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
Behold the figure of that man of Parts who dive'd into the Secrets of all Arts A Second Solomon the mighty Hee That try'de them all and found them Vanity THE VANITY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES BY Henry Cornelius Agrippa Knight Doctor of both Laws Judge of the Prerogative-Court AND Counsellour to Charles the Fifth Emperour of Germany ECCLES Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity LONDON Printed by J. C. for Samuel Speed and sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster 1676. TO THE READER Studious Reader WIlt thou not look upon this Labour of mine to be a most bold and almost Herculean attempt to wage War against the Giant-like Opposition of all the Arts and Sciences And thus to challenge the stoutest Hunters of Nature Doctors will knit their enraged brows upon me the Authority of Masters the endeavours of the Batchelors of Art the heat of the Schoolmen the sedition of the Mechanicks will be all up in arms against me All which if I stab at one blow will it not be a greater work than Hercules in the accomplishment of all his Labours was ever guilty of Shall I not have performed a nobler Task if with no less danger and labour I overcome these Monsters of Schools Universities and Pulpits For I am not ignorant how bloody a Battle I must fight or how hazardous and difficult the War will be being to meet with such an Army of potent Enemies Wo is me with what Engins will they seek to destroy me With what weight will they not endeavour to crush me What reproaches will they not endeavour to throw upon me The Grammarians will rail at me the Etymologists will derive my name from the Gout the mad Poets will call me Goat and Momus the frivolous Historians will profane me beyond Pausanias or Herostratus the obstreperous Rhetoricians will plague me with their big Words and mimical Gestures the quarrelsome Logicians will confound me with their Syllogismes The nimble Sophisters will sawe my jawes with the snaffles of their subtle Questions The barbarous Lullist will make me mad with his absurd Soloecisms The Atome-numbring Arithmeticians will set an host of Vsurers upon me The Gamesters will curse me The Musicians will sing Ballads of me The proud Matrons will expel me their Meetings The Wenches will deny to kiss me The giggling Girls will laugh and cry I dance like a Camel The lewd Players will kill me in a Tragedy The intricate Geometrician will imprison me in his Triangles and Tetragonals The vain Painter will make me more ugly than an Ape or Thersites himself The Cosmographer will banish me amongst the Bears into Greenland The Astrologer will erect some wicked Scheme or other for me The Physiognomist will defame me for being impotent The Epicures will bespew me to death The Tyrant will crucifie me in Phalaris's Bull. Hypocrites will declaim against me in their Pulpits The Whores will pox me The Priests will excommunicate me The blasphemous Marriner will throw me over-board The yawling Hunter will set his Dogs upon me The Souldier will plunder me The Ordure-tasting Physicians will throw their Vrinal at my Head The Chyrurgeons will anatomize me The Lawyers will accuse me of Treason The Judges will condemn me Thus though I omit for brevities sake many others dost thou not see Reader what dangers I am like to run through But I am in hopes to avoid their fury provided that thou patient to hear the Truth and laying all Prepossession and Obstinacy aside wilt but give thy mind candidly and without passion to read what I have writ I have moreover the Word of God to defend me which with an undaunted Courage I intend to make use of for my Buckler I would have thee moreover to know that I have not writ these things either out of Hatred Envy Ambition or vain Errour nor did Arrogance prompt me to it but of all Causes the most just and truest because I see that so many men pufft up with Humane Knowledge and Learning not only contemn and despise the Oracles of the Sacred Scripture but also prosecute and deride it with the same contempt Others we see though to themselves they seem to be more holy who endeavour to confirm and approve the Lawes of Christ yet attribute more Authority to the Maximes of Philosophers than to the holy Prophets of God the Evangelists or Apostles though there be so vast a difference between them Moreover we finde that a most detestable Custome has invaded all or most Schools of Learning to swear their Disciples never to contradict Aristotle Boethius Thomas Albertus or some such like School-Deity From whom if there be any that differ so much as a nails breadth him they proclaim a scandalous Heretick a Criminal against the Holy Sciences fit only to be consumed in Fire and Flames Therefore these and â—cious Giants these Enemies of Scripture are to be set upon their Bulwarks and Castles are to be stormed And it behoves us to shew how intolerable the blindness of Men is to wander from the truth misguided by so many Sciences and Arts and by so many Authors and Doctors thereof For how great a boldness is it what an arrogant presumption to prefer the Schools of Philosophers before the Church of Christ and to extol or equal the Opinions of Men to the Word of God Lastly how impious a piece of Tyranny it is to captivate the Wits of Students to prefixed Authors and to deprive their Disciples of the liberty of searching after and following the Truth All which things being so manifest that they cannot be denied I may be the more easily pardoned if I seem to have more freely and bitterly inveighed against some sorts of Sciences and their Professors Farewel The LIFE of Henry Cornelius Agrippa Knight AND Judge of the Prerogative Court HEnry Cornelius Agrippa descended from a Noble Family of Nettesheim in Belgia was by his Parents so educated that he became Doctor of the Laws and Physick Master of the Rolls and Judge of the Spiritual Court He was naturally inclined to study making it his Recreation from his Youth to learn Nor was his Labour spent in vain for by his Ingenuity he obtained wonderful Skill and Knowledge in the several various Arts and Sciences Notwithstanding which his Fancy guided him to attend or accompany the Army of the Princes with whom he so prudently behaved himself that he gained the affections of all that knew him and for his singular Valour was created Knight in the Field It was about the year 1530 that his Merits grew great and he became the Subject of every 〈◊〉 Wonder and Discourse some admiring his Learning others his Valour and all with a reverend adoration applauding him In his Studies he grew expert in Occult Philosophy and composed four Books thereof whose incomparable Worth is beyond the reach of an Encomium Not long after that he published this his Satyrical Invective or Cynical Declamation against the Vanity of Arts and Sciences informing and affirming with
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
