should be saued and who should be damned CHAP. 27. BVt now because we must end this booke let this bee our position that in the first man the fore-said two societies or cities had originall yet not euidentlie but vnto Gods prescience for from him were the rest of men to come some to be made fellow cittizens with the Angels in ioy and some with the Deuils in torment by the secret but iust iudgment of God For seeing that it is written All the wayes of the Lord bee mercy and truth his grace can neither bee vniust nor his iustice cruell Finis lib. 12. THE CONTENTS OF THE thirteenth booke of the City of God 1. Of the first Mans fall and the procurement of mortality 2. Of the death that may befall the immortal soule and of the bodies death 3. Whether death propagated vnto all men from the first bee punishment of sinne to the Saints 4. Why the first death is not with-held from the regenerate from sinne by grace 5. As the wicked vse the good law euill so the good vse death which is euill well 6. The generall euill of that death that seuereth soule and body 7. Of the death that such as are not regenerate doe suffer for Christ. 8. That the Saints in suffering the first death for the truth are quit from the second 9. Whether a man at the houre of his death may be said to be among the dead or the dying 10. Whether this mortall life be rather to bee called death then life 11. Whether one may bee liuing and dead both together 12. Of the death that God threatned to punish the first man withall if he transgressed 13. What punishment was first laid on mans preuarication 14. In what state God made Man and into what state he fell by his voluntary choyce 15. That Adam forsooke God ere God forsooke him and that the soules first death was the departure from God 16. Of the Philosophers that held corporall death not to bee penall whereas Plato brings in the Creator promising the lesser Gods that they should neuer leaue their bodies 17. Against the opinion that earthly bodies cannot be corruptible nor eternall 18. Of the terrene bodies which the Philosophers hold cannot bee in heauen but must fall to earth by their naturall weight 19 Against those that hold that Man should not haue beene immortall if hee had not sinned 20. That the bodies of the Saints now resting in hope shall become better then our first fathers was 21. Of the Paradice when our first parents were placed and that it may be taken spiritually also with-out any wrong to the truth of the historie as touching the reall place 22. That the Saints bodies after resurrection shall bee spirituall and yet not changed into spirits 23. Of bodies animate and spirituall these dying in Adam and those beeing quickned in Christ. 24. How Gods breathing a life into Adam and Christs breathing vpon his Apostles when hee said Receiue the holy spirit are to bee vnderstood FINIS THE THIRTEENTH BOOKE OF THE CITTIE OF GOD Written by Saint Augustine Bishop of Hippo vnto Marcellinus Of the first Mans fall and the procurement of mortalitie CHAP. 1. HAuing gotten through the intricate questions of the worlds originall and man-kindes our methode now calleth vs to discourse of the first mans fall nay the first fall of both in that kind and consequently of the originall and propagation of our mortality for God made not man as he did Angels that though they sinned yet could not dye but so as hauing a performed their course in obedience death could not preuent them from partaking for euer of blessed and Angelicall immortality but hauing left this course death should take them into iust damnation as we said in the last booke L. VIVES HAuing a performed Euery man should haue liued a set time vpon earth and then being confirmed in nature by tasting of the tree of life haue beene immortally translated into heauen Here are many questions made first by Augustine and then by Lombard dist 2. What mans estate should haue beene had he not sinned but these are modest and timerous inquirers professing they cannot finde what they seeke But our later coments vpon Lumbard flie directly to affirmatiue positions vpon very coniectures or grounds of nature I heare them reason but I see them grauelled and in darknesse where yet they will not feele before them ere they goe but rush on despight of all break-neck play What man hath now wee all know to our cost what he should haue had it is a question whether Adam knew and what shall we then seeke why should we vse coniectures in a things so transcendent that it seemes miraculous to the heauens as if this must follow natures lawes which would haue amazed nature had it had existence then What light Augustine giues I will take and as my power and duty is explaine the rest I will not meddle with Of the death that may befall the immortall soule and of the bodyes death CHAP. 2. BVt I see I must open this kinde of death a little plainer For mans soule though it be immortall dyeth a kinde of death a It is called immortall because it can neuer leaue to bee liuing and sensitiue and the body is mortall because it may be destitute of life and left quite dead in it selfe But the death of the soule is when God leaueth it the death of the body is when the soule leaueth it so that the death of both is when the soule being left of God leaueth the body And this death is seconded by that which the Scripture calles the b second death This our Sauiour signified when hee said feare him which is able to destroy both body and soule in hell which comming not to passe before the body is ioyned to the soule neuer to be seperated it is strange that the body can be sayd to die by that death which seuereth not the soule from it but torments them both together For that â—…all paine of which wee will speake here-after is fitly called the soules deaâ—… because it liueth not with God but how is it the bodies which liueth with the soule for otherwise it could not feele the corporall paines that expect it after the resurrection is it because all life how-so-euer is good and all paine euill that the body is said to dye wherein the soule is cause of sorrow rather then life Therefore the soule liueth by God when it liueth well for it cannot liue without God working good in it and the body liueth by the soule when the soule liueth in the body whether it liue by God or no. For the wicked haue liâ—…â—…body but none of soule their soules being dead that is forsaken of God lâ—…g power as long as their immortall proper life failes not to afforde them 〈◊〉 but in the last damnation though man bee not insensitiue yet this sence of 〈◊〉 â—…ing neither pleasing nor peacefull but sore and
not onely those of the weaker sort that liue in marriage hauing or seeking to haue children and keeping houses and families whome the Apostle in the Church doth instruct how to liue the wiues with their husbands and the husbands with their wiues children with their parents and the parents with their children the seruants with their maisters and the maisters with their seruants it is not these alone that get together these worldly goods with industry and loose them with sorrow and because of which they dare not offend such men as in their filthy and contaminate liues do extreamely displease them but it is also those of the highter sort such as are no way chayned in mariage such as are content with poore fare and meane attire Many of these through too much loue of their good name and safety through their feare of the deceits and violence of the wicked through frailtie and weaknesse forbeare to reprooue the wicked when they haue offended And although they doe not feare them so farre as to be drawne to actuall imitation of these their vicious demeanours yet this which they will not act with them they will not reprehend in them though herein they might reforme some of them by this reprehension by reason that in case they did not reforme them their owne fame and their safetie might come in danger of destruction Now herein they doe at no hand consider how they are bound to see that their fame and safety bee necessarily employed in the instruction of others but they do nothing but poyse it in their owne infirmitie which loues to be stroaked with a smooth tongue and delighteth in the e day of man fearing the censure of the vulgar and the torture and destruction of body that is they forbeare this dutie not through any effect of charitie but meerely through the power of auarice and greedy affection Wherefore I hold this a great cause why the good liuers do pertake with the bad in their afflictions when it is Gods pleasure to correct the corruption of manners with the punishment of temporall calamities For they both endure one scourge not because they are both guiltie of one disordered life but because they both doe too much affect this transitorie life not in like measure but yet both together which the good man should contemne that the other by them being corrected and amended might attaine the life eternall who if they would not ioyne with them in this endeauour of attaining beatitude they should be f borne with all and loued as our enemies are to be loued in Christianitie we being vncertaine whilest they liue here whether euer their heart shall bee turned vnto better or no which to doe the good men haue not the like but farre greater reason because vnto them g the Prophet saith Hee is taken away for his iniquity but his bloud will I require at the watch-mans hand h for vnto this end were watch-men that is rulers ouer the people placed in the churches that they should i not spare to reprehend enormities Nor yet is any other man altogether free from this guilt whatsoeuer he bee ruler or not ruler who in that dayly commerce and conuersation wherein humane necessity confines him obserueth any thing blame worthy and to reprehend it seeking to auoyde the others displeasure being drawne here-vnto by these vanities which he doth not vse as he should but affecteth much more then hee should Againe there 's another reason why the righteous should endure these temporall inflictions and was cause of holy k Iobs sufferance namely that hereby the soule may bee prooued and fully knowne whether it hath so much godlie vertue as to loue God freely and for himselfe alone These reasons being well considered tell me whether any thing be casuall vnto the good that tendeth not to their good vnlesse we shall hold that the Apostle talked idely when he said l Wee know all things worke together for the best vnto them that loue God L. VIVES IN something a yeelds The lust of the flesh is so inwardly inherent in our bodies and that affect is so inborne in vs by nature that great workeman of all thinges liuing who hath so subtilly infused it into our breasts that euen when our minde is quiet vppon another obiect we do propagate our ofspring in the like affection so that we can by no meanes haue a thought of the performing of this desire without beeing stung within with a certaine secret delight which many do make a sinne but too too veniall b by his Prophets and that very often as is plaine in Esay and Ieremy c But this is the fault Cicero in his offices saith There be some that although that which they thinke bee very good yet for feare of enuy dare not speak it d The hope As the guide of their pilgrimage e the day of man 1. Cor. 4. I passe little to bee iudged of you or of the day of man that is the iudgement of man wherein each man is condemned or approued of men whose contrary is the daie of the Lord which searcheth and censureth the secrets of all heartes f borne with and loued The wicked are not onely to bee indured but euen to bee loued also God commaunding vs to loue euen our enemies Mat. 5. g The Prophet Ezechiel Chap. 33. But if the watchman see the sword come and blow not the trumpet and the people bee not warned and the sword come take away any person from among them he is taken away for his iniquitie but his bloud will I require at the watch-mans hands h For vnto this end were watch-men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke is Speculator in latin a watchman a discryer an obseruer and a Gouernor Cicero in his seauenth booke of his Epistles to Atticus saith thus Pompey would haue me to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sentinell of Campania and all the sea-coastes and one to whome the whole summe of the busines should haue speciall relation Andromache in Homer cals Hector Troiae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the watchman or guardian of Troy The Athenians called their Intelligencers and such as they sent out to obserue the practises of their tributary citties Episcopos Ouerseers and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 watchmen the Lacedemonians called them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moderatores Gouernors Archadius the Lawyer cals them Episcopos that had charge of the prouision for vittailes Some thinke the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bee heere a Pleonasme whereof Eustathius one of Homers interpreters is one and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is all one 1. Not spare to reprehend So saith saint Paul vnto Titus And so doe our Bishops euen in these times whome with teares we behold haled vnto martyrdome because they tell the truth in too bitter tearmes and persecute vice through all not respecting a whit their reuenues nor dignities Christ Iesus glorifie them k Iobs The history all men
friuolous positions as b Epicurus held yea and euen the Stoikes c These men standing onely affected to the art of disputation called Logike thought it was to be deriued from the sences affirming that from them the minde doth receiue definable notions d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and thence the whole methode of learning and teaching hath the propagation Now e heere doe I wonder how these men f affirming a wise-man onely to bee beautifull hadde any notion of this beauty from their sence and how their carnall eyes could behold the faire forme of wisdome g But those whome wee doe worthyly preferrâ—… haue distinguished the conceites of the minde conceiued from the formes receiued by the sence Giuing them no more then their due nor taking ought of their due from them But h the light of the mind giuing power to conceiue all this they hold is God that created all L. VIVES THeir a Doctriâ—… Plato diuided speach into fiue parts 1. ciuill vsed in politike affaires counsels and such like 2. rethoricall which is demonstratiue or iudiciall contayning praise or dispraise accusation or defence 3. ordinary discourse of one man with another 4. worke-mens conference in matters mechanicall 5. Logicall consisting of dialogismes questions and answers This last is by some ascribed to bee Plato's inuention as Phauorinus others giâ—…e it to Alexamenes Teius Aristotle Some also to Zeno the Elean certaine it is that Plato gâ—…e much ornament vnto discourse replenishing it with all parts of learning grauity and elegance Wherein though the Logicall formes bee not expresly taught yet they are laid dowâ—… 〈◊〉 practise and their vse fully expressed And particularly demonstration is practiâ—…d 〈◊〉 his Timaus Sâ—…phismes in Euthydemus whence Aristotle had many of his fallacians 〈◊〉 â—…tes his induction is of most power of all and seemes to take the originall from him 〈◊〉 â—…ates vsed it more nimbly then any man liuing And from him Quintilian biddes his 〈◊〉 fetch it b Epicurus Hee held the Sunne to bee no bigger then it seemed And thâ—… if the sence once mistake one should neuer trust it after Cicero Plutarc Placit lib. 4. The Stoikes held the sences true but their obiects now true and now false But Epicuâ—… held sence an obiect all true mary opinion hee said erred sometimes and Cicero saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That vnto the formes receiued by our sences hee adioyned the assent of the minde wâ—…ch hee will haue fixed and voluntary in euery one of vs. Hee didde not affirme all that wee saw was true But onely such as brought with them certaine peculiar declarations 〈◊〉 which they pretended c These men The Stoikes for the Epicures reiected Logike 〈◊〉 and vnprofitable The Stoikes vsed it exceedingly And Chrysippus Cleanthes and 〈◊〉 â—…saisters of that sect wrote much in that kinde but all concerning the later part 〈◊〉 the first Inuention they commonly meddle not with as Cicero saith in his Toâ—…d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first apprehensions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or vnderstanding of thinges These â—…th giuen man whence the knowledge of many great seueralties arise which moâ—…se from visible and palpable obiects producing eyther knowledge ignorance â—…n the meane betweene both Cicero calleth them begunne conceits and saith 〈◊〉 first named the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if one should say a premeditate apprehension of a thing 〈◊〉 without which we can neither vnderstand inquire nor dispute Mary the Stoikes 〈◊〉 vsed this word also which Tully translateth anticipationes And Chrysippus 〈◊〉 to bee a naturall vnderstanding of vniuersalities Laert. e Heere do I Hee proâ—… the affirmers of these positions rather trusted vnderstanding then sence f affirming 〈◊〉 A Stoicall Paradoxe g But those whome Plato so dealt that hee debarred the 〈◊〉 power to iudge the truth allowing that only to the mind prouing the authority of 〈◊〉 fitte to bee trusted because it beholdeth alone the simple truth vniforme and 〈◊〉 in that manner as it is h The light This sunne they held was the light 〈◊〉 and that the prince of the World was the light of the soule to vnderstanding â—…ge wisedome and iudgement and therefore hee is the father of all light For from 〈◊〉 inuisible the light visible hath his originall as I shewed before out of Plato The 〈◊〉 â—…noes teacheth In Doctrina Platonis That the Platonists are to be preferred in Morality also CHAP. 8 â—…ere remayneth the Morall in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which inquireth after the greaâ—… good whereto all our actions haue reference and which is desired for it 〈◊〉 only for no other end but to make vs blessed in attaining it only and therfore 〈◊〉 it the end as referring all the rest vnto it But desiring it only for it 〈◊〉 This blesse-affording good some would deriue from the a bodie 〈◊〉 â—…om the b minde some c from both For seeing that a man conâ—… but of soule and body they beleeued that his cheefe good must 〈◊〉 originall from one of the two and therein subsist as the finall end standing 〈◊〉 the shot-marke of all their actions which being once attayned their labours 〈◊〉 crowned with perfection So that they d that added a third kinde of good to these two namely consisting of honour ritches and such goods of Fortune â—…wise called extrinsecal did not propose it as a finall good that is to be desiâ—… in respect of it selfe but referred it to another beeing of it selfe good to the 〈◊〉 and badde to the bad So this good then that some deriued from the body and some from the soule and some from both all deriued from the mans selfe But they that tooke the bodies part had the worse side the soule had the better mary they that tooke both expected this good from the whole man So then part or whole it is from man howsoeuer These three differences made aboue three seuerall sects of Phylosophers each man construing diuersly both of the bodies good and the soules good and both their goods But lette all those stand by and make them place that say that he is not happy that inioyes a body nor hee that inioyes a minde but hee that inioyes God Not as the soule inioyes the body or it selfe nor as one friend inioyes another but e as the eye inioyes the light If the rest can say any thing for the other similies or against this last what it is God willing wee shall in due season discouer L. VIVES FRom the a body So did Epicurus Aristippus and all their followers b The minde The Stoikes c From both As Calipho Polemon and Diodorus d That added This triple diuision of goods into the bodies the mindes and fortunes Augustine often vseth It is Aristotles and the Peripatetiques taken from diuers places of Plato as I will shew in the next booke e At the eye Plato saith that the knowledge of the truth is the greatest good which being hardly to be attained in this life giues vs cause to think that scarcely any one liuing
end of this present booke L. VIVES A a Worke of mercy For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the properly mercy of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to haue mercie as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 come of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in diuers more examples Against those that exclude both men and deuills from paines eternall CHAP. 23. FIrst then wee must shew why ' the church hath condemned them that affirme that euen the very deuills after a time of torment shal be taken to mercy The reason is this those holy men so many and so learned in both the lawes of GOD the Old and the New did not enuy the mundification and beatitude of those spirits after their long and great extremity of torture but they saw well that the words of Our Sauiour could not bee vntrue which hee promised to pronounce in the last iudgement saying Depart from mee yee cursed into euerlasting fire which is prepared for the deuill and his Angells Hereby shewing that they should burne in euerlasting fire likewise in the Reuelation The deuill that deceiued them was cast into a lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet shal be tormented euen day and night for euermore There hee saith euerlasting and here for euermore in both places excluding all termination and end of the time Wherefore there is no reason either stronger or plainer to assure our beleefe that the deuill and his angells shall neuer more returne to the glory and righteousnesse of their Saints then because the scriptures that deceiue no man tell vs directly and plainely that GOD hath not spared them but 〈◊〉 them downe into hell and deliuered them vnto chaines of darkenesse there to bee 〈◊〉 vnto the damnation in the iust iudgement then to bee cast into eternall fire and there to burne for euermore If this bee true how can either all or any men bee â—…iuered out of this eternity of paines if our faith whereby we beleeue the deâ—… to bee euerlastingly tormented be not hereby infringed for if those either all or some part to whome it shal be sayd Depart from mee yee cursed into euerlasting fire which is prepared for the deuill and his angells shall not continue for eâ—… in the fire what reason haue wee to thinke that the deuill and his angells 〈◊〉 Shall the word of GOD spoken alike both to men and deuills be prooued 〈◊〉 vpon the deuills and not vpon the men So indeed should mans surmises â—…of more certainety then Gods promises But seeing that cannot bee they 〈◊〉 desire to escape this paine eternall must cease to argue against GOD and 〈◊〉 his yoake vpon them while they haue time For what a fondnesse were it to value the paines eternall by a fire only of a long contiâ—… but yet to beleeue assuredly that life eternall hath no end at all seeing 〈◊〉 the LORD in the same place including both these parts in one senâ—… 〈◊〉 â—…plainely These shall goe into euerlasting paines and the righteous into life 〈◊〉 Thus doth he make them parallells here is euerlasting paines and there 〈◊〉 eternall life Now to say this life shall neuer end but that paine shall were groâ—…sly absurd Wherefore seeing that the eternall life of the Saints shall bee without end so therefore is it a consequent that the euerlasting paine of the damned shal be as endlesse as the others beatitude Against those that would prooue all damnation frustrate by the praters of the Saints CHAP. 24. THis is also against those who vnder collour of more pitty oppose the expresse word of GOD and say that GODS promises are true in that men are worthy of the plagues he threatens not that they shal be layd vpon them For he will giue them say they vnto the intreaties of his Saints who wil be the readier to pray for them then in that they are more purely holy and their praiers wil be the more powerfull in that they are vtterly exempt from all touch of sinne and corruption Well and why then in this their pure holinesse and powrefulâ—…se of praier will they not intreate for the Angells that are to be cast into euerlasting 〈◊〉 that it would please GOD to mitigate his sentence and set them free from that intollerable fire Some perhaps will pretend that the holy Angells 〈◊〉 ioyne with the Saints as then their followes in praier both the Angells and men also that are guilty of damnation that God in his mercy would be pleased to pardon their wicked merit But there is no sound christian that euer held his or euer will hold it for otherwise there were no reason why the Church should not pray for the deuill and his Angells seeing that her LORD GOD hath willed her to pray for her enemies But the same cause that stayeth the Church for praying for the damned spirits her knowne enemies at this day the â—…ame shall hinder her for praying for the reprobate soules at this day of iudgement notwithstanding her fulnesse of perfection As now shee prayeth 〈◊〉 her enemies in mankinde because this is the time of wholesome repentance and therefore her chiefe petition for them is that GOD would grant them peniâ—… and escape from the snares of the deuill who are taken of him at his will as the Apostle â—…aith But if the church had this light that shee could know any of those wâ—… though they liue yet vpon the earth yet are predestinated to goe with the deuill into that euerlasting fire shee would offer as few praiers for them as shee doth for him But seeing that shee hath not this knowledge therefore praieth 〈◊〉 for all her foes in the flesh and ye is not heard for them all but onely for those who are predestinated to become her sonnes though they bee as yet her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any shall die her impenitent foes and not returne into her boâ—… 〈◊〉 doth shee pray for them No because they that before death are not 〈◊〉 into CHRIST are afterward reputed as associates of the deuill And 〈◊〉 the same cause that forbids her to pray for the reprobate soules as then stoppâ—…â—…er for praying for the Apostaticall Angells as now and the â—…ame reason 〈◊〉 why wee pray for all men liuing and yet will not pray for the wicked nor 〈◊〉 being dead For the praier either of the Church or of some Godly persons is heard a for some departed this life but for them which being regenerat in Christ haue not spent their life so wickedly that they may be iudged vnworthy of such mercy or else so deuoutly that they may bee found to haue no neede of such mercy Euen as also after the resurrection there shal be some of the dead which shall obtaine mercy after the punishments which the spirits of the dead do suffer that they be not cast into euerlasting fire For otherwise that should not be truly spoken concerning some That they shall not be forgiuen neither in this world nor in the world to
both on the earth and in the earth the mountaine tops giue it vp in aboundance nay more wee see that fire is produced out of earthâ—… namely of wood and stones and what are these but earthly bodyes yea but the elementary fire say they is pure hurtlesse quiet and eternall and this of ours turbulent smoakie corrupting and corruptible Yet doth it not corrupt nor hurt the hills where-in it burneth perpetually nor the hollowes within ground where it worketh most powerfully It is not like the other indeed but adapted vnto the conuenient vse of man But why then may we not beleeue that the nature of a corruptible body may bee made incorruptible and fitte for heauen as well as we see the elementary fire made corruptible and fitte for vs So that these arguments drawne from the sight and qualities of the elements can no way diminish the power that Almighty God hath to make mans body of a quality fitte and able to inhabite the heauens L. VIVES A Fifth a body But Aristotle frees the soule from all corporeall beeing as you may read De anima lib. 1. disputing against Democritus Empedocles Alcmâ—…on Plato and Xenocrates But indeed Plato teaching that the soule was composed of celestiall fire taken from the starres and with-all that the starres were composed of the elementary bodies made Aristotle thinke else-where that it was of an elementary nature as well as the starres whence it was taken But in this hee mistooke him-selfe and miss-vnderstood his maister But indeed Saint Augustine in this place taketh the opinion of Aristotle from Tully for Aristotles bookes were rare and vntranslated as then who saith that hee held their soule to bee quintam naturam which Saint Augustine calleth quintum corpus a fifth body seuerall from the elementary compounds But indeede it is a question whether Aristotle hold the soule to bee corporeall or no hee is obscure on both sides though his followers â—…old that it is absolutely incorporeall as wee hold generally at this day And Tullyes words were cause both of Saint Augustines miss-prision and like-wise set almost all the Grecians both of this age and the last against him-selfe for calling the soule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas they say Aristotle calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is habitio perfecta and not motio pereâ—…nis as Tullyes word implieth But alas why should Tully be so baited for so small an error O let vs bee ashamed to vpbraide the father of Latine eloquence with any misprision for his errors are generally more learned then our labours Against the Infidels calumnies cast out in scorne of the Christians beleefe of the resurrection CHAP. 12. BVt in their scrupulous inquiries touching this point they come against vs with such scoffes as these Whether shall the Ab-ortiue births haue any part in the resurrection And seeing the LORD saith there shall noâ—… one haire of your headperish whether shall all men bee of one stature and bignesse or no If they bee how shall the Ab-ortiues if they rise againe haue that at the resurrection which they wanted at the first Or if they doe not rise againe because they were neuer borne but cast out wee may make the same doubt of infants where shall they haue that bignesse of body which they wanted when they died for they you know are capable of regeneration and therefore must haue their part in the resurrection And then these Pagans aske vs of what height and quantity shall mens bodies be then If they bee as tall as euer was any man then both little and many great ones shall want that which they wanted here on earth and whence shall they haue it But if it bee true that Saint Paul saith thâ—…t wee shall meete vnto the measure of the age of the fulnesse of CHRIST and againe if that place Hee predestinated them to bee made like to the Image of his Sonne imply that all the members of Christs Kingdome shal be like him in shape and stature then must many men say they forgoe part of the stature which they had vpon earth And then where is that great protection of euery haire if there bee such a diminution made of the stature and body Besides wee make a question say they whether man shall arise withall the haire that euer the Barber cut from his head If hee doe who will not loath such an ougly sight for so likewise must it follow that hee haue on all the parings of his nayles And where is then that comelinesse which ought in that immortality to bee so farre exceeding that of this world while man is in corruption But if hee doe not rise with all his haire then it is lost and where is your scriptures then Thus they proceed vnto fatnesse and leannesse If all bee a like say they then one shall bee fatte and another leane So that some must loose flesh and some must gaine some must haue what they wanted and some must leaue what they had Besides as touching the putrefaction and dissolution of mens bodies part going into dust part into ayre part into fire part into the guttes of beasts and birds part are drowned and dissolued into water these accidents trouble them much and make them thinke that such bodies can neuer gather to flesh againe Then passe they to deformities as monstrous births misse-shapen members scarres and such like inquiring with scoffes what formes these shall haue in the resurrection For if wee say they shall bee all taken away then they come vpon vs with our doctrine that CHRIST arose with his woundes vpon him still But their most difficult question of all is whose flesh shall that mans bee in the resurrection which is eaten by another man through compulsion of hunger for it is turned into his flesh that eateth it and filleth the parts that famine had made hollow and leane Whether therefore shall hee haue it againe that ought it at first or hee that eate it and so ought it afterwards These doubts are put vnto our resolutions by the scorners of our faith in the resurrection and they themselues doe either estate mens soules for euer in a state neuer certaine but now wretched and now blessed as Plato doth or else with Porphyry they affirme that these reuolutions doe tosse the soule along time but notwithstanding haue a finall end at last leauing the spirit at rest but beeing vtterly separated from the body for euer Whether Ab-ortiues belong not to the resurrection if they belong to the dead CHAP. 13. TO all which obiections of theirs I meane by GODS helpe to answere and first as touching Ab-ortiues which die after they are quick in the mothers wombe that such shall rise againe I dare neither affirme nor deny Yet if they bee reckned amongst the dead I see no reason to exclude them from the resurrection For either all the dead shall not rise againe and the soules that had no bodies sauing in the mothers wombe shall continue
