the AfricaÌ„ or Punike Puls The making of which is described in Cato de Re rustica cap. 85. The chiefe substance wherof was Wheat-meale or grotes tempred with water Cheese-curds Honey and Eggs onely this Puls was boyled and ours baked I beleeve that that parched Corne mentioned 1 Sam. 17. 17. was something like this Puls of Africa The Hebrew word there is Kali of Kalah to parch For they first parcht their Corne then they fryed it and lostly they boyl'd it to a paist and then tempred it as before which they carried dry with them to the Campe and so wet the Cakes in wine or milke c. See Stuckius Antiqu. Conviv l. 1. p. 58. b O stiariius the Doore-keeper See our Preface * Dignationem sumâ—ret * Parentalia These Pultes saith S. Augustine were used in Parehtalibus and Pliny lib. 18. c. 8. sayes they were in his time used also in Notalibus anniversary seasts for their birth dayes b I he former Translator well notes in his margent An inconvenient custome abrogated by S. Ambrose I wish that the Pope would doe so with their Images of the dead Saints upon the same reason for that they are too like the superstitious Images of the Genules But observe that S. Ambrose chang'd this custome and that at Milian so neere Rome too Where was then the Popes Authority The Archbishop of Millan dares alter nothing now a dayes without the Popes Licence * Had it bin so generall in those daies that all Bishops and Priests must upon paine of losing their Orders professe single life why should Saint Augustine thinke thus of Ambrose more than of other Bishops of his time * The Manichees * The Primitive fashion it was to impose the name when the partie was first admitted to be a Catechumenus or wheÌ„ he desired baptisme This had Saint Augustine done in 1 sicknesse being a Child as before hee told us This name was after given up a little before the Baptisme and againe repeated both a Baptisme and Confirmation And whereas be here speakes of the name of Christ 't is meant of the custome of calling them Christians so soone as they gave up their names the day after they were stiled Catechumeni the day after that were they exorcised So 't is plainely in the great Councell of Constantinople Canon 95. And so S. Augustine himselfe in divers places 2 Cor. 3. 6. a The other Translator notes upon it That the way of knowing in Religion is by first beleeving True but not Implicite Popish Faith which be meanes to beleeve â—â— the Church of Rome beleeves Saint Augustine meant not such a Faith b Et tantam illis authoritatem tribuisti This the other Translator maliciously miscenstrues with a purpose to weaken the Authority of the Holy Scriptures the Medicines of Faith here spoken of Turning the words And recommended them to mankind by so great Authority As if all the Authority were in Gods recommending and none else in the Scriptures Fye upon it Here I suspect S. Augustins Copie to be imperfect but t is not much materiall * Here the Authority by which the Scriptures be settled is originally attributed to God himselfe and not to the Church as the Topish Translator would haue it See our note upon lib. 7. cap. 7. a Here again the Popish Translator notes in his Margent The Authority of the Church whereas S. Augustine speakes of the authority of the Scriptures Wilfull Sophistry b Marke this ye Papists 1. What high termes hee gives the Scriptures whereas you call them A nose of Way a shipmans Hose c. 2. Here 's liberty for all to read them you looke them under an unknowne tongue from the Laytie 3. Here are they said it be plaine but you fray the people with their difficulty profoundnesse and danger * The former Translator twice turnes this phrase from S. Austens purpose * Some Copies reade it optando alluding to the beggars praying for his good masters But the last read it potando as I doe * These were Chariot-races c. Prov. 9. 8. * These gladiators or Fencers were maintained by great men who to please the people would often exhibite theÌ„ upon the Stage to fight at sharpe in good carnest for their lives be being accounted the bravest fellow that look his wounds or death with least shrinking * The Stage a Quidam Scholasticorum No word hath more altered the significatioÌ„ But in those daies and ancienter it signified a Lawyer or Advocate So in the Councell of Sardica Can. 10. vel ex foro Scholasticus a Lawyer from the Court or Barre The Greeke word is the same with the Latine Then came it to be given to Rhetoricians then to Poets as Prudentius was called Hispaniarum Scholasticus Physitians Musicians any professor of the liberall Sciences were so stiled He that first made the Canon for the CoÌ„munion was called Iohannes Scholasticus 'T is now settled upon the Schoolemen but most anciently the Lawyers had it b Cancellos This was the ancient sence or ornament for Courts of Iustice Hence the Iudge came to bee called Cancellarius and the Court The Chancery Chancels being thus