Tristram Eurialis Peregrinus Callisthus and the like by means whereof young Children are in their tender years bred up and accustom'd to the Intrigues and Mysteries of Fornication and Adultery Neither is there any Engine so powerful whatsoever to overthrow and oppress the Chastity of young Virgins Wives and Widows than the reading of a wanton History no woman so well principled or of so chast a disposition which is not spoil'd and tainted thereby And yet for Maids and Virgins to discourse what they have read in these Books to taunt and jeer and prattle with their Servants or Wooers in imitation of what they read there Now there have been many of these Historical Pandars of which some of obscure same as Aeneas Sylvius Dante 's and Petrarch Boccace Poutanus Baptista de Campo Fragoso and Baptis de Albertis a Floremine Also Peter Haedus Petrus Bembus Jacobus Carniceus Jacobus Calandrus Mantuan and many others from all which Boccace bears away the Bell especially in those Books which he calls his hundred Novels where the Stories and Examples set down do but discover the Stratagems and Tricks of Whores and Bawds Now when a woman Vertuous Religious and Chast is to be assail'd then all the fallacious Arguments of Rhetorick are let loose and how far they avail the Fable of Myrrha in Ovid tells ye Now as concerning the Mathematicks what greater assistance and help to familiarity than your Mathematical Plays and Games Neither is Musick a contemptible friend of this Art as being no small incentive and provocative to Lust by means of her wanton Airs and the Charms of Voice and sweet touches of an Instrument softning the Minde moulding the Affections and afterwards introducing variety of Society and Company who begin at length to be Lovers and Admirers Neither is there less use of Dancing and Dancing-schools where the Lovers have freedom of Discourse liberty of Kissing Handling and Embracing and many times after that the conveniencie of withdrawing Neither is the Geometrical Artist wanting to give his assistance by whose contrivance fine convenient Ladders are made for the scaling of Windows and by the cunning of Daedalus Keys are many times counterfeited and no invention omitted that may farther Pasiphae's obedience to her Adulterer But as for Pictures these women that never had the advantage of reading may understand more than they who had read never so much while they behold within their Chambers Copies of Obscenity easie enough to be imitated whereby the Eyes as well as the Ears become the Conduits to convey evil thoughts to the Heart Pictures make a deep impression upon the Minde seeing that the representation of what has been done easily moves men to do the like For example Venus of Gâ—idos drawn in her Temple by the hand of Praxitiles in the Act of being Vitiated and a Cupid of the same Artist corrupted by Alchidas a Rhodian young man Elian also reports that the Statue of Fortune was so vehemently belov'd by an Athenian young man that when he could not be permitted to buy it he expired at her feet Terence also in his Eunuchus brings in a young man inflam'd with Love seeing a Picture where was painted the Story how Jupiter lay with Danae in a Golden showre Therefore not undeservedly propose that a severe penalty should be inflicted upon those Painters who expos'd such things to the eyes of the multitude whereby to kindle and inflame Lust so that it was not without cause that the wise man said That Statuary and Painting were invented by the Devil as a chief means to tempt them to evil In the next place we meet with Astrologers Palmistry Gypsies Fortune-tellers Dream-expounders Witches Conjurers an innumerable tribe of Assistants to Pandarism by a kinde of Divine Imposition of their Fallacies upon the disturb'd Fancies of Youth bring unlawful Amours to perfection contrive and finish most wicked and abominable Marriages and er'e they be well knit together dissolve them by and by into most heinous Adulteries From such Panders as these not onely credulous women but to their unspeakable shame men also fetch the prosperous Omens of their Loves and Marriages grounding the hopes of Possession or Enjoyment upon their uncertain guesses and upon their not so stupid as impious assurances either Marry or leave the Pursuit of their Love Nay some are so mad as to believe that by Astrological Images and observation of Hours Love may be compell'd as Theocritus Virgil Catullus Ovid Horace Lucan and many other triflng Poets have made the world believe By which single piece of Cunning your Astrologers and Fortune-tellers make no small advantage Next to which Magick also brings a very considerable aid That by her Charms some Lovers trees from fears Afflicting others with consuming Cares Of which Lucan thus sings Love that before was slâ—w Thessalian Charms now cause to overflow Th' inflamed heart In Horace we finde Candidia in Apuleius Paemphilae provoking their Lovers and in the Tragi comedy of Callisthus Celestina the Bawd inflames the Virgin Melibaeâ— by her Magick Art To these we may adde the use of Philters and Love-potions though very dangerous sometimes the cause and procurers of Death instead of Love One of these Drenches kill'd Lucullus and Lucretius who before they did grew mad and lost their senses We read also of a certain woman who was acquitted by the Areopagites because she did it out of Love But there is no Art or Science so useful and profitable to Pandarism as Physick that promises fairly by renewing the Hymenâ—an Film to restore lost Virginity to hinder the Brests from swelling to put a Spell upon the Womb administring procurements of Sterility for the longer continuation and seâ—resie of Venereal Combats and teaching how by the swift motion of the Reins to eject the first matter of Conception as we read in Lucretius Thus for their own sakes Whores were wont to move Left they should fill too soon and gravid prove Not equal Pleasure with their Loves enjoy By which one benefit of Physick many Matrons and Widows many that go for Maids many Court-Laâ—â—es most securely follow the sports of Venus Neither is Physick less Officious in filling up the clefts of Age in composing Pomatums and Fucus's for which you may find infinite Receits in every Volume of Physick and in all their Pharmacopoeas under the Title of Decorating and cleansing the skin and are of great use for Bawds to put off their old Worm-eaten Ware which Compositions the Scripture calls Oyntments of Whoredome With these you shall also see set down many Incentives and Provocatives to Lust which are call'd by another Name Restoratives by the help of which Ovid boasts himself to have liv'd to the Ninetieth Year Moreover there is no design of Bawdery so closely and undiscernably carried as that which is Acted under the Design of Physick for there are no Houses so fast shut no Nunneries so Recluse no Prisons so well guarded which will not admit a Physitian-Pander in
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
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
