former levell so is it likely many of these querulous Romanes did resume their wonted perswasions of divine powers and their favour towardes mankinde after their turbulent thoughts begun to settle and their disquietted minds recover their naturall seate or station Others more blinded by obstinacy did finally mistrust all former apprehensions being neither cleare nor perfectly observed for meere fancies as weake or dimme sights vsually suspect whether they truely did see such things as in farre distances appeared by short and sudden glymses or their eyes did but dazle 8. But all in this place we intended was to search out the originall if not of all yet of some more principall branches of habituate and obdurate Atheisme vnto which search this observation of indulgence to violent passions or pettishnesse of hopefull desires not satisfied was thus far pertinent that these do settle men otherwise by nature and education not irreligious in the very dregs of these impieties Nor is man as was lately intimated like vnto inanimate creatures whose naturall disposition or inclination cannot be preiudiced by custome Stones though they be moved a thousand times one way their aptitude notwithstanding vnto such motion is no way greater in the last course then in the first Farre otherwise it is with man who as he hath naturall apprehensions of goodnesse so hath he inclinations vnto evill no lesse imbred or naturall the strength of whose bent to burst out into all vngodlinesse is alwayes increased by their actuall motions vnlesse reason exercise her authoritie over them either by substracting their incernall nutriment or by preventing outward occasions which provoke them or by taking them at best advantage when they haue spent themselues in the retire Not thus prevented or controuled in time the habits which naturally result from frequencie of their outrage may come to be no lesse stiffe than they are violent The manner how these fits of passion grow into such grievous rooted diseases is as if we should imagine a stone by often mooving downewards every time to retaine some one or few vntill it had at length incorporated all those degrees of gravitation which naturally accrew in the motion into its permanent weight so as laid in a iust ballance the setled sway of it should be as great as the actuall force of its wonted descent perpetually able to counterpoise as heavie and massie a body as the fall of it from an high tower supposing it had fallen into the opposite scale could haue stirred or elevated Of all passions such as worke inwardly are most dangerous because their growth is insensible and vnobservable Such are fretting iealousies ambitious discontents eagernesse of revenge or other desires overmatched with impotencie of effecting them Generally all grievances which haue no vent without which humane affections like to liquors kept in close vessels or nipt glasses secretly multiply their naturall strength Strangulat inclusus dolor atque exaestuat intus Cogitur vires multiplicare suas As all passions obscure the vnderstanding for the present so the setling of them into habits brings a perpetuall blindnesse vpon the soule alwayes breeding either obdurate Atheisme pernicious Heresie or Idolatrie CHAPTER V. Of habituated or setled Atheisme Why this disease was not so Epidemicall in ancient as in latter times Of the disposition or temper from which irreligion or incogitancie of divine powers which is the first and lowest branch of Atheisme vsually springs 1. THE Pharisee though for his conversation and civill carriage precise and strict in respect of most his ancestours did yet exceed them farther in hardnesse of heart than he came short of them in outragiousnesse of passion The sight of our Saviours miracles and experience of his good life would I am perswaded sooner haue wonne the most Idolatrous or boisterous of his forefathers than him or his sober associates vnto true beliefe From consideration of this his temper besides other inducements I haue elsewhere observed people auncient whether in respect of the generall course of the world or of succession in severall kingdomes to haue beene vsually more rash and impetuous in their attempts but not so setled in resolutions which were impious as their successors in time are and haue beene The bent of their nature did sway a larger compasse and to vse the Mathematicians dialect described a greater circle by it actuall motions Hence were they more easily drawne by the peculiar inticements of those times to greater outrages than men of their ranke commonly by ordinary temptations now are Howbeit for the same reason they were more quickly reclaimed by such corrections as moue not our mindes once set amisse 2. And this in part may be the reason why Atheisme was not so habituated nor the deniall or doubt of divine providence so stiffe in them as in the irreligious of our dayes Consonant hereto are the causes before assigned of posterities mistrusting the reports of antiquitie vnto which we may adde this observation not altogether the same with them nor quite different The visible characters of this great booke of nature were of old more legible the externall significations