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A05102	The third volume of the French academie contayning a notable description of the whole world, and of all the principall parts and contents thereof: as namely, of angels both good and euill: of the celestiall spheres, their order and number: of the fixed stars and planets; their light, motion, and influence: of the fower elements, and all things in them, or of them consisting: and first of firie, airie, and watrie meteors or impressions of comets, thunders, lightnings, raines, snow, haile, rainebowes, windes, dewes, frosts, earthquakes, &c. ingendered aboue, in, and vnder the middle or cloudie region of the aire. And likewise of fowles, fishes, beasts, serpents, trees with their fruits and gum; shrubs, herbes, spices, drugs, minerals, precious stones, and other particulars most worthie of all men to be knowen and considered. Written in French by that famous and learned gentleman Peter de la Primaudaye Esquier, Lord of the same place, and of Barree: and Englished by R. Dolman.; Academie françoise. Part 3. English	La Primaudaye, Pierre de, b. ca. 1545.; Dolman, R. (Richard)	1601 (1601)	STC 15240; ESTC S108305	398,876	456

concerning the reasons making for the creation the historie whereof will put vs altogither out of doubt in that which toucheth the principall arguments of the Philosophers against it if wee doe amplie entreate of their errors when they maintaine that God worketh of necessitie and not of free and franke will which will serue vs to morrow for a subiect to begin the daies discourse The end of the first daies worke THE SECOND DAIES WORKE Concerning the errors of these Philosophers which say that God doth his outward worke of necessitie Chapter 9. ASER. I Thinke companions we were yesterday sufficiently entangled in the discourse of the creation of the world about that which concerneth the doubt that remaineth in many But ere we doe farther enter into the cabinets of God and nature it would not be vnfruitefull if wee yet haue an other pull with the Philosophers about this question Whether of necessity or of free choise and franke will God was prouoked to worke For they supposed that the condition of necessitie was fitter and more conuenient then was the matter of contingence and therefore they appropriate it to God Wherein they thinke verily to want no reasons for their purpose and that these make specially for them That God worketh by his proper substance If the worke of God be of necessitie or voluntarie and not by any borrowed vertue That the effectes of the world are of necessity because they seeme in no wise to proceed of a contingent cause that by the same reason is to be considered the inuariable and necessarie order of thinges to the end that the vniuers be not confounded or troubled Moreouer the Philosophers supposed that it was a very vnfit thing for the diuine vnderstanding to worke of necessity and the diuine will to worke freely considering that it is no lesse perfect then the diuine thought Now though that we concerning these considerations night take out of the quiuer of reasonable discourse arrowes enow against these Sages of the world yet for that this point doth particularly touch the diuinity it may suffice to say with Plato that one cannot picke out so great a mysterie by reasons but seeke to learne the same by oracles For it is sufficient to know that the great lawgiuer recordeth that God spake Genes 1. Psalm 33. and it was done and that with him agreeth the kingly prophet saying he commaunded and it was established to conclude that all the scriptures teache vs the same doctrine But here let vs declare that that which seemeth thus to disturbe the Philosophers is nothing at all For they presuppose a necessarie disposition to bee more perfect then the contingent cause which they haue left to prooue to those that should come afterwards Now I beseech you do we not more esteeme a Prince who directeth euerie thing according to his owne good pleasure then if vrged by nature or any other prouocation constrayning him he should set his hand to any busines Who will blame libertie which as the Prouerbe saith is hardly bought for gold That I say which they themselues thinke to haue beene graunted man for a most singular good What perfection what praise should be attributed to most loftie thoughts if they were euer forced to performe that which is good Liberty profitable for all things What dignitie might appertaine to a great king if he did all things necessitie constrayning him and nothing of a generous heart And seeing by common consent we acknowledge God to be the Prince of the world what glorie and honor should be giuen him for his gouernment for his wisedome for his iustice for his clemencie if of necessity and constraint he were drawne on to maintaine that which is in his tuition What grace what seruice and adoration should we owe him Why is it entred into nature to sacrifice as Aristotle saith Why are we obliged as Auerrois himselfe teacheth