God and Man able to discharge mā of euerlasting death ageinst God and to purchase him the souerein felicitie of lyfe And this is it that I meant in the beginning of the chapter namely that this marke is so of the very substance and inshape of Religion that Religion without that should be vtterly vnauaylable and vayne The Heathen séeme to haue perceyued this necessitie by many examples They knewe that man was created to liue for euer and that hee could not inioy that benefite but by turning again vnto God But in this they fell short that they considered not that from vs to God the way is vnpossible to man if God himself be not our way whereby to come thither It may be that they haue heard that it behoued a man to dye for the sinnes of the world And therevpon the diuell did put in their heads to sacrifice men and so to lay the sinnes of a whole Citie or countrie vpon the backe of some one poore wretch And looke who was the greatest offender of all others and whom they had vowed to the gallowes for the multitude of his misdéedes him did they put to the pacifying of Gods wrath towards them Such are the accustomed Apish toyes of the Diuell But how shall he that is in Gods displeasure appease his displeasure And what shall the worst doo if the best can doo nothing The Emperour Iulian could not tell how to rid his hands of this necessitie in his disputations ageinst the Christians By reason whereof perceiuing that there must néedes bee a meane betwéene God and man for the cleansing of mens Soules hee bare himselfe on hand that Esculapius the Sonne of Iupiter was manifested to the world by the lyuely ingendring of the Sonne and that hee shewed him selfe first in Epidaurus and afterward in diuers other places to heale mens Bodies and to amend their Soules Which is a proof that the impossibilitie of the Incarnation of the Sonne of God which is pretended by some séemed not to him to be vnpossible forasmuch as the Iucarnation of Esculapius the sonne of Iupiter God in the opion of Iulian and the sonne of God seemed to him not onely possible but also come to passe And in verie déede why should it seeme strange that he which hath knit the Soule of man being a spirituall substance vnto his body being an earthly should bee able to vnite himselfe vnto man But I haue shewed afore that this Esculapius was a man and that the spirit which abused his name was a diuell and that both of them were wicked creatures And moreouer who euer beléeued or setfoorth this Fable of Esculapius but onely Iulian Nay verily Porphyrius hath outgone all antiquitie in this behalfe For hauing laid this foundation That the souereine welfare of the Soule is to sée God That it cannot see hym vnlesse it be first cleansed from the silth thereof and therefore that by Gods prouidence there must be some meane procured to cleanse mankind whē he commeth to the seeking of it out he saith That the Artes and Sciences doo well cleare our wits in the knowledge of things but they cannoth so cleanse vs that wee may come vnto God And wheras many men deceiued themselues in séeking this cleansing by Magik and Theurgie he sayd that imagination and common sence might well bee helped thereby in the perceyuing of bodily things but they atteyned not to the purging of the vnderstanding of the Soule neyther could they make a man to see his GOD or the trueth it selfe Againe whereas some Philosophers sought this clensing in the Misteries of the Sonne and of Iupiter that is to say in communicating as they surmised not with Deuils but with such as were estéemed to be good Gods he declareth that there was as small likelyhood thereof in their Misteries as in the Misteries of the rest and moreouer that those things extended but to very fewe men whereas this clensing ought to be vniuersall to the benefite of all mankind In the end hauing reiected all other clensings his conclusion is that the Beginnings onely and none others can worke and bee the meane to worke this vniuersall Clensing What he meaneth by the Beginnings the Platonists can tell well enough and I haue declared it by many sentences of his in my fifth and sixth Chapters that is to wit the persons or proprieties that are in God whom Porphyrius calleth expressely the Father the vnderstanding of the Father and the Soule of the World He could not almost haue come any néerer vs vnlesse he should haue met iumpe with vs and surely he seemeth to haue had this of the Chaldees from whom he acknowledgeth himselfe to haue receyued many diuine Oracles concerning this matter But it is enough for vs that wee haue gayned these poynts of him That there must of necessitie be some meane ordeyned of GOD for the clensing and sauing of mankynd That none can worke that Cleannesse except it bee some one of the Beginnings that is to say except it hee God himselfe and that he neuer met yet with any Sect in all Philosophie that setteth foorth the meane thereof Therefore it standeth vs on hand to seeke it not in Philosophie but in our Scriptures For seeing they bee of God and are reuealed for the welfare of Man they ought to direct vs to the only meane of the Saluation which we long for And like as Religion was bred and borne as soone as Man as I haue sayd afore so must it needes be that the meane of Saluation was reuealed as soone as Religion and set foorth in the holy Scriptures from tyme to tyme. And if we finde it so it will be an vnfallible testimonie both of our Religion and of our Scriptures together Let vs then begin with the Creation of man The Scripture sayeth that as soone as he was created God gaue him this Lawe If thou eate of the tree of the skill of good and euill thou shalt dye the Death That is to say If thou turne away neuer so little from the obeying of me thou shalt fall into my displeasure and from my displeasure into endlesse death Byandby after man is seduced by the Serpent that is to say by the diuel and breaketh the Lawe of his Creator by meane whereof he is in his displeasure and by sinne is become subiect to endlesse damnation Now seeing that this man was alone and that the world was made for him what should haue followed but the vtter destruction of the world out of hand and the burning of man euerlastingly in Gods wrath But see how Gods wisdome stepped in for the sauing of man and for the preseruing of his owne woorke and sinne was no sooner bred but the scripture immediatly sheweth vs the remedie thereof I will set emnitie sayeth the Lord to the diuell betweene thy seede and the womans seede Hir seede shall crush thy head and thou shalt byte it by the heele That is to say I will
we found our second marke of Religion namely that the seruice of God which Religion is to teach vs must be grounded vppon his word and reuealed vnto vs by his ownselfe Let vs heare what the heathen say in this case who knewe very well that all the Ladders of their Philosophie were too short to reache thereunto and that it behoued men to be inlightened and instructed from aboue Diuinitie saith Plato cannot be laydforth after the maner of other kinds of seruing but hath neede of continuall mynding And then our wit is foorthwith kindled as with a fyre which afterward gathereth light more more and maynteineth it selfe Finally sayth he we know nothing of Gods matters by our owne skill If he which of all the auncient Philosophers saw most cléere confesse here that his sight faileth very much if it be not ayded from aboue what may we déeme of others And in good sooth in matters of Religion he sendeth vs euermore to the auncient Oracles that is to say according to his meaning to Gods word Aristotle in his Supernaturals rehearseth and commendeth a certeyne answere of Simonides too Hieron Kyng of Sicilie which is that it belongeth to none but onely God to haue skill of the things that are aboue nature and howe much lesse then to be skilfull in Diuinitie and to dispose of Religion that is to say to shewe the meane how to ouercome and surmount nature And whereas Cicero in his Lawes sayeth that there is not any lawe among men wherto men are bound to obey vnlesse it be ordeined by GOD and deliuered as it were with his owne mouth if he had bene well examined he would haue sayde no lesse concerning Religion It is certaine saith Iamblicus that we be bound to do the things that please God But which are those Surely sayth he they be not possible to be knowen of any man but of him that hath heard God himselfe speake or which haue learned them by some heauenly instruction And Alpharabius the Arabian agreeth thereunto in these words The things that concerne GOD and are to be beleeued through holy fayth are of a higher degree than all other things because they proceede from diuine inspiration and mans wit is too weake and his reason too short too attayne to them And therefore we reade that as they which haue ordeined and stablished any Religion in any Nation haue giuen it foorth as proceeding from God verily because nature taught them that it belongeth to none but to God alone to appoynt how hee shal be serued neither would the ordinance therof otherwise be obserued because the parties that were to obey it would make as great account of thēselues as of the partie that should inioyne it Thus by the definitiue sentence of the Philosophers our second marke standeth firme which will serue vs to discerne the true Religion from the inuentions of men so as we may well refuse for vntrueth whatsoeuer is not grounded vpon Gods word But in following our former purpose let vs consider yet further whether this will suffice or no. We haue néede of a Lawe that procéedeth from Gods mouth and what may that I pray you be but the same which proceedeth from holynesse it self namely that we should be holy as he is holy And if we cannot of our selues know God nor how he ought to be serued alas how shall we performe it when he hath declared it vnto vs The ende of Religion sayeth Plato is to knit man vnto God The way to bring this to passe is to become rightuous and holy or as saith Iamblichus to offer vnto GOD a cleane mynd voyd of all naughtines and cléere from all spot What man as euen they themselues confesse could euer vaunt therof And what els then is Religion to all of vs but a booke wherein we reade the sentence of our death that is to wit our very death in deede vnlesse that in the ende wee find some grace or forgiuenesse of our sinnes Yet notwithstanding Religion is the Pathway to life yea euen to eternall life a Pathway that hath a certeyne ende and which beguyleth vs not Therefore it must by some meanes or other fill vs vp the great gulfe that is betwéene endlesse death and endlesse life and betwéene the dwellingplace of blessednes and the horriblenes of Hell And therefore let our third marke be That Religion must put into our hands a meane to satisfie Gods Iustice without the which not onely all other Religions but also euen that which conteineth the true seruing of the true GOD were vtterly vayne and vnprofitable Now mans reason hath well perceiued that some such meane was néedefull in Religion but to knowe what that meane is was to high a thing for mans reason to atteyne vntoo In respect whereof the Platonists busied themselues very much in finding out some meane to cleanse men from their sinnes and too knit them vnto God beeing reconciled to his fauour and they set downe certeine degrées wherby to atteine therunto But yet in the end they confesse all their washings and clensings to be vtterly vnsufficient There are which say it is to bee done by abstinence by vertuous behauiour by skill or by Iupiters mysteries and some say it is to be done by al of them successiuely one after another But yet when they haue bestirred themselues on all sides Porphyrius conclusion is That they be Ceremonies without effect and yet notwithstanding that there must of necessitie néedes be a meane to purge and iustifie men and that the same must bee vniuersall and that it is not possible admitting Gods prouidence as we ought to doe that God should leaue mankind destitute of that meane And that this remedie ought to be conteyne din Religion hee sheweth sufficiently in that hee seeketh it in taking the Orders and in the Consecrations hallowings and other misteries of his owne Religion which in the end he letteth go againe But yet more apparantly doth Hierocles shewe it who sayth that Religion is a studie of Wisedome that consisteth in clensing and perfecting the life that men may be at one with God and become like vnto him and that to atteyne to that cleanesse the meane is to enter into a mans owne conscience and to consider of his sinne and to confesse it vnto God Thus farre he is very well Neuerthelesse here they stoppe ouershort euerychone of them for vppon confession inseweth but death vnlesse God who is the very Iustice it selfe and more infinitely contrary to euill than we can imagine be appeased and satisfied for our offences whereas in Religion we séeke for very life To bee short of the great nomber of Religions which are in the Worlde some haue no certeine restingpoint atall as we reade of some people of Affrik which worship that thing which they méete first in the morning and that is but a vaine Ceremonie Some haue a restingpoynt howbeit an euill one as for example all they
