their opinion stooping neyther to the loosenesse of the one nor the austeritie of the other but of these no mention in the Text. The Areopagites intimated in the foot of this Chapter were not Philosophers but the Athenian Iudges some say others their Consuls or their Senatours In the street of Mars where the Athenians brought PAVL Act. 17. v. 22. and enquired of his Doctrine was their Tribunall where they sate vpon their more weighty affaires and Gen. not ibid. of old arraigned SOCRATES and condemned him of impietie But I haue no quarrell to these since I finde they had none to the Apostle The Stoicke and the Epicure are the sole incendiaries and ringleaders of the tumult whom the very Text points out in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some sayd men as opposite in their opinion as to the truth one seated his chiefe happinesse in the pleasure of the Body the other in the vertues of the Mind The Epicure attributed too much to voluptuousnesse Aretius in cap. 17. Act. the Stoicke to the want of it that would haue a vacuitie of griefe both in mind and sence this taught his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a nullitie of all affections in eyther These are the broad and common Differences in their opinion and such as heere tread opposite to the Doctrine of Saint PAVL but there are others more cryticall and nice which not finding touch'd by the pen of the Holy Ghost I presum'd to enquire after in their owne Schooles in Zeno's Stoä for one and in Epicurus Garden for the other A trauaile somewhat vnnecessary for Athens amongst Philosophers where they are daily canuast Yet perchance there may bee some Nobles heere of Bereä Vers 17 and Chiefe women of Thessalonica Vers 4 which haue receiued PAVL with all willingnesse which know them not I shall bee onely your remembrancer their informer Epicures for I begin with them they haue the precedence in the Text challenge both name and pedigree from EPICVRVS the founder and Father of that Sect. Hee was borne at Athens seauen yeares after the Death of PLATO where he liued taught dyed Hee wrote 300. Bookes in his owne Art without reference to a second Pen and what is strange obseruation no sentence no precept of Philosopher but his owne those of DEMOCRITVS de Atomis and of ARISTIPPVS de Voluptate DIONISIVS HALICARNASSEVS cals his Lib. 2. Hist His deportment and way of carriage in matters of Moralitie was very remarkeable Lib. de Epicur In Parentes pietas in Fratres Beneficentia in Serues mansuetudo 'T is the triple commendation LAERTIVS giues him And in lieu of these and the like vertues his Countrey afterwards erected many brazen Statues and ATHENAEVS wrote certayne Epitaphes to the perpetuall embalming both of his name and honour Hee was one it seemes more irreguler in his tenent then his life abstenious hee was moderate in his repast A Ferc sic in Lorum in his desires Oleribus vtens exiguis HIEROME sayes and hee confesses himselfe in his Epistles that Temperance was his Feast the lowest stayre of it Allexand ab Alex lib. 3. Genaelium Dierum Cap. 11. Parcemonie Aquâ contentus polentâ His place of teaching was in Gardens and the manner not onely to the capacitie but the Disposition of his hearer The whole Fabricke of his precepts hee builds vpon this double ground The one on Mans part that hee is composed of a double substance a Body and a Soule and both these mortall yea the Soule vanisht sooner then the Body For when the Soule is breathed out the Body yet remaines the same and the proportion of parts perfect Anima mox vt exierit veluti fumus vento diuerberata dissoluitur But the Soule is no sooner seperate then blowne away like smoake scattered by the wind So S. AVGVSTINE relates the opinion in his Tract De Epic. Stoic 5. Cap. On this foundation was raised their great opinion that Mans chiefest happinesses consisted in the pleasure of the Body The rest of that was the end of all Blessednesse For to this purpose doe wee all things In Epistol ad Herodetum that wee may neyther bee disturbed nor grieued 't is EPICVRVS owne Doctrine Yet euery pleasure is not so magnified as that of the Pallate by superfluitie of the Body by effeminatenesse But when after a long tolleration of sorrow a greater pleasure ensues when the Body is no more beaten with griefe the Mind vntost and free from all waues of perturbation there was the true Happinesse Hee was blessed that enjoyed those Delights in present future they neither beleeued nor cared for Death was the slaughterman of all And therefore SENECA calls the Schoole of the Epicures Delicatam Senec. lib. 4. de Benefic vmbraticam apud quos virtus voluptatis ministra For if the Soule also perisheth with the Body the dirge and requiem that they sing is Ede Bibe Lude Eate and Drinke for to morrow wee shall Dye and after Death what pleasure And therefore wee find their vsuall Epicaedium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death is nothing to vs for what is dissolued wants sence Lib. 3. Pyrron Hypotyp cap. 24 and what wants