike that giuen to Moyses I am that I am but that concerned Gods simple essence and maiesty this was more later and declared God in the fâ—…me of man That all the saints in the old law and other ages before it were iustified only by the mistery and faith of Christ.
almost vnto India Thus saith that author what euer hee is Eusaebius for Balaeus readeth Balanaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke is Balnearius belonging to the bathe d Thuriachus Eusebius hath it Tiraâ—… and so hath the Bruges old coppy but erroniously as it hath much more Egyrus saith Pausanias was Thelexions sonne and Thurimachus his sonne in the seauenth yeare of whose reigne Isaacs sonnes were borne e Armamitres He reigned thirty eight yeares and Leucippus the sonne of Thuriachus forty fiue our counterfeit Berosus calleth him Armaâ—… f Inachus In Peloponesus there is the Argolican gulfe now called Golfo di Naâ—… reaching from Sylla's promontory vnto Cape Malea and the Myrtoan sea now called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mandria conteining the Citties Argolis Argos and Mycenas the riuers of Inachus and Erasmus and part of Lycaonia Here did Inachus reigne at first and gaue his name to the 〈◊〉 that springs from mount Lyrcaeus Some thinke that both hee and Phoroneus reigned at Argos in Thessaly but the likenesse of the name deceiueth them For there is Argos indeed 〈◊〉 Thessaly called Pelasgis by Homer and there is Pelasgis in Poloponesus and Achaei and 〈◊〉 in both countries Strabo saith that Pelops came into Apia with the Phthiots that 〈◊〉 now in Thessaly and gaue Peloponesus his name afterwards and that there were some Pelasgi that were the first inhabitants of Italy about the mouth of Po and some Thessalians 〈◊〉 inhabited Vmbria But Pelasgus was the sonne of Niobe Phoroneus his daughter and 〈◊〉 and from him came the Achiues and the Peloponnesians that first peopled Aemonia afterwards called Thessaly in great multitudes Dionys. Halicarn Achaeus Phthius and Pelasgus were the sonnes of Neptune and Larissa came into Aemonia chased out the Barbariâ—… and diuided it into three parts each one leauing his name vnto his share I thinke beâ—… they would continue the memory of their old countrey hauing left Achaia Pelasgis 〈◊〉 and Larissa the Argiue tower at Argos here they would renew the names for the meâ—… and fame of their nation Fiue ages after did the Locrians and Aetolians then called the Leleges and Curetes by the leading of Deucalion Prometheus his sonne chase these Pelasgiues into the Iles of the Aegean sea and the shores neare adiacent Those that light in Epyrus passed soone after into Italy Homer in his catalogue of the Greekes ships sheweth plaine that these names were confounded But we are too long in this point Dionysius maketh the Argiue state the eldest of all Greece In Chron. Axion and others the most follow him making Aegialeus King of Sycion to bee Inachus in Phoroneus his time the first founder of that state then Now Inachus they say was no man but a riuer onely begotten by Oceanus and father to Phoroneus and some say vnto Aegialeus also Phoroneus being made Iudge betweene Iuno and Neptune concerning their controuersie about lands together with Cephisus Inachus and Astecion iudged on Iuno's side and there-vpon shee was called the Argiue Iuno as louing Argos deerely and hauing her most ancient temple betweene Argos and Mycenas Phoroneus did make lawes to decide controuersies amongst his people and therefore is called a Iudge Some thinke that forum the name of the pleading place came from his name how truly looke they to that He drew the wandring people into a Cittie saith Pausanias and called it Phoronicum The Thelcissians and Carsathians made warre vpon him whome hee ouer-threw and droue them to seeke a new habitation by the sea At length they came to Rhodes called then Ophinsa where they seated them-selues a hundred and seauenty yeares before the building of Rome Oros. f Io Ioue they say rauished her and least Iuno should know it turned her into a Cowe and gaue her to Iuno who put her to the keeping of the hundred eyed Argus and this Cowe was Isis Herodotus out of the Persian Monuments relateth that the Phaenicians that traffiqued vnto Argos stole her thence and brought her into Egipt which was the first iniurious rape before Hellens Diodorus saith that Inachus sent a noble Captaine called Cyraus to seeke her charging him neuer to returne without her Pausanias maketh her the daughter of Iasius the sixt Argiue King and not of Inachus Phoroneus hee saith begot Argos who succeeded his grandfather and gaue the Citty the name of Argos being before called Phoronicum and this Argos begot Phorbas hee Triopas and Triopas Iasius and Agenor Ualer Flaccus calleth Io Inachis and the Iasian vergin the first because of the nobility of Inachus the kingdoms founder the later because Iasius was her father Argonaut 4. And this reconcileth the times best For if shee were Inachus his daughter how could shee liue with King Triopas as Eusebius saith shee did In Chron. De praep Euang. l. 10. for hee liued foure hundred yeares after