Moreover the Voice of the People is said to be the Voice of God Hence whatsoever is Enacted by the Generality whatsoever is Establish'd by the common consent of the People that seems to be Ordain'd by God himself and may be presum'd to be best and most just Besides they conclude this Form of Government to be safer than that of Aristocracy as being less subject to Sedition For the People seldome or never disagree among themselves but the Nobles very often and with great Contention In a popular Government there is all Freedome and Equality no oppression of Tyranny where the degrees of Estates are equal no man is richer than his Neighbour but all the People Rule and Command by â—urns Democracy therefore has been especially commended by Othanes the Persian Eufrates and Dion Syracusanus and we observe at this time the Venetian and Helvetian Commonwealths to be the most flourishing People in the Christian World renown'd for their Prudence Power Riches and Justice and no less famous for their Victorious Atchievements The Athenian Common-wealth also commanding a large Dominion with great Force and Power was govern'd only by Democracy all things being acted by the People and with the People The Romans also making use of this Form of Government became Masters of the greatest part of their Empire under Democracy and were never in a worse Condition than under the Command of their Kings and Nobility but chiefly suffered from their Emperours under whose Command their vast Dominion suffered Shipwrack So that which of these three Forms is best is hard to judge since there is neither of them but has its strong Defenders and Oppugners Kings they say who Command altogether according to their own Will and Pleasure seldome Govern well and very rarely without War and great Combustion Kingly Rule hath also this most unavoydable Mischief in it that they who before were counted good and just having obtain'd as it were a Regal Authority and Liberty to do evil grow uncontroulable and the worst of Men which is verifi'd in Caligula Nero Domitian Mithridates and many others Scripture also witnesses the same in Saul David and Salomon Kings chosen by God and of all the Kings of Juda few were approved of the Kings of Israel none Emperors also Kings and Princes that now adays Raign think themselves Born and Crown'd not for the sake of the People not for the Good of their Citizens and Commonalty not to Maintain Justice but to Defend their own Grandeur and Prerogative Governing so as if the Estates of the People were not committed to their Custody but to be shar'd and divided by them as their own proper spoyl and prey They use their Subjects at their pleasure and as they list themselves abusing the Power with which they were Entrusted Oppress their Cities with borrowing the Common People some with Taxes some with Penal Statutes others with excessive Subsidies and Imposts without Measure and without End Or if some more moderate do release the excess of these Grievances they do it not in respect of the Common good but for their own Private ends permitting their Subjects to be at quiet that they may live at ease themselves or else to gain to themselves the name of being Mild and Just. Others most severely punish guilty Offenders Confiscating their Goods and setting great Fines upon their Heads not caring how many they take in the same Premunire For as the Offences of Delinquents are the strength of Tyrants so does the Multitude of Offenders enrich Princes Being in Italy I had the honour to be very familiar with a powerful Prince whom when I once advis'd to suppress the Factions of the Guelphs and Gibellines within his Dominions he confess'd to me ingenuously that by means of those Factions above Twelve thousand Duckets came every Year into his Exchequer Now where the Nobility Command in chief there is nothing but Jealousie Hatred and Emulation Rarely therefore they agree in Amity every one seeking to be Chief and to make his own Sentence pass Hence Factions Seditions Slaughters Civil War and at length the Total Ruine of the Commonwealth Whereof there are infinite Examples in the Histories both of the Greeks and Latines And at this day in most of the Cities of Italy the Effects of those miscarriages are to be seen But Popular Government is Universally accompted the most destructive and worst of all Apollonius with many Reasons disswades Vespatian from it And Cicero Affirms That there is neither Reason Council Discretion or Diligence among the Vulgar People as the Poet also sings By opposite desires and humours led Th' uncertain Vulgar move once taking Head Othanes the Persian also asserts that there is nothing more insolent nothing more stolid nothing more proper to the Rabble than to know nothing but headlong like a Current to carry all business before ' um Demosthenes calls the people an Evil Beast Plato a Monster with many heads which Horace doth not forget And Phalaris writing to Egesippus All multitudes saith he are rash mad slothful apt to change their Opinion perfidious uncertain treacherous heady fraudulent good for nothing but to make a noise easie to love or condemn Hence it follows that he who in governing the Commonwealth strives to please the people must be contented to submit to a hundred undeserved Contumelies Lycurgus being ask'd why he had not erected a Popular Government in his City Rather do thou saith he submit to a Popular Government in thy house Aristotle also in his Ethicks condemns the government of the people to be the worst of all but the rule of one person to be the best for the Commonalty is the Ring-leader of Errour the Mistriss of evil Customs and a rude heap of Mischief No Reason no Authority no Perswasions can move where it either wants knowledge or is in contempt Therefore are the Vulgar so indocible and obstinate against all perswasion whose nature is so unconstant always desirous of Novelty despising the present Authority not to be curb'd by the learned Admonitions of the Wise by the Precepts of their Ancestors Authority of Magistrates or Majesty of Princes This we finde verifi'd in Socrates question'd by the Athenians about his opinion of the Gods In Capys the Trojan delivering his judgment about the bringing in of the Grecian Horse In Magius the Campanian advising that Hannibal should not be received into the City In Paulus Emilius perswading not to fight at the Battâ—l of Canna Lastly in so many of the Predictions of the Prophets of God no way obey'd or hearkned to by the people of the Jews Moreover as to the Laws and Statutes of the people how is it possible that any of them should be good or profitable seeing that it is impossible for the popular Multitude to understand which are good and which are evil the greatest part whereof are ignorant labouring Handicraft people not led by Reason of Justice or Equity but consisting onely in Number where there are generally more bad
