of Christ for asmuch as they did yeelde benignos influxus et amica lumina as the Astrologers call them the best influences and moste fauourable Aspects vnto the natiuitie of him of whome they receaued their influences their lights their Aspects and all their heauenly vertues The wise men which came from Persia to Bethleem although they could not knowe Christ by the heauens yet the heauens gaue them two manner of wayes to vnderstand that a man shold be borne which in glorie honour vertue and pietie should farre exceede all other men For first the sixt yeare before our Sauiour was borne there was a coniunction of Iupiter and Saturne in Cancer which mooued all the Astrologers then liuing to say that shortly after there should insue a verie great change and alteration of Religion Secondly the constitution of the heauen which was at the time of our Sauiour his birth in the 42. yeare of the Empire of Augustus the 24. of December a little before midnight did testifie the same For in it the Horoscopus was the eight part of Virgo which signifieth change of Religion Saturne was in the highest part of the heauen Sol in the lowest which did shewe that such a Childe was borne which might cause the world to wonder And as Albertus Magnus citeth out of Albumasar the great Astrologer ascendi in prema facie illius signi virgo pulchra et honesta habens in manu sua duas spicas et nutrit puerum et vocat ipsum puerum quaedam gēs Ipsum et ascendit cum eastella virginis Non quod subiaceret stellarum motui qui creauit ipsas stellas sed quia quum extenderet coelum sicvt pellem formans librum vniuersitatis noluit literis eiusdem de esse ex his quae secundum prudentiam suam in libro aeternitatis sunt scriptae etiam elegantissimum illud a natura quod de virgine nasceretur et per hoc innueretur homo carnalis et verus qui non naturaliter nascebatur There arose in the first aspect of the signe Virgo a faire and chaste Virgin hauing two eares of Corne in her hand and a Childe in her armes which Childe some nations doe call Iesus not as if he that made the starres were any way subiect to the motion of the Starres but that hee which stretcheth foorth the heauens as a scrole of Parchment when hee writ the booke of nature might not want witnes out of the booke of nature of that which before was contayned in the book of aeternitie which was his secret decree that a Virgin should bring foorth a Childe and so he should be described to vs to be a natural man although not borne after a naturall manner Thus haue I proued the comming of Christ by manie witnesses of mē of deuils of stars senseles creatures cyted out of prophane stories because the Atheist wil not beleeue the testimony of God Angels in the holy Bible Yet for their better satisfactiō concerning diuers particulars I will alleage them reason so far as faith may bee made manifest by reason that if possibly it may be they may be brought to the acknowledgment of the truth They aske vs what neede there was that the Son of God should take our flesh and whether God was not able to saue vs by other meanes I answer Man offended God therfore it behoued man to make satisfaction but mā alone was not able to satisfye therefore God mā were ioyned together I proue the minor that man alone was not able to satisfie because God would not be satisfyed but by sacrifice no sacrifice vnlesse it were infinite could suffice That an infinite sacrifice was requisit I proue by these reasons An infinite offence cannot be purged but by a sacrifice answerable to the offence but mans offence was infinite in two respects first of the infinite God-head w t was offended secondly of man himself w t was the offender which although he be finite yet voluntate peccandi in infinitum rapitur hee hath an infinite wil desire to cōmit offences And againe as man alone was not sufficiēt so it was not for God alone to worke this worke of our redēption because there was no sacrifice sufficiēt to pacifie God but by death as man without God could not ouer-come death so God without man could not suffer death therefore it was required that the Sauiour of the worlde should be God incarnate and so God and man to make one Christ might be vnited together They aske how it came to passe that man offended For their satisfaction I answere God made two especiall creatures to his owne Image indued with vnderstanding Angels and men hee gaue thē two giftes wherby they might continue their happy estate knowledge to distinguish betweene good and euill freedome of will to choose one leaue the other so that they might choose whether they would fall or stand The Angelles first fell the cause of their fall was pride the obiect by which they were puffed vp the reflection of themselues vpon their own selues beholding their owne glorie and that excellencie whereunto they were created For they could not be proud without an obiect there could be no other obiect to make thē proud but themselues For God was so farre aboue them in glorie that the sight of him would make them rather to haue a meane conceite of themselues and as for man he was farre beneath them that they took no such delight in looking so stedfastlye vpon him as to compare him with themselues And therfore they beheld themselues in themselues and so being delighted