though the Author or first Founder of a most absurd Religion and the Jews yet persisting in their folly believe their Messiah yet to come Among us Christians several Popes several Councils several Bishops have prescrib'd several Varieties and Forms of Worship differing among themselves either touching the manner of the Ceremonies Meats lawful Fasts Vestments Publick Ornaments or else about Clerical Promotions and Tithes But one thing overcomes the admiration of Wonder it self to see how these Ambitious men think to climb Heaven by the same wayes that Lucifer fell from it Neither do all these Laws and Rules of Religion lean upon any other Foundation than the meer Opinions and Pleasure of their Founders Consider from the Beginning of the World how many there were how many there are several Inventions of Religion how many Ceremonies how many Heresies how many Opinions how many Decrees how many Canons yet cannot Religion lead men in so many Ages to the right Path of Faith without the Word of God which being once made Flesh and Triumphing over his Enemies on the Cross Temples and dols were thrown down and the Powers of Numens and Oracles ceas'd The Voice of Pytho's gone that seldom â—rr'd Apollo too so many Ages heard Is now in silence lock't Tby Service done to thine own Country go Return to thine own Altars down below For no sooner the Word of God came to shine in the World by the manifestation of the Gospel but all the Gods of the Heathen being as it were Thunder-struck fell to Destruction according to the saying of Christ in Luke I saw Satan falling from Heaven like Lightning How far this concerns Faith Theology and the Decrees of the Canonists we shall discourse hereafter For now we are only treating of Religion so far as to those Mysteries contained therein which concern the benefits of the Priest or that suffice to render the outward face of the Commonwealth sumptuous with Images Statues Temples Phanes Chappels Dignities Pomp and Riches of the Ministers and Ecclesiastical Officers of which I have Disputed at large in my Dispute upon the Theological Decrees held by me at Collen in the Year 1510 and therefore I shall the more briefly pass them over now yet show you that among those things which were set apart for the decency of Worship and most proper for the safety of Mens Souls not a little of the Tare of Vanity and Destructive Superstition has been mix'd CHAP. LVII Of Images THe worship of Images has not been antiently by all people admitted For the Jews as Josephus relates after they had been so often chastized and indeed at first the most strict observers of the Law did abhor nothing more than the making of Images For the commands of God delivered by Moses did utterly prohibit the use of Images either in Temples or in any other place And Eusebius testifies that among the people call'd Seres the adoration of Images was by Law absolutely forbidden Neither do we read either in Clement or Plutarch that for so Numa had decreed there was any Image to be seen or that was spoken of for above a hundred and seventy years after the building of the City Which also St. Austin alleadges out of Varro whose words most clearly witness that there was no Image or Idol in the City for one hundred and sixty years and that afterwards it came to pass that by reason of the Multitude of Images and Idols the Worship of the Gods was not only neglected but had in contempt The Persians also as Herodotus and Strabo Witness never suffered Images among them On the otherside in the honour of Idols there were none more Superstitious and dotingly stupid than the Aegyptians from whence that Impiety as from a corrupted Fountain over-ran other Nations which Superstitious Customes and false Religion of the Heathens when the same People became to be Converted to the Christian Faith did not a little contaminate the Purity of our Religion introducing Idols and Images into our Church together with many Barren Pomps and Ceremonies of which there was nothing thought of among the Ancient and Primitive Christians Nor can it be imagin'd how strongly and superstitiously Idolatry is riveted into the Minds of the Unlearned Multitude by the means of Images the idle Priests among the Catholicks conniving thereat as reaping not a little benefit thereby 'T is true they endeavour to defend themselves by the help of St. Gregories Words who saith That Images are the Books of the Vulgar whereby the Memory of things is by them the more easily retain'd so that by these they who cannot read may yet be taught and by the sight thereof be drawn to the Contemplation of God However these are but the humane Comments and Suppositions of Palliating St. Gregory and though that good Man might in some sort approve of the Images themselves yet it cannot be thought that he did any way allow the Worship thereof For it is no part of our duty to learn from the Forbidden Book of Images but from the Book of God which is the Scripture He therefore who desires to know God let him not endeavour to obtain that Knowledge from the handy-work of Painters and Statuaries but according to the Direction of St. John Let him search the Scriptures what testimony they give concerning him And they who cannot read let them hear the Word of the same Scripture where St. Paul pronounces That Faith comes by hearing and what Christ in another place â—aith My Sheep know my Voice As also what in another place he avers No man can come to him unless the Father draw him and no man cometh to the Father but by Christ himself Why then do we take the Glory from God giving it to Pictures and Images as if they could draw us to the Knowledge of the most Divine Being To this we may add the vain and immoderate Worship of idle Reliques We confess That the Reliques of the Saints are Holy and that they thall one day shine with the Glories of Eternity Yet to give them Adoration as to the Reilquâ—s of Dâ—ities that hear our Prayers is a most stupid piece of Fascination Lest therefore we fall into Idolatry and Superstition it is the safest way for us not to fix our Faith upon visible things But the Covetous Generation of the Romish Clergy greedy after gain raising matter to â—eed their Avarice not only out of Wood and Stones but also from the Bones of the Dead and Reliques of the Saints make them the Instruments of their Rapine and Extortion They shew the Sepulchres of the Saints they expose the Reliques of Martyrs which no man must so much as touch or kiss but for mony They adorn their Pictures set out their Festivals with great Pomp and State they extol 'um for Saints advance the Fame of their Miracles utterly disagreeing in their Lives and Conversations from the Lives and Examples of those whom they praise These were the Men to whom our Saviour spoke when
by the wit and help of Man Wine Oyl Bread and Cloth and other works of Nature are compleated by humane Arts so the Divine Oracles delivered to us obscure and hidden are to be explained by Interpretation not by the force of our own Wit or Invention but by the help of the Spirit who distributes his good things as he pleases and where he pleases making some Prophets and some Interpreters Therefore this Interpretative Divinity consists not in Compounding Dividing Defining after the manner of the Peripateticks neither of which belong to God who neither can be defined divided or compounded but leads to Knowledge by another way which is indifferent between this and Prophetical vision which is a kinde of discovery of the Truth to our purifi'd Intellect as a Key to a Lock and this as it is the most covetous of all Truth so it is the most susceptible of what things are to be understood and is therefore called Possible Intellect wherewith though we do not discover by a full light what the Prophets mean and those who beheld the Divine things themselves yet there is a door open to us that from the conformity of the Truth perceived to our Intellect and by the Light which illustrates us out of those open windows we gain more certainty than from the appearing Demonstrations Definitions Divisions and Compositions and we read and understand not with our outward eyes and ears but with our better senses and extract the Truth flowing from the sacred Scriptures which the other delivered in dark sayings and mysterious sentences and thereby see what is hidden from the wise and great Philosophers yet apprehend them not with so much certainty as that all perplexity may be removed And whereas there is a manifold Truth conceal'd in sacred Scripture holy men have gone about to try various and manifold Expositions of the same For some gently walking along the back of the Letter and expounding one place by another and one letter by another and making out the sence by the Order Etymologie and Propriety and Force of the signification of the words hunt out the truth of Scripture which is therefore call'd Literal Exposition Others refer all things written to the business of the Soul and works of Justice whose Expositions are therefore call'd Moral Others remit them by various Tropes and Figures to the Mysteries of the Church whose Exposition is call'd Tropological Others given to Contemplation refer all things to the Myitery of Celestia glory and this Exposition is call'd Anagogick And these are the four most usual sorts of Exposition besides which there are two more of which the one refers all things to vicissitude of Times Mutations of Kingdoms and Ages therefore call'd Typick Wherein among the Ancients Cyril Methodius and Joachim Abbas did most exel of Modern Authors Jeremy Savanarola of Ferrara The other enquires into the nature and qualities of the Universe the Sensible world and of the whole Fabrick of the World and Nature which Exposition is therefore call'd Physical or Natural wherein Rabbi Simeon ben Joachim excell'd who wrote a very large Volume upon Leviticus wherein discoursing of the natures of all things he shews how Moses according to the congruencie of the threefold World and nature of things ordain'd the Ark the Tabernacle the Vessels Garments Rites Sacrifices and other Mysteries for the appeasing and worshipping God Which Exposition the Cabalists follow especially those who treat of Beresith or the Creation For they who discoursing concerning the Judgement-seat of God by Numbers Figures Revolutions Symbolical reasons refers all things to the first Arch-type search for the Anagogical sence And these are the six most famous Senses or Meanings of the holy Scripture all whose Expositors or Interpreters are by a general word call'd Divines among whom we finde Dionysius Origen Polycarpus Eusebius Tertullian Ireneus Nazianzene Chrysostome Athanasius Basil Damascene Lactantins Cyprian Jerome Austin Ambrose Gregory Ruffinus Leo Cassianus Barnardus Anselm and many other holy Fathers which those ancient times brought forth and some of later years as Thomas Albertus Bonaventure Egidius Henricus Gandavensis Gerson and many others But now seeing that all these Interpretative Divines are but men they are subject to humane frailties sometimes they erre sometimes they write things