he did at home in his house in the Countrie after he had giuen ouer the affayres of the Commonweale and the warreâ— and he would haue answered thée that he was neuer lesse ydle than when he was ydle nor lesse alone than when he was alone And yet thou thinkest that it stoode God greatly on haÌ„d to make this goodly place of that world for thée and to harber such blasphemers as thou art therein as if he could not haue forborne thée or liued without thy companie God did the same thing without the world which he doth still with the world that is to wit he is happie in himselfe The world hath nothing at all augmented his felicitie or happinesse But to the intent as yâ— would say to shed foorth his happinesse out of himselfe it liked him to create the world Yea but why did he it no sooner What a number of faults are heere in one spéech Thou wilt néedes be priuie to the cause of Gods will in al things and yet is Gods will the cause of the causes of all things By eternitie thou haddest not bin able to haue knowne his power for the Maiestie therof would haue made the darke and it is so bright that thou couldest haue séene lesse than thou couldest see now if thou wert lodged in the body of the Sunne Now he maketh thee to perceyue his power by the creation of the world his eternitie by comparison of tyme his glorious brightnesse by the shadowe thereof By eternitie thou couldest not haue knowne his wisedome for thou wouldest haue déemed all things as wise as he seeing they had bin as euerlasting as he And what wisedome had remayned in him if all things had bin of necessitie and nothing at his owne choyce and libertie But now thou seest his wisedome in the Stones in the Herbs in the dumb creatures yea and euen in the workmanship of thy selfe Thou seest it in the order in the succession and in the bréeding of all things Thou gasest at it in the greatest things and thou wonderest at it in the smallest as much in the Flye and the Ant as in the whole Cope of heauen wheras the eternitie of things would haue caused thée to haue attributed Godhead to the Skyes the Starres the Earth the Rockes the Mountaynes and in effect to all things rather than thy selfe as they did which were taught so to do Also by this eternitie thou couldest not haue conceyued his goodnesse because thou wouldest haue thought that GOD had had as much néede of the World as the World had of him Thou shouldest not haue knowen thy selfe to bee any more beholden to him than to the fire for heating thée or to the Sunne for giuing thée light because they should no more bee eyther fire or Sunne if they forwent that nature But he sheweth thée by the creation both that he himselfe is euer and that thou hast had thy being since the tyme that it pleased him to create thée that he without thée is eternall and that thou without his goodnesse haddest neuer bin that little which thou art and to bee short that he is not tyed to any néede or necessitie as Aristotles God is which could not refuse to driue that Mill but was tyed to it whether he would or no but that his doing of things is altogether of his owne infinite goodnesse wherethrough he voutsafeth to impart himselfe vnto others by making the thing to bée which was not yea and by making the thing happie which of it selfe could not so much as be Now had man any will or skill to acknowledge the power wisedome and goodnesseÌ„ of his God I thinke not Then was it for thy benefite and not for his owne that he made not the World eyther of greater antiquitie or eternall For had he made it eternall let vs so speake seeing ye will haue it so thou wouldest haue made a God of it and thou canst not euen now forbeare the doing thereof And had he made it of more antiquitie thou wouldest haue made it an occasion to forget thy God and for all the newnesse thereof yet wilt thou not beare it in thy mynd Then seeke not the cause thereof in his power The cause thereof is in thyâ—e owne infirmitie Nay the cause thereof is in his goodnesse in that he intendeth to succour thyne ignorance And so notwithstaÌ„ding al their obiections we shall by this meanes hold still our conclusion to wit That the World is but of late continuance That it had a beginning and that concerning the tyme of the first beginning thereof and concerning the continuance thereof vnto our daies we ought to beléeue the bookes of Moyses aboue all The ix Chapter That the wisedome of the World hath acknowledged the Creation of the World SIth we haue seene with what consent that whole harmonie of the World chaunteth the Creation therof and the praise of the Creator now it followeth that we see what the wisedome of the world hath beléeued in that behalf wherein we haue to coÌ„sider the selfsame thing which we considered in the doctrine of the thrée Persons that is to wit that the néerer we come to the welhead thereof the more clerer we finde it yea and it is also a schoolepoynt of Platoes teaching That in these high matters of the Godhead of the Creation of the world and of such other like we must giue credite as vnto a kynd of Demonstration to the sayings of men of most antiquitie as folke that were better and néerer to God than wée Here I should begin at Moyses as the auncientest of all writers and whom all the Heathen Authors doe honor and woonder at in their writingsâ— And the very first worde of his booke simply set downe in these termes In the beginning God created Heauen and Earth ought to bee vnto vs as a maximée of Euclyde which in those daies men were ashamed to call in question But to the intent we confound not the word of God with the word of man forasmuch as the folke with whom wee haue to deale are such as refuse those whom they cannot accuse let vs ouercome them rather by their owne Doctors Certeynly whosoeuer will take the payne to coÌ„ferre Mercurius Trismegistus with Moyses shall reape therby most singular contentation In Genesis Moyses describeth the Creation of the World and so doth Mercurie likewise in his Poemander Moyses espyeth darknesse vpon the Waters And Mercurie seeth a dreadfull shadowe houering on the moyst nature and the same moyst nature as it were brooded by the word of God Moyses sayth that GOD spake and foorthwith things were made and Mercurie acknowledgeth and bringeth in Gods worde shining whereby he created the light and made the World and all that is therein Moyses parteth the nature of moysture into twayne the one mounting aloft which he calleth Heauen and the other remayning beneath which he calleth Sea And Mercurie seeth a light fire which he calleth AEther mounting vp as it
euill meanest thou towardes him when thou weanest him from his Dugge Now then thinkest thou it straunge that GOD should cast thy goodes into the Sea which els would haue helped to drowne thée in destruction O how greatly did Platoes Shipwracke aduauntage him to make him wise Or that he should plucke the Sword of authoritie out of thy hand wherof thou art so desirous which els peraduenture had slayne thyne owne Soule Or that to prepare thée to another life better than this he should serue thee with such fit meanes as might make thée to bee in loue with it Thou wilt say that thou wouldest haue vsed them well but what a number of men haue bin seene which vnder the chastisement of pouertie were good men whom riches and honor did afterward marre corrupt Thou sufferest the Phisition to take frō thée some kynds of meates which thou louest well and to abridge thée both of thy fare and of thyne exercises and of thy pleasures because he hath seene thy water or felt sometymes thy pulse and wilt thou not suffer God who hauing created thee and shaped thee feeleth euerlastingly the pulse of thy Soule wilt thou not suffer him I say to bereue thée of some outward thing which he himselfe made and which would worke thy destruction Thou commendest the Captayne who to make his iourney the speedier against his enemie dispatcheth away all bag and baggage from his Armie that his Souldiers may go the lighter and that the breaking of a Chariot may not stay him by the way and canst thou not finde in thyne heart that he which made thee and gouerneth thée should dispose of thy baggages that is to wit of thy purchases or inheritances which thou hast gotten heere belowe to make thée the nimbler against vice and against the continuall temptations of this world But Enuie pricketh thee Why taketh he them not sayst thou aswell from this man and that man as from mée And why loueth he thée perchaunce better than them Tell mée why the Phisition appoynteth thee a greater portion of Rhewharbe than him Because such a one is more moued with one dramme than another is with three One is better purged with a single Clister than another is with a very strong Purgation One man is sooner warned of God by the losse of his cropp of Grapes or Corne than another is by the burning of his house the losse of all his goodes and the taking of his Children prisoners So Iob sawe the losse of his Cattell the burning of his houses and the death of all his Children and yet for all that he praysed God still That which was constancie in him might haue seemed blockishnesse in another But when God came once to the touching of his person he could not then forbeare to dispute with him Now then séeing that the things which thou termest euilles and mischiefes are in very déede both Medicines and Salues wilt thou not haue them ministred according to the complexion of the patient And thinkest thou thy selfe wiser in discerning the disposition of thy Soule thā he that created it thou I say which darest not trust to thyne own knowledge in the curing of thy bodie The same is to bee sayd of diuers Nations whereof some one may happen to be afflicted a longer tyme more sharply with the Plague or with Warre than another and oftentymes also euen for the selfesame causes For God knoweth both the common nature of whole Nations and the peculiar natures of euery seueral person Some nature if it should not sée the scurge alwaies at hand would become too too proude and presumptuous Another if it should see it continually would be quite out of hart and fall into dispayre If some were not kept occupyed with their owne aduersities they could not refrayne from working mischief to others Another agayne beeing more giuen to quietnesse is contented to sweate in tilling his grounds in trimming his Gardynes without coueting other mens goodes so he may keepe his owne In like case is it with Plants some require dunging some rubbing to make them cleane some proyning some new graffing againe with the same to take away the harshnesse of their fruite and some to haue their head cropped quite and cleane off One selfesame Gardyner doth all these things and a Childe of his that stands by and sees it woonders at it but he that knoweth the natures of things will count him the skilfuller in his arte Yea sayst thou but though these euilles may be Medicines and Salues how may death be so For what a number of Innocents doe wee see slayne in the world What a number of good folke doe we see put to the slaughter not onely good in the iudgement of vs but also euen in the iudgement of those that put them to death Nay rather what is death but the common passage which it behoueth vs al to passe And what great matter makes it whether thou passe it by Sea or by Land by the corruption of thyne owne humors or by the corruptnesse of thy Commonweale Agayne how often haue Iudges condemmed some man for a cryme whereof he hath bene giltlesse and in the denyall whereof he hath stoode euen vpon the Scaffold and yet hath there confessed himselfe faultie in some other cryme vnknowne both to the Iudges and to the standers by a manifest reproofe either of the ignorance or of the vniustice of the Iudges but a playne acknowledgement of the wisedome and iustice of the eternall God And if God hring them to that poynt for one fault and the Iudge for another what vniustice is in God for suffering them to bee condemned wrongfully by the Iudge yea and to be punished with death or otherwise for a cryme whereof their owne conscience cleareth them as giltlesse when as God and their owne conscience doo iustly condemne them for some other As for example The Iudge condemneth them for conspiracie against the commonweale whereas God condemneth them perchaunce for behauing themselues loosely in defending the commonweale The Iudge vnder colour of offence giuen to the Church and God for not rebuking the Churchmen freely inough For I speake as well concerning Heathenfolke as Christians in this behalfe And what a nomber doe wee see which confesse of themselues and witnesse of their familiar freends that by thy punishing of them wherewith thou being the Iudge mentest to haue put them in feare and too haue restrained them they haue taken warning to amend and bin the more quickened vp and incoraged And what els is this but that as in one selfesame deede God had one intent and thou another so also he guyded it to the end that he himselfe amed at yea and to a contrarie end to that which thou diddest purpose But what a thing were it if thou sawest the fruite that GOD draweth out of it The Childe that beholde his Father treading of goodly Grapes could find in his heart too blame him for so doing for he thinketh
the Soule of man hath his beeing from without and not from the elements or from matter as the bodye hath And that all Soules are formes and all formes are substances Dooth hee not make God to bee the creater of substances yea and of better substances than the elements Ageine when he sayth that the knitting parts that is to wit the bones the skin the Sinewes and such lyke may be made of the mixing togither of the elements and that the vnknitting parts as the Head the Leg the Arme and so foorth cannot be so made but are made by nature and heauenly skil insomuch that the proper essence and forme of the knitters procéedeth neither of heate nor of cold of moysture nor of drythe Dooth hee not acknowledge in euery seuerall part a seuerall forme and substaunce which commeth from some other where than of the matter or of the mixture of the elements And sith hee sayth in another place that it were possible to haue such a coniunction of the heauenly bodyes as myght produce not only an efficient cause but also euen matter it self for the creating and bringing foorth of liuing things yea and of mankind also why should he haue thought it vncredible that GOD who dwelleth verye farre aboue such Coniunctions should be able to doo the like Also we see that Theophrast the greatest Clark of all his Disciples findeth himself so graueled in his booke of Sauors or Sents by reason of the particular natures of things that hee bursteth out into expresse woords and sayeth that God created all things of nothing And Algazel the Arabian disputing ageinst Auerrhoes sayeth that the cause of all things did also make matter it selfe Also Aphrodiseus declareth in his problemes that the philosophers were fayne to referre the effects and vertues of many things to some other thing than to the Elements And if they coulde not father them vppon the Elementes howe could they father them vppon matter or stuffe séeing that the Elements haue power and force to do wheras matter hath abilitie but only to suffer or to be wrought vppon And if they could not father them vppon matter vppon what else should they father them than vppon God who hath created both the propertie and the substance of them togither The Platonists that wrate since the comming of Christ haue giuen libertie too their owne braynes to gad out into a thousand imaginations But whereas Plotin telleth vs that Gods actions and effects are contemplations which imprint in nature the séedes of all things hee teacheth vs too thrust farre from vs such brutish questions as these namely Of what kind of stuffe did God frame the world And with what tooles did hee it which are further of from the nature of the Godhead than our dooings are from mere contemplations For what else is contemplation according to their owne docttine than to be wholy seuered from matter He speaketh often of the first matter but how doth he descrybe it He sayeth that the very matter it selfe which is ioyned too the forme hath not any true béeing and he termeth it The beeing of a Notbeeing that is to say a thing that in deede is not and that dooth hee too distinguish theis transitorie natures from the verye Beeing of God which he termeth The Supersubstantiall Beeing But as for the first matter he calleth it The very Notbeeing that is too say an imaginatiue thing which hath not any béeing at all in déede as if yée would say as hée himself addeth a certeine vnshapednesse which is the cause of all mishapennesse the chéef default or want which is the cause of all the defaults or wants that are in particâ—lar things the very euill which is the originall of all euils and to be short a thing that can neither bée knowen nor imagined otherwise than we imagine what Darknesse is by the knowledge of light namely an vtter absence of all light Yea but will some man say Although it be not an Essence yet ought it at the least to bee a Qualitie and by his terming of it an Euill he séemeth after a sort to make it a qualitie Nay like as saith he when we call the first of all Beeings by the name of Goodnesse we meane not that that Goodnesse is in him a Qualitie but a very substance yea and more than a substance So when wee call Matter by the name of Euill our meaning is not that it is a Qualitie or hath any Qualitie in it But that it is no Qualitie ne hath Qualitie in it For had it any Qualitie in it then should it bee a Substance and consequently a shape or forme too but it is not any forme at all That in effect is the summe of his booke concerning euill and the originall thereof In his booke of Matter he declareth that there was a matter for he would not els haue made bookes thereof in vayne but yet he sayth that the same was neither essence qualitie nor quantitie nor had any essence qualitie or quantitie in it ne differed any whit from priuation sauing in this respect that priuation is verifyed as in respect of some subiect or substaunce that is bereft of some thing that is peculiar or incident vnto it wheras Matter is an vniuersall and vtter want of all things that is to say a thing farre worse than priuation And yet for all this he will not haue it to be vtterly nothing at all but as a wast or emptie space a thing without bounds a being without being And what or where theÌ„ shall that be At length he findeth it in the world that is to be conceyued but only in vnderstanding that is to say in God in whom he will haue it to abide as a forme or patterne of the vniuersall masse of all things What a raunging is here abroade to fall alwaies into one selfesame path againe Might he not with more ease haue confessed plainly that God is both the formall and the materiall cause of all things that is to say the Creator former and shaper of all things by his wisedome and power Agayne whereas in other places he telleth vs that Matter being it self no essence at all cannot be the cause of the particular beings of so many sundrie things nor hauing no life bée the cause of life but that both life and béeing are breathed into all things from without euen from the souereyne mynd doth he not iumpe with vs which say that GOD created all substances of nothing And if he could create that which was and giue vnto it both being and life could he not also forbeare the thing that was not that is to say matter Atticus and his adherents would néedes beare Plato downe by reason of certeyne sentences of his Timeus and of his Commonwealematters misunderstood that matter was eternall as well as God howbeit that the same being voyd of reason was brought vnto reason by him that is the very reason it self
owne indytement and willingly beare witnesse against himselfe by his owne voluntarie confession Surely that man is straungly infected with vyce it is witnessed sufficiently by the Histories of all ages which in effect are nothing els but registers of the continuall Manslaughters Whoredomes Guyles Rauishments and Warres And when I say Warres I thinke that in that worde I comprehend all the mischief that can be imagined And that these vyces were not created in mans nature but are crept into it it appeareth sufficiently by the bookes of the Ceremonies of al Nations all whose Church-seruices are nothing but Sacrifices that is to say open protestations both euening and morning that we haue offended God and ought to bee sacrifized and slayne for our offences according to our desarts in stead of the sillie Beastes that are offered vnto him for vs. Had man bene created with vyce in him he should haue had no conscience of sinne nor repentance for it For repentance presupposeth a fault and conscience misgiueth the insewing of punishment for the same And there can be neither fault nor punishment in that which is done according to creation but onely in and for our turning away from creation Now the Churchseruice and Ceremonies of all Nations doe witnesse vnto vs a certeyne forthinking and remorce of sinne against God And so they witnesse altogether a forefeeling of his wrath which cannot bee kindled against nature which he himselfe created but against the faultinesse and vnkindlynesse that are in nature Also what els are the great number of Lawes among vs but authenticall Registers of our corruption And what are the manifold Commentaries written vppon them but a very corruption of the Lawes themselues And what doe they witnesse vnto vs but as the multitude of Phisitions doth in a Citie namely the multitudes of our diseases that is to wit the sores and botches whereto our Soules are subiect euen to the marring and poysoning of the very playsters themselues Againe what doe the punishments bewray which we haue ordeyned for our selues but that wee chastise in vs not that which GOD hath made or wrought in vs but that which wee our selues haue vndone or vnwrought nor the nature it selfe but the disfiguring of nature But yet when we consider that among all Nations that Lawmaker is beléeued and followed by and by which sayth Thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steale thou shalt not beare false witnesse whereas great perswasion is required in all other lawes which are not so naturall It must néedes be concluded that the Consciences of all men are perswaded of themselues that the same is sinne and that sinne deserueth punishment that is to wit that sinne is in nature but not nature it selfe But to omit the holy Scripture which is nothing els but a Lookingglasse to shewe vs our spots and blemishes what are all the Schooles of the Philosophers but instructions of the Soule And what els is Philosophie it selfe but an arte of healing the Soule whereof the first precept is this so greatly renowmed one know thy selfe Aristotle in his Moralles sheweth that the affections must be ruled by reason and our mynd bee brought from the extremes into the meanes and from iarring into right tune Which is a token that our mynd is out of tune euen of it owne accord seeing that it néedeth so many precepts to set it in tune agayne And yet is not Aristotle so presumptuous as to say that euer he brought it to passe in his owne mynd Theophrast his Disciple was woont to say that the Soule payd wel for her dwelling in the bodie considering how much it suffered at the bodies hand And what els was this but an acknowledgement of the debate betwéene the bodie and the mynd But as sayth Plutarke he should rather haue sayd that the bodie hath good cause to complayne of the turmoyles which so irksome and troublesome a guest procureth vnto him Plato who went afore them sawe more cléerly than both of them He condemneth euerywhere the companie and fellowship of the body with the soule and yet he condemneth not the workmanship of God But he teacheth vs that the Soule is now in this bodie as in a prison or rather as in a Caue or a graue And that is because he perceiued euidently that contrarie to the order of nature the Soule is subiect to the bodie notwithstanding that naturally it should and can commaund it The same Plato sayth further that the Soule créepeth bacely vpon these lower things and that it is tyed to the matter of the bodie the cause whereof he affirmeth to be that she hath broken her wings which she had afore His meaning then is that the soule of her owne nature is winged and flyeth vpward that is to say is of a heaueÌ„ly diuine nature which wings she hath lost by meanes of some fall But to get out of these bonds and to recouer her wings the remedie that Plato giueth her is to aduaunce her selfe towards God and to the things that concerne the mynd By the remedie we may coniecture what he tooke the disease to be namely that our Soule hauing bin aduaunced by God to a notable dignitie the which it might haue kept still by sticking vnto God fell to gazing at her gay feathers till she fell headlong into these transitorie things among the which she créepeth now like a sillie woorme reteyning nothing as now of her birdlike nature saue onely a rowsing of her feathers and a vayne flapping of her wings Now he sayth that he learned all this of a secret Oracle the which he had in great reuerence And of â—â—â—cueth in this doctrine of the originall of our corruption wee haue to marke the same poynt which wee haue noted in some other things afore namely that the néerer wee come to the first world the more cléere and manifest we finde the matter Empedocles and Pythagoras taught that the Soules which had offended God wâ—â— condemned and banished into bodies here belowe And Philâ—â—â—aus the Pythagorian addeth that they receyued that opinion from the Diuines and Prophets of old tyme. Their meaning is that the body which ought to be the house of the soule is by Gods iust iudgemeÌ„t turned into a prison to it and that which was giuen it for an instrument is become Manicles and Stocks So then there is both a fault and the punishment and the fault must néedes procéede from one first man euen in the iudgement of those men of olde tyme which acknowledged the Creation of the world Also those auncient fathers seeme to haue heard what prouoked the first man to sinne For Homer speaketh of a Goddesse whom he calleth Até that is to say Waste Losse or Destruction which troubled heauen and therefore was cast downe to the earth where she hath euer since troubled Mankynd And herevpon Euripides calleth the Féendes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Falne from Heauen And the
