cause one to be borne of the womans seede which shall subdew the diuell and the diuell shal do his indeuer to trip vp his heeles by tempting him all maner of wayes but he shall treade the diuell vnder his feete and make him to yeeld vp his weapons that is to wit Sinne and death Now who seeth not that to ouercome the diuell it behoueth him to be God and that to be borne of a Woman it behoueth him to be man that is to say both God and man as I haue sayd afore Here beginneth our controuersie ageinst the Iewes of these later tymes who hold opinion that the Messias or Chryst whom we vphold to be the Mediator betweene Gods Iustice and Mannes sinne shal be some greate Emperour that shall deliuer them from bodily oppression whereunto I haue answered at large heretofore Howbeit they cannot denie but that by the death which God threateneth to Adam for his transgression Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon vnderstandeth a spirituall death that is to wit the death of the Soule wounded with sinne and forsaken of hir lyfe which is God and that by the venoume of the Serpent he meaneth sinne it self which shall ceasse sayeth he vnder the Messias and that the same is also the Interpretation of the auncient Cabalists and lykewyse that the Sinagog of old time vnderstoode the sayd text to be ment of the Messias as the Interpretation of the thréescore and ten Interpreters and the auncient Translation of Hierusalem itself do giue vs cause to beleeue For sayeth this Latter expresly so long ô Serpent as the womans Children keepe the Lawe they kill thee and when they ceasse to doo so thou stingest them in the Heele and hast powre to hurt them much But whereas for their harm there is a sure remedy to heale it for thyne there is none For in the last dayes they shal crushe thee al to peeces with their Heeles by meanes of Christ their King Now if the death bee spirituall and the enemy spirituall and his weapons spiritnall how can it be denyed that the battell betweene him and the Messias who is to vanquish him is lykewise spiritual his power spiritual and his Kingdome spirituall Moreouer what were Adam Henoch Noe and Abraham benefited by this promise if it extend no further than to temporall things Which of vs would indure here a thousand miseries vnder pretence that certeine thousands of yeres hence we should haue an Emperour borne which should he redouted euerywhere Now lyke as the scripture beginneth with the promise of the Messias that is to say of the deliuerer of our Soules so doth it shewe euidently that it aimeth not at any other mark than that For leauing the great States of the world and the breeding of Kingdomes and Principalities which are things whereon Histories stand so curiousely it leadeth vs directly too the birth and ofspring of Abraham whereof the Messias was to be borne And vnto the same Abraham doth God repe 〈…〉 promise often times that in his seede al nations should be blessed 〈◊〉 is to say that one should be borne of his seede by whom Saluation should be profered to all nations of the Earth And age in that in Isaac the seede should be called vnto him which thing surely is not spoken of the Posteritie of his Sonne Ismael notwithstanding that GOD told him that his fleshly posteritie should be verie florishing But this preface which the Lord maketh shall I hide any thing from my seruant Abraham c. Sheweth euidently how it is a misterie that passeth al vnderstanding of man and whereunto Abraham had no lesse ryght than his seede From Abraham this promise passed by hand to Isaac from Isaac to Iacob and Iacob left it by his last will too his children with these woords The Scepter shalnot be taken from Iuda nor the lawgiuer from betweene his feete vntil Silo come and vnto him shall the Nations resort Which woords were spoken to Iuda by name bycause the sayd holy seede was to come of his stocke And that the same saying was ment of the Messias the Thargum of Hierusalem and the Onkelos which are bookes of chéef anthoritie among the Iewes do assure vs. For they translate it thus vntill Chryst or the Anoynted come whereunto is added this too whom the Kingdome belongeth And the schoole of Rabbi Sila being demaunded in the Talmud what should bee the name of the Messias answereth Silo is his name for say they it is sayd vntill Silo come Albeit now that the sayd kingdome be other than a temporall Dominion yet is the text formall in that place For the Iewes wayt that the Messias or Christ should come of the Trybe of Iuda and that at the tyme of his comming the Scepter and the Lawgiuer should both be taken from Iuda Surely the thing that Israell looked for as then was not to subdue other Nations seeing that Israell himselfe was not to reigne at that tyme. And wretched had the hope of other Nations bene which looked for him also according to this text if his comming should haue bene but to spoyle them and make hauocke of them But he was to reigne yea euen ouer all Nations yea and to the benefite of all Nations His reigning then shal be according to the first promise namely ouer mens Soules the which he shall deliuer from the bondage of Sinne and the tyrannie of the Deuill In the Lawe of Moyses the Sacrifices and Ceremonies doe represent vnto vs the satisfaction which Christ was to make for the sinnes of the people by the sacrificing of himselfe But specially the Passouer Lambe the Sacrifice of the red Cowe the sending of the Scapegoate into the Wildernesse and the raising vp of the brasen Serpent for the healiâ—â— of diseases were all of them Memorialles for the people to put them in mynd both of the comming of the Messias and to what ende hee should come For whereas wee reade that the doorepostes of the houses were besmeared with the blud of a Lamb to the intent that the destroying Angell should not touch them that the Ashes of a Cowe without spot were kept for the sinnes of the Congregation That the Highpriest laying his hand vppon a Goates head acknowledged the sinnes of the people ouer him and the Goate went away with them into a place vninhabitable to the intent as ye would say he might neuer be heard of any more and that as many as beheld the brasen Serpent were healed incontineutly of the stinging of Serpents seeing that the things which were imployed to those purposes could not of their owne nature serue there vnto we must néedes conclude that they were signes signes say I of spirituall and inward matters like the Scripture it selfe which is spirituall and serueth for the inward man That is to wit That the Deuill hath no power ouer those which are reconcyled to God by the Sacrifice of the Messias who is charged with their Sinnes and that those which
AEgiptians who bee of most antiquitie hild and taught the same in their Misteries It is a méetly cléere shadowe of that which we reade in the Scripture concerning the fall of the deuill wherevnto he drewe mankynd afterward by his temptations But when as Pherecydes the Syrian agréeing therein with Sibil telleth vs expresly that this Deuill which hath marred and destroyed the whole earth was a Serpent whom he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Snakebread or Adderbread which armeth men by whole troopes against God we by gathering al these testimonies together shall haue the whole storie of the fall of man Hermes being auncienter than all these doth plainly acknowledge the corruption of man yea and that so farre as to say that there is nothing but euill in vs that there is no way for vs to loue God but by hating our selues And to kéepe vs from accusing the Creator The workmaister sayth he to cut off all quarelling is not the procurer of the rust neyther is the Creator the author of the filth and vncleannesse that is in vs. On whom then shall wee father the cause therof God sayth he created man after his owne likenesse and gaue him all things to vse But man in stead of staying vppon the beholding of his father would needes bee medling and doing somewhat of himselfe and so fel from the heauenly contemplation into the Sphere of Elements or of Generation And because he had power ouer al things he began to fall in loue with himselfe and in gazing vpon himself to wonder at himself whereby he so intangled himselfe that he became a bondslaue to his bodie whereas he was free and at libertie afore Now he intangleth this trueth with his accustomed speculations But yet what is this in effect but that the first man being proud of the grace which he had receyued drowned him selfe in the loue of himselfe whereas he might haue liued euerlastingly by drinking still of the loue of GOD And if we mount vp yet higher to Zoroastres who as is written of him was Noes graundchild wee shall finde that in his Oracles he bewayleth the race of Mankynd in these words Alas alas the Earth mourneth euen vnto Children which words cannot be otherwise interpreted than of originall sinne which hath passed from the first man into all his ofspring after which maner the Cabalistes and namely Osias the Chaldian interpret it wherevnto Gemistus the Platonist is not repugnant And as touching the originall of this mischief he denyeth in these words that it came of creation The thing that is vnperfect sayth he cannot proceede of the Creator Now that we be come as it were vp the streame to the first man Adam by whom sinne entered into the world and by sinne death let vs see hēceforth what the opinion of the Philosophers hath bin since the comming of the second man Iesus Christ. We haue a little booke of one Hierocles a Stoick vppon the golden sayings of Pythagoras which shall answer both for the Pythagorists and for the Stoiks Man sayeth he is of his owne motion inclyned to follow the euill and to leaue the good There is a certein stryfe bred in his affections which stepping vp ageinst the will of Nature hath made it to tumble from Heauen to Hell by vndertaking to fight ageinst God He hath a free will which he abuseth bending himself wholy to incounter the Lawes of God and this freedum itself is nothing else but a willingnesse to admit that which is not good rather than otherwise What els is this but as the holy scripture saieth that al the imaginations of manes hart are altogither continewally bent to euill and which wee dayly dispute of namely that our freedome is fresh and foreward vnto euill but lame and lasie vnto dooing well If yee aske him the cause thereof Let vs not blaspheme for all that sayeth he nor say that God is the author of our sinnes but rather that man is of his owne accord become vntoward and that whensoeuer we fall into sinne we do that which is in vs but not which was in vs from God How then shall we make these propositions of his to agree namely that God created man that man is froward and corrupted and yet that God created not man such a one vnlesse we say that God created man good and that afterward man degenerated from his nature But it is the very thing whereunto he commeth of himself Ambition sayth he is our bane and this mischeefe haue wee of ourselues bycause we be gone away from God and do giue ourselues to earthly things which make vs to forget God And that this mischeef is comon to all mankynd he confesseth sufficiently in that he giueth vs an vniuersall remedie that is to wit Religion the which alonly is able sayeth he to rid vs from earthly ignorance without the riddance whereof we can neuer come agein to our former shape and to the lykenes of our kynd which was to be lyke vnto God Now if all the whole kynd be defiled as he sayeth it is surely we must resort backe to one first father frō whom it is spred out into the rest by naturall generation Plutarke wryting of Morall vertue findeth it a very hard matter to make our affection subiect to reason and the body obedient to the spirit And he is driuen to maruell greatly That our féete should be so ready to goe or too stand still whensoeuer Reason loozeneth or pulleth backe the Brydle and that on the contrarie part our affections should carry vs away so headlong for all the restreint that wee can make Also hee thinketh it strange that in our discourses of the greatest matters as of Loue of the bringing vp of our Children and of such like we be driuen to take the brute beastes for our Iudges as who woulde say that nature had stamped no Print of them in our selues And he findeth himself so sore graueled in his consideration that he preferreth the brute beastes before vs in all things sauing in the capacitie which wee haue to knowe God vndoubtedly as perceiuing a continuall following of their kind in all of them wheras in vs only there is contrariwise such an vnkindly and Bastardly Nature that not euen the best of vs haue any whit of our former nature remayning in vs sauing onely shame that we haue it no more And this very gift of knowing God which remayneth to man graueleth Plutarke more than all the rest Man saieth he is a reasonable Creature God hath set him in the world to be serued honored of him and he hath made him to be borne to common ciuill Societie Whereof commeth it then that in his doings he is more vnreasonable more contrarie to Gods will and more against the Lawe of Nature then the very brute beastes In this perplexitie one whyle he saith that man had receiued fayre and sound
which he hath receiued of GOD and that which he hath lost by his disobedience And sith GOD hath created this world of nothing how should a thing of nothing multiply so infinitely as to satisfie for an infinite offence Let Man offer himselfe what offereth he but vnthankfulnesse and disobedience blasphemie and froward déedes That is to say what shall he els do but prouoke Gods wrath more and more against him Nay let the very Angels step in the Creature to pacifie the Creator the thing that is finite in goodnesse to couer an infinite euill the indebted in all respects to discharge another more indebted and what els will this be than a couering that as the Prophet sayth doth but halfe couer and a plaister infinitely too little for the sore Surely let vs say therefore that God himselfe must bée fayne to step in betwéene his Iustice and his mercie and as he created vs at the first so to create vs newe againe and as he created vs then in his fauour so to acquit vs now from his wrath and as he vttered his wisedome then in creating vs so to imploye the same now againe in repayring vs and soothly so much the more if more may bee because that in our creation nothing resisted the goodnesse of the Creator whereas in our reparation our naughtinesse withstandeth him as much as is possible Out of one bottomlesse deepe wee goe still into another but God bee praysed they bee the deepes of his grace Who then say you shall bee this Mediatour God vnto God Infinite vnto Infinite and able both to discharge the bond and to asswage the infinite punishmēt Here let vs bethinke vs againe what hath bene sayd afore in the fifth and sixth Chapters I haue declared there both by reason and by record of all antiquitie that in God there are three persons or Inbeings in vnitie of one essence and that the same are coeternall and coequall in all respects The Father as the ground and welspring the Sonne as the euerlasting word and wisedome of the Father and the holy Ghost as the bond of kyndnesse and loue whereby the Father and the Sonne are linked together and I pray the Reader that for the refreshing of his memorie he will voutsafe to reade ouer those Chapters againe vpon this poynt Needes then I assure you must one of those three persons step in betwixt Gods wrath and our infinit Fault And sith it is so which of them should rather doe it than the wisedome considering that the case standeth vppon the new creating of vs againe and that we were created by the same at the first or than the Sonne seeing wée bée to be adopted that is to say to bee admitted to an inheritance Nay moreouer it behoued this Mediatour to step in for euer For inasmuch as the world was created for man and man is falne away from God neither the world nor man now after his fall could haue abidden before God one moment of an hower Behold in the maner of this mediation there is againe another incomprehensible Misterie howbeit such a one as when it is once reuealed vnto vs wee deeme it vnpossible to haue bene otherwise We haue God infinitly iust and Man infinitely sinfull The infinite Iustice due to so infinite offence could not bee satisfied but eyther by infinite punishment or by an infinit reparation and this infinite reparation could not proceede but from him that is infinite that is to wit from God himselfe It behoueth then that our Mediatour be God and of his gracious goodnesse such a one haue we But this infinite Godhead is not to recompence our disobedience otherwise than with obedience nor our vndesert otherwise than with desert not our stubbornnesse otherwise than with lowlynesse neither againe is he to purchace vs grace but by punishment or life but by death And to the intent he may obey he must abase himselfe to deserue he must serue to become lowly he must stoope downe beneath himselfe to suffer he must become weake and to dye he must become mortall Certesse we say therefore that it is conuenient and behoofull that our Mediatour should be both God and Man Man to bee borne vnder the Lawe God to performe the Lawe Man to serue God to set free Man to humble himselfe to the vttermost God to exalt himselfe aboue all things Man to suffer God to ouercome Man to dye and God to tryumph ouer death Nay moreouer forasmuch as he submitteth himselfe willingly to such things for our sakes say I and not for his owne néedes must his obedience become a discharge for the disobedience his desert a discharge of the vndesert and his lowlinesse a satisfaction for the stubbornnesse of them that beleeue in him yea and moreouer a purchace of obedience desert and lowlynesse vnto them so that looke what is due to his obedience that is to wit loue to his desert that is to wit reward to his humilitie that is to wit honor to his sorowe that is to wit ioye to his death that is to wit life and to his victorie that is to wit Tryumph the same is purchaced and giuen by him and imputed and made due at Gods hand to all such as honor that great benefite and call vpon the father in his name From this poynt we may proceede afterward to other conditions and circumstances requisite in the Mediatour God and Man seeking him alwaies as may be most conuenient and agreeable both to Gods Iustice to the office dignitie of the Mediatour It is necessarie for our welfare say I that the Mediator should be man to beare the punishmēts of men to recōcile Mankynd And if he were not a mā then like as we should haue no part in him nor he in vs so should he not auayle vs any whitte neither in way of satisfaction nor in way of desert Méete it is therfore that he should be borne of our race and that he should be flesh of our flesh bone of our bone to the intēt that as in Adam we be al become bondseruāts to sinne so in him we may be deliuered and set frée from the reward of sinne which is death Ageine forasmuch as he was to ouercome sinne it behoued him to bee without sinne and forasmuch as it was for him to make vs cleane it behoued him to be without vncleannesse For we knowe that all of vs are conceiued in iniquitie and borne in vncleannesse and corruption and therefore it behoueth him to be such a man as is conceiued after an other maner than man is And this after so many wonders ought not to be counted a wonder for he that deriued woman out of man without helpe of woman can also deriue man out of woman without helpe of man To these particularities we shall come time enough hereafter and if suffizeth at this tyme that Gods Iustice and mans offence haue euen by humane reason directed vs to a verie necessitie of a Mediator