contrary or repugnant sometimes they differ from one another in many things they are deceiv'd all of um not discerning all things for onely the Holy Ghost has the perfect knowledge of Divine things who distributes to all men according to a certain measure reserving many things to himself that we may be always learning of him for as S. Paul saith All of us know and preach by art onely Therefore all this Interpretative Theologie consists onely in liberty of speech and is a Knowledge separate from Scripture whereby every one has the liberty to abound in his own sence according to those various Expositions recited before which S. Paul in one word calls Mysteries or speaking of Mysteries when the Spirit speaks Mysteries whence Dionysius calls this Significative Theologie treated of by those holy Doctors in several Volumes Nor are we to believe all that they say seeing that many hold very Erroneous Opinions of Faith which are exploded by the Church as we may instance in Papias Bishop of Hierapolis Victorinus Pictoviensis Irenoeus Lugdunensis Cyprian Origen and Tertullian and many others who have err'd in the Faith and whose Tenets have been condemned as Heretical though they themselves are among the Canoniz'd Saints But this requires a deeper spirit of consideration to judge and discern which is not of men nor of flesh and bloud but granted from above by the Father of lights For no man can utter any thing rightly of God but by the light which comes from himself which light is the Word by whom all things were made and who illuminates every man coming into this world giving them power to become the sons of God whoever shall receive and believe Neither is there any who can declare the things of God but his own Word for who besides can know the minde of God or whoever was made of his council but the Son of God being the Word of the Father But of this we shall discourse no farther till we have perfected the next Chapter of Prophetick Theologie CHAP. XCIX of Prophetick Theologie AS Prophecie is the speech of the Prophets so is Theologie nothing but the Tradition of the Divines or men discoursing with God However not every one that can remember or repeat a Prophecie or interpret the meaning thereof is presently a Prophet but he that in divine things is endued with the knowledge of Piety Vertue and Sanctity who discourseth with God and meditates upon his Law day and night For so S. John Author of the Apocalypse in the Letters of Dionysius call'd The Divine testifies from holy Writing to whom the Truth it self has said He that hears you hears me and he that despises you despises me Which words are not
not the Opinions of Men not Custom nor the invented Fictions of the Wise not the Magnificent Decrees of Sects not Syllogisms Enthymems not Inductions not soluble Consequences but Divine Oracles consonant to one another received by the Universal Church with an unanimous and solid consent approved by Miracles Prodigies Wonders Holiness of life and testimony of Martyrdom The Doctors of this Prophetick Theologie were Moses Job David Solomon and many other Canonical Writers and Prophets The Teachers of the New Testament were the Apostles and Evangelists but all these notwithstanding they were fill'd with the Holy Ghost yet all at one time or other stray'd from the Truth and in some measure spake untruly not that they did so wittingly or craftily for to say so would be a greater Errour than that of Arius or Sabellicus subverting the whole Authority of the Scripture in which Errour notwithstanding the great and holy S. Jerome persisted disputing against S. Augustine about the reprehension of Peter for S. Paul said that S. Jerome told a lye craftily Which should it be granted and that such an untruth should be admitted in the Bible immediately as S. Austin saith the whole certainty of the Bible would fall to ruine But S. Jerome being thus admonisht after many Contradictions and defences at length acknowledged his Errour and confess'd the Truth But what I say that the holy Writers did secundum quid speak things not altogether true I would have to be understood so as that they did not willingly erre but onely stray through humane frailty Thus Moses failed in telling the people he would bring them out of Aegypt and carry them into the Land of Canaan for though he brought them out of Aegypt he did not carry them into the Land of promise Jonas failed in foretelling the destruction of Nineveh within forty days intended but delay'd Elijah failed in foretelling many things to come to pass in the days of Ahab which yet were not fulfill'd till after his death Isaiah failed foretelling the death of Hezekiah the next day when his life was prolonged fifteen years afterwards Many other Prophets also fail'd and their predictions are found either not to have come to pass at all or else to have been suspended The Apostles also and Evangelists fail'd Peter also fail'd when he was reprehended by S. Paul Matthew also fail'd when he wrote that Christ was not dead till the Launce had pierced his side But this defect was no defect of the Holy Ghost but either of the Prophet not rightly delivering what was suggested by the Holy Ghost or the Vision did declare or else proceeding from some alteration of the event of the Command the sentence of the Oracle being either alter'd or defer'd Hence it follows that all Prophets and Writers in some things seem to fail and erre according to the Scripture which saith All men are lyers Onely Christ both God and man never was nor shall be found to fail nor shall his words be altered or be defective who void of Errour divulged his Oracles most immutable as he said himself The heaven and the earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away Now because all Truth is through the Holy Ghost therefore onely Christ possesses this Truth firmly nor shall it ever depart from him but remains in him But it is not so with others for the Spirit was with Moses but when he strake the Rock it was departed It was with Aaron but departed when he made the Calf It was with Anna their sister but not when she murmured against Moses It was with Saul David Solomon Isaiah c. but rested not constantly with them Neither are Prophets always Prophets or Seers or foretellers of things to come nor is Prophecie a continual habit but a gift passion or transient spirit And whereas there is no man who doth not sin so there is no man from whom the Spirit doth not sometimes depart and leave him unless it be Christ the onely Son of God of whom it was therefore said to John He upon whom thou sawest the Spirit descending and remaining with him he is the Son of God who Baptizeth with the Holy Ghost being also able to impart the same to others Therefore as saith Simonides onely God hath this honour that he is onely Metaphysical so may we say of Christ that onely Christ hath this honour to be a Divine However let no man think that the Writings of the Old Testament since the Gospel of Christ had its divine birth from them are therefore obsolete and dead for they will ever live in high authority for by them have the Apostles proved their Tenets and without their testimony they have spoken nothing and Christ refers us to the search of them whose Gospel doth not at all abolish those Writings but fulfill'd the Law to the least tittle This is also to be noted that many Volumes of the Holy Scripture are lost which we may easily gather from the Scripture it self For Moses cites Books of The Wars of the Lord and Joshuah The Book of the Just Esther The Book of memorable things and Macchabees cites the holy Books of the Spartiatae and the Books of the Kings cite Books of Lamentations Books of Samuel the Seer Books and Writings of Nathan God Semeiah Haddo Ahia the Shilonite of Jehu the son of Ammon Jude also in his Canonical Epistle cites the Book of Enoch And some Authors of credit have cited a Book of Abraham the Patriarch All which are lost and never to be found Nor are these which we have received of equal Authority for Dionysius makes mention of A Gospel of S. Bartholomew and S. Jerome takes notice of A Gospel according to the Nazarenes and S. Luke in his Preface to his Gospel saith that many did undertake to write Gospels which are all lost And many others there are which are either corrupted with Heresie or set forth without Authority and so neither received by the holy Fathers nor approved by the Church I omit false Prophets who have come in by the by prophesying through vain-glory things which the holy Spirit never suggested but unheard-of lyes neither according to the Scripture nor tending either to unity of Spirit or the peace of the Church but for the introducing of Schism who rashly making themselves of Gods Privie Council dare presume to take the Word of God into their own mouthes and to write Scriptures and Prophecies altogether Heretical or Apocryphal Nor were the Canticles of Solomon inserted among the Canonical Books till they were corrected and approv'd by Isaiah From hence it appears how that Theologie it self that is to say the holy Scripture wants many of its Volumes and may in a manner seem defective and few of many that remain are true and certain really Books of life and Canonical CHAP. C. Of the Word of God YE have now heard how doubtful how uncertain how ambiguous all the Sciences are and how for any thing in them contained we
Palaemo Profess'd with great Ostentation so that he gave a new Name thereto calling Grammar the Polaemonian Art A man so Arrogant that he boasted That Letters had their beginning and should dye with him so prov'd that he despis'd all the most Learned men of this Age not forbearing to call Marcus Vaâ—ro Hog However the Latin Grammar is so barren and so much beholden to Greek Literature that whoever understands not so much is to be ejected out of the Number of Grammarians Therefore all the Foundation and Reason of Grammar consists only in the use and Authority of our Ancestors who have been pleas'd that a thing shall be so call'd and so written that words shall be so compounded and construed which being so done they esteem well done From whence though Grammar boast it self to be the Art of well-speaking yet doth it falsly claim that Pre-eminence seeing that with more advantage we learn that very thing from our Mothers and Nurses rather than from the Grammarians The Language and Speech of the Gracchi who were most Eloquent Men their Mother Cornelia polish'd and adorn'd Istria taught her Son Siles Son of Aripethis King of Scythia the Greek Tongue And it is well known that in many Provinces where Forreign Colonies have been introduc'd the Children have still retain'd the Dialect of their Mothers Hence it is that Plato and Quintilian are so careful in appointing Rules for the choice of a fit Nurse Far be it from us therefore to acknowledge the reason of well-speaking to these Grammarians who professing Grammar only and making that their only business yet are skill'd in nothing less Priscian could not learn this Art in the whole time of his Life And Didymus is said to have four some say six thousand