cliffe Diodor. Sicul. i Because Saturne was sonne to Caelus and Terra a most vngratious flellow but quitted by his Sonne Ioue who expelled him as he had expelled his father and so made the prouerbe true Do as as you would be done vnto Hereafter he was called the god of time Hesiod Euhem Diod Cicero Saturne is he they say that diuides and distinguishes the times and therefore the Greekes call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is spâ—…ce of time Hee was called Saturnus quasi Satur annis full of yeares and was faygned by the Poets to deuour his children because time deuoures all things He was imprisoned by Ioue that is limited by the starres from running too wild a course k their wisest Uarro de ling. lat lib. 3. calles Iuno both Terra and Tellus Plutarch interpreteth Iuno the earth and the nuptial coniunction of man and wife Euseb de prep Euang Seruius saith that Ioue is put for the sky and the ayre Iuno for earth and water l â—…Herein Terra Terra is the earth it selfe Tellus a diminutiue the goddesse of the earth though the Poets confound them yet they alwaies said Tellus her temple and not Terra's Pluto also and Proserp were called Tellumo and Tellus also Altor and Runsor were both his names and hee had charge of all earths businesse so that some say hee was Ceres Sonne Diodor. lib. 6. Porpheryus calles one part of the earth Uizy the fat and fertile Ceres and the craggy hilly and stony Ops or Rhea Euseb. de praep Euang where he saith much of these things lib. 3. m is also namely Rhea n Mother for as she was Iuno she was his wife and sister and as she was Ops his mother o Ceres the earth is called Ceres a Gerendo of bearing corne or of Cereo to create Varro Tully out of Chrisppus for the earth is mother to all Pluto in Cratyl She was daughter vnto Saturne and Ops Sister to Uesta and Iuno all these sisters and mothers they say is but onely earth Ouid. Fast. 6. Vesâ—… eadem est terra subest subit ignis vtrique Significat sedâ—… terra socusque suam Vaesta is earth and fire earth vndergoeth The name and so doth fire Vaesta's both And a little after Staâ—… vâ—… 〈◊〉 sud vi stando Vesta vocatur Earth stands alone and therefore Vesta hight To this doth Orpheus and Plato both assent p yet Vesta Cic. de nat deor for Uesta is deriued from the Greekes being called with them Hestia her power is ouer fires and altars de legib 2 Vesta is aâ—… the citties fire in Greeke which word we vse almost vnchanged Ouid East 6. Nec in 〈◊〉 Uestam quam viuam intellige flammam Nataque de flamma corpâ—…ra nulla vides Thinke Vesta is the fire that burneth still That nere brought creature forth nor euer will And being a fire and called a Virgin therefore did virgins attend it and all virginity was sacred vnto it first for the congruence of society and then of nature which was alike in both this custome arose in Aegipt and spred farre through the Greekes and the Barbarian countries Diodor. It was kept so at Athens and at Delphos Plutar. Strabo Uaestas sacrifices and rites came from Ilium to Latium and so to Rome by Romulus his meanes and therfore Virgill calles her often times the Phrigian vesta Sic ait et manibus vittas vestamque potenten Aeternumque adytis effert penetralibus ignem This said he bringeth forth eternall Fire Almighty Vaesta and her pure attire Speaking of Panthus the Troyan Priest There was then for euery Curia a Vaesta Dionis but Numa built the temple of the first publike Vesta In the yeare of the citty X L. as Ouid accompteth q Uesta Venus naturally for the naturalists call the vpper hemisphere of the earth Uenus and Vesta also the nether Proserpina Plotinus calleth the earths vertue arising from the influence of Venus Uesta Besides Vesta being the worlds fire and the fatnesse comming from Venns there is little difference in respect of the benefit of the vniuerse so that Vesta was euery where worshipped not as barren but as fruitfull and augmentatiue making the citties and nations happy in eternall and continuall increase r How should The punishment of an vnchast Uestall was great but after thirty yeares they might leaue the profession and marry s is there two so saith Plato In Conuiuio Heauenly procuring excellence of conditions earthly prouoking vnto lust the first daughter to Caelus the later to Ioue and Dione much younger then the first There was also a Uenus that stirred vp chast thoughts And therefore when the Romaine women ranne almost mad with lust they consecrated a statue of Uenus verticordia out of the Sibills bookes which might turne the hearts from that soule heate vnto honesty Ualer lib. 8. Ouid. Fast 4. t Phaenicians This Iustin reporteth of the Cipprians lib. 18. It was their custom saith he at certen set daies to bring their daughters to the sea shore ere they were married and there to prostitute them for getting of their dowries offring to Venus for the willing losse of their chastities I thinke this was Uenus her law left vnto the Ciprians whome shee taught first to play the mercenary whores Lactant. The Armenians had such anther custome Strabo and the Babilonians being poore did so with their daughters for gaine The Phenicians honored Uenus much for Adonis his sake who was their countryman they kept her feasts with teares and presented her mourning for him Macrob. She had a Statue on Mount Libanus which leaned the head vpon the hand and was of a very sad aspect so that one would haue thought that true teares had fallen from hir eyes That the deuills brought man-kind to this wil be more apparant saith Eusebius if you consider but the adulteries of the Phaenicians at this day in Heliopolis and elsewhere they offer those filthy actes as first fruits vnto their gods Euseb. de praeparat Euang which I haue set downe that men might see what his opinion was hereof though my copy of this worke of his be exceeding falsly transcribed This custome of prostitution the Augilares of Africke did also vse that maried in the night Herodot Solin Mela. The Sicae also of the same country ' practised the same in the Temple of Uenus the matron Ualer The Locrians being to fight vowed if they conquered to prostitute all their daughters at Uenus feast v Iunos Sonne It may bee Mars that lay with Uenus and begot Harmonias for hee was Iunos sonne borne they faigned without a father because they knew not who was his father It may be Mars by that which followes cooperarius Mineruâ—… for both are gods of warre but It is rather ment of Vulcan sonne to Ioue and Iuno though vsually called Iunos sonne and Apator who was a Smith in Lemnos and husband vnto Venus that lay with Mars So it were Vulcans wrong to
for the thing it selfe and a flaggon a set in Libers 〈◊〉 to signifie wine taking the continent for the contained so by that huâ—… shape the reasonable soule in the like included might bee expressed of 〈◊〉 â—…ure they say that God or the gods are These are the mysticall doctrines 〈◊〉 â—…is sharpe witt went deepe into and so deliuered But tell mee thou accâ—…n hast thou lost that iudgement in these mysteries that made thee say that they that first made Images freed the Cittie from all awe and added error to error and that the old Romaines serued the gods in better order without any statues at all They were thy authors for that thou spokest against their successors For had they had statues also perhaps feare would haue made thee haue suppressed thy opinion of abolishing Images and haue made thee haue sought further for these vaine Mythologies and figments for thy soule so learned and so ingenious which we much bewaile in thee by being so ingratefull to that God by whom not with whom it was made nor was a part of him but a thing made by him who is not the life of all things but all lifes maker could neuer come to his knowledge by these mysteries But of what nature and worth they are let vs see Meane time this learned man affirmeth the worlds soule intirely to bee truly God so that all his Theologie being naturall extendeth it selfe euen to the nature of the reasonable soule Of this naturall kinde hee speaketh briefly in his booke whence we haue this wherein wee must see whether all his mysticall wrestings can bring the naturall to the ciuill of which he discourseth in his last booke of the select Gods if he can all shall be naturall And then what need hee bee so carefull in their distinction But if they be rightly diuided seeing that the naturall that he liketh so of is not true for hee comes but to the soule not to God that made the soule how much more is the ciuill kinde vntrue and subiect that is all corporall and conuersant about the body as his owne interpretations being dilligently called out shall by my rehearsall make most apparent L. VIVES FLaggon a Oenophorum of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wine and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to carry Iuuenall vseth the word Sat. 6. and Apuleius Asin. l. 2. 8. and Martiall Pliny saith it was a worke of the rare painter Praxitales but he meanes a boy bearing wine Beroaldus out of this place gathereth that they vsed to set a flaggon of wine in Bacchus temple It is more then hee can gather hence though it may be there was such an vse Of Varro his opinion that God was the soule of the world and yet had many soules vnder him in his parts all which were of the diuine nature CHAP. 6. THe same Varro speaking further of this Physicall Theology a saith that he holds God to be the soule of the world which the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and b that this world is God But as a whole man body and soule is called wise of the soule onely so is the world called God in respect of the soule onely being both soule and body Here seemingly he confesseth one God but it is to bring in more for so he diuides the world into heauen and earth heauen into the ayre and the skie earth into land and water all which foure parts he filles with soules the skye c highest the ayre next then the water and then the earth the soules of the first two hee maketh immortall the latter mortall The space betweene the highest heauen and the Moone hee fills with soules ethereall and starres affirming that they both are and seeme celestiall Gods d Betweene the Moone and the toppes of the windes he bestoweth ayry soules but inuisible saue to the minde calling them Heroes Lares and Genij This he briefly recordeth in his prologue to his naturall Theologie which pleased not him alone but many Philosophers more whereof with Gods helpe we will discourse at full when wee handle the ciuill Theologie as it respecteth the select gods L. VIVES THeology a saith The Platonists Stoiks Pythagorians and the Ionikes before them all held God to bee a soule but diuersly Plato gaue the world a soule and made them conioyned god But his other god his Mens he puts before this later as father to him The Stoikes and hee agree that agree at all Thales and Democritus held the worlds soule the highest god b That this Plato the Stoikes and many Phylosophers held this c Skie the highest Aristotle puts the fire aboue the ayre and the heauen the Platonists held the heauen to be fiery and therefore called Aether And that the ayre next it was a hurtlesse fire kindled by it This many say that Plato heldâ—… following Pythagoras who made the vniuersall globe of 4. bodies But Uarro heere maketh ayre to be next heauen as the Stoikes did especially and others also Though the Platoâ—… and they differ not much nor the Peripatetiques if they speak as they meane and be rightly vnderstood But aether is the aire as well as the skie and fire as caelum is in latine Virgil. Illa leuem fugiens raptim secat aethera pennis With swift-wing'd speede she cuts the yeelding aire a 〈◊〉 the moone The first region of the Ayre Aristotle in his Physicks ending at the toppe of the cloudes the second contayning the cloudes thunder rayne hayle and snowâ—… the 〈◊〉 from thence to the Element of fire Whether it stand with reason that Ianus and Terminus should bee two godees CHAP. 7. I 〈◊〉 therfore whome I begun with what is he The a world Why this is a plaine and brief answer but why hath b he the rule and beginnings then and another one Terminus of the ends For therfore they haue two c months dedicated to them Ianuary to Ianus and February to Terminus And so the d Terminaâ—… then kept when the e purgatory sacrifice called f Februm was also kept 〈◊〉 the moneth hath the name Doth then the beginning of things belong to the â—…ld to Ianus and not the end but vnto another Is not al things beginning 〈◊〉 world to haue their end also therein What fondnesse is this to giue him 〈◊〉 â—…se a power and yet a double face were it not better g to call that double-faced statue both Ianus and Terminus and to giue the beginnings one face and the 〈◊〉 another because he that doth an act must respect both For in all actions 〈◊〉 that regardeth not the beginning fore-seeth not the end So that a respectiue memory and a memoratiue prouidence must of force go together But if they imagine that blessednes of life is but begun and not ended in this world and that therefore the world Ianus is to haue but power of the beginnings why then they should put Terminus amongst the selected gods before him For though they were both imploied about one subiect yet Terminus should haue
extracted as Eusebius saith both out of Sanchoniato proueth also by argument De praeparat Euang. lib. 1. As Augustine doth also here b The mooâ—… also Mac. Sat. 1. alledging Philochorus in Atis that Uenus is the Moone and that men in womens apparell sacrificed to her and women in mens because she was held both Thou heauenly Venus saith Apuleius to the Moone that caused all copulation in the beginning propagating humane original thou art now adored in the sacred oratory of Paphos Transform lib. 11. c Golden apple The goddesses contention about the golden apple is plainer then that it needs my rehersall of Lucifer Pliny saith thus Vnder the Sun is the bright star Venus moouing diurnally and planetarily called both Uenus and Luna in the morning being Sols harbinger she is called Lucifer as the pety-sun and light-giuer of the day at night following the sun she is stiled Uesper as the light continuer and the moones vice-gerent lib. 2. Pithagoras first of all found her nature magnitude and motion Olympiad 4â—… about the yeare of Rome 142. shee is bigger then all the other starres and so cleare that some-times her beames make a shadowe That maketh her haue such variety of names as Iuno Isis Berecynthia c. d In his Kingdome Whence he was driuen by his son Ioue as also from the Capitol that before was called Saturnia vntill it was dedicated to Iupiter Capitolinus e Ioue Vsing Iouis the Latine nominatiue as Tully doth in 6. De republ that happy starre called Ioue f Highest The Zodiake in the 8. Sphere so called of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a creature euery signe whereof conteyneth diuers bright starres g Certaine motion Perpetually and diurnally once about from East to West in 24. houres making night and day and euer keeping place whereas the Planets are now ioyned now opposite now swift now retrograde which change gaue them the greeke name Planet of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 error though they keepe a certaine motion neuerthelesse yet seemingly they erre and wander through their alteration in motion which the Zodiake neuer alters as situate in the 8. Sphere called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of Apollo Diana and other select gods called parts of the world CHAP. 16. ANd though they make a Apollo a b wizard a c phisitian yet to making him a part of the world they say he is the Sunne Diana his sister is the Moone and d goddesse of iourneyes So is shee e a Virgin also vntouched and they both beare shafts f because these 2. stars only do send to the earth Vulcan they say is the worlds fire Neptune the water father Dis the earths foundation and depth Bacchus and Ceres seed-gods he to the masculine shee of the feminine or hee of the moysture and shee of the dry part of the seede All this now hath reference to the world to Ioue who is called the full parent generall because hee both begets and brings forth all things seminall And Ceres the great mother her they make the earth and Iuno besides Thus the second cause of things are in her power though Ioue be called the full parent as they affirme him to bee all the world And Minerua because they had made her the artes goddesse and had neuer a starre for her they made her also the sky or g the Moone Vesta they accounted the chiefe of all the goddesses being taken for the earth and yet gaue her the protection of the h worlds fire more light and not so violent as that of Vulcans was And thus by all these select gods they intend but the world in some totall and in others partiall to all as Ioue is partiall as Genius the great mother Soll and Luna or rather Apollo and Diana sometimes one god stands for many things and sometimes one thing presents many gods the first is true in Iupiter hee is all the world hee but onely i Heauen and hee is onely a starre in Heauen So is Iuno goddesse of all second causes yet onely the ayre and yet the earth though shee might k get the starre from Venus So is Minerua the highest sky and the Moone in the lowest sky as they hold The second is true in the world which is both Ioue and Ianus and in the earth which is both Iuno the Great mother and Ceres L. VIVES APollo a Tully de dat deor lib. 3. makes 4. Apollos and 3. Dianas The 3. Apollo and the 2. Diana were the children of Ioue and Latona b Wizard Commonly affirmed in all authors of this subiect Greeke and Latine Plato saith the Thessalonians called him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 simple because of his diuination wherein was required 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truth and simplicity which are all one In Cratilo Glaucus taught him his diuination he that was afterward made a Sea-god and called Melicerta Nicand in Aâ—…tolicis c Phisitian Macrob. Satur. They counted the vestalls thus Apollo phisitiâ—…n Apollo Paean c. He proues him to bee Aesculapius that is a strength of health a rising soly from the substance of animated creatures Much of Apollo yea may read in the said place d Goddesse of Her statues were cut all youthfull because that age beareth trauell lest Festus lib. 9. for Diana was held a goddesse of waies and iournies shee ruled also mountaines and groues and vsed the â—…hes often in her hunting as shal bee shewed hereafter e Virgin So it is reported that it was not lawfull for men to come in her temple at Rome because one rauished a woman there once that came to salute the goddesse and the dogs tare him in peeces immediatly Plato calleth her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. because of the integrity and modesty that she professed in her loue of virginity or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. because she hath the copulation of man and woman Though the fables go that shee lay with Endymyon and that Pan Mercuries sonne gaue her a white sheepe for 〈◊〉 Uirg 3. Georg. Munere sic niueo lanae si credere digum est Pandeus Archadiae captam te Luna fefellit In Nemora alta vocans nec tu aspernata vocaâ—…tem es c. Arcadian Pans white fleece t is said so blinded Thine eyes faire Phaebe he being breefely minded Call'd the thou yeeldest and to the thicke you went c. f Shaftes Apollo beareth those that hee killed the serpent Python withall and therefore Homer calleth him oftentimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is far-darting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is shooting high and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eternall archer Now Diana vowed a perpetuall virgine haunteth the woods and hills hunting as Virgill describeth Uenus when Aeneas saw her buskind and tucked round and a quiuer at her backe as ready for the pursute These shaftes are nothing all say but the beames of those starres as Lactantius saith of the Sonne Armatus radiis elementa liquentia lustrans Armed with raies he vewes