Inachus being the seauenth King of Argos Though Eusebius make one Iun in Inachus his time to saile to Egipt by sea In Chron. but not to swim ouer the sea For they had a feast in Egipt for the honour of Isis her ship Lactant. lib. 1. And therefore she was held the saylers goddesse guiding them in the sea Goe saith Ioue to Mercury in Lucian guide Iun through the sea vnto Egipt call her Isis let them account of her as a deity let her cary Nilus as she list guide all the voyages by sea c. My worship saith Isis of her feast in Apuleius shall bee eternall as the day followeth the night because I calme the tempests and guide the ships through the stormy seas the first fruites of whose voyages my priests offer mee g Isis In Egipt they pictured her with hornes Herodot Diod. Sycul Some said shee was the daughter of Saturne and Rhea who was marryed to her brother Osyris that is Iuno to Ioue Others called her Ceres 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke because she inuented husbandry and sowing of corne and those called Osyris Dionysus Some called her the Moone and Osyris the Sunne for Diodorus will not haue Io to bee Inachus his daughter Seruius saith Isis is the genius of Egipt signifying the ouer-flowing of Nilus by the horne she beareth in her right hand and by the bucket shee hath in her left the plenty of all humaine necessaries Indeed in the Egiptian tongue Isis is earth and so they will haue Isis to be In Aeneid 8. h She came out of Ethiopia Whence Egipt had all her learning lawes policies religion and often-times colonies sent from thence Of the times of Iacob and his sonne Ioseph CHAP. 4. BAlaeus being the tenth King of Assyria and Messappus a otherwise b called Cephisus but yet both these names were by seueral authors vsed for one man being the ninth of Sycionia and c Apis the third of Argos Isaac dyed being a hundred and eighty yeares old leauing his sonnes at the ages of a hundred and twenty yeares the yonger Iacob belonging to Gods Citty
of Iuda kiiled Cbr. 2. 34. 21. he whome Christ said was killed betweene the Temple and the Altar Mat. 23. 35. b Malachi His name interpreted is His Angell and so the seauenty called him where-vpon Origen vpon this prophet saith that hee thinketh it was an Angell that prophecyed this prophecy if we may beleeue Hieromes testimony herein Others call him Malachi for indeed names are not to be altered in any translation No man calleth Plato Broade Or Aristotle good perfection or Iosuah the Sauiour or Athens Minerua Names are to be set downe in the proper Idiome other-wise the names of famous men being translated into seuerall tongues should obscure their persons fame by being the more dispersed which makes me wonder at those that will wring the Greeke names c. vnto their seuerall Idiomes wherein their owne conceit doth them grosse wrong Caesar was wise to deale plainely in giuing the french Germaine each his contries names only making them declinable by the Latine But to Malachi Some by concordance of their stides say that he was Esdras and prophecied vnder Darius the sonne of Histaspis Of Esdras in the next chapter c Reioyce greatly This whole quotation and the rest differ much from our vulgar translation d Upon a colt The Euangelist S. Mathew readeth it vpon a colt and the fole of an asse â—…sed to the yoke cha 21. ver 5. The Iewes that were yoaked vnder so many ceremonies were prefigured herein But the free and yong colt as the seauenty do translate it was the type of the Gentiles take which you will God sitteth vpon both to cure both from corruption and to bring both saluation e Shalbe incense offred The seauenty read it is offred because the Prophets often speake of things to come as if they were present yea and some-times as if they were past The translation of the seauenty is some-what altred in the following quotation Of the bookes of Esdras and the Machabees CHAP. 36. AFter Agee Zachary Malachy the three last Prophets in the time of the said captiuity a Esdras wrote but he is rather held an Historiographer then a Prophet As the booke of b Hester is also contayning accidents about those times all tending to the glory of God It may bee said that Esdras prophecied in this that when the question arose amongst the young men what thing was most powerfull one answering Kings the next wine and the third women for they often command Kings c yet did the third adde more and said that truth conquered althings Now Christ in the Gospell is found to bee the truth From this time after the temple was re-edified the Iewes had no more kings but princes vnto d Aristobulus his time The account of which times wee haue not in 〈◊〉 canonicall scriptures but in the others e amongst which the bookes of the Machabees are also which the church indeed holdeth for canonicall f because of the vehement and wonderfull suffrings of some Martires for the law of God before the comming of Christ. Such there were that endured intollerable â—…ments yet these bookes are but Apocryphall to the Iewes L. VIVES 〈◊〉 a A most skilfull scribe of the law he was Hierom saith he was that Iosedech whose 〈◊〉 Iesus was