Books upon this Subject They report that Claudius Caesar was so given to the Greek Tongue that he added three new Letters thereto which he afterwards made use of when he was a Prince Charles the Great is said to have Compil'd a Grammar for the German Tongue giving new Names to the Months and Winds Even to this hour how men toyl and labour Day and Night scribling continually of all sorts Commentaries Forms of Elegancy or Phrases Questions Annotations Animadversions Observations Castigations Centuries Miscellanies Antiquities Paradoxes Collections Additions Lucubrations Editions upon Editions And yet not one of them all whether Grecian or Latine hath given any accompt how the Parts of Speech are to be distinguish'd or what order is to be observ'd in their Construction or whether there be only fifteen Pronouns as Priscian believes or whether more as Diâ—medes and Focas will have it whether a Participle put by its self be sometimes a Participle or whether Gerunds are Nouns or Verbs why among the Greeks Nouns plural of the Neuter Gender are joyn'd with a Verb of the singular Number upon what accompt it may be lawful to pronounce in um Latine words terminating a and us as for Margarita Margaritum for Punctus Punctum how it comes that the Word Jupiter makes Jovis in the Genitive Case Why many write most Latin words with a Greek Diphthong others not as Foelix Quaestio whether the Latin Diphthongs are only written and not pronounced or whether there be a double pronunciation in one Syllable Likewise why in some Latine words some use the Greek y and some the Latin i only as in considero Why in some words some double the Letters some not as causa caussa religio relligio Why the word Caccabus by position long by reason of the double cc is notwithstanding most commonly by the Poets made a Dactyle Whether Aristotles word for the Soul ought to be writ endelechia with a Delta or entelechia with a Tau I omit their infinitie and never-to-be-reconcil'd contentions about Accents Orthography Pronounciation of Letters Figures Etymologies Analogies Declinings manner of Signification change of Cases variety of Tenses Moods Persons Numbers as also about the various impediments and order of Construction Lastly concerning the Number and Pedigree of the Latin Letters whether H be a Letter or not and many other trifles of the same Nature so that not only as to Words and Syllables but also in the very Elements and Foundations of Grammar it self no reason can be given of such their continual warfare Such a kind of Battel as this Lucian of Samos has very elegantly describ'd about the Consonants S and T whether should have the Victory in the word Tbalassa or Thalatta Answerable to which one Andreas Salernitanus hath with very much wit compil'd his Grammatical War But these are poor and low things but more and of greater Consequencâ— could we urge concerning their deprav'd significations of Words with which they impose upon the greatest part of the Universe not a little to the damage of the Publick Weal while they interpret subjection to the Law Servitude Liberty of the People they call that when every one has Liberty to do what he pleases Acrisonomie or Equality of right they call that when there is the same punishment the same reward to all alike In like manner they call that a quiet and peaceable Government when all things submit to the inordinate will of the Prince That a happy Government when the People wallow in ease and luxury By such-like expositions as these and many other Physick and Law are corrupted nay the very Scriptures and Christ himself are compell'd to be at a kind of variance one with another and himself with himself wresting those holy words not according to the meaning of the holy Ghost nor to the Advantage of humane Salvation but to the sense and meaning of their insignificant Compendiums and discants thereupon whence arise most eminent mischiefs Error in Words being many times the parent of Error in Matter This mistake was grievous to Saul first King of the Jews in the word Zobar which signifies both a Male and the Memory So that when God said I will root out the memory of Amalech Saul thought he had sufficiently executed the Command in destroying all the Males The like Error befell the Greeks and Latines in the word Phos which signifies both Light and Man by which ambiguity of the word the ancient adorers of Saturn being deceiv'd were wont to Sacrifice a Man in their usual Ceremonies whereas otherwise they might have as well appeas'd their Deity by the only kindling of proper Lights and Fires which Error was afterwards reform'd by the prudence of Hercules Last of all Divines and holy Friers mixing themselves among the Tribe of Grammarians are forc'd to make use of Heresie to make good their Contests about the signification of Words overturning the Scriptures for Grammars sake evil Interpreters of words well spoken men truly vain and truly unhappy blinding themselves with their own Art and flying the Light of Truth who while they over-diligently scrutinize into the sorce of Words lose the sence of the Scripture not willing to understand the word of Truth which puts us in
to Wantonness with the sight of obscene Pictures nay we stick not to introduce 'um into our very Temples Chapples and over our Altars to the great hazard of breeding Idolatry But of this more when we come to Treat of Religion Now that there is a certain Authority not to be contemned in Statues and Pictures I learnt not long ago in Italy where there happening a very great debate before the Pope between the Austin Fryars and the Regular Canons about the Habit of St. Austin that is to say whether he wore a black Stole over a white Vest or a white Stole over a black Vest and finding nothing in Scripture that gave Light toward the determination of the Question the Judges at length thought fit to refer the whole matter to the Painters and Statuaries resolving to give judgment according to what they should declare they had seen in Ancient Pictures and Statues Confirm'd by this example I my self labouring with indefatigable diligence to find out the Original of the Monks Cowl and not finding any that might resolve the doubt in Scripture at length I refer'd my self to the Painters seeking the Truth of the matter in the Porches of Halls of the Monasteries where the Histories of the Old and New Testament are generally Painted Now seeing that I could not perceive in all the Old Testament neither any of the Priests or Prophets no not Elias himself whom the Carmelites make their Patron I went and diligently view'd all the New Testament There I saw Zacharias Simeon John Baptist Joseph Christ the Apostles Disciples Scribes Pharisees High Priests Annas Caiphas Herod Pilat and many others but yet I could not see one Cowl among them All till at length examining the whole story over and over again and by and by in the very Front of the Piece I found the Devil himself with a Cowl on as he stood tempting Christ in the Wilderness I was very glad to find that in a Picture that I could observe in no Writing that the Devil was the first Inventor of Cowls from whom I am apt to believe the Monks and Fryars have borrowed the same though wearing it of divers Colours if they do not absolutely claim it by Inheritance CHAP. XXVI Of Prospective and Looking-Glasses TO return to Opticks to which the use of Looking-Glasses and Prospective-Glasses does mainly conduce the Experiments whereof are daily seen in the various kinds of Glasses Hollow Convex Plane Pillar-fashion'd Pyramidal Globular Gibbose Orbicular full of Angles Inverted Everted Regular Irregular Solid and Perspicuous So we read as Celius in his ancient Readings relates That one Hostius a Person of an Obscene Life made a sort of Glasses that made the Object seem far greater than it was so that one Finger should seem to exceed the whole Arm both in bigness and thickness There is also a sort of Glass wherein a man may see the Image of another man but not his own and another which being set in such a posture and place gives back no representation but the posture being alter'd presently returns the Object presented Some that shew all sorts of Representations some not all but many Other Glasses there are that contrary to the fashion of all others will shew the right hand directly opposite to the Right and the Left directly opposite to the Left Other Glasses there are that do not represent the Image within but as it were hanging in the Air. Burning-Glasses there are too that Collecting the beams of the Sun into one point kindle fire at a distance upon any Combustible Matter Little Perspicuous Glasses also are not without thier Impostures that is to say to make a little thing appear great those that are afar off neer those things or places that are neer afar off those that are above us below us those things that are below us above us or in any other posture or situation whatever There are other of these Glasses that make one Object appear to be many and will represent things with divers Colours like the Rainbow as also in divers Shapes and Figures And I my self have learnt to make Glasses wherein while the Sun shines you may discern for the distance of Three or Four Miles together whatever places are enlightned or over-spread with his Beams And this is to be admired in plain Glasses that by how much the less they are so much less than themselves they will represent the Object but let them be never so big yet shall they not represent the Object ever a whit the larger which when St. Austin consider'd writing to Nibridius he conceives it to be something of an occult Mystery However they are vain and useless things invented only for Ostentation and idle Pleasure Many both Greek and Latine have Treated of Looking-Glasses and Perspectives but above all the rest Vitellius CHAP. XXVI Of Cosmimetry LET us have a few words now concerning Cosmimetry which is divided into Cosmography and Geography both measure the World and distinguish it into Parts the First according to a method drawn from the Heavenly Bodies by distinguishing Places as they are Situated under such Stars or Constellations measuring them by Scales of Degrees or Minutes by Climates by the difference of Day or Night Points of the Winds various risings of the Stars Elevations of the Pole Parallels Meridians shadows of Gnomons and the like all which is performed by Mathematical Rules The Second not regarding any thing of the Celestial Bodies measures the World by Furlongs and Miles divides it into Mountains Woods Lakes Rivers Seas and Shores Nations People Kingdoms Provinces Cities Ports and whatever else is worthy taking Notice of They Native Customes Native Habits shew And what each Region suffers there to grow And in imitation of Painting according to the Rules of Geometry and Perspective describe the whole World in Plain Tables or Maps In little Volumes Painting all the World Of this they reckon Chorography to be a part which undertaking the particular Description of particular Places sets them out more fully and accurately Each part distinguish'd various order yields Of Vines of Woods of Meadows Fountains Fields Behold how swelling Streams the Ocean fill There falls a Valley there a mounting Hill With wooddy top assails the distant Stars All these things and whatever we have before spoken of in this Chapter Cosmimetry teaches in chief But what Authors shall instruct us in this Art so manifold are the Contentions among them about Bounds Longitudes Latitudes Magnitudes Measures Distances Climates and Qualities of Countries All which Eratosthenes has one way explained Strabo another another way Marinus another way Ptolomy another way Dionysius another way the Later Authors Neither do they agree about the Navil or Middle of the Earth which Ptolomy places under the Equinoctial Circle Strabo believes it to be the Mountain Parnassus in Greece with whom Plutarch and Lactantius the Grammarian agree and believe That in the time of the Deluge it was the only Mark of distinction between the
