Sponges Being banished the City in his way he looking backe lifted vp his hands toward heauen saying O Pallas thou Lady of this City why takest thou such delight in three the most vnluckie Monsters of the world the Owle the Dragon and the People Being reuiled by an injurious prating Companion and being forced to make reply in his owne behalfe by which scolding and loud language must needs arise I am now compelled said hee to vndertake such a combat in which he that hath the vpper hand getteth the worst and whoso ouercommeth shall be most sure to lose the Victorie c. It was a saying of the Emperour Sigismund That those Courts were onely happy where proud men were depressed and meeke men aduanced The same Prince being asked What man he held worthy of a Diadem Onely such an one saith hee whom prosperitie puffeth not vp neither can aduersitie dismay To one who praised him aboue measure so farre hyperbolising that hee would needs make him more than mortall the Emperour much displeased with such palpable flatterie strooke him two or three blowes vpon the cheeke Who saying to the Emperor Why do you strike me Mary quoth the Emperour because thou didst bite me c. Fredericke the Emperor being demanded Which of his Subiects and Seruants he loued best and that were dearest vnto him made answer Those that feare not me more than they feare God The same Emperor when one asked himâ— What hee thought to be the best thing that could happen to a man in this world Replied To haue a good going out of the World Rodulphus Caesar the first that traduced the Empire into the Austrian Familyâ— when one asked of him Why generally all men despised the exercise of such Arts as they had been taught but to rule and gouerne which was the Art of Arts no man refused That is no wonder said hee because they thinke all such to be Fooles that cannot rule and there is no man that thinks himself a Foole. But what are all these where the wisedome to seeke after God shall be in the least kinde neglected God saith Salomon loueth no man if he dwelleth not with Wisedome for shee is more beautifull than the Sunne and is aboue all the order of the Starres and the Light is not to be compared vnto her for Night commeth vpon that but Wickednesse cannot ouercome Wisedome I end this Argument with these few lines extracted Ex Antholog Sacr. Iacob Billij Pythagoras olim quid sensuerit c. Not what Pythagoras in times past thought Not sharpe Chrisippus by his study sought What Plato's or what Zeno's censure was Or what th' opinion of Protagoras What Anaxagoras brought forth to light Or Aristotle the learn'd Stagerite How many heathen gods there were to show Or goddesses shall we call this To Know He that for such cause shall himselfe aduance Can brag of nothing but blinde Ignorance He onely can of Wisedome truly bost Who knowes the Father Sonne and Holy-Ghost Many things are found to be monstrous prodigious in Nature the effects whereof diuers attribute to sundry causes some either to defect or super-aboundance in Nature others to the power and operations of Daemons good or bad We read That when Lucius Martius and Iulius Sextius were Consuls in Rome two mountaines remoued from their proper places and so impetuously met together that hauing vented a great quantitie of fire and smoke into the aire by the violence of their encounter they returned backe againe into their owne scituation first hauing destroyed many Villages which lay betwixt them killing much cattell where many Roman Knights too aduenturous perished by the same prodegie The same Author relateth That in the time that Nero Caesar wore the Imperiall Purple Vessus Marcellus whom the Emperour had sent into the Kingdome of Naples had two fields distant the one from the other certaine furlongs the one was a faire greene medow the other planted with Oliue trees which miraculously changed places for the Oliue field was transported where the medow was and the medow to the place where the Oliues grew And this was supposed to be done by an Earthquake This is approued for a truth by the Annals of sundry Learned men bur especially remembred in the booke of the Mountaines It hath been likewise obserued that in the sacrifice of Beasts no hearts haue beene found in the bodies For so it happened when Caesar the Dictator first sate in the golden Chaire Cicero and Pliny both report That Caius Marius offering sacrifice at Vtica no heart was found in the beast which the Priest coniectured proceeded from no naturall cause And therefore it may be thought to be the imposture of euill Spirits who to delude and abuse the people stole the heart away from the Altar inspiring the Priest to say something thereupon as partly foreseeing what was likely to succeed after It is recorded also That in the sacrifice which Marcus Marcellus made before he was slain in the battell fought against Hannibal That the first day the Priest could finde no heart in the beast and the second day opening another he found two Aulus Gellius telleth vs That vpon the same day when Pyrrhus died after the heads of the sacrificed beasts were cut off they licked vp their owne bloud which was spilt vpon the ground As also That the same yeare when Hannibal was vanquished by Scipio Publ. AElius and Cneius Cornelius being Consuls wheat was seene to grow vpon trees Many more I could alledge to the like purpose c. Ficin Epist. lib. 11. vseth these words Prodegies hapning before or at the death of Princes come not by fortune because they obserue order nor by Nature by reason they are diuers amongst themselues If therefore neither accidentally nor naturally it must needs inferre they arise by a more sublime Intelligence exuperant aboue the power or strength of Nature And they are referred vnto three chiefe causes For there is Person which is the Daemon Familiar which the Theologists call Angelus Custos Then there is a Power called the Keeper or Gardian of the Place the House the City or the Kingdome and this is tituled by the name of Principate Aboue these is the sublime Order or Chorus of Powers Daemons or Angels into which number or lot by the similitude of Office the excellent Minde or Soule is to shift as it were into it's owne Star there to remaine as a Collegue in the same office And as there are three Authors of prodegies so there are three kindes The sublime Classe kindleth the crested or bearded Comets prouoketh Thunder casteth out Lightning causeth Incendiaries and falling Starres The Power of the Prouince shaketh the Prefect ouerturneth buildings declareth Oracles and designeth violent Heats and Vapours The Familiar Custos or Daemon begetteth Dreames causeth or disturbeth sleepes and taketh charge of man as well in his priuat chamber as in the streets or fields The first
did great things and in the comming of Antichrist the Pseudo-Christiani i. false-Christians before him with him and after him by the aid of the wicked Spirit did maruellous things And in another place commenting vpon the same Euangelist As when a man telleth thee a Tale which thou art not willing to heare the more he speaketh the lesse thou bearest away Or trauelling in haste when thy minde is otherwise occupied though in thy speed thou meetest many yet thou takest not notice of any that passe thee so the Iewes dealt with our Sauiour for though they saw many signes and maruellous things done by him yet notwithstanding they demanded a signe from him because they heard such things as they marked not and saw such things as they tooke no pleasure to behold Hugo De Operib 3. Dierum speaketh thus Res multis modis apparant mirabiles c. Many wayes things appeare maruellous somtimes for their greatnesse sometimes for their smalnesse some for their rarietie others for their beauty First according to their greatnesse as where any creature doth exceed the proportion of it's own Kinde so we admire a Gyant amongst Men a Leviathan or Whale amongst Fishes a Gryphon amongst Birds an Elephant amongst foure-footed Beasts a Dragon amongst Serpents c. The second for their smalnesse as when certaine creatures are scanted of that dimension proper vnto their Kinde as in Dwarfes small Beagles and the like or in Moths small Worms in the hand or finger c. which how little soeuer yet they participate life and motion with those of larger dimension and size neither are they any way disproportionate in their Kinds but the one as well declareth the power and wisedome of the Creator as the other Consider therefore whether thou shouldst more wonder at the tuskes of the Boare than the teeth of a Worme at the legs of a Gryphon or a Gnat at the head of an Horse or a Locust at the thighes of an Estrich or a Fly If in the one thou admirest the greatnesse and strength in the other thou hast cause to wonder at the smalnesse and dexterity as in the one thou maist behold eyes so great that they are able to daunt thee in the other thou mayst see eyes so small than thine are searce able to discern them and euen in these little creatures thou shalt find such adiuments and helps of nature that there is nothing needfull or defectiue in the smallest which thou shalt finde superfluous in the greatest c. We wonder why the Crocodile when he feeds moueth not his lower chaw how the Salamander liueth vnscorched in the fire how the Hedgehog is taught with his sharpe quills to wallow and tumble beneath the Fruit trees and returne home laden with Apples to his resting place who instructed the Ant to be carefull in Summer to prouide her selfe of food for Winter or the Spider to draw small threds from it's owne bowels to insidiate and lay nets for the Flies All these are infallid testimonies of the wisedome and power of the Almighty These are only wonders in nature but no Miracles Chrisostom supr Math. saith thus Quatuor sunt mirabiles imitatores c. There be foure miraculous Imitators made by Christ A Fisherman to be the first Shepheard of his Flocke a Persecutor the first Master and Teacher of the Gentiles a Publican the first Euangelist a Theefe that first entred into Paradise And further That of three things the World hath great cause to wonder of Christs resurrection after death of his ascention to heauen in the Flesh and that by his Apostles being no better than Fishermen the whole world should be conuerted But if any thing strange or prodigious hath beene heretofore done by Mahomet or his associates they haue been rather imposterous than miraculous Or admit they were worthy to be so called yet do they not any way iustifie his blasphemous Religion For you may thus reade Iustine Martyr De Respons ad Quest. 5. fol. 162. As the Sun rising vpon the Good and Euill the Iust and Vniust is no argument to confirme the euil and injust man in his wickednesse and injustice so ought it not to confirme heretiques in their errors if at any time miraculous things be done by them For if the effect of a miracle be an absolute signe and demonstration of pietie God would not then reply vpon the Reprobate and Cursed at the last day when they shall say vnto him Lord haue we not in thy Name prophesied and cast out diuels and done many Miracles I neuer knew you depart from me ô ye Cursed c. Christ was miraculous in his Incarnation his Natiuitie his Life Doctrine Death and Resurrection as will easily appeare but first it shall not be amisse to speake a word or two of his blessed Mother Petrus Chrisologus writeth thus Vnexpressible is the sacrament of the Natiuitie of our Lord the God of Life which wee ought rather to beleeue than to examine A Virgin conceiued and brought forth which Nature affourded not Vse knew not Reason was ignorant of Vnderstanding conceiued not This at which Heauen wondred Earth admired the Creature was stupified what humane Language is able to deliuer Therefore the Euangelist as he opened the conception and birth in an human phrase so he shut it vp in a Diuine secret And this he did to shew That it is not lawfull for a man to dispute that which he is commanded to beleeue And againe How can there be the least dammage vnto modestie where there is interessed a Deitie Where an Angell is the Messenger Faith the Bride-maid Chastitie the Contract Vertue the Despouser Conscience the Priest God the Cause integritie the Conception Virginitie the Birth a Maid the Mother Let no man therefore iudge that thing after the manner of Man which is done by a diuine Sacrament let no man examine a coelestiall mysterie by earthly reason or a secret nouelty by that which is frequent and common Let no man measure that which is Singular by Example nor deriue contumely from Pietie nor run into danger by his rashnesse when God hath prouided saluation by his Goodnesse Origen vpon Mathew moues this Question What was the necessitie that Mary the blessed Virgin should be espoused vnto Ioseph but either because that mysterie should be concealed from the Diuell and so the false Accuser should finde no cauil against her chastitie being asfied vnto an husband or else that after the Infant was borne he should be the mothers Conduct into AEgypt and backe againe For Mary was the vntouched the vnblemished the immaculate Mother of the onely begotten Son of God Almighty Father and Creator of all things of that Sonne who in Heauen was without a Mother in Earth without a Father in Heauen according to his Deitie in the bosome of his Father in Earth according to his humanitie in the lap of his Mother Gregorie the Great saith Though Christ Iesus be one thing of the
world in euery Nation Feare first made gods with Diuine adoration Saith Martial If thy Barber then should dare When thou before him sit'st with thy throat bare And he his Rasor in his hand to say Giue me this thing or that Wilt thou say nay Or grant it him Take 't into thy beleefe He 's at that time a Ruffin and a Theefe And not thy Barber Neither can 't appeare Bounty that 's granted through imperious Feare Of the word Superstition the first ground Was To preserue to th' future whole and sound The memorie of Fathers Sons and Friends Before deceast and to these seeming ends Were Images deuis'd Which some would bring As their first author from th' Assyrian King Ninus whose father Belus being dead That after death he might be honored Set vp his statue which as most agree Was in his new built city Niniuee Whither all malefactors make repaire And such offenders whose liues forfeit are By the Lawes doom but kneeling to that Shrine Were sanctuar'd as by a thing diuine Hence came it that as gods they now abhor'd The Sun and Moone which they before ador'd With Stars and Planets they are now at strife And since by it they had recouered life Late forfeit hold it as a sov'raigne Deitie And therefore as it were in gratefull pietie They offred sacrifice burnt Incense gaue Oblations as to that had power to saue This which in Theeues and Murd'rers first began In time so generall grew that not a man But was of that beleefe and so withdrew That diuine worship which was solely due To the Creator and to him alone And gaue 't to Idols made of wood and stone And yet the Poet Sophocles euen then When the true God was scarsly knowne to men In honour of the supreme Deitie Much taunted the vain Greeks Idolatrie One God there is saith he and only one Who made the Earth his Footstoole Heav'n his Throne The swelling Seas and the impetuous Winds The first he calmeth and the last he binds In prison at his pleasure and yet wee Subiects vnto this fraile mortalitie Of diffident hearts determin and deuise To the Soules dammage many fantasies The Images of gods we may behold Carv'd both in stone and wood some left in gold Others in Iv'ry wrought and we vnwise By offring to them solemne Sacrifice Thinke we do God good seruice But the Deity Sole and supreme holds it as meere impiety Saint Austin neuer could himselfe persuade That such who mongst the antient Gentiles made Their Idoll gods beleev'd in them for he Saith confidently Though in Rome there be Ceres and Bacchus with a many more Whom they in low obeisance fall before They do it not as vnto absolute things That haue in them the innate seeds and springs Of being and subsistence but much rather As to the seruants of th' Almighty Father Yet these did worship something 't doth appeare As a Supreme whom they did loue or feare This Age breeds men so bruitsh naturall As to beleeue there is no God at all Such is the Atheist with whom can be had No competition one obtuse or mad Who cannot scape Heav'ns most implacable rod. The Psalmists Foole who saith There is no God Would such but spend a little vacant time To looke from what 's below to things sublime From terrene to coelestiall and confer The Vniuersall with what 's singuler They shall find nothing so immense and hye Beyond their stubborn dull capacity But figures vnto them his magnitude Again nothing so slight as to exclude It name amongst his creatures nought so small But proues to them his power majesticall Tell me ô thou of Mankind most accurst Whether to be or not to be was first Whether to vnderstand or not to know To reason or not reason well bee 't so I make that proposition all agree That our Not being was before To be For we that are now were not in Times past Our parents too ev'n when our moulds were cast Had their progenitors their fathers theirs So to the first By which it plaine appeares And by this demonstration 't is most cleare That all of vs were not before we were For in the Plants we see their set and ruin In Creatures first their growth then death pursuing In Men as well as Beasts since Adam's sinning The end is certaine signe of the beginning As granted then we boldly may proclaime it There was a Time if we a Time may name it When there was neither Time nor World nor Creature Before this Fabrick had such goodly feature But seeing these before our eyes haue being It is a consequence with Truth agreeing Of which we only can make this construction From some Diuine power all things had production And since of Nothing nothing can befall And betwixt that which is bee 't ne're so small And what is not there is an infinite space Needs must some Infinite supply the place It followes then The prime Cause and Effector Must be some potent Maker and Protector A preualent great and eternall God Who before all beginning had aboad Come to the Elements A war we see Twixt Heate and Cold Drought and Humiditie Now where 's Antipathy must be Annoy One laboring still the other to destroy And yet in one composure where these meet There 's Sympathie Attone and cons'nance sweet The Water doth not fight against the Fire Nor doth the Aire against the Earth conspire All these though opposites in vs haue peace Vniting in one growth and daily increase To make inueterate Opposites agree Needs must there be a God of Vnitie What is an Instrument exactly strung Vnlesse being plaid vpon it yeelds no tongue Or pleasant sound that may delight the eares So likewise of the musicke of the Spheres Which some haue said chym'd first by accident O false opinion'd Foole What 's the intent Of thy peruersenesse or thine ignorance Shall I designe what Fortune is or Chance Nothing they are saue a meere perturbation Of common Nature an exorbitation And bringing out of square these to controule Therefore must needs be an intelligent Soule For know you not you Empty of all notion That nothing in it selfe hath power of motion And that which by anothers force doth moue The cause of that effect must be aboue Th' originall of Mouing must be Rest Which in our common Dialls is exprest The Sun-beame pâ—ints the houre the shadow still From our shifts to another ev'n vntill Thou tel'st vnto the last yet 't is confest That all this while th' Artificer may rest The Earth in sundry colours deckt we know With all the Herbage and the Fruits below The Seas and Flouds Fish in aboundance store Fowles numberlesse within the Aire do soare And all these in their seuerall natures clad So fairely that her selfe can nothing add From whence haue these their motion Shall we say From th' Elements How comes it then that
