so and so do the rest they suppose With very good confidence might S. Paul have spoke in a catholick form in a full universalitie the thesis being at first imprinted in them as men and therefore the matter was necessary yet he speaketh in a mortall number in a paucity certain Now certain are sufficient to make an evidence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle in the second book of his Rhetoricks even one good witnesse is considerable At the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter be established Deut. xix 15. May Rome then be a little more moderate in her brags of multitude of Professours of swarms of her Catholicks The Species may be conserved in one Individuum A few are enough to make a being of religion though not a flourishing visibility which is no way essentiall unto to the truth of a Church And very good authority may be brought for the proving that in every century since Christ we have had some or other more or fewer who have mainteined the greatest parts of the Protestants most important and fundamentall opinions whatsoever Campian prattleth And let them enjoy their multitude Surely it is not like to be good friendship which is amongst very many and the reason is very good as he in his Ethicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For there are very few truly good So the religion may be suspected whereof so many are studious because there are so few truly religious Moreover Number belonging unto Quantitie which issueth from the wombe of Matter by sequele of a proportionable effect must be as dull as uneffectuall as its mother and skilleth as little to any importance being in it self indifferent or rather of the two supposing weaknesse Multitude is of little use in nature but where there is deficiency and therefore some would have every angel to be a distinct species because plurality of Individuums under a species is onely by reason of their mortality which is not competible to angels Certainly a strange canvase it would be wherein truth should go by voices and be judged by the poll as it were of free-holders Non tam autoritatis in disputando quà m rationis momenta quaerenda sunt as Tully in his first De natura Deorum Disputations are to have more reason in them then authority But if Rome will yet glory in number let her glory in the septenary number of her hills spoken of in the description of Antichrist Rev. xvii 9. let her glorie in the criticall number of the Beast DCLXVI which the numerall letters of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifieth their nation do amount unto let her glory in the title of universall Bishop which Gregory predecessour to Boniface who first usurped the appellation affirmed to be an antecedent signe of Antichrist As for us we are not ashamed of our paucitie in the times of their persecutions The gleaning of Ephraim is better then the vintage of Abiezer Veritie hath its exsistence though there were never a man in the world to own it and Falsity will be nothing though all the men in the world maintein it Humane testimonies are but probable arguments Many are better for the multitude fewer are sufficient for the wiser sort So the Apostle certain not one onely certain not all not many Thirdly we have in this manner of speech a certain disrespectivenesse without so much as naming the Quoted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confusedly neither Who nor What neither welt nor gard plain Certain Not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Did he not so much as call them by their names No surely our Apostle mentioned them rather for his own use then for their credit to shame the Philosophers practice rather then to honour the Poets sayings There is not as ye know the name of a great learned Heathen man in all the holy book of God neither Poet nor Philosopher nor Historian nor Oratour Where is Homer either in Greek for whom severall nations contended to honour themselves with such a countreyman or where is Homer in Latine as he is called Virgil the stately Poet Where is Alexanders Tutour Aristotle though the Patriarch of Philosophy as one termeth him Where is Seneca the divine Moralist whatever Salmeron feigneth of letters which he wrote to S. Paul and S. Paul again to him the matter whereof he saith is not much unlike that of S. John to the Elect Lady and to Gaius or that of S. Paul to Philemon Where is Plato whom Zanchy supposeth to have read the books of Moses In Tullie's Hortensius S. Augustine could find nothing of Christ In the Christians book there is none of Tully We have mention of Philippi but of no Philippick not the divine one as Juvenal calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where do we find the grave oratour of Greece Demosthenes yet would not the Doctour of the Gentiles who said that he magnified his office vouchsafe so farre as to name those Authours whose sayings he is pleased to insert into sacred Scripture and by his consecration of them to make them more divine then any of Plato's works neither Aratus nor Menander nor Epimendies nor any other if there be any other whose sentences he borroweth Was it the wisdome and policie of this Teacher of the Gentiles to leave their names out on purpose that so he might ingage us to the reading over of the Greek Poets as if we should find in them some great matter worthy of our pains Or did he well remember the speeches but forgat the Authours names or had he not his books and parchments about him or could he not in that ex-tempore dispute look in them One would have thought he might have named Aratus though none else if it were but for his beginning the piety of his beginning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us begin from God as S. Paul expoundeth him or for the continuation of his devotion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us never cease to extoll him Every street every assembly aboundeth with