soules from body to body as also by the places which they affirmed to bee allotted out unto the Soules departed according to their good or evill course in this life and by those punishments wherwith soules are as they hold punished by themselves for the offences they have committed For these things although they be erroneous in other circumstances and respects yet in this they are true and their authors do all agree therein that the soule remaineth after this life and shall come to Iudgement But if wee cannot attaine unto the reason of that governance which providence hath over particular things which indeed we cannot as is implyed by this text How unsearchable are thy judgements and thy wayes past finding out Let us not therupon conclude there is no such providence For no man ought to affirme there is neither sea not sand because he is ignorant of the limits of the Sea and of the number of the sands seeing by the same rule they might aswell say that there is neither man nor any other living-creature because they know not the number either of the men or of the living-creatures Particular things are to us infinite Things which are unto us infinite and also unknowne unto us and therefore though universalls may be oftentimes comprehended by our understanding yet individualls are not possibly comprehensible thereby There is in every man a double difference one in respect of other men and another in respect of himselfe yea there is in every man great differences and alterations even in respect of himselfe Every day as in the maner of his life in his actions or affaires in his necessities in his desires and in all things which doe happen or pertaine unto him It is not much otherwise with an irrationall-creature for according to the manifold necessities and occasions thereof it is very speedily caried hither and thither and soon altered againe as other opportunities require These things considered that Providence which is able to keep a continuall course with every one of those infinite and incomprehensible particulars which are so differing also so changeable and of so many fashions must needs be such a Providence as is agreeable to all and every one of those individualls and extended more infinitely then those things are whereunto it should reach And if this Providence must be so fit and so infinite in regard of the infinite difference of individualls no doubt but the reason and method of this Providence is as infinite and if it be infinite it cannot possibly bee comprehended by us And it becomes not us to deny that gracious providence which governes all things because our ignorance is unable to comprehend it For those things which wee suppose to be amisse are knowne well enough unto the wisdome of the Creator to be well ordered Because wee are ignorant of their occasions we causelesly judge many things to be imprudently done and that which chanceth unto us in other things by reason of our ignorance falleth out also in the workes of providence for we doe after the same sort cōceive of those things which belong to providence receiving by obscure likelihoods and by conjectures certaine formes or shadowes of the workes thereof by such things as we have seene Wee say therefore that some things are done by Gods permission and this permission is of many sorts For he sometime permits that even the just man shall fall into misery to declare unto others that vertue which is concealed as in Iob. Hee doth also permit some absurd things that by the act which appeareth to bee absurd some great and wonderfull matter may bee brought to passe as the salvation of men by the Crosse Hee permits likewise the blessed Saints to be afflicted for another end as that they might not fall from a sincere conscience and that the loftinesse of the minde might be abated as when S t. Paul was buffetted by Satan Sometimes also one man is rejected and left as desolate for a time that others considering his case might be instructed and amended thereby As in the example of Lazarus and the rich man for when we see any man afflicted our hearts are naturally touched therewith according as Menander hath very well expressed By seeing others feele the Rod We tremble with a fear of GOD. Otherwhile again one man is afflicted for the glory of another and neither for his owne sin nor the sinne of his Parents as he that was blind from his birth for the glorifying of the Son of man It is permitted also that some should be persecuted to be a pattern of constancy unto others and that when their glory is exalted others might be incouraged to suffer in the like case in hope of the glory to come and for the blessednesse which is expected after this life as in the Martyrs and in those who have yeelded up their lives for their Country for their kinred or for their masters SECT 5. I. One may otherwhile be afflicted for the good of another without infringing the Justice of divine Providence Why holy men suffer bitter deaths and persecutions II. Death or sufferings are no disadvātages to good men neither are the unlawfull actions of the wicked justifiable though Providence convert thē to good ends NOw if any one thinke it against reason that one man should be afflicted for the amendment of another let him know that this life is not the perfection of mans happinesse but a place of wrestlings and of striving for mastery in respect of Vertue And the greater the labours and sufferings are the more glorious Crown of Glory shall be obtained because the recompence of Rewards is according to the measure of Patience Saint Paul was contented to undergoe the manifold afflictions and tribulations which he suffered that he might obtain the greater and more perfect Crown of a Conquerour which he himself confesseth to be more then all our sufferings can merit and therefore the works of Providence are justly and very decently performed A man may the better allow this to be so and conceive that GOD governs all things so