sence is nothing to vs. For if Man bee composed of Body and Soule and Death bee the dissolution of both the burthen of their song runnes instantly Cùm sumus nòn est mors cùm autèm mors est non sumus so SEXTVS EMPIRICVS Moreouer they would haue the Soule a kind of body otherwise say they it would neyther doe nor suffer Incorporeum with them is all one with Vacuum and therefore the Soule they sayd was composed of Atomes and when the Atoms in a man were dissolued then the Soule dyed as EPICVRVS himselfe in his Epistle to HERODOTVS The other foundation is on Gods part for the Epicure grants there is a GOD but denies his Prouidence howbeit vnder a glorious colour Deum ad Coeli cardines obambulare Gualt in Locum nulla tangi mortalium curâ as if forsooth it would not stand with the maiestie of the world to regard what is done in those sublunary parts Jn Apoleg aduers ginits cap. 24. and so make God as TERTVLLIN complaines Otiosum inexercitum neminem in humanis rebus happely conceiting it might detract somewhat from his delight and pleasure to molest himselfe with the care of this nether World Aboue all things this moued him most Homines Religiosos that the most Religious men were most of all afflicted whereas those which did eyther wholly neglect the Gods or serue them but at their pleasure came into no misfortune or at least no misfortune like other men And in fine Ipsa etiam Templa fulminibus constagrari hee obserued that the Temples also raysed for the honour of the Gods and dedicated to their seruice were oftentimes burnt with fire from Heauen Out of which premisses the silly Heathen gathers this desperate Conclusion Allexand ab
Alex lib. 3. Genalium Dierum Cap. 11. Surely the Almighty walketh in the height of Heauen and judgeth not Tush GOD careth not for those things Stoickes so deriued from Stoä where ZENO taught the Master of that Sect were of a more sowre and contracted brow their seuerity drew their name into a Prouerbe Stoicum supercilium grauitas Stoica their Precepts were for the most part but a Systeame of harsh and austeere paradoxes A wiseman is then blest Tull. 5. de Finibus 1. Academ when vnder the greatest torments Merellus liues not more happily then Regulus A wiseman is free from all passions Hee is a foole that doth commiserate his Friend in distresse Lypsius in manuduct ad Stâ—â—â—am Phylesoph Mercy and Pitie are diseases of the minde and one with the species and perturbations of griefe Mentall sicknesses disturbe no wise mans health Hee can norther erre nor bee ignorant nor deceiue nor lye Hee is alone to bee reputed rich a Master of his owne libertie a King without sinne equall to GOD himselfe Hoc est summum bonum quod si occupas incipis Deorum socius esse non supplex it is SENECA'S Stoyicisme in his 31. Epistle In all Vertues they held a paritie Tull. 1. de not Deorum and so in Sinnes too Hee no more faultie that kills a Man then hee that cuts off a Dogs necke Touching GOD and the nature of him they strangely varyed Some thought him an immortall liuing Creature Tull. lib. 1. de nat Deorum a perfect rationall and a blessed others granted him a Beeing and Prouidence but this Prouidence they vassall to their Stoyicall fate Diogen Laert. in vita ZenoÌ„ lib. 7 and make Gods gouernment not free and voluntary but necessitated and compelled Vt Deus ipse sati necessitate constrictus cum Coeli machina violenter ferretur so CALVIN In 17. cap. Act. Touching Man they taught that his chiefest Happinesse was placed in the Minds vertue which opinion though it shew faire and glorious In Locum tends but to this Quemvis mortalem faelicitatis suae artificem esse posse sayes BVLLINGER Euery man should bee the contriuer and squarer out of his owne Happinesse and thus weake man is hereby blowne vp with a proud confidence that being vertuous he should bee adorned with the spoyles of God Est aliquid quo sapiens antecedat Deum ille naturae beneficio non suo sapiens est I forbeare to translate the proud Blasphemy it is SENECA'S in his 53. Epistle But me thinkes this vaunting Stoicke might easily haue beene taken downe by his owne Principles for aske but any of them how long their soule shall enioy that supposed happinesse TVLLY makes answere for them 5. de Finibus Diù mansuros aiunt animos semper negant Like long-liued Crowes they last out some yeares after the bodies Death but by their owne confessions grow old continually and dye at last and then wherein may the Stoicke bragge more then the Epicure Laert. lib. de E. picue In this little They both held the Soule was of it selfe a body the Stoicke did extend it a little further and then obnoxious to corruption too And yet ANTIPATER and POSSIDONIVS chiefe members of that Sect sayd the Soule was a hot spirit for this made vs to moue and breath And all soules should endure till that heate were extinguisht CLEANTHES sayd Sextus Emper. Pyrron Hypol. cap 24. lib. 3. but CHRYSIPPVS onely wise-mens Thus some are as giddy in their opinions as sottish others as detestable as giddy one dotes on the