astray as ev'ly minded For they in their owne wickednesse are blinded For nothing they Gods mysteries regard Nor of a good man hope for the reward Neither discerne That honour doth belong Vnto the faultlesse Soules that thinke no wrong For God created Man pure and vnblam'd Yea after his owne Image was he fram'd But by the Diuels enuy Death came in Who holds with him shall proue the Scourge of sin But in great boldnesse shall the Righteous stand Against the face of such as did command Them to the torture and by might and sway The fruits of all their labors tooke away When they shall see him in his strength appeare They shall be vexed with an horrid feare When they with an amased countenance Behold their wonderfull deliuerance And change their mindes and sigh with griefe and say Behold these men we labour'd to betray On whom with all contempt we did incroch And held them a meere by-word of reproch We thought their liues to madnesse did extend And there codld be no honour in their end How come they now amongst Gods Children told And in the list of Saints to be inrol'd Therefore from Truth 's way we haue deuious bin Nor trod the path the Righteous haue walkt in From the true Light we haue our selues confin'd Nor hath the Sun of Knowledge on vs shin'd The way of Wickednesse which leadeth on To ruine and destruction we haue gon By treading dangerous paths our selues w' haue tyr'd But the Lords way we neuer yet desir'd What profit hath our Pride or Riches brought Or what our Pompe since these are come to nought All these vaine things like shadowes are past by Or like a Post that seems with speed to fly Or as a Bird the earth and heav'n betweene Who makes her way and yet the path not seene The beating of her wings yeelds a soft sound But of her course there 's no apparance found As when an Arrow at a marke is shot Finds out a way but we perceiue it not For suddenly the parted aire vnites And the fore-passage is debat'd our â—ights So we no sooner borne and take our breath But instantly we hasten on to death In our liues course we in no vertue ioy'd And therefore now are in our sinnes destroy'd Th'Vngodlie's hopes to what may we compare But like the dust that 's scattered in the aire Or as the thin some gathered on the waue Which when the tempest comes no place can haue Or as the smoke dispersed by the wind Which blowne abroad no rest at all can find Or else As his remembrance steales away Who maketh speed and tarieth but a day But of the Iust for euer is th' aboad For their reward is with the Lord their God They are the charge and care of the most High Who tenders them as th' Apple of his eye And therefore they shall challenge as their owne From the Lords hand a Kingdome and a Crowne With his right hand hee 'l couer them from harme And mightily defend them with his arme He shall his Ielousie for Armor take And put in armes his Creatures for their sake His and their Foes to be reueng'd vpon He for a glorious breast-plate shall put on His Righteousnesse and for an Helmet beare True Iudgement to astonish them with feare For an invinc'd shield Holinesse he hath And for a sword he sharpens his fierce Wrath. Nay the whole World hee 'l muster to surprise His Enemies and fight against th' Vnwise The thunderbolts by th' hand of the most High Darted shall from the flashing lightnings fly Yea fly ev'n to the marke as from the Bow Bent in the clouds and in His anger go That hurleth stones the thicke Haile shall be cast Against them shall the Flouds and Ocean vast Be wondrous wroth and mightily or'eflow Besides the fierce Winds shall vpon them blow Yea and stand vp against them with their God And like a storme shall scatter them abroad Thus Wickednesse th' earth to a Desart brings And Sinne shall ouerthrow the Thrones of Kings You heare their doome It were not much amisse If we search further what this Atheisme is Obserue That sundry sorts of men there be Who spurne against the sacred Deitie As first Those whom Idolaters we call Pagans and Infidels in generall These though they be religious in their kinde Are in the manner of their worship blinde And by the Diuel's instigation won To worship Creatures as the Moon and Sun Others there be who the true God-head know Content to worship him in outward show Yet thinke his Mercy will so far dispence That of his Iustice they haue no true sence His Pitty they acknowledge not his Feare Because they hold him milde but not austere Some like brute beasts will not of sence discusse With such Saint Paul did fight at Ephesus Others are in their insolence so extreme That they deride Gods name scoffe and blaspheme As Holophernes who to Achior said Albeit thou such a vaine boast hast made That Israels God his people can defend Against my Lord who doth in power transcend Where th' Earth no greater pow'r knowes neere or far Than him whom I serue Nabuchadnezzar Diuers will seeme religious to comply With time and place but aske their reason Why They so conforme themselues They know no cause More than To saue their purse and keepe the Lawes There be to Noble houses make resort And sometimes Elbow Great men at the Court Who though they seeme to beare things faire and well Yet would turne Moses into Machiuel And but for their aduantage and promotion Would neuer make least tender of deuotion For their Diuinitie is that which we Call Policie their Zeale Hipocrisie Their God the Diuell whose Imagination Conceits That of the world was no Creation These haue into Gods Works no true inspection Dreame of no Iudgement Hell or Resurrection Reckon vp Genealogies who were Long before Adam and without all feare As those doom'd to the bottomlesse Abisme Hold There was no Noës Arke no Cataclisme Besides How busie hath the Diuell bin Ev'n from the first t' encrease this stupid Sin Not ceasing in his malice to proceed How to supplant the Tenents of our Creed Beginning with the first two hundred yeares After our Sauiours Passion he appeares In a full seeming strength and would maintaine By sundry obstinate Sectists but in vaine There was not one Almighty to begin The great stupendious Worke but that therein Many had hand Such were the Maniches Marcionists Gnostyes and the like to these The second Article he aim'd at then And to that purpose pickt out sundry Men Proud Hereticks and of his owne affinitie Who did oppose the blessed Sonne 's Diuinitie But knowing his great malice to his mind Did not preuaile he then began to find A cauill 'gainst the Third and pickt out those Who stiffely did the Holy-Ghost oppose Him from the
holy Tria's they would leaue Nor yeeld The Blest-Maid did by him conceiue But herein failing with a visage sterne That roaring Lion Those which did concerne The Churches Faith aim'd at still raising such As building on their owne conceit too much The other Maximes of our knowne Beleefe Mainly withstood Nay after to his griefe Finding that in no one he could be said To haue preuail'd he after 'gins t' inuade All and at once to that great God retyring Who cast him downe from Heav'n for his aspiring And to cut off Mans hoped for felicitie Where he before persuades a multiplicitie of gods to be ador'd He now from Many Blinds the dull Atheist not to confesse Any Striuing if possible it were to make Him a worse Monster than himselfe To take No notice of his God nor vnderstand That both his life and breath are in his hand Insensible That he who from his Treasure Leant them at first can take them backe at pleasure That Hee created Sorrow who made Ioy Who reare's can ruine and who builds destroy Which they might gather from bare Natures light Obseruing That t' each day belong's a night That as in th' one there is a gladsome cheare So to the other doth belong a feare One figuring the Glory of the Iust Th' other that Hell where Atheists shall be thrust Next Let a man be mounted ne're so high Were 't on a spire that 's mid-way to the sky Whilest he look's vp with comfort he doth gaze Vpon the clouds and the Sun 's fulgent raies Nor is he troubled whilest his eies are bent Vpon the splendor of the Firmament But let him thence suruey the Earth below His heart will pant with many an irksome throw His body tremble sinewes and nerues all Contract themselues with feare from thence to fall The Emblem is That there 's aboue a place Long since prepar'd for all the Sonnes of Grace Who by a blest and heav'nly contemplation Looke vpward even from whence comes their saluation But vnto them who seeke not God to know And only fix their thoughts on things below Although no such place visibly appeare Yet there 's an Hell that 's full of dread and feare Which how can These escape who beleeue lesse Than do the Diuels for they both confesse And know there is a God a Heav'n where plac't They once had been and for their pride thence cast Likewise an Hell not threatned them in vaine Where they both now and euer shall remaine Shall He who giues vs life and length of daies Passe vs without due thanksgiuing and praise And shall not God be truly vnderstood Who in his bounty giues vs all that 's good Or Shall he nothing from our hands deserue Who what he makes is carefull to preserue We reade of some Beasts who opprest with thirst And hastning to the riuers margent first Bow downe their bodies at the waters brinke And fall vpon their knees still when they drinke Birds as we daily may obserue being dry At euery drop they taste looke vp on high As vnto Him who sends it them which speakes That without thanks they neuer wet their beakes If Beasts and Birds so gratefull be What then Shall we imagine of these thanklesse Men But That there 's a Gehinnon to contrude All guilty of such base ingratitude That this God is to Atheists may appeare Because by Him so frequently they sweare For Who 's so senselesse and obtuse a Sot To call to witnesse that thing which is not For By what Power soeuer they protest Th' Essence thereof is euen in that confest Ev'n Reasons selfe maugre this grosse impietie Illustrates vnto vs th' eternall Dietie If we behold a Barke in th' Ocean swimming We say Some Ship-wright gaue it shape and trimming Or if a Picture in a costly Frame It from the Pensill of some Painter came Or where we see an House or Temple stand We presuppose some skilfull Workmans hand Then If Below we marke the Earth and Ocean Aboue the Planets in their hourely motion So many Winters Autumnes Sommers Springs And in them the vicissitude of things When we shall all his glorious Creatures view Shall we deny him a bare Artists due Or Can we this high potent Vndertaker Who made both Them and Vs esteeme no Maker Philosophy will tell vs by her Lawes That no Effect can be without a Cause That euery action doth an Agent claime And euery motiue That which moues the same Though many causes Agents Motions be They are subordinate and onely He Prime Cause Agent and Mouer who t' our notion Is First of all effect action or motion Concerning whom the Psalmist doth thus treat O Lord my God thou art exceeding great In honour and in Glory shining bright Who couers thy great Maiestie with light As with a garment that Almighty God Who like a curtaine spreds the Heav'ns abroad And in th' vnsounded bosome of the streames Of thy great chambers hast dispos'd the beames Who for thy Chariot hast the Clouds assign'd And walk'st vpon the swiftwings of the wind When Man committeth euill he shall find A God euen in the terror of his mind For Adam tasting of the Fruit forbid Asham'd himselfe within a Thicket hid When Herod Iohn the Baptist had beheaded He for that act some fearefull vengeance dreaded For hearing of Christs Miracles he sed Surely that Iohn is risen from the dead Fearing his ghost did haunt him So when Cain Had in his wrath his brother Abel slain His count'nance was deiected and cast downe For were there no Accuser but mans owne Conscience it selfe he Feare could not eschew Because The Wicked fly when none pursue And what are Feares vnto that height extended But a meere dread of a iust God offended Euen by Idolaters a God's confest Who rather will adore a Bird a Beast A Fish a Serpent Planet or a Stone Nay euen the basest things rather than none Mans appetite that neuer can be sated Approues a God for let him be instated In a small means a greater he desires Giue him a Prouince and he then aspires Vnto a Realme a Kingdome let him haue Not yet content he then a World will craue Nor rests he there for were 't in his possession Yet bring him in the end to his confession He will acknowledge There is somewhat more To be acquir'd ev'n God whom we adore That men of knowledge should be so ambitious And in the quest thereof so auaritious Yet in that amplitude finding such scant That still the more they haue the more they want For in that progresse as they further go The more they learne the more they search to know Besides that in this search each one pursu'th With labour to inuestigate the Truth That simple and pure Truth th' Atheists deny Can be no other thing than the Most-High Ev'n these to whom himselfe he had not showne Saue in his Works
confest him though vnknowne Saith one Each place hath of Gods Center sence But none can challenge his circumference The Stagerite giues him the due applause Of the first Cause and Of all Causes Cause Th' Essence of things Of whom all things subsist Author first Mouer And vnto the list Of his due titles add's Th' Eternall Light The most pure Act Immensâ— and Infinite c. Whom the great Flamin Hiero did accuse That 'gainst the Countries custome he should vse The name of one sole God when all saue he Acknowledged a multiplicitie Goodnesse Inimitable He 's likewise stil'd By him who said The World was first compil'd For Man and Man for God There is no doubt Of God saith Cicero The earth throughout Search and there is no Nation in whose brest A God is not by Natures selfe imprest To what can any Atheist this impute That at Christs birth all Oracles were mute And put to lasting silence Whence't might grow The Emperor Augustus sent to know When all the superstitious Rites were past The Oracle thus spake and spake it's last An Hebrew Childe God who all gods doth quell Bids me giue place be silent packe to hell Henceforth forbeare these Altars to adore He speakes to you who neuer shall speake more Vpon which answer his great power t' extoll He did erect in Romes great Capitoll A Shrine whereon th' Inscription thus doth run The Altar of Gods first begotten Son A Childe is borne to vs Isay saith plaine An Hebrew Childe saith Paul not of the straine Of Angels but of Abrahams blessed seed And God There his diuine nature is decreed God is become a Childe which who shall scan Must needs conclude That Christ is God and Man The Oracle you heard made that reply Heare fully now from Sybels Prophecy There shall be borne a King the World to saue Yet neither He nor any Roman gaue That honour to him liuing this they ' xprest But lent no faith to that which they confest For Lentulus thinking she did diuine Of him tooke part with factious Cateline In hope most of the Senat to remoue And by that meanes his Countries Sauiour proue Virgil to Saloninus it apply'd The sonne of Pollio whom he Deify'd Because the Father to that hopefull Lad Was his great Patron Some suggest He had Knowledge of a Messias to be borne Iust at that time the blest Age to adorne Because when Herod who at that time raign'd King of the Iewes was vnto Rome constrain'd To tender his Allegeance alwaies guested At Pollio's house where he was nobly feasted To which place Virgil frequently resorted For so of him Iosephus hath reported But Constantine was first made Proclamation 'Mongst all the Romans of Christs Incarnation Some of their Prophets in an Enthean fury Predicted That a King should come from Iury To Monarchise the World which when they knew They gaue it not to Iesus as his due But to Vespasian did the stile resigne Because 't was he that conquer'd Palestine At Christs Natiuitie as some relate Those Heathen gods whom they did celebrate With diuine Worship and did most extoll Fell from their Shrines in the high Capitoll Their Stiles in Brasse grav'd and in Marble rac't That Time by Lightning blemisht and defac't Which had a president of like remarke When Dagons Image fell before the Arke In the first moneth and sixt day of the same When great Octauius Caesar tooke the name Augustus did the Wise-men Offerings bring To Christ saluting him both God and King What time all Forfeits Debts Bills of Account Which did vnto an infinite surmount Kept in the Empires Chamber were by fire To ashes burnt Which shew'd if we retire Into our selues He came into the World That Sauior of Mankinde on whom were hurl'd All our transgression trespasse sinne offence With which He and He only can dispense Who to repaire the former Adams losse Had all these with him nail'd vpon the Crosse. Then out of Wells and Fountains issu'd Oile Which from the Earths moist intrals seem'd to boile Which did expresse Hee was the Sole appointed To beare the title of The Lords Anointed Vpon wich miracle Augustus made A solemne Edict to be drawne which said That he no more a Lord would called be Since there was borne a greater Lord than he Herods great Temple which did seeme t' aspire Euen to the clouds aboue was set on fire By Titus souldiers and to such a flame It grew no humane helpe could quench the same Iust at that time th' Oraculous Temple fell In Delphos rear'd where many a doubtfull Spell Was vtter'd by a fearefull Earthquake shooke And torne asunder as being Thunder-strooke And neither of them could be since repair'd It being an attempt that no man dar'd Th' apparancie of which miraculous ruin In both so famous to the Times ensuing Left it to be remark't That from their fall The Gentile Customes were abolisht all And the idolatrous worship frequent then Began to steale out of the hearts of men That Christ his doctrine newly set on foot Might in our soules take deepe and prosp'rous root What thinke you of the pestilent infection Of those which did deny the Resurrection In our blest Sauiors and th' Apostles daies A Sect the Sadduces began to raise A people of dull braine and diuelish quality Denying God and the Soules Immortality These when they listned to his blessed tongue And heard him preach aloud to old and young How far his Fathers power and might extended With Maiestie not to be comprehended The glory of the Saints and wretched state Of th' Vnregenerate and the Reprobate Mathew can tell you how they did behaue them And what reproofe the mouth of Wisedome gaue them Thus our blest Sauiour said Haue you not read Touching the resurrection of the Dead What God hath spoke to Moses I am the God Of Abraham of Isaac and Iacob So much to your dull vnderstandings giuing God is not of the Dead God but the Liuing c. Amongst those with blind Will seduced thus Was Theodorus Cyrenaicus Accounted one that seeming to looke high In knowledge grounded on Philosophy Would by his Inferences make 't appeare We had no God at all to gouerne here But all things by meere Nature did subsist Which shew'd he was no good Theologist But when his vaine Positions were disputed In Athens they not only were confuted But his weake Tenents hist out of the Schooles He rank't in the Nomenclature of Fooles For thus he argu'd If a God there be He must be a thing liuing such as we Cal'd Animal If liue he must haue sence If sensible 't was his next inference He must of force be subiect to mutation If mutable then by that transmigration Capable of corruption And if so Subiect to perish Then from hence must grow This full conclusion That it may befall In
quarrels are commenc't and Might Takes place ' boue Right Where Zeale and Conscience yeeld way to Sedition There can be made of God no inquisition VIII I sought the Court but smooth tongu'd Flatterie there Deceiu'd each eare In the throng'd City there was selling buying swearing and lying I' th Countrey Craft in Simplenesse array'd And then I said Vaine is my search although my paines be great Where my God is there can be no deceit IX All these Demands are the true consideration Answer and attestation Of Creatures touching God all which accited With voice vnited Either in Aire or Sea the Earth or Sky Make this reply To rob him of his worship none persuade vs Since it was He and not our owne hands made vs. X. A scrutiny within my selfe I than Euen thus began O Man what art thou What more could I say Than Dust and Clay Fraile mortall fading a meere puffe a blast That cannot last In'a Throne to day tomorrow in the Vrne Form'd from that Earth to which I must returne XI I askt my selfe Who this great God might be That fashion'd me I answer'd The All-Potent solely Immence surpassing Sence Vnspeakeable Inscrutable Eternall Lord ouer all The onely Terrible Strong Iust and True Who hath no End and no Beginning knew XII He is the Well of Life for He doth giue To all that liue Both breath and being He is the Creator Both of the Water Earth Aire and Fire Of all things that subsist He hath the listâ— Of all the Heauenly Host or what Earth claimes He keepes the scrole and calls them by their names XIII And now my God by thy illumining Grace Thy Glorious Face So far forth as thou wilt discouered be Me-thinks I see And though Inuisible and Infinite To humane sight Thou in thy Mercy Iustice Truth appearest In which to our fraile sences thou com'st nearest XIV O make vs apt to seeke and quicke to finde Thou God most kinde Giue vs Loue Hope and Faith in Thee to trust Thou God most iust Remit all our offences we entreat Most Good Most Great Grant That our willing though vnworthy quest May through thy Grace admits vs 'mongst the Blest Condiscendit nobis Deus vt nos consurgamus ei Augustine The Cherubim Ex sumptib Guilielm Toomes THE ARGVMENT of the second Tractate A God being found deny'd by none It followes there can be but one By the Philosophers confest And such as were of Poets best Him not the Oracle denies Nor those the antient world held wise Sage Sybel Mage Gymnosophist All in this Vnitie persist Next That this Power so far extended Can by no sence be comprehended Neither his Essence most Diuine Be sounded by weake Reasons line And last what names most properly Belong to this great Deitie ¶ The second Argument GOds Knowledge treats the Cherubim He nothing knowes that knowes not him A Deitie confest which All adore It followeth to be onely One no more The multiplicitie of gods accruing From Men their idle phantasies pursuing Some thinke From auatitious Priests they ' rose Vnto themselues fat Offrings to dispose Some from the Poets fictions who to grace Their Friends or Princes of more eminent place Gaue to them after death such adoration Which after grew common to euery Nation These I let passe as knowne But to proceed With what I purpose Many haue agreed In this sole Godhoods Vnitie to which vse Although I numerous Authors could produce Yet I 'le insist on few One doth thus treat Wisedome in man is onely then compleat When it vpon this singular point is staid There 's but one God that 's he who all things made He further argueth If of either sex You maintaine gods all such I shall perplex With this one reason Where a Male hath being And Female these betwixt themselues agreeing Must needs haue copulation they to expell Immodestie haue place wherein to dwell For 't is not probable That such in view And openly like Beasts their lusts pursue Or make their amorous meetings because they By their example teach all things that may Instruct in Vertue And if Houses then By consequence they Cities haue as Men. If Cities they haue Fields if Fields they till If plough and sow and reape then needs you will Allow them mortall for 't is vnderstood All must be such as liue not without food Begin where we now ended If not eat They neither reape nor sow not needing meat Therefore no Fields no Fields no Houses so No Houses then no Cities therefore know No chast commixtion can be Tell me now Where 's Iuno Pallas Venus I or you Sybel or Rhea Therefore I maintaine Gods are th' inuention of Mans idle braine Aske Proclus Tresmegistus or Simplicius Cicero Philolaus or Iamblicus Theophrastus Plato Or of Poets these Sophocles Orpheus and Phocilides In all their Workes and Learnings great varietie They still conclude There 's but one soueraigne Deitie Saith Zeno They 're like mad that trust in many As those è contra that beleeue not any Simplicius speaking of the Vnitie Of this Diuinest Essence thus saith he All things that be or beautifull or faire From Diuine Pulchritude deriued are All Truth from Diuine Truth all we can name T' haue Being from the first Beginning came Hee 's the sole God Beginning and the Spring In his owne Power of all and euery thing All things from Him proceed to come or past Those which were first the present and the last From His sole Goodnesse many goods arise His Vnitie brings many Vnities His one Beginning is the source and ground Of many more Beginnings after found In this Beginning Vnitie and Good I would haue one God onely vnderstood The reason Because Hee 's the Prime of All In whom consists the Off-spring generall Of each thing that hath being He besides Is of all Causes Cause and still abides The Goodnesse of all Goodnesses And so Of all gods the Great God None else we know When Cicero would distinguish betwixt those We Idols call and Him that doth dispose The Fabricke he hath built he doth debate Thus with himselfe They 're made He vncreate They weake and feeble in their proud'st oâ—tent But He All-able and Omnipotent They vnto Natures Lawes subiect and thrall But He the God of Nature Them and All. One God one Vnitie in it selfe agreeing Is the sole Root and Seed of all things being Without which nothing is nought hath been made Another thus ingeniously hath said There is one God whose Power is stretched far Immouable and alwaies Singularâ— Like onely to himselfe And in effect The chiefe of the Perepateticke Sect Affirmes to vs as much who doth apply His reasons grounded on Philosophy And Nature thus All motions saith he Ascend vp to the Primum Mobile And the first Mouer which he there doth name To be the Sole and Prime on which Heauens frame With vniuersall Nature doth depend And this he