vnlesse it be shored vppe by the worship of many gods whom the blinded Pagans haue beene accustomed to worship and adore auerring but their truth is meere false-hood that neglect and contempt of their vnworthy adoration hath beene the fountaine from whence these bitter waters of aduerse occurrences haue streamed abundantly and ouerflowed them But the other fiue following are not meale-mouthed but speake boldly against them which confesse that the spring of worldly euills is not exhausted nor shal euer be dried vp but the current flowing some-time more some-times lesse some-times swiftly some times slowly changing their state according to the circumstance of places times and persons yet fondly are they opinionated for verity hath not made them a warrant that the deuout adoration of many gods in which sacrifices are offered vnto their imaginary Deity is profitable for the life which wee hope for after death Therefore in these ten bookes the absurdity of these two vaine opinions both deadly foes vnto Christian religion is discouered and confuted But least some man may vpbraid mee that I am too forward to disproue the assertions of others and slow enough to proue mine owne the other part of this worke which is confined within the bounds of twelue bookes is directed to that purpose Although in the first ten where it is needfull wee are not behinde hand to confirme the truth of our owne opinions and also to infringe the authority of contrary oppositions in the twelue bookes ensewing Therefore the first foure of the twelue following containe the originall of two Citties of which one belongeth to GOD the other to this World The second foure containe their progresse The third foure which are the last conteine their due bounds Now though all the two and twenty bookes are compiled together of both Citties yet they haue taken their title from the better part and haue the name of the Citty of God printed on their fore-head In the tenth booke it ought not to bee set downe for a miracle that the fire falling from heauen ranne betweene the deuided sacrifices when ABRAHAM sacrificed because this was shewed vnto him in a vision In the seauenteenth booke where it is sayd of SAMVEL He was not of the sonnes of ARON it should rather haue beene sayd He was not the sonne of the Priest For it was a more lawfull custome that the sonnes of the Priests should succeed in the roome of the deceassed Priests For the Father of SAMVEL is found in the sonnes of ARON but hee was not a Priest yet not so in his sonnes as if ARON had begot him but in such sort as all of that people are said to bee the sonnes of ISRAEL This worke beginneth thus That most glorious society and celestiall Cittie of GOD c. THE CONTENTS OF THE first booke of the City of God 1. Of the aduersaries of the name of Christ spared by the Barbarians in the sacking of Rome onely for Christs sake 2. There neuer was warre wherein the Conquerors would spare them whome they conquered for the gods they worshipped 3. Of the Romaines fondnesse in thinking that those gods could helpe them which could not helpe Troy in her distresse 4. Of the Sanctuary of Iuno in Troy which freed not any that fled into it from the Greeks at the Citties sack whereas the Churches of the Apostles saued all commers from the Barbarians at the sack of Rome Caesars opinion touching the enemies custome in the sack of Citties 5. That the Romaines themselues neuer spared the Temples of those Citties which they conquered 6. That the cruell effects following the losses of warre did but follow the custome of war wherein they were moderated it was through the power of the name of Iesus Christ. 7. Of the commodities and discommodities commonly communicated both to good and ill 8. Of the causes of such corrections as fall both vpon the good and bad together 9. That the Saints in their losse of things temporall loose not any thing at all 10. Of the end of this transitory life whether it be long or short 11. Of buriall of the dead that it is not preiudiciall to the state of a Christian soule to be forbidden it 12. The reasons why wee should bury the bodies of the Saints 13. Of the captiuity of the Saints and that 〈◊〉 they neuer wanted spirituall comfort 14. Of Marcus Regulus who was a famous example to animate all men to the enduring of voluntary â—…tiuity for their religion which notwithstanding was vnprofitable vnto him by reason of his Paganisme 15. Whether the taxes that the holy Uirgins suffered against their wills in their captiuities could pollute the vertues of their minde 16. Of such as chose a voluntary death to avoide the feare of paine and dishonor 17. Of the violent lust of the souldiers executed vpon the bodies of the captiues against their consents 18. Of Lucrecia that stab'd her selfe because Tarquins sonne had rauished her 19. That their is no authority which allowes christians to bee their owne deaths in what cause so euer 20. Of some sort of killing men which notwithstanding are no murthers 21. That voluntary death can neuer bee any signe of magnanimity or greatnesse of spirit 22. Of Cato who killed himselfe being not able to endure Caesars victory 23. That the Christians excell Regulus in that vertue wherein he excelled most 24. That sinne is not to bee avoided by sinne 25. Of some vnlawfull acts done by the Saints and by what occasion they were done 26. Whether wee ought to flie sinne with voluntary death 27. How it was a Iudgement of GOD that the enemy was permitted to excercise his lust vpon the Christians bodies 28. What the seruants of Christ may answer the Infidells when they vpbraide them with Christs not deliuering them in their afliction from the fury of the enemies fury 29. That such as complaine of the Christian times desire nothing but to liue in filthy pleasures 30. By what degrees of corruption the Romans ambition grew to such a height 31. Of the first inducing of stage-plaies 32. Of some vices in the Romaines which their Citties ruine did neuer reforme 33. Of the clemency of GOD in moderating this calamity of Rome 34. Of such of GODS elect as liue secretly as yet amongst the Infidells and of such as are false Christians 35. What subiects are to be handled in the following discourse FINIS THE FIRST BOOKE OF SAINT AVGVSTINE Bishop of Hippo his Cittie of God vnto MARCELLINVS Of the aduersaries of the name of Christ spared by the Barbarians in the sacking of Rome onely for Christs sake CHAP. 1. THAT most glorious society and celestiall Citty of Gods faithfull which is partly seated in the course of these declining times wherein he that liueth a by faith is a Pilgrim amongst the wicked and partly in that solid estate of eternitie which as yet the other part doth paciently expect vntill b righteousnesse be turned into iudgment being then by the
is kept if the mindes holinesse bee polluted though the bodie it selfe bee vntouched Wherefore if there bee no reason that a woman that hath alreadie suffred an others villanie against her owne will should destroy her selfe by voluntary death how much lesse ought this course to bee followed before there bee any cause and why should murder bee committed when the guilt which is feared beeing feared from another is as yet in doubt of euent Dare they against whom wee defend the sanctity not onely of the Christian womens mindes but euen of their bodies in this last captiuitie contradict this cleere reason wherein we affirme that whilest the chast resolution is vnchanged by any euill consent the guilt is wholy the rauishers and no part of it imputable vnto the rauished L. VIVES ACcompanied a With fortitude For the vertues are all combined togither as the Philosophers teach But there are some more peculiarly cohaerent then other some b No man of this fortitude Herevpon Plutarch as I remember affirmes out of Menander that it is not the part of a valiant and complete man to say I will not suffer this but I will not doe this c Those goods The vertues for the Platonistis and the Peripatetike Philosophers diuide al goods into three sorts mentall bodily and fortunes or externall d Which if a man This is the Platonistis and Peripatetikes opinion as well as the Stoikes who held that bodily and externall goods might haue reference vnto beatitude but none at all vnto a good and sanctified life e Another kinde If it bee but a bodily good it is not of such worth as we should loose the whole body for it for the body is of more worth then it if it be but such f The body bee violated So did Brutus and Collatinus comfort sorrowfull Lucretia of whom the next Chapter treateth by turning the guilt of the falte from her that was offended vpon the author of the fact neither the minde sinneth sayth Liuy nor the body and where consent wanted guilt wanteth also And the Nurse in Seneca's Hippolitus saith the minde inferreth loosenesse t is not chance g Is not lost The bodies chastitie flowes from that of the minde h A midwife Hee seemes to relate a thing done because hee sayth A certaine maidens c. i So much as the body How simply was that spoken either of Brutus or Liuy both being wise and iudicious men speaking of the bloud of Lucretia being then newly slaine I sweare by this bloud most chaste before this Kings villany as though after his villany it were not as chaste still if her minde were not touched with lust as they hold it was not Of Lucretia that stabb'd her selfe because Tarquins sonne had rauished her CHAP. 18. THey extoll a Lucretia that Noble and ancient Matron of Rome with al the laudes of chastity This woman hauing her body forcibly abused by Sextus Tarquinius son to Tarquin the proud shee reuealed this villany of the dissolute youth vnto her husband Collatinus and to Brutus her kinsman both Noble and valorous men binding them by oth to b reuenge this wicked outrage And then loathing the foulnesse of the fact that had beene committed vpon her she slew her selfe What shall we say she was an adulteresse or was shee chast who will stand long in desciding this question c One declaming singularly well and truely hereof saith thus O wonder there were two and yet but one committed the adultery worthyly and rarely spoken Intimating in this commixtion the spotted lust of the one and the chast will of the other and gathering his position not from their bodily coniunction but from the diuersity of their mindes There were two sayth hee yet but one committed the adultry But what was that then which shee punished so cruelly hauing not committed any falt d He was but chased out of his country but shee was slaine if it were no vnchastenesse in her to suffer the rape vnwillingly it was no iustice in her being chaste to make away her selfe willingly I appeale to you you lawes Iudges of Rome After any offence be committed you wil not haue e the offender put to death without his sentence of condemnation Suppose then this case brought before you and that your iudgement was that the slaine woman was not onely vncondemned but chaste vnguilty and innocent would you not punish the doer of this deed with full seuerity This deed did Lucretia that so famous Lucretia this Lucretia being innocent chaste and forcibly wronged euen by f Lucretia's selfe was murdered Now giue your sentence But if you cannot because the offender is absent why thâ—…n doe you so extoll the murder of so chaste and guiltlesse a woman you cannot defend her before the infernall iudges at any hand if they be such as your Poets in their verses decipher them for according to their iudgement she is g to be placed amongst those Qui sibi lethum Insontes pepereÌ„re manu lacemque perosi Proiecêre animas That guiltlesse spoiled themselues through black despight And threw their soules to hell through hate of light Whence if she now would gladly returne Fatâ—… obstant tristique palus innabilis vnda Alligat Fate and deepe â—…ennes forbids their passage thence And Stix c. But how if shee be not amongst them as not dying guiltlesse but as beeing priuy to her owne sinne what if it were so h which none could know but her selfe that though Tarquinius son offred her force yet she her self gaue a lustfull consent 〈◊〉 did so greeue at that that she held it worthy to be punished with death Though she ought not to haue done so howsoeuer if she thought her repentance could be any way accepted of a sort of false gods If it be so that it be false that there were two but one did the sin but rather that both were guilty of it the one by a violent enforcement the other by a secret consent then shee died not innocent And therefore i her learned defenders may well say that shee is not in hell amongst those that destroyed them-selues beeing guiltlesse But this case is in such a strait that if the murder be extenuated the adultery is confirmed and if this bee cleared the other is agrauated Nor k is there any way out of this argument If she be an adulteresse why is shee commended If shee bee chaste why did shee kill her selfe But in this example of this noble woman this is sufficient for vs to confute those that beeing them-selues farre from all thought of sanctitie insult ouer the Christian women that were forced in this last captiuity that in Lucrecia's praise it is said that There were two and but one committed adultery For they then held Lucrecia for one that could not staine her selfe with any lasciuâ—…ous consent Well then in killing her selfe for suffering vncleanesse being hir selfe vnpolluted she shewed no loue vnto chastitie but onely discouered the infirmity of her
vndoubted faith in our scriptures all which made choyce rather to endure the tirany of their enemies then bee their owne butchers But now we will prooue out of their owne records that Regulus was Cato's better in this glory For Cato neuer ouer-came Caesar vnto whom he scorned to be subiect and chose to murder himselfe rather then bee seruant vnto him But Regulus ouer-came the Africans and in his generallship returned with diuers noble victories vnto the Romanes neuer with any notable losse of his Citizens but alwaies of his foes and yet being afterwards conquered by them hee resolued rather to endure slauery vnder them then by death to free himselfe from them And therein hee both preserued his paciencie vnder the Carthaginians and his constancy vnto the Romanes neither depriuing the enemy of his conquered body nor his countrymen of his vnconquered minde Neither was it the loue of this life that kept him from death This hee gaue good proofe of when without dread hee returned back vnto his foes to whō he had giuen worse cause of offence in the Senate-house with his tongue then euer he had done before in the battaile with his force therefore this so great a conqueror and contemner of this life who had rather that his foes should take it from him by any torments then that hee should giue death to himselfe howsoeuer must needes hold that it was a foule guilt for man to bee his owne murderer Rome amongst all her worthies and eternized spirits cannot shew one better then hee was for hee for all his great victories continued b most poore nor could mishap amate him for with a fixt resolue and an vndanted courage returned he vnto his deadliest enemies Now if those magnanimous and heroicall defenders of their earthly habitacles and those true and sound seruants of their indeede false gods who had power to cut downe their conquered foes by lawe of armes seeing themselues afterwardes to bee conquered of their foes neuerthelesse would not be their owne butchers but although they feared not death at al yet would rather endure to bee slaues to their foes superiority then to bee their owne executioners How much more then should the Christians that adore the true God and ayme wholie at the eternall dwellings restraine themselues from this foule wickednesse whensoeuer it pleaseth God to expose them for a time to taste of temporall extremities either for their triall or for correction sake seeing that hee neuer forsaketh them in their humiliation for whom hee being most high humbled himselfe so low e especially beeing that they are persons whom no lawes of armes or military power can allowe to destroy the conquered enemies L. VIVES IN a his flesh For hee was afflicted with a sore kinde of vlcere b Most poore Liuy in his eighteene booke and Valerius in his examples of pouerty write this When Attilius knew that his generallship was prolonged another yeare more hee wrote to the Senate to haue them send one to supply his place His chiefe reason why hee would resigne his charge was because his seauen acres of ground beeing all the land hee had was spoyled by the hired souldiers which if it continued so his wife and children could not haue whereon to liue So the Senate giuing the charge of this vnto the Aediles looked better euer after vnto Attilius his patrimony c Especialy being that they He makes fighting as far from Christian piety as religious humanity is from barbarous inhumanity That sinne is not to be auoided by sinne CHAP. 24. VVHat a pernicious error then is heere crept into the world that a man should kill himselfe because either his enemy had iniured him or means to iniure him whereas hee may not kill his enemy whether hee haue offended him or bee about to offend him This is rather to bee feared indeede that the bodie beeing subiect vnto the enemies lust with touch of some enticing delight do not allure the will to consent to this impurity And therefore say they it is not because of anothers guilt but for feare of ones owne that such men ought to kill themselues before sinne be committed vpon them Nay the minde that is more truly subiect vnto God and his wisdome then vnto carnall concupiscence will neuer be brought to yeeld vnto the lust of the owne flesh be it neuer so prouoked by the lust of anothers But if it be a damnable fact and a detestable wickednesse to kill ones selfe at all as the truth in plaine tearmes saith it is what man will bee so fond as to say let vs sinne now least we sinne hereafter let vs commit murder now least wee fall into adultery hereafter If wickednesse be so predominant in such an one as hee or shee will not chuse rather to suffer in innocence than to escape by guilt is it not better to aduenture on the vncertainety of the future adultery then the certainety of the present murder is it not better to commit such a sinne as repentance may purge then such an one as leaues no place at all for repentance This I speake for such as for auoyding of guilt not in others but in themselues and fearing to consent to the lust in themselues which anothers lust inciteth doe imagine that they ought rather to endure the violence of death But farre bee it from a Christian soule that trusteth in his God that hopeth in him and resteth on him farre bee it I say from such to yeeld vnto the delights of the flesh in any consent vnto vncleanesse But if that a concupiscentiall disobedience which dwelleth as yet in our b dying flesh doe stirre it selfe by the owne licence against the law of our will how can it bee but faltlesse in the body of him or her that neuer consenteth when it stirres without guilt in the body that sleepeth L. VIVES COncupiscentiall a Disobedience The lust of the bodie is mooued of it selfe euen against all resistance and contradiction of the will and then the will being ouercome by the flesh from hence ariseth shame as we will shew more at large hereafter b Dying flesh Our members being subiect vnto death doe die euery day and yet seeme to haue in them a life distinct from the life of the soule if then the lustfull motions that betide vs in sleepe bee faltlesse because the will doth not consent but nature effects them without it how much more faltlesse shall those bee wherein the will is so so farre from resting onely that it resists and striues against them Of some vnlawfull acts done by the Saints and by what occasion they were done CHAP. 25. BVt there were a some holy women say they in these times of persecution who flying from the spoylers of their chastities threw themselues head-long into a swift riuer which drowned them and so they died and yet their martirdomes are continually honored with religious memorialls in the Catholike Church Well of these I dare not iudge rashly in any thing
slept when the other waked these belong to those first markes and moments which they cannot comprehend who erect those figures of natiuity for the Astrologers to iudge vpon b one of them bound himselfe to serue for wages the other serued not at all the one was loued by his mother so was not the other the one lost his honor and inheritance a matter of great moment amongst them and the other obtained it And how great a diuersity was there in their mariages wiues children and goods exceeding much L. VIVES TWo a Twins borne Iacob and Esau of Isaac and Rebecca Gene. 25. 25. 26. b One of Iacob he serued Laban his father in law for Rachell he was dearely beloued of his mother Rebecca and got Esau his patrimony from him which was a thing in those daies of most honor and vse of all things besides How the Mathematicians may be conuicted of professing vanity CHAP. 5. VVHerefore if these things belong to those spaces of time that passe betwixt the births of twins and are not wrought vpon by the constellations why then are they presaged out of the Horoscopes of others But if they be presaged as pertinent vnto the larger spaces of time that fal vnder the notice of Artists not vnder these momentary minuits that are indistinguible then what vse is there of the potters whele but only to turne leaden heads about till they become braine-sicke and past discerning those Mathematicians vanities And those whose diseases so simpathizing in all circumstances made Hypocrates out of the rules of Phisike iudge them to be twines do not they sufficietnly put downe those that will needes make that proceed from the starres which ariseth out of the temperature of their bodies For why did they not sicken as they were borne one after an other for borne together they could not bee or if their different times of birth be no cause of different times of sicknesse why do they alledge it to be the cause of other accidents why should they trauell marry beget children and do such like at diuers times onely because they were borne at diuers times and yet not be sicke at diuers times by the same reason If their difference of birth changed their Horoscope and all other matters thereon depending why then did that equality remaine with the times of their sickenesse that remained in the time of their conception or if they say that the course of sickenesse onely followeth the conception and all the rest the natiuity then ought they not to prognosticate any thing concerning sicknesse at natiuities vnlesse they haue the houre of conception but if the Astrologian presage sicknesse without seeing the figure of the conception because the sayd presage is included in those interposed moments of the birth how would hee tell either of those twins when hee should bee sicke who hauing each a diuers Horoscope yet must neuerthelesse fall sicke both at one time Finally I aske againe if the intermission in the birth of two twinnes bee so much that it alters their whole fortunes because of their Horoscopes and in altering of the a foure angles wherein they put all the powre altereth also their whole destenies how can this come to passe when as the time of their conceptions was both at one instant Or if two that are both conceiued at one point of time may fortune to bee borne the one before the other why may not two that are borne both in one moment of time haue fortune to die the one before the other for if that one the same moment of their conception hindered not the succession of their birth why should the same moment that is one in both the birthes hinder the successiue time of their death If their conceptioÌ„ being in one minut permit theÌ„ to haue diuers fortunes in their mothers wombe why should not their natiuity being of the same state permit them to haue diuers fortunes while they liue vpon earth to take away all the fictions of this arte or rather vanity of theirs in this one question what is the cause that such as are conceiued both in one moment of time both vnder one constellation should neuerthelesse haue their destinies in their mothers wombe to bee borne at seuerall times and yet that two being borne of two mothers both in one moment of time cannot haue diuers destenies whereby the one may die before the other or out-liue the other did not their desteny enter vpon their conception or could they not haue it vnlesse they were first borne why is it said then that if the houre of conception bee knowne they can presage many things most oraculously And here vpon it is said of some that a certaine wise man did make choise of an houre of copulation with his wife whereby to beget a sonne whose after worth should be admired And lastly whereof commeth it that Posidonius the Astrologian gaue this reason for the two brethrens perticipated sickenesse that it was because they were borne and conceiued both togither he added Conceiued because it should not bee obiected to him that it was not certaine that such as were conceiued togither should bee borne both at the same instant and that hee might draw this mutuall affect of theirs not from their paritie of temperatures but from the powre of the starres But if there bee such a powre of equallizing the desteny of twinnes in their conception then verily the diuersity of time in their birth ought not to alter it If the destenies of twinnes bee changed by their seuerall times of birth why may we not rather conceiue that before their birth they were appointed by destenie to seueral births Shall not then the will of the man liuing change the Fate ofhis natiuity when as his order of birth doth change the fate of his conceptioÌ„ L. VIVES THe 4. a Angles Foure chiefe angles the Astrologers put in euery natiuity 1. the Horoscope the signe of the orient ascending 2. The opposite to which is the signe of the West falling diametrally distant from the Horoscope 180. degrees 3. Mid-heauen the point between the Horoscope and the west angle 4. the opposite mid-heauen vnder the earth The Greekes call these foure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there are foure other angles also in the 2. 6. 8. and 12. signe from the Horoscope the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The God the goddesse the good fortune the good Genius These angles are nothing but the signes of heauen which they consider in their iudgements counting the Horoscope first and the rest successâ—…ly The angle of the Horoscope concerneth the life the 2. money or hope the 3. brethren the 4. parents the 5. children the 6. health the 7. marriage the 8. death c. This Manilius lib. 2. relateth out of the fooleries of Maternus But wee haue angled long inough for any good we haue gotten forward Of twinnes of different sexes CHAP. 6. IT often falleth out notwithstanding that in these