And yet notwithstanding in peinting of an Image thou lookest vpon it a hundred times and diuers dayes thou amendest it and thou busiest all thy wits about it If thou be the dooer of this woorke in the making of man tell mee why thou hast not children when thou wouldest and why thou hast them sometime when thou wouldest not Why hast thou a Daughter when thou wouldest haue a Sonne or a Sonne when thou wouldest haue a Daughter In peinting thy Pictures thou doest not so disapoint thy felfe Also if thou beest this good workemaister in making of thy child tell me how thou hast fashioned it Whence is the hardnesse of his bones the liquor of his veynes the spirite of his Heartstrings and the beating of his Pulses Seest thou this which is also as smally in thy power as if it were none of thine Tell mée what is hidden in his breast and the whole workemanship that is couched within him If thou hast not seene it in the opening of thy like thou knowest nothing thereof Tell mée yet further the imaginations of his brayne and the thoughts of his heart nay tell mee thine owne which oftentimes thou wouldest fame alter or stay and canst not It is a bottemlesse Pit the which thou canst not gage and therefore it followeth that thou madest it not Knowe thou therefore O man that all this commeth too thee from some cause that is aboue thy selfe And séeing that thou hast vnderstanding needes must that cause haue vnderstanding too and seeing that thou vnderstandest not thy selfe needes must that vnderstand thee and seeing that thou after a sort art infinite in nomber but much more infinite in thy thoughts and deedes needes must that bee infinite too And that is it which we call God What shal I say more or rather or what remaineth not for mee too say I say with the auncient Trismegist Lord shall I looke vpon thee in the things that are here beneath or oâ— the things that are aboue Thou madest all things and wholâ—â—ature is nothing els but an image of thée And I will conclude with Dauid Blesse ye the Lord all ye workes of his yée Heauens yée waters yée Winds yee Lightenings yee Showers yee Seas yee Riuers and all that euer is blesse yee the Lorde yea and thou my soule also blesse thou the Lord for euer For to lay forth the proofes which are both in the great world and in the little world it would stand me in hand to ransacke the whole world as the which with all that euer is therein is a plaine booke laide open to all men yea euen vnto Children to reade and as yee would say euen to spell God therein Nowe like as all men may reade in this booke as well of the world as of themselues so was there neuer yet any Nation vnder heauen which hath not thereby learned and perceiued a certeine Godhead notwithstanding that they haue conceiued it diuersly according to the diuersitie of their owne imaginations Let a man ronne from East to West and from South to North let him ransacke all ages one after another and wheresoeuer he findeth any men there shall he find also a kind of Religion and Seruing of God with Prayers and Sacrifices The diuersitie whereof is very great but yet they haue alwayes consented all in this poynt That there is a GOD. And as touching the diuersitie which is in that behalf it beareth witnesse that it is a doctrine not deliuered alonly from people to people but also bred and brought vp with euery of them in their owne Clymate yea and euen in their owne selues Within these hundred yeres many Nations haue bene discouered and many are daily discouered still which were vnknowen in former ages Among them some haue bene found to liue without Lawe without King without House going starke naked and wandring abroad in the fields but yet none without some knowledge of God none without some spice of Religion to shewe vnto vs that it is not so natural a thing in man to loue company and to clad himselfe against hurts of the wether which things wee esteeme to be verie kindly as it is naturall vnto him to knowe the author of his life that is to say God Or if wee yeeld more to the iudgement of those which were counted wise among the Heathen nations whome afterward by a more modest name men called Philosophers The Brachmanes among the Indians and the Magies among the Persians neuer began any thing without praying vnto God The lessons of Pythagoras and Plato and of their Disciples began with prayer and ended with prayer The auncient Poets who were all Philosophers as Orphey Homer Hesiodus Pherecides and Theognis speake of none other thing The Schooles of the Stoikes Academikes and Peripatetikes and all other schooles that florished in old time roong of that The very Epicures theÌ„selues who were shamelesse in all other things were ashamed to denie God To be short the men of old time as witnesseth Plato â—hose their Priestes which were to haue regard of the seruice that was to be yéelded vnto God from among the Philosophers as from among those which by their consideration of nature had atteined to knowe God And so which sildome happeneth but in an apparant trueth the opinion of the comon people and the opinion of the wise haue met both iump togither in this point Well may there bee found in all ages some wretched kaytifes which haue not acknowledged God as there be some euen at this day But if we looke into theÌ„ either they were some yong fooles giuen ouer to their pleasures which neuer had leysure to bethinke them of the matter and yet when yeeres came vppon them came backe againe to the knowing of themselues and consequently of God or els they were some persons growen quite out of kind saped in wickednesse and such as had defaced their own nature in theÌ„ selues who to the intent they might practise all maner of wickednes with the lesse remorse haue striued to perswade themselues by soothing their owne sinnes that they haue no Soule at all and that there is no Iudge to make inquirie of their sinnes And yet notwithstanding if these fall into neuer so little daunger or be but taken vpon the hip they fall to quaking they crye out vnto heauen they call vpon God And if they approch but a farre of vnto death they fall to fretting and gnashing of their téeth And when they be well beaten there is not any shadowe of the Godhead so soone offered vnto them but they imbrace it so ready are nature and conscience which they would haue restreined and imprisoned to put them in mind thereof at all howres They be loth to confesse God for feare to stand in awe of him and yet the feare of the least things maketh them to confesse him Nay because they feare not him that made all things therefore they stand in awe of all things as wee see in the Emperour
of his is but as a sparke of the Mynd whereof the same worke is a part Now then if thou being a man canst not conceiue the mynde of a man by his doings though thou beare the like mynd about thée thy selfe and if his doings of what sorte so euer they be come farre short of that which he himselfe is darest thou be so bold as to describe God by his works what he is and to dispute of his substaunce And if thou canst not conceiue him by his workes how wilt thou then conceiue him seeing thou canst not behold him otherwise To this purpose we haue the common Historie of Simonides who being asked by Hiero King of Syracuse what God is demaunded one daies respit to giue answere and afterward two and then fower and in the end confessed that the more he thought thereon the lesse he vnderstood thereof and yet he was the man which taught very well that God was the very wisedome it selfe Xenophon Plato Plotin and others say that he is a thing which cannot bee found nor ought to be sought To bee short all the Philosophers crye in one voyce with Dauid Lord thou hast made darknesse thy Couert Lord I am wearied euen in thyne outter Courtes Yet notwithstanding whereas men are not able to atteyne to Gods substaunce they haue gone about to betoken it by the excellentest names that they could deuise as we haue séene in the last Chapter They considered that forasmuch as all things haue their beeing from him he himselfe was the souereine Béeing and that to be so it behoued him to bee euer and therefore they called him the Euerlasting And that to haue béeing without life is nothing and that he which giueth life to all must needes bee all life and therefore they call him the liuing God And againe that life without vnderstanding is dead and vnderstanding without power is vnperfect and that he which giueth both of them to all must néedes haue thē in himselfe for all and therefore they call him Mynd and Myght attributing vnto him the perfect knowledge and infinite power of all things Finally forasmuch as to Bée to Liue to Understand and to be mightie the higher that they be are so much the lesse to be estéemed if good also abound not on all partes because men on the other side receiue so many good turnes at his hand they call him Good excéeding good and the goodnesse it selfe assuring themselues that no other name doth so peculiarly fit him as that Yet notwithstanding neither that nor any thing els that we can imagine more can come néere him by infinite distance Let vs attribute vnto him the highest degrée of all perfections that can be as in very déede he must néedes haue them at the highest pitch seeing that there is not any that hath measured them vnto him yet doe we attribute vnto him but imperfection For if any of them be finite then is he not infinite as we ought to conceiue him to be and infinite it cannot be because the one of them should by the infinitenesse thereof shut vp the other within bounds Therefore it behoueth vs to conceiue a most single singlenesse which neuerthelesse in one perfection comprehendeth al perfectiōs as the roote of them which séemeth a thing contrarie to mans vnderstanding that is to wit that his Prouidence is no more Prouidence than Iustice nor his Iustice more Iustice than mercie nor his knowledge more knowledge then life nor his life more life than single béeing To be short that his being is such a being as is wholly aud alonly all I meane altogether déede altogether forme altogether perfection and so foorth And that is the thing which God himselfe teacheth vs in that being asked his name by Moyses hee answered him I am that I am which name the Iewes had in such reuerence that the very Priestes themselues as they say named it not but at the great Feastes And yet in the iudgement of Plotine that name is not sufficient for him Also we call him the good and yet is that too little for him for Good is the good of goodnes as heate is the heate of hotnes But God is the goodnes it selfe and whatsoeuer is good is of him Yet notwithstanding the very word Goodnes is not sufficient for goodnes hath his being in some substance But in God there cannot any thing be conceiued which is not substantially yea and more than substantially substance Againe when we say he seeth he knoweth he vnderstandeth these things haue relation to tyme and hee that made time is without the reache of time Also when wee say hee is héere or hee is there it is all one for hee that made all places is not conteined in any place And therefore Tiismegistus saith very well That he is better and mightier then any name can expresse And Salamon cryeth out with admiration what is his name As who would say man is not able to vtter or conceiue any word that doth properly fit him neither in Nownes nor in Uerbes nor in complet spéech because man is an essence subiect to time place and accidents which cannot passe beyond it selfe Now then what is the vttermost poynt that all our sine conceites can reache vnto Uerily the most in effect that we can knowe concerning his being is that we can vnderstand nothing at al thereof Insomuch that whatsoeuer we say thereof affirmatiuely whether we terme it Scothnesse or Wisdome or Kingdome or Unitie or Godhead or any thing els which we meane thereby it can not fit him Finally we can no more name him than comprehend him how high so euer we thincke we mount vp And therfore we must with Trismegistus call vpon him in silence and say vnto him with Dauid Lord the best prayse that I can giue vnto thée is silence Now séeing we cannot knowe what God is but by not knowing it it standeth vs on hand to knowe what he is not which is no small helpe for vs to know him after a sort Wherein we must followe a cleane contrarie rule For as we haue said that of all the things that are spoken and affirmed of Gods essence or substance none fitteth him being taken strictly so whatsoeuer is spoken therof negatiuely shal be found true being taken after the same maner Insomuch that that man may bee sayd to bee most skilfull in that behalfe which knoweth most Negatiues or Remotions as they terme them To make this poynt yet clearer nature hath taught vs by the diuers mouings which we sée héere beneath that there is a GOD which is the first mouer of the whole world And by the same reason we say that he himselfe is vnmouable that is to say remoueth not at all For we see that the nature of him which maueth insomuch as he moueth is to be and to be setled in rest Euen our Soule as in respect of the body is vnmouable notwithstanding that it cause
now foretold shall stand all desolate Being asked another tyme as sayth Porphirius whether was the better of the Word or the Lawe he answered likewise in verse That men ought to beléeue in God the begetter and in the King that was afore all things vnder whom quaketh both Heauen and Earth Sea and Hell yea and the very Gods themselues whose Lawe is the Father that is honored by the Hebrewes And these Oracles were wont to be sung in Uerse to the intent that all men should remember them the better as Plutarch reporteth Now I haue bin the longer in this Chapter because most men thinke this doctrine so repugnant to mans Reason that Philosophie could neuer allowe of it not considering that it is another matter to conceyue a thing than to prooue or allow it when it is conceyued And therefore aswell for this Chapter as for that which went afore let vs conclude both by reason added to Gods reuealing and by the traces thereof in the World and by the Image thereof shining foorth in our selues and by the Confession of all the auncient Diuines and by the very depositious of the Deuilles themselues that in the onely one Essence or substance of God there is a Father a Sonne and a holy Ghost the Father euerlastingly begetting the Sonne and the Spirit euerlastingly procéeding from them both◠the Sonne begotten by the Mynd and the Spirit procéeding by the Will which is the thing that we had here to declare And let this handling of that matter concerning Gods essence bee taken as done by way of preuention howbeit that it depend most properly vppon the reuelation of our Scriptures which being proued will consequently yéeld proofe to this poynt also There may bee some perchaunce which will desire yet more apparant proofes but let them consider that wee speake of things which surmount both the arguments of Logike and also Demonstration For inasmuch as Demonstrations are made by the Causes the Cause of all Causes can haue no Demonstration But if any be so wilful as to stand in their owne opinion against the trueth which all the World prooueth al Ages acknowledge let them take the payne to set doune their Reasons in writing and men shall see how they be but eyther bare Denyalles or Gesses or simple distrusts or misbeleefs of the things which they vnderstand not and that they be vnable to wey against so graue and large Reasons and Recordes as I haue set downe heretofore And therefore the glorie thereof be vnto God Amen The vij Chapter That the World had a beginning LEt vs now retyre backe againe from this bottomlesse gulfe for the thing that is vnpossible to be sounded is vnpossible to be knowen And séeing that our eysight cānot abyde the brightnesse of so great a light let it content vs to beholde it in the shadowe Now this sensible world wherein we dwell is as the Platonists terme it the shadow of the world that is subiect to vnderstanding for certesse it cannot be called an Image thereof no more than the buylding of a Maystermason is the Image of his mynd And yet for all the greatnesse beautie and light which wee see therein I cannot tell whether the woord shadowe doe throughly fit it or no considering that shadowes haue some measure in respect of their bodies but betwéene finite and infinite is no proportionable resemblance at all We that are héere in the world doe woonder at it and we would thinke wee did amisse if we should beléeue that any thing is better or more beautifull than that For our flesh and complexions are proportioned after the Elements thereof and to the things which it bringeth foorth as our eyes vnto the light thereof and all our sences too the sensible nature thereof and those which are of the world seeke but onely to content the sensualitie that is in them But as we haue a Mynd so also let vs beléeue that the same is not without his obiect or matter to rest vpon And as the sencelesse things serue the things that haue sence so let vs make the sensible things to serue the Mynd and the Mynd it selfe to serue him by whom it is and vnderstandeth My meaning is that wee should not wonder at the world for the worlds sake it selfe but rather at the woorkemaister and author of the world For it were too manifest a childishnes to woonder at a portraiture made by a Peinter and not to woonder much more at the Peynter himselfe Now the first consideration that offereth it selfe to the beholder of this woorke is whether it hath had a beginning or no a question which were perchaunce vnnecessarie in this behalfe if euery man would consult with his owne Reason whereunto nothing is more repuguant than to thinke an eternitie to bee in things which wee not onely perceiue with our sences but also doe sée to perish Howbeit forasmuch as the world speaketh sayth the Psalmist both in all Languages and to all Nations let vs examine it both whole together and according to the seuerall parts thereof For it may be that the worldlings if they distrust their owne record will at leastwise admit that which the world it selfe shall depose thereof Let vs then examine the Elements all together they passe from one into another the Earth into Water the Water into Ayre and Ayre into Water againe and so foorth Now this intercourse cannot be made but in tyme and tyme is a measuring of mouing and where measure is there can be no eternitie Let vs examine thē seuerally The Earth hath his seasons after Springtime commeth Sommer after Sommer succeedeth Haruest and after Haruest followeth Winter The Sea hath his continuall ebbing and flowing which goeth increasing and decreasing by certeyne measures Diuers Riuers and especially Nyle haue their increasings at certeyne seasons and to a certeyne measure of Cubits The Ayre also hath his Windes which doe one while cléere it and another while trubble it and the same Windes doe reigne by turnes blowing sometime from the East and sometime from the West sometime from the North and sometime from the South And vppon them dependeth Rayne and faire wether Stormes and Calmes These interchaunges which are wrought by turnes cannot bee without beginning For where order is there is a formernesse and an afternesse and all chaunge is a kind of mouing insomuch that the alterations which are made successiuely one after another must of necessitie haue had a beginning at some poynt or other on the Land by some one of the Seasons on the Sea by ebbing and flowing and in the Ayre by North or by South and so foorth For if they began not at any one poynt then could they not hold out vnto an other poynt The Land then by his Seasons the Ayre by his chaunges and the Sea by his Tydes ceasse not to crye out and to preach vnto all that haue eares to heare that there is no euerlastingnesse in them but that they
