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
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
world of al things therein So then he is if I may so terme him the materiall efficient and formall cause of all things And vnto whom can that bée attributed but vnto God Againe There are saith he Two Speeches or words the one being as an Originall deede is aboue vs and the other being as an Exemplification or Copy therof is within vs. And Moyses sayth he calleth the same the Image of God and this other which is our vnderstanding he calleth a later Copy thereof And the sayd first Speech sayeth he in his booke of the World is the expresse print or stampe of God and euerlasting as God him selfe is And what more sayth S. Iohn or the Apostle to the Hebrewes And in all those places which are worthie to be read throughout he vseth S. Iohns own terme namely Logos to signifie the sayd Spéech or Word Of the holy Ghost hee speaketh more darkly because the Hebrewes as we shal see hereafter amed chiefly at the Word or second Person But it is enough for vs to haue séene that this fountayne abode sufficiently cléere among the Hebrewes till the comming of Christ for Philo liued vnder the Emperours Tiberius and Caligula though the streames thereof were as good as dryed vp among the Gentiles verely because the Messias was to bee borne among the Hebrewes of the beléefe in whom this doctrine was to be the groundworke For as soone as Christ was come into the World it tooke light of him againe as at the day sunne which inlighteneth not onely the halfe compasse where on he shineth but also euen a part of that which seeth him not For this doctrine was not only receyued in the Church but also imbraced of all the great Philosophers that came after notwithstanding that in all other things they were deadly enemies to the Christians Numenius the excellentest of all the Pythagorians of whom Porphyrie reporteth Plotinus to haue made so great account that he wrate a hundred bookes of Commentaries vpon him saith these wordes He that will knowe the first and second GOD must well distinguish and aboue all things he must well settle his mynd and then hauing called vpon GOD he may open the treasure of his thoughts And therfore let vs begin thus God I meane the first who is in himself is single throughout cōpacted and one in himself and in no part diuidable Also the second and third God is one but yet you must consider that the First is the father of him that is the worker of all things Now ye must vnderstand that whereas wee say the Frst Second Third Person it is their maner to say the First Second and Third God which thing you must marke here at once for all the residue following And whereas he sayth that the first of them is the Father and that he is single and that they bee but one it is not to bee doubted but that he maketh them all one Essence so as the second holdeth of the first as the Light holdeth of the Sunne Againe The first God sayth he is free from all worke but the second is the maker which commaundeth Heauen and therfore are there two lyues the one from the first and the other from the second the one occupyed about things subiect to vnderstanding and the other about things subiect both to vnderstanding sence And moreouer by reason of the mouing which goeth afore in the second there is also a sending which goeth afore in the first and so there is a certeyne ioynt-mouing from whence the healthfull order of the World is spred foorth vniuersally Now whereas he speaketh of mouing it is after the maner of the Platonists who metaphorically doe meane that to be vnderstood or knowne is to moue and to vnderstand or knowe is to bee moued because they wanted words to expresse these déepe matters And in the same sence doe wee reade in the Scripture that the Sonne is sent of the Father And againe God the worker or maker sayth he is the beginner of Begetting and God the Good is the beginner of Beeing and the Second is the liuely exppresser of the First as Begetting is an Image of Beeing And in another place he sayth That this Worker beeing the Sonne is knowne to all men by reason of the creating of the World but as for the first Spirite which is the Father he is vnknowne vnto them And surely cōsidering their maner of speaking he could not haue sayd more plainly That the Sonne is the Image of the Father that he hath his being in him that he is one with him that by him the Father made all things And it is agréeable to that which Proclus witnesseth of him who reporteth of this Numenius that he woorshipped thrée Goddes of whom he calleth the first the Father the second the Maker and the third the Worke procéeding from them both Wherein wée ought not so much to seeke into the default as to commend the good that is therein Besides this it is good to marke here once for all that these men which speake vnto vs here of thrée Gods are the same which confessed vnto vs hertofore that there is but only one God Wherevpon it followeth that those thrée be but thrée Inbeings or Persons in one Essence Plotinus who was very well studyed in the bookes of Numenius steppeth yet further into the matter And first of all he hath made a Booke expressely purposely of the thrée chiefe Inbeings whereof I will set downe here a certeyne briefe Summe There are sayth he three chiefe Inbeings the One or the Good the Vnderstanding or Witte and the Soule of the World And of these three it is not for any man to speake without praying vnto God without settling his mynd afore vnto quietnes And if it be demaunded how one of them begetteth another it is to bee considered that wee speake of euerlasting things and therfore we must not imagine any temporall begetting For this begetting which wee speake of heere importeth and betokeneth but onely cause and order How commeth it to passe sayth he that this Vnderstnding is begottē of the One Surely it obteyneth not his beeing by meanes of any assent commaundment or mouing of the One but it is a light shed foorth euerywhere streaming from the One as brightnesse from the Sunne and begotten of the One howbeit without any mouing of the One. For all things as in respect of their continuing of their nature doe necessarily yeeld out of their owne essence and present power a cetteyne nature that dependeth vpon them which is a very Image and countershape of the power from whence it proceedeth As for example Fyre yeeldeth heate Snowe cold and Herbes yeeld chiefly sents or sauors And al things whē they be in their perfection ingender somewhat That then which is euerlastingly perfect doth euerlastingly beget yea and it begetteth a perfect and euerlasting thing howbeit that the thing begotten
vnitie and settled state and that the nature of the Mynded which is behild is an act that isseweth from him that Myndeth which act consisteth in beholding or mynding him and in beholding him becometh one selfesame thing with him Againe he sayth in a◠other place To bee and to vnderstand are both one thing in God and if any thing proceede therof inwardly yet is it no whit diminished therby because the Mynder and the Mynded are both one same thing For the beholding of ones selfe in his selfe is nothing but himselfe But yet must there needes be alwaies both a selfesamenesse and also an othernesse Now then let vs conclude thus that these two Inbeings or Persons namely The Mynded and the Mynder are both one thing and therefore that they differ not but only in way of relation And that forasmuch as there must néedes bee euer both a selfesamenesse and also an othernesse If I may so terme them the selfesamenesse is in the Essence or beeing because that from God there procéedeth nothing but God and the othernesse is in the Inbeings or Persons as in respect that the one is the begetter and the other is the begotten Moreouer this Plotinus calleth the begetter the Father and the begotten the Sonne after the same maner that we doe Certesse sayth he the vnderstanding is beautifull and the most beautifull of all and therefore in diuers other places he termeth him the Beautifull as he termed the First the Good and sitteth in cleere light and brightnesse and conteyneth in him the nature of all things that are As for this Worlde of ours although it be beautifull yet it is scarce an image or shadowe of him but the world that is aboue is set in the very light itself where there is nothing that is voyd of vnderstanding nor nothing darke but euery where is led a most blessed lyfe Now lyke as he that beholdeth the Skye and the Starres falleth by and by to seeking the author of this World So he that considereth aud commendeth the World that is not to be discerned but in vnderstanding doth lykewise seeke the author thereof namely who he is that begate that World and where and how he begate that Sonne that vnderstanding that Child so bright and beautifull euen that Sonne full of the Father As for the souerein father hee is neither the vnderstanding nor the Sonne nor the Child but a Mynd higher thā Vnderstanding and Child And next vnto him is the Vnderstanding or Child who needeth both vnderstanding and nourishment and is next to him that hath neede of nothing And yet for al this the Sonne hath the very fulnesse of vnderstanding because hee hath it immediatly and at the first hand But as for him that is the higher that is to wit the Father he hath no neede of him for then should the Sonne be the very good it selfe So say we also that the Sonne hath all fulnesse howbeit of the Father and that the Father hath all fulnesse but of himselfe and that the Father is not the Sonne or the Worde but that the Sonne or the Worde is of the Father And in another place hee sayth What shall a man haue gayned by seeing or beholding God That hee shall haue seene God begetting a Sonne and in that Sonne al things and yet holding him still in him without payne after his conceyuing of him of whom this World as beautifull as we see it to be is but an Image In which sort a painted Table is after a maner a portreyture of the mynd of him that made it I sayd moreouer that this Sonne is the Wisedome of the Father the like whereof Plotinus also sayth vnto vs. All things sayth he that are done eyther by Art or by Nature are done by Wisedome If they bee done by Arte from Arte we come to Nature and of Nature againe we demaund from whence she hath it whereby wee finally come to a Mynd and then are we to seeke whether the Mynd haue begotten Wisedome And if that bee graunted wee will inquire yet further whereof And if they say it begetteth it of it self That cannot be vnlesse the Mynd be the very Wisedome it selfe Wisedome therfore shal be the Essence and the very Essence shal be Wisedome and the worthinesse of the Essence shal be Wisedome And therefore euery Essence that wanteth Wisedome is in deede an Essence as in respect that Wisedome made it but forasmuch as it hath no Wisedome in it selfe it is no true Essence in deede Now the ordinary teaching of Plotine is to call the Understanding or second Person the very Béeer in déed or the very true Essence and the first person a thing higher than Understanding or Essence Wherevpon it should followe that with him Wisedome and true Essence are both one that is to say that the second person is Wisedome To the same purpose also he sayth that the sayd Mynd possesseth all things in his homebred Wisedome That all shapes are but beames and effects thereof and that the same is the trueth yea and King of trueth which is a name that the Scripture also attributeth to the second person As touching the third person whom he calleth the Soule of the World he seemeth in his other bookes to lay vs a foundation of a better opinion For God saith he hath wrought he wrought not vnwillingly and therefore there is a will in GOD. Now surely he whose power is answerable to his will should by and by become the better God then who is the good it self than the which nothing can be better filleth his owne will to the full so as he is the thing that he listeth to be and lifteth to be that which he is and his will is his very Essence This will againe is his act or operatiō and that act is his very substance And so God setteth downe himself in this act of Beeing And this is in a maner all one with the things which I spake in the former Chapter namely that God by his will produceth a third person that is to say the loue of himself by delighting in himself And in another place This same GOD sayth he is both the lonely and loue and this Loue is the loue of himselfe for of himselfe and in himselfe is he altogether beautifull And whereas he is sayd to be altogether with himselfe it could not be so vnlesse that both the thing which is and also the person which is together therewith were both one selfesame thing Now if the together beer for I must be fayne to vse that word the thing together wherewith he is be both one and likewise the desirer and the thing desired be one also Surely the desire and the Essence must also needes be one selfesame thing And this desire of the Mynd is the Loue it self whom we call the holy Ghost which procéedeth by the Will and so by the foresayd reasons is proued to bee