Creator But the causes voluntary God Angels Men and diuers other creatures haue often in their wil and power i If we may call that power a will by which the brute beastes flye their owne hurt and desire their good by Natures instinct That there is a will in Angels I doe absolutely affirme be they good whom we call Gods Angells or euill whome we call the diuels Angels fiends or diuels them-selues So men good and bad haue all their wills and hereby it is apparant that the efficient causes of all effects are nothing but the decrees of that nature which is The spirit of life Aire or wind is called a Spirit But because it is a body it is not the spirit of life But the spirit of life that quickneth all things is the Creator of all bodies and all created spirits this is God a spirit from eternity vncreated in his wil there is that height of power which assisteth the wills of the good spirits iudgeth the bad disposeth of al giuing power to whom he pleaseth and holding it from whome he list For as he is a Creator of all natures so is hee of all powers but not the giuer of all wills for wicked wills are not of him beeing against that nature which is of him So the bodyes are all subiect vnto diuers wills some to our owne wills that is the wills rather of men then of beasts som to the Angels but all to the will of God vnto whom al wills are subiect because they haue no power but what hee giueth them The cause then that maketh all and is not made it selfe is God The other causes do both effect and are effected such are all created spirits chiefly the reasonable ones The corporal causes which are rather effects then otherwise are not to be counted as efficient causes because they came but to do that which the will of the spirit within them doth inioine thē how then can that set order of causes in Gods foreknowledge depriue our wils of power seeing they bear such a sway amongst the very causes them-selues But k let Cicero rangle his fellowes that say this order is fatall or rather fate it selfe which we abhor because of the word chieflly being vsed in a false beliefe but wheras he denieth that God knoweth assuredly the set order of those causes we detest his assertion worse then the Stoiks do for he either denieth God which he indeuoreth vnder a false person in his bookes De n◅t de Or if he do acknowledge him yet in denying him this fore-knowledge he saith but as the foole said in his heart There is no God for if God want the praescience of all future euents hee is not God And therefore l our wills are of as much power as God would haue them and knew before that they should be and the power that they haue is theirs free to do what they shall do truly and freely because he fore-knew that they should haue this power and do these acts whose fore-knowledge cannot be deceiued wherefore if I list to vse the m word fate in any thing I would rather say that it belonged to the weaker and that will belonged to the higher who hath the other in his power rather then grant that our liberty of will were taken away by that sette order which the Stoikes after a peculiar phraze of their owne call fate L. VIVES EIther a in God De diuinat lib 2. where in a disputation with his brother Quintus he indeauoureth to ouerthrow diuination for which Q. had stood in the booke before For he saith that There is nothing so contrary to reason and constancy as fortune is so that mee thinkes God him-selfe should haue no fore-knowledge of those casuall euents For if he haue it must come so to passe as he knoweth and then it is not casuall but casuall euents there are and therefore there is no fore-knowledge of them This in the said place and much more pertaining to the explaining of this chapter which it sufficeth vs to haue pointed out b A fate to the Stars They all doe so but some giue fate the originall from them excluding God c Lucilius Balbus In the end of the book thus he concludeth This said we departed Velleius holding Cotta's disputation for the truer and I being rather inclined to Balbus suit d Of him-selfe For in his 2. booke hee speaketh him-selfe and confuteth his brothers assertions for diuination e Stoikes Of this in the next chapter f Vnlesse fate Var. de Ling. lat l. 8. The destinies giue a fortune to the childe at the birth and this is called fate of fari to speake Lucan lib. 9. Non vocibus vllis Numen eget dixitquesem◅l nascentibus auctor Quicquid scire licet The Deities neuer need Much language fate but once no more doth read The fortune of each birth It seemes hee borrowed this out of the Psalme heere cited or out of Iob. chap. 33. v. 14. Hee hath spoke once and hath not repeated it againe Both which places demonstrat the constancy of Gods reuealed knowledge by that his once speaking as the common interpretation is the which followeth in the Psalme these two things c. some refer to them which followeth That power belongeth c. Others to the two testaments The Thargum of the Chaldees commeth neere this later opinion saying God hath spoken one law and wee haue heard it twise out of the mouth of Moyses the great scribe vertue is before our God and thou Lord that thou wouldst be bountifull vnto the iust g For Tullies In his booke de fato following Carneades he setteth down three kinds of causes naturall arising from nature as for a stone to fal downward for the fire to burne Voluntary consisting in the free wills of men wherein it is necessary there be no precedent causes but that they be left free and Casuall which are hidden and vnknown in diuers euents Herein he is of the N◅turalists opinion that will haue nothing come to passe without a cause h Naturall Fire hath no other cause of heate a stone of heauynesse a man of reason procreation of like c. then the will of natures Creator who had hee pleased might haue made the fire coole the stone mount vpwards the man a brute beast or dead or vnable to beget his like i If we may cal Arist de anima l. 3. Putteth will only in reasonable creatures and appetite being that instinct wherby they desire or refuse any thing in beastes Will in creatures of reason is led by reason and accompanied by election or rather is election it selfe k But Cicero With the Stoikes l Our wills are God created our wils free and that because it was his will so they may make choyce of contraries yet cannot go against Gods predestination not questionlesse euer would although they could for sure it is that much might bee done which neuer shal so
fact by the villens of his Court and amongst the rest the Christians whom Nero was assured should smart for all because they were of a new religion so they did indeede and were so extreamely tortured that their pangs drew teares from their seuerest spectators Seneca meane while begged leaue to retire into the contrie for his healths sake which not obtayning hee kept himselfe close in his chamber for diuers moneths Tacitus saith it was because hee would not pertake in the malice that Nero's sacriledge procured but I thinke rather it was for that hee could not endure to see those massacres of innocents b Manichees They reuiled the old Testament and the Iewes lawe August de Haeres ad Quodvultdeum Them scriptures they sayd GOD did not giue but one of the princes of darkenesse Against those Augustine wrote many bookes That it is plaine by this discouery of the Pagan gods vanity that they cannot giue eternall life hauing not power to helpe in the temporall CHAP. 12. NOw for the three Theologies mythycall physicall and politicall or fabulous naturall and ciuill That the life eternall is neither to be expected from the fabulous for that the Pagans themselues reiect and reprehend nor from the ciuill for that is prooued but a part of the other if this bee not sufficient to proue let that bee added which the fore-passed bookes containe chiefely the 4. concerning the giuer of happinesse for if Felicity were a goddesse to whom should one goe for eternall life but to her But being none but a gift of GOD to what god must we offer our selues but to the giuer of that felicity for that eternall and true happinesse which wee so intirely affect But let no man doubt that none of those filth-adored gods can giue it those that are more filthyly angry vnlesse that worship be giuen them in that manner and herein proouing themselues direct deuills what is sayd I thinke is sufficient to conuince this Now hee that cannot giue felicity how can he giue eternall life eternall life wee call endlesse felicity for if the soule liue eternally in paines as the deuills do that is rather eternall death For there is no death so sore nor sure as that which neuer endeth But the soule beeing of that immortall nature that it cannot but liue some way therefore the greatest death it can endure is the depriuation of it from glory and constitution in endlesse punishment So hee onely giueth eternall life that is endlessely happy that giueth true felicity Which since the politique gods cannot giue as is proued they are not to bee adored for their benefits of this life as wee shewed in our first fiue precedent bookes and much lesse for life eternall as this last booke of all by their owne helpes hath conuinced But if any man thinke because old customes keepe fast rootes that we haue not shewne cause sufficient for the reiecting of their politique Theology let him peruse the next booke which by the assistance of GOD I intend shall immediately follow this former Finis lib. 6. THE CONTENTS OF THE seauenth booke of the City of God 1. Whether diuinity be to be found in the select gods since it is not extant in the politique Theology chapter 1. 2. The selected gods and whither they be excepted from the baser gods functions 3. That these gods elections are without all reason since that baser gods haue nobler charges 4. That the meaner gods beeing buried in silence more better vsed then the select whose 〈◊〉 were so shamefully traduced 〈◊〉 Of the Pagans more abstruse Phisiologicall doctrine 6. Of â—…rro his opinion that GOD was the soule 〈◊〉 world and yet had many soules vnder 〈◊〉 on his parts al which were of the diuine nature 7. Whether it stand with reason that Ianus and Terminus should be two gods 8. 〈◊〉 the worshippers of Ianus made him two 〈◊〉 yet would haue him set forth with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…es power and Ianus his compared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…ther Ianus and Ioue bee rightly diâ—… 〈◊〉 or no. 〈◊〉 Of Ioues surnames referred all vnto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God not as to many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iupiter is called Pecunia also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the interpretation of Saturne and 〈◊〉 â—…roue them both to be Iupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the functions of Mars and Mercury 〈◊〉 Of certaine starres that the Pagans call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of Apollo Diana and other select gods 〈◊〉 â—…ts of the world 〈◊〉 That Varro himselfe held his opinions of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be ambiguous 18. The likeliest cause of the propagation of Paganisme 19. The interpretations of the worship of Saturne 20. Of the sacrifices of Ceres Elusyna 21. Of the obscaenity of Bacchus sacrifice 22. Of Neptune Salacia and Venillia 23. Of the earth held by Varro to be a goddesse because the worlds soule his God doth penetrate his lowest part and communicateth his essence there-with 24. Of Earths surnames and significations which though they arose of diuers originalls yet should they not be accounted diuers gods 25. What exposition the Greeke wise-men giue of the gelding of Atys 26. Of the filthinesse of this great Mothers sacrifice 27. Of the Naturallists figments that neither adore the true Diety nor vse the adoration thereto belonging 28. That Varro's doctrine of Theology hangeth no way togither 29. That all that the Naturalists refer to the worlds parts should be referred to GOD. 30. The means to discerne the Creator from the Creatures and to auoide the worshipping of so many gods for one because their are so many powers in one 31. The peculiar benefits besides his common bounty that GOD bestoweth vpon his seruants 32. That the mistery of our redemption by Christ was not obscure in the precedent times but continually intimated in diuers significations 33. That Christianity onely is of power to lay open the diuills subtilly and delight in illuding of ignorant men 34. Of Numa his bookes which the Senate for keeping their misteries in secret did command should be burned 35. Of Hydromancy whereby Numa was mocked with apparitions FINIS THE SEVENTH BOOKE OF THE CITTIE OF GOD Written by Saint Augustine Bishop of Hippo vnto Marcellinus Whether diuinity be to be found in the select Gods since it is not extant in the Politique Theologie CHAP. 1. VVHereas I employ my most diligent endeauor about the extirpation of inueterate and depraued opinions which the continuance of error hath deeply rooted in the hearts of mortall men and whereas I worke by that grace of GOD who as the true GOD is able to bring this worke to effect according to my poore talent The quicke and apprehensiue spirits that haue drawne full satisfaction from the workes precedent must beare my proceedings with pardon and pacience and not thinke my subsequent discourse to bee superfluous vnto others because it is needlesse vnto them The affirmation that diuinity is not to bee sought for terrestriall vies though thence wee must desire all earthly supplies that we neede but for the celestiall glory which is neuer not eternall
Terminus is already heard But the causes that Ioue swayeth are not effects but efficients nor can the facts begun or ended be before them for the agent is alwayes before the acte Wherefore let Ianus haue sway in beginnings of acts Ioue yet hath dominion in things before his For nothing is either ended or begun without a precedent efficient cause Now as for this great natures maister and cause-disposing God if the vulgar call him Ioue and adore him with such horrible imputations of villanie as they doe they had better and with lesse sacriledge beleeue no God at all They had better call any one Ioue that were worthy of these horred and hatefull horrors or set a stocke before them and call it Ioue with intent to blaspheme him as Saturne had a stone laide him to deuoure in his sonnes stead then to call him both thunderer and letcher the worlds ruler and the womens rauisher the giuer of all good causes to nature and the receiuer of all bad in himselfe Againe if Iaâ—…s bee the world I aske where Ioues seate is is our author hath said that the true Gods are but parts of the worlds soule and the soule it selfe well then hee that is not such is no true God How then Is Ioue the worlds soule and Ianus the body this visible world If it be so Ianus is no god for the worlds body is none but the soule and his parts onely witnesse them-selues So Varro saith plainly hee holds that God is the worlds soule and this soule is god But as a wise man hath body and soule and yet his name of â—…ise is onely in respect of his soule So the world hath soule and body yet is called God onely in reference to the soule So then the worlds body alone is no god but the soule either seperate or combined with the body yet so that the god-head rest onely in it selfe if Iâ—… then be the world and a god how can Ioue be a part of Ianus onely and yet so great a god for they giue more to Ioue then Ianus Iouis omnia plena all is full of Ioâ—…e say they Therefore if Ioue be a god the king of gods they cannot make any but him to bee the world because hee must reigne ouer the rest as ouer his owne parts To this purpose Varro in his booke of the worship of the gods which he published seuerall from these other set downe a distich of Valerius c Sorâ—…nus his making it is this Iupiter omnipotens regum rex ipse deusque Progenitor genitrixque deum deus vâ—…us omnis High Ioue Kings King and Parent Generall To all the gods God onely and God all These verses Varro expâ—…undeth and calling the giuer of seed the male and the receiuer the female accounted Ioue the world that both giueth all seed it selfe and receiueth it into it selfe And therefore Soranus saith hee called Ioue Progenitor genitrixque father and mother Full Parent generall to all c. and by the same reason is it that he was called one and the same all for the f world is one and all things are in that one L. VIVES IOue a or Iupiter For they are both declinable nominatiues Genetiuo Iouis and Iupâ—…ris though wee vse the nominatiue onely of the later and the other cases of the first as the Greekes doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Uirgils Georgic 2. calling the inuestigators of causes happy as the Philosophers did of the Peripatetiques and Academikes Arist. Ethic. 10. Cicero de finib 5. c Soranus Mentioned by Cicero de Oratore 1. Plin. lib. 3. Solin Polihist Plut. Probl. Macrob. Saturn Seru. in Georg. 1. Hee was a learned Latine counted the best scholler of the Gowned professors Cic. de orat 1. Varro was so held also but Soranus before him as Ennius the best Poet before Uirgill Hee had honors at Rome and the tribuneship for one and because hee spoake the secret name of Rome which no man might vtter hee lost his life Pliâ—… Solin Macrob. and Plutarch though in Pompeyes life Plutarch saith that Q. Valeriâ—… the Philosopher which most vnderstood to be Soranus was put to death by Pompey But this is but at the second hand saith he from Oppius let vs beware how wee trust a friend to Caesar in a storiâ—… of Pompey Some say hee died suddenly Others that hee was crucified Seru. d Iupiter The old copies read Iupiter omnipotens regum rerumque deumque for the first verse e Gâ—…uer of seede Orph. Hymn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. God as a man begets as woman breedes f World is So held all the best Philosophers against Anaximander Anaximenes Aristarchus Xenophanâ—…s Diogenes Leucippus Democritus and Epicurus all which held many worlds Whether Ianus and Ioue be rightly distinguished or no. CHAP. 10. WHerefore Ianus being the world and Ioue the world also and yet the world but one why then are not Ianus and Ioue one Why haue the seuerall Temples seuerall altars rites and statues all seuerall Because the originall is one thing and the cause another and therefore their names and natures are distinct herein Why how can this bee If one man haue two authorities or two sciences because they are distinct is he therefore two officers or two tradesmen So then if one GOD haue two powers ouer causes and ouer originalls must hee needs therefore be two Gods because they are two things If this may bee faith then let Ioue be as many gods as he hath surnames for his seuerall authorities for all his powers whence they are deriued are truly distinct let vs looke in a few of them and see if this be not true Of Ioues surnames referred all vnto him as one god not as to many CHAP. 11. THey called him a Victor Inâ—…incible Helper Impulsor Stator b Hundred footeâ—… the Râ—…fter c the Nourisher Ruminus and inunmerable other names too long d to rehearse All the names they gaue one God for diuers respect and powers yet did they not make him a god for each peculiar because he conquered was vnconquered helped the needy had power to inforce to stay to establish to ouerturne because he bore vp the world like a e rafter because he nourished all and as it were gaue all the world suck Marke these powers conferred with the epithites Some are of worth some idle yet one gods worke they are f all as they say I thinke there is more neerenesse of nature betweene the causes and the beginnings of things for which they make one world two gods Ianus and Ioue who they say both contayneth all and yet giueth creatures sucke yet for these two works of such different qualities is not Ioue compelled to become two gods but playeth the one part as he is Tigillus The Rafter and the other as he in Ruminus the Dugg-bearer I will not say that it were fitter for Iuno to suckle the words creatures then Iupiter especially hauing power to make a
be other beginnings found eyther knowne to God or his fâ—…es saith Apulcius out of Plato e Which conteyneth This is Plato's opinion related by Augustine not his owne This I adde because our truth-hunter sets it as Augustines and then comes in with his realityes and formalities such as Augustine neuer dreamed of For Plato saith God is the mindes light like as the sunne wee see is the light of the body whereby we see So is God the cause of our vnderstanding whose sacred light infuseth things and the knowledge of truth into vs. De Rep. 6. The sunne is the light of the world visible and God of the inuisible Nazanz f He did with most Plato Xenophon Aeschines Xenocrates and other reduced Socrates his wordes into Dialogues wherein hee most elegantly reprehendeth their ignorance that perswaded both them-selues and the multitude that they knew all things Such were Protogoras Gorgias Euthydemus Dionysodorus and others g Wher-vpon His disputation saith Plato ouerthrew him Three saith Laertius accused him Anytus Melitus Lycon an Orator in Anytus his defence of the trades-mens tumultuous crew and the other Cittizens whome Socrates had often derided Melitus defended the Poets whom Socrates would haue expelled the Citty Of these thinges read Plato and Xenophon in their Apologies for Socrates But the playnest of all is Laertius in his life of Socartes He was condemned by two hundred eighty one sentences h Callumnious My accusers saith Socrates nor my crymes can kill me but enuy onely which both hath destroyed and will destroy the worthyest euer i Yet did Athens They did so greeue for his death that they shut vp all the schooles and made a sad vacation all ouer the Citty put Melitus to death banished Anitus and erected Socrates a brazen statue of Lysippus his workemanship k Many All the sects almost deriued from Socrates the Platonists Academikes Cyrenaikes Cynikes Peripatetiques Megarians and Stoikes t Study and emulation This onely question made all the sects m Which being not For his disputations rather were confutations of others then doctrines of his owne For professing himselfe to know nothing hee thought it vnfit to affirme any thing Plato's Thaeatetus n The finall good To which all things haue reference Cic. de finib For this saith hee lib. 3. beeing the vtmost you knowe I interprete the greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Wee may call it the last or the end for which all thinges are desired and it selfe onely for it selfe as Plato Aristotle and the rest affirme o Aristippus A Cyrenian the first Socratist that taught for money as hee would haue also paid for his learning But Socrates neuer tooke pay saying his Genius forbad him Hee suffered also Dionysius of Syracusa the younger to deride him and flattered him for gayne Hee made bodily pleasure the greatest good Diog. Laert. Of them the Cyrenaikes Phylosophers had their originall An end of this with a briefe note out of Hierome vppon Ecclesiastes speaking of pleasure Let this quoth he Be affirmed by some Epicurus or Aristippus or the Cynikes or such Phylosophicall cattell it must bee the Cyrenaikes for what had the Cynikes to doe with bodily pleasures p Antisthenes The author of the Cynikes or Dogsect maister to Diogines of Synope the Cynike hee held vertue the greatest good q Each of The diuersity of opinions herein you may read in Cicero his 2. de finibus And wee haue toucht them briefely in the preface to his worke de legibus Of Plato the cheefe of Socrates his schollers who diuided Phylosophy into three kindes CHAP. 4. BVt of all Socrates his schollers there was one whose glory worthily obscured all the rest Plato a Hee was an Athenian borne of honest parentage and endowed with perfection of vnderstanding farre more then all his fellowes So hee thinking that his inuention and b Socrates his instructions were all too short of the true ayme of Phylosophy and therefore would needes goe trauell to any place where Fame tolde him he might drinke of the fount of noble sapience So went hee into c Aegipt and there learnt all that hee held worth learning and from thence into d Italy where the Pythagoreans were famous and there didde he drayne from the most eminent teachers all the Phylosophy of Italy And because hee dearely affected his maister Socratâ—…s hee maketh him in all his Dialogues to temperate that which a either he had learned of others or inuented of him-selfe with his delicate vrbanity and motality So whereas the study of f wisedome is eyther concerning action or contemplation and thence assumeth two seuerall names actiue and contemplatiue the actiue consisting in the practise of morality in ones life and the contemplatiue in penetrating into the abstruse causes of nature and the nature of Diuinity g Socrates is said to excell in the actiue Pythagoras in the contemplatiue But Plato conioyned them into one perfect kinde which h hee subdiuided into three sorts The Morall consisting chiefly in action The Naturall in contemplation The Rationall in i distinction of true and false k which though it bee vsefull in both the other yet it pertaineth more particularly to contemplation And therefore this Trichotomy or triple diuision doth not contradict the other Dichotomy that includeth all in action and contemplation But as for Plato's opinion herein what should be the end of all actions the cause of all natures and the light of all reasons is both tedious to follow and may not bee rashly affirmed For l delighting in his maister Socrates his dissembling of his knowledge whome hee maketh disputant in all his dialogues and affecting that he left his owne opinions in these great questions as ambiguous very neare as his maisters yet do we intend out of his owne discourses and his relations m from others to repeat some of his positions eyther such as do square with truth of that religion which our faith professeth and defendeth or such as oppose it as farre as shall concerne the singularity or multititude of goddes whome the Catholike religion sayth we must worship for the obtayning of eternall felicity in the life to come For it may be that such as knew Plato to excell al the other Phlosophers of al nations and vnderstood him far bettter then others do think that in God is the cause of natures the light of reason and the rule of life which haue reference to the three Phylosophies Naturall Rationall and Morall n For if a man were created by his excelling part to aspire to that which excelleth all that is the One True almighty God without whome nothing hath being no reason instructeth and no vse assisteth o then let him be searched out in whom we haue all security let him be beheld in whom is al our certainty let him bee beloued in whome is all our morality L. VIVES PLato a His parents were Aristo and Perictione Hee came from Codrus by the father the last King of Athens by the mother
is truly happy mary there is great hope of partaking it in the life to come when wee are freed from the bodies bounds the sole impediment of the soules perfection But when we die so we die pure then in the sight of that it that truly existent truth God we shall inioy the height of our desires that is truth and vniuersall knowledge Wherefore as the eye wanting the light is vselesse and setteth the owner sadly affected in darkenes and perpetually sorrowfull but when the Sun the light comes it riseth with vigor to the function and vseth the office with cheerefulnesse and alacrity so our intellect beeing vngiued from the body if it want the light of Gods truth it must needes lament and languish but if it haue it it exulteth and ioyfully vseth that light which presents the formes of all the creation Whence it commeth that in our pleasures and felicities wherein we fulfill our affections and as it were inioy our selues we dâ—…ot reape that delectable comfort that we draw from the internall contemplation of that eternall good and from that attayning the pure light of so perfect a wisedome So that the soule that is absolutely blessed inioyeth not God in his beauty and loue which concerne pleasure an act of the will but in his truth which is an act of the intellect though then followeth his beauty and his loue intirely delectable nor can these be seperated For none knowes God but admireth him none admireth him but ioines loue to his admiration and delighteth in them all Thus much out of Plato in diuers places of his Respub leges Phadon and Philaebus who still preferreth the inquiry and contemplation of truth and that to men of pure life exhorting and exciting all there-vnto And this all the Academicks and Peripatetiques professe after him as Tully teacheth De finib lib. 5. Of that Phylosophy that commeth nearest to Christianity CHAP. 9. LEt it suffice now to remember that Plato a did determine that the end of al good was the attayning a vertuous life which none could but hee that knew and followed God nor is any man happy by any other meanes And therefore he affirmeth that to be a Philosopher is to loue God whose nature is incorporeal And consequently that wisedomes student the Phylosopher is then blessed when hee inioyeth God For though the inioying of each thing a man loueth doth not forth-with make him happy for many by placing their loue on hateful obiects are wretched and more wretched in inioying them yet is no man happy that inioyeth not that he loueth For b euen those that loue what they should not thinke not them-selues happy in louing but in inioying But he that inioyes what he loues and loues the true and greatest good Who but a wretch will deny him to bee happy This true and greatest good is GOD saith Plato and therefore hee will haue a Phylosopher a louer of GOD that because Phylosophy aimes at beatitude the louer of God might bee blessed by inioying GOD. Wherfore what euer Phylosophers they were that held this of the high and true 〈◊〉 that he was the worlds Creator the light of vnderstanding and the good of all action that he is the beginning of nature the truth of doctrine and the happineâ—… life whether they be called Platonists as fittest or by any other sect c â—…er the Ionian teacher held as this Plato did and vnderstood him well Or thâ—…e Italians held it from Pythagoras his followers or any other of the same â—…ine of what nation so euer they were and were counted Phylosophers d â—…tes Lybians e Egiptians f Indians g Persians h Chaldees i Scythiâ—… Galles l Spaniards or others that obserued and taught this doctrine tâ—… wee preferre before all others and confesse their propinquity with our â—…e For though a Christian vsed onely to the Scriptures neuer heard of 〈◊〉 â—…nists nor knoweth whether Greece held two sects of Phylosophers the 〈◊〉 and the Italian yet is hee not so ignorant in humanity but hee knowes 〈◊〉 Phylosophers professe either the study of wisedome or wisedome 〈◊〉 But lette him beware of those that dispute m of the Elements of this 〈◊〉 â—…ely and reach not vp to God that made them Elements The Apostle 〈◊〉 good warning of this Beware saith hee least any deceiue you by Philosophy 〈◊〉 deceipt according to the worlds Elements But least you should thinke 〈◊〉 held all Phylosophers to bee such hee saith else-where n For that 〈◊〉 â—…ich is knowne of God is manifest in them for God hath shewed it vnto 〈◊〉 For his invisible powers from the beginning of the world are manifested by 〈◊〉 and so is his p eternall vertue And hauing spoken a great matter conâ—… God vnto the Athenians which few of them vnderstood q In him we liue 〈◊〉 and haue our beeing he added as some also of your writers haue said Hee 〈◊〉 to beware of their errors For hee said that GOD had by his workes 〈◊〉 his invisible power to their vnderstanding there also hee said that they 〈◊〉 worship him aright but gaue the diuine honours with were his pecuriarly 〈◊〉 â—…her thinges theÌ„ was lawful because that when they knew God they glorified him 〈◊〉 â—…d neither were thankefull but became vaine in their owne imaginations O 〈◊〉 â—…sh heart was full of darkenesse For professing them-selues wise they prooued 〈◊〉 â—…d turned the glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of the Image of 〈◊〉 â—…ible man and of birds and beasts and serpents r In this place the Romains 〈◊〉 â—…ns Egiptians and all that gloryed in their wisedome are iustly taxed But 〈◊〉 â—…d we will argue this hereafter as for those things wherin we and they conâ—… of one God the Creator of this vniuerse who is not only incorporeall 〈◊〉 all bodies but also incorruptible aboue all spirits our beginning our light 〈◊〉 goodnesse in these we preferre them before all others L. VIVES 〈◊〉 did determine That venerable and holy-teaching Plato surmounting all Phyloâ—…â—…rs in almost all other matters in defining mans greatest good out-stript â—…m-selfe in his first booke De Legib. Hee deuides good into diuine and humaine 〈◊〉 is quite seperate from vertue the first conioyned therewith Socrates in Gorâ—…â—…es â—…es that beatitude consisteth in learning and vertue calling onely the good happy 〈◊〉 wretched And in Menexenus in sixe hundred places and so all Plato through 〈◊〉 onely honest and beauteous As for other goddes without vertue they are the deâ—… of him that possesseth them But these are but Plato's common sayings in these 〈◊〉 â—…th with his fellowes But when he list he riseth in spirit and leaues all to other 〈◊〉 of wisedome beneath him His Philebus is a dialogue of the greatest good or as some intitle it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of pleasure Therein hee maketh sixe rankes of goods in the second standes the thinges proportionate faire perfect sufficient and such like In the third vnderstanding and sapience In the