to magnifie God the creator in prayers and sacrifices If God doth all things of necessitie what profiteth all this For what cause is it conuenient for vs to pray Prayers are fit for men if God be not appeased by prayer To what ende hath all mankinde in euerie age in all places of euery nation beene addicted to adore a diuinity Surely we may thereof gather that prayers are fit for men and that it is naturally grafted in our minds that God is mooued by them So manie reasons then may well conclude that the author of Nature doth neuer negotiate of necessitie And for that that he worketh by a proper substance that is not of eternitie except in the spiritual worke from himselfe wherof we haue spoken in the 5. of our discourse But for the outward worke he proceeded thereto according to his owne will when it pleased him not constrayned by any causes for hee is the onely and principall cause of all things nor for hope to get any good for that he of himselfe is blessed not hauing neede of any other good God is not subiect to any order of nature Furthermore also the necessarie effects conclude not any necessitie in the prince or in the first cause considering that the second causes which Plato and the other Sages call his seruants doe worke by his commaundement in determined order so that the necessitie that therein is dependeth vpon his commaundement or vpon the order from which he absolueth them according to his owne good pleasure Dan. 3. And thereof came it that the fire burned not the children in the Chaldean furnace that the sunne stayed his course by the space of a day at Iosuahs commandement that it went backe ten lines or ten howres Ios 10. 2. Kings 20. in the time of Ezechias That it was eclipsed at full moone during the passion of Iesus Christ The Peripatetickes Atheists and Epicures will laugh at this and will say scoffingly which of the Philosophers recounteth these things These sellers of lyes which teach the lawes are madde saith Auerrois But herein sith question is made concerning diuine mysteries what haue wee to doe with such contemners of all pietie The sentence wherein we make stay hath beene celebrated by those which could iudge And men doe rather beleeue one that affirmeth then a thousand that denie for negation concludeth nothing And why should we care then though they denie altogither in words that which many witnesses yea and most wise do assure to haue prooued in effect The holy letters testifie it whereto we rather giue credit then to Aristotle and all his schollers And amongst a thousand most famous Philosophers and Christian Martyrs which consent to this doctrine of truth Areopagus of the Athenians is Saint Denis Areopagita so called of the Areopagus or streete of Mars which was a court and assembly among the Athenians first of nine persons elected by the chiefe Magistrates and afterward encreased to the number of fiftie of the most principall as well for learning holines of life and wisedome as also

for riches to the ende that pouertie might not induce them to corruption as Androtion in the second and Philocorus in the third booke of the Athenian affaires do write This man then writing to Polycarpus reprehendeth Apollophanes the Sophister in these very words because he would not admit of the eclipse of the sun which came to passe at the death of the Messias I know not with what spirit thou wert led to diuine Of the eclipse of the sunne at the death of Iesus Christ O Apollophanes when with me contēplating the eclipse which was against the order of nature at the time that Christ suffered turning thy selfe towardes me thou saidst noble Denis these are the changes which come to passe somtime in diuine things If thou cāst conuince this of vntruth For I was presēt with thee in cōsideration of so great a prodigy with thee I beheld it iudged of it thought it worthie of perpetual admiration But if any will not yet beleeue this most entire philosopher let him harken to that which the astronomers say Esculus very skilfull and learned in this science taught by astronomicall numbers that the sunne went vnder * The ●amme Aries and the moone vnder * The balance Libra when the sunne failed at ful moone and at that time the Iewes according to their custome celebrated the feast of passeouer Moreouer Phlegron one most excellēt in reckoning the Olympiads in his thirteenth booke testifieth that in the fourth yeere of the two hundred and second Olympiad there was an eclipse of the Sunne much greater then all those that had euer before hapned at which time was the passion of Iesus Christ Recalling of the sunne in Ezechias daies And for the going backe of the sunne in Ezechias reigne as also that which we reade of the deluge of waters with many other miracles contained in holy writ the auncient memorials of the Persians and Chaldeans do make notable mention thereof And thence cōmeth it that the Persian priestes do celebrate the memorie of the triple Mithras that is of the sunne as Denis and Strabo witnes which at the foresaid