priest He they say restored the law which yâ— Chaldaees had burnt not without 〈◊〉 assistance changed the hebrew letters to distinguish theÌ„ froÌ„ the Samaritanes Gentiles which then filled Iudea Euseb. The Iewes afterwards vsed his letters only their accents differed from the Samaritans which were the old ones that Moyses gaue them b Hester 〈◊〉 â—…tory fell out saith Iosephus in the time of Artaxerxes other-wise called Cyrus for Xerxes was the sonne of Darius Histaspis and Artaxerxes surnamed Long-hand was sonne to him in whose time the Iewes were in such danger by meanes of Haman because of Mardochee Hesters vncle as there booke sheweth This Nicephorus holdeth also But Eusebius saith this could not bee that the Iewes should bee in so memorable a perill and yet Esdras who wrot their fortunes vnder Artaxerxes neuer once mention it So that hee maketh this accident to fall out long after in the time of Artaxerxes Mnemon bastard sonne to Darius and him the Hebrewes called Assuerus saith hee Indeed Bede is of this minde also But I feare Eusebius his accompt is not so sure as Iosephus but in this wee recite opinions onely leauing the iudgement c Yet did the third This was Zarobabel that said truth was about all Esd. 33. los. Ant. lib. 11. but the third and fourth booke of Esdras are Apocryphall Hierome reiecteth them as dreames d Aristobulus Sonne to Ionathas both King and Priest he wore the first diademe in Iudaea foure hundred eighty and foure yeares after the captiuity vnder Nabucadonosor e Machabees Hierome saw the first of those bookes in Hebrew the latter hee knew to bee penned first in Greeke by the stile Iosephus wrot the history of the Machabees as Hierome saith Contra Pellagian I cannot tell whether hee meane the bookes that we haue for scripture or another Greeke booke that is set forth seuerall and called Iosephâ—…ad Machabeos There is a third booke of the Machabees as yet vntranslated into Latine that I know of that I thinke the Church hath not receiued for canonicall f Because of â—…or there were seuen brethren who rather then they woold breake the law endured together with their mother to be flayed quicke rather then to obey that foule command of Antiochus against God The Prophets more ancient then any of the Gentile Philosophers CHAP. 37. IN our a Prophets time whose workes are now so farre diuulged there were no Philosophers stirring as yet for the first of them arose from b Pithagoras of Samos who began to bee famous at the end of the captiuity So that all other Philosophers must needes bee much later c for Socrates of Athens the chiefe Moralist of his time liued after Esdras as the Chronicles record And â—…o one after was Plato borne the most excellent of all his scholers To whom if we ad also the former seauen who were called sages not Philosophers and the Naturalists that followed Thales his study to wit Anaximander Anaximenes Anaxagoras and others before Pythagoras professed Philosophy not one of these was before the Prophets for Thales the most ancient of them all liued in Romulus his time when this Propheticall doctrine flowed from the fountaine of Israell to be deriued vnto all the world Onely therefore the Theologicall Poets Orpheus Linus Musaeus and the others if there were anymore were before our canonicall prophets But they were not more ancient then our true diuine Moyses who taught them one true God and whose bookes are in the front of our Canon and therfore though the learning of Greece warmeth the world at this day yet neede they not boast of their wisdome being neither so ancient nor so excellent as our diuine religion and the true wisdome we confesse not that
all the nations be blessed which the remainders of the haters of Christianity do know whether they will or no to haue beene fulfilled in Christ â—…escended from Abraham in the flesh It is that God whose spirit spake in 〈◊〉 whose prophecies the whole Church beholdeth fulfilled the whole Câ—… spred ouer the face of the whole earth beholds them and in that were tâ—… 〈◊〉 filled which I related in my former bookes It is that God whome Varro calâ—…h the Romaines Ioue though he know not what he saith yet this I adde because that so great a scholler thought him to bee neither no God at all nor one of the meanest for hee thought that this was the great God of all Briefly it is euâ—…n that God whome that learned Philosopher Prophiry albeit he was a deadly foe to Christianity acknowledged to bee the highest God euen by the Oracles of those whom hee called the inferiour gods Porphiry his relation of the Oracles touching Christ. CHAP. 23. FOr he in his bookes which he entitleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The diuinity of Philosopoy wherein he setteth downe the Oracles answeres in things belonging to Philosophy hath something to this purpose and thus it is from the Greeke One went saith he vnto the Oracle and asked vnto what God he should sacrifice for to obtaine his wiues conuersion from Christianity Apollo answered him thus Thou maist sooner write legible letters vpon the water or get thee wings to fly through ayre like a bird then