similitude and quality so wel both in the beginning middle and end that there is not the least tittle of difference For as for the beginning it is well knowne that they all came out of the dust or slime of the earth and that they were all borne naked and came into the world weeping The equality of the end may bee known by the universall attribute which all Adams posterity doe owe unto their birth Since that neitehr Scepter nor Miter could ever finde any Antidote or spell against death And as for the middle which is from the time of their birth untill death wee have already said with Iob that mans life is a continuall warfare full of all manner of afflictions and calamities as may bee devised or imagined And this is universall and common to all there being none exempt from crosses So that there being in man a perfect and totall similitude with all his particulars and all agreeing in one and the same degree of misery basenesse and calamity there being none in this more noble or priviledged then others we conclude that pride and persecuting of his like in man is a monster and prodigy of nature and a frenzy of the understanding Hee being by his basenesse bound to humble himselfe and by his equality tyed to love those of his owne species Whence I doe inferre that your naturallists doe with very good reason call the Lyon King of the Beasts and preferre him before other Beasts for generosity and strength because God made him advantaged and shewing oddes of the rest but by what reason can one man esteeme himselfe to bee more then another What prerogative or excellency did nature grant unto him which she denied to other men which being most certaine wee may securely say that a man which is proud and at enmity with another is worser then the Divell or to say better pride and ambition is not so unproper for the Divell as for man Because if Lucifer did pretend to set his throne above the starres to be like unto the most high and had other foolish fancies and rash propositions though hee had no true nor reall ground for it the creature being incapable of the creators perfection and noblenesse yet he saw and knew in himselfe some likelihood and colour for his unbridled appetite knowing himselfe immortall incorporeall and the most beautifull of all creatures being as Isaiah saith not onely a bright shining starre but Lucifer unto the morne and the most perfect of all other angelicall spirits Moreover the whole army of Divells is united and concordant in the persecution of the soule one not entermedling in the others office nor endeavouring to disturbe or crosse the temptation that another shall intend Whereby it is proved that man being the most abject and wretched creature and having nothing but what other men are also partakers of growing proud and persecuting another man hee goeth beyond the nature of a brute beast and is worser then the Divell himselfe CHAP. IV. Of the noblenesse of man THE conclusion of the precedent Chapter gives us great occasion to treate in this Chapter of the noblenesse of man and of his excellencies by reason of a motive any one may have to wonder at our last proposition wherein we concluded that man is the most abject imperfect and wretched creature of the world Which being considered at the first sight seemeth quite contrary to that which both Scripture and common Philosophy teacheth us Canonizing man for the noblest and perfectest creature And truely if we doe with particular attention consider that high sublime and lofty degree of noblenesse and perfection which man attained unto by that Hypostaticall union which the divine word made in the incarnation wee shall freely confesse that it is the noblest and perfectest of all creatures since the angelicall nature did not onely remaine inferior to it but also subject to adore it in Christs humanity Whence as some Doctors testifie the first Angell tooke occasion to rebell against his Creator not being able to brooke the exaltation of humane nature and the extraordinary and exquisite favors which by revelation hee knew God would communicate unto it Neither is that proofe which is ordinarily brought by them who thinke man inferiour to the Angell of any great force or power for whereas the vulgar translation saith Thou hast made him little lesse then the Angels the Hebrew hath it Thou hast made him little lesse then Eloim which according to some Rabbins interpretation signifies that man is little lesse then God because that the word Eloim signifies many times God and many times Angell And that exposition is not much out of purpose but grounded upon very good reason for if we attentively consider that marvellous union which God made with our nature we shall finde that Gods Epithetes were thereby so appropriated unto man that it may truly be said that man is little lesser then God which thing the Angell cannot glory in hee being deprived of so notable a favour And although in all creatures there bee in some fashion a certaine resemblance of God yet it is more perfect in man then in any of the rest since that in none but man is to be found the Word incarnate His composition consisting of Soule whose three powers are correspondent to the three divine persons and of body which united to the soule is correspondent to the divine Word in which are divinely united Body and Divinity And of all this the Angell is incapable because he is incorporeall The Divines call these perfections perfections of meere grace because that