it nine thousand Moones But let vs come to Aristotle to whom this opinion doth properly belong For although some of his Schollers being ashamed on his behalfe would fayne beare him on hand that he was of another opinion or at leastwise that he hild it as a doubtfull poynt yet notwithstanding his sentences in that case are too certeine too clere and too manifest for them to goe about to cloke his opinion But seeing he was so bold as to remoue the former bound fettled by the authoritie and beléefe of all that went afore him néedes must it bée that he had very expresse termes and very certeyne Demonstratiōs And I pray you let vs see what maner a ones they be From the mouings that are here beneath he leadeth vs to the mouings that are aboue and from them to a first mouer Hetherto he is wel But afterward he will haue this first mouer to moue euerlastingly and therefore that tyme should be euerlasting also Neyther the ground nor the consequence of this argument are aughtworth How will ye proue that the first mouer moueth eternally Nay contrariwise mouing argeweth a beginning For in mouing there is a certeyne poynt from whence the mouing is made vnto another poynt wherto it tendeth and euen according to Aristotles owne doctrine forenesse afternesse and continuance of tyme do followe forenesse afternesse and continuance of mouing and that implyeth a manifest contrarietie to the definition of mouing from place to place And that tyme should be beginninglesse what els is it to say than that tyme is not tyme and as ye would say an implying of contradiction in the very word it self For what els is tyme according to Aristotle himselfe than the number of mouing by forenesse and afternesse by past and to come And if it be a number where is the infinitenesse thereof become And if there be afore and after where is the eternitie thereof In another place he sayth that mouing is eternall because tyme is eternall and that the cause why time is so is that it is alwaies ioyned to that which is past I pray you what a childishnesse is this By the same reason I may say that the mouing of a Mill or the stirring of any liuing wight is eternall for in those cases euery instant followeth immediatly in the necke of that which is past no lesse than in the mouing of tyme and yet wee bee not ignorant that they haue a beginning But like as there is a certeyne first forthsetting in those so is there also in the mouing of the Heauen who is the bréeder of tyme. And Algazel answereth Auerrhois very well vpon this poynt That looke what a poynt or pricke is in things that hold on whole vnbroken of the same is an instant or moment in things that immediatly or continually succéede one after another and that as a poynt or pricke is the beginning of a lyne so an instant is the beginning of tyme Auerrhois could not disproue this reason otherwise than by flowring him for it He replyeth yet agayne and sayth Yea but if the World had a beginning how shall the maker thereof be voyd of alteration To such a question as this is me thinkes he himselfe should answere thus That the alledging of an incōuenience assoyleth not the question But good Sir Philosopher By your seeking to bring vs to this inconuenience you graunt at leastwise that God created Nature And is it not a straunge ouersight in you that you will néedes tye him to the lawes of Nature which is the maker of Nature and measure the power and libertie of the Clockmaker by the subiection of the Clocke vnto him Art thou not ashamed to yéeld lesse preheminence to GOD than thy King whom thou exemptest from subiection to his lawes because he is the maker of the lawes I pray thée what a thing were it if thou shouldest vndertake but only to measure Nature by thyne owne wit What a number of tymes hast thou found thy wit to stumble at the least things How often hast thou found it against thy selfe Now if Nature goe beyond the reach of thy wit how farre shall the very maker of nature outgoe it Thou canst not shift thy place without remouing and therefore thou déemest the like of God But consider at leastwise that they Soule or Mynd not being limited within any place is the place of a thousand things that a thousand things are the place thereof Againe thy Soule cannot conceiue any thing without passing from contemplation to action no nor abyde in contemplation without chaunge Now thy desire is to haue GOD like thy self in this behalf But if thou wilt not yéeld thy self to other mens reasons at leastwise yéeld thy selfe to thyne owne reasons For wheras thou sayst that beyond the Heauen there is neither emptinesse nor tyme but that whatsoeuer is there is exempted from all maner of tyme mouing chaunge and passibilitie and that in that vniuersall eteruitie all things doe leade a most happie and welcontented life darest thou say lesse of God whom thou thy selfe doest place farre aboue all those things The very brute Beastes would bable after that maner of the nature of thy Soule yea and more to the purpose too For wheras there is no comparison betwéene God and thée they yet haue a thing that doth somewhat resemble thée For thou chaungest in doing because thy doing is another thing than thy being and the thing that thou amost at is out of thy selfe which thing cannot chaunge for thée and therefore thou art fayne to chaunge for it Also thou chaungest in beholding for the thing which thou beholdest and thou which beholdest it are two and to bee short in beholding thou doest after a sort suffer at the thing which thou beholdest in doing thou sufferest at the thing which thou doest but vnto him which is the maker of al things to be and to behold to behold and to doe to doe and to will are all one thing For euen in willing a thing he hath done it and his willing thereof is after a certeyne determinate maner I vse humane wordes for the vttering of my meaning To bee short vnto him that beholdeth all things in himselfe nothing can spring vp that shall bée new Let vs now put the case that the forealledged inconuenience be most to purpose and let vs see at leastwise if thou canst skill to auoyde it in thyne owne opinion If God sayst thou do make any thing new he must néedes chaunge his mynd And yet thou sayest therewithall that in all things which are done here beneath by naturall causes there is a certeyne influence of God at leastwise of the vniuersall influence vnder the which thou puttest all things So speakest thou so speaketh Auerrhois so speaketh Proclus and the rest of you thereof Now seeing that GOD doth euery day a thousand newe things here beneath I demaund of thée whether he doth them vpon new
deuise or vppon euerlasting forepurpose If he doe them vppon newe deuise thou stumblest at that which thou wouldest eschewe for by thy reckoning God doth that which he did not afore namely in sheading foorth his influence anewe and in producing by that influence the thing that was not afore Or if he do them vpon euerlasting forepurpose then confessest thou that which thou meanest to denye to wit that God determined euerlastingly to make or doe things by his power and that according to that determination he giueth to euery thing in their tymes whatsoeuer hée had foreallotted them of his goodnesse For what difference makest thou in the cace betwéene one Plant and all Plants betwéene the Plant that is newe sprong vp to day and the Plant that was withered a thousand yeeres agoe betwéene the whole World and the least thing conteyned therein if thou be fayne too admit a new deuice as well for the least thing as for the greatest Nay thou hast deuised thée a God that is turned about vppon his Whéele a God that hath but a little more wit than thy selfe and a little more strength than thy selfe and yet such are thy spéeches of him sometime that I cannot tell whither thou wouldest be contented to be likened to him or no. Let vs sée his other Reasons All the auncient Philosophers sayth he sauing Plato beleeued that tyme is without beginning A strange case that he which taketh so great pleasure in controlling all men that went afore him will now néedes shéeld himselfe vnder them But I haue alreadie prooued that that saying of his is false And againe what greater contraries can there be than tyme and eternitie Also The Heauen sayth he is a diuine body vncorruptible the dwelling place of the Goddes wherein there hath not any corruption bin seene that can be remembred Ergo it is eternall But how will he proue this Diuinitie and this Quintessence of his Whence will hée prooue this vncorruptible nature What wil he answere to this saying of his owne that the Goddes and Godheads dwell aboue Heauen and vtterly without the compasse or reache of tyme Is not this a setting downe of that thing for a ground which is the thing that resteth to be proued and to speake after his owne maner a crauing of the principle But if we beléeue Plutarke who affirmeth that Aristotle helde opinion that the Heauen is a mingled nature of heate and moysture together shall it not bee corruptible of it selfe as well as the grounds are whereof it is composed hee addeth that the auncient Greekes called it AEther as ye would say Ayrun because it ronneth about continually And what will hee answere to Plato who saith that the Heauen or Skye is called AEther of his brightnesse in which respect also he calleth the Starre of Mars Aithon Also what will he answere to al the former Philosophers who are of opinion that the Skye is as Cristall composed of Water And finally what is this Running about but a departing froÌ„ one place to another Soothly great reasons to maynteine eternitie for if a man doe but breathe vpon them they vanish into smoke And therfore Plotin in his booke of the World and Damascius in expounding Aristotles booke of the Skye and Proclus in his second booke vpon Platoes Iimeus haue very well noted that for the prouing of the eternitie Aristotle hath set downe many things which néede none other disproofe than bare denyall and which would be as hard for him to proue as to proue the eternitie it selfe What is to bée thought then if euen by the propositions of Aristotle himselfe and of his Schollers wee proue against him and his Schollers that the World had a beginning The World say they is eternall and yet as eternall as it is it dependeth vpon God In that poynt they all agráe The disagréement among them is in this that some of them make the depending thereof vpon God to bee as vpon an efficient cause and some as vpon a finall cause and euery of them draweth Aristotle to his side as much as he can Now if it depend vpon GOD as an effect dependeth vpon his efficient cause who séeth not that an effect is after his cause and that there went a working power afore the effect distinguished essentially from the cause therof And where is theÌ„ this goodly ground of theirs become that the World is eternall because no foreworking power went afore it Or if it depend vppon God as the finall cause thereof that is to say if it were for him and not from him so as it was not a thing of his making but a thing that he could not conueniently forbeare wheresoeuer an ende is intended is there not also a forecast And where forecast is can chaunce and necessitie beare there any sway And if God had no néede of the World was it not at his choyce whether it should be or no And being at his choyce can it bee beginninglesse seeing that the being therof dependeth vpon another than it selfe Againe if the World depend vpon God as vpon the end thereof the working power which they themselues require in the creation of all things shall eyther haue gone afore it or not If it must néedes haue gone afore it then was it not from euerlasting for this word forego being a betokener of tyme excludeth the world from eternitie or euerlastingnesse Or if there néeded not any foreworking power to haue gone afore the world but that it be simply an issewe procéeding from the force of the cause why should it not procéede as well in tyme as from euerlasting seeing that the sayd force or power is directed by Reason and by Will And why then hold they this principle That the World cannot be of creation because that if it were so some cause must néedes haue gone afore it Again whence hath the Skye his beginning of mouing but from an Instant And whatsoeuer could be neuer so little a while without mouing why might it not be without mouing a longer while seeing that the respect is all one both of eternitie vnto all tymes and of infinitenesse vnto all places Therefore whereas Aristotle sayth that the World notwithstanding that it is eternall dependeth vpon God he graunteth consequently that it is not eternall Secondly contrary to the teaching of all that went afore him he deliuereth vs thrée first grounds namely Matter Substance or Stuffe forme shape or fashion and Priuation Want or bereaâ—ing and his Schooles are so greatly delighted therwith that there is nothing els to bee heard spoken of in them But if these be the first beginnings or grounds of things where is then their eternitie And if they kéepe a circuit in going round about how can it bee that they had not a beginning Also how can a substance be imagined to be without forme shape or fashion or forme shape or fashioÌ„ to be without a substance seeing that euen mishapennesse it selfe is a kynd
theirs that Nature cannot abyde any infinitenesse Or if they bee euerlasting and yet of some certeyne number going and comming into newe bodies by course is not that the opinion of Pythagoras which Aristotle doth so greatly mislike And if our Soules at their departing out of our bodies doe goe to the enioying of the blessed immortalitie doth it not followe that from after the passingouer of that reuolutiō men must moue without Soule dispute without reason and iudge without mynd yea and that euen Aristotle himselfe speaketh and reasoneth without wit To bee short what hooteth it to bee godly or religious if our Soules acknowledge no better thing than themselues What auayleth it to looke for the blessed Contemplation if they bee perfectly blessed of themselues But perfectly blessed they be if they be eternall And whereto then serueth the rewarding of them with immortall life if they haue the eternitie or immortalitie alreadie What els then is his vpholding of the world to be eternal than a turning of the whole world vpside downe But there are sayth Aristotle Godlinesse Blessednesse Immortalitie then doth it follow that our Soules are not eternall And if they be not eternall then haue they a beginning and that beginning haue they either of God or of the world Of the world they haue it not for as I haue sayd were the world eternall the Conuersions or turnings about thereof should bee eternal too and consequently so should our Soules be also as which should be bred of their power But now are all things mortall that are ingendred by those Conuersions as Aristotle himself graunteth But we put the case that they haue an originall notwithstanding that they be immortall Therfore it remayneth that the same is from God Now they could not procéede from God as beames of his substance for all of the Philosophers vphold that he is a single and vndiuided substance vnited in it selfe and most perfectly one but we be subiect to alteration to ignorance to euill affections and such other things It remayneth therefore and otherwise it cannot bée that our Soules are the worke of Gods power Now if our Soules which after a sort doe comprehend the Worlde and all things therein bee the effects of Gods power which through his goodnesse vttereth it selfe when he listeth shall not the world it selfe and the senslesse and transitorie things which serue vs yea and our bodies also which are but the Cotes or Instruments of our soules be so in likewise Now then let Aristotles Disciples choose whether they will giue ouer the eternitie of the world or the immortalitie of their Soules the euerlasting turning about of a whéele or the immortal settlednesse of blessed state for both of them together cannot stand But surely his Disciple Theophrastus seemeth to haue perceiued these inconueniences and contradictions well when he procéedeth so farre as to say that God created the world yea euen of nothing And so doth Algazel the Saracen against Auerrhois vnto whom he sayth that God for the creating of the world néeded neither stuffe nor newe aduisement but that like a most perfect workman hauing all things in a readinesse he tooke his owne leisure for the performance of his worke when it pleased him And yet it seemeth that Aristotle towards the ende of his life repented him of that doctrine insomuch that in his booke of the world he sayth that GOD is the bréeder and preseruer of all things in the world after what maner soeuer it be And euen in his Metaphisicks hauing reiected the opinions of many men concerning these things he sayth thus He that sayth that GOD or the souereyne Mynd is the Cause Author not only of liuing things but also of Nature it selfe and of the World and of all the order therein seemeth to speake discreetly and wel aduisedly and they that speake otherwise speake vnaduisedly And they that are of the former opinion haue very well set downe that Cause for the ground of all things that are as the which is such a beginning as giueth mouing to all things And in his booke of Wonders if it be his he speaketh yet more euidently saying that naturally the Sea should couer the Earth as higher than it but that God hath caused the Sea to withdraw it self that the Earth might be vncouered for the vse of man and of other liuing wights And this is in effect a commingbacke to the opinion of his predecessors from the which he would so fayne haue departed afore Howsoeuer the case stand all the auncient Philosophers doe eyther conclude the Creation of the world with vs or els yéeld vs arguments into our hands wherewith to conclude it against themselues To bee short whē Aristotle who was the first that stepped out of the high way sayth that the world is without beginning he seemeth to bee Aristotle no more he doth so often gainsay himself and offend against his owne rules And where he chaunceth to say that the world was created he seemeth to be minded to yéeld himself to vs. And where the case concerneth not at leastwise expressely the one nor the other he leaueth vs many Conclusions which doe quite ouerthrow and destroye the sayd opinion of his and make him whether he wil or no to conclude on our side The Latins fel to Philosophie somewhat later than the Greekes by reason wherof they had the more cause to ouershoote themselues in the case of Eternitie but yet wee see that the most part of them followed the opinion of Plato That man sayth Cicero that first gathered together men afore dispersed was surely a great Personage And as sayth Pythagoras so was he which did first giue names to things and which first comprised within a certeyne number of letters the sounds of mans voyce which seemed to bee infinite and which marked the Courses and proceedings of the wandring Planets and which first found out Corne Cloth building defences against wilde Beasts and the rest of the things that make our liues the more ciuill What els is this than an acknowledging of a beginning For if mē were from euerlasting did they not from euerlasting speake Did they not from euerlasting giue names to things Could they not inuent euery thing from euerlasting Yes and therfore he concludeth We be not created by haphazard but surely there was a certeyne Might or Power which had a care of Mankynde and which would not haue begotten him to fall into the mischiefe of endlesse death after hee hath outworne the great and innumerable aduersities and toyles of this world Now if we were created and that there bee a souereyne power which hath had care of Mankynd surely then hath there bene a beginning seeing that the sayd power had a care of vs eyther when as yet wee were not at al or after the tyme that we were And in another place he saith That God created and furnished man and that it was his wil that he should haue
in déede create the World of nothing that is to say by his owne onely power without the helpe of any thing whereof to make it And to comprehend in fewe wordes whatsoeuer I haue treated of heretofore that GOD of his owne goodnesse wisedome and power did make shape and create the World that is to say That if a man may so say he is the efficient formall and materiall cause thereof without that he néeded eyther helpe patterne or stuffe to make it withall And now let vs consequently see the finall cause that is to wit how and to what ende he guydeth it which shall serue for the next Chapter following The xj Chapter That God gouerneth the World and all things therein by his Prouidence ARistotle was woont to say that the diuersitie of Questions ought also to haue diuersitie of Answers Some sayth he doe aske whether Fire bee hot these must be made to perceiue it by touching it for their sence is sufficient to shape theÌ„ an answer Some demaund whether their father moother be to be honored such are not worthie to be disputed with but rather to be rebuked right sharply And others desire to haue it proued to them by apparant reasons that there is a Prouidence which ruleth the world Such kynd of folke sayth he should be answered by a whippe or a hangman and not by a Philosopher His meaning was in fewe words that there is not any thing so sensible and naturall nor any thing whereof the feeling is so fresh in our sences or so déepely printed in our nature as Gods prouidence ouer the world and that wee ought to thinke it more sure than the things which wee feele with our hands or than the things whereof our owne Conscience conuicteth vs. For in that he ordeyneth a greater punishment for him that doubteth of Gods prouidence than for him that resisteth sence and nature he doth vs to vnderstand that the fault is vntolerable as the which is eyther a manifest guyle or at leastwise an ouergrosse ignorance which the Lawyers affirme to be next â—owsen to guyle And in very déede if the denying that there is any God bee a belying of a mans owne sences and of his owne nature and of all the whole world it self as I haue sayd afore I cannot say but that the graunting that there is a God and yet notwithstanding to denye him the gouernment of things is more vntolerable than the other considering how great iniurie is offered vnto him in coÌ„fessing him after such a sort as to attribute vnto him eyes without sight eares without hearing might without mynd mynd without reason will without goodnesse yea and a Godhead without properties peculiar to a Godhead In respect whereof the auncient Philosophers called the Godhead it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to â—ay God or Prouidence becaue the one cannot bee imagined without the other And therefore in their iudgement as much an Atheist was he that denyed Gods prouidence as he that denyed the Godhead it self I demaund of any man which confesseth that there is GOD I say euen of the sauagest of them all whereby he knoweth it Hée will answere by the orderly conueyance of things which he seeth both aboue and beneath by the order which they kéepe without fayling and by the tending of so innumerable contrarieties to one marke the Heauen heating the Earth the Ayre moystening it the Earth bringing foorth Hearbes the Beastes feeding vppon the same and all seruing for the vse of man It is all one therefore as if he should say that he knoweth him by his Prouidence and by the interlinking of all things together which he hath marked in them all Againe he will say he hath perceyued in Mettalles as ye would say certeyne wombes which nourish them and bring them foorth in Plants a certeyne vertue which draweth their nourishment froÌ„ the earth and with very good proportion distributeth the same abroade from braunch to braunch and from leafe to leafe and which as though it had a kynd of vnderstanding of the owne mortalitie bringeth foorth a seede at such tyme as the decay therof approcheth and in Beastes also that one member doth for another and euery of them for the whole a desire to increase their kynd Doogges to giue sucke and a skilfull care to nourish and preserue their young ones And he hath considered that none of all this could bee so layd for aforehand by it selfe and therefore that there was some other thing aboue them Thus must it néedes be that he is led againe by the consideration of the prouidence to the knowing of God Now if the prouidence which wee haue marked doe make vs to say that there is a GOD by mounting vp from the effects to the causes of them doth it not followe that Prouidence is the peculiar effect of God and that he which denyeth that denyeth the Godhead it selfe forasmuch as the Godhead is not to be knowne but by the Prouidence If God haue no care of the world I aske of thée whether it bée for that he cannot or for that he will not If he cannot how canst thou say he is almightie Or how canst thou say he is infinite seeing thou knowest the bounds of his power Agayne how canst thou call him wise sith it is the propertie of wisedome to guyde things to some certeyne ende and not to leaue any thing subiect to fortune And seeing that his power and wisdome haue extended to all things for the creating of them who shall keepe them from extending to al things for the ordering and mainteyning of them Besides this the Plant hath no reason to guyde it selfe nor to preserue it selfe against that which is to come and yet notwithstanding thou seest there a mynd which furnisheth out all the partes thereof and a wisdome which watcheth ouer it against that which is to come The Beast also hath no more reason than the Plant though it both feele and mooue Yet is there an Inwit in it which the Beast knoweth not of which Inwit concocteth digesteth and distributeth that which the beast hath eaten and disperseth it foorth into his parts by iust proportion watching for it when it sleepeth and thinking vppon it when it thinketh not thereon It perceiueth I woâ—e not how that it hath need of Earth of Ayre or of Nest to lay the yong ones in it prouideth aforehand for the tyme to come and shiftety countries according to the seasons of the yeere choâ—sing them out naturally without fayling at any time In all these things there shineth foorth a certeyne prouidence which yet for all that the beast neither knoweth nor conceiueth Thou thy selfe which art indewed with reason hast a forecast and by that forecast doest the things which other wights doe by nature or rather which nature that is to say the foreordinance of the Creator dooth for them the more whereof thou hast the more also doest thou prouide aforehand For as little a