called Golfo De Venetia which the Grecians vsed oftentimes to crosse ouer I wonder that sâ—…e haue held al Italy to be called so because Pliny doth write thus What haue the Greciaâ—…s a most vanie-glorious nation shewne of themselues in calling such a part of Italy Magna Grecia Great Greece Whereby hee sheweth that it was but a little part of Italy that they 〈◊〉 thus Of the 3. baies I spoke of one of them containes these fiue Citties Tarentum Meâ—…us Heraclea Croto and Turii and lieth betweene the promontories of Sales and Laâ—… Mela. It is called now Golfo di Taranto Here it is said Pythagoras did teach c Ioâ—… Ionia is a country in Asia Minor betweene the Lydians the Lycaonians and our sea â—…ing Aeolia and Caria on the sides this on the South-side that on the North Miletus is the â—…se Citty saith Mela both for all artes of warre and peace the natiue soile of Thales the â—…sopher Tymotheus the Musician Anaximander the Naturalist and diuers other whose wâ—…s haue made it famous Thales taught his fellow cittizen Anaximander he his fellow cittizen also Anaximenes hee Anaxagoras of Clazomene Pericles Archelaus and Socrates of Athens and Socrates almost all Athens d Pythagoras Aristoxenus saith hee was of Tyrrheâ—… in â—…e that the Greekes tooke from the Italians hee went into Egipt with King Amasis and râ—…ng backe disliking the tyrannous rule of Polycrates of Samos hee passed ouer to Italy â—…y who also Cicero Tnsc. 5. out of Heraclides of Pontus relateth that Pythagoras beeing â—…ked of Leontes the Phliasian King what hee professed hee answered that whereas the rest of his prosâ—… had called themselues wise men Sophi hee would bee called But a louer of wisdome a Pâ—…pher with a more modest respect of his glory And herevpon the name Sophi grew quite â—…of custome as ambitious and arrogant and all were called Philosophers after that foâ—… indeâ—… the name of wise is Gods peculiar onely f Thales The first Naturalist of Greece 〈◊〉 first yeare of the 35. Olympiad after Apollodorus his account in Laertius g 〈◊〉 A sort of youthes hauing bought at a venture a draught of the Milesian fishers 〈◊〉 â—…awne vp a tablet of gold they fell to strife about it each would haue had it so vnto 〈◊〉 his oracle they went who bad them giue it vnto the wise So first they gaue it vnâ—… 〈◊〉 whom the Ionians held wise he sent it vnto another of the seauen and hee to anâ—… and so till it came to Solon who dedicated it to Apollo as the wisest indeed And these 〈◊〉 had the same of wisdome ouer all Greece and were called the seauen Sages h The otâ—… Chilo of Lecedaemon Pittacus of Mitilene Bias of Priene Cleobulus oâ—… Lindus Periâ—… â—…orynthe and Solon of Athens of these at large in the eighteenth booke i Comâ—… 〈◊〉 Some say that the Astrology of the Saylers was his worke others ascribe it vnto Râ—…â—…f â—…f Samos Laban the Argiue saith he wrote 200. verses of Astrology k Astrologiâ—… Endâ—…s saith hee presaged the eclipses Hist. Astrolog Amongst the Greeks saith Pliny lib. 〈◊〉 Thales in the fourth yeare of the 48. Olympiade was the first that found their 〈◊〉 of eclipses and prognosticated that which fell out in King Halliattes time in the â—…XX yeare after the building of Rome So saith Eusebius and Cicero de diuinat lib. 1. Whâ—…e for Haliattes he writeth Astiages But they liued both at one time and had warres one â—…ith another l Water As Homere calls the sea father of all Plutarch in Placit Philos and oâ—…e giue Thales his reason because the seede of all creatures animate is moist and so is all â—…nt Nay they held that the seas moisture nourisheth and increaseth the stars m Nor did 〈◊〉 Velleius in Tully affirmeth that Thales thought all things to bee made of water and 〈◊〉 the essence that was the cause of all their production is God and Laertius saith that hee 〈◊〉 all things full of Daemones and beeing asked whether the gods knew not a mans euill â—…ds Yes said he and thoughts too But this proues Gods knowledge onely and noâ—… his operation to be auouched by him n Anaximander A Milesian also but not hee that wrote the Histories He held an infinite element was the substance of the production of all things but â—…er shewed whether it was fiery ayry earthly or watry Hee held besides that the partes of 〈◊〉 infinite thinÌ„g were successiuely changed but that the whole was imâ—…utable Aristot. Pluâ—… 〈◊〉 Euseb. o Nor did he Herein Plutarch reprehendeth him for finding the mattâ—… and â—…t the efficient cause For that infinite element is the matter but without some efficient cause it can doe nothing But Tully saith that hee affirmed that there were naturall gods farre distance East and West and that these were their inumerable worlds De nat deor lib. 1. So that these contraries their originall and there efficient are all one namely that eternall cold and heate as Euseb â—…e prâ—…par Euang. saith and Aristotle intymateth Phys. lib. 1. p Anaximenes Sonne to Eurystratus a Mâ—…lesian also borne Olympiad 64. He died in the yeare of Craesus his ouerthrow as Apollodorus counteth q Infinite ayre Infinite saith Eusebius in kinde but not in qualities of whose condensation and rarefaction all things haue their generation Hee held the ayre god generated infinite and eternally mouing The stars the Sunne and the Moone were created hee held of the earth Cicero r Anaxagoras Borne at Clazomene a towne in Ionia he died Olymp. 88. beeing 62. yeares of age His worke saith Plutarch and Laertius beganne thus There was one vniuersall masse an essence came and disioyned it and disposed it For hee held a matter or masse including infinite formes of creation and parcells of contraries and others all confused together which the diuine essence did compose and seperate and so made flesh of many parcells of flesh of bones bone and so of the rest yet are these other parcells formally extant in the whole as in their bones there is parcells of flesh and fire and sinewes c. For should bread or meate giue encrease to a bone or the bloud vnlesse there were seedes or little parcells of bone and bloud in the bread though from their smallenesse they be inuifible Arist. Plutarch Laertius s Vnlike Or like either is right For as Aristotle saith Anaxagoras held infinite partes in euery body both contrary and correspondent which hee called Homogenia or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 similaria like Symilarities Gaza translateth it For in bodies they are partes that are similare as in fire water flesh bone c. and here the name of each part is the name of the whole each drop of water is water and each bit of flesh is flesh and so of the rest then are there also partes dissimilar as in a man an horse and so forth wherein are parts seuerally called as bones nerues bloud skin and such
saith he exceeding in power and goodnesse and the causes contayning all are wretched if they be drawne down by meale fond were their goodnesse if they had no other meanes to shew it and abiect their nature if it were bound from contemning of meale which if they can doe why come they not into a good minde sooner then into good meale d Doe hold Porphyry saith those euill Demones deceiue both the vulgar and the wise Philosophers and they by their eloquence haue giuen propagation to the error For the deuils are violent false counterfeits dissemblers seek to imbezell gods worship There is no harme but they loue it and put on their shapes of gods to lead vs into deuillish errors Such also are the soules of those that die wicked For their perturbations of Ire concupiscence and mallce leaue them not but are vsed by these soules being now become deuills to the hurt of mankind They change their shapes also now appearing to vs and by and by vanishing thus illuding both our eyes and thoughts and both these sorts possesse the world with couetice ambition pride and lust whence all warres and conflicts arise and which is worst of all they seeke to make the rude vulgar thinke that these things are acceptable to the gods And poesie with the sweetnesse of phrase hath helped them pâ—…tily forwardes Thus farre Porphyry de Abstin anim lib. 2. not in doubtfull or inquiring manner as hee doth in his writing to the priest but positiuely in a worke wherein he sheweth his owne doctrine e admirers The Philosophers whom hee saith erred themselues concerning the gods natures some in fauour of the gods and some in following of the multitude f Why the best Thus hee beginnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Of those that are called gods but are 〈◊〉 wicked Dâ—…mones g The soothsaier Epoptes the proper word for him that lookes on thâ—…r sacrifice h The Sunne So saith Lucan his Thessalian witch that shee can force the gods 〈◊〉 what she list Lucans i Isis or These are the Sunne and Moone Their secret ceremonies being most beastly and obscene the deuills feare to haue them reuealed as Ceres did 〈◊〉 else delude their worshippe by counterfeite feare and so make vse of their fonde errour This of Isis and Osyris belongs to the infernalls also for Porphyry saith the greatest deuill is called Serapis and that is Osyris in Egipt and Pluto in Greece his character is a three headed dog signifying the deuills of the earth ayre and water His Isis is Hecate or Proserpina so it is plaine that this is meant of the secrettes of hell which haue mighty power in magicall practises These doth Erictho in Lucan threaten to the Moone the infernalls and Ceres sacrifices The Poet expresseth it thus Miratur Erichtho Has satis licuisse moras iratà que morti Uerberat immotum viuo serpente cadauer Perque cauas terrae quas egit carmine râ—…mas Manibus illatrat regnique silentia rumpit Tyâ—…iphone vocisque meae secura Megaera Non agitis sâ—…uis Erebi per inane flagellis Infelicen animam I am vos ego nomine verâ—… Eliciam stigiasque canes in luce superna Destituam per busta sequar per funera custos Expellam tumulis abigam vos omnibus vrnis Teque deis ad quos alio procedere vultu Ficta soles Hecate pallenti tabida formae Ostendam faciemque Erebi mutare vetabo Eloquar immenso terrae sub pondere quae te Contineant Ennaea dapes quo foedere moestum Regem noctis ames quae te contagia passam Noluerit reuocare Ceres tibi pessimé mundi Arbiter immittam ruptis I itana cauernis Et subito feriere die Erichtho wonders much At fates deâ—…ay and with a liuing snake She lasht the slaughtred corps making death quake Een-through the rifts of earth rent by her charmes She barkes in hells broad eare these blacke alarmes Stone-deaf Megaera and Tysiphone Why scourge yea not that wretched soule to me From hells huge depths or will you haue me call yee By your true names and leaue yee foule befall yee You stigian dogs I le leaue you in the light And see the graues and you disseuerd quite And Hecate thou that art neuer knowne But in false shapes I le shew thee in thine owne Whole heauen perforce shall see thy putred hew And from earths gutts will I rip forth to vew The feasts and meanes that make thee Pluto's whore And why thy mother fet thee thence no more And thou the worlds worst King al-be thou dead In darkenesse I will breake through all and send Strange light amid thy caues And Porphiry in Respons brings in Hecate compelled to answer the magician 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Why doâ—… thou blind vs so Theodamas what wouldst thou haue vs do Apollo also confesseth that he is compelled to tell truth against his will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I answer now perfore as bound by Fate Anâ—… by and by calleth to bee loosed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c loose the left ring Porphiry also saide as Iamblicus writeth in Mister that the Priests were wont to vse violent threats against the Goâ—…s as thus if you doe not this or if you doe that I will breake downe Heauen I will reueale Isis her secrets and diuulge the mistery hid in the depth I will stay the Baris a sacred shipin Egipt and cast Osiris members to Typhon Now Iamblichus saith those threates tend not to the gods but there is a kind of spirits in the world confused vndiscreet and inconsiderat that heareth from others but no way of it selfe and can neither discerne truthes nor possibilities from the contraries On these do those threatnings worke and force them to all duties Perhaps this is them that Porphiry giueth a foolish wil vnto Iamblichus proceedeth to the threats read them in him k Constellations Prophiry writeth out of Chaeremon that that astrology is of man incomprehensible but all these constellated workes and prophecies are tought him by the deuills But Iamblichus opposeth him in this and in the whole doctrine of deuills The man is all for this prodigious superstition and laboureth to answere Prophyry for Anebuns Of the miracles that God worketh by his Angels ministery CHAP. 12. BVt all miracles done by angells or what euer diuine power confirming the true adoration of one God vnto vs in whome only we are blessed we beleeue truely are done by Gods power working in them immortalls that loueâ—…s in true piety Heare not those that deny that the inuisible God worketh visible miracles is not the world a miracle Yet visible and of his making Nay all the miâ—…les done in this world are lesse then the world it selfe the heauen and earth and all therein yet God made them all and after a manner that man cannot conceiue nor comprehend For though these visible miracles of nature bee now no more admired yet ponder them wisely and they are more admirable then
althings in number weight measure that if he should say too much of number hee should seeme both to neglect his owne grauity and measure and the wise-mans c Let this The Iewes in the religious keeping of their Sabboth shew that 7. was a number of much mistery Hierome in Esay Gellius lib. 3. and his emulator Macrobius in Somn. Scip. lib. 1. record the power of it in Heauen the Sea and in Men. The Pythagorists as Chalcidius writeth included all perfection nature sufficiency herein And wee Christians hold it sacred in many of our religious misteries d That 3. is An euen number sayth Euclid is that which is diuisible by two the odde is the contrary Three is not diuisible into two nor any for one is no number Foure is diuided into two and by vnites and this foure was the first number that gotte to halfes as Macrobius sayth who therefore commendeth 7. by the same reason that Aug. vseth here e For all Aug. in Epist. ad Galat. f By this number Serm. de verb dom in monte This appellation ariseth from the giftes shewne in Esay Chap. 32. Of their opinion that held Angels to be created before the world CHAP. 32. BVt if some oppose and say that that place Let there be light and there was light was not meant of the Angels creation but of some a other corporall light and teach that the Angels wer made not only before the firmament diuiding the waters and called heauen but euen before these words were spoken In the beginning God made heauen and earth Taking not this place as if nothing had bene made before but because God made all by his Wisedome and Worde whome the Scripture also calleth a a beginning as answered also to the Iewes when they inquired what he was I will not contend because I delight so in the intimation of the Trinity in the first chapter of Genesis For hauing said In the beginning God made heauen and earth that is the Father created it in the Son as the Psalme saith O Lord how manyfold are thy workes In thy wisedome madest thou them all presently after he mentioneth the Holy Spirit For hauing shewed the fashion of earth and what a huge masse of the future creation God called heauen and earth The earth was without forme void and darknesse was vpon the deepe to perfect his mention of the Trinity he added c And the spirit of the Lord moued vpon the waters Let each one take it as he liketh it is so profound that learning may produce diuers opinions herein all faithfull and true ones so that none doubt that the Angels are placed in the high heauens not as coeternals with God but as sure of eternall felicity To whose society Christ did not onely teach that his little ones belonged saying They shall be equal vvith the Angels of God but shewes further the very contemplation of the Angels saying Se that you despise not one of these little ones for I say vnto you that in heauen their Angels alway behold the face of my Father vvhich is in Heauen L. VIVES SOme a other corporeall Adhering to some body b Beginning I reproue not the diuines in calling Christ a beginning For he is the meane of the worlds creation and cheefe of all that the Father begotte But I hold it no fit collection from his answere to the Iewes It were better to say so because it was true then because Iohn wrote so who thought not so The heretikes make vs such arguments to scorne vs with at all occasion offered But what that wisely and freely religious Father Hierome held of the first verse of Genesis I will now relate Many as Iason in Papisc Tertull. contra Praxeam and Hillar in Psalm Hold that the Hebrew text hath In the Sonne God made Heauen and earth which is directly false For the 70. Symachus and Theodotion translate it In the beginning The Hebrew is Beresith which Aquila translates in Capitulo not Ba-ben in the Son So then the sence rather then the translation giueth it vnto Christ who is called the Creator of Heauen and earth as well in the front of Genesis the head of all bookes as in S. Iohns Ghospell So the Psalmist saith in his person In the head of the booke it is written of me viz. of Genesis and of Iohn Al things were made by it without it was made nothing c. But we must know that this book is called Beresith the Hebrewes vsing to put their books names in their beginnings Thus much word for word out of Hierome c And the spirit That which wee translate Ferebatur moued sayth Hierome the Hebrewes read Marahefet forwhich we may fitly interprete incubabat brooded or cherished as the hen doth heregges with heate Therfore was it not the spirit of the world as some thinke but the holy spirite that is called the quickner of all things from the beginning If the Quickner then the maker if the Maker then the God If thou send forth thy word saith he they are created Of the two different societies of Angels not vnfitly tearmed light and darkenesse CHAP. 33. THat some Angels offended and therfore were thrust into prisons in the worlds lowest parts vntill the day of their last iudiciall damnation S. Peter testifieth playnely saying That God spared not the Angels that had sinned but cast them downe into hell and deliuered them into a chaynes of darkenesse to be kept vnto damnation Now whether Gods prescience seperated these from the other who doubteth that he called the other light worthily who denyeth Are not we heare on earth by faith and hope of equality with them already ere wee haue it called light by the Apostle Ye were once darkenesse saith he but are now light in the Lord. And well doe these perceiue the other Apostaticall powers are called darkenesse who consider them rightly or beleeue them to bee worse then the worst vnbeleeuer Wherefore though that light which GOD sayd should bee and it was bee one thing and the darkenesse from which GOD seperated the light bee another yet the obscurity of this opinion of these two societies the one inioying GOD the other swelling in b pride the one to whome it sayd Praise GOD all â—…ee his Angels the other whose Prince said All these will I giue thee if thou wilt fall downe and worship mee the one inflamed with GOD'S loue the other blowne bigge with selfe-loue whereas it is sayd God resisteth the proud and giueth grace to the lowly the one in the highest heauens the other in the obscurest ayre the one piously quiet the other madly turbulent the one punishing or releeuing according to Gods c iustice and mercy the other raging with the ouer vnreasonable desire to hurt and subdue the one allowed GODS Minister to all good the other restrayned by GOD from doing d the desired hurt the one scorning the other for doing good against their wills