of divine power more sensible and apter to imprint their meaning both purposely suited to the disposition of the worlds non-age which for secular cunning or artificiall observation was for the most part rude and childish in respect of those times and Countries wherein Atheisme through mans curiositie came to full height and growth 3. Those Marriners with whom Ionas sayled in calling every man vnto his God and rousing their sleepie passenger to ioyne in prayer with them did no more then many of their profession in this age vpon like exigences doe A raging sea will cause the naturall notions of God and goodnesse to worke in such as haue taken little or no notice of them by land as one vpon this experiment wittily descants Qui nescit orare discat navigare But few of our time would trouble themselues in such perplexitie with searching out the causes of sudden stormes or if they did the causes ordinarily assigned by the experimentall Weather-wizard or naturall Philosopher would content them Fewer I thinke would make enquiry for whose speciall sinne their common prayers for deliverance were not heard seeing God daily accustometh vs to like repulses in particular dangers the oftner no doubt because we examine not our hearts with like diligence in like extremities nor powre forth our soules with such fervency as these Marriners did Their resolution to find out the author of their ill successe as Iosuah did Achans by lot perswades me the observations of grace and nature did not then iarre so much as now they doe They saith the Psalmist that goe downe to the Sea in ships that doe businesse in great waters These see the workes of the Lord and his wonders in the deepe for he commandeth and raiseth the stormy winde which lifteth vp the waues thereof They mount vp to the heaven and they goe downe againe to the depths their
vpon that levell whence the right aspect of heaven and heavenly powers is taken But lest having this libertie of trying all they should come to fasten on that which is best His pollicie is to cast them so farre one wrong way or other in youth that either they shall haue no thought or inclination to retire in mature age or no strength left when they grow old to recover the miscarriages of fresh and liuely motions To sway themselues that way which nature first enclined them or grace doth call them is not easie to be attempted almost impossible to be effected by men that haue beene long fettered in some linke of sociall lust or other filthinesse by men whose mindes haue beene perpetually enwrapt in the curiosities of their proud imaginations Those are the two speciall snares whereby Gods enemy detaines stirring spirits in the dregs of contradicting Atheisme But the men of whom we now speake such as haue wedded their soules to the earth count toyling and moyling in gainefull businesses greatest pleasures are as the tempter knowes of a cleane contrary constitution apt they are not to moue many wayes either vpward or downeward but onely to waggle to and fro within a narrow compasse without whose lists should he tempt them to outray much in any notorious dissolutenesse outragious villany or open blasphemy the vncouthnesse of their distemper procured by these vnnaturall motions might happily admonish them in good time to seeke a medicine The onely meanes he hath herein to prevent them is continually to feede this their deadly disease so kindly and gently as it shall never bewray any danger vntill they be past all possibilitie of recovery They goe to Hell as in a lethargie or deepe slumber Much what to this purpose it is in other parts of these comments observed that the equable morall temper which never alters much from it selfe is most obnoxious to finall miscarriage because seldome so fiercely assaulted by the enemy as to occasion any extraordinary terror of conscience And it is the lesse assaulted because it seldome or lightly rebels against him Now men never much affrighted with the danger wherein all by nature stand nor enflamed with loue of a better Country than they enioy cannot addresse themselues to any resolute or speedy departure out of the territories of civill moralities within which if Satan hold vs he makes full reckoning of vs as of his civill or naturall subiects and this as S. Gregorie obserues is the reason why many are not molested by him CHAPTER VI. Of Disputatiue Atheisme deniall of the God-head or divine providence with the severall curiosities which occasion it 1. FOrraigne supportance is seldome reiected by deserved fame and men of no deserts alwayes seeke to vnderprop their ruinous reputation or groundlesse prayse some by the place which they hold or by the societie wherein they liue others by their auncestors birth or education many by the subiect of their thoughts or worthinesse of matters which they vnworthily handle To professe noble sciences or at the most to haue taken degree in any is ground enough for some men to raise themselues farre aboue such as but yesterday were their full equalls or to stand vpon tearmes of comparison with the best And few there be of their owne Coate that would not willingly yeeld to them what thus they challenge as their due would they shew