Caligula who threatened the Ayre if it rayned vpon his Gameplayers and yet notwithstanding he wrapped his Cape about his head or hid himselfe vnder his Bed at euery flash of lightening I beléeue saith Seneca concerning the same matter that this threatening of his did greatly hasten his death for so much as folke sawe that they were too beare such a one as could not beare euen with the Goddes Among the learned although the libertie of Sects was lawlesse yet the chiefe that men counted for Atheists were one Diagoras a Melian Poet one Theodore a Cyrenian one Ewhemere a Tegean and a very fewe others But to say truely these rather skorned the Idolles and false Goddes of their tymes then denyed the true God Accordingly as we sée many of them yet still among vs which hold themselues cōtented with the knowing of vntrueth without seeking after the trueth and with mocking of Superstitions without seeking the pure and true Religion Of the sayd Diagoras it is reported that as hee was burning an Image of Hercules in his fire he sayd Thou must now doe me seruice in this thirteenth incounter as well as thou hast done to Euristheus in the other twelue This was but a skorning of Idolles For notwithstanding this his Uerses began thus that all things are gouerned by a Godhead Also it is reported of the other that he should say to the Egiptians If they be Gods why bewayle ye them and if they be dead folkes why worship ye them This also was a disprouing of the false Gods And as for Ewhemere of Tegea men are of accorde that the cause why he was called an Atheist was for that he wrate the true Historie and Genealogie of the Heathen Gods shewing that they were Kings Princes and great Personages whose Images being kept for a remembrance of them were turned into Idolles their woorthie doings into yerely Gaming 's and their honorings into worshippings And which of vs at this day beleeueth not as much There were in deede a kinde of Philosophers called Scepticks that is to say Dowters which did rather suspend their Iudgement concerning the Godhead then call it in question But yet it ought to suffize vs that they be the selfsame which deny al Sciences yea euen those which consist in Demonstration and which professe themselues to doubt of the things which they see and feele in so much that they doubt whether they themselues haue any beeing or no. But yet for all that let vs see after what maner these kind of people doe reason Against the thing which the world preacheth which Nations worship and which wise men wonder at these folke say at a worde for all how shall wee beleeue that there is a God sith we see him not O foole and which worse is O foole by being wise in thyne owne conceyt Thou beléeuest that there is a Sunne euen when thou art in a Dongeon or in the bottome of a Prison because his beames are shed in at thy windowes and doubtest thou yet still whether there be a God or no when he sheweth himself to thee through the Sunne the Moone and the Starres in the Ayre the Earth the Sea in all things that they conteyne yea and euen in they selfe If thou haddest neuer seene Tree afore thy wit at the very first sight of it would leade thée to the roote which is vnder the Tree and the sight of a Riuer would leade thee to the welspring thereof which may peraduenture be two hundred Leagues of And whosoeuer should tell thee the contrarie thou wouldest stand at defiaunce against him O man like as the Tree leadeth thee to the roote by his braunches doth not the roote leade thee likewise to the kernell and the kernell to him that made it And as the Riuer leadeth thée to his head shal not the head leade thée to the originall spring therof seeing thou canst not doubt but it hath a beginning sith thou seest that it runneth with a streame If thou shouldest arriue among the Indians and finde but some sislie Cottage in the desolatest Countrey thereof Thou wouldest by and by conclude this I le is inhabited some man hath passed heere And why Because thou seest there some tokens of mans wit and knowest well that the Goates which thou hast seene raunging or skipping vpon the Rockes can build no such thing Now when thou beeing borne beneath seest here a hundred and a hundred thousand things which are not possible to be made by man nay which more is which it is not possible for him to knowe nor to vnderstand oughtest thou not to say immediatly Gods spirite hath passed this way needes must here haue bene some higher thing then man Mention is made of certeyne precize persons which beléeued nothing but that which they sawe and the Wizards made them to see Deuilles Wherevpon they came to beleeue also that there is a God It was a mad kinde of conuersion to beleeue in God by the ministerie of the Deuill But what a number of other things beleeuest thou which thou seest not Thou beleeuest that the Plants haue a kinde of Soule that is to say a certeyne inward power or vertue which maketh them to shoote foorth in their season Thou seest them but thou seest not it neither knowest thou whence it commeth or where it lyeth Thou beleeuest that the Beastes also haue one other kinde of Soule which maketh them to mooue and yet thou seest it as little as the other Also thou beleeuest that thou thy self besides these hast an abilitie of reasoning both vpon them and vpon thy selfe and vpon such as are like thy selfe And yet as touching the bodie thou seest not any thing altered in the partes thereof after death neither within nor without Where is that Soule then or where hast thou euer seene it If thou beleeue therof because of the effects which thou seest which cannot come from any thing els I assure thée euen by the same effects that if thou beléeue nothing thereof but that which thou seest with thyne eyes thyne eyes see not but by thy Soule and thyne eyes themselues see not thy Soule To be short thou beléeuest that thou hast a face which without a looking Glasse thou seest not And wilt thou not beléeue there is a God whose face shineth foorth in all things Othersome to shewe themselues more fineheaded haue argewed thus If there bee a GOD he must needes be a bodily liuing wight or els he should be sencelesse And if he haue sences then is he chaungeable and if he be chaungeable then may be perish that is to say he is no longer God Beasts are they in very deed which can conceiue no better then that which is common to Beasts Others haue sayd thus If he be without bodie he is also without Soule and consequently without action Or if he be a bodie he is subiect to the chaunges therof Alas that they should not be abls to conceiue a Spirite without
that they should bee kept still and cannot conceiue to what vse the treading of them should serue but the Father knowing the goodnes of the Fruite better then the Child for he planted them tended them and proyned them considereth also that within two moonethes or little more they would wither and dry away and therefore to preserue the vertue of them he maketh no account of the eating of them but treadeth them in a Fatte to make Wyne of them And when the Child comes afterward to discretion he museth at his owne folly and acknowledgeth that at that tyme he played the very Child notwithstanding that as then he thought himselfe wyser than his Father And after the same maner doth he when he sees him make conserue of Roses of Uiolets or of other flowers He is sory to see them mard as hee thinketh and is ready to weepe for it and he cannot be quieted because he would make Nosegayes of them which anon-after would wither and he himself would cast them away by the next morrow Now consider I pray thee whither without any further inducement thou find not thy selfe too resemble this Child GOD who made the good men that which they be hath no lesse consideration and loue toward them than those which bewayle them Hee knoweth to what ende their lyfe serueth in this worlde also hee knoweth when it is time to gather them and to put to his Hooke or Sickle to cut them downe that they rotte not vppon the tree or vppon the ground and how long they may be preserued in their kinde And thinkest thou it straunge that hee should take some when they bee fresh and greene too preserue them all the yeere long or that hee should make Conserues of their flowers to bee kept a long time or that hee should of their grapes make Wyns Thinkest thou it straunge say I that he should after a sort make their sauour their sweete sent and their strength that is to say their godlines their vprightnes and their vertue too liue after them which otherwise should bee buried with them And that they which for themselues could not haue liued past three or fower yeres should liue to the benefite of the Church and the commonweale not yeres but worlds of yeeres If thou bee a Christian take for mee example the Apostles and a great nomber of the Martyrs which haue suffered persecution doest thou not euen yet still drink of that liquor of theirs doth not their constant confession make thee also to confesse Christ and their death helpe thee too the endlesse lyfe Could Ignatius and Policarpus haue liued aboue fiue or sixe yeres more than they did And yet what part of all their ages hath lasted so long or done so much good as the last halfe howre wherein they dyed Or if thou be a Heathen man consider mee the death of Socrates or of Papinian If Socrates had not droonke the iewce of Hemlocke without gilt haddest thou had those goodly discourses of his concerning the immortalitie of the Soule Or wouldest thou haue beleeued it so easely and therevpon haue bene contented to forgo thy lyfe so freely for the defence of thy Countrie or for the mayntenance of the trueth And if Papinian had not shewed how honorable a thing it is to dye for doing right and how farre the souereine magistrate is to be obeyed should we not bee bereft of a singular goodly example of stoutnesse and rightfull dealing What thing did they in all their whole lyfe either so much to their owne honour or so beneficiall to them that were to come after them as their dying in such sort Now therefore let vs say we be but babes And forasmuch as we perceiue the wisdome of our Father tâ—o bee so great whereas wee condemne him of want of skill and forasmuch as our owne ignorance is so grosse whereas wee boasted of wisedome let vs rather confesse our weakenesse in all cases than presume to doubt of his sage prouidence in any thing But Cato of Vtica would needes that God should yéeld him a reason why Caesar ouercame Pompey as who would say that the veriest rascall in the Realme should commaund the high Court of Parliament to yéeld him account why his case was ouerthrowen For all our great Quarels and Complaints are lesse before God than the least case of a poore Uillaine is afore the greatest Monark of the world Nay hee should rather haue considered that priuate States are punished by order of Lawe and Commonweales and publik States by ciuill warres And that the Commonweale of Rome was euen by his owne confession so corrupted in maners in gouernment and in the very Lawes themselues that he might haue had much iuster cause to haue doubted of Gods prouidence if after her punishing of others for the lyke things she her selfe had scaped vnpunished That the Greate men what part so euer they mainteyned were the members most infected in so much that the wisest men of that age said We see what part we ought to shun but not what part wee ought to take And that as Caesar made warre openly against his Countrie so Pompey couertly and vnder hand made his partakers too fight for the mayntenaunce of his owne ambition which was paraduenture discountenanced too the common people but could not be counterfetted before God who seeth the very bottom of our hearts Now then shall wee thinke it straunge that to the intent to shewe the common people how greatly they bée subiect to be deceyued vnder pretence of good fayth and to teache great men how fore he mistiketh that they should shrowd their leawde lustes vnder the Cloke of Iustice God should suffer Pompey to fall into the hands of his enemies And that to punish the pryde of the Senate and the whole state hée should cause their Army to bee vanquished and let them fall into the hands of their owne Countryman their naturall Subiect Nay how could God haue shewed his prouidence more manifestly than by ouerthrowing that State by her owne force which thought there was not any Power in the worlde able too punish her and by making her a bondslaue to her owne Seruant which had brought so many Citties Commonweales Kings in bondage vnto her But it may be that Caesar himselfe scapeth vnpunished Nay To shewe vnto Tyrannes that the highest step of their greatnesse is tyed to a halter and that they be but Gods scourges which he will cast into the fyre when he hath done with them within a whyle after hée was slayne miserably in the Senate when it was full And by whome Euen by those in whome hee trusted which had fought vnder his Standard against the Commonweale and which presuming them selues to haue deserued more at his hand than they had in deede meant to deserue also of the Commonweale in murthering hym Were wee now as diligent in marking the procéedings of things done in Histories as we be in noting the maner of spéeches
only eyther into others bodies but also eyther into others mynds so as wee comprehend eyther other by mutual vnderstanding and imbrace either other by mutual louing It followeth then that this substance which is able to receiue a bodilesse thing can bee no body and that so much the rather for that the body which seemeth to hold it conteyneth it not Nay verely this Soule of ours is so farre of from being a bodily substance and is so manifestly a Spirit that to lodge all things in it selfe it maketh them all after a sort spirituall and bereueth them of their bodies and if there were any bodylinesse in it it were vnable to enter into the knowledge of a bodie So in a Glasse a thousand shapes are seene but if the cléere of the Glasse had any peculiar shape of it owne the Glasse could yéeld none of those shapes at all Also all visible things are imprinted in the eye but if the sight of the eye had any peculiar colour of it owne it would be a blemish to the sight so as it should eyther not see at all or els all things should seeme like to that blemish Likewise whereas the Tongue is the discerner of all tastes if it be not cléere but combered with humours all things are of tast like to the humour so as if it be bitter they also be bitter and if it be watrish they be watrish too yea and if it bee bitter it can not iudge of bitternesse it self That a thing may receyue al shapes all colours and all tastes it behoueth the same to be cléere from all shapes from all colour and from all sauour of it owne And that a thing may in vnderstanding knowe and conceiue all bodies as our Soule doth it behoueth the same to bée altogether bodylesse it self for had it any bodylinesse at all it could not receiue any body into it If wée looke yet more néerely into the nature of a body wée shall finde that no body receiueth into it the substantial forme of another body without losing or altering his owne ne passeth frō one forme into another without the marring of the first as is to bee seene in wood when it receyueth fire in seedes when they spring foorth into bud and so in other things What is to be said then of mans soule which receiueth and conceyueth the formes and shapes of al things without corrupting his owne and moreouer becommeth the perfecter by the more receyuing For the more it receyueth the more it vnderstandeth and the more it vnderstandeth the more perfect is it If it bee a bodily substance from whence is it and of what mixture If it be of the fower Elements how can thei giue life hauing no life of themselues Or how can thei giue vnderstanding hauing no sence If it bee of the mixture of them how may it bee sayd that of diuers things which haue no beeing of themselues should bee made a thing that hath being Or that of diuers outsides should bee made one body or of diuers bodies one Soule or of diuers deaths one life or of diuers darknesses one light Nay rather why say wee not that he which beyond nature hath made the mixture of these bodies hath for the perfecting of our body breathed a Soule also into the body To be short the propertie of a body is to suffer and the propertie of our Soule is to doe And if