Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	air_n	element_n	fire_n	13,062	5	7.1789	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48803	The marrow of history, or, The pilgrimmage of kings and princes truly representing the variety of dangers inhaerent to their crowns, and the lamentable deaths which many of them, and some of the best of them, have undergone : collected, not onely out of the best modern histories, but from all those which have been most famous in the Latine, Greek, or in the Hebrew tongue : shewing, not onely the tragedies of princes at their deaths, but their exploits and sayings in their lives, and by what virtues some of them have flourished in the height of honour, and overcome by what affections, others of them have sunk into the depth of all calamities : a work most delightfull for knowledge, and as profitable for example / collected by Lodowick Lloyd ... ; and corrected and revived by R.C. ...	Lloyd, Lodowick, fl. 1573-1610.; Codrington, Robert, 1601-1665.	1653 (1653)	Wing L2660; ESTC R39067	223,145	321

divers places else which is the nature of the ground About Babylon a field burneth day and night In Aethiopia certain fields about mount Hesperius shine all night like stars As for Earthquakes and wonders that thereby happened I will not speak but those strange grounds that never alter from such effects before mentioned beside the mettals the stones the herbs the trées and all other things are miraculous and strange as Pliny in divers places doth witnesse And as for fire it is too great a wonder that the whole world is not burned thereby sith the Sun the Stars the Elementary fire excell all miracles if God had not prevented in kéeping the same from damage and hurt to man yea appointed that the heat of the Sun should not kindle straws stubbles trées and such like where the heat thereof as we daily sée burneth stones lead and harder substances sith especially that fire is in all places and is able to kindle all things insomuch that the water Thrasimenos burneth out in flames which is unnatural and strange that fire kindles in water and likewise in Egnatia a City of Salentine there is a stone which if any wood touch it wil● kindle fire In the Well called Nympheus there is a stone likewise whence come flames of fire the stone it self burneth in the water A greater wonder it is that the fire should be kindled by water and extinguished by wind Fire flashed about the head of Servius Tullius being then a boy in sleep which did prognosticate that he should be King of the Romans Fire shined about the head of L. Marcius in Spain when he encouraged his souldiers to revenge manfully the deaths of those noble and famous Romans named Sipians The marvellous effects of fire are most wonderful and most strange CHAP. XXI Of the World and of the soul of Man with divers and sundry opinions of the Philosophers about the fame AMongst divers Philosophers and learned men grew a great controversie of the beginning of the world some of the best affirming that it had no beginning nor can have end as Aristotle and Plato applying incorruption and perpetual revolution to the same Some with Epicurus thought the world should be consumed Of this opinion was Empedocles and Herachius Some on the other side did judge with Pythagoras that so much of the world should be destroyed as was of his own nature Thales said there was but one world agréeing with Empedocles Democritus affirmeth infinite worlds and Metrodorus the Philosopher conceived worlds to be innumerable Thus hold they several opinions concerning the making the beginning the ending and the numbers of the world What child is there of this age but smileth at their folly reasoning largely one against another in applying the cause and the effect of things to their own inventions And as they have judged diversly of the world concerning the frame and nature thereof so were they as far off from the true understanding of the Creation of man Some grosly thought that mankind had no beginning Some judged that it had a beginning by the superiour bodies And for the antiquity of mankind some judge Egypt to be the first people some Scythia some Thrace some this countrey and some that countrey with such phantastical inventions as may well appear to the most ignorant an error And alas how simple are they in finding out the substance of the soul what it should be where it should be and by what it should be Some say that there is no soul but a natural moving as Crates the Theban Some judge the soul to be nothing else but fire or heat betwéen the undivisible parts others thought it an air received into the mouth tempered in the heart boiled in the lights and dispersed through the body Of this opinion was Anaxagoras and also Anaximenes Hippias judged the soul of man to be water Thales and Heliodorus affirmed it to be earth Empedocles is of opinion that it is hot bloud about the heart so that they vary in sundry opinions attributing the cause thereof either to the fire or else to water either to the earth or to the air and some unto the complexion of the four elements others of the earth and fire others of water and fire some again reason that the substance of the soul is of fire and of the air And thus of approved Philosophers they show themselves simple innocents How ignorant were they in defining the soul of man So far disagréeing one with another that Zenocrates thinketh again the soul to be but a number that moves it self which all the Egyptians consented to Aristotle himself the Prince of all Philosophers and his master Plato shewed in this their shifting reason which both agree that the soul is a substance which moveth it self Some so rude and so far from perfection in this point that they thought the heart to be the soul some the brain How ridiculous and foolish séemeth their assertion to this age concerning the soul and as childishly they dispute and reason again about the placing of the same where and in what place of the