well and so fitly that the nature of each thing cannot more desire if he doe but propose unto himself the beleeving of these two things which are generally confessed among men namely that GOD onely is good and wise For in that he is Good it is agreeable unto his goodnesse to employ his providence over all things and in that he is wise he hath a regard to performe them wisely and exactly because if he used not his Providence he could not be good and if he did not use it well hee could not be wise He therefore that gives his minde to consider discreetly of these matters will not misesteem of any thing which is wrought by divine providence neither speak evill thereof without due examination but rather accept of all things as exceeding well performed and marvaile at their admirable decency and perfection though the ignorant multitude judge according to a false appearance For in conceiving otherwise wee bring upon our heads besides the guilt of blasphemy great blame for our sottish presumption Now in that wee say all things are done well wee justifie not the naughtinesse of men or of such evill works as are in our power to doe or leave undone but we speak it of the works of Providence which are not in our power For if any man object and say How falls it out that holy men are put cruelly to death without desert why if they were unjustly condemned did not Gods just providence hinder those murthers and if they deserved to be so put to death why are not they without blame who caused them to bee slaine To this we answer that the murtherers of such men were injurious in slaying them and that they which were so slain were slain either for their desert or their profit Somtime deservingly for evills committed by them in secret and sometimes for their profit Gods providence thereby preventing either future sins or worse mischiefes to come and in those respects it was good for them that their life should be shortned Thus was it with Socrates and the Saints But they who slew these men did not slay them for any such cause neither was it lawfully done but out of the corruption of their owne minds and for gain and robbery For the Act is in mans power but what shall follow upon the Act as whether we shall be slain or no is not as he will neither is any death evill except for sinne onely as is manifest by the death of the Saints But wicked men although they die in their beds on a sudden and without pain doe neverthelesse die an evill death which brings them unto an evill buriall I meane to bee buried in their sinne yet whosoever killeth any man murtherously doth wickedly in so doing If hee killeth any one for that which deserveth death he is then to be accounted among hangmen and executioners If it be for the gaining of some profit by them that are slaine he is to be reputed among cruell and wicked murtherers The like may be said of them who murther their enemies or oppresse them by extreame servitude or use any manner of inhumane cruelty against them whom they have overcome They also are as little to be justified who seeke the inriching of themselves by extorting other mens goods for though it may be expedient for those from whom they were extorted that they should be deprived of them yet they which wrested away more then their owne were unjust in so so doing For they take them out of a covetous desire of those good and not for that it was expedient for them whō they dispossessed of such things Glory be to God FINIS
Author was as honourable in his generation as those that are more voluminous and more frequently named for he was not onely so eminent for his Naturall Philosophy as to be called by way of excellency NEMESIUS the Philosopher but so good a Moralist also and so expert in the Lawes of the Romane Empire that the most Reverend learned and devout Father GREGORIE Nazian among whose Poems are Verses written to this NEMESIUS hath highly magnified him both for his Learning and uprightnesse and left it witnessed likewise that he was dignified with a Presidentship in Cappadocia When those Verses were first written to our Author he had not embraced the Christian Faith For hee was by them invited thereunto And their invitation seemed to have taken so good effect that he became a happy Beleever an eminent Champion in the Christian Warfare a Bishop of a City in Phoenicia about the times of the Emperours VALENS and THEODOSIUS Some have doubted whether he were the same Nemesius mentioned by GREGORIE onely because he was a Lawyer a Temporall Magistrate But questionlesse hee that was once an Infidell and afterward a Beleever might aswell have been also a Divine and a Bishop after he had exercised the Functions of a Lawyer and a Iudge seeing it is no new matter that they should execute a double-calling who have received a double portion of the Spirit For in all Ages since Princes became Nursing-Fathers of the Church it hath been usuall for Emperours Kings and other Free States to make use of their Gifts in Temporall Iudicatures and in other publike Affaires of whose Wisedome and Faithfulnesse they had experience in Ecclesiasticall Governments yea and it was no strange thing for men of say professions to be called from common Affaires to assume sacred Orders And though some are undiscreetly offended thereat it is not onely both convenient and comely that Ecclesiasticall persons who neither desire nor ambitiously affect such Employments should be sometime invited and authorized by their Soveraigns to joyne unto their spirituall charge an industrious care of the temporall welfare But it so happeneth otherwhile also that this double Authority though it double the imployment proveth so farre from being over-burthensome or a hinderance to the due execution of the first single calling that hee upon whō it is conferred is thereby the better enabled to mannage both for the generall advantage And we finde this double calling to have been so often so commendably and so successefully