with their owne glory manie of them forgot their owne selues how they were subordinate vnto God and so their seruice duetie towards God was interrupted which did consist in perfect loue sincere adoration and imitation of him And for this cause they were cast downe After their fall they enuied that man should stand and mooued him to disobedience the outward obiect which allured him to disobedience being an Apple they mooued him to take the Apple by false suggestions that so his estate should bee aduanced Now both Angells men had fallen it pleased God to restore man againe but not Angells for these two causes First the Angells being first in the praeuarication seduced man and were the cause of his fall Secondly the Angells being Spirits and not bodies were of greater perfection then man was therefore better able to withstand sinne and all manner of temptations then man was and therefore God was more highly displeased with the sinne of Angells then he was with the sinne of men And therefore hee sent his Sonne for the redemption of Man but not of Angells They aske why the Father tooke not flesh rather then the Sonne why the Sonne being incarnate had his conception of the holy Ghost without begetting how he could be borne of a Virgin and wherefore he was so borne
worship For as much therefore as the bookes of Moses are more auncient then all other bookes therefore that religion is the truest which is contayned in them and because there can be but one true Religion the onely truth is in them therefore they are the word of God And as for the other bookes of the Bible which were written long since they handle the same subiect they holde the same doctrine as the bookes of Moses and are but all partes and members which make one body of the Bible written by the same Spirit and of the same nature and therfore are also the word of God and there is no other written booke of God but the Bible In the seauenth place I could alleage for witnesse that the Bible is Gods word the great multitudes of Martyrs which haue dyed in the defence of the Bible and sealed the same with their owne bloud both before and in and after the times of the ten bloudy persecutions to whome God gaue the gift of patience to suffer death willingly for the testimony of the worde Neither could so manye of them haue suffered in such manner vnlesse God had strengthned them in so good a cause But because this argument is not so forcible to perswade Atheists as it is to exhort christians I passe it ouer Last of all the testimonye of the Gentiles proueth the Bible to be the worde of God For because God the Father had eternally decreed to send his Sonne to take flesh for the saluation both of Iewes and Gentiles and vnlesse they beleeued in him there could be no saluation purchased by his death neither for Iewe nor Gentile That he might be receiued by the consent of each people it could not seeme good vnto his heauenly wisdome vnlesse he did long before our Sauiour should come publish his comming both to the Iewes and Gentiles And therfore Christ was published to the Iewes many wayes as the Apostle speaketh by dreames visions Angels but especially by their owne Prophets Dauid Esay Ieremye Moses Daniell and the rest which were Iewes in that respecte called their owne Prophets that they might giue the more credit vnto them To the Gentiles also he was made known by the heathen Prophets and Prophetesses Baalam Mercurius Trismegistus Hidaspes and especiallye the tenne Virgins called Sybils the heathenish Prophetesses of which we may read at large in the workes not onely of the heathens but also of the Fathers and Ecclesiasticall writers of the Primatiue Church Now forasmuch as the Gentiles were vnacquainted with Moses the Iewish Prophets and not accustomed to read the Canonicall writers and destitute for the most part of the Bible and therefore would giue no credit to the testimonyes cyted out of these bookes and yet were to be conuerted to the Fayth by vertue of the Commission giuen to the Apostles Math 28. where our Sauiour said Goe Preach and baptize all Nations The Apostles and Disciples in the Primitiue Church at their first Preaching to the Gentiles prooued the Bible by the testimonye of heathen writers the Sybils Hydaspes Mercurius as St. Origin and Lactantius declare at large In such sorte did S t Paul deale with the Inhabitants of Creet alleaging for authoritie the verse of their owne Poet Epimenides which Cicero and Lacrtius doe reporte to haue beene a kinde of Prophet or Diuiner among them And therfore St. Paul saith a Prophet of their owne said of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cretians are alwayes lyers foule beastes slowe bellyes Likewise to the Greekes he alleageth the testimonye of a Greeke Poet Menander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euill wordes corrupt good manners And to the Scholers at Athens the testimonye of the Poet Aratus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are his generation meaning God And for this cause the heathens called the Christians Sybillistes because Christian religiō was most of all proued out of the Sybils Oracles which writ more playnly and plentifully then all other heathen writers And as Clemens Alexandrinus writeth S. Paul in