body the soul resteth For Democritus judgeth his seat to be in the head Parmenides in the breast Herophilus in the ventricles of the brain Strato doth think that the soul was in the space between the eye brow yea some were so foolish to judge it to be in the ear as Xerxes King of Persia did Epicurus in all the breast Diogenes supposed it to be in a hollow vein of the heart Empedocles in the bloud Plato Aristotle and others that were the best and truest Philosophers judged the soul to be indifferent in all parts of the body some of the wisest supposed that every peece and p●rce● of the body had his proper soul In this therefore they were much deceived in séeking a proper seat for the soul Even as before they erred shamefully and li●d manifestly about the essence and substance of the soul so now were they most simply beguiled in placing the soul as you have heard And now after I have opened their several opinions concerning what the soul is and where the soul is you shall here likewise hear whither the soul shall go after death according to the Philosophers which as diversly vary and disagrée in this as you before heard the diversity of opinions concerning the substance and the place And first to begin with Democritus who judgeth the soul to be mortal and that it shall perish with the body to this agrée Epicurus and Pliny Pythagoras judged that the soul is immortal and when the body dieth it s●éeth to his kind Aristotle is of opinion that some parts of the soul which have corporal seats must dye with the body but that the understanding of the soul which is no instrument of the body is perpetual Tho people called Drinda were of this judgement that souls should not descend to hell but should pass to another world as the Philosophers called Essei which suppose

the ravishment of Virginia CHAP. XX. Of the strange Natures of Waters Earth and Fire IN divers learned Histories we read especially in Pliny of the wonders of waters and of the secret and unknown nature of fire wherin for the rare sight thereof are noted things to be marvelled at There is a water in the countrey of Campania where if any mankind will enter therein it is written that he shall incontinent be bereft of his senses And if any woman kind happen to go into that water she shall always afterward be barren In the same countrey of Campania there is a lake called Avernus where all flying fowls of the air that fly over that lake fall presently therein and die A well there is in Caria called Salmacis whose water if any man drink thereof he becommeth chaft and never desireth the company of a woman The River Maeander doth bréed such a kind of stone that being put close to a mans heart it doth straight make him mad There are two rivers in Boetia the one named Melas whose water causeth straight any beast that drinketh thereof if it be white to alter colour to black the other Cephisus which doth change the black beast to a white beast by drinking of the water Again there is in India a standing water where nothing may swim beast bird man or any living creature but they all sink this water is called Silia In Affrica on the contrary part there is the water named Apustidamus where nothing be it never so heavy or unapt to swim but will swim upon the water Lead or any heavy mettal doth swim in that lake as it is in the well of Phinitia in Sicilia Infinite waters should I recite if I in this would be tedious in repeating their names whose strange natures whose secret and hidden operation whose force and vertue were such as healed divers diseases As in the Isle of Avaria there was a water that healed the collick and the stone By Rome there was also a water called Albula that healed gréen wounds In Cilicia the river called Cydnus was a present remedy to any swelling of the legs Not far from Neapolis there was a well whose water healed any sicknesse of the eys The lake Amphion taketh all scurfs and sores from the body of any man What should I declare the natures of the four famous Rivers that issue out of Paradise the one is named Euphrates which the Babylonians and Mesopotamians have just occasion to commend the second is called Ganges which the Indians have great cause to praise the third called Nilus which the countrey of Egypt can best speak of and the fourth is called Tigris which the Assyrians have most commodity by Here might I be long occupied if I should orderly but touch the natures of all waters So the alteration of the seas and the wonders thereof appear as ebbing and flowing as saltnesse and swéetnesse and all things incident by nature to the seas which were it not that men see it dayly and observe the same hourly and mark things therein continually more wonders would appear by the seas then almost reason might be alledged for God as the Prophet saith is wonderfull in all his works So the five golden Rivers which learned and ancient writers affirm that the sands thereof are all glistering gems of gold as Tagus in Spain Permus in Lydia Pactolus in Asia Idaspes in India and Arimaspus in Scythia These are no lesse famous through their golden sands which their rowling waves bring to land in these aforesaid countreys then Parnessus in Boetia where the Muses long were honoured or Simois in Phrygia where Venus was conceived by Anchises To coequat the number of these five last and pleasant Rivers there are five as horrible to Nature as Styx in Arcadia whose property is to kill any that will touch it and therefore feigned of the Poets to be consecrated to Pluto for thfre is nothing so hard but this water wil consume so cold is the water thereof Again the River Phlegeton is contrary to this for the one is not so cold but the other is as hot and therefore called Phlegeton which is in English Fiery or smoakie for the Poets feign likewise that it burneth out in flames of fire Lethes and Acheron two Rivers the one in Affrica the other in Epire the one called the river of forgetfulnesse the other the river of sadnesse The fifth