the body bée not put foorth by some other thing than it selfe it is a very blocke wheras the mynd that is in our Soule ceasseth not to stirre vp and downe in it selfe though it haue nothing to moue it from without Therefore it is to bee concluded by these reasons and by the like that our Soule is a bodylesse substance notwithstanding that it is vnited to our body And herevpon it followeth also that our Soule is not any material thing forasmuch as matter receyueth not any forme or shape but according to his owne quantitie and but onely one forme at once whereas our Soule receyueth all formes without quantitie come there neuer so many at once or so great Agayne no matter admitteth two contrary formes at once but our Soule contrarywise comprehendeth and receyueth them together as fire and water heate and cold white and blacke and not only together but also the better by the matching and laying of them together To bée short seeing that the more wee depart from matter the more wée vnderstand surely nothing is more contrary to the substance of ou◠Soule than is the nature of matter Furthermore if this reasonable Soule of ours is neither a bodily nor a materiall thing nor depending vpon matter in the best actions therof then must it néedes be of it self and not procéede eyther from body or from matter For what doth a body bring foorth but a body and matter but matter and materiall but materialles And therefore it is an vnmateriall substance which hath being of it selfe But let vs see whether the same bee corruptible and mortall or no. Soothly if Plutarke bee to beléeued it is in vayne to dispute thereof For he teacheth that the doctrine of Gods prouidence and the immortalitie of our Soules are so linked together that the one is as an appendant to the other And in very déed to what purpose were the World created if there were no body to behold it Or to what ende behold wee the Creator in the world but to serue him And why should wee serue him vppon no hope And to what purpose hath he indewed vs with these rare giftes of his which for the most part doe but put vs to payne and trouble in this life if we perish like the brute Beast or the Hearbes which knowe him not Howbeit for the better satisfying of the sillie Soules which go on still like witlesse Beastes without taking so much leysure in all their life as once to enter into themselues let vs indeuer héere by liuely reasons to paynt out vnto thē againe their true shape which they labour to deface with so much filthinesse The Soule of man as I haue sayd afore is not a body neyther doth it increase or decrease with the body but contrarywise the more the body decaieth the more doth the vnderstanding increase and the néerer that the body draweth vnto death the more fréely doth the mynd vnderstand and the more that the body abateth in flesh the more woorkfull is the mynd And why then should we think that the thing which becommeth the stronger by the weakenesse of the body and which is aduaunced by the decay of the body should returne to dust with the body A mans Sences fayle because his eyes fayle and his eyes fayle because the Spirits of them fayle but the blynd mans vnderstanding increaseth because his eyes are not busied and the olde mans reason becommeth the more perfect by the losse of his sight Therfore why say we not that the body fayleth the Soule and not the Soule
the body and that the Glasses are out of the Spectacles but the eysight is still good Why should we déeme the Soule to be forgone with the Sences If the eye be the thing that séeth and the eare the thing that heareth why doe wee not see things dubble and heare sounds dubble seeing we haue two eyes and two eares It is the Soule then that seeth and heareth and these which wee take to be our sences are but the instruments of our sences And if when our eyes bee shut or pickt out wee then beholde a thousand things in our mynd yea and that our vnderstanding is then most quicksighted when the quickest of our eysight is as good as quenched or starke dead how is it possible that the reasonable Soule should bee tyed and bound to the sences What a reason is it to say that the Soule dyeth with the sences séeing that the true sences do then growe and increase when the instruments of sence doe dye And what a thing were it to say that a Beast is dead because he hath lost his eyes when we our selues see that it liueth after it hath forgone the eyes Also I haue prooued that the Soule is neither the body nor an appertnance of the body Sith it is so why measure we that thing by the body which measureth al bodies or make that to dye with the body whereby the bodies that dyed yea many hundred yéeres agoe doe after a certeine maner liue still Or what can hurt that thing whom nothing hurteth or hindereth in the bodie Though a man lose an arme yet doth his Soule abide whole still Let him forgoe the one halfe of his body yet is his Soule as sound as afore for it is whole in it selfe and whole in euery part of it selfe vnited in it felfe and in the owne substance and by the force and power thereof it sheadeth it selfe into all parts of the body Though the body rot away by péecemeale yet abideth the Soule all one and vndiminished Let the blud dreyne out the mouing wex weake the sences fayle and the strength perish and yet abideth the mynd neuerthelesse sound and liuely euen to the ende Her house must bee pearced through on all sides ere she bee discouraged her walles must be battered doune ere she fall to fléeting and she neuer forsaketh her lodging till no roome be left her to lodge in True it is that the brute Beastes forgo both life and action with their blud But as for our Soule if wee consider the matter well it is then gathered home into it self and when our sences are quenched then doth it most of all labour to surmount it selfe woorking as goodly actions at the tyme that the body is at a poynt to fayle it yea and oftentymes farre goodlyer also than euer it did during the whole lifetyme thereof As for example it taketh order for it selfe for our houshold for the Commonweale and for a whole Kingdome and that with more vprightnesse godlynesse wisedome and moderation than euer it did afore yea and perchance in a body so forspeâ—â—â— so bare so consumed so withered without and so putrified within that whosoeuer lookes vpon him sees nothing but earth and yet to heare him speake would rauish a man vp to heauen yea and aboue heauen Now when a man sees so liuely a Soule in so weake and wretched a body may he not say as is said of the hatching of Chickens that the shell is broken but there commeth forth a Chicken Also let vs sée what is the ordinary cause that things perish Fire doth eyether goe out for want of nourishment or is quenched by his contrary which is water Water is resolued into aire by fire which is his contrary The cause why the Plant dyeth is extremitie of colde or drought or vnseasonable cutting or vyolent plucking vp Also the liuing wight dyeth through contrarietie of humours or for want of foode or by feeding vpon some thing that is against the nature of it or by outward vyolence Of all these causes which can we choose to haue any power against our Soule I say against the Soule of man which notwithstanding that it be vnited to matter and to a bodie is it selfe a substance vnbodily vnmateriall and only conceiuable in vnderstanding The contrarietie of things Nay what can be contrarie to that which lodgeth the contraries alike equally in himselfe which vnderstandeth the one of them by the other which coucheth them all vnder one skill and to bee short in whom the contrarieties themselues abandon their contrarietie so as they doe not any more pursewe but insewe one another Fire is hote and water cold Our bodies mislike these contraries and are gréeued by them but our mynd linketh them together without eyther burning or cooling it selfe and it setteth the one of them against the other to knowe them the better The things which destroy one another through the whole world do mainteine one another in our mynds Againe nothing is more contrary to peace then warre is and yet mans mynd can skill to make or mainteyne peace in preparing for warre and to lay earnestly for warre in seeking or inioying of peace Euen death it selfe which dispatcheth our life cannot bée contrary to the life of our Soule for it seeketh life by death and death by life And what can that thing méete withall in the whole world that may bee able to ouerthrowe it which can inioyne obedience to things most contrary What then Want of foode How can that want foode in the world which can skill to feede on the whole world Or how should that forsake foode which the fuller it is so much the hungryer it is and the more it hath digested the better able it is to digest The bodily wight feedeth vppon some certeyne things but our mynd feedeth vpon all things Take from it the sensible things and the things of vnderstanding abyde with it still bereaue it of earthly things and the heauenly remayne abundantly To be short abridge it of all worldly things yea and of the world it selfe and euen then doth it feede at greatest ease maketh best chéere agréeable to his owne nature Also the bodily wight filleth it selfe to a certeyne measure and delighteth in some certeyne things But what can fill our mynd Fill it as full as ye can with the knowledge of things and it is still eager and sharpe set to receyue more The more it taketh in the more it still craueth and yet for al that it neuer feeleth any rawnesse or lack of digestion What shall I say more discharge our vnderstanding from the mynding of it self and then doth it liue in him and of him in whom all things doe liue Againe fill it with the knowledge of it selfe and then doth it feele it self most emptie and sharpest set vpon desire of the other Now then can that dye or decay for want of foode which cannot be glutted with any thing which is nourished and mainteyned with
all things and which liueth in very déede vppon him by whom all the things which we wonder at here beneath are vphild And what els is vyolence but a iustling of two bodies together and how can there be any such betwéene a bodie and a spiritual substance yea or of two spirits one against another seeing that oftentymes when they would destroye one another they vphold one an other And if the Soule cannot be pushed at neither inwardly nor outwardly is there any thing in nature that can naturally hurt it No but it may perchaunce bee weakened by the very force of his encounter as wee see it doth befall to our sences For the more excellent and the more sensible the thing is in his kynd which the sence receiueth so much the more also is the sence it self offended or gréeued therwith As for example the féeling by fire the taste by harshnesse the smelling by sauours the hearing by the hideousnesse of noyse whether it be of Thunderclappe or of the falling of a Riuer and the sight by looking vpon the Sunne vpon Fyre and vpon all things that haue a glistering brightnesse I omit that in the most of these things it is not properly the sence it selfe but the outward instrument of sence only that is offended or hurt But let vs see if there be the like in our reasonable Soule Nay contrarywise the more of vnderstanding and excellencie that the thing is the more doth it refresh and comfort our mynd If it bee darke so as wee vnderstand it but by halues it hurteth vs not but yet doth it not delight vs. Nay as we increase in vnderstanding it so doth it like vs the better and the higher it is the more doth it stirre vp the power of our vnderstanding and as ye would say reache vs the hande to drawe vs to the atteynement thereof As for them that are dim-sighted wee forbid them to behold the things that are ouerbright But as for them that are of rawest capacitie wee offer them the things that are most vnderstandable When the sence beginneth to perceyue most sharply then is it fayne to giue ouer as if it felt the very death of it selfe Contrarywise when the mynd beginneth to vnderstand then is it most desirous to hold on still And whereof commeth that but that our sences work by bodily instruments but our mynd worketh by a bodilesse substance which néedeth not the helpe of the body And seeing that the nature the nourishment and the actions of our Soule are so farre differing both from the nature nourishment and actions of the body and from al that euer is done or wrought by the bodie can there be any thing more childish than to déeme our Soule to be mortal by the abating and decaying of our sences or by the mortalitie of our bodies Nay contrariwise it may be most soundly and substantially concluded therevpon that mans Soule is of it owne nature immortall seeing that all death as well vyolent as naturall commeth of the bodie and by the bodie Let vs see further what death or corruption is It is say they a separating of the matter from his forme And forasmuch as in man the Soule is considered to be the forme and the bodie to be as the matter the separation of the Soule from the bodie is cōmonly called Death Now then what death can there bee of the Soule sith it is vnmaterial as I haue sayd afore and a forme that abideth of it selfe For as one sayth a man may take away the roundnesse or squarenesse from a table of Copper because they haue no abyding but in the matter but had thei such a round or square forme as might haue an abyding without matter or stuffe wherein to be out of doubt such forme or shape should continue for euer Nay which more is how can that be the corrupter of a thing which is the perfection thereof The lesse corsinesse a man hath the more hath he of reason and vnderstanding The lesse our mynds be tyed to these bodily things the more liuely and chéerefull be they At a word the full and perfect life thereof is the full and vtter withdrawing thereof from the bodie and whatsoeuer the bodie is made of All these things are so cléere as they néede no proofe Now we knowe that euery thing worketh according to the proper being therof and that the same which perfecteth the operations of a thing perfecteth the being thereof also It followeth therefore that sith the separation of the body from the Soule and of the forme from the matter perfecteth the operation or working of the Soule as I haue sayd afore it doth also make perfect and strengthen the very being thereof and therefore cannot in any wise corrupt it And what els is dying but to be corrupted And what els is corrupting but suffering And what els is suffering but receyuing And how can that which receyueth all things without suffering receyue corruption by any thing Fyre corrupteth or marreth our bodies and we suffer in receyuing it So doth also extreme colde but if wee suffered nothing by it it could not fréese vs. Our sences likewise are marred by the excessiue force of the things which they light vpon And that is because they receyue and perceyue the thing that gréeueth them and for that the maner of their behauing of themselues towards their obiects is subiect to suffering But as for the reasonable Soule which receiueth al things after one maner that is to wit by way of vnderstāding wherethrough it alway worketh is neuer wrought into how is it possible for it to corrupt or marre it selfe For what is the thing whereat our Soule suffereth aught in the substance thereof I meane whereby the substance of our Soule is any whit impayred or hurt by mynding or conceyuing the same in vnderstanding As little doth the fire hurt it as the ayre and the ayre as the fire As little hurt receiueth it by the frozen yce of Norwey as by the scorching sands of Affricke As little also doth vyce anoye it as vertue For vyce and vertue are so farre of from incombering the substance of the Soule that our mynd doth neuer conceiue or vnderstand them better than by setting them together one against another That thing therfore which doth no whit appayre it selfe but taketh the ground of perfecting it self by all things can not be marred or hurt by any thing Agein what is death The vttermost poynt of mouing and the vttermost bound of this life For euen in liuing we dye and in dying we liue and there is not that step which we set downe in this life which dooth not continewally step foreward vnto death after the maner of a Dyall or a Clocke which mounting vp by certeine degrées forgoeth his mouing in mouing from Minute to Minute Take away mouing from a body and it doth no more liue Now let vs sée if the soule also be caryed with the same mouing If it be caryed