and Prince of this World in Leviticus nam'd the Prince of the Deserts to whom it was said in Genesis Thou shalt eat the dust all the days of thy life And in Isaiah The Dust is thy bread that is our Corporeal Body Created out of the dust of the Earth so long as it remains unsanctifi'd and not chang'd for the better to be no longer then at the disposal of the Serpent but of God according to the word of St. Paul It is sow'd corporal but shall rise spiritual And in another place All shall rise but all shall not be chang'd for that many shall remain perpetual food for the Serpent This foul and detestable matter of the Flesh the food of the Serpent lies in the Grave in hopes of a better Lot and spiritual Transmutation which is already come to pass in those that have already tasted the first-Fruits of Redemption and some have attain'd it by vertue of the Deifick Spirit as Elias and Enoch and as some are of opinion Moses whose bodies being chang'd into the nature of Spirits never saw corruption nor as other Carcasses were left to the power of the Serpent And something to this purpose it was thought was the great dispute of Michael with the Devil about the body of Moses which St. Jude mentions in his Epistle Thus much concerning Conjuring and Necromancy CHAP. XLVI Of Theurgy MAny there are that believe Theurgy not to be unlawful which pretends to have to do with none but good Angels and the Divine Numen himself though under the names of God and Angels it proves to be onely the delusion and mockery of evil Spirits It pretends no natural Power but to make use of Celestial Ceremonies by which they think to attract and reconcile the Divine Natures Concerning which the antient Magi have deliver'd several Rules in several Volumes But the chiefest part of their Ceremonies is in observing Cleanliness first of the Soul then of the Body then of those things about the Body as in the Skin the Garments the Dwelling Vessels Utensils Immolations and Sacrifices which cleanliness renders them capable of being the receptacles and fit for the entertainment of Divine Spirits and is very much encourag'd and commended in Sacred Scripture according to the words of Esay Be glad and be clean and take away the evil of your thoughts But uncleanness which often corrupts and defiles and infects man disturbs the most clean and pure Society of Celestial Beings and chases away the spotless Spirits and Angels of God It is true that many times unclean and delusive powers to the end they may be ador'd and worship'd for Gods do counterfeit this Purity and therefore great diligence and care is to be us'd for the avoiding thereof and therefore we have abundantly discours'd thereof in our Books of Occult Philosophy Now of this Theurgy or Divine Magick Porphyrius having delivered many things at length concludes that by Theurgick Operations the soul may be made fit to receive Spirits and Angels and to see and converse with them but that there can be any access to the Deity thereby he altogether denies His Rules and Directions are contain'd in his Art Almabel his Notorious Art his Art Pauline his Art of Revelations where are abundance of Superstitions to be found which are so much the more pernicious by how much they seem more Losty and Divine to the unskilful CHAP. XLVII Of the Cabalists HEre the words of Pliny come into my minde There is saith he another Sect of Magicians of which Moses and Latopea Jews were the first Authors which words bring to my remembrance the Cabala of the Jews which as the constant opinion among the Hebrews goes was delivered by God to Moses and thence through succession of Ages even to the times of Ezra preserv'd by Tradition onely without the help of writing As of old the Doctrine of Pythagoras was delivered by Archippus and Lysiades who kept School at Thebes in Greece where the Scholars learning all their Masters Precepts by heart made use onely of their Memories instead of Books So certain Jews despising Letters plac'd all their Learning in Memory Observation and verbal Tradition whence it was call'd by the Hebrews Cabala that is to say a receiving from one to another by the Ear An Art by report very antient though the name be but of later times known among the Christians Now this Cabala they divide into three parts the first contains the knowledge of Bresith which they call also Cosmology explaining and teaching the force and efficacie of things created Natural or Celestial expounding also the Laws and Mysteries of the Bible according to Philosophical reasons which for that cause differs little from Natural Magick wherein they say K. Solomon excell'd Therefore we finde in the Sacred Histories of the Jews that he was wont to discourse from the Cedar of Libanon to the low Hyssop as also of Cattle Birds Reptiles and Fish all which contain within themselves a certain kinde of Magical vertue Moses also the Egyptian in his Expositions upon the Pentateuch and most of the Talmudists have followed the Rules of this Art The other part thereof contains the knowledge of more sublime things as of Divine and Angelical Powers the contemplation of Sacred Names and Characters being a certain kinde of Symbolical Theology wherein the Letters Figures Numbers Names Points Lines Accents are esteemed to contain the significations of most profound things and great Mysteries This part again is twofold Arithmantick handling the nature of Angels the Powers Names Characters of Spirits and Souls departed and Theomantick which searches into the mysteries of the Divine Majesty his Emanations his Names and Pentacula which he that attains to they account endu'd with most admirable power By vertue of this Art they say Moses wrought so many Miracles changing his Rod into a Serpent the Water into Blood and plagu'd Egypt with Frogs Flyes Lice Locusts Emrodes and Pestilence slaying the first-born of Man and Beast By this Art he divided the Red-sea caus'd Water to flow out of the Rock brought the Qualls into the Wilderness sweeten'd the bitter Waters made Lightning by day and a Pillar of Fire by night to lead the March of his people call'd down the Voice of God among the people By this Art he punish'd the Arrogant with Fire the Murmurers with Leprosie Mutiners with sudden Destruction causing the Earth to swallow them up preserv'd the Clothes of the Israelites from wearing out and gave them Victory over their Enemies Lastly by means of this Art Josua commanded the Sun to stand still Elias call'd down Fire from Heaven and rais'd the dead Youth to life Daniel muzzled the Lions mouths and the three Children sang in the middle of the fiery Furnace Nay the perfidious and unbelieving Jews stick not to aver that Christ himself wrought all his Miracles by vertue of this Art Solomon as they say did excel in this Art and that he discovered several secrets thereof
containing several Charms against Devils and their Possessings as also against Diseases as Josephus writes As for my part as I do not doubt but that God Revealed many things to Moses and the Prophets which were contained under the Covert of the words of the Law which were not to be communicated to the prophane Vulgar so for this Art which the Jews so much boast of which I have with great Labour and diligence sâ—arch'd into I must acknowledge it to be a meer Rhapsodie of superstition and nothing but a kind of Theurgick Magick before spoken of For if as the Jews contend coming from God it did any way conduce to perfection of Life Salvation of Men Truth of Understanding certainly that Spirit of Truth which having forsaken the Synagogue is now come to teach us all Truth had never concealed it all this while from the Church which certainly knows all those things that are of God whose Grace Baptism and other Sacraments of Salvation are perfectly Reveal'd to all Languages For every Language is alike so that there be the same Piety neither is there any other Name in Heaven or on Earth by which we can be Sav'd but only the Name of Jesus Wherefore the Jews most skilful in Divine Names after the coming of Christ were able to do nothing in comparison of their Forefathers But by that which we have common Experience of we see that oft-times wonderful Sentences of very great Mysteries are wrested from the Sacred Text that is nothing but a certain playing with Allegories which some slothful Persons imploy'd only in the consideration of particular Points Letters or Figures which this Language and manner of Writing easily admit of take occasion to fancy which many times make a noise as if they were very great Mysteries but are able to prove or evince nothing but that according to the words of St. Gregory they may be contemned with the same easiness as they are Asserted Rabanus the Monk has invented several of these but in Latine Characters and Verses inserting sundry Pictures which being to be read which way soever you turn the Letters declare some Sacred Mysterie representing the Painted History which no man denies but that they may be extorted out of prophane Authors no person is ignorant especially he that hath read the Centones upon Christ compos'd out of Virgil by Valeria Proba all which things and all of this Nature are but the speculations of Idle People But as to what pertains to the working of Miracles surely there is no man can be so stupid as to believe there is any force in this Art to accomplish any such thing The Cabala of the Jews therefore is nothing else but a most pernicious Superstition the which by Collecting Dividing and Changing several Words Names and Letters dispersed up and down in the Bible at their own good will and pleasure and making one thing out of another they dissolve the Members of Truth raysing up sentences Inductions and Parables of their own apply thereto the Oracles of Divine Scripture to them defaming the Scriptures and affirming their Figments to consist of them Blaspheme the Word of God by their wrested suppositions of Words Syllables Letters and Numbers endeavouring to prop up their Villanous Inventions by Arguments drawn from their own Delusions And being blown and puft up with these Trifles boast themselves to have found out and to know those