are taken so are Birds and Fowl saving that there is a greater strength and exercise of the Body requir'd in Fowling and Hunting than in Fishing and a more industrious search after the Game Besides several sorts of Nets there are many sorts of Pitfalls Traps and Springes nor must we omit the great use of Birdlime Hawks Hounds and Greyhounds A most detestable Recreation a vain Exercise and unprosperous and unhappy sport with so much labour and watching Night and Day to rage and make War against the poor Beasts A pastime cruel and totally Tragical chiefly delighting in Blood and Death And therefore from the beginning it was accompted the chief Exercise of the worst of Men and greatest Sinners For Cain Lamech Nimrod Ishmael Esau are reported in Scripture to be mighty Hunters Nor do we read of any one in the New Testament that was given to Hunting Nor of any Nations that were greatly addicted to the Sport unless the Ishmaelites Idumeans and other People that did not know God Hunting was the first Original of Tyranny which cannot find a fitter Author than such a one as by continually sporting himself in Blood and Murther has learn'd to despise God and Nature The Persian Kings however esteem'd it as an imitation of Warlike Exercises For Hunting hath in it self something fierce and cruel while the Poor Beast overcome at length by the Dogs becomes a Spectacle of Delight in having its Blood shed and Bowels torn out at which the Barbarous Hunter laughs while the Foe-Beast rowted with an Army of Dogs or entangled in a Toyl is carried home by the Triumphant Huntsman with a great Troop at his heels where the fatal Prey is cut up in bloody terms of Art and proper words of Butchery other than which it is not lawful to use A strange madness of such kind of Men a most renowned Warfare where they themselves casting off their Humanity become Beasts and by a strange perverting of their Manners like Acteon are chang'd into Irrational Creatures Some of these Hunters grow to such a height of Madness that they become Enemies to Nature as the Fables relate of Dardames Now the Inventors of this Fatal Exercise are said to be the Thebans a Nation infamous for Fraud Theft and Perjury and no less to be detested for Perjury and Incest from whence the practice thereof was transmitted to the Phrygians a Nation equally Abominable Foolish and Vain which therefore the Athenians and Lacedaemonians had in great contempt Afterwards when the Athenians had repealed their Law against Hunting and that the Exercise was admitted publickly among 'um then was the City of Athens first Taken which makes me wonder to find Hunting commended by Plato Prince of the Academicks Unless the Event honesty of the Invention or Necessity should be occasions of its Commendations Thus Meleager slew the Caledonian Boar not for his own pleasure but to free his Country from a common Mischief So Romulus hunted Deer not for pleasures-sake but to get Food There is another sort of Hunting which is call'd Fowling not so Cruel but not less Vain Vlysses is reported to be the first Inventor thereof who after the taking of Troy was the first that brought into Greece Birds of Prey manur'd for Game to comfort with new Recreations those that had lost their Parents and Acquaintance in the Trojan War And yet he commanded his Son not to make any use thereof True it is that these Exercises so mean and servile in themselves are come to be so far esteem'd that now the chief Nobility and Gentry forsaking all other Liberal and Noble Studies they are become their chief Learning and no mean helps to Preferment Now a days the whole Life of Kings and Princes nay which is a greater Grief the very Religion of Bishops Abbots and Chief Doctors and Overseers of the Church is all consum'd in Hunting wherein they chiefly experience their Ingenuities and shew their Virtues Among the slothful Herds he longs to try A foming Boar or from the Mountains high A Lyon make his fell descent And they who ought to be Examples of Patience are the only Active Persons in seeking to Hunt and Prey upon what they are able to overcome and those Beasts which by Nature are free and by Law belong to those that can possess 'um the Tyranny of the Great Ones hath by rash Edicts Usurp'd to themselves Husbandmen are driven from their Tillage their Farmes are taken from them their Meadows likewise Downs and Woods are shut up from the Shepherds for shelter for Wild Beasts for the Butcherly delight of the Nobility for whom it is only Lawful to be Possess'd thereof of which if a Husbandman or a Country-man do but only taste he presently becomes guilty of Petty Treason and together with the Beasts is made a Prey to the Hunter Let us search the Scripture certainly neither in the Sacred Scripture nor in any other Moral History shall we read of any Holy any Wise man or Philosopher that was addicted to Hunting but many Shepherds and some Fishers St. Austin affirms it to be an Exercise of all most Wicked and the Sacred Elibitan and Aurelian Councels utterly condemn'd it and in the Sacred Canons Hunters are not only forbid Promotion to Holy Orders but the Degree of Chief Priest is thereby taken from him that has attaind it And therefore no man can deny Hunting to be an ungodly Exercise which is so Exploded and Condemn'd in the Opinion of all Wise and Holy Men. Anciently also when men did live in Innocency there was no Creature that fled from 'um there were none on the other side that Offended them or were hurtful to 'um but they had an absolute Obedience over all Examples whereof are in latter Times apparent among those that led Holy and Religious Lives Thus Daniel liv'd among the Lions nor was St. Paul in any danger of the Viper A Crow fed Eliab the Prophet Paul and Antony the Hermites and a Hart nourish'd St. Aegidius Helenus the Abbot commanded a wild Ass and the Beast obey'd and carried his Burden he Commanded a Crocodile and the Crocodile carried him over a River Many Anchorites liv'd in the Deserts and frequented the Dens of Wild Beasts fearing neither Lyons Bears nor Serpents But with Sin entred also the mischief dread and fear of the Creatures and upon that occasion was the exercise of Hunting sound out For as St. Austin observes upon the 3d. of Genesis No Animals were in their first Production Venomous Terrible or Mischievous to Mankind but after Sin they became so for the Punishment of Mans Transgression Therefore saith God to the Serpent I will put Enmity between thee and the Woman and between her seed and thy seed Out of which Sentence arose the Warfare of Hunting and the Antipathy of Men with Beasts CHAP. LXXVIII More of Agriculture BUT let us return Of the Exercises of Husbandry Pasturage Hunting and Fowling Hiero Philometer Attalus and Archelaus all Kings have severally