him or again for the divinenesse of his subject the heavens more sublime and pure matter then useth to be in the wanton and obscene pages of some other Poets We have indeed in the last verse of this chapter mention of Dionysius and lest the honour should miscarry upon another of the same name for distinction the Areopagite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But first happily this Dionysius was no very great learned man As for that saying which is received as his at the passion of our Saviour Either the God of nature suffereth or the world will be dissolved me thinketh it was no argument of any extraordinary knowledge it being easie for them to know that the eclipse then was supernaturall it being not then conjunction-time of sunne and moon and also in regard of the continuance of the eclipse as Thomas Aquinas observeth Upon this saying also is conjectured that he caused the consecration of
A GREEK IN THE TEMPLE Some Common-places delivered in Trinity Colledge Chapell in Cambridge upon ACTS xvii part of the 28. verse By JOHN SHERMAN Bachelour in Divinity and Fellow of the same Colledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 BASIL in Homilia Ad Juvenes quomodo è Graecis utilitatem caperent Alma Mater HINC LVCEM ET POCVLA SACRA Printed by Roger Daniel Printer to the Universitie of Cambridge 1641. To the Right Honourable Right Reverend Right Worshipfull the Governours of the Free-School in the CHARTER HOVSE MUch is spoken which should not be thought and written which should not be spoken and printed which should not be written Such may this discourse be or such accounted I am contented Yet I go on with an ingenuous boldnesse in this small bundle of Common-places as we call our morning Exercises to represent next unto God unto you my thankfulnesse for my education in that House whereof you are the Worthy Governours If I thus discharge this debt the adventure of my credit will be lesse dangerous the losse more easie since we are not bound so to a perfection of learning as we are bound to a perfection of Duty The Stork is said to leave one of her young ones where she hatcheth as it were out of some instinct of gratitude and I to return an acknowledgement of my breeding present you with this little offspring of my mind penned indeed rather then plumed They are next unto the first Common-places which I ever made Since much time and years have run wherein I might have added much varied somewhat polished all but I desire to serve them up in their first and naturall dresse and not to deceive you with my first Common-places last made The Poet calleth his books his children This of mine is but a daughter slight slender impertinent unprofitable Yet the raritie of the subject comforteth the Authour that what cannot satisfie because not so usefull may please because so unusuall Few such texts there are this to my knowledge not touched before In the way of the discourse Hagar waiteth diligently upon Sarah Humane learning carrieth the candle to Divinity now the candle may be set down and the servant may go out Be pleased to signifie the height of your Greatnesse in a condescent of acceptance The Presse hath delivered it into this legible fashion in respect to your Qualitie But I mean not that the world shall see it either because I would save my modesty or serve you more peculiarly Do it the justice of favour to think of it better then it deserveth and me the honour to vouchsafe me to be Your most obliged and humble servant JOHN SHERMAN Ad virum optimum integerrimum Mr JOHANNEM SHERMANNUM de eruditissimo hoc suo pientissimóque tractatu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Psal 89.35 36. IN coelo testes sunt Sol Luna fideles Major émque probant lumina magna Deum Quando igitur verus fuerit de numine Testis * Ovid. Cum Sole Luna semper Aratus erit Tu quoque qui Cilicis narr asti verba poetae Et tua cum coelo famaperennis erit Nè temne augurium nam nos quoque numen habemus Crede mihi vates enthea turbasumus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad Lectorem in laudem Operis Autoris LEctor in hoc certant Pietas Doctrina libello Nescio num primas illa vel illa ferat Hoc scio quod punctum qui tam bene sacra profanis Ethnica divinis miscuit omne tulit Scintillam veri dum Sanctus Apostolus ist◠Ex * Allusio ad patriam urbem nomen poetae cujus hemistichium enarrat autor Cilice excudit porrigit ille facem Sacrum Gentili de stercore colligit aurum Dum vertit Graeci jugera multa * Allusio ad patriam urbem nomen poetae cujus hemistichium enarrat autor Soli Eruit gemmas veterum dum ruspat in agris Paucis ingenii tam bene * Allusio ad patriam urbem nomen poetae cujus hemistichium enarrat autor Aratus ager In Poetam à S. Paulo citatum CRetes Cilices inter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sunt duo quos testes paginasacra vocat Nec puduit Paulum Graecos citare laudare poetas Hic vel Cretensis sit licèt ille Cilix Sic Deus è tenebris educit lumen amaris Sic vos ex herbis mellificatis apes Inscriptis hominum sit quodvis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ast in divinis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scilicet hîc nulli narrant mendacia Cretes Neve Soloecismos ipse Solensis habet JACO DUPORT S.T.B. Coll. Trin. Cantab. Socius Graecae Lingua Professor ACTS XVII 28. As certain also of your own Poets have said For we are also his offspring IT is a principle Contra negantem principia non est disputandum Against him that denieth principles we must not dispute But the sense and importment of it is not to be taken otherwise then by way of specification That upon those principles which are denied we cannot make a convenient discourse Argue with the Jews who believe not in Christ out of the Old Testament as our Saviour did and S. Paul in the second verse of this chapter The Cerdonians denie the Old Testament dispute with them out of the New with orthodox Christians