reuoke thy wife from hir polluted opinion Let her runne after her mad opinions as long as she list let her honour that dead God with her false lamentations whome the wise and well aduised iudges condemned and whome a shamefull death vpon the crosse dispatched Thus farre the Oracle the Greeke is in verse but our language will not beare it After these verses Prophiry addeth this Behold how remedylesse their erroneous beleefe is because as Apollo said quoth he the Iewes do receiue God with meanes greater then others Heare you this hee disgraceth and obscureth Christ and yet saith the Iewes receiue God for so he interpreteth the oracles verses where they say that Christ was condemned by well aduised iudges as though hee had beene lawfully condemned and iustly executed This lying Priests oracle let him looke vnto and beleeue if hee like it but it may very well bee that the Oracle gaue no such answer but that this is a meere fiction of his How hee reconciles the oracles and agrees with him-selfe wee shall see by and by But by the way heere hee saith that the Iewes as the receiuers of God iudged aright in dooing Christ to so ignominious and cruell a death So then to the Iewes God sayd well in saying Hee that sacrificeth vnto many Gods shall bee rooted out but vnto one God onely But come on let vs goe to more manifest matter and heere what hee maketh of the Iewes God Hee asked Apollo which was better the word or the law And hee answered thus saith hee and then hee addeth the answer I will relate as much of it as needeth Vpon God the Creator and vpon the King before all things who maketh heauen and earth the sea and hell yea and all the Gods to tremble the lawe is their father whome the holy Hebrewes doe adore This glory doth Porphyry giue the Hebrew God from his God Apollo that the very deities doe tremble before him So then this God hauing sayd Hee that sacrificeth vnto many Gods shall bee rooted out I wonder that Porphyry was not afraide to bee rooted out for offering to so many Gods Nay this fellow speaketh well of Christ afterwards as forgetting the reproche hee offered him before as if in their dreames his Gods had scorned CHRIST and beeing awake commended him and acknowledged his goodnesse Finally as if hee meant to speake some maruellous matter It may exceede all beleefe saith hee which I am now to deliuer the Gods affirmed CHRIST to bee a man most godly and â—…ortalized for his goodnesse giuing him great commendations but for the Chriâ—…ns they auouche them to bee persons stained with all corruption and errour and giue them all the foule words that may bee Then hee relateth the Oracles which blaspheme the Christian religion and afterwards Hecate saith hee being asked if Christ were GOD replyed thus His soule beeing seuered from his body became immortall but it wandereth about voyde of all wisdome it was the soule of a most worthy man whome now those that forsake the truth doe worship And then hee addeth his owne sayings vpon this oracle in this manner The goddesse therefore called him a most godly man and that the deluded Christians doe worship his soule beeing made immortall after death as other godly soules are Now beeing asked why hee was condemned then shee answered His body was condemned to torments but his soule sitteth aboue in heauen and giueth all those soules vnto errour by desteny who cannot attaine the guifts of the Gods or come to the knowledge of immortall loue And therefore are they hated of the Gods because they neither acknowledge them nor receiue their gifts but are destin'd vnto errour by him now hee him-selfe 〈◊〉 godly and went vp to heauen as godly men doe Therefore blaspheame not him but pitty the poore soules whome hee hath bound in errour What man is there so fond that cannot obserue that these oracles are either directly faigned by this craftie foe of Christianity or else the Deuills owne â—…kes to this end that in praysing of Christ they might seeme truely to repreâ—…d the Christian profession and so if they could to stop mans entrance into Christianity the sole way vnto saluation for they thinke it no preiudice to their â—…y-formed deceipt to be beleeued in praising of Christ as long as they be belâ—…ed also in dispraysing the Christian so that he that beleeueth them must be a commender of Christ and yet a contemner of his religion And thus although hee honour Christ yet shall not Christ free him from the clutches of the Deuill because they giue Christ such a kinde of praise as who so beleeueth to bee true shall be farre from true Christianity and rather then other-wise of b Photinus his heresie who held Christ to be but onely man and no God at all so that such a beleeuer should neuer bee saued by Christ nor cleared of the deuils fowling nettes But we will neither beleeue Apollo in his deprauation nor Hecate in her commendation of Christ. He will haue Christ a wicked man and iustly condemned she will haue him a most godly man and yet but onely man But both agree in this they would haue no christians because all but christians are in their clutches But let this Philosopher or they that giue credence to those oracles against christianity if they can reconcile Apollo and Hecate and make them both tell one tale either in Christs praise or dispraise Which if they could do yet would we auoide