written Zenophon and Mago great Captains have done the like together with Oppian the Poet. And besides them Cato Varro Pliny Columella Virgil Crescentius Palladius and many others of later times Cicero believ'd there was nothing better nothing more gainful nothing more delightful nothing more worthy the employment of a generous Spirit than the occupations above mention'd Not a few plac'd the chief Good and Supream Happiness in them Therefore Virgil calls Husbandmen Fortunate Horace Blessed The Oracle of Delphos also pronounc'd one Aglaus a most happy man who having a little Farm in Arcadia never stir'd out of it His Content keeping him free from the Experience of Evil. But miserable men that they are while they so highly honour Agriculture little do they consider that it was the Effect of Sin and the Curse of the most High God For chasing Adam out of Paradise he sent him to till the Earth saying Cursed be the Earth for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou Eat of it all the days of thy Life Thorns also and Thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shalt eat the herb of the field In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the Earth for out of it thou wast taken Nor are there any persons that feel the sadness of this saying more than Husbandmen and Countrymen who after they have Plough'd Sow'd Harrow'd Weeded Mowed Reap'd Graz'd Shear'd Hunted Fish'd here one looses his Father for Grief to see his Labours all on a suddain come to nothing and wasted with Hail and Tempests Another Mans Sheep dye another man's Oxen or else they are driven away by the Souldiers Beasts of Prey devour his Lambs and destroy his Fish the Wife laments at home his Children cry Famine follows and after all with uncertain hope of benefit he is forc'd to return to his hard Labour Before the Fall there was no need of Artificial Tillage no want of Grazing Hunting or Fowling for the Earth was to have produc'd all things of its own accord always flourishing with all sorts of Fruits fragrant Smells constant Summer and verdant Meadows Nor had the Earth brought forth any thing noxious no Herb endu'd with poysonous Qualities no venomous Toads Vipers or other Reptiles And Man himself being then Lord of the whole Creation having had the least occasion for the wild Beasts had found none such but all naturally Tame had he but beckned to the Beasts of Carriage they had willingly submitted to his Burthens Man then but new Born had had the use and strength of all his Members and Limbs not wanting Garments to hide his Nakedness Houses for Shelter nor Sawces to provoke his Appetite and had prolong'd his happy days without the help of Physick all things offering themselves spontaneously to satisfie his desires The Earth had been his Food his Garments Air And for his Bed the Fields their Flowr's prepare But the mischief of Sin and the necessity of Death rendred all things incommodious to us for now the Earth produces nothing without our Labour and our Sweat but deadly and venomous and as it were upbraiding us that we live nor are the other Elements less kind to us Many the Sea destroys with raging Tempests and the horrid Monsters devour the Air making War against us with Thunder Lightning and Storms and with a crowd of Pestilential Diseases the Heavens conspire our Ruine Nor are the Creatures only our Enemies For Man as the Proverb hath it is to himself a Wolf We are encompassed with innumerable Temptations of Unclean Spirits whereby to draw us into the Dark Receptacles of Pain and Punishment there to be Tormented in Eternal Fire By all which it appears that Agriculture with all its appurtenants of Fishing Hunting Fowling and Grazing is a loss of the greatest happinesses the invention of Mischief and a trouble to Humane Life Those Exercises appurtenant to Agriculture being only incommodious means to restore the Barrenness of the Earth to supply the want of Food and defend us from the Rigor of cold which puts us in mind of Death And yet this Calamity and necessity of ours might in some measure deserve commendation could it have retain'd it self within moderate bounds and not shewn us so many devices to make strange Plants so many portentous Graftings and Metamorphoses of Trees How to make Horses Copulate with Asses Wolves with Dogs and so to engender many wondrous Monsters contrary to Nature And those Creatures to whom Nature has given leave to range the Air the Seas and Earth so freely to Captivate and Confine in Aviaries Cages Warrens Parks and Fishponds and to fat 'um in Coops having first put out their Eyes and maim'd their Limbs had it not also taught us so many varieties of Weaving Dying and dressing of Linnen Woollen Skins and Silk which Nature only design'd for plain and homely Cloathing but invented for the increase of Pride and Luxury Pliny complaining of these inconveniences gives for instance the Seed of Hemp which being but a little Seed in a short time produces a large Sail that by the help of the Wind carries a Ship all over the World occasioning men as if they had not Earth to perish in to perish in the Sea likewise I omit the many Laws and Maxims and Observations of Husbandmen Shepherds Fishers Hunters and Fowlers so ridiculous and not only foolish and ridiculous but Superstitious and Repugnant to the Law of God How to prevent Storms make their Seed Fruitful kill Weeds scare Wild Beasts stop the flight of Beasts and Birds the swimming of Fishes to charm away all manner of Diseases of all which those Wise Men before named have written very seriously and with great cruelty CHAP. LXXIX Of the Art Military BUT now from Husbandmen let us pass to Souldiers chosen out of the Countrymen and therefore more fit for Fight as saith Vegetius and whom Cate affirms to make the strongest and hardiest Souldiers and we find in Scripture That Cain the first Warrier or slayer of Men was a Husbandman and a Hunter Therefore the Art of War ought least to be despis'd which as Valerius remembers made the Roman Empire Mistress of all Italy and of many Cities and Kingdoms of great and Warlike Nations beside open'd the streights of the Pontick-Sea forc'd through the close passages of the Alps and Taurus And Scipio Africanus glories in Ennius that by the slaughter and Blood of his Enemies he open'd a way to Immortality To whom Cicero assents saying that Hercules ascended to Heaven by the same means The Lacedemonians are said to be the first that deliver'd Rules for teaching this Art and therefore Hannibal having taken a Resolution to Invade Italy desired a Lacedemonian General Under the Power of Lacedemon many Kingdoms and Nations grew great neglected by her or neglecting her from large Dominion they fell to nothing for under the Leading of rash Captains fell the Warlike Numantia Corinth the curious Proud Thebes the Learned Athens the Holy Jerusalem