parted from the Churches hence had their name also c Vico Argentario This could be no street of silver smiths or Silver-street as the former Translator turnes it for what need he breake into a street that way he might easily come in But the wary Ancients had their Courts of Iustice their Exchequer and Mint-house all together oftentimes and all in their Forum or publike Market-place There stood Saturnes Temple at Rome which was their Exchequer and Mint-house This Saturnes Temple was in the Market-place there were also their Courts of Iustice so was it at Millan belike and therfore had their Forum its Aedituos Officers or Watchmen as before he said a If the Primitive Clergy medled with matters of Iustice they had Saint Pauls Commission 1 Cor. 6. which Possidonius in the Life of S. Augustine quotes who shewes how many houres a day Augustine spent this way He quotes also 1 Tim. 5. 20. Those that sinne rebuke before all And this is a Divine fittest to doe there belongs more to a Iustice than the making of a Mittimus He quotes also Ezek. 3. 17. I have made thee a Watchman yea and as if this were a part of the Ministers duty he applyes that in 2 Tim. 4. 2. Be instant in season out of season reprove c. No Antiquaâ—y but knowes that the old Clergie had greater authority in temporall matters than our Iustices of Peace in England yet here 't is boggled at But 't is by those that would faine have their Church-lands Plainely The Lord Chancellor Keeper and Master of the Rolles the 6 Clerkes Heraulds Masters of the Chancery c. have heretofore for the most part beene Clergie men when it was never better with the Land T is true the old Canons forbid them to meddle in cases of blood and that may they easily avoid
In Geneva I hope the Minister hath more authority than in England a Romae assidebat Comiti largitionuÌ„ ItalicaruÌ„ The Lord high Treasurer of the Westerne Empire was called Comes sacrarum laâ—gitionum he had sâ—xe other Treasurers in so many Provinces under him whereof he of Italy was one Vnder whom this Alipius had sâ—me Office of Iudicature ourâ—aions â—aions of the Exchequer See Sir Henry 〈◊〉 Glossary in the word 〈◊〉 And 〈…〉 l. 5. c. 40. The other Translator 〈◊〉 Assessor to the Prefect of the Contributioner of Italy Ill. Luk. 16. 10 11. 12. Psal 145. 15. * Here 's an obiection of flesh and blood against the motions of Gods Spirit * Another Obiection of flesh and blood * Why then doe the Papists inforce so many young Maids and men to vow as if it were in their own power And why suffer they those to keepe the habite and place of Chastity when as their Visitor knowes they have broken the Vow of Chastity * Mat. 19. 11. * Promeruissent Deum Which the Popish Translator turnes And were gratefull unto God Very well gratefull that is acceptable Seeing then promerita is but acceptablenesse why should merita the single word have so sawcie a signification in Popish doctrine as merits Let them mince the matter with Logike how they can by their distinction of condignity and congruity of merits sure they are gone by the Lawes of Grammar which admits no such signification of promereo or of merita unlesse perchance our Dictionaries have the word Merits not in the genuine signification but to learne us to understand what the Papists meane by it * See what we have before noted pag. 36. in the margent * Quem tunc graves aestus negotioruÌ„ suorum ad ComitatuÌ„ attraxerant This the former Translator turnes That place of our residence The man had ill lucke to misse at every hard place He helpe him Comitatus was like the place where our Termes be kept the Imperiall Chamber at Spires in Germany may rightly be called Comitatus The Emperours appointed it in any good Towne where they pleased though themselves were not there and at this time for these parts it was at Millan So plainely sayes Possidonius in the life of Saint Augustine Comitatus is the place whither subiects repaire for the dispateh of such businesse as depends upon the Kings Courts of Iustice London is our Comitatus the Kings Chamber for the South Yorke for the North. This word is familiar to the Civill Lawyers See the eighth and ninth Canons of the Councell of Sardica Mat. 7. 13. Psal 33. 