God would out of his will and mercie so favour this nature though shee could no way deserve it by any vertue or excellencie And in this all cōfesse that human nature is more noble then the Angelicall since God did not bestow so many favours upon the Angell as hee did upon man But if wee consider both these natures of themselves without any respect to grace many or almost all will say that the Angell is more perfect then man In the deciding of which question I cannot resolve my selfe but with a distinction Noting first that in man there are two things to be considered the Soule and the body Of the soule some say that it is of the same substance nature as the Angels are incorporeall and rationall as they but that is not a compleat substance as Logicians call it wherein it only differs from Angels Others ingulfing themselves into an abysse of Metaphysickes say that the Angell is more perfect then the soule since he is not subject to the imperfections and miseries of the soule and hath his will not indifferent to good or evill as the soule hath but onely frame himselfe to doe that which is good and just Which reason I cannot allow of For considering the Angell according to his owne nature or in puris naturalibus as Divines tearme it he is as indifferent to good or evill as the rationall soule
mother to give him all the pap at once This thing made mee laugh so heartily that for two houres after I did nothing but laugh and wonder at it But if I should particularize unto you the broiles the decepts and cousenings which the inkeepers used towards mee I should never have done I never came into an Inne but I came out of it with a quarrell was cousoned and yet forced to aske all those that were present forgivenesse The quart descu in my hands or rather in their handes was worth ten sols a relon of ten sols was converted into a halfe quart d'escu and this into a royall and that of five royalls into five sols and if I chanced to reply any thing they would turn towards me like Lions chiding me and saying that if I did not know what value coynes were of I should learne and not contest with honest people that feared God and caried a good conscience and they would tell me I had no skill in Arithmeticke and especially in subtraction Many times I should buy some wares which I knew would not waste at the ayre nor the fire yet within a quarter of an houre in a pound I should finde foure ounces wanting With these and the like deceipts I passed my first dayes till knowledge and practice of the countrey shewed me what meanes I should use to free me from these evils CHAP. XI The contrariety and antipathy of the soule and body of the Spaniards and the French I Have thought a thousand times to aske the midwife in what manner the French came out of their mothers bellies for seeing the contrariety that is betweene them and the Spaniards mee thinkes it is impossible for them â—o be borne in the same manner seeing one can hardly presume â—hat having the middle and the end the body and the soule yea â—nd their very death contrary they should have their naturall beginning which is their birth alike This contrariety is so great and so remarkable that to define a Frenchman one cannot doe it more properly then to say he is a Spaniard the contrary way For there the Spaniard makes an end where the Frenchman begins as I shall shew in the following chapters As for the soule I must confesse that they are all created in tempore and that they are all of the same species and that God doth with one action create and infuse them into the organicall body And if faith did not teach me I should never beleeve that French and Spanish soules were of the same nature Yet I finde that if we consider the soule of it selfe and without any reference to the body of either Nation the soule it selfe is neither French nor Spanish And this specificall unitie which Divinity admits between them is not against that which I say for considering the soule within the body it is no more indifferent but determined to bee either Spanish or French Wherefore I say that the soule determined into a French body hath her powers quite contrary to a Spanish one First the French understanding hath its apprehension very quicke and with a great deale of ease will goe through any difficulty that can be proposed unto it yet it goeth no further nor entreth into deeper discourses which depend upon the same difficulty But with the same speedinesse as hee did apprehend it with the same it goeth away and is forgotten Contrariwise the Spaniards understanding is slow in apprehending the difficulty but having once understood it he will hold it fast drawing a thousand consequences out of it and sifting every point of it The Spaniard his understanding is altogether speculative since that in all his actions his end is no other but the contemplation of things without afterwards directing or settling of it upon any servile or mechanicall worke Wherefore you shall finde few naturall Spaniards of any mechanick trade as Shoomaker Taylor Cobler Joyner Inne-keeper or the like For which I call the French to witnesse who goe into Spaine and come backe againe offended because they finde no Alehouses nor Innes as they have in France so that sometimes they may travell three dayes and not come at an Inne whereby they are constrained to carry meat with them in their bags and wine in their bottles The French understanding is altogether practicall being it is not content with