spoken to contentious Theosophists but to the true Divines Apostles Evangelists and Messengers of the Word of God who say I dare not utter any thing which Christ doth not work by me Therefore the Traditions of these Divines concerning Faith and Godliness are truely Theological To the Writings and sayings of these men we give credit as being founded not upon contentious Syllogisms or Opinions of men but as S. Paul saith being divinely inspired not in defining compounding dividing contemplating after the manner of Philosophers but in an essential contact of Divinity apprehended through a clear vision in the divine light it self of which vision we finde several sorts in the holy Scripture as the Prophets had several dispositions to receive For we read how some saw God or Angels in the forms of men others in the shape of Fire others in the similitude of Air or Wind others in the shape of Rivers or Water others in the form of Birds Precious Stones or Metals others in the forms of Letters or Characters others in the sound of a Voice others in Dreams others in a Spirit residing within themselves others in the work of the Understanding And therefore the Scripture calls all Prophets Seers Thus we read of The Visions of Isaias The Visions of Jeremy The Visions of Ezekiel and the rest And under the New law S. John faith I was in the Spirit upon the Lords day On the wings whereof he was carried and beheld the Throne of God And Paul witnesses that he saw those things which it is not lawful for men to utter And this Vision is called a Rapture or Ecstasie or spiritual death Concerning this death it is said No man shall see God and live And in another place Precious in the sight of God is the death of his Saints And it is more clearly expressed by the Apostle where he says You are dead and your life is hid with Christ. And it is necessary for him to die this death that will pierce into the secrets of Prophetick Theologie Now there is a double sight of this Deifick vision One when God is seen face to face and then the Prophets see what S. Paul faith Things which are not fit for men to utter and which no tongue of men or Angels can express nor Pen unfold There is also a certain contact or union of the Divine Essence and an illustration or enlightning of the pure and separate Intellect without appearance of any shape or likeness This Divines call The Meridional Understanding Of which S. Augustin upon Genesis and Origen against Celsus largely dispute The other sort of Seeing is that by which we see the hinder parts of God when the creatures which are the hinder parts or effects of God are understood with a more exalted judgement as by the knowledge whereof the Creator the chief workman and the First Cause that moves all things is the better known as the Wiseman faith From the bigness of the kinde and of the creature may be known the Creator of things And Paul also about the same subject The invisible things of God are known being understood by these things which are made And it is an usual Saying among the Peripateticks that they who argue from the Effects to the Causes are said to argue à posteriori from the hinder part Moses enjoyed both these Visions as the Scriptures witness Of the first we read that Moses saw God face to face As to the other we read what God spake to him Thou shalt see my hinder parts And by the means of this later Vision Moses made a Law instituted Sacrifices and Ceremonies built a Tabernacle and other Mysteries according to the most elaborate Exemplar of the whole world comprehending all the secret works of God and Nature therein This Vision is again twofold for we either behold the creature in God himself which Divines call The Morning-vision or else we behold God himself in the creatures There is also another Prophetick Vision in Dreams thus we read in Matthew how the angel of God appeared to Joseph in a dream And in another place that the Magi who ador'd Christ were admonisht in a dream that they should return another way into their own Country There are in the Old Testament many Examples thereof Now what this Vision is Job expounds where he says In the horrour of nocturnal visions when sleep falleth upon men and they sleep in their beds then he opens their ears and teaching them instructs them with learning And this being a fourth species of Vision is called Nocturnal There are also two other kindes of Prophecie the one receiv'd by word of mouth and thus was Moses enlightened and taught in Mount Sinai Abraham Jacob Samuel and many other Prophets under the Old Law Under the New Law the Apostles and Disciples of Christ were taught by the mouth of Christ he being alive among them There is another sort of Prophecie which consists in the agitation of the Spirit while the soul ravisht away by some Deity then joyn'd to that and abstracted from the body of man is by the same Spirit fill'd with Knowledge beyond humane strength or wit Which ravishment is not performed always by Angels but sometimes by the Spirit of God as we read of Saul that the Spirit of God came upon him and he prophesied and was changed into a new man and numbered among the Prophets And in the Acts of the Apostles the Spirit of God came upon them that were baptized in flames of fire Which Spirit also many times seizes upon men that are liable to sin so that there were many Prophets among the Gentiles as Cassandra Helenus Calchas Ampharans Tiresias Mopsus Amphilochus Polybius Corinthus also Galanus the Indian Socrates Diotyma Anaximander Epimenides the Cretan Also the Magi among the Persians Brachmans among the Indians Gymnosophists among the Aethiopians Druids among the Gauls and Sibyls among the Romans To which Prophetick seizure of the Spirit many times certain previous Ceremonies authority of Function and communion of sacred Mysteries do very much conduce as the Scripture amply declares concerning Balaam and in other places by the application of the Ephod And the Evangelist witnesses concerning Caiaphas that he prophesied being high priest that year Hence the Mecubals among the Hebrews adventured to counterfeit their Artificial Prophecie I omit what the Hebrews have written concerning the Two and thirty paths of Wisdom and what S. Austin has toucht upon concerning the Degrees or Albertus in his reception of Forms of which he reckons up seven Apparitions in Dreams and as many waking So we read in Plato and Proculus of Socrates that he was not inspired by an intelligible influx but by voice and familiar speech But these things come to pass more easily in Dreams But let us return to our purpose Now therefore Prophetick Theologie is that which by an Intuitive Inspiration teaches the unshaken Word of God But the Authority and Arguments by which that Truth is confirm'd are
are generally ignorant where the Truth rests even in Divinity it self unless we could finde out any person who had the Key of Knowledge and Wisdom for the Armory of Truth is lockt and concealed under divers Mysteries and the way shut up from wise and holy men by which we might enter into so great and incomprehensible a Treasury Now this Key is nothing else but the Word of God This onely discerneth the force and vertue of all sors of words and what Disputes proceed meerly from the Cunning of Sophistry which discovers not the Truth but onely a meer shadow thereof and then distinctly shews you what communication sets forth the Truth not in outward appearance and counterfeit Colour but in effect and reason By this every Art of deceit and untruth is easily surmounted Neither Arguments nor Syllogisms nor any subtilties of Sophistry can stand against it He that is not satisfied therewith or is of an opinion contrary thereto as S. Paul saith is proud and knows nothing And there we are to try by the words of God all Doctrines and Opinions as Gold is try'd by the Touch-stone and in all difficulties to flee thither as to a Rock of most safety and out of that onely to search for the truth of all