practised in the most flourishing times both of Iewish and Christian Commonweales that it may be still warrantably imitated so often as Soveraign power shall be pleased therewithall Our Nemesius whose manifold employments and gifts of the Spirit have perhaps occasioned this digression to some good purpose embraced the Christian Faith and received his Episcopall dignity as it seemes by circumstances long after his Presidentship For as by the words of GREGORIE may be collected he had given faire testimonies both of his Prudence and Vprightnesse in that Office before his Conversion and his faithfulnes in the emploiment of that single talent first vouchsafed by the Common grace was rewarded with a large encrease through the speciall favour of GOD as the sequele hath declared The Authors whom he nameth none of them having lived since the Emperours aforementioned are a probable argument of his Antiquitie and so likewise is the scope of this Treatise and his manner of handling the same For according to this command When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren the learned Converts of the Primitive Church endevoured to fortifie their Profession against the many heathen Philosophers who did then oppose it by turning the weapons of those enemies of Christianity against themselves even by fooling their carnall wisedome in their owne logicall reasonings and by the Principles of their own Philosophie And in this performance our Author was both faithfull and painefull as will appeare by the following Tract worthy to be preserved and perused in all generations For in what age will the knowledge of the humane nature bee impertinent or to what person of that kinde nay what knowledge save the knowledge of GOD is more pertinent Or how can GOD be well knowne by him that knoweth not himselfe It is that knowledge which this Booke teacheth and in my opinion the ignorance of rightly knowing our owne nature is one maine cause of the many absurdities and unreasonable controversies which distract these times yea the ignorance thereof is a principall cause that so many wickedly blaspheme GOD unthankfully accuse him without cause of being niggardly towards them in the Talents of nature and in requiring that of them which hee hath not given them ability to performe Hence ariseth it also that some consequently and some directly make our good GOD the Author of all sinne and MAN not properly an agent but a patient only in committing evill From this Ignorance likewise it proceedeth that wee neither husband the gifts of nature which is Gods common grace nor endevour as we ought to doe according to that ability which we have received whereas if wee knew what were given into our power and what not I think we should not so often as many of us doe foolishly denie our essentiall propertie but beleeve and worke according to Sanctified reason Though our originall Nature were so depraved by our first parents fall that wee lost our Well-beeing yet wee lost not our Naturall-beeing nor those Faculties which made us capable of being renewed by speciall grace when it should be tendred unto us Though we fell very low were in a Downfall in which we should never have left sinking and from which wee could never have raised our selves by any power remaining in our selves yet we were not at the lowest by our Grand-fathers offence For the mercy of GOD even IESVS CHRIST stayed us from falling so low as we had else tumbled and from loosing absolutely our Rationality or any thing essentiall thereunto by that Transgression Yea though the Will and every other Powre of the SOUL were so maimed and bruized by the first Adam that like a broken Watch their motions would have been still worse and worse till they had utterly perished and should never have moved rightly of themselves nor by any other meanes unless the second Adam had at least benefited us without our owne righteousnesse as much as the first Adam harmed us without our personall sinne yet no man lost by the first Transgression so much as hee may lose by his own fault By the first sinne wee lost indeed our light but not our eyes And therefore when GOD sent the light of MANKIND into the World hee reprobated those onely who rejected it And why not because they saw it not but because they loved it not For that they saw it is manifest by that place which said It enlightens every one which commeth into the world Yea the reprobate Jews could not deny but that they saw it for
one of his parts and seeing every inferiour compound bodie is composed of the foure Elements it is necessary that such things should happen unto him as the Elements are subject unto That is to say Cutting mutation and flowing By mutation I mean mutation in Qualitie and I terme it Flowing when he is emptied or purged of such things as are in him For a living creature hath alway his evacuations both by such pores as are manifestly seene and by such also as we see not whereof I shall speake hereafter It is necessary therefore that so much should be taken in again as was evacuated seeing else the living creature would perish through defect of what should re-enter to supply the want And if the things evacuated be either dry or moist or spirits it is as necessary that the living creature should have a continuall supply of dry and moist nourishments and of spirits The meats and drinks which wee receive are made of those Elements whereof we also are composed for every thing is nourished with what is agreeable and like unto it and in diseases we are cured with what is contrary to the disease There he some of the Elements which we sometime receive into our Bodies immediately of thēselves and sometime use means unto the receiving of them as for example we somtime receive water of it self sometime wee use Wine and Oyle and all those that are called moist fruits as means to the receiving of water For wine is nothing else but a certain water comming from the Vine and so or so