Potencie Protection Power to guide With all such things as are to these ally'de His Nosthrils by which he is said to smell Doth vnto vs his Acceptation tell Of Sacrifice and Prayer His Incenst Ire Againe it notes when thence fly sparks of fire His Eyes emblem to vs that choice Respect And Fauor which he beares to his Elect. Sometimes they'import his Prouidence Diuine Sometimes they wrathfully are said to shine Against the Wicked By his Feet are meant Stabilitie and Power Omnipotent By th' Apple of his Eye he would haue knowne Th'Indulgence that he beares vnto his Owne The Diuine Wisedome knowing how dull and weake Mans heart and braine is taught the Text to speake To our capacities The Prophets they Did not of this great Deity display The absolute perfection but so leaue it That by a glimpse we far off might conceiue it His Eyes being nam'd it must impresse in me That God doth euery thing at all times see Or if his Eare then must I presuppose That hearing all that 's spoke he all things knowes That hauing wings to mount himselfe on high In vaine can Man his incenst vengeance fly O whither from thy Sprite shall I depart Thou that in euery place at all times art Fly thee none can but vnto thee repaire All may in their humilitie and prayer Appealing to thy Goodnsse For What place Can shadow me when I shall fly thy face If soare to Heauen thy Presence doth appeare Or if to Hell diue Thou art likewise there There is no way an angry God to shun But to a God well pleas'd for refuge run Now to proceed The Scripture Phrase doth reach No farther than our stupid sence to teach That by corporeall things we may prepare Our hearts to know what things spirituall are And by Inuisible make demonstration Of what 's vnseene beyond mans weake narration And for this cause our passions and affects Are in the Scriptures for some knowne respects Confer'd on the Almighty when 't is said God did repent him that he man had made Or when hee 's wrathfull herein is not meant That He is angry or He can repent But 't is a Figure from th' effect arose And that the Greeks call Metanumikos The Names the Scriptures attribute to Him Sometimes Iehouah sometimes Elohim And when the glorious Trinitie's proclaim'd The Father Sonne and Holy-Ghost are nam'd More appellations the Text affords As The Great God of Heauen The Lord of Lords The Lord of Armies and of Hosts the God That in the Highest Heauen hath his aboad The God of Abraham Isaac Iacob and He that brought Israel from th' Egyptians land God of the Spirits of all Flesh and he Lord God of Israel is knowne to be Him by the name of th' Hebrewes God we praise God of our Fathers Th' Antient of all dayes And Dauids God Yet further denomination The God of gods of Iustice Ioy Saluation These titles it ascribes to Him alone Israels Redeemer Israels Holy one Protector Father Shepheard then we sing To Israels God to Iacobs the great King So to the Euerlasting King and than King of all Worlds before the World began Whose Power whose Goodnesse shewn to euery Nation c. Extracts from me this serious Contemplation Soueraigne and holy God Fountaine and Spring Of all true Vertue the Omnipotent King Of whom by subtill search in things to'acquire Is not in Mans conception a thing higher Than his weake faculties can comprehend Yet not to know this God he should offend For how can it with reason consonant be One Godhood should remaine in persons three And they in such a firme connexure linkt To be although in separat yet distinct Thou art without beginning and againe Thou shalt to all Eternitie remaine Knowing no end The Onely and the Same Whom Time cannot impaire nor Age reclaime The space of things Thou do'st in space exceed And art contain'd in none How shouldst thou need That which thy Selfe hast made Or how should Sence Allot thee place who only art Immense Nor is it in Mans frailtie to deuise How Thee in the least kinde to ' annatomise Or tell what thou art like thy Image being A thing excluded from all mortall seeing Vnlesse thou of thy most especiall Grace Wilt shew some shadow of thy glorious Face No part of thee thou hast presented here Saue what doth in thy maruellous Works appeare No Strength can moue Thee of the Land or Ocean By whom we are and in whom haue our motion Thou art the Mind and Substance of all pure And holy minds Thou art the Reason sure And stedfast whence all other Reasons flow That are from perfect Wisedome said to grow Thou art that Vertue of all Vertues head Thou art the Life it selfe and thou art read Father of Life as being knowne to giue Breath with their Being to all things that liue The Light it selfe and yeelding Light to all The Cause and Strength of things in generall Beginning it 's beginning had from thee And whatsoeuer first began to be Vpon the sudden out of Nothing shin'd Which fil'd with thy great Power were so refin'd That either strength of knowledge they retaine Or excellent shape such as doth still remaine The sacred Scriptures are sufficient warrant By many Texts to make the Trine apparant As from the first Creation we may proue God did Create God Said the Spirit did Moue Create imports the Father Said the Sonne The Spirit that Mov'd the Holy-Ghost This done Come to the Gospell to Saint Paul repaire Of him Through him and For him all things are To whom be euerlasting praise Amen In which it is observ'd by Origen Throughâ— and For three Persons to imply And the word Him the Godheads Vnitie Let Vs in Our owne Image Man create Saith God which Salomon doth thus explicate Remember the Creators in the dayes c. Which word those well verst in the Hebrew Phrase Reade in the plurall So when God did frowne On Babels Tower he said Let Vs go downe When Sodom was consum'd 't is said againe The Lord that fire did from the Lord downe raine So when Christs Glory Isay would declare To'expresse Three Persons in on Godhead are He Holy Holy Holy nam'd To show We might a Ternion in an Vnion know Come to Christs Baptisme you againe shall see In the same Trine the perfect Vnitie The Father the first Person is compris'd By sending downe a Voice The Son 's baptis'd By Iohn in Iorden and then from aboue The Third descends in figure of a Doue So likewise when Duke Moses went about To comment on the Law lest they should doubt Of this great Mysterie Hearke to my word O Israel
Seas doth moue I am his Citisen in his place aboue He giueth to all Creatures a generatiue vertue in their kinde saith Seneca the Tragicke Poet. Providet ille maximus mundi pareus c. When He that did the World create Perceiv'd the rauenous threats of Fate The prouident Parent had a care That losse by Issue to repaire It is He who sees and heares all things saith Plautus Est profecto Deus qui quae nos gerimus Audit videt c. There is a God intentiue to All things we either speake or do It is He that both will and can do all things saith Ovid Immensa est finemque potentia Coeli Non habet quicquid superi voluere peractum est The Power of Heauen 's immense and hath no end Against their wills in vaine is to contend He onely knowes the true courses of the Signes and Planets ordering and disposing them According to the excellent Poet Virgil in his AEtna Scire vices etiam signorum tradita jura c. The Lawes and Courses of the Signes to finde And why the Clouds are to the earth inclin'd Or why the Sunnes fire lookes more pale and bright Than doth his blushing Sisters Queene of night Why the Yeares seasons vary whereupon The youthfull Spring the Summer vshers on And why the Summer growes soone old and spent Why Autumne her succeeds incontinent And Winter Autumne Or to haue true notion How these proceed in an orbicular motion To vnderstand the Poles and how th' are sway'd Or wherefore the sad Comets are display'd Why Hesperus the night-stars doth fore-run Or Lucifer to warne vs of the Sun Is last that shines and brings vp all the traine Or for what cause Boetes driues his Waine Or tell the reason wherefore Saturnes star Is stedfast That of Mars still threatning war c. These and the like to order and dispose It must be a Diuinitie that knowes If He should keepe backe his hand which is as much as to say to take away Loue and Vnitie from the Workes which hee hath made all things would be ready to run into disorder and to return into the former Chaos To which purpose reade Boethius Hic si frena remiserit Quicquid nunc amat invicem Bellum continuo geret c If He the bridle should let flacke Then euery thing would run to wracke And all his Works that now agree In mutuall Loue at war would be And in this new conceiued Wrath What now with sociable Faith In friendly motions they employ They then would labour to destroy c. The gods know better what is conuenient and profitable for vs than we our selues can apprehend or imagine therefore their wills and pleasures ought alwaies to be petitioned Witnesse Iuvenal Nil ergo optabunt homines si consilium vis Permittas ipsis c. Must therefore Man wish nothing Shall I shew My counsell Fit 't is that the gods should know Of what we stand in need let vs then tell Our wants to them who can supply vs well For they haue store of all things and know best How euery man to fit to his request And if we be deuout to them in prayer We soone shall finde they haue a greater care Of vs than we our selues haue we with'a blinde And inconsiderat motion of the minde As led by lust desire first to be sped Of a faire Bride Next being maried We long till we haue Issue ignorant still Whether to vs they may proue good or ill The gods alone in their fore-knowledge see What kinde of wife what children these will be Ouid by the way of a comparison hath made Him a gratefull and liberall Rewarder of all goodnesse that can be in man whatsoeuer Dij pia facta vident Astris Dolphina recepit Iupiter Stellas iussit habere novem The gods take note of pious acts The Dolphin's made Diuine And plac't in Heauen by Ioue himselfe With stars in number nine And Plautus alluding to the same purpose speakes thus Bene merenti bene profuerit Male merenti par erit To him that merits well hee 's good againe But vengeance he stores vp for the prophane Seneca speaking how fearefull a thing it is to incurre the wrath of God and withall how vaine and effectlesse the anger of Man is compared with it saith thus Coelestis ira quos premit miseros facit Humana nullos c. Mans anger is in vaine and no man thralls Heav'ns wrath is terrible on whom it falls That God is the most equall and Iust God of all men and all things the Auenger of the Wicked and Protector of the Innocent heare Plautus thus speaking Quotidiè Ille scit quid Hîc quaerat malum Qui Hîc litem adipisci postulet perjurio He knowes what euill daily man acquires And who that to accomplish his desires Would compound strife by periurie But when the Bad Of their false Causes from the Iudge haue had A sentence of their sides all is but vaine For He the matter judg'd will judge againe And then the Cause vprightly hauing try'de How shall the before perjur'd man abide His doome and mulct All such as shall abet Bad Suits to them his punishment is great But the Iust man that neither fawn'd nor brib'd His name he in his Tables hath inscrib'd Another holdeth that the actions or cogitations of men are so far inferior to the hidden wayes of the gods that they can no way either dammage or profit them in the least degree whatsoeuer as Lucan si Coelicolus furor arma dedisset Aut si terriginae tentarunt Astra gigantes c. If either rage should moue the gods to war Or if the earth-bred Gyants should now dare To menace Heauen Mans pietie and loue By armes or vowes could no way profit Ioue The reason is no Humane apprehension Can once conceiue th' immortall gods intention And that all praise and thanks are to be rendred vnto him euen for the least of his innumerable benefits daily and hourely conferred vpon vs reade Virgil of Tytirus and howsoeuer he intended his words I take them as they lie Oh Milibaee Deus nobis haec otia fecit Namque erit ille mihi semper Deus c. O Melibaeus God this leisure gaue And I but Him no other god will haue From this my fold a tender Lambe of mine Hath oftentimes been offered at his Shrine Thou seest by his leaue how my Oxen stray And on my rude Pipe what I please I play And so much for the Poets Diuers Nations but especially the AEgyptians made certaine Hierogliphyckes to expresse this sole and supreme Deitie First by the Storke who is a Bird that hath no tongue and God created all things in a temperate and quiet silence Inferring vpon this That Man ought not to speak of him too freely or rashly nor to search too narrowly into his hidden Attributes for so
Man within moderate bounds and keepe in awe Th' Irregular that would transgresse the Law Else to our dull capacities conuey By naming such things that our weakenesse may The better vnderstand Therefore they blame Plato who Spirits doth so often name And Socrates with all the Stoicke Crew Who to foole men and make them thinke they knew Things hid from others in ambitious pride Deuis'd such â—oyes neuer exemplify'de Besides if there be Spirits it implies They must be either Friends or Enemies If Friends they would continue vs in health Bestow vpon vs Wisedome Empire Wealth But these we see are otherwise obtain'd Knowledge and Arts by Industry are gain'd Empire by Vertue Riches purchac'd are By Labour Health by keeping temperate Fâ—â—e If Enemies they hourely would extend Their Powers malevolent Mankinde to'offend Especially those that themselues assure There are none such and that 's the Epicure And Sadduce yet these they hate in vaine None are from Rocks precipitate few slaine But they with others in like safety stand As well secur'd by water as by land But in opinion contrary to these Plato Plotinus Proclus Socrates Iamblicus Porphirius Biton were The first of whom thinke you thus speaking heare The Nature that 's Intelligible growes To nine distinct degrees which he thus showes The first is God Idea's haue next place Soules of Coelestiall Bodies haue the grace To be third nam'd Intelligences they Are styl'd Arch-Angels in the fourth beare sway The fift the Angels the sixt Daemons claime Heroes the seuenth the Principates haue name In the eighth forme to Princes doth belong The ninth and lastâ— Mens Soules are not among This Catalogue for these as they incline To Vertue or to Vice he doth confine Either vnto those Angels that be good Or the bad Daemons so hee 's vnderstood Being accordingly in that regard Subiect to sence of torment or reward I'insist on these too long and now proceed To proofes more pregnant such as we shall need As God's eternall void of all dimension Not subiect vnto humane apprehension And as of all things th' Vniuersall Cause Them gouerning not gouern'd by the Lawes Of ought which is aboue him And we finde Men Beasts and Plants each Creature in his kinde Is gouern'd but it selfe doth beare no sway Reason to Truth thus points vs out the way That in so distant and remote a state Needs must be Creatures intermediate And as we see in Nature bodies be As Mettals Stones and of like qualitie Which haue no life others againe there are As Men and Brutes that haue in either share So betwixt these must be by consequence Vnbodied things that haue both life and sence And these the Spirits Dreames will teach vs plaine By their euents that such about vs raine To warne vs of the future Thus we read Simonides finding a body dead Gaue it due rights of buriall with intent Next day to take leaue of the Continent And to be shipt to sea But the same night This body without terror or affright Appear'd to him and warn'd him to refraine His purpos'd voyage for if he the Maine Prov'd the next day in that Barke he did hire He should by Shipwracke perish and expire Forewarn'd he left his passage and 't was found The Ship was that day sunke the people drown'd Now whence can any guesse this Vision came Vnlesse't were from a Spirit for what name Can they else giue it Sylla in a dreame Was told his death was neere in feare extreame He wakes he rises calls his friends his state In order sets yet all this while no Fate Did seeme to threat him neither sence of paine Had he that time either in breast or braine Which his Friends seeing did his dreame deride Yet he that day was apoplext and dy'de Brutus and Cassius in a battell set With great Augustus at Philippi met The night before the conflict Caesar cras'd Kept both his tent and bed which much amas'd The generall Host. Marcus Aâ—torius then His chiefe Physition of all other men Most chary of his person in his sleepe Was by Minerva warn'd The Prince should keepe His bed no longer but in any case Be in the battels front the Foe t' outface For of this done or not done was ensuing His future safety or his present ruin Augustus was persuaded left his tent And mounted on his steed Obserue th' euent The toile and labour that he tooke that day Did not alone his Feuer driue away Restoring him to health but as it hap'd Was cause that he a greater danger scap'd For Brutus souldiers thinking him still weake Did with maine force into the Battell breake Seising his Tent his Bed away they beare Presuming still they had Augustus there 'T is noted how Calphurnia did complaine The very night before her Lord was slaine Beseeching him with sighs and many a teare That he the next dayes Senat would forbeare Because of her sad dreame which told his fate But he in his ambition obstinate Holding such vaine predictions of no force With poniards stab'd was made a liuelesse Corse Nay he himselfe not many dayes before Dream'd He was snatcht away from earth and bore Aboue the Clouds where with Majesticke looke To welcome him Iove by the hand him tooke Amilcar who the Carthaginians led Besieging Syracusa in his bed Him thought That in his depth of sleepe he saw A souldier arm'd inuiting him to draw His Army neerer for his fame to crowne He the next night should sup within the Towne Encourag'd thus he early rose next day His Carthaginian Ensignes to display And gaue a braue assault and yet he found But a false Omen being tooke and bound Was to the City led Fate to fulfill Where he both supp'd and lodg'd against his will Wise Socrates the night which did precode The day that Plato came to heare him reade Dream'd That he saw into his bosome fly A milke-white Swan that sung sweet melody This at the instant though he did neglect Yet on the morrow pleas'd with his aspect He tooke him in his armes and with extreame Rapture of ioy he call'd to minde his dreame And though the childe was then of tender age Th' euent did aptly fiâ— with his presage Nor do I these from prophane Authors cull As if the sacred Scriptures were not full Of like examples Stories manifold Are in the Testaments both New and Old Ioseph from his owne Visions did diuine And so from Pharaoh's of the Eares and Kine The Baker and the Butler dreamd it fell To both of them as Ioseph did foretell Nabuchadnezzars Image and his Tree Were of such things predictions as should bee God call'd to Samuel in his sleepe and told What should betide to Ely being old Like Visions too haue been conferr'd vpon Good David and his sonne King Salomon And in the Gospell Ioseph in his rest Was bid to take to wife the euer-blest and holy Virgin