things and from thence to judge of the Doctrines Opinions and Expositions of men For as Gregory saith Whatsoever derives not its authority from thence is with the same ease rejected as approved Now as to the knowledge of this Word there is no School of Philosophers nor the subtilest Wits of the most subtil Sophisters that have been able to teach it us but onely God and Jesus Christ through the Holy Ghost by means of those Scriptures which are Canonical to which according to the command of God nothing may be added and from which nothing may be diminish'd for whoever shall do it though he were an Angel of heaven he is abandoned to the devil and curs'd by the Law of God So great the Majesty so great is the Power of this Scripture that it admits no strange Expositions no Glosses of Men nor Angels nor suffers it self to be wrested according to the inventions of mens Wits nor does it permit it self to be chang'd and transform'd into variety of Sences after the manner of humane Fables as it were some Poetical Proteus but is sufficient to expound and interpret it self and judging of all men is judg'd by none For the Authority thereof is greater as Austin saith than all the florid Subtilties of humane Wit for it hath one plain constant and holy meaning in the strength whereof it both combats and overcomes All other Moral meanings besides this as Mystical Typical Anagogical Tropological and Allegorical by the help whereof many men do besmear and Fucus over the Truth with sundry strange Colours may rightly and truely perswade us something for the edification of the people but they can never prove or disprove any thing to confirm the Authority of the Word of God For let any person bring into controversie the opinion of any one of these let him quote any substantial Author thereupon or let him alleadge the Exposition of any of the holy Fathers none of those things are so binding to us but that we may contradict um but out of the letter of the holy Scriptures from the draught and order thereof such indissoluble Bands are made which no man can break nor no man escape through but breaking and shattering all Engines of Argumentation enforces him to say and confess That it is the finger of God That Man never spake in that manner That he speaketh not as the Scribes and Pharisees but like one that has power But the Authors thereof inspir'd from Heaven have by their authority ordain'd us a Canon the magnificence whereof is such that we ought to believe all things therein contained and whatever that Word hath pronounced and taught that without any retraction is to be accounted holy and inviolable Of which thus S. Austin hath spoken That he gave this honour to those Books which be call'd Canonical that he most constantly believ'd that none of the Writers of them did or could erre but to the others be would give no credit how much learning and holiness soever they had in them except it be proved with evident reason out of Gods Word that there is a probability for the truth thereof Unto these Christ sends us teaching us that we should search the Scriptures From hence the Apostle commands us to try all things and to stick to the things which are good as also to prove the spirits whether they be of God and by the help of them to be able to give an account of all things and to reprove them that shall vainly go about to contradict that so becoming spiritual we may judge all things and be judged of none Now the truth and understanding of the Canonical Scripture depends upon the onely authority of God revealing the same which cannot be comprehended by any judgement of the Senses by most over-reaching Reason by any Syllogism of demonstration by any Science by any Speculation by any Contemplation or by any humane force but onely by Faith in Jesus Christ poured out into the soul from God the Father by the Holy Ghost which is so much the more predominant and stable than the Credulity of humane knowledge by how much God himself is superiour to and truer than Men. But why do I say truer Nay rather God alone is true and every man a lyer So that whatever proceeds not from this Truth is Errour as that which is not of faith is sin For God himself hath in himself the fountains of Truth out of which it is necessary for him to draw it whoever desires perfect knowledge seeing there is no knowledge can be had either of the secrets of Nature of separated substances nor of God the Author of all unless it be reveal'd from above For things divine are not to be reacht by humane force and natural things oft-times keep at too great a distance from the inward thought whence it comes to pass that what we believe to be the knowledge of these things appears to be Falshood and Errour Which presumption in the Caldeans and other Heathen Philosophers Isaiah reproves where he says Thy wisdom and thy knowledg have deceived thee thou hast fail'd in the multitude of thy inventious The Grammarian is very wary that he offend not in talk and that he utter not a rude and barbarous word but in the mean while he has no regard to the dishonest courses and sinfulness of his life So likewise the Poet chuses rather to halt in his Life than in his Verse The Historian leaves to Memory and commits to Writing the deeds of Kings and Princes and the transactions of successive times yet mindes not his own behaviour or if he do is yet ashamed to confess his failings The Orator more abhors the rudeness of his Language than the deformity
Mysteries It was a name common to the Christians among the Romans to be call'd Asinarii and they were wont to paint the Image of Christ with the ears of an Ass as Tertullian witnesses Wherefore let neither Popes repute it to their shame if among those Giant like Elephants of Sciences there may be some Asses Neither let Christians wonder if among those Prelates and expert Doctors the better learned one is the less he be esteemed for the songs of Nightingales are not proper for the ears of Asses and it is a Proverb That the untuneable braying of Asses is not agreeable to the Harp And yet the best Pipes are made of the bones of Asses the marrow being taken out which as they far exceed the harmony of the Harp so these Religious Asses far surpass the Brangling and Braying of idle Sophisters Thus several Philosophers coming to visit Antony and to discourse with him being by him answer'd in a few words return'd with shame We read also of a certain Idiot that convinc'd a most learned and subtil Heretick and forc'd him to turn to the Faith whom the best and most learned Bishops at the Council of Nice with a long and difficult Disputation could not convince Who being afterwards demanded by his friends how it came to pass that he yielded to the Fool who had resisted and withstood so many and so great Learned Bishops replied That he had easily given the Bishops words for words but that he could not resist this Idiot who spake not according to humane wisdom but according to the Spirit The Conclusion of the Work YOu therefore O ye Asses who are now with your children under the command of Christ by means of his Apostles