to conceiue that thy Soule should dye with the Body but euen in the selfesame tyme when it disputeth ageinst it selfe it shifteth it self I wote not how from all thy conclusions and falleth too consider in what state it shall bee and where it shal become when it is out of the body The Epicure that hath disputed of it all his lyfe long when he commeth to death bequeatheth a yerely pension for the keeping of a yéerely feast on the day of his birth I pray you to what purpose serue feastings for the birth of a Swyne séeing he estéemeth himselfe to be no better than so Nay what els is this than a crying out of his Nature against him which with one word confuteth all his vaine arguments Another laboureth by all meanes possible to blot out in himselfe the opinion of immortalitie and bicause he hath liued wickedly in this world he will néedes beare himselfe on hand that there is no Iustice in the world tocome But then is the tyme that his owne nature waketh and starteth vp as it were out of the bottome of a water and at that instant painteth againe before his eyes the selfsame thing which he tooke so much paynes to deface And in good sooth what a number haue wee seene which hauing bene despisers of all ReligioÌ„ haue at the hower of death bin glad to vow their Soules to any Sainct for releefe so cléere was then the presence of the life to come before their eyes I had leuer sayd Zeno to see an Indian burne himselfe chéerefully than to heare al the Philosophers of the world discoursing of the immortalitie of the Soule and in very déede it is a much stronger and better concluded argument Nay then let vs rather say I had leuer see an Atheist or an Epicure witnessing the immortalitie of the Soule and willingly taking an honorable farewell of nature vpon a Scaffold than to heare all the Doctors of the world discoursing of it in their Pulpits For whatsoeuer the Epicures say there they speake it aduisedly and as ye would say fresh and fasting wheras all that euer they haue spoken all their life afore is to bee accounted but as the wordes of Drunkards that is to wit of men besotted and falne asléepe in the delights and pleasures of this world where the Wine and the excesse of meate and the vapors that fumed vp of them did speake and not the men themselues What shall I say more I haue tolde you alreadie that in the inward man there are as ye would say thrée men the liuing the sensitiue and the reasonable Let vs say therefore that in the same person there are thrée liues continued from one to another namely the life of the Plant the life of the Beast and the life of the Man or of the Soule So long as a man is in his moothers wombe he doth but only liue and growe his Spirit seemeth to sléepe and his sences seeme to bee in a slumber so as he seemeth to bee no thing els than a Plant. Neuerthelesse if ye consider his eyes his eares his tongue his sences and his mouings you will easely iudge that he is not made to be for euer in that prison where he neither seeth nor heareth nor hath any roome to walke in but rather that he is made to come forth into an opener place where he may haue what to see and behold and wherewith to occupye al the powers which wee see to bee in him As soone as he is come out he beginneth to see to féele and to moue and by little and little falleth to the perfect vsing of his limbes and findeth in this world a peculiar obiect for euery of them as visible things for the eye sounds for his hearing bodily things for his feeling and so forth But besides all this we finde there a mynd which by the eyes as by windowes beholdeth the world and yet in al the world finding not any one thing woorthy to rest wholly vppon mounteth vp to him that made it which mynd like an Empresse lodgeth in the whole world and not alonly in this body which by the sences and oftentymes also without the sences mounteth aboue the sences and streyneth it self to goe out of it selfe as a child doth to get out of his mothers wombe And therefore wee ought surely to say that this Mynd or Reason ought not to bee euer in prison That one day it shall see cléerely and not by these dimme and clowdie spectacles That it shall come in place where it shall haue the true obiect of vnderstanding and that he shall haue his life free from these fetters and from all the affections of the body To be short that as man is prepared in his moothers wombe to be brought foorth into the world â—o is he also after a sort prepared in this body and in this world to liue in another world We then vnderstand it when by nature it behoueth vs to depart out of the world And what child is there which if nature did not by her cunning driue him out would of himself come out of his Couert or that commeth not out as good as forlorne and halfe dead or that if he had at that tyme knowledge spéech would not call that death which we call birth and that a departure out of life which we call the enterance into it As long as we be there we see nothing though our eyes be open Many also doe not so much as stirre except it bee at some sodaine scaring or some other like chaunce and as for those that stirre they knowe not that they haue eyther sence or mouing Why then should wee thinke it straunge that in this life our vnderstanding seeth so little that many men do neuer mynd the immortall nature vntill they be at the last cast yea and some thinke not themselues to haue any such thing howbeit that euen by so thinking they shew themselues to haue part thereof And imagine wee that the vnborne babe hath not as much adoe by nature to leaue the poore skinne that he is wrapt in as we haue hinderance in our sences and in our imprisoned reason when we be at the poynt to leaue the goods and pleasures of this world and the very flesh it selfe which holdeth vs as in a graue Or had the babe some little knowledge would he not say that no life were comparable to the life where he then is as we say there is no life to the life of this world wherein we be Or would he not account the stage of our sences for a fable as a great sort of vs account the stage that is prepared for our Soules Yes surely and therfore let vs conclude where wee began namely that man is both inward and outward In the outward man which is the bodie he resembleth the béeing and the proportion of all the parts of the world And in the inner man he resembleth whatsoeuer kyâ—nd of life is in all things
one selfsame Sunne He that is made a Magistrate in his own Countrey doth not willingly returne to the place of his banishment Likewise the Soule that is lodged in the lappe of his God and come home into his natiue soyle forgoeth the desire of these lower things which to his sight beholding them froÌ„ aboue are lesse than the point of a Néedle On the other side he that is put in close prison how desirous soeuer he bee cannot goe out so the Soule which is in the Iayle of his souereine Lord God hath no respit or sportingtyme to come tell vs what is done there Unto the one the beholding of the Euerlasting God is as a Paradize wherein he is wiling to remayne and vnto the other his owne condemnation is an imprisonment of his will But we would haue God to sende both the one and the other vnto vs to make vs to beléeue As who would say it stoode him greatly on hand to haue vs to beléeue and not rather vs that we should beléeue And in effect what els is al this but a desiring that some man might returne into his mothers wombe againe to incourage young babes against the pinches and paines which they abide in the birth whereof they would be as shye as we bee of death if they had the like knowledge of them But let vs let such vanities passe and come to the ground Yee beare vs on hand say they that the Soule of man is but one though it haue dyuers powers Whereof we see the sensitiue and the growing powers to be corrupted and to perish therefore it should seeme that the vnderstanding or reasonable power also should do the lyke At a woord this is al one as if a man should say you tell mee that this man is both a good man a good Swoordplayer aud a good Luteplayer altogither that bycause his swoord falls out of his hand or his hand itself becommeth Lame therefor he cannot be a good or honest man still as you reported him to bee Nay though he lose those instruments yet ceasseth he not therefor to bee an honest man yea and both a Swoordplayer and a Lute-player to as in respect of skill Lykewyse when our Soules haue forgone these exercises yet ceasse they not to be the same they were afore To inlyghten this poynt yet more of the powers of our Soule some are exercysed by the instruments of the bodie and othersome without any help or furtherance of the bodie atall Those which are exercysed by the bodie are the sences and the powers of the Sences and the powers of the growing which may carye the same likenesse that is betweene a Luter and a Lute Breake the Luters Lute and his cunning remayneth still but his putting of it in practise faileth Giue him another Lute and he falles to playing newe againe Put out a mans eyes and yet the abilitie of seeing abydeth still with him though the very act of seeing bée disappoynted But giue vnto the oldest Hag that is the same eyes that he had when he was young and he shall see as well as euer he did After the same maner is it with the growing or thriuing power Restore vnto it a goodâ— stomacke a sound Liuer and a perfect heate and it shall execute his functions as well as euer it did afore The power that worketh of it selfe and without the body is the power of reason or vnderstanding which if we wil we may call the mynd And if thou yet still doubt thereof consider when thou myndest a thing earnestly what thy body furthereth thy mynd therein thou shalt perceyue that the more fixedly thou thinkest vpon it the lesse thou seest the things before thée and the more thy mynd wandreth the more thy body resteth as who would say that the workings of the body are the greatest hinderance and impediment that can bée to the peculiar doings of the mynd And this abilitie of vnderstanding may bee likâ—ned to a man which though he haue lost both his hand and his Lute ceasseth not therefore to bee a man still and to doe the true déedes of a man that is to wit to discourse of things to mynd them to vse reason and such like yea and to be both a Luter and a man as he was afore notwithstanding that he cannot put his Luteplaying in exercise for want of instruments Nay which more is this vnderstanding part groweth so much the stronger and greater as it is lesse occupyed and busied about these bace and corruptible things is altogether drawen home wholly to it selfe as is to be seene in those which want their eyes whose mynds are commonly most apt to vnderstand and most firme to remember Doe we debate of a thing in our selues Neither our body nor our Sences are busied about it Doe wee will the same As little doe they stirre for that too To vnderstand and to will which are the operations of the mynd the Soule hath no néede of the bodie and as for working and being they accompany one another sayth Aristotle Therefore to continue still in being the Soule hath not to doe with the body nor any néede of the body but rather to woorke well and to be well the Soule ought eyther to be without the bodie or at leastwise to be vtterly vnsubiect to the bodie Yea say they but yet we see men forgoe their reason as fooles and mealancholike persons and seeing it is forgone it may also bée corrupted and if corrupted it may also dye for what is death but an vtter and full corruptnesse Nay thou shouldest say rather I haue seene diuers which hauing seemed to haue lost their right wittes haue recouered them againe by good dyet and medicinable drinkes But had they bene vtterly lost and forgone no Phisicke could haue restored them agayne and had they bene vtterly perished the parties themselues should haue had neither sence nor life remayning Therefore of necessitie the sould of them was as sound as afore But our Soules wee see not otherwise than by the bodie and by the instruments of the bodie as it were by Spectacles and our mynd which beholdeth and seeth through his imaginations as it were through a Clowde is after a sort trubbled by the dimining of the Spectacles and by the smoakinesse of the imaginations After that maner the Sunne seemeth to be dimmed and eclipsed and that is but by the comming of the Moone or of some Clowdes betwéene him and vs for in his light there is no abatement at all Likewise our eysight conceyueth things according to the Spectacles wherethrough it looketh or according to the colour that ouerthwarteth the things which it looketh vpon Taâ—â— away the impediments and our eyes shall see cléere purge away the humours and our imagination shall bee pure and so our vnderstanding shall see as bright as it did afore euen as the Sunne shineth after the putting away of the Clowdes And it fareth not with our Soules as it doth with
our bodies which after a long sicknesse reteyne still eyther a hardnesse of the Splene or a shortnesse of breath or a falling of the Rhewme vppon the Lungs or a skarre of some great wound that cannot bee worne out because of the breake that was made in the whole For neither in their vnderstanding neither in their willes do our Soules feele any abatement sauing that there abydeth some mayme or blemish in the instruments to wit as I will declare hereafter so farre foorth as it pleaseth GOD for a iust punishment to put the Soule in subiection to the bodie whose souereyne it was created to haue bene because it hath neglected the will of the Creator to followe the lustes and lykings of the bodie This appeareth in Lunaticke folkes and such others which haue their wittes troubled at tymes and by fittes For they be not vexed but at the stirring of their humours beeing at other tymes sober and well enough stayed in their wittes The like is seene in them that haue the falling sicknesse For their vnderstanding seemeth to be eclipsed and as it were striken with a Thunderclap during the tyme of their fittes but afterward they bée as discréete as though they ayled nothing To bee short the body is subiect to a thousand diseases wherewith wée see the vnderstanding to bee no whit altered because they touch not the instruments of the Sences and of the Imaginations which moue the vnderstanding Troubled it is in déede by those fewe things only which infect the Sence and the Imagination which by that meanes report the things vnfaithfully whereon the mynd debateth Therfore ye shall neuer see any bodie out of his wittes or out of his right mynd in whom the Phisitions may not manifestly perceyue eyther some default of the instruments as a mishapen and misproportioned head or els an ouerabounding of some melancholike humour that troubled and marred his bodie afore it troubled or impayred his mynd And like as the wisest men being deceyued by false Spyes do make worng deliberations howbeit yet grounded vpō good reason which thing they could not doe vnlesse they were wise in déede So the reason that is in our mynd maketh false discourses and gathereth wrong conclusions vppon the false reports of the imaginations which it could not doe if it were eyther diminished or impayred or done away Whereunto accordeth this auncient saying That there bee certeyne follyes which none but wise men can commit and certeyne Errors which none but learned men can fall into because that in some cases discretion and wisedome are requisite in the partie that is to be deceyued euen to the intent he may bee deceyued and learning is required in a man that he may conceyue and hold a wrong opinion As for example to be beguyled by a dubbledealing Spy or by the surprising of a cosening letter belongeth to none but to a wise man For a grosheaded foole neuer breaketh his brayne about such matters as might bring him to the making of false conclusions by mistaking likelyhoods in stead of truth Likewise to fall into Heresie by misconceyuing some high and déepe poynt befalleth not to an ignorant person for he is not of capacitie neyther doth his vnderstanding mount so high To be short whosoeuer sayth that mans Soule perisheth with the bodie because it is troubled by the distemperature or misproportionatenesse of the bodie may as well vphold that the Child in the moothers wombe dyeth with his moother because he moueth with her and is partaker with her of her harmes and throwes by reason of the streyt coniunction that is betwéene them howbeit that many children haue liued safe and sound notwithstanding that their moothers haue dyed yea and some haue come into the world euen by the death of their moothers And whereas some say that because our mynd conceyueth not any thing here but by helpe of Imagination therfore when the Imagination is gone with the instruments whereunto it is tyed the Soule cannot worke alone by it self nor cōsequently be alone by it selfe surely it is al one as if they should say that because the Child being in his moothers wombe taketh nourishment of her blud by his nauill therfore he cannot liue whē he is come out of her womb if his nauillstrings be cut off Nay contrarywise then is the tyme that the mouth the tongue and the other parts of the Childe doe their duetie which serued erst to no purpose sauing that they were prepared for the tyme to come After the same maner also doe wee cherish our mynd by Imagination in this second life which in the third life being as ye would say scaped out of prison shall begin to vtter his operations by himselfe and that so much the more certeynly for that it shall not be subiect to false reports nor to the sences eyther inward or outward but to the very things themselues which it shall haue seene and learned To bee short it shall liue but not in prison it shall see but not through Spectacles it shall vnderstand but not by reports it shall list but not by way of lusting the infirmitie which the bodie casteth vpon it as now shall then bee away the force which it bringeth now to the body shal then be more fresh and liuely than afore Now then notwithstanding these vayn reasons of theirs let vs conclude That our soule is an vnderstanding or reasonable power ouer the which neither death nor corruption haue naturally any power although it be fitted to the body to gouerne it And if any man doubt hereof let him but examine himselfe for euen his owne doubts will proue it vnto him Or if he will stand in contention stil let him fall to reasoning with himselfe for by concluding his arguments to proue his Soule mortall he shall giue iudgement himselfe that it is immortall And if I haue left any thing vnalledged which might make to this purpose for why may I not séeing that euen the selfsame things which I haue bin able to alledge on the behalf of myne aduersaries do driue them thereunto let vs thinke also that he which feeleth himself conuicted in himselfe and for whose behoofe and benefite it were greatly both to beléeue it and to confesse it néedeth no more diligent proofe than hath bene made alreadie But if any man will yet of spyght stand wilfully still against himselfe let him trye how he can make answer to my foresayd arguments and in the meane while let vs see what the sayd opinion of the wisest men yea and of the whole world hath bene vpon this mater The xv Chapter That the immortalitie of the Soule hath bene taught by the Philosophers of old tyme and beleeued by all people and Nations SOothly it had bene a very harde case if this mynd of ours which searcheth so many things in nature had not taken some leysure to search it selfe and the nature therof and by searching atteyned to some poynt in that behalfe And therefore as there