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
which hath learned things according to the growths thereof in ages And seeing that the Sciences Artes Honors and Deinties of the lyfe it selfe doe proue vs a beginning thereof is there any man either skilfull or vnskilfull greate or little Philosopher or Handicrafts man Laborer or Follower of the worldly vanities that w◠any more bee so bolde as to stand in contention that the world is without beginning What shall we then as now conclude of all this discourse First that the inuention of all things is of so late tyme that it is of sufficient force too make all men beléeue of what trade or profession so euer they bee that it is but a whyle ago since the worlde began And secondly that the sayd inuentions gathering together into one tyme doe leade vs to some one certeine Countrie as to a Centre where mankind hath first sprong vp and afterward spred it selfe abroade as to the outermost partes of all the Circle This time is the same space that was betwixt Moyses and the vniuersall Flud And the Countrie is the same where mankind did first multiplie after their comming out of the Arke that is to wit all the Coast from Mount Taurus along by Mesopotamia Syria and Phenice vnto AEgypt wherein wee comprehend the land of Palestine or Iewrie as the middle thereof which by the auncient Greeke and Latin Historiographers who were vnskifull in Geographie is diuersly accounted and allotted to the greater Countries that lye round about it accordingly as it bordereth vpon them one while to Syria another while to AEgipt some time to Phenicia and some time to Araby the desert And therefore as touching tyme and antiquitie it is good reason that wee should beléeue the Histories of those Nations and not of the Greekes or of the Latins who are but yong babes in respect of the others especially seeing that wee would thinke it a thing woorthy to be laughed at if a man should stand to the iudgement of the stories of Iewrie in the matters of the Greekes But nowe let vs heare their contradictions If the world be fo new say they where of commeth it that it is so well replenished and full of people Nay rather if it bee without beginning or of so greate antiquitie as thou surmizest how happeneth it that it hath not alway bene knowen whereof commeth it that it is euen yet so slenderly peopled how comes it too passe that it is not throughly inhabited in all places or at leastwise in the best places of the worlde where euen in our tyme are found both Iles and mayne Lands well habitable and yet vninhabited It is not past a hundred yeres ago since we knewe nothing at all of more then the better halfe of the world Wee were but at the enterance of the earth and wee thought our selues to haue bin come to the full knowledge of Geographie We thought our selues to haue knowen the vttermost Coastes of the world when as we had not yet passed the Southcircle which diuideth the world in twayne And yet notwitstanding he that had spoken otherwise should haue bene counted of most men for a foole Yea and euen yet still at this day we know nothing of that mayne Land of the South but very little of the North. It is not past two hundred yeres ago since the Swedians sent the first inhabiters into the country of Groneland and both Scotland and Ireland being in our part of the world are yet still halfe barbarus Ye shall reade in Caesars Commentaries that in his tyme Germanie was a continuall Forrest wherein a mā might haue gone 50. daies iourney ere he could see any end of it and that the people thereof were sauage and beastly sacrifysing their owne Children to their Goddes He seemeth heere to speake of the Cannibals or the people of Brasilie It was long time after ere the Romanes durst aduenture ouer farre in that Countrie Whereby it appeareth that all the auncient Townes and Citties which stand vppon the Riuers of Rhyne and Danowe towardes Fraunce and Italy did serue rather for a Banke or a Iettie against the ouerflowing of the Germanes than for Fortresses to assayle them withall Euen in the tyme of Tacitus what were the people on the Sea coast of Germanie What were the Saxons in the time of Charles the greate And a feawe hundred yeeres agoe what were the Lowe Countryes of Germanie which at this day be the florishingest people of all Ewrope The same is to be sayd of Ingland in Caesars time and likewise of Fraunce Italy and Spaine if we mount a little higher For seeing that Roome is the oldest citie of the Latines how happeneth it that Alexander who sought newe worlds to conquer knewe it not by the statelynesse thereof how happeneth it that he knewe as litle also of the Frenchmen and Spaniards of whom all the auncient Histories speake either nothing at all or els with wonderfull ignorance And what shall we say of Ephorus whom men account the diligentest Historiographer of them all As great a Countrie as Spayne or Iberia is he writeth thereof in such sort as if it were but only one towne Also what was Greece afore the tyme of Orpheus and Amphion who as Thucidides reporteth drewe the Greekes out o◠their Forrests and Fennes about the tyme of the warres at Troy And where learned Orpheus to lay away his owne sauagenesse but in AEgypt The holy Bible it selfe when it speaketh of the Greekes and of the lesser Asia speaketh of them as of Ilands that is to say as of Countries that were furthest of from the knowledge of that time Thus doe yee see the latenesse of the Westerne Nations whom I call so as in respect of the rest of the whole world and of the Centre and middle poynt thereof which I haue taken too bee from Mount Taurus vnto Syria Now let vs see the Easterne Nations also The Countrie of India beyond the Riuer Ganges was vnknowen in the tyme of Alexander who notwithstanding had cast the platforme of his Conquest on that side of the world And his Pylots which went to seeke new Worlds passed not beyond the Iland of Sumatra then called Taprobane which is vnder the Equinoctiall and Easterly a great way of from the Molucques And when it was tolde the Romanes that a Ship was found which by the commaundement of Necho King of AEgypt had sayled about all the Coast of Affrike they tooke it for a fable and therefore much lesse did they euer come at Iaua the lesse or Iaua the more or at the firme Land which is next vnto them To be short they did not ordinarily passe the Streytes of Gibraltar by reason whereof their greatest Philosophers could lesse skill of the nature and course of the Tydes than the meanest Seamen or Sailer of our time Now then what is to be said of Plinie with his Dogheaded men his Oneeyed men his Longeares his Centaures his Pygmees and his Cyclopes
the worke of God Also being asked whether was first of the Day or the Night he answered that the Night was sooner by one day as if he had ment to say that afore God had created the light it must néedes bee confessed that out of him there was nothing but darknesse Now this Philosopher also as well as the rest had gone to Schoole in AEgipt Timeus of Locres termeth Tyme the Image of eternitie and sayth that it tooke his beginning from the creating of Heauen and Earth and that God created the very Soule of the World afore the World it selfe both in possibilitie and in tyme. To bee short Plutarke affirmeth that all the naturall Philosophers of old time hild opinion that the begetting or creating of the World began at the Earth as at the Centre thereof and that Eâ—pedocles sayth that the finest kynd of AEr which they cal AEther was the first part thereof that was drawne vp on high And Anaxagoras is reported by Simplicius to affirme that God whom he calleth Mynd or Vnderstanding created the Heauen the Earth the Sunne and the Starres and scarsly is there any one to bee found which teacheth that tyme is without beginning Some of Platoes latter Disciples as namely Proclus writing against the Christians would néedes beare their Mayster downe that he beléeued the world to haue had no beginning But if wee may beléeue Aristotle who was a scholler of his a two and twentie yéeres he taught that the world was created and it is one of the chief Principles wherein they most disagrée Philo who was as another Plato saith that Plato had learned it of Hesiodus And Plutarch who sheweth himselfe to haue perused him throughly leafe by leafe speaketh of him in these words There are sayth he some studyers of Plato which by racking his wordes indeuer by all meanes to make him deny the creation of the World and of the Soule and to confesse the euerlastingnesse of time notwithstanding that in so doing they bereeue him of that most excellent treatise of his concerning the Goddes against the despysers and skorners of whom in his tyme he wrate And what needeth any thing to be alledged for proofe thereof seeing that his whole booke of Timeus is nothing els but an expresse treatise of the Creation of the World The same thing also doth Aphrodisius witnesse concerning Plato In his booke intytled Athlantick he termeth the world a thing Longago created In his matters of State he sayth that the world was setled and founded by God and that it coÌ„teyneth store of good things and that the trouble somenesse which it hath is but a Remnant or Remaynder of the former confusion Also Socrates in his booke of Commonweale termeth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Godhead begotten or created And which of the auncient writers did euer doubt that Plato taught not the Creation of the World considering that he hath made descriptions both of all the parts thereof and of the Gods themselues And also that he sayth that the world was created corruptible of it selfe but yet abode immortall and vncorruptible through the grace of God which vpholdeth it But let vs examin the racking which Proclus offereth vnto him Plato saith he affirmeth in his Commonweale that whatsoeuer hath a beginning hath also an ende Now the World as he sayth in his Timeus shall haue no end Therefore it followeth that it had no beginning If another man should reason after that maner against Proclus Proclus would laugh him to skorne for he shifteth the termes and yet our Soules which he concludeth to be without end faile not to haue had a beginning But though we were neuer so wel contented to let him passe yet doth Plato assoyle him in one word The world saith he is corruptible of it selfe for euery thing that is compounded may also be dissolued but it is not Gods will that it should be corrupted And myne ordinance sayth the euerlasting is of more power to make thee to continue than thine owne Nature is to make thee to perish The which thing he speaketh yet more shortly in another place saying that the world hath receyued an Immortalitie at the hand of the workmayster which made it Now then seeing that by Nature it may perish surely by Nature it had a beginning and the power that hath preserued it from perishing is the very same that made it to bee Proclus addeth Plato propoundeth a Question sayth he whether the World was created after the patterne of a thing forecreated or of a thing without beginning Therefore he dowted whether it were eternall or no. What a conclusion was this for a great Philosopher I aske whether men bee bred of themselues or created of another therefore I vphold that they be bred of themselues as who would lay that in disputing it were not an ordinary matter to set down both the Contraries for the affirming of the one and the denying of the other Agayne if it were begotten or created after the example of a thing aforecreated could it be beginninglesse seeing that the patterne thereof had a beginning And if it were created after the example of a thing vncreated can it come to passe that it should be euerlasting séeing that it is not the very patterne it selfe No but as I haue sayd afore wee admit horned arguments against the trueth whereas in defence of the trueth the perfectest demonstrations suffize vs not Also in another booke intytled of a String he sayth thus Plato in his booke of Lawes sayth that Commonweales and Artes haue infinite tymes bin vtterly destroyed by Waterfluds and Burnings and therefore that men cannot certeinly say from what time men haue first growne into Commonweales Ergo he beleeued that the World had no beginning Nay he sayth these things in his Timeus which is the booke whereof thou canst not dowt but that he treateth there expressely of the Creation of the World And he repeateth the same agayne in his booke of Commonwealematters hauing sayd afore that God created Heauen Earth the Starres and Gods Now then seeing it is one selfsame Author that speaketh these things and in one selfesame place and one immediatly after another is it not certeyne that he ment not to match cleane contrary doctrines together What is to be sayd then but that he spake there after the maner of the common multitude who as Aristotle sayth doe call the things infinite which they be not able to number Or as Moyses himselfe speaketh who calleth the things eternall euerlasting or endlesse which are of very long coÌ„tinuance notwithstanding that he make a booke expressely of the Creation of all things But in déede it was a surmize of the auncientnesse of the World which Plato as it should seeme had brought home out of AEgipt accordingly as the report of Solon sufficiently declareth who telleth him that the AEgiptians had Registers of nyne thousand yeres that is to say as Plutarke interprets