themselues either able or willing to repay that credit and estimation to the common profession which like bankrouts or decayed Marchants they are enforced either to borrow or beg from it as from the publicke stocke For all of vs are glad to see our owne profession grac't or exalted the rather because we hold it not safe to haue our heights measured onely by our personall stature vnlesse withall we take in the advantage of the ground whereon we stand 2. A second maine stem of habituated Atheisme arose as was lately intimated from this partiall desire in professors to establish the soveraigntie of those arts or faculties wherein they were best seene or most delighted And the best meanes for advancing or establishing their soveraigntie was to extend the limits of their wonted authoritie by reducing all or most effects to their principles as great Lawyers striue to bring most causes to those Courts wherin their practise or authoritie is greatest Another principall veine serving to feed the disease whereto this partiall and intemperate appetite of curious artists ministred first matter wee may if we mistake not fitly deriue from a generall aptitude of the humane soule to take impression from those obiects with which it is most familiar and to iudge of others by their correspondency with these Hence as sollicitors seeking after meanes conducible to any end vsually interceps our desires or intentions of the end it selfe for whose sake onely the meanes in reason were to be sought so doth the curious speculation of creatures visible divert the minds of many from the invisible creator vnto whom the fight of these by nature not misleveled by inordinate or vnwildy appetites would direct all And our generall facility to beleeue with speed what we much affect or strongly desire brings forth peculiar pronesses in the professors of severall arts to frame vniversall rules whether negatiue or affirmatiue from broken and imperfect inductions Now the power and wisedome of God being especially manifested in the workes of creation in the disposition of things created and in matters manageable by humane wit or consultation Satan by his sophisticall skill to worke vpon the pride of mans hart hath erected three maine pillars of Atheisme or irreligion as so many counter sorts to oppugne our beliefe or acknowledgement of the divine providence in the three subiects mentioned Many naturall Philosophers out of a partiall desire to magnifie their owne facultie observing none brought forth without a mother nothing generated without pre-existent seede or matter forth with concludes the course of things naturall which we daily see to haue beene the same from everlasting that generation had no beginning that corruption can haue no ending The imperfection of this induction and the over-reaching inference which some in this kind haue fram'd from a Maxime most true in a sense most impertinent Ex nihilo nihil fit falls in our way againe in the Article of creation The Astronomer likewise finding the influence of starres by experience to haue great force in this inferior world seekes to extend their dominion ouer humane actions or consultations as if all matters of state or private life were by their conventicles or coniunctions authentickly predetermin'd without possibilitie of repeale And thus as the Moone eclipseth the Sunne or lower Planets sometimes hide the higher so haue the Sunne the Moone and Hoast of heaven excluded his sight from approaching vnto the Father of lights Or if through them he can discerne the truth of his existence or see some glimpses of his generall attributes yet the eyes of his minde are so
soules with two distinct habites of Religion one of latria wherewith wee serue God another of dulia whereby we tender such respect and service as is fit for Saints and Angells For every abstract number without addition or subtraction of any vnitie without any the least variation in it selfe necessarily includes a different proportion to every number that can be compared with it and so doth every sanctified or religious soule without any internall alteration or infusion of more habites or graces than that by which it is sanctified naturally bring forth three severall sorts of religious and respectfull demeanour 1. towards God 2. towards Saints or Angells 3. towards Princes men in authoritie or of morall worth As it is but one lesson Giue honour to whom honour loue to whom loue tribute to whom tribute so it is but one religious habite or rule of conscience that teacheth the practise of it And in some sense it may be graunted that men in authoritie or of morall worth must be worshipped with religious worship in another sense againe it must be denyed that Saints are to be worshipped with religious worship though worthy of some peculiar religious respect whereto Kings and Princes vnlesse Saints withall haue no title 4. The respect or service which we owe to others may take this denomination of Religious from three severall References First from the internall habit or religious rule of conscience which dictateth the acts of service or submission secondly from the intellectuall excellency or personall worth of the partie to whom they