part And then thy last day shall appeare It thou mayst neither wish nor feare I cannot passe Poetry without some Character though neuer so briefe Now what Poets are or at least ought to be Horrace lib. de stat Poet. thus contractedly deliuereth vnto vs Ille bonis faveat concilietur Amice c. The Good he fauors as to them a Friend The Angry swayes loues those that feare t' offend He onely praiseth and desires to tast Those Viands on a thrifty table plac't Iustice he loues and feares the higher Powers Nor cares who lookes on his retyred houres Counsell he honors and dares pray aloud Fortune may court the Wretch and curbe the Proud Of the great respect and honor conferred vpon them in antient times and how those Dignities vnmeritedly are since taken from them and they in succeeding Ages vilified Ovid lib. 3. de Arte Amand. not without great cause thus ingeniously complaineth Quid petitur sacris nisi tantum fama Poëtis c. What more do sacred Poets seeke than Fame Of all our Labours 't is the soueraigne aime Poets of Dukes and Kings were once the care And great rewards propos'd for what was rare A Holy-state and Venerable Stile Was then conferr'd on him who did compile Any braue Worke a name he did inherit And mighty wealth was throwne vpon his merit In the Calabrian mountaines Ennius had His pleasant Gardens Then was Scipio glad To haue but such a Neighbour and to chuse Selected houres to spend vpon his Muse. But now the Bayes are without honour worne For what 's a Poet but a name of scorne Yet let 's not sleepe our Fame since Homer dead Should this day be were not his Iliads read Antonius Mancinellus speaking in the praise of Poets writeth to this purpose By Nature they are strengthened by the power of the Minde inflamed and by Diuine Rapture inspired Rightly therefore did old Ennius call them Holy as those commended vnto vs by the gift and bounty of the gods The Coliphonians claime Homer to be their Citisen the Chij challenge him the Salamines would vsurpe him the Smyrnaeans ingrosse him and three more of the most potent Cities of Greece erected Monuments after his death to eternise him So deare was Ennius to Africanus that he afforded him a Graue amongst the antient and ennobled Family of the Scipio's Theophanes Mylitides receiued a whole City as a Gift which was then held too small a reward for one Poëm Alexander the Great held the richest Casket taken among the spoiles of Darius scarce worthy to preserue the Works of Homer in The same Alexander surprising Thebes preserued a great part of the City onely for Pindarus the Poets sake Those Murtherers who priuatly slew Archilichus Apollo himselfe reuealed and caused his death to be reuenged Sophocles the Prince of the Cothurnate Tragedie being dead at such time when Lysander beguirt the walls of Lacedemon the King was warned in a dream by Liber Pater to afford his Delight for so the god called him an honored sepulchre Poetry is a Study which instructeth Youth delighteth Old-age graceth Prosperitie solaceth Aduersitie pleaseth at home delighteth abroad shortneth the night comforteth the day trauelleth with vs dwelleth with vs c. The greatest Orators made vse of Poëms both for the strengthning of their Causes and ornament of their eloquence as we may reade in Cicero Asinius Hörtensius and others who frequently quoted the ingenious Phrases and graue sentences of Ennius Pacuvius Lucillius Terentius Caecilius c. Euripides the sonne of Muesarchides and Clito his father was no better than a Victualler and his mother got the other part of their liuing by selling of sallads an Herbe-wife as wee call them yet he proued to be the greatest Fauorit that King Archelaus had And Sophocles the Tragicke Poet was graced and honoured by all the Learned of his time and bore the prime office of Magistracie in the city where he liued The Poet Aratus in Grammar the scholler of Menecrates and in Philosophy of Timon and Menedemus flourished in the 124 Olympiad in the time that Antigonus the sonne of Poliarcetes reigned in Macedonia with whom euen to his last expiration he liued in great estimation and honour Aulus Licinius Archias a Poet borne in Antiochia was indeered to the best and greatest Orators in Rome and more particularly graced by the Family of the Luculli He was honored of many Greeke Heroës and had rich Presents sent from their prime Cities but he was especially endeered to Cicero Aristonius a Comicke Poet liued vnder Philadelphus and was Master of the kings Library after Apollonius Arrianus was a Poet in whom the Emperor Tiberius Caesar was much delighted for so Tranquillus reporteth Cyrus Panopolita was greatly honoured by the Empresse Eudoxia Cherilus Samius liued about the 63 Olympiad and was no more than Seruant vnto Herodotus the Historiographer who writing the Expedition of the Greekes against Xerxes was for euery verse in his Poëme rewarded with a piece of gold to the value of 16 shillings foure pence sterling Gorgius borne amongst the Leontini in Sicily was endeared to Critias and Alcibiades in their height of Fortune and to Pericles and Thucidides in the extremitie of his age Caius Manilius was the first that wrot any Astrologicall Poëm in Latine which he dedicated to Augustus Caesar and by him was greatly respected and rewarded Lenaeus a freed-man of Pompeys but after his friend and companion in all his expeditions surviving his Lord because Salust the historiographer had spoken bitterly against him after his death hee inueighed against him in a most sharpe Satyre calling him Lastaurus Lurchon Nebulâ— popinarius and Monstrous both in life and historie and moreouer a manifest Theefe from Cato and diuers other antient Writers Menander a Comicke Poet of Athens who writ fourescore in number had great honours done vnto him by the Kings of AEgypt and Macedon Homerus Iunior liued about the time of Hesiod the son of Andromachus and borne in Byzantium he writ 57 Tragedies and as Zezes in his Commentaries vpon Lycophron affirmes for one of them called Pleiades and dedicated to King Ptolomaeus he was greatly fauoured and royally rewarded Oppianus was of Silicia and borne in a City called Anazarbum The Roman Emperour Severus being inuested before the City and after paâ—le being congratulated both by the Optimates and Plebe he was onely neglected and not thought worthy a salutation by this Oppianus Hee therefore commanded him to be banished into an Island called Melita scituate neere vnto the Adriaticke sea In which place he wrot a noble Poëm Piscibusâ— which after the death of the emperour Severus he dedicated to his sonne Antoninusâ— for which Worke hee was recalled from exile and to recompence his injurie for euery verse in his Poëm he guerdoned him with a piece of gold But soone after returning with his father into his
mature in a true conformation And with a â—ollid industrie desire Things that are hidden and abstruse to enquire And as the Thrones each in his office knowes How of all sacred Wisedome to dispose As Dei formes call'd so Saturne he Ianus Bifrons from all antiquitie Is styl'd and Wisedomes Father held to be The Golden World beneath his Scepter was Before the Silver or the third of Brasse Or this Iron Age in which th'vnlabor'd ground Not forc'd by man with plenty did abound The Earth of her free-will gaue all encrease Springs flow'd with milke the Wolfe and Lambe had peace And therefore we by congruent reason finde That the seuenth day to Saturne was assign'd As the seuenth Planet and agreeing best With the Coelestiall Thrones which imply Rest. Besides in Saturne there is one thing rare As sole vnto him peculiar Which he may iustly aboue others claime For none of all the Planets we can name But are in mixture and conjunction Hee Ioyns nor is joyn'd with any but still free And as a Prince vnrival'd keepes his state In which none can with him participate So Moses Law since it was first recited Was with no other coupled or vnited But doth immediatly on God depend Yet many other Lawes from that descend As borrow'd thence And in like mysterie The Chorases of the whole Hierarchie Reflect with all the seruice on the Throne But He his Power communicates to none The Seraph's Loue to Iudgement doth adhere The Cherubs Wisedome placeth it selfe neere The Dominations which some haue defin'd To be Th'vnyoked libertie of minde Assist the Iudgement Seat They Vertues they Vpon the high Tribunall wait and stay And so the rest with all their seuerall Graces But them the Thrones assist not in their places The Dominations we must next confer And fashion to the Star of Iupiter And by comparing them together see How in their semblant Vertues they agree First at Coelestiall things they solely aime Them no tyrannicke seruitude can tame A free Lord they must serue and beare a minde Vncheckt to nothing base or vile enclin'd All difficulties ready to disclose That shall their faithfull seruice interpose On none saue their Creator they rely To his sole pleasure they themselues apply Others to their obedience they persuade Their contemplations being fixt and stayd On the Diuine Light which rare pulchritude To'enioy in a more ample plenitude They stil conforme themselues vnto the Throne If possibly to be with it all one All these if Astrologians we may trust Fall on Ioves Star in number ev'n and iust In Noble bloud this Planet takes delight To'illustrous thoughts it doth the minde accite Prudence to gouerne science how to know His libe'rall influence doth on man bestow Plac'd in his Horoscope he doth inspire Our eleuated soules with a desire To attaine to Fame to Empire and High things Th'vncurbed and irregular minde it brings Not onely to deuise but keepe good Lawes And Iupiter is for that onely cause In Hebrew Zedek call'd which imports Iust. In Goodnesse and in Iustice such as trust Them he spurres on to spend their houres and time To aime at things superior and sublime By the reflex of Iustice and true Piety It drawes to contemplation of a Diety It doth not onely Man himselfe impell To charitable acts and do things well But to stirre others to good workes And styl'd Iove for his Faith and Trust hauing exyl'd All Incredulitie Last by the hand He leadeth others with him till they stand In the like state of Goodnesse Knowledge Faith Pythagoras more of this Planet saith That he is the Mindes Vertue Temperament Health and Disposer of all Ornament That doth belong to Man Now let vs find How those call'd Vertues are to Mars inclin'd And that too may be done with much facilitie If we consider but what true Virilitie And Fortitude in this Star doth consist In one place we thus reade th' Evangelist The Vertues of the Heav'ns are mov'd or ar ' Arm'd on their side who in Gods cause shall war These their Coelestiall operations take Immediatly from Him and for His sake Disperse them to His Glory and great Praise Note what the Psalmist of the Planets sayes Praise Him you Sun and Moone praise Him the Light Praise him yee Stars c. The Vertues by foresight As Captaines ouer the Church Militant Know which amongst them is best Combattant Guide and direct him to the Place aboue To receiue there the Crowne for which he stroue Ev'n so this Mars by th' influence of his Star Styl'd by th' antient Poets God of War Makes men of generous Spirits elate and hye Ambitious after Palme and Victorie The Vertues in their Pow'r finde no defect Nor is this Planet any way deiect Weary'd or faint Those of authentique skill Write His Fires force is indeficient still The Diuine Vertues study to enlarge Their courage who are giv'n to them in charge To make them like spirituall Souldiers stand 'Gainst Lucifer and his reuolted Band Then bring them off to safety and securitie Making them like themselues in God-like puritie So this Stars Fire to shew their true proximitie Burnes vpward as still aiming at sublimitie And in his feruour catching at things neere To turne each Substance to a Nature cleere As it selfe is in lustre like to shine Yet to this Planet many learn'd assigne Malevolent aspects Wars prouocations Home-bred Seditions Discord amongst Nations Broiles Garboiles Tumults and combustious Rage Depopulation Murthers Slaughter Strage Call it The worst of Planets whose reflect Contaminates and poysons with th' aspect But Tresmegistus was not of that minde Saith he The seuerall Planets in their kinde Their vertues being truly vnderstood Are vnto men beneficent and good This great Philosopher would haue vs know Of bad Effects the Cause is here below Stars influences in themselues are pure No putrid stuffe their natures can endure And if from their aspects ought chance amisse They are not to be blam'd for the fault is In our fraile weakenesse for who but hath read That nothing bad aboue the Moon is bred Now as the Potestates to worke are said Both by the Vertues strength and the co-aid of the Dominions Iustice so the Sunne When he his beames transfusiuely shall run Through Mars his Sphere or Ioves benigner Star All his effects Power Strength and Honour ar ' Legions of Fiends the Potestates expell And with them all blinde errors driue to hell So when the Sunne doth his bright beames display The tenebrous Night flies and giues place to day And as those Mindes and Essences Diuine By nature with miraculous fulgor shine So the bright Sunne instated all alone Amidst the Planets in his Regall Throne Casts an incredible lustre and to all Doth honour in his seat Majesticall Distributing abroad in large extent Vnto the Stars both Light and Ornament By whom th' are gouern'd and their motions sway'd Their splendor at his will dark't or
expresseth her selfe in Words Gestures and Actions alwayes and euery where her voice in all honest ears is the most excellent harmonie She is the Guide and Conduct through the Labyrinth of humane affaires to bring the Minde the right and straight way to the Mansion of the other Vertues It is her sole Character To aduance man vnto Dignity and so granted to him from God That hee is borne vnto one Truth She is the onely food of the Minde the sole repast of the Soule Apparant it is That all humane actions not only by Boasting or Ostentation but by Simulation or Dissimulation are as with furious and tempestuous windes troubled and tossed But both these are no better than Liers the one by adding too much the other offering too little But Truth triumpheth ouer both she is liable to no prescriptions neither to space of time the Patronage of persons nor the Priuiledge of Countries the dulled Sences she restoreth the Deceiued shee directeth the Erronious she reconcileth her Strength all Vaine things treads vnder foot all Lies convinceth all Errors confoundeth Euen her Enemies acknowledge Her as oft as they are brought within her Sentence She is the sole rule by which all Knowledge is guided for nothing can be truly knowne but Truth onely for Falshood being excluded and Shee admitted the way lieth open vnto true felicitie In Her all the dignitie of humane life is contained and hee that is possessed of her no Force can deiect him no Deceit circumvent him no Trouble of minde afflict him no Heresie intrap him She is the strength of Resolution and soliditie of Purpose in whose presence no Vanitie can stand no Insolence dares appeare vnto whom Humane condition is more indebted than to all the other Vertues Who could distinguish Fortitude from Rashnesse Constancie from Peruersenesse Liberality from Profusenesse Friendship from Flatterie Sanctitie from Hipocrisie but by inspection to her Mirrhor in which Vertue is clearly discerned and Vice palpably discouered Who is so bold that without her light or guidance dareth to conclude or determine any thing since she is only conuersant in perspection exactly to find out what is sollid what sincere and punctually to discouer the causes the beginnings and the progresse and proceedings of all things As all those things which fall within dimension are not comprehended but within measure so whatsoeuer by Gods permission doth illuminate â—each or instruct the minde is by Truth defined and circumscribed That which in things bought and sold in our common commerce wee call Number Weight and Measure the same in all things is Truth she distinguisheth betwixt the delirements and enormities of Vices and those effects which are proper and peculiar to Vertues False Opinions shee refelleth things doubtfull shee resolueth as obscure things shee inlightneth so that which is luminous she declareth Hence ariseth that old Adage Solest Veritas è converso Veritas est Sol i. The Sun is Truth and by conuersion Truth is the Sun that is which hidden things reuealeth and things manifest maketh more perspicuous c. You see the constancie and stabilitie of Truth when all things else vnder the Sun are obnoxious to Vicissitude and Change Saith Horrace lib. 4. Ode 7. Diffugere nives redeunt iam gramina Campis Arboribusque Comae Mutat terrae vices c. The Snow is melted and the fields late bare Are cloath'd in Grasse the bald Trees gaine their haire The Earth doth change her course the Channels dry Fill vp their empty banks the Floud swell high The gentle South winde doth the cold allay Summer succeeds the Spring nor there doth stay But is by Apple-bearing Autumne ' noyd And Autumne next by Winter is destroy'd The like is extant in Ovid ad Pisonem Ipsa natura vices subit variat aque cursâ—â— Ordinat inversis c. Ev'n Natures selfe this change doth vndergo Which th' inverst order of the Yeare doth show Not alwayes doth with dropping shewres the Aire Obscure the Stars but sometimes it is faire The Winter ceaseth and the timely Spring Dries those moist locks which you before might wring It then giues place to Summer on whose heele Autumne doth tread and then soone after feele The hoary Winters vncontrolled power In many'a cold blast and tempestuous shower Propertius lib. 2. Eleg. 9. Omnia vertuntur ceriè vertuntur amores Vinceris aut vincis hac in amore rota est Magni saepe duces c. All things are wheel'd and turn'd about And so it is in Loue no doubt Thou Victor or else vanquisht art No Loue but in this change hath part Great Dukes haue falne great Tyrants been put downe Rich Thebes once stood braue Troy was ouerthrowne To the like purpose as intimating the mutabilitie incident vnto all humane actions Plantus in his Amphict doth seeme to allude Nam in hominum aetate multa eveniunt huiusmodi Capiunt voluptates mox rursum miserias c. In th'age of Man oft many such things fall First we taste fugred pleasures and then gall In bitter miseries Rage doth constraine Spleenefull and harsh words and we then againe Grow to a friendly peace then our Spleene o're Our Amitie growes stronger than before Hauing in some sort searched what Truth is it next followes not onely to finde out Religion but also to examine the truth thereof Saint Augustine lib. de Civitate Dei 2. Cap. 7. saith Religio nihil aliud est quam Divinus cultus i. Religion is nothing else but Diuine Worship And in his Booke De Vera Relig. Religio est Studium Sapientiae Religion is the study of Wisedome And Isidor lib. de Etymolog 18. defineth it in these words It is therefore called Religion because by it we binde our selues to obey one onely God and to serue him in our mindes with Diuine Worship Abundans est pauperi Religio c. saith Hugo De Claâ—st Anim. lib. 3. Religion is to the poore man abundant to the meane estated sufficient to the rich man tolerable to the Weak liberall to the Delicate compatient to the Strong moder at to the Poenitent mercifull to the Peruerse correctiue Against those that make Religion but a meere vaile or cloake for their abuses and vanities wee reade Hierome in his Epistle to Nepotianus thus Thou buildest Monasteries and erectest Religious houses and by thee many poor men are relieued through the Isles of Dalmatia but better were it for thy Soules health if thou thy self among holy men didst leade an holy life And in another sent to Eustochium saith he There be some men of our Order who for no other cause make suit to be admitted into the Deaconship and Priesthood than that thereby they might haue the greater priuiledge and incur the lesse suspition to enter into the familiaritie and acquaintance of faire women The chiefest study such employ themselues in is that their shooes sit neate and close their garments smell of perfume their haire be queintly kembed and crisped and that their
and Eusebius in his Chronicle to the thirty third yeare of Christ cite this Author Of the same witnesseth Lucianus Martyr saying Seeke in your Annals and you shall finde that in the time of Pilat the Sunne being banished the day gaue place to darkenesse These words Ruffinus vseth in his translation of his Ecclesiastical History into the Latine tongue So likewise Tertullian in Apollogeticon and Paulus Orosius in his historie But all these doubts may be decided and these difficulties be easily made plaine for where it was said That the defect of the Sunne still happeneth in the new Moone and not when it is at the full most true it is in all naturall Eclipses but that which happened at the death of our Sauior was singular and prodigious which could onely be done by him who created the Sunne the Moone the Heauens and the Earth For Dionysius Areopagita in the place before cited affirmeth That himselfe with one Apollophanes saw the Moon about mid-day with a most swift and vnusuall course haste vnto the Sunne and subiect it selfe vnto it and as it were cleaue thereunto vntill the ninth houre and then by the same way returne to it 's owne place in the East Concerning that which was added That no defect in the Sun could possibly continue for the space of three houres together so thaâ— darkenesse might ouershadow the whole earth it is thus answered Most true it is that in an vsuall and naturall Eclipse it remains infallibly so but this was not gouerned by the Lawes of Nature but by the will of the omnipotent Creator who as he could carry the Moone with a swift course from the Orient to meet with the Sunne in the meridian and after three houres returne it backe into it's owne place in the East so by his power he could bring to passe that these three houres hee could stay the Moone with the Sunne and command her to moue neither more slowly nor swiftly than the Sun Lastly where it was said That it was not possible this Eclipse should be seene ouer the face of the whole earth considering that the Moone is lesser than the earth and therefore much lesse than the Sunne there is no question but true it is if we reflect but vpon the interposition of the Moone alone but what the Moone of it selfe could not do the Creator of the Sunne and Moone had power to do For things created can doe nothing of themselues without the aid and co-operation of the Creator And whereas some may obiect and say That through the darkenesse made by the thicke and dusky clouds the light might be obscured from the vniuersall face of the earth Neither can that hold currant for then those foggie and tenebrous clouds had not only couered the Sunne and the Moone but those very Stars also which by reason of that darkenesse were visible and manifestly discouered to shine in the Firmament Now there are diuers reasons giuen why it pleased God Almightie that at the passion of our Sauior the Lord of life such darkenesse should be and two especially The first was To signifie the apparant blindenesse of the Iews which was then and doth still continue According to the Prophecie of Esay For behold Darkenesse shall couer the earth and thicke darknesse the people c. The second cause was To shew the great and apparant sinnes of the Iewes which Saint Hierome in his Comment vpon Saint Mathew doth thus illustrate Before saith he euill and wicked men did vex and persecute good and just men but now impious men haue dared to persecute and crucifie God himselfe cloathed in human flesh Before Citisens with Citisens had contention strife begot euill language ill words and sometimes slaughter but now seruants and slaues haue made insurrection against the King of Men and Angels and with incredible audacitie nailed him vnto the Crosse. At which the whole World quaked and trembled and the Sunne it selfe as ashamed to looke vpon so horrible and execrable an act withdrew his glorious lustre and couered all the aire with most terrible darknesse Thus you haue heard the Incarnation Life Doctrine Miracles and Death of the blessed Redeemer of the World God and Man from whom we ground our Christian Religion Now because I had occasion to speake of the Turkish Alcaron and the apparant absurdities contained therein it shall not be amisse to insert somthing concerning the Authour thereof that comparing his life with his doctrine the basenesse of the one may make the blasphemies of the other appeare the more odious and abhominable Platina writeth That he was descended nobly but his authoritie is not approued Therefore I rather follow Pomponius Lata in his Abridgement of the Romane Historie who agreeing with other authentik Authors deriues him from an ignoble vile obscure Linage Some say he was an Arab others a Persian nor are either of their opinions to be reiected because at that time the Persians had the predominance ouer Arabia His Father was a Gentile and an Idolater his Mother a Iew and lineally descended from Ismael the son of Abraham by his bond-woman Hagar He was of a quicke and actiue spirit left an Orphant and being yong was surprised by the Scenites who were of the Arabs in Africa and liued as Theeues and Robbers Being by them sold vnto a rich Merchant named Adimonepli because the Lad was wel featured and quicke witted hee vsed him not as his slaue but rather as his sonne Who accordingly mannaged all his masters affaires with great successe trading dayly both with Iewes and Christians by reason of which hee came to be acquainted with both their Lawes and Religions His master died without issue leauing his Widow who was about fifty yeares of age named Ladigna wonderous rich shee after tooke Mahomet to husband by which mariage hee suddenly became of a poore slaue a wealthy master of a family About that time one Sergius a Monke a debosht fellow of a spotted life and base condition who for maintaining of sundrie dangerous heresies was fled out of Constantinople and for the safegard of his threatned life thought to shelter himselfe in Arabia in processe of time grew into great acquaintance and familiaritie with Mahomet who consulted together and began to proiect great matters Now Mahomet hauing before been entred into the study of Magicke or Necromancie resolued to persuade the Gentiles that he was a Prophet To prepare which hee had practised diuers iugling trickes by which his wife and his owne houshold were first abused To further which credulitie hee was troubled with the Falling Sickenesse at which his wife and the rest of her Neighbours being amased he made of that this diuellish vse to persuade them That at such time as the fall took him the Angell of God came to confer with him and hee being but mortall and not able to endure his diuine presence was forced into those sudden agonies and alterations of spirit This being generally reported and