we say of the Creator What shall we say of him which is not the Soule of the Plant or of the Beast or of Man but the maker of al things yea which made thē of nothing who is not as some Philosophers haue vphild the Soule of the World but rather if he may be so termed the very life and Soule of all life and Soule in the World But as we see dayly if the Counsell of a Realme can not ceasse one wéeke without confusion of the Commonweale nor the Soule of a man or a Beast forbeare woorking bee it neuer so little without the death of the partie nor the life that is in Plants stay without withering of the Plant nor the Sunne goe downe without procuring darknesse or suffer Eclips without some notable chaūge much more reason haue we to beléeue that if the world and al that is therein were not guyded vphild and cared for by the same power wisedome and goodnesse that created it and set in such order as it is it would in one moment fall from order into confusion and from confusion to nothing For to haue no care of it is to mislike of it and to mislike of it is in God to vndoe it forasmuch as Gods willing of it was the very doing of it Now if Gods Prouidence extend it selfe throughout to all things aswell in Heauen as in Earth wee cannot doubt but that it extendeth also vnto man For what thing is there of so greate excellencie either on Earth as mans body or in Heauen as mans Soule And in extending it selfe to man it must needes extend it selfe equally to all men For who is either greate or small poore or riche in respect of him which made both of nothing Or what oddes is there betwixt them sauing that whereas both of them bee but slaues to him that setteth foorth the tragedie he appareleth the one in Cloth of Gold to play the King and the other in a course Pilche to play the Begger making them to chaunge their apparell when he listeth But hehold here commeth almost an vniuersall grudge For if there be say they a Prouidence how commeth it too passe that ill men haue so much prosperitie and good men so much aduersitie that some be so long vnpunished and othersome so long vnrewarded And to be short that one for his wickednes commeth to the Gallowes and another for the same cause obteineth a Diademe or Crowne This question hath combred not onely the most vertuous among the Heathen but also euen the most Religious of all ages But it were best to take héere a little breth and to put it ouer among diuers other things which remayne to bee treated of in the next Chapter following The xij Chapter That all the euill which is doone or seemeth to be doone in the world is subiect to the prouidence of God I Sayd héeretofore concerning GOD that all things teache vs that there is but one and yet notwithstanding that all things togither cannot sufficiently teache vs what hee is Also let vs say concerning Prouidence That in all things wee see a manifest Prouidence but yet to séeke out the cause thereof in euery thing is as much as to sound a bottomlesse pit if it be not much worse séeing that the will of God is the cause of all causes Surely if a man will blame Gods prouidence because it agreeth not with his owne opinion he is a thousandfold too bee more mislyked than hee that should find fault with the maister of an household for the order of his house where hee hath not lodged aboue one night or controll the Lawes Counsell of a straunge countrie wherof he hath had no further experience than by resorting too the Tauernes and common Innes Or than the Babe that should take vpon him to giue sentence of his fathers doings or than the Uarlet that should presume to iudge of the determination of a Court of Parliament vnder pretence that he had hild some mans Male at the Palace gate or I will say more than the brute beast that should vndertake too déeme of the dooings of men For what are wee to be admitted to the Counsell of God which cannot so much as abyde the brightnesse of his face And what vnderstand we further of him than he voutsafeth too reueale vnto vs What Princis Counseler is so wyse that he can giue his Lord good aduice vnlesse his Lorde doe first make him priuie to his purpose as well present as past and to all the other circumstances perteyning thereunto Or what Husbandman comming from a farre will presume to vnderstand better what tilth what séede what compost and what time of rest such or such a péece of ground requireth than he that hath bin acquainted with it all the dayes of his lyfe And how farre greater thing is it to create than to till But forasmuch as God is reason it self and we through his grace haue some sparke thereof let vs sée whether it bee not so euident in all his dooings that in this poynt it inlighteneth euen the darknesse of our reason And if wee perceiue it not so cleerly in all things let vs acknowledge our selues to be but men betwéene whom and God there is no comparison whereas in very déede there were no difference betwixt him and vs if we could throughly conceiue all his deuices Now then whereas it is sayd that if there be a prouidence why haue good men so much euill and euill men so much good afore wée deale with the matter let vs agree vpon the words I aske of thee which men thou callest good and which thou callest euill and likewise what things thou meanest to bee properly good or euill If I should aske thée why healthy men haue so many diseases and diseased men so much health thou mightest with good reason laugh mée to skorue for health maketh healthy and sicknesse maketh sicke But whereas thou askest mée why good men haue so much euill and euill men so much good pardon me though I cause thée to expound thy meaning for naturally I cannot conceiue that either good men haue euill or euill men haue good For if by good men you meane rich men men of honour and men that are healthy and that ye take riches honour and health to bee the good things then is your question absurd For it is al one as if ye should demaund why hearded men haue heare on their chinnes and beardlesse men haue none But if as I heare thée say thou estéemest Solons pouertie to be better than the gold of Crassus and Platoes honestie better than Dennysis tyrannie and the Collick and the Stone of a wiseman with his wisedom to be better than the health and soundnesse of bodie of the foole with his follie then art thou deceyued with the fayre name of Good for it is another thing than these goodes which causeth thée to preferre them and to estéeme them the better Therfore let vs say that the
that they should bee kept still and cannot conceiue to what vse the treading of them should serue but the Father knowing the goodnes of the Fruite better then the Child for he planted them tended them and proyned them considereth also that within two moonethes or little more they would wither and dry away and therefore to preserue the vertue of them he maketh no account of the eating of them but treadeth them in a Fatte to make Wyne of them And when the Child comes afterward to discretion he museth at his owne folly and acknowledgeth that at that tyme he played the very Child notwithstanding that as then he thought himselfe wyser than his Father And after the same maner doth he when he sees him make conserue of Roses of Uiolets or of other flowers He is sory to see them mard as hee thinketh and is ready to weepe for it and he cannot be quieted because he would make Nosegayes of them which anon-after would wither and he himself would cast them away by the next morrow Now consider I pray thee whither without any further inducement thou find not thy selfe too resemble this Child GOD who made the good men that which they be hath no lesse consideration and loue toward them than those which bewayle them Hee knoweth to what ende their lyfe serueth in this worlde also hee knoweth when it is time to gather them and to put to his Hooke or Sickle to cut them downe that they rotte not vppon the tree or vppon the ground and how long they may be preserued in their kinde And thinkest thou it straunge that hee should take some when they bee fresh and greene too preserue them all the yeere long or that hee should make Conserues of their flowers to bee kept a long time or that hee should of their grapes make Wyns Thinkest thou it straunge say I that he should after a sort make their sauour their sweete sent and their strength that is to say their godlines their vprightnes and their vertue too liue after them which otherwise should bee buried with them And that they which for themselues could not haue liued past three or fower yeres should liue to the benefite of the Church and the commonweale not yeres but worlds of yeeres If thou bee a Christian take for mee example the Apostles and a great nomber of the Martyrs which haue suffered persecution doest thou not euen yet still drink of that liquor of theirs doth not their constant confession make thee also to confesse Christ and their death helpe thee too the endlesse lyfe Could Ignatius and Policarpus haue liued aboue fiue or sixe yeres more than they did And yet what part of all their ages hath lasted so long or done so much good as the last halfe howre wherein they dyed Or if thou be a Heathen man consider mee the death of Socrates or of Papinian If Socrates had not droonke the iewce of Hemlocke without gilt haddest thou had those goodly discourses of his concerning the immortalitie of the Soule Or wouldest thou haue beleeued it so easely and therevpon haue bene contented to forgo thy lyfe so freely for the defence of thy Countrie or for the mayntenance of the trueth And if Papinian had not shewed how honorable a thing it is to dye for doing right and how farre the souereine magistrate is to be obeyed should we not bee bereft of a singular goodly example of stoutnesse and rightfull dealing What thing did they in all their whole lyfe either so much to their owne honour or so beneficiall to them that were to come after them as their dying in such sort Now therefore let vs say we be but babes And forasmuch as we perceiue the wisdome of our Father tâ—o bee so great whereas wee condemne him of want of skill and forasmuch as our owne ignorance is so grosse whereas wee boasted of wisedome let vs rather confesse our weakenesse in all cases than presume to doubt of his sage prouidence in any thing But Cato of Vtica would needes that God should yéeld him a reason why Caesar ouercame Pompey as who would say that the veriest rascall in the Realme should commaund the high Court of Parliament to yéeld him account why his case was ouerthrowen For all our great Quarels and Complaints are lesse before God than the least case of a poore Uillaine is afore the greatest Monark of the world Nay hee should rather haue considered that priuate States are punished by order of Lawe and Commonweales and publik States by ciuill warres And that the Commonweale of Rome was euen by his owne confession so corrupted in maners in gouernment and in the very Lawes themselues that he might haue had much iuster cause to haue doubted of Gods prouidence if after her punishing of others for the lyke things she her selfe had scaped vnpunished That the Greate men what part so euer they mainteyned were the members most infected in so much that the wisest men of that age said We see what part we ought to shun but not what part wee ought to take And that as Caesar made warre openly against his Countrie so Pompey couertly and vnder hand made his partakers too fight for the mayntenaunce of his owne ambition which was paraduenture discountenanced too the common people but could not be counterfetted before God who seeth the very bottom of our hearts Now then shall wee thinke it straunge that to the intent to shewe the common people how greatly they bée subiect to be deceyued vnder pretence of good fayth and to teache great men how fore he mistiketh that they should shrowd their leawde lustes vnder the Cloke of Iustice God should suffer Pompey to fall into the hands of his enemies And that to punish the pryde of the Senate and the whole state hée should cause their Army to bee vanquished and let them fall into the hands of their owne Countryman their naturall Subiect Nay how could God haue shewed his prouidence more manifestly than by ouerthrowing that State by her owne force which thought there was not any Power in the worlde able too punish her and by making her a bondslaue to her owne Seruant which had brought so many Citties Commonweales Kings in bondage vnto her But it may be that Caesar himselfe scapeth vnpunished Nay To shewe vnto Tyrannes that the highest step of their greatnesse is tyed to a halter and that they be but Gods scourges which he will cast into the fyre when he hath done with them within a whyle after hée was slayne miserably in the Senate when it was full And by whome Euen by those in whome hee trusted which had fought vnder his Standard against the Commonweale and which presuming them selues to haue deserued more at his hand than they had in deede meant to deserue also of the Commonweale in murthering hym Were wee now as diligent in marking the procéedings of things done in Histories as we be in noting the maner of spéeches
to satisfie thy mynd desirous of reuenge or too purchace himself the report and estimation of a good Iudge at thy hand but bycause he hateth the euill which he intendeth to correct and will also drawe good out thereof And lyke as a discreete father when his Chyld complayneth to him of some wrong doone vnto him by one of his Seruants doth not by and by ronne vpon his Seruant with a cudgell for so should he make his Chyld cockish and cause him not onely to doo the lyke for euery tryfle but also to take the staffe in his owne hand to lay about him whereas he would haue him to bridle his passions and to referre the redresse of his wrongs to him being his father but rather taketh his seruant aside and chastyzeth him eyther before his fellowes or before others of his children which beare him not so much grudge or ill mynd euen so it is not to be thought straunge if God do oftentimes chastyze the wicked farre from the view of the woorld yea and sometymes also euen after the deceasse of them that made complaynt ageinst them His intent is to punish their passions but not to gratifie thine He will teache me his Iustice but he will not haue thee too think that thou shalt haue him at thy commaundement to strike whensoeuer thou wouldest haue him If he should stryke at thy appoyntment then should he bee but thy Executioner and thou shouldest bee the Iudge But knowe thou that he executeth his owne Iustice and not thyne Yea sayest thou but what Iustice is it that Children should be punished for their fathers And say I what vniustice is it if the Children be not considered for the good seruice of their fathers A Prince giueth priuiledges too some Citie for the faythfull seruice which it hath done vnto him and who will not blame his Successor which shall take them away ageine a hundred yeeres after Another Prince bereueth a Citie of their Liberties and fraunchizes for rebelling ageinst him who will think it any rigor that their Children which come after them should be in the same state The Prince dooth it for feare least the Children hauing the same territory should rebell as their fathers did God standeth not in feare of men but he seeth what they bee and his knowing of them is not as we knowe the Aspworme by his stinging of vs or the Uiper by his byting of vs but he knoweth them afore they bee eyther Aspwoorme or Uiper and may he not then by that reason sometymes punish the Children in the same respect that hee punished their fathers As for example by taking away their authority if they committed tyranny least they myght abuse their authoritie still Or by taking away their goods which they spent in ryot and excesse least they should set their mynds vpon these vices still and so forth of other things But why doo I terme it punishing I should rather terme it curing For what more is all this than wee see dayly done by Phisitions who in caces where the fathers were diseased with the Stone the Gout or the Dropsie doe forbid the Children the same things which they forbade their fathers although the Children be not yet trubbled with the same diseases And what els are sinnes and vices but diseases and siknesses of the Soule And what straungenesse is there in Gods dooing sith that thou thy self dooest the very same Thou Disinheritest the Children of them that haue attempted treason ageinst the Prince and if the Prince may do it for the defence of his state how much more coÌ„mendable is the doing therof for the preseruation of the parties themselues But yet in this appeareth the mercifulnes of God that if the Child of the wickeddest man in the world refuse to be heire of his fathers sinne and wickednes and follow godlynes and vertue God doth not only release him the debte due to such succession that is to wit the peyne and penaltie which is an vnseparable appurtenance of sinne but also adopt him into the nomber of his owne Children to make him partaker of his heauenly heritage Nowthen whâ—t cause haue we to complayne eyther of the prosperitie of the wicked or of the aduersitie of those whom wee account to be good men seeing that all these things tend not onely to Gods glorie and the benefite of the Comonweale but also to the welfare and soulehealth of those whom we bewayle And if we did consider yet further how many there be whose miseries we bewayle which foster a festered sore in their bosom how many there be whose prosperitie we enuy which haue much cleaner hearts than the other and doe spit out all their venome outwardly how many there bee which haue their nayles whole and yet doo but little harme with scratching how many there be which wold teare al things in peeces if their nayles were not pared verye short who for want of powre I meane or for want of corage to execute their naughtynes seeme for the present time good men and a thousand other such circumstances which are to be marked in euery particular persone surely they which do so lightly charge Gods prouidence would chaunge their opinion and where it seemeth to them most worthy of blame there would they the more woonder thereat and commend it But this is yet the greatest poynt of all That although God punish euill neuer so much yet it can not bee denyed but that hee lâ—auâ—th euill still in the World séeing wee agree all in this that sinne or vyce is euill Now if hee be altogither good how can he forbeare to hate it And if hee bee Almightie how can hee suffer it And if hee order and dispose all things how dooth hee permit it This Question shall bee the clearelyer discussed where wee prooue how euill came first into the World namely by the fall of man And then shall wee haue wherefore too woonder at Gods Prouidence who hauing punished vs by our owne naughtynes coulde skill too turne the same both to his owne glorie and too the welfare of mankynde To glaunce at it in feawe woords by the way It was requisite and otherwyse it could not bee that there should bee some difference beetweene the Creatour and the Creature to the intent that the Creature should acknowledge it selfe to be a Creature and yeeld honor to his Creator who had made him of nothing Now the Creator is the good that is infinite and vnchaungeable and therefore the goodnesse that is in any Creature could not but be finite and chaungeable sauing so farre foorth as it consented to depend vppon him alone God therefore created man good howbeit chaungeably good free from euill howbeit so as he myght choose the euill and he created him rightly mynded howbeit in such sort as he myght also go a stray And this man by turning away from the Welspryng of goodnesse did thereby fall away from his owne goodnes and by following his owne will in
