the Prophet Haggeus expounded heretofore vntil at length after long and pernicious abusing of them when he could not deliuer them from the yoke of the Romaines in the end they knockt him on the head Yet notwithstanding afterward againe about a fortie yeres after the destruction of the Temple another of the same name gathered into the Citie of Bitter all the Iewes that were thereabouts and of him they report wonders as that he should haue a hūdred thousand men about him which vpon trust of their inuincible strength did cut off one of their fingers that going to battell he was wont to say Helpe vs not thou Lord of the world seeing thou hast forsaken vs c. And that the Rabbines which had bene deceiued by the former so greatly were they perswaded of the tyme receiued this man neuerthelesse and made him also to be receiued of others applying vnto him this text of the booke of Nombers A Starre shall come out of Iacob because the Hebrewe word Cocab signifieth a Starre and saying that in stead of Cocab it ought to be written Cozab or Cozba which was his name And this is written by their owne Histories and confirmed afterward by ours and also by the very Heathen writers which wrate the life of the Emperour Adrian Yet for all this they were still the more wasted and caryed away into Spayne and Hierusalem was peopled with other Nations and the whole Land of Iewrie made vtterly heathen And as many as went about afterward to abuse the Iewes vnder that pretence as one did not long since in Italie were by and by destroyed and welnere wyped cleane out of rememberance Let vs adde yet further that since that tyme which is now aboue fiftéene hundred yéeres agoe they neuer had any Prophetes any comfort from GOD any extraordinarie gifts no nor any knowledge of their Tribes which is a most euident token that the Prophesies which amed chiefly at Christ are fulfilled and that in him the Church is comforted and indewed with the giftes which it hoped for and to bee short that he for whose sake the pedegrees were to be kept certeyne is not now to be borne And therefore wee see how some of them doe say with Rabbi Hillel That the daies of Ezechias haue swallowed vp the Messias that is to say that he is not to bee looked for any more and that folke haue made themselues vnworthie of him and that some others through extremitie of despayre do pronounce them accursed which determine any certeyne tyme of the comming of the Messias Thus then we see now that the holy Scripture and the auncient interpretation thereof doe méete together in the tyme of Herod to shewe vs the Messias there and therevpon it is that we sée the people in the Gosphell so ready to ronne after Iohn Bapthst and Christ and to moue these ordinarie questions Art thou hee that should come When wilt thou restore the Kingdome of Israell Shall we waite for another yet still and such other But But let vs see what startingholes stubbornes hath inuēted against the things aforesaid The Messias say the new Rabbines was borne at the very same time and in the very same day that the second Temple was destroyed that this Prophesie of Esay might be fulfilled Before hir throwes or pangs came she was deliuered of a Manchylde but he is kept secret for a tyme. For so doe we reade vpon the xxx Chapter of Genesis And in the Talmud Rabbi Iosua the sonne of Leuy sayth that it is a Reuelation that was made vnto Elias I would faine then haue them to shewe me what one Text in all the Scripture giueth any incling thereof They ad that he shal be hidden sower hundred yeeres in the greate Sea eight hundred yeres among the sonnes of Coree and fower score yeres at the gate of Rome And Rabbi Iosua the sonne of Leuy saith in the Talmud that he himselfe sawe him there lapping vp his sores among the Lazermen What are these things euen by none other witnesse then them selues but tales contriued vpon pleasure of purpose to mock folke Some say he shal be set vp in great honour next vnto the Pope and that in the end he shall say to the Pope as Moyses did to Pharao Let my people goe that they may serue mee and so foorth If he be borne so long agoe and keepe him selfe secret as they say in their Talmud but till he be called to deliuer them what cause is there why he should kéepe himself away still seeing they haue called him so much and so lowd and so many hundred yeres seeing also that the time is expyred yea and almost dubble expyred and finally seeing that euen according to their owne exposition it is sayd I will hasten them in their tyme They answere yet still there remayneth but a good repentāce Tooto◠miserable surely were we if God should not preuent our repentance with his grace For the very repentance of the best men is but a sorynesse that they cannot be sory enough But let vs heere a pretie Dialogue of two Rabbins disputing in their Talmud of this matter It is written sayth Rabbi Eliezer Turne againe yee stubborne Children and I will heale you of your stybbornesse Yea but it is also written sayth R. Iosua Ye haue bene sold for nothing and ye shall be redeemed with mony that is to say ye haue bene sold for your Idolatryes which are nothing and ye shal be redeemed without your repentance good workes Yea but it is sayd sayth R. Eliezer Turne yee to mee and I will turne to you But let vs also reade sayth R. Iosua I haue taken ye in mariage as a wyfe and I will take you one of a Citie and twoo of a Household and giue you enterance into Sion R. Eliezer replyeth thus It is sayd ye shal be saued in calmnesse and in rest Nay sayth R. Iosua it is written in Esay thus saith the Lord the Redeemer of Israell to the despised Soule and to the people that is abhorred that is to say that your wickednes shal not stop the course of Gods decree In the end Eliezer sayth what meaneth Ieremy then to say If thou turne thee ageine ô Israell seeing it is a conditionall maner of speaking Nay saith Rabbi Iosua what ment Daniel then by this Text I heard the man that was clothed in linnen and stood vppon the Water of the Riuer and he lifted vp his right hand and his left hand vp to Heauen and sware by him that liueth for euer and it shal be for a tyme and tymes and halfe a tyme And the Talmud sayth that at this tert R. Eliezer was blankt and held his peace which was as much to say as that he condescended to that which R. Iosua had sayd namely that the offences of Israell should not stay the comming of Christ but that God would preuent Israell with his holy grace
names which are attributed to the Gods are but deuices to experesse the powers of the onely one God the Prince and Father of all And therefore it is more behofefull to sende the Readers to the reading of that whole treatise of his throughout than to set in any more thereof here because they shall there see a woonderfull eloquence matched with this goodly diuinitie That which the first and most diuine saith his disciple Theophrastus will haue all things to bee exceeding good and it may be also that he is aboue the reache of all knowledge and vnserachable Againe There is saith he One diuine beginner of all things whereby they haue their beeing and continuance But in his booke of Sauors he passeth further and saith that God created all things of nothing But to create of nothing presupposeth an infinite power and againe that power presupposeth an vnitie Alexander of Aphrodise in his booke of Arouidence written to the Emperour Antonine attributeth Prouidence ouer all things vnto one only God which can doe whatsoeuer he listeth as appéereth by all his whole discourse And he was of such renowne amoÌ„g all the Aristotelians that they called themselues Alexandrians after his name To be short the most part of the Interpreters and Disiciples of Aristotle found it so néedefull to acknowledge one onely Beginner ond so absurd to maintaine any mo than one that to the intent they might not confesse any such absurditie in their Mayster they doe by all meanes possible excuse whatsoeuer might in his workes be construed to the contrarie As touching the Stoiks of auncientest tyme wee haue no more than is gathered into the writings of their aduersaries who do all attribute vnto them the maintenance of the vnitie infinitenesse of GOD according to this which Aristotle reporteth of Zeno namely that there must néedes be but one God for els there should be no God at all because it behoueth him to be singularly good and also almightie which were vtterly vnpossible if there were any mo than one Also Simplicius reporteth of Cleanthes that in his Iambick verses he praied God to voutsafe to guyde him by his cause which guideth all things in order the which cause hée calleth destinie and the cause of cause But the two chief among them whose doctrine we haue in writing will easely make vs to credit all the residue Epictetus the Stoik whose words Proclus Simplicius and euen Lucian himselfe held for Oracles speaketh of only one God The first thing saith he that is to be learned is that there is but one God and that hee prouideth for all things and that from him neither deede nor thought can be hidden He teacheth vs to resort vnto him in our distresses to acknowled him for our Master and Father to lift vp our eyes vnto him alone if wee will get out of the Quamyre of our sinnes to séeke our felicitie there and to call vpon him in all things both great and small Of all the Goddes that were in time past he speaketh not a word but surely he saith that if we call vpon the onely one God hee will informe vs of all things by his Angels As for Seneca he neuer speaketh otherwise What doth God saith he to such as behold him Hee causeth his workes not to be without witnesse And againe To serue God saith he is to Reigne God exerciseth vs with afflictions to trie mans nature and he requireth no more but that wee should pray to him These ordinary spéeches of his shewe that he thought there was but one God But he procéedeth yet fâ—rther From things discouered sayth he wee must proceede to things vndiscouered and seeke out him that is auncienter than the world of whom the Starres proceede And in the end he concludeth that the World and all that is conteyned therein is the worke of God Also he casseth him the FouÌ„der Maker Creator of the World and the Spirit which is shed foorth vpon all things both great and small And in his Questions It is he sayth he whom the Hetruscanes or Tuscans meane by the names of Iupiter Gardian Gouernor Lord of the whole world If thou call him Destinie thou shalt not deceiue thyselfe for al things depend vpon him from him comes the causes of all causes If thou call him Prouidence thou sayest wel for by his direction doth the World holde on his course without swaruing and vtter foorth his Actions If thou call him Nature thou doest not amisse for he it is of whom all things are bred and by whose Spirite we liue To be short wilt thou call him the World In very deede he is the whole which thou seest and he is in all the parts thereof bearing vp both the whole World and all that is thereof By this sentence we may also shewe that by the terme Nature the Philosophers ment none other than God himselfe accordingly as Seneca sayth in another place that God and Nature are both one like as Annoeus Seneca be both one man And whereas he sayth that God may be called the World it is all one with that which he sayth in another place namely GOD is whatsoeuer thou seest and whatsoeuer thou seest not That is to say whereas thou canst not see him in his proper béeing thou seest him in his works For in other places also he defineth him to a Mynd and Wisedome without bodie which cannot be seene but in vnderstanding Now of all the former things by him repeated in many places none can bee verified of any mo than one For he that maketh all gouerneth all and is all leaueth nothing for any other to make gouerne or be otherwise than from himself But he speaketh yet more expressely saying Thou considrest not the authoritie maiestie of thy Iudge the Gouernor of the World the God of Heauen and of all Gods All the Godheads which we worship euery man by himselfe depend wholly vpon him And againe When he had layd the foundations of this goodly Masse although he had spred out his power throughout the bodie thereof yet notwithstanding he made Gods to be officers of his kingdome to the end that euery thing should haue his guyde Now this is after the same maner that the holy Scripture speaketh of the Angelles So then he is not onely God the excellentest of all Gods but also their very Father Author and Maker Let vs yet further adde Cicero and Plutarch who haue of euery Sect taken what they thought good Both of them speake ordinarily but of one God the author and gouerner of all things vnto whome they attribute all things and in that ordinary style is their word Nature which surmounteth the custome of their tyme but yet doth their doctrine expresse much more héere Cicero treating of this matter in his booke intytuled Of the nature of the Gods acknowledgeth one souereine GOD whom he calleth the God of Gods that is the
will whereby he disposeth all things wherevppon in the last Chapter I coucluded a second and a third persone Insomuch that in a certayne place he sayeth playnly that God is to be honored according to the nomber of thrée and that the same is after a sort the Lawe of Nature Now for asmuch as this doctrine is not bred of mans brayne if it bee demaunded whence all the Philosophers tooke it wee shall finde that the Greekes had it from out of AEgipt Orpheus witnesseth in his Argonawts that to seeke the Misteries that is to say the Religion of the AEgiptians he went as farre as Memphis visiting all the Cities vpon the Riuer Nyle Through out the land of AEgipt I haue gone To Memphis and the Cities euerychone That worship Apis or be seated by The Riuer Nyle whose streame doth swell so hy Also Pythagoras visited the AEgiptians Arabians and Chaldeans yea and went into Iewry also and dwelt a long tyme at Mount Carmel as Strabo sayth insomuch that the Priestes of that Countrey shewed Strabo still the iourneyes and walkes of him there Now in AEgipt he was the Disciple of one Sonchedie the chiefe Prophet of the AEgiptians and of one Nazarie an Assyrian as Alexander reporteth in his booke of Pythagorasis discourses whom some miscounting the tyme thought to bee Ezechiel And Hermippus a Pythagorist writeth that Pythagoras learned many things out of the lawe of Moyses Also the sayd AEgiptian Priest vpbrayded Solon that the Greekes were Babes and knewe nothing of Antiquitie And Solon as sayth Proclus was Disciple in Says a Citie of AEgipt to one Patanit or as Plutarke sayth to one Sonchis in Heliople to one Oeclapie and in Sebenitie to one Etimon Plato was the Disciple of one Sechnuphis of Heliople in AEgipt and Eudoxus the Guidian was the Disciple of one Conuphis all which Maysterteachers issewed out of the Schoole of the great Trismegistus aforenamed To be short Plato confesseth in many places that knowledge came to the Greekes by those whom they commonly called the barbarus people As touching Zoroastres and Trismegistus the one was an Hebrewe and the other an AEgiptian And at the same tyme the Hebrewes were conuersant with the AEgiptians as is to be séene euen in the Heathen Authors Whereby it appeareth that the originall fountayne of this doctrine was to bee found among them which is the thing that wee haue to proue as now I meane not to gather hether a great sort of Texts of the Byble wherein mention is made as well of the second person as of the third of which sort are these Thou art my Sonne this day haue I begotten thee The Lord sayth Wisedome possessed me in the beginning of his wayes afore the depths was I conceyued c. Also concerning the holy Ghost The Spirit of the Lord walked vpon the waters The Spirit of Wisedome is gentle And it is an ordinary spéech among the Prophetes to say The Spirit of the Lord was vpon me And in this next saying are two of them together or rather all three The Heauens were spred out by the word of the Lord and all the power of them by the Spirit of his mouth For they be so alledged and expounded in infinite bookes howbeit that the Iewes at this day do labour as much as they can to turne them to another sence But let vs sée what their owne Doctors haue left vs in expresse words for the most part culled by themselues out of writtē bookes afore that the cōming of our Lord Iesus Christ had made that docttrine suspected In their Zohar which is one of their Bookes of greatest authoritie Rabbi Simeon the sonne of Iohai citeth Rabbi Ibba expoūding this text of Deuteronomie Hearken ô Israel The Euerlasting our God is one God The Hebrewe standeth thus Iehouah Echad Iehouah Eloh enu By the first Iehouah which is the peculiar name of God not to bée communicated to any other Rabbi Ibba saith he meaneth the Father the Prince of al. By Eloh enu that is to say our God he meaneth the Sonne the Fountaine of all knowledge And by the second Iehouah he meaneth the holy Ghost proceeding from them both who is the measurer of the voyce And he calleth him One because he is vndiuidable and this Secret saith he shall not be reuealed afore the comming of the Messias The same Rabbi Simeon expoūding these words of Esay Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hostes sayth Holy is the Father Holy is the Sonne Holy also is the holy Ghost In so much that this Author who is so misticall among them doth in other places call them the Three Mirrours Lights and Souerein fathers which haue neither beginning nor end and are the name and substaunce to the Roote of all Rootes And Rabbi Ionathas in many Copies of his Chaldey Paraphrase sayth the same And therefore no maruell though the Thalmudists of olde tyme commaunded men to say that Uerse twise a day and that some obserue it still at this day Upon these words of the 50. Psalme El elohim Iehouah dibber that is to say The Lord of Lords the Euerlasting hath spoken The ordinary Commentarie sayth also that by the sayd repetition the Prophet meaneth the thrée Middoth Properties wherby God created the world According whereunto Rabbi Moyses Hadarsan sayeth that hee created by his word And Rabbi Simeon sayeth he created by the breath of his mouth And this saying of the Preacher That a thréefold Corde is not so soone broken is expounded by the same glose I examine not whether filthy or no that the inisterie of the Trinitie in the one God is not easie to bee expressed Nowe these thrée Properties which the Hebrewes call Panim the Greekes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we the Latins call Persons are betokened by diuers names among the men of old tyme but yet they iumpe all in one according as they vnderstoode them some more clearely than other some Some name them the Beginning the Wisdome the Feare of Loue of God and they say that this Wisedome is Meensoph as the Cabalists tearme it that is to saye of the infinite and most inward vnderstanding of God who beholdeth hymselfe in himself for so doe they expound it Which is the selfesame thing that I spake of in the former Chapter namely that God begetteth his Sonne or Wisdome by his mynding of himselfe Othersome call him Spirit Word and Voyce as Rabbi Azariell doth in these words following The Spirit bringeth foorth the Word and the Voyce but not by opening the Lippes or by speeche of the tongue or by breathing after the maner of man And these three be one Spirit to wit one God as we reade sayeth he in the booke of the creating of man in these termes One Spirit rightly liuing blessed bee hee and his name who liueth for euer and euer Spirit Word and Voyce
that is to say One holy Ghost and two Spirits of that Spirit Now this booke of the Creation which he alledgeth is one Rabbi Abrahams a very auncient Cabalist Neuerthelesse it is of so great authoritie amoÌ„g them that they father it euen vpon the Patriarke Abraham himselfe And that which he sayth agreeth wholy to that which we say for the mynd conceyueth the inward spéech and of the mynd and of breath procéedeth the voyce These three sayth Rabbi Hamay beeing one haue such a proportionable respect one towards another as that the one the Vniter and the thing Vnited are but one poynt to wit the Lord of the whole world Rabbi Isaac vppon the booke of the Creation maketh three nomberings which he termeth the Loftie one in the Ensoph that is to say in the Infinite that is to wit Garlond Wisdom and vnderstanding And to betoken them Rabby Assee sayth that the custome was to marke them in all ages after this maner with three Iods Iehouah which is as much to say as the Beeër or He that is To be short what diuersitie soeuer there is in the names they al agree in the thrée Inbéeings or Persons And it is no maruell though they could not so well expresse them as we can now Rabbi Ioseph the Castilian hauing learned it out of the auncientest writers sayeth thus The light of the Soule of the Messias is the liuing God and the liuing God is the fountaine of the liuing waters and the Soule of the Messias is the Riuer or Streame of lyse Aud in another place None but the Messias sayth he knoweth God fully because he is the light of God and the light of the Gentiles and therefore he knoweth God and God is knowen by him Now when as they say that he knoweth GOD fully they graunt him to be God for who can comprehend God but GOD himselfe And it is the selfesame thing which I spake of when I sayd light of light and when in comparing the Sonne to the Father I lykened him as a streame to the fountaine and the Sunne beames to the Sunne Also we shall see in place conuenient that by the Soule of the Messias they meant The Word and it is a wonderfull thing that all the names of God in Hebrewe sauing onely the name of his Essence or single béeing haue the plurall termination notwithstanding that they be ioyned with a verbe of the singular nomber whereof the auncient Iewes doe yéeld the same reason that we doe and that a great sort of the Texts of the olde Testament which we alledge for the proofe of the Trinitie are expounded by them in the selfesame sence howbeit that the Talumdists since the comming of our Lorde Iesus Christ haue taken great payne to wrest them to another meaning Rabbi Iudas Nagid whom they commonly called the Sainct and Prophet speaketh most plainly of all Wherevpon it is to bée vnderstood that men were forbidden to vtter the vncommunicable name of God that is to wit Iehoua saue only in the daies of attonementmaking and in sted thereof they were commaunded to vse the name of Twelue letters for the other afore meÌ„tioned hath but fower And beeing asked what the name of Twelue letters was he answered that it was Father Sonne and holy Ghost Also being demaunded what the name of Two and fortie letters was he answered The Father is God the Sonne is God and the holy Ghost is God three in one and one in three Now then it was a doctrine receiued from hand to hand in the Schooles of the Iewes as wee see by the long continuance thereof in the succession of their Cabale And therefore the contention of the Iewes and of the Rabbynes was not to speake properly in withstanding the doctrine of the thrée Persons in the Essence of God but in the applying thereof namely to the incarnation of the Word which in their eye was very farre vnbeseeming the Maiestie of God Let vs goe to Philo the Iew who wrate in Greeke and we shall finde him like in all poynts from leafe to leafe God sayth he is the souereine begetter and next to him is the Word of God Also There are two Firsts the one is Gods word the other is God who is afore the Word and the same Word is the beginning and the ende 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his good pleasure intent or will And in another place Like as a Citie saith he wherof the platforme is yet but set doune in the mynd of the Builder hath no place elswhere than in the Builder So this world had not any being elswhere than in the Word of God which ordeyned all things For what other place could conteyne the operations of God yea or euen the simplest of his conceiued patternes Therefore to speake plainly The World in vnderstanding is the Word or Conceyt of God that made it And this is not the opinion of me onely but also of Moyses himselfe And to conclude he calleth him the Patterne of all Patternes and the Mould wherein all things were cast And in an other place This World sayth he is Gods yonger Sonne but as for the elder Sonne he cannot bee comprehended but in vnderstanding For he it is who by prerogatiue of eldership abydeth with the Father Now this is word for word the same thing that S. Iohn sayth And the Word was with God And againe The Word is the place the Temple and the dwelling house of God because the Word is the onely thing that can conteyne him And that is the thing which I sayd namely that GOD comprehending himselfe by his vnderstanding begate the Sonne or the Word equall to himselfe because he conceyueth not any thing lesse than himselfe And to shewe the greatnesse of this Word he could scarce tell what names to giue it He calleth it the Booke wherein the essences of all things that are in the whole world are written and printed the perfect Patterne of the World the Daysonne that is to be seene but only of the Mynd the Prince of the Angelles the Firstborne of God the Shepheard of his flocke the chiefe Hyghpriest of the World the Manna of mens Soules the Wisedome of God the perfect Image of the Hyghest and the Organe or Iustrument whereby God being moued thereto of his owne goodnesse created the World And to be short he calleth him the Firstbeginner Lightfulnesse or altogether light God and the Béeer that is of himself All these are such things as more cannot be attributed to God himselfe and he could not haue sayd more expressely that the Word is Coeternall and Coessentiall with the Father that is to say of one selfesame substaunce and of one selfesame euerlastingnesse with the Father Neuerthelesse he addeth yet further That this Worde hath in it the seâ—des of all things That he hath distributed to euery of them their seuerall natures and that he is the inuincible bond of the whole