called Cocytus a place where mourning never ceaseth These five rivers for their horror and terror that procéeded from them for the strange and wonderfull effects thereof are called infernal lakes consecrated and attributed to King Pluto which Virgil at large describeth Divers wells for the strangenesse of the waters and for the pleasantnesse thereof were sacrificed to the Gods as Cissusa a well where the Nurses of Bacchus used to wash him was therefore consecrated to Bacchus so Melas to Pallas Aganippe to the Muses and so forth not molesting the Reader further with natures of Water I mean now briefly to touch the strange nature of the Earth Pliny affirmeth that there was never man sick in Locris nor in Croton neither any Earthquake ever heard in Licia By Rome in the field called Gabiensis a certain plat of ground almost two hundred Acres would tremble and quake as men rode upon it There are two hils of strange natures by the River called Indus the nature of the one is to draw any Iron to it insomuch as Pliny saith that if nails be in any shoes the ground of that place draweth the sole off There is a piece of ground in the City Characena in the countrey of Taurica where if any come wounded he shall be straight healed And if any enter under divers places as in a place called Hirpinis where the temple of Mephis is builded or in Asia by Iheropolis they shall incontinently die Again there are places by the vertue of ground in that place that men may prophesie Divers times we read that one piece of ground devoured another as the hill Ciborus and the city hard by called Curites were choaked up of the earth Phegium a great mountain in Aethiopia and Sipilis a high hill in Magnesia with the cities named Tantalis and Galarus There is a great Rock by the City Harpasa in Asia which may be moved easily with one finger and yet if a man put all his strength thereunto it will not stir I néed not speak of mount Aetna in Sicilia of Lypara in Acolia of Chymera in Lycia of Vesuvius and Aenocauma five fiery mountains which day and night burn so terribly that the flame thereof never resteth If any man will see more of these marvellous and wonderfull effects of Elements let him read the second book of Plini where he shall have abundance of the like examples There he shall see that in some places it never rained as in Paphos upon the temple of Venus in Nea a town in Phrygia upon the temple of Minerva and in

hundred and twenty foot long Did not these noble men benefit their countries much in saving thousands lives which should have béen destroyed by these monsters The Poets feigne that Cadmus Agenois son did kill a Serpent whose téeth engendred and brought forth out of the earth armed men which fought and destroyed one another Againe such was the fortunes of young maids as B●lsaria when Carphurinus Crastus was taken captive of the Messalins and should be offered for a sacrifice unto Saturne shee delivered Crassus from death and made him conquerour where before he was conquered Calluce a young woman after Troy was by the Gréeks destroyed when her father king Lycus sayling into Lybia had appointed to kill Diomedes for a sacrifice to appease the Gods for winde and weather shee delivered him from the king her father and from present death Plutarch writeth of these two maids that their fames hereby may never be forgotten To speak here of those who delivered men from death from captivity from perpetual prison it were necessary howbeit short Histories are swéet and few words are pleasant therefore I will not speak of Lucu●lus who being in warres with Mithridates King of Pontus delivered Cotta from thousands about him I will not write of Lucillius a Roman souldier when he saw that Brutus at Philippi who was compassed round about with enemies he himself ran with a few soldiers with him amōgst the nemies because Brutus in the mean while might save himself Neither will I much mention Quintus Cincinnatus being then Dictator in Rome who delivered Quintus Minutius from the hands of the Sabines and Volscians But according unto promise I will touch partly on those that deserved fame another way For fame is not bound unto one kind of quality but unto divers and sundry vertues therefore with these renowned Conquerors and defenders of countries I will joyn most excellent and expert Archers who likewise have done noble acts worthy feats and marvellous things As ●●erdes was such an Archer that he would kill the flying birds in the air Catenes could do the like as Curtius in his sixth Book doth affirm Alexander the son of King Priamus when neither his brother Hector with his courage nor Troylus with his force nor all the strength of Phrygia could resist that noble Greek Achilles he slew him with an arrow Acastus won immortal renown for killing of the huge wild Boar that spoiled Calido●ia Princes in times past were taught to do feats of Archery Great Hercules himself was taught of Euritus the science of shooting that he could kill any flying fowl or the swiftest beast as sometime he killed the birds called Harpies and slew the swift Centaure Nessus we read in the first of Herodotus that Commodus the son of Marcus sirnamed Aurelius Emperour sometime of Rome begotten of Empresse Faustina was so skilful in shooting that whatsoever he saw with his eyes the same would he kill with his bow likewise I finde that the Emperour Domitianus was so expert in his bow that hee could shoot when any hold up his hand betwixt his fingers a great way off The people of Creet passed all men in this faculty The Parthians were so cunning in shooting and throwing of darts that backwards as they fled they would spoyle and destroy their enemies The Arimaspians excelled the Parthians Againe the Schythians and Getes were most famous for this subject And thus having occasion to travell as pilgrimes some slew great wilde Tygers huge Bears terrible Lyons and such monstruous beasts that advanced the fame of such who attempted the danger CHAP. XII Of