thou shalt liue or dye for euer without ende In what other booke reade wee such commaundements Ye in what booke reade we such punishments such rewards And if euery bodies speaking be according to the abilitie of his power from whom is this spéech which dareth pronounce or threaten euerlasting things but from the partie him selfe that is euerlasing If it be a creature that speaketh it either it is a good creature or an euill If it be an euill creature why forbiddeth he euill so rigorously and commaundeth good so expresly or to say better how commeth it to passe that the mark which hee aimeth at is Gods glorie and our welfare Or if it bee a good Creature how happeneth it that hee chalendgeth to himselfe that which belongeth to GOD and which cannot be imparted to any Creature which is the very sinne that ouerthrewe both the Diuell into Hell and man into destruction And if it be no Creature neither good nor bad what remayneth then but that it must needes be the Creator Now what leafe is there in the whole Scripture where wee meete not with such matter And herewithall wee see that thing in the obseruers of that Lawe which is not read of any others namely that they haue yeelded their lyues and incurred the hatred disdeine of the whole worlde rather than they would breake or despise it Uerily euen in this respect and none other that they were sure that they serued such a Lawegiuer as not only had power ouer the barke of man and ouer this present wretched lyfe as other common Lawgiuers haue but also was of power to giue either euerlasting lyfe or endlesse death The same appeareth yet more in that the lawes which are giuen to men in the Scriptures are not inioyned alonely to the outward man but doe pearce euen to the heart of man In deede they require Sacrifices but yet they preferre obedience They inioyne fasting but that is from sinne They inioyne Circumcision but it is the Circumcision of the hart To be short for a Summary of al Sinnes they forbid lusting and couering which thing as I haue sayd afore is not to bee found in any law of the Heathen Who I pray you knoweth the very anatomie and secret conceyts of our hearts but he that made them Or who can looke into Man but the maker of Man And who is he either Man or Deuill that euer durst presume to inioyne a lawe to mens thoughts But all these things come still to this poynt that the partie which speaketh so vpon authoritie threatening things that excéede mans abilitie and making a law for the things wherevnto we cannot come must of necessitie be of more power than we Agein what a number of things haue wee taught vs in the Scriptures which cannot bréede of mannes brayne nor come from elswhere than from about And if they cannot bréede in his mind how can they come from his hand or from his mouth We can wel say there is one God for if wee enter into our selues wee find him there and if we goe neuer so little out of ourselues we meete him euery where But that in one Essence there should be thrée persons the Father the woord and the Spirit how can it bréede in the imagination of man Or who could euer haue thought of it Also from the Creatures wee come to the Creator from mouing to a rest from nouelties to a beginning and there mannes reasoning stayes But although the first man myght knowe when hee was created yet how could he haue knowen when the world was created And although that by the new things therein we déeme it too be newe who euer durst to haue limited the first day and the first houre thereof Or how could that Chymera haue come in any mannes mynd And yet in verie déede we haue dyuers Chymeras among the auncient writers concerning the Creation of the world according to the diuersities of opinions that were among the Philosophers and the diuersities of imaginations among the comon people But was there euer any afore this booke of the Byble that began his account of tymes or his historie at the first day of the world thought he were of opinion that the world was created And séeing that the intent of al wryters of stories is to be beléeued what els had this beginning of an historie at that poynt bin but a cracking of his credit at his first enterance in if the maiestie of the Author had not serued for a warrant Lykewise that man to attayne to his appoynted end néeded the handywoorke of God himself It apâ—eareth vnto vs by the weaknesse of our nature But that for the appeasing of Gods Iustice God himself should be fayne too come downe and to take mans flesh vnto him who would say it but only God and who could bee beléeued in that case but only he So is it also concerning the conception of the Uirgin concerning the promises that were not to come to passe vntill fower hundred yéeres after coÌ„cerning the comming of the Messias and such like things which would neuer haue come in a mans head to haue written so farre of are they from mans wit I meane as of it self and without imitation And I dare boldly say that whosoeuer readeth the Scriptures aduisedly and with intent to marke them shall in euery booke finde many matters which euen by his owne iudgement had neuer come in mans mynd notwithstanding that they be spoken by wise men who both beléeued them firmely and ment to bee beléeued in speaking them What shal we say then to the Prophesyings or true foretellings which are sowen euerywhere in the Scriptures that is to wit of Gods spirit which is shed foorth from the one ende to the other I say not in scattered leaues as the Prophesies of Sybil were but aiming al at one poynt notwithstanding that they were vttered both at diuers tymes by diuers persons and in diuers places I omit the first Prophesie concerning the womans seede that should crush the Serpents head and such like perteyning to the redemption of man by the Messias because that that doctrine shall haue his proper place hereafter and I will alledge none other things than such as are alreadie proued and out of controuersie Unto Abraham was giuen this promise They seede shall doe seruice in a strange Land and bee hardly intreated there fower hundred yeeres and then will I iudge the Nation whom they shall haue serued and in the fourth generation shall they come hether againe What Oracle did euer foretell a thing so precisely so manifestly and so long aforehand And yet was that Prophesie fulfilled at the appoynted tyme and it cannot be sayd to be a counterfet for Moyses in leading the people of Israell through so many turnagaines grounded himselfe vpon none other thing And it stood him on hand to speake of a Prophesie that was common among them and deliuered from hand to hand considering that he taketh
the water a thing whereof it were vneasie to yéeld a reason But the sayd law of Moyses not being vnprofitable ne tending any higher than this present life did not without cause put a difference betwéene brute things For if we looke well to it it denouÌ„ceth al those brute things vncleane whereby the AEgiptians made their diuinations or tooke their foretokens as the Woolfe the Foxe the Dragon the Hare the Sparehauke the Kyte so foorth And that was to make the people of Israell to abhorre the vanities and abhominations of AEgipt like as if a man would keepe his children from fire he would prohibite them euen the Chimney And because those abuses were knowen among them the end and aimingpoynt of that Lawe was the redresse of them And therefore vppon this poynt I desire our despisers to suspend their iudgement in the things they vnderstand not For as in that tyme no fault was found with this difference in the Lawe of Moyses so should no fault be found with many others at this day if wee could set before vs the same tyme againe I omit concerning the things that liued vpon pray that ouer and besides that men tooke foretokens at them they had this doctrine in them without much stepping aside from the letter that men should not take away one anothers goodes And as touching the Swyne it is well knowne that for the inuention of Tillage which hee shewed to the AEgiptians by wrooting vp the ground with his groyne they worshipped him as a God in consideration whereof he was declared to be abhominable besides the which thing there appeared this euident allegorie that men should not bemyre them selues in the dirt and dung of this world As for the Sacrifices I haue touched them heretofore and will treat of them more at large hereafter forasmuchas they did put men hourely in rememberance of death dew for sinne and of the necessitie of a sacrifice to cleanse away the same namely of the sacrifice of Iesus Christ then to come which should serue for the clensing of all mankynd But admit that God to bring vs to obedience had listed to giue vs Lawes whereof we could not conceiue the reason What is it more than many Princes and Lawemakers haue done as Plutark sayeth Or than we our selues do to our Children and Seruants And yet who will think it méete that they should aske vs a reason why we do so Surely I desire no more but that they which come to our Scriptures should yeeld at leastwise the like regarde that they yeeld to Homer or Virgill If they find in them any dark sentences they say they will mark them with crosses and leaue them too Grammarians too martyr themselues withall Therefore let them not thinke it straunge that God hath left such things in his Scriptures to humble the mynds of diuines withal If in the Poet they meete any Solecismes that is too say incongruities of speeche byandby they be elegancies or figures Let them consider in the Scriptures also that the thing which they think doth disagree at the first sight wil bee found verie fit of him that vnderstandeth the figure To be short if a Poet haue spoken a woord that seemeth needlesse or without reason the Schoolemayster turneth it into al sences to find some sence in it the Scoller is out of patience if his Mayster find none and the Scholler will rather find fault with his Mayster and the Mayster with his owne ignorance than confesse any imperfection ar ouersight in the Poet. Now then if in these bookes confirmed with so manie Miracles and proceeding from soo greate authoritie we mâ—â— offeâ—th things which to our fleshly wit séeme vnprofitable or absurd it â—ere good reason that wee should bee the more diligent and heedfull in serching them and in turning them into al sences And if in the end of all this we find not wherewith to satisfie vs let the hearer confesse his dulnesse of vnderstanding and the teacher acknowledge his owne ignorance and let vs pray God to voutsafe to inlighten vs with his Spirit Now I thinke I haue sufficiently shewed by the antiquitie the style and the matter by the ende also and by the particularities of our Scriptures that they be of God and that they cannot procéede from any other than him By antiquitie for they bee the first of all writings and God hath bin reuealed in them euer since there were any men By their style for they instruct the lowly and pull downe the highmynded speaking with like authoritie to all men By their matter for their onely treating is of Gods doings and of his communicating of himselfe to men By the marke whereat they aime for they tende not to any other thing than Gods glorie and mans welfare And by their singularnesse for there are things without number which cannot bee bred in the mynd eyther of man or Angell The absurdnesse which wee suppose to be there is but a seeming so to our ignorance and the impossibilitie which to our seeming is in them is but in comparison of our disabilitie The truth of them is witnessed vnto vs in Histories at leastwise if the case so stand that Gods word haue neede of mans record He that is the Child of God knoweth his fathers voyce but yet it may be that for the better confirming of him my writing hereof shall not bee in vayne Who so refuseth that no man can perswade him thereto but yet shall this serue to conuict him and by Gods helpe a great sort which as yet haue had their eares so dulled with the noyse of this world that they haue hetherto but ouerheard it shall hereafter incline both their eares and their hearts thereunto Now I beséech the almightie who spake the worde and the world was made to speake effectually in our daies and that the world may beléeue him And because the marke that beléef shootes at is the welfare of man let vs see what welfare wee finde in this word which is our third marke of Religion and shal be the matter of the Chapter next following The xxvij Chapter That the meane ordeyned of GOD for the welfare of mankind hath bene reuealed alwayes to the people of Israel which is the third marke of Religion _â—Ow remayneth the third marke of true Religion to be examined which is that it teache the true and only way ordeined of God for the saluation and recouery of mankind without the which as I haue shewed already all Religion is vnauailable and vayne Howbeit forasmuch as this Doctrine importeth the welfare of the world and I haue interlaced many things by the way which may dim the remembrance thereof Let vs here call ageine to mind how néedfull this marke is in religion And soothly it will be one further marke of the heauenlynes of our Scriptures if we find that they teache vs the necessitie of that only meane and also direct vs to it from the beginning foorthon from tyme to tyme.