ineffable Mysteries of God which are not Reveal'd in Scripture by means whereof they are able to Prophesie Work Miracles all which they blush not with confidence to aver But it happens to them as it did to Aesops Dog who leaving the substance and catching after the shadow lost his Food who being alwayes busied in the shadows of the Scripture and laborious in the study of their own Fictions their Superstitious Cabala snatching at they know not what they loose the Bread of Eternal Life and feeding upon empty Notions loose the Word of Truth From this Judaical ferment of Cabalistical Superstition I verily believe the Ophites Gnosticks and Valentinians came Hereticks that with the help of their Disciples invented a Cabala corrupting the Mysteries of the Christian Faith and by a Heretical Artifice drawing and patching together the Greek Letters and Numbers and framing out of them a thing which they call The Body of Truth they teach that without the help of those Letters and Numbers the Truth of the Gospel cannot be found out being so various and repugnant one to another and full of Parables written so that those that have Eyes should not see and those that have Ears should not hear but propounded to the Blind and wandring according to their weak capacities so that the hidden Truth is not to be understood by Writing but by successive Tradition delivered Viva Voce which they say was that Alphabetary and Arithmantick Theology secretly delivered to his Apostles by Christ himself and which St. Paul saith He only speaks among those that are perfect For these being most high Mysteries therefore they are not written nor to be written but to be kept in silence among the Wise Men who are to reserve them in the most secret parts of their Hearts CHAP. XLVIII Of Witchcraft BUt to return to Magick a part of which is the delusion of Witchcraft that is to say of delusions that are onely made in outward appearance such as are the Phantasms and Miracles dayly wrought by common Juglers which is not so much perform'd by Geotick Inchantments and Imprecations and Fallacies of Spirits but by Fumigations Lights Philters Collyries binding and hanging of Phylacteries and Charms to the parts of the body Rings Images Glasses and like devices of Magick Arts. Many things are perform'd by Agility and slight of hand as we see done by Players and Juglers which are therefore by some call'd Hand-philosophers or Chirosophi Of this Jugling Art there are many Treatises extant written by Hermes and others We read of one Pasâ—tes a Jugler that was wont to shew a great Banquet to an abundance of Guests sitting thereat which when he pleas'd he caus'd to vanish again out of sight leaving all the Guests a-dry and hungry Numa Pompilius also made use of these kinde of Prestiges or Witchcrafts And we read how that the most learned Pythagoras did once ridiculously act an odd business which was this That which came into his minde he wrote in a Glass with his Blood which being held against the Full Moon whatever was written appear'd to him that stood behinde as if it had been in the body of the Moon To this whatsoever is written of the changing of Mens shapes either believ'd by Poets related by Historians or credited by some of our Divines Thus some men seem to have the shape of Asses or Horses or other Animals the Medium Air being disturb'd or else the Eyes by some Incantation fascinated such things as these sometimes seem to be done by good and evil Spirits or else upon the Prayers of good
apparent what great Contention there is among them touching the Essence of the Soul Nor are the Contentions and Variances less or less Numerous than their Disputes when they come to make inquiry which is the Seat of the Soul For Hippocrates and Hierophilus place it in the Fibres or Ventricles of the Brain Democritus in the whole Region of the Temples Eratistratus in the Epicranidal Membrane Strabo within the space between the Eye-brows Epicurus gives it room in the whole Brest Diogenes in the Arterial Ventricle of the Heart the Stoicks with Chrysippus in the whole Heart and Spirits that surround the Heart Empedocles seats it in the Blood to which Opinion Moses seems to give way while he forbids his People to eat the Blood of any thing because the Soul of every Animal is seated therein Plato and Aristotle and the more Noble Sects of Philosophers place the Soul in the whole Body Galen is of Opinion That every part of the Body has his particular Soul For so he makes it appear in his Book of the Usefulness of the Parts There are many Particles of Animals some greater some lesser others altogether indivisible into the Species of the Creatures yet necessarily every of those wants a Soul For the Body is the Organ thereof and therefore the Particles of the Body are very much different one from another because the Souls are different I cannot here pass by a Sentence of Beda the Divine who writing upon Mark The Principal seat of the Soul saith he is not as Plato thinks in the Brain but to follow the Doctrine of Christ in the Heart Now as concerning the Continuation of the Soul Democritus and Epicurus were of Opinion That it dy'd with the Body Plato and Pythagoras held it to be altogether Immortal but that being out of the Body it retires to some Nature or being like it self The Stoicks taking the middle way between both these assert that the Soul shall leave the Body but that if it be not purified and dignifi'd with the excellent Vertues to be possessed in this Life that then it shall presently dye but that if it be endu'd with Heroical Vertues then that it may attain the Heavenly Seats and be associated with those Sympathiâ—ing Natures that stay there in expectance of being joyn'd unto it Aristotle taught That some parts of the Soul which remain in Corporeal seats are inseparable from the same and therefore dye with them but that the Understanding which wants no Corporeal Organ is separate from the Corruptible Parts But he is so far from delivering any thing of farther perspicuity that his Interpreters do wholly abandon the Discourse thereof Alexander the Aphrodisean saith That most certainly he held the Soul to be Mortal And of the same Opinion among us is Gregory Nazianzene Against these Pleton and Thomas Aquinas in defence of Aristotle most stiffly stands up affirming that he was in the right Opinion concerning the Immortality of the Soul Moreover Averroes that most exquisite Commentator upon Aristotle believes that every man has a peculiar Soul but Mortal But that the Mind or Understanding is Eternal having neither Beginning nor End of which there was but one kind that all men use in this Life Themistius saith That Aristotle held one only Active Understanding but that the Understanding capable of Subjects was manifold and that both were Immortal Thus through the strange Dissentions and Garboils of these Philosophers it comes to pass that there are so many absurd Contests among our Christian Divines about the Original of the Soul among whom there are some that believe that the Souls of all Men were Created at the Beginning and remaining there as in a Store-house till they come to be us'd of which Opinion above all the rest is the Learned Origen St. Austin also believes That the Soul of our First Parent had its Original from Heaven being something Elder than the Body and perceiving the Body to be a fit Habitation of its own accord did covet the same however he does not affirm it for any certain or positive Maxime Others believe the Soul to be propagated extraduce from Parent to Parent and that the Soul is begot by the Soul as the Body is begot by the Body of which Opinion was Apollinaris Bishop of Laodicea Tertullian Cyril and Luciferianus against whose Heresie St. Jerom fiercely Combats Others are of Opinion That Souls are Created daily by God which Opinion Thomas Aquinas follows defending himself with that Peripatetical Argument that seeing that the Soul is the Form of the Body the same ought not to be Created apart but in the Body to which Opinion the Universal Judgment of our Modern Divines adheres I omit the Degrees Ascentions and Descentions of Souls which the Origenists have brought into play as being neither strengthned by Scripture nor consenâ—aneous to the Thesis of Christianity so little of certainly there is either among Philosophers or among Divines concerning the Original or indeed the very meaning and definition of the Word Soul For Epicurus and Aristotle believe it Mortal Plato's Circle brings it to the same Station again in so many years Some there are that as Plato says contract it within the Verges of Humane Bodies others diffuse it into the Bodies of Animals some restore it to Heaven from whence they had it others send it on Pilgrimage about the World Some that Compel it to Infernal Hell others deny any some say That every Soul is Created by it self others say They were all Created together So far Thomas There was Averroes who undertaking to broach something more remarkable First held the Vnity of the Understanding The Manichaean Hereticks were of Opinion That there was but one Soul of the Universe dispers'd as well into Inanimate as Animate Bodies but that those things which are without Life lâ—â—s participate thereof that Animate things have a greater share and Coelestial things the greatest of all and at length they conclude That singular Souls are but parts of the Universal Soul Plato also holds but one Universal Soul of the World but other Souls for particular Creatures as if the World subsisted only by its own Soul but particular Creatures were animated by particular Souls Others there are that will have but one sort of Souls Others make a twofold Soul that is to say Rational and Irrational Others say there are many as many as there be species of living Creatures Galen the Physitian affirms That there are various and distinct Souls in divers Creatures according to the variety of the Species and moreover he appoints many Souls in one Body There are other that place two Souls in a Man one sensitive from Generation the other intellectual from Creation among these we finde Occam the Divine Plotinus will have the Soul to be one thing and the Understanding to be another with whom Apollinaris consents Some there are that do not distinguish between the Soul and the Understanding but they say that it is the most