then aâ—…reall on earth they feed rest breed and flye as neare it as may bee and when they are weary earth is their port of retirement This from an imperfect coppy of Apuleius yet Augustines reason of the place must stand for though the spirits bee aboue the birds yet the birds are â—…ill aboue vs but I meane not heare to play the disputant What Apuleius the Platonist held concerning the qualities of those ayrie spirits CHAP. 16. THis same Platonist speaking of their qualities saith that they are as men subiect to passions of anger delight glory vnconstancie in their ceremonies and furie vpon neglect Besides to them belong diuinations dreames auguries prophesies and all â—…gicians miraculous workes Briefly he defineth them things created passiue reasoâ—…le â—…reall eternall In the three first they perticipate with vs in the fourth with â—…ne in the fift with the gods and two of the first the gods share with them also 〈◊〉 the a gods saith hee are creatures and giuing each element to his proâ—…habitants hee giues earth to men and the other creatures water to the 〈◊〉 c. aire to these spirits and Aether to the gods Now in that the spirits are creâ—…res they communicate both with men and beasts in reason with gods and â—…in eternity with gods onely in passion with men onely in ayrie essence with 〈◊〉 So that they are creatures is nothing for so are beasts in that they are reasoâ—…able so are we equally in that they are eternall what is that without felicity b Temporall happinesse excells eternall miserie In that they are passiue what geâ—… by that so are we and were we not wretched wee should not bee so in tâ—…â—…ir bodies are ayrie what of that seeing a soule of any nature is preferrâ—… 〈◊〉 a body of what perfection so euer And therefore the honor giuen by tâ—…â—…le is not due to the soules inferiour But if that amongst these spirits qualitiâ—… 〈◊〉 had reckoned wisdome vertue and felicitie and haue made them communâ—… these with the gods then had he spoake some-what worth noting yet oâ—… we not to worship them as God for these ends but rather we should know him of whom they had these good gifts But as they are how farre are they from woâ—…h of worship being reasonable to be wretched passiue to be wretched eternall 〈◊〉 euer wretched wherefore to leaue all and insist on this onely which I said 〈◊〉 spirits shared with vs that is passion if euery element haue his creaâ—… and ayre immortalls earth and water mortalls why are these spirits 〈◊〉 â—…o perturbations to that which the Greekes call c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence our 〈◊〉 passion deriueth word d of word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and passion being e a motion of 〈◊〉 â—…e against reason Why are these in these spirits that are not in beasts 〈◊〉 apparance of such in beasts is f no perturbation because it is not against 〈◊〉 which the beast wanteth And that it is a perturbation in men g their â—…esse or their h wretchednesse is cause For we cannot haue that perfecâ—… wisdom in this life that is promised vs after our acquittance from mortalâ—… 〈◊〉 the gods they say cannot suffer those perturbations because that their 〈◊〉 is conioyned wiâ—…h felicity and this they affirme the reasonable soule 〈◊〉 absolutely pure enioyeth also So then if the gods be free from passion beâ—… they are i creatures blessed and not wretched and the beasts because â—…e creatures neither capable of blessednesse nor wretchednesse it romaiâ—…â—…t these spirits be perturbed like men onely because they are creatures not â—…d but wretched L. VIVES THâ—… a Gods Plato also in his Timaeus saith that they are inuisible creatures Apuleius de deo Sâ—…cr makes some vncorporall Daemones viz. Loue Sleep b Temporal It is said that Chyron 〈◊〉 sonne refused immortality that Vlysses chose rather to liue and die at home with his â—…er and friends then to liue immortal amongst the goddesses Plato saith it is better to liue a 〈◊〉 little while then to be eternally possest of all bodily pleasures without iustice the other 〈◊〉 de legib the Philosophers haue a saying it is better to be then not to be of that hereafter 〈◊〉 So Tull. Tus. qu. translateth it Quintil. l. 6. termeth it affects holds yâ— most proper 〈◊〉 â—…ly of their ancients vseth passion for it but I make doubt that the copy is faulty li. 20. 〈◊〉 â—…ds are It helpeth the passions of the belly being 〈◊〉 thervpoÌ„ d Word of word as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 passio of pâ—…tior to suffer e A motion Tully hath it from Zâ—…no f No perturbation Tully Tusc. quaest The affections of the body may be inculpable but not the mindes all which arise out of the neglect of reason and therefore are existent onely in men for that which wee see by accident in beasts is no perturbation g Their foolishnesse For wee are ouer-borne with false opinions and our selues rather worke our affects then receiue them ab extra and as Sâ—…a saith we are euer worse afraide then hurt The Stoikes held all perturbations to haue their source from deprauation of opinion For desire is an opinion of a future good and feare an opinion of future euill sorrow of present euill ioy of present good all which we measuring by the fondnesse of our thoughts and not by the nature of things thence it comes that wee are rapt with so many violent thoughts h Their wretchednesse This is mans miserie that the very wisest is subiect to sorrow ioy and other affects doe he what he can i Creatures Socrates durst not confesse that these spirits were bad or wretched but hee boldly affirmes they are neither good nor happy Plato Conuiuio Whether it becomes a man to worship those spirits from whose guilt he should be pure CHAP. 17. WHat fondnesse then nay what madnesse subiects vs vnto that religion of deuills when as by the truth of religion we should be saued from participation of their vices for they are mooued with wrath as Apuleius for all his adoring and sparing them affirmes but true religion biddeth vs not to yeeld to wrath but rather a resist it b They are wonne with guifts wee are forbidden to take bribes of any They loue honors we are c prohibited all honors affectation They are haters of some louers of some as their affects transport them truth teacheth vs to loue all euen d our very enemies Briefly all the intemperance of minde e passions and perturbations which the truth affirmes of them it forbiddeth vs. What cause is then but thine owne lamentable error for thee to humble thy selfe to them in worship whom thou seekest to oppose in vprightnesse of conuersation and to adore those thou hatest to imitate when as all religion teacheth vs to imitate those we adore L. VIVES RAther a resist Christ in Mathewes Gospels vtterly forbids anger Abbot Agatho said that an angry
seuerall kindes of Daemones CHAP. 11. TRuly Porphyry shewed more witte in his Epistle to a Anebuns of Egipt where betweene learning and instructing hee both opens and subuertes all these sacriledges Therein hee reprooueth all the Daemones that because of their foolishnesse doe draw as hee sayth the b humid vapours vppe vnto them and therefore are not in the skie but in the ayre vnder the Moone and in the Moones bodie Yet dares hee not ascribe all the vanities to all the deuills that stucke in his minde For some of them hee as others doe calls good whereas before hee had called them all fooles And much is his wonder why the gods should loue sacrifices and bee compelled to grant mens sutes And if the gods and Daemones bee distinguished by corporall and vncorporall why should the Sunne Moone and other Starres visible in Heauen whom hee auoutcheth to bee bodies bee called gods and if they bee gods how can some bee good and some euill Or beeing bodies how can they bee ioyned with the gods that haue no bodies Furthermore hee maketh doubts whether the soule of a diuiâ—…r or a worker of strange things or an externall spirit cause the effect But hee coniectureth on the spirites side the rather of the two because that they may bee bound or loosed by c hearbes and stones in this or that strange operation And some therefore hee saith doe d hold a kinde of spirits that properly heare vs of a suttle nature and a changeable forme counterfeyting both gods Daemones and dead soules and those are agents in all good or badde effects But they neuer further man in good action as not knowing them but they doe entangle and hinder the progresse of vertue by all meanes they are rash and proud louers of fumigations taken easily by flattery and so forth of those spirits that come externally into the soule and delude mans sences sleeping and waking yet all this hee doth not affirme but coniectures or doubts or saith that others affirme for it was hard for so great a Philosopher to know all the deuills vilenesse fully and to accuse it freely which knowledge no Christian Idiot euer seeketh but fully detesteth Perhaps hee was afraide to offend Anebuns to whome hee wrote as a greâ—… Priest of such Sacrifices and the other e admirers of those things as appurtenances of the diuine honors Yet maketh hee as it were an inquisitiue proceeding in those things which beeing well pondered will prooue attributes to none but malignant spirits Hee asketh f why the best gods beeing inuoâ—…ed are commanded as the worst to fullfill mens pleasures and why they will not heare ones praiers that is stayned with venery when as they haue such 〈◊〉 contracts amongst themselues as examples to others Why they forbidde their priests the vse of liuing creatures least they should bee polluted by their smells when as they are inuoked and inuited with continuall fuffumigations and smells of sacrifices And the sooth-saver g is forbidden to touch the carcasse when as their religion lies wholy vpon carcasses Why the charmer threatneth not the gods or Daemorâ—…s or dead mens soules but h the Sunne or the Moone or such celestiall bodies fetching the truth out by this so false a terour They will threaten to knocke downe the skie and such impossibilities that the gods beeing like foolish babes afraide of this ridiculous terrour may doe as they are charged Hee sayth farther that one Chaeremon one of the sacred or rather sacrilegious priests hath written that that same Egiptian report of i Isis or her husband Osyris is most powerfull in compelling of the gods to doe mens pleasures when the inuoker threatens to reueale them or to cast abroad the members of Osyris if hee doe not dispatch it quickly That these idle fond threates of man yea vnto the gods and heauenly bodies the Sunne the Moone c. should haue that violent effect to force them to performe what men desire Porphyry doth iustly wonder at nay rather vnder colour of one admiring and inquiring hee sheweth these to bee the actions of those â—…its whome hee described vnder shadowe of relating others opinions to bee such deceitfull counterfeiters of the other gods mary they are deuills themselues without dissembling As for the Herbes Stones Creatures Sounds Wordes Characters and k constellations vsed in drawing the powers of those effects all these hee ascribes to the deuills delight in deluding and abusing the soules that serue and obserue them So that Porphyry either in a true doubt describeth such of those actes as can haue no reference to those powers by which wee must ayme at eternity but conuince them selues the false deuills peculiars or els hee desireth by his humility in inquiring not by his contentious opposing to drawe this Anebuns that was a great Priest in those ceremonies and thought hee knewe much vnto a due speculation of these things and to detect their detestable absurdity vnto him Finally in the end of his Epistle hee desireth to bee informed what doctrine of beatitude the Egiptians held But yet hee affirmes that such as conuerse with the gods and trouble the deity about fetching againe of theeues buying of landes marriages bargaines or such like seeme all in a wrong way to wisdome And the gods they vse herein though they tell them true yet teaching them nothing concerning beatitude are neither gods nor good Daemones but either the false ones or all is but a figment of man But because these artes effect many things beyond all humaine capacity what remaineth but firmely to beleeue and credibly to affirme that such wonders in worde or deedes as haue no reference to the confirmation of their worship of that one God to whom to adhere as the Platonists affirme is the onely beatitude are onely seducements of the deceiptfull fiendes to hinder mans progresse to vertue and soly to bee auoided and discouered by true zeale and piety L. VIVES TO a Anebuns Or Anebon b Humid vapors Hee saith they loue fumes and smells of flesh which fatten their spirituall bodies which liue vpon vapors and fumigations and 〈◊〉 diuersly strengthed by their diueâ—…sity Iamblichus the truer Daemonist seeing him put 〈◊〉 as an expression of the deuills nature denies it all For Porphyry directly affirmed that all such spirits as delighted in slaughtered offrings were euill Daemones and liers and consequently 〈◊〉 were all his gods to whom he diuideth sacrifices in his Responsa mentioned in our Coâ—… vpon the ninth chapter of this booke Thus was he tost betweene truth and inueterate 〈◊〉 daring neiâ—…her affirme them al good nor al euill for feare of his schollers his disciplines authority and the deuill himselfe c Herbes Porphyry maruells that men haue the gods so obsqous as to giue presages in a little meale This admiration and question Iamblichus as hee vseth answers with a goodly front of words which any one may reade but neither the Egiptians nor he himselfe can probably declare what they meane The gods
through the world how farre more honestly might we beleeue that the soules returne but once into their own bodies rather then so often into others But as I said Porphiry reclaimed this opinion much in subuerting those bestial transmigrations and restraining them only to humaine bodies He saith also that God gaue the world a soule that it learning the badnesse of the corporall substance by inhabiting it might returne to the father and desire no more to be ioyned to such contagion Wherin though he erre something for the soule is rather giuen to the body to do good by nor should it learne any euill but that it doth euil yet herein he exceeds corrects all the Platonists in houlding that the soule being once purified and placed with the father shal neuer more suffer worldly inconuenience Wher he ouerthrowes one great Platonisme viz. that the dead are continually made of the liuing the liuing of the dead prouing that c Platonical position of Virgill false wher hee saith that the soules being purified sent vnto th' Elisian fields vnder which fabulous name they figured the ioyes of the blessed were brought to drinke of the riuer Lethe that is to forget things past Scilicet immemores supera vt conuexa reuisent Rursus incipiant in corpora velle reuerti The thought of heauen is quite out of the brayne Now gin the wish to liue on earth againe Porphiry iustly disliked this because it were foolish to beleeue that men being in that life which the onely assurance of eternity maketh most happy should desire to see the corrupton of mortality as if the end of purification were still to returne to nâ—…w pollution for if their perfect purification require a forgetfulnesse of all euills and that forgetfulnesse produce a desire in them to be imbodied againe and consequently to bee againe corrupted Truely the height of happyinesse shall be the cause of the greatest vnhappynesse the perfection of wisdome the cause of fooâ—…nesse and the fullnesse of purity mother vnto impurity Nor can the â—…oule eâ—…r be blessed being still deceiued in the blessednesse to be blessed it must be seâ—…e to be secure it must beleeue it shal be euer blessed and that falsely because it must sometimes be wretched wherefore if this ioy must needs rise of a false cause how can it be truely ioyfull This Prophiry saw well and therefore held that the soules once fully purified returned immediatly to the Father least it should bee any more polluted with the contagion of earthly and corruptible affects L. VIVES SVâ—… a it is Plato Pythagorizing held that the soules after death passed into other boâ—… â—…n his Timaeus anâ—… his last de Repub. and in his Phaedrus also in which last hee proâ—…ds the necessity of the Adrastian law commanding euery soule that hath had any true spâ—…lation of God to passe straight to the superior circle without impediment and if it perseuer there then is it to become blessed eternally continuing the former course but if it â—…ge that and fall vnder the touch of punishment then must it returne to a body And if it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 come to those aforesaid degrees then the knowledge maketh it a Philosopher the next degree vnder it a King Emperour or valiant man the third a magistrate or the father of a 〈◊〉 the fourth a Phisitian or chirurgian the fift a Priest or a Prophet the sixth a poet the â—…nth a tradesman or an husband man the eight a Sophister or guilder the ninth a tyâ—… Thus do soules passe vnto life and passing that well are exalted if not depressed for it is 10000. yeares ere the soule returne to his first state no soule recouereth his broken wings beâ—… that time but hee that hath beene a true Philosopher for he that passeth three courses so shall bee reinstalled at 3000. yeares end for the rest some of them shall bee bound vnder the earth in paines and others inuested with blisse in heauen at the prefixed time of iudgmâ—… but all shall returne to life after a 1000. yeares and each one shall haue his choice so that some that were men before become beasts and some that were beasts before men if so bee that they were euer men before for that soule that neuer looked vpon truth shall neuer haue 〈◊〉 forme This is Platonisme Now Plato speaking of these choices in his last de repub saith that their election still flolloweth the fashions of their former liues So that Orpheus his soule chose a swan to liue in nor would become a woman for his hate of them Thamiris soule went 〈◊〉 a nightingale and a swans soule went into a man Aiax into a lion Agamemnon into 〈◊〉 â—…gle and Thersites into an ape b Plato Some read Plotine Prophyry writes that in the 〈◊〉 yeare of Gallienus his raigne hee came into Italy Plotine being then fifty yeares of age 〈◊〉 that hee heard him fiue yeares And Plotine was a direct Platonist in this theame of transâ—…gration of soules So that both their names may well be recited in the text c Platonicall Plato de Rep. li. 10. saith that the soules go into the lâ—…thean field wherein groweth nothing and there they all ly downe and drinke of the riuer Amelita and those that drinke largly forget al things Amelita indeed is obliuion or neglect of things past this done they fall a sleepe and about mid-night a great thunder awaketh them and so they returne to life Anchises in Uirgil speaketh of these in this manner Has omnes vbi mille rotam voluere per annos Lethaum ad fluuium Deus euocat agmine maguo Scilicet immemores c. And when the thousand yeares are come and gone God calls them all to Letha euery one So they forget what is past and respect not what is to come and this they doe not willingly but of necessity Against the Platonists holding the soule coeternall with God CHAP. 31. BVt altogether erronious was that opinion of some Platonists importing the continuall and a necessary reuolution of soules from this or that and to it againe which if it were true what would it profit vs to know it vnlesse the Platonists will preferre them-selues before vs because we know not that they are to be made most wise in the next life and blessed by their false beleefe If it bee absurd and foolish to affirme this then is Porphyry to be preferred before all those transporters of soules from misery to blisse and back againe which if it be true then here is a Platonist refuseth Plato for the better and seeth that which he saw not not refusing correction after so great a maister but preferring truth before man and mans affection Why then doe we not beleeue diuinity in things aboue our capacitie which teacheth vs that the soule is not coeternall with God but created by God The Platonists refuse vpon this seeming sufficient reason that that which hath not beene for euer cannot be for euer I but Plato saith directly
that both the world and the gods made by that great GOD in the world had a beginning but shall haue no end but by the will of the creator endure for euer But they haue a b meaning for this they say this beginning concerned not time but substitution for c euen as the foote say they if it had stood eternally in the dust the foote-step should haue beene eternall also yet no man but can say some foote made this step nor should the one be before the other though one were made by the other So the world and the God there-in haue beene euer coeternall with the creators eternitie though by him created Well then put case the soule bee and hath beene eternall hath the soules misery beene so also Truly if there be some-thing in the soule that had a temporall beginning why might not the soule it selfe haue a beginning also And then the beatitude being firmer by triall of euill and to endure for euer questionlesse had a beginning though it shall neuer haue end So then the position that nothing can be endlesse that had a temporall beginning is quite ouer-throwne For the blessednesse of the soule hath a beginning but it shall neuer haue end Let our weaknesse therefore yeeld vnto the diuine authoritie and vs trust those holy immortalls in matter of religion who desire no worship to them-selues as knowing all is peculiar to their and our God nor command vs to sacrifice but vnto him to whom as I said often and must so still they and wee both are a sacrifice to be offered by that priest that tooke our manhood and in that this priesthood vpon him and sacrificed himselfe euen to the death for vs. L. VIVES ANd a necessary Plato subiects the soule both in the body and without the body vnto the power of the fates that after the reuolution of life death must come and after the purification of the soule life againe making our time in the body vncertaine but freeing vs from the body a 1000. years This reuolution they held necessary because God creating but a seâ—…nuÌ„ber of soules in the beginning the world should otherwise want men to inhabite it it being so 〈◊〉 and we so mortall This Virgill more expresly calls a wheele which being once turned about restores the life that it abridged and another turning taking it away againe both brâ—… things to one course This from death to death that from life to life but that worketh by death and this by life b A meaning It is well knowne that Plato held that God created the world But the question is whether it began temporally some yeares ago or had no temâ—…ll beginning Plutarch Atticus and Seuerus held that Plato's world had a beginning â—…porall but was neuer to haue end But Crantor Plotine Porphyry Iamblichus Proculus and 〈◊〉 all Platonists thought that it neuer beganne nor neuer should haue end So doth 〈◊〉 adioyning this and Pythagoras his opinion in one for Plato Pythagorized in all naâ—… questions This Cicero Iustine Martir and Boetius doe subscribe vnto also Plato â—…th Apuleius de deo Socrat. held all these gods to bee true incorporeall liuing and eternall 〈◊〉 neither beginning nor end Yet Apuleius in his Dogma Platonis affirmes that Plaâ—… taught vncertainely concerning the worlds beginning saying one while it had an origiâ—… and another while it had none c Euen as Our Philosophers disputing of an 〈◊〉 that is coequall in time and beeing with the cause compare them to the Sunne and the 〈◊〉 light Of the vniuersall way of the soules freedome which Porphyry sought amisse and therefore found not that onely Christ hath declared it CHAP. 32. THis is the religion that containes the vniuersall way of the soules freedome â—…or no where els is it found but herein This is the a Kings high way that leads to the eternall dangerlesse Kingdome to no temporall or transitory one And â—…reas Porphyry saith in the end of his first booke De regressu animae that there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one sect yet either truely Philosophicall b Indian or Chaldaean that teachetâ—… this vniuersall way and that hee hath not had so much as any historicall reaâ—… of it yet hee confesseth that such an one there is but what it is hee knoweth 〈◊〉 So insufficient was all that hee had learnt to direct him to the soules true â—…me and all that himselfe held or others thought him hold for he obserâ—… want of an authority fit for him to follow But whereas hee saith that 〈◊〉 of the true Philosophy euer had notice of the vniuersall way of the soules 〈◊〉 he shewes plaine that either his owne Phylosophy was not true or els 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wanted the knowledge of this way and then still how could it be true for 〈◊〉 vniuersall way of freeing the soules is there but that which freeth all soules 〈◊〉 coÌ„nsequently without which none is freed But whereas he addeth Indian or Chaldaean he giues a cleare testimony that neither of their doctrines contaiâ—… this way of the soules freedome yet could not he coâ—…ceale but is stil a telling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Chaldaeans had hee the diuine oracles What vniuersall way 〈◊〉 doth hee meane that is neither receiued in Philosophy nor into those Paâ—… disciplines that had such a stroke with him in matters of diuinity because 〈◊〉 with them did the curious fond superstition inuocation of all Angells 〈◊〉 which he neuer had so much as read of What is that vniuersall way not peculiar to euery perticuler nation but common to c all the world and giuen to it by the power of God Yet this witty Philosopher knew that some such way thers was For hee beleeues not that Gods prouidence would leaue man-kinde without a meane of the soules freedome He saith not there is no such but that so great and good an helpe is not yet knowne to vs nor vnto him no meruell for Prophyry was yet all d for the world when that vniuersall way of the soules freedome christianity was suffered to be opposed by the deuills and their seruants earthly powers to make vp the holy number of Martires e that is witnesses of the truth who might shew that all corporall tortures were to be endured for aduancement of the truth of piety This Porphyry saw and thinking persecution would soone extinguish this way therefore held not this the vniuersall not conceiuing that that which he stucke at and feared to endure in his choice belonged to his greater commendation and confirmation This therefore is that vniuersal way of the soules freedome that is granted vnto all nations out of Gods mercy the knowledge whereof commeth and is to come vnto all men wee may not nor any hereafter say why f commeth it so soone or why so late for his wisdome that doth send it is vnsearcheable vnto man Which he well perceiued when he sayd it was not yet receiued or knowne vnto him he denied not the truth thereof because he as yet had it
anew that was neuer acciâ—… 〈◊〉 it before e If they say that the happinesse misery haue bin coeternaleâ—… then must they be so still then followes this absurdity that the soule being 〈◊〉 shall not be happy in this that it foreseeth the misery to come If it 〈◊〉 foresee their blisse nor their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is it happily a false vnderstandâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a most fond assertion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they hold that the misery and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…ed each other froÌ„ al eternity but that afterwards the soule beâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no more to misery yet doth not this saue theÌ„ from being câ—…ed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was neuer truly happy before but then begineth to enioy 〈◊〉 new vncertâ—… happines so they coÌ„fesse that this so strang vnexpected 〈◊〉 thing befâ—…ls the soule then that neuer befel it before which new changes cause 〈◊〉 â—…y deny yâ— God eternally foreknew they deny him also to be the author of that 〈◊〉 which were wicked to doe And then if they should say that hee 〈◊〉 resolued that the soule should not become eternally blessed how farre 〈◊〉 â—…m quitting him from that mutability which they disallow But if 〈◊〉 â—…ledge that it had f a true temporall beginning but shall neuer 〈◊〉 â—…ral end hauing once tried misery and gotten cleare of it shal neuer 〈◊〉 â—…ble more this they may boldly affirme with preiudice to Gods immuâ—… will And so they may beeleeue that the world had a temporall origiâ—… 〈◊〉 that God did not alter his eternall resolution in creating of it L. VIVES 〈◊〉 a made Epicurus his question Câ—…c de nat deor 1. Uelleius reasons of it b They 〈◊〉 This is a maine doubt mightily diuided and tossed into parts by great wittes and 〈◊〉 â—…tes Some hold the world neuer made nor euer ending so doe the Peripatetiâ—…â—…y â—…y Latines as Pliny and Manilius follow them Cato the elder saith that of the 〈◊〉 â—…me said it was created but must bee eternall as they in the other booke said Plaâ—… said it was from eternity but must haue an end Some that God made it corrupâ—…â—…dlesse as preserued by the diuine essence and these are Pythagoreans Some say it 〈◊〉 beginning and must haue an end the Epicureans Anaxagoras Empedocles and the 〈◊〉 this Of these Plut. de Plac. Philoso Galen Histor. Philosoph if that booke bee his 〈◊〉 die nat Macrobius and others doe write Aphrodiseus stands to Aristotle beâ—…â—…inion was the most battered at Galen made the sences iudges of all the whole 〈◊〉 because wee see the same world all in the same fashion therefore it was vncreaâ—… bee eternall For as Manilius saith The Father sees not one world the Sonne anoâ—… of them that make it eternall say that God made it Some giue it no cause of beeâ—… it cause of it selfe and all besides Arist. de caelo mundo c Order Chance 〈◊〉 â—…ke so singularly an ordered worke nor any other reason or work-man but beauâ—… could produce so beauteous an obiect All the Philosophers schooles that smelt of 〈◊〉 held directly that nothing prooued the world to bee of Gods creating so much 〈◊〉 â—…ll beauty thereof Plato the Stoikes Cicero Plutarch and Aristotle were all thus 〈◊〉 Cic. de nat de lib. 2. d In that of the soule Plato thrusts their eternal soules into 〈◊〉 â—…nto prisons for sins coÌ„mitted e If they They must needs say they were either euer 〈◊〉 euer wretched or successiuely both which if it be the alteration of the soules naâ—…â—…use it perforce For what vicissitude of guilt and expiation could there bee for so 〈◊〉 â—…sand yeares of eternity so constant as to make the soules now blessed and now miâ—… A true Some read a beginning as number hath number begins at one and so runs 〈◊〉 the great number may stil be increased nor can you euer come to the end of numâ—… hath no end but is iustly called infinite 〈◊〉 we ought not to seeke to comprehend the infinite spaces of time or place ere the world was made CHAP. 5. 〈◊〉 then let vs see what wee must say to those that make God the worlds 〈◊〉 and yet examine the time and what they wil say to vs when wee exaâ—… of the place They aske why it was made then and no sooner as wee â—…ke why was it made in this place and in no other for if they imagine inâ—…â—…paces of time before the world herein they cannot thinke that God did 〈◊〉 so likewise may they suppose infinite spaces of place besides the world 〈◊〉 if they doe not make the Deity to rest and not operate they must fall to 〈◊〉 a his dreame of innumerable worlds onely this difference there wil be 〈◊〉 all his worlds of the b casuall coagulation of Atomes and so by their 〈◊〉 dissolues them but they must make all theirs Gods handiworkes if the will not let him rest in all the inter-mirable space beyond the world and haue none of all them worlds no more then this of ours to bee subiect to dissolution c foâ—… we now dispute with those that doe as wee doe make God the incorporeall Creator of all things that are not of his owne essence For those that stand for many gods they are vnworthy to bee made disputants in this question of religion The other Philosophers haue quite d out-stript all the rest in fame and credit because though they werefarre from the truth yet were they nearer then the rest Perhaps they will neither make Gods essence dilatable not limmitable but as one should indeed hold will affirme his incorporeall presence in all that spacious distance besides the world imploied onely in this little place in respect of his immensity that the world is fixt in I doe not thinke they will talke so idly If they set God on worke in this one determinate though greatly dilated world that reason that they gaue why God should not worke in all those infinite places beyond the world let them giue the same why God wrought not in all the infinite times before the world But as it is not consequent that God followed chance rather then reason in placing of the worlds frame where it now standeth in no other place though this place had no merit to deserue it before the infinite others yet no mans reason can comprehend why the diuine will placed it so euen so no more is it consequent that wee should thinke that it was any chance made God create this world than rather then at any other time whereas all times before had their equall course and none was more meritorious of the creation then another But if they say men are fond to thinke there is any place besides that wherein the world is so are they say wee to immagine any time for God to bee idle in since there was no time before the worldes creation L. VIVES EPicurus a his dreame Who held not onely many worlds but infinite I shewed it elsewhere Metrodorus saith it as absurd to imagine but