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
God to the doing of our duetie towards our neighbours and to euery mans owne saluation and welfare By the way this doctrine is not a declaiming nor an exercise of Philosophers who as Seneca affirmeth pretended slaues by their tytles and conteyned poyson and venome in their boxes but it is expressed in his life and read in his Disciples whom neither Iewe nor Gentyle haue euer blamed but for their simplicitie and innocencie Insomuch that Philo the Iewe made a booke expresly thereof for a woonder For whereas Celsus the Epicure obiecteth that Iesus chose Publicanes and men of wicked conuersation to be his Disciples euen therein peculiarly hath he shewed the effectualnes of his doctrine in the curing of mens soules as a Phisition doth in healing those that are sorest sicke and furthest past hope of recouerie in a Citie To be short at his word the Nations that worshipped Deuilles Men Planets Stockes and Stones turned to the only true God The Deuils that had abused them hid themselues away and their Oracles lost their voyces as shal be sayd hereafter But as for the lawe of God and the holy Scriptures I meane euen those ye Iewes which you your selues beléeue reuerence they come to be read imbraced and expounded through all the world and in all Languages If this doctrine then bee of the Deuill by what marke shall we know the doctrine of God And if to giue authoritie to the Byble ouer all the world be the destruction thereof what shal we call the stablishing thereof And if Iesus haue by his doctrine stablished the seruice of the true God authorised the Law of Moyses and rooted vp the seruice of the Deuill by the bottome how can it be sayd that the Deuill hath eyther inspyred him or assisted him in his myracles and Prophesyings both for the kingdome of God and against the Deuils owne Tyrannie Yea say you but he professed himselfe to be the Sonne of God So much the rather say I ought you to imbrace him seeing that by the record of your auncetors the Messias ought so to be And in reporting himselfe to be so if you reade your owne Doctors well ye shal finde that he turneth you not away to diuers Gods nor yet to straunge Gods For according to your owne Scriptures and Traditions these three namely the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost are but one God I would knowe but this one thing of you whether you take him for a true Prophet or for a false Prophet for the seruant of God or for the seruant of the Deuill You haue sayd heretofore that he vsed the power of the name of God in his myracles whereby ye haue graunted me very much and I also haue proued vnto you that such particuler and speciall Prophesies as these cannot procéede but from God himselfe But what a seruant is he to the Deuill which ouerthroweth his maister How is hee not an ouerthrower of him which saueth vs How is he a false accuser of vs which iustifieth vs How is he a deadly enemie which setteth vs againe in life For what els hath the doctrine of Iesus done throughout the whole world but destroyed the Altars of the Deuils beaten downe their Temples broken their Images in peeces abolished their gaming 's their feastes their Sacrifices and moreouer withdrawne the rest of men from Murder Whoredome Theft all other abhominations wherein they were plunged and from the vaine seruices whereabouts they occupied them selues and wherewith they deceyued their owne Consciences If ye say he was the seruant of GOD the very Turkes confesse as much Therefore procéede yet further and graunt that sith he is the Prophet and seruant of God he is to be beléeued For God the Creator being altogether good and wise would not lende him his spirit to deceiue vs. And if we ought to beléeue him we ought also to heare him and if wee heare him he telleth vs that he is Christ the Anoynted that he is the trueth that he is the way that he came from God his father and that the father and he are but one And in déede one while to shewe that he was sent of his father he prayeth vnto him and anotherwhile to shewe that he is equall with him he commaundeth absolutely and of himselfe Surely therfore we may well say that this Prophet Iesus being assisted by Gods spirit both in his Prophesyings and in his Myracles and in his Doctrine and beeing borne of a Uirgin in Bethleem and at the tyme appoynted afore hand by the Prophets is Christ the Lords anoynted GOD and Man euen such as he was declared and behighted vs in the holy Scriptures as I haue shewed alreadie But lo here the stumblingblock of the Pharisies and the Iewes What likelyhood is there say they that our Christ by whom wee looke that Israell should be so renowmed should be so bace and abiect a person Nay moreouer if he be both God and Man as you Christians say he is what can bee imagined more against all reason than that he should bee buffeted whipped crucified accounted among théeues and in the end reprochfully killed as your Iesus was Soothly to folke that haue imagined and reckoned vppon a Monarchie of the whole world and behighted themselues places among the chiefe in the same it must néedes bee a great corsie and greefe to bee defeated of that hope But had they well chewed and digested this text of Zacharie Behold thy King commeth vnto thee rightuous Sauiourlike and lowlie ryding vpon an Asse euen the Colt of an Asse which text their Rabbines expound of the Messias and wee reade it to haue bene fulfilled in Iesus at his comming into Hierusalem they would not thinke it so straunge that in the same person also should be performed this saying of the same Prophet in another place I will powre out the spirit of grace and mercie vpon the house of Dauid and vpon the inhabiters of Hierusalem and they shall looke vppon me whom they haue pearced which text likewise the Rabbines expound of the Messias as well as the other Now I haue shewed heretofore that the Messias should reconcile vs vnto God by the satisfaction and amends which he should make vnto him for vs and also how agreeable the sayd amends was both to Gods Iustice and mercie which cannot bee contrarie one to another and also to the order of dealing that is among men For in asmuch as man would néedes through his pride become equal with God and by his disobedience bee as God it was méete that his Suretie should be abaced euen beneath man and yéeld perfect obedience euen to the most reprochfull death that could bee Againe to turne man againe and to restreyne him from sinne nothing could bee more effectuall than to make him knowe the horriblenesse of his sinne by the greatnesse of the penaltie and satisfaction thereof neither could any thing bee more forcible to allure him to the loue of God
specially of man who knoweth how to take benefite thereof The temperatenesse of the aire serueth for him and yet the aire can not bee tempered nor the Earth lighted without the Sonne and the Moone Neither can the Sunne and the Moone giue light and temperatnesse without mouing The Moone hath no light but of the Sunne neither can the Sunne yéeld it either to the Moone or too the Earth but by the mouing of the Heauen and the great Compasse of the Heauen going about is the very thing which wée call the World not estéeming these lower parts as in respect of their matter otherwise than as the dregges of the whole And whereas the Elements serue man and the Planets serue the Elements yea and the Planets them selues serue one another doe they not shew that they be one for another And if they be one for another is not one of them in consideration afore another as the ende afore the things that tend vnto the end according to this common rule that the Mynd beginneth his work at the end thereof Now then if the turning about of the Heauen serue to shewe the Planets and they to yéeld light to the Earth and to all things thereon doth it not serue for the Earth And if it serue the Earth I pray you is that done by appoyntment of the Earth or rather by appoyntment of some one that commaundeth both Heauen and Earth Againe seeing that the ende is in consideration afore the things that tend thereto shall this consideration be in the things themselues or rather in some Spirite that ordereth them Soothly in the things themselues it cannot be for if they haue vnderstanding they haue also will and the will intendeth rather to commaund than to obey and vnto fréedome rather than bondage and if they haue no vnderstanding then knowe they neither end nor beginning Moreouer forasmuch as they bee diuers and of contrary natures they should ame at diuers ends whereas now they ame all at one end Nay which more is how should the Sunne and the Moone the Heauen and the Earth haue met euerlastingly in matching their dealings so iumpe together the one in giuing light and the other in taking it In what poynt by what couenant and vnder what date was this done seeing it dependeth altogether vppon mouing which is not to be done but in tyme It remayneth then that the sayd consideration was done by a Spirit that commaundeth al things alike and that he putteth them in subiection one to another as seemeth best to himselfe forsomuch as he is mightie to kéepe them in obedience and wise to guyde them to their peculiar ends and all their ends vnto his owne ende and he that thinketh otherwise thinketh that a Lute is in tune of it owne accord Or if he say that this Spirit is a Soule inclosed in the whole he doth fondly incorporate the Spirit of the Luteplayer in the Lute it selfe and likewise the buylder in the buylding In effect it is all one as if a Child that is borne and brought vp in a house should thinke the house to be eternall or els made of it selfe because he had not seene it made or as if a man that had bin cast out newly borne in a desert Iland and there nursed vp by a Wolfe as Romulus was should imagine himself to be bred out of the Earth in one night like a Mushrom For to beléeue that the World is eternall and that the race of Mankinde is bred of it selfe without a maker is all one thing and spring both of one error Doe not the two Sexes of Male and Female in all liuing things ouerthrowe the sayd eternitie For how should they bee euerlastingly the one for the other seeing they be so diuers Againe haue they bin euerlastingly but two or euerlastingly mo than two If but two where are those two become seeing that eternitie importeth immortalitie and a beginninglesse forebeing from euerlasting inferreth an endlesse afterbeing or cōtinuance to euerlasting And if they were many see ye not still the selfesame absurdities And if ye say they be made euerlasting by succession of tyme what I pray you is death but a token that they were borne What is life I speake of this our life but a continuance of death and what is succession but a prolonging of time Thus then ye see how that aswell by the parts of the World and by the whole World it self as also by the agréement of the whole with his parts and of the parts among themselues we be euidently