the souereyntie of all other things That the world the Sea the Land and all other things obey Gods tokens And if aâ— any tyme he bring in an Epicure alledging such worshipfull reasons as this With what engines edgetooles did your God buyld the World and such other eyther he sendeth him away with such answere as he deserueth or els by holding his peace sheweth sufficiently that he deserueth no answere at all Varro the best learned of the Latins maketh an vniuersall Historie deuided into thrée tymes The first as I haue â—ayd alreadie is from the Creation of the world vnto the first Olimpiade This man being a man of great reading found the Creation of the world to haue bene but late afore yea and so late that he ioyned it immediatly to the tyme of the first Olimpiade Likewise Seneca found all things to be new and acknowledgeth in many places that God created the whole world and man peculyarly to serue him And euer since the beginning of the World sayth he vnto this day wee be guyded by the intercourses of daies and nights and so foorth Macrobius passeth yet further and sayth that the world cannot be of any long antiquitie coÌ„sidering that the furthest knowledge that is to be had thereof reacheth not beyond two thousand yéeres As touching the Poets whose spéeches do for the most part represent vnto vs the opinion that was admitted among the common people Virgill is full of excellent sentences to that purpose and Ouid hath made a booke expressely of that matter And euen Lucrece also who professeth vngodlinesse sayth that beyond the Warres of Troy and Thebes there was not any iote remayning to rememberance than by the which he could not better haue declared the World to be but young howbeit that after the maner of his own sect he fathereth that thing vpon chaunce which all the wise men ascribe to the euerlasting prouidence Plinie is the only man whom I wonder at that being so curious a searcher of Nature he could not conceyue that which is printed in euery part of it and which euery man might of himself learne by his owne reading therein He maketh a long Calendar of the first inuenters of things as of Letters of Houses of Apparell and of very Bread He reckoneth vp the Companies that haue fléeted from place to place for the peopling and replenishing of Countries And can there bee a greater proofe of newnesse than that Sometymes he sayth that the Earth is become weary and sometymes that it is wexed barreine in yéelding of fruite and Mettalles because it groweth olde But in one place he sayth expressely that mens bodies by little little become of smaller stature by reason of the witherednesse of the world which wexeth olde And is not this a reporting of the Skye to bee like a whéele which gathereth heate and chafeth with rowling and whirling about And what improteth this wexing old but that it had also as ye would say a birthtyme What meaneth the wearing thereof away but that it had erst bene newe What is ment by the chafing of it but that the temperature thereof is altered For if the World be eternall why is not the whéele thereof eternally in one heate and men eternally of small stature Or if at leastwise it be of very auncient continuance why were not men become Pygmées long ago And if the contrary bee to bee seene in Nature what remayneth but to confesse that the World is but of late beginning To bee short the Stoikes as Varro witnesseth of Zeno taught that the world was created of God and that it should perish The Platonists affirme that it is created and mortall but yet is susteyned from perishing by God The Epicures graunt that it had a beginning howbeit by haphazard and not by prouidence The Peripateticks say in their conclusions that it is without beginning and in their premisses they vtterly deny it The greatest despisers of God as Plinie and such other like doe write in their Prefaces That the world is an euerlasting God and throughout the whole treatises of their bookes they vnsay it agayne Now then after so many graue witnesses and after the coÌ„fessions of the parties them selues is there yet any of these pretensed naturalistes to be found which dareth thinke the contrarie still But now since the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ into the earth this doctrine hath bene receyued throughout the world so as the thing which had aforetymes bene disputable among the Heathen is now admitted as an article of faith welnere among all nations and sects on the earth It may bee that the myracles which were seene then in Heauen in Earth in the Sea vppon men and vpon the very Féends made the world to perceyue that there was a Creator of the world For who could doubt that the creating of a newe Starre the restoring of a deadman to life or onely the making of a blindman to see was not the worke of an infinite power yea euen as well as the buylding of the world considering that betwéene béeing and not béeing betwéene life and death betwéene the hauing of a thing and the nothauing the distance is infinite And it may be that the signes which we haue seene from Heauen in our tyme doe serue to make the blasphemers vpon earth vnexcusable But wherof soeuer it came the very Philosophers themselues began to make a grouÌ„ded principle therof insomuch that the Greekes Persians and Arabians and likewise afterward the Turkes and Mahometists did put it into their beléefe as a thing out of all controuersie To be short there is not at this day any ciuill or well ordered people which haue not their Chronicles and Histories of tymes begun alwaies at the Creation of the world wherein they doe all hold of Moyses and agrée all with vs Christians sauing in the controuersie of some fewe yéeres Of all the Philosophers only the Platonists continued in estimation and all men reiected the newfound opinions of Aristotle and they stood at defiance rather with the Gnosticks than with the Christians Sainct Austin sayth concerning the Philosophers of his tyme that their opinion was that God was afore the World howbeit not in time but in order and by way of vndersetting only like as if a foote sayth he were euer in one place the print thereof should also be euer there Unto whom it may be answered in one word that like as abilitie and intent of going went afore the going it self both in the man and in the foote so in God also the power and intent of creating went afore the Creation But it is best to heare their owne words Plotin in his booke of the World findeth himself not a little graueled in this case and he maketh very little account of all Aristotles supposalles If we say sayth he that the Skye is euerlasting as in respect of the whole bodie therof how can
the order of indyting or the antiquities which the wryter reporteth We should find the lyke prouidence of God in the chaunge of all States But I content my selfe with this one afore mentioned as the which is best knowen too all men except I were mynded to take some example of our present age to inlighten the matter withall Now then whereas Cato slewe himselfe through impatiencie thinke ye not that if he had liued still he would haue ceassed to contend with God and haue commended his Iustice and haue written bookes of his singular prouidence Yes But the mischief is that whereas we would not iudge of a Song by one note nor of a Comedie by one Scene nor of an Oration by one full Sentence we will presume to iudge of the Harmony and orderly direction of the whole world and of all that is therein by some one action alone Againe in Musik we beare with changes and breathes with pauses and discordes In Comedies with the vnmeasurable barbarous cruelties of an Atreus the wicked presumptions of an Ixîon and the lamentable outcryes of a Philoctetes and all this is if we will say the trueth because we haue so good opinion of the Musician that we think he will make al to fall into a good concord and of the Comediemaker that all his disagréements shall end in some mariage and of the Tragediewryter that ere hee leaue the Stage he will tye the wicked Ixîon to the Whéele or make the féends of Hell to torment the Atreus or contrariwise cause GOD to heare the wofull voyce and pitifull cry of the poore Philoctetes And if God seeme erewhyles to hold his peace and to suffer men to play their partes ought wee not too haue so good opinion of his wisdome as to thinke that he can tell when it is tyme to pay them their hyre And that although he let the wicked walk at large vppon the stage and the godly to lye in prison he can also prouide to end the braueries of the one sort with iust punishment and the wofull complaintes of the other sort with ioyfull triumph When a Tragedie is playd afore thée thou art not offended at any thing which thou hearest Why so Because that in two howres space thou hast shewed vnto thee the dooings of a ten or twelue yeres as the rauishing of Helen and the punishment of Paris or the miserable end of Herod vpon his murdering of Iohn Baptist. Insomuch that although thou bee not acquainted with the storie yet the arte which thou perceiuest and the end which thou expectest make thee both to beare with the matter and to commend the thing which otherwise thou wouldest thinke to be both vniust and also cruell in the gouerner of the Stage How much more oughtest thou to refreine thy mislyking if thou considerest that the world is a kind of Stageplay â—â—nueied to a certeine end by a most excellent maker And what an excellent order wouldest thou see there if thou mightest behold all the ages and alterations thereof as in a Comâ—â—â—e all in one day yea or but the successe of some one onely Nation for an hundred yeres which were lesse than the interuiewe of two Seruaunts in a Comedie Thou hast seene Pompey ouercome Loe here a discord that offendeth thine eares Thou hast seene Caesar to bring home his Sword bathed in the bloud of the Senate If thou be a Child thou weepest at it but if thou beest a man thou pacifyest the Child and attendest for the knitting vp of the matter and for the iudgement of the Poët Herevpon the Chorus singeth and then maketh a pawse All this whyle the Poet seemeth to haue forgotten Iustice and if thou depart out of the company at that poynt thou canst not tell what to make of it But tarry a whyle and hearken to the note that followeth Caesar is put to death by his owne men See here how the discord is turned into a good concord Thy Childe seeth that this prowd Peacocke which vaunted himselfe aboue all the world is in one day stabbed in with infinite wounds Whereby how little a one soeuer thy Child be he hath some perceiuerance of the forecast of the Poet. Doest thou not see then againe that wee bee like Children which would controll the Song of all ages by one Note or a long Oration by one Letter wheras notwithstanding our life as in respect of the whole world is lesse then a short Minim in comparison of a whole song If thou be a Christian thou readest the History of Ioseph When thou