the Romanes nor in the Histories of the Greekes To be short to begin his Historie at the furthest end he maketh his enteraunce at the reigne of the Scyonians which was the very selfesame tyme that Ninus began his reigne euen the same Ninus which made warre against Zoroastres which was about that tyme of Abraham The same Varro accounteth Thebes for the auncientest Cittie of all Greece as builded by Ogyges wherevppon the Greekes called all auncient things Ogygians and by his reckoning it was not past two thousand and one hundred yéeres afore his owne tyme. Trogus Pompeius beginneth his Historie at the bottome of al antiquitie that remained in remembraunce and that is but at Ninus who by report of Diodorus was the first that found any Historiographer to write of his doings The same Diodorus saith that the greatest antiquitie of Greece is but from the time of Iuachus who liued in the tyme of Amoses King of AEgipt that is to say as Appion confesseth in the very tyme of Moyses And intending to haue begun his Storie at the beginning of the world he beginneth at the warres of Troy and he saith in his Preface that his Storie conteyneth not aboue a thousande one hundred thirtie and eight yéeres which fell out sayth he in the reigne of Iulius Caesar in the tyme that he was making warre against the Galles that is to say lesse than twelue hundred yéeres afore the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ. Also the goodly Historie of Atticus whereof Cicero commendeth the diligence so greatly conteineth but seuen hundred yéeres Which thing Macrobius obseruing commeth to conclude with vs. Who doubteth saith he whether the World had a beginning or no yea euen a fewe yeeres since seeing that the very Histories of the Greekes do scarsly conteyne the doings of two thousand yeeres For afore the reigne of Ninus who is reported to haue bin the father of Semiramis there is not any thing to be found in writing Yea and Lucrece himselfe as great an Epicure and despiser of God as he was is constreined to yéeld thereunto when he seeth that the vttermost bound which all Histories bee they neuer so auncient doe atteynt vnto is but the destruction of Troy For thus sayth he Now if that no beginning was of Heauen and Earth at all But that they euerlasting were and so continue shall How â—aps iâ— that of former things no Poets had delight Afore the wofull warres of Troy and Thebes for to wright Yea but the Registers of the Chaldees will some man say are of more antiquitie For as Cicero reporteth they make their vaunt that they haue the natiuities of Childred noted set downe in writing from natiuitie to natiuitie for aboue the space of thrée and fortie thousand yeres afore the reigne of the great Alexander And that is true But as it hath bin very well marked when they speake after their Schoolemaner they meane alwaies as witnesseth Diodorus the moneth yéere that is to say euery moneth to be a yéere which account being reckoned backe from the tyme of Alexander hitteth iust vppon the creation of the World according to the account of the yéeres set downe by Moyses Likewise when the Iberians say they haue had the vse of Letters and of writing by the space of sixe thousand yéeres agoe they speake after the maner of their owne accounting of the yéere which was but fower moneths to a yéere And in good sooth Porphirius himselfe will serue for a good witnesse in that behalfe who sayth that the obseruations of the Chaldees which Callisthenes sent froÌ„ BabyloÌ„ into Greece in the tyme of Alexander passed not aboue a thousand and nyne hundred yéeres As for the obseruations of Hipparchus which Ptolomie vseth they drawe much néerer vnto our tymes for they reach not beyond the time of Nabugodoâ—ozer To be short from our Indictions we mount vp to the Stories of the Romanes and from them to the yéerely Registers of their Priestes and so to the Calenders of their Feastes Holidaies and finally to the time of their driuing of the nayle into the wall of the Temple of Minerua which was done alwaies yéerely in the Moneth of September to the intent that the number of the yéeres should not bee forgotten From thence we procéede to the Greeke Olimpiads the one halfe of which tyme is altogether fabulous and beyond the first Olimpiade there is nothing but a thicke Cloude of ignorance euen in the lightsomest places of all Greece In which darknesse we haue nothing to direct vs if we followe not Moyses who citeth the booke of the Lords warres and leadeth vs safely euen to our first originall beginning And how should the Histories of the Gentiles be of any antiquitie when there was not yet any reading or writing From Printing we step vp vnto bookes of written hand from the Paper which we haue now we come to Parchment from Parchment to the Paper of AEgipt which was inuented in the tyme of Alexander from that vnto Tables of Lead and Waxe and finally to the Leaues and Barkes of diuers Trées From writing we goe consequently to reading and so to the inuention of Letters which Letters the Greekes taught vnto the Latines and the Phenicians to the Greekes who had not any skill of them at the tyme of the warres at Troy as the very names of them doe well bewray and the Iewes taught them to the Phenicians For in very déede what are the Phenicians in account of all Cosmographers but inhabiters of the Seacoast of Palestine or Iewrie And so the saying of Ewpolemus a very auncient writer of Histories is found true namely that Moyses was the first teacher of Grâ—â—â—mer that is to say of the Arte of Reading notwithstanding â—â—at Philo doe father it vpon Abraham and that the Phenician â—ad it of the Iewes and the Greekes of the Phenicians in râ—spect whereof Letters were in old tyme called Phenicians Phenicians were the first if trust bée giuen to Fame That durst expresse the voyce in shapes that might preserue the 〈◊〉 Here I cannot forbeare to giue Plinie a little nippe Letâ—â—â— sayth he haue bin from euerlasting And why so For sayth hâ— the Letters of the AEgiptians had their first comming vp about a fiftéeue yéeres afore the reigne of Ninus But Epigenes a graue Author sayth that in Babylone certeine obseruations of Starres were written in Tyles or Brickes a Seuenhundred and twentie yeeres afore And Berosus and Critodemus which speake with the least doe say fowerhundred and fowerscore yeres O extreame blockishnes he concludeth the eternitie of letters vpon that wherby they be proued to be but late come vp Now then seeing wee find the originall comming vp of Artes of Lawes and Gouernement of Traffick and Merchaundise of soode and of very Letters that is to say both of â—iuing wel and of liuing after any sort should we rather graunt an euerlasting ignorance in man than a kynd of youthfulnesse
Moyses to haue bin kept froÌ„ father to sonne euen in the vtmost Coasts of Ethyopia whither the Empires neuer came which bookes they say they haue had there euer since the tyme of Salomon that they were brought thither by the Queene of the Prouince of Saba Thus haue I spoken inough of this matter both for them that are contented to be satisfied with reason for if they do but reade our scriptures they haue whereon to rest and also for those which are otherwise for it is hard to shewe him aught which by his will will see naught But there are yet further which tell vs that in the tyme of the Machabees Antiochus abolished the lawe of Israell and al the bookes of the Byble and they think themselues to haue made a greate speake and hard to be resolued I leaue it to the consideration of all men of iudgment whither it be easie for a Prince though he vse neuer so great diligece vtterly to abolish any maner of booke whatsoeuer seeing the nature of man is such that the more that things are sought to be plucked from him the more he streyneth himself to keepe them But when a booke is once beleeued and reuerenced of a whole nation not for delight of things done by men therein conteyned but for the saluation of man therein reuealed for the trueth whereof men are not afrayd to indure both death and torments as was witnessed by many in the time of the same Antiochus what diligence of man can suffise to abolish it But let vs put the cace that it was abolished in Iewrie yea and that it was abolished throughout his whole Empire what can yet insue thereof séeing that the ten trybes ouer whom Antiochus could haue no authoritie had caryed them and disperced them abroade to the vttermost bounds of the world And séeing that the remouing of the other two trybes had made them rife among the Persians and Babylonians And that the Ptolomyes câ—â—rished the Iewes ryght tenderly in Egipt giuing them open Sâ—â—agogs with franchyses libertie And also that Ptolomie Phâ—ladelph had caused all the Byble to be translated into the Gréeke toong by the thrée score and ten interpreters and had layd it vp in his librarie as a Iewell And to be short that the Iewes were at that verie tyme so dispersed among the Greeks themselues as there was scarcely any Citie which had not receyued them with their Sinagogs But although none of all these reasons were to be had then if the Byble was lost and abolished how was it found ageine so sodeinly in one instant Who could as ye would say casâ— it vp whole out of his stomacke at once Or who hath euer red that the Iewes made any mone for the losse of it or tooke any peyne for the séeking of it out ageine And to cut off superfluitie of spéeche whereof then commeth it that of so manie Gramarians beeing of opinion that they should become wyse men in one day if they had Ciceroes bookes of Comonweale to reade none of them all being more suttleheaded than the rest hath vndertaken to counterfet them in his name No no let vs rather say the Scriptures are of more antiquitie than all other wryting and the more they be so the more aduersitie haue they indured the rage of Tyrans hath ouerflowed them and yet they could nother drowne them nor deface them they haue bin condemned to the fire and yet could not bee consumed Contrarywise the bookes of the greatest men how greate authoritie so euer they had haue bin lost and for all the peyne that hath bin taken to preserue them yet haue they often come to naught The Chronicles of Emperours say I bee perished when the Chronicles of the smal Kings of Iewrie and of that poore outcast people and I wote not what a sort of vanished Shepeherds despised of the world and despysers of the world haue continewed to posteritie in despyght of the World Therefore it must néeds be say that the Scriptures haue bin preserued by Gods singular prouidence both so long time and ageinst so many iniuries of time And séeing they be the only wrytings which only he hath preserued from the creation of the world vnto our dayes surely they were for our behoof And séeing they haue bin reiected of the world and yetnotwithstanding doo liue and reigne in despyght of the world surely they be from somewhere els than of man or of the world that is to wéet Reuelations from God to man continewed from tyme to time for his glorie and our welfare And so by this discourse we gayne this poynt that our Scriptures which are left vs by Moyses Iosua and the Prophets are the auncientest of all wrytings and vtterly voyd of all lykelyhod of mingling or counterfetting and that sith that euen from the beginning there hath bin a Religion reuealed from God and we find none other than this to haue continewed fromthe verie Creation vnto vs we may inferre that the Scriptures wherein we reade it are of God bycause that from lyne to lyne they conteyne his Reuelations made vnto mankynd But let vs passe from this antiquitie which is but the barke of the Scriptures and let vs come to the substance of them which will giue vs assurance of the place from whens they come Now then let vs reade the bookes of men as well of olde tyme as of our owne tyme and what is the scope the ground the forme and discourse of them furtherfoorth than they eyther expounde or followe our Scriptures Some write to celebrate the Kings and great Capteynes of their tyme these be but vauntings of men rumors of people consultations to destroye one another and suttle deuyces to disappoynt or vndoe one another Good men by reading them become malicious and euill men become worse And by the way there must bee some pretie spéech of Fortune which swayeth the Battels As for God who maketh Kings and vnmaketh them againe who holdeth both the enterances and issewes of all things in his hand there is not so much as one word in al a great volume Who doubteth that these be bookes of men which coÌ„teyne nothing but the passions the subtelties and the indeuers of men Another sort write as they themselues say to make themselues immortall They write goodly discourses to make themselues to be had in admiration If they chaunce to stumble vppon some good saying for maners or for the life of man they turkin it a thousand waies to make it seeme good for their purpose They deliuer their words by weight they driue their clauses to fall alike they eschew nycely the méeting together of vowelles and what greater childishnesse can there bee in graue matters than that Yet notwithstanding they make bookes of the despising of vaynglorie and their bookes themselues are full of ambition of the brydling of affections and their arguments are ranke poyson and contention If they happen to speake of the seruing of God it is by
and to the world Soothly wee may well say therefore that the Scriptures are verily of Gods inspiring which haue so expresse resemblances of him and so contrarie to the hand stampe print and writing of the whole world The xxv Chapter That through out the whole processe of the Byble or old Testament there are things which cannot proceede but from God WE haue lerned heretofore by perusing the vniuersall world that all things tend too Godds glorie by the examining of man that his onely and whole welfare is to cleaue vnto GOD. Now therefore fith we sée that the Scriptures preache vnto vs the same thing that wee haue read both in the world and in ourselues ought it not to be a good proofe to vs that he which made both the World and man hath also made the Scriptures to rule them by And that he which hath spoken to all Nations by his Creatures hath also voutsafed too shewe himselfe more nerely too them by his Scriptures Agein séeing that the Scriptures commaund vs to loue God with all our hart and that the Creatures haue heretofore declared vs to be bound thereto so as the Creatures teache the self-same thing which the Scriptures commaund what can we say but that both those bookes haue one selfesame author Howbeit forasmuch as our eyes be so daseled by our fall that the Creatures were vnto vs as a clasped booke or as a thing written in Cyphers God to apply himself to the weaknesse of our sight hath giuen vs his Scriptures and that forasmuch as our wills are wholly turned from him it behoued vs to be comaunded our owne welfare which were we according to our first creation we should couet and followe earnestly at the only sight of the first booke But forasmuch as it may still be sayd that these bookes are rather the woorks of good men and of such as feared God than of God himself let vs sée if they haue not in them some proper and peculiar markes of Gods spirit I meane such as no creature can be partaker of but by inspiration from God For like as in his dooings there are certeine miracles wherein euen the wickeddest acknowledge the finger of God So in his words or Scriptures there may vndoubtedly bee some such thing as cannot procéede but from God himselfe Let vs begin at the Style In mens affayres we haue two sorts of writing The inferiour sort and men of equalitie indeuer to perswade folke by apparant reasons for they knowe they haue no authoritie to giue them credite But Princes will of their mere authoritie looke to bée beléeued whatsoeuer they say for they thinke they haue the world at their commaundement and that they may speak what they list and they suppose it to bee some derogation to them to alledge any reason Also in humane Sciences the case is all one For the Phisition is beléeued of his Patient without alledging why but of an other Phisition he is not so Likewise the Schoolemaister is beléeued of the Scholer yea euen in things which were disputable for him with one of his fellowes So much more therefore shall this rule take place in matters diuine which surmount both the vnderstanding of the learner and the skill of the Teacher himselfe Againe we see how the Philosophers doe mount vp from things euidently knowne to things lesse knowne and from Grounds and Principles to Conclusions And therefore Aristotle intending to proue that there is a God made a whole score of bookes of it and Plato speaking of things diuine will haue the auncient Oracles to be beleeued and not his owne sayings which argeweth that euen by nature men knowe well that they deserue not to bee beléeued further foorth than they make proof no not euen in the least things and therefore that they bee worthie to be laughed at if they thinke their sayings to be authoritie in matters diuine Now then sith it is so that the Style is such both of all men in their common discourses and of all the Philosophers in high matters what shal the Author of our Byble bee whose will and meaning is to bee beléeued vppon his bare worde euen in the things which excéede both the naturall beléefe of such as heare them and the vnderstanding of all men which take vpon them to speake of them GOD created Heauen and Earth Man is falne from his originall state by sinne If thou beest a man that sayest it who will beléeue thee vnlesse thou prooue it And yet notwithstanding it appeareth that hee wrate it to bee beléeued for hee commaundeth it to bee beléeued Therefore his speaking is of authoritie and not by perswasion Yet notwithstanding no body is beléeued vpon his bare word sauing in things which lye in his own power and his owne knowledge Whosoeuer then in things surmounting man I meane in matters concerning GOD and mans saluation will looke to bee beléeued of authoritie only because he sayes it yea and to be more beléeued without proofe than others vpon proof must néedes be the Prince and Father of man and not a man Now who sees not this course kept throughout all the Scriptures and yet where is there any one Syllogisme or Demonstration in them sauing such as these which soothly be more firme than any Syllogisme and more néedefull than any Demonstration namely The Lord hath sayde it and it is doone the Lord hath spoken it and he will be beléeues And what other booke find we which proceedeth after that maner howbeit that some deceiuers haue long time since presumed to immitate the same Also we haue many bookes of maners written by the Heathen How procéede they against Uice or how deale they with Uertue They define they distinguish they dispute of the generall and of the vnderkind of the meane and of the extremes It is spoken say they from one Countermatch to another And if they offend the Lawes of Logicke they be afrayd of reproof The Lawes of God speake a little more plainly He that stealeth shall pay fowerfold He that killeth shal be punished with death Which is as much to say as that the authoritie of the one dependeth vpon their power the authority of the other dependeth vpon their proof To be short euen our spéeche extendeth ordinarily no further than our power and therefore the Teacher speaketh after another maner then the Learner the Prince than the Subiect and the Senatour than the Orator What maner a booke then I pray you is this which speaketh to all men alike to Kings as to Subiectes to Greate as to small to old as to yong to learned as to vnlearned sauing that it surmounteth the capacitie of the one as well as of the other neyther intreating nor perswading any man but absolutely bidding or forbidding al men Nother which more is doth it say to any man Thou shalt liue as a recluce within the precinct of thyne owne house all thy life long or thou shalt lye in continual prison but
spirituall inheritance but only grace by the true Iesus And therefore the Saint Rabbi sayth That because Christ shall saue folke therefore he shall be called Iesus and because he shall be both God and Man therfore he shall be called Emanuell that is to say God with vs. And in another place The Gentyles sayth he shall call him Iesus And he draweth this name out of the nine and fortith Chapter of Genesis by a certeyne rule of the Cabale which they terme Notariak by taking the first letters of the wordes Iabho schilo velo which make the word Ieschu and likewise of these wordes in the 72. Psalme Ijnnur schemo veijthbarecu and also of these in the 96. Psalme iagnaloz sadai vecol all which are texts that are ment expresly of the Messias Although I force not of these their doings yet haue I alledged them against them selues because it is their custome to shewe the cunning of the arte of their Cabale And after the same maner haue the Machabies also their name that is to wit of the first Letters of the words of this their deuice Mi camocha baelim Iehouah that is to say Which of the Gods is like thee ô Iehouah That the name Iesus should bee reuealed vnto them it is no strange matter considering that in the third fourth bookes of Esdras Iesus Christ the sonne of God is named expresly and diuers tymes and the tyme of his comming precisely set downe according to Daniels wéekes For although the Iewes account those bookes for Apocriphase the Primatiue Church hath not graunted the like authoritie to them as to the other Canonicall bookes yet is it a cléere case that they were written afore the comming of Iesus Christ of whome neuerthelesse they speake by name Now the Scripture promised also a Foreronner that should come afore the manifesting of the Messias to the world For Malachie sayth Behold I send my Ambassadour to make way before him and by and by after shall the Lord whom you seeke enter into his Temple And in the next Chapter following he is called Elias by reason of the lykenesse of their offices and this text as I haue shewed afore is vnderstood by them concerning the Messias And soothly we haue certeine footestepes thereof in these words of the Gospel The Scrybes say that Elias must first come And in another place Art thou Christ or Elias or one of the Prophets A little afore that Christ disclosed himself Iohn the Baptist stoode vp in Israell and was followed by such a multitude of people that all the greate ones grudged at him and he is the same man whō by way of prerogatiue the Chronicle of the Iewes calleth Rabbi Iohanan the greate Preest Concerning this Iohn the Baptist forasmuch as they suspect our Gospel let them beléeue their owne Storywriter There was sayeth he a very good Man that exhorted the Iewes to vertue and specially to Godlynes and vpryght dealing inuiting them to a cleannesse both of body and mynd by baptim But when Herod perceyued that great multitudes of people followed him which to his seeming were at his commaundment to auoyd insurrections he put him in prison where anon after he cut of his head And therefore it was the common opinion that when Herods army was afterward ouercome and vtterly put to the swoord it was through Gods iustiudgement for putting of Iohn Baptist vniustly to death By this witnesse of Iosephus we sée what his office was namely to preache repentance and to Baptize or as Malachie sayth to turne the heartes of the Fathers to their Children and the heartes of the Children to their Fathers But the thing which we haue chiefly to note here is that hauing the people at commaundement yet when Iesus came he gaue Iesus place and humbled himselfe to him and yeelded him the glory the which thing man beeing led by affection of man would neuer haue done Insomuch that after that Iesus had once shewed himselfe the Disciples of this greate maister shewed not themselues as his disciples any more and that was because his trayning and teaching of them was not for himselfe but for Iesus And as touching the peculiar act of Baptizing it seemeth that the Leuites wayted for some speciall thing vpon it in that they asked of Iohn How happeneth it that thou Baptizest if thou bee neither Christ nor Elias the Prophet But let vs come now to treate of the lyfe of Iesus not according to our Gospells but according to such Histories as the Iewes themselues cannot denie and what els is it than the verie body of the shadowes of the old testament and the very pith and substance of the words that were spoken afore concerning the Messias Let vs call to rememberance to what end he came namely to saue Mankind and the nature of his Kingdome how it is holy and spirituall Whereof are all his Preachings but of the forgiuenesse of sinnes and of the Kingdome of Heauen his Disciples were alwayes importunate vppon him in asking him Lord when wilt thou set vp the Kingdom of Israel agein In sted of contenting their fancyes he answereth them concerning the Kingdome of Heauen They Imagined some Empyre of Cyrus or Alexander that their Nation might haue bene honored of all other nations of the earth One of them would néedes haue sit on his right hand and another on his left What answereth he to this Nay saith he whosoeuer will be greatest let him be the leaft and if I béeing your Maister be as a Seruant among you what ought you to bee Yee shal be brought before Magistrates that is farre from reigning Ye shall be persecuted imprisoned tormented and crucifyed that is farre of from triumphing I wil giue you to vnderstand how great things ye be to suffer for my names sake that is very farre from parting of Countryes Yet notwithstanding happy shall you bee when you suffer these things and he that holdeth out to the end shal be saued Who can imagine any temporall thing in this kingdome whereof the first and last Lesson is that a man to saue his lyfe must lose it and to become happy must wed himselfe to wretchednes The people followe him for the miracles which hee woorketh and the Iewes deny not but he did very greate ones But let vs see wherto they tended He fed a greate multitude of people in the wildernes with a feawe Loaues This miracle was matter enough for him to haue hild them with long talke but he preacheth vnto them of the heauenly bread which feedeth vnto euerlasting life Also hee healeth all sicke and diseased folke that come vnto him howbeit to shewe that that was but an appendant or rather an income to that for the which he came Thy sinnes sayth he be forgiuen thee To be short from Abrahams Well hee directeth the Woman of Samaria to the Fountaine of lyfe Béeing shewed the goodly buildings of Hierusalem and of the