one of his Sermons saide vnto the people Libros quoque Graecos sumite agnoscite Sybillam quo modo vnum Deum significet ea quae sunt futura take in hand your Greeke authors read Sybil see how she teacheth that there is one God and fore-telleth thinges to come Hydaspen sumite legite inuenietis De filium multo clarius apertius esse scriptum Doe but vouchsafe to read Hydaspes ye shall finde in him a cleare and euydent testimonye of the Sonne of God And because the Christians were so frequent in alleaging of the Sybils Oracles for confirmation of Christian Fayth vnto the Gentiles and conuerted so manye vnto Christ by these bookes as Iustin Martyr writeth Proclamation was made that vpon payn of death no man should read them any longer nor Hydaspes his writings yet the people would not refrayne from reading them And againe Gods prouidence did wonderfully appeare in the perseruation of the Sybills verses for the behoofe of the Gentiles as of the Bible for the Iewes in that they were verie faithfully kept in the Capitoll of Rome and that being once loste by a mischance when the Capitol was burned yet by publik edicte of the Senate diligent search and inquirie was made for all coppies that could be gotten that so an other booke was newly written and kept in recorde being duely examined corrected and purged of all faultes that might else haue escaped And to that purpose commission was giuen to diuers learned men fitte to bee imployed in such a seruice which was performed with all dilligence and the booke was layed vp in the capitol againe euē as the bookes of Moses were kept in the Arke of the couenant So when the Christians labored the conuersion of the Romans they were not onely furnished with proofes of their Doctrine out of the Sibilles to cōuince the Romans and their idolatrie but also they were freed from suspition of corrupting those bookes or any clause in them contayned because whatsoeuer was by them alleaged was consonant agreeable to their own Coppie which they kept in their Tower or Capitoll or treasure house which was the chiefest place of their recordes Now for as much as nihil est iam dictum quod non fuit dictum prius there can bee no newe or strange inuention now which hath not bin thought of before as the wise man speaketh I cannot finde any way to disprooue the Atheists better then that which the Apostles vsed to disproue the infidels that is by the testimonie and witnesse of heathen Authors For if they will neither stand to arguments drawen from reason neither yet to authoritie neither Diuine nor Humane then they reiect all the Topics of Aristotle and places whereby they should be confuted they renounce the lawes of Schooles and order of disputation by a consequent they shew themselues meerily ignorant and contra indoctos non
earth and a fluide or liquid body yet confined within the bankes that it cannot drowne the earth the earth solid and firme vnder our feet that we cannot sinke we must confesse ô sonne Tatius that there is one which is Lord maker of these thinges for it is impossible that euery thing should continue in due place number and meeasure and so iust a preportion should be obserued without a maker and who could make these thinges but God therfore there is a God To this booke of nature agreeth the booke of the Bible who saith The heauens declare the power of God the firmament sheweth the worke of his handes one day teacheth another one night giueth knowledge to another Againe the wrath of God is reuealed from heauen against all vngodlynes and vnrighteousnes of men which detaine the truth of God in vnrrighteousnes for asmuch as that which may be knowne of God is manifest in them for God hath shewed it vnto them for the inuisible thinges of him that is his eternall power and Godhead are seene by the creation of the worlde being considered in his workes to the intent that they should be without excuse Dauid saith he couereth him selfe with light as with a garment and spreadeth the heauens like a curtayne he layeth the beames of his chamber in the waters maketh the clowdes his chariots and walketh vpon the winges of the winde In which wordes I doe not presse them with the authoritye of the Scriptures because the Scriptures are not of sufficient credit with them but with the reasons which are vsed in the Scriptures which if they cannot answer they must yeild vnto and confesse that there is a God And therefore I conclude against them in this manner We see dayly effects before our eyes in all the elements continuall motions in the heauens but there can be no effecte without a cause there can be no motion without a mouer no action without an agent no worke without a workeman these be relatiues and therefore one could not be without the other Mercurius Trismegistus could say Statuam siue imaginem fieri sine statuario aut pictore nemo dicit Hoc vero opificium fine opifice factum est Ô multam cacitatem ô multam impietatem ô multam ignorantiam nunquam ô sili Tati priuaueris opifice opificia A picture cannot be made without a Painter or a grauen image without a Caruer And can such a piece of worke be made without a worke van It is blindenes it is impietye it is grosse to entertaine such a conceit So then we take these for vndouted principles in naturall Phiosophye