eyther excerciseth the humility or beates downe the pride nothing a at all in nature being euill euill being but a priuation of good but euery thing from earth to heauen ascending in a degree of goodnesse and so from the visible vnto the inuisible vnto which all are vnequall And in the greatest is God the great workeman yet b no lesser in the lesse which little thinges are not to be measured to their owne greatnesse beeing neare to nothing but by their makers wisedome as in a mans shape shane his eye-brow a very nothing to the body yet how much doth it deforme him his beauty consisting more of proportion and parilyty of parts then magnitude Nor is it a wonder that c those that hold some nature bad and produced from a bad beginning do not receiue GODS goodnesse for the cause of the creation but rather thinke that hee was compelled by this rebellious euill of meere necessity to fall a creating and mixing of his owne good nature with euill in the suppression and reforming thereof by which it was so foyled and so toyled that he had much adoe to re-create and mundifie it nor can yet cleanse it all but that which hee could cleanse serues as the future prison of the captiued enemy This was not the Maniches foolishnes but their madnesse which they should abandon would they like Christians beleeue that Gods nature is vnchangeable incorruptible impassible and that the soule which may be changed by the will vnto worse and by the corruption of sinne be depriued of that vnchangeable light is no part of God nor Gods nature but by him created of a farre inferiour mould L. VIVES NOthing a at all This Augustine repeats often and herein do al writers of our religion besides Plato Aristotle Tully and many other Philosophers agree with him Plato in his Timaeus holds it wicked to imagine any thing that God made euill he being so good a God him-selfe for his honesty enuied nothing but made all like him-selfe And in his 2. de rep he saith The good was author of no euill but only of things good blaming Hesiod and Homer for making Ioue the author of mischiefe confessing God to be the Creator of this vniuerse therby shewing nothing to be euill in nature I will say briefly what I thinke That is good as Aristotle saith iâ—…â—…s â—…etorik which we desire either for it selfe or for another vse And the iust contrary is euil wâ—…efore in the world some things are vsefull and good some auoideble bad Some 〈◊〉 and indifferent and to some men one thing is good and to others bad yea vnto one man at seuerall times seuerall good bad or neuter vpon seueral causes This opinioÌ„ the weaknesse of our iudgements respects of profit do produce But only that is the diuine iudgement which so disposeth all things that each one is of vse in the worlds gouernment And hee knoweth all without error that seeth all things to bee good and vsefull in their due seasons which the wise man intimates when hee saith That God made all things good each in the due time Therefore did hee blesse all with increase and multiplication If any thing were alwayes vnprofitable it should bee rooted out of the creation b No lesse Nature is in the least creatures pismires gnats bees spiders as potent as in horses oxâ—…n whales or elephants and as admirable Pliny lib. 11. c Those This heresie of the Manichees Augustine declareth De heres ad Quod vult deum Contra Faust. Manich. De Genes ad liter Of the error that Origen incurreth CHAP. 23. Bvt the great wonder is that some hold one beginning with vs of all thinges and that God created all thinges that are not of his essence otherwise they could neuer haue had beeing And yet wil not hold that plaine good beleefe of the Worlds simple and good course of creation that the good God made all thinges good They hold that all that is not GOD after him and yet that all is not good which none but God could make But the a soules they say not part but creatures of God sinned in falling from the maker being cast according to their deserts into diuers degrees down from heauen got certaine bodies for their prisons And ther-upon the world was made say they not for increase of good but restrrint of bad and this is the World Herein is Origen iustly culpable for in his Periarchion or booke of beginnings he affirmes this wherein I haue much maruaile that a man so read indiuine scriptures should not obserue first how contrary this was to the testimony of scripture that confirmeth all Gods workes with this And God saw that it was good And at the conclusion God saw all that hee made and loe it was very good Auerring no cause for this creation but onely that the good God should produce good things where if no man had sinned the world should haue beene adorned and filled b onely with good natures But sin being commited it did not follow that all should be filled with badnes the far greater part remaining still good keeping the course of their nature in heauen nor could the euil willers in breaking the lawes of nature auoyd the iust lawes of the al-disposed God For as a picture sheweth well though it haue black colors in diuers places so the Vniuerse is most faire for all these staines of sins which notwithstaÌ„ding being waighed by themselues do disgrace the lustre of it Besides Origen should haue seene and all wise men with him that if the world were made onely for a penall prison for the transgressing powers to bee imbodyed in each one according to the guilt the lesse offenders the higher and lighter and the greater ones the baser and heauier that then the Diuels the worst preuaricators should rather haue bin thurst into the basest that is earthly bodies then the worst men But that we might know that the spirits merits are not repaid by the bodies qualitie the worst diuell hath an c ayry body and man though he be bad yet of farre lesse malice and guilt hath an earthly body yea had ere his fall And what can be more fond then to thinke that the Sunne was rather made for a soule to be punished in as a prison rather then by the prouidence of God to bee one in one world as a light to the beauty and a comfort to the creatures Otherwise two ten or en hundred soules sinning all a like the world should haue so many Sunnes To auoyd which we must rather beleeue that there was but one soule sinned in that kind deseruing such a body rather then that the Makers miraculous prouidence did so dispose of the Sunne for the light comfort of things created It is not the soules whereof speake they know not what but it is their owne soules that are so farre from truth that they must needes be attanted and restraned Therefore these three I
originall of it selfe and returned vppon it selfe it would 〈◊〉 vnto beatitude exempting vs from need of any other good But seeing 〈◊〉 hath beeing from GOD our author doubtlesse wee must both 〈◊〉 to teach vs true wisedome and to inspire vs with the meanes to beâ—…â—…essed by his high sweetnesse L. VIVES 〈◊〉 a by the vse vsuâ—… I translate practise fructus vse otherwise Here seemes to bee an 〈◊〉 of the word vse for whereas he sayth workmanships stands on three grounds naâ—…â—…d vse vse is here practise But he wrested it to his meaning namely the practise of eâ—…â—…eferred to vse or profit therby iudged b I Know we haue fruition of yâ— wee deâ—…â—…er end therfore saith Aug. We only inioy God and vse al things else Of this read â—…tr Christ. In 80. quest De trinit where he ties fruition to eternal felicity vse to the 〈◊〉 him had Peter Lumbard inough Sent. l. 1. the schoolmeÌ„ euen more then inough Of the Image of the Trinity which is in some sort in euery mans nature euen before his glorification CHAP. 26. 〈◊〉 we haue in our selues an image of that holy Trinity which shal be perfecâ—…â—…y reformation and made very like it though it be far vnequall and farre 〈◊〉 from it briefly neither coeternall with God nor of his substance yet is it 〈◊〉 â—…est it of any creature for we both haue a being know it and loue both our â—…d knowledge And in these three no false apparance euer can deceiue vs. 〈◊〉 not discerne them as thinges visible by sence as wee see colours heare 〈◊〉 â—…scent smels taste sauors and touch things hard and soft the a abstacts of 〈◊〉 â—…bleÅ› we conceiue remember desire in incorporeal formes most like 〈◊〉 â—…ther in those three it is not so I know b without al phantastical imagiâ—…â—…at I am my selfe that this I know and loue I feare not the c Academike 〈◊〉 â—…s in these truths yâ— say what if you er d if I er I am For he that hath no 〈◊〉 â—…ot er and therfore mine error proues my beeing which being so how 〈◊〉 â—…holding my being for though I be one that may er yet doubtles in that 〈◊〉 being I er not consequently if I know that I know my being loâ—…e two I adioyne this loue as a third of equall esteeme with the two 〈◊〉 not erre in that I loue knowing the two thinges I loue without 〈◊〉 they were false it were true that I loued false thinges For how could I bee iustly checked for louing of false thinges if it were false that I loued them But â—…ing the thinges loued are true and sure how can the loue of them bee bâ—… true and sure And there is no man that desireth not to bee as there is none deâ—… not to be happy for how can he haue happinesse and haue no beeing L. VIVES THe a abstracts For shutte our eyes and tast our thought tells vs what a thing whitenesse and sweetnesse is wher-vpon our dreames are fraught with such thinges and we are able to iudge of them without their presence But these are in our exterior sences our imagination our common sence and our memory all which beasts haue as well as wee and in these many things are rashly obserued which if wee assent vnto wee erre for the sences are their weake dull and vnsure teachers teaching those other to apprehend things often false for true But the reasonable mind being proper only to man that ponders al and vseth all dilligence to auoyd falsehoods for truth warning vs to obserue well ere we iudge b Phantasticall Of fancy already c Academickes These took away the trust of the sences and held that nothing was known If you said I know this stone to moue because I see it or touch it they replyed What if you erre Did you neuer thinke you saw some-what moue that stood still as in sayling or riding Did you neuer thinke some-what moued that moued not vnder your touch There you were deceiued so may you bee now Restrayne your assent nothing offends wisedome more then consent before full knowledge d If I erre Therefore our Phylosophers vppon Aristotles Posteriora say that this proposition is of the greatest euidence Of essence knowledge of essence and loue of both CHAP. 27. SO a naturally doth this delight that very wretches for nothing else but this would rather leaue their misery then the World knowing them-selues wretches tho yet would they not dye And the most wretched of all eyther in wise iudgements for b their foolishnesse or in theirs that hold themselues blessed for their defect hereof If one should profer them an immortality of misery and tell them if they refused it they should become iust nothing and loose all beeing verily they would reioyce and choose an eternall misery before a millity of beeing This our common sence testifieth For why doe they feare to end their misery by death rather then continue it but that nature still wisheth to hold a beeing And therefore seeing they know they must dye they do make such great accoumpt of a long life in their misery ere they dye Wherein doubtlesse they shew how thankefull they will bee for immortality though it had not end of their misery And what of brute beasts that vnderstand not this from the Dragon to the worme Do they not shew their loue of being by auoyding death al waies possible The trees and plants that haue no sence of death nor meanes to auoyd it do they not put forth one sprig into the aire another c deeper into the earth whereby to attract nutriment and preserue their beeing Nay the very bodyes that 〈◊〉 neyther sence nor vegetation by their very motion vpwardes downewardes or middle suspension moue to the conseruation of their essence and nature Now then may bee gathered how much mans nature is beloued and loth to bee deceiued from hence that man had rather d lament in a sound minde then reiâ—… in folly Which power is in no mortal creature but man others haue sharper sights then wee yet not any can behold the incorporeall light which in some sort lightneth our mindes producing a true iudgement of all these thinges 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as wee are capable of it But though the vnreasonable creatures senâ—…â—…eine no knowledge yet some similitude of knowledge there is in them 〈◊〉 â—…er corporall creatures hauing no sence in themselues are but the obiâ—… of others sences therefore called sensible and the growth and power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the trees drawe nutriment this is like their sence But these and all othâ—…â—…porall bodies causes are hid in nature marry their formes in the diuerâ—… 〈◊〉 parts of the worlds structure are apparant to vs seemingly professing a 〈◊〉 be knowne since they could not know themselues but our bodily senâ—…â—…ge not of them though they apprehend them That is left vnto a farre 〈◊〉 â—…cellent interior sence discerning iust and vniust f iust by the intelliâ—…â—…rme vniust by
eldest holds them resolued into most pure ayre which S. Thomas dislikes for such bodies could neuer penetrate the fire nor the heauens But he is too Aristotelique thinking to binde incomprehensible effectes to the lawes of nature as if this were a worke of nature strictly taken and not at the liberty of GODS omnipotent power or that they had forced through fire and heauen by their condensed violence Some disliked the placing of an element aboue heauen and therefore held the Christalline heauens composed of waters of the same shew but of a farre other nature then the Elementary Both of them are transparent both cold but that is light and ours heauy Basill sayth those waters doe coole the heate of the heauens Our Astronomicall diuines say that Saturnes frigidity proceedeth from those waters ridiculous as though all the starres of the eighth spere are not cooler then Saturne These waters sayth Rede are lower then the spirituall heauens but higher then all corporeall creatures kept as some say to threaten a second deluge But as others hold better to coole the heate of the starres De nat◅rer But this is a weake coniecture Let vs conclude as Augustine doth vpon Genesis How or what they are we know not there they are we are sure for the scriptures authority weigheth downe mans witte c In stead of Another question tossed like the first How the elements are in our bodies In parcels and Atomes peculiar to each of the foure saith Anaxagoras Democritus Empedocles Plato Cicero and most of the Peripatetiques Arabians Auerroes and Auicen parcels enter not the bodies composition sayth another but natures only This is the schoole opinion with the leaders Scotus and Occam Aristole is doubtfull as hee is generally yet holdes the ingresse of elements into compoundes Of the Atomists some confound all making bodies of coherent remaynders Others destroy all substances Howsoeuer it is wee feele the Elementary powers heate and drought in our gall or choller of the fire heate and moysture ayry in the blood colde and moyst watery in the fleame Colde and dry earthly in the melancholly and in our bones solydity is earth in our brayne and marrow water in our blood ayre in our spirits cheefely of the heart fire And though wee haue lesse of one then another yet haue some of each f But there And thence is all our troublesome fleame deriued Fitly it is seated in the brayne whether all the heate aspyreth For were it belowe whither heate descendeth not so it would quickly growe dull and congeale Whereas now the heate keepes it in continuall acte vigor and vegetation Finis lib. II. THE CONTENTS OF THE twelfth booke of the Citty of God 1. Of the nature of good and euil Angells 2. That no essence is contrary to God though al the worlds frailty seeme to bee opposite vnto this immutable eternity 3. Of gods enemies not by nature but will which hurting them hurteth their good nature because there is no vice but hurteth nature 4. Of vselesse and reason-lesse natures whose order differeth not from the Decorum held in the whole vniuerse 5. That the Creator hath deserued praise in euery forme and kind of Nature 6. The cause of the good Angels blisse and the euills misery 7. That wee ought not to seeke out the cause of the vicious will 8. Of the peruerse loue wherby the soule goeth from the vnchangeable to the changeable good 9. Whether he that made the Angels natures made their wils good also by the infusion of his loue into them through his holy Spirit 10. Of the falsenes of that History that saith the world hath continued many thousand years 11. Of those that hold not the Eternity of the world but either a dissolution and generation of innumerable worlds or of this one at the expiration of certaine yeares 12. Of such as held Mans Creation too lately effected 13. Of the reuolution of Tymes at whose expiration some Phylosophers held that the Vniuerse should returne to the state it was in at first 14. Of Mans temporall estate made by God out of no newnesse or change of will 15. Whether to preserue Gods eternall domination we must suppose that he hath alwaies had creatures to rule ouer and how it may bee held alwaies created which is not coeternall with God 16. How wee must vnderstand that God promised Man life eternall before all eternity 17. The defence of Gods vnchanging will against those that fetch Gods works about frō eternity in circles from state to state 18. Against such as say thinges infinite are aboue Gods knowledge 19. Of the worlds without end or Ages of Ages 20. Of that impious assertion that soules truly blessed shall haue diuer s reuolutions into misery againe 21. Of the state of the first Man and Man-kinde in him 22. That God fore-knew that the first Man should sin and how many people he was to translate out of his kind into the Angels society 23. Of the nature of Mans soule being created according to the Image of God 24. Whether the Angels may bee called Creators of any the least creature 25. That no nature or forme of any thing liuing hath any other Creator but God 26. The Platonists opinion that held the Angels Gods creatures Man the Angels 27. That the fulnesse of Man-kind was created in the first Man in whome God fore-saw both who should bee saued and who should bee damned FINIS THE TVVELFTH BOOKE OF THE CITTIE OF GOD Written by Saint Augustine Bishop of Hippo vnto Marcellinus Of the nature of good and euill Angels CHAP. 1. BEfore I speake of the creation of man wherein in respect of mortall reasonable creatures the two Citties had their originall as we shewed in the last booke of the Angels to shew as well as wee can the congruity and conuenience of the society of Men with Angels and that there are not foure but rather two societies of Men and Angels qualitied alike and combined in eyther the one consisting both of good Angels and Men and the other of euill that the contrariety of desires betweene the Angels good and euill arose from their diuers natures and beginnings wee may at no hand beleeue God hauing beene alike good in both their creations and in all things beside them But this diuersity ariseth from their wils some of them persisting in God their common good and in his truth loue and eternity and other some delighting more in their owne power as though it were from them-selues fell from that common al-blessing good to dote vppon their owne and taking pride for eternity vayne deceit for firme truth and factious enuy for perfect loue became proud deceiptfull and enuious The cause of their beatitude was their adherence with GOD their must their miseries cause bee the direct contrary namely their not adherence with GOD. Wherefore if when wee are asked why they are blessed and wee answere well because they stucke fast vnto GOD and beeing asked why they
that end which the order of the vniuerse requireth so that that corruption which bringeth all natures mortall vnto dissolution cannot so dissolue that which was but it may become that afterwards which it was before or that which it should be which being so then God the highest being who made all things that are not him-selfe no creature being fitte for that equalitie being made of â—…othing and consequently being not able to haue beene but by him is not to be discommended through the taking offence at some faults but to bee honored vpon the due consideration of the perfection of all natures L. VIVES A a certaine Euery thing keeping harmonious agreement both with it selfe and others without corrupting discorde which made some ancient writers affirme that the world 〈◊〉 vpon loue The cause of the good Angells blisse and the euills misery CHAP. 6. THE true cause therefore of the good Angells blisse is their adherence to that most high essence and the iust cause of the bad Angels misery is their departure from that high essence to reside vpon them-selues that were not such which vice what is it else but a pride For pride is the roote of all sinne These would not therefore stick vnto him their strength and hauing power to bee more b perfect by adherence to this highest good they preferred them-selues that were his inferiours before him This was the first fall misery and vice of this nature which all were it not created to haue the highest being yet might it haue beatitude by fruition of the highest being but falling from him not bee â—…de nothing but yet lesse then it was and consequently miserable Seeke the câ—…e of this euill will and you shall finde iust none For what can cause the wills 〈◊〉 the will being sole cause of all euill The euill will therefore causeth euill workes but nothing causeth the euill will If there be then either it hath a will or â—…one If it haue it is either a good one or a bad if good what foole will say a good will is cause of an euill will It should if it caused sinne but this were extreame absurditie to affirme But if that it haue an euill will then I aâ—…ke what caused this euill will in it and to limite my questions I aske the cause of the first euill will For not that which an other euill will hath caused is the first euill will but that which none hath caused for still that which causeth is before the other caused If I bee answered that nothing caused it but it was from the beginning I aske then wheâ—…er it were in any nature If it were in none it had no being if it were in any it corrupted it hurt it and depriued it of all good and therefore this Vice could not be in an euill nature but in a good where it might doe hurt for if it could not hurt it was no vice and therefore no bad will and if it did hurt it was by priuation of good or diminishing of it Therfore a bad will could be from eternity in that wherein a good nature had beene before which the euill will destroied by hurt Well if it were not eternall who made it It must be answered something that had no euill will what was this inferior superior or equall vnto it If it were the superior it was better and why then had it not a will nay a better will This may also bee said of the equall for two good wills neuer make the one the other bad It remaines then that some inferior thing that had no will was cause of that vicious will in the Angels I but all things below them euen to the lowest earth being naturall is also good and hath the goodnesse of forme and kinde in all order how then can a good thing produce an euill will how can good be cause of euill for the will turning from the superior to the inferior becomes bad not because the thing where-vnto it turneth is bad but because the diuision is bad and peruerse No inferior thing then doth depraue the will but the will depraues it selfe by following inferior things inordinately For if two of like affect in body and minde should beholde one beautious personage and the one of them be stirred with a lustfull desire towards it and the others thoughts stand chaste what shall wee thinke was cause of the euill will in the one and not in the other Not the seene beauty for it transformed not the will in both and yet both saw it alike not the flesh of the beholders face why not both nor the minde we presupposed them both alike before in body and minde Shall we say the deuill secretly suggested it into one of them as though hee consented not to it in his owne proper will This consent therefore the cause of this assent of the will to vicious desire is that wee seeke For to take away one let more in the question if both were tempted and the one yeelded and the other did not why was this but because the one would continue chaste and the other would not whence then was this secret fall but from the proper will where there was such parity in body and minde a like sight and a like temptation So then hee that desires to know the cause of the vicious will in the one of them if hee maâ—…ke iâ—… well shall finde nothing For if wee say that hee caused it what was hee ere his vicious will but a creature of a good nature the worke of GOD that vnchangeable good Wherefore hee that saith that hee that consented to this lustfull desire which the other with-stood both beeing before alike affected and beholding the beautifull obiect alike was cause of his owne euill will whereas he was good before this vice of will Let him aske why he caused this whether from his nature or for that hee was made of nothing and he shall finde that his euill will arose not from his naâ—…ure but from his nothing for if wee shall make his nature the effecter of his vicious will what shall wee doe but affirme that good is the efficient cause of euill But how can it bee that nature though it bee mutable before it haue a vicious will should doe viciously namely in making the will vicious L. VIVES BVt a pride Scotus holds that the Angels offence was not pride I thinke onely because hee will oppose Saint Thomas who held with the Fathers the contrary b Perfect in essence and exellence That we ought not to seeke out the cause of the vicious will CHAP. 7. LEt none therefore seeke the efficient cause of an euill will for it is not efficient but deficient nor is there effect but defect namely falling from that highest essence vnto a lower this is to haue an euill will The causes whereof beeing not efficient but deficient if one endeuour to seeke it is as if hee should seeke to see the darknesse or to heare
silence wee know them both this by a the eare and that by the eye but not by any formes of theirs but priuation of formes Let none then seeke to know that of mee which I know not my selfe vnlesse hee will learne not to know what hee must know that hee cannot know for the things that we know by priuation and not by forme are rather if you can conceit mee knowne by not knowing and in knowing them are still vnknowne For the bodyes eye coursing ouer bodyly obiects sees no darkenesse but when it ceaseth to see And so it belongs to the eare and to no other sence to know silence which notwithstanding is not knowne but by not hearing So our intellect doth speculate the intelligible formes but where they faile it learneth by not learning for who can vnderstand his faults This I know that Gods nature can neuer faile in time nor in part but all things that are made of nothing may decay which doe not-with-standing more good as they are more essentiall for then doe they some-thing when they haue efficient causes but in that they faile and fall off and doe euill they haue deficient causes and what doe they then but vanity L. VIVES BY the a eare Contraries are knowne both by one methode say the Philosophers and the primatiue is knowne onely by seperation of the knowledge of the Positiue Of the peruerse loue whereby the soule goeth from the vnchangeable to the changeable good CHAP. 8. I Know besides that wherein the vicious will is resident therein is that done which if the will would not should not bee done and therefore the punishment falls iustly vpon those acts which are wills and not necesâ—…ities It is not the a thing to which wee fall but our fall that is euill that is wee fall to no euill natures but against natures order from the highest to the lower and therefore euill Couetise is no vice in the gold but in him that peruersly leaueth iustice to loue gold whereas iustice ought alwayes to bee preferred before ritches Nor is lust the fault of sweete bautious bodies but the soules that runnes peruersly to bodily delights neglecting temperance which scornes all company with those prepares vs vnto far more excellent and spirituall pleasures Vaine-glory is not a vice proper to humaine praise but the soules that peruersely affecteth praise of men not respecting the consciences testimonie Nor is pride his vice that giueth the power but the soules peruersly louing that power contemning the iustice of the most mighty By this then he that peruersly affected a good of nature though he attaine it is euill himselfe in this good and wretched being depriued of a better L. VIVES THE a thing It is not the action but the quality and manner thereof that is vicious said Plato Whether he that made the Angels natures made their wills good also by the infusion of his loue into them through his holy spirit CHAP. 9. SEeing therefore there is no naturall nor a essentiall cause effecting the euill of will but that euill of mutability of spirit which depraueth the good of nature ariseth from it selfe being effected no way but by falling from God which falling also hath no cause If we say also that good wills haue no efficient cause we must beware least they bee not held vncreated and coeternall with God But seeing that the Angels them-selues were created how can their wills but bee so also Besides being created whether were they created with them or without them first if with them then doubtlesse hee that made one made both and b as soone as they were created they were ioyned to him in that loue wherein they were created And therein were they seuered from the other because they kept their good-wills still and the other were changed by falling in their euill will from that which was good whence they needed not haue fallen vnlesse they had listed But if the good Angels were at first with-out good wills and made those wills in them-selues without Gods working were they therefore made better of them-selues then by his creation God forbid For what were they without good wills but euill Or if they were not euill because they had no euill wills neither nor fell from that which they had not how-so-euer they were not as yet so good as when they had gotten good wills But now if they could not make them-selues better then God the best workeman of the world had made them then verily could they neuer haue had good wills but by the operation of the creator in them And these good wills effecting their conuersion not to them-selues who were inferiours but to the supreme God to adhere vnto him and bee blessed by fruition of him what doe they else but shew that the best will should haue remained poore in desire onely but that he who made a good nature of nothing capable of himselfe e made it better by perfecting it of himselfe first hauing made it more desirous of perfection for this must bee examined whether the good Angels created good will in them-selues by a good will or a badde or none if by none then none they created If by a badde how can a badde will produce a good if by a good then had they good wills already And who gaue them those but he that created them by a good will that is in that chast loue of their adherence to him both forming them nature and giuing them grace Beleeue it therefore the Angelles were neuer without good will that is Gods loue But those that were created good and yet became euill by their proper will which no good nature can do but in a voluntary defect from good that and not the good being the cause of euill either d receiued lesse grace from the diuine loue then they that persisted therein or if the had equall good at their creation the one fell by the euill wills and the other hauing further helpe attained that blisse from which they were sure neuer to fal as we shewed in our last booke Therefore to gods due praise wee must confesse that the diffusion of Gods loue is beâ—…owed as well vpon the Angells as the Saints by his holy spirit bestowed vpon them and that that Scripture It is good for me to adhere vnto God was peculiar at first to the holy Angells before man was made This good they all participate with him to whome they adhere and are a holy citty a liuing sacrifice and a liuing temple vnto that God Part whereof namely that which the Angells shall gather and take vp from this earthly pilgrimage vnto that society being now in the flesh vpon earth or dead and resting in the e secret receptacles of soules how it had first original must I now explaine as I did before of the Angels For of Gods worke The first man came all man kind as the scripture saith whose authority is iustly admired throughout the earth and those