time appeared to performe a triple course or to stay three times from his accustomed progresse into the west retyring againe into the east by a new kinde of returne for ten howers and then returning againe into the west I leaue for this point the other witnesses Philosophers Gentiles Chaldees Egyptians Phenicians Greekes the Sibilles and many Historians brought for proofe of the supernaturall effectes of omnipotent God by Iosephus Aristobulus Tertullian and Eusebius whereof each by their writings may sufficiently instruct And if authoritie doe ought auaile in disputation let then the deposition of so many Sages preuaile in this point in a matter that Aristotle his fautors denie in words onely Most prudently certaine doth Auicen thinke that motion is neither necessarie nor violent but in a meane betwixt both in such sort that it euer resteth at the pleasure of the Prince And therefore it must be graunted that the second causes are so alligated to the first cause that they doe nothing but as the other commaunds them And yet it so gouerneth those things which it hath created and ordayned that it permitteth them to performe their ordinarie proper motions Now because that it seldome hapneth to the contrary and that the order of their first institution perseuereth in many things and that most commonly therefore did Aristotle iudge that it was naturall and necessarie For as he saith in his treatise of naturall hearing That is naturall which commeth to manie and oftentimes And so could he make no farther search by sensible things But the operations of God By the necessitie of effects one must not conclude the necessitie of the cause and the alliance of things here below with the first cause may not be searched out by discourse of reasons but must rather as we haue declared be learnt of oracles Thus is conuinced of nullitie the progresse which is deduced from necessitie appearing in the effects to the necessitie of the cause because that necessitie of the effects dependeth vpon the order established by the first cause And the effects also are not needefull because they are all particular for the worke of nature is not bounded by the vniuersall All but by each particular which the Peripateticks themselues do rather nominate contingence then necessarie But because the most subtile Philosophers do yet debate that they be eternall and that most needefull is the coherence of the subiect with the worker in which the proper essentiall or the quidditie as they terme it is named of the subiect we may rēder them an other reason for this pretended necessity to wit the correspondence of things with the exemplaries or eternall Ideas celebrated by Plato and defended by many sage and great personages God hath produced all things by himselfe as hath alreadie beene showen For this cannot consist considering that the vniuersall is a simple essence which produceth nothing by the second causes nor by the spirits nor by nature but only by himselfe and also the first cause of all things created before euer any soule or any heauen or any other particular thing whatsoeuer was produced To returne therefore from whence we strayed the effect ensueth the ordinance immutable order of the supreme cause if by the same it be not otherwise instituted And whereas the Philosophers adde farther that the will of God hath equall perfection with the thought which operateth of necessitie we confesse that it taketh place but it is in regard of the worke within himselfe wherby he engēdreth eternally the perfect image of himselfe his word the absolute Idea and true patterne of all things But we say that he displayeth according to his good pleasure the outward effects that from euerlasting the diuine thought hath described in the word Surely I woonder at the Sages of the world who acknowledge that God is most simple and of himselfe most perfect all other strange thing set apart and yet presently as if they had forgot their doctrine thinke that God hath a needfull bond with things heere below as if he could not subsist without them nor yet be blessed And how is he most simple if he hath a necessary bond with other things How is he prince of all things if he be obliged to the seruice of the most basest What dignitie or what condition hath he of a soueraigne gouernour Briefly to conclude this matter let vs take away all necessitie from the Lord in regard of this round frame and let vs not doubt that the order of this Vniuers shall decay or be destroyed if it be so that the creator doth dispose and varie it at his good pleasure for he doth know how euer to direct in order that which he hath once made and ordayned For none neede to feare the spoile of the worke when the work-master sets hand thereto by whose handling it is rather