that they may not be denyed to witte Euery effect hath his cause euery action his agent euery motion his mouer But as there be many secondary causes agents mouers so there must needes be one principall and aboue the rest There is ordo causarum qui in rerum natura non procedit in infinitum an order of causes sub-ordinate one to an other and therefore there is no infinite ascention vp in the subordination of causes but at the lēgth by ascēding we must come to the highest we must in ea consistere stay when we come there because we can goe no higher and that is God What naturall body soeuer is moued I say it is moued by some other which is higher then it selfe For example The sphere of the Moone which is the lowest of the heauens is moued by the spheare of Merc. which is higher thē it Mer. is moued by Venus which is higher then it Venus by the Sun the Sun by Mars Mars by Iupiter Iupiter by Saturne Saturne by the sphere of the fixed staries and so we ascend vntill we can goe no higher that is vnto the heauen which is called Primum mobile y t first highest body w c is subiect to motion volubility That also is moued aswell as the rest not of it selfe because no naturall bodye can moue it selfe therefore it hath motion frō some other not from any other bodye because there can be no other bodye aboue the highest therefore it must of necessitye be moued by that which is a Spirit and not a bodye not naturall but metaphisicall and that can be nothing else but God In like manner the Sunne and a man doe beget a man the Sunne putrifaction doe engender Flyes and these thinges being subiect to outward senses are therefore naturall bodyes and because they are naturall bodyes they haue foure causes two inward which are matter and forme and two outward efficient and finall and there is nature which hath his secret motion tell me therefore what is that You will say peraduenture that is nature which Aristotle defineth to be principium motus the beginning of motion you say rightly but that is inward therefore you must besides this assigne an outward cause of motion and what is that If you say the ayre that is but a middle cause and therefore you must ascend higher for if there be causa media there is also prima if there be a midde or subordinate cause there is also a principall and first cause And what is that but onely God that is causa causarum the cause of all other causes and from whence all other thinges haue their being Againe all agents doe not worke alike for one thing worketh of necessitye and that is nature an other thing worketh in these outward and indifferent thinges partly of will and partly of necessitye that is man there you see medium participationis a meane which participateth with the extremitye but there can be no meane without two extreames and there can be no one extreame without the other and therefore of necessitye there must be a third agent which worketh freely as nature worketh of necessitye and man partly of will partly of necessitye And that can be nothing else but Deus liberrimum agens euen God which worketh freelye that no power is able to withstand his worke Therefore I conclude this point with Iob Aske the beastes and they will teach thee the foules of the heauen and they will shewe thee speake to the earth and it will tell thee the fishes of the sea and they shall declare vnto thee who is ignorant of all these but the hand of the Lord hath made all these Secondly to leaue the work-manship of the whole worlde and to come to man alone which is but one little part of the same If man goe no farther then him selfe he shall see God most liuely in him selfe three manner of wayes First in his conscience and vnderstanding Secondly in his naturall inclination he hath to religion Thirdly in the excellencye of the work-manship both of his bodye and his soule Concerning the first I say there is in euery man at some time or other an inward feeling of his conscience which wil he nill he maketh him to confesse there is a God For suppose a man for
Adam which was committed so long before For it is not to be thought that God which forgiueth vs our owne sinnes will impute an other mans sinnes vnto vs. The soule saith hee at the first creation is eyther pure or corrupted impure it cannot be because it commeth immediately from God and being at the first cleane how commeth it to be vncleane how can a spirit bee infected by a body that which is immateriall bee polluted by that which is materiall But Mr. Caluin doth satisfie that doubt saying that although corruption be inherent both in the soule and the body yet the cause of that hereditarye corruption is not in the substance eyther of the body or the soule but onely it was ordayned of God that the imperfections of the first parents should bee common to all the Children euen as according to the lawes of earthly Princes such as are descended of parents attainted of high treason are also stayned in their bloud preiudiced in respect of their landes and honors by their fathers offences committed before their time and wherof they were ignorant and it is but imitatio diuinae iusticiae an imitatiō of that iustice w c is with God So thē we are borne of impure seede as the Psalmist teacheth and not onely the bodie but also the soule is infected