readest how he was sould into AEgipt thou canst not be angry inough with his brothers nor sufficiently bewayle his poore olde Father Againe when he is cast into the deepe Dungeon in recompence of his chastitie thou couldest find in thy heart to blame not only Pharao but euen God himself But when thou seest him taken out of Prison to reade the Kings Dreames and within a fewe dayes after as a King in AEgipt a succour to his father in his old age and the rayser vp agayne of his whole house at their néede then thou perswadest thy selfe that he which made him to reigne in AEgipt did suffer him to be sold to the AEgiptians that he which made him the deliuerer of his house did also make him to bee solde into bondage afore by his brethren and to bee short that the discord which offended thée and the harmonie which delighteth thee agayne proceede both from one selfesame Musition Howbeit afore wee conclude this matter see once agayne how much more vpright thou art towards thy Prince than towards God Thou seest a great number of his Armie come home wounded if thou bee a man it must needes greeue thee Anon one brings thee home thyne owne Sonne dead if thou bee a Father thou canst not forbeare teares A neighbour of thyne assureth thee that he was slayne in doing his duetie in getting victorie to his Countrie Though thou take not comfort in it at the first brunt yet at leastwise thou wilt not bee so mad as to lay the blame in thy Prince Within a while after when thou fallest to considering the fruite of the victorie then as it hath greeued thee to forgoe thy sonne so wilt thou thanke God that he dyed in defence of his Countrie and that he did his part in so noble a seruice Shall not God then haue as great preheminence in setting foorth his glorie as Kings for the obteining of their victories God ouer his Creatures as Kings ouer their Subiects Or shall not we haue as much patieÌ„ce in the death of those whom we bring vp when they dye for his seruice as when they dye for the honour of our Prince Or shall wee haue lesse trust in him as touching his imploying of them to good purpose than wee haue in Kings Princes and Captaines which knowe not the issue of their owne enterprises or at leastwise for the most parte knowe it not ne haue any care
begotten of Man wherein hee was contrarie too himselfe To bée short scarsly were there any to be found among the men of old time saue onely Democritus and Epicurus that held the contrary way whome the Poete Lucre immitated afterward in his verses Yet notwithstanding when Epicurus should dye hée commaunded an Anniuersarie or Yéermynd to bee kept in remembrance of hym by his Disciples so greatly delighted hée in a vayne shadowe of Immortalite hauing shaken off the very thing it self And Lucrece as it is written of him made his booke béeing mad at such times as the fittes of his madnesse were off him surely more mad when he thought himselfe wysest than when the fits of his phrensie were strongest vppon him Whosoeuer readeth the goodly discourses of Socrates vpon his drinking of poyson as they bee reported by Plato and Xenophon hymselfe can not doubt of his opiniō in this case For he not only beléeued it himself but also perswaded many men to it with liuely reasons yea and by his own death much more then by all his lyfe And so ye see we be come vnto Plato and Aristotle with consent of all the wyse men of olde tyme vngeinsayd of any sauing of a two or thrée malapert wretches whom the vngraciousest of our dayes would esteeme but as dronken sottes and dizards Certesse Plato who might paraduenture haue heard speake of the bookes of Moyses doeth in his Timaeus bring in God giuing commaundement to the vndergoddes whom he created that they should make man both of mortall and of immortall substances Wherein it may be that he alluded to this saying in Genesis Let vs make man after our owne Image and lykenesse In which case the Iewes say that GOD directed his spéeche to his Angels but our Diuines say hee spake to himselfe But anon after both in the same booke and in many other places Plato as it were comming to him himselfe ageine teacheth that GOD created Man by himselfe yea and euen his Lyuer and his Brayne and all his Sences that is to say the Soule of him not onely indewed with reason and vnderstanding but also with sence and abilitie of growing and increasing and also the instruments whereby the same doe woorke Moreouer hee maketh such a manifest difference betwéene the Soule and the body as that hee matcheth them not toogither as matter and forme as Aristottle doth but as a Pilot and a Ship a Commonweale and a Magistrate an Image and him that beareth it vpon him What greater thing can there be than to be like God Now sayth Plato in his Phoedon The Soule of Man is very like the Godhead Immortall Reasonable Vniforme Vndissoluble and euermore of one sorte which are conditions saith he in his matters of State that can not agree but to things most diuine And therefore at his departing out of the world he willed his Soule to returne home too her kinred and to her first originall that is to wit as hée himselfe sayth there to the wyse and immortall Godhead the Fountaine of all goodnes as called home from banishment into her owne natiue countrie He termeth it ordinarily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say of kin vnto God and consequently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Euerlasting and of one selfesame name with the immortall ones a Heauenly Plant and not a Earthly rooted in Heauen and not in Earth begotten from aboue and not héere beneath and finally such as cannot dye heere forasmuch as it liueth still in another place To be short séeing sayeth he that it comprehendeth the things that are Diuine and immortall that is to wit the Godhead and the things that are vnchaungeable and vncorruptible as trueth is it cannot be accounted to be of any other nature than they The same opinion doth Plutarche also attribute vnto him which appeareth almost in euery leafe of his writings As touching the auncienter sort of Platonists they agree all with one accord in the immortalitie of the soule sauing that some of them deriue it from God and some from the Soule of the World some make but the Reason or mynd onely to be immortall and some the whole Soule which disagreement may well be salued if we say that the Soule all whole together is immortall in power or abilitie though the execution and performance of the actions which are to be doone by the body be forgone with the instruments or members of the body The disagréement concerning this poynt among such as a man may voutsafe to call by the name of Philosophers séemeth to haue begonne at Aristotle howbeit that his Disciples count it a commendation to him that he hath giuen occasion to doubt of his opinion in that behalfe For it is certeine that his newfound doctrine of the Eternitie or euerlastingnesse of the World hath distroubled his brayne in many other things as commonly it falleth out that one error bréedeth many other Because nature sayth he could not make euery man particularly to continue for euer by himself therefore she continueth him in the kind by matching Male and Female together This is spoken either grossely or doubtfully But whereas he sayth that if the Mynd haue any inworking of it owne without any helpe of the Sences or of the body it may also continue of it selfe concluding thereuppon that then it may also be separated from the body as an immortal thing from a thing that is transitorie and mortall It followeth consequently also that the Soule may haue continuance of it selfe as whereof he vttereth these words namely That the Soule commeth from without and not of the seede of Man as the body doth and that the Soule is the onely part in vs that is Diuine Now to be Diuine and to be Humane to be of séede and to be from without that is to say from GOD are things flat contratrie whereof the one sort is subiect to corruption and the other not In the tenth booke of his Moralls he acknowledgeth two sorts of lyfe in man the one as in respect that he is composed of Body and Soule the other as in respect of Mynd onely the one occupied in the powres which are called humane and bodily which is also accompanyed with a felicitie in this lyfe and the other occupied iu the vertues of the mynd which is accompanied also with a felictie in another lyfe This which consisteth in contemplation is better than the other and the felicitie thereto belonging is peculiarly described by him in his bookes of Heauen aboue Tyme as which consisteth in the franke and frée working of the Mynd in beholding the souereine God And in good sooth full well doeth Michael of Ephesus vppon this saying of his conclude that the Soule is immortall and so must al his morals also néedes do considering that too liue wel whether it be to a mans selfe or towards other men were els a vaine thing and to no purpose
of them as little Children doe in playing with their Puppets insomuch that there is no Tragedie good which doth not baffle some one of the Gods as Euripides among the rest doth in these verses Thou Neptune and thou Iupiter and all you other Gods So wicked are you euerychone so fell so farre at oddes That if due iustice for your deedes were iustly on you doone Ye should be banisht out of Heauen and from all Temples soone You will say perchaunce that the Romanes may possibly haue some better stuffe By the originall of them which they themselues describe we may iudge what they were And let vs note that the writers of these things were no Greekes which might haue bred some suspicion but they were Romanes euen the Idolaters themselues The first that ordeyned Religion among them was King Numa who to authorize it the more feyned himselfe to haue had conference with a Goddesse called Egeria which was a witch and vnder that gay pretence he bewitched the ignorant people with a thousand superstitions A long tyme after in the Consulship of Cornelius and Bebius it happened that in the ground of a certein Scriuener named Petilius néere to the place called Ianiculum there were found two Coffins in one of the which was the body of Numa and in the other were seuen bookes in Latin concerning the Lawes of their Priesthod that is to say their Ceremonies and Churchseruices and other seauen Bookes in Greeke concerning the studie of Wisedome whereby hee ouerthrewe not onely the Gods of other Nations but also the very selfe same whome hee himselfe had instituted The Senate hearing thereof caused the Bookes to be burnt openly before the people which was as much to say as that they condemned all the Gods and all their Seruices to the Fyre Among many other Stories Varro reporteth the same too and hee concealeth not that Numa vsed Waterspelling and had communication with Diuels And as touching the Gods whom the Latins worshipped before the time of this Numa Pompilius Varro and Caius Bassus say that Faunus ordeined Sacrifices to his Graundfather Saturne to his father Picus and to his Suffer and Wife Fauna whom the good huzwiues call Fatua of Fate that is to say Destinie because she was woont to reade their Fortunes and afterward the people worshipped her by the name of Good Dame or Goddesse And surely of no better value were those whome AEneas brought thither whome Virgill termeth vanquished Gods and after a sort putteth them and little Babes both togither in one Basket Sceuola the Highpriest of the Romanes as I haue sayd afore made thrée sortes of Gods Poetical worse than the worst men Philosophical whom they taught to haue bin men howbeit that it was not good for the people to know it and Ciuill made by Princes to hold their people in awe with for the which purpose also Varro addeth that it is good for Capteynes and Gouerners to be perswaded that they bee descended of Gods that they may the more boldly vndertake and the more happely performe their enterprizes But who could answere better to the matter than the Highpriest himselfe And which are these better Gods which are no Gods at all furtherforth than it pleaseth men Varro sayth likewise that his writing of humane things afore diuine things is because there were Cities afore there were Gods made by them as the Paynter is afore his Picture How much more reasonable had it bene that the Gods should haue committed themselues to the custodie of the Cities than that the Cities should haue committed themselues to the custodie of the Gods Also he deuideth his Gods into certeynes and vncerteynes The