made perfect then any whit marred But yet before we take any other subiect we must first heare of AMANA the reasons which declare that God proceeded of free-will to his worke Of the reasons which conclude that God proceeded of free and franke deliberation to the worke of the world Chap. 10. AMANA ALthough that by our precedent discourse we may easily iudge such as maintaine that God of eternitie did by necessitie his outward work woorthie rather to be despised then refuted being against the doctrine of diuine oracles yet we will run ouer a few points by which they themselues shall be pearsed with their owne dartes I would therefore first desire them to tell me from whence come the monsters in nature They may say that this proceedeth either by defect or super-abundance of matter or else bicause that the qualities answere not in due proportion or through corruption of the containing part and such other considerations which are subdiuided by phisitions into their species But let me aske them if that the naturall causes worke necessarily why doe they not performe euery thing duly seeing nature as they say wanteth nothing in necessarie things How then doe naturall causes worke of necessitie when they faile They may answere that I would thereupon conclude that they worke by contingence which if I saide what might follow thereon But to leaue all superfluous debate let them remember that it is an olde sentence vsed in schooles that a thing is said to be necessarie in two sorts the one absolutely necessarie and the other conditionally necessarie Wherefore we attribute the first to God alone A thing is said to be necessary two waies and the other to his creatures so as we call them necessary according to the order appointed by the supreme creator Which if the Philosophers denie we will vrge them with the worke it selfe of these causes For it is certaine that if they be faultie and produce monsters it commeth to passe because that order which is deliuered them by nature as they say or rather of the soueraigne creator as truth is doth faile them Now if they faile of the order it then followeth that it was not simply necessarie for them but giuen by the first cause through vertue whereof the rest subordained vnder it do worke from which if the first withdraw it selfe they do not onely faile but become nothing at all And if they may seeme to performe any thing of necessitie this commeth vnto them by reason of the law which hath beene giuen them by the Prince of Nature who giuing lawes to others is no whit for that therto himselfe obliged They may reply that if our doctrine might stand there should be no certaintie of science considering that it should consist of things which otherwise might be whereto Aristotle doth make deniall But we answere that if he intendeth that those things which are knowne should be necessarie according to the order of the vniuers the like may ensue in those things which may happen contrarie to the order according to the disposition of the eternall will Now if they finde too great difficultie herein for their capacitie what neede wee care Let themselues if they thinke good vnloose the knot For fire may well be without burning Dan. 3. The effect may be separated from the cause as indeed it hath beene as we haue heard in the former speech And likewise euerie effect may be separated from the cause which hath produced it yet neuerthelesse the bond remayning by a certaine correspondencie betweene the worker and the subiect that we may vse schoole termes But proceeding farther I would faine learne of these Peripatetickes whence it is that things haue a necessarie couenant They will say that it is by nature as they prooue by experience What truely nature is But what is this their nature Nothing truely but the author of the Vniuers which is the true spirit not erring seeing that as they teach the worke of nature is the worke of the intelligence not erring and by the ordinance whereof all things haue a due course For there is nothing but serueth this supreme worker He stretcheth out saith the prophet the heauens like a curtaine Psalm 104. He looketh on the earth and it trembleth he toucheth the mountaines and they smoke But these naturalists may say what haue we to doe with prophets seeing we hold that none can haue perfect knowledge but in those things which are prooued by demonstration And from whence fetcheth demonstration his originall Is it not from those principles whose termes being knowne we accord to them or prooue them by experience Now if we beleeue demonstrations by principles and experiences it then followeth that there be some things more certaine then demonstrations Oh execrable vice growne olde amongst our people that hauing had this happines to be enrolled in the number of Christians ●anitie of the ●emonstrations ●f Philosophers yet receiue nothing for truth and certaintie if it be not prooued by such demonstrations as Aristotle hath declared and wherewith for all that he is but little aided in his discourse concerning nature For herein he proceedeth alwaies by those maximes that he taketh to be confessed so that the demonstration whereto his disciples giue beleefe is nothing else but a consequence drawne from the place of authoritie or from the foundations