The name of God is principally his of whome by whome and in whome al things haue their existence shewing in part the nature and vertue of that incomprehensible Trine Secondly and as one may say abusiuely the Scripture calleth them gods vnto whome the word is giuen as our Sauiour testifieth in the Gospell and so are the Heauenly powers also called as seemeth by that place of the Psalme God standeth in the assembly of the gods c. Thirdly and not abusiuely but falsely the Deuills are called gods also All the gods of the heathen are Deuills Origen in Cantie This last question Augustine taketh from the seauenty for Hierome translateth it from the Hebrew Idols and not Diuells Psa 96. 5. e The Greeke Where wee read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor is this superfluously added of Augustine for many Philosophers and many nations both held and honored the Sunne onely for God and referred the power of all the rest vnto it alone Macrob. f All that we do Our well doing benefiteth not God nor betters him so that there is nothing due vnto vs for being good but wee our selues owe God for all by whose grace it is that wee are good g Which worketh by It is dead and lacketh all the power and vigour when it proceedeth not in the workes of charity A definition of a people by which both the Romaines and other kingdomes may challenge themselues common-weales CHAP. 24. BVt omit the former difinition of a people and take this A people is a multitude of reasonable creatures conioyned in a general communication of those things it respecteth and them to discerne the state of the people you must first consider what those things are But what euer they bee where there is a multitude of men conioyned in a common fruition of what they respect there may fitly bee sayd to bee a people the better that their respects are the better are they them-selues and other-wise the worse By this definition Rome had a people and consequently a common-weale what they embraced at the first and what afterwards what goodnesse they changed into bloudinesse what concord they forsooke for seditions confederacies and ciuill warres History can testifie and wee in part haue already related Yet this doth not barre them the name of a people nor their state of the stile of a common-wealth as long as they beare this our last definition vnin-fringed And what I haue sayd of them I may say of the Athenians the Greekes in generall the Egyptians and the Assirian Babilonians were there dominions great or little and so of all nations in the world For in the Citty of the wicked where GOD doth not gouerne and men obey sacrificing vnto him alone and consequently where the soule doth not rule the body nor reason the passions there generally wanteth the vertue of true iustice That there can be no true vertue where true religion wanteth CHAP. 25. FOr though there be a seeming of these things yet if the soule and the reason serue not God as he hath taught them how to serue him they can neuer haue true dominion ouer the body nor ouer the passions for how can that soule haue any true meane of this decorum that knoweth not God nor serueth his greatnesse but runneth a whoring with the vncleane and filthy deuills No those things which shee seemes to account vertues and thereby to sway her affects if they bee not all referred vnto God are indeed rather vices then vertues For although some hold them to bee reall vertues a when they are affected onely for their owne respect and nothing else yet euen so they incurre vaine-glory and so loose their true goodnesse For as it is not of the flesh but aboue the flesh that animates the body So it is not of man but aboue man which deifies the minde of man yea and of all the powers of the heauens L. VIVES WHen a they The Stoikes held vertue to bee her owne price content with it selfe and to bee affected onely for it selfe This is frequent in Seneca and in Tullies Stoicysmes and Plato seemes to confirme it Tully setts downe two things that are to be affected meerely for them-selues perfection of internall goodnesse and that good which is absolutely externall as parents children friends c. These are truly deare vnto vs in them-selues but nothing so as the others are De finib lib. 5. It is a question in diuinity whether the vertues are to bee desired meerely for them-selues Ambrose affirmeth it In Epist. ad Galat. Augustine denieth it De Trinit lib. 13. Peter Lumbard holdes them both to bee worthy of loue in them-selues and also to haue a necessary reference vnto eternall beatitude But indeed they are so bound vnto Gods precepts that hee that putteth not Gods loue in the first place cannot loue them at all Nor can hee so loue them for them-selues that hee preferre them before God their author and their founder or equall the loue of them with the loue of him their nature is to lift the eyes of him that admireth them vnto GOD so that hee that seeketh for