certeyne sayth he in his second booke are as much or more subiect to vncerteyntie than the vncerteyne What certeyntie will he report of the Gods if they themselues be vncerteyn But behold the godlinesse of the man Hée sayth he will make a Register and an Inuentorie of them and wherefore for feare sayth he least they should be lost not so much by some sacking of the Citie as by the negligence of the Citizens which began sore at that time to make no account of them Soothly the Romanes had bene the more excusable if they had deified this Varro that had such a care to saue and preserue their Gods But the wise Senate thought themselues to haue prouided well for the matter by making this ordinance That no GOD should be admitted into Rome without their aduice As who would say that to bee a God it was méete that a bill of petition should first bee exhibited vnto them and men were to be sewed vnto for the obteynement of their voyces By which one argument of theirs they declared themselues to bee more diuine than their Gods And therevpon it came to passe that they receyued into their Citie all the Deuilles all the Tyrants and all the filthie Rakehelles of the world for Gods As for the onely one true God the Creator of men the founder of Cities the remouer of Empyres he had no name at al among them Concerning the nature of the Gods Cicero hath written thrée bookes which to speake properly are made to ouerthrowe all the Gods of the Romanes For he reckoneth vp their ages their garments their deckings their ofsprings their auncetors and their alliances He sayth that their Temples are their Tombes their Sacrifizes and Ceremonies representations of their liues and that from the least of them to the greatest they were all men and all their Religious Superstitions and olde wiues tales As touching the true God he speaketh farre otherwise For he sayth that he made al things that he made man that he made the very Gods themselues and to bee short that it is much easier for him to woonder at God than to vtter what he is and to declare what he is not than what he is And whereas sometymes after the maner of the Stoikes he goeth about to drawe naturall things out of the fables of the Gods he doth it but onely to kéepe the people in ignorance and according to his owne saying in the selfesame bookes where hauing condemned his owne Gods he sayth that yet for all that those things are not to bee vttered to the people and his allegories are so cold that it is to bee thought that euen he himselfe laughed at them As touching the Birdgazers he himselfe being a Birdgazer doth flatly skorne them that is to say euen his owne profession yea and all such as sought counsell at Crowes and Rauens that is to wit the whole Senate of Rome Likewise wee reade that Caesar held still the Prouince of Affricke against the forwarnings of the Birdgazers and that Cato wondered how two Birdgazers could méete one another or looke one vpon another without laughing And Seneca sayth in his booke of Questions that the Bowelgazers were inuented for nothing els but to hold the people in awe So little did the Wisemen
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
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
thou shalt liue or dye for euer without ende In what other booke reade wee such commaundements Ye in what booke reade we such punishments such rewards And if euery bodies speaking be according to the abilitie of his power from whom is this spéech which dareth pronounce or threaten euerlasting things but from the partie him selfe that is euerlasing If it be a creature that speaketh it either it is a good creature or an euill If it be an euill creature why forbiddeth he euill so rigorously and commaundeth good so expresly or to say better how commeth it to passe that the mark which hee aimeth at is Gods glorie and our welfare Or if it bee a good Creature how happeneth it that hee chalendgeth to himselfe that which belongeth to GOD and which cannot be imparted to any Creature which is the very sinne that ouerthrewe both the Diuell into Hell and man into destruction And if it be no Creature neither good nor bad what remayneth then but that it must needes be the Creator Now what leafe is there in the whole Scripture where wee meete not with such matter And herewithall wee see that thing in the obseruers of that Lawe which is not read of any others namely that they haue yeelded their lyues and incurred the hatred disdeine of the whole worlde rather than they would breake or despise it Uerily euen in this respect and none other that they were sure that they serued such a Lawegiuer as not only had power ouer the barke of man and ouer this present wretched lyfe as other common Lawgiuers haue but also was of power to giue either euerlasting lyfe or endlesse death The same appeareth yet more in that the lawes which are giuen to men in the Scriptures are not inioyned alonely to the outward man but doe pearce euen to the heart of man In deede they require Sacrifices but yet they preferre obedience They inioyne fasting but that is from sinne They inioyne Circumcision but it is the Circumcision of the hart To be short for a Summary of al Sinnes they forbid lusting and couering which thing as I haue sayd afore is not to bee found in any law of the Heathen Who I pray you knoweth the very anatomie and secret conceyts of our hearts but he that made them Or who can looke into Man but the maker of Man And who is he either Man or Deuill that euer durst presume to inioyne a lawe to mens thoughts But all these things come still to this poynt that the partie which speaketh so vpon authoritie threatening things that excéede mans abilitie and making a law for the things wherevnto we cannot come must of necessitie be of more power than we Agein what a number of things haue wee taught vs in the Scriptures which cannot bréede of mannes brayne nor come from elswhere than from about And if they cannot bréede in his mind how can they come from his hand or from his mouth We can wel say there is one God for if wee enter into our selues wee find him there and if we goe neuer so little out of ourselues we meete him euery where But that in one Essence there should be thrée persons the Father the woord and the Spirit how can it bréede in the imagination of man Or who could euer haue thought of it Also from the Creatures wee come to the Creator from mouing to a rest from nouelties to a beginning and there mannes reasoning stayes But although the first man myght knowe when hee was created yet how could he haue knowen when the world was created And although that by the new things therein we déeme it too be newe who euer durst to haue limited the first day and the first houre thereof Or how could that Chymera haue come in any mannes mynd And yet in verie déede we haue dyuers Chymeras among the auncient writers concerning the Creation of the world according to the diuersities of opinions that were among the Philosophers and the diuersities of imaginations among the comon people But was there euer any afore this booke of the Byble that began his account of tymes or his historie at the first day of the world thought he were of opinion that the world was created And séeing that the intent of al wryters of stories is to be beléeued what els had this beginning of an historie at that poynt bin but a cracking of his credit at his first enterance in if the maiestie of the Author had not serued for a warrant Lykewise that man to attayne to his appoynted end néeded the handywoorke of God himself It apâ—eareth vnto vs by the weaknesse of our nature But that for the appeasing of Gods Iustice God himself should be fayne too come downe and to take mans flesh vnto him who would say it but only God and who could bee beléeued in that case but only he So is it also concerning the conception of the Uirgin concerning the promises that were not to come to passe vntill fower hundred yéeres after coÌ„cerning the comming of the Messias and such like things which would neuer haue come in a mans head to haue written so farre of are they from mans wit I meane as of it self and without imitation And I dare boldly say that whosoeuer readeth the Scriptures aduisedly and with intent to marke them shall in euery booke finde many matters which euen by his owne iudgement had neuer come in mans mynd notwithstanding that they be spoken by wise men who both beléeued them firmely and ment to bee beléeued in speaking them What shal we say then to the Prophesyings or true foretellings which are sowen euerywhere in the Scriptures that is to wit of Gods spirit which is shed foorth from the one ende to the other I say not in scattered leaues as the Prophesies of Sybil were but aiming al at one poynt notwithstanding that they were vttered both at diuers tymes by diuers persons and in diuers places I omit the first Prophesie concerning the womans seede that should crush the Serpents head and such like perteyning to the redemption of man by the Messias because that that doctrine shall haue his proper place hereafter and I will alledge none other things than such as are alreadie proued and out of controuersie Unto Abraham was giuen this promise They seede shall doe seruice in a strange Land and bee hardly intreated there fower hundred yeeres and then will I iudge the Nation whom they shall haue serued and in the fourth generation shall they come hether againe What Oracle did euer foretell a thing so precisely so manifestly and so long aforehand And yet was that Prophesie fulfilled at the appoynted tyme and it cannot be sayd to be a counterfet for Moyses in leading the people of Israell through so many turnagaines grounded himselfe vpon none other thing And it stood him on hand to speake of a Prophesie that was common among them and deliuered from hand to hand considering that he taketh
Temple he foretelleth the ouerthrowe of them both Beeing required a sittingplace at his right hand or at his left he answereth of a Cuppe that such a petitioner is to drinke When men go about to make him King he steales away from them And whereas his Apostles looke for some greate triumphe his accomplishing of it is after the maner that the Prophet Zacharie speakes of namely by ryding vpon a shée Asse euen vpon the Colt of an Asse And yet neuerthelesse Herod the King trembleth at him in his throne the whole Counsell of the Realme are in a perplexitie and all the people are astonished And in his doings he maketh it to appeare sufficiently that he hath the hearts of all men in his hand and that if he himselfe listed hee should be obeyed both of the greatest persons and in the greatest matters Surely then wee may well say that the marke which this Iesus and the marke which the Messias leueleth at are both one namely to drawe men from the earth and to make them to plant their whole hope by his meanes in heauen It followeth that to this office which he did euidently take vppon him he brought the qualities requisite to the executing thereof that is to wit that he was both God and Man I say God as the Sonne of God and Man as borne of a woman without sinne and such in all poyntes as he was forepromised to be Of this hope we haue some footesteppes in the Gospell For some say We haue heard say that Christ endureth for euer And Nathaneel himselfe sayth Sir Art thou the Sonne of GOD and the King of Israell That is to say art thou the Sonne of GOD whom we looke for to be the King of Israell To the same purpose may wée set his two natures heere one against another Hee himselfe was hungrie and yet hee fed many thousands with a feawe Loaues He suffered thirst and yet he gaue other men liuing Waters that ouerflowed He was wéerie and yet he saide come vnto mée all yee that are weerie He payd tribute but he commaunded the Fish to pay the Tributemony for him He was dumb as a Lamb but yet was the very spéech itself He yéelded vp his spirit and dyed but he told them hee had power to take it to him againe To be short hee was condemned but he iustifieth He was slayne but he saueth He prayed but his praying was for vs and hee heareth our prayers For these countermatchings and the lyke doe wee reade of in our Euangelists in whom wee haue the dooings of both natures distinguished and yet notwithstanding ioyned togither in one persone But if they will vtterly deny our Gospels then shall wee in that poynt be more vpright than they for we will not deny al their writing Now they agree with vs that hee was man and for all their casting vp of their