taught that the fraine of the World had both a workmayster and a beginning But now some man wil aske vs when it began And that is the poynt which we haue to treate of next The viij Chapter When the World had his beginning SOothly it is not for mée to stand here disproouing the doubtes of the Accounters of tymes for the ods of some yeres yea or of some whole hundreds of yeres is not to bee accounted of betwéene eternitie and a beginning But if we haue an eye to the procéeding of this lower World we shall euidently percèyue that like a Childe it hath had his ages his chaunges and his full poynts restes or stoppes so as it hath by little and little growne bin peopled and replenished and that to be short whereas the world supposeth that it shall indure for euer it doth but resemble an old Dotarde which bee hee neuer so forworne and drooping for age yet thinkes himselfe still to haue one yere more to liue But I haue alreadie sufficiently proued that both Heauen and Earth haue had a beginning and also that séeing the one of them is for the other they had the same at one selfe same tyme and both of them from one self same ground And therfore looke what shal be declared of the earth shall also be declared of the heauen and forasmuch as the earth serueth for the vse of liuing creatures and specially of man looke what beginning we shall proue of man the like shall wee haue proued of the disposition of the earth For to what purpose were the Heauen being imbowed about these lower parts like a Uault or to what purpose were the earth being as a flowre or plancher to goe vpon if there were no inhabiter at all vpon earth Surely if the World were without beginning it should also haue bin inhabited from without beginning and no people should be of more antiquitie thā other Or at leastwise how auncient so euer it were yet should no new thing be found therein But if euen the oldest and auncientest things of all be but newe ought it not to bee a sure argument vnto vs of the newnesse thereof What thing I pray you can we picke out in this world for an example of antiquitie Let vs begin at the Liberall Sciences and we shall reade of the first commings vp of them all Philosophie which consisteth in the searching out of naturall things is of so late
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
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
of all sorts of Serpents wyld Beastes And doubtlesse that was because they had learned that man doth couertly carie in his breast all maner of Beasts the which it behoueth him to kill in himselfe according to this saying of the Platonists That the readiest way to returne vnto God and consequently to a mans first nature is to kill his owne affections But what shall we say to that which we haue learned in these our daies among the barbarous Nations of the West Indies There came a man into their Countrey say they which called himself the Sonne of the Sonne who by his word and power replenished the Land with men and women whom hee created and gaue them great abundance of fruits Who doth not herevppon call by and by to remembrance the creation of man and woman in the Scripture where God sayth vnto them Increase and multiply and fill the earth I haue giuen you al hearb bearing seede and all trees bearing fruite and so foorth But sayth the booke of their Diuinitie because some men prouoked his displeasure he afterward chaunged the good soyle which he had giuen them into drye and barreyne sands and bereft them of Rayne and left them nothing but a few riuers to helpe themselues withall by their great labour and trauell Who espyeth not here agayne the sinne of man Gods curse vppon the earth and namely these words In the sweate of thy browes shalt thou eate thy bread all the daies of thy life And who should bee ignorant of God when as euen those knowe him whom wee estéeme to bee almost of another kynd than we be But here the wicked perceyuing themselues to want matter to replye do fail to rayling against God Séeing that man say they sinned through the fréewill which GOD gaue vnto him how can God be called good hauing giuen man wherewith to sinne By the same reason I say at once for all if God be good why hath he made Man or any thing for Man If he should take from thée all that thou abusest I pray thee what should bee left thée Thy Reason What is there in thée that maketh thée more vnreasonable Thy Sences To what other seruice doest thou put them than to the marring of thy Sences Thy Tongue How much more eloqueÌ„t is it in speaking euill than in speaking good To bee short where shal the good things become which he hath giuen thée for the maintenance of thy health and life Nay on the contrary part which of them is it that thou turnest not to thy death and to thy bane Now is the founder of them to blame if thou kill thy self with the things without the which thou couldest not liue Or if thou become euill by the things without the which thou couldest not be good GOD hath giuen thée a will and without will thou couldest not bee good Unto will hee hath added a good wit to guyde it and without wit thou couldest not be wise If thou be loth to be eyther good or wise it is but because thou art loth to bee a man Thy will was giuen thée to loue God withall Now loue delighteth to bee fréeharted neither would God bee loued of vs as inchaunted to it but freely and vtterly vnconstreined Therfore it behoued this will to be frée Likewise thy wit was giuen thée to behold God withall And haddest thou but onely thy Sences what haddest thou more than the brute Beastes And if thou haddest no more than they why were they and all the whole world made for thee Now then which of these two canst thou finde fault with seeing that without them both thou couldest be neither good nor wise no nor a man Thou wouldest haue bin created vnchaungeable howbeit not as a Rock or a Mountayne but as a Man Surely the vnchaungeablenesse of Spirits was created to depend vppon their linking in with their maker Thou wouldest peraduenture haue bin an Angel but there are euen of the Angels that are falne and as thei were farre higher than thou so was their fall more daungerous than thyne O man acknowledge the goodnes of the Creator in creating thée good and acknowledge the vanitie of the creature which cannot stand in his owne goodnesse but in the goodnesse of the Creator But especially aboue all things commend thou his goodnesse and mercie in that he hath not onely reléeued thée in thy fall but also as it were vphild thée that thou mightest fall the softer Another taketh exception to Gods Iustice. What Iustice is it sayth he to punish a man so rigorously for so small a fault Nay what is more iust than nature What is more naturall than to runne into darknesse when a man turneth away from the Sunne Or as Plotin sayth to impayre and wex naught when a man departeth from the souereyne good But O thou man which thinkest thy self iuster than God what punishment wouldest thou appoynt to thy Sonne not being a babe or a yoong childe but being come to yéeres of discretion and a mangrowen not pinched and pyned but flowing in all wealth if vpon a brauerie and lustinesse of courage he would disobey thée for a thing of nothing TheÌ„ set thou Adam also before thyne eyes newly come into the world by the goodnesse of the Creator not starke naked but furnished with the whole world to serue him not witlesse but with a pure sound and skilfull mynd not subiect to his lustes but able to holde them in awe to his will and hauing his will obedient to reason Now whether thou consider his sinne his rebellion his vnfaithfulnes and his pride or whether thou haue an eye to the easines of absteyning from sinne what punishment wilt thou not déeme him worthie to haue Yea sayest thou but why vseth he this rigour against his children Nay rather say why is he so mercifull why is he so gracious as to kéepe them low in their fathers fall least they should fall more gréeuously through the same rashnesse Thou buildest a Citie and the custome is to beautifie it with Priuiledges Afterward this Citie rebelleth thou takeâ—â— away their priuiledges their Belles their Armour and their weapons and this punishment of their Insurrection extendeth to all their posteritie albeit they were but fewe at the beginning and grewe to bee mightily multiplyed afterward The graunting of the Priuiledges to the first was a poynt of goodnesse for otherwise they might haue had occasion to complayne of thée Likewise it is Iustice to take them so from theÌ„ and mercie to withhold them from their posteritie who haue the same rebellious mynd in them and had els runne headlong into extreme punishments God gaue thée the priuiledge of freedome and inriched thée with singular gifts both of body and mynd praise thou his goodnesse Now because thou hast abused them he eyther taketh them cleane away or els diminisheth them acknowledge thou his Iustice. And because thy children might doe as thou hast done and would not be amended by thine
to haue a sound mynd in a sicke bodie than to bee out of his wittes hauing perfect health of bodie Soothly then it is a very cléere argument that our chiefe happinesse resteth in our mynd seeing wee can finde in our harts to redéeme it with the miseries of our bodie Let vs come too the sensitiue parte The happines thereof seemeth to consist in Uoluptuousenes or Sensualitie If that make vs happy then happy be brute beastes as who doe vse it both more freely and with more delyght than wee and vnhappy is man who cannot wholy becone a beast do what he can The beast taketh his pleasure without regard who sees him without remorse of conscience and without any argewing ageinst himselfe Contrarywise what man is hee which féeleth not a Lawe in himselfe that goes about to brydle him which feeleth not a hartbyting in the mâ—â—ds of his pleasure or whose greatest delyghts leaue him not a sting of repentance behind them And what happynes can that be whereof we be ashamed and which compelleth vs to seeke couert for the dooing thereof Also what a fond woorkman was he that framed vs so farre vnfit for such a purposeâ— insomuch that wheras al our body is lyable too aches stiches both within without and on all sides we scarsly haue aboue two or three parts vpoÌ„ vs capable of pleasure and euen those also subiect to greef and peyue Let there be a man sayeth Plutarke that hath led his whole lyfe in pleasure and sensualitie and about a two or three howers afore he drawe towards death let him be put to his choyce whether he had leuer too delight his sences by lying with his Lais or delyght his mind with deliuering his Country from some greate peril wil be think you be so very a beast as to dout which of them he shal choose who séeth not then that the pleasure of the mind is both greater than the pleasure of the body and more peculiar to man and more agreeable too his end We seeke a souereine good if it be good it will amend vs. But what doth marre vs and impayre vs