out of both with Heathens out of neither Reason is the naturall and common ground of argumentation And those that either never read a verse in sacred page or deride what they have read unlesse they will in a peevish humour do that which for religion they will not do namely denie themselves must be ruled by reason Natures light is a subcelestiall starre in the orb of the microcosme Gods voice mans usher in the school of the world As truths supernaturall are not contradicted by reason so neither surely is that contradicted by Scripture what is dictated by right reason The Doctour of the Gentiles therefore in his encounter with the Epicureans and Stoicks as in the eighteenth verse of this chapter leaving those principles of Scripture the object whereof Christ was so strange unto them yea and the point of Resurrection also which naturall knowledge hath some glimpse of disputeth with them out of their own principles of rationall light which being the fountain of naturall Divinitie and this naturall Divinitie consisting partly in artificiall discourse partly in inartificiall authority the Apostle useth both the first in the next verse the second in this Here he produceth a testimonie in the next verse he maketh an inference out of it Thus he confuteth the Heathens with an Heathen the Philosophers with the Poet Aratus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The words are little else then an indefinite Quotation and a rationall Aphorisme An indefinite Quotation As certain also of your own Poets have said A rationall Aphorisme We are also his offspring In the quotation we may observe 1.
an altar to the Unknown God which S. Paul speaketh of But whether he was the authour of this is very doubtfull if not improbable For they had more anciently an altar inscribed UNTO THE UNKNOVVN GODS which Pausanias maketh mention of in his fifth book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And concerning the books which the Pontificians father upon his name De caelesti hierarchia Deecclesiastica hierarchia De Divinis nominibus it were not very difficult to determine them not to be his For Hierome in his Catalogue of Ecclesiastick writers maketh no mention of them Valla and Erasmus have proved by many arguments that they are none of his as Chemnitius relateth And in his Ecclesiastick Hierarchy he speaketh of Temples of Altars of Monks whereof in Dionysius the Areopagites time whom S. Paul converted certainly there was no being In his fifth chapter De ecclesiastica hierarchia we have them in a manner all in one line 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Priest standing before the Altar chanteth out some monasticall invocation Where the Altar is and the Priest the Temple may be supposed Now settled temples in Dionysius his time almost certain it is there were none Questionlesse no Monks the order whereof was instituted first by Paul the Hermite some two hundred and seven years after the conversion of Dionysius as the Chronologer hath it Dionysius then who is named in Scripture was no very learned scholar for ought we know But secondly if so surely he was a Christian before he had the honour to be mentioned in the book of God God I see respecteth not excellencie of learning where there is no measure of grace but he respecteth the least degree of grace in whatsoever person Damaris is named with Denys a woman with an Areopagite O Christianitie that either findest us or makest us honourable yea oftener makest us then findest us so yea ever makest us yea never findest us of any reall worth onely in a shew and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Untill we come to be Christians we are not worthy the naming Silly were the Heathen who knew not this religion impious they were for hating it unjust for hating they knew not what as Tertullian in his Apologeticus Vacante meriti notitiâ unde odii justitia defenditur Though it was sometimes a stranger on earth and none would own it yet it had genus spem gratiam dignitatem in caelis as the same Father Very respectively doth Scripture speak of religious Christians The Bereans were more noble then those of Thessalonica in the seventh verse of this chapter more noble 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were of better descent which is as we may speak the very bloud of Nobility But how more noble Non per civilem dignitatem sed spiritualem dignationem It is subjoyned in that they received the word with all readinesse of mind and searched not the records of their antiquity but the Scripture daily whether those things were so And whereas in the next verse the Scripture mentioneth honourable women happily they are said to be honourable in way of a Prolepsis as being to be believers Neverthelesse also if I seem not somewhat too criticall we may observe that those in the former verse have the better term in the notion of the originall These are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 women of good fashion the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more noble Not as if the honour of every ones place were forfeited by the badnesse of the person in an humane society but thus it is with God Plato commendeth the Attick countrey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Thucydides more plainly in the beginning speaking of the same countrey saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The same men ever inhabited it not as if they were immortall but the same of nation it was the mother and nurse to them all in his opinion By the way that is false as may be demonstrated out of the twenty sixth verse of this chapter where God is said to have made of one bloud that is of one man Adam all men to dwell upon all the face of the earth From one Adam were derived all mankind which after the confusion of Babel severally dispersed themselves throughout the earth so that those who first inhabited the Attick countrey were not