are tendred thirdly from the nature and qualitie of the acts or offices themselues which are tendred to them with the manner or circumstances of their tendring According to the first denomination we must worship vngodly Magistrates and irreligious Princes with religious Worship For if wee must doe all things for conscience sake and as in the sight of God our service wheresoever it is due must be no eye service no faigned respect All our actions and demeanours must be religious as Religion is opposed to hypocrisie dissimulation or time-serving And in this sense religious and civill Worship are not opposite but coordinate Men truely religious must be religiously civill in their demeanor towards others If our respect or service take the denomination of Religious from the personall worth or internall excellencie of the partie whom we worship it is most true wee are to worship Saints with more than meere civill Worship None of our Church I dare be bound will deny that godly and religious men must be reverenced not onely for their vertues meerely morall or politicke but for their sanctitie and devotion Yet is this all that the moderne Papist seekes to proue against vs. And from this Antecedent which needes no proofe he presently takes that for graunted which he shall never be able to prooue either from these or other premises to wit That Saints are to be worshipped with religious Worship as it is opposed to civill Worship His meaning if it reach the point in question must be this Wee are bound to offer vp the proper acts of Religion as prayers with other devotions by way of personall honour or service to the Saints This wee say is formall Idolatrie 5. It is one thing to tender our service in lowlinesse of spirit for conscience sake vnto the Prince another to tender him the service of our spirit or subiection of our consciences Religion binds me to bow my knee or vse other accustomed signes of obeysance in vnfaigned testimony that I acknowledge him Lord of my body armed with Authoritie from the Maker of it to take vengeance vpon it for deniall of its service Or in case he punish me without cause the bond of conscience and Religion tyes me to submit this outward man in humilitie of spirit to the vnlawfull exercise of his lawfull power rather than I should graunt him the command or disposall of my Religion or honour him with the acts or exercises of it In like sort the sight and presence of any whom God hath graced with extraordinary blessings of his Spirit will voluntarily extort signes of submissiue respect from every sanctified and religious spirit in vndoubted token that they reverence Gods gifts bestowed vpon him and heartily desire their soules might take some tincture or impression from his gratious carriage or instructions which they can hardly doe without some nearer linke of familiaritie and acquaintance or at least would doe so much better by how much the linke were closer or their vicinitie greater The right end and scope whereto the instinct of grace inherent in our soules doth direct these externall signes of submission is to woe their soules and spirits whom we thus reverence to some more intimate coniunction This submissiue reverence though not required by them is on our parts necessary for holding such consort or iust proportion with the abundant measure of Gods graces in them as we may draw comfort and perfection from them Contemplation of others excellency without this submissiue temper in our selues either stirres vp envie or occasioneth despaire and yet all that these outward and vnfaigned signes of submission can lawfully plight vnto them is the service of our bodies or inferior faculties These we could be content to sacrifice not to them but for their sakes alwayes provided that we doe not preiudice the right or dominion which our owne spirits and consciences haue over our bodies immediately vnder God But to offer vp the internall and proper fruits of the Spirit vnto them by way of tribute and honour is to dishonour to deny that God which made them The seedes of grace and true Religion are sowne immediately by his sole powerfull hand and their natiue of-spring acts of faith especially must be reserved entire and vntouched for him Prayers intrinsecally religious or devotions truely sacred are oblations which may not which cannot without open sacriledge be solemnly consecrated to any others honour but onely to his who infuseth the Spirit of prayer and thankesgiving into mens hearts The principall crime whereof we accuse the Romish Church and whereof such as purposely examine the inditement put vp by Reformed Churches against her and her children are to take speciall notice is her open professed direct intendment to honour them which are no gods with those prayers or devotions with these elevations of mindes and spirits wherewith they present the onely wise immortall King in Temples dedicated to his service He that prayed in olde times to an Idoll in a Groue destinated to his worship did wrong the true God after the same manner that he doth which robs him of his Tyths before they be set apart for his house But to come into his house of prayer with serious purpose to honour him with the sacrifice of a contrite or broken spirit and in the time of oblation to divert our best intentions to the honor of our fellow-creatures is worse than Ananias and Saphirahs sinne a lying to the