more both in bodie and soule than fleshly pleasure Also we meane it should be perfect If it be so it will make vs perfect too But what consumeth vs what decayeth vs more than sensualitie Agein we seeke an end but yet an endlesse end not which maketh an end of our pleasures but which doth still feede our desires Contrarywise what is there which is sooner at an end in it selfe which sooner maketh an end of vs or which sooner wearieth vs and lesse contenteth vs than the bodily pleasures considering that as the Poet sayth the pleasure and payne goe both together Moreouer how may that be the souereine good which is not so much as a meane good For who can denye but that abstinence is taken for a vertue euen among the vicious sort And what maner of good is that which may become euill by increasing if it were not euill of it selfe afore Finally al bodily pleasures consist in the Sences and are executed by the sensitiue parts Now the Sences are oftentymes forstalled in vs eyther by diseases or by old age and the sensitiue parts are dispatched at the least by death Now albeit that a man haue a dubble life the one in this world the other in another the one dying the other immortall the first which is here tending to the second as the woorse to the better yet is not our seeking for such an end or such a felicitie as dyeth with vs but for such a one as maketh vs happye quickeneth vs 〈…〉 sheth vs euerlastingly the which surely is not to be found in mortall things Now followeth therefore the Understanding part which is occupied one whyle in itself another while in the gouernment of the world and another while in contemplation of heauenly things and of theis three operations spring three perfections namely Uertue Policie and Wisedome Let vs see yet in which of these 〈◊〉 consisteth our souereine felicitie and contentation Soothly it is not to bee doubted but that our end will bee found to consist in that part for whether can the mynd of man reach beyond the world and man and him that made them both But let vs see if we come néere it in this world I pray you what is Uertue The calâ—edesse of our affections What are these affections of ours The waues and stormes of our Soules raysed with euery little â—last of winde which doe so â—osse and turmoyle it vpside downe that euen the best Pylots are fayne to strike Sayle and reason it selfe is driuen welnere to forsake the Helue If Mâ—n were created to this end why was he created with calmenesse of mynd Or if his souereine good consist now in ouermaystering his affections what more contrarietie can there bée than to bée â—oyd of affections and to be a man Let vs put the case that some man atteyne therevnto shall he also stay there No for valiantnesse hath an eye to warre warre to peace peace to the prosperitie of the Common-weale weale and so soorth of others Now that which tendeth vnto another cannot be the vtmost end But wil man at leastwiâ—e be contented therewith Nay let vs commend Uertue as much as wee list and let vs busie our selues in making bookes of it yet if it extend no further than to the things on earth I dare well say there is not any thing I say not so happie but so wretched miserable as man Folke will say he is an honest man but yet as honest as he is they will let him starue for hunger The Prince will say he is a faithfull a sound and an vpright dealer neyther led by couetousnesse nor caryed away with ambition but yet he will not put him in trust with the managing of his affayres in this world The foulest vyce in the world shall finde a mate but if Uertue runne through the whole world she shal scarce find a husband Now then if we séeke our felicitie in this life what is Uertue but very miserie And if we séeke it in the other lyfe what shal become of this vertue where we shall haue no affections to encounter with Surely then is not Uertue our end for the end that we seeke hath not an eye to a further thing neither dooth the souereine good thereof which goes ioyntly with it come to any end What then Is Policie that end We call Pollicie the right vse of reason in the gouerning of worldly affaires Besides that it may also properly be defined to be an art or skill of guyding mens doings to a certeine end Now the skill and the end that it ameth at cannot be both one thing But to be short what is this world Strife Warre Discord Enuy Rancor Burning Sacking wasting Spoyling and destroying a miserable ground for man too buid his felicitie vpon What is the gouerning and disposing of al these things
that as Iamblichus also perceyued full well their whole seeking was to deceiue vs by their comming and to go away againe when they wist not what to say more desirous to lye than wee blockish to beléeue And when they obeyed vs or pretended to obeye vs let vs see what seruice they required at our hands verely that their Images should be wel painted and well coted and that they might be worshipped prayed vnto and senced Now if they were the Images of Spirites what greater vntrueth can there be than for a Spirit to be resembled by an Image And if they were the Images of men what greater beastlines sayth Seneca can there bee than to offer Sacrifize to a stocke and to make the Caruer which made it to eate at the second table and to knéele downe before a counterfet of his own making or to make the Paynter thereof to stand bareheaded vnto it Now then what els were they but teachers of vntrueth whose intent was to turne men not onely from God to his workes but also to themselues and finally into very stockes Apollo being asked what seruice was to be yéelded to the Gods declared that Sacrifize is to bee offered to them all as well them that dwell in the Ayre and the Fire as them that dwell in the Sea and in the Earth to some with white Beastes and to some with blacke to some vppon Altars and to othersome vppon bankes of earth to some the foreparts of Beastes and to othersome the hinderparts and such other like stuffe And because they would néedes play the Apes with God in al things they required this seruice after the example of the old Testament For as sayth Porphyrius nothing delighteth them more than to be estéemed as Gods insomuch that the greatest of them all whom they call Serapis and we Beelzebub will néedes be worshipped as the souereine God But what resemblance is there betwixt them and the true God God requireth of vs the firstlings of our fruites and of our Cattell And forasmuch as he hath created them for vs is it not reason that wee should acknowledge our selues beholdē to him for our Corne and for our increase of Cattell On the contrary part these Gods require the acknowledgement of those things to bee done to themselues to their Images Gods inioyning of vs to sacrifize brute Beastes is to witnesse the death that we deserue by our sinne but they beare vs on hand that by the death of a Beast wee be discharged from all sinnes God sayth vnto vs your Sacrifizes are nothing worth I will haue obedience and not Sacrifize your Oblations loath me and your Incence stinketh the thing that I looke for is a broken and a lowly heart The false Gods speake of nothing but of the sheading of blud without telling or knowing why or wherefore without end without ground without signification and without comming any whit néere the heart Now then what are they els than slauish Roges and Rebelles indeuouring to filch away the praise of our Creator And yet for all their disguysing of themselues for a tyme they bee not able to conceale their owne leaudnesse any long while For they commaund vs to Sacrifize Men Maydes and Children vnto them Had they ordeyned such things at their first comming in who would not haue abhorred them But when they had once wound themselues into credite by some answers delightfull to our curious eares and by some Iugglingtricks which seemed wōderfull to the weaknesse of our eyes we suffered them to go by little and little whithersoeuer they them selues listed as though it had bin vnpossible that they should haue sayd otherwise than well or that wee should haue done otherwise than well in obeying them According whereunto wee reade that Children were Sacrifized to Saturne in Candy after the maner of the Curets In Rhodomene the sixth day of the moneth Geitnion In Phenice in tymes of Plague Warre and Famine and likewise in Affrick they Sacrifized men vntill the Uiceconsulship of Tyberius who caused the Priestes themselues to be crucified in the same Woodes where they were wont to doe their Sacrifizes Also they offered the like kind of Sacrifize in Cyprus to the Nimph Agrawlis and to Diomedes and in the I le of Tenedos vnto Bacchus and in Lacedaemon to Mars And all these abhominations are reported by Porphyrius who therevpon concludeth that all such Gods were of the wickeddest sort of Deuilles Moreouer wee reade that Aristomenes of Messene Sacrifized thrée hundred men at once to Iupiter Ithometes of whom Theopomp King of the Lacedemonians was one And that the Latins Sacrifized the tenth of their owne Children to Iupiter and that because they had discontinewed the doing thereof they thought themselues to bee plagued with dearth and diseases That those false Gods themselues answered the Carthaginenses that the misfortunes which lighted vpon them happened for that whereas they had vsed to sacrifize the choycest of their Children they Sacrifized none but the Rascalles Chaungelings Bastardes and Bondlings The like was done by the Druides in Gaullond by the Almanes by the Scandinauians by the Tawricanes and others insomuch that Chyron the Centaure had such Sacrifizes offered yéerely vnto him So farre and with so passing supersticious crueltie was the Deuils kingdome extended that the Deuill none other could be the foūder therof Who can now doubt after al this but that those Gods were deuils which were workers of such things as not only goodmen mislike but also euen wicked men cannot but abhorre In déede wee reade that one Diphilus King of Cyprus made the Idoll of Cyprus to bee contented with an Oxe in stead of a Man and that Amosis King of AEgipt appoynted that in stead of the thrée youg men which were woont to bee sacrificed to Iuno in Heliople there should bée offered thrée Calues and that afterward Pallas of Laodicea was contented with a Hynd and that Hercules in traueling through Italy gaue thē men of Hay to be throwen into Tyber but surely it had bene more to his commendation if he had punished those Gods thā to haue ouercome the great monsters for which he is so renowmed Yet was that custome obserued still Insomuch that euen in Rome euery yere the same day that men had bene wont to be sacrificed the Altars were washed with mans blud howbeit about a fowerscore yeres afore comming of Christ the Senate had condemned such sacrifices at Rome Now séeing that as Seneca sayth they required such a seruice as Busyris or Phalaris durst neuer to haue demaunded who will not conclude with Porphirius as greate an enemy to Christians as hee was that they were al diuels and wicked féends Or with Quintilian that such Gods could not bee but witlesse and starke mad And whereas the Senate which worshipped them did neuerthelesse condemne and abolish their Sacrifices was not their so dooing a condemning of the founders of them also I meane of the