diligence and labours of Princes AS Horace that ancient Poet affirmeth that the worthyest and greatest vertue is to avoyd vice so is it I judg the greatest commendation unto any man to imbrace diligence and to eschew idlenesse For such is the vertue of mans mind the rare gifts and excellent talents which God and nature have bestowed upon man that to see the excellency and vertue therof with externall sight if it could be séen it would saith that divine and noble Phylosopher Plato enflame great desire uncredible love unto vertue would on the contrary kindle such hatred unto vice that the sight thereof would feare any beholder When saith Cicero the world was new and nothing ripe no laws made no Cities builded no order set no common-wealth framed but all things confusedly on a heap without divisions and limits most like to the Poeticall Chaos before the elements were discovered water from earth and and the fire from the ayre then I say we lived brutishly and beastly without civility and manners without learning and knowledge but when reason began to rule when Lady prudence began to practise with pollicy when we began to search and to seek by diligence and travel the nature of things then divers men in sundry countries sought means by diligence to profit their countries As Moses first found out letters amongst the Hebrews M●nno first found out letters amongst the Egyptians Rhadamanthus amongst the Assyrians Nicostrata amongst the Romanes r Phoenices amongst the Greecians thus by the diligence and study of men from time to time raw things waxed ripe strange things became familiar and hard and difficult things waxed facile and easie Then Solon made laws in Athens Lycurgus in Lacedemonia Zeleucus in Locresia Minos in Créefe so orderly all the whole world was beautified with lawes adorned with wit and learning Then began Philo to give laws unto the Corinthians Then Zalmosis began to reform the rude and barbarous Scythians Then Phaleas amongst the Carthagenians practized pollicy and limited laws Then I say laws began to order the affairs and reason began to rule so that learning and knowledge was sought far and néere wit exercised pollicy practised and vertue so honoured that well might Tully say O Phylosophy the searcher of all good vertues and the expeller of al vices Then was that common-wealth noted happy that enjoyed such a Prince to rule as a Phylosopher that would extoll vertue and suppresse vice reward the good and punish the evill estéeme the wise and learned and neglect the foolish and ignorant I will omit to speak of mighty and famous Princes whose care whose diligence study and industry were such whose numbers were so infinite that I might well seem too tedious to molest the Reader with them I will therefore in this place speak of the diligence and travell of poor men who by their study and labour became lamps of light unto the world And to begin with Plato and Socrates two base men of birth whose diligence in their life made them most famous being dead the one the son of a poor Citizen of Athens named Ariston the other the son of a poor Marbler named Sophroniseus Might not poor Perictione the mother of Plato be proud of her son when the greatest tyrant in the world that proud Prince Dionisius would honour and reverence him for his learning and knowledge and take him into a

every countrey in their due order of living and to begin with the Egyptians a people most ancient and so expert in all sciences that Macrobius the writer calleth the Countrey of Egypt the Nurse and Mother of all Arts For all the learned Greeks have had their beginning from Egypt even as Rome had from Gréece This people observe their days by account of hours from midnight to midnight They honour the Sun and Moon for their Gods for they name the Sun Osiris and the Moon Isis Their féeding was of fish broyled in the heat of the sun with herbs and with certain fowls of the aire They lived a thousand years but it is to be understood that hey number their years by the Moon the men did bear burthens upon their heads and the women upon their breasts and shoulders the men made water sitting the women standing The Crocodile is that beast which they most do adore that being dead they bury him a Sow is that beast which they most detest so that if any part of their clothes touched a sow they straight did pull off their clothes and wash them over They were black people most commonly slender and very hastie Cur●ius calleth them seditious vain very subtile in invention of things and much given to wine The Aethiopians are a people that live without Laws and reason servants and slaves to all men selling their children to merchants for corn their hair long with knots and curled The Indians were a people of too much liberty as Herodotus saith the women accompanying them in open sight Neither sowe they nor build neither kill they any living beast but féed on barley bread and herbs they hang at their ears small pearls and they deck their arms wrists and necks with gold The Kings of India are much honoured when they come abroad their ways are set and decked with fresh flowers and men in arms following their Chariots made of Margarite stones and men méeting them with frankincense And when their King goeth to bed their harlots attend him with songs and mirth making their prayers unto their Gods of darknesse for the good rising of their King Again the children kill their parents when they wax old the maids and young damosels of India are brought abroad amongst the young men to choose them their husbands When any man dieth his wife will dress her self most bravest for the funeral and there they are both buried together Hercules is much honoured in that countrey and the River Ganges The Scythians are pale and white for the coldness of the air and full of courage Amongst these people all things are almost in common saving no man will have his sword and his cup common their wives they weigh not but are common one with another For