them-selues is by them euen ledde and directed vnto him the consummation vnto which they all doe tend But Saint Augustine in this place speaketh of the Gentiles whose vertues desiring externall rewardes were held base and ignominious but if they kept them-selues content with their owne sole fruition then were they approoued but this was the first steppe to arrogance by reason that heereby they that had them thought none so good as them-selues The peace of Gods enemies vse-full to the piety of his friends as long as their earthly pilgrimage lasteth CHAP. 26. WHerefore as the soule is the fleshes life so is God the beatitude of man as the Hebrewes holy writte affirmeth a Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord wretched then are they that are strangers to that GOD and yet 〈◊〉 those a kinde of allowable peace but that they shall not haue for euer because they vsed it not well when they had it But that they should haue it 〈◊〉 this life is for our good also because that during our commixtion with Babilon wee our selues make vse of her peace and faith doth free the people of God at length out of her yet so as in the meane time wee liue as pilgrims in her And therefore the Apostle admonished the Church to pray for the Kings and Potentates of that earthly Citty adding this reason That wee may lead a quiet life in all godlinesse and b charity And the Prophet Hieremy fore-telling the captiuitie of Gods ancient people commanding them from the Lord to goe peaceably and paciently to Babilon aduised them also to pray saying For in her peace shall be your peace meaning that temporall peace which is common both to good and bad L. VIVES BLessed a is Psal. 144. 15. Where the Prophet hauing reckoned vp all the goods of fortune children wealth peace prosperitie and all in
their hurt and their soules in following their appetites when neede requireth so in flying of death they make it as apparant how much they set by their peace of soule and body But man hauing a reasonable soule subiecteth all his communities with beasts vnto the peace of that to worke so both in his contemplation and action that there may bee a true consonance betweene them both and this wee call the peace of the reasonable soule To this end hee is to avoide molestation by griefe disturbance by desire and dissolution by death and to ayme at profiâ—…e knowledge where vnto his actions may bee conformable But least 〈◊〉 owne infirmity through the much desire to know should draw him into any pestilent inconuenience of error hee must haue a diuine instruction to whose directions and assistance hee is to assent with firme and free obedience And because that during this life Hee is absent from the LORD hee walketh by faith and not by sight and therefore hee referreth all his peace of bodie of soule and of both vnto that peace which mortall man hath with immortall GOD to liue in an orderlie obedience vnder his eternall lawe by faith Now GOD our good Maister teaching vs in the two chiefest precepts the loue of him and the loue of our neighbour to loue three things GOD our neighbour and our selues and seeing he that loueth GOD offendeth not in louing himselfe it followeth that hee ought to counsell his neighbour to loue GOD and to prouide for him in the loue of GOD sure hee is commanded to loue him as his owne selfe So must hee doe for his wife children family and all men besides and wish likewise that his neighbour would doe as much for him in his need thus shall hee bee settled in peace and orderly concord with all the world The order whereof is first a to doe no man hurt and secondly to helpe all that hee can So that his owne haue the first place in his care and those his place and order in humane society affordeth him more conueniency to benefit Wherevpon Saint Paul saith Hee that prouideth not for his owne and namely for them that bee of his houshold denieth the faith and is worse then an Infidell For this is the foundation of domesticall peace which is an orderly rule and subiection in the partes of the familie wherein the prouisors are the Commaunders as the husband ouer his wife parents ouer their children and maisters ouer their seruants and they that are prouided for obey as the wiues doe their husbands children their parents and seruants their maisters But in the family of the faithfull man the heauenly pilgrim there the Commaunders are indeed the seruants of those they seeme to commaund ruling not in ambition but beeing bound by carefull duety not in proud soueraignty but in nourishing pitty L. VIVES FIrst a to doe no Man can more easily doe hurt or forbeare hurt then doe good All men may iniure others or abstaine from it But to doe good is all and some Wherefore holy writ bids vs first abstaine from iniury all we can and then to benefit our christian bretheren when wee can Natures freedome and bondage caused by sinne in which man is a slaue to his owne affects though he be not bondman to any one besides CHAP. 15. THus hath natures order prescribed and man by GOD was thus created Let them rule saith hee ouer the fishes of the sea and the fowles of the ayre end ouer