such a one and to imbrace his doctrine with all our heart Howbeit to take all cause of doubt from the Heathen let vs shewe them yet further that Iesus is God the sonne of God without the testimonie of the Scriptures For it may be that although they will not beleeue Iesus to be very God by meanes of our Scriptures yet they will beléeue our Scriptures to be of GOD in very deede when they shall see that Iesus is God whose comming hath bene declared so plainly and so long aforehand in our Scriptures But to begin withall let vs call to mynd this saying of Porphyrius That Gods prouidence hath not left mankind without an vniuersall cleansing and that the same cannot be done but by one of the beginnings that is to wit by one of the three Persones or Inbeeings of Gods essence And likewise these poynts which I haue proued already namely That man is created to liue for euer That by his corruption hée is falne from Gods fauour into his displeasure and consequently excluded from that blessednes That to bring him in fauour ageine a Mediator must step in who must be man that he may susteine the death which mankind hath deserued and God that he may triumphe ouer death and decke vs with his desert And such a one doe we say the same Iesus is which was crucified by the Iewes and beleeued on among the Gentyles of olde tyme And God of his grace graunt in our tyme to inlighten all those to whom he hath not as yet giuen grace to beléeue Surely as the Mediator came for the Gentyles as well as for the Iewes that is to say for all men so it should seeme that the Gentiles had some incling thereof reuealed to them from GOD that they might prepare themselues to receiue him In the Scripture we reade of a Prophet named Balaam who prophesied plainly enough of Christ. And some auncient writers say that his Prophesie and the prophesie of one other named Seth were kept in the East partes of the world And Iob who was an Edomite sayth I am sure that my Redeemer liueth and shall stand vp last vppon the earth Also the Sibils and specially Sibill of Erithra who is so famous aboue the rest at leastwise if the bookes which wee haue vnder their names be theirs doe tell vs that he should be the sonne of God be borne of a Uirgin be named Iesus woorke miracles be crucified by the Iewes be raysed ageine to glory come in the ende to iudge both the quicke and the dead and so foorth and that which is a greater matter in such termes and with such particularities as it seemeth to be the very Gospel turned into verse as though God had meant to vtter his misteries more manifestly by them to the Gentiles than he had done to the Iewes bycause the Gentyles had not bene inured to the heauēly doctrine any long time aforehand and namely to the hope of the Redéemer And as for them which thinke those bookes to haue bene counterfetted in those Sibils names surely they may more easely say it than proue it but I passe not greatly for that For as Suetonius Tranquillus reporteth the Emperour Augustus made them to bee locked vp in two Cofers of gold at the foote of the Image of Apollo on mount Palatine in Rome where it was hard for men to haue falsifyed them And in the tyme of Origen of Clement of Alexandria and of Iustine the Martir which was not long after the preaching of the Apostles those bookes were abrode in the world as appeareth by the discourses of Celsus the Epicure who sayth in deede that they were counterfet but hee proueth it not Also the Emperour Constantine in a certeine Oration of his witnesseth that hee had séen and read them and referred the Gentiles of his time to them Well it cannot be denied but that there was at leastwise some such like thing For Cicero in his bookes of Diuination writeth these words Let vs obserue the bookes of Sibyll We must name vs some King if we will liue in safetie And yet all men knowe how hatefull a thing the name of King was both to all the Romaines and to Cicero him selfe Also he maketh mention of Sibils Acrosticke that is to say of certeyne verses of hirs whose first letters made the name of that King of which sort wee haue some in the eighth booke of the Sibyls wherevpon he concludeth that they had a sound and wel setled mynd Moreouer the Emperour Constantine affirmeth that Cicero had translated the booke Sibyll of Erithra that Antonie would haue had it abolished In these bookes it was sayd that as soone as the Romanes had set the King of AEgipt againe in his State by and by should bee borne the King of the whole worlde And therefore Cicero writing to Lentulus who sewed to haue that charge doth mention that Oracle vnto hym and the Romaines made a dout whether they might restore the King of AEgipt or no by reason of that matter whereof the Sibyls doe make some spéeche in their second booke Neuerthelesse when the Romaines had well canuased the case Gabinus conueyed home Ptolomie King of AEgipt into his Kingdome and at the same time was Iesus Christ borne Virgill who by the fauour of Augustus had accesse to those bookes made an Eglog which is but a translation of certeine of the Uerses of those Sibyls concerning the happie state which Sibyll behighted by Iesus Christ the sonne of God sauing that Virgil not looking deepely into the matter applyed it wholy to one Salonine in fauour of Augustus whō he meant to flatter After which manner the Romanes wrested this famous foresaying of Syria to the Emperour Vespasian That out of Iewrie should come the Souereine of the whole world But wee reade that one Secundian a notable man in the tyme of the Emperor Decian and one Verian a Peinter and one Marcelline an Orator became Christians vpon the onely reading and conferring of those Oracles And therefore the first writers among the Christians as Iustine Origen Clement such others doe sommon the Heathen to the bookes of the Sibyls because they would not with their good willes haue beléeued ours and also to a former prophesie of one Histaspes which spake plainly of the comming of the sonne of God into the world and of the conspiring of all kingdomes ageinst him and his And therefore all those bookes were forbidden by the Heathen Emperours vpon peyne of death But God of his wonderfull prouidence had prouided for the Saluation of the Gentyles by scattering the Iewish nations with their books and prophesies into all the fower quarters of the World howbeit that we reade not of any other Linage or Nation to haue bene so scattered without losing their tytles their bookes their name and the very knowledge of their original which prerogatiue the Iewes had to the intent they should bee
intent that the voluptuous may seeke their ioy the coâ—etous their gaine and the ambitious their glorie there bending themselues with their whole hearts vnto that alone which all onely can fill their harts and satisfie their desires That is the thing which I indeuor to doo in this worke and GOD of his gratious goodnesse vouchsafe to guide my hand to his owne glorie and to the welfare of those that are his But afore I enter into the matter I haue to answere vnto two sortes of people The one are such as say that Religion cannot bee declared vnto Infidels or vnbeleeuers by reason The other sorte are those whiche vphold that although reason doo somewhat inlighten it yet it is neyther lawfull nor expedient to doo it But let vs see what reason they can haue to exclude reason from this discourse The first sort say It is to no purpose to dispute against such as denie grounded principles And by this meanes because one grounded principle is denied them they breake of quite and cleane as though all meane of conference were taken awaie Surelie this principle of theirs is very true but yet in my iudgement it is very ill vnderstood I graunt it is to no purpose to dispute against such as denie grounded principles by the same principles which they denie That is very true But there may be some other principles common to both sides by the which a man may profitably dispute with them and by those common principles oftentimes prooue and verifie his owne principles And that is the thing which I intend to doo in this worke As for example The Christian groundeth himselfe vpon the Gospell the Iew denieth it and therefore it were to no purpose to alledge it vnto him But both the Iew and the Christian haue one common principle and ground which is the old Testament By this may the Christian profitably dispute against the Iewâ—yea eueÌ„ to the verifying of the gospel as if ye should make one to call some maÌ„ to his knowledge by the draughts or descriptions of his portraiture Likewise the Iew is grounded vpon the old TestameÌ„t which the Gentile would mocke at if he should alledge it vnto him But both the Gentile and the Iew haue one common nature which furnisheth them both with one common Philosophie and with one common sort of principles as that there is one God which gouerneth all things that he is good and no author of euill That he is wise and doth not anie thing in vaine Also that man is borne to be immortall that to be happie he ought to serue God and continew in his fauour And therewithall that he is subiect to passions inclined to euill weake vnto good and so forth Of these common principles the Iew maie draw necessarie conclusions which the Gentile shall not perceiue at the first like as when a man vnderstandeth a proposition but conceiueth not yet the drift and consequence thereof He that marketh that the Adamant or Loadstone pointeth to the North perceiueth not foorthwith that by the same a man maie goe about the world although he was of capacitie to cenceiue it After the same maner by this principle He that from equall things taketh equall things leaueth the remainder equall and by a few other propositions which children learne in playing the Mathematician leadeth vs gentlie and ere we be aware of anie mounting vnto this so greatlie renowmed proposition and experiment of Pythagoras that in a Triangle the side that beareth vp the right Angle yeeldeth a square equall to the other twaine which at the first sight seemeth vnpossible and yet by degrees is found to be so of necessitie Thus shall the Iew by common principles and conclusions verifie his owne ground which is the old Testament For he shall proue vnto the Gentiles by their owne Philosophers that vnto God alone things to come are present and that vnto Spirits they be knowen but onelie by coniecture and so farre forth as they can read them in the starres And he shall proue by their Astrologers that the names of men and the circumstances of their doings cannot be betokened nor red in the starres And he shall proue by their Historiographers that the bookes of the old Testament which containe so manie and so perticular prophesies were written manie hundred yeares afore the things came to passe Now what will reasonablie insue hereof but the proofe of the principle which is in controuersie by the principles which are agreed vpo betweene them both namelâ—e that the old Testament is of God seing it cannot be from anie other And what else is all this than that which is commonlie done in Geometric and Logicke which by two lines or by two propositions that are coÌ„monlie knowen certeine do gather a third proportion that was vnknowen or a third proposition that is to saie a conclusion that was erst either doubted of or hidden and by meanes of the other two is euidentlie found out and necessarilie prooued Such are these proofes against the Atheists nothing hath mouing of it selfe It is nature that saieth so The world turneth about and the heauenlie bodies haue a mouing and that doth man himselfe see Therefore they must needs be moued by some other power and that is the Godhead which our eie seeth not and yet by means of the eie our reason conceiueth and perceiueth it in all things Against them which denie â—hristes Godhead we alledge this principle of their owne That naturally of nothing nothing is made It is the saying of Aristotle and the schooles would haue him by the eares that should denie it Iesus Christ hath of nothing made verie great things yea euen contraries by contraries The Heathen wonder at it all ages crie it out our eies do still behold it He that will denie this must denie the world he must denie all things he must denie himselfe It followeth then that Christ wrought by a powre that is mistresse of Nature Aristotle himselfe saw it not and yet Aristotle maketh vs to see it The writers of Histories tooke no heed of it and yet they themselues make vs to beleeue it The Philosopher thought but onelie vpon nature and the Histographer but onelie vpon his owne writing And yet from both twaine of them wee drawe both the Godhead of Christ and the truth of our Scriptures Certesse in like manner as by Arithmetike out of two and sixe wee draw out one continuall proportionable line hidden after a sort in either of them and yet greater than both of them togither which is Eighteene as out of two sticks chafed one against another we draw out fire which is not seene in the two the consuming of theÌ„ both out of hand To be short the marke that our faith looketh at is the Author of Nature principle of all principles The rules therefore the principles of Nature which he hath made cannot be contrarie vnto himselfe And he is also the verie reason and truth it selfe All other
And yet notwithstanding in peinting of an Image thou lookest vpon it a hundred times and diuers dayes thou amendest it and thou busiest all thy wits about it If thou be the dooer of this woorke in the making of man tell mee why thou hast not children when thou wouldest and why thou hast them sometime when thou wouldest not Why hast thou a Daughter when thou wouldest haue a Sonne or a Sonne when thou wouldest haue a Daughter In peinting thy Pictures thou doest not so disapoint thy felfe Also if thou beest this good workemaister in making of thy child tell me how thou hast fashioned it Whence is the hardnesse of his bones the liquor of his veynes the spirite of his Heartstrings and the beating of his Pulses Seest thou this which is also as smally in thy power as if it were none of thine Tell mée what is hidden in his breast and the whole workemanship that is couched within him If thou hast not seene it in the opening of thy like thou knowest nothing thereof Tell mée yet further the imaginations of his brayne and the thoughts of his heart nay tell mee thine owne which oftentimes thou wouldest fame alter or stay and canst not It is a bottemlesse Pit the which thou canst not gage and therefore it followeth that thou madest it not Knowe thou therefore O man that all this commeth too thee from some cause that is aboue thy selfe And séeing that thou hast vnderstanding needes must that cause haue vnderstanding too and seeing that thou vnderstandest not thy selfe needes must that vnderstand thee and seeing that thou after a sort art infinite in nomber but much more infinite in thy thoughts and deedes needes must that bee infinite too And that is it which we call God What shal I say more or rather or what remaineth not for mee too say I say with the auncient Trismegist Lord shall I looke vpon thee in the things that are here beneath or oâ— the things that are aboue Thou madest all things and wholâ—â—ature is nothing els but an image of thée And I will conclude with Dauid Blesse ye the Lord all ye workes of his yée Heauens yée waters yée Winds yee Lightenings yee Showers yee Seas yee Riuers and all that euer is blesse yee the Lorde yea and thou my soule also blesse thou the Lord for euer For to lay forth the proofes which are both in the great world and in the little world it would stand me in hand to ransacke the whole world as the which with all that euer is therein is a plaine booke laide open to all men yea euen vnto Children to reade and as yee would say euen to spell God therein Nowe like as all men may reade in this booke as well of the world as of themselues so was there neuer yet any Nation vnder heauen which hath not thereby learned and perceiued a certeine Godhead notwithstanding that they haue conceiued it diuersly according to the diuersitie of their owne imaginations Let a man ronne from East to West and from South to North let him ransacke all ages one after another and wheresoeuer he findeth any men there shall he find also a kind of Religion and Seruing of God with Prayers and Sacrifices The diuersitie whereof is very great but yet they haue alwayes consented all in this poynt That there is a GOD. And as touching the diuersitie which is in that behalf it beareth witnesse that it is a doctrine not deliuered alonly from people to people but also bred and brought vp with euery of them in their owne Clymate yea and euen in their owne selues Within these hundred yeres many Nations haue bene discouered and many are daily discouered still which were vnknowen in former ages Among them some haue bene found to liue without Lawe without King without House going starke naked and wandring abroad in the fields but yet none without some knowledge of God none without some spice of Religion to shewe vnto vs that it is not so natural a thing in man to loue company and to clad himselfe against hurts of the wether which things wee esteeme to be verie kindly as it is naturall vnto him to knowe the author of his life that is to say God Or if wee yeeld more to the iudgement of those which were counted wise among the Heathen nations whome afterward by a more modest name men called Philosophers The Brachmanes among the Indians and the Magies among the Persians neuer began any thing without praying vnto God The lessons of Pythagoras and Plato and of their Disciples began with prayer and ended with prayer The auncient Poets who were all Philosophers as Orphey Homer Hesiodus Pherecides and Theognis speake of none other thing The Schooles of the Stoikes Academikes and Peripatetikes and all other schooles that florished in old time roong of that The very Epicures theÌ„selues who were shamelesse in all other things were ashamed to denie God To be short the men of old time as witnesseth Plato â—hose their Priestes which were to haue regard of the seruice that was to be yéelded vnto God from among the Philosophers as from among those which by their consideration of nature had atteined to knowe God And so which sildome happeneth but in an apparant trueth the opinion of the comon people and the opinion of the wise haue met both iump togither in this point Well may there bee found in all ages some wretched kaytifes which haue not acknowledged God as there be some euen at this day But if we looke into theÌ„ either they were some yong fooles giuen ouer to their pleasures which neuer had leysure to bethinke them of the matter and yet when yeeres came vppon them came backe againe to the knowing of themselues and consequently of God or els they were some persons growen quite out of kind saped in wickednesse and such as had defaced their own nature in theÌ„ selues who to the intent they might practise all maner of wickednes with the lesse remorse haue striued to perswade themselues by soothing their owne sinnes that they haue no Soule at all and that there is no Iudge to make inquirie of their sinnes And yet notwithstanding if these fall into neuer so little daunger or be but taken vpon the hip they fall to quaking they crye out vnto heauen they call vpon God And if they approch but a farre of vnto death they fall to fretting and gnashing of their téeth And when they be well beaten there is not any shadowe of the Godhead so soone offered vnto them but they imbrace it so ready are nature and conscience which they would haue restreined and imprisoned to put them in mind thereof at all howres They be loth to confesse God for feare to stand in awe of him and yet the feare of the least things maketh them to confesse him Nay because they feare not him that made all things therefore they stand in awe of all things as wee see in the Emperour
Suydas he addeth this praier I adiure thee ô Heauen the wise woorke of the great God I adiure thee ô voyce which God vttered first when he founded the world I adiure thee by the onely begotten Speeche and by the Father who conteyneth all things c. There is no man but he would woonder to sée in this author the very woords of S. Iohn and yet notwithstanding his bookes were translated by the Platonists long tyme afore the coÌ„ming of our Lord Iesus Christ. And it is no maruayle though we find sayings of his in diuers places which are not written in his Poemander considering that hee wrote sixe and thirtie thousand fiue hundred and fiue and twentie Uolumes that is to say Rolles of Paper as Iamblichus reporteth And it is said that this Trismegistus otherwise called Theut is the same that taught the AEgiptians to reade and which inuented them Geometrie and Astronomie which deuided AEgipt into partes which left his forewarning against ouerflowings written in two Pillers which Proclus reporteth to haue beene standing still in his tyme and to be short which had bene reputed and honored as a God among them And it may be that the treble outcry which the AEgiptians made in calling vppon the first Beginner whome they tearmed the darkenesse beyond all knowledge like too the Ensoph of the Hebrewes and the Night of the Orpheus was still remayning vnto them of his diuinitie Thus haue you séene how Zoroastres and Mercurie haue aunswered vnto vs the one for the Persians and Chaldeans and the other for the AEgiptians For in matters of Wisdome the wise ought to be beléeued for the whole Nation Now let vs come to the Greekes Orpheus which is the auncientest of them all as soone as he beginneth to speake of these misteries doth first and formost shut all Heathenish folke out of the doores and then sayth thus Let thine eye be vpon the word of God and start not away from it for that is it that made the world and is immortall and according to the old saying is perfect of it selfe and the perfecter of all things and it cannot be seene but with the mynd And afterward I adiure thee Ô Heauen sayth he the wyse woorke of the great God I adiure thee thou voyce of the father which he spake first and so forth For this as appeareth afore was a praier which he had learned of Mercurie from whom also procéeded the common misterie of the Poets That Pallas was bred of Iupiters brayne The same man sayth that the first Moother of things was wisdome and afterward delightfull loue And in his Argonawte hee calleth this loue most auncient most perfect in it selfe and the bringer foorth and disposer of all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherevpon Pherecydes also sayth That God intending too make the worlde chaunged himselfe into loue And Iamblichus sayth that Pythagoras had the Philosophie of Orpheus alwayes before his eyes and therefore it is not for vs to woonder though he attributed the creation of al things to Wisdome as Proclus reporteth commended three Gods togither in one as Plato doth Howsoeuer the case stand Aristotle sayeth that they fathered all their perfection vpon thrée And Parmenides did set downe Loue as a first beginner insomuch that in disputing in Plato he leaueth vs there an euident marke of the thrée Inbeeings or Persones as Plotine noteth but we shall see it layd foorth more playnly hereafter by Numenius the Pythagorist Zeno the father of the Stolks acknowledged the word to be God and also the Spirit of Iupiter And Alcinous reporteth that Socrates and Plato taught that God is a mynde and that in the sauie there is a certaine 〈◊〉 which Inshape as in respect of God is the knowledge which God hath of himselfe and in respect of the worlde is the Patterne or Mauld thereof and in respect of it selfe is very essence This in fewe words centeyneth much matter that is to wit the one essence which God begetteth by the conâ—idering or knowing of himselfe according to the patterne whereof he hath buylded the world But yet Plato himselfe speaketh more playnly in his Epinomis Euery Starre sayth he keepeth his course according to the order which ho logos the Word hath set which word he calleth Most diuine In his booke of Commonweale hee calleth him the begotten Sonne of the Good most lyke vnto him 〈◊〉 all things the Good sayth he being as the 〈◊〉 that shineth in the skye and the begotten Sonne beeing as the power of the Sunne whereby we see that is to say as the light Also in his Epistle to Hermius Erastus and Coriscus hee chargeth them with an othe to reade it often and at the least two of them togither saying Call vppon God the Prince of al things that are and shal be and the Lord the Father of that Prince and of that Cause of whome if wee seeke the knowledge aright we haue as much sâ—ill as can bee giuen to blessed men Then is there a Lorde and Cause of all things and moreouer a father of the same Lorde But anto King Dennis who had asked of him the nature of God he setteth down al the thrée parsons The nature of the first saith he is to be spoken of in Riddlewise to the intent that if any mischaunce befall the Letter by Sea or by Land the reading thereof may be as good as no reading at all Thus then stands the case All things are at commaundement of the King of the whole world and all things are for his sake and he is the cause of the beautie that is in them And about the second are the secoÌ„d things and about the third are the third and so foorth Now these as he himselfe sayth are Riddies to Dennis the Tyrant vnto whome he wrote and my eâ—pounding of them of the three Iâ—béeings or Persones in the Godhead is by the consent of all the Platonists who haue made long Commentaries vppon those woords agréeing all in this poynt that by these three Kings hee meaneth the Good the vnderstanding and the Soule of the World And Origene against Celsus alledgeth certayne other places of Plato to the same purpose the which I leaue for auoyding of tediousnes But this doctrine which beeing reuealed from aboue came from hand to hand vnto Aristotle who liued about thrée hundred yeres afore the comming of Christ séemeth to haue decayed in him who intending to ouerthrowe al the Philosophers that went afore him corrupted their doctrine diuers wayes And therewithall he gaue him self more to the seeking and searching of Naturall things than to the mynding of the Author of them Yet notwithstanding he fathereth the cause of all things vppon a certayne Understanding which he calleth Noun that is to say Mynde acknowledging the same to bee infinite in God and also vppon a Frée