Foame against him in their bookes yet are they not able to charge him with any vice euen in his priuate lyfe and therefore the chiefe thing that wee haue to stand vppon is the proofe of his Godhead Iesus sayth our Gospell wrought miracles Hee healed the sicke restored Limmes to the lame gaue sight to the blind and raised the dead vnto lyfe and that not in one or twoo places but in many nor in a corner but in the open sight of the world and there are many thousands of men which will rather dye vpon the Racke than deny him yea or not preach him I aske them vpon their consciences if they will deny that he wrought any miracles If they deny it then what a miracâ—e is this that so many people doe followe a poore abiect without miracles and are contented to dye for his sake euen when he himselfe is dead And if these miracles of his as namely the restoring both of sight and lyfe such others were not very great and farre surmounting all nature of man yet who would lose his lyfe but for a better and how could hee giue the better which could not giue the other And if it bee a miracle to woorke vppon a man by touching him and much more without touching him and most of all without seeing him what a miracle is it to worke in the heartes of whole Nations farre of without seeing them and to touche them without comming at them and to turne them to him without touching them And if the bones of Elias bee commended for prophesying in his Tumbe what shall this Iesus bee for ouercomming so many people and for conquering so many Nations after his death yea and which is a greater matter euen by the death of his seruants who preached nothing but his death But the Rabbines saw welly nough that the miracles of Iesus could not be denyed And truely R. Iohanan sayth in the Talmud that a Neuew of R. Iosua the sonne of Leuy had taken poyson and that beeing adiured by the name of Iesus hee was healed out of hand and this is a verifying of that which Iesus himselfe sayth namely that if they drinke any deadly thing it shall not hurt them And Rabbi Ioses sayth that when a Serpent had bitten Eleazar the sonne of Duma Iames the Disciple of Iesus would haue healed him and Rabbi Samuel would not suffer him And Iosephus their owne Storiwriter speaking of the miracles of Iesus findeth them so wonderfull that hee cannot tell whether he ought to call him Man or God And they ought not to thinke it straunge that he should woorke miracles considering that they beléeue the miracles of Moyses of Elias of Eliseus and diuers others But some of them did attribute his miracles to Magicke and some to the power of the name of God which they charged him to haue vsurped in the examining of both which poynts I beseech them to ioyne with mee without affection As touching Magicke they say that their thréescore and tenne Senators whom they call Sanhedrin were very skilfull in it and so sayth R. Selomoh also the better to conuince the Inchaunters And we reade in Iosephus that Magicke was neuer more frequented in Iewrie then it was among the Doctors at this tyme. Now if their meaning was to conuict Iesus as an euill doer why did they not put him to shame why did they not vse the rigour of the Lawe against him How happeneth it that in their accusing of him they charge him not with any Magicke at all Or if they meant to ouercome him by the arte why did not some one of them woorke the like things or greater Why did not their miracles swallowe vp his Nay contrariwise whereof commeth it that Iosephus calleth Iesus a worker of miracles and the other sort Magicians and deceitfull Cowseners And that his miracles worke still euen after his death whereas theirs vanished away afore they were dead But like as in the tyme of Moyses God suffered great Magicians to be in AEgipt that hee might make his owne power the
of God And what a blasphemie is it toâ— vphold that the power of God is so tyed to his name that his enemyes may whether he wil or no serue their owne turnes both with his name and with his power to the ouerthrowe of his kingdome and to the stablishing of theirs Nay rather let vs say according to their owne teaching that Iesus did great miracles both in the name of God and in the power of GOD and that God gaue power vnto his name and not the name vnto God Iesus therefore was certeinly the seruant of God and endewed with such power from God Now whereas some deny that Christ should worke myracles when as notwithstanding the Scripture sayth the contrarie and the Iewes in the Gospel do continually exact signes and myracles at his hand their Talmud reporteth that Christ should discerne good from euill by the onely sent or sauour by the want of which propertie they say that Barcozba was bewrayed not to bee the Messias and whereas they affirme that the wild beasts should lay away their woodnesse and that Hierusalem should bée hoyssed vp three leagues into the ayre and such other like I confesse in déedâ— that the chiefe end of Christes comming was not to worke myracles accordingly also as we see that his doing of them was but as by workes and vppon occasion and I esteeme more of those which do heare his word and kéepe it than of those which remoue Mountaines Neuerthelesse Rabbi Hadarsan sayth he had learned of Rabbi Natronai that Christ should come with very great signes and myracles and that the Pharisies should attribute them to Art Magicke and to the names of vncleane Spirits according whervnto we reade in the Gospell that they sayd thus He casteth out Deuilles by the name of Beelzebub And the Commentarie vppon the booke of the Preacher sayth that all the myracles which went afore are nothing to the myracles of the Messias Also the Talmud in a certeine place sayth That the myracles which shal be wrought in the tyme of the Messias in the kingdomes of the Gentyles compared with the myracles that were wrought in AEgipt shal be as the substance to the accident Unto Myracles is ioyned Prophesying as a thing to be numbered among the chiefe myracles That Christ should bee a Prophet they will not denye for they take the text of Deuteronomie where a Prophet is promised them to be ment of Christ therevpon riseth this common demaund in the Gospell Art thou the Prophet And wheras they say in their Talmud that the Messias shall iudge of things by their only smell it cannot bee soundly vnderstood of any thing els than of an excellent gift of Prophesying To let passe a thousand particular Prophesies and a thousand texts whereby we perceyue that Iesus read things in the hypocritish hearts of the Pharistes and sawe things in the hearts of his Disciples which they themselues neither sawe nor perceiued who will not woonder at these which wee see so peremptorilie come to passe namely Ye shal be brought before the Princes and Magistrates of the earth men shall thinke they doe seruice vnto God when they murder you for my names sake that the glad tydings of his kingdome should bee preached through the whole world notwithstanding all impediments That Hierusalem should bee destroyed That all things should bee wasted and vnhalowed there That of the same Temple which they reuerenced so much one stone should not be left standing vpon another And that the tyme wherein these things should bee done was then so neere hand that euen those which led him to death had cause to bewayle themselues and their ChildreÌ„ For what I pray you could those poore Fishermen thinke when he spake to them of being led before Kings and which more is when he told them that they should driue Nations like flockes of Shéepe afore them at the hearing of the Gospell What likelihood was there hereof in his owne person or in theirs considering the lowlinesse of his life and the reprochfulnesse of his death And as touching the destruction of Hierusalem which befell about a fortie yéeres after sith we reade expresly in their owne Histories that the Emperour Tytus offered them peace sought the preseruation of their Temple graunted them the free vse of their Religion and during his seege did seeke as it were by intreatance to them being beseeged that he might saue and preserue them and yet notwithstanding as Iosephus reporteth they would needes perish whether he would or us and wilfully cast themselues into the same extremities whereof Iesus had forewarned them who can say that he was ignorant of the vnchaungeable determination of God notwithstanding that to the sight of Man the matter was as likely to haue falâ—e out otherwise as euer any was specially considering that the enemies themselues on whom the whole case seemed to depend laboured by al meanes to turne the destruction away from the beseeged Now albeit that as well Prophesying as Myracles haue eyther of them their peculiar and vncommunicable markes of Gods spirit and finger whereby to discerne the one from the other Yet certesse doctrine is the touchstone of them both For if there rise vp a Prophet sayth the Law and giue thee a signe or myracle and therevppon he come and counsell thee to turne aside to straunge Gods thou shalt not hearken vnto him Therfore let vs see what doctrine Iesus matched with his signes and miracles Let vs reade the Gospell from the one ende to the other and wee shall see nothing there but to loue God with all our heart and our neighbour as our selfe Also he came not to abolish the Lawe but to fulfill it nor to destroye the Temple but to purge it The Pharisies had extended the Lawe but to the outward man he condemneth their hypocrisie and bringeth it backe againe to the inward man They sayd hate your enemies but he sayd if ye loue none but your friends what are ye better than the Publicanes They sayd Thou shalt not commit adulterie thou shalt not kill But he sayd If thou looke vpoÌ„ a woman to lust after her thou hast broken the Lawe and if thou say to thy brother Racha thou hast alreadie killed him To bee short a neighbour by their interpretation was but in Iericho or néere thereabouts but he told them that a neighbour was in Samaria in idumea in all the corners of the world Also if a case concerne God he taught men to forsake Goods Preferments Father Moother Wife Children and all that euer is for loue of his seruice As for Saluation and Welfare he taught men to hoord vp treasure in Heauen and to shake off the world in this life that they may be clothed with glorie in another What is there in all this I say not which turneth a man away but which setteth him not in the right way and which tendeth not in effect to the glorie of the true
looked into the consciences of those Rabbines I beléeue hee should haue seene that they made not so good account of GOD as of themselues As for the Scriptures they expound not one text of them among a hundred to the purpose no nor scarsly without blasphemie sauing where they followe or alledge the Rabbines of old time The residew are either toyes or oldwiues tales or horrible blasphemies or things either too fond for Children or to wicked for men and such as euen the Diuell himself would be ashamed of To be short I can not tell how they that wrate that booke could bee Iewes or howe the reading of it now should not make them all become Christians Yet they reply still and say What lykelyhod is there that this Iesus was the Messias comming so attyred as he did Or were not we at least wyse woorthie to be excused for not knowing him comming disguysed after that manner Nay I demaund of you after what other sort he could or should come considering that hee came to humble himself and to be crucified for vs You looked to haue had him princelyke and he was forepromised poore a Warryour and it was told you he should be beaten and wounded with a greate trayne and he is descrybed alone vppon an Asse with a companie of wyues and there was no mo spoken of but only one with tryumphing and feasting and yee were informed aforehand that his bread should be stéeped in vineger and his Cup be full of gall and bitternesse You imagin vnder him eyther the Peace of Salomon or the Conquests of greate Alexander peace to manure Iewrie at your ease and Warre to reape the riches of the Gentyles But he came to appease Gods wrath and to vanquish the Diuell and thenceforth to make Iewes and Gentyles equall Of these two commings which is most meete both for Gods glorie and for his owne Admit he had the Empyre of Cyrus and Alexander admit he had all the power and riches of all the Kingdomes that euer were in the world what were all this but a witnesse of his want and an abate 〈◊〉 of his glorie As for example Moyses