world and would haue it to bee Animal rationale The vniuerse must haue a Soule that immortall and the parts thereof Animantium animae A second falls in loue with Vertues and would haue them to bee glorious liuing Creatures but this foole SENECA lashes with an O tristes ineptias ridiculae sunt in his 113. Epistle A third adores the Starres and would haue them nourisht the Sunne from the Sea the Moone from the lesser waters A fourth growes salacious and hot and would haue a communitie of Wiues to Wise men of Strumpets to the residue A fifth yet more diuelish will haue a libertie of Bed from the Father to the Daughter from the Mother to the Sonne from the Brother to the Sister and so backe againe and to make all compleatly heathenish and I tremble to breath it in a Pulpit A Sonne may participate of the body of his liue Mother and eate the flesh of his dead Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 detestabile Cryes SEXTVS EMPERICVS Zeno approbat quod apud nos Sodomitae in his 3. Booke Pyrroniarum Hypotypâ—siâ—â— Cap. 24. Thus with as much breuitie as I could I haue traced out the principall positions of these diuided Sects Worthy ones no doubt to bandy against the sacred Fundamentals of an Apostle yet if it now please you to follow them E stoä hortis in Synagogam From their Gallery and Garden where they taught into their Synagogue you shall ouertake them there all flocked together about S. PAVL Act. 17. v. 17. and as the Text describes it encountring him Heere is just matter for obseruation if not for wonder Epicures Stoickes men which jarre asmuch as any that beare the name of Philosophers can doe amongst themselues are ready neuerthelesse to meet in a tumult and joyne forces against an Apostle strange did wee not know that the wisedome of this world were enmitie against GOD and that CHRIST vnto the Jewes a stumbling Blocke 1. Cor. 1.23 vnto the Grecians foolishnesse What the ground was which should occasion this assault SAVGVSTINE coniectures to bee and it is not repugnant to the drift of the Text Quid faciat beatam vitam What might make a man most happie The Epicure hee answers Caluin in LocuÌ„ Voluptas corporis the pleasure but with this limitation the honest pleasure of the body The Stoicke hee sayth Virtus The vertue of the mind August Tract de Epicur Stoicis cap 7. the Apostle replies Donum Dei it is the guift of GOD LYRA addes that from thence the sequele led them to the Resurrection Lyra in cap 17. Act. For the Epicures joy could last no longer then his subiect his blisse must dye with his body and the Stoickes foresaw not the Soules immortalitie and therefore could not promise euerlasting Happinesse But the Apostle hee preacheth a Resurection of body and soule and by that Eternall life Act 17.18 and so by consequence euerlasting Happinesse through CHRIST both of Soule and Body This seemes to haue been the subiect of their Dispute but their Arguments I can by no meanes collect Be like they were so silly that they were not thought worthy to bee enrolled amongst those more noble Acts of the Apostles onely their impudence that is so notorious that it may not bee omitted For on what side soeuer the victorie goes theirs is the tryumph the cry runnes
with the Athenian the Philosopher hath non-plust the Diuine and the Apostle bables Thus the wicked haue bent their bowe and shot their arrowes euen bitter words bitter words against the Church and her true members in all Ages The naturall man led on by the dull light of reason making Philosophie his Starre endeauours with those weake twinklings those lesser influences to obscure the glory of the greater light that of Diuine truth so it was in the first dawne and rising of the Church IANNES and IAMBRES the great Magitians of Aegipt withstood MOSES working miracles before PHARAOH But all the spels of Magicke with their blacke power neuer wrought so mischieuously against the Church as the subtle inchantments of the Philosopher Christianitie neuer felt such wounds as from the Schoole of the Athenian The Seminarie of the wrangling Artist the Epicure Stoicke Platonist they were Philosophers that 's enough they not onely strugled to oppose Fundamentals of Faith but to destroy them Euery age of the Church and almost euery place of it will giue vs a world of Instances one Alexandria affoords at Aetius and a Demophylus against CHRIST one Constantinople a Macedonius and an Eurox against the Holy Ghost One Ephesus an Anthemius and a Theodore against the Virgin MARY One Athens heere an Epicure and a Stoicke against PAVL Nay the sophistry of one peruerse but nimble Disputant hath cost more liues then are now breathing in the Christian world and opened such a sluce and Arch through the body of the Easterne Church which was not stopt againe almost in the current of 300. yeares when downe it blood ran swiftly from the butcheries of Valens Constantius and the limbes the thousand limbs of slaughtered Infants swam with the violence of the Torrent euen then when Christianity groaned vnder the