one Hippocrates and certeine others made a collection of all those things and so of many mens experiences was made an arte and that Arte hath bene inriched from time to time and more peraduenture in our age than euer it was before Howsoeuer the case stand it is certeyne that the first Phisition that was séene in Rome was one Archagatus who about a sixscore yeeres afore the comming of Christ in the Consuâ—ship of Lucius AEmilius Paulus and Marcus Liuius was made free of the Citie after whom diuers other Greeke Phisitions came thiâ—her by heapes but they were by and by driuen away againe by Cato the Censor as Hangmen or Tormenters sent by the Greekes to murther the Barbarians for so did the Greekes call all other Nations besides themselues rather than Phisitions to heale the diseazed and that was bicause that in all cases without discretion they vsed launcing and searing to all Sores Now sith we see the Sciences and Artes growe after that maner from Obseruation to Obseruation and from Principle to Principle and to bee so newly come vp among the Nations of greatest renowne and learning shall we doubt to conclude that it was so among the ruder nations likewise Let vs come to Lawes for euen the barbarousest people had of them and it may bee that seeing man is borne too societie and fellowship thei had greater care to set an order among themselues by good Lawes than to marke the order of the Skyes or the disposition of their owne bodyes But doth not the Lawe written leade vs foorthwith to the Lawe vnwritten And doe not the greate volumes of Lawes which we turne ouer now adayes leade vs to the peeces of Trebonian and Trebonian to the Sceuolaes and Affricanes and these againe to the Lawes of the Twelue Tables And I pray you what els be the twelue Tables but the infancy of the Romane Lawes which being very simple rudiments of Ciuill gouernment like those which are to bee found at this day among the most barborests Nations wee through a foolish zeale of antiquitie doe wonder at in the auncient Romanes and despyse them in the auntient Almanes Thuringians Burgonions Salians and Ripuaries who notwithstanding had them farre better than the Romanes But what antiquitie can be sayd to be in them seeing their continuance hath not bin past a fower hundred yeeres afore the comming of Christ as the Romane Histories themselues informe vs Againe doe not the twelue Tables send vs backe to the Grecians And of whom had the Greekes them but of Draco and Solon as in respect of the Athenians who liued in the time of Cyrus King of Persia and of Lycurgus as in respect of the Lacedemonians who liued about the end of the Empyre of Assiria And what els is all this houge Depth of Antiquitie whereof the Greekes make so great boast but late newnesse among the Iewes Moreouer Plutarke sayth that Solon and Lycurgus had beene in AEgypt to seeke Lawes and that there for all their bragging of antiquitie they were skorned as yong Children The AEgiptians also had their Lawes of Mercury Mercury doubtlesse had them from the Paterne of Moyses whom Diodorus witnesseth to haue bin the first Lawe maker of all To be short what shall we say seeing that as Iosephus noceth against Appion the very name of Law was vnknowen amoÌ„g the Greekes in the time of Homere But it may be that there haue bene Kings tyme without mind for they were as a liuing Law and their determinations were turned into Lawes Let vs marke then that from the great Monarks we come to the Kings of seuerall Nations and from them to vnderkings of Prouinces and of Shyres and afterwards to Kings of Townes Cities and Uillages and finally to Kings of Households which were the Fathers and Maisters of houses and were the â—ldest erauncient est of them and these doe sende vs to the one comon stocke that is to say the one comon beginning of them all And wheÌ„ was that Surely Iustine the History writer witnesseth that the Kings which were afore Ninus King of the Assyrians were but particular Iudges of controuersies which rose betweene folke of any one Towne or Citie or household and that the sayd Ninus was the first King of whome any Historiographers haue written And Herodotus sayth that the AEgyptians had the first Kings And he that will mount vp any higher must doe it by the holy Scripture which teacheth vs that Nembrod was the first that brake the sayd fatherly order of Houshold gouernment wherein euery father reigned ouer chose that descended of him without any other prerogatiue than of age which sort of Gouerners Manetho calleth Shepherdkings saying that they had beene a thousand yeres afore the warres of Troy For as for the Greekes and Romanes either they were not as yet at all or els surely they liued with Acornes lyke the People whome wee at this day call Sauages But let vs see if at leastwise the Gods of the Heathen haue any antiquitie for in asmuch as the essentiall shape of man is to acknowledge a certeine Godhead it is lykely that nothing should be of grerter antiquitie than that And in very deede Nations haue bene found both without Lawes and without Kings but without Gods and without some sort of Religion there was neuer any found But what shall we say if men haue bene borne afore Gods yea and also doe liue still after them Let vs not buzie our braynes about the first comming vp of the petigods as well of the Romanes as of the Greekes who had moe of them than they had of Shyres Citties Townes and Houses nor yet about their Pedegrees which are sufficiently described by their owne seruers and worshippers the Idolaters themselues but let vs go to the very roote of them What is to be sayd of the first Saturne who is called the father of them all Of what tyme is he Soothly if wee beleeue the notablest Storywriters amoÌ„g the Greekes the Epitaphe of Osyris reported by Diodorus the Sicilian Saturne I meane not the Saturne of the Greekes but the auncientest of all that Saturnes is none other thaÌ„ C ham the sonne of Noe neither is Osyris any other thaÌ„ Misraim the youngest sonne of Cham And those which woulde make Saturne auncientest say hee was but Noe himselfe I forbeare to say what Berosus and others of the lyke stampe report of him bicause I hold them for fabling and forged authors As touching Iupiter if ye meane him that was surnamed Belus that is to say Ball or Mayster hee was the Sonne of Nembrod which Memrod was also called Saturne which was a common name to the auncientest persons of great Houses And if he were that Iupiter which was surnamed Chammon or Hammon hee was the same Cham or Chamases the Sonne of Noe which was worshipped in Lybya for it is certeine that hee tooke his ioyrney thither For as for Iupiter of Crete
hath bouÌ„ded or filled vp this distance but only the will of him who only is And if will were the dooer thereof then was it not of necessitie And if it was not of necessitie then where is the eternitie thereof Porphyrius disputing of the Mind or Understanding the which hee termeth the beginning ground or welspring of the World sayeth that it was bred of God from euerlasting by a certeine eternall or beginninglesse breeding euen such a one as was afore all eternitie It was not bred in tyme sayth he for as yet there was no tyme at all and after that tyme was made the world can scarâ—ly bee sayd in very dede to be if it be compared with the foresayd Vnderstanding or Mynd This is all one with the saying of Trismegistus in a certeine place where he calleth this mind the trew euerlasting and first borne Sonne of God and this world Gods yonger Sonne the one begotten of his verie nature and the other of his will Proclus and Simplicius keepe a greate coyle in mayntenance of the eternitie of the world and haue made bookes therof ageinst Philoponus but all their reasons are sufficiently refuted by the things which I haue discoursed against Aristotle But seing they maynteyne Gods Prouidence and the immortalitie of the Soule doo they not reiect eternitie whither they will or no And whereas Proclus wryting against such as vpheld that there bee infinite worlds without nomber sayth that such infinitenes is ageinst reason and knowledge and that the admitting therof excludeth God and abandoneth all things to fortune why should he rather admiâ— infinitenesse of time in this one world than infinitenesse of nomber in many specially seeing hee alloweth Gods prouidence And wheras Simplicius condemneth those to hell which beleeue noâ— the Prouidence vppon the Reasons of Epictetus dooth hee not consequently condemne the defenders of the eternitie of the world too the same punishment And when Auerrhoes himselfe sayth that it is our dewtie to magnifie God by prayer and sacrifize and that it is planted euen in nature to offer sacrifize is he not contrarie to himself for to what end reuerence we God if we be nothing beholden to him neuerthelesse my alledging of these things is not as though I knew not well that the Platonists yea and euen these aformentioned philosophers also do call the world euerlasting and vnbegotten but to shew that the very surest of them haue wauered in this opinion insomuch that they haue left vs principles contrarie to their conclusions and after all their long skirmishes they find no rest but in our Camp And soothly the most part of them be driuen to acknowledge certeine Degrees of eternitie Wherof the first should be that which is measured by the continewance of that which is euermore of it selfe and becometh neither the longer for aught that is to come nor yet the shorter for aught that is past and that is it which is to be ascribed alonly vnto God The second as the measure of such things as haue a fixed and béeing stable and yet haue also a certeine succession in their operations of which sort are the vnderstanding spirits or Angells and this is properly called Aynesse The third as the measuring of durablenesse continued by forenesse and afternesse hauing a beginning but not an end and this they call Tyme attributing it properly to the World And what else is this than to speake that thing by circumstance which we vtter in one word For to what purpose cal they a thing eternall or euerlasting if by the termes Eternall and Euerlasting they meane temporall After which maner the Emperour Iustinian speaking vnproperly of his owne Lawes sayd he hoped that they should be eternall and euerlasting As touâ—hing the opinion of Epictetus the Stoik of Plutarke no man can doubt except he quite and cleane disanull their bookes GOD sayth Epictetus hath ordeined that there should bee Wiinter and Sommer good seasons and bad he hath giuen to the Earth both fruitfulnes and barrennes and his disposing of things so by contraries is to mainteyne the harmony of the whole He hath brought vs into the world giuen vs bodies and members and assigned vs heritages fellowheires It is hee that hath made both the sight and the colours and neither sight nor colours were aught worth if it were not for the light and therefore hath he also made the light Thus from poynt to poynt he leadeth vs to this conclusion that GOD made the World and all that is therein Plurarke sayth thus If God were not the maker of all things then should he bee restreyned in some things and so were he not Lord of all But he is to be acknowledged for Lord of all and therefore of coÌ„sequence he is the maker of them all And here might a great nomber of the forealledged sentences of the selfesame Authors be alledged againe But what shall we say if Galien who in comon account is the most heathenish of al writers after he hath throughly ript vp both man and the world it selfe be in the end constreyned too come backe to the same poynt I make here sayth he in his booke of the vse of parts a true Hymne in the honour of our Maker Whose seruice I beleeue verily consisteth not in the sacrifising of hundreds of Oxen vnto him or in burning great heapes of Frankincense before him but in acknowledging the greatnesse of his wisdome Powre and goodnes and in making the same knowen vnto others For whereas of his owne free will hee hath voutsafed to garnish and beawtifie all things in the best maner that could be and hath not enuied so great a benefite to any thing I hould it for a proofe of perfect goodnes and so farre praysed be his goodnes Again to haue found out the meanes how to adorne things so richly sheweth a souereigne Wisdome and to haue brought to passe and perfected al that euer he had forepurposed betokeneth an incoÌ„parable might and power And in his seauentéenth booke who so considereth sayth he the composing knitting togither of euery liuing thing shall find that it caryeth in it a proofe of the Creators wisdom And seeing that in the middes of that Puddle of humors eche liuing wight hath a Soule dwelling indued with so great force and vertue he ought of reason the more to wonder at the greatnes and excellencie of the Mind that dwelleth in heauen And who is he had he sayd afore which looking but onely vpon the Skinne of a thing woondereth not at the cunning of the Creator Yet notwithstanding hee dissembleth not that he had tryed by all meanes to find some reason of the composing of liuing wights and that hee would rather haue fathered the doing thereof vpon nature then vppon the very author of nature But yet for all that in the end he concludeth thus I confesse saith he that I knowe not what the Soule is nothwithstanding that I haue sought
and tendeth vnto him the beginning of that direction cannot procéede of any other than of him to whom it tendeth Agein seeing that as he sayth in other places all kynd of things tend too some one perticular ende euery one peculiar to it selfe and all méete togither in one vniuersall end and yet all of them haue not reason or vnderstanding to appoynt that ende too themselues or to hold themselues within that bound It followeth then that there is a certeine prouidence which hath that reason for all and euery of them and that the same reason resteth in God vpon whō al of them depend as Aristotles best lerned interpreters are constrained to confesse To be short the quick sentence which is attributed vnto him which is That such as require a proofe of Gods prouidence are to be answered with the lasshes of a Whippe doth giue vs sufficient credit of his opinion Of the opinion of Theophrastus we cannot doubt For he that graunteth the creation of a thing cannot doubt of prouidence considering that power and goodnes are alike equall in both of them But behold héere the expresse words of Alexander of Aphrodise in his booke of Prouidence That God should haue no wil sayth he to care for the things heere beneath is too farre disagreeing with his nature for it is the propertie of an enuious person And that he should be vnable were to vnseemely for him for he is able to doe more than he hath yet done Therefore let vs not dout of him either the one or the other but let vs rather conclude that hee both can and will haue care of all things that are done heere belowe And in another place hée gathereth this very conclusion That all our welfare lyeth in the seruing of God and that the feare of him is a gift of his in that he voutsafeth to extend his prouidence vnto vs. Of the opinions of Plutarke and Seneca their owne bookes doo expresly testifie namely Plutarks treatise concerning the slowe punishment of euill doers for him and Senecaes bookes concerning benefites and a treatise of his concerning Prouidence for him So lykewise doth the wise Philosopher Epictetus vpon whome Simplicius hath written For after many forespéeches concerning the greatnes and maiestie of God and the weakenes of man they assayed to yéelde a reason of all things that offended the weaker sort in this case yea euen to the very accidents and to the thunderclaps And I desire my readers to take the peynes to reade them whole that they may sée how conformable the things whiche Christians teache are to the wisedome of the best sort among the Heathen Wherevnto they may for an income adde this Oracle of Apollo himselfe reported by Porphyrius No man too hyde himself from God by cunning can deuize No man by slyghts or suttle shifts can blind or dim his eyes All places he fulfilleth He is present euerywhere And giueth lyfe to euery thing that mooues and lyfe doth beare And as concerning all other people of the Earth in whose behalfe the Poets which are full of such sayings euery where may answere as Orpheus Homere Hesiodus Aratus Sophocles Phocylides and such others surely in as much as wée sée that all Nations haue some Religion it is a visible president that Gods prouidence is beléeued and receiued of all with one accord For in vayne doe meu serue God if he sée it not in vayne doo men pray to him if he regard them not in vayne complaine they to him if hee iudge them not and to be short in vayne doe wee call vppon him both on Sea and Land where counsell and casualtie seeme most to take place for the mainteyning of our welfare and the preseruing of vs from harme vnlesse wée bée throughly perswaded that he heareth vs and that he ruleth Heauen and Earth and all things in them from aboue yea and euen the verye hazard of warre as Caesar termeth it wherein fortune séemeth to beare greatest sway But afore wee giue our determinate Iudgment wee haue yet two Aduocates to heare namely the Aduocate of Fortune and the Aduocate of Destinie For sayth the one if all things passe vnder the guyding of prouidence what becommeth of Fortune which we sée in so manye things And sayeth the other what fréedome then hath man must it not néedes be confessed that a certeine destinie compelleth euery man to doe whatsoeuer he doth If ye meane fortune as she is peynted by the Poets blynd standing on a bowle and turning with euery wynd it is as easie to wype her away as to paynt her For who seeth not that there is an vniforme order both in the whole world and in all the parts therof and how then can one that is blynd be the guyder therof Also who vnderstandeth not that to moue things belongeth to stedfastnesse and not vnto vnstedfastnesse for how can that thing rule and wéeld others which is caryed away it self Or how can he hold the sterne who floteth himself vpon the water Séeing then that there is so certein order in all things it followeth that fortune beareth no sway in any thing and therefore that there is no fortune at all But if by the word fortune they meane as Proclus doth a certein diuine power that gathereth causes farre distant one from another all to one end surely in that case we be more fréends to fortune than they be For we admit it not only in things vncerteine wandering and wauering but also euen in the things that are moste certein yea and in all things whatsoeuer as the which is but God himself disguysed vnder another name Nowthen to speake properly what is Fortune Is it a Substance Euen by their owne confession it hath no being but in the disorder of other things Shall wee terme it an Accident How should an accident worke so diuers accidents What is it then if it be any thing at all Surely it is a word that signifieth nothing but respectiuely that is to say as hauing respect of some things or persons that are spoken of and it hath no ground or being but of and in our owne ignorance That which is fortune to the Childe is no fortune to the father that which is fortune to the Seruant is none to the Maister that which is fortune to the foole is none to the wise man that which is fortune to the wise man is none vnto God According to the measure of our knowledge or ignorance so doth fortune increase or abate Take away ignorance frō men and fortune is banished from all their dealings The father letteth a thing fall in his Garden to see whether his child wil bring it to him or steale it away The childe thinkes it to be falne by chaunce and his father who knowes to what ende he did let it fall smyles at him And so the thing that was chaunce or fortune to the childe was of set purpose in the father A Mayster sendeth
As God by his wisedome hath set for the best Not that any saying of the Deuilles owne is to bee alledged in witnesse of the trueth furtherfoorth than to shewe that he speakes it by compulsion of Gods mightie power as wicked men diuers tymes doe when they be vpon the Racke Now we bée come to the time or nere to the time that the heauenly doctrine of Iesus Christ was spred ouer the whole world vnto which tyme I haue proued the continuall succession of that doctrine which could not but bee vnseparably ioyned with the succession of men But frō this tyme foorth it came so to light among all Nations and all persons that Sainct Austin after a sort tryumphing ouer vngodlinesse cryeth out in diuers places saying Who is now so very a foole or so wicked as to doubt still of the immortalitie of the Soule Epictetus a Stoikphilosopher who was had in very great reputation among all the men of his tyme is full of goodly sayings to the same purpose May wee not bee ashamed sayth he to leade an vnhonest life and to suffer our selues to be vanquished by aduersitie we be alyed vnto God we came from thence and wee haue leaue to returne thether from whence we came One while as in respect of the Soule he termeth man the ofspring of GOD or as it were a braunch of the Godhead and another while he calleth him adiuine ympe or a spark of God by all which words howbeit that they be somewhat vnproper for what wordes can a man finde to fit that matter he sheweth the vncorruptiblenesse of the substance of mans Soule And whereas the Philosopher Simplicius hath so diligently commented vppon his bookes it doth sufficiently answer for his opiniō in that case without expressing his words here Plotinus the excellentest of al the Platonists hath made nine treatises expressely concerning the nature of the Soule besides the things which he hath written dispersedly heere and there in other places His chiefe conlusions are these That mens Soules procéede not of their bodies nor of the seede of the Parents but come from aboue and are as ye would say graffed into our bodies by the hand of God That the Soule is partly tyed to the body and to the instruments thereof and partly franke frée workfull continuing of it selfe and yet notwithstanding that it is neither a body nor the harmonie of the body but if wee consider the life and operation which it giueth to the body it is after a sort the perfection or rather the perfector of the body and if wee haue an eye to the vnderstanding whereby it guydeth the mouings and doings of the body it is as a Gouernour of the body That the further it is withdrawne from the Sences the better it discourseth of things insomuch that when it is vtterly separated from them it vnderstandeth things without discoursing reasoning or debating yea euen in a moment because this debating is but a certeyne lightening or brightnesse of the mynde which now taketh aduisement in matters whereof it doubteth and it doubteth wheresoeuer the body yéeldeth any impediments vnto it but it shall neither doubt nor séeke aduisement any more when it is once out of the body but shall conceyue the trueth without wauering That the Soule in the body is not properly there as in a place or as in a ground because it is not conteyned or comprehended therein and may also bee separated from it but rather if a man had eyes to see it withall he should see that the bodie is in the Soule as an accessary is in a principall or as a thing conteyned in a conteyner or a sheading or liquid thing in a thing that is not liquid because the Soule imbraceth the body and quickneth it and moueth it equally and alike in all parts That euery abilitie thereof is in euery part of the bodie as much in one part as in another as a whole Soule in euery parte notwithstanding that euery seuerall abilitie thereof seeme to bee seuerally in some particuler member or part because the instruments thereof are there as the sensitiue abilitie seemeth to rest in the head the yrefull in the heart and the quickning in the Liuer because the Sinewes Hartstrings and Uaynes come from those parts Whereas the reasonable power is not in any part sauing so farre foorth as it worketh and hath his operation there neither hath it any néede of place or instrument for the executing of it selfe And to be short that the Soule is a life by it selfe a life all in one vnpartable which causeth to growe and groweth not it selfe which goeth throughout the bodie and yet is not conteyned of the bodie which vniteth the Sences and is not deuided by the Sences and therfore that it is a bodilesse substance which cannot bee touched neither from within nor from without hauing no néede of the bodie eyther outwardly or inwardly consequently is immortall diuine yea and almost a very God Which things he proueth by many reasons which were too long to bee rehearsed here Yea he procéedeth so farre as to say that they which are passed into another world haue their memorie still notwithstanding that to some mens seeming it goe away with the Sences as the treasury of the Sences Howbeit he affirmeth it to be the more excellent kynd of memorie not that which calleth things agayne to mynd as alreadie past but that which holdeth and beholdeth them still as alwaies present Of which two sorts this latter he calleth Myndfulnes and the other he calleth Rememberance I will add but onely one sentence more of his for a full president of his Doctrine The Soule sayth he hath had companie with the Gods and is immortal and so would we say of it as Plato affirmeth if we sawe it fayre and cleere But forasmuch as we see it commonly troubled we thinke it not to bee eyther diuine or immortall howbeit that he which will discerne the nature of a thing perfectly must consider it in the very owne substance or being vtterly vnmingled with any other thing For whatsoeuer els is added vnto it doth hinder the perfect discerning of the same Therfore let euery man behold himself naked without any thing saue himselfe so as he looke vppon nothing els than his bare Soule and surely when he hath vewed himselfe in his owne nature merely as in respect of his Mynd he shall beleeue himselfe to bee immortall For he shall see that his Mynd ameth not properly at the sensible and mortall things but that by a certeine euerlasting power it taketh hold of the things that are euerlasting and of whatsoeuer is possible to be conceiued in vnderstanding insomuch that euen it self becommeth after a sort a very World of vnderstanding light This is against those which pretend a weakenesse of the Soule by reason of the inconueniences which it indureth very often in the bodie Of the same opinion are Numenius Iamblichus