Principal Part of the substance of the Soul Aristotle believes the Intellect to be present only Potentially in the Soul and that Actually it works from without neither that it conduces to the Essence or Nature of Man but only to the Perfection of Knowledge and Contemplation Therefore he affirms That few Men and those only Philosophers are endu'd with Actual Understanding And indeed there is a great Dispute among Divines whether according to the Opinion of Plato the Souls of Men after they are Departed from the Body do retain any Memory of things done while the Body was alive or whether they altogether want the Knowledge thereof which the Tomists together with their mighty Aristotle firmly assert And the Carthusians confirm it from the Testimony of a certain Parisian Divine returning from Hell who being ask'd what Knowledge he had left him return'd Answer That he understood nothing but Pain and then citing the words of Solomon There is no understanding no knowledge no wealth in Hell he seem'd to them to make it out that after Death there was no Knowledge of any thing which notwithstanding is not only manifestly against the Opinion of the Platonicks but repugnant to the Authority and Truth of the Scripture it self also which teaches That the wicked shall see and know that he is God and that they shall give an account not only of aâ—l their Deeds but of all their idle Words and Thoughts Moreover there are some that have adventur'd to write and report many things concerning the Apparition of separated Souls and those oft-times repugnant both to the Doctrine of the Gospel and the sacred Text. For whereas the Apostle teaches us That we ought not to believe the Angels from heaven if they should preach otherwise than what is delivered yet the Gospel is so much out of date with them that they will rather believe one come from the Dead than the Prophets Moses Apostles or Evangelists Of this Opinion was the Rich Man in the Gospel who believed that his Brothers and Kindred living would give credit to any one that were sent from the Dead To whom so vainly Conjecturing Abraham made answer If they will not believe Moses and the Prophets neither will they believe any one that should be sent from the dead However I do not absolutely deny some Holy Apparitions Admonitions and Revelations of the Dead but yet I admonish ye to be very wary knowing how easie it is for Satan to Transform himself into an Angel of Light Therefore they are not absolutely to be believ'd but to be entertain'd as things which are Apocryphal and without the Rule of the Scripture There are many Fabulous stories to this purpose written by one Tundal in his Consolation of Souls and also by some others of which your Cunning Priests and Friars make use to terrifie the Vulgar sort and get Mony A certain French Notary hath also lately put forth a Relation of a Spirit walking at Lyons a Person of no Credit and less Learning But the most approved Authors that write of these things is Cassianus and James of Paradise a Carthusian But there is nothing in them of solid Truth or secret Wisdome tending to the encrease of Charity or edifying of the Soul only they thereby perswade people to Alms Pilgrimages Prayers Fastings and such other Practical Works of Piety which the Scripture nevertheless with far greater Reason and Authority enjoyns But of these Apparitions we have discours'd at large in a Dialogue which we have Written of Man as also in our Occult Philosophy But now let us return to the Philosophers All the Heathen who affirm the Soul to be Immortal by common consent also uphold the Transmigration of the Soul and farther That rational Souls do sometimes Transmigrate into Plants and Creatures void of Reason Of this Opinion of Transmigration Pythagoras is said to be the first Author of which thus Ovid Souls never die but in Immortal state From dead to living bodies transmigrate I now my self can call to minde how I When long since Troy the strength of Greece did try Was then Euphorbus that my life sold dear To crown the Conquest of Atrides Spear Which then my left hand bâ—re I knew the Shield Which late in Juno's Temple I beheld Much more has been written concerning this Pythagorical Transmigration by Timon Xenophanes Cratinus Aristophon Hermippus Lucianus and Diogenes Laertius But Iamblicus who has many other Abettors asserts That the Soul does not Transmigrate out of Man into Brutes nor return from Creatures Irrational into Men but that there are Transmigrations of Souls that is of the Souls of Beasts into Beasts and of the Souls of Men into Men he does not deny There are also Philosophers of which number Eâ—â—ripides is one a greatfollower of Anaxagoras together with Archelaus the Naturalist and after them Avicen who report the first Men to have sprung out of the Earth like Herbs in that not less ridiculous than the Poets who feign certain Men to have sprung from the Teeth of a Serpent sown in the Earth Some there are who deny that the Soul is Generated and others who deny that it has any Motion CHAP. LIII Of Metaphysicks BUT let us go a little farther and make it appear that these Philosophers are not only at a loss about those things that seem to have a Being in Nature but that they are also at great variance among themselves concerning such as have no Principle or Foundation at all it being altogether uncertain whether they be or no and which they believe to subsist without Body or Matter and which they call Separated forms which because they are not in Nature but thought to be above Nature therefore they are call'd Metaphysicks and said to be beyond Nature from thence sprang those Infinite every way contradictory and not less impious and unlearned Opinions concerning the Gods For Diagoras Milesius and Theodorus Cyrenaicus altogether deny that there was any God Epicurus held that there was a God but that he took no care of things below Protagoras said that whether they were or no they had little or no Power Anaximander thought that there were Gods Native of Countries some in the East and some in the West at great distances one from another Xenocrates held that there were Eight Gods Antisthenes that there were many popular Gods but one Supream the Creator of the rest Others have precipitated themselves into such a profundity of Madness as to make with their own hands the Gods which they intended to Worship such was the Image of Bell among the Assyrians which made and carved Gods Hermes Trismegistus does notwithstanding very much applaud in his Aesculapius But Thales Milesius discoursing of the Divine Essence asserted the Understanding to be God who Form'd all things out of Water Cleanthes and Anaximenes held the Air to be God Chrysippus Deified the Natural Ability endu'd with Reason or Divine Necessâ—â—y Zeno ascribes Divinity to the Divine Law of Nature Anaxagoras to
he cry'd out Wo be to you that build up the Sepulchres of the Prophets like to those that shew them Like to the Heathen to every Saint they allot his proper charge to one with Neptune they share the Command of the Seas and power of Deliverance from the dangers thereof to another with Jupiter to have the Dominion of Thunder to another with Vulcan to controul the Fire to another they pray with Ceres for seasonable and plentiful Harvests to another with Bacchus they give the Charge of their Vintages and Vines The Women also have their Deities from whom as from Lucina they beg for Children and the cure of Barrenness and another by whose Power they either Appease or Revenge themselves upon their Angry Husbands Others there are to whom they give the priviledge of recovering and finding Lost Goods Neither is there any Disease which has not its peculiar Physitian among the Saints Which is the reason that Physitians do not get so much as Lawyers there being no sort of Action though never so just that ever could boast of a Saint for its Patron 'T is true the Papists aver That as the Soul in every Member Displayes a several Act and every Act as it is variously dispos'd receives a distinct Power as the Eye to see the Ears to hear So Christ in his Mystical Body of which he is the Soul by his several Saints as Members accommodated to the same Body doth Administer and Distribute the several gifts of his Grace to the Inferiour Creatures and that to every Saint is allotted a particular operation for the dispersing of several Graces according to the variety of Graces given to each Man But this Conjecture as being one of Agrippa's Vanities for which there is no ground in Scripture we cannot reckon among the Vanities of Science but as a peculiar Invention of his own CHAP. LVIII Of Temples NOW as concerning Temples there was nothing wherein the Superstition of the Gentiles was more eminent who to every Deity were very curious in Building particular Temples after whose Example the Christians afterwards Dedicated their Temples to particular Saints Yet there were many Nations that never made use of any Temples and Xerxes is reported to have burnt all the Temples throughout Asia at the perswasion of his Magicians believing it to be an Impious thing to enclose the Gods in Walls But of these Temples Zeno Citicus Disputed formerly in these Words To build Churches and Temples saith he it is no way necessary for nothing ought to be accompted Sacred by Right nothing to be esteemed Holy which men themselves Build Among the Persians of old there were no Temples Neither was there among the Hebrews from their first beginning but only one Temple Dedicated to Divine use which was Built by Solomon of which however it is thus written in Isaias Thus saith the Lord The Heaven is my seat the Earth the footstool for my feet what is this house which thou buildest for me And Stephen the Protomartyr adds Salomon built a House but the most High Inhabits not in places made with Hands And Paul the Apostle saith to the Athenians God dwells not in Temples made with hands for being the Lord of Heaven and Earth he is not serv'd by mens hands who wants not their help However he teaches that Humane Nature even Men themselves Holy Pious Religious Devout to God are the most acceptable Temples to God as he Asserts writing to the Corinthians Ye are the Temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you the Temple of God is holy so ought you to be Moreover Origen writing against Celsus confesses That at the first beginning of Christian Religion and long after Christs Suffering there were no Churches Built Confirming by many Arguments that among Christians they avail neither to the right Worship of God nor to the Honour of true Religion Therefore faith Lactantius Temples are not to be made to God of Stones piled up to an immense height but there is a place to be reserv'd in the Heart of every Man where his Thoughts ought to retire when they are taken up in Religious Exercise Not Temples made with hands th' Almighty hold Just men are the true Temples made of Gold And Christ sends his Adorers not into the Temple not into the Synagogues but into their private Closets to Pray And we read that he himself did many times appear with the Multitude in the Cities in the Temple in the Synagogue when he made his Sermons but he went into the Mountain to Pray where he spent the Night in Prayer However the Church that does nothing but by the Inspiration of the Spirit of God when the Christian Religion began to increase and that Sinners entred into the Temple with the Godly the weak with the strong in Faith and as they entred the Ark of Noe the Clean with the Unclean did then Ordain certain Temples Chappels Churches and separated Places free from Prophane business wherein the Word of God might be Publickly Preached to the Multitude and the Sacraments might be more decently and orderly Administred which have since been held by the Christians in most Venerable Esteem and