born there as Plato supposeth nor did the same men ever inhabit it as may be supposed men of other languages very likely mingling themselves after that dispersion Yet if so as Plato and Thucydides would have it it would be no commendation to that which followeth in Plato as himself confesseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first and greatest is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either actively or passively either loving of God or beloved of God They go both together Meats commend us not to God as S. Paul so neither nation nor whatsoever other secular respect and qualitie Nor doth he like what he is himself Authour of in a subject which is not such as it should be Wit and Eloquence and Erudition are Gods creatures yet doth he not vouchsafe them a power to move his delight unlesse they be exercised to his glory Melior est humilis rusticus qui Deo servit quà m superbus Philosophus qui neglecto seipso coeli motum contemplatur as a devout Dominicane The Greeks expresse learning and goodnesse in one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is for both as if they were not learned who are not good So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is usually understood by S. Chrysostome for Action and the Scripture calleth a wicked man generally a fool Now in this mean esteem of humane knowledge without divine goodnesse we are the more fit to passe over briefly the Poets without envying them And this is the next particular according to our division the Profession of the Quoted Poets What shall I call them reall men of an imaginary world or imaginative men of a reall world who as if nature were not fruitfull enough to bring forth reall entities must multiply to the world a new brood of things which live onely in a phansie Plutarch calleth Poetry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a part of the Muses or a piece of learning Simonides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a speaking picture Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an imitation Plato is said to have banished them out of his Common-wealth Proclus upon Plato giveth us the reasons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Since Poetrie is an imitation according to Plato and the subjects whose lives and actions they imitate being the gods and the Heroes their sonnes the Poets not knowing certainly what they did but supposing they lived in pleasure phansied unto them such pleasure as men then or themselves delighted in just as Eusebius saith of Cerinthus that he held that our Saviours kingdome after the resurrection should be voluptuary because he himself delighted so much in carnall pleasure So that the Poets did not onely attribute unto them such things as were merely humane as Eating Sleeping
and the like but such also as are against reason as Intemperance Adultery and the like Whence Cyrill of Hierusalem mocketh the Heathens for calling Jupiter an adulterer a God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If he be an adulterer let him not be called a God Plato now seeing the ingagement unto vice by these examples as the fellow in Terence Ego verò feci lubens He braggeth what he had done in imitation of Jupiter was provoked for this cause to remove them Secondly because it was not meet that such obscene borborologie and filthy speeches as they used should proceed out of the mouth of man The words are good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not to be thought fit that the tongue the instrument of Gods praise and of conference with good men should be soiled and polluted with such speeches Neverthelesse he doth not absolutely condemne them For in the beginning of the eighth of his Laws he prescribeth what kind of poemes are to be used in a solemnity the qualification of the Poets and himself now and then useth their sayings Our Apostle S. Paul Tit. i. 12. where he quoteth Epimenides his saying calleth the Poets Prophets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby he seemeth to expresse the nature of the profession in a way of resemblance and that may be two wayes either ratione personae or ratione officii First Ratione personae in two respects either as accounted by common esteem as Prophets or by great ones honoured like them As Jeremiah xxxix 11. was honoured by the king of Babylon so were Poets respected by kings and were familiar unto them as Pausanias writeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Polycrates Anacreon with Antigonus our Aratus Secondly there is a resemblance of Poets with Prophets ratione officii and that three wayes either 1. in regard of dictation of their poemes so that as the Prophets were inspired by God for the penning of their prophecies so the Poets were accounted to have been inspired in their poetries Whence Plato saith of them in the third of his Laws 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The generation of the Poets is a divine and inspired generation Or 2. in regard of their style The Prophets of God spake in a high style and strain hyperbolically obscurely as Ezekiel and therefore the Jews forbad Ezekiel to be read before the thirtieth yeare whence that is called annus sacerdotalis the Priests yeare besides other reasons so also did the Poets as might be shown 3. In regard of their end The Prophets as they are taken largely were rebukers of sinne and exhorters unto godlinesse although ut sic the proper denomination is from Prediction foretelling This also was the peculiar office and scope of the Satyrists amongst the Poets and the very worst of them now and then gave virtue a commendation and vice a censure But now out of S. Pauls use and expression of them what deduction what inference what corollary shall we raise That they promiscuously are to be read or if the choice ones much or if sparingly at times with immoderate delight Nay shall we at all reade them Shall Plato