drunkenness they pass all nations for in their solemn banquets there may no man drink of that appointed cup which is carried abroad to banquets unlesse he had slain one or other for it was accounted amongst the Scythians no honesty for a man to live unlesse he had killed one or other They have no cities nor towns as Egypt which was full of them for it is written that when Amazis reigned a King in Egypt there were twenty thousand cities numbred within the countrey of Egypt but Scythia is a most barren and rude countrey the people whereof live and féed beastly a countrey most cold for that no wood groweth in the countrey no religion no temples for their Gods but to Mars onely their chief weapons are bows and arrows When the King dieth in Scythia fifty men and fifty of his best horses must bear him company and be slain for that they judge they shall go one way The Parthians are a people most thirsty saith Pliny for the more they drink the more thirsty they are their chief glory they séek is by drinking and are given so much to surfeits and drunkenness that their breath for their inordinate drinking doth stink and wax so strong that no man can abide them their King likewise is so much honored of them that when he commeth in place they ever knéel and kisse his foot He hath many Quéens with whom the King must lie one after another The King hath about his Chariot ten thousand souldiers with silver spears in their hands and the end of their spears all gold they honour their King with the Sun the Moon the fire the water the wind and the years to these they sacrifice and honour them as their Gods to lie is most horrible with the Parthians insomuch that they instruct their young children onely to avoid lies and to learn to speak truth Of all men they hate ungrateful men they judge it most unhonest to speak any thing filthy and loath chiefly that which is shamefull either in talk or in doing insomuch that they will not spit or make water but in a place where either a floud or a river or some other water is Riding dancing and tennis they exercise most The people of Arabia are long haired with shaven heards save that they spare the upper lips unshaven their women are common for all men at al times to meddle with leaving a staffe at the door in token unto one another that she is with one already and to let understand that he must tarry untill that man go out In Arabia it is not thought amisse for any one to lie with his mother and if any that is not kin take that in hand it is adultery they worship as their Gods Urania and Dionisius They are like unto the Babylonians people of most corrupt life and most given unto filthy pleasure Insomuch that their daughters and their wives are hired unto every man walking in the stréets going unto the temples meeting and offering themselves unto any stranger With the Arabians and Babylonians we may well compare the Lesbians and the Sybarites people passing in that wickednesse given to nothing but to sleep and venery insomuch that they weary themselves with all kind of pleasures and the excesse of their banquets and the bravery of their women was such that made all the beholders to muse and wonder at their excesse as well in cloathing as in féeding wherein they took glory they expelled all sound and noise that might trouble their sleep So filthy were these nations that hand foot head and all parts of the body were naturally given to pollute themselves with venery The Arcadians are people of such antiquity that as they suppose they are before the Moon of this they brag most they worship Pan as their God this people never triumphed over their enemies nor kept wars with any nations but oftentimes served under other princes These Arcadians were like to the people called Averni for their brags of their antiquity for even as the Arcadians brag of the moon so the Averni boasted of their pedigree and stock who were the ancient Troyans wherefore they would be called brethren unto the stout and ancient Romans The Boetians

that the souls of the dead do live in great felicity beyond the Ocean Seas The Egyptians judged with Pythagoras that the souls of men should pass from one place to another and then to enter into another man again The Stoicks are of that opinion that the soul forsaketh the body in such sort that the soul which is diseased in this life and advanced by no vertue dyeth together with the body but they judge it if it be adorned with noble and heroical vertues that it is then accompanied with everlasting natures Divers of the Pagans hold that the soul is immortal but yet they suppose that reasonable souls enter into unreasonable bodies as into plants or trées for a certain space There were again some frivolous Philosophers as Euripides and Archelaus which say that men first grew out of the earth in manner of herbs like to the fables of Poets who fain that men grew of the sowen téeth of Serpents Some again very childishly affirm that there be nine degrées of punishment or rather nine mansions in Hell appointed and prepared for the soul The first seat is appointed for young infants the second for Idiots and fools I fear that place will be well filled the third for them that kill themselves the fourth for them that be tormented with love the fifth for those that were found guilty before Iudges the sixth appointed for strong men and champions the seventh is a place where the souls be purged the eight seat is where the souls being purged do rest the ninth and last is the pleasant field Elisium And to joyn these Legends of Lies of old women with frivolous figments of Poets they likewise affirm the like folly of fiery Phlogeton of frosty Cocytus of the water of Styx of the sloud Lethes and of Acheron with other such whence all Paganical rites and fond foolish observations first grew I mean of fables of Poets and not by the reading of the Holy Scriptures O blind baiards in séeking that which they could never find And as they could prove and say that the