by him supposed Wherefore let vs rather beleeue the holy scripture which instructeth vs that many things and especially diuine are knowne through the beames of supernaturall illumination and by the couenant of the holy word with our vnderstāding touched by the truth Let Epicures Atheists then maintaine how they list from Aristotle That to knowe What it is to know is to vnderstand by demonstration For vs it is sufficient to hold our instructions from the prophets taught by the diuine oracle who by miracles and prodigies and great sacraments approoue as we haue already heard that which they teach And if we say that knowledge is an vnderstanding by any thing we may take our selues to be wise in beleeuing the doctrine of the holy Ghost not any whit accounting of the Peripateticks who haue only kindled the light of their contemplation by the moouing formes of the vniuers and haue not been able with a pure cogitation to contemplate him who possesseth the highest degree of dignitie amongst all essences as their soueraigne prince and gouernour hauing in the rest rather giuen an artificiall finenesse and base manner of proceeding then any science And this is that which priuily their Master confesseth when he entreateth of the last Analyticks or Resolutions saying that Science is of demonstration and demonstration of the quiddities as he nameth it and by the proper differences of things to vs vnknowne For thereupon it followeth that the principles of demonstration are vnknowne and that from them one may bring no whit or very little demonstration But resuming our principall point of the free That

glorie of the Lorde At noone when it burneth the countrie who may abide for the heat thereof The sunne burneth the mountaines three times more then he which keepeth a furnace with continuall heate it casteth out firie vapors and with the shining beames blindeth the eies Hast thou commanded the morning since thy daies saith the Lord to Iob and hast thou caused the morning to know his place Iob. 38. That it might take hold of the corners of the earth and that the wicked might be shaken out of it For as it is said in another place They are among those which abhorre the light Iob. 24. and knowe not the waies thereof nor continue in the paths thereof The murtherer riseth early and killeth the poore and needie and in the night he is as a thiefe The eie also of the adulterer waiteth for the twylight and saith None eie shall see me and disguiseth his face They dig through houses in the darke which they marked for themselues in the day they know not the light But the morning is euen to them as the shadow of death if one know them they are in the terrors of the shadow of death By which testimonies aptly agreeing with that which is written euerie man that doth euill hateth the light we may know Iohn 3. besides the greatnes of the workes of God which principally shineth in the creation of the Sunne how euen they who would not behold the light thereof but fly from it as much as they may bicause they hate it and feare it as the death cannot for all that auoide it To the ende then that we may reape some profit by this discourse and so finish this daies talke let vs thinke that if the most ignorant and most doltish are inexcusable for their ignorance and ingratitude towards God for the sermons of the heauens which they continually make to all creatures how much more are the learned and chiefly Astronomers and Astrologians if they know not verie well how to vse their science to the glorie of God Of the names of Astronomers and Astrologers and of their true intent For they are called Astronomers because they haue the knowledge of the lawes and rules which the soueraigne creator hath established and ordayned among the starres and their courses and motions according as their name deriued from the Greeke toong importeth as also the name of Astrologie will infer as much seeing that thereby is signified that they vnderstand and can render a reason of the nature and of the effects of the celestiall bodies Wherefore then sith they haue greater knowledge then the ignorant and common people as well by the knowledge as by the obseruations and continuall experience of the effects of the planets they shall be therfore found the more culpable before God if they vnderstand not the language of the heauens thereby to learne how to glorifie him And yet so far are the greater part of them from doing that which we say that contrariwise we see verie many which impute that to the spheres that they should attribute to the spheres-creator and so draw men from God their father by the vanitie of their humaine dreames vnder colour of their Astronomie and Astrologie causing them to stay in regard of the creatures with them and so make them Atheists as they are when they acknowledge none other God but an idoll of Nature And therefore I desire that we may to morrow againe proceed to behold the admirable effects of the Sun being most apparant to all and most easie for to know by which