led Sixhundred thousand feyghting men out of Egipt and with the stroke of his rod he passed the red Sea and drouned the Egiptians therein Now in whether had Gods glorie more appeared and the calling of Moyses bin better warranted â— by his winning of a battell ageinst the Egiptians with so greate a nomber of men or by ouerthrowing them with one stroke of a rod In reducing the King to reason by force of armes or in making him to seeke mercy by an hoste of fleas and lyce Let vs come now to Christ. He was to subdewe the world vnder his obedience Whether was it more to his glorie and more correspondent to his Godhead to haue done it by inuesting himself in an Empyre or by ridding himself of all worldly meanes by force of armes or by his only word By conquering men with shewe of pompe or by winning them with suffering reproche at their hand By tryumphing ouer them or by being crucified by them By being alyue or euen by being dead By killing his enemyes or by yéelding vnto them By ouerthrowing his foes or by sending his seruants to suffer whatsoeuer they would do vnto them For who séeth not that in the victories of Princes their men bée partakers with them of their glorie And that in battells betwéene men the Horse and the speare haue their part And that oftentimes the harnesse and the very shadowe of the Crests of their helmets as yee would say do step in for a share Surely therefore wee may well say that Iesus could not haue shewed his Godhead better than in comming like an abiect miserable man nor his strength better than in comming in feblenesse nor his myght than in infirmitie nor his glory than in despisednes nor his eternitie than in dying nor his rysing ageine than in being buryed nor his whole presence than 〈◊〉 his way hence nor finally his quickening life than in conquering the world by the death of his Diciples For had he come otherwise man had had the glory thereof the stronglyer he had come the lesse had bin his victorie and the more pomp he had pretended outwardly the lesse had he alwayes vttered his Godhead and the more excusable had both the Iewes and Gentyles bin in not receyuing him To be short wil ye sée that he was the same sonne of God which was present with God at the creating of the world God created the world without matter or stuffe whereof and without help by his only word And Iesus being destitute of all help and meane hath conquered the world with his only word euen by his 〈◊〉 death which séemeth to haue bene a cleare dispatch of him What greater maiestie or greatnesse can we imagine than this Yea but say they where bee the signes promised by the Prophets and specially the euerlasting peace which Christ was to bring vnto the world which should turne Swords into Mattocks and Speares into Coulters To this we may answer that Iesus was borne vnder the Emperour Augustus at which tyme the Histories tell vs that the Temple of Iauus at Rome was shut vpâ— and all the world was at peace throughout as who would saythat by that meane God meant to open a free way to the preaching of his Gospell But let them first of all marke here their owne contrarietie of speech in that they require of vs here a generall peace and in other places speake of battelles against Gog and Magog and of the bathing of themselues in the blud of the Gentyles insomuch as they say that their second Messias the Sonne of Ioseph shal be slayne in battell Nay as he is a spirituall King so bee his warres and peace spirituall also Esay calleth him a man of warre but of his warres he sayth They shall turne their swordes into Coulters On the contrary part he calleth him that Prince of peace but of such peace wherof it is sayd The chastisemeÌ„t of our peace was layd vpon him and by his stripes are we healed that is to wit he was wounded for our misdeedes and torne for our iniquities To be short Micheas sayth He himselfe shal be the peace Neuerthelesse to the intent ye should not thinke he meaneth of your manuring of your grounds of your dressing of your â—ine-yards yet shall not the Assyrian sayth he ceasse to come into our Land and to march in our Palaces And therefore doth Ieremie well say He shall breake the yoke from thy necke burst asunder thy bonds howbeit as he expoundeth himselfe in another place in such sort as thou shalt not serue straunge Gods any more that is to say he will both winne vs victorie and be our victorie himself against the Deuil and also both purchace vs peace and be our peace vnto God according to this which he sayth another where
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
persecuted the Christians a fresh contrarie to the custome of the Romanes insomuch that Nero made them to be put to the slaughter as if they had bin the authors of the burning of Rome which he himself had caused to be set on fire And we reade that in the same time the Senate made certeyne decrées whereby many thousands of Christians infected with the Iewish superstition for so did they terme them bycause they had their originall from the Iewes were banished into dyuers Iles. Which thing the Senate would not haue done considering their ordinary maner of proceeding in caces of Religion if the hastie increase of that spirituall kingdome had not put them in feare And within a whyle after we see how all the Emperours were amazed at this flocking of people togither vnto thē for counsel how to extinguish that doctrine and how fires were kindled ageinst them on all sides and yet how Nations neuerthelesse were shaken at the voice of the Apostles and the verie Courts of Princes with their Legions of Souldyers were made to inclyne vnto Christ. Sufficient witnesses whereof be the Lawes of that age wherein it was inacted that the Swoordgirdle of a Souldyer should not bee worne of any Christian that they should not beare any office or haue any charge in the Court and such other And Vlpian the Lawyer did himself write fower bookes ageinst the christians And truely we reade that a greate many gaue ouer their charges rather than thei would forsake the Christen fayth Moreouer in the tyme of Marcus Aurelius there was a Legion that was called the Legion of Malta which was altogither of Christians of which Legion hee witnesseth in a certeine Epistle of his that being vpon a time brought to vtter distresse by the Marcomanes this Legion obtayned by prayer beth Thunder from Heauen ageinst the enemie and Rayne wherewith to refresh the whole army whereupon that Legion was afterward called the Thunderer And therefore saieth Tertullian in his Apologie If as many of vs as be Christians should get vs away into some corner of the world ye would woonder to see how feaw people ye should haue remayning to you ye should be fayne to seeke other Cities to commaund or rather you to flee away out of hand and too hyde yourselues for yee should haue mo enemyes than Citizens left ye We haue filled now whole Cities Ilands and Castles Counselles Palaces and Courtes Trybes Legions and Armyes What warre were we not able inough to vndertake if we listed And what is it that we might not bring to passe dying so manfully and so willingly as wee do Nay the Lawe of our warre teacheth vs to dye and not to kill Now what kingdome euer had so greate increase in so short tyme But which is a greater matter what a thing is it to vanquish by yeelding to be furthered by retyring and to conquer by dying We reade of the Emperour Tiberius that vppon a letter written to him from Pilate reporting the miracles of Iesus his giltlesse death and his rysing agein from the dead he preferred a bill to the Senate with his assent vnto it to haue had them proclayme Iesus to bee God and that the Senate refused it because they themselues were not the authors thereof but that Tyberius abode still in his opinion And therevpon Tertullian sayth Goe looke vpon your Registers and the Acts of your Senate Also Vespasian the scourge of the Iewes forbare the Christians and Traiane moderate the persecution vpon the report of their innocencie made vnto him by Plinie Marcus Aurelius hauing felt the helpe of their prayers did the like Likewise did Antonine but to another end namely because that as he himselfe writeth in an epistle of his persecution did stablish the Church of the Christians To bee short Alexander the sonne of Mammea did in his Chappell worship Iesus surnamed Christ of whom also he tooke his Poesie and therefore the Antiochians called him the Archpriest of Syria And it is reported that for Christs sake the Emperour Adrian builded many Temples without Images Finally the good Emperours of Rome Vespasian Adrian Traiane Antonine the méeke and such others had Christ in estimation and allowed of the Christians But how farre Surely as to acknowledge in their hearts that they were good and honest men and that Iesus had more in him than was of Man But yet for all this If they be accused say these good Emperours let them bee punished if not let them not be sought This is a good proofe and allowance of their innocencie but surely it is but a slender reléefe for them Contrarywise the wicked Emperours Nero Domitian Valerian Commodus Maximine Decius and such others condemned them and by their condemning of them did iustifie them For what did they euer allowe but euill But what maner of condemning is this Kill all burne all yea whole Cities haue no respect of sex of age or of qualitie Scarcely had the Christians any breathingtime but a new counterbuffe came vpon thē againe they were no sooner from the torture but they must too it againe And yet God did so rule all things by his prouidence to the intent the whole glorie in this misterie should redound to himself that the mield dealing of the good Emperours did in déede iustifie the trueth but yet durst they not aduaunce or further it whereas on the contrary part the malice of the other sort condemned it and persecuted it to the vttermost but yet could they not destroye it To be short in fewe yéeres there passed ten horrible persecutions vppon that poore Church and yet in the end the Emperours themselues submitted themselues to the Crosse of Christ and their Empyres sought their welfare there Therefore we may alwaies come back to this poynt That he yea only he which first created the world of nothing when there was not yet any thing to withstand him is able to recouer the world from Sathan and to subdue it to himself without the helpe of any thing euen by instruments repugnant to him and in despight of the whole world bending itself ageinst him But what will ye say if he subdue not onely men but also their Gods not only the world but also the Souereynes of the world I meane the Diuels which at that time held the world vnder their tyrannie Let vs reade the Histories of the Greekes Romanes that were afore the comming of Christ and what shall wee find in them but the Myracles and Oracles of Diuels What els haue Varro Cicero Titus Liuius and such others among the Romanes or Herodotus Diodorus Pausanias and the residewe among the Greekes On the contrarie part we see that euen euer since Christ was borne and preached the world hath chaunged his hewe Iesus was borne vnder the Emperour Augustus and see here what Apollo answereth vnto him An Hebrew Child which daunteth with his powre The blessed