body came out of the earth the moysture out of the water the breath of man by the air and the heat of man by the fire so could they not know the worker thereof how wit and wisedome came from God how all things were made by him of nothing This knew they not not that they wanted learning but that they wanted the knowledge of true Divinity They could appoint planets in their several places in their due seats and just mansions as Iupiter in the liver Saturn in the spleen Mars in bloud Sol in the heart the Moon in the stomack and Venus in the reins but they could not agrée in appointing a place for the soul They could likewise appoint seats for the bodies superior in man as the Ram in the head the Bull in the neck and the Crab in the brost the Lion in the heart and the Fish in the foot and so others but they could in no wise find a seat for the soul Truly is it said that God revealeth wisedome unto Babes and hideth the same from the Sages of the world Hence groweth the beginning of all Heresies according to the proverb The greatest Philosophers the greatest Hereticks Hereby I say grew almost the invention of Philosophy coequal unto the verity of the Gospel and therfore Paul the Apostle cryeth upon all men to take héed of flattering Philosophers If in this place I should shew their opinions concerning our God and Creator I should séem tedious For Diagoras and Theodorus affirm that there is no God Epicurus judged that there is a God but that he had no care over earthly things Thales said that God was a mind which made all things of water Cleanthes supposed God to be the air onely Alcineon judged the Sun the Moon and the Stars to be onely God Parmenides maketh God to be a continuall circle of light which is called Stephanen Crisippus nameth God a divine necessity Anaxagoras supposed God to be an infinit mind moveable of it self so doth Pythagoras likewise judge yea Aristotle imagined God to be a proper nature as the world or the heat of the heavens or the divinity of the mind which either of these thrée he nameth God and so infinite are they that so simply conceive the majesty of the Godhead that far wiser had they seemed unto us by silence therein then by uttering such fond fantastical opinions wherein their too much folly and errour is to all men evident CHAP. XXII Of worshipping of Gods and religion of Gentiles NUma Pompilius the second King of Rome being studious to draw the ignorant and rude people to some profession of religion was the first that appointed sacrifices to Jupiter to Mars In Rome he elected Virgins to Vesti and appointed certain orders in chusing of the same None by the law of Numa might be taken under six years old and none above ten to be a Vestal Virgin which virgins should be thirty years religious and vowed to Vesta of the which thirty years the first ten years they should learn the order and fashion of the sacrifices and religion of the Goddesse Vesta The second ten years they should sacrifice and imploy the ceremonies with rites and honours belonging to Vesta The third ten years they should as grave matrons learn the others late chosen to be perfect in the rites and ceremonies of Vesta then if any of them would marry they might after thirty years continuance so do If any of these Vestal virgins were convicted of whoredome the law was that in open sight of the City of Rome she should be brought to the gate called Collina and there alive be burned Again if the fire at any time in the Temple had gone out by any means their kéepers with scourges should whip and scourge them almost to death The same Numa to make the people more religious appointed twelve men called Salii with painted garments singing verses in the praise and commendation of Mars with soleman dancing and playing round about the City Amongst other sacred orders he made certain priests called Feciales these punished effendours these revanged the wrongs done to Ambassadours these redressed all injuries offered and committed within the City of Rome these Priests appointed rites and ceremonies made sacrifices to the Goddesse Bona Dea in a Temple erected upon mount Aventine here might no men come to do sacrifice but all women Of this Goddesse Bona Dea doth Cicero make oft mention in divers of his orations and invectives made against divers pernitious and wicked Citizens as Catelin Clodius and others There was in Rome another kind of religion dedicated to Flora the sacrifice whereof was called Floralia This Flora as both Livius and Dionisius do report was a common strumpet which for that she made the whole City of Rome her heir being wealthy at her death she was therefore thought to be of the Romans the Goddesse of fruits and was honoured of

sacrifice unto death for a pledge of their true and faithfull love What means doth love séek to save it self and to be acquainted with ease and pleasure how carefully the Greek Poet Antimachus bewailed the death of his wife Lisidides in such mourning verses and wofull plaints that whosoever did read them he would be as ready to weep in reading the dolefull Epitaph of Lisid●des as was Antimachus her husband sorrowfull for her death Pericles was so loving to his wife being a noble Captain of Athens and he was withal so chast that when Sophocles espied a marvellous beautifull young maid saying Behold a passing fair young maid Pericles answered and said Not onely the heart and the hands of a Magistrate must be chast but also his eys must refuse the sight of any but his wife It is read that Pericles being at Athens he was found kissing and making much of his wife and being from Athens he was found as sad to depart from his wife as he was willing to die for his countrey Orpheus loved so well his wife Euridice that as the Poets feign he feared not the power of King Pluto to redéem his wife with hazard and danger of his own body Innumerable are they that deserve the like fame so that these few may be a sufficent proof of others And now I will produce a few examples to