the rudest and most simple may learne to come to God as among other effects is that of the rising and setting of this goodly light For the prouidence of God shineth maruellously in this point as ASER we may learne of you The end of the fourth day THE FIFT DAIES WORKE Of the rising and setting of the sunne and of the prouidence of God which shineth in the commodities of day and night Chapter 33. ASER. IF with vnderstanding we read the bookes of the heauens wee shall verily esteeme the celestiall bodies to bee the chiefe naturall Philosophers Doctors and Astronomers by whom God dayly teacheth vs that principall Astronomie and Astrologie which he will haue vs learne and whereof we must not be ignorant without being conuicted as well the vnlearned as the learned of verie great vnthankefulnes towards him and of more beastly brutishnes then is amongst the bruite beasts For he hath assigned vs teachers and masters which keepe common schoole with vs day and night as by our precedent discourse we haue alreadie vnderstood And yet the greatest part of men yea almost all do no more profit in this schoole then the verie beasts though indeed it standeth continually wide open to all yea and they which should chiefly learne out of this great booke of nature touching the knowledge of the creator of all things are those which oftentimes are farthest to seeke For in liew of committing themselues to be guided by this booke so to approch to God as he pointeth out the path and way to those who haue eies to see and a spirit to vnderstand they rather take occasion therein by the vaine dreames of their own apprehensions to wander from the truth And for this cause Moses Dauid and the other Prophets and seruants of God speaking of the workes of the creation and of the diuine prouidence in them do propound vnto vs but simply those which are the most apparant to al the most easie to be vnderstood because they wil not only teach the most learned who are they which willingly make least profit in their writings but will also instruct the simple and ignorant whō God doth oftentimes make capable of his secrets For which cause likewise these holy fathers speake not of the spheres and heauenly bodies subtilly as Philosophers in their schooles do but rather vulgarly to the ende that the most rude and playnest may vnderstand their philosophy replenished with the doctrine of saluation For it is verie necessarie that euerie one should be instructed therein according to his owne capacitie To pursue then our yesterdaies speech Vtility of the light and heat of the sunne begun concerning the Sunne which the holy Scripture setteth so often before our eies as an vniuersal preacher of the soueraigne Maiesty I pray you let vs first consider what ioy and what good it is that men receiue by it so long as it distributeth his light as wee haue alreadie heard being like the chariot of God to bring it to them Likewise how much pleasure and profit receiue they by his heat Againe do we not see how he hath his determined time to make vs day And how that after he hath lightned one part of the world during such time as was assigned to him by God the creator hee then transporteth his light to the other part And when he hath performed his taske on one side of the world

generations it is necessarie that something remaine from which they are drawne in their first originall When then any creature is engendred by another if the forme perish and any thing do remaine it must of necessitie be the matter Nothing can cleane perish which the corruption it selfe doth manifest because that nothing can wholy perish so long as it is corrupted For the apple perisheth and is conuerted into wormes so is the wood into cinders when it is burned so water changeth it selfe into vapors and smoke by the heate of the fire or of the sunne Now all vapor and smoke is something for it can stifle a man and if it be receiued and gathered into a vessell it turneth to drops of water Behold then how manifest it is that in all this vniuers there is a certaine thing hidden vnder euerie forme which is not made by common generation nor yet doth perish by corruption and which like some prime subiect being diuided vnder many and sundry formes wee call as we haue alreadie said the first matter not engendred permanent because it perisheth not but remaineth and consisteth according to the effect thereof And when we compare it to the formes we saie that it is by power the same which they are because that it can receiue all formes so that the matter of a childe being formed is said to be a childe by power and by effect it is the subiect whereof the childe may consist for it is a mixture so fashioned and such as one may see it But when it is compared to the forme of the childe it is simplie called a matter by power for if it were such by effect then were it a childe of it selfe not a subiect of him So then by the consent of all Philosophers there is a certaine grosse matter disfurnished of formes but capable of all though by