that Amosis King of AEgipt reigned the same tyme that Inachus reigned in Greece and that in the tyme of the same Amosis Moyses went out of AEgipt with the people of Israell The same thing is affirmed by Appion the Grammarian the great enemie of the Iewes and also confirmed by Berosus the Babylonian Polemon Theodotus Ipsicrates and Moschus writers of the Stories of the Phenicians cyted by Eusebius and Affricanus Eupolemus in his booke of the Kings of Iewrie sayth that Moyses taught letters to the Iewes the Iewes to the Phenicians and the Phenicians to the Greekes by Cadmus And so by that reckoning Moyses should be not onely of most antiquitie in their Histories but also of more antiquitie than all Histories Numenius sayth that Plato and Pythagoras had nothing but from the AEgiptians and Syrians and namely from Moyses insomuch that he recyteth his historie almost word for word as we haue it in the Bible saying that Moyses was a great Diuine Lawmaker and Prophet Also Diodorus of Sicilie sayth that he vnderstoode by the AEgiptians who notwithstanding were enemies to Moyses and to all his race that he was the first Lawgiuer of all and moreouer a man of great courage and of very commendable life and that the Iewes estéemed him as a GOD as well for the knowledge that he had of GOD as for his authoritie and preheminence And he sayth Diodorus gaue a Lawe vnto the people of Israell which hee sayd hee had receyued of Iah for so doe they call the GOD whom they worship And who is this GGD Strabo sheweth vs sufficiently where he saith That Moyses hauing rebuked the AEgiptians for their vanities and follies and for resembling God who is to be worshipped and serued otherwise by the Images of Beastes and Men withdrew himselfe from among them that he might serue God To be short Porphirius in his fourth booke ageinst Christians beareth this record of Moyses that he had written the historie of the Iewes truely which thing he had perceyued by conferring it with Sachoniathon the Berutian who rehearseth the very same circumstances the which hee had learned out of the Registers of one Hierobaal a Priest of the God of Leuy that is to say of the God of Israell and out of the Chronicles of the cities out of the holy bookes which were woont to be dedicated to temples And this Sachoniathon saith he was somewhat after the time of Moyses about the tyme of Semiramis Now Porphirius giueth vs here more than we aske For we set Abraham in the tyme of Semiramis Moyses came certeine hundred yeeres after Now then the bookes of Moyses dooe leade vs vp from Sonne to Father vnto Abraham from Abraham to Noe from Noe to the first Man and from the first man to God the Creator beyond whome it is not possible to passe any further as I haue proued alreadie and in treating of the Creation we must alwaies néedes come backe agein And through out all this discourse Moyses telleth vs of the things that GOD hath discouered vnto men and the lawes which he hath giuen after maner of a couenant to the intent they should be his people and he should be their God The which Couenant it had surely bene both a shame folly for him to haue deuised for that hardhearted stubborne people whom hee burdeneth not with any other thing but that which was notoriously knowen vnto them and thereby they were certified of their originall natiuitie Neither is it to be suspected that he wrote these things as some list to say to get authoritie to himselfe and his for hee brondeth his Graundfather Leuy with an open marke of reproch expressed in these words of Iacobs Testament Simeon and Leuy are cruel instruments in their vanquishings c. Cursed bee their wrath for it was shamefull I will diuide them in Iacob and scatter them in Israell c. As who should say hee ment to disgrade Leuy and all his race to the saying wherof nothing compelled him Also he reprooueth Aarons idolatrie and Maries murmuriug notwithstanding that hee was his Brother and she his Suster and he repeateth oftentymes that for his owne fault God had told him that he should see the land of Canaan but not enter into it To be short hee ordeineth and leaueth Iosua to be his Successor whereas by reason of the authoritie which he had among that people he might by al likelyhod haue set vp his owne sonnes And yet we sée that naturally we conceale the faults of our Parents and corrupt their Pedegrees to make them the more vertuous and our selues the more commendable 〈…〉 and we be loth to acknowledge our owne faults 〈…〉 the homeliest men of vs all except it be among our 〈…〉 fréeds and as late as we can Much lesse can we find in our heartes to publish them to the knowledge of posteritie To bée short we be so desirous to leaue honour and estimation to our children that such as would not haue bene ambitious for themselues cannot refreyne from beeing ambitious for their posteritie Now then what may we conclude thereof but that he yéelded the honor of his auncetors and his owne too vnto Gods glorie the trueth And although wee procéede not so farre as to conclude absolutely that he wrote at that time as from God and not as from man yet notwithstanding forasmuch as in his writings he strippeth mans nature naked ought we not at leastwise to conclude that he which made lesse account of himself and his than of the trueth would not haue preferred vntrueth before it for any respect Some miserable kaytife that is quarelous against his owne welfare will say heere Admit that Moyses Iosua Dauid Esay and others were as auncient as ye list yet how shall I be sure that those bookes also were as auncient and of their writing It were inough to answere him How beléeuest thou that such bookes or such were Platoes Aristotles and Ciceroes Marry saiest thou because they haue bene conueyed vnto vs from them from hand to hand Use thou the like equitie towards the others which as great a nomber of men doe assure thee to haue come from them But if that will not perswade them yet want we not wherewith to inforce them First and formost I appeale to the conscience and iudgement of all persons which knowe what it is to indite whether the style of the Scriptures bee not such and so peculiar as it cannot by any meanes bee counterfetted or disguised And if there bee any that will néedes doubt thereof I pray him to make a triall thereof but in some one side of a leafe bee it in plainnesse of setting things downe as they were done or in feruentnesse of praying or in pitthinesse of Prophesying and he shall foorthwith perceiue that as well in the matter it selfe as in the maner of indyting there is a certeine new taste in sted of the old which is peculiar to all
tymes so as no man can atteine to the same naturall veyne the same zeale and the same efficacie vnlesse he be led by the same hand moued by the same spirit and pricked with the same spurre that Moyses Dauid and the Prophetes were To be short if it be hard to father a booke vppon Plato Herodotus and Hipocrates but that hee which shall haue read them aduisedly will by and by espie it euen a farre of So is it as vnpossible to father the other bookes vppon those which haue a stile sofarre differing from other writings vnlesse a man wil beare himselfe on hand that such bastardbookes were made in the same ages or néere about the same tymes that those Authors liued in Let vs sée how it may be possible to haue bene doone in the same ages Moyses published the Lawe before all the people and he curseth the partie with death both of body and soule which shall adde diminish or alter any thing Hee bindeth the people household by household to take fast hold thereof His bookes are deliuered to euery Trybe they be read openly euery Saboth day they be kept carefully in the Arke and the Arke is kept as carefully by all the Trybes And that this was doone it appeareth not onely by his booke but also by the effects that insewed therof from time to time and by the footesteps therof which are euident euen yet among the Iewes If it be possible for a booke to bee preserued from falsifying and foysting what booke shall that be but the Byble which was garded by ten hundred thousand men and copyed out not by some Scriueners onely but also by all the people Afterward came Iosua who renewed the same Couenant proclaymed the Lawe and yéelded record vnto Moyses Lykewise the Iudges succéeded Iosua Samuell succéeded the Iudges the Kings and the Chronicles succéeded Samuell and the Prophets succéeded them all These bookes followed one another immediatly and without interpâ—â—â—â—tion and euery one that followed presupposed the things to be an infallible trueth which had bene written by them that went afore neither was there any that did cast any douts or reproue any of the former histories as is found to be doone in other Histories as for example Hellanicus reproueth Ephorus Ephorus finds fault with Timeus and consequently Timeus reprehendeth them that wrote afore him But Iosua gathereth a certeine and vnfallible consequence of Moyses the Iudges of Iosua Samuell of the Iudges Dauid of them all and so all the rest And to speake of the Prophets they bee not lyke the bookes of our Astrologers which reforme one anothers Calculations and controll one anothers Prognostications But as they shoote all at one marke so they agrée in one thing notwithstanding that they wrote in sundrie times and sundry places Nay which more is wée see that the people were so sure of that Lawe that from age to age they chose rather to abyde all extremities than to giue it ouer insomuch that they defended it ageinst the Chananites the Philistines the Assyrians the Babilonians the Persians the Greekes and the Romanes Who then durst be so prowd and bold as to voilate or imbace the thing that was hild to be so holy defended with so many lyues and confirmed with so many deathes If yee say the Heathen Their intents was not to marre it but to make it quyte away For what profite could haue redounded vnto them of that payne to what ende should they haue done it or how could they haue corrupted it in the sight in the knowledge of so many folke Moreouer who knoweth not that the Scriptures were caryed by the banished Iewes into diuers countryes of the world afore they came into the hands of the Gentiles as of the Greekes or Romanes As for the Iewes their shooteanker and felicitie consisted in the kéeping of them the reward of corrupting them was death and what could it theÌ„ haue benefited them to haue corrupted them Nay yet further which of them would haue dyed afterward for a Lawe which they knewe to bee corrupted or counterfetted And soothly we see throughout their Histories that there passed not so much as any one halfe hundred yeeres without persecutions and warres for that Lawe And whereas it myght be sayd that some suttleheaded fellow among the Iewes had done it to abuse the rest how could that be ageine séeing it was not in the hands of fower or fiue Prestes only as the Ceremonies of the Hetrurians and Latins were but in the hands of the whole people so as one sillable could not be chaunged but it was to be espyed euen by yoong Children Considering also that we reade not of any king how wise so euer he were that euer durst presume to ad diminish or alter any whit thereof whereas notwithstanding all other Lawes of the world were made by péecemeale and Kings and Senats haue alwaies reserued to theÌ„selues a prerogatiue to correct them and alter them at their pleasure specially when they limited their authoritie and serued not for the mayntenance of their possession And if any man to beréeue vs of this argument will stepfoorth and say that our Scriptures are as an Historie gathered out of the Registers of many ages by some one author as we sée Berosus hath done for the Chaldees Duis for the Phenicians Manetho for the Egiptians and such others let him tell vs then I hartily pray him in what age of the world that Author is lykely to liued If in the tyme of Moyses of Iosua or of the Iudges how commeth it to passe that he wryteth of the reignes of the kings If in the tyme of the first Kings how wryteth he of the last Kings If in the tyme of the last Kings how is it possible that the Iewes being afore that time caryed away into diuers places of the world and scattered abroade euerywhere lyke the members of Pentheus should carie keepe with them the books of Moyses which by these mens reckoning were not yet made according to which booke both themselues did notwithstaÌ„ding then liue and also taught other Nations I meane the ten Trybes by name which by three former remouings were scattered ouer the whole Earth whereof the marks are to apparant to be denyed The first in the the tyme of Achaz King of Iuda and of Placea King of Israell by Thiglath Phalassar King of the Assirians who caryed away Ruben Gad and the halfe trybe of Manasses the second in the tyme of Ose by Salmanasar who caryed away Isachar Zabulon and Nepthaly into Assiria and the third anon after by the same Salmanasar who conueyed away Ephraim and the other half of Manasses as is witnessed both by the auncient Records of many Countryes and also by the Chronicles of the Hebrewes And at that tyme whyle Printing was notyet in vse what meane was there to disperse those books so soone and so farre of Nay which more is what will they say when they shall find the bookes of
Sacrifieing to Deuilles and to their owne Louers and friends as we reade that Socrates Plato and Aristotle did Who is he then which euen by the first lyne or by the opening of the booke maye not perceiue that they which speake bee men yea and but very men in déede considering that in all their bookes they speake but of man Men say I that seeke the glorie of men and not of GOD Preachers of vanitie and not of mans welfare On the contrarie side wee heare how the Scripture sayth In the beginning God made Heauen and Earth What is ment by this enterance but that the Reader should not in the rest of the discourse looke for the follies of men but for the wonderous works of the Creator And what other author did euer begin his worke so Herodotus beginneth his Historie after this maner Herodotus of Halycarnassus hath spoken these things Though he had neuer sayd so it would neuer haue bene surmised that he had spoken any thing but of man For what is his whole booke but vanitie Or what hath he which is not inferiour to man After the same maner doth Hippocrates begin his bookes concerning the nature of man and likewise Timaeus of Locres his treatise of Nature and of the Creation of the world which Authors I alledge as auncientest of all others But if we go through the whole Scripture from the one end to the other we shal finde nothing there but that which is promised at the first word that is to wit liuely letters and vnpossible to be falsified of a booke that procéedeth from God namely his own glorie and the welfare of man As for the glorie of the Euerlasting it leadeth vs to the creation of the world and of man to the sinne of Adam and the corruption of Mankynde the Flud of Noe that followed therevpon and the confusion of Tongues the calling of Abraham and his seede the plagues of Pharao and the wonders of AEgipt What is there in all these things that sauoreth of man or of the vanitie that possesseth him What hath he there which maketh him not eyther to stoope vnto God or to sinke vnto Hell Againe on the other side what els doth that whole discourse shewe vs but the highnesse of the Euerlasting his mercifulnesse towards the lowly and his iustice and iudgements towards the proude when wee see all loftinesse of the world cast downe before him and all the puissance of Empyres giuen ouer to Catterpillers and to the wormes of the earth Afterwarde Moyses commeth to the rehearsing of the lawe that God gaue to that people Whence came that extraordinarie wisedome and why rather in Israell than elsewhere in the tyme when all other Nations were so rude And what maner of lawe was it Soothly a lawe comprehended in ten Sentences and yet those ten Sentences conteyne whatsoeuer can belong to Godlinesse Uprightnesse and Iustice whither it bee of seruice towards GOD or of duetie towards our neighbour Insomuch that all the great volumes of lawes whereof the world is full without ground without end notwithstanding that they treate but onely of Iustice are referred all to that marke and haue not any thing more than is there Again all these ten sayings are vnfolded in two words namely to loue God with the whole heart and a mans neighbour as himselfe Let the Athenians shew me the Lawes of their Draco and the Romaines the Lawes of their twelue Tables if there be one word of true Godlinesse and Iustice in them Let the Greekes and Romaines shewe all that euer they wrate by the space of a thousand yéeres and see if ye shal finde so much thereof as is conteyned in those two sayings only And as for our Philosophers which make so great bragges of the ten Predicaments of their Aristotle which are but the seede of Sophistrie and vayne babling I aske them at leastwise if they haue any eyes what account they ought to make of this Lawe which hath conueyed in so fewe wordes both the matters of the world which are infinite and the matters of GOD which are vncomprehensible to man together The Israelites come to take their iourney into Chanaan vnder Moyses they bee brought in thether by Iosua and they be ruled and gouerned there by the Iudges and Kings And in this discourse there fall out many humane things many enterprises surprises Sieges Battels Uictories Conquestes Héere it behoueth vs to enter into our selues and by our selues into the naturall disposition of all men When wee goe to giue the onset I meane the better sort of vs what say wee Lord we set our Battels in aray but thou giuest the victorie After that maner speake the Christians at this day Nay but if God prosper vs what will we say at our returne Mary I wonne such a Hill I brake the Uauntgard the Enemie was discomfited by my counsell and herevppon rise quarrelles who shall haue the honor of the victorie But as for God we shall heare no more speaking of him than if there were no GOD at all The History writers which describe their Uictories are curious in naming euen the meanest Capteynes for offending any man and moreouer in describing of the aduauntages of the places of the Sunne of the Winde of the Dust of him that led the Soldiours to handblowes of the consultations of the Capteynes so as he balanceth the Battels after his owne scoales and as for mens sinnes which are the procurers thereof he neuer once thinkes of them Séeing then that the Authors of our Byble are the auncientest of all others whereof commeth this newe kynd of indyting or wâ—â—â—ce haue they learned it that in all their Histories they giue the glorie of the Battels and of all feates of Armes alonly vnto God both afore and after Or whence come these ordinary words God giueth them into our hands God is our victorie God is as strong in a small number as in a great Whence also come the goodly Songs which we shall not finde in any of the Heathen Writers but of this that they wrate the warres of GOD and the victories of the Lord yea and euen in his behalfe which was the doer of them If they wrate on mans behalfe why wrate they not in mans vsuall order of indyting dyting Why wrate not Moyses and Iosua say I as Polybius and Caesar wrate Or who letted them to take to themselues the glorie of their high enterprises Or if they wrate for Kings and by commaundement of Kings why finde wee no commendations of Iosua Dauid Iosaphat and Ezechias as well as of Themistocles Miltiades Alexander and Traiane For what other commendation finde wee of them than that they walked in the way of the Lord that they destroyed the high places that they ouerthrew the Idols and such like howbeit that we reade of heroicall Martiall déedes done in their tymes And what ought we then to conclude but that as all other bookes which tend to the glorie