banish them Christians use them I would Christians did not use some things which Heathens forbid Aristotle in the fourth of his Ethicks the first chapter and in one page condemneth both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the usurer and the dicer and yet some Christians blush at neither Plutarch passeth a determination upon Poetrie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And surely plus aloes quà m mellis habet There is picking work enough Yet as Virgil being asked what he meant when he read Ennius replied that he did è coeno colligere margaritas so if a Christian did reade Virgil he might being asked the same question answer in the same manner Or if from this hint of Poets we should rise to a generall discourse of humane authours as the fellow that was asked whether light was pleasant said It was a blind mans question so if it should be asked Whether humane knowledge were usefull it might be answered It is an illiterate question Certainly there is some good to be gotten in the study of Greek authours or else Julian the Apostate would never have interdicted to the Christian youth the use of them Nicephorus in his tenth book of Ecclesiasticall history bringeth in Julians reason why he forbad the use of Greek authours Nè linguis eorum acumine perpolitis facilè disputatoribus nostris resistere sacra quidem sua amplificare religionem autem nostram refellere facilè queant I might now tell you Nicephorus his arguments for the point and that Basil hath wrote a book to this purpose and I might tell you what S. Augustine saith concerning this in the end of his second De doctrina Christiana and what others and how learned the Fathers were and that S. Paul after conversion did not burn his books nor parchments But it is an errour to bring this into question in an Universitie In lieu of all arguments this may serve that in this dispute of S. Paul where he useth both Philosophy and Poets a woman Damaris and many others likely not of the learned nation were converted From hence also the Teacher of the Gentiles instructeth us Christians not to disembrace goodnesse in any nor truth in any Plato's rule is good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us not consider so much who saith as what is said who doeth as what is done Let not the authority of the teacher tempt thee to erre as Vincentius Lirinensis saith the errours of the Fathers were temptations to the Church nor let the badnesse or meannesse of the preacher spoil thy attention Learn not badnesse of the best but learn goodnesse of the worst Lastly me thinketh from hence we may raise a meditation upon an embleme of the strangenesse of the happinesse of the Gentiles being received into grace As unlikely as Poets sayings were to be made canonicall were Gentiles to be made divine As unlikely as an Heathens saying to be put in the book of truth was an Heathens name to be wrote in the book of life The Heathen are come into thine inheritance O God may be sung now with joy as it was sometimes by David with complaint And so much of the Profession of the Quoted Poets Nextly followeth the Appropriation of them YOUR OVVN Poets As certain also of YOUR OVVN Poets have said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Paul maketh use of their writings but rejecteth them he approveth what they say but he owneth not them YOUR OVVN Poets They bring their gift unto the altar and then go their way One or two reade it vestratium in reference unto their countrey But that is very disputable in two respects of the thing and of the phrase For the first though we know not what countreymen they were whom S. Paul includeth in the CERTAIN and therefore cannot judge whether they were conterraneous unto
strict and clear substance of the words will be this We are Gods offspring The question now is concerning the supposition of the subject of the proposition WE how much it importeth If we consider the words without any reference unto Saint Pauls consequence out of them in the next verse this WE may signifie in a double acception reduplicativè specificativé First reduplicatively most universally comprehending all Entities all creatures whether of Being onely or Life besides Being or Sense besides both or Reason besides all or pure Reason without Sense as Angels all of him and from him from the highest Angel in heaven to the lowest in hell Bad ones as of men so of Angels as ones his Gods as bad their own It is a rationall creatures weaknesse to be able to sinne It is Gods omnipotence to create from the king to the begger from Dan to Beersheba from the greatest mountain to the slenderest atome all of all all proceed from him who proceedeth from none But this all is too much for S. Pauls drift and for the common expression WE This sense is fit for the proposition but too wide and redundant for the inference Secondly then WE specificativè or indeed specially We men So the Apostle meaneth it in the next verse Since then we are the offspring of God we are not to think that the Godhead is like to gold or silver or stone graven by art or mans devise as if man should be the image by which God should be worshipped if he would be worshipped by any In man is the image of God though defaced by that originall sinne And no better Embleme for representing the God of the whole or of all as Ignatius in his Epistles and Theodoret in his Questions calleth him then Man who is the Epitome of the whole of all the Docquet of the book of the creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a whole world in a world a little one in a great one so that Democritus in his opinion of more worlds was out but in quantity for there be many little worlds And we are Gods offspring in a threefold respect in respect of our bodies in respect of our souls in respect of both together These severall considerations for our more distinct proceeding may serve if you please in lieu of a division First of the