qualified In like manner we partake of Fire sometime immediately as when we are warmed by it sometime also by the means of such things as we eate and drink for all things containe in them some portion of Fire more or lesse We are in like case partakers of Aire either immediately when we breathe it and have it spread round about us or draw it in by our eating and drinking or else by meanes of such other things as we receive into us But as for the Earth we seldome or never receive it immediately but by certain meanes For we eate the corn which commeth of the earth Larks Doves and Partridges feed oftentimes upon the earth but Man usually feedeth on the earth by the means of feeds fruits berries and by the flesh which proceedeth from things nourished by the Earth And forasmuch as God respecting not onely a decencie but also the furnishing of us with a very quick sense of feeling in which man exceedeth all other living creatures he hath clothed us neither with a tough skin as Oxen and other beasts that have a thicke hide neither with large thicke set haire as goats hares and sheepe neither with scales as fishes and serpents neither with hard shells as Tortoises and Oysters neither with a more fleshie bark as Lobsters neither with feathers as birds and therefore wanting these coverings it is necessary wee should have Raiment to supply that in us which nature hath bestowed on other living creatures These are the causes why wee stand in need of nourishment and clothing And not onely for the same ends are our houses become necessary but also that wee may escape the violence of wilde beasts which is none of their least commodities Moreover by reason of the distemperature of qualities in the humane body Physitians and their art are likewise needfull that thereby as often as occasion requires those things which are rent asunder may be fastned againe together for the preservation of health And whereas the alteration consisteth in the quality it is necessary that wee bring the state of the body to a just temperature by the contrary Quality For it is not the Physitians purpose as some think to coole the Bodie which hath beene in a heat but to change it into a temperate estate seeing if they should coole it the disease turneth not to health but to the contrary sicknesse Now in regard of Arts and Sciences and by the necessarie use which we have of such things as they accomplish it so commeth to passe that we need the mutuall assistance one of another and by that need which wee have each of other many of us assembling together in common doe thereby the more conveniently bargaine and contract for such things as may serve to supply the necessities of life This meeting and dwelling together was anciently termed by the name of a Citie by the neere neighbourhood whereof men received aid and profit by each others arts labours without the discommodities of long and far Travaile For Man was naturally made to be such a living creature as should be sociable delighted in neighbourhood And forasmuch as men could not otherwise be so conveniently provided of useful things it is evident that the study of Arts and the necessity of traffick were the first occasions of erecting Cities SECT 4. I. Of the two Priviledges which MAN hath obtained above all other Creatures viz. to be capable of the Forgivenes of sinnes and Immortalitie the Justice and Mercy of GOD in vouchsafing the pardon of sinne of MAN and denying the same to Angels II Man only is a creature capable of learning Arts and Sciences A Definition of Man and Reasons justifying every branch of that Definition III. The World was not made for the Angels nor for any other but MAN onely To him was committed the government of the Vniverse with a limitation to use not abuse the Creatures THere are also two Priviledges which Man hath specially gotten above all other One is to obtaine pardon by Repentance the other is that his body being mortall should be brought to immortalitie This priviledge of the body he getteth by meanes of the soul and the priviledge of the soul by reason of the bodie Yea among Reasonable creatures Man only hath obtained this Peculiar that God vouchsafeth him the pardon of sin upon repentance For neither the Devils nor the Angels are vouchsafed pardon though they doe repent Hereby the most exact Iustice and admirable mercy of GOD is both fully proved and evidently declared For good cause is there why pardon should not bee granted to Angels though they doe repent because there is nothing in them which naturally allures or draws them to sin and in regard also that they of their own nature are free from all passions wants and pleasures of the body But MAN though hee be indowed with Reason yet hee is also a bodily living creature and therefore his wants in that hee is such a living creature together with his passions do often blinde and captivate his reason And therefore when he returnes againe by repentance and applies himselfe unto vertue he obtaineth mercy and forgivenesse For as it is proper to the Essence of MAN to have the ability of laughing because it agreeth to man only to all men and ever to man so in respect of those things which proceed from the grace of God it is proper unto Man above all Creatures