did not our naturall feare of civill shame or publique infamie likely to redound for revolting from the rule of life generally acknowledged restraine our motiue faculties from acting those partes which haue beene designed vnto them by the vaine imaginations of our wicked hearts In as much as the heart of man is Gods peculiar inheritance with whose entire faculties he requires to be adored and served this inheritance being once alienated from him doth naturally draw the appurtenances after it even all such homage and services as are due vnto his sacred Maiestie bestowing them vpon those matters whatsoever they be vpon which it hath once bestowed it selfe Thus might the wanton Strumpet haue beene invested with the most glorious attributes of divine goodnesse that the lascivious Poet in heate of lust could haue invented Ilia et Egeria est do nomen quodlibet illi 8. Covetousnesse in S. Pauls Divinitie is Idolatrie With this written veritie most agreeable was the natural notion of those poore barbarous Indians which imagined the Spanyards had no other God besides gold or none so deare vnto them as this mettall was because they saw them hunt so greedily after it both by sea and land Their inordinate and excessiue coveting after it made the Barbarians to cōmit Idolatrie with it CHAPTER XVII The more speciall Fallacies by which Sathan seduced the Heathen to multiplie their gods in excessiue manner 1. ALthough it be true which hath beene said That nothing was by nature or condition so vile as not to be capable of high place amongst the Heathenish gods yet vnto that extremitie of multiplying their gods according to the number of their conceipts the Heathens did not slide but by succession and degrees The Persians as S. Austine tells vs worshipped no more gods then two one good and another evill whom they likewise accounted good so long as he did no ill to them How evill should be without a cause or how good and evill should both proceede from one cause or finally how evill being no part of nothing should come into the world seeing the worlds creation was but an effect of the almightie Creators goodnesse in communicating his being vnto all things are points so ill expressed by most Christians that the grossest errors of the Heathens concerning them may seeme very pardonable From these Persian Magies the Manichees it seemes deriue their heresies both of them as most other Heathens had a true apprehension though both failed in their iudgement or composition of those divine Oracles 1. Is there any evill done in the Cittie which I haue not caused 2. Every good gift is from aboue Before multiplicitie of businesses or artificiall curiosities be nummed the sense of nature every extraordinary or remarkeable effect was vnto men a sensible signe and witnesse of an invisibie power bringing things that were not to light Rom. 1. vers 20. 2. The first roots of that vnrighteousnesse wherein they held the truth thus in a manner desirous to manifest it selfe were 1. Carelesnesse in observing the notifications of divine power 2. Neglect to tender such dutifull service as the more evident manifestations of his goodnesse did in a sort demand The prime seede of both these roots was the imbecillitie of corrupted nature whose chiefe and supreme faculties though well instructed are alwayes apt to be over-borne with the imbred and accustomed desires of sense Of the forementioned apprehension or acknowledgement of some invisible power as chiefe author of good and evill one immediate consequence was this That the same power whether one or moe was the rewarder of such as sought to please him and a revenger of those that neglected or offended it Whence in mindes mis-led by their corrupt appetites the best and finall consequence of the former apprehensions or notions was to wooe the supposed divine powers by all meanes possible to patronize themselues and their actions though vniust dishonest or suspitious rather than to submit their wills and affections wholly to their disposalls or so to frame their liues as they might be capable of their iust favours And as vnskilfull Empyricks seeke remedy from every medicine they haue read or heard of because they know not the distinct vertue of any or how it is proportioned to the effect they ayme at So these poore-blind Heathen daily more and more ignorant in the grounds of true Religion did as it were grope after a new invisible power in every visible effect vntill at length they came to subdivide and breake the generall notion according to the distinction or number of the sensibles which they best or worst affected That every visible effect had an invisible cause was rightly proposed but from this principle they slipt into an erroneous assumption That there should be as many invisible causes as there be distinct or visible events The fallacie is easily put vpon vulgar or Somnolent wittes as if one should say he had ten brethren and every of them a sister some mens mindes would forthwith runne vpon two and