first we are Gods offspring in respect of our body Now God is the Authour of our bodies to speak in an universalitie two wayes immediately or mediately immediately of our first Parents though in some difference of manner mediately of the rest The immediate production is also twofold Ex parte Materiae ex parte Efficientis Immediate production in respect of matter maketh a simple creation when somewhat is made out of no praeexistent subject at all So Adam was not made in respect of his body it being formed of the dust of the earth Gen. ii 7. And God formed man of the dust of the ground The second immediate production is in respect of efficient So Adam was created immediately by God no other Agent coming betwixt and helping the Divine omnipotence in raising so glorious a fabrick out of so unlikely a subject And therefore this is also called a Creation secundùm quid no created virtue being able out of such an indisposed matter to make such a work And as Adam was thus immediately produced by God in respect of his body so was his wife Eve They had a different matter but the same efficient of their being God made the woman off the rib of man Indeed Constantinus Manasses saith that Adam was to Eve 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Authour spake here as a Poet as the Fathers sometimes like Rhetoricians Adam concurred not in any way of Agency towards the production of his Wife he was not maried to his daughter God took the rib from him when he was in a deep sleep and off it framed the body of Eve Matter in the beginning of time was taken from man to make a woman and matter in the fulnesse of time was taken from a woman to make a man even the man Christ Jesus So God was the Authour without any other of the bodies of Adam and Eve God by this immediate production had a sonne and a daughter as we may speak And this sonne and daughter immediate causes of our ordinary generation are the causes why to us God is not the immediate God almighty who shewed what he could do in that extraordinary production of our first parents is now pleased to bring men into the world in way of a successive traduction by them Parents we have and God will have us account them so for he giveth us a law to honour them by reverence by obedience by gratitude as it is expounded Yet not so are they the authours of our being according to the flesh not so fathers of our flesh as they are called Hebr. xii 9. as if God were excluded from being our Father also according to a common manner of expression God by a proper generation a generation naturall hath but one Sonne the second person in the Trinitie yet God in Scripture is commonly called a Father without any reference unto the second Person God saith Mal. 1. If I be a Father where is my honour And he is a Father as Creatour expressely Mal. ii 10. Have we not all one Father hath not one God created us What more usuall in the Greek then to expresse Authour by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is scarce any other word for it So Martiall for the Latine calleth his books his children So God is said to be the Father of Spirits Heb. xii so the devil the father of a lie in S. John And thus we have expounded how God is said to be our Father and how in the text we are called Gods offspring not in strict proper speech but according to the common use of expressing the producer of any thing by the Father or Parent of it So Tertullian to our purpose in his book De Anima Omne quod quoquo modo accipit esse generatur But more directly in the following words Nam factor ipse parens facti dici potest sic Plato utitur Now that God is the Authour of our bodies by our Parents that he hath a finger nay a hand nay hands in framing our bodies we have the expresse testimony of the Prophet David Psal cxix Thy hands have made me and fashioned me And again Psal cxxxix 12. For my reins are thine thou hast covered me in my mothers wombe I will give thanks unto thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mirificatus sum mirabilibus operibus tuis as Montanus rendreth it I am fearfully and wonderfully made I am moulded I am made as it were and composed altogether in wonders beyond all understanding and expression so strangely so subtilly so beyond the power of man The
Jupiter his brethren and his kindred were not Deities This proposition is supposed not to be proved Secondly That some of the more ignorant sort of the Gentiles might take them to be Gods not knowing their originall and mistaking their Prophets when they spake of them as also because their understandings were not fitted by contēplation to extract out of the species of the creatures a conceit of the nature of a pure Divine essence For neither is this so great a stupidity as that of the vulgar and baser sort of the Papists who terminate their worship in the images themselves by Parisiensis his own confession cap. 23. De legibus Sicut multi simplices homines hodie sunt qui inter imagines sanctorū ipsos sanctos in suis or ationibus non distinguunt They have not the trick when they pray before an image of a Saint in every act of their worship to frame an elevation of their minds from the representation unto the Saint Very likely then it is that the worst of the Gentiles might think those false Gods very Gods and also might as the Papists before place their worship in the images of their Gods because the devil now and then did speak his oracles through them But thirdly Though the fillier of the Heathen might think them to be the onely Gods yet the more learned and intelligent of them did not firmly believe their absolute Divinities Tertullian therefore in his Apologetick speaketh plainly to the Heathen and appealeth unto their consciences Appellamus provocamus à vobis ad conscientiam vestram illa nos judicet illa nos damnet si poter it negare omnes illos Deos vestros homines fuisse And this may appear out of their practice to wards them which