not exclude numbers from Gods knowledge Plato hauing so commended God for vsing them in the worlds creation and our Scripture saith of God Tâ—… 〈◊〉 ordered al things in measure number and weight and the Prophet saith He 〈◊〉 the world and the Gospell saith All the heires of your heads are numbred God forbid the that we should think yâ— he knoweth not number whose wisdome 〈◊〉 â—…standing is in numerably infinite as Dauid saith for the infinitenesse of 〈◊〉 â—…hough it bee beyond number is not vnknowne to him whose knowâ—… infinite Therefore if whatsoeuer bee knowne be comprehended in the 〈◊〉 that knowledge then is all infinitenesse bounded in the knowledge of 〈◊〉 â—…ecause his knowledge is infinite and because it is not vncomprehensiâ—… 〈◊〉 knowledge Wherefore if numbers infinitenesse bee not infinite vnâ—… knowledge nor cannot bee what are wee meane wretches that dare preâ—…â—…mit his knowledge or say that if this reuolution bee not admitted in 〈◊〉 renewing God cannot either fore-know althings ere hee made them 〈◊〉 them when hee made them whereas his wisdome beeing simply and â—…ly manifold can comprehend all incomprehensibility by his incomâ—…le comprehension so that whatsoeuer thing that is new and vnlike to all 〈◊〉 should please to make it could not bee new nor strange vnto him nor 〈◊〉 â—…ore-see it a little before but containe it in his eternall prescience L. VIVES 〈◊〉 Two men two horses or whatsoeuer make both one number I inquire not 〈◊〉 â—…hether the number and the thing numbred bee one or no the schooles ring of that â—…gh b Doth not The best reading Of the worlds without end or ages of ages CHAP. 19. 〈◊〉 doth so and that there is a continual connexion of those times which 〈◊〉 â—…lled Secula a seculorum ages of ages or worlds without end running 〈◊〉 indestinate difference onely the soules that are freed from misery reâ—…â—…ernally blessed or that these words Secula seculorum doe import the 〈◊〉 remayning firme in Gods wisdome and beeing the efficient cause of â—…ory world I dare not affirme The singular may bee an explication of 〈◊〉 as if wee should say Heauen of heauen for the Heauens of heauens â—…D calls the firmament aboue which the waters are Heauen in the sinâ—… 〈◊〉 and yet the Psalme saith and you waters that bee aboue the Heauens 〈◊〉 of the LORD Which of those two it be or whether Secula 〈◊〉 another meaning is a deepe question We may let it passe it belongs 〈◊〉 proposed theame but whether wee could define or but obserue 〈◊〉 discourse let vs not aduenture to affirme ought rashly in so obsâ—…â—…ouersie Now are wee in hand with the circulary persons that 〈◊〉 â—…ings round about till they become repaired But which of these opiniâ—… be true concerning these Secula seculorum it is nothing to these revoâ—…â—…reuoâ—…â—…cause whether the worlds of worlds bee not the same revolued but oâ—…â—…uely depending on the former the freed soules remayning still 〈◊〉 â—…lesse blisse or whether the Worldes of worldes bee the formes 〈◊〉 â—…sitorie ages and ruling them as their subiects yet the circulariâ—…â—…o place heere how-soeuer The Saints b eternall life ouerthroweth 〈◊〉 L. VIVES 〈◊〉 a The scriptures often vse these two words both together Hierome in â—…p ad Gal. expounds them thus we 〈◊〉 saith he the difference betweene Seculum Seculum Secuâ—… and secula seculorum Seculuâ—… some-times a space of time some-times eternity the hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and when it is written with the letter van before it it is eternity when otherwise it is 50. yeares or a Iubily And therefore the Hebrew seruant that loued his Maister for his wife and children had his care bored and was commanded to serue an age Seculum 50. yeares And the Moabites and Amonites enter not into the Church of God vntill the 15. generation and not vntill an age for the yeare of Iubily quit all hard conditions Some say that Seculum seculorum hath the same respect that Sanctu Sanctorum Caelum Caelorum the Heauens of heauens had or as the Works of workes or Song of songs That difference that the heauens had to those whose heauens they were and so the rest the holy aboue all holy the song excelling all songs c. So was secula seculorum the ages excelling all ages So they say that this present age includeth all from the worlds beginning vnto the iudgement And then they goe further and begin to graduate the ages past before and to come after it whether they were or shal be good or ill falling into such a forrest of questions as whole volumes haue beene written onely of this kinde b Eternall Returning no more to misery nor were that happy without certeynty of eternity nor eternall if death should end it Of that impious assertion that soules truely blessed shall haue diuers reuolutions into misery againe CHAP. 20. FOr what a Godly eares can endure to heare that after the passage of this life in such misery if I may call it a life b being rather so offensiue a death and yet c we loue it rather then that death that frees vs from it after so many intollerable mischieues ended all at length by true zeale and piety wee should be admitted to the sight of God and bee placed in the fruition and perticipation of that incorporeall light and vnchangeable immortall essence with loue of which we burne all vpon this condition to leaue it againe at length and bee re-infolded in mortall misery amongst the hellish immortalls where GOD is lost where truth is sought by hate where blessednesse is sought by vncleanesse and bee cast from all enioying of eternity truth or felicity and this not once but often being eternally reuolued by the course of the times from the first to the later and all this because by meanes of these circularities transforming vs and our false beaâ—…des in true miseries successiuely but yet eternally GOD might come to â—…ow his owne workes Whereas otherwise hee should neither bee able to rest from working not know ought that is infinite Who can heare or endure this Which were it true there were not onely more wit in concealing it but also 〈◊〉 speake my minde as I can more learning in not knowing it d for if wee shalbâ—…â—…ssed in not remembring them there e why doe wee agrauate our misery 〈◊〉 knowing them here But if wee must needs know them there yet let vs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 selues ignorant of them here to haue the happier expectation then the 〈◊〉 that wee shall attaine here expecting blessed eternity and there 〈◊〉 onely blisse but with assurance that it is but transitory But if they â—…y that no man can attaine this blisse vnlesse hee know the transitory reuolutions thereof ere hee leaue this life how then doe they confesse that the more one loues GOD the easilier shall hee attaine blisse and yet teach the way how 〈◊〉 â—…ll this louing affect 〈◊〉 will not but loue him lightly whome hee
opinion for it is not lawfull to hold any creature be it neuer so small to haue any other Creator then God euen before it could be vnderstood But the Angells whome they had rather call Gods though c at his command they worke in things of the world yet wee no more call them creators of liuing things then we call husband-men the creators of fruites and trees L. VIVES WIth a therâ—… With the Epicurists that held althings from chance or from meere nature without GOD althings I meane in this sublâ—…ary world which opinion some say was Aâ—…les or with the heretikes some of whome held the diuills creators of al things corporal b Those that Plato in his Timaeus brings in God the Father commanding the lesser Gods to make the lesser liuing creatures for they are creatures also and so they tooke the immortall beginning of a creature the soule from the starres imitating the Father and Creator and borrowing parcells of earth water and ayre from the world knit them together in one not as they were knit but yet in an insensible connexion because of the combination of such small parts whereof the whole body was framed One Menander a Scholler of Symon Magus said the Angells made the world Saturninus said that 7. Angells made it beyond the Fathers knowledge c Though The Angells as Paul saith are Gods ministers and deputies and do â—…y things vpon earth at his command for as Augustine saith euery visible thing on earth is under an Angelicall power and Gregory saith that nothing in the visible would but is ordered by a visible creature I will except Miracles if any one contend But Plato as he followeth Mâ—…s in the worlds creation had this place also of the creation of liuing things from the Scripures for hauing read that God this great architect of so new a worke said â—…et vs make 〈◊〉 after our owne Image thought he had spoken to the Angells to whose ministery he supposed mans creation committed But it seemed vnworthy to him that God should vse them in â—…king of man the noblest creature and make all the rest with his own hands and therfore he thought the Angels made all whose words if one consider them in Tullies translation which I vse he shal find that Plato held none made the soule but God and that of the stars which â—…ully de 〈◊〉 1. confirmes out of Plato saying that the soule is created by God within the elementary body which he made also and the lesser Gods did nothing but as ministers câ—…e those which hee â—…ad first created and forme it into the essence of a liuing creature Seneca explanes Plaâ—… more plainely saying That when God had laid the first foundation of this rare and excellent frame of nature and begun it he ordayned that each peculiar should haue a peculiar gouernor and though himselfe â—…ad modelled and dilated the whole vniuerse yet created he the lesser gods to be his ministers 〈◊〉 vice-gerents in this his kingdome That no nature or forme of any thing liuing hath any other Creator but God CHAP. 25. WHereas there is one forme giuen externally to all corporall substances according to the which Potters Carpenters and other shape antiques and figures of creatures and another that containeth the efficient causes hereof in the secret power of the vniting and vnderstanding nature which maketh not onely the natural formes but euen the liuing soules when they are not extant The first each artificer hath in his brayne but the later belongs to none but God who formed the world and the Angells without either world or Angells for from that 〈◊〉 all diuiding and all effectiue diuine power which cannot be made but makes and which in the beginning gaue rotundity both to the Heauens Sunne from the same had the eye the apple and all other round figures that wee see in nature their rotundity not from any externall effectiue but from the depth of that creators power that said I fill heauen and earth and whose wisdome reacheth from end to end ordering all in a delicate Decorum wherefore what vse he made of the Angels in the creation making all himselfe I know not I dare neither ascribe them more then their power nor detract any thing from that But with their fauours I attribute the estate of althings as they are natures vnto God onely of whome they thankefully aknowledge their being we do not then call husbandmen the creators of trees or plants or any thing else fot we read Neither is he that planteth any thing neither he that watereth but God that giueth the increase No not the earth neither though it seemes the fruitful mother of al things that grow for wee read also God giueth bodies vnto what hee will euen to euery seed his owne body Nor call wee a woman the creatrixe of her child but him that said to a seruant of his Before I formed thee in the wombe I knew thee although the womans soule being thus or thus affected may put some quality vpon her burthen b as we read that Iacob coloured his sheepe diuersly by spotted stickes yet shee can no more make the nature that is produced then shee could make her selfe what seminall causes then soeuer that Angells or men do vse in producing of things liuing or dead or c proceed from the copulation of male and female d or what affections soeuer of the mother dispose thus or thus of the coullour or feature of her conception the natures thus or thus affected in each of their kindes are the workes of none but God whose secret power passeth through all giuing all being to all what soeuer in that it hath being e because without that hee made it it should not bee thus nor thus but haue no being at all wherefore if in those formes externall imposed vpon things corporall we say that not workemen but Kings Romulus was the builder of Rome and Alexander of f Alexandria because by their direction these citties were built how much the rather ought we to call God the builder of nature who neither makes any thing of any substance but what hee had made before nor by any other ministers but those hee had made before and if hee withdraw his g efficient power from things they shall haue no more being then they had ere they were created Ere they were I meane in eternity not in time for who created time but he that made them creatures whose motions time followeth L. VIVES THat a all-diuiding All diuiding may be some addition the sence is good without it b As we Pliny saith that looke in the Rammes mouth and the collour of the veines vnder his tongue shal be the colour of the lambe he getteth if diuers diuers and change of waters varieth it Their shepehards then may haue sheep of what collour they will which Iacob knew well inough for he liking the particolours cast white straked rods into the watring places at Ramming
time that the sight of them might forme the Images of such collours in the conception and so it did Gen. 30. c Proceed The same Pliny lib 7. saith that the mind hath are collection of similitudes in it wherein a chance of sight hearing or remembrance is of much effect the images taken into the conceit at the time of conception are held to be powerfull in framing the thing conceiued and so is the cogitation of either party how swift soeuer it be wherevpon is more difference in man then in any other creature but the swiftnes of thought and variety of conceites formeth vs so diuersly the thoughts of other creatures being immoueable and like themselues in all kinds Thus much Pliny The Philosophers stand wholly vpon immagination in conception At Hertzogenbosh in Brabant on a certaine day of the yeare whereon they say there chiefe Church was dedicated they haue publike playes vnto the honor of the Saints as they haue in other places also of that country some act Saints and some deuils one of these diuels spying a pretty wench grew hot in al hast danceth home casting his wife vpon a bed told her he would beget a yong diuâ—…l vpon her so lay with her the woman conceiued the child was no sooner borne but it began to dance was rust of the shape that we paynt our deuills in This Margueret of Austria Maximilians Daughter Charles the 〈◊〉 told Iohn Lamuza King Ferdinands graue ambassador and now Charles his 〈◊〉 in Aragon a man as able to discharge the place of a Prince as of a Lieuâ—…enant d What â—…ctions Child-bearing women do often long for many euill things as coales and ashes I 〈◊〉 one long for a bit of a young mans neeke and had lost her birth but that shee bitte of his â—…ke vntill he was almost dead shee tooke such hold The Phisicians write much hereof â—…d the Philosophers somewhat Arist de animall They all ascribe it to the vicious humors in the stomake which if they happen in men procure the like distemper e Because So read the old bookes f Alexandria Asia Sogdia Troas Cilicia India and Egipt haue al cities called Alexandria built by Alexander the great this that Augustine meanes of is that of Egipt the most famous of all sytuate vpon the Mediterrane sea neare Bicchieri the mouth of Nile called now Scanderia or Scandaroun g Efficient Fabricatiuam pertayning to composition and diuiâ—… of matter in things created by it selfe for these are not the workes of creation Angells 〈◊〉 beasts and liuelesse things can effect them The Platonists opinion that held the Angells Gods creatures and man the Angells CHAP. 26. ANd Plato would haue the lesser Gods made by the highest to create all other things by taking their immortall part from him and framing the mortall themselues herein making them not the creators of our selues but our bodies onely And therefore Porphiry in holding that the body must be avoyded ere the soule be purged and thinking with Plato and his sect that the soules of bad liuers were for punishment thrust into bodies into beasts also saith Plato but into mans onely saith Porphiry affirmeth directly that these gods whom they wil haue vs to worship as our parents creators are but the forgers of our prisons and not our formers but only our iaylors locking vs in those dolorous grates and wretched setters wherfore the Platonists must either giue vs no punishmeÌ„t in our bodies or else make not those gods our creators whose worke they exhort vs by all meanes to avoid to escape though both these positions be most false for the soules are neither put into bodies to be thereby punished noâ—… hath any thing in heauen or earth any creator but the maker of heauen and earth For if there be no cause of our life but our punishment how a is it that Plato saith the world could neuer haue beene made most beautifull but that it was filled with all kind of creatures But if our creation albe it mortall be the worke oâ—… God how iâ—… iâ—… punishment then to enter into Gods benefites that is our bodies b and if God as Plato saith often had all the creatures of the world in his prescience why then did not hee make them all would he not make some and yet in his vnbounded knowledge knew how to make all wherefore our true religion rightly affirmes him the maker both of the world and all creatures therein bodies and soules of which in earth man the chiefe Piece was made alone after his Image for the reason shewed before if not for a greater yet was he not left alone for there is nothing in the world so sociable by nature and so iarring by vice as man is nor can mans â—…re speake better either to the keeping of discord whilst it is out or expelling it when it is entred then in recording our first Father whom God created single from him to propagate all the rest to giue vs a true admonition to preserue an vnion ouer greatest multitudes And in that the woman was made of his ribbe was a plaine intimation of the concord that should bee betweene man and wife These were the strange workes of God for they were the first Hee that beleeues them not must vtterly deny all wonders for if they had followed the vsuall course of nature they had beene no wonders But what is there in all this whole worke of the diuine prouidence that is not of vse though wee know it not The holy Psalme saith Come and behold the workes of the Lord what wonders hee hath wrought vpon the earth Wherefore why the Woman was made of Mans ribbe and what this first seeming wonder prefigured if God vouchsafe I will shew in another place L. VIVES HOw a is it that Plato His words are these GOD speaketh to the lesser Gods Marks what I say vnto you we haue three kindes remaining all mortall which if wee omit the creation will not bee perfect for wee shall not comprehend all kindes of creatures in it which wee must needs doe to haue it fully absolute b And if GOD There also hee saith that God hath the Ideas of all creatures mortall and immortall in him-selfe which he looked vpon the immortall ones when hee made the things that should neuer perish the mortall in the rest I aske not here whether that God be those Ideae or whether they bee some-thing else the Platonists know not them-selues c The concord that should Because the woman was not made of any externall parts but of mans selfe as his daughter that there might bee a fatherly loue of his wife in him and a filiall duty towards him in the wife shee was taken out of his side as his fellow not out of his head as his Lady nor out of his feete as his seruant That the fulnesse of man-kinde was created in the first man in whom God fore-saw both who
manifest which are adultery fornication vncleannesse wantonnesse Idolatry Witch-craft hatred debate emulation b wrath contentions seditions heresies enuie drunkennesse gluttonie and such like whereof I tell you now as I told you before that they which do those things shall not inherit the Kingdome of God The due consideration of this place of the Apostle will presently giue vs sufficient demonstration as farre as here needeth what it is to liue according to the flesh for in the workes of the flesh which hee saith are manifest rehearsing and condemning them we finde not onely such as appertaine to bodily and luxurious delight as fornications vncleannesse luxurie and drunkennesse but such also as discouer the viciousnesse of the minde truly distinct from fleshly pleasures For who conceiueth not that Idolatry Witch-craft emnity contention emulation wrath enuy sedition and heresie are rather mentall vices thâ—…n corporall A man may for very reueâ—…ence of some Idolatrous or hereticall error abstaine from the lusts of the body and yet though hee doe so by the Apostles wordes hee liues according to the flesh and in auoyding the workes thereof committeth most damnable workes thereof Who hath not enmitie in his heart or who saith to his enemy or him that hee thinkes his enemie you haue an euill flesh against mee none you haue an euill minde against mee Lastly as all men that should heare those carnall vices recited would affirme they were meant of the flesh so none that heareth those mentall crimes but referreth them all to the minde â—…hy then doâ—…h this true and faithfull teacher of the Gentiles call them The workes of the flesh but in that hee taketh flesh for man as the part for the whole L. VIVES SOme a misconceiuing Those were the Apollinarists Augâ—…n Ioan. Serm. in ArriuÌ„ 83. Qâ—… The Cerdonians also the Apelliâ—… held so de har ad quod vult DeuÌ„ b Wrath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hâ—… reades it irae but animus is vsed also for wrath Salust You saw last yeare how wrathfully quantis animis Lucutlus opposed L. Quintius hereof comes the word animositas that Augustine vseth for wrath Uirgil calls them East windes Animosi wrathfull Macrobius in Som. Scip. 2. vseth it so too That anger that the greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is momentarie and of no continuance Tully calls it excandescentia a fury now beginning and presently ceasing there is in this text of Paul â—…ixae scoldings or altercations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Augustine addeth not That sinne came from the soule and not the flesh and that the corruption which sinne hath procured is not sin but the punishment of sinne CHAP. 3. IF any man say that the flesh is cause of the viciousnesse of the soule he is ignorant in mans nature for the corruptible body doth but burden the soule therefore the Apostle speaking of this corruptible body whereof hee had sayd before although our outward man be corrupted we know quoth he that if our earthly house of habitation bee aestroyed wee haue a building giuen of God an house not made with hands but an eternall one in heauen therefore wee sigh desyring to bee cloathed with that habitation which we haue in heauen notwithstanding if we bee cloathed wee shall not bee found naked For wee that are in this habitacle sigh and are burdened because we would not be vncloathed but cloathed vpon that mortality might bâ—… swallowed vp of life Wee are therefore burdened with this corruptible body and yet knowing that it is not the bodies nature but corruption that causeth this burden wee would not bee despoiled of it but bee cloathed vpon it with the immortality thereof It shall then bee a body still but burden some to vs no more because it is become incorruptible so then as yet the corruptible bodie is heauy vnto the soule and the earthly mansion keepeth down the comprehensiue minde But yet such as thinke that the euills of the minde arise from the body doe erre For though that Virgill doe seeme to expresse a plaine a Platonisme in these verses Igneus est ollis vigor celestis origo Seminibus quamtum non noxia corpoâ—…a tardant Terrenique hebetant artus moribundaque membra Those seedes haue firy vigor heauenly spring So farre as bodies hinder not with fullnesse Or earthly dying members clog with dullnesse Seeming to deriue the foure knowne passions of the minde b Desire Feare Ioy and Sorrow as the originalls of all guilt wholy from the bodie by these verses following Hinc metuunt cupiuntque dolent gaudentque nec auraâ—… Suscipiunt clausae tenebris carcere caeco Heare-hence they feare desire displeas'd content Nor looke to heauen in darke-blinde prison pent Yet our faith teacheth vs otherwise For this corruption that is so burdensome to the soule is the punishment of the first sin not the causeâ—… the corruptible flesh made not the soule to sin but the sinning soule made the flesh corruptible froÌ„ which corruption although there do arise some incitements vnto sin some vicious desires yet are not all the sins of an euill life to bee laid vpon the flesh otherwise we shal make the diuil that hath no flesh sin-lesse for though we cannot c cal him a fornicator a drunkard or by any one of those carnally vicious names though he bee a secret prouoker of man vnto all those yet is he truely sâ—… most proude and enuious which vices haue possessed him so farre as therefore is hee destinate vnto eternall torment in the prisons of this obscure ayre Now those vices that domineere in him the Apostle calleth the workes of the flesh though sure it is that hee hath no flesh For hee saith that emnity contention emulation wrath and enuie are the workes of the flesh to all which pride giueth being yet rules pride in the flesh-lesse deuill For who hates the Saints more then hee who is more enuious contentious emulating and wrathfull against them then hee Doing all this without the flesh how are these the workes of the flesh but because they are the workes of man whom as I sayd before the Apostle meaneth by flesh for man became like the deuill not in beeing in the flesh for so was not the deuill but in liuing according to his owne lust that is according to the fleshly man for so chose the deuill to doe when hee left the truth to become a lier not through GOD but through himselfe who is both a lier and the father of lying For hee lied first and from him sinning and lying had their beginning L. VIVES PLaine a Platonisme No more then Pythagorisme both alike but of this in the 8. booke b Desire There are foure chiefe affects of the minde two delightfull and two sorrowfull Of the first the one belongs to things present ioy and is an opinion of a present good the other desire vnto future and is an opinion of a future good Of the two sad