he had gotten and which hee had already in his hand What lykelyhod hereof was there at such tyme as they burned Bricke in AEgipt or when they lingered in the wildernes yea or at the returne of the men that were sent to spye out the Land when they reported nothing but hardnesse to the people I pray you if a man should at this day part Italy or Greece among vs in his imagination to euery of vs share and share lyke would we not say accxsording to the prouerbe that he parted his Uenison before he had caught it And yet what a nomber of men haue passed the Alpes vnder the Standard And sith it is so that Moyses entered into that Land and those which wayted for it dyed in the way and yet that at the tyme appointed the Chananites gaue place to that people who seeth not that of necessitie the same people were driuen by some other than man to followe Moyses yea Moyses himself to take vpon him the leading of them through so many distresses both of them being grounded say I not vppon mans fancie but vppon expresse promise which they by vnfallible records beléeued to be of God But hée proceedeth yet further For as he foresawe them in Chanaan afore they came there so foresawe hee them there to offend God by seruing Baal after they came there I say he saw them forget GOD and God myndfull of them in his wrath hee sawe them dispersed and scattered ouer the fower quarters of the World and troden vnder the féete of Straungers To be short he sawe the Gentiles called of God into his Church in their place yea and he sawe it so cléerly that he foretold it to them all in his Song which hée willed them to preserue from hand to hand as a witnesse against them a discharge to himself Though from the top of Mount Nebo he could behold the land of Chanaan to speake so fitly thereof from what mountaine could hee see the things that were yet in the reynes and heartes of men as then to come yea which lay hidden yet many hundred yeres after or in what booke could he haue seen them and read them but in the booke of lyfe that is to say in God himselfe The word that was spoken by Moyses was performed word for word by Iosua without adding or diminishing any whit contrarie to the ambitious mynd of man which lyketh not to follow another mans lure which thing was no small signe that Iosua did not so much obey Moyses as God speaking by Moyses And this curse that Iosua pronounceth in his booke ageinst the man that should build Iericho ageine is not to be forgotten He shal lay the foundation thereof vpon his firstborne sayth he set vp the gates thereof vpon his yongest sonne That is to say he shal be punished with the suddein death of all his Children For about fiuehundred yeres after in the time of Achab Hiel of Bethel builded vp Iericho the which he founded vpon Abiram his first Sonne and hung vp the gates of it with the death of Segus his yongest sonne and the booke of Kings sayth there it was according as the Lord had spoken by the mouth of Iosua the Sonne of Nun to shewe that Gods word is euerlasting and that it neuer ouerslippeth the tyme. And in very déede it lyeth ouerthrowen at this day and was neuer repayred since that tyme howbeit that the beautifull situation thereof might haue allured euery man as we reade in the auncient Geographers In the bookes of Iosua and of the Iudges wee sée the things performed which were foretolde by Moyses and the comming to passe both of the promises of the threates that were made by him For accordingly as the people of Israell did either turne away from God or returne vnto him God raysed vp Tyrants in Chanaan to punish them or deliuerers in Israell to deliuer them And as for the bookes of Samuel of the Kings and of the Prophetes either they be prophesies of effectes to come or effectes of prophesies forepast To be short in all the discourse of the Byble there is not any season to bee found without both Prophet and Prophesie as well in prosperitie as in aduersitie Whereby we might sée both the heauenlines and the trueth of them the more clearly if we could set the places persones and state of that time before our eyes But out of this continuall prophesying wee will drawe some peculiar poyntes so euident as cannot bée gaynesaid which will vndoubtedly be of credit among all indifferent persons At such time as Ieroboam the sonnne of Nebath made the tenne Trybes to fall away from Roboam the Sonne of Salomon to the intent they should haue no occasion to returne againe to their former state by resorting to Hierusalem to woorshippe there hee réered an Alter in Bethell contrarie to the Lawe of God Then came a man of God sayeth the historie to Bethel by the commaundement of the Lord and sayd to Ieroboam Behold a Sonne shal be born of the house of Dauid whose name shal be Iosias He shall sacrifise vppon thee the Preestes of the Hillalters which offer incense vpon thee And this shal be the signe thereof Thyne altar shall ryue asunder and the asshes that are thereon shal be powred downe This Prophesie was fulfilled in all poynts by Iosias thrée hundred yéeres after And when Iosias sayeth the historie had so done he sawe a certeine tumbe and asked whose it was intending to haue burnt the bones of him that lay there as he had done of the other préests in Bethel But it was told him that it was the tumb of the man of God which had foretold those things so long agoe whereuppon hee forbade any man to touche it Now they that knowe how those bookes of the Kinges were disposed wilnot call the historie in question For the histories of the Kings were written by the priests and Prophets according to the measure of the time that they reigned and were holden so holy that it was felonie to touche them Furthermore séeing if this Prophesie was written afore the comming of Iosias it could not be falsified for who could haue hit vppon his proper name And if it were written after and deuised vppon the euent how came the sayd Tumb to bee made at the same instant Or was there none other deuise wherewith to haue disguised it without taking any further peyne Myght it not haue suffised to haue sayd One Iosias shall come c. without speaking eyther of the death of the man of God or of his méeting with the Lyon or of the talk which he had with the Prophet of Samaria but that he must take peyne to be found a Lyer by the Samaritans which knew the originall of the Tumb or could at leastwise haue inquired it But in verie déede this Prophesie which dooth so set downe the name the place and the circumstances in the doing is such as cannot
of these Philosophers that our Prophesies being so cléere so particular and so neare to things a farre of could not be in spyred from many Gods Yet notwithstanding all Prophesying say they procéeds either of art or of nature or of some Spirit or of God himselfe Of arte as by Astrologie of nature as when mannes nature is ready to receiue the influences of the vniuersall and of some Spirit as by some league or couenant made with him But of none of all these three could the Prophesies of the Hebrewes procéede as I haue shewed euidently afore It remayneth therefore that those Prophesies are of God and consequently that their Scriptures are Gods woord which is nothing els but eyther those Prophesies themselues or the effects of those Prophesies And to shut vp this Chapter it will not be amisse to rehearse this record of Porphyrins that the Religious sect of the Essens among the Iewes by reason of their occupying of themselues in those Prophesies made a profession of Prophesying and seldom tymes missed For in deede there is greate lykelyhod that if we vnderstoode all the Prophesies of the Byble which thing is vnpossible for vs bycause we cannot lay the states of all tymes togither wee should find there manie things which are darke to vs at this day and yet were cléere well vnderstoode and easie euen to the verie comon people euery one in his tyme. The xxvj Chapter That the things which seeme most woonderfull in our Scriptures are confirmed by the Heathen themselues and a solution of their cheefe Obiections to the same NOw that wee knowe that it is God that speaketh in the Scriptures there should remayne no more for vs to doe but to hearken vnto him with silence For seeing he hath made al things by his word his worde cannot haue sayde any thing which he hath not bene able to doe And if we crouch and lay our hand vpon our mouth at the sight of a Kings Seale surely it were more reason that wee should dispose our mynds to beléeue and our willes to obeye without scanning wrangling or gaynsaying when wee see the expresse signing and seale of God in his Scriptures Howbeit to the intent wee may leaue no cause of doubt to the Reader forasmuch as some haue presumed to obiect I desire that I also may haue leaue to assoyle their demaunds Now therefore let vs see what is obiected against vs as well by the Infidels of old tyme as of our daies First of all As great account say they as you make of your Scriptures there is no record yéelded vnto them by any of our auncient Authors Gréeke or Latin as Plato Aristotle Theophrast and the rest of so many Philosophers Historiographers Poets This is euen as much as if a man should aske witnesse of the men of Perow concerning the Histories of Fraunce or Spayne For in the times whereof our Scriptures speake what were the Greekes and Romaines in respect of the Iewes but sillie sauage people that fed vpon Mast Or soothly it is all one as if a man should aske a childe of the things that were done afore he was borne considering that the latest Histories in our Byble are of more antiquitie than the Schooles of Greece or the vse of reading was in Rome Nay moreouer from the tyme that the Greekes knewe there was an AEgipt they went thether to Schoole and there had communication with the Iewes as I haue proued alreadie at whose hands they reaped that little knowledge which they had concerning the true God the creation of the world and the fall of Man Insomuch that Plato alledgeth our Authors vnder these words As the authors of old tyme report or as it is reported in the auncient Oracles And Numenius hauing espyed that Plato could not get that skill frō elswhere than out of Moyses termeth him Moyses speaking in the language of Athens that is to say translated into Greeke The Histories of Greece begin about the tyme of Cyrus But sayth Aristobulus the lawe of Moyses and the departing of the Israelites out of AEgipt were translated into Greeke afore the reigne of Alexander yea or of the Persians themselues Which is as much to say as that the Greekes euen from their first vpspring or at leastwise from the first tyme that they began to knowe themselues heard speaking of our Scriptures and were desirous to haue them And Hecataeus the Abderite who attended vppon Alexander in his Conquests made a booke purposely of the Iewes which thing he did not of any of all the florishing Nations which he had seene in his voyage Also Herennius Philo hauing read the sayd Philosopher sawe him so wonderfull in the things that he had learned of the Iewes that he beléeued him to haue bene become a Iew and to haue bene conuerted to their lawe Anon after when the tyme of the calling of the Gentiles approched that it behoued the Prophesies to bee made knowne to the whole world to rid away all suspition of contryuing them vppon the euents God did put into the heart of Ptolomie Philadelph King of AEgipt to make a Librarie in the which by the counsell of Demetrius Phalareus a Disciple of Theophrastus it was his will to haue the Byble of the Hebrewes and therefore at his great charges caused it to be translated into Greeke The Historie of this translating is set out by one Aristaeas a Chamberlaine of King Ptolomies who with another named Andrew was sent to Eleazar the Highpriest of the Iewes to fetch the Byble and sixe men of euery Trybe that were learned in both the Languages to translate it And he sayth that Demetrius Phalareus made report vnto the king that these Scriptures were the onely writings that were diuine in déede and that therevpon the King asked him in his presence how it happened that he had not those bookes sooner seeing hee spared not for any cost and that Iewrie was so nere hand Wherevnto Demetrius answered that they were written in a peculiar language and therefore that it behoued him to write to the Highpriest to haue Interpreters according to which aduice the King sent Ambassadours with letters and presents to Eleazar of which Ambassadours he himselfe was one And that by the consent of all the people the threescore and twelue Interpreters were sent into into AEgipt Yea and in this Historie which is extant still at this day ye may see the Copies of the letters that were written from Demetrius to Ptolomie from Ptolomie to Eleazar and from Eleazar to Ptolomie And the said Aristaeas addeth that when the Byble was once translated perused in the presence of the chiefe Péeres of his Realme the King caused a solemne curse to be proclaymed with loude voyce against all such as should ad any thing to it take aught from it or alter aught in it And afterward sayth hee when the King vppon further reading therof did maruel that of so many things and so worthie
of remembrance there was no mention made by the History-writers and Poets of Greece Demetrius Phalareus answered him that it was a diuine lawe giuen of God which ought not to be touched but with cleane hands as Hecataeus himself writeth affirming moreouer that Theopompus a Disciple of Aristotles had done him to vnderstand that whereas some had gone about to disguise the Scriptures of the Iewes with Gréeke eloquence they were striken with amazednesse for their labour and vppon prayer made vnto God were warned in a Dreame that they should forbeare to vnhallow or defile those heauenly matters with the glosse of their owne inuentions Yea and that Theodotus a Tragicall Poet had told him that because he intended to haue intermingled some matters of the Scriptures with his Tragedies that is to wéet by drawing grounds of his Poetries out of the Byble as other Poets had done with the warres of Thebes and Troy he had suddeinly forgone his sight which was afterward restored agayne vnto him vppon continuall prayer and long repentaunce And this befell iust in the same tyme that the Greekes and Romaines did but begin to deale with Philosophie Also Numenius the Pythagorist whom many preferre before Plato made so great account of the Scriptures that his booke of Welfare of Number and of Place and his booke intytled The Lapwing were full of texts alledged out of Moyses and the Prophets with great reuerence And he is the same Philosopher whom Plotin had in such estimation that he voutsafed to write a Cōmentarie vpon him But I would that the Greekes should but shew me the like record of their owne writings and of their owne lawes not in our bookes but euen in their owne bookes and I beléeue that no indifferent person would refuse that offer Here followeth another obiection Namely that the Scriptures haue a simple bare and grosse style but if they were of God they would speake farre otherwise I demaund of them whither mens styles ought not to be according to the persones that speake and whither the grace of eloquence cōsist not in obseruing séemelynesse as namely whither the eloquence of a Subiect ought not to differ from the eloquence of a King the eloquence of a child from the eloquence of a father and the eloquence of an Aduocate from the eloquence of a Iudge or whether by the Rules of Rhetorick that which is eloquence in the one shall not bee foolishnes in the other Therefore if the Lawyer or Aduocate will pleade eloquently he must moue affections to the intent he may moue other men hee must first mooue himselfe The Iudge must vtter his wordes grauely and he must also be vnflexible and vnintreatable without moouing and without affection The King must simply and absolutely commaund for hee is both the voyce of the Lawe and the rule of the Iudge But if either the King come to perswade or the Iudge to debate cases then must the one put on the state of an Aduocate and the other the state of a subiect and lay aside the state of a King and Iudge What then I pray you shal become of the law of God the King of kings who is infinitely further aboue the greatest Monarkes than the greatest Monarkes are aboue their meanest Subiects and who excéedeth alyke both the Iudges and the parties that are to be iudged We would haue him to vse Inductions as Plato doth or Syllogismes as Aristotle doth or pretie sleightes as Carneades doth or outcryes as Cicero doth or fyne conceites as Seneca doth We would haue him to vtter his words by weight that they might fall in iust measure and sound and to interlace some farre sought words some allegoricall matters and some strange deuises wherwith comon vse is vnacquainted If we should sée a Kings Proclamations set foorth in such a style which of vs would not by and by note it as smelling to much of the Inkhorne and which of our Eares woulde not rather glowe at it than lyke of it Surely then the simpler that Gods Lawe is the better doth it beséeme the Euerlasting considering that the simpler it is the more it resembleth the voyce of him that can doe all things yea and which more is the simpler it is the better doth it fitte all people For the Lawe that is ordeined for all men without exception ought to be as an ordinarie foode or rather as a common kynd of bread applyed to the taste and relishe of all men But what will you say if the Scriptures haue in their lowlynes more statelynes in their simplicitie more profoundnes in their homelines more allurance and in their grossenesse more lyuely force sharpnes than are to bee found any where els Wee reade in the first chapter of Genesis God created heauen and earth God spake and the waters were seuered from the earth Hee commaunded and the earth brought foorth herbes There is not so very an idyot or so simple a man but he can vnderstand these things I meane so farre as is requisite to his Saluation yea and consent at the very hearing of them that the things must néedes bee as it is sayd there But if a man will wade déeper into the matter as how God hath in all eternitie chosen as ye would say one instāt whereat to begin this worke without stuffe or matter to woorke vppon and how he made it by his onely bare word they be such bottomlesse déepes as will make euen the stoutest afrayed and enforce the wysest to stoupe to the skill of the lowly and little ones so excellent is the simplicitie of the Scripture both to instruct the lowly and to confound the prowd both at once In our Bible we haue Histories and in Histories what desire wee A trueth for that is the very substance of them Now what greater proofe of trueth can there be than simplicitie A style or maner of indyting that setteth downe things past before our eyes as if they were presently in doing What greater token would we haue thereof than in our reading to féele the very same affections which those felt of whom we reade Let the hardest hearted men and the most vntoward in the world go reade the Histories of our Byble as how Isaac was led to be sacrifized how Ioseph became knowen agein to his brethren how Iephthe was vexed with the méeting of his daughter or how Dauid was gréeued at the death of Absalon and if they will say the trueth they shal féele a certeine shuddering in their bodyes a certeine yirning in their heartes and a certeine tender affection all at one instant farre greater than if all the Oracles of Rome or Athens should preach the same matters whole daies togither Let them reade the same stories ageine in Iosephus to whom the Emperour Titus caused an Image to be set vp for the elegancie of his historie and they shal find that after his inriching of them with all the ornaments of Rhetoricke he shal leaue them more
of God vpon mankynd Let vs see how the auncient writers do further these reasons The common opinion is say Abydenus and Alexander that men being bred of the earth and trusting in their own strength would needes in despight of the Gods goe reare a Tower vp to the Sunne in the same place where Babylon now is and that when they had raised it very high the Gods ouerthrewe it and cast it downe vpon their heads with a great wind and that at that tyme began the diuersitie of Languages wherevpon the Hebrewes called that place Babel Of these things speaketh Sibill also in her verses in the selfesame termes And Hestiaeus and Eupolemus doe ad that the Priests which scaped from thence gate themselues with the misteries of their Iupiter the same was eyther Nembrod or Iupiter Bele into the Plaine of Sennaar from the which place men departing by reason of the confusion of tongues began to seuer themselues abroade to people the rest of the world Here it pleaseth Iulian to fall to scoffing For sayth hee a great sort of such globes as the whole earth is being heaped one vpon an other were not able to reach halfe way to the Sphere of the Moone But the reason of this enterprise of theirs is euident namely that their intent was to haue had a refuge ageinst the height of the waters if any flud should come ageine that is to say to make a banke ageinst Gods wrath which it had bene better for them to haue pacified by prayer And this pryde of theirs is not to be thought so straunge a matter considering how wee reade in the Histories of the Greekes that one Xerxes sent letters of defyance to the Sea and in the Histories of the Romaines that one Caligula vndertooke a quarrell against Iupiter And Iulian himselfe was not a whit wiser when he would néedes take vpon him to impeach the kingdom of God by prohibiting the Christians to reade Poets And whereas Celsus will néedes beare himselfe on hand that the sayd Historie was taken out of the fable of the Aloides all men know that Homer was the first Author of that fable who came a long tyme after Moyses And in good sooth these particularities of the confounding of Tongues of the dispersing of men abroade of the place where it befell of the naming of Phaleg who was borne at the very tyme of the diuision and such other circumstances doe euidently shewe that Moyses speaketh not at rouers whereof there is also this further profe that the Originals of Nations according to the diuiding of households at that tyme are not read of in any other Author As vayne also is this saying of theirs that the burning vp of Sodom is taken from the tale of Phaeton which is in déede as farre from it as Heauen is from the earth For euen at this day there are yet still to bee séene the remaynders of Gods wrath noted by Strabo Galen Mela and others namely the bitter Lake wherein nothing can liue the banks thereof lyued with Bitumen the Stones stiuking and filthie the trées bearing fruites fayre to the eye but falling to Cinder and smoke in the hand which things we reade not of to haue bin séene any where els and yet in a valley most beautifull to behold where stoode at that tyme fiue Cities or according to Strabo thirteene which were all consumed with fire for sinne ageinst nature And Iosephus sayeth that the Image or piller of salt whereinto Loths wyfe was turned was to be séene there euen in his dayes These are the greatest woonders of the booke of Genesis The residew thereof consisteth in the historie of Abraham and of his Children As for the Princes of those dayes we haue nother Pedegrée nor historie of them among the Heathen wryters and therefore it is the more to be woondered at that they haue spoken of our Shepherds For Berosus sayeth that about a ten generations or descents from the vniuersall Flud there was amōg the Chaldees a great man that excelled in Astronomie And that by him Berosus ment to betoken Abraham Eupolemon declareth for he sayth that in the sayd tenth generation Abraham was brone in Camerine a Towne of Babylonie otherwise called Vr or Caldeople who inuēted Astronomie among the Chaldees and was in the fauour of God by whose commaundement hee remoued into Phenice where hee taught the course of the Moone of the Sunne and of the Planets whereby hee greatly pleased the King notwithstanding that he saith hee had receiued it from hand to hand from Enoch whome the Greekes sayeth hee called Atlas vnto whome the Angelles had taught many thinges Also he rehearseth the Battell that was made by Abraham for the recouery of Loth the interteinment of Melchisedek the ouerthwarts that Abraham indured for Sara his wife in AEgipt and the Plague thot God did cast vpon Pharao to make him to deliuer her to Abraham agein And Artabanus in his storie of the Iewes reporteth almost the selfesame things adding that of Abraham the Iewes were called Hebrewes wherin the néerenesse of the names deceiued him Melon in his bookes ageinst the Iewes wrate that Abraham had two wiues and that by the one of them which was an AEgiptian he had twelue children among whom Araby was parted which euen in his tyme had twelue Kings still Those were the twelue Sonnes of Ismaell the Sonne of Abraham by Agar the AEgiptian which are set downe by name in Genesis And that by the other which was a woman of the Countrie of Syria he had but onely one Sonne named Isaac who lykewise had twelue Sonnes of whom the yongest was called Ioseph of whom Moyses sayth he descended Also Alexander setteth foorth Abrahams sacrifice at length and the children that he had by Chetura And in his historie he alledgeth one Cleodemus a Prophet otherwise called Malchas whom he affirmeth to agrée with Moyses in the Historie of the Iewes Ageine Hecataeus the Abderite hauing bene in Iewry did purposely make a booke of Abrahams lyfe which thing he had not of his owne maister King Alexander To bee short that which Orpheus sayeth of a certeine Chaldee vnto whom onely God manifested himselfe seemeth to be spoken of Abraham For he had bin conuersant in AEgipt where the renowme of Abraham was so greate that euen in their Coniurings they made expresse mention of the God whom Abraham had worshipped The same Alexander writeth the fleeing of Iacob for feare of his brother Esawe his abode in Mesopotamia His seuen yeeres seruice his marying with two Sisters the nomber of his Children the rauishing of Dina the slaughter of Sichem and likewise the selling of Ioseph his imprisonment his deliuerance for expounding of Dreames His authoritie in AEgipt His marying with Askeneth the daughter of Pethefer the Highpriest His two Sonnes by name which were borne of her the comming of his brothers into AEgipt the Feast that he made them the fiue partes which he gaue