with sinne by reason of this our birth although sinne be more apparent in the body then in the soule and the onely cause why the soule is thus infected is this our impure and vncleane birth and yet the soule is not of seede or any materiall thing but it commeth immediately from God And it is a weake argument which Pelagius vseth that because beleeuing parents doe sanctifie their Children therefore Children cannot receaue infection from their Parents which are regenerate For the children doe lineally descend from their parents by carnall generation but not by spiritual regeneration because regeneration is not from beneath but from aboue not from men but from the holy Ghost Sanctification is an especial blessing giuen in particular but so that the general course of al mankinde may take holde of all men for as much as they all are the Sonnes of men Natus est homo natura sanctificatus ex supernaturali gratia that wee are borne it is the worke of nature that we are sanctified it is supernaturall of the especiall grace of God But I returne to the Atheist The soule I say as it appeareth by these premises is of a more excellent and diuine nature thē that it should be subiect to mortalitie and corruption And therfore that we may not complaine with Theophrastus who accused Nature because she gaue to Rauens and Harts a long life whome length of life did no way profit but made mās life of that shortnes vt tum extingueretur qùum incaepisset sapere that euen then hee was cut off and vtterly extinguished when hee did but begin to be wise I will produce these arguments which are alleadged by naturall Philosophers to prooue the immortallitie of the soule that I may refute Theophrastus and shew plainely that wee are not vtterly extinguished by death and that although wee doe but then begin to bee wise when we are neare our death yet wee doe not then cease to bee wise but then we increase in wisdome when the soule is separated from the bodie My reasons are these The first is drawne from the vnderstanding of man for mans soule is of infinit capacitie the more it vnderstandeth the more it is able to vnderstand It is able to comprehend not onely the whole world but infinit worldes In numbring it can adde and multiply so farre that of addition and multiplication there shall bee no end It is able to imagin infinit perfection But whatsoeuer is infinit in capacitie is also infinit in continuance because as the proprietie of any thing is so is the existence of the same But for asmuch as it is infinitlye capable in this life and cannot bee satisfied in this life therefore it must bee satisfied in the life to come 2. The obiect of mans vnderstanding is truth as Tully speaketh not in particular but in general which is the way wherby all thinges are knowne And therefore it cannot be satisfied vntill it come vnto that in which all truth consisteth and that is God which is truth it selfe according to his essence for no accidents are in him And for asmuch as this cannot be attained vnto in this life therefore it is reserued vnto a better life 3. The obiect of mans vnderstanding is ENS euerie thing that is but because there are some thinges material and some spirituall it must conceaue them both and as for the thinges which be immateriall and without bodies it cannot distinctly conceaue them in this fraile body therfore the conceiuing of them belongeth to the soule when it is separated from the bodie 4. All men by nature desire knowledge as the Philosopher speaketh but scire est rem per causas cognoscere to knowe a thing is to iudge discerne of the causes of it So then because it is naturall to euery man when hee seeth any effect to search out the causes of that effect and againe when hee hath found out the cause to search farther and examine what is the cause of that cause and so to ascend higher vntill he come to the highest cause which is God And that cannot be in this life because the essence of God is not conceaued by discoursing of him but by perfectly seeing of him and beholding of him face to face euen as he is My second reason is drawne from the will of man That also is infinite for he can loue that which is good not onely in the first degree but also in the second and third neyther can there be any end of his loue but still his louing and liking may increase as St. Augustin saith in his Meditations En amo te Domine et si hoc non sufficit amo teplus et si hoc parum est amabo te validius Behold Lord I loue thee if this be not enough I wil loue thee more and if that be not yet enough I wil stil loue thee more Man may desire that which is infinitely good this infinite capacitye of the will must bee fulfilled and because not in this life therefore after death 2. The libertie also and freedome of mans will I meane not in Diuine but in ciuill and Domesticall affayres is of an infinit power which is a sufficient argument to proue the immortality of the soule For if man will not no creature is able to force his will to loue this thing or that voluntas potest cogi who can impose a necessitie vpon man to bee willing or vnwilling to do this or that but onely God which hath created both the will and vnderstanding and is therefore aboue them both 3. The obiect of the wil is that whatsoeuer is good I meane