prove the like good will and love from the wives shewed toward their husbands as hitherto you heard the great love of husbands towards their wives Alcestes a noble Qu. of Thessaly at what time K. Admetus her husband should die having received an answer by an Oracle that if any would die for the King he should live which when all refused his wife Queen Alcestes offered her self to die to save her husbands life Julia the wife oi Pompey the great and onely daughter to that famous and renowned Julius Caesar Emperour of Rome was no lesse obedient to her father Caesar then she was loving to her husband Pompey who though they both were enemies one to to another yet she shewed her self a loving daughter unto her father and a true wife to her husband and so true that when she saw her own Pompey coming bloudy from the field as his apparel made a shew a great way off she supposing that her husband was hurt being great with child did straight fall into travel and died before Pompey had yet come in The love of Artemisia Quéen of Caria towards her husband King Mausolus is as well declared by the sumptuous Tomb. and gorgeous Grave which she made for him when he died counted for the excellency thereof to be one of the seven wonders of the world it was also truly verified by ceremonies at his death in making the scull of his head her drinking cup in drinking all the ashes of his body as sugar to her wine and in knitting of his heart to her body saying Though our bodies be parted yet our hearts shall never be asunder That noble Greek Laodamia loved her husband so well that when she heard that her husband Protesilaus was slain by Hector at the siege of Troy she desired onely of God that she might see his shadow or likenesse once before she died which when she saw embracing the likenesse of her husband as she thought in her arms she then presently died We read that Quéen Ipsicratea loved her husband King Mithridates so entirely that she shaved off all the hairs of her head and did wear mans apparel and followed him like a Lackey for that he should not know her to be his wife she had rather go to the wars with her husband like a Lackey then tarry from her husband in Pontus like a Quéen Paulina when she heard that her husband Seneca was put to death by that cruel Emperour and Tyrant Nero whom Seneca sometime taught in his youth but was at length requited with death when I say Paulina heard thereof she enquired what kind of death her husband suffered which being known she attempted to die the same kind of death her self as Seneca her husband Likewise that noble Portia daughter to Cato and wife to Brutus hearing that her husband was slain at Phillipi for that she could not procure a knife she choaked her self with coals The like History is read of Triata who when she knew by letters that her husband Vitellius was environed by his enemies and no way able to escape his wife rushed into the Camp and preast near her husband ready to die or to live in the field with him What can be so hard to take in hand but love will hazard it What can be so perilous but love will venter it Neither water can stay it nor fire stop it Sulpitia the wife of Lentulus the daughter of that worthy Roman Paterculus when she perceived that her husband was appointed by the Magistrates of Rome to passe unto Sicilia as an Embassador and there to continue for a season though her mother had great charge over her and very carefull and studious she was to comfort her daughter in the absence of her husband yet she deceived her mother she changed her apparel and caused her two maids likewise to be disguised and went all by night from Rome to Sicily Aemilia the wife of Affricanus and mother to the noble Cornelia who was mother to those famous Romans called Gracchi perceiving her husband to be in love with one of her maids in the house and often to use the maid as his wife though Aemilia knew well of it yet she never hated the maid nor opened it unto her husband But after that her husband was dead she gave unto this Maid a great summe of money and married her wealthily in Rome A rare thing to be found in a woman What shall I speak of the love of Penelope in Gréece towards her husband Ulysses or shew the constancy of Lucreece in Rome towards her husband Collatine the one twenty years was proved by divers noble Greeks yet she remained true unto Ulisses the other through force being ravished by proud Tarquinius son named Sextus would not be false to Collatinus but opened the same and revenged it with her own death Now again how well did Queen Tomiris love her son Margapites the death of great Cyrus King of Persia with two hundred thousand of his souldiers can testifie or how Aegeus loved his son Theseus who when he had perceived the black sail he supposing his son was slain in that Labyrinth he threw himself from a high rock into the sea Why should I molest the Reader herein since an end can hardly be found I will but onely recite one worthy History out of Valerius of a servant to one named Panopion who hearing that certain souldiers came to the City of Reatina in purpose to kill his master he changed apparel with his master and conveyed his master first away safe from the enemies and he went unto his masters bed as though he had béen