Che Giganti nouo fan conte sue â—raccia Vedi Hoggimai quant ' esser Dee quel tutto Ch' a Cosi fatta parte si consaccia Se fu si bellâ— come e Hora brutto E contra al suo fattore alzo le Ciglia Ben de â—a lui procedor ogni lutto G quanto parve a me gran meraviglia Quando vide tre faccie a lâ—suatesta L' una danaâ—zia quella era vermiglia De l'altre due ches ' agginuge ano a questa Sour esso almeza Di Ciascuna spalla Es ' agginuge ano al somno de la Cresta La destra mi parea trabianca gialla La sinistra al vedere era tal quali Vegnon di la onde ' l nilo s' aunalla Sotto Ciascuna vsciuan Due grand Ali Quanto si Convenina a tanto ocello Vele di Mar non vidi Mai Cotuli Non Havean penna Ma di vespertello Era lor modo quelle ni su Alzana Si che tre venti si movean de ello Quindi Cocito tutto s' Aggellava Con sei sei occhi piangena con tre menti Gocciava il pianto sanguinosa Baua In which Description he first notes the place Where this great Prince of Darkenesse shut from Grace Is now tormented namely 'a congeal'd Lake His mighty stature next which he doth make Two thousand cubits By his Crest is meant His Enuy Arrogance and proud ofâ—ent Three Faces with three sev'rall colours stain'd Import in him three Vices still maintain'd One fiery red Wrath and Exorbitation Denotes to vs with the Spleenes inflammation The pale and meagre Auarice implies From the third blacke and swarthy doth arise Vnprofitable Sloath. From the two eyes Which to each face belongs we may deuise All Appetites immod'rat In the growth Of these three Ills Ire Avarice and Sloath Two Wings two great accitements to those Sinnes Propose to vs The first of them beginnes In Turbulence and Fury from hence grow The windes of Crueltie that hourely blow Rapacitie and Gripplenesse are they That to the Misers Avarice obey The horrid blasts that hence proceed include The most vnnat'urall sin Ingratitude Sorrow with Negligence on Sloath attend Th' immoderat gusts of Hatred hence ascend Those windes of Wrath Ingratitude and Hate With fearefull stormes trouble and agitate Cocitus streames withall suppressing quite Those good and godly motions which accite Either to Faith or vnto Hope and Charity Lest any should in them claime singularity The greatnesse of his Wings improue th' elation Of his swel'd heart and proud imagination That ev'ry face hath a wide mouth and throat So much the Morall doth to vs denote That all whom such blacke sinnes contaminate His jawes and rav'nous throat ingurgitate His Teares which he did neuer yet imploy But as the Crocodile vseth to destroy Imports to vs that wretched Sinners state Whose slacke Repentance euer comes too late And so far Dante 's I must now enquire To what sphere these Refractories retyre Or in what place more seruile they remaine Who as they Knowledge more or lesse retaine Accordingly their faculties are squar'd One euill Angell takes into his gard A Kingdome he a Prouince and no more One lesser gifted hath predom'nance o're A City and some other but a Tower Some ouer one particular man hath power Some of one only Vice and limited there Nor striue they in lesse eminence t o'appeare Either subuerting Man Forts to demolish Cities subuert good Statutes to abolish T' encourage forreine or domesticke strife Than are the Angels the blest Sonnes of Life Each of them in their seuerall Place and Calling Either industrious to keepe men from Falling Preseruing Cit'adels instituting Lawes Wholsome and good or bee'ng th'immediat cause To secure Cities Countries and encrease Home and abroad happy and prosp'rous Peace Nor do the lower of bad Spirits obey Those of superior office because they Or loue them or esteeme them The cause why They yeeld themselues to such priority Is for that th' other haue more pow'r and can With greater subtiltie insidiate Man For in their Fall th' are stain'd with all impuritie From whose temptations there is no securitie Crafty they are and prone to all iniquity No place debar'd bee'ng pow'rfull in vbiquity With man they are at deadly opposition And into all his wayes make inquisition First tempt and then accuse hourely prepare By day them to intrap by night ensnare His sences they peruert his thoughts estrange From better vnto worse a fearefull change They bring Diseases Tempests Troubles Feares Not one of them but at his will appeares By transformation a blest Spirit of Light They challenge also as their proper right A Diuine pow'r And though these Daemons bee Amongst themselues at hostile enmitee Yet by conspiracie striue all they can How with vnanimous force to destroy Man Yet this worth obseruation we may reade In holy Scripture That such as mis-leade Our humane frailty haue not might a like With the good Spirits nor such force to strike As the blest Angels who the pow'r retaines To take and binde old Sathan fast in chaines One story I haue chosen out of many To shew the Diuell doth th' Almighty zany For in those great works which all wonder aske He is still present with his Anti-maske A man of Greece was with three children blest To him so deare all it could scarce be ghest Which he was most indulgent o're The first A sweet and hopefull Boy and therefore nurst Not with a common care for his estate Was great his birth did him nobilitate Two Daughters he had more the elder faire And well accomplisht but the yongest rare Not to be paralel'd for she was one Whom none was euer knowne to looke vpon But with such admiration that he said Nature surpast her selfe when she was made For all ingredients of her choice perfection Appear'd both in her feature and complexion So faire she was Three Lustres being spent And not a day but adding ornament Both to her growth and beauty now fifteene An age we cannot properly call greene Nor fully ripe not mellow scarce mature Not yet resolv'd a Virgin to endure Nor fancy Man but staggering betwixt Both agitations and her minde not fixt But sensible as being much commended How far she others of her Sex transcended Though quite sequestred from the common road Yet much delighted to be seene abroad And 'cause emergent Venus from the Seas Was said to rise her humor best to please It was her dayly custome to rise early To greet the goddesse whom she lov'd so dearly And hearing what of her the Poets sung To view the â—ome from which 't is said the sprung Stirring betimes one morning with the Cocke Pyrats had hid their ship behinde a rocke And as she tooke her pleasure on the shore Snacht her away and then with faile and oare Made speed from thence and proud of such a Peece Hurry'd her
to the farthest part of Greece So far remote from her owne habitation That almost it appear'd another nation We leaue her there The father hauing mist His Darling in whom chiefly did consist The solace of his age hauing most care Of her because she was so matchlesse faire At first some strange disaster gan to doubt And sent to seeke her all the Isle about At once hee 's troubled with a thousand feares As sometimes dreading that her vnripe yeares Might be seduc'd and that some sprightly Youth Had train'd her thence but far alas from truth Againe he doth imagin a wilde beast Might seise on her which more his griefe encreast But of such feare there was no certaine ground Because no part of her torne limbes was found If drencht by falling from a Riuers brim Her gall bee'ng burst she would be seene to swim But when no Hill no Valley Rocke nor Caue Least signe of her or of her garments gaue A strong suspition in his thoughts did breed Pyrats had stolne her thence as 't was indeed Thus confident he homeward backe returnes His breast with ardent inflammation burnes To trauell in her search none can dissuade him Nor in his quest may sonne or daughter aid him Himselfe he will commit to his owne fate So parts and leaues to them his whole estate With a strict vow he neuer more will tread Vpon that ground till finde her liue or dead Suppose him in his voyage and decreed That in his purpose he might better speed To saile to Delphos and that he may take Instruction thence in haste doth thither make His Offring past and all things done with grace Best suting with the custome of the place This answer from the Delphian Priest he had Thou carefull Father be no longer sad But from henceforth exhilerate thy minde One Daughter thou hast lost but two shalt finde This saying much perplext him he withdrew Long pondring with himselfe because he knew He lost but one he held that answer vaine And in that thought return'd to sea againe The elder sister seeing both so gone The house left desolate she now alone Saue with her Brother whom nought could persuade From sighes and sorrow by their absence made The place grew tedious to her since no cheare Did in him or the family appeare She therefore after some deliberation Purpos'd and did prouide for Nauigation A Barke she hyr'd disguis'd to sea she makes And vndergoes a strict vow for their sakes From which she neuer will her selfe vnbinde Till she her father or her sister finde By chance she lands at Delphos and bee'ng there Desires to know what she might hope or feare When all the ceremonious Rites bee'ng done The Oracle thus spake Thou that dost runne This desp'rat course if thou expect'st successe In this thy journey then thy selfe professe One of my Priests in comely greene attyre thee Get Bow and Shafts and note how I 'le inspire thee And those loose lockes that 'bout thy shoulders flow Winde vp in curles like yong Apollo go No more he spake she held his words for true Encourag'd her aduenture to pursue And search so shap'd all forrein seas and lands We left the yonger in the Pyrats hands Who after many a dangerous billow past By crossing sundry channels came at last To a safe Harbor with intent to stay Till they had made sale of so choice a Pray And for no other cause kept her from staine But that thereby to raise the greater gaine They brought her to the open market there Merchants from sev'rall coasts assembled were And in those dayes than Beauty much commended Nothing more soone bought or more dearely vended They set her in an eminent place for view When soone a great concourse about her grew Thronging to gaze The first thing they then did They tooke the vaile off which her face had hid At which the very aire seem'd to grow proud As when the Sunne new breakes out of a Cloud To shine with greater fulgence doth appeare Than had the Sky in ev'ry part been cleare No sooner was the vaile drawne from her face But her bright eyes illumin'd all the place At once they with such admiration gaze As what they onely thought to merit praise Doth now beget a wonder Some suppose That a new Goddesse is amongst them rose To be ador'd for most of them agree That of a mortall straine she cannot bee But they of better iudgement and more stayd Finding what change of face her feare had made Because the Rose and Lilly in her cheeke For mastry stroue they need no further seeke Since they perceiue sad griefe her minde perplex But that she is the wonder of her Sex Meerely humane as knowing To Diuinitie Passions and troubled lookes haue no affinitie And that she is no other they may ghesse Because a Pyrat after an O-Yes With a loud clam'rous voice and count'nance bold Proclaimes her for a Captiue to be sold. By which resolv'd the Merchants neerer grow And some demand of them her price to know Of whom the couetous Slaues set such a rate As would haue shooke a common mans estate Yet some there were most willing to haue payd The entyre summe to haue enjoy'd the Maid So it might with securitie be done But now a whisper is amongst them runne Which with it some suspitious feare did bring That she was onely â—itting for some King And being of so choice a jemme possest If such should heare her fame it might be ghest She might be forc'd from him For Tyrants make Their Will their Law And what for Beauties sake Will those leaue vnattempted that sit hye This was the cause few cheapned none did buy The Market ends and now begins her fame The brute of which vnto the Kings eare came Whose rarenesse had such generall confirmation With such additions too in the relation That he begins to loue before he see her And hath a purpose from the Slaues to free her He sends they come the Prince lookes and admires Within his amorous brest he feeles new fires His loue turnes almost into adoration And all the Beauties now of his owne nation He vilifies finding in her no want Of any grace to make her parauant Ten thousand Drachma's are her price 't is payd The Rouers thinke they good exchange haue made O but the King 's so with his bargaine pleas'd As if he had a second Empire seis'd No price could part him since he hop'd to finde The more she cost the more she would proue kinde She first was to a Princely chamber brought Hung with Attalicke Arâ—â—s richly wrought There she was seated in a chaire of state And Ladies readie at her call to wait A Queen-like robe was sent her from the King His chiefest Eunuch brought it with a ring Of exc'lent life and quicknesse both she tooke With such a modest and a gracefull looke As did amase the bringer These put
tibi quid vitiorum Inseverit olim Natura aut etiam consuetudo mala c. Sift thy selfe throughly whether there be nurst Those wicked seeds of Vice which Nature first Did plant in thee Examining to know What other ills might from bad Custome grow Fearne in neglected fields we see aspire Though it be good for nothing but the fire Perseus in his first Satyr saith Nete quaesiveris extra And Iuv. Sat. 11. Illum ego iure Despicians qui scit quanto sublimior Atlas Omnibus in Libiae sit montibus Hic tamen idem Ignoret quantum ferrata distat ab Arca Sacculus è Coelo discendit Gnothi Seauton c. His iudgement I by good right may despise Who for no other cause thinks himselfe wise Than know the mountaine Atlas lifts his head Aboue all other hills in Lybia bred Yet I from him the difference cannot wrest Betwixt a small Bag and an iron-barr'd Chest. To Know thy Selfe did first from Heav'n descend Of all thine actions then make that the end Whether thou purpose Marriage to embrace Or in the sacred Senat seek'st a place Thersites aim'd not at Achilles Shield Which merit did to wise Vlysses yeeld If being Consull doubtfull causes come To be debated e're thou giue thy doome Or without good aduisement silence breake Examine first what 's in thee e're thou speake And what thou art Whether a Curtius or A Matho or some vehement Orator Nay thou must be so carefull as to know The measure of thy cheekes lest ought might grow Vnwares from thence and with like care entreat As well in euery small cause as the great Thomas Aquin. in his Epistle of the meanes to acquire Knowledge Let this saith he be my admonition and thy instruction Shun verbositie speake seldome and then to the purpose haue a pure conscience and pray often study much and be familiar with few shun superfluous discourse follow the steps of godly and deuout men Regard not from whom thou hearest what is good and hauing heard it forget it not What thou readest or hearest cease not till thou dost vnderstand Be resolued of doubts and search not too far into things which are not lawfull for thee to know Knowledge is one thing but Wisedome is a degree far aboue it for a man may know the World something vnderstand himselfe a little but be altogether forgetfull of God For Salomon saith Prov. 11. The feare of the Lord is the beginning of Wisedome Therefore it shall not be amisse to enquire What Wisedome is One calls it the knowledge of many and miraculous things Arist. lib. Rhetor. And in another place The knowledge of the first and most high causes Aristot. lib. 1. Metaph. Apharab lib. de Divis. Philosoph saith it is the knowledge of things euerlasting Wisedome differeth from Science in this respect because Wisdome is the knowledge of things Diuine and Science of things Human. Therefore we thus reade Saint Augustine Corinth 1. Cap. 11. Wisdome is the contemplation of things eternall Science is the occupation of things temporall And in his booke De Trinit wee reade him thus This is the true distinction betwixt Wisedome and Knowledge That the intellectuall knowledge of things eternall belongs to Wisedome the rationall knowledge of things temporall belongeth to Science The word Sapientia commeth of Sapio which is Truly to know and those which in antient times professed it were called Sophoi i. Wise men For so were those famous men of Greece called namely Thales Milesius Solon Salaminius Chilon Lacedaemonius Pittachus Mytilinaeus Bias Primaeas Cleobulus Lyndius Periander Corinthius After whom succeeded Pythagoras who in his modesty would not cal himselfe Sophus but Philosophus that is not a Wise man but a louer of Wisedome His reason was That no man can truly call himselfe wise because Wisedome solely appertaineth vnto the Creator of all things All true Wisedome is to be asked of God as we may reade Reg. 2. Cap. 3. And God said vnto Salomon Because thou hast asked this thing and hast not asked for thy selfe long life neither asked Riches for thy selfe nor hast asked the life of thine Enemies but hast asked for thy selfe Vnderstanding to heare iudgement Behold I haue done according to thy words Lo I haue giuen thee a wise and an vnderstanding heart so that there hath beene none like thee before thee neither after thee shall the like arise vnto thee c. Wisedom saith Salomon in his Booke of Wisedome cannot enter into a wicked heart nor dwell in the body that is subiect vnto sinne Bar. 3. vers 10. What is the cause ô Israel that thou art in thine Enemies land and art waxen old in a strange Countrey and art defiled with the Dead and counted with them that go downe to the Graues Thou hast forsaken the Fountaine of Wisdome for if thou hadst walked in the way of God thou hadst remained for euer And againe Vers. 26. There were the Gyants famous from the beginning that were of great stature and so expert in war these did not the Lord chuse neither gaue he the way of Knowledge vnto them but they were destroyed because they had no Wisedome and perished through their owne foolishnesse Who hath gone vp to Heaven to take her and brought her downe from the Clouds Who hath gone ouer the sea to finde her and hath brought her rather than fine Gold No man knoweth her wayes neither considereth her paths c. We reade also Iob 38.36 Who hath put Wisedome into the Reines and Who hath giuen the Heart Vnderstanding c. And Cap. 28. vers 12. But where is Wisedome found and Where is the place of Vnderstanding Man knoweth not the price thereof for it is not found in the land of the Liuing The Depth saith It is not in me The Sea also saith It is not in me Gold shall not be giuen for it neither shall Siluer be weighed for the price thereof It shall not be valued with the wedge of the Gold of Ophyr nor with the pretious Onyx nor the Saphyr the Gold nor the Chrystall shall be equall vnto it nor the exchange shall be for plate of fine Gold no mention shall be made of Corall or of the Gabish For Wisedome is more pretious than Pearles the Topaz of AEthiopia shall not be equall vnto it neither shall it be valued with the wedge of pure Gold c. The wisedome of the Iust saith one of the Fathers is to colour nothing by ostentation to hide no sence by equivocation to loue Truth because it is true to hate Falshood because it is false to distribute good things willingly to suffer bad things patiently to reuenge no injurie But this simplicitie of the Iust will be derided because that of the wise men of the world the puritie of Vertue is held to be foolishnes For what to the worlds eye can sauour of greater folly than to speake simply and truely