by temptations the other enuying this the recollection of the faithfull pilgrims the obscurity I say of the opinion of these two so contrary societies the one good in nature and wil the other good in nature also but bad by wil since it is not explaned by other places of scripture that this place in Genesiis of the light and darknes may bee applyed as Denominatiue vnto them both though the author hadde no such intent yet hath not beene vnprofitably handled because though wee could not knowe the authors will yet wee kept the rule of faith which many other places make manifest For though Gods corporall workes bee heere recited yet haue some similitude with the spiritual as the Apostle sayth you are all the children of the light and the children of the day wee are no sonnes of the night nor darknes But if this were the authors mind the other disputation hath attained perfection that so wise a man of God nay the spirit in him in reciting the workes of God all perfected in sixe dayes might by no meanes bee held to leaue out the Angels eyther in the beginning that is because hee had made them first or as wee may better vnderstand In the beginning because hee made them in his onely begotten Word in which beginning God made heauen and earth Which two names eyther include all the creation spirituall and temporall which is more credible Or the two great partes onely as continents of the lesser beeing first proposed in whole and then the parts performed orderly according to the mistery of the sixe dayes L. VIVES INto a cheynes This is playne in Saint Peters second Epistle and Saint Iudes also The Angels sayth the later which kept not their first estate but left their owne habitation hath hee reserued in euerlasting cheynes vnder Darkenesse vnto the iudgement of the great day Augustine vseth prisons for places whence they cannot passe as the horses were inclosed and could not passe out of the circuit vntill they had run b Pride Typhus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Pride and the Greeks vse Typhon of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bee proud and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to burne for the fiery diuell So sayth Plutarch of Typhon Osyris his brother that he was a diuell that troubled all the world with acts of malice and torment Augustine rather vseth it then the Latine for it is of more force and was of much vse in those dayes Philip the Priest vseth it in his Commentaries vppon Iob. c Iustice For God doth iustly reuenge by his good Ministers He maketh the spirits his messengers flaming fire his Ministers Ps. 103. d The desired There is no power on the earth like the diuels Iob. 40. Which might they practise as they desire they would burne drowne waste poyson torture and vtterly destroy man and beast And though we know not the diuells power directly where it is limited and how farr extended yet are wee sure they can do vs more hurt then we can euer repaire Of the power of Angels read Augustâ—… de Trinit lib. 3. Of the opinion that some held that the Angels weee meant by the seueral waters and of others that held the waters vncreated CHAP. 34. YEt some there a were that thought that the b company of Angels were meant by the waters and that these wordes Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it seperate the waters from the waters meant by the vpperwaters the Angels and by the lower eyther the nations or the diuels But if this bee so there is no mention of the Angels creation but onely of their seperation c Though some most vainely and impiously deny that God made the waters because hee neuer said Let there be waters So they may say of earth for he neuer said Let there be earth I but say they it is written God created both heauen and earth Did he so Then is water included therein also for one name serues both for the Psalm sayth The sea is his and he made it and his hands prepared the dry land but the d elementary weights do moue these men to take the waters aboue for the Angels because so an element cannot remayne aboue the heauens No more would these men if they could make a man after their principles put fleame being e in stead of water in mans body in the head f but there is the seate of fleame most fitly appointed by God but so absurdly in these mens conceits that if wee know not though this booke told vs playne that God had placed this fluid cold and consequently heauy humor in the vppermost part of mans body these world-weighers would neuer beleeue it And if they were subiect to the scriptures authority they would yet haue some meaning to shift by But seeing that the consideration of all thinges that the Booke of God conteineth concerning the creation would draw vs farre from our resolued purpose lette vs now together with the conclusion of this booke giue end to this disputation of the two contrary societyes of Angells wherein are also some groundes of the two societies of mankinde vnto whome we intend now to proceed in a fitting discourse L. VIVES SOme a there were as Origen for one who held that the waters aboue the heauens were no waters but Angelicall powers and the waters vnder the heauens their contraries diuels Epiph. ad Ioan. Hierosol Episc. b Companies Apocal. The peaple are like many waters and here-vpon some thought the Psalme meant saying You waters that bee aboue the heauens praise the name of the Lord for that belongs only to reasonable creatures to do c Though some Augustine reckoneth this for an heresie to hold the waters coeternall with God but names no author I beleeue Hesiods Chaos and Homers all producing waters were his originals d Elementary I see all this growes into question whether there be waters aboue the heauens and whether they be elementary as ours are Of the first there is lesse doubt For if as some hold the firmament be the ayre then the seperation of waters from waters was but the parting of the cloudes from the sea But the holy men that affirme the waters of Genesis to be aboue the starry firmament preuaile I gesse now in this great question that a thicke clowd commixt with ayre was placed betwixt heauen and earth to darken the space betweene heauen and vs And that part of it beeing thickned into that sea we see was drawne by the Creator from the face of the earth to the place where it is that other part was borne vp by an vnknowne power to the vttermost parts of the world And hence it came that the vpper still including the lower heauen the fire fire the ayre ayre the water this water includeth not the earth because the whole element thereof is not vnder the Moone as fire and ayre is Now for the nature of those waters Origen to begin with the
miracles that the Pagans ascribe vnto their Idolds are no way comparable to the wonders wrought by our Martyrs But as Moyses ouer-threw the enchanters of Pharao so do our martyrs ouer-throw their deuills who wrought those wonders out of their owne pride onely to gaine the reputation of Gods But our Martyrs or rather GOD him-selfe through their prayers wrought vnto another end onely to confirme that faith which excludeth multitude of Gods and beleeueth but in one The Pagans built Temples to those Deuills ordeining Priests and sacrifices for them as for Gods But we build our martyrs no temples but onely erect them monuments as in memory of men departed whose spirits are at rest in God Wee erect no altars to sacrifice to them we offer onely to him who is both their God and ours at which offring those conquerors of the world as men of God haue each one his peculiar commemoration but no inuocation at all For the sacrifice is offred vnto Cod though it be in memory of them and he that offreth it is a Priest of the Lord and not of theirs and the offring is the body of the Lord which is not offred vnto them because they are that body them-selues Whose miracles shall wee then beleeue Theirs that would be accompted for Gods by those to whom they shew them or theirs which tend all to confirme our beleefe in one GOD which is CHRIST Those that would haue their filthiest acts held sacred or those that will not haue their very vertues held sacred in respect of their owne glories but referred vnto his glory who hath imparted such goodnesse vnto them Let vs beleeue them that doe both worke miracles and teach the truth for this latter gaue them power to performe the former A chiefe point of which truth is this CHRIST rose againe in the flesh and shewed the immortality of the resurrection in his owne body which hee promised vnto vs in the end of this world or in the beginning of the next Against the Platonists that oppose the eleuation of the body vp to heauen by arguments of elementary ponderosity CHAP. 11. AGainst this promise do many whose thoughts God knoweth to be vaine make oppositiō out of the nature of elements Plato their Mr. teaching them that the two most contrary bodies of the world are combined by other two meanes that is by ayre and water Therefore say they earth being lowest water next then ayre and then the heauen earth cannot possibly bee contained in heauen euery element hauing his peculiar poise and tending naturally to his proper place See with what vaine weake and weightlesse arguments mans infirmity opposeth Gods omnipotency Why then are there so many earthly bodies in the ayre ayre being the third element from earth Cannot he that gaue birds that are earthly bodyes fethers of power to sustaine them in the ayre giue the like power to glorified and immortall bodies to possesse the heauen Againe if this reason of theirs were true all that cannot flie should liue vnder the earth as fishes doe in the water Why then doe not the earthly creatures liue in the water which is the next element vnto earth but in the ayre which is the third And seeing they belong to the earth why doth the next element aboue the earth presently choake them and drowne them and the third feed and nourish them Are the elements out of order here now or are their arguments out of reason I will not stand heere to make a rehearsall of what I spake in the thirteene booke of many terrene substances of great weight as Lead Iron c. which not-with-standing may haue such a forme giuen it that it will swimme and support it selfe vpon the water And cannot God almighty giue the body of man such a forme like-wise that it may ascend and support it selfe in heauen Let them stick to their method of elements which is all their trust yet can they not tell what to say to my former assertion For earth is the lowest element and then water and ayre successiuely and heauen the fourth and highest but the soule is a fifth essence aboue them all Aristotle calleth it a fifth a body and Plato saith it is vtterly incorporeall If it were the fift in order then were it aboue the rest but being incorporeall it is much more aboue all substances corporeall What doth it then in a lumpe of earth it being the most subtile and this the most grosse essence It being the most actiue and this the most vnweeldy Cannot the excellencie of it haue power to lift vp this Hath the nature of the body power to draw downe a soule from heauen and shall not the soule haue power to carry the body thether whence it came it selfe And now if we should examine the miracles which they parallell with those of our martyrs wee should finde proofes against themselues out of their owne relations One of their greatest ones is that which Varro reports of a vestall votaresse who being suspected of whoredome filled a Siue with the water of Tiber and carried it vnto her Iudges with-out spilling a drop Who was it that kept the water in the siue so that not one droppe passed through those thousand holes Some God or some Diuell they must needs say Well if hee were a God is hee greater then hee that made the world if then an inferiour God Angell or Deuill had this power to dispose thus of an heauie element that the very nature of it seemed altered cannot then the Almighty maker of the whole world take away the ponderosity of earth and giue the quickned body an hability to dwell in the same place that the quickning spirit shall elect And where-as they place the ayre betweene the fire aboue and the water beneath how commeth it that wee often-times finde it betweene water and water or betweene water and earth for what will they make of those watry clowds betweene which and the sea the ayre hath an ordinary passage What order of the elements doth appoint that those flouds of raine that fall vpon the earth below the ayre should first hang in the clowds aboue the ayre And why is ayre in the midst betweene the heauen and the earth if it were as they say to haue the place betweene the heauens and the waters as water is betweene it and the earth And lastly if the elements bee so disposed as that the two meanes ayre and water doe combine the two extreames fire and earth heauen being in the highest place and earth in the lowest as the worlds foundation and therefore say they impossible to bee in heauen what doe wee then with fire here vpon earth for if this order of theirs bee kept inuiolate then as earth cannot haue any place in fire no more should fire haue any in earth as that which is lowest cannot haue residence aloft no more should that which is aloft haue residence below But we see this order renuersed We haue fire
and in my selfe avowed Moreouer as they tell that haue tryed you are open-handed hearted to such kind of presents then which scarse any may be more welcome to you For who should offer you gold filuer or gems garments horses or armoâ—… should power water into the sea and bring trees to the wood And truely as in all other thinges so in this you do most wisely to thinke that glory beseeming your vertue and deserts is purchased with al posterity by bookes monumeÌ„ts of learned men if not by mine or those like me yet surely by shewing your selfe affable and gratious to learned men you shall light vpon some one by whose stile as a most conning pencill the picture of that excellent and al-surmounting minde purtraied and polished may be commended to eternity not to bee couered with the rust of obliuion nor corrupted by iniury of after ages but that posterity an vncorrupted witnesse of vertues should not be silent of what is worthy to bee spoken of both to the glory of your selfe when you are restored to heauen though that be the best and best to be regarded and also which is principall and most to be aspired to the example of them that shall then liue Besides all this this worke is most agreeable to your disposition and studies wherein Saint AVGVSTINE hath collected as in a treasury the best part of those readings which hee had selected in the ancient authors as ready to dispute with sharpest wits best furnished with choisest eloquence and learning Whereby it is fallne out that he intending another point hath preserued the reliques of some the best things whose natiue seate and dwelling where they vsed to be fet and found was fouly ouerturned And therfore some great men of this later age haue bin much holpen by these writings of AVGVSTINE for VARRO SALVST LIVY and TVLLIE de republica as HERMOLAVS POLITIANVS BLONDVS BEROALDVS all which you shal so read not as they were new or vnheard-of but recognize them as of old Adde herevnto that you and Saint AVGVSTINES point and purpose in writing seeme almost to intend attaine the same end For as you wrote for that better Rome against Babylon so Saint AVGVSTINE against Babylon defended that ancient christian and holier Rome This worke not mine but Saint AVGVSTINES by whom I am protected is also sutable vnto your greatnesse whether the author bee respected or the matter of the worke The author is AVGVSTINE good GOD how holy how learned a man what a light what a leane to the christian common-wealth on whom onely it rested for many rites many statutes customes holy and venerable ceremonies and not without cause For in that man was most plentifull study most exact knowledge of holy writ a sharpe and cleare iudgement a wit admirably quick and piercing He was a most diligent defender of vndefiled piety of most sweet behauior composed and conformed to the charity of the Gospell renowned and honored for his integrity and holinesse of life all which a man might hardly prosecute in a full volume much lesse in an Epistle It is well I speake of a writer knowne of all and familiar to you Now the worke is not concerning the children of Niobe or the gates of Thebes or mending cloathes or preparing pleasures or manuring grounds which yet haue beene arguments presented euen to Kings but concerning both Citties of the World and GOD wherein Angells deuills and all men are contained how they were borne how bred how growne whether they tend and what they shall doe when they come to their worke which to vnfold hee hath omitted no prophane nor sacred learning which hee doth not both touch and explane as the exploites of the Romanes their gods and ceremonies the Philosophers opinions the originall of heauen and earth of Angells deuills and men from what grounds Gods people grew and how thence brought along to our LORD CHRIST Then are the Two Citties compared of GOD and the World and the Assyrian Sicyonian Argiue Attick Latine and Persian gouernments induced Next what the Prophets both Heathenish and Iewish did foretell of CHRIST Then speaking of true felicity he refuteth and refelleth the opinions of the ancient Philosophers concerning it Afterwards how CHRIST shall come the iudge of quick and dead to sentence good and euill Moreouer of the torments of the damned Lastly of the ioyes and eternally felicity of Godly men And all this with a wonderfull wit exceeding sharpenesse most neate learning a cleare and polisht stile such as became an author trauersed and exercised in all kinde of learning and writings and as beseemed those great and excellent matters and fitted those with whom hee disputed Him therefore shall you read most famous and best minded King at such houres as you with-draw from the mighty affaires and turmoiles of your kingdome to employ on learning and ornaments of the minde and withall take a taste of our Commentaries whereof let mee say as Ouid sayd of his bookes de Faestis when he presented them to GERMANICVS CaeSAR A learned Princes iudgement t' vnder goe As sent to reade to Phaebus our leaues goe Which if I shall finde they dislike not you I shall not feare the allowance of others for who will be so impudent as not to bee ashamed to dissent from so exact a iudgement which if any dare doe your euen silent authority shall yet protect me Farewell worthiest King and recon VIVES most deuoted to you in any place so he be reconed one of yours From Louaine the seauenth of Iuly M. D. XXII AN ADVERTISMENT OF IOANNES LODOVICVS VIVES Of Ualentia DECLARING VVHAT Manner of people the Gothes were and how they toooke Rome WHERE AS AVGVSTINE TOOKE OCcasion by the captiuity of the Romaines to write of the Cittie of GOD to answer them which iniuriouslie slaundered the Christian Religion as the cause of those enormities and miseries which befell them It shall not be lost labour for vs sounding the depth of the matter to relate from the Originall what kinde of people the Gothes were how they came into Italie and surprized the Cittie of Rome ¶ First it is cleare and euident that the former age named those Getes whome the succeeding age named Gothes because this age adulterated and corrupted many of the ancient wordes For those two Poets to wit RVTILVS and CLAVDIAN when-soeuer they speake of the Gothes doe alwaies name Getes OROSIVS also in his Historie sayth the Getes who now are named Goths departing out of their Countrie with bagge and baggage leauing their houses emptie entred safely into the Romaine Prouinces with all their forces being such a people as ALEXANDER said were to be auoided PYRRHVS abhorred and CaeSAR shunned HIEROME vpon Genesis testifieth that the Gothes were named Getes of the learned in former time Also they were Getes which inhabited about the Riuer Ister as STRABO MELA PLINIE and others auerre possessing the Region adiacent a great part of it lying waste and vnmanured being