twentie brothers and sisters Whether there be as many paternities or fatherhoods in the father as he hath sonnes is sometimes questioned in the Schooles and hard vniversally to determine whether in this sense Quot modis dicitur vnum Relatorum tot modis dicitur alterum Whether tearmes formally relatiue alwayes multiplie according to the number of their proper correlatiues Now to distinguish aright betweene the formall Relation and its immediate ground will in many subiects trouble greatest Artists Well then might the Heathen though ill they did in so doing imagine as many invisible powers as they observed effects produced by causes invisible or as the learned Hooker saith dreame of as many guides of nature as they saw guides of things naturall 3. After once their scattered imaginations had given admission to this erroneous representation or coniecture of many invisible powers distinct names or titles were sought for them from the effects which they had caused As in this Land before surnames continued in succession men commonly tooke their names from the places of their birth or dwelling or from events peculiar to them as strangers in some places yet if their names be hard to be pronounced or remembred are vsually called by the places from whence they came if these be famous or haue sent forth few or none besides to the coasts where they remaine So the image which Titus Tatius found because the partie whom it represented was altogether vnknowne was named Cloacina from a very homely place if it should be exprest in English Or as they framed severall gods according to the varietie of their intemperate desires so they vsually derived their titles from the matters whose avoydance or fruition they most desired As we giue extrinsecall denominations to obiects from the reference they haue to our internall faculties As some we say are intelligible others amiable Goddesses of this ranke were Volupia and Libentina c. 4. Not a
joynt almost in a mans body but had a peculiar god among the Romanes whereby they witnessed some scattered reliques or imperfect Characters of what the Psalmist saith in other termes to haue beene written in their hearts In thy booke were all my members written when as not one of them was yet made All at least in their opinion were vnder the tuition of some divine powers by whose meanes they hoped they might be preserved sound or to haue them healed if they were amisse And not knowing vnto what peculiar God or Goddesse to tender their service or direct their prayers for this purpose they gaue names to the supposed latent powers from the place affected In ipsa terrâ aliud Terram aliud Tellurâ—m aliud Tellumonem putant Aug. de eivit Dei lib. 4. cap. 10. The varietie of transmutations conspicuous in the growth of corne brought forth a multiplicity of gods distinguished onely by names proportionate to the effects They could not finde saith S. Augustine one Segetia or Goddesse of corne vnto whose care and trust they might safely commend it from the sowing till the reaping Corne sowne whilest vnder the ground was vnder the protection of Seia after it came vp vt segetem faceret it changed the former Guardian for Segetia Not the very knottes of the straw or reede but had a protector from his office entitled Nodotus Because they feared rust or canker rightly imagining that both these vsually came as some Northerne men speake by the Seand of God they dreamed of a god of rust or canker doubtlesse a rustie god yet in their opinion to be pacified with solemne rites and ceremonies Every house-keeper saith the same father sets but one to keepe the doore and being a man but one sufficeth vnto this office notwithstanding were three gods deputed by the Romanes Forculus foribus Cardea cardini Limentina limini One Forculus to the fore doore another to the hinges or turnings and a third to the thresholdes all taking their titles from these petty places whereof they were reputed Presidents Aug. de civitate Dei lib. 4. cap. 8. 5. But many other events fell out besides or aboue mens expectations wanting permanency of being or such peculiar references or determinations of circumstances as might deriue a perpetuall name to their supposed authors Howbeit rather than these should be seised vpoÌ„ as excheats falling to men without the knowledge or direction of divine powers vnto whom they were to be accounteable for them even these were ascribed to some God though they knew not to whom So most learned Expositors probably thinke that Altar which S. Paul found at Athens had beene erected vpon occasion of some famous victory whose procurement the Athenians not knowing by any circumstance vnto what knowne God it might be ascribed and hence fearing lest by attributing it to any of those gods whom they worshipped the true author of it might be wronged or neglected they ascribed it Ignoto Deo to the vnknowne God well hoping he would make himselfe knowne by graunting more victories being thus honoured for the former With like gratifications did the Romanes striue to winne the gods of al the nations they had conquered to favour their conquests Some good perhaps they had heard done by them vnto their followers as God in opposition