and Messengers and Readers of true wisdom in his holy Gospel being freed from the foggs and mists of flesh and bloud if ye desire to attain to this divine and true wisdom not of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but of the tree of life set aside the Traditions of Men and every enquiry and discourse of flesh and bloud whether it concern Reason consideration of Causes or Effects conversing now not with the Schools of Philosophers and Sophisters but with your own selves For the Notions of all things are trusted within your own brests which as the Academicks confess the Scriptures themselves do testifie seeing that God created all things very good that is to say in the best degree they could consist He therefore as he created the trees full of fruit so he created our souls which are like rational trees full of Forms and Idea's though through the sin of our first parents all things were conceal'd and Oblivion took place the mother of Ignorance But you that can remove the Veil from your Understandings who are wrapt up in the darkness of Ignorance vomit up that Lethean Drench which has made ye drunk with Forgetfulness awake in the true light you that are drown'd in the sleep of Irrationality and then forthwith with an open countenance ye shall pass from light to light for ye are anointed as S. John saith by the holy Ghost and know all things And again There is no necessity that ye should be taught by any because his Anointing instructs ye in all things For he alone it is that giveth language and wisdome David Isaiah Ezekiel Jeremiah Daniel John Baptist and many other Prophets and Apostles were never bred up in Learning but of Shepherds Husbandmen and Fools became throughly learned in all things Solomon in a dream of one night was replenished with the knowledge of all things both sublunary and celestial and with so much prudence in the administration of Government that there was never any Prince equal to him Yet all these were mortal men as you are and sinners You will say perhaps that this has happen'd to a very few and those A few whom equal Jove Would signalize by his transcending love Or such whose ardent zeal divinely fir'd With constant motion to the Stars aspir'd However do not despair the hand of God is not shortned to them that call upon him that give a true obedience to his will Anthony and the Barbarian Christian servant gain'd the full knowledge of Divine things by the help of thrre days prayer as S. Austin testifies But you that cannot like the Prophets like the Apostles like those other holy men behold those things with a clear and unclouded Intellect may procure Understanding from them who have beheld these things with a clear sight There is also another way remaining as S. Jerome saith to Russinus that what the Spirit hath suggested to the Prophets and Apostles should be sought by you with diligent studie I mean the study of that Learning which is deliver'd in the Bible being the most sacred Oracles of the true God and received by the Church with an unanimous consent not of such things as have been invented by the Wit of men for they do not enlighten but darken the Understanding And therefore we must have recourse to Moses to Solomon to the Prophets to the Evangelists to the Apostles who shining with all sorts of Learning Wisdom Manners Languages Oracles Prophecies Miracles and Holiness of heavenly things have spoken from God himself of inferiour things above men delivering all the things of God and secrets of Nature distinctly and clearly to us For all the secrets of God and Nature all manner of Customs and Laws all understanding of things past present and to come are fairly taught in the Books of the holy Scripture Whither do ye therefore run headlong why seek ye knowledge of them who having spent all their days in searching have lost all their time labour being unable to attain to any thing of certain truth Fools and wicked men who not regarding the gifts of the holy Ghost strive to learn from lying Philosophers and Doctors of Errour those things which ye ought to receive from Christ and the holy Ghost Think ye to draw knowledge from the ignorance of Socrates or light out of the darkness of Anâ—xagoras or vertue out of the Wells of Democritus and wisdom out of the madness of Empedocles Think ye to lave piety out of Diogenes's Tub or sence out of the stupidity of Carneades or wisdom from impious Aristotle or perfidious Averroes or faith out of the superstition of the Platonicks Ye are in an Errour being deceived by them who were themselves deceiv'd But recal your selves you who are desirous of the Truth descend from the clouds of mens Traditions and adhere to the true light Behold a voice from heaven a voice speaking from above and shewing more apparent than the Sun that ye are enemies to your selves and delay the receiving of wisdom Hear the Oracle of Baruch God is saith he and no other shall be compared to him He hath found out all manner of learning and hath taught it to Jacob his son and to Israel his beloved giving laws and precepts and ordaining sacrifices After this he was seen upon the earth conversed with men was made flesh teaching us plainly with his own mouth what was mysteriously deliver'd in the Law and by the Prophets And that ye may nor think the Scriptures relate onely to Divine and not to natural things hear what the Wise-man witnesseth of himself He hath given the true knowledge of those things which are that I might know the situation of the earths compass the vertues of the Elements the beginning ending middle and revolutions of the Times the course of the Year the influences of the Stars the nature of Animals Sympathy and Antipathy of Creatures the force of the Winds Thoughts of Men difference of Plants and the vertues of Roots In brief I have learnt whatever things are hidden and conceal'd for the Artificer of all things hath taught me wisdom The Divine wisdom faileth in nothing nothing escapes it there is no addition to it for it comprehends all things Know therefore that there needs not long Studie but Humility of spirit and Pureness of heart not the sumptuous furniture of many Books but a pure Understanding made fit for the Truth as the Lock is for the Key For number of Books hinders the learner and he that follows many Authors erres with many All things are contain'd and taught in the onely Volume of the Bible but with this Proviso That they are not to be understood but by those who are enlightned for to others they are onely Parables and Riddles seal'd up with many Seals Pray then to the Lord God in saith doubtful of nothing that the Lamb of the Tribe of Judah may come and open his Sealed Book which Lamb is onely holy and true who onely has the key of wisdom and knowledge whâ— opens and no man shuts and shuts what no man opensâ— This is JESUS CHRIST the Word the Soâ— of God the Father the true Teacher made Man likâ— unto us that he might make us the children of Godâ— like Himself blessed to all Eternity But lest 〈◊〉 should declaim beyond my Hour-glass let this be thâ— End of our Discourse FINIS