the gods but for the mother of any senatour of any honest man nay euen for the mothers of the players them selues to giue care too Naturall shame hath bound vs with some respect vnto our parents which vice it selfe cannot abolish But that beastlynesse of obâ—… speaches and actions which the Players acted in publike before the mother of all the gods and in sight and hearing of an huge multitude of both sexes they would be ashamed to act at home in priuate before their mothers g were it but for repitition sake And as for that company that were their specâ—… though they might easily bee drawn thether by curiosity yet beholding câ—…ity so fouly iniured me thinkes they should haue bene driuen from thence by the meete shame that immodesty can offend honesty withall What can â—…dges be it those were sacrifices or what can bee pollution if this were a purification and these were called h Iuncates as if they made a feast where all the vâ—…eane dâ—… of hell might fill their bellies For who knowes not what 〈◊〉 of spirit 〈◊〉 are that take pleasure in these obscurities vnlesse hee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there bee any such vncleane spirits that thus illude men vnder the names of gods or else vnlesse hee be such an one as wisheth the pleasure and feares the displeasure of those damned powers more then hee doth the loue and wrath of the true and euerliuing God L. VIVES SAcriligious a mockories Inuerting this the holy plaies a phrase vsed much by the Pagans b The Enthusiastikes persons rapt This place requireth some speech of the mother of the gods Diodorus Siculus Biblioth lib. 4. tels the story of this Mother of the gods diuers waies For first hee writeth thus Caelus had by his wife Titaea fiue forty children two of which were women called Regina and Ops Regina being the elder and miser of the two brought vp all her other bretheren to doe her mother a pleasure and therefore she was called the mother of the gods and was marryed to hir brother Hiperion to whome shee 〈◊〉 Sol and Luna who being both murdered by their vncles wicked practises she fel mad ranging vp and downe the Kingdome with a noise of drummes and cimbals and that this grew to a custome after she was dead Then he addes another fable that one Menoes an ancient King of Phryâ—… had by his wife Dindimene a daughter whome he caused to be cast forth vpon mount Cyâ—… 〈◊〉 that the infant being nourished vp by wilde beasts grew to be of admirable beauty and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a â—…pheardesse was by her brought vp as her own childe and named Cibele of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was found that shee innented many arts of her owne head and taught 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on pipes danncing drummes and cimbals also farying of horses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein shee was so fortunate that they named her The great mother Gâ—…ing vp vnto yeares she fell in loue with a youth of that country called Atis being with childâ—… by 〈◊〉 was sâ—… for backe by her father Menoes for a Uirgin but the guilt beeing knowne 〈◊〉 and the Nurses were put to death and Cibele being extreamely in loue with Atis fell madde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 her fathers house along with a Timbrell and a cimball she came to Nisa to Dioniâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where sâ—… few yeares after she dyed And soone after a great famine togeâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all Pâ—…gia the inhabitants were commanded by Oracle to giue diuine worship to Atis and Cibele and hence arose the first canonization of the Mother of the gods Thus farre Diodorus who no doubt hath declared the true originall of it as it was But some do guesse that she was the mother of Iupiter Iuno Neptune and Pluto and therefore was called Rhea and in latine Ops and Cibele and Vesta as all one Nor make I any question but that this history is confounded as is vsuall in euery fable of the gods that she was a virgin and therefore named Vesta and that therefore Atys was faigned to bee a goodly young man whom she louing and commanding that she should neuer meddle with any other woman he neglecting her command fell in loue with a Nimph called Sangritis which Cybele depriued him of those partes whereby hee was man and for that reason euer since will haue her Priests defectiue in that fashion And because that she was most ordinarily worshipped of the Phrygians vpon Mount Ida there vpon she got the name of the Idean mother and of Berecynthia as also of the Phrigian goddesse Hie Priests were called Galli of the riuer Gallus in Phrigia the water whereof beeing drunke maketh men madde And these Galli themselues doe wherle their heads about in their madnesse slashing their faces and bodies with kniues and tearing themselues with their teeth when they are either madde in shew or madde indeed Their goddesse which was nothing but a great stone vpon Mount Ida the Romanes transported into Italy the day before the Ides of Aprill which day they dedicated vnto her honours and the plaies called Megalesia as on that day were acted Liuy lib. 29. speaking of the Mother of the gods hath these words They brought the goddesse into the Temple of Victorie which is on the Mount Palatine the daie before the Ides of Aprill So that was made her feast daie And all the people brought giftes vnto the goddesse vnto the Mount Palatine and the Temples were spred for banquets and the Plaies were named Megalesia this is also in his sixteenth booke About the same time a Temple was dedicated vnto the great Idean mother which P. Cornelius receiued being brought out of Asia by sea P. Cornelius Scipio afterward surnamed Africane and P. Licinius beeing consulls M. Liuius and C. Claudius beeing censors gaue order for the building of the Temple And thirteene yeares after it was dedicated or consecrated by M. Iunius Brutus M. Cornelius and T. Sempronius beeing Consulls and the Plaies that were made for the dedication thereof beeing the first plaies that euer came on stage Antias Valerius affirmeth were named Megalesia Thus farre Liuy To whom Varro agreeth also liber 3. de lingua Latina Enthusiastiques or persons rapt Were men distraught taken with madnesse as Bertcynthia's Galli were Saint Augustine vpon Genesis calls them men taken with spirits possessed c Pipers Or the singers Symphoniacos it commeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Harmony or consort In the feastes of Cybele was much of this numerall musicke with Pipes and Tymbrells Hereof Ouid singeth thus in his fastorum lib 4. Protinus inflexo Berecynthia tybia cornu Flabit Idaeae festa parentis erunt Ibunt Semimares inania tympana tundent Aeraâ—… tinnitus are repulsa dabunt Then Berecynthias crooked pipes shall blovv Th' Idaan mothers feast approcheth now Whose gelded Priests along the streetes doe passe With Timbrells and the tinckling sounds of brasse And a little after Tibia dat Phrygios vt
king domes to good and to bad not rashly nor casually but as the time is appointed which is well knowne to him though hidden for vs vnto which appointment not-with-standing hee doth not serue but as a Lord swayeth it neuer giuing true felicitie but to the good For this both a subiects and Kings may eyther haue or wante and yet bee as they are seruants and gouernours The fulnesse indeed of it shall bee in that life where b no man shall serue And therefore here on earth hee giueth kingdomes to the bad as well as to the good least his seruants that are but yet proselites should affect them as great maâ—…ters And this is the mysterie of his olde Testament wherein the new was included that c there all the gifts and promises were of this world and of the world to come also to those that vnderstood them though the eternall good that was meant by those temporall ones were not as yet manifested nor in whâ—… gifts of God the true felicitie was resident L. VIVES SUbiects a and Stoicisme A slaue wise is a free man a King foolish a 〈◊〉 b No man shall serue Some bookes wante the whole sentence which followeâ—… And therefore c. c There all The rewards promised to the kâ—…pers of the law in the old Testament were all temporall how be it they were misticall types of the Celestiall Of the Iewes kingdome which one God alone kept vnmoued as long as they kept the truth of religion CHAP. 34. TO shew therefore that all those temporall goods which those men gape after that can dreame of no better are in Gods hands alone and in none of their Idolls therefore multiplied he his people in Aegipt from a a very few and then deliuered them from thence by miraculous wounders Their women neuer called vpon Lucina when their children multiplied vpon them incredibly and when he preserued them from the b Aegiptians that persecuted them and would haue killed all their children They suckt without Ruminas helpe slept without Cunina eate and dranke without Educa and Potica and were brought vp without any of these puppy-gods helpes married without the Nuptiall gods begot children without Priapus crossed through the diuided sea without calling vpon Neptune and left al their foes drowned behind them They dedicated no Goddesse Mannia when heauen had rained Manna for them nor worshipped the Nymphes when the rocke was cleft and the waters flowed out they vsed no Mars nor Bellona in their warres and conquered not without Victory but without making Victory a goddesse They had corne oxen hony apples without Segetia Bobona Mella or Pomona And to conclude all things that the Romaines begged of so many false gods they receiued of one true God in far happier measure had they not persisted 〈◊〉 their impious curiosity in running after strange gods as if they had beene enchaunted and lastly in killing of Christ in the same kingdome had they liued happily still if not in a larger And that they are now dispersed ouer the whole earth is gods especiall prouidence that what Alters Groues Woods and Temples of the false gods he reproueth and what sacrifices he forbiddeth might all be discerned by their bookes as their fall it selfe was foretold them by their pâ—…phets And this least the Pagans reading them with ours might thinke wee had fâ—…igned them But now to our next booke to make an end of this tedious one L. VIVES FRom a very few The Sonnes of Israell that went into Aegipt were 70. Gen. 49. b Aegiptians Here is a diuersity of reading but all one sence and so is there often else-where which I forbeare to particularize or to note all such occurences Finis lib. 4. THE CONTENTS OF THE fifth booke of the City of God 1. That neither the Romaine Empire nor any other Kingdome had any establishment from the powre of Fortune nor from the starres chapter 1. 2. Of the mutuall Sympathie and dssimillitude of the health of body and many other accidents in twinnes of one birth 3. Of Nigidius the astrologians argument in this question of the twinnes drawne from the potters wheele 4. Of Esau and Iacob two twinnes and of the diuersity of their conditions and quallities 5. How the Mathematicians may bee conuicted of professing direct vanity 6. Of twinnes of different sexes 7. Of the election of daies of marriage of planting and of sowing 8. Of their opinion that giue not the name of Fate the position of the starres but vnto the dependance of causes vpon the will of God 9. Of Gods fore-knowledge and mans freedome of election against the opinon of Cicero 10. Whether Necessity haue any dominion ouer the will of man 11. Of Gods vniuersall prouidence ruling all and comprising all 12. How the ancient Romaines obtained this encrease of their Kingdome at the true Gods hand beeing that they neuer worshipped him 13. Of ambition which beeing a vice is notwithstanding herein held a vertue that it doth restraine vices of worse natures 14. That we are to auoide this desire of humaine honour the glory of the righteous beeing wholy in God 15. Of the tempor all rewardes that God bestowed vpon the Romaines vertues and good conditions 16. Of the reward of the eternall Cittizens of heauen to whome the examples of the Romaines vertues were of good vse 17. The fruites of the Romaines warres both to themselues and to those with whom they warred 18. How farre the Christians should bee from boasting of their deedes for their eternall country the Romaines hauing done so much for their temporall city and for humaine glory 19. The difference betweene the desire of glory and the desire of rule 20. That vertue is as much disgraced in seruing humaine glory as in obeying the pleasures of the body 21. That the true God in whose hand and prouidence all the state of the world consisteth did order and dispose of the Monarchy of the Romaines 22. That the Originalls and conclusions of warres are all at Gods dispose 23. Of the battaile wherein Radagaisus an idolatrous King of the Gothes was slaine with all his army 24. The state and truth of a christian Emperors felicity 25. Of the prosperous estate that God bestowed vpon Constantine a christian Emperor 26. Of the faith and deuotion of Theodosius Emperor 27. Augustines invectiue against such as wrote against the bookes already published FINIS THE FIFTH BOOKE OF THE CITTIE OF GOD Written by Saint Augustine Bishop of Hippo vnto Marcellinus That neither the Romaine Empire nor any other Kingdome had any establishment from the power of fortune or from the starres CHAP. 1. WHereas it is apparant to all mens discretion that felicity is the hope of al humane desires and that she is no goddesse but merely the gift of a god and consequently that there is no god worthy of worshippe but he in whose power it lieth to bestow this felicity vpon men so that if shee were a goddesse herselfe the worship of al the
altogether execrable or els the gods were showne by them to bee none but men departed whome worm-eaten antiquity perswaded the world to bee gods whereas they were deuills that delighted in those obscaene mynisteries and vnder their names whom the people held diuine got place to play their impostures and by illusiue miracles to captiuate all their soules But it was by gods eternall secret prouidence that they were permitted to confesse all to Nâ—…a who by his Hydromancy was become their friend and yet not to warne him rather to burne them at his death then to bury them for they could neither withstand the plough that found them nor Varro's penne that vnto all memory hath recorded them For the deuills cannot exceed their direct permission which GOD alloweth them for their merits that vnto his iustice seeme either worthy to be onely afflicted or wholy seduced by them But the horrible danger of these bookes and their distance from true diuinity may by this bee gathered that the senate chose rather to burne them that Numa had but hidden then e to feare what hee feared that durst not burne them Wherefore he that will neither haue happinesse in the future life nor godlinesse in the present let him vse these meanes for eternity But hee that will haue no society with the deuill let him not feare the superstition that their adoration exacteth but let him sticke to the true religion which conuinceth and confoundeth all their villanies and abhominations L. VIVES TO a Hydromancy Diuination by water Diuination generally was done by diuers means either by Earth Gâ—…mancy or by fire Pyromancy or Ignispicina found by Amphiarans as Pliny saith or by smoake Capâ—…mancy or by birds Augury or by intrailes Aruspicina vsed much by the Hetrurians and by Ianus Apollo's sonne amongst the Heleans and after him by Thrasibulus who beheld a dogge holding the cut liuer or by a siue called Coscinomancy oâ—… by hatchets Axinomancy or by Hearbes Botinomancy the witches magike or by dead bodies Nâ—…mancy or by the starres Astrologie wherein the most excellent are called Chaldees though neuer borne in Caldaea or by lottes Cleromancy or by lines in the hand Chiromancy or by the face and body Physiognâ—…my or by fishes Icthyomancy this Apuleius was charged with or by the twinckling and motion of the eies called Saliatio the Palmique augury Then was there interpretation of dreames and visions or sights of thunder or lightning noyses sneezings voices and a thousand such arts of inuoking the deuills which are far better vnnamed Hydromancy I haue kept vnto the last because it is my theame It is many-fold done either in a glâ—…sse bottle full of water wherein a Childe must looke and this is called Gastromancy of the glasses belly or in a basen of water which is called Lecanomancie in which Strabo sayth the Asians are singular Psellus de damonibus affirmeth this also and sheweth how it is done that the deuills creepe in the bottome and send sorth a still confused found which cannot bee fully vnderstood that they may be held to say what euer 〈◊〉 to passe and not to lye Many also in springs did see apparitions of future things 〈◊〉 â—…aith that in Aegina a part of Achaia there is a temple of Ceres and a fountaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein sick persons after their offring sacrifice behold the end or continuance of 〈◊〉 â—…ses Iamblichus tells of a caue at Colophon wherein was a Well that the Priest haâ—…â—…ifice certaine set nights tasted of and presently became inuisible and gaue anâ—…â—…at asked of him And a woman in Branchis saith he sat vpon an Axle-tree and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rod that one of the goddesses gaue her or dipping her foote or skirt in the water so 〈◊〉 â—…d prophecied Apulcius writeth out of Uarro that the Trallians inquiring by 〈◊〉 of the end of the warre of Mithridates one appeared in the water like Mercurie 〈◊〉 that looked in it and sung the future successe of the war in 360. verses but because of â—…tion of the boy I thinke hee meanes Gastromancie Apolog. de Magia This last 〈◊〉 Nâ—…a vse in a fountaine Plutarch saith that there were women in Germanie that 〈◊〉 euents by the courses noyse and whirle-pittes of riuers In his life of Caesar. 