to Atheisme and Irreligion did reward the blind devotion of the Heathen with extraordinary temporall blessings and that any Nation should be in greater favour though with their owne gods then themselues this proud people did brooke as ill as great corporations doe to be out-vied by lesser in meriting the favour of great personages by rich presents solemne invitatioÌ„s or costly intertainments Nor is it strange the ignorant Heathen should be overtaken with this humor wherewith an vntoward branch of Davids stocke was desperately tainted In the time of his tribulation did he yet trespasse more against the Lord. This is King Ahaz so vnwilling is the spirit his name should be conceiled For he sacrificed vnto the gods of Damascus which plagued him and he sayd Because the gods of the King of Aram helped him I will sacrifice vnto them and they will helpe me These were gods which his fathers had not knowne perhaps not heard of he onely knew them from the place 6. From the former Principle That every visible effect must haue a cause did the auncient Romanes as â—eligiously as wisely collect That such events as fell â—ut besides the intention of man or any ordinary or observable course appointed by nature were even for this reason in some peculiar sort to be referred vnto the providence of some divine power And rather than the invisible author should loose his right for want of a distinct name the manner of the event was made a godfather or godmother Hence had Fortune more Temples in Rome than any god or goddesse besides And seeing of such events as haue no observable cause in nature or humane intention but fall out as we say by chance some were very good others disasterous bad Fortune had her rites and honours as well as good Fortune The one propitiatory sacrifices lest she might doe more harme the other gratulatory that she might continue her wonted favours The superstitious division of Fortune into good and bad was but a subdivision of the Persian or Manichees misconception of one God as author of good of another as the author of evill These latter fooleries of the Romanes are excellently refuted by S. Austin in his fourth booke de civitate Dei cap. 23. Si cultorem suum decernit vt profit Fortuna non est If shee can know her worshippers or deservedly respect them shee is not Fortune because not blind If shee cannot respect them nor take notice of their service it is in vaine to worship her Howsoever the cost they were at in her service had bin much better bestowed on that other female Foelicitas who if shee had bin a living Goddesse had all good things mans heart could desire at her disposall But as the same Father acutely concludes Hic enim carere non potest infoelicitate qui tanquam deam foelicitatem colit Deum datorem foelicitatis relinquit sicut carere non potest fame qui panem pictuÌ„ lingit ab homine qui veruÌ„ habet non petit He that adoreth the goddesse Foelicitie balking that God who is the donor of Foelicitie shall be as faithfully attended by misery as he whosoever he be shall be by hunger which solaceth himselfe by licking or kissing painted bread disdaining to begge or aske substantiall bread of men that haue it 7. Howbeit by this foolish service of Fortune whether good or bad the Romanes shewed themselues more wise and more religious than most such amongst vs as would be esteemed Prophets of state As they want not wit nor other meanes to doe good to the house of God so they would cease to sacrifice to their owne braines or disclaime all
Tenants or Cottagers to the three great Lords or supposed heires of this visible sphere Night lightnings by the auncient Romanes were entertained as messengers of Summanus Such onely as came by day were accounted as sent by Iupiter 8. These experiments which are as so many probats of the Philosophicall rules premised should hardly merit so much credit with me vnlesse the holy Ghost in registring the idolatrous errors of some heathens had warranted as well the truth of the instances as the causes assigned by vs of the error The Aramites had felt the power of Israels God in the mountaines to their smart and yet are confident to finde succour from other gods as powerfull to plague the Israelites in the plaine And the servants of the King of Syria said vnto him Their gods are gods of the hilles therefore they were stronger then we but let vs fight against them in the plaine and surely we shall be stronger then they And doe these things Take the Kings away every man out of their place and put Captaines in their roomes And number thee an Army like the Army that thou hast lost horse for horse and Charet for Charet and we will fight against them in the plaine and surely we shall be stronger then they And he hearkened vnto their voice and did so The Romanes superstitious confidence in the vanquished Troiane gods was happily nurst by the same ignorance a spice whereof we may obserue in rustique vnthriftie gamesters which hope to avoid ill lucke by changing place That querulous complaint which the Israelites vented in the wildernesse had beene setled vpon the lees of Arams and Moabs Idolatrie These heathens were not so credulous of successe against evident signes of Gods displeasure as the Israelites after experience of his miraculous refections in their thirst were incredulous of his power to provide meat in their hunger Can God said they furnish a table in the wildernesse Beholde he smote the rocke that the waters gushed out and the streames overflowed Can he giue bread also Can he provide flesh also for his people It was but an easie steppe in heathenish times to translate the divine powers à loco ad locatum from the place wherein the effects wrought by them were incompassed to such inanimate creatures as were their instruments in producing them So Augustus lying weatherbound and suspecting lest his suite to Iupiter his brother the supreme Lord of the ayre might finde as vnspeedie admission or dispatch as poore mens petitions did with such great Kings as Augustus was forthwith sacrificed to the winde that lay fittest for bringing him to the haven of his desires They that goe downe into the deepe saith the Psalmist see the wonders of the Lord. The like documents of Gods immediate hand in raising asswaging stormes by sea as inspired this sacred breast with propheticall hymnes of his prayses inticed the Romanes to sacrifice to the flouds or waues for the safetie of their Navies Nostri Duces mare ingredientes immolare hostiam stuctibus consueverunt Our Generalls when they goe to Sea vse to offer Sacrifices vnto the flouds And vpon speciall deliverance from a dangerous storme they invested the latent power of the vnknowne God with the knowne name of the much feared effect prevented as they supposed by their Idolatrous devotions Te quoque tempestas meritam delubra fatentur Cum penè est corsis obruta puppis aâ—uis When shippes on raging Cor-sicke Seas by stormes were well nigh lost To garnish Lady Tempests Shrine our Fathers spar'd no cost Their folly was lesse in seeking to appease the tempest which stirred the waues than in supplicating to the waues which could not cease so long as the tempest lasted 9. These foolish practises of such as the world accounted her wisest sonnes though they cannot iustifie the like foolery in illiterate or meaner persons yet may they iustifie the learned criticks correction of the poore Fishermans speech in Athenaeus albeit by amending his words he hath made his meaning a great deale worse then it was formerly conceived to be For he brings him in sacrificing to the North winde as the most of his profession in auncient times vsually did Alexanders sacrificing in the middest of Hellespont vnto Neptune and the sea-Nimphs was no lesse Idolatrous but neither so properly nor grossely superstitious Howbeit even the most grosse and superstitious mistakings of these Heathens last mentioned differ rather in subiect and matter than in forme from an error common and vsuall and in a manner the fatall consequent of a necessary practise in moderne Schooles to wit of Denominating or notifying things indistinctly apprehended by their references or vicinitie vnto certaine and knowne circumstances Thus because we know not the determinate distance of the Moone from the Center or supreme sphere we define the place of it as of every other bodie by the convexe surface of the sphere which environs it And by this concretion or confusion of the externall reference or notification with the thing we seeke to notifie the highest orbe or supreme sphere hath in the conceit of many lost all right to any distinct proper place because it is destitute of a surface or superior covering so againe by notifying the differences or set parts of time by the numerable and knowne parts of motion which accompany it the proper and essentiall notion of time is vtterly drowned in our conceit of motion And as we imagine those bodies which are not contained vnder some other to be in no place so we misconceiue there should be no time vnlesse it were ensheathed in motion Wheras the Philosopher did not intend that the Definitions either of time or place by him assigned should be essentiall But as all Physicall definitions by his precepts are and ought to be causall or connotatiue such as is that Ira est ebullities sanguinis circacor Anger is the boyling of the bloud about the heart 10. This pronenesse of mans imagination to be mis-led by circumstance of time or place by other adiuncts or instruments of his manifested power the Lord foresawe in his chosen people and sought in sollicitous manner to inhibit by his Law and Prophets To this purpose is the vnitie of his infinite and incomprehensible Maiestie so often and vsually emblazened by varietie of glorious attributes framed from the multiplicitie of subiects or varietie of effects wherein the efficacy of his power iustice or goodnesse are or haue beene most remarkably manifested Men by this meanes so they would by any might be occasioned to abstract and purifie their conceits of him from those concrete and vnpurified apprehensions wherein the Heathen did either burie or imprison such notions as either nature had engraffed in them or traditions communicated vnto them From discovery of his powerfull hand in managing warres he is enstyled the Lord of Hosts or the Lord strong and mightie in Battell and yet with all a God of peace and one that