haue at al tymes bene men so shall we see also that men haue at all tymes beléeued admitted the immortalitie of the Soule I say not some one man or some one Nation but the whole world with generall consent because all men vniuersally and perticularly haue learned it in one Schoole and at the mouth of one Teacher namely euen their owne knowledge in themselues The holy Scripture which teacheth vs our saluation vseth no schoole arguments to make vs beléeue that there is a God and that is because we cannot step out of our selues neuer so little but wee must néedes finde him present to all our Sences And it seemeth to speake vnto vs the lesse expresly of the immortalitie of our soules specially in the first bookes therof because we cannot enter into our selues be it neuer so little but we must néedes perceiue it But inasmuch as from the one end thereof to the other it declareth vnto vs the will of God in so doing it doth vs to vnderstand that it is a thing wherof it is not lawfull for vs to doubt And whereas it setteth foorth so precisely from age to age the great and manifold troubles and paines which good and godly men haue susteyned in indeuering to followe that will it sheweth infallibly that their so doing was in another respect than for this present wretched life For who is he that would depart with any péece of his owne lyking in this life but in hope of better things and what were it for him to lose his life if there were not another life after this This serueth to answer in one word to such as demaund expresse texts of Scripture and are loth to finde that thing in the Byble which is cōteyned there not only in euery leafe but almost in euery sine For whereas God created man after the world was fully finished and perfected it was as much as if he had brought him into a Theatre prepared for him howbeit after another sort than all the other liuing things which were to do him seruice As for Beastes Birds Plants and such other things the Elements brought them foorth but Man receyued his Soule by inspiration from God Also the brute Beasts are put in subiection to man but man is in subiection onely vnto God And the conueying of that good man Henocke out of this life for his godlinesse was to none other end but to set him in another life voyd of all euill and full of all good But when we reade the persecutions of Noe the ouerthwartings of Abraham the banishment and wayfarings of Iacob and the distresses of Ioseph Moyses and all the residewe of the Fathers they be all of them demonstrations that they did certeynly trust and beléeue that the Soule is immortall that there is another life after this and that there is a iudgement to come For had they bene of opinion that there is none other life after this the flesh would haue perswaded them to haue hild themselues in quiet here and they would haue liked nothing better than to haue followed swéetly the cōmon trade of the world Noe among his frends Abraham among the Chaldees Moyses in Pharaos Court and so foorth So then although the Scripture seeme to conceale it yet doth it speake very loude thereof in déede considering that all the cryes of the good and godly and all the despayres of the wicked which it describeth vnto vs doe sound none other thing vnto vs if we haue eares to heare it And it may bee that in the same respect this article of the Immortalitie of the Soule was not put into the auncient Créede of the Iewes nor also peculiarly into the Créede of vs Christians because wee beléeue beyond reason and this is within the bounds of reason and whosoeuer treateth of Religion must néedes presuppose God eternall and man immortall without the which two all Religion were in vayne Also when we see that Godlinesse Iustice and vertue were commended among the Heathen of all ages it is all one as if wee should heare them preach in expresse words the Immortalitie of the Soule For their so doing is buylded euery whit vppon that as vppon a foundation without the which those things could not stand I will spend my goodes or my life for the maintenance of Iustice. What is this Iustice but a vayne name or to what end haue I so many respects if I looke for nothing out of this present world here I will sayd a man of olde tyme rather lose euen the reputation of an honest man thā behaue my selfe otherwise than honestly But why should I doe so if I looke for no good in another world seeing I haue nothing but euill here Surely if there be none other thing than this life then is vertue to be vsed no further than profite and commoditie may growe vpon it and so should it become a Chaffer and Merchandise not vertue in déede Yet notwithstanding those are the ordinary spéeches euen of such as speake doubtfully of the Immortalitie of the Soule Therefore they doe but denye the ground and yet graune the cōsequence which is all one as if a man bauing first bin burned should fall to disputing whether fire be hot or no. But now which is better for vs I will here gather together their owne spéeches one after another Hermes declareth in his Poemander how at the voyce of the euerlasting the Elements yéelded forth al reasonlesse liuing wights as it had bin out of their bosomes But when he commeth to man he sayth He made him like vnto himselfe he linked himself to him as to his Sonne for he was beautiful and made after his owne Image and gaue him al his works to vse at his pleasure Againe he exhorteth him to forsake his bodie notwithstanding that he woonder greatly at the cunning workmanship thereof as the very cause of his death and to manure his Soule which is capable of immortalitie to consider the originall roote from whence it sprang which is not earthly but heauenly and to withdraw himself euen from his Sences and from their traiterous allurements to gather himself wholly into that mynd of his which he hath from God and by the which he following Gods word may become as GOD. Discharge thy selfe sayth he of this body which thou bearest about thee for it is but a cloke of ignorance a foundation of infection a place of corruptiō a liuing death a sensible carryon a portable graue and a household theefe It flattereth thee because it hareth thee and it hateth thee because it enuieth thee As long as that liueth it bereueth thee of life and thou hast not a greater enemie than that Now to what purpose were it for him to forsake this light this dwellingplace and this life if he were not sure of a better in another world as he himselfe sayth more largely afterward On the other side what is the Soule The Soule sayth he is the
garment of the mynd and the garment of the Soule is a certeyne Spirit whereby it is vnited to the bodie And this Mynd is the thing which wee call properly the Man that is to say a heauenly wight which is not to bee compared with Beastes but rather with the Gods of Heauen if he be not yet more than they The Heauenly can not come downe to the earth without leauing the Heauen but Man measureth the Heauen without remouing from the earth The earthly man then is as a mortall God and the heauenly God is as an immortall man To bee short his conlusion is That man is dubble mortall as touching his body and immortall as touching his Soule which Soule is the substantiall man and the very man created immediatly of God fayth he as the light is bred immediatly of the Sunne And Chalcidius sayth that at his death he spake these wordes I goe home againe into myne owne Countrie where my better forefathers and kinsfolk be Of Zoroastres who is yet of more antiquitie than Hermes we haue nothing but fragments Neuerthelesse many report this article to be one of his That mens Soules are immortall and that one day there shall be a generall rysing againe of their bodies and the answers of the Wise men of Chaldye who are the heires of his Doctrine doe answer sufficiently for him There is one that exhorteth men to returne with spéede to their heauenly father who hath sent them from aboue a Soule indewed with much vnderstanding and another that exhorteth them to seeke Paradise as the peculiar dwelling place of the Soule A third sayth that the Soule of man hath God as it were shut vp in it and that it hath not any mortalitie therein For sayth he the Soule is as it were dronken with God and sheweth foorth his â—â—â—uders in the harmonie of this mortall body And agayne another sayth It is a cléere fire procéeding from the power of the heauenly father an vncorruptible substance and the mainteyner of life conteyning almost all the whole world with the full plentie thereof in his bosome But one of them procéedeth yet further affirming that he which setteth his mynde vppon Godlinesse shall saue his body frayle though it bee And by those words he acknowledgeth the very glorifying of the bodie Now all these sayings are reported by the Platonists namely by Psellus and they refuse not to be acknowne that Pythagoras and Plato learned theÌ„ of the Chaldees insomuch that some think that the foresayd Hermes and Zoroastres and the residewe aforementioned are the same of whom Plato speaketh in his second Epistle and in his eleuenth booke of Lawes when he sayth that the auncient and holy Oracles are to be beléeued which affirme mens Soules to bee immortall and that in another life they must come before a Iudge that will require an account of al their doings The effect whereof commeth to this That the Soule of man procéedeth immediatly from God that is to say that the father of the bodie is one and the father of the Soule is another That the Soule is not a bodily substance but a Spirit and a light That at the departure thereof from hence it is to goe into a Paradise and therfore ought to make haste vnto death And that it is so farre from mortalitie that it maketh euen the body immortall What can wee say more at this day euen in the tyme of light wherein we be Pherecydes the Syrian the first that was knowne among the Greekes to haue written in prose taught the same And that which Virgill sayth in his second Eglog concerning the Drug or Spice of Assyria and the growing thereof euerywhere is interpreted of some men to bée ment of the Immortalitie of the Soule the doctrine whereof Pherecydes brought from thence into Greece namely that it should be vnderstood euerywhere throughout the whole world Also Phocylides who was at the same time speaketh therof in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to say The Soule of man immortall is and neuer weares away With any age or length of tyme but liueth fresh for ay And againe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Remnants which remaine of men vnburied in the graue Become as Gods and in the Heauens a life most blessed haue For though their bodies turne to dust as dayly we doe see Their Soules liue still for euermore from all corruption free And in another place he sayes agayne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We hope that we shall come agayne Out of the earth to light more playne And if ye aske him the cause of all this he will answer you in another verse thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because the Soule Gods instrument and Image also is Which saying he seemeth to haue taken out of this verse of Sibils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In very reason Man should bee The Image and the shape of mee Of the same opinion also are Orpheus Theognis Homer Hesiodus Pindar and all the Poets of old tyme which may answer both for themselues and their owne Countries and for the residue of their ages Likewise Pythagoras a disciple of Pherecides held opinion that the Soule is a bodylesse and immortall substance put into this body as into a Prison for sinning And whereas the fléeting of soules out of one body into another is fathered vpon him although the opinion be not directly against the immortalitie of the Soule yet doe many men thinke that hee hath wrong doone vnto him And his Disciple Timoeus of Locres reporteth otherwyse of him For what punishment were it to a voluptuous man to haue his Soule put into a beast that he might become the more voluptuous without remorse of sinne Soothly it is all one as if in punishment of Murder or theft yée would make the Murderer to cut the throtes of his owne Father and Mother or the Théef to commit trecherie ageinst God Howsoeuer the case stand he teacheth in his verses that man is of heauenly race and that as Iamblichus reporteth he is set in this world to behold God And his Disciple Architas sayth that God breathed reason and vnderstanding into him Likewise Philolaus affirmeth that the Diuines and Prophets of old time bare record that the Soule was cuppled with the body for hir sinnes and buryed in the same as in a Graue Of Epicharmus we haue this saying If thou beest a good man in thy heart Death can doe thee no harme for thy Soule shall liue happyly in heauen c. Also of Heraclides we haue this saying We liue the Death of them that is to say of the blessed his meaning is that we be not buried with our bodyes and we dye their Lyfe that is to say wee bee still after this body of ours is dead Of the like opinion are Thales Anaxagoras and Diogenes concerning this poynt yea and so is Zeno too howbeit that he thought the Soule to bee
but to vexe our minds in this lyfe In his bookes of the Soule hee not onely separateth the Body from the Soule but also putteth a difference betwixt the Soule it selfe the Mind terming the Soule the inworking of the body and of the bodily instruments and the mynd that reasonable substance which is in vs whereof the doings haue no fellowship with the doings of the body and whereof the Soule is as Plato saieth but the Garment This Mynd sayth he may be seuered from the body it is not in any wyse mingled with it it is of such substaunce as cannot be hurt or wrought vpon it hath being and continuance actually and of it selfe and euen when it is separated from the body then is it immortall and euerlasting To be short it hath not any thing like vnto the body For it is not any of al those things which haue being afore it vnderstād them And therefore which of all bodily things can it be And in another place he sayeth thus As concerning the Mynd and the contemplatiue powre it is not yet sufficiently apparant what it is Neuerthelesse it seemeth to bee another kind of Soule and it is that onely which can bee separated from the corruptible as the which is Ayeuerlasting To be short when as he putteth this question whether a Naturall Philosopher is to dispute of all maner of Soules or but onely of that Soule which is immateriall it followeth that he graunteth that there is such a one And againe when as he maketh this Argument Looke what God is euerlastingly that are wee in possibilitie according to our measure but hee is euerlastingly separated from bodily things therefore the time will come that wee shall bee so too He taketh it that there is an Image of God in vs yea euen of the Diuine nature which hath continuance of itselfe Uery well and rightly therfore doth Simplicius gather therof the immortalitie of the Soule For it dependeth vpon this separation vpō continuance of being of it self Besides this he sayth also that hunting of beasts is graūted to man by the lawe of Nature because that thereby man chalengeth nothing but that which naturally is his owne By what right I pray you if there be no more in himself than in them And what is there more in him than in them if they haue a soule equall vnto his Herevnto make all his commendations of Godlines of Religion of blessednes and of contemplation For too what ende serue all these which doe but cumber vs here belowe Therefore surely it is to be cōcluded that as he spake doubtfully in some one place so he both termed and also taught to speake better in many other places as appeareth by his Disciple Theophrastus who speaketh yet more euidently thereof than he The Latins as I haue sayd before fell to Philosophie somewhat later then the Gréekes And as touching their common opinion the exercises of superstition that were among them the maner of speeches which we marke in their Histories their contempt of death and their hope of another life can giue vs sufficient warrant thereof Cicero speaketh vnto vs in these words The originall of our Soules and Myndes cannot bee found in this lowe earth for there is not any mixture in them or any compounding that may seeme to bee bred or made of the earth Neither is there any moysture any wyndinesse or any firy matter in them For no such thing could haue in it the powre of memorie Vnderstanding and conceit to beate in mynd things past to foresee things to come and to consider things present which are matters altogither Diuine And his conclusion is that therefore they bee deriued from the Mynd of GOD that is to say not bred or begotten of Man but created of God not bodily but vnbodily wherevpon it followeth that the Soule cannot be corrupted by these transitorie things The same Cicero in another place sayeth that betwéene God and Man there is a kinred of reason as there is betwéene man man a kinred of blud That the fellowship betwéene man and man commeth of the mortall body but the fellowship betwéene God and man commeth of God himselfe who created the Soule in vs. By reason whereof sayth hée we may say we haue Alyance with the heauenly sort as folke that are descended of the same race and roote whereof that we may euermore be myndfull we must looke vp to heauen as to the place of our birth whether we must one day returne And therfore yet once againe he concludeth thus of himself Think not sayth he that thou thy selfe art mortall it is but thy body that is so For thou art not that which this outward shape pretendeth to be the Mynd of Man is the man in deede and not this lumpe which may bee poynted at with ones Fingar Assure thy selfe therefore that thou art a GOD For needes must that be a God which liueth perceyueth remembereth foreseeth and finally reigneth in thy body as the Great God the maker of all things doth in the vniuersall world For as the eternall God ruleth and moueth this transitory world so doth the immortall Spirit of our soule moue rule our fraile body Hereuntoo consent all the writers of his tyme as Ouid Virgill and others whose verses are in euery mans remembrance There wanted yet the wight that should all other wights exceede In loftie reach of stately Mynd who like a Lord in deede Should ouer all the resdewe reigne Then shortly came forth Man Whom eyther he that made the world and all things els began Created out of seede diuine or els the earth yet yoong And lately parted from the Skie the seede thereof vncloong Reteyned still in frutefull wombe which Iapets sonne did take And tempering it with water pure a wight thereof did make Which should resemble euen the Gods which souereine state doe hold And where all other things the ground with groueling eye behold He gaue to man a stately looke and full of Maiestie Commaunding him with stedfast looke to face the starry Skie Here a man might bring in almost all Senecaes wrytings but I will content my selfe with a fewe sayings of his Our Soules sayth he are a part of Gods Spirit and sparkes of holy things shining vpon the earth They come from another place than this lowe one Whereas they seeme to bee conuersant in the bodie yet is the better part of them in Heauen alway neere vnto him which sent them hither And how is it possible that they should be from beneath or from anywhere els thā from aboue seeing thei ouerpasse al these lower things as nothing and hold skorne of all that euer we can hope or feare Thus ye sée how he teacheth that our Soules come into our bodies from aboue But whether go they agayne when they depart hence Let vs here him what he sayes of the Lady Martiaes Sonne that was dead He is