It is said of Antigonus the first King of Macedonie That being asked Why in his youth being no better than a Tyrant in his age he gouerned with such clemencie gentlenesse his answer was That in his youth he stroue to get a kingdome and in his age hee desired to keepe it The Poet Hermodotus in one of his Poems had called the King the sonne of Iupiter Which when the King heard he said Surely he that attends me in my chamber when I am forced to do the necessities of Nature was neuer of that Fellowes counsell When the Souldiers and men at Armes that followed Scipio in Africa were fled and Cato being vanquished by Caesar at Vtica had slaine himselfe Caesar said I enuy thy death vnto thee ô Cato since thou hast enuied vnto me the sauing of thy life In a great battell when one of his Standard-bearers was turning his backe to haue fledâ— Caesar tooke him by the shoulders and turning him about said See Fellow yonder be they whom we fight against When many dangerous conspiracies were abroch and diuers of his friends wished him to be chary of his safety hee answered Much better it is to die at once than to liue in feare alwayes The Inhabitants of Tarracon as a glad presage of prosperous successe brought tydings to Augustus That in his Altar a young Palme tree was suddenly sprung vp To whom hee made answer By this it appeareth how oft you burne Incense in our honour When hee had heard that Alexander hauing at two and thirtie yeares of age ouercome the greater part of the knowne world and had made a doubt what he should finde himself to do the remainder of his life I maruell said Augustus that Alexander iudged it not a greater act to gouern well what he had gotten than to purchase so large a dominion It was hee who said I found Rome made of Brickes but I will leaue it of Marble Which saying putteth me in mind considering the vncertaintie and instability of things of an excellent Epigram composed by Ianus Vitalis de Roma antiqua Of antient Rome Quid Romam in media quaeris novus Advena Roma Et Romae in Roma nil reperis medio Aspice murorum molas praerupt aque saxa Obrutaque horrenti vasta Theatra situ Haec sunt Roma c. New Stranger to the City come Who midst of Rome enquir'st for Rome And midst of Rome canst nothing spye That lookes like Rome cast backe thine eye Behold of walls the ruin'd mole The broken stones not one left whole Vast Theatres and Structures high That leuell with the ground now lye These now are Rome and of that Towne Th' Imperious Reliques still do frowne And ev'n in their demolisht seat The Heav'ns aboue them seem to threat As she the World did once subdue Ev'n so her selfe she ouerthrew Her hand in her owne bloud she'embru'd Lest she should leaue ought vnsubdu'd Vanquisht in Rome Invict Rome now Intombed lies as forc'd to bow The same Rome of the World the head Is Vanquisher and Vanquished The riuer Albula's the same And still preserues the Roman name Which with a swift and speedy motion Is hourely hurry'd to the Ocean Learne hence what Fortune can what 's strong And seemeth fixt endures not long But more assurance may be layd On what is mouing and vnstayd Phocion a noble Counsellor of Athens of high wisedom singular prudence noble policie incorrupt manners and incomparable innocencie and integritie of life of such admirable constancy of minde that he was neuer known to laugh weepe or change countenance He knowing the ignorance and dissolute manners of the people vpon a time hauing made a very excellent Oration much commended and highly applauded by the multitude hee turned to his friends and said What is it that I haue spoke amisse or otherwise than well for which the people thus extoll mee To Demosthenes the Orator who said vnto him The Athenians will put thee to death one day Phociâ—n when they shall grow to bee mad he replied Me indeed when they are mad but thee most certainly when they come to be in their right wits againe Alexander sending vnto him an hundred talents hee demanded of the messengers that brought it For what cause the King was so bountifull to him aboue others They answered Because hee iudged him of all the Athenians to be a iust and honest man When refusing the gold he said Then let him suffer me not onely to be so reputed but to proue me to be such an one indeed c. Pompey being yong and hauing done many worthy and remarkable seruices for Sylla who was now growne in yeares demanded a Triumph which Sylla opposed But after Pompey in a great confluence of people had said aloud Sylla Art thou ignorant that more people adore the Sun at his rising than his going downe Sylla with a loud voice cried out Let him triumph To one Caius Pompilius an ignorant Lawyer in Rome who being brought to giue euidence in a Cause and saying That hee knew nothing nor could speake any thing in the matter Cicero replied You thinke perchance Pompilius that you are asked a question about some point in the Law Pompey and Caesar being at great debate and variance he said He knew not whose part to refuse or whose side to follow After the great battell fought in Pharsalia when Pompey was fled one Nonius a great Captain thinking to incourage the Souldiers bad them to be of good comfort for there were yet seuen Eagles left To him Cicero replied Thy chearing ô Nonius might proue very aduantageous vnto vs if we were now to fight against Iayes Of one Cuminius Revelus who was chosen Consull and within two houres displaced by reason hee was tainted of Perjury he said That he had one chance hapned him aboue all other in that place for the Records were searched in which Consuls time he was Consull To one Iulius Curtius belying his age because hee would be still esteemed young Cicero said Then it appeareth That at the same season when you and I were yong schollers first and exercised Orations together you were not borne And to one Fabia Dolabella affirming shee was but thirty yeares old hee replied Indeed Lady I haue heard as much as you speake twenty yeares ago Demosthenes being one of the tenne whom the Athenians sent Embassadors to Philip King of Macedon at their returne when Eschines and Philocrates whom Philip had entertained with extaordinary courtesie aboue the rest had spoken royally and amply in his commendations praising him especially for three things That he was of an extraordinarie beautifull aspect That hee had a fluent and eloquent tongue and That he was a liberall and free Drinker Demosthenes interrupted them and auouched publiquely That not one of all those was seemely in a King For the first he said belonged to Women the second appertained to Sophists and Rhetoricians and the third to
of victorie and such indeed was the euent of that War for of those three Captains two perished in the battell and the third grieuously wounded with the small remainder of his Army got with great difficultie into his Countrey Nicetas affirmeth That Euphrosine the wife of Alexius Angelus Emperor of Constantinople was much deuoted to this kind of Magicke The Count of Vestrauia by a Concubine of his whose companie before his lawfull Nuptials he had vsed was alike effascinated She by the aduise of an old Witch had cast an inchanted pot into a deepe Well which was in a backe yard belonging to the Pallace of the said Earle by which he was made incapable of all congresse and therefore out of all hope of any Issue to succeed him Which continued for the space of three whole yeares after which season meeting with this gentlewoman of his former acquaintance after a friendly salutation had past between them she asked him how he fared since his mariage how his wife and hee agreed together and how many children they had betweene them The Earle out of those words gathering some cause of suspition dissembling his discontent answered That he thanked Heauen all was well at home and that God had blest him with three sweet and hopefull children and that his wife at the present was as great as she could well goe with the fourth At which answer he perceiued a change of colour in her face when shee in a great rage said And may I beleeue this Then euill betide that cursed old Hag who persuaded me That she had so wrought with the Diuell that you should neuer haue child nor haue the abilitie to be the father of any The Count smiling at this desired to be satisfied from her what she intended by those words To whom she disclosed all the circumstances How being much grieued that he had so vnkindely forsaken her shee had dealt with a Witch who had promised vnto her c. telling him of the inchanted pot Which the Count vpon her words causing to be searcht found and after burnt his naturall vigor and vertue returned and he was after the father of a numerous Issue One neere to this but of greater malice Niderus reporteth to haue hapned in a towne called Boltingeu A famous Conjurer called Stradelin being conuicted of sundry malefactions among other confessed That for malice he bore to a man and his wife for seuen yeares together hee had strangled seuen children in her wombe insomuch that all hir births were abortiue In all which time all their Cattell in the same sort miscarried and not one of them brought forth a liuing and thriuing Issue And all this was done by burying a Lizard vnder the threshold of his doore which if it were remoued fruitfulnesse and fertilitie should come again both to her and to their herds of cattell Vpon this free confession the threshold was searched but no such Worme or Serpent found for it is probable that in that time it was rotten and turned to dust But they tooke the threshold and all the earth about it and caused them to be burned and then the Ligature ceased and they were all restored to their former increase of progenie The same Author speaketh of one Oeniponte a most notorious Witch who by making a picture of wax and pricking it with needles in diuers parts and then burying it vnder the threshold of her neighbours house whom she much hated she was tormented with such grieuous and insufferable prickings in her flesh as if so many needles had beene then sticking at once in her bodie But the Image being found and burned she was instantly restored to her former health and strength But to leaue these and come to other kindes of Sorceries and Witchcraft such as we finde recorded in Historie Grillandus is of opinion That euerie Magition and Witch after they haue done their homage to the Diuell haue a familiar Spirit giuen to attend them whom they call Magistellus Magister Martinettus or Martinellus and these are somtimes visible vnto them in the shape of a Dog a Rat an AEthiope c. So it is reported of one Magdalena Crucia That she had one of those Paredrij to attend her like a Blacke-More Glycas telleth vs That Simon Magus had a great blacke Dog tyed in a chaine who if any man came to speak with him whom he had no desire to see was ready to deuoure him His shadow likewise hee caused still to goe before him making the people beleeue that it was the soule of a dead man who stil attended him These kindes of familiar Spirits are such as they include or keepe in Rings hallowed in Viols Boxes and Caskets not that Spirits hauing no bodies can be imprisoned there against their wills but that they seeme to be so confined of their own free-wil and voluntarie motion Iohannes Leo writeth That such are frequent in Africke shut in caues and beare the figure of birds called Aves Hariolatrices by which the Magitions raise great summes of mony by predicting by them of things future For being demanded of any difficulty they bring an answer written in a small scroll of paper and deliuer it to the Magition in their bills Martinus Anthoniâ—s Delrius of the societie of Iesus a man of profound learning and iudgment writeth That in Burdegall there was an Aduocate who in a Viol kept one of these Paredrij inclosed Hee dying his heires knowing thereof were neither willing to keepe it neither durst they breake it and demanding counsell they were persuaded to go to the Iesuits Colledge and to be directed by them The Fathers commanded it to be brought before them and broken but the Executors humbly besought them that it might not be done in their presence being fearefull lest some great disaster might succeed thereof At which they smiling flung it against the walls and broke it in pieces at the breaking whereof there was nothing seene or heard saue a small noise as if the two elements of water and fire had newly met together and as soone parted Philostratus telleth vs That Apollonius Tyanâ—us was neuer without such Rings And Alexander Neapolitanus affirmeth That he receiued them of Iarcha the great Prince of the Gymnosophists which he tooke of him as a rich Present for by them he could be acquainted with any deepe secret whatsoeuer Such a Ring had Iohannes Iodocus Rosa a Citisen of Cortacensia who euery fift day had conference with the Spirit inclosed vsing it as a counsellor and director in all his affaires and enterprises whatsoeuer By it he was not onely acquainted with all newes as well forrein as domesticke but learned the cure and remedie for all griefs and diâ—eases insomuch that he had the reputation of a learned and expert Physition At length being accused of Sortelige or inchantment At Arnhem in Guelderland he was proscribed and in the
and to all such as put confidence in them deceitfull and their practise was altogether exploded in Rome Stobaeus Serm. 2. de Impudentia reporteth That Ariston was wont to say of all such as gaue themselues ouer to Encyclopaedia or Mathematicall discipline neglecting meane time the more necessarie study of Philosophie That they might fitly be compared with the sutors of Penelope who when they could not enioy mistres went about to vitiate and corrupt the maids Dion Cassius tels vs That the Emperour Hadrian by his skill in this Mathesis could predict things future by which he knew Varus not to be long liued from that verse of Virgil Ostendit terris hunc tantum Fata neque vltra Esse sinunt c. i. The Fates will only shew him to the Earth and then suffer him to be no more Clemens lib. 5. Recognit saith As it happeneth vnto men who haue dreams and vnderstand nothing of their certaintie yet when any euent shall happen they apt their nightly fancy to that which hath chanced euen such is this Mathesis before somthing come to passe they can pronounce nothing which is certaine or to be built vpon but when any thing is once past then they begin to gather the causes of that which already hath the euent By the creature Oryges painted or insculpt the AEgyptians did hierogliphycally figure a Mathematician for they with great adoration honor their Star Sothes which we cal Canicula and with great curiositie obserue the time when it riseth because they say the Oryges is sencible of the influence thereof by a certain sound which it yeeldeth and not onely giueth notice of it's comming but saluteth it when it appeareth rising Pier. Valer. Lib. 10. Pag. 90. The Emblem THe Emblem to conclude this Tractat I borrow from Iacobus Catsius Emblem lib. 3. which presenteth a hand out of a Cloud holding a Brand in the fire that part which handeth being free the other flaming The Motto Qua non vrit It seemeth to be deriued from Eccles. cap. 3.16 He hath set water and fire before thee stretch out thine hand to which thou wilt Before Man is life and death good and euill what him liketh shall be giuen him So also Ierem. 21.8 And vnto this People thou shalt say Thus saith the Lord Behold I set before thee the way of Life and the way of Death And Deutronom 30.19 I call Heauen and Earth to record this day against you that I haue set before you Life and Death Blessing and Cursing chuse therefore Life that c. Whoso is free and will willingly run into fetters what can we call him but a foole And he who becommeth a Captiue without constraint must be either thought to be wilfull or witlesse And as Theopompus affirmeth If the Eye be the chuser the Delight is short If the Will the end is Want But if Reason the effect is Wisedome For often it happeneth after the choice of a momentarie pleasure ensueth a lasting calamitie The Authors Conceit hereon is this Pars sudis igne caret rapidis calet altera flammis Hinc nocet illaesam calfacit inde manum Ecce Bonum Deus ecce Malum mortalibus affert Quisquis es en tibi Mors en tibi Vita patet Optio tot a tua ' est licet hinc licet inde capessus Elige sive invet vivere sive mori Quid tibi cum Sodoma nihil hic nisi Sulphur Ignis Quin potius placidum Loth duce Zoar adi ¶ Thus paraphrased Part of the Brand wants fire and part flames hot One burnes the hand the other harmes it not Behold ô mortall Man whoe're thou be Good Bad both Life and Death propos'd to thee God giues thee choice the one or other try By this thou liv'st and thou by that shalt die Leaue Sodom then where Sulphur raines in fire And with good Loth to Zoar safe retyre A morall interpretation may be gathered from the same with this Motto anexed Omnia in meliorem partem Bodinus saith Men vse to chuse a faire day by the gray morning and strong beasts by their sturdy limbes But in choice of pleasures there is no election to be made since they yeeld vs no profitable vse Others chuse Aduocates by the throng of their Clients Physitions by the fame of their Cures and Wiues by their rich Portions or Dowers And well they comply with the prouerbe He that maketh his choice without discretion is like one that soweth his Corne he wots not when and in the haruest expected reapeth hee knoweth not what Needfull it is therefore that wee be chary in our choice since there are so few brought within the compasse of Election According to that of the Poet. Pauci quos equus amavit Iupiter aut ardens evexit ad aethera virtus There are but few whom vpright Iove doth loue Or zealous Vertue gaines them place aboue In another place he saith Pauci laeta arva tenemus i. There are but few of vs who attaine to the blessed Fields If Morallists were so watchfull how much more ought wee Christians to be wary how in all things proposed vnto vs we still like Mary in the Gospell chuse the better part For Liber esse non potest cui affectus imperant cupiditates dominantur i. he is not said to be free whom his affections sway and ouer whom his own lusts and desires haue dominion Lipsius Cent. 1. ad Belg. Epist. 5. saith Vt torrem semiustum foco qui tollit non ea parte arripit tractat qua incanduit sed qua ignem nondum accepit sic nos docet c. i. As hee who snatcheth a Brand out of the fire taketh not hold thereof by that part which is flaming but rather that which hath not touched the fire so we ought not to meddle with the bitter and burning things of Chance but rather such as are more benign and comfortable The Authors inuention followeth Hinc rubet igne sudes nullis crepat inde favillis Hinc poterit tangi sauciat inde manum Res humana bifrons tu qua iuvat arripe quicquid Te super aetherea te regione fluit Damna suum lucrum suagandia luctus habebit Excipis incumbens si sapienter onus Morosum nec laeta iuvant rideat orbis Quod gemet ille tamen quodque quaeratur habet ¶ Thus paraphrased Fire here none there yet is it but one Brand One burnes the other end scarse heats thine hand Fate hath two foreheads what to hate or loue To leaue or like is offered from aboue Losse hath it's Gaine and Mourning a Reward Stoope willingly the burden is not hard Mirth doth not please the Sad and though Fate smile We shall finde some thing to lament the while A Meditation vpon the former Tractate I. AId me ô Lord my God for there be three Grand enemies the Flesh the World the Diuel Who with their Nets and Snares insidiat