at the change of every dish every man again commanded by a law to go to his woman And thus from meat to women from women to meat they beastly and brutishly entertained their Epicurial lust wherein these Gorgons reposed their chief felicity Certainly if Quéen Semitamis of Babylon had been matched with Heliogabulus Emperour of Rome it had béen as méet a match if time had served as one beast should be for another for he was not so filthy but she was as shameless not onely in procuring divers to lie with her but in alluring her own son Ninus to lust and as writers report being a beast matched her self with a beast a horse Had Pasiphae Quéen of Creet been well matched she had forsaken King Minos and come to the Emperour Caligula where she might have been as bold with others as she was with Minotaurus father Had the Empresse Mestalina been deservedly according to her life married she had been more meet for Nero then for Claudius for his life and her life did well agree together for she passed all the Courtesans of Corinth all the strumpets of Athens and all the whores of Babilon for she was onely mistresse and ruler of all the stews and brothel houses in Rome What wickednesse procéedeth from lust what ungodly incest is brought to passe by lust what secret vengeance commeth by lust Lust assured Queen Cleopatra to use her brother Ptolomy as her husband Lust deceived King Cynar to lie with his daughter Myrrha Lust brought Macarius to his sister Canaces bed By lust did Menepron defile his own mother Lust stayeth the purpose of all men hindereth and hurteth all kind of persons Lust stayed King Antiochu● of Syria in Chal●idea a whole winter for one maid he fancied there Lust stayed Hannibal in Capua a long season to his great hurt Lust stayed Julius Caesar in Alexandria a long time unto his infamy Lust was the first cause of wars between the Romans and the Sabines for Romu●us had hardly built Rome but he lusted to ravish the women and to steal the Sabine maids to Rome whereby the war first began The great wars between King Cambyses of Persia and King Amasis of Egypt wherein was a great slaughter and murther of men grew by lust to one woman The ten years betwixt the Thebans and the Phoceans was for the lust of one young man in Phoca towards a young woman in Thebes The cruel conflicts that was between the Troyan Prince Aeneas and stout Turnus was the lust which either of them did bear to Lavinia King Latinus Daughter What bloud what tyranny was between the Egyptians and the Assyrians betwéen Ptolomy and Alexander the one King of Egypt the other King of Assyria and all for one woman Cleopatra Augustus the Emperour made long wars for Octavia his sister whom Antonius abused to the spoyl and murther of many Romans Had Hesione King Priamus sister not lusted to go with Telamon from Troy to Greece had likewise Helen the wife of Menelaus not lusted to come with Paris from Greece to Troy the bloudy wars and ten years siege between the Greeks and the Troyans had never been writ●en by Homer Had not lust ruled the five cities called Pentapolis where Sedom and Gomorrha were they had not been consumed with fire and brimstone from heaven to the destruction of all the people saving Lot his children If lust had not ruled all the world the deluge of Noah had not drowned the whole earth and all living creatures saving Noah his wife and children Thus lust from time to time was the onely Monster and scourge of the World And in this our Age lust is nothing diminished but much encreased and though we shall not be plagued again with Water according to promise yet to be punished with Fire most sure we be unlesse we detest and abhor this vice There is a History in Justine worthy to be noted of Princes that will not punish these offences Pausanias a Noble Gentleman of Macedonia being a very fair young man whom Attalus by lust abused and Attalus not contented to handle the young man so wickedly and ungodly did bring him also to a banquet where Attalus would have used him as before making all men privy how Pausanias was his paramour as a woman The young man being ashamed of it often complained unto Philip King of Macedonia and after many and divers complaints having no redresse but being rather flouted and scoffed at by Philip Pausanias took it so grievously that after this sort he requited his shame and injuries At the marriage of Cleopatra King Philips daughter with Alexander King of Epirus in great triumphs and pomps King Philip in the midst of his joys walking between his own son Alexander the great who then was but young and Alexander King of Epirus his son in law being married then to his daughter Cleopatra Pausanias thrust him into the heart saying Minister Iustice and punish Lust Thus died that mighty Prince as well for the bearing of Attalus fault as also for his own wickednesse using the same sin sometime with a brother in law of his natural brother to his first wife Olympias Lust and intemperancy do never escape without just punishment and due vengeance Amnon the son of King David for that he misused his own sister Tamar was afterward slain Absalom for that he did lie with his fathers Concubines died for it David was plagued for Uriah's wife The two Elders that would ravish Susanna were put to death This sin is the onely enemy of man For all sin saith St. Paul is without the body but uncleannesse and lust sinneth against the body Had not Olofernes séen the beauty of Judith yea marked the comelinesse of her slippers he had not lost his head by it Had not Herod séen Herodias daughrer dancing he had not so rashly granted her John Baptists head Had not Eve séen the beauty of the Apple she had not eaten thereof We read in Genesis that when the sons of men viewed the beauty of women many evils happened thereby By sight was Potiphars wife moved with lust toward Joseph her servant By sight and beauty was Solomon allured to commit Idolatry with false Gods By sight was Dina the daughter of Iacob ravished by Shechem These evils procéed from sudden sights therefore saith the Prophet Turn away thine eys lest they sée vanities The Philosopher likewise saith That the first offer or motion is in the eye from sight proceedeth motion from motion election from election consent from consent sin from sin death Wherefore with the Poet I say resist the violence of the first assault I mean the eys The evil that happened thereby too long it were to write Lust again hath its entrance by hearing as Justine in his twelfth Book doth testifie of Thalestris Quéen somtime of the Amazons who having heard the great commendations the fame and renown of Alexander the great ventered her life to hazard to come from Scythia to Hircania which