a bringging of vs to Hellgate or rather a shewing of Paradise vnto vs a farre of howbeit with such a horrible and infinite gulfe betwixt vs and it as man and all the whole world can neither fill vp nor passe ouer Yet must there néedes be a passage For the end of Man is to be vnited vnto God and this end is not in vaine the meane to be vnited aboue is to be reconcyled here beneath and the meane to be reconcyled here beneath is as I haue sayd alreadie but onely one which is that God himselfe acquit vs without our discharging of the debt which wee owe vnto him Onely that Religion then and none other which leadeth vs streight to the said passage and by the following whereof we find it is the true Religion as that which allonly atteineth to the ende of Religion which is the sauing of man May not men wil some say worship God diuersly some lifting vp their eyes to heauen and othersome casting their faces downe to the ground Yes for the worshipping is but one and the humbling of mens selues is but one still though there bee difference in the signes But our disputing here is not of the Ceremonies but of the substance of them Also may not men offer Sacrifice diuersly Yes But if thy Sacrifices haue no further ende then the sheading of the blud of a beast then as sayth Hierocles they be to the Fyre but a feeding thereof with fewell and vapors and to the Préestes a superfluous maintenance of butcherie It is requisite therefore that sacrifices should bee referred to somewhat namely that by them thou shouldest protest that whereas the sillie innocent beastes doo suffer death it is thou thy selfe that hast deserued it both in body and Soule Againe if thou haue nothing els in thy Religion but Sacrifices and prayers how goodly a showe soeuer they make thou hast nothing but a confession of thy fault and a sentence of death against thee for the same For if those Ceremonies aime not at a certein marke they be trifling toyes and if that be the end whereat they aime then come they short as which doe but leade thee vnto death and there leaue thee There are some that would beare vs on hand that Religion is but an obseruation of certeyne Ceremonies in euery Countrie by which reason that which is holy here should be vnholy in another place and that which is godly in one Land should be vngodly in another To be short they make it lyke the Lawes that depend vppon Custome which passe no further than the bounds of the place where they be vsed If Religion be nothing else but so what science art or trade is more vayne than that Or rather what is to be sayd of it but that in deede it is no Religion at all Leachecraft is vncerteine in many respects as of aire of water of age and of clymate but yet the which is Leachecraft in one Countrie is not manquelling in another Lawecraft hath almost as many sundry Lawes as caces and the caces that are in the world are infinite Yet notwithstanding who séeth not that all these diuersities of caces are brought vnder one vpryghtnes and reason and that they which yéeld not thereunto are not reputed for men but rather for enemies of mankynd and wyld beasts Also vertue hath the affections to woorke vpon a ground more mouable than the Sea and the wind And yet who wil say that that which is hardines betweene the too Tropiks is Cowardlines in all other Countryes or that that which is stayednesse in one half of the world is vnstayednesse in the other half To be short what thing is more subiect to rising and falling or to be cryed downe or inhaunced than coyne of siluer and gold as which séemeth to followe the willes of princes And yet notwithstanding for all their ordinances and proclamations both gold and siluer do alwayes kéepe a certeine rate and valew What shall we say then to Religion which hath a firmer and substantialler ground than all these I meane not mennes bodies goods affections or fantasies but the very soule and mynd of man who also hath such a rest to stay vppon as is settled vnmouable and the Lord of all Chaunges that is to wit God How much more wysely doth our Pythagorist Hierocles teache vs that Religion is the gouernesse of all vertewes and that all vertewes tend to her as to their certeine end as who would say they be no vertewes if they swarue from her insomuch that hardynesse being referred to any other than godlynesse becommeth rashnesse wisedome becommeth wylynes lynes and Iustice becommeth Iuggling and at a woord all vertue is but masking and hipocrisie If Religion be the end of all vertewes must it not needs be fixed and vnmouable Or if it be mouable what is there then that is iust good or vertuous And if the case stand so what thing in the world is more vnauaylable than man or to speake more ryghtly what thing is to lesse purpose in man than his mynd But there is vertue and the wickeddest man that is will auow it Therefore there is also a certeine Religion which maketh it to be vertue and whereunto vertue referreth itself and the vngodlyest man that is cannot scape from it Let vs looke yet further into the absurdities of this opinion Who can denie but that among the diuersities of Religions there were many sorts of wickednes and vngodlynes openly executed some woorshipping the creatures in Heauen yea and on earth as the Egiptians did in old time and as the Tartarians do at this day some offering vp men in Sacrifice as the Carthaginenses did in old tyme and as the Westerne Iles do yet at this day and othersome permitting things not only contrarie to all Lawes but also euen horrible and lothsome to nature If all this be good I pray you what good is there or rather what euill is there in the world But if it be euill in itself who can deny but that there were wicked and vngodly Religions in the world I vse the woord Religion after the comon maner and that a man had neede of a Rule whereby to discerne the good Religion from the bad And in verie deede it is so rooted in nature to beléeue that there is but one Religion to be had as well as to beleeue that there is but one God that as we may daily see a man will rather indure the change of a temperate aire into an extreme whot or into an extreme cold of freedom into bondage and of Iustice into Tyrannye than any alteration atall though neuer so little in the case of Religion verily as who would say it were not so naturall for a man too loue his natiue Countrie to be frée and to be at his easie as to haue some one certeine Religion to gwyde him to saluation Now my meaning hath bin to lay foorth this trueth after the mo sorts of purpose to
tymes so as no man can atteine to the same naturall veyne the same zeale and the same efficacie vnlesse he be led by the same hand moued by the same spirit and pricked with the same spurre that Moyses Dauid and the Prophetes were To be short if it be hard to father a booke vppon Plato Herodotus and Hipocrates but that hee which shall haue read them aduisedly will by and by espie it euen a farre of So is it as vnpossible to father the other bookes vppon those which haue a stile sofarre differing from other writings vnlesse a man wil beare himselfe on hand that such bastardbookes were made in the same ages or néere about the same tymes that those Authors liued in Let vs sée how it may be possible to haue bene doone in the same ages Moyses published the Lawe before all the people and he curseth the partie with death both of body and soule which shall adde diminish or alter any thing Hee bindeth the people household by household to take fast hold thereof His bookes are deliuered to euery Trybe they be read openly euery Saboth day they be kept carefully in the Arke and the Arke is kept as carefully by all the Trybes And that this was doone it appeareth not onely by his booke but also by the effects that insewed therof from time to time and by the footesteps therof which are euident euen yet among the Iewes If it be possible for a booke to bee preserued from falsifying and foysting what booke shall that be but the Byble which was garded by ten hundred thousand men and copyed out not by some Scriueners onely but also by all the people Afterward came Iosua who renewed the same Couenant proclaymed the Lawe and yéelded record vnto Moyses Lykewise the Iudges succéeded Iosua Samuell succéeded the Iudges the Kings and the Chronicles succéeded Samuell and the Prophets succéeded them all These bookes followed one another immediatly and without interpâ—â—â—â—tion and euery one that followed presupposed the things to be an infallible trueth which had bene written by them that went afore neither was there any that did cast any douts or reproue any of the former histories as is found to be doone in other Histories as for example Hellanicus reproueth Ephorus Ephorus finds fault with Timeus and consequently Timeus reprehendeth them that wrote afore him But Iosua gathereth a certeine and vnfallible consequence of Moyses the Iudges of Iosua Samuell of the Iudges Dauid of them all and so all the rest And to speake of the Prophets they bee not lyke the bookes of our Astrologers which reforme one anothers Calculations and controll one anothers Prognostications But as they shoote all at one marke so they agrée in one thing notwithstanding that they wrote in sundrie times and sundry places Nay which more is wée see that the people were so sure of that Lawe that from age to age they chose rather to abyde all extremities than to giue it ouer insomuch that they defended it ageinst the Chananites the Philistines the Assyrians the Babilonians the Persians the Greekes and the Romanes Who then durst be so prowd and bold as to voilate or imbace the thing that was hild to be so holy defended with so many lyues and confirmed with so many deathes If yee say the Heathen Their intents was not to marre it but to make it quyte away For what profite could haue redounded vnto them of that payne to what ende should they haue done it or how could they haue corrupted it in the sight in the knowledge of so many folke Moreouer who knoweth not that the Scriptures were caryed by the banished Iewes into diuers countryes of the world afore they came into the hands of the Gentiles as of the Greekes or Romanes As for the Iewes their shooteanker and felicitie consisted in the kéeping of them the reward of corrupting them was death and what could it theÌ„ haue benefited them to haue corrupted them Nay yet further which of them would haue dyed afterward for a Lawe which they knewe to bee corrupted or counterfetted And soothly we see throughout their Histories that there passed not so much as any one halfe hundred yeeres without persecutions and warres for that Lawe And whereas it myght be sayd that some suttleheaded fellow among the Iewes had done it to abuse the rest how could that be ageine séeing it was not in the hands of fower or fiue Prestes only as the Ceremonies of the Hetrurians and Latins were but in the hands of the whole people so as one sillable could not be chaunged but it was to be espyed euen by yoong Children Considering also that we reade not of any king how wise so euer he were that euer durst presume to ad diminish or alter any whit thereof whereas notwithstanding all other Lawes of the world were made by péecemeale and Kings and Senats haue alwaies reserued to theÌ„selues a prerogatiue to correct them and alter them at their pleasure specially when they limited their authoritie and serued not for the mayntenance of their possession And if any man to beréeue vs of this argument will stepfoorth and say that our Scriptures are as an Historie gathered out of the Registers of many ages by some one author as we sée Berosus hath done for the Chaldees Duis for the Phenicians Manetho for the Egiptians and such others let him tell vs then I hartily pray him in what age of the world that Author is lykely to liued If in the tyme of Moyses of Iosua or of the Iudges how commeth it to passe that he wryteth of the reignes of the kings If in the tyme of the first Kings how wryteth he of the last Kings If in the tyme of the last Kings how is it possible that the Iewes being afore that time caryed away into diuers places of the world and scattered abroade euerywhere lyke the members of Pentheus should carie keepe with them the books of Moyses which by these mens reckoning were not yet made according to which booke both themselues did notwithstaÌ„ding then liue and also taught other Nations I meane the ten Trybes by name which by three former remouings were scattered ouer the whole Earth whereof the marks are to apparant to be denyed The first in the the tyme of Achaz King of Iuda and of Placea King of Israell by Thiglath Phalassar King of the Assirians who caryed away Ruben Gad and the halfe trybe of Manasses the second in the tyme of Ose by Salmanasar who caryed away Isachar Zabulon and Nepthaly into Assiria and the third anon after by the same Salmanasar who conueyed away Ephraim and the other half of Manasses as is witnessed both by the auncient Records of many Countryes and also by the Chronicles of the Hebrewes And at that tyme whyle Printing was notyet in vse what meane was there to disperse those books so soone and so farre of Nay which more is what will they say when they shall find the bookes of
of the remembrance of ydols from the earth sayth the Lord of Hostes. All this is nothing els but the clearing of men from their sinnes and the abolishing of Sathans reigne To bee short Malachie telleth vs of Christ That he shall bring vs an Attonement betwéene GOD and vs. And of the Ambassadour whom GOD ment to send afore him to prepare his wayes He sayth that hee shall turne the heartes of the Children to their Fathers and the heartes of the Fathers to their children By the preparation of the Ambassadour we iudge of the Office of his Maister namely that his comming is properly to reigne in our Soules seeing his Ambassadour prepareth them for him exhorting vs to turne away from our sinnes Now of this long but yet néedefull discourse wee gather two things The one against the Gentyles which is that the meane of cleansing mankind hath bin promised and preached euen from the fall of Adam and that the same promise is from time to time brought to our remembrance by our scriptures to wit that it is doone by Christ who was to bée borne of the womans séede by Abraham Iuda Dauid and others The other is against the Iewes of our tyme who looke still for a Christ to come which is that the deliuerāce promised by him is not ment of the tyranny of some earthly Prince ouer vs but of the Tyranny which the diuell exerciseth in our Soules by the vnrighteousnes of sinne the rewarde whereof is euerlasting death The Gentiles of old tyme yéelded vnto these texts when they had once imbraced the spirituall kingdome of Christ and it may be that if we had to doo with the Iewes of elder tyme the matter should soone bee dispatched For all the forealledged Texts haue bene vnderstood of the Messias and of his reigne both by the auncient Rabbines and by the Chaldee Paraphrasts Moreouer it is very manifest that the Cabalists who wrate long tyme afore the Talmudistes and who as they say doo pearce into the very Marowe of the Scriptures wheras the Talmudists doe but grate vppon the barke of them haue vnderstoode that the cleansing away of sinne and the heating of the contagious venome which the Serpent did shed into Adam and by him into the whole ofspring of man was to bee wrought by the Messias Yet for all this notwithstāding al the forecasts of mans wit we want not some euen of the newer sort of Writers which haue vnderstoode it after the maner aforesaid The exposition of Salomons Balett vpon these words A Grape of Copher makes this allusion Eschcol Haccopher That vnto the Church Christ is a man of full attonement who shall be borne of the Children of Abraham and shall make satisfaction for sinnes in such sort as he may say to the measure of Iudgement It is enough that is to say he may stay Gods wrath and punishment and God sayth he will lay him to gage and deliuer him for those that are his And vpon the fourth Chapter where it is written thus A thousand sheelds hang there that is to say in the Tower of Dauid the sayde exposition hath these words Often haue I saith the Lord taken my people in in protection for the dezert of one that was to come after a thousand generatiōs And I haue made them to succeede one after another to bring the Sheeld at the last