being guarded with the Immunities of several Princes have encreased to such a vast Number augmented with the Addition of Monasteries Abbies and the like that it is very necessary that many of them should be cut off as superfluous and unnecessary Members And here we cannot be unmindful of another Enormity which is the superbity of Building wherein vast sums of Alms and sacred Money is expended which as we have observ'd before would be more fitly and honestly employ'd in the maintenance of the true poor of Christ the true Temples and resemblances of God many times ready to perish for hunger thirst cold labour sickness and want CHAP. LIX Of Holy-days HOly-days both among the Gentiles as among the Jews were always in great estimation who did all at certain times of the year and upon certain days set apart several Holy-days for Divine worship upon several occasions as if it were lawful to be more religious or more ungodly at one time than another or that it were the pleasure of God to be worshipped more at one time than another which St. Paul objects to the Galatians as a shame writing to them afthis manner Ye observe days and months and times and years I fear I have labour'd for you in vain and without a cause Concerning which when he admonishes the Colossians he commands them in these words Let no man judge you for meat or drink upon a Holy-day or of the New-moon or of the Sabbath which are members of future things For to true and perfect Christians there is no difference of days who are always feasling and pleasing themselves in God always keeping a perpetual Sabbath as Isaiah prophesi'd to the Fathers of the Jews The time shall come that their Sabbath shall be taken away and when the Saviour comes there shall be a
according to the Services which they presum'd themselves to have done in War had urg'd 'um to take up Arms against their Country Examples whereof we find in Coriolanus the Gracchi Sylla Marius Sertorius Catiline and Caesar. Therefore is we do but Examine the Foundations and first Beginnings of Nobility we shall find it acquir'd by Perfidiousness and Cruelty if the growth thereof we shall find it increased by Mercenary War and Robbery If we look into the Original of Kingdoms and Empires we shall meet with most Impious Murthers of Parents and Brothers Tragical Matches Fathers expell'd from their Kingdoms by their Sons and therefore let us view a little the Infancy of Nobility and we shall find it to be nothing but a sturdy Power and robustious Dignity a Happiness got by Wickedness and the Inheritance of the worst of Children And that this is apparent is evident out of Scripture and no less manifest out of the Ancient and Modern Histories of the Gentiles For no sooner had Adam at the first Creation of the World begot his First-born Cain the Husbandman and his other son Abel the Shepherd but there began a distinction of Power Abel seem'd to resemble the Commonalty Cain the Nobility who being according to the Flesh proud and cruel and a Persecutor of him that was according to the Spirit meek and gentle slew his Brother But the Commonalty was again restor'd in the Birth of Seth the third Son of Adam so that Cain was the first Author of Parricide and Nobility together who contemning the Laws of God and Nature yet trusting in his own strength and Usurping Dominion to himself he built Cities instituted Empire and by Law began to curb Men Created free by God the sons also of the Holy Generation and to bring them into servitude and subjection till they themselves contemning the Command of God all Flesh soon growing Corrupt by promiscuous Copulation begat Giants which the Scripture seems to Interpret men Powerful in their Time and famous for their Deeds And this is the most apt and real definition of Nobility for these were they that first oppress'd the Weak advancing themselves by Robbery and Spoil and glorying in their great Riches spread the greatness of their Fame by calling Regions Rivers Mountains Cities and Seas by their own names of whom Cain the first Parent by nature Wicked enviously and inwardly malitious of God incorrigible a treacherous dissembler of his Anger slew his own brother adding Blasphemy to Parricide And thus we see the Primitive and most Ancient Ornaments the chief Vertues and Embellishments which continue to this very day whose first Author was the Father of the Gyants whom God destroyed in the Deluge reserving only Noah a Just Man of the Generation of Seth. This Noah had three sons Sem Japhet and Ham who restoring the World after the Flood according to the Custome of the Ancient Gyants began to build Towns and Cities which is the Reason that from Noah till Abraham the Scripture makes no mention of Just Men wherefore we are to believe That all from Noah to Abraham were the Architects of Nobility that is of powerful Impiety Confusion Power Warfare Violence Oppression Hunting Luxury Pomp Vanity and such other marks of Nobility with which the sons of Noah were stamp'd Among others Cham because he was wickeder than the rest and the first that was disobedient to his Father therefore he was thought fittest to be the sole Monarch of the World at that time he begat Nimrod whom the Scripture describes to be a mighty Potentate upon the Earth a mighty Hunter before the Lord some read it against the Lord. He built Babylon the Great and gave the first occasion of the Confusion of Languages set down Rules how to Govern distinguishing the degrees of Honour Dignity Offices and Arms. After that Laws being made to curb the Commonalty then was slavery and subjection introduc'd Taxes laid upon the People Armies were rais'd and cruel Wars were first carried on From the same Cham proceeded Chus from whom the Aethiopians Misraim from whom the Egyptians and Canaan from whom the Canaanites The most noble and populous Nations but the wickedest most reprobate and accursed of God At length after some process of time again God Elected a Just Man even the Patriarch Abraham from whose Loyns he might raise to himself a Holy Seed and People whom he distinguished by the Mark of Circumcision from the Multitude of all other Nations he begat two sons one of his Maid-servant Natural the other of his Wife Legitimate Ishmael became a fierce Hunter a Potentate Prince of the Ishmaelites giving from his own a lasting Name to his Nation and God blessed him and established his Grandeur and Nobility upon the foundations of War Rapine saying And he shall be a wild man his hand shall be against every man and every mans hand against him and he shall dwell in the midst of all his Brethren But Isaac observing the Religion of his Father kept his Flock and had at length by his Wife Rebecca two sons Jacob and Esau Esau a man whom God belov'd not red and hairy a Hunter a Bowman and a Glutton insomuch that for one mess of Pottage he sold his Birthright he became a Potent Man and Prince of the Idumeans receiving for his blessing the fat of the Earth and the dew of Heaven but to live by his Sword and in servitude Jacob being a Just Man an Exile with his Uncle Laban fed his Uncles Sheep whose Daughters when he had both earn'd by an Apprentiship of Fourteeen years for his Wives he begat of their bodies Twelve Children and his Name was called Israel which Name he left to his Posterity the people of Israel By the names of his Twelve Sons Reuben Simeon Levi Judah Issachar Zebulon Joseph Benjamin Dan Naphtali Gad and Ashur were the Twelve Tribes of the whole Nation called But Joseph was sold by his Brethren into Egypt where he was instructed in all the Learning of the Egyptians made a most skilful Interpreter of Dreams which he made use of in Prison So skilful in Oeconomicks that by his Ingenuity he found out new ways of increasing the Publick Revenue and heaping up Riches to himself whereupon he became a great Favorite of Pharaoh's being constituted by him Lord and Governour over all Egypt and of a Slave was created Noble after the solemn Custome of Egypt for the King put his Ring upon his finger and a Chain of Gold about his neck clad him with Purple made him to ride in his Chariot the Crier proclaiming That all men reverence and esteem him as one of the chief Nobility The like manner of ennobling of men we finde the Persians to have used of which Mordecai the Hebrew ennobled by Artaxerxes in Esther was an Example from whence the Custome of creating Noblemen has continued to this day among the following Races of Emperours and Kings of which some of 'um purchase their Nobility with Money
Senate for that as a Tribune of the people he went about to abrogate a Law made against the excessive prodigality of Feasts In defence whereof how impudently Duronius ascended the Pulpit for Orations There are Bridles said he put into your mounhes most noble Senators in no wise to be endur'd ye are bound and fetter'd with the bitter Chains of Servitude For there is a Law made that commands us to be frugal Let us therefore abrogate that Command deformed with the rust of ghastly Antiquity for to what purpose have we liberty if it be not lawful for them that will to kill themselves with Luxury There were also many other Edicts all now antiquated and abrogated so that no Age has been more indulgent to Gluttony than this wherein we now live and for that cause saith Musonius and after him our Jerome we travel by land and sea to fetch Wine and costly Cates to pour down our Gullets So many Taverns so many Ale-houses so many Victualling-houses among us where men are destroyed by Gluttony Drunkenness and Luxury that many times to the detriment of the Commonwealth they consume whole patrimonies so many varieties of Sauces so many Rules Observations and Table-ceremonies that the splendid Banquets of the Asiots Milesians Sybarites Tarentines of Sardanapalus Xerxes Claudius Vitellius Heliogabalus Galienus and the rest of those ancient Gluttons whom History records to have exceeded all other Nations and persons in the pleasures of the Kitchin are but meer fordid rude and rustick Junkettings compar'd with the sumptuous Feasts of Great persons now adays A neat and handsome Entertainment will not serve turn unless there be an abundance even to create Loathing and to fuddle Hercules himself who was wont to drink out of the same Vessel that carried him meat more than would satisfie Milo the Crotonian or Aurelianus Phago the first of which was wont to eat up Thirty loaves of bread besides meat at a meal the other at the Table of Aurelian devoured a whole Boar a hundred Loaves a Weather and a Porkling He drank in a Bowl that held more than a Tun. These things are now customary at our great publike Country-feasts and Dedications of Temples You would swear they were celebrating Orgia to Bacchus they are so contaminated with Madness Quarrelling Bloudshed and all the Impieties attending Gluttony and Drunkenness You may there behold the Banquets of the Centaurs whence none return without a broken pate Thus we finde Ovid describing the Voracity of Erisichthon Without delay what Sea what Earth what Air Affords at his command they straight prepare Yet at full Tables he