the only knowledge of things but learnes them for to make use of them therein where he may reap some profit by it and so is not idle but to avoid idlenesse employes it selfe in any manner of exercise and thence growes the variety of trades in that Nation The greatest part of your French wits addict themselves to the studie of the Law and Canons and very few study Positive or Schoole Divinitie Amongst the Spaniards few study the Law and almost all Divinitie The French understanding though it receive and hold things concerning Faith and Religion for infallible yet it cannot stay and fixe it selfe on them but will see consider and also judge whether that which faith sayes is as he meanes and finding some difficulty he runs his boat a ground beleeving himselfe onely and denying that which others hold The Spaniard his understanding is fearfull and humble in that which concernes faith and determination of the Church So that as soone as any Article of faith is propounded unto him he presently sets bounds to all his knowledge wisedome and discourse and not onely strives not to know whether that bee so or no which the faith sets downe but useth all the meanes hee can to avoid speculation thereon fearing to fall into some errour through the frailty of his understanding Whence groweth the punctuall obedience which the Spaniards yeeld to the Church of Rome and the difference and dissention that is thereupon amongst the French The French man will resolve upon businesses of greatest importance when he is in most company being not disturbed by any tumult noise or outcrie so that I have noted in this nation that your Princes Lords and other persons of quality will dispatch their commissions and other weighty businesses sitting at table the eating being no disturbance to the audience which they give to a thousand people and sometimes they will sit at meales and have one of each side of them who at the same time will talke to them and they will answer them all as punctually as if they were shut up privately in a chamber without any disturbance and had nothing to doe but to hearken to them which speake to them All this is contrary to the Spanish understanding who if hee have any businesse of consequence retires himself into some solitary place and is such an enemy of company and tumult that if a fly comes buzzing by his eare when he is in the depth of his businesse it is enough to hinder his resolution In the second power of the soul which is the memory there is contradiction antipathy since the French mans is altogether concerning the present I
to the order and perfection of nature is farthest from the first The fifth is composed of the last element which is the earth and this is the first linke which begins to turne towards it beginning and it is the vegetative nature which intresseth it selfe with the sensitive and that with the rationall which uniting it selfe immediately with God shuts up the chaine and circle of this succession And because the last knot or linke of this chaine was to unite it selfe with God and betwixt God and the creature there could be no proportion of equality therefore the eternall wisdome created the soule which being immortall and incorporeall should have some resemblance of God and so uniting it selfe perfectly with him the chaine of the fabricke of this world should so close up and shut And in case that some curious body not content with the generall union of the seven rings or linkes which have bin set downe should desire more particularly to finde out the point of this trueth he may satisfie himselfe with the internall searching out of each nature and linke of the said chaine And beginning from the first he shall finde in it an infinite abysse of perfections and attributes which are Wisedome Omnipotency Justice Goodnesse Glory Mercy and innumerable more which are all with an unspeakeable incomprehensibility gathered in and united unto the indivisible latchet of the most simple divine nature Concerning the second linke which is the Angelicall nature he may very well apprehend not onely by the light of faith but also by the strength of his owne understanding the marveilous order perfect concord wherewith those Angelicall spirits are united together the Cherubins joyning themselves to the Seraphins the Seraphins to th' Archangels they to the Angels Thrones Powers Dominions the other kinds of the twelve quires of Angels with such great uniformity and concord as may be presumed in that heavenly commonwealth Then if we shall cast our eyes on the contemplation of the third linke which is the nature of the heavens we shall plainly see if Ptolomie deceive us not that the primum mobile is united to the Christalline heaven this to the eight spheare the eighth spheare to Saturne who joyneth himselfe to Jove Jove to Mars Mars uniteth himselfe to Sol Sol adheres to Venus Venus to Mercury Mercury to Luna from whose hollow superficies takes it beginning the fourth linke of th' Elementall nature joyning it selfe unto the annexed fire it unto the ayre whom the element of water followeth untill it comes to unite it selfe unto the earth which is the universall center of al heavie and ponderous things From the earth beginnes the fifth linke to goe upwards againe and this is the Vegetative Nature which like unto the rest keepes it dependance and succession united unto all her species and kindes beginning from the biggest trees and of greatest fruit even to the lowest humblest