mercilesse inuentions and various tortures of the Arrian Massacre and persecution Philosophers were the first Patriarchs of that Heresie and hence I suppose was that Edict of Constantine Socrat. lib. 1. cap. 5. that as a badge and character of their profession they should bee no more called Arrians but Porphirians the venemous brood of their cursed Master and one that then blew the coale to most combustions of the Primitiue Church For at the Councell of Nice the place and meanes ordayned by that good Emperour for the suppression of Arrius Sozom. lib. 1. cap. 17. Anno Christi 3.25 some if not of his name yet of his profession for they were Phylosophers trooped thither in droues and multitudes not onely to oppose the Bishops but to vpbraid them Odio imflammati quod superstitiosa Gentilium religio antiquari caeperat as Ruffinus lib. 1. cap. 3. And before that in the Apostles time about the yeare of CHRIST 75. they went about from Citie to Citie with this pretext onely to reforme publique misdemeanors and to that purpose had certayne Sermons to the people for rectifying their Conuersation in morrall cariages and so seemed industrious to reduce them to a better forme but the maine proiect was to confront the Apostles doctrine and establish them more immoueably in the former superstition of the Gentiles thus did Dyon Apollonius Euphrates Demétrius Musonius Epictetus Lucian and others as Baronius in his first Tome 777 pag. nay Ad Annū 75. the very dregs of them sayth the Antiquarie the Cynieke and the Epicure so violent heere against PAVL Hos prae caeteris infestos sensit Christiana religio These were the heathen Ianizaries the chiefe Souldiers and speare-men against the Christian Faith when at Rome the sides of that Religion were strucke through with their blasphemous Declamations Et petulantiū eorum calumnijs dicterijs miserè proscindebatur Baron Ad Annum 164. the same Baronius in his second Tome pag. 154. Thus all violent oppositions of Christian truth had their first conception in the wombe of Philosophie The Fathers which traffick't with the tumults of those times said in effect as much Omnes haereses subornauit Philosophia MARCION came out of the Schoole of our Stoicke CELSVS of the Epicure VALENTINVS of that of PLATO all heresies were the flourishings and trimmings of humaine Learning Inde Aeones formae nescio quae Trinitas hominis apud Valentinum Thence those Aeones I know not what Idaeas and that triple man in Valentinus hee was a Platonist Thence Marcions quiet God it came from the Stoickes And the Soule should be made subiect to Corruption is an obseruation of the Epicures and the deniall of the Resurrection the joynt opinion of their whole Schooles Lib. de Prascript aduers Haeres And when their Materia prima is matcht with God it is Zeno's Discipline and when God is said to bee a fiery Substance Heraclitus hath a finger in it Comment in Nahū ad cap. 3. thus Tertullian S. Hierome keepes on the Catalogue inde Eunomins prefert Thence Eunomius drew his poyson against the Eternitie of the Sonne of God For whatsoeuer is begotten and borne before it was begotten was not Thence Nouatus blockes vp all hope of pardon for offences on Gods part that hee might take away repentance and all suite for it on ours Thence Manichaeus double God and Sabellius single person and to be short De illis fontibus vniuersa dogmata argumentationum suarum riuulos trahunt Menandrians Saturnians Johan Baptist. Chrispus de Ethnic Philos Caute Legend Quinar 1. Basilidians Ammonians Proclians Iulians and the residue of that cursed Rabble had from thence their conception birth nourishment continuance Hereupon the great Doctor of the Gentiles writing purposely of their Wisedome alledgeth no other reason why they were not wise vnto Saluation but the wisedome of this World The world through Wisedome knew not God 1. Cor. cap. 1. vers 20. And therefore hee prescribes the Collossians a Cauete nè vos seducat Colos 2.4 Take heed least any man spoyle you through Philosophie and vaine deceit Fuerat Athenis De Praescript aduers Haeres S. PAVL had bin at Athens sayth Tertullian and knew by his often encounter there how desperately secular and prophane Knowledge wounded Diuine truth Insomuch that the Father is of opinion Vnâ hac sententiâ omnes haereses damnari in his 5. Booke against Marcion 19. Chapter But whilest wee goe about to vindicate our Apostle let vs not bee too iniurious to the Philosopher The Epicure and the Stoicke had their Drosse and rubbish yet they had their Siluer too which had past the fornace tryed and purified enough for the practice of a Christian Though they had Huskes and Acornes for their Swine yet they had Bread for Men. It was not their Philosophie was so pestilent but the vse of it our Apostle reprehends not the true but the vaine no doubt there is that which is Sanctified as well as the Adulterate otherwise the Fathers would neuer haue stiled Diuinitie Philosophie That is a glorious ray sent downe from Heauen by the Father of Light This but strange Fire