11 Psal 145. * A Vow of Chastity sayes the Popish TraÌ„slator and a goodly one too How many such Nuns hath the Church of Rome that then vow chastity wheÌ„ they are satisfied with lust But well it were they had no worse Nunnes than such as vow upon remorse of conscience as this whoore did But this was a private Vow yet which God knowes how long she kept and no formall Nunnery Vow she carried not her portion into the Nunnery with her Money is of the substance of the Nunnes Vow now-a dayes Chastity is but a formality She vowes not to know a man but her money does not so the Friers may know that The Primitives admitted no Nunnes but pure Virgins and if ever it could be proved she had plaid false before her Admission she was canonically to be put out of the House Any crackt Chamber-maid will make as good a Nunne as the best now-a daies Could Nunnes keepe their Vow I would never speake against their Order * Et tractus meritorum This the Popish Translator turnes And that which Merits do import Meere non sense And notes in his margent Merits As if the place made for Popish merits Doughtily proved as if Augustine who was yet no Divine knew any thing of the Doctrine of Merits Hee taâ—kâ— before of the last Iudgement and here he talkes of the places of punishment or reward which Epicurus Philosophy knew nothing of If he pleases to looke his Dicticnary he shall finde Tractus to signifie a Region or Countrey He alludes to other Philosophers beleeving of the severall Regions of Hell and Elysium which were both under the earth but distinguisht into severall Quarters or Regions Tractus is the Accusative case plurall a This Philosophical word the former Translator turnes This Action of my minde Short of the sense Saint Augustine alludes to that in Philosophy That all naturall bodies to make theÌ„selves perceived by the sense doe send and beame out from them some figure Image c. by which the sense may appâ—hend them which figure or shape striking upon the sense provokes it and so makes it take actuall notice of us proper object And this spirituall figure representing a reall object which these bodies send out doe the Philosophers call their Intention So that Austens 〈◊〉 fancying the like Images he cals it the intention of his minds a The other Tranlator renders it thus And that this helpe must bee the Soule which thy Word being free might succour Succour a helpe A meere Bull and Non-sense which utterly loses the force and meaning of the Argument a Here flyes my Popish Translator out upon Mr. Calvine for teaching Gods Decree and purpose by with-holding of his Grace to be the Causes of Sinne and Damnation Verily Mr. Calvine is wronged that way But this being an Arminian Controversie I had rather obey His Majesties two Proclamations and one Declaration than to be so soole-hardy as to meddle with it I am neither Calvinist nor Arminian I am of the Religion of the Primitive Fathers which the Church of England professes b Here the Popish Translator commits a most negligent and grosse mistake as if the soule of man had of a pure Angell turn'd to a Divell Saint Augustine speakes not of the Soules turning Divell but of him that was once created a good Angell a Here the Popish Translater grossely playes the Papist purposely wresting the sense thus Yet did the beliefe of the Catholike Church concerning thy Christ sticke fast in me As if Saint Augustine had held this Popish implicite faith To beleeve as the Church beleeves had beene enough There is much difference betwixt a mans cleere and explicite knowledge of what he beleeves in Christ and a blinde implicite beliefe as the Church beleeves when he knowes not what the Church beleeves a See the 3. Chap. of the 4. Booke a Scripturis quas Ecclesiae commendaret autoritas Where Ecclesiae may be the dative Case and then may it goe thus Which Scriptures thy authority recommended unto the Church as before hee said lib. 6. cap. 5. See the place Here the Popish Translator would needes give Authority to the Church to teach us what is Scripture For that controversie see our Preface Iob 15. 26. I am 4. 6. a This was likely to be the Booke of Amelius the Platonist who hath indeed this beginning of S. Iohns Gospell
I him every Sunday preaching the Word of Truth rightly to the People by which that apprehension of mine was more and more confirmed in me that all those knots of crafty calumnies which those our deceivers had knit in prejudice of the Holy Bookes might well enough bee untyed 4. But so soone as I understood withall That Man created by thee after thine owne Image was not so understood by thy spirituall sonnes whom of our Catholike Mother thou hast begotten by thy Grace as if they once beleeved or imagined thee to be made up into an humane shape although I had not the least suspicion nor so much as a confused notion in what strange manner a spirituall substance should be yet blushing did I rejoyce that I had not so many yeeres barkt against the Catholike faith but against the fictions of carnall imaginations But herein had I beene rash and anpious that what I ought to have learned by enquirie I had spoken of as condemning For thou O the most high and the most neere the most secret and yet most present with us hast not such limbes of which some be bigger and some smalâ—â—â— but art wholly every where circumscribed in no certaine place nor art thou like these corporeall shapes yet hast thou made man after thine owne Image and behold from head to foot is he contained in some certaine biding CHAP. 4. Of the Letter and the Spirit 1. BEing thus ignorant therfore in what manner this Image of thine should