and poorest grasse of the field In this vegetative nature consists the basis and foundation of the sensitive which is utterly unable to put in practice th' operations of moving and feeling without it This likewise is not different from the first and hath it kindes and degrees of succession and dependency the noblest and perfectest of them which is the Lyon uniting himselfe to the poorest worme of the earth This sensitive nature linkes it selfe at last with the rationall which being by meanes of the soule spirituall exceeds in perfection the corporeall vegetative and nutritive remaining at last united with God So that the aforesaid union is not onely to be found in this whole universall frame but also in every one of its parts It being impossible that there should be any one not linked and united to the rest by the analogie of some attribute which is indifferently proper to them all The little microcosmos of man may be an example of this her being an epitome and cipher of the whole fabricke of the world in whom all natures are united he being participant of each vertue and perfection for he hath his body of the heavens elements and stones his vegetating or growing from the plants his feeling from beasts his discourse from Angels and the image and likenesse of God And passing to that which is proper unto this nature we shall finde that all his actions have a dependency one from the other the understanding being not able to understand any thing unlesse it unite it selfe to the sences nor these produce any sensations or feelings unlesse they joyn themselves by meanes of the species and image which presents it selfe unto them with the object And according to the Philosophers doctrines the object unites it selfe to the externall sence the externall transmits it to the common the common represents it to the phantasie from whence comes the names of phantasmaes With these imaginations doth the active intellect joyne it selfe illustrating them and with taking away all their materialities makes them of sensible intelligible The active intellect unites it selfe with possibility which cannot operate unlesse the active disposeth it to it by representing the species unto it disrobed of all matter and singularity From thence the intellect or understanding being disposed produceth its first operation which is the simple apprehension and this coupleth it selfe with the second which is affirmation or negation from whence groweth the third which is discourse The discourse goeth united with the will which could not produce any act of love or hatred or election if discourse had not gone before it being impossible to will or refuse that which hath not before bin knowne So that all things which are inclosed within this frame of the world are nothing but union accord and amity not onely through the dependency which every thing hath from one sole beginning but also through the loving correspondency which they hold amongst themselves And if any one shall aske me the reason of this marvailous linke and intrinsecall love wherwith so many and so different natures are linked together I will not answer them with that which is ordinarily said that God had so ordained But I wil say that the supreame artificer having determined in the creation of the world to make a perfect and durable compound variety and union were very requisite therein it being impossible to make any thing beautifull which was not composed of varieties or durable if it were in and against it selfe divided To this end he appointed all creatures at the least the corporeall ones a naturall and proper meane which hindereth all that which is contrary to the union and preservation of this world And this is that prima materia argued upon by all but as I beleeve knowne by none This materia which some say is pura potentia others an entitative act others that it is neither quid nor quantum nor quale is a beginning in the which stand united all corporeall or bodily natures It is not ingendred nor it doth not corrupt for so the union and pacificall
harmony of the world might come to be lost whose preservation is grounded upon the incorruptible unity of this matter It hath bin created but not from everlasting as Plato and others have affirmed it being impious to give or attribute the glory of eternity and of being without a beginning unto a creature which is due onely to God Finally it is sufficient for us to know without engulfing our selves into any other metaphysick that the matter whereof all corporall things are framed is of one and the same kinde and by that reason all your materiall species or kindes are united and coupled together And because that the formes of the compounds which must necessarily be sundry and diverse to make a perfect and faire compound should not deviate from that unity which God ordaines and nature pretends The supreame Artificer determined that they should all come forth of the entrailes of the materia or as the Divines call it de potentia materie that so in all their alterations and changes they might be tributary unto that beginning out of whose bowels and entrailes they came the power of corrupting engendring and altering resting onely in it as not being subject to goe out of the bounds of union and peace By this doctrin is confuted the opinion of many moderne Phylosophers who judging by the sence that which is contrary to reason beleeve that the formes of the Elements have no other end then to destroy and corrupt