of remembrance there was no mention made by the History-writers and Poets of Greece Demetrius Phalareus answered him that it was a diuine lawe giuen of God which ought not to be touched but with cleane hands as Hecataeus himself writeth affirming moreouer that Theopompus a Disciple of Aristotles had done him to vnderstand that whereas some had gone about to disguise the Scriptures of the Iewes with Gréeke eloquence they were striken with amazednesse for their labour and vppon prayer made vnto God were warned in a Dreame that they should forbeare to vnhallow or defile those heauenly matters with the glosse of their owne inuentions Yea and that Theodotus a Tragicall Poet had told him that because he intended to haue intermingled some matters of the Scriptures with his Tragedies that is to wéet by drawing grounds of his Poetries out of the Byble as other Poets had done with the warres of Thebes and Troy he had suddeinly forgone his sight which was afterward restored agayne vnto him vppon continuall prayer and long repentaunce And this befell iust in the same tyme that the Greekes and Romaines did but begin to deale with Philosophie Also Numenius the Pythagorist whom many preferre before Plato made so great account of the Scriptures that his booke of Welfare of Number and of Place and his booke intytled The Lapwing were full of texts alledged out of Moyses and the Prophets with great reuerence And he is the same Philosopher whom Plotin had in such estimation that he voutsafed to write a Cōmentarie vpon him But I would that the Greekes should but shew me the like record of their owne writings and of their owne lawes not in our bookes but euen in their owne bookes and I beléeue that no indifferent person would refuse that offer Here followeth another obiection Namely that the Scriptures haue a simple bare and grosse style but if they were of God they would speake farre otherwise I demaund of them whither mens styles ought not to be according to the persones that speake and whither the grace of eloquence cōsist not in obseruing séemelynesse as namely whither the eloquence of a Subiect ought not to differ from the eloquence of a King the eloquence of a child from the eloquence of a father and the eloquence of an Aduocate from the eloquence of a Iudge or whether by the Rules of Rhetorick that which is eloquence in the one shall not bee foolishnes in the other Therefore if the Lawyer or Aduocate will pleade eloquently he must moue affections to the intent he may moue other men hee must first mooue himselfe The Iudge must vtter his wordes grauely and he must also be vnflexible and vnintreatable without moouing and without affection The King must simply and absolutely commaund for hee is both the voyce of the Lawe and the rule of the Iudge But if either the King come to perswade or the Iudge to debate cases then must the one put on the state of an Aduocate and the other the state of a subiect and lay aside the state of a King and Iudge What then I pray you shal become of the law of God the King of kings who is infinitely further aboue the greatest Monarkes than the greatest Monarkes are aboue their meanest Subiects and who excéedeth alyke both the Iudges and the parties that are to be iudged We would haue him to vse Inductions as Plato doth or Syllogismes as Aristotle doth or pretie sleightes as Carneades doth or outcryes as Cicero doth or fyne conceites as Seneca doth We would haue him to vtter his words by weight that they might fall in iust measure and sound and to interlace some farre sought words some allegoricall matters and some strange deuises wherwith comon vse is vnacquainted If we should sée a Kings Proclamations set foorth in such a style which of vs would not by and by note it as smelling to much of the Inkhorne and which of our Eares woulde not rather glowe at it than lyke of it Surely then the simpler that Gods Lawe is the better doth it beséeme the Euerlasting considering that the simpler it is the more it resembleth the voyce of him that can doe all things yea and which more is the simpler it is the better doth it fitte all people For the Lawe that is ordeined for all men without exception ought to be as an ordinarie foode or rather as a common kynd of bread applyed to the taste and relishe of all men But what will you say if the Scriptures haue in their lowlynes more statelynes in their simplicitie more profoundnes in their homelines more allurance and in their grossenesse more lyuely force sharpnes than are to bee found any where els Wee reade in the first chapter of Genesis God created heauen and earth God spake and the waters were seuered from the earth Hee commaunded and the earth brought foorth herbes There is not so very an idyot or so simple a man but he can vnderstand these things I meane so farre as is requisite to his Saluation yea and consent at the very hearing of them that the things must néedes bee as it is sayd there But if a man will wade déeper into the matter as how God hath in all eternitie chosen as ye would say one instāt whereat to begin this worke without stuffe or matter to woorke vppon and how he made it by his onely bare word they be such bottomlesse déepes as will make euen the stoutest afrayed and enforce the wysest to stoupe to the skill of the lowly and little ones so excellent is the simplicitie of the Scripture both to instruct the lowly and to confound the prowd both at once In our Bible we haue Histories and in Histories what desire wee A trueth for that is the very substance of them Now what greater proofe of trueth can there be than simplicitie A style or maner of indyting that setteth downe things past before our eyes as if they were presently in doing What greater token would we haue thereof than in our reading to féele the very same affections which those felt of whom we reade Let the hardest hearted men and the most vntoward in the world go reade the Histories of our Byble as how Isaac was led to be sacrifized how Ioseph became knowen agein to his brethren how Iephthe was vexed with the méeting of his daughter or how Dauid was gréeued at the death of Absalon and if they will say the trueth they shal féele a certeine shuddering in their bodyes a certeine yirning in their heartes and a certeine tender affection all at one instant farre greater than if all the Oracles of Rome or Athens should preach the same matters whole daies togither Let them reade the same stories ageine in Iosephus to whom the Emperour Titus caused an Image to be set vp for the elegancie of his historie and they shal find that after his inriching of them with all the ornaments of Rhetoricke he shal leaue them more
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
vpoÌ„ the letters of that name Like as the letter he sayth he is made of daleth and vau as appeareth by the shapes of those letters so shall the Messias be of the nature of Man and of the nature of God And like as the double he coÌ„sisteth of a double daleth and two vaus so bee there two Sonships in the Messias that is to say two sorts of beeing Sonne the one in respect that he is the Sonne of GOD the other in respect that he is the Sonne of a Prophetisse as it is sayd in Esay 8. And as those shapes are distinct in one selfesame letter and yet are both one letter so shal the natures of Christ or the Messias be distinct and yet shall make but one Christ. I stand not vppon the foundation which he taketh of the letters which I make none account of but the onely thing which I meane to gather both by this text and by the former texts and by all others that may bee gotten together is that the expectation of the Iewes in old tyme was of a Messias that should bee both God and Man and that they haue not bin able to race it out of their bookes to this day for all the diligence that they could vse in that behalfe And for asmuch as I haue sayd that in God there bee three persones in one substance the Father the Sunne and the holy Ghost it followeth that wee must sée which of these thrée the Churche of Israell wayted that the Messias should be And as we haue found it méete that hee by whom God created vs to wit the sonne or the woord should be the meane to create vs now agein so also shall we find by the Scripture that the same second person is he that was promised In Genesis the Messias is called Silo and promised to be of the stocke of Iuda Now the woord Silo sayeth Kimhi signifieth the Sonne of him and is deryued of a woord which signifieth a womans Afterbirth as they terme it which thing is not to be passed ouer lyghtly And therefore Dauid repeateth and expoundeth the same promise in these woords I wil be his Father sayeth the Lord and he shal be my Sonne And in the lxxxix Psalme he addeth I will make him my firstbegotten and souereine of al the Kings of the earth which word Rabbi Nathan expoundeth concerning the Messias and thus doth Dauid himself expound it in the second Psalme The Lord hath sayd vnto me thou art my Sonne this day haue I begotten thee And ageine Kisse the Sonne ô ye Kings Rulers of the Earth and happy be they which put their trust in him Surely it appeareth that in all that text he speaketh of the Sonne of God and not of the sonne of a man For otherwise he that hath sayd vnto vs Cuâ—sed be hee that trusteth in man and a foole is he that leaneth vppon the Princes of the earth would not say vnto vs Blessed are thei that put their trust in him But yet further Rabbi Selomoh the sonne of Iarchi and Aben Esra as much enemyes as they be vnto vs also do witnesse that the sayd Psalme was vnderstoode in old time to concerne the Messias neither do they themselues expound it otherwise Insomuch that Aben Esra sayeth expresly that Bar signifieth a Sonne in that place as well as in the xxxj Chapter of the Prouerbes And the exposition of the Iewes vppon that Psalme is that there God resembleth a King that would destroy a â—oune in his anger if he were not pacified by his sonne In the lxxij Psalme where the reigning of the Messias is manifestly descrybed His name sayeth he shall continew for euer his name shal be euerlasting as long as the Sonne indureth Am the Hebrew woord Ijnnon which he vseth commeth of the woord Nin. Which signifieth a Sonne as if a man would say Sonned or Sunnified In the Commentarie vpon the fowerscore and thirtéenth Psalme these woords Thy throne is from euerlasting to euerlasting are expounded to concerne the Messias And the paraphrast which is reported to be Rabbi Ioseph the blynd agreeth thereunto And in the Talmud the Schoole of Rabbi Ianai being asked the name of the Messias answereth Innon is his name for it is sayd in the Psalme before the Sonne was in the sky Innon is his name Esay