both as humaine vanity not as diuine verity teacheth him indeed the a Plotonists are not so mad as the Manichees that hate the carnal body as the naturall cause of all mischiefe and yet make God the creator of all the elements parts and qualities that this visible world is composed of Yet the Platonists hold that these our mortall members do produce the affects of feare desire ioy and sorrow in our bodies from which foure perturbations as Tully calles them or passions as other translators giue them the whole inundation of mans enormities haue their source and spring If this be so why doth Aeneas in Virgill hearing by his father that the soules were to returne backe into bodies wunder at this opinion and cry out O pater anne aliquas ad caelum hinc ire putandum est Sublimes animas iterumque ad tarda reuerti Corpora quae lucis miseris tam dira cupido What father do you thinke the soules are taine To heauen and thence to this dull flesh returne What dire affect should vrge them to their paine Is this same dire affect as yet remayning in the soule being now quit from the carnall burden in such a commended purity doth hee not say they are purged from all bodily infection when as they desire to returne into the body againe if it were so then as it is most vaine to hold so that there were an eternall reuolution of the pollution and the purgation then can it not bee truely said that all vicious affects are the effects of the flesh for as this b noble speaker saith that dire affect which doth compell the soule being purged from all earthly c contagion 〈◊〉 desire the body againe is not of the body And therefore they confesse that all the soules ill affects arise not from the flesh as desire feare ioy and d sorrow but it may haue those passions of it selfe L. VIVES THe a Maniches They held all flesh the worke of the deuill not of GOD and therefore they forbad their hearers to kill any creatures least they should offend the Princes of darkenesse from whom they sayd all flesh had originall and if they vsed their wiues yet must they auoide generation least the diuine substance which goeth into them by their nourishment should bebound in the fleshly bonds of the child begotten Aug ad Quod vult deum The Prisciâ—…ianists held thus also b Noble speâ—…ker So he called Tully before and Virgil now c contagion Or habitacle d Sorrow Tullie calls it egritudo Tusc. 3. Of the quality of mans will vnto with all affections good and bad are subiect CHAP. 6. BVt the quality of mans will is of some moment for if it be bad so are all those motions if good they are both blamelesse and praise-worthy for there is a a will in them all nay they are all direct wills what is desire and ioy but a will b consenting to that which wee affect and what is feare and sorrow but a will contrary vnto what we like But when we consent to the desire of any thing that is desire and when wee consent in enioying any thing this is delight â—…o when wee dislike a thing and would not haue it come to passe this will is feare when we dislike it being come to passe this is griefe or sorrow And this according to the variety of the things desired and avoided as the will consents or dislikes so are our diuersity of passions Whereof a Man that maketh GOD aâ—…d noâ—… Man the steeres-man of his life ought to loue good and consequently to hate euill and because none is euill by nature but all by vice hee that liueth after Gods loue oweth his c full hate vnto the Euill not to hate the man for his vice nor to loue the vice for the man but hate the vice and loue the man for the vice being cured hee shall finde no obiect of his hate but all for his loue L. VIVES a A Will The Stoickes hold that onely to bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Tully translates will when a thing is firmely and constantly desired therefore it is defined a desire of any thing with reason which is in a wise man only but that which is against reason is called a lust or an inordinate desire beeing resident in all fooles The Peripatetiques call both these wills the one good and the other badde the controuersie as I said else-where is but verball For the Stoickes call affects wills also nor skilleth it whether Will follow Naâ—…e or Reason for it is euer-more Will though that be properly called Will wherein is that freedome of election and is harbour to Vice or Vertue b Consenting To beleeue a thing to bee or not to bee is no consent or dissent but Knowledge Faith or Opinion Arist. in Analyt Posterior but to will or not to will in any thing that belongs to the will which perteineth to the minde and as it were appoints and decrees what is to be done or not done c Full hate Explayning that of the Psalme 139. 22. I hate them with a perfect hatred That amor and dilectio are of indifferent vse in the scriptures both for good and euill CHAP. 7. FOr hee that is resolued to loue GOD and his neighbor according vnto God and not Man for this loue is called a Man of a good will and this is called more commonly charity in the scriptures though some-times it bee called loue therein also For the Apostle will haue his magistrate to bee a louer of good And our LORD asking Peter thus Symon the sonne of Ionah louest thou me a more then these hee answered Lord b thou knowest that I loue thee hee asked him so againe and hee answered so againe then they asked him the third time by 〈◊〉 amo whereas he had vsed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diligo in the other two onely to shew that diligere and amare were both one to loue as Peter had vsed the one in all the three questions This I thought worth recitall but some say c dilectio charity is one thing and amor loue another and that the first is d vsed in the good and the later in the badde But sure it is that the profane authors neuer vsed them so But let the Philosophers looke to their distinctions For their bookes vse amor loue in good senses and in reference to GOD most frequently But wee were to e shew that our scriptures whome wee place farre aboue their authorities doe not vse amor and dilectio with any such distinct difference for wee haue shewne that they vse amor in a good sence If any one thinke it is vsed both in good respect and bad and dilectio onely in the good let him looke in that of the Psalme Hee that loueth diligit iniquity hateth his owne soule here is diligo vpon a badde subiect And here the Apostle Iohn If any man loue Dilexerit the vvorld the loue dilectio of the Father is not
in the same stead that a Kings are to him his 〈◊〉 his mantle and his staffe his scepter The Donatists and the Circumcelliones beeing 〈◊〉 both of one stampe in Augustines time went so cloaked and bare clubbes to destroy 〈◊〉 Christians withall Of the blessing of multiplication before sinne which the transgression did not abolish but onely lincked to lust CHAP. 21. â—…D forbid then that we should beleeue that our parents in Paradise should â—…e full-filled that blessing Increase and multiply and fill the earth in that 〈◊〉 made them blush and hide their priuities this lust was not in them vntill 〈◊〉 â—…ne and then their shame fast nature hauing the power and rule of the 〈◊〉 perceiued it blushed at it and couered it But that blessing of marriage â—…rease multiplication and peopling of the earth though it remained in 〈◊〉 after sin yet was it giuen them before sin to know that procreation of 〈◊〉 â—…onged to the glory of mariage not to the punishment of sin But the 〈◊〉 are now on earth knowing not that happinesse of Paradise doe thinke â—…dren cannot be gotten but by this lust which they haue tried this is that 〈◊〉 honest mariage ashamed to act it 〈◊〉 a reiecting impiously deriding the holy scriptures that say they were â—…d of their nakednesse after they had sinned couered their priuities and b others though they receiue the scriptures yet hold that this blessing Increase and multiply is meant of a spirituall and not a corporall faecundity because the Psalme saith thou shalt multiply vertue in my soule and interprete the following words of Genesis And fill the earth and rule ouer it thus earth that is the flesh which the soule filleth with the presence and ruleth ouer it when it is multiplied in vertue but that the carnall propagation cannot bee performed without that lust which arose in man was discouered by him shamed him and made him couer it after sinne and that his progeny were not to liue in Paradise but without it as they did for they begot no children vntill they were put forth of Paradise and then they did first conioyne and beget them L. VIVES OThers a reiecting The Manichees that reiected all the olde Testament as I sayd elsewhere b Others though The Adamites that held that if Adam had not sinned there should haue beene no marying c Thou shalt multiply The old bookes reade Thou shalt multiply me in soule by thy vertue And this later is the truer reading I thinke for Aug. followed the 70. and they translate it so That God first instituted and blessed the band of Mariage CHAP. 22. BVt wee doubt not at all that this increase multiplying and filling of the earth was by Gods goodnesse bestowed vpon the marriage which hee ordeined in the beginning ere man sinned when hee made them male and female sexes euident in the flesh This worke was no sooner done but it was blessed for the scripture hauing said He created them male and female addeth presently And God blessed them saying Increase and multiply c. a All which though they may not vnfitly be applied spiritually yet male and female can in no wise be appropriate to any spirituall thing in man not vnto that which ruleth and that which is ruled but as it is euident in the reall distinction of sexe they were made male and female to bring forth fruite by generation to multiply and to fill the earth This plaine truth none but fooles will oppose It cannot bee ment of the spirit ruling and the flesh obeying of the reason gouerning and the affect working of the contemplatiue part excelling and the actiue seruing nor of the mindes vnderstanding and the bodies sence but directly of the band of marriage combining both the sexes in one Christ being asked whether one might put away his wife for any cause because Moses by reason of the hardnesse of their hearts suffred them to giue her a bill of diuorce answered saying Haue you not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female and sayd for this cause shall â—…man leaue father and mother and sleaue vnto his wife and they tvvaine shal be one flesh So that now they are no more two but one Let no man therefore sunder what God hath coupled together Sure it t s therefore that male and female were ordained at the beginning in the same forme and difference that mankinde is now in And they are called one either because of their coniunction or the womans originall who came of the side of man for the Apostle warnes all maried men by this example to loue their wiues L. VIVES ALL a which There is nothing in the scripture but may bee spiritually applied yet must we keepe the true and real sence otherwise we should make a great confusion in religion for the Heretiques as they please wrest all vnto their positions But if God in saying Increase c. had no corporall meaning but onely spirituall what remaines but that we allow this spirituall increase vnto beasts vpon whom also this blessing was laide Whether if man had not sinned he should haue begotten children in Paradice and vvhether there should there haue beene any contention betvveene chastity and lust CHAP. 23. BVt he that saith that there should haue beene neither copulation nor propagation but for sinne what doth he els but make sinne the originall of the holy number of Saints for if they two should haue liued alone not sinning seeing sinne as these say was their onely meane of generation then veryly was sinne necessary to make the number of Saints more then two But if it bee absurd to hold this it is fit to hold that that the number of Gods cittizenâ—… should haue beene as great then if no man had sinned as now shal be gathered by Gods grace out of the multitude of sinners as long a as this worldly multiplication of the sonnes of the world men shal endure And therefore that marriage that was held fit to bee in Paradice should haue had increase but no lust had not sinne beene How this might be here is no fit place to discusse but it neede not seeme incredible that one member might serue the will without lust then so many seruing it now b Do wee now mooue our hands and feete so lasily when wee will vnto their offices without resistance as wee see in our selues and others chiefely handicraftesmen where industry hath made dull nature nimble and may wee not beleeue that those members might haue serued our first father vnto procreation if they had not beene seazed with lust the reward of his disobedience as well as all his other serued him to other acts doth not Tully disputing of the difference of gouerments in his bookes of the Common-weale and drawing a simyly from mans nature say that they c command our bodily members as sonnes they are so obedient and that wee must keepe an harder forme
peace of a family an orderly rule and subiection amongst the parts thereof peace of a citty an orderly command and obedience amongst the citizens peace of Gods Citty a most orderly coherence in God and fruition of GOD peace of althings is a well disposed order For order is a good disposition of discrepant parts each in the fittest place and therfore the miserable as they are miserable are out of order wanting that peace-able and vnperturbed state which order exacteth But because their owne merites haue incurred this misery therefore euen herein they are imposed in a certaine set order howsoeuer Being not con-ioyned with the blessed but seuered from them by the law of order and beeing exposed to miseries yet are adapted vnto the places wherein they are resident and so are digested into some kinde of methodicall forme and consequently into some peacefull order But this is their misery that although that some little security wherein they liue exempt them from present sorrowes yet are they not in that state which secludeth sorrow for euer and affordeth eternall security And their misery is farre greater if they want the peace of nature and when they are offended the part that grieueth is the first disturber of their peace for that which is neither offended nor dissolued preserues the peace of nature still So then as one may possibly liue without griefe but cannot possibly grieue vnlesse hee liue so may there bee peace without any warre or contention but contention cannot bee without some peace not as it is contention but because the contenders doe suffer and performe diuers things herein according to natures prescript which things could not consist had they not some peacefull order amongst them So that there may bee a nature you see wherein no euill may haue inherence but to finde a nature vtterly voide of goodnesse is vtterly impossible For the very nature of the deuills consider it as nature is most excellent but their owne voluntary peruersnesse depraued it The deuill abode not in the truth yet scaped hee not the sentence of the truth for hee transgressed the peacefull lawe of order yet could not avoide the powerfull hand of the orderer The good which GOD had bestowed on his nature cleared him not from GODS heauy iudgement which allotted him to punishment Yet doth not GOD heerein punish the good which himselfe created but the euill which the deuill committed nor did hee take away his whole nature from him but left him part whereby to bewaile the losse of the rest which lamentation testifyeth both what hee had and what hee hath for had hee not some good left hee could not lament for what hee had lost For his guilt is the greater that hauing lost all his vprightnesse should reioyce at the losse thereof And hee that is sicke if it benefit him nothing yet greeueth at the losse of his health For vprightnesse and health beeing both goods it behooueth the loosers of them to mourne and not to reioyce vnlesse this losse bee repaired with better recompence as vprightnesse of minde is better then health of bodie but farre more reason hath the sinner to lament in his suffering then to reioyce in his transgression Therefore euen as to reioyce at the losse of goodnesse in sining argueth a depraued will so likewise lament for the same losse in suffering prooueth a good nature For he that bewaileth the losse of his naturall peace hath his light from the remainders of that peace which are left in him keeping his nature and him in concord And in the last iudgement it is but reason that the wicked should deplore the losse of their naturall goods and feele GODS hand iustly heauy in depriuing them of them whome they scornefully respected not in the bestowing them vpon them Wherefore the high GOD natures wisest creator and most iust disposer the parent of the worlds fairest wonder mankinde bestowed diuers goods vpon him which serue for this life onely as the worldly and temporall peace kept by honest cohaerence and society together with all the adiacents of this peace as the visible light the spirable ayre the potable water and all the other necessaries of meate drinke and cloathing but with this condition that hee that shall vse them in their due manner and reference vnto b humaine peace shall bee rewarded with guiftes of farre greater moment namely with the peace of immortality and with vnshaded glorie and full fruition of GOD and his brother in the same GOD c but he that vseth them amisse shall neither pertake of the former nor the later L. VIVES THe a bodies peace Saint Augustine in this chapter prooueth althings to consist by peace â—…nd concord so that consequently discord must needes bee the fuell to all ruine and confusion Wherefore I wonder at the peruerse nature of men that loue dissentions and quarrells as their owne very soules hating peace as it were a most pernitious euill Surely they had but there due if their bosomes within and their states without were wholy fraught with this their so deerely affected darling warre b Humane peace But men doe turne all these goods now a daies into contentious vses as if they were ordeined for no other end neuer thinking that there is a place of eternall discord prepared for them to dwell in hereafter where they may enioy their damned desires for euer The whole goodnesse of peace and of that especially which CHRIST left vs as his full inheritance is gone all but for the name and an imaginary shade thereof all the rest wee haue lost nay wee haue made a willing extrusion of it and expelled it wittingly and of set purpose imagining our whole felicity to consist in the tumults of warres and slaughters And oh so wee braue it that wee haue slaine thus many men burnt thus many townes sacked thus many citties Founding our principall glories vpon the destruction of our fellowes But I may beginne a plaint of this heere but I shall neuer end it c But hee A diuersity of reading in the copies rather worth nothing then noting Of the law of Heauen and Earth which swaieth humane society by counsell and vnto which counsell humane society obeyeth CHAP. 14. ALL temporall things are referred vnto the benefit of the peace which is resident in the Terrestriall Cittie by the members thereof and vnto the vse of the eternall peace by the Cittizens of the Heauenly society Wherefore if wee wanted reason wee should desire but an orderly state of body and a good temperature of affects nothing but fleshly ease and fulnesse of pleasure For the peace of the body augmenteth the quiet of the soule and if it bee a wanting it procureth a disturbance euen in brute beasts because the affects haue not their true temperature Now both these combined adde vnto the peace of soule and bodie both that is vnto the healthfull order of life For as all creatures shew how they desire their bodies peace in avoyding the causes of
they shall be so reioyned againe that neither time nor torment shall bee able to procure their seperation Wherefore though our flesh as now bee such that it cannot suffer all paine without dying yet then shall it become of another nature as death also then shal be of another nature For the death then shal be eternall and the soule that suffereth it shall neither bee able to liue hauing lost her God and onely life nor yet to avoide torment hauing lost all meanes of death The first death forceth her from the body against her will and the second holds her in the body against her will Yet both are one in this that they enforce the soule to suffer in the body against her will Our opponent will allow this that no flesh as now can suffer the greatest paine and yet not perish but they obserue not that there is a thing aboue the body called a soule that rules and guides it and this may suffer all torment and yet remaine for euer Behold now here is a thing sensible of sorrow and yet eternall this power then that is now in the soules of all shal be as then in the bodies of the damned And if wee weigh it well the paines of the bodie are rather referred to the soule The soule it is and not the body that feeles the hurt inflicted vpon any part of the bodie So that as wee call them liuing and sensitiue bodies though all the life and sense is from the soule so likewise doe wee say they are greeued bodies though the griefe bee onely in the soule So then when the bodie is hurt the soule grieueth with the bodie When the minde is offended by some inward vexation then the soule greeueth alone though it bee in the bodie and further it may greeue when it is without the bodie as the soule of the ritch glutton did in hell when hee sayd I am tormented in this flame But the bodie wanting a soule grieueth not nor hauing a soule doth it grieue without the soule If therefore it were meete to draw an argument of death from the feeling of paine as if wee should say hee may feele paine ergo he may die this should rather inferre that the soule may die because it is that which is the feeler of the paine But seeing that this is absurd false how then can it follow that those bodies which shal be in paine shall therefore bee subiect vnto death Some d Platonists hold that those parts of the soule wherein feare ioye and griefe were resident were mortall and perished wherevpon Virgill sayd Hinc metuunt cupiuntque dolent gaudent hence that is by reason of those mortall parts of the soule did feare hope ioye and griefe possesse them But touching this wee prooued in our foureteenth booke that after that their soules were purged to the vttermost yet remained there a desire in them to returne vnto their bodies and where desire is there griefe may bee For hope beeing frustate and missing the ayme turneth into griefe and anguish Wherefore if the soule which doth principally or onely suffer paine bee notwithstanding e after a sort immortall then doth it not follow that a body should perish because it is in paine Lastly if the bodie may breed the soules greefe and yet cannot kill it this is a plaine consequent that paine doth not necessarily inferre death Why then is it not as credible that the fire should grieue those bodies and yet not kill them as that the body should procure the soules ◅nguish and yet not the death Paine therefore is no sufficient argument to proue that death must needs follow it L. VIVES THere is a no body A common proposition of Aristotle Plato Epicurus Zeno Cicero Seneca all the ancient Philosophers b Whether the deuills The Platonists dispute among thēselues whether the bodies of the Damones haue feeling Some say thus the feeling lieth onely in the Nerues and sinewes The Daemones haue now sinewes ergo Others as the old Atheists say that the feeling is not in the sinewes but in the spirit that engirteth them which if it leaue the sinew it becommeth stupid and dead therefore may the bodies of these Daemones both feele and be felt and consequently bee hurt and cut in peeces by a more solid body and yet notwithstanding they doe presently reioyne and so feele the lesse paine though they feele some the more concrete and condensate that their bodies are the more subiect are they to suffer paine and therefore they doe some of them feare swords and threatnings of casting them downe headlong Mich. Psell. and Marc. Ch◅rrones Hence it is perphaps that Virgil maketh Sibylla bid Aeneas draw his sword when they went downe to hell Aeneid 6. c Uiolence Paine saith Tully Tusc. quaest 2. is a violent motion in the body offending the sences which if it exceede oppresseth the vitalls and bringeth death whether it arise of the super-abundance of some quality of the bodie of heate moysture the spirits the excrements or of the defect of any of them or ab externo which three are generally the causes of paine d Some Platonists Aristotle affirmes as much De anima lib. e After a sort For it was not from before the beginning and yet shal be euerlasting it shall neuer be made nothing though it shall suffer the second death and endure eternally dying Natures testimonies that bodies may remaine vndiminished in the fire CHAP. 4. IF therefore the a Salamander liue in the fire as the most exact naturalists record and if there bee certaine famous hills in b Sicily that haue beene on fire continually from beyond the memory of man and yet remaine whole vnconsumed then are these sufficient proofes to shew that all doth not consume that burneth as the soule prooueth that all that feeleth paine doth not perish Why then should we stand vpon any more examples to prooue the perpetuity of mans soule and body without death or dissolution in euerlasting fire and torment That GOD that endowed nature with so many seuerall and c admirable qualities shall as then giue the flesh a quality whereby it shall endure paine and burning for euer Who was it but hee that hath made the flesh of a d dead Peacock to remaine alwaies sweete and without all putrefaction I thought this vnpossible at first and by chance being at meate in Carthage a boyled Peacock was serued in and I to try the conclusion tooke of some of the Lyre of the breast and caused it to be layd vp After a certaine space sufficient for the putrefaction of any ordinary flesh I called for it and smelling to it found no ill taste in it at all Layd it vp againe and thirty daies after I lookt againe it was the same I left it The like I did an whole yeare after and found no change onely it was somewhat more drie and solide Who gaue such cold vnto the chaffe that it will keepe snow vnmelted in it and withall
from Solon one of the seauen sages the famous Law-giuer of Athens Both his pedigrees claime from Neptune He was born at Athens Olymâ—…iad 88. His life and actions are recorded by many who extoll him for wisedom and conuersation aboue al earthly men But indeed their loue is so far from doing him more then right that but that I know them stand dearely affected vnto him I should suspect they did somwhat enuy his praise for he erreth in my iudgement that holdeth not Plato to haue bin some-what more then man at least of that same rare and singular race and stamp of men b Socrates his A diuers reading c Aegipt Laertius saith Euripides he went thether together after his return from Italy d Italy Into Magna graecia where Pythagoras had left many of his sect of whom Arâ—…as the elder read vnto Plato at Tarentum and Euritus Timaeus at Locris Phylolaus at Croto Tully in his Cato Maior saith he came thether in the Consulships of L. Aemilius and Appius Claâ—…dius though Liuy at that time that was twenty foure yeares after the Candine foyle putteth Furius Camillus in Appius his place Plato went also to Megara to Euclide the Mathematitian and to Theodorus another of Cyrene and but for the warres ment to haue visâ—…ed â—…he Persian Magies e Either he had Al this learning he said was Socrates his Epist ad Dyoâ—…s Ascribing all his Phylosophy both morall natural to him f Wisedome is â—…lato Arisâ—…e recken some disciplines that are neither actiue nor contemplatiue but effectual as Architecture and al mechanike trades So that some they say are speculatiue as Theology some actâ—…ue wherin no effect remaines after the act as musique and all rhetorike some affecting materially as al the trades building cobling caruing c. But this last is impertinent in this place g Socraâ—… said Actiue that is in morality and vertuous rule of the actions wherein he is said to be whâ—…ly imploied yet did hee speculate much in this kind for Adymantus saith to him Pl to Derepub lib. 2. Thou hast spent thy time in nothing but speculation And what paines he tooke in the inuestigation of the meanes to attain the summum bonum him-selfe sheweth in his Apology in Plato but he directed all to action but Pythagoras his aymes being at matters only pertayning to them-selues had their full limitation in them-selues h He sub-diuided This diu siâ—… saith Eusebius de praep Euang. hee had from the Hebrewes alledging Atticus the Phylosophers opinion who describeth them plainly and that hee conioyned the parts of Phylosophy that was in peeces before as the torne members of Pentheus for Thales and his followeâ—…s were all Physicall The other sages all Morall Zeno and the Eleans all Logicall All these Plato combined and diuulged publishing his Phylosophy perfect not by peece-meale as Aristotle confirmes Phys. lib 7. Phylosophy at first saith Laertius in his Plato medled but with nature then came Socrates and made it Morall then Plato with his rationall made it absolute had the last hand vpon it Apuleius speaking of him saith that he filled al his bookes with the most admirable and extracted things that Zeno and Parmenides had taught so conioyning the triparâ—…ite Phylosophy and so reconcyling each that he auoyded all dissonance of parts and made each acknowledge a dependance vpon other Dogmat. Platon Some of his Dialogues all Logicall as his â—…orgias and his Euthydemus some priuately Morall as his Memnon Eutiphyro Phylebus and Crito some publikely Morall as his Lawes and his Respublica Some Naturall as his Timaeus Some Supernaturall as his Parmenides and his Sophista yet all these are Logically composed i distinction of true terminat or disterminat all is but to distinguish so doth Lucane vse disterminat ab ausonâ—…s disterminat arua Colonis diuides the fieldes And Mela vseth it so also Bosphorus disterminat Europam ab Asia Bosphorus diuides c. k Which though it be It is a great question in our Schooles whether Logicke be speculatiue or practike A fond question truly I thinke and fellow with most of our Phylosophycall theames of these times where the dreames of practise and speculation do nought but dull young apprehensions And now at last the cause goes on the Practikes sides because it teacheth to dispute as though wee argue not more in our contemplation of nature then in our morality But these Schoole-men neither know how to speculate in nature nor action nor how the lifes actions are to be ordered Not that I thinke these must belong onely to speculation but Augustine saith here That it is necessary to them both but especially it is imployed about seeking truth falshood and probability l Delighting 〈◊〉 his maister Plato as I said confessed that Socrates was author of all his workes and in all his Dialogues the wordes that Plato giueth him are by his author onely to be held his opinions though hee speake his owne opinion by the mouth of Timaus and the Arthemian stranger and Zeno the Elean m From others Or from him For Socoates and hee were still of one opinion though others were so also n For if a man What need such a turmoyle whether this be the intellect or will since Aristotle to omit others saith that the minde is mans most excelling part in that it is both intellect will and memory But they are so hard that beeing not vnderstood by these fellowes they admire them mary these beeing playne and almost palpable they neglect o Then let Alluding to the diuision of Phylosophy into three parts The old bookes for security read certainty and for certainty truth That the cheefe Controuersie with the Platonists is about Theology and that all the Philosophers opinions hereof are inferior vnto theirs CHAP. 5. IF Plato then affirme that a wise man is an immitator a knower and a belouer of this GOD VVhose participation makes a man blessed what neede wee meddle with the rest whereof none come so neare vs as hee Away therefore with this same fabulous theology pleasing reprobate affections with the crimes of the goddes Away with the ciuill wherein the diuels working vpon the willingnesse of the ignorant to impure actes cause them to celebrate mortall errors for diuine honours In the beholding of which they a make their seruants the vshers of their vayne villanies both by the example of these dishonest sports alluring others to their worshippe and making them-selues also better sport with the guilt of the spectators of these impurities Wherein also if there be any honesty left in the Temples it is polluted by attraction of turpitude from the Stages and if any filth bee presented on the Stages it is graced with the cohaerence it hath with that of the Temples The pertinents wherof Varro interpreting by references to heauen nature and causes of production fayled wholy of his purpose because the thinges them-selues signified no such matters as he interpreted them by And though they did