euery thing that creepeth vpon the earth Hee made him reasonable and LORD onely ouer the vnreasonable not ouer man but ouer beastes Wherevpon the first holy men were rather shep-heards then Kings GOD shewing herein what both the order of the creation desired and what the merit of sinne exacted For iustly was the burden of seruitude layd vpon the backe of transgression And therefore in all the scriptures wee neuer reade the word Seruant vntill such time as that iust man Noah a layd it as a curse vpon his offending sonne So that it was guilt and not nature that gaue originall vnto that name b The latine word Seruus had the first deriuation from hence those that were taken in the warres beeing in the hands of the conquerours to massacre or to preserue if they saued them then were they called Serui of Seruo to saue Nor was this effected beyond the desert of sinne For in the iustest warre the sinne vpon one side causeth it and if the victory fall to the wicked as some times it may c it is GODS decree to humble the conquered either reforming their sinnes heerein or punishing them Witnesse that holy man of GOD Daniel who beeing in captiuity confessed vnto his Creator that his sinnes and the sinnes of the people were the reall causes of that captiuity Sinne therefore is the mother of seruitude and first cause of mans subiection to man which notwithstanding commeth not to passe but by the direction of the highest in whome is no iniustice and who alone knoweth best how to proportionate his punnishment vnto mans offences and hee himselfe saith Whosoeuer committeth sinne is the seruant of sinne and therefore many religious Christians are seruants vnto wicked maisters d yet not vnto free-men for that which a man is addicted vnto the same is hee slaue vnto And it is a happier seruitude to serue man then lust for lust to ommit all the other affects practiseth extreame tirany vpon the hearts of those that serue it bee it lust after soueraignty or fleshly lust But in the peacefull orders of states wherein one man is vnder an other as humility doth benefit the seruant so doth pride endamage the superior But take a man as GOD created him at first and so hee is neither slaue to man nor to sinne But penall seruitude had the institution from that law which commaundeth the conseruation and forbiddeth the disturbance of natures order for if that law had not first beene transgressed penall seruitude had neuer beene enioyned Therefore the Apostle warneth seruants to obey their Maisters and to serue them with cheerefulnesse and good will to the end that if they cannot bee made free by their Maisters they make their seruitude a free-dome to themselues by seruing them not in deceiptfull feare but in faithfull loue vntill iniquity be ouerpassed and all mans power and principality disanulled and GOD onely be all in all L. VIVES NOah a layd it Gen. 9. b The latine So saith Florentinus the Ciuilian Institut lib. 4. And they are called Mancipia quoth hee of manu capti to take with the hand or by force This you may reade in Iustinians Pandects lib. 1. The Lacaedemonians obserued it first Plin. lib. 7. c It is Gods decree Whose prouidence often produceth warres against the wills of either party d Yet not vnto free Their Maisters being slaues to their owne passions which are worse maisters then men can be Of the iust law of soueraignty CHAP. 16.
WHerefore although our righteous fore-fathers had seruants in their families and according to their temporall estates made a distinction betwixt their seruants and their children yet in matter of religion the fountaine whence all eternall good floweth they prouided for all their houshold with an equall respect vnto each member thereof This natures order prescribed and hence came the name of The Father of the family a name which euen the worst Maisters loue to bee called by But such as merit that name truely doe care that all their families should continue in the seruice of GOD as if they were all their owne children desyring that they should all bee placed in the houshold of heauen where commaund is wholy vnnecessary because then they are past their charge hauing attained immortality which vntill they bee installed in the Maisters are a to endure more labour in their gouernment then the seruants in their seruice If any bee disobedient and offend this iust peace hee is forth-with to bee corrected with strokes or some other conuenient punishment whereby hee may bee re-ingraffed into the peace-full stocke from whence his disobedience hath torne him For as it is no good turne to helpe a man vnto a smaller good by the losse of a greater no more is it the part of innocence by pardoning a small offence to let it grow vnto a fouler It is the duetie of an innocent to hurt no man but withall to curbe sinne in all hee can and to correct sinne in whome hee can that the sinners correction may bee profitable to himselfe and his example a terrour vnto others Euery family then beeing part of the cittie euery beginning hauing relation vnto some end and euery part tending to the integrity of the whole it followeth apparantly that the