subsist I something earnestly propounded the doubt how that was to be 〈◊〉 but did not triumphingâ—y oppose against it as if it peremptorily should according to the Letter bee beleeved The anxiety therefore of resolving what certaintie I was to hold did so much the more sharply even gnaw my very bowels by how much the more ashamed I was that having bin so long deceived by the promise of certaineties I had with a childish errour and stubbornnes prated up and downe of so many uncertainties and that as confidently as if they had beene certainties For that they were meere falshoods it cleerely appeared to me afterwards yea even already was I certaine that they were at least uncertaine and that I had all this while beleeved them for certaine when as namely out of a blinde and contentious humour I accused thy Catholike Church which though I had not yet found to 〈◊〉 trâ—â—â— yet found it not â—o teach what I heartily 〈◊〉 it for teaching In this manner was I first confounded and then converted and I much rejoyced O my God that thy onely Church the body of thine onely Sonne wherein the name of Christ had beene put upon me being yet an Infant did not relish these childish toyes nor maintained any such Tenet in her sound Doctrine as to crowd up the Creator of this All under the shape of humane members into any proportions of a place which though never so great and so large should yet be terminated and surrounded 2. And for this I rejoyced also for that the Old Scriptures of the Law the Prophets were laid before me now to be perused not with that eye to which they seemed most absurd before when as I misliked thy holy ones for thinking so so whereas indeed they thought not so and for that with joyfull heart I heard Ambrose in his Sermons to the people most diligently oftentimes recommend this Text for a Rule unto them The letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life and for that those things which taken according to the letter seemed to teach perverse doctrines he spiritually laid open unto us having taken off the veyle of the mystery teaching nothing in it that offended mee though such things he taught as I knew not as yet whether they were true or no. For I all this while kept my heart firme from assenting to any thing fearing to fall headlong but by this hanging in suspence I was the worse killed for my whole desire was to be made so well assured of those things which I saw not as I was certaine that seven and three make tenne 3. For I was not so mad yet as not to thinke that this last proposition might not by demonstration bee comprehended wherefore I desired to have other things as cleerely demonstrated as this whether namely those things should bee corporeall which were not present before my senses or spirituall whereof I knew not yet how to conceive but after a corporeall manner But by beleeving might I have beene cured that so the eye-sight of my soule being cleered might some way or other have beene directed toward thy truth which is the same eternally and in no point fayling But as it happens usually to him that having had experience of a bad Physician is fearefull afterwards to trust himselfe with a good so was it with the state of my soule which could no waies be healed but by beleeving and left it should beleeve falshoods it refused to be cured resisting in the meane time thy hands who hast prepared for us the Medicines of faith and hast applyed them to the diseases of the whole world and given unto them so great Authority CHAP. 5. Of the Authority and necessary vse of the holy Bible 1. FRom henceforth therfore I beganne first of all to esteeme better of the Catheâ—â—â— Doctrine and also to thinke that â—e did with more modesty and without any deceit command many things to be beleeved notwithstanding it were not there demonstrated 〈◊〉 what it should be or to what purpose it should serve nor yet what it should not bee than in the Manichees doctrine upon a rash promise of great knowledge expose my easinesse of beliefe first of all unto derision and suffer afterwards so many most fabulous and absurd things to be therefore imposed upon me to beleeve because they could not be demonstrated Next of all thou Lord by little and little with a gentle and most mercifull hand working and rectifying my heart even while I tooke into my consideration how innumerable things I otherwise beleeved which I had never scene nor was present at while they were in doing like as those many reports in the History of severall Nations those many relations of places and of Cities which I had never seene so many reports likewise of friends so many of Physicians so many of these and these men which unlesse wee should beleeve we should doe nothing at all in this life Last of all I considered with how unalterable an assurance I beleeved of what parents I was descended which I could not otherwise come to know had I not beleeved it upon heare-say perswadedst mee at last that not they who beleeved thy Bible which with so great authority thou hast setled almost among all Nations but those who beleeved it not were to bee blamed nor were those men to bee listned unto who would say perchance How knowest thou those Scriptures to have beene imparted unto mankinde by the spirit