the reasonable soules which are parts in that order of nature are not to bee held for goddes Nor ought it to be subiect to those things ouer which God hath giuen it superiority Away with those thinges also which Numa buryed beeing pertinent to these religious ordinances and beeing afterwards turned vp by a plough were by the Senate buryed And those also to fauor our suspition of Numa Which Alexander the great wrote b to his Mother that hee hadde learned of Leon an Aegiptian Priest Where not onely Picus Faunus Aeneas Romulus Hercules A◅sculapius Bacchus Castor and Pollux and other mortal men whome they hadde for their goddes but euen the c gods of the greater families whom Tully not naming them though seemes to touch at in his Tusculane Questions Iupiter Iuno Saturne Vulcan Vesta and many other which Varro would make nothing but Elements and parts of the world there are they all shewne to haue beene but men For the Priest fearing the reuealing of these misteries warned Alexander that as soone as his Mother hadde read them hee should burne them So not all this fabulous and ciuill Theology shall giue place to the Platonists who held a true God the author of all thinges the clearer of all doubtes and the giuer of all goodnes but euen the other Phylosophers also whose grosse bodily inuentions held the worlds beginning to be bodily let al these giue place to those good god-conceiuing men let Thales depart with his water Anaximenes with the ayre the Stoikes with their d fire Epicurus with his Atomes his indiuisible and in sensible bodies and all other that now are not for vs to recount who placed natures originall in bodies eyther simple compound quicke or dead for there were e some and the Epicureans were they that held a possibility of producing the quicke out of the dead f others would produce out of the quick some things quick and some dead yet all bodily as of a body produced But the Stoikes held g the fire one of this visible worldes foure elements to bee wise liuing the Creator of the world whole and part yea euen God him-selfe Now these their fellowes followed euen the bare surmises of their owne fleshly opinions in these assertions For h they hadde that in them which they saw not and thought that to bee in them which they saw externally nay which they saw not but imagined onely now this in the sight of such a thought is no body but a bodies likenesse But that where-with our minde seeth seeth this bodyes likenesse is neither body nor likenesse and that which discerneth the other iudging of the deformity or beauty of it is more beautious then that which it iudgeth of This is the nature of mans minde and reasonable soule which is no body nor is the bodies likenesse revolued in the minde a body either So then it is neyther fire ayre water nor earth of which foure bodies which wee call Elements this visible World is composed Now if our soule bee no body how can God that made it bee a body So then let these giue place to the Platonists and i those also that shamed to say God was a body and yet would make him of the same essence that our s◅es ar being not moued by the soules mutability which it were vile to ascribe vnto God I but say they k the body it is that alters the soule of it self it is immutable So might they say that it is a body that woundeth the body for of it selfe it is invulnerable That which is immutable nothing externall can change But that that any body alters is not vnchangeable because it is externally alterable L. VIVES THey a make A difference of reading but not worthy the noting b Wrote this Cyprian affirming al y◠Pagan gods were men saith that this is so Alexander writeth in a famous volume to hi◅ mother that the feare of his power made such secrets of the gods to bee reuealed vnto him by that Pries◅ that they were he saw now nothing else but ancient kinges whose memories vsed to be kept at first and afterwards grew to sacrifices De Idoll Vanitate c Gods of the Tarquinius Pris◅s fist King of Rome added 100. Senators to the ancient Senate and these were called the fathers of the lesser families the former of the greater which phraze Tully vseth metaphorically for the ancient confirmed gods If we should seeke the truth of Greeke authors saith Tully euen these goddes of the greater families would be found to haue gone from vs here ◅n earth vp into heauen Thus farre he Tusc. Quaest. 1. Teaching the soules immortallity which beeing loosed from the body shall be such as they who are adored for gods Such were Romulus Hercules Bacchus c. And thus is heauen filled almost ful with men Tully also elsewhere calleth such gods of the greater families as haue alwaies bene held celestiall In Legib. Those that merit heauen he calleth Gods ascript d Fire Cic. de nat deor The Stoikes hold al actiue power fire following it seemes Heraclitus And Zeno their chiefe defineth the nature that he held for god to be a fire artificiall generatiue and moouing e Some The Epicureans held all men and each thing else to come out of Atomes flying about at randome and knitting together by chance f Others So the old Manuscripts do read it g Held the fire Cic. de ◅t de◅ h They had that They could not conceiue the soule to be incorporeall but corporall onely nor vniuersally that but sensible onely And it is triuiall in the Shooles Nothing is in the ◅derstanding that was not first in the sence That is our minde conceiueth but what is circumscribed with a body sensible or an obiect of our sence So we conceit incorporeall things corporally and corporall things neuer seene by imagination and cogitation of such or such formes as we haue seene As one that neuer saw Rome but thinkes of it he imagineth it hath walls churches buildings or such-like as he hath seene at Paris Louvaine Valencia or elsewhere Further Augustine teacheth that the thoughts are incorporeall and that the mindes internall sences which produce thoughts are both before thoughts and thinges them-selues which sences internal God being the Creator of must needs be no body but a power more excellent then al other bodies or soules i Those also Cic. de nat deor l. 1. for Pythagoras that held God to be a soule continuate diffused through al nature neuer marked the perturbations our soules are subiect to by which were God such he should be distracted and disturbed when the soules were wretched as many are so should god be also which is impossible but Plato deriued our soules frō the substance of the stars if they died yong he affirmed their returne theth◅ again each to the star whence it came and that as the stars were composed of the 4. Ele◅ so we◅e the soules but in a
ones sorrow is an opinion of a present euill and feare of a future and of these affects come all the rest Enuy Emulation Detraction Pitty Vexation Mourning Sadnesse Lamentation Care Doubt Troublesomnesse Affliction Desperation all these come of sorrow and Sloath Shame Error Timorousnesse Amazement Disturbance and Anxiety from feare And then Exultation Delight and Boasting of Ioy with Wrath Fury Hatred Emnity Discorde Need and Affectation all of Desire Cic. Tusc. quest lib. 4. c Cannot call him Of this hereafter What it is to liue according to Man and to liue according to God CHAP. 4. THerefore a man liuing according to man and not according to God is like the deuill because an Angell indeed should not liue according to an Angel but according to God to remaine in the truth and speake truth from him and not lies from himselfe For the Apostle speakes thus of man If the truth of GOD hath abounded through my lying calling lying his the truth of God Therefore he that liues according to the truth liues according vnto God not according to himself For God said I am the truth But he yâ— liueth not so but according to himself liueth according to lying not that man whom God that neuer createdlie did create is the author of lying but because man was created vpright to liue according to his creator and not himselfe that is to doe his will rather then his owne But not to liue as hee was made to liue this is a lie For hee a would bee blessed and yet will not liue in a course possible to attaine it b What can there bee more lying then such a will And therefore it is not vnfitly sayd euery sinne is a lie For wee neuer sinne but with a will to doe our selues good or noâ—… to doe our selues hurt Therefore is it a lie when as that we thinke shall doe vs good turnes vnto our hurt or that which we thinke to better our selues by makes vs worse whence is this but because that man can haue his good but onely from God whome hee forsaketh in sinning and none from himselfe in liuing according to whom hee sinneth Whereas therefore wee sayd that the contrariety of the two citties arose herevpon because some liued according to the flesh and others according to the spirit we may likewise say it is because some liue according vnto Man and other some vnto God For Paul saith plainely to the Corinthians Seeing there is emulation and contention amongst you are you not carnall and walke accordâ—…ng to man To walke therefore according to man is carnall man beeing vnderstood in his inferior part flesh For those which hee calles carnall here he calleth naturall before saying c What man knoweth the things of a man but the spirit of a man which is in him euen so no man knoweth the things of God but the Spirit of God Now we haue not receiued the spirit of the Word but the Spirit which is of God that wee might know the things that God hath giuen vs which things also we speake not in the words which mans wisdome teacheth but d being taught by the spirit comparing spiriâ—…ll things with spirituall things But the naturall man perceiueth not the things of the spirit of God e for they are foolishnesse vnto him Vnto those naturall men hee spake this a little afterwards I could not speake vnto you brethren as vnto spirituall men but as vnto carnall And here is that figure in speech that vseth the part for the whole to bee vnderstood for the whole man may either bee ment by the soule or by the flesh both which are his parts and so a naturall man and a carnall man are not seuerall but all one namely one that liueth according to man according as those places afore-cited doe intend By the workes of the lavv f shall no flesh bee iustified and that where it is said that g Seuenty fiue soules vâ—…ent dovvne vvith Iacob into Egipt in the former by flesh is ment man and in the later by 75. soules are meant 75. persons And in this not in the words which mans wisdome teacheth he might haue sayd which carnall wisdome teacheth as also according to the flesh for according vnto man if hee had pleased And it was more apparant in the subsequence for when one saith I am Pauls and another I am Apollo's are you not men That which he had called naturall and carnall before he now more expressly calleth man meaning you liue according to Man and not according to God whom if you followed in your liues you should bee made gods of men L. VIVES HEE a would No man liueth so wickedly but hee desireth beatitude though his course lead him quite another way directly vnto misery b What can There is nothing more deceiptfull then the wicked For it deludeth him extreamely in whom it ruleth c What man This place is cited otherwise more expresly in the latine text of the first booke d Taught by the spâ—…it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But some reade by the Doctrine of the spirit e For they are The spirituall things of GOD seeme fooleries vnto carnall and vnsettled men as the Pagans â—…dome and vertues were scorned of the ritch gnoffes that held shades for substances and vertues for meere vanities Thence hath Plato his caue wherein men were vsed to shapes â—…d appearing shadowes that they thought their had beene no other bodies Derep. lib. 7. f shall no flesh Some read it in the present tense but erroneously the greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abitur g Seuenty fiue soules Soule for man is an Hebraicall phrase for life a greeke phrase vsed also by the latine Nonius Marcellus saith Uirgil vseth it for bodies there where he saith Intereasocios inhumataque corpora terrae Mandemus qui solus honos Acheronte sub imo est Ite ait egregias animas quae sanguine nobis Hanc patriam peperere suo Meane while th' vnburied bodies of our mates Giue we to Graue sole honor after Fates Goe honor those braue soules with their last dues Who with their blood purchas'd this land for vs. Whether it be so or no let him looke to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeed in the Greeke is sometimes vsed for the whole creature That the Platonists teach the natures of soule and body better then the Manichees yet they erre in ascribing sinne vnto the nature of the flesh CHAP. 5. WE should not therfore iniure our creator in imputing our vices to our flesh the flesh is good but to leaue the creator and liue according to this created good is the mischiefe whether a man do choose to liue according to the body or the soule or both which make full man who therfore may be called by either of them For he that maketh the soules nature the greatest good and the bodies the greatest euill doth both carnally affect the soule and carnally auoid the flesh conceiuing of
their hurt and their soules in following their appetites when neede requireth so in flying of death they make it as apparant how much they set by their peace of soule and body But man hauing a reasonable soule subiecteth all his communities with beasts vnto the peace of that to worke so both in his contemplation and action that there may bee a true consonance betweene them both and this wee call the peace of the reasonable soule To this end hee is to avoide molestation by griefe disturbance by desire and dissolution by death and to ayme at profiâ—…e knowledge where vnto his actions may bee conformable But least 〈◊〉 owne infirmity through the much desire to know should draw him into any pestilent inconuenience of error hee must haue a diuine instruction to whose directions and assistance hee is to assent with firme and free obedience And because that during this life Hee is absent from the LORD hee walketh by faith and not by sight and therefore hee referreth all his peace of bodie of soule and of both vnto that peace which mortall man hath with immortall GOD to liue in an orderlie obedience vnder his eternall lawe by faith Now GOD our good Maister teaching vs in the two chiefest precepts the loue of him and the loue of our neighbour to loue three things GOD our neighbour and our selues and seeing he that loueth GOD offendeth not in louing himselfe it followeth that hee ought to counsell his neighbour to loue GOD and to prouide for him in the loue of GOD sure hee is commanded to loue him as his owne selfe So must hee doe for his wife children family and all men besides and wish likewise that his neighbour would doe as much for him in his need thus shall hee bee settled in peace and orderly concord with all the world The order whereof is first a to doe no man hurt and secondly to helpe all that hee can So that his owne haue the first place in his care and those his place and order in humane society affordeth him more conueniency to benefit Wherevpon Saint Paul saith Hee that prouideth not for his owne and namely for them that bee of his houshold denieth the faith and is worse then an Infidell For this is the foundation of domesticall peace which is an orderly rule and subiection in the partes of the familie wherein the prouisors are the Commaunders as the husband ouer his wife parents ouer their children and maisters ouer their seruants and they that are prouided for obey as the wiues doe their husbands children their parents and seruants their maisters But in the family of the faithfull man the heauenly pilgrim there the Commaunders are indeed the seruants of those they seeme to commaund ruling not in ambition but beeing bound by carefull duety not in proud soueraignty but in nourishing pitty L. VIVES FIrst a to doe no Man can more easily doe hurt or forbeare hurt then doe good All men may iniure others or abstaine from it But to doe good is all and some Wherefore holy writ bids vs first abstaine from iniury all we can and then to benefit our christian bretheren when wee can Natures freedome and bondage caused by sinne in which man is a slaue to his owne affects though he be not bondman to any one besides CHAP. 15. THus hath natures order prescribed and man by GOD was thus created Let them rule saith hee ouer the fishes of the sea and the fowles of the ayre end ouer euery thing that creepeth vpon the earth Hee made him reasonable and LORD onely ouer the vnreasonable not ouer man but ouer beastes Wherevpon the first holy men were rather shep-heards then Kings GOD shewing herein what both the order of the creation desired and what the merit of sinne exacted For iustly was the burden of seruitude layd vpon the backe of transgression And therefore in all the scriptures wee neuer reade the word Seruant vntill such time as that iust man Noah a layd it as a curse vpon his offending sonne So that it was guilt and not nature that gaue originall vnto that name b The latine word Seruus had the first deriuation from hence those that were taken in the warres beeing in the hands of the conquerours to massacre or to preserue if they saued them then were they called Serui of Seruo to saue Nor was this effected beyond the desert of sinne For in the iustest warre the sinne vpon one side causeth it and if the victory fall to the wicked as some times it may c it is GODS decree to humble the conquered either reforming their sinnes heerein or punishing them Witnesse that holy man of GOD Daniel who beeing in captiuity confessed vnto his Creator that his sinnes and the sinnes of the people were the reall causes of that captiuity Sinne therefore is the mother of seruitude and first cause of mans subiection to man which notwithstanding commeth not to passe but by the direction of the highest in whome is no iniustice and who alone knoweth best how to proportionate his punnishment vnto mans offences and hee himselfe saith Whosoeuer committeth sinne is the seruant of sinne and therefore many religious Christians are seruants vnto wicked maisters d yet not vnto free-men for that which a man is addicted vnto the same is hee slaue vnto And it is a happier seruitude to serue man then lust for lust to ommit all the other affects practiseth extreame tirany vpon the hearts of those that serue it bee it lust after soueraignty or fleshly lust But in the peacefull orders of states wherein one man is vnder an other as humility doth benefit the seruant so doth pride endamage the superior But take a man as GOD created him at first and so hee is neither slaue to man nor to sinne But penall seruitude had the institution from that law which commaundeth the conseruation and forbiddeth the disturbance of natures order for if that law had not first beene transgressed penall seruitude had neuer beene enioyned Therefore the Apostle warneth seruants to obey their Maisters and to serue them with cheerefulnesse and good will to the end that if they cannot bee made free by their Maisters they make their seruitude a free-dome to themselues by seruing them not in deceiptfull feare but in faithfull loue vntill iniquity be ouerpassed and all mans power and principality disanulled and GOD onely be all in all L. VIVES NOah a layd it Gen. 9. b The latine So saith Florentinus the Ciuilian Institut lib. 4. And they are called Mancipia quoth hee of manu capti to take with the hand or by force This you may reade in Iustinians Pandects lib. 1. The Lacaedemonians obserued it first Plin. lib. 7. c It is Gods decree Whose prouidence often produceth warres against the wills of either party d Yet not vnto free Their Maisters being slaues to their owne passions which are worse maisters then men can be Of the iust law of soueraignty CHAP. 16.
condemne the wicked that not knowing this thing and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they might liue well and so there may bee some which may pray 〈◊〉 wicked how then doth hee performe it to them which hope in him seeing that 〈◊〉 they dreame by this sweetnesse he will not condemne them which doe not hope in him Therefore let vs seeke that sweetnesse of his which he performeth to them which hope in him and not that which hee is thought to effect vnto them which contemne and blaspheme him c In vaine therefore man inquireth that when he is departed out of the body which hee hath neglected to obtaine to himselfe beeing in the bodie That saying also of the Apostle d For God hath shut vp all in vnbeliefe that he may haue mercy on all is not spoken to that end that he will condemne none but it appeareth before in what sence it was spoken For when as the Apostle spake vnto the Gentiles to whom now beleeuing he wrote his Epistles concerning the Iewes who should afterward beleeue As yee saith hee in time past haue not beleeued GOD. Yet now haue obtained mercy through their vnbeliefe euen so now haue they not beleeued by the mercy shewed vnto you that they may also obtaine mercy Then he addeth whereby they flatter themselues in their errors and sayth For GOD hath shut vppe all in vnbeliefe that hee may haue mercy on all Who are they all but they of whom he did speake saying as it were Both yee and they Therefore GOD hath shut vp both Gentiles and Iewes all in vnbeliefe whom hee fore-knew and predestinated to bee made like the Image of his Sonne that beeing ashamed and cast downe by repenting for the bitternesse of their vnbeliefe and conuerted by beleeuing vnto the sweetnesse of the mercies of GOD might proclaime that in the Psalme How great is the multitude of thy sweetnesse Oh Lord which thou hast laid vp for them which feare thee but hast performed it to them which hope not in them-selues but in thee Therefore he hath mercy on all the vessells of mercy What meaneth of all That is to say of those of the Gentiles and also of those of the Iewes whom hee hath predestinated called iustified glorified not of all men and will conâ—…mne none of those L. VIVES FOr a some departed this life In the ancient bookes printed at Bruges and Coline those tenne or twelue lines which follow are not to bee found for it is written in this manner For the prayer either of the Church or of some godly persons is heard for some departed this â—…fe but for them whose life hath not beene spent so wickedly being regenerate in Christ c. Those things which follow are not extant in them neither in the copies printed at Friburge Neuer-the-lesse the stile is not dissonant from Augustines phrase peraduenture they are eyther wanting in some bookes or else are added heere out of some other worke of Augustine as the first Scholion afterward adioyned to the context of the speech Yet not so that they may b escape The particle of negation is to bee put formost that wee may read it yet not so that they may vnder-goe those punishments at any time In vaine c therefore man In the Bruges copie it is read thus In vaine therefore doth man inquire that after this body which hee hath neglected to get in the body d For GOD hath shut vp all in vnbeleefe Commonly wee read all things in the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say all men Paul signifieth that no man hath any occasion to boast that hee is glorious vnto GOD by his owne merits 〈◊〉 that it is wholy to be attributed to the goodnesse and bounty of GOD. Whether that such as beeing baptized by heretiques become wicked in life or amongst Catholiques and then fall away into heresies and schismes or continuing amongst Catholiques be of vicious conuersation can haue any hope of escaping damnation by the priuiledge of the Sacraments CHAP. 12. NOw let vs answer those who doe both exclude the deuills from saluation as the other before doe and also all men besides whatsoeuer excepting such 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 in CHRIST and made pertakers of his body and bloud and these they will haue saued bee their liues neuer so spotted by sinne or heresie 〈◊〉 â—…ostle doth plainely controll them saying The workes of the flesh are 〈◊〉 which are adultery fornication vncleanesse wantonnesse Idolatry c. 〈◊〉 such like whereof I tell you now as I told you before that they which doe such things 〈◊〉 not inherite the Kingdome of GOD. This were false now if that such men should become Saints at any time whatsoeuer But this is true scripture and therefore that shall neuer come to passe And if they bee neuer made 〈◊〉 of the ioyes of heauen then shall they bee euer-more bound in the â—…ines of 〈◊〉 for there is no medium wherein hee that is not in blisse might â—…ue a plaâ—… free from torment And therefore it is fitte wee see how our Sauiours words may bee vnderstood â—…ere hee sayth This is the bread that came downe from heauen that hee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of it should not die I am the lyuing bread which came downe from heaâ—… 〈◊〉 of this bread hee shall liue for euer c. Those whome wee 〈◊〉 answere by and by haue gotten an interpretation for these places somewhat more restrained then those whome wee are to answere at this present For those other doe not promise deliuery to all that receiue the Sacraments but onely to the Catholikes of what manner of life soeuer for they onely are those that receiue the bodie of CHRIST not onely sacramentally but 〈◊〉 alâ—… 〈◊〉 they as beeing the true members of his bodie whereof the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are one bread and one bodie Hee therefore that is in this â—…ity of CHRISTS members in one bodie the sacrament whereof the faithfull doe daylie communicate hee is truely sayd to receiue 〈◊〉 bodie and to drinke the bloud of CHRIST So that Heretiques and 〈◊〉 who are cut off from this bodie may indeed receiue the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 them no good but a great deale of hurt in that great 〈◊〉 it will both make their paines more heauy and their continuance 〈◊〉 For they are not in that vnity of peace which is expressed a in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But â—…ow these that can obserue that hee that is not in CHRIST cannot receiue his body 〈◊〉 doe ouer-shoote themselues in promising absolution at one time or other to all the â—…ators of superstition Idolatry or heresie First because they ought 〈◊〉 obserue how absurd and farre from all likely hood 〈◊〉 that those bee they more or lesse that haue left the church and become 〈◊〉 heretiques should bee in beer estate then those whome they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bee heretiques with them before that they were Catholikes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 church if to bee baptized and to receiue CHRISTS body in the church bee
the causes of those arch-heretiques deliuery For an Apostata 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the faith hee hath once professed is worse then hee that opâ—…â—…hat hee did neuer professe Secondly in that the Apostle himselfe 〈◊〉 them concluding of the workes of the flesh that They which 〈◊〉 â—…ll 〈◊〉 the Kingdome of GOD. 〈◊〉 therefore and wicked men secure themselues by their continuance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is written He thâ—… endureth to the end hee shal be saued nor by 〈◊〉 â—…quity renounce Christ their iustice in committing fornication and either 〈◊〉 any part of those fleshly workes which the Apostle reâ—… counteth or such vncleanesses as hee would not name for of all such hee â—…aith expressely they shall not inherite the Kingdome of GOD. Wherefore the doers of such deeds cannot but bee in eternall paines in that they are excluded from the euerlasting ioyes For this kinde of perseuerance of theirs is no perseuerance in CHRIST because it is not a true perseuerance in his faith which the Apostle defineth to bee such as worketh by loue And loue as hee sayth elsewhere worketh not euill So then these are no true receiuers of CHRISTS bodie in that they are none of his true members For to omit other allegations they cannot bee both the members of CHRIST and the members of an harlot And CHRIST himselfe saying hee that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud dwelleth in me I in him sheweth what it is to receiue Christ not onely sacramentally but truely for this is to dwell in Christ and Christ in â—…m For thus hee spoke as if hee had sayd Hee that dwelleth not in mee nor I in him cannot say hee eateth my flesh or drinketh my bloud They therefore that are not members of CHRIST are not in him they that make themselues the members of an harlot are no members of CHRIST vnlesse they purge away their badnesse by repentance and returne to his goodnesse by a true reconciliation L. VIVES EXpressed a in this sacrament For all pertake of one bread which is a great bond of 〈◊〉 Againe this mysticall bread is made of many graines of corne loosing their proper formes to bee all incorporated into one masse or body So many are receiued into the church and at thâ—… entrance they put off their owne proper enormities and being linked to the rest 〈◊〉 loue and charity seeme now no more what they were before but are incorporate into one body the church Baptisme maketh vs both bretheren and one also and mutuall charity giueth forme collour taste and perfection to the whole body So that there could not haue bin giuen a more fit type of the Church then that which CHRIST gaue in his institution What it is to haue CHRIST for the foundation who they are that shal be saued as it were by fire CHAP. 26. I But christian Catholiques say they haue CHRIST for their foundation from whom they fell not though they built badly vpon it in resemblance of timber straw and stubble So that faith is true which holds CHRIST the foundation and though it beare some losse in that the things which are built vpon it burne away yet hath it power to saue him that holdeth it after some time of suffrance But let Saint Iames answere these men in a word If a man say hee â—…th faith and haue no workes can the faith saue him Who then is that say they of whom Saint Paul sayth Hee shal be safe himselfe neuerthelesse as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well wee will see who that is but surely it is no such as these would haue 〈◊〉 for else the Apostles condradict one another For if one saith though a man haue liued wickedly yet shall hee bee saued by faith through fire and the other If hee haue no workes can his fayth saue him Then shall we soone find who it is that shal be saued by fire if first of all wee finde what it is to haue Christ for the foundation Togather which first from the nature of the simyly there is no worke in building before the fâ—…dation Now euery one hath CHRIST in his heart thus farre that 〈◊〉 â—…ct of temporall things and some-times of things vnlawfull still â—…eth Christ for the foundation thereof But if hee preferre these things 〈◊〉 CHRIST though hee seeme to hold his fayth yet CHRIST is no foundation vnto him in that hee preferres those vanities before him And if â—…ee both contemne good instructions and prosecute badde actions how much the sooner shall hee bee conuinced to set Christ at nothing to esteeme him at no value in vainer respects by neglicting his command and allowance and in preuarication of both following his owne lustfull exorbitances wherefore if any christian loue an hâ—…r lot and become one body with her by coupling with her hee hath not Christ fâ—… his foundation And if a man loue his wife according to Christ who can denie but that hee hath Christ for his foundation Admit his loue bee 〈◊〉 worldly concupiscentiall as the Gentiles loued that knew not Christ all this the Apostle doth beare with and therefore still may Christ bee such a mans foundation For if hee preferre not these carnall affects before Christ though hee build straw and stubble vpon his foundation yet Christ is that still and therefore such a man shal be saued by fire For the fire of tribulation shall purge away those carnall and worldly affections which the bond of marriage doth acquit from beeing damnable and vnto this fire all the calamities accident in this kinde as barrennesse losse of children c. haue reference And in this case hee that buildeth thus shall loose because his building shall not last and these losses shall grieue him in that their fruition did delight him Yet shall the worth of his foundation saue him in that if the persecuâ—… should put it to his choice whether hee would haue Christ or these his 〈◊〉 hee would choose Christ and leaue all the rest Now shall you heare 〈◊〉 describe a builder vpon this foundation with gold siluer and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The vnmaried saith hee careth for the things of the LORD 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the LORD And now for him that buildeth with wood straw and 〈◊〉 Hee that is married caretb for the things of the world how hee may please his wife Euery mans worke shal bee made manifest for the day of the LORD shall declare it that is the daie of tribulation for it shal be reuealed by the fire This tribulation hee calleth fire as wee reade also in another place The furâ—… proueth the potters vessell and so doth the temptation of tribulation trie mans thoughts So then the fire shall trie euery mans worke and if any worke 〈◊〉 as his will that careth for the things of the LORD and how to â—…ase him hee shall receiue wages that is hee shall receiue him of whome 〈◊〉 thought and for whome hee cared But if any 〈◊〉 worke burne hee shall 〈◊〉 because hee shall not haue his