Ieremie and Zacharie in the texts aforealledged do call him Impe and in all those places the Caldee paraphrast translateth it the Lords Anoynted and Iosua the sonne of Leuie sayeth that Impe is his name But least wee should thinke that this Impe were but an Impe of Dauid he is called there the Lords Impe the Impe of the Euerlasting and the Euerlasting himself Now there is not a nearer nor a properer metaphor thaÌ„ to terme a sonne an Impe or an Impe a sonne This sonne we call moreouer the woord wherein the Iewes dissent not from vs. In the xlv of Esay it is sayd Israell shal be saued by Iehouah that is to say by the Euerlasting with endlesse saluation which saying Ionathas translateth by the woord of the Lorde In Ose I will saue the house of Israel sayeth the Lord by the Lord their God which saying the sayd Ionathas translateth By the woord of the Lord their God and so foorth ordinarily in all other lyke texts And it is not to be douted but that by the sayd woord they ment the Messias For in the Hundred and tenth Psalme which as they themselues affirme conteyneth the misteries of the Messias vpon these words the Lord sayd vnto my Lord c. Ionathas saieth The Lord said vnto his woord sit thou on my ryght hand And Rabbi Isaac Arama vppon Genesis expounding this text of the Hundred and seuen and fortith Psalme The Lord sent foorth his woord and they were settled or as others translate it were healed sayeth eâ—mesâ—â— that this woord is the Messias Yea and Rabbi Simeon the sonne of Iohai the cheef of the Cabalists wryting vppon Genesis and by the way expouÌ„ding there these words of Iob yet notwithstanding I shall see my God in my flesh sayeth that the mercie which proceedeth from the highest wisdome of God shal be crowned by the woord and take flesh of a woman But let vs heare Philo the Iewe vpon this point Hardly can I say sayeth he what tyme is appoynted for the returne of the banished Iewes For men hold opinion that it shal be at the death of a hygh preest which as some think is at hande and as othersome thinke is farre hence â—â—t my opinion is that this high preest shal be the word or speâ—â—h of God cleere from sinne aswell willing as vnwilling who to his father hath GOD the father of all and to his mother hath the wisedome wherby al things in the world were created And therefore his head shall be anoynted with Oyle his Maiestie shall shead forth beames of light
and of his neighbor than to see God redéeme him from wretched thraldome by the death of his owne Sonne God and Man and the same his own Sonne crucified and dying for the raunsome not of his brethren but of his enemies whom he voutsafeth to admit to be his brethren But forasmuch as the Iewes beléeue the Scriptures they will not refuse them in this poynt and therefore let vs examine them here together As touching Christs Lowelynesse in abacing himself I haue treated thereof heretofore and all the whole scripture teacheth it vs sufficiently At one word in the place where it is sayd The Scepter shalnot bee taken from Iuda it is added byandby Tying his Assecolt to the vyne and the foale of his sheeasse to the hedge Uppon which text Rabbi Hadarsan sayeth thus when Chryst commeth to Hierusalem he shal gird his Asse with a girt and enter into the citie very poorely and lowelely euen after the same maner that is spoken of in the nynth of Zachary But to auoyd often repetitions let vs beare in mynd what hath bin sayd afore that it may leade vs the more gently to the passion of Christ which is our only welfare and their vtter stumbling blocke Wée haue in the Lawe a great nomber of Sacraments and Sacrifices as well solemne at set feasts as continewall and ordinarie and among them the Easterlambe the Sacrifice of the red Hekfar the sending of the Scapegote into the Wildernesse and such other lyke of all the which it is sayd that their blud wassheth and clenseth away the sinne of the congregation and that the sprinkling thereof turneth away the Angell of destruction from their houses Now forasmuch as this was done with so greate solemnitie expresly commaunded to be obserued and conueyed ouer from age to age and from father to sonne I aske them vpon their consciences whether they bee signes and figures of a sacrifice too come which should clense away sinne or whether those sacrifices themselues had that vertue If they say the Sacrifices had that force in themselues what vertue is there in the blud of a Lamb or of a Hekfar ageinst Sinne And wherefore sayeth God so often vnto vs I wil none of your sacrifices I will none of the blud of your Bulles and Goates al such things are but smoke and lothlynes in my sight And at such tyme as they were prisoners at Babylon or scattered abroade in the world where they might not by their lawe offer any Sacrifice was there then no forgiuenesse of their sinnes Yes surely and therefore they were signes and figures of Christ as then to come who was to dye sor our sinnes which signes do now cease and haue ceassed now these many hundred yeres through the whole world euersince the comming of him that was betokened by them namely of the Lamb of whome it is said in Esay He was led to the slaughter as a Lamb and he hild his peace without opening his mouth as a sheepe before the Shearer which text the Rabbines also do interpret to be ment of the Messias And as concerning the red Heckefar the Cabalists do make a Cace of it aske why in the booke of Nombers the death of Marie is ioyned immediatly to the Lawe of the red Cow and thereout of they will needs drawe the death of Christ to come And in very deede Iesus the true Easterlambe was crucified on the very day of the Passouer as witnesseth Rabbi Vla in the Talmud Also as Esay had said of the Lamb Christ He is slayne for the sinne of the People so Iohn Baptist saieth of Iesus Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the Sinnes of the world Agein as they were forbidden to breake any boane of the Easterlambe so were Christs leggs left vnbroken when the leggs of the théeues that were crusified with him were broken To be short as the red Cow accompanyed with all the people was conueyed out of the Hoste and burne◠without the Campe so also was Iesus led out of the Citie accompanyed by the people and crucified without the Citie But let vs reade the Historie of the lyfe and death of Iesus whole togither out of Esay There was neither fauor sayth he nor beawty in him neither sawe we any fayrenesse in him that was to bee desired He was despysed and thrust out from among men a man full of infirmities inured to sorrow by reason whereof we accounted him so vile that we hid our faces from him Yet in very deede he bare our infirmities and was loden with our sorrowes but we thought him to be wounded and stryken of God whereas he was wounded for our misdeedes and smitten for our sinnes The punishment of our peace was layd vppon him and by his strypes are we healed Al of vs went astray lyke sheepe and turned aside euery man after his owne way and the Lord hath cast vppon him the iniquities of vs all Being misintreated and smitten hee opened not his mouth As a Lamb was he led to be slayne yet hild his peace as a Sheepe before the shearer He was lifted vp from prison and iudgement and yet who is he that can recken vp his generation He was plucked vp from the liuing vppon the earth and couered with woundes for the sinne of my people His graue was giuen him with the wicked with the Riche in his death Although hee neuer committed vnryghtuousenes nor any gwile was found in his mouth yet was it the Lords will to breake him with sorrow that when he had giuen his lyfe in sacrifice for sinne he myght see a longlasting seede Which deuyce of the Lord shall prosper in his hand and with the labour and trauel of his Soule shall he get greate Riches My ryghtuous seruant sayeth the Lord shall with the knowledge of him make many men ryghtuous and take their sinnes vppon himself I will giue him a portion among the greate ones and he shal deuide the spoyle with the mighty ones bycause he yelded his Soule vnto death and did muster himself among the transgressers and tooke vppon him the sinnes of many and prayed for the offenders Who seeth not in this text both the apprehension and the sorrowes and the wounds and the death of Iesus Yea and his meekenesse Lowelynes and innocencie His apprehension turning to our deliuerance his sorrowes to our ioye his wounds too our health his death to our lyfe his ryghtuousenes to our inrightuousing and his punishment to our obteynement of grace And when we reade He was abhorred of men and we made none account of him do we not see men spitting in his face Also when we reade these words We tooke him to be woūded of God do we not here the Iewes saying to him If thou be Christ the chosen of God saue thy self Ageine when he is outrageously delt withall and yet he openeth not his mouth do we not note his innocent holding of his peace Finally
disobedience for the Sealing vp of sinne and for the cleansing away of iniquitie and the bringing of rightuousnes for euer As how For vnto the anoynted Prince saith he shal be seauen weekes and threescore two weekes after which tyme the Anoynted shal be slayne and nothing shal be left vnto him and the Prince of a People to come shall destroy the Citie c. Here ye see how Christ must dye namely for sinne according to this saying of Esay He hath giuen his lyfe for sinne And as I haue shewed already Iesus was put to death euen the very same tyme. As touching the Circumstances of his death They perced my feete and my hands sayth Dauid and parted my garments among them and cast lots for my coate We reade not that Dauid was serued so but rather Iesus who was crucified howbeit that that king of punishment was not vsed among the Iewes but among the Romaines and lottes were cast for his Coate and the Euangelistes alledged this Text to the same purpose as who would say it was so vnderstood in their tyme. And whereas in stead of Caru that is to say they pearced the Iewes will néedes reade Caari that is to say As a Lyon their Massâ—reths who haue made a Register of all the Letters of the Scriptures doe witnesse that in all good Copies it is written Caru they pearced Also the therescore and twelue Interpreters haue translated into Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. they pearced my handes c. And the old Chaldee translater hath ioyned both those readings in one thus They haue pearced and thruft throgh my feete and my hands as a Lyon They that vnderstand the Traditions of the Indians Etihopians doo witnesse the like accordingly also as the Iewes themselues do know by their owne readings and are warned by their Mazaroths that that sence is vnperfect For as for the Chaldee Paraphrase of R. Ioseph the blind because he was about a three hundred and fortie yeres after Iesus we admit him not for a Iudge and besides that he is dubble blinded with a blind moode which he bewrayeth euerywhere against vs. Also the Prophet Zacharie