was so grosse that the same Father telleth them Nescio plúsne de vobis dii vestri quà m de Christianis querantur I know not whether your Gods have more reason to complain of you or of Christians Witnesse their fowl uncleannesses in their temples even by their Priests witnesse their personating their Gods by that tetrum genus pantomimorum and their whipping of their Diana on the stage And he telleth them also how coursely they used their domestick Gods Domesticos Deos domesticâ potestate tractatis oppignerando venditando demutando aliquando in trullam de Minerva And Varro he saith brought into publick view no lesse then thirty Jupiters without heads Diogenes as the same Father but rather Diagoras being in an inne and having nothing to seeth his supper with took Hercules his image and made a fire with it with this insultation Now Hercules to thy thirteenth labour seeth me my pottage And S. Augustine De civit Dei ii 12. besides many other places taxeth them that they forbad the Poets to speak any ill of any citizen of Rome under a great penaltie but let them speak what they would of the Gods as if they had majorem curam Romae unius quà m totius coeli I might also tell you what handling they had in Homer Venus wounded and comforted by a Goddesse by telling her it was their fortune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We suffer in heaven many things from men on earth Mars was imprisoned 13. moneths Juno wounded by Hercules Pluto hurt with a dart Surely blind Homer jeered them Socrates in contempt of their Deities sware by an Oke and a Goat as Tertullian again And one God would suffice him for which he died as an Heathen martyr Excellent is that of Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato maketh a difference betwixt his serious epistles and not serious by this signe His serious ones he beginneth with one God the other with Gods And Tertullian saith Multi Dii habuerunt Caesare miratum and we do not use to be angry with our superiours as Aristotle saith in his Rhetoricks And that the better and learneder of the Heathens could not heartily believe that they were very Gods may be collected out of the lives of the Gods their conversation such as did not become men much lesse Gods Nay Tertullian speaking to them of the behaviour of their gods asketh them Quot tamen potiores viros Although they were somewhat good how many better men have ye left below as Aristides and Socrates And Augustine saith merrily Neque enim erant suo Pontifice meliores The Gods were no better then their Priests And Cyrill of Hierusalem flouteth Jupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as before If Jupiter be an adulterer for shame let him not be called a God What reverent esteem could those have of their God in the night who worshipped the Sunne and in the day who worshipped the Moon They were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Atheists in the night which worshipped the Sunne and Atheists in the day which worshipped the Moon as Cyrill wittily But as the same Authour upon this subject breaketh out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so I We rake a dunghill in this discourse of dunghil-gods We will therefore roll up this proposition in a better which is the principall one for the exposition of the text That the learneder sort of the Gentiles some more clearly some more indistinctly according to the measure of common illumination from God and light of their own reason did ultimately aim at a true Divinity even amongst their false ones Here might I inlarge my self by treating of the cognoscibility of God by humane understanding without any supernaturall doctrine which Lombard handleth in the third Distinction of his first book and which the Schoolmen dispute of and I might speak of the wayes how we may come to the knowledge of God and I might tell you that a rationall facultie without an infinite second depravation and some thicker mist of Satan doth not nay cannot frame to it self a conceit of an absolute Deitie of such a nature as is either inferiour to it self or not transcendently above it here also might I again enter upon that large theme How farre the Heathens have gone in their expressions of God But to confirm this conclusion I will onely produce one or two testimonies out of the Fathers and one out of sacred Scripture and so passe this naturall Divinity Arnobius in his first book adversùs Gentes bringeth in the Gentiles endeavouring to clear themselves of a supposed imputation and slander that they acknowledged not the true God and they speak as if they were angry that Christians should think so of them Sed frustrà nos falso calumnioso incessitis crimine tanquam eamus inficias esse Deum majorem cùm à nobis Jupiter nominetur Optimus habeatur Maximus And the same Ecclesiastick writer telleth them that they mingled the true God with the false Dissimilia copulare atque in unam speciem cogere inductâ confusione conamini And to confirm this opinion of the Father we may make use of a place in Macrobius in the first book of his Saturnalia where he undertaketh to reduce all