vnto him which is the onely desyre of my Children and shal defend them better then a thousand Sheelds Also the Rabbines say That the Creatures which are growen out of king by Adams fall shall be set in their perfect state againe by the Sonne of Perets and according to their accustomed fondnesse for proofe thereof they bring in a Text of Ruth and another of Genesis where this worde Toledoth is written very plainly that is to wit with two Vaus And as thouching the sayd Sonne of Perets euery man knowes among them that it is the Messias whom they looked for to come of Iuda by his sonne Perets Concerning the calling of the Gentiles the Talmud maketh this comparison That the Horse shal be set in the stall of the halting Oxe Which wordes Rabbi Iacob and Rabbi Selomoh expound thus namely that forasmuch as the Iewes shall haue forsaken the Lawe God will put the Gentyles in their place and yet not driue them away afterward though the Iewes turne again vnto him which is a thing very farre of from the Monarchie which they imagin as oft as there is any speaking of the calling of the Gentiles To bee short the notablest of their Rabbines are ashamed of the feastings extraordinarie pastimes which the Iewes behight themselues at the comming of the Messias and conclude with Rabbi Moyses ben Maimon of whom they report that since Moyses hymselfe vntill this Moyses there was none so like vnto Moyses that the felicities and pleasures of that tyme ought to bee vnderstood according to this saying of Esayes That the earth shal be as it were ouerflowed with the knowledge of the Lord and that euery man shal be occupyed in seeking and in knowing GOD. But Rabbi Hechadoseh sayth yet more plainly That the Messias shall by his death saue Adams race and deliuer mens Soules from Hell and therefore shall bee called Sauiour Let vs yet further by reason ouercome the wilfull sort if it bée possible They hold it for an Article of their faith both by Scripture and by tradition that there shal be a Messias He that denyes that say they denyes the Lawe the Prophetes and is condemned to Helfyre And therefore say they he that denyeth the comming of the Messias cannot be saued If he which is to reigne in Israell and to giue them prosperitie bee a temporall King what skilles it me greatly whether I knowe him and beleeue in him or no or what ioy can it bee to me sith I cannot see him Nay rather what a griefe is it to mee that I shal not see him and what a peine is it to pyne away in wayting for him Ageine what goodnesse is it in GOD to haue foretold vs it if by beléeuing it we fare neuer the better yet must dye euerlastingly for not beléeuing it In the Articles of their faith they beléeue in the only one God There is greate reward in beléeuing well They beleeue a blessed lyfe As it is the Soule that beleeueth so doth the reward redound vnto her And euen so is it with all other things which are no Articles of fayth furtherfoorth than a man hath benefite by beleeuing them But as for this Article of the Messias what booted it Abraham Moyses so many Kings so many Prophetes such a nomber of people if there were no further secret in it Why was it foretold so carefully by the Prophetes Why was it so oft repeated no lesse in the prosperitie than in the aduersitie of that people and no lesse vnder the good Kings than vnder the Tyrants Nay which
round about him and he shal be clothed with light as with a garment For the auncient worde of him that is is clothed with the world c. Also in Malachie where it is sayd I will send myne Ambassadour before my face Rabbi Moyses the sonne of Maimon expoundeth it Before Christ the Anoynted And in Osee where it is written Wee shall liue before his face Rabbi Moyses Hadarsan sayth it is Christ the King And in the 17. Psalme where it is sayd I shall behold thy countenance in rightuousnesse and bee satisfied at the rysing vp of thy likenesse Rabbi Nehemias sayth I shall bee satisfied with the sight of thy Messias who is thyne Image And to the same purpose might a great many moe bee alledged The thing which they say is all one in effect with that which wee say namely that the Sonne or worde of God is the image of God and the brightnesse of his countenance To bee short we say that the Sonne is light of light and they say the same of the Messias For vpon the Lamentations of Ieremie Rabbi Biba being asked the name of the Messias answereth in the ende that it is Nehira that is to say Light according to this saying in the second of Daniel Light is with him And vppon the place of Genesis where it is written Let there bee light Rabbi Moyses Hadarsan sayth that it is the Messias according to Rabbi Abba and Rabbi Iohanan vppon the 36. Psalme where it is sayd We shall see light in thy light Oftentimes say they hath the light of Israell bene quenched and kindled againe when they were one while subdewed and another while deliuered But in the end he sayth it is not to be required that flem and blud that is to say a mortall man shall inlighten vs but God himselfe in his owne substance will doe it According wherevnto it is sayd in the 18. Psalme God hath bene our light And likewise in Esay Israell shall be saued by the Euerlasting To bée short like as we say that the Sonne as in respect of the Father is as a Riuer in respect of the Spring or as Reason is in respect of the Mynd so say the Cabalists that the light of the Soule of the Messias is in respect of the liuing God as Reason is in respect of the Mynd and that the liuing God as in respect of the Messias is as a Fountaine or Welspring of liuing water in respect of the streame or riuer of life that floweth out of it Now then we haue in our Scriptures a Mediatour that is both God and Man But reason hath led vs to two circumstances moe The one is that this Man must be of our race and the other is that he must be borne after another maner than wee bee the one for our behoofe the other for his owne dignitie and therfore let vs enquire yet further of the Rabbins concerning these poynts As touching the first poynt it is euident enough of it selfe and néedeth no long proofe For Christ is promised to come of the seede of Adam Abraham Isaac Iacob Iuda and Dauid and the Iewes haue beléeued it so certeinly that euen during the tyme of their Captiuitie at Babylon they chose their Resch Caluta that is to say the chiefe Capteyne of their Banished folke out of the house of Dauid as from whence they looked for a deliuerer And as touching the second poynt Behold saith Esay a Virgin shall conceiue beare a Sonne and call his name Emanuell which is as much to say as that the Messias shal be the sonne of a Uirgin and that he shall bee begotten without fleshly copulation The late writers of the Iewes say it is not written a Virgin or mayden but a wench or yoong woman I will not vrge them that the Hebrewe word Alma is taken ordinarily for a yoong Mayden or Uirgin as in the fower and twentie of Genesis where Rebecka is so called and in the second of Exodus where it is spoken of the Sifter of Moyses And euen in this place the thréescore ten Interpreters translate it in Gréeke idou he Parthenos that is to say Behold a Virgin c. But I would haue them to tell me what the token is that is giuen here to the house of Dauid and whether a token ought not to bee some speciall and notable thing and whether it bee not a matter of earnest sith it is God that giueth it who sayth expresly Aske me a token whether it be from beneath or from aboue I beséech them what straunge signe or token is there in that a yoong woman beareth a Child What thing is more ordinarie in the world and consequently more fond to bee giuen or taken for a myracle Nay the auncient Rabbines haue well waded euen into the depth of this matter And therefore Rabbi Moyses Hadarsan writing vppon the 85. Psalme vppon these words Trueth shall bud out of the earth sayth thus Rabbi Ioden noteth here how it is not sayd here shal be borne but shall bud because the begetting and birth of the Messias shall not be after the maner of other worldly creatures but he shall bee bred without companie or copulatiō And it is certeine that no man nameth his father but he is concealed and kept secret vntill he himselfe come and reueale him And vpon Genesis You haue sayd sayth the Lord we be fatherlesse and so shall the Redeemer be whom I will giue vnto you according to that which is sayd in the 4. of Zachary Loe this is the man whose name is Braunch and according to this which is sayd in the 110. Psalme Thou art a Priest for euer after the order of Melchisedech Also he reporteth that Rabbi Berachia gathereth the like But Rabbi Simeon ben Iohai sayth yet more expresly vpon Genesis That the spirit hauing bin shut vp in a womans wombe should come foorth with great force to bee the highest Prince which is Messias the King And the holy Rabbine procéedeth so farre as to seeke out by the proportion of their Cabalie what should be the name of the Israelitish Uirgin that should beare the Messias There remayne many other things to bee treated of concerning the tyme the place the life and the death of the Messias which are reserued for another place peraduenture more conuenient for them Let it suffice vs for this tyme That in the Religion of the Israelites there was promised from tyme to tyme euen from the beginning the Mediatour betwéene Gods Iustice and Mans Sinfulnesse the Sauiour of mens Soules and the Author of the selfesame clensing which the very Heathen themselues déemed to bee so néedfull namely Iesus Christ God and Man the euerlasting Sonne of GOD borne of woman in his due tyme without sinne frée from desert of Gods wrath as in respect of himselfe and able to appease it towards others cleane in his humane nature and
Preachers of the comming of the Mediator and witnesses of the antiquitie trueth and vncorruptnes of the Prophestes ageinst the effect whereof neuerthelesse they set themselues with all their power For what better witnesses I pray you could the Gentyles haue than the Iewes themselues namely in that they being the putters of Iesus and of his disciples to death were ready notwithstanding to dye for the trueth soundnesse of the bookes wherein he was foreshewed foretold and fore-promised vnto them at all tymes Furthermore that this King promised by the Prophetes and the Sibyls should deliuer the Law of good lyfe to the whole world Cicero séemeth to haue had some vnderstanding howsoeuer he came by it or els I caÌ„not tell wherto I should apply this goodly sentence of his in his third booke of his Commonweale Soothly the very Lawe in deede sayth he is right reason shed into all men constant euerlasting which calleth all men to their duetie by commaunding and frayeth them from fraud by forbidding which yet notwithstanding neither biddeth nor forbiddeth in vayne to the good nor by bidding or forbidding moueth the bad From this lawe may nothing be taken to it may nothing be put neither may it be wholy abrogated Neither Senate nor Pope can discharge vs of this Lawe neither needeth there any interpreter or expounder thereof to make it playne There shall not bee one Lawe at Rome and another at Athens one tooday and another toomorrowe But one selfesame Lawe being both euerlasting and vnchaungeable shall conteyne all Nations and at all tymes and there shall be but one common mayster and commaunder of all euen God He is the deuiser the discusser and the giuer of this Lawe which who will not obey shall flee from himselfe as if he disdeined to be a man which dooing of his must needes be a sore punishment vnto him though hee were sure to scape all other punishments Who seeth not here that this Heathen man espyed that all Lawes of man are but vanitie and that he looked that God himselfe should come openly into the sight of the world to giue a good lawe to Mankind Now Iesus hath manifestly giuen this Lawe causing it to be published by his Apostles and their voyce sounded to the vttermost bounds of the earth And for proof hereof what is more conuenient and meete for man in the iudgement of conscience than to loue God with all his heart and all his Soule and his neighbour as himself which yet notwithstanding doth more surmount our abilitie to performe and more bewray our corruption and more condemne whatsoeuer is in vs of our owne than doth the Lawe it selfe vniuersally in all mankind On the contrarie part what find we in all the writings of the Heathen but a Hireling vertue and a teaching to cloke vice that is to say Hipocrisie But as this Lawe is verily of God so let vs see whether the bringer thereof bee God And I beseech all worldly wise men not to hearken vnto mee by halues nor to looke vpon things at a glaunce for I come not to daly with them but to yeeld mée both their eares and to looke wistly to bend all their wits aduisedly for the néerer they looke vnto the matter the more deliberatly they consider of it the sooner will they yeeld to our doctrine as to the vndoubted trueth yea as to very nature it self Iesus therefore is borne in the little Countrie of Iewrie subdewed by the Romaines of poore parents in a sorie Uillage destitute of friends and of all worldly helpes and yet was he to be Emperour of the whole world to giue the Law to the whole world Let vs see the procéeding of this Emperour of his Empyre Amend sayth he and beleeue the Gospell for the kingdome of Heauen is at hand If we consider the maiestie of the Romaine Empyre the eloquence and learning of the great Clerks and the pride of the Sophists and Orators of that tyme what greater fondnesse could there be to all seeming than to talke after that maner Who would not haue thought folly both in Christ and in his Apostles for their preaching so But what addeth he Whosoeuer wil come into this kingdome let him forsake goodes father moother wife children yea and himselfe too And let him take vp his Crosse and followe me Let him thinke himself happie that he may suffer a thousand miseries for me and that in the end he may dye for my names sake What maner of priuiledges are these I beseech you to drawe people into that kingdome What a hope is it for them that serue him What are these promises of his but threatnings and his perswasioÌ„s but disswasions What say we to a friend whom we turne from some other man but thus eschewe that mans companie for ye shall haue nothing with him but trauell and trouble And what worse could the veriest enemies of his doctrine say than he himselfe sayd Also what a saying of his was this to S. Paule a man of reputation among the Pharisies and greatly imployed afore in following the world I wil shew thee how great things thou hast to indure for my names sake And yet notwithstanding what a sodeyne chaunge insewed from apprehending and imprisoning to bee apprehended and imprisoned from being a Iudge to be whipped and scourged from stoning of others to death to offer himselfe from Citie to Citie to bee stoned for the name of Iesus Let vs heare on the contrarie part the voyce of a worldly Conquerour Whosoeuer will followe me sayth Cyrus to the Lacedemonians if he be a footman I will make him a Horseman if he bee a Horseman I will giue him a Charyot if he haue a Manor I will giue him a Towne if he haue a Towne I wil giue him a Citie if he haue a Citie I will giue him a Countrie and as for Gold he shall haue it by weight and not by tale What â—ddes is there betwéene the spéeches of these two Monarkes and much more betwéene their Conquests And therefore what comparison can there bee betwixt the Conquerours themselues This Cyrus as great an Emperour as he was could not haue the Lacedemonians to serue him for all his great offers But Iesus being poore abiect and vnregarded did by his rigorous threats euen after his own suffering of reprochfull death and his manacing of the like to his followers drawe all people and Nations vnto him and not only Souldyers but also Emperours nor only Cities but also whole Empyres Cyrus dyed in conquering and Iesus conquered by dying The death of Cyrus decayed his owne kingdome as a bodie without a soule But the death of Iesus inlarged his kingdome euen ouer the Empyres And how could that haue bene but that the death of Iesus was the life of all Empyres and all Kingdomes Who seeth not then in the mightinesse of the one a humaine weakenesse and in the weakenesse of the other a diuine mightinesse Wee woonder