in the first degree of Aries and the Moone was newly entered into Libra Others say that the Moone was in Virgo and the Sunne in Pisces which commeth al to one in effect and therfore that there could bee no naturall Eclips by reason of this opposition To bée short some say it was vniuersall ouer all the world and then was it a speciall worke of God for the order of Nature can doe no such thing in the world Othersome say it was peculiar to the only Land of Iewrie and then is Gods speciall working yet more manifest for it is as yée would say a poynting at the cause of the Eclips with his finger namely the suffering of the Sauiour of the world And as little also could that Eclips be by the order of Nature as the other For who but onely God could dim the sight and light of the Sunne in such sorte without a Coniunction thereof with the Moone that it should giue light to all places sauing onely Iewrie as who would say he sholed out Iewrie frō al the rest of the world And as touching the Earthquake that accompanyed it the foresayd Phlegon speaketh thereof ioyning it to the Eclips as our Euangelistes doe And these cases are so rare and vnseene not in some one age but in the whole course of the world that seeing they be reported to haue bene in one selfesame yéere and both together they cannot be vnderstood of any other than those which our Euangelists and Authors speake of To be short the Ueyle or Curteine of the Temple did rend asunder For the beléeuing or discrediting of this poynt there néeded no more but to goe to the place and see whether it were so or no. And Iosephus speaking of the foretokens of the destruction of the Iewes reporteth the like thing Behold Iesus is now dead but the third day he ryseth againe as he himselfe had told aforehand If he had sayd as Mahomet sayd about an eight hundred yéeres hence I will come see you againe he had taken a good terme for tryall of his lye But when he sayd I will come againe within these three daies his deceyt if he had ment any would soone haue bin discouered Here they crye out and cannot admit the storie to bee true And yet notwithstanding when they reade that one Erus an Armenian that one Aristeus or that one Thespesius rose againe to life they thinke no euill of Plato Herodotus or Plutarke for reporting it How vnindifferent are these people which will néedes both beléeue and be beléeued of all men without witnesse and vnrequested and yet no witnesse can suffice to make them beléeue their owne saluation Women sawe Christ men touched him the vnbeléeuers felt him with their fingars he did eate and drinke and was conuersant among them dyuers tymes and many daies and yet all this they stoutly denye But Pylate witnessed it and the Apostles being earst astonished at it did afterward preach it publish it signe it with their blud He whom the Chambermayd had made amazed and who had denyed him thrée tymes in one hower when he was aliue doth preach publish him euen in Hierusalem before the Magistrates and before the Priestes and no threates can make him holde his peace If Christ rotted in his graue what hope of benefite was to be had of his dead carkesse Nay if he liued not in Peter who vrged Peter to preach him And if he spake not in him who would haue beléeued him Who say I would haue beléeued it at leastwise so farre as to preach and publish it and to signe and seale it with their blud vpon his report and also after that he was gone Uerely the very slaunderers themselues giue light vnto this trueth For thervpon it is that the Iewes haue feyned that his bodie was stolne away for they found it not there but Pylate prooueth them lyers expresly And therevppon also did some of the Gentyles surmise that they had crucified a Ghoste or Sporne in stead of him which thing the Iewes vphold to bee very false who tooke offence at his death as which thei knew to be a matter of trueth in respect wherof they call him still the Crucified But hee liued then and liueth still for euer and euer And therefore as he had promised his Disciples afore his death Sainct Luke sayth that he sent them the holy Ghost in firie Tongues within a few daies after his rising againe wherby they receiued the gift of Tongues or Languages yea and that in such wise that the same gift came doune vpon many others by their laying of their hands vpō them This is one of the things which they will not beléeue as who would say it were not as easte for God to giue one man the vnderstanding of many Tongues as it was to deuide one language into so many when he was displeased But if it be a bragge as they surmise to what end was it and what might haue bin more easely disproued The Magistrate had them in his hand why did he not examine them before the people Hierusalem was as the Musteringplace of all the East and where then might they haue bene disproued and made to recant it Nay the effect that followed vpon it confirmed it For the Apostles béeing but Fisshers and Publicanes and at the beginning ignorant persons men which ordinarily knewe no more than their owne moother tongue and that but grossely did afterward write bookes and trauell ouer the whole world preaching in all places Consider what lyking either the Iewes or the Gentyles would haue had of such folke to haue made them their spokesmen to the people And yet the Disciples did it so effectually that in lesse than fortie yéeres the whole world that was inhabited was replenished with the name and doctrine of Iesus How could that haue bin done if they had not had an extraordinarie skill of the Languages Soothly the Historie thereof was so true and so commonly knowne that Simon Magus to countenance himselfe withall reported himselfe to bée the same that came downe vpon the Apostles in firie tungs vnder pretence that by the helpe of the Deuill he counterfetted after a sort the gift of tongues And as for some searchers and sisters of words it is not for them to carpe at the Hebrewe phrases which they finde in our Euangelistes seeing that in Horace or in Virgill they count Gréeke phrases for an elegancie For to the intent they may perceiue that it is done to expresse Christes matters the more pithily and to represent them the more néerely let them reade S. Paule and there they shall finde so fayre a Gréeke tongue so full of pithie wordes so full of excellent and chosen phrases and so peculiar to the Gréeke tongue it selfe that the best learned doe confesse he had the very ground of it and alledge him for an example of eloquence Let vs come to the historie of him This S. Paule a Disciple of
booke of Monarchie Iustin to the Gentyles Athenagoras in his Treatise concerning the Resurection The Recantation of Orpheus who is called the Author of the pluralitie of Gods Clemens in his Protreptik to the Gentiles Phocylides Theognis Homer Hesiodus Sophocles in Cyrillus against Iulian the Apostaia Euripides Clemeus in his Aratus Iouis genus sumus Ouid. Virgil in his fourth booke of Husbandry euerywhere else Scaeuola as he is alledged by S. Austin in the Citie of God lib. 3. Cap. 27. The consent of People In the Citie of God lib. 4. cap. 24. Iamblichus concerning the Mysteries of the Egiptians cap. 37. 39. Plutarke in his treatise of Isis and Osyris Cicero in his second booke of Lawes Deos adeunto casté opes amouento si secus faxint Deus ipse vindex erit that iâ— Goe to God chastly remoue away riches If any doe otherwise God himselfe will punish him Tertullian in his Defence Lactantius lib. 2. cap. 1. Lactantius lib. 1 Chap. 6. Iustine in his Apologie The Cracles of the Sibylles Lactan. lib. 1. cap. 6. Porphyrius in his tenth book of the prayses of Philosophy * Pausanias Proclus vpon Timaeus Deuter. 6. Psalm 85. Man cannot comprehend God Cicero in his booke of the Nature of the Gods Plotinus Enn. 6. lib. 8. cap 11 Galen in his 9. booke vpon the Decrees of Hippocrates Although it appeare by certeine demonstration that it is a diuine workmayster that hath procreated vs yet can we not by any wit or reason conceyue neither what his substance is nor how he made vs. For we must consider that it is a farre other thing to shew that a certeyne Prouidence made vs than to knowe the substance eyther of our owne Soule or of him that made vs. * Pesuit tenebras latibulum suum Defecâ— in Aâ—rijs tuis Domine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mercurius Trismegistus in his Poemander cap. 2. 6. Ehjch asher ehjeh Plotiri Ennead 7. lib. 7. cap. 38. Mercurius in his PoemaÌ„der Prouer. 30. v. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayth Porph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayth Porph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in praepositionibus Dennis in his booke of the names of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tibi silentium laus What God is not Vnmouable 1. Phisik 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Out of the verses of Parmenides reported by Simplicius Vnchaungeable Euerlasting Mere Act. Erom Possibilitie into deed A grayne may become an herbe and a kernell a tree which they be not so long as they continue a grayne and a kernell Vnmateriall God is single and vncompounded Bodylesse Numenius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Place is to be considered eyther as a thing created or as a conteyner of a thing placed This way God is nowhere the other way he is euery where So is he both euery where and no where No where by limitation or poynting downe of place euery where by filling all places S. Austin vpon the Psalmes 1. Phisic 2. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Infinite Infinite not by stretching or streyning out but by sheading in The begetting of the Sonne or of the second Person Why the second Person is called the Son the Worde Speech Wisedome c. Looke in the 12. Chapter of Mercurius trimegistus Poemander Rapidâ— quadam Coruscaâ—ione perfundit animum that is to say it sheadeth through the mynd with a certeyne swift glistering Vox prâ—fâ—rt Animus ratiocinatur Mentis 〈…〉 is to sayâ— the voyce vttereth the mynd reasoneth or debaâ—eth and so Reason is the very word or 〈…〉 Mynd The proceeding of the holy Ghost or third person Why the holy Ghost is called Loue. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of whom by whom and in whom Three Persons and no mo Traces of the Trinitie in the World and in Man The welhead the Spring the streame Plato in his Philebus Plato lib. 3. of his Common-weale and lib. 10. 12. of Lawes Aristo lib. 1. of Heauen lib. 12. of his Metaphisiks Plotin often c. The Chaldies heard speake of the Trinite Zoroastâ—es Plutarke in his treatise of Isis and Osyris Plinie and Aristotle beare witnesse that he wrote many bookes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pletho Gemistus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proclus lib. 2. 3. vpon Platoes Parmenides ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mercurie The Egiptians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the selfebeing in his Poemander cap. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mercury alledged by Cyrillus lib. 1. against Iulian. in his Poemander cap. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Merc. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Austin in the Prayer of Fiue Heresies Mercurie in his Esculapius Chap. 3. 7. Mercurie in his holy Sermon in his Poemander cap. 3. Gen. 1. Mercurie in his Poemander cap. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyrillus against Tulgentius Suidas in his Mercurie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iamblichus in his 39. Chap. of Mysteries Plato in his Phedon and Philebus Eusebius of Demonstration Iamblichus Chapt. 1. Produs vpon Plato Damascius the Platonist The auncient Greekes Orpheus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And agayne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Clemens lib. 5 Strom. Orph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pherecydes in Proclus Orph. in Argonaut Aristotle in his first booke of Heauen Parmenides in his Cosmogoniâ— ailedged by Plutarke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plotin Ennead 4. lib. 1. Chap. 8. Zeno the stoik Aleinous concerning the Doctrine of Plato Plato in his Epinomis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in his sixt booke of Common-weale 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in his Epistle to Hermias Erastus and Coriscus Plato vnto Dennis the Tyrant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Origen in his 6. booke against Câ—lsus In his first booke of Philosophy Also in his booke of the World In his first booke of Heauen Orpheus in hâ—â— Argonawts Cicero Iamblichus Porphyrius Clemens in the first booke of his Stromars Out of Alexander Hermippus Plato in his Timaeus Proclus vpon Timaeus Plutarke in his Treatise of Isis and Osyris Plato in his Epinomis Cratylus and Phil. Iustine Manethon alledged by Iosephus against Appion Psalm 2. Prouerb 8. Gen. 1. Esay 53. Esay 61. Psalm 33. The Iewes themselues do proue the Trinitie R. Simeon ben Iohai expounding the 6. of Esay Psalm 50. and the Midraâ—ch vpoÌ„ the same R. Moyses Hadarsan vpon the 42. of Gen. Midrasch Cobeleth chap. 4. Rabbi Ishaâ— ben Schola vppon the last verses of the 111. and 112. Psalmes R. Azariel in his Commentarie or treatise of Holinesse Iepher haijeâ—sirab R. Hamay in his Treatise of Speculation Hagnij â—n R. Ishaac vpon the booke of the Creation Cether chochnah binah Rabbi Assee In his booke intytled Schaguar orah that is to say The Gate of Light The Epistle of the Secretes of R Nehumia the Sonne of Hacana * This is to bee seene euen in Sainct Math. chap. 1. ver 20. where the Angell sayth to Ioseph that Mary
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