the Heathen Gods unto the Sunne which very likely was the first object of Idolatry Now amongst the attributes of the Sunne he findeth in Orpheus the name JAH put into a Greek termination which otherwise is one of the names whereby God is expressed in Scripture Psal lxviii 4. Praise him in his name in the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his name JAH And Hallelujah in Scripture is no other then Praise the Jah or the Lord. Whereby it is manifest that they shuffled in the true God amongst the false ones For certainly a full ignorance of a more superlative Deitie then the other false Gods were of is scarce conceiveable amongst the wiser of the Gentiles Arnobius therefore in the beginning of his second book bringeth in the Heathens again speaking for themselves or rather in behalf of their Gods Sed non idcirco Dii vobis infesti sunt c. Our Gods are not therefore your enemies O ye Christians because ye worship an omnipotent God but because ye maintein a man born and also crucified which onely is for base persons to be a God and believe him yet to be alive and do also worship him in your dayly invocations If we would analyse this place we might make out of it a full demonstration to our purpose Here is a confession of an omnipotent God Here is an implicit assertion that this God is to be worshipped Here is a denying of Divine worship to man therefore they say Christ is not to be worshipped because man Could they then determine their adorations upon their Gods whom some of them knew to be men nay some of the Heathen were ancienter then their Gods Varro therefore propounded to himself this method in writing First to write of things humane then of things divine A strange order one would think but his reason is good and witty Quia civitates Diis quos ipsae instituerant ut pictor tabellâ priores sunt Because as the painter is before the picture so the cities are before the Gods whom the cities created Amongst the sorts of Gods also which they made namely three Poeticall Civil Philosophicall the Philosophicall Gods which one would imagine to be the best were not accounted by the Philosophers to be true Gods onely the common people might not know so much as an Authour hath it But come we now to an authority out of Scripture for the establishment of our point No place so pregnant as where Saint Paul discusseth the knowledge of the Gentiles in the first chapter to the Romanes from the eighteenth to the twenty fourth verse Especially to our purpose he speaketh in the twenty first and twenty second verses In the twenty first verse Because that when they knew God They the Gentiles they knew God two wayes by the book of the Creature in the twentith verse by naturall light in the nineteenth verse That which may be known of God is manifest in them Or if you please naturall knowledge was able to collect a Divinitie out of the book of the Creature So God manifested what may be known of him to them as in the nineteenth God expressed himself to them in the vast ample volume of the world To return unto our twenty first verse Because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God Glorifie him then they did but not in the right manner not in the right 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not immediately not distinctly not onely not so well as they knew him but as in the three and twentieth verse they changed the glory that is relatively and quoad nos for absolutely and in it self Gods glory cannot suffer any alteration they changed the glory of the incorruptible God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the similitude or by the similitude of the image of corruptible man that is as Calvine expoundeth it They made man to represent God Whence it is evident then that they did worship ultimately the true God through those true men false Gods As for the adoring of the Images of their Gods that the learneder of them disclaimed as the Reverend Primate of Ireland quoteth them speaking in the sixth of Arnobius Deos per simulacra veneramur and through or by those false Gods they aimed at the true The knowledge of a God was so evident 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it was so firmly grounded it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in them in respect of the principles they had of God and in respect of an abilitie of understanding to inferre a Divinity out of the creation that unlesse they would deny what they saw they could not disacknowledge a God and if so then it would follow to them that he is to be worshipped That there is a God is principled in nature and from hence resulteth naturally by a most strict and necessary connexion That this God is to be served honoured worshipped For the apprehension of a Divine nature cannot but conceive in it a right unto this homage by a double relation of it unto the creature of sovereigne Power and of Goodnesse The former requireth a reverent fear the other an affectionate love which will exercise themselves in outward worship And let us now suppose this for a principium secundo-primum as they term it namely That God is to be worshipped from hence also by consequent will ensue That an Idole is not to be worshipped for an Idole is not God That rationall light that seeth a God is able to see one God onely that light that seeth one God onely must reject an Idole Now since in a Divine essence there is considered so much majesty and glory that they might think it an impudent presumption to make an immediate addresse unto this great God therefore they might think they should do God service in shewing their honour of him by the doing honour unto his glorious creatures the Sunne the Moon and the like and in making great men after death as mediatours betwixt him and them as the Papists upon the like plea make Angels and Saints their intercessours which in processe of time by mens ignorance and the devils deceit came to be esteemed of the common sort as complete Gods not so of the more intelligent of them as we have shewed these did not terminate their adorations in the Heathen Gods but looked further at God the Ancient of dayes whom Thales one of the Seven of Greece called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most ancient of all things as Laertius saith of him in his Life So that the difference of the worship of these from the worship of true Christiaus is this True Christians worship God through Christ God-man they worshipped God by men supposed Gods So Aratus through Jupiter meaneth GOD So Saint Paul understandeth him Neverthelesse this worshipping of God by mediation and image whether of man or beast God accounteth a false worship So he esteemed the Israelites worshipping him by a calf Man doth indeed but God doth not make such a