〈◊〉 Pythagoras A carefull respect of the times for Numa was dead long before 〈◊〉 was borne Some say that he was Pythagoras his scholler and Ouid for one they all 〈◊〉 â—…ror is lighter in a Poet then in an Historiographer c Caesar Dictator and Priest 〈◊〉 dedicates his Antiquities d Aegeria Some held her to be one of the Muses 〈◊〉 called the wood where shee vsed Lucus Camaenarum the Muses wood Some 〈◊〉 but a water-nimphe and that after Numa his death Diana turned her into a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith she was called Aegeria ab egerendo of putting forth because the great 〈◊〉 sâ—…rificed vnto her for the ayde shee was thought to giue them in the deliueâ—… 〈◊〉 â—…estus e To feare For Numa durst not burne them for feare of prooâ—…â—…nger against him Finis lib. 7. THE CONTENTS OF THE eight booke of the City of God 1. Of the questions of naturall theology to be handled with the most excellent Philosophers chapter 1. 2. Of the two kinds of Philosophers Italian and Ionian 3. Of the Socraticall discipline 4. Of Plato the chiefe of Socrates his schollers who dâ—…d philosophy into three kinds 5. That the chiefe controuersie with the Plâ—…sts is about theologie and that all the Pâ—…rs opinions heereof are inferior to theâ—…y 6. How the Platonists conceiued of the naturall part of Philosophy 7. The excellency of the Platonists aboue the rest in logick 8. That the Platonists are to be preferred in Morallity also 9. Of the Philosophy that commeth nearest chrtianity 10. What the excellence of a religions christian is in these philosophicall artes 11. Whence Plato might haue that knowledge that brought hiâ—… so neare the christian doctrine 12. That the Platonists for all their good opâ—… of the true GOD yet neuerthelesse held thaâ—… worship was to be giuen to many 13. Of Platoes affirmation that the gods were all good and louers of vertue 14. Of such as hold three kinds of reasonable soules In the gods In ayery spirits and in Men. 15. That neither the ayry spirits bodies 〈◊〉 hight of place make them excell men 16. What Apuleius the Platonist held concerning the qualities of those ayry spirits 17. Whether it becomes a Man to worsâ—… those spirits from whose guilt he should be pâ—…e 18. Of that religion that teacheth that those spirits must bee mens Aduocates to the good Gods 19. Of the wickednesse of art magick depending on these wicked spirits ministry 20. Whether it bee credible that good Gods had rather conuerse with those spirits then wiâ—…h Men. 21. Whether the Gods vse the diuills as their messengers and be willing that they should 22. The renouncing of the worship of those spirits against Apuleius 23. Hermes Trismegistus his
likewise in artificiall things as a table a booke or so euery leafe is not a booke nor euery part of the table a table These parts are called Heterogenea or Of diuers kindes multigenae Agricola calles them The Symilar partes Anaxagoras held to bee in all things infinite either different as of wood bloud ayre fire bone and such or congruent as of water infinite parcells all of one nature and so of fire c for though bodies bee generate by this separation yet cannot these parts bee so distinguished but infinite will still remaine that euermore is best meanes for one thing to bee progenerate of another and nourished so that this communication continueth euerlastingly of nature place and nutriment But of the Heterogeneall parts hee did not put infinite in nature for hee did not hold that there were infinite men in the fire nor infinite bones in a man t Diogenes There were many of this name one of Synope called the Cynike one of Sicyon an Historiographer one a stoike fellow Embassador to Rome which Carneades borne at Seleucia but called the Babilonian or Tharsian one that writ of poeticall questions and Diogenes Laertius from whom wee haue this our Philosophy elder then them all one also called Apolloniata mentioned here by Augustine Our commentator like a good plaisterer daubed the Cynike and this into one as hee made one Thomas of Thomas Valois and Thomas Aquinas in his Commentaries vpon Boethius u Ayre Cic. de nat de What is that ayre that Diogenes Apolloniata calles God He affirmed also inumerable worlds in infinite spaces and that the ayre thickning it selfe into a globous body produceth a world x Archelaus Some say of Myletus some of Athens He first brought Physiologie from Ionia to Athens and therefore was called Physicus also because his scholler Socrates brought in the Morality y He also Plutarch saith he put the infinite ayre for the worlds generall principle and that the r◅ity and density thereof made fire and water z Consonance Eternity say the manuscripts a Socrates This is hee that none can sufficiently commend the wisest Pagan that euer was An Athenian begot by Sophroniscus a stone-cutter and Phanareta a mid-wife A man temperare chaste iust modest pacient scorning wealth pleasure and glory for he neuer wrote any thing he was the first that when others said he knew all affirmed himselfe hee knew nothing Of the Socratical◅ discipline CHAP. 3. SOcrates therefore was a the first that reduced Philosophy to the refor◅tion of manres for al before him aymed at naturall speculation rather then practise morality I cannot surely tel whether the tediousnesse b of these obscurities moued Socrates to apply his minde vnto some more set and certaine inuention for an assistance vnto beatitude which was the scope of all the other Phylosophers intents and labours or as some doe fauorably surmise hee c was vnwilling that mens mindes being suppressed with corrupt and earthly affects should ofter to crowd vnto the height of these Physicall causes whose totall and whose originall relyed soly as he held vpon the will of God omnipotent only and true wherefore he held that d no mind but a purified one could comprehend them and therfore first vrged a reformed course of life which effected the mind vnladen of terrestriall distractions might towre vp to eternity with the owne intelectuall purity sticke firme in contemplation of the nature of that incorporeal vnchanged and incomprehensible light which e conteyneth the causes of all creation Yet sure it is that in his morall disputations f he did with most elegant and acute vrbanity taxe and detect the ignorance of these ouer-weening fellowes that build Castles on their owne knowledge eyther in this confessing his owne ignorance or dissembling his vnderstanding g wher-vpon enuy taking hold he was wrackt by a h callumnious accusation and so put to death i Yet did Athens that condemned him afterward publikely lament for him and the wrath of the commonty fell so sore vpō his two accusers that one of them was troden to death by the multitude and another forced to auoid the like by a voluntary banishment This Socrates so famous in his life and death left many of his schollers behind him whose l study and emulation was about moralyty euer and that summum bonum that greatest good which no man wanting can attain beatitude m VVhich being not euident in Socrates his controuersiall questions each man followed his own opiniō and made that the finall good n The finall good is that which attained maketh man happy But Socrates his schollers were so diuided strange hauing all onemaister that some o Aristippus made pleasure this finall good others p Antisthenes vertue So q each of the rest had his choice too long to particularize L. VIVES WAs the a first Cicero Acad. Quest. I thinke and so do all that Socrates first called Phylosophy out of the mists of naturall speculations wherein all the Phylosophers before had beene busied and apllyed it to the institution of life and manners making it y◠meane to inquire out vertue and vice good and euill holding things celestiall too abstruse for natural powers to investigate far seperate from things natural which if they could be known were not vsefull in the reformation of life b Tediousnesse Xenophon Comment rer Socratic 1. writeth that Socrates was wont to wonder that these dayly and nightly inuestigators could neuer finde that their labour was stil rewarded with vncertainties and this he explaneth at large c Was vnwilling Lactantius his wordes in his first booke are these I deny not but that Socrates hath more witte then the rest that thought they could comprehend all natures courses wherein I thinke them not onely vnwise but impious also to dare to aduance their curious eyes to view the altitude of the diuine prouidence And after Much guiltter are they that lay their impious disputation vpon quest of the worlds secrets prophaning the celestial temple therby then either they that enter the Temples of Ceres Bona Dea Vesta d No minde Socrates disputeth this at large in Plato's P◅adon at his death Shewing that none can bee a true Phylosopher that is not abstracted in spirit from all the affects of the body which then is affected when in this life the soule is looseed from all perturbations and so truly contemplated the true good that is the true God And therefore Phylosophy is defined a meditation of death that is there is a seperation or diuorce betweene soule and body the soule auoyding the bodies impurities and so becomming pure of it selfe For it is sin for any impure thought to be present at the speculation of that most pure essence and therefore hee thought men attoned unto God haue far more knowledge then the impure that know him not In Plato's Cratylus hee saith good men are onely wise and that none can be skilfull in matters celestiall without Gods assistance In Epinomede There may
either Angells or deuills and so by these misteries gaue those Idols power to hurt or helpe them Then hee proceedes to examples Thy e grandfather Asclepius saith he the first inuentor of Phisicke hath a temple f on mount Lybia neare the g Cracodile shore there lyeth his worldly man his body but his residue or his whole if man be whole life is gone vp to heauen helping all sicke persons now by his deity as hee did before by his Phisicke Lo heare hee confesseth a dead man worrshipped for a god there where his graue was erring and making others erre in saying that hee wâ—… ascended to heauen and helpeth all sicke persons by his deity Nay hee proceeds to another My grandfather h Hermes saith hee lying in the towne of i his Sur-name doth hee not assist and preserue all that implore his helpe This was Hermes the elder Mercury buried they say in Hermopolis the towne of his surname Behold now here are two men gods already Aesculapius and Mercury k for the first the opinion both of Greekes and Latines confirme it But the l second many thinke was neuer mortall yet hee saith here that hee was his grandfather for m this is one and that another though both haue one name But this I stand not vpon he and Aesculapius were both made gods of men by this great testimony of his nephew n Trismgiestus who proceedes and sayth o Isis the wise of Osiris doth much good wee see being pleased and being offended much euill And then to shew that these are of that kind of gods that men make by this art hee giueth vs to vnderstand that he thinkes those diuells to be soules of dead men which he saith those erring incredulous irreligious fellowes called by art into statues because these could make no soules when he hath spoken that of Isis being offended much hurt he addeth for earthly and worldly gods are soone offended and moued to anger by reason they consist p of men in both their natures Both their natures saith he taking the deuill for the soule and the image for the body wherevpon it came to passe saith hee that such and such creatures became holy in Egipt and their soules were q adored in al the citties that consecrated them in their liues so far that they haue part of their worship assigned them and are called by their names Where is now that sad complaint that Egipt the seat of temples should become a graue for carcasses see the false spirit that made Hermes speake it made him also confesse that it was already filled with their carcasses whome they held as gods But in his complaint hee was but the vent of the deuills woe because their eternall plagues were in preparing by the martyres holy memories for in such places are they often tormented and forced to confesse themselues and to auoyde the bodies possessed L. VIVES AGainst a Mountaines And such things as all men else could see and shunne b Honor them A diuersity of reading the old bookes haue the sentence shorter but the sence is not altred at all c Prouing it The Necia saith Tully or funerall sports should not bee called feasts as well as the other gods holy daies are but that men would haue their dead ancestors accounted as gods De leg lib. 2. d Funerall Wherein were commedies acted Terrences Adelphus was acted at Paulus Aemilius his funeralls P. Corn. Scipio and Q. Fabius two of his sons being Ediles They had also sword-plaies brought in by M. and D. Iunius Brutus his sonnes at their fathers funeralls App. Claud. Caudax and M. Fuluius being Consulls They fought in the beast market Liu. lib. 11. Ualer lib-2 Auson in Gryph Tresprimas Thracum pugnas trihus ordine sellâ—…s Iuniadae Patri inferias misere sepulcro Three chaires three fights wherein the Thracians straue Attended Iunius Brutus to his graue They had also a banquetand a dole c Grandfather Asclepius Asclepius in greeke is Esculapius to this Asclepius Augustine makes the Phisition Aesculapius grand-father which oâ—… â—…lly his 〈◊〉 desculapii this was I know not one of them they say was thunderstrucke and buried at Cynosura in Achaia Another neare the riuer Lusius in Arcadia the third was the second Mercuries brother sonne to Ualens and Pheronis and him the Arcadians haue in much honor Tacitus saith Osiris was called Aesculapius it may be this It is liker that Hermes speaketh of him then any other f Mount Libia It runnes along from the lowest part of Egypt vnâ—… 〈◊〉 Ptolomy takes it for many mountaines calles it the Libian coast g Crocodile A serpent that laies eges foure-footed growing to seauenteene cubites lenght or more hee moueth his vpper chappe and so doth no creature liuing besides him deuoureth man and beast and liues part in the water and part on the dry land Herodot Arist Plin. Senec. saith that it feareth one couragious and insulteth ouer one that feares it The Crocodile citty is in the heart of Egipt neare to the Libian Mountaine not farre from Ptolemais in the end of the sixt Paralel of the third climat The Egiptians saith Porphyry worshipped a Crocodile because he was consecrated to the Sunne as the Ram the Buzzard and the blacke beetle h Hermes Cicero reckneth fiue of them two the Egyptians worrshipped the first Nilus his sonne whome it was saâ—…dgeto name second hee that killed Argus was Egypts king taught them letters and lawes him they call Theut after their first moneth Euseb. lib. 1. saith that the Phaenician theologians held Trismegistus to be Saturnes secretary Caelus his sonnes and that hee vsed his helpe in defending his mother giuing him at his going into the South all Egypt Dionisius saith he was counsellor to Isis and Osiris and Osiris going forth to warre left him at home to direct his wife Isis that hee was of singular prudence and taught the world much knowledge in artes and sciences This I thinke was graund-father to this Hermes that wrot thus and that hee was called Theut the Daemon as Plato saith in his Phaed. that inuented Mathematiques letters and dice and taught them to â—…hamus King of Egypt afterward called Hammon f Tâ—…e of his surmane Hermopolis a great city in Epipt A marke saith Ptolomy to those that trauell from the West of Nile vnto our sea beyond Crocadilopolis in the seauenth Paralell the therd climate k For the first For hee is but held a semigod diefied for his merits as Hercules Bacchus and Romulus were Theodoretus saith that in Homers time he was held no God for hee maketh Paeon cure Mars not Aesculapius And speaking of Machaon he calles him the Sonne of Aesculapius an absolute Phisitian l Second many He is one of the perpetuall Gods counsellours m This is one The famous Mercury was sonne to Ioue and Maia Atlas his Grand-child for there were two other as I said Egyptians and two more one the Sonne of Calus and Dies the other of Ualens