complains of Hunger And for a Feast of Feasts he calls in anger What a whole Citie or a Land supplies For the content of One will not suffice The more his guts devour the more he craves As Rivers are exhausted by the Waves While the insatiate Sea and thirsty Sands Drink up the Flouds still rouling from the Lands Or as the Fire no nourishment refuses Burns all that comes but neither picks nor chuses And still the more 't is fed it feeds the more Thus Erisichthon's prophane Chaps devour All sorts of food in him food is the cause Of hunger and he still employs his Jaws To whet his Appetite Among the Greeks and Romans there were a sort of people call'd Wrestlers men of most greedy and voracious Appetites but their Infamy was at length out-vy'd and exceeded by Consular Magistrates and Emperours For Albinus who formerly rul'd in Gaul devour'd at one Supper an hundred Peaches ten Melons fifty large green Figs and three hundred Oysters And Maximinus the Emperour who succeeded Alexander Memmeas ate forty pound of flesh in one day and drank an Amphora of Wine containing 48 quarts Geta the Emperour was also a prodigious Epicure causing his Dishes to be brought in Alphabetically and would continue feeding for three days together Now what greater Impiety when God and Nature has provided Meats and Drinks for us to preserve Health and strengthen Nature for us to abuse them with various artifices for Pleasure and to devour them beyond the capacity of Humane nature thereby contracting to our selves incurable Diseases whereby we finde it apparently true what Musonius says That Masters are less strong less healthy less able to endure labour than Servants Country-men more strong than they who are bred in the Citie those that feed meanly than they who feed daintily and that generally the later sort live longer than the former Nor are there any other persons more troubled with Gouts Dropsies Colicks and the like than they who contemning a simple diet live upon prepared Dainties Of which opinion is Celsus The most profitable diet for Man saith he is simple multiplicity of tastes is pestiferous and all spic'd meats are unprofitable for two causes Because more is consum'd because of Sweetness and less concocted than ought to be Therefore many grave and wise men have utterly condemned this indulging to the Appetite as most pernicious But as for those that under pretence of Religion neither hate pleasing their Palates nor Luxury but onely some sorts of meat abstaining from Flesh they fill and feast themselves with all sorts of Fish and swill themselves with Wine to which they bring their lips tongues teeth and bellies armed but not their pockets these are certainly worse than the Epicureans themselves But of these things enough Let us now pass from Cookery to Geberica that is to the Alcumists Cook-room where there is no less consumed than in excessive Feasting CHAP. XC Of Alchymy or Chymistry ALchymy or Chymistry is an Art if it may not be rather called a Fucus or Persecution of Nature however of very great Fame and the same unpunish'd Imposture whose vanity easily betrays it self in this that it promises what Nature neither can suffer nor perform seeing that all Art is but an Imitation of Nature coming short thereof by many degrees and that the force of Nature is far short of the force of Art But Chymistry's An Art which good men hate and most men blame Which her admirers practise to their shame Whose plain Impostures easie to perceive Not onely others but themselves deceive While they seek to change the natures of things and presume to finde out the blessed Philosophers Stone as they call it which like Midas is to change whatever it touches into Gold then they pretend to fetch down from the inaccessible heaven a Fifth Essence whereby a man shall not onely gain the Riches of Croesus but perpetual Youth and Immortality But among all the undertaking Crowd Not one appears whose Miracles allow'd The matter prove However they get a small Livelihood by some Physical Experiments as also by some Paints and effeminate Fucusses which the Scriptures call the Oyntments of harlots whence the Proverb Every Alchymist is a Physician or a Sope-boyler They enrich the ears of men with vain words but empty their Pockets of their Money Whence it appears to be no Art but a
Arguments and talk in wrangling Syllogisms with Hereticks but to labour to convince them by the Word of God then to determine the matter according to the Decrees and Canons of the Church and either to reduce him to the Orthodox Faith or pronounce him a Hereticks for he is no Heretick who is not obstinate nor is he a favourer of Hereticks who seeks to defend an innocent person condemned of Heresie left he should be deliver'd up by these cruel and ravenous Inquisitors to be butchered without a cause And although it be expresly provided in the Law that the Inquisitors shall have no power of Examining nor any Jurisdiction over any suspition defence or favour of Heresie which is not a Heresie manifestly exprest and absolutely already condemn'd yet these bloudy Vultures going beyond the Priviledges and Commission of their Office against all right and contrary to the Canons themselves take upon them to meddle with ordinary things arrogating and usurping the power of Popes in those things which are not Heretical but onely Scandalous or offensive to the ear most cruelly raging against the poor Country-women whom being once accused of Witchcraft and condemned without the examination of any lawful Judge they expose to most strange and unheard-of Torments till having extorted from them what they least thought to confess they finde matter to proceed upon to condemnation and then they think they do the Office of Inquisitors truly when they never leave the business off till the poor woman be burnt or else have so far gilded the Inquisitors hand until he take pitie of her as sufficiently purg'd for an Inquisitor may alter the punishment from penal into pecuniary and convert it to the use of the Office by which there is not a little Money to be got and some of these poor creatures are forc'd to pay them an annual Stipend for fear of being harass'd to Torment And when the Goods of Hereticks are confiscated then the Inquisitor gets no small matter The very accusation or highest suspicion of Heresie nay the very Citation of the Inquisitor is enough to bring a womans credit in question which is not to be salved without money given to the Inquisitor which is no small gain Thus while I was in Millain several Inquisitors did torment many honest Matrons some of very good Quality and privately milk very large sums from the poor affrighted and terrified women till at length their Cheating being discovered they were severely handled by the Gentry hardly escaping Fire and Sword When I was President of the Commonwealth in the Citie of Mediomatricum I had a very great Contest with an Inquisitor who being a loose fellow had hal'd a poor Country-woman into his Slaughter-house being a place of disrepute and all for a very slight Accusation not so much to Examine her as to Crucifie her This woman when I undertook to defend her Cause and found and had made it evident that there was nothing of Proof to make out the Crime the Inquisitor made answer that there was one proof not to be question'd That her mother many years ago was burnt for a Witch Which Article when I shew'd how impertinent it was and that it was not for the Law to condemn one for the fact of another presently he lest he should have seemed to have talkt out of Reason before produces this Argument That therefore it was so and the Proof good because Witches were wont to devote their children to the devil as also because they are wont to Conceive by lying with the devil and therefore there is an inherent Guiltiness in the Off-spring Wicked Father said I is this thy way of Theologie Are these the Fictions for which thou harriest silly women to Torture are these the Sophisms with which thou condemnest Hereticks Thou thy self in my opinion art far worse than Faustus or Donatus Grant it were as thou sayst dost thou not hereby abrogate the grace of Baptism if for the impiety of a Parent the Off-spring should be the devils due And if it were true that Incubi did generate yet was never any one of that opinion so infatuated as to think those Spirits did mingle any thing of their own nature with the suffoced seed But I tell thee upon the true grounds of Faith and by the true natures of our Humanities we are all one mass of sin and eternal malediction sons of perdition sons of the devil sons of the wrath of God and heirs of hell but by the grace of Baptism Satan is cast out of us and we are made new creatures in Jesus Christ from whom no man can be separated but by his own sin for far is it from truth that he should suffer for another mans sin Seest thou not now how invalid thy most sufficient Proof is how vain in Law and indeed how absolutely Heretical it is The cruel Hypocrite grew very wroth against me and threatned to sue me as a favourer of Hereticks However I persisted in defence of the poor creature and at length by the power of the Law I delivered her out of the Lions mouth and the bloudy Monk stood rebuk'd and sham'd before um all and ever after infamous for his Cruelty and the Accusers of the poor woman in the Capitol of the Church of Metz whose Subjects they were were very considerably Fin'd CHAP. XCVII Of Scholastick Theologie IT remains that we discourse concerning Theologie I shall pass by the Theologie of the Gentiles mentioned in Orpheus Musaeus and Hesiod which all men acknowledge to be Poetical and fictitious and which Lactantius and Eusebius and many other eminent Doctors of the Christians have convinced by most strenuous Arguments Nor shall we speak of the Religion of Plato or the rest of the Philosophers whom we have already shew'd to be the teachers of nothing but Errour But we shall here discourse concerning the Christian Religion This onely depends upon the faith of its Doctors seeing that it can fall under no Art or Science And first of Scholastick Divinity a certain Hodge-podge or Mixture of Divine Precepts and Philosophical Reasons looking like a Centaur written after a new manner far different from the antient way of delivery diffus'd into little Questions and subtil Syllogisms without any Elegancie of speech and which has brought not a little profit to the Church in the convincing of Hereticks The first Authors whereof and who were most excellent therein were Thomas Aquinas Albertus sirnamed the Great and many other famous men besides Johannes Scotus a most subtil and acute Writer though a little more given to Contention Hence Scholastick Theologie sell into Sophisms while those newer Theosophists and as it were Sutlers of the Word of God never worthy of the title of Divines but for their money of so sublime a Studie and Contemplation made a meer Logomachie wandring from School to School starting little Questions framing Opinions forcing the Scriptures inducing a strange sence with intricate words and more nimble to ventilate