nature it be depriued of all For which cause also they establish with this matter priuation Of priuation of the changing cause for a beginning of naturall things And mounting higher they consider of a changing or working cause by force whereof the matter being wrought and mollified which is onely in power is at length actually performed euen as waxe being plied and softned by handling and working in the hand is fashioned into diuers formes according to the will of him that doth it Of the finall cause And because that nature doth nothing at aduenture but al for some good purpose thence it is that the finall cause is by some considered as a principle Of the forme And likewise because that the neerest end of the working cause is the forme which it taketh out of the bosome of the matter and that for this intent it worketh and mouldeth it to the end to reduce it to a perfect estate to receiue a forme for these causes Aristotle constituteth the forme for the third principle The which cannot be drawne out of the wombe of the matter except it be first disposed and prepared by conuenient qualities and therefore the Philosophers say that about them the maker bestoweth and emploieth all his labour and all the time of the action to the end that the species may presently appeere in a point moment vnseparable as it were for the wages of his paines But the Peripateticks call the worker the cause rather then a principle And the followers of Plato being more cleere-sighted in sacred mysteries doe teach that although the naturall causes do appeere to vs of themselues forming fashioning Th●● natural● causes 〈◊〉 principles and moulding euerie bodie yet neuerthelesse are they not the prime and first causes of euerie thing that is made but rather instruments of the diuine art to whom they serue and obey euen as the hands of a cunning workeman though they compose place and change the whole matter of an house as wood stone and morter and that nothing besides them may bee seene whereto the fashion of the edifice might bee attributed yet are they knowne of vs to be an instrument obeying and seruiceable to the Idea which being seated in the minde of the Architect he performeth and acteth with his hands in sensible matter the worke which he hath conceiued And for this occasion the Academicks speake of these two causes the instrumental and the exemplarie cause when they intreat of the framing of all things Which me thinketh is often confirmed by the Peripatetickes when this axiom is read in their writings Euerie worke of nature is the worke of Intelligence And both the one and the other do confesse that God hath drawne all things out of the matter But because that for to drawe them out the matter must necessarily be presupposed and the forme which thereof is fashioned must be conceiued as also the power or application and disposition of the said matter Three principles according to Aristotle Thereupon are sprung the three principles of naturall things which Aristotle ordayneth to wit matter forme and priuation Which opinion Pythagoras seemed to leane vnto teaching that in the first production of things there were present the Euen and the Odde for the Euen according to the doctrine of those which doe philosophically discourse by numbers and principally the binarie or number of two signifieth the matter and the vneuen or odde betokeneth the forme Moreouer the degrees of formes and things composed are excellently and harmoniously distributed by the Euen and Odde numbers as by their writings we may easily learne But let vs note that that which the Pythagorians signifie by numbers Plato doth abundantly describe by greatnes and smalnes because all that which is doth retaine a greater or lesse degree of essence and perfection which neuerthelesse is distinguished by euen and odde numbers And if one speake of bodies euery one of them hath a great little or meane quantitie which likewise is by the same numbers limited and distinguished But to leaue the curious disputation concerning these things to the Philosophers and so to grow to the conclusion of our speech concerning the principles of naturall and corruptible things we must call that into our memorie which we haue alreadie declared how that the matter stood in need of a worker and ordayner Now this same is none other Of one alone and onely principle but the alone and onely principle of principles and the cause of causes God omnipotent author of the Vniuers who being a soueraigne worker hath produced out of the subiect by him created all compound bodies From whom likewise it is necessarie that all formes doe flow whether they be drawne out of the bosome of the matter as some Philosophers affirme or proceed without any meanes of the forme-giuer as many learned dispute for he must alwaies be said to be engendring and producing which draweth the matter into an effect by any manner whatsoeuer Moreouer Motion and place set by some for principles some subtile spirits do account among the principles of naturall things