and in discourse he that repeateth one thing twise of one fashion procureth loathing but vary it a thousand wayes and it will stil passe pleasing This is taught in Rhetorike And it is like that which Q. Flamâ—…ius in Liuie saith of the diuers sauces Therfore the types of the old law that signified one thing were diuers that men might apprehend the future saluation with lesse surfet and the 〈◊〉 persons amongst so many might find one wherby to conceiue what was to come Of the power giuen to the diuels to the greater gloryfying of the Saints that haue suffered martyrdome and conquered the ayry spirits not by appeasing them but adhering to God CHAP. 21. THe Diuells hadde a certayne temporary power allowed them whereby to excite such as they possessed against GODS Citty and both to accept sacrifices of the willing offerers and to require them of the vnwilâ—…g yea euen to extort them by violent plagues nor was this at all preiudicial but very commodious for the Church that the number of Mar tirs might bee fulfilled whom the Citty of God holds so much the dearer because they speâ—… their blood for it against the power of impiety these now if the church admiâ—… the words vse we might worthily call our a Heroes For this name came from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iuno and therefore one of her sonnes I know not which was called Heâ—… the mistery beeing that Iuno was Queene of the ayre where the Heroes the well deseruing soules dwell with the Daemones But ours if wee might vse the word should be called so for a contrary reason namely not for dwelling with the Daemones in the ayre but for conquering those Daemones those aereall powers and in them all that is called Iuno whome it was not for nothing that the Poets made so enuious and such an opposite to c good men beeing deified for their vertue But vnhappily was Virgill ouer-seene in making her first to say Aeneas conquers men and then to bring in Helenus warning Aeneas as his ghostly father in these wordes Iunoni cane vota libens dominamque potentem Supplicibus supera donis Purchas'd great Iunos d wrath with willing prayers and e conquer'd her with humble gifts And therfore Porphyry though not of him-selfe holds that a good God or Genius neuer commeth to a man till the bad be appeased as if it were of more poweâ—… then the other seeing that the bad can hinder the good for working and must be intreated to giue them place wheras the good can do no good vnlesse the others list and the others can do mischeefe maugre their beards This is no tract of true religion our Martirs do not conquer Iuno that is the ayry powers that mallice their vertues on this fashion Our Heroes If I may say so conquer noâ—… Herâ—… by humble gifts but by diuine vertues Surely f Scipio deserued the name of African rather for conquering Africa then for begging or buying his honour of his foes L. VIVES Our a Heroes Plato in his order of the gods makes some lesse then ayry Daemones and more then men calling them demi-gods now certainly these bee the Heroes for so 〈◊〉 they called that are begotten of a god and a mortall as Hercules Dionysius Aeneas Aescâ—…pius Romulus and such one of whose parents being a god they would not call them bare men but somewhat more yet lesse then the Daemones And so holds Iamblicus Hierocles the Sâ—… relating Pythagoras his verses or as some say Philolaus his saith that Angels and Heroes as Pâ—…to saith are both included in the ranke of Daemones the celestiall are Angels the earthly Heâ—… the meane Daemones But Pythagoras held quoth he that the goddes sonnes were called Heâ—… Daemones And so they are in that sence that Hesiod cals the men of the golden age Terâ—… Daemones for hee putteth a fourth sort of men worse then the golden ones but better then the third sort for the Heroes But these and the other also he calleth men and Semi-gods saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A blessed kinde of Heroes they were Surnamed Semi-gods To wit those yâ— Plato meaneth for these ar more ancient venerable then they that â—…ailed 〈◊〉 Iason in the fatal ship sought in the war of Troy For Hesiod cals theÌ„ warlike and thence 〈◊〉 Meâ—…der saith were they held wrathful violent if any one went by their temples called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must passe in reuerend silence least hee should anger the Heroes and set altogether by the â—…es And many such temples were erâ—…cted in Greece 〈◊〉 mentioneth diuers to Vlissâ—…s Tâ—…talus and Acrisius The Latines hadde them also Plin. lib. 19. mentioneth of one Plaâ—…o deriues Heros of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Loue because the loue betweene a god or goddesse and a mortall produced the Heroes Some draw it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speake because they were eloquent states-men Hierocles allowes the deriuation from loue but not in respect of the birth but their singular loue of the gods inciting vs to the like For Iaâ—…blichus saies they rule ouer men giuing vs life reason guarding and freeing our soules at pleasure But we haue showne these to be the powers of the soule and each one is his owne Daemon Some deriue it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 earth they being earthly Daemones For so Hesiod calleth the good soules departed and Pythagoras also bidding 〈◊〉 â—…orship the earthly Daemones Homers interpretor liketh this deriuation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he in one language is earth and of earth was mankind made Capella Nupt. lib. 2. sayth that all between vs and the Moone is the Kingdome of the Manes and father Dis. But in the highest part are the Heroes and the Manes below them and those Heroes or semi-gods haue soules and holy mindes in mens formes and are borne to the worlds great good So was Hercules Dionys Tryptoleâ—…s c. and therefore the name comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iuno because shee rules the ayre whither the good soules ascend as Hierocles witnesseth in these verses of Pythagoras or Philolaus relating their opinion herein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If quit from earthly drosse to heau'n thou soare Then shalt thou be a God and dye no more But Plato thinketh them to become Sea-goddes I beleeue because hee holdes them grosser bodyed then the Daemones whome he calleth purely aâ—…reall and so thought fitte to giue them hâ—…bitation in the most appropin quate part of nature the water Hera also the Latines vse for a Lady or a Queene Vâ—…rg Aen. 3. and so Heroes if it deriue from Hera may bee taken for â—…ords or Kinges b One of her sonnes I thinke I haue read of this in the Greeke commentaâ—…es but I cannot remember which these things as I said before are rather pertinent to chance then schollership c Good mens As to Hercules Dionysius and Aeneas d Great The translation of Hera For Proserpina whom
knowledge of it then the draught 〈◊〉 dust and iustice is one in the changelesse truth and another in the 〈◊〉 â—…oule And so of the rest as the firmament betweene the waters aboue 〈◊〉 called heauen the gathering of the waters the apparance of land 〈◊〉 â—…f plants creation of foules and fishes of the water and foure fooâ—…ed 〈◊〉 â—…he earth and last of man the most excelling creature of all All these the 〈◊〉 â—…scerned in the Word of God where they had their causes of their proâ—…â—…mmoueable and fixed otherwise then in them selues clearer in him 〈◊〉 in them-selues yet referring all those workes to the Creators praise 〈◊〉 â—…ke morning in the mindes of these contemplators L. VIVES 〈◊〉 a plainer They haue both sharper wittes then we and the light whereby they 〈◊〉 â—…he â—…rinity is farre brighter then that by which wee know our selues creaâ—…â—…owing â—…owing the effect better in the cause then in it selfe c The vnderstanding Matheâ—…â—…ciples giue better knowledge of times and figures then draughts which can neâ—…â—…ct as to present the thing to the eye truly as it is and better conceiue wee by 〈◊〉 a straight line is the shortest draught from point to point and that all lines drawne 〈◊〉 â—…ter to the cyrcle are equall by the precepts of Geometry rather then by all the 〈◊〉 â—…f dust nay of Parrhasius or Apelles d Dust The old Mathematicians drew â—…tions in dust wiâ—…h a compasse the better to put out or in what they would This 〈◊〉 was a dooing when Syracusa was taken Liu. Tully calleth it learned dust De nat 〈◊〉 secto in puluere metas saith Persius Lines in diuided dust Satyr 1. 〈◊〉 perfection of the number of sixe the first is complete in all the parts CHAP. 30. â—…ese were performed in sixe dayes because of the perfection of the a 〈◊〉 of six one being six times repeated not that God was tied vnto time 〈◊〉 not haue created all at once and afâ—…erwards haue bound the motions 〈◊〉 â—…ngruence but because that number signified the perfection of the 〈◊〉 six is b the first number that is filled by coniunction of the parts the 〈◊〉 â—…ird and the halfe which is one two and three all which conioyned 〈◊〉 â—…arts in numbers are those that may be described of how c many they 〈◊〉 â—…alfe a third a fourth and so forth But foure being in nine yet is no iust 〈◊〉 one is the ninth part aâ—…d three the third part But these two parts one 〈◊〉 are farre from making nine the whole So foure is a part of ten but no 〈◊〉 â—…one is the tenth part two the fifâ—… fiue the second yet these three parts 〈◊〉 5 make not vp full ten but eight onely As for the number of twelfe 〈◊〉 exceed it For there is one the twelfe part six the second foure the third 〈◊〉 fourth and two the sixt But one two three foure and sixe make aboue 〈◊〉 â—…mely sixteene This by the way now to prooue the perfection of the 〈◊〉 of fixe the first as I said that is made of the coniunction of the parts 〈◊〉 did God make perfect all his workes Wherefore this number is not to â—…d but hath the esteeme apparantly confirmed by many places of scripâ—…â—…r was it said in vaine of Gods workes Thou madest all things in number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 measure L. VIVES THe a number Pythagoras and Plato after him held all things to be disposed by numbers teaching them so mysteriously that it seemed they sought to conceale them from the expresse professors not onely the prophane vulgar Our diuines both Greeke Latine put many mysteries in numbers But Hierome the most of all affirming that the Euangelist omitted some of Christs progenie to make the rest fall in a fit number b For six The perfection of a number is to consist of all the parts such are scarce in Arithmetique and such is sixe onely within ten and twenty seauen within a hundred for this latter consists of 1. 2. 4. 7. and 14. The mysterie of the creation is conteined in the number of sixe Hier. in Ezech. c Of how many as an halfe a fourth a fift sixth c. foure in nine is neither halfe three nor foure and so vp to the ninth as farre as nine goeth For the least quantitatiue part nameth the number as the twelfth of twelue the twentith in twentie and that is alwayes an vnite This kinde of part we call an aliquote Euclide calleth an aliquote onely a part the rest parts For his two definitions his third and his fourth are these A part is a lesse number diuiding a greater Parts are they that diuide not And so the old writers vsed these words Of the seauenth day the day of rest and complete perfection CHAP. 31. BVt in the seauenth day that is the a seuenth repetition of the first day which number hath perfection also in another kinde God rested and gaue the first rule of sanctification therein The day that had no euen God would not sanctifie in his workes but in rest For there is none of his workes but being considered first in God and then in it selfe will produce a day knowledge and an euens Of the perfection of seauen I could say much but this volume groweth bigge and I feare I shall be held rather to take occasion to shew my small skill then to respect others edification Therefore we must haue a care of grauitie and moderation least running all vpon number b wee bee thought neglecters of weight and measure c Let this bee a sufficient admonition d that three is the first number wholy odde and foure wholy euen and these two make seauen which is therefore often-times put for e all as here The iust shall fall seauen times a day and arise againe that is how oft soeuer hee fall hee shall rise againe This is not meant of iniquitie but of tribulation drawing him to humility Againe Seauen times a day will I praise thee the same hee had sayd before His praise shall bee alwayes in my mouth Many such places as these the Scripture hath to prooue the number of seauen to bee often vsed for all vniuersally Therefore is the holy spirit called often-times f by this number of whom Christ said Hee shall teach vs all truth There is Gods rest wherein wee rest in God In this whole in this perfection is rest in the part of it was labour Therefore wee labour because wee know as yet but in part but when perfection is come that which is in part shall be abolished This makes vs search the scriptures so labouriously But the holy Angels vnto whose glorious congregation our toylesome pilgrimage casts a long looke as they haue eternall permanence so haue they easie knowledge and happy rest in God helping vs without ttouble because their spirituall pure and free motions are without labour L. VIVES THe a seauenth Signifying all things created at once b Wee be thought alluding to the precedent saying God made
not exclude numbers from Gods knowledge Plato hauing so commended God for vsing them in the worlds creation and our Scripture saith of God Tâ—… 〈◊〉 ordered al things in measure number and weight and the Prophet saith He 〈◊〉 the world and the Gospell saith All the heires of your heads are numbred God forbid the that we should think yâ— he knoweth not number whose wisdome 〈◊〉 â—…standing is in numerably infinite as Dauid saith for the infinitenesse of 〈◊〉 â—…hough it bee beyond number is not vnknowne to him whose knowâ—… infinite Therefore if whatsoeuer bee knowne be comprehended in the 〈◊〉 that knowledge then is all infinitenesse bounded in the knowledge of 〈◊〉 â—…ecause his knowledge is infinite and because it is not vncomprehensiâ—… 〈◊〉 knowledge Wherefore if numbers infinitenesse bee not infinite vnâ—… knowledge nor cannot bee what are wee meane wretches that dare preâ—…â—…mit his knowledge or say that if this reuolution bee not admitted in 〈◊〉 renewing God cannot either fore-know althings ere hee made them 〈◊〉 them when hee made them whereas his wisdome beeing simply and â—…ly manifold can comprehend all incomprehensibility by his incomâ—…le comprehension so that whatsoeuer thing that is new and vnlike to all 〈◊〉 should please to make it could not bee new nor strange vnto him nor 〈◊〉 â—…ore-see it a little before but containe it in his eternall prescience L. VIVES 〈◊〉 Two men two horses or whatsoeuer make both one number I inquire not 〈◊〉 â—…hether the number and the thing numbred bee one or no the schooles ring of that â—…gh b Doth not The best reading Of the worlds without end or ages of ages CHAP. 19. 〈◊〉 doth so and that there is a continual connexion of those times which 〈◊〉 â—…lled Secula a seculorum ages of ages or worlds without end running 〈◊〉 indestinate difference onely the soules that are freed from misery reâ—…â—…ernally blessed or that these words Secula seculorum doe import the 〈◊〉 remayning firme in Gods wisdome and beeing the efficient cause of â—…ory world I dare not affirme The singular may bee an explication of 〈◊〉 as if wee should say Heauen of heauen for the Heauens of heauens â—…D calls the firmament aboue which the waters are Heauen in the sinâ—… 〈◊〉 and yet the Psalme saith and you waters that bee aboue the Heauens 〈◊〉 of the LORD Which of those two it be or whether Secula 〈◊〉 another meaning is a deepe question We may let it passe it belongs 〈◊〉 proposed theame but whether wee could define or but obserue 〈◊〉 discourse let vs not aduenture to affirme ought rashly in so obsâ—…â—…ouersie Now are wee in hand with the circulary persons that 〈◊〉 â—…ings round about till they become repaired But which of these opiniâ—… be true concerning these Secula seculorum it is nothing to these reuoâ—…â—…cause whether the worlds of worlds bee not the same revolued but oâ—…â—…uely depending on the former the freed soules remayning still 〈◊〉 â—…lesse blisse or whether the Worldes of worldes bee the formes 〈◊〉 â—…sitorie ages and ruling them as their subiects yet the circulariâ—…â—…o place heere how-soeuer The Saints b eternall life ouerthroweth 〈◊〉 L. VIVES 〈◊〉 a The scriptures often vse these two words both together Hierome in â—…p ad Gal. expounds them thus we 〈◊〉 saith he the difference betweene Seculum Seculum Secuâ—… and secula seculorum Seculuâ—… some-times a space of time some-times eternity the hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and when it is written with the letter van before it it is eternity when otherwise it is 50. yeares or a Iubily And therefore the Hebrew seruant that loued his Maister for his wife and children had his care bored and was commanded to serue an age Seculum 50. yeares And the Moabites and Amonites enter not into the Church of God vntill the 15. generation and not vntill an age for the yeare of Iubily quit all hard conditions Some say that Seculum seculorum hath the same respect that Sanctu Sanctorum Caelum Caelorum the Heauens of heauens had or as the Works of workes or Song of songs That difference that the heauens had to those whose heauens they were and so the rest the holy aboue all holy the song excelling all songs c. So was secula seculorum the ages excelling all ages So they say that this present age includeth all from the worlds beginning vnto the iudgement And then they goe further and begin to graduate the ages past before and to come after it whether they were or shal be good or ill falling into such a forrest of questions as whole volumes haue beene written onely of this kinde b Eternall Returning no more to misery nor were that happy without certeynty of eternity nor eternall if death should end it Of that impious assertion that soules truely blessed shall haue diuers reuolutions into misery againe CHAP. 20. FOr what a Godly eares can endure to heare that after the passage of this life in such misery if I may call it a life b being rather so offensiue a death and yet c we loue it rather then that death that frees vs from it after so many intollerable mischieues ended all at length by true zeale and piety wee should be admitted to the sight of God and bee placed in the fruition and perticipation of that incorporeall light and vnchangeable immortall essence with loue of which we burne all vpon this condition to leaue it againe at length and bee re-infolded in mortall misery amongst the hellish immortalls where GOD is lost where truth is sought by hate where blessednesse is sought by vncleanesse and bee cast from all enioying of eternity truth or felicity and this not once but often being eternally reuolued by the course of the times from the first to the later and all this because by meanes of these circularities transforming vs and our false beaâ—…des in true miseries successiuely but yet eternally GOD might come to â—…ow his owne workes Whereas otherwise hee should neither bee able to rest from working not know ought that is infinite Who can heare or endure this Which were it true there were not onely more wit in concealing it but also 〈◊〉 speake my minde as I can more learning in not knowing it d for if wee shalbâ—…â—…ssed in not remembring them there e why doe wee agrauate our misery 〈◊〉 knowing them here But if wee must needs know them there yet let vs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 selues ignorant of them here to haue the happier expectation then the 〈◊〉 that wee shall attaine here expecting blessed eternity and there 〈◊〉 onely blisse but with assurance that it is but transitory But if they â—…y that no man can attaine this blisse vnlesse hee know the transitory reuolutions thereof ere hee leaue this life how then doe they confesse that the more one loues GOD the easilier shall hee attaine blisse and yet teach the way how 〈◊〉 â—…ll this louing affect 〈◊〉 will not but loue him lightly whome hee