prodigalitie was such His exhibition he exceeded much And when his money was exhausted cleane His credit flaw'd and there remain'd no meane Either to score or pawne he walks alone And fetching many a deepe suspire and grone His melanch'ly grew almost to despaire Now as we finde the Diuels ready are And prest at such occasions ev'n so than One of these Sp'rits in semblance of a man Appeares and of his sadnesse doth demand The cause Which when he seem'd to vnderstand He makes free protestation That with ease He can supply him with what Coine he please Then from his bosome drawes a Booke and it Presents the Youth and saith If all that 's writ Within these leaues thou giv'st beleefe to I Will furnish all thy wants and instantly Vpon condition thou shalt neuer looke On any page or once vnclaspe the booke The yong man 's pleas'd the contract he allowes And punctually to keepe it sweates and vowes Now saith the Spectar note and vnderstand What thou seest done Then holds in his left hand The fast-shut booke his right he casts about Then with his thumbe and finger stretched out Meaning the middle of that hand holds fast The charmed Volume speaking thus at last Natat as saliat Aurum and instantly Six hundred Crownes into his pocket fly This shew'd and done he stands himselfe aloofe Giues him the Booke and bids the Youth make proofe As he before did The same order kept The selfe same summe into his bosome leapt They part the youthfull Schollar is surpris'd With ioyes incredible and well advis'd Within himselfe thinks he How should I curse To lose this more than Fortunatus Purse Which to preuent the surest way I 'le chuse Transcribiug it lest I perchance might loose Th'originalll copy Then downe close he sits Shuts fast his dore and summons all his wits From hand to hand the Booke he moues and heaues Weighing and poising the inchanted leaues Then layes it ope But in the stead of Histories Or Poëms he spies nought saue Magicke mysteries First page by page he turnes it ouer all Saue Characters most diabolicall He nothing sees then pausing a good space His eye by chance insists vpon a place At which he wonders namely'a circle that Is fill'd with confus'd lines he knowes not what Their meaning is and from the Center riseth A Crucifix which the Crosse much disguiseth Clov'n through th' midst and quite throughout dissect Aboue an head of horrible aspect Resembling the great Diuels ougly foule Which seemes on his rash enterprise to scoule On the right side two Crosses more appeare That after a strange guise conioyned were And these are interchangeably commixt And vpon each a Caca-Damon fixt Vpon the left that part exposed wide Which modest women most desire to hide Oppos'd as ev'n as iust proportion can Was plac'd th' erected virile part of man At these much wondring and asham'd withall He feeles a sudden feare vpon him fall Which Feuer shakes him his eye 's dull and dead And a strange megrim toxicates his head Imagining behinde him one to reach Ready t' arrest him for his promise-breach He calls aloud his Tutor is by chance At hand beats ope the dore and halfe in â—â—ance He findes his Pupill and before him spies This booke of most abhorrid blasphemies And questions how it came there He tells truth Then he in stead of chiding cheares the Youth And hauing caus'd a great fire to be made Now sacrifice this cursed Booke he said The Pupill yeelds the flame about it flashes Yet scarce in a full houre 't is burnt to ashes Though it were writ in paper Thus we see Though these Familiar Spirits seeming bee Mans profest friends their loue 's but an induction Both to the Bodies and the Soules destruction Explicit Metrum Tractatus octavi Theologicall Philosphicall Poeticall Historicall Apothegmaticall Hierogliphicall and Emblematicall Obseruations touching the further illustration of the former Tractat. PRide was the first sinne and therefore the greatest It was the Fall of Angels and is that folly in Man to bring him to perdition It striueth to haue a hand in euery noble Vertue as it hath an interest in euerie detestable Vice The Valiant it swells with vain-glory the Learned with selfe-conceit Nay further it hath beene knowne That men of most submissiue spirits haue gloried That they could so far humble themselues as being proud that they haue not been more proud It hath made zealous men presume of their merit wretched men to boast of their misery Come to the Deadly sins It is Pride in the Enuious man to maligne the prosperitie of his neighbor in the Wrathfull man to triumph in the slaughter of his enemy in the Luxurious man to trick himselfe vp and glory in the spoile of his Mistresse in the Sloathfull to scorne labour and delight in his ease in the Auaritious to despise the Poore and trust in his aboundance According to that of Ovid in the fift booke of his Metamorph. Sum foelix quis enim neg at hoc foelixque manebo Hoc quoque quis dubitat tutum me copia fecit Happy I am for who can that deny And happy will remaine perpetually For who shall doubt it Plenty makes me such Bee'ng made so great that Fortune dares not touch Pride saith Isiodor est amor propriae excellentiae It is a loue of our proper excellencie Saint Augustine telleth vs That all other vices are to be feared in euill deeds but Pride is not to be trusted euen in good actions lest those things which be laudibly done and praise-worthy bee smothered and lost in too much desire of Praise Humilitie maketh men like Angels but Pride hath made Angels Diuels It is the beginning the end and cause of all other euills for it is not onely a sinne in it selfe but so great an one that no other sinne can subsist without it All other iniquities are exercised in bad deeds that they may be done but Pride in good deeds that they may be left vndone Pride saith Hieron was borne in heauen still striuing to possesse and infect the sublimest mindes and as if it coueted still to soare vp to the place from whence it fell it striues to make irruption and breake into the glory and power of men which first broke out from the glory and power of Angels that whom it found Copartners in nature it might leaue Companions in ruin From heauen it fell saith Hugo but by the suddennesse of the fall hauing forgot the way by which it fell though thither it aime it can neuer attaine All other Vices seek only to hinder those Vertues by which they are restrained and brideled as Wantonnesse Chastitie Wrath Patience and Avarice Bounty c. Pride onely aduanceth it selfe against all the Vertues of the minde and as a generall and pestiferous disease laboureth vniuersally to corrupt them Now the signes by which Pride is discouered and knowne are Loquacâ—ty and clamor in speech bitternes in silence
Partner with the Starres and Brother to the Sun and Moone for so Herodotus writeth Lib. 2. Historiar Let vs now heare the Poets concerning Pride Claud. 4. De Honors Consol. saith Inquinat egregios adjuncta superbia mores The best Indowments knowne and tryde Are spotted if commixt with Pride And Seneca in Herc. Furent Sequitur superbos victor à tergo Deus God as a Victor doth not slacke But still is at the proud mans backe Menander in Gubernat O miserum terque quaterque Omnes qui de se magnifice sentiunt inflat Ignorant enim illi hominis conditionem c. O miserable thrice and foure times told Are all who in their insolence are bold To vant themselues too high whilst their ambition Doth make them to forget mans fraile condition For none but such whose sence hath them forsaken By Arrogance and vaine Applause are taken Eurip. in Glauco Cum videris in sublime quenquam elatum Splendidius gloriantem opibus genere c. When thou behold'st a proud man others scorne Because hee 's rich himselfe or nobly borne And therefore casts on them a scornfull eye Imagin that from heav'n his judgement 's nye Sophocles in Aiace Flagif Video nos nihil aliud esse praeter Simulacra quaedam quotquot viuimus Aut vmbram levem c. I see that we whose mindes so lofty soare Are Images light Shadowes and no more Consider this ô Man thou shalt not breake Into vaine fury nor a proud word speake Against thy God though others thou exceed In Pow'r in wealth or any noble deed We read Socrat. Com. Athen. thus Quamvis Rex naâ—us fueris audi tamen vt mortalis c. Though thou art borne a King in thy degree Yet know thou canst no more than mortall bee Thy time 's vncertaine and thy life a dreame What thou in scorne spitst from thee is but flegme And bred from corrupt nature Dost thou weare A costly robe that first the Sheepe did beare Before it deckt thy shoulders Is thy chest Cram'd full of gold 't is Fortunes spoile at best Or art thou rich of potencie and pow'r Yet are not these assur'd thee for an how'r Or art thou proud That 's folly aboue all Possessing nothing thou thine owne canst call Seeke Temperance for that 's a diuine treasure Which thou shalt finde if thou thy selfe canst measure Mortales cum sitis saith Demosthenes ne supra Deum vos erexeritis i. Knowing your selues to be but mortall seeke not to be aduanced aboue God And we finde it thus in the excellent Poet Simon Nauquerius Quod juvat homines tanto turgescere fastiâ— Non certe heroës semi-dijque sumus c. What helps it you ô men to be so proud For Heroës or halfe-gods y' are not allow'd Came not our substance from the earth below And from aboue nought saue the breath we blow Is not our flesh nay bones from dust create And we the subiects of inconstant Fate What 's in growne man What 's all his strength within More than th' earths bowels wrapt vp in soft skin Ev'n from our parents dregs conceiv'd at first Naked and weeping borne then swath'd and nurst Thinke onely of thy ruin wretched Man And that than thy corrupt flesh nothing can Be thought more vile The Trees and Plants we see Beare pleasant fruits Beasts bring that which feeds thee When from thy body nothing can proceed But what is foule and nasty and doth breed Loathsomnesse to thy selfe diseases sores And excrements by all thy vents and pores Behold how faint how weake how poore thou grow'st That not one safe houre in thy life time know'st Of which thou canst presume and art indeed Nought but a putrid Coarse the Wormes to feed To this Pride which was the sin of the Angels and therefore the cause that they were precipitated from heauen into hell wee may adde their Ingratitude who notwithstanding the dignity of their Diuine nature durst oppose themselues against Him who had created them of such excellence How heinous may we imagin that offence was in Angels towards their God when it is held so odious and abhominable for any benefit receiued in one man towards another Saint Augustine in lib. de Poenitentia In hoc quisque peccato fit culpabilior quo est Deo acceptior c. In this euery Sinner is made more culpable in that to God hee is more acceptable and therefore Adams sinne was the greater in regard that in his creation he was the purer And Bernard Serm. 1. in Epiphan Domin Acknowledge how much God hath esteemed thee by those benefits he hath bestowed vpon thee and what hee hath done for thee that vnto thee his benignitie may the better appeare in taking vpon him humanitie For the lesse he made himselfe in his Incarnation the greater appeared his goodnesse for thy saluation By how much for me he was the viler by so much to me he shall be the dearer And therefore obserue ô Man because thou art but dust and earth be not proud and being ioyned vnto God be not Ingratefull Of the generall Ingratitude of men Lactantius Firmianus thus iustly complaineth If any necessitie oppresseth vs then God is remembred if the terror of war threatneth vs if any sickenesse afflicteth vs dearth and scarcitie punisheth vs if stormes or tempests trouble vs then wee fly vnto God then wee desire his helpe then we offer our feruent prayers vnto him If any be in a storme or distressed at sea then hee invoketh him If any violence or oppression be offered he imploreth him If he be driuen to pouerty then he seeketh vnto him Or if forced to beg he craueth the peoples charitie onely for his sake and in his name But saue in their aduersitie they neuer remember him after the feare is past and that the danger is blowne ouer him whose assistance they implored in their want they forget in their fulnesse and whom they sought after in their penury they now fly in their plenty O fearefull ingratitude for then men most forget God when enioying his blessings and benefits they haue cause to be thankefull vnto him For then He that returneth euill for good euill shall not depart from his house saith Salomon And therefore Blesse God ô my Soule saith the Psalmist and forget not his great benefits The ingratefull man or rather Monster is by the Ethnycke Authors diuersly branded One writeth thus Ingratus qui beneficium accepisse negat quid accepit ingratus qui id dissimulat c. He is called an ingratefull man who hauing receiued a benefit yet denieth to haue receiued it he is so called that dissemblerh it he likewise incurreth the same aspersion that requiteth it not but aboue all that character is most iustly conferred vpon him that forgets it It is a sinne that walketh hand in hand with Insolence and brasen-fronted Impudence saith Stobaeus And according to Theophrastus it ariseth either from couetousnesse or suspect Archimides saith Benefits
well and carefully conferred strengthen and establish a Kingdome but seruice vnrewarded and gifts vnworthily bestowed weaken and dishonour it Old kindnesses saith Pindarus the excellent Greek Poet are apoplexed and cast asleepe as void of all sence and all men as stupified are turned ingratefull For according to the Cynicke Diogenes Nothing so soone waxeth old and out of date as a courtesie receiued Quintilian is of opinion That all such as receiue gifts courtesies or good turnes from others should not onely frequently remember them but liberally requite them thereby imitating our Mother Earth which still returneth more fruit than it receiueth seed Socrates affirmed all such as were vnthankfull to haue in them neither nobilitie nor justice According to that saying of Stobaeus Gratitude consisteth in Truth and Iustice Truth in acknowledging what was receiued and Iustice in repaying it The Lawes of Persia Macedonia Athens c. punished Ingratitude with death And Plato can teach vs That all humane things quickely grow old and hasten to their period onely that sin excepted and he giueth this reason Because that the greater increase there is of men the more Ingratitude abounds The Ingratefull is held to be of worse condition than the Serpent who reserueth venom and poyson to hurt others but keepeth none to harme himselfe I conclude with Seneca the Philosopher If we be naturally inclined to obserue and to offer all our seruice to such from whom we but expect a benefit how much more then are we obliged to such from whom wee haue already receiued it I come now vnto the Poets Seneca in Aiace Flagell we reade thus Qui autem obliviscitur beneficijs affectus Nunquam vtique esset hic generosus vir Amongst the Generous he can claime no place That good turnes done out of his thoughts doth rase Plautus in Persa speaketh thus Nam improbus est homo Qui beneficium scit sumere reddere nescit Nil amas si ingratum amas Bad is that man and worthy blame That can good turnes from others claime But nought returneth backe He than Nought loues that loues a thank lesse Man Cornarius writeth thus Pertusum vas est ingratus Homnucio semper Omne quod infundis perfluis in nihilum In vaine th' Ingratefull man with gifts thou fill'st In broken Tuns what thou pour'st in thou spill'st And much to the same purpose almost the same sence the Poet Luscinius expresseth himself in this Distich following speaking of the vnthankfull man Rimarum plenus perdit tua dona scoelestus Si sapis integro vina reconde cado A leaking Vessell and consumes what 's thine But thou for a sound Tunne reserue thy Wine Ausonius in one of his Epigrams saith Ingrato homine terra pejus nil creat There 's nothing worse that the earth can Breed than an Ingratefull man And Iuvenal Satyr 11. Ingratus ante omnia pone sodales Aboue all others see thou hate Thy fellowes such as proue ingrate One Michael Traulus slew his master the Emperor Leo who had raised him to many eminent honours and dignities Phraates slew his father Orodes King of the Parthians Romanus junior reiected his naturall mother at which shee conceiued such hearts griefe that she soone after expired Alphonsus Primus King of Lusitania cast his mother into Prison The like Henry the Emperor fift of that name to his father Henry Darius tooke counsell to kill his father Artaxerxes by whom he was before made King And Lucius Ostius in the time of the Ciuill wars when his father Armalius was proscribed and the Triumvirat prosecuted his life he his son betrayed him to the Lictors brought them to the place where he then lay concealed for no other cause but that hee might enioy his possessions Marcus Cicero at the command of M. Anthonius one of the Triumvirat was slain by Pompilius Lemates whose life he had before defended and acquitted from the strict penalty of the Law Alexander the Great forgetfull of his Nurse Hellonice from whom he had receiued his first milk caused her brother Clitus afterward to be slaine Anthonius Caracalla being aduanced to the Roman Empire amongst many others whom he caused innocently to be butchered he spared not Cilones his tutor by whom he was first instructed notwithstanding he had been a Counsellor to his father and a man notable for his wisdome and temperance No lesse was the ingratitude of the Senat of Rome vnto Scipio Africanus who notwithstanding that he had subdued Carthage the onely City that durst affront or contest with Rome through the whole world yet being accused by Petilius they arraigned him in open Court and proscribed him because that all the treasure which he had woon in Asia he had not brought into the Treasurie of Rome But of all the rest that to me is most remarkable recorded by Zonarus Cedrenus of the emperor Basil. Macedo who being hunting as he much delighted in that exercise a great stag incountring him fastned one of the brouches of his hornes into the Emperors girdle and lifting him from his horse bare him a distance off to the great indangering of his life Which a Gentleman in the traine espying drew out his sword and cut the Emperors girdle by which meanes he was preserued and had no hurt at all But note his reward The Gentleman for this act was questioned and adiudged to haue his head strooke off because he dared to expose his sword so neere the Emperours person and suffered according to his sentence Infinite are the histories to this purpose which for breuities fake I omit shutting vp this argument with that out of Petrus Crinitus Lib. 2. Poemat de Fugiendis ingratis Ingratus est vitandus vt dirum scoelus Nil cogitari pestilentius potest Nec esse portentiosius quicquam puto c. Ingratitude I wish thee shunne As the worst deed that can be done Nothing more pestilentiall can Enter into the thoughts of man Th' Ingratefull man 's prodigious who If his bad acts he cannot show Yet studies ill himselfe he spares But against others all things dares He hateth all but those men most Who iustly may their good deeds boast The reason may be vnderstood As bee'ng sequestred from the Good Hee 's bold and wicked drawne with ease To what is bad which best doth please What of it selfe is good he still Doth labor how to turne to ill As hee 's couetous so hee 's prowd And with no honest gift endow'd There 's only one good thing he can Well pleasing both to God and Man And which though he be sure to pay Yet whilest he can he will delay And 't is against his will too then That 's when he leaues the world and men No Monster from the earth created That is of God or Man more hated But amongst all the ingratefull people of the world the stiffe-necked nation of the Iewes appeareth vnto me to be most remarkable concerning whom you may reade Esdras lib. 1. c. 5.23
hundred yeres and more before he came to the Crown looking vpon that place where it is said I will that Cyrus whom I haue made King ouer many and great Nations shall send my People into their owne Countrey there to rebuild my Temple he I say as ouerjoyed with this Propheticall prediction witnessed by his Edict That he would send them freely into Iudaea there to erect a Temple vnto the Great God by whose mighty prouidence he was appointed to be a King so many Ages before he was borne The like is recorded of Alexander Macedo who being at Ierusalem there instructed by the Prophecie of Daniel That it should come to passe that a King of Greece should vtterly subvert the Persians and after enioy their soueraigntie and estate building from thence a certaine confidence of his future victorie hee presented Iaddus and the rest of the Priests from whom hee receiued that light of the Prophecie with many and rich gifts and moreouer gaue them not only free libertie to vse their owne Lawes and Religion but released them from a seuen yeares tribute Panormitan lib. 1. de Dictis Factis Alphons reporteth That Alphonsus King of Arragon and Sicilie neuer suffered any man to exceed him in bounty and gratitude And Herodotus lib. 1. telleth vs That though Cyrus knew himselfe to be the son of Cambyses King of Persia and Mandanes daughter to Astiages King of the Medes yet his Nurse Spaco which the Greekes call Cino from whence grew the Fable That he was nursed by a Bitch who was wife to the Herdsman of King Mithridates he held in such great honour that no day passed him in which he had not the name of Cino in his mouth Hence commeth it according to Hect. Boeth lib. 2. That the nurse-children of the most noble Scots affect those of whose milke they haue sucked and title them by the name of Foster-brothers Plutarch speaketh of Pyrrhus King of the Epyrots That he was humane and gentle vnto his familiar friends and euer ready to requite any courtesie done vnto him And Caspinus reporteth of Henry the second Emperour That onely because he was instructed in learning and Arts in a towne of Saxony called Hildescheim he for that cause made it an Episcopall See and endowed it with many faire and rich Reuenues It is reported by Plutarch of Philip King of Macedon the Father of Alexander the Great That when his great friend Eparchus Embricus was dead he mourned and lamented exceedingly but when one came to comfort him and said There was no occasion of this his so great sorrow in regard hee died well and in a full and mature age he made answer Indeed hee died so to himselfe but to me most immaturely in regard death did anticipate him before I had requited his many courtesies to the full Per Cucupham avem saith Pierius Valerius which I vnderstand to be the Storke the AEgyptians hierogliphycally signifie paternall and filiall gratitude for as Philippus Phiropollines testates Aboue all other birds they repay vnto their parents being old those benefits which they reciued from them being yong For in the same place where they were first hatched being growne to ripenesse they prepare a new nest for their Dams where they cherish them in their age bring them meat plucke away the incommodious and vnprofitable feathers and if they be vnable to flye support them vpon their more able wings Wee reade his thirtieth Emblem ad Gratiam referendam thus Aërio insignis pietate Ciconia nido Implumis pullos pectore grata fovet c. Th' indulgent Storke who builds her nest on hye Observ'd for her alternat pietie Doth cherish her vnfeather'd Yong and feed them And looks from them the like when she should need them That 's when she growes decrepit old and weake Nor doth her pious Issue cov'nant breake For vnto her bee'ng hungry food she brings And being weake supports her on her wings Saint Bernard super Cantic saith Disce in ferendo gratias non esse tardus non segnis c. Learne in thy thankfulnesse not to be slack nor slow but for euery singular courtesie to be particularly gratefull And in his first Sermon vpon the same he vseth these words As often as Temptation is ouercome or Sinne subdued or imminent Perill escaped or the Snare of the Aduersary auoided or any old and inueterat disease of the Minde healed or any long-wished and oft-deferred Vertue obtained by the great grace and gift of God so often ought laud and praise with thankesgiuing be rendred vnto him For in euerie particular benefit bestowed vpon vs God ought to be particularly blessed otherwise that man shall be reputed Ingratefull who when hee shall be called to an account before God cannot say Cantabiles mihi erant iustificationes tuae Let vs now heare what the Poets say concerning Gratitude We reade Ovid 4. de Ponte thus Pro quibus vt meritis referentur gratia jurat Se fore mancipium tempus in omne tuum c. For which that due thanks may be giv'n he sweares Himselfe thy slaue to infinites of yeares First shall the mountaines of their trees be bare And on the Seas saile neither Ship nor Crare And flouds vnto their fountaines backward fly Than of thy loue shall faile my memory As also Virgill AEnead lib. 2. Dij si quaest Coelo pietas quae talia curet Persolvant grates dignas proemia reddant Debita The gods themselues if in the heav'ns there be Which shall of these take charge that pietie Returne thee merited thanks and such a meed As is behoofefull for thy gratefull deed Sophocles in Oedipo saith Gratiam adfert gratia beneficium semper beneficium parit Thanks begets thanks and one benefit plucks on another Saith Seneca En est gratum opus si vltro offeras Behold that is a gratefull worke which commeth freely and of thine owne accord And in another place Beneficium dare qui nescit injustè petit He that knoweth not how to doe a courtesie with no justice can expect any Againe Beneficium accipere est libertatem vendere To receiue a benefit is to sell thy libertie These with many others are Maximes of the Tragicke Poet Seneca Statius lib. 7. Thebaidum saith Nec laâ—dare satis dignasque reperdené grates Sufficiunt referant superi Praise thee enough or enough thanke thee I Cannot but where I want the gods supply Ovid 1. de Tristibus thus writeth vnto a friend of his whom he had found constant vnto him in all his troubles and aduerse fortunes Haec mihi semper erint imis infixa medullas Perpetuusque animae debitor hujus ero These courtesies haue pierc'd my marrow and My life and soule at all times shall command First shall this Sp'rit into the aire expire And these my bones be burnt in fun'rall fire Than that the least obliuion shall once staine This memorie which lasting shall remaine I conclude this Theme of Gratitude with