sayth I will powre out the spirit of grace and mercy vpon the house of Dauid vpon the Inhabiters of Hierusalem and they shall looke vnto me whome they perced He that powreth out this spirit is God Hee that is perced is man and both the one and the other togither is Christ God and Man And they themselues expound this text in the same sence concerning the Messias that our Euangelists alledge it of Iesus that was striken into the side with a Speare which surely had bene a fondnesse in them considering how feawe texts they alledge if they had not bene commonly vnderstoode to concerne the Messias And it is all one with this which some of the Rabbines do say in the Talmud namely That Christ should be distressed as a woman that laboureth of Child according as Ieremy sayth that hee had great anguishes to suffer but that he should indure them willingly too deliuer men from sinne And Rabbi Hadarsan saith that Satan should be an aduerfarie to him and his Disciples and therefore he applyeth vnto him a part of the thirde chapter of the lamentations of Ieremie Also in the booke of Ruth where it is written Eate thy bread and temper it with vineger This bread sayth the Commentarie is the bread of the Anointed King or Messias who shal be broken for mens sinnes and indure great torments as it is written in Esay And the Saint Rabbi saith that Christ should deliuer mens Soules from hell by his death Howbeit yet further whereas it is sayd in Esay we bee healed by his death the auncient Cabalistes vnderstand it of Christ and say that the Angels who were the teachers of our forefathers as Raziel of Adam Metatron of Moyses so forth had taught them that the cleansing away of sinne should be doone vpon wood And Rabbi Simeon Ben Iohai the first among them writeth thus Wo woorth the Murtherers of Israell for they shall kill Christ. God will send his sonne clothed in mans flesh to wash them and they will kill him Also Rabbi Iuda sayth That after a long breathing tyme God will deliuer his name of twelue letters to Ieremie in writing after this maner Iehouah â—lohim emeth that is to say The euerlasting God is trueth and that hee will wype out the first Letter of the last worde so as there shall remayne Iehouah elohim meth that is to say The euerlasting God is dead And peraduenture it is therevpon that Rabbi Iosua the sonne of Leuy sayde That Israell was not heard in the world for want of knowing this name that is to say for want of praying vnto God by the Mediator Christ who died for vs. To be short Philo the Iewe a very renowmed Author handling this question namely when the banished Israelites and Iewes should returne home saith it should be at the death of a Highpriest Howbeit finding himselfe graueled at this that some liue longer than othersome Surely I beleeue sayth he that this Highpriest shall not be a Man but the Word the which hee prayseth in infinite places exempt from al sinne both willing and vnwilling who to his father hath God and to his moother the wisedom that is without beginning and without end Whereby it appéereth that he had heard of Christ a Highpréest whom it behoued to be God the Sonne of God that he might sanctifie and likewise man that he might dye As touching the startinghole which the newe Rabbines séeke in that contrarie to the whole course both of their owne auncient writers and of the Scripture in sted of one Christ God and Man they make two Christes the one the Sonne of Dauid the other the Sonne of Ioseph saying that this latter to whome they apply all the foresayd Texts shal be slayne in battell and afterward raysed againe by the Prayers of other Surely let vs tell them as R. Moyses doth That none other than only the sonne of Dauid shall come with authoritie of Christ howbeit that there are two commings of Christ the one in lowlynes as Zacharie sayth Poore Lowely and Sauiourlyke and the other in maiestie out of the Clowdes of the ayre as is described in Daniel the one to Redéeme the other to iudge as they theÌ„selues say vpon these words of Ecclesiastes What it is that hath bene The same that shal be wherevpon they inferre The last Redeemer is reuealed and he that is hidden shall come yet once againe To be short here yée sée how in the end the stumbling blocke is turned into glorie For as Christ dyed innocently so shall he also ryse agayne and reygne for euer Yea he shall ryse againe for it is written in the Psalme Thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption which saying
but to be a Prophet without Prophesying a Lawemaker without miracles and euen among his owne Bisshops a man without God or Religion What man of discretion would reade his Alcoran twice except it were for some greate gayne or by manifest compulsion considering the absurdities toyes contrarieties dreames and frantik deuyces that are in it besides the wicked things wherof I wilnot speake Farre of therefore is he from furnishing foorth of a Martyr that will dye eyther for the Preaching thereof or for not recaÌ„ting it To be short Mahomets miracle is to waste and spoyle the world by warre Christs is to bring the world in order by his suffring for it Mahomet was assisted by a sort of Cutthrotes like himself Christ was followed by infinite folk dying and suffering aduersitie for his sake The woorkes of Mahomet were such as euery man can do and doeth dayly the woorkes of Christ are such as neuer any man did nor durst vndertake to doo but he himself Surely therefore we may wel conclude without wearying the reader any longer about these vanities That Mahomet was a man and wrought but as man and by man and therefore is to be examined as a man and that Iesus Christ wrought by GOD and was as he hath told vs the sonne of God and therefore let vs here him and beleeue him as God At this woord behold they step vp ageine and say a man to be God What an absurditie is that How is it possible Nay rather séeing it is conuenient and agreeable both to Gods glorie and to mans saluation as I haue proued afore why should it be vnpossible God created maÌ„ by his wisdom which wisdom is his sonne Now what is more meet than he should repayre man by him ageine Also it was a man that sinned and in that man and by that maÌ„ did al his ofspring sinne likewise Now what is more rightfull than to repayre him by man Man rebelled ageinst his father who could appease this offence but God himself And who could better pacifie the father than his owne welbeloued Sonne Man say I rebelled through extreame pryde vppon desire to be equall with God Now what thing is there which ought too humble man soo much as to see his Creator submit himselfe beneath man for the fault of man Or which ought somuch to make him to consider his sinne and to be sory for it as to consider the infinite greatnesse of his Raunsum the excéeding greatnesse of his sinne and of his punishment due for the same And if thou vrge me still with how is it possible I answer it is possible bycause God lifteth it and euen in mans vnderstanding it conteyneth no contrarietie to say it Also it is possible for we see it is so and so many Profes cannot bee wyped away by a bare question It séemeth possible enough to thee O Iulian when thou listest for thou sayest that Esculapius the sonne of Iupiter tooke humane flesh to come downe vnto the earth and thyne owne Philosopher Amelius doth vnder hand approue that Gods eternall word toke flesh and clothed himself with the nature of man alledging the very words of S. Iohn for the matter To be short thou haste a spirit vnited to thy body thou caâ—st not deny it and yet thou séest it not And if thou wert lesse than man thou wouldest also deny it to be in man and yet for al that what fellowship is there betwéene a body and a spirit And what may seeme more ageinst reason than that a Spirit which occupyeth no place should not only be lodged but also imprisoned in a place But hee which made both the one and the other of nothing can do what he thinketh good with both of them And seeing that to glorifie man he voutsafed to take him vp into heaueÌ„ and to ioyne him vnto him Plotin saies so and therefore thou wilt willingly here it and allow of it why should he be lesse able too come downe if he list and too vnite and ioyne himself to man vpon earth if he list to humble himself But why did God send his deare Sonne into the world rather in that tyme than in any other Why sent hee him not soouer or later These are questions for maysters to vse to their Seruants and not for silly Creatures to vse vnto God who by his only power made vs to be borne and by his only grace hath begotten vs new ageine But as I haue sayd afore to the Iewes man liued for a tyme without the Lawe too make him too learne that hée was not a lawe to himself and a certeine tyme vnder the lawe to make him find by proofe that he was not able to performe it and afterward grace was offered vnto him as vpon a scaffold where he sawe nothing but death and so the knowing of nature corrupted made man the more able to receyue the Lawe and the Lawe made him the more ready to imbrace Gods grace Moreouer it is a woonderfull confirmation to vs when we consider that from the beginning of the World vnto his comming we haue alwayes had Prophets from tyme to tyme agréeing in one mynd and one voyce as Heraulds and Trumpettors euerychone of them to publish and proclayme the maiestie of this King which was to come into the world For had he come anon after the Creation of the World this confirmation of ours had bin greately 〈◊〉 bycause they that were the first had bin surprysed by his comming vnlookedfor and those that haue come after should haue bin in daunger to forget it or to make the lesse account of it as though his comming had not belonged to them whereas now all of vs are partakers both of ioye and of Gods admonitions both afore the Lawe for he was promised to them and vnder the Lawe for they lykewyse heard the Trumpetts and also in the tyme that he came for hee himself spake to them and finally in our tyme for his returne draweth nygh Neuerthelesse it was his will too come in the tyme when learning did moste florish and when the greatest Empyre was in the cheefest pryde to the end that all worldly wisdome should acknowledge it self to be foolishnes and all strength and power acknowledge itself to be weaknesse before him Now therefore let vs all conclude as well Iewes as Gentyles that Iesus Christ is the eternall sonne of God the Redeemer and the Mediator of mankynd And let no question or obiection withhold vs from it Iewes for he is such a one as he was promised to them borne in Bethelem of a virgin of the Trybe of Iuda at such tyme as the kingdome was gone from the house of Iuda humbled beneathe all exalted aboue all put to reproachefull death for our sinnes and raised ageine with glorie to make vs rightuouse Gentyles for he did woorks which could not proccede but from God he created things of nothing drue one contrarie out of another surmounted the nature of man and ouercame the