Which of all these things resembleth the thing that commeth thereof eyther in substance or in shape or in quantitie or in qualitie To be short what straungenesse is there in this Of a handfull of Earth God made thée and all the Earth of nothing and of a handfull will he make thée new ageine This body of thine which in time past was not is of his making this body which one day shall ceasse to be he wil one day make new agein Uerily this doctrine was common to all true Iewes and among all the Teachers of the Lawe who had gathered it out of the old Testament as we reade in Iosephus and in the Acts of the Apostles for they agrée fully with S. Paule in that behalf And in the Talmud there are infinite places thereof Also the Alcorane which is borrowed of their Rabbines is full of this Doctrine And as concerning the Heathen of old tyme Zoroastres sayd that one day there shal be a generall rysing ageine of all the dead Theopompus a Disciple of Aristotles doth the lyke and noman in old tyme sayeth AEnaeas of Gaza did once geynsay them The Stoiks hild opinion that after a certeine tyme there should bée an vniuersall burning of the World which wée call Doomesday and that immediatly after all things should be set in their perfect state ageine as they were at the first and it was the opinion of Crysippus in his booke of Prouidence translated by Lucane the Stoik which new state Varro calleth Palingenesian that is to say a Regeneration Rebegetting or New birth Platosaith expresly that mens Soules shall returne into their bodyes The Astrologers following Albumazar vphold that when the Starres come home ageine euery one into his first place all things shal bée sette ageine in their first originall state both men Beastes Trées and all other Creatures which opinion euen Arethmetick alone sheweth to bee absurd in Astrologie and the best learned men reiect it Neuerthelesse it bewrayeth our beastlynes which do attribute such power to the Starres to defeate the maker of them thereof As touching the iudgement which the Sonne of God shall giue after the sayd Resurection although the same were not foretold by the Prophets of old time and by so many verses of the Sibills and finally by the mouth of Iesus and his Apostles surely Gods giuing of his Lawe not to the outward man but to the inward nor to our déedes onely but also to our thoughts sheweth sufficiently without other proofe that there is another Iudge than the Magistrats of this world to iudge vs and another Iudgment than their iudgement to be lookedfor as whose iudgment here procéedeth but to the outward déede and by proofes of witnesses and therefore cannot in any wise pearce into the hart to discerne what is within Neither would our owne cōsciences sumon vs so often as they do if we were not to appeare before other than men For sith it is the Soule that cheefely receyueth the Commaundement and cheefely breaketh it it is the Soule that must come to examination and tryall which cannot be done in this world wherein there is but a shadowe of Iustice and whose Lawes and Iudges extend no further than the outter side And therefore wee see that the auncient Rabines speake very often of this General Iudgment and which more is do attribute it to the Messias saying Feare not God for your Iudge For your Iudge is your owne fellow citizen your owne kinsman and your owne brother All the auntient Gentyles haue spoken so of this Iudgement which they say shall bee giuen in another lyfe in the féeld of truthe whereuppon shall followe eyther endlesse lyfe or endlesse death as I haue shewed afore Yea and it séemeth that by the lending of their auncient Oracles which were a kynd of Cabale they passed yet further For they called their greate and souereine God by the name of Iupiter and gaue the iudging of mens Soules to his Sonne Minos the King and Lawegiuer and not vnto Apollo Mercurie or any other as who should say they ment that the Iudge of the World should be the Sonne of God and yet there withall a ryghtuouse man that is to say the Mediator God and man I hope I haue now shewed the truenesse and substantialnesse of the Christian Religion and the vanitie and wickednesse of all other Religions Of the which Christian Religion the Primitiue Churche for a Badge and comfort to the Christians hath made a Sūme which we call the Créede of the Apostles For we beleeue in God the Father Almyghty maker of Heauen and Earth c. To beléeue in him is to trust in him to trust in him is to hope for all good things at his hand but vayne were our hope if it reached no further than to this present world Now I haue declared heretofore that there is but only one God that the same God created the world for man and man for his owne glorie and both of them of nothing That he guydeth them by his Prouidence the one according to nature which is a steady and suresettled Lawe prescribed by him to the World and the other according to wit and will which he hath giuen him so that which way so euer man take he frameth him alwayes to his holy will to such end as he hath appoynted That man is immortall and created to leade an endlesse lyfe that in that lyfe is the souereine welfare or good which alonly can content mans will and satisfie his wit and therefore that he must tend and indeuer thither with all his heart and bend all the powers of his wit to that end And to be short that the meane for man to atteine thereunto is to serue the true God with al his hart with all his Soule and with all his strength that is to say to vow all his thoughts wordes and déedes to the glorie of God But I sayd also that man is falne from his Originall through the pryde and disobedience of the first man whereuppon hath followed frowardnes in his will and ignorance in his wit Ignorance making him vnable to discerne his owne welfare and frowardnes turning him away from it yea euen when it is shewed him and making him vnwoorthy to atteyne to it and finally causing him to abuse his abilities and powers to all euill and so consequently plunging him in the gulf of al miserie both according to his owne desert and according to the Iustice of God Whereuppon it insueth that man is forlorne in himself vnlesse God recouer him by his mercy blind except God inlyghten him ageine vtterly Lame to the doing of any good and to the atteynement of any good vntill Gods grace do releeue him And therefore I sayd That he hath left vs a Religion for a guyde A Religion that turneth vs from all Creatures as which are but vanitie and conuerteth vs to him the only Creator of Heauen and
beléeue the things which they themselues did to be wondered at and woorshipped of the common people And thus much concerning their Gods in generall But if wee come to the particulars the matter will bee yet more cléere wherein I will bee as briefe as I can because it is a matter that is treated of expressely by others Among the innumerable rable of Gods they haue twelue of principall renowme whose names are comprehended in these two verses of Ennius Iuno Vesta Minerua Ceres Diana Venus Mars Mercurius Iupiter Neptune Vulcanus Apollo And vnto these some added Bacchus and Saturne this latter because he might seeme to haue wrong if he should not be counted a God as well as his sonne and the other because it might come to passe that being a firie fellowe he would els make some fray seeing that Ceres is a Goddesse To dispatch the chiefe of them quite and cleane of that doubt Euhemere of Messene will alone suffice who gathering the historie of Iupiter and the rest setteth downe their tytles Epitaphs Inscriptions which were in their Temples namely in the Temple of Iupiter Triphillian where was a piller set vp by Iupiter himself whereon the notablest of his doings were ingrauen And this historie being called holy was translated by Ennius the words whereof are these Saturne sayth he tooke Ops to his wife and Tytan being his elder brother claymed the kingdome but Vesta their mother Ceres and Ops their Sisters counseled Saturne to keepe his possession Which thing when Tytan perceyued finding himselfe to bee the weaker he compounded with Saturne vpon conditiō that if Saturne had any Sonnes he should not suffer them to liue that the kingdom might reuert again vnto his Children According to which composition the first child that was borne to Saturne was killed Afterward were borne Iupiter Iuno twinnes both at one birth of whome they shewed but Iuno and deliuered Iupiter to Vesta to be brought vp in secret After them came Neptune who was serued likewise And last of all came Pluto and Glauca of whom only Glauca who dyed within a while was shewed and Pluto was nurced secretly as Iupiter was Now this came to Tytans hearing who assembling his Sonnes to him took Saturne and Ops and put them in prison But assoone as Iupiter came to age he gaue battell to the Tytans and getting the vpper hand of them deliuered his father mother out of prison At length perceyuing that his father whom he had set vp againe was iealous ouer him and sought his life he deposed him from his estate and droue him into Italy In this only one historie we sée what Saturne Iupiter Iuno Vesta Ops Neptune and Ceres were that is to wit men and women yea surely euen men and among men but onely mere men And yet were they the fathers and mothers of the rest of the Gods and reigned in the Iles of the chiefe Midland Sea and in Candy a litle afore the warres of Thebes and of Troy And by that meanes wee see also from whence the Poets haue fetched their fables which are not as some thinke mere fancies or imaginations without ground but disguising of the trueth and of the Historie True in that they report déedes rightly beseeming men vntrue in that they attribute them as to Gods and not as to men Saturne is taken for the father of them al. And looke what is found of the father is to bee verified of his ofspring The Historiographers therefore haue sayd that his wife did hide his children from him and the Poets haue sayd that hee did eate them vp because a Soothsayer had told him that one of them should depose him To auoyde the absurditie of the word Krouos which is Saturne the Stoikes haue turned it to Chronos that is to say tyme which deuoureth all things But how will they applye all the rest of the Allegorie vnto the Historie Who shall bee the daies lost and who the daies saued What shall Ops be and Iupiter and Pluto who shall be this sonne of tyme that perisheth not with the tyme nor afore it But Hermes whatsoeuer he be who knewe this pedegree well enough holdeth himselfe to the letter accounting Vranus Saturne and Mercurie among the rare men that were in tyme past And Ennius sayth that this Varnus was the father of Saturne and reigned afore him Now because Vranus in Greeke signifieth Heauen the Stoikes more fabulous as sayth Plutarke than the Poets haue called his sonne Time and his graundsonne Iupiter the Welkin or highest region of the ayre whom Euhemere reporteth to haue ordeyned Sacrifices vnto Vranus And Ennius his translator reporteth that he ordeyned them vnto his Graundfather Heauen who dyed in the Ocean and lyes buryed in Aulatie To be short of all these writers of antiquities such as Theodore the Gréeke Thallus Cassius Seuerus Cornelius Nepos and others were none describeth him otherwise than a man insomuch that euen Orpheus himselfe who canonized him for a God speaketh of him after the same maner What reade we of Iupiter Iupiter sayth the Historie deposed his owne father held his assemblies in Mount Olympus stole away Europa in a ship named the Bull and caryed away Ganymed in another ship called the Eagle but he forbare Thetis because an Achilles which should be a man of greater might than his father was to be borne of her Finally after he had made certeyne Lawes and parted the offices of his estate among his friends he dyed and was buryed in the Towne of Gnosus What a life is this but the life of a man yea and of a most wicked man vnworthie not to reigne in heauen but euen to goe vpon the earth Neuerthelesse because his successors inforced men to worship him as well as his Graundfather yea and he himselfe in his life tyme had caused his Subiects Uassalles and Confederates to dedicate Temples vnto him by reason whereof wee see he was called by the names of Labradie Ataburie Tryphill and diuers other all things were fayne to be applied and referred vnto him insomuch that of a man the Poets made him a God of the Mountayne Olympus they made Heauen of a Shippe and Eagle and of Thetis a Goddesse Yet for all this his buryall place putteth al out of doubt and so doth the Epitaph that Pythagoras wrate thereon For to haue a Temple in one place and a Tombe in another and to be worshipped with prayer in the one and to be eaten with wormes in the other are things farre differing Callimachus will needes taunt the Cretanes for shewing his Tombe with this inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Iupiter the sonne of Saturne and yet hee considereth not that in saying that Rhea was deliuered of him among the Parrhasians he himselfe maketh him to dye For what is birth but a beginning of death And therefore Sibill speaketh of the Gods in these words The fond vaynglory which the Cretanes vse About
their Goddes doth many a man abuse They be but gastly Ghostes and feendes of hel Or graues of men in whom no soule doth dwell To be short Amalthea and hir Goate that nurced Iupiter which were honored in the Capitoll and all his other misteries represented nothing els but the trauells of his Childhod and of his lyfe as how he was stolen away how he was hidden and how he was nurced all which things are a manifest derogation of his Godhead And Seneca taketh it to be a matter so woorthie to be laughed at that he forgetteth his owne grauitie to giue a mockâ—vnto it Seeing sayth he that this Iupiter was so lecherous why begetteth he not Children still if he be yet aliue Is it bycause he is threescore yeeres old Or hath the Lawe of Papie restreyned him Or hath he obteyned the priuiledge of three Children Or finally is it come into his mynd to looke for the same measure at other folks hands which he hath measured vnto others so as he is afrayd least some Sonne of his should deale with him as he himself delt with Saturne After that manner did this greate Philosopher mocke at his great God wherein he was so much the lesse to be excused bycause he woorshipped him knowing so much as he did As touching Iuno I wilnot stand so much vppon the Poets Varro himself saieth that she was brought vp in Samos and there maryed to hir brother Iupiter by whom shee could not conceyâ—e in respect whereof that Iland was called Parthenie that is to say Maydenland There also was hir famousest Temple where shee stoode in wedding attyre and hir yeerly feastes are in verie deede but playes ordeyned after the fashion of old tyme to represent hir lyfe that is to wit hir mariage hir iealosie and hir incest And as concerning Minerua Iupiters daughter wee reade that shee was deffowred by consent of hir father who had made a promise to Vulcane not to deny him whatsoeuer he should aske so monstruouse and Lawlesse was the whole race of them For as for Venus whose aduoutries are mo than hir Children Euhemere reporteth her too haue bin the first bringer vp of Stewes in the world and that hir woorshippers to honor her withall did call her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and such other which names euen a womaÌ„ that were very farre past shame would take in greate disdeyne To be short in the Temple where Cinaras King of Ciprus was buried who was the first that interteyned her surely I am ashamed that the Heathen were not ashamed of such shamefulnes but yet much more that such as beare the name of Christians are not ashamed too make songs thereof in their books Let vs procéede to the rest Neptune as their holy Historie reporteth had the Seacoast for his share or as othersome affirme he was Iupiters Admiral in respect wher of the Poets of our time call Admiralls Neptunes Pluto had the gouernement of lowe Countries which they disguysing turned into Hell Mars had the Leading of Souldiers in the warres and should haue bin hanged at Athens for a murther What maner of Godds I pray you be these which stand at mens courtesie for their grace And what is the Lawe of that Heauen which receyueth those for Godds whom men would haue hanged on the galowes vpon earth Also Apollo became a Shepeherd for loue and of a Shepeherd hee became Laomedons Mason He playd a feawe Iuggling tricks to deceiue folk withall but in the end as Porphyrius telleth vs hee was killed by Python mourned for by the daughters of Triopus and buryed at Delphos Who euer sawe a thing more ageinst reason than the transforming of him into the Sonne which is as much as to shet vp the Sonne into the earth But yet such are the Godds of the Greeks and Romanes that is to wit deadfolks euen kings and Quéenes whom loue or feare hath made to be taken for Gods And in good sooth they did not any thing to their Godds which men do not at this day to their dead to such as are of reputation They make them Temples Chappell 's and altars they apparell them after their age they set them vp Pensils and Penons according to their degree or trade of liuing they make them a funerall feast they celebrate Anniuersaries or Yeermynds all of one sort Insomuch that as Tertullian saieth the Obitfeast differeth not froÌ„ Iupiters feast nor the wodden Canne from his Drinking-cup nor the Cearer of deadfolks from the Birdgasers for the Birdgasers also had to deale with the dead And therefore wee must not think it straunge that Alexander would néeds be a God sith he knew that men woorshipped such or that Scipio Affricane thought that the greate gate of Heauen ought to bee set open for him for his argument concluded the lyke saying If men for slaughters made to heauen admitted be Then should the greatest gate of Heauen be opened vnto me Or that the gentle Ladies Larentia and Flora were Canonized at Roome for they deemed themselues to haue deserued as much by their professioÌ„ as Venus had deserued at the hands of the Cyprians Or that Caligula tooke vpon him to haue Altars erected and sacrifise offered vnto him for he was both more myghtie and also more mischeuous than those whome he worshipped Let this suffice for the Greate ones And for the Little ones we will content ourselues with Esculapius alone whom the Emperour Iulian that greate enemies of Christians commendeth as his sauior aboue all the rest He is sayeth he the Sonne of Iupiter Then say I he is a man for men begot not Goddes But he came downe intoo the World by the Sonne and from the Sonne vnto the Earth for the health and welfare of men What Author eyther in earnest or in iest did euer say so No but he was sayeth the Historie the sonne of the fayre Coronis renowmed in these verses A goodlyer Lady was not to be found In all Emonia going on the ground This Coronis being with Chyld by Apollos preest gaue it forth for the sauing of hir honor that she was gotten with Chyld by Apollo himself whereby it appeareth that hir sonne Esculapius was not the Chyld of Heauen as Iulian reporteth but as men sayd in old tyme a Chyld of the Earth that is to say a bastard And Tarquilius a Roman wryteth that he was a Chyld found in Messine and learned the vertues of some herbes at the hand of Chyron the Centaure and playd the Pedlar a whyle at Epidaure and that afterward being striken to death as Cicero saith with Thunder he was buried at Cyuosures To be short what miracle reade wee to haue bin done by him more than that he shewed men the herbs called Scordion and Asclepiodotes By which reason we may as well Deifie the bird Ibis for the Clisters or the Stag for the herb Ditanie But to conclude what a beastlynes were it to leaue the Creator of all things and to