small-guts or the lowest-gut we then breath short and thick Wee breath short that we may not over-vehemently smite the grieved part we breath also thick that the often breathing may supply what is wanting in the length of our blast When our leg is wounded wee set it forth very leisurely in our going which is done to the same end for which we breath short and therefore as to goe from place to place belongs unto the minde so doth also this operation of respiration But although we should rest and not goe at all it were possible for us to live a long time whereas it were impossible for us to hold our breath the tenth part of an houre without death because the naturall heat which is in us would bee choaked up and quite extinct by a sowltry fume For it is as if a man should cover a fire within a small vessell having no vent which would be immediately stifled and quenched by it owne fume For this cause it is very necessary that when wee are asleepe our soul should worke neverthelesse in this part because if it should be idle therein though for a very small time the living-creature would perish And in this it is againe manifested how the endeavour of the minde and of nature are knit together For the minde exerciseth respiration by an artery which is a naturall instrument and it is alwaies in motion that neither it owne work nor the work of the other arteries may be intermitted This not being perceived by some to wit how the minde and nature joyne together in this worke they supposed respiration to bee onely a naturall faculty Three things cause respiration the use the power and the instruments The use is twofold one for the preservation of our naturall heat and the other for the nourishment of the vitall-spirits The preservation of our naturall heat consisteth both of drawing in and breathing out of aire For the drawing of the breath doth not onely coole but in a mediocrity stirreth up heat also The breathing out of the aire drives away the foggy heat which is about the heart whereas nourishment of the vitall-spirits is respiration onely for the heart is dilated abroad and a certaine portion of aire is attracted thereunto The power which is a cause also of respiration is that which it hath from the soule for it is the minde which moves the instruments of respiration by meanes of the muscles and especially by the breast wherewith our lungs and the sharp arteries which are also a part of the lungs are moved For that part of the sharp artery which is gristly is the instrument of the voice the ligaments thereof which are like skinnes are instruments of respiration and that which is composed of both together which is the forementioned artery is the instrument both of respiration and of the voice The lungs therefore are a composition folded up together and consisting of these foure a sharp artery a smooth artery a veine and of a spumie flesh which flesh doth fill up all the void places of the folded skin as it were a moist bed or the herbe Sleve both of the two arteries and of the veine so that it becommeth both a seat for them and a band keeping them together The flesh of the lungs doth naturally cōcoct the spirits as the liver concocts the humour which commeth from the belly And as the liver with his utmost edges or skirts spreads it selfe about the belly because it needeth heat so the lungs inclose even the very middle of the heart because it needeth some cooling by respiration To the sharp artery the gristle of the winde-pipe is immediately joyned being compounded of three great gristles whereunto the throat is annexed and which are continued unto the mouth and nostrils by both which we draw the aire that is without us From the mouth it ascendeth by a bone like unto a sieve or like a sponge which is full of holes that the braine may not be harmed if there bee any excesse in the qualities of the aire or if too much winde should enter into it at once Here hath also the Creator placed the nose both for smelling and respiration according as hee hath ordained the tongue for the voice for the tasting and for chewing Thus the most principall parts serving both for the very being of the living-creature and for the necessary uses of this life are divided together with the powers of the minde and if any thing hath beene formerly omitted it may bee understood by that which is now expressed Now as it falls out in all other created things that some are made onely for their own sakes some for themselves and others also some onely for the sakes of others and that some things fall out accidentally together with such things as are made Even thus you shall find it to be also in the parts of a living-creature For all the forenamed instruments of those three principall things which governe the living-creature are made for their owne sakes For those things are especially and principally made which are named according to their proper nature and are ingendred in the wōb even of the seed it selfe as the bones are But the yellow choller is made both in respect of it selfe some other thing For it helpeth concoction stirreth up to the avoiding of excrements and in that respect is in some sort one of the parts that serveth for nourishment Moreover it ministreth unto the body a certaine heat as doth our vitall-faculty and in respect of all these things it seemeth to bee made for it owne sake But in that it purgeth our blood it seemeth after a sort to be made in respect of the blood The spleen also helpeth concoction and that not a little For being tart and of a sharp astringent nature it bindeth the belly by powring out into the same the avoidance of a black moisture Yea it strengtheneth it also assisteth concoction and purgeth the liver For which causes that part also seemeth to have beene ordained in respect of the blood The reines likewise are a purgation for the blood and a cause of the desire which we have to carnall copulation For the veines which as we have declared before doe fall down into the cods passe along by the reines and from thence carry with them a certaine sharpnesse which provoketh lust even as a certaine sharp moisture which is under the skin procureth an itch And looke how much the flesh of the stones is tenderer then the other skin of the body by so much the more being tickled by that sharpnesse are they stirred up to the ejaculation of seed These things therefore and such like are made both for their owne sakes and also in respect of other things But the kernels and the flesh are only ordained in respect of other things For the kernells doe serve to cary up and underprop the vessels that they may not be broken when they are lifted up or stretched forth