As for example the fire which we see consumes and devoures all as it findes living in perpetuall warre with the water as also the earth with the ayre For if we leave that seemingnes which sence sheweth us and examine the trueth with reason we shall finde that the elements being constitutive parts whereof all your mixtes are compounded it is repugnant and contrary to them to have destruction be their end their nature being essentially ordained to compound Whence is concluded that the naturall end of the Elements is nothing but union And although there ordinarily seemes to be a continuall enmity betweene them destroying one another yet we must hold for a certaine that this warre is onely made for the preservation of peace and union since the fire in seeking to persecute its contrary doth nothing but seeke a temperament to the rigor of his proper strength and any thing else which might hinder the union and conjunction whereby the compound is preserved So that we will conclude this Chapter saying that Union is an attribute of God the treasure of nature the naturall center of creatures and chain of the whole world This unites the mortall with the divine as the eternall Word with humane nature The mortall with incorruptible as the body with the soule The materiall with the spirituall as the understanding with the sences The living with the insensible as beasts with the earth The heaven with their elements the elements with man man with God And finally from God to God there is nothing but peace concord union agreement and love CHAP. II. That enmitie and discord are monsters of nature and the divels owne children FRom the precedent Chapter we may by very good consequence inferre that which we seeke to prove in this For if union and peace as we have proved be Gods attributes and the perfection of nature it is plaine that enmity and discord capitall enemies of union must of necessity be contraries to God and nature being altogether averse to the noblest perfection that our understanding can conceive in God which is unity and simplicity wherewith his divine attributes and perfections are so indivisibly united together that no manner of distinction can be admitted betweene them either reall formall or fundamentall as Divines doe terme them unlesse we should allow of the distinction of reason which our understanding licenciously frameth conceiving that to be distinct which in it selfe is indivisibly one Daily experience sheweth us the great repugnancy and contrariety that is betweene discord and nature either of them shewing it by their effects seeing the proper and principall end of the one is to corrupt diminish ruine and undoe Of the other to generate to joyne to multiply and unite all wordly things with the most firme bond of peace Because that knowing by evident induction that discord and enmity are enemies unto God and the very plagues of nature we may with good reason conclude them to be the workes of the divell wrought by his owne hands so pestilent a fruite doubtlesse proceeding from such an accursed tree The Apostle did in three wordes admirably set downe the genealogie and discent of this fierce monster saying that through the divells envy death was come into the world Wherein we must note according to the exposition of some Doctors that the Apostle in this place calleth dissention and discord by the name of death And that very properly seeing that the Doctors meaning by death as well the soules as the bodies death we shall finde death to be nothing else but a wretched separation and unfortunate divorce tending to ruine and perdition And as for the death of the body none can be so ignorant as to deny this truth beholding with his owne eies the dissolution of the streightest and internallest friendship as humane understanding can conceive and after that the miserable accidents which ordinarily accompany a dead carcasse And if this passage bee taken for spirituall death it being an enmity and divorce between God and the soule and not an ordinary divorce but an infinite one by reason of the infinite distance that is between God and a sinner we still conclude that death and discord are one and the selfe same thing and both daughters to the divell and envy as the Apostle saith the motive which moved the divell to bring this accursed dissention into the world was a cruell impatient rage against man being not able to endure that God should grow enamored of so ugly base and wretched a nature as humane nature is and that he should enrich it with so many extraordinary favours priviledges as unite himselfe hypostatically to it and make it the instrument of redemption denying that favour to the Angelicall nature which is more noble and perfect then the humane and so being desperately enraged he contracted matrimony with envy in which wedlocke death was borne so that death or discord hath the divell for her father and envy for her mother her grandfathers were pride and contempt and her first root was ambition This cursed plant was the first Angels plague and that which made him to exceed the bounds of his owne nature rashly opening the way unto an unbridled appetite and ambitious desire to climbe up unto the heaven of divine perfection to place his throne above the starres and to be like unto the most high Making the consideration of himselfe and the beauty and perfections wherewith he was enriched the instruments of so blinde a pretence and proud absurdity Judging himselfe thereby