families peace adhereth vnto the citties that is the orderly command and obedience in the familie hath reall reference to the orderly rule and subiection in the cittie So that the Father of the familie may fetch his instructions from the citties gouernment whereby hee may proportionate the peace of his priuate estate by that of the Common L. VIVES THe Maisters a are to endure It is most difficult and laborious to rule well and it is as trouble-some to rule ouer vnruly persons The grounds of the concord and discord betweenethe Citties of Heauen and Earth CHAP. 17. BVt they that liue not according to faith angle for all their peace in the Sea of temporall profittes Whereas the righteous liue in full expectation of the glories to come vsing the occurences of this worlde but as pilgrimes not to abandon their course towardes GOD for mortall respects but thereby to assist the infirmity of the corruptible flesh and make it more able to encounter with toyle and trouble Wherefore the necessaries of this life are common both to the faithfull and the Infidell and to both their families but the endes of their two vsages thereof are farre different The faythlesse worldly citty aymeth at earthly peace and settleth the selfe therein onely to haue an vniformity of the Cittizens wills in matters onely pertayning till mortality And the Heauenly citty or rather that part thereof which is as yet a pilgrime on earth and liueth by faith vseth this peace also as befitteth vnto it leaue this mortall life wherein such a peace is requisite and therefore liueth while it is here on earth as if it were in captiuity and hauing receiued the promise of redemption and diuers spirituall guifts as seales thereof it willingly obeyeth such lawes of the temporall citty as order the things pertayning to the sustenance of this mortall life to the end that both the Citties might obserue a peace in such things as are pertinent here-vnto But because that the Earthly Citty hath some members whome the holy scriptures vtterly disallow and who standing either to well affected to the diuells or being illuded by them beleeued that each thing had a peculiar deity ouer it and belonged to the charge of a seuerall God as the body to one the soule to another and in the body it selfe the head to one the necke to another and so of euery member as likewise of the soule one had the witt another the learning a third the wrath a forth the desire as also in other necessaries or accidents belonging to mans life the cattell the corne the wine the oyle the woods the monies the nauigation the warres the mariages the generations each being a seuerall charge vnto a particular power whereas the cittizens of the Heauenly state acknowledged but one onely God to whom that worshippe which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was peculiarly and solly due hence came it that the two hierachies could not bee combined in one religion but must needs dissent herein so that the good part was faine to beare the pride and persecution of the bad but that their owne multitude some-times and the prouidence of GOD continually stood for their protection This celestiall society while it is here on earth increaseth it selfe out of all languages neuer respecting the temporall lawes that are made against so good and religious a practise yet not breaking but obseruing their diuersity in diuers nations all which do tend vnto the preseruation of earthly peace if they oppose not the adoration of one onely GOD. So that you see the Heauenly citty obserueth and respecteth this temporall peace here on Earth and the coherence of mens wills in honest morality as farre as it may with a safe conscience yea and so farre desireth it making vse of it for the attaynement of the peace eternall which is so truely worthy of that name as that the orderly and vniforme combination of men in the fruition of GOD and of one another in GOD is to be accompted the reasonable creatures onely peace which being once attained mortality is banished and life then is the a true life indeed nor is the carnall body any more an encombrance to the soule by corruptibility but is now become spirituall perfected and entirely subiect vnto the souerainety of the will This peace is that vnto which the pilgrime in faith referreth the other which he hath here in his pilgrimage and then liueth hee according to faith when all that hee doth for the obteining hereof is by him-selfe referred vnto God and his neighbour with-all because being a cittizen hee must not bee all for him-selfe but sociable in his life and actions L. VIVES THe a true life Ennius vsed the Latine phrase Uita vitalis to which Augustine alludeth Cicero That the suspended doctrine of the new Academy opposeth the constancie of Christianity CHAP. 18. AS for the new Academians whome Varro auoutcheth to hold no certeinty but this That all things are vncertaine the Church of God detesteth these doubts as madnesses hauing a most certaine knowledge of the things it apprehendeth although but in small quantity because of the corruptible body which is a burden to the soule and because as the