it to bee diffused froÌ„ the midst of earth geometrically called the c center vnto the extreamest parts of heaueÌ„ through al the parts of the world by d misticall numbers making the world a blessed creature whose soule enioyeth ful happines of wisdom yet leaueth not the body wose bodie liueteh eternally by it and as though it consist of so many different 〈◊〉 yet can neither dull it nor hinder it Seeing then that they giue their conâ—…res this scope why will they not beleeue that God hath power to eternize 〈◊〉 bodies wherein the soules without being parted from them by death or 〈◊〉 â—…rdened by them at all in life may liue most in blessed eternity as they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gods doe in firy bodies and their Iupiter in all the foure elements If 〈◊〉 â—…es cannot be blessed without the bodies bee quite forsaken why then let 〈◊〉 â—…ods get them out of the starres let Iupiter pack out of the elements if they 〈◊〉 goe then are they wretched But they will allow neither of these they 〈◊〉 â—…uerre that the Gods may leaue their bodies least they should seeme to â—…ip mortalls neither dare they barre them of blisse least they should conâ—…â—…em wretches Wherefore all bodies are not impediments to beatitude but 〈◊〉 the corruptible transitory and mortall ones not such as God made man 〈◊〉 but such as his sinne procured him afterwards L. VIVES 〈◊〉 a must This is scripture that the body is earth and must become earth Homer 〈◊〉 it the Grecians for he calls Hectors carcasse earth Phocylides an ancient writer 〈◊〉 thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Our body is of earth and dying must Returne to earth for Man is made of dust 〈◊〉 â—…er hath also the like recited by Tully Tusc. qu. 1. wherein the words that Augustine 〈◊〉 â—…xtant Mors est finitas omnibus quae generi humano angorem Nec quicquam afferunt reddenda est terra terra Of all the paines wherein Mans soule soiournes Death is the end all earth to earth returnes 〈◊〉 â—…t the gods Some bookes read terrene gods falsly Augustine hath nothing to doe 〈◊〉 â—…e gods in this place c Center A center is that point in the midst of a sphaericall 〈◊〉 â—…m whence all lines drawne to the circumference are equall It is an indiuisible point 〈◊〉 â—…d parts neither should it bee all in the midst nor the lines drawne from it to the cirâ—… equall as not beeing all drawne from one part Plato placeth the worldes 〈◊〉 the center and so distends it circularly throughout the whole vniuerse and then 〈◊〉 â—…ng his position makes the diuine power aboue diffuse it selfe downe-ward euen 〈◊〉 â—…ter d Musicall numbers Hereof see Macrobius Chalcidins and Marsilius Ficinus 〈◊〉 â—…at of Plato's Timaeus which he either translated or reformed from the hand of anâ—…â—…ese numbers for their obscurity are growne into a prouerbe Of the terrene bodies which the Philosophers hold cannot be in heauen but must fall to earth by their naturall weight CHAP. 18. 〈◊〉 but say they an earthly body is either kept on earth or caried to 〈◊〉 â—…th by the naturall weight and therefore cannot bee in heauen The first 〈◊〉 â—…de were in a wooddie and fruitfull land which was called Paradise But 〈◊〉 we must resolue this doubt seeing that both Christs body is already asâ—…d and that the Saints at the resurrection shall doe so also let vs ponder these earthly weights a little If mans arte of a mettall that being put into the water sinketh can yet frame a vessell that shall swim how much more credible is it for Gods secret power whose omnipotent will as Plato saith can both keepe things produced from perishing and parts combined from dissoluing whereas the combination of corporall and vncorporeall is a stranger and harder operation then that of corporalls with corporalls to take a all weight from earthly things whereby they are carried downe-wards and to qualifie the bodies of the blessed soules so as though they bee terrene yet they may bee incorruptible and apt to ascend descend or vse what motion they will with all celerity Or b if the Angells can transport bodily weights whether they please must we thinke they doe it with toile and feeling of the burden Why then may we not beleeue that the perfect spirits of the blessed can carry their bodies whither they please and place them where they please for whereas in our bodily carriage of earthly things we feele that the c more bigge it is the heauier it is and the heauier the more toile-some to beare it is not so with the soule the soule carrieth the bodily members better when they are big and strong then when they are small and meagre and whereas a big sound man is heauier to others shoulders then a leane sicke man yet will he mooue his healthfull heauinesse with farre more agility then the other can doe his crasie lightnesse or then he can himselfe if famine or sicknesse haue shaken off his flesh This power hath good temperature more then great weight in our mortal earthly corruptible bodies And who can describe the infinite difference betweene our present health and our future immortality Let not the Philosophers therefore oppose vs with any corporall weight or earthly ponderosity I will not aske them why an earthly body may not bee in heauen as well as d the whole earth may hang alone without any supportation for perhaps they will retire their disputation to the center of the world vnto which all heauy things doe tend But this I say that if the lesser Gods whose worke Plato maketh Man all other liuing things with him could take away the quality of burning from the fire and leaue it the light e which the eye transfuseth shall wee then doubt that that GOD vnto whose will hee ascribes their immortality the eternall coherence and indissolubility of those strange and diuers combinations of corporealls and incorporealls can giue man a nature that shall make him liue incorruptible and immortal keeping the forme of him and auoyding the weight But of the faith of the resurrection and the quality of the immortall bodies more exactly God willing in the end of the worke L. VIVES ALL a weight These are Gods admirable workes and it is the merit of our faith that we owe vnto God to beleeue them I wonder the schoolemen will inquire of these things define them by the rules of nature b If the Angells To omit the schooles and naturall reasons herein is the power of an Angell seene that in one night God smote 80000 men of the Assyrians campe by the hand of an Angel 4. Kings 19. Now let Man go brag of his weaknesse c The world big Here is no need of predicamentall distinctions hee vseth big for the maâ—… weight not for the quantity d The whole earth It hangs not in nothing for it hangs in the ayre yet would ayre giue it way but that it hath gotten the
him this many yeares at the time of his departure But if it were made then then was Abraham with his father in Charra for hee could not depart from thence vnlesse hee had first inhabited there Doth not this then contradict Steuens saying That God appeared vnto him in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Charra But we must conceiue that this was in one yeare Gods promise to Abraham first Abrahams dwelling in Charra next and lastly his departure not onely because Eusebius his computation is thus accounting foure hundred thirty yeares from this yeare vnto the Israelites freedome out of Egipt but also because the Apostle b Paul mentioneth it like-wise L. VIVES EUsebius a thinketh These are his words Arius the fourth raigning in Assyria and Tâ—…alassion in Sycionia Abraham being seuentie fiue yeares old was spoken vnto by God and receiued the promise b Paul Galat. 3. 17. The law which was giuen foure hundred and thirty yeares after the promise made vnto Abraham Of the three most eminent kingdomes of the world the chiefe of which in Abrahams time was most excellent of all CHAP. 17. AT this time there were diuers famous kingdoms vpon earth that is society of men liuing carnally in the seruice of the apostaticall powers three of which were most illustrious the a Sycionians the b Egiptians the Assyrians which was the greatest of all For Ninus the sonne of Belus conquered al Asia excepting India only I do not meane by Asia c which is now but one prouince of the greater Asia but that which contained it all which some make the third part of the world diuiding the whole earth into Asia Europe Africa some d make it the 〈◊〉 diuiding the whole into two onely Others diuide all into three e equall 〈◊〉 Asia in the East from the North to the South Europe f from the 〈◊〉 to the West and g Africa from the West vnto the South so that Europe and Africke are but the halfe of the world and Asia the other halfe but the 〈◊〉 first were made two parts because h all the water that commeth from the 〈◊〉 runs in betwixt them two making i our great sea So that diuide but the world into two and Asia shall be one halfe and Europe and Africk the other Therefore Sicyonia one of the three eminent kingdomes was not vnder the Assyâ—… monarchie for it lay in Europe But k Egipt must needs be inferior vnto 〈◊〉 seeing that the Assyrians were Lords of all Asia excepting India So 〈◊〉 citty of the wicked kept the chiefe court in Assyria whose chiefe citty 〈◊〉 â—…bylon most fitly called so that is confusion and there Ninus succeeded 〈◊〉 â—…her Belus who had held that souerainty three score and fiue yeares and 〈◊〉 â—…ne Ninus liued fiftie two yeares and had reigned fortie and fiue yeares 〈◊〉 Abraham was borne which was about a thousand two hundred yeares beâ—…â—…ome was built that other Babylon of the West L. VIVES 〈◊〉 a Sicyonians Sicyon is an ancient citty on the left hand as you come into Peloponeâ—… â—…gialeus as Pausanias and Eusebius say was the first King thereof Sicyonia is a little 〈◊〉 in Achaia but the kings of it ruled Achaia and Sycion was their place of abode It 〈◊〉 Achaia and Aegialia of the Kings thereof in old time Pliny And all Peloponesus 〈◊〉 there-after Euseb. Afterwards it was called Apia of king Apis the fourth and 〈◊〉 â—…oponesus of Pelops quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pelops I le for it is an halfe Iland Pausanias 〈◊〉 Peloponesus was not called Aegialia but onely that part towards the sea quasi 〈◊〉 â—…all or sea-coasting and afterwards Sicyonia of King Sicyon of him hereafter 〈◊〉 The Thebaeans ruled here in those daies a country in Delta named so by the rich 〈◊〉 citty of Thebes c That which Of Asia minor hereafter d Some make it 〈◊〉 Salust diuided the world but into two parts Asia and Europe making Africa a 〈◊〉 â—…pe In Bello Iugurth There-vpon Sylius saith of Lybia that it was either a great 〈◊〉 or the third part of the world Those that diuide not Africa from Europe doe 〈◊〉 the temperature of the windes and vpon the heauens as Lucane saith lib 〈◊〉 Tertia pars rerum Lybie si credere famae Cuncta velis at si ventos calumque sequaris Pars erit Europae nec enim plus littora Nili Quà m Scythicus Tanais primus à Gadibus absunt Lybia's the worlds third part or authors lye But if you ground vpon the windes and skie 'T is part of Europe Tanais shores and Niles Lie a like distant from the Gades Iles. 〈◊〉 â—…ward vpon this question e Equall Some read vnequall better For Africke is 〈◊〉 Europe and Asia greater then both which lieth in a larger quantity to the East 〈◊〉 Africa and the sea betweene them both conteineth as Mela saith but hee folâ—…â—…olde tradition for wee haue now discouered a great part of Africa towards the 〈◊〉 â—…owne before f Europe from the North On the North side Europe is bounded 〈◊〉 sea and the Brittish Ocean On the West with the Atlantike Ocean on the 〈◊〉 â—…he Mediterrane sea and on the East with Hellespont the two Bosphori the 〈◊〉 and the riuer of Tanais g Africa Africa is bounded on the East 〈◊〉 on the West with the Atlanticke sea on the North with our sea and on the south 〈◊〉 â—…opian Ocean But thus the old writers vnperfectly limited it the Portugalles 〈◊〉 â—…ed it farre more fully h All the water The Bruges coppy readeth because our sea comes from the Ocean betweene them both The sea that the Greekes and Latines call the Mediterrane sea is ours for no other sea comes neare them It stretcheth according to Mela from Hercules his pillers to the Bay of Issus on the East to Meotis and Tanais on the North lying betweene Europe and Africa in one-place and betweene Europe and Asia in another i Our great sea That which floweth from the Ocean vpon the coasts of Europe and Africa and is broadest betweene the bayes of Liguria and Hippon where Augustine dwelt who therefore calleth it great k Egipt must Egipt was not all Asia but a part of it lying from Nilus to the East yet did it not obey the Assyrians but was a mighty kingdome of it selfe and made great warres vpon Assyria and ouer-ran much of it if we may giue credence to their bookes Of Gods second promise to Abraham that hee and his seede should possesse the land of Canaan CHAP. 18. SO Abraham at the seuentie fiue yeare of his owne age and the hundred forty fiue of his fathers left Charra and tooke Lot his brothers sonne with him and Sara his wife and came into the land of Canaan euen vnto a Sichem where he receiued this second promise The Lord appeared vnto Abraham and said vnto thy seede will I giue this land This promise concerned not that seed of his whereby hee was to become
their noses Actisanes the King of Ethiopia saith Diodorus Siculus lib. 2. hauing conquered all Egipt partly by force and part by condition set vp a new lawe for theeues neither acquitting them nor punishing them with death but getting them altogether hee punished them thus first he cut off their noses and then forced them to goe into the farthest parts of the deserts and there he built a citty for them called Rhinocorura of there want of noses and this standeth in the confines of Egipt and Arabia voide of all things fit for the life of man for all the water of the country is salt and there is but one fountaine wtihin the walls and that is most bitter and vnprofitable Thus farre Diodorus Of Agar Sara her bond-vvoman vvhom she gaue as concubine vnto Abraham CHAP. 25. NOw follow the times of Abrahams sonnes one of Agar the bond-woman the other of Sara the free-woman of whom we spake also in the last booke bâ—… now for this act Abraham offended not in vsing of this woman Agar as a concubine for hee did it for progeny sake and not for lust nor as insulting but obeying his wife who held that it would bee a comfort vnto her barrennesse if she got children from her bond-woman by will seeing shee could get none of her selfe by nature vsing that law that the Apostle speaketh of The husband hath not power of his owne bodie but the wife The woman may procure her selfe children from the wombe of another if shee cannot beare none her selfe There is neither luxury nor vncleannesse in such an act The maide was therefore giuen by the wife to the hushand for Issues sake and for that end hee tooke her neither of them desire the effects of lust but the fruites of nature and when as the bond-woman being now with child beganne to despise her barren mistresse and Sara suspected her husband for bearing with her in her pride Abraham shewed that he was not a captiued louer but a free father in this and that it was not his pleasure but her will that hee had fulfilled and that by her owne seeking that he medled with Agar but yet was no way entangled in affect vnto her and sowed the seed of future fruite in her but yet without yeelding to any exorbitant affection to her for he told his wife Thy maide is in thine hâ—…nd vse her as it pleaseth thee Oh worthy man that could vse his wife with temperance and his seruant with obedience and both without all touch of vncleannesse Of Gods promise vnto Abraham that Sara though she were old should haue a sonne that should be the father of the nation and how this promise was sealed in the mistery of circumcision CHAP. 26. AFter this Ismael was borne of Agar in whome it might bee thought that GODS promise to Abraham was fulfilled who when hee talked of makeing his Steward his heire GOD sayd Nay but thou shalt haue an heire of thine 〈◊〉 bodie But least hee should build vpon this in the foure score and nineteene yeare of his age GOD appeared vnto him saying I am the all-fufficient GOD 〈◊〉 before mee and bee thou vpright and I will make my couenant betweene mee 〈◊〉 thee and will multiply thee exceedingly Then Abraham fell on his face and GOD talked with him saying Behold I make my couenant with thee thou 〈◊〉 bee a father of many nations Nor shall thy name bee called Abram any more 〈◊〉 Abraham for a father of many Nations haue I made thee I will make thee â—…ding fruitfull and many Nations yea euen Kings shall proceed of thee And I â—…ill establish my couenant betweene mee and thee and thy seed after thee in their gâ—…tions for an euerlasting couenant to be GOD to thee and thy seed after thee 〈◊〉 will giue thee and thy seede after thee a Land wherein thou art a stranger euen 〈◊〉 the Land of Canaan for an euerlasting possession and I wâ—…lbee their GOD and GOD said further vnto Abraham thou shalt keepe my couenant thou and thy seed after thee in their generations this is my couenant which thou shalt keepe betweene thee and me and thy seed after thee let euery man-child â—…f you bee circumcised that is 〈◊〉 shall circumcise the fore-skinne of your flesh and it shal be a signe of the coâ—… betweene mee and you Euery man child of eight daies old amongst you shal be â—…ised in your generation aswell hee that is borne in thine house or he that is 〈◊〉 of any stranger which is not of thy seed both must bee circumcised so my coueâ—… shal be eternally in you But the vncircumcised man-child and he in whose flesh the 〈◊〉 â—…ne is not circumcised shal be cut off from his people because he hath broken my couenant And God sayd more vnto Abraham Sarai thy wife shall bee no more called Sarai but Sarah and I will blesse her and will giue thee a sonne of her and I will blesse her and she shal be the mother of nations yea euen of Kings Then Abraham fell vpon his face and laughed in his heart saying Shall he that is an hundered yeares old haue a child and shall Sarah that is ninety yeares old beare and Abraham said vnto God Oh let Ismael liue in thy sight and GOD said vnto Abraham Sarah thy wife shall be are a sonne indeed and thou shall call his name Isaac I will establish my couenant with him as an euerlasting couenant and I a wil be his GOD and the GOD of his seed after him as concerning Ismael I haue heard thee for I haue blessed him and will multiply and increase him exceedingly twelue Princes shall hee beget and I will make him a great Nation But my couenant will I establish with Isaac whom Sarah shall beare vnto the next yeare by this time Here now is the calling of the Nations plainly promised in Isaac that is in the son of promise signifying grace and not nature for a sonne is promised vnto an old man by a barren old woman and although God worketh according to the course of nature yet where that nature is withered and wasted there such an effect as this is Gods euident worke denouncing grace the more apparantly and because this was not to come by generation but regeneration afterwards therefore was circumcision commanded now when this sonne was promised vnto Sarah and whereas all children seruants vnborne strangers are commanded to be circumcised this sheweth that grace belongeth vnto all the world for what doth circumcision signifie but the putting off corruption and the renouation of nature and what doth the eight day signifie but Christ that rose againe in the end of the weeke the sabboth being fulfilled b The very names of these parents beeing changed all signifieth that newnesse which is shadowed in the types of the old Testament in which the New one lieth prefigured for why is it called the Old Testament but for that it shadoweth the New and what