of the onely true and most true God seeing this fundamentall point was above all the rest to be beleeved and that because no wrangles of all those cavilling Questions whereof I had read so many controverted amongst the Philosophers could so farre enforce me as that I should at any time not beleeve Thee to bee whatsover thou wert though what I knew not or that the government of human businesses should not belong unto thee Thus much though I sometimes beleeved more strongly and more weakly other-whiles yet I ever beleeved both that thou wert God and hadst a care of us though I were utterly ignorant either what was to be thought of thy substance or what way led or brought backe againe towards thee 3. Seeing therefore mankind would prove too weake to find out the truth by the way of evident Reason and even for this cause was there need of the Authority of Holy Writ I began now to beleeve that thou wouldest by no meanes have estated such excellency of authority upon that Booke all the world over had it not beene thy expresse pleasure to have thine owne selfe both beleeved in by meanes of it and sought by it also For those absurdities which in those Scriptures were went heretofore to offend me after I had heard divers of them expounded probably I referred now to the depth of the mystery yea and the Authority of that Booke appeared so much the more venerable and so much the more worthy of our religious credit by how much the readier at hand it was for ALL to read upon preserving yet the Majesty of the Secret under the profoundnes of the meaning offering it selfe unto ALL in words most open and in a stile of speaking most humble and exercising the intention of such as are not light of heart that it might by that meanes receive ALL into its common bosome and through narrow passages waft over some few towards thee yet are these few a good many moe than they would have beene had it not obtained the eminency of such high authority nor alluâ—ed on those companies with a bosome of holy humility These things then I thought upon and thou wert with me I sighed thou heardst me I wavered up and down and thou didst guide me I wandred through the broad way of this world yet didst thou not forsake me CHAP. 6. The misery of the Ambitious shewne by the example of a Beggar 1. I Gaped after Honours gaines wedlocke and thou laughedst at me In these desires of mine I underwent most bitter hardships wherein thou wert so much the more gracious unto me as thou didst lesse suffer any thing to grow sweet unto mee which was not thou thy selfe Behold now my heart O Lord who wouldst I should remember all this that I might now confesse it unto thee Let now my soule cleave fast unto thee which thou hast freed from that fast-holding birdlime of death How wretched was it at that time it had utterly lost the sense of its owne wound but thâ—â— didst launce it that forsaking â—â— other things it might be converted unto thee who art above all and without whom all things would turne to nothing that it might I say be converted and be healed How miserable therfore was I at that time and how didst thou deale with mee to make me sensible of my misery that same day namely when I provided my selfe for an Oration in praise of the Emperour wherein I was to deliver many an untruth and to be applauded notwithstanding even by those that knew I did so Whilest my heart panted after these cares and boyled againe with the favourishnesse of these consuming thoughts walking along one of the streets of Millan I observed a poore beggar-man halfe drunke I beleeve very jocund and pleasant upon the matter but I looking mournfully at it fell to discourse with my friends then in company with me about the many sorrowes occasioned by our owne madnesse for that by all such endevours of ours under which I then laboured and galled by the spurres of desire dragd after me the burthen of mine owne infelicity increasing it by the dragging we had minde of nothing but how to attaine some kinde of Iocundnesse whither that beggar-man had arrived before us who should never perchance come at all thither For that which he had attained unto by meanes of a few pence and those beg'd too the same was I now plotting for by many a troublesome turning and winding namely to compasse the joy of a temporary felicity 2. For that beggar-man verily enjoy'd no true joy but yet 〈◊〉 those my ambitious designes hunted after a much uncertainer And certainely that fellow was jocund but I perplexed he void of care I full of feares But should any man demand of me whether I had rather be merry