the Scripture intending to succour our infirmitie the elder the world waxeth speaketh euer the more manifestly thereof vnto vs and surely after such a sort that the skilfullest among the Iewes of late tyme become most vnskilfull when they goe about to darken it First of all at the making of the promise in Genesis it is sayd that this seede that is to say this Christ shall crush the Serpents head and this Serpent as I haue said afore is the Deuill and his venome is sinne and by meanes of sinne we be all become thralles to the Deuill against whose power we know that no force of man can doe any thing It followeth then that this Christ must haue another nature than mans yea or than Angels For the Angels and the Deuils differ not in power that is to wit diuine Afterward where the promise is repeated to Abraham of what man can it be verifyed In thy seede shall all Nations be blessed Or who can blesse so effectually but only God who commaundeth his blessing sayth he diuers tymes and then doth it shead it selfe out vpon vs and our workes But as the Prophetes doe preach the Messias vnto vs so also doe they describe vs his natures and qualities so as we neede not any other Commentarie vpon that promise than the Prophets themselues Unto Dauid therfore it was renewed and in his issew was it to be accomplished See here how he speaketh of it in the 45. Psalme My heart sayth he intendeth to vtter good matter and my worke shal be to speake of the King that is to wit of the Messias and so doth the Chaldee Paraphrast himselfe interpret it Thou art more perfect than the Children of men This might be ment of a man but let vs reade further O God sayth he thy Throne is from euerlasting to euerlasting the Scepter of thy Kingdome is the Scepter of Rightuousnesse Thou louest rightuousnesse and hatest wickednesse And therefore God thy God hath annoynted thee with the oyle of gladnesse aboue thy fellowes These so expresse words cannot bee spoken specially among the Hebrewes who were not so lauish of Gods name as other people are but of one that is very God and very man both together In the hundred and tenth Psalme The Lord sayd vnto my Lord sayth Dauid sit thou at my right hand vntill I haue made thyne enemies thy footstoole And a little after Thou art a Priest for euer after the order of Melchisedeck To sit at Gods right hand and to be a Priest for euer cannot be attributed to a man Nay which more is Dauid who knewe well that there is but one Lord calleth him his Lord. And wee reade that with this selfesame text Christ stopped the mouthes of the Pharisies Now that the fathers of olde tyme vnderstood these things to be spoken of the Messias it appeareth by the translation of Ionathas cited in the booke of Collections for he translateth it The Lord sayd vnto his word and it is alledged to proue that the Messias should sit on the right hand of God Insomuch that the Iewes Commentarie vpon the second Psalm sayth expressely that the Misteries of the Messias are rehearsed in the hundred and tenth Psalme And Esay in his nineth Chapter sayth thus A Babe is borne vnto vs and a Sonne is giuen vnto vs and his kingdome shal be vpon his shoulder Ye see here the birth of a man But he sayth further His name shal be called the wonderfull the Counseller the mightie God the euerlasting Father the Prince of Peace Néedes then must this selfsame man be also God And whereas he is sayd to bee the Prince of Peace Ionathas trāslateth it the Christ or the anoynted of Peace And Rabbi Ioses the Galilaean sayth vpon the Lamentations that the Messias shal be called the father of euerlastingnesse the Prince of peace and so forth and for confirmation thereof he alledgeth this text and so doth also the Commentarie vppon Genesis And the holy Rabbi as they terme him sayth expressely that the Messias in that he should bee both God and Man should bee called Emanuell In that he was God the wonderfull and the Counseller In that he was mightie Gheuer that is to say Strong In that he was Euerlasting the Father of euerlastingnesse In respect that peace should be increased vnder him The Prince of peace In that he should deliuer mens Soules from Hell The deliuerer out of bondage and in that he should saue men Iesus that is to say The Sauiour For whereas Rabbi Selomon to conueye these titles to Ezechias interpreteth them after this maner And God the wonderfull the Counseller the euerlasting father hath called Ezechias the Prince of peace c. Besides that the Hebrewe Grammer and the phrase of that tongue are repugnant to that Construction it is well enough seene that such things cannot be verified of King Ezechias and that it is but a deuice of this late borne Iew against the opinion of al antiquitie to escape from this text which is so expresse Esay in his seuenth Chapter sayth thus Behold a Virgin shall bee with child and bring forth a Sonne Here ye see that Christ shall bee a man And thou shalt call his name Emanuell that is to say God with vs. Then shall he bee both God and Man that is to wit God dwelling among men as a man But vnto this and such like texts they answer vs that the El that is to say GOD is imparted to Princes and Iudges And therefore let vs heare further In that day sayth Esay the Lord of Hostes Iehouah tsebhoath shal be in sted of a crowne of glory and of a Diademe of honor to the residue of his people The Chaldee Paraphrast interpreteth this concerning the Messias And againe In that day shall the people that were harryed away and rent a peeces be brought for a present to the Lord of Hosts The Commentarie vpon Genesis vnderstandeth this also to be spoken of the same person This is another I will wayt for the Lord who hath hidden his face from the house of Iacob and I will attend vpon him The Disciples of Rabbi Hija applye this in the Talmud to the Messias And yet in all these places wheresoeuer is the word Lord the Hebrewe hath the word Iehouah that is to say the Bëeer or he that is which is the vnspeakable or vnutterable name of the Creator and in opinion of the Hebrewes is not to be imparted to any Creature Wherevpon it enseweth that the Messias to whom it is imparted should be the very euerlasting God and that the auncient writers who attributed those sayings to him looked that he should bee such a one In the thrée and twentie and in the thrée and thirtie of Ieremie wee reade thus Behold the daies shall come that vnto Dauid I will raise vp a rightuous braunch and he shall reigne as King These words belong to
Christes Manhood But by and by after he sayth And in his daies Iuda shall bee saued and behold the name whereby he shal be called shal be Iehouah the Euerlasting our Rightuousnesse Heere againe is the foresayd vncommunicable name of God which the Iewes doe so greatly reuerence Yet notwithstanding the thréescore and ten Interpreters who were all Iewes vnderstood it so And Ionathas interpreteth it of Christ in both respects As touching the latter Rabbines who will needes correct the text and in stead of ijkreo doe set downe ijkra to the intent that the sence might be He that calleth him shall bee the Euerlasting I report me to all their owne Grammarians whether it be not both a corrupting and a racking of the text And truely in the thrée and thirtie Chapter the Prophet sayth the same thing in diuers words wherevnto this forgerie cannot be applyed That is the cause why Rabbi Abba vppon the Lamentations of Ieremie demaundeth what shal be the name of the Messias and afterward answereth Iehouah schemo the Euerlasting is his name And to that purpose alledgeth he the selfesame texts of Ieremies And the Commentarie vpon the Psalmes sayth Seeing that none of the Subiects of a King of flesh and blud that is to say of a temporall King is called by his name that is to say King How happeneth it that God imparteth his owne name to the Messias and what name is that Soothly Iehouah is his name according to this saying The man of warre Iehouah that is to say the Euerlasting is his name And Rabbi Moyses Hadarsan expounding this saying of Sophonie to call vppon the name of the Euerlasting saith thus Here Iehouah is nothing els but the King the Messias or the anoynted King And the same thing is repeated in the selfesame words in the Thalmud And wheras some to disappoynt vs of the consequence of these texts doe say that in Ezechiel Hierusalem is called by that name where it is sayd thus Iehouah schammah that is to say the Euerlasting is there that is to say the Euerlasting hath chosen his dwelling place in Hierusalem They by chaunging the Hebrew vowels doe make him to say Iehouah schemo that is to say the Euerlasting is his name But besides the consent of all Copies repugning to this vnshamefastnesse Ionathas can assoyle the case who translateth it expresly God hath placed his Godhead there Now besides the sayd texts which shewe that the Iewes of old tyme wayted for a Messias that should be both God and Man we haue also great tokens thereof in those fewe writings of theirs which remayne dispersed here there notwithstanding that the Iewes hide theÌ„ from vs or els corrupt them as much as they can The Commentarie vppon the Psalmes sayth Because the Gentyles ceasse not to aske of vs where is our God the time shal come that God wil sit among the Righteous so as they shal be able to point him out with their fingar And whereas it is so often sayd I will walke among you it is all one say they as if a King should go walke in his Gardyne with his Gardiner his Gardiner should alwaies shrink behind him and the King should say shrinke not backe for â—o I am lyke thee euen so will GOD walke among vs in his Gardyne of pleasure in tyme to come And therefore another sayth that the Euerlasting shall one day bee as a brother of Iacob that is to say in the tyme of the Messias according to this saying of the Ballet I would fayne that thou wast to me as a brother And the Commentarie vppon the Ballet sayth in another place That God himself who is the Husband of the Church should come in his owne persone to marrie her Uppon the xxv of Leuiticus where mention is made of one brother that redéemeth out another in the yéere of Iubilee many make an Allegorie that that brother is Christ. And the Commentarie affirming the same sayth that Israell shal be redeemed of God who shall come in his owne beeing and that Israell shall no more bee brought in bondage And vppon Genesis Rabbi Moyses Hadarsan alledging this saying of the Psalme I will shew him the Saluation of God sayth thus This is one of the Texts of Scripture of greatest weight that the Saluation of Israel is the Saluation of God For God wil be the pryce and payment of Israels Raunsom lyke as if man hauing but a little Corne of the second Croppe should redeeme the same Hereof came this Tradition that God left some portion vnperfect on the Northside to the intent that if any reported himselfe to be God hee should fill vp that want and that thereby his Godhead should be knowen And all men knowe that ordinarily by the North they ment the Euill which should be remedied by the Messias But the Cabilists were farre more spirituall in this behalfe than the Thalmudists And first of all Rabbi Simeon ben Iohai in his Commentaries vpon Genesis in the language of Hierusalem saith that the feare or mercie of the Lord should take a body in the Wombe of a Woman and be Crowned King the auncient of dayes for euer And that it was decreed that a holy body and a woman should be incorporated togither and for proof whereof he alledgeth an auncient booke whereof he tooke it the same should bée accomplished in the third age that is to say in the third Period of the Church and that then the higher world should by the said holy body be vnited to the inferiour world so as God should bee sanctified beneath as well as aboue and the holy Ghost should come as out of a sheathe that is to say should be shewed foorth openly and that all this is but one namely the Euerlasting himself And to be short that the Woman of whom the holy word should take his body and out of whom the sayd faythfull was to come should be holy and blessed aboue all other women Now it appeareth that hereby he ment the Incarnation of the Messias For in the Talmud the Schoole of Rabbi Hamina being demaunded the name of the Messias answered Hamina that is to say Mercy is his name And in the Prophetes they betoken the Messias by the name of mercie Another Cabilist sayth That sinne shal be brought to ende by the Messias who shal be the power of God euen by the spirit of wisedome wherewith he shal be filled And another sayth that the misterie of Messias the King is that his operation coÌ„sisteth wholly in he vau and iod he which is the misterie of the seuenth day that is to say in calmenesse of mynd without force and that his name whole together shal be composed of these letters to wit Iehouah the Euerlasting But the holy Rabbi vpon the 9. Chapter of Esay where Christ is called the euerlasting father playeth the Philosopher yet further
disobedience for the Sealing vp of sinne and for the cleansing away of iniquitie and the bringing of rightuousnes for euer As how For vnto the anoynted Prince saith he shal be seauen weekes and threescore two weekes after which tyme the Anoynted shal be slayne and nothing shal be left vnto him and the Prince of a People to come shall destroy the Citie c. Here ye see how Christ must dye namely for sinne according to this saying of Esay He hath giuen his lyfe for sinne And as I haue shewed already Iesus was put to death euen the very same tyme. As touching the Circumstances of his death They perced my feete and my hands sayth Dauid and parted my garments among them and cast lots for my coate We reade not that Dauid was serued so but rather Iesus who was crucified howbeit that that king of punishment was not vsed among the Iewes but among the Romaines and lottes were cast for his Coate and the Euangelistes alledged this Text to the same purpose as who would say it was so vnderstood in their tyme. And whereas in stead of Caru that is to say they pearced the Iewes will néedes reade Caari that is to say As a Lyon their Massâ—reths who haue made a Register of all the Letters of the Scriptures doe witnesse that in all good Copies it is written Caru they pearced Also the therescore and twelue Interpreters haue translated into Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. they pearced my handes c. And the old Chaldee translater hath ioyned both those readings in one thus They haue pearced and thruft throgh my feete and my hands as a Lyon They that vnderstand the Traditions of the Indians Etihopians doo witnesse the like accordingly also as the Iewes themselues do know by their owne readings and are warned by their Mazaroths that that sence is vnperfect For as for the Chaldee Paraphrase of R. Ioseph the blind because he was about a three hundred and fortie yeres after Iesus we admit him not for a Iudge and besides that he is dubble blinded with a blind moode which he bewrayeth euerywhere against vs. Also the Prophet Zacharie sayth I will powre out the spirit of grace and mercy vpon the house of Dauid vpon the Inhabiters of Hierusalem and they shall looke vnto me whome they perced He that powreth out this spirit is God Hee that is perced is man and both the one and the other togither is Christ God and Man And they themselues expound this text in the same sence concerning the Messias that our Euangelists alledge it of Iesus that was striken into the side with a Speare which surely had bene a fondnesse in them considering how feawe texts they alledge if they had not bene commonly vnderstoode to concerne the Messias And it is all one with this which some of the Rabbines do say in the Talmud namely That Christ should be distressed as a woman that laboureth of Child according as Ieremy sayth that hee had great anguishes to suffer but that he should indure them willingly too deliuer men from sinne And Rabbi Hadarsan saith that Satan should be an aduerfarie to him and his Disciples and therefore he applyeth vnto him a part of the thirde chapter of the lamentations of Ieremie Also in the booke of Ruth where it is written Eate thy bread and temper it with vineger This bread sayth the Commentarie is the bread of the Anointed King or Messias who shal be broken for mens sinnes and indure great torments as it is written in Esay And the Saint Rabbi saith that Christ should deliuer mens Soules from hell by his death Howbeit yet further whereas it is sayd in Esay we bee healed by his death the auncient Cabalistes vnderstand it of Christ and say that the Angels who were the teachers of our forefathers as Raziel of Adam Metatron of Moyses so forth had taught them that the cleansing away of sinne should be doone vpon wood And Rabbi Simeon Ben Iohai the first among them writeth thus Wo woorth the Murtherers of Israell for they shall kill Christ. God will send his sonne clothed in mans flesh to wash them and they will kill him Also Rabbi Iuda sayth That after a long breathing tyme God will deliuer his name of twelue letters to Ieremie in writing after this maner Iehouah â—lohim emeth that is to say The euerlasting God is trueth and that hee will wype out the first Letter of the last worde so as there shall remayne Iehouah elohim meth that is to say The euerlasting God is dead And peraduenture it is therevpon that Rabbi Iosua the sonne of Leuy sayde That Israell was not heard in the world for want of knowing this name that is to say for want of praying vnto God by the Mediator Christ who died for vs. To be short Philo the Iewe a very renowmed Author handling this question namely when the banished Israelites and Iewes should returne home saith it should be at the death of a Highpriest Howbeit finding himselfe graueled at this that some liue longer than othersome Surely I beleeue sayth he that this Highpriest shall not be a Man but the Word the which hee prayseth in infinite places exempt from al sinne both willing and vnwilling who to his father hath God and to his moother the wisedom that is without beginning and without end Whereby it appéereth that he had heard of Christ a Highpréest whom it behoued to be God the Sonne of God that he might sanctifie and likewise man that he might dye As touching the startinghole which the newe Rabbines séeke in that contrarie to the whole course both of their owne auncient writers and of the Scripture in sted of one Christ God and Man they make two Christes the one the Sonne of Dauid the other the Sonne of Ioseph saying that this latter to whome they apply all the foresayd Texts shal be slayne in battell and afterward raysed againe by the Prayers of other Surely let vs tell them as R. Moyses doth That none other than only the sonne of Dauid shall come with authoritie of Christ howbeit that there are two commings of Christ the one in lowlynes as Zacharie sayth Poore Lowely and Sauiourlyke and the other in maiestie out of the Clowdes of the ayre as is described in Daniel the one to Redéeme the other to iudge as they theÌ„selues say vpon these words of Ecclesiastes What it is that hath bene The same that shal be wherevpon they inferre The last Redeemer is reuealed and he that is hidden shall come yet once againe To be short here yée sée how in the end the stumbling blocke is turned into glorie For as Christ dyed innocently so shall he also ryse agayne and reygne for euer Yea he shall ryse againe for it is written in the Psalme Thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption which saying
and it was as easie for a Christian to driue Apollo out of his Priest or Pythonesse as to driue a Deuill out of one that was possessed And Iulian himselfe as Zosimus dareth not denye found by proofe in his Magical works how weake his Gods were and how strong Christ is Moreouer some curious Princes haue by their Magicians caused Iupiter Neptune Vulcane Mercurie Apollo and Saturne himself that is to say the Deuilles that decked themselues with their names to appeare which thing they could neuer cause Christ to do with all the Coniurations that they had and that is because all those Gods of theirs were Deuilles ouer whom good men haue power by commaunding them in the name of GOD and euill men by pleasing them But as for Iesus Christ the very sonne of God he stoopeth not to any creature but is serued by Angelles and good men as by his Seruants and by Deuils and wicked men as by his Slaues Also at the same tyme that Iesus came there was scarsly any Countrie in the world where these Deuilles had not men offered ordinarily vnto them in Sacrifice as we vnderstand by Porphyrius himselfe and as I haue declared heretofore But in the reigne of Tyberius they were forbidden in Affricke and the Priests that Sacrificed them were hanged vp in their hallowed Groues And vnder the Emperour Adrian all Sacrifices and all Idolles were abolished almost euerywhere And therfore sayth S. Austin to the people of Medaure See how your Temples are partly decayed for want of reparation and partly shut vp and partly altered to another vse To worship your Idols you haue put the Christians to death the Christians by their dying haue cast your Idols downe to the ground And in another place he cryeth out where be your Gods where be your Prophets where be your Oracles your Bowelgazings and your Sacrifices And we reade not of any that reprooued him of vntrueth notwithstanding that many and among them one Zosimus bewayleth the decay of them and yet doth not any of them step foorth for him to shewe any remaynder of them And whereas Iulian sayth As our Oracles are ceassed so also be your Prophets Let him first shewe vpon what cause his Oracles are ceassed which many haue sought and none yet found As for ours they had an eye to Christ and amed at him as their marke and now that he is come the office of the messenger ceasseth in the presence of the maister and the representing of saluation by Sacrifices ceasseth because the Saluation it selfe is come Iesus therefore hath ouercome both the world and the Prince of the world by a force in outward showe cleane contrarie to all victorie and by a way contrarie to the end that he intended that is to wit by his word which to the sight of the world is folly féeblenesse Let vs see now how in his workes he passeth all the abilitie of al Creatures according to this saying of his The works which I doe doe beare witnesse of me And soothly it is a myracle that so many people haue beléeued at the preaching of the Apostles but a farre more wonder that so fewe folke in these our daies should regard it though Iesus Christ and his Apostles had neuer wrought other myracle than that as I haue often sayd afore But that they wrought very great myracles besides I see fewe of the Heathen that dare denye it and against the Iewes I haue sufficiently proued it alreadie Wee haue a Letter of Pylats wherein he witnesseth that Iesus gaue sight to the blynd cleansed Leapers healed them that were diseased with the Palsey deliuered men from Deuilles ouerruled the waters raysed the dead and rose againe himselfe after he had bene dead thrée daies Also our Diuines of olde tyme say vnto the Heathen Reade your owne Commentaries and search your Registers you shal finde there the myracles of Iesus And the Emperour Iulian speaking of him in skorne sayth thus What hath this Iesus done worthie of memorie or of any account in all his life sauing that he cured a fewe blynd and lame men and deliuered some from Deuils that possessed them in the Villages of Bethsaida and Bethania To be short as well the Turkes as the Iewes confesse and commend his myracles and the Emperours would neuer haue estéemed of him if it had not bin for his myracles Apollo himself in his Oracles called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say The wise in wonderfull workes But let vs take Iulian at his word and his confession will bee enough Put the case that he had done no more but cured the blynd and that he had cured no moe than one Who is so blynd that in this healing of the blynd seeth not this singuler power of God Is not the eyesight one of the excellentest substances in the world And what is the restoring of sight but the restoring of a substance and what is the restoring thereof but a newe creating therof euen of nothing And what can make a substance how small soeuer it bee of nothing but an infinite power The which who can haue but the only one God or who can be the instrument or disposer thereof but only he that pleaseth God To be briefe is he not without the bounds of nature which can create a substance And whence hath he then that power but from the maker of nature at leastwise if he be not the maker himself But our Lord Iesus wrought infinite myracles as the Iewes that sawe them haue witnessed and doe witnesse still and not only he but also his Apostles and not onely his Apostles but also their Disciples And in deede they haue contriued certeyne bookes vnder the name of Iesus as dedicated by him to Peter and Paule conteyning an Arte of working Myracles by likelihood because they had seene them painted together howbeit that Paule as is well knowen kept not cōpanie with Christ while hee liued in the flesh but persecuted his Disciples a good while after And S. Paule sayth expresly that he himselfe came in signes and myracles wherein if he lyed it was an easie matter to disproue him Againe Christ wrought some such myracles as Iulian being vnable to denye falleth to rayling and reuyling him calling him the greatest Magician that euer was in the world And of Saint Peter they report that by his Magick he made the Christian Religion durable for the space of thréehundred thréescore and fiue yeres and that he did it without the priuitie and consent of Iesus Whence rise these great slaunders but of the greatnesse of the workes of Christ and his Disciples And if they had not done both great and manifest myracles had not the shortest way bene to haue denyed them But let vs consider of what spirit these contrarieties procéede Iesus say they did dedicate a booke to Peter and Paule and Paule was a persecuter at that time and long time after Likewise Peter say they stablished