and the elder to the worlds The yonger had twelue sonnes one whereof called Ioseph his brothers solde vnto Marchants going into Egipt in their grand-father Isaacs time Ioseph liued by his humility in great fauour and aduancement with Pharao being now thirty yeares old For he interpreted the Kings dreames fore-telling the seauen plentious yeares and the seauen deare ones which would consume the plenty of the other and for this the King set him at liberty being before imprisoned for his true chastity in not consenting to his lustfull mystresse but fled and left his raiment with her who here-vpon falsly complained to her husband of him and afterwards hee made him Vice-roye of all Egypt And in the second yeare of scarcity Iacob came into Egipt with his sonnes being one hundred and thirty yeares old as he told the King Ioseph being thirty nine when the King aduanced him thus the 7. plentifull yeares and the two deare ones being added to his age L. VIVES MEssappus a Pausanias nameth no such saying Leucyppus had no sonne but Chalcinia one daughter who had Perattus by Neptune whom his grand-father Leucippus brought vp and left inthroned in his kingdome Eusebius saith Mesappus reigned forty seauen yeares If 〈◊〉 were Mesappus then doubtlesse it was Calcinias husband of whom mount Mesappus in Baeotia and Mesapia otherwise called Calabria in Italy had their names Virgil maketh him Neptunes sonne a tamer of horses and invulnerable Aeneid 7. b Cephisus A riuer in Boeotia in whose banke standeth the temple of Themis the Oracle that taught Deucalion and Pyrrha how to restore mankinde It runnes from Pernassus thorow the countries of Boeotia and the Athenian territory And Mesappus either had his names from this riuer and that 〈◊〉 or they had theirs from him or rather most likely the mount had his name and hee had the riuers because it ranne through his natiue soile c Apis Hee is not in Pausanias amongst the Argiue kings but amongst the Sycionians and was there so ritch that all the countrey within Isthmus bare his name before Pelops came But Eusebius out of the most Greekes seateth him in Argos Of Apis the Argiue King called Serapis in Egipt and there adored as a deity CHAP. 5. AT this time did Apis king of Argos saile into Egipt and dying there was called Serapis the greatest God of Egipt The reason of the changing his name saith Varro is this a dead mans coffin which all do now call b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also in Greeke so at first they worshipped at his coffin and tombe ere his temple were built calling him at first Sorosapis or Sorapis and afterwards by change of a letter as is ordinary Serapis And they made a lawe that who-soeuer should say hee had beene a man should dye the death And because that in all the c temples of Isis and Serapis there was an Image with the finger laid vpon the mouth as commanding silence this was saith Varro to shew them that they must not say that those two were euer mortall And d the Oxe which Egypt being wonderously and vainly seduced e nourished in all pleasures and fatnesse vnto the honor of Serapis because they did not worship him in a 〈◊〉 was not called Serapis but Apis which Oxe being dead and they seeking 〈◊〉 and finding another flecked of colour iust as hee was here they thought they had gotten a great God by the foote It was not such an hard matter â—…deed for the deuills to imprinte the imagination of such a shape in any Cowes phantasie at her time of conception to haue a meane to subuert the soules of men and the Cowes imagination would surely model the conception into such a forme as g Iacobs ewes did and his shee goates by seeing the party-colored stickes for that which man can doe with true collours the Diuell can do with apparitions and so very easily frame such shapes L VIVES AT a this time Diodorus lib 1. reciteth many names of Osyris as Dionysius Serapis â—…e Ammon Pan Pluto Tacitus arguing Serapis his original saith that some thought him to be Aesculapius the Phisitian-god and others tooke him for Osyris Egypts ancient est deity lib. 20. Macrobius taketh him for the sunne and Isis for the earth Te Serapim Nilus 〈◊〉 Marlianus to the sunne Memphis veneratur Osyrim Nilus adoreth thee as serapis aâ—… Memphis as Osiris Some held Serapis the genius of Egypt making it fertile and abundant His statues saith Suidas Theophilus Archbishop of Alexandria tooke downe in the time of â—…odosius the great This god some called Ioue some Nilus because of the measure that he had in his hand and the cubite designing the measures of the water and some Ioseph Some â—…y there was one Apis a rich King of Memphis who in a great famine releeued all Alexandria at his proper cost and charges where-vpon they erected a Temple to him when hee was dead and kept an Oxe therein for a type of his husbandry hauing certaine spots on his backe and this Oxe was called by his name Apis. His tombe wherein he was buâ—…ed was remoued to Alexandria and so him-selfe of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Apis was called Sorapis and afterwards â—…pis Alexander built him a goodly temple Thus much out of Suidas and the like is in 〈◊〉 Eccles. Hist. lib. 11. The Argiues King saith Eusebius Prep lib. 10 out of Aristippus his â—…ry of Arcadia lib. 2. called Apis built Memphis in Egypt whome Aristeus the Argiue calleth Sarapis and this man we know is worshipped in Egypt as a god But Nimphodorus Amphipolitanus de legib Asiatic lib. 3. saith that the Oxe called Apis dying was put into a â—…ffin called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke and so called first Sorapis and then Serapis The man Apis â—…s the third King after Inachus Thus farre Eusebius b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is the deuâ—… of flesh Therefore Pausanias Porphyry Suidas and other Greekes call him not Sorapis but Sarapis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a chest an Arke or a coffin c Temples of Isis and Osyris were buried at Nâ—…a as some thinke sayth Diodorus lib. 1 A citty in Arabia where two pillers were erected for monuments one for her and another for him and epitaphs vpon them contayned their acts and inuentions But that which was in the Priests hands might neuer come to light for feare of reuealing the truth and dearely must hee pay for it that published it This God that laid his finger on his lips in signe of silence hight Harpocrates varro de ling lat lib. 3. where he affirmeth that Isis and Serapis were the two great Gods Earth and heauen This Harpocrates Ausonius calleth Sigalion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be silent Pliny and Catullus mencion him often when they note a silent fellow and his name is prouerbiall Plutarch lib. de â—…s Osyr saith hee was their sonne gotten by Osyris vpon
Appollo's games in the spring commanding all then hee was chiefe also of the Court where causes of violence slander defraudations of wards elections of guardians letting out of the fatherlesse childrens houses c. were dispatched all these must passe his seale Thus Pollux Before Solons lawes they might not giue iudgement but each in a seuerall place The president hee sat at the Bucolaeum not farre from the Councell-house The Generall in the Lycaeum the Counsellours in the Thesmotium The Archou at the brazen statues called Exonimi where the lawes were fixed ere they were approued e Dauid There was neuer such a paire of men in the world princes or priuate men as were these two Dauid and Salomon the father and the sonne the first for humility honesty and prophecy the second for wisdome Of him and of the Temple hee built Eupolemus and Timochares prophane Authors doe make mention Lact. Inst. diu lib. 4. saith that hee reigned one hundered and forty yeares before the Troyan warre whereas it was iust so long after it ere hee beganne to reigne Either the author or the transcriber are farre mistaken f Roboam In him was the prouerbe fulfilled a good father hath often-times a badde sonne for hee like a foole fallen quite from his fathers wisdome would needes hold the people in more awe then his father had done before him and so lost tenne tribes of his twelue and they chose them a King calling him King of Israel leauing the name of the King of Iuda to him and his posterity that reigned but ouer that and the tribe of Beniamin for Leui belonging to the temple of God at Ierusalem was free Of the latian Kings Aeneas the first and Auentinus the twelfth are made gods CHAP. 21. LAtium after Aeneas their first deified king had eleauen more and none of them deified But Auentinus the twelfth beeing slaine in warre and buried on that hill that beares his name he was put into the calender of their men gods Some say he was not killed but vanished away and that mount Auentine a had not the name from him but from another after him was no more gods made in Latium but Romulus the builder of Rome betwixt whom and Auentine were two Kings one Virgil nameth saying Proximus ille Procas Troianae gloria gentis In whose time because Rome was now vpon hatching the great monarchy of Assyria tooke end For now after one thousand three hundred fiue years couÌ„ting Belus his reigne also in that little Kingdome at first it was remooued to the Medes Procas reigned before Amulius Now Amulius had made Rhea or Ilia his brother Numitors daughter a vestall Virgin and Mars they say lay with her thus they honour her whore-dome and begot two twins on her who for a proose of their fore-said excuse for her they say were cast out and yet a she-wolfe the beast of Mars came and fedde them with her dugges as acknowledging the sonnes of her Lord and Maister Now some doe say that there was an whore found them when they were first cast out and shee sucked them vp Now they called whores Lupae shee wolues and the stewes vnto this daie are called Lupaâ—… Afterwardes Fastulus a shep-heard had them say they and his wife Acca brought them vppe Well what if GOD to taxe the bloudy minde of the King that commanded to drowne them preserued them from the water and sent this beast to giue them nourishment is this any wonder Numitor Romulus his grand-sire succeeded his brother Amulius in the Kingdome of Latium and in the first yeare of his reigne was Rome built so that from thence forward hee and Roâ—…s reigned together in Italy L. VIVES AVentine a had not It hath many deriuations saith Uarro Naeuius deriueth it ab auibus from the birds that flew thence to Tyber Others of Auentinus the Alban King there buried Others ab aduentu hominum of the resort of men for there stood Dianas temple comâ—… to all Latium But I thinke it comes rather ab aduectu of carrying to it for it was whiâ—… seuered from all the cittie by fennes and therefore they were faine to bee rowed to it in â—…pes And seeing wee doe comment some-what largely in this perticular booke for cuâ—… heads take this with yee too Auentine was quite without the precinct of Rome either because that the people encamped there in their mutiny or because that there came no fortuâ—… birds vnto it in Remus his Augury Rome founded at the time of the Assyrian Monarchies fall Ezechias being King of Iuda CHAP. 22. BRiefly Rome a the second Babilon daughter of the first by which it pleased God to quell the whole world and fetch it all vnder one soueraignty was now founded The world was now full of hardy men painfull and well practised in warre They were stubborne and not to bee subdued but with infinite labour and danger In the conquests of the Assyrians ouer all Asia the warres were of farre lighter accompt the people were to seeke in their defenses nor was the world so populous For it was not aboue a thousand yeares after that vniuersall â—…luge wherein all died but Noah and his family that Ninus conquered all Asia excepting India But the Romanes came not to their monarchy with that ease that hee did they spred by little and little and found sturdy lets in all their proceedings Rome then was built when Israell had dwelt in the land of promise 718. yeares 27. vnder Iosuah 329. vnder the Iudges and 362. vnder the Kings vntill Achaz now King of Iudah or as others count vnto his successor Ezechias that good and Godly king who reigned assuredly in Romulus his time Osee in the meane time being king of Israell L. VIVES ROme the a second Babilon Saint Peter calleth Rome Babilon as Hierome saith in Uita Marci who also thinketh that Iohn in the Apocalips meaneth no other Babilon but Rome Ad Marcellam But now it hath put off the name of Babilon no confusion now you cannot buy any thing now in matter of religion without a very faire pretext of holy law for the selling of it yet may you buy or sell almost any kinde of cause holy or hellish for money Of the euident prophecy of Sybilla Erithraea concerning Christ. CHAP. 23. IN those daies Sybilla Erythrea some say prophecied there were many a Sybilis saith Varro more then one But this b Sybille of Erithraea wrote some apparant prophecies of Christ which wee haue read in rough latine verses not correspondent to the greeke the interpretor wel learned afterward being none of the best poets For Flaccianus a learned and eloquent man one that had beene Consulls deputie beeing in a conference with vs concerning Christ shewed vs a greeke booke saying they were this Sybills verses wherein in one place he shewed vs a sort of verses so composed that c the first letter of euery verse beeing taken they all made these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
such heate that it will ripen greene apples who gaue the fire that wonderfull power to make althings that it burneth blacke it selfe beeing so bright and to turne a shining brand into a black coale Neither doth it alwaies thus For it will burne stones vntill they bee white and though it bee redde and they whitish yet doth this their e white agree with the light as well as blacke doth with darkenesse Thus the fire burning the wood to bake the stone worketh contrary effects vpon obiects which are f not contrary For stone and wood are different but not opposite whereas white and blacke are the one of which collours the fire effecteth vpon the stone and the other vpon the wood enlighting the first and darkening the later though it could not perfect the first but by the helpe of the later And what strange things there are in a cole it is so brittle that a little blow turnes it to powder and yet so durable that no moysture corrupteth it no time wasteth it so that they are wont to g lay coales vnder bounders and marke-stones for lands to conuince any one that should come hereafter and say this is no bound-stone What is it that maketh them endure so long in the earth where wood would easily rot but that same fire that corrupteth althings And then for lyme besides that it is whitened by the fire it carieth fire in it selfe as taken from the fire and keepeth it so secret that it is not discouerable in it by any of our sences nor knowne to bee in it but by our experience And therefore wee call it quick lyme the inuisible fire beeing as the soule of that visible body But the wonder is that when it is killed it is quickned For to fetch out the fire from it wee cast water vpon it and beeing could before that enflameth it that cooleth all other things beeing neuer so hot So that the lumpe dying as it were giueth vppe the fire that was in it and afterward remaineth cold if you water it neuer so and then for quicke-lyme wee call it quenshed lyme What thing can bee more strange yes If you power oyle vpon it in stead of water though oyle bee rather the feeder of fire yet will it neuer alter but remaine cold still If wee should haue heard thus much of some Indian stone that wee had not nor could not get to proue it wee should surely imagine it either to bee a starke lie or a strange wonder But things occurrent vnto dailie experience are debased by their frequency in so much that wee haue left to wonder at some-things that onely India the farthest continent of the world hath presented to our viewe The diamond is common amongst vs chiefly our Iewellers and Lapidaries and this is i so hard that neither fire stone nor steele can once dint it but onely the bloud of a goate But doe you thinke this hardnesse so much admired now as it was by him that first of all descried it Such as know it not may peraduenture not beleeue it or beleeuing it one seeing it may admire it as a rare worke of nature but dayly triall euer taketh off the edge of admiration Wee know that k the loade-stone draweth Iron strangely and surely when I obserued it at the first it made mee much agast For I beheld the stone draw vppe an Iron ringe and then as if it had giuen the owne power to the ring the ring drew vppe an other and made it hang fast by it as it hung by the stone So did a third by that and a fourth by the third and so vntill there was hung as it were a chaine of rings onelie by touch of one another without any inter-linking Who would not admire the power in this stone not onely inherent in it but also extending it selfe through so many circles and such a distance Yet stranger was that experiment of this stone which my brother and fellow Bishoppe Seuerus Bishoppe of Mileuita shewed me Hee told mee that hee had seene Bathanarius some-times a Count of Affrica when hee feasted him once at his owne house take the sayd stone and hold it vnder a siluer plate vpon which hee layd a peece of Iron and still as hee mooued the stone vnder the plate so did the Iron mooue aboue the plate not moouing at all and iust in the same motion that his hand mooued the stone did the stone mooue the Iron This I saw and this did I heare him report whom I will beleeue as well as if I had seene it my selfe I haue read further-more of this stone that l lay but a diamond neare it and it will not draw Iron at all but putteth it from it as soone as euer the diamond comes to touch it These stones are to bee found in India But if the strangenesse of them bee now no more admired of vs how much lesse doe they admire them where they are as common as our lyme whose strange burning in water which vseth to quensh the fire and not in oyle which feedeth it we doe now cease to wonder at because it is so frequent L. VIVES THe a Salamander Of this creature you may read in Aristotle and Pliny I haue written of it else-where It quensheth fire with the touch and is in shape like a Lizart b In Sicily As Aetna and Hiera commonly called Volcania as also in Theon Ochema in Aethiope Vesuuius in Campania Chimaera in Lycia and in certaine places about Hercules pillers besides Hecla in Island c. c Admirable qualities Truely admirable for they are easie to bee wondered at but most intricate to bee searched out d A dead peacock Many of these examples here are beyond reason and at the most but explanable by weake coniectures which wee will omit least wee should seeme rather to oppose Saint Augustine then expound him e White agree It is a light collour and offends the eye as much as the light black is the darkest and strengthens the power visuall like the darkenesse f Not contrary Contraries are two opposites of one kinde as blacke and white both collours moist and drie both qualities c. but Substances haue no contraries in themselues g To lay coales As Ctesiphon did vnder the foundations of Diana's temple in Ephesus Plin. lib. 36. I thinke it should be Chersiphron and not Clesiphon For so say all the Greekes and Strabo lib. 14. h Quick lyme Sen. Nat. quaest li. 3. i So hard that neither Plin. lib. vlt. cap. 4. Notwithstanding Bernard Ualdaura shewed me diamonds the last yeare that his father broake with a hammer But I thinke they were not Indian nor Arabian diamonds but Cyprians or Syderites for there are many sorts k The Load-stone Hereof reade Pliny lib. 36. cap. 16. Sotacus maketh fiue sorts of it the Aethiopian the Macedonian the Baeotian the Alexandrian and the Androlitian This last is much like siluer and doth not draw Iron There is a stone saith Pliny called the Theamedes