or fearefull I would answer merry Againe were I askt whether I had rather be in that beggar-mans case or in mine owne at that time I would make choice of my own though thus overgone with cares and feares yet was this upon a wilfulnesse for was it out of any true reason For I ought not to preferre my selfe before that beggar because I was more learned than he seeing my Learning was not it that made me joyfull but I sought rather to please men by it not so much to instruct them as meerely to delight them For this cause didst thou even breake my bones with the staffe of thy correction Away with those therefore from my soule who say unto it There is much difference betwixt the occasions of a mans rejoycing 3. That beggar-man rejoyced in his drunkennesse thou desiredst to rejoyce in a purchased glory What glory Lord That which is not in thee For even as his was no true joy no more was mine any true glory besides which it utterly overturned my soule He was that night to digest his drunkennesse but many a might had I slept with mine and had risen againe with it and was to sleepe againe and againe to rise with it I know not how often But is there indeed any difference in the grounds of a mans rejoycing I know there is and that the joy of a faithfull hope is incomparably beyond such a vanity Yea and at that very time was there much difference betwixt him and I for he verily was the happier man not onely for that he was throughly drencht in mirth when as my bowels were grip't with cares but also for that by his lusty bowsing hee had gotten good store of Wine whereas I by a slattering Oration sought after 〈◊〉 puffe of pride Much to this purpose said I at that time to my deare Companions and I markt by them how it fared with me and I found my selfe in an ill taking I griev'd for it by which I doubled my ill taking and when any prosperity smiled upon mee it irkt mee to catch at it for that almost before I could lay hand upon it away it flew from me
in respect of the hidden deservings of the soules thou thinkest fit for him to heare To whom let not man say What is this or Why is that Let him not say so never let him ask such a questioÌ„ seeing he is but a man CHAP. 7. He is miserably tortured in his enquirie after the Root of Evill 1. ANd now O my helper hadst thou discharged me from those fetters and presently enquired I whence Evill should be but found no way out of my question But thou sufferedst me not to be carried away from the Faith by any waves of those thoughts by which Faith I beleeved both that thou wert and that thy substance was unchangeable and that thou hadst a care of and passedst thy judgement upon men and that in Christ thy Sonne our Lord and thy holy Scriptures which the Authority of thy Church should acknowledge thou hast laid out the way of mans salvation to passe to that life which is to come after death These grounds remaining safe and irremoveably settled in my minde I with much anxiety sought from what root the nature of Evill should proceed What torments did my teeming heart then endure and what throwes O my God! yet even to them were thine eares open and I knew it not and when in silence I so vehemently enquired after it those silent conditions of my soule were strong cryes unto thy mercy 2. Thou and not man knewest how much I suffered For how great was that which my tongue sent forth into the eares of my most familiar friends And yet did I disclose the whole tumule of my soule for which neither my time nor tongue had beene sufficient Yet did all of it ascend into thy hearing which I roared out from the grones of my heart yea my whole desires were said up before thee nor was I master of so much as of the light of mine owne eyes for that was all turn'd inward but I outward nor was that confined to any place but I bent my selfe to those things that are contained in places but there found I no place to rest in nor did those places so entertain mee that I could say It is enough and 't is well nor did they yet suffer me to turne back where I might finde well-being enough For to these things was I superiour but inferiour to thee and thou art that true joy of me thy Subject and thou hast subjected under mee those things which thou createdst below me 3. And this was the true temper and the middle Region of my safety where I might remaine conformable to thine Image and by serving thee get the dominion over mine owne body But when as I rose up proudly against thee and when I ran upon my Lord with my necke with the thick bosses of my buckler then were these inferiour things made my over-matches and kept me under nor could I get either releasement or space of breathing They ran on all sides by heapes and troopes upon mee broad-looking on them but having in my thoghts these corporeall Images they way-laid me as I turn'd backe 〈◊〉 they should say unto mee Whither goest thou O thou unworthy and base creature And these