think that my speaking hereof is bycause I haue not matter where with to aduantage myself in their Astrologie For I could alledge here how they say that Iesus in his natiuitie had for his ascendent the signe of Virgo in hir first face as they terme it in which place of the Heauen Albumazar the Arabian sayeth that the Indians and Egiptians haue marked a virgin bearing two eares of Corne in hir hand and a Child sucking on her breast whom a certeine Nation sayth he call Iesus and that the Starre which the Greekes and Latines in their languages cal an Eare of Corne is called by the Arabians The signe of the foode that susteyneth as if ye would say The substantiall bread or foode And that vpon the Starre which the wise men sawe in the East in the tyme of the Emperour Augustus the Astrologers deliuer matter enough But in these earnest matters I am loth to alledge any thing which is not substantiall or which I take not to be so After Astrologie Magik biddeth vs battell I sayd that Iesus in his miracles surmounted the abilitie of all Creatures Hereuppon they set ageinst vs Simon the Sorcerer Apollonius of Thyanie Apuleus of Medaure and such others And soothly all these doo yeld vs so much the greater record of the miracles of Iesus in that for to diminish the estimation of them they haue had recourse to false miracles and giuen credit to such as were woorkers of them Simon therfore reported himself to be a GOD to haue giuen the Lawe to Moyses vpon Mount Sinay to haue appeared afterwärd in the persone of Christ and finally too haue shed out the gifts of toongues vpon the Apostles in the persone of the holy Ghost wherein he confesseth aforehand the myghtynesse of Christes name and that he would haue men beléeue that he was Christ and beautifie himself with his woorks To this end doth he apply the grounds of Magicke whereby he maketh the people to woonder at him Now Iesus had bin crucified but vnto this man the Romanes did set vp a standing Image vppon the Bridge of Tybris with this tytle To Simon the holy God The Disciples of Iesus suffered and taught men to suffer and were extreamely persecuted of all Iudges Contrariwise he and his folowers were much made of among the greatest personages But he did yet more for he taught his Disciples that Idolatrie is an indifferent thing and that men should not néede to suffer for his Doctrine and what could be more delyghtfull and more entycing than this géere Yet notwithstanding in the end both he and his Lady Selene were quyte shaken of at all mens hands and all the cunning he had could not make him to take footing ageine in the world neither hath the rememberance of him had any continewance here but to the glorie of the Lord Iesus and to his owne shame And what els doth this giue vs to vnderstand but that it is in vaine for Princes to cherish a wicked wâ—ede when Heauen is bent ageinst it and that they labour in vayne to plucke vp the good herb which God intendeth to prosper They make greate braggs of one Apollonius of Thyanie How feawe at leastwise among our learned men haue not heard of him This man did call vp the Ghost of Achilles that is to say a diuell What a nomber of Sorcerers can do as much as that He asketh him whether he had not a Tombe Whether Polixena were killed for his sake or no Whether the things which the Poets report of him be true What good hap should come vnto the world and what good fortune was to befall to the Necromancer himself He tooke a Lucksigne at the sight of a Lyonesse and what a Superstition was that He wore Rings made by the constellations of Planets and what a vanitie was that When a Plague was begun he gaue warning of it and when it grewe strong he floonke away He fetched a yoong wench to life againe but yet his counterfet Euangelist Philostratus durst not auowe that she was starke dead What is there in all these that is eyther good or great But now come wee to the poynt Iesus dyed for the saluation of the world and Apollonius to driue a certeyne disease out of a Citie caused a straunger to be stoned to death as he passed by in the open Marketsted The Disciples of Iesus were slayne in all Cities and Apollonius had Images set vp vnto him and was worshipped in many Temples for a God The sayd Disciples did in the end ouerthrow both the Temples the Idols and his Images too Contrarywise Apollonius liued till he sawe himselfe bereft of all honor and his Images consumed into smoke neither did the fame of him ouerliue him thrée daies insomuch that euen the booke which he had written of his consultations with the Deuils in the den of Trophonius rotted and perished together with the Ceremonies of the same Caue What are the Myracles of this Apollonius but proofes of the Godhead of Iesus For seeing that hauing atteyned to the vttermost that man and nature could come vnto he vanished away so soone euen of himselfe and Iesus euen in despite of man and of the world and of nature went through and gate the vpper hand of him and of all others how could this haue come to passe if the working of Iesus had not bene by a higher power than the power of the world of man and of nature Apuleius of Madaure hath shewed sufficiently in his bookes that he knewe al the trickes of Magicke but what was he the better for them He was of an honorable house but did he euer atteine to the least degrée of dignitie Some will say perchaunce that he made no reckoning of it what shall we say then to his pleading against the men of Choa from whence neuerthelesse he had maried his wife for that they would not receiue an Image of him But the Emperour Vespasian sayst thou cured a blynd man at Alexandria and those sayth Tacitus doe beare witnesse of it which had no gayne by saying it And why then deléeuelye not the myracles of Iesus witnessed by so many men which are content to forgoe all that euer they haue yea and their liues also for saying it And had Vespasian done so who knoweth not the vaingloriousnes of the Romaines O how well would it haue matched with this Oracle applyed vnto him by his flatterers namely That the Monarke of the whole world should come out of Iewrie and also with this other That to bee saued it behoued them to haue a King And as small a miracle as it was what a couÌ„tenance would it haue caried being vphild by so many Legions soothed by so many learned flatterers mainteyned by the state of the Empyre and confirmed by so many hangers on For as for Antinous the Emperour Adrians Minion whom the Emperour endowed with Temples and Sacrifices to what purpose serued he
but to shewe that it was not in the power of the great Emperour of the world to make folk beléeue a man to be a God what payne or cost soeuer he put himselfe vnto Yea say they but to beléeue the myracles of Iesus we would see myracles still The tyme hath bene that they were seene the tyme hath bene that they were beléeued and tyme hath altered the course of them what a number of things doe we beléeue which we see not And what reason or what benefite should leade vs to the beléeuing of any other rather than of them But we should bée the more assured of them As much might the former ages haue sayd and as much may the ages say that are to come and so should it behoue myracles to bee wrought to all men and at all tymes And were it once so then should myracles bee no myracles forsomuch as in trueth they haue not that name but of the rare and seeldome sight of them The Sunne giueth light daylie to the world he maketh the day the yéere and the seasons of the yéere Trées hauing borne flowers and fruite become bare and afterward shoote out their buddes and florish agayne The Uyne turneth the moysture of the Earth into Wine the graine of Corne turneth it into eares of Corne and the Pipen or kernell of an Apple into an Appletrée And infinite men receyue shape and birth euery hower Al these are very greate miracles and God and none other is the doer of them nature teacheth it thée and thou caÌ„st not denie it But forasmuch as thou séest them euery day thou regardest them not and yet the leasf of them would make thée to wonder if it were rare To succour thyne infirmitie the Sunne forgoeth his lyght a drye sticke florisheth water is turned into wyne and the dead are raysed to lyfe and all this is too shewe vnto thée that the same power which wrought in creating things at the beginning woorketh now still wheÌ„soeuer it listeth and that if the effects liue the cause of them is not dead And if thou shouldest sée euery day some miracle in the Sunne in Plants and in man surely in lesse than a hundred yeres miracles would be chaunged into nature with thee and the helpes of thyne infirmitie would turne thee to vnbeleef and to make the world beleeue agein God should be faine to create a new world for the world An example whereof may bee the people of Israell who hauing their meate their drinke their trayning vp and their gouernement altogither of miracle did in lesse than forty yeres turne them al into nature and lyke folke accustomed continewally to phisick which turne their medicines into nourishment of their bodies they abused the stayes of their fayth by turning them into occasions of distrust and vnbeleef Now God created nature and hath giuen it a Lawe which Lawe he will haue it to followe Neuerthelesse sometymes for our infirmities sake he interrupteth it to the intent to make vs to knowe that he is Lord of nature But if he should do it at our appoyntment then should we be the Lords both of nature and of him and if he should do it in all caces we would make a rule of it and we would make bookes and calculations of it no lesse than of the Eclipses of the Sunne or of the Moone or rather than of the motions of the eyghth Sphere and we would impute all those interruptions and chaunges to the nature of nature itself Therefore it is both more conuenient for his glorie and more behooffull to our saluation that nature should still followe hir nature and that miracles should continue miracles still that is to say that they should be rare as necessarie helpes to the infirmities of our nature I meane not of one man or of one age but of all mankynd or at leastwise of al the Church togither which is but as one comonweale and one man Yet remayneth Mahomet and he séemeth to be a iolly fellowe for he made a great part of the world to beléeue in him He was an Arabian and tooke wages of the Emperour Heraclius to serue him in his warres anon after the declyning of the Empyre and in a mutinie among the Arabian Souldyers he was chosen by them to be their commaunder as we sée dyuers tymes in the bands of the Spanyards Whether he were a good man or no let the people of Mecha who woorshippe him at this day iudge which condemned him to death for his Robberies and murthers And he himself in his Alcoran confesseth himself to bee a sinner an Idolater an adulterer giuen to Lecherie and subiect to women and that in such words as I am ashamed to repeate But he hath inlarged his Empyre by his successors and layd his Lawe vppon many Nations What maruell is that For why Auendge your selues sayeth he with all your harts take as many wiues as ye be able to kéepe Spare not euen nature itself What is he though he were the rankest Uarlet in the world that myght not leuie men of that pryce considering the corruption that is in mankynd Hee reigned as a Lord say they but yet by worldly meanâ—â— yea and vtterly vnbeséeming a man If ye enquyre of his Doctryne say they it is holy conformable to the old and new TestameÌ„t and admitted of God But as good as yée make it yet may yée not examin it nor dispute of it vpon peyne of death And what man of iudgement would not haue some suspition of the persone though he were very honest which should say Behold ye be payed and in good monny but yée may not looke vpon it by daylyght If yée looke for his miracles In déede God sent Moyses and Christ with miracles but Mahomet comes with his naked swoord to make men beléeue and asfor other miracle he woorks none And therefore al his Alcoran is nothing els but kill the Infidells reuendge your selues he that kills most shall haue greatest share in paradise and he that feyghteth lasily shal be damned in hell How farre is this geare of from suffering and both from conquering and continewing by sufferance What wickednesse myght not bee stablished by that way of his Notwithstanding to allure the Iewes he exalteth Moyses and reteyneth Circumcision and to the intent he myght not estraunge the Christians he sayeth that Christ is the Spirit Woord and Power of God and that Mahomet is Christes seruant sent to serue him and Prophesied of by him afore Ageine to please the Heretiks called Nestorians he affirmeth that yet for all this Christ is not very God nor the Sonne of God but that he hath in déede the Soule of God Thus doe ignorance and violence in him incounter one another the one to choke the trueth and the other to inforce the falsehod What practyses what wyles what countersayings what inforcements what armyes what cruelties vseth he not too perswade men And yet what hath he wonne by all this
coÌ„pany with thy wyfe Man is both Soule body In Man are three Abilitieâ— of Soule The Body and the Soule be not one selfsame thing That the Soule is a substance Bodilesse Vnmateriall The Soule hath beeing of it selâ— Plutark in his treâ—yâ—e why God deferreth the punishment of the wicked Vncorruptible What is death Cleuâ— lib. 1. Three lyues iâ— Man Obiections The opinion of the Men of old tyme. The beleefe of the Patriarkes c. The wise Men of Egipt Hermes in his Poemander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hermes in his Poemander cap. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hermes in his Esculapius AEnaeas Gaz. concerning the immortalitie of the Soule Ghaâ—deans The Greekes Pherecydes Assyrium vulgo nascetur Amonium Phocylides Sybill Pindar in the second song of his Olympiads Homer in the Funeralles of his Iliads Pythagoras Heraâ—litus as he is reported by Philo. Epicharmus as he is reported by Clement of Aleâ—andria Thales Anaxagoras Diogenes and Zeâ—o Epicurus Lucretius Socrates Plato and XenophoÌ„ Plato in his Timaeus Plato in his Timaeus and in his third booke of a Comonweale Plato in his Phoedon in his matter of state in his Alâ—ibiades and in the tenth booke of his Comonweale Plato in his fifth booke of Lawes Aristotle in his second booke of liuiÌ„g things Aristotle in the third book of the Soule Aristotle in his tenth booke of moralles Michael of Ephesus vpon Aristotles Moralles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In his second booke of the Soule In the last booke of the parts of beasts In the tenth of his Supernaturalles In his first booke of matters of state The opinion of the Latin writers Cicero in his first booke of his Tusculane Questions in his booke of Comfort Cicero in his second booke of the Nature of the Gods and in his fust booke of Lawes In Scipioes dreame Ouid in his first booke of Metamorphosis Seneca writing to Gallio and to Lucillus Seneca concerning the Lady Martiaze SoÌ„ne and the shortnesse of this life In his Questions and in his hooke of Comfort Fauorinus The common opinion of all nations Porphyrius in his 4. booke of Abstinence Which with their owne hands made the fire to burne their bodies in and sawe aliue the kindled flame that should consume their Skinne Gebeleizie that is to say Register or Giuer of caze rest Gebeleizie that is to say Register or Giuer of caze rest Plutarke in his treatise of the flow punishing of the wicked The opinion of the later Philosophers Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Simplicius Plotinus Plotin lib. 1. Ennead 4. coÌ„cerning the Beeing of the Soule lib. 2. cap. 1. lib. 3. cap. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. lib. 4 cap. 11. the seauenth book throughout Plotinus in his booke of the Sences of Memorie En. 4. lib. 3. and in his booke of doubts concerning the Soule chap. 26. 27. Alexander of Aphrodise in his bookes of the Soule In his second booke of Problemes Galen in his booke of the Manners of the Soule In his booke of the doctrine of Hippocrates and Plato In his booke of Conception The vniuersall consent In the AlcoraÌ„ Azo 25. and 42. It appeareth by the storyes or the East and West Indyes Ageinst Auerrhoes Let the Reader beare these termes their significations in Mynd for al the discourse here ensewing Auerhoes vppon Aristotles third booke of the Soule Aristotle in his second booke of the Soule Aristotle in his first booke of the Soule Aristotle in his â— booke of Supernaturalls Aristotle in his third booke of of the Soule Against Alexander of Aphrodise Mans corruption appeereth in his respect to Godward The sonne of the earth In respect of the World In respect of Man Man in respect of himself Diodorus lib. 4. Herodotus in his Clio. Austin in his woork of the Citie of God lib. 14. Chap. 17. and 18. * The Catopleb and also the Cockatryce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence mans corruption coÌ„meth How long ago corruption came into maÌ„ The Conscience of Sinne. The opinion of the Auncient Philosophers Aristotle Theophrast Plato in his Phedrus Empedocles and Pythagoras Philolaus Pherecydes alledged by Origen against Cellus Hermes in his Poemander Zoroastres Gemistus Hierocles the Stoic against Athâ—â—â—ts Plutarke in his booke of Morall vertue and in his booke of the mutuall loue betweene Parents and their Children and That Beastes haue Reason Plotin Enn. 3. lib. 2. Also Enn. 1. lib. 6 Cap. 5. Also Enn. 1. lib. 8. Cap. 14. Enn. 6. lib. 9 Cap. 9. Plotin lib. 1. Enn. 5. Cap. 1. Plotin Enn. 1. lib. 8. Cap. 4. Plotin Enn. 3 lib. 5. Cap. 5. Enn. 3. lib. 3. Cap 4. Plotin Eun. 1. lib. 8. Cap. 14. lid 3. Cap. 4 S. Austin in the Citie of God lib. 10. Cap. 23. and 32. Porphyrius in his booke which sheweth how to do the things that are to be conceyued alonly by reason and vnderstanding Also in his third booke of Abstinence Proclus concerning the Soule and concerning the Feend cap. 4. Simplicius vppon Epictus Vniuersall consent Agathias in his secoÌ„d book of the Persian Warres The generall Historie of the Indyes ca. 122. Obiections Things are said to be good either by cause they come to good end or were purposed to a good end Mannes end or amingpoynt and his welfare consist or rest both in one thing The Markâ—â— whereby to knowe the amingpoynt and welfare of Man The world is not the end to which man was made God is the end or Marke that Man ameth aâ— The false ends and the false Welfares Riches Honor. Powre Authoritie and Soucreintie The vtmost end â—â—uerein good of Man are not in himself Beautie Helth Bodily Pleasure Voluptuousenes or Sensualitie Vertue Policiâ— Wisdome or Religiousnes Faith or Beleef Agazel in the beginning of his Supernaturalles Austin in his xix booke and first cap. of the Citie of God The Epicures Antisthenes answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Stoiks The Peripatetikes or walkers Aristotle in his Moralles lib. 5 Porphyr in his first booke of the Soule to Byrithius and Anebon The Academiks Plato in his Common-weale lib. 10. In his Epinomis In his Theeteâ—â—s Laertius in the life of Plato-Plato in his Phoedon Aristotle in his booke of the World And in his Morals and in his first booke of the Heauens The Philosophers of old tyme. Pythagoras Mercurius Trif megistus otherwise called Hermes Zoroastres Plutarke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iamblichus Plotin Enn. 1. lib. 4. cap. 15. 16. Plotin Enn. 6. lib. 9. Cap. 10. Porphyrius in his worke of abstinence lib. 1. cap. 2. Porphyrius concerning the Soule to Byrithius and Anebo the AEgiptian Simplicius vpon the Naturalles and vppon Epictetus Vpon these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alexander in his booke of Prouidence cyted by Cyâ—illus The ends both of the good of the bad In their booke of shame concealed Hermes Trismegistus in his Poemander Orpheus Pythagoras Pindarus Diphiluâ— Sibylla 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tat is to say they
that worship the soothfast and euerlasting God shall inherit lyfe for euer time without end dwelling in Paradyse alyke euer florishing greene But of the other sort she sayth thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to say rosted coÌ„tinually with fyrebraÌ„ds of peines Socrates in defence of himself Plato in his Cratylus Plato in his Theetetus Plato in his Gorgias Plato in his Phoedon and in his tenth booke of Lawes Plato in his Axiochus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in his Common-weale Plutarke concerning the slowe punnishing of the wicked There is but one true Religion Marsilius ficinus coÌ„cerning the Christian Religion In the last cap. of his Esculapius Plato in his Epinomis and in his Thoeâ—tetus Aristotle in his fifth booke of Moralles and in his first of Heauen Auerrhoes vppon that first booke of Heauen Alexander of Aphrodyse concerning the prouidence of God cyted by Cyrillus Simplicius vppon Epictetus Hierocles in his first chapter against Atheifts Hierocles cap. 6. 19. 11. Iamblichus in his 45. Chapter of Mysteries Proclus in his booke of praying Thaâ— there is but one true Religion An obiection The first mark of the true Religion The second marke of true Religion Plato in his second Epistle and in his Parmenides Aristotle in his Supernaturals Cicero in his first booke of Lawes Iamblichus Alpharabius in his booke of Sciences The third marke of true Religion Hierocles in his 14. and 24. Chapters and in his preface An obiection Iob. 38. Pâ—alm 104. Esay 48. 61. Iob. 38. Psal. 104. Origen ageinst Celsus lib. 3. Cato in his oration for the Rhodians The Heathen acknowledged the true God to be in Israell Austin in the Citi of God lib. 8. chap. 31. Denis of Halycarnassus lib. 1. Tacitus lib. 5. or as some editions haue lib. 2. AppioÌ„ ageinst Iosephus 2. Kings 18. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hecataeus the Abderita * Moenina Alexander who vaunted himselfe as a God Iosephus in his Antiquities lib. 11 cha 8. Cicero in his oration for Flaccus Seneca in his Booke of Superstitions Seneca in his booke of Superstition Austin de Ciâ—itate Dei lib. 6. cap. 10. Origen against Celsus lib. 3. Iulian ageinst the Galileans Zosimus lib. 4. Socrates lib. 3. cap. 11. Hermes in his Esculapius translated by Apulcius Austin de Ciuitate Dei lib. 8. cap. 23. The Gods of the Egiptians Cyprian concerning the vanity of Idols Plutarke in his treatise of Isis and Osyris The Gods of the Phoenicians Sanchoniation traslated by Iosephus The Gods of the Greekes Herodotus lib. 2. Aulus Gelliuâ— lib. 3. cap. 11. li. 17. ca. 21. Pophirius in the lyfe of Pythagoras Apuleius and Aulus Gelins The Gods of the Romanes Titus Liuius Decad 4 libro â—kimo Valerius Maâ—mus lib. 1. Plinius lib. 13. cap 13. Austin lib. 7. cap. 14. Lactantius lib. 1. Austin de Ciuitate Dei lib. 7. cap. 17. Cicero concerning the Nature of the Goddes the first of his Tusculane questions Seneca lib. 2. cap. 4. and 42. The Goddes of Greater Nations Eusebius de prepar euangelica lib. 4. Euhemere as he is cited by Lactantius Hermes in his Aselepius Seneca in his Moralles The Lawe of three children Scipio Affrican in Ennius Esculapius Iulian ageinst the Galilaeans Xenophon in his Equiuocations Cicero concerning the Nature of the Godds in his booke of Lawes and in his Tusculane Questions Porphyrius in his booke of the Answeres of the Gods Eusebius de praeparat euangel lib. 3. Cap. vltimo Porphyriâ—s in his sayd booke of the Answers of the Goddes Euseb. de praepart euang lib. 5. Cap. 6. and. 7. Iamblychut concerning Mysteries cap. 27. and 31. Porphyrius in his booke of answers c. Euseb. lib. 4. Cap. 4. The Sacrifising of Men. Enseb. lib. 4. Cap. 7. Denis of Halycarnassus lib. 1. Diodorus of Sicilie lib. 20. Porphyrius in his booke of Abstinence Histrus and Manethon cited by Eusebius Tertullian in his booke of Apologie Erichtho in Lucane The godly AEnaeas in virgill Caesar in his bookes of his Warres in Gaullond Procopius lib. 2. of the warres in Gothland Euseb. lib. 4. Cap. 7. The yeere after the building of Rome 657. Plinie lib. 30. Cap. 1. Quintilian in his booke of Fanaticall things Shamefull Seruices Austin in his second booke of the Citie of God Cap. 11. Austin in his first booke of the Citie of God Cap. 32. Austin lib. 2. Cap. 4. 5. 6. 13. In infinite places in the Digests Zosimus lib. 2. The Oracles of the Gods were false vncerteine vayne and wicked Porphyrius in his bookes of the Answere of Oracles False Miracles Iupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Markes wherby to knowe Diuels Porphirius in his secoÌ„d book of Abstinence In his Epistle to Anebon alledged by Eusebius lib. 4. cap. 11. Iamblichus in his booke of Mysteries in many places Iamblichus in his booke of Mysteries Apulcius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Austin in his ninth booke of the Citie of God chap. 19. What and where the true Religion is Marks whereby to discerne Gods word That the Byis of more antiquitie then all other writings Cicero in his second booke of the Ends of things Aulus Gellius in his 20. book Cap. 1. Denis of Halycarnassus lib. 1. cap. 2. Plinie lib. 34. cap. 5. Pomponius ff of the originall of Lawe Denis of Halâ—carnassus Appion in the fourth booke of his Historie against the Iewes Eusebius li. 10. Cap. 3. Strabo lib. 15. Porphirius li. 4 Eusebius in his booke of preparation to the Gospell Gene. 49. 5. 7. Obiect oâ—â— The Bible tendeth altogither to the glorie of God Mans welfare Seneca in his exhortations The Style of the Scriptures The lawes and commaundements in the Scripture The doctrine of the Scriptures exceedeth the reach of man Prophesies sowed throughout all the Byble Gene. 15. Gene. 49. Rabbi Moyses vpoÌ„ the booke Abubacher Deuter. 32. Iosua 7. 1. King 16. verse 34. 1. King 13. 2. King 22. verse 15. 19. Esay 44. 45. Jerem. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. c. Daniel 9. Daniel 5. Esay 13. 2â— 47 Ieremy 50. Daniel 15 Daniel 7. Daniel 8. Daniel 9. Obiections Ptolomie in booke of the fruite The same thing doth Moises of Narbon say vppon the booke of Abubacher Auempare Roger Bacon in his booke of the Sixe sciences of experience and in his abridgement of Diuiniâ—â—e An obiection concerning the witnesse of the Greekes The Answere Aristobulus writing to Ptolomy Philoâ—netor lib. 1. Hecateus concerning the Iewes Herennius Philo concerning the Iewes Aristaeas concerning the translation of the Threescore and Ten Interpreters Eusebius in his eight booke of the preparation to the Gospell Origines in his fourth booke ageinst Celsus An Obiection concerning the style The Solution Ciâ—ero in his Tusculane Questions Osorius the Portingale Obiections concerning the vncrediblenesse of things in the Scriptures The Creation of the world and of Man The fall of Man The ege of the first men The generall Flud Alexander Polyhistor Abydemus alledged by Cyrill in his first booke against Iulian. Iosephus