they Cannot endure it puts them to dismay Lactantius tells vs When vpon a season An Emp'ror of his Idoll askt the reason Of some doubt that perplext him a long space He answer'd not the cause was that in place A Christian then was present at that time Who had new blest him with the Crosses signe Good Angels when to man they first appeare Although they strike him with amase and feare Their em affies bee'ng done before they part They leaue him with great joy and cheare of heart As he at whose dread presence Daniel shooke As th' Angell Gabriel whom the Holy-Booke Makes mention of who when he came to bring To the blest Maid a message from heav'ns King Frightfull at first appear'd his salutation But th' end thereof was full of consolation But the bad Spirits bringing seeming ioy The end thereof's disaster and annoy From circumstance might many more arise But these for this place at this time suffice Be it held no digression to looke backe From whence I came inquiring if I lacke No fit accoutrement that may be found Behoofull for the journey I am bound Something I had forgot in my great speed Of Musicke then e're further I proceed I must deriue it from the first of dayes The Spheres chime Musicke to their Makers praise In the worlds first Creation it begunne From the word Fiat spoke and it was done Was sound and sweetnesse voice and symphonie Concord Consent and heav'nly harmonie The three great Orders of the Hierarchie Seruants vnto th' eternall Majestie In their degrees of Ternions hourely sing Loud Haleluiahs to th' Almighty King The Seraphins the Cherubins and Thrones Potestates Vertues Dominations The Principats Arch-Angels Angels all Resound his praise in accents musicall So doe the Heav'ns and Planets much below them Touching the first those that seeme best to know them Thus of their quicke velocitie relate As the supreme and highest agitate Their wheeles with swiftest motion so conclude The lowest finish their vicissitude That is their naturall courses much more soone As first in nine and twenty dayes the Moone The Sun and Venus in one twelue-month theirs And Saturne his in thirty compleat yeares But many thousands must be fully done Before the starry heav'ns their course haue runne Such and so great is mans innate ambition Into all knowledge to make inquisition The depth of Natures hidden wayes to sound Mystries to search and diue in arts profound As if we looke into the first of Time When as the World was in it's youth and prime Ev'n to this latest Age those much commended For deepe conceptions greatly haue contended Almost aboue capacitie indeed Laboriously each other to exceed But as the Fable of Ixion proud Saith he in Iuno's stead embrac'd a Cloud So for the most part those of wits refin'd Building vpon their amplitude of mind And by their owne vaine apprehensions sway'd In their maine course erroneously haue stray'd Either in all mistaking or some part Error for Truth and Ignorance for Art The reason is That in things vndecided By selfe-conceit bee'ng obstinatly guided And not acquiring out the perfect ground What 's finite they with infinite confound What 's humane with diuine what 's wrong with right As out of darknesse striuing to draw light Hence comes so many Sects and Schooles t' arise Amongst the Sophists thinking themselues wise As Pyâ—hagorians Epicures Platonicks Pythonicks Scepticks and Academicks Eleaticks Perepateticks Stoicks too With others more And all these as they doo Differ in names so in opinions and Vpon diuersitie of judgements stand For instance First as touching the foundation Of things that since the Chaos had creation And cause efficient some hold Earth some Fire Some Water others Aire some Sects conspire Vpon the full foure Elements to impose it One names the Heav'ns another saith he knowes it The Stars were workersâ— Atoms this man names Another Number and the former blames Some Musicall consent drawne from the Spheres Some Full some Empty by all which appeares Those things are only quarrel'd with not prov'd For nothing's constant sollid or immov'd In all their doctrines each with other jar And are indeed still in seditious war And therefore God reproues Iob for aspiring And to his hidden wayes too deepe inquiring Thus saying Who is he that doth obscure Knowledge with words imperfect and impure Gird vp thy loines thee like a man prepare I will demand and thou to me declare Where wast thou when I layd the earths foundation If thou hast knowledge giue me true narration Who measur'd it now if thou canst divine Or ouer it what 's he hath stretcht the line Vpon what are the solid Bases made Or who the corner stone thereof first layd When all the Morning Starres as but one-voic't Prais'd me together when all Saints reioyc't Who shut the Sea with dores vp when the same As from the wombe it selfe issu'd and came When for it I the Clouds a cov'ring found And as in swathing â—ands in darkenesse bound And said Thou hitherto shalt haue free way No further thou shalt here thy proud waues stay And after this the secrets doth pursue Of Snow Haile Tempests with the Light and Dew Raine Ice Death Darknesse and so further runnes To th' Pleiades Arcturus and his sonnes Saith Paul In this world none himselfe deceiue To thinke hee 's wise but such vaine phaâ—sies leaue And let him be a foole so to be wise For this worlds wisedome is a meere disguise Of foolishnesse with God Scriptures thus treat The Wise he catcheth in his owne conceit In Esays Prophesie the words thus sound The wisedome of the Wise I will confound The prudence of the Prudent reprehend Where is the wise man Where 's the Scribe now or He of this world the great Inquisitor Hath not God made all the worlds Wisedome Folly Who then dares thinke himselfe or wise or holy What was it that to Socrates first gaue Wisedomes great attribute and honour saue That he confest In all he did pursue He only knew this That he nothing knew What saith the Preacher When I did apply My heart to search out Wisedome curiously And to behold on earth the secrets deepe That day nor night the eyes of man take sleepe Gods entire worke before myne eyes I brought That Man could not finde out the worke he sought Beneath the Sun for which mans busie minde Labors to search but it can neuer finde And though the Wise man thinke it to conceiue He cannot doo 't without th' Almighties leaue When as the Academicks of the rest Of all the Ethnycke Sophists were held best Yet in their then supreme authoritie None durst contest and say So this shall be The Pyrhonicks of no lesse approbation Would not of any thing make attestation But made a doubt in all and held for true Whoeuer humane Science shall pursue No other base he hath whereon to sit Sauing the fraile
therefore the hundredth day following Caesar should die and be made a god which could not happen to any man whilest he was yet liuing Cardanus speaking of fiery Spectars amongst many others relateth this story A friend of mine saith hee of approued faith and honesty trauelling one night late from Mediola to Gallerata when the Sky was full of clouds and the weather inclining to raine being within some foure miles of his journies end he saw a light and heard rhe voice as he thought of certain Cow-herds vpon his left hand and presently a hedge onely being interposed he saw a fiery Chariot couered with flames and out of it he might heare a voice crying aloud Cave cave Beware beware Being much terrified with this strange prodegie he put spurres to his horse and whether he galloped or rid softly the Chariot was stil before him He then betooke him to his orisons and supplications vnto God at length after the space of a full houre hee came to a Temple dedicate to the memorie of Saint Lawrence standing iust without the gate and there the Chariot of fire herdsmen and all sunke into the earth and was seene no more Cardanus hauing disputed something of the nature of this fire addeth That the Gallaterans suffered the same yeare not only a great plague but diuers other afflictions and disasters To these Spirits of the fire is ascribed that diuination by Pyromancie which some call Puroscopan In which superstition old pitch was cast into the fire with the invocation of certain of these Spirits Sometimes a Tead or Torch dawbed ouer with pitch was lighted and marked with certaine characters If the flame of the Tead gathered it selfe into one it was prosperous if diuided disastrous if it arose tripartite it presaged some glorious euent if it were diuersly dispersed it diuined to a sicke man death to a sound man sicknesse if it made a sparkling noise it was infortunat if it was suddenly extinct it threatned great misfortune So likewise in their sacrificing fires if the flame went streight vpward like a Pyramis it was a signe of a good omen if it diuided and dispersed of a bad There were diuers coniectures also from the colour the brightnesse the dulnesse the ascent the sparkling c. and this kinde of Magicke was frequent amongst the Liâ—uanians c. From the fiery I proceed to the Spirits of the Aire We reade in the sacred Scriptures That Sathan caused fire to fall from heauen to deuour and consume Iobs seruants and his cattell As likewise hee raised a vehement Whirle-winde and tempest which oppressed his sonnes and daughters with the house where they were then feasting with a sudden ruin Remigius telleth a story which is likewise affirmed by Delrius That a countrey-man of the prouince of Triuere setting some Plants in his garden with a yong maid his daughter the father commended her for going so neatly and quickly about her businesse The Girle telleth him that she can do stranger things than these and more stupendious The father demands What Withdraw your selfe but a little saith she and name but in what place of the garden a showre of raine shall fall and water the earth and in what not The countrey-man curious of noueltie withdrew himselfe and bad her vse her skill Shee presently made an hole in the ground into which she poured her owne water and stirring it about with a sticke murmuring certaine magicke words to her selfe presently a showre fel watering only that part of the gronnd which he had named vnto her and in the other fell not one drop of raine Gasper Spitellus writeth That some Indians haue much familiaritie with these Spirits For when they want rain one of their Magicke Priests with a shrill voice makes an acclamation That all the people shall assemble to such a mountain hauing first obserued a Fast which is to abstaine from the eating of salt pepper or any thing that is boiled That done he lowdly calls vpon the Stars and with deuout Orisons entreats of them that they would afford them seasonable showres Then they turne their eyes towards the lower grounds vpon their fields and houses taking in their hands a bowle full of charmed liquour which they receiue from the hands of a young man of their most noble families which they haue no sooner drunke but they lie intranced without sence or motion After being come to themselues they commix honey water and Maiz together and with them sprinkle the aire The next day they chuse out one of the most eminent men of their Nation both for nobilitie and age and lay him in a bed with a soft fire vnder it and when he beginnes to sweat they wipe off the moisture and put in a bason which they mingle with the bloud of a Goose and sprinkling it again into the aire as if they meant it should touch the clouds they then solicit the Starres againe That by the vertue of the old mans sweat the bloud of the goose and the water before mixed they may haue seasonable and temperat showres Which if they haue according to their desires they giue great thanks to the Starres and Planets and the Priest from the people is rewarded with rich gifts and presents Hieronimus Mengius writeth That a certaine Magition in a field adjacent to the tower or citadell of Bonnonia shewed two famous Generals Iohannes Bentivolus and Robertus Sanseverinus a spectacle in the aire in which was heard such a noise of drummes clangor of trumpets clamor of men neighing of horses and clashing of arms that the Spectators were afraid lest the heauen and the earth would haue met at the instant but in all the inuironing grounds saue onely in that place the aire was vntroubled Diodorus Siculus reporteth also That in the Syrtes of Lybia the Spirits of the aire are oftentimes visible in the shape of diuers birds and beasts some mouing some without motion some running some flying others in other strange postures But which is most miraculous sometimes they will come behinde men as they are trauelling leape vp and sit vpon their shoulders who may feele them to be much colder than eitheâ— snow or ice Olaus Magnus in his Historie remembreth That these airy Spirits haue such a predominance in the Circium sea they continually do so exasperat shake and trouble it that scarfe any ship can saile that way without wracke and foundring In the Isle called Island vnder the dominion of the King of Denmarke there is a port called Vestrabor not far from which men are vsually taken and wrapt vp in whirl-winds by the power of these Spirits are hurried many furlongs off Likewise in the Westerne parts of Norway these spirits with their noxious and blasting touch cause that neither grasse nor trees burgeon or beare fruit Likewise vpon the Bothnian continent the roofes are vsually blowne off from
their houses and carried a great distance off And in the fields of Bonaventum and Narbon as Procopius writes men armed wagons laden or whatsoeuer comes in the way are snatched vp into the aire and whirled about like a feather and after let fal vpon the earth not onely bruised but broken to pieces So that they doe not onely vncouer houses demolish buildings ruin turrets and towers blow vp trees by the roots snatch vp men in whirl-winds and prostrat whatsoeuer standeth before them but as Vincentius witnesseth they teare vp cities from their foundations somtimes and strew the fields adjacent with their ruins In the Councell of Basill certaine learned men taking their journey through a forrest one of these Spirits in the shape of a Nightingall vttered such melodious tones and accents that they were all amased and stayed their steps to sit downe and heare it At length one of them apprehending that it was not possible that such rarietie of musicke could be in a bird the like of which hee had neuer heard demanded of it in the name of God what or who it was The Bird presently answered I am the Soule of one that is damned and am enioyned to sing thus till the last day of the great Iudgement Which said with a terrible shrieke which amased them all she flew away and soone vanished The euent was That all that heard those Syrenicall notes presently fel into grieuous sicknesses and soone after died Of this sort of Spirits was that no doubt of which Aventinus witnesseth Bruno the Bishop of Herbipolitanum sailing in the riuer of Danubius with Henry the third then Emperour being not far from a place which the Germanes call â—en Strudel or the deuouring Gulfe which is neere vnto Grinon a castle in Austria a Spirit was heard clamouring aloud Ho ho Bishop Bruno whether art thou trauelling but dispose of thy selfe how thou pleasest thou shalt be my prey and spoile At the hearing of these words they were all stupified and the Bishop with the rest crost and blest themselues The issue was That within a short time after the Bishop feasting with the Emperor in a Castle belonging to the Countesse of Esburch a rafreâ— fell from the roofe of the chamber wherein they sate and strooke him dead at the table Of the Watry Spirits next and of them some briefe stories The manner how the Duke of Venice yearely marrieth the Ocean with a Ring and the originall thereof though it haue nothing in it belonging vnto magicke yet will it not much mis-become this place therefore I begin first with that The Duke in the Feast of Christs Ascention commeth to a place named Bucentaur without the two Apostle gates â—eituate at the entrance of the Gulfe and casteth a rich Ring into the sea which is no argument of superstition or inchantment but onely a symbole or emblem of Domination and Rule which by this earnest the Senat of Venice makes a contract with the Ocean The ground and first beginning of this ceremonie came from Pope Alex. the third whom Otho the soone of Fredericke AEnâ—barbus so persecuted that he was forced to fly and to shelter himselfe in Venice in the Monasterie of Saint Charitie where he liued for a time secretly and vnknowne But after notice being giuen to the Venetians what and who he was they brâ—ught him thence with great honour and obseruance He also found both their land and sea Forces ready for the seruice of him and the Churchâ— insomuch that in a great Naâ—all conâ—â—ict Otho was by the Venetians taken prisoner and presented as a Vassall to the Pope For which the Pope tooke a Ring from his finger and gaue it to Sâ—hastianus Zianus General for the Fleet speaking thus By vertue of my authority whilst thou keepest this Ring thou shalt be Lord and Husband of the Ocean and annually thou and thy posterity on this day in which thou hast obtained so glorious a victorie for the Church shalt espouse the Sea that all men may know that the dominion of the Sea is granted vnto thee because thou hast so prosperously vndertooke the study care and defence of the Sea Apostolique And be this a presage of thy benediction and thy happy successe in the future for euer Thus Villamontinus sets it downe Lib. 1. Peregrinat cap. 34. And Sabel Dec. 1. lib. 7. out of whom the former Author extracted it This following Historie you may reede in Olaus Magnus Hotherus King of Suetia and Dacia being hunting and by reason of a thicke dampish fog wandred or strayed from his company hee hapned vpon a Syluan den or caue which entring he espied three faire and beautifull Virgins who wiâ—hout blaming his intrusion called him by his name and â—ad him welcome doing him that obeysance and obseruance which his state required At which he wondring courteously demanded of them what they were To whom one replied That they were Virgins into whose power all the Auspices and euents of war were giuen and they had abilitie to dispose of them at their pleasure and that they were present in all conflicts and battels though vnseene to conferre vpon their friends honour and victorie and to punish their enemies with disgrace and ouerthrow Exhorting him withall that as he tendered their fauours hee should by no meanes trouble Balderus with war who by his genealogie might claim allyance with the gods Which words were no sooner deliuered but the den and they disappeared together and he was left aloâ—â— in the open aire without any couering Blame him not to be much amased at this so vnexpected and sudden a prodigie notwithstanding after some recollection he winding his â—orne his seruants came about him by whom he was conducted to the Court not reuealing this Vision to any Some few yeares after being vexed and prosecuted with sharpe and vnsuccessefull war he was forced to wander thorow forrests groues and thickets and seeke out by wayes and make vntrodden paths the better to secure himselfe At length he light vpon another remote and desolaâ— Vault where sate three Virgins who notwithstanding vpon better aduisement he presumed to be the same who at their last departure scattered a garment which he tooke vp and found by experience that all the time he wore it his body was invulnerable They demand of him the cause of his comming thither He presently complains vnto them of his infortunat euents in warre adding withall That all things had hapned vnto him aduerse to their promise To whom they answered That he accused them vniustly for though hee seldome returned an absolute Victor yet in all his enterprises he did as much dammage and made as great slaughter on his Enemies as he had receiued strage or execution from them and bad him not to dispaire for if hee could by any exploit or stratagem preuent the Enemie of any one dish of meat which was prouided for his dyet and table hee should without question in