foorth diuers Seruants diuers waies all to one place to the intent that of many some one at the least may escape and come home againe They méete there all together At the first sight the thing which was forecast by good order seemeth to them to happen by aduenture A Captayne hauing deuised to take the Gate of some Citie causeth a Cart or a Charyot to bee broken vpon the Drawbridge as it were by some mischaunce that his ambush may in the meane while breake foorth and enter the Towne The Warders fall to beating of the Wagoner for it and othersome excuse him as ouertaken by misfortune And so the thing which was a pollicie of Warre in the Captayne that deuised it is a chaunce or fortune to the Towne that wist not the ground of it A wise man to giue a glyke to another wise man or a Captayne to beguyle a Captayne or an enemie to delude his enemie cyphereth a letter grossely for the nonce and sendeth it such a way as he imagineth that it shal be surprized He that lighteth vpoÌ„ it is glad of so good aduenture and thinking that he readeth the secretes of his aduersaries hart buildeth all his affayres in good earnest vpon things contriued to deceyue him And so the thing which was a rare deuise in the one is a rare aduenture to the other Now if among men which are all of one kynde and haue welneere like portion of reason there bee such oddes betwéene age and age betwéene qualitie and qualitie and betwéene wit and wit that the same which in one is prouidence is fortune in another shall wee thinke it straunge that the thing which seemeth fortune to vs that are but blindnesse and ignorance should be singular prouidence as in respect of God Or that he which is the only cause of all causes should haue the skill to assemble them together to some one certeyne effect how farre distant soeuer they be As for example if he make thee to finde a Treasor in digging of a pit or to scape a fall from a plancher in going to walke vppon it wouldest thou steale that benefite from the goodnesse of GOD who brought thée to the one place or saued thée from the other I say from God who is thy maker to father it vpon blynd Fortune which knoweth thée not And why should it be harder for him to match two causes together that are farre asunder than to haue made them so farre at oddes one from another Or than it is for thy selfe to put wood to fire and fire to water thy meate into the water which are causes so farre distant and yetnotwithstanding thou ioynest them together to one certeyne ende which is the nourishment of thy bodie And what things are further distant in thy mynd than a Charyot a Draw-bridge and an Hoste of men which things notwithstanding thou couldest skill to bring fitly together for the taking of a Citie Thus looke wherein thou doest chiefly place fortune there doth the rarest and most wonderfull poynt of Prouidence most euidently shewe it selfe But now comes me the other Aduocate who to bring vs vnto Destinie and to a certeyne necessitie of all things and of al doings maketh his hand of all the things which we haue alledged against Fortune Therefore let vs see how we may walke betwéene Fortune and Destinie so as wee may shunne chaunce without failing into necessitie and perceiue whether the same be Prouidence or no. If all things say they be guyded by GOD to some one certeyne end yea euen those also which seeme casuall then can they not bee turned any other way I willingly graunt them that And if they cannot bee turned then are not mens doings free but of necessitie Nay this coÌ„sequent is vtterly false because the things which haue free will to endeuer themselues contrary to Gods will haue not free power to restreyne his will from ouerruling them But let vs lay foorth this matter more at large that it may bee the better vnderstood We see in the Skye a great number of Starres that are fixed and many also as the Planets which haue euery of them their peculiar mouings turnes courses seuerally to themselues Now the highest Heauen by his vniuersall mouing carieth all the Starres about as well the mouable as the vnmouable without any stopping or interrupting of their perticular mouings whereby bee made innumerable figures aspects and respects which I leaue to the Astrologers to declare The Sunne maketh the day and the yéere the Moone maketh the moneths the quarters the Pleyads and Hyads make the Seasons the Dâ—gstarre maketh the heate of the Sommer and so foorth Let vs put the case that the highest Heauen stood still and that the lower Heauens kept on their peculiar mouings or let vs put the case that he went on and that all the rest stood still and then should there bee none of the sayd figurings and aspects to bee seene But let them all alone as they bee let the highest Heauen by his mouing carie all the Starres about and let euery of them continue the hauing and executing of his owne peculiar nature the mouable as mouable and the vnmouable as vnmouable and euery of them indeuer accordingly against the Uniuersall and then shall wee see the woonderfulnesse of the Heauen which by an vniforme kynd of mouing that leaueth to euery Starre his proper and peculiar mouing yéeldeth euery day diuers formes in the Skye which cause alterations in the ayre which thing neyther his owne sole mouing could doe if the residue of the Starres stoode still neyther could the courses and mouings of the Starres bring it to passe if they were not carried about by the mouing of him Now let vs see how this example agréeth with our matter God by his will and power hath created all powers and disposed all willes That his power ouerruleth all powers al men confesse For who is he that maketh a Clocke and cannot rule it But that his will should direct all willes to such ende as he listeth without forcing them froÌ„ their nature which is to be free there is the dowâ— God forbid that he which created nature to doe him seruice should be vnable to vse the seruice thereof without marring it God then say I guydeth all things to the performance of his will the mouable by their mouings and the vnmouable by their stedfastnesse the things indewed with sence by their appetites and the reasonable things by their willes the naturall things by their thraldome and the things that haue will by their freedome And the freer that they be the greater is his glorie as in déede it is a more commendable thing to cause libertie to yéeld freely to obedience by gentle handling than to hale it by forâ—e and compultion as it were tyed in a chayne If the willes of all men were caried by Gods will without hauing their awne peculiar mouings the power of God could not shine foorth in them so
much as it doth now when all willes inforce themselues seuerally against his will and yet neuerthelesse euen in following their owne sway doe finde themselues led they wote not how whether soeuer it pleaseth him Neither should wée see the said diuersities of figures in the Heauen which bréede so diuers effects of Warres of Peace of decayes of prosperitie of aduersitie and such other which serue all to the Prouidence of the euerâ—asting God but wee should see euerywhere one vniforme will holding all other willes fast fettered and carrying them whether soeuer it listed and the more streightly that they were tyed vp the lesse should we estéeme of his power as who would say he stoode in feare to let them loose Agayne if wee imagine all those willes to haue free scope to followe their own lykings without any gouernment of higher power to ouerrule them and restreyne their whâ—n they intend to breake out wee should undoubtedly see diuers ends in things where as now they tend all to one And libertie would turne into loosenesse loosenesse into disorder and disorder into destruction whereas the world doth necessarily require ordâ—r and order requireth all things to bee referred to some one certeyne ende God therefore to shew his power in our fréedome and libertie hath left our willes to vs and to restreyne them from â—â—senesse he hath so ordered them by his wisedome that he worâ—â—th his owne will no lesse by them than if wee had no will at all Let vs enforce ourselues as much as wee list against his will and yet euen our disobedience shall turne to the fulfilling of his will Let vs goe Eastward when his will goes Westward and yet doth his mouing coÌ„duct vs still But alveit that God do leade foorth and guyde the one will as well as the other yet notwithstanding right happie as that will which indeuereth to followe and vnhappie is that which must bee haled and dragged Likewise in a keness of Hounds euery of them runneth according to his naturall inclination and yet all of them serue the purpose of the Hunter Also in an Hoste of men one fighteth for honour another for spight a third for gayne and al for victorie to the Prince that sent them into the field Take from the Hounds their naturall inclinations and from the Souldierrâ— theâ— perticular willes and dispositions and ye doe away Hunting and the Armie must néedes disperse Yea say they but God sawe al things and all the courses of the world from euerlasting al at one instant and things cannot fal out otherwise than he hath forséene them It séemeth therfore that nothing is casual nothing at the choyce of our wil nor any thing that is not of necessitie Yes for as God beholdeth all things with one view so doth he also behold euery of them woorking according too their seuerall properties He séeth the motting of the Heauen and the particular mouings of the Sunne and the Moone to bring forth the Eclipses of necessitie he seeth men coÌ„sulting of warre of peace of alyance and other things willingly and hee séeth the Plants spâ—ing vp and growe naturally He himself hath set downe the second third yea and fourth causes and hath linked them one to an other to do what he will haue done but the thing that deceiueth vs in this case is that we consider not that our wills are among these causes and that according to their fréenesse such as it is they work fréely in the doings of this world lyke as all other causes woork euery of them according to their peculiar moouings inclinations abilities natures or kynds After the same maner the man that is acquaynted withâ— his howseholdmatters will deeme aforehand which of three parts his eldest sonne will choose and which his second will choose though he be farre of froÌ„ them bicause he knoweth their natures and inclinations and yet for all that hee inclyneth them not to the dooing of the one or of the other Ageine another foreséeth that a Prince will kéepe peace or make warre bycause he knoweth him two be eyther of a quiet or of an vnquiet disposition Euen so is it with God sauing that he being néere and innermore to al things than the things themselues are doth knowe them most perfectly wheras we haue nothing but by coniectures and those verye weake To be short as in respect of God the things are of necessitie which as in respect of themselues are things of casualtie the cause wherof is that the matter which in the things themselues is to come is present to his sight euerlastingly and his foreséeing of things to come is not in the causes of them as it is vnto wyse men but in himself who is the cause of all causes and therfore he séeeth not that thou shalt do this or shalt not do that as of a thing to come but whatsoeuer thou art to doo he séeth thée doing it from euerlasting naturally if it be to be done naturally and willingly if it be to be 〈◊〉 willingly and yet thy will is no lesse subiect to his will than thy nature is subiect to the power that created it neither is the fréedom of thy will such as it is now after thy fall any more compelled in taking deliberation than thy nature is compelled in growing or shuming When I speake heere of fréewill I meane not to deale with this Question whether it lye in vs to choose the way of Saâ—â—ation or no. For as it is a thing that surmounteth the whole nature of mankind and excéedeth the proportion of our 〈◊〉 vnderstandings so must it necessitie ensue that wee must bee drawen by some hygher cause from aboue as in a case that concerneth the forsaking of our selues and of our owne desires and not the following of them Ageine I intend not to take away the extraordinarie motions which God worketh in vs when he vseth vs sometymes beyond the inclination of our nature â—y bréeding that in vs by a secret operation which was not in vs of our selues But I speake peculiarly of these inferiour doings which are proportionable to our wit and to the capacitie of our reason in which things our Fréewill as mayâ—od as it is hath abilitie to exercyse itself notwithstanding that is be vtterly lamâ—aud vnable to mount vp any higher After that maner therefore may we 〈◊〉 betwéene the Fortune of Epicurus and the deâ—mie of Chrysippus by Prouidence and betwéene casualtie and necessitie by the will of Got and betwéene Loocenesse and Bondage by leauing their mouings frée which yet neuerthelesse shall come to the end which God hath listed to appoint vnto them whatsoeuer windings and wreathings they séeme to themselues to make in the meane tyme. And as touching the destinie of the Astrologers who make all things subiect to the whéelings about of the Skye and make all things to be as much of necessitie as the mouings thereof we will leaue them to pleade their case ageinst that greate Learned
beeing In the outward man we haue a Counterfet of the whole world and if ye rip them both vp by percelmeale ye shal find a woonderfull agreement betwixt them But my purpose in this booke is not to treate of the things that perteyne peculiarly to the body In the inward man wee haue a summe of whatsoeuer life sence and mouing is in all creatures and moreouer an Image or rather a shadowe for the Image is defaced by our sinne of the Godhead it selfe And that is the thing which wee haue to examine in this Chapter In Plants we perceyue that besides their bodies which wee see there is also an inward vertue which wee see not whereby they liue growe bud and beare fruite which vertue wee call the quickening Soule and it maketh them to differ from Stones and Mettalles which haue it not In sensitiue liuing things we finde the selfesame vertue which worketh while they sléepe are after a sort as the Plants and therewithall we finde another certeine vertue or power which seeth heareth smelleth tasteth and feeleth which also in many of them doth hoord vp the things brought in by the sences which maner of power the Plants are voyd of This do we terme the sensitiue Soule because the effects thereof are discerned and executed by the Sences In man we haue both the quickning and the Sensitiue the former vttering it selfe in the nourishing and increasing of him and the later in the subtilitie of sence and imagination wherethrough he is both Plant and Beast together But yet moreouer wee see also a Mynd which considereth and beholdeth which reapeth profite of the things that are brought in by the Sences which by his séeing conceiueth that which it seeth not which of that which is not gathereth that which is finally which pulleth a man away both from the earth from al sensible things yea and after a sorte from himself too This doe we call the reasonable Soule and it is the thing that maketh man to bée man and not a Plant or a brute Beast as the other two doe and also to bee the Image or rather a shadowe of the Godhead in that as we shal say hereafter it is a Spirit that may haue continuance of being alone by it selfe without the bodie And by the way whereas I say that the inward man hath a quickening power as a Plant hath a sensitiue power as a Beast hath and a power of vnderstanding wherby he is a man my meaning is not that he hath thrée Soules but onely one Soule that is to wit that like as in the brute Beast the sensitiue Soule comprehendeth the quickening Soule so in man the reasonable Soule comprehendeth both the sensitiue and the quickening and executeth the offices of them all thrée so as it both liueth feeleth and reasoneth euen as well and after the same maner as the mynd of a man may intend to his owne household-matters to the affayres of the Commonweale and to heauenly things all at once Or to speake more fitly these three degrees of Soules are thrée degrées of life whereof the second excéedeth and conteyneth the first and the third excéedeth and conteyneth both the other two The one without the which the bodie cannot liue is the Soule or life of the Plant and is so tyed to the bodie that it sheweth not it selfe in any wise out of it The second which cannot liue without the bodie is the Soule or life of the Beast which doth well vtter foorth his power and force abroad but yet not otherwise than by the members and instruments of the bodie whereunto it is tyed The third which can of it selfe liue and continue without the bodie but not the bodie without it is the Soule of man which giueth life inwardly to all his parts sheweth foorth his life abroad in the perceyuing of all things subiect to Sence and reteyneth still his force as shal be sayd hereafter yea and increaseth it euen when the strength of the bodie and the very liuelinesse of the sences fayle And in very déede ye shall see a man forgoe all his sences one after another as the instruments of them decay and yet haue still both life and reason vnappayred The cause whereof is that some of the instruments of life and sence doe fayle but the life it selfe which quickeneth them fayleth not And therefore the Beast forgoeth not life in losing sence but he vtterly forgoeth sence in forgoing life And that is because life is the ground of the abilities of sence and the sensitiue life is a more excellent life than the quickening life as wherein those powers and abilities are as in their roote To bee short he that bereaueth man or beast of the vse of Sences or man of the right vse of reason doth not thereby bereaue him of life but he that bereaueth the beast or the outward man of their life doth therewithall bereaue them of sence and reason Therefore it is a most sure argument that the Soule which causeth a beast to liue and the Soule that causeth it to haue sence are both one that is to wit one certeyne kynd of life more liuely and more excellent than the life that is in Plants And likewise that the Soule which causeth man to liue to haue sence and to reason is but one that is to wit one certeyne kynde of life more excellent more liuely and of further reach than the life of the Beast But like as sence is as it were the forme or Selfebeing if I may so terme it of the life of a beast so is reason or vnderstanding the very forme and Selfebeing of the Soule of man and to speak properly it is the Soule or life of the Soule like as the apple of our eye is the very eye of our eye And in very déede when the mynd is earnestly occupied the sences are at a stay and when the sences are ouerbusied the nourishment and digestion is hindered and contrary wise which thing could not come to passe if the Soule were any mo than one substance which by reason that it is but one cannot vtter his force alike in all places at once but yéeldeth the lesse care one where so long as it is earnestly occupyed anotherwhere In this Soule of man which yet notwithstanding is but one the diuersitie of the powers and abilities is very apparant The quickning power doth nourish increase and mainteyne vs and Reason and Sence meddle not therewith neyther haue they power to impeach the working thereof The trueth whereof appeareth in this that those things are best done when our mynd is at rest and our sences are asléepe insomuch that oftentymes we forgo the sence and mouing of some parts by some Rhewme or some Palsey and yet the same parts ceasse not to bee nourished still Also the sensitiue life seeth and perceiueth a farre of yea oftentimes without setting of the mynd therevpon or without considering what the Sence conceyueth Some men which haue
the body and that the Glasses are out of the Spectacles but the eysight is still good Why should we déeme the Soule to be forgone with the Sences If the eye be the thing that séeth and the eare the thing that heareth why doe wee not see things dubble and heare sounds dubble seeing we haue two eyes and two eares It is the Soule then that seeth and heareth and these which wee take to be our sences are but the instruments of our sences And if when our eyes bee shut or pickt out wee then beholde a thousand things in our mynd yea and that our vnderstanding is then most quicksighted when the quickest of our eysight is as good as quenched or starke dead how is it possible that the reasonable Soule should bee tyed and bound to the sences What a reason is it to say that the Soule dyeth with the sences séeing that the true sences do then growe and increase when the instruments of sence doe dye And what a thing were it to say that a Beast is dead because he hath lost his eyes when we our selues see that it liueth after it hath forgone the eyes Also I haue prooued that the Soule is neither the body nor an appertnance of the body Sith it is so why measure we that thing by the body which measureth al bodies or make that to dye with the body whereby the bodies that dyed yea many hundred yéeres agoe doe after a certeine maner liue still Or what can hurt that thing whom nothing hurteth or hindereth in the bodie Though a man lose an arme yet doth his Soule abide whole still Let him forgoe the one halfe of his body yet is his Soule as sound as afore for it is whole in it selfe and whole in euery part of it selfe vnited in it felfe and in the owne substance and by the force and power thereof it sheadeth it selfe into all parts of the body Though the body rot away by péecemeale yet abideth the Soule all one and vndiminished Let the blud dreyne out the mouing wex weake the sences fayle and the strength perish and yet abideth the mynd neuerthelesse sound and liuely euen to the ende Her house must bee pearced through on all sides ere she bee discouraged her walles must be battered doune ere she fall to fléeting and she neuer forsaketh her lodging till no roome be left her to lodge in True it is that the brute Beastes forgo both life and action with their blud But as for our Soule if wee consider the matter well it is then gathered home into it self and when our sences are quenched then doth it most of all labour to surmount it selfe woorking as goodly actions at the tyme that the body is at a poynt to fayle it yea and oftentymes farre goodlyer also than euer it did during the whole lifetyme thereof As for example it taketh order for it selfe for our houshold for the Commonweale and for a whole Kingdome and that with more vprightnesse godlynesse wisedome and moderation than euer it did afore yea and perchance in a body so forspeâ—â—â— so bare so consumed so withered without and so putrified within that whosoeuer lookes vpon him sees nothing but earth and yet to heare him speake would rauish a man vp to heauen yea and aboue heauen Now when a man sees so liuely a Soule in so weake and wretched a body may he not say as is said of the hatching of Chickens that the shell is broken but there commeth forth a Chicken Also let vs sée what is the ordinary cause that things perish Fire doth eyether goe out for want of nourishment or is quenched by his contrary which is water Water is resolued into aire by fire which is his contrary The cause why the Plant dyeth is extremitie of colde or drought or vnseasonable cutting or vyolent plucking vp Also the liuing wight dyeth through contrarietie of humours or for want of foode or by feeding vpon some thing that is against the nature of it or by outward vyolence Of all these causes which can we choose to haue any power against our Soule I say against the Soule of man which notwithstanding that it be vnited to matter and to a bodie is it selfe a substance vnbodily vnmateriall and only conceiuable in vnderstanding The contrarietie of things Nay what can be contrarie to that which lodgeth the contraries alike equally in himselfe which vnderstandeth the one of them by the other which coucheth them all vnder one skill and to bee short in whom the contrarieties themselues abandon their contrarietie so as they doe not any more pursewe but insewe one another Fire is hote and water cold Our bodies mislike these contraries and are gréeued by them but our mynd linketh them together without eyther burning or cooling it selfe and it setteth the one of them against the other to knowe them the better The things which destroy one another through the whole world do mainteine one another in our mynds Againe nothing is more contrary to peace then warre is and yet mans mynd can skill to make or mainteyne peace in preparing for warre and to lay earnestly for warre in seeking or inioying of peace Euen death it selfe which dispatcheth our life cannot bée contrary to the life of our Soule for it seeketh life by death and death by life And what can that thing méete withall in the whole world that may bee able to ouerthrowe it which can inioyne obedience to things most contrary What then Want of foode How can that want foode in the world which can skill to feede on the whole world Or how should that forsake foode which the fuller it is so much the hungryer it is and the more it hath digested the better able it is to digest The bodily wight feedeth vppon some certeyne things but our mynd feedeth vpon all things Take from it the sensible things and the things of vnderstanding abyde with it still bereaue it of earthly things and the heauenly remayne abundantly To be short abridge it of all worldly things yea and of the world it selfe and euen then doth it feede at greatest ease maketh best chéere agréeable to his owne nature Also the bodily wight filleth it selfe to a certeyne measure and delighteth in some certeyne things But what can fill our mynd Fill it as full as ye can with the knowledge of things and it is still eager and sharpe set to receyue more The more it taketh in the more it still craueth and yet for al that it neuer feeleth any rawnesse or lack of digestion What shall I say more discharge our vnderstanding from the mynding of it self and then doth it liue in him and of him in whom all things doe liue Againe fill it with the knowledge of it selfe and then doth it feele it self most emptie and sharpest set vpon desire of the other Now then can that dye or decay for want of foode which cannot be glutted with any thing which is nourished and mainteyned with