grew more in number even out of my wound for thou hast humbled the proud like as him that is wounded through my owne swelling was I set further off from thee yea my cheekes too big swolne even blinded up mine eyes CHAP. 8. How the mercy of God at length relieved him 1. THou Lord art the same for ever nor art thou angry with us for ever because thou hast pitie upon dust and ashes and it was pleasing in thy sight to reforme my deformities and by inward gallingsdidst thou startle me that I shouldst become unquiet till such time as it might bee assured unto my inward sight that it was thou thy selfe Thus by the secret hand of thy medicining was my swelling abated and that troubled and bedimmed eyesight of my soule by the smart eye-salve of mine owne wholsome dolours daily began more and more to be cleered CHAP. 9. What he found in some Bookes of the Platonists agreeable to the Christian Doctrine 1. AND thou being desirous first of all to shew unto me how thou resistest the proud but givest grace unto the humble and with what great mercy of thine the way of humility is traced out unto men in that thy WORD was made flesh and dwelt among men thou procuredst for mee by meanes of a certaine man puft up with a most unreasonable pride to see certaine Bookes of the Platonists translated out of Greeke into Latine And therein I read not indeed in the selfe same words but to the very same purpose perswaded by many reasons and of severall kinds That In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and that Word was God The same was in the beginning with God All things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was made In him was life and the life was the light of men And the light shined in the darknesse and the darknesse comprehended it not And for that the soule of man though it gives testimony of the light yet it selfe is not that light but the Word of God is for God is that true light that lighteth every man that commeth into the world And because he was in the world and the world was made by him the world knew him not and because hee came unto his owne and his owne received him not But as many as received him to them gave hee power to become the sons of God as many as beleeved in his name All this did I not read there 2. There again did I read that God the Word was not borne of flesh nor of blood nor of the will of man nor of the will of the flesh but of God But that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us did I not there reade I found out in those Bookes that it was many and divers waies said that the Sonne being in the forme of the Father thought it no robbery to be equal with God for that naturally he was the same with him But that 〈◊〉 himselfe of no reputaâ—â—â— taking upon him the forme â—â— a servant and was made in 〈◊〉 likenesse of men and was sound in fashion as a man and humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse Wherefore God hath highty exalted him from the dead and given him a name over every name that at the name of Iesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth And that every tongue should confesse that Iesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father those Bookes have not 3. But that thy onely begotten Sonne coeternall with thee war before all times and beyond all times remains unchangeable and that of his fulnesse all soules receive what makes theÌ„ blessed and that by participation
calling the Apostle a Barbarian Euseb in Praeparaâ— Evang. lib. 10. cap. 10. Clemens Alexandrinus said that Plato was Ex Hebraeis Philosophus For hee learn'd many things in Egypt of the Iewes and he and Aristotle had seene the Septuagints Translation Niceras in Nazianzeni Orat. 24. tels that Plato first of all the Gentiles came to Christ preaching in Hell beleeved and was converted b Ioh. 1. 1 2 3 4. Verse 9 10 11 12 13. Philip. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. Rom. 8. 32. Mat. 11. 28. Mat. 11. 29 Rom. 1. 21 22 23. Gen. 25. Psal 106. 20. Exod. 3. 22 Acts 17. 28 Rom. 1. 25. Psal 39. 11 Exod. 3. Rom. 1. 20. Psal 73. 28. Psal 26. 1. 〈…〉 31. Psal 148. Wisd 9. 15. Rom. 1. 20. a The Popish Translator notes in his Margent An high discourse and so it is indeed too high for his reach for he understands it not Js a poore peece of philosophy so high with him He would same have that thought to be mystery which he makes non-sense b See the beginning of Chap. 10. c The â—ive outward senses represent the species or images which they have received unto the three inward senses The Common sense Fancy and Memory Some deny memory unto beasts but the other two they have and their Fancy is the chiefe power of their soule by which they iudge of what ever corcernes the Beyond Fancy they cannot goe Rom. 1. 20. 1 Tim. 2. 5 Rom. 9. 5. Ioh 14. 6. Ioh. 1. 14. 2 Cor. 10. 5 a Scripta trade rentur Here the Popish Translator aâ— every where hee doâ—â— takes occasion to diminish the authority of the Scripture noting that it came to us by tradition It did so but not onely so we have history also for every booke of it and it selfe brings light with it to shew it selfe by as by the light of the sunne we see and know the Sunne Have Popish Traditions eyther of these two proofes b Now is he falne froÌ„ the Manichees who held Christ not to have a true but a fantastical body or person onely and to have excellent gifts of nature but no truth of humane nature 1 Cor. 11. 19. Rom. 1. 20. a The other Translator hath made most strange sense in these two or three former chapters and here twice together he hath read potitus as â—â—ghesse instead of peâ—itus So â— any of â—â—â—se negligences hath be committed in misâ—â—king one word 〈…〉 that I verily be 〈…〉 it by Owleâ—â—ght 1 Cor. 4. 7. Rom. 7. 22 23. Dan. 9. 5. 7 Rom. 7. 24 Pro. 8. 22. Ioh. 14. 30. Col. 2. 14. Psal 51. Psal 62. 1. 2. Mar. 11. 28 29 25. a He alludes to Deut. 32 49. 1 Cor. 15. 9 Psal 86. 8. Psal 116. 16 17. Iob 1. 10. 1 Cor. 13. 12. 1 Cor. 5. 7 Ioh. 14. 6. 1 Cor. 7. 8. Mat. 19. 12. Rom. 1. 21. Iob 28. 28 Pro. 3. 7. Rom. 1. 22 Mat. 13. 46 a The former Translator sayes that he was either his Godfather or his ghostly father Bold man Baronius in Saint Ambrose his life could have taught him that this Simplicianus being a wise and a religious man was sent by Damasus Bishop of Rome unto Millan purposely to be the Adviser and Director of Saint Ambrose then but a â—ong Bishop therefore did Saint Ambrose love him as his Father To this Simplicianus is Ambrose his second Epistle lib 4. directed He also succeeded Ambrose in his Bishâ—pricke Col. 2. 8. Mat. 11. 25 b Famous Souldiers Common-wealths-men and Schollers were for incourage met of others thus honoured at Rome c Nep tune Venus and Minerva were three of the Tutelar Gods of Rome as Anubis worshipt in shape of a Dog was of Egypt and the Romanes having conquered many Procinces brought house their Gods and worshipt them So that Rome at last came to have 30000 Gods Psal 144. 5 Luk. 9. 26. Here be divers particulars of the Primitive fashion in this Story of Victorinus First being converted he was to take some well-knowne Christian who was to bee his Godfather to goe with him to the Bishop who upon notice of it admitted him a Catechumenus and gave him those sixe points of Catechisticall Doctrine mentioned Heb. 6. 1 2. When the time of Baptisme drew neere the yong Christian came to give in his heathen name which was presently registred submitting himselfe to Examination On the Eve was be in a set forme first to renounce the Divell and to pronounce I confesse to thee O Christ repeating the Creed with it in the forme here recorded The time for giving in their names must he within the two first weekes of Lent and the so lemne day to renounce upon was Maunday Thursday So bidâ—â— be Councell of Laodicea Can. 45. 46. Luk. 15. 7. 5. a This Lesson out of S. Luke was much in use in the Primitive Service Booke and especially after that Puritane opinion of Novatus who denyed all pardon or absolution to be given by a Priest to any that committed a deadly sinne after baptisme Which severity these Parables of S. Luke did so crosse that the Ancients engraved the figure of a Shepheard with the lost Sheepe upon his shoulder upon their Communion Cups to shew how willing the Church was to receive Penitents to the Communion See Tertul. l. de pudicitia cap. 7. cap. 10. Ioh. 1. 12. 1 Cor. 1. 27. Act. 13. 12. Mat. 11. Luke 11. * The Apostata Gal. 5. 17. Hee alludes unto Rom. 7. 18 19 20 ver c. He pleases himselfe here with a military Metaphore Eph. 5. 14. Rom. 7. 21 23. a Post Assessionem tertiam b In Palatio militans I here was militia Togata Ecclesiastica Aulâ—ca as well as Armata c Monasteriorum gregis mores suaveolentiae tuae et vbera deser ta eremi This the other Translator turnes Great numbers of Monasteries where these things are performed which bee so pleasing unto thee c. Iudge Reader how the Latine can beare his construction how to make it he puts 2. sentences into one For Monasteries see our Preface d One Monastery at Millan theÌ„ but how many and of how many severall orders bee there now Some both at Rome and Millan he calls Diversoria and not Monasteria who had no rule but that of charity and a Priest to governe them But in Monasteries they wrought for their livings Aug. li. de Morib Eccles cap. 31. 33. Mat. 5. 3. e Agentes in rebus There was a Society of them still about the Court Their militia or imployments were To gather in the Emperours Tributes To setch in offenders To doe Palatina obse quia offices of Court provide Corne c. ride of â—rrands like Messengers of the Chamber lye abread as Spyes and Intelligencers They were often preferd to places of Magistracis in the Provinces such were called Principes or Magistriani S. Hierome upon Abdias cap. 1. calls them Messengers They succeeded the Frumentaâ—ii Between