haue at al tymes bene men so shall we see also that men haue at all tymes beléeued admitted the immortalitie of the Soule I say not some one man or some one Nation but the whole world with generall consent because all men vniuersally and perticularly haue learned it in one Schoole and at the mouth of one Teacher namely euen their owne knowledge in themselues The holy Scripture which teacheth vs our saluation vseth no schoole arguments to make vs beléeue that there is a God and that is because we cannot step out of our selues neuer so little but wee must néedes finde him present to all our Sences And it seemeth to speake vnto vs the lesse expresly of the immortalitie of our soules specially in the first bookes therof because we cannot enter into our selues be it neuer so little but we must néedes perceiue it But inasmuch as from the one end thereof to the other it declareth vnto vs the will of God in so doing it doth vs to vnderstand that it is a thing wherof it is not lawfull for vs to doubt And whereas it setteth foorth so precisely from age to age the great and manifold troubles and paines which good and godly men haue susteyned in indeuering to followe that will it sheweth infallibly that their so doing was in another respect than for this present wretched life For who is he that would depart with any péece of his owne lyking in this life but in hope of better things and what were it for him to lose his life if there were not another life after this This serueth to answer in one word to such as demaund expresse texts of Scripture and are loth to finde that thing in the Byble which is cōteyned there not only in euery leafe but almost in euery sine For whereas God created man after the world was fully finished and perfected it was as much as if he had brought him into a Theatre prepared for him howbeit after another sort than all the other liuing things which were to do him seruice As for Beastes Birds Plants and such other things the Elements brought them foorth but Man receyued his Soule by inspiration from God Also the brute Beasts are put in subiection to man but man is in subiection onely vnto God And the conueying of that good man Henocke out of this life for his godlinesse was to none other end but to set him in another life voyd of all euill and full of all good But when we reade the persecutions of Noe the ouerthwartings of Abraham the banishment and wayfarings of Iacob and the distresses of Ioseph Moyses and all the residewe of the Fathers they be all of them demonstrations that they did certeynly trust and beléeue that the Soule is immortall that there is another life after this and that there is a iudgement to come For had they bene of opinion that there is none other life after this the flesh would haue perswaded them to haue hild themselues in quiet here and they would haue liked nothing better than to haue followed swéetly the cōmon trade of the world Noe among his frends Abraham among the Chaldees Moyses in Pharaos Court and so foorth So then although the Scripture seeme to conceale it yet doth it speake very loude thereof in déede considering that all the cryes of the good and godly and all the despayres of the wicked which it describeth vnto vs doe sound none other thing vnto vs if we haue eares to heare it And it may bee that in the same respect this article of the Immortalitie of the Soule was not put into the auncient Créede of the Iewes nor also peculiarly into the Créede of vs Christians because wee beléeue beyond reason and this is within the bounds of reason and whosoeuer treateth of Religion must néedes presuppose God eternall and man immortall without the which two all Religion were in vayne Also when we see that Godlinesse Iustice and vertue were commended among the Heathen of all ages it is all one as if wee should heare them preach in expresse words the Immortalitie of the Soule For their so doing is buylded euery whit vppon that as vppon a foundation without the which those things could not stand I will spend my goodes or my life for the maintenance of Iustice. What is this Iustice but a vayne name or to what end haue I so many respects if I looke for nothing out of this present world here I will sayd a man of olde tyme rather lose euen the reputation of an honest man thā behaue my selfe otherwise than honestly But why should I doe so if I looke for no good in another world seeing I haue nothing but euill here Surely if there be none other thing than this life then is vertue to be vsed no further than profite and commoditie may growe vpon it and so should it become a Chaffer and Merchandise not vertue in déede Yet notwithstanding those are the ordinary spéeches euen of such as speake doubtfully of the Immortalitie of the Soule Therefore they doe but denye the ground and yet graune the cōsequence which is all one as if a man bauing first bin burned should fall to disputing whether fire be hot or no. But now which is better for vs I will here gather together their owne spéeches one after another Hermes declareth in his Poemander how at the voyce of the euerlasting the Elements yéelded forth al reasonlesse liuing wights as it had bin out of their bosomes But when he commeth to man he sayth He made him like vnto himselfe he linked himself to him as to his Sonne for he was beautiful and made after his owne Image and gaue him al his works to vse at his pleasure Againe he exhorteth him to forsake his bodie notwithstanding that he woonder greatly at the cunning workmanship thereof as the very cause of his death and to manure his Soule which is capable of immortalitie to consider the originall roote from whence it sprang which is not earthly but heauenly and to withdraw himself euen from his Sences and from their traiterous allurements to gather himself wholly into that mynd of his which he hath from God and by the which he following Gods word may become as GOD. Discharge thy selfe sayth he of this body which thou bearest about thee for it is but a cloke of ignorance a foundation of infection a place of corruptiō a liuing death a sensible carryon a portable graue and a household theefe It flattereth thee because it hareth thee and it hateth thee because it enuieth thee As long as that liueth it bereueth thee of life and thou hast not a greater enemie than that Now to what purpose were it for him to forsake this light this dwellingplace and this life if he were not sure of a better in another world as he himselfe sayth more largely afterward On the other side what is the Soule The Soule sayth he is the
garment of the mynd and the garment of the Soule is a certeyne Spirit whereby it is vnited to the bodie And this Mynd is the thing which wee call properly the Man that is to say a heauenly wight which is not to bee compared with Beastes but rather with the Gods of Heauen if he be not yet more than they The Heauenly can not come downe to the earth without leauing the Heauen but Man measureth the Heauen without remouing from the earth The earthly man then is as a mortall God and the heauenly God is as an immortall man To bee short his conlusion is That man is dubble mortall as touching his body and immortall as touching his Soule which Soule is the substantiall man and the very man created immediatly of God fayth he as the light is bred immediatly of the Sunne And Chalcidius sayth that at his death he spake these wordes I goe home againe into myne owne Countrie where my better forefathers and kinsfolk be Of Zoroastres who is yet of more antiquitie than Hermes we haue nothing but fragments Neuerthelesse many report this article to be one of his That mens Soules are immortall and that one day there shall be a generall rysing againe of their bodies and the answers of the Wise men of Chaldye who are the heires of his Doctrine doe answer sufficiently for him There is one that exhorteth men to returne with spéede to their heauenly father who hath sent them from aboue a Soule indewed with much vnderstanding and another that exhorteth them to seeke Paradise as the peculiar dwelling place of the Soule A third sayth that the Soule of man hath God as it were shut vp in it and that it hath not any mortalitie therein For sayth he the Soule is as it were dronken with God and sheweth foorth his â—â—â—uders in the harmonie of this mortall body And agayne another sayth It is a cléere fire procéeding from the power of the heauenly father an vncorruptible substance and the mainteyner of life conteyning almost all the whole world with the full plentie thereof in his bosome But one of them procéedeth yet further affirming that he which setteth his mynde vppon Godlinesse shall saue his body frayle though it bee And by those words he acknowledgeth the very glorifying of the bodie Now all these sayings are reported by the Platonists namely by Psellus and they refuse not to be acknowne that Pythagoras and Plato learned theÌ„ of the Chaldees insomuch that some think that the foresayd Hermes and Zoroastres and the residewe aforementioned are the same of whom Plato speaketh in his second Epistle and in his eleuenth booke of Lawes when he sayth that the auncient and holy Oracles are to be beléeued which affirme mens Soules to bee immortall and that in another life they must come before a Iudge that will require an account of al their doings The effect whereof commeth to this That the Soule of man procéedeth immediatly from God that is to say that the father of the bodie is one and the father of the Soule is another That the Soule is not a bodily substance but a Spirit and a light That at the departure thereof from hence it is to goe into a Paradise and therfore ought to make haste vnto death And that it is so farre from mortalitie that it maketh euen the body immortall What can wee say more at this day euen in the tyme of light wherein we be Pherecydes the Syrian the first that was knowne among the Greekes to haue written in prose taught the same And that which Virgill sayth in his second Eglog concerning the Drug or Spice of Assyria and the growing thereof euerywhere is interpreted of some men to bée ment of the Immortalitie of the Soule the doctrine whereof Pherecydes brought from thence into Greece namely that it should be vnderstood euerywhere throughout the whole world Also Phocylides who was at the same time speaketh therof in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to say The Soule of man immortall is and neuer weares away With any age or length of tyme but liueth fresh for ay And againe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Remnants which remaine of men vnburied in the graue Become as Gods and in the Heauens a life most blessed haue For though their bodies turne to dust as dayly we doe see Their Soules liue still for euermore from all corruption free And in another place he sayes agayne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We hope that we shall come agayne Out of the earth to light more playne And if ye aske him the cause of all this he will answer you in another verse thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because the Soule Gods instrument and Image also is Which saying he seemeth to haue taken out of this verse of Sibils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In very reason Man should bee The Image and the shape of mee Of the same opinion also are Orpheus Theognis Homer Hesiodus Pindar and all the Poets of old tyme which may answer both for themselues and their owne Countries and for the residue of their ages Likewise Pythagoras a disciple of Pherecides held opinion that the Soule is a bodylesse and immortall substance put into this body as into a Prison for sinning And whereas the fléeting of soules out of one body into another is fathered vpon him although the opinion be not directly against the immortalitie of the Soule yet doe many men thinke that hee hath wrong doone vnto him And his Disciple Timoeus of Locres reporteth otherwyse of him For what punishment were it to a voluptuous man to haue his Soule put into a beast that he might become the more voluptuous without remorse of sinne Soothly it is all one as if in punishment of Murder or theft yée would make the Murderer to cut the throtes of his owne Father and Mother or the Théef to commit trecherie ageinst God Howsoeuer the case stand he teacheth in his verses that man is of heauenly race and that as Iamblichus reporteth he is set in this world to behold God And his Disciple Architas sayth that God breathed reason and vnderstanding into him Likewise Philolaus affirmeth that the Diuines and Prophets of old time bare record that the Soule was cuppled with the body for hir sinnes and buryed in the same as in a Graue Of Epicharmus we haue this saying If thou beest a good man in thy heart Death can doe thee no harme for thy Soule shall liue happyly in heauen c. Also of Heraclides we haue this saying We liue the Death of them that is to say of the blessed his meaning is that we be not buried with our bodyes and we dye their Lyfe that is to say wee bee still after this body of ours is dead Of the like opinion are Thales Anaxagoras and Diogenes concerning this poynt yea and so is Zeno too howbeit that he thought the Soule to bee
Seede but that he corrupted it afterward Anotherwhile hee sayth that he delt with reason as perfumers doe with Oyles which neuer ceasse medling and mingling of them till there remayne no sent of Oyle at all And in one place perceiuing by all likelihod this corruption to be so vniuersal he saith further that at the very beginning and from their first comming into the Worlde men intangled and confounded themselues with sinne Whereby we may perceiue that had the thing bin declared vnto him in such sort as wée beléeue it surely hee would willingly haue imbraced and receiued it as the only solution of so many perplexities wherein he was intangled Let vs come to the Platonists All of them agrée in these points That the Soule of Man is a spirit and that a spirit cannot naturally receiue any affection from a body neither which may cause it to perish nor which may doe so much as once trouble it Yet notwithstanding on which side so euer they turne themselues they cannot deny but that our mynds are trubbled with infinite affections and passions in this body and that they be subiect one while to starting besides themselues through pryde anger or enuie an another while to be cast downe with Riottousnes Gluttonie and Idlenes yea and to receiue diuers impressions not only from the body but also from the aire the water and from Mistes and finally from euery little thing in the world Now how can this contrarietie be reconciled except their meaning be as ours is that naturally our Soules are not subiect to any of these things but that they bee put in subiection to them beyond the course of nature If it bee beyond the course of nature by whome is it doone but by him that commaundeth nature to whome it is as easie to put a spirit in Prison as to lodge a man in a house If it be done by him who is the rightuousnes it selfe doth it not followe that it was for some fault committed by the Soule If for some fault then seeing that the punishment thereof is in all men in whome should that first fault be but in that man which was the originall of all men as in whom all of vs say I were materially Now againe this fault cannot bee imputed to the body for it is in the will and the body of it selfe hath no will neither can it be imputed to any â—â—fection receiued first from the body for the Soule could not be wrought into by the body In the Soule therefore must the fault of mankind néedes be and for the soules offence doth the Soule itself suffer punishment and make the body also to suffer with her Howbeit that we may the better iudge of their opinions let vs heare them in the chief of them one after another Plotine hauing considered that the Soule is of nature diuine heauenly and spirituall concludeth that of itselfe it is not wrought into by the body But afterward perceiuing how it is defiled ouermaistred by sinne and by force of necessitie linked vnto lust he commeth backe to this solution That hir béeing here beneath is but a banishment too her which he termeth expresly a fall and otherwise as Pato doth a losing of hir wings That the vertue which she hath is but a Remnant of hir former nature That the vyce which she hath is taken by dealing by these bace and transitorie things and too bee short that al the vertue which is learned is but a purging of the Soule which must be fayne to be as it were newfurbished to scoure of the greate Rust that hath ouergrowen it In these Contradictions therefore hee maketh this question to himselfe What should bee the cause sayth hee that our Soules being of a diuine nature should so forget both God their father and their kinred and themselues Surely answereth he the beginning of this mischeef was a certeine rashnes ouerboldnesse wherethrough they would needes plucke their neckes out of the collar and be at their owne commaundement by which abuse turning their libertie into licentiousnes they went cleane backe and are so farre gone away from GOD that like Children which being newly weaned are byanby conueyed away from their Fathers and Moothers they knowe neither whose nor what they be nor from whence they came Now in these words he agreeth with our Diuines not only in this that corruption came in by sin but also in the kind of sinne namely Pryde wherby we be turned away froÌ„ our Maker In another place The Soule saith he which was bred for heauenly things hath plundged itselfe in these materiall things and matter of itselfe is so euill that not onely all that is of matter or matched with matter but also euen that which hath respect vnto matter is filled with euill as the eye that beholdeth darknes is filled with darknes Here ye sée not onely from whence we be turned away but also too what that is too wit from God to vanitie from the Creator to the creature from good to euill But of this inclyning to the materiall things he sometymes maketh the body to be the author as though the body had caried the Soule away by force of his imaginations and he acquitteth the mynde thereof as much as he can insomuch as hee sticketh not to affirme that notwithstanding all this marrednesse yet the Soule liueth and abideth pure and cleane in God yea euen whyle the Soule whereof the Mynd is as yee would say the very eisight or apple of the eye dwelleth in this body Howbeit besides that he is reproued for it by Porphyrius Proclus and others his owne reasons whereby he proueth that the Soule is not naturally subiect to the body be so strong that it were vnpossible for him too shift himself from them In this the great Philosopher is ouershot that he will needes seeke out the cause of sinne in Man as Man is now Where finding Reason caried away by Imagination and Imagination deceiued by the Sences he thought the fault to haue procéeded of that wheras in deede he should haue sought the cause in Man as he was first created when he had his Sences and Appetites absolutely at commaundement whose wilfull offending hath brought vppon vs the necessitie of punishment which we indure And in good sooth this saying of his in another place cannot be interpreted otherwise namely that the cause why the Soule indureth so many trubbles and passions in this body is to be taken of the life which is led afore out of the body that is to say that the subiection of the Soule to the Body is not the originall cause of the sinne therof but rather a condemnation thereof to punishment Neither also can he scape froÌ„ these conclusions of his owne namely that the Soule beeing separated from the body hath her wings sound and perfect and that the Body being ioyned to the Soule hath no power to breake her wings and yet that she findeth herself there
to be weake and without wings except he hold with vs that the Soule hath by her fall forgone her strength and that the body by the feeblenes of the Soule and the sentence of the Creator is strengthened in his weakenesse that is to wit in so much as the body as I haue sayde afore is of a House become a Prison to the Soule To be short graunting Gods Iustice as he doth hee can neuer wind himselfe out of this question which he himself maketh namely why the sinnes are imputed to the Soule seeing it doth them not but by infection of the body vnlesse he make this infection to be a punishment of the fault which the Soule had committed afore in the body But Porphyrius who perceyued these inconueniences hath spoken more distinctly of the matter than his Mayster did agréeing with him neuerthelesse in the corruption of man and in the cleansing of the Soule Which cleansing of the Soule sayth he is so needfull a thing as that it cannot possibly bee but that God hath prouided some vniuersal meane of cleansing mankynd How is it possible then sayth he that the fall of the Soule should come of Imagination which knitteth the Soule to the bodie seeing that the higher things are not drawne downe by the lower but contrarywise the lower are drawne vp by the higher Nay rather sayth he the higher substances come downe in themselues from vnderstanding into imagination from spirituall things to bodily things from high things to lowe things froÌ„ perfect things to vnperfect things And wheras by sticking fast vnto God they might haue abidden firme not so much by their owne strength as by his and might haue liued and wrought as vnder his forme they bee come to a fall of themselues by stooping to matter And therfore sayth he in the substaunces which are inclinable to such things there is befalne as men say a sinne and a certeyne vnbeleef which is condemned because they fell in loue with the Creatures and turned away to them from the Creator To be short he commeth to this poynt that the fall of mens Soules is like the fall of the Féendes that is taught by the Iewes and that through the fault of the wit and the will which he termeth vnbeleefe or vnfaithfulnesse man is falne into the folly of concupiscence that is to say from the fault into the punishment thereof from the rebellion of the Soule into the bondage thereof to the bodie And ye must not thinke wee speake contraries when wee say one while that man sinned by aduauncing himself too high and by presuming to become as it were equall with God and another while that he sinned by stooping downe to these bace and lowe things For in very déede the lifting vp of a mans selfe to Godward is the true abacing and humbling of himselfe for who is hée that can rightly looke vp to God and make account of himselfe or rather not bee abaced in himselfe And to inclyne to a mans selfe is in very trueth a presuming to make himselfe equall to God For it is a seeking of that thing in our selues which is not to bee found but in GOD namely of welfare and felicitie and what els is pride but a selfestimation or an ouerwéening of a mans selfe Proclus doth ordinarily call the inclyning of our nature vnto euill a descending or comming downe and the corruption thereof a fall because the highest that our Soule can atteyne vnto is the beholding of God and the descending stooping or comming downe thereof is to fall into estimation of our selues and the fall is to bee thrust downe in subiectioÌ„ vnder our selues like a body that falleth from some high place But as touching the cause of the corruption he fathereth it vppon our Mynd that is to wit the highest part of our Soule saying that if the same had continued sound and sticked fast vnto God as sayth Plotin it had also hild reason sound still which is the Sunbeame thereof and consequently all our actions should haue bene found so as wee should not haue bene subiect to sinne Séeing then that the punishment is come euen to the highest part of vs which we sée combered with so many passions dimmed with so much darknesse and defiled with so many vyces surely the fault procéeded onely from thence Herevnto we might ad many other sayings but wee will content our selues as now with onely Simplicius the famous interpreter of Aristotle As long as mans Soule sayth he cleaueth fast vnto God the author thereof it abydeth sound and holdeth her perfection wherwith she was created of God but fall she once to shrinking away from him by and by she withereth as hauing lost her roote and comes to nothing neyther can she recouer her former liuelynesse except she be reunited agayne to her former cause Now perceyue we euerychone of vs that our nature is withered and therefore let vs say that we be slipped from our roote And the roote leaueth not the braunches but contrarywise the braunches leaue the roote Let vs say then that we haue bereft ourselues of the gracious goodnesse of God who would haue mainteyned vs still for to nourish and quicken is the propertie and nature of the roote In one only thing doe the Philosophers differ from vs in this behalfe namely that they vphold all mens Soules to haue sinned euery one in himselfe and wee say That the onely first man sinned and thereby hath bound all his whole ofspring to the punishment But yet doe both come backe agayne to one poynt seeing that euen by their owne reasons I proued the creation of the world which of necessitie leadeth vs to one man the father of vs all whereas the Philosophers hang wauering still vnresolued in that poynt Among all people wee see there were prayers to craue pardon for sinne Sacrifices to appease Gods wrath Misticall washings and Satisfactories or Uotaries that were 〈…〉 â—he sinnes of some whole Realme Citie or 〈…〉 as I haue sayd afore are publick protestations of a publick 〈◊〉 The Philosophers were sore combered in finding a meane 〈…〉 Mankynd from his filthinesse some would haue done it by the Morals some by the Mathematicals and some by Religious Ceremonies but in the end they confesse that all these â—â—â—ngs can doe nothing in that behalf They be fooles in their remedies but wise in discerning the disease Wee reade of the people of Affricke at this day who bee giuen enough to contemplation that they fall into great conceyts of mynd and are not able to perswade themselues that all their Churchseruices are sufficient to make them cleane And that is a proofe that they féele a mischief within them whereinto neither the eye of the Phisition can see nor the medicine that he ministreth can atteyne Also the Persians were woont to hold a holyday euery yéere which they called The Death of vyces In the which Feast for a token of deuotion they killed
but that he abydeth in Heauen and that the whole Earth quaketh at his presence Notwithstāding the chiefe Monarckeies of the world armed themselues in all ages against this small people but yet the smaller that they were the greater appeared the mightines of their GOD. Sennacharib King of the Assyrians had subdewed all his neighbours and intended to fill vp the Dyches of Ierusalem as he had doone by the ouerthrowe of other Citties For performance whereof he sent Rabsaces the Generall of his Hoste to subdue Ezechias King of Iuda In the opinion of men Senacharibs argumēt was good and well concluded If I should send thee two thousand Horses saith hee ready furnished to Battell thou couldest hardly furnish as many men to ryde them And canst thou thinke then that thou art able to resist my whole armie I haue conquered Aram and Arphad and Ana and Aua and Sepharnam and what shall then become of Ierusalem if it stand wilfully against mee But when as he said Consider what became of the Goddes of those Nations supposing the GOD of Israel to haue bene of the same stampe therein his argument fayled not for that as the Logicians say he concluded from the particular to the generall or from that which is true simply to that which is true but in some certeine respect but for argewing from that which is nothing at all to that which is all namely from the vanitie of Idols to the almightines of the Creator But what became of this victorious Monarke and of his men and of their Idols Although the holy Scripture had sayd nothing thereof Herodotus can tell vs it sufficiently The Host of Sennacharib saith he was miserably discomfited his state came to decay his owne sonnes murthered him in the Temple of his Idols the Babilonians gathered vp the scatterings of his Empire which more is in a certeine Temple of AEgipt an Image of his was set vp with this Inscription Learne at the sight of me to feare God What more almost sayth the holy Scripture vnto vs thereof And who can say that this was not a very arche of victorie and triumph to the true God against the Goddes of the Heathen in the persone of that Prince which had destroyed so many of them From henfoorth the Monarchie of the Assyrians did neuer prosper but the Medes and Persians came to be Lords of it who at the first seemed to take warning by the example thereof For they restored the Iewes home agein into their Countrie according to the Prophesies and gaue them leaue to buyld vp their Temple ageine furthering them by all meanes therein and giuing them certeine allowances for the maintenance of their Sacrifices acknowledging in their Letters to their Lieuetenants that the God of the Iewes was the true God and none other But what shall we say of the Gods of Greece who in conquering the Persians came to take a foyle in Iewrie For Alexander hauing subdewed the Persians made men to worship him as a God and hearing that in the Mountaines of Palestine there was a people whom neither the Assyrians nor the Persians could subdue to their Gods for all the rigour and crueltie they could shewe insomuch that at his owne being in Babylon certeyne Iewes that had bin conueyed thether did flatly disobey him when he ment to haue buylded there a Temple to Iupiter Bele as Hecateus reporteth who accompanyed Alexander in that voyage he turned head towards Ierusalem with a venemous rancour to that poore people But when Iaddus the Highpriest of the Iewes came before him in his Priestly attyre accompanyed with his Leuites about him Alexander cast downe himselfe at his féete worshipped him This God I say whom that greatest personages worshipped thensforth did there worship a man that came to make supplication vnto him Parmenio thinking this to be a very strange sight asked Alexander the cause why he did so It is not the man quoth Alexander whom I worship but the God whose Priest he is for I sawe him sayd he in the same attyre when I was yet in Macedony and when I doubted whether I might meddle with Asia or no he gaue me courage to proceed assuring me that by his guyding I should ouercome the Persians Herevpon he went vp into the Temple and offered Sacrifize vnto GOD in such maner as the Highpriest instructed him who shewed him the booke of Daniell wherein it was prophesied certeyne hundred yéeres afore that a certeyne Greeke should come conquer the Persians which now fell out to bee he Wherevpon he suffered the Iewes to liue after their owne lawes and from seuen yéeres to seuen yéeres released them of all tributes which thing he denyed to the Samaritanes Now of all the great number of Nations of whom he conquered many moe than he saw where reade we that euer he did the like to any of them And whervnto shal we attribute this déede of his but to his bethinking him of the thing which h ehad learned in secret of the great Priest of the AEgiptians called Leon namely that all the Gods whom the Gentiles worshipped were Kings of old tyme of whom the memoriall had bin consecrated by their posteritie and therefore he is a greater King than any of them all thought also that he might well be the greatest God of them all But in the God of Israell he acknowledged another maner of thing namely that he was God of Gods and King of Kings the chaunger of Empyres at his pleasure which vpholdeth Kings with his hand not to performe their vayne attempts but to bring to passe his owne euerlasting decrées By the death of Alexander the Monarchie of the Greekes came to be dispersed so as the Ptolomies gate the souereintie in AEgipt And what greater proofe would wee haue of their acknowledging the only one God than to see Ptolomie Philadelph cause the Byble of the Hebrewes to be so solemnely translated at his owne charges For what do Conquerours desire but to giue lawes to those whom they haue vanquished and therefore what els was this than a receiuing of lawes at the hands of the Iewes And seeing that the men of Israell were weaker than the men of AEgipt what can wee say but that the God of Israell had subdewed the Gods of AEgipt And soothly afterward when Ptolomie surnamed the bountifull had gotten the souereintie of Syria he offered not Sacrifize for his victories vnto the Gods of AEgipt which notwithstanding were very many in number and seemed to haue giuen law to the Nations round about them but he went to Ierusalem and there acknowledging himselfe to haue receyued his prosperitie of the God of Israell did consecrate the Monumēts of his victories vnto him And yet was this in the tyme of the greatest aduersitie of the Iewes euen when their Countrey was forrayed and their Temple vnhallowed by their enemies and by their owne Priestes themselues that is to say at such a tyme as all outward
well to the life which the Goddesse her selfe had led and to the miracles of the Féends to the marke that they shot at namely to giue the more boldnesse to Claudia to continue her leaud life and occasion vnto others to followe her Also one was counted a God because he draue away Grashoppers another because he killed Frogges Crickets and Flyes And hereof it came that the Chananites called their Belzebub and the Greekes their Iupiter by the name of Scareflye Another sayth Zosimus sent Birds to deuoure the Grashoppers Admit that all these effects haue not their particuler causes yet what miracles are they to make Gods withal For by that reckoning why should not those also which by certeyne receyts doe kill Serpents Rats and Féeldmyce or which doe moreouer driue away vermin out of mens bodies bee counted Gods Nay if wee will see miracles let vs looke vppon the doings of the onely one God which are vtterly vnpossible wonderfull and vncommunicalle to any creature He made the world and he destroyed it He made the Sea and he dryeth it vp He made the Sunne and he causeth it to stand still Yea and which is yet much more he made all these things by his word and with a blast of his mouth he chaungeth them as he listeth These are the miracles of the God of Israell which haue not their like among the other Gods And if they will deale vprightly in disputing they must as well beléeue our bookes for these miracles as we beléeue their bookes for theirs Also if wee looke vpon the miracles of the good Spirites and of the seruants of that one God they be not castes of Legierdemame to dazle mens eyes withall nor nimble tricks sleyghts nor wonders to no end to no reason to no instruction but when they strike it is to chastize men and when they heale it is to glorifie God If they speake it is to teach and if they appeare to vs it is to leade vs to welfare If they foretell they doe it as messengers from God and if they worke miracles they doe it as executers of his power And they bee so farre of from being angrie at a Song mistuned or at a Gambauld misbegun in the honor of them after the maner of the Heathen Gods that as wee reade in our Scriptures they bée offended with nothing more than when men thank them or honor them for the things which they ought to thank and to worship the Creator By the tokens which the Platonists giue vs thereof wee shall percieue yet better whether those Gods were good Spirits or bad Angels or Diuelles notwithstanding that that Sect was tootoo much ouertaken in the seruing of them The Diuelles or wicked Spirits saith Porphirius delight in bludshed in filthy and rybawdly speeche in giuing Poyson in furnishing folke with charmes of loue and in prouoking them to lechery and to all vyces Yea and they beare men on hand that all the Gods and the very Souereyne GOD himselfe taketh pleasure in such things either feyning themselues to bee the Sowles of some deadfolkes or taking vppon them to be Gods Which of all these tokens haue I not noted already in their Gods Agein saith Porphirius They turkining themselues as much as they can into Gods that is to say into Angels of light to beguile our sence and imagination with straunge vanities Insomuch that he that is the cheefe of them will needes bee estemed to bee the souerein God And yet notwithstanding their foretelling of things is but by gesse and all of them generally bee subiect to lying and deceyuing They be angry at euery small tryfle are pacified againe with fond and vaine things Neuerthelesse they haue beguyled some vayne Poets and Philosophers and consequently by them haue drawen the silly people to the worshipping of them as Gods What is all this but a description of the very same Gods whom hee himselfe worshipped Likewise Iamblichus who maketh an Anatomie of them saith thus They transforme themselues saith he into good Spirits but in deed it is but a brag wherby they pretend more than they be in deede They make a galant showe and daunt men with their words They play the Gods and yet are troubled with light passions But the greate Witch Apuleius sayth yet more They be pacified with gifts saith he and wroth with wrongs They be pleased with Ceremonies and angred with the want of them be it neuer so little They take vpon them the ruling of Birdgazers and Bowelgazers and of the Oracles and Miracles of Witches and Wizards To be short they be vnkindly wights passionate of Spirit reasonable of vnderstanding ayry of body and endlesse of time To whom can these things agree but to his owne Gods And what remayneth then but that they were Diuels so much the more miserable as they bee more vehement in their passions and immortall in their nature Now is there nothing behind but their owne Confession and thereof we shall not yet fayle Apollo therefore as one vppon the Racke doth in many of his Oracles acknowledge the Souereine God and to make the most of himselfe he termeth himselfe one of his Angels as appéereth by this Oracle of his alledged afore We Angels are a parcell of the Souereine God of all And beeing asked vppon a tyme by what name he would be called and prayd vnto he answered Call mee the feend that knowes all things to whom belongs all skil And in another The witty Feend the Harmony and Cresset of the World And ageine Wee Feendes which runne through Sea and Land do tremble shrink and shake To see the Whip of that great God which makes the World to quake And yet notwithstanding the Greeke word Demon which is the word whereby they termed their Gods and which in this place I english Feend was so odious euen among the learned men themselues who knewe the originall thereof that they would haue bene loth to call a Slaue so But when as wee reade further that these Gods do quake at the naming of the Stigian marris that is to say of Hell insomuch that euen Iupiter himselfe sweareth thereby and is afrayd to be forsworne what els is to bee thought thereof but that these Gods which feine themselues to reigne in heauen are tormented in hell Besides this the miracles and Oracles of these Gods are come to an end and their Seruices and Sacrifices are come to nought and at length folke haue acknowledged the only one GOD the maker of Heauen and Earth and ruler of the whole world to be the same whome the Iewes haue worshipped And in that respect it is that Seneca cryed out That the Slauish Iewes had giuen lawe to the whole Earth But who can maruell that hee which made both the worlde and man should in the end make men to acknowledge him to be as he is So then let vs conclude for these last three Chapters That there is but onely
of these Philosophers that our Prophesies being so cléere so particular and so neare to things a farre of could not be in spyred from many Gods Yet notwithstanding all Prophesying say they procéeds either of art or of nature or of some Spirit or of God himselfe Of arte as by Astrologie of nature as when mannes nature is ready to receiue the influences of the vniuersall and of some Spirit as by some league or couenant made with him But of none of all these three could the Prophesies of the Hebrewes procéede as I haue shewed euidently afore It remayneth therefore that those Prophesies are of God and consequently that their Scriptures are Gods woord which is nothing els but eyther those Prophesies themselues or the effects of those Prophesies And to shut vp this Chapter it will not be amisse to rehearse this record of Porphyrins that the Religious sect of the Essens among the Iewes by reason of their occupying of themselues in those Prophesies made a profession of Prophesying and seldom tymes missed For in deede there is greate lykelyhod that if we vnderstoode all the Prophesies of the Byble which thing is vnpossible for vs bycause we cannot lay the states of all tymes togither wee should find there manie things which are darke to vs at this day and yet were cléere well vnderstoode and easie euen to the verie comon people euery one in his tyme. The xxvj Chapter That the things which seeme most woonderfull in our Scriptures are confirmed by the Heathen themselues and a solution of their cheefe Obiections to the same NOw that wee knowe that it is God that speaketh in the Scriptures there should remayne no more for vs to doe but to hearken vnto him with silence For seeing he hath made al things by his word his worde cannot haue sayde any thing which he hath not bene able to doe And if we crouch and lay our hand vpon our mouth at the sight of a Kings Seale surely it were more reason that wee should dispose our mynds to beléeue and our willes to obeye without scanning wrangling or gaynsaying when wee see the expresse signing and seale of God in his Scriptures Howbeit to the intent wee may leaue no cause of doubt to the Reader forasmuch as some haue presumed to obiect I desire that I also may haue leaue to assoyle their demaunds Now therefore let vs see what is obiected against vs as well by the Infidels of old tyme as of our daies First of all As great account say they as you make of your Scriptures there is no record yéelded vnto them by any of our auncient Authors Gréeke or Latin as Plato Aristotle Theophrast and the rest of so many Philosophers Historiographers Poets This is euen as much as if a man should aske witnesse of the men of Perow concerning the Histories of Fraunce or Spayne For in the times whereof our Scriptures speake what were the Greekes and Romaines in respect of the Iewes but sillie sauage people that fed vpon Mast Or soothly it is all one as if a man should aske a childe of the things that were done afore he was borne considering that the latest Histories in our Byble are of more antiquitie than the Schooles of Greece or the vse of reading was in Rome Nay moreouer from the tyme that the Greekes knewe there was an AEgipt they went thether to Schoole and there had communication with the Iewes as I haue proued alreadie at whose hands they reaped that little knowledge which they had concerning the true God the creation of the world and the fall of Man Insomuch that Plato alledgeth our Authors vnder these words As the authors of old tyme report or as it is reported in the auncient Oracles And Numenius hauing espyed that Plato could not get that skill frō elswhere than out of Moyses termeth him Moyses speaking in the language of Athens that is to say translated into Greeke The Histories of Greece begin about the tyme of Cyrus But sayth Aristobulus the lawe of Moyses and the departing of the Israelites out of AEgipt were translated into Greeke afore the reigne of Alexander yea or of the Persians themselues Which is as much to say as that the Greekes euen from their first vpspring or at leastwise from the first tyme that they began to knowe themselues heard speaking of our Scriptures and were desirous to haue them And Hecataeus the Abderite who attended vppon Alexander in his Conquests made a booke purposely of the Iewes which thing he did not of any of all the florishing Nations which he had seene in his voyage Also Herennius Philo hauing read the sayd Philosopher sawe him so wonderfull in the things that he had learned of the Iewes that he beléeued him to haue bene become a Iew and to haue bene conuerted to their lawe Anon after when the tyme of the calling of the Gentiles approched that it behoued the Prophesies to bee made knowne to the whole world to rid away all suspition of contryuing them vppon the euents God did put into the heart of Ptolomie Philadelph King of AEgipt to make a Librarie in the which by the counsell of Demetrius Phalareus a Disciple of Theophrastus it was his will to haue the Byble of the Hebrewes and therefore at his great charges caused it to be translated into Greeke The Historie of this translating is set out by one Aristaeas a Chamberlaine of King Ptolomies who with another named Andrew was sent to Eleazar the Highpriest of the Iewes to fetch the Byble and sixe men of euery Trybe that were learned in both the Languages to translate it And he sayth that Demetrius Phalareus made report vnto the king that these Scriptures were the onely writings that were diuine in déede and that therevpon the King asked him in his presence how it happened that he had not those bookes sooner seeing hee spared not for any cost and that Iewrie was so nere hand Wherevnto Demetrius answered that they were written in a peculiar language and therefore that it behoued him to write to the Highpriest to haue Interpreters according to which aduice the King sent Ambassadours with letters and presents to Eleazar of which Ambassadours he himselfe was one And that by the consent of all the people the threescore and twelue Interpreters were sent into into AEgipt Yea and in this Historie which is extant still at this day ye may see the Copies of the letters that were written from Demetrius to Ptolomie from Ptolomie to Eleazar and from Eleazar to Ptolomie And the said Aristaeas addeth that when the Byble was once translated perused in the presence of the chiefe Péeres of his Realme the King caused a solemne curse to be proclaymed with loude voyce against all such as should ad any thing to it take aught from it or alter aught in it And afterward sayth hee when the King vppon further reading therof did maruel that of so many things and so worthie
Christes Manhood But by and by after he sayth And in his daies Iuda shall bee saued and behold the name whereby he shal be called shal be Iehouah the Euerlasting our Rightuousnesse Heere againe is the foresayd vncommunicable name of God which the Iewes doe so greatly reuerence Yet notwithstanding the thréescore and ten Interpreters who were all Iewes vnderstood it so And Ionathas interpreteth it of Christ in both respects As touching the latter Rabbines who will needes correct the text and in stead of ijkreo doe set downe ijkra to the intent that the sence might be He that calleth him shall bee the Euerlasting I report me to all their owne Grammarians whether it be not both a corrupting and a racking of the text And truely in the thrée and thirtie Chapter the Prophet sayth the same thing in diuers words wherevnto this forgerie cannot be applyed That is the cause why Rabbi Abba vppon the Lamentations of Ieremie demaundeth what shal be the name of the Messias and afterward answereth Iehouah schemo the Euerlasting is his name And to that purpose alledgeth he the selfesame texts of Ieremies And the Commentarie vpon the Psalmes sayth Seeing that none of the Subiects of a King of flesh and blud that is to say of a temporall King is called by his name that is to say King How happeneth it that God imparteth his owne name to the Messias and what name is that Soothly Iehouah is his name according to this saying The man of warre Iehouah that is to say the Euerlasting is his name And Rabbi Moyses Hadarsan expounding this saying of Sophonie to call vppon the name of the Euerlasting saith thus Here Iehouah is nothing els but the King the Messias or the anoynted King And the same thing is repeated in the selfesame words in the Thalmud And wheras some to disappoynt vs of the consequence of these texts doe say that in Ezechiel Hierusalem is called by that name where it is sayd thus Iehouah schammah that is to say the Euerlasting is there that is to say the Euerlasting hath chosen his dwelling place in Hierusalem They by chaunging the Hebrew vowels doe make him to say Iehouah schemo that is to say the Euerlasting is his name But besides the consent of all Copies repugning to this vnshamefastnesse Ionathas can assoyle the case who translateth it expresly God hath placed his Godhead there Now besides the sayd texts which shewe that the Iewes of old tyme wayted for a Messias that should be both God and Man we haue also great tokens thereof in those fewe writings of theirs which remayne dispersed here there notwithstanding that the Iewes hide theÌ„ from vs or els corrupt them as much as they can The Commentarie vppon the Psalmes sayth Because the Gentyles ceasse not to aske of vs where is our God the time shal come that God wil sit among the Righteous so as they shal be able to point him out with their fingar And whereas it is so often sayd I will walke among you it is all one say they as if a King should go walke in his Gardyne with his Gardiner his Gardiner should alwaies shrink behind him and the King should say shrinke not backe for â—o I am lyke thee euen so will GOD walke among vs in his Gardyne of pleasure in tyme to come And therefore another sayth that the Euerlasting shall one day bee as a brother of Iacob that is to say in the tyme of the Messias according to this saying of the Ballet I would fayne that thou wast to me as a brother And the Commentarie vppon the Ballet sayth in another place That God himself who is the Husband of the Church should come in his owne persone to marrie her Uppon the xxv of Leuiticus where mention is made of one brother that redéemeth out another in the yéere of Iubilee many make an Allegorie that that brother is Christ. And the Commentarie affirming the same sayth that Israell shal be redeemed of God who shall come in his owne beeing and that Israell shall no more bee brought in bondage And vppon Genesis Rabbi Moyses Hadarsan alledging this saying of the Psalme I will shew him the Saluation of God sayth thus This is one of the Texts of Scripture of greatest weight that the Saluation of Israel is the Saluation of God For God wil be the pryce and payment of Israels Raunsom lyke as if man hauing but a little Corne of the second Croppe should redeeme the same Hereof came this Tradition that God left some portion vnperfect on the Northside to the intent that if any reported himselfe to be God hee should fill vp that want and that thereby his Godhead should be knowen And all men knowe that ordinarily by the North they ment the Euill which should be remedied by the Messias But the Cabilists were farre more spirituall in this behalfe than the Thalmudists And first of all Rabbi Simeon ben Iohai in his Commentaries vpon Genesis in the language of Hierusalem saith that the feare or mercie of the Lord should take a body in the Wombe of a Woman and be Crowned King the auncient of dayes for euer And that it was decreed that a holy body and a woman should be incorporated togither and for proof whereof he alledgeth an auncient booke whereof he tooke it the same should bée accomplished in the third age that is to say in the third Period of the Church and that then the higher world should by the said holy body be vnited to the inferiour world so as God should bee sanctified beneath as well as aboue and the holy Ghost should come as out of a sheathe that is to say should be shewed foorth openly and that all this is but one namely the Euerlasting himself And to be short that the Woman of whom the holy word should take his body and out of whom the sayd faythfull was to come should be holy and blessed aboue all other women Now it appeareth that hereby he ment the Incarnation of the Messias For in the Talmud the Schoole of Rabbi Hamina being demaunded the name of the Messias answered Hamina that is to say Mercy is his name And in the Prophetes they betoken the Messias by the name of mercie Another Cabilist sayth That sinne shal be brought to ende by the Messias who shal be the power of God euen by the spirit of wisedome wherewith he shal be filled And another sayth that the misterie of Messias the King is that his operation coÌ„sisteth wholly in he vau and iod he which is the misterie of the seuenth day that is to say in calmenesse of mynd without force and that his name whole together shal be composed of these letters to wit Iehouah the Euerlasting But the holy Rabbi vpon the 9. Chapter of Esay where Christ is called the euerlasting father playeth the Philosopher yet further
the Prophet Haggeus expounded heretofore vntil at length after long and pernicious abusing of them when he could not deliuer them from the yoke of the Romaines in the end they knockt him on the head Yet notwithstanding afterward againe about a fortie yeres after the destruction of the Temple another of the same name gathered into the Citie of Bitter all the Iewes that were thereabouts and of him they report wonders as that he should haue a hūdred thousand men about him which vpon trust of their inuincible strength did cut off one of their fingers that going to battell he was wont to say Helpe vs not thou Lord of the world seeing thou hast forsaken vs c. And that the Rabbines which had bene deceiued by the former so greatly were they perswaded of the tyme receiued this man neuerthelesse and made him also to be receiued of others applying vnto him this text of the booke of Nombers A Starre shall come out of Iacob because the Hebrewe word Cocab signifieth a Starre and saying that in stead of Cocab it ought to be written Cozab or Cozba which was his name And this is written by their owne Histories and confirmed afterward by ours and also by the very Heathen writers which wrate the life of the Emperour Adrian Yet for all this they were still the more wasted and caryed away into Spayne and Hierusalem was peopled with other Nations and the whole Land of Iewrie made vtterly heathen And as many as went about afterward to abuse the Iewes vnder that pretence as one did not long since in Italie were by and by destroyed and welnere wyped cleane out of rememberance Let vs adde yet further that since that tyme which is now aboue fiftéene hundred yéeres agoe they neuer had any Prophetes any comfort from GOD any extraordinarie gifts no nor any knowledge of their Tribes which is a most euident token that the Prophesies which amed chiefly at Christ are fulfilled and that in him the Church is comforted and indewed with the giftes which it hoped for and to bee short that he for whose sake the pedegrees were to be kept certeyne is not now to be borne And therefore wee see how some of them doe say with Rabbi Hillel That the daies of Ezechias haue swallowed vp the Messias that is to say that he is not to bee looked for any more and that folke haue made themselues vnworthie of him and that some others through extremitie of despayre do pronounce them accursed which determine any certeyne tyme of the comming of the Messias Thus then we see now that the holy Scripture and the auncient interpretation thereof doe méete together in the tyme of Herod to shewe vs the Messias there and therevpon it is that we sée the people in the Gosphell so ready to ronne after Iohn Bapthst and Christ and to moue these ordinarie questions Art thou hee that should come When wilt thou restore the Kingdome of Israell Shall we waite for another yet still and such other But But let vs see what startingholes stubbornes hath inuēted against the things aforesaid The Messias say the new Rabbines was borne at the very same time and in the very same day that the second Temple was destroyed that this Prophesie of Esay might be fulfilled Before hir throwes or pangs came she was deliuered of a Manchylde but he is kept secret for a tyme. For so doe we reade vpon the xxx Chapter of Genesis And in the Talmud Rabbi Iosua the sonne of Leuy sayth that it is a Reuelation that was made vnto Elias I would faine then haue them to shewe me what one Text in all the Scripture giueth any incling thereof They ad that he shal be hidden sower hundred yeeres in the greate Sea eight hundred yeres among the sonnes of Coree and fower score yeres at the gate of Rome And Rabbi Iosua the sonne of Leuy saith in the Talmud that he himselfe sawe him there lapping vp his sores among the Lazermen What are these things euen by none other witnesse then them selues but tales contriued vpon pleasure of purpose to mock folke Some say he shal be set vp in great honour next vnto the Pope and that in the end he shall say to the Pope as Moyses did to Pharao Let my people goe that they may serue mee and so foorth If he be borne so long agoe and keepe him selfe secret as they say in their Talmud but till he be called to deliuer them what cause is there why he should kéepe himself away still seeing they haue called him so much and so lowd and so many hundred yeres seeing also that the time is expyred yea and almost dubble expyred and finally seeing that euen according to their owne exposition it is sayd I will hasten them in their tyme They answere yet still there remayneth but a good repentāce Tooto◠miserable surely were we if God should not preuent our repentance with his grace For the very repentance of the best men is but a sorynesse that they cannot be sory enough But let vs heere a pretie Dialogue of two Rabbins disputing in their Talmud of this matter It is written sayth Rabbi Eliezer Turne againe yee stubborne Children and I will heale you of your stybbornesse Yea but it is also written sayth R. Iosua Ye haue bene sold for nothing and ye shall be redeemed with mony that is to say ye haue bene sold for your Idolatryes which are nothing and ye shal be redeemed without your repentance good workes Yea but it is sayd sayth R. Eliezer Turne yee to mee and I will turne to you But let vs also reade sayth R. Iosua I haue taken ye in mariage as a wyfe and I will take you one of a Citie and twoo of a Household and giue you enterance into Sion R. Eliezer replyeth thus It is sayd ye shal be saued in calmnesse and in rest Nay sayth R. Iosua it is written in Esay thus saith the Lord the Redeemer of Israell to the despised Soule and to the people that is abhorred that is to say that your wickednes shal not stop the course of Gods decree In the end Eliezer sayth what meaneth Ieremy then to say If thou turne thee ageine ô Israell seeing it is a conditionall maner of speaking Nay saith Rabbi Iosua what ment Daniel then by this Text I heard the man that was clothed in linnen and stood vppon the Water of the Riuer and he lifted vp his right hand and his left hand vp to Heauen and sware by him that liueth for euer and it shal be for a tyme and tymes and halfe a tyme And the Talmud sayth that at this tert R. Eliezer was blankt and held his peace which was as much to say as that he condescended to that which R. Iosua had sayd namely that the offences of Israell should not stay the comming of Christ but that God would preuent Israell with his holy grace
but to shewe that it was not in the power of the great Emperour of the world to make folk beléeue a man to be a God what payne or cost soeuer he put himselfe vnto Yea say they but to beléeue the myracles of Iesus we would see myracles still The tyme hath bene that they were seene the tyme hath bene that they were beléeued and tyme hath altered the course of them what a number of things doe we beléeue which we see not And what reason or what benefite should leade vs to the beléeuing of any other rather than of them But we should bée the more assured of them As much might the former ages haue sayd and as much may the ages say that are to come and so should it behoue myracles to bee wrought to all men and at all tymes And were it once so then should myracles bee no myracles forsomuch as in trueth they haue not that name but of the rare and seeldome sight of them The Sunne giueth light daylie to the world he maketh the day the yéere and the seasons of the yéere Trées hauing borne flowers and fruite become bare and afterward shoote out their buddes and florish agayne The Uyne turneth the moysture of the Earth into Wine the graine of Corne turneth it into eares of Corne and the Pipen or kernell of an Apple into an Appletrée And infinite men receyue shape and birth euery hower Al these are very greate miracles and God and none other is the doer of them nature teacheth it thée and thou caÌ„st not denie it But forasmuch as thou séest them euery day thou regardest them not and yet the leasf of them would make thée to wonder if it were rare To succour thyne infirmitie the Sunne forgoeth his lyght a drye sticke florisheth water is turned into wyne and the dead are raysed to lyfe and all this is too shewe vnto thée that the same power which wrought in creating things at the beginning woorketh now still wheÌ„soeuer it listeth and that if the effects liue the cause of them is not dead And if thou shouldest sée euery day some miracle in the Sunne in Plants and in man surely in lesse than a hundred yeres miracles would be chaunged into nature with thee and the helpes of thyne infirmitie would turne thee to vnbeleef and to make the world beleeue agein God should be faine to create a new world for the world An example whereof may bee the people of Israell who hauing their meate their drinke their trayning vp and their gouernement altogither of miracle did in lesse than forty yeres turne them al into nature and lyke folke accustomed continewally to phisick which turne their medicines into nourishment of their bodies they abused the stayes of their fayth by turning them into occasions of distrust and vnbeleef Now God created nature and hath giuen it a Lawe which Lawe he will haue it to followe Neuerthelesse sometymes for our infirmities sake he interrupteth it to the intent to make vs to knowe that he is Lord of nature But if he should do it at our appoyntment then should we be the Lords both of nature and of him and if he should do it in all caces we would make a rule of it and we would make bookes and calculations of it no lesse than of the Eclipses of the Sunne or of the Moone or rather than of the motions of the eyghth Sphere and we would impute all those interruptions and chaunges to the nature of nature itself Therefore it is both more conuenient for his glorie and more behooffull to our saluation that nature should still followe hir nature and that miracles should continue miracles still that is to say that they should be rare as necessarie helpes to the infirmities of our nature I meane not of one man or of one age but of all mankynd or at leastwise of al the Church togither which is but as one comonweale and one man Yet remayneth Mahomet and he séemeth to be a iolly fellowe for he made a great part of the world to beléeue in him He was an Arabian and tooke wages of the Emperour Heraclius to serue him in his warres anon after the declyning of the Empyre and in a mutinie among the Arabian Souldyers he was chosen by them to be their commaunder as we sée dyuers tymes in the bands of the Spanyards Whether he were a good man or no let the people of Mecha who woorshippe him at this day iudge which condemned him to death for his Robberies and murthers And he himself in his Alcoran confesseth himself to bee a sinner an Idolater an adulterer giuen to Lecherie and subiect to women and that in such words as I am ashamed to repeate But he hath inlarged his Empyre by his successors and layd his Lawe vppon many Nations What maruell is that For why Auendge your selues sayeth he with all your harts take as many wiues as ye be able to kéepe Spare not euen nature itself What is he though he were the rankest Uarlet in the world that myght not leuie men of that pryce considering the corruption that is in mankynd Hee reigned as a Lord say they but yet by worldly meanâ—â— yea and vtterly vnbeséeming a man If ye enquyre of his Doctryne say they it is holy conformable to the old and new TestameÌ„t and admitted of God But as good as yée make it yet may yée not examin it nor dispute of it vpon peyne of death And what man of iudgement would not haue some suspition of the persone though he were very honest which should say Behold ye be payed and in good monny but yée may not looke vpon it by daylyght If yée looke for his miracles In déede God sent Moyses and Christ with miracles but Mahomet comes with his naked swoord to make men beléeue and asfor other miracle he woorks none And therefore al his Alcoran is nothing els but kill the Infidells reuendge your selues he that kills most shall haue greatest share in paradise and he that feyghteth lasily shal be damned in hell How farre is this geare of from suffering and both from conquering and continewing by sufferance What wickednesse myght not bee stablished by that way of his Notwithstanding to allure the Iewes he exalteth Moyses and reteyneth Circumcision and to the intent he myght not estraunge the Christians he sayeth that Christ is the Spirit Woord and Power of God and that Mahomet is Christes seruant sent to serue him and Prophesied of by him afore Ageine to please the Heretiks called Nestorians he affirmeth that yet for all this Christ is not very God nor the Sonne of God but that he hath in déede the Soule of God Thus doe ignorance and violence in him incounter one another the one to choke the trueth and the other to inforce the falsehod What practyses what wyles what countersayings what inforcements what armyes what cruelties vseth he not too perswade men And yet what hath he wonne by all this
Gamalielles was sent with Commission to persecute the Christians In his way sayth Luke a light shone about him and being smitten to the ground he heard this voyce Saule Saule why persecutest thou me To bee short of a Iewe he became a Christian and of a Persecuter a Martir And if thou beléeuest not S. Luke S. Paule himselfe toucheth his owne historie in diuers places What hath vnbeléefe to bring against this saue onely peraduenture a bare denyall according to common custome If Peter sawe it he is but a Fissherman say they If Paule heard it he is an Orator So then belike if God offer thee his grace in an earthen vessell thou mislykest of it and if he offet it thee in a vessell of some valewe thou suspectest it eyther the one is beguyled or the other beguyleth thee sayest thou What wilt thou haue God to doe to make thee to beleeue him Examine this case well Paule in the way to growe great he is in good reputation with the Magistrate the Priestes and sodeinly he chaungeth his Copie out of one extremitie into an other to bee skorned scourged cudgâ—led stoned and put to death Put the case that neither S. Luke nor S. Paule did tell thee the cause thereof What mayst thou imagine but that it was a very great and forcible cause that was able to chaunge a mans heart so sodeynly and so straungely Is it not daylie sâ—ene wilt thou say that men are soone changed and vpon light causes Yes fooles are But he debateth the matter he vrgeth his arguments and he driueth his conclustons to an ende The best learned of his enemies finde fault with his misapplying as they terme it of his skill and yet commend his writings Yea and he knoweth that vnto thee his preaching will seeme folly and yet that as much folly as it is it is the very wisedome of God and that by following it he shall haue nothing but aduersitie and yet for all that he doth not giue it ouer How shall he be wise that counteth himselfe a foole or rather which of the wiser sort is not rauished at his sayings and doings But if he be wise learned and weladuised as thou seest he is what followeth but that his chaunge proceedeth of some cause And seeing the chaunge was great the cause must néedes be great also and seeing it was extreame and against 〈◊〉 surely it must needes proceede of a supernaturall and souereine cause Uerely the reason that leadeth thee to this generall conclusion ought to leade thee to the speciall also that is to wit that it was a very great and supernaturall cause that moued him namely the same which Sainct Luke rehearseth and which he himselfe confirmeth in many places for the which he estéemeth himselfe right happie to â—ndure the miserie which he caused and procured vnto others and in the end after a thousand hurts and a thousand deaths he willingly spent his life Also the death of Herod striken by the Angell for not giuing glorie vnto God is reported vnto vs much more amply by Iosephus than by S. Luke Herod sayth he made showes in Caesarea and the second day of the solemnitie he came into the Theatre being full clad in robe or cloath of Siluer which by the stryking of the Sunnebeames vppon it made it the more stately Then began certeyne Clawbacks to call him God and to pray him to bee gracious vnto them But forasmuch as he did not refuse that flatterie he sawe an Owle sitting vpon his head and by and by he was taken with so straunge torments that within feawe daies after he dyed acknowledging Gods iudgement vpon him and preaching thereof to his flatterers This Historie is set out more at large by Iosephus which in effect is all one with that which is written by S. Luke who sayeth that the people cryed out It is the voyce of God and not of a man and that thervpon an Angell of God strake him and he was eaten with wormes and so dyed These bee the things which they finde scarce credible in the historie of our Euangelistes which yet notwithstanding are coÌ„firmed by the histories of the Iewes and Gentyles who report the things with words full of admiration which our Euangelistes set downe simply after their owne maner And seeing that in these things which exceede nature they bee found true what likelyhoode is there that they should not also deliuer vs Christes doctrine truely specially being as I haue shewed afore miraculously assisted with the power of his spirit according to his promisses and moreouer hauing witnessed the sinceritie of their writings by suffering so many torments and in the end death Seeing then that the new Testament conteyneth the trueth of the doctrine of Iesus and proceeded from the spirit of Iesus whom I haue shewed to be the Sonne of God what remayneth for vs but to imbrace the Scriptures as the worde of life and Soulehealth and as the will of the Father declared vnto vs by his Sonne and to liue thereafter and to dye for the same considering that by the same wee shall be raysed one day to glorie and reigne with him for euer But forasmuch as we make mention of rysing ageine from the dead that is yet one scruple more that remayneth What lykelyhod is there of that say they séeing that our bodyes rotte Woormes deuour vs yea our bodyes do turne into woormes and a nomber of other chaunges â—o passe ouer them This is a continewall stumbling alwayes at one stone namely to stand gasing at Gods power who can do all things when ye should rather rest vpon his will He will do it for he hath knit the body and Soule togither to be parttakers of good and euill togither and hee hath giuen one Lawe on them both togither so as they must suffer togither and ioy togither yea and suffer one for another and one by another in this lyfe and what Iustice then were it to separate them in another lyfe He will do it for he made the whole man who if he were but Soule alone were no man atall He will do it for to the intent toâ— saue man his Sonne hath takeÌ„ the flesh of man vnto him Now to saue the Soule it had bin inough for him too haue taken but a Soule but he that made the whole man will also saue the whole man To be short he will do it for he hath sayd it and he will doo it for he hath done it already He hath sayd it by his Sonne and he hath also done it in his Sonne and his sonne adorneth vs with his victorie and he will surely adorne vs with his glorie Looke vpon the grayne that is cast into the ground if it rotte not